Recent Posts

426

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary updated to Version:3.50 (Build 689)

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 24, 2011, 07:53 PM »

Mine's Pro.  Is yours free?  Even if it is, I'd have expected the updates checker to work.  Could your firewall be blocking it from calling home?

-rjbull (November 24, 2011, 03:21 PM)

No, mine's Pro as well.  And I'm pretty sure the Windows Firewall doesn't block anything from calling home.    I just checked with Listary again and it still insists I have the most recent version.  I have 3.23. 

427

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary updated to Version:3.50 (Build 689)

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 23, 2011, 04:04 PM »

Thanks for your mention of Check&Get.  At the moment, I don't feel a strong need to monitor websites except via RSS feeds, but if that changes, I'll definitely have a look.  And no, I haven't reported the Listary problem.  I assumed that the update checker was broken for everyone.  Oh well....  Do you have the free or the Pro version?

428

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary updated to Version:3.50 (Build 689)

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 23, 2011, 12:08 PM »

I used to use Website Watcher--indeed, I really liked it for a while.  But I kept running into problems with the way I'd set up a site to be checked, and I finally decided it wasn't worth my time to have to keep trying to figure out what I did wrong each time.   Now RSS feeds take care of some of what I used to use Website Watcher for, and as for the rest....well, I haven't missed all that much.  With Listary, I doubt I'd have tried to set up Website Watcher, since Listary has a "check for updates" feature.  Alas, it seems not to be working. 

429

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary updated to Version:3.50 (Build 689)

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 23, 2011, 07:36 AM »

Thanks for letting me know about this.  I don't know why, but I didn't get any notification.  And just now, I checked for updates and was told I had the most recent version.  But the version of Listary Pro that I have is 3.23, and according to the website, the current version is 3.50.   

430

Living Room / Re: Scanning photos

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 19, 2011, 03:46 PM »

Though I haven't used this, I thought I'd mention Reshade, since I recall hearing some good things about it.  Here's the developer's blurb on CNET:
Reshade Image Resizer offers the most powerful photo enlargement framework available on the market. Resize images without the usual blur, jagged edges, halos, loss of sharpness or detail associated with image up-rezing. Easy to use, intuitive controls, make Reshade the best choice for beginners and experts alike. Create photo-realistic resizes at almost any zoom factor, 20x and more. Quickly adjust images for printing, high resolution publishing or other photograpic display, web design or scientific purposes. Crop and batch process your pictures easily while resizing them in various file formats like jpeg, tiff, png, bmp (supports most image modes including CMYK).

It's very pricey, but I think you can download it and try it out, which may be all you need. 

431

Living Room / Re: Moving up to ESET NOD32 v5

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 17, 2011, 09:56 AM »

This post at dottech.org might be useful:
"Microsoft Security Essentials vs Avira vs avast! vs AVG: A comprehensive comparison to help you decide which (free) anti-malware security software you should use"
http://dottech.org/f...ware-you-should-use/

-mouser (November 16, 2011, 10:27 PM)

Thanks, Mouser.  I found this useful, though the testing (done last year) used version 1 of MSE, and the current version is 2.  What difference that would make is unclear, except that I'm pretty sure version 2 does much faster scans than version 1.  Also, I was surprised that the testing used paid versions of AVG and Avira but the free version of Avast.  Not sure why they did that.  Still, a very interesting read.

432

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 09, 2011, 08:06 PM »

. . . So if Linkman or 1Password or any of these other desktop applications install a firefox extension as part of the process, it will be disabled until you enable it.

-wraith808 (November 09, 2011, 07:58 PM)

Oh, I see.  If all I have to do is click "Enable," that's no big deal and does make a certain amount of sense from a security standpoint.  Thanks for the explanation.

433

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 09, 2011, 05:53 PM »

"Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default"

-cyberdiva (November 09, 2011, 03:25 PM)

Actually, that seems one of the more rational approaches.  If some bundleware or malware installs something into Firefox, why not disable it?

-wraith808 (November 09, 2011, 04:00 PM)

Perhaps I've misunderstood what the statement means, but I took it to mean that third-party programs such as Linkman, LastPass, and Surfulater will have their Firefox add-ons disabled by default.  This seems to me outrageous and counterproductive.  I use Firefox rather than Opera in part because of third-party program add-ons that either do not exist for Opera or work better in Firefox.  Linkman and the like are not scummy malware programs--they're among the best programs of their kind that I know.  What is the point of disabling them by default?

434

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 8 is out

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 09, 2011, 03:25 PM »

I confess that I'm totally mystified.  To my dismay, Firefox installed FF 8 in spite of my saying "ask me what to do."  I've now told FF not to check for updates to FF.  Perhaps that instruction too will be ignored.  If I were just a tad more skeptical, I'd assume that someone from Chrome or Opera got a job at Mozilla and set about undermining Firefox.  What else could explain actions such as the one I've just reported, as well as insane policies such as "Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default"?  I've never before been so tempted to switch to a different browser.  

