Recent Posts

5326

General Software Discussion / Re: Überwallpaper!

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 12:16 PM »

I keep loading WB 5.5 and playing with it as well, but invariably return to my resource miserly ways 

However, when I do mess about with WB, these are the wallpapers I like best:







Here's my desktop today:


And a few months ago (with WB installed):


EDIT: here's hoping I can get these images uploaded - this has been timing out for over an hour - the message went up after hanging for 15 minutes, but the pictures never made it.

5327

General Software Discussion / Re: teracopy: copy your files faster

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 11:13 AM »

Hereeeee we go again! Another software I'll just _have_ to try out. Don't you people realise a lot of this board's members are severely afflicted with OCD? Be gentle!

-nosh (June 15, 2007, 04:11 AM)

  That was pretty much my reaction as well - gotta try it!

5328

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 11:11 AM »

Just FYI, Ulead was acquired along with Intervideo by Corel last fall...

5329

Living Room / Re: Is it me, or is the internet getting S L O W E R ?

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 11:05 AM »

I've decided to put up with ZA Pro again (I stopped running it a few weeks ago) for now because I am starting to get quite alarmed by all of this... Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but better safe than sorry.

5330

Living Room / Re: dc site slowdown june 15, 2007?

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 10:54 AM »

Absolutely - most pages time out and most of my posts haven't made it up either. Also, I've been trying to send a personal message and it won't go through either...

PS seems fine now though!

5331

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online (tune-ups, customization, etc)

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 08:29 AM »

Brandon - don't you sleep?! Are you home schooled or something? Just curious as I wonder how you are able to work on all this and still get to school everyday!

5332

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 08:27 AM »

Thanks nudel - checking it out now.

5333

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Add an ability to sign in on the Home page

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 08:22 AM »

Yeah, I have unread donationcoder messages as the first tab in Maxthon when I start it up as well 

5334

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 08:20 AM »

Don't get too excited, fodder. Ulead and Intervideo were both bought out by the same company that bought out Jasc... Not that that renders the product in any way less useful for now, but it's a bit of an ominous sign for future development!

Here's a link to one story about it (first google hit).

5335

General Software Discussion / Re: Download Managers

« Last post by Darwin on June 15, 2007, 08:17 AM »

IDM sounds interesting - I'll have to take a look, nosh. Thanks!

5336

Official Announcements / Re: Zaine Ridling's Massive Word Processor Review is now Live (Jun 14, 2007)

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 11:16 PM »

OK - I've read this now (will need to do so again, I think) and this is a tour de force - Zaine's set a new, higher, standard for reviewing for the rest of us to aspire to!

5337

Word Processor Roundup / Congratulations, Zaine - The full review is up!

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 11:03 PM »

Wow! This is a tour de force - you've bested your "best archive tool" review, and that was a tall order. Well done and congratulations!

One question (though I'm only half way through at the moment): you listed portability as a "what's to like" feature of Papyrus, but didn't mention that this is something that you can do with TexMaker, too. An oversight?

5338

Official Announcements / Re: Zaine Ridling's Massive Word Processor Review is now Live (Jun 14, 2007)

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 10:32 PM »

Holy crap, Batman! I've been waiting for this... woot! I've got my cookies and milk and I'm off to read it. Thanks for the heads up! 

5339

Living Room / Re: Is it me, or is the internet getting S L O W E R ?

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 10:28 PM »

I just opened up my Yahoo inbox via their web interface and was astounded at how much spam there was both in the inbox and in the junk mail folder. Not pretty (and bad for the self esteem - apparently I am not very well endowed but can be, for a price  ).

5340

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the Switch-04: The "User Guide" as life raft, more n00b problems

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 10:26 PM »

I share your pain, Zaine. I haven't starte trying to understand the command line in linux yet - I'm a bit awed by it, and strangely excited - but I want to be able to devote some significant, uninterupted time to its study - with a 3 and a 5 year old, that's not going to happen soon! I have great hopes for the evenings in my tent in Belgium. I'll let the 20 year olds drink Belgian beer while I distract myself from my PhD dissertation with a linux manual. That actually sounds appealing, incredibly foolhardy, and sad all at once 

5341

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 10:21 PM »

I still have PSP 9 installed alongside XI. Both do everything that I need, but 9 feels more robust and professional somehow. Probably something stupid like the toolbar icons and the colour scheme that do it for me, I don't know...

