MONDELE  Unfortunately, the dictation software market on the Mac seems to have been dominated by exploitative people who see Mac users as an undiscriminating group of rich people, willing and ready to pay exorbitant prices for inferior products.

Dragon Naturally Speaking was originally developed on and for the Mac, when the first PowerPCs were coming out. (It also worked with the dedicated sound processors in the AV Macs). I was present at a sales presentation oriented towards Mac VARs, and was extremely interested in adding the product to our lineup. Upon inquiry, we were told that it would be sold for $1500/seat, that we were prohibited from selling it for less, as this would hurt the branding the company was pursuing.

Shortly thereafter, the Mac product was discontinued and it was offered on the PC for $100/seat.

Now I'm getting offers to by the Windows version of the software for $30 (discounted from a normal price of $100) - or I can by this Mac-licensed version for $200.

I'm sorry, Dragon, I use a Mac because of a superior value for my money, not the other way around. I, too, would welcome competition in this area.  
(Version 1.5.2)

MONDELE  I really liked MaNGOsX, and have yet to see how well I will like Arcemu as an engine, but I thought I would put together some thoughts as to how to get things working.

First, if you want to use the default MySQL installation, just move (or link, or copy) the database folders to /usr/local/mysql/data/ and set the ownership and permissions to match the other folders there. Alternatively, you could do a SQL dump of the databases from MAMP and then import them into MySQL's default using the tools of your choice.

Secondly, since I don't want something like this using root access to my database (and since I don't want root access to have the password "root") I suggest editing the configuration files in /server/etc/. This is where you can change the settings of the arcemu engine to look for the database where you specify and with the user you specify.

Finally, I found that the program wouldn't run because it was linking to a library that wasn't present on my system: libpcre.0.dylib. It was looking in /usr/lib/. I found the necessary library in a Plex distribution and copied it from the internal Frameworks folder there to my /usr/lib folder. It works.

I'm currently troubleshooting some issues with the DBC files - it claims an inconsistency with the Spells.dbc - but I ran out of drive space during the initial install and hope that reinstalling the affected files now, having cleared up some space, will help.

Finally, make sure your client is patched to the same level as the server you install. It's nice that the ArceMux program not only tells you this, now, but also gives you a choice of two alternatives: 3.1.3 and 3.2.0.

Thanks, Jeremy Meile! (Though your site could be a little less frustrating :P ) The only other thing I could ask for at this point would be the ability to download the files implicated in 2.4.3 again, if I decide I want the Kirin Tor back in Dalaran...  
(Version 1.0b)

MONDELE  I have to agree with a number of reviewers who received this as part of a bundle. I didn't think much of it at first, but I'm finding it very useful for annotating screen shots before sending them to clients to document “how-to” processes.

It might be a little expensive for what it is — I got it with a bundle — but what it does it does well. I like Pixelmator but miss a shapes tool there, so they make a good pair, but then we're talking about more money, and it would be nice to have everything in one tool. Maybe I'll have to reinstall Photoshop Elements and do a comparison.  
(Version 1.5.3)

MONDELE  Long time fan of CocoaMySQL. This is slightly nicer in some ways, vastly better in others. Specifically, I find that certain queries run considerably faster in Sequel Pro than they did in CMSQL.

I would like some of the user management that's available in phpMyAdmin or Webmin to be present in one of the GUI tools.

I haven't been using this long enough to really evaluate its stability, but so far so good.  
(Version 0.9.5)

MONDELE  There are two problems with Envision. The first, as has been mentioned, is its price. Unfortunately (for Open Doors) there are too many ways to do what this does for less. In fact, the free Firefox plugin, CoolIris, does most of this for free.

The second problem with Envision is its poor self-promotion. The icon, the webshow that it defaults to, and the website all strike as tired or amateurish. Thus, no matter how solid the program might be, it doesn't strike one as being worth the $40 they're charging for it, when the promotional materials are so poor.

