Recent Posts

1326

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: GOG giving away Broken Sword-Shadow of the Templars thru 10/1/11

« Last post by Carol Haynes on October 01, 2011, 08:33 AM »

Dargonsphere is also available for free:

http://www.gog.com/e...amecard/dragonsphere

1327

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: GOG giving away Broken Sword-Shadow of the Templars thru 10/1/11

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 30, 2011, 07:36 PM »

Thanks for the heads up - servers currently working full steam ahead!

Looks like an interesting game.

Note the two sequels are also available on GOG for $6 each. Both are the remastered versions and the first sequel also includes the original version of that game.

1328

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: A new Humble Bundle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 30, 2011, 02:57 PM »

A new game, Trauma, added to the bundle.

1329

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 29, 2011, 02:53 PM »

There wouldn't have been a problem if the rlease had been labelled 6.0.3 instead of 7 (which is what it should have been)

-Carol Haynes (September 29, 2011, 12:00 PM)

@Carol [off-topic]

-tomos (September 29, 2011, 01:48 PM)

OOOO - does that make me ultra evil?

1330

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 29, 2011, 12:00 PM »

There wouldn't have been a problem if the rlease had been labelled 6.0.3 instead of 7 (which is what it should have been)

1331

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 29, 2011, 11:26 AM »

Strange it downloaded and installed fine for me??

The simplest alternative it to open the page about:config in FF7 and add the following boolean value:

extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0

and set it to false

Just right click on the about:config page and select New > Boolean

Once you have the new value and set it to false restart firefox and you can enable and disable addons as you want.

1332

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 29, 2011, 10:28 AM »

Generally it is nothing to do with extensions working or not working - the add-on has an XML file which stores the supported versions of FF. I have yet to find an addon I was using in FF3 that doesn't still work even though the versions numbers are out of date. Just install the addon I suggested above - try it and see if it works. If it doesn't you report that it doesn't and then it will be automatically disabled.

1333

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: A new Humble Bundle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 28, 2011, 03:21 PM »

Brilliant - I was about to post this. Downloading as I type ...

By the way as I ordered a couple of minutes ago the 'average' was just over $4 - not exactly going to break the bank if you are hard up!

1334

Living Room / Re: Is Kindle Fire set to be the Apple/MS slayer tablet?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 28, 2011, 01:03 PM »

An interesting (and somewhat scary) video about Amazon's new browser for the Fire:

Two questions:

1) Anyone ever heard of mainframes/minicomputers and terminals - this is not innovation
2) Just think of the marketing potential the Amazon cloud will collect - is it just me being cynical or is this architecture more aimed at data mining or the customer?

1335

Living Room / Re: Is Kindle Fire set to be the Apple/MS slayer tablet?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 28, 2011, 12:43 PM »

And another article on CNET - four new Kindles announced today:

http://news.cnet.com...-tablet/?tag=nl.e404

This is an interesting development - I just hope they can get their quality control issues sorted out - the longevity of the original Kindles and the DOA devices are pretty well documented. Can't help feeling that at those prices it will be difficult for Amazon to produce top quality!

1336

Living Room / Is Kindle Fire set to be the Apple/MS slayer tablet?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 28, 2011, 11:08 AM »

At $199 are Amazon going to push Apple, MS, RIM, HP etc. out of the tablet market.

Building a subsidised device for the general market seems a bit immoral and may get the monopoly people hot under the collar - bur makes good business sense!

See http://www.zdnet.com...rs/59147?tag=nl.e539

1337

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 28, 2011, 08:57 AM »

I am amazed someone hasn't come out with an extension to fix stupidly broken extensions!

Actually they have - see Add-on Compatibility Reporter https://addons.mozil...patibility-reporter/

-Carol Haynes (September 28, 2011, 06:48 AM)

I've resisted this add-on, but I just took a look, and the most recent comment is that it isn't working with FF7.  Duh.  If Surfulater and Lazarus worked with Opera, I'd switch.  But they don't, and so I won't.

-cyberdiva (September 28, 2011, 08:56 AM)

Just installed it on FF7 and it seems to work fine.

1338

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 28, 2011, 08:57 AM »

SiberSystems had many weeks notice of the release cycle and nightly builds

-Armando (September 28, 2011, 08:21 AM)

Because they couldn't give a damn about their customers - the version 6 toolbar has never been updated for RoboForm (so you can't even use Firefox 3's later builds) even though they suggested lifetime license holders could continue to use version 6 when they unilaterally changed their license policy and shafted most of their user base.

In practical terms the toolbar you have probably still works - just download the addon I suggested a few posts above this one which allows 'incompat' addons to run and if they don't work you can report that it is really broken.

