Recent Posts

5576

General Software Discussion / Re: Toying with TheBat! - any plugin suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 09, 2006, 04:35 AM »

I might give Courier a try - I got a free license when they were giving it away a while back and never got round to trying it. (It is still available for free at http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/courier/ so it is worth a look)

Just installed Corier - I quite like the way it works. There are many similarities with theBat on initial use - multiple email accounts/mailboxes (each with multiple email addresses can be set up). Incoming mail on a particular address can be routed to a specific folder. There is built in Junk handling. You have total control over how much HTML is displayed (from none - through blocking specific components - audio, video, pictures, javascript, activeX etc. to complete HTML as received).

There is a full range of filtering options including RegEx.

One of the nice thing is the use of 'templates' for email accounts so that if you have, say , multiple yahoo addresses you can set up a single email account/server set and then use it as a template to quickly enter all the other account details without having to retype all the server details. You can display full headers in the preview window (or an abbreviated version or none at all).

The only things I don't like are:

- the look ... on my screen the icons are tiny (even when set to large) and are 'fuzzy' so it is difficult to see what you are doing. The style is also quite dated.

- it is a bit convoluted to set up (but easy to find your way around once you have played for a few minutes)

- importing is a bit limited (it doesn't work with Outlook, but does with Outlook Express)

- no export function (biggy). You can archive your emails to a text file and a folder of attachments (inc. all the HTML images etc) which can be imported again, but I can't see how you could use this archive in any other app easily.

I have attached a screen shot ...

5577

General Software Discussion / Re: Toying with TheBat! - any plugin suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 08, 2006, 08:33 PM »

Hmmm - just read the FAQ page on another website (strangely it is linked from the Help menu to a blank page - I had to go to the main website and look for the link which had a PDF version).

It seems that theBat can't display images not included in the downloaded message! The only way to see the email with full formatting is to open the HTML attachment in a browser.

I can understand why this might be good as an option but it seems like overkill that you can;t read HTML from trusted sources without having to open extra browser pages.

5578

General Software Discussion / Re: Toying with TheBat! - any plugin suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 08, 2006, 08:21 PM »

I used OE ages ago but I don't like the lack of filtering options. It is also awkward to back up your data including rules, interface layout etc.

5579

General Software Discussion / Re: Toying with TheBat! - any plugin suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 08, 2006, 08:10 PM »

Thanks.

How do I get HTML messages to display properly? I am trying to read a newspaper HTML digest but none of the images display at all (just rectangles with a small red cross).

I found a NOD32 plugin on the Bat website but I am not sure what it does that NOD32 doesn't do any way? (Before installing the plugin email was obviously filtered by NOD32 as all the mail had the NOD32 banner note at the bottom).

5580

General Software Discussion / Toying with TheBat! - any plugin suggestions?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 08, 2006, 07:28 PM »

I am getting increasingly fed up with the flakiness of MS Outlook XP (it seems to frequently freeze on me and has done for quite some time) and so I decided to toy with TheBat! for a while and see if I like it or not ... at the moment it all feels a bit strange and awkward and I keep retreating back to Outlook (I set TheBat! to leave all my messages on the server so that I could play without being stuck with mail in two programs).

Curiosity - what plugins do people use?

I found BayesIt (installed with the trial version) and activated that but is there any way to configure it or train it? Any other antispam plugin suggestions?

Does BayesIT! filter automatically after install or does it have to learn? One thing I did notice is that if I mark a message as Junk (which I found tucked away in a menu - not the best place IMHO) it is moved to the junk folder - but if I mark an email in the Junk forlder as 'not junk' nothing appears to happen.

How about AV plugins? Do you actually need one with NOD32 running in the background or am I missing something (there seems to be a lot confused and argumentative discussion on WidersSecurity Forums on this issue but no clear answer)?

Any other plugins worth looking at?

Finally if I get to like the Bat how do I import my mail from OutlookXP? There doesn't appear (at first glance anyway) to be an obvious way to do this as it doesn't seem to support PST files?

5581

Site/Forum Features / Re: My Bookmarks feature added to site - thanks to Leipe_Po

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 08, 2006, 11:33 AM »

Nice new feature - if you want to add some extra mods ...

- Bookmark groups (or folders)
- Mutilple delete
- Rename book mark

would be useful.

Groups would be useful (though may be a step to far) but perhaps the marks could be grouped under board titles?

How about auto add your own new threads (ie. threads an individual starts - not just posts to)

5582

General Software Discussion / Re: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 07, 2006, 10:54 AM »

That's what I did and searched page by page.

5583

General Software Discussion / Re: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 07, 2006, 08:55 AM »

Strange - I have just done a manual search (using firefox page search) of all my messages this year and the word "Advisor" doesn't appear (apart from this thread). I know I posted about SiteAdvisor ... IIRC I even post an image ?

