Recent Posts

5126

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to record in MP3 format

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 11:20 AM »

I plead guilty to drinking & posting... 'Spose that would be a PUI offense.

Is this the Pew-ee defense? 

5127

General Software Discussion / Re: how to reduce pagefile usage?

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 10:46 AM »

Well... as I understand it, there are some apps, such as Adobe Photoshop, that insist of swapping data to file, so if you're running anything that requires it, not running a PagingFile will be a liability. Having said that, there are enough people claiming that not running a PagingFile speeds up their systems and doesn't have any ill effect that maybe this is not an issue. For myself, having a single physical drive to play with on a notebook, I have setup a fixed size PF at 1.5 times my RAM and all is well (so upper and lower limits are set to the same value). This is the best set up I've tried yet - in the past, I've tried setting a harddrive partition aside and putting the PF there, but PF usage and disk activity were elevated.

So... I can report that two months on from setting things up this way, my system is very stable, RAM usage is low and PF and CPU utilization under control! 

5128

General Software Discussion / Re: Top 3 programs you use

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 09:03 AM »

Well... I decided to take another stab at configuring M2 to my liking and have succeeded. Other than the resource usage, I'm satisfied and am using it as my default browser for the moment. How I managed it can be read here.

5129

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon 2 Released

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 09:00 AM »

An update: after responding to Brandon (wreckedcarzz) here, I thought I'd take another crack at setting up M2 and discovered that I had a corrupt Groups import (I hadn't mentioned this but the fact that my groups wouldn't work in M2 was a major dealbreaker for me) and remedied that. Then I took a look at the plugins that I couldn't get to work and which were the other dealbreakers: Roboform, NetSnippets Pro and Evernote Pro. I tried a third party plugin for Roboform and hated it so uninstalled it. Then I unexpectedly hit upon the solution: the context menu! Roboform's toolbar can be displayed/hidden in any supported browser via the context menu! As for Evernote and NetSnippets, pages can be saved in the same way. Thus I can now do everything in M2 that I can do in M1.6.1. Pretty happy... Now, if only resource usage could be brought under better control (as I type this in M2 I have 7 tabs open, which is pretty standard and the process is consuming: 03-23% CPU, 70,008K RAM, and 55,680K VM. This is considerably higher than M1.6.1 under a similar "load", where the CPU is much more stable at around 0-1% and RAM and VM usage are in the 46MB and 55MB range respectively).

UPDATE: even saving a selection is possible with Evernote/NetSnippets - you just highlight the "bits" you want and right-click/save to Evernote (or NetSnippets). The result is actually a cleaner interface as opposed to NetSnippets toolbar (though I suppose I'll wind up missing the Add to Last option... C'est la vie. NetSnippets is no longer being developed anyway so its days are numbered.)

5130

General Software Discussion / Re: Top 3 programs you use

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 08:08 AM »

Heh, heh, fair enough Brandon! I'd move to M2 if the plug-ins I love were available (they're not, for now) and I'm certainly not free of the "must have latest version now!" implulse.

Clevercat - have you ever tried Enhanced File Dialog? It's part of the ObjectDesktop suite (and ONLY available as part of the suite - I've asked, a couple of times...) and is 1. the best open/save dialog extender I've tried and 2. the only Stardock app I run all the time. Love Object Dock, too, but it's been rendered redundant by TrueLaunchBar. I still keep the latest version of OD Plus installed (beta at the moment) but don't know why, really.

5131

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone actually use windows system restore if so,does it work.

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 08:02 AM »

Ehtyar and Carol are right - registry cleaners, even if used VERY carefully, tend to mess things up. I find that the ONLY registry cleaning that I can do without something goig pear-shaped is MRU's, history, start menu shortcuts, and general shortcuts. I get anymore cheeky than that and I can guarantee that something will have to be reinstalled and reactivated. 

5132

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 07:55 AM »

Welcome Ehtyar and biox! Biox, the first dress on your businesses homepage is stunning! Your wife is very talented.

5133

General Software Discussion / Re: What do you use to keep track of your installed software?

« Last post by Darwin on August 12, 2007, 07:54 AM »

Is there anyway to get SoftCat to automatically retrieve and store registration information? I'm not even sure that it's that important to me as I use ClipMate/Safe to store my serial numbers anyway, but...

This is probably a question for the developer and I'll got to him/her now!

