Recent Posts

1476

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: NoteZilla @ 50% off on BitsDuJour.com (13th May)

« Last post by Dormouse on May 13, 2009, 10:59 AM »

Hmmm, 12 hours left.

If you are going to have a look and post about it, a little mention of the pros/cons Vs Stickies would be helpful.
I have Stickies open most of the time, but use it rarely. I've not seen any killer features in the writeups on NoteZilla to get me to check it out so far.

Added-
Stickies is portable (you have to pay more for the NoteZilla portable version and this does not seem to be available on BdJ)
Stickies synchronises with PDAs
And Stickies is free

1477

General Software Discussion / Re: What are my options for editing a PSD file

« Last post by Dormouse on May 13, 2009, 10:10 AM »

Download the trial of PS or PSE; extract what you want; uninstall.
I'm assuming PSE would work.

Alternatively, ask someone with PS/PSE to do it for you.

1478

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PolyEdit coming up on BdJ (47% discount)

« Last post by Dormouse on May 13, 2009, 06:24 AM »

I've tried most of them.
Atlantis doesn't do tables at all. Jarte needs multi-clicking (though I haven't tried the Plus version).

1479

Found Deals and Discounts / PolyEdit coming up on BdJ (47% discount)

« Last post by Dormouse on May 13, 2009, 04:53 AM »

I have all the versions of Word. And OO. And TextMaker.
I use TreeDBNotes (& similar) for most things, but am always looking out for a better file editor.

Noticed that this was coming up.
Read Zaine's review. But this is newish version (31st March)
Thought I would look at it.

Inserted table.
Looked for controls to edit table (ie add/subtract rows and columns).
None on right click.
None on menu.
None on toolbar.
No mention in Help.

Maybe it is there in front of me and I just can't see it.

Uninstalled anyway.

1480

Living Room / Re: My (Somewhat Realistic) Dream PC - Is it necessary?

« Last post by Dormouse on May 11, 2009, 05:45 AM »

I've gone off RAID. Only really see the value of mirroring now.
Even then, I'd mostly want to rebuild after a HDD loss and it is only all the data I want.

What I do find useful/comforting is using a HDD caddy, so I can just swap HDDs in and out.
Gives an extra easy layer of reduncancy.
So I have:-
Duplicated on another HDD in machine;
Duplicated on NAS drive;
Duplicated in HDD off site;
Duplicated over the net.

1481

Circle Dock / Re: Manually inside Virtual Folder to Circle Dock

« Last post by Dormouse on May 09, 2009, 09:27 AM »

If these work for all, then presumably they could be put in the base install.

1482

General Software Discussion / Re: Dell site won't help me: Please direct me to source of 64-bit drivers for XP?

« Last post by Dormouse on May 08, 2009, 01:59 AM »

This is what you get with Dell. The company is always right and restricts choices available to customers to make its own life easier/cheaper. Messing inside Dells can be a daunting experience because of the discovery of non-standard parts and connectors.

1483

General Software Discussion / Re: EU: service prices must include VAT

« Last post by Dormouse on May 04, 2009, 10:30 AM »

Very few show VAT before the final checkout. Always makes it uncertain whether they will be adding VAT at all, let alone what rate it's at. But how can they show it before the end when they don't know what country the customer is from until the details are added at checkout?

But 25% is extortionately higher than most EU customers should be paying.

1484

General Software Discussion / Re: EU: service prices must include VAT

« Last post by Dormouse on May 04, 2009, 07:39 AM »

I've noticed a number of digital retailers adding on VAT at too high a rate; they never seem to tie the level of the VAt to the country they are selling to (and most of them are US based). I've always assumed that it's a way for them to profiteer and I've steered clear.

1485

Circle Dock / Re: Major impact on Graphics Speed.

« Last post by Dormouse on April 27, 2009, 02:19 PM »

I don’t have any problems with my computer slowing down at all also my wife’s computer has Radion graphics card and she plays lots of games with CD still running on the Desktop and the computer doesn’t slow down at all,

-X_FiLeS (April 26, 2009, 03:11 PM)

The thing is that there's been no problem with my computer slowing with the progs I usually use. Only showed with ViewingDale - and the problem isolated to CD by using the TestApp.
You could always use the ViewingDaleTestApp and see if the activation of CD makes a difference to the frame speed the TestApp shows. It's a portable app, so no need to install or anything like that.
I am also running approx 100+ icons on my CD; no idea how many most people have.

