Recent Posts

2851

Living Room / Re: Notebook display issue - ATI Radeon 200M

« Last post by Darwin on April 10, 2008, 04:09 PM »

UPDATE: Cheque is in the mail! Staples have decided not to fix the notebook and are buying it from us... We have $725 toward a new one. Exactly half what I paid for it almost three years ago, but for $849 I can get a very nicely spec'd Duo Core 2 Centrino machine with dedicated graphics and a much smaller footprint (the one being replaced weighted over 8 lbs. - a newer centrino machine will come in at around 6...).

Pretty happy! Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'm really glad I didn't try to have the power connector fixed locally!

2852

Living Room / Re: Do you collect anything?

« Last post by Darwin on April 08, 2008, 11:00 PM »

I can't believe I forgot books! They are my oldest passion, and I still buy and read 100's of them a year. I'd be lost without books...

2853

General Software Discussion / Re: GAOTD & Virus

« Last post by Darwin on April 08, 2008, 09:13 PM »

Being an educated downloader is one of the best ways to defend yourself. You have to research every application.

-app103 (April 08, 2008, 01:26 PM)

Very nicely put! I spent today trying to rescue my friends' notebook and desktop, which are networked together and were both INFESTED with spyware, adware, malware, and trojans. Truly frightening. I stupidly used one of their old thumbdrives to transfer a couple of files from my notebook to one of the two machines. The dratted thumbdrive had a trojan on it! Thank goodness for having good security in place - I subjected my notebook to several full sweeps and reboots AFTER the trojan was discovered and spanked, just to be sure. All is well. Anyway, moral of the story is that these people are fairly computer literate but simply aren't very knowledgable about the perils of living on the virtual edge, as evidenced by the trojan on the thumbdrive, which was literally dug out of the back of a drawer, not having been used in months...

2854

Living Room / Re: Do you collect anything?

« Last post by Darwin on April 08, 2008, 09:03 PM »

Where do I start?

Artie Shaw recordings
Beatles albums and bootlegs
Wristwatches
Pocketwatches
Fountain pens
Software

I'm really only actively collecting software these days... I've listed my passions in the order in which I acquired them - the Artie Shaw obsession goes back to when I was 7 or 8 years old, software to my early 20's (and going strong almost 20 years later!).

2855

General Software Discussion / Re: Power Desk 7

« Last post by Darwin on April 08, 2008, 09:01 AM »

Thanks for the comments! I don't have PD 6 installed anymore - reinstalled it to test it out again and was experiencing random BSOD afterward (in fairness I had also installed the latest Direct Folders almost immediately after installing PD 6 so it could have been it that was the problem - I uninstalled both and no problems since).

I am sort of tempted by PD 7 for $19.95...

2856

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Find and remove duplicate files

« Last post by Darwin on April 07, 2008, 05:15 PM »

I, too, am intrigued by the folder to folder comparison - I have a hard time deciding what files to keep and what to delete and make my decision by referencing the files locations on my harddrive... This would save some work!

Looks interesting 

2857

General Software Discussion / Re: GAOTD & Virus

« Last post by Darwin on April 07, 2008, 05:10 PM »

OK... now you're scaring me! Can you provide a link to the other forum? I'd like to read more about this!

Cheers,

Mike

2858

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: TopazMoment on GAOTD

« Last post by Darwin on April 07, 2008, 03:36 PM »

Change the options for enhancement?

-cranioscopical (April 07, 2008, 01:22 PM)

2859

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

« Last post by Darwin on April 07, 2008, 06:46 AM »

new beta supports thumbnails as well

-kartal (April 03, 2008, 03:04 PM)

OMFG! Gotta try it (again) now. I installed the latest Copernic Desktop Search just for this feature yesterday and no matter how much they harp about speed gains I still find it s-l-o-w!

-nosh (April 07, 2008, 06:28 AM)

You should give Archivarius a shot if you are interested in searching file content as well... I use the two together - awesome combination!

2860

Living Room / Re: BEAT THIS! ;)

« Last post by Darwin on April 06, 2008, 08:40 PM »

f0dder

Renegade and you at least have a  semi -plausable excuse.

-ljbirns (April 06, 2008, 08:03 PM)

2861

Living Room / Re: BEAT THIS! ;)

« Last post by Darwin on April 06, 2008, 07:55 PM »

Are you CRAZY ?????

-ljbirns (April 06, 2008, 06:43 PM)

Definitely up for debate! Er,... who are you replying to - Renegade, f0dder myself, or all of us?!

2862

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: TopazMoment on GAOTD

« Last post by Darwin on April 06, 2008, 06:12 PM »

94% thumbs up on GAOTD IS massive. I'll have to give this a look, thanks Dormouse 

2863

Living Room / Re: BEAT THIS! ;)

« Last post by Darwin on April 06, 2008, 06:10 PM »

My ISP went down at some point while I was at work on Wednesday and didn't come up again until Thursday evening, so I was internet-less for about 36 hours. I actually quite enjoyed the time except for one disturbing thing: I couldn't do anything on the computer. Without the internet I found I couldn't concentrate when I was within a metre of the thing!

2864

General Software Discussion / Re: Power Desk 7

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2008, 10:40 AM »

Hi Carol - good to know about Word files as this indicates that they're shipping PD 7 without the latest Stellent viewers. I'm on XP Pro and am using Dopus 9 as my default file management solution. I don't really have any specific questions about PD7... I guess I'm just wondering if there have been any other changes made beyond the four new features? I can see that the GUI looks unchanged but what about speed? I re-installed PD 6 recently to take a look at it when the upgrade to 7 was announced and was dismayed at how long it took to open up. Anyway, none of this is urgent! I'm sure there will be a review posted somewhere on the internet soon.

