Recent Posts

1

General Software Discussion / Re: Synchronization software with tree view, moved files detection and size ignore

« Last post by xtabber on October 21, 2023, 10:53 AM »

I believe that Beyond Compare will allow you to ignore file size when comparing and synchronizing folders. It's not striclty speaking a synchronization program, although I use it for that purpose more often than Syncovery because it gives me better feedback for what I might want to look at before I proceed. It does not watch folder for moved files though.

2

General Software Discussion / Re: What Android Apps Do You Use?

« Last post by xtabber on March 23, 2022, 07:38 AM »

@milesahead:
Sounds like a DRM problem to me.

I'm sure there is software that is able to strip DRM from books, so a tool like Calibre can convert it to a different format that make it easy to read in your favorite reading software on your computer. Whatever this may be.

You are not allowed to use such software, and you probably shouldn't. Still, there is also something to say that you should be able to read your book on whatever device you own after purchasing that book. And as long as that book never "leaves" your library, the author/publisher/distributor aren't really hurting on the financial end. No harm, no foul.

-Shades (August 12, 2021, 01:13 AM)

DeDRM Tools is a set of plug-ins for Calibre that will remove DRM from most purchased (but not rented or borrowed) Kindle/Nook/Kobo/Adobe ebooks.  I use it for many ebooks I buy from Amazon, Adobe or B&N in order to read them in programs that handle footnotes and cross-references better than Kindle or Adobe Reader, or when I just want to keep an archival copy.  Note that for Kindle ebooks, you will usually need to have available an older version of the Kindle reader for PC or Mac, or a very old Kindle device, in order to download a file in a format from which the DRM can be removed. That usually means a second PC or device.

DeDRM seems to have recently been forked and has a new developer who goes by the name noDRM.  This lengthy mobileread thread follows its development.

3

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Book Catalog

« Last post by xtabber on October 14, 2021, 06:54 AM »

If you don't want a web based catalog, Readerware (not free) is probably the best.  They also have versions for music and videos.

4

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by xtabber on November 07, 2020, 06:23 AM »

apparently replaced by MX Master 2S or MX Master 3

I will get one and report.

-mouser (October 27, 2020, 06:28 PM)

I’ve long been addicted to Logitech’s high speed scrolling feature.  I recently replaced an MX Master 2s with an MX Master 3 and was surprised to find the new magnetic scrolling mechanism vastly more responsive. I also find the Master 3 to be subtly more comfortable in my hand, but YMMV.

5

General Software Discussion / Re: Affinity (Serif) goes head to head with Photoshop & (maybe) Illustrator

« Last post by xtabber on April 06, 2020, 06:53 AM »

Good review of Affinity as a photo editor in today's AskWoody newsletter.

I believe you need to be a Plus member (donation) to read it.

6

General Software Discussion / Re: What was a great program that's now been forgotten?

« Last post by xtabber on January 28, 2020, 01:58 PM »

xywrite text editor: http://www.xywrite.com/

-mouser (January 28, 2020, 09:38 AM)

+1 !!!

xywrite was a lot more than a text editor.  It was an advanced word processing system that, within a purely text-based environment, anticipated many of the capabilities of today's web browsers.

And it was FAST!

But much of its speed and power came from implementing its own hardware interfaces internally, rather than relying on the operating system for screen and print drivers.  That was not sustainable as the personal computer industry expanded exponentially and also moved to a graphical environment.

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General Software Discussion / Re: What was a great program that's now been forgotten?

« Last post by xtabber on January 28, 2020, 09:34 AM »

Borland Reflex

8

Living Room / Re: Any good free android scientific calculator?

« Last post by xtabber on June 29, 2019, 09:25 PM »

I used RealCalc and was so happy with it that I gladly paid for RealCalc Plus, which I've now been using for many years.

-Deozaan (June 27, 2019, 02:34 PM)

+1 

9

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Binary Fortress summer sale - Clipboard Fusion, Display Fusion, FileSeek, etc.

« Last post by xtabber on May 26, 2019, 07:12 AM »

DisplayFusion's sale is back as a Spring Sale.

