Recent Posts

1076

General Software Discussion / Re: Are you going to wait for Windows 9?

« Last post by Dormouse on November 23, 2012, 01:03 PM »

We certainly won't be buying W8.

When W7 came out, I bought a full set of retail version for us all and that should be enough for a long time. When W9 comes out, I'll think about whatever is on offer, but I'm certainly not waiting for it. I'm quite happy with Linux as an alternative. I've no interest in a tablet OS unless I'm using a tablet, and MS would have to do far better than I expect to be able to persuade me to go in their direction for a tablet.

(We never bought ME either and only got stuck with one copy of Vista when we had to get a new laptop; over the last five years I've made sure that we are all quite comfortable with using Linux and we've all now had periods when we have been Linux only.)

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: CyberMonday Deal : 40% off for Aml Pages and Aml Maple (until 21 Nov.)

« Last post by Dormouse on November 18, 2012, 04:01 PM »

How do you find it in use? Have you used it for long?
I notice that it was on giveawayoftheday in June.

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General Software Discussion / Re: recommend audio editor to cut out middle part and still keep pitch

« Last post by Dormouse on July 07, 2012, 12:28 PM »

my ears are telling me that the song is too long - it must be shortened!
...So far it has been impossible for me to get it perfect; the cut is never right on pitch.[/i]

-Curt (July 05, 2012, 08:03 AM)

Most audio editors will do it - but to do it perfectly your ears must recognise the precise start and end points of the section you want to remove.
And you need enough zoom control to be able to see those moments on the screen.
Will also only work if those perfect moments exist; this frequently is not the case when there are a number of instruments & voices going as all of them are unlikely to flow on without apparent interruption at any snipping point.
PS Wave MP3 Editor should certainly be able to do it, if it can be done to your liking at all.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Simple means of joining images?

« Last post by Dormouse on May 06, 2012, 02:47 PM »

Snagit will do this easily.

Not sure you would really want to add another screen capture tool to your collection though.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft takes on Dropbox with major SkyDrive update

« Last post by Dormouse on April 24, 2012, 10:05 AM »

Interesting bit on upgrading storage... I had a few live ids hooked to my same account.  I switched over to each, and each has a separate storage allottment.  Now I have 25GB on each...!

-wraith808 (April 24, 2012, 09:45 AM)

I had 2 IDs, and now MS recognises neither of them 
I didn't use them, so no loss really, and not tempted to sign up with MSN/hotmail now.

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Living Room / Re: Team Time management/recording software

« Last post by Dormouse on April 20, 2012, 01:03 PM »

I think the AbstractSpoon ToDoList would be able to do this. You might want to limit how much was visible if you want it to look simple, and you might have to tweak a report, but can do what you describe. The only issue might be everyone working at once using the same database over the network; I don't know if that can be done, and I'm not in a position to test it atm - would not be difficult to add them altogether at the end of a month, though, if everyone just used their own database. And, of course, it is free - though donations are accepted.

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Post New Requests Here / Re: Flexible Fictional Timeline organisation tool

« Last post by Dormouse on April 19, 2012, 04:32 PM »

Just noticed that Liquid Story Binder is on BdJ again today at 70% off.

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Post New Requests Here / Re: Flexible Fictional Timeline organisation tool

« Last post by Dormouse on April 17, 2012, 11:44 AM »

Yeah... but when you're adding days/months/years to events to get other days in the calendaring system, it can get pretty hairy doing that type of manipulation.

-wraith808 (April 17, 2012, 11:38 AM)

Yeah, that's why I'd set this up on a spreadshhet or matrix system, just to keep track of the calendar.
ie the spreadsheet/matrix/table would give the calendar and I could just put the appropriate "date" from that into the timeline. I'd also add a colour to each cell in which something happens to give me a visual.

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Post New Requests Here / Re: Flexible Fictional Timeline organisation tool

« Last post by Dormouse on April 17, 2012, 11:36 AM »

but I think the part that is hard (and that none I've seen really solve) is fictional date periods, i.e. a month is 25 days and there are 10 months in a year named whatever.  Is that the problem that we're trying to solve here?

-wraith808 (April 17, 2012, 11:10 AM)

I'm not sure about Writer's Cafe, but LSB just works on putting in column headers, so you cn have any system you want. You can also set it up for characters or "link" it with one of the other modules such as a builder or storyboard, depending on what you are trying to use it for. Personally, if I was trying to set up something with a very alternative calendar, I'd probably use a table or spreadsheet. So much depends on what you are trying to do and what sort of tools and views work best for you.

