Recent Posts

2476

General Software Discussion / Re: Settings backup software?

« Last post by Josh on September 01, 2007, 05:02 PM »

This isnt free, but Genie-Soft backup manager pro allows plugins to backup various settings from your configuration. It also allows you to backup various windows settings with its built-in functionality. I highly recommend it!

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General Software Discussion / Re: Why choose XP PRO (NT 5.1) over XP Home?

« Last post by Josh on September 01, 2007, 05:00 PM »

XP MCE is XP Home with media center and remote desktop. All the other stuff is left for pro. There is no "Catch all" version of XP from my understanding.

And yes, You can use an MCE cd as an "upgrade" verification cd.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Why choose XP PRO (NT 5.1) over XP Home?

« Last post by Josh on September 01, 2007, 01:26 PM »

Very easily, yes, its not too hard.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Why choose XP PRO (NT 5.1) over XP Home?

« Last post by Josh on September 01, 2007, 12:43 PM »

XP Pro includes various features designed for the home business or professional user. Remote desktop is a feature designed specifically for XP Pro to allow users to remote control their computer. XP Pro includes advanced security control features and user management capabilities often required  by businesses. Check out here:

http://www.winsupers...ndowsxp_home_pro.asp

for more info

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General Software Discussion / Re: Stay Away From Microsoft VISTA

« Last post by Josh on September 01, 2007, 10:42 AM »

I have to voice my love of Vista as well. I dont blame vista for application programmers not storing settings the proper way (not globally in the program files folder, but in the users folder or the all users folder if the user chooses to make settings global). As I've said in the past, settings dont belong in the programs folder unless the app is designed to be a portable app.

Vista's performance is great, most of my apps perform at or above the level's they did when I used them on XP. The exception is games, but this is being worked on and microsoft's latest performance patches have fixed that a great deal. Vista SP1 will probably fix this even more so. Plus, I do need to upgrade my video card anyways, I want DX10 support ;-).

But yes, overall, I too am impressed by Vista. Now if only application developers would finally start programming properly then I could have all of my apps be vista compatible.

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General Software Discussion / Re: The software awards scam

« Last post by Josh on August 31, 2007, 05:02 PM »

Yes! I am loving this idea. Mousey, lets move on this!

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General Software Discussion / Re: The software awards scam

« Last post by Josh on August 31, 2007, 04:50 PM »

I say make it an actual award. We can have a forum for nominations and then users can vote and generate a rating (5 clucks, 4 clucks, etc) which will then be made into a custom rating icon for that site. I love this idea mousey. We should do it. Heck, I volunteer to head up management of assignment of these awards if you do decide to go for it.

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General Software Discussion / Re: The software awards scam

« Last post by Josh on August 31, 2007, 04:44 PM »

Yes, great idea! This way we can validate our reasons for giving an award and even make a post about the award nomination in the aforementioned thread.

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General Software Discussion / Re: The software awards scam

« Last post by Josh on August 31, 2007, 04:41 PM »

Mouser, perhaps we should make DC awards that we can hand out to programs which are either the PICKS of our reviews or receive honorable mentions by our members. What do you think? I would love to see little "Donationcoder.com's Presents, Cody's Picks" icons floating around.

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: xplorer², a powerful windows file manager and explorer replacement / alternative

« Last post by Josh on August 30, 2007, 03:58 PM »

I still say if you find it so useful that you should pay the author for his work, but hey, thats just my opinion.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Top 3 programs you use

« Last post by Josh on August 29, 2007, 08:15 PM »

PuTTY
DirectAccess/FARR
Roboform

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Living Room / Re: KenR's health and situation

« Last post by Josh on August 29, 2007, 08:14 PM »

Ken, I wish you the best on your surgery. If you or your family require any assistance, I have PM'd you my contact info and I am always willing to help. You have my best wishes and those of my family.

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Living Room / Visual (Video or otherwise) algebra tutorials

« Last post by Josh on August 29, 2007, 07:29 PM »

I am looking for a good set of video tutorials that offer coverage of the basics of algebra, up through topics covered in college algebra level courses. I am trying to prep myself for a class I am about to take and need some good reference sites that I can use. I am a visual learner, so lots of text is a negative to me, which is why I would prefer videos or flash driven sites if possible. Any thoughts?

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: xplorer², a powerful windows file manager and explorer replacement / alternative

« Last post by Josh on August 29, 2007, 05:19 AM »

I am glad the US Military doesnt work on the "honesty" commitment for my medial care as well. But hey, do what you have to, just remember if something goes wrong then you have no right to complain about it.

