Existing users, 
User Name alby_williams
Member Since 2005-05-15
Total number of Feedback Posts: 16
Total number of comments: 2
Last 10 Feedback Posts by alby_williams [ Search for All ]
Parallels Desktop 4.0 Build 3844 (Mac OS X)
Catastrophic when used with Boot Camp partition - do not use 
I've been using Parallels Desktop for a few months, and for the most part it worked as advertised. Initially I ran it from a separate virtual disk installation of windows on my HD. A few weeks ago, to save disk space, I converted Parallels to use my Boot Camp partition, another XP install which had been very stable, and which I used a lot. Parallels was really just there to give me occasional access to Office 2003, that's it. There were immediately problems with my Boot Camp install after installing Parallels - regular system errors, file corruption errors, Apple's own Boot Camp system tray tool disappeared. Clearly, Parallels had messed around with my install and it wasn't happy. Finally, Parallels corrupted a critical system file after crashing and has irretrievably ruined my Boot Camp Partition. About 5 hours of tinkering under the hood of Windows haven't helped, and Parallels' own KB article on this problem refers to an earlier version of Parallels. Thanks guys. To make matters worse, after removing the Boot Camp partition to start from scratch, my system disk needs to be repaired. So thanks Parallels for killing my very stable Boot Camp install. The forum chatter about this problem is that Parallels fools around with system files that it shouldn't, whereas Fusion does not. So I'm gonna give that a try, after I've reinstalled my Boot Camp partition from scratch. [alert admin]
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Sunday, June 28 2009 @ 09:56 PM PDT
Safari New Tab Button 4.6 (Mac OS X)
Junk that will wreck your Safari. Not even worth 99c. Don't bother.
I've been looking for something to replace Ollie's Tab to do this very simple task for a couple of years now so I was thrilled when I found this app. This dev, however, is clearly some amateur code hack who doesn't test his software except with the most basic Safari configurations. Be warned: despite what it says on the developer's site, this plugin is NOT compatible with 1Password, Cosmopod or any other Safari plugin. When I installed - after the installer beachballed for about two minutes - Safari eventually launched with the default toolbar (i.e. all of my original plugins had gone) and the homepage had reset to apple.com. Rather than adding a new plugin to your toolbar configuration, this junk just overwrites what was there with the default toolbar settings plus its own plugin behaviour. Clumsy, sloppy implementation. So ignore all the fancy crap on the dev's website about bugs being fixed - that's garbage. As for the dev's promise to refund the 99c to anyone who writes a positive review on VT or MacUpdate, well you can have this one for free mate. Give up developing, stop coding, and pull down your junk plugin and false advertising. This one's just not worth it folks, stick with command-T until a pro has a go at this problem. So if you've just installed your system, like every page opening to apple and don't have any other Safari plugins installed, then this solution might work for you. For the other 99% of you, don't bother. Don't look for a trial version either, the download link goes straight to the dev's paypal page. Somebody's not wild about letting their software get tested. As a final. hilarious postscript, the dev's product page has "Just a precaution for me but... USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!" at the bottom. Wish I'd scrolled down that far in the first place. [alert admin]
Sunday, November 02 2008 @ 12:19 AM PDT
Transmission 1.34 (Mac OS X)
Disastrous Transmission crashes in more recent versions
I'd love to write something positive about Transmission. After a year of happy usage of this elegant little app, since 1.33 it's become an unstable nightmare that crashes the entire system if you don't manually kill the exception it causes quickly enough. So it's useless for downloading overnight, and downright dangerous to use at all while doing anything else that you're not saving regularly. I've had this happen on two entirely different macs, high and low end, intel and PPC. And for the "I've been using it for ages and never had a problem" brigade - that's awesome, but new users shouldn't be trying their luck with this app without knowing that it's highly problematic. The problem's been well documented here: http://forum.transmissionbt.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4564&start=165&st=0&sk=t&sd=a over several months. Transmission will instantly go back to five stars in my book, as soon as it's functional again. In the meantime - try at your own risk, people. [alert admin]
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Friday, October 10 2008 @ 07:14 PM PDT
Salling Media Sync 1.0 (Mac OS X)
Looks slick, but limited device selection
Looks promising, clearly the developers have focused on providing iPod-like functionality to those devices that can do so, rather than just moving music onto memory cards, and that's great. Support for Nokia E series would be good though - couldn't get it to work with my E51. Gonna have to stick to SyncTunes for now. [alert admin]
