Recent Posts

2626

Living Room / Re: Cuil search engine

« Last post by Darwin on July 28, 2008, 11:06 AM »

Heh, heh I just tried it and it keeps timing out while trying the search. I expect they're a bit overloaded at the moment!

2627

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Statistics for Excel

« Last post by Darwin on July 28, 2008, 11:04 AM »

- there is only one installer, meaning you cannot reinstall tomorrow (unless...).

-Curt (July 28, 2008, 11:01 AM)

Yeah... I noticed the single installer - all things considered, I think I'll pass.

2628

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Statistics for Excel

« Last post by Darwin on July 28, 2008, 10:40 AM »

BTW can't get to any of the relevant webpages for a description of StatsFi... so their webpage appears to be down again (or overloaded?).

PS thanks for the note, Curt. You're right about likely finding the slowness annoying. However, if it proved to be more powerful than statistixl, I *might* be tempted to install it and keep it disabled for most of the time. Having said that, I now recall installing StatPlus (a standalone stats package from the same company) when it was offered on GOTD in December and it didn't last long, so likely the Excel plug-in won't offer more...

2629

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Statistics for Excel

« Last post by Darwin on July 28, 2008, 10:25 AM »

I have a licensed copy of statistixl - has anyone tried both? Just wondering if the GOTD offering is worth installing as I already have a number of Excel (2007) add-ins installed already... including ASAP -> +1 to tinjaw's testimonial about it  : no Excel installation should be without it!

2630

Find And Run Robot / Re: too many updates !!!

« Last post by Darwin on July 28, 2008, 10:22 AM »

Heh, heh - I usually complain about there NOT being updates to apps that I use. Still, I take pitzelberger's point...

2631

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by Darwin on July 28, 2008, 10:20 AM »

PS kidding aside, that IS and AWESOME list, Pierre 

2632

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by Darwin on July 28, 2008, 10:19 AM »

Actually I have very little merit.

-PPLandry (July 27, 2008, 07:01 PM)

2633

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: I really need a XoftSpySE license key

« Last post by Darwin on July 24, 2008, 09:26 PM »

dstarr - sounds to me like you either didn't actually purchase a license, but downloaded a warez copy OR you purchased a licence from somebody who sold you an illegal copy. If the latter is the case, contact the vendor. If that doesn't work, file a complaint against them. Finally, please don't write in caps! My eyes are in pain after reading your post.

2634

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 19, 2008, 11:55 PM »

SearchInform does look nice, Curt. I gave it a whirl, but uninstalled it because:

• I have a licenced copy of X1 Pro
  
• Ditto for dtSearch with Spider
  
• Ditto for Archivarius

 

Couple the above point with the two following:

1. The free version doesn't appear to index e-mail
2. I moved my documents folder from its default location to a partition and SearchInform couldn't find it... Rendered it essentially useless for me.

And I wasn't too motivated to dig any deeper. I would, however, be interested in hearing from anyone that has/does use it. If I was still actively looking for an indexing solution I would be giving SearchInform serious consideration.

2635

General Software Discussion / Re: AccellMan and More now Free

« Last post by Darwin on July 19, 2008, 09:21 AM »

I had a healthy correspondence going with the developer over a year ago (right after version 3.5 was released) and he was very helpful and positive. Sad to see that development hasn't gone forward since then - presumably his life intruded! AccelMan 3.5 is quite buggy, sadly, though nothing that I turned up was dangerous per se, the issues are with things like GUI continuity (great, now I sound like Chris Pirillo) and rendering. Only example I can remember off the top of my head is that all of the folder icons in the tree view would randomly move the MIDDLE of the text, obliterating it. Anyway, it's a very powerful file manager and if you can live with the idiosyncracies, an EXCELLENT value as free ware. I hope the author finds some time to get 3.6 out the door.

2636

General Software Discussion / Re: OH NO! Its the end of Windows 3.11!

« Last post by Darwin on July 11, 2008, 09:05 AM »

I love 3.11 WfW. I have a virtual machine set to run it and still play with it sometimes. It's how I cut my teeth with windows. Before that, it was all DOS or some terrible Tandy (RadioShack) thing, the name of which I can no longer remember.

2637

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for July 11th, 2008 - Codename "Revenge of the Mini-Review"

« Last post by Darwin on July 11, 2008, 09:03 AM »

I love the newsletters and just want to say that I think that this is the best one yet. GREAT work, mouser 

2638

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 08, 2008, 07:53 AM »

In the interest of being complete, I re-installed Archivarius a couple of weeks back. I no longer remember why - there was some file type or another that X1 and dtSearch didn't handle. At any rate, I keep the indexes for both dtSearch and Archivarius up to date but don't have either scheduled and rarely run either of them. Nice to know they're there, though.

I had occasion to use dtSearch to search a folder on a different computer on my network recently - very impressive, didn't take that long and allowed me to preview the results. It wasn't/isn't installed on the other computer. AFAICT, both Archivarius and X1 require that I install the application on the other computers on my network to take advantage of this.

2639

General Software Discussion / Re: Help! Good flowcharting sw needed

« Last post by Darwin on July 08, 2008, 07:38 AM »

I bought it too, Curt (is anyone surprised  ). I've been struggling with ConceptDraw, but EDraw is much simpler, and yet seems more powerful. Anyway, am happily flow-charting my PhD at the moment.

