Recent Posts

3226

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Darwin on February 02, 2008, 07:31 AM »

Darwin is giving praise to some wacom

-Curt (February 02, 2008, 05:42 AM)

  Nice one! Thank you Curt!

3227

General Software Discussion / Re: Wacom Tablet - Bundled Software Question

« Last post by Darwin on February 02, 2008, 12:08 AM »

Yes - I love my Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet. The build quality is superb and it works really well - I particularly like using it with ArtRage Pro 

3228

General Software Discussion / Re: Wacom Tablet - Bundled Software Question

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 11:57 PM »

Just came across this thread - Jim, how'd you make out? I, too, recently purchased a Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet and can confirm that the registration codes give you the full versions of the software listed on the sleeve.

Have fun!

3229

General Software Discussion / Re: Best free firewall for Windows?

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 11:25 PM »

STAY AWAY FROM THE NFORCE FIREWALL!

(If there was only a bbcode tag for blink...)

It leaks like hell (try running a torrent client for some hours), it's unstable to the point of BSODs, it installs several megabytes of apache httpd server just for it's configuration, etc.

Sounded like such a great idea when nvidia introduced it, but implementation is so useless that you shouldn't bother. I think they even removed it completely for later chipsets, which screams "danger bloody danger!" to me.

-f0dder (February 01, 2008, 05:58 AM)

Go on then, f0dder, tell us what you really think 

3230

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your boot time?

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 11:13 PM »

People enabling login screens only for security purposes would do well to lock their PCs with a 3rd party utility sitting in startup. It'll let everything load & processing/downloads (if any) to commence without having to enter the password first.
I've remapped Win+L to such a utility.

-nosh (February 01, 2008, 03:21 PM)

Nosh, I am intrigued. What 3rd party utility do you use? I ask because I'm in the dark about this category of software and would like to research it. Your app of choice will provide me with a starting point!

Ta,

Mike

3231

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon 2.0.8 beta supports IE/COM plugins

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 02:36 PM »

OK - reinstalling Roboform did the trick. So far, so good. The resource consumption is much less onerous and I am well pleased.

I'll keep you posted, Curt! Note, though, that with IE/COM plugin support there is little reason not to try this again yourself. Maxthon 1.x and 2.x will coexist happily on a machine, so you won't be overwriting anything.

3232

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon 2.0.8 beta supports IE/COM plugins

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 12:26 PM »

Yes - I agree Vegas. I've been disappointed by its footprint, more than anything else. This beta is RAM intensive, but seems to be cured of the CPU issues I was seeing with 2.0.6.

On a side note, I was thrilled about using Roboform and Netsnippets with Maxthon 2.0.8 and confirmed that they work. I rebooted, however, and Roboform is GONE. I suspect I need to reinstall it to "get it back"...

3233

Living Room / Re: How many germs are living on your keyboard?

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 09:21 AM »

Ha, ha Chris! Reminds me of my favourite line from the Jungle Book cartoon - Mowgli tells Baloo that his mother always told him to wash his fruit before he eats it, to which Baloo replies "That's right! I always lick my fruit clean before I eat it!" 

3234

Living Room / Re: How many germs are living on your keyboard?

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 09:04 AM »

2,381,820 germs on my keyboard 

3235

Living Room / Re: download the "unable-to-download swfs"

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 08:54 AM »

The fact that you're trying to excise a message saying "this has been stolen" suggests that it has, in fact, been stolen.

-CWuestefeld (January 29, 2008, 01:32 PM)

3236

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your boot time?

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 08:48 AM »

Laptop that I carry with me on the road.  Login and screensaver password.

-Veign (February 01, 2008, 08:43 AM)

Yes! Screensaver password is a must on the road as well, though whenever I am leaving my workstation/desk I always hit windows-l to make sure that my notebook is locked.

3237

Living Room / Re: Microsoft bids $44.6-billion for Yahoo!

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 08:26 AM »

Heh, heh - nice one mouser!

Thanks for posting the image, João - I never think to do that 

3238

Living Room / Microsoft bids $44.6-billion for Yahoo!

