Recent Posts

8626

DcUpdater / Re: DcUpdater v2 Preliminary Flirtations

« Last post by tomos on March 24, 2009, 07:00 AM »

i can see the confusion.  the second level grouping would make more sense as

    * Applications: FARR
    * Applications: Other
basically what it's doing is giving a "folder" to anything with more than 1 item, and then putting all other singletons in the "Other" folder.

Let's not get too hung up on this grouping option -- i think i agree with the general sentiment that it just makes things more messy and hard to take the information in.  it's main value will be when navigating very large listings -- perhaps if one were viewing potential applications that could be installed or something like that.

-mouser (March 23, 2009, 07:05 AM)

okay, (not to get hung up on it) but in case you do go ahead with it -
my point was that I thought there was no need to group at all at the second level (apart from stuff like FARR plugins). In fact I think it would just make it harder to see clearly

8627

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware Image Organizer (Especially Tags/Keywords)?

« Last post by tomos on March 24, 2009, 06:36 AM »

I found this site with some possible good tips.

http://www.organizep...ctures.com/tags/tags

-cmpm (March 24, 2009, 04:49 AM)

good reading there cmpm 

from 5 steps to create precise keywords for tagging your pictures (2nd page)

    * Always use singular in your keywords and no plurals. This would translate in birthday instead of birthdays.
    * Don’t use any abbreviations…I think this is a must for any keyword since abbreviations are very hard to remember.

I wonder how Armando manages all his abbreviated tags   he had a thread about tagging here somewhere but it's tagging file names. In this case [here] I think it's the software's role to let you see tags at a glance

edit in [brackets]

8628

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware Image Organizer (Especially Tags/Keywords)?

« Last post by tomos on March 24, 2009, 03:14 AM »

Okay, so now that I have a clean slate and can begin tagging pics, I have one question. Should the tags be in all lowercase or uppercase, or title case? Or does it even matter?

-siouxdax (March 23, 2009, 03:02 PM)

does that mean you're sticking with iTag?

I havent used tagging much (except in Evernote FWIW) but it seems to me the most important thing is to be easily able to see the tags you have already created -
so as you dont start doing slight variations on a 'tag' which would defeat the purpose really

Also from that point of view, keep the tag words 'natural' as rgdot says

8629

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware Image Organizer (Especially Tags/Keywords)?

« Last post by tomos on March 23, 2009, 10:25 AM »

There was a free version of IDimager up until a while back - they're not offering it any more
I had a look at Last Freeware Version site but they dont seem to have a search

It's been highly recommended here [dc I mean!]
http://www.idimager.com/

8630

Living Room / Re: What is Twitter: A Funny Sarcastic Cartoon

« Last post by tomos on March 23, 2009, 10:08 AM »

youtube won't let me see the video - i'm in the wrong country apparently.

-nudone (March 23, 2009, 04:05 AM)

this link might work?
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=b5Ff2X_3P_4

I was generally avoiding it - I mean even references to it
came across this intro somewhere (may have been somewhere here even) which helped me understand it - well, a little
Twitter is what you make it

8631

General Software Discussion / Re: Your most used SPECIAL programs

« Last post by tomos on March 23, 2009, 09:49 AM »

Well,

Reshade Image Enlarger
- Resize Images Without Quality Loss

-Bits du Jour

-Curt (March 23, 2009, 09:30 AM)

Enlarge Images Without Quality Loss doesnt exist as I'm sure you're fully aware

Have you looked at Qimage -
I tried it out a couple of times for printing images it's great. I did a mini-review of the trial (which was then limited in that the second printed page would have a grid superimposed - you had to restart)

Mini-Review here
Home-page http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

If you only want to work with JPEGs it's $50 or $35 for a not so good version (limited interpolation method). To compare versions:-
http://www.ddisoftwa.../qimage/editions.htm

8632

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Gracefully close Firefox on PC exit

« Last post by tomos on March 23, 2009, 09:28 AM »

There are always a couple of programs that do not respond well to the OS call to quit when restarting the computer. One that has suddenly started to give me fits is Surfulater 3:

-J-Mac (March 22, 2009, 12:14 PM)

Jim - you could probably get that on 'cured' on the Surfulater forum (if you haven't already!)

8633

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Macro Express - MiniReview

« Last post by tomos on March 23, 2009, 03:39 AM »

I'm a registered user of Macro Express pre-Pro.  Aren't they offering an upgrade at reduced price?  I'd find it hard to justify buying at full price all over again, and I notice the current rather steep $59.95 is only for "a limited time."

-rjbull (March 22, 2009, 04:49 PM)

they do have upgrade price via the buy page (?)
http://www.macros.com/orderupgpro.htm

8634

DcUpdater / Re: DcUpdater v2 Preliminary Flirtations

« Last post by tomos on March 23, 2009, 03:33 AM »

Okay, that's clearer now
and you say "Note that grouping is purely optional" so if user applies grouping themselves, they're going to understand

The idea here is that plugins are all grouped together..
If you are watching multiple version of a program (beta vs. stable), these will also be grouped together
All other "singleton" programs are grouped under the Uncategorized section.

