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801

General Software Discussion / Screenshot - Tesseract (open source) OCR tools

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 12, 2009, 07:13 AM »

Hi Folks,

These Tesseract products are interesting, although it is not likely that any are really high-class (good quality image and easy to use) for Screen Capture --> Text today.

THE BASICS

Tesseract OCR engine - Freeware Open Source
http://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/
Forum (active)
http://groups.google...group/tesseract-ocr/

TESSERACT - WEB OCR

WeOCR server
http://asv.aso.ecei....oku.ac.jp/tesseract/
"This server cannot handle page images. The input image should be a TEXT BLOCK image containing some texts only, with clear background, without any dirt around the texts. "

PRODUCTS AND PROJECTS

FreeOCR
http://freeocr.co.uk/
FreeOCR is a scan & OCR program including the Tesseract free ocr engine also known as a Tesseract GUI. It includes a Windows installer and It is very simple to use and supports multi-page tiff's, fax documents as well as most image types including compressed Tiff's which the Tesseract engine on its own cannot read .It now has Twain scanning. ... Please note that the Tesseract OCR engine requires images at a resolution of 200 dpi or greater and as such it is not suited for reading PC screen shots which are only about 72dpi although we have made some enhancements in V2.3 which will produce better accurarcy from low quality image sources.

gscan2pdf - A GUI to produce a multipage PDF or DjVu from a scan. -
freeware open source - Tesseract
http://gscan2pdf.sourceforge.net/

Tessnet2 a .NET 2.0 Open Source OCR assembly using Tesseract engine
http://www.pixel-tec...m/freeware/tessnet2/

Shalom,
Steven Avery

802

General Review Discussion / Re: Free Total Commander licences

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 11, 2009, 04:38 PM »

Hi Folks,

Definitely.  Well-done.

Very fine software, a good number of licenses, and a variety pack of methods.  Rarely have I heard of a freebie that brought forth this level of enthusiasm.   (Other software authors and reps.. take note !)

Shalom,
Steven

803

General Software Discussion / Screen capture - OCR roundup (text capture)

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 11, 2009, 12:41 PM »

Hi Folks,

Here is a summary of the softwares to consider for screen text capture (so far) with small notes.  There may be a few here that are worthwhile for precision and/or speed, mileage in usage tends to vary.  Some I include, including the Tesseract stuff, might state that they it is designed for higher-resolution or less cluttered input such as scanned documents.  Other stuff is geared to the document/office/scan environment.

So I will put the Tesseract and the well-liked MODI stuff separately, MODI includes JOCR and an excellent article by Jon Galloway.  However OneNote is included below, it can be separate from Office .. I wonder if it uses the exact same MODI component. Also I am not including .pdf to .txt converters, of which there are many.

No personal recommendations yet, however :

The Abbyy product for $10 looks new and may be a keeper.  

At least the info may save a spot of time searching.  Included is some office document stuff, since there is overlap and your company or clients may be using this or that.

================================

WEB OCR

Evernote - multi-platform
http://www.evernote.com/
This usage is often discussed on the net, have not checked for strengh of screen capture results.

OCR Terminal
http://www.ocrterminal.com/
"OCR Terminal is a free online Optical Character Recognition service that allows you to convert scanned images and PDFs into editable and text searchable documents. It accurately preserves formatting and layout of documents."

======================================================

COMMERCIAL AND SHAREWARE

Abbyy ScreenShot Reader - $10 - (2008 new product) - 30 day return
http://www.abbyyusa.com/shop/SSR.htm
"you can use Screenshot Reader to select and copy pieces of text from images, Flash files, PDFs, and other image-based files, then convert them into true text which you can then edit or insert into other documents."
ABBYY FineReader 9.0 Express Edition - $50 - trial 15 days
http://www.abbyyusa.com/frexpress/
Abbyy Scan to Office - $50 --> replaced by FineExpress Express per Tommy in sales
http://www.abbyyusa.com/shop/STO.htm
USA  (408) 457-9777 Milpetas, CA and international offices, main office Russia, no forums
(also Finereader in Corp section.)

Kleptomania - $30 StructuRise (also Textract SDK 2.9  for text-to-program) - Moscow
(40 day trial - nice screen pic demo)
http://www.structurise.com/kleptomania/
Good website, no forum, phone # (perfers email)

Capture Text - $30 - Dmitry Sokolovskiy  - Seattle WA (206) 888-6807 and email
http://www.capturetext.com/

Screen OCR - $30  - 21-day trial - (206) 338-5863 - Seattle, WA and email
http://www.screenocr.com/

Aqua Deskperience - $15 - Bucharest, Romania
http://www.deskperie...skperience/aqua.html
Snapfiles - "30 day trial. Some features disabled."

TextBridge Pro 11 - $80 (Nuance - also do OmniPage) - Burlington, MA (781) 565-5000
http://www.nuance.com/textbridge/
Wiki, KnowledgeBase, etc.(30 day refund only - no trial)

OCR Tools - Desktop Application - Freeware
http://www.ocrtools....m/fi/prdOCRFree.aspx St Paul, MN
"OCR Desktop Application is a desktop utility that generates ASCII text from images such as a bitmap or image file. OCR Desktop is free, the registered version turns off popups and advertising."

