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Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« Last post by Darwin on December 27, 2011, 10:36 AM »

Here's Bert - he came to us as a 6 month old in August because his mum discovered that she was allergic to him. Poor girl, she was so upset that she wouldn't come to meet us/say goodbye and we dealt with her mum:

Our first meeting in August

Savaging a stuffie!

Nature calls!

Bert

Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« Last post by Darwin on December 23, 2011, 08:11 AM »

Sorry to hear of your loss, 40hz. I lost two dogs exactly one week apart four years ago and still miss them.

Living Room / Re: Kicked Off the Plane for Games

« Last post by Darwin on December 13, 2011, 11:09 PM »

Meh...

I'm not really all that sympathetic with the airlines.

There's zero evidence to show that playing a game on a phone will cause any sort of interference with any of the planes systems, and the airlines haven't put any effort into it. Instead, it's easier to make a rule/law/mess of it and piss people off. Heck, that creates jobs because you can employ more security and put more people in prisons... But I digress...

Air travel has become one of the most unpleasant experiences. The airlines have fed into it as well, rather than fighting bad legislation. They've taken the path of least resistance. Heck, if it's a PITA to travel with any airline, there's no competitive disadvantage for anyone and no motive or incentive to make things any better.

Sitting at a gate, and having someone repeat some idiotic drivel about how the plane will crash and the end of the world will come... god... Can you blame the guy for being pissed at having to put up with that? Especially when it really and truly is drivel?

Mind you, this is the same industry that thinks it's ok to sexually assault children... $:-\$
-Renegade (December 07, 2011, 04:53 PM)

According to an Air Canada long haul pilot, the rules surrounding cell phone use have nothing to do with navigation equipment interference and everything to do with revenue. Remember the hyper expensive seat-back phones that used to be on airplanes? He posted about this on a Hewlett-Packard calculator forum that I used to frequent a lot, but of course I cannot find the post!

Regarding Alec Baldwin and Team America - that wasn't him! He read the script and VOLUNTEERED to do his own voice but was turned down. Can't remember where I read that...

Developer's Corner / Re: Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?

« Last post by Darwin on November 29, 2011, 08:52 AM »

Speaking strictly as an end-user, after four years with the ribbon, I like it. Using apps that do use the older style interface, like SoftMaker's Office 2010/2012, seems awkward and the UI cluttered. As others have noted, this is more about UI design: do it well and it doesn't matter whether you have the ribbon or not.

FWIW, I've used some 3rd party apps that went with the ribbon and hated the experience. I think MS have done the ribbon well, but then, the older UI in Office 2003 was fine, too. 40hz may be onto something with this comment:

And in the case of MSOffice, I'm firmly convinced the decision to do one was primarily a marketing move. Something along the lines of: "If you can't make it better, at least make it look radically different!"
-40hz (November 29, 2011, 06:51 AM)

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: USB Safely Remove, 50% discount on January 17th

« Last post by Darwin on November 02, 2011, 09:00 AM »

You can disable the "menu on mouse hover" in Options->Behavioiur. Look for "Device stop menu" and deselect "show menu on mouse hover above the system tray icon"... Well, in Zentimo, anyway. I'm not on my machine with USB Safely Removed installed, so can't verify that this works on it.

General Software Discussion / Re: The Glorious Return of Shell Extension City

« Last post by Darwin on October 24, 2011, 08:32 AM »

Hallejiuah! I've been missing Shell Extension City this past, what? Year or so? A very welcome return indeed

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 24-Hours Giveaway - VX Search Pro

« Last post by Darwin on October 23, 2011, 08:12 AM »

+1 Many thanks, ocsid80

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

« Last post by Darwin on October 21, 2011, 09:36 AM »

Another photo of Frome, Somerset. According to The Guardian, the town is now a pit stop for celebs gasping for a FairTrade mochachino on the way to Glasters... but The Grauniad exaggerates.
-rjbull (October 20, 2011, 02:14 PM)

Frome, Somerset looks a bit like Darwin College, Cambridge:

The resemblance is more clear in my memory! Sadly, I have no pictures that get it just right... This picture is taken from Silver Street bridge.

Living Room / Re: Massive Security Vulnerability In HTC Android phones

« Last post by Darwin on October 03, 2011, 08:54 AM »

There are some advantages to playing in a walled garden... I have all three major mobile OS's, in their latest incarnations, and do like being able to side-load apps on Android. However, a lot of what I AM able to sideload is DROSS. Also, being forced to use the app store or the marketplace makes updates down the road simpler. I have an office suite that I bought for Android via the developer's website rather than the marketplace and the purchase came with dire warnings about NOT updating via the marketplace but from within the suite itself lest my registration details be wipted out (likewise, if purchasing from the marketplace, users are warned not to update from within the suite itself). I don't really want to have to worry about this, but have to...

