Existing users, 
User Name Aardy
Member Since 2000-04-01
Total number of Feedback Posts: 10
Total number of comments: 2
Last 10 Feedback Posts by Aardy [ Search for All ]
MacPinball 2.5 (Mac OS X)
Oh my, they actually want money for this 
Where to start ... Graphics: very poor, even amateurish. Sound: very poor, sounds like a ZX Spectrum. Ball physics and dynamics: very poor, almost non-existent. It won't even go full screen on my PowerBook G4 (it tries then gives up and reverts to windowed mode, no error message). No key customisation, so the keys you're given is what you have to use - and it's the arrow keys. Whoever heard of playing pinball one handed? The table has no background graphics, not even a simulation of the 1950s style scoring wheels, no dot matrix style 1990s screens, no video mode. No background music, extremely amateurish sound effects reminiscent os a 1980s home computer. If you want ultra-realistic pinball get an OS9 capable Mac and the ProPinball series, nothing touches them for realism, stunning graphics and music specially written straight off the CD Unfortunately they stopped doing Mac software long ago. Littlewing is the next best option and they appear to be the only people doing pinball for the Mac these days. If you want to marvel at how not to do pinball then by all means pay for this, but don't blame me when you get bored! :-) [alert admin]
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Thursday, January 03 2008 @ 03:28 PM PST
Solitaire 3D 3.10 (Mac OS X)
You can play all the games listed free of charge. There is however one caveat ... Each game in the free version has only five variations in deals and then reverts back to the first one again. If you don't mind playing just five deal variations of each game then it's totally free. According to the forum on the developer's site, buying a licence allows for "millions of different deals for each game in the full version" Forum is here: http://www.grassgames.com/cgi-bin/forum_new/ForumViewSection.cgi?forum=sol§ion_num=0 So ... free? Sort of. If you don't want to play the same five variations of each game again and again then you have to pay, otherwise you'll just have to grin and bear it. Mind you, seeing as there are 64 games included, you get a total of 320 unique games before you get any repeats. I'm no fan of the name. It is misleading (although a name of 'totally free' would be even more misleading) and the description should make it clear exactly what you're getting for free [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Monday, November 12 2007 @ 02:23 PM PST
Repeating Motif Generator 1.0.1 (Mac OS X)
I'm not associated with the developer or the application at all, but I have written a quick start guide which I have sent to the developer. I'm not sure when it's going to happen but they're going to distribute it with the application, so at least you'll be able to get going with the application with some expectation as to what's going to happen. In the interim you can get the guide from http://www.harbey.dircon.co.uk/Quickstart_guide.zip [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Monday, December 25 2006 @ 01:04 PM PST
Lightwright 4.1.4 (Mac OS X)
If only all designers used this ...
Wouldn't it be nice if all lighting designers used something like this? All too often you get a hastily scribbled plan with a not that says "something like this - sort of" on it and the designer turns up to focus obviously making it up as they go along. All we need now is for Lightwight to draw the plan and we'll be all set! The tour looks impressive and the application seems to have more features than you can shake a stick at. It's not cheap, but then using it one one big production it may well pay for itself with the increased accuracy and speed of changes in the paperwork. But seriously ... non-technicians never realise just how much paperwork goes into putting on a theatrical production and an application like this helps no end. To be really really useful the paperwork should be produced as the plan is being drawn with changes in either the paperwork section or on the plan itself being automatically reflected in the other part, but that means either applications talking to each other or a complete design/drawing/paperwork package. Due to time constraints, those working in monthly rep theatres won't be using something like this, but it's great for those large scale productions destined for Broadway or London's West End where you have hordes of technicians floating about all trying to get things right. [alert admin]
Friday, June 30 2006 @ 08:23 AM PDT
Stellarium 0.8.0 (Mac OS X)
Hmmm, I'm not sure about this version. It's prettier than the old one but there's some bugs and niggles tha make it less easy to use. First the pros: Better interface for setting the location, help window looks a bit better, it looks like the general graphics have been cleaned up a bit, fov now goes beyond 100 degrees so you can see more at one go (but see cons below), easier and more visible controls for speeding up/slowing down time. Now the cons: It's a real faff to have to manually download and install three (not two as detailed in the read me file) extra components, especially as version 0.7.0 was self-contained. The keyboard arrow keys no longer allow you to wander about the sky at will, the keyboard controls for zoom don't work, the display perspective has been changed so anything over 100 degrees fov gives you a distinctly curved view (more so than before). Text menu (M) still doesn't do a lot. Overall, I'm not sure that this is an improvement on 0.7.0, although to be fair I haven't tried everything yet. I'd give it three and a half stars, but as VT doesn't allow half-stars I gave it three. The lack of keyboard roaming and zooming is a shame - I could only zoom using the scroll zones on the trackpad which have been set up using SideTrack. It works, but getting gentle zooming is really difficult and it's very jerky when compared to 0.7.0 Configuration is easier but I'm sticking with the previous version for ease of use. [alert admin]
