KOSOVAR1  Have your last word, Hagar. Something clear is not quite right about you. As for my comments, many have been positive when I have found good software and I often purchase same. So, have your last word and I won't be responding to you anymore.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  Sometimes I wonder if their are muppets around who work for software developers with a hidden agenda. I say so because their responses are so one-sided, they just can't be that unintelligent. (That would be a tribble, not a muppet!). What could be the benefit to defending mediocrity or obfuscation or just saying, "Hey, it works for me!" or "99.9% of users do such and such!" when that's clearly not he case. So, I'm tired of muppets and tribbles and for the rest of you, draw whatever conclusions you deem appropriate. I've just tried to be helpful to other users or I wouldn't have wasted time by contributing input.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  Hagar06, clearly there is no reasoning with you and it was my bad for not realizing that sooner. Your responses don't even address my explanations, so go waste someone else's time.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  Hey Stupid Monkey (apt name!):

I applied the update to the first three drives because in a level 1 three-disk array, you have to do it that way. The only LaCie notes, that accompanied the firmware upgrade was that it was necessary to correct some problems that were linked to the current firmware, although the specifics of what was wrong or what was fixed were not available. And I DID wait a week for the release notes before applying the updates, which actually were never produced, not even with the version 1.1 updater. (What arrogance after all the grief LaCie caused, not to mention lying about the version 1 updater problems!) My only real mistake was rushing to backup the half gig drive before thoroughly testing the disk array. Since you are so trusting of the ethics of corporate scoundrels at the xpense of end-users, let me recommend to you a few health insurance companies and investment firms I know you will love.  
(Version 3.6b1)

KOSOVAR1  Some muppet just wrote: "I am running VideoDrive fine on Snow Leopard. Mind you, I am running the kernel in 32 bits, as do 99,9% of users out there."

I say: "yeah, well where do you get your information about this paltry few 64-bit kernal adopters?" If Apple provides an innovation that significantly improves an aspect of its OS and, just because some portion of the user base hasn't adopted it yet, does that mean we should all stay stuck in the mud of past practices? If there were more muppets like you, we'd all still be using MacOS version 7 on PowerPC machines or Windows 98. Muppets!  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  To the mental muppet in the room, I expressed annoyance with developers who release tiny, incremental updates to their software practically every week (or twice a week), listing one or two "improvements" like "rounder buttons and other superficial interface elements, without making any significant usability or stability improvements. My complaint about VideoDrive last week is that it simply STOPPED CONVERTING MOVIES and I would like the developer to make it work again--because I paid for it-- not just to announce new shiny buttons or color scheme refinement. Developers like this produce frequent meaningless update announcements just to get more free exposure for their product, but they often won't do the hard work necessary to make a good product that was worthy of what I paid for it. In contrast, I gave the example of the noble VisualHub, which hasn't been updated IN YEARS because the developer discontinued work on it for personal reasons (and who very nobly stopped accepting payment for it because he was no longer doing the work), but IT somehow manages to convert my movies for me, whereas VideoDive will not. In contrast, if VideDrive is supposedly improving their software constantly, why doesn't it work anymore?

I'm sorry that you seem incapable of understanding my point or is it perhaps that you have some other agenda to defend a company's business model and practices or software that you want to refute as being defective for some, just because (you say) it works fine for you.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  To JBURR: This is what I mean by, "or worse" and why I don't trust software releases without release notes. Two years ago, I bought four LaCie external USB firewire drives. A year later, just slightly after the expiration of their warranties, I applied a firmware updater that LaCie released but which didn't come with any release notes. Stupidly, I applied it to them all. These drives cost a lot of money and were considered among the best of their class. I had three of them configured as a disk array and one bigger drive reserved for data backup. The firmware update seemed to go well, but when I tried to use the drives, they were all rendered completely useless and I was never able to retrieve a shred of data from any of the drives. Years of valuable collected data both on the array and on the 500 GB drive were shredded. Not only did I lose a lot of money on the drives, but I also shelled out hundreds of dollars on several data reclamation utilities like DiskWarrior, DriveGenius and DataRescue II, but nothing worked. It was stupid of me to be so trusting to apply the firmware update to all drives without testing each drive separately, but on a disk array, you can't test drives separately. Of course, when I contacted LaCie and said it had been a rare isolaated problem that had affected just a few customers, but I checked the forums and found this was not true. Also, within a week, a version 1.1 of the firmware updater came out, but it didn't fix my drives or recover my data. That's why I have the attitude I have because I don't want anyone else to experience even a tenth of the grief I had over data and property loss.  
(Version 3.6b1)

KOSOVAR1  Snow Leopard hasn't been a beta version in more than a month, but Aroona is definitely correct that "issues arise." The problem is, they won't fix them and VideoDrive isn't working.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  Here's an update: Since the last ten times (at least) I've tried to convert a movie, VideoDrive 1.10.2 has failed miserably every time AND THIS IS WITH CHAPTERING TURNED OFF as the developer recommended. As described below, I have all components of MacOS 10.6.1 running in 64-bit mode. Nothing has changed in the last six weeks except that VideoDrive stopped converting movies. Amazingly, VisualHub has converted movies just fine and IT has not been updated in years. So as the months pass, apparently there's still no functional version of VideoDrive available for people running Snow Leopard in full 64-bit mode. It's getting to be a real bummer.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  Actually, CNET TechTracker IS free. It's a preference pane that installs and mostly works without too much user intervention in the background. It doesn't work very well, though. It always lists half a dozen programs as out-of-date, but which have already been updated. Another case of getting what you pay for. At $20, I don't intend to even try MUD Desktop though.   
(Version 5.0)

KOSOVAR1  EarthDesk is such a resource hog, I'm sure it would benefit from being rewritten as a 64-bit program. About once a week, there is a temporary defect in the downloaded cloud cover graphic function, which mars the desktop appearance. The solution seems to be to delete the cloud graphic file and let the program re-download it from scratch. Other than this, I think the feature set is fine and it makes a dynamic and fascinating desktop for my 24" iMac.  
(Version 5.1)

KOSOVAR1  OK, I didn't realize that you're a "kid" (your term, however you define it). Anyway, let's assume you are a kid who loves writing software and that's all great. Anything that may be amiss might be chalked up to just lack of experience. I'll respectfully decline to buy YouView because the other program is working great and it's free. I do think I made some good points, but I also realize I waste too much time trying to be right. Let's call it a truce, if you're willing, and I hope you'll keep writing great software-- just as long as you' don't do it for Microsoft. Good luck in your business. I'm going to go bake a lousy frozen pizza.  
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  You wrote: "Yes I could of made a free and pro version, but what's the point?"

The answer is so that people won't be misled by words like "Free" and "Donation." You stated yourself that you didn't want to annoy or confuse people. Generally, it is good practice and legitimate practice to use the proper terminology so that people can make an informed choice when choosing the best software and not wasting time. As to all your other refutations, I hope I've already addressed those elsewhere. Ergo, 1.)YouView is SHAREWARE. 2.) Mr. Gecko software is not a charity organization.   
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  You wrote: "I'm basically saying if you like my product AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT ME..."

Mr. Gecko, thank you, finally, for your honesty and I rest my case. SUPPORTING YOU is not the same as donating to a charity. The only conclusion is that your software is shareware, not freeware, and legally, NOT DONATIONWARE. Respectfully, maybe you should take a course in Business Law 101 and pay attention to the income tax laws of your country.  
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  "Your not paying me, it's a donation."

Ok, then please name your charity, since a donation goes to a charity and not to a individual in exchange for goods or services. When I clicked on the PayPal link, PayPal lists your software company's name under "purpose" of the payment. Respectfully, I will say that if you don't reply with the name of the charity and a statement of "100% proceeds go to ...", one can assume that you are the recipient and YouView is not "donationware." I look forward to your reply and, heck, I might even buy your software if it's for a good caause, even though I just found the freeware program "iTuneGrabber," which does a super job and deserves an excellent review.  
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  1.) "nobody visits my website" is about as lame an excuse as I have yet heard.

2.) If this really a donation? PayPal lists your "donation's" purpose as "Mr. Gecko Media." The standard dictionary definition of "donation" is "something that is given to a charity, esp. a sum of money." Is your company a charity? If so, why not state that publicly so we know it's legit? I have no problem with donating. I bought some excellent software last week from a developer who listed it as shareware, but he stated that 100% of proceeds go to feeding street kids in India. I thought that was wonderful and was proud to give something back.

3.) I went back to your website again and, this time, found the words "Donations are required to get HD and downloading." This refers me back to question #2.

4.) The main feature for me with your type of utility is to download video from YouTube, convert it if necessary, and import it into iTunes. If you provide any of those features in your utility and then require people to pay to use it, that utility becomes shareware, not freeware. "Free" does not apply. Maybe you can create two versions a free and a "Pro" version. This will hopefully be taken as helpful advice, not as me being rude.  
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  Then neither should JEFFREY MCPHEETERS. As for rude, it is worse than rude to manipulate people to make a buck. This ploy is used too often and, when people see this, they react rudely. It's not just about you.  
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  AND JUST BECAUSE JEFFREY MCPHEETERS GOT TO VOTE TWICE, SO WILL I. ONE FRIGGIN' STAR!  
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  I ALSO CHECKED OUT THE DEVELOPER'S WEBSITE. NOWHERE DOES IT SAY THERE THAT YOUVIEW COSTS MONEY IF YOU WANT IT TO WORK AS ADVERTISED. YOU DON'T FIND OUT THAT THIS IS ACTUALLY CRIPPLEWARE UNTIL AFTER YOU DOWNLOAD IT AND TRY IT OUT. ALSO, THERE IS A LINK ON THE DEVELOPER'S WEBSITE HOMEPAGE THAT SAYS "DONATE." I GAVE IT ONE STAR BECAUSE IT DOESN'T PERFORM SATISFACTORILY UNDER ANY CATEGORY AS "FREE" PROGRAM IN ITS "FREE" VERSION: IN OTHER WORDS, AS A FREE UTILITY, IT DOES VERY LITTLE (FEATURES); FREE, IT DOESN'T WORK AS ADVERTISED (EASE OF USE); FREE, IT HAS VERY LITTLE WORTH (VALUE); AND FREE, YOU CAN HARDLY CALL IT STABLE IF IT DOESN'T PERFORM AS ADVERTISED (STABILITY).   
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  IT SAYS HERE YOUVIEW IS "FREE," BUT IF YOU WANT THE MOST BASIC AND IMPORTANT FUNCTIONALITY OF A UTILITY LIKE THIS (NAMELY, LIKE DOWNLOADING CLIPS FROM YOU TUBE) THEN YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. I HATE BEING LIED TO JUST SO SOME COMPANY CAN TRICK YOU INTO DOWNLOADING AND TRYING OUT THEIR SOFTWARE! BE UP FRONT AND HONEST,OK!  
(Version 0.4.3)

