Recent Posts

376

General Software Discussion / Re: which is the best free virtualization software?

« Last post by techidave on March 05, 2011, 07:33 PM »

Well, XP as the native OS wasn't my first choice, its just that I cannot afford win7 just yet, so I thought I could get a head start on things by installing xp first.

maybe I could go ahead and install xp virtually and then I would have that done already.  Then all I would have to do is load win7 (native) when I get it, then copy my xp file over and I am done!   

377

General Software Discussion / Re: which is the best free virtualization software?

« Last post by techidave on March 05, 2011, 06:52 PM »

That looks like a good sites, Miles.  I just skimmed it a bit and lots of good stuff.

378

General Software Discussion / Re: which is the best free virtualization software?

« Last post by techidave on March 05, 2011, 05:35 PM »

on a slightly different note, is there anything that will allow you to run the Mac OS X on a Windows machine?

Does VMWare's Vcenter converter work like it says it does?  To convert Win7 to a virtual?

379

General Software Discussion / which is the best free virtualization software?

« Last post by techidave on March 05, 2011, 04:57 PM »

I have been looking at three of the more popular free virtualization programs, VMWare, VirtualBox, VirtualPC 2007.  Since they all appear to have similar features, i was wanting to get some thoughts such as ease of use, features, etc., as I am getting ready to do this on a Windows machine.  At the present moment, I would like to use XP Pro as the default OS and then run Vista, 7, 2000, 98 and maybe 95 too.  The last 3 would be for kicks more than anything else.  I think VirtualBox is the only one that run Linux virtually and that would be an option to run to.

The only experience I have is with VirtualBox on Snow Leopard trying to run Windows XP virtually.  It had some issues that I couldn't figure out so we went out and bought Parallels for Macs and the problems ended.

Some of you are way more experienced than me with this and wondered what your thoughts were.

thanks,
Dave

380

PopUp Wisdom / Re: Unknown software exception - Windows 7

« Last post by techidave on March 04, 2011, 06:09 AM »

which piece of software do you think might be doing this?  Have you checked the event viewer to see if it gives more information?

381

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by techidave on March 04, 2011, 05:30 AM »

I rarely look at the home page.  I have booked marked the forum>unread posts to enter by.  I guess because the other pages have little that interests me.

382

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)

« Last post by techidave on March 03, 2011, 03:19 PM »

Sweet!

383

Official Announcements / Re: UnReplied Topic Fridays on the DonationCoder.com Forums (URT-Fri)

« Last post by techidave on February 28, 2011, 01:14 PM »

I would be happy to try and help out also.  I like Jim's idea of either "show only topics started by new members" thing or highlighting the new members under a certain number of posts... say 10?

384

Living Room / Re: print webpages that don't fit the page

« Last post by techidave on February 25, 2011, 02:23 PM »

I just tried this site, www.printfriendly.com and it stripped away all the junk.

385

Living Room / Re: print webpages that don't fit the page

« Last post by techidave on February 25, 2011, 02:15 PM »

http://www.proprofs....ptia_A%2B_Cram_Notes

this is what I am wanting to print.  its a wiki and there is not "print" icon or button.

I also tried IE 8 and have the same results.

386

Living Room / print webpages that don't fit the page

« Last post by techidave on February 25, 2011, 02:10 PM »

I am wanting a hard copy of some pages on a web site.  I use Firefox and genarally it will shrink the pages to fit when I print them.  However, on this site, that doesn't work.  I have changed the margin settings but it still doesn't get all of it.  Tried to paste it into Word... Nope not there either.

It seems someone has mentioned a site or some software that will overcome these limitations.

any ideas?

dave

387

Living Room / Re: need recomendations for burning audio file

« Last post by techidave on February 25, 2011, 06:24 AM »

Well, I ended up using Nero to copy my mp3 to a dvd and it plays in a computer and in the dvd player attached to my tv.  They will just have to try it and see where it plays.

Thanks for the help!

388

Living Room / Re: need recomendations for burning audio file

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 02:38 PM »

good idea Oshyan.  That's what I love  about dc... multiple ways to solve your problems.   

389

General Software Discussion / a replacement for Free Studio Manager

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 12:54 PM »

Is there a free replacement for dvdvideosoft's Free Studio Manger that is lean and mean?  I posted here of my dislikes for the software now.

