VERYCARLA  Wow, eighteen dollars? Really? Ouch. That was unexpected. Well, it's certainly the developer's right to ask people to pay for the app. It's also my right to say, "Sayonara, Senuti!"  
(Version 0.50.4)

VERYCARLA  From MacInTouch: "The Windows executables in the cdautorun directory appear to be files for burning a "Gift CD" from Picasa. There are both Mac and Windows slideshow programs, for instance.

The program itself is a native Mac i386 executable linked to Cocoa and WebKit frameworks, among others."

Trust me. If this were a WINE app, it'd be unusably slow on anything but the most recent Macs, and I've got an original MacBook and it runs great.  
(Version 3.0.1.321)

VERYCARLA  Looks nice, seems to work well, but can someone please tell me what good the nutritional information feature will be if the app doesn't have some basic vegetables in its list?  
(Version 1.0.5)

VERYCARLA  That did it! Thanks! :)  
(Version 1.41b4)

VERYCARLA  Well, after my trouble with the earlier beta I said I'd try it again on a fresh install. A couple weeks and a couple new betas and an OS upgrade later, I've done just that. The result? Transmission 1.41b4 works perfectly. I've not a single complaint.

I do have one request for the devs though. In older versions the users pane of the Inspector would show a number in the % column. I have no complaint about the colours you've implemented there, but I do wish it would give me a number as well. It's hardly a make-or-break feature, I know, but it'd be nice.  
(Version 1.41b4)

VERYCARLA  Shows a blank page when "Block Ad Banners" is enabled. Disabling the option restores normal functionality. I assume it's not meant to do that. I have Saft set as a Safari launcher; could that be the problem?  
(Version 10.5.6)

VERYCARLA  The site is working.  
(Version 0.7.4)

VERYCARLA  That's a good idea. What I'll probably do is wait until the Mac OS X 10.5.6 update drops, then do a full backup and re-install, and install 1.40 fresh and see if I can replicate the errors.  
(Version 1.40)

VERYCARLA  It's my understanding that this is a Finder-related bug.  
(Version 8.0.2)

VERYCARLA  Reverting to 1.34 has fixed the problem.  
(Version 1.40)

VERYCARLA  1.40 seems to work OK but I'm having problems with one of the torrents I'm seeding randomly stopping. It gives an error along the lines of "resources temporarily unavailable" and then pauses the torrent. It is a rather large torrent (~30gb), so I wonder if that has something to do with it. It's happened three times since upgrading to 1.40 this morning, but with the previous version it had been seeding for a week without issue, so I'm pretty sure it's a 1.40 issue. Has anyone else seen this behaviour?  
(Version 1.40)

VERYCARLA  I like the fact it supports my ancient-but-still functional CanoScan FB630UI, but can someone tell me where the descreen option is hiding? I scanned a CD cover to test the app, and it left obvious banding across the image, which looked good otherwise. Given the wealth of options and settings, I really hope descreening was not omitted, and that I just overlooked it.  
(Version 8.4.95)

VERYCARLA  Ah, sorry, Todd. I meant to rate your comment up. Agh!   
(Version 2.4.5)

VERYCARLA  Even though Apple makes the OS freely available on their website there is a "do not distribute" restriction. The OS is not in the public domain; it is merely free.

This does not even address the question of the system ROM files, which are absolutely not free to redistribute. I don't know if the ROMs are packaged in this archive because so far I've been unable to download it, but I assume that something called the "Mini vMac Full Edition" would contain the ROMs. If so, this package will almost certainly be gone within a few days.  
(Version 1.0)

VERYCARLA  Sound like your browser is confused, and is trying to display the file as if it were a web page. Right-click on the download link and choose "Save Link As..." and then you should be OK.  
(Version 20080914)

VERYCARLA  XLD has actually been updated several times since this version was released, most recently today.

It seems Sparkle has enabled the developer to work more quickly than MU can follow. :)  
(Version 20080822)

VERYCARLA  Downloading a 3gb disk image, Transmission told me the file was complete. Turns out it wasn't even half done. Is this happening a lot, or am I special?  
(Version 1.33)

VERYCARLA  Twice now in the last month (most recently about an hour ago) launching Quake II has caused my MacBook to spontaneously restart. Has anyone else encountered this issue? I've got an original MacBook, 1.83ghz, 2gb RAM and I'm running 10.5.4.

Knowing my luck it's my hardware. :)  
(Version 1.1)

VERYCARLA  Does the job nicely. It's a Java applet, which shouldn't put anyone off - it's cleanly designed and very straightforward. Just double-click the .jar file and feed it the URLs of the YouTube videos you want to save, and off it goes.

One very nice feature is that it will extract the name of the video from YouTube, so you won't be left with a directory full of "download 1.flv" files wondering which was which.