KOSOVAR1  It IS free to use this program. The catch is that it's pretty much useless without the ability to lock the files you've rendered (sort of) invisible. Any fool can make files invisible and visible again using simple features of the Mac OS's Finder. Of course the developer would prefer you commit yourself by downloading their software and giving it a try. It's deceptive, of course, but it probably helps them make money. I, for one, will probably keep Hide Folders and rename the program "Beef Jerky" to disguise it's function and then I'll bury it in an obscure folder. It's better than nothing, but that's not saying much.   
(Version 5.0)

KOSOVAR1  Well, I'll grant that ten dollars for an upgrade (an upgrade mind you, not the full Marine Aquarium product!--might not be so unreasonable IF the Mac version does all that the developer says it does for the Windows product. But keep in mind that this is just a screensaver. Most screensavers are free or cost $5 to $10 for the full product. So, the developer is promising us something magical and far more attractive than last version... Let's hope that the Mac version does everything--feature-for feature--that the Windows version does. Otherwise, people are going to feel bamboozled. Already, we Mac users are waiting for a product that has already become available for Windows users. I also hope that it will be stable fresh out the gate so we don't have to wait for bug fixes that may, or may not come.   
(Version 2.6.1)

KOSOVAR1  FlexCal used to be a great program and very helpful. Before I installed Snow Leopard and enabled all 64-bit functions, it worked flawlessly. Now, FlexCal won't run in the background anymore unless you manually start it up by opening System Preferences, start the FlexCal preference pane twice (twice because it has to be closed and reopened), and then click on start for the magic to begin. With all these steps, it's much simpler of course just to open iCal or switch to a different utility like MenuCalendarClock. Too bad, because while FleCal worked, it was the best. I hope the developer fixes this probelem soon by making it Snow Leopard compatible and 64-bit compliant.  
(Version 1.13)

KOSOVAR1  This 4 1/2 star overall rating for Synergy is such complete BS! I paid for a couple of Synergy upgrades throughout the Tiger years and all I ever got from it was frustration and a lot of wasted time. It only worked between boots if you loaded it manually. Now version 4 has been released and it ACTUALLY WORKS this time. Problem is, you're forced to buy it yet again if you want to use it with Snow Leopard. Who can say that it won't break again in a few weeks if you buy it and the developer's record of fixing the non-loading bug is abysmal. Plus, like the other commenter pointed out, there have been practically no significant feature additions. SO, Wincent has this little operation going on, forcing people to buy Synergy over and over again, if they want to keep it working, except that, in my experience, it almost never worked and this lazy developer isn't even decent enough to offer a discounted upgrade price for users who paid for the aggravation of twinking and testing various tricks to coax the previous versions to perform as advertised. Besides these major flaws, Synergy is a great concept, and very useful if only it were a reliable utility and the developer would treat previous paying customers right.   
(Version 4.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  The maker of Marine Aquarium wrote to say the following:

"We are working on Marine Aquarium 3 as we speak. This new version of the aquarium will be fully compatible with Snow Leopard. There will be a small upgrade cost to the newer version."

As I wrote before, these folks neglected Marine Aquarium for years and now, as they see an opportunity to wring some bucks out of this oldie again, they're going to charge for the upgrade. There was no mention of any improvements, like enhanced graphics or realism; just that it will work once again on Snow Leopard. (big deal) Maybe the competition will take the initiative to do better and send us a truly photo-realistic aquarium screen saver, with the same feature set for Mac users as for Windows users. That's something I'd pay for!  
(Version 2.6.1)

KOSOVAR1  Thanks DANMARC! I signed up for an update from the developer, except I'm doubtful anything will be released soon (if ever). The company hasn't upgraded its products in years, at least on the Mac side. Personally, I won't pay a penny for any incremental upgrade, just to be able to run Marine Aquarium on my all-64-bit enabled iMac with Snow Leopard, unless they do a proper upgrade by increasing the resolution of the graphics of the Aquarium scenery, which look rather grainy and unrealistic on large Mac screens. The fish look ok because they are constantly in motion, but the stationary graphics look like a pointillist painting. The old Marine Aquarium screensaver used to look great in it's heyday, but has since grown long in the tooth.  
(Version 2.6.1)

KOSOVAR1  The JumpCut and ClipMenu utilities work great as alternatives to PTHPasteboard Pro, and unlike the latter, both are FREE! I just tested them and they are compatible with Snow Leopard and they are not bloatware, system resource-hogs.  
(Version 4.5.0)

KOSOVAR1  YEAHHH!!! It was a very long week between the time I installed Snow Leopard and today, when the SL-compatible version of MultiFinderX was released. So happy to have the functionality of this simple utility back again. It works fine for me.  
(Version 0.4)

KOSOVAR1  Good riddance PTHPasteboard Pro! You were fine as a free utility under 10.5 (I would have paid maybe $5 for the non-Pro version.) for the basic functions that was offered, but now you've changed the terms and apparently anyone with good sense and a modest pocketbook agrees $25 is a RIDICULOUS amount to charge for a utility that offers so little. So, as people switch to Snow Leopard, they will toss this like the bit of fluff it always was. And that will be that.  
(Version 4.5.0)

KOSOVAR1  Turning off chaptering seems to have worked. I look forward to a fully functional, non beta version of VideoDrive for Snow Leopard users when it's ready. Thanks.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  The new beta of VideoDrive STILL DOES NOT seem to be compatible with Snow Leopard, at least not if you boot your Mac up with the 64-bit kernel enabled (as I do). I tried a few .avi to .mp4 conversions, formatted for AppleTV and they all hung within seconds. I have the new Apple QuickTime Player installed, but I retained Version 7 of QuickTime Pro during the 10.6 installation.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  OMG! THE 4.0.1A ALPHA VERSION ACTUALLY LOADS AUTOMATICALLY ON MY NEW IMAC WITH SNOW LEOPARD. DO I DISPENSE WITH YEARS OF FRUSTRATION AND PAY THE UPGRADE FEE (€7) TO FINALLY MAKE THIS THING WORK OR GO WITH MY GUT AND LEAVE IT ALONE? MAYBE THE FINISHED 4.0 PRODUCT WILL BREAK AGAIN AND I WILL START A NEW CYCLE OF HAND-WRINGING OVER BEING MADE A FOOL OF AND WASTING €7. (Oh, the delicious melodrama of it all...you know, fool me once shame on you, fool me ten times, shame on me!) Synergy has become a sort of hobby and pet peeve of mine over the years.   
(Version 4.0.1a)

KOSOVAR1  Synergy. Hands down one of the worst. I am so fed up with this POS! Years after buying this, it never really was stable. The problem was it rarely ever booted on its own. Finally, I just recently tried beta 3.5a and it loaded in system Preferences on it's own. First it worked reliably in 2 years! Then I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Stopped working again!!!!!!!!!!! After much research in Google, someone mentioned a Synergy 3.5b beta that was compatible, but of course, you can't find it on the Synergy website. Hey, someone aught to take the developer behind the woodshed and teach him the virtue of taking someones money and then causing all this grief. I don't care if it cost 50 cents. I don't care if other people say it works great for them. (Makes me wonder about their motives and who wrote those.) Anyway, there's a principle involved here and it's to learn to write software that works and don't sell crap that doesn't!  
(Version 3.5.5a)

KOSOVAR1  The new VideoDrive beta still does not work with Snow Leopard.

I installed the today's beta of VideoDrive for Snow Leopard on my new iMac, exactly as Aroona software recommended here on MacUpdate's web ie and on Aroona's own website. I already have the QuickTime 7 components installed as part of Mac OS X 10.6. However, the beta doesn't work. After trying to import two .avi files, I got the following error messages: "QuickTime could not process your video. Please try again: QuickTime Player 7 got an error: Can’t get every chapter of document... (error: -1728) The second error message was "Import of [moviename].avi failed because QuickTime could not process your video. Please try again: QuickTime Player 7 got an error: Can’t get every chapter of document [moviename].avi. (error: -1728)"  
(Version 1.11b)

KOSOVAR1  I can confirm that VideoDrive no longer works now that Snow Leopard has been released. The problems seem to be related to QuickTime and Applescript. Either I get "stack overflow errors" or VideoDrive informs me that QuickTime is busy and that I need to "Quit QuickTime and try again," which I do, but to no avail. Under Leopard, VideoDrive was usually reliable, although slower to process avi files than VisualHub.

AROONA, can you please advise when a fix will be released and thank you in advance for a reply. Without a major fix, VideoDrive is dead in its tracks for those of us who have upgraded to MacOS 10.6.  
(Version 1.10.1)

KOSOVAR1  It's obvious that applejack78 is a jerk. Go s u c k a lemon, AJ!

To the developer, thank you for your efforts for making this utility available to us, even if it may still be a bit of a diamond in the rough. I can understand one commenter's rationale about the dearth of donations since Snow Leopard hasn't yet been officially released. Since tomorrow is the released date of the new OS, maybe that will change, and especially if you get the chance to fix any flaws that may exist. Good luck!  
(Version 1.2)

KOSOVAR1  Version 4.5.3 "improvements:"

>List view button updated

>Added missing gradient to reflection in Add/Edit panel

>Date Added not set for some users

This called an update? Hardly. This is a free promotion for the developer. Sure, this is a very well conceived program, but don't invite ridicule by rearranging a few pixels, just so you can get extra press for your wares. Do the work and stop playing Limewire. There are plenty of significant improvements that can be offered beyond "Added missing gradient to reflection."  
(Version 4.5.3)

KOSOVAR1  Seems to have destabilize my machine and besides I hate the fact that if my kids caught me spying on them I would lose their trust forever. (I should question my own morals.) Confusing interface. Developer is a jerk. The first two comments are clearly just fraudulent commercial promotion. (Guess who wrote that!) In short, all our worst fears realized!  
(Version 1.76)

KOSOVAR1  In repoly to the previous comment, let's see what happens. To be fair, I failed to mention that there are ways to switch apps, see what apps are running, or see which one is frontmost, but none of these are nearly as clever as the way Apple implemented it in in OS9. For example, the icons in my dock are too small to see clearly which apps are active and I prefer to keep the dock hidden anyway.