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 08:09 AM »

Subject says it all (thanks to the headline writer at the Globe and Mail  )... I wonder how long it will take Google to try to have this blocked, if Yahoo! proves interested?

Read more at the link provided. Though in fairness it's headline news on all the news sites that I frequent (cbc.ca, NYTimes, Vancouver Sun,... etc.).

edit by jgpaiva: added image

3239

General Software Discussion / Updated: Maxthon 2.0.8 FINAL supports IE/COM plugins

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 07:33 AM »

For Maxthon fans, Maxthon 2.0.8 beta is available which FINALLY brings support for IE/COM plugins. The link takes you to the announcement and download page...

WARNING: it IS a beta, but this bodes well for a full release this quarter. Finally... my beloved AIRoboform and NetSnippets will be available via integrated toolbars and sidebars 

I'm downloading this now and will report back with my impression/experience.

EDIT: revised title to reflect the fact that Maxthon 2.0.8 Final has been released.

3240

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits Du Jour and GAOTD one-day deals

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 07:25 AM »

Welcome to DC iconico  Nice to see you here.

3241

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your boot time?

« Last post by Darwin on February 01, 2008, 07:18 AM »

In my case, I'm on a notebook and am often on work networks and infrequently on public networks away from home. I feel that I need the additional security of logging in with a password. I also have fast user switching disabled and force log-in to be via ctrl-alt-del...

3242

General Software Discussion / Re: Attention Mod

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 10:52 PM »

Slight digression: Wonder how many people would find a button to open all threads in separate tabs on the "show new replies to your posts" page handy. I know I would.

-nosh (January 31, 2008, 10:40 PM)

Ooh... I like that one 

3243

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 09:42 PM »

Heh, heh - no worries, Jason. I wish I had the *goods* to code something myself as I would find it useful as well. However, I'm strictly an end-user!

3244

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 07:22 PM »

Here's a cheapo solution that *might* fit the bill/be within your monetary comfort range (I found a number of others in the $25-40 range but you posted the above while I was typing so I've pared the list down to this):

Powerpressed (shareware; $11.99)

Might be worth running the trial, anyway...

3245

General Software Discussion / Re: DC User's Resource - Phase I (Interest survey - Please post comments)

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 06:55 PM »

+1 for "Yes, and i would like to help" 

3246

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 06:49 PM »

Jason - just to highlight the fact that AFAICT, Sun Presenation Minimizer works with ppt files as well... or are they sneaky and force you to use the Open/Star Office interface to make it work?

Crumb! Just took a look and that is exactly how it works - it's a plug-in or "extension" to Open/StarOffice. Bummed. Sorry Jason, I thought this one had promise. Let the hunt continue!

Edit: typo 

3247

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR review

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 04:43 PM »

It would be great to get FARR 2 out of reluctant beta status and into the wild, surely it is no more buggy than any of the others?

-nontroppo (January 31, 2008, 04:30 PM)

Farr less so, in my experience!

EDIT: saw an opportunity to make a terrible pun and seized it 

3248

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR review

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 02:36 PM »

Nice, nitrix-ud! I just dropped in here to post about this very article. Note that FARR finishes in the top 3. MightyBox looks interesting.

Congratulations, mouser  Hopefully, this kind of exposure will increas FARR's profile!

3249

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Powerpoint shrinker

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 02:16 PM »

I just found this via Lifehacker: Sun Presentation Minimizer. Don't know if it will do "batch shrinks" or not, but worth a look, I should think.

3250

General Software Discussion / Re: Best free firewall for Windows?

« Last post by Darwin on January 31, 2008, 01:53 PM »

Hi ciderman - my experience with OnlineArmor was generally positive, but the serious hit that it made on my processor means that it was not a viable option for my computer. Also, to add insult to injury (in my case), I discovered this morning that OA's uninstall routine had left a dll and the OAGUI.exe file on my system and both were still set to run at startup! Thus, they were still running in the background this morning and I had to use Unlocker's delete on next system start to get rid of them. These were in the C:\program files\Tall Emu\Online Armor folder, Curt - you might want to see if they are lurking on your system still!