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Post New Requests Here / Re: Flexible Fictional Timeline organisation tool

« Last post by Dormouse on April 17, 2012, 10:01 AM »

Writer's Cafe and Liquid Story Binder both have a timeline component, amongst many features.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WinPatrol Plus @ $0.99 on January 29th

« Last post by Dormouse on April 16, 2012, 04:57 PM »

I snagged a Family Pack as well, not just because it's good stuff but to encourage more of this sort of thing :-)

-x16wda (April 16, 2012, 04:15 PM)

ditto.

I just bought a family pack as well, which got me a page with a code for Task Catcher .

Check what you get when you order, the process seems a little flaky.

-Jibz (April 16, 2012, 02:24 PM)

Also ditto. Have had to email bill re my currently non-working reg code.
Not that it matters much to me directly as I've been too lazy to transfer my existing Plus code from my old machine for the best part of 2 years, so I clearly find the ordinary version entirely adequate.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Swift To-Do List 7 Standard FREE today 2012-03-26 Only on BDJ

« Last post by Dormouse on March 26, 2012, 11:24 AM »

If you need a strong separation between your task categories (because they have nothing to do with each other), this particular interface may not be suitable.

-tranglos (March 26, 2012, 10:44 AM)

It's very easy to look only at items in the category (or categories) you want to look at - or alternatively to have separate areas in different tasklists. I do both; separate tasklists work well because you can have them all available on different tabs.

To me though, this screenshot explains why I personally find ToDoList inconvenient: (see attachment in previous post)
Too many columns and fields I don't need, and the one truly important piece of data is obscured behind the horizontal scrollbar. It needs a screen that's half a mile wide. Horizontal scrolling is evil I say and should be banished. It can make the best apps unusable.

You can probably tame the columns and get the UI to where you can see more of the actual items, but the principle remains.

-tranglos (March 26, 2012, 10:44 AM)

Very easy to tame. You just select the columns you want to see/use in the preferences. The prog even invites you do do this when you set it up initially.

And this is not the only example of the developers' inattention to detail. Here's another: (see attachment in previous post)

Lowest priorities at the top, highest at bottom. A pure WTF moment. As a work of art, it would make an unsubtle ironic statement, but as a practical everyday tool, it only makes me laugh sadly :-)

-tranglos (March 26, 2012, 10:44 AM)

Sad indeed - but you are mistaken in the way it usually works. Most people have the edit fields setup below the tasks which means that the high priority items are the shortest travel distance on the mouse, so for most people it is highly practical.[\quote]

I suppose it's a matter of preference. One big difference is that ToDoList is a single-pane UI, perhaps more akin to MLO than Swift To-Do List.

-tranglos (March 26, 2012, 10:44 AM)

I find it much more comprehensive than MLO (which I also have), but the single pane UI does put a lot of people off (me included); OTOH, I find the single pane way of working much more efficient that all the others I've tried, so it is what I use. Multi-user support on a network is really useful too depending on your circumstances. I think this really is a matter of preference - or, in my case, gradually getting used to something that I don't prefer because it just works better.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Swift To-Do List 7 Standard FREE today 2012-03-26 Only on BDJ

« Last post by Dormouse on March 26, 2012, 10:17 AM »

I had a quick look, but couldn't see that it (any edition) did anything that AbstractSpoon's ToDoList doesn't do. There probably is something, and the cloud links aren't in ToDoList yet, but the advantages of free, open source and still rapidly developing are substantial.

I find it is always the look that leads me to look at alternatives, but when I try to use them, the way that ToDoList has everything in front of you is just so much more efficient than the progs that use a popup to add a new task.

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Living Room / Re: How to manage large clipart collections?

« Last post by Dormouse on March 26, 2012, 04:07 AM »

XnView supports a huge number of formats including ai and eps.

But it is only a browser. I'm not sure how effective it would be as part of a catalog/search process.

IMatch supports both ai and eps formats.

And it is a well respected, fast and capable image cataloger.
Not that I've ever used it for as many tiny files as you describe (and only for a brief test time for other image formats); I might take another look at it.

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Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock

« Last post by Dormouse on November 23, 2011, 12:17 PM »

Run the free version of Revo Uninstaller and see what that says. You would need to install that program.

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Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock

« Last post by Dormouse on November 23, 2011, 11:14 AM »

Assuming that you are running the original version (ie the one currently available on this site), it doesn't install, so you cannot uninstall it. You can just delete it.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Editor - $39.95 Lifetime Promotion Ending July 1st

« Last post by Dormouse on November 23, 2011, 03:28 AM »

The one comment I'd make about price at this point is that people need a sense of stability and long term support if they are being asked to pay a higher price. The extended, unpredicted and unannounced, absences unfortunately don't give this impression. Neither does the loss of the old forum posts or announcing a price change and limited time offer that then apparently goes on forever.