However, it doesn't do any automatic conversion, so if that's important to you look at another app.  
(Version 1.7)

VERYCARLA  1.31 seemed to be working a little better, but that's come to a stop. I just added a fully-seeded torrent and it's just sat there for nearly ten minutes saying "data not fully available". The tracker is up and running and I was seeding something else earlier. I'm going to revert to 1.22 now, assuming the server with the older version of Transmission ever responds.  
(Version 1.31)

VERYCARLA  Every torrent I start, even well-seeded torrents sits there with a "data not fully available" error. Nothing happens. Torrents I was seeding at full speed with 1.22 crawl with 1.30. I have changed NOTHING in my setup. I ran the update from within Transmission and then re-launched the app like normal, and now everything's fritzed.  
(Version 1.30)

VERYCARLA  The CD ripping feature doesn't seem to work. I'm working with a clean, unscratched CD which I want to rip. I've had xAct 1.64 working for half an hour, and it's produced zero results. I don't hear any noise coming from the drive at all, and there should be something, as it's a fairly noisy drive.

MacOS X 10.5.4, MacBook 1.83ghz Core Duo, 2gb RAM. Ripping to internal hard drive from internal CD-RW.  
(Version 1.64)

VERYCARLA  Gotta admit, I'm a little cheesed off with The Unarchiver. It asked me nicely which filetypes I wanted associated with it. I only wanted it to handle stuffit archives, since I don't want to install StuffIt because it takes over every file format and I don't like that.

So what does The Unarchiver do? It takes over every file format anyway.

Screw you, Unarchiver. If I wanted a grabby program that didn't play well with others I'd've installed StuffIt!  
(Version 1.6.1)

VERYCARLA  Doesn't really seem to do anything much. How is it uninstalled?  
(Version 1.2)

VERYCARLA  Nice to see this updated. Wish it were universal, but whatever: it's free.

And if you don't like Musashi's UI there are other options. Thunderbird, Mail, GyazMail...pick one.  
(Version 3.5)

VERYCARLA  It can scan a DVD-R full of MP3s in twenty to thirty seconds if you've got a decent DVD-RW drive. Don't blame the software for hardware limitations.  
(Version 5.1.1)

VERYCARLA  Woot! Works just fine now! :)  
(Version 1.1.1)

VERYCARLA  All I get is a heaping helping of SQL gobbledygook. Somewhere, Mrs Roberts is shaking her head in shame. :D  
(Version 1.1)

VERYCARLA  Thanks for replying! That seems to be the only issue affecting me, and it's not affecting performance, so I'm going to keep using the current version.  
(Version 2.1.2)

VERYCARLA  Why, when I pause or resume play does CoverSutra put up a bezel which says, "No Playlist Selected"? There most definitely IS a playlist selected, and the music starts or stops as expected.  
(Version 2.1.2)

VERYCARLA  I had a torrent reach a 15:1 ratio and then stop, like it hit a brick wall. I cleared it and then re-downloaded the torrent file and started it again, but it won't move. I'm the only seed at this point, and it's not budging.

Has anyone else had this problem, or is it just another in an ever-growing list of bugs only I ever encounter? :)  
(Version 1.20)

VERYCARLA  Unrelated to Transmission, I just wanted to say I love that song.

And I'm feelin' poor every day.

A-hey, hey, hey.  
(Version 1.20)

VERYCARLA  Thanks, aetnaria! That should be in the preferences somewhere. I don't think I'd ever have found it there without help!  
(Version 2.5)

VERYCARLA  This is a great little app, but there are two things I would like to see. First, a complete re-do of the preferences interface. It's a little clunky right now. Every time I update the app I have to tell it to hide the dock icon and every time I forget how to do that. I'm looking for a check box, but it's a button. Why is it a button when everything else is a check box?

The other thing I would like to see is a new way to manage locations. I can't for the life of me figure out how to delete Twente from my list of favourites. I have nothing against Twente, but I don't live there and I will probably never go there. Perhaps the best thing to do is let the user decide the default location the first time he runs the application.

Otherwise it's a fantastic little tool.  
(Version 2.5)

VERYCARLA  So contact Tyler and offer to do a better translation.  
(Version 1.33)

VERYCARLA  Buggy? Hardly. Sadly it's no longer free. It's actually MORE expensive than ABFR. What was the author thinking? Search me!  
(Version 7.9.7.1)

VERYCARLA  People still use NetWare?  
(Version 2.0.1)

VERYCARLA  The answer is simple: if Max or XLD can do what you need, then don't buy AudialHub.  
(Version 1.0.1)

VERYCARLA  Is it too early to nominate DL 2.0 for the Vaporware of the Year 2009 award?  
(Version 1.6.6)

VERYCARLA  The short answer is no. The long answer is it makes the bug even worse. Now the finder crashes randomly about 15-20% of the time. Joy!

Hey, Apple...it's called QUALITY ASSURANCE. Invest in some, wouldja please?  
(Version 7.6.2)

VERYCARLA  It's been forgetting the window settings for several revisions now. Mine got stuck with the playlist box expanded. I COMPLETELY purged my system of anything VLC-related and then downloaded a fresh copy of VLC, yet it somehow has the exact same messed up window settings. I don't get it. It worked fine all these years and now suddenly it's impossible to remember window locations?

