topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Saturday September 19, 2026, 9:32 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Recent Posts

Pages: prev1 ... 389 390 391 392 393 [394] 395 396 397 398 399 ... 404next
9826
Developer's Corner / Re: Frustration with User Feedback
« Last post by wraith808 on March 19, 2009, 08:43 AM »
Not a failing per se, but I did ask, and didn't receive.  But maybe that was a fault on my end.
9827
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 1 free PageFour license (and one only)
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 03:11 PM »
I was all ready to slap down my $50 for Benubird Pro, but being the scatter brain that I am, waited till the last day (March 17) without taking into account the time difference between NA and Europe (so when I tried to purchase it last night, the Donation Coder discount no longer showed up upon check-out).  I don't know if askSam has any killer advantage over Benubird Pro; perhaps the breadth of things you can stuff into it and the templates/wizards with which to organize them, making it a PIM, Address Book, Email archiver, Personal Journal, Cataloger, etc, all rolled into one.  (If the Benubird Pro discount ever comes around again, I wouldn't be surprised if I purchased it.  I really like Benubird's interface and PDF handling abilities.) 

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.
9828
Living Room / Re: Steam online game account system flirts with micropayments
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 03:10 PM »
As long as the platform enforces some QC on the DLC (i.e. its worthy DLC and not just completing an unfinished game), then I'm all for it.  It gives new life to something that you might have really enjoyed but want more (Fallout 3, Oblivion, and Mass Effect are all good examples of this).
9829
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 1 free PageFour license (and one only)
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 12:00 PM »
I'm actually using BenuBird Pro for the same sort of thing as askSam.  Any idea of what advantages askSam has over Benubird Pro?   (BTW, that link is to the current discount for members.  It was supposed to end yesterday, but you can try it and see if it still works)
9830
Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: VizTracker
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 11:28 AM »
I've finished this, and decided to release it as free, at least currently.  It's available for download from here.
9831
Developer's Corner / Re: Frustration with User Feedback
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 10:45 AM »
9832
Developer's Corner / Re: Frustration with User Feedback
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 10:39 AM »
But it's not a coding snack, and I saw that other freeware things were posted under there... I wasn't really sure where to post things.  My other stuff's always been posted under a competition category, so didn't know the format for that.  

Thoughts?
9833
Living Room / Re: Valve announces best PC gaming idea of the year (so far)
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 10:36 AM »
Well, from may of last year, but it hadn't been discussed here, and Mouser's earlier article was the only thing that clued me into it...  Thought it was worthy of discussion at least, and that perhaps someone else hadn't seen it.
9834
Developer's Corner / Re: Frustration with User Feedback
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 09:59 AM »
All of my apps have been posted on DonationCoder.com.  I'm going to get them into a more centralized location on my site, but I haven't done it yet.  :-[
9835
Living Room / Re: Steam online game account system flirts with micropayments
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 09:47 AM »
BTW, Thanks for the heads up mouser!  Without this topic, I wouldn't have seen the topic about Steamcloud :)
9836
Living Room / Valve announces best PC gaming idea of the year (so far)
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 09:45 AM »
This is pretty exciting news to me as a gamer.  It would be great if everyone could get on one bandwagon as far as this is concerned, but with the cow already out of the fence in regards to one site for downloading pc software, I doubt it.

Partial Excerpt:

We love it when companies just get it. Valve Software and its announcement of SteamCloud is a prime example. As reported by John Walker at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, SteamCloud will let anyone using Valve's Steam PC game download and networking service carry over saved game files, mouse, and keyboard configurations and other player-specific info regardless of where you log in. In other words, if you're at a friend's house and you want to jump into a game of Team Fortress 2 on his or her PC, all you need to do is log in to Steam and all your settings are there.