Onenote - Microsoft - pricey $100 - unless with MS Office Suite - perhaps uses MODI component
http://office.micros...onenote/default.aspx
"paste or otherwise import an image containg text into a OneNote page, right click on it and choose "Copy Text from Picture"... then simply paste the copied text wherever you'd like it. Of course, it's not perfect OCR for low resolution." (note from Jon Galloway blog comments)

SimpleOCR - freeware - support is FAQ
And ScanStore Knoxville, TN - support phone # with order + web chat
http://www.simpleocr.com/
"May I use SimpleOCR to process screen captures? Sure, but SimpleOCR usually returns poor results with screen captures." -- also have command line and SDK kit.

Yet their store has fascinating reviews of the higher-end products - below.

====================================================

Screen Capture Programs with some Text Capture
(These are generally not OCR based, Windows API, or may have limited OCR functions.)

HyperSnap 6  - $35
http://www.hyperionics.com/
Tech Support Message Board
http://www.hyperionics.com/

Snag-It - TechSmith - $50
http://www.techsmith...m/screen-capture.asp
Forums
http://forums.techsmith.com/

Screen Hunter Pro - $30 - Wisdom-Soft
http://www.wisdom-so...cts/screenhunter.htm

WinCapture Pro - $40
http://www.wincapture.com/en/

======================================================

Special Placement

Cropper - Freeware
http://blogs.geekdoj...rticles/Cropper.aspx
(not sure of functionality, used by some as a tool starting point with open source)

JiveQ - Freeware - TMA Software - Encinitas, CA
http://www.tmasoftware.com/
http://www.pcadvisor...470&itemId=72962
"What I found most annoying, though, is that it's not too hard to use the WebShot page-capture feature, but I never could figure out how to use the text capture."
Programmer library tool below.

==============================================

Windows Controls & API Text Capture

SysExporter - Nirsoft - Freeware
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/sysexp.html


Textractor - Resplendence -Freeware
http://www.resplendence.com/textractor
Monitor and capture all text any program writes to the screen

================================

Programmer Library

TextGRAB SDK - $30
http://www.renovatio...dk/textgrab-sdk.html
TextGRAB SDK is a library that allows screen text capture in Windows applications.
(Windows API, not OCR)

OCR Tools - (basic tool above)
http://www.ocrtools..../prdOCRStandard.aspx
Programmer Library  $600 -
OCR.Net Component is a .Net component that can be integrated into your application to generate ASCII text from a bitmap or an image file such as a TIF, GIF, BMP, or JPG file. The OCR .

WordScale Text Capture SDK
http://www.tmasoftware.com/
JiveQ above

Aqua Deskperience (program above)
Text Capture X - library for programmers
http://www.deskperie...er/textcapturex.html

================================================

Geared to Corporate and Enterprise - thinking from scanning and docs more than screenshot

ScanStore
http://www.simpleocr...R_Software_Guide.asp
"We have tested the latest versions of FineReader, OmniPage, ReadIRIS, TextBridge and SimpleOCR and have determined that ABBYY FineReader 9 is the best overall value for business users, while ReadIRIS is the best Omnipage Review for under $150."

==============

Nuance - OmniPage 17 - Standard $150 - Professional $500 -
http://www.nuance.co...roducts/omnipage.asp
(Your biz clients may be using this already.)
OmniPage Capture Software Developers Kit - Capture SDK
           - PaperPort 11 Standard $100  - Professional $200
http://www.nuance.co...oducts/paperport.asp

Iris - ReadIris 12 Pro - $120
http://www.irislink....---OCR-Software.aspx

Abbyy - FineReader - $400 for Pro - company info above and less $ softwares
http://finereader.abbyy.com/  

=========================================

Screen Capture Tools: 40+ Free Tools and Techniques
http://www.hongkiat....ools-and-techniques/

Category: OCR Software [Optical Character Recognition Software]
http://www.scanguru....age/links.php?cat.16

=========================================

Planned shortly, the MODI and Tesseract and Digital Camera/Phone notes sections.

Shalom,
Steven

804

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Mamutu (Emsi HIPS) Bits Du Jour today June 8, 2009 - 1yr @ $7.83

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 10, 2009, 06:16 AM »

Hi,

Right, I could uninstall the trial and then put in my username/password in the new install, I am trying to get from point A to B without passing Go and collecting $200. (Updating the trial to one-year.)

I don't normally use any spam filters "Do not block any emails" on my ISP and the junk folders are empty (now doubly disabled) and I normally do not miss mail or get any tampered SUBJECTS "SPAM, DUCK" ..  so they would have to be doing some blocking I don't know about, (Time Warner Cable, RoadRunner).  I'm checking around a bit.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

805

General Software Discussion / FreewareMission.com: - security section

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 10, 2009, 06:02 AM »

Hi Folks,

Johnny, a few comments on the security section.

Under AntiSpyware, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware deserves at least a mention, it is almost universally applauded as a good free scan and removal tool, usually mentioned along with SuperAntiSpyware and ahead of Spybot Search and Destroy.  The toolbar problem with Spyware Terminator is major, I gather it links the Crawler crapware with some functions in order to have less opt-outs.  

