Recent Posts

2026

General Software Discussion / Thunderbird forks to become next Eudora?

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 04:13 PM »

SAN DIEGO – October 11, 2006 – QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and other advanced wireless technologies, and the Mozilla Foundation, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Internet, today announced that future versions of Eudora® will be based upon the same technology platform as the open source Mozilla Thunderbird™ email program. Future versions of Eudora will be free and open source, while retaining Eudora's uniquely rich feature set and productivity enhancements. QUALCOMM and Mozilla will each participate in, and continue to foster development communities based around the open source Mozilla project, with a view to enhancing the capabilities and ease of use of both Eudora and Thunderbird.

http://www.mozilla.c...illa-2006-10-11.html

I'm kind of at a loss to understand this one. But I'm wondering if what comes out of it may actually be kind of cool. A well-respected commercial email program with an aging UI and back end but still robust feature set combines with a newer, open source back end to become a new free, open source alternative, hopefully with the benefits of both? Might this be the "serious" email program many of us have been waiting for? And might this mean the address book in Eudora finally becomes non-modal and really usable?

Or really, just... what the hell?

- Oshyan

2027

Best E-mail Client / Re: Pegasus Mail?

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 04:05 PM »

True enough, yes. I just don't like dealing with kludges is all. I think my mail client should be able to handle this stuff gracefully. I've been wanting to move away from Outlook for years now so I figure I'll just try to use this as motivation to do so. If it doesn't work out I'll definitely do some pruning.

- Oshyan

2028

Web Log Filter / Re: Web Log Radar

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 04:03 PM »

I'd say I'm kind of interested. Not sure my web logs are big enough for your taste though.

- Oshyan

2029

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Now it's Paragon for FREE!

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 03:59 PM »

Patrick, I would have thought the same thing in terms of the distinction between the two products. However this quote on the Drive Copy page made me wonder again

Once your new system is up and running, you can also use the program as a simple backup tool. Who wants to go to the trouble of using a file-based backup program, manually specifying files and folders, hoping (but never actually knowing for sure) that you're backing up all the information you need? Image backups are much easier by comparison, can be set up with just a few mouse clicks, and short of hard drive failure you can be sure no vital data will be lost.

- Oshyan

2030

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook Nightmares...

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 03:55 PM »

Yes, of course that is a good way to deal with it currently. But it is rather convoluted to donate "to DonationCoder.com" just to then redirect the donation to someone else. I'm still interested in the idea of providing a central service that other forums could tie into. But maybe that was a subtle hint you don't want to deal with it now.

- Oshyan

2031

General Software Discussion / Re: recommendations for web graphic and photo software

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 03:52 PM »

Unfortunately the market for simple, effective, easy-to-use photo and web graphics tools is becoming muddier and muddier, and generally more expensive too. Once upon a time I'd heartily recommend JASC PaintShop, but now that it's been bought by Corel, well you can see where they're taking it. Make everything more "full-featured", but to the point where it justifies its own app, then split it off and make more money from it. Nevermind those people who were fine with the old level of functionality and just want a few improvements.

Anyway Xara does seem to be a very well-respected "all-in-one" tool for this kind of stuff and its price is reasonable. For free tools I'd recommend Photofiltre (easy to use and fairly full-featured) or Paint.NET (especially the alphas of 3 - or wait until final if you can). There are lots of other free alternatives but I find those two to be most easy to use and intuitive.

- Oshyan

2032

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: pandora.com - Internet radio for EVERY taste! FREE!

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 03:47 PM »

Pandora in Winamp?  Genius!

Ok, it's not genius, just the mini-player in an IE window inside Winamp, but still pretty cool.

- Oshyan

2033

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else checking out FireFox 2.0 rc2?

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 03:40 PM »

I think we are used to giants like MS etc. and dont realize Firefox is much more of a hobby project, in comparison at least.

-dk70 (October 16, 2006, 12:58 PM)

Hobby project? http://news.zdnet.co...9588_22-6048377.html

I dunno, I mean sure Mozilla itself is smaller than Microsoft as a whole, but they are focused only on the browser. Until IE7 began dev I doubt there even was much of an IE team. Certainly not many - if any - of them paid in the $100,000/yr range (read above news story). I think they have plenty of potential resources to get these kinds of things implemented. It's just a matter of how they choose to spend their money, what they encourage in the development community, and who they let run the project (narrow-minded "minimalist" zealots, or more reasonable people ).

- Oshyan

2034

Living Room / Re: Vista licensing - will it kill enthusiasts interest ?

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 03:28 PM »

Nice. Microsoft really doesn't like their customers, do they?

Good points and ideas in your email Carol. Do share any response you get with us if you can. I think your suggested approach could be both fair and effective for both sides.

- Oshyan

2035

Living Room / Re: Godlike Software

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 03:32 AM »

Well, he's horrible at web design. But some of the tools look kind of cool. Or, in some cases, cute/fun http://www.godlikeso...agegalerie_info.html

- Oshyan

2036

General Software Discussion / Re: Comparison of Web Browsers (Wikipedia)

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 01:53 AM »

Interesting stuff. Opera sure seems to have some of the broadest support, but the rendering issues I encounter on a daily basis make it clear that simply having a check-box on these comparisons doesn't really mean it works like it "should" (or as devs expect).

Ah well. Good reference at any rate.

- Oshyan

2037

Living Room / Re: Weird Al New Video - White And Nerdy

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 01:26 AM »

Hehe, that's what I love about Weird Al, he seems like a true geek. Either that or he researches his songs really well.

- Oshyan

2038

Living Room / Re: Here is an intresting one I just found

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 01:16 AM »

Hehe, no time to really review this now. But interesting. I've filed it away, just like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

- Oshyan

2039

Site/Forum Features / Re: forum search improvement

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 01:11 AM »

Is this stuff intended for 1.1 Final?

