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10851

General Software Discussion / List of Vector Illustration Alternatives

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2007, 09:42 AM »

Inspired by Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro upgraded to 3.2 - Proceed with caution: Info-rant!

Here's a list of vector apps from a disillusioned Freehand lover - not me, although I qualify too.
(we all seem to be getting disillusioned at the moment  )

It's from a guy called Darrel Austin,
posted at MNteractive.

Unfortunately it does sound like Freehand is on the way out.

Recently Divorced Freehand users searching for romance with another Vector application… Tue, May 29, 2007 2:27 pm Darrel Austin Now that Freehand is officially dead I figure it’s time I start playing the field again and look for a new love. Here’s the list of potential candidates I’m aware of. Has anyone had a fling with any of these options? If so, please share your thoughts. And please add any that I’ve missed. Adobe Illustrator. Of course, this is the one Adobe is trying to hook us all up with. “AI has a great personality” they say. I’m not buying it*. It’s just the ugly, mean step-sister of Freehand, IMHO. (* And by that, I mean, yea, I probably will buy it at some point. Can’t live with out the CS suite, right?) Inkscape. Open source! I want to love this one, and have been fooling around with it on the side even while I was committed to Freehand. It has a lot of potential. It’s no where near Freehand’s level at this point, but seems to have a lot of momentum–some great features on the horizon based on the Inkscape Roadmap include: PDF export, AI import, CorelDraw import, CMYK support (!!), multi-page (not sure what that means, but hope it’s like Freehands multi-page support), and some tech-drawing enhancements. LineForm. LineForm is a new player on the field, and seems to have a lot of Buzz and a robust feature set (according to their handy chart). OSX only. Stone Works’ Create. Stone Design was one of the first companies to offer OSX-native DTP applications. Alas, I’ve never heard much about their programs. They do suffer from some horrendous application icons, but the promise of ‘free upgrades for life’ seem to outweigh that minor issue. Corel Draw. Corel Draw was always the 3rd place finisher behind AI and FH. That said, it seems to have a very loyal fan base. They no longer offer OSX versions (maybe the death of FH will get them to reconsider?) but it’s definitely a mature product. It also comes with a large font library, which is always nice. It also seems to have a little-mentioned ability to create fonts. Huh. Xara Xtreme. I don’t know a lot about Xara, other than I hear it suggested often when the topic of alternatives to Freehand pop-up. Windows only. Canvas. Another application I don’t know much about, but hear mentioned quite a bit. Comes in both OSX and Windows flavors. It also appears to have custom feature sets targetting cartographers and tech illustrators. Cenon. Jesse mentioned this open source option in the comments below. It appears to be a bit more CAD/CAM centric moreso than DTP centric, but, that said, it does have a Desktop Publishing module, so it’s likely worth a look-see. Interestingly, it also has a dedicated Astrology tool. I imagine that’s fairly unique in the vector illustration world. ;o) Microsoft Expression Design. I had completely forgotten about Microsoft new weapon in the Adobe vs. Microsoft wars. The Expression line of products is based on software MS aquired about 2 years ago. It comes in a couple of flavors (’Web’ being DreamWeaver’s opponent) and Design is the one focused on vector illustration (amongst other features).

http://mnteractive.c...y-divorced-freehand/

Personally I'm going to avoid Illustrator unless they speed things up a LOT -
I get the impression Illy evolved for use where people do a lot of work on one file,
close it,
then do a lot of work on the next file - e.g. a lot of graphic designers*,
& somehow Adobe got the impression people had incredible amount of patience - it might be okay if you grow up with it -so to speak- but if you're coming from a fast app like Freehand or Xara, it's heartbreaking! 
Me, somedays I might have to make minor variations to a hundred or more files -
I've tried that in Illy & it's bad for my health is all i can say..