5134

General Software Discussion / Re: Need a mass email program

« Last post by Darwin on August 11, 2007, 10:31 PM »

Ah... there is an alternative program that will let you send e-mail using any client (such as Outlook Express, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) but I've entirely forgotten its name!

Sorry, I tend to forget that that whole world doesn't use Outlook as I do... 


I'll give some thought to the other app and see if I can find out what it's called and report back.

5135

General Software Discussion / Re: Top 3 programs you use

« Last post by Darwin on August 11, 2007, 09:42 PM »

sorry but you should update anyways..

Why? Both 2 and 1.6 are based on the IE engine and 1.6 runs fine on top of IE7. There are no security advantages to using M2 that are meaningful and I can't think of any reason to upgrade until all of the features currently in 1.6 are available in 2.

5136

General Software Discussion / Re: Need a mass email program

« Last post by Darwin on August 11, 2007, 09:39 PM »

Check out eAnnouncer - I use it to send out missives to my undergraduate students and it works very well.

5137

General Software Discussion / Re: Linux or Mac: Which is the better alternative to Windows?

« Last post by Darwin on August 11, 2007, 01:47 PM »

I *think* what Gothic is driving at is the fact OSX can only be run on Apple hardware. That's my primary objection anyway, irrespective how nice their hardware might actually be. I'm sure he's also contrasting an open source OS and close sourced OS's such as Windows and OSX, but have already put enough words into his mouth/this thread 

EDIT: to clarify/add to the above point about Apple hardware - as nice as their hardware is, I'd have difficulty justifying the expense (on the open market) relative to a PC, given that I can get a non-Apple notebook for at least 25% less than the price of an equivalent (when looking at CPU, graphics card, and screensize) Apple NB but that comes with double the RAM and a larger harddrive. So, nice as they are, Apple notebooks are only really compelling if my goal is to run OSX. As I like but do not love OSX, there is little point in buying one as I'd have to upgrade the RAM and the harddrive AND purchase a copy of Windows, which only serves to make the cost of buying an Apple notebook astronomical, rather than merely scandalous!

5138

General Software Discussion / Re: Linux or Mac: Which is the better alternative to Windows?

« Last post by Darwin on August 11, 2007, 09:50 AM »

Yeah, I'm with João on this one... I object to being tied to Apple hardware and am not even considering a new Mac (my sister gave me my current iBook when she wanted to upgrade to a newer system - she bought a PC), just curious about the state of things.

5139

General Software Discussion / Re: Linux or Mac: Which is the better alternative to Windows?

« Last post by Darwin on August 11, 2007, 08:50 AM »

nontroppo - can you transfer data between a native OSX app and a native Windows app (running in Parallels) in "realtime"?

5140

General Software Discussion / Re: What do you use to keep track of your installed software?

« Last post by Darwin on August 11, 2007, 08:20 AM »

I'm running the trial for SoftCat Plus right now and yes, it will do drives (rather then merely a drive). It also allows you to create and access mutiple databases, which is useful if you play around with different s/w configurations and freqently create drive images.

5141

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Darwin on August 10, 2007, 10:57 PM »

Thanks Hamradio!

5142

Official Announcements / Re: ZillaRank: An improved search for smf forum

« Last post by Darwin on August 10, 2007, 09:56 AM »

Wow! I was in Belgium when this was originally posted - thanks Wordzilla (and mouser for posting this)! I'll be testing it out and posting about my experiences shortly.

Mouser -

As many of you know, we often joke that the SMF search function on the forum sucks, and seems to miss returning search results that we know are there.

The SMF search function DOES suck, and it's no joke  !

5143

General Software Discussion / Re: XP or Vista user — take the poll!

« Last post by Darwin on August 10, 2007, 09:52 AM »

I'm still kicking myself for returning the Toshiba notebook that I bought right before Christmas 2006 - it had a 1.8 Ghz dual core processor (in the 5000 series), 256MB dedicated Graphics memory, 2GB RAM and a 200GB harddrive wth XP Media Centre installed. It was like greased lightning, even installing and running PaintShop Pro XI and Star Office 8 concurrently - every program in Star Office was running whille PSP was open and actively editing a picture, which were the two packages I shoved onto it to test out the processor. That impressed me. Sweet, sweet, sweet... Now I doubt I'd be able to get XP preinstalled when I buy my next computer.

