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4276

General Software Discussion / Re: So-called upgrades that ruin good programs

« Last post by tomos on October 23, 2013, 06:15 AM »

Windows 8.1...

-Darwin (October 22, 2013, 08:10 PM)

This.

-40hz (October 22, 2013, 09:05 PM)

either of you care to expand a little
Was it to do with How to avoid creating/using a Microsoft Account when upgrading to Win 8.1 - or does it get even worse...

4277

General Software Discussion / Re: How to avoid creating/using a Microsoft Account when upgrading to Win 8.1

« Last post by tomos on October 23, 2013, 01:53 AM »

mouser (or anyone else with the capability), can you split off the last three posts to a new thread?

4278

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by tomos on October 23, 2013, 01:31 AM »

So, if it cost $0.05 to buy a loaf of bread 100 years ago (when the standard of living was lower), and today it costs $5.00 (with a higher standard of living), then, when a loaf of bread costs $500.00 then what?

-Renegade (October 22, 2013, 08:44 PM)

I dont really care what something costs in comparision to x years ago (maybe I should) - I care what it costs in relation to what I can earn/make in an hour/day/week/month/year. That's my point when I ask "can you seperate the "value" of e.g. the dollar from the standard of living?".

4279

General Software Discussion / Re: delete some space in every page of a pdf file

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 03:33 PM »

Hi Contro - did you not ask this question before?

Doesnt sound to me like it would be worth the effort...

-tomos (October 22, 2013, 01:38 PM)

It would be if that top isn't blank!

-TaoPhoenix (October 22, 2013, 02:09 PM)

good point - in fact I think the query it reminded me of was to do with removing blank space in a pdf...

4280

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Bvckup 2 is in open beta !

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 03:30 PM »

You misunderstand what the delta copying is and I guess the explanation I have in the Backup Config window should be reworded -
 (see attachment in previous post)
Delta copying doesn't copy deltas and store them in a separate file. It copies them into the existing backup copy. Think of it as a selective, per-block update of the backup copy. Performance-wise it makes no difference on the first run, but on the second run in vast majority of cases it delivers significant speed up (over copying file in its entirety).

-apankrat (October 22, 2013, 11:50 AM)

I'm not so sure that I am. Copy Files In Full creates "snapshots" in a point in time, right?

-TaoPhoenix (October 22, 2013, 01:19 PM)

Correct, but so does the delta copying.

-apankrat (October 22, 2013, 02:17 PM)

Just to be 100% clear: both create a snapshot, which gets modified as your files gets modified. It doesnt create a new snapshot at each backup. [Just in case the "snapshots" query was also about some form of versioning.]

4281

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Bvckup 2 is in open beta !

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 03:21 PM »

I firmly believe that versioning needs to be done in a way that doesn't lock file history to specific software. This means that the version archive format needs to be open and documented. This in turn means that I should either invent and document such format (but then someone else will need to code alternative tools to work with it) -or- I can adopt an existing format.

Can you guess where this is going? ... 3,2,1 ... That's right - it should use Git :-)

So the plan as it stands is to get the V2 on the road first and then to tackle file versioning.

-apankrat (October 22, 2013, 02:24 PM)

I'm not sure what exactly you mean there by "file history", but this sounds very interesting!
I've been tempted to use some sort of DVCS but it seems to me that the learning curve/overhead is too much for regular files (e.g. graphics) - yet, I'm very dissatisfied with the alternatives. I use Filehamster, saving a comment with each save (it's *mostly* dependable, with a lot of potential - but the developers show little interest). Also use SFFS (Syncovery) which can do a silent revision of each save (works very well, but I miss the ability to 'comment').

4282

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 01:54 PM »

I've learned my lesson, I'm not going to attach the 2.69MB picture here. Use the link to get the bigger picture. These are geeky children's blocks.

-Arizona Hot (October 22, 2013, 11:24 AM)

just as well cause it's actually 6.1mb @ 7500 x 6000

Nice post, thanks
(just having a look at the infographics one, looks good too)

4283

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Bvckup 2 is in open beta !

