Recent Posts

476

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by sajman99 on December 17, 2009, 02:17 PM »

... Then again, with the younger generation it seems before the Garden of Eden was even created, there was cable TV(what do you mean it wasn't always there? You're crazy!!)

-MilesAhead (December 17, 2009, 01:16 PM)

  Gotta say--that one killed me!

477

General Software Discussion / Re: Alt-tab replacement ?

« Last post by sajman99 on December 17, 2009, 02:04 PM »

Ah..thanks for telling.

In his original post kartal had mentioned bugs in Alt-Tab-Thingy, but I thought maybe the newest version would work for me. Uh...not so much.

478

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: A powerful free video & audio converter

« Last post by sajman99 on December 17, 2009, 01:52 PM »

Hmmm...the iWisoft screenshots do look interesting. I notice they also have a paid product which they have the right to mention in their free software.

But I'm wondering if somebody can tell me how "pushy" they are about promoting their paid software. I mean, I have a few adware apps and I'm appreciative that I didn't have to pay for those particular softwares. However, I've also had "free" apps which were so aggressively promotional that the "free" wasn't worth the considerable annoyance. You know...buy now, buy now... ad infinitum.

479

General Software Discussion / Re: Alt-tab replacement ?

« Last post by sajman99 on December 16, 2009, 04:35 PM »

Working on Windows XP and multiple monitors recently and I can say that Alt-Tab Thingy appeared to be the best. And that is thanks to the possibility to limit shown applications to current desktop only (determined my mouse cursor position)...

-fenixproductions (December 15, 2009, 11:26 PM)

When I tried Alt-Tab-Thingy recently it was pretty darn nice, but unfortunately it seemed kinda buggy (ie. showing the wrong thumbnail for some apps) and too unresponsive (ie. noticeable delay before rendering thumbnails). Maybe I had a conflict of some sort, but I didn't look into it much before discarding it. I guess I'll take another look...

480

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free 1 year license of Returnil Virtual System 2010 Home Lux

« Last post by sajman99 on December 12, 2009, 01:33 PM »

Thanks Ashraf for the notice and review, and also thanks MilesAhead for the helpful tip. I'm gonna go ahead and try to get a license key. I've been very curious about the new Returnil Virtual System 2010 for a while, but so far I've followed MilesAhead's advice and erred on the side of caution.

481

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: New Release: Disk Space Fan Pro

« Last post by sajman99 on December 12, 2009, 01:20 PM »

positives: Disk Space Fan Pro has a nice clean interface, scans fast, and presents summary data in a logical manner.

negatives: (1) slight clipping/overlapping of font (likely due to large DPI setting) 
(2) the DSFP window only fills about 1/3 of the screen and cannot be maximized. Considering my vision ain't what it once was, a full-sized window would be a definite improvement--after all, this is a visual tool.
                 

482

General Software Discussion / Re: Search with Bing

« Last post by sajman99 on December 11, 2009, 03:55 PM »

It's nice looking, but that's not what I need in a search engine. And since I'm Microsoft-free, I won't use it.

-zridling (December 11, 2009, 03:08 PM)

Objectively, Bing has more going for it than its appearance. I too care very little about the aesthetics of a search engine; all I want is accurate search results.

...So I've been pitting Google & Bing against each other for a week or so to see who gets the most relevant hits. Bing has been ahead about 40% of the time. showing less total results but having more truly relevant hits bubbling to the top of the first page list...

-Stoic Joker (July 01, 2009, 07:32 AM)

To my surprise, my experience has been very similar.

483

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: New Release: Disk Space Fan Pro

« Last post by sajman99 on December 11, 2009, 02:30 PM »

Duplicate file feature, you say...

OK, I will certainly check this out. Thanks, WM_DSF.

484

General Software Discussion / Re: Search with Bing

« Last post by sajman99 on December 11, 2009, 02:24 PM »

I've used Google exclusively for as long as I can remember, but just lately I'm turning to Bing much more frequently. On some searches, Bing can make Google look bad by presenting more precise/relevant results.

With the meta-search engine Zuula, you can do the head-to-head comparison of Google and Bing and see for yourself.

485

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free jv16 PowerTools 2009!

« Last post by sajman99 on December 07, 2009, 02:36 PM »

Thanks Ashraf, this ComputerBild version is definitely worth the download.

For free there is quite a bit of functionality in this Macecraft software--registry tools, file tools, system tools, and privacy tools all integrated in one package.

486

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Outliner/Diary application AllMyNotes Organizer (freeware)

« Last post by sajman99 on December 02, 2009, 01:30 PM »

OK, got it--thanks MetaRoot for taking the time to clarify. 

487

Found Deals and Discounts / GAOTD Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition

« Last post by sajman99 on December 02, 2009, 01:15 PM »

Today's Giveaway of the Day offer is Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition:

Special offer for GAOTD users! Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition offers more safety to all your important data including videos, images, music files, documents and applications. Find other extra features onboard this toolkit along with a Windows 7 and 64-bit Operating Systems support.

File size 111 MB.

488

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Outliner/Diary application AllMyNotes Organizer (freeware)

« Last post by sajman99 on December 01, 2009, 07:16 PM »

Hmmm...MetaRoot, am I correct that I must provide name and email address when installing this program--even for the freeware version?

-sajman99 (December 01, 2009, 06:51 PM)

try the portable version (no questions asked...)

-Target (December 01, 2009, 07:02 PM)

Ah...thank goodness I didn't comment on the registry entries too--I never noticed the portable build.

489

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Outliner/Diary application AllMyNotes Organizer (freeware)

« Last post by sajman99 on December 01, 2009, 06:51 PM »

Hmmm...MetaRoot, am I correct that I must provide name and email address when installing this program--even for the freeware version?

