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1526

General Software Discussion / Re: Angry shareholders say Microsoft squanders billions on pointless R&D projects

« Last post by Dormouse on February 15, 2009, 06:35 AM »

Expenditure on R&D is about the only way to ensure longevity.

-Eóin (February 11, 2009, 07:10 PM)

To the extent that this is true, investors are still left with the problem of deciding whether the R&D is going into a bottomless pit that will never produce anything worthwhile or whether it will pay off in the end. History shows a lot of big and very profitable (at the time) companies developing vanity R&D progs that seemed to add to their prestige within the community but never developed business gains in the end - and those companies eventually shrinking as their cash streams dried up. Investors are very aware of this and alarm bells ring if they see a company of this sort with high R&D - their problem is that they very rarely have the info or expertise to know if the R&D being done is really targetted at the medium/long-term interests of the business.

In practice, one of MS's most common strategies has been to buy in new companies and technologies rather than develop its own, and most of its profits have come from establishing and exploiting monopolies. And a fair bit of the development in its own products has come from copying ideas from competitors.

1527

General Software Discussion / Re: Angry shareholders say Microsoft squanders billions on pointless R&D projects

« Last post by Dormouse on February 11, 2009, 09:24 AM »

The major MS income streams (Windows on desktop computers and Office and other apps on desktop computers) are under short-medium term threat so they need to reposition themselves. Not true for Apple or Oracle.

Apple's main USP is about design and much of the basic hardware R&D is done by other people. Oracle has a semi-monopoly in a specific niche and it is just a question of keeping it going and extracting the maximum $$$.

But MS has probably also got complacent and spendthrift from so many years of extracting the $$$ from their monopoly.

The other question I'd have is 'How much of the R&D spend is actually about buying our potential competitors or funding competitors to their competitors?'.

1528

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Dormouse on February 10, 2009, 06:23 PM »

Yeah, I don't know how professional photographers deal with all their photos.  Especially when they come back with hundreds of photos per session.  I'm sure someone has figured out a way of doing it.  I don't have that many photos, but if I did, I would almost have to use some kind of tagging system that had thumbnails in the cache so I can see a group of pictures very quickly.

-superboyac (February 10, 2009, 12:56 PM)

Aperture, Lightroom, iView, idImager, iMatch

Using the program to view, discard, rate and tag. Some pros claim to process each photo in a matter of seconds. And some people use some of these progs for tweaking the photos.

1529

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

« Last post by Dormouse on January 11, 2009, 07:40 PM »

Just installed. Could someone help me? I can't find any way to simply copy any media, except building an image manually first. Is it me?

-yksyks (January 11, 2009, 11:45 AM)

No, I think it basically works through ISOs. If you just want to copy, you would need to do that separately - but surely you would use an explorer for that anyway.

1530

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

« Last post by Dormouse on January 11, 2009, 07:38 PM »

Fretting?  I certainly wouldn't spend any seconds fretting about whether to install something from GAOTD. 

Starburn is wizard driven, with big buttons and lots of functions (grabbing, decrypting, shrinking, burning). More functions than many progs; works OK. You probably don't need it if you have Burning Studio. You very easily may not like its interface; it's the antithesis of techie, but there is an 'Expert mode' with extra settings.

Does more than ImgBurn.

I'm not saying anyone should try it. I have a lot of burning progs and could probably get by with any one of them. They all work a bit differently and I just use the one I fancy at the time.

1531

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

« Last post by Dormouse on January 11, 2009, 10:44 AM »

I got Starburn last time it was on GAOTD. I have lots of burning software, but tend to use Starburn a lot. Not that I do anything esoteric though.

1532

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for random map generator.

« Last post by Dormouse on January 10, 2009, 10:14 PM »

Hmmm. I suspect that if you start taking an interest in the mapmaking and software, a lot of potential writing time will be occupied with that.

If you want to use the software to make maps, you must first gather your images/textures. Can be done free but there are also libraries available for $$$.

RPG mapping progs, as Shades suggests, are probably the cheapest and easiest way to go.