I understand the need to replenish and the new features that have been added, but the price people will pay isn't just about the features on offer. Current users are very supportive, but that might not always be the case if you manage to extend your market (as should be possible) and especially if the price goes up. I appreciate your ethics and concerns about all your users, some of whom may have difficulty with higher prices but, at the same time, it won't be a going concern as a program if it doesn't make the money you need out of it.

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Living Room / Re: The All New Kindle - ripoff!

« Last post by Dormouse on October 09, 2011, 06:28 PM »

Someone pointed out to me that the UK version included taxes and Amazon US ads taxes at checkout - but even so the state with the highest sales tax is California at 8.25% so even at the most expensive in the US it costs $118, still $21 cheaper than the UK market (and over $100 cheaper than SA).

-Carol Haynes (October 03, 2011, 02:52 AM)

That was the point of my previous post - the UK VAT is included BUT even taking that into account AND adding Californian Sales Tax (which is near double most states, and quite a few are zero rated) the UK version is still $21 more than the US version.

I don't see how shipping or import/export duty would have much bearing - the devices are probably all made in the far east and shipped directly to the sales area. Even if it was shipped to the UK from the US the sort of bulk Amazon ship and the margins that they can acheive with shippers would not amount to $21 per unit. Plus if they are exporting product they will be able to recoup the import duties.

-Carol Haynes (October 03, 2011, 09:32 AM)

I don't understand where you get a $21 difference. Take the VAT off the £89 and you get £74 which works out at about $115. $6 difference only. All figures approx. I've no idea whether there are differences in the import/excise duties into the US & Europe, but that price difference is so much smaller than we usually see and disappears if the £ goes down to $1.48.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by Dormouse on October 05, 2011, 02:13 AM »

It seems as though Trout doesn't know how to respond to a change in the audio output device. If headphones are in when I start Trout and then I unplug the headphones, no songs will play. It shows an "error" or "notification" symbol/icon in the playlist and skips to the next song, at which point it does the same thing, etc.

Same thing happens if headphones are unplugged when Trout starts and then get plugged in.

Basically, I have to restart Trout to get it to play songs if I change the audio output from speakers to headphones.

-Deozaan (October 04, 2011, 08:05 PM)

I find quite a few programs have the same feature. And I don't use usb headphones. It is something I take advantage of some times as well as being a minor inconvenience at others. Never tried to list which progs worked this way and which don't.

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Living Room / Re: The All New Kindle - ripoff!

« Last post by Dormouse on October 03, 2011, 03:19 AM »

VAT=20%
Does that do most of it?

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Living Room / Re: A Religion for the 21st Century!

« Last post by Dormouse on September 27, 2011, 02:04 PM »

In terms of devotion, blind faith, communal ecstasy and tithing it surely has to be Apple.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Speech to Text Software?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 26, 2011, 03:51 AM »

I'm getting a 404 from that link...

-Renegade (September 26, 2011, 03:23 AM)

Same here; now replaced it with a better working link to a different site.
I tried looking at original again and got these:-

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General Software Discussion / Re: Speech to Text Software?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 26, 2011, 02:47 AM »

(It would be nice if they had a complete feature set table... I suppose that's too much to ask what the product does... sigh...)

-Renegade (September 25, 2011, 09:17 PM)

This shows the feature differences between the versions, but it certainly isn't a complete feature set table - but does any software ever really have that?

Have to go along with everyone else that DNS is the only serious game in town for this sort of software. Not that surprising since they bought their main competitors, I suppose, though they were always the best.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Flexible List (data) Management - ListPro and the Alternatives

« Last post by Dormouse on August 30, 2011, 02:46 AM »

I love listpro and used it a lot when I had a windows mobile. I kept looking for them to release an android version but there's never been any sign of them doing one so I've more or less given up using it. I've never seen anything similar that is just so simple to use but still powerful. I've ended up with mlo just to sync lists since I never liked any of the other alternatives I tried. Also works well as a way of getting my tdl lists onto the phone.

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General Software Discussion / Re: evernote can actually work offline. Time to reconsider it, as it's damn powerful

« Last post by Dormouse on August 29, 2011, 03:34 PM »

OneNote + Outlook + Jello Dashboard

-IainB (August 28, 2011, 06:42 PM)

I also use OneNote. I find it's useful for a completely different range of things than Evernote, but is also fairly ponderous and limited in many ways. I tend to use it only for research into complex areas. Its value is increased if you spend a lot of time working with its Office colleagues (I avoid Outlook like the plague wherever I can, and only use Word when necessary to edit or review other people's documents).

I have used Jello Dashboard in the past and it does make Outlook a little more tolerable. But I just didn't find it nice enough or good enough to make me want to use Outlook.