Recent Posts

7726

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Request: Please share your prioritization methods here

« Last post by tomos on June 13, 2010, 04:46 PM »

Thanks for the reply Iain,
apologies about getting the 'Agenda' name wrong  
And I see now that focusing on the software was probably veering off-topic - I may bring it up in another thread. I found your proposal btw IDEA: Create a modern version of Lotus Agenda


Armando - nice to get an idea of your system, thanks. Some good ground rules there too... will have to have another look at it tomorrow (tired here too - Germany just after winning first World Cup game 4:0 - Yeaaay . . . now I'm definitely off-topic :p )

7727

DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for June 10th, 2010 - "Second Summer Winds"

« Last post by tomos on June 13, 2010, 09:37 AM »

he's probably just having a bad day lol

thanks as ever mouser, there's a big mix in there this month



[edit] bix mix = big mix   [/edit]

7728

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Request: Please share your prioritization methods here

« Last post by tomos on June 13, 2010, 08:47 AM »

Thanks for the posts 

ABC computer-based method: In 1989/1990, I started using Lotus Agenda, a PIM which was ideal for automating the recording and dynamic updating of the ToDo list and details of any associated data. Lotus Agenda is obsolete now, and I have not found any software that can perform as well as this since [...]

-IainB (June 12, 2010, 02:08 PM)

~
could you go into more detail about how this worked with Lotus Notes ?

I know you discussed Lotus Notes a little in an Info Select thread where you also mentioned a previous thread (which I couldnt find) -

I did post an "IDEA" for new Agenda-like software on the DC forum a while back, but no takers. I suspect that more modern generations would not have a clue what it is, and therefore would not want to dig down and develop it, and older one-time assembler programmers like me - who knew Agenda well, but also know our limitations - haven't started to try and develop it, even though we might like to.
I am playing with InfoQube (was SQLNotes) at present, to see what that offers.

-IainB (September 23, 2009, 11:33 PM)

~
How did you get on with IQ ? - I could imagine it being very adaptable to the ABC approach.

7729

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: TeraCopy Pro for $9.00 (only for another 9 hours or so though)

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2010, 05:02 PM »

Everyone uses the phrase "free beer" but I haven't found any in real life.
It must be one of those abstractions I heard about.

-MilesAhead (June 12, 2010, 04:21 PM)

yeah, it's a lie - you always have to pay somehow

7730

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: TeraCopy Pro for $9.00 (only for another 9 hours or so though)

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2010, 04:15 PM »

That makes me think of a cool name for a calendar program that automatically puts things off for you.  Crastinator Pro. Or you could get the open source version Crastinator Free.

-MilesAhead (June 09, 2010, 10:58 PM)

And for those who have constipation....Crapinator Pro.

-Innuendo (June 10, 2010, 08:34 PM)

I would think constipated it would be CrapFree.

-MilesAhead (June 12, 2010, 01:03 PM)

is that free as in free beer or free speech ? . . .

7731

Living Room / Re: 20 years later, the movie "Total Recall" still kicks butt

« Last post by tomos on June 12, 2010, 03:44 AM »

A chiseled titan playing an everyman? C'mon! Arnold Schwarzenegger was certainly miscast in Total Recall. Nevertheless, the depthlessness of his performance hardly matters once he starts flailing and freaking out in the Rekall machine.

-website

a cool movie in my book. though, what does he mean by "depthlessness"?

-lanux128 (June 12, 2010, 01:43 AM)

Shallowness (although havent seen it before)

7732

General Software Discussion / Re: Cloudberry S3 Explorer and Bucket Explorer

« Last post by tomos on June 11, 2010, 08:32 AM »

Amazon S3 Console The AWS Management Console now provides a simple and intuitive web interface for managing your Amazon S3 resources. You can manage your existing Amazon S3 resources, as well as create new buckets and upload objects to your buckets using the console. The console simplifies managing your Amazon S3 resources by enabling you to:     * Access your Amazon S3 resources from anywhere using a web-based user interface.     * Log in using your AWS account name and password. If you've enabled AWS Multi-Factor Authentication, the console will prompt you for your devices authentication code. No need to look up and enter your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.     * Oversee your AWS resources in a single, convenient location. The AWS Management Console now supports Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Elastic MapReduce, and Amazon RDS.     * Manage buckets with billions of objects. The console also works with folders and objects created using many popular third party tools.