 * mind you, the designers who have used Freehand seem to miss a lot of it's capabilities in Illustrator as well, judging by the Freehand section of Adobe Forums. Sample thread title: Illustrator CS3 - still 5 years behind FreeHand

10852

General Software Discussion / Re: The great defrag shootout

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2007, 04:57 AM »

some more screenshots of JkDefrag GUI at it's home page -
http://www.emro.nl/freeware/

10853

General Software Discussion / Re: The great defrag shootout

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2007, 04:45 AM »

Carol
I just downloaded it with a GUI this morning from The Great Defrag Shootout VIII: JkDefrag v3.8

there's a download link towards bottom of page for a packaged version of

JkDefrag
JkDefrag GUI
PageDefrag v.32
NTREGOPT

The only "missing" aspect of this program is that there are certain files it can't defragment because they are in use by the system. They recommend using Sysinternals PageDefrag v.32 to defragment these files, and the combination of the two works incredibly well. There is a third free utility, called NTREGOPT which can be run before rebooting, and this will compact the registry, after which PageDefrag sorts out any fragmentation. A "complete" install with all the necessary utilities is available here.

The installer only makes a shortcut for JkDefrag.exe, but the others are in same folder (I dont know if they all portable?)





EDIT: havent actually used it yet, just had a look 
EDIT2: not sure what the 1% free space in second screenshot is - could it be the space you allow it to use? (my C drive is fairly full but not that full..)

10854

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2007, 02:42 AM »

here's a "Button" for DO8 -

Left click: Copies full path names of selected file(s)
Right click: Copies names of selected file(s)

[Select]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="label" effect="saturate" min_width="yes" type="three_button">
<guid>{2B47C5A8-F9FE-4E2B-A7A0-C777A25AB839}</guid>
<label>path</label>
<icon1>10</icon1>
<button display="label" effect="gray" label_pos="bottom" separate="yes">
<guid>{F5EA265F-4D8B-41FB-9C85-9E819C68122C}</guid>
<tip>Copies the full pathnames of all selected files</tip>
<icon1>84</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Clipboard COPYNAMES</instruction>
</function>
</button>
<button display="label" effect="gray" label_pos="bottom">
<guid>{7FD5D71A-AFD9-486C-85B9-BA1D56D6AC4E}</guid>
<tip>Copies the names of all selected files to the clipboard</tip>
<icon1>84</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Clipboard COPYNAMES=nopaths </instruction>
</function>
</button>
</button>

You may want to tweak it a bit for icon etc.

In case:- to add to toolbar -
right click toolbar > customise
right click toolbar again > paste
right click button to edit

Dont know where I picked that up - definitely from or with help of the DO forums 
http://resource.dopus.com

10855

General Software Discussion / Re: Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro upgraded to 3.2 - Proceed with caution: Info-rant

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2007, 01:54 AM »

The Upgrade price alone (to Pro from Xtreme or X1) is now $170

10856

Best E-mail Client / Re: DreamMail

« Last post by tomos on June 11, 2007, 12:24 PM »

In fact I just deleted my account there -
because they were showing my email address in a new post I made,
in spite of  me having "hide my email.." selected

oh well...

-tomos (June 11, 2007, 11:22 AM)

wanted to warn others there but not allowed to post as a guest - or to register -
"Sorry, regristration is currently disabled"

oh well again ...

10857

Best E-mail Client / Re: DreamMail

« Last post by tomos on June 11, 2007, 11:22 AM »

new version out -
new website -

There's a portable version as well

05-07-07 : DreamMail 4.4.0.0
« on: 10 May 2007 à 19:47:59 »
   Reply with quoteQuote
New :
Increased the mail restore function
Increased the function of backup-point management
Revised the bug of mail filter can't save account information
Renewed the spam rule (only for chinese version)
Improved: Login script of "sohu.com" (webmail)
Improved: Can delete mail index file when compress/repair database
Improved: Show a confirm dialog box when move mail folder
Improved: Make a judgment when open a damaged DMD file Automatically
Improved: Auto-repair database when empty "Trash Folder" Error

link to download page in english forum:
http://forum.dreamma...msg3728.html#msg3728

new home page
http://dreammail-europe.org/

strangely my posts (two) have dissappeared - I think they deleted all english posts from before 2007. 
I registered 29th Dec 2006, so probably made my posts in 2006 still.