-mouser (March 22, 2009, 05:20 PM)

You probably have this one covered or I'm still misunderstanding:-

in the screenshot in that post, would it not be more logical to have
Status: Needs Update
     [+] Applications: FARR
           Applications: GridMove
           Applications: Whatever

rather than
Status: Needs Update
     [+] Applications: FARR
     [+] Applications: Ungrouped

- if they are already grouped by status, why call the Applications (other than FARR) "Applications: Ungrouped"

EDIT/ added status

8635

General Software Discussion / Re: Is 'TK8 Backup Professional' recommendable?

« Last post by tomos on March 23, 2009, 03:20 AM »

Super Flexible File Synchronizer - 30%
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=8409.0
Standard $35, Prof, $60 (before discount)
(I had omitted this above because of the Synch orientation, users can indicate whether if functions fully and strongly as a pure backup software.)

-Steven Avery (March 22, 2009, 08:24 PM)

Yes, it "functions fully and strongly as a pure backup software"

8636

DcUpdater / Re: DcUpdater v2 Preliminary Flirtations

« Last post by tomos on March 22, 2009, 05:34 PM »

Screenshot with some grouping enabled.

The idea here is that plugins are all grouped together..
If you are watching multiple version of a program (beta vs. stable), these will also be grouped together
All other "singleton" programs are grouped under the Uncategorized section.

Note that grouping is purely optional and wouldn't be shown if you are just checking for an update to a single application.
 (see attachment in previous post)

-mouser (March 22, 2009, 05:20 PM)

I don't understand that at the top level it says "Status: etc. " without saying which app it's referring to - the only reference to app is the FARR sub-item - I think you'd have to have some indication of what the other items refer to?
I havent been following the thread but maybe that's good too (as in this is my first look)

8637

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by tomos on March 22, 2009, 03:21 PM »

(see attachment in previous post)
40hz: Amazing!!

-mouser (March 22, 2009, 01:37 PM)

they're mad "BAAA-STUDs" over there in Wales ROFL made my day 40hz

8638

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 12-09

« Last post by tomos on March 22, 2009, 06:49 AM »

thanks Ethyar

a good few interesting reads this week, even for non-techies like me (2,3,5,6,8)
Laugh of the week supplied by the title "First Rule of Internet Censorship: Hide the Block List"

8639

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Macro Express - MiniReview

« Last post by tomos on March 22, 2009, 06:43 AM »

Excellent mini review Chris! 

-mouser (March 21, 2009, 08:23 PM)

hear hear
you dont have any "needs improvement" section - no complaints or 'cons' at all?
Has it worked with all programs that you've tried it with?

Chris was also nice enough to contact Insight Software about the possibility of offering a discount to DC members, and they were nice enough to grant us one, as well as give us a few copies to give away 

The discount will run through April -- details will be posted shortly.

-mouser (March 21, 2009, 08:23 PM)

great, I don't think my use of this would justify the full price


I see there's a standard version as well for $39.95
Compare here

8640

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by tomos on March 22, 2009, 06:31 AM »

I can. :-D

-Deozaan (March 21, 2009, 08:40 PM)

well I have the same behaviour here as in Deo's screenshot

8641

General Software Discussion / Re: Backup software à la dropbox (backups differences in file - revisions)

« Last post by tomos on March 21, 2009, 08:08 PM »

thanks cmpm  -
the "mozy home" option @ $4.95* for unlimited amount of backup - then I could do as many revisions as I wanted (at the moment I'm backing up my backups online so I'm not too worried about their software so long as it works.

*  on the homepage it has a scary asterisk after the price - especially scary cause there's no other asterisk on the page so I've no idea what it signifies (I searched just in case!)
** (only) the pro version offers "Block-level incremental backups ...  Desktop Licenses: $3.95 + $0.50/GB per month

8642

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 1 free PageFour license (and one only)

« Last post by tomos on March 21, 2009, 07:37 PM »

The people there are very nice, and I'm sure if you e-mailed them and told them the situation, they'd be willing to give it to you if possible.  Worth a try IMO if you were thinking about pulling the trigger.  I'm really enjoying it, personally.

-wraith808 (December 02, 1973, 10:25 PM)

Great suggestion, wraith808.  I contacted them, explained the situation, and now am a licensed user of Benubird Pro.   

-gpetrant (March 19, 2009, 07:27 AM)

due to interest, they've now extended the discount till the end of March

8643

General Software Discussion / Re: Backup software à la dropbox (backups differences in file - revisions)

« Last post by tomos on March 21, 2009, 07:22 PM »

http://mozy.com/

-cmpm (March 21, 2009, 06:57 PM)

it's extremely difficult to find out more info on their website about how exactly they backup the files -
could you clarify what you mean here cmpm ?

It does file types.
And just use it for the revisions.