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 01:50 PM »

Hmm. Then I think I need a second program that operates at some kind of "image level". Suppose I have over a hundred big apps and two hundred small ones on my comp! I want some kind of "12 click restore whole image" type program where it copies over C/Program Files and wherever else components end up (registry sync? C/Windows32?) and voila all 300 apps are back.

Then separately an entire image capture level backup, so it's like the three bears of backups : )

-TaoPhoenix (October 22, 2013, 01:40 PM)

A lot of people keep the OS and data on seperate partitions/drives - then you just need a data backup and an image backup of the OS partition.

4284

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Bvckup 2 is in open beta !

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 01:47 PM »

So for example if the program can "hot feed" into an already zipped folder, then it ends up compressed and that's fine by me.

Restore might be a little more tricky.

-TaoPhoenix (October 22, 2013, 01:31 PM)

'"hot feed" into an already zipped folder' sounds good to me.

Re the requests:
I think it's a case of who you're aiming your product at. I personally prefer a backup programme that is "essentially a thinly veiled basic file copy" as apankrat says - and that "restore" be simply a case of navigating to the backup folder/file and copying to wherever I want to use it. I rarely restore to the original location.

OTOH I might have other feature requests

4285

General Software Discussion / Re: delete some space in every page of a pdf file

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 01:38 PM »

Hi Contro - did you not ask this question before?

Doesnt sound to me like it would be worth the effort...

4286

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 01:35 PM »

It's very much like gold, IMO, and the reason that we moved away from the gold standard (and the reason that I think it was a good thing to move away from it).

-wraith808 (October 22, 2013, 10:53 AM)

Errr... uh, I'm not so sure about that being a good thing. Look at people's purchasing power over the last 200 or 300 years or so. The last 100 years have been a train wreck.

-Renegade (October 22, 2013, 11:50 AM)

I'm never convinced by that argument - can you seperate the "value" of e.g. the dollar from the standard of living? I know they're two different things but they are dependent on each other to a certain (probably debatable) extent. You can e.g. buy a lot more labour when the labour gets paid a pittance.
Now, look at the average standard of living in 1800 and compare with today. (Of course I'm being narrow-minded and just thinking about the 'western' world there )

4287

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Bvckup 2 is in open beta !

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 01:24 PM »

What theme are you using Tao - is it a default XP one? Answered above

@apankrat: the logs look so nice and easy compared to your average log
+
Query (similar to one in previous post) -
does it do versioning? (with apologies if stated above - have been following the events, but not very closely...)

4288

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

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 10:02 AM »

I'm not sure if you're joking there or not.

-Renegade (October 22, 2013, 09:30 AM)

no, I'm just being my-slow-self - how did I miss that

I was working on information graphics lately and got partly distracted by that aspect - looking at the shape of the curve and all those numbers. What can I say - I'm easily distracted :-)

4289

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

« Last post by tomos on October 22, 2013, 09:11 AM »

[img]http://i.imgur.com/fB19z.gif[/img]

-Renegade (October 22, 2013, 08:21 AM)

^that's a wonderful image/images Ren

unfortunately,
 I have no idea what it's saying
- dont know if that's cause of me - or cause of the image, or somewhere in between (anyone else understand it?)

Or is the whole thing taking the piss out of us cause we cannot get the joke or reference - or is it only when we realise that we cannot get it, that we do get it (getting very zen there)...

4290

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

« Last post by tomos on October 21, 2013, 04:27 PM »

Yeah... i saw her on the show.  It was disconcerting and cool at the same time.

-wraith808 (October 20, 2013, 10:09 AM)

I thought it was more cool than disconcerting. It's about people "walking the walk" of "innovating creatively". So at like age 8 she wasn't singing Miley Cyrus, she was singing "Teen metal".

I'll offer this as the equally funny counterpoint from the other side of life!
The Zimmers!
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=-m0EZO5O2dM

-TaoPhoenix (October 21, 2013, 03:44 PM)

Both good fun
The panel's bad acting always distracts me on these shows, but I guess that has it's own element of humour (the "oh what a suprise" look, etc.)