The person who I quoted in last post was still unhappy on the 4th of May so I dont know if the new release addressed any of his issues

In fact I just deleted my account there -
because they were showing my email address in a new post I made,
in spite of  me having "hide my email.." selected

oh well...

10858

ProcessTamer / Re: Start with Windows, but as a Registry Run

« Last post by tomos on June 07, 2007, 08:32 AM »

Should I choose to have a program start with Windows, I prefer when possible to have it launched from within the Registry than from the Start Menu.

-TeaTime (June 06, 2007, 03:15 PM)

just curious ..
is there some advantage to that?

10859

General Software Discussion / Re: how to reduce pagefile usage?

« Last post by tomos on June 07, 2007, 05:32 AM »

By the way, a thing that makes a difference on "lower-memory" machines: the DisablePagingExecutive system setting. This prevent windows from paging out the kernel and drivers. Back when I had 512meg, I had noticably faster "system recovery" after exiting memory-hungry things like games.

-f0dder (June 07, 2007, 04:46 AM)

hey f0dder there's no address in that there link 

10860

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Microsoft OneNote 2007

« Last post by tomos on June 06, 2007, 05:52 AM »

Opera browser opens MHT files, they call it Web Archive (single file)

-justice (June 05, 2007, 02:49 AM)

How?
I tried file > open, then selected web archives from the dropbox, and tried to 'see' a .chm file. But nothing shows up.

-urlwolf (June 06, 2007, 05:42 AM)

works for .mht dunno about .chm

I tried using the Opera archive format - .mht - to save web pages for a while.
I found I often had trouble opening them in opera, but sometimes in IE as well -
they would start to open & then simply hang.

Don't know was that an Opera problem or an .mht problem
Often I saved the pages when offline whether that had something to do with it or not..

Don't trust it anymore anyways!

10861

General Software Discussion / Re: DoubleKiller Pro 2.1.0.104 released

« Last post by tomos on June 06, 2007, 04:52 AM »

Doublekiller


Compare free & pro versions
.

Additional features of DoubleKiller Pro The following list describes some of the key features that are only available since DoubleKiller Pro and not included in the free version.     * - Multilingual interface: With freely downloadable language files the complete interface can be translated into another language     * - Completely rewritten scanning engine: In tests with filename, date and/or size comparison DoubleKiller Pro was 70 times as fast as the free version and more, depending on the number of files compared     * - Advanced comparison options for each of the four basic comparison criteria, e.g. to compare only a particular part of the file name or content, to allow a specified tolerance for file size or date, or to perform a byte-per-byte comparison instead of a CRC32     * - Improved folder selection: Directories can be excluded from the scan (e.g. to scan 'C:\', but exclude 'C:\Windows') or temporarily disabled (no need to remove them from the list)     * - A distinction between so-called fresh and library folders allows to quickly compare a small number of unknown files against a huge collection     * - The result list can be sorted pair-by-pair or regrouped by any criterion - combined with the "check first" and "check last" buttons this allows to automatically mark e.g. the oldest or smallest files of a set for removal     * -The feature "check by criteria" allows to check or uncheck files based on criteria like file name masks, path masks, file size or date ranges     * - Beside moving the checked files into a specified folder or directly deleting them, you can move them into Windows' Recycle Bin from which they can easily be restored to their original location or replace the duplicates by shortcuts pointing to the remaining files     * - Directories that have been emptied completely while removing duplicate files can be deleted automatically     * - You can save the result list at any time and continue or review your work later     * - Command line support: The complete process of selecting folders, scanning for duplicates and removing files can be automated

$20 personal & $40 commercial   

10862

General Software Discussion / Re: Share Usb Devices

« Last post by tomos on June 05, 2007, 10:01 AM »

if they have a scanner that cost 350 Pounds,
presumably it's a very good one so  -
sharing would be attractive

10863

General Software Discussion / Re: how to reduce pagefile usage?

