Recent Posts

2901

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Let's Bundle Our Orders For Software995 Toolset

« Last post by Darwin on March 25, 2008, 07:22 PM »

There need not be an end point. I picked one because I honestly thought we would have over 10 people wanting to do this. I'm happy to wait until we get a few more interested folks to join us.

-tinjaw (March 24, 2008, 05:37 AM)

  More than agreed.

I thought 10 would be easy too 

-Perry Mowbray (March 24, 2008, 05:42 AM)

Just goes to show that we are really are in a class of our own 

The three amigos, the three musketeers, the three stoog... nevermind 

2902

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PowerCmd on Bits du Jour

« Last post by Darwin on March 25, 2008, 07:19 PM »

My big question is can it use alternate shells, or is it stuck with cmd.exe?

Apparently it doesn't and it doesn't play well with cygwin or vi 

It's a no go for me.

-cthorpe (March 25, 2008, 07:12 PM)

Hmmm... that's interesting. I wonder if this is why it opens up so much more quickly than either 4NT or PromptPal? Perhaps they don't use cmd.exe? I'm speculating wildly, of course (ie I have no idea what I am talking about  ).

2903

Living Room / Re: When a Brain Scientist Suffers a Stroke

« Last post by Darwin on March 25, 2008, 06:56 PM »

[hi-jack]
My doggie can be seen in this thread. He's a distant relation of Tinjaw's.
[/hi-jack]

-nosh (March 24, 2008, 06:51 PM)

Heh, heh - I thought you were implying that Tinjaw is distantly related to your dog 

2904

Living Room / Re: When a Brain Scientist Suffers a Stroke

« Last post by Darwin on March 25, 2008, 06:55 PM »

Fabulous - thank you for posting it, brotherS. I was riveted for 18 minutes and change. Like Armando, I'll be checking out her book. I suspect that rather than demonizing the left hemisphere, she is stressing the importance of each hemisphere complementing the other - striving for balance...

2905

Living Room / Re: Restating Godwin's Law

« Last post by Darwin on March 25, 2008, 02:32 PM »

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble figuring out how SQLNotes can be used to solve this problem...

Maybe someone can chime in with some ideas?

 

-mwb1100 (March 24, 2008, 06:25 PM)

Cheeky!

2906

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PowerCmd on Bits du Jour

« Last post by Darwin on March 25, 2008, 02:11 PM »

Yeah... I wound up buying a licence, too. For $9.95, how could I NOT pay for it?! I find it useful and would like to support development.

2907

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PowerCmd on Bits du Jour

« Last post by Darwin on March 25, 2008, 10:38 AM »

I took advantage of the Giveaway on the same application earlier this month and am very impressed with it. I am tempted to spend the ten bucks to get a year of updates... But I don't really use the command prompt enought to justify doing so (and I have licences for Take Command/4NT 8 and PromptPal). The best thing about PowerCMD is the speed with which it starts up - it's pretty much instant whereas the other two products I just mentioned take a few seconds.

The price is definitely right 

2908

General Software Discussion / Re: EverNote beta 2.2.0.372 has some nice new features

« Last post by Darwin on March 20, 2008, 08:15 AM »

I find it really discouraging that the developers/company reps have ignored the issue on the Evernote beta forum - other issues raised in the thread Jim pointed us to, and others, have been addressed, but they've been silent about local databases and the online focus of the new version (other than to keep touting the virtues of an online focus)

2909

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MiniReview of Linkman URL Organizer and Search Tool

« Last post by Darwin on March 19, 2008, 09:34 PM »

Awesome job, Ken  I'm going to have to give this a try and am downloading a trial copy to that end as I write this!

2910

General Software Discussion / Re: EverNote beta 2.2.0.372 has some nice new features

« Last post by Darwin on March 19, 2008, 09:25 PM »

Your database is on their server - no more local databases. And your backups are also online.

