Recent Posts

1901

Living Room / Re: snipping tool with image editor

« Last post by tomos on May 08, 2016, 06:52 AM »

In case anyone wondered, the only reason I avoid using SC for clipping images is that I haven't had the time to yet figure out how to get SC to automatically save image clips to the Clipboard, so as to get them into CHS' database for subsequent editing by SC...   

-IainB (May 08, 2016, 03:58 AM)

this part is easy enough, although, now I look at it, I'm not 100% sure which choice to make:
Options >Basic Capture >Post capture options:
Copy to Clipboard: [select one of] Image Bitmap / File itself
=>
I'm not sure what the difference is between those two options.

1902

Living Room / Re: snipping tool with image editor

« Last post by tomos on May 08, 2016, 06:45 AM »

Very interesting approach Iain

1903

Living Room / Re: snipping tool with image editor

« Last post by tomos on May 07, 2016, 02:34 AM »

Faststone Capture:
http://faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm
~ $20
There is still a last free version out there (I used use it before I discovered mouser's SC) -- no idea if it works on windows 8. Cant remember what the editor is/was like.

1904

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

« Last post by tomos on May 04, 2016, 07:38 AM »

I see... So what are the use cases for System vs. Disk backup? Wouldn't I be always better off doing a complete Disk backup then, to make sure I don't ever lose anything?

-dr_andus (May 04, 2016, 05:16 AM)

me, I create an image to backup the OS. If something software related is going to go wrong, it's probably going to be with the OS. I guess copying *everything* could cover you if you ever want to replace the harddrive -- but I have no idea how good aomei backupper is at that. It's unlikely that those other partitions are going to have problems, but that's why we do backup, isn't it :-) (I'm talking round in circles here...)

Your more immediate problems are size of backup and time:
you could try a system backup and see if it's any quicker/smaller. If not, as said already, I'd be looking at the (free) competition (macrium?).

1905

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

« Last post by tomos on May 04, 2016, 04:56 AM »

^the 'System backup' would be 'C' partition plus any hidden partition that is required for booting (in windows 7 at least, there's often a hidden 100MB partition with boot files).

'Disk backup' would be the complete drive (all partitions).

1906

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

« Last post by tomos on May 04, 2016, 03:57 AM »

@dr_andus,
I'm still a bit confused -- you say C drive has 189GB, but you also mention 250GB.
Even if you backed up the whole drive, I dont see why you should get an image of over 400GB - unless I missed something big, things aren't adding up there.

Check the settings in aomei:
select your type of backup, and bottom left in tab is 'backup options'.
There is a setting called 'Intelligent sector' -- that should be ticked. Check compression as well. I dont see how either of those would cause a 400+ backup, but still worth checking.

If the backup is much bigger than what's on the disc, I'd either contact aomei, or try a different image programme.

PS possibly not much help at this stage, but this is why I put in a separate partition for data -- so as creating an system-image is relatively small and quick.

1907

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by tomos on May 03, 2016, 03:39 PM »

^ the amoral pizza ?

1908

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review

« Last post by tomos on May 03, 2016, 01:23 PM »

The resulting image file was 427GB. Again, if all my data is c. 250GB, what's the extra stuff?

-dr_andus (May 03, 2016, 03:25 AM)

can you check the C drive and see how full it is (not just data)?

I've used aomei successfully a couple of times now for restoring images.
I always do a new image, always the system backup option as it will catch any mini boot partitions as well.
I never do incremental, just delete older images (I usually try an keep at least two).

Could you figure out how long the backup should take -- using Shade's estimate of 20MB/s ?
Ten hours sounds like an awful long time (sounds far too long to me but I'm not going to do the maths now).

1909

Find And Run Robot / Re: Alternatives / Competition

« Last post by tomos on May 03, 2016, 01:12 PM »

Any other alternatives?

-GSz (May 03, 2016, 10:16 AM)

go to FARR help -- down at the bottom of the TOC is 'Related Programs'

Spoiler

Related Programs Top  Previous  Next 
Related Applications:

 

 

· Tray Command Line - http://traycl.chat.ru/ - shareware, $10

Very nice, *tiny* application - the inspiration for this program;  does not search for files, but allows you to manually create aliases to launch from they keyboard.

 

· Key Launch - http://software.xfx....lities/kl/index.html - shareware, $12

Similar to this program, incrementally searches through the start menu. Felt a bit clunky to me, and short on configuration options.

