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3026

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

« Last post by zridling on August 30, 2005, 01:24 AM »

I'm curious. Has anyone heard any complaints about the 7z format? I've read several vague ones from a few programmers, but I can't nail them down on what exactly they dislike.

3027

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: ITSD Organizer keeps your notes at hand

« Last post by zridling on August 30, 2005, 01:13 AM »

You can set popup reminders with or without sound if you assign a date/time to your notes. One of the things I like best is that Scroll Lock hotkey for hiding and opening it to the system tray. It takes about 9-10M of memory on my system, but that's nothing considering I've got plenty, so judge for yourself. I liked the $20 price tag, too. Given shareware pricing trends, I was expecting it to cost $35, which would have ended the sale.

As for names, there's always the old "Hey Now!" for an organizer.

3028

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: ITSD Organizer keeps your notes at hand

« Last post by zridling on August 29, 2005, 10:58 PM »

In a past life, were you a Samurai perchance? I also keep thinking of the Simpsons' trip to Japan and the quiz show they were on.

3029

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: ITSD Organizer keeps your notes at hand

« Last post by zridling on August 29, 2005, 08:00 PM »

I'm not in love with the name, but what do you name these apps — NoteTaker 3000? I still think the best name is one that starts with "Super Happy" — jeez, that makes me laugh every time and want to speak Japanese.

3030

Mini-Reviews by Members / ITSD Organizer keeps your notes at hand

« Last post by zridling on August 29, 2005, 07:10 PM »

ITSD Organizer, also known as Is There Something to Do? strikes the right balance between sticky notes, personal organizer, and reminder programs. ITSD has plenty of keyboard shortcuts to aid navigation, but unlike so many other apps in this category, it includes an expanding monthly calendar view. For example, if you enlarge the program screen size, more monthly calendars open up along the right pane. You can also choose to turn the calendar off. All of ITSD's features are within reach of your mouse using the toolbar or view panes or with a keyboard shortcut, making the program both fast and easy to quickly add a note before you forget your thought. Each note includes a notes section for further annotation.

           

Above is its Tree view, where the user can define categories and subcategories as nested folders. The program provides an option to open and hide the program to the system tray using the Scroll Lock key. Even better, you can not only customize a few of its hotkeys, e.g., for adding a note, but ITSD includes a neat "Quick Notes" feature with a hotkey activation that you choose. Just select any text from any program, hit F11, and ITSD copies the text to the notes section of a new note.

           

That's keen design borne of consideration of what makes a good notes application.

3031

Living Room / Re: Interesting blog post:"Just enough piracy"

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2005, 02:28 AM »

The lesson is to find a good-enough approach to content protection that is easy, convenient and non-annoying to most people, and then accept that there will be some leakage. Most consumers see the value in paying for something of guaranteed quality and legality, as long as you don't treat them like potential criminals. And the minority of others, who are willing to take the risks and go to the trouble of finding the pirated versions? Well, they probably weren't your best market anyway.

The last sentence is crucial, too: those who steal it were going to anyway. Maybe this RIAA-attitude will fade over the next generation, but for now, it's difficult for the rich not to get richer. Within every millionaire beats the heart of a secret lust for being a billionaire. So it's never enough.

Microsoft ain't stupid. They've repeatedly given away Windows and Office and let the Chinese steal it for years without too much of a fight in order to gain valuable market share. Their attitude is once you get them hooked, then they'll stay and buy other products eventually. It may be hypocritical and evil, but it's not stupid.

3032

Living Room / Re: Improving downloadability, new license system, etc.

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2005, 02:22 AM »

I love the easy simplicity of that page — https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/releases.html — thanks for making it easy to read, and to download, mouser.

3033

Living Room / Re: ZAOT: zaine's avatars over time

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2005, 02:18 AM »

Good link Stefan. If you haven't checked out FotoCommunity, do so when you have time. Great site and great resources there. And for you Englisch speakers, http://www.fotocommunity.com/.

3034

Living Room / Re: Zaine's HD crashed, he'll be back after the weekend

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2005, 01:59 AM »

Thanks for the post, mouser. It's Sunday morning and I'm back. Fortunately I had a good working image of my C-drive before it crashed and burned. But upon installing a new HD that was a similar make and model, something was different and it doesn't like it. I'll FDisk and Reformat next month, since my system needs a rebuild anyway. Funny thing is how hardware failures like a bad power supply and in this case, a flaky HD, resemble the behavior of a worm or virus. You don't realize it's the hardware until it completely fails.

But for now I'm back and will get the first draft of the Archiver review to members by mid-week if not sooner.

PS: That's my third HD failure in 21 years! of computing. This was the first where weeping and gnashing of teeth weren't involved. But like mouser reminds, find yourself a favorite backup utility — I merely sync everything these days — and use it often.

