Recent Posts

6026

General Software Discussion / Re: Your experiences with disc catalogers and most wanted/used features

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2007, 06:09 PM »

Ha ha, Ken. You sent me off checking out Broken Cross Disk Manager (which I liked) on this thread and I, too, wound up buying WhereIsIt? (which I love) the night before last. I feel exactly as you do - I can't imagine finding anything better. Note, though, that Crush (OP) did test WhereIsIt? as part of his own shootout and gather that it didn't fit the bill.

6027

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.59 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - MARCH 14, 2007

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2007, 03:59 PM »

Hi snowpalmer - welcome to Donationcoder. To try out the alpha release of FARR, click on the offline message icon to send Mouser a request for the download link:

6028

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2007, 09:41 AM »

Here's the developer's page comparing the various versions. Pro is $84.95 vs. Express, which is $14.95 (or free for today). Express seems to have most of the archiving features of the more expensive versions but almost none of the editing features (fair enough). Unfortunately, Express doesn't feature searching and filtering by EXIF data, which I *think* I would find frustrating (Express does feature both searching and filtering, just not by EXIF data). Anyway, might be interesting, but I am bit leery of the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach.

6029

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 16, 2007, 09:26 AM »

Thanks for the link about XMP. The developers of the Collectorz series love feedback/suggestions/requests and XMP compatibility might be something that they be willing to add. From what I can tell, Photo Collector is in heavy (if not blazingly quick) development with a lot of functionality to be added.

I just noticed the Zoner Photo Studio giveaway, too. They're giving away the Express version with a 60 day trial of the Pro version thrown in. I wonder what's missing in the Express version? I'll have to go take a look...

6030

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 15, 2007, 07:38 PM »

Well, that went more quickly than I thought it would, though I don't know if I've adequately checked out each of Mr Crispy's points (love that username!) with respect to Collectorz Photo Collector . However, here goes:

1. Fast and reposnsive. I'm working with over 10k pictures. I have over 12k pictures in the database that I generated using Photo Collector. I tagged some obscure pics from a few years ago, shut down the program and then searched for part of the tag. The results were returned in about 10 seconds, which I don't consider too bad at all.
2. Ability to select a folder in the tree view and see all pics in that and its subfolders - not currently. Views are independent of the folder structure in Explorer. However, looking at the users' forum, an Explorer view is in the works. I have and use mp3 Collector which already has the Explorer view implemented and it works really well.
3. Tagging support for XMP and IPTC. Import and export. Definitely supports IPTC but I can't find anything about XMP from within the program or on the website. I also have no idea where to look for this in my own files, so I can't check it out.
4. A proper way to organize/filter views based on tags. Yes, this is one of its strongest points.
5. File monitoring for new folders/pics. Not that I can tell. However, if they get Explorer view up and running (see above) this will be a non-issue as you simply navigate to the new folder and/or file and from the context menu select "add to database". This is how it works in mp3 Collector, anyway. Also, the scanning for photos on your harddrive feature includes a number of options for dealing with a photo that is already in the database including update the database entry (if the photo has changed), ignore it altogether or replace it.
6. A nice UI with support for multiple zoom levels. The first half is subjective, but I would argue that the answer is yes to both.

Two issues worth noting are that donationcoder still has a 50% discount running on Collectorz.com software and that the licenses are for life - ie come with lifetime upgrades. So far, I am impressed. It's a heck of a lot more responsive and less resource intensive than anything else that I've tried.

6031

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 15, 2007, 06:28 PM »

I've been playing with the trial of Photo Collector and really like it. It's way more responsive and less resource hungry than Corel Snapfire Plus (which I have a license for but really don't use) and searches reasonably quickly (I have 12k pictures for it to wade through...). Only niggle so far is that it took almost (didn't time it) an hour to load my "My Pictures" folder and its subfolders and then another 59 minutes (displays a timer, so I know) to generate thumbnails. Once that's done, though, you're set. I really like the "tagging" system, which is quite flexible (see screenshot above for an idea), and the fact that the developer is promising support for digital camera video formats in a future release.

I'll keep playing around with it. So far, it is the first Photo Organizer that I can actually see using. The others that I've tried have not made a lot of sense to me and/or I have simply not used due to the learning curve/cluttered interface, etc. Photo Organizer looks to be different.

I'm going to go through MrCrispy's wishlist and see how much correspondence there is between it and Photo Commander... I'll post back today or tomorrow with the results.

6032

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

« Last post by Darwin on March 15, 2007, 03:00 PM »

Superboyac - I've been wondering about Photo Collector too. If it's as good as Book Collector and MP3 Collector it'll be awesome! I've not tried it myself but might just give it a go. The screen shots and featureset are impressive. This screenshot (from the author's website) suggests that some form of tagging is possible:



Right, I'm downloading the trial as I write this...

