Recent Posts

1976

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 06:23 PM »

So, er, reading between the lines, I'm sensing that overall performance is an issue for you, Superboyac?

Please try to be more clear in the future - these vague, touchy-feely posts are really hard to decipher   

Seriously, Vista on a dual-core system with 3GB RAM is PLENTY quick!

1977

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Quality Comparison: 8 x freeware PDF Readers / Viewers

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 06:20 PM »

Yeah, yesterday, for the first time, the PDFCP 5 installer kept running completely randomly: I'd click on the start menu button or try to invoke the context menu and there it would be... Thus, in my case, it's not that it's trying to activate, just that it occasionally tries to re-install itself. Not very impressive.

I solved it yesterday by uninstalling a couple of applications (Network Magic among them), rebooting, and all is well. THis used to happen occasionally with PDFCPro 4 under XP Pro as well...

EDITED for clarity 

1978

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Quality Comparison: 8 x freeware PDF Readers / Viewers

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 04:13 PM »

Jim - I had that problem with PDF Converter Pro 5 as well and traced it to having remnants of either version 4 or version 3 in the registry and/or Documents and User Settings/User folder... I gave up when the fix I describe below didn't survive a reboot (this is from a PM I sent someone in August). However, I am confident that it is an issue with leftover keys as installing PDFC Pro 5 on a clean install of Vista is rock solid.

The keys are at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ScanSoft
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Zeon

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ScanSoft
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Zeon

The keys are labelled by program and number (e.g. PDF Create 4). I also found lots of references to version 4 in Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data and also Documents and Settings\User Name\Local Settings\Application Data. In these folders, I found sub-folders from Scansoft, Nuance, and Zeon that had PDF Converter 4 references. I suspect that with all that I missed an installer (or a reference to an installer) somewhere that keeps messing with things on reboot. At any rate, I failed to return it to functionality after that reboot and uninstalled it. While it was working, it did a much better job of making some of my pdfs searchable (version 4 produced less accurate files that were "jerky" when I scrolled through them with Acrobat Reader .

You might try requesting a complete remover from Nuance (they produce one, if memory serves) and then running it, rebooting and searching your registry and harddrive for any further registry keys and/or folders and removing them all, rebooting and reinstalling...

Hope this helps,

Mike

1979

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: If Bush gets it done, America gets FREE software!

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 12:56 PM »

Ha, ha... It should be noted that the Mac version only runs on Intel Macs (not PPC), so the sheen has worn off a bit for me...

1980

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Quality Comparison: 8 x freeware PDF Readers / Viewers

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 12:13 PM »

Ah... hadn't realized that you were talking about the full version - sorry urlwolf!

I'd be interested in a discount on Xchange as my licence for PDF Converter Pro 5 is only good for one machine.

1981

Living Room / Re: Printers that print on paper-roll ?

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 12:00 PM »

  Thanks for that, Edvard! Have to observe, though, that this is a rather crappy idea 

1982

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 11:59 AM »

So... wrt writing, I guess you could say that your goose is cooked?

1983

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 11:56 AM »

For Extra Credit:[/b]

Do you know why the Model-T Ford was only manufactured with a black finish?

The answer had absolutely nothing to do with what was best for the customer - and everything to do with what worked best for the Ford Motor Company. Look it up if you don't believe!
[/color]

-40hz (October 28, 2008, 11:20 AM)

Hence, the famous quip attributed to Henry Ford:

You can havea Model T in any colour you like as long as it's black

1984

Living Room / Re: I'd pass on this discount...

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 09:18 AM »

  Good thinking!

1985

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: If Bush gets it done, America gets FREE software!

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 09:16 AM »

PS codes will be issued through 23:59 Central Standard Time and they're extending the registration period for 48 hours (you sign up, are issued a licence code but then have to register it to use the software).

1986

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 09:06 AM »

My grandmother is left-handed, and they tied her left hand behind her back so that she'd learn to write "properly" with her right.

-CWuestefeld (October 28, 2008, 09:01 AM)

Heh, heh, my dad is ambidextrous and got in trouble for submitting "someone else's work" when he switched hands to write. That happened a couple of times and he switched to the right only - got yelled at and disciplined for using his left.

As for hand-writing - I love it! My penmanship is crap, for reasons well articulated by others, particularly 40hz, but there is something rewarding about the tactile sensation of writing by hand. Even if I, too, can write far my more quickly (if not accurately  ) when I type. I also find handwriting to be less inhibiting - I can just write and edit later. When I type I am self-editing on the fly, which gets in the way of creativity at times.

1987

Living Room / Re: Printers that print on paper-roll ?

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 09:02 AM »

For printing on roll-paper, there's this line from HP:

http://h10010.www1.h...2-18972-3328061.html

-Darwin (October 28, 2008, 08:52 AM)

hmm, maybe the Epson is a bargain after all ...