Under AntiVirus, folks usually need the company name Avira, Antivir is the product and Avira would be consistent with AVG and Avast. (yes, minor quibble).

Under firewall, Online Armor needs a place at the table, plus Outpost recently has a decent free edition, newly released.  (There are one or two others, but those two softwares are looked upon highly by the Wilders' types.)  Zone Alarm is a surprising first choice, but I have no real objection to that aspect, there are some ways in which its working is more visual. And there are 3-4-5 or more good free firewalls, with personal style being a major aspect.  (e.g. Online Armor Free does not allow port configuration, restricting certain ports, which can blindside the user a smidgen).  So if one is working fine, kewl.

Note though that your articles saying just use a router firewall, you can ignore a software firewall, is dubious information, a router firewall generally does not have the function and configurability of a software firewall.  This is discussed at Wilders a lot.

Plus Online Armor gives you some decent HIPS, a category missing where you might also find some other products (changes to .exe files or sensitive registry entries or windows folders or startup are the types of things that HIPS will monitor and generally this type of real-time protection is not in your three categories).

A separate worthy category would be startup managers, with WinPatrol, Chameleon, Started and Anvir Task Manager having freeware editions. WhatinStartup (Nirsoft) and Autoruns also being among those worthy of consideration.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

806

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Mamutu (Emsi HIPS) Bits Du Jour today June 8, 2009 - 1yr @ $7.83

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 10, 2009, 04:58 AM »

Hi Folks,

That was clear from the Bits discussions, you are only cancelling from when the current runs out, a renewal.  If not, Mamutu needs an overhaul in that department.

In my case I did not find the confirmation email and called Cleverbridge and they had a person on the phone, checked the number (always hold the order# handy when you purchase software, I make a .pdf too and keep it in a special folder) quickly sent the confirmation email to me, so I have the username and license number, and the license number has the expiration date as the number, a year from now.  However I have not figgered out how to enter this into Mamutu, which is showing the one-month trial, so I just created a support ticket, I already had an Emsi account, but it does not show the license in my account.  I'll post as soon as I get a reply.

Did you get the Cleverbridge email ?  Did you get one from Emsi ?

Shalom,
Steven

807

Found Deals and Discounts / Visual Route Planner - $20 - Bits Du Jour 6/09/2009 - Tuesday

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 09, 2009, 07:32 PM »

Hi Folks,

Due to a glitch, the Visual Route program that is available with the Bits Du Jour is now the business edition.

They started with the wrong edition.

VisualRoute Personal Edition - Analyze Your Internet Connections
http://www.bitsdujou...te-personal-edition/

Leading to ..

Julie Lancaster (Visualware Developer) Says:
"Good news! Visualware will provide a free upgrade to the VisualRoute 2009 Business Edition a ($249 retail value) to anyone that purchases through Bits du Jour today (9 June 09). The Business Edition upgrade license will be provided by email today."

I know from playing with it during the previous Bits that it is a nicely done software, and I almost bought it.  The question is whether it has use .. even as a learning and play, or if it is only sensible if you really are studying or negotiating or testing net route times.

e.g. At work we are thinking of switching from one T-1 provider to some other type of provider (I ferget the details offhand, involving cable, FIOS this and that). Some folks say they use the info to help in dealing with their cable or phone companies.  Perhaps some of the information could come in useful.  And maybe there are other scenarios, like proxy stuff.  Or it might be something of a toy or learning tool for the light user. 

$20 is still a spot of money, so I would like to have a sense of my use, but the extra plus of the business version is interesting.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

808

General Software Discussion / Re: Recreate files but without content to target drive

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 09, 2009, 07:04 PM »

Hi Folks,

Good question.  A while back I was also thinking about this with an email program like Eudora when you want to "start fresh" with new data. You might need all the .mbx files (or whatever extension) and optionally the index or table of contents files (those would build themselves) but you want them empty to start, like they are before they receive any mail.  

Then all your mail up to that point could be saved or archived, and you can start receiving mail using the exact same filter structure. (The key point, without the empty files the filters will give errors, they do not build on the fly, although maybe in Bat-land you would have that option.)  In a rudimentary form it would be drive-to-drive (eg. c:/myfiles to d:/myfiles ) .. in a slightly more sophisticated form it would be any point-to-point. (e.g c:/myfiles to c:/newfiles/mail ).

Although it is a far less sophisticated need than the one you are mentioning, a tool would be nice, even a two step tool (tree-copy followed by "copy file to empty").

Shalom,
Steven Avery

809

General Software Discussion / Re: FreewareMission.com: 94 Great Freeware Programs For A Freeware Only PC

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 09, 2009, 09:35 AM »

Hi Folks,

Johnny, nice to learn about your blog and efforts.

That "Software Informer" program is actually quite impressive, normally I bypass those "update" programs but it is surprisingly helpful and solid, a bit like the Belarc of program version and update info, the way it simply loads an excellent web page. (Not that Belarc should be on your list, for various reasons it is borderline with lots of competition, however its web-page interface is very simple and pleasant and informative.) Immediately I saw that I might want to update a couple of programs, and one I have to consider whether my license will take the update and what I want to do.