The developer of MultiX Finder seems to indicate that (s)he isn't actively working to rewrite any code for this free app , which used to be SUPER and was very much appreciated, btw! (S)He also mentions that the developer of ASM "abandoned" it back in 2001, so my guess is that were stuck with this curious shortcoming of the Mac OS.  
(Version 2.2.12)

KOSOVAR1  MultixFinder doesn't appear to work on the latest version of Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432), which is reportedly the GM for the commercial release of Snow Leopard. Neither does ASM. It would be nice if the developers of these two preference pane utilities would have mentioned that somewhere, like on their websites. It's a pity that these two utilities are now BROKEN. What amazes me, though, is that Apple removed the menu bar application switcher after OS9.   
(Version 0.3.3)

KOSOVAR1  ASM doesn't appear to work on the latest version of Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432), which is reportedly the GM for the commercial release of Snow Leopard. Neither does MultiX Finder. It would be nice if the developers of these two preference pane utilities would have mentioned that somewhere (like their websites), so that people don't waste their money (as would be true for ASM) on something that is now BROKEN. Let's hope that within a few of weeks, when Snow Leopard is supposed to be released, that ASM and/or MultiX Finder will be updated to work. What amazes me, though, is that Apple never built a menu bar application switcher into OSX. The frontmost application should be immediately recognizable to the Mac user without his or her having to click, navigate, and search around the GUI to find out.   
(Version 2.2.12)

KOSOVAR1  VideoDrive and Limewire would have to share the prize in any competition for the flood of superficial updates that seem to be rather transparent free extra publicity for these products. (Limewire can be excused for this since it's free.) Now, don't get me wrong; I love VideoDrive, what it does, and usually how it does it...except for the past couple of weeks that is. Since then, VideoDrive stopped working for me completely. It hangs with that endless Technicolor spinning ball, saying that it's trying to register with Growl. (Disabling Growl, restarting the system, or trashing the prefs file doesn't fix this.) I always end up having to force-quit VideoDrive and then go back to my old standby, VisualHub, which, although it is showing its age, still works reliably for simple video conversion tasks. Ironically, there seems to have been no VideoDrive update lately that fixes the problem with freezing. Maybe I'm being punished! ;-)

Any developer who puts out an incremental update to a paid-for program should at least have the professional integrity publish the changes right away so we can judge for ourselves if it's worth the effort to update that program, or if we're just getting smoke blown up our butts.  
(Version 1.10)

KOSOVAR1  Well, Livestation stopped working completely last week. All the usual troubleshooting has been done, but there just nothing to do that I know of to fix it. Even between system re-boots, the menu-bar icon is usually frozen, the main video window no longer opens, and logging out of my account and back in again does no good. On the rare occasion that the Livestation main window does open, not a single channel appears and, in fact, the channels are no longer even listed in the carousel or list views. Personally, I don't need to see a dozen messages from the muppets who say, "Gee whiz, it works for me every time!" The fact is, this program no longer works for ME. Well, I'm not complaining since it is, after all free. I hope the developer fixes it. I miss watching the BBC World News on it every day.  
(Version 2.7)

KOSOVAR1  What is up with your dufus comments people? Like, if it costs less than $9.99, there's no expectation that what you buy should work?  
(Version 3.5.2a)

KOSOVAR1  Idiotic quote of the month: "Why it doesn't work for you I obviously can't explain, but putting the blame on the developer is logically unsound." Curious, the slew of comments about how "I installed Synergy and it worked for me." Blah, blah... Anyway, I should say that I installed the last two betas of Synergy 3.5 and my early problems with Synergy not loading between system boots seem to have been fixed. I'm sorry it took almost two years to be able to use Synergy again after I paid for it and after prodding the developer to fix it.

According to the aforementioned Spock wannabe, I won't be allowed to give any credit for that improvement to the developer because it's "logically unsound" to suppose any link between the performance of software and the developer.   
(Version 3.5.2a)

KOSOVAR1  Gotta say that this program is imminently unreliable. There are several channels (like the BBC World News and the BBC World Service) that work rather well, but most of the rest of the channels are inaccessible. By comparison, MIRO is SO MUCH BETTER! If only Livestation could be this reliable. For the past year since I started using this program, it was very, very rare that I could access CNN International, which is very annoying. Why even include it as an option if you can't view it? About a week ago, a big fat error message "error loading partner channels" appeared smack-dab in the middle of the screen of the few viewable channels. There are no options for removing the unwanted viewing obstruction. If it weren't for the ability to access the BBC World Service and AL Jazeera, Livestation would be absolutely useless. It already succeeds in being infuriating.  
(Version 2.7)

KOSOVAR1  I contacted the developer and was surprised to receive a response within two hours, along with the aforementioned (by Xeric Design) beta of EarthDesk attached. I installed beta 2 of version 5.0.1 and Voila! cloud images display now perfectly. Xeric Design's website references the known bug, although the wording there was much vaguer than how the developer explains it here. I'm living in Germany, using a brand new iMac running OSX 10.5.7 with the english module active, but with the international preference pane setting for German numbers formatting. That appears to have been the problem, but once again, EarthDesk works now without any further tinkering. Now that it works and because it seems the upgrade might be a bit snappier than version 4, I'm doubling my previous the rating, but especially for the super-fast email support.  
(Version 5.0)

KOSOVAR1  I've always liked this program when it worked. It worked well for a couple of years after I first bought version 1 or 2 (?). Then I upgraded to version 4, but it was months before I could get it to display satellite cloud images. Everything else worked OK, except for it drawing a bit heavily on system resources and being sluggish. Yesterday I upgraded--fool that I am!--to version 5 in spite of my past headaches with EarthDesk. Since then I've spent hours trying to figure out why, once again, the cloud image won't display. Since the time I was having problems with version 4 of EarthDesk, I'd switched from a Powerbook Pro 17" to a new iMac 24" and OSX version 10.5.7. The preference pane confirms "Cloud image downloaded:" with a specific date and time, but it also displays "Cloud image captured: Never" So what does this mean? I've already repaired permissions, reinstalled the preference pane, discarded the old cloud image manually and waited for the re-download, removed the old preference files, restarted, tinkered with preference pane settings, restored system permissions, over and over, and still no clouds. I am going to contact the developer again, and wait for his advice on something I haven't tried already.  
(Version 5.0)

KOSOVAR1  Hey Shock J, have you read my posts? I've worked on this problem for over a year. It has become a sort of hobby for me. Nothing works. The problem is duplicated on different machines with different configurations, including a pristine installation of OSX 10.5.6 when I bought my new iMac a few months ago, so I am not "ranting" without justification. To the developer who just chimed in, I'm sorry this is the best solution you can come up with. I considered the "stale" startup item possibility as the most simplistic possibility for error and I began to resolve that possibility from Day 1. I always made sure the startup items were newly created ones with each re-installation. Might I also remind both of you that I am not alone with this problem.  
(Version 3.5a9)

KOSOVAR1  I am calm, but still like to speak my piece. I checked my system, troubleshooted every angle to make Synergy load automatically between boots. I've already installed Synergy on a number of Macs and after every single OS X update. I'm sure I've spent more time trying to solve the problem than the developer spent writing this program.   
(Version 3.4)

KOSOVAR1  No friggin' way! I was overly optimistic. The latest release does not resolve this bug that stops Synergy from loading between restarts. The developer shouldn't receive a penny for this failed product, at least until this bug has been fixed. The problem of Synergy failing to start up between boots has persevered for the past half dozen or more updates and for nearly two years. The developer really should drag his/her sorry buttocks onto the MacUpdate forum and explain why this problem has been ignored or to simply admit that (s)he can't fix it. No, it's easier just to ignore it and to continue to accept money for junk. Trouble is, people lose faith in how the system works and other, more diligent or skilled developers stop getting their hard-earned pay.  
(Version 3.4)

KOSOVAR1  i hope that, with this latest version, the developer has finally fixed the bug in Synergy that doesn't allow it to load upon restarting. it's been more than a year since i purchased this app and it hasn't worked on my laptop and desktop macs, unless i open the synergy control panel myself and click "start" (muppets will all notice that i avoided writing in caps and that i am perfectly serene about wasting money by paying for this flawed app)  
(Version 3.4)

KOSOVAR1  When LiveStation works on the channels that are accessible, it works pretty well and has a nice interface, EXCEPT that I really get P*ssed that 95% of the time I can't get the channels I really want. CNN is at the top of that list, but there are plenty more. I get tired of just watching the BBC World News and Al Jazeera. For this reason, I have moved on to Miro, which offers more quality channel options. If Livestation won't or can't provide certain choice channels, why annoy us and waste our time by displaying several options for CNN when we can't get it!!?? Shape up Livestation, or just step aside.  
(Version 2.7)

KOSOVAR1  I updated to CCI 2.1.3 excluded Launchbar and Finder Windows Manager from within the preference pane, then I rebooted. This time, these two programs didn't crash automatically as they did before and I was enjoying the new GUI's look very much. Unfortunately after two full day's use of CCI on the computer, I experienced a general destabilization across the board. I saw frequent crashes from programs that had almost never crashed before I installed CCI, like Safari 4.0 and others. I hope that CCI can be fixed eventually. If it remains unusable, I hope that at least the "Marble" interface will be implemented in Snow Leopard because the version 10.5.6's Leopard interface is so bland.  
(Version 2.1.3)

KOSOVAR1  I would love to have a utility like this that would alter the GUI by adding transparency, but this one simply isn't stable. That was immediately apparent when I installed it and logged in again. It caused my old standbys, Finder Window Manager and Launchbar, not to work anymore and just for those reasons alone, I can't use CCI. Also, the MU menu icon turns into an black eyesore in the menubar. By the way, I DID exclude these two utilities in CCI and logged out, but somehow it's still prevents them from working after logging in again. Too bad. Also, the overall effect for me on some apps is a bit disconcerting although intriguing. Mystique imparts a much less dramatic on the Mac OSX GUI and is a lot more stable, but that one is crippled by neglect. Thanks for the developer of CCIU for trying, though.  
(Version 2.1.3)

KOSOVAR1  I've used SMART technology in all my desktop computers and my laptop for years and it has NEVER warned me of an impending failure. I've had five drives fail on me without warning (three firewire drives and two internal drives) and they were supposedly being "monitored" by SMART. I agree with the other commenters that SMART appears to be useless. I still use it (just in case it might work) in the form of the free SMARTReporter utility, but I'm sorry for the people who naively thought to pay $25 for this SMART Utility, apparently a lame one-trick pony. If you want to use this, at least use a free version of a SMART utility or buy it as part of a useful product. (For example, DiskWarrior and Drive Genius are GREAT products!)  
(Version 2.0.2)

KOSOVAR1  Jon Nathan from the developer replied to my email within minutes with an easy fix to the problem I was having, (described in a previous message). FWM still has a few rough edges, but it is still very useful. Customer Support deserves five stars though.