I'm just glad Perian gives me the ability to playback 99% of the videos I download, because VLC is just too annoying for words lately. It's a last resort for those few times Quicktime+Perian don't work.  
(Version 0.8.6f)

VERYCARLA  I really wish egotistical programmers would stop trying to hype their apps. Inevitably there's some problem with the 1.0 of the app and then the hype turns into backlash.

Flow sure does look nice, but it's not going to replace Yummy FTP for me any time soon. If they can get WebDAV working I'll consider it. Otherwise, forget it. I want apps that WORK, not apps that look flashy.  
(Version 1.0)

VERYCARLA  WebDAV is a nice touch, but it fails to connect to my site. It gets stuck on "Listing". I have no problem accessing the site with Goliath 1.0.1.  
(Version 1.0)

VERYCARLA  Any word if this fixes the CD unmounting bug?  
(Version 7.6.2)

VERYCARLA  One point - iTunes DOES embed artwork. Once you've gotten your artwork from the iTunes Store, select the album you want to modify. Drag the artwork to the desktop. It'll create a clipping.

Then right click on the album tracks (they should all be selected) and choose "Clear Downloaded Artwork".

Next, drag the artwork clipping from the desktop back to the artwork pane. Again, the tracks you want to modify should be selected. iTunes will embed the artwork properly.

You can also download an Applescript to automate the embedding process from Doug Adams. It's called (get this) "Embed Artwork".  
(Version 7.6.2)

VERYCARLA  "Garbage" is a bit strong. Look, if you don't like it, that's fine, but if you've got a specific complaint to make then do so. Don't just badmouth the app without backing it up.

Personally I love Toast. I know of no other burning app for the Mac which isn't dependent on MacOS X's built-in burning software. Further, I know of no other application which is capable of mounting a disc image so the system thinks a real disc has been inserted. I ALSO know of no other app which is capable of creating an audio CD image from FLAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF or WAV file. None of the others can do that.

Toast 9 may have some trouble, but 8 is rock solid. Sure it doesn't have a lot of flashy special effects, but it doesn't NEED them. It actually works. The special effects are only there in those other apps to distract you so you don't find out they're all essentially the same as Apple's Disk Utility. Sure Toast costs more. It DOES MORE.

Garbage? Hardly.  
(Version 9.0.2)

VERYCARLA  Is this game no longer in production? The "Buy" link above takes me to Amazon where I can buy a USED copy for the bargain basement price of $65! I'd rather buy it than pirate it, but pirate I shall if need be.

Does anyone know where I can buy a new copy for a reasonable price?  
(Version 2.0.2)

VERYCARLA  More info might help, yes? Why to HE-AAC files sound distorted in Finder/Quicklook, but OK in iTunes?  
(Version 20080308)

VERYCARLA  Why do the files sound distorted in the Finder/Quicklook but OK in iTunes?  
(Version 20080308)

VERYCARLA  Since moving to the newest beta, scrobbling has been hit-or-miss. Is this CoverSutra or is there a problem with Last.FM?

I have Growl configured to tell me when scrobbling succeeds or fails, and it's giving me no notification when it fails.  
(Version 2.1b2)

VERYCARLA  I see that it doesn't like external libraries. I'm trying to merge two libraries, one on my 60gb internal drive and one on a 400gb external drive while keeping all the metadata (reviews, play counts, etc) intact. Since iTunes stupidly ignores this information, I've decided the easiest method is to use my iPod. And trust me, from what I've been able to tell, this is the easiest option. Senuti works fine if I'm copying from the iPod to the library on my internal drive, but not to the library on the external drive. It copies, but does not update the library at all.

Is this a bug, or is the expected behaviour? If it's a bug, I hope you can fix it. Thanks!  
(Version 0.50.2b3)

VERYCARLA  I'm curious to know - will this app work to merge two iTunes libraries on the same machine, or is it only for keeping libraries on two separate machines synced?  
(Version 0.9.5.270)

VERYCARLA  I know I shouldn't bother responding again to a troll, but...

Once upon a time back in the days when the MacOS had a REAL metadata-based system for keeping track of file types and their creators (called, oddly enough type and creator codes) there was an Application called Quicktime. And its files, movies, had the type code MooV.

Mooooo. Cow. Get it? No? Fine, just go and download a free replacement icon from someone and get on with your life. People are dying in Darfur and you're bitching about an ICON? Get a grip!  
(Version 2.3.4.6)

VERYCARLA  I say why bite the hand that feeds you?

And you just know that if the dev stopped releasing regular updates you'd hear stuff like "Has this project been abandoned?" and "The dev isn't very responsive to bug reports".

