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About Kosovar1
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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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! |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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The developer just wrote to me and informed me of an effective work-around. After setting the DATE AND TIME control panel to Rio de Janeiro and re-activating SET TIME AUTOMATICALLY, VelaClock now displays the time correctly both in the widget and in the menu barfor those of us who live in Argentina. Thanks to the developer who was kind enough to write to me personally with the solution. Another one of those rare, but wanton, acts of kindness and professionalism. |
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Just one problem on the newest update (and please correct me if I've missed something here).: Apparently Apple's automated time servers have not been updated, so to get the correct time in the menu bar, you have to turn off the automatic time updates feature and input the correct time f you live in Argentina (as I do). This means that VelaClock, in correcting the unconventional time change for Argentia, as ensured that the time in Argentina as displayed on VelaClock, will be incorrectly ahead by one hour. It seems the developer should have held off on the repair until the Apple makes it's own adjustment. Definitely not a crisis, but pretty annoying since all time comparisons will be wrong in VelaClock if you want the correct time displayed in the menu bar, and plus you lose the auto-updating feature. |
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Allow me to tell it the way I see it. I am sorry I bought version two of this because I will NEVER pay the high upgrade price for version 3. Good grief, the friggin' upgrade costs almost 1/4 the price of of the entire Leopard OS, and only for the privilege of having some fairly dressy looking icons. Look, if these greedy b**ches want to price themselves in such a way as to insult potential or return customers, so be it, but it's a mistake for them to assume we're all idiots who'll pay for a utility that is purely superficial. On principle, I'll never buy ANY software from this company again and I assume many of you feel the same way. |
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This is a truly HATEFUL program, full of bugs, usually crashing after 5 inutes use, and it brings the Mac OS to a crashing halt while takingt 15 minutes to boot into Vista. For the fist 8 months it crashed every time I tried to use coherence and I reintsalled everything five times. After the last installation, I got VIsta to work, sort of, but it makes the Mac OS essentially unusable while Vista is running. For example, it takes two minutes just to switch from one Mac program to another, or to go from Windows to a Mac program that runs so slowly that it is almost imperceptible that the computer hasn't permanently frozen. Avoid this until it finally becomes useable. |
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Four-and-a-half stars for the software, which is extremely useful and clever, and which now works flawlessly. FIVE STARS for the developer, who took plenty of time with me by email to troubleshoot some minor problems, as well as to chat a bit about his country and life. Really nice guy. ***** |
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I found Parallels to be rather pathetic. I'm angry that I actually PAID $80 for this, not to mention several hundred $ more for Vista, thinking that I could run Windows on my new MacBook Pro. Every version that I bought was pathetically buggy. The featre set is great and I really appreciated the fact that I got connected to the internet without having to manually configure the network settings in Windows. However, there are a half dozen actions that result in Parallels crashing, foremost among these being whenever I try to switch to Coherence mode. Another issue for me is that Vista runs glacially slowly, even though I use the most recent (and fastest) MacBook Pros. My advice to anyone is to wait until the most serious flaws in Parallels is fixed before buying it. Otherwise one find that (s)he will be wasting a lot of time and patience (and data) trying to make this flawed instrument work. Personally, I really hope the developer is successful in this because I hate to see money go wasted, because I'm not going to spend a penny more on this pursuit. |
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To the developer: I forgot to mention that when I choose "Add to Que, HandBrake 9 also crashes. I've tried this with many DVDs, so it's not the DVD. I also did the usual troubleshooting stuff, like delete old preference files, to no avail. My laptop is a MacBook Pro 17" running 10.4.10. |
