Recent Posts

1201

Word Processor Roundup / Re: Textmaker (Softmaker/Ashampoo Office) 2008

« Last post by Darwin on March 20, 2009, 01:25 PM »

I wonder if something like UltraSurf would help if the "US and Canada" only thing is enforced by checking your IP address... ?! Of course, my experience is that the stumbling block is usually more simply billing address fields that are fillable only by selecting a state or a province from a pulldown menu... Example: I'm in Canada and I cannot buy a copy of Microsoft Research's AutoCollage because there is no Canadian MS store. B$!

1202

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by Darwin on March 20, 2009, 11:58 AM »

Just to add to my earlier comment - my problem with registry cleaners in general is that there are more often than not FAR too many fixes suggested for me to go through carefully to critically evaluate whether or not I agree with them. Thus, the danger is very real that I'll bork my system unintentionally... Thus, my "response" to cmpm's note above is to reiterate and add to what I said in my previous post:

Be damned sure you back up your registry before making any changes to your registry and most important check each suggested change before letting a registry cleaner make changes to your system.

Overall, I've found it far easier to simply leave my registry alone. With XP and now Vista, just like RAM cleaners and pagefile tweaking I no longer see the need...

Just my two bits.

1203

General Software Discussion / Re: IE8 on the loose!

« Last post by Darwin on March 20, 2009, 11:50 AM »

No problems here with FeeDemon and IE8 under Vista x64. I installed IE8 yesterday and have rebooted twice since then and all is well. Only possible "difference" between my install and yours is that I am still on FeeDemon 2.7.0.0 (last version without Ads).

1204

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by Darwin on March 20, 2009, 11:38 AM »

But either way I'll signup to sit with you on the replayed point as I agree completely.

-Stoic Joker (March 20, 2009, 09:44 AM)

Moi aussi! I think in the hands of someone who knows what s/he is doing and who takes the time to consider each change suggested by a registry cleaner, a registry cleaner may not do any harm and may even do some good in cleaning up after naughtly uninstallers. However, for the vast majority of people (myself included), who do not take the time to go through all of the suggested changes to vet them before letting a registry cleaner "do its thing", I suggest following Brave Sir Robin's example:

Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!

He is packing it in and packing it up
And sneaking away and buggering up
And chickening out and pissing off home,
Yes, bravely he is throwing in the sponge...

1205

Living Room / Re: dvd burner crisis

« Last post by Darwin on March 19, 2009, 02:34 AM »

When she saw the price of the wrong drive ($17) she told me to just keep it! Not worth the cost (to ME!!) of shipping it back. What a deal!! Kudos to Newegg!

-J-Mac (March 18, 2009, 11:38 PM)

Great story, Jim - thank you for sharing it with us 

1206

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

« Last post by Darwin on March 17, 2009, 09:29 PM »

(Darwin, is it so bad that other folks can relate to your point -- so much that we want to post separately about it?  I thought your point about updating was a good one, btw )

-ewemoa (March 17, 2009, 05:25 PM)

No - it's all good! I just get embarrassed sometimes at how poorly I make my points, a fact driven home when people post after me stating what I was trying to say much more eloquently 

(On a side note, is it just me, or do you all find that sometimes the most recent comment you haven't read in a thread ends up being on a previous "page" -- and you don't think to look for it, or just don't bother?)

-ewemoa (March 17, 2009, 05:25 PM)

Yes! Sadly, this happens to me all the time...

1207

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

« Last post by Darwin on March 17, 2009, 04:47 PM »

  OK, f0dder and ewemoa made my point far better than I did... This is getting old. Fast.

Signed:

Inarticulate in Courtenay 

1208

Official Announcements / Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser

« Last post by Darwin on March 17, 2009, 03:12 PM »

Congratulations on achieving your initial goal, Cody and mouser 

Out of curiosity, how many new supporting members have joined this month, and how does this number compare with a "normal" month for new supporting memberships? Enquiring minds want to know...

1209

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

« Last post by Darwin on March 17, 2009, 02:19 PM »

Just a thought - if I like an application that I download enough, I usually try to keep it up to date and to visit the author's website to see if s/he has any other applications of interest and to find out a bit about them. Thus, even if I download an application via a blog that linked directly to the download, I'd wind up on the author's site. Actually, come to think of it, if I was interested enough in the description I'd more than likely to visit the app's website before installing it because I'm pretty paranoid about what goes on my machine.

My overall point is that I suspect that there are those people who will not donate/visit an application's website no matter what and those that will, even if they have to go through an application's installation directory to pull a webiste link out of a readme.txt file.

The above is not to take away in any way from app's arguments, just a general observation about human nature.

1210

Living Room / Re: How to get data from dead flash drive?

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2009, 06:05 PM »

Flash memory shouldn't be affected by radio emissions from what I know - but I've fried a flash memory device in a bad USB port once.

-f0dder (March 16, 2009, 09:39 AM)

But beware their effects on the human brain! Tin-foil hat alert! Tin-foil hat alert!

1211

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend a good freeware spam filter for Outlook 2007?

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2009, 06:04 PM »

Note - as PCMag.com recently noted (absolutely cannot find the link, offhand), SpamBayes does take a week or so to get set up - it has to be trained/train itself to filter your mail. Just a word to the wise 

1212

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend a good freeware spam filter for Outlook 2007?

