Recent Posts

251

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: Best Anti-virus

« Last post by m_s on November 07, 2005, 04:35 PM »

I would say that's why I opted for NOD...  But Avast's web-shield does appear to be pretty good - I remember it catching a few site-based viruses as I surfed.

252

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: Best Anti-virus

« Last post by m_s on November 07, 2005, 03:11 PM »

You're a braver man than me!  dantheBRAVEman! 

253

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: Best Anti-virus

« Last post by m_s on November 07, 2005, 02:04 PM »

Of the free programs, in my experience, they're the best - there is also AntiVir, which is very good for an-demand, but I don't think it gives resident protection...

254

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: Best Anti-virus

« Last post by m_s on November 07, 2005, 11:20 AM »

I ran Avast for a few years, but dumped it awhile ago - too heavy for my system.  AVG runs significantly lighter for me.  But...  I've come around to realising that you tend to get what you pay for with antivirus software, and both of these tend to score quite low on the comparative tests - I think Avast is a bit higher than AVG.  If you're running free AV, be sure to have other layered security programs - things like a2, MS AntiSpyware, Kerio Personal Firewall, etc.  As I say, I used free security programs for a long time - now I swear by NOD32 and Outpost for myself, and for others who want to stick with free things, usually a combination of AVG and Kerio for the lightest resource-usage.

255

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: What is Flock?

« Last post by m_s on November 04, 2005, 02:02 PM »

Off joke, but on topic: I've been using Flock for a few hours, and just want to say it's really good!  I like the simplified gui, and in general it's a little more sophisticated and elegant than FF.  I've been running the FF 1.5 rc for a few weeks, and like that (except that it doesn't play with RoboForm yet), but Flock appears to have all the good points of FF, along with being a nicer design.  I'm new to del.icio.us, but I've really needed something like that in order to be able to access my favorites from all the various machines I find myself using.  Flock = 

256

Living Room / Re: great read - "Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far"

« Last post by m_s on November 02, 2005, 03:35 PM »

Did others see this, following on from Mouser's post?  http://www.betanews....M_Rootkit/1130965475

257

General Software Discussion / Re: Storage on the go

« Last post by m_s on November 02, 2005, 11:27 AM »

I've written to Olympus (manufacturer of the recorder) to ask them...  On the face of it, that little device Carol pointed me to seems brilliant and would really be perfect if it is compatible (and available in the UK).  I guess there are drivers involved, although it simply plugs and plays on XP.  When I plugged it into a ME machine yesterday, that popped up a 'File not found' dialogue, to which I simply clicked 'Ignore', and it worked fine, just mounting as an external drive.

258

General Software Discussion / Re: Storage on the go

« Last post by m_s on November 02, 2005, 09:07 AM »

Does anybody else have any ideas on this?  I went into a few photography shops in town, but they only knew of drives that would require a memory card to be inserted, where as this needs to be usb mounted...

259

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Startup Delayer

« Last post by m_s on November 02, 2005, 08:11 AM »

That's really handy - thank you!

260

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Locate 3.0 - great HD search tool

« Last post by m_s on November 01, 2005, 10:56 AM »

I have used Mythicsoft's Agent Ransack for a few years, and found it to be very good.  Recently upgraded to their FileLocatorPro, and I am incubating a mini-review of that, which I'll hopefully have up in a few weeks' time.  Thanks for pointer to Locate, which I'm trying now...

261

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Weather Watcher 5.6 - now better than ever!

« Last post by m_s on November 01, 2005, 07:08 AM »

I'm amazed this is free!  Seems great.  I'm slowly working myself out of using Konfabulator, as I find much cooler programs that do the same thing more elegantly and using less memory than the widgets I've used up till now.  (Actually, I'm brewing a thread in praise of WinXP and its vanilla settings - plain old plain old is proving to be more and more useful to me, and I'm finding myself reverting to the built-in settings and abandoning my mods and themes and widgets and docks and just reverting to plain old XP, and realising it's basically a very well designed and considered interface.)But I've wondered off topic, which is: New Weather Watcher - great! 

262

General Software Discussion / Storage on the go

« Last post by m_s on October 31, 2005, 05:28 AM »

(Not really a software question, more of a hardware/lifehack...)

My boss uses an Olympus DM-20 digital voice recorder (lovely machine) to record talks he gives.  It stores about 20 hours of (quite) high-quality digital audio, but over the coming two months he will be travelling and recording very much more than that.  Usually, I travel with him and carry a laptop to transfer talks as we go, and burn them to CD.  But this time I'm not going, so I'm looking for advice on ways - if it's possible at all - to archive these recordings on the move, without him needing to carry a computer.  The recorder has built-in memory, so just swapping to another module isn't an option.  It connects to PC via a usb cradle, and is mounted as an external drive.  So I want to know if anyone knows of a system I could use - an external drive or powerful pda, perhaps - that would allow usb syncing.  Anybody?

263

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 30, 2005, 01:43 PM »

So I ran Money 2004 for a few days, and was quite impressed by it, and then decided to buy 2005 (which I found on ebay for £17).  If you bank with Nationwide in the UK, and so have access to background banking, I think Money is really very good.  It certainly meets my needs, and I'm finding that using it is giving me a much clearer ongoing sense of what I have in the bank and what I owe - I guess that's another form of background banking. 

