Recent Posts

6401

Backup Guide / Re: Question re the verification process speed at the beginning of a Genie Backup

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2006, 05:55 AM »

The only people who can really help you on this are over at the Genie website. Have you contacted their customer support?

6402

Backup Guide / Re: Question re the verification process speed at the beginning of a Genie Backup

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2006, 05:01 AM »

To look at the archive bit it will need to look at every file. The only alternative is to have a background process running that keeps a list of files as they change.

6403

Backup Guide / Re: Question re the verification process speed at the beginning of a Genie Backup

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2006, 03:59 AM »

How will it know which files have changed if it doesn't look?

6404

General Software Discussion / Re: Favorite Text Editor, a revisit

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 24, 2006, 03:56 AM »

I've already mentioned it in half a dozen threads, but I'm absolutely stuck on EditPad Pro.  It has all the basic and not-so-basic features you'd expect from a text editor.

-allen (March 23, 2006, 10:59 AM)

Have to say I agree - I have tried a lot of the editors mentioned in this thread but always seem to come back to EditPad Pro. It may be that I just feel more comfortable with it from use but I can't help that.

6405

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Confirms Highly Critical IE Hole March 23, 2006

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 06:16 PM »

Makes you wonder why they program in C++ ... they obviously can't handle any sort of buffers in a secure way.

6406

General Software Discussion / Re: New Version of Firetrust Sitehound released (with discount)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 02:36 PM »

Seems to work well. The difference between the free and paid versions is the amount of detail given on sites.

Seems quite an effective way to avoid suspect sites and phishing sites. Here are a couple of screen shots for the free version:

The toolbar in Internet Explorer:



The site info window:



Two of the options tabs (other tabs are personal info or only availble in the paid version)



The window to report new suspect sites:

6407

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Where is Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0??

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 12:19 PM »

Canon EOS 300D (the US called it the EOS Rebel).

The RAW colours were truly awful - and I was using their 'pro' colour management addin. I emailed support and they said wait for the next version. Given that I had just paid for an upgrade precisely for that feature I was not at all impressed (esp. as it was going to be a long time for the next version). Faststone does the job just better and is free - and now I can use Adobe Bridge too!

6408

General Software Discussion / New Version of Firetrust Sitehound released (with discount)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 06:37 AM »

I have been using Firetrust's Benign as part of my email filtering system and find it excellent and have used MailWasher in the past (although I don't use it any more). Their software is well written and well supported. Now they have a new product ...

Sitehound Looks interesting ... here is the email explaining (note there is a 30% discount link in the following for the enhanced version):

SiteHound toolbar

SiteHound toolbar
SiteHound 1.4.1 SiteHound®



With up-to-the-minute global information sourced from users and security experts, SiteHound is your first line of defense against internet threats including phishing, scams, spyware, adware, security risks and viruses from rogue websites.

So, click here to download the new version of SiteHound today!

Download now!

If you're already running SiteHound, you don't need to uninstall your existing version. Just install the new version over the top, and SiteHound will go on protecting you, day after day.

We've improved SiteHound by adding :

    * A completely new look ;
    * Improved automatic updating. SiteHound's update process now runs quietly in the background and checks for updates more often ;
    * A whitelist feature (registered users only) ;
    * Themes and toolbar customization (registered users only) ;
    * Improvements to site blocking. Sitehound now blocks sites that have been caught spamming ;
    * and a few miscellaneous bug fixes.

Even better, if you upgrade to the enhanced version of SiteHound for the great introductory price of only US$19.95*, you'll have access to these special features :

    * Automatic daily updates to the SiteHound database of rogue sites
    * Comprehensive maps showing you where the website you're visiting is hosted and who owns it
    * Comprehensive information about why the site was blocked and expert comments from our community of users
    * A free guide on how to spot frauds, scams and other threats on the Internet
    * Notification of software upgrades
    * Technical support 7 days a week
    * Our 100% no-hassle unconditional money-back guarantee

And a percentage of your registration fee goes to community groups who share our vision of a safer Internet.

*This special price is valid only until the end of March, after which time the price will increase to $29.95.

Click here on this link to make your purchase :

http://www.firetrust...und&promo=GET456

Please note that SiteHound works with Internet Explorer only.
And feel free to forward this newsletter on to your friends and family. SiteHound becomes more effective as more people use it. So please spread the word!