1486

Circle Dock / Re: Major impact on Graphics Speed.

« Last post by Dormouse on April 27, 2009, 02:14 PM »

maybe a good idea might be that Dormouse removes CD from the computer, updates video card Software, reboot computer after update and then put a new copy of CD on the computer.   

-X_FiLeS (April 26, 2009, 03:11 PM)

No gain from removing and replacing CD on the computer. Portable app; doing nothing unless activated. All card software on latest version.

1487

Circle Dock / Re: Major impact on Graphics Speed.

« Last post by Dormouse on April 24, 2009, 07:25 PM »

If you would not mind I would post them to my tutorial.

-sgtevmckay (April 24, 2009, 01:24 PM)

Do anything you want with them. I've no idea what it means.
CD seems to have a much bigger impact on the hardware acceleration than on rendering in Windows.
And it isn't so bad if it is showing on the screen - not showing is worst of all.

If I think of some other progs to run at same time to test, I'll do that too - but nothing comes to mind atm that seems relevant.

1488

Circle Dock / Re: Major impact on Graphics Speed.

« Last post by Dormouse on April 24, 2009, 07:21 PM »

OK

I ran the ViewingDaleTestApp a total of 18 times (3 times in each condition), with results as follows (in frames per second):-

With CD off
Hardware acceleration - 314, 304, 303
Software rendered - 15, 15, 15

With CD on and hidden in System Tray
Hardware acceleration - 5, 4, 5
Software rendered - 4, 8, 5

With CD on and showing on screen
Hardware acceleration - 76, 77, 76
Software rendered - 13, 13, 12

Very strange, but very consistent.
I don't know enough to even try to explain it.

1489

Circle Dock / Re: Major impact on Graphics Speed.

« Last post by Dormouse on April 24, 2009, 02:05 AM »

I'd never noticed any effect of CD on any of my progs before.
Might be because they don't use OpenGPL, I suppose. But this one is very reproducable. Fast without CD, extraordinarily slow with it. Actually, I'll do the test in software emulation to see whether it affects that too. That will be about 10 hours away though; need to be out now.

1490

Circle Dock / Re: Major impact on Graphics Speed.

« Last post by Dormouse on April 23, 2009, 07:55 PM »

Can you try running some other OpenGL stuff and see if that's also affected by having CircleDock launched?

-f0dder (April 23, 2009, 07:44 PM)

What sort of stuff usually runs OpenGL?

Hmmm, I had a look at the Wikipedia list and I don't run much that is on it. Photoshop occasionally. Don't play the games. Haven't noticed anything.

1491

Circle Dock / Major impact on Graphics Speed.

« Last post by Dormouse on April 23, 2009, 07:28 PM »

I was testing the ViewingDale (RPG mapping/VTT) application and found that I could not run it despite having a system that should have had no problems (Radeon/Dual Core/plenty of RAM). ViewingDale uses OpenGL and the graphics card.

On using the ViewingDale Test application, I found that I was running at 4 frames a second rather than the hundreds it should have been at.
Updated drivers etc, and then started looking at individual processes using the ViewingDale Test App to see what differences were made when I suspended or unloaded various processes.
Exiting CircleDock moved me up to approx 300 frames a second.

I do have a lot of icons on the dock (c100 give or take), but certainly wasn't expecting it to be having this effect. Haven't noticed any effect on other progs, but there must be some. May be to do with .net (I have the most recent version), or the Radeon or drivers, or something else in the background. I'm reluctant to go without CD most of the time, but I'll certainly be looking out for any possible impact on graphics.

1492

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the dfference between using portable installaions vs PortableApps?

« Last post by Dormouse on April 22, 2009, 11:54 AM »

It would be preconfigured to show applications found just like portable apps launcher does.

-mouser (April 21, 2009, 03:44 PM)

I've not seen PortableApps launcher do this. For me, it only finds the Portable Apps progs, not all the portable progs on the stick. Finding all the apps would be good.

Of course, it isn't really a problem to get these progs added to the launcher.

1493

Living Room / Re: Is your online life in your will? (Backups, passwords, etc.)

« Last post by Dormouse on April 21, 2009, 01:38 PM »

What's wrong with letting someone you trust know what your password is and where your backup data is stored? In such a case, isn't this the same as having valuables in a lock box?

