Recent Posts

1451

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: StarBurn 11 on GiveawayoftheDay today (Jan 11 2009)

« Last post by Darwin on January 18, 2009, 09:51 AM »

StarBurn Professional costs a mere $9. Can anyone explain, why?

-BCHOWDHURY (January 18, 2009, 04:11 AM)

One thing differentiates it from StarBurn Free (support level) and two from StarBurn Enterprise (support level and Recording to remote CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD burner over TCP/IP), which is $49. The level of support, and presumably the number of ways in which you can contact support, increases with each version - the free version is free and comes with Silver support, Professional is $9 and comes with Gold support, and Enterprise is $49 and comes with Platinum support. The Enterprise version was featured on GAOTD a few days ago.

1452

General Software Discussion / Re: Similar program to Ps Tray factory that works on Vista 64-bit.

« Last post by Darwin on January 17, 2009, 03:22 PM »

Yeah, I received a notice about the Systrayx beta this morning. However, I am not a huge fan of the author's licensing model so will stick with PS Tray Factory (and hope that the bugs are ironed out of it - no reason not to believe that they will be worked out, given that I'm running the first alpha version at the moment...). Having said that, if it's working for you - go for it 

1453

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement

« Last post by Darwin on January 17, 2009, 03:10 PM »

Well, since you ask about rooms for improvement...

                                                                    ...have you dusted that desk yet?

-cranioscopical (January 17, 2009, 10:16 AM)

1454

Living Room / Re: Can a Linux man survive in Windows Land?

« Last post by Darwin on January 17, 2009, 11:59 AM »

PS I went back to Vista...

1455

Living Room / Re: Can a Linux man survive in Windows Land?

« Last post by Darwin on January 17, 2009, 11:58 AM »

Be careful switching to Windows Server 2008... I did it, and overall was very pleased with the result. However, I have 4GB of RAM and never did see much in the way of jump in performance over Vista. The other, more pressing caveat, has to do with shareware licensing. Some of my applications cannot be installed under a server OS without paying a HUGE premium to upgrade to a server license. There are workarounds in the sense that you can spend time looking for FOSS alternatives or competing products with more generous licensing terms, but I didn't feel the benefits of running Server outweighed the cost re: my time and any additional outlay of cash it was going to require to get to where I wanted to go with it.

FWIW, the apps I had trouble with included Acronis True Image Echo Workstation and Disk Director. The straw that broke the camels' back was something else - which escapes me at the moment 

No doubt YMWV...

 

1456

General Software Discussion / Re: Similar program to Ps Tray factory that works on Vista 64-bit.

« Last post by Darwin on January 17, 2009, 11:52 AM »

Hi Shaba - that's pretty much my experience as well, sadly. A fix is in the works, but I've had no communication from the developer with respect a  timeframe. I'd contact the developer if I were you listing your system specs and the problems you're having with the alpha. The support e-mail address is on the options tab.

1457

General Software Discussion / Re: Leaked images of MS Office 14

« Last post by Darwin on January 16, 2009, 11:30 AM »

Moi aussi... the Ribbon just takes getting used to - I still have two computers running Office2k3 and I actually find trying to negotiate the menus confusing after a year with Office2k7... Strange but true!

1458

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement

« Last post by Darwin on January 16, 2009, 09:13 AM »

Ability to permanently delete entries from the "Show new replies to your posts" list, for threads one is no longer interested in.

-rjbull (January 16, 2009, 07:36 AM)

+1 to this idea - it's been plaguing me of late.

1459

General Software Discussion / Re: break away audio processor

« Last post by Darwin on January 16, 2009, 12:19 AM »

Works just fine here, 4uzindian. However, the Breakaway user forum is a better place to ask this question: http://www.claessone...f07b582d018c3f7354f6

1460

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 15, 2009, 02:24 PM »

OK, I stripped everything out that I could stand. The BIG ones were Language Packs, Aero, and Natural Language search. I left out everything hardware related that I definitely don't have a need for(wireless, firewire, fax, etc.) and left out Games and IIS.
STILL Ultimate came out to 1.7 Gigs and Home Premium came out to 1.4 Gigs. 

vLite lets me split the ISO so I could do it with 3 CD's, but...

I guess it's just time to upgrade to a DVD burner... 

-Edvard (January 15, 2009, 12:55 PM)

I know not whereof I speak, but could you extract the iso to a bootable USB device (thumb drive, flash card, harddrive)?  Just a (stupid?) thought 

1461

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Darwin on January 15, 2009, 12:23 PM »

Darwin: afaik, Win7 is mostly user-mode enhancements, not really much new stuff happening kernel-side (although the window manager got an overhaul and now makes better use of video card memory?). Releasing it as a new OS is probably a bit of a stretch, but it seems like more than just a service pack to me.

-f0dder (January 15, 2009, 12:04 PM)

Gotcha  So... not quite a new OS but more than SP-2, eh? More like Win98 -> Win98SE, then (or, perhaps more like Win98SE to Win ME  )? I wasn't affected and do not remember, what was the upgrade policy going from Win98 to Win98SE?

I'm in a painting frenzy this week (family is away so freshening the house up in their absence), but I hope to do a real world install of Win 7 soon and will thus be able to evaluate for myself 

1462

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Darwin on January 15, 2009, 12:00 PM »

All I want for Christmas is an affordable upgrade from Vista Ultimate 64-bit to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 

I've been playing around with the VPC version and I like it. Of course, I still see it as Vista SP-2 at the moment... Vista SP-1 is very stable on my hardware and I like it a lot. I think that the whole Win 7 name is panic on MS' part in the sense that Vista is so maligned that they need to distance themselves from the name. That's why SP-2 (or perhaps it's more equivalent to SP-3?) is being re=badged... Kind of like this is the Mojave experiement on a grand scale? Of course, I am not generally in a position to appreciate the subtleties between the code bases for versions of Windows AND in the instance I've barely dipped my toe in the Win 7 waters, so perhaps there is enough in Win 7 to justify a name change and new full release?