435

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extension "Download Statusbar" Now Adware - Maybe Malware

« Last post by cyberdiva on November 02, 2011, 07:51 AM »

And after the Google unilateral fiascos and/or removals:

Google Notebook
    Google WAVE.
    Google SideWiki.
    Google Buzz.
    Google's software package download bundle.
    Google Desktop.
    Google Toolbar for Firefox.
    Google Plus.

   [Insert name of screw-up here]

-IainB (November 02, 2011, 06:38 AM)

And don't forget Google's Translate Client, which has been free (and better than any other I know) but which will become unavailable after December unless one pays about $40 (they're offering $15 off if one buys it now).

436

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: USB Safely Remove, 50% discount on January 17th

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 31, 2011, 09:46 AM »

I don't know where these settings reside, but I think all the icons in the system tray (including the "hidden" icons) are set to produce some kind of message when you hover over them with the mouse.  In some cases, such as with Linkman Pro, HyperSnap, and ActiveWords, all that pops up is just an identification of the program (e.g., "Linkman Pro").  But some programs provide more information: how many new messages are in my Gmail accounts, for example, the contents of the current clip highlighted in ClipMate, or the state of my computer's battery charge ("Fully charged - 100%").  Apparently USBSR is set to have the popup appear.  I might add that I've arranged to have USBSR always visible rather than stuck in the "hidden icons" section.  However, I just tried to see what would happen if I put it in the hidden icons section instead ("show only notifications").  I did not get the same result you did, Jim.  If I hover near or over the up arrows, that does not trigger a USBSR popup message.  Only if I go into the hidden icon section and hover over or slightly to the right of the USBSR icon will the popup be triggered.

437

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: USB Safely Remove, 50% discount on January 17th

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 30, 2011, 02:46 PM »

I was running it on Windows 7 and it went a little bonkers on me a few times. Anytime I clicked on the little "Up" arrow that opens the system tray's hidden icons I would get one or more USB Safely Remove windows open telling me it was safe to remove, well, just about every USB device I had connected!

-J-Mac (October 30, 2011, 11:14 AM)

Hi, Jim.  I had a slightly different but possibly related experience with USB Safely Remove (version 4.7.1.1153).  Several times, when I was clicking on a different program in my system tray, USB Safely Remove would pop up to tell me that there were "no visible connected devices."  I thought that was strange, since I hadn't clicked on the USBSR icon.  I finally realized that each time, I had been clicking on the icon right next to USBSR, and instead of hitting the icon directly, I missed and was actually clicking on the space between the other program and USBSR.  That was enough to trigger the popup.  If you've got the USBSR icon sitting right next to the little "up" arrows leading to the hidden icons, it may be that you didn't hit the arrows directly but clicked slightly to the right, and that would be enough to trigger the USBSR popup.

I think I've even seen this happen when I've intended to click on the ClipMate icon, which isn't all that near USBSR.  Occasionally, if I don't hit the ClipMate icon cleanly, USBSR has popped up.  I really don't understand that, since the icons are not next to each other.  It's also the case that this behavior with ClipMate and USBSR is not consistent or even frequent, but it has happened several times.

438

Find And Run Robot / Re: Just curious - what's the difference between FARR and UltraSearch

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 29, 2011, 04:48 PM »

How does UltraSearch compare with Everything Search?  I find Everything extraordinarily fast, but I've never tried UltraSearch.

439

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extension "Download Statusbar" Now Adware - Maybe Malware

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 29, 2011, 07:30 AM »

Thanks, Jim, for mentioning Download Manager Tweak.  I'm obviously coming very late to the party, having never even heard of Download Statusbar until this thread, but Download Manager Tweak looks quite useful.  I don't see a "resume download" option, but it has most of what I've discovered I'd like. 

440

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extension "Download Statusbar" Now Adware - Maybe Malware

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 28, 2011, 10:18 AM »

Jim, what did Download Statusbar do when it was functioning properly?  I'm just curious, since I had never heard of it.

441

General Software Discussion / Re: SoftMaker Office 2012 BETA testing

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 26, 2011, 11:47 AM »

hmmm... us Eudora users are always looking for a long-term upgrade, as everything like Penelope and other tries remains uneasy. (Yes, there is also Thunderbird, Bat.. the DC winner ... Becky, Poco, Pegasus, Opera and Mailforge, formerly Odysseus, which desires specifically to be a Eudora replacement.)

-Steven Avery (October 26, 2011, 09:31 AM)

Hi, Steven.  I'm using Mulberry, and, like you, am very eager to see what Softmaker's email client will look like.  I've tried TBird, the Bat, Becky, Pocomail, Pegasus, and several others (including, I think, Penelope), but I keep coming back to Mulberry, even though it hasn't been substantially updated in about five years or more.   I share your skepticism about the sophistication a newbie client from a non-specialist company is likely to offer, but I can always hope.  In the meantime, Mulberry continues to meet most of my needs better than any other email client I've tried.   

442

Living Room / Re: What the heck has happened to Google search?

