Recent Posts

5501

Image Manager Shootout / Re: keywords and image management thoughts

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 02:01 PM »

I posted a thread about Lightroom yesterday but no one responded  (here https://www.donation...19.msg31278#msg31278)

It looks really nice, but if you think it is slow on your system try an Athlon XP 1600 (32 bit) ...

It is strange that it is so slow as one of the things they point out in the demo video is how quick and responsive it is. I don't really uinderstand why it appears so slow - actually and changes to photos you make are pretty much instant - it just continues to say processing.

The release date is not going to be before next year and the beta is time limited - one of the reasons they have released multiple betas on the Mac.

An interesting development is that Adobe just bought Pixmantec (who produced the excellent RawShooter). You can still download the RawShooter Essentials software (free) from www.pixmantec.com which is an excellent RAW workflow software and will remain available (according to Adobe). The premium version is being withdrawn but people who has a copy before the takeover will get a free copy of LightRoom when it is released. Adobe have already said that the pixmantec crew are joing the Adobe development team and the technology of RawShooter is to be incorporated into the windows version of LightRoom (and possibly the Mac version) - which is really good news.

Anyone who wants to manage photo collections and non-destructively process images (including batch processing) should check out LightRoom (and RawShooter Essentials) - at the very least the Adobe video is worth a look.

5502

Living Room / Re: A trip to North Korea

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 01:52 PM »

Looks real welcoming ...

5503

Site/Forum Features / Re: Wanted: Cody Cartoons

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 09:14 AM »

Go for it .... sounds great

5504

Living Room / Re: Free blog hosting for members at DonationCoder - might be a good idea?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 09:05 AM »

Actually you can use w.blogger to easily write blogs off line (and therefore keep backups) and also transfer stuff from other blog sites (such as blogger and drupal based blogs). W.Blogger supports a lot of blog formats and to transfer stuff all you have to do is connect via your existing account/blog and then upload it to the spanking wordpress forum.

5505

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 08:59 AM »

"Select All" > "Fix" is not manual mode - that is automatic mode. Expect some problems!

I have found things look good for a while and then you start to notice odd little things and irritations start to happen. Because the computer doesn't burst into flames when you click fix does not mean everything is alright - trouble is by the time you start noticing the problems you forget that little button you clicked!

5506

Living Room / Re: Free blog hosting for members at DonationCoder - might be a good idea?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 06:39 AM »

Can you make them linked to the DC user ID or will they require seperate logins?

5507

Living Room / Re: Article: The Six Sins of the Wikipedia

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 06:37 AM »

Sorry, thanks gwyn (should have said so in my previous post). FWIW (and having read the bulk of the PDF) I would be very surprised if Nature had behaved in such a cavalier manner in the way it conducted the review. It isn't clear how selective Britannica have been in their response, and also it isn't clear whether Nature were at liberty to send the information Britannica requested (if they had guaranteed anonymity to the reviewers then this may simply not have been possible as other academics may have been able to identify the reviewer from their comments).

It's not clear cut for me - Nature were perhaps fishing for a 'tabloid' headline - but it is not generally in their style (as a recent subscriber to Nature I have to say it is probably one of the driest and hardest reads on the planet for anyone - specialists included) but equally Britannica have a commercial axe to grind here - if Wikipedia is shown to be just about as accurate as Britannica why would anyone subscribe to their expensive online service?

To be honest I have never quite worked out why anyone subscribes to online Ecnsylopedias anyway (Britannica or Encarta) when you can buy the whol thing on DVD-ROM for less and have permanent access. OK a few new articles are added each year - but not many - an new DVD every 5 years is probably more than adequate for any serious user.

5508

Living Room / Re: Article: The Six Sins of the Wikipedia

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 05:31 AM »

Hmmm ... personally (without having to go through all the research myself) I think I would trust Nature (probably the foremost peer reviewed scientific journal in the world) to Britannica (a once worldwide respected British flagship product - now a rather poor US highly commercialised imitation of its former glory - way over-hyped and over-marketed IMHO)

5509

Living Room / YouTube.com sued for copyright infringement

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 05:21 AM »

I can't say I am surprised that they are being sued since some of the material on the site is clearly copyright material used without permission but it is a shame that such an unsavoury character is the one to go to court - let's hope he loses and gets stung with costs ...

Full article at http://news.zdnet.co...736.html?tag=nl.e550

5510

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 04:23 AM »

Two previous threads have covered this at length:

https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1188.0
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2964.0

I still say the best cleaner in no cleaner.

I am using CrapCleaner on my system and have jv16 PowerTools 2006 installed.

jv16 is one of the highest rated registry cleaners out there (and has been for years) garnering the support of people like Fred Langa but ....

I have run both to see what 'problems' they come up with and both come up with a lot that on closer inspection would delete many vital keys if just run automatically. Both also delete all placeholders used by MS in their Office products (keys that don't point anywhere or to a non-existent file that will be added only if you you need it - either from the installation media or the web) and quite a few empty references for other installed apps.

You could argue that empty keys are a waste of space but I presume they are there for a purpose - just because registry cleaners (and me) don't know why it isn't a good excuse to simply delete them.

People who recommend reg cleaners rarely suggest running them in automatic mode (in fact anyone who does that is totally mad). The trouble is what do you do manually when you are confronted by about 1500 anomalies - many of which don't have any obvious function, or are so obfuscated as to be unfixable manually ?

