Recent Posts

451

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 03, 2013, 05:29 AM »

I'm still trying to fathom the logic in skipping directly to a Start Button-less desktop just to have to go back to the thing you bypassed to get what you wanted. Are people really that enamored with their wallpaper?

Place shortcut to preferred desktop application(s) on Start Screen, Boot, Click/Touch, Done ... Why that so hard?

I should run down to the local tire store and pitch a fit because they have no steel banded wooden rims for my pickup...just to see if anyone there has enough sense to laugh at me.

-Stoic Joker (January 02, 2013, 06:59 AM)

  Guess that depends on if it's a 1929 Ford truck.... 

-Tinman57 (January 02, 2013, 08:53 PM)

LOL - and in my case my start menu has over 1500 shortcuts and folders - I don't want to have to make tiles for that lot!

Also the Metro page doesn't support folders which are great for related shortcuts, quick links to blocks of documents and all sorts of things.

452

Living Room / Re: Samsung Attacks Apple & Google

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 02, 2013, 08:19 PM »

Doubtless Stella SDK will be a target for Apple's lawyers if it makes it easy to port!

453

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 02, 2013, 12:38 PM »

But vilifying something for having the audacity to replace the steam engine is perfectly fine.

-Stoic Joker (January 02, 2013, 12:06 PM)

Depends whether you feel the steam engine being replaced by a horse and cart is an improvement.

OK I may not be prepared to move with the times but when the interface I am being asked to use on a laptop with a touchpad is clunky in the extreme and gives you a headache too why should I move and be happy with my new whip!

If it was a genuine advance on what came before I would embrace it but change JUST to lure idiots into the MS store way of doing things is (IMHO anyway) anything but progress.

I quite happily use an Android tablet - and would probably be happy to use a tablet with WinRT, though I don't want an MS lockin any more than an Apple lockin - but on a desktop or laptop it is annoying pure and simple. I don't appear to be alone in this view given the poor pre-Xmas sales figures and the fact that Win 7 desktops and laptops still seem to be outselling Windows 8 boxes ???

454

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 02, 2013, 10:46 AM »

Why do you need the start menu? You can simply click the lower left corner, where the start button used to be, and you can type just as you would before. I don't know many people who navigated the menus rather than typing the entry name...At least users NOT on XP.

-Josh (January 02, 2013, 09:14 AM)

It's not that simple - doing basic tasks like using the control panel flips you in and out of desktop/metro mode like a yoyo and it is extremely irritating. This is because settings are liberally scattered all over the place in metro screens and in desktop CP applets - and their locations aren't even 100% consistent with their context. You go to settings in Metro and selecting some options sends you to the desktop, you click on some options on the desktop and you are thrown back into Metro! It is incredibly schizophrenic!!!

Yes you can press the Windows key and type what you want like you can in Windows 7 but it is much less stressful and annoying if doing that doesn't make the screen flash backwards and forwards twice, it is also easier to find what you are looking for if you need to look for something to have a simple alphabetic menu than wade through potentially pages of multi-sized tiles on the off chance you might just spot what you are looking for (assuming that a tile is there in the first place - because not every desktop app gets a tile!!!!).

I have only installed it on my laptop - not my desktop because the corner hot spots don't work when you have three monitors!!! Well they do, but you have to accurately hit a spot that is about 2x2 pixels, which is very tiring and annoying to use all day.

455

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 02, 2013, 08:05 AM »

Thanks - I will check those out.

At the end of the day it makes me wonder what the point is - Windows 8 out of the box drives me mad and Windows 8 with Start8 and a fix to send me to the desktop is just Windows 7.

Judging by some of the articles I read over Xmas about Win8 sales it looks like MS is having some problems convincing anyone this is more than another Vista fiasco.

456

Living Room / Re: MS Blocks Ability in Windows 8

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 02, 2013, 07:44 AM »

After a week on my laptop with Windows 8 I gave in to frustration and installed Start8 - works very well and I would love to have the option of launching straight to the desktop - bypassing the stupid screen that you have to slide out of the way (for no good reason) and then the pointless Metro interface.

