Recent Posts

3901

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for iTunes alternative (WMP? or other?)

« Last post by tomos on January 27, 2014, 11:56 AM »

As an alternative to music bee there is mediamonkey.  I've been making use of it with no problems for a while.

-wraith808 (January 27, 2014, 11:11 AM)

thanks wraith,
it got a mixed review at that techsupportalert page linked above - I cant link directly to the review - I'll chance copying most of it here:

Right from installation, my immediate impression of MediaMonkey is that it is not a monkey, at all, but a 1000 lb. gorilla. Just like another well-known media player that will remain nameless, it wants flex its muscles all over your computer and be your be all-do all media player. It instantaneously began searching my hard drives for media files, without my permission, while registering itself as the player of record making it necessary to go through my files and reset their associations so that all would be well once I uninstalled this beast. With all that off my chest, let's get on to the features as there are many.

First and most important MediaMonkey can organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a potent and insightful interface. It will rip and burn cd's. Its audio converter can convert MP3s, OGG, FLAC and WMA files into other formats. It will download and show album art. For those who want to play DJ for your church group or social organization, there is a Party Mode which lock down your media files while still allowing requests. Last of all, but most important some, is MediaMonkey's ability to synchronize with iPods and other MP3 players. There are more features, but they are too numerous to mention here.
[...]
I have no idea how they managed to fit all this functionality into 34.2 MB, but as far as I'm concerned MediaMonkey is just bit too over the top and is far more than I or the average music fan needs and far more than the novice can handle. If I were a professional DJ, then all bets would be off.

It does sound impressive after the initial complaints. BTW are you using the paid or free version?

3902

General Software Discussion / Re: RightNote version 3.0.0 released

« Last post by tomos on January 27, 2014, 11:49 AM »

@peter.s
thanks for the clarifications.
God be with the days when Latin was learned in schools - I did a few months of it myself aged about 12, but moved on when I got a choice (probably more to do with the teacher than the language itself).


PS, I sent you a PM related to your off-topic comments.

3903

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for iTunes alternative (WMP? or other?)

« Last post by tomos on January 27, 2014, 10:35 AM »

What with having a largeish music collection, I think I'll recommend Music Bee - will probably mean I'll have to talk through adding codec for ripping, but once setup it seems easy to use

Thanks people!

3904

Living Room / Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)

« Last post by tomos on January 27, 2014, 12:22 AM »

OMG REN, JUSTIN BIEBER'S IN COURT-I DIDNT KNOW!!!
Thanks for the heads up lol

Other news distinctly suspicious

3905

General Software Discussion / Looking for iTunes alternative (WMP? or other?)

« Last post by tomos on January 26, 2014, 03:28 PM »