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, so just do your own thing, RodneyOK and know that some folks know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. :)  
(Version 2.3.4.6)

VERYCARLA  What's wrong with XLD? It works just fine for me.  
(Version 0.7.1)

VERYCARLA  Well it's an application to help you keep track of your media. It's not the best, but it's the one which gets the most attention. It's 67% style and 33% substance. If all you want is a basic list of what you've got, TextEdit will work a lot better than this, but it won't look as COOL.  
(Version 1.6.6)

VERYCARLA  It seems to launch OK in 10.5.2, but when I try to look at the preferences it crashes. Anyone else see this behaviour?  
(Version 1.1)

VERYCARLA  Nevermind, I found it.  
(Version 2.0)

VERYCARLA  2.0 is very nice, but I'm stuck with Tiger at the moment. Where can we download 1.2?  
(Version 2.0)

VERYCARLA  Can someone please explain why, with 1.0.4, when I pause even one torrent EVERY torrent that's left running drops to zero? They rebound after a few seconds, but it's weird.  
(Version 1.04)

VERYCARLA  Hi there,

I'm not sure what you mean by "sync safe" tags. I enabled the option in Media Rage 3.3.1 but I don't see any extended options.

Thanks for your help!  
(Version 3.3.1)

VERYCARLA  Just a note about Max - nothing against XLD - if you go to the app's site you can download a more recent (but not final) build of the app which I believe does work in Leopard.

I still prefer XLD's simple, clean interface, but it's always good to have options. :)  
(Version 20071121)

VERYCARLA  Bah, nevermind. I re-downloaded the app and found there was a very useful thing called a "help file" which answered my questions.  
(Version 1.1)

VERYCARLA  So I've got a few QII add-ons (Reckoning, Ground Zero and Juggernaut). Does anyone know how to use them with this application, or do I need to boot into Windows to use them? I can't find any information at all on how to use them.  
(Version 1.1)

VERYCARLA  I'll tell you what, Daniel. I'll pay $25 for Black Ink when I can use it to create crosswords. Heck, I might even pay $35. Make the program worth $25. Don't just price it there because you think that makes it sound "professional". There are plenty of people who can afford $25 for a one-trick pony like Black Ink, but I'm not one of 'em.  
(Version 1.0.8)

VERYCARLA  It works great, but if I could have just one additional feature it would be a progress bar to let me know when it's finished copying.  
(Version 0.50.1b6)

VERYCARLA  However it does NOT have any effect on the song tags, which means if you add the tracks to iTunes it will still display the songs correctly, and also rename the files to comply with the tags. I know this because I just copied a bunch of Japanese music with Japanese tags from my iPod. I copied the files to my desktop, where they showed up as garbage characters. Upon importing them into iTunes however they appeared normal and showed up correctly in the iTunes Library folder.  
(Version 0.50.1b6)

VERYCARLA  MacBook and Mac mini owners, do NOT bother with this. Yes, I know it specifies a real video card in the specs, but I had to try it anyway. It runs like a dog on the MacBook and its craptastic Intel GMA950 graphics "accelerator".

Apple, stop cheaping out and give the entry level MacBook a REAL video card!  
(Version 2.3.1.5)

VERYCARLA  Unison is having some major, major issues here. I was using 1.7.9 under Leopard, and it seemed to work okay, but then I upgraded to 1.8 and everything went pear-shaped. I'm losing the connection to the server over and over. Unison locks up constantly, sometimes so badly I have to forcibly power off my MacBook.

And because of other issues I was having with Leopard, I reverted to 10.4.11 and Unison 1.7.9, and if anything the problems have gotten WORSE.

It takes forever to make the initial connection to the news server to get article counts, or to open a newsgroup. Downloads fail inexplicably. If I see another "Read failed" error I'm going to scream.

And most annoying? If a newsgroup has several million articles, at some point (even if the article headers aren't all loaded) Unison will open the group, load the new articles and then flash between "Threading" and showing the articles. Infinitely. I've waited as much as ten minutes for it to stop, but it never does. And I have to force-quit Unison to get out of the app.

I've deleted the newsgroups, the preferences and even the app itself. I've flushed the caches, I think I may even have sacrificed a goat to Cthulhu at some point. Some of this helped, but before long it was messing up again.

This is getting ridiculous! I really like Unison, but until something is done about these major problems, I'm going back to MT NewsWatcher. It may not be pretty, but at least it WORKS.  
(Version 1.8)

VERYCARLA  But since you need to attend to your Mac while DRM Dumpster is doing its thing, you really aren't saving that much time and effort. Unless I'm missing the point here somehow.

Regardless, $30 is far too much for a one-trick pony.  
(Version 2.1.7)

VERYCARLA  This sounds like Wireshark with a nice Mac GUI and a price tag.  
(Version 3.6)

VERYCARLA  It looks like there's a problem with mounting images of audio CDs. Some of them SAY they're mounted, but they don't appear at all in either the system or iTunes. Some others appear to be mounted multiple times.