Is it a useful program? It might be, and in my brief usage of it I ran into no problems. However, in this era a program has to be pretty exciting to get me to drop $40 on it, and this program falls short.  
(Version 1.2)

MONDELE  Haven't tried this yet, but the download link doesn't work. The location seems to be dynamic, so you'll have to go through the company's menu system to get the file.  
(Version 1.0)

MONDELE  I don't have hundreds of friends, yet, but this is a fun program, and the graph is interesting. Finding which people are heavily connected and which are sparsely provides food for thought.  
(Version 0.22a)

MONDELE  Well, I may regret writing this review this early, but I think it's valid. I'm glad BeLight gives me a 30 day trial of this software, because I'm beginning to think it will take that long to perform the first backup.

Because of my particular backup needs and bad experiences, I am not, at this point, using the actual "backup feature". Rather, I am trying to synchronize a Firewire-attached hard disk drive with my internal SATA drive. Admitting that the external drive is roughly 280 GB it seems unhelpful that the process has taken 24 hours to move 1/4 of the way. Mind you, this is a synchronization where there was nothing in the target, so a simple copy was all that was necessary.

On the plus side, the program hasn't crashed, which I can't say about SilverKeeper.

Unless subsequent copies are considerably faster, however, the slowness (speed seems an inappropriate qualifier) of this program makes it all but useless.  
(Version 2.0.2)

MONDELE  I suspect it means that you're trying to run MaNGOSX on a PowerPC. The MaNGOS server has not been compiled for a PowerPC processor (or if it has, by someone, the process is so difficult that it is not often duplicated). Since MaNGOSX simply wraps the MaNGOS server for easier use, it can't overcome this limitation.  
(Version 4.0b)

MONDELE  LinoType Font Explorer is a good font management program. I haven't used any of the other programs for a very long time (Suitcase or MasterJuggler), but Font Explorer is quite flexible enough for my needs and is FREE.

I understand that some designers might have needs that I don't have, but for basic font management, including the choice between moving and copying fonts, Font Explorer does a fantastic job.

Did I mention that it's FREE? So, go ahead and try it and decide for yourself.  
(Version 3.0.4)

MONDELE  This developer's website seems to have disappeared.  
(Version 2.0)

MONDELE  The software is free, and the first two gigabytes of storage are free, but additional storage is not.  
(Version 1.5046)

MONDELE  Screen is a shell command, activated by typing "screen" at the shell prompt. Further information is available in the screen manpage: type "man screen" at the shell prompt. If you don't know what the shell prompt is, this might not be the time to try this.  
(Version 3.2.3)

MONDELE  Since the server runs on your computer, your computer will need to be on in order to run the server. The database can be any accessible MySQL database. These settings are in the two MaNGOs config files. However, I would think that having the database run on a separate server would increase the network traffic needlessly.

In order to run the server without being logged in, I use the screen command to make a disconnected session. This session can then keep running as long as the machine is not turned off or rebooted.  
(Version 3.2.3)

MONDELE  I really want to like BPE. I do like it when it works. I love the way it pauses iTunes when a call comes in, and the way it pulls the Address Book data for the incoming number.

However, it is so unstable that I didn't even play out the 14 day trial. Having to force-quit an app several times/day is unacceptable on a work machine, and it makes the program useless for me. I even found that I would try to use it and find that I hadn't restarted it since it crashed previously.

My experience seems to indicate that it crashes on making or receiving a second call, although it sometimes bailed on the first one.

I seem to recall this same problem the last time I tried this program, a year or so ago, so that also discourages me from paying for it.  
(Version 2.0.12)

MONDELE  Mikael,

I think what you are missing is that if Splunk were written in a standards-compliant way, it would work with Safari. I don't know of any deficiencies of Safari that would keep it from working with the kind of behavior we are looking for from Splunk. As I mentioned, I tend to use a lot of different browsers, and I use the one that I think will work best for a particular purpose. I do tend to use FireFox for web development because of the plugins that expand capabilities in that regard, but Safari is a fine browser, and many people will feel that it is the only one they need. If Splunk will not run with Safari, it is a valid comment to say that it is therefore a non-starter. Splunk may run fine on Linux and Windows, and on the Mac with FireFox, but this is MacUpdate, and the Mac users here have a legitimate concern if it doesn't function with the default Mac browser - the one with which, presumably, they are downloading Splunk. Telling people that they are silly for their software choices is a uniquely unhelpful means of persuasion.  
(Version 3.3.1)

MONDELE  No, I've been running the Unified DB, but attempting to update seems to have broken everything.  
(Version 3.2.2)

MONDELE  German language version of the Database

The problem I'm having now is that when I try to run mangos-realmd or mangos-worldd I get either "Bus Error" or "Terminated".

