Recent Posts

276

General Software Discussion / Re: Faststone Image Capture now Shareware

« Last post by mrainey on May 16, 2007, 06:27 AM »

I donated to FastStone a couple of times, because my wife and I were making heavy use of their programs.  Both times, the developer sent a warm note of thanks.  The second time he sent a complimentary license for Image Viewer (already freeware, but what the heck).

I think it's likely that not enough people were chipping in for what are some very nice programs.  A man has to eat.

277

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New Raxco Product : Defragmenter - Optimizer ; $9.99 until 2007-05-13

« Last post by mrainey on May 10, 2007, 12:37 PM »

I'm a long-time fan of PowerTools, but have learned never to upgrade to a new version until two or three bug-fix releases have made their appearance.

278

General Software Discussion / Re: Irfanview4 released

« Last post by mrainey on May 09, 2007, 04:36 PM »

I didn't like IrfanView either, much prefer FastStone.

279

Living Room / Re: The Citicorp Building Repairs: A Tale of Engineering and Ethics

« Last post by mrainey on May 05, 2007, 01:26 PM »

That's very interesting.  A lesson for all of us.

280

Living Room / Re: For DC Fans: Bring DC Forum to your Desktop for searching/browsing/etc.

« Last post by mrainey on April 28, 2007, 03:55 PM »

Does this forum downloading wind up costing Mouser some money?

281

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« Last post by mrainey on April 27, 2007, 10:24 AM »

I bought Disk Jockey two or three years ago based on a rabidly positive mention by John Dvorak - it was so buggy the developer agreed to refund my money.  My feelings about the program were later confirmed in a PC Mag review.

282

General Software Discussion / Re: U3 Portable Smart Drives pros and cons

« Last post by mrainey on April 25, 2007, 06:48 AM »

I never figured out any "pros" to U3, so uninstalled it.

283

General Software Discussion / Re: Sumatra PDF Viewer is cool, thin, and open-source

« Last post by mrainey on April 16, 2007, 10:20 PM »

I caved, just had to see for myself what 8.0 looked like.

A big download for sure, but less than .0002 of my total drive space, so I can cope.  Installation took under three minutes.

On my P4-2.4, the program by itself opens in two or three seconds - this after I moved the majority of the plugins to the "Optional" folder.  A hell of a lot faster than Firefox (which I love).

It opened a 60 MB file in eleven seconds.  Foxit opened the same file in five.  Scrolling of the graphics-laden file is smoother with Acrobat Reader.

The search feature in Reader looks fantastic, maybe worth the price of the lost speed all by itself.  I'm going to use it for a week or two, work out the kinks as best I can, and then decide.  So far, it doesn't feel at all "bloated" to me.

P.S.

I checked memory usage with that 60 MB file, opening and closing the file half a dozen times in each program.  Acrobat Reader started at 70MB and ended around 83.  Foxit started at 23 MB and ended at 28.  Acrobat Reader does use a lot of memory compared to Foxit, no doubt about that.

284

General Software Discussion / Re: Sumatra PDF Viewer is cool, thin, and open-source

« Last post by mrainey on April 16, 2007, 07:09 PM »

Good man.

285

General Software Discussion / Re: Sumatra PDF Viewer is cool, thin, and open-source

« Last post by mrainey on April 16, 2007, 06:01 PM »

I've been mostly happy with Foxit for quite a while now, but have read several places that Acrobat Reader 8 is very fast and works well.  Has anybody tried it?

286

Developer's Corner / Re: The Best Introductory Language

« Last post by mrainey on April 16, 2007, 12:03 PM »

would it be a good start? I dont know anything about it.

It could be.  Aurora is a language that can be programmed using procedural or object-oriented techniques, that's up to you.  The syntax isn't too different from C/C++.  The developer and a number of other smart folks are available on the forum to help with your questions.   It's relatively easy to learn and is capable of creating standalone executables that run without problems in all flavors of Windows, 95 through Vista.

Anyway, you can download the demo, look over the User Guide, check out the forum, and decide for yourself.  Or not. 

287

Developer's Corner / Re: The Best Introductory Language

« Last post by mrainey on April 16, 2007, 11:11 AM »

Can you give an object - oriented programming language which will be suitable in general meaning for a beginner?

