Recent Posts

1251

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Breevy - Text replacer / expander and program / website launcher.

« Last post by J-Mac on January 03, 2010, 03:53 AM »

Patrick,

Welcome to DC!

I see your program is relatively new; I currently have Direct Access but am now using Phrase Express. Breevy's UI looks a lot like that of Direct Access. I had to stop using Direct Access because there were too many bugs - it became more difficult to use than not. Phrase Express is very comprehensive but can be difficult to get all features working, in my experience. How would you compare Breevy to those two?

Import from other apps? Import Word's Auto-correct dictionary?

How do you fire off a phrase/word? Select your own shortcut? Or locked into one default? Very important one for me: how weel does it handle abbreviations?? (can't, don't, etc.?)

Thanks for the info.

Jim

1252

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

« Last post by J-Mac on December 31, 2009, 01:48 PM »

I use JV16 quite a bit for much the same reason J-Mac described.  It also has some nice functions related to file and disk management.  I don't worry too much about trashing the registry because:

I've found it's very unlikely that JV16 will cause any damage if the "Fix" option is selected instead of the "Delete" option.

JV16 will optionally backup all changes it makes.

-mrainey (December 31, 2009, 09:44 AM)

And the backup is on by default - you would have to go into settings and turn it off manually. And believe it or not I have seen forum posts by users who have done exactly that and then did an "Oops"! Hard to believe... What did they think they were saving?

I use ERUNT to back up the registry every day, first thing in the morning.  Takes thirty seconds.

-mrainey (December 31, 2009, 09:44 AM)

I have always used ERUNT also - Department of Redundancy Department!! - but I haven't yet checked to see if it is compatible with Windows 7. Do you know, mrainey?

I create a backup image weekly using BootIt NG.  Takes twenty minutes.

-mrainey (December 31, 2009, 09:44 AM)

I do the same but with Acronis 2009.   

Thanks!

Jim

1253

DcUpdater / Re: Dcuppdater.exe crashes multiple times daily in W7...

« Last post by J-Mac on December 30, 2009, 10:57 PM »

mouser,

One thing I have noticed is that my startup errors with Windows 7 are not only due to dcuppdater.com. I posted previously that my newly installed Windows 7 was sometimes starting with explorer.exe unresponsive and causing me to have to either restart again or log off and on again. I had noticed that whenever this occurred there was a large number of the dcuppdater.com AppCrash errors listed in the Event Viewer. However now that I have disabled dcuppdater.com from auto-starting I still see the same explorer.exe problem at startup on occasion. Further research shows that my nvidia graphics card driver may be the cause. I had not noticed that before because the error shown in the Event Viewer shows during the previous shutdown rather than at the restart.

I am thinking about dropping back to the previous nvidia driver release to see if that helps, since nvidia - as usual - is not commenting on this error at all even though a lot of their users are seeing it.

So even though dcuppdater.com WAS indeed throwing the AppCrash errors, I do not believe that they were the cause of the non-responsive explorer.exe upon startup problem.

Thanks!

Jim

1254

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

« Last post by J-Mac on December 30, 2009, 10:44 PM »

@registercleaner:

jv16 Powertools is a very good all-around file maintenance utility. I use the 2009 version; I believe that the 2006 version was the last free one - I used it back when it was free and have continued to use it since it went commercial. The developer spent a good number of years developing Powertools and providing a fair amount of support and I felt it was only fair to compensate him when he decided to make it his full-time job.

jv16 Powertools 2006 was mature by then and a very good utility. The only thing I don't know is up to what version of Windows it supports. I don't think I would even attempt to try it on Vista or Windows 7. jv16 Powertools is IMO one of the safest such tools available; its default settings have it make a full, restorable backup of your registry each time you run the registry cleaner. Also it does not automatically delete any registry keys unless you very specifically configure it to do so, and the settings dialog shows a strong warning NOT to set it that way. I cannot remember offhand whether or not Powertools creates a restore point each time; however I always create a restore point manually prior to performing any kind of registry cleaning or editing.

