Recent Posts

3801

Living Room / Re: Help! Any NetGear experts out there?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 11, 2008, 11:31 AM »

Oh my!  What will my wife think?

-Deozaan (January 11, 2008, 02:57 AM)

Phew - now I can have a rest?

(Sorry couldn't resist)

3802

Living Room / Re: What should I do with my audio CDs?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 11, 2008, 11:21 AM »

I must admit I like physical media for most things (though I do use an MP3 player too). I still have hundreds, if not thousands, of vinyl discs and cassettes that I can't bring myself to part with - even when I have duplicate copies on CD !

One of the things I really hate about digital downloads is the lack of decent art work and notes. You'd think it would be possible to provide a graphic of the disc label and a PDF version of the CD booklet. I listen to a lot of classical music (amongst other things) and download sites are often more expensive than buying the CD at Amazon, and you have to put up with them getting tracks wrong that flow one to another without a break (like on live rock albums). OK there are players and burners that allow you to record without gaps but they are often global settings which are inappropriate for the whole album, and anyway often the track files are faulty at the seamless join so you can't get a proper seamless burn to CD or playback on a computer.

Question about FLAC - how big is a lossless FLAC version of a standard album? Which software supports Flac (inc. decent conversion to MP3) ?

If I converted all my stuff (including DVDs which I should ideally stick on hard disc) I would need to buy about 10 Tb of external drive space - not going to happen any time soon. 

3803

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Locate 3.0 - great *FAST* HD search tool!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 11, 2008, 11:10 AM »

Thanks - by the way you need to update your weblink (in your profile) as it still points to the defunct version of your site. Why not add a signature with a logo to the LOCATE32 website so that people know you.

You have a great utility which I use everyday - and it is brilliant that you take an active interest in what is going on over here too 

3804

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Locate 3.0 - great *FAST* HD search tool!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 11, 2008, 09:34 AM »

Sorry but that didn't answer the question really. I understand why it needs access to specified locations to update the database but why does it need to access anything just to open the search window (I am not talking about during the search - literally just opening the window to enter search criteria is incredibly slow).

Also even during a search why does it need to access anything - surely the whole point about have an index database is precisely to avoid looking at disk/network content to do a search ???

3805

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 11, 2008, 08:41 AM »

For filtering out stuff the only thing I would like is an 'ignore thread' option which would simply hide a thread. Preferably I would like a list of the threads I have ignored (perhaps in my profile along side subscribed threads etc.) so that I can recover threads in the case of error or if I change my mind.

Seriously all this discussion about tags and filtering would get way too complicated and impossible to maintain unless you had mandatory tagging during post composition otherwise it would be purely random whether posts were tagged in any way at all and even if people bother to use the tags would they do it consistently.

Also if a new thread is marked with a particular tag which you choose to ignore who knows what you would miss - some of the most useful and entertaining contributions have been part of digressions from the original thread topic. OK we could split threads but who is actually going to do it - I can barely keep up reading threads (in fact I don't any longer otherwise it would pretty much become a full time job!) let alone take action on them and Mouser has even less time than me! There would also be a potential for a fair amount of disagreement with thread splitting (which would effectively become editing).

3806

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Locate 3.0 - great *FAST* HD search tool!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 11, 2008, 08:34 AM »

I find everything runs fine when they are all switched on but as soon as some of the paths are not available Locate takes ages to load - worse even if I remove the network paths from the index or even rebuild my DB from scratch using only local discs Locate still waits ages when you try and load it.

-Carol Haynes (January 11, 2008, 05:41 AM)

Yeah, I'm bitten by this thing as well, since I spin down the harddrives on my fileserver - when using locate, they spin up. It should be possible to run locate in a "don't check if the files still exist, only return results" mode...

-f0dder (January 11, 2008, 07:06 AM)

The strange thing is that if you delete a file actually in the Locate results window the file is deleted correctly but locate doesn't update its DB until the next DB update. In which case why is it even interested to see if files and folders are present - surely it should just tell you where to find files and then complain if you try to go there when it is not available ?

Oddly in the settings you can tell it to ignore folders if they are not present during update - why can't you do that during 'offline' searching?

Strange behaviour!

3807

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Locate 3.0 - great *FAST* HD search tool!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 11, 2008, 05:41 AM »

I have been experimenting with Locate for network use (just by adding folders on some NAS I have and folders on other PCs on the network).