5584

Site/Forum Features / Re: Ads On The Website

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 07, 2006, 08:46 AM »

The only reason they are doing this is because they are haemoraging users at an alarming rate. I read a Reuter's article about this and basically the consensus seems to be that a lot of AOL customers only stay because they are tied in to "AOL" email. A lot are making the move to free Yahoo email, and once that step has been made what is the point of staying with AOL?

Personally I find it hilarious that AOL are suggesting they will go to an ad supported model - do they seriously mean that the current AOL isn't ad supported! Having seen AOL on other peoples' systems it is hard to work out where the ads end and the 'service' starts in the subscription version - if they up the advertising in the next version it is going to be horrendous and unuseable!

5585

General Software Discussion / Re: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 07, 2006, 08:42 AM »

Is this forum losing messages again? I'm sure I posted a thread about SA ages ago (before MacAFee acquired it).

The other one to look at too is http://www.firetrust...etrustsitehound.html which has both free and commercial versions but currently onloy supports Internet Explore (a Firefox version has been promised for the last few months but there is no sign of it yet).

I have tried SA and Sitehound - and at the moment SA has the edge.

5586

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 07, 2006, 05:06 AM »

Thanks but I don't intend to upgrade to Office 2007.

5587

Living Room / Re: Planet-killer meteor video: holy snikes!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 07, 2006, 04:32 AM »

All satellites slow down in their orbit (from tidal influences - which include small attractions to other planets, esp. Jupiter and Saturn, and the Sun) and so eventually gravity will take its toll and they will come down with a crash - don't wait on yer roof with a pair of binoculars though

5588

Living Room / Re: Canaries in the Mac OS X and Red Hat Coal Mines?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 07, 2006, 04:25 AM »

The big problem with Linux is lack of software for graphics, music production and video production - all areas where Mac has traditionally been seen to lead the field (actually I don't think it is true any more as most apps are now also available on Windows and are more cost effective on a Windows box).

There are huge issues for publishing about what software you use as most print houses will only accept files in formats readily generated by Adobe and QuarkExpress but not by apps on Linux.

The other huge factor is cost of change - if you have a company (or individual) where there has been huge investment in software both in terms of money and training/learning why would people want to move to system that doesn't support software of similar quality and flexibility.

On a personal note (and I have said this before) the biggest problem in Linux is still the lack of support for many hardware items ...

- printer support is lamentable (IME Canon and Lexmark printers either don't work or are so poorly supported that you have little or no control over how pages are output)

- WiFi is only supported if you are very lucky (and even then usually by hacks)

- hardly any USB devices have Linux drivers

- sound cards have very patchy and incomplete support (Creative SoundBlasters - the most common sound card has only very incomplete support)

- scanner have patchy and incomplete support (I have owned 3 scanners, and haven't got any of them to work under Linux)

The other big problems are:

- the whole Linux system is designed only for people who want to spend hours reading manuals and playing with excessively obscure commandline options to do anything

- even installing software is non-trivial (you may have to recompile software for your 'flavour' of Linux

- there is too much variation in Linux flavours so that it becomes very difficult to sit down at a Linux box and troubleshoot anything without some degree of learning curve.

In contrast MacOS X is written entirely to run software for end users. There is virtually no 'techie' access to the underlying OS unless you are really determined. I have worked and been friends with many Mac fans, and have yet to meet one who has any idea of (or interest in) what is going on behind the GUI.

5589

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

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 07:45 PM »

They have said that the Import folder is a bit of a kludge at the moment while they get scanning sorted and have promised OCR soon. (I'm not particularly up on how Evernote works as I only really started playing with it yesterday but so far I am very impressed with what I have seen). As for multipage documents it doesn't really work on pages at all - there is a continues roll of 'paper' on which to put notes, so there is no real reason why 'multipage' can't be stored as a single note or a sequence of notes.

The ability to produce your own classification system based on categories is also really good - and could be used to ensure that relates 'pages' are found together.

5590

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

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 11:48 AM »

The only ref. to scanner/OCR is made in the future tense (by third quarter this year seems likely) but it will make this a really good app. You can use a scanner now to drop files in an auto-import folder but they are collected as images, not OCRed.

5591

Site/Forum Features / Re: New feature added to the forum: "My Personal Area"

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 11:45 AM »

It's you with the 'a' factor - treat it as a compliment

5592

Living Room / Re: Article(s) on Googles New Pay Service, controversies, and my experiences

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 11:44 AM »

Ebay = PayPal so there is probably a bit of an agenda.

Having said that eBay has had a hell of a lot of bad publicity in the UK because stupid people buy expensive items (like cars) and send cheques in the post - then expect eBay to reimbuse them when they find the Ferrari they bought for £600 only exists in their imagination. Can't say I am surprised that eBay (UK) are now insisting that only PayPal is recommended (and then up to a fixed limit) if you want any sort of buyer protection.