If you have any questions about SiteHound, please contact us by email at: [email protected].
Nick Bolton and the team at Firetrust
www.firetrust.com

I should point out there is also a free version, and it is for Internet Explorer users, although a Firefox version is in the pipeline according to the website. I haven't tried it yet so I don't know if it shows up in IE based browsers such as Maxthon.

See http://www.firetrust...etrustsitehound.html for full details of the product.

6409

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Ad Muncher: keeps the brain intact while surfing the Net - beats AdBlock!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 05:55 AM »

I anyone is interested it is here: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/proxomitron/

Personally I haven't tried it.

Interesting to note the denial of service attacks the site has been experiencing --- I'd guess that means they may be getting something right!

6410

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Where is Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0??

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 04:16 AM »

I think the confusion arises from the fact that PhotoShop Elements didn't start out as an organiser. It is also relatively expensive (although probably worth it if you edit digital photos in particular). Adobe seem to be going out of their way to combine as many functions as possible into every package they produce. A good example is in the full version pro products come with Adobe Bridge which is really a jack of all trades and pulls together all the Adobe Pro apps into a common interface. Lots of people really like it, but it is yet another application to learn - there are whole books just on Bridge !!! I agree with you about Album though - I bought a copy of it but never really used it as it was incredibly unstable (I don't think I ever used it for more than about 30 minutes without it crashing).

I used to use ACDSee (umpteen versions) but don't any more as I found their support for Canon RAW files abysmal - check out FastStone - seems to do most things ACDSee does, is more stable in my experience and is totally free!

6411

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Notes Snippet organizer

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 04:10 AM »

Yes I like NetSnippets too, but don't forget Surfulator which does pretty much the same job, is cheaper and there is a discount available (at least I think it is still going) to DC memebers.

6412

Site/Forum Features / Re: The new forum is up!!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 23, 2006, 04:03 AM »

A quicker way yet is when you are looking at the unread message list just hit the icon on the right hand end of the message to go direct tot he last message posted in the thread.

6413

Living Room / Re: How long will it take you to adopt Windows Vista as your OS?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 22, 2006, 02:33 PM »

From what I've seen and read in reviews on the web, the three main "imrovements" are new file formats based on xml, pdf support, and the replacement of the menu/toolbar with 'ribbons' that change content/format contextually.

-Darwin (March 22, 2006, 12:35 PM)

So long as the new version will still read and write files from older Office versions (and on past performance it will) the XML formats won't make a huge difference to the average user. PDF is easily supported anyway - and I'd prefer to have an application independent solution such as Nitro PDF (actually I just upgraded to Adobe Design Suite CS2 so I have Acrobat Pro). Ribbons intead of toolbars? Sounds like another eyecandy issue ... as for context sensitive menus I always turn them off in Office otherwise I can never find the option I'm looking for!

6414

Living Room / Re: When you are feeling down

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 22, 2006, 08:36 AM »

LOL - great ...

I have been getting interested in Buddy Holly (having been to see "Buddy", the musical, on stage last week). He died just before my first birthday in a plane crash (The Day the Music Died according to Don Mclean) but I was astonished at how many of the songs from his short 18 month career are still current !!

If you want cheering up you could do worse than head over to http://www.thecrickets.com/ and getting cheered up by the song links at the bottom (they are fairly substantial extracts).

Every day it is getting closer
Going faster than a rollercoaster ...

6415

Living Room / Re: How long will it take you to adopt Windows Vista as your OS?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 22, 2006, 03:51 AM »

Microsoft Office 12 could change everything.

-zridling (March 21, 2006, 10:33 PM)

Why - will it add anything people want?

I splashed out on an Office XP upgrade when it came out and was really disappointed as it didn't seem to add anything useful on top of Office 2000 (except activation which is a pain). I haven't bothered with Office 2003 because almost all reviews I read said unless you use it in a coroporate environment there isn't much new (except Outlook has a new layout). There is going to have to be a very good reason for me to upgrade again.

6416

Developer's Corner / Re: Do you use a good office chair when programming?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 07:09 PM »

I suffered in the same way (just from sitting at a computer for long periods on a cheap office chair). I splashed out on a decent bit of furniture and haven't looked back since. Go for something that supports your lower back and is adjustable to your shape. If you are going to use a tradional type office chair (like the one immediately above this post) then footrests come highly recommended too.

