Recent Posts

9951

General Software Discussion / Re: Plain text editor for writers

« Last post by wraith808 on February 24, 2008, 08:19 AM »

There's also an Open Source alternative - KeyNote.

A very good review of it is here:
http://becoming-a-wr...note-remains-strong/

And you can get it here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/keynote/

9952

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking to find or build a simple specific app.

« Last post by wraith808 on February 24, 2008, 08:04 AM »

for the response on other open / save utilities...yes, i know of them but they create dialog boxes as drop downs and have to be predetermined. the beauty of click there it is and default folder is ANY open folder can be clicked on (alt+click...whatever) and the open/save would jump to that open folder.

hopefully that makes sense...its a hard concept to explain but once you get it...and use it...you think "wow. simple and cool"

anyone know how to program it?

-precogmark (February 23, 2008, 07:30 PM)

Actually, direct folders does exactly what you want, though in a different way.  When you are in a file dialog box, you bring up the menu by double-clicking in an empty area of the dialog box.  All of the open windows appear at the top of the menu that appear, and you can click any of them to go there.

http://www.codesecto...om/directfolders.php

Take a look at the screencasts.

If you go to https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1642.0 there is a discount- it's expired for 50%, but if you click it, you still get it for $5 off...

9953

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Anyone familiar with RAID?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 09:43 PM »

Yeah... it was the Sony VAIO AR-770 laptop.  I suppose I should have realized they were going to RAID the drives, but I didn't.  For now, I'm sticking with the RAID 0 and just doing regular backups... when I replace the HDs with 7200 RPM drives, I'll fix it then.

9954

Living Room / Re: Windows Live Skydrive: Tried Anyone?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 09:32 PM »

In the C drive-no folders, it's in with the boot files-or was.

-cmpm (February 23, 2008, 10:26 AM)

Nothing there now... I'm not really sure how it would even do this, since it's all web interface driven.  Are you sure they were from skydrive and not something else?

9955

General Software Discussion / Re: teracopy: copy your files faster

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 09:29 PM »

I've compared it to plain vanilla copying, and it is indeed faster.

As far as the how, this is what it says on the site: TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.

I understand the words, but it's still black box to me.

Other features:
# Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.
# Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer.
# Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files.
# Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual.
# Full Unicode support.

The pause and resume, error recovery, and interactive file list are very useful too...

9956

Living Room / Re: Windows Live Skydrive: Tried Anyone?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 08:37 AM »

Find sql files on your local drive?  Where?

9957

General Software Discussion / Re: teracopy: copy your files faster

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 08:28 AM »

Open Source isn't the holy grail to me.  It's useful for some things, and not so much for others.  Teracopy already has a lot going for it and it's free... so I'm not going to start with something that doesn't do what I need, just because it's OS.  And teracopy itself is actually only a little bigger... so I can allow it a few bytes since after you added all the additional features to PC, it would probably be just as big. 

9958

General Software Discussion / Re: Best program to manage information collections?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 08:23 AM »

@tsdragon

Before I download PersonalBrain, a couple of questions:
1. What are the annoying limitations that it has?
2. Is it normally just a minimized window?  Or does it minimize to the tray?
3. When minimized, how do you use it?

TIA for the info!

9959

General Software Discussion / Re: Best program to manage information collections?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 08:11 AM »

UltraRecall seems better for non-related (or semi-related) bits of information, and it seems to have most if not all of what you're looking for.  Google notebook might also be an option, though I've not delved deep enough into it to know.

And mouser, maybe it would be a good policy to have to edit posts to remove affiliate links?

So you (or some admin) would edit his post to have http://www.bitsmithsoft.com/ in it instead of the affiliate link?

9960

DC Gamer Club / Re: Lets get organized so we can get gaming!

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 08:04 AM »

Well, that makes sense... but *hate* usually implies something inherently wrong with the software which is why I was wondering...

9961

General Software Discussion / Re: Do You Purchase Software on Impulse?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 07:20 AM »

^ OMG!  It must be a general condition.  Whenever I start eBaying again, I overdo it and have to lay off visiting the site... and I have to go to the grocery store with a list and stick to it, or I buy *way* too much!

9962

DC Gamer Club / Re: Lets get organized so we can get gaming!

« Last post by wraith808 on February 23, 2008, 07:07 AM »

I find that it does offer advantages over steam, in that it keeps track of what I'm playing.  It also supports more games, especially non Steam-Powered ones.  There's relatively few games on Steam, which is the reason that I prefer a solution that isn't tied to a distribution network.

Why such hate for xfire... it does one thing, and it seems to do it well?

9963

General Software Discussion / Re: teracopy: copy your files faster

« Last post by wraith808 on February 22, 2008, 11:27 PM »

But... it doesn't do the primary thing teracopy does... copy things faster!

9964

Living Room / Re: Windows Live Skydrive: Tried Anyone?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 22, 2008, 11:24 PM »

I set up an account, and uploaded some information that I needed to get home.  It's functional enough- pretty standard fare with the creation of folders and uploading information.  Downloads work just like downloads from any site.  I haven't tried any of the sharing features yet.

One nice feature is the fact that you have a direct url for access to the file.

But for the most part, it does what's advertised- no more, no less.

9965

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Anyone familiar with RAID?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 22, 2008, 11:15 PM »

For the future, in case anyone else is dealing with this:
http://www.tomshardw...raid_scaling_charts/

That gives a *whole* lot of information about RAID performance gains.  Thanks for the information!  The part I was sort of skeptical about is the fact that RAID 0 is statistically a little more risky than having one drive.  Assuming that all of them have the same reliability, you have twice the chance of failure as if you use one drive.