Any chance of v8.0.2 to fix this?  
(Version 8.0.1)

VERYCARLA  Were you updating from an earlier version of Transmission with a torrent already in progress? If so, there were clear warnings that data loss WOULD occur.  
(Version 0.91)

VERYCARLA  Of course it's a paid upgrade. According to what I've read it's a pretty major update. Whether it's worth the money or not remains to be seen.

All I want to know now is when we'll see it. Shipley said it'd be available with Leopard, so...where is it? I've got Leopard. Where's DL 2.0?  
(Version 1.6.6)

VERYCARLA  Could Transmission be made to ignore BitComet padding files? I don't know why so many people use that POS (haven't they heard of μTorrent!?) but they do. It always generates padding files ...I really don't know why. It's a PITA to have to manually deselect them in the torrent.

thanks! And thanks for a great product! I used to use Azureus, but now I just use Transmission. I think Az probably wins out in terms of sheer features, but Transmission is so much easier on my system resources it's not funny.  
(Version 0.90)

VERYCARLA  I think what he's talking about is a torrent which appears to be legitimate but which when downloaded contains dummy files which are "empty" but which appear to contain data. Like an uncompressed 5gb DMG that isn't actually a DMG file, but a renamed text file full of ones and zeros or a core dump or something like that.

Honestly, I don't know how you'd test for that from the user's end.  
(Version 0.90)

VERYCARLA  Well, considering that Disco relies on the system's burning mechanism to write CDs it's not terribly surprising that there have been no updates.

But don't worry! Leopard is here and Disco is sure to be updated to take advantage of Core Animation to bring you lots of really sweet new visual effects to keep you entertained while it burns your CDs.

Meanwhile, those of us who need to master Redbook audio CDs and generally get things done rather than impress Windows users with Leopard's bling will be using Toast.  
(Version 1.0.2)

VERYCARLA  How is this any different from using iTunes yourself to burn and then import your iTunes Store purchases?  
(Version 2.1.6)

VERYCARLA  DragThing is to the Dock what MacOS X is to Windows. They're similar, it's true, but DT is so much more flexible and versatile (not to mention better-looking) it's in a class by itself.  
(Version 5.9)

VERYCARLA  I haven't upgraded yet, but I'm planning on it soon. I do have a question for the devs:

Do you ever plan to incorporate support for Apple's ID3v2.4 tags? It would be so, so sweet if I could do the sort of batch tagging I need to do to fill in the Sort by... tags without having to resort to a kludgy (and slow) applescript as I do now.

If this support is already present, can you tell me how to access it?

Many thanks!  
(Version 3.2)

VERYCARLA  Interesting. I've been jonesin' for Classic lately. Maybe this will help ease the cravings. :)  
(Version 1.0)

VERYCARLA  Max sure doesn't like dealing with a lot of files being added at once, does it? I've had it crash on my twice when I've added more than 1,000 files (Apple Lossless & FLAC, and no, not all at once) to be converted to MP3. Not only that, but it seems to struggle when I try to add more than one album at a time, spinning up the fans and dragging the whole system down into the mud.

There are some performance issues here which while atypical are nevertheless serious.

The obvious workaround is to simply convert files in smaller batches, and that's what I'm doing, but I hope this issue receives some attention in future releases. Max is an amazingly useful tool and is something I've come to rely on. I want it to be the best, most useful tool it can be, and I expect that I'm not alone in that sentiment. Fixing this will elevate Max.

As I typed this, Max gagged and crashed when I tried to go beyond 1,277 tracks. Because of its extreme slowness, I have to add one album at a time, and it takes a LOOOOONG time to reach that count. *sigh*  
(Version 0.7.1)

VERYCARLA  Dude, I don't know what your problem is or if you've got really lousy ears, but this plugin has literally transformed my listening experience. I listened to a Decemberists song the other day and felt confused. I knew the song inside and out but it sounded different. Why? iWow was bringing out details in the soundscape I'd NEVER noticed before. The music is more vibrant, more vital and more REAL than it ever was before.  
(Version 2.0)

VERYCARLA  I've noticed this as well. I suppose it's just the amount of CPU it needs to do its thang. I can't complain too much. The only time I notice anything is when I try to do a file copy in the system. iTunes gets...sluggish. Of course, copying files usually brings the system to its knees anyway, so it's not terribly surprising.  
(Version 2.0)

VERYCARLA  Let me start by saying I love XLD. It's a great little tool and it gets a lot of use.

There are a few things I could hope for from a future version though. First would be sorting. That is, when I specify an output directory (say, ~/Desktop/Encodes) and then drop a bunch of files on XLD, it would be nice if it could sort them into folders (i.e. Artist - Album). Does this make sense?

The other feature I'd like to see is the ability to override the LAME settings with a custom string. (something like -V 7 --vbr-new)

That, or extend the slider to 320k...

Anyway, it's nothing pressing! Just some suggestions! Thanks for the great (and FREE!) app!   
(Version 20070917)

VERYCARLA  MTR 3 can be had from certain places. I don't think it was meant to be shared, but once the genie's out of the bottle...

