Recent Posts

4426

General Software Discussion / Re: System drivers

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 23, 2007, 11:28 AM »

I used to try to use the ASUS update utility but it seemed very unstable - and updaters (IMHO) should be rock solid - esp. if it is looking at BIOS updates!

-Carol Haynes (September 23, 2007, 10:19 AM)

It's a source of wonder to me that something so critical can be so unreliable. 
I figured it had to be me (usually is) and gave up on it. 
Now that I know it's not only me... I've given up on it. 

I don't bother to update any BIOS without very good cause.
As for the rest, I've had more nuisance conflicts from updating drivers than from leaving them alone.
I just go looking when I think I need something.

4427

General Software Discussion / Re: Help please - 16 bit program woes under XP Pro Sp-2

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 22, 2007, 05:25 PM »

Any new context-menu entries that you can  turn off temporarily?  That trod on one of my applications and drove me nuts until I woke up to it.
Does your Morpheus run in safe mode?

4428

General Software Discussion / Re: Help with finding accurate software.

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 20, 2007, 03:59 PM »

Depending on what you like, Surfulater can be useful. 
I found it through recommendations here, on DonationCoder,and its developer drops in sometimes.
http://www.surfulater.com

Have you ever  lost valuable information you've seen on the Web?
Do you need to collect, organize and manage lots of information?
With Surfulater you can permanently save anything you find on the web, in other applications and on your hard drive, and organize it in ways you haven't dreamt of yet.
For starters you can categorize, cross reference and do full text searches. Plus annotate and edit whatever you have saved to make it all the more valuable.
And of course you can find anything in a flash.
Surfulater - the super smart way to build a permanent, personal reference library, one you can even carry around with you.

4429

Living Room / Re: Conserving energy

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 20, 2007, 01:17 PM »

I went to ebay and bought some philips lightbulbs to see if I was mad. But no, these turn on immediately and are brighter (for the same wattage). I wonder why the supermarkets seem to be selling the 5-years-back technology.

-iphigenie (September 20, 2007, 09:49 AM)

That's interesting, I should try that myself. It's annoying to try to move forward when the result sometimes feels like a step backward.
Also, the short life of some 'long-life, low-energy' bulbs calls an energy pay-off into question when one considers manufacturing consumption.

Anything we do is not because of Global Warming, I'm more interested in Resource Efficiency or a moral use of resources.

-Perry Mowbray (September 19, 2007, 10:14 PM)

Same here...to an extent but GW is forcing more attention to the issues.  We've been doing what we can (perhaps more accurately want to do) for the past couple of decades but we're not selfless enough to live at a level that we consider to be uncomfortable.

4430

Living Room / Re: Conserving energy

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 19, 2007, 07:54 PM »

Point taken, but we don't have them all turned on at once (!), and in a lot of the house we have fluorescent fittings. 

4431

Living Room / Re: Prelude to request for help for distributed pc cycles help from dc community

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 19, 2007, 06:25 PM »

I see that a lot of us like to run 24/7
As a side topic I wonder about the general feeling, within this community, regarding the broad issue of energy consumption/conservation (not  just for pc's).
If interested, see here: https://www.donation...?topic=10058.new#new

4432

Living Room / Conserving energy

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 19, 2007, 06:20 PM »

With all the buzz about global warming and energy conservation, I wonder what positions members here are taking.
I see that a lot of us leave our computers running 24/7 for example.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the situation. The principle is fine. The implementation leaves something to be desired.
Here's where I'm at.

1) I've replaced all of the incandescent light bulbs in my house with low-energy bulbs.
Pros:
Certainly saves some power, which is good for the community. That's fine because it's not all about what's in it for me.
Cons:
The initial outlay was considerable (over 100 incandescent bulbs were changed).
I honestly doubt that I'll see a financial return.  That's because the quoted life of low-energy bulbs is totally inaccurate.  Within 2 years, 5 of my '6-year' bulbs have failed.

2) I've lowered the level of my heating and raised the level of my cooling.
Pros:
Saves some money.
Cons:
Takes a lot of acclimatization.

3) I've changed the big (old) second fridge that I keep in my basement for a new low-energy model.
Pros:
Saves some energy.
Cons:
Long payback period.  Realistically it'll be about 6-8 years to reach the break-even point.

4) Sometimes I now turn off my computers overnight.
Pros:
Small energy savings.
Cons:
A distinct sense of unease   

4433

General Software Discussion / Re: The GIMP/PhotoFiltre/Paint.net/etc., thoughts...

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 19, 2007, 10:31 AM »

(well apart from the guy who thought the zoom tool was the pan tool cause the icon looked like a fryingpan )

-tomos (September 19, 2007, 06:15 AM)

Priceless!  And, for the record, that wasn't me (though it does reflect my typical level of comprehension).   

4434

Living Room / Re: Internet Forum Lightbulb Maintenance...

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 17, 2007, 07:41 PM »

What is a light bulb? 

4435

Living Room / Re: How much RAM do you have on your PC?

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 17, 2007, 02:35 PM »

4 GB - though I'm on XP so only get 3.25. But at the prices these days why have less?

-katykaty (September 17, 2007, 02:19 PM)

My thought exactly, though it was a little frustrating at the time of purchase

4436

Living Room / Re: How much RAM do you have on your PC?

