Recent Posts

1776

General Software Discussion / Re: Is XP really that good?

« Last post by Josh on November 30, 2008, 04:23 AM »

And in the case of linux, most of the times you are told "RTFM" which means reading the MAN Pages and sorting through pages upon pages of text which doesn't relate to what you need or relying on a support group/forum where users treat those who are less knowledgable as "morons". I speak from this as a FIRST-HAND experience so it is not something I am just pulling out of my rear. I have been treated like an idiot several times when requesting support for linux because I didn't know the answer already.

1777

General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com... again!

« Last post by Josh on November 29, 2008, 05:32 AM »

The single source should not have come as a surprise. They announced it well over a year ago when they started building and requesting user feedback on the database. I really see this as a step in the right direction as now they have control over the info and can thus control the quality of entries. They can also lessen the amount of time spent on debugging scripts used to retrieve data from the various sources. Am I disappointed with the decision, slightly, but they have done a good job of making the database very robust.

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Official Announcements / Re: New Visitors to Our Forum - Please Read This First

« Last post by Josh on November 23, 2008, 07:17 AM »

Be warned, I do not think that this user will be replying. He posted here and in a topic which was recently deleted. It was spam for a dating website.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Half-Life 10 Year Anniversary Sale: $1 (Ends Friday Nov. 21)

« Last post by Josh on November 22, 2008, 02:00 PM »

Am i the only one who didn't particularly enjoy half life?

-mouser (November 21, 2008, 04:53 PM)

Don't worry, every neighbourhood had weird kids that didnn't enjoy halflife. Most of them turned out OK.

-f0dder (November 21, 2008, 11:35 PM)

f0dder, most of them also don't break their air conditioner for fun. They also do not hit on persons of the opposite sex which prefer members of the same sex (aka lesbians). Would you still call mouser normal?

1780

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYPlorer ($15) Nov 24 at BDJ

« Last post by Josh on November 19, 2008, 02:42 AM »

DonL: As I said, the application is OK. It is just not my cup of tea due to many little quirks about it which I do not like. Most of which are minor and I can overlook, but a lack in functionality which causes me to be non-productive is something I will rate down. I am sorry that someone is smearing you on fileforum, but I assure you, my sole account is Metshrine.

Anyways, Peace, I do not want to ruin this thread any further. Let others speak to the merits of this application as just because it is not for me, it might be for others.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYPlorer ($15) Nov 24 at BDJ

« Last post by Josh on November 19, 2008, 12:26 AM »

nosh: I have not been serial-punishing anyone. I am not sure what he implies by that but I can only assume it's what others have accused me of which is having multiple accounts. Apparently, when one person posts on certain sites, it sparks others to do the same because they dont feel they have to hide anymore due to the "fanboys" consistently posting. And as such, anyone who posts negatively must be the other negative posters in disguise.

Anyways, whatever, I do not want DC to become a flame factory and as such will concede this topic for my remaining time. I felt my initial post was pretty well mannered and wasn't intended to be inflamatory, merely a statement of my opinion. Oh well, such is life on the intarweb.

DonL, peace! I do not want a fight with you. I just ask that you respect my opinion. You might not think my requests are necessary but as a potential end-user, my requests might be that feature which I require for daily interaction with my PC and as such, can cause me issues if I do not have said feature. Your product is OK, but as I said, there are many problems with it which make me turn away. I am sorry if you feel I am trying to "serial-punish" you, but that is not the case.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYPlorer ($15) Nov 24 at BDJ

« Last post by Josh on November 18, 2008, 11:29 PM »

Josh, I feel it's a little unfair to call a program overrated due to a missing feature that is rather subtle.  It may not be the program you're looking for because you really need that feature, but I don't think it's a bad program because of it.  I don't think you meant that, though, at least, I didn't read it that way.