CC3 combines vector graphics and bitmaps which means it is very good at scaling from small to very large areas. Best software if you will want to switch between different levels of detail. Fractal Mapper is also good for continents etc.

Free programs at this scale have idiosyncracies or aren't as easy to work with.
AutoRealm is not the easiest to use, but does come with a library of symbols.
MapX has a few idiosyncracies (eg no undo), but can be made to produce almost any type of map if you have the images available.

An alternative approach is to use Image Editing programs such as PhotoShop or The GIMP.

There are many subtle techniques for making very impressive maps as you will see from the CG site or Dundjinni Map Competitions. You can spend years just playing around with these, as I suspect many people do.

I would still suggest that you get yourself a map and concentrate on writing, if that's what your ultimate output is going to be.

1533

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for random map generator.

« Last post by Dormouse on January 10, 2009, 04:57 PM »

OK.

In my experience, random map generators aren't that good so I would tend to avoid them - though it does depend on the quality you want.
I do understand you not wanting to do it yourself - though it would not be that difficult.
In that case, I suggest that you borrow/pinch one from someone else that they have already done. It should not be difficult to get permission to use maps from most non-commercial map makers.
Two sites you might look at are Cartographers Guild and RPGMapShare. The first will contain plenty of links to other sites you might try.

1534

Living Room / Re: New here, is there's any accounting or billing software - here or elsewhere

« Last post by Dormouse on January 10, 2009, 01:06 PM »

I do have experience of big accounting type solutions (and still have Quickbooks and TurboCash installed) and there are areas where they really come into their own.

They are fairly essential if there is a lot of inventory to manage (especially  if they are, or form part of, products for sale), if there are lots of products, high numbers of transactions, a need to monitor balances, a general need for lots of reports, a need to keep on tax issues etc. They are OK for invoicing etc, but no better than many other solutions.

What I wouldn't use them for (again) is a situation where the business is essentially selling hours/minutes of time. Too complex, too unrelated to the main activity. So I might well consider TDL2 for this type of use in future. Or InfoQube (SQLnotes) if it has timers. Or one of the many commercial packages out there for that sort of job, if any of them met my sepcific needs at the time.

1535

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for random map generator.

« Last post by Dormouse on January 10, 2009, 09:43 AM »

Why do you want it to generate random maps?

What sorts of images/features/terrain do you want it to show?

1536

Living Room / Re: New here, is there's any accounting or billing software - here or elsewhere

« Last post by Dormouse on January 10, 2009, 08:57 AM »

I'm not sure if the free version of the MS app allows time tracking.

One frequently used free  open source accounting application is TurboCash

But you don't need an accounting application just to do timing, billing and recording receipts. You could even use a ToDoList prog like AbstractSpoon's ToDoList2; it has a timer; you can easily record a variety of activities and monies received or spent (but would probably need to export to spreadsheet for addition and reports) and bills - but links to them easily available in TDL. I'm not really suggesting you do this (what works best will depend on your overall needs), just saying that your list of needs is not necessarily best met by accounting progs as they have lots of features you may never use.

1537

Living Room / Re: eBook readers

« Last post by Dormouse on January 10, 2009, 08:26 AM »

what is the best suited way to read pdfs?

I constantly hear they are for printing

-Paul Keith (January 10, 2009, 07:30 AM)

... paper  

1538

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Project management timeline software

« Last post by Dormouse on January 10, 2009, 06:13 AM »

Calimanjaro and Gemx and both looks like they are abandonware.

-kartal (January 09, 2009, 04:47 PM)

I agree about Calimanjaro - though he did reduce the price once, so it hadn't been completely abandoned,and can still be bought.

I think it is a bit unkind about GemX. The website, forum etc is a completely new version as is the pricing scheme. Forum is not very active and they don't respond as often as they might to questions (and no response to yours), but they do respond to some - and even put up some images of parts of the version in development (eg the mailer) in answers. So, I don't think it has been abandoned. I wouldn't buy it unless it does what you want now though even with its being the last day of their 2 for 1 sale today.