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 16, 2007, 08:45 PM »

I have added a poll ...

• 512Mb or less
• up to 512Mb

-Carol Haynes (September 16, 2007, 04:17 PM)

Explain the difference between the first two choices?

4437

Living Room / Re: How much RAM do you have on your PC?

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 16, 2007, 09:16 AM »

4Gb here.  I strongly urge going from 1 to 2.  You'll be pleased when you do that.

4438

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Kaspersky Internet Security 7

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 12, 2007, 11:17 AM »

Thanks for that!
 
Kaspersky 7.0 comes out well in a British "PC Pro" review (http://www.kaspersky...om/news?id=207575529), so it's interesting to see a user's perspective.

A close second place goes to Avira AntiVir, which also has a free version (http://www.free-av.com)

4439

Living Room / Re: Forum Signature Spam: Let's discuss how to handle..

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 12, 2007, 09:08 AM »

I support whatever measures are required to choke the spammers.  If that means some restrictions on the rest of us, so be it.

I think Mouser's initial step is a smart one, but what a pain having to monitor that situation!

One feels, more and more, that the benefits of the internet are being significantly eroded.

For myself, I'm reaching a point where keeping out unwanted material (of all kinds) almost outweighs the benefits. I have the strong feeling that I was a lot more contented in pre-commercial-net and BBS days. (That feeling might not be correct - it's easy to overlook the benefits when grumbling about the disadvantages.) My feelings are exacerbated by the need -- that most of us here share -- to protect inexperienced users in the household.

4440

Living Room / Re: Polar bear and dogs play together.. just a feel-good slideshow

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 10, 2007, 08:12 PM »

Amazing. Brightened up my day!

4441

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Virtual Flashlight

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 08, 2007, 11:22 PM »

Heh, heh,... it's cool and I can *almost* see the point when making a presentation, but I'm not there yet. What IS the point of this? Anyone care to illuminate me?

-Darwin (September 08, 2007, 04:10 PM)

You're shining us on, aren't you?  Surely the point is obvious!
For example, in any presentation I make the audience is kept mainly in the dark.

4442

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: FlashSpring Pro 2.2 on giveawayoftheday today

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 08, 2007, 09:46 PM »

Could well be that I missed something that should have been obvious.  I'd be interested in results from anyone else but only as idle curiosity.  I don't see that I have a use for Flash versions of PowerPoint right now.  To be honest, I !!!detest!!! PowerPoint and use it only for one client who insists on that format due to corporate policy.

P. S. I apologize to anyone reading this thread for not placing the image as a thumbnail.
If there's a wrong way to do something I'll find it.

4443

Older Newsletters / Re: Newsletter for September 8th, 2007 - Codename "All Fall Down"

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 08, 2007, 06:19 PM »

Nice job, very readable.
Thanks for taking the time to do this for the rest of us!

4444

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: FlashSpring Pro 2.2 on giveawayoftheday today

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 07, 2007, 11:56 PM »

Just tried it.
It's certainly quick and easy to use!
On my system it makes a reasonable job of 'native' PowerPoint text.
It is unsatisfactory for embedded graphics and for scaled PowerPoint items (e.g. bar graphs). These are too blurry to be useful, even though they are sharp in the original .ppt.
Attached is an example, using the highest settings in FlashSpring Pro 2.2

4445

Living Room / Re: Barbie Doll Electric Chair Science Fair Project!

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 07, 2007, 08:44 PM »

Why anyone would want to do this is beyond our Ken.
Thank God it's fryday!

4446

Living Room / Re: Acceptable expletives

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 04, 2007, 08:48 PM »

Seriously, you want to hear creative use of foul language (to the point that the creativity exists in making the mundane/innocuous FOUL) spend some time in the UK. There is far more range, depth and sophistication to uttering oaths there...

-Darwin (September 04, 2007, 06:19 PM)

It's the rain that does it. C&P, spend three months in constant a drizzle and you'll have had an English summer!

4447

Older Newsletters / Re: Newsletter for August 27 - Codename "Mouser reinvents the wheel"

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 04, 2007, 09:46 AM »

I know i'm probably being over-sensitive but i kind of think this last post or two is not really appropriate for especially this thread..  i'd hate to think what someone who doesn't know our forum would think if this was the first thing they read.

-mouser (September 04, 2007, 05:46 AM)

Fair point!

4448

Developer's Corner / Re: What would you consider your biggest waste of time project?

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 04, 2007, 09:34 AM »

I have a program that makes me appear here as cranioscopical and make ill-advised comments.

The code itself was trivial, but it took many, many years to be this idiotic.

4449

General Software Discussion / Re: Today's GiveAway is the fastest photo resizer I have tried

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 04, 2007, 09:30 AM »

it is a lot easier to use than anything else I have tried

Thanks for drawing attention to DropBox Image Processor.
I usually glance at the give-aways but a recommendation heightens my interest.
I grabbed this one; the price is right.

4450

Older Newsletters / Re: Newsletter for August 27 - Codename "Mouser reinvents the wheel"

« Last post by cranioscopical on September 03, 2007, 05:46 PM »

Or... you can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think?

-Darwin (August 31, 2007, 03:24 AM)

That's only true of the common-whore-garden variety.