 

· Key Launch - http://www.konradp.c.../products/keylaunch/ (freeware)

 

· RunIt! - site unknown

Very good program - has similar search functionality as Find and Run Robot and additional features for terminating apps, etc.  Runs as a toolbar.

 

· ShellSearch - http://www.harmonyhollow.net/ss.shtml - freeware

Very similar in spirit to Find and Run robot, but not quite as fast to use.  Free though, and lots of nice other apps by this developer too.

 

· WinConsole - http://galan.dogmala...&item=winconsole - shareware $10

Similar to Tray Command Line, with support for hotkeys and lots of options.

 

· Meta Launcher - http://www.codesecto....com/commandline.asp - shareware $15

Nice looking app which also comes with a startmenu replacer and app launch bar type feature

 

· OpenExpert - http://www.baxbex.com/openexpert.html -  freeware

Adds context menu to open files with a menu of applications.

 

· LaunchItNow - http://www.gemiscorp...ish/launchitnow.html - freeware

Launch bar type app.

 

· Stargate Link Boss - http://www.lincolnbeach.com/stargate.asp - shareware $20

Launch panel app.

 

· Shell Search - http://www.harmonyhollow.net/ss.shtml - freeware

Similar to find and run robot.

 

· MCL - http://mlin.net/MCL.shtml - freeware

Similar to Tray Command Line but with some nice addons.

 

· CMDBar - http://www.pitrinec.com/pcb_index.htm - shareware

Persistent bar on screen that lets you type commands and has other functions.

 

· Smart Launch - http://www.pxcompany...om/en/sl/index.shtml - shareware $18

 

· 1st TurboRun - http://www.turborun.com - shareware $25

 

· CrossLaunch - http://methodik.pixe...army.org/readme.html - freeware

 

· JetStart - http://www.codesector.com/jetstart.asp - shareware $19.95

 

· ESP - http://www.espsw.com/index.php - shareware $10 - very close in functionality and approach.

 

· SlickRun - http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/ - freeware

 

· Run! - http://crimsonfan.altervista.org/ - freeware

 

· AppRocket - http://www.candylabs.com/approcket/ - shareware (.net)  $18

 

· QuickFind - http://mitglied.lycos.de/quickfind/ - freeware

 

· Rock-It-Launcher - http://www.brunswim.com/RIL/

 

· Ava Find - http://www.think-les...do-more.com/avafind/

 

· Luanch-n-go - http://www.tethyssol....com/launch-n-go.htm - shareware

 

· FileTracer - http://www.filetracer.com/ - shareware

 

· Task Tracker - http://tasktracker.w...tions.com/index.html - shareware

 

· Instant Document Search - http://www.sowsoft.c.../document-search.htm - shareware

 

· Getchoo - http://alilm.needlem...com/drupal/?q=node/2 - donationware

 

· CuteType - http://www.tooto.com/cutetype/ - shareware

 

· RunFast - http://www.idiogenso...om/runfast/index.htm - freeware

 

· ZenKey - http://www.camiweb.com/zenkey/index.htm - freeware

 

· KbStart - http://www.kbstart.com/ - shareware

 

· Mayk - http://www.beotel.net/~darkdst/ - freeware

 

· Locate - http://locate32.webhop.org/ - Freeware

 

· FastFind - http://www.guyswitht...v/apps/fastfind.html - Freeware

 

· 99 Useful Run Commands - http://www.fixmyxp.c.../content/view/20/42/

 

· Type and Run - http://galanc.com/in...l?page=5&lang=en - Freeware

 

· Filehand - http://www.filehand.com/

 

· Trip - http://trip.glenmurphy.com - freeware

 

· Launchy - http://www.launchy.net/ - freeware open source

 

· VistaGlance - http://www.vistaglan.../vg_screenshots.html

 

· Triniaut - http://trininaut.sourceforge.net/

 

· Faster Than Ever - http://www.yazalim.c...oducts/fte/index.htm - freeware

 

· yubnub - http://www.yubnub.org/ - free web service

 

· Semex - http://smx.wickedorange.com/?page_id=3

 

· Direct Access - http://www.nagarsoft.com - shareware

 

· FindOnClick - http://www.2brightsp...s.com/foc/index.html

 

· StartEase - http://www.pcmag.com...,1895,2064854,00.asp - shareware

 