This is one reason I love MMOs.  Everything is in the cloud.  With some things, I'm sort of resistant to this idea, but not save game information.  I use my laptop for gaming when I'm not at my desk, and my desktop when I am.  Steam has already let me have my games on both platforms, but to also have my saves on both platforms?  That would be bonus!  Again Steam is playing catch up- Live already lets you do that; my Fallout 3 saves transfer seamlessly, even to the point that games that are done while you're logged off don't even register on your account!  But Steam has the momentum, so playing catch up while you have the speed behind you isnt a bad thing.  Also Valve has more goodwill from the developer community than Microsoft...
9837
Living Room / Re: Steam online game account system flirts with micropayments
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 09:39 AM »
They're playing keep-up with XBox Live, IMO.  XBox Live has shown that this stuff works- DLC, Achievements- and Steam is trying to be the de facto platform for the PC.  IMO, it's a great idea as long as the DLC is kept under tight control so that it's not required content that's left out just to charge for it later.  As Live has shown, there's real backlash over that kind of thing.
9838
Developer's Corner / Frustration with User Feedback
« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2009, 09:30 AM »
... or lack thereof. :(

I've posted quite a few apps- all free- and have gotten very little feedback, especially on the more complicated ones.  I wrote a portable application wrapper most recently, and have *tons* of downloads (it's a good thing it's small and I don't have a lot of traffic to my sites since it spiked my bandwidth), but have had *zero* feedback. 

I do a lot of testing to my apps, and am somewhat of a perfectionist, especially since I do this to try out new techniques to keep myself on the edge professionally, so I know they're of good quality, but they aren't *perfect*, and getting no complaints about *anything* is very disheartening and frustrating.

I've thought of making them postcardware or commentware or donationware and putting nags in just to get *some* sort of feedback, but I'm not in this for the money or anything like that, or to force people to say anything.  It would just be nice if they did.

What are others' thoughts/experiences on this?
9839
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 1 free PageFour license (and one only)
« Last post by wraith808 on March 17, 2009, 08:37 AM »
Can PageFour be used portably?
9840
Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Portable Application Wrapper
« Last post by wraith808 on March 14, 2009, 10:28 PM »
Thanks!  I posted it there.  Hope it helps you!
9841
Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Portable Application Wrapper
« Last post by wraith808 on March 14, 2009, 08:07 PM »
Portable Application Wrapper
version 1.0 03/15/2009

Portable Application Wrapper is a small application designed to do one thing; launch another application.  It was inspired by geek.Menu's insistence that an application be in the root of the installation path in order to add it to the menu.

Instructions are in the text file included with the application, and you can download it here.

Feedback is appreciated and if you have any questions or problems, post them here.

Thanks!
9842
I've never had a problem with Buy.com, and I've bought several things from them.  I've never purchased software from them, but video cards, bags, flash memory, and other things.
9843
I actually like geek.Menu, a fork of PortableApps, a lot better.  The differences make it a lot more useable, though it seems that perhaps PortableApps will catch up with geek.Menu with their next release.  The cool thing is you can have both on your USB drive though...



9844
General Software Discussion / Re: eBook Reader alternate to Acrobat?
« Last post by wraith808 on March 06, 2009, 08:38 AM »
Now that I have an iPhone, I use Stanza and Kindle for iPhone.

With Stanza, you can also get eReader format books from Fictionwise.  They have a really good rewards program too!
9845
Living Room / Re: The Greatest Graphic Novel of All Time: Watchmen
« Last post by wraith808 on March 04, 2009, 09:56 AM »
A few off the top of my head include Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Nextwave, Hard Boiled, and Shaolin Cowboy.
9846
Have you been to their forum? Or the outlinersoftware.com forum? The developer removed his Roadmap post and replaced it with a statement that Ultra Recall would no longer be actively developed due to the poor economy. After a large outcry by users along with a lot of posts at various forums, he replaced that statement with a much smaller Roadmap - with most of the significant future improvements missing. Since then he has released three minor bug-fix updates.

I still use it - Kyle says that he won't abandon UR and that he will definitely support it through Windows 7 compatibility. But probably no innovative changes to it.