1339

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 28, 2011, 06:48 AM »

It's just that Chrome silently updates in the background without bothering you with it

-Jibz (September 28, 2011, 03:57 AM)

That's true but the reason FF has to go through the hoops is because they regularly kill extensions by these updates.

The current rash of sill version number bumps has done nothing to help users at all and the new full version numbers just are not justified.

Think back to the differences between FF 1, 2 and 3 ... they were so different that extensions had to be rewritten between versions.

Now all you do is either turn off compatibility checking or hack the extension to make it appear compatible.

I am amazed someone hasn't come out with an extension to fix stupidly broken extensions!

Actually they have - see Add-on Compatibility Reporter https://addons.mozil...patibility-reporter/

1340

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 27, 2011, 08:12 PM »

Not screwy:

IE 9 is out (and now 10 is being put forward for Windows
Opera 11.5 is there
Google Chrome is at version 14
Even Safari is at version 5 (I think - can't see any way to check for updates)

Firefox is still at version 3.5 which must be really bad ... oh no it isn't at version 3.5 any more. Someone farts in the office each week and that bumps the major version number up one!

I can't honestly say I have seen anything since version 3.5 that justifies a whole version increment - except the annoyance of constantly broken extensions. I haven't seen anything since version 4 that warrants any sort of version number change in the first or second digit.

Really extensions are the only reason I ever use Firefox - I am increasing using Chrome which is so much faster and just works.

Maybe I am being overly critical and there are major things going on behind the scenes that are building up to a major wow factor but somehow I doubt it. Mozilla is just turning itself into a joke with this ridiculous pace of version change.

1341

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... a universal password reset/retrieval system

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 26, 2011, 03:09 PM »

This password reset works very well in Windows XP/Vista/7 for user passwords.

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

It is a bootable ISO that needs to be burned to a CD (there is a bootable USB version too if you prefer).

Only caveat is that if file encryption has been used in Windows then you should not use it (the encryption uses the original password so if you reset the password none of your files can be decrypted again without reinstating the original password).

In most cases file encryption isn't used and this tool basically just reverts user accounts back to 'no password' state and does it very easily.

There are lots of tools that read license jeys - one of the best I have found is SIW. See http://www.gtopala.com/ (look for the free version which works fine for this).

1342

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 Secure Boot may lock out Linux

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 24, 2011, 08:31 AM »

In the general OEM market place the shit won't hit the fan until 3 or 4 years down the line when customers start wanting to upgraded their hardware. The majority of customers I do upgrades for are Windows XP and Windows Vista users. Windows 8 users are going to be thoroughly pissed off in a few years time when they need to add a USB expansion card or replace a graphics card or possibly even upgrade memory or hard disk if MS can lock them out.

I can understand the security advantage of this (and it will get Apple worried because they won't have such a big target to aim at in MS once hardware is locked down). I can also understand there is an economic argument for MS but why are the OEMs clamouring to do this - and not even offer the option of turning this ON (OFF should be the default)?

Next they will be shipping BIOSes with preinstalled admin passwords that only they have so that the BIOS is completely inaccessible.

They need to ensure all BIOSes have this as an OPTION - not mandatory.

Any business contemplating possible future shifts of loyalties are going to be very reluctant to buy into OEM machines!

Actually realistically how many hours do you think it will take before someone writes a utility to disable UEFI from within Windows? Or are MS going to insist that ALL binaries (including those of applications inside the OS) are only going to be allowed to run if they are signed?

1343

General Software Discussion / Re: Couldn't be more disappointed in Windows 8 :(

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 24, 2011, 04:20 AM »

Why do you think the iPod took off - it is the only way to stop listening to people talking all the time. You listen to them screaming to music instead - but at least you get to chooser the scream.

1344

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 24, 2011, 03:58 AM »

@Carol:
The market for $800 photo software isn't expanding. The marketable skill of photo editing will always be valuable. But not Adobe's fatware and Flash.

-zridling (September 24, 2011, 12:57 AM)

Sorry:

Quarter 4 2010 hits billion dollar record: http://www.adobe.com...12/Q410Earnings.html

Sept 22nd 2011 - Record sales: http://thestockmarke...-top-estimates/12708

and despite Jobs's best attempts to kill Flash:

http://www.webscopia...r-ipads-and-iphones/

Given that EVERYTHING os about design and presentation these days I don't see pro photo and graphic editing going anywhere anytime soon - and if it does go in any direction it is unlikely to be to the cloud.

I would guess the recent slightly fluctuating performance of Adobe's stock is more likely caused by business trying to save money and stick with CS3 or CS4 products rather than upgrading to CS5 at the moment. We are in the middle of a world wide recession and the US in on the brink of complete meltdown! Even so Adobe are hardly a company on the brink!