I only installed it because I have to have one Windows 8 machine to support customers but I hate it with a passion - it just gets in the way of doing anything you want at every opportunity.

457

Living Room / Re: Chinese Laborer pleads for help in Halloween Decorations

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 01, 2013, 09:44 AM »

The other problem with buying 'locally' made products is the deceipt in labelling.

In Europe (and in the UK in particular it seems to me) products can be labelled Made in the UK/Europe (whatever) is a product is even partially assembled in that country - so all manufacturers have to do is pay some poor bugger in a far eastern sweatshop to do 95% of the work for threepence and a punch in the mouth and then get someone in the UK to glue a couple of bits together and box the product to say Made in Britain.

How do consumers even know where products are made now?

Face it America, you have no chance of forcing the issue in the US, and absolutely no chance of verified made in the US labels while China actually owns America. US politicians of all persuasions are simply to scared of China's financial clout in the US - all they would have to do is foreclose on US debts and the US would be back in the stone age over night and all US politicians know it. Even with the huge financial investment China has poured into the US you are on a precipice.

Also US outrage and trying to force China into acceptable practices would have some validity if the US ratified the international treaties on human rights and the rights of the child!!!!

Europe is no better and just as frightened as the US.

Short of rebuilding competitive manufacturing in the US and Europe there isn't any possibility of solving this issue, and that isn't going to happen because the only way the West can compete is to force similar work practices into the US and Europe which would cause civil war.

458

Living Room / Re: New Windows install - How should I organize SSD, HDD, user folders?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 29, 2012, 07:28 PM »

Thanks - I will check out Advanced Power settings.

Changing the boot drive makes no difference - I currently have a multiboot setup (using BCDedit) with an SSD copy of Windows 7 and another on a hard disk. The hard disk is the boot device in the bios but Windows still insists on having a hiberfil.sys for each windows setup. Frustrating.

You'd think it wouldn't be hard to have a tiny hiberfil.sys on the C: drive for each windows that points to a file on a user defined partition if required.

459

Living Room / Re: Chinese Laborer pleads for help in Halloween Decorations

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 29, 2012, 04:55 PM »

The trouble is many countries (including most of Europe and the US) are no longer in a position where they can avoid goods made in these camps.

If large companies (such as Apple, which is also mentioned in the article) had any motivation to really deal with the issues they now recognise they would simply shift their production into more regulated markets. It isn't as though many of these companies are not charging enough for their products to move them to more reputable manufacturing markets and still make a profit!!!

It would also be, by far, the most effective way to force the Chinese government to protect their workers.

460

DC Gamer Club / Re: Steam Holiday Sale

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 29, 2012, 04:47 PM »

Note Witcher Enhanced Edition is also on sale (though it isn't mentioned on the Sale page) - in the UK it is £1.75

461

Living Room / Re: New Windows install - How should I organize SSD, HDD, user folders?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 29, 2012, 01:41 PM »

Can I add a question to this ...

I am using an APC UPS to protect my system but the APC software requires having hibernation enabled to work. The free version of the software doesn't come with the ability to use command lines when the UPS is triggered - otherwise I could simply do a force shutdown.

Anyone any idea how to move the hibernation file off the C: drive?

I have managed to reduce the footprint of the hiberfil.sys but it is still 50% of system memory which wastes a lot of space on an SSD.

462

DC Gamer Club / Re: Desura - any one able to get to the website or login?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 28, 2012, 03:36 PM »

Yes it came back.

463

DC Gamer Club / Re: Desura - any one able to get to the website or login?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 28, 2012, 06:03 AM »

Thanks

464

DC Gamer Club / Desura - any one able to get to the website or login?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 28, 2012, 05:26 AM »

Can't login to Desura and there website seems to be down.

Anyone else having problems?

