Recent Posts

5926

Living Room / Re: Flow-inspired game: Bubble Tanks

« Last post by Darwin on April 11, 2007, 05:52 PM »

The problem I encountered is that I don't find using the a-w-s-d keys to control movement intuitive and kept getting "cut down to size" because my fingers had inadvertently moved to different keys. Also, once the other tanks start actually hitting you, you can't move for a few seconds, which makes things interesting... Anyway, if the controls were changed/customizable I'd be more "into" the game...

5927

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 11, 2007, 09:40 AM »

Just re-read this Linux review from last month's Gizmo Newsletter and its followup from this month's newsletter. Amusing and very informative.

5928

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 10, 2007, 06:56 PM »

Good luck, Jeff! FWIW, what I've seen/experienced with Vista on computers in shops (this is extremely limited exposure to Vista, I admit) seems more integrated and impressive than I recall XP seeming when it first came out (I waited two and a half years to upgrade to XP).

Let us know how you make out!

5929

General Software Discussion / Re: Sumatra PDF Viewer is cool, thin, and open-source

« Last post by Darwin on April 10, 2007, 08:21 AM »

Nice idea urlwolf - sign me up. I didn't mention that I have had issues with FoxIt Reader with respect to copying - itwilloftencopytextwiththespacesremoved, which is quite annoying! Anyway, I'd be happy to donate to the project to see where it can be taken 

5930

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 09:37 PM »

I've been playing around with Live distros of Linux (Saboyan and Kororaa) and they are pretty slick (though not so much fun to run on my geriatric notebook) and I most likely will wind up wit a dual boot machine when I have to replace said aging computer. The ONLY thing keeping me wed to the idea of keeping Windows around (and accessible via a skookum machine) is software that I need for work that I don' *think* I can find Linux equivalents for. Come to think of it, the damned software vendoer charges for POINT release updates and neither my version nor the current one are Vista ready, so I migft as well buy a bigger harddrive and dual boot this veteran... Right, off to do my due diligence on a honkin' big 5400 rpm notebook drive. Whatever happened to the 7200 rpm drives? I've only seen one notebook with one installed by the manufacturer and haven't really noticed much of a buzz surrounding them... I'll add googling for reviews to my To Do list. Is the stream of consciousness thing working for anyone else? No? I'll shut up now.

5931

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista Tips, or things you'll want to disable right away

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 09:26 PM »

Sadly, I'm not the only one who would be gazing on whatever graces my desktop, so I have a limited range of options available to me in selecting wallpaper   Fortunately, like you, I can't stomach wasting valuable resources on eye candy (yeah, I know, what was I thinking when I bought WindowBlinds?!  ) so it's not really such a hardship  

5932

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista Tips, or things you'll want to disable right away

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 07:34 PM »

Wow! Thanks Zaine. This is exactly the sort of tweaking that I always go through when I have a fresh installation of windows to mess up er, play around with. I know that elsewhere I've claimed that I won't be moving to Vista anytime soon but all it's going to take is a fried mother board and I'll be in my nearest Future Shop or Staples, trembling (from computer withdrawal and fear of my wife's wrath) with my credit card at the ready. No doubt I will then be joining the Vista club whether I like it or not, so it's good to know how to tame the beast.

FWIW, I agree with you about aero. I bought WindowBlinds 5 specifically so that I could play with the aero look under XP (18 months ago, now) because I was very enamoured of per pixel shading and the "look" when the first betas of Vista started to appear. In using it, while I think it is visually stunning, I find that over time I tire of it and return to Windows Classic view. The length of time between these bouts of "aero madness" are getting longer and longer apart and I rather regret buying WindowBlinds as I've no real interest in skinning my system. Fool. Money. etc.

5933

General Software Discussion / Re: Sumatra PDF Viewer is cool, thin, and open-source

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 07:12 PM »

PS I've made use of the FoxIt Reader form filler many times. However, it only works if the pdf has fillable forms in the first place. In order to fill non-fillable forms, I've had to use Scansoft PDF Professional to convert them first.