But since I'm going to eventually upgrade to 2 7200RPM drives, I'll try RAID 0 for now- hopefully it will get me into the habit of backing up more often.

Thanks again- especially for the links!

9966

DC Website Help and Extras / Anyone familiar with RAID?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 22, 2008, 12:43 PM »

I just received a new laptop... but I also just found out something troubling.  The laptop has 2 200GB Drives, which I just assumed they'd send to me as 2 drives.  But it's RAIDed ... RAID 0.  I have *never* used RAID 0 before because of the chance of all of your data going poof... but I just wanted to ask if I'm being a bit too paranoid...

I was thinking of buying an external and just keeping backups updated, but I'm terrible at that.  Is it a large chance that I'll be screwed?  And if a drive does die, is that pretty much it for the data?  How about if the controller dies?  I know that in the case of RAID 1 if the controller dies, you can just replace it and have no problems, but I know painfully little about RAID 0.

Thoughts?

9967

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits Du Jour and GAOTD one-day deals

« Last post by wraith808 on February 21, 2008, 03:01 PM »

I was using prompt pal, and was very happy with it with a few exceptions (the fact that it opens a cmd window at time to execute the commands sucks).  I still use it quite a bit, but lately I've been using cygwin more and more... I just downloaded powershell and am going to take a look at it... from what a friend says, it might be better than both...

9968

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / VizTracker

« Last post by wraith808 on February 21, 2008, 11:24 AM »

Have you ever wanted a simple defect/issue tracker for a simple project- but didn't want to use excel or something like that?

This project started because of the fact that I needed a way to track issues, but didn't want anything heavy to do so, and didn't want to use excel.  It's pretty simple, and doesn't have anything to get in the way of its primary purpose- tracking defects.  I was originally designing it for NANY, but had some issues so couldn't finish on time.  I've expanded it since then, and haven't really decided whether to release it for gain or for free, but am reaching the point where I want others to take a look at it and tell me what they think.

If you have an interest in helping me finish the project, send me a PM and we can go from there.  Please only respond if you're interested in giving feedback.  If I do make it shareware, any testers will of course get a free copy.

Thanks!

9969

General Software Discussion / Re: Should I get my new laptop with hard drive partitioned?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 20, 2008, 02:11 PM »

Thats a lot like how I have my desktop setup, other than the fact that my C drive is a bit larger since I keep all of my permanent, non-portable apps on that drive also.  Since you have problems keeping the bits of the application intact, I figured it was better to keep them here.  My D drive has my documents and such, and E has portable software and games.  My downloads I keep on F, since I have to defrag a lot with bit torrent and such.

9970

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite eBay/auction helping software?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 20, 2008, 07:58 AM »

Another endorsement for Auction Sentry Deluxe here.  It's annoying to have to keep it running, but that's the nature of the beast, and I'm not going to use an online eBay sniper, as I don't want to give out my ID.

9971

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 20, 2008, 07:54 AM »

A lot of people are saying that this mentality is the reason that Microsoft didn't get more involved in the war... it didn't really care if HD DVD failed.  It was looking to HD streaming downloads, and the rumour is that they are going to announce a partnership with Netflix to do something like that in the next few days.  My take on the whole thing is if we're streaming it anyway, I'd rather just do something like on demand.  Pay an amount a month to have access to a whole catalog of movies over cable.  It seems that most of the time that the internet connection is down, the cable connection stays up, and the act of streaming is more seamless...

9972

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 06:26 PM »

Profile 1.0 and 1.1 will still be compatible with 2.0 discs, you just wont get the network content

-Josh (February 19, 2008, 05:49 PM)

Well, I hope so.. .from all I've seen, they still haven't said.  But I'm neither holding my breath nor jumping in... I'll wait until it's out then re-evaluate.

9973

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 05:30 PM »

We've seen it recently in the console wars.  We've seen it recently in the profile 1.0->1.1 update.  Who can attest to how they think?  Especially with such a small install base?  Most of the BR players out there are PS3s.  They can be updated.  If there are problems with the features in 1.1 players, it would make sense to drop it ... especially with no competition.

9974

Living Room / Re: Ring the bells!!! The HD Format war is OVER!!! Toshiba forfeits

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 05:22 PM »

I'm not talking about adoption:

The point I was making is that there is no alternative to BR, and no market penetration, so they have no incentive to make it backwards compatible if there are any problems with doing so.

Note the emphasis... that's what I was talking about market penetration in regards to.

And I don't think that dual-format players were the way to go (though that worked in regards to the +R/-R battles), but removing the exclusivity.  BRA paid $500 million for Warner to stick it to HD-DVD.  That's not a fight based on merits, but on restricting content.  Since it's an association people don't jump on the anti-competitive bandwagon as they do if a company does the same thing- but in the end, they used the same sort of practices that M$ is accused of to win.  That just sits badly with me.  Win on the merits of your solutions, not the depth of your pockets...

9975

General Software Discussion / Re: Best program to manage information collections?

« Last post by wraith808 on February 19, 2008, 02:36 PM »

I'm using Ultra Recall, and I love it.  Not complicated at all from my usage, though it has more features than I'm using.  I'm also contemplating the purchase of Surfulator when it is on BDJ later this week.  One I can definitely recommend *against* is SnippetCenter.  The only thing it was useful for was making me stop impulse purchases on BDJ...