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General Software Discussion / Re: How fast is Microsoft? (Re: Has any one held off on upgrading to Firefox 1.5

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 20, 2005, 08:50 AM »

Yes, microsoft is slow, and I know they are always bashed because of their abusing their monopoly, but if it werent for windows, pc's wouldnt be as widespread and used as much as they are nowadays. We wouldnt have some of the great pieces of software or games that we do if it werent for microsoft being the big business that they are.

-Josh (December 20, 2005, 08:38 AM)

Sorry but this surely is tosh ...

If MS hadn't produced Windows there would be other Operating Systems out there at least as good, and some would argue better.

First off Unix/Linux developement would have progressed much faster - especially in hardware terms if manufacturers weren't so obsessed with only producing Windows Drivers.

There used to be a really good operating system called Gem - years ahead of Windows but MS crushed it out of existence (just like it did with its predecessor CP/M). Gem was around when Windows 2 was about - anyone remember that piece of useful software - if memory serves me right you had to exit Windows to MSDOS to actually run programs.

Loads of manufacturers (hardware and software) have been pushed to the wall by MS over the years, and a lot of their ideas 'acquired' for Windows boxes, often without credit.

MS dominance hasn't increased choice or innovation it has almost removed it - why else is there the annual review of MS products that all look exactly the same and never add any new functionality ? Think about it does Windows XP actually do much that Windows 95 didn't ? Mostly it consumes massively more resources to acheive pretty much the same ends and the rest of it is fixing problems inherited from previous versions. MS Office is another example of no innovation - every version loks the same, does the same and adds a few esoteric bits that only 0.5% of users are even aware of - but they change the file formst just sufficiently to force people to upgrade to maintian compatability.

Sorry - end of rant ...

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Living Room / Re: nudone's new pc

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 20, 2005, 05:02 AM »

Not convinced at all ... the same argument would apply to any partitioned drive.

If you want to install multiple OS's then partitioning will restrict head movements to a smaller area of the discs which should if anything improve access time.

If you store your data in a partition between the OS partitions you still restrict the area of the disc being accessed.

C - Windows 1
D - Data
E - Windows 2

Put your paging file and temp folders on a separate drive altogether if possible - if not have a fixed size pagefile (so that it doesn't get fragmented).

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Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Stop Me From Closing It" - prevent easy closing of a program

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 20, 2005, 04:57 AM »

Or even use Maxthon - which gives you the option of starting up with all the tabs from the last session.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Program Wanted

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 20, 2005, 04:55 AM »

If it isn't a daft question - why install the update if you don't want to complete the installation? Surely a simple solution is to set Automatic Update to download updates but don't install without permission. The worst you get then is the odd balloon popup (and ballons can be disbabled). If you don't want to have even that just disable Automatic Update in Security Centre and only vist Microsoft Update when you are prepared to reboot your system.

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Living Room / Re: nudone's new pc

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 20, 2005, 04:46 AM »

thanks Carol, i thought you'd come to the rescue on that one - i'll give partition magic a go then. i'll only be putting other xp systems onto the new partitions so it sounds pretty simple to me. i've used a free boot manager in the past (xosl i think it is called(?)) which seemed pretty good to me - can't remember the exact details but the method i followed allowed me to install win98 on an area of the hard drive past the usual boundary limit (it was something you weren't meant to be able to do anyway but with xosl it worked fine).

-nudone (December 20, 2005, 01:37 AM)

If you are just using WindowsXP then I wouldn't bother with a separate boot manager - it can just make it harder to recover from problems in the future. Once you have all your bare installations completed and activated (be prepared for some phone calls to MS) don't forget to image your drive before you go any further - that way you can always get back to a bare system if you need to or recover single partitions.

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General Software Discussion / Re: How fast is Microsoft? (Re: Has any one held off on upgrading to Firefox 1.5?)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 20, 2005, 04:43 AM »

Sorry to continue the argument ... but ...

MS only have themsleves to blame for the bad press. They very rarely innovate and are almost always playing catchup. Even the original version of MSDOS that set up the company was a bit of a ripoff of others work.

I find it quite amusing when they talk about intellectual rights - over the last 40 years they have used practically every other companies  rights to their own ends, and even on ocassions then sued the company who had the original idea when they have bastardised their product out of recognition ...

Sorry easy to get into rant mode.

Sad thing is that nowadays there really isn't a truly viable alternative except for Apple (sorry Linux does not support a lot of the apps or hardware I want/need to use) - and Apple continuously shoot themselves in the foot by their ridiculous prices and 'style-guru' posturing.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Agnitum just sent me a newsletter...Outpost Pro 3.5 due in February

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 04:23 PM »

Outpost currently has the option to turn it off. ZoneAlarm when I tried it seemed incredibly intrusive at all levels - not only does it try and deal with pests etc. it also tries to monitor you system and do all sorts of other clever things. This may be what you want, but for me I really want a firewall to be a firewall and nothing more, then I have a choice.

