Recent Posts

676

Living Room / Re: "We're Alive" - Online Radio Show Drama

« Last post by J-Mac on July 10, 2011, 01:13 PM »

If you like We're Alive, check out the indy film Pontypool.

It's low budget, takes place all on one set (a second string small town radio station), in one day - and it's actually one of the more believable and chilling treatments of the zombie theme ever made. (Watch trailer here.)Maybe it doesn't have the lovely Milla Jovovich or the production budget of her Resident Evil franchise to fall back on. But the terrific dialog, minimalist staging, and competent cast generates a quietly chilling (and believable) atmospheric horror experience that makes it well worth watching. Blows the doors off movies with magnitudes larger budgets. Highly recommended.

Get it from NetFlix!

-40hz (July 10, 2011, 12:47 PM)

Huh. Netflix says, "Not Available". 88 member reviews there so it appears that it was once available, but apparently not anymore.   

Jim

677

Living Room / Re: "We're Alive" - Online Radio Show Drama

« Last post by J-Mac on July 10, 2011, 01:02 PM »

40hz,

Have you seen the Zombie Apocalypse page at the Centers for Disease Control web site? Everyone's getting in on the act!

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp

Jim

678

General Software Discussion / Re: Can I alter an exe's File Description?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 10, 2011, 11:52 AM »

OK, I give up first!   

Jim

679

Living Room / Re: PWNIE EXPRESS! This is hilarious, and real!

« Last post by J-Mac on July 10, 2011, 11:51 AM »

I read his book, "The Art of Deception" and yes, he does have quite a few tall tales in it!

Jim

680

Living Room / Re: "We're Alive" - Online Radio Show Drama

« Last post by J-Mac on July 10, 2011, 11:38 AM »

I listened to the first three parts of Chapter 1 - you're right mouser, the acting is pretty bad!

But any zombie story is gold these days... secret passion of all of us, methinks!

Jim

681

General Software Discussion / Re: Can I alter an exe's File Description?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 10, 2011, 11:34 AM »

nosh,

On my Windows 7 machine that registry key only has two entries for DOpus - nothing else. I think there must be another key that holds that info. Though I normally use the file extensions list in DOpus to change the names of file associations - that drives me nuts too Curt!!

Jim

Yikes! That edit wasn’t there in your post when I first typed my post, nosh! I started the post, then searched my registry, then finished the post and you had already answered me - talk about efficiency!!

682

General Software Discussion / Re: recommend backup soft?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 09, 2011, 06:50 PM »

It's a relief to have the thing automated and out of the way.

-nosh (July 09, 2011, 01:04 PM)

My only problem with full automation is that I get very, VERY complacent and stop double-checking it now and again. Then something accidently or mysteriously gets deleted or disappears from my PC and when I finally check my backups I see that it stopped doing everything correctly and then I throw myself on the floor and start screaming, scares the dogs and... well...  you get the picture!   

Jim

683

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... Windows registry hack to display boot progress

« Last post by J-Mac on July 09, 2011, 06:38 PM »

Thanks 40hz. I don’t need it as much now - my boot times aren't as troublesome as they were in XP here. However I have had a problem which causes me to immediately log out as soon as Windows starts and then log back in under the same user. If I don’t I can't use my keyboard or mouse, most startup apps don’t run, and most desktop icons stay blank, which makes it appear to be an explorer.exe issue. NO errors about it in the Event Viewer, which makes my faith in Windows 7 less optimistic than most.   

Sounds like it should be easy enough to diagnose and fix but it hasn’t been! I've found a lot of others with the exact same symptoms, and I have reinstalled the OS twice and still it occurs. Pretty sure it must be hardware related - I might as well blame it on Asus or nVidia since most of the problems on this machine eventually trace back to one or the other. But... if I log-out / log-in all is well, so I have lived like that since Windows 7 was released. Se la vie!

Thanks again!

Jim

684

General Software Discussion / Re: recommend backup soft?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 09, 2011, 12:25 PM »

I started using BackUp4All but kept it only for a year - only allowed to use on one PC, needs separate purchase for others, even a laptop. So I ditched it. Went with Genie Pro but after a time they stopped supporting it basically; turns out all efforts were going toward their new product, Genie Time Machine or something like that. Supposedly OK for newbies, not good if you want to tweak/schedule it in detail. Ditched that too. I did pick up Oops late last year - or maybe it was early this year? Though it is not in use currently; filled up my 1 TB external drive in no time flat! And deleting files was a nightmare! Takes a long time to select each file to delete - can't select all at once - and then it simply creates another folder and dumps the deleted stuff there, just in case you really didn't mean it! For almost a TB of deleted data that took me hours on end to get rid of it. Oops is currently on hold...

