Recent Posts

151

Living Room / Re: "Check mail every ??? minutes"

« Last post by mrainey on May 23, 2009, 08:02 PM »

I have Courier check every five minutes.

152

Living Room / Re: Wolfram Alpha - Impressions On Launch

« Last post by mrainey on May 23, 2009, 06:07 AM »

Anyone incapable of understanding what Wolfram|Alpha is and how it works should keep a plug in their pie hole.

I think that would result in one hell of a lot of plugged pie holes.

153

Living Room / Re: Wolfram Alpha - Impressions On Launch

« Last post by mrainey on May 22, 2009, 11:54 AM »

Fred Langa gives it a try.

http://fredlanga.blo...-for-prime-time.html

154

General Software Discussion / Re: The Best Of: text editors

« Last post by mrainey on May 13, 2009, 11:46 AM »

For what it's worth, UltraEdit has introduced a non-U3 portable version.  The first forum post about it mentions faster startup.

http://www.ultraedit...oducts/mobility.html

155

General Software Discussion / Re: Would you recommend friends to use XP or Vista?

« Last post by mrainey on May 09, 2009, 12:23 PM »

Because I had increasing needs for testing my software in Vista as well as XP, I bit the bullet and bought a full version of Home Basic.  I installed it alongside XP Pro on my vanilla laptop (Core Duo, 2GB, two years old).  Truthfully, I expected to have problems getting started and to dislike using Vista in general.  Surprisingly, everything installed and updated with no problems, HP had all the drivers I needed available for download, and everything worked properly the first time.  Vista boots up quickly and I like the way it looks, except for Explorer.  Directory Opus took care of that problem.

Functionally, I don't see much to complain about (yet).  You could reasonably argue that Vista was an expensive upgrade that didn't make any dramatic improvements to XP.

156

General Software Discussion / Re: Searching For Software Programs

« Last post by mrainey on May 04, 2009, 06:19 PM »

This site might be useful.

http://www.econsulta...utilities/index.html

157

General Software Discussion / Re: Sysinternals PageDefrag: Good, Bad?

« Last post by mrainey on April 11, 2009, 06:22 AM »

Get enough RAM and turn off the pagefile entirely - voila, problem solved

I did just that a year or two ago, based on info in several of your posts.  I've never had a problem (using XP Pro).

158

General Software Discussion / Re: On developer's block, and calling it quits. Being a programmer is hard

« Last post by mrainey on April 09, 2009, 12:18 PM »

Even if I liked it after learning the job, I got bored with it and moved on.

That's me too.  I went through twelve jobs in twenty-eight years.  Laid off twice, all the other job changes were by choice.

159

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: PhotoFiltre - excellent raster graphics editing tool

« Last post by mrainey on April 01, 2009, 07:39 AM »

Yes, thanks.

160

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: PhotoFiltre - excellent raster graphics editing tool

« Last post by mrainey on March 31, 2009, 07:35 PM »

Is there any thorough English documentation available for the free version?

161

General Software Discussion / Re: When was your last BSOD? I'm betting it was a long time ago

« Last post by mrainey on March 31, 2009, 07:31 PM »

Using XP, I only get them when I install a new version of the Java runtime and forget to disable auto update and quick starter.  Once that's done, never a BSOD.
 

162

Living Room / Re: Should we have a yearly Best Avatar award on DC?

« Last post by mrainey on March 30, 2009, 03:09 PM »

Man, I look like Joe the Programmer!

163

General Software Discussion / Re: Rambooster. Junk?

« Last post by mrainey on March 30, 2009, 12:35 PM »

learning is fun ....sometimes.

I can appreciate that line!

164

Living Room / Re: Should we have a yearly Best Avatar award on DC?

« Last post by mrainey on March 30, 2009, 08:17 AM »

That is just plain scary.   

165

Living Room / Re: Should we have a yearly Best Avatar award on DC?

« Last post by mrainey on March 30, 2009, 07:24 AM »

Hi Zaine,

That was then, and this is now.

166

Living Room / Re: Linux vs. Vista for an absolute beginner? (+related Vista/hardware query)

« Last post by mrainey on March 24, 2009, 03:53 PM »

I recently bought an Acer Aspire One netbook, and I made sure to get one with XP installed.  It worked just great right out of the box.  It's stable and almost as fast as my standard laptop.

On the very active Aspire forum, I'd say 90+ percent of the problem reports are coming from people who are using some variation of Linux.

Not saying there's a connection ...

http://www.aspireone....com/forum/index.php

167

Living Room / Re: Linux vs. Vista for an absolute beginner? (+related Vista/hardware query)

« Last post by mrainey on March 24, 2009, 02:46 PM »

"you have the source, fix it"

 

168

General Software Discussion / Re: UltraEdit for Linux? Could it (finally) be?

« Last post by mrainey on March 20, 2009, 12:32 PM »

getting a new key from this company everytime a major version is released is a pain if you are a lifetime user.

Roughly once a year, you have to request a key if you want to upgrade.  Not much of a big deal.

Zaine, why are you so excited about UEX if there are already a bunch of superior editors for Linux?

169

General Software Discussion / Re: Has anyone had experience buying from www.buy.com ? Is it reliable ?

« Last post by mrainey on March 14, 2009, 05:34 PM »

Any Alternate to Buy.com?

There are dozens.

In my experience, Amazon is reliable, fast, and generally inexpensive.  It's often possible to get free shipping.  I've placed hundreds of orders with them and had zero problems.

Having said that, there are bound to be people out there who dislike Amazon.

170

General Software Discussion / Re: Has anyone had experience buying from www.buy.com ? Is it reliable ?

« Last post by mrainey on March 14, 2009, 01:34 PM »

I've never had a problem, been buying from them off and on for seven or eight years.

171

Living Room / Re: Welcome to a Preview of Your Google Future.. Ads on EVERYTHING

« Last post by mrainey on February 27, 2009, 08:07 AM »

Surely you didn't believe that there are people financing this who are just looking for a way to pump their money into providing free services for you.

If you spend some time at alt.comp.freeware, you'll see that there are many people out there who DO believe that there should be people busting their butts to provide free services for everybody.

172

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your mouse of choice?

« Last post by mrainey on February 20, 2009, 01:57 PM »

I like the basic Microsoft USB optical mice.  They feel great in my hand, seem to last forever, and don't cost very much.

173

General Software Discussion / Re: how can I convert swf files to avi?

« Last post by mrainey on February 19, 2009, 07:46 AM »

Format Factory is a free program that seems to convert just about everything.  It's worked very well for me so far.

http://www.formatoz.com/

174

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows editors - do they have to be so bad?

« Last post by mrainey on February 02, 2009, 01:11 PM »

I already did.  It's VDE, my DOS editor.  Then Windows came along and spoiled everything

Just curious.  How did Windows spoil VDE?  It's advertised as running fine on Windows systems up to and including XP.

175

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows editors - do they have to be so bad?

« Last post by mrainey on February 01, 2009, 07:58 AM »

and what happens to a tabbed interface if you load 100 files?

I'm really glad I've never had to answer that question.