1539

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

« Last post by Dormouse on January 09, 2009, 02:03 PM »

I thought I saw 3pm mentioned somewhere.

1540

General Software Discussion / Re: simple & easy way to exchange sensitive information?

« Last post by Dormouse on January 09, 2009, 03:23 AM »

Why not set up a free Fastmail email address setup

-nogojoe (January 09, 2009, 02:09 AM)

For me, I simply wouldn't trust the security of unencrypted email.

1541

General Software Discussion / Re: simple & easy way to exchange sensitive information?

« Last post by Dormouse on January 08, 2009, 01:48 PM »

For a once only use, I thought it would be possible to have an openable/unopenable switch. Once it has been opened it records the fact and can't ever be opened again.

For a cycle, there would be say 10 pre-programmed passwords. Once each one had been used, the program would need the next to open. At the end of the 10 it could either terminate (like once only) or switch back to the first.

1542

General Software Discussion / Re: simple & easy way to exchange sensitive information?

« Last post by Dormouse on January 08, 2009, 01:27 PM »

I was thinking more about this & thought that it might be useful if the program had a once-only or list of passwords that it cycled through. That would mean that the password could be given to someone to access the information, but that it would not work on a second occasion. Doesn't really matter then if the friend records it as it would no longer work, so long as they did use it immediately.

1543

General Software Discussion / Re: simple & easy way to exchange sensitive information?

« Last post by Dormouse on January 08, 2009, 06:39 AM »

The problem with anything they open on their computer is where that info might be saved or recorded. You'd want them not to have a clipboard (if they might copy and paste some content) or to autosave it anywhere. Obviously, fSekrit is designed to do this. An alternative, depending on the data, might be a vault or a password manager program such as Keepass which they could load on their machine and you could send them the database. Password by phone will be more secure (though might need a few tries if they make an error) since nothing will be recorded.

In a situation like this there is a tension between strong passwords and being easily remembered by someone who did not invent it. Possibly a passphrase with punctuation would work best.

It all depends on exactly how secure you need it to be and what you think the realistic sources of risk are.

Sending card details to a friend is a real risk if something goes wrong because any losses may not be covered by the card company if they think that doing that was imprudent.

1544

Circle Dock / Re: Feature request : middle click launch shortcut and let CircleDock opened

« Last post by Dormouse on January 05, 2009, 09:01 AM »

I have DC Open/Close assigned to a spare mouse button. Stays open when I call it until I choose to hide it. No problem.

1545

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Project management timeline software

« Last post by Dormouse on January 03, 2009, 01:52 PM »

I've no idea about their future plans. There had been a previous suggestion that they create links with the iPhone - ie it should basically be ical subscription - but there was no response at the time. Same suggestion has been made again, and they say they are considering possibilities but no promises. I suspect that they are fairly early in the design cycle and haven't got round to the detailed features. I also suspect they are looking as something akin to a complete rewrite of the basic structure and so it will be hard to know now how much of what is there in current version will make it through to the end. This is just my own suspicion (no evidence).

1546

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Project management timeline software

« Last post by Dormouse on January 02, 2009, 08:35 PM »

EssentialPIM Pro claims to be able to sync with Google Calendar (which is an ical/ics implementation). Maybe there would be a way of doing it through that? Not sure how easy it would be since Google only claim to sync with Apple/Sunbird ical implementations.And Pro isn't a cheap app if all you are wanting from it is the ability to subscribe to a year planner. I found the whole search for year planners really tedious, and I didn't even want ics subscription (though I did want ideally to be able to see longer periods than a year).

1547

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by Dormouse on January 02, 2009, 02:47 PM »

Does SqlNotes have this kind of calendar view?

Yearly planner

-kartal (January 02, 2009, 01:40 PM)

According to this answer, all is planned -

This is sort of off topic, but I've just made a wishlist for Calendar functionality HERE, and wondered whether IQ is likely to be able to do any of that. It seems to me to be the sort of databsase driven program that might.

-Dormouse (October 22, 2008, 08:51 AM)

I would say all is planned except:

I would like to be able to drag new items on to previous items and have the previous item automatically made into a folder with the same name and containing the new item(s)).