Mostly sticking with my primary Jungle Disk plus SFFS to anothjer external drive. Oh, and Acronis for images.

Thanks!

Jim

685

General Software Discussion / Re: recommend backup soft?

« Last post by J-Mac on July 09, 2011, 11:19 AM »

You can use the demo version of Zenok online backup. I did it about 6 months ago. It worked great, was fairly easy to use and fast.

-Swenerick (July 09, 2011, 10:19 AM)

Swenerick,

Since these questions were being asked more than four years ago....  I hope they found their backup apps back then!!

BTW, welcome to DC!

Jim

686

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... Windows registry hack to display boot progress

« Last post by J-Mac on July 09, 2011, 11:17 AM »

Curt,

Are the status messages logged in the Event Viewer or anywhere? Or just onscreen during boot up?

I remember trying to use Bootvis by Microsoft with XP but that never worked with dual core machines unfortunately.

Thanks!

Jim

687

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 11.5 Released

« Last post by J-Mac on July 06, 2011, 04:06 AM »

anyone know how to show the drop-down arrow in the addressbar - or if it's possible to get it back. I never use it myself, but have Opera installed on someone elses machine and they really miss it...

-tomos (July 06, 2011, 03:23 AM)

OK, I'm sure this isn't the reason, but make sure they have visited some addresses to populate it!  (Hey: it's 5 am here!)

Jim

688

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WaggleImage on Bits du Jour (Nov 18 2008)

« Last post by J-Mac on July 04, 2011, 09:11 PM »

Thanks Chris - I did not realize that!   

Jim

689

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WaggleImage on Bits du Jour (Nov 18 2008)

« Last post by J-Mac on July 04, 2011, 01:09 PM »

Thanks for your replies, Waggle.

Well, I just purchased WaggleImage but I will probably keep it under wraps for now. Waiting for the other software to become available; at that time I'll install all and see how I like them.

Jim

690

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WaggleImage on Bits du Jour (Nov 18 2008)

« Last post by J-Mac on July 04, 2011, 12:12 PM »

Waggle,

I'm not certain what you are saying. Does your software offer organizational and/or management of all types of documents? Or just PDF files, as most software in this category seems to do? I will most likely make the purchase because, hey - at ths price I can't really lose! But before I actually install and use it I would want to take the time to learn what it really offers in the way of "document management".

On my main PC I currently have two so-called document management programs installed: One came with my Fujitsu Scansoft document scanner, and the other is Nuance Paperport 12 Pro. The Scansoft program simply takes documents that I scan with their scanner and save as PDF files and puts them into a folder where I track all of them. Can't even import any other existing PDF files though. Extremely weak IMO. Paperport appears to be another program that allows me to scan documents - with any supported scanner - and store them within a set of folders that Paperport tracks. Paperport also has a fairly decent search facility for searching any folders for PDF files. It also allows the import of other PDF files and folders. However it doesn’t handle any other type of document, like .doc, .xls, .txt and others. IMO I have two main types of user data files on my computer: document files and media files. I do have programs that track all my media files very well. It's the doggone document files that no one seems to want to offer a program to track!

Thanks!

Jim

691

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 11.5 Released

« Last post by J-Mac on July 04, 2011, 11:33 AM »

I believe this started when I once had Secunia Inspector mistakenly set to automatically install Opera Updates - the first time it did Opera was reset as my default browser. Since then it resets to default every time I update. I tried using the Custom installation but didn't see the selection to disable that. Have to try again next time and look more carefully.

Jim

BTW, I had to uninstall IE9; it was working OK but too many programs stopped working well. E.g., Ultra Recall Pro, IQ, and a few others. Back to IE8 till it gets sorted.

692

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WaggleImage on Bits du Jour (Nov 18 2008)

« Last post by J-Mac on July 04, 2011, 11:29 AM »

This looks tempting, organising/sorting my documents is a key need I have, and haven't fulfilled yet in spite of trying.

What concerns me a little is that it seems the documents are moved into a database, they are no longer on disk as files that can be viewed elsewhere. Is this correct?

