Recent Posts

1051

General Software Discussion / Re: Text editor with filtering of lines

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 26, 2009, 01:24 PM »

Though the pro version is demo, and the feature is not available in the light version. Any freeware out there that can do this?

-vixay (November 26, 2009, 03:32 AM)

I'm not aware of any freeware that does this (but it's not a feature that I look for, either). I actually didn't know off the top of my head that EditPad did this, but it was the first editor I thought of because JGSoft has put a lot of searching/regex capabilities into the editor. JGSoft's core technology and products seem to be oriented around regular expressions.

I took a look at Visual Studio, PSPad, HippoEdit and ConTEXT and couldn't find a similar capability. (I didn't check UltraEdit because I was pretty sure it wasn't there, and you had already mentioned that you looked there).

Unfortunately, I don't think JGSoft does discounts on EditPad Pro very often.  I think the author has been asked about providing a DC discount a couple times with no result (at least no result that we'd like to see). I managed to pick it up when it was on BitsDuJour back in December, but I have no idea if a BDJ discount might be in the cards or not some time in the future.  Maybe last December's discount was the first of an annual 'Christmas' discount.  But, probably not.

1052

General Software Discussion / Re: Text editor with filtering of lines

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 26, 2009, 02:59 AM »

EditPad Pro.  There's a "Fold" option in the search panel that does exactly this.

1053

Living Room / Re: Tip if router won't connect properly to cable modem: Clone the MAC address

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 20, 2009, 03:01 AM »

I can't believe that the ISP didn't have the solution for you on this.  Any ISP I've dealt with when trying to get problems solved for  friends and family first gets the router out of the picture (direct connect the PC).  Once that's working, they always say to get the MAC address cloned.  Your new ISP needs a bit more experience - with the number of routers in use, I'm pretty sure they'll have this solution in the support script pretty dang quick.

1054

General Software Discussion / Re: Office 2010 Technical Preview

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 20, 2009, 02:54 AM »

But what about getting it for $35? (https://www.donation....msg185098#msg185098)

1055

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Office 2010 discount

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 19, 2009, 04:34 PM »

My understanding is that the Ashampoo product can be updated by downloading the SoftMaker updaters, no?

-Darwin (November 19, 2009, 12:33 PM)

I am no longer certain;

-Curt (November 19, 2009, 01:35 PM)

I might now remember that every time I noticed that SoftMaker Office had been updated, I would click the Ashampoo-licensed Softmaker Office "update" button and get the message from Ashampoo > you already have the newest <, and that this went on for years until I finally lost my patience and purchased a license for SoftMaker's SoftMaker...
Was this how it was? I think it was.

-Curt (November 19, 2009, 04:29 PM)

I haven't tried in a while (probably from the Ashampoo/SoftMaker Office 2006 timeframe), but my recollection is that with an Ashampoo license you could download the update from SoftMaker's site, install it and everything would remain registered.  I'm not sure if this was Ashampoo's or SoftMaker's intent, though. I'd guess it was just that they took no particular steps to prevent that from working.

1056

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Office 2010 discount

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 19, 2009, 02:35 PM »

maybe the title can be changed to include the publisher as well since there is another Office 2010 suite that has a Beta version available on download.

-lanux128 (November 19, 2009, 10:09 AM)

I'm actually surprised this hasn't been 'dealt with' by one or the other company in some legal venue.

1057

General Software Discussion / Re: [rant] Seriously? Software pricing is officially nuts

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 19, 2009, 12:44 PM »

one has to look at whether or not they NEED a lifetime license or if paying for an upgrade WHEN IT IS NEEDED is justifiable.

-Josh (November 18, 2009, 09:52 AM)

Here's a rant that I was about to post on UltraEdit's forum about pricing for UEx (UltraEdit for Linux).  I didn't post it there because:

1) I don't really have any interest in UEx at the moment, so it would be me ranting about something that doesn't really apply to me
2) it's a rant, and the IDM support formum isn't really the place for a rant

But since this thread is a rant thread (hey, it's in the title), and I think some people might find it interesting, here goes:

I'm licensed for unlimited upgrades on the Windows version of UE Studio, so I looked at what UEx offers might apply to my situation.

I don't really need to pay extra for a 'multi-platform' license (I'm already licensed for life on Windows), I guess the way to go is to just buy UEx at the intro price - $40.  That seems reasonable and fair.  However, it looks like if I want to get a lifetime license on that, the price jumps to $180.  Wow!  Add 350% onto the 1 year price.  That seems pretty steep.

Let's look at what happens if I decide not to go with today's lifetime license deal, and decide to go with paying for 2 year licenses over time.

