Recent Posts

3976

General Software Discussion / Re: what does uninstall really mean?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 24, 2007, 07:10 PM »

You need to change the sequence above to items 7-10, instead choose the "Don't search I will choose the driver to install" option. You can then manually specify the drivers you need.

If this doesn't work do the sequence again but click "Uninstall" rather than update drivers.

I would guess if uninstall doesn't actually remove the drivers then they are supplied by MS as part of Windows - in which case unless you can find a version that is dated newer than the ones MS supply you are stuffed because Windows keeps copies of its own drivers so that if they get deleted they automatically copy a new copy and reinstall. If the new drivers have an INF file can you not edit the file and change the date to a a more recent value (don't know if this will fool windows but it might be worth a try)?

Also the Driver Details button will show you the file names associated with the driver - you could try doing a global search across your hard disks (make sure you allow System and Hidden files to be shown in Control Panel > Folder Options first). After uninstalling make a note of where these files are and move them somewhere out of the way (say a folder on your desktop). That should stop Windows reinstalling them automatically! If you have a problem you can always put them back where you found them!

3977

Living Room / Re: 32bit vs 64bit Vista performance comparison?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 24, 2007, 06:50 PM »

I read somewhere a while back (can't remember where) that some benchmarking actually found 64-bit XP slower than 32-bit. The main advantage seems to be unlocking the memory limit.

Can someone answer a simple question though - if I upgrade to XP64 do I have to also upgrade all of my software to 64-bit versions or will 32 bit versions install and play happily on a 64-bit OS ? If there are software compatability issues is there a good site with a list of issues and workarounds for software that has never been released in 64-bit format?

Presumably if I installed XP64 I could install VMWare or similar and run XP32 in a virtual machine?

3978

Living Room / Re: Seriously, wtf is going on with Apple's Mac vs. Pc ads?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 24, 2007, 06:45 PM »

Seems pretty pointless to me - Apple buffs will chuckle, non-Apple people will scratch their heads and wonder what Jobs & Co are on ...

Actually I often wonder how advertising works - I know it does but the ads I remember are always for products I have never bought and am unlikely to buy. For example I love the Honda ads - but I have never owned a Honda and never likely to. Similarly Carling Black Label (lager) and Guinness ads in the UK are often hysterical but it doesn't make me want to drink either (even though I drink both types of beer from time to time - just not those brands).

Stranger still are the ads that you come away from thinking "I wonder what that was an ad for?"

Maybe it is just me but the Apple ad seems to fall into the latter category!

3979

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgraded to 64-bit XP, need virtual CD/DVD drive

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 24, 2007, 04:24 PM »

I have to confess I still have Nero installed (just the burning rom and tools - not all the video crap etc. however I am no longer upgrading) but I hardly use it. I mostly use ImgBurn and Ashampoo.

3980

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgraded to 64-bit XP, need virtual CD/DVD drive

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 24, 2007, 03:08 PM »

Don't know if there is a 64-bit version but if you have Nero it comes with ISO mounting software (check your control panel for Nero ImageDrive). It supports 1 or 2 virtual drives.

3981

General Software Discussion / Re: Converting DRM protected music files: software recommendations

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 24, 2007, 07:05 AM »

If it's Windows Media you're thinking of, then FairUse4WM works for me.

-katykaty (November 23, 2007, 04:37 PM)

Works for me with WMA too (inc WMV DRM video) - but doesn't address the format conversion which is required.

If you just want format conversion Goldwave is an excellent cheap sound editor that can convert just about anything you want.

3982

Living Room / Re: Amazon's Kindle eBook Reader

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 24, 2007, 05:49 AM »

Another review with some pros and cons (and a few more details of the product) at http://www.webware.c...0-2.html?tag=nl.e776

3983

Living Room / Re: Looking for Beta Testers for Satanic Music Detector :)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 23, 2007, 04:09 PM »

James Blunt "You're Beautiful" sounds a bit like "I'm a fruity boy" ... so some things are logical in reverse land

3984

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: snagIt 7 free: grab it

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 23, 2007, 02:40 PM »

Version 7 did have scrolling capture.

3985

Living Room / Re: Gender Genie!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 23, 2007, 01:55 PM »

well I seem to be fairly well in the male camp!

Having said that I only submitted text that was factual (uni essay type) which by definition has to be written in a non-personal style.