4291

General Software Discussion / Re: Free ebook available for download from Microsoft

« Last post by tomos on October 21, 2013, 04:11 PM »

Any chance it mentions how to log into 8.1 OOB without having/using/needing a Microsoft account. I ran out of time last night upgrading my laptop and stopped just short of tossing it out a window because of that little nuance.


Dear Microsoft,
  It really is My Computer, so please shove the NSA infested cloud requirement up you ass.

-Stoic Joker (October 21, 2013, 11:37 AM)

Took a while to find a solution (but I'm happy to find that there is a way of avoiding it) - thought it was worth some publicity so made a new thread:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=36379.0

4292

General Software Discussion / How to avoid creating/using a Microsoft Account when upgrading to Win 8.1

« Last post by tomos on October 21, 2013, 04:08 PM »

It seems MS wants us all to use a Microsoft account to upgrade to windows 8.1

Took me a while to find a workaround, so I thought it worth a new thread:

After you install Windows 8.1, you will be asked to sign in to a Microsoft Live account. There will be no apparent way to move past that screen if your intention is to only have a local account. Here is the trick: Click the Create New Account link and then at the bottom of that next screen you will see a link that will let you cancel the process. You will then login using your local account. Now what Many users got caught by this poorly implemented log in process and ended up creating and / or using a Microsoft account to log in to their new Windows 8.1 operating system. Since that time, I have had several questions from readers asking if there was a way to reverse the process. There is and it is fairly straightforward.

(techrepublic.com)
http://www.techrepub...count-in-windows-81/

4293

Living Room / Re: Was the iOS 7 "look" created using Microsoft Word?

« Last post by tomos on October 21, 2013, 02:08 PM »

I need a slow motion version
very impressive!

4294

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: DxO FilmPack 3 Essential edition

« Last post by tomos on October 20, 2013, 12:22 PM »

Anyone here actually used it? Wondering if it's worth it for us amatuers...
Note: you need Photoshop CS3 or newer to use it as a plugin.

4295

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Sometimes copied matters donot arrive in Clipboard Help and Spell

« Last post by tomos on October 19, 2013, 02:54 PM »

OS?
I ask because I've been having trouble with Win7 64bit for the last couple of months - often enough it happens that *nothing* is copied to the clipboard. I notice this because I've CHS set to make a sound (as mouser suggests above) but also because I mostly paste directly or very soon after copying.

I've been meaning to exit CHS and see if the problem still exists, but I'd miss it so much I keep putting it off

4296

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Flash crashing all the time lately?

« Last post by tomos on October 16, 2013, 08:30 AM »

have had some quirks with flash in the last year, but few crashes. FF/Win7 64bit.

edit// not using any flash based chat sites as Tao mentions below

4297

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WinCatalog 2009

« Last post by tomos on October 16, 2013, 08:24 AM »

I do ! I also use Cathy which was updated recently.

-MerleOne (October 16, 2013, 07:22 AM)

thanks for the quick response! I'm curious: why do you use two similar apps?

4298

Found Deals and Discounts / WinCatalog 2013/2014 upgrade

« Last post by tomos on October 16, 2013, 04:50 AM »

They're pushing an upgrade offer to WinCatalog 2013 (including to 2014 when released) for ~$15
(if you have an older version, you should get the offer per email)
It seems to be still updated regularly - http://www.wincatalo...ory/wincatalog-2013/

do people still use disk catalogers? I have to admit I dont, but suspect I should...
I had this briefly installed once, but then the machine died, and I didnt install in new one.
Anyone still using it?

4299

Living Room / Re: uk number

« Last post by tomos on October 15, 2013, 06:10 PM »

^Good
(please give more details in future though - to make it easier for whoever want to help. It's frustrating to put a lot of effort into finding irrelevant information...)

4300

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: Universal License Key

« Last post by tomos on October 15, 2013, 04:57 PM »

Hi,
it's actually not that easy to find

Top of page, click on "Software"; there's a link on the left
or
just try this: https://www.donation...r.com/Keys/index.php



you should also shortly get an email with details of license


Edit// mouser got there ahead of me ;-)