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HandBrake 9 doesn't work at all for me: All settings are greyed-out after I've chosen a DVD. Plus, if I go up to the "File" menu and choose "Start Encoding," Handbrake simply crashes. Well, at least MacThe Ripper hasn't let me down. |
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Damn, I'm having the same problem: All settings are greyed-out. Plus, if I go up to the File menu and choose Start Encoding, Handbrake simply crashes. Poo poo! |
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Hell, it doesn't work at all now! I put this away after reading the insulting comments by the developer. I came back to it after a few months and now, when I right-click, absolutely nothing happens. Reinstalled...nothing. |
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Good God, this is capitalism at it's best (or most ridiculous)! This appears to be an incredibly simplistic program, yet the developer has the chutzpa to charge $30 for it. Then I can imagine a scenario where someone, somehow connected to the developer perhaps, produces the first polyannishly glowing review to reinforce the idea to a genuine MENTAL CASE out there in the consumer world who'd shell out so much money for a program that does so very little. |
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Well, this is a glorious idea, but I am skeptical of any tool that promises an escape from the consumer-explotation juggernaut. To whit, I installed this program (which was a pleasantly straightforward process), and had apparent initial success in anonymopus surfing. But five minutes later, for reasons I can't identify, I was unable to connect to ANY websites, so I had to undo the settings that JAP had helped me configure. But guess what? One of the first sites that appeared (unbidden on my part) was a JonDonym, a Mix-Cascade service, that charges if you use them. So how did it happen that a site that purportedly offers to free you from prying and unsolicited advertising--for a fee, of course!--manages to slip through the veil of JAP only to try to sell you something. Dammit, this is exactly why I wanted JAP in the first place, to stop this from happening. Does JAP enable these service providers to appear in your web browser unbidden to hawk their wares? I'd like to know. Now, since my web browsing is broken, I have to figure out how to re-connect and send this off. Bollocks! |
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Did it work? In a word, NO. Fullstop. Why should I waste more time, explaining why it failed after just entering three options? Please provide software that does what it suggests. |
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It worked like a charm the first time I tried using the default settings. Then I changed the preference for creating a joined MP3 file instead of bookmarked AAC file format. The program just sat there and did nothing and that's how it has remained regardless of whatever file format or setting I choose. I tried to delete the preferences file for this program to get it working again, but I can't seem to find one. A pity since this would have ben a very useful tool--and free. Value = 4 if it can be made to work. |
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"No idea what those cookies are, but they have nothing to do with SafariBlock, and you apparently have no idea what you're talking about." WELL, AFTER DENYING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THOSE COOKIES AND SAFARIBLOCK, AS WELL AS ACCUSING THE WRITER OF BEING IGNORANT, YOU FINALLY ADMIT THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY YOU WHO DIDNīT UNDERSTAND THE CONNECTION. SO THANK YOU FOR THE FREE SOFTWARE (WHICH PERHAPS WE CAN NOW ASSUME TO BE SAFE TO USE IF YOUR EXPLANATION IS GENUINE), BUT MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY NOT TO BE SO DISMISSIVE OF ANOTHER PERSON'S VALID INQUIRIES AND CONCERNS. A LITTLE LESS ARROGANCE WOULD BE NICE TOO SINCE THOSE COOKIES ARE CONNECTED TO YOU, AND FOR ALL YOUR SELF-ACCLAIMED KNOWLEGE IN WRITING SOFTWARE, MANY USERS REPORT THAT IT DOESNīT REALLY DO THE JOB FOR WHICH IT WAS INTENDED. |
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Beware Greeks bearing gifts! Someone who's more knowlegeable than I in Macs should checking into the comments about the possibility that SafaiBlock installed suspicious cookies and then "phoned home." Any developer like this one who allegedly has written key recording utilities and similar programs should be considered suspect. Just read the reply he gave to the guy who asked about his legit concerns. You really can't be too cautious with computers on the internet. I've been burned too many times by internet fraud of one sort or another over the years. |
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YES! That response from the developer is absolutely uncalled for, especially since the reviewer apologised in advance for his probing questions. I, for one, thought the reviewer's inquiries were absolutely on the mark and I appreciate his calling our attention to what he found. Based on the arrogant response from the developer, I'd say the reviewer's inquiries hit a raw nerve and probably for good reason. I'd steer clear of this plugin, only based on the possibility that things are not what they appear and the developer's rudeness only reinforced that impression. |
