Recent Posts

776

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007 / Re: My challenge and how I propose to do it

« Last post by iphigenie on November 21, 2007, 05:32 PM »

Actually, donating $1 to someone on this site who deserves it is not enough of a punishment...

I could imagine that it's like "hmm, if i am lazy today then some worthy person gets a dollar" - maybe too easy to make procrastinating positive.

Seriously, though, whats your site running on? there's got to be a way to import the content!

777

General Software Discussion / Re: Idea request: "Site discovery tool"

« Last post by iphigenie on November 21, 2007, 05:24 PM »

Google alerts certainly cannot do the job - they illustrate everything that is wrong about google's approach when you go for more topical/targeted information.

I have heard of stumble upon, but... I want the bits that arent popular enough in topics "light" enough to make it through filters like stumble upon... we're talking professional topics, and not in web dev or something popular like that, and stumble upon stumbles a bit there...

Or in a way I am looking for a way to automate what we are doing now, which equates to trawling numerous blogs and forums, subscribe to newsfeeds, blogrools, press release services, do regular deep searches, watch 100 companies... to find tidbits of information, pages, white papers etc. which are in the dark/deep web. The opposite of what digg/technorati/stumble upon do, which tries to fload some things to the surface because they are fun/cool/intriguing to a large number of people.

Some bits I know how to improve, using watchers, feed readers, search tools - but especially when it comes to the search tool I would like something more clever than the usual search. Something that remembers what i have already found before and doesnt show it again unless it has changed a lot. Something that can blacklist things and ignore things and make it easier for me to see stuff that i havent seen before...

I guess it's a "i wish i still had time to code" moment :S

778

General Software Discussion / Re: compare text files

« Last post by iphigenie on November 19, 2007, 04:30 PM »

I was about to post that I tend to use the diff tool that comes with slickedit.
I am stuck about 4 versions back on slickedit though, such a great tool but quite pricey

779

General Software Discussion / Re: SyncBackSE vs. SuperFlexible

« Last post by iphigenie on November 19, 2007, 03:51 PM »

I wonder...
the reason I use a 2 panel file manager is usually to copy/sync things

I suspect if I had a good sync/compare tool I might just use this, and then I would possibly be able to use a 1 panel file manager, because i would use it to manage files, not backup/copy/sync things

Although most sync tools I know are aimed solely at scheduled regular work, and are a bit clunky for the ad-hoc quick check. Thats why in spite of having synchredible and no hands backup, I still use a 2 panel manager for most jobs...

Any suggestions? is there a sync tool that can do simple ad-hoc as well as compex, scheduled stuff? Or do I just need to use a compare-diff-type tool? Or do i just stick with what I have and stop this silly software bulimia?

780

Developer's Corner / Re: Serena to offer free apps prototyping tool

« Last post by iphigenie on November 17, 2007, 05:01 AM »

In the planning phase, often a set of mockups (i.e. wireframes / visuals / not-doing-anything-except-show-the-task-flow clickable app / html clickable images)  really helps clarify what is meant by a feature and how it ought to work in the user's mind.

That is especially true in agile methodologies which imply the participation of client/user throughout.

A tool like this which might allow someone to sit with the user and on-the-fly react to a user comment, eg. "how could I change X" "well we would use a standard config list, like this"  --click click drag drag drag refresh-- "no, i dont think I would know what to do with this" "how about tabbed? and we could add a colour picker" --click click tick refresh -- "ah yes, less confusing"

Handing something like that together with a func spec/user stories/whatever the flavor of the month is for defining the works of the required app  *really* would help the developers who inherit bits of the work.

Of course in a 1-2 developer setting where the devs are involved early on in the planning this is maybe less helpful, but in the typical pre-sales / project manager / architect passing the buck to developers, this is could be quite helpful

I totally understand some of the things you are saying (especially the "why does it take so long") but i think it could still help, because I have found that forcing people to go through a phase of mockups can really avoid huge tension later down the road - and also set expectations

781

General Software Discussion / Re: Money Management Software

« Last post by iphigenie on November 13, 2007, 04:49 AM »

Had MS Money for years and they kept making it heavier and heavier until it simply took too long to enter things and watch where the money goes. So I looked for something simpler, I think it was in 2001 or 2002.

