Recent Posts

1051

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Genie Timeline Professional 2 for 10USD

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 26, 2012, 04:45 AM »

Just looked at this in the UK. $10 is apparently equivalent to £13.17 !!! (It's actually equivalent to £6.30)

An no it isn't tax because they haven't added VAT yet!

1052

Living Room / Re: Firefox and LastPass problems

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2012, 08:35 PM »

Glad it isn't just me!

1053

Living Room / Firefox and LastPass problems

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2012, 06:57 PM »

I really liked Firefox but I have moved over to Chrome () almost exclusively now because of Firefox startup problems.

The trouble is I miss some features in Firefox and the extensions I was using and I prefer not to have all my web traffic tracked by Google!

The problem is that when I click on Firefox it loads quickly enough with my usual 6 tabs but then the tabs stop loading for about 30-40 seconds, I get an error that LastPass can't connect to its server (not actually true it is just the delay starting up giving a false error). Finally when it loads it works fine but it is really annoying that I have to wait everytime I open FF.

Leaving it running in the tray would, I suppose, solve the problem but I don't want it running all the time.

I have reported this issue with LastPass a number of times to LP support and they have helped sometimes - usually with non-binary test builds - but the issue always returns when LP updates to a new version. It isn't PC specific, it happens on all the computers attached to my network (currently 5).

This problem stops if I disable LastPass and it doesn't seem to affect other browsers at all.

Any one else experiencing this or have a solution?

1054

Living Room / Re: PrECISE - It's the New SOPA/PIPA/ACTA

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 24, 2012, 12:16 PM »

Just get yourself a Rasberry Pi to sooth the unbearable urges of your inner geek. They're only $25 - and they'll be shipping very shortly.

-40hz (February 24, 2012, 10:41 AM)

What an absolutely brilliant idea. I used to teach O level and A level computer science and it has become a source of real frustration that schools now only really teach packages. Brilliant article and a fantastic idea. I might just buy 10 and give them away to local kids in a competition!

1055

General Software Discussion / Re: uTorrent alternatives?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 23, 2012, 07:28 PM »

1.8.3 was a good version and still works fine on Windows 7 x86 and x64

One website I am registered with has banned version 3 because it doesn't track usage properly.

1056

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a "virtual scanner' software in one pass, outputting in PDF.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 23, 2012, 03:59 AM »

Fair enough - but in some editors (acrobat?) you can embed the fonts you need to avoid this problem.

The problem with bitmap versions is if you want good quality printable versions of multipage documents they will get very large.

1057

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a "virtual scanner' software in one pass, outputting in PDF.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 23, 2012, 03:26 AM »

Can I ask why you want to do this? I find the structured nature of PDFs very useful and single image files a bit of a PITA. IS there a reason why the bitmap approach would be widely needed?

1058

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a "virtual scanner' software in one pass, outputting in PDF.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 22, 2012, 06:37 PM »

PriPrinter can do this (not free though)
The Standard version does - with full bitmap output support (including multiple pages per file if target file is tiff )
The Pro version adds PDF support, but I could not see if it supports complete bitmap formats inside the PDF file (i.e. no embedded fonts/images, only the bitmap equivalent)

-NigelH (February 21, 2012, 08:33 PM)

I use priPrinter Pro and the PDF is structured - not a bitmap.

The only options I can see are:



So you can't change the format of the output in the PDF (also checked the application options - no PDF options at all in there)

1059

Living Room / Re: Losing my e-Book religion

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 22, 2012, 09:11 AM »

At least in the UK Amazon doesn't let you gift Kindle Books - you can give someone a gift voucher they can use to purchase a book but they need their own account. I'm pretty sure you have to have an active payment on an Amazon account even if you are making payment by gift card but I am not 100% on that.

Also as far as I know you can't have independent Kindle accounts on a single Amazon account so if you purchase books for yourself on the same account as your daughters Kindle you will end up with her library and she will end up with yours.

UPDATE: My second point looks wrong - it looks like you can tell your Kindle account which devices to upload individual books too.

1060

DC Gamer Club / Re: Humble Indie Bundle - Mojam!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 21, 2012, 12:34 PM »

There are three games on the download page now (one still to be released):



I did contribute but I haven't got round to trying the games yet.

1061

Living Room / Re: Anyone playing Mass Effect 2 game yet?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 18, 2012, 02:46 PM »

Origin is awful and is full of bugs. I can't get their cloud storage to work at all - it always fails to connect.

I have a couple of games in Origin and it is really annoying that there is no account integration for purchases between the Origin client software and the EA website sales - both of which are really broken.

Basically EA have some good products but EA sucks the pleasure out of everything by being so crap at all they do.

1062

Living Room / Re: Is a college education worth the money?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 18, 2012, 05:54 AM »

I think a consensus of the real experts in this area would be that, on balance, a college education makes for significantly greater lifetime earnings -- although there are certainly the relative few who drop out of college and yet go on to be millionaires.

-kyrathaba (February 17, 2012, 07:11 PM)

The problem in some countries (eg. the UK) is that college education is being seen as a way for politicians to defer unfavourable unemployment statistics. Consequently most kids aspire to go to university now and that means that employers expect degrees where they were traditionally not required.