Living Room / Re: The All New Kindle - ripoff!

« Last post by Darwin on October 03, 2011, 08:48 AM »

OK... shouldn't have said shopping in the UK is a "pleasure": alcohol and sweets are cheap, but darned near everything else induces profound sticker shock. I remember being in university in England in the mid-90's and again in the early 2000's with the exchange rate being around 2.5 Cdn. dollars to the pound and thinking "Wow! Stuff here is cheap!" until I realized that 4.50 pounds was more expensive than $5, whcih was almost invariably the case - you could swap out the pounds sign for a dollar sign and that was the way things were priced. I remember USED Levis jeans, which I used to buy for about $30 NEW in Canada, being close to 100 pounds in 1994. Crazy.

Living Room / Re: The All New Kindle - ripoff!

« Last post by Darwin on October 03, 2011, 08:43 AM »

In the UK prices quoted include ALL taxes. This makes shopping in the UK (or Korea or Europe generally for that matter) a pleasure because you look at the price, you count out your change, and that's what you pay at the til. In Canada (and the US) we have "open" taxation, which means that the labelled price is the "true" price before taxes and taxes are calculated and collected at the til. BS in my opinion. It makes shopping confusing more than anything, especially because, as 40hz points out, every state/province has their own tax structure.

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by Darwin on September 30, 2011, 04:19 PM »

I hope that the next "Transfomer" won't be this brownish ugly.
-Lutz_ (September 30, 2011, 02:00 PM)

It's not *that* bad in the flesh... OK, it's not great, but it's bearable. Regarding the Transformer 2, given that the existing keyboard dock is supposed to be compatible with the Transformer 2 tablet, I'd be surprised if they deviate too much from the current colour scheme...

Regarding the Transformer, I just received a FW update that includes a new notetaking app from Asus. Haven't tried it yet but will do so now.

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by Darwin on September 30, 2011, 11:45 AM »

100% agree with Superboyac - I am waiting with great hope and high expetcations for the next generation of Windows tablets running Windows 8. Android is frustrating because I can see the potential but the usability/power just isn't there yet.

Living Room / Re: Android tablets to rival iPad

« Last post by Darwin on September 28, 2011, 08:46 AM »

I have the Transformer and am generally pleased with it. I bought it with the keyboard dock, but would have preferred it to the Sammy even without for the simple reason that it has a number of expansion ports and HDMI out. The Samsung is gorgeous, thin, and light, but there are no expansion ports save the proprietary Samsung port that charges the unit and is able to receive adapters a la the iPad. The Samsung keyboard dock adds nothing to the unit beyond the keyboard; the Transformer keyboard adds a trackpad, 2 USB ports, a full SD/MMC port and an extra battery. I paid $496 for the combo; the same capacity Samsung without the keyboard retails for $499 here and the keyboard is an accessory I haven't seen in stores but which is $80 on the Samsung site. The HDTV dongle is $40 and the USB host dongle another $40. I have played with the Tab in stores alongside the other tablets and it seems pretty comparable in performance. The one unique thing about the Samsung offering, to my mind, is what they've done with Honeycomb. Almost none of the other tablet makers have done much to skin Honeycomb but Samsung has made some changes/improvements that I like.

I think if I wanted a straight consumer device, I'd probably have gone with the galaxy because of its dimensions and weight. However, my Transformer fills that role when undocked very nicely. It's certainly comparable to other Android tablets in terms of form factor and comfort (I've also used for extended periods the Xoom and the Acer A500 and W500). i suspect the Samsung is a step above and beyond these though due to its ergonomics (again, weight and thickness). Superboyac is in a much better position to comment on this, though.

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me pick the right name for my software

« Last post by Darwin on September 24, 2011, 11:57 AM »

I vote for RealWorld Paint as well.

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

« Last post by Darwin on September 24, 2011, 11:01 AM »

Thank you, wagglesoft. I got my head out of my rear-end and e-mailed support directly and everything was resolved VERY quickly. I'm very impressed. FWIW, it was the repository that I couldn't login to view. As advised, I used the Repository manager to create a new repository and set up a new password for it, then shut down WaggleImage and fired up the repository manager again and deleted the original, and inaccessible, repository. It's all good...

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

« Last post by Darwin on September 23, 2011, 10:54 PM »

Yeah... My problem is that I can't see how to set up an account, it won't let me leave the fields blank and logging in with user credentials under Win7 4-bit doesn't work. Is there an ini file somewhere, or a registry key, that I can edit or something?