And fyi, one of the alternatives SUMo, the author got the folks on Wilders upset, that is in a KCleaner thread, having to do with an RK toolbar install, also I think may apply to SUMo. You can easily find the thread (11 pages long, the stuff starts in the latter pages) and decide whether his software should stay on the freeware list.  

Probably have a few more comments later, nice list, appreciated ! 

Shalom,
Steven Avery

810

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Mamutu (Emsi HIPS) Bits Du Jour today June 8, 2009 - 1yr @ $7.83

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 08, 2009, 10:27 PM »

Hi Folks,

 I actually did this, I can confirm that the subscription cancellation (which will take effect after one year) is right on the screen acknowledgement you get after the $7.83. No muss, no fuss.

 Those with heavy duty defense systems (a lot of the Wilders crew, with sandboxes inside virtual systems backed up with multiple images wrapped in an enigma multipled by a puzzle) will pass this by.  And my normal defense system of Avira and Online Armor is generally strong.  However since Mamutu is light, and fits in between Avira and OA as a behavior blocker I figgered I would give it a go, after a trial download and seeing that the interface is sensible. (Oh, yeah, I also loaded the light PrevX recently, and occasionally get into "scan" mode with things like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and there are security aspects to programs like Win Patrol and Avira Task Manager). There may be some HIPS overlap with OA .. however I do not mind a bit of overlap protection, as long as the programs play nice, which they do, I understand.  

  The fact that the investment was about two Starbucks things helped also. Potentially, seems to be a good fit on my system.

Shalom,
Steven

811

Found Deals and Discounts / Mamutu (Emsi HIPS) Bits Du Jour today June 8, 2009 - 1yr @ $7.83

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 08, 2009, 01:10 PM »

Hi Folks,

Mamutu - Behavior-Based Malware Protection
http://www.bitsdujou...com/software/mamutu/

Mamutu on BDJ 8th June $8.69  - Wilders thread
http://www.wildersse...wthread.php?t=243884

 (And Mamutu discussed on other threads on Wilders, Gladiator, DSL Reports, etc.)

 Mamutu from Emsi, a behavioral HIPS.  Plays nice with Online Armor, according to reports, although I gather it can overlap (double messages) in some cases.  I gather you can adjust what sections Mamutu is covering.

 If you take this program for a year, suggest you immediately cancel the auto-renewal a year later, you can always renew then, or look for a new discount.  (This also was on GiveawayoftheDay once, over a year ago.)

Mamutu - Emsi Description
http://www.emsisoft..../en/software/mamutu/

Bladed Thoth review
http://www.bladedtho...rs/mamutu-v1-5-0-22/

Shalom,
Steven  

812

General Software Discussion / calendars - PIM Xtreme - open source

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 08, 2009, 12:15 PM »

Hi Folks,

TWT ! - (Time will tell.)

Here is a newbie, open source, MySQL database, exports to calendars -- although one pic below shows a calendar in the interface.

PIM Xtreme  
Dgtalize --  "PIM medicine for the heart"
http://dgtalize.com/en/products/pimx
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pimx/
Forum (mild activity)
http://www.dgtalize....=showcat&catid=1
Pic shows calendar
http://www.freewaref...e_program_37572.html

Shalom,
Steven

813

General Software Discussion / Re: calendars - remembering the almond milk and sea moss smoothies

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 08, 2009, 11:34 AM »

Hi Folks,

 Good thoughts, CodeTrucker.  The thing is, this thread has helped me clarify almost exactly what I am looking for.

================================

CALENDAR

  1) A flexible overlay-capable calendar with category functions to create the overlays (filters).  Priority should be available as part of the filter process.  Two standard calendar functions, multiple days for an event and recurring events. Preferably ending time to go with the starting time, but that is less than necessity (well I do like to show up at the end).

 1a) The filters should be savable so if I have an "Internet events" overlay sub-calender, that has its own name, I don't have to remember to check "Paltalk + Internet radio + Webinar + DonationCoder deadlines" each time I want the same calendar.  These "saved sub-calendar" features are important, but not quite necessity, and work-arounds may .. work around.

 1b)  And if categories have multi-dimensions (eg. assignees) and status and easy entry and update, kewl.

 1c) Reminders .. close to necessity

 1d) Reasonable print-out.  This is the calendar for today, for the week, for the month.

 1z) As a possible add-on, in the long run this calendar can have interfaces with a web calendar, or a Blackberry or a whatever. Nothing at all necessary.

===============================

 2)  To-Do Funcationality

  Since Calendar and To-Do are closely related apps, and I am asking for ToDo-style functionality this is the one area where I would * prefer * there to be "one app - dual function".  Almost surely the raw data in #1 will be coming from a To-Do style entry anyway.  

 2a) Thus a level of ToDo nicety .. sub-tasks, other possible status and placement fields built-in or user-defined, would be nice.

===============================================

  Everything else is icing on the cake.  If there is a contact manager, a notes manager, a web-snippet, a daily planner, a this-and-that .. fine.  Do not care about email at all.