- Oshyan

2040

General Software Discussion / Re: Email Server for Windows Recommendations?

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 01:06 AM »

Mouser, how do you handle syncing with the forums with PHPlist?

- Oshyan

2041

Living Room / Re: Neave.tv - clever use of online videos

« Last post by JavaJones on October 16, 2006, 01:02 AM »

Hehe, well there isn't on real TV (unless you have TiVo and are watching recorded stuff). But I agree a FF or skip would be nice.

- Oshyan

2042

Living Room / Re: Weird Al New Video - White And Nerdy

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 11:30 PM »

Damn, I was just about to post this. Looks like I'm late to the party! Awesome vid though, hehe. I agree, he's definitely kept his kick after all this time. Talented guy. Funny that he chose to devote it to the parody and humor songs, but I'm not complaining one bit. I saw him live back in the 90's and damn it was a completely awesome show. Definitely go see him if you get the chance!

- Oshyan

2043

General Software Discussion / Re: SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 11:28 PM »

Interesting. Do Academic *organizations* (schools) qualify? I didn't immediately see any info about it on their site. I'll definitely take a look.

- Oshyan

2044

General Software Discussion / Re: iTunes 7 is a PITA ...

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 11:19 PM »

Hehe, yes I love Quicktime and Real Alternative too. An iTunes alternative *that worked with the iTunes store* would be a godsend. Heck I might even use it then. As it is Apple has lost me as a music customer because you have to use iTunes and all the music is in their format. I know they have to satisfy their RIAA partners, I just wish a more compatible and reasonable DRM solution could be found. Although I'll agree that Apple's DRM is less draconian and hard to deal with than some other systems, depending on your use.

- Oshyan

2045

Living Room / Re: Blog Entry: The Field of Dreams Strategy

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 10:19 PM »

Well, I don't mean to say that you will get the *biggest* audience by having good content. Perhaps only the *best* audience.

- Oshyan

2046

Living Room / Re: Neave.tv - clever use of online videos

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 08:24 PM »

Nice find nudone. Simple, clean implementation, very unobtrusive. Could be lots of fun just to sit and watch, if I had the time. I did find this gem fairly quickly: http://www.neave.tv/#strandbeest

- Oshyan

2047

Living Room / Re: Blog Entry: The Field of Dreams Strategy

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 06:51 PM »

Yes, this is good advice. I think what's important to focus on here though is not necessarily that it's anti-marketing or anti-monetization. It's against making money by capitalizing on whatever is populat, and in favor of simply being successful (which can include making money - perhaps lots) at what you're really good at or interested in.

Really it's just acknowledging that content is king, and if you do what you enjoy and are good at, generating content around your real interests and knowledge, then people will probably appreciate it. If you are doing something for everyone else, you either get very shallow interest, or quick interest that doesn't last, or most likely none at all. People are interested in opinion, perspective, passion. If you are passionate about something, express it. Likeminded people will gravitate to that.

I guess another important part of this then is "don't care about what people who aren't interested in what you're doing think". In other words why should you care what Joe Public or the mainstream think if you want to blog about the best way to write a cross-platform random number generator? Care about what people who also are interested in that subject think, and chances are those people will come to you to talk about it if you express that interest. Increasing market share and readership is only relevant to the degree that there even is a readership for your given subject. Unless you happen to be blogging about the latest Britney Spears gossip chances are your market is going to be a tiny fraction of the general public, so don't sweat it too much.

So in short, I agree.

- Oshyan

2048

General Software Discussion / Re: iTunes 7 is a PITA ...

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 06:41 PM »

Woo. Die Musicmatch, die! Definitely another app in this category I dislike.

To be perfectly honest I don't know of an "all in one" app like that - player, organizer, ripper, burner - that I really like. I much prefer to use separate apps and I frankly think it's best that way. The closest I've found that I fairly like is MediaMonkey which I think encompasses pretty much all of iTunes' functionality with much less resource use, no annoying "services", and more customizability.

- Oshyan

2049

General Software Discussion / Re: SCRIBUS - Open Source Desktop Publishing

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 06:10 PM »

Oho! Sounds very promising. Have you gotten a chance to play with this yet? Just about anything has to be better than Quark. Indesign is ok, but open source and cross-platform is very attractive. I'd love to be able to more easily share source files with my graphic designer at work (who is on a Mac and using apps I have no access to).

Let us know if you have any feedback!

- Oshyan

2050

Living Room / Re: Mike-O-Matic on GooTube and The Power of Branding

« Last post by JavaJones on October 15, 2006, 06:07 PM »

I'm with you mouser. It's sad that branding and recognition are everything. This quote says it all

It doesn’t even matter if they are technically better anymore. They own the mental associations that matter, and it will take a long, long time to change that.

But that's the way the world works, and hey isn't a good part of that due to human nature? I mean it's the interaction of the understanding of marketing and modern technologies, but the reason it works is human nature.

So how do you change that? Do you mandate that marketing must be kept within certain boundaries? Well, we already do that to some degree (laws about libel, truth in advertising, and especially certain more regulated industries like supplements and food). So maybe that's an answer. But I don't really like legislation and eventual resulting litigation as an answer to anything unless absolutely necessary.

I don't see a clear way out besides educating people I guess. But that hasn't seem to work so far. Everyone has just gotten used to the marketing we had but remains susceptible to new forms of it, even as they remain similar to the old. Novelty has high appeal. And ultimately most of it appeals to certain primal reactions we have which will be difficult or impossible to get rid of even with years and years of learning and "evolution".

- Oshyan