Here's the fix: (Thanks, Jon!)

The best solution is to quit FWM (if it is open -- you may need to use

Activity Monitor in your /Applications/Utilities folder to send a quit

command to FWM if it is not responding) and then move the preferences file

to the Desktop. This will most likely cure the issue. The preference file

can be found in your preferences folder (~ is shorthand for your Home

folder):

~/Library/Preferences/com.jen.fwm.plist

By moving this file, you will lose your Window Sets but it should correct

issue you are seeing. If it does, there was a problem with the original

preferences file and it should probably not be used. However, if you had a

lot of custom settings that would take a long time to reconfigure, you can

send the original preference file ("com.jen.fwm.plist") you moved to the

Desktop as an attachment to a reply to this message and I will see if I can

eliminate the corrupted data and preserve your existing settings.  
(Version 1.9.7)

KOSOVAR1  It's too bad to have to give one star to a program that used to be very useful. But after buying the most recent iMac model (2009, 2.93 Mhz) running OSX 10.5.7, FWM stopped working altogether. It tries to start up, then crashes with Error message "FWM AFN Error (PrefWindow) Can't make 0 into type boolean."

Can anyone advise?  
(Version 1.9.7)

KOSOVAR1  I just tried checked the developer's website and can find no reference to the new incompatibility problem for MA and MA Time, at least on the newest iMac models. I know it is incredibly naive of me to say that they should warn potential buyers on their website not to waste their money since their software apparently doesn't work anymore on the newest machines and/or Mac OS software, but that's just me.

I notified the developers by email, but I understand from others that customer support for this company is poor or non-existent. In my case, the developer has not had time to respond since I just posted my complaint.  
(Version 1.1.6)

KOSOVAR1  I bought the newest iMac (early 2009) and installed MarineAquarium on it. I also just updated my OS to 10.5.7. I have owned MarineAquarium Time and Marine Aquarium for years. Unfortunately, MA doesn't seem to work anymore on my new equipment. A message pops up and says that this version of the screensaver doesn't work on this model of the Mac that I own and to contact the developer. My guess is that this screensaver will not be updated again for compatibility, since it hasn't been for such a very long time. Potential buyers should consider this, or at least install either or both screensavers as a demo first for testing. I wish the developer would prove me wrong about their not updating their product as it was always one of my favorites. If they DO fix it, I would also suggest increasing the resolution of the images, especially the coral rock background. On a 24" screen, it is looks unrealistically pixellated. On a 30" screen it must look worse.

I just tried checked the developer's website and can find no reference to the incompatibility problem. I know it is naive of me to say that they should warn potential buyers not to waste their money since their software apparently doesn't work anymore on the newest machines and/or Mac OS software, but that's just me.  
(Version 2.6.1)

KOSOVAR1  I just tried the most recent (but already ancient) version of Marine Aquarium on my new 24" iMac. It also refuses to load and the same message says to contact the developer. I have done that and we shall see if they respond, or better, fix their two aquarium screensaver products. This incompatibility problem also exists for MarineAquarium Time.  
(Version 1.1.6)

KOSOVAR1  I bought the newest iMac (early 2009) and installed MarineAquarium Time v. 1.1.6. I also just updated my OS to 10.5.7. I have owned Marine Aquarium and MA Time for years. Unfortunately, MA Time doesn't seem to work anymore on my new equipment (unk about MarineAquarium). A message pops up and says that this version of the screensaver doesn't work on this model of the Mac that I own and to contact the developer. My guess is that this screensaver will not be updated again for compatibility, since it hasn't been for such a very long time. Potential buyers should consider this, or at least install either or both screensavers as a demo first for testing. I wish the developer would prove me wrong about their not updating their product as it was always one of my favorites. If they DO fix it, I would also suggest increasing the resolution of the images, especially the coral rock background. On a 24" screen, it is looks unrealistically pixellated. On a 30" screen it must look worse.   
(Version 1.1.6)

KOSOVAR1  It really annoys me that the developer of this application only bothers to send paying customers an updated version only every three days. How lazy! If they were earning their shareware fees, they would provide a new update three times per day, eight days per week. The added benefit for the developer is that that they would get all the extra free advertising of their product with shameless transparency. (We certainly yearn for more of that!) The added benefit for us customers is that we could waste more of our valuable time constantly downloading and installing VideoDrive, like version 1.9.8.02.06.321rc because we all know how irresistible and indispensable those new features are, like the more rounded edges to the button on the thirty-third preference option, or that incredibly important changed word spelling in the help menu, or the new localization into Finno-Ungaric. Besides my minor gripe, I do think this is an excellent program.  
(Version 1.9.8.02)

KOSOVAR1  Bought the newest iMac 24" and updated to the most recent OSX. Pristine OS with no other 2nd party software conflicts. Guess what? Synergy STILL DOES NOT STARTUP on it's own. Normally, I wouldn't bother to complain, but I PAID for this.

HEY SYNERGY TEAM, FINISH YOUR TWO-YEAR COFFE BREAK AND FIX YOUR BROKEN SOFTWARE OR STOP MARKETING IT, OK!?  
(Version 3.2.2)

KOSOVAR1  All you muppets out there who keep parroting that this is FREE software and FREE p2p phone communications (i.e., if calling a computer), I say your all full of it! Those of us Mac users who subscribe to the Skype-In/Skype-Out services deserve to have feature parity and the same reliability that Windows users have! It really p's me off that Skype keeps the Mac version of the software in seemingly perpetual beta status with the inevitable stability issues and the obvious missing features that Windows users enjoy. YET WE ALL PAY THE SAME PRICE. If Mac users of Skype have to settle for crappy software while Skype for Windows gets all the attention, we Mac users should get a big discount on the cost of the service. I used to like Skype but now I'm ready to toss it. And believe me, I WILL in a heartbeat if a rival service emerges because Skype knows it's cheating us and that's ok for them.

Because of the buggy Skype software for Mac OSX, I have had to manually dial all of my saved phone numbers for the last two years. I just bet that's not an issue for Windows users!  
(Version 2.8.0.438)

KOSOVAR1  Synergy still doesn't start automatically when I log in to my account. This has gone on for more than a year now. I think this is about the fourth or fifth iteration of the Synergy that hasn't worked for me. To make it work, I have to go to the Synergy preference pane and start Synergy up manually every single time I want to use it. I have tried every trick in the known universe to fix this problem, but I think this is something the developer should do. After all, he (she) was willing enough to take the money when I decided to support HIM (HER). All my hardware and software are up the latest.   
(Version 3.2.2)

KOSOVAR1  to all you fine folk out there who thought i was yelling and to calm down: no, i was not shouting and i am perfectly calm. i was simply writing with the caps on. even so, might i state my humble opinion that it really s u c k s that so many people of the people who paid for synergy haven't been able to use it for more than a year now because the developer won't fix the bugs, in particular the bug that won't allow synergy to start up automatically at boot time. oh, i downloaded version 3.2.2 and the same bug persists. synergy still doesn't work for many of us. oohh, sorry if you can't hear me, but i thought i should w h i s p e r.  
(Version 3.2.2)

KOSOVAR1  Eeewww! To think that, once upon a time, I bought this app...and now Microsoft owns it? Now I use iPhoto and GraphicConverter. It was not so impressive then and it's bound to get worse now.   
(Version 2.0.2096)

KOSOVAR1  I think that MSWFUJOWDFFYC is right-on about limiting access to objectionable websites (as long as it doesn't limit your kids' ability to access a wide range of materials and perhaps to even to set up a shared-use volume. I knew my original comment would bring a legion of pseudo-moralists, snoops and control freaks raining down on my head. To them, I say YES, I am a parent and I happen to have a great line of communication open with my kids. I don't have to sneak around them and install hidden key loggers on our computers or feel I have to recast their developing minds in the image of my own. At 16, 11 and 9 years of age, I can say they have never let me down and they appreciate that I trusted them. If your own kid finds out that you've been spying on him or her in such a reprehensible way, you deserve to lose their trust. Just the fact you installed a key-logger to "snare" your kids says a lot about your own skewed morality, and failure as a parent. Another commenter was already right that kids who resent their parents authority are going to do as they like anyway over at the neighbors house.

Having said all this, if you want to shield your youngest kids (without snooping on them) I recommend OpenDNS, which will also protect everyone from phishing and similar scam sites. It catches about four phishing emails in my mailbox every month and if I don't want the 9 year old to be exposed to porn, it blocks that too. It is highly configurable too. Too bad it can't filter or block sneaky old busybodies though!   
(Version 1.2.1)

KOSOVAR1  Busybody, control freak parent, more likely. How do you like the idea of government snooping into your private activities? Not such a nice feeling, huh, when it happens to you? Right, I thought so. But it's fine when YOU do it. And that MY NETWORK comment...isn't it a shared family network? Go get a life, super mom!

