Recent Posts

1901

General Software Discussion / Recommend a text scraper for Vista?

« Last post by rjbull on September 26, 2009, 03:45 PM »

Kleptomania doesn't seem to work for me on Vista, treating everything as a graphic, despite reporting over 600 fonts in its database.  Please,

• Can anyone confirm this?
• Recommend anything that does work?

I've tried both Hypersnap and Nir Sofer's sysexp; both seem to work some of the time but not quite all (unless I misunderstood something).

Thanks...

1902

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a AutoSave program

« Last post by rjbull on September 25, 2009, 03:50 PM »

I haven't tried this myself...  from Jimmy the Fork:

Helmet

   Clicks the save button on any program.

See the author's screenshot below.

1903

Living Room / Re: Best Laptop Input Device?

« Last post by rjbull on September 25, 2009, 03:41 PM »

Most laptops have some kind of mouse-equivalent built in.  My Win98SE laptop has a small rubber knob that sticks up between two keys, plus a couple of buttons below the keyboard; my new Vista laptop has a touch pad with scroll-wheel analogue built into it, plus buttons.  I've also seen small trackballs designed to clip onto the edge of a keyboard, though not for a long time.

1904

General Software Discussion / Re: An 'old timers' experience with InfoSel

« Last post by rjbull on September 22, 2009, 03:09 PM »

I loved Infosel and still do, I have been using it since 1999 and used MemoryMate in the mid and late eighties

-Khalid_FA (September 22, 2009, 01:37 PM)

I used both MM and IS for DOS; bought IS after MM, but went back to MM for most things because it was so clean and simple.

As far as the Mac the best close contender is DevonThinkPro Office and Eagle filer . But they are not all in one as InfoSel is , but then you can't compare a Windows to Os X .

Is it possible to run IS on a Mac via an emulator?

1905

General Software Discussion / Re: How "laplink" Win98SE and Vista Home Premium laptops?

« Last post by rjbull on September 19, 2009, 04:24 PM »

In fact I was hoping to do the transfer using Total Commander as I don't have "real" LapLink, but I don't think there's anything in the TC help file about how to use USB ports.  I'm probably OK for  now, having gone the clumsy but certain route, but I might look into dedicated transfer software just in case.
Thanks!

1906

Living Room / Re: How to use a parallel port printer on a PC without a parallel port?

« Last post by rjbull on September 19, 2009, 04:20 PM »

If you are going to shell out $20 for the cable adapter you might look around for a deal on Epson Stylus C88+ Printer.  It has both Parallel and USB connectors.

-MilesAhead (September 18, 2009, 04:05 PM)

I wondered about that myself, though as I'm in the UK the prices translate into UK pounds plus 

The only proviso is the Vista driver is on the machine.  No CD.

That's part of how they make cheap printers so cheap...

1907

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: app which creates instant backup of any file you save in excel

« Last post by rjbull on September 19, 2009, 04:14 PM »

Could you use one of the command-line archiver programs, telling it to store all XLS files complete with path and starting from the root, then rename the resulting archive with today's date and time?  And do that as a scheduled event?

Of course, I probably haven't understood the situation... 

1908

General Software Discussion / Re: How to migrate Palm T3 to Vista?

« Last post by rjbull on September 18, 2009, 03:49 PM »

Hmmm, that's two interesting thoughts, Hirudin.  I could try the first one without much trouble.  Thanks!   

1909

Living Room / How to use a parallel port printer on a PC without a parallel port?

« Last post by rjbull on September 17, 2009, 04:28 PM »

Another episode in my ongoing saga of "migrating to Vista" woes.

I have an old but little used Canon BJ-10ex portable ink jet printer.  It only has a parallel port input.  My new Vista laptop doesn't have "legacy ports."  Is there any way to make the printer work with the new computer?  Some way of converting USB to parallel, as it were?

Thanks...

1910

General Software Discussion / Re: How "laplink" Win98SE and Vista Home Premium laptops?

« Last post by rjbull on September 17, 2009, 03:46 PM »

Thanks, folks...  I went to the local computer shop, and the man said he'd tried USB null modem cables and had problems with them.  He suggested just using a USB stick, and pointed out that if I used Ethernet or the router, I'd have to set both machines to the same workgroup, which sounded complicated, especially if I had to do it on Win98.  In the event I just used a WD Passport USB HD.  Less convenient, but at least possible.  I'll have to keep the old laptop around just to be sure I can resurrect something I'd forgotten.