490

General Software Discussion / Re: VirtualProtect

« Last post by sajman99 on November 29, 2009, 01:31 PM »

Since VirtualProtect has apparently died on the vine, can somebody tell me if you're a satisfied user of the new Returnil Virtual System 2010?

Only recently have I realized what MilesAhead has indicated--Returnil has morphed into a much more substantial software. I'm still using a very old version which works well, but I'm curious about the latest version. Just seeking some feedback before taking the plunge.

491

General Software Discussion / Re: Nice DonationCoder.com WriteUp on dotTech.org

« Last post by sajman99 on November 29, 2009, 01:18 PM »

Very good resource--bookmarked.

492

General Software Discussion / Re: Search

« Last post by sajman99 on November 28, 2009, 08:33 PM »

XYplorer doesn't index files for searching, but its real-time file search is amazingly fast. I'm told this file manager started out as a search tool--and I believe it!
http://www.xyplorer.com
http://www.321downlo...Freeware/page22.html

493

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« Last post by sajman99 on November 28, 2009, 07:41 PM »

Innuendo, I haven't tried d'peg! in probably 3-4 years--you had to pick one that I don't actually have in my collection.   d'peg! was mentioned early in this thread by Kimchee53 (now almost 2 years ago!). Way back when I tried it (IIRC) it wasn't particularly intuitive and it was very slow (ie. required leave-it-overnight processing). Of course, it's probably much improved today-- I don't honestly know.

Generally speaking, the older commercial image dupe finders such as DoublePics and Odin Professional have long since been surpassed in performance by well-known freewares like Dup Detector and VisiPics.

494

Living Room / Re: Family Guy and Windows 7 - The forgotten ads

« Last post by sajman99 on November 27, 2009, 03:27 PM »

Yes, the TV show has some off-color humor which could likely offend potential Win7 customers.

495

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« Last post by sajman99 on November 26, 2009, 04:16 PM »

... VSC is  S L O W , indeed, but the result was accurate...

-Curt (November 26, 2009, 03:47 PM)

Yep, you're right about the speed. Just to be clear, I was NOT recommending VisualPhotoCompare as a viable solution because it's so incredibly slow it's really unuseable for more than a few hundred images. Not sure hardware makes much difference because I have a pretty solid system and VPC is slower than molasses.

I only thought of it because it's so slow and because I just ate some turkey today. I mean, VisualPhotoCompare is a real turkey.  I keep it in my collection only because it's portable and it reminds me how difficult it is to achieve speed in these apps.

496

General Software Discussion / Re: Search

« Last post by sajman99 on November 26, 2009, 03:02 PM »

Oldie but goodie freeware Agent Ransack.

497

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« Last post by sajman99 on November 26, 2009, 02:40 PM »

Greetings, Curt--thanks for the feedback. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

I suppose if you don't have reason to search for binary duplicates, then MeeSoft Commander could be less useful. It's just that so many developers claim they're the fastest and even go so far as to have the word "fast" in the name of their dupe software. Then I use Commander to check for dupes and OMG it is truly fast.

Regarding the default 9% similarity tolerance for images, I agree it's too high and I generally use 5%. Of course, the more images you are processing then the lower the % as a practical matter.

Considering Commander is not utilizing cache (most fast tools do) in its image comparison, I find its processing speed to be very good. If your intent is to process your entire image collection, then yeah--it's gonna take a while. If however you want to process a folder full of images prior to moving them into your full collection, then Commander is a very good tool for that task IMO.

When you refer to "perfect" results, I assume you mean the accuracy of the program and I definitely agree. My testing indicates Commander is among the most accurate image dupe scanners, but it's just a shame the matches are presented in the limited manner they are (ie. no thumbnails and no side-by-side view).

The main reason I posted about the minimalist MeeSoft Commander is because I had never seen it mentioned in the context of similar image utilities. I'm sure there are other file managers which can find similar images, but I haven't discovered them yet.

btw- just for the sheer entertainment value, check out the portable VisualPhotoCompare and then tell me MeeSoft Commander isn't fast.

498

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« Last post by sajman99 on November 25, 2009, 02:25 PM »

Just a few points on the freeware MeeSoft Commander...

(1) As a binary dupe finder, Commander is among the fastest in existence. I cannot definitely say Commander is the fastest binary dupe finder, but I do know it has blazing speed.

(2) As a similar images finder, Commander exhibits very good speed and accuracy. It may not be the fastest or the most accurate similar images finder, but it belongs on a relatively short list with respect to those two variables.

The UI of this minimalist file manager is really the only glaring weakness. AFAIK the image matches are not displayed as thumbnails so the matches have to be loaded into an external viewer for convenient side-by-side observation. Even though there's no shortage of image viewers/editors, this extra step might be a real pain for some folks.

(3) Not sure why developer Michael Vinther removed the .zip download, but MeeSoft Commander can still be run as a portable app if desired.

499

What's the Best? / Re: Whats a good, free stock price checking software?

« Last post by sajman99 on November 25, 2009, 01:04 PM »

A couple of other free stock tools are TickerTape and NetStock. Haven't tried them--just passing along the info.

500

Living Room / Re: What are you waiting for?

« Last post by sajman99 on November 24, 2009, 08:20 PM »

I'm waiting for Newegg to properly package a hard drive.  My new HD arrived this morning in a small box which looked as if somebody played football with it. The HD inside the box was wrapped in a thin layer of bubble wrap without any additional padding. OK, live and learn--FedEx next time for sure.

I'm waiting for Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to complete its Extended Test so I can use my new HD with confidence.