· SmartStartMenu - http://www.planethar...ucts/smartstartmenu/

 

· Guillotine - http://www.zchromosome.com/ - freeware

 

· SmartStartMenu - http://www.planethar...ucts/smartstartmenu/ - freeware

 

· SpeedStart - http://www.speedstart.net/ - freeware

 

· Enzo - http://www.humanized...ducts/enso/launcher/ - shareware

 

· QT and MGES - http://members.at.in...reeware/indexEn.html - freeware

 

· AcceleRun - http://www.svarsoft.com/ - shareware

 

· KeyBreeze - http://www.keybreeze.com/

 

· Path - http://www.xtort.net...xtort-software/path/ - freeware

 

· Executor - http://www.executor.dk/ - freeware

 

· Trininaut - http://trininaut.sourceforge.net/ - open source free

 

· Pretty Run - http://delphistep.cis.si/prettyrun.htm - freeware

 

· Skylight - http://www.candylabs.com/skylight/ (from makers of approcket) - free for now?

 

· Dash - http://trydash.com/home/ - shareware+freeware

 

· Google Desktop Extreme - http://www.podsync.com/gdx.htm - freeware

 

· Faster Than Ever (FTE) - http://www.yazalim.c...oducts/fte/index.htm - freeware

 

· DOMercury - http://www.odierno.c...mercury/Default.aspx - freeware

 

· QiiNinja - http://www.qiininja.com/

 

· Giraffe - http://www.ric.hi-ho...raffe/index_en.shtml - open source free

 

· Keyboard Extensions - http://www.saleensof...boardExtensions.aspx

 

· Speed Launch - http://www.officelab...h/Pages/default.aspx

 

· Serk - http://kailashrocks.googlepages.com/

 

· Google Gadget "Run" - http://desktop.googl...ins/i/run.html?hl=en

 

· Fingertips - http://www.getfingertips.com/

 

· Google Search Box - http://www.google.co...swer.py?answer=81305

 

· TheSearchMan - http://venussoftcorp...08/thesearchman.html

 

· Snow Bird - http://lmadhavan.com/software/snowbird/

 

· Blaze - http://blaze-wins.so...eforge.net/index.php

 

· Start++ - http://brandontools....t/StartPlusPlus.aspx

 

· Launch-n-go - http://www.tethyssol....com/launch-n-go.htm

 

· JumpTo - http://sites.google....oftworks/home/jumpto

 

· UltraSearch - http://www.jam-software.com/ultrasearch/

 

· Promptu - http://www.promptulauncher.com/

 

· neoSearch - http://www.koshyjohn.../software/neosearch/

 

· Fingertips - http://www.getfingertips.com/

 

· TypeAndRun - http://www.totalcmd....ring/TypeAndRun.html

 

· CraftLaunch - http://sites.google....site/craftware/clnch

 

· DocFetcher - http://sourceforge.n...projects/docfetcher/

(I didnt check if your two are in there)

1910

Living Room / Re: Amazon: clicking 'Unhelpful' on Customer Review now has NO effect

« Last post by tomos on May 03, 2016, 01:07 PM »

if the product you get is a knock-off, it is fair enough to review it as such

-tomos (May 02, 2016, 02:36 PM)

The net effect of this is that all Rolex watches will have crap reviews and ratings, since there's such a high proportion of counterfeits. At this point, reviews will stop having meaning for goods that are frequently copied.

I'm standing by my statement that you should only post reviews for the ACTUAL product posted. Anything else corrupts the information in the reviews.

-CWuestefeld (May 03, 2016, 11:32 AM)

I understand your point completely. My problem though as a buyer, is to know this: what chance do I have of actually getting what is listed there as the product. Probably the best compromise I've seen was someone who got a fake (and didnt initially realise it was fake), returned it and then got the real thing; they then wrote a proper review for the advertised product, but also gave a big warning in the title that there was funny business going on. (They may have initially given a poor review and then edited it.)

Another aspect to the 'amazon experience' is that amazon do not easily facilitate correction of information given for a product. Information is often false; often contradictory -- sometimes downright misleading. And there are often many different listings for exactly the same product, but some buyers appear to want to list their product separately, often at exorbitant prices. All these 'little' things are adding up for me to more and more of a negative experience. Which I guess is the reason I started the thread:
it's looking to me like that amazon is caring less and less about the buyer.

