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2076

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Liquid Story Binder (2.91) on GiveAwayOfTheDay

« Last post by J-Mac on July 29, 2008, 12:17 AM »

I almost passed on it, but then went back and grabbed it with about 5 minutes left.  (Doing that more and more lately - Someone stop me!!)

However after looking around in it for a while, I got way too dizzy and had to close it.  Figured I was just tired.  Tried it again a day or two later - still makes me dizzy!  Seriously, though:  I don't know that I will ever even give this application a decent try.  It is extremely disorganized.  Not in how it can assist on organizing a book, but in its own workflow itself.  Many separate windows open and they cannot be docked or hidden away without closing them.  The screenshot I poached from the BlackObelisk web site (below) gives the impression that the windows all open nice and orderly. In reality they open up in varying sizes and all over the place!  In their screenshots someone has apparently taken the time to resize all the windows and line them up neatly.

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

I'm not the most organized person - and that is an understatement - but I just have difficulty working with windows opened all over, trying to jump around from one to another. (Guess that's where the "dizzy" part comes in.

I'll stick with The Journal for my writing for now.   

Jim

2077

General Software Discussion / Re: Nero - WHY?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 28, 2008, 12:38 PM »

Blank media is so darned finicky!  About 3 years ago, recommendations on CDFreaks.com and VideoHelp.com were that Ritek disks (DVD+/-R/W) were great, with hardly any failed burns.  I bought a bunch and was burning away happily.  Then a year later I was suddenly burning DVD coaster after DVD coaster with the same Ritek models.  Checked again at those sites and posted there, asking for suggestions as to why I suddenly could not burn successfully anymore.  Everyone posted back "You're using Ritek media, and you have to ask?!?!?"  Huh?! 

I mentioned what I had read there and most posted back that that had been a whole year ago and the media manaufacturing market changes quickly. Grr...  So then Taiyo Yuden disks were de rigeur.  Bought some of those and had mixed results.  Read more and discovered that - IF I did not have counterfeit disks - that the country of origin of the disks were a big factor.  Huh again!?!?

Seemed that TY's made in Taiwan were OK but made in Japan were not - or possibly vice versa - I honestly can't remember which factories were supposedly creating good media and which were not.  Of course by then I was pretty much drooling all over everything and mumbling incoherently.

But lately if you check those sites the better Verbatim media (read: DataLifePlus and their Archival quality disks) seem to be consistently getting very high marks.  Kind of expensive, but no coasters yet with them. 

Jim

2078

General Software Discussion / Re: Nero - WHY?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 27, 2008, 02:01 PM »

Hehehe...   

I won't reiterate all the same stuff. Nero Ultra 7 was my last version.  I didn't reinstall it after my last XP Pro reinstall.  I really don't want the crap.  Even if you disable all the processes it still clogs up your system and registry.  BTW, you DO have to actually delete a few files - or rename them - to fully disable all of Scout's activities.

And then take a look in your registry.  Every media file reference in the Class section of your registry will have at least two keys naming Nero as the associated application for that file type.  If you remove a program that does have the association assigned, it will default automatically to Nero again.  Can't fix that except by reinstalling the OS.

Just a truly over-intrusive program now.

Oh, also:  someone above mentioned that they are just being progressive be reacting to user needs. I'm sorry but the photo app they put into the suite is not a good one - not even adequate, IMO. But of course the file association is hard written into the registry so its hard to keep those Nero icons down.

They had good support people at one time - back around Nero3 or 4, I think it was.  Now you get no help at all.  I don't think I will ever use it again. Not unless they do a complete about face -- which I don't see happening.

Jim

2079

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Whole Disk Encryption Just Wishful Thinking?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 27, 2008, 01:20 PM »

It's nasty stuff.

Also, if (serious) law enforcement is coming after you, they have ways to move your computer without turning it off - basically attaching an UPS on the go, doing some wire cutting etc.