  What is interesting is that my request for a Calendar + probably a ToDo is approached in so many different manners.  Usually it depends on the paradigm of the approaching program.  

 1) Calendar - Active Desktop Calendar, Calimajaro, CalendarScope
                    Rainlender, Sunbird, Lightning

 2) ToDo     - Agenda at Once, My Life Organized, Quick

 3) Notes    - TreePad

 4) PIM       - Essential PIM, Intellect, Exstora, Outlook

 5) Info mgr - Ecco, SQLNotes

 6) Database- ___________
    Template

 7) Kitchen Sink - Do Organizer

  Adding the requirement that I would like the program to be in active development, and not do weird stuff like be my active desktop wallpaper, even my #1 above breaks the bank of many of the contenders.  It would be strange if you simply have to throw away the ToDo function and take the best calendar program, strange if nobody really does a decent ToDo - Calendar implementation.  That is all I am looking for first, with the fallaback being a decent Calendar alone, per #1.

  At the moment I have about 5 or more programs to check if they have a decent calendar, preferably coming from a nice ToDo.  Do Organizer may functionally be the most likely, albeit with quirks. Essential and Intellect and Treepad and MLO are ones I want to check, and I know where Agenda at Once stands.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

814

General Software Discussion / calendars - Agenda At Once, Active Desktop Calendar, ToDoList and more

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 08, 2009, 06:40 AM »

Hi Folks,

 Dormouse, I see your point on the invasiveness of Active Desktop Calendar.  (Whether or not you have to activate the "Active Desktop"). Why don't they have a non-desktop mode ?  Good question to research. You would expect a light feature list to be on your desktop.  Or something with simple static information, such as puter specs (I have that added on the desktop from Sysinternals).  Without a new understanding, it will be dropped and the "Calendar" slot will be reopened.

  Good points on ToDoList, I may use it more for ToDos, but if it doesn't allow an event to stretch over multiple days on the calendar it simply will not be a contender.  In the old days when I really looked at ToDo lists I used to try ToDoList and a second program .. recently I tried to figure what was the second and looked around, even in my notes and old explorer trees, and so far could never remember what it was.  Anyway, ToDoList is super-quality for ToDo viewing, but with the lack mentioned above (add the difficulty getting the reminder plugin and the lack of times in the calendar) it just has to drop from the current search, even if considered and used for various ToDo needs.

  AAO, Outlook and Essential PIM all share some features.  Perhaps it is true that Outlook trumps AAO in some ways, I think Essential PIM was the one PIM that was designed to be "Outook-ish" from the get-go.  Agenda At Once to me seems pretty solid and simple and strong in the ToDo section (no, not like ToDoList but better than PIMs in general).  I really don't see the necessity of a separate window opening up for data entry being much of a lack, AAO still enters at a pretty snappy pace.  Right now Essential Pim Pro is one of the two or three PIMs I plan to install and try.  (Although I may install free first, just to see the differences. Last time I had this on my system was about two years ago. Their marketing has always been a little funny, but inexpensive so that is not a complaint.)  

Structural notes : If categories are flexible (if you can choose multiple categories at one time) you can put assignee functions within categories. A bit of a conceptual workaround, but not a difficult one. Oh, along with choosing multiple categories comes the feature to name and save a filter for recall.  Close to essential for this full ToDo - Calendar overlay integration.

Do_Organizer and their party of products will have to have its own separate look-see. Is it in active development or dormant at this time ? Or unclear, or what.

Calimajaro - the big lack is its defunctability.  Otherwise, it would clearly be a contender, but I do not see beginning with a program that is ending, trains passing in the night.

Right, Ultra Recall, InfoQube and any other similars probably are not quite ready for prime time for this need.  Unless we hear a holla. I may check the Alpha Software and WinDev forums and discussions, those two products are quite interesting with some calendar features built in.  However the To-Do would have to be an app.  You always have to check whether you need a run-time version or whether they create an .exe or what. Filemaker and Access and others probably have something too, but Alpha and WinDev are the ones that I definitely will like to check since I fancy myself a programmer for those softwares in the long run or short haul.

Shalom,
Steven

815

General Software Discussion / Re: calendars - remembering the almond milk and sea moss smoothies

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 08, 2009, 06:06 AM »

Hi Folks,

CodeTrucker - I will consider a side-by-side of MLO and AgendaAtOnce. Both are lite on the calendar side, especially printing. I may do a bit this AM on that, I probably can have a small sense in 15-30 minutes of comparing.  It should be interesting, Agenda At Once trying to be more of a PIM, MLO trying to be more disciplined with your tasks.  I have used MLO a while back, although I don't think I ever bought.

Here are notes on a few other softwares.

MyBase - the developer posted back around 2004 that a calendar feature is a need in their forum.  MyInfo doesn't seem to have anything.  RedBox Organizer (a real oldie now owned by a dubious company) - the review at Snapfiles points out fatal flaws in ToDo, such as no recurring entries.

