Recent Posts

37526

Living Room / Re: Links page - suggestions wanted

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 06:35 PM »

i've seen your site before and loved it!
it's a really great site and donationcoder.com is trying to do something similar in our reviews/awards as you have been doing for a long time.

anyone who hasn't seen the site go check it out and read the good information at the bottom of the main page.  i agree 100%.

great to have you here

going to add your page to the links page now, don't know how i overlooked it before.. i wonder if we need a new section for great sites like yours to put them in their own category?


ps.
hehe - i remember how i found your site, someone made a post scomewhere about the screenshots in your "image viewer page"

37527

Best FTP Server / Re: ASRT: What should we do for 4/23?

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 12:09 PM »

ideally it would be great if we could have guest reviewers quite often.
my strategy has been only to review categories that i feel very strongly about and feel i know a fair amount about.
so the ideal situation would be to have a reviewer each week who really knows the area well and feels passionately about it.
so i'm all for guest reviewers.

the only thing i have to make sure about is that the reviews maintain a standard of quality + depth, and at last some continuity in terms of approach to reviewing and evaluating software.

of course i'm not insisting that guest reviewers have the same approach as me - but i don't want guest reviews to seem out of place with the rest of the reviews.  if anyone hasn't read it yet, here is the little thing i wrote up about what i look for in user interfaces: https://www.donation...iews/uithoughts.html .  this is from the awards overview page https://www.donation...ws/Awards/index.html .

the other thing for a reviewer to remember is that the approach on this site has been to make a real recommendation for which program we think is best, considering all things including price.  it's fine to have some ties if programs are really close, but it's important to realize that the purpose is to make a real recommendation so confused users can get some advice on what to buy/use without losing their mind.

i have also been lax in identifying open source alternatives; wherever possible it would be nice to mention the best open source / free ware alternatives (and award them the special open source award if appropriate).

37528

Best FTP Server / Re: ASRT: What should we do for 4/23?

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 12:00 PM »

some other popular ftp servers:
raidenftpd, http://www.raidenftpd.com/en/ (the interface for this was far to klunky for me last time i tried it)
blackmoon ftp server, http://www.blackmoonftpserver.com/ (this is the one i've used the most and i like it a lot)
glftpd, http://www.glftpd.com/ (open source server for *nix which i hear good things about)
cute's secure ftp server, http://www.cuteftp.com/gsftps/ (looks nice)

37529

Living Room / Re: Should I increase avatar size? Poll.

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 11:53 AM »

thats not a bad idea at all, and it would be easy to do.
i'm going to try that and also look at some alternate button sets on the simplemachines site and see what's best/
need to do some other things first though.. so much to do so little time.

37530

Best FTP Server / Re: ASRT: What should we do for 4/23?

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 11:51 AM »

tenseiken if you're up for it this week, i'm game.

be prepared for it taking longer to write than you think.  it takes me most of a day to write my reviews and at the end i'm f*cking exhausted..

Of course i will gladly help, in proofing and formatting, etc, and i can send you a blank html "template" that you can use.  when you decide on what program you are convinced is best (or if there is a tie that's ok too), you can let me know and i'll contact the authors/companies about offering a discount, or you can do that as well if you like and i'll just forward you the basic emails i send out describing the process.

[ i think i've got it down quite well now - i used to do a pretty hard sell about why offering a big discount to our members is such a good think; now that we've done it often enough, i think they realize its a good deal for them. and i've decided that we will reserve the "Specials/Spotlight" page only for programs that have won our awards and offer a 50% discount, so this is a real incentive for the company to offer a 50% discount.  this seems to work quite well for everyone ].

i would like to be consulted with your thoughts as you look at the different servers so i can try them out also and give you my opinion.  i have used an ftp server occassionally but not too much, so i will definitely defer to you, but i would like to make sure we are on the same page in terms of some things, like the importance of things beyond just feature set, like ease of use, security, reliability, and  clean interface.  And my one real feature that i would insist on is support for ssl, but i think they all support that now..

if you're up for it, let's go for it, i think it would be a nice subject for review.