1911

Living Room / Re: Amazon: clicking 'Unhelpful' on Customer Review now has NO effect

« Last post by tomos on May 02, 2016, 02:36 PM »

I can see both sides here -- if the product you get is a knock-off, it is fair enough to review it as such. It's the product you get: it's the product you review. I dont see why it is to amazon's disadvantage if a dodgy seller is also mentioned in the review: we the buyers then know who to avoid if we want to get a good product. I'll buy quicker if I know dodgy sellers are named and shamed.
And yeah, I would certainly check the seller's rating (%) as well when buying, (and try to figure out where the product is coming from).

1912

Living Room / Re: Amazon: clicking 'Unhelpful' on Customer Review now has NO effect

« Last post by tomos on May 02, 2016, 03:11 AM »

A seller sold me a fake phone case a few months back. I went through the hassle of getting my money back and wrote a negative review for the seller. Since the same product was still up for sale with only one seller, the crook, I also wrote a review for the product, saying I was sold a fake. I made it a point to mention the seller's identity. My review was rejected repeatedly till I removed the seller's identity. 

-nosh (May 01, 2016, 07:43 PM)

this is *really* bad advertising for Amazon...

I have seen it just yesterday looking at a Nokia recharger: there were a bunch of sellers for the product, but one (or more?) was passing off fakes as real. I did notice that no-one mentioned the name of the seller in the reviews, but some did when queried in the comments. I cant find the seller which is a little reassuring. But it would be more reassuring to know that people can talk openly about it :-/

1913

Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« Last post by tomos on May 01, 2016, 12:35 PM »

cuties!
love the hammock, and that 'caught fighting' look 

1914

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by tomos on May 01, 2016, 03:36 AM »

@panzer, are you posting all these books just because they're free?
If so, there is a free ebooks thread here on dc: Free eBooks.

Oobviously if you're reading them as you go along, this is also the correct thread to post in ;-)

1915

Living Room / Re: Amazon: clicking 'Unhelpful' on Customer Review now has NO effect

« Last post by tomos on May 01, 2016, 03:16 AM »

I have to admit they are slow to update a '+1'. A full refresh (not from cache) shows no initial difference.
But the main point here, is that a '-1' is completely ignored. This, combined with rigging of customer reviews makes for an ever more dubious amazon experience for me.

:thumbsdown:
 :-)

1916

Living Room / Re: Amazon: clicking 'Unhelpful' on Customer Review now has NO effect

« Last post by tomos on April 30, 2016, 05:36 PM »

^ they may have changed how quickly it refreshes, but they have also changed how they display the info:
they used say, e.g. '1 of 7 people found this helpful' -- i.e. 6 people found it unhelpful. There is now no record of those six negatives.
As I say I got the impression that a negative 'vote' does not counteract a positive one -- which would mean that the negative vote is invisible.

Actually I can prove it by looking at my own reviews:
if I look at them under the my account page, it still shows the negative votes -- an example:
15 von 27 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
If I'm not logged in and look at the same review, it says:
15 Personen fanden diese Informationen hilfreich.
(I dont think I need to translate?)

btw, it's not like I go around giving negative votes left right and centre, in fact I give them relatively rarely. But if I'm researching a product, looking at that kind of info can be very helpful.

1917

Living Room / Amazon: clicking 'Unhelpful' on Customer Review now has NO effect

« Last post by tomos on April 30, 2016, 03:04 PM »

• I notice that if I click 'No' for 'Was this review helpful to you?' below customer reviews on amazon -- it now has zero effect
• If the review had, say: 'One person found this helpful', and I refresh the page there is no change
• If no one has clicked either way on the review, the negative vote still does not show

This the case on amazon.com & amazon.de

This combined with a lot of dodgy (obviously rigged) reviews for many products is making me pretty wary of amazon.

1918

Living Room / Re: Custom dice for board games, etc.

« Last post by tomos on April 29, 2016, 05:13 AM »

^ a proper cutting mat/board will make it much easier (and wont blunt the blades so much).
http://www.amazon.co...cutting+mat+graphics

1919

General Software Discussion / Re: Process Tamer

« Last post by tomos on April 29, 2016, 04:17 AM »

If the OP is watching video online though, I suspect they're screwed, no matter how powerful their machine is.
tbh I havent even considered Process Tamer there: instead I dream about the ideal browser that doesnt hog my cpu and gpu when watching a simple video

-tomos (April 26, 2016, 04:33 PM)

last night I tried Internet Explorer (on windows 7), and it did very well with streaming video -- no hogging of two cores as in PaleMoon (one for the browser, one for the plugin container).