TreePad does have three separate utilities for creating calendars and the $45 Biz version has some calendar and ToDo features and the $65 Enterprise version adds a "Calendar Window". (Would scour for discounts.) Whether I would find its ToDo of substance is a question, if it is functional Treepad could be a contender coming from the Notes metaphor.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

816

General Software Discussion / calendars - ToDoList does not remember to cut the calendar mustard

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 07, 2009, 06:07 PM »

Hi Folks,

I loaded the calendar plugin for ToDoList.  (So far I have not been able to get the reminder plugin downloaded.)  The filters pass nicely to the calendar, however the calendar has no native printing function and the viewing is rudimentary.  Thus you set up the printing by due date order from ToDo land .. however the program is due-date oriented, so it does not think about scheduling a conference that might be four days as one entry.

So I think I have to knock ToDoList out of the integrated ToDo-Calendar project, leaving Agenda at Once and Active Desktop Calendar as the current main players, and ready to look at some others, especially the PIMS.  (eg. Intellect, Essential, Exstora).
And maybe a couple of the nice but less-hefty ToDos as well.  (Swift .. also Quick (2006) and Priorganizer (2007) had promise but are close to dormant.  And Swift seems to be weaker than AAO on the calendar aspect, looking at the web info.  So nothing stands out yet from ToDoLand other than Agenda At Once.)

My goal now is to have 3 contenders, one ToDo-based, one Calendar-based, one PIM-based and see which does the best overall ToDo-Calendar integration.  (With the wildcard of templates and database programs being allowed if they appear.)  It is looking like Agenda At Once will be the ToDo rep and Active Desktop Calendar will be the Calendar rep .. although nominations are still open.  The current contenders for PIM rep are Intellect, Essential and Exstora.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

817

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: multiple clipboards depending of times you press c (or x/v)

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 07, 2009, 05:32 PM »

Hi Folks,

Is there a NirSoft style global hot-key utility finder ?  If so, that would tell you at a glance if you have any clashes.

So why not test your idea with Ctr-Shf-1 and 2 and 3, something like that. Make sure it works.  Then your issue is simply a keyboard reading issue, can you hit a key twice for keyboard input, which you can bring up on the Autohotkey forums as well as here.  Make sure you only have one variable at issue, reading a double key.  (If you really want to go that way.)

Shalom,
Steven Avery

818

Living Room / Troubleshooting an XP bootup lockup

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 07, 2009, 05:18 PM »

Hi Folks,

This is a relaxed problem. (Thus I prefer to discuss it here .. rather than in any of the hyper-ventilated forums.)

When I boot up XP under the main user, I get a lockup, hourglass, active, no keyboard or mouse actions allowed, perhaps relating to Internet Explorer. (After a couple of programs like Avira and NoteZilla have loaded, but most have not.) When I crash out Windows Explorer with my task manager (ctrl-alt delete is not disabled, my task manager replacement DTaskManager, comes up and is fully functional) the system can be normal, ready for me to start up the rest of the programs by hand. (A couple have started up by the time of the lockup.)  There is no residue of difficulty in that case.

I saw in the "weird window" thread the suggestion to stop a bunch of stuff from starting up in Autoruns and then put back in groups.  Sounds like a good idea, I was also wondering about checking the event log, or a load order program and stuff like that.  This stuff is squirrelly.  The Autoruns  suggestion is probably a good idea, any thing to go along with that ?  I usually do not reboot that frequently so I have to dedicate some time to this when I am doing other stuff in multi-task. HijackThis style logs is a possibility too.

=====================================

Here are a couple of other notes.

Paragon's freebie would not install without "administrator" rights, even though my main user is an administrator.  No other new programs have had this problem.  So I eventually bit the bullet and did ctrl-alt-delete twice at signon, went in as the official administrator, and install went fine.  Any thoughts ?  This was different than when this type of problem happens and you actually do not have administrator rights.  Maybe I will write Paragon, since they are known for high-class customer service.  The problem is .. I don't have a problem anymore.

I also have some XP questions (on another puter or 2) similar to the ones in the "weird window" thread.  These XPs have the right # on the side, almost surely original motherboard,  and the guy gets them from a solid corporation and has to reinstall the OS. (Total investment for 2 puters = $175 and 1 might just become a Linux box anyway and the fellow will help me get them up, if I catch him at the right time.)  At one time I think I had XP validated on one but smashed it with an attempted partition.  (Ugh). So all this adventure is in process... stay tuned.  Again, these are secondary puters, there is no rush, but a lot of the issues overlap the "weird window" thread.  In general, if you have a high-class OEM-style wide-mouth Windows XP installer and an original system with the right sticker # on the side, should you have much problem getting XP back up, do you thunk ?

Shalom,
Steven

819

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: multiple clipboards depending of times you press c (or x/v)

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 07, 2009, 03:56 PM »

Hi Folks,

  I don't code in Autohotkey, but might it be simpler if you use
Ctrl-1 and Ctrl-2 and Ctrl-3 .. or a-b-c or z-x-c (the bottom rung) rather than try to hold the keyboard input for a second "c" ?

  Clipboard managers are inherently cumbersome without multiple clips, like you suggest. Since you have to bring up the manager, find and choose the cilp you want.

  So the idea is really fine.  In one implementation Ctrl-4 or Cntrl-d would be the master key that would bring up a choice screen of the three clipboards, and yes .. there might be some saving of clip history on each one.  Is there a clipboard manager that works with a paradigm of multiple concurrent boards ?  Dunno. 

