Recent Posts

301

General Software Discussion / Re: Readon HD 7310 Blurred text with overall faded look

« Last post by dr_andus on September 04, 2015, 07:37 AM »

I updated my Laptop to the late3st drivers since it has had blurry text since day one.  Now it is even worse.  It seems the more I try to adjust it with Catalyst Control Center the worse it gets.  I tried "reset to factory defaults" and that was no improvement.

-MilesAhead (September 04, 2015, 06:59 AM)

It sounds to me like you got off lightly  I have also recently updated Catalyst Control Center + driver and it wrecked my Win 7 PC (in collaboration with AVG, which 'helped' prevent a system restore, so I'm stuck with a half-bricked machine) . I will recount my story in a separate thread, as I'd like to ask for help with an in-place upgrade of Win 7 (which I never had to do before). But I will never ever update CCC again and will try to avoid AMD Radeon in the future, if I can help it.

302

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 03, 2015, 05:24 AM »

Ps, with the info board up top right next to "Forum Home", it's def saving me a lot of scrolling!

-TaoPhoenix (September 02, 2015, 09:07 PM)

what do you mean by 'info board'? --
I presume it's not what mouser calls the 'info-center' -- the active threads etc, but cant figure out what it might be...

EDIT// I presume you mean the boards - were they much further down in the past?

-tomos (September 03, 2015, 01:07 AM)

Maybe he meant the "Info Center":



This is a great feature, maybe it should be explained someplace prominent, so less frequent or new members also realise that it is possible to move the Info Center to the top by going to: Profile > Forum Profile > and adding "-topinfocenter" in the Custom options box:

303

General Software Discussion / Re: So, what pdf reader app is your fav?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 02, 2015, 01:00 PM »

I have uBlock Origin in Chrome and can access the page fine. But I don't really get their claim of being the "only customizable PDF editor." Maybe I'm missing something, but their model looks pretty similar to the PDF XChange suite, where you also get incrementally more features as you pay more for the more premium products. In fact the free version of XChange Editor seems to do quite a bit of the paid features of PDF Architect (such as annotation, stamping, OCR, etc. etc.)

304

General Software Discussion / Re: So, what pdf reader app is your fav?

« Last post by dr_andus on September 02, 2015, 10:18 AM »

Kami - Chrome plugin PDF (and other documents) viewer/mark-up tool. Love it and use it every day.

-c.gingerich (August 26, 2015, 01:33 PM)

+1 for Kami Premium, though I only use it in Chrome OS (except when I need to work across multiple platforms on the same file, for which it is also great). On Windows I prefer PDF XChange Editor Pro.

Looping this thread into the other one, PDF Exchange Editor seems to me to be the ones to beat now. And I'm about to do a thread on the "best of Freemium" where the free version is *really solid*, and then if the Pro version has any stunning "killer app" extras.

-TaoPhoenix (September 02, 2015, 06:40 AM)

Agreed (about the speed point as well), PDF XChange Editor Pro is great. But I found the PDF XChange Printer Lite 2012 (that used to be freely packaged with it) inferior to CutePDF Writer, when it comes to printing image-heavy Word docs of over 300 pages. In fact none of my other PDF printers (MS Word's own, Adobe PDF, SmartDraw) were able to handle it, so kudos to the free CutePDF!

305

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 01, 2015, 02:03 PM »

Personally I'd just prefer the box at the very top, so landing on the main page immediately tells the visitor what's been happening, without the need to scroll or click on another page.

-dr_andus (September 01, 2015, 11:03 AM)

go to the new custom options line in your Forum Profile area and add:
-topinfocenter

-mouser (September 01, 2015, 01:00 PM)

Perfect! Thanks for this 

306

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 01, 2015, 11:03 AM »

And Mouser has suggested an alternate page with even more stuff, but somehow that extra page "blows my info capacity fuse" and I can't look at it often.

-TaoPhoenix (September 01, 2015, 09:22 AM)

Is it really better than the recent topics page: https://www.donation...x.php?action=rtopics
Do you want me to create a new standalone page similar to the list on the main page, but with more entries (or larger font)?

