Recent Posts

1651

General Software Discussion / Re: Programs you can use during a financial meltdown!

« Last post by Dormouse on October 04, 2008, 04:23 PM »

I'm not sure that FLOSS is automatically better.

Lots of FLOSS is really dross, and a lot is not well maintained. Big "commercial" enterprises tend to be needed to maintain large and very complex apps (and I do include the 'not for profit' OSS groups here) and most of the apps I really like are developed and maintained by one (or a very small team) of programmers - and many of them like to keep control by maintaining ownership of their code even when they are committed to keeping everything free.

1652

Living Room / Re: digital photo frame & my pictures

« Last post by Dormouse on October 04, 2008, 01:10 PM »

Each photo frame will have a native display size in pixels. In theory, you can resize photos to that size and it will work perfectly. In practice, I've tended to see better results from using larger sizes and letting the frame work out how to do the display.

The software on each frame is something that you can only test out by trial and error. Many 16:9 frames aren't actually 16:9 when it comes to it.

It's worth testing a number of options, with one photo each.
Cropping and Resizing to the number of pixels the frame displays natively.
Cropping to the dimensions the frame displays natively (apparently 16:9).
Leaving the photo untouched.

Whichever is true, you will only fill the frame if all the photos have one orientation (portrait or landscape).

1653

General Software Discussion / Re: FinePrint vs. priPrinter

« Last post by Dormouse on October 03, 2008, 12:38 PM »

If I didn't already have a license for this kind of application, I'd be looking very seriously at ...

-Darwin (October 03, 2008, 12:15 PM)

Is it the credit crunch bringing on this newfound restraint ???   

1654

General Software Discussion / Re: A Special Recognition and Present for DC Member Eric Wong (VideoInPicture

« Last post by Dormouse on October 03, 2008, 05:22 AM »

The whole process and award reflect great credit on everyone involved. 

1655

Living Room / Re: Avoid DABS.COM for online shopping.

« Last post by Dormouse on October 01, 2008, 10:37 AM »

Well, they all have problems with their couriers. By and large, you are probably best off with one that uses couriers that deliver efficiently in your locality.

And they all have problems with support, from time to time at least. Ebuyer went through a very bad patch but then employed more people, got on back of their backlog and haven't been too bad since. Refunds are pretty automatic too.

Again, only online contacts. But then, phone numbers tend to be expensive 0870 numbers that leave you waiting (ie paying) for ages before answering.

1656

Circle Dock / Re: hide

« Last post by Dormouse on September 27, 2008, 03:57 AM »

I don't understand why this is a problem. There is the on top/hide toggle; I use a spare button on my mouse for this. So it is there when I want and not there when I don't want.

It also has the ability to autohide after loading a program/folder/file. This annoyed the hell out of me when it started to do this as a default behaviour, until I found the switch to turn it off.

I just don't see how it is useful to have it present on the desktop if it is below other applications. Surely you either want it on top so that you can use it or you don't need to have it on the desktop at all.

1657

General Software Discussion / Re: List of newbie questions regarding software

« Last post by Dormouse on September 20, 2008, 03:25 PM »

If you are looking at PageFour, I'd suggest you also look at TreeDBNotes

1658

Circle Dock / Re: Circle Dock Enhancements

« Last post by Dormouse on September 18, 2008, 11:58 AM »

And ObjectDock has such an addon

1659

General Software Discussion / Re: Mathematics symbols OCR

« Last post by Dormouse on September 14, 2008, 02:26 PM »

I assume you know about InftyReader; If you  don't, you really don't want to know about the price.

1660

General Software Discussion / Re: the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by Dormouse on September 14, 2008, 08:46 AM »

Not an issue for me. I use Opera for 99(ish)% of my browsing. No biggie to use FF or something else for specific issues. Certainly don't want to be bogged down by plugins for most of my browsing.

1661

Living Room / Re: You might want to skip the whole Blu-Ray generation

« Last post by Dormouse on September 14, 2008, 06:21 AM »

The only way to keep long-term data is to perpetually renew it. And to test that what you have stored is in good condition without corruption.
If you can't afford to do that, I'd agree that the only guaranted long-term answer is paper.

Of the DVD formats, DVD-RAM is the best for long-term storage - but it does not have anything like the capacity of Blu-ray.