As for the right of anyone to buy a product to observe my keystrokes without my knowledge or explicit permission, well just let me catch them at it. And government should pass laws to severely regulate the creation and distribution of these kinds of products. No, they're more interested in whether we download a copy of a 50 year old movie, or some secret homeland security entity of the gov't is monitoring us themselves!  
(Version 1.2.1)

KOSOVAR1  I warn you all, you should stay away from LaCIE products, at least the external Firewire/USB drive series that came out around 2007. If you read below, you can see how I lost three one-year old drives when I applied the LaCIE v.2.0 firmware updater, which immediately destroyed those three drives. Well, today the fourth drive, a 500 GBer, also bit the dust. It cost a pretty penny, like the other three drives, which I was glad to pay because I thought I was getting a premium product. This drive lasted less than two years, and only this long because I realized that the updater destroyed the other drives before I applied it to this one. Needless to say, I lost 450 gigs of data this time. La CIE, you robbed me and made my life miserable. I just wanted everyone to know and I hope at least one person who reads about my experiences with LaCIE products will avoid the same thing happening to him or her.   
(Version 2.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  Apparently the iAntiVirus developer's pricing policy has changed. I used to use a free version of iAntiVirus and it was happy to the download updated virus definitions files. Today, I tried to dp this and the program no longer allows updating unless you install the commercial version. It made me feel GREAT to be able to simply delete iAntiVirus and switch back to the excellent ClamXav antivirus alternative. That program works beautifully, except for being rather slow. I simply set it to scan the 250 gigs of data on my laptop overnight while I sleep. Since functioning viruses, trojans, etc. are EXTREMELY rare on Macs, I really don't worry much about real-time updating and certainly wouldn't waste money on a solution I have to pay-for. I realize now that I only switched to iAntiVirus because the interface was more Mac-like. If ClamXav were given a little facelift, more people would probably choose it or stick to it since it IS the superior product. And, did I mention it is FREE?  
(Version 1.3.4)

KOSOVAR1  Either the original commenter is wrong or the developer's pricing policy has changed. I used a free version of iAntiVirus and it was always able to the virus definitions file. Today, I tried to update and the program no longer allows updating unless you pay for it. It made me feel really GREAT to be able to delete this iAntiVirus and switch back to the excellent ClamXav alternative. That program works beautifully, except for being rather slow. I simply set it to scan my 250 gigs of data overnight while I sleep. Since functioning viruses, trojans, etc are EXTREMELY rare on Macs, I really don't worry about real-time updating and certainly wouldn't waste money on a solution I have to pay-for. I realize now that I only switched to iAntiVirus because the interface was more Mac-like. If ClamXav were given a little facelift, more people would probably stick to it since it IS the superior product.   
(Version 1.3.4)

KOSOVAR1  Disregard the worthless muppet-hater below who has nothing to offer except his wortless opinions. Here's an informative comment: It's apparently pointless to download any of these BBC program downloaders (including Beeb downloader) if your ISP is not based in the UK. Because of BBC licensing restrictions, these programs only work if you're viewing them from inside the UK. Hey worthless, do you know of any way around this restriction and would you like to share that with the rest of us?

???  
(Version 1.14)

KOSOVAR1  HEY, HERE'S A MESSAGE TO EVERYONE OUT THERE! SYNERGY USED TO BE GREAT, BUT IT HASN'T WORKED IN A VERY LONG TIME AND THE DEVELOPER WON'T FIX IT. IT SIMPLY DOESN'T START UP ANYMORE AUTOMATICALLY, SO YOU HAVE TO GO TO PREFERENCES --> SYNERGY CONTROL PANEL, AND THEN CLICK START YOURSELF. YOU HAVE TO DO THIS EVERY TIME YOU BOOT YOUR COMPUTER IF YOU WANT TO USE THIS PROGRAM. IT ISN'T WORTH THE TROUBLE EVEN IF IT WAS FREE. DON'T REWARD A LAZY DEVELOPER, NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE PROGRAM USED TO BE.   
(Version 3.2.1)

KOSOVAR1  Many thanks to MacUpdate for showing me where to find the BBC iPlayer utility and thanks to Tony Crawford for explaining the licensing fees blurb and which URL to input into the Beeb installer. No thanks at all to DDUK (who apparently doesn't know how to spell DI*K) for his totally worthless muppet comment.   
(Version 1.14)

KOSOVAR1  Regardless of what you think, I am NOT a muppet, thank you very much! But you are worthless and so was your bloody comment. Thanks to another commenter, he answered my questions about what URL to input and what the licensing fee blurb pertained to.   
(Version 1.14)

KOSOVAR1  Junk. There has been so much hype about the iPlayer downloader utility and even more confusion. I searched for an hour trying to find it weeks ago on the internet after reading about a version for Mac users. The BBC website mentioned it but I never could figure out where to download it, just a lot of dead-end links. Finally, I got it off MacUpdate today. But while installing it, the installer required that I paste in a URL in order to continue. Well, WHAT URL? Of course, that's not mentioned anywhere I can find. So I took a guess and typed in www.bbc.uk.co. Then, the installer asked where I want to install the program, so I chose...logically...the Applications folder, but it turns out that what is to be downloaded is not a program, but rather, apparently, the BBC video files, so that was a misleading question. Then finally, the installer asked, Did you pay your licensing fee?" even though the MacUpdate website description states this dinky little program is free. So WTF, is this free or do you have to pay??? I'll tell you what it is. It's pure confusion and has been since the beginning. Why didn't the developer not include a simple text file explaining what to do??? Of course, there is no "More Information" link that would answer questions like the ones I have. I'm tired of wasting time with something so poorly conceived like this is and which should have been simple and straightforward. Besides, anyone can access a BBC News video stream from other utilities like the LiveStation program. LiveStation IS free, not to mention super simple to install and operate.

Oh, after all this, did the Beeb downloader work. No. I guess if it did, it would be hard to know what it's doing since there's no download progress bar. Maybe you're supposed to go to console and type in an obscure command to see what's happening.   
(Version 1.14)

KOSOVAR1  Here's an update to the above rview. Microsoft insists of totally screwing me out of using my investment in Windows and Parallels. I just discovered that I can't use Parallels with Vista on My MacBook Pro running Leopard at all now. Here's why: I purchased MS Vista in the USA last year, but have since moved to Argentina. When Vista dials home periodically to its Microsoft, validation servers, it invalidated my copy of Vista so that I cannot run it as a VM or on a BootCamp partition of the boot drive. Microsoft is so greedy that that they disallow anyone from using a USA-purchased copy of Windows in a foreign country. In other words, Vista (at least), is region-restricted. So although I'm an American citizen who paid close to $300 for Vista and Parallels, Microsoft doesn't allow me to use it for more than a month after leaving the States. Originally, Windows was barely useable on my Mac laptop because of Parallels' stability issues. Now Vista has become totally unuseable now due to a viciously restrictive Microsoft EULA.

Believe me, I'm so angry at Microsoft, I have regular fantasies of traveling to Redmond to toss a brick tied to my copy of Vista through the window of a Microsoft corporate office because of their overarching greed and hatefulness. People should stay away from Microsoft at all costs!  
(Version 4.0.3810)

KOSOVAR1  Cannot download this, even if I send in the form. I get a 404 "forbidden" error. Grazie per niente, caro.  
(Version 0.91b)

KOSOVAR1  YES! Stop! We know it's all about your getting free advertising, but you should earn the right to keep posting Pando by improving the product and posting notes about what you've improved or fixed.   
(Version 2.2.1.5)

KOSOVAR1  What the hell is this drivel about? Support this developer so he won't abandon Mailsteward and start to work on another program so he can survive, blah blah blah? I think that if this developer promised verbally, on paper, and in recorded video to customers that (s)he'd provide free upgrades to those who buy Mailsteward, then (s)he should go to jail as a criminal and spend time breaking rocks. Assuming that this isn't another staged positive review, then go ahead and praise his program if you like, but a lawsuit would be more appropriate.  
(Version 8.0.9)

KOSOVAR1  I'm wondering why the developer(s) of DVD RegionCode Unlock can't explain in plain, simple and instructive english just what this software does? I'm not stupid and I'm quite savy with Macs, yet, even though I've read these comments and the software description several times over, it's still a mystery to me as to what it does. As described, the software enables the user "...to set the region code once (without using an administrator password)." If a Mac user gets 5 opportunities to reset the region code, why would anyone want to use this software to limit it to just once? Is it that this software prevents a non-administrative user to only change the region code a single time, thereby reducing the risk for the administrator, primary user, or owner of the computer in question that he or she will inadvertently find the machine has been permanently locked into an undesireable region code? Certainly, if this software does NOT unlock the region codes, then why call it DVD RegionCode Unlock???

If I'm interpreting this correctly, I guess this news will break the hearts of those ten million Mac users who badly want to alter their RPC1 DVD drives (but can't!) to circumvent the hateful DRM restrictions that prevent us from playing our entire DVD collections. I have hundreds of DVDs I've purchased in South America, Europe and the USA, and I need to buy three separate DVD drives to play them all. It makes me want to punch the greedy SOBs in the entertainment industry who cooked up this abominable scheme to limit access to our legaland legitimate DVD purchases. Personally, I've decided to stop buying commercial DVDs altogether and download as many torrents as I can find, so that the industry will realize that they've cut off their noses to spite their double-chinned faces. I hope everybody else does too.  
(Version 1.0)

KOSOVAR1  I really appreciate the people who write software and offer it without charge for others use and enjoyment. However, I have to say it's rather stupid to write a piece of software and not provide any accompanying literature that explains how to use it. Are we supposed to be born with this knowledge? Not even the developer's web site explains such questions as 1.) How to disable SIMBL (whatever the heck that is) so that Plugsuit can take over, or 2.) Where does one locate the plugins and which type of plugins apply? I have tried various plugins that I've locate in /library or ~/library, but none of these can be loaded. Come on guys, I've wasted a lot of time fooling with this useless (to me) software and now I have to uninstall it. Why not a few simple lines of instruction on how this works. (Geez, this is like trying to take a vacation in Italy and, as usual, nothing's working or makes any sense!)  
(Version 1.5.7)

KOSOVAR1  OK, I just did before and after tests, using four web-based speed test sites. Broadband Optimizer seemed to have no significant effect, except perhaps to slow throughput a little bit. Of the four server sites I used to test download and upload speeds before and after installation, my download speeds were reduced twice, stayed the same one time, and only increased once. My upload speeds improved once, but were reduced at three of the four testing sites. So far, this modification doesn't seem to have introduced any new stability issues. Well, at least I didn't pay anything for this!  
(Version 1.5)

KOSOVAR1  And just so I can feel better about being sold some snake oil, let me mention a couple of more annoying problems with Parallels. These might also be attributable to MICROSOFT (but no surprise there).

On my seventh or eighth re-installation of Parallels Desktop/Windows Vista to try to get a "working" system, I thought I had succeeded. With this newest version of Parallels, I discovered there seemed to be no way that Parallels Desktop was able to use the Boot Camp partition of Vista. This was pretty simple in version 3. I may be wrong, but it seems not to be an option anymore in version 4. I'd be interested in getting some guidance on this since I can't find it in the Parallels documentation. The result is that I now have the Boot Camp partition and a separate VM installation of Vista for Parallels use. This takes up so much space on my 250 Gig MacBook Pro drive.