-J-Mac (March 19, 2008, 07:47 PM)

This cannot be right?! This must be a beta limitation - no letting users store their data locally would be SUICIDE for the company IMNSHO. If this is indeed the case, I'll be sticking with the last build of 2.x and they'll never see a penny of my money for upgrades from it 

2911

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Let's Bundle Our Orders For Software995 Toolset

« Last post by Darwin on March 19, 2008, 11:28 AM »

Well... I'd *like* the extra 5 bucks off, but given that people have now had almost two months to hop on board, I doubt there's much point in holding out for two more people... but I'm personally in no rush, so will happily wait if that is what you and Perry would like to do.

2912

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Office 2007 users, your opinions are wanted

« Last post by Darwin on March 17, 2008, 12:05 AM »

My employer is in the process of switching from Office 2003 to Office 2007... Haven't actually seen any machines with it installed, yet, but the changeover is scheduled to be completed mid-April.

2913

Best Dialog Extender / Re: Revisiting (XfilesDialog, File-Ex, Direct Folders)

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 05:05 PM »

Yessiree Bob, er, Tom! I do... Powerdesks Dialogue Helper isn't bad. It inserts a Favourite Folders and a Recent Folders Icon into the Menu bar along with a Preview buton to take advantage of its Stellent Viewers. I used to have it enabled but never used it. I'll play around with it when I get a chance and report back.

2914

Best Dialog Extender / Re: Revisiting (XfilesDialog, File-Ex, Direct Folders)

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 04:22 PM »

OK - I think I misunderstood you: I thought you were talking about Direct Folders and Stardock's Enhanced Dialog and responded based on that assumption.

You're preaching to the choir about XFilesDialog...  The first person I "met" at DC (after Mouser) was Scott and we had quite a PM session about XFilesDialog. That coincided with me taking advantage of some offer or another and buying (very cheaply) a three year subscription. I recall we were both quite sheepish about doing this, given that we were complaining about the product to each other. Anyway, XFilesDialog has been gone from my system for a very long time, because I won a copy of File-Ex here on DC. Since then, I've had a lengthy daliance with Enhanced Dialog, a brief one with Direct Folders, and an extremely brief one with XFilesDialog - just long enough to figure out that it didn't work with an app that I wanted it to and to have waves of flashbacks about some of the things that got up my nose about it that last time I had it installed - and I am back to File-Ex. I'd be back to Enhanced File Dialog except that the last time I tried to install it, perhaps a month ago, I could not get it to work at all, so gave up.

I'll give Direct Folders another gander when I get a chance.

2915

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 03:36 PM »

Do you really expect there will be a version 7 ??

-Curt (March 16, 2008, 01:49 PM)

Good point, but rumours are floating around out there (or at least were 18 months ago): http://www.wildersse...ex.php/t-117653.html

2916

General Software Discussion / Re: I need a search software that does not index, searches mp3, email, video, txt...

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 03:13 PM »

Hmm... interesting, Dormouse. Dopus, XYPlorer, PowerDesk, and SearchGT each take about 5 seconds (actually 5 secs for XY and DOpus through 7 on SearchGT and 9 seconds for PowerDesk) on my system to search 70GB.

2917

General Software Discussion / Re: I need a search software that does not index, searches mp3, email, video, txt...

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 11:37 AM »

Note: Dopus 9's built in search feature is equally as capable - when I tested it I failed to notice that I had search for Flash files specified, so thought that it wasn't finding anything 

2918

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Power Desk 6 Pro, half prize until Friday

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 11:36 AM »

Busted. Yes, the software addict in me got the better of my (limited) sense of fiscal responsibility and I purchased PowerDesk. Not sure when, though - some time last year 

2919

General Software Discussion / Re: I need a search software that does not index, searches mp3, email, video, txt...

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 11:29 AM »

hmmm... update: Outlook pst files are listed as a file type and I assumed that this meant that File Finder could search within them. Wrong assumption - the file types tab simply provides a pull-down menu that is populated by all of the file types listed in your registry.

However, I am still very impressed by the quick searching in other file types and the fact that the results are optionally previewed using Stellent's viewers. Finally, File Finder is a standalone program - you are not invoking PowerDesk to run it (or, as in Search GT's case, Windows Explorer). The only niggle with this is that if you select "open containing folder" from the file menu, PowerDesk fires up instead of your default file manager. I'm sure that this behaviour can be modified, though.