I produce most of my documents through writing/printing to pdt/capture from web/capture from camera rather than scanning so I am wondering - are the benefits more on the scan/ocr/index side of the process or are the tag/organise/dispatch features also worth it (of course at 9.99 it is a bargain and I could try, but each software bought does demand time to learn, so I better check)

-iphigenie (July 04, 2011, 05:32 AM)

My concern with this program - as well as others so categorized as "document management" apps - is that they are actually just for managing PDF files that are scanned into them; not truly managing all of the documents on my computer. I have yet to find any program that even attempts to assist with organizing - let alone managing - all my actual "documents", of all types.

That said, I am not certain yet just what Wagglesoft does so maybe I shouldn’t rant about this software category in general here. 

Thanks!

Jim

693

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 11.5 Released

« Last post by J-Mac on July 02, 2011, 09:52 PM »

One thing that bugs me is every time I update I have to clean off those lame bookmarks I don't want. It should only stick bookmarks in if install detectd zero bookmarks or first install.

-MilesAhead (June 29, 2011, 03:00 PM)

Plus every damn time I update Opera it sets itself as my default browser. Don’t like that.

Jim

694

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WaggleImage on Bits du Jour (Nov 18 2008)

« Last post by J-Mac on July 02, 2011, 09:22 PM »

Anyone here using this now? Sounds like a great deal, but only if it's a good program. I haven't found anyone who is currently using it.

Jim

695

Living Room / Re: Dropbox Left User Accounts Unlocked for 4 Hours Sunday

« Last post by J-Mac on June 21, 2011, 09:38 PM »

LulzSec claims to be reporting all their major hacks so publicly to force companies to get real regarding their online security measures. Might be true, might be bull; either way they sure are bringing a lot of heat to the subject.

Jim

696

Living Room / Re: Dropbox Left User Accounts Unlocked for 4 Hours Sunday

« Last post by J-Mac on June 21, 2011, 09:24 PM »

Renegade,

For sensitive or critical data I agree completely. But for the non-sensitive, non-critical stuff, it's a nice way for someone without their own server to store loads of that data. I don’t keep any financial or private data online; just the stuff I have gathered over many years, information that I don’t really care if anyone else sees, that would take way too many external drives. Still I don’t like to think that it is all just publicly available if I am paying for the storage.

Jim

697

Living Room / Dropbox Left User Accounts Unlocked for 4 Hours Sunday

« Last post by J-Mac on June 20, 2011, 11:20 PM »

Oh well, so much for my Dropbox account. I was looking hard at Spider Oak recently; no question now as to what I will do. Here's  a link:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/dropbox/

And here is a link to some comments by security researcher Christopher Soghoian at Pastebin, though I haven't been able to get to the site all day; too much traffic.

http://pastebin.com/yBKwDY6T

Might just be the end of good times for Dropbox...

Jim

698

Site/Forum Features / Re: I think we should close the Company Complaints and Compliments Section

« Last post by J-Mac on April 24, 2011, 01:04 PM »

To all who seem confused by my last post:

mouser started this thread and asked for our thoughts. And that it exactly what I initially posted, plus a question addressed directly to mouser.

The last thing I expected in a thread like this - where members were asked their thoughts on the matter - was that I would have to endure yet more whining and bitching from the developer who seems to think that he owns all threads that remotely mention text expanding.

Sorry you all seem to take issue with that. You know, I kept my mouth shut all through PE's BS throughout all of the subject threads. Never posted a word about it except for relevant comments made about other apps before each of those threads were overtaken. And now my first post ever directly about this fiasco draws wonder and disdain from so many. I'm truly surprised. And a little pissed.

Jim

699

Site/Forum Features / Re: I think we should close the Company Complaints and Compliments Section

« Last post by J-Mac on April 23, 2011, 11:55 AM »

Michael,

First, I was responding to mousers's post and I will do that any damn time I please, and about any relevant subject.    If you wish for me to not discuss such matters on your forum I will certainly respect that. But don’t expect to come into another forum, particularly where I am a long time supporting member, and tell me what and when to post.

Jim

700

Site/Forum Features / Re: I think we should close the Company Complaints and Compliments Section

« Last post by J-Mac on April 22, 2011, 02:20 AM »

I really don’t care that forum is gone, but I did notice that the few times I saw you complain about that forum was during Phrase Express thread wars, mouser. It seemed that you always stepped in and defended that creep and immediately afterward threatened to close that forum.

So I have to ask... what's up with that? Just curious.

Thank you.

Jim

PS - The great majority of PE's rants and attacks have been in forums other than the Complaints forum. Search the Deals forum - every time another text expander is mentioned as being on sale somewhere he starts his crap all over again. Take a look.

Jim