Anyway, if you want to rip and convert directly from DVD, may I suggest you check out Handbrake (just search here...you'll find it). It does just that. Visual Hub is meant more as a tool to work with existing video files, from VOBs to MP4s and (almost) everything in between.  
(Version 1.28)

VERYCARLA  Just slightly more expensive than I'd like but still inexpensive (I have a mental block that says anything over $15 for software is a rip-off, so don't mind me!).

I'm using this in conjunction with SRS iWow right now and the difference in sound is insane. Everything sounds SO much better it's like night and day. The original audio sounds dull and muddy by comparison. Apple NEEDS to license and incorporate these technologies into the iPod and iTunes.

I'll be buying a license as soon as I can.  
(Version 1.3.2)

VERYCARLA  IF you don't like it, why not just replace it on your copy? I use Growl all the time but I never see the icon because it's only in the control panels. Is the THOUGHT of the claw so offensive to you that its mere EXISTENCE causes you grief?

Why not just smile, say, "Thanks for the really useful FREE software!" and leave it at that?  
(Version 1.1.1)

VERYCARLA  Hey, at least he didn't say it was "hideous". Some people... You could give people like this the moon and they'd only complain that it was cold. Never a word of thanks.

Well, *I* thank you.  
(Version 1.1.1)

VERYCARLA  You don't like the icon? Check out InterfaceLift, PixelGirl or the Iconfactory and find one that suits you better.

And the icon is not "hideous". Do you even know what the word means? Stow the hyperbole and find something more useful to do with your time than gripe about FREE SOFTWARE.  
(Version 2.2.2)

VERYCARLA  Max is indeed a worthwhile application, but it's different from XLD. XLD, as far as I can tell, exists mostly to transcode existing lossless files into other formats. Max is more of a ripper/encoder.

They're both great, and they're both in my Applications folder (along with xAct, another useful audio conversion tool).  
(Version 20070728)

VERYCARLA  I agree with the last comment - Max should check the local iTunes database first, then go online for information. In almost every case, iTunes

I think the only other changes I would make would be a better tag editor (it rarely passes tags I've changed to iTunes - it's possible I'm doing something wrong, but the tag editor is kinda clunky and could stand to be replaced anyway) and the ability to specify a LAME encoder string instead of fiddling with popups and sliders.  
(Version 0.7.1)

VERYCARLA  Oops. After playing with it for a while I see that it DOES default to saving the archive files in ~/Music. Nevermind! :)  
(Version 1.10)

VERYCARLA  Oh, a couple more things...oh, I really shouldn't inundate you with this stuff BUT...

Another useful feature would be the ability to drag a .cue file along with a corresponding group of FLAC or APE files and burn a CD or create an archive based on the files. Does that make sense? I'm thinking of this as a tool to turn downloaded boots from Dimeadozen into CDs or archive files.  
(Version 1.10)

VERYCARLA  Things I'd like to see (and this is just me talking, you understand):

1. The ability to actually edit the file metadata (tags, that is) IN the app rather than having to do it via iTunes.

2. Being able to specify A graphics file for the cover art and not having to embed the art in every track via iTunes. (Maybe this could use iTunes to get the album art from the iTunes Store? Is that even possible to access from outside iTunes?)

3. When album art is added, the archive's icon should be a thumbnail of the art. This wouldn't be anything special in Tiger, but under Leopard with Coverflow...

4. When an archive is created, it should be named Artist - Album. It should also default to ~/Music rather than ~/Documents.

5. An browser which would be able to burn the album archive files to a DVD in a way similar to iTunes.

This is a VERY interesting approach to archiving music, and it seems to have a lot of potential. I don't know that it's what I need right now for myself, but it certainly could be in the future. I look forward to future versions of CDRevolution!  
(Version 1.10)

VERYCARLA  It would be nice if multi-monitor support were enabled, and it would also be nice if there were an option to save the current desktop, but all in all, it's a really neat little app.  
(Version 1.2)

VERYCARLA  It's fun and challenging (eventually), but I don't think this is worth $20. If it were half that, I'd have registered it straightaway. I don't know why these little puzzler type games are always so expensive. They'd sell a lot more if they were more reasonably priced.  
(Version 1.0)

VERYCARLA  I just ran it on the album, "Octopus" by The Bees. It found three of ten songs, and two of the lyrics it copied were from hardcore gangsta rap songs, and all three lyrics were wrong.

If I might suggest a feature - please give users the option of selecting from a list of potential matches rather than letting the app stop at the first one it comes to.  
(Version 2.4)

VERYCARLA  While I confess I'm no fan of paid upgrades, in Media Rage's case I'd say it's worth it.  
(Version 3.2)

VERYCARLA  I can already do this for free with CarbonCopyCloner and for a lot less than $70 with SuperDuper. Does bruClone do something that these other tools do not?  
(Version 1.1)

VERYCARLA  All this foofaraw and hoopla only benefit MacUpdate. Sure, the people who buy the bundle get a deal, but what about the shareware authors who have to settle for a lot less per license than they'd normally get?

