Recent Posts

6176

Living Room / Re: Firefox CPU usage

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 19, 2006, 06:28 AM »

There is definitely something wrong at the core of my Windows installation ...

I stopped every running service it was possible/sensible to stop - including everything that allowed access to networking/internet etc. so there was an absolute minimum of services running, and exited all processes it was possible to kill off.

My system at idle still used about 4% of CPU which is not normal, and as soon as I do anything the CPU count jumps up quite high.

I think the only practical solution is to revert to a backup - trouble is I haven't done a full backup in a while (ahem ...)

6177

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free copy of AceHTML 6 Pro

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 19, 2006, 06:15 AM »

Yep - looks good ...

6178

Living Room / Re: Is Moffsoft alive?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 19, 2006, 05:14 AM »

Yeah - I got my brain in a knot

Thankfully it was slipknot and I am awake again now .. 

6179

Living Room / Re: Firefox CPU usage

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 19, 2006, 05:12 AM »

You're right on both counts ...

anyone got a spare week

6180

Living Room / Re: Firefox CPU usage

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 18, 2006, 06:47 PM »

I seem to generally have problems with browsers (both Firefox and Internet Explorer seem to be using large CPU counts).

I have jumped in and updated to Internet Explorer 7 beta as I thought this might sort out any IE installation issues. It works fine but it hasn't sorted the heavy CPU usage.

This is just when the apps are loading initally and displaying the home pages. Once they are working they are not SO bad but still higher than expected.

I have tried removing and reinstalling my network connections but that has made no difference.

I also tried creating a new Firefox profile. It was marginally better (but then I wasn't running with a lot of tabs and extensions) but not a huge improvement.

Anyone got any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?

6181

Living Room / Re: Is it safe to try new freeware?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 18, 2006, 06:43 PM »

You are unlikely to find a virtual Mac because of licensing issues with the Mac code and Apple tie the OS to their own hardware.

VMWare support 64 bit virtual machines but only if you have a system with a suitable 64 bit processor. See a few sections down http://www.vmware.co...leasenotes_ws55.html for details.

6182

Best Music Service / Re: tech crunch article comparing music services

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 18, 2006, 04:57 AM »

well, i've not had any response from the emails i sent regarding whether the labels/artists embrace what 'allofmp3' are doing, so i guess that means they don't object or just don't care either way. great.

or, even if they genuinely do care, i certainly don't now - i'll probably use 'allofmp3' next time i want something.

-nudone (April 18, 2006, 01:32 AM)

Once you have an account set up make sure you download the AllOfMP3 explorer software. It works great and is so much more convenient than downloading from the webpages as it can automatically create the correct folder structures (where you want and fully customizable) plus it adds the correct track numbers to files as they are downloaded and provides an easy resumable download system - even checking for when your files are ready.

6183

Living Room / Re: Is Moffsoft alive?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 18, 2006, 04:52 AM »

Calculator Plus offers conversions between different measurement units for area, temperature, volume and more. It also includes all the mathematical functions offered in Microsoft Calculator.
it can also handle currency conversion for which you'd need online connection plus some rudimentary skin-support and here is the FAQ·

-lanux128 (April 17, 2006, 09:17 PM)

Sorry already posted this one - you'll have to be quicker than that (look up a couple of my posts back)

6184

Living Room / Firefox CPU usage

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 09:08 PM »

Can people post here and give me some idea of the CPU usage they are getting with Firefox 1.5.0.2

I have had some problems with my system over the last 12 hours and FF now seems to be using up to 95% CPU when loading pages. It reverts to 0-2% when I am typing (like now) or idling as I read a page but clicking on a single web link sends the CPU rocketing upwards.

To give a fair comparison I am loading 9 tabs as my 'home page group' when I open Firefox and I have disabled all extensions.

Thanks.

6185

Living Room / Re: Hilarious spoof ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 08:51 PM »

It's funny but what is it spoofing? Is there a link to the original work?

-Deozaan (April 17, 2006, 05:58 PM)

It is a spoof on James Blunt's song "You're beautiful" you can see/hear it here http://www.virgin.ne...urebeautiful_hi.html


If anyone really likes this sort of stuff (and wants to tune in on my sense of humour) check out the official website at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/deadringers/

There are loads of great clips from when it was a radio series and a few from TV series too. One of my favourites is here (sorry it is a George Bush spoof but it isn't really political just a send up)

Any one have any ideas on how to capture the 'Bloody Cold' video? URL Snooper doesn't seem to pick it up and it isn't listed on the BBC website.

6186

General Software Discussion / Re: IE 7.0 Beta 2: Any takers?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 08:41 PM »

Don't worry lanux128, not your fault - I was daft enough to try it.

The stupid thing is that I have VMWare installed and I could just as easily have tried it there with no potential conflicts!

6187

General Software Discussion / Re: IE 7.0 Beta 2: Any takers?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 04:41 PM »

This is how I feel now ...

6188

Living Room / Hilarious spoof ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 03:02 PM »

I love this video http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=thtmaZnxk_0

For those not living in the UK this is from a satirical sketch show from the BBC called Dead Ringers.