-Dormouse (October 22, 2008, 08:46 AM)

Instead of the item being made into a folder, the item would have sub-items (1 sub-item for each dragged item), in keeping with the IQ concept

-PPLandry (October 22, 2008, 08:56 AM)

 - but not yet present. I think

1548

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Project management timeline software

« Last post by Dormouse on January 02, 2009, 02:40 PM »

All I need is a yearly planner calendar tool(So far I failed to find any app). I just realize that it would be overkill for me to buy Gemx just for that feature considering its price. I mean it looks like nice piece of app but really beyond more than what I need. Also it cannot subscribe to ics calendar whic is a big minus for me.

Btw I realy think that its is budgeting modul is unnecessarily complicated. I tried entering some spendings , but I got confused about how to handle all the interface. All I needed was to enter couple dollars and items to see how it works out and I gave up.

-kartal (January 02, 2009, 01:19 PM)

Purely as a year planner, I much prefer Calimanjaro.

I also think that the value of the GemX product is all about its having many functions, so if you only want it for one it would be overkill. Financially, $49 for two copies is quite a good deal even for just one component, if you really want that component (of course, this is only true if you have someone to share the cost with and it does assume there is a component you really want). I've been playing with it for a while and have only recently got into more heavy usage. I've not got into the spreadsheet/budgeting module yet; had thought I'd have no use for it and that its fixed column names were too restrictive, but have started to see how it might be useful to me. Many of the sections I haven't used at all (yet).

Of course, I do also have many other progs and, on an individual basis, usually prefer those - eg
RTF Note prog - TreeDBnotes etc
Spreadsheet - Excel etc
Budget prog - Quickbooks etc
Mindmap - Conceptdraw, Edraw, XMind, Freemind, Cayra etc
TaskList - TDL, List Pro etc
Year Planner - Calimanjaro, EssentialPIM
Calendar - ???, Calimanjaro, Outlook, Spicebird; can't really say I like any of these & GemX's may be the most useful here
Contacts - I don't use heavily, same comments as for Calendar really
Password Manager - Keepass, Roboform (though only use it a little for websites so far - it's not integrated with Iron or Opera which are my most used browsers)
Browser - Opera, Iron, FF etc
Email - The Bat!, Spicebird, Thunderbird, Courier, Outlook etc
Journal - I haven't really been using one, so quite happy to use this
File Explorer - Q-Dir, Dopus, Xplorer2, etc
Calculator - haven't usually had one open, so am using this more (though there is one on TLB)
So, all in all, the value to me of the prog is its multiplicity of functions in a relatively moderate overhead. And it is portable. Because of this it is getting used more than my preferred progs for most uses and I tend to use my preferred progs most now only for the high intensity work.

1549

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Project management timeline software

« Last post by Dormouse on January 02, 2009, 06:05 AM »

CAlimanjaro is looking good except its yearly layout is vertical rather than horizontal

-kartal (January 01, 2009, 08:29 PM)

Yes, that took me aback when I first saw it too. Then I got used to it. And now it seems more intuitive than the other way. I do use a lot of different calendars in different contexts, and occasionally have to look twice because of the different orientation. One advantage of the vertical orientation is that it works better on widescreen monitors especially if you have 2 years open.

1550

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Project management timeline software

« Last post by Dormouse on January 02, 2009, 05:11 AM »

Btw I tried csv import into Gemx and it fails. It does not import anything really.

-kartal (January 01, 2009, 08:47 PM)

Thanks. Have you reported this as a problem?
It's not something I have tested.

In practice, I try to avoid most importing and exporting with all programs as it often seems more problematic than it should be. I only really test it with programs with databases I will always need access to. And I shall probably keep all my heavier duty task management in TDL. I have tested import/export from that prog - and again it has not always worked as it should have done, though I'm sure Dan would help sort out any probs if it proved necessary. As a once off, I usually find that I can fiddle around and get it to mostly work.

Now that you have raised it, I might check import/export out here, just to get a practical idea of its limits.