An annoying (but not deal-breaking) bug is that when I try to install the Vista VM icon in the dock, it won't settle in. Instead, every program icon it gets dragged across starts bobbing and starts up. Already my system is starving for memory and CPU resources and then all these extra programs start up. The result is that they whole system locks up.

The real deal-breaker bug or fault (which may be a Microsoft issue, bit which Parallels should have addressed) is that because since I have Vista installed in a Boot Camp partition and in a VM, when I boot into the second system, Vista dials home to Mama Microsoft and insists that I purchase a second activation code for the Vista installation I'm attempting to run on the SECOND COMPUTER! So, trying to run Vista two different ways (as a VM and as a Boot Camp partition is blocked. No fuc**** way am I going to waste time trying to explain to MS customer service rep that I am not running the same copy of VIsta on two different machines. I'd rather have a root canal performed. And judging by the experiences of others here who tried to get help from Parallels customer/tech support, I'd not waste my valuable time with them either.

And to mention a final problem that made me eventually toss everything: After installing the Vista VM, I've tried several times to install all the system and security updates for Vista. Apparently, even with a relatively fast MacBook Pro with 2 gigs of RAM and a wideband internet connection, this is more than Vista/Parallels Desktop can handle. The update installation crawled to a stop after about half an hour. I waited several hours and was forced to shut down Vista. The Parallels DT program dutifully warned me that all changes will be lost. This failure was repeated every time after several attempts to bring the new installation of Vista up to date. It means that I cannot update Vista, even after it took several days work to finally get a successful installation

Considering all the installation problems, days (weeks) of fighting bugs and stability issues, and the mind-numbing slowness of Vista under Parallels for the short periods of time when I can get a working system going, I am trashing Parallels altogether. Running VIsta under Boot Camp will have to be enough. Better to battle with one devil (Microsoft) than two (Microsoft and Parallels)!  
(Version 4.0.3540)

KOSOVAR1  You say there's no reason now for you to go the Boot Camp route? How about the little fact that running Windows is painfully slo-o-o-o-o-ow!!! This also makes running games pretty much a pain in the a** since it a pain just to run the simplest, resource thrifty applications in a VM.

Really, I seriously wonder about just who gives these five star reviews and who they work for!  
(Version 4.0.3540)

KOSOVAR1  I don't know whether to blame Microsoft or Parallels for the instabilities and crappy performance. I bought versions 2 and 3 of Parallels and wasted $300 on a copy of Vista. I have to say that with these versions, I always had trouble trouble. The installations went OK, but performance of Vista in a VM was pretty pathetic using my MacBook Pro (2.33 Core 2 Duo processor with 2 Gigs RAM).Ubuntu Linux was speedier of course. My main complaint with using Parallels with both Linux and Vista, was that every few weeks, the stems would become unstable and then unuseable. Reinstallatilons were performed, but the same tired story repeated over and over. Even booting Vista natively in Boot Camp didn't remove the instabilities with Linux and Vista. I waited for version 4 to come out, eagerly installed it and converted my Vista VM to version 4. Same instability. So, I threw out everything, removed the old Bootcamp partition, and attempted a new reinstallation of Vista. I created a partition under Boot Camp, but this time couldn't install Vista,getting an error message saying that files were corrupted or unavailable. I was using a pristine, legitimate copy of Vista Home Premium for goodness sakes! As a last ditch effort, I tried to install Vista only as a VM, which yielded the same error message. Point? For the past couple of years struggling with Parallels and Microsoft, I've only experienced countless hopurs of frustration and thrown god money after bad.   
(Version 4.0.3540)

KOSOVAR1  To those of you who have also had your external LaCie drives ruined by the first version 2 updater, understand that you don't need to throw away everything. The circuitry inside the drive housings may have been rendered useless, but the IDE drives inside are perfectly intact. You can remove these and use them in other computers or third-party drive housings. As for the drive housings, well, I'm not sure what good they are without their circuitry boards. Maybe they could be used for spaghetti strainers or ultra-modern-style flowerpots. I just threw all three of mine away because I got angry at LaCie every time I looked at them.

BEWARE LACIE!!! They will f**k you up and then lie about it. (See my previous posts.) They cost me about $1000 and ruined 800 gigs of my data.

(Version 2.0)  
(Version 2.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  To those of you who have also had your external LaCie drives ruined by the first version 2 updater, understand that you don't need to throw away everything. The circuitry inside the drive housings may have been rendered useless, but the IDE drives inside are perfectly intact. You can remove these and use them in other computers or third-party drive housings. As for the drive housings, well, I'm not sure what good they are without their circuitry boards. Maybe they could be used for spaghetti strainers or ultra-modern-style flowerpots. I just threw all three of mine away because I got angry at LaCie every time I looked at them.

BEWARE LACIE!!! They will f**k you up and then lie about it. (See my previous posts.) They cost me about $1000 and ruined 800 gigs of my data.  
(Version 2.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  To those of you who have also had your external LaCie drives ruined by the first version 2 updater, understand that you don't need to throw away everything. The circuitry inside the drive housings may have been rendered useless, but the IDE drives inside are perfectly intact. You can remove these and use them in other computers or third-party drive housings. As for the drive housings, well, I'm not sure what good they are without their circuitry boards. Maybe they could be used for spaghetti strainers or ultra-modern-style flowerpots. I just threw all three of mine away because I got angry at LaCie every time I looked at them.

BEWARE LACIE!!! They will f**k you up and then lie about it. (See my previous posts.)   
(Version 5.1)

KOSOVAR1  THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. THERE IS A NEW VERSION OF Cepstral Voices WITH AN UPGRADE FEE. HOWEVER, THERE ARE PAGES AND PAGES OF ISSUES ON THE CEPSTRAL WEBSITE THAT SHOW THAT THIS VERSION 5 DOESN'T WORK and can crash your system. THE VERSION I PAID FOR STOPPED WORKING AND THE NEW VERSION BARELY, BARELY WORKS. WHO WANTS THAT??? THIS SHOWS ALL THE WAYS THAT THE NEW VERSION STILL DOESN'T WORK. IF CEPSTRAL CAN'T SPEND THE TIME AND MONEY TO MAKE THEIR PRODUCT WORK WITH THE NEWEST MACOS, THEY SHOULD ABANDON IT AND STOP RIPPING PEOPLE OFF WHO DON';T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE PAYING FOR!!! HERE IS AN ABBREVIATED LIST OF DEFICIENCIES IN THIS SOFTWARE THAT IS POATED ON THE COMPANY'S OWN WEBSITE. AT LEAST THE COMPANY IS BEING UPFRONT BUT THEY STILL WANT TO TAKE YOUR MONEY AND GIVE YOU JUNK IN RETURN.

1. The voices may go silent due to the system's audio properties having been adjusted to incompatible settings.

2. Cepstral voices stop speaking sometimes when used in VoiceOver. They will not speak again through VoiceOver until you log out and log back in. This problem occurs mostly if you use Command+Tab to switch between tasks or if you use Ctrl+Option+D to move the cursor to the dock and cycle through dock items.

3. When reading text copied from Safari, line breaks may occasionally be pronounced as question marks.

4. Word highlighting text positions are wrong when the volume is not set to 1.0.

5. Text position information passed to user callbacks is incorrect with certain settings, causing word highlighting to break.

6. Apple's pronunciation dictionaries are not supported. You can still use cross-platform Cepstral user lexicons, however.

7. Synthesis to phonemes -- the TextToPhonemes() API call -- is not supported.

Error and synchronization callbacks are not supported.

8. When stopping speech, the synthesizer will always halt immediately, instead of waiting until the next word or sentence when requested.

9. Tuned phonetic input -- the [[inpt tune]] embedded command -- is ignored.

In phonemes mode, all prodosic control symbols, with the exception of primary syllable stress, are ignored.

10. Some linebreaks are pronounced as "dot question mark."

11. If you use the Migration Assisant to transfer data and programs from one Mac to another, including Cepstral voices, your Cepstral voices may not function properly on the new computer.

12. If you enable "Announce the Time" under Date & Time preferences and set it to use a Cepstral voice, you cannot change the voice afterwards, even to a different Cepstral voice. Even if you set it to "Use System Voice," it continues to use your selection. Logging out and/or restarting do not solve the problem.

13. "interpret-as" attributes of "" elements are not properly handled.

If the input text contains back-to-back SSML elements, swift only handles the 14. last one in the list. For instance, the following only pauses for three seconds instead of five:

15. RIFF audio files with a sampling rate that differs from the native sampling rate of the voice are not correcly resampled when specified using the SSML element.

16. Applications using Swift TTS exit silently when a sentence that begins with an SSML or tag is fed to a non-US English voice for synthesis.

17. Swift does not currently support the xml:lang attribute of SSML tags that make use of it, such as , , etc.

18. Swift does not reject bad SSML markup. It will complain about blatant syntactic errors, such as missing close tags, but not about semantic errors, such as invalid tags and attributes.

19. The SSML and tags may not have the proper effect. This is supposed to be read as two sentences, but we read it as one:

20. Swift does not currently support the SSML tag for adding additional lexicons.

21. The SSML tag:attribute pair should select a neuter-gendered voice, but it currently does nothing.

22. The "age" attribute to the SSML tag is looking for an exact match, when it probably ought to be looking for the closest match. For instance, will only select a ten-year-old voice, or fall back to the default voice if one is not found.

23. Cannot provide multiple voice selections in the SSML tag. The tag should request David, and use William as a fallback. Instead, Swift interprets as a request for a voice named "David William."

24. The default SSML voice may not be the default voice for that gender. To illustrate, Swift may switch voices while executing the following SSML code, when it should not.

25. Changing voice in SSML resets prosody and pitch.

26. The duration attribute of the SSML tag is not supported.

27. Prosody as specified in the SSML prosody element is not applied to output generated using the SSML phoneme element.

28. Pitch contours passed in via the SSML tag with values not falling between 0% and 100% are supposed to be ignored. Swift attempts to synthesize with these bogus values.