Shalom,
Steven Avery

820

General Software Discussion / calendars - dumping in all the raw data

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 07, 2009, 10:37 AM »

Hi Folks,

Correction noted, Tomos.  The question is what does InfoQube have today for calendar integration ?  Remember any export feature is going to tend to clash with the idea of calendar overlays (I want the calendar for this person with these three categories) making it cumbersome at best.

The point is I want to be able to throw everything into the calendar, from health or messianic radio shows that will only show up on special media checks, or a thrift store that is only upon one day a week, to the major stuff.  Once you throw everything in, you need grouping and extracts (overlays) to look at a sensible calendar.  A lot of the stuff you do not want to see except on special request, only very occasionally will you see "everything".  An export function is going to make this versatility difficult.

I'm even skeptical that a plugin (ToDoList) will handle this well, and that is much more integrated.

Shalom,
Steven

821

General Software Discussion / Re: calendars - remembering the almond milk and sea moss smoothies

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 07, 2009, 10:31 AM »

Hi Folks,

We have a similar view Dormouse. MLO ... too GTD. A bit one-dimensional.

Agenda At Once .. you tend to wonder why you put it down. The ToDo is a lot stronger than many.  (The interface is a bit cluttered, you are always wondering which toolbars you can put aside, but it is still quite sensible and workable with the tabs.) Yet I agree that ToDoList is very kewl (it really LOOKS like a todo list, with a real earnestness) .. have you been able to filter and then use the calendar plugin very effectively ? If so, a good comparison might be in order, even a dual mini-review.  

With AAO the month-at-a-time view is a symptom of its general calendar weakness, yet, like the anemic linear only printout function, still potentially sufficient.  I looked at the forums and saw only modest activity, with little discussion of this aspect. A bit of an oops.  If many folks were really plugging away with the program, you would expect a clamor, a unified cry ... calendar !

Caliminjaro .. first I heard of it.. looked nice but its master view is too "planner" oriented for me (my days are largely free-lance)
http://www.prweb.com...ndar/prweb447911.htm
And with the defunct aspect as well, no real consideration.

Essential PIM .. does it have sub-tasks, and such, categories and assignees like in AAO ? I never found the PIM softwares like Time & Chaos (now Intellect) and Essential PIM quite up to what I wanted on the ToDo list aspect.  (I am looking for a ToDo-Calendar-Reminder balance, everything else auxiliary). Do_Organizer might be better from that perspective, yet they had that funny aspect of multiple products and uncertain future, if I recall properly. Ironically, with T & C, they had actually reduced some of the sophistication of the ToDo in later releases, something I found rather astounding.

Whattaya thunk ?

Right now potential three-way comparision is:

a) Agenda at Once
b) Active Desktop Calendar
c) ToDoList with the plugin

None is in the lead, all seem to have strengths, and possibly a major weakness or two.  I would actually spend a few hours on a 3 to 5 program shootout .. since my decision would hopefully last a while.

One or two of the above might get bumped, especially a PIM or two might be added, as our discussions and insight develop.  And perhaps there are templates added to Ultra Recalls or InfoQubes or others; or even a database program like Alpha or Filemaker with a package of sorts (this stuff is a long-shot). One of the other todos like Swift or Quick or Task Coach might be considered, but these tend to either have lighter todos in terms of sub-tasks and groups and/or limited calendars -- if any calendar at all.

Shalom,
Steven Avery




 The ToDo component isn't as good as abstractspoon's ToDoList. Nice that you can d&d tasks on to the Calendar. But the Calendar only goes up to a month's view; no good for me; nothing like the flexibility of views in Calimanjaro (now defunct but free key available on Calimanjaro site if you have a copy of the prog) or do-Organizer, or even Essential PIM; so I don't look much further. Import/export with csv & ical (but never tried it) but no PDA linkage.
[/quote]

822

General Software Discussion / Agenda at Once - good groupings from ToDo to Scheduling

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 07, 2009, 06:18 AM »

Hi Folks,

Tomos, I don't mind integration with another program (e.g. Sunbird) .. I simply do not want to have to get involved with Outlook and .pst files without a compelling reason. Overall I would really like to consider InfoQube as a tool, however if the calender and scheduling integration requires Outlook for functionality that is a difficulty for that app.

Great info Codetrucker. I am playing with Agenda At Once and it seems to be well-designed for what I am looking for.  The filter system allows multi-filters of categories and assigned by and can be saved, and that is great for overlay calendar printout !  (The basic issue is to to take the groupings structures from ToDo and bring them over to calendar overlays without too much effort.)

The calendar aspect of printouts are a bit blah, the straight linear list, seems to be a problem for most ToDo programs to give you a nice calendar-stylee week or monthly printout (I will check the Agenda forums for possible enhancements or exports) however the linear printout options can be sufficient. Back in 2008 I had gotten frustrated by a rudimentary bug "cannot modify a read-only dataset".  However he is an attentive developer and time to get back into more use.  I have yet to see another program that builds in that degree of "To-Do to Scheduling" sophistication and attentiveness.

