Recent Posts

1376

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Avafind mini review

« Last post by urlwolf on March 04, 2007, 07:42 AM »

Hmm, I only update my db every 3 days with locate and that's ok for me... not sure if the scout bot would be any advantage for me.

Does ava have presets (e..g., dir: papers, *.pdf)? Can it be placed on a thumbdrive?

I'm sure the recent files/folder size stuff can be replicated with locate if one really tries...

1377

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by urlwolf on February 28, 2007, 07:48 AM »

I can't help but get into this thread again and recommend oneNote. The 2007 version does cool new things:

• Paste a picture (yes, a picture), and it will do OCR. you can find text within the picture! Ain't that cool?
• Perfect integration with outlook todo list. just write an item (e.g., "call X", and flag it as "todo tomorrow" ctrl + shift + 2, it will show up in outlook task list, and even get a default reminder. Since oneNote can do hierarchical stuff -it's an ouliner-, longer todo lists are easy.
• Napkin math. You can type 2+2= and it completes the answer.
• fast search (called instant search)
• tagging
• minimizes all toolbars, sidebars, etc to become a tiny notepad that can float on top of all your windows
• global shortcut to get screenshots
• pastes url or local doc location (file:\\) next to the quote (useful!)

It is one of the few apps that M$ got right the first time and didn't screw after a major update.

1378

General Software Discussion / Re: 12 Windows Explorer Alternatives Compared

« Last post by urlwolf on February 27, 2007, 07:28 AM »

Well, this is a crappy test but...
TC seems to display the same msgBox and scrollbar as explorer. Might be using some kind of Windows native file-copying.

Dopus, on the other hand, does have its own msgbox and scrollbar, and to me (when I first bought it) seemed a lot faster than explorer. No idea how they do that, as fodder says this might be bound to I/O, so not much saving there.... maybe the have optimized the stuff that explorer does before moving, etc (counting files...).

1379

General Software Discussion / Re: 12 Windows Explorer Alternatives Compared

« Last post by urlwolf on February 26, 2007, 04:55 PM »

Is Total Commander any faster copying files, displaying folders, etc?
Has anyone done a comparison with benchmarks?
Thanks

1380

General Software Discussion / Re: recommend backup soft?

« Last post by urlwolf on February 26, 2007, 04:08 PM »

I recommend you check out the DonationCoder.com Power-User Guide to Back Ups.

-tinjaw (February 26, 2007, 04:01 PM)

I know the review. This is why I bought genie in the first place. But thanks anyway. I think backup4all may do the trick for now...

1381

General Software Discussion / Re: recommend backup soft?

« Last post by urlwolf on February 26, 2007, 12:26 PM »

Thanks all.
I bought genie a while ago, and then asked for a refund. Lots of problems.
Rjbull,

I just checked cobian, and found this:
http://sherwood.lh.u...=restore,incremental

So no easy way to recover incremental backups.
I'm going to try backup4all, allthough it didn't work for me the first time I tried it.

1382

General Software Discussion / recommend backup soft?

« Last post by urlwolf on February 26, 2007, 08:11 AM »

Hi,

I own syncBackSE, and like it, but the fact that it doesn't restore all incremental backups automatically (you have to do it by hand!) is a major let down.

I bought a new external HD, and am in the market for a good incremental backup application.

Any recommendations? Anythinkg new out there?
Thanks

1383

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: doPDF (pdf creator) - Freeware

« Last post by urlwolf on February 26, 2007, 12:32 AM »

Just tested it. it leaves the document in the printer queue, nothing happens.
This is the second time for me that a program from this company just does doesn't work out of the box. A pity, it looks good.

1384

General Software Discussion / Re: 12 Windows Explorer Alternatives Compared

« Last post by urlwolf on February 24, 2007, 01:51 PM »

What I want to know is:
Which of these managers can do: source code syntax highlighting (i.e., using scintilla or vim) within the editor (not in a different window) and updating it as soon as I change the file that is highlighted in the folder list?
I can do this with Dopus and source viewer plugin, but it's not portable, so looking for alternatives

1385

General Software Discussion / firefox vs. opera: FF is slow when hitting 'back', opera just uses cache

« Last post by urlwolf on February 24, 2007, 12:14 PM »

I'm currently using firefox
Hoever there is one feature that I really miss from opera: FF is slow when hitting 'back', opera just uses the cache, while firefox reloads the entire site(!), a pretty bad decision 99% of the time if you ask me (the 1% where this is a good idea is sites that refresh content every few seconds, like gmail).

Is there any plugin/option to make firefox reuse its cache when hitting 'back'?
Thanks

1386

Developer's Corner / Re: Why AJAX is Preferred for RIAs over Java

« Last post by urlwolf on February 23, 2007, 09:52 PM »

It needs java on the server, and only if you want to use the fancy serialization (binary objects going through the pipes).