We're offering all of our desktop apps at a sale price of up to 50% off, until May 28, 2019!
Desktop Applications

    DisplayFusion from $14.50
    ClipboardFusion only $7.50
    FileSeek from $7.50
    iTunesFusion only $7.50
    LogFusion from $7.50
    TrayStatus from $5.00
    VoiceBot from $7.50

I personally find TrayStatus indispensable.

10

General Software Discussion / Mozilla shoots itself in foot

« Last post by xtabber on May 04, 2019, 07:43 AM »

Firefox survives in today's Chromium dominated browser world mainly because of the wealth of useful extensions available for it, many of which have no Chrome/Chromium equivalent.

So today, many Firefox users woke up to find that all of their extensions had been disabled and could neither be used nor re-installed.  This turns out to be the result of a certificate checking bug at Mozillla.

ghacks has a good description of the problem here.

As I write this, nearly 12 hours later, Mozilla still has only a temporary fix involving enabling Studies in the Privacy & Security Options.

11

General Software Discussion / Re: Et Tu, CCleaner!

« Last post by xtabber on December 27, 2018, 04:21 PM »

4wd was being ironic.

-Curt (December 27, 2018, 04:05 PM)

No doubt, but ital2 was not.

That's who the info was directed at, although others may find it useful too.

12

General Software Discussion / Re: Et Tu, CCleaner!

« Last post by xtabber on December 27, 2018, 11:44 AM »

4wd: "Wouldn't it be a lot less complicated, (and cheaper), to have the browser delete cookies when it's closed, (ie. they all become session cookies) ?"

Hence my question above; unfortunately, the traditional FF add-in having brilliantly done exactly that not working anymore beyond FF 56 (or whatever the exact version number was).

-ital2 (December 26, 2018, 08:12 AM)

Firefox provides an option  to delete all cookies when the browser is closed (Options/Privacy & Security/Cookies and Site Data/Keep Until...Firefox is closed).

A more flexible solution is to leave the setting at the default "...Until they expire" and use a cookie whitelist extension to determine which ones to keep or delete.  Two such extensions that work well for me are "Cookie AutoDelete" and "Forget Me Not," both of which are compatible with current Firefox versions.

13

Living Room / Bill Godbout

« Last post by xtabber on November 19, 2018, 05:24 PM »

One victim of the Camp Fire disaster in California earlier this month was Bill Godbout, a name that may be familiar to microcomputer old-timers as co-developer of the S-100 bus and founder of CompuPro, maker of some of the best computers in the early 1980's.

The Register has a good obituary.

According to this story in the New York Times, he may have died because he stayed to try and save his three cats when his family fled the fire.

14

General Software Discussion / Re: Rename Open File in Windows

« Last post by xtabber on October 30, 2018, 09:06 AM »

XYplorer's built-in file viewer displays pdf files properly and does not lock the file being viewed, so you can rename it while viewing it.

The viewer, which can be shown in a pane or a separate movable window, always displays whatever file is currently selected, so you can simply scroll down through a list of files and rename them on the fly, without ever having to open them in a separate program.

15

General Software Discussion / Windows 10: merge the bugs now, we'll fix them later

« Last post by xtabber on October 21, 2018, 11:15 AM »

Folk who flog software for a living should read this Ars Technica article about what’s wrong with how Microsoft develops and distributes Windows 10.

After a year using Windows 10, I much prefer it to Windows 7 generally, but find it remains too unreliable to replace Windows 7 on my primary working system. The problem is that with Windows 10, I can never be confident that something that worked one day will continue to do so the same way next day, even if I haven’t changed anything myself. 

One shouldn't use beta software in a production environment, but Windows 10 seems to be stuck in a permanent beta.

16

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Mailwasher Pro 40% off this week

« Last post by xtabber on September 18, 2018, 05:57 PM »

The 51% discount is back today (9/18/2018) again for 5 days.

17

General Software Discussion / Et Tu, CCleaner!

« Last post by xtabber on August 06, 2018, 06:38 AM »

CCleaner 5.45 has been pulled from distribution after a firestorm of criticism last week when users reported that the new version was collecting usage data and sending it back to Piriform.

Martin Brinkmann has a detailed report on the new "features" on ghacks and bluntly advises against installing this version.

This is the second major security SNAFU since Piriform was acquired by Avast.

As a long time user of CCleaner, I now feel it's time to look for a replacement.

Suggestions?