I find everything runs fine when they are all switched on but as soon as some of the paths are not available Locate takes ages to load - worse even if I remove the network paths from the index or even rebuild my DB from scratch using only local discs Locate still waits ages when you try and load it.

The only way I could get back to instant response was to use YourUninstaller to remove all traces of Locate and then reinstall from scratch.

3808

General Software Discussion / Re: Radiohead video of Scottish Mist

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 06:28 PM »

This may be slightly off topic, but would it be considered illegal/unethical to share the original download with other people even though it was free in the first place?

-Deozaan (January 10, 2008, 03:05 PM)

Yes/Yes

actually it was never free - they asked people to pay what they want. If people chose to pay nothing it is still not technically free - they are just cheapskates.

I don't even like Radiohead particularly but I paid a couple of pounds for a copy because I applaud what they are doing and I wanted their experiment to work so that they may convince other artists to do likewise. Come to think of it I should at least listen to it once

3809

Living Room / Re: is someone stealing my bandwidth?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 06:23 PM »

Isn't that what I said? Sorry if it wasn't clear.

3810

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless network detector & IP settings changer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 01:42 PM »

Can't you just set up connections to two different networks in the Connection Manager with the different settings then it will connect to whichever network is available?

3811

Living Room / Re: Who is running the site?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 01:39 PM »

Need to know something that someone will admin privs could help with...

What did you need to know? If it is private PM me or Mouser

3812

Living Room / Re: post problems MB UPGRADE, slow detecting and verifying dmi pool data prob

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 01:32 PM »

I had a similar problem with a poor connection on a SATA cable

3813

Living Room / Re: is someone stealing my bandwidth?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 11:42 AM »

But my PCs are very secure so all that can happen is them nicking some of my bandwidth for a short while...

May not seem like a big deal but it is ... if someone sits outside your house (or your neighbours) stealing your bandwidth and do something illegal (like downloading child pornography, uploading/downloading copyright music of video, running file sharing software for nefarious purposes) it will be you that the police come after because everything will track back to your IP address. OK so you may live somewhere that it is unlikely but some criminals literally drive around searching for unsecured bandwidth.

Some people have got into serious trouble with this in the UK and some countries are now starting to look at making unsecured WiFi networks illegal.

3814

Living Room / Re: What kind of tagging system would be appropriate for DC?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 07:36 AM »

Well, parts of your ideas are okay, but I reaaaaally dislike the "Content Pledge" idea. Gives me the creeps, to be honest.

-f0dder (January 10, 2008, 07:13 AM)

Can't remember what it said now but I think the original sign up agreement includes stuff like that. Even if people do sign up to such a thing how many people read it or think about it afterwards.

Personally I agree with fOdder on the 'content pledge' bit - I think that we should all behave in a civilised manner towards each other (and do so pretty much on DC 99.9% of the time - the other 0.1% being spam that most people never see) without having to sign up to a contract to be well behaved (even voluntarily). If for some reason there is a problem or perceived problem I think the 'reported post' or emailing Mouser or a moderator (such as me) has seemed to work pretty well in the past and situations can be resolved.

The whole tagging thing could be really usful (esp. if you can search on tags too) and maybe there is a little room in there for a 'not for the squeemish' type tag with an opt in filter in the user profile.

Personally I quite like the idea of a bad language filter - I wouldn't use it myself (being of good Anglo Saxon stock where four letter words have been in common use for well over 1000 years)  but there are a lot of people who don't like the use of expletives and find them offensive. Again it could be an opt in function within the user profile and replacing 'naughty' words with **** seems a pretty straight forward way to protect people's sensibilities from such content. There is such a filter included within SMF forums where unacceptable words can be filtered but if enabled it seems to be global - maybe there is a way to make it a user option.

3815

General Software Discussion / Re: Radiohead video of Scottish Mist

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2008, 05:10 AM »

The download version is no longer available directly from their download site - only the disc box at £40 (~$80) !

If you live in the US you can buy a copy for $0.89 a track or $7.99 for the album from http://www.amazon.co...inbows/dp/B0011TQLA2

Alternatively try google where you can easily find what you want for the price you want ...

3816

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: EverNote - Free today at GAOTD

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 11:30 AM »

I cannot see an activate.exe in my zip file? Do you have a different Download?

-Crush (November 15, 2007, 07:02 PM)

I think starting from this one, there will be only one .exe that you need to run to activate and install. Just follow the instructions in the .txt file and proceed.