I wondered what others were using?  I think I would prefer one program but would entertain the thought of multiple programs.

dave

390

General Software Discussion / dvdvideosoft's free studio manager

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 12:52 PM »

Free Studio Manager by dvdvideosoft.com used to be a easy, slim program to do many different things pertaining to cds, dvds, video and audio files. Home Page 

I just downloaded version 5.0.5 today and my, oh my is it ever bloated!  Not too mention that you have to have >net version 4 in order to run it.  I haven't found anywhere that tells you need this until you try to install it and don't already have it on your computer.  It looks like it may be somekind of java or flash, which maybe why it's so slow.

Also, they made announcement on Jan 11, 2011 that version 5 would be the last free version.  But it loooks like they allow you to get an activation code.  announcement

I do not know if I want to get an activation code. 

391

Living Room / Re: need recomendations for burning audio file

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 12:17 PM »

yes skwire I do see what you mean.

Chris, how would I split the file to get 2 cds out of it. 

Maybe I should just copy the mp3 to a dvd, burn it, and then tell them that it will only play in a computer, dvd player or whatever.  then they have to find that particular device.

392

Living Room / Re: need recomendations for burning audio file

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 11:56 AM »

oh bother.  so let's look at dvds then.  does the same rules apply?

393

Living Room / Re: need recomendations for burning audio file

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 11:53 AM »

most definitely. so the redbook route would be the way to go???

394

Living Room / Re: need recomendations for burning audio file

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 11:34 AM »

I was just getting ready to do that skwire when I saw a reply had been posted.

By players, I really mean computers, car stereos, boom boxes, anything that could be used to play a cd or dvd.   This isn't for me but for a family that has recently lost a loved one.  I have split off the audio from the video that was taped.  So I really don't know what type of device it might be played on.

395

Living Room / need recomendations for burning audio file

« Last post by techidave on February 24, 2011, 11:05 AM »

I am needing to burn an audio file to either a cd or dvd disc that will play in most players.  Which type of disc?  Which format - mp3, wav, or what?  I realize that I cannot cover EVERY type of player, I just want to get the widest range.

The file is 1 hour and 20 minutes long, so about 100 meg or so depending on the format.

thanks
dave

396

Skwire Empire / Re: Skwire Empire - Software Launching Pad

« Last post by techidave on February 15, 2011, 05:50 AM »

Now to get Skrommel to update his page.  That would be wonderful!   

397

Living Room / Re: which is more important, system ram or video ram?

« Last post by techidave on February 07, 2011, 02:20 PM »

I am not sure how hard drive caching works.  I first learned about hd buffers back on some old Pentium 100mhz machines that I upgraded to a Pentium 166mhz cpu to try and speed them up.  I did like 4 of these, some it mad a difference on and some it didn't.  For those that didn't, they had an old seagate hd with 256kb buffer on them.  I don't remember if it was a 4200 or 5400 RPM drive or not.  Once I replaced it, then the machine was as fast as the rest of them. 

F0dder, if I am reading your last sentence correctly then I disagree.  in my own tests I have found just increasing the drive speed and leaving the cache alone does make SOME difference.  But it may not be enough to justify the difference in price.

398

Living Room / Re: which is more important, system ram or video ram?

« Last post by techidave on February 07, 2011, 01:45 PM »

 
You guys have reinforced my thinking that system ram is more important.  While some of the responses didn't really fit my scenario, they were indeed very informative and good for later use (maybe).

My own tests have proven to me the speed and buffer size of a hard drive can make all the difference in the world in how fast a computer runs.   Its just one of several ways to "speed up" a computer.  The system in question above had a 5400 RPM with a 2mb buffer in it.  Even a different 5400 with 8mb buffer would make enough difference to be noticeable.

399

Living Room / Re: which is more important, system ram or video ram?

« Last post by techidave on February 07, 2011, 11:56 AM »

I changed the video RAM to 64 meg from 128 meg and it seemed to help.    I didn't time it or do any other tests to see if it actually was faster.

Which brings up another question:  Would a benchmark test actually tell me if it was indeed faster?  if so, which one?

400

Living Room / Re: which is more important, system ram or video ram?

« Last post by techidave on February 07, 2011, 07:14 AM »

the sad part of doing a factory restore was the spyware it had from the getgo on this machine.  I did another factory restore and then uninstalled all the bloat using Revo Uninstaller and it still had spyware.  nothing would remove it for good.  I couldn't do a clean install of xp media center since there were no cd's to do it with.

now that it is on xp pro, it is running much better and no spyware yet.