Recent Posts

4426

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 20$ off XYplorer and lifetime license

« Last post by Darwin on September 27, 2007, 11:40 AM »

On my setup - you just select the file you want to preview and then select the Preview tab on the Info panel (just hit F12 if you don't see it):

4427

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

« Last post by Darwin on September 27, 2007, 07:24 AM »

Thanks scanycode - never thought of checking Mmm+ for that. The developer is now aware of the problem and has suggested that a new feature to be added in the future (unspecified timeline) should address this. I'll point him to this thread and the Aspack link - should help him avoid this in the future!

4428

General Software Discussion / Re: Check&Get support blows chunks

« Last post by Darwin on September 27, 2007, 01:20 AM »

OK - update: I've heard from the developer of Check&Get. He apologizes for not responding to my e-mails and has made some suggestions for workarounds to some of the things that Ken and I suggested and tells me that he has added the others to his list of suggestions. At least two he highlights as being worked on for the next release.

I am somewhat mollified. As I noted in the note above, I'm pretty happy just to know that C&G is a going concern and is moving forward 

4429

General Software Discussion / Re: WPS: the best replacement of MS Office, free for none-biz

« Last post by Darwin on September 27, 2007, 01:13 AM »

I've heard good things about this suite... we're talking over a year ago here and I remember the reviewers all lamenting the lack of an English language version. This should remedy that! I'm looking forward to trying it...

4430

General Software Discussion / Re: GemX - missing in action

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 11:21 PM »

Thanks for your support sigh. I don't realistically expect anything to come of this, but at least I feel like I'm "ringing their bell". Hopefully this will result in at the very least an announcement on the website so that everyone will have an answer to what is going on (or not, as the case may be)...

4431

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 11:00 PM »

so much for my three way battle for first (it was Dopus at 19 and both TC and Xplorer2 at 18 each)... Now Dopus has really pulled ahead.

4432

General Software Discussion / Re: iTunes... 'nuff said

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 07:16 PM »

I installed Quicktime alternative to avoid that... will post a link later (its at freecodecs.com fwiw) - running out for dinner!

4433

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis charging customers for bug fixes

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 06:33 PM »

AFAICT, there hasn't been much added in since version 9 that's going to be compelling/absolutely necessary to anyone running XP. I use both 9 Home and 9.1 Workstation on my various computers and have had no problems whatsoever with either version. Version 11 *might* bring more to the table, but I don't feel that there's any urgency about upgrading. For most people, version 9 or even 8 is just fine. If you're running Vista this might not be the case, I dunno...

4434

Older Newsletters / Re: Newletter for September 25 - Codename "Chatty Kathy"

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 06:05 PM »

Thanks Cloq. It goes without saying as well, that the newsletter would be IMPOSSIBLE without the community. Afterall, all I am doing is highlighting the things that people have been talking about and pointing to in their posts! That's why we encourage people to participate...

4435

General Software Discussion / Re: iTunes... 'nuff said

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 05:39 PM »

Update - Grorgy, go to C:\documents and settings\all users\application data\ and delete both Apple folders. I had over 200MB of installers for iTunes, QuickTime and the Apple Updater lurking there. I'm *guessing* that these are what are causing your computer keep reinstalling iTunes every now and again. I also found Apple and Apple Computer folders with iTunes, QuickTime and Apple Updater sub-folders in my user\application data and local settings\application data folders. Try scrubbing those and your iTunes cold might go away for good (I hope).

4436

General Software Discussion / Re: iTunes... 'nuff said

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 05:22 PM »

Grorgy - thanks for the head's up  I used Your Uninstaller to remove it, so I *hope* I was successful, but I'll scan my registry and harddrive for references and files just to be on the safe side.