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I installed the updater, then imported my movies (all created from VHS tapes) as mp4s. I dragged each one onto the AppleTV icon on the EyeTV toolbar and the movie sure enough were converted and importd into iTunes Ver 7.1.1. The proble is, however, that the audio and video tracks in every case were not synchronized, the audio part playing a full 2 seconds after the video. For this reason, I rated this update a 1, since any useful features are obliviated by the useless iTunes formatted movies that result. Added to this, it takes HOURS to convert a full-length movie using the most current Intel MacBook Pro. |
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Why doesn't DEVON think Pro have contextual menus, instead of (or in addition to) the scripts available from the scripts menu or the commands in the Services menu? SOHO Notes is a rather crappy program, but at least it has this feature. Oh well, can't have it all I guess. |
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Ooops, one more comment and then I'll stop kicking the dead mule that is Soho Notes. When I wrote below that DEVONThink Pro might lack an import function, I meant that it didn't seem possible for DEVONThink Pro to import data from Chronos Notes in a straightforward way. DevonThink Pro DOES have an import function and, in fact, one can easily use it to migrate data from Soho Notes into the DEVONThink products. Hope this information helps anyone who is fed up and wants to switch to a much superior product. |
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After the generous one-star review I wrote for SOHO NOTES, I read Lostcities review below and I started to consider why for several years I'd put up with Chronos's defective products, ChronosNotes and SohoNotes,. After all, all Chronos did was give me lost data and a lot of grief. I stuck with the junk because I'd paid for it. Well, I had an epiphany. Chronos was never going to throw serious money after bad to fix it's product, so I threw it way. I bought DEVONThink Pro and DevonAgent atogether. Within a couple of hours of tinkering with it, it became clear what a superior product DEVONThink Pro is compared to Soho Notes. First of all, the the DEVONproduct is so much faster and second, it seems to be completely stable. There doesn't seem to be any import function in DEVONThink Pro, but it was easy to move the folder containing all my Soho Notes files (in .rtf format) and import (i.e., drop them) into DEVONThink Pro. I assume that would also work with the $39.00 DEVONThink Personal product. Finally, I think I can rest easy with my data, but if problems come up, you can be sure I'll return again to this forum to rag on DEVONtechnologes, LLC. |
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Beware Soho Notes, Chronos Notes, or whatever iteration of the software that bears these names! This is prgram that you will come to HATE with a fierce, burning passion because it routinely loses data. I have used this software for several years, since it was called simply Chronos Notes. The first version worked pretty much as described, but upgrading was a big mistake and I lost most or all of my notes every time. Some of notes contained critical data, which I--stupidly--had not backed up elsewhere. I tend to believe that this software was designed to be very bad, just so a subset of users will be driven to upgrade, in the hopes that the new version will work better. Well, the upgrades get increasingly more complex and less reliable. Usually the problems are about inexplicable data loss, but there are numerous other issues as well. The most recent bug manifests every time I try to amend an existing note, Soho Notes interupts me with a message saying that another program has made changes to the note I'm editing and that I have to either create a new note or save the changes. There is no exit option for this action so I either end up with two notes, not knowing which is the original or the changes I made are lost. Once or twice I mangaed to get tech support, they were arrogant and claimed that the fault was mine, since THEIR PROGRAM COULD NEVER LOSE DATA. HA HA HA. I say to you CAVEAT EMPTOR. Added to the fact that you're paying for junk software, you're paying too much. |
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To the developer: PLEASE fix the 2 bugs with the iCalViewer. (I'm requesting this because I too paid for this app.) 1. The app version I downloaded says it 2.0.4. Yet when it asks if I want to check for the latest version that's available, it downloads a version 1.1.4 version. This is very confusing. 2.The version I'm using chops off the first two lines of each notification that is posted on the desktop. This makes me crazy. I believe what's happening is that the Mac OS X 10.4.1 Finder menu bar covers up those first two lines. Please make the app draw these notifications BELOW the MENU BAR, not BEHIND it. Thank you. |