I'll assume that I get 2 years today at $60 (that seems to be today's current intro price for a 2 year license).  Future purchases will use the current announced regular retail price of $70, with a 50% renewal discount and %80 of that added back on for the 2nd year (which I think is the current policy IDM has):

  Years 1 & 2 - $60
  Years 3 & 4 - $63 (assuming 50% discount off non-intro price of $70 and 80% second year fee)
  Years 5 & 6 - $63 (same as above)
       
       total - $186
 
I won't start seeing 'payback' on a lifetime license investment until 7 years from now.

Of course, this does all assume that UEx prices and the percentages that are involved in upgrade discounts and 2nd year bumps don't change. But it also doesn't factor in the time value of the money I wouldn't spend today on the lifetime license,  the small risk that UEx will be dropped or wither into virtual nothingness (so the lifetime license would have little or no value), the fact that I might choose to not upgrade at a particular interval if I don’t need whatever new features are available at that point in time (increasing the time value of the money I’d spend today on a lifetime license), or the risk that I simply won’t need or want to use UEx at some point in the future (so won’t need to pay for upgrades at all).

There’s a lot of complexity here, but it seems to me that a lifetime license should be priced at point where the value of it is *clearly* more than buying 2 year licenses over time. I’d think that it should be priced where this stuff wouldn’t even cross my mind.  But maybe it means that lifetime licenses just don’t make sense from a customer and/or business point of view.  I hope that’s not true, because in general, I like them.

1058

Found Deals and Discounts / Some Nov 2009 discounts on the UltraEdit line from IDM

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 17, 2009, 01:01 PM »

IDM has a newsletter posted that gives various discounts on various UltraXxx products or upgrades through the end of November 2009:

  - http://www.ultraedit...ers/nov09/index.html

1059

Living Room / Re: Microsoft openly challenges Vmware in new ad campaign

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 13, 2009, 10:00 AM »

Well, clearly it's not aimed at consumers.  However, there are plenty of ads out there for corporate computing solutions (IBM, in particular runs them pretty often).  These ads seem to be most often run on news channels or shows.

I don't think the ad is very effective - it's basically a talking head listing off some of the bullet points from a product marketing sheet. I think MS has a good Enterprise VM story, but I don't think this ad will produce anything beyond what their other marketing will provide.

1060

Living Room / Re: How would you improve a standard PC keyboard?

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 09, 2009, 02:00 PM »

Well, you could save up your pennies and get the Optimus Maximus.  Has it seen the light of day yet?  Apparently shipping....crap, now I want one.

-4wd (November 08, 2009, 11:19 PM)

Very nice looking.  To say the least. 

But it looks like it'll be a number of years (to say the least) before I'll be moving on from my essentially free keyboards to one of those (and even the most expensive wireless, multimedia, fancy backlit keyboards qualify as free in comparison). $ouch$.

Attached is an archive containing the required remapping for a plain US keyboard as well as an undo file.

-4wd (November 08, 2009, 11:19 PM)

Thanks for that; I'll give it a try for a week or so.  I suspect I'll not like it - mainly because I'm not a great typist so I expect more errant 'enters' than I'd like. But maybe not - I don't get a bogus CapsLock all too often (but often enough that it bugs me because I pretty much never, ever want it - at least as an enter key it has a chance of being useful at times).

We'll see.

1061

Living Room / Re: How would you improve a standard PC keyboard?

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 08, 2009, 08:51 PM »

1. An Enter key on the left.

-tranglos (November 08, 2009, 07:39 PM)

A good idea!

I'd get rid of the damn CapsLock key.  It might be worth little test to get a key mapping utility to make it behave instead like an Enter key and see how that would work out. I may just do that.

1062

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a difference tool

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 04, 2009, 04:01 PM »

Compare It! also seems to do a pretty good job with this, and there's a long-standing 50% discount on DC (so it would run $15).

1063

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: One year of IObit's malware protection for free

« Last post by mwb1100 on November 02, 2009, 05:50 PM »

Crashes, toolbars, and now outright theft of other companies' work (note that Malwarebytes indicates there's evidence that their work likely isn't the only stuff being stolen)?

I don't think it's worth the price.

1064

fSekrit / Re: Beta: fSekrit 1.40 needs some abuse!

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 29, 2009, 02:08 PM »

When using fsekrit at work I get some minor problems because the McAfee stuff they use here has an Access protection setting for programs that run from the temp directory:

     C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE   C:\Documents and Settings\userID\Local Settings\Temp\fSekrit-225C.exe   Common Standard Protection:Prevent common programs from running files from the Temp folder   Action blocked : Execute

It's not a big deal, because right now it's just set to log, not to actually block anything.  However, it does show up in the logs, so it appears that I'm running malware infected (or otherwise questionable) stuff.  It would be best if that could be avoided.  I wonder if the following might be possible without too much effort:

  - allow a command line option, registry setting and/or ini file setting that tells fsekrit where to put the temp file.  Still default to the temp directory (which allows portable, no-install use), but let the user override if desired.