-f0dder (July 20, 2008, 05:19 PM)

Ha!  I would just let one of my granddaughters play with it for a minute or two before these LE specialists got their hands on it.  Believe me...  they will never be able to recover anything again from that drive!   

Jim

2080

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 27, 2008, 11:15 AM »

You have the option to stop search on exact alias match.. can we get an option to do the same for exact program match?

is it ever the case where an exact program name match isnt the top result? if not, why does it matter?

-mouser (July 27, 2008, 09:35 AM)

Actually, that was exactly the case that I posted about in so much frustration above!!

I had never used FARR for anything except launching programs and when I typed in "Music" trying to launch Music Collector, there were like 20 or so music web sites shown -- but Music Collector was not showing!  I changed the option for number of results to something higher - 30 or 40, can't remember - and then Music Collector showed near the bottom of the list.

I unchecked the aliases as oyu suggested so that wouldn't happen.  Of course if I were wanting to use the alias searches that would stop it.

Thanks!

Jim

2081

Living Room / Re: Gizmo's Tech Support Alert Newsletter Merges with Windows Secrets

« Last post by J-Mac on July 26, 2008, 02:30 AM »

I still don't understand.  I can't see where anything was "lost", but some premium content is gained.

• Gizmo has converted all material on the TechSupportAlert.com wiki to free content
• All past published Support Alert free articles and formerly paid-only articles is available for free at the Windows Secrets site
• All premium TechSupportAlert articles from now on will be in the premium portion of the Windows Secret newsletter -- which is available to anyone who has a premium subscription to TechSupportAlert

At least that is how I'm reading it.  It appears that the previous "paid-only" TSA content is now freely available at the WS site.

Jim

2082

Living Room / Re: Gizmo's Tech Support Alert Newsletter Merges with Windows Secrets

« Last post by J-Mac on July 25, 2008, 11:04 PM »

Did anyone look at the attachment in my last post, above?  It is a couple of paragraphs clipped directly from the most recent issue of WS and states that ALL of Gizmo's "premium" content - stuff that was formerly only available to premium (read: paying) subscribers to Support Alert - will always be available free in Windows Secrets.

Man, I thought I could out-whine everyone, but some are putting me to shame here!   

Jim

2083

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Jungle Disk Mini-Review: offsite data storage

« Last post by J-Mac on July 25, 2008, 01:05 PM »

I went ahead and made the purchase shortly after the review was posted.  Other than that one snafu with Amazon S3 servers going down a few days ago, this has been working surprisingly well!  After having canceled Mozy after a year, JD is a pleasant surprise.

Thanks again, justice!

Jim

2084

Living Room / Re: Gizmo's Tech Support Alert Newsletter Merges with Windows Secrets

« Last post by J-Mac on July 25, 2008, 12:57 PM »

Well that's the first newsletter out and indeed now we're paying to hear about free software. What do people think?

-justice (July 25, 2008, 09:32 AM)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what it says here in Brian Livingston's column in the latest WS newsletter:

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

Jim

2085

Living Room / Re: Anyone Here Using a Drobo?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 24, 2008, 01:24 AM »

40hz,

I know that a Mac won't be perfect out of the box.  What is?  But it should require a lot less than what I have now!  Shoot, I'm reinstalling Windows at least twice a year, constantly looking for conflicts, trying to find out what I installed (or removed?) that is causing long shutdowns - or startups, etc., etc.

Plus every single article I have read - whether on mainstream sites like ComputerWorld, PC Mag, etc.  or tech sites - state up front that you had better not think you will be getting away from the constant tweaking that Windows requires with Linux, but that Linux in all its various distro's requires a serious amount of care, feeding, and of course, tweaking.   

Jim

2086

Living Room / Re: Anyone Here Using a Drobo?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 23, 2008, 03:30 PM »

40hz,

Sorry, I'm not quite ready for Linux just yet.  If I drop Windows it is not going to be for another platform that requires full-time tweaking!  At least on a Mac I wouldn't have to tweak very much, if anything.