-superboyac (November 18, 2008, 05:48 PM)

Superboyac, with all due respect, I did not say it was due to lack of THIS feature that I felt the program was overrated. I feel most file manager in general are overrated as I am not able to fully replace windows explorer due to lots of nagging little issues. The big killer for me on any file manager, yes, is the run dialog shell intercepts, however, I do not and will not rate a program down completely on that sole feature. I have been testing each XYPlorer version, as well as several other file managers, over the course of the past 2 years in an attempt to find something which could rid me of certain bugs which were present in Windows Explorer (Not so much anymore with Vista) but alas, many minor things equate to a big problem for me in many programs.

Now, I have posted a total of 4 reviews on betanews, as can be seen here Most of which have now been removed in typical betanews fashion. My reviews were of the same manner as the post I originally made above, however, all an author has to do is complain to betanews and they will remove them. That said, I will not sugar coat my thoughts. If I feel a program is to be rated lower due to lots of little things, I will rate it as such. I don't rate on the basis of what the program is STRIVING to be, I rate it on what it is. Now, apparently DonL could not take my criticism and has had mine and several other legitimate reviews removed because he doesn't like criticism of his program. If he can't take the criticism, perhaps software is the wrong field for him.

Sorry, I will not hide my ratings or feelings because some author is unable to stand any sort of criticism.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYPlorer ($15) Nov 24 at BDJ

« Last post by Josh on November 18, 2008, 01:38 PM »

Mouser, this post needs to be removed. I am sorry, but the fact that DonL attacks someone like this on DC is not appreciated.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYPlorer ($15) Nov 24 at BDJ

« Last post by Josh on November 18, 2008, 01:37 PM »

DonL: I realize you feel that I am posting more than one review on fileforum, but this is not the place to argue that. I have a single account, Metshrine, and apologize if you feel that because my post instigated others to finally post negative reviews on fileforum, that those similar posts are me in disguise. I suggest you sit back and realize that others may share my point of view and that they finally realized that they too can voice their opinion.

Now, I am asking the administration to remove your post here as it is a direct attack on me and I do not appreciate it. I am sorry that your software is unable to do what other programs can do, and that it has many other bugs/issues which seem to go unresolved version after version, but that is not my fault nor my place to try and consoul you into seeing how I view things.

Deal with it and move on.

Mouser, I ask that this be handled.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYPlorer ($15) Nov 24 at BDJ

« Last post by Josh on November 18, 2008, 10:21 AM »

Am i the only one who feels this is an overrated application? I mean, when I manage files, I like to be able to launch directly to the folder I want by using the run dialog. I cannot do this with XYPlorer. There are so many little nauances about this application which make me turn away from it. I have tried each version hoping it was better than the first, but I guess it's just not for me. DOpus isn't much better and that one turns me off even more so due to its high price.

Ah well, I guess I am the only person who does things this way.

Thanks for the find superboy! Even if I do not use it

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General Software Discussion / Re: Should licensed Vista users get free upgrade to Windows 7?

« Last post by Josh on November 16, 2008, 11:05 PM »

kartal: You do realize that 90% of problems encountered with windows updates are conflicts with drivers not with the OS itself right? Vista updates, in fact windows updates back to win95, have never affected me negatively. Not a single patch has messed up my system that wasnt due to my own fault or the fault of me using a beta/non-official driver.

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Living Room / Re: Help me build my new Home Theater PC

« Last post by Josh on November 16, 2008, 01:34 PM »

I am not ignoring everyone, I just haven't had time to look at more cases. I will respond when I am in a better situation to do so.

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Best E-mail Client / Re: Best IMAP Client

« Last post by Josh on November 16, 2008, 01:32 PM »

Yes, I have tried the bat. Unfortunately, it is not very easy to use. It's spam filtration is subpar and it's IMAP support is below that of eudora or outlook. It's also not easy to justify spending that much money on an email client especially when I have to pay for each major revision. The major revisions seem to come out on a schedule rather than on the basis of major new features. Look at the latest major release.

