Recent Posts

2676

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of Fineprint (Virtual Printer)

« Last post by rjbull on December 14, 2006, 08:02 AM »

I guess it is no different from why the printer manufacturers literally sell their snazzy looking printers which are gas ink guzzlers (at US$2,000 per gallon of ink)

It's just a commercial decision for them.

-patteo (December 14, 2006, 07:15 AM)

It's called the "razors and blades" business model...  i.e., sell the razor cheap, but make vast profits by selling blades.  In the printer market, they may have overdone it.

2677

Living Room / Re: New: Google Patent Search

« Last post by rjbull on December 14, 2006, 08:00 AM »

I think Delphion Research still has a free account, though it's very basic compared to the for-pay versions.  Delphion covers US, World, European, German and Japanese patents at present.  You can include INPADOC and Derwent patent information databases too but at considerable extra cost.

2678

Living Room / The Ultimate Legal Disclaimer

« Last post by rjbull on December 14, 2006, 05:10 AM »

Brought to my attention by the "Feedback" section in this week's New Scientist magazine, dated 16 December 2006.  This is the legal disclaimer for the Derbyshire Guide, in the narrow blue column at the left of the page:

This information is provided to the best of our knowledge. We have collected and collated it in good faith but we are not responsible for its accuracy and anyone intending to make use of this information is advised to check it out.

Well that's the legal stuff sorted.

Should you decline to comply with this warning, a leather winged demon of the night will soar from the deep malevolent caverns of the white peak into the shadowy moonlit sky and, with a thirst for blood on its salivating fangs, search the very threads of time for the throbbing of your heartbeat. Just thought you'd want to know that.

 

2679

Living Room / Re: wanted: free web-mail + forwarding

« Last post by rjbull on December 11, 2006, 07:29 AM »

Thanks, Arjen...

Does Lycos offer the forwarding that BrotherS wanted?  It certainly offers POP3 because they have some kind of tie-up with RITLabs, TheBat! authors.

2680

Living Room / Re: wanted: free web-mail + forwarding

« Last post by rjbull on December 11, 2006, 05:03 AM »

There's GMX.NET, but it's German.  Don't know if it has an English-language equivalent.

2681

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Treo-like "Alt" key for Windows

« Last post by rjbull on December 11, 2006, 04:58 AM »

Don't forget the freeware AllChars for entering accented letters, and for text expansion.  -  Ruffnekk, it must be good, it's made in The Netherlands 

AllChars

AllChars provides a quick, easy-to-remember way of creating accents like é Ü ç î æ and special characters like ƒ ² ‰ © £ ± ß ° 1/2 ¿ « » ™ „ in most Windows programs.

AllChars emulates the *nix Compose key on Windows.

AllChars v3.5 upwards supports macros: type a (short) name and AllChars will replace it with a (long) text.

AllChars is very easy and intuitive in usage and it is possible to adapt it to your wishes.

AllChars is FREEWARE.

AllChars works with Windows 3.11 or Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 and 2000.

You can also find several extended character map applications, better than the one built into Windows.

2682

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: The Holy Grail of text reading on a PC

« Last post by rjbull on December 07, 2006, 08:30 AM »

smooth scrolling text reader on PC/Windows

-MerleOne (December 05, 2006, 05:08 AM)

There is/was one...  but it's DOS, from 1989!  PC Magazine's SMOOTH.COM, from before the days they started charging.  Obviously won't read (in the sense I think you mean) PDFs or HTML, though you could try reducing PDF to plain text with XPDF and HTML to plain text with {insert your choice of tag stripper here}  But then, being an old-time DOS person, that's the way I think...

2683

Best E-mail Client / Re: changing email client - old mail goes?

« Last post by rjbull on December 07, 2006, 04:35 AM »

Another possibility is multi-format e-mail archive programs like
Aid4Mail by Fookes Software
and
ForKeeps Message Archiver
but of course it depends on whether they support your particular format - and new/unusual clients probably won't be...

2684

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: folder monitor with customizable action

« Last post by rjbull on December 07, 2006, 04:25 AM »

Check out DC posts on Log Monitor:

https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=6109.0
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1599.0
and maybe
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2471.0

2685

Post New Requests Here / Re: Keep a given windows to front

« Last post by rjbull on December 04, 2006, 09:27 AM »

I was wondering whether there already exists a utility that can make it so that a given windows can be kept on front as long as necessary, even if other windows below are selected.