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Tuesday, September 02 2008 @ 03:57 AM PDT
Ejector 0.8.1 (Mac OS X)
Nice little solution for a problem that bugged me more and more every time I acquired another hard drive. Sits quietly in the menu bar and does what it says it will. Seems to work okay on 10.5.1 and G4 PPC, not sure what's causing the grief of users below. As for unscrewing the case and removing the drive to shake a stuck CD out of the drive... um, you do that. I don't think the app is really intended as a can-eject-all solution for stuck CDs. If you just wanna unmount your drives without having to open a finder window, Ejector's your guy. Thanks dev. [alert admin]
Thursday, January 10 2008 @ 11:36 PM PST
FMenu 2.5 (Mac OS X)
Doesn't work under 10.5, dev is apparently working on an update... watch this space [alert admin]
Saturday, January 05 2008 @ 12:19 AM PST
Amigo 1.0.5 (Mac OS X)
Might get there one day, useless now though
Well, from bad to worse... since FMenu was broken by Leopard and is hurtling like a glacier towards Leopard compatibility, I decided to give this little masterpiece a go. Needless to say, I want my hour back, don't even be thinking about springing your twenty five bucks for it. The set-up process involves what appears to be a separate application, which asks for the location of Mac Face, the now non-existent predecessor of this app, and requires a convoluted registration process that adds an app to Facebook itself. Once that's done, the helper app closes down but Amigo itself doesn't appear in the menu bar. Re-launching from the applications folder takes you back to the setup app. So no testing notes available on this app, I didn't even get as far as the app showing any signs of functionality. Pity, the website trumpets what appears to be a useful set of features and clean interface and, in the absence of a freeware alternative, might have been worth stumping some cash for. But save it for now. One star for taking a promising idea, implementing it poorly and charging too much. Wait for FMenu to be fixed. [alert admin]
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Saturday, January 05 2008 @ 12:14 AM PST
Awaken 3.1.7 (Mac OS X)
Pretty, but useless - doesn't wake from sleep
Seems like I'm not the only one who's tried this alarm and found that it doesn't wake from sleep as claimed. Maybe it's 10.4.11 that's doing it but it seems not, from the number of posters below and on the dev's forums. Strange that users should hae such divergent experiences (in both service and performance) from a single app. Still, reliability is the key with alarms and this one gets nought on that count. One star for the eye candy and decent UI. Will look elsewhere for functionality though. [alert admin]
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Saturday, December 01 2007 @ 09:27 PM PST
Facebook Exporter for iPhoto 1.0.3 (Mac OS X)
JPEG only but terrific app, works as advertised, elegant UI
This is a fantastic little app and kudos to the dev for getting out there and solving a problem with an elegant, functional solution then offering it to the world for nothing. Okay, so it only works with JPEGs but hey, 95% of the shots heading for FB are personal snapshots anyway and anybody who shoots RAW for that purpose is wasting their time and disk space. The vast majority of users will have no problem with this app and it's a hell of a lot more reliable than the web-based FB upload process, which seems to stall if you give it more than 5 photos at a time. Anybody who wants a pro-standard FB uploader with bells and whistles, Adobe have just put out an SDK for Lightroom plugins, you go write one and let me know who to pay. [alert admin]
Sunday, November 18 2007 @ 05:50 PM PST
PhotoBook 1.0.2 (Mac OS X)
Love this app, like the look of it, like the functionality, like the price, and I'm desperate to give it five stars, but it doesn't run for more than a few minutes on my rig before freezing or crashing. Once it froze when I tried to resize the main window, once when playing a slideshow, and then twice when downloading shots to iPhoto. I suspect my very unreliable wifi connection might have something to do with it, but maybe not. Anybody else seen this behaviour? [alert admin]
Monday, November 05 2007 @ 03:42 AM PST
Last 10 Comments by alby_williams [ Search for All ]
Might get there one day, useless now though
Actually, the dev probably deserves an apology from me for that call because it doesn't say here that it's Leopard compatible. So take it from me that it's not, it might work on Tiger.
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Saturday, January 05 2008 @ 12:17 AM PST
absolutely useless for most photos
This is a totally obnoxious comment. A dev writes a stable, functioning app that performs a simple function really well and you have to slap it down, "puppykrusher". You paid nothing for this app, it works for most of us and with the most common format by far, and if you want it to do specialised stuff then export your GIFs and TIFFs to JPEG yourself first instead of expecting the dev to build in…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, November 18 2007 @ 05:44 PM PST