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 25, 2011, 10:02 AM »

Your saying that clicking on the query in Firefox got no hits made me click on it in Firefox.  Sure enough, it got no hits, but it did offer a suggestion:

No results. Try:
dog vaccination swelling betnovate

And that got lots of hits, including this very discussion in DC.  So perhaps DDG doesn't support the +?

443

Living Room / Re: What happens after a Cloud changes Types?

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 24, 2011, 05:50 PM »

What's this pawing through contacts bit?  It has my contacts in the list that I can put into circles, but that's the extent of it, and I'd not heard anything about that.

-wraith808 (October 24, 2011, 10:02 AM)

When I first started paying attention to Google+, I came across an account (I don't recall where) of someone who set up her G+ account and G+ suggested some people she might like to add to her circles.  She selected her husband as one such person, and the next thing she knew, the suggestions of possible people to be added grew by about 500.  G+ had apparently added all the contacts in her husband's work-related gmail account, and he didn't even have a G+ account.  This seemed to me (and to the woman and her husband) as a huge violation of privacy.  It was with this account in mind that I decided to use my secondary gmail account, which had very few contacts.

Perhaps the account is inaccurate--I don't know.  But that's what I was referring to when I said I feared Google's pawing through my contacts.

444

Living Room / Re: What happens after a Cloud changes Types?

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 24, 2011, 09:55 AM »

Well, I'm curious to see how this all plays out.  I have two gmail accounts, one that I use for a lot of email, and the other that I use for very specialized email.  For some reason, it is this secondary account whose address I use for Google Reader, and when a friend invited me to join Google+, I used the secondary account for that as well because it had almost no contacts.  The last thing I wanted was for Google+ to start pawing through the list of contacts in my primary email account, as I have heard it has done with other people. 

Thus far, I have had no problem with this arrangement, especially since Google makes it easy to switch back and forth between my two user accounts.  However, if Google begins to insist that everything I do (Gmail, Google Reader, Google+) is done from the same account, I don't know what I'll do.  I'm hoping it won't come to that.

445

General Software Discussion / Re: Suggestions for maximum-lockdown XP system

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 21, 2011, 01:25 PM »

Why MS Defender rather than Security Essentials?  As I understand it, Defender focuses on spyware but not on viruses.  Security Essentials covers the full gamut.  Indeed, if you install MSE, it will disable Defender as no longer needed.  Since you don't have any other anti-virus software planned, I'd go with MSE.

446

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by cyberdiva on October 17, 2011, 08:28 AM »

Thanks, 40hz, for your very thoughtful and scary posting.  I was going to quote short passages that I thought were particularly good, but I found that I'd be quoting almost the entire message!    

447

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by cyberdiva on September 29, 2011, 01:14 PM »

Well, I may have pointed the finger at the wrong problem.  I went back to Firefox 6.0.2 and tried the same thing (deleting a listing in Linkman) that hadn't worked in FF7.  Turns out I ran into the same problem in 6.0.2!  Hmmm...guess it's time to contact Linkman. 

448

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by cyberdiva on September 29, 2011, 12:49 PM »

Carol, you may well be right, but it turns out that Linkman Fox may indeed not be fully compatible with FF7.  I thought all was well at first, but when I tried to delete a bookmark in Linkman, the program hung.  This happened several times.  So I think there may well be some changes needed in the Linkman Fox add-on.  Since I'm much more dependent on Linkman than on Firefox 7, I think I'll use the restore point I had set to go back to 6.0.2 and wait for the Linkman folks to produce a thoroughly compatible add-on.  Still, I'm very pleased with the instructions you provided.  With Firefox's proposed schedule of new versions, I suspect I'll have good use for those instructions.

449

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by cyberdiva on September 29, 2011, 11:52 AM »

Thanks very much, Carol!  Your instructions worked perfectly.  I've now got Linkman Fox working on FF7.  But this just makes me more annoyed at Firefox for making such an unreliable and needlessly cumbersome way of handling add-ons when Firefox changes its version.

450

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 7 is out

« Last post by cyberdiva on September 29, 2011, 10:49 AM »

Generally it is nothing to do with extensions working or not working - the add-on has an XML file which stores the supported versions of FF. I have yet to find an addon I was using in FF3 that doesn't still work even though the versions numbers are out of date. Just install the addon I suggested above - try it and see if it works. If it doesn't you report that it doesn't and then it will be automatically disabled.

-Carol Haynes (September 29, 2011, 10:28 AM)

Carol, I first tried to download the add-on you recommended while I still had 6.0.2, but I got an error message that said "The add-on from addons.mozilla.org could not be installed because it does not match the add-on Firefox expected."  So I then installed FF 7 and tried again to download the add-on.  This time, the error message said "The add-on could not be installed because of a connection failure on addons.mozilla.org."  So I've got Firefox 7 with no Linkman add-on.  Fortunately, I set a restore point before I started, so if the problem doesn't resolve itself quickly, I think I'll use the restore point to go back to FF 6.0.2.