Jim

2087

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 23, 2008, 03:26 PM »

Got it.  Maybe it was not restarting on the notebook all along and I just missed it before.

Thanks!

Jim

2088

General Software Discussion / Re: NewEgg

« Last post by J-Mac on July 23, 2008, 03:24 PM »

Newegg has been kind of schizophrenic in my experience.  They are basically a very good online vendor but every now and then I have had a case with their support where it seemed like I had just entered the Twilight Zone!

At one time early in their life their shipping & handling charges were all over the spectrum and generally on the high side.  E.g., if I placed six items in my shopping cart, each having had a S&H price on the product page, they would sometimes add up in my cart to a total amount that was much greater than the sum of the separate S&H's listed.  I had a couple of email correspondences with their shipping customer support (Stateside, not overseas at the time) and it was actually very productive. They even implemented two of my suggestions almost immediately and then wrote me to tell me about it and also to give me a sizable coupon as a "Thank you" token.  I was appropriately surprised and grateful.

Yet their S&H can still go haywire occasionally, and their Customer Service is not quite as competent anymore, unfortunately.

Recently I tried to purchase a Canon MP830 All-In-One that was on sale in a promotional email I received.  I had already purchased one of these two years earlier from Newegg and it is excellent, but wearing out a little.  The promo price showed as $205 with free S&H.  Cool!  So I placed it in my shopping cart directly from the Promo page that the email directs you to.  However in my cart the AIO was listed as $215.99 with $4.99 S&H.  Uh-oh.  I double-checked the ad and the cart was definitely wrong.  So I wrote immediately to Newegg support because the promotion was only for a day or two.  The response I got was both mystifying and disappointing. Here's my message and their response:

to:     [email protected]
from:  [email protected]
date   Sun, Feb 17, 2008 at 5:56 PM
subject   Newegg.com - >(Mail #17022008672665)*
Item#:N82E16828102008 & N82E16828102

Message: You have a combo promotion that states "Your Price $205.00 after $10.00 Instant Rebate" on this page: http://promotions.ne...rs/021308/index.html.  It also said the shipping is free.  Yet when I placed it in my cart it is priced at $215.99, plus when I enter my ZIP it adds another $4.99 to that total. I already purchased this same printer from Newegg back in August of 2006 and it is so good I am willing to buy another just in case.  And that promo is what prompted me. But I just thought you should know that something is not working with the pricing on that promo.

Thanks! Jim McGxxxx

Requested Mail Copy: Yes


> Dear Customer,
> Thank you for contacting Newegg.
> Unfortunately we apologize for the inconvenience, our web site is run at
> real time and current market value of the items. We do not price protect or
> price match any of our prices may change in minutes, hours or days without
> notice.
>
> * Please note that an item advertised as "free" in a combo special may still
> incur a shipping charge.
> If you have any further questions or concerns, please visit our FAQs page.
> If you still need assistance, please feel free to email me directly and I
> will be happy to assist you.
>
> Thank you,
> Martin Ruiz

Sounded like they thought I was looking for some sort of lowest price-matching, but I only wanted the promotional price offered.  I did reply to this and got an auto-responder reply, but never did get anything after that.

I do still buy there, but I am very careful to check my shopping cart to make sure it matches what the product page says, and then also the confirmation to make sure they only charged what they were supposed to charge.  I don't quite trust their systems anymore.  And I certainly don't trust their overseas support!

Thanks!

Jim

2089

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 23, 2008, 02:42 PM »

mouser,

I have never noticed this before so I think it is a new behavior. In XP Pro, when Dcupdater auto-installs a new version of FARR, FARR immediately restarts when the installation is complete.  On my notebook, running Vista Ultimate, it has always done the same as far as I can remember.  But after the installation of 2.24.01 it did not; I had to start FARR manually from the Start>All Programs menu.