1911

General Software Discussion / How to migrate Palm T3 to Vista?

« Last post by rjbull on September 17, 2009, 03:41 PM »

I'm migrating from my old Win98SE laptop to a Vista Home Premium one.  I also have a Palm T3 (T/3, T|3) which I've used with my old Win98SE laptop.  Unfortunately
the Palm desktop that comes with the T3 (4.something) doesn't work on Vista.  I downloaded the 6.something desktop that comes with the TX and late model Zire, which does work on Vista, but despite HotSynch saying it had synched correctly, nothing showed in the desktop.  Maybe I missed something, of course.  Palm's Web site is useless, "no free support for (your old model)."

Does anyone know, please, how I could migrate the T3 from Win98SE to Vista?

Thanks...

1912

General Software Discussion / How "laplink" Win98SE and Vista Home Premium laptops?

« Last post by rjbull on September 12, 2009, 02:57 PM »

Please, how can I "laplink" between my old Win98SE laptop and my new Vista Home Premium one, as the latter doesn't have "legacy ports?"  Can I use a USB cable, or do I need something else?

TIA...

1913

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by rjbull on September 10, 2009, 05:26 PM »

I would have to be ignoring Word in Ditto - and that would be rather self-defeating

-tranglos (September 07, 2009, 11:58 AM)

Sounds like a great "reason" for low productivity   

To answer your question - no, I'm surprised to see Ditto does not provide a way to ignore certain apps.

It should, indeed...

1914

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by rjbull on September 07, 2009, 11:38 AM »

every sentence I translate ends up on the clipboard and in Ditto's database. Useless, yes, but it's not a problem at all, since Ditto is really fast, the db is not kept in RAM

-tranglos (September 06, 2009, 06:44 PM)

tranglos, as I said, some programs like ArsClip and CHS allow you to ignore clips coming from certain programs.  That way you could ignore your "industry standard" program.  Does Ditto allow ignoring?

1915

Post New Requests Here / Re: Merge .txt files but with the copy/paste method

« Last post by rjbull on September 06, 2009, 10:39 AM »

In linux, I'd use SED to replace the tabs with spaces. I don't know of any similar tool in windows, though

-jgpaiva (September 05, 2009, 09:04 AM)

jgpaiva, was that a grammatical error?  Surely you know there are Windows ports of SED? Alternatively,
freeware WinGUI search-and-replace apps include BKReplacem and HandyFile Find and Replace (HFFR) last free version.

1916

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by rjbull on September 06, 2009, 10:28 AM »

@tranglos:
Thanks.  I found Ditto won't run on my Win98SE laptop, missing DLL.  Yet another reason to face setting up the Vista one 

@Curt:
You forgot ArsClip, CHS, CLCL, ClipCache and MiniCLIP
Most of the clipboard enhancers have a feature to automatically delete messages by number and/or by age.  You only have to set that up once.  Some can be set to ignore clips coming from certain programs, which is great for ignoring clips from e.g. password keepers.

1917

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend portable macro recorder/player?

« Last post by rjbull on September 06, 2009, 10:19 AM »

BdJ must have to consider specialised programs, just to keep up a discount a day...  glad to hear they follow up.  As you observe there's no guarantee the developer will agree, but it's good publicity and goodwill for them for only a one-off discount.  So we live in hope   

1918

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend portable macro recorder/player?

« Last post by rjbull on September 04, 2009, 04:05 PM »

Thanks, dan2001.  I just posted a request for Hot Keyboard Pro on Bits du Jour, but don't hold your breath...

1919

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by rjbull on September 04, 2009, 04:03 PM »

I've become partial to Ditto myself.

-tranglos (September 04, 2009, 09:25 AM)

Does Ditto use the JET database engine?  I've been wary of JET because Zhorn Software's popular sticky notes program Stickies uses it, and won't run stably on my old Win98SE laptop  (yes, one day I'll have to set up the Vista laptop...)

1920

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend file shredder?

« Last post by rjbull on August 31, 2009, 03:18 PM »

I'm very late to this thread (didn't really get near a computer/DC all summer), but just wanted to give rjbull my condolences on the loss of his mother and his job. Went through redundancy myself 18 months ago and can sympathize.