29. SAMPA stress markers in SSML tag not supported.

30. The SSML tag causes a crash in Canadian French, Americas Spanish, and Italian voices.

40. Text position synthesis event information is incorrect when the SSML element is encountered.  
(Version 4.2.1)

KOSOVAR1  This is a crappy program. It only converts about half of the video files I throw at it. I have to ask myself, once again, "Geez, why do I keep wasting my money on programs like this! I'm just sick of these inexplicable error messages, that always blame the problem on the source video file (which works fine before conversion!) instead of on the mediocrity of the creators of programs like VisualHub. These people are patently dishonest when they advertise that VisualHub can convert practically any video file(s) to practically any other format you wish, like some kind of Swiss army knife. I bought this program because I just wanted to convert some standard video format files to MPEG-4/.H264s and then to import them into iTunes and my AppleTV. But this is apparently asking too much. People, save your money and shop for alternatives unless you're only want to, for example very basic, say, to convert an .avi file to an .mp4. This program is just too stupid to do much more than that.  
(Version 1.34a)

KOSOVAR1  Smith Micro knows what it's doing. As long as it keeps selling new iterations of Stuffit Deluxe (each time with practically nothing new added), it can keep bringing in revenue. There will always be some unknowing schmuck who will keep creating .sitx and .sit files, but why? Zip file creation and decompression is built right into the Mac OS and there are plenty of free utilities that work with the existing non-proprietary compression formats out there. We don't need versions 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 of Stuffit Deluxe. These seem to be released about every six months, probably because the development of each version is basically cosmetic. We need Stuffit Deluxe, which is old and obsolete, about as much as we need an old and obsolete republican presidential candidate. Hopefully Apple will incorporate the new, highly efficient file system into OSX 1.6 and then Smith Micro can really earn its keep by creating a version of Stuffit that works very nicely with it. But please SM, please stop milking this compression cow!  
(Version 13.0)

KOSOVAR1  STOP ALREADY WITH PROMOTING THIS OUTDATED SOFTWARE PACKAGE THAT HAS NOT OFFERED ANYTHING REALLY NEW OR USEFUL IN THE LAST FEW MAJOR UPGRADES. SMITH MICRO IS ONLY MISINFORMING UNSUSPECTING USERS WHO HAVEN'T YET REALIZED THAT THIS UTILITY, WHICH WAS ONCE GREAT, HAS BEEN RENDERED ESSENTIALLY POINTLESS. SO PLEASE, JUST GIVE SD A DECENT BURIAL AND STOP MILKING US FOR OUR $$$.

WANT TO COMPRESS A FILE? CHOOSE "COMPRESS" UNDER THE FILE MENU IN THE FINDER. 'NUFF SAID. UNCOMPRESS? DOUBLE-CLICK THE ZIPPED FILE.  
(Version 13.0)

KOSOVAR1  Whoops! AudioBook Builder is not perfect: It choked when I try to join large mp3 files, like those approaching a gigabyte. But it DID convert a very large collection of audiobook files into about fifty books, each one divided into two or three files each. Only about one book in ten failed to convert, I assume because each file was too large. Still worth the price though. (See previous review.)  
(Version 1.0.11)

KOSOVAR1  Don't get me wrong: I deeply appreciate freeware! But this software only worked for me with about one out of every three audiobook titles I tried to convert. I use Leopard (10.5.4) and the most recent versions of the full QuickTime and iTunes. Two things happened: Either Join Together displayed Applescript errors and could not complete the job, or the joining process hung after QuickTime opened the third mp3 file. Having an enormous audiobook collection, it was imperative that I find some way to join the thousands and thousands of mp3s that were crowding up my iTunes and iPod lists. I'm sure it's the same problem for many other Mac users, so I encourage the developer to fix the problems with this Applescript. When I finally discovered AudioBook Builder, I was really happy to discover that it works perfectly. It also chapterizes the converted audio files, without the use of the Apple Chapter Tool that I was never able to find on the internet. (Hint to developer: Why not provide a link on your website to help people find it?) Well anyway, I was happy to pay $10 for AudioBook Builder, because it helped me enormously to organize my audiobook collection and with minimal effort. In it's current state, Join Together yielded few successes for me.  
(Version 5.3.1)

KOSOVAR1  I'm more satisfied with Audiobook Builder than I've been with any shareware I've purchased in years. So far, Audiobook Builder works exactly as the developer claims, and best of all, it seems to have a 100% success rate in joining mp3s. I've already converted a dozen books. The feature set is maybe a bit limited and the program is not exactly speedy, but everything it does functions perfectly. Best of all, the chapter creation function could not be simpler. I have an enormous audiobook collection, but my iTunes and ipod were becoming littered with thousands of mp3 files, which was annoying and impractical to say the least. For the past year, I'd been struggling with Join Together, which only worked about a third of the time, and with Join Together, I could never chapterize my converted audiobooks because Join Together requires the use of Apple's Chapter Tool (which--strangely--I was never able to find on the internet). Anyway, when I discovered AudioBook Builder, it came as a godsend and it was the best $10 I ever spent!  
(Version 1.0.10)

KOSOVAR1  After purchasing and using EarthDesk for a couple of years, it simply stopped working on my notebook as of a month ago. I've tried every problem-solving trick I know (including re-installation), but EarthDesk just sits there displaying nothing. Before this, Earthdesk worked perfectly and was a very nice program which has become useless on my MacBook Pro running 1.5.4.   
(Version 4.3)

KOSOVAR1  Here is an update and a correction on several issues I reported earlier:

1.) The drives that I thought were destroyed after applying the 2.0 firmware updater to the LaCie d2 external drives are NOT ESATA, they are IDE drives.

2.) It appears now that the drives themselves may be OK, although I won't know for sure until i can connect them somehow to a computer and test them. However, the circuitry that is not part of the drives (specifically the chip that is flashed by the updater) was ruined. So at best only the circuitry that is part of the LaCie enclosures was destroyed or, at worst, both the drives and the enclosures were destroyed.

3.) I mentioned the AppleTV that lost audio function after I applied the 2.0 update. I reapplied the 2.0 update and it works perfectly this time, with sound!

4.) Assuming that the drives that I removed actually were not destroyed, I now have four IDE drives (the 3 from the LaCie enclosures and the one recently purchased to try to install in one of the enclosures that I now know don't work) that currently I have no way to use without purchasing new Firewire enclosures.

5.) Not a single person who lost their external drives thanks to the faulty 2.0 updater responded to my idea of joining a class-action lawsuit, so that option seems hopeless. Best to put this very bad and COSTLY experience behind me and accept that some external drive manufacturers are just irresponsible, lying jerks. I won't mention the name here, because this post will surely get pulled, but we all know who I'm referring to.   
(Version 2.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  Here is an update and a correction on several issues I reported earlier:

1.) The drives that I thought were destroyed after applying the 2.0 firmware updater are NOT ESATA, they are IDE drives.

2.) It appears now that the drives themselves may be OK. However, the circuitry (specifically the chip that is flashed) was ruined. So at best only the circuitry in the LaCie enclosures were destroyed or, at worst, both the drives and the enclosures were destroyed.

3.) I mentioned the AppleTV that lost audio function after I applied the 2.0 update. I reapplied the 2.0 update and it works perfectly this time, with sound!  
(Version 2.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  I sought out this program because I was willing to pay maybe $50 to have a program to help manage my three rental units. I was amazed to see that the price is three times higher than what I thought would be a reasonable price. Added to this, I have searched throughout the developer's website for some screenshots to see how the user interface looks. Uh-uh, nowhere to be found, not even a little screen shot was provided by the developer for the prospective purchaser's benefit, even though this is standard practice on MacUpdate and on developer websites hawking their wares. This should tell you something about the Rental Property Tracker Plus and perhaps about its developer, I think.   
(Version 1.9.5.1)

KOSOVAR1  OK, so APE is out of beta and there's a bona fide version 2.5. Well, I just checked and see that Mighty Mouse, Shapeshifter, and Xounds STILL don't work with Mac OSX 10.5. These are exactly the three utilities I paid for and they don't work anymore. Regarding my previous posts abut APE, I'm still dubious about the stability of APE, but in addition to this issue, why the heck would I want this if it doesn't work with any of the aforementioned utilities? The website says APE cannot destabilize the OS, but it acknowledges that certain utilities that require APE, CAN destabilize the OS. So, isn't that just doubletalk on their part, since you can't run any of their paid utilities without APE? Now I don't mean to rain on the developer's yard sale, but all I know is that they're talking out of both sides of their mouths regarding stability issues and none of the utilities I paid for even work. This is not acceptable.  
(Version 2.5)

KOSOVAR1  At this point I am practically suicidal, although I blame LaCie for all my troubles with my three LaCie Firewire 800 drives. The next chapter in my psychodrama is that, after the LaCie version 2.0 updater destroyed my three one-year old external drives and lost 800 mb of valuable data, I went out--stupidly--and paid $200 for a new internal IDE drive and installed it into the housing of the LaCie device. I thought that only the drives were destroyed. Needless to say, after trying to format for the MacOS, I saw that the new drive didn't work either. Of course, the vendor refused to take back the drive after I removed it from the box. This brings my financial loss now to over $1,100 thanks to the faulty updater from LaCie, not to mention the many hours I have agonized over this! Additioally, I realize that the updater destroyed something rendered not only the three IDE drives inoperable, but also the circuitry that are part of the housing. These, are in effect, no more useful than empty tin cans.No words to describe how I feel about LaCie!  
(Version 2.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  Dishonest? Drivel?

Ummm, NO, I based my comments on years of using and experimenting with AE and wth Shapeshifter. I said that I kept coming back to AE because I really enjoyed Shapeshifter, but also that I had to keep uninstalling it because I could see that my system crashed more frequently with AE installed or that there were certain unattractive visual artifacts that were only present with Shapeshifter. I'm not trying to PROVE anything, but I can certainly make some reasonable assumptions about AE and Shapeshifter based on my years of experience using them. And I mention this because I simply DON't LIKE the idea that some company is making money by selling (or merely providing) a product that is potentially or apparently destabilizing to a heretofore well-functioning Mac system. That AE is not entirely stable is an opinion that I gained through much personal experience using it, but it is an opinion that is shared by many, many other users in the Mac community expressed over a period of years. I paid for Shapeshifter and two other utilities that use AE and, since OSX 10.5, cannot use them. I would love the developer to make them work again,but work WELL and not impose a new charge. I rather think I should charge Unsanity for many hours of system down-time from crashes and the frustration I experienced while using AE/Shapeshifter.  
(Version 2.5b2)

KOSOVAR1  Ummm, I also think Unsanity should GO BACK to the drawing board and develop something that, this time, works well with the Mac OS, and this time with LEOPARD. Do everyone a favor and don't post this stuff for sale if it isn't stable and finished. I used APE off and on for a couple of years and found it was sometimes problematic with the Mac OS. You know this, Unsanity,so stop trying to sell us something that degrades the system or works only partially.