As for MLO, I enjoy my life disorganized, so that is a dissonance of sorts.  All I want to know is .. oh, yes there is a conference or concert or meeting tonite.. or all three .. oh yes, I also have a couple of other things to get done quickly.  Good enuf .. I have moved away from any type of GTD mentality.

Thanks for the heads-up, I will try to give more reports on Agenda At Once.  In the old days I liked all-purpose PIMs for their strong contact management, now that I use Linkman as my general PIM that is far less an issue, although I may try the AAO contact stuff, strange the default way that it views contacts, does it switch to rows when you have more data ?

Deozaan, nice alt suggestion with Active Desktop Calendar.  Clearly it has the view/printout thing very nice, the main lack in many of the above.  The data layers are comparable in some ways to categories in Agenda At Once, I like the multiple selection screen shot (can you keep that as a saved filter ?).  I am not sure if it has something comparable to the assignees of AAO, a great feature if you are defacto keeping calendars for more than one person in one database.  This event is for these three people's calendar, this one is for me only.  Share away. This is like the old Calendar Creator but with much more PIM feature, modernization and heft in structure. I would not be surprised if ADC is one of the leaders where the metaphor centers more on the calendar, yet the ToDo is fine.  However I doubt that you have sub-tasks, a bit of a lack if you are doing heavy-duty ToDo stuff, but not a dealbreaker for what I am looking for now.  (If I get into project style ToDo, like software development stuff, I would probably offload that to ToDoList anyway, since for me it is not calendar stuff anyway.)

If you are looking for calendar metaphor as the center, Rainlendar and Calendarscope and Sunbird look like real worthy programs .. however ADC seems to be stronger in that ToDo category and grouping area that I am considering as vital to flexible use.

=================

On the Lifehacker article and comments most of the comments are in the clouds. Rainlender is one of the leaders.

Five Best Calendar Applications
http://lifehacker.co...cations#viewcomments

However a couple of the folks mention Essential PIM and Exstora and CalendarScope and Sunbird and Active Desktop Calendar and Outlook.  Interesting.

A lot of sync stuff with e.g Rainlendar with GCal.  Note, I have not checked the distinction between Sunbird and Lighting (which goes with Thunderbird).

Note though that while there is a bit about overlays (sharing calendars) there is very little that relates to my request to combine strong ToDo categories and groups with calendar overlay flexible printouts.

Right now I have Agenda At Once as the main contender (limited calendar printing notwithstanding) with real consideration for Active Desktop Calendar.

======================

Shalom,
Steven Avery

823

General Software Discussion / HyperSnap - discount good till midnite tonite

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 05, 2009, 04:25 PM »

Hi Folks,

Not sure about doing a comparison . At least not for a while. Each of these programs seems to have an a couple of advantages over the others, all are excellent, a lot of subjective interface elements and a lot of specific use elements.  And some of the low-end prorgrams do their job (I recently bought the lifettime WinSnap license from BitsDuJour).

Ok, here we go...

BITS-DU-JOUR-HS50

That code is the special .. at the Hyperionics site.
 http://www.hyperionics.com/?Buy=1,

The HyperSnap discount is good till midnite tonite, Greg had made sure it would have a day extension.  Likely the last HyperSnap promotion this year.

(Unsure if I will take the plunge.  A bit hard to justify for my very limited use, even though I know I like the program.  Will listen closely to the discussions.)

Shalom,
Steven

824

Found Deals and Discounts / DbSchema on Bits Du Jour - Friday June 5,2009

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 05, 2009, 11:52 AM »

Hi Folks,

DbSchema 5 - The Art Of Keeping Data Together
http://www.bitsdujou...m/software/dbschema/

A database design front-end (I think that is what it is) to work with a number of mostly SQL database products.  You design the database in DbSchema and have maybe better schema and documentation tools than you might find in the individual program. And then you can go here and there exporting.  Maybe if you change your database in midstream the horse doesn't gurgle.  (Granted this does not take into consideration all the user interface aspects specific to the tools.)

Sounds rather interesting, even if the usable databases are limited.  The lack of a user forum .. a smidgen discomfiting.

Your thoughts ?

Shalom,
Steven Avery

825

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Drive Copy 9.0 SE 1 hour and change left

« Last post by Steven Avery on June 05, 2009, 07:35 AM »

Hi Folks,

In general I prefer to pick up the Paragon line by watching

"For Free on Internet"
http://for-free-on-internet.com/

So you do not run into any activation questions after a crash and stuff like that.  Paragon has a lot of products, and the specials seem to rotate here and there.  Of course if you do not have a product at all, and it is on GAOTD, then you might pick it up awaiting for it to appear elsewhere.

Note that Paragon does a great job x-ref-ing your serial #s with your signon, which is linked to your email in your account that they maintain.  So give one email you actually use, they are responsible not to send you too much, and you have a serial# backup.  They make it very clear what serial# is for what product.

Oh, I am not sure .. maybe Paragon extends this courtesy to GAOTD (which would be unusual).  If they do, and if the product key works fine after the first day, then their specials are as good thru GAOTD as through the computer mag specials. 

Shalom,
Steven Avery