HANK2  Anyone know if it's possible to export from Web Confidential to this application?

"Web Confidential for Palm OS is not available anymore and support has stopped." -- their Support reply after it corrupted and died on my Palm PDA and can't be fixed, apparently. Hosed.

I sure don't want to retype all this data.  
(Version 4.3.5)

HANK2  Although it's still for sale on the website, I just got email from the Support link (palm@web-confidential.com):

"Web Confidential for Palm OS is not available anymore and support has stopped."

This was the response when I asked for help when the database had become corrupted in sync between my Palm OS PDA and my Intel mac.

Hosed the entire Web Confidential file, all gone.

Anyone have an alternative to suggest that will work with both Mac OSX 4.11 and higher AND with Palm OS?

And if possible a way to transfer several hundred records without retyping?  
(Version 3.8)

HANK2  I paid for it and use it, Pismo (900mhz) and more recently Mini Intel.

Still, what I wish for needs either a smarter user (-: or better workflow with the software.

Wish:

Find all the files that are dupes.

Then note which folders they're in.

Then show me all the _folders_ that contain one or more identical files.

Show the folders that are identical content.

Let me shuffle files until I have eliminated the dupes and left all the files in the one folder I want to keep.

Now, I just end up with lots of folders that are almost the same, one file may be duplicated.

Yes, if I'd done backups in a more organized way since the first CP/M 8" floppy machine I started with, I wouldn't need this. Who knew?  
(Version 1.4.2)

HANK2  Defunct???? Uh, oh. Softchaos website isn't available. I just started getting popups yesterday saying I had another copy of Workstrip running on my network, so my Workstrip was having some of its functionality disabled. I'm not on a network. I have only one copy of the app. Anyone have a clue what's going on with Workstrip?  
(Version 3.2.3)

HANK2  I did take the upgrade and continue to be happy with it; I still want a much simpler interface

(like, a list of all the characters found in a document in one column, and next to it, all the guesses the programmer's made for substitution;

let me tick off what to replace with, or type in if there's no good guess, then run it.

Or, go to the first unrecognized character, give me the list of possible corrections or a place for one, let me add context to make it more specific, and run it on all, then go to the next ....

It's still maddeningly hard to clean up text and leave an editable file; reading mostly on a PDA, I find it hard still to get an output file, even after the automatic cleanup, I don't know any way to output directly to a Palm readable file that can still be edited.

Instead I use say PorDiBle, going from Mac text to Palm document file. But it's no more helpful about quickly cleaning up problems, it just says "something" is unrecognized.

Tiresome. Go find it (sigh), try again (sigh).

I had an old, old Mac or DOS app that did text conversions nicely long ago.  
(Version 5.5.1)

HANK2  Who updated it, and is it updated for OSX as well?

I was supposed to get email from Adaptec if they ever supported their external PC-card adapter, and just stumbled over this very old ambiguous posting.

Anyone know if it finally works?  
(Version 1.2)

HANK2  This is an important point that should be put high up in the discussion -- if I'd known Hugin was available for noncommercial use, I would have used it at least for a while before considering purchasing PT. I didn't know about Hugin; I did purchase PT long ago.

I don't do any commercial work, I thought PT was awfully expensive for what I needed.

With a 900mhz G3 Pismo, it hasn't been easy enough or quick enough to get much use out of yet. I'm still hopeful.

I'll try Hugin as well. I'm documenting 40 acres of restoration done on a forest fire site in my copious spare time -- everyone needs a hobby, this turned into a 200 year project.

I've got an awful lot of pictures to deal with.  
(Version 4.1b8)

HANK2  Let's sum this up.

"Axe" wrote, posted, and emailed Ed Hamrick repeatedly complaining that he was not getting an answer to his question "Will you ever support Microtek Scanmaker 3800?"

Ed makes clear he doesn't answer in email questions answered in the FAQ.

The FAQ says: Unsupported

The FAQ says: because Microtek doesn't document the interface.