Now let me say that I don't believe that Windows needs to have the registry cleaned up on a regular basis, or even just because you think it might need one for the heck of it. I only use it when I install a program that for some reason turned out to be not compatible with my particular system and writes/changes a lot of registry settings. Many - most - programs do not remove or restore registry keys when they are uninstalled, and very occasionally that can cause some problems. If they are big problems I usually try to clean up after the program myself using the registry cleaner. If that doesn't help and there are no other widely suggested repairs, then I just reinstall the operating system. Of course I keep very extensive and frequent backups of all my data files and program settings.

Hope this helps!

Jim

1255

Living Room / Re: How to stop junk [snail] mail?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 29, 2009, 10:30 PM »

My mailbox is just filled with junk mail.  I'm sick of it.  How can I stop this?  I know some of you know the answer!

-superboyac (December 21, 2009, 02:08 PM)

Yeah, where the heck is Ted Kaczynski when you really need him?   

Jim

1256

Living Room / Re: Looking for e-Books/e-Docs (and Happy New Year to all)

« Last post by J-Mac on December 29, 2009, 10:27 PM »

Hi Ken!

Here's a few:

http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp
http://etext.virginia.edu/ebooks/ebooklist.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top
http://manybooks.net/
http://www.fictionwise.com/
http://www.memoware.com/

And for a good TTS reader I use TextAloud from NextUp.com

Have fun!

Jim

1257

General Software Discussion / Re: Evernote alternative that has an online interface?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 28, 2009, 09:57 PM »

I notice since installing Windows 7 last week that it has a web clipping tool of some kind, though admittedly I haven't looked at it yet; just see it on the Start menu. Has anyone tried it? Comments?

Thank you.

Jim

1258

General Software Discussion / Re: Evernote alternative that has an online interface?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 28, 2009, 01:41 PM »

I've read and reread the thread, and I'm not really clear what precisely is being looked for (or why).

I mostly use Opera. Evernote works very well with it.

I also use Ultra Recall . It does seem to work fine with Dropbox (and other similar services). But, I prefer to use it for structured info - so I would never think of it as a program for clipping notes from web pages, although it does do this, unless the clipping is to do with specific projects.

I tend to use Evernote for unstructured info - or stuff where I'm still to decide on how to organise it - and for stuff I want OCRd (eg text on the web as an image rather than text). It does it pretty well. It's not obvious to me that I would achieve the same with a Ultra Recall and Dropbox combo.

-Dormouse (December 28, 2009, 09:00 AM)

"What is precisely being looked for" is in the first post. OP doesn't want to use Evernote, for whatever reason, and asked for an alternative that allows web clipping and is available "on the web". While UR isn't available as a web app it can be viewed on other computers via Dropbox.

That's all; just an alternative. Pretty clear what was asked IMO. If you don't like the question, or want to stump for  Evernote despite what the OP asked, have at it!   

Jim

1259

General Software Discussion / Re: Evernote alternative that has an online interface?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 28, 2009, 01:58 AM »

I don't have Surfulater but J-Mac, have you tested this on other online services?

Would be interesting to see what services work well with it.

The Surfulater-Dropbox was what kept me considering whether I should buy the program or not.

-Paul Keith (December 28, 2009, 01:00 AM)

Paul,

I have my Ultra Recall data in Dropbox as well as my InfoQube and Linkman data files. They all work perfectly in there. Granted Dropbox has to wait for any of these files to be freed-up, meaning not locked by the program(s) using them before getting an updated sync of them. But all these I mentioned free the files as soon as you close them. Surfulater for some reason frees up its databases when I exit the program BUT it continues to do a final consolidation of temp files and save them to the Surfulater KB (database). It is when Surfulater frees the database that Dropbox immediately grabs it to sync it with their server that the problem arises. Surfulater should keep the database locked till it is done with it. Developer insists that isn't what happens but I can plainly see it using Process Explorer and I even documented it with Process Monitor. Makes for a timing PITA!

