Recent Posts

4026

Official Announcements / Re: November Discounts and Giveaway

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 08:55 AM »

After reading f0dder's points above, I decided to download and install cpuidle. Early days to say anything about it yet, but reading the FAQ and the description about it, a list of reasons not to bother with it began to coalesce in my mind, and looked familiar as well! Being an open-minded individual, I proceeded anyway and installed it. We'll see what happens from here.

4027

General Software Discussion / Re: Paint Shop Pro X2 - installation from hell ...

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 08:48 AM »

A tax on stupidy? No, actually I ran the trial for a while and it worked well so I upgraded (with the Canadian dollar so strong it was very cheap). The worst thing about all of the Xx releases is the anti-piracy crap that they install (though there are workarounds for it...). I probably *shouldn't* have parted with any cash for X2 but I am not sorry that I did (yet - talk to me after the first patch is released).

4028

General Software Discussion / Re: Paint Shop Pro X2 - installation from hell ...

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 08:21 AM »

I bought in at PSP 9. Like it a lot. The upgrade to 10 was a foolish waste of money on my part and I WON a copy of X1, which was marginally better than 10. X2 is quite a bit better than either, though not without some bugs that need to be addressed in the first patch. It's certainly speedier than either X or X1, about the same as 9.

4029

Living Room / Re: PLEASE STOP POSTING

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 08:15 AM »

Ah - I missed that link. Good find f0dder - makes me feel better. There are only 7 threads on a single page now (versus the 131 pages of unread posts, which presumably go back to March 15, 2005!).

EDIT: Nope. Goes back to your join date, so July 7, 2005 in my case.

4030

Living Room / Re: these new cheap core 2 due laptops - any good?

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 08:12 AM »

Hmm... thanks for the pointers, Ralf. Too bad my XP Pro disk is for the Gateway machine  Oh well... I'm in no rush to upgrade my hardware now, anyway. Going to 2GB RAM on my Gateway notebook has give it legs I never thought possible so for the near future I'll stay where I am. Nice to know that I *might* be able to upgrade to XP (without having to pay through the nose for it) on a new machine if disaster strikes one of my current notebooks..

4031

General Software Discussion / Re: A rant about how I finally ditched iTunes... :D

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 08:03 AM »

This sounds eerily reminiscent of the Samsung software I recently banished from my system. It wasn't (such) a resource hog, but the DRM crap it installed was, well, insane! I hope this DRM stuff gets sorted out soon, because right now the paranoia is leading to the release of INCREDIBLY hostile (to the end-user) solutions 

4032

General Software Discussion / Re: A rant about how I finally ditched iTunes... :D

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:56 AM »

That's insane!

4033

General Software Discussion / Re: Does reliable PC security have to cost money?

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:50 AM »

PS - went the Webroot route about three months ago for similar reasons to icekin's decision to go with Grisoft: I wanted a suite that worked seamlessly together and sought to reduce resource overhead. Price was right too - $10 for two years as an upgrade to my existing SpySweeeper licence!

4034

General Software Discussion / Re: Does reliable PC security have to cost money?

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:47 AM »

Thanks for the tip about ClamAV, icekin. Not sure if I'm going to risk it (YEARS of repeating the mantra about not running two AV solutions together have programmed a severe startle response in me at the mere thought of it) but it's nice to know that it's possible. If I want a second opinion, I just use an on-line scanner - BitDefender or TrendMicro. I still have a valid licence for AVG Pro and wish I keep it installed to backup Webroot's AntiVirus with Spysweeper (yup, they changed the name). Sophos provides the engine and definitions for Webroot and it's not let me down yet (fingers crossed, knock on wood).

4035

Living Room / Re: these new cheap core 2 due laptops - any good?

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:38 AM »

Good point, Ralf. In my case, I have two XP install disks but both, sadly, are OEM (HP/Compaq and Gateway). So... I wonder if buying an HP or a Gateway would be the way to go - ie, would the disk install on the newer machine?

4036

Found Deals and Discounts / Bits du Jour has IdeaMason and Ultra Recall coming up (read in for dates)

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:29 AM »

A couple of apps that have been discussed in DC threads over the past six months or so are coming up on Bits du Jour (again!):

IdeaMason November 12 $34.95 (43% off)
Ultra Recall November 13 $19 (60% off)

4037

General Software Discussion / Re: split PDF files - context menu program?