Now... I've downloaded and given Sumatra a try: very nice. The only thing missing for me is that there is no copy function. The vast majority of my pdf's are academic journal articles and the occasional PhD dissertation and I make use of the copy function to make creating Endnote bibliographic entires less of a chore in the absence of a downloadable, pre-formatted citation or the journal's table of contents on the web.

OK another thing: I just opened up the same pdf in Foxit Reader and note that while Foxit takes twice as long to load (4.5 secs versus 2 for Sumatra), it uses a fraction of the memory that Sumatra does:

Foxit:      CPU 0% RAM 11,912K VM (Private Bytes) 5,840K
Sumatra: CPU 0% RAM 31,268K VM (Private Bytes) 25,528K

Not the end of the world, but a significant difference.

5934

General Software Discussion / Re: Sumatra PDF Viewer is cool, thin, and open-source

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 07:10 PM »

I'm a Foxit Reader fanboy... Everything else I've tried is bloated and takes forever to load (I had high hopes for Scansoft PDF Professional 4 when it offered to become my default viewer. I can make a cup of coffee while I wait for it to load but FoxIt is right there, right now). I haven't tried Sumatra and probably should as with the aforementioned Scansoft package installed on my machine, I can rely on it to fill in the holes left by Sumatra (honestly, though, 99.99999999% of the time, all I need to do is read a pdf. Nothing more).

5935

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 07:04 PM »

Linux may be the way to go. At least I'm only going to be facing a learning curve, not a learning curve coupled with a massive investment in software (to run on expensive hardware) to make the switch.

Woo hoo... quoting myself! Just to clarify, I'm perfectly happy with XP Pro, although I have at various times run both dedicated linux machines (Mandrake 8 and 10) and dual boot configurations (my employer's IT department made me remove the linux partition before they'd let me onto the college network). With sites like this as a guide, making the switch seems less and less an ordeal, though.

5936

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 06:52 PM »

I purchased a license for exifPro a few days ago - I'm going to install one or the other of Photo Collector and exifPro on my dad's notebook (which is actually mine, anyway!) and keep the other on mine. I really, really like them both. I'm waiting on an update to exifPro so that I can reliably index my entire collection unattended (it's likely going to take four or five hours) and then I'll start tagging with exifPro in earnest.

5937

General Software Discussion / Re: Anybody Have A Reason Why I Should NOT Purchase RegExBuddy This Week?

« Last post by Darwin on April 09, 2007, 01:24 PM »

Caution: This post does not actually meet the criteria in tinjaw's post - no reasons NOT to purchase RegExBuddy here and no alternatives suggested...

I have both RegExBuddy and PowerGrep and love them   (still a total noob with regex, though...). I arrived at these two products via a circuitous route - I identified them early as being strong candidates to fill particular needs that I had (have) and then spent a LONG time (at least 18 months) trying to find free/cheaper alternatives. In the end, I just came back to them. I don't know of any products that are as fully featured and as easy to use. Others here, particularly Allen and Carol (though I know there are others), sing the praises of other jgsoft offerings (EditPad and AceText, for a start). I don't think you can go wrong. I purchased in late June/early July 2006 and am curious to find out what the upgrade policy is (I *think* it's a 50% discount, which probably places PowerGrep out of my reach for the time being). Anyway, support is excellent and all correspondence has been prompt, cheerful, and supportive (sorry, couldn't resist).

I don't think you can go wrong.

NOTE: Dang! Carol beat to it and raises a good point - that money back guarantee is honoured without question and without any drama. I initially purchased, got cold feet (and chills) over the price, and received a refund within about 2 hours (Thailand to Canada - impressive!), and then thought sod it, I'll buy them afterall, and did... No regrets.

5938

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 08, 2007, 10:45 AM »

Now... I *thought* I had posted in response to

Oh trust me, OS X has a lot going on, but for the video editing I was doing (or tried to), it didn't win me over. Unlike Vista, there is excitement in the Apple camp, that's for sure.

but clearly haven't...

