Existing users, 
User Name Mike Dustan
Member Since 2000-10-27
Total number of Feedback Posts: 63
Total number of comments: 8
Last 10 Feedback Posts by Mike Dustan [ Search for All ]
CNET TechTracker app 1.0 beta 4 (Mac OS X)
I got as far as reading the fine print in the installer, then trashed it right away when I found that CNET stores the results of its scan of my system on its servers. Since they're based in the US and thus subject to the Patriot Act, I'm not giving them anything, just on principle. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful
Friday, October 30 2009 @ 09:47 AM PDT
Graphite 8 SP1 (Mac OS X)
Bit pricey to be called shareware
I think this should be more correctly classified as commercial. Even if you can try-before-you-buy, $1395 (or even $395/year or $39.50/month) is a little steep to be called shareware. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Monday, July 20 2009 @ 08:33 AM PDT
Band-in-a-Box 15.0.2 (Mac OS X)
Kudos to PG Music for finally getting a new version to the Mac market - one that has all the features of the Windows version! The styles are better (or perhaps it's the MIDI rendering that's more accurate) and the real instruments are pretty awesome. Yes, the GUI is ugly and most unlike any other Mac program, and it's retained a lot of the bugs from the 2006 v12 version, but once you get the hang of it it's a pretty amazing program. But then, look at almost any music program or any of the third-party synth plugins and you'll see a look and feel that appeals to musicians and studio folks, not Mac GUI purists. [alert admin]
Friday, June 05 2009 @ 08:21 AM PDT
Back-In-Time 1.1.0 (Mac OS X)
This is an indispensable complement to Time Machine. It's very feature-rich; it tells me pretty much everything I could possibly want to know about what's backed up and when. It's fast, and intelligent enough to know if Time Machine is messing around behind the scenes. The interface is nicely thought out, to my way of thinking. The only suggestion I can think of for the next version would be a way to select two versions of a file and put up the meta-info for both (icon, file type, preview, create/open/mod/backup dates etc.) side by side. A diff function to compare two files would be the icing on the cake, but might be rather hard for non-text files. Nicely done! [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful
Friday, November 28 2008 @ 01:28 PM PST
OmniDiskSweeper 1.6.1 beta 1 (Mac OS X)
Not slamming this product, but...
I quite like the freeware GrandPerspective - it gives a very visual representation of the size of each file and lets you do pretty much everything that ODS does. [alert admin]
Friday, September 26 2008 @ 08:34 AM PDT
GrandPerspective 0.9.12.1 (Mac OS X)
Nice replacement for Disk Inventory X
I used Disk Inventory X for years to do exactly what this application does. I figured it would only be a matter of time before DIX broke with the latest OS, since it appears to be no longer in development. To DIX's credit it has worked flawlessly with every system from Jaguar to Leopard. GrandPerspective appears to be a worthy successor, with a few more useful features and a chance that user feedback and requests may actually make into the application. Nice work! [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 3 of 3 users found this helpful
Monday, June 16 2008 @ 08:01 AM PDT
Thinking Home 2.0b16 (Mac OS X)
VT says this app is $79, but the developer's page says you can order it for $39. Who's right? [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 3 of 3 users found this helpful
Monday, March 10 2008 @ 08:16 AM PDT
SmartScore 5.3.4 (Mac OS X)
Huh? 5.3.4 has been around for months - still great
What's up, VT? 5.3.4 was released quite some time ago. On another note :-), SS, especially the Pro edition, is very good at what it does; turning sheet music into editable form. It's easy to confuse it with some unconventional or uncommon (but still human-readable) notation, but it provides a plethora of tools for finding and fixing transcription errors. I like it... [alert admin]
Tuesday, November 27 2007 @ 02:04 PM PST
Business Card Composer 4.3 (Mac OS X)
Great app! Couple of things would perfect it 
I've had thisprogram for a while and recently used it to generate "friendship cards" (nnetworking cards for convention attendees). I hit the wall in a couple of areas. I mentioned them to the developer and am a bit disappointed to see they're still not addressed. 1. Not every field from Apple Address Book can be imported; in particular, the "Note" field, which would be really handy for importing a business name, greeting, pithy motto etc. can't be imported. Not a showstopper, but at this version level it would have been nice to see it included. 2. AppleScript support is very poor. In my case I wanted to generate cards from a FileMaker database of registrants, using AppleScripts created within FileMaker. I couldn't script the creation of a card; in fact, I couldn't even get BCC to open an existing card template under AppleScript control! The developer basically said, "yup, you're right; you can't do it." I love the product, don't get me wrong, but I think some polishing in these areas would make this a really industrial-strength card creation application. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful
Wednesday, May 30 2007 @ 11:55 AM PDT
ImageMagick 6.2.8 (Mac OS X)
Wrong version, no docs, still nonstandard install
The download contains ImageMagick 6.2.7 (and not much else). [alert admin]
Tuesday, June 06 2006 @ 08:49 AM PDT
Last 10 Comments by Mike Dustan [ Search for All ]
Umm, system requirements are 10.5, not 10.4.11
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, September 24 2009 @ 07:22 AM PDT
Sounds like a rebranding of VersionTracker Pro to me.
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, September 23 2009 @ 05:49 PM PDT
Ed Hamrick's policy is (or used to be) that he insists you have the latest version installed before he'll entertain any problem reports. While it means we users have to make sure we can demonstrate the problem with the latest version, it also means Ed only has to support one revision of his product. I have no problem with this approach since the upgrade process is a simple drag-and-drop.
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, March 13 2008 @ 09:34 AM PDT
This is the main reason I switched to Epson, leaving my nice wide-carriage DeskJet 1220C to gather dust. :-(
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, January 17 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
ManOpen is nicer, IMHO. Among other things it understands apropos, handy when you know what you're looking for but don't know what it's called. It also lets you specify a section in which to search, lets you specify fonts and colours and supports links to other man pages. It even adds itself to the Services menu. Nitewing, keep working on Man Handler - great start!
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, June 29 2006 @ 08:20 AM PDT
Great interface, stable, but SLOOOOOOOOOOOW
The Finder window display seems to make a difference. Column display or list sorted by name seem to work fastest; sort by date modified is unbearably slow. I don't think it's ABFR's fault.
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, June 16 2004 @ 09:50 AM PDT
Um, that would be 16 petaflops. This is roughly equivalent to what my elderly dog achieves after coming in from a geriatric-paced romp in the garden.
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, January 26 2004 @ 03:30 PM PST
Hmm. My HP 5300c is USB-based and works extremely well. My mileage must vary.
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, January 19 2004 @ 09:26 AM PST