1345

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 23, 2011, 03:08 PM »

What you're working in has become a niche market! All I need an OS for as an end user is to get me to the cloud, to my browser, and from there I can do the rest in HTML5 and beyond. Adobe is still building 20th century apps.

-zridling (September 23, 2011, 02:35 PM)

Niche market? Really?

How do you do professional photo editing in HTML 5 when you only have access to dial up or slow broadband - like most of the US, a huge part of Europe and the rest of the world.

You may see Adobe as "producing 20th century apps" but they are still used by the majority of pro users doing any kind of graphics or design work and until everyone has access to fibre optics and the internet backbone has been improved to cope we ain't going totally cloud any time soon! And damn good thing too.

It is one of the few positives of slow internet access as far as I can see.

I don't know what it is like in the rest of the world but in the UK a growing number of people are choosing to move to rural areas because they can work from home via the internet. Speeds are slow but adequate for what most people need now. Start expecting the internet to cope with fast uploading 16mega pixel images and other large documents (HD video anyone) and you are talking cloud-cuckoo-land.

It'll probably come all too soon but personally I am hoping not before I retire!

1346

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 23, 2011, 12:02 PM »

If hardware manufacturers can't boycott MS because of Cartel rules there is nothing to stop them suing MS for locking them out of the systems they build. In fact they could proabbly build a substantiale class action across a number of continents.

The EU certainly won't sit back and let MS do this without a lot of time wasted in courts.

The big profit earner for manufacturers is putting crap on new computers - if all that crap has to pay a license to MS to get onboard and then pay another chunk to the manufacturer it will become uneconomic for them.

1347

General Software Discussion / Re: Couldn't be more disappointed in Windows 8 :(

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 23, 2011, 10:55 AM »

I would effectively turn every open plan office into a call centre! I amnot sure everyone would be happy with that (outside the cheaper markets in SE Asia)

1348

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 23, 2011, 10:53 AM »

It's also because Apple hardware/apps are tied together. MS apps will need to be available to a number of manufacturers and if they exclude them from the apps market they are behaving anticompetitively.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if manufacturers refused to pre-install Win 8 with a locked app store - MS would lose it ability to sell Windows altogether so I don't think they are in a terribly strong position on this.

1349

General Software Discussion / Re: Couldn't be more disappointed in Windows 8 :(

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 23, 2011, 09:54 AM »

So, if you can get away talking on the phone, there's no difference. e.g. In some places it is against local by-laws to talk on the phone, like in some subways/metros/undergrounds.

-Renegade (September 23, 2011, 12:10 AM)

Except that it drives everyone else nuts - if it becomes endemic in offices there will be a huge medical bill from the violence and nervous breakdowns!

I'll be first in line for the jacket - nothing drives me off using the train than the incessant yabbering of rubbish on mobile phones for the entire journey. Unless it is me using the phone, of course.

If people think road rage has got bad wait until you see the reaction to office rage caused by speech interfaces in open plan office spaces!

1350

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 22, 2011, 09:28 AM »

Drivers are no more difficult to write for Linux than they are for any other operating system. But hardware support will always remain a problem as long as the hardware manufacturers continue to be afraid of offending Microsoft.

-40hz (September 22, 2011, 06:48 AM)

I don't think that's the issue - many manufacturers already produce Mac drivers and some produce Linux drivers too.

I think the biggest problem is return on investment - while Linux is seen as a niche market there is no incentive for most manufacturers to bother.

Linux is big in the webserver market but hardly registers on the desktop market.

Its all about bottom line - and when users start to leave MS in droves the Linux driver market will begin to be established.

There is also a huge inertia in the software market. How many professional products (such as photo/graphics or video editing,  or a decent word processor/DTP) are available for Linux? And who writes games for Linux?

Until corporate users and power users can use some of their past investment in a Linux environment they are going to be more than reluctant to move. If you have worked for years with Qurk as your publishing package and can no longer even open Quark files why would you consider changing to Linux. Mac maybe since Windows/Mac both have compatible product catalogues (MS Office, Adobe, Quark etc.)

It is all a bit chicken and egg. No one will write games for Linux until AMD and nVidia start writing full blown driver packages for Linux. OK you can get most cards working to some degree but it is far removed from current game support in Windows (same problem to a large extent with the Mac games market). Similarly no one will start porting large scale publishing products (Photo or Print) until the printer drivers on Linux can match the output quality of Windows and Mac.

Also no company will write drivers or software for an OS that is so disparate - how can they possibly produce hundreds of different pre-compiled build for the hundreds (or possibly thousands) of distros out there? It is all very well saying they can be compiled at the user end, or by the distro writers but I can't see Adobe, AMD or nVidia handing out source code to be locally compiled any time soon.