-sri (November 15, 2007, 09:38 PM)

There isn't an activate.exe

The app doesn't need activating after installion as it is the full version. To force the GAOD rules they wrapped the installer application in their own unzip application so that it checks the site before unzipping the intalltion app. If it verifies the correct day it unzips it to a temp filder and then runs the installer. Once it is installed it deletes the installer application from the temp folder.

3817

Seedling's Software / Re: New App! WTF!? Music Info

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 09:30 AM »

Fair enough (ducks the shattering glass ceiling ...)

I can only see the first one you posted as the others are too small and don't enlarge when you click them.

Actually most of mine are either tagged because they came that way, or I use WMP find the album ... feature. I am really bad at getting round to tagging (or removing duplicates - that graph of mine is probably totally wrong because I have huge numbers of multiple copies scattered all over the place).

3818

Living Room / Re: iPod Touch - any opinions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 08:43 AM »

What is the point of a phone with a limited battery life? You have to send it back to get a new one at ridiculous cost.

I don't want to start the whole Mac discussion again but there are other phones out there that do pretty much the same stuff but are cheaper, more functional and don't cost a fortune.

The biggest bitch in the US has been about the huge bills run up by the iPhone constantly connecting to servers to check emails etc. if you do get one make sure to turn everything off that can connect without you knowing (unless you fancy bills in the thousands of Euros).

3819

Seedling's Software / Re: New App! WTF!? Music Info

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 08:39 AM »

I know, ... I know (smart arse) - I am just crap at consistent tagging.

3820

Living Room / Re: Anyone Else Have an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Problem in the Winter?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 08:37 AM »

i've never experienced winter ...

-lanux128 (January 09, 2008, 06:08 AM)

Some people have all the luck!

-Carol Haynes (January 09, 2008, 07:18 AM)

on the other hand, there is rain throughout the year..

Rainfall is well distributed throughout the year and falls on as many as 150 to 200 days almost everywhere. In most places there is a definite double rainy season, with the heaviest rains falling in the two periods March to May and September to November.

-bbc weather

• http://www.bbc.co.uk...ts.shtml?tt=TT002590

-lanux128 (January 09, 2008, 08:01 AM)

Sounds pretty much like where I live ... been raining on an almost daily basis for months (with about 2 weeks of nice weather at the beginning of December). July and August I thought the UK had shifted into the monsoon belt (and so did most of northern England with the worst summer flooding on record).

3821

Living Room / Re: Anyone Else Have an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Problem in the Winter?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 07:18 AM »

The winter problem arises because you inevitably wear multiple layers and man made  fibre layers rubbing together turn you in to a Van der Graff generator

i've never experienced winter ...

-lanux128 (January 09, 2008, 06:08 AM)

Some people have all the luck!

Actually I love winter - but in the UK we don't get proper winters any more, at least not with snow and blue skies. If we are lucky enough to get snow (and I live in the Pennines - little mountain range running from the Scottish border to the Midlands so should get snow if anywhere does) it always melts or turns into brown mush within a few hours or a day at most - never enough time for stuff to properly freeze for skiing or ice climbing! Most of winter in the UK is just cold, damp and miserable with grey skies - so you ain't missing much!

3822

Seedling's Software / Re: New App! WTF!? Music Info

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 07:12 AM »

Here's my quirky (AKA schizophrenic) collection (top slots seem to be podcasts - I am really bad a deleting them!) ...



Fun toy though ... why do I need to enter a specific folder when I already have a window full of folders? Why not just dispense with the folder field and have the folders window?

3823

Best Dialog Extender / Re: So what is the best/popular one now?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 07:08 AM »

yes, Vista compatibility was mentioned in this thread previously..

-lanux128 (January 09, 2008, 06:17 AM)

Must have missed it - strange that they changed policy though, unless they have open sourced it and someone else actually produced the new version. The explicitly stated that they would move from a paid to free product because it was impractical to update for Vista ... it doesn't affect me but I am pleased they have done it as it is a really useful little tool that I use daily.

3824

Living Room / Re: is someone stealing my bandwidth?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 07:06 AM »

Why not get an 802.11n router (the RangeMax stuff from Netgear is fantastic) and run everything off one secured router at 300Mbs ?

3825

Best Dialog Extender / Re: So what is the best/popular one now?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2008, 06:07 AM »

Note FileBox eXtender doesn't work with Vista - they stopped development and made it free because they didn't want to develop it for Vista.

Edit ... OK I just looked at the website and they have released version 2 which is Vista compatible ??? Strange as the expressly stated they would not do this. Good for them though.