Recent Posts

2551

General Software Discussion / Re: Making my life difficult - Windows 98 - advice needed

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2009, 07:05 PM »

you can get V2 of the service pack here: http://majorgeeks.com/download4131.html

-app103 (March 06, 2009, 03:23 PM)

There is also a supplementary pack at http://majorgeeks.co...tion_Pack_d4738.html which includes all the bits not included in the unofficial service pack (inc. IE 6, WMP 9 and DirectX 9)

2552

General Software Discussion / Re: eBook Reader alternate to Acrobat?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2009, 11:02 AM »

The only thing you do have to be careful of is that some alternative PDF apps kill Adobe Acrobat Professional and you can end up in DLL hell if you are not very careful.

If you aren't going to use Acrobat any more that is OK but if you plan to use it for editing you may want to make sure you have a backup before you try and alternatives. An example of this is NitroPDF which replaces Adobe's files when you install (and doesn't put them back when you uninstall - unless they fixed them since last time I tried it). I have heard of other apps doing the same.

2553

Living Room / Re: Why I Avoid Apple Products

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2009, 04:08 AM »

Yes it has been around for quite a while now (I'm sure it was around here a few months back). Still the oldies are the goodies ... I love the spec proposed for the next model!

2554

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2009, 07:37 PM »

Yep - it was supposed to end on 1st March so if you want a copy grab it quick while you can.

I downloaded it but haven't installed it yet. Anyone know what the difference is between this version and the commercial version?

2555

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Surfulater 50% discount @ www.bitsdujour.com on Mar 4

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2009, 05:24 AM »

I feel a bit uncomfortable at the 'bad press' that's being created here.
There may be feelings of outrage at price increases, but it's up to each one of us to decide what a product is worth, and I don't really understand the strength of ill feeling. Let the market do its job and assess the price/value ratio.

My only outrage was being cut out of the upgrade pricing. I can understand some companies arguing that upgrades are only by one version number (so you can't skip version 2 and go from 1 to 3 at the standard upgrade price) - though I feel that is short sighted - but Nev decided that an arbitrary date meant that people who have version 2 can't upgrade to version 3. There are two things that strike me as odd about that:

• it alienates the early adopters that helped build the business
• it penalises people for that fact it took them a long time to launch the next version

Add to that the huge price hike since it was originally released and it makes me worry what will happen in the future - why buy into an expensive program when there is no certainty that you can upgrade to the next version and that the next version may be more than double the price of what you have paid.

Its all very well to say stick with version 2 if you like - but is there any guarantee that it will be updated as new versions of Windows are released? If not why invest time, effort and money in that product when there are alternatives that don't behave or limit your choices in this way.

OK this thread is about a 50% discount - but it isn't the initial purchase that is the problem - what happens in 18 months time when version 4 is released and only people who bought after the discount get the upgrade price?

2556

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2009, 05:16 AM »

Sorry if I gave you that impression - actually I use MS Office 2007 almost exclusively.

I did have a play with OO 3 and am generally impressed with what they have acheived and I have recommended it to a number of people as an alternative to spending money.

No software is without its irritations but as far as free software goes I think OO is an admirable effort to meet a need. I just think sometime people can be rather critical of a product that is being given away for free. It happens here some times (rarely) when people get uptight when something isn't quite right in software produced by Mouser and others.

WRT MS Outlook - I seem to be in a hate relationship too but I actually prefer it (when it works) to the alternatives. I like some of the new features in Outlook 2007 but I just wish they would make the whole thing run more efficiently and not have such a clunky feel in use. I presume it is in line for the ribbon treatment in the next version - which I am not against in principle - I just hope they focus on some of the practical issues.

2557

Developer's Corner / Re: Feedback on dcmembers site

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2009, 05:08 AM »

Nice - layout clear.

Couple of things -

obvious image size problems you mentioned alread
the 'List of Changes' links on the download page going to another website is a bit clunky - especially as it is a completely different layout and you have to use the BACK button to return to the download page.

I think you are right - WebBaker looks very nice and easy to use for simple websites but it seems to have a number of things missing. One example is an RSS feed which would be ideal for your site to notify users of updates etc.

2558

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Surfulater 50% discount @ www.bitsdujour.com on Mar 4

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2009, 07:29 PM »

Our upgrade policy now is as follows:
"All updates to the current version number are free, while major upgrades are provided at a 50% discount for existing users."

-sazzen (March 04, 2009, 04:22 PM)

Strange when I wanted to upgrade from version 2 they said I had pay the full price for version 3 because my purchase was too long ago.

Given that they have only released version 3 how was I supposed to upgrade when there wasn't one available?

2559

Living Room / Re: Ms Office 14 will be ad supported WTF ???

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2009, 02:07 PM »

Yes but what isn't clear is what is going to happen when the web apps become more integrated into the desktop apps (this has already started in Office 2007 with recent updates including in application links to live webspaces).

2560

Living Room / Ms Office 14 will be ad supported WTF ???

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2009, 10:43 AM »

See

http://blogs.zdnet.c...2218&tag=nl.e539

My feeling (as I added to the discussion there) is that MS will shoot itself in the foot with this idea - normal people will migrate in herds to OpenOffice if they do this, as they will if it becomes too web based.

2561

Living Room / Re: Surfulater 3 - huge price hike (166%) + where is the Firefox add-on?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2009, 06:22 AM »

No what I printed was accurate. Whilst I agree that $39.50 is a more reasonable price it is still (IMHO) expensive compared to other shareware.

The reason I won't be going for it even at that price is that I object to their upgrade policy even more - which is what started this thread.

I bought a copy of Sufulater 2 but when it came time to upgrade they want the full price again because I bought version 2 'too long ago' to qualify for the upgrade price.

