Recent Posts

2876

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« Last post by zridling on March 29, 2006, 11:07 AM »

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Microsoft Word was subscription-based, but only an example of how a developer who's on a preset schedule to get the next upgrade out might repeatedly insert frivolous and superfluous features into their programs instead of either leaving a good version in place and fixing existing bugs or adding needed features to an upgrade. There are exceptions. One developer who has a yearly upgrade model waited 16 months to get his next upgrade out, giving everyone four months for free. However, users were grateful because it was a solid upgrade that had been thoroughly tested, and he was happy that almost everyone chose to pay the modest fee for another year of updates.

One other gripe. I recently moved and my IP address changed. But with all the "check for updates" and "phone-home" features added to many programs, I've already had to dispute my licenses with several vendors. Two have denied me upgrades saying I'm not the same Zaine Ridling, despite having all my original emails, purchase receipt, license number, and email address. One even said, I can't let you have the update (not even an upgrade), but I will allow you to buy the update for the upgrade price of $29.95. What a rip!

2877

General Software Discussion / Re: what kind of keyboard you use?

« Last post by zridling on March 29, 2006, 11:07 AM »

Same here — MS Natural Keyboard Multimedia. Love it, and every time I love something, a corporation kills it. Microsoft no longer makes it. I used to buy two keyboards, but by the time one wore out, there was something better and cheaper. Anyone remember the heavy duty North___(?) keyboards? They were awesome.

2878

General Software Discussion / Why subscription-models for software suck

« Last post by zridling on March 27, 2006, 10:52 PM »

I've ranted about this in other places, but I truly hate the idea of subscription-based licensing. I'm all for programmers getting paid, but the subscription model tends to force developers to insert frivolous and superfluous features into their programs — look no further than Microsoft Word — rather than just developing the program. Sure, some years development is thin; others it's fast and furious, all of which I'm willing to pay for when the program is made better, not on some arbitrary 1-year or 2-year model. Ah, it just bugs me.

2879

Living Room / Re: Living for 41 hours in Wal-Mart

« Last post by zridling on March 27, 2006, 10:45 PM »

Like him, I find myself doing a "Monk" moment and straightening the shelves of the world's most evil retailer. Wal-Mart management are some of the most vile and evil humans ever spawned. If you don't believe me, check the store memos on any given day.

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Official Announcements / Re: Revitalizing the Reviews - Everyone Read in Please

« Last post by zridling on March 27, 2006, 10:38 PM »

My own reviews would be limited to my interests, and perhaps that's a good model for others, too, like myself. However, the programmers here are on a whole higher level of understanding when it comes a wide variety of software, and able to intelligently talk about their more complex and arcane features. For example, although I'm deeply involved with and interested in text editors, I could not have written the in-depth review/s that mouser did on the subject; I just don't know enough about code folding and other, high-end features to write about them with ease.

On the other hand, like nudone, if graphics — or perhaps word processing, spreadsheets, or disk management — software is your expertise (i.e., love), then you have an advantage that can be shared with the rest of us. Same is true if you develop an interest say, in some utility software or outlining software or what have you, for example.

Review categories can naturally be expanded; for example, when mouser followed up on his text editor review to update many programs there, and nudone's recent extended review of DonationCoder.com's Graphics winner, ACDSee, which has now evolved toward professional photographers with ACDSee Pro. Those kinds of reviews are not only enormous time savers for users, but are able to show you why certain programs deserve our attention.

For my Archive Tools review, most of my time (literally a entire month) was spent testing the programs' features, and then retesting and retesting in comparison with each other. I also tried to read every review I could find online of archivers, and detect their weaknesses and strengths. Most reviews were interested in only one thing — compression ratio — and nothing else. But compression ratio alone doth not make a great archive program. Thus, there's a measure of judgment that one must bring to the final review.

Fortunately, when I had questions or needed help with certain archivers, someone here in the DonationCoder.com family came to my aid, and mouser himself is a lifesaver, so you won't be alone. These are some things to consider, and if you do decide to dive in and write a review, you'll learn more than you ever expected to, and have a blast!