-mouser (September 01, 2015, 10:36 AM)

As Tao said above, the recent topics page ends up being a bit too much to take in in one glance. The beauty of the Info Center  is that it's small and concise, so a quick look gives an idea of the amount of activity that had taken place and whether there is anything worth checking out further.

The current layout already requires a lot less scrolling, so that's an improvement. Personally I'd just prefer the box at the very top, so landing on the main page immediately tells the visitor what's been happening, without the need to scroll or click on another page.

307

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 01, 2015, 10:29 AM »

To me it's a perfect compromise of exactly the right info density because it's *threads* and not *posts* so let's say this Forum Upgraded thread has lots of stuff going on, it only occupies one slot and for example I can see instantly that if I aka Tao posted earlier, and now it's bumped with Wraith, well, hey, go look!

But for example the Animal Threads thread hasn't done anything since 1AM so if you already looked there, you know you're up to date. And because it's *different* threads, it's kinda rare that *eleven or more* threads get hit and you "might risk missing something".

...

And Mouser has suggested an alternate page with even more stuff, but somehow that extra page "blows my info capacity fuse" and I can't look at it often.

-TaoPhoenix (September 01, 2015, 09:22 AM)

Very well explained. This is exactly why I like the Info Center as well. 

308

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on September 01, 2015, 03:50 AM »

Another more general point: the first thing I do when I visit the forum is scroll down to the very bottom to see what's latest in the "Info Center - Active Topics" section. I don't know how many other forum users do that, but if a lot or most of them, then from a usability point of view it might be better to have that section at the very top, so there is no need for all that scrolling. Just a suggestion.

-dr_andus (August 31, 2015, 09:22 AM)

You are the 2nd person who has told me that's how you read the forum. I had no idea people did this.

-mouser (August 31, 2015, 09:24 AM)

The first things I do on login in is look at the bottom of the home page to see the recent Active Topics

-rjbull (August 31, 2015, 04:57 PM)

That makes 3 of us now... 

309

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by dr_andus on August 31, 2015, 09:22 AM »

In the "Info Center - Active Topics" section would it be possible to re-enable the feature where it shows "Re:" at the start of the title for posts that are replies (as opposed to brand new threads without any replies)? This made it possible to distinguish at first sight between a new post without replies, and an older discussion with new replies.

Another more general point: the first thing I do when I visit the forum is scroll down to the very bottom to see what's latest in the "Info Center - Active Topics" section. I don't know how many other forum users do that, but if a lot or most of them, then from a usability point of view it might be better to have that section at the very top, so there is no need for all that scrolling. Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the upgrade, Mouser!

310

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PhraseExpander Professional for PC 79% off $29.99

« Last post by dr_andus on August 22, 2015, 08:31 AM »

I figure it's probably different for someone who intends to rely on pre-defined phrases and vocabulary that is very specific. I've seen such add-on lists elsewhere

-ScreenManiac (August 22, 2015, 07:30 AM)

I don't use add-on lists, I input all my recurring phrases individually and manually. I did actually try importing such lists but with my type of usage (selecting from pop-up box by the cursor) they just polluted my glossary with terms that were not useful for me.

With my type of use there is a benefit to keeping my specialised glossary small. It's also possible to create multiple task- or project-specific glossaries and only activate them when needed, to keep the pop-up list relevant.

I've been using PhraseExpander Pro for the past 2 years and been very happy with it, as it ticks my aforementioned criteria. But I only use the text expander functionality, I can't comment on the clipboard, macro, form filling, file launcher and other stuff on there.

311

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PhraseExpander Professional for PC 79% off $29.99

« Last post by dr_andus on August 21, 2015, 07:06 AM »

I was expecting differences in ease of use, maybe, or performance or compatibillity. Like you said, feature-wise they seem much the same.

-ScreenManiac (August 21, 2015, 03:25 AM)

I went through that exercise a few years back, with similar criteria (I needed something that worked right out of the box and required the least steep learning curve). One good way to do that is to evaluate them all on the same day, one after the other. Just download them and get started and use them for a few minutes each, and it becomes pretty apparent immediately which ones are the easy ones to set up, learn, and use, and whether you come across a killer Pro feature that justifies the price.