-DDRAMbo (April 21, 2009, 01:40 AM)

It means that your security becomes no better than their security (actually worse since there is then the combined risk of their system or your system being accessed by someone else).
Also means that you are giving them access NOW, which may not be what you want.

1494

Living Room / Re: Is your online life in your will? (Backups, passwords, etc.)

« Last post by Dormouse on April 11, 2009, 04:44 AM »

I've been vaguely worrying of this problem for some time. Mostly about important stuff about how to do things, access important data, say what accounts/policies etc exist; very big stuff isn't a problem because other people already have the ability to access the accounts etc. All stuff I'd only want accessible through my secret not-written-down master password. I don't want to trust any company or site that might fly by night when I wasn't watching. I can't asume that my computer will be turned on. I can't assume that there will be anyone technically adept, though there might be. I haven't come up with a better solution than paper or an unencrypted initial set of instructions kept somewhere secure in a bank or equivalent. That would allow me to distribute encrypted files amongst family which would contain instructions about accessing everything - on the net or elsewhere.

A two layer protection.
No family member (or 'friend' of theirs who accessed the file) would be able to do anything with it because it is encrypted.
No member of bank staff would be able to access anything without physical access to the paper; even with access to the paper they couldn't access anything without access to the encrypted files that the family have.

I haven't actually set this up yet, but it is the only system I've thought of that I'd be prepared to trust. atm, I'm trusting my longevity and paper chaos that no-one else is likely to find their way through. I've not wanted to write anything clearly for fear a thief would break in and access it (and everything). It's all very much like a will.

1495

Living Room / Re: Can you live with *just* opera?

« Last post by Dormouse on April 10, 2009, 11:26 AM »

Opera has been my default browser for a very long time. From before FF. But something has happened recently that has really put me off using it. For some reason my mouse starts jumping when it is over the page tabs, which makes navigating between them very difficult. True for Opera 10 and 9.5+. Doesn't happen in any other browser. I've turned mouse gestures off and still the same (didn't really expect it to change anything). Haven't done a big search to try and find out what is doing it - nothing shows process wise that would appear to interrupt it; easier to use Iron and FF. But after a while with them, I always want to go back to Opera only to get frustrated again.

1496

Living Room / Re: Should I switch from xp to vista?

« Last post by Dormouse on April 09, 2009, 02:44 AM »

64 bit is probably where the future is going. Though Microsoft has never been good at predicting the future - not even its own behaviour in the future. But, if you want well supported now, then 32 bit is the only place to be.

I have both types of OSs. All the machines can run 64 bit. But apart from looking out of curiousity, I only run 32 bit Windows. Linux 64 bit. Only running 32 bit Windows 7. Although the future may be going in that direction, the performance advantage is not noticeable in real life and the driver/compatibility issues that come up from time to time make it not worth the effort. No such problems at all with 32 bit.

That said, it is really, really good for other people to be running ahead of the game.

1497

Living Room / Re: Should I switch from xp to vista?

« Last post by Dormouse on April 08, 2009, 07:06 PM »

if you want 'supported by the world', it has to be XP 32bit.

1498

General Software Discussion / Re: Name The Best UNZIPPER!

« Last post by Dormouse on April 08, 2009, 04:21 PM »

http://www.win-rar.c...m/unpluggedinfo.html

1499

General Software Discussion / Re: COMPLIMENT: Liquid Story Binder XE - Black Obelisk Software

« Last post by Dormouse on April 08, 2009, 04:15 PM »

Hi, everyone. Why not try the 3rd choice? I strongly recommend our product Typing Assistant. You will not be disappointed about it.
http://www.sumitsoft.com

-maohbao (April 08, 2009, 11:49 AM)

And how on earth is Typing Assistant an alternative to LSB (which I agree is an excellent and well supported product)?

1500

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: MouseLocater - automatic highlight cursor when mouse is moved again

« Last post by Dormouse on April 07, 2009, 12:41 PM »

Of course, you can use CircleDock to do this too. Again, it is a hotkey solution - but I set an otherwise redundant mouse button to exercise the hotkey and it then brings up the CircleDock. Very effective for operating CircleDock. To just locate the mouse though, it would take 2 clicks (one to bring it up and one to send it away)..