Recent Posts

3001

General Software Discussion / Re: Interfaces we love

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 04:53 PM »

JP, V File Viewer is one of THE coolest apps I've seen in a long time. And it has incredible power. I opened an 8.5G text file in less than ONE second — wow! Thanks for pointing that out. Hey, and its interface looks as good as any other Explorer replacement.

3002

General Software Discussion / Re: For Developers: Do Donations Make a Difference?

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 04:46 PM »

Maybe you two are onto something. That is, redefining the boundary between freeware and shareware, conflating the two as donationware. Let's say I go to www.veign.com and download a program, say Note-It, and it times out after 10-15 days unless I donate some or any amount.

This discussion demonstrates in real ways how piracy hurts the small developer and in turn, suffocates good software from reaching the market. In the end, users lose. I don't consider it piracy if I download your program and don't use it. Who would? But even if it's freeware (to me), if you use it and do not attempt to pay it forward in some way, be it feedback, a thank you, a monetary donation, registration, or whatever, then you're pirating it.

PS: Really sorry to hear that about Cfont Pro. It's one of the few high-end font management apps around, period.

3003

General Software Discussion / Interfaces we love — GreatNews RSS Reader

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 03:11 AM »

Well I was going to say AutoHotkey, but it doesn't have an interface. But I will say that a good interface entails good design. But off the top of my head, I'd have to say the GreatNews RSS Reader. It's simple, customizable, and uncluttered.

       

3004

Living Room / Re: New Columnist and Some Prizes to Award - READ IN + ENTER DRAWING - DRAWING OVER

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 02:51 AM »

Welcome Jason, we're glad you're here!

3005

Living Room / Re: Ramesh's Windows XP Troubleshooting site

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 02:50 AM »

This site is definitely easier to read than many other XP support sites. Found some nice links on how to safely FDisk and reformat, reinstall Windows.

3006

General Software Discussion / Clean up your right-click menu (NirSoft's ShellExView)

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 01:08 AM »

I've been using NirSoft's ShellExView to keep my head from spinning from the sheer amount of crap some shareware dumps into your context menu. Also, bad context menu handlers can cause Explorer to get flaky. ShellExView is handy for keeping things nice and clean.

3007

General Software Discussion / Re: skrommel just updated DragKing to include word counts and more

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 12:59 AM »

Ah, thanks. I'm running it right now and didn't even notice!

3008

General Software Discussion / skrommel just updated DragKing to include word counts and more

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 12:43 AM »

skrommel has updated DragKing that adds a character, word, and line count to its system tray balloon tip. This is really cool, and he even provides the .ini file for users to tweak as they like. ([EDIT]: Does not require the free AutoHotkey — nod to mouser below.)

3009

Living Room / New freeware author's blog

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 12:33 AM »

Chris Hanscom, of Veign Software is a very good freeware author just whipped out a new blog that has tips, developer perspective, and anything else he can think of — he's one of us. He's titled it: Unhandled Perception: Inside the mind of a developer.

Drop in and say hi when you have a chance.

3010

General Software Discussion / Re: For Developers: Do Donations Make a Difference?

« Last post by zridling on September 05, 2005, 12:12 AM »

That is as elegant a statement as I've ever read. I did not know those things, but some of the things you mention, mouser, make me think of more questions. I've got a feeling other developers will hear of DonationCoder.com and I hope they find this thread and post their own response.

There's lots of things to chew on in mouser's thoughts, but this one stuck out: "...this issue where people who would without thought pay $30 for a program if it was shareware, but won't even consider donating $5 for it if they don't have to."

Like most people, I don't always have any extra money, but if I'm using a freeware/OS app, I will often send an email thanking them and telling them how I'm using the program. I would think Open Source apps get even fewer responses or donations than freeware does, but I wouldn't know. I have a story of my own that would surprise a lot of people, and embarrass thousands if not tens of thousands of users. 

3011

General Software Discussion / For Developers: Do Donations Make a Difference?

« Last post by zridling on September 04, 2005, 01:24 AM »

For the developers among us, and because I'm curious.

(1) Do donations from users make you want to work on pay more attention to a program, or not?

     And the opposite is assumed:

(2) If you get few or no donations, do you discontinue the program's development, no matter how good it is?

3012

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst. Interface. Ever.

« Last post by zridling on September 03, 2005, 01:03 AM »

Well, if we went back to the Windows 3.1 days, there was some awful stuff back then, but I'm talking today. Yea, DivX has some completely alien interfaces too — where's the damn play button!