Must be an issue in Vista because after the XP Pro installation via Dcupdater FARR restarted itself.

Jim

2090

Living Room / Re: Anyone Here Using a Drobo?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 23, 2008, 02:32 PM »

That sounds promising.  I wonder what could cause such a forbidding bug and take all that time to fix?

-J-Mac (July 22, 2008, 01:11 PM)

have you seen the thread about the guy working in MS ?
Article: take a peek into MS Windows development

-tomos (July 23, 2008, 03:47 AM)

Don't tempt me, Tom!  I am already 90% convinced that my next desktop computer will be a Mac.  I don't need anymore incentive...

Thanks!

Jim

2091

Living Room / Re: Anyone Here Using a Drobo?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 22, 2008, 01:11 PM »

That sounds promising.  I wonder what could cause such a forbidding bug and take all that time to fix?

Jim

2092

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Jungle Disk Mini-Review: offsite data storage

« Last post by J-Mac on July 21, 2008, 02:23 AM »

Yeah, I did see that page, justice.  One of the mods on the JD forum posted it early Sunday night, EDT.  Nice status page, BTW, though it is a little unclear as to the times of each update. Lots of updates, however, and lots of details.  Pretty informative.  I didn't see that before they posted it on the JD forum.

Thanks!

Jim

2093

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Jungle Disk Mini-Review: offsite data storage

« Last post by J-Mac on July 20, 2008, 11:08 PM »

It's affecting me.  I can't login to my S3 account nor JungleDisk Plus account at all.  I didn't have any problems easlier, however, posting to the JD forum.

Jim

2094

General Software Discussion / Re: The great free screen capture shootout for Windows! (Screenshot Captor gets nod)

« Last post by J-Mac on July 20, 2008, 11:55 AM »

Heck, I already run Screenshot Captor and SnagIt on my PC.  Don't think I can handle anymore!!

Jim

2095

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 19, 2008, 01:50 PM »

OK - Thanks mouser.

Jim

2096

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 19, 2008, 01:43 PM »

That did it.  Which of those aliases can I uncheck without disturbing the launching function?  Which is all I use anyway.

Thanks!

Jim

2097

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 19, 2008, 01:28 PM »

I don't know if this is because FARR is being made into more of a search engine than a launcher, but some terms still bring up too much other junk than the application I want to launch.

E.g., when I type in "Music", trying to open Music Collector, I instead get about 30 URLs for various music stores/web sites.  I right-click and tell FARR to ignore these but they come right back - I have never even been to these web sites and have no desire to go there.

What is doing this?  If it is the plugins, how the heck do I lose them?  Dccupdater installed all the plugins that I have NO use for.

Jim

2098

General Software Discussion / Re: Reliable web page capture...

« Last post by J-Mac on July 18, 2008, 11:13 PM »

John, if I knew how to properly cerate the ini files, I would.  But Martin doesn't have any instructions for this on his web site.  I guess he designs purely for programmer-types.

BTW, AM-Notebook, which I have owned since, I think, V.2, still requires you to name the note before you write it. I can't handle that!

Thanks!

Jim

2099

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 18, 2008, 10:36 PM »

BTW, where can I get the previous versions - that a problem with using the updater - you lose the older versions.

Jim

2100

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR Release v2.107.04 beta - Sep 23, 2012

« Last post by J-Mac on July 18, 2008, 10:34 PM »

Whoa.  Much, much weirdness.  To the point where I just cranked up my old ObjectDock+ and started using it again, and I'm running without FARR for the first time in over a year.

I don't know what was done with the last few versions - or maybe the plugins - but I can no longer easily get FARR to find my programs - instead it is finding everything but.  Program I am trying to launch is usually down around 10 or 12 on trhe list.

Dccupdater has been going nuts lately all with FARR + plugin updates - several a day.  But I can't use it as is.  Think I might disable Dcupdater and install an older version.

Jim