Axe, your complaint is with Microtek. Most scanner makers give Ed Hamrick documentation. Talk to Microtek.  
(Version 8.3.30)

HANK2  I put this search into Google:

+microtek +scanmaker +Vuescan

It showed me your questions here and also showed me the FAQ file at the Vuescan web page where they are answered:

Quoting from the FAQ file:

http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/vuescan.htm#unsupported

BEGIN QUOTE:

Unsupported

* All parallel-port models

* All drum scanners

* All UMAX USB models except 3400 (some versions), 5400 and PowerLook 180

* All Microtek USB models except X6USB, X12USL, 4700, 5600, 5700, 6800, 8700, FilmScan

* Canon FS2720

* Agfa SnapScan Touch

* All Lexmark, Artec, Mustek, Primax, Brother, Visioneer models

Please note that these scanners are unsupported for several reasons:

* Parallel port scanners are unsupported because the commands they use are undocumented by the vendors, are extremely complex and are difficult to reverse engineer.

* The other scanners aren't supported because the vendor won't document the commands they use, and these commands are too complex to reverse-engineer.

END quote from the FAQ file.  
(Version 8.3.30)

HANK2  Check the newsgroup.  
(Version 8.3.30)

HANK2  I've used VueScan for years. The information on how to obtain support is at the VueScan web page. The developer does not read these review sites like MacUpdate.

Most of the support is on the Usenet scanners newsgroup, which you know how to get to after reading the Vuescan web page.

Complaining here is about as useful as complaining at your local coffee bar, I think -- the developer isn't here, neither are the experienced users who can help you.

I hope that you are familiar with the bsic how-to advice, if not go here first:

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

Copyright © 2001,2006 Eric S. Raymond, Rick Moen ... Finally, I'm going to illustrate how to ask questions in a smart way by example; pairs of questions ...

www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html   
(Version 8.3.30)

HANK  I paid for this a while back, but quit using it when I read about its "remnants" and its security problem under OSX 10.3.

I see there's an update for OSX 10.4 that solves the problem, but is it safe to use under 10.3.9?

There are many comments but most seem to be back and forth argument, need a balanced summary if anyone's got one.  
(Version 3.6.5)

HANK  Workflow is a wonderful idea.

I'd love to see it.

Your linked page appears to require enabling both JavaScript and Flash.

Is there a workflow document -- ordinary text and if needed images -- that I can look at without enabling JavaScript and Flash?

I'll see if I can download something but not sure why the high barrier to viewing the workflow.  
(Version 3.1 v60)

HANK  OK, I found v3.1 on a backup, and it still works fine. Maybe it's a problem with having a G3, or having OSX 10.3.9. I found an old email for the developers I'll try.  
(Version 3.2)

HANK  Current 3.2 started crashing today.

I can't find any contact info for the developer (maybe it's in the 'About' box but the app won't open! a new icon for it flickers in the dock then disappears)

**********

Host Name: Hank.local

Date/Time: 2005-10-21 15:24:40 -0700

OS Version: 10.3.9 (Build 7W98)

Report Version: 2

Command: PorDiBle

Path: /Users/hank/Applications/PorDiBle 3.2/PorDiBle.app/Contents/MacOS/PorDiBle

Version: ??? (???)

PID: 589

Thread: Unknown

Link (dyld) error:

dyld: /Users/hank/Applications/PorDiBle 3.2/PorDiBle.app/Contents/MacOS/PorDiBle can't open library: /System/Library/Frameworks/QuartzCore.framework/Versions/A/QuartzCore (No such file or directory, errno = 2)

**********

Please post contact info for the developer if someone has it.

It's an indispensable app for me -- if anyone has a link to the previous version, please post too.  
(Version 3.2)

HANK  Argh! I love the app and use it daily but -- please, please -- I want the inverse of "ignore errors" -- it's not annoying, it's just ineptly helpful. Let it be more helpful, not ignored.

I want a list of what characters generate errors, so I can do back into the source doc and replace them!