4437

General Software Discussion / iTunes... 'nuff said

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 05:10 PM »

Well, 'nuff is never enough is it? I just uninstalled iTunes and good f*&^%$@ riddance! I also uninstalled QuickTime 7 Pro while I was at it. I have quite a bit of music I purhcased through the iTunes store - about half of it has been burned to CD. Today I just thought "I'm never going to get around to burning this music, I never listen to it, and I don't care" and ripped iTunes out. Peripherally, I own a current licence for QuickTime Pro but realise that I don't use the Pro features and enough is enough. I am SICK AND TIRED TO DEATH of having to disable startup items everytime iTunes/Quicktime is installed and the icing on the cake for me was the recent inclusion of yet another frigging default service installing itself and running in the background when I updated iTunes. This is the "Apple Mobile Device Support" that was snuck in after the iPhone was released. Come on. I don't own and iPod (or an iPhone) and don't need Apple deciding that this memory hogging, useless services will be installed by default. How stupid do they think their user base is? How difficult is it to code in a radio button option on installation along the lines of "do you need iPhone support?" or "do you require iPod support?" etc. Also, if iTunes is smart enough to start services I don't need anyway when I start it up, why isn't it smart enough to shut them down when I exit it? Crap, crap, crap...

Anyway, I'm out the music and I'm out the $30 I paid a couple of years ago for QuickTime Pro but you know what? I feel like I just won the lottery. Reading back over this I should probably have posted it on the shitware boards... but there it is.

4438

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 03:50 PM »

Thanks John, I'm downloading it now.

4439

General Software Discussion / Re: GemX - missing in action

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 03:31 PM »

Still no response of any kind. I've just uninstalled TNP and Do-Organizer from my system. I don't see much point keeping them around when they are not supported and not being developed. I haven't used TNP in literally months and stopped using Do-Organizer for anything other than "kicks' (ie to satisfy my thrist to play around with new and unfamilar software packages) a couple of weeks ago.

If the company has fissioned because of internal problems, it will be interesting to see if any of the developers come out with new, similar products in the next few months/years.

4440

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 03:21 PM »

Things are heating up! A three way battle for the lead - Dopus, TC, and xplorer2...

I still haven't been able to look at SpeedCommander - the website was down when I tried last. I'm going to try to take a look now.

4441

General Software Discussion / Re: Can you recommend Selkie Rescue Data Recovery??

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 03:16 PM »

...the big question inside my head is if the program will resque those files that were saved the normal way in Explorer (but are now untouchable because Explorer is crashing), or if it merely will save those files that have been deleted.

Restorer 2000 and RecoverMyFiles will recover files from corrupt media (not so sure about File-Saver but don't see why not). If i scan for deleted files on my harddrive, both tools give me a list of files that are still there, if I want them to...

4442

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

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 03:13 PM »

Blueberry Flashback Recorder in order to be able to read the error message it flashes by in a millisecond:

-Darwin (September 22, 2007, 04:25 PM)

Darwin,

Do you have a link for Blueberry Flashback Recorder?

TIA...

-rjbull (September 26, 2007, 09:31 AM)

Maybe... who's asking? Oh alright - here it is... BB Flashback website. It was featured in the Screencasting tool review here on Donationcoder and is also subject to a donationcoder discount (50%). I intitally bought the lite version but upgraded that (still discounted) to the full version a couple of days later.

4443

General Software Discussion / Re: Can you recommend Selkie Rescue Data Recovery??

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 08:50 AM »

Curt, I've not tried this but there are excellent options in the $49-69 range. I'd download a few trials and see what you think. I use both RecoverMyFiles and Restorer2000. There is also File-Saver which I have used in the past and found perfectly adequate. It permanently on sale for around $20 or less. The attraction for me of RecoverMyFiles is its ability to preview the files it finds for recovery. This is handy when you're looking for things like photos on corrupt media, for example.

Most, if not all, of the features that Selkie lists to rationalize purchasing their product are available in each of the three that I've mentioned.

EDIT: Note that previewing images is a feature that both Restorer2000 and File-Saver are capable of... RecoverMyFiles previews Office documents, pdfs, and other file types as well.

4444

General Software Discussion / Re: Magix (Xara) rant...

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 08:37 AM »

Media Chance are not the fastest at updates, but they have been around a long while. Their pricing structure is interesting too! They encourage you to donate for upgrades - and as I understand it you don't have to. Costs $55...

Just took a look at this again - it's not so much a donation based upgrade scheme as the honour system. However, the upgrade fee is only $20, which is very reasonable.

