Recent Posts

7626

Living Room / Re: OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 09:01 AM »

The nearest hill is Penhill, the one to the right of it in the distance is Buckden Pike.

How about a photo of your part of Somerset?

7627

Living Room / OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 08:05 AM »

Following up 'lucky dog Stefan' living in Heildelberg ....

I live in the North of England in the Yorkshire Dales National Park ...

here is a local view ... (basically nearly out of the back of my house)



and some local visitors to my garden:

http://www.lairdswoo...od/garden-birds.html

How about adding your own so we get to be a little more friendly around here ...

7628

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use a password manager? if not, maybe you should

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 07:49 AM »

Add to this that RoboForm is now available in a form that can be used with USB sticks ...

7629

Screenshot Captor / Re: Coming soon.. Arrows, callouts, textboxes

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 07:14 AM »

OpenClipArt was a good find. For the purposes of SC

http://www.openclipa...gate/shapes/callouts

 and

http://www.openclipa...vigate/shapes/arrows

Seem like good places to start

There are also http://www.openclipa...ate/shapes/flowchart

7630

Backup Guide / Re: MirrorFolder compared to reviewed programs?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 03:50 AM »

I used to use AutoSave from http://www.v-com.com which keeps versioned backups of files as you save them.

It seemed to work well and saved my bacon on more than one occasion, but like you I got a little fed up with have the disc chuntering i the background periodically.

If you need this sort of backup though it is worth looking at, and it isn't expensive.

7631

Living Room / Forums query

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 03:14 AM »

Is there anyway that in the 'uread posts' lists you can force a thread to open at the first unread message rather than having to scroll through everytime? This would be really good for multipage threads.

7632

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use a password manager? if not, maybe you should

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 03:11 AM »

Another vote for RoboForm - it also gets better all the time with new bits and bobs added (like its customisable search engine in the current version).

Actually the application is so good it is one reason why Opera will never become a regular use browser for me (however good it is).

RoboForm works great in Internet Explorer and Mozilla based browsers (inc. Firefox and Netscape).

Also so far updates and upgrades have been free after the initial purchase of the Pro version.

7633

General Software Discussion / Re: Would you pay for WinZip?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 03:06 AM »

i'm actually quite fond of winzip, but i will not pay a yearly update for such a thing.

-mouser (August 31, 2005, 02:11 AM)

Quite - the whole point about paying for something that most used for free was that you got free updates.

Sounds like the company have stabbed themselves in the foot.

I'll be sticking to the version I have got and if I need updates I'll continue to use WinRAR.

7634

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 31, 2005, 03:00 AM »

This is precisely my gripe with copy protection - the only people actually inconvenienced are the genuine users. ANyone who wants a cracked version, illegal serial numbers or a key generator can find them easy enough in any of the major search engines!!

7635

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 07:42 PM »

If anyone is interested here is a useful list of freeware system monitoring tools (not just Temp/Fans but all sorts)

http://www.softpedia...atList/92,1,1,1.html

7636

Living Room / Re: ad-free version of Opera,one day only!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 06:17 PM »

It'll annoy a lot of people if they do!

Don't you think they have discovered they are fighting a losing battle if they are going to charge for something that is available for free from lots of other sources - how much do you bet that within the next year Opera will be a free or donation based download.

7637

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 04:16 PM »

Haven't heard back from him yet (!)

Actually I have version 4.1 and have now managed to reinstall a really old version (Feb 2003) but with works with my mobo. The key supplied doesn't even work with later versions of 4.1

Alternatives ??

Motherboard Monitor http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ works but hasn't seen an update in over 12 months, and last I heard had stopped all development now.

SpeedFan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php has similar functions and is still being updated. I haven't tried the latest build yet but it used to work well, and if your system is running cool can seriously quieten down noisy fans.

I think I'll go back to speedfan - it's free and works well. HMonitor can stuff it .... and I've started posting reviews on download sites to that effect!

Anyone know any other good alternatives?

7638

Find And Run Robot / Re: Feature Request v2 - time to get started

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 02:13 PM »

It would be usefull to go one stage further with the URL building for searching so that:

"wik NASA" Moon Landings would generate the url with "NASA+Moon+Landings" as the search string, otherwise they will be restricted to one word searches.

I suppose though I am being lazy - no real reason why I can't type the + signs 

7639

Living Room / Re: ad-free version of Opera,one day only!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 10:04 AM »

Great - I sent an email too and haven't yet had a reply so this was a great find

7640

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 07:23 AM »

That is exactly the situation.

I emailed him again saying it was outrageous and verging on illegal and just got a reply - there is obviously some sort of confusion.

I'll let you know the outcome.

7641

General Software Discussion / HMonitor ... a warning ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 06:06 AM »

Just had a bad experience and felt the need to express myself.

I purchased a copy of HMonitor http://www.hmonitor.com/ a while back.

It is a key based system (which is fair enough) but be warned if you buy this software.

If at some future date you need to reinstall Windows the key will not work and if a new version is released the author will not supply a new code unless you buy the version upgrade. I have not changed my hardware so I do not need an upgrade, or gain anything if I do.