That's where they plan to make money (I think).

If you want to do the standard MySQL on the server, then you need to do XML pushups (parsing XML in both client and server).

BTW, http://iscrybe.com/main/index.php, the super-duper organizer that will rule them all and has the fanciest calendar, seems to be flex. It makes sense that it can go  off line just fine.

1387

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)

« Last post by urlwolf on February 20, 2007, 09:23 PM »

€ 69,95 here.
Support didn't answer.

1388

General Review Discussion / Re: Free PDF tools review?

« Last post by urlwolf on February 20, 2007, 09:18 PM »

There is a big void in the segment of pdf READERS.
I simply want to read a pdf off the screen, and maybe mark (highlight) some sections, and add notes.

I don't need the entire enchilada that Acrobat is. However, I have to use acrobat, because no other program can do that.

Foxit comes close, but has no undo, the highlighter doesn't get the block correctly when the doc is a two-column doc, and the user interface is pitiful. No way to have all docs in the same window instead of the taskbar, for example.

Plus most docs look better in adobe.

When is adobe going to release a cheap version of acrobat that does only the few things that I mentioned (which is what most academics need, BTW)? We don't need all the pro features.

1389

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)

« Last post by urlwolf on February 20, 2007, 06:36 PM »

I tried to buy FD from Spain.
When the form came up, the price $69 had magically increased to euro 69. Plus 16% VAT, of course.

This is insulting. Do they think that people will miss the small detail that a dolar is .75 euro?
http://www.x-rates.c...UR/USD/graph120.html

do the magically increase the price for European customers 25%?
I think they won't get my business. I wrote to their support, and they didn't answer. I find this pricing policy morally repugnant. We are talking about software, not a physical good that has to be shipped.

If you find any other company doing this, please report it. Thanks.

1390

Living Room / Re: Best choice for server-side game programming

« Last post by urlwolf on February 20, 2007, 02:36 PM »

Very nice job, tinjaw.
I have been thinking about this for a while.
For MUD and realtime stuff XMLsockets seems to be the way to go, no matter which language you use on the client.

It seems that all the server-client talk can take two forms:
CGI (post and get methods): cumbersome to parse, data are not self-describing necessarily, and limited in size (theoretically)
XML: most apps send XML back and forth, as a way of serializing more complex data structures.

This gets the programmer in a position where he needs to parse XML on both sides (what is known as XML push-ups). Not the most rewarding work.

However, there seems to be an emerging third option. It seemst that flex/flash can serialize objects in a binary format (not XML) and send them back and forth that way. It is faster, and it saves coding time in that you don't have to deal with the XML intermediate version.

Looks like for this kind of serialization needs some server-side libs, and they are J2EE or some other 'enterprise' stuff. They cost money. But I could be wrong. Of course, this is worth thinking only if you want your client side to be actionScript/flash/flex.

Current AJAXY stuff could be more than enough for a MUD-like app. However, it looks like a hack, and in fact it is: javascript + whatever on the server + Mysql... three sources of trouble. And then, you have to test it against several browsers.

I'm just debating all this myself. Not that I know much about it, mind you, just reading around.

In any case, if you decide to take the AJAX route, consider using a framework, not just a language. I have started playing around with Rails and I love it. Things will be developed fasts and code will be maintainable.

My 2 cents.

1391

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of FirstDefense-ISR (Raxco Software)

« Last post by urlwolf on February 19, 2007, 09:35 PM »

Update: in June 2006, Rollback Rx was buggy as hell:
http://www.wildersse...ollback+firstdefense

Those problems seems to be gone.

And it seems that version 8, to be released march 2007, will be really nice.

The only reason I wanted to avoid FDISR is that it takes forever to create a new image, and I want to recover fast from a bad install. For that, RB rx seemed better suited.

However, I found this method to use FDISR as an 'bombproof uninstaller' (from http://www.wildersse...5235&postcount=4):

I have pared down to a simple setup. I do a lot of imaging in conjunction with FDISR. Also I am a single partition person. My objective was first ability to recover or undo an install. Speed of both FDISR and imaging is very important. Speed for imaging, implies keeping the drive space minimized.
Also I don't care about going back to yesterday, the day before, etc. So....

On my c: drive I have my Primary which of course has everything I run. Then I have a secondary which is a stripped All it contains is Windows, and enough to feel safe online. It's only purpose is to provide a bootable snapshot.

I also keep an Archive on my primary, both on my second internal drive, and one on my external drive. These are update frequently. Update time is around a minute. I also keep an archive of the secondary snapshot

So if I want to test a program, I first update my archive, and then install in the Primary. If I don't like it I boot to my secondary and update my primary from the archive. I

This setup also means that even if I have to restore from the image I took when I bought the system(which has FDISR), I can load the secondary from the archive, boot to it, and the bring the primary update from the archive.

