MECHAMANIA  Here's a news flash, monkey: opinions are biased by definition.  
(Version 3.5.5)

MECHAMANIA  I hadn't realized it was rhetorical. I just thought it was a stupid question. Nothing personal. The vagaries of plain text posts... and you get a lot of stupid questions around these parts. I always say, "there are no stupid questions," but what I really mean is that I'll try to answer any question that isn't in some way out-of-line, no natter how banal. Yet, I'm here grabbing another copy of MTR. Still has it's uses for my older discs that I wanna preserve using my newer computer. I'll have to check out that RipIt deal. Thanks, and sorry for the confusion.  
(Version 2.6.6)

MECHAMANIA  Because people are downloading it more than other apps this week.  
(Version 2.6.6)

MECHAMANIA  Did you try DVD Player on your Mac to see if it's the PS3?  
(Version 2.2u)

MECHAMANIA  The icon is nice.  
(Version 1.1)

MECHAMANIA  Yeah, and Disk Utility I almost exclusively use for repairing permissions "quickly," as in, I don't have to enter a password, go through the drive scans (which I know I can opt out of, but it still takes a couple extra steps).

But I know why he gives it away for free: he knows the world needs more altruists.

Thanks, Joel. Your efforts, are GREATLY appreciated.  
(Version 1.9.8)

MECHAMANIA  Great little app. Very quick, and does what it says.

The one thing I would like to see that doesn't seem to be there yet is window scrolling with the mouse wheel.  
(Version 1.2.5)

MECHAMANIA  The hate is likely from all the horrible service over the years when AOL was basically the only game in town. It was nearly impossible to cancel subscriptions for many people for a long while (among other things), and people came to hate AOL.

AOL brought it on themselves, and while it's "nice" that they are developing this for free, etc., it's more because they have to--in order to salvage what remains of their brand--as opposed to doing so because they want to. They'd still be sticking it to everyone if they could, but they can't.

So why would anyone want to make constructive criticisms and give them free help? Screw 'em.

AOL knows right now that the very mention of their brand causes disgust among so many -- so much so that they are looking to re-brand as AIM, which is their most popular product.  
(Version 1.5b1)

MECHAMANIA  Sorry, I'm an idiot today. I looked through all sorts of directories before I closed all open windows and saw the "Star Wars Battlefront Default Levels" on the desktop.

Time for a drink and some relaxation with the new maps. Thanks!  
(Version 0.3.2)

MECHAMANIA  To where are the backups of the default maps saved?

Backing them up takes a lot of space...

Thanks.  
(Version 0.3.2)

MECHAMANIA  What do you mean, a "screwjob?"

It's got HD-DVD support! You can't beat that.

I'm hoping by the end of the week that they'll come out with a version 10 that supports BetaMax videotapes.

My firewire BetaMax VCR has been gathering dust forever!

(BTW, it doesn't say anything about the HD-DVD support on Roxio's Toast 9 site, just in the 9.0.1 "What's New" section they put out for this page. Darn it -- it seemed like such a great idea.)  
(Version 9)

MECHAMANIA  Shhhhhh!

That porn stuff is supposed to be confidential. That's the whole point. C'mon, man, don't ruin it for everybody...  
(Version 1.0)

MECHAMANIA  Wow! February 2008 and it still isn't a universal binary. For the $1500--yes, I said FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLAR--single-user license fee, one would think SAS could do a little more on the development end, especially since there's been two new versions (6 & 7) that have come out since version 5 (the one still mentioned in the description as of this writing) in 2002 -- again without a UB upgrade.

JMP is also very, very weak in comparison to SPSS -- which as a lot more sophisticated operations, comes in at $1700, and has been UB for a while now.

Perhaps most importantly, very few people use JMP, which makes porting files around almost impossible. SPSS, on the other hand, is almost ubiquitous.

If you're thinking about this software, I suggest you stop -- unless you really, really like expensive toys you can only play with by yourself. Don't get caught up with a bunch of proprietary files that very few others can read and which you won't be able to read unless you keep upgrading (which is also incredibly expensive).  
(Version 7.0.2)

MECHAMANIA  It's an oldie, but still a goodie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes  
(Version 1.0b2)

MECHAMANIA  The internet is not something that you just dump something on -- it's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes... tangled-up tubes.  
(Version 1.0b2)

MECHAMANIA  No, it won't be version 11; it'll be version 7.4.16.  
(Version 7.4.2)

MECHAMANIA  If you don't think the more frequent updates are necessary, why don't you just search for it once a month to see if an update has been developed.

But, "a pain," please. Given all this developer has done with this program for the Mac community, you should apologize for that ridiculous comment. You know?  
(Version 1.8.3b1)

MECHAMANIA  It kills Toast 7, too.

I love this software, but I'll have to go back to .5 until this is sorted out. The new features aren't worth ditching Toast.