2920

General Software Discussion / Re: I need a search software that does not index, searches mp3, email, video, txt...

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 11:09 AM »

Kartal, you could try PowerDesk Pro 6. I just noticed its "File Finder" entry in my context menu (I generally use Directory Opus as my file manager and Windows Explorer replacement) and put it through its paces. Wow! It works without indexing and is as quick as Search GT (and as accurate/thorough as well). An added bonus is that it can be further configured to search within files. I'm still playing around with this function and will report back with my results.

Best thing: PowerDesk is a very good File Manager, comes with Stellent Viewers, and can be had for the princely sum of $9.95 (presumably until PD 7 comes out). Thanks, Curt and cthorpe, for finding this for us last year (I've just confirmed that the discount is still active)

2921

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 11:05 AM »

Holy smokes, Batman! I just noticed the "File Finder" entry in my context menu and put it through its paces. Wow! It's PowerDesk Pro 6's search feature. Works without indexing and is as quick as Search GT (and as accurate/thorough as well). An added bonus is that it can be further configured to search within files. It's really impressive and I'm going to continue to put it through its paces.

Best thing: PowerDesk is a very good File Manager, comes with Stellent Viewers, and can be had for the princely sum of $9.95 (presumably until PD 7 comes out). Thanks, Curt and cthorpe, for finding this for us last year (I've just confirmed that the discount is still active)

2922

Best Dialog Extender / Re: Revisiting (XfilesDialog, File-Ex, Direct Folders)

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2008, 07:42 AM »

Stardock is ok, but Direct Folders can do that at half the price, and it can do more.  Besides, I don't want to install a suite for one little application.

-superboyac (March 16, 2008, 02:12 AM)

  Completely agree about the disinterest in installing a suite for one little app... Although you dont' have to - you install Stardock Central (which is a download and installation manager) and select the components of Object Desktop to install from within it. Problem? You have to update and uninstall applications from within it as well.

Not sure I agree about Direct Folders doing more, though. I have a license so maybe I should revisit it... Note as well that I received notification of a new Vista compatible beta for XFilesDialog this morning as well. Not sure what functionality/compatabilities, if any, beyond that that has been added, though.

2923

General Software Discussion / Re: StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop

« Last post by Darwin on March 15, 2008, 08:14 PM »

I installed a demo of ShadowProtect and gave it a whirl. Two things happened...

First, backing up the 20GB of my root partition started and settled down to about a 45 minute backup, which is on par with Acronis doing a "new" backup of the same partition.

Second, it dawned on me (cue music from 2001: A Space Odyssey) that ALL of my machines run OEM installs of WinXP (and they're from two different vendors) and I can't transfer images between them anyway... I stopped the backup, killed ShadowPrtotect and uninstalled it.

I liked the interface, which is very similar to Acronis TrueImage, and certainly didn't give it enough of a workout to venture an opinion as to whether or not it's an improvement on Acronis, but Acronis works just fine as it is for me and I don't need the Hardware-Independent Restore so...

Right then. Darwin dashes off to uninstall Acronis Universal Restore - bloodied, humbled but not defeated!

2924

Living Room / Re: My Taskbar Notification Area Competition

« Last post by Darwin on March 15, 2008, 07:50 PM »

Here ya go... the bit that everyone can see:



pretty standard fair  fare here:

Notezilla
WinPatrol
Archivarius
Safely remove hardware (default Windows XP)
AC
Default volume level
PS Tray Factory

Here's what's "hidden" by PS Tray Factory - no explanations needed:



EDIT: perhaps not so self-explanatory. The bottom three icons are for:

Bitdefender Antivirus 2008
CachemanXP
AnVir Task Manager Pro

2925

General Software Discussion / Re: Process Tamer.. The Drink

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

and for actual drinking, you can't beat their 80 proof Black Seal

-allen (March 15, 2008, 06:39 PM)

  I misread that the first time around as "driving" not drinking