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Best E-mail Client / Re: Best IMAP Client

« Last post by Josh on November 13, 2008, 11:30 PM »

Haven't compacted mine ever. I have almost 700MB of stored messages and thunderbird runs like a champ.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Server 2008 R2 - 64 bit only from here on ...

« Last post by Josh on November 11, 2008, 10:48 PM »

What f0dder said. It's about time. I still say that leaving all of this old code in and not embracing the future is what causes windows to have so many slow downs and bulk up in size. Hell, we still have moricons.dll in windows Vista which is from the windows 3.11 days, hence why every icon in it is a 16 bit ms dos application. Cut the cord, for those who refuse to update, thats on them (sorta like our very own app103 who wouldn't update past Windows ME for the longest time). There will always be stragglers. Apple got it right where they cut out old version compatibility in exchange for stability and speed. Way to go MS, I commend you

1791

Living Room / Re: Apologies

« Last post by Josh on November 10, 2008, 11:42 PM »

...

1792

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Roboform at 34% off on 17th Nov at www.bitsdujour.com

« Last post by Josh on November 10, 2008, 08:48 AM »

To everyone, I highly recommend this program. This program is one I use multiple times daily. It is a huge time saver and has kept me sane through the hundreds of forms and logins I have had to fill out or remember.

It doesn't work with Opera which is why I don't use opera, but if you use IE or firefox or any other browser (minus compuserve's) you will love what this little application can do for you.

1793

Living Room / Re: Help me build my new Home Theater PC

« Last post by Josh on November 08, 2008, 01:01 PM »

4wd, thank you for the informative reply. That is what I meant was the standard PC Speaker connection, for some reason RCA came to mind but that was because I was working with RCA cables earlier.

Anyways, I will look through diff speaker configs but I am having the hardest time picking out a case. Does anyone have any further recommendations?

1794

Living Room / Re: Need some college advice/assistance

« Last post by Josh on November 08, 2008, 09:01 AM »

I've never thought of web design but I am unsure if she would like that. If she could do strictly graphics I bet she would like it.

I will hit her up with that idea and see what she says.

BTW, mouser is forbidden from responding due to his notorious history with post-high school education. If you want the full story, join us in the Donationcoder.com chat room and I will explain. Ask for Josh

1795

Living Room / Need some college advice/assistance

« Last post by Josh on November 08, 2008, 08:39 AM »

OK Folks, I am requesting your assistance again. My wife wants to start taking some college classes however we are both unsure which degree to go for. So, I am turning to the community which would have a good idea as to which degree would best be suited for her.

Right now, she is gaining a very deep appreciation for digital image editing and manipulation which has led me to purchase her a copy of Photoshop CS4 Extended Edition. Now, she is into photography (taking pictures) and modifying them when appropriate. I am looking for a degree plan which would help her focus on these interests and teach her more about various aspects of each.

What degree path would you, the community, recommend which can be done online? I was thinking something along the lines of digital graphics or graphics design but I am having a hard time deciphering what each entails.

Thoughts?

1796

General Software Discussion / Re: Should licensed Vista users get free upgrade to Windows 7?

« Last post by Josh on November 07, 2008, 07:49 AM »

Thats just it, you DONT HAVE TO get top end hardware to run vista. Most machines that you get from Dell or any other major manufacturer can run vista fine. The problem is that people dont realize that you SHOULD add more ram. Ram is about the only component which really needs to be beefed up to be able to run Vista. I have been running vista fine on a 3.5 year old machine and have no issues with performance minus a few games not updating or patching to support vista's code base.

You are a minimalist, thats fine, but I know for a fact that I do not want my hardware sitting there idle. Why pay for hardware I am not going to put to use? Vista doesn't use much more than XP. In fact, running Vista leaves me with 2.8GB of ram free out of 4GB (3.5 mappable) compared to XP where I was left with 3.0 out of the box on a fresh install. That extra 200MB hardly impacts my daily work and things seem faster.