1920

Living Room / Re: More good web comics you've discovered

« Last post by tomos on April 29, 2016, 04:10 AM »

^ yes, lovely drawing 
page 1 reminds me of some of Tolkien's drawings

-tomos (April 13, 2016, 03:56 AM)

Aw man, smack me for not seeing it myself.... Yes, that is VERY Tolkien-ish.  When I was about 12, I got my hands on a hardback copy of The Hobbit with yellowing pulp pages and a forest green cloth cover, and it was full of his wonderful maps and illustrations.  I have no idea where it is now, but I still remember it fondly. 

-Edvard (April 13, 2016, 10:03 PM)

came across these again today: this just to say that Tolkien's style didnt come out of nowhere either :-)





http://bibliodyssey....p-mountain-high.html

1921

Living Room / Re: bicycling suddenly a British speciality?!

« Last post by tomos on April 28, 2016, 05:54 AM »

^ here's a link -- I got the 2015 model but, AFAICS, there were only cosmetic changes for the 2016 model.
Bergamont Vitess 5.0

The V6 model is lighter again, but they didnt have it in stock, and I was happy enough with this one weightwise (and pricewise). Beyond that I cant say much as I'm pretty ignorant of bikes and bike parts. It's at 300+km now and going nicely apart from the saddle which is bruising (!). The shop has offered to let me test saddles, just have to find the time.

1922

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone using Blackbird?

« Last post by tomos on April 27, 2016, 07:50 AM »

The only way to remove this is by logging in to your Google account, placing a google-supplied html file on your website's public root dir and letting them audit the site again. That whole process kinda struck us as strange but after confirming the Blackbird 32bit exe was the cause we decided to remove it from the site and asked MajorGeeks to help us out with hosting, which they kindly agreed to. This wasn't a viable option for the future since it's a mess to maintain and looks unprofessional, so we rewrote huge parts of Blackbird and released version 0.9.88 to solve such problems.

-Blackbird Dev (March 20, 2016, 08:11 AM)

FYI, TrafficLight extension (from Bitdefender) blocks your homepage with a malware warning. (Via PaleMoon) I get
chrome://trafficlight/content/alerts/malware/page_blocked.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.getblackbird.net%2F

Attention, malware!
This page contains viruses or other malware.

Web page:
http://www.getblackbird.net/
Take me back to safety
I understand the risks, take me there anyway

Bitdefender's false positives page is:
http://www.bitdefender.com/submit/

1923

Living Room / Re: bicycling suddenly a British speciality?!

« Last post by tomos on April 27, 2016, 06:55 AM »

On my birthday some years back, I bought myself a Trek SL1000 (my eldest son chipped in $200 towards the cost). After riding conventional steel tube drop handlebar bikes, the Trek was my first encounter with a modern lightweight road/racing bike with some bits (front forks and seat pillar) made of of carbon fibre. I found it extremely fast and light by comparison

-IainB (October 23, 2015, 07:08 AM)

Sounds good Was interesting to read about that guy's new bike too.
My old but quite good (and relatively light-weight) trekking bike got robbed in the woods last year. (I do have another 'bahnhof' bike -- one I can leave at the train station and not worry too much if it does get robbed or trashed). Was looking online lately at different options: I want one for the woods *and* the roads (I'm not a mountain biker though). Trekking bikes are mostly too heavy for my taste. There seems to be a new style called the cross-bike -- somewhere between a trekking bike and a road-bike in style and weight. Must try find one in a shop somewhere so I can see if it suits.

-tomos (October 23, 2015, 02:46 PM)

ended up getting a trekking bike -- but it is reasonably light considering it comes with carrier, hub-dynamo/lights & mudguards (cant remember exactly now, I think 14.5 kilos). It's a joy to cycle, especially after using a very heavy bike in the last year. I can now better see the attraction of getting a seriously light bike, but for my (general-purpose) uses, it wouldnt be suitable anyways.

1924

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by tomos on April 27, 2016, 06:45 AM »

^ this is great fun, still just on the second track

1925

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by tomos on April 26, 2016, 04:35 PM »

^ the difference is in panzer's embedded quote