I've bought stuff through MU and MacZot before, but I've never felt quite right about it. I'd rather support the shareware authors directly, even if it means paying a little more.

In the end it doesn't matter to me anyway, because I already own licenses for the apps in the bundle I use, and the rest are ones I don't need or want. So I'll pass this time, thanks just the same. Good luck to everyone else though!  
(Version )

VERYCARLA  Speaking of "venerable", Jedit has been around a long time - going on twelve years now - so it's not the developer's fault there's confusion. Perhaps jEdit's developers should have run a simple Google search before releasing their program to see if the name was already in use.

And free ≠ better.  
(Version 1.40)

VERYCARLA  I'd just like to say that while I've had a FEW crashes resulting from PPP2, they are the exception rather than the rule. It's been stable for me, and I use it every single day, sometimes several times a day.  
(Version 2.0f)

VERYCARLA  :) I just upgraded my MacBook to 2gb of RAM. Let's see how it behaves now!  
(Version 8.0.1)

VERYCARLA  Ah yes, and they make it SO obvious that you can turn off the animations, don't they? What's the point of them in the first place? They're USELESS tat. And turning them off doesn't kill that annoying shrinking/expanding window thing.

Complaining about something isn't whining. Complaining about someone else airing a legitimate grievance is whining.  
(Version 8.0.1)

VERYCARLA  Yeah, I turned that off as soon as I discovered I could (and what an asinine, useless feature!) and it made a difference. But the window animation (the shrinking/expanding window trick) is very sluggish on my system and stutters badly after a few discs. I'd be happier if they went with a 100% cocoa approach and used proper OS X UI elements like sheets and so on for EVERYTHING.  
(Version 8.0.1)

VERYCARLA  Works well, but don't use it with anything else running. It's a MAJOR CPU/RAM hog. With just a handful of apps running, doing anything with toast brings my MacBook (1.83ghz Core Duo, 1gb RAM) to its knees.

My guess is there's a memory leak somewhere because the slowdown is progressive. The longer Toast is open and the more I do with it, the worse the overall system performance becomes until it's all but unusable (thirty to forty-five seconds between the time I tell it to do something and any kind of response from the system).

I use Toast because it clobbers the competition (Disco can't hold a candle to it, special effects or not). I just wish it didn't clobber my system.  
(Version 8.0.1)

VERYCARLA  Ah, so the crashiness isn't just me then. Good to know. I thought at first it just didn't like MKV files (God knows I don't like 'em much, so I couldn't blame it!) but then it started doing it with regular DivX and Xvid files too. I think it's something to do with MacOS 10.4.9, because prior to the .9 update, VLC worked flawlessly.

I think I will send the devs the crash reports. Thanks for the suggestion!  
(Version 0.8.6a)

VERYCARLA  iTunes 2.0? WTF are you talking about? and "Local v/remote never felt so deprecated"?

I can't for the life of me fathom the meaning of your words. I know each one individually, but together they make no sense.

iTunes has little to fear from Songbird at this point in time. I wish it did, because iTunes is getting a little too bloated for my liking (though in Apple's favour each new version brings new and useful features, such as 7.1.x's sort tags).  
(Version 0.2.5)

VERYCARLA  Nope. Francs. It was weird.  
(Version 1.6.4)

VERYCARLA  Crashes "constantly"? How exactly does it crash? The driver works perfectly well for me. Perhaps there's another fault in your system.

And removing the Application Enhancer stuff is painless (as I described in the previous post) and doesn't affect the software in the least bit.  
(Version 2.1.3)

VERYCARLA  It's pretty basic. Run it once and it makes ALL invisible files show up everywhere in your system. Run it again to hide them. Useful if you've got a pesky, otherwise undeletable hidden file or folder with a garbage character in its name.

This is the best kind of app: lean, mean and to the point.  
(Version 1.2r1)

VERYCARLA  As someone else noted, this version of the LCC DOES install Unsanity's Application Enhancer framework. However, it can be removed without any apparent ill effect.

There are three items to be removed:

The following directory:

/Library/Application Enhancers

The following items:

/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationEnhancer.framework

/System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle

Bear in mind that the Library referenced above is not the one in your home folder. Both /Library and /System are at the root level of your hard drive. And please don't remove anything else from /System/Library/SystemConfiguration.

Remove these items and reboot. Please note you may be asked to authenticate your actions. You are deleting non-critical items so it's perfectly safe to do this.  
(Version 2.1.3)

VERYCARLA  I've used growl for well over a year and have not experienced slowdowns as a result. Do you have any Unsanity software installed? That would be a more likely culprit in my admittedly limited experience.

Also, what kind of Macs are you using? If you've got older Macs (anything running a G3 or a sub-1ghz G4) that might be the problem. In that case, you're right to uninstall. Growl is neat, but not really NECESSARY. :)  
(Version 0.7.6)

VERYCARLA  If you think you can do better, go for it.