2865

General Software Discussion / Re: Power Desk 7

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2008, 08:48 AM »

I'm with you, Dan, I'd STILL like to read a review or hear a real user's opinion about this upgrade.

@Curt - did  you actually buy the upgrade to PD7? If so, my questions have been answered!

I'd add to the list of four things you get for the upgrade price updated Stellent viewers (or at least I presume that they will have been updated for this release), which should allow you to preview Office 2007 and the latest StarOfice/OpenOffice.org formats, amongst others. This is irrelevant to me as I already have the latest Stellent viewers, but still...

2866

General Software Discussion / Re: Easiest replacement for windows system restore?

« Last post by Darwin on April 03, 2008, 09:48 PM »

+1 for the business edition of Acronis TrueImage (TrueImage Echo Workstation). I've not had a single problem with it and the maintenance contract is cheaper than upgrading the consumer version every year. Anyway, it's been rock solid for the two years I've been using it... had no real complaints about the consumer version, either, but haven't used it (consumer version) since v.9.

2867

General Software Discussion / Re: post your 5 most used applications in 2007 here!

« Last post by Darwin on April 02, 2008, 11:32 AM »

Total Launchbar*

-Rover (April 01, 2008, 10:41 PM)

Do you mean TrueLaunchbar?

2868

General Software Discussion / Re: RANT: High Software Prices!

« Last post by Darwin on April 01, 2008, 11:48 AM »

So, in an attempt to revive this thread. What does everyone think of the new subscription based windows services that are coming with Windows 7? You pay for the base OS and then addon what you want as far as additional small features.

-Josh (April 01, 2008, 11:36 AM)

My thoughts on this are NSFW or children! I am not a big fan of Apple, but their pricing scheme for OS X is the "way forward" in my opinion. Of course, I may be proven wrong, but I figure that all the proposed scheme for Win 7 is going to do is make getting the full featured version more expensive. I'd rather, and would gladly, pay $100 - $150 as a flat fee for the complete, full featured operating system than pay, say, $75 for a gutted version and then per feature on top of that. Unless they keep the cost of the add-on features low, it's going to be prohibitively expensive to get all of them... I'm buying an operating system, not ordering a handbuilt car.

2869

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 31, 2008, 04:42 PM »

Thanks Grorgy - you can't use both together anyway... the 35% off discount code is NEWVC35 (publicly displayed here: http://www.v-com.com/), if you type that into the Promotion field for the upgrade, the upgrade price of $19.95 is replaced by a new price of $25.97.

2870

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 31, 2008, 04:04 PM »

And do you really want to buy from a company that seems not to be advertising the availability of v7 at the same time as it is actively selling (special offer, Bitsdujour etc) v6 at a discount price?

-Dormouse (March 31, 2008, 12:25 PM)

In fairness (though this could be construed as both an argument for and against what you're saying here), Avanquest has been flogging PowerDesk Pro 6 for $9.95 for over a year. You'll find at least one thread about the discount on the DC forum.

both the upgrade price and the welcome to the new website discount

-Grorgy (March 31, 2008, 02:36 PM)

What's the "welcome to the new website discount"? I haven't seen that before. Like you, I picked up PowerDesk Pro 6 for next to nothing and would consider upgrading if I can do so for a pittance as well...

I guess we are well and truly off-topic here now... 

2871

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 31, 2008, 11:44 AM »

So... has anyone actually taken the plunge on this one (PD 7)? Is it much of an update? Doesn't look like it unless one is running Vista and/or wants the latest Stellent viewers (I have QuickView Plus 10, so this doesn't apply to me). Anything about this new release that makes it a "must have" update? I can't see much in the "What's New" section that makes this look particularly compelling...

2872

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 31, 2008, 12:23 AM »

Yes - Curt is right: even with the update, the latest version will be from a few years ago, so the Stellent viewers will be out of date (sort of - they're still fine for Office 2003 docs, etc.).

2873

Living Room / Re: We need to do something about Skrommel.. but what?

« Last post by Darwin on March 31, 2008, 12:19 AM »

So let's bomb him with dollars and tell him how we feel! (my $1 and my message has been sent, your turn now)

-app103 (March 30, 2008, 08:08 PM)

I'm in... done!

-cranioscopical (March 30, 2008, 09:00 PM)

Me too! Good idea, App 

2874

Post New Requests Here / Re: A folder when opened in "icon view" will run the application in it

« Last post by Darwin on March 30, 2008, 10:18 AM »

The feature in Vista Start Menu is called "One-click Launch" and is described like this:

Usually, you first have to find the program folder in the menu and then use its submenu to start the program itself. We made it easier! Vista Start Menu will automatically search through the list of folders and decide which program is the main one in each folder! View Flash Demo >> After that, you will be able to open the menu and click the necessary folder to start the program you need immediately. If you need access to additional files, just wait until the submenu

Is an expanded version of this what you are after?

2875

Living Room / Re: We need to do something about Skrommel.. but what?

« Last post by Darwin on March 30, 2008, 09:43 AM »

How do you solve a problem like Skrommel?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Skrommel?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell him
Many a thing He ought to understand
But how do you make him stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Skrommel?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

-Darwin (March 29, 2008, 04:45 PM)

Darwin: This needs to be converted into an audible file!   

-Perry Mowbray (March 30, 2008, 12:35 AM)

I wonder what union scale is for singing nuns these days?

Glad you liked it - I read mouser's subject line and the connection was immediate