5342

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Add an ability to sign in on the Home page

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 10:18 PM »

  I actually just type "dc" (sans quotes) and hit SHIFT and I'm there... I have a DirectAccess abbreviation setup to bring me directly here. I use cookies, too, so don't have to worry about logging in. Don't know why I started agitating above as I am taking my notebook with me so will be on the same machine.

This is not to say that I haven't noted, and regretted, the absence of a log-in area on the homepage in the past when using other people's machines. I don't actually mind having to come to the forums, though, as this is where I spend 99.98% of my time anyway!

5343

General Software Discussion / Re: Endnote XI is released...

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 05:39 PM »

As happens all too often, my thoughts have been expressed far better by someone other than me! George, you are course entirely correct - IdeaMason looks incredible and if I was just starting out I would consider it a very strong candidate for purchase and incorporation into my workflow.

5344

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 05:36 PM »

urlwolf - I wrote a lengthy reply here AND then went and read your academic productivity blog on the subject. Wow! All I can say is: "what he said". You covered all the bases, well done!

5345

General Software Discussion / Re: Endnote XI is released...

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 05:23 PM »

Interesting - thanks George! I was sort of tempted by it when it was offered on Bits du Jour but held off as I couldn't quite see what I'd be gaining in switching to it (and I've already got a veritable graveyard of note taking apps that I download, trial, get enthusiastic about and stop using within 3 or 4 months buying  ).

5346

Living Room / Re: Is it me, or is the internet getting S L O W E R ?

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 01:44 PM »

If one of the bastards comes near me I'll show them how to get a bigger penis!

  I l actually laughed out loud over this one (my wife came running to make sure that I am working - ALT-TAB is my friend). Of course, there is an unfortunate double entendre contained in the above, which I am too much of a gentleman to point out...

Anyway, I'm finding that I am getting one HECK of a lot more "Internet Explorer could not load the page" type errors that require me to refresh one or more times. Even my beloved Donationcoder is not immune...

5347

General Software Discussion / Re: More about e-mail web based and other

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 01:37 PM »

I actually prefer the Yahoo and Live offerings to GMail (though I have and use all three!). I'm wondering, though, if Yahoo will ever make it out of beta. It's pretty solid, and will be my favourite of all the options if its idiosyncrasies (mailboxes failing to load, for example - not good) ever get ironed out. It would be nice, too, if they'd let me access my account from a POP3 client without having to pay $19.95 a year for the privilege.

5348

General Software Discussion / Re: Endnote XI is released...

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 01:28 PM »

I've dabbled VERY minimally with zotero. Being so used to Endnote (and having sprung for a full licence and an upgrade and having so much invested in its format), I'm loathe to migrate my data into something new and then having to learn it... Another alternative discussed elsewhere is IdeaMason, however it is most definitely NOT free/opensource! George (Grorgy) was running a trial of this at one point - perhaps he can comment?

5349

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 01:22 PM »

One question about Endnote users:
Would you use Endnote for keeping track of your pdf's and documents if you weren't using it for research?  Like, if you didn't already have Endnote for school purposes (or some other academic application) you wouldn't go out and buy it for it's ability to annotate your documents, right?

I'm just trying to get a feel who is using Endnote this way.  In my case, I'd probably go with Surfulater or something a little less expensive, especially if I didn't it for a properly formatted bibliography. 

-superboyac (June 14, 2007, 10:19 AM)

No, you're quite right. If I wasn't using it for academic purposes I probably wouldn't even consider Endnote. Which is not to say that I think it's bad and not to say that I'm going to dump it when (if) the PhD (ever) gets finished.

5350

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the Switch-04: The "User Guide" as life raft, more n00b problems

« Last post by Darwin on June 14, 2007, 01:21 PM »

My Neanderthal brain is starting to caramelize nicely as well... I'd better get reading too!