I'd guess there is also a lot of similar sentiments in the US and elsewhere.

Now if Google offered protection for purchases on eBay there would be less of an argument!

5593

Living Room / Re: Delphi 2005PE - trying to find a magazine disc with a copy.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 11:38 AM »

I now have copies of Delphi 6 and 7 PE but I am still curious to try 2005 PE if I can find an English version. Does anyone have a disc from an English speaking magazine with Delphi 2005 I could borrow?

I have a copy of the German version (thanks crono) but even with the translate to English utility there is still an awful lot in German - but especially all the context sensitive help. I have managed to get PDFs of the English manuals but it isn't as easy to use if you can't use the built in help system.

5594

Site/Forum Features / Re: New feature added to the forum: "My Personal Area"

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 10:09 AM »

Nice idea - any chance it could be added to the forum button bar? ("Profile and Membership" could be reduced to "My Profile" to make space)

5595

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there an AV App that Doesn't Eventually Become Bloatware?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 08:05 AM »

I have used SpySweeper and found it is pretty slow to start up the scanners but then seems to run quite well in use.

I have also used SpywareDoctor and that is even slower at starting and more demanding on resources.

Both are good programs but don't do what I did and try to use them at the same time - the system literally ground to a halt!

5596

Living Room / Re: Scythe Kama Connect - external usb drive - but it doesnt use an exclosure - cool

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 04:31 AM »

Looks really neat - and cheap! Doesn't seem to be available yet (the online ordering doesn't work and none of the suppliers I looked at stock them).

5597

Living Room / Re: Article and blog entry: Are drugs effective past their expiration date?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 06, 2006, 04:07 AM »

They also put expiration dates on (in Europe anyway) because the regulating bodies insist on it.

5598

Living Room / Microsoft faces second WGA lawsuit

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:57 PM »

Looks like some fun is going to start ...

For the rest of the story see http://news.zdnet.co...651.html?tag=nl.e550

5599

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

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:41 PM »

NetSnippets let's you combine almost anything into a hierarchical set of notes/document etc.

It can capture webpages etc. (or extracts), allows you to edit them, create your own pages, import images (so you could import scanned images) and import documents (including from links on websites - so you can simply drag a PDF file link from a webpage to incorporate it into your document). You can also drag emails from Outlook (and I presume Outlook Express - though I haven't treid that).

It isn't cheap for the the Pro version but there is a free version and a cheaper (though not cheap) standard version. The do 50% discount if you are a student.

See http://www.netsnippets.com/ and there is a flash presentation on the left.

For a comparison of the different versions see http://www.netsnippets.com/compare.htm

and you can download a trial or the free version at http://www.netsnippets.com/download.htm

The free version doesn't include the report generator or the screen grabbing stuff (but you can do that with DC's ScreenCaptor)

Note that it integrates fully into Internet Explorer through a toolbar and an explorer bar (as well as a toolbar button). It is also integrated into Firefox browsers (though rather less obviously) via a toolbar button and a floating 'explorer' bar which can be docked to the screen edge. For firefox a totally drag and drop operation is used.

Here is a view of it in use in Internet Explorer: (click the thumbnail to expand it)

5600

Living Room / EU Members Back Massive Microsoft Fines

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 01:52 PM »

EU Members Back Massive Microsoft Fines
     
by Paul Thurrott

In a sweeping endorsement of the European Union (EU) case against
Microsoft, all 25 EU members voted unanimously on Monday to support the
European Commission's (EC's) plan to fine the company up to $2.6
million per day for failing to comply with EU requirements. The fines
would be backdated to December 2005, sources say, and would continue
daily until the software giant complied.

"We have differing views regarding compliance, but we're hoping that
despite this, we can get to a point where we can move on from here,"
said Microsoft legal counsel Brad Smith. Microsoft says it's working to
comply with the EC's demands but contends that the agency didn't
provide the company with concrete compliance requirements until early
this year.

In March 2004, the EU ruled that Microsoft had violated European
antitrust laws. It fined the company and required it to offer a version
of Windows that didn't include Windows Media Player (WMP) and to
provide technical documentation for the protocols that let developers
create software that interoperates with Microsoft's server products.
Microsoft paid the fine and eventually released its Windows XP N
Editions. But the release of its technical documentation has been
marred by usability complaints. In December 2005, the EC told Microsoft
it had failed to comply and offered the company a last chance to do so.

Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition, will
consult with other EC commissioners over the next week, then make a
final decision about the Microsoft penalty. She's expected to approve
the fine and make an announcement to that effect by the end of next
week. Microsoft, conceivably, could still comply with the EU ruling in
the days ahead. On July 18, the company is expected to provide its
latest batch of documentation.

Taken from WinInfo UPDATE. To subscribe to the newsletter go to http://www.windowsitpro.com/ (the newsletter subscription panel is half way down the page on the right)