Recent Posts

301

General Software Discussion / Re: what's wrong with my PC? (it's often soooo slow)

« Last post by brotherS on September 24, 2010, 02:49 AM »

Is there harddisk access when the freezes happen?

When monitoring CPU usage, be sure to show kernel timings. If the lockups have high CPU usage and lots of time spent in kernel-mode and there's disk activity, your disk might be failing. You might want to check if your controllers have reverted from DMA->PIO mode.

-f0dder (September 23, 2010, 01:55 PM)

Thanks, I'll ask you how to check that if the problem persists - which it thankfully doesn't seem to. And just to be safe, I'll backup my data more frequently.

302

General Software Discussion / Re: what's wrong with my PC? (it's often soooo slow)

« Last post by brotherS on September 23, 2010, 09:25 AM »

Maybe it was in a recent Windows update? I've had Windows 7 since about the time it was released and it was only recently that I started encountering problems with my HDDs spinning down, too. Then again, I did just recently format and do a fresh install. . .

-Deozaan (September 23, 2010, 03:45 AM)

Yeah, let's blame some recent Windows update for the time being. (I remembered that I did go through those settings after purchasing this machine, so probably a recent Windows update DID change that.

I'll hunt for other causes should the problem persist (doesn't seem to though - fingers crossed!). Thanks to all you.

303

General Software Discussion / Re: what's wrong with my PC? (it's often soooo slow)

« Last post by brotherS on September 23, 2010, 03:43 AM »

Strange thing about this is that these issues never showed up during the first 2 years after I bought it... weird. 

304

General Software Discussion / Re: what's wrong with my PC? (it's often soooo slow)

« Last post by brotherS on September 23, 2010, 03:34 AM »

It might be your hard drives being put to sleep after a short time. Windows 7 had it set to about 20 minutes by default on "Balanced" so any time I'd do something that needed a hard drive it would have to spin up again.

-Deozaan (September 23, 2010, 03:02 AM)

Indeed, that's set to 20 minutes in both profiles in Vista too! If that options works as it should it shouldn't be a problem, but I can remember at least two times where the problem occured roughly 20 minutes after starting a Skype conversation... I now changed the 20 to 0 (= never), thank you!

305

General Software Discussion / Re: what's wrong with my PC? (it's often soooo slow)

« Last post by brotherS on September 23, 2010, 02:22 AM »

Wow, thanks for all the pointers!

No nasty clunking HD sounds, and nothing really bad in the Event Viewer. mouser's comment about CPU usage (when those problems occur CPU usage sometimes seems to be at 100%, sometimes not - I need to monitor this more) reminded me of something I *did* change some time ago: I set my PC's (it's a laptop) energy options from "energy saving" to "balanced" in hope of a better system performance. I now reversed that back to "energy saving", and the PC behaves way more smoothly. Interesting (and a bit strange)... I'll see what will happen next.

306

General Software Discussion / what's wrong with my PC? (it's often soooo slow)

« Last post by brotherS on September 22, 2010, 10:32 AM »

Hi folks,

since a few weeks my PC sometimes behaves weird: programs (and the mouse cursor) freeze for a few seconds, Skype conversations (or youtube videos) come to a screeching (or crackling) halt (they sometimes recover after 20 to 30 seconds). Sometimes Vista even totally freezes. If I want a regular Skype conversation I now have to shut down Chrome before I start Skype. Even typing this is randomly slowed down/paused for a few seconds. Sucks.

It's as if the HD can't keep up... and defrag doesn't help. I can't connect the beginning of the problems with any action I took - I didn't install new software or hardware.

I'm curious if you have any ideas...

307

General Software Discussion / Re: new email notifier that only reports specific emails with popup and sound?

« Last post by brotherS on August 07, 2010, 02:03 PM »

Thanks, that sounds interesting! I'll play around with the current one (see above) for one or two more weeks, then I'll give Poppy a try too.

308

General Software Discussion / Re: new email notifier that only reports specific emails with popup and sound?

« Last post by brotherS on August 07, 2010, 02:50 AM »

Hi,

It's good that email notifiers are available in the market but is has to be more efficient and should cost less so that many can buy the software.

-Mary101 (August 07, 2010, 01:28 AM)

I can't help it, your reply sounds like coming from a spam-bot... (I was surprised not to find a link to online gambling / cheap drugs / a casino / etc.) 

309

General Software Discussion / Re: new email notifier that only reports specific emails with popup and sound?

« Last post by brotherS on August 04, 2010, 03:30 AM »

I settled on Scott's Gmail Alert (http://ga.graphicport.net/), which is donationware ($3 only). It got 4.5 (out of 5) stars (with 33 votes) over at http://fileforum.bet...l-Alert/1248759828/1 (click for reviews).

It supports Gmail's labels, so I set it up to notify me of emails with my most important label. The idea from my previous post is not needed. Perfect!  

310

General Software Discussion / Re: new email notifier that only reports specific emails with popup and sound?

« Last post by brotherS on August 03, 2010, 12:04 PM »

I just had an idea... since there seems to be no such program (I couldn't find one and you guys don't seem to know one), I might just create a forwarding filter (for my most important emails) and forward them to a new Gmail account. For that new account I'd then set up a notifier - http://www.gmailnotifier.com/ or one of the other 841 free ones.

311

General Software Discussion / new email notifier that only reports specific emails with popup and sound?

« Last post by brotherS on August 02, 2010, 07:27 AM »

Hi,

over the years I tried quite a few email notifiers (and currently I don't use any because I get so many emails). Now I'm looking for one that only reports specific emails (for example if the sender's name matches a specific string - I like Gmail's filter rules!). Is there something like that out there, in a perfect world with support for sticky popup* and sound notifications?