Suggestions?  
(Version 3.2.2)

MONDELE  I can't review the software, since I don't have Leopard. However, this isn't the first way to do this, since MaNGOSx has been available for at least a year. It works under Tiger, and the only thing I might wish were different is that it also requires Intel hardware. In fact, it was mainly the idea that this product might support PPC that encouraged me to look at it.

Bear in mind - I am not criticising this program, nor saying that it is inferior to MaNGOSx, except in its limitation to Leopard.  
(Version 4.0)

MONDELE  I happen to be someone who typically has a dozen browsers on my machine, but I do agree that to require a non-Safari browser for a piece of software will limit its acceptability. Web standards are there for a reason, and to make a web-based interface that won't work with a standards-compliant browser is, IMHO, shortsighted.  
(Version 3.3)

MONDELE  I've been using SoundSource to do this for a while. I'm wondering if there are any reasons I should prefer one of these programs over the other.  
(Version 1.0)

MONDELE  Sapiens is the name of a game by Myriad Software that has been around for a while. http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/sapiens.htm  
(Version 1.1)

MONDELE  To say that we should limit our choices to what is already available is just plain silly. I own Reunion v. 6. It was a great program, and I'm sure the new versions are nice as well, though the interface doesn't seem to have been updated in a long time. That said, Leister Productions doesn't seem to be too interested in users of old versions. There are several new horses in the race with prices comfortably close to Leister's upgrade price. The most impressive I've seen are Heredis and Mac Family Tree. I'm glad to have choices. Competition may someday encourage Leister to speed up version updates and provide some more attractive options for those who bought a while ago.

Genealogy Pro hasn't impressed me so far as one of the best, but having a whole stable of genealogy programs out there will no doubt encourage improvement and further development.  
(Version 2.2)

MONDELE  And remember that the scientific results announced by these projects will be just as sound as the programming that went in to the client!  
(Version 5.8.15)

MONDELE  There might be another game in town, depending upon your needs. OMeR (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9468) is an add-on for Melody Assistant or Harmony Assistant which attempts to do the same thing. I haven't had much luck with it - it claims my scores are too dense, but it does work to a point. (Actually, that's all I can say for any OCR software). The price for OMeR is $20, and Melody Assistant is another $20 - which gives you some fairly nice music score editing tools. Worth a look for those feeling bound.  
(Version 4.1.2)

MONDELE  This is a cool piece of software I find myself using a lot. So much, that I tracked down a hack to not have Terminal running in the background. http://log-everything.blogspot.com/2006/06/visor-dirrrrty-hack.html has step-by-step instructions for creating a hacked terminal that doesn't show in the dock.

In the features department, it would be nice to have Window Settings preferences available in Visor, rather than the kludge of doing it in Terminal, but in all, it works very well.  
(Version 1.2.1)

MONDELE  The actual download link doesn't work. There are a couple of places that still host this: Fileplanet, though I often have trouble getting stuff from them.

Games4Mac.it points to a .Mac page that has the file.  
(Version 1.0b1)

MONDELE  I am always impressed with solid programming. I am even more impressed with solid support. That this is all free is even more impressive. I was struck by the latest "failure to print" bug. I was pondering writing to the developer about it, and thinking I should probably register first, when 1.4 came out, fixing the problem. Now I figure I should register and also send in a donation. This kind of diligence should be supported!  
(Version 1.4)

MONDELE  The current version of ShareAlike is not free, and there is no free download available. Currently you must pay before accessing the software. The price is $4.95. Previous versions are not available for download.  
(Version 1.1)