All these vendors now seem to want to lock you into their AntiVirus/AntiSpyware/System Monitoring and Firewall utilities to the exclusion of rival products.

If a company can produce a full security suite that

• if effective in all areas, and
• has a low system impact

then they will be on to a winner, unfortunately all who have tried seem to fail in some areas for both aspects - and in particular on system impact.

I'm not sure it is entirely the fault of Outpost but since I installed version 3 I have had 4 BSODs on my system - the first 4 ever since I built the machine a few years ago now.

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Living Room / Re: nudone's new pc

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 04:11 PM »

Which Operating systems do you want to install ?

If they are all Windows XP or 2000 there is no problem - just partition with Partition Magic and install to the partitions you want. Windows 2k/XP will install and automatically set up a multiboot system.

If you want to install Windows 98/ME (why ?) then that should be installed first

If you want to install Linux then I would suugest you install it last but leave some disk space free for the installation within the first 8 gigabytes or you may find it won't boot (not sure about the last Linux builds this may have been fixed now). You don't need to leave a lot of space, just enough for the OS to install, you can then have an extra partition for your user data and installed programs.

The reason I would leave Linux until last is that it will take over your multiboot setup. I have found in the past that ithe Linux bootmanager (Grub) will try to boot into Linux first and then offer the Windows boot system second. You can change this behaviour within Linux.

You can also alter the Linux boot system to include it within the Windows multiboot system, but I never found a way to install it successfully before Windows.

You may also want to consider using a boot manager (there is one included with Partition Magic, but there are better ones out there now) which shoul (at least in theory) allow you to install operating systems in any order but restrictions on OS placement on the Hard Disc will have to be observed (eg. Win98/ME has to be installed on a partition within 8Gb of the first block on the hard disc).

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General Software Discussion / Re: Agnitum just sent me a newsletter...Outpost Pro 3.5 due in February

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 04:03 PM »

Even more intrusive than Agnitum Outpost 3 - the firewall is pop up windows galore - you don't seem to be able to do anything without it blocking something and requesting user input.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Agnitum just sent me a newsletter...Outpost Pro 3.5 due in February

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 01:42 PM »

Yes I just got this - the thing that worried me slightly is the 'even tighter integration of antispyware' (or whatever it said). Trouble is it doesn't behave nicely with other antispy products ... looks like things can only get worse.

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Living Room / Re: nudone's new pc

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 11:03 AM »

Unusual arrangement having the PSU at the bottom of the case - is there a reason for that design choice? I would have thought dust would be more of a problem and rising heat ??

All looks very pretty though ...

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General Software Discussion / Re: Free DVD Menu authoring software, is there such a thing?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 11:00 AM »

That's what I thought and why I didn't just rubbish it. It doesn't seem to gel with my brain though and it would be a lot easier if the manual was better written. At the very least it would be useful if the manual listed error messages and what to do to fix things.

I suppose my needs are a bit odd in this area.

My JVC DVD Recorder produces DVD-VR (VRO) files (even after the disc is finalised) and if I use LP record mode the video size is SVCD picture format. Consequently a lot of software won't author new discs without recoding the video to a DVD standard format.

I want to be able to transfer them to a standard DVD VOB based format and add a menu. As it stands I have Ulead's DVD MovieMaker 3 which will simply copy my exisiting programs (complete with track and chapter marks) without recoding to DVD (ie. it lets me keep the SVCD picture format which works fine) but won't add a menu.

I have TMPGEnc MPEG Xpress 3.0 and TSUNAMI DVD Author Pro 1.5, but the Author package won't use non-DVD standard video and insists they be recoded. That isn't a problem except that it takes anything up to 24 hours per disc to recode them !! I really don't want to have my computer permanently running recoding tasks in the background 24/7/365 !!

DVDLab Pro seemed the obvious solution to me because it allows me to use VRO files without being strict on video format, and I can add a menu. Trouble is that whilst output seems to compile without error from the VOB file Nero says that it can't reallocate the files when it comes to burning the DVD. Add to that audio delays in the processing, and an inability to listent to AC3 or DTS sound in DVDLab preview (apparently it is to keep the price down by avoiding costly licenses from Dolby Labs) and the package becomes increasing difficult to use, at least in my circumstances ...

Anyone got any other ideas for a solution to my problem?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Free DVD Menu authoring software, is there such a thing?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 10:23 AM »

Oo errr ...

I have to say I am not particularly impressed.

It is tremendously complicated software and the manual is useless.