6033

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Disk Catalog Program with simple UserInterface like Picasa

« Last post by Darwin on March 14, 2007, 04:21 PM »

Thanks tomos! Disk Explorer Pro looks promising. I've installed it along with WhereIsIt? and Broken Cross Disk Manager. I'm conflicted about WhereIsIt? and BCDM. On the one hand, they both scan at about the same rate. On the other BCDM is less than a MB to download and catalogued a 2GB Thumbdrive to a database file that is about 130kb. WhereIsIt? is almost 5MB to download and catalogued the same Thumbdrive to a 245kb database... The difference is that the WhereIsIt? catalogue includes mp3 and wma tag information and jpg file information whereas BCDM does not. DiskExplorer Pro is STILL cataloguing that same thumbdrive and I'll have to comment later on its merits relative to the other two. I *think* I created this situation because I opted to have it scan within archives... (and don't think I have the same option selected in either of the other two).

Update: I was wrong about cataloguing the archives being the culprit - rather it was Disk Explorer's default setting for thumbnail generation for graphic files that caused it to take so long indexing. Note that the other two apps have the same functionality but it is turned off by default in both of them. I standardized (as far as possible) across the three apps and re-catalogued my drive. I can't get BCDM to display tag info for my wma and mp3 files but other than that it's a star. Smallest catalogue size (145kb) and very quick. WhereIsIt? and Disk Explorer produce catalogues that weigh in at 246kb and 347kb respectively with WhereIsIt? being quicker at cataloguing the drive - I think it was the quickest of the three, though this is subjective. Certainly Disk Explorer was the slowest of the three, noticeably so... Disk Explorer wins on price, hands down. It's a tie between WhereIsIt? and Disk Explorer on feature set. BCDM wins on speed and database file size. Finally, I believe that WhereIsIt? has the best laid out interface followed closely by BCDM. I'm a bit disappointed with the degree to which WhereIsIt? can be configured - both the other apps offer a far greater range of customization. I suppose that the counter-argument is that it works so smoothly that one doesn't really need to tweak it too much.

So, which way am I going to jump? I'm not... yet. I'm going to run the three of them together for a while before deciding and see if other features/qualities become evident.

6034

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Avafind mini review

« Last post by Darwin on March 14, 2007, 01:03 PM »

I have a copy of File Locator Pro but need something that will look inside my pst. AFAIK, FLP will not do this, hence my search for something that will. I know that LookOut will do the job, but I am hoping to avoid adding anymore to Outlook 2003's bloat...

6035

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Disk Catalog Program with simple UserInterface like Picasa

« Last post by Darwin on March 14, 2007, 11:54 AM »

masu - have you made a decision? I'm checking out Broken Cross Disk Manager as suggested by Ken and Where is it? and am having a hard time deciding which looks better on paper (I haven't installed either, yet). BCDM is cheaper, but they both offer lifetime upgrades... I'm having difficulty finding any reputable reviews of these apps in particular and of either freeware or shareware alternatives in general. It's a category that appeals to me as I have dozens of old cd-rs and dvd-rs with everything from mp3 to old correspondence on them and am no longer able to find anything, so they are effectively coffee cup coasters that I keep on the offchance that I'll luck out and find what I need...

EDIT: added hyperlinks

6036

Best Text Editor / Re: best text editor was killed by Borland

« Last post by Darwin on March 13, 2007, 05:17 PM »

wraith808 - I can't argue with any of that! I hate bloatware (though I confess I use more than my share)...

6037

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Avafind mini review

« Last post by Darwin on March 12, 2007, 06:09 PM »

"Slow at what?" - Opening the GUI (I select it from the system tray rather than using the taskbar toolbar) AND returning search results. When X1/YDS were working properly, the results returned were instantaneous. I have Copernic set to index my Outlook .pst file (200MB) and My Documents folder (this is in excess of 25GB). I'll try reducing the My Documents folders to those that I care about (there are lots of folders that are irrelevant, such as PSP 9, X, and X1 file folders) and see if it makes a difference.

While we're on the subject, though, indexing took more than 24 hours! Again, this may be due to the size of My Documents... However, I don't believe that this is particularly large in the context of modern harddrives that are approaching a terabyte in size. My entire harddrive is 80GB split into two partitions - one for Windows/programs and the other for My Documents.

6038

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Avafind mini review

« Last post by Darwin on March 12, 2007, 02:07 PM »

Thanks Change - that last sentence in my post should read: "...which I gather Avafind does not do" - I rewrote the message extensively and missed revising that.

6039

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by Darwin on March 11, 2007, 07:34 PM »

Hmmm... a search of ZA's forum finds at least one other person with the identical problem. The answer (it's not a solution as such) is that this is not normal but can occur if startup is taking a long time. So I guess this is a symptom, not the cause, of my slow boot times... Just FYI!

6040

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by Darwin on March 11, 2007, 07:10 PM »

Anyone else finding that the latest build of ZoneAlarm Pro takes about five minutes (or more) to start up? I keep getting popups stating that ZA is loading and that I can hit cancel to shut it down. It disappears only to pop up again after 30 seconds or so. Makes my notebook slow as molasses booting into Windows (I have WinPatrol setup to delay SnagIt 8.2 starting until 5 minutes after Windows starts - SnagIt loads at about the 15 minute mark). Anyway, just curious - I'm off to post in the ZA forums (been too lazy to do so of late)...