If you read my original post that started this thread this means I would have to pay 166% more than I originally paid to purchase version 2 in order to upgrade to version 3. (If you want me to show you the sums I am willing to do that).

By the way Sufulater 2 was originally $39.99 not $59 - so even then there had been a 50% hike!

I realise that people charge what the market can bear to make a buck but I started this thread to simply say that I think their price hikes are unreasonable and their upgrade policy stinks. This member of the market won't bear it and I won't be locked into software that is produced by a developer that behaves in this way. What's the next price going to be? $129.99, £249.99 - pick a number!

2562

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2009, 04:23 AM »

The trouble with MS is it is all smoke and mirrors - you won't see a massive memory usgae because most of MS's 'preload' isn't specific to MS Office (but if you look in startup you will find MSO). A lot of the support required for MS Office is shared support for other apps and loaded as various DLLs with cryptic names even when Office isn't installed.

OO doesn't have that luxury. It is written to run on Windows, Linux, Mac (and others) so it has to have libraries written for specific support for OO. There is no way round that.

Having said that if you want to see how bad MS Office can be try using Outlook (any version since 2002) and you will find out what slow is. Not only is it horrendously slow to load but when you check your emails it freezes up periodically until it has finished downloading.

It is interesting that you single out OO Draw for improvement - MSO doesn't even have a draw feature!

Have you tried inkscape

2563

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 03, 2009, 07:46 PM »

Quickstart should only open once and sit in your tray, or you can set it to open on startup.
If it goes everytime you open a file, maybe you have it actually disabled and so it loads every time you open a OO file?

-Edvard (March 03, 2009, 05:52 PM)

I don't want it open, taking memory for no good reason, at all! So I would close it - completely. And, yes, it will open again and again if you close it. I have to end up disabling it altogether - and users shouldn’t have to figure out how to do that. Even Microsoft doesn't keep the entire Office suite open in the background by default so individual programs load faster.

Jim

-J-Mac (March 03, 2009, 06:05 PM)

Actually MS Office does startup an application at startup - they just don't put an icon in the system tray. Also MS loads all sorts of modules into memory with Windows at startup too support all kinds of software (whether you use it or not) - check you task manager.

As I understand it OpenOffice do not load the whol application into memory at startup they just load a helper which appears in the system tray - which many many programs do and given that it is a cross platform app it is not surprising that it has to rely on non-MS libraries etc. to run.

2564

General Software Discussion / Re: VMWare Workstation 6 released today!!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 03, 2009, 01:47 PM »

Ditto - how do you do it?

2565

Living Room / Re: Sony 35% software/products discount.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 03, 2009, 09:19 AM »

True - but the Vegas, Acid and SoundForge families of were inherited from SounicFoundry and are truly excellent applications. It is a shame you can only get them through SonyMedia but even so they are worth considering if you are into that sort of thing.

2566

Living Room / Sony 35% software/products discount.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 03, 2009, 05:02 AM »

OK love 'em or hate 'em Sony have some really good software (mostly from the now defunct SonicFoundry company).

If you have always wanted some of their software but found their prices a bit too rich they are currently offering 35% off everything for a limited period:

Offer ends soon! Save an additional 35% on anything you buy
in the Sony Creative Software Online Store*.

Forward to a Friend
*Offers begins March 2, 2009 and expires March 20, 2009. Discount will be reflected in shopping cart. Discount does not apply to shipping fees. Offer available only when purchasing directly from Sony Creative Software.

Go to

http://www.sonycreat...mo.asp?keycode=64191

for further details.

2567

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me back up a virus infected CD (!)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 03, 2009, 04:58 AM »

Holding down shift while external drives (USB and CDs as far as I know) stops autorun from functioning.

Just copying an infected file to your hard disc shouldn't cause a problem - its only if you run an infected application that you have issues.

2568

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 03, 2009, 04:54 AM »

I've always hated the QuickStart thing; why are we required to open the whole office suite just to work on a Writer document? I think that's a poor implementation. I prefer only opening what I need at any time.

Jim

-J-Mac (March 02, 2009, 10:17 PM)

You don't have to use quick start - jusrt click on the application directly.

2569

Developer's Corner / Re: Need a custom CMS in PHP

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 02, 2009, 04:57 PM »

What about WordPress - find a template and go.

2570

General Software Discussion / Re: wanted: alternative to FastStone Image Viewer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 01, 2009, 03:02 PM »

Just tried XNView again after a long break. Very nice (and less clunky than IrfanView IMHO)

2571

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 27, 2009, 11:34 AM »

It is easy to set up a file association if you just want to double click a file to load it.

It doesn't seem to load much slower from a hard drive partition than the installed version IME.

2572

General Software Discussion / Re: Collectorz.com... again!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 27, 2009, 10:35 AM »

Got an email today from Collectorz saying how much they love to hear from their customers and inviting me to fill in a survey.

What a lot of BS - I have no intention of massaging their egos and I know any negative comments will simply get ignored.

2573

General Software Discussion / Re: First looks at OpenOffice 3.1

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 27, 2009, 10:29 AM »

Why no just use Open Office Portable 3.0.1 - doesn't do anything to your system - just unzip and run.

The only issue I have found with it is that if you put it in a folder way down the tree it doesn't like the path lengths involved. Shove it in a folder in a partition root and it is fine.

2574

General Software Discussion / Re: Another Google WTF moment (or is it just me?)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2009, 06:53 AM »

Google UK finds 9,300,000 hits.

Maybe it is the DCMA in the US - now you can't say a celeb name without getting sued 

2575

Screenshot Captor / Re: Configuring Gmail in the SendTo

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 24, 2009, 02:24 PM »

You probably have Outlook Express or Windows Mail already installed on your system. Just enable POP in the GMAIL account and set up a pop account in the OE or WM.