Ah, I found it.  Probably completely overlooked it, as I purchased it years ago, and still only have a few items in it.  I recently uninstalled it.  Tried surfulater also, and promptly forgot about it.  Evernote has been the best for me, as it syncs across platforms.  I'll probably try a few others I saw in the forums also (Zoot and Knowledgeware looked promising), but that's just because I'm a software addict  :-[
9847
Living Room / Re: The Greatest Graphic Novel of All Time: Watchmen
« Last post by wraith808 on March 04, 2009, 08:45 AM »
While I will agree that Watchmen was very revolutionary in its day, and has held up well, and am looking forward to the movie, I would say that it has been surpassed since then by a few efforts.  My favorite recently was Black Summer.
9848
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review of myPhotoFrame
« Last post by wraith808 on February 26, 2009, 06:24 PM »
In cases where you can't install the whole google desktop (like when the firewall blocks it :( ) or it's against IT policy, this is a viable alternative.
9849
Don’t feel bad...  I purchased Ultra Recall only a few months ago and the developer just posted last week that it is basically being abandoned.

Where did you see that?  He's still releasing versions as of 2/24/2009, so it doesn't seem to be abandoned...
9850
Mini-Reviews by Members / Mini-Review of myPhotoFrame
« Last post by wraith808 on February 25, 2009, 03:39 PM »
Basic Info

App NamemyPhotoFrame
App URLmyPhotoFrame
App Version Reviewed1.1
Test System SpecsWindows XP SP2 Pentium D 3.4MHz, 2048MB RAM
Supported OSesWindows XP, Windows Vista
Support Methodse-mail ([email protected])
Upgrade PolicyFrom Website
As a registered customer, you are entitled to a fully functional, unrestricted copy of the software, free technical support, and free updates that will be released within 1 major version (if you are user of version 4, then all 4.xx versions are free for you).
Trial Version Available?You can download myPhotoFrame 14 Days Free Trial Version.  There are no limitations within that time limit.
Pricing SchemeAt the time of my purchase, it was $14.95, with special bundle prices.  The price appears to have dropped to $9.95, and there is a DonationCoder discount available.  Not sure if they stack.

myPhotoFrame01.png

Intro:

One of the things I loved about Vista was the desktop gadgets, especially the photo frame one.  I really missed it when working on Windows XP, and so was very happy to find myPhotoFrame on Bits Du Jour.  myPhotoFrame is a very small application that does one thing, and does it well in a small memory footprint- displaying photos in an overlay on the desktop.  The frame can be changed, and the size of the window and photo scaled, along with mouse over transparency changes to allow you to see your desktop through the window.

myPhotoFrame02.png

Who is this app designed for:

In this digital age with small cubicle sizes, sometimes it's not feasible to have photos plastered around your workspace.  myPhotoFrame can display a folder of family photos on your desktop discretely to always keep those memories with you.


The Good

It does what it sets out to do in a simple manner with little memory footprint.  There is a right click menu allowing you access to all of the functions, and one simple dialog for settings.

myPhotoFrame03.png

myPhotoFrame04.png

The needs improvement section

In the use of some skins, photos get cut off with no way to change that, though in the settings you can skip any photos that are out of proportion.

myPhotoFrame05.png

The ability to click through the photo would also be a welcome addition, along with the ability for users to create skins, though the author will take photos of frame ideas and make new personalized frames for you.


Why I think you should use this product

If you like the Vista app to display photos in a folder, this is a good replacement on XP.  It also is a good replacement in general since it can be displayed anywhere on the desktop.  It has a low memory usage, and does what it sets out to do well.


How does it compare to similar apps

Other than gadgets in the sidebar (google, vista, etc), I'm not aware of other apps that do the same thing.  The major improvement over the sidebar apps is that this can be moved, and the skin can be changed.  Balance that against running another app, however small the footprint.


Conclusions

In summary, I really like this app.  It allowed me to have my family photos on my desktop at work, without actually having the real estate to have them on the desktop.  This is an app that if you need it, you'll see the applications, and if you don't, you just don't have a use for it.  But if you do have a need for it, I can say that it does the simple task it sets out to do well, which is the highest praise I can give for something like this.


Links to other reviews of this application

Review at SoftSea.com
Pages: prev1 ... 389 390 391 392 393 [394] 395 396 397 398 399 ... 404next