_

I tried this out earlier - it hasnt worked yet for me (it is in beta). It did find my one and only bucket, but it was unable to read the contents so I have no idea what it is capable of.
It may well work for others though ...

copy & paste link:-
console.aws.amazon.com/s3

7733

Living Room / Re: 10 Suicides at Apple factory this year.

« Last post by tomos on June 11, 2010, 04:10 AM »

 30% wage hike for Foxconn workers (I suspect their wages must have been really low if they're getting a 30% increase)

http://english.cntv....0100608/102253.shtml

7734

Living Room / Re: I'm not George Jetson anymore!

« Last post by tomos on June 11, 2010, 02:31 AM »

You are hereby dubbed: The guy formerly known as George Jetson!

-Deozaan (June 10, 2010, 03:22 PM)

TGFKAGJ!

-Innuendo (June 10, 2010, 08:39 PM)

lol, it took me a while to figure out that one
so I guess scancode's acronym applies  

7735

Official Announcements / Re: June 2010 Discount and Giveaway: XYplorer

« Last post by tomos on June 10, 2010, 04:17 PM »

That's an excellent product!
Thanks to those involved in arranging this.

-cranioscopical (June 10, 2010, 03:46 PM)

+1

Nice license too

The XYplorer Lifetime License Pro entitles one person to use the full version of XYplorer on any number of devices for an unlimited time.
Plus, the key is valid for ALL future versions, so you pay once and get all upgrades for free!

7736

Screenshot Captor / Re: The Print -Icon... do printout immediately

« Last post by tomos on June 10, 2010, 08:00 AM »

my thinking was, use the File menu if you want the print dialog.. use the quick toolbar button if you want a quick immediate printout.

-mouser (June 10, 2010, 07:22 AM)

Microsoft uses this line of logic in the Office suite. the button on the toolbar is essentially a quick print button based on the settings used the previous time. to make any changes, one have to go to the File>Print menu item.

-lanux128 (June 10, 2010, 07:26 AM)

Ctrl+P would normally bring up the print dialogue, but with SC it brings up the preferences (there's no shortcut for print)
Just making a point - I dont normally print screenshots,
 . . . but I would love to see customisable shortcuts for menu items (with apologies for steering this a bit off-topic...)

edit:- minor

7737

Screenshot Captor / Re: SC: Discussion of Scanning Functions

« Last post by tomos on June 08, 2010, 08:08 AM »

bumping this - not sure if that explanation is fully clear so:

   1) I scan something, say a letter - text fits easily in A4 page
   2) tidy & crop it in SC
   3) when it is saved as PDF, SC enlarges the scanned image so as it fills the (A4) page to the very edge

there are workarounds, but I was hoping that step #3 could be stopped/removed ?

-tomos (January 15, 2010, 06:28 AM)

I notice when I save a screenshot using "save as", there is drop-down-options "Fit" where I can set percentage between 25% and 400%. I thought this could be a good workaround when saving a scan as PDF - but unfortunately it doesnt work when I save as PDF - the image always fills the page (no margin even)

So, I guess there is an invisible setting somewhere that defaults to "Fit" when saving as PDF. Is there a reason for this? (difficult to change is a good reason btw!). but if it's just accidental would you be able to change it to 100% ?
I dont know if the PDF always defaults to scanner size for it's file page size (both A4 here so seems probably)

if you dont respond to this mouser I will start stalking you - naah, :-) but I will keep posting every few months :p (unless I get a definite no-can-do)
 

7738

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (beta - download)

« Last post by tomos on June 06, 2010, 01:42 PM »

It seems that setting an alarm for X:xx PM resulted in the alarm going off at both X:xx PM & X:xx AM - That's hardly acceptable...and I'm not sure how the hell I missed it (in retrospect). But one of the alarm loop tests (which was set for 6:00 PM) woke me up at 6:00 AM this morning ... Which required a low grade Witch Hunt to crucify the jackass that had woke me up at 6:00 AM on a freaking Sunday... (Which turned out to be me)   ...Oops.

So... I'll just call this one the Sunday Morning Bugg fix build.

-Stoic Joker (June 06, 2010, 01:26 PM)

lol,
go 24hr !  :-)

7739

Living Room / Re: The Ever-Evolving Question of Privacy

« Last post by tomos on June 06, 2010, 01:02 PM »

just in case anyone missed it -
a related thread, but focusing more on governments trying to get their hands on what google have collected:
Power corrupts... and absolute power...