And FYI, there IS a UB version available via the Quinn forum. It's a few revisions behind, but it's UB, for whatever good that does you. It'll launch slightly faster, I guess.

If you REALLY want a universal version of Quinn, why don't you do the developer a favour and buy him a MacBook? He says very plainly that he doesn't have an Intel Mac to work on, and that's why there's no official universal version. Either buy him a MacBook or shut up.

Oh, and dude? The game is FREE. Complaining about free software is like being given a free pizza and then whining about the toppings. It's just lame.  
(Version 3.4.4)

VERYCARLA  So here's a little app which says what it does, and does what it says. Feed it a stack of file segments and it'll concatenate them and reconstruct the original file, whatever it was.

It's fast, it's simple, and it's free. What more could a user ask?  
(Version 2.1.6)

VERYCARLA  Ah, but the $25 for the Flickr account is a recurring cost. Ten years down the line you'll have spent $250 on Flickr. The cost of FlickrExport is a one-time cost (unless the developer starts charging for major upgrades, though I confess I don't see anything about that on their site).

IMO, $22 is an acceptable cost for a program which makes it easy to upload photos to Flickr.

May I suggest you look at jUploadr? It's free (open source) and while it's still PPC-only, it does the trick. It doesn't seem to integrate with iPhoto, which is why I like FlickrExport, but it works and seems like decent software.  
(Version 2.0.5)

VERYCARLA  Will F4M be updated to include support for the new hi-res WMV format anytime soon?  
(Version 2.1)

VERYCARLA  Nice, thanks!  
(Version 1.58)

VERYCARLA  Delicious Library reminds me a lot of the most recent Star Wars movies. Style over substance. I got DL when it was on sale a few months ago, and I'm deliriously happy I didn't pay full price.

The iSight barcode scanner works poorly (when it works at all). The UI is clumsy and unintuitive. Also annoying is the application's desire to show the value of books and CDs in currencies OTHER than US dollars. Yeah, knowing that my copy of ABBA's Waterloo value in francs is kinda neat, but it's not exactly helpful to me here in California. The idea of showing the value is of dubious utility anyway. It's tied to the current Amazon used pricing, which is not the best indicator of an item's current value.

But most annoying to me is the fact that it stores track information without any real structure. It doesn't provide any kind of detail, either. I can't enter composer information. Track length is ignored as well. So all the information you get is whatever Amazon has on hand, and that's usually precious little.

I guess I'm looking for an application that works like iTunes, with detailled information about each track or book or DVD.

But Delicious Library sure does LOOK nice.

I'm sure I'll get lots of Delicious Library fanboys ganging up on me to flame me, but this is MY opinion and I've got to be honest. If you like it, great. I wouldn't tell anyone to stay away from DL. It works well enough if you can be satisfied with something this limited. I'm just more demanding.  
(Version 1.6.4)

VERYCARLA  While I agree that subtitle support is essential for Visual Hub, if you're after the higher resolution iPod videos, Handbrake can give you what you need.

In HB, select AV/H.264 Video/AAC Audio in the "destination" section and then under "video" choose x264 (Baseline profile).

Hope that helps!  
(Version 1.1.6)

VERYCARLA  Sounds to me like you're volunteering to create a new UI for him, since you seem to know so much about it.

You REALLY need to lighten up. Only an ungrateful JERK complains about something he's getting for FREE.  
(Version 0.4.2)

VERYCARLA  Oh, yes, heaven forbid Tyler uses iSquint as a promotional vehicle for Visual Hub. I mean, who does he think he is, CHARGING for the software he worked so hard to create?

Visual Hub is an amazingly powerful tool. If you don't need it, fine. Just use iSquint. If you don't like the way he uses it to promote Visual Hub, then don't use it. Only idiots complain about a free lunch.  
(Version 1.5)

VERYCARLA  I'll add my voice to the chorus of folks looking for 3.0. Heck, I'd be happy with a UB version of 2.6.6.  
(Version 2.6.6)

VERYCARLA  So let's see...you've got a mature and stable emulation core with a high degree of compatibility. The only thing missing is the price tag.

Richard, if you're listening (and I know you have a Real Life and a Real Job, so you probably aren't BUT) I'd pay for software of this quality.  
(Version 2.0.3)

VERYCARLA  Slightly overpriced, but not so much so as to be outrageous. Worth the money just for the added graphics modes alone.  
(Version 2.1)

VERYCARLA  Maybe if you took five minutes to read the author's page about Boycott Advance you'd know: "There are no plans to spend any more effort on compatibility until the Gameboy Advance is no longer on commercial sale."

In other words, if you want it to play like "the real thing" then BUY THE REAL THING.  
(Version 0.3.8)

VERYCARLA  WOW. You get FREE software that costs you NOTHING because it's FREE and all you can do is complain that it's not 100% to your liking?

Grow up, little boy.  
(Version 2.0.3)