I switched to Ace Money (registered version) years ago and it's done well for our mutil-currency (i.e we have several cash trackers), multi accounts, multi people household. The author reacts very quickly to requests and all.

782

Developer's Corner / Re: Best way to track the time you spend on each project

« Last post by iphigenie on November 12, 2007, 12:37 PM »

I used spherical time tracker - i think there are cheaper alternatives.

It worked because i cannot be bothered to press a button whenever I change tasks or the phone rings etc. and since this program spies it all, you can get a lot of your schedule automatically. Then as you map documents/folders/URLs to a particular project then 80% of your day is automatically accounted for and you only need to fill in the blanks

Prior to that I used above and beyond - it has a "start work on this" and "interruptions"  mode which helps record where time is spent. I liked the juggling of priorities it allows you to do (in pro mode) but I lacked the discipline to keep pressing the little buttons so I used it for planning and not reporting in the end.

783

Living Room / Re: Save the Earth! From evil parasitic power packs...

« Last post by iphigenie on November 12, 2007, 12:33 PM »

We bought one of those power monitor thingies, the ones you put in at your main switch which then has a device you can take around with you and find out what turning things on/off does to your consumption.

Found out the difference between my old CRT and my partner's snazzy new flat screen was not as much as we thought it'd be    but on the other hand it confirmed that a lot of these transformers do add up.

Now we'd already switched all our lightbulbs prior to this but this little device still made a difference to our energy consumption, even though I cannot think as to how I changed my behaviour (turn plugs off more, i guess)

784

Living Room / Re: Save the Earth! From evil parasitic power packs...

« Last post by iphigenie on November 12, 2007, 07:44 AM »

Oh and I wish there was a cable modem with wake-on-lan... so it can turn itself off and then back on when you use it again.

Is there one? I just have the cable modem that came with my ISP kit so I never looked at the market much

785

Living Room / Re: Save the Earth! From evil parasitic power packs...

« Last post by iphigenie on November 12, 2007, 07:41 AM »

The danger with your idea is that say you turn the dvd player off but still play the radio, it is likely to shut it all down. But I like it nonetheless, it just might work...

Although considering that there are master switch systems which turn devices off when the master is turned off, all we need is a way for a pc to be able to shut itself down when it has idled long enough - and with the hibernate-to-disk options we have it could still resume quite quickly. I think that can probably be achieved today.

The problem is, many devices just dont want to be turned off.

I have a small stereo which does not have an OFF. It is either on, or on standby. Or unplugged (which is what i do). I find that silly, i dont think an on/off button is that expensive that it couldnt be put on a £100 device...

My cable box is the same.

I turn things off at the wallplug quite a lot but I must say my cable box doesnt seem to like it - it takes a longer and longer time to restart every time and usually freezes several times prior to working again. Its like they designed it thinking it would never be turned off.

786

Living Room / Re: Pet Peeve: I will never buy a rechargeable mouse again for as long as i live

« Last post by iphigenie on November 12, 2007, 07:29 AM »

I quite like my wireless mini mouse () and my wireless trackman. I bought neither because they were wireless, I bought them mostly because they were 5-button and had 2 buttons under the thumb (I depend on those buttons being there in WoW so any device without it is just doomed). It was almost a case of "in spite" of being wireless... Now i need to get my hands on some more rechargeable batteries just to be ready.

Trust makes quite a lot of very competitively priced light mice, almost all with 5 buttons so I own a big one (wired) and a little one (wireless). And I plan to buy one of the "fancy" (£12.99) gamer ones too.
One of the neat thing they do on almost every device is that next to the serial number they print the URL of the product support page. I find that really really neat in its simplicity. For example my mouse is http://www.trust.com/15315

As for the trackball they are very handy when you dont want to move your hand too much - either getting a bit of RSA (I used to have the "marble mouse" at work just for that) or because you're on a sofa or in a hotel room and theres just not much space. When I saw they had a 5 button trackball I could not resist.