5511

General Software Discussion / Re: Poster Printer - free (open source)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 20, 2006, 04:04 AM »

I've emailed the author - see if we get a response

-Carol Haynes (July 19, 2006, 01:23 PM)

Just got a friendly and helpful reply from Michael Overlin re. problems installing Poster Print. The installer should enter the correct port automatically but on my system it obviously didn't do it properly. If anyone else has this problem enter "virtual printer port" without the quotes and installation goes ahead fine. Now I am going to have a play ...

5512

General Software Discussion / Re: Poster Printer - free (open source)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 01:23 PM »

I've emailed the author - see if we get a response

5513

General Software Discussion / Re: Poster Printer - free (open source)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 01:09 PM »

Yes the rasterbator is what I thought of too. Haven't tried either yet.

Can anyone write, like, a mini review of either service? I'd like to get a first (second?) hand impression of such services. I might try it once I have found a new apartment, I wanna get really creative when setting up my room.

-housetier (July 18, 2006, 06:47 PM)

Rasterbator doesn't exactly print posters (not straightforward enlargement) but rather produces 'dotty' images that look good from the other side of a room.

5514

General Software Discussion / Re: Poster Printer - free (open source)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 01:07 PM »

Anyone actually managed to install Poster Printer? I find it asks for a port but it doesn't matter what I type as a port (exisiting named ports, filenames, ports with printers attached) nothing works and the installation aborts ???

5515

General Software Discussion / Re: Any problems with the free X1 Enterprise Client?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 12:53 PM »

Seems to work very well for me - no particular issues except for being careful with installation and uninstalling and multiple Outlook files (I posted about this in the other thread).

5516

General Software Discussion / Re: Wow: Microsoft Acquires WinInternals/SysInternals!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 12:52 PM »

Bit naughty of him (it is expressly forbidden in the EULA) but useful at the moment since the website is more or less unuseable with the whole world frantically downloading in a panic!

5517

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP Myths

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 12:50 PM »

I have to say I have used the HOSTS file from mvps.org and it broke quite a lot of legitimate websites as well as the annoying ones. In the end I had to remove it and I now manage my own.

5518

General Software Discussion / Adobe Lightroom Beta available (for Windows and Mac)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 04:11 AM »

This is a free download during beta testing.

Aimed at professional users it is an image management system and RAW workflow tool.

Adobe recently bought Pixemantec (and their RawShooter software) and plans to incorporate their technology into future Adobe products (with the support of the Pixemantec writers).

If you want to try out LightRoom you can download the beta at http://labs.adobe.co...hnologies/lightroom/ where there are also a few falsh video demos of what it does.

Looks like a really interesting development - and I am quite pleased that Adobe have offered to give a free copy to all Pixemantec users when the final version is released - good service I think (and sensible business practice).

5519

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Flock - the Social Browser (beta)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 19, 2006, 03:46 AM »

LOL - I don't care - a girly browser sounds kind of fun to me - is it all pink and fluffy?

Haven't tried it (yet) but if it is based on Firefox does it support Firefox extensions? If it does but they won't install it is possible to override the version check for extension installation (Not sure how it is done but I have an extension that manages to install versions that aren't listed as compatible because they haven't been updated since the latest Firefox build). I think it is "MR Tech" (but I have so many extenstions it is hard to remember which one gives this functionality).

You can get it from http://www.mrtech.co...sions/local_install/ and it says it is compatible with Flock.

5520

Living Room / Want Vista NOW !!! Here's how ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 18, 2006, 05:43 PM »

Well nearly - see the 4 page article on why sticking with XP and a few addons is possibly best ...

http://www.desktoppipeline.com/190302443

5521

General Software Discussion / Re: Will you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 18, 2006, 05:31 PM »

Interesting article about 2007 OEM and Home/Student packages ...

http://www.desktoppipeline.com/190302439

5522

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Light Alloy limited-time discount

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 18, 2006, 04:31 PM »

"Cheap" "Cheap" ...

5523

General Software Discussion / Re: Wow: Microsoft Acquires WinInternals/SysInternals!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 18, 2006, 01:59 PM »

Had an interesting effect on their servers ... Page loading time seems to have deteriorated to stationary ... I'd guess the whole world (and their dogs) are downloading all the sysinternals utilities in case MS pulls them. On Winternals there doesn't seem to be any way to purchase any of the products any more (not that anyone outside corporate circles could afford them) ... is this the way things will be from now on ?

5524

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Light Alloy limited-time discount

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 18, 2006, 01:54 PM »

OK I have been playing with it and it is very pretty ... but what does it do that WMPlayer doesn't?? (apart from not play MPG files). I know I can play RM and QT videos in it too (but is that because I already have those codecs on my system?)

5525

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Light Alloy limited-time discount

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 18, 2006, 12:40 PM »

I must be missing something?

When you are playing a video and click on the video settings button why does it say No decoder in most (but not all) video types.

Also how do you play MPG video files ? Seems a pretty standard format to me but when I try to load an MPG file Explorer crashes and after windows gets back to normal it tells me there is a missing codec, takes me to the site to get the required codec which promptly tells me there is no codec.

Since I can play the files on my system (in Windows Media Player) why does it need another codec anyway ???