I also fail to see how words like "it", "are", "the", "a", "at" can possibly be gender specific - especially in factual writing that aims to be concise and precise.

3986

Living Room / Re: NFW! Check Out THIS Music Distribution Policy!!!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 23, 2007, 10:51 AM »

I mentioned this before (a long time ago) but it is worth repeating. I saw Janis Ian play live in the UK during her last visit and one really refreshing idea was that she made the venue management stick a notice over all the "NO PHOTO and NO RECORDING" signs which simply said "tape what you want and take as many photos as you like". What a star.

I'll also add a vote for "The Bastard Fairies" - great stuff!

3987

Living Room / Re: Looking for Beta Testers for Satanic Music Detector :)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 23, 2007, 08:26 AM »

LOL - hilarious - love the website too ...

3988

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 22, 2007, 07:44 AM »

That's interesting because what you have done with hardware specifically contradicts what MS actually published when all the VISTA activation hoo-haa blew up. Maybe they have had second thoughts.

Did you actually have to reactivate or did it just not bother to ask when you restarted your system? Under XP swapping the CPU or memory didn't seem to force a reactivation - but they originally said this would promt VISTA.

Strange.

As for the DRM nonsense - as far as I understand it (and I'm probably wrong) I was under the impression it was running all the time checking all media/AV files for DRM before allowing you to play them - even when DRM was not involved, such as your own home movies recorded on a camcorder.

3989

General Software Discussion / Re: Visual C++ 2008 Express and native x64 output ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 22, 2007, 02:15 AM »

Thought it might - now there's logic for you

3990

General Software Discussion / Re: Visual C++ 2008 Express and native x64 output ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 21, 2007, 06:45 PM »

Out of curiosity what happens if you install Express on a 64-bit platform? Does it still compile to 32-bit or does it work out that you are using 64-bit and default to that?

3991

Living Room / Re: Q: What's 1 foot square, flat, covered in hair, and greasy?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 21, 2007, 06:40 PM »

Cool. Thanks for sharing that, Ralf. 60 Second Science site looks worth re-visiting as well 

-Darwin (November 21, 2007, 06:26 PM)

60 Second Science has been set up by Scientific American - so it should be really good. Sign up to the Podcast!

3992

General Software Discussion / Re: SpySweeper from Webroot, trustworthy?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 21, 2007, 06:37 PM »

I found SpySweeper pretty good at its job but it was a bit of a resource hog. I had a bit of an issue a while back - can't remember now what it was but I ended up uninstalling it. I now use SpywareDoctor from PCTools but only in manual scan mode as it too is a resource hog.

3993

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 21, 2007, 06:30 PM »

Ah Carol, ever the optimist.  :-)

-Ralf Maximus (November 21, 2007, 05:46 PM)

Actually 5 years late is probably optimistic if Vista is anything to go by. Who can remember all the whizzo stuff promised for Longhorn? How much of it has actually appeared in Vista?

3994

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 21, 2007, 06:27 PM »

Yes but its all built into the Kernel along with all the other stuff that has been overlaid and is so annoying and resource hungry - OK perhaps its bad example and a cheap shot but I'll bet Windows 7 is even heavier on resources and more restrictive to end users. What about the restriction that if you change your memory or CPU you will probably have to buy a new copy 'cos they won't let you activate Vista on a second hardware system!

3995

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 21, 2007, 05:44 PM »

This poses the question, why move to Vista with Windows 7 down the road?

-Lashiec (November 21, 2007, 03:25 PM)

Because Windows 7 will be 5 years late, all the promised new stuff will be lost/forgotten and there will be even more DRM crap and you will need a second mortgage for the amount of hardware required to run Word 2013 at half the speed of Word 2000. .Net framework will require 5Gb of RAM to itself because there will be about 15 versions all trying to be be RAM resident simultaneously. Never mind by then you might get Explorer 7.1 and Windows Media Player 12.

3996

Living Room / Re: Amazon's Kindle eBook Reader

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 20, 2007, 12:11 PM »

I was just reading an article that says it doesn't use a normal WiFi system but rather:

"Downloads are done via Amazon Whispernet, using the EVDO network"

See http://blogs.zdnet.c...7096&tag=nl.e539 for the article.

I don't know what EVDO is.

Having said that I can understand the idea of having computer manuals and other reference books in this format provided your investment is guaranteed protected - but (and it is a big BUT) the books will be locked to one device - what happens when it dies?