I have just used it to demux a movie and ended up apparently with 1:22 of video and 2:29 of audio !!! How that can happen I am really not sure. Despite that I burned a DVD of the project and it seems to work, except the audio lags about 2 seconds. There appears to be a tool which allows you to set an Audio Delay figure, but there doesn't seem to be anyway of determining exactly what the delay should be - and given that the preview windows refuses to play back with any sound it is only possible to guess by buring discs and seeing if it works.

Am I missing something with this or is it meant to be this confusing?

At first glance the Pro versions seems to be able to do everything anyone could ever want with DVD Authoring but for me life is too short to try and learn this package!

By the way if anyone likes it the company will do a 50% academic discount (follow the email link on the website and ask for instructions). Not sure if this is only applies to the Pro version, but then that brings the Pro version down to the price of the Standard version so if you are going to buy it and have student/academic status you may as well get the Pro edition.

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Living Room / Re: nudone's new pc

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 08:01 AM »

Don't be surprised if my next avatar is bright green ...

Don't forget your tube of ArcticSilver and a bottle of Isopropyl alcohol (the latter is a good mixer for pepping up the Christmas Punch ... not really)

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Balloon on startup

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 06:52 AM »

Ta

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Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: "Stop Me From Closing It" - prevent easy closing of a program

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 05:41 AM »

Not at all stupid - I need this too for exactly the same reasons. Actually it would be nice if the close icon could be changed for a padlock or something similar.

There must be a way to do this because DM2 manages to change basic window functionality in all windows.

Actually DM2 has the nice feature of locking windows down to a floating icon which could serve a similar purpose in the interim.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Balloon on startup

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 05:36 AM »

Is there any way to do the same with Clipboard Help and Spell? I hate the way the balloon pops up to tell me it is there on startup. I don't want to disable messages completely though - just the startup message.

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ProcessTamer / Re: Turning automatic process taming off.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 05:34 AM »

Why are the simple ideas always the best (and missed - this will be a brilliant solution for me too)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Has any one held off on upgrading to Firefox 1.5?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 19, 2005, 05:32 AM »

If it is the same as the tab browsing kludge they added via their MSN toolbar it won't worth the wait !

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General Software Discussion / Re: Free DVD Menu authoring software, is there such a thing?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 18, 2005, 08:35 AM »

I have started playing with this Renegade - it looks really powerful - but it isn't exactly intuitive to use.

I have a number of DVD-VR discs I have recorded from TV. It allows me to add the VR files to the Assetts area but I can't work out how to get it to import the file as separate tracks. The VRO file simply gets imported as a single file with no chapter or track marks. Any idea how to import VRO files properly?

Trouble is the help file doesn't really mention VRO format in any detail, and the only reason I knew the software could do this was from a one line statement on the website.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Has any one held off on upgrading to Firefox 1.5?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2005, 06:20 PM »

I am using 1.5 and have fewer issues than I had with 1.0.7. I found the previous version hung, and tended to crash when I have my ATI AIW TV Window open. It doesn't seem to happen in 1.5

For me at least it also seems a little faster - but that may simply be a result of having reinstalled Windows recently.

I held off for a while until all of the extension I support had been updated. Now that they have everything seems to work fine.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Possible Large Directory Opus Discount

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 17, 2005, 06:24 AM »

Strikes me that developers can charge what they like for software - if you don't want to pay for it then don't. Simple really. If no one buys it maybe they will reduce their prices, if people do buy it then obviously they are selling something people want to buy and think is worth the cost. Can't really complain though when they actually do reduce the price !!!

An obvious example of  arrogant software developers: it is interesting that so many computers worldwide still have MS Office installed at high cost when OpenOffice is available for nothing . People are really perverse about this (me included). Presumably, despite all the gripes, MS still has a product people want to buy, or there are some parts to MS Office that aren't included in OpenOffice that people use.

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Living Room / Re: Samorost - beautiful puzzles

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 16, 2005, 04:29 AM »

Is it just me but all of the games are bringing up "Bad Request - Invalid Hostname" in Firefox and "Page cannot be found" in IE???

The main page works, it is just when you link to a particular game.

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Living Room / Re: "Price as Signal" - very interesting piece

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 16, 2005, 03:27 AM »

Oh, something I wish I would have mentioned earlier...

If you're going to get MP3s, get them using "alt preset standard" encoding if you can (best quality to size ratio). I hate using things that are "standard" but this one is worth it. I think it's an option with allofmp3 and I know it's what emusic uses...

-Hirudin (December 15, 2005, 08:36 PM)

You seem to be able to do pretty much what you like with allofmp3 (see screen grabs below)

BTW, the album "Now That's What I Call Christmas" is a good Christmas double CD set if anyone's looking...

WOW - that is certainly a Christmas collection and a half - trouble is if I bought it then by the time I got to the end of it I'd be ready to slit my wrists ("Bah! Humbug!" are my middle names).

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Possible Large Directory Opus Discount

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 16, 2005, 03:19 AM »

I have to say I like the slick integration of FTP