Summary:
what's WMP like as an iTunes replacement, for someone who isnt overly fussy -- but likes ease of use?

~~~~
Looking for a friend of mine - who is a long time computer user but, eh, doesnt tweak things (why I'm asking, and not her).
Disillusioned with iPod hardware and iTunes DRM, she's looking for an alternative. (Only allowed one more hardware transfer of music bought through iTunes - she's burned this music to cd.)

I used use JRiver Media Jukebox on windows xp - liked that a lot - nice user friendly interface. But it doesnt seem to have been updated since then. It's fueled by advertising which might not be so bad, the lack of updates would bother me more. The paid version is overkill.

Wondering what people think of WMP?
I've used it about twice in my life and both times it started chewing my hd and hogging cpu afterwards, which I found offensive. But I guess that if I actually used it and allowed it to import my music (or whatever it does), it might not be so bad after. Any experiences there?


If the WMP verdict is unfavourable, I'll probably go with Music Bee as recommended as techsupportalert
http://www.techsuppo...Selection_Guide_Full
Have installed it, requires a bit of initial tweaking (lame codec; manually setting My Music folder for ripped music). Seems good

3906

Living Room / Re: NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)

« Last post by tomos on January 26, 2014, 03:04 PM »

^ seems to me you're both agreeing there - just looking at it from different perspectives...

3907

General Software Discussion / Re: RightNote version 3.0.0 released

« Last post by tomos on January 26, 2014, 02:53 PM »

Very interesting post peter. Some of it is over my head - I'm one of those causal readers ;-)
I've only used tags in fairly basic manner but am curious (and would like to get more efficiently organised).

FWIW, sorting is very important to me in file management and email client so can understand your emphasis on it.

Wondering what is
            1) a "viable tag M" is?
            2) is illac a typo of illic (I could find illic online, but not illac)


On the side: I'm unhappy with the use of the word 'clones' to indicate the same item shown in different locations, but have heard it's fairly universal at this stage - is that the case?
(If that's a clone, what do you call an identical copy :-/ )

3908

Living Room / Re: A Table Tennis match turns into an amazing display of playfullness

« Last post by tomos on January 26, 2014, 01:08 PM »

Great fun

3909

General Software Discussion / Re: RightNote version 3.0.0 released

« Last post by tomos on January 26, 2014, 12:26 PM »

I'm curious if Surfulator overcomes the tag searching shortcomings of RN mentioned in the link from peter.s above (post #13)


Otherwise, and FWIW, my sense of fairness says it's not really fair to be talking about one app in a thread about another app - unless you are comparing the two  

3910

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: eM Client 70% off

« Last post by tomos on January 26, 2014, 04:41 AM »

I will give the guys at SoftMaker credit. Their office suite has been out for a long time and they keep giving their users free updates to eM client. I don't think every company would be generous enough to do that.

-Innuendo (January 25, 2014, 10:56 PM)

I just tried Softmaker's EM for the first time lately - I was impressed.
It was a little buggy in performance terms - I often had to wait for things I would have expected to be instant. (Looking forward to updating to #6.)

3911

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by tomos on January 25, 2014, 09:29 AM »

There's something slightly Crocodile Dundee about this guy's argument with his neighbour.

-oblivion (January 25, 2014, 04:26 AM)

It might not really be true at all.

-TaoPhoenix (January 25, 2014, 06:23 AM)

I sort of hope it IS, but even if it isn't, it's still pretty funny.  

-oblivion (January 25, 2014, 08:17 AM)

enjoyed

I looked up Massanuten as I didnt know what continent it was on:



emphasis mine ;-)

3912

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 02:42 PM »

... when I fixed the smaller asteroids not giving you as many points as was originally intended, I also fixed them not being as hard as originally intended. Though I may need to tweak the speeds a bit if they're too fast. Or maybe increase the rotation speed of your turret so you can react more quickly to a small asteroid coming up behind you. We'll see what happens based on feedback from players.

-Deozaan (January 24, 2014, 01:54 PM)

They are very fast compared to before. This makes the game exciting very quickly, but also much more difficult - I was thinking of requesting 'more bullets' or something, but will see how I get on for a while before making any suggestions/requests.

3913

General Software Discussion / Re: RightNote version 3.0.0 released

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 02:38 PM »

^SB,
IainB wrote a review which might help.

3914

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 02:32 PM »

Did you not see my post above Tao
(the answer is Windows gets run via VM)

3915

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 02:22 PM »

when I replied there I didnt realise that was still your main focus. It is unfortunate that there is this waste involved. It would have been great it it could have been doing something useful. But that's not the case - and cannot be changed in retrospect. And I dont think it's going to stop the forward march of bitcoin.

-tomos (January 24, 2014, 07:41 AM)

But is that waste?  It's providing a very real service, i.e. taking fiat out of the hands of the rich, and putting it into the hands of all of us.  That's not a waste to me.

-wraith808 (January 24, 2014, 08:22 AM)

[edit] didnt mean to be stroppy here, but I think you might have misunderstood my post [/edit]
I just said that there is 'waste involved' (I didnt say/imply that it wasnt worth it).

from my post prior to the one you quoted:

But if it became popular/usable as a currency - it might, in & of itself, be the regulation for the money-system that the governments these days are failing to implement.

-tomos (January 24, 2014, 02:50 AM)

3916

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 07:41 AM »

What would Bitcoin hashes go for, if it weren't for the implicit agreement that they are a medium of exchange?

-eleman (January 24, 2014, 03:44 AM)