6041

General Software Discussion / Re: Whats the name of somethingHACKsomething ?

« Last post by Darwin on March 11, 2007, 07:02 PM »

Wasn't ResourceHacker, was it?

6042

General Software Discussion / Re: VORG Express: A free PIM designed to meet all your information needs

« Last post by Darwin on March 11, 2007, 07:00 PM »

Wow  - on initial cursory inspection this looks awesome. Nice find Ken. I'm happy with Outlook 2003 (it does all that I need it to...) after trying out many PIM's and realizing that my needs are rather simple, so I'm not likely to switch but it's going straight into my Favourites collection.

6043

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Avafind mini review

« Last post by Darwin on March 11, 2007, 06:57 PM »

I love X1 but it doesn't play nice with Outlook 2003 on my machine and I experienced a lot of errors running it. I also found that it was sporadically S-L-O-O-O-O-O-O-W (ie it was slow at some times and pretty snappy at others - never could find a common thread). However, I've switched to Copernic 2 and while it is more stable, find it like molasses as well. I *think* I might give FileHand another go (it was the first indexer that i tried, about 7 years ago). It's important to me that the contents of files and my e-mails be indexed in addition to file and folder names, which is what I gather Avafind does?

6044

Living Room / Re: Daylight-Saving Time Bug

« Last post by Darwin on March 11, 2007, 01:44 PM »

Thanks PlayPhil! I'll be correcting my dad's notebook later on today and these links will be invaluable.

6045

Best Text Editor / Re: best text editor was killed by Borland

« Last post by Darwin on March 11, 2007, 01:34 PM »

Hmm... I took the OP's comments to mean that the product has been degraded in terms of quality/stability/features in versions released since the takeover. Similar arguments have been made about PaintShop Pro and other products that have been taken over by Corel. The venture capitalists that bought Corel are on a buying spree - they've recently acquired Winzip, Intervideo (WinDVD and WinDVD Creator), Ulead (PhotoImpact), etc. But I digress.

6046

General Software Discussion / Re: Review of File Renamers — let's make a list

« Last post by Darwin on March 10, 2007, 09:46 AM »

I've been using Bulk Rename Utility for years and it does everything that I need. I'm a big fan. I was using The Rename before that and liked it enough to make a donation, but BRU blows it away (yes, have donated to BRU too!).

6047

General Software Discussion / Re: recommendations for web graphic and photo software

« Last post by Darwin on March 07, 2007, 06:50 PM »

Aah... we're really going to miss you...

6048

General Software Discussion / Re: recommendations for web graphic and photo software

« Last post by Darwin on March 07, 2007, 03:38 PM »

can anybody please tell me how can crack the Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI. i have downloaded the program trial and i ask u how can i make it full!!!

Speaking in an unofficial capacity, and in hopes that I am not out of bounds here, Donationcoder.com neither endorses nor condones hacks, cracks, warez, and serialz. This is not an appropriate forum to be asking this question. Wordzilla's advice is excellent - buy a registration code! PSP X can be found for less than $30 and was recently being offered FREE in the States courtesy of a mail in rebate (pay $30 and get a mail in rebate for $30 type of offer).

6049

General Review Discussion / Re: Free PDF tools review?

« Last post by Darwin on March 05, 2007, 09:59 AM »

Just to expand upon/refine what I said earlier about Scansoft PDF Converter Pro - love it. However, I can't recommend it. Scansoft's support is dreadful - you have to pay them to report bugs in their code! $9.95 a call/e-mail. This is truly unconscionable and I don't expect to see them remain in business with this model for very long. Further, their user forums are unusable - I can't load them at all in IE7, Maxthon, FF 2, or Opera (all latest builds). This isn't a transient thing - I haven't been able to load them since before Christmas. Finally, the knowledgebase is pathetic, so if you have a problem, you'll be shelling out for support.

6050

General Software Discussion / Re: Paperless Home: Need document management software

« Last post by Darwin on March 05, 2007, 09:58 AM »

Hmph! I just RMA'd my copy of PaperPort Professional 11 after having it loaded for three weeks. Two categories of issue for me: 1. BUGGY and SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW! 2. My suspicions were confirmed - I can't see the point. Don't misunderstand, there are some fantastic features - the cleanup tools for scans are BRILLIANT, but not worth the price for me. I can achieve everything with DOpus and do it a lot quicker. Note, too, that indexing using OCR is ridiculously slow.

I also have reservations about Scansoft/Nuance's technical support policy - one free call/e-mail and $9.95 per incident after that, regardless of whether it is a problem with their product or not. Note that even if they can't fix your problem,  you're still on the hook for $9.95. Paying to report bugs is not something I am prepared to do...

OK Rant over.