Jim

1260

General Software Discussion / Re: Evernote alternative that has an online interface?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 27, 2009, 08:12 PM »

If you are going to use dropbox to save a copy of your offline database, online, then go for Surfulater.

As far as browser support for anything not Firefox/IE, Surfulater can create entries from clipboard content.

-app103 (November 25, 2009, 05:39 AM)

Surfulater does not play well with Dropbox - at all. If you use Surfulater then you will have noticed that it takes an inordinate amount of time to close; sometimes more than 30 seconds. During that time it is saving the DBs one last time, reconciling the temp files into the DB, etc. Of course once the program main is closed Dropbox suddenly grabs the DB so it can upload it, which it cannot do while Surfulater is open. When that happens Surfulater sometimes cannot autosave and roll its temp files into the DB. Also in one case Surfulater and Dropbox bickering over control of the DB after Surfulater's main program had closed - or actually had relinquished its lock on the DB files - caused the DB to be left in a state where it was temporarily renamed and Surf. never finished that. Upon the next start it could not find my database and loaded an older backup. I had to cut and paste a lot to get it fixed.

Neville doesn't seem very interested in accomodating Dropbox access to the DB and so I must remember to manually close Surfulater before shutting down or rebooting; about five minutes ahead of time. And I really don't like having to consider that "lead time" for shut down in order not to lose data from Surfulater. I just stopped keeping my Surf DBs in Dropbox.

I also use Surfulater much less frequently and use Ultra Recall instead. Unless or until Neville wakes up.

Thanks!

Jim

1261

General Software Discussion / Re: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Mind Mapping Software Applications (MindMap)

« Last post by J-Mac on December 25, 2009, 11:42 PM »

I have a couple versions of Mindjet's MindManager but none work on Windows 7, and it is too expensive for me to upgrade. I used it but not enough to justify their increased pricing. They aim primarily at the so-called "enterprise" market, and that sure ain't me!

I am thinking of subscribing to MindMeister, and online mind-mapping app, mainly because it can import my MindManager maps - and I have a lot of those I would like to be able to use again.

Thanks!

Jim

1262

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: FenixContacts

« Last post by J-Mac on December 25, 2009, 11:09 PM »

No - I did finally get that, but it wasn't for a while. I didn't know that an activation was needed. No activation link like a lot of sites have. Anyway it appears that all is well now.     

Thanks!

Jim

1263

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: FenixContacts

« Last post by J-Mac on December 25, 2009, 01:02 PM »

I have Redmine page now, so I would really appreciate to have ideas written down on project page too. It would be better for me to manage them using this page:
http://redmine.dcmem...ojects/fenixcontacts

-fenixproductions (December 22, 2009, 02:50 PM)

I encourage all users interested in this project to hop over to the DonationCoder RedMine site and add your feature suggestions there.

You'll need to create an account if you want to add Issues / Features; and when we finally get to play with this (eagerly awaited) application the bug tracker may also be a handy tool.

RedMine has some great features: I note that fp has also started on his wiki, and it's where the files will be hosted. 

-Perry Mowbray (December 22, 2009, 07:24 PM)

I went to the redline site, registered, but it won't log me in; says "Invalid". And yes - I definitely am using the same username and password that I created.

Thank you.

Jim

1264

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: FenixContacts

« Last post by J-Mac on December 25, 2009, 12:54 PM »

2J-Mac
Online services support and printing is something I could get with plugins when their time will come.

As for portability: all of the tools I ever wrote were portable. Opposite way (full Windows accounts support with installer) would be more bothersome for me. Perhaps I will add this too, some day.

2SKA
I had my time to get to know about this tool. Full version was close to my needs but I really wanted to have something free and extended impor/export functionality (which I hope to provide with plugins).