-tomos (October 28, 2008, 08:59 AM)

Yeah, especially considering that the first HP that I saw was $14,000 and the second $49,000! I was pleased to have found one for you for $1,400 and change. Ingrate! Seriously, though, it does seem a bit odd to me that there are not more (obvious) manufacturers of these types of printers and at a more realistic price. Very small market, I guess...

I was thinking that used may be the way to go. Now that you've a couple of manufacturers and the descriptions to go on, might be time to search eBay, for a start. These types of high-end printers never really die, in my experience, so I'd check with regional governmental offices and surplus office supply stores, etc. Just a thought. Be careful about consumables, though - it'd be terrible to buy a printer you can't get ink or a paper roll for!

1988

Living Room / Re: Printers that print on paper-roll ?

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 08:52 AM »

  I managed to mis-read the subject line as "Printers that print on bog-roll ?"

For printing on roll-paper, there's this line from HP:

http://h10010.www1.h...2-18972-3328061.html

1989

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: If Bush gets it done, America gets FREE software!

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 08:15 AM »

It's up and it's working but their server is getting SPANKED!

UPDATE: server is now down:

Main Website Temporarily Offline

Due to the high volume of traffic for the Lame Duck Challenge Free Offer, we have temporarily disabled the CodeWeavers main website.

    We apologize for this inconvenience. We still love Digg, even if our server disagrees. ;-)




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please check back again for registration code information later today. We're working on getting a minimal functioning site.

1990

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by Darwin on October 28, 2008, 08:14 AM »

Heh, heh - f0dder, I grew up feeling (and still feeling) that cursive IS normal writing!

1991

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 09:54 PM »

Try walking into a first or second university classroom to administer a test and realizing that there are a few students who don't know how to read the face of an analogue clock!

1992

General Software Discussion / Re: which Linux version for my laptop

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 09:51 PM »

Heh, heh, me too, Armando! Mandrake Linux 8.1 was the first distro I used as well (early 2002).

1993

Living Room / Re: Eggnog season is upon us!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 05:49 PM »

I thought you meant cheesecake.
Hmm... that might not a bad combination either...

-Edvard (October 27, 2008, 04:37 PM)

Yup, sounds good as well...

Note to self: bake an apple pie, buy LOTS of different ice creams to try with it! Diet in new year...

1994

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 04:17 PM »

Ummmm... what are you sitting on?

-CWuestefeld (October 27, 2008, 04:13 PM)

Why the bog, of course! Was there any ever doubt? 

Seriously, I had considered the possibility that someone might make that deductive leap from what I wrote but forgot to (smirk) 'clean it up' to remove the allusion...

FWIW, I'm actually sitting on my duff... It's comfortably positioned on an ergonomic leather covered office chair!

1995

Living Room / Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 04:03 PM »

It doesn't happen that often, but it has happened to me personally multiple times.

-Deozaan (October 27, 2008, 03:40 PM)

I don't feel so good... I need to sit down (Darwin sits very still with his head in his hands).

Disturbing 

1996

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: If Bush gets it done, America gets FREE software!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 04:01 PM »

Yeah... I saw that and wondered the same thing! We won't know until tomorrow. This Canuck is planning on finding out though   

1997

Living Room / Re: Eggnog season is upon us!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 04:00 PM »

Oops! Bad Darwin, bad Darwin! I meant either vanilla ice cream or a slice/chunk of cheese... not cheese ice cream 

1998

General Software Discussion / Re: which Linux version for my laptop

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 03:13 PM »

Just to note, I gave MobaLiveCD a whirl and hated it... Actually, it seemed to be doing its thing, but it was DREADFULLY slow and the on-screen prompts were not very clear as to what was going to happen. Essentially, it creates a VM on your disk, whereever  you instruct it to do so... I'd recommend trying Wubi unless your adamantly opposed to running a flavour of Ubuntu. Read the DC minireview of it here.

Just my two bits - YMMV!

1999

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: If Bush gets it done, America gets FREE software!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 03:09 PM »

Here's an image that I'll have trouble getting out of my mind for the rest of the day:

"I realize that by giving away all my software, I've caused horrific damage to my company's bottom line," White said. "In fact, our vice president of sales wretched Starbucks all over his shirt when he learned the news. But, I figure, the way the economy is going, in a few months everyone might be out on the streets, wearing potato sacks and standing in line for squirrel soup, so why not?"

 

Anyone interested in this, you need to visit the site tomorrow (Tuesday, October 28 as per PST, MST, CST, EST, etc. timezones). Looks like they make some interesting applications, if you're at all involved in/interested in cross-platform computing. Basically, it enables Windows software to be run under OSX and Linux. Note that you need different applications for each...

2000

Living Room / Re: Eggnog season is upon us!

« Last post by Darwin on October 27, 2008, 03:04 PM »

I've never had egg nog ice cream on hot apple pie

-Darwin (October 27, 2008, 11:25 AM)

It's only for the upper crust!

-cranioscopical (October 27, 2008, 01:59 PM)

Ah... rules me out then! I'll have to stick with vanilla ice cream or, better, cheese!