37531

Living Room / Re: Should I increase avatar size? Poll.

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 11:32 AM »

definitely much more readable.
id say the bigger one is better, though wide buttons might be problematic for some browsers if there are too many of them on one row.
did you just enlarge the images? seems like the text looks too good for that..

37532

DesktopCoral / Re: DesktopCoral 1.00.04 BETA DOWNLOAD - WITH ICON POSITION SAVING

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 10:20 AM »

just testing this on a few other machines and the new icon preserving stuff is not working at all..

you might as well save yourself some time and wait till i figure out why.

37533

Backup Guide / Re: MirrorFolder compared to reviewed programs?

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 09:23 AM »

hopefully someone with some experience in real-time mirroring programs will post a more knowledgable reply,
but you've pointed out a kind of program that maybe i should have addressed in the backup guide, and maybe i should ammend the backup guide to mention.

personally i don't use a mirroring app like this only because i am reluctant to have programs running in the background that i think could consume meaningul amounts of the cpu.

but on the other hand such a tool seems like it could be undeniably useful especially for people who put a premium on not letting any amount of time go by without having important working files backed up, and who are not as concerned with the minor hit in performance.

what's nice about these programs is that as you say, you just set it and forget it..  maybe someone here can explore this topic and it might make for a good follow up guide to backups; there is always more to say about backups and maybe a part2 would be a good idea in a month.

i like the screenshots of mirrorfolder which shows it supporting some archiving function - that seems like it would be very useful..

37534

DesktopCoral / DesktopCoral 1.00.04 BETA DOWNLOAD?

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 08:32 AM »

Ok guys,

i've tried to address the problems and version 1.00.04 is now available in members only section.
it includes hopefully a fix for icon positioning.  hopefully it wont make your icons randomly dance around the screen.

37535

Mouser's Zone / Re: Ideas i want to bounce off you guys

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 03:55 AM »

the current method, where users have to go to members only section and find the thread to download just sucks.

i am going to soon find a better way that is more convenient for members.

a single page which is automatically accessible to members that lists all the most recent versions along with download link to each seems like it might probably be the best solution.  i think i can do this without much of a problem.

ill try to do it today or tomorrow.

37536

DesktopCoral / Re: Usefullness

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 02:53 AM »

going to up a new version soon which should adress 120dpi and use a new checkbox to toggle transparency -
but i did notice that even with opacity at 0, shortcuts jump out of the barrier when it first starts up.. so i have to figure out a way to fix that..

37537

Best Website Change Monitoring Tool / Nice Program that Review Missed: Copernic Tracker

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 12:58 AM »

A very nice program that the review missed: Copernic Tracker
http://www.copernic....s/tracker/index.html

The user interface is one of the most elegant i've seen - very modern and elegant.

It's a very friendly program, but also quite powerful.  It has very flexible scheduling and a very very cool set of options for notifying you when pages change (very cool little fade-in window).

Copernic has a page login feature, an ability to POST data, and a custom user agent (though no custom referer).  These are very welcome features though they cannot compare to the equivelent features in Website Watcher.

The one thing sadly missing from Copernic Tracker is the same thing missing from Chek&Get, which is the ability to specify avoid and watch string patterns, which we have found is critical to avoiding spurious changes in pages due to advertisements, etc.

There is one place where Copernic Tracker really blows away the other programs -  an incredibly wonderful feature where you can easily switch between views of older versions of a page.  Check&get has the ability to save older copies but no other tool that i've seen does this as well as Copernic Tracker.

This is a great feature, and if you're in a situation where it would be useful to easily switch among several of the past versions of a page, Copernic Tracker may be exactly what you are looking for.

As of 4/18/05, Copernic Tracker is $50.
Copernic also makes a bunch of other highly respected programs, including powerful Desktop and Internet Search tools.