the same as todays dollar - and all other money I know of. Not an argument against Bitcoin, unless you also use it as an argument against money as we know it today.

-tomos (January 24, 2014, 06:40 AM)

Well, I'd also raise the same argument against the dollar, or peso, or lira, or euro, whatever, if it did needlessly contribute to global warming. Sure they do (dead trees), but not at the scale applicable to bitcoin mining I reckon.

Does someone have solid statistics on this? i.e. you get x dollars worth of bitcoins after burning y dollars worth of electricity on a rig that cost z dollars to build.

That would really bring our discussion to some solid footing here.

-eleman (January 24, 2014, 06:46 AM)

when I replied there I didnt realise that was still your main focus. It is unfortunate that there is this waste involved. It would have been great it it could have been doing something useful. But that's not the case - and cannot be changed in retrospect. And I dont think it's going to stop the forward march of bitcoin.


and good post above mouser!

3917

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 06:40 AM »

^ I think you're getting bogged down here eleman:
Gold has some value based on it's use industrially and on it's use in jewellery. So, moving on - where does that leave us, money, the dollar, and bitcoin?

Off the top of my head, things of value are: food, your time, things we make that other people want. If we only use things of actual value for trading, we will have to revert to barter :-/

What would Bitcoin hashes go for, if it weren't for the implicit agreement that they are a medium of exchange?

-eleman (January 24, 2014, 03:44 AM)

the same as todays dollar - and all other money I know of. Not an argument against Bitcoin, unless you also use it as an argument against money as we know it today.

3918

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 03:36 AM »

It's a lot faster - is that because I gave the impression it was getting easy ;-)

Sleep is important,
well done all round

3919

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by tomos on January 24, 2014, 02:50 AM »

Yeah, it's getting down to what *is* money - and what do we want money to be like. Maybe even what do we want the world to be like. When you think about it, once we're fed, clothed and have a roof over our heads, we as a society can chose to do anything we want after that. I know that many people dont get beyond working to get enough for those basics. There are people who argue that fiat money causes scarcity. I'm not expert enough to know if that's true. But I do know (look at Ireland) that where it screws up, and there's a shortage of money, you are then screwed - you might be able to work, there might be people who would like you to work for them, but without the money nothing works. (There are other ways to allow people to work i.e. without fiat money, but that's moving onto another topic I think.)

I dont know how Bitcoin as a currency will affect any of this - not much really I suspect. But if it became popular/usable as a currency - it might, in & of itself, be the regulation for the money-system that the governments these days are failing to implement.

3920

Living Room / Re: Bitcoin mining craze

« Last post by tomos on January 23, 2014, 05:01 PM »

There's also a couple of good posts by f0dder here giving a general introduction.

3921

Living Room / Re: Bitcoin mining craze

« Last post by tomos on January 23, 2014, 04:54 PM »

I'm presuming you havent seen the Bitcoin thread ?
(I suspect this might get merged to it).

This aspect of it hasn't bothered me, but I suspect many would agree with you about the power waste.

3922

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by tomos on January 23, 2014, 04:46 PM »

^ I had to look see if Doge were up or down -
looking at the recent rise, I'm presuming 'tip' is up.

3923

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: RightNote Pro 50% Off Thru January 31

« Last post by tomos on January 23, 2014, 02:41 PM »

They sell the full license and the upgrade through Digital River, which charges sales tax.  I don't think I've seen a charge for sales tax (8.65% or so in NYC) before, other than for Microsoft and some other major vendors.  Is it customary, esp. when DR is only a sales conduit and not, I think, a vendor?

-wocius (January 23, 2014, 01:58 PM)

FWIW it's common enough in the EU at any rate (and I suspect that Bauerapps might be somewhere in the EU).

3924

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by tomos on January 23, 2014, 10:41 AM »

Because of the FUD, expense and setup of transitioning to Windows 7(let alone Win Eight), many people will turn to Linux. But, which Linux? Will may people try the Linux below?  Does anyone here know much about it first hand?
 (see attachment in previous post)
Welcome to RoboLinux

-Arizona Hot (January 23, 2014, 03:31 AM)

This is the phrase that's bothering me:
"...what if you could also run all your Windows applications natively inside Linux?"

How is that even possible?

-TaoPhoenix (January 23, 2014, 09:54 AM)

VM - you can "Download The Robolinux One Click Windows XP & 7 VM Installers" for $40ish + 1hour support. Not bad I guess for us noobs ;-)

of course you'll need a windows key too.

3925

Living Room / Re: BitCloud: BitCoin concepts applied to... everything else.

« Last post by tomos on January 22, 2014, 03:04 PM »

I agree that "Where we are today is the result of a people problem" and that "Things never change overnight but change is possible" (but amn't 100% sure about the 'never' there :p).

But, I dunno, to suggest that we should vote instead, or organise for change -- I'm struggling with these responses...
you vote: you most likely vote within a corrupt system; you organise: no offence intended, but I've never seen anything organised that hasnt degenerated into something comparable to what it's replacing -- and even if it could work, it's just one possible solution -- why not be open to the possibility of another possibility i.e. let's *not* just give up with a whimper (or: I dont see any particular reason to see things that way -- YMMV naturally).

The way I see things, they are most likely to change through something grass-roots so long as it involves something outside the box of the current societies' world-view -- seems to me something like that could have a chance.

I'm not even commenting on the topic itself here -- I am very interested in the possibilities presented by the bitcoin protocol, but I just got an itchy typing finger when I read them responses ;-)