1463

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux for a week

« Last post by Darwin on January 14, 2009, 01:07 PM »

Edvard - the writer intends to continue using and exploring Linux and hopes to post about his experiences weekly. Seems like committment enough to me!

1464

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« Last post by Darwin on January 14, 2009, 10:06 AM »

Cunning plan, gepetrant. I wonder how Mrs. Darwin would react... ?!

-Darwin (January 14, 2009, 09:11 AM)

Predictably, I would imagine.

-40hz (January 14, 2009, 09:42 AM)

Yes, the words "harddrive" "insertion" and "extended hospital stay" all figure prominently in my imagined runnings of the scenario 

1465

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« Last post by Darwin on January 14, 2009, 09:11 AM »

Cunning plan, gepetrant. I wonder how Mrs. Darwin would react... ?!

1466

General Software Discussion / Re: Another 'Lifetime' license bites the dust

« Last post by Darwin on January 14, 2009, 08:58 AM »

If someone got "snippy" with you they must have just been having a bad hair day or something. 

Jim

-J-Mac (January 14, 2009, 03:24 AM)

I wasn't being snippy, merely pointing out that this was a norm. I apologize if it came across that way, but it was not the intended tone or inflection for said post. And no, that was directed at no one in particular.

-Josh (January 14, 2009, 04:14 AM)

I think Jim was meaning that he possibly got snippy with you, not the other way around!

1467

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« Last post by Darwin on January 14, 2009, 12:46 AM »

Good points, f0dder, and my experience exactly. I've tried a number of on-line backup solutions but use none of them because it's just too painful trying to upload any of the data I am interested in preserving. I'm far happier making backups to harddrives and storing them off-site for safe keeping... Hang on  I'm not actually storing any of my backups off-site! I've got about 6 external harddrives full of backups all lined up on a shelf. Not too bright...

1468

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux for a week

« Last post by Darwin on January 14, 2009, 12:35 AM »

I finally got around to reading it in its entirety and loved it  Very funny and very informative. Thanks again for pointing the way to it, 40hz 

1469

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Darwin on January 13, 2009, 08:07 PM »

Yes - I"m running Windows 7 in Virtual PC. Seeing these last few posts prompted me to return to Virtual PC and take a look. I'd probably stop short of calling it sluggish, per se, but it's noticably slower than my "real" XP and Vista installs, both of which have a LOT more RAM to work with.

-Darwin (January 12, 2009, 09:08 PM)

Switch to a better VM application, then

-f0dder (January 13, 2009, 06:58 PM)

No doubt! However, I'm skint and not about to spend any money on a more robust solution (the free ones that people have tried - VirtualPC and VirtualBox seem to have the same problems...). I guess I could try the VMWare cocktail suggested earlier... All told, though, I'm not sure I can be bothered just now - if I get the urge to play with Win 7 I'm just going to install it and take advantage of my hardware!

1470

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« Last post by Darwin on January 13, 2009, 04:42 PM »

Please, please, please don't let this be a problem with their notebook drives as well 

1471

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux for a week

« Last post by Darwin on January 13, 2009, 04:41 PM »

hmm I can't open that page, I get error messages from wordpress.

-housetier (January 13, 2009, 04:31 PM)

Strange, so do I, now. It was fine an hour ago.

1472

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

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

Good thought, 40hz  I'd probably vote for a new topic dedicated to discussing using the beta...

 

1473

Living Room / Re: Switching to Linux for a week

« Last post by Darwin on January 13, 2009, 11:39 AM »

Excellent! Thanks for that, 40hz 

I'm *just* coming out of my tinkering for the halibut stage. Until about two weeks ago, I had an iBook running Tiger, a notebook running Win2k, a notebook running Ubuntu 8.04, a notebook running XP Pro and a notebook running Vista 64 Ultimate all networked together and crowding my (physical) desktop. I also had, and still have, the Vista machine running a WfW 3.11 client and Win2k client. I've since added Win7 as a client on that machine. Crowded. Very crowded. I've pared down to the XP and Vista notebooks on my physical desktop and find that I don't have much time or inclination to faff about with the client OS on my Vista machine. All in all, it SERIOUSLY cuts into my "productivity". I"m toying with the idea of removing XP Pro machine from my desktop and the client OSes from the Vista computer and actually using my notebook for its intended purpose: being productive. What a novel idea!

Still, like Chris, I'll read the article with interest, even if I'm cringing a bit resisting the temptation to follow the author's lead!

1474

General Software Discussion / Re: Quick Search Box — Quicksilver redux…

« Last post by Darwin on January 13, 2009, 11:31 AM »

Ah... good point. I was thinking strictly in terms of Mac versions... Hadn't thought it through WRT it being cross-platform compatibile. Being on Tiger, I haven't been following QS developments and hadn't realised that there is significant on-going development. Anyway, interesting nonetheless 

1475

General Software Discussion / Re: Quick Search Box — Quicksilver redux…

« Last post by Darwin on January 13, 2009, 10:38 AM »

That is interesting, nontroppo. Thanks for pointing it out to us This is more basic the QS, but if Google is paying Alcor to work on it (rather than this being a project he works on in his spare time), perhaps it will be more feature rich in the future.