787

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a way to clean all windows drivers to allow for a change of motherboard

« Last post by iphigenie on November 11, 2007, 06:36 AM »

AAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH

Microsoft tells me I have exceeded my number of activations on this license. Not sure how that could be since it is only used on this machine and I hadnt had to reinstall in 18 months (thanks to images) but I am most annoyed

I have 3 xp pro licenses, one xp mce, 2 licenses of windows 2000, i habe always paid for the right number of licenses...

and now
- my windows mce license said "exceeded" to me the other day (and the only reason i have had to reinstall this one so often is that windows mce was so broken originally it needed 5 tries to install
- and now this pc, which is my oldest but is also the first time i upgrade it

very very annoying and i am certainly not paying again!!!

Update: phew, worked over the phone

788

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a way to clean all windows drivers to allow for a change of motherboard

« Last post by iphigenie on November 11, 2007, 03:37 AM »

mostly the disk access feels sluggish (noticeable even when opening start menu submenus for the first time after a boot) and it feels a tad laggy/jerked in WoW.

On the other hand reinstalling the accounts package is something I worry about doing - i havent used it long enough to be sure
- it will just reinstall happily and not do some weird license grumbling
- i have backed up everything I need to make sure i have all the data etc
So i will meddle around some more

789

Mouser's Zone / Re: Mouser - a plea from your users!

« Last post by iphigenie on November 10, 2007, 12:20 PM »

When it comes to names, though, with so many words trademarked and so many concepts saturated, it is a challenge.

I have had to come up time and time again for a name for a company/software/website/product and it gets harder and harder.

You either go descriptive (not easily trademarkeable), invented (all the web2.0 names, they just needed a domain name pronounceable and not taken) (so instead of farr we'd have 'fzoolia'), combine 2-3 words together ('launchology'), or use a color (about every creative agency in the uk is purple this, yellow that...)

It's hard to be original nowadays

790

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a way to clean all windows drivers to allow for a change of motherboard

« Last post by iphigenie on November 10, 2007, 11:50 AM »

i guess, but the new hardware feels sluggish compared to the old hardware. I know the old hardware had a top notch motherboard but everything else is either the same or quite a bit better so I suspect something's not quite optimal. More playing around!

I might try repair, it might clear and reselect all the drivers.

791

Living Room / Re: Technology Myths

« Last post by iphigenie on November 09, 2007, 01:44 PM »

the beauty of marketing!

792

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a way to clean all windows drivers to allow for a change of motherboard

« Last post by iphigenie on November 09, 2007, 01:42 PM »

That approach is what i have done so far and windows seems to work.
But I have an uneasy feeling about it... the first time i did this a long time ago just wouldnt work so i am wary.

Also i have gone from athlon 3 Ghz to a dual core intel and it feels slower... but i have a similar processor in my laptop and that is faster. Although my laptop has a different chipset etc...

And I still have to go and figure out the bios

I guess Ill run a few more tests and tweaks

793

General Software Discussion / Re: Maybe Vista doesn't suck?

« Last post by iphigenie on November 09, 2007, 01:36 PM »

well i think MS has given hardware developers a nice long run between 1998 and 2006 nearly where they have had to only tweak and refine their drivers...

794

General Software Discussion / Re: compare text files

« Last post by iphigenie on November 09, 2007, 07:31 AM »

I tend to use winmerge when i just need a quick comparison tool like that. http://winmerge.org/

If you need to do it often then there are many developent tools with that feature, but winmerge is open souce and should do the job

795

General Software Discussion / Is there a way to clean all windows drivers to allow for a change of motherboard

« Last post by iphigenie on November 09, 2007, 07:24 AM »

Hi

Normally when I change the motherboard/chip of a computer I just reinstall windows. That works. Avoids conflict.