I also got hold of quite a good introductory book on money, Alvin Hall's 'Money for Life', which I found a good and simple read, and it's helped me to understand money matters a bit more.  I would recommend that to others who're as naive as I am about money.  I wrote to 'Dear Lifehacker' to see what advice they might come up with, and I received two very helpful personal responses, and then a topic on the website: http://www.lifehacke...and-sense-132814.php

(I love Lifehacker! - thanks for introducing me to it, Mouser!  )

264

Found Deals and Discounts / EssentialPIM Pro free licenses - one day only (31/10/05)

« Last post by m_s on October 24, 2005, 09:20 AM »

Just received this from the admin at EssentialPIM - spreadin' the joy.


Hello All,

Good news everyone! With every day, EssentialPIM is becoming more and more popular. We have decided to give out free licenses for EssentialPIM Pro for everyone, who comes to our homepage (www.essentialpim.com) on 31st of October, the Halloween Day.

That's right; every visitor will get a copy of fully-licensed (to your name!) EssentialPIM Pro and free upgrades for 1 year or until the 2.99 version of EssentialPIM Pro, whichever is longer. Both desktop and portable (ready to run from flash USB drive) editions will be at your disposal to choose.

We start on Monday, October 31, 2005 12:00 AM (UTC) and finish at 12:00 PM (UTC) the same day. Do not get late and get yourself a hit PIM!

Best regards,
Max
EssentialPIM Team

265

Screenshot Captor / Re: Long distance

« Last post by m_s on October 24, 2005, 08:46 AM »

I have been using LogMeIn for awhile now - it's free and very simple to use: www.logmein.com

266

Living Room / Re: Anyone know of a Postal Mail Checker?

« Last post by m_s on October 22, 2005, 03:57 PM »

It's not exactly standalone, because you do need to have Konfabulator running, but there is this widget: http://www.widgetgal...iew.php?widget=36387, and I'm pretty sure that 'Where Is It?', which is one of the widgets Konfab installs automatically can do the same thing.

267

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Program Closer

« Last post by m_s on October 22, 2005, 05:26 AM »

I second all this - would love to solve system startup bottleneck.  There is a Konfabulator Widget - I think it's called Widget Watcher - that is meant to close down widgets (although I have never managed to get it to kill anything, but I can get each widget's pid and close it via Process Explorer).  I expect that some of my security programs would make this more difficult - they don't like one process trying to interfere with another...

268

Site/Forum Features / Re: Instructions for making a PayPal link people can follow to donate money to y

« Last post by m_s on October 21, 2005, 09:42 AM »

Not sure if I deserve one, but I guess I have contributed a little to the site... Anyway, that was dead easy!  Thanks, Mouser.   

269

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 20, 2005, 03:37 PM »

I think it's doing that for me... Or if it's not automatic, it's just a matter of pressing a button and it downloads and imports.

270

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 20, 2005, 03:12 PM »

Oh, it's synchronising with Nationwide, I think.  I can certainly see all my data automatically...  Ah, but you mean being able to do things like change a standing order from within Money?  Yeah, that would be cool.

271

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 20, 2005, 02:53 PM »

Hey, Carol: I found this list of supported institutions, and it now includes HSBC: http://money.msn.co..../fininst/default.asp

272

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 20, 2005, 02:28 PM »

Am playing with Money 2004 right now and, you know, I rather like it...  Nice interface, pretty straightforward for a complete money no-nothing like me.  A big pity, though, that it doesn't work with the Co-Operative Bank, Smile, or Egg.

I've really got to do something about my money - more about my attitude to money than my actualy money...  Just starting to re-train as a psychotherapist, and boy is money coming up as an issue!  Went out and bought an introductory book this afternoon - Alvin Hall, 'Money for Life'.  That could become another aspect of this thread: anybody know any good introductory books, that are accessible and plain-speaking and even - gosh! - fun?

273

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 20, 2005, 12:20 PM »

It's always a question of cost - which is why I need it! 

I found the item cheaper at Misco, but the free postage from Amazon makes it the best deal!  I'll play some more with 2004 and maybe take the plunge tomorrow...

274

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 20, 2005, 12:03 PM »

I've just installed it, and it's got a nice-looking Java-based interface, but it only has US financial institutions, although there is a manual setup option.  I think we'll find, as you suggest, Carol, that the difficulty is to do with UK institutions rather than with specific packages.  When I tried Money 2004 a few nights back, I was really quite impressed by it, and it did manage to connect to two of my institutions...  Maybe I should just bite the proverbial and pay £30 for it...  Except... you seem only to be able to get 2005 in the UK at the moment.

275

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for finance app

« Last post by m_s on October 20, 2005, 11:03 AM »

Hmmm.  I have an OEM copy of Works Suite, which has Money 2004.  I read that 2006 is a big improvement on that - or, rather, that 2005 was a big improvement, and 2006 is a tiny improvement on that!  I have downloaded a trial of Moneydance and will try it tonight.