-cmpm (March 21, 2009, 06:57 PM)

Isn't that what subversion does? Just store the changes rather than the entire file?

-Deozaan (March 21, 2009, 05:35 PM)

I'll have definitely have another look at that then (there was a bit of discussion lately about "that sort of thing" in this Filehamster thread

Depends, in default mode (database) storing only the changes would make the most sense...but that would be true for any version control system that uses a database as storage medium.

-Shades (March 21, 2009, 05:51 PM)

of the top of your head do you know which ones might use "a database as storage medium"

8644

Official Announcements / Re: MARCH 2009: It's the 4th Anniversary DonationCoder.com Fundraiser

« Last post by tomos on March 21, 2009, 06:43 PM »

liked the look of all those eights



what are those gold coins anyways in Cody's beak ...

8645

Living Room / Re: Building a Quiet PC

« Last post by tomos on March 20, 2009, 03:34 PM »

I'm running an Asus Commando Mboard (with a passively cooled chipset) in an  Antec 900 case. The case fans have individual speed controls allowing me to have all of them running slowly and whisper quiet ...

-Stoic Joker (March 20, 2009, 09:29 AM)

sounds great -
but do those fans have lights on them
- that would be worse than a noisy case to me !

8646

Word Processor Roundup / Re: Textmaker (Softmaker/Ashampoo Office) 2008

« Last post by tomos on March 20, 2009, 05:34 AM »

There's a special upgrade price of $12.99 for "owners of older versions of TextMaker, PlanMaker, SoftMaker Office, or Ashampoo Office"
for upgrade to Softmaker Office 2008

If you have any of these products registered check for recent email from Softmaker  [Make the switch: SoftMaker Office 2008 now even more affordable]

8647

General Software Discussion / Re: Backup software à la dropbox (backups differences in file - revisions)

« Last post by tomos on March 20, 2009, 03:42 AM »

thanks for the Linux options Shades - I'm on windows unfortunately!

File Hamster? That saves new revisions any time you save changes to a file - any file that you tell File Hamster to watch.

-J-Mac (March 20, 2009, 02:33 AM)

thanks Jim - I'm using Filehamster and it's great but I'm going to be restarting a job soon with over 1GB of files that I'll want to make regular revisions of -
that's why I was looking for something that would only backup the changes in the file as opposed to the whole file

If I take what you say on board mouser about that type of backup not being so dependable, then maybe I should even avoid dropbox - or have alternative backup of at least the last few versions locally (which I would do anyway)

So (just thinking out loud now :p) options would be something like:-

• Dropbox + small amount of  local versioned backup
• Other online backup with e.g. 100GB* + small amount of  local versioned backup
• Add  large (1TB) drive to my computer & continue with local backup + external drive for off site backups + possibly online most recent versioned backups

ugh .. backup is always an issue - reason I found dc though iirc

* got an offer from Syncplicity for 100GB for $99 for the first year (who knows what it would cost year two?)

8648

General Software Discussion / Re: Backup software à la dropbox (backups differences in file - revisions)

« Last post by tomos on March 19, 2009, 03:35 PM »

sorry I was a bit unclear

I really wanted to know in this thread about "local" software possibilities that would do this type of backup -
i.e. copy only the changed parts of files each time they changed and at the same time, offer the possibility to go back to different versions of the file -
(Am I explaining that part clearly ?)


I'm open to online suggestions too though - I just find the fees too high usually (there I'm being unclear again )

Jungledisk does this but you have to pay a small fee for it. And for example Cobian Backup does this if you're looking for local backup.

-justice (March 19, 2009, 11:34 AM)

I believe JD only synches when it does the "Block-level file updates" - see the last couple of posts in your review thread.
I'll ask in Cobian forum - but I dont see any sign that they do what I'm looking for.

8649

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Jungle Disk Mini-Review: offsite data storage

« Last post by tomos on March 19, 2009, 03:08 PM »

Hope that helps!

-TheQwerty (March 19, 2009, 12:04 PM)

- a lot !
thanks Qwerty

1) yes I think $24 per year is much more profitable to them than $20 one-time payment

2) AFAIK the versioning JD offers is where only the changed files get updated (but a full copy of changed file is made on each change)

3) I might just stick with what I have then for the moment and ask at their forum when I go to upgrade

thanks again

8650

General Software Discussion / Backup software à la dropbox (backups differences in file - revisions)

« Last post by tomos on March 19, 2009, 10:54 AM »

This may well be covered here somewhere but as you can see from the title I'm not sure what to call it

Is there backup software that does revisions but only saves the difference in the file each time (which is what dropbox does)
I know there's synch software that does this but I'm looking for the equivalent of incremental backup on a file basis - without having to save the whole file each time.

Online (dropbox, there may be others that do this) I find too expensive - @ $99 a year I may as well invest in an external harddrive each year and I'll get a lot more space. It may be worthwhile from a convenience point of view. Always good to check out the options though . Ah, I remember something about Jungledisk being able to do this too but I think it may just do synch - very difficult to find any info on their site