The "killer feature" will probably vary on the basis of your needs. For me the key thing was not to have to remember abbreviations (which ruled out most of the free ones), which requires that a box pops up by the cursor after I type two letters, with a specified number of phrases to choose from, which then gets filtered as I keep typing more letters, with the desired phrase rising to the top and which then I can quickly select by hitting my chosen key (tab, in my case). There were only 2 or 3 that could do that at the time.

BTW, while the target market for these seem to be those professional services (medical, legal etc.), this category of software is pretty generic. I make good use of my chosen text expander for my academic research work (qualitative coding of data, anonymising sources, and writing long pieces of text with specific phrases that reccur often).

312

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by dr_andus on July 31, 2015, 01:40 PM »

I could use a nice lightweight (Windows) Laptop that doesn't cut my bank account to ribbons.

-MilesAhead (July 31, 2015, 08:26 AM)

Depending on how literally you meant 'lightweight', Acer is coming out with the Cloudbook at USD169, to compete with the HP Stream series, which seem to be going for around USD230.

313

Living Room / Re: TouchPad for PC w/Windows 7 vs. carpal tunnel ?

« Last post by dr_andus on July 30, 2015, 03:50 PM »

Thumbs are not immune to RSI (or RSI-like symptoms).

-Deozaan (July 30, 2015, 12:37 PM)

I guess I must have a superstrong thumb  There are some trackball mice though where you can use the bottom of your index finger and middle finger or your palm to move it, instead of a thumb (e.g. the Kensington Expert Mouse or the Kensigton Orbit I linked to above).

314

Living Room / Re: TouchPad for PC w/Windows 7 vs. carpal tunnel ?

« Last post by dr_andus on July 30, 2015, 08:08 AM »

I found that it was the moving of the forearm and the wrist that caused my problems. Many years ago, at the first sign of RSI I switched from an ordinary mouse to a succession of ergonomic mice with trackballs, so all you move is your thumb (or fingers with some models), and I stopped having problems. Every time I have to use an ordinary mouse I'm amazed that they are still being made and people still use them. As long as you have a thumb (or other fingers) and you can move it, I can recommend any of these.

My current one is a Kensington Expert Mouse, but I also used various versions of Logitech Trackballs and Kensington Trackballs. Actually I find the Kensington Expert Mouse somewhat less ergonomic than the other ones (as you need to use your fingers to move the ball, as opposed to the thumb), but its other advanced features compensate for it, and I'm not having any RSI. I switched to the Expert Mouse mainly because the Logitech Trackballs died on me after a year or so, so I just got tired of replacing them (but they still worked well from an RSI point of view).

315

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by dr_andus on July 20, 2015, 06:00 PM »

This whole "Updates will happen. Resistance is futile" going all Neo-Borg is what has us all nervous, because we're just waiting for the first big "oops" moment of it all.

-TaoPhoenix (July 20, 2015, 03:55 PM)

I have some experience with this on Chrome OS, which seems to be the model that MS is adopting. Maybe the big "oops" moment won't be one big moment but many little "oops" moments. For most users everything will be fine because they only use mainstream tools that are on MS's radar.

The little "oops" might happen to users of niche tools that MS doesn't even know exist or don't have the capacity to test for. And then they might get a few hundred or few thousand complaints, until it hits some threshold several months later that prompts them to fix that bug. Or they decide to ignore it and force that niche population to either upgrade their hardware or start using a different software.

The case in point (which I keep bringing up because it pisses me off so much every time it happens) is Google's support for multimonitor use for its very own Chrome Remote Desktop. Since I bought my Chromebook in January 2014, Google must have broken CRD multimonitor support (with its automatic OS updates) at least 3 or 4 times, and every time it took them longer to fix, from 4 weeks to 2 or 3 months. Clearly there were not enough people using that feature or not vocal enough, so Google could afford to ignore us...

316

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: WildGem 1.1

« Last post by dr_andus on July 05, 2015, 04:42 PM »

Thanks Twinbee, no worries, that's way more than enough for me 

317

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: WildGem 1.1

« Last post by dr_andus on July 04, 2015, 09:49 AM »

Twinbee, what's the maximum file size in terms of number of characters (or any other measure that defines its limits) that WildGem can handle?