But this is my old main PC and it has a LOT of things configured and installed. I really really dont want to reinstall it all. It takes days. That's why I made an image 2 years ago and update it when needed... but that wont help now.

At this point I might have shelled out for the Acronis 11 upgrade and the additional module, but I think it was Carol who said it doesnt work as expected.

So I am considering trying to do it manually.

I tried uninstalling (when available) or deleting from the hardware list all of the underlying drivers but it wont let me delete them all.

I have installed all the new drivers and they seem to be the only ones active, but I am not getting the kind of responsiveness I got on the old hardware, and this is much better hardware, so obviously this is not optimal.

I just thought there might be a tool out there that clears all drivers that I could try. Clear all, reboot, redetect, tada, clean PC... I doubt that works but it seems possible that some driver admin tool exists with that feature "clean my board".... I can dream!

My next step if I cant find that is a reinstall "on top" but I dont think this will clear the drivers list, will it?

Another idea might be to find a way to export all the useful registry bits except for hardware, so i dont have to reinstall every piece of software... backup, do a clean reinstall, restore all app settings... but I dont think it is that easy...

I think i could spend days trying to come up with a solution so might as well spend days on a clean install, bust still, I thought I would just ask here...

796

General Software Discussion / Re: ERUNT - Restore Replacement

« Last post by iphigenie on November 09, 2007, 07:15 AM »

So how do people restore after erunt?

When the machine doesnt start properly, it goes down to having the right kind of boot disk.

I used to have OO  bluecon but didnt upgrade to the version which supposedly works with xp (they got rid of the small user price point).  Some utilities with their own bootCD, an old win98 boot disk and some linux live CD which sometimes is willing to give ntfs access... and I kind of improvise.

If i can boot to safe mode or recovery console I do that, else i try to get access to the files I need by any of the above

I have heard of the winxp bootdisk tools but they seem like such a faff to set up :|

Pointers welcome

797

General Software Discussion / Re: Does reliable PC security have to cost money?

« Last post by iphigenie on November 08, 2007, 09:05 AM »

Comodo BOclean is also a very nice security product - I almost bought BOClean a dozen times when it was commercial (and thousands did the same which is why it sold itself to Comodo, eventually...)

798

General Software Discussion / Re: Does reliable PC security have to cost money?

« Last post by iphigenie on November 07, 2007, 09:55 AM »

lol!

I feel lucky, I tend to be able to trust him to put hardware in a case

799

General Software Discussion / Re: Google OS already here, with hardware?! Well, sort of.

« Last post by iphigenie on November 07, 2007, 06:22 AM »

I dont think we need another monopolistic, all-your-stuff-belongs-to-us company

Google is the next MS and I can feel the backlash mounting with every new announcement they make.

I only opened a google account this week and on a one-off address to claim the £10 discount on google checkout. It was such a bad experience compared to almost anything I won't repeat it again (took 20 minutes for a simple payment with abundant turning-in-circles moments)

So yes, in a way it might be welcome that some brands help make alternate OSes more mainstream, but I'm not sure google taking too much of an involvement in too many open source projects is a good thing. There's already a lot of criticism about google's influence over firefox and any ad blocking that can be done in there I dont want my OS to be hijacked too.

Its strange but I trust MS more than I trust Google. I feel I know where they are coming from. Of course as they try to be more like google that might change.

PS: my distros of choice still are
- bsd
- slackware
and not because i am an idealist but because I like clean and controllable...

PPS: opensolaris is really sexy!

800

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by iphigenie on November 07, 2007, 02:50 AM »

Equations?
Niiice, I'm jumping in now

Except I don't have MS Office except on my work laptop and I won't install betas or unlicensed anything on that.

I have about a zillion office suites - the old smartsuite, an middle aged version of the wordperfect one (pre-corel), the one ashampoo lists and of course open office, so there is most likely a way