-MerleOne (December 04, 2006, 08:54 AM)

Don't know if these would help - they're from TinyApps miscellaneous page, which contains the URLs;

PushPin 1.0  [22k] Keep any window on top of all other windows. 

Nail It! v1.10 [25k] Make windows"sticky" so that they remain above other windows.

ShideWin [3.5k]  Enumerates all top-level windows and allows you to show or hide them. Especially helpful for finding windows that were made invisible after a crash.

Handler [7k]  Window information tool

WinRoll 1.4 [7k]  Rollup windows to their title bar like Mac OS's WindowShade.

Showin 2.0 [9k]  Enable windows that have been disabled, unhide hidden windows and force windows to stay on top or be placed below others. Perhaps one of the most popular uses of this program is to display hidden password editbox fields (text behind the asterisks *****).


ResizeEnable [37k]  Turn non-resizeable windows into resizeable windows

PowerMenu 1.5.1 [49k]  Adds "Always On Top", "Minimize To Tray", "Priority" and "Transparency" (W2K/XP only) sub menus to all top level system menus.

PowerPro, the mighty yet free macro program/Windows controler/enhancer also contains a command to keep windows on top (If I'm reading it right).

2686

General Software Discussion / Re: Use Gmail to Generate Unlimited E-mail Addresses to identify spam source

« Last post by rjbull on December 01, 2006, 08:55 AM »

I use SpamGourmet and Dodgeit.  Both are super. http://www.dodgeit.com/

-bearbottoms (December 01, 2006, 07:02 AM)

Thanks!

I see you posted a link to this thread in alt.comp.freeware - thanks for the attribution to DC.

2687

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?

« Last post by rjbull on December 01, 2006, 05:15 AM »

thank you to rjbull for the information about how to remember shortcuts

-daskeil (November 30, 2006, 08:48 AM)

You're welcome    But the thanks are really to Harrie for introducing John Knowles' system to DC.

2688

General Software Discussion / Re: Use Gmail to Generate Unlimited E-mail Addresses to identify spam source

« Last post by rjbull on December 01, 2006, 05:06 AM »

Anyone using spamgourmet - free disposable email addresses, strong spam blocker, short learning curve for disposable, one-time or "n"-times usable e-mail addresses?

2689

General Software Discussion / Re: Wanted Photo Slideshow on DVD (1000s of photos)

« Last post by rjbull on November 28, 2006, 05:13 AM »

People who do computerised slide shows tell me the best thing is ProShow Gold, $69.  There's also a non-gold edition at $29 that I haven't heard of before.

2690

General Software Discussion / Re: My favorite software! What's yours?

« Last post by rjbull on November 21, 2006, 09:20 AM »

Gyula's Navigator : I use this file manager at work and I have never found one that has a great combination of features that I need:  It is freeware, is completely portable

-Tekzel (November 11, 2006, 10:46 AM)

Tekzel,

Do you have an old version with a different license, or work in a college?  I just looked at their license terms, and it's only free for personal or educational use, otherwise $20 for 5 licenses.  Cheap, but not free for business use.

2691

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Desktop Teleporter

« Last post by rjbull on November 15, 2006, 10:37 AM »

one thing i can think of is having it pop up when a new file is created on the desktop and ask user if they want to add datestamp + short comment to the file (like name of site it came from).
or maybe be able to quickly type in a note for the file which would be stored as FILENAME_note.text

-mouser (November 15, 2006, 08:45 AM)

And/or add the comment to a 4DOS-style DESCRIPT.ION file.

2692

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?

« Last post by rjbull on November 09, 2006, 04:17 AM »

I would welcome other tips on how to device memorable shortcuts!

-daskeil (November 09, 2006, 03:40 AM)

daskeil,

Take a look at John Knowles' ABCZ Typing Abbreviation System for a good formalized system for memorable shortcuts.  Accent on bashing out text, rather than launching programs, but principle seems to apply.  Found it via a posting from Harrie here on DC.  Related links:

Donation Coder threads, which deal with text expanders, completers and the like:

jgpaiva's abbreviations importer
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2598.0
link to jgpaiva's AHK tools https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=3461.0

Harrie's review of Instant Text, and following posts
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2631.0


Word AutoCompleter
https://www.donation...1036.msg6713#msg6713
(mentions IntelliComplete, AutoTyping, LetMeType, AllChars, Type Pilot)

External links:

Productivity Talk - Harrie's own forum site for (primarily) Medical Transcriptionists
http://www.productivitytalk.com/

Jon Knowles site on typing productivity
http://home.earthlin...net/~agjon/index.htm

2693

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Simple timer/Stop watch app.