Please, give us something that helps us identify what the problem characters are!

-- flags the unrecognized characters in a file?

-- lists them in a popup?

-- ideally, give us a column listing each unrecognized character and let us type in next to it a substitute and choose to make that permanent (and email it to you so you can build it into the next release)

Finding the danged problem characters is tedious. TextSoap doesn't do this either. You all should talk, either of you might implement this.

The only darned reason I wish I owned Microsoft Word is to be able to use its not-too-bad implementation of grep to find all non-ASCII characters for example.  
(Version 3.2)

HANK  I never tied removing my CPU director, but my OS 9 has always hung (error 10) when I try to quit it.

That's booting directly into OS9, not 'Classic' -- it's been impossible since OSX 10.2.something came out.

900 mhz G3 in a Pismo.

I'll try removing the CPU Director app, maybe there is hope.

PowerLogix responded to email once and said they knew this was a hardware problem but that it should go away with a reformat and reinstall -- it did not. They did.

Any further hints or tips welcome.  
(Version 2.1b1)

HANK  It's been working fine for me through several versions and for several years; currently on a Pismo G3 with OSX 10.3.9.

I always

-- start with a text file

-- right-click, choose to Open With

-- choose PorDiBle

-- remember to name the destination file

It works. Preferences include where to save the output, something to do with drag'n'drop and whether to delete the original.

Try it again. Remember to do the regular OSX utilities often, if things aren't launching.  
(Version 3.1)

HANK  1) Right click (or command-click)

2) Save As ....

If you double click, since it's a .gz file, some browsers will show you the code in an open window rather than recognizing it as a downloadable file.

I've been using the betas all along. Image quality with my Unibrain Fire-i cameras is much better with the IOXperts driver than with the stock Apple driver.  
(Version 1.1)

HANK  I've been trying to figure out why OS 9.1 has problems on my 900mhz G3 in a Pismo -- I am not quite clear what you are saying here but maybe this is similar?

With the 900 mhz chip -- at any clock speed -- I can't successfully run OS 9.2.2 (not Classic, which does work). I can boot into 9.2.2 (option key held down while USB cables all unplugged tosee the choice). As soon as it boots I see a Finder Has Quit error message. IF I ignore that everything works OK until I try to shut down, which hangs the computer with an Error 10 code.

Sometimes I do need OS 9.

Are you saying it might work if I install basic OS 9.0, although not 9.2.2?

PowerLogix support told me it was a software problem -- this after I did a complete reformat of the drive and installed OS 9 without any additional software and got the same result. Then they quit replying to my email.  
(Version 2.0b1)

HANK  I gather if "lite" finds nothing, there's nothing -- right?

Ge Pismo, with 900 mhz aftermarket CPU.

Nothing found to report.  
(Version 1.5)

HANK  I'm curious -- I came across this while looking for actual mapping tools I could use to take

-- an aerial photo of 40 acres

-- a topo map of the same

(Both those are downloaded from the images zoomed in close at www.terraserverusa.com -- so they register correctly; I was able to make the "white" part of the topo map transparent, leaving only the contour lines, and drop that over the aerial photo (done both with GraphicConverter on the Mac and PhotoEdit on Windows, same result).

I now need to lay an 11x11 grid on top of this image -- laid out by a surveyor, and I have it as a plotter printout and scans, and can register three of the four corners of that to points on the topo and photo (courtesy of the Coastal and Geodetic Survey).

What I want to do after that is attach a sketch map (already done, but being revised year after year as plant cover, fire, and erosion change the site), along with notes and photos to each of those grid squares.

Right now, the grid sketches and notes -- all 11x11=121 of them -- are on paper, and the site's steep, remote, and complicated.

I've put each of those 121 squares, topo map and sketches done by the botanical survey, into Sony Clie form -- on Memory Sticks, because I can revise those in the Sony Clie using MobiPaint (sketch on top of the image to show changes) then export back to the Mac.

I'd like to be able to make new layers out of these, over time.

