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5451

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 01:51 PM »

I tried that, steeladept. I've a 3 yo and a 5 yo, but it hasn't cured me!

5452

General Software Discussion / Re: Stellarium 0.9.0 Released!

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 01:34 PM »

Cool find, thanks Nighted. Ironically, I was thinking about the practicalities involved in generating a real "star map" last night (my sons and I were using one of the guest rooms as a rocket ship for intergalactic exploration) and realised that because one's position in space determines what one sees, a "general star map" is effectively useless unless maps are produced that are relative to key regions of space... Anyway, thanks again - I'll be checking this out!

5453

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 01:28 PM »

if your RAM usage is often near the max...

-Armando (June 06, 2007, 12:51 AM)

Of course, I was not talking about PF Usage here.

-Armando (June 07, 2007, 01:23 PM)

Yup - understood!

5454

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the switch-01: My journey from Windows to Linux

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 11:12 AM »

urlwolf - I read you previous post in haste; I now realise that DOpus is not likely to run well under wine. Of course, I have to try it now! I'm also going to see what happens with XYPlorer - because that would be a HUGE improvement over anything I've yet seen in linux.

5455

Living Room / Re: Humour - The End of the world

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 09:18 AM »

You're not alone Carol, I hadn't seen it either. In fact, I scrolled right past it when Windows Secrets landed in my inbox as well, so had you not posted about it, I would have missed it this time around as well! Thanks 

5456

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 07:25 AM »

Thanks fodder - that's exactly what I've done (removed PF from Documents partition on both my wife's and my own notebooks) and set a 1.5x RAM fixed PF on the root directory. I did that a couple of days ago and all is well.

5457

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the switch-01: My journey from Windows to Linux

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 07:20 AM »

Thanks for the pointer about DOPus, urlwolf. I've been casting about for a decent File Manager for Linux and have so far been disappointed. I was looking at WINE the other day and wondering if I should install it and see if ArcGIS will run under it. If DOpus will as well... 

5458

Living Room / Re: Humorous, perhaps informative, article on forum trolls

« Last post by Darwin on June 07, 2007, 12:09 AM »

Now how did I miss this last week? Oh... I was stuck in a hotel room in Vancouver. Anyway, thanks for the link, Ken. Very interesting and, as you say, sheds some light on one or two characters that I've encountered on these and other forums...

5459

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 11:54 PM »

OK - cnewtonne and armando, we need a 12 programme and we need it now. cnewtonne - you've pretty much got my number with your list of symptoms, although my spending roams far and wide, well beyond PIMs (though I've spent my share on those, as well).

5460

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 10:46 PM »

wow - cnewtonne, that sounds COOL. UltraRecall is definitely worth a look... Though, I'm actually on a software "austerity kick" which means that I am uninstalling stuff I am not using like crazy and am NOT installing anything new (if I say it often enough and loud enough it's going to be so... I'm NOT installing anything new, I'm NOT installing anything new,...), but will keep it in mind for when the pendulum swings back toward software mania!

5461

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the switch-01: My journey from Windows to Linux

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 07:30 PM »

The good news is that there are a few apps I can take with me right away:
— WinRAR

Cool - I'm still casting about for linux analogues/versions of Windows apps that I love. However, what impresses me most about Linux in 2007 is that if I were a student with a brand new laptop and a huge, blank harddrive, I could install a Linux distro like ubuntu and be productive right off the bat - OpenOffice has everything a first year student needs - and on the internet in the blink of an eye (probably more important to an undergrad than productivity - hell, it's more important to me!).

I'm on a journey similar to Zaine's - I'm seriously considering making my next computer purchase a Linux only machine. I've been playing with ubuntu courtesy of Carl (cthorpe) and his mini-review of wubi.

5462

General Software Discussion / Re: Making the switch-01: My journey from Windows to Linux

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 07:17 PM »

One thing that has impressed my about OpenOffice.org Impress  under Ubuntu is that the font rendering is nice and crisp. Under Windows StarOffice 8's Impress fails to impress because the font rendering sucks.

5463

General Software Discussion / PC Mag gives a DROBO a workout - all on video!

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 07:15 PM »

There was a link posted around here a while back pointing to a video demo (ad) of the DROBO. Here's a video report on PC Mag's week long test (abuse) of a DROBO.

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 07:04 PM »

A picture is worth a thousand words - here's a three thousand word essay on File Organisation in Paper Port 11 Professional (should have thought of this before I posted the above, but the above may be useful, too so will let it stand):







Hope this helps.

5465

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 06:53 PM »

Here's a (long) description of PaperPort followed by the various tools that are included with Paper Port (I have the Pro version):

PaperPort is a paper management software package that helps you organize, access, share, and manage documents and image files on your personal computer. From PaperPort, you can:

• Create, edit, and manage PDF documents.
  