7740

Living Room / Re: Why do we always wait for apple's stuff before making a i[blank]-killer??

« Last post by tomos on June 06, 2010, 08:16 AM »

I'm not an apple user, but it seems to me, a lot of people (quotes below) agree on one thing - Apple do a lot of work on the user interface. This is an area that is extremely neglected by everyone else in my limited experience of electronic apps / software.

If I could change an app, 99 times out of a 100 it's the interface I'd change.


> apple did 2 main things -- first, they put the effort into the software user interface that few other companies are willing to do.
mouser

> the Ipod, the Iphone, the I-pad succeeded so far because they always brought something "shiny" like scroll wheel, touch screen/power, screen size/touch screen when the pragmatic view of useful at the time didn't respect these features enough.
If these were turds, then every other offer at the time would be smellier turds from a consumer perspective.
PaulKeith

> Apple is good at 1 thing, and 1 thing only. It takes good ideas that failed, repackages them in a super-sexy outfit...
Renegade



edit: minor corrections

7741

Living Room / Re: 10 Suicides at Apple factory this year.

« Last post by tomos on June 06, 2010, 07:52 AM »

I wonder will we see 'FairTrade' electronic equipment at any stage?
It would be nice to know at least that the workers get enough to live comfortably.

There is a very respected German magazine, Stiftung Warentest,  that tests things (anything and everything). They do it very methodically and scientifically and give very detailed results and background info etc. Recently they tested running shoes - but they also 'tested' the conditions in the factories where the shoes were made (mostly Vietnam IIRC). Nike came bottom of that list, Addidas at the top - I know the next time I buy a pair of 'runners' who I'll be going with if at all possible, and who I'll definitely be avoiding.
It would be harder to do that with computers because the parts are made in so many different factories, but it would be nice if the computer assemblers made an effort to ensure that conditions arent the pits. Would be good publicity for them too, but I imagine they wont do it till the pressure is on...

7742

Living Room / Re: 10 Suicides at Apple factory this year.

« Last post by tomos on June 04, 2010, 07:25 AM »

Simply unreal. The guy is just a real piece of work.

-Renegade (June 04, 2010, 07:04 AM)

agreed, sounds like he had nothing to say about the actual problems there, & if he tagged the stuff about Flash on at the end
but OTOH, that article is really useless... [edit] I mean there's no detailed info in there about anything related to the situation or the press conference (was it even a press conference?) [/edit]

7743

Living Room / Re: Old: Shirky on Walled Gardens

« Last post by tomos on June 03, 2010, 11:25 AM »

I knew I had read that before here:
"Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism."

a good read

7744

Living Room / Re: Google Ditches Windows on Security Concerns

« Last post by tomos on June 01, 2010, 11:44 AM »

First rule of real system-level product development: "Eat your own dogfood." 

no, first rule is infiltrate the market as deeply and broadly as possible, even if you lose money on the effort.
rule two is de-legitimize the competitor's product and soften up the market.
rule three is roll out your alternative product.
god i feel like a paranoid nut.

-mouser (June 01, 2010, 11:42 AM)

No mouser, they'll be headhunting you next

7745

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Advantages of Chrome's Session Saving Extensions over other browsers

« Last post by tomos on May 31, 2010, 08:56 AM »

Thanks Paul
I dont have Chrome installed - yet - but I'm a big fan of 'Sessions' in general - in FF I have the "Session Manager" extension, but it has been a buggy here since recent FF updates (since FF 3.5 I think even)
So, I must try this out...

(also I love the 'session saver' ability in Directory Opus file manager (saved lister layouts) but that's veering very off-topic )

7746

General Software Discussion / Re: Font managers reviews and opinions

« Last post by tomos on May 31, 2010, 07:14 AM »

Re a query about MainType from another thread:

From time to time I have purchased some cheap font managers, only to find they later (or already) were abandoned. I guess one of my prime reasons for buying "cheap" have been the price of the recommended ones. $49 and $59 may be okay prices for MainType 3 and FontExpert 2010, if they were to keep for life. But they are not lifetime licenses, and the upgrade prices are $29 and $39 - making especially FontExpert much too expensive, I think. Changes are not that big, it seems, but major versions come quick (*ALMOST* as often as Ashampoo!)!