Just wanted to say that I like OS X but not enough to make the switch. I just don't think that it is a quantum leap over XP (let's leave Vista out of the discussion as I've yet to play with the beast - other than noodling around with it in computer shops). Apple needs a better file manager for a start... The hype REALLY turns me off, too (bought a Samsung mp3 player instead of an iPod for this reason). I'd add the smugness and condescending attitude on the part of long term users and converts but for the fact that I've seen plenty of the same from the Windows camp as well (and have been guilty of it myself)... Having used both, I don't see vast superority in one over the other and, knowing windows well and having accumulated the software that I need over the years, I don't see the point of switching. The cost of doing so is high and my experience with both Macs I own (an original iMac with OS 9.2 on it and an iBook running OS X 10.2) is that they are no less prone to problems than my Win 98, 2k and XP machines.

My favourite comment on OS X crashing came from a CNET forum I was reading. After trawling through a couple of pages of diehard Mac fanatics going on and on about how stable OS X is and how any XP machine that they have tried crashes for them, there developed a side thread about OS X crashing for some regular Windows users that had tried it/used it in conjunction with Windows. The thread culminated with the observation, on the part of an OS X user, that if the OS was crashing, it reflects on the ignorance of the user, rather than any inherent shortcomings in the OS! The irony!

I agree with dk70 and f0dder about sticking with XP for the foreseeable future. I regret not buying a notebook before Christmas with XP preinstalled (I assumed that XP machines would still be available when Vista came out, but can see that I'll have to order a computer from DELL or something to buy a notebook with it preinstalled). My notebook is aging and I'd like to upgrade the hardware but don't want to deal with Vista... (don't own a standalone copy of XP that I can "downgrade" to). Linux may be the way to go. At least I'm only going to be facing a learning curve, not a learning curve coupled with a massive investment in software (to run on expensive hardware) to make the switch.

5939

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« Last post by Darwin on April 08, 2007, 10:43 AM »

Tweaking XP is, at the moment, way more bother than it'll be worth, especially until drivers mature

Do you mean Vista?

5940

General Software Discussion / Re: Jeff Atwood Grapples with Licensing

« Last post by Darwin on April 07, 2007, 06:19 PM »

The Coding Horror does a good job of explaining why you should always post a license with your code. No matter how small it is. Even for cope snippits. He does a good job of comparing the most popular software licenses in his post "Pick a License, Any License".


Pick a License, Any License


BTW, This posting is licensed under the WTFPL License.

The license text:

Code:

[Select]

DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC
Version 2, December 2004

Copyright (C) 2007 Chaim Krause
Kansas City, Missour, 64154

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified
copies of this post, and changing it is allowed as long
as the name is changed.

DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO.

 

5941

General Software Discussion / Re: Can you disable XP's Recovery System partly?

« Last post by Darwin on April 07, 2007, 04:37 PM »

Just popping back in to say that the changes in my system have been profound since I "downgraded" to Windows Update. svhost isn't pegging my CPU anymore...

5942

General Software Discussion / Re: J. River Media Center: Awesome for music, great for video, and good for pics

« Last post by Darwin on April 07, 2007, 08:33 AM »

Foobar eats CPU and memory like there is no tomorrow (100mb + 100mb VM??), resampling adds +10%, etc... but for now I'm letting it hog resources...

BTW, are these numbers normal (for a library of 35000 tracks?)?

I downloaded the latest version of Foobar (0.9.4.2) and am using a completely default installation. I'm impressed with how quickly it searched my music folders and created a library. I have about 2200 music files and memory and CPU usage, while higher than XMPlay, aren't that bad: 0-2% CPU, 27,420K RAM, 17,724K VM/Private Bytes when playing back an mp3 encoded at 198kbps...

5943

General Software Discussion / Re: J. River Media Center: Awesome for music, great for video, and good for pics

« Last post by Darwin on April 06, 2007, 01:53 PM »

I've been trying to psych myself up for a run at foobar, but I fear that if I tried to configure it, things would wind up FUBAR... I guess I'd better give a look (I love what various people have done with it...).

5944

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by Darwin on April 05, 2007, 06:01 PM »

At this stage
I'm also more curious about the "management" side of it -
so I'll shut up about viewers 

I'll do the same, and will also test fly the management side...!

