Existing users, 
User Name Levon River
Member Since 2002-03-12
Total number of Feedback Posts: 131
Total number of comments: 1
Last 10 Feedback Posts by Levon River [ Search for All ]
TrackTime 1.2.4 (Mac OS X)
This didn't even report as an application to the Finder or the Dock. I couldn't even force quit it. It never appeared in Finder's Force Quit window. I'd had Help open for another application when I started TimeTrack, and its Help file immediately opened in front of the app when I started the app, and although TimeTrack's window was emblazoned across my screen, and although I could access it, it would not show up in the menus or anywhere in the Finder, and it was The App That Would Not Die. Never had any app in my long history of Mac usage do anything even close. I had to power down to get rid of it. Even if I hadn't experienced this bizarre behavior, the categories in the left pane appeared to be "overlapping" each other, so the words were cut off at the bottom of each line, which seems to be rather shoddy. I also find that a program that *defaults* to tracking my musical whims and web browsing and application usage to be not only whimsical but downright invasive when all I want to track is billable hours. Even if these can be "turned off," why they are there in the first place without specific user intention to have them tracked is beyond me. This may be a fun diversion for people curious about their own habits, but as a serious time-tracking tool I found it unusable and deleted it. [alert admin]
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Sunday, March 30 2008 @ 10:55 AM PDT
Yadal 1.3.1 (Mac OS X)
Still going strong on Intel Mac 
This was one of my first installations in OS X way back when, it hasn't been updated since 2003, and here in 2007 it's working flawlessly under 10.4.8 on an Intel Mac. It is a true gem of Mac programming. I just wanted to acknowledge the creator for the great job he did, and it's truly a shame that this is no longer available to the Mac community, because it works as well now as it ever did. If anybody knows how to reach him, please pass along these kudos. And if you can get your hands on this very lean and handy utility, you won't be sorry. I've found it to beat other bloatware launchers hands down. Very well done. Levon [alert admin]
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Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 04:06 PM PST
FontDoctor 7.2.0 (Mac OS X)
My review below tells only part of the story with the incomprehensible crashes while trashing files (up to about ten or twelve crashes now), but the application is rife with shoddy behavior. Every time I re-run it on the same folder of fonts, it finds exactly the same problem fonts that it supposedly MOVED the last time it ran. So it can't possibly be moving them. That would be bad enough, but it somehow manages to find even more problem fonts each time it's run that it had NOT found before. Which means: A) It's incompetent at identifying problem fonts (and moving them), or, B) It's creating problems with the fonts it inspects every time it's run. Which would you prefer? Furthermore, it has requestors that pop up for some functions that omit any "apply to all" option, requiring repititious interaction by the user. It also, while in the grips and spasms of its (apparently) RealBasic routines, utterly refuses to honor any "Hide" commands, even from the Finder attempting to "Hide Others." And after having gone through all the crashes while trashing duplicate files, restarting the entire long process until it got through that portion of its functions without crashing, it appears it arose from some limitation in the program itself of the number of trashed file. I can't prove that, but every time I would empty the trash after a crash, it seemed to be approximately the same number of files in the trash. And this program is up to version 7.2.0. You want to trust your fonts to this? You make the call. Sure hope you have backups. [alert admin]
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Monday, October 23 2006 @ 09:13 PM PDT
FontDoctor 7.2.0 (Mac OS X)
Still Crashy After All These Years... 
Six crashes over the course of two days in yet another attempt to have FontDoctor X demonstrate even a modicum of understanding of fonts and competence at dealing with them. The program crashes when (S-L-O-W-L-Y) sending files to the Trash. That bears repeating: after being in the Mac market for lo, these many years, the programmers still have not figured out how to send unwanted files to the Trash competently without their program suddenly quitting. You read it here. Tell your friends. But first, stay and attend: FontDoctor X *STILL* analyzes for empty suitcases FIRST, and only *LATER* asks if it should move around screen fonts that need to be joined to printer fonts. And what do you think that leaves all over the place? Did you say "empty suitcases"? If so, would you please go apply for a job at Morrison? This isn't a programming decision; this is a decision on the level of, "Should I put my trousers on first, or my underpants?" I beg someone to go do some pro bono competent career counseling for these people. Meanwhile, there still is not a single decent program anywhere in the entire Mac universe that competently, effectively, and efficiently can repair and provide for user-controlled administration of a large and varied font collection. Period. [alert admin]
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Sunday, October 22 2006 @ 09:00 AM PDT
TransType Pro 3.0.2 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