Homepage: http://www.copernic....s/tracker/index.html
Trial Download: http://www.copernic....racker-download.html
Screenshots: http://www.copernic....er-screen-shots.html
Demo Movie: http://www.copernic....acker/tour/demo.html
Feature List: http://www.copernic....racker-features.html


---

btw - I have updated the review to add this new program, and have started a new procedure; the archive index will now list the date of last modification of any review ( https://www.donation...s/Archive/index.html ) and reviews themselves will have a sidebar entry at top left with version change info, so you can quickly view modifications.

ps. - Thank you to the person who alerted me that our review missed this program; if anyone ever finds a program we missed do not hesitate to mail me or post on the forum, and as we have said before, feel free to let companies know if you think they would like to make a post in our forums saying why they think we misunderstood or underrated a feature of their program.

37538

DesktopCoral / Re: Usefullness

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 12:15 AM »

oh yeah!!! thats what i meant all along !!!!!

37539

Backup Guide / Re: Hello from Genie-soft (and info about discount)

« Last post by mouser on April 18, 2005, 12:14 AM »

another suggestion:

It would be very useful to be able to browse the catelog as a directory tree, rather than just a list of files,
though i did really like the way it can show files organized by whether they are new or modified.

37540

Living Room / Re: New game here at DonationCoder.com

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 10:39 PM »

Peter Norton was a god in the early days of the ibm pc.

His Norton Utilities came out in 1982 for the ibm pc were the single must have app for every ibm pc user (http://www.computerh...m/history/198090.htm).

But I'm sad to say that i have gradually learned to avoid all norton products.
Although their antivirus/security software gets good reviews, every time i try it again i get turned off by how intrusive it is to install and uninstall.  The last time i installed their antivirus, it also installed this Norton Protected Recycle Bin that i really didnt want and could not for the life of me figure out how to get rid of.

37541

Best FTP Server / Re: ASRT: What should we do for 4/23?

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 10:35 PM »

i'd like to read a review of ftp server software as well.

i've tinkered with them enough to know that all of the ones you listed are good (i've also used Blackmoon ftp server which i liked alot).

but aside from knowing some minimum features i would insist on (like ssl support), im not sure i would be qualified to judge between the close competitors since I don't really use them.


You know what would be really great would be if we could find Guest Reviewers.
Reviewers that are qualified to write a long review on a specific category.
This would make me so happy if we could find a way to do this.

I know how much time it takes to write a review - it usually takes me a full day to do each of mine, and that's just the writing, so it would probably only be fair to offer a reviewer some monetary compensation since we do get donations from people based in part on them finding the reviews on this site useful.  Maybe $20?  If DonationCoder.com ever takes off and I can get more reviewers and software authors involved, I will implement a much more community-based donation system where donators can specifically indicate how their donations should be divided among authors and writers.  Another possibility would be that we could reward reviewers with other things - like a free license to a program if we get such an offer from a software author.

This site doesnt make enough money to pay a reviewer anything even approaching what they would make if they spent the time shining shoes, so believe me monetary incentive is not going to be the reason anyone writes a review, but at least it would let them go out and have a couple beers and relax after they were done

I'd have to be really convinced that the reviewer knew the subject well and could be fair and do a reasonable job of writing a nice long review of the style we have been doing so far.  Not sure how hard that would be to insure.  And I'd need to be convinced that the person was trustworthy and not shilling for some specific company product.

But I would be willing to work closely with someone in advance of review date helping to get a review shaped up, and I'd be willing to do the formatting and html formatting stuff.

So if anyone thinks they are expert enough in a topic to present a reasonable review in some area that I'm not comfortable reviewing, please volunteer.  Fame and Fortune and our thanks await you.

Any suggestions about this idea?

37542

ProcessTamer / Re: Anyone else with this issue?

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 10:23 PM »

Only a nutjob like me would ever encounter it.

absolutely not - being able to provide commandline arguments in this field is important, and the browse dialog should not be affected by this; it's one of these bugs that makes me so grateful to have real beta testers here who are willing to help find these issues, and it is my pleasure to be able to fix them.

I will try to upload new version of Process Tamer and Desktop Coral tonight fixing some recently found issues like this one.