5945

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by Darwin on April 05, 2007, 01:45 PM »

Hmmm... the viewer in exifPro IS much more feature rich than I had realized. I dimly recall someone here posting about its ability to offer multi-pane views so that you can compare photographs. As far as I can tell, Photo Collector doesn't allow this; exifPro will let you view up to four photos this way. As mentioned earlier, exifPro will also allow you to tag, rate and edit the image descriptions which is a nice touch.

Incidentally, tomos, in playing around some more I discovered two things that relate to your comment about going to the start or end of a large number of images from within the viewer in exifPro. Check out this screenshot:



And you'll note that you can accomplish this from the context menu or using the Home and End keys on your keyboard. Also, note that there are buttons to accomplish this as well: |< takes you to the first photo and >| to the last one...

Finally, I had an e-mail exchange with exifPro's developer, Michal Kowalski, who has promised to change the way in which exifPro handles errors during indexing in a future release. He's also agreed to add a couple of suggestions that I had for additional editing features to a list that he keeps, although with no promise that they'll make it into a future version. I'm quite impressed as the reply came within hours of me e-mailing him. Definitely a good sign and one more thing that really makes me think that I want to support development by buying a license. It should be said, in fairness, that Photo Collector's support team has also been very open to suggestions and have been very quick to reply to my e-mails as well.

I'm beginning to suspect that superboyac's assessment:

...from a first glance it seems like ExifPro has more options and customizeability than Photo Collector.  On the other hand, I think PC might have more powerful organizational tools, just based on my familiarity with collectorz software.  As a viewer, I think ExifPro is the better program, I don't think PC is meant to be used as a viewer.

is closer to the mark than I had originally given him credit for (although I would still argue that while exifPro has a better viewer, Photo Collector's viewer is more than adequate).

5946

General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual registry

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 09:38 PM »

Just to note: a reply came in as I was typing the following. I *think* it will still be useful for the OP. Hope so!

sandboxie (now, as opposed to version 2.64 and earlier) faithfully replicates your folder structure so any programs you install should go into their default install locations within the sandbox. Thus, program xyz which installs into your Program Files directory by default should go into: c:\documents and settings\username here\application data\sandboxie\default box\drives\c:\program files\xyz. You can access the program via your sandboxie systray icon. You can define different sandboxes as well, which is useful because often you want to be able to delete a sandbox associated with, say, surfing the net, but don't want to delete all of your sandboxed program installations as well. This is very useful for test flying software that you want to try before making a committment. Anyway, I suspect that I'm missing the point... Don't worry, happens to me all the time...

5947

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 06:22 PM »

Just a note (and I should have commented on this earlier): Photo Collector funcitons quite well as a viewer. I don't really have a preference between exifPro and PC with respect to viewing - exifPro has some slick transition effects and allows you to tag images from within the viewer, but PC is every bit as fast and provides access to the same editing tools from within the viewer, with the exception of tagging. I find the GUI's of each to have their strengths - exifPro is visually stunning while I find PC to be simple and easy on the eyes (I LOVE exifPro's Vista-look, and the Vista-look in general, but find that over time I tire of its darkness... I've been using WindowBlinds 5.x to mimic the Vista GUI under XP on and off for 18 months - more off than on, as it happens).

exifPro:



Photo Collector:



EDIT: reduced the size of the screenshots and clarified some of the text

5948

General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual Drive Pro

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 01:48 PM »

Yes - I meant to mention in my previous post that these kind of apps were very popular with gamers, particularly when deaing with slow CD-ROM drives - games run much faster off the hard drive...

5949

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 01:34 PM »

Yes, again, well said. The issue of trying to do a comprehensive review is what has kept me from completing any that I have attempted.

5950

General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual Drive Pro

« Last post by Darwin on April 04, 2007, 12:39 PM »

PS I think the functionality of Virtual Drive is similar to other products that allow you to create an image of a CD or DVD locally and have your computer treat it as if it is actually media mounted in your optical drive...