Some people swear by the 'kneeling' style chairs for computer use, but I have never seen them at anthing other than sill prices. (eg. http://www.homeworki.../catalog/kneeler.cfm)

6417

General Software Discussion / Re: Cody is staring in a video game now!?!?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 03:08 PM »

Either Cody is howling, or someone is torturing him ... either way OUCH!

6418

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: HDDlife Pro (and other disk-health reporters)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 01:01 PM »

I have tried HDD Healt and HDD Life Pro - one thing I like about HDD Health is the amount of info on each drive and the honesty of the drives health assessment! HDD Life Pro has more bells and whistles (literally if you have a nearly full partition on your system like me) but the detailed info is not as readily available - you can save a report but it is pretty cryptic content.

6419

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: HDDlife Pro (and other disk-health reporters)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 12:26 PM »

Nice review - I am off to try it out ...

6420

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: backup program files and all dependencies (dll's, registry), path to CD

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 12:14 PM »

Would be nice. The trouble with the idea is that dependencies get updated regularly as you install new apps or updates. If you backup an app on one machine and then restore it to another you might overwrite other dependencies and break other apps, also you may break links and associations in the registry.

6421

Developer's Corner / Re: FBSL - How to use machine code to get your CPU name

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 11:25 AM »

Carol, you need to make a distinction between "Visual C++" and ".net" - VC++, even the 2005 version, can still do unmanaged (native) as well as managed (.net) code.

-f0dder (March 21, 2006, 08:19 AM)

I was under the impression (probably wrong) that applications in Windows 2k/XP work within allocated virtual memory and can't directly address the hardware memory. I thought if you tried to access memory outside the address range of the apps allocation you got Access Violation errors etc.? Don't all apps have to address Windows and other apps memory via the various Windows libraries/API etc.?? Or am I totally barking up the wrong tree and C++ will let you do what you like?

6422

Developer's Corner / Re: Thoughts about OOP programming

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 07:29 AM »

i completely and vigorously object to the idea that oop is only for group programming.

-mouser (March 21, 2006, 06:57 AM)

Not sure if that is aimed at me or the article .. if me then I didn't actually mean that ... what I meant was it was designed with group progamming in mind. Lots of people use OOP to organise their programming ideas and produce easily accessible reuseable code, and even more buy into it unwittingly. However I think the article's argument that OOP isn't the only way of being organised is valid.

To take your anaolgy further just because you don't have the same organisational needs of big business doesn't mean you chuck it all over the floor. But for most home/small scale programmers an indexed shoe box would do the trick just as effectively

Equally just because stuff is organised for corporate environments (eg. MS Office 2003 or Adobe Design products) doesn't mean that the corporate tools can't be used by small groups and individuals to simplify their workflow - they just weren't really designed with that approach in mind. An example of this is Adobe's VersionCue.

6423

Living Room / Re: Unprotected Wireless Lans?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 06:10 AM »

Trouble is just doing that is illegal in some countries (the UK for one).

6424

Developer's Corner / Re: Thoughts about OOP programming

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 05:15 AM »

GUI components are great time-savers, and they work well. But don't confuse them with OOP itself. Few people attempt to modify the methods of components. You may change a text box's font size, but you don't change how a text box changes its font size.

Isn't that the point of OOP programming - black box self contained and documented units that can be pulled off the shelf.

Sure it means that resulting code may not be as efficient (you may have redundant code knowcking about in the black boxes) but was OOP ever designed for pure number of lines efficiency.

He also says it works well in a large team programming structure - and I think that is the point. None of these tools (including all the current ones) are actually designed with the lone geek in mind, they are all designed for corporate solutions and big team playing.

I remember learning OOP programming via Turbo Pascal when it first came out. I can't remember any of the details but it was an interesting development. I'd guess that the vast majority of small scale programmers dabbled and then went back to linear methods, but most programs are now written using components (in one form or another) so even if the overall structure of the program isn't OOP I bet there are few applications that don't utilize OOP in some way - even if they don't know it!

6425

Living Room / Re: hard drive resurrection [I'm desperate!]

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 21, 2006, 05:02 AM »

If you contact the drive manufacturer they mey be able to supply you with a cheap/reconditioned matching drive to attempt to swap over the innards and offer advice on how to get it recognised. They may even be prepared to do it for you (for a price).

If you manage to swap the innards and get it running back it up immediately and scrap it - you can't work in a sterile dust free environment so the reliability of the cobbled drive will be pretty low!