Check out Aurora.

http://www.ionicwind.com

288

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows "safely remove device" thingie

« Last post by mrainey on April 15, 2007, 09:58 AM »

I've been lucky too, I guess.  I don't pay attention to the "thingy" at all.  What I do is watch the external device for apparent cessation of activity, count to ten, then unplug.  I've never had a problem.

Hibernation and system restore are both disabled, if that matters.

289

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« Last post by mrainey on April 14, 2007, 07:33 PM »

Nudel,

Wonderful post.  Sold me on the upgrade, even though I probably don't take advantage of 25% of the features in 8.2

290

Living Room / Re: Windows XP Annoyance: ToolTip pop-ups

« Last post by mrainey on April 05, 2007, 04:15 PM »

To Disable The Notification Area Balloon Tips
Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
1.   Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2.   Navigate to the following subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3.   Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips.
4.   Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0.
5.   Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.
These steps disable all Notification Area balloon tips for this user. There is no way to disable balloon tips for specific programs only.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307729

291

Living Room / Re: engineer joke

« Last post by mrainey on April 04, 2007, 09:49 PM »

you just try rebooting it and hope it starts working

And lots of times it does ...

292

Living Room / engineer joke

« Last post by mrainey on April 04, 2007, 08:47 PM »

There are four engineers traveling in a car; a mechanical engineer, a chemical engineer, an electrical engineer and a computer engineer. The car breaks down.

"Sounds to me as if the pistons have seized. We'll have to strip down the engine before we can get the car working again", says the mechanical engineer.

"Well", says the chemical engineer, "it sounded to me as if the fuel might be contaminated. I think we should clear out the fuel system."

"I thought it might be an grounding problem", says the electrical engineer, "or maybe a faulty plug lead."

They all turn to the computer engineer who has said nothing and say: "Well, what do you think?" "Ummm perhaps if we all get out of the car and get back in again?"

293

General Software Discussion / Re: nostalgia hour: old software you loved

« Last post by mrainey on March 04, 2007, 05:44 PM »

One program I really loved in my earlier computing years (~1985) was AutoCAD v1.xx.  It ran from two floppies on a Tandy 2000, and came with a great manual that taught me all I needed to know.  AutoCAD helped me earn a living for a number of years.

The Tandy wasn't too shabby either.

294

Living Room / Re: What was your favorite saturday morning cartoon?

« Last post by mrainey on February 18, 2007, 10:41 PM »

Rocky and Bullwinkle

295

General Software Discussion / Re: Geogebra - (free software) Calling all maths teachers!!!

« Last post by mrainey on February 12, 2007, 12:17 PM »

That looks really interesting.  Thanks for the link.

296

Living Room / Re: Amazing tabletop parts fabrication machine

« Last post by mrainey on January 24, 2007, 03:05 PM »

I saw a demo of a stereo lithography machine at our local community college.  It's basically a 3-D inkjet that uses molten plastic instead of ink.  You load a 3-D CAD file (an STL file) into the machine's computer and it "prints" the part in .010 thick layers.  After the plastic hardens, you have a perfectly formed 3-D copy of the part.  The detail and accuracy are incredible.

They use stereo lithography a lot in the machining/manufacturing world to develop prototypes in a day that would take months of lead time and many thousands of dollars the old way.  The machines pay for themselves in no time.

297

Living Room / Recipe for Java Cookies

« Last post by mrainey on January 20, 2007, 08:50 PM »

cookery for coders - don't know if mere scripters can handle this recipe.   

http://www.jibble.org/cookies.php

298

General Software Discussion / Re: Are any icon editor & manager decent priced?

« Last post by mrainey on January 18, 2007, 08:57 PM »

Another one.  There's a pro version for $39.95 and a free lite version.  Claims to be an editor and manager.

http://www.awicons.com/index.html

299

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Friday, January 12: ClipMate @ Bits du Jour

« Last post by mrainey on January 12, 2007, 10:21 AM »

I'll give Clipboard Help+Spell a good look.  I've been using Classic Clipboard for a number of years, but it's unsupported now and starting to show its age.

300

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Friday, January 12: ClipMate @ Bits du Jour

« Last post by mrainey on January 12, 2007, 08:53 AM »

So, ClipMate is a real good program?