BTW The end of the year is pretty close and there is still a lot of work to do with basic version. Although I am trying to throw away other things to do and keep my mind focused on this application.

I have Redmine page now, so I would really appreciate to have ideas written down on project page too. It would be better for me to manage them using this page:
http://redmine.dcmem...ojects/fenixcontacts

-fenixproductions (December 22, 2009, 02:50 PM)

All sounds good!!

Thanks!

Jim

1265

General Software Discussion / Re: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Mind Mapping Software Applications (MindMap)

« Last post by J-Mac on December 25, 2009, 11:23 AM »

I guess I of those who use a mind-mapping tool (Freemind to be exact) for note-taking, though not exclusively. I also use such tools (XMind mostly, though Freemind will do) for presentation, as I mentioned in the "must-have programs" thread.

-mwang (December 25, 2009, 11:11 AM)

I'm not saying that they can't be used for note-taking; however they certainly don't work for me for note-taking! Just not convenient/spontaneous as taking my notes by hand.

Thank you.

Jim

1266

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 24, 2009, 01:19 AM »

Have you installed WDS on Win7 or using the version built in? The Built in version only searches indexed folders by default but you can override that and search all folders.

-Carol Haynes (December 23, 2009, 03:05 AM)

Thanks Carol. No, I haven't installed WDS - this is the built-in utility that comes with Win7. I'll have to look into expanding its index parameters.

Thanks!

Jim

1267

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 23, 2009, 03:01 AM »

Hmm.... I haven't had Archivarius installed in about 8 months, so maybe things have changed (or you've got a much bigger OST than I do), but using Direct Access it used to "rip"  through updating my 400MB OST index in about a minute and a half. BTW, I agree about the Outlook being open vs closed issue - I finally went with NOT having scheduled indexing of my OST file and did it manually whenever I could remember to do so.

I wish the developer would implement COM indexing...

Armando - what OS are you currently running? As noted above, when I switched to Vista, I finally moved to WDS and haven't looked back.

-Darwin (November 30, 2009, 02:13 PM)

I am using WDS on Windows 7 and IMO it seems to miss a lot. Not sure but I think it excludes a good many folders. I have searched for file names, gotten 0 results, and then browsed around where I thought I might find the file and found it on my own. It is very fast but as I said it seems to skip a fairly large number of folders. Or it just doesn't find them?

Jim

1268

DcUpdater / Re: Dcuppdater.exe crashes multiple times daily in W7...

« Last post by J-Mac on December 23, 2009, 02:02 AM »

Eset's NOD32 V.4.0.474.0 (Latest build). I also run Malwarebytes scans but not the real-time active scanner. Windows 7 Firewall behind a hardware firewall. I have not logged any events, notifications, etc. with any of those regarding any of my DC apps.

Thank you.

Jim

1269

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Teaser: FenixContacts

« Last post by J-Mac on December 21, 2009, 10:36 PM »

I am really looking forward to this. Contacts software is one of the most needed types of software and at the same time one of the most difficult to find. Most folks seem to rely on either Outlook or Gmail contacts - neither of which I like at all. I have been using the 37 Signals web app Highrise (free plan). It is easy enough to use but I am limited to 250 contacts for free. However if you ever need to print out a list, forget it. No decent print facility and exporting to a csv file gets you a phenomenal amount of garbage.

About the only request I can think of is to please make this portable; something we can easily access from a USB drive so it can be available with us wherever we go.

Thanks!

Jim

1270

General Software Discussion / Re: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Mind Mapping Software Applications (MindMap)

« Last post by J-Mac on December 21, 2009, 11:13 AM »

That's a pretty decent overview of the various software packages out there currently for mindmapping, or at least that refer to themselves as mindmapping apps.

I have used mindmaps for about five years, but purely as a personal tool. When I was still working I tried to get my employer to spring for a few licenses but they were not prepared to spend money on software - any software - unless they could tie it directly to a client project and pass the costs through. Understandable of course, so after I became unable to work I ended up buying a license for myself.