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Living Room / Great Software blog has moved

« Last post by zridling on March 24, 2006, 02:07 AM »

Just a heads up, I've moved my Great Software blog to blogdrive over blogger and being self-hosted. I tried WordPress, but for what I wanted it to do, it would have cost me money to host it properly, so I gave in. Oh, and just a warning, the title is deceiving: I talk about all kinds of crap, like any blogger worth their salt should! So drop in and set me straight.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Favorite Text Editor, a revisit

« Last post by zridling on March 24, 2006, 02:02 AM »

Although I've used EditPlus and EmEditor quite a bit, and even PSPad for a while, I keep going back to UltraEdit because of its text and file handling abilities. No other editor can open large files with ease, and though most people work with smaller files, my contract work has me working with large database files, and among those Gb-sized monsters, UltraEdit is a boon.

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Living Room / Re: How long will it take you to adopt Windows Vista as your OS?

« Last post by zridling on March 22, 2006, 11:36 PM »

Carol, from the several beta testers I've spoken with, they all love Office 12 once they got accustomed to the lack of a toolbar, which in their words did not take long at all. It does provide backward compatibility, and I spend most of my day between UltraEdit, Microsoft Word, and Excel. Office 2003 was a great bug fix of 2002, but little changed except for speed and stability.

I'll probably buy the premium version of Vista to take advantage of the interface improvements, and have Office 12 within a new OS would be cool. I just don't want to buy two versions, first a 32-bit, and then have to turn around in 2-3 years and buy a 64-bit version of Vista. That would bite, so I'm likely waiting until SP1 comes out.

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General Software Discussion / Favorite Text Editor, a revisit

« Last post by zridling on March 22, 2006, 11:26 PM »

What's your favorite text editor and why?

It seems people tend to use different wildly different tools for different jobs, but most tend to break down between two camps: lean and quick vs. ultra kitchen sink. Confession: DonationCoder.com's kickass Text Editor Review was what first lured me to the site way back. So I'm just interested in where everyone is at with their text editor. I noticed Veign listed EmEditor as his fav on his blog.

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Living Room / Re: How long will it take you to adopt Windows Vista as your OS?

« Last post by zridling on March 21, 2006, 10:33 PM »

I intend to wait until I upgrade to my next computer, and thus have a fresh start with Vista. As others have noted, XP is so stable at this point that I'm neither compelled nor anxious to switch. However, Microsoft Office 12 could change everything.

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Living Room / Long time gone; now I'm back

« Last post by zridling on March 18, 2006, 06:06 PM »

Soon after writing the Best Archive Tools review in September 2005 (thanks again, mouser!), I took a sabbatical to move to Chicago from St. Louis. Soon after that, my life got far more complicated that I could afford and except for once every two weeks at the public library or at my wife's work computer, I've actually been offline ever since! But next week (let's just say April '06) I'm back because I'm finally setup again and because DonationCoder.com is the most exciting community online for me! Now I split my residence time between Chicago and Missouri, yet another complexification of modern life.

I have a PhD in Philosophy (yes, yes, Philosophy doesn't "produce" anything, but I'm proud of my studies), but have taught undergraduate statistics at several midwestern colleges and universities for years and then became a database consultant. However, in late 2002 my brain and heart fried at the same time and I no longer had any desire to continue working for one unethical company after another. I checked out of steady employment ever since. Poverty sucks, unless you learn to live really small, temper your longings — in my case for new software — and become good at making old things new again.

I grew up in Arkansas when it was a cool, unbigoted place, but now I'm so ashamed to be an American. In other lives I was an opera singer (tenor, of course), a famous pianist, a failed blacksmith (I got injured on the job and my thumbs never recovered) and an Army cook who hated to spice the food. My ancestors are from Norway and I'm still waiting for them to invite me back to live permanently. I'd like it there. I'm a nice guy, but I must have a nice face. I smile a lot. At my age, if you don't, you look like you have indigestion all the time. I've been asked to play Santa Claus so many times, I've even developed a standup comedy routine as Santa when I do it. In empty restaurants or theaters people sit next to me. I catch people staring at me all the time. For some reason strangers will start conversations with me — long conversations, and sometimes personal ones. I'm really not that fat; I just look like I am. Go figure.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Corel Paint Shop Pro 10 for $69 through 31 JAN 2006

« Last post by zridling on January 12, 2006, 06:23 PM »

If interested, the link below will allow you to purchase Paint Shop Pro for only $69 which is $60 off the suggested retail price. This is a hidden landing page not accessible to folks via Corel.com — the only way you can get to it is through this link. Enjoy!

http://www.corel.com/hidoffer210

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General Software Discussion / Re: Living without AutoHotkey - possible?

« Last post by zridling on November 05, 2005, 06:32 PM »

brotherS, how do you search IMDB using AutoHotkey? I'm curious.