37543

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 10:21 PM »

fixed, thanks.

i agree with you 100% about companies that are honest about their software - especially with a program like partitional management tools when the temptation must be great to sugarcoat potential issues.

i've also come to realize that there is a real tradeoff when dealing with large companies - you get the benefit of the fact that they can often devote significant money and resources to polishing their program, but they often simply cannot be bothered to worry about individual users.  if there software messes up on you, so be it, they are just going to lose one customer and their reputation is already established and not likely to be afftected; where as smaller companies tend to be (though not always) more responsive and concerned about individual user issues.

37544

Backup Guide / Re: Hello from Genie-soft (and info about discount)

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 10:15 PM »

Taleb (hope you don't mind me refering to you by first name).

I like the ability to specify global and per-backup-job filters to exclude files matching a pattern, but one feature I am missing is the ability to specify filters for subdirectories based on name, as can be done in Retrospect (for example to easily say to ignore all subfolders named "Junk", regardless of location in backup tree).

For example in my Programming directory i have tons of subdirectories and many of them have subfolders labeled "Backup" or "Junk" or "Intermediates" and i would like to be able to specify a filter that ignores all files in these subdirectories matching this pattern.

Maybe such filter would look like "Junk\*.*" to describe a filter that should match all files (and subdirs) inside any subdirectory named Junk, or "*Junk*\" ?

37545

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 09:46 PM »

Image for Windows section has been updated - let me know what you think Scott.

37546

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 09:24 PM »

i think you're right scott,
and i definitely respect the idea that this is a tool for power uses who may not want this driver installed if its not wanted.  i greatly respect that.  i would suggest thought that terabyte include the installer in the main download and put a button or link in the main program (or program group menu) to install it.

the manual is good - i'm going to update the review to be a little more positive about image as soon as i finish running some more tests on it and get my second opinion settled.

there's another issue that bears addressing
if you read the plugin guide for the PHYSLock addon that allows you to back up windows while it is running, you will find somet lengthy discussions about cautions/caveats of using it, and what to look out for.

i suspect that TeraByte deserves a lot of credit for this.  My strong impression is that all drive imaging tools use the same exact techniques and run the same exact risks/cautions, but to avoid scaring people they simply say "we can back up windows while it is running" and dont even bother to mention some of the difficulties and things to watch out for.

i have backed up my windows system while it is running dozens of times using TrueImage and restored it from backup many times and have never had a problem.  this great track record is one of the reasons i am so fond of Acronis Image.

BUT, that is not to say that there aren't issues to be concerned about  and TereaByte deserves credit for not shying away being up front and honest about the more delicate issues involved in backing up windows while it is running - and such an approach is going to be especially appealing to some people.

I will update the review to reflect these thoughts - and please do let me know if there is anything else you think I should mention.

37547

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 08:52 PM »

yes,

i think those of us who love testing software and install new software all the time, get better and better at recognizing applications that meet our way of working, and we get better and better about making quick judgements.  And we build up expectations about what a good program should do and how, and we can more quickly identify key features that are missing from our own personal requirements.

however, one then runs the risk of making snap judgements and coming to conclusions too soon, which i have been guilty of.

37548

Living Room / Re: Links page - suggestions wanted

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 07:36 PM »

thanks scott,
you gave me an idea about a section to add on best Ratings site.
i will add resellerratings (and epinions).

i'll check out the others too.

37549

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 07:30 PM »

hi scott-

i 100% agree with you that good support mean a LOT.
and for a program like a drive imager i have a feeling that providing support must be a nightmare - most of the people that contact you are probably insane in a panick from a crashed computer and fearing they have lost their data.

i am going to take another look at Image for Windows and the pdf documentation..

i guess i make judgements kind of rapidly when i start using a program - i had a very negative initial impression with Image when i saw that it wouldn't back up windows while running, unless i downloaded some plugins from the site..

if this was a plugin i had to pay for i would have understood it, but given that this is a free plugin, it just blew my mind that this wasn't included in the install.. it just didn't make any sense and i immediately started off annoyed.

but let me take a breath and go back and give it another look.

37550

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by mouser on April 17, 2005, 12:16 PM »

rofl.