One would think that a company building its reputation on font technology would have more professional pride than to release a program with more crashes per hour than a demolition derby. If they didn't build it in RealBasic, they should have--and it certainly has that look. More importantly, it has the feel, crashing and unexpectedly quitting repeatedly on even moderate batches of PD WinDOZE TT fonts. Even after it flags some in red and won't convert at all until those are deleted from the list, it will often try to open its "Output Panel" window, then think better of it and leave the building like an incontinent beer swiller. Even more ridiculous, it will sometimes convert those same fonts it choked on (after being lured back into existence) when it's given them in smaller batches. Add to that the absurdity of not being able to set general preferences for skipping converted fonts in a directory that have the same name as one already there--requiring constant real-time monitoring of batch processing, even if it weren't for the festival of crashes--and this might represent the worst hundred bucks you ever let go of. Unless you frequent Vegas or red light districts. Levon River [alert admin]
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Monday, February 27 2006 @ 10:04 AM PST
Suitcase Fusion 12.0 (Mac OS X)
After years of systematically massacring uncountable hordes of innocent fonts by following the dictates, complaints, crashes, and conniption fits of Suitcase and its partner in font mayhem, FontDoktorKervorkian, I was brought to glorious salvation by Linotype's FontExplorer X. I would have paid for it five times what I have sunk into Extensis Font Torture software, but no: it is free. Free. With timid uncertainty, I dug back through my ancient font collections, and threw at FontExplorer X all the fonts that Extensive Nutcase and FontDoktorKervorkian had chewed up and puked out in violent seizures, and FontExplorer X took every one of them. Every one. Without complaint. Without a sigh, a cough, or a hiccup. And after adding thousands of fonts, it has not crashed ONCE. I'd sooner jerk out every nose hair individually with tweezers than go back to Extensive Nutcase and their new conFusion. I wouldn't do it if *they* paid *me." Other than that, I have nothing but nice things to say about them. Levon River [alert admin]
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Saturday, February 04 2006 @ 06:02 AM PST
Microtek ScanMaker ScanWizard 7.20.1 (Mac OS X)
For what? Does it make waffles? It sure doesn't OCR. No, I repent of saying that: it does OCR, but if you select plain text as the filetype, it will create HTML. If you select PDF as the file type, it will create RichText. If you select plain text again as the filetype, it will send it to your text application as PDF--then crash. It is Bedlam. Whoever our enemies are, donate the Microtek programmers to them and we can cut our defense budget in half. [alert admin]
Friday, August 19 2005 @ 06:01 PM PDT
Unison 1.6.2 (Mac OS X)
Like a fool, I keep coming back...
Well, the last time I reviewed this program, the developer's came and pooh-poohed everything I wrote about that was problematic--then implemented what I had written as "features.". So I came back. Now I can run it and make some sense of it--as long as I don't mind having a Mac G4 that runs only somewhat slower than an Atari or Commodore 128. Apparently Unison now is a sobriety check point, stopping every computer activity and having it attempt to walk a straight line before proceeding. Or something. I have no idea what the infernal thing is doing. I only know that while it's running, everything else is molasses, and when I quit it, everything else runs like a scalded dawg. As programmers, they make great cops. Levon River [alert admin]
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Saturday, July 30 2005 @ 11:14 PM PDT
EasyFind 3.7 (Mac OS X)
An outstanding and very powerful piece of work. If you don't read the "Read Me" you're missing out on half the functionality and most of the power of the program for content searches. Hats off to the DEVON crew for another fine product--and, incredibly, it's free! [alert admin]
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Thursday, July 28 2005 @ 04:26 PM PDT
Extensis Suitcase 11.0.4 (Mac OS X)
I feel honored to nominate Extensis Suitcase for Mac OS X to receive the award for the Buggiest Shoddiest Software Ever On Any Platform. It really stands (or, rather, crashes) in a class by itself. Second only, in a supporting role, is its sister software: FontDoctorKevorkianX. Why, I have seen this rabid pair bring down the entire Panther operating system like it was a mewling baby *censored*cat! Over and over! And because of what? Because of a mere little font that had been run through FontDoctorKevorkianX no fewer than FIVE TIMES (with the good mad Doktor issuing it a completely pristine bill of health, naturally), which same font THEN had been subjected to Suitcase's OWN up-against-the-wall font scanning regimen. (Passed with flying colors, dontchaknow.) Now, I said "a mere little font," but I don't mean to limit it to one. No, that would be taking away glory that is fully due and owning to this pair of gibbering butchers. No, I have seen this happen over, and over, and over, and over--staggering, blinding, blood-curdling system crashes requiring hard restart. I have seen this pair suck endless hours out of lives and businesses like they were twin black holes spinning in a perfectly balanced ballet of utter destruction. Let no man naysay the honor of this nomination. Let all, in unison, say "Aye," and may they be granted this unprecedented award. Levon [alert admin]
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Monday, December 06 2004 @ 03:53 PM PST
Last 10 Comments by Levon River [ Search for All ]
"It should be pretty straightforward" I couldn't agree more. When you get there, let me know. "Again, instead of clogging up VersionTracker, can you please send us e-mail directly..." Instead of trying to run VersionTracker, can you please invest your time in synchronizing the newsgroup inventories in your three viewing panels? I don't want to go too logical on you all at once, but try starting there and graduate it out of the C-64 lab category. "...leaving VersionTracker focused…
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Saturday, September 11 2004 @ 06:15 AM PDT