Some claim that they use it as their note-taking application of choice but I could never understand that; it just doesn't lend itself to quick/easy note-jotting IMO. I used it primarily for brainstorming (though some who think they know me claim the most I could muster would be minor brain flurries!        ) However it really can be a great brainstorming tool IF you are visually stimulated. I have read a number of posts here at DC where many say they don't know where to begin. When I need to come up with a solution for a particular task or ideas for a project I start right there: I create a main topic with the project or problem stated clearly and then as I think about it, pace around, throw a ball against the wall - whatever you do when you're thinking about something - and as something comes to mind, no matter how weakly related, I throw it on the screen as a subtopic. Subtopics can all be tied to the main topic or you can have them free-floating; whichever way works for you. Once I get a bunch on the screen I sit down and start tying them to the main topic, each other, or leave then floating. I group ideas that seem to be connected in some way. Usually this begets a bit of synergy, if that is even the correct term here, and wholly new kinds of ideas spring from them.

Some subtopics/groups get discarded, some get worked more, until I have a fairly firm framework (alliteration unintended) of a project/solution. Then I usually convert it to an outline and proceed with a more detailed plan from there.

As I mentioned I don't see mindmaps as note-taking tools, nor as GTD guides, nor as much else except as an idea mapping tool.  Actually I do occasionally use the software for purely charting a group of items that I want to organize, but I would not be using a mindmap for this if I didn't already have the app.

Sorry if this post is out of line with the thread's intent, but I was searching mindmapping posts in here and saw that this one was fairly recent.

Thanks!

Jim

1271

DcUpdater / Re: Dcuppdater.exe crashes multiple times daily in W7...

« Last post by J-Mac on December 20, 2009, 11:04 PM »

Same AppCrash issue here too. However I do have the Evernote beta installed - that gave me no problems. (Other than the beta being so poorly designed that I might drop Evernote altogether). But the E-Note installer worked anyway.

I don't know what is different on my box here. Windows 7 Home Premium, clean install on a box that was running XP Pro before. 2.3 GHz AMD Athlon, 4 GB RAM, 2+ TB hard disk space.

Thank you.

Jim

1272

DcUpdater / Re: Dcuppdater.exe crashes multiple times daily in W7...

« Last post by J-Mac on December 19, 2009, 02:52 PM »

i apologize to everyone for taking so long to get to this -- i will try to get it solved this weekend.

-mouser (December 19, 2009, 10:59 AM)

Hi Jesse - In the meantime, is there a way to disable it? I have it set not to start with Windows, and I also deselected it in the Plugins section of FARR's options as you suggested above, but dcuppdater still manages to start at some point. I am guessing that one of the programs I have from you is calling it and causing it to start.

Any way to disable it without causing problems with my other DC apps?

Thanks!

Jim

1273

Living Room / Re: Would you buy this milk?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 18, 2009, 12:36 AM »

And what a great price for a gallon of milk!!  From only $67.99!!

Jim

1274

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 — first impressions

« Last post by J-Mac on December 17, 2009, 12:00 PM »

Haven't been using Zoner for a while. I am using Adobe Photoshop LightRoom 2 now.

-Carol Haynes (December 17, 2009, 05:35 AM)

I'm sure I'll g3et that at some point, but not in the cards right now.

Thanks Carol.

Jim

1275

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by J-Mac on December 17, 2009, 11:54 AM »

Hmm...  I thought pressing F3 in TC was View File? Is that a custom config? Or are there features that I don't know about?

-J-Mac (December 17, 2009, 01:31 AM)

Yep, F3 is View File & there are a few plugins available that will provide functionality to view movies. For the super-impatient there's also a plugin to play mp3s, flacs, apes, etc. as well. With a little time & effort spent there's not much that Total Commander can't do.

-Innuendo (December 17, 2009, 11:13 AM)

Cool! 

Thanks!

Jim