Recent Posts

3551

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Ethics

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 05:59 PM »

Yes, this point underlay what I wrote above about transparency. Maybe I wasn't very clear (no pun intended  ). Transparency was a bad word choice, come to think of it, as it's not exactly like developers go out of their way to hide this information from their customers, it just doesn't come up very often.

3552

Living Room / Re: Internet Faxing

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 05:19 PM »

I need the ability to send faxes, unfortunately... I wouldn't mind payer per use but object to monthly account fees. Of course, given how infrequently I actually need to send faxes, it's not really a tall order for me to pay someone else to send them for me...

3553

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Ethics

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 05:05 PM »

This is a very interesting discussion and raises issues that end-users seldom consider. I guess it all comes down to transparency - 99.99% of the unwashed ma end-users, myself included, are not aware that software developers buy off the shelf (so to speak) software components to incorporate into their own applications. If end-users were more aware of this, they might be more understanding and perhaps even assist the developer in pushing the supplier for a fix (rather than berating the developer).

3554

General Software Discussion / Re: GemX - missing in action

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 05:01 PM »

People have been speculating too much. If Gemx meet their new datelines, they'll also get a vote of confidence from me. A new version of Texnotes would be amazing news. I'm also looking forward to their new version of Do.

-Chessnia (December 22, 2007, 04:51 PM)

Yup. This is more or less the tack that I am taking as well. Of course, I have an ethical dilemma... my registered user area still points to downloads for both the full version of Do and a licence key 

3555

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Agnitum is offering 3 for 1

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 04:58 PM »

Don't know about "geeky", but lots of disaffected youth slouching by the front door...

3556

Developer's Corner / Re: Multi-touch and Head-tracking demos wth PC and Wiimote

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 03:44 PM »

Sounds cool, Jenny  You forgot the link, though 

3557

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Agnitum is offering 3 for 1

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 02:37 PM »

 

WEP and WPA are two standards (the first older and less secure than the second) for protecting wireless networks. Basically, you have to have a "key" (much like a software licence key) to connect to the wireless access point (router). The router is the thingie (that's a technical term) that allows more than one computer to access the internet through the modem. This is usually used with a broadband connection. A lot of these routers (mine included) come with a built in "hardware" firewall that functions much like a software firewall. Finally, your MAC (Media Access Control) address is a semi-unique string that identifies your ethernet adapter cards. In the case of MAC filtering on a wireless network, you restrict access to the network to those cards for which the MAC address is recognised.

Hope this helps!

3558

General Software Discussion / Re: File Managers! Windows Explorer replacement! Come one, come all...

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 02:22 PM »

Unfortunately, I managed to confuse everyone by starting multiple threads on this topic (I should have asked a moderator to create a poll for this one... c'est la vie).

Anyway, posting here to say that I'm trying out two quite different file managers - SpeedCommander (http://www.speedproj...ct.de/enu/index.html) and FileBoss (http://www.speedproj...ct.de/enu/index.html). Both of them are fantastic, but pricey. I'm definitely looking forward to putting them through their paces.

SpeedCommander is in the Norton Commander mode of file management with a very clean (beautiful) interface while FileBoss is more in the mode of the old File Manager from Windows 3, 9x and NT4. It's really sharp looking, too, with a lot of excellent features.

I'll play around with both and post more on them later. For now, I thought I'd solicit opinions on either from others. I know JohnFDeluca has been using SpeedCommander but I've seen no mention of FileBoss.

Finally, another File Manager no one has mentioned recently (probably because it makes Dopus look like freeware) is PentaSuite (www.pentasuite.com). Anyone?

3559

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Agnitum is offering 3 for 1

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 11:55 AM »

I've had a ZoneAlarm Pro licence for years (6 to be precise) and have kept it up to date. However, I'm behind a wireless router most of the time and have recently removed ZA (and the Webroot Firewall which I was playing with as well) from my machine. I can see the necessity of having a software firewall when I'm on a public network, but is there any argument to be made for continuing to run a software firewall (other than the one that comes with XP) when behind a hardware firewall, MAC address filter, and WEP encryption (router doesn't support WPA  )?

3560

General Software Discussion / Re: Product Key Explorer

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 11:27 AM »

SIW reports the same sort of information as well. I've tried other "Registration Revealer" type programmes and none of them ever show, well, much of anything. SIW reports the keys for quite a few different apps (beyond MS) - this feature has actually proven useful a number of times.

Dang! Didn't notice that Cuffy had already mentioned SIW 

3561

General Software Discussion / Re: winamp 5.5 is fantastic (I thought I'd never say that)

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 11:20 AM »

Heh, heh - probably just as well that I'm having to hold off, then. I just like to support development. On that note, then, I think I'll explore making a donation to XMPlay, then. It's still my default player and what I use to play individual songs. If it had better playlist support, or at least made that support more convenient to use, I wouldn't be looking any further afield!