« Last post by tomos on June 05, 2007, 09:27 AM »

was looking up about defragging & came across this:

The built in defragger won't defrag system files either whereas PerfectDisc and DiskKeeper do. One of the significant ways to slow down your system is to have a fragmented PageFil.SYS - which on default Windows systems is guaranteed as by default windows resizes the file dynamically all the time. Using a fixed sized PageFil.SYS and a defragger like PerfectDisc means your paging file will be in a fixed, permanent location and guaranteed to not get fragmented again.

If you don't want to defrag you can acheive the same result by making a separate empty partition (preferably on a different physical drive) just for your page file and moving it there.

-Carol Haynes (January 23, 2006, 09:39 AM)

dunno would that help any ?

10864

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 08:38 AM »

then try this Google cache's link to see if it gets you the page..

-lanux128 (June 01, 2007, 08:11 AM)

nope*,
- downloads dont work either .. (in FF or IE)
thanks anyways Lanux ... 

*EDIT: meaning I got the google indexed page but not any further

PS. I just tested last years dud link (http://alax.info/blog/ntfslinks) & it works now -
at the time,
as I say, it didnt work for me for weeks literally & did for everyone else -
I was starting to get a bit of a complex at the time ...

10865

General Software Discussion / Re: RAID explained ?!

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 08:21 AM »

f0dder,
in spite of the fact you're speaking a very different language to me -
and,
I'm not talking Danish here 

You have, I believe summarised the reason for raid very nicely
.

Mirroring (and raid-5 and raid-6 etc) is not a substitute for backups, and only retards use it that way. They're intended to protect against disk crashes before the nightly backup, so you don't lose a day's worth of work. And they're intended to be able to keep your data available while hotplugging a spare disk and replicating your array, as opposed to shutting down the server, replacing disks, and restoring from (last night's) backups.

.
and also helped me realise I don't really need that kind of thing -
and I don't think I will either ..
(although I may have to "juggle around a lot with (very) big files" in the near future & the prospect has been bothering me, but more in the sense of doing incremental backups ... but I think I can always burn older backups to DVD if necessary)

But, again,
it's interesting to hear about the hardware setups people are using ...

10866

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 07:59 AM »

hmm.. that's strange because i just checked and the page is still there.. you're not behind some corporate firewall, are you..

-lanux128 (June 01, 2007, 04:46 AM)

Thats strange..
last year I had a problem accessing one particular website that everyone else (here) was able to get to -
maybe this is my one for 2007 

The router I have comes with a software firewall which I find very good but it could be at fault ..
not important at any rate!

10867

General Software Discussion / Re: RAID explained ?!

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 03:00 AM »

  frantically reading 

If you are thinking of setting up a RAID for your desktop think again:
see these two excellent articles from CodingHorror:
You Want a 10000 RPM Boot Drive
Desktop RAID: Oversold?

-justice (May 31, 2007, 06:22 PM)

Both very interesting - find myself more interested in what people use to build their machines though -
the glaze factor for reading bout RAID got too much 

as often the comments make for a very good - if sometimes contradictory read.
I reckon there's a few hundred there so I'll read at my leisure,
thanks
tom

10868

General Software Discussion / Re: RAID explained ?!

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 02:59 AM »

What most articles forget to say is (WTF) RAID is for and HOW IT WORKS (in the important sense! - how it works when things go wrong) -
or maybe the glaze factor caused me to miss that bit 

I think the idea is -
if your main HD dies or whatever you can continue working with one of the others?

Or,
is it simply that, again, if your main HD dies or whatever, you can replace it with one of the others, then buy a new one to replace that.