Freeware/shareware if possible, if it's really good I'm willing to buy it too.

*Like in Google calendar after you activate the Gentle Reminders (Settings -> Labs). They pop up, but do NOT take focus (they don't interrupt your workflow, they pop up - gently - in the right buttom corner of your screen).

312

General Software Discussion / Re: how to monitor a website for changes? (moving from WebMon to web-based service)

« Last post by brotherS on July 16, 2010, 10:26 AM »

No need to be sorry, at least that service sends the news that were posted on the page I'm monitoring in the email, I like that. 

313

General Software Discussion / Re: how to monitor a website for changes? (moving from WebMon to web-based service)

« Last post by brotherS on July 15, 2010, 02:53 PM »

Wow, that looks perfect! I'll try it.

Edit: Now I looked at http://www.feedmyinbox.com/pricing/ - and it looks like it's only one update per day (not as it happens) if you don't want to pay :-(

314

General Software Discussion / Re: how to monitor a website for changes? (moving from WebMon to web-based service)

« Last post by brotherS on July 13, 2010, 03:03 PM »

Page2RSS looks nice, and I like the Google Reader feature, but how do I most easily turn that into an email in my inbox (telling me about an update on that site)? 

315

General Software Discussion / Re: how to monitor a website for changes? (moving from WebMon to web-based service)

« Last post by brotherS on July 13, 2010, 01:17 PM »

Yeah, an RSS feed would be perfect for this task...

If possible, I want to move to a web-based service so that I don't have to run yet another program locally.

316

General Software Discussion / how to monitor a website for changes? (moving from WebMon to web-based service)

« Last post by brotherS on July 13, 2010, 09:01 AM »

Hi,

in the past I used WebMon (http://www.markwell....ternet.co.uk/webmon/) to monitor some websites/pages for news and updates. Now I'm looking for a free service that does that (almost) in real time - once a day is not enough - and sends me an email if there's an update. I'm willing to accept ads in that email, and I only need one page to be monitored.

Is there any such service that doesn't just report once a day? Thanks in advance!

317

General Software Discussion / Re: print to PDF stationery / merge files?

« Last post by brotherS on July 13, 2010, 08:55 AM »

Oops! Totally forgot to reply back then.

I tried some of the suggested solutions, but couldn't get it to work as I wanted - and after having spent some hours on that, I decided it's just not worth spending even more hours on it, so back to paper it is!

318

General Software Discussion / print to PDF stationery / merge files?

« Last post by brotherS on May 30, 2010, 06:08 AM »

Hi,

I (seemingly) found a solution to my question at http://answers.googl...dview/id/779573.html - but when I tried that, the result doesn't look so hot... the stationery (a PDF file that looks great by itself) I was using looked kinda crappy (fuzzy) in the resulting PDF when pdfedit995 (http://www.pdf995.com/pdfedit.html) printed the text on it (from Word). The text itself (in the resulting PDF) looks very clean... strange.

Any ideas?

319

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Vista: tool for hiding program icons from the task bar wanted

« Last post by brotherS on March 31, 2010, 11:02 AM »

No, it wasn't just hidden.

320

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Vista: tool for hiding program icons from the task bar wanted

« Last post by brotherS on March 31, 2010, 01:45 AM »

Thanks Curt, the Process Manager makes a good first impression! 

-brotherS (March 30, 2010, 09:57 AM)

The second impression is less good... after running for several hours it just vanished from the tray (Windows didn't show an error message), and I find its icon color (in the tray) to be too bright.

321

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Vista: tool for hiding program icons from the task bar wanted

« Last post by brotherS on March 30, 2010, 09:57 AM »

Thanks Curt, the Process Manager makes a good first impression! 

322

General Software Discussion / Windows Vista: tool for hiding program icons from the task bar wanted

« Last post by brotherS on March 30, 2010, 03:02 AM »

Hi,

I want to have some programs run 24/7, but need to use their taskbar icon only very rarely. So I want to hide it to save some screen space. I once tried a few tools to do the job, but none worked REALLY well. Some just didn't work on Vista, others would do the job now, but wouldn't do it correctly after a reboot.

What tools can you recommend? Freeware/donationware/postcardware/etc. if possible.

323

Living Room / Re: selective attention test videos (students passing a ball, etc.)

« Last post by brotherS on March 24, 2010, 01:46 PM »

Maybe (just maybe) I should have scrolled down that list of recommended videos...  Thanks!

324

Living Room / selective attention test videos (students passing a ball, etc.)

« Last post by brotherS on March 24, 2010, 12:47 PM »

Hi,

you might know the famous video @ http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo (students passing a ball; if not, watch it!), I'm searching for the video where some fictional crime scene in a living room is shown, and things change while the camera shows other areas of the room - and you don't notice it (or only a few things).

I loved it (I think it was actually a commercial from the UK, about noticing kids or people on bikes in traffic... has been a while), but can't find it anymore... who could point me to it?

(PS: It wasn't as bloody as the ones like http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=a44AnA6_-2o)

325

Living Room / designer for business cards needed, LIMITED TIME

« Last post by brotherS on March 14, 2010, 07:36 AM »

Hi,

I just found out there's an important event on Thursday, and I need new business cards for that. Since the online 'ready-made' design offers that I found won't ship in time, I have the choice between asking the local printer to print some boring one (basically only text, no real design) and looking for someone to design one for me (nothing *too* fancy needed, but my designer 'skills' are limited to putting clipart in Word documents).

I'm willing to pay, but I can't pay a lot (if I could I'd just call a local designer I worked with in the past). Any takers? The job needs to be completed within the next 24 to 48 hours (I'll only find out when exactly after I can reach printers tomorrow), we would handle the details by email and Skype.

Thanks in advance for any input.