Recent Posts

6351

Site/Forum Features / Re: IRC Chat - plus new web-based java interface from forum

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 03, 2006, 06:36 PM »

Not only that - more and more DC members in there are disovering how great Miranda is!

-brotherS (February 25, 2006, 07:37 AM)

... and how obsessed brotherS is!

6352

Living Room / Re: Any MiniDisc people out there?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 03, 2006, 06:34 PM »

As far as the DRM crap, I'm pretty sure Sony removed that restriction in the most recent version of its Sonic Stage software (v3.4).  I think a lot of people we're very relieved about that.

-superboyac (April 03, 2006, 05:52 PM)

Hmm ... given Sony's rootkit track record would anyone want to install any software that even 'might' contain any DRM stuff ???

6353

Living Room / Re: Incredible Fishing Video!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2006, 08:00 AM »

Do you need a fishing permit for that sort of fishing

6354

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2006, 07:55 AM »

Hello, Hi, Heyup, Dumela, Avuxeni, in other words greetings other members.
I just found this part of the board so here goes.  I was born (it's true) in Bromborough, Cheshire, UK. After High School I went to Hotel School in Stoke.  From there into management for a subsidiary of Lyons in London.  Trampling on people to get to the top didn't appeal to me (have no killer instinct) so left that behind to be the Chef/Instructor at an approved school (young offenders) in Derbyshire.  My father got offered a teaching position in Johannesburg and 'forced' me to apply to get a job too. I worked back in the catering industry as a training officer until getting married.  I then had the qualifications to be a houseparent in a boys home (had a wife to be housemother) Had 35 boys from 7-14 in my house. Great fun My wife had been a missionary in Angola and we met at our church.  I am a Christian and come from a Christian family. My grandfather was a missionary in the Congo, where my Dad was born.  My daughter was born and when she got to the age of being 'at risk' we decided to leave the home.  As my wife is a Canadian we moved to Canada.  I worked with people with disabilities and wrote software, as a volunteer, for children with severe multiple disabilities.  Unfortunately, lifting etc. took its toll and I ended up having to give up the work.  So now I am on a disability pension at the age of 54.  Thank God for computers - I can still travel by internet!
Now I play with the computer and am getting into CG 3D art.

-epopuI (April 02, 2006, 07:40 AM)

Wow welcome ... and what a convoluted story Are you still in Canada? Where about. My family live near Toronto.

Small world isn't it - you were born in Bromborough - I was born in Birkenhead (just down the road really) !!

6355

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com has gone shareware, free licenses canceled, all apps cost $100

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 02, 2006, 05:02 AM »

Ha ha - the jokes on you ... you posted at "01-04-2006, 23:35:33" and April Fool jokes only apply in the morning.

Now there's a challenge - write an email that arrives erervywhere in the world in the morning !!

6356

General Software Discussion / Re: Systray manager

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 01, 2006, 05:04 PM »

Try looking in the "Specials" section under Current Discounts, or a forum search on "PS Tray Factory". Works great.

6357

Finished Programs / Re: MOVE: Quick Serial Number Copy

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2006, 05:44 AM »

Only problem I can see with that as an idea is that you are counting on software developers to keep identical registration processes between updates. Seems like quite a complicated thing to set up too??

6358

General Software Discussion / Re: remember 'broadpage' browser - here's 'tablane'

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2006, 04:28 AM »

I think I am going to settle on only two:

Firefox Showcase (from the View Menu) which opens a window with small versions of all open tabs in Firefox (from multiple windows). Right clicking on an image allows you to do various tasks - reload, close etc. Tab Catalog does similar and has the advantage of a quickly accessible button, but only shows tabs in the current window. Fox Pager and Viamatic Foxpose duplicate this functionality but not as neatly. Fox Pager has the advantage that you can have a side bar showing you Tab contents - but it is limited in size and so only show a couple of tabs without the need to scroll. I couldn't get Tabnail to work at all.

and

Quick Preferences Button - which gives one click access to most of the preference settings from the Menu Bar.

6359

General Software Discussion / Re: remember 'broadpage' browser - here's 'tablane'

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 31, 2006, 02:11 AM »

Can't find a Firefox extension to do exactly that but here are some related ones (I haven't tried them yet):

Firefox Showcase
Fox Pager
Quick Preference Button
Tab Catalog
Viamatic foXpose
Viamatic Tabnail

6360

General Software Discussion / Re: Any software or settings to prevent someone from destroying a pc....

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2006, 05:27 PM »

Dang beat me to it ...

6361

General Software Discussion / Re: Office 2007 user interface video

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2006, 05:25 PM »

Erm ... I have to admit it does look kinda neat. Now all I have to do is find the £300 ... or whatever they plan to ask for the upgrade ...

6362

Living Room / The Meatrix 2 ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2006, 04:55 PM »

http://www.meatrix2.com/

6363

Living Room / Re: How to stretch a Hummer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2006, 01:22 PM »

Or a slight alternative :

6364

Finished Programs / Re: MOVE: Quick Serial Number Copy

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 30, 2006, 09:26 AM »

Can you remember what you were going to say Hirudin, we are all agog ?

6365

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2006, 01:26 PM »

How bizzare - what happens if you are with an ISP that uses dynamic IPs ???