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:23 AM »

Hmm... I just googled on "split pdf" and there are a lot of choices - many of them shareware and many offering context menu functionality and some even command line functinonality (I only looked at the first three or four hits). What are you using at the moment?

4038

General Software Discussion / Re: best clipboard program

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:17 AM »

Heh, heh - good one Mike! In my zeal to find a solution that matched kalos's stated requirement, I overlooked the obvious! Still can't remember the name of that application, though. It was probably a keylogger of some kind, though, so might not have "suited". It might, too, have been something much "heavier" in terms of resources - one of the third party applications that takes over the automatic backup functionality in Office and makes it universal on one's system and more configureable... Still thinking (brain starting to hurt from the effort. Oh well...).

4039

Living Room / Re: Technology Myths

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:14 AM »

No worries, arunpawar, I *think* most of us took it that way. As iphigenie says, it's good fun and from an anthropological perspective interesting to see both the similariites and the differences that exist regionally. Thanks for sharing the list because it gave me a laugh AND it made me think 

4040

Living Room / Re: Alternate Reality Gaming

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:05 AM »

We know when you are sleeping. We know when you're awake.

We know when you've been googling, so be good for google's sake.

-PuppetMaster (November 06, 2007, 06:53 AM)

  Catchy and sinister! Hidden message is a cool touch.

4041

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use Desktop Widgets?

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 07:01 AM »

Heh, heh, if that's the case, I wouldn't touch YWE with a barge pole!

4042

Living Room / Re: these new cheap core 2 due laptops - any good?

« Last post by Darwin on November 06, 2007, 06:58 AM »

Thanks for that, Jammo. Sadly, with so many people (apparently) wanting to upgrade Vista to XP, XP prices probably won't come down anytime soon... I *wonder* if one could buy the XP UPGRADE disc instead of the full version? Save you some money if that was possible.

4043

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use Desktop Widgets?

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 09:32 PM »

Well... I dunno. Maybe try out YWE - YMMV! I'm a complete resource miser and am pretty intolerant of anything using any significant CPU/RAM if it's glorified eye candy. I'm also running an older Centrino with 64MB integrated video memory and 2GB RAM - if you've got a lot more graphics horsepower the hit on resources may not be nearly so noticeable.

4044

Official Announcements / Re: November Discounts and Giveaway

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 09:25 PM »

Ooohh... CPUIdle! I've been wanting to give that a closer look - now I've no more excuses (well, now I simply have NO excuse, never had a list, really...) 

4045

General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual Desktop suggestions?

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 09:22 PM »

Dexpot got a lot of rave reviews on DC about a year ago.

4046

General Software Discussion / Re: best clipboard program

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 09:20 PM »

iphigenie - you're not insane! I've been wracking my brains as I've read this thread trying to remember the name of the app that I came across that does what kalos is looking for. Can I remember it? Nope. But I *know* it's out there. FWIW, kalos, I'm pretty confident that the app I'm thinking of was probably highlighted on DC in the past, so searching the forums creatively might turn something up. In the interim, I'll try to remember where/when/what I saw...

4047

General Software Discussion / Re: Paint Shop Pro X2 - installation from hell ...

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 09:15 PM »

Bummed. That's too bad. Were you using the new Corel_MSI_Cleanup_Utility.exe as opposed to the old zapps.exe file? Just a thought... Anyway, I do hope you can get some satisfaction after all this.

4048

Living Room / Re: Google Talks - a Google perk we can all use

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 09:01 PM »

Interesting - the Yahoo offerings are far more heavily weighted toward computer and sofltware development compared to the Google offerings.

4049

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use Desktop Widgets?

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 09:00 PM »

My wife got back from Hong Kong on Oct. 19 and said it was unbearable! What's funny is that she's always complaining about the cold on Vancouver Island (I'm in shorts and a tee-shirt today and she is wearing multiple layers and shivering - I've escaped upstairs to my offcie and an open window to escape the fireplace).

4050

General Software Discussion / Re: split PDF files - context menu program?

« Last post by Darwin on November 05, 2007, 08:57 PM »

Crap! How'd I miss this post - welcome back, brotherS - you've been missed! I'm not sure I understand what you're looking for - an alternative to the "Open With" functionality in the context menu or an application to split pdfs into discrete pages?