Did you stick with your gratis version 2, tomos, or have you paid the $29 fee?

-Curt (May 30, 2010, 05:08 PM)

I only found out about the upgrade (of MainType) to version 3 last week so I'm considering upgrading -
OT(One)H it doesnt seem to get upgraded often (4 years since v.2 came out)
OT(Other)H there doesnt seem to be much happening in between - it's gone from 2.1.1 (2007) to 3:

2.1.1 [May 16, 2007]
    * Install and uninstall fonts through double-click

3.0 [March 31, 2010]
    * Better handling of font substitutes
    * New context menu item: Open Containing Folder
    * New filter option, Font Type: Unknown
    * Added Foundry and a Full Font Name (Postscript) columns to the Fonts pane
    * Show all Glyphs option
    * Fixed issues with PostScript Type 1 fonts on Windows x64
    * New setting for font display quality (aliased/ cleartype, etc)
    * Automatic online version checking

I'm a very basic user. I use it just if I need to have a good look at fonts, & to install/uninstall or to load fonts ('install' till next reboot)
It doesnt affect me personally but I do find it a bit unfriendly that a bug fix is part of the upgrade (issues with PostScript Type 1 fonts on Windows x64) but I guess that's excusable considering the age of 2.1

It did (2008) get a very good review at Smashing Magazine (link in first post above)

MainType is an universal font management tool for both novice users and advanced graphic designers and typographers. In order to find the right fonts for your needs, the software includes filter and sort functionality. The main information about the font, such as its properties, supported characters, font type etc. are displayed in a font information pane. A groups pane helps you quickly organize all your fonts.

my emphasis

If you're seriously considering it, have a look at this MainType forum thread - they're considering a rewrite because it cant cache the details of your fonts - this means it currently has to read all your fonts on startup and people are saying it's slow (doesnt seem to be included in the list of improvements above). For me this is not a problem - I have only 200 fonts installed.

7747

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred font?

« Last post by tomos on May 31, 2010, 07:13 AM »

From time to time I have purchased some cheap font managers, only to find they later (or already) were abandoned. I guess one of my prime reasons for buying "cheap" have been the price of the recommended ones. $49 and $59 may be okay prices for MainType 3 and FontExpert 2010, if they were to keep for life. But they are not lifetime licenses, and the upgrade prices are $29 and $39 - making especially FontExpert much too expensive, I think. Changes are not that big, it seems, but major versions come quick (*ALMOST* as often as Ashampoo!)!

Did you stick with your gratis version 2, tomos, or have you paid the $29 fee?

-Curt (May 30, 2010, 05:08 PM)

I moved my response to the Font Managers thread
https://www.donation....msg207300#msg207300

7748

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred font?

« Last post by tomos on May 30, 2010, 03:07 PM »

I am impressed how much Veign has done to Cfont Pro since the last time I tried it some years ago. I will certainly test it for some time. Thanks, Tom!

-Curt (May 30, 2010, 02:16 PM)

there's probably a bunch of other free ones too - I have a paid one (MainType) - but that cause I won it here on dc

I'm sure there's a thread here on the subject too ... Font managers reviews and opinions

7749

General Software Discussion / Re: print to PDF stationery / merge files?

« Last post by tomos on May 30, 2010, 03:04 PM »

mouser's probably thinking of this feature of FinePrint:

Print electronic letterhead

-rjbull (May 30, 2010, 02:58 PM)

see
http://www.fineprint.../tutorial/forms.html

anyone used that?

7750

General Software Discussion / Re: What to use to back up 1:1 ?

« Last post by tomos on May 30, 2010, 01:11 PM »

SFFS on the other hand, is heavy duty in the sense you can set up a job with almost any imaginable variation possible. Really it's a backup programme, with everything you would expect from a backup prog (& more)

Have a look at their features page (there are two versions, only thing I'd miss in the basic version would be partial file updating - check the purchase page for differences)

-tomos (May 19, 2010, 05:02 AM)

I should add that the standard version of Super Flexible File Synchronizer doesnt support zip compression,
nor:

    * FTP/SSH/WebDAV/S3 and ZIP compression support,
    * Real-Time Synchronization (folder monitoring),
    * Running the scheduler as a service,
    * Copying file permissions and file shares,
    * Creating new network connections and monitoring resources,
    * Running profiles in parallel or under a different user account,
    * Partial updating of large files.