3562

General Software Discussion / Re: winamp 5.5 is fantastic (I thought I'd never say that)

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 09:13 AM »

[RANT][GRUMBLE]The Canadian dollar has been over 90 cents to the US dollar for the better part of a over a year now and at par since October, and yet DigitalRiver, who handle Wimamp sales, convert the $19.95 US to $27 Canadian for a Pro licence. There is no facility to change currency  . WTF?[/GRUMBLE][/RANT]

Yes, I know, this is what Europeans and particularly Brits have been dealing with for years, but it still rankles 

3563

Living Room / Re: 'We'd be better off if women ran everything'

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 09:03 AM »

Hmmm... wikipedia's Port Alberni page is better: Port Alberni, British Columbia

3564

Living Room / Re: 'We'd be better off if women ran everything'

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 08:59 AM »

Ha, ha - no, you didn't tell me about that book (or if you did the Belgian beer has masked the memory  ). I've seen it around here, but have never read it. I'll have to pick up a copy. I teach in a Nuu-chah-nulth community (Port Alberni), so it would definitely "behoove" me to give it a read!

All of this could get very interesting in the next 12 months (if Hilary gets into the White House, er, again).

3565

General Software Discussion / Re: Your top 3 favorite portable software programs

« Last post by Darwin on December 22, 2007, 07:58 AM »

RoboformPass2Go
ClipMatePortable

I have many others but never use them 

3566

Living Room / 'We'd be better off if women ran everything'

« Last post by Darwin on December 21, 2007, 06:58 PM »

So says Desmond Morris in his latest book "The Naked Man" in an interview with Stephen Moss of The Guardian. Quite an interesting read - he's still controversial 40 years after his other famous book...

3567

Living Room / Re: Internet Faxing

« Last post by Darwin on December 21, 2007, 04:22 PM »

The only services I am aware of are P-R-I-C-E-Y! I had an account with one for a bit courtesy of TrialPay (ie I signed up for a one month trial to get a free app) and it worked well but my God! it was expensive. I cancelled the account WELL before the trial was up becuase I didn't want to have to pay for it. Anyway, I would love to find a free internet based solution myself, so will start looking anew and will keep an eye on this thread as well.

3568

General Software Discussion / Re: DoMercury & QiiNinja - other Quicksilver/FARR type programs

« Last post by Darwin on December 21, 2007, 03:34 PM »

I just tried DoMercury 2.4 (first time using DM). I couldn't get it to change skins - it was stuck on default AND (more importantly in my estimation) it kept cylcing up to 80% or more of CPU and 150MB of VM. I left it alone for an hour and it was still doing that when I returned. Either you need to include some sort of mouserover popup that indicates what's going on in the background (indexing?) or tame the beast! In operation I found it to be pretty good, but couldn't get over the default GUI  Looking forward to putting 2.5 through its paces, though...

3569

Living Room / Re: Are you sad?

« Last post by Darwin on December 21, 2007, 08:54 AM »

Ah...

3570

General Software Discussion / Re: Need help with a name for my new NANY program

« Last post by Darwin on December 21, 2007, 08:05 AM »

I can't believe nobody has gone for the obvious:

Super Happy Active REward (SHARE) 

iReward (copped this one from the Bay or Zellers...)
Get Your Thumb Out and Get It Done (Tm) or just simply Git R Done!

Sorry mouser - I'm hopeless at this. I actually like "RewardMe".

3571

Living Room / Re: Are you sad?

« Last post by Darwin on December 21, 2007, 07:08 AM »

Heh, heh - answered mouser's question (much more interesting!). However, currently the faviocon.ico link Renedgade provides is giving me a 404 

3572

Official Announcements / Re: New Visitors to Our Forum - Please Read This First

« Last post by Darwin on December 21, 2007, 12:24 AM »

Nice, Ralf  I should spend more time searching YouTube! It's a bit like going into a record store, though, I can think of 101 CD's (or in this case, clips) I'd like to watch but I get into the store and I can't for the life of me think of a single thing I want!

3573

General Software Discussion / Re: teracopy: copy your files faster

« Last post by Darwin on December 20, 2007, 11:20 PM »

I have been using Tera Copy 2 Beta for, I think, over a month and I like it. Definitely faster than without.

-tinjaw (December 20, 2007, 08:11 PM)

Shhhhhh! Don't get Nighted riled up - it's almost Christmas for Pete's sake!

3574

Official Announcements / Re: New Visitors to Our Forum - Please Read This First

« Last post by Darwin on December 20, 2007, 11:17 PM »

Well, er, if you must know, I *thought* I was saying that I don't speak Korean very well. The raucous laughter from the wizened old halmohnee (grandmother) that I was speaking to means that I'll never forget how to say either... 

Grorgy - no doubt you are right. Cheers! Or should I say "kombé"! Transliteration has never been my strong suit...

Ralf - "May I go mombo dog-faced in the banana patch?"

3575

Official Announcements / Re: New Visitors to Our Forum - Please Read This First

« Last post by Darwin on December 20, 2007, 08:07 PM »

i hope Sucky figured it out 

-Grorgy (December 20, 2007, 06:46 PM)

Not by looks of things - still listed as a Participant with a single post. I actually started PM'ing him but realised that without being able to communicate much of anything (beyond "Where's the bathroom" "How much" and "I don't have an asshole" - don't ask, it was a lowpoint for me) in Korean, I probably don't have a hope of enlightening him.