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

« Last post by Darwin on September 23, 2011, 07:09 PM »

wagglesoft - thank you for being so active here and answering questions... I have one, I've installed Wagglesoft but can't log-in! What to do?

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

« Last post by Darwin on September 18, 2011, 08:47 PM »

Update - I am now Nuance free. Bloody PDF Converter was corrupted and kept crashing. I couldn't repair or uninstall it so ripped it out using Your Uninstaller! Re-booting and trying to install didn't work either. Enough. Adobe Acrobat X Pro seems to be rock solid, light on resources and, with an academic discount courtesy of my employer, will likely be fully licensed this time tomorrow.

Re: Paperport 11 Pro, I couldn't get it sorted out, either and after waiting for a month for Nuance support to respond, turfed it as well. I did buy a WaggleImage license, so may revisit it, if I find myself needing the functionality it provides in the future.

Living Room / Re: XBOX 360 with Kinect or Wii?

« Last post by Darwin on September 13, 2011, 07:58 AM »

+1 for the Xbox 360 and Kinect.

It's a BLAST... Games are pricey, though.

Living Room / Re: Thoughts in remembrance of 911

« Last post by Darwin on September 11, 2011, 04:31 PM »

I was in a lab at Cambridge that day. A fellow grad student came in and said: "Have you been following the events in America?" to which I responded with a blank stare. When he explained himself I didn't believe him. Didn't really seem real until I saw the towers fall; the world has never been the same.

Living Room / Re: Battery Life vs Expandable Memory (Music Player)

« Last post by Darwin on September 11, 2011, 04:29 PM »

Agree with Carol... I also have an older Samsung mp3 player (2007 model - YPT-9) with 4GB storage and it plays for over 25 hours on a single charge and lasts, in stand-by more, forever... I get rattled trying to scroll through all the songs on it (about 3.8GB worth), though it doesn't have a large, touchscreen display - which I've found really helps on the Archoses that I own.

The two Archoses are rated at over 20 hours music playback as well. Mine are both internet tablets (A43IT - 36 hours rated music playback - and A5IT - 22 hours music playback) with flash memory. Archos has dedicated mp3 players in the $30 - $99 range that are smaller but also feature shorter battery life (8 to 15 hours from the quick search I did). Sony makes a range of well thought of mp3 players as well. Where I am, the 8GB models are often on sale for under $100 and the 16GB models for under $130.

I'm with Carol: look for the highest quality you can afford. The audio output, forget battery life, will make it worth it!

PS (added in edit): I am reasonably confident that the audio output from the iPod clones that you are considering will not be all that great...

Living Room / Re: Battery Life vs Expandable Memory (Music Player)

« Last post by Darwin on September 11, 2011, 10:28 AM »

jeremejazz - it would help if you'd indicate which two devices you are considering? I have two Archos players that have fantastic battery life (both far greater than 6 hours of music playback and around 7-8 hours of video playback) and lots of memory (one is 16GB the other 32GB - because they both have microSD slots, the first now has 32GB of total storage and the second 48GB...).

It sounds, reading between the lines, that the third, unmentioned, variable is price?

Living Room / Re: Should I Get A Divorce?

« Last post by Darwin on September 04, 2011, 08:32 AM »

Ironically, Renegade, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is in stores in the Great White North ($499 for the 16GB version, which has 3G). They are GORGEOUS, but I went for the Asus Transformer because the screen is *about* on par and for the same price ($496) I got a built-in mini-HDMI port (dongle for the Sammy is $35), a microSD slot AND a keyboard dock that adds a second battery, keyboard and touchpad, 2 USB ports, an MMC/SD/SDHC slot... I'm *hoping* to use this thing on the road as a productivity tool. I'm tired of lugging my 3 year old laptop around. I just plugged my HP wireless keyboard and mouse receiver into one of the USB ports and they both worked right away. I really don't see this replacing a computer, but I think it's going to be great for the fall semester: my employer hasn't seen fit to provide me with a decent computer and I am travelling between three different campuses, so I'm going to take the tablet with me and run powerpoint presentations from it directly...

Sorry, too lazy to add the pictures, and imagination is worth it's weight in gold anyway.
-steeladept (September 03, 2011, 09:59 PM)

You might say that an imagination is priceless, non?

100

General Software Discussion / Re: Your most used SPECIAL programs

« Last post by Darwin on August 29, 2011, 08:51 AM »

If I have these applications installed, I don't really need anything else.
-Darwin (August 27, 2011, 09:59 AM)
Does that mean you're going to donate all your other licenses to charity?
-rjbull (August 28, 2011, 10:36 AM)

Not a bad idea. I wonder how legal this would be? I'm guessing that it all depends on the individual licenses. Cripes! That's a lot of EULA's to trawl through

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