2640

General Software Discussion / Re: In need of a "system startup manager"

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 11:58 PM »

I'd just use a combination of the following: create folder of links to your CPU intensive programs on your desktop and disable them from starting and use startup delayer to stagger everything else (I suspect this is what you're meaning in your post above).

2641

Living Room / Re: Woot.com Bag of Crap post

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 11:55 PM »

+1 for the "keep 'em coming" sentiment! That was a great read, Carl, thank you for sharing it with us. With over 150,000 members, there's got to be at least one other woot.com crap collector. I like Chris' idea of a crap exchange... Might even get in on the outhouse floor, so to speak, and buy a box of crap just so I can participate. But then, most people that know me know that I am full of crap anyway... 

2642

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 06:21 PM »

Nice. I incorporated your suggestions and figure the search took about 10 secs. (I also disabled the "display search progress" option) and turned up 537 files 

The big difference in speed is due to turning off looking inside archives (I'm talking about searching for files, not text) and I enabled including folder names in the search. That's a nice feature and one that I will no disable again as it substantially reduces the number of "hits" to wade through. I'll also see if I can disable a similar option in my other non-indexing search applications (without looking I am pretty sure I can in FileLocator Pro and can't in SearchGT).

2643

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 06:06 PM »

Vincenzo - you didn't come across as defensive at all. I've been off-line all day so must apologise for not responding sooner. I'll play around with the settings that you suggested and get back to you.

2644

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 10:31 AM »

Hi vinc64, thank you for your quick reply and a belated welcome to DC  It's alway GREAT to see developers on these boards discussing their programs.

LookDisk didn't return as many hits on a Filename search as did SearchGT and File Locator Pro. SearchGT doesn't search within files (ie text) and File Locator Pro's search within files feature is as slow as molasses.

I have a lot of files and folders with "neanderthal" in the name and tested all three applications with that as a search term. SearchGT returned 532 files in 10.7 seconds, FileLocator Pro 532 files in 11 seconds (only gives full seconds, so I *think* pretty much neck and neck with SearchGT) and LookDisk returned only 387 "hits" in a much longer period of time. There is no time counter provided with the program, but I started the search and after about 10 seconds though I'd try SearchGT. It completed its scan before LookDisk did so I then repeated the experiment with FileLocator Pro and it completed its scan before LookDisk did as well.

The interface is well laid out and the program easy to use. I didn't mean to damn the duplicate file finding feature with faint praise. It worked well, considering I simply set it to find all duplicate files on drive E without specifying file type, so I wasn't surprised that it was taking so long! When I stopped it it had found a number of duplicate files. In fact they were a surprise to me. I use Duplicate Killer Pro and have always specificed file type and a much narrower location to search so it has never turned these up for me.

Anyway, as mentioned, I think LookDisk is well worth considering, it's just not for me as I've already got tools that duplicate its feature set.

2645

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 09:49 AM »

Final comment on LookDisk - its uninstaller doesn't appear in Add/Remove Programs. You have to run the uninstaller via a shortcut in the start menu folder for the program or directly from the Program Files folder. The uninstaller works, but I like to use Your Uninstaller for a more thorough purging of installed files and registry entries. Not the end of the world, but I'd rather see the uninstaller accessible from Add/Remove...

A niggle, I know 

2646

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 09:41 AM »

Well, duplicate file finding is not bad. However, I'm already uninstalling LookDisk. As mentioned above, I already have tools that accomplish the same tasks and they do them better at this point as well. It looks like I'm wrong about LookDisk being "young" as the version I have instlaled is 4.1, unless of course the first public release was 4?!

I think it is worth a try for anyone looking for an all-in-one tool covering filename and text search (without indexing), duplicate file searching, and basic disk information. However, note that there is no regular expression support that I could find.

YMMV

EDIT: added brackets around "without indexing". Leaving them out REALLY changed the meaning of the sentence  Hope it's clearer now!

2647

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 09:32 AM »

Hmmm... text search is thorough, but takes a VERY long time. On the plus side, text search doesn't lock up the programme and doesn't render my computer unusable. I'm going to try the duplicate file finder function and then I'll likely be uninstalling. A very young application with some promise, but as may be evident from this thread, I've got all bases that it covers, er, covered! multiple times already 

2648

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Darwin on July 02, 2008, 08:27 AM »

vinc64 - LookDisk is featured on BitsduJour today and I've downloaded and installed. I note, however, this line from the LookDisk homepage:

You may download the feature limited trial, and evaluate the software for as long as you need

Which is found here: http://www.iconico.com/lookDisk/

In truth, I can see no limitations on the trial that I am currently running. However, I am disappointed, after a very brief test run admittedly, with the speed and thoroughness of the file search function. It is MUCH slower than either FileLocator Pro or SearchGT and only returns about 2/3's the number files.

Will give text a shot now...

2649

General Software Discussion / Re: Evernote Beta now Open

« Last post by Darwin on June 30, 2008, 10:37 PM »

Please, forgive us for our sins, oh bearded one 

2650

General Software Discussion / Re: SuperboyAC's DC blog #2 (Live Search feature in software)

« Last post by Darwin on June 27, 2008, 08:27 PM »

Just press the Shift key as you type and you are immediately and incrementally put in the proper directory. The same works for files in the File View. Or, you can use the Spell search function (just enter the "|" character). I agree that not all those extremely powerful options are obvious at first, but generally it pays off to browse throughout the help file and learn some of those. You'll reach an extraordinary productivity!

-yksyks (June 27, 2008, 12:25 PM)

Awesome - thanks yksyks