For example, nursing in the UK is now graduate entry only whereas not so many years ago there were two levels of nursing in the UK one of which required education to 16 (the State Enrolled Nurse) and the other to 18 (State Registered Nurse). They have now dropped the SEN position and if you want to be an SRN you have to get a degree.

You'd think this would improve nursing but in effect what they have done is reduce the number of qualified nurses on each ward and employ a lot of unqualified staff to do the work that SENs and many SRNs used to do as a matter of course.

The other knock on effect is that jobs that genuinely need graduate entry now have too many people with degrees applying so it becomes necessary for people to do higher degrees to stand out, and build up even greater debts before they start work.

1063

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me choose an online backup service

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 16, 2012, 02:37 PM »

Anyone understand the pricing for CrashPlan Pro?



Why would anyone pay $14.13 a month for 50Gb when you can pay $7.49 for unlimited?

My issue with all of these plans (not just CrashPlan) is the appallingly slow upload speeds in the UK. I get about 38Kbs upstream (7+Mbs downstream) and there don't seem to be any ISPs that do better.

I had a 5Gb online backup with my bank but even uploading small amounts took forever.

1064

General Software Discussion / Re: Is WinZip still worth updating?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 15, 2012, 02:39 PM »

7z also has a self extract option - check the help file.

1065

Living Room / Re: All-In-One Multi-Touch Computers - Thoughts?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 15, 2012, 01:08 PM »

I'm with 40hz on Acer.

-bcpaladin (February 15, 2012, 12:34 PM)

Acer is fine if you like devices absolutely crammed with crapware and you don't have to support them. They also won the technicians worst range of products last year (can't find the link) in terms of support issues.

Acer refuse to help anyone other than Acer make repairs or upgrades (at least Acer UK). It is almost impossible to get service manuals for laptops as Acer are VERY proprietorial about them.

I don't really like Dell as a company but I have to say if you are on a budget Dell do well - and at least you know if you need something replacing out of warranty they will do it at a reasonable price and on your own premises (even without a contract) and if I have to support them I can get all the parts and manuals I need. Toshiba is good this way too for documentation.

1066

General Software Discussion / Re: Is WinZip still worth updating?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 12, 2012, 04:01 PM »

Corel - the place where great software goes to die!

1067

General Software Discussion / Re: Zentimo/USB Safely Remove - Are they needed anymore?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 06:53 PM »

It was very useful in XP and Vista when the Windows tool often didn't release USB sticks and external drives. Windows 7 seems to work properly so it has become less useful (at least to me).

1068

Site/Forum Features / Re: Stop notifications for a given thread?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 01:17 PM »

Top right of the thread click Mark then Ignore Thread

1069

General Software Discussion / Re: Zentimo/USB Safely Remove - Are they needed anymore?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 12:28 PM »

Ditto here - click Win 7 USB remove icon - click device and that's it. Plus it doesn't mean messing about with device drivers when Zentimo trashes them.

1070

General Software Discussion / Re: Zentimo/USB Safely Remove - Are they needed anymore?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 11:50 AM »

I have a license but removed Zentimo because it kept killing the drivers (Code 37) on camera card slots in Windows 7 64-bit.

Not really missed it.

1071

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 10:10 AM »

From what you write, I don't see what the ideology might be. Can you elucidate?

-IainB (February 11, 2012, 08:34 AM)

Simply the removal of public financed services.

WRT to health care there is a move by the UK 'government' to ditch the NHS (or at least large parts of it) and introduce private health care providers. Their ultimate (if unstated) aim appears to be an American style health insurance system. God help us!

1072

General Software Discussion / Re: Finding Outlook Express password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 08:40 AM »

Did you try the one I mentioned above - for that all you need is access to the profile files on the old drive?

1073

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 05:58 AM »

I think your reasoning to put the residual library facilities back into local hands sounds good, but I suspect that it's financially not an option.
So it's sell the property and throw the books away.

-IainB (January 09, 2012, 04:58 AM)

In the case of our local library it housed in a building owned by the town council - so giving the library to the town would mean it could stay where it is. We have a right wing local authority and I suspect there is ideology in the decisions being made as well as trying to find a financial cut.

Was visiting a client yesterday who had to go and have an X-Ray - because of cutbacks in the nearest hospital (probably about 35 miles away) he had to drive 60 miles to the next nearest hospital (so a 120 mile round trip to check for an X-Ray). There is also no public transport to get you to the hospital so if you have an illness that means you can't drive you are really stuffed without someone being prepared to drive 120 miles and sit around for hours!

1074

General Software Discussion / Re: Finding Outlook Express password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 11, 2012, 04:24 AM »

OutlookPasswordDecryptor - http://securityxplod...ookpassworddecryptor

-PhilB66 (February 10, 2012, 07:53 PM)

Don't you have to have a working system to use that? Also it only seems to support Outlook account not Outlook Express (which isn't a version of Outlook at all) - though the comment that Outlook and OE store their passwords in similar registry locations may mean that it will do that.

1075

General Software Discussion / Re: Finding Outlook Express password

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 10, 2012, 07:22 PM »

RockXP doesn't seem to lookfor anything other than product keys and activation details for XP:

http://majorgeeks.com/RockXP_d4138.html

http://www.ubcd4win.com has some password recovery tools and can connect to non-booting windows xp registries. You may be able to recover the passwords from the registry in hashed format and recover them the one of the password tools.

Never tried this but worth a look:

http://www.technobuz...ok-express-password/