If you are using computer storage without perpetual renewal, you need also to make sure that you have drives, computers, OSs etc that allow you to read the formats you have, however obsolete. I still have 5 1/4" drives (& discs) though I don't think I have anything important on them. I also have nested hierarchies of "stuff" from old computers - just saved on to the new HDDs (not stuff I knew I'd want, which I moved on deliberately, but just the random stuff left because you never know when it might have something you want); not a problem keeping it because the HDD sizes just keep on getting bigger. My first HDD was either 20 or 80 MB (can't remember which now) and cost me an arm and a leg, and in those days copying data from one computer format to another was a real time-consuming pain.

1662

Circle Dock / Re: Help

« Last post by Dormouse on September 13, 2008, 12:01 PM »

If you have a desktop icon it is only a shortcut to the prog (or file).
If you drag it to CD, you have created a shortcut (CD) to the shortcut (Desktop).
Taking out the shortcut (Desktop) leaves the shortcut (CD) pointing to nothing.

What you should do is to take the icon from the program folder (usually in Programs on the C drive) and put that in CD.
You could then remove the desktop icon and just use CD.

1663

General Software Discussion / Re: Image organizer recommendations

« Last post by Dormouse on September 12, 2008, 10:01 AM »

I see you have already asked the question at dpreview and it is worth doing a search there for the many relevant threads.

When I was looking a few years ago, I narrowed it down to 3 - IdImager, iMatch and Picasa. I'd already had a copy of Photoshop Elements, but, while it was pretty good as a photo editor, I found it very limited as a DAM prog and never used it as such.

Lightroom is a new arrival since I was looking, but you couldn't accuse it of being inexpensive; and Adobe's policies tend to make the expense fairly continuous.

Microsoft took over iView, which I thought was too expensive anyway.

There are others, such as ThumbsPlus, which some people like but I've never looked in detail atthem for one reason or another and would not like to comment.

IdI does everything you asked for including a slideshow with music, but it does cost $69.
Picasa has the advantage of being free, but you have already dismissed it.
iMatch is a very competent and fast database, but I've never heard anyone describe it as simple.

1664

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 12, 2008, 08:15 AM »

- and pretty expensive! No matter the price you have made idImager very interesting to me. I think I will want it for Christma$...  

-Curt (September 10, 2008, 05:25 PM)

Can't argue about its being expensive, though I think IdImager, with its wide range of functions, must be better value than IdFramer alone. And all the other quality DAM (digital asset management) tools are expensive, so IdI is not out of line - probably still rather cheap compared to many. There was a free version (IdI Lite), but unfortunately Hert discontinued it after the paid versions had moved on to v4; can't remember whether that did framing (I assume not since he continued marketing IdF).

1665

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you manage your email?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 11, 2008, 08:52 AM »

I admit to being hypersensitive to the possibility of email loss. That means multiple email clients (and databases), each containing everything, and multiple backups in multiple locations. But I don't do paper.

1666

General Software Discussion / Re: Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate

« Last post by Dormouse on September 10, 2008, 07:31 PM »

Amongst many photo/image editing programs, I have PSP8; reviews of new versions have never tempted me towards an upgrade. And I can't see that position changing.

I think WP was only really an industry leader in the last days of DOS (having taken over that position from WordStar). Like the other 'leaders' of that time, it did not transition quickly enough to Windows and was never good enough to catch up with Word when it did. I don't think its demise can be attributed to Corel who paid good money to take over what was already deadware (in the mistaken view that they would do better with a Suite).

1667

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 10, 2008, 03:36 PM »

Of course I would also like to test idImager in order to see if there are any noticeable differences, concerning frames. As you said, they use the same engine, but  regarding frames  I would like to know if idImager is offering some valuable extras, having an in-built editor, other than idFramer does.

-Curt (September 09, 2008, 06:39 PM)

Belated congratulations 

Now I have IdImager, but haven't tried IdFramer separately. IdI does have many more functions than IdF, but I doubt whether they extend to framing. IdI is fundamentally an Image Database Manager, but also has raw conversion and some photoediting and comparison tools.

However, a lot of frame editing is possible. You can have as many frame layers as you want (you simply add layers as you choose). The layers can be of any pattern/texture you choose (you can select the image you want to use as the base from any image on your computer) and you can choose whether to tile or stretch it. You can set the shape of the frame by using masks (you can see examples by looking in the masks folder, and it would be very easy then to design your own). And, of course, each layer can be of any width etc etc. And having designed a custom frame, you can save it and use it as often as you want, tweaking it as much as you want as you go. And all the frames can easily be duplicated and/or edited.