I returned it because I had buyer's remorse and couldn't justify the expense (my current notebook runs fine, though I love to complain about it! Actually, so does my seven year P-IIIE notebook running Win2k...).

5144

General Software Discussion / Re: Appget - user-run software update program

« Last post by Darwin on August 10, 2007, 09:43 AM »

Secunia also has a personal updater package in beta testing. I've tried it and it works as well as their online service.

5145

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by Darwin on August 10, 2007, 09:22 AM »

Welcome to DC, Adriatic!

I haven't downloaded and tried NoteCase out yet, but I visited the Pro version website and two things strike me immediately: first, I like your licence structure - the reasonable price jump to go from a single platform licence to ALL platforms is a nice touch, as is the availability of a lifetime licence. Second, the interface looks nice and clean. To comment beyond this, I'll obviously have to install it and give it a workout.

One query: what are the differences between the Open Source version and the Pro version? I coudn't find a feature matrix or other type of comparison. Just curious.

More later, I hope. However, the real guru on this stuff is Superboyac - hopefully he sees your post and comments!

5146

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone actually use windows system restore if so,does it work.

« Last post by Darwin on August 09, 2007, 07:54 PM »

On my Win2k machine I ran Winalysis 3 before switching to Acronis and Genie. It's more configurable than System Restore, provides you with the option of complete file backups, and is more reliable than SysRestore. I haven't tried it under XP so can't comment on its effectiveness on more recent versions of Windows, but I never had a problem with it.

[edit: link fixed]

5147

General Software Discussion / Re: Linux or Mac: Which is the better alternative to Windows?

« Last post by Darwin on August 09, 2007, 07:48 PM »

Er... have to agree with nontroppo about the "tweakability" of OSX (though I'm still running 10.2x!) but need to point out, as icekin does, that the biggest stumbling block is application compatability. Yes, I know I can spend a premiium on an Apple machine (with half the RAM of a PC that costs a fraction...) and run BootCamp or something and have my cake and eat it too, but consider that I'd first have to buy a copy of Windows to make this happen. That's another $100 minimum to be factored into the cost of switching to Mac (well, for me anyway as both my copies of XP are OEM and Win2k is getting a bit long in the tooth). Then there's the PIA factor associated with having to switch back and forth between OS's. No thanks. I like Macs but the premium is too high. I'll stick with Windows and if forced away will look to Linux, where I know I can tweak to my heart's content and download Open Source apps that are good analogues for their Windows shareware counterparts. Also, I know damn well that I can run any Linux distro available on any of the hardware that I already own - wouldn't have to spend a penny on a new computer if I did it. Actually, I'd happily switch today if there were better options for my work specific applications available. My plan is to shove a bigger harddrive into my Win2k machine and dual boot it with Ubuntu and start learning the OS and the software that is available for it.

5148

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon 2 Released

« Last post by Darwin on August 09, 2007, 07:28 PM »

Mamoun - thanks for all the effort that you put into the beta testing (If I am not mistaken, it was you that sent out the beta update notifications, no?). Anyway, welcome to DC - please visit more often! 

5149

General Software Discussion / Re: Maxthon 2 Released

« Last post by Darwin on August 09, 2007, 07:27 PM »

I just opened up M2 with a blank page and it gobbled up 24 MB of RAM and 17 MB VM. However, Maxthon 1.6.1 uses 23 MB of RAM and 28 MB of VM! M2 starts with a single blank page, M1.6.1 with five pages from various sites (DC included). The big concern for me at the moment is the plug-in support, though. Looks like I'll need to eat crow on the resource use though... Thanks for that Josh (he mumbles through a mouthful of black, and not very clean, feathers), thank you very much!

PS I'm a bit concerned about your 3 megs vs. my 17... I'm on a 3 year old centrino notebook (single core) with a gig of PC2100 RAM running WinXP Pro Sp-2...

5150

Living Room / Re: KenR's health and situation

« Last post by Darwin on August 09, 2007, 07:19 PM »

Also, after it became public that several people had sent me cards, I got a few requests to put up some pics of the cards... The truth is that I was not able to do that. If I am better after my surgery and am able to handle more activities, I will try to get some pic pics up ASAP. Until then, don't look for them.

-KenR (August 08, 2007, 04:39 PM)

Ken, don't worry about it! Concentrate on getting better so that we can all enjoy your company here - that would be a far greater thing for we dc regulars that miss you!