And yes, I know it sounds like ArcInfo GIS, a few thousand dollars, a Windows box, and a staff -- but this on my own in my spare time.

It moves a lot slower than a RPG -- it's a 200 year project -- but it's at least as complicated. There are invaders (problem plants, drunks on 4-wheel-drive ATVs trespassing and tearing up the work) and natives (bear, deer, 300 plus species of plants) and major events (two forest fires since 1987, some slow landslides, some amazingly fast erosion) and minor ones (the Monarch butterflies come through, and lay eggs on the milkweed and hatch out and the next generation continues on the migration) and situations (the couple of patches where it's safe to land a hang glider or paraglider if someone needs to) ....

So -- given that this has a large manual and takes a lot of work to understand -- would anyone opine whether it might be useful for me?  
(Version 4.3.2)

HANK  Well, I'm still looking --

I'm going to try this one out; the feature set looks extensive. If it can do something the others can't -- and given that the authors read their reviews and comment here, which is excellent -- I'll figure it's worth the money.

Now I'm a fossil, mid-50s, can afford it, and figure part of supporting shareware is supporting the people who use, comment, suggest, criticize, try to be helpful and never pay -- as well as supporting the software writers. Not everyone has money or software-writing competence.

There's significant value to non-paying users who are good beta testers (or willing crash dummies like I am -- follow instructions carefully, and report what breaks, without being helpful at the code level).

I've registered and use DupFinder (1.3.1), DoubletScan (10.2.3), DuplicateCatcher, and FileBuddy. That's over quite a few years, usually early in the shareware author's career, partly to encourage, partly because I found a need for something the app could do, and partly because, well, hell, I try to support the idea, because I remember when there wasn't any shareware. I registered PC-Talk. I think ...

http://paulspicks.com/history.asp  
(Version 2.10)

HANK  Thank goodness, someone at Mozillazine just mentioned this -- I had no idea it existed, and it's EXACTLY what's needed with Firefox under OSX  
(Version 2.1)

HANK  Links appear dead and app isn't found.  
(Version 2.1)

HANK  Take two firewire cameras.

Put them as far apart as your eyes are separated and point them in the same direction.

Plug them in.

Open EvoCam.

/File/New Window

You'll see one of your cameras.

under Items tab INSIDE the EvoCam window, use the little 'compass rose' circle to rotate the image until it is in portrait rather than landscape.

Back at the Mac menu bar,

/Options/Canvas Size set a custom canvas, in mine it needs to be a bit more than 320 high by a bit more than 480 wide so I can drag two windows each 320 x 240 a bit to align them so they overlap when I look at them in 'stereo' mode. I can parallel view a pair of images side by side; if you can't do that get a cheap stereo viewer or take two simple magnifying lenses and mount them in a piece of cardboard -- that just makes it easier for your eyes to line up the two images so they overlap.

Drag your first EvoCam window to left or right side (depending on which camera it picked up).

Create a second EvoCam window and use the video options to choose your other camera.

(Left camera for left eye, right camera for right eye, if it's close they angle slightly inward as do your eyes when looking at the tip of your nose).

Now having said that -- I've never gotten as good results again as I did over a year ago when I first did this, with an OSX 2.something. Apple keeps breaking something with each improvement, the image quality has gotten worse, the IOXperts drivers no longer work (they're trying, but they're chasing Apple's changes), and Apple's own drivers seem to be much worse -- I get less clear and worse color imagery now than I did, not worth using.

But this could be the UniBrain Fire-i cameras -- they're cheap, the color match isn't exact between the two and they don't seem to focus crisply.

Also Apple doesn't give access to the settings easily -- you'll see more in Ben Bird's 'Videoscope' than you can set and keep set with EvoCam or with Ben Bird's own camera software.

So this is still frustrating but promising.

The latest EvoCam release shows the same June date for me as the one I already had, but isn't behaving well -- it's confusing the two feeds so when I change the settings for camera 1, the images for both cameras change.