Carol - I had noticed the $44 "upgrade" to Xtreme Pro 3.2. I've been dithering a bit about whether or not I want to do this - seems like a crap shoot because while I love the product (could care less about the Magix jpg editor and Xara 3D, mind) and would like to continue with it, I really want to see what direction they're going 6 months to a year from now. I don't really need 3.2 right now - but I'd hate to miss the opportunity to buy the upgrade to Xara Xtreme 4 for $39.95 as opposed to $100+ (or more - note how the regular price for both new purchases and for upgrades keeps going up in 20% increments or so? A new licence for Xtreme Pro has gone from $170 to $249 since February) for peple upgrading from earlier versions. On the other hand, if they keep rolling out minor upgrades and bug fixes and making their customers pay for them, I might at that point be walking away in disgust anyway (and hence out $44).

Decisions, decisions... actually, not much of a decision, I guess. I still REALLY resent being asked to pay for bug fixes and a point release...

4445

General Software Discussion / Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro

« Last post by Darwin on September 26, 2007, 08:19 AM »

Yeah... I'd like to do this as it's a real pain not being able to repair my installation - absolutely asinine if you ask me on the part of the OEM. Anyway, I don't know anyone with a non-OEM copy of XP Pro that I can use to do this. Lots of XP Home and Media Centre users (but again, pretty much all of those will be OEM, too, come to think of it). I might see what I can do for a full copy on ebay or elsewhere on the internet sold as OEM (I'll probably get an ancient soundcard or something for my troubles!). However, my sense is that XP installation disks are still quite pricey - people here are advertising services to dual boot Vista machines, or even wipe them and install XP, around here.

4446

Older Newsletters / Re: Newletter for September 25 - Codename "Chatty Kathy"

« Last post by Darwin on September 25, 2007, 09:24 PM »

Thanks to everyone for your kind words - that means a lot. It's actually quite fun writing the newsletter. It does take a bit of time but most of it is just fiddling and then I sit down to write and find that it writes itself. None of it would be possible, though, without a lot of help from mouser so hats off to him 

4447

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Locate32 Plugin for FARR by Okke

« Last post by Darwin on September 25, 2007, 09:20 PM »

Er... yup! Not a big deal as I was using Dash Command until about three hours ago and only just got around to firing up FARR and using it in earnest (thus I hadn't noticed...). Still, kind of funny when you think that I posted a few days ago about how to change the number of hits returned by the plugin - the field to change this is right below the field to change the path to the exe file... Oblivious...

4448

General Software Discussion / Re: GemX - missing in action

« Last post by Darwin on September 25, 2007, 09:07 PM »

Well... have now registered a complaint with SWREG and requested a refund. Next step, I guess is to get in touch with my credit card compay. Kind of pissed me off reading the confirmation e-mail that I received on August 13 and from which I quote:

Updates
------------------
You will be entitled to receive minor version 3.x updates at no charge.
We encourage any feedback you might have on our software or any
problems that you may encounter. So please write in and tell us what
you think, we are very open to suggestions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Support
------------------
You are entitled to Direct Support for the lifetime of the software.
To use Direct Support, please login to the Registered Users area on
the GemX website and send us a Direct Support Message (DSM) for a
guaranteed reply.

WTF? Is this the same company that I've been trying to get in touch, with absolutely no success, since the middle of August?

4449

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Locate32 Plugin for FARR by Okke

« Last post by Darwin on September 25, 2007, 08:00 PM »

Dang! How'd I miss that one? I haven't gotten around to trying out the plug-in so hadn't noticed that the exe path was pointing at a virtual CD drive that I have installed on my system (!) but I did go into the Advanced configuration settings to poke around and didn't even notice it! For everyone else, you can change the location here:

Got into FARR Options and select the Plugins, Updates, and Fonts tab, click on the Click to Examine and Configure Plugins button, select Locate32 and then select Configure Advanced Plugin Options. You'll see a field to change the path there:

4450

General Software Discussion / Re: Reminder: Tell Them You "Learned About It On DonationCoder.com"

« Last post by Darwin on September 25, 2007, 07:50 PM »

Yup - excellent advice and something that I do as well. Donationcoder is a powerful forum - I rarely, if ever, make a software purchase now without reading about it here. As you'll note from the forum home page, there are knocking on EIGHTY-NINE THOUSAND members here - even if only 10%  are active and are influenced by reviews, mini-reviews and discussions here, that makes for a large number of people being given exposure the products and services in question.


Good one, tinjaw