6189

General Software Discussion / Re: IE 7.0 Beta 2: Any takers?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 03:00 PM »

Seven hours later I have a system that works (sort of again) but it has some strange anomalies (like Firefox now sucks up to 85% of CPU time even when I just scroll a window). This happens even when I run the system with a 'bare' startup set (ie. all startup items disabled and only MS services enabled). Anyone any ideas what is going on?

This really did some serious damage - every time I tried to repair my Windows installation from my XPSP2 disc it failed. I finally got a system back after using an XPSP1 disc instead and then applying the SP2 update again.

I think I may take the opportunity to recover useful bits and pieces, deactivate software I need to (Adobe in particular) and then reinstall windows from scratch!! Could have done without it at the moment though!

6190

General Software Discussion / Re: IE 7.0 Beta 2: Any takers?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 07:16 AM »

DO NOT DO THIS

It has FUBARed my system completely ...

IE 6 no longer works properly
I can't fix IE6
Windows Media Player is dead (Internal error on startup)

Whole system is a complete mess.

I have tried reapplying WinXPSP2 patch (which is recommended for a misconfigured IE setup) and it doesn't work.

Having made a huge mess I tried installing IE7 beta to see if I could fix the messed IE6 settings but even that will not install at all. It completes the process but says it has failed. (Errors in a log somewhere but I can't find them).

Now going to try and run windows repair!

6191

General Software Discussion / Re: IE 7.0 Beta 2: Any takers?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 05:26 AM »

Tried this and it has some odd effects running in this manner:

1) Pop up blocking seems to be on (even when it says it is switched off) and consequently it is not easy to set the proferences on the first page to load when you run it.

2) Printing doesn't seem to work

3) IE Toolbars seem to be a little messed up

4) Advanced options in Internet Options are missing.

All in all it doesn't feel quite right.

Is it like this if you install it properly?

6192

Living Room / Re: Firefox - Useful customized searching

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 05:04 AM »

Before the smart keywords you needed to manually customize a keyword for a quick search to do the trick.

-brotherS (April 17, 2006, 03:54 AM)

I did that - but you do have to be careful in the keyword you choose. Try DC as a keyword and see what happens.

6193

Living Room / Re: TCPA ... Scary stuff

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2006, 04:59 AM »

I wonder if Apple's approach could be referred to the courts as a restrictive practice? Now MacOSX can be run on PC hardware artificially restricting the ability to do that may push Apple into the same quagmire as Microsoft!

6194

Post New Requests Here / Re: LabelControls - Mouseless control

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 16, 2006, 08:02 PM »

Absolutely brilliant ... not that I can give up my mouse that easily 

6195

Living Room / Re: Firefox - Useful cusomized searching

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 16, 2006, 07:56 PM »

Neat - I hadn't seen that.

Actually I think both might be useful as site based websearches aren't always perfect and Rollyo might be a way of finding results that aren't readily available via the sites own engine. For example I tried this approach out on DC for competition (as above with RollYo) but it only brought up one find!

Also I found that you have to be careful what you choose as your Smart Keyword. I tried setting up "DC competition" for searching here and it took me to totally unrelated websites. It worked when I changed the keyword to "DCoder competition".

6196

Living Room / Firefox - Useful customized searching

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 16, 2006, 07:43 PM »

I hadn't noticed this before but in Firefox there is a search box on the button bar at the top.



It usually specifies Google (amongst others) as its search engine and gives the option of addingnew engines.

One thing I hadn't noticed on the extra engines web page was at the bottom which takes you to the Rollyo website http://www.rollyo.com/firefox_search.html and this allows you to setup multiple personal websearches.

These can be confined to one or many websites you like to visit (such as DC) and then you can search directly from the drop down box at the top of the window.

Looks like a nice way to setup searches amongst customized sites.

Here is an example - I set up a new search called DonationCoder and set it to search just www.donationcoder.com

I performed a search for the word "competition" and here is a shot of the beginning of the results:

6197

Living Room / Re: TCPA ... Scary stuff

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 16, 2006, 07:15 PM »

Interesting (relevant) quote from Fred Langa's current newsletter:

Well, no big surprise, Apple's recent announcement of how its new Intel-based PCs can seamlessly run Windows was hailed by some as an example of wonderful Apple technology. But along with that came the other news: Apple is using DRM code--- digital rights management--- built into the Intel CPUs it's using to ensure that the Mac OS can only run on Apple hardware.

It's a wholly arbitrary restriction: There is no technical reason whatsoever why Apple couldn't let its OS run on Gateways, or Dells, or whatnot. But Apple wants all the profits--- software *and* hardware--- for itself.

So you don't have to look to evil governments to find examples of the use of low-level hardware trickery. It's happening right here, right now.

6198

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Come up with a novel idea for DonationCredits

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 16, 2006, 03:45 AM »

How about a charity that supplies computers/educational euqipment etc. to parts of the world who can't afford them?

6199

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MLB/Mouseless Browsing FF extension - MUST-HAVE for every keyboard user!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 15, 2006, 11:22 AM »

ditto - I have checked the option to only make the links appear on request.

I do find I use it a bit but most of the time I am still mousing around

6200

Post New Requests Here / Re: DONE: a better PowerDimmer screensaver alternative?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 15, 2006, 11:13 AM »

Thanks, I'll go over and try the next version


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Seems to work great now.