6366

Living Room / Re: Unprotected Wireless Lans?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 29, 2006, 09:57 AM »

Troible is not all devices support WPA ... I have a linksys network (with a change of SSID!!) and have to use WEP as I need a signal booster in the system and couldn't find one that supports WPA. Linksys are not interested in producing firmware updates - I had enough problems finding one that would work with my ADSL Router.

6367

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Registry Cleaner?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 06:09 PM »

Carol - are you responding to me, or to Moerl?

-Darwin (March 28, 2006, 06:08 PM)

Darwin that is true, but ...

-Carol Haynes (March 28, 2006, 05:05 PM)

I need a

Only safe sequence using Ashampoo Uninstall or Total Uninstall is  ....

Install Prog A
Install Prog B
Install Prog C
Install Prog D

I want to uninstall B, so

Uninstall D
Uninstall C
Uninstall B
Reinstall C
Reinstall D

6368

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Registry Cleaner?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 05:05 PM »

Darwin that is true, but it runs a bit deeper than that. Assuiming that you do all the right things wrt Total Uninstaller what if the three programs all use the same DLL file? When the apps are installed each app will register the DLL file and a count kept so that when programs are uninstalled a track can be kept on which files are still needed. In the scenario above if you uninstall B it won't set the DLL count to 2 correctly it will be set to 1. If A or C are uninstalled later then the DLL file may well be deleted and the other program broken - and you are suddenly in DLL hell !!

6369

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Registry Cleaner?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 03:00 PM »

??? That's the point if you uninstall B it will reset those associations back to app A. App C's settings can be affected.

Actually if you read the documentation in TU it explains this problem quite clearly.

6370

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Registry Cleaner?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 10:36 AM »

The problem with uninstallers (like Ashampoo Uninstaller and Total Uninstall) is that they can't return other apps to the preinstall state (or post install state if you install programs after the app you are trying to remove). Lots of apps modify registry settings that affect more than its own function (eg. assigning actions for filetypes) which have uncontrollable knock-on effects.

Here is an example - three programs that affect the same registry values (eg. mulitple media players):

Install A
Install B
Install C

at this point point C is flavour of the month but if you use TU or AU to unistall B at this point you will lose all associations with app C as they will be reverted to app A settings.

For media players this is usually easily fixed but for some software this can have serious breaking potential.

The only way to use TU or AU effectively and reliably is to  systematicall uninstall all software that was installed after B in reverse order before uninstalling B and then reinstall all the software again.

6371

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 10:23 AM »

Actually I think high upgrade prices are rather counter productive. If I am confronted by a high upgrade price I will think "do I need the upgrade" and if there is something I do need then "is there an alternative" ... high prices don't foster loyalty.

6372

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 06:27 AM »

Not really -- depending on the company/developer there is a difference between upgrade and update.

For example ... JGSoft produce EditPad Pro. When you buy EdirPad Pro version 5 from them you get unlimited updates as long as version 5 is being developed but if you want to move up to version 6 when it released you buy an upgrade. In JGSoft's case this is reasonable value for money as they don't have an automatic version bump every year. Lots of companies use this model - MS Office is a product that works in this way, and older versions are support for years so it is reasonable.

Some companies work on a free lifetime upgrade policy (WinZip used to be like that until the company sold out and the policy was changed). This is great for users but perhaps a little unreasonable as it reduces any income from current customers.

However, increasingly companies are working on new models:

1) Buy a subscription to get updates - ie. you buy a package and so long as you have a valid additional 'subscription' you can download updates (eg. most antivirus and firewall companies use this model and usually the first 12 months subscription in the price).

2) Some companies are not providing free updates/bug fixes at all (not upgrades to the next product version just bug fixes) and expect customers to buy an upgrade for every update.

3) Others restrict the time scale you can get updates (I have seen some applications advertised with 30 days of support and free updates).

6373

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 03:09 AM »

Not really - life time updates (ie. bug fixes, making it work properly now, fixing security issues etc) is not the same as lifetime upgrades where you get new functionality.

I realise that lifetime updates is probably impossible (who'd want to be maintaining or using version 1 of a utility written for Windows 3.1 now) but it is becoming increasingly common for software to be sold without the ability to get updates at all without some sort of subscription, or extremely time limited updates.

Actually for the individual user I think MS have got it about right wrt updating software - they basically supply patches for about 5 years for each product (loads of people still use Office 2000/Windows 2000 and still get security updates/patches/service packs for free and they are products that are about 6 or 7 years old now).

6374

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Registry Cleaner?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 03:03 AM »

I stand by my argument that I don't really like any of them. If you do use one be prepared to be very selective about what you let it do (that means choosing all changes manually in effect) - and get a solid registry backup before you start!

Most of the time you don't really acheive anything much by cleaning your registry anyway - you may clean out a couple of hundred useless entries - so what, you'd only save a few kb of disc space but functionally it won't make any difference. Remove a critical entry by mistake and you can have hours of heartache trying to find the issue.

6375

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 28, 2006, 02:58 AM »

I think MS have been pushing subscription model licenses in the commercial world.

Actually in practice a lot of software is effectively subscription based these days - either that or you can't even download bug fixes. Most shareware allows updates for a limited period - it is getting much rarer to get 'lifetime updates' even when we aren't talking about upgrades.