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: xplorer², a powerful windows file manager and explorer replacement / alternative

« Last post by Josh on August 28, 2007, 07:34 PM »

You are right, it is shareware

Total Commander is a Shareware program. This means that you can test it for a period of 30 days. After testing the program, you must either order the full version, or delete the program from your harddisk.

-Totalcommander homepage

While the developer surely has been compensated, by leaving the program on your pc past the 30 day trial (since you claim to have used it since the 90s) you are violating the TOS and not giving the author any reason to continue development.

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General Software Discussion / Re: New interesting features for Firefox 3

« Last post by Josh on August 28, 2007, 10:27 AM »

That is my biggest issue as well. There is no reason my browser should be using 250MB of memory with 12 tabs. Firefox needs to work out its memory issues, in my opinion, prior to adding new features.

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Living Room / Billpay service recommendation

« Last post by Josh on August 27, 2007, 05:32 AM »

I am looking for a new bill pay service which allows payments to be made to all payee's via a credit card. I.E, you submit a payment via their site, the site charges your credit card as a normal charge, and they then send out a check for the amount of the bill to the payee. I know several sites which utilize your bank accounts, all do that, but I havent found one which does credit card payments as a souce of funding.

Any thoughts?

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Official Announcements / Re: Server hiccups on fri night Aug 24

« Last post by Josh on August 27, 2007, 05:15 AM »

So, is this problem fixed yet?

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General Software Discussion / Re: What do you use to keep track of your installed software?

« Last post by Josh on August 23, 2007, 10:57 AM »

Does anyone here use versiontracker.com or have any input on it? I am thinking about buying a subscription, but if it doesnt offer anything remotely beneficial to betanews.com, I might just hold off.

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Living Room / Re: Life without XP SP2 - is it possible?

« Last post by Josh on August 22, 2007, 06:07 PM »

SP2 can be installed independently of SP1. You can upgrade to SP2 without any prior updates. As for SP2 taking "more" resources, I honestly dont see it. I've had SP2 running for a few years now and its run great and without any sort of issue.

What exactly happens when you install sp2? Does the system slow down? Does it crash? what?

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Living Room / Looking for a good Electronics tutorial

« Last post by Josh on August 19, 2007, 01:12 PM »

I am looking for a good website or package that will give you a good tutorial or introduction into basic electronics and electronics theory. Does anyone have any good recommendations? I work around a lot of electrical equipment in the satellite communications industry, and I think that I should have some sort of a clue when it comes to electricity.

Anyways, thanks in advance!

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General Software Discussion / Re: Guess what, you do have certain downgrade rights from Vista to Windows XP

« Last post by Josh on August 19, 2007, 11:03 AM »

This only applies to people owning a legitimate OEM copy of vista business or ultimate or a license obtained through one of microsoft's licensing programs. This does not apply to FPP (Full Packaged Product) purchases. You have no rights to downgrade with a consumer purchased edition. This is aimed at businesses wanting to maintain XP while evaluating vista

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General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox

« Last post by Josh on August 19, 2007, 08:46 AM »

You mean K-Meleon?

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Living Room / Re: PC Upgrade - still possible to reuse old components?

« Last post by Josh on August 19, 2007, 08:29 AM »

The hard disks shouldnt be a problem, however, memory is where you might run into an issue. To take advantage of the speed that a newer processor has over your old, you will need memory that can keep pace (after all, your system is only as fast as its slowest link). While it might support your older memory, it will not run anywhere near as fast as the older ram would. Especially if you mix two types of memory together (IE PC2700 and PC3200), in this case your system will only run at PC2700's speed.

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General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

« Last post by Josh on August 19, 2007, 08:24 AM »

Biox, in the situation you mention, the only use I could see for linux was using a livecd to recover data, in which case you dont even need linux installed at all. There are also many windows based bootcds that one can use to recover, linux is far from the best choice if you ask me in this matter (especially if you use dynamic disks (such as is the default in windows vista), ntfs partitions (which linux still has problems with), or a software raid array)). Tools like Ultimate BootCD and Hirens Boot CD both include tools that are designed for a windows system and include data access to these types of partitions or disks.

As for advantages, having a data partition means you can reinstall your OS at any time and not lose your data. I have my primary HD partitioned in 5 sections, one for different types of data. This has helped me as now, I can transfer data off my os partition (whatever there is), and reinstall without affecting the other partition. My data will remain in tact, and if windows chooses to remap the drive letter after a reinstall on that drive, I can simply change it back and go about working the way I had previously.