18

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 update stuck on constant "need to restart" - end of my tether

« Last post by xtabber on July 24, 2018, 09:31 PM »

Seagate 3TB drives were notoriously prone to failure (I had one, and it did, after about 3 years).

According to the latest BackBlaze survey, the more recent Seagate 4TB drives have lower failure rates than either HGST or WD.

19

Found Deals and Discounts / XYplorer World Cup 2018 sale - 50% off on lifetime Pro license.

« Last post by xtabber on July 07, 2018, 04:17 PM »

XYplorer currently has a World Cup 2018 sale on a lifetime license at 50% off  - $39.95 instead of $79.95.

The sale is in effect for as long as England stays in contention or the World Cup is over.

England beat Sweden today to advance to the semifinals against Croatia on Wednesday, July 11, so the sale is good at least until then.  If England defeats Croatia, they will advance to the final on Sunday, July 15.

20

Living Room / Re: A simple one-parameter equation that can be used to reproduce any plot

« Last post by xtabber on June 01, 2018, 07:13 AM »

This is just another formulation of the old nonsense about an infinite number of monkeys typing away forever and producing the complete works of Shakespeare.  It has nothing to do with Chaos Theory.

21

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Mailwasher Pro 40% off this week

« Last post by xtabber on May 09, 2018, 06:51 AM »

Mailwasher Pro discount has been upped to 51% through May 2018.
 
Enter promo code mayday51 in the checkout cart and click apply to see the result.

I've used Mailwasher Pro for 14 years and while no spam filtering tool is close to perfect, I have yet to find any other system that provides me with the flexibility to deal with the problem satisfactorily. I have it set to check email on my server automatically, which allows me to check things and delete (or undelete) selectively before anything reaches my local email program. This is great if you use a pop3 account, but far less useful if you use gmail or a similar system, which makes me wonder about the long term market for this kind of software.

I'd guess that Nick Bolton (developer of Mailwasher) is thinking along the same lines, which may explain the great sale prices at this time.  I renewed last year and my current license hs over two years left on it, which poses a dilemma, should I buy a lifetime license now at less than half price or wait and see what happens?

Given that I rely on Mailwasher every day, I'll probably go for the lifetime license now, if only to support the dev, but YMMV.

22

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Mailwasher Pro 40% off this week

« Last post by xtabber on April 27, 2018, 01:22 PM »

Thanks, link just goes to empty cart, here a better one:

they only offering 25% off at the site -- where did you get the 40% discount?

-tomos (April 25, 2018, 03:27 PM)

From the Mailwasher newsletter:

We're also running a discount of 40% on MailWasher Pro this week. So tell your friends and family!

Buy MailWasher with 40% off!
 
Stay safe
 
 Kind regards
Nick Bolton & the team at Firetrust.com

50% (as per Curt) sounds better, but requires clicking to activate the deal through a 3rd party site, which is the kind of unsafe web behavior I try to avoid. 

23

Found Deals and Discounts / Mailwasher Pro 40% off this week

« Last post by xtabber on April 25, 2018, 03:05 PM »

Mailwasher Pro anti-spam software is on sale for 40% off this week.

https://secure.firetrust.com/cart

Unusually for Firetrust, this includes a lifetime license at $59.97, making it about $6 more than the 3-year license.

24

Living Room / Re: Any way to detect and block spoofed phone numbers?

« Last post by xtabber on April 20, 2018, 09:13 AM »

The FCC issued a Consumer Alert about the current spoofing epidemic last month.

Don't expect them to do much about it though. Here's the official FCC guide to protecting yourself from spam calls. Not much help there, although they do provide links to most carriers' pages on the topic.

I simply let all numbers that are not in my phone book go through to voicemail, and if it's a legitimate caller, I'll call back.  Google Voice is great for this since it provides text transcriptions of most messages, so I don't even have to listen to them to know if I should respond.

25

Living Room / Re: US Internet providers - suggestions needed

« Last post by xtabber on April 18, 2018, 04:57 PM »

Verizon FIOS (fiber) is supposedly available in most of Gaithersburg, MD., and is generally considered far more reliable (and faster) than Xfinity (Comcast) cable. She should contact Verizon to find out whether her home can get it.  RCN also supposedly has fiber service in parts of Gaithersburg.