This would be fair enough if I upgrade my hardware and need the later version for support but I don't !!

To my mind this is the worst of practices (and pretty unique in my experience).

Effectively you are held hostage to upgrades.

If you want a hardware monitor I would suggest looking elsewhere !

7642

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request for 3rd party freeware tool configurations

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 02:50 AM »

Thanks for the ideas - I actually have copies of Visual Studio 6 Pro and C++ Builder Pro (an old version 4 copy).

The trouble I have is getting started - there just seems to be a much larger base of knowledge that you need these days - and it isn't made easier by all the acronyms everyone uses and never explains !!

I have been browsing round the ImageMagick site and came across this link:

http://software.news...sid=05/07/01/1959251

which may provide a quick way to produce animation output from Screenshot Captor if you put in a GIF timed capture sequence feature.

7643

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request for 3rd party freeware tool configurations

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 02:35 AM »

PS: Did you notice the license stuff on the ImagMagick website:

"ImageMagick is free software: it is delivered with full source code and can be freely used, copied, modified and distributed."

Sounds ideal !

Now all I have to do is try and get my rapidly aging brain back into programming mode ! (It's been a good few years now and it is difficult to know how to get started again in a Windows environment). Mouser, what do you use for coding?

7644

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request for 3rd party freeware tool configurations

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 02:23 AM »

WOW - imagemagik has enough to keep any command line junkie happy for life !!

7645

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Xnview vs. Irfan View

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 02:18 AM »

Yes it is a good app but there is no way (that I have spotted anyway) that you can mix and match formats on a single sheet or rearrange the layout of a sheet.

A really easy template builser would be the icing on the cake.

The other thing I find a bit frustrating with the Canon software is the CD/DVD disc printing.

The CD software is a bit basic (to say the least) but almost no labelling programs support direct print CDs (rather than labels).

I have tried to produce a suitable template for other software but it is really hard to get the disc accurately registered and every test means the plastic carrier comes out with wet ink over it and a duff CD. Plus every bit of software needs a slightly different template.

Having said that I shouldn't complain too much as I know my lovely printer can't print discs in the US because of the Digital Right brigade putting pressure on Canon to restrict that feature!

7646

Find And Run Robot / Re: F&R fans get an update

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 02:10 AM »

I wouldn't want to use existing indexes - I have tried all of the desktop search utilities and don't really like any of them. They gobble up disk space like no tomorrow and always want to reindex when you least want it.

WRT updating an index for F&R I would have thought either manual updating or using the schedule mananger would work OK.

Unless you constantly install and uninstall new software that need to be accessed via F&R I wouldn't have thought the index would need to be updated too often.

It would be nice if files (such as .exe) could be dragged and dropped onto the F&R window too to produce a button quickly without having to search..

7647

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Xnview vs. Irfan View

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2005, 02:00 AM »

I don't think there is one!

I have Adobe PhotoShop and you can do just about anything you like with that, but not without some effort.

There doesn't seem to be a cheap flexible printing utility for photos etc. that I can find. FotoSlat is OK but nothing terribly special and Shell Picture makes a stab at it and provides a quick (if somewhat dirty) interface for getting quick output.

If you find something let me know

7648

Find And Run Robot / Re: Feature Request v2 - time to get started

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 29, 2005, 05:37 PM »

The configurable launcher works quite well from RoboForms new tool bar search function. You just set up the format of the search URL and then have a drop down list of configured URLs by just typing what you want to look for. It is also useful as it keeps a search histroy too - so you can easily look for items from different URLs by a single click.

This is certainly available in RoboForm Pro, but I have no easy way of checking the free version of RoboForm (it doesn't say this is restricted on the website). RoboForm is a brilliant password/identity manager and notes store and worth getting if you don't use it already. It also works well in Explorer, Firefox and Mozilla and other browsers too that I haven't tried like Opera.

See http://www.roboform.com/ for further details.

Here are the URLs I currently have set up in Roboform and they really speed up my shopping!

http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=
http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=
http://news.google.com/news?q=
http://search.yahoo....&ei=UTF-8&p=
http://news.search.y...news?ei=UTF-8&p=
http://search.msn.com/results.asp?q=
http://www.amazon.co...blended&keyword=
http://www.amazon.co...blended&keyword=
http://dogbert.abebo...amp;sortby=2&kn=
http://www.musicroom...ucts&searchtext=
http://www.play.com/...=9&searchstring=
http://www.playusa.c...ch&searchstring=
http://www.dvdpacifi...om/search.asp?title=
http://www.happyhunter.co.uk/
http://www.m-w.com/c...k=Dictionary&va=
http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=
http://web.ask.com/web?q=
http://a9.com/
http://www.alltheweb...arch?cs=utf-8&q=
http://www.mamma.com...a?qtype=0&query=

7649

Cheat Sheeter / Any progress here?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 29, 2005, 10:24 AM »

I had a look to download the early alpha and the link seems to have disappeared (just get a page not on this server error).

Any progress ?

7650

Screenshot Captor / Re: Bugs 'n' suggestion

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 29, 2005, 08:42 AM »

I like the idea of a movie mode too ... this could be incorporated into a GIF animation file type.