I listed Gimp/Photoshop in the column, but I'll have to review this. As a class of software, I'd have to say some of the Duplicate File Finder applications are case studies in bad design.

3013

General Software Discussion / Worst. Interface. Ever.

« Last post by zridling on September 02, 2005, 10:23 PM »

In his latest column, mouser talks about how marketing gets in the way of good design. In addition to his thoughts, I'm wondering, What program has the worst user interface you've ever encountered?

3014

Living Room / Re: OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« Last post by zridling on September 02, 2005, 08:12 AM »

Stefan, your fotocommunity links are missing. I wanted to see and know!

3015

Living Room / Re: calling all bored cat lovers

« Last post by zridling on September 02, 2005, 07:53 AM »

I love Cats in Sinks!

3016

Best Archive Tool / Archive Tool Review's Finishing Touches

« Last post by zridling on September 02, 2005, 07:44 AM »

mouser and I are putting the finishing touches on DonationCoder.com's latest review: Best Archive Tool. I appreciate his help and input on this all along the way. I have a new respect for Nudone and mouser now, and I can honestly say I felt like Sherlock Holmes trying to chase down and verify some facts and dispel some pesky myths, and yes, I still have a lot to learn.

For anyone else who shares an expertise or deep interest within a class or category of applications, I urge you to take your time and compose a review for DonationCoder.com, even a mini-review! It's a lot of fun, but the best part is yet to come. I can't wait to read your critical feedback toward this review. I welcome it.

Have a great weekend everyone! 

3017

Living Room / Re: OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« Last post by zridling on August 31, 2005, 10:33 AM »

Carol, I meant to say that half my current imagination of England is framed by the photos at the Sensitive Light blog.

So it's either one:


Or the other...

3018

Find And Run Robot / Re: Feature Request v2 - custom commands

« Last post by zridling on August 31, 2005, 09:54 AM »

Wow, what a great link to Expresso, Carol, thanks! Regex makes my brain swell, so guys like me need all the help I can get learning what I can.

3019

General Software Discussion / Re: Favorite ZIP/RAR application?

« Last post by zridling on August 31, 2005, 09:50 AM »

go on... go on...

3020

Living Room / Re: OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« Last post by zridling on August 31, 2005, 09:45 AM »

Yea, I got a couple of others. If you catch the sun just right, it's easy to get a good photo of it from almost any angle.

3021

Living Room / Re: OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« Last post by zridling on August 31, 2005, 09:22 AM »

St. Louis, Missouri, US, right in the middle of the country, and five hours south of Chicago. The eastern side of town is French, the western is German. All the parades and celebrations here herald French kings and saints and German settlers who built the roads and museums. In my part of town, all the streets are French, "Rue St. Germaine" and so on. It's a cool place. Below is the 633-ft. St. Louis Arch, and a locator map.

   
________________________________________________

3022

General Software Discussion / Re: Macro programs - advice sought...

« Last post by zridling on August 31, 2005, 07:17 AM »

My vote goes to AutoHotkey all the way, whether for keyboard shortcuts, shortkeys, controlling parts of Windows, running commands inside of programs, or general macros. Macro Express is great, but seems to me you're paying $40 for its GUI. Nothing wrong with that if you need it. But AutoHotkey is so simple you'll be surprised at what it can do and how fast it does it all. And the beauty of it is that it's nothing more than a text file.

3023

General Software Discussion / Re: Would you pay for WinZip?

« Last post by zridling on August 31, 2005, 07:14 AM »

Sentinel makes a good point: Next to RAR and 7z, ZIP is looking as fresh as an old man's pasty legs.

3024

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« Last post by zridling on August 30, 2005, 11:19 PM »

I hate when that happens! I bought VideoZilla only to find out that you have to email tech support to get a new license and download location with every minor update. They update the program every other week, and when I wrote to the company and explained what a pain in the ass that is, their response, "Eh, so what."

Lost business is bad business. Why build software if you're going to tell users to f--- off!

3025

General Software Discussion / Would you pay for WinZip?

« Last post by zridling on August 30, 2005, 11:15 PM »

Vector Capital (a venture capital firm) recently bought WinZip and in their first press statement said the free ride is over for unregistered users. Throughout its history, WinZip continues to work after its trial period expires. But now that using WinZip will cost $29 plus $7 a year for "upgrade insurance," would you pay for it?