Pretty simple and pretty effective and flexible.

1668

Circle Dock / Re: Can you think of a way to add tabs to the circle?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 10, 2008, 11:30 AM »

You could just see tabs as different looking folders; or as buttons that trigger a menu with contents varying according to the tab.

1669

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 09, 2008, 01:59 PM »

I don't yet have any idea about how to add new frames to idFramer, using the same procedures as shown in the picture, but I am really hoping it will be possible in a easy way. Then this would be my next step. The next exciting part of the race... My problem right here and now is that I have not yet collected any frames, so I am in the dark when it comes to understanding what frames really are! What ARE we talking about?

-Curt (September 08, 2008, 05:55 PM)

I assume you are asking questions etc on the IdImager/IdFramer forums. (IdImager apparently has the same framer engine as IdFramer, so posts about framing there are relevant and there seem to be far more users for IdImager). Alternatively, Hert (the developer) is generally extremely helpful and responsive.

1670

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the best image-"framer"?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 08, 2008, 04:46 PM »

The problem with design-your-own solutions is that they either have to be designed for each photo in turn or that you have a relatively small number of frames to choose from.

The frame making programs have a choice of options (many or few depending on the program), where there can be settings for width, colour, gradient, opacity etc and where there can be an outside and inner frame and another frame to simulate the card on which the photo can be mounted inside the frame. There are a lot of easily made choices so that each photo can have a frame designed to suit it without spending a lot of time doing the framing. When you have a lot of photos you want to frame, and you are fussy about the quality, the time that this approach saves can be huge.

1671

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you manage your email?

« Last post by Dormouse on September 08, 2008, 06:05 AM »

At one stage, I did a lot of sorting, filtering, creating and refining rules for everything including spam.
Like a few others, I've largely given that up. Took a lot of time for little real gain.

I do have a folder for 'Needs Action (but I'm not doing it now)'.
For everything else I just use the Search - either within the prog or using Mailstore.

I do use a lot of email clients having my fingers burnt in the past when one crashed with some emails lost. Problem could usually be resolved in the end, but there was at least temporary lack of access to some emails. These include Opera, Do-Organiser, Spicebird, Thunderbird, Courier and TheBat!. I occasionally download into Outlook; I just use Do-organizer when it is open to see if there is anything new. I store old emails in Courier, TheBat!, Thunderbird and Spicebird. Main client atm is TheBat!.

The one thing I do intend to change in the near future is too filter all my email through my Gmail accounts as its spam filtering seems to be better than anything else I have running. And without any work from me. The one bit of sorting I have to do now is to take stuff out of my ISP's Junk folder because it isn't spam. I don't have this problem with gmail, so I'll be able to turn off the spam filter at the ISP.

1672

Circle Dock / Re: Help? Circle Dock not launching properly

« Last post by Dormouse on September 07, 2008, 04:43 PM »

The left click works fine for me.

1673

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review - Helicon Filter - photo editor

« Last post by Dormouse on September 07, 2008, 11:27 AM »

I've never thought of Helicon Filter as a photo editor or an alternative to Photoshop.
The lack of layers kills that stone dead anyway.

I see it as a relatively simple/straightforward production tool from in-camera image (raw or jpeg) to final photo with an emphasis on correcting camera/lens problems and distortions. Certainly fast. Some retouching tools, but not really an editor. Agree pretty much with Brett. Certainly enough for many people and better than any version of Photoshop for those who just want to tweak their photos and publish/print.

1674

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ShellLess file manager

« Last post by Dormouse on September 06, 2008, 09:37 AM »

 So, the questions that go through my mind ...

How much of this does Dopus do?  Can I be bothered to find out to check? 
I already switched to using Q-Dir most of the time because I'm usually doing very simple things but use the 4 listers.
The features here do sound like things that I might use. Another download on its way ..

1675

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Phatware Buy 1 get 1 Free = Phatnotes + Calligrapher up till 15 Sep 08

« Last post by Dormouse on September 06, 2008, 09:00 AM »

Thanks. Yes, it does.

I picked up a copy of Pocket Informant a while ago on a free deal, but have never really got around to trying it much (I use Agenda Fusion), so I'll have another look at that. A better way of dealing with notes would be good and I do want to try out Calligrapher to see if it works faster than the keyboard at all (though I do have a real (tiny) keyboard on my PPC, as well as the virtual one).