I have thoroughly tested this approach and it works beautifully. Also if i want I can keep several different configurations in archives and switch back and forth easily.

Pete

So I'm going to go with FD I think.

1392

General Software Discussion / Re: FileHamster - auto incremental file monitor/backup as you work - and free!

« Last post by urlwolf on February 19, 2007, 05:23 PM »

I like this program! time-based versioning is nice.
Although, i have a small problem. Even when minimized to tray, it shows up in my "alt-tab" icon list. Why is that? no other minimized to tray app does this. (Well, now that I think of it tictactitle by Skrommel does too!)....

1393

Living Room / Re: One of the better if not best examples of flash based navigation

« Last post by urlwolf on February 18, 2007, 10:55 PM »

i'd kill myself if i had to use such an interface to navigate around and learn about a site that way.

-mouser (February 18, 2007, 09:33 AM)

Same here. And no HTML (with accessibility options) to be found. Now I understand why Karl Nielsen bitches about flash ("Flash is 99% bad").

If Flex catches on, we are in for all kinds of inconsistencies in web site navigation... and I like flex (!).

1394

General Software Discussion / Re: FileHamster - auto incremental file monitor/backup as you work - and free!

« Last post by urlwolf on February 18, 2007, 03:33 PM »

The configuration options are great, allowing timed versioning (so you can accumulate 10 minutes worth of multiple saves in one so not having too many tiny version changes), and the settings cascade for excellent control.

Thank you mogware!!! 

-nontroppo (February 18, 2007, 03:06 PM)

How do you get the timed versioning set up? It's not under options...
Thanks

1395

Developer's Corner / Re: Content management solution for a small software site?

« Last post by urlwolf on February 17, 2007, 04:56 PM »

I'll throw my hat in:
http://radiantcms.org/

Radiant is ruby, so it doesn't get any easier to modify.

http://www.alfresco.com/
This seems to be an up-and-coming one. But it's kind of enterprise stuff, maybe not worth checking.

I'm actually facing similar problems to chose a CMS for an academic home page. I'mroght now thinking on using WP + a bunch of static pages. New publications will be posts under the category "papers" or a more detailed "topic" category. Then, a link that filters by that tag will show all papers. The advantage of using WP is that you can add content  fast using editors such as windows live writer... but I'm curious to hear about alternatives...

1396

General Software Discussion / Re: I have lost hibernation ability in my laptop :(

« Last post by urlwolf on February 17, 2007, 01:35 PM »

yep, there is a tab called hibernation, with a checkbox "enable hibernation". What a simple solution. Thanks

1397

General Software Discussion / I have lost hibernation ability in my laptop :(

« Last post by urlwolf on February 16, 2007, 10:59 PM »

I have no idea why, but after a clean winXP install and reinstalling all the newest versions of drivers galore, I have lost hibernation ability in my laptop.

The options when clicking shutdown in the start menu are: log ogg, stand by, restart. no "shift click" possible to get hibernation as an option. Using keyboard shortcuts for hibernation gets me into stand by mode.

Have you experienced anything like this? Is this due to some missing driver? Can this happen to a desktop pc as well?

1398

General Software Discussion / Re: SuperboyAC's DC blog #2 (Live Search feature in software)

« Last post by urlwolf on February 16, 2007, 10:21 PM »

Yes, I too think it's a 10, and you can now guess who helped them with continued feedback to bring it to this level. cheesy cheesy

Thanks to another guy with good ideas it now even has filter-as-you-type in the config too! I didn't saw that in any other program, and while I personally rarely need it, IMHO it's great!

Good work, brotherS!  The live search in the options is awesome also!  That's a brilliant idea, I didn't even think about that.  I do seem to remember seeing that in some other software, but I don't remember which one.  For a second, I though it was Zoom Player, but it's not (although it could definitely use it, with all those options it has!). 

-superboyac (February 16, 2007, 02:13 PM)

Dear God,

If you really love me, please, please, make the developers of Dopus implement live search on the options pane.

Thanks,
-urlwolf

Great Post SuperboyAC!.

BTW, how do you get to see the filters next to the location bar in dopus?

1399

General Software Discussion / EMS mysql manager.. looks pretty good...

« Last post by urlwolf on February 16, 2007, 10:11 PM »

http://www.sqlmanage...oducts/mysql/manager

The lite version has plenty of useful stuff...
Has anyone tried this SQL manager? How many people here spend time mangling data from databases ?

1400

General Software Discussion / Re: FileHamster - auto incremental file monitor/backup as you work - and free!

« Last post by urlwolf on February 16, 2007, 09:26 AM »

Does this work with office docs?
Has anyone tried? It looks a bit obstructive with the popups...
Is there a similar freeware tool for say word docs?