• Scan documents and photos directly to your desktop in popular file formats, such as PDF, JPEG, and TIFF.
  
• Get photos from your digital camera and use PaperPort tools to organize and index them for easy retrieval.
  
• Print documents to image or PDF files.
  
• With a single click, take a snapshot of an Internet web page and place it on your PaperPort desktop.
  
• Drag a scanned document to your word processing program, and let PaperPort automatically turn it into editable text.
  
• Use image editing tools to improve the appearance of scanned documents and make photos picture perfect.
  
• Add annotations, sticky notes, highlights, arrows, and stamps to your documents and photos.
  
• Stack and group related documents and photos, just as you would with papers on your desk.
  
• Convert documents and photos to other file formats.
  
• Create and organize folders for filing your documents and photos.
  
• Find documents based on their textual content using PaperPort's powerful All-in-One Search tool.
  
• Share files, documents, and photos with others.
  
• Send items to other programs without leaving PaperPort. PaperPort supports word processing, spreadsheet, fax, Internet e-mail, graphics, OCR, and online services programs.
  
• Scan in blank forms and let PaperPort automatically detect the form fields so that you can easily fill in the online forms.

What programs come with PaperPort?
In addition to the PaperPort program, your software purchase includes these additional programs and components:

• FormTyperTM — Available on the Send To bar, FormTyper lets you fill in any type of form that you have scanned as a PaperPort Image (.max) file to the PaperPort desktop. FormTyper automatically recognizes the blank areas in which data can be entered and creates blank fields for the data. 
  
• FTP — Available on the Send To bar, the FTP program is included with PaperPort so that you can quickly copy files in PaperPort to and from an FTP site.
  
• PageViewer — Located on the Start menu and available from within PaperPort, PageViewer is a standalone program that opens the Page View window separate from the PaperPort desktop.
  
• ScanDirectTM — Located on the Start menu, ScanDirect displays a small control panel you can use to scan items directly to PaperPort or other programs on your computer without first running PaperPort.
  
• Web Capture — Located on the PaperPort Tools menu, Web Capture lets you quickly capture web pages while you are viewing them online—and place them on your PaperPort desktop as PDF files or as PaperPort Image files, depending on your preference.
  
• Web Publisher — Available on the Send To bar, Web Publisher is a PaperPort program that helps you format your image items for viewing and publishing to a web site.

The following programs are available only in PaperPort Professional:
 

• DesktopDeliveryTM — Available from your PaperPort folder's shortcut menu. DesktopDelivery monitors network or local folders for incoming PDF, TIFF, JPEG and MAX files.
  
• Index Manager — Available from the PaperPort Tools menu or the System tray. The Index Manager lets you create, modify and schedule indexing tasks for a given local or network folder.
  
• ScanSoft PDF Create! — Available from the PaperPort Print dialog box, and also from Microsoft Word or Excel (2000 or XP) with the Print to PaperPort (PDF) menu item on the File menu. ScanSoft PDF Create! enables you to quickly convert text documents to PDF files.

The file organising features relate to the way PaperPort will monitor folders for incoming files (with extensions that you specify) and then move them into pre-designated folders. It will also allow you to set up profiles so that it will automatically sort scans and other files into pre-designated folders. I haven't used these features, so can't comment on them... Exploring them is on my "to do" list, I just haven't gotten around to it!

There was quite a discussion about Paper Port here - you'll note that I asked a lot of questions, bought Paper Port, RMA'd it, and have subsequently bought it again (I'm fickle - actually, it's because I found it to be a horrible resource hog but after ripping it out of my system and then reinstalling it 2 months later found it quite stable... I ran it for about a week before buying it the second time. I was running it illegally (hadn't gotten around to destroying the download from the first purchase) but considered it a trial period).

I really haven't even scratched the surface of what Paper Port is apparently capable of, either in my posts in this thread or in my playing around with it...

5466

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 12:47 PM »

  My use of PaperPort is more like semi-regular - I got a great deal on it courtesy of already owning licences for both PDF Converter Pro and OmniPage Pro. I can't really tell you about it's OCR capabilities because it defers to OmniPage Pro for that (the built-in OCR capability is a dumbed down version of OmniPage, I believe). Abby Fine Reader is a fine ( ) OCR app - if you've already got that you don't need anything else if your only interest is OCR.