« Last post by rjbull on November 08, 2006, 08:39 AM »

I need a little program where i can just type in 38 min and 9 sec and press start, and it will start to count down and the play a audio file or alarm bell when the time is up.

I can't find this ANYWHERE online.

-cowcrombie (November 08, 2006, 01:50 AM)

If that's all you want, try Micro Egg Timer as noted above.

2694

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature suggestion: search and replace

« Last post by rjbull on November 07, 2006, 04:57 AM »

... I'd like to be able to define a series of the actions that CHS can take, and have that group appear as a single menu item when you click CHS's icon, and have it apply them all in one pass.

-rjbull (November 06, 2006, 06:09 AM)

If I'm reading this right, you're suggesting a scripting language be developed for CHS?  Like designing an API, that's a really big job too!... 

-superticker (November 06, 2006, 11:02 AM)

No, simpler than that.  I'll try to explain it a bit more clearly this time  CHS and Clippy both offer you numerous actions.  Both treat each action as separate from all others, i.e., stripping quotes, reflowing paragraphs, reinserting quotes, search-and-replace, changing case, are all separate things.  This is necessary, of course.  What Clippy offers (as I understand it) is a way of bundling a user-selected group of these together into a single menu choice, so you can perform several actions in one pass, without needing a series of mouse clicks or menu choices to invoke them individually in sequence.

2695

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature suggestion: search and replace

« Last post by rjbull on November 06, 2006, 06:09 AM »

Are you saying you would prefer to have a glossary of established string replacements (equivalents)?

-superticker (November 04, 2006, 08:54 PM)

Yes, but Mouser has kindly drawn my attention to the possibility of using external programs to do this.  Thanks, Mouser! 

I'm wondering where one should draw the line between what AceText does and what a clipboard enhancer (like CHS) does?

I'm wondering too.  I was really thinking of Clippy, which is primarily an e-mail quote fixer.  CHS can do that too, but if it's all you want to do (in a given session), Clippy is lower-drag.  Now I'm thinking that maybe it's better to keep them separate pieces of software, though if you can only have one, CHS does vastly more. 

Or, maybe, arrange that CHS has modes so that it can act like Clippy does?  If you were just using CHS to clean up quotes and reflow paragraphs, it would be nice to have a way of doing that with fewer clicks or menu choices to get to the action.  So I'd like to be able to define a series of the actions that CHS can take, and have that group appear as a single menu item when you click CHS's icon, and have it apply them all in one pass.  Does that make sense?

2696

General Software Discussion / Re: IE7 Rant

« Last post by rjbull on November 05, 2006, 02:50 PM »

The company I work for has issued an edict banning people from installing IE7, because it doesn't work with their Intranet, nor with the corporate centralised buying system.  So much for compatibility...

2697

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Feature suggestion: search and replace

« Last post by rjbull on November 04, 2006, 03:17 PM »

there is powerful search and replace within a single clip, but do you meant for a whole set of clips?

-mouser (November 04, 2006, 02:52 PM)

Sorry, I'd overlooked that, but I meant the ability to apply several search-and-replace pairs in one pass on one clip, so you could change many strings in one go.  If there needs to be a limit on the number of pairs, maybe 30 should be enough.

2698

General Review Discussion / Re: Review suggestions

« Last post by rjbull on November 04, 2006, 03:08 PM »

1. Mind-mapping and diagramming software.

-tranglos (October 22, 2006, 06:34 PM)

KeyNote no longer enough?   

Marek, nobody's found the definitive notekeeper, but KeyNote generated you immense goodwill.  Take a look at this DonationCoder thread: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

Only 349 replies so far   

2699

Clipboard Help+Spell / Feature suggestion: search and replace

« Last post by rjbull on November 04, 2006, 02:41 PM »

Thought I'd posted this, but must have only hit Preview instead of Post.

Mouser,

Not sure how useful it would be, but how about search and replace?  I'm not thinking of regular expressions here, just simple syntax like the basic mode of "Ministry of Truth" (which can do a whole lot more):

atm=at the moment
fwiw=for what it's worth
etc.

2700

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Old CHS for Win98?

« Last post by rjbull on November 04, 2006, 02:35 PM »

who has win98 and feels daring ?

-mouser (November 01, 2006, 06:56 PM)

Errrrm...  well, on a quick (like 30-second) test, at least the basic features seem to work