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Mini-Reviews by Members / In-depth security study at Morgud.com

« Last post by zridling on November 05, 2005, 06:21 PM »

From Fred Langa, a reader informs us of "an in-depth security study regarding anti-trojan products was recently conducted by Morgud.com and the results were rather surprising. The Optix Pro 1.33 trojan was pitted against all major Antitrojan products as of August 2005 and although no single product detected all variants."

Quite well done and interesting reading. In the end Fred makes a simple but sound conclusion: don't rely on any one product or tool to secure your data or computer.

2890

Living Room / Cheap desktop calendar solution

« Last post by zridling on October 27, 2005, 01:46 PM »

Here is the ultimate cheap calendar solution: create your own using Microsoft Excel. I list a 20-month view on my desktop, but then go back and shade past months, so I can quickly find the current month.

         

More links and info on how to do this in a variety of ways cand be found here.

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Living Room / Re: Some ideas to help do more full length reviews..

« Last post by zridling on October 24, 2005, 05:17 PM »

Another approach is to attack a class of software as a group, splitting up the review duties and submitting them over a period of time. This might get really fun now that I think of it!

2892

Official Announcements / Re: Carol Haynes First Column - Great read for new web site builders

« Last post by zridling on October 24, 2005, 05:12 PM »

Kudos to Carol, who has hit the ground running. One word: Wow!

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Cool CD-ROM Lock app

« Last post by zridling on October 24, 2005, 04:35 PM »

Have you ever pushed the button of your CD/DVD drive on your notebook computer by accident? CD-ROM Lock (English site) is a small donationware program blocks the eject button at almost every CD/DVD drive and gives the user the power of controlling the CD/DVD drive by a small icon in the windows system tray. This is quite useful for when working on a notebook on a plane! but it may be of interest for desktop users also.

               

               

Download link:
The version I downloaded was English, but the Deutsch version can be found at http://www.cdrom-lock.de/CDLock_6.html

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Living Room / Re: Some ideas to help do more full length reviews..

« Last post by zridling on October 24, 2005, 12:39 AM »

You know I would jump on this, but I'm extremely busy for the next month moving. I'm not even updating my own website because I'm not home much of the time now. For those considering it, dive into a software category you love, take one program at a time, and use it for full day or two, and takes notes along the way. The move to the next and so on.

I'd like to do a review of NewsReader software early in the year (around February 1, and then DCC can publish it when it fits their schedule) since several of those programs have recently seen significant upgrades, and then follow that up with a brief review of Usenet services. But like the archive tools review, I'll need to rely on others' expertise. And if someone else has broad experience with Newsreaders, by all means, beat me to it or let's join together for a great review!

2895

Living Room / Re: Zaine at BetaNews? Open Office Comment

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2005, 11:23 PM »

That's me! I worked almost two years on version 1.x and was disappointed that it took SO LONG for version 2.0 to arrive. I understand Open Source works on an entirely different pace than commercial software, but there's no "wow" factor in 2.0. It's good, but I wish they would have incorporated more ideas within Writer. Credit where credit's due: templates and styles are much better.

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2005, 11:18 PM »

Great, thanks Nighted! And Clif, the Wiki site ROCKS.

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Finished Programs / Re: Help req automating some typing type stuff - autohotkey? skrommel?

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2005, 10:58 PM »

Here's the AutoHotkey hotkey code I use to insert a bold URL into a forum entry (note the two types):

   

   

So when I type "urll1", it converts it to      and I just go back and insert the URL and what text I want to identify it with. If a forum or haloscan message site requires the href type of URL, then I just type "urll2" and it's there, too. I always bold links to make them stand out. Simple, but hope it helps others.

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2005, 06:15 AM »

Nighted, what are the URLs for ADC and Super Cat?

Let us know, as this could be a nice review for the site for someone willing to take it up. With today's massive HDs and the complex folder structures I create, cataloguing software is a great aid to my work, especially when I upgrade to a larger drive or do my annual big archive project for my photos.

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2005, 06:10 AM »

All right, the Google ads are quite relevant! And, thanks Clif!

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Living Room / Re: Windows culture vs. OS X culture...

« Last post by zridling on October 20, 2005, 05:11 AM »

Aye, there's always room for improvement. I don't know of anyone who blindly supports Microsoft in everything. They have some good software, and the company has done some pretty horrific things in its business dealings. But I could never, ever live without AutoHotkey! ha!