Also I have been stung with eBooks before - what happens when you buy an eBook and need to download it again? As far as I can tell this is supposed to be possible from Amazon but in the past I have been unable to redownload eBooks from Amazon because publishers have withdrawn them from the eBook market.

Given that the library size is limited is there a way to store books on other media (such as a computer hard disk)? It seems to suggest that it doesn't need to interface with computers at all - even to purchase and download books. Does this mean you are relying on Amazon to manage your library within your Amazon account and allow books to be grabbed from your library on the fly?

Finally would anyone choose to read a novel on this sort of device - there is no way I want to lie in bed with a glowing lump of plastic glaring at me instead of a comforting paperback that can happily drop on the floor without problems when I drop off to sleep!

3997

Living Room / Re: About Rudeness in Forums

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 20, 2007, 03:50 AM »

I must say I really like the atmosphere here. I was the first 'moderator' Mouser asked to help out - it has not been an onerous or difficult job. Occasionally there are stupid or offensive posts (almost invariably one offs from newcomers or visitors - and almost always spam of some sort) but the community is very good at reporting these posts and they are probably dealt with before anyone notices.

From the tone of some 'heated' discussions I am sure most people realise that there isn't active moderation of posts at all - usually just a quick comment in a thread asking for the temperature to be cooled (sometimes I need hosing down too ).

Thanks everyone for making it a great place to visit every day.

3998

General Software Discussion / Re: Which MP3 tagger do you use?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 20, 2007, 03:23 AM »

Poll updated again! (note you can remove votes and also vote for as many as you want)

If you want to change your vote simply remove your vote and then you can choose as many as you like again.

Shame the voting system can't be weighted so that you can order your votes in order of importance to you and items get a fractional vote depending on where they are in the list.

3999

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 19, 2007, 09:54 AM »

I think you're being too critical of the manufacturers. There's a definite advantage to using custom-sized lithium-polymer batteries. Standard AAA batteries force the design into a certain shape and (iirc) the energy density lithium-polymer is higher, so the AAA NiMH batteries would need to be bigger. The custom Li-polymer batteries allow the manufacturers to build the devices smaller (and with a definitive style).

As long as consumers value small size and style, custom batteries will be what you get.

-CWuestefeld (November 19, 2007, 09:30 AM)

Some Li-Ion batteries are tiny with good power output (such as the ones used in the early Creative Zen Micro) and much better and smaller than some of those used in other players - like the iPod early models. If the battery specs were released other companies would produce cheap replacements (just look eg. at the cost of Canon's Li-Ion replacements compared to the UniRoss equivalents and many other makes).

Sorry I am really cynical about this - how can Apple justify $100+ costs to replace a battery that would only probably cost $20 if others were allowed to manufacture them? It is just profiteering and most other manufacturers have simply jumped on the bandwagon.

4000

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on November 19, 2007, 09:12 AM »

@nontroppo - I'm jumping in making some assumptions here, but wanted to note that I *think* Carol was referring to things like CMOS batteries WRT Macs computers (as opposed to the batteries that power laptops) and the non-user replaceable batteries in iPods. Of course, in the portable music sphere Apple is far from being the only manufacturer doing this - AFAICT Samsung, Sandisk, Creative, etc. all design their players this way. I don't know if this is to reduce the likelihood of the end-user mucking up their player or if it's got more to do with the technology and keeping the size down (probably a combo of both thought...). Hope I haven't misinterpreted what you were drivng at, Carol 

-Darwin (November 19, 2007, 07:59 AM)

Nope - that is pretty much it. Can't see the argument working for the original iPods though which were built like bricks and could easily have had a replacable battery compartment. As for Creative they have now followed suit which is why I have stuck to the Zen Micro/Photo which has batteries you can change (I even bought about 4 or 5 spare batteries before they disappeared from sale).

I don't believe that the battery situation is anything to do with style or form factor - it is one way to guarantee that users spend even more money with the manufacturer and that third party battery manufacturers can't cash in on the deal. Otherwise why do Apple charge so much for battery replacements? For many people it is now cheaper to chuck their iPod and buy a new one which (like printer manufacturers who sell their goods cheaper than the replacement ink cartridges) is, IMHO, criminally irresponsible and a disgusting waste of dwindling world resources.