Microsoft has been burdened with this backwards compatibility issue which is what really slows down windows. Compatibility with old and out of date hardware/software is what drives down Window's performance. Microsoft needs to do like Apple and cut the cord and say "Sorry, you're applications need to be updated". Apple runs much faster due to this and I feel Microsoft would benefit from a similar standpoint. I guarantee resource usage would go down with removal of support for the creative labs 16-bit sound card or the original audigy series stuff. Support for Rage 128 graphics adapters is no longer needed.

You say explorer is ruined, I say it is far better than it ever has been. Prior to it I was using DOpus but upon switching to Vista DOPus has become unnecessary for me and I can easily run without it. I can do far more in the current explorer than in any other past version of windows. Networking is not hard to track down. They changed it, once you learn how to use it (like the change from 3.1 to 9x and 9x to 2k) it is very easy to remember how to access and heck, you can do it faster using the new start menu system. I can do far more from the new start menu than in the past.

You also say you need a bigger hard disk. Are you really worried about using 4-6GB of space? That is all vista takes for me on a fresh install. People buy bigger and bigger hard disks because of the increasing amount of media they are storing on them, not because vista requires it. If you are that hard up for space that you can't spare the small amount of space Windows requires, I think you need to re-evaluate how you are using your computer.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Should licensed Vista users get free upgrade to Windows 7?

« Last post by Josh on November 07, 2008, 05:33 AM »

Carol, look at the time difference between windows xp and windows vista. Of course XP is going to be faster. It's been around 5 years longer. I really dont think you can compare XP on a modern system to Vista on a modern system. XP might be faster but it also does not take advantage of newer hardware like vista does. Thats like saying Windows 3.1 runs faster on my pentium 200 than windows 95 does. You simply can't use a blanket statement because you will be sacrificing a lot when you make the move from one generation of an operating system to another. There is a lot of nice functionality in vista and a lot of new features which are more under the hood which make the user experience that much better.

As far as resource hungry, in this day and age, WHO CARES? I mean really. Unless you are a gamer, which you can then tweak vista to use quite a bit less, why have all of those resources just sitting around doing nothing? Microsoft realized this and now make the OS take advantage of the hardware. Yes, memory light programs are nice but you pay for that in performance unless the program does ONE TASK like utorrent or calculator. I would rather my hardware be put to use than just sit there idly in CASE I might, for one hour, require every bit of power it has.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Should licensed Vista users get free upgrade to Windows 7?

« Last post by Josh on November 06, 2008, 11:03 PM »

Honestly, I feel that users should NOT get a free copy. Ever since it's inception, I have enjoyed Vista. The problem is not so much the OS itself, it's the fact that no one wants to update their software to work the RIGHT way and not store information to the program files folder. This is the way *nix has done it for years. No program, minus developer and a few other niche tools, should require administrator rights to run. 95% of software which is on 90% of user computers can run just fine in a reduced privilege mode. That is what is wrong with Vista. The hardware compatibility hasn't been an issue for me either. I use parts whose manufacturers actually release vista compliant drivers. Microsoft increased requirements for WHQL drivers because that is what causes a good majority of crashes (Poorly written drivers).

In the end, I am perfectly happy with my 3 copies of Vista (1x Ultimate, 2x Home premium for $49 each). I find that a majority of people who complain about vista either A. Never used it, B. Used it for 5 minutes, saw a UAC prompt and quit or C. Simply like to tinker and end up breaking something and then blame vista for it.

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Living Room / Re: Help me build my new Home Theater PC

« Last post by Josh on November 06, 2008, 01:33 PM »

no reviews? There are a few, not many, but each of them positive. I am open to ideas for cases still and this is by no means a finalization.

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Living Room / Re: Help me build my new Home Theater PC

« Last post by Josh on November 06, 2008, 09:35 AM »

I have decided to go with the CW02S-MXR case from Silverstone. It looks like the best of both worlds given that I really dont NEED an LCD but a VFD might be useful.