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BE WARNED! This program has caused me more grief than you can imagine! Like most people, I had this little utopian dream of consolidating all my documents graffics, and snippets into one easily accesssible and centralized database. Version 2 of StickyBrain worked fine for me for this purpose, but then I wanted more of a good thing so I eagerly purchased the 3.0 upgrade. After upgrading, though, I found that version 3 wouldn't work at all. After troubleshooting with the Chronos' tech support back and forth for a couple of weeks, they finally advised that I should manually create a folder in ~Library (something that the installer doesn't do). When I finally got the vesrion 3 to work, all traces of my stored documents under version 2 dissapeared and my version 2 was gone. Chronos swears that the upgrade installer couldn't do this, but it did! I lost nearly a year's collected data was lost because I hadn't archived the original documents. So stupid me, thought that Chronos had ironed out the bugs in the more mature product! The minor upgrade to version 3.2 caused no problems. Today I downloaded the 3.3 upgrader. The installation seemed to go without a hitch, but when I opened Stickybrain, I found that all my stored documents seemed to be in the folders just where I left them, but they didn't show up in the folder lists, just the numbers of documents beside the folder icons. The titles of all my documents show up under the serices menu icon in the menubar, but when I click on them, they don't open in the StickyBrain program. Nothing I tried allowed me to access my carefully collected data. The installer at least left me the backup files, so I tried restoring from the backup files. But, NOOOOOOOO!!!!! The backup files didn't bring back access to my data. The new Stickybrain 3.3 does a number of bizarre things like repeatedly bring up empty alarm windows that I didn't create or if I try to save new windows, disallow the SAVE command by informing me that "Another user has deleted your note. Would you like to save it to another folder" (which still dowesn't allow saves) or something like that, and many more idiocies. I'd swear that this program was designed and written just to make me miserable and prevent me from achieving any shred of productivity. How can I if I StickyBrain repeatedly loses or makes inaccessible any and all of my stored data!!!! If anyone is dumb enough to repeat my mistakes, at least have enough sense not to trash your original documents. But if you have to save your data in another way every time you store data in StickyBrain (to be sure you don't lose it), what's the point of spending $40 for this fine product? By the way, StickyBrain is a beautifully conceived and feature rich-product when it is working. The problem is, of course, that it has the ability to wreak havoc with your data if you are not VERY, VERY careful in using it. |
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Silly rabbit! Some developers roll out minor iterations of their programs every few weeks (OR DAYS) as a marketing ploy. It's a form of free advertising. This is not to say that some developers don't work hard to improve their programs, add new features and fix the bugs though. If you look at GC, every iteration seems to include significant improvements, so I think Herr Lempke can be congratulated on his dedication to providing an highly functional and updated producted. Now if he would just fix a few bugs, like the one where GC cannot display my JPGs in full-screen mode, I would do nothing but sing his praises. ;-) |
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I found this program to be more than adequate for my needs with one glaring exception: During slideshows, fully three-fourths of my JPGs are displayed in such a way that they are not viewable when viewed in fullscreen mode. The images are pixellated to the point that what is displayed is unrecognizeable. The program displays these images (ranging from 300 kb to 2 mb in size) as if they were only icons or only a few kb in size. By switching to non-fullscreen mode, the problem is alleviated somewhat, but not fixed. This doesn't happen with other graphics programs so apparently Graphic Converter is not damaging the files. This has happened with the last few versions of Graphic Converter and I've switched laptops twice.. Since I have tried changing every possible setting and troubleshooting it as best I can, I've come to regret paying for this otherwise very good program since I'm going to have to switch to another. iView and iView Pro are also excellent for my needs, but they are both prohibitively expensive. I hope the next version of Graphic Converter fixes this problem. |