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2009, 05:49 PM »

Hey Aram - I still love SpamBayes for killing spam in Outlook. However, I did wind up having to use the Outlook junk mail filter when (inexplicably) SpamBayes stopped working on my XP machine and found that it works quite well.

1213

Official Announcements / Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser

« Last post by Darwin on March 14, 2009, 04:22 PM »

Who is apparently still chasing Cody over water in the Bearing Straight! Isn't it time they came home to Blighty?

-Carol Haynes (March 14, 2009, 01:59 PM)

What have a I missed? Is Nudone on a crusie around Alaska/Siberia?

1214

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9 Questions

« Last post by Darwin on March 14, 2009, 10:24 AM »

Try the Directory Opus User Resource Centre - I'm sure you're right and it'll be easily accomplished, but off-hand I don't know. The Resource Centre is amazing and they'll sort you out 

1215

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: File Association Snapshot

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 04:14 PM »

Agreed - nice idea and thanks to ald4 for posting it and tanatos for taking up the challenge 

There are, of course, shareware applications, such as Associate This!, that do this.

1216

General Software Discussion / Re: The Bat: Great program, terrible documentation and support

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 04:03 PM »

Wow - posted the above and then noted your latest post about being banned from the Bat! forums - how do you know/what makes you think you've been banned? The two posts you linked to are very innocuous 

-Darwin (March 13, 2009, 03:03 PM)

I've been banned because now I can't create a new thread, reply to any threads, or even modify my own threads...with a message in red saying I don't have enough permission to do so.  I've been banned.

Then i saw their forum "rules":
http://www.ritlabs.c...p?FID=4&TID=6975

Which are really stupid rules to have for a support forum.  Don't talk about bugs?!  That's just a dumb rule.

As far as Dopus, yes, it is rather intimidating.  But with them, at least they have a really nice forum where you can find answers relatively quickly.

-superboyac (March 13, 2009, 03:47 PM)

Agreed about the friendly fourm. Sorry about your experience with RitLabs - that SUCKS. Agree, too, that the forum rules are dumb. Has anyone contacted you? Seems a bit draconian to ban you for two such minor infractions. You don't even get a warning?

1217

General Software Discussion / Re: The Bat: Great program, terrible documentation and support

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 03:03 PM »

Wow - posted the above and then noted your latest post about being banned from the Bat! forums - how do you know/what makes you think you've been banned? The two posts you linked to are very innocuous 

1218

General Software Discussion / Re: The Bat: Great program, terrible documentation and support

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 03:01 PM »

There is a corollary to this, thougu, Aram: compare The Bat!'s documentation to the documentation provided for Directory Opus - they've gone in the other direction and have produced such a comprehensive users manual that it's VERY intimidating when you need to dip into it. So much so, that I've never really made much use of it, getting tips and pointers on their users forum instead. But then, I'm one of those people (men) that don't really like to use the instructions when I build things, either... 

1219

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WinPatrol Plus on Bits Du Jour - Friday 2/13/09

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 02:57 PM »

Another aspect of WinPatrol Plus that I value highly is the support of its developer.  He will respond to emails very quickly, and his policy is that once you've bought WinPatrol Plus, ALL future updates/upgrades are free.   :Thmbsup

-cyberdiva (March 12, 2009, 02:45 PM)

+1 Bill provides AWESOME support, WinPatrol is updated frequently, and it works really, really well. The all future updates/upgrades are the icing on the cake. Also, I've corresponded with Bill a few times about things I'd like to see introduced into the program and he's been very receptive and has taken the time to sound me out further about the improvements/features I've suggested.

1220

General Software Discussion / Re: 'Everything' is one FAST file search engine

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 02:46 PM »

I think nod5 would say it is okay, Darlin

-Curt (March 13, 2009, 02:08 PM)

 

1221

General Software Discussion / Re: 'Everything' is one FAST file search engine

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 01:37 PM »

You're welcome, superboyac! 
 

-nosh (March 13, 2009, 12:00 PM)

Just checking to see if eveyrone is awake at the wheel of course!

 

Thanks to nod5 for alerting me to the latest build of Everything being available...

1222

General Software Discussion / Re: cannot play ripped music files

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 01:32 PM »

Audiograbber is a good candidate for cd ripping, even though it's no longer in active development.

-lanux128 (March 13, 2009, 08:52 AM)

Band candidate - outdated ripping engine, poor MP3 encoder.

-f0dder (March 13, 2009, 12:09 PM)

Which band is putting it forward as a candidate? 

1223

General Software Discussion / Re: 'Everything' is one FAST file search engine

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2009, 11:26 AM »

Thanks for the heads up, Nosh  - downloading it now 

1224

Living Room / Re: I can haz LOLMouser plz?

« Last post by Darwin on March 12, 2009, 10:51 PM »

That's AWESOME Deozaan 

1225

General Software Discussion / Re: "Enable advanced performance" - the optimization that isn't

« Last post by Darwin on March 12, 2009, 03:02 PM »

"Enable write caching on disk" is good though

-f0dder (March 12, 2009, 01:51 PM)

I left that one enabled... I probably stumbled across this "tweak" around the time I upgraded my HD in early January. It's the wording that's so familar AND the fact that it was enabled - MS doesn't ship Vista with it enabled out of the box, correct?