318

Living Room / Re: Laptop tray - for your lap [Recommendations?]

« Last post by dr_andus on July 03, 2015, 03:36 PM »

Glad to hear it worked out for you. 

319

Living Room / Re: Laptop tray - for your lap [Recommendations?]

« Last post by dr_andus on June 28, 2015, 04:47 PM »

Check the Amazon reviews, there is one user who is happily using it with a 15.6" laptop.

320

Living Room / Re: Laptop tray - for your lap [Recommendations?]

« Last post by dr_andus on June 28, 2015, 10:04 AM »

When you first unpack it, it's a bit puzzling until you fold it into shape. My first impression was that it's going to be flimsy, as the "feet" are made of this thinner plastic which makes the riser a bit bouncy, and also it's held together by a leather strip. But I ended up liking the bounce, as it works as a kind of a 'suspension' mechanism.

I've been using it daily for about a year and a half and it's holding up well. I'm using it with an HP Chromebook 14, and there is still over 1cm left on both sides. I don't have the sliding problem some of the reviewers referred to, as the HP has 4 big rubber feet that keep it stable.

321

Living Room / Re: Laptop tray - for your lap [Recommendations?]

« Last post by dr_andus on June 27, 2015, 04:09 PM »

I use this one with my 14" laptop: Fellowes Portable Laptop Riser GoRiser Notebook stand.

It's plastic, so it's OK to use in the summer, and it folds, which makes it portable.

322

PBOL / Re: Requests: count workdays only and show workdays remaining

« Last post by dr_andus on June 26, 2015, 04:39 PM »

1) Option at item level to count workdays only (instead of calendar days, so that item bar could display e.g. "6 workdays remaining" instead of "8 days remaining"). This way PBOL would become a more realistic project plan reminder tool for those that do take 2 days off on the weekend.

-dr_andus (September 22, 2014, 04:44 AM)

Hi Mouser,

When you have a bit of time, I'd be really grateful (even with some DonationCredits) if at least this feature could be implemented.

It's messing me up when I look at my bar and it says "10 days remaining", when in reality I only have "6 days", because there are 4 days of weekends counted in until my deadline, which I can't apply to the project. 

This is a great tool that I just love  , this is the only bit that's missing from total bliss... 

323

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: WildGem 1.1

« Last post by dr_andus on June 16, 2015, 06:02 PM »

Twinbee, many thanks for this! I haven't tried it yet but I love the idea and I'm definitely a target user (i.e. regex does my head in

324

Living Room / Re: 2014-2015: Best tablet specs for ebook reading

« Last post by dr_andus on June 15, 2015, 07:11 PM »

... it is too small to work well as a writing pad.

-xtabber (June 15, 2015, 07:00 PM)

OT - I am interested in the handwriting recognition feature, but after having watched a few review videos, there always seems to be a bit of a lag. You write a few words, then wait for them to be recognised. That's a bit like how dictation software works. I wonder how that would affect one's writing process, i.e. whether it would slow you down enough that you'd forget what you wanted to write? Anyone tried it for notetaking on the go or creative writing?

325

Living Room / Re: Comparison of FREE Cloud Storage services.

« Last post by dr_andus on June 06, 2015, 02:47 PM »

It also strikes me that if GoogleDrive alters files and file formats, then that too is a deal-breaker and one should look elsewhere.

-Innuendo (June 06, 2015, 01:59 PM)

But to what extent is that really (or still) the case? I'm not saying this couldn't have happened in the past (I've heard about such things a couple of years ago), but there is also a chance that new users may not realise how the Drive works with Office files: Save Office files to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

If you want to share a Microsoft® Office file online and work on the file in real-time with others, you have to first save the file to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides. You can then easily share the file and work on it with others.

Saving to Google Docs, Sheets or Slides creates a new copy so your original is always available in Google Drive. Any edits you make will only affect the new copy, which is stored as a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file.

This approach has the potential to confuse people, but it's not changing the original files. But if integrity of MS Office files is paramount, it's probably better to use a more neutral service like Dropbox.