So, duh, I dunno.   
(Version 3.5pr1)

HANK  I also had some experience testing the [cannot mention what, because of NDA] -- since you are going to be brave and use the first release of v7.5, if you find any problems at all, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE say so.

No, really, you first. I'll watch.  
(Version 7.5)

HANK  I love EvoCam -- I put two small stereo movie samples made with it, each under 1 meg, at

www dot ankh dot members dot sonic dot net

(if you can view a stereo pair you ought to be able to see these stereo movies on the screen the same way).

EvoCam, two UniBrain Fire-i firewire cameras, Powerbook Pismo G3/400 -- deadly slow firewire bus, but gotta start somewhere! Proof of concept.

Wish list

-- to have an added option for EvoCam to make pairs of files, so I could use the Java Stereo Applet viewer (which allows the viewer a wide choice of ways to view any given pair). (Wish list for the Applet author is, a way to display pairs fast enough to view as a movie!)

-- to be able to keep a pair of firewire cameras synchronized while both feeds go into an EvoCam canvas (is there a clock tick or something available)? Otherwise after a few minutes, stereo fails due to synchronization loss).

Love the app. Nothing else does this -- and stereo movies are cheap and easy to do with it!  
(Version 3.4)

HANK  Yes, Adaptec is providing a _beta_ for OSX version 10.0, as in "ten point nothing" also referred to as "no point at all" and "why bother."

The SlimSCSI can be bought for five or ten dollars now on eBay, they're from the era before the dinosaur. They never did work, and Adaptec doesn't care.

I bought mine when I bought my Pismo, on Apple dealer's advice, and it didn't work reliably then (one of the backup companies had it listed as a known corrupter of files, unreliable, shortly thereafter, along with other Adaptec products) and as far as I know, it's still that bad.

I am, however, on Adaptec's "Notify Me" list -- under several different email addresses -- so I am, of course, sure they will let me know when they get it working.

Seems they were having some problem that still has to be fixed -- most likely complete abandonment by management, eh?  
(Version 1.0b1)

HANK  This app MIGHT -- I'm not sure -- be a fix for a problem with OSX 10.3 changing the way Toast handles files.--?--

Author/someone who knows, please comment? I'm still using Toast 5, and this app isn't supporting it formally, so my review may not be appropriate.

A fairly long and complex workaround for the problem, which I just tripped over and started trying to solve, has been posted by a Roxio moderator recently at their Forum -- see:

http://boards.support.roxio.com/roxio/board/message?board.id=00005150&message.id=17042  
(Version 2.0)

HANK  Server's very busy; I've been trying to download Grass since it was announced; I've gotten apparently complete files several times (thanks to iCab's 'resume' feature) -- but never a recognized filesystem that can be mounted, yet.

Anyone know of a USA mirror?  
(Version 040306)

HANK  It's up to version 2.7 as of 2004-01-07  
(Version 2.6.12)

HANK  Has Ed recommended a scanner lately? I bought a Canon a couple of years ago when he had commented that he could do most anything with that hardware that he needed.

It was fine til someone set too heavy a weight on it, now it doesn't scan evenly.

New hardware time -- but what's a good flatbed nowadays with VueScan (Mac OSX)?  
(Version 7.6.65)

HANK  I just don't know any more.

The biggest argument against Mac OS is beginning to be the number and cumulative cost of the third party programs said necessary to clean up after the OS's normal failures -- fonts, preferences, disk errors ....   
(Version 5.5.1)

HANK  Yup. Bought nine months ago, mainly because I am still using the MORE outliner and hoped Radio would work out as well; haven't been able to use it yet. And once I quit trying, the Pismo seemed more stable. Though I can say that equally well of a LOT of applications (sigh).

It's probably OSX that's the problem; I admit I continue hovering and checking in, waiting for the month when I will have seen a string of happy users of OSX and Radio showing up with interesting pages.

Movable Type, eh? Guess I'll go try that one. But I bet they don't promise an outliner that works like More.....  
(Version 8.0.9b2)