I kept coming back to APE because it was required by Shapeshifter, which was a great idea, except that it too always seemed to be rough around the edges, especially in how it interacted with iTunes. Or was it that AE again seemed to destabilize my Mac?

Make something nice and stable and users will embrace it.   
(Version 2.5b2)

KOSOVAR1  Ummm, no, I too think the developer should GO BACK to the drawing board and develop something that, this time, works well with the Mac OS, and in particular with LEOPARD. Please don't post this stuff for sale if it isn't stable and finished. I used AE off and on for a couple of years and found it was sometimes problematic with the Mac OS. You know this, Unsanity,so stop trying to sell us snake oil.

I kept coming back to AE because it was required by Shapeshifter, which was a great idea, except that it too always seemed to be rough around the edges, especially in how it interacted with iTunes. Or was it that AE again seemed to destabilize my Mac?  
(Version 2.5b2)

KOSOVAR1  Sorry to criticize, especially since this is a free utility. It could be something imminently useful, except that its complete lack of military time support makes it unusable for me, an American living in Germany. The same is probably true for Europeans and the great majority of people in the world who live outside the USA and whose Macs are set to military time format. It simply doesn't work unless you sacrifice military time.  
(Version 1.0)

KOSOVAR1  Kosovar1 again. Please note the foolloowing correction, as MacUpdate, pointed out to me. In my two earlier posts, I mentioned a version 6.8 of DivX Pro. There is no version 6.8. Actually, the version I had was 6.7. When I tried to upgrade to the current version 6.7.2 Pro version to achieve compatibility with my Leopard OS, the DivX.com website didn't allow it, apparently to force me to pay again for the Pro version as if it were a full-version upgrade. The comments that followed about the two utilities, Perian and Flip4Mac, were extremely helpful for those who may have had the same problem with DivX.  
(Version 6.7.2)

KOSOVAR1  HELLO TO ALL OF YOU WHO LOST DATA OR HAD YOUR LA CIE DRIVES RUINED AFTER APPLYING LA CIE'S FAULTY 2.0 FIRMWARE UPDATER:

MY THREE DRIVES (JUST WEEKS OUT OF WARRANTY) WERE DESTROYED BY THE FIRMWARE UPDATER TOO. OF COURSE, I CONTACTED LA CIE AND THEY REPLIED WITH THE LIE THAT A FEW OF THEIR CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCED "MINOR PROBLEMS" BY USING THE FIRST UPDATER BUT THAT AN UPDATED FIRMWARE UPDATER WAS NOW AVAILABLE.

I'LL BET THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHOSE EXPENSIVE LA CIE DRIVES WERE DESTROYED BY THE COMPANY'S CARELESSNESS. WHAT ANGERS ME MOST IS THAT THEY ARE COVERING IT UP. IF ANY OF YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT, POST YOUR COMMENTS AND IDEAS HERE OR ON WHATEVER OTHER FORUMS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET. MACUPDATE WILL PROBABLY DELETE MY COMMENTS BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE CONTROVERSY ON THEIR WEBSITE, BUT HOPEFULLY THE WORD WILL GET OUT AND WE WILL GET COMPENSATION. I FOR ONE PLAN TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED ON EVERY FORUM I CAN FIND AND INVESTIGATE WHAT IT TAKES TO LAUNCH A LAWSUIT.   
(Version 2.0.1)

KOSOVAR1  I've been scammed by this developer. A year or two ago, I paid for DivX Pro (with the converter utility). A few weeks later, the developer rolled out a free version and a "Pro" version. Now I see an upgrade to version 6.8. I thought, well, why not upgrade? even though I was already miffed at the company. I entered my "Pro" serial number in to the websites upgrade page to find out what it would cost for the incremental upgrade, and guess what? The serial number was not recognized. So I paid for what others got for free and now the company expects me to pay all over again for this incremental upgrade. Quite naturally, my version (6.7.x) is not compatible with Leopard. THIS IS NOT RIGHT!  
(Version 6.7.2)

KOSOVAR1  Before Synergy stopped working a few months ago, it was my favorite iTunes launcher. Now it has to be started manually from the preference pane since it won't start at login. I guess the developer has made as much money off this as (s)he wants, because there have been no fixes or communications forthcoming: not a word, nothing. I am sorry I wasted money on this!  
(Version 3.2.1)

KOSOVAR1  The question I guess is whether only the internal drives were ruined or some part of the housing. The cheaper solution would be simply to install new eSATA (I assume) drives into the casing, but probably that part is junk too. The lesson to learn here is maybe to simplify life, NOT waste weeks re-encoding my movie collection for Apple TV and NOT spend hundreds of dollars again for new hardware.

Incidentally, I found out today when I unpacked my Apple TV (that had been in storage for a year while I traveled) that the sound on that unit no longer works. Great vid, but no sound at all when attached to the TV and after upgrading to version 2.0 of the firmware. The new interface also works great, but still more great technology rendered useless.   
(Version 2.0)

KOSOVAR1  In reference to my comments from a month ago, I found out today that not only did the LaCie Update Tool 2.0 destroy all the valuable data on my three LaCie disks, but the drives also were destroyed after the firmware upgrade. Today I spent $100 for DiskWarrior, hoping against hope to resurrect my valuable data, but I saw that no utility will mount these three 250 gig drives and all report permanent hardware failures. I bought these drives barely more than a year ago for about $250 each, now they are just junk. La Cie, I think you have robbed me of almost $800, not to mention erased weeks of work.

Sort of voluntary prison terms for irresponsibly releasing a highly destructive product and bringing financial and emotional difficulties, what do you propose to help all the people like me who got screwed?? LaCie? HELLO!  
(Version 2.0)

KOSOVAR1  One of those shamelessly deceptive little moneymakers, dishonestly described as "Free" because the progrwm is free but you can't use it without buying a list of propriety text files for $12.99 each. (Insulting to try to show a discount by showing crossed oit $14.99, as if we were shopping at Woolworths and are gonna get a bargain. Just try to download a list of game questions from within the program and guess what? That doesn't work. God forbid you should find a way to play a game without paying for it!!! Just as bad is the annoying 50's jingle that plays incessantly and the "And now a word from our sponsor" to hawk for new product sales, which also cannot be avoided by design. And this developer has the nerve to ask for a contribution for writing this program which is advertised as "free", but which nonetheless but cannot be used without shelling out bucks and without grating on your nerves.   
(Version 1.0.3)

KOSOVAR1  To he** with La CIe for releasing this disastrous software firmaware updater. I have lost all data on three 250 gig La Cie drives that were configured as an Apple Level 1 disk array. That's 600 gigs of movies that took me weeks of work to convert to AppleTV format. (Yeah, I know you're thinking that I should have backed-up first, but I can't afford a terabyte drive for the safety backup! I took my chances and lost big-time!

No words to describe my contempt for La Cie! And they had the nerve to reassure users that this update does not normally affect data on the drives that are being updated.  
(Version 2.0)

KOSOVAR1  Alsoft has been completely unreasonable in regard to refusing to allow a downloadable version of its DiskWarrior program that can be converted to a bootable CD or DVD. Like the other commenter, I too live in Germany and I'll be damned if I will buy the full version of this software after already buying a previous version and I will NOT pay international shipping. Sice I have a damaged drive here in Germany, I will have to put up with Alsoft's stupidity in this matter.  
(Version 4.1)

KOSOVAR1  i'd warn buyers to beware this app until they have proven it does what it says, which may not be entirely possible if some features are crippled until AFTER you've paid for it. The reason I say this is that we are told that on MacUpdate that "VideoDrive makes it easy to add videos to iTunes without converting them or losing quality." The developer's website also backs that up. But if you squint at the tiny text on the VideoDrive webpage, the following statement: "(*) reconversion in iTunes may be required to copy videos to iPod, iPhone and AppleTV. Consult the support page for more technical information." Right away this indicates to me that something is wrong here and people should not reward software developers for over-hyping their products' capabilities and promising things that may not be real. I think we've all been burned that way.

I, for one, am going to test this product and definitely buy it if it does all that the developer promises up front. If not, you will hear from me again in this forum.  
(Version 1.4.1)

KOSOVAR1  Caveat Emptor! Disk Warrior is a software utility that actually works--but for a very limited period of time. I bought Diskwarrior a couple of versions back and have been forced to upgrade twice. Why? By their own design, Alsoft does NOT usually update their software for new Macs or OS upgrades. I was only able to use it once or twice before it became unusable because of a minor OSX 10.4 revision and the same thing happened when I switched MacBook Pros, and yet again when I upgraded to OSX 10.5. If you buy this utility, you may find that, within a very short time, you will not be able to use it anymore and you will be forced, again and again, to spend $50 or so to make it work again. To me, this seems like a sort of mafia tactic--you pay and pay and pay. I for one, quit! I refuse to deal with overly greedy software companies. Besides, there's DRIVE GENIUS that also works very well and is more than a one-trick pony.

Alsoft could very well do better by their customers, but they choose not to because there's more profit in their current market plan and instead they choose to blame Apple for it's timely OS upgrades.  
(Version 4.1)

KOSOVAR1  Not only do I NOT wish to buy the rip-off upgrade, I sincerely hope the company goes out of business. I don't care that Panic added Pixadex to CandyBar. I didn't ask for it and I suspect it was done because people weren't buying Pixadex anyway

FOLKS, DISCOURAGE OVERARCHING GREED. BOYCOTT PANIC AND DOWNLOAD THE FREE LITEICON UTILITY INSTEAD. IT DOES PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING YOU WILL ACTUALLY NEED ANYWAY, QUICKLY SIMPLY AND ELEGANTLY. AND DID I MENTION IT WAS...FREE! THEN TAKE YOUR SPARE CHANGE AND REWARD THE DEVELOPER OF LITEICON FOR HIS/HER EFFORTS FOR GIVING SOMETHING TO THE COMMUNITY.  
(Version 3.1.2)