Monday, June 19 2006 @ 06:28 PM PDT
Babya E-Type 3.0 (Mac OS X)
do NOT install this application
This is an appalling attempt at an application. If you value your system integrity, DO NOT INSTALL this application. 1: It overwrites your existing TextEdit application without notification. The new application keeps the TextEdit name but will no longer launch. Additionally the icon in the dock renames to Babya E Type, even thought a get info on the application confirms the name is TextEdit. 2: It install a folder called TextEdit in the applications folder that contains all manner of stuff, including a read me file. 3: It installs a folder called Babya E Type in the applications folder containing the Babya E Type application. This application does not launch either. 4: Both the re-written TextEdit and the Babya E Type applications are version 3.0 and Universal Binary. I had to trash TextEdit and reinstall it from the Tiger install disc using Pacifist. This is the very first time I've given an application a 'do not install' rating. It's not a bad application, it's appalling. Give it a very very wide berth. My config: PB G4 Ti 867, 1 GB, 40 GB, Combo, OS X 10.4.6 [alert admin]
Read Comments (2) | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Wednesday, June 14 2006 @ 08:51 AM PDT
UnPlugged 1.4.2 (Mac OS X)
This is a useful little utility for those using portable Macs. version 1.4 and 1.4.1 had installation problems but these seem to have been fixed in 1.4.2. Growl support is very useful, as Growl itself has configurable alerts. The sensing of plugging/unplugging is very swift and this new version van even give you alerts as your battery charge drops (user configurable) so it'll let you k ow how things are going battery-wise. It's free, does what it says on the tin and uses almost nothing in the way of CPU cycles. I've tried a few of the other utils that do what UnPlugged does but they don't seem to do it as well. I've put in a feature request for optional audible alerts on unplugging and apparently it may be in the next major release. Responsive developer, which is good. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Friday, April 21 2006 @ 04:13 PM PDT
MenuMeters 1.3 (Mac OS X)
A superb piece of software that puts some extremely useful icons (and graphs and arrows and all-sorts!) in the menu bar for visual feedback and they all have drop down menus for giving you far more information than you could reasonably expect from a free product. Space used is minimal considering the information provided. Icons have a high degree of customisation to show the info in the way you'd like it. The Network meter is great for seeing what's happening traffic-wise and the drop-down menu gives you the info about all your interfaces, including throughput, peak traffic and Tx/Rx data totals. CPU meter shows at a glance how much 'oomph' is being used. Dfop down menu shows loads (1 min, 5 min, 15 min averages), uptime and other stuff, and gives you a way to open the Activity Monitor easily. Disk meter shows read/write activity (a bit like the old Symantec Disklight). Drop down menu shows disk usage, mount point and format type. Memory meter shows usage (active, wired, free) and can shoe pageins/outs if you need that sort of stuff. The drop-down menu gives you VM and swap File stats for the geeks among us! The developer is extremely responsive. I reported a bug and 36 hours later a new version appeared in my in-box. If only every developer was like this! If your menu bar isn't too cluttered already then give it a go. As my mum says: "try it, you might like it!" [alert admin]
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Thursday, March 16 2006 @ 05:34 PM PST
Classic Control Menu 1.1 (Mac OS X)
OK, I have to ask ... in what way is this different from the Classic menu bar icon that you get from the Classic preferences (found in System Preferences)? From the description it seems to do exactly the same thing as ticking the little box that says "Show Classic status ion menu bar" in the Classic preferences ... or am I missing something? [alert admin]
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Wednesday, March 15 2006 @ 06:20 PM PST
Esperance DV 2.3 (Mac OS X)
Caused several freezes with applications that want to write to the disk (it wasn't other software as Esperance was the only new install and everything worked ok again after removing it). The uninstall routine is flawed. It removed ALL my local (not global) preference panes - in fact it just deletes the entire folder. I had to reinstall 10 pref panes back to the home directory (~/library/Preference Panes). I have notified the developer of this fault (no reply as yet, but then it's been less than 24 hours!) In theory the whole Ram Disk thing is a good idea; I just wished it worked. PowerBook G4/867 15.2" Ti, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB HD (5+ GB free), OS X 10.4.3, QuickTime 7.0.4 [alert admin]
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Tuesday, February 14 2006 @ 11:47 AM PST
Last 10 Comments by Aardy [ Search for All ]
If it's unstable best to tell the developer directly; they may not check here too often. Do bare in mind that it's a beta, so if you're going to use it you do so at your own risk. All the usual rules about beta software apply, but even more so with stuff that mucks about at system level. I've been using DF for years but I'll wait for the proper release version of 2.5 before I'm going…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Saturday, April 15 2006 @ 10:08 AM PDT
At the time I had over 6GB free, which should be plenty. Presumably if it uses disk space it's not going to be too much more than the size of the RAM disk itself. If it needs substantially more than that then there's got to be something wrong. Needless to say I haven't got 6GB of RAM installed in my PowerBook! Still haven't heard back from the developer regarding the uninstall routine. It's not a problem…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, March 09 2006 @ 02:50 PM PST