Actually, one of the issues that I initially had with PaperPort, other than feeling a bit like "what's the point?", was that a lot of its features seem to duplicate those that I already had with PDF Converter and OmniPage. What it adds, though, if you already have these two apps, is indexing and annotating files and the SET tools. It also comes with Stellent viewers so it previews something like 300 file formats. Note, if you DON'T have either of the other two apps, it comes with some of their capabilities. For example, it will allow you to create and manipulate pdf files without PDF Converter installed (I think it includes PDF Creator, which is another Scansoft app). In effect, too, it operates as a dual pane File Manager, though use DOpus 9 myself. Here's a screenshot of PaperPort opening up to give you an idea of what sorts of things it will allow you to do and the interface (note that I don't have the dual pane feature enabled in the screenshot). The pane to the left shows the contents of a folder (they're all nested folders containing pdfs):



Hope this helps. I really struggled with whether I wanted/needed it.

5467

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 11:40 AM »

Hi again, NoD5 - I've re-read (OK, re-skimmed) your post and don't think that Endnote is what you're after at all. However, PaperPort Professional *might* just do it, and it's much cheaper than Acrobat Pro. Only caveat is that, as far as I know, there is no trial. They do have 30 day no questions asked return policy, though, which I have now used twice without any trouble. I am always hesitant to recommend Scansoft/Nuance apps because of their support policy (it's paid support, even if you have to report a bug ALTHOUGH you do get one free incident report with each app, each year... not that that is much of a comfort), but I've been using three of their products for two years now and have had absolutely no problems with them. I have contacted both support and sales on a number of occasions and have never been charged.

Anyway, I just tried PaperPort with a pdf and added a note to it, whic was recognised by Acrobat Reader 8 without issue, athough you can't edit if further within Acrobat Reader. I also verified this by opening the file up on my wife's computer, which does not have PaperPort installed, and the note is still there. Note that if the pdf is protected PaperPort can't do anything with it (ie annotate or add notes to it). There are ways around this, too, of course, but require third-party software to be installed.

Another point in PaperPort's favour, is that it will index and allow you to otherwise manipulate, annotate, and generate all sorts of files other than pdf's. It also comes with Scansoft's SET tools, which I have found to be among the best general image editing tools available for cleaning up images, particularly scanned images. They even work on non-protected pdfs and I use them to do things like remove artefacts from pdf's that I create from scans (or have accepted from other people) - you know, when you get a pdf generated from scanned images of xerox copies of the document? Works REALLY well.

YMMV

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 09:58 AM »

[edit : sorry : late answer ! My post got delayed for some weird reasons...]

No worries - thanks for the input! I've managed to get my system streamlined enough that even with some heavier apps (Outlook, Maxthon, Word and Scansoft's PDF Converter 4 Professional) open simultaneously, I've got close to 40% RAM "on reserve" and my hard drive is quite quiet. So, the seat of the pants test suggests that things are fine as they are!

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 09:55 AM »

NoD5 - thank you for a very complete and thought provoking post. I'm going to have to digest it, read it again, and probably again after that before I'll be able to respond! I use Endnote and will try to address your posts WRT it when I have given it some thought.

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Found Deals and Discounts / FinePrint on at Bits du Jour Wednesday, June 13

« Last post by Darwin on June 06, 2007, 09:47 AM »

Bits du Jour has FinePrint on offer this coming Wednesday. FinePrint has been reviewed here by Patteo and was offered as a donationcoder giveaway and as a donationcoder discount early this year. I took advantage of the discount and find FinePrint indispensible - don't know how I lived without it! If the discount is over 10% this is a must have in your arsenal of software!

5471

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 05, 2007, 11:46 PM »

Good answer, Grorgy, good answer. I like the way you think 

5472

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 05, 2007, 10:31 PM »

Yeah - it IS DDR 266/PC2100 memory. I'm not going to bother with the upgrade. Gateway's literature and online upgrade checker both say that it maxes out at 1GB while a Gateway tech that I chatted with says 2GB and various on-line resellers say everything from 1GB to 3GB. I"m not risking it - my computer is running fine and I don't see any reason to risk wasting my money on non-returnable but incompatible RAM.

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Official Announcements / Re: June 2007 Software Discounts and Giveaway

« Last post by Darwin on June 05, 2007, 06:00 PM »

Oh, sorry Carl, I lost my train of thought  : thank you for working to get us these giveaways and discounts 

5474

Official Announcements / Re: June 2007 Software Discounts and Giveaway

« Last post by Darwin on June 05, 2007, 05:59 PM »

I used to love the White Shadow. I was pretty surprised when the Coach (Ken Howard) showed up as the father on "In Her Shoes" a year or two ago as, AFICT, he disappeared when the White Shadow was cancelled.

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

« Last post by Darwin on June 05, 2007, 05:57 PM »

I don't know... I WANT the RAM!! (Guess that means I do know!). I'll just have to see what I can turn up on-line. The Gateway price seems competitive - even good compared to the Canadian resellers I've looked at (found 1GB sticks for $132 Cdn. but shipping was going to be $23!) BUT if it's shipping from the States I'm going to get spanked at the border by customs.