Thanks for a nice little tool.

1065

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free AnVir Task Manager!

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 28, 2009, 11:14 PM »

I'm thinking of springing for the Pro version.

-Innuendo (October 12, 2009, 12:08 PM)

The pro version is going to be on sale at BDJ on 5 Nov 2009 for $25: http://www.bitsdujou...ir-task-manager-pro/

1066

General Software Discussion / Re: text editor question

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 28, 2009, 01:59 PM »

BareGrep is another free tool that'll do the trick, though it wasn't 100% intuitive (at least for me).  Get the search you want then go to the "File/Export..." menu item and use that dialog to configure exactly what you want to be put onto the clipboard (or sent to a file).

1067

Living Room / Re: Leather messenger bag recommendations?

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 28, 2009, 09:43 AM »

i havent used one of those 'messenger bags' since i was in grade 2 lol

-Grorgy (October 28, 2009, 02:43 AM)

I'd forgotten all about the 'bookbags' we used to have in elementary school.

No one can call Batman artsy-fartsy.

1068

General Software Discussion / Re: text editor question

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 28, 2009, 09:26 AM »

UltraEdit can do this - in the Find dialog select the "List Lines Containing String" option.  The resulting dialog will contain a list of matching strings that can be copied to the clipboard.

Of course, for this type of operation I'd normally use a command-line grep too and just pipe the output to a file.

1069

Living Room / Re: INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY - OCT 22 & JUNE 28

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 23, 2009, 01:47 AM »

1234567!

-cranioscopical (October 22, 2009, 04:09 PM)

SORRY, CRANIOSCOPICAL - INTERNATIONAL NUMLOCK DAY WAS LAST MONTH.

OR MAYBE THAT SHOULD BE:

sORRY, cRANIOSCOPICAL - iNTERNATIONAL nUMlOCK dAY WAS LAST MONTH.

1070

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: InstallAware Complimentary License Announcement

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 22, 2009, 10:55 PM »

Thanks for the pointer - I took advantage of the offer, though I hope I never find myself on the wrong end of a technical support query  (search for various blog/forum postings about the company's treatment of customers or potential customers - some of the stories are literally difficult to believe).

1071

Living Room / Reporting myself to a moderator

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 20, 2009, 11:58 PM »

There have been a few times when I've posted a message that later I decided was less than helpful (invariably just seconds after I've bit the submit button).  As far as I can tell there's no way for me to do that, and even when I tried to report myself to a moderator for deletion, I get this response:

You can't report your own post to the moderator, that doesn't make sense!

Maybe the powers-that-be can enable the 'delete this message' button for posts that belong to a user - surely SMF (or whatever forum software this is) has that capability?

Or someone can point me to the button that I'm blind to and I can use it to delete this message...

1072

General Software Discussion / Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 20, 2009, 05:02 PM »

If a price would depend on the product's usage, I wonder if the Firefox guys were millionaires...

-Tuxman (October 20, 2009, 04:48 PM)

I read a while back that Firefox was making a fair bit of money due to the referrals that using the Google search widget generates.  So there's not necessarily a need to charge a price to make a good income.  In 2006 Mozilla paid out about $20 Million to 90 employees - so the average is over $200K per employee.  Of course that's not all necessarily paid to the employees (some for benefits and taxes I'd think). But I also wouldn't assume that the distribution was even though, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are one or two millionaires in there.

  - http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=6715

1073

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 16, 2009, 11:14 PM »

Start with your router. Make sure it has a firewall & not just NAT. NAT is not a firewall or a substitute for a firewall.

-Innuendo (October 16, 2009, 06:11 PM)

Can you expand on this?  My understanding is that unless you configure a 'open host' or some specific port forwarding(s), incoming connections to a NAT router don't even have anywhere to go so there's nothing to do but drop them.  What is a firewall going to do above that, at least for your typical home environment where there's no reason for an incoming connection?

1074

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred font?

« Last post by mwb1100 on October 02, 2009, 07:20 PM »

Sorry, I forgot I was talking to an American; they tend to think that 5% is all the world.

-Curt (October 02, 2009, 05:59 PM)

Well, not quite the whole world:

1075

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Security Essentials

« Last post by mwb1100 on September 30, 2009, 12:21 PM »

Looks very interesting - and it even supports XP, which surprises me a bit.  However, MS has somewhat of a history of abortive antivirus attempts.  But, it seems like this one might stick (but that's just an impression with no particular rational backing).

I'm not throwing out my exisitng solutions unless they show problems, but I do have a machine that I was evaluating new anti-malware on because my existing 'standard' stuff I had on it was bringing it to its knees.  I'll be switching that over to MSE to see if it'll do the trick.