Or, do you have to buy a new drive & then copy "back" your contents?
[EDIT: all much of a muchness I suppose - if I've got the gist of it correct]

Anyways the general opinion here seems to be not too favourable so I wont loose any sleep over it

10869

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 02:43 AM »

from tinyapps.org - pre-Microsoft Sysinternals tools can be found here.. to quote the website, pre-p0wnage Sysinternals apps..

-lanux128 (May 31, 2007, 08:12 AM)

btw, that link doesnt seem to be working Lanux

what was it for -
I mean is there an advantage to Pre-MS versions or are some no longer available?

10870

General Software Discussion / Re: what kind of keyboard you use?

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 02:23 AM »

I loved the Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard so much I bought five of them for future use.

-zridling (June 01, 2007, 02:11 AM)

You must have cleaned them out -
it's no longer available here - on german amazon at any rate 

10871

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Microsoft OneNote 2007

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2007, 02:07 AM »

great review John!

You can tag notes, and tags are customisable. You can create a synced Outlook task from a note. You can send a note as an email, or publish it to PDF. There is power under the bonnet.

is tagging easy -
i.e. can you use shortcuts in particular - & is it easy then to display only stuff with XXX or YYY Tag

Does tagging work across various "Notebooks" or is it limited?

thanks,
tom

10872

General Software Discussion / Re: RAID explained ?!

« Last post by tomos on May 31, 2007, 05:45 AM »

RAID Level 6: RAID Level 6 is a cluster-level implementation of data striping with DUAL distributed parity for enhanced fault tolerance.  It’s very similar to RAID Level 5 but it uses the equivalent capacity of two hard drives to store parity.  RAID Level 6 is used in high-end RAID systems but it’s slowly becoming more common as technology becomes more commoditized.  Dual parity allows ANY two hard drives in the array to fail without data loss which is unique in all the basic RAID types.  If a drive fails in a RAID Level 5 array, you better hope there is a hot spare that will quickly restore the array to a healthy state in a few hours and you don’t get a second failure during that recovery time.  RAID Level 6 allows that second drive failure during recovery and is considered the ultimate RAID Level for fault tolerance.  Out of an array with “N” number of drives, the total capacity is equal to the sum of “N-2″ hard drives.  For example, an array with 8 equal sized hard drives will have the combined capacity of 6 hard drives.

Sounds good

10873

General Software Discussion / RAID explained ?!

« Last post by tomos on May 31, 2007, 05:40 AM »

RAID storage explained

by George Ou at TechRepublic. Link

RAID was originally defined as Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives, but RAID setups were traditionally very expensive so the definition of “I” became Independent.  The costs have recently come down significantly because of commoditization and RAID features are now embedded on to most higher-end motherboards.  Storage RAIDs were primarily designed to improve fault tolerance, offer better performance, and easier storage management because it presents multiple hard drives as a single storage volume which simplifies storage management.  Before we start talking about the different RAID types, I’m going to define some basic concepts first.

-
-
I've been trying to get my head around RAID for a while now
I think this is a good article - in spite of the fact my eyes start glazing over after the first half page -
that has more to do with my capacity for technological info than anything else ...

10874

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: PhotoFiltre - excellent raster graphics editing tool

« Last post by tomos on May 31, 2007, 03:49 AM »

I'm embarrassed to say
- after getting all that help from Darwin and Abterix -

that
if you go to the bottom of the Photofiltre plugins page they have a
"PhotoFiltre Plugins Pack"

well,
it was helpful to learn about downloaders ... thanks guys!
I actually used the DownThemAll extension cause it was easier to install
....
& of course it downloaded the packaged plugins as well as all individual plugins   

EDIT: corrected link

10875

General Software Discussion / Re: Few Mouse and Keyboard freeware

« Last post by tomos on May 28, 2007, 01:52 PM »

Qliner Hotkeys really didnt like my german keyboard

or was it the other way round