3035

Living Room / Re: Black Viper

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2005, 01:49 AM »

What a great service over the past few years. I know what the guy means — I was getting lost in Battlefield2 there for a while.

3036

Living Room / Re: A thank you page for our donators.. Link Inside

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2005, 01:47 AM »

No, but I got it working with a new HD. However, next month I will FDisk and Reformat that sucker. Anyone realize how complicated Windows XP has become to install since 2001? I had made an image, and even though I loaded it on a similar drive — same make and size — it didn't like it and all kinds of things are horked. But I am online and I will be able to complete the archiver review's first draft this week — woohoo!

3037

Living Room / Re: A thank you page for our donators.. Link Inside

« Last post by zridling on August 28, 2005, 12:35 AM »

What's cool is to see all the names, and yes, I love seeing others' avatars. And I'm adding a quote now, VRgirl!

3038

Living Room / Re: Gmail Invitations — for anyone who still doesn't have one

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 09:38 AM »

I wondered that, too. They have 2 million current Gmail users, and I think it was to prevent them from being deluged by everyone on the planet wanting an account at the same time. However, like every google app I know, they always leave you wanting more or better features. For example, in Gmail, there's no button for delete! Just a dropdown box.

Half the folks I know use IMAP so that Gmail will filter spam for their desktop email client.

3039

General Review Discussion / Re: Best Archive Manager Review: Suggestions

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 09:33 AM »

ZipGenius has a lot of features, and StuffIt (ZipMagic) was most interesting, aggravating, and interesting again.

3040

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Talk

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 09:13 AM »

Found it. Here's a BusinessWeek article on Google Talk, and at the bottom in the last paragraph:
"But starting today, invites are no longer needed to get a Gmail account."

Not sure if that only applies to users in the US and UK, though.

3041

General Software Discussion / Re: RegDefend v2.000 Beta and CryptoSuite

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 09:08 AM »

Thanks Jason! Sounds like RegDefend could have saved me four days of eye-splitting heachaches this week.

3042

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

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 09:02 AM »

Lots of Explorer replacements such as ExplorerPlus, PowerDesk, xplorer2, and tweaking programs like X-Setup Pro offer this feature. WinRAR also has a Flat Folders view (CTRL+H) that lets you toggle between a folder view of an archive and a detailed list of all an archive's files view.

3043

Living Room / Re: Gmail Invitations — for anyone who still doesn't have one

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 08:31 AM »

I've still got 97, and the more the merrier. For anyone wanting to use the new Google Talk service, you do have to have a Gmail account to chat. However, invitations are freely offered from within Google Talk. Cool.

3044

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Talk

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 08:16 AM »

I just loaded it, and it requires a Gmail account to chat. However, invitations are freely offered from within Google Talk. Cool.

I read somewhere, but could not confirm that Gmail is now open to the public.

3045

General Software Discussion / Re: I need your votes!

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 07:45 AM »

Thanks Carol, and if I remember, you gave substantial feedback to ScreenshotCaptor features!

3046

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

« Last post by zridling on August 25, 2005, 12:28 AM »

Ah, so mouser's pulling the old "ease-of-use" card out of the deck. I reach for it a hundred times a day. Although 7-Zip is [too] slowly being developed and enhanced, I think its appeal is its sheer simplicity. It doesn't do much, so it's not intimidating and there's no learning curve. Zip. Unzip. Done.

That's my biggest gripe about freeware (and all shareware) is that there always 1-3 missing features that would make it suitable, but without them, users usually end up consistently frustrated.

3047

General Software Discussion / I need your votes!

« Last post by zridling on August 24, 2005, 10:06 PM »

When you have a minute, let's help mouser and DonationCoder.com out by voting for ScreenshotCaptor over at FileForum this week!

I also blogged on ScreenshotCaptor this week, too.

3048

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: New License Key Page now online !

« Last post by zridling on August 23, 2005, 09:02 PM »

Oh man, that is cool. Works simply and easily.

3049

General Review Discussion / Re: Best Archive Manager Review: Suggestions

« Last post by zridling on August 23, 2005, 07:32 AM »

Note that the freeware QuickZip was added to the list today (Tuesday, 23rd).

3050

General Review Discussion / Re: Best Archive Manager Review: Suggestions

« Last post by zridling on August 23, 2005, 07:21 AM »

Good points, but as I'll show in my review, the best programmers aren't building archivers right now. There are several classes of programs that are delegated freeware, and this is one of them. Even the WinZip people (Venture Capital) wondered why no one ever paid for it. Every archiver has some good qualities, but for the most part, it's who is minimizing the poor quality features that appear to be the best.

If that's too cryptic, it's because I've been up almost 24 hours and my brain is drying out.