465

Living Room / Re: Flash Mob - Beethoven's 9th

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 26, 2012, 07:37 PM »

I really like that one but my favourite orchestral flash mob has to be:

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=mrEk06XXaAw

466

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Expert PDF 8 Professional

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 26, 2012, 07:23 PM »

Update: PowerDesk Pro 9 is out!

OK, disclaimer: I know[/] that this is a thread about Expert PDF 8 Pro... 

-Darwin (December 26, 2012, 05:22 PM)

And ???

-Carol Haynes (December 26, 2012, 06:07 PM)

go get it!

-superboyac (December 26, 2012, 06:45 PM)

LOL - You click on buy now and they take you to the order page for 8.5!!!

Seriously why would you want to buy this?

467

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Expert PDF 8 Professional

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 26, 2012, 06:07 PM »

Update: PowerDesk Pro 9 is out!

OK, disclaimer: I know[/] that this is a thread about Expert PDF 8 Pro... 

-Darwin (December 26, 2012, 05:22 PM)

And ???

468

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Open Registry by selecting Registry Path

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 26, 2012, 09:47 AM »

Haven't tried this one but there is a Firefox extension:

https://addons.mozil...on/open-regedit-key/

469

Living Room / Re: DRR ?? - Like DVR only for FM broadcast radio?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 24, 2012, 09:24 AM »

Roberts Record R DAB/FM RDS/SD Digital Portable Radio Recorder
 (see attachment in previous post)

Technical Details

•     Digital/FM Radio
•     Pause Plus' - Allows you to rewind 'live' radio
•     Record to SD card from DAB and FM (SD not included)
•     MP3/WMA/AAC playback from SD card
•     Record Timers

Mixed reviews, a quick search on Amazon.com couldn't find it - possibly not available in the USA, (I wonder why).

Doesn't do exactly what you wanted but at least it does record from FM.

-4wd (December 23, 2012, 12:28 AM)

I think the US uses a different format for digital broadcasts so there won't be much crossover of products across the pond.

470

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis Backup

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 23, 2012, 06:15 PM »

The way Paragon is doing it is a guarantee that minor improvements (or any changes but no improvements!) will be labelled "new year => new version => major upgrade!" :-(

-Curt (December 23, 2012, 04:17 PM)

Apps don't stop working and you don't have to upgrade!

471

General Software Discussion / Re: Acronis Backup

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 23, 2012, 10:29 AM »

As far as I can see anything since TrueImage 9 Workstation (which was the corporate version) has been riddled with deal breaking bugs.

I can't see how they are still trading! I presume most people never actually have to use a backup so they assume they are OK.

God knows what their server products are like!

472

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: A Map of where Baby Cody Visits?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 23, 2012, 09:21 AM »

It's up to you - I don't mind maintaining it. Could have a little subsite with Baby Cody's blog and hosts posting their visit diary/photos/adventures - sure Nudone would help with the graphics! (Haven't asked him yet).

473

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: A Map of where Baby Cody Visits?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 23, 2012, 05:26 AM »

Plarker website says

Plarker is currently being developed. We hope to have things online very soon.

but it seems to have said that for a long time.

Maybe it is time to put up a new page for Baby Cody's travels.

Could I have some user webspace to do it? (I can get something set up within about 20 minutes if I can use Joomla so I need PHP and MySQL).

474

Adventures of Baby Cody / Re: A Map of where Baby Cody Visits?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 22, 2012, 06:17 PM »

Any one know what is going on with Plarker?

475

General Software Discussion / Re: Video rant against Windows 8

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 22, 2012, 06:16 PM »

Looking at the video again I do agree with a lot of it but two things to point out:

1) He wasn't using the RTM version - it is the consumer preview I think so it wasn't actually finished.
2) The problems with mouse pad gestures are probably not MS fault - they are part of the driver software for the mouse pad he is using. My older mouse pad doesn't do what he experienced.

There is still much, IMHO, that makes Win 8 unproductive for end users and intensley frustrating to use and much of what he says still applies.