Luckily, I archived .5 (perhaps ironically, using Toast), but the developer might seriously consider posting .5 to the site, in the meantime, for those who didn't...  
(Version 1.0)

MECHAMANIA  My Sandisk Cruzer 512MB USB 2 thumb drive now hard crashes the system when I plug it in, but I just found the drive lying on the street the other day. I hadn't really used it much or gotten used to having it; so I really don't care. I did 7-times overwrite it and repair it several times under 10.4.9 before I'd used it on that, and it had worked fine.

MBP 2.16, 1Gig RAM, Summer '06 model  
(Version 10.4.10)

MECHAMANIA  I can't decide whether this or VLC is the: Best. Freeware. Ever.

"Reasons?" I dunno. It's either that I'm not sure which I use more or which I absolutely can't live without (or both).

Either way, I hope Apple is showering the developers with gifts.

(Macintosh, Macintosh Plus, Color Classic (2), Quadra 660 A/V, PowerBook 2400c, iMac AV (Grape), Dual-G4 500MHz Power Mac, G4 15" PowerBook (Titanium and Aluminum), MacBook (Black; 1.83 GHz), PowerBook Pro 2.16 GHz)  
(Version 1.8b2)

MECHAMANIA  Kudos!  
(Version 1.0)

MECHAMANIA  They still support it because they still sell it.  
(Version 1.11b)

MECHAMANIA  I think you're right. More evidence that the 10.4.9 release date may not be as sure as sources might have us believe.  
(Version 2007-002)

MECHAMANIA  Good point, but notice there's also a 10.3 version available. If Apple were to have put out just the 10.3 version, people would also be wondering why.

And/or maybe 10.4.9 doesn't have a sure enough release date. Perhaps they thought it "critical" enough to release now, in case the vulnerabilities were exploited in the meantime.  
(Version 2007-002)

MECHAMANIA  Perhaps Bush should introduce a "no terminal left behind" tax break that will make 802.11n capability affordable for everyone.

Oh, right, that wouldn't make any sense, either.  
(Version 1.0)

MECHAMANIA  "Even so, I can’t wait til Office 2008 comes out later this year...."

Agreed, but only because it's Intel -- or if all the extras/"advanced features" are turned off in the preferences upon installation. I hate having to sift through all the garbage to turn off all the counterproductive bells and whistles when I upgrade computers.  
(Version 11.3.3)

MECHAMANIA  Getting really tired of Roxio employees posting the company line:

"Software of the decade." Please.

More generally:

OSX

iTunes

Second Life

iChat

Keynote

Google Earth

Gnutella (et al.)

BitTorrent

More specifically (special interest):

Onyx

Flash

Diablo II

VLC

iMovie

These all debuted this decade. If you wanna talk upgrades through that time:

Stuffit

Java

Flash

Creatve Suite

Acrobat

etc.

If I were on a desert island... I might exchange for Keynote in order to back up my files easily.

Don't get me wrong. I love Toast, but this is a $25 to $30 update, at best.

Toast 7 is a better candidate.  
(Version 8.0)

MECHAMANIA  Yup, I know 7 is universal. That, along with Fit-to-DVD compression, made 7 pretty well worth it.

The universal part of my post was in response to this:

"I'm still happily using Toast 6. The only incentive I have to upgrade is so that I can have an Intel version for my MacBook, but even that's not a big issue."

Just putting in my two cents that I think it can make a big difference.  
(Version 8.0)

MECHAMANIA  The Intel update is worth half-an-update by itself (encoding times are far more than twice as fast as Rosetta, just eyeballing it), but...

"looks and works very slick"

You just head that? What, from a press release?

Thanks to the poster that tipped us off to the fact that we don't **have to** buy it/pay anything, but this is worth half-a-half-an-update at the price for loyal users.

Thanks (sincerely) also to those who posted the $60 links. Getting closer...  
(Version 8.0)

MECHAMANIA  "TiVoToGo" and Blu-ray support. Yeah, that's worth a $70 upgrade...

Now I can look forward to continuous emails of the same special offer in my mailbox over the next five months.  
(Version 8.0)

MECHAMANIA  Somehow, the negative rating seems to have done the trick in getting the developer to respond...  
(Version 3.4.4)

MECHAMANIA  I couldn't agree more. Letting the developer know you think their software costs far too much, especially given that there are good, free alternatives available, is a complete waste of time.

There's no way that info could be useful for the developer, which is why most big software companies pay market researchers tons of cash to discover such trends in attitudes and purchase intent.  
(Version 3.0.5)

MECHAMANIA  After installing, some sites can't detect Flash on my computer (e.g., vikings.com), so I can't go there anymore. Great. Thanks.  
(Version 9.0.20)

MECHAMANIA  If Windows users need the protection, then they can buy me the software and install and maintain it.

Better yet, they can get a Mac.  
(Version 6/8/06)