-Darwin (August 31, 2009, 10:37 AM)

Darwin, thanks for your kind thoughts, and welcome back to DC.

As someone pointed out to me, work is a large part of the structure of your life - you get up at a certain time, visit certain places on certain days, see the same people and so on.  I feel a need for a break, but I'll have to find a new structure before too long.

1921

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend file shredder?

« Last post by rjbull on August 31, 2009, 03:16 PM »

Remember that just because you haven't heard about an exploit in the wild doesn't mean it's not been discovered and is being abused. With small(er) marketshare OSes, it's far more valuable to keep 0day flaws to yourself and target special victims for blackmailing, espionage, whatever than it is to try and do botnet harvesting.

-f0dder (August 30, 2009, 01:42 PM)

Whoa, f0dder!  You're asking for a visit from some very heavy people intent on keeping you quiet!  But it's nice to hear that Windows isn't quite as bad as I thought in comparison with the opposition...

Well, the techie shouldn't be making smug remarks about OS stability if users are allowed to run with admin privileges

I more or less forced his hand.  Haven't had any problems before, everything ran stably for years, only this "uninstall too far" and that's water under the bridge now.  Still, a learning experience, and when (if ever) I get my Vista laptop up and running, I'll have to make sure I run as a user by default, not an admin.  So thanks for that advice.

1922

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend portable macro recorder/player?

« Last post by rjbull on August 31, 2009, 03:05 PM »

Replying to my own post (as if anybody cared): looks like Hot Keyboard Pro would do what I want.

In Re: Macro programs - advice sought... mouser says he liked it, but has changed to Macro Express now.  But, Hot Keyboard Professional is now portable, and Macro Express isn't.

1923

Living Room / Re: PC-Centric to PDA-Centric... Thoughts?

« Last post by rjbull on August 30, 2009, 01:12 PM »

I've been using my Palm T3 a lot over the last year.  Useful for alarms/reminders on the go, and for contacts, as well as shopping lists (HandyShopper).   Occasionally use calculator, units converter, memos, rarely anything else.  One of the great things about it is I turn it on, and full power is immediately there.  No waiting for the OS to boot up, anti-malware updates, etc, etc.  Bliss after a corporate (or home) PC.

Most of the salesmen and managers where I used to work had BlackBerries, but I'm not sure how much it was because BBs are genuinely useful, or because BBs are this week's must-have accessory.  But some of them did seem to use their BBs an awful lot for email.

1924

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend file shredder?

« Last post by rjbull on August 30, 2009, 01:06 PM »

there's plenty of interesting security holes in OS X allowing for privilege escalation etc

-f0dder (August 30, 2009, 12:48 PM)

I thought current Mac OS was based on Free BSD, and that that was fairly good for security.  Not so?

Btw, HAL.DLL missing? Let me guess, either running XP with administrative privileges,

erm, probably - I was one of the few people that were allowed to install anything, so had at least some level of admin privileges.  I don't know much about that level of operation, and rather assumed I didn't have full power...

1925

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend file shredder?

« Last post by rjbull on August 30, 2009, 12:38 PM »

Thanks for your good wishes, folks...  that's really in the spirit of DC!

I didn't really expect or need to destroy things to a standard that would leave GCHQ or the CIA bamboozled, just to stop cleverclogs with Recuva or something freeloading on my registration fees.  I uninstalled everything I had paid for with my own money, either using Total Uninstall (where I had remembered to use it to install in the first place), or the progam's own uninstall, and shredding the directories and files that contained registration keys with Eraser.  I found a portable version of Eraser on the Eraser site itself without going to PortableApps.  I left everything that was free anyway, or bought by the company, and left all the matching data files.  Then I went home, intending to do something like f0dder's second method on my last day.  Unfortunately I did an uninstall too far, as XP wouldn't boot, complaining that "hal.dll" was missing.  So that was that.  So much for mindlessly saying Yes to all uninstall prompts...  The IT guy had already told me that if they re-used "my" PC he would have re-imaged it anyway, so I probably did enough (one way or another).  Not that he's likely to any time soon, as the company has laid off so many people he's already got enough surplus Dell boxes to build a garden wall.  I told him about the failure to boot, "don't you just love Windows."  He, who spends his time supporting Windows and Unix systems, told me he doesn't use Windows at home, but an Apple Mac!  Paraphrasing: "It just works, and you don't get viruses."   

Thanks again...