Existing users, 
User Name bossa nova
Member Since 2003-01-18
Total number of Feedback Posts: 16
Total number of comments: 7
Last 10 Feedback Posts by bossa nova [ Search for All ]
Zinio 1.4.4 (Mac OS X)
Save yourself some time. This is a piece of sh*t. I attempted to use this last a while ago when I got some freebie magazine thing. Then just recently I get 3 free issues to MacWorld Mag. (Sent to me to use with Zinio). It's worthless. I can't scroll down to read anything below a certain point. There is no grabber on the menu bar to drag the page. There is no page down only next page. You have to go to full screen mode to get it to work or to see the grabber. There is an extreme lag when you choose 'next page'. So much so that you think it didn't work so you go and click again until you finally figure out to wait. I can't believe that MacWorld would even participate in the propaganda of being partnered with these goofballs. Why didn't they just use the Adobe Reader/Secure format? [alert admin]
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Sunday, April 10 2005 @ 02:15 PM PDT
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.9 (Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows 2000)
Simple, Clean, Gorgeous interface 
Just like the way Netscape did mail years ago, so too does Thunderbird. I downloaded it and set it up with our exchange server and one of my pop accounts. It's versy clean in each menu window, the preference window is much like NS was/is. All the basic stuff is there as well as some handy things most others don't seem to include. It seems to work just fine getting, sending, spellchecking, however the thing that seems to be a little slow is the address lookups. I am using it on a powerbook 550MHz with 512MB of ram so that could be contributing to the problem. I will say though that no other programs that auto-lookup/auto-fill addresses seems to have problems with doing so. I set it up to our ldap address book at the office and even with a G5 with 1G switches it didn't work. It's possible it may have something to do with my settings but none of the other e-mail programs seem to be fussy abou the same settings. I like the fact that you can setup your preview window in three different views. All the columns can be adjusted, removed, or sorted. The interface follows the Apple style with the included focus search line, (like the one in Safari where you can search google.) You can also remove columns from your view that you don't want to see very easily. The popup hints are quick and responsive. The Read/Un-read mail dot is large and easy to discern. The labels are nice but I would like to see some colors there. I checked under the rules window to see if maybe they included some color choices there and found none so I guess they haven't gotten that far yet. From the looks of things I am sure they will. Another nice feature is the collected addresses like AOL's Netscape. In the addressbook you have a group just for them. There is also a properties button which you can use to rename the personal address book or the collected addresses group. One thing I found to be really disconcerting was that when I added an address to the personal addressbook, Thunderbird attempted to connect to "rpg1-vip-m.blue.aol.com" on TCP port 80 (http) the question is why? If it's to copy the address to some server then fine, but at least tell me that you are doing so and since they don't tell me it causes me to question whether or not they are collecting these addresses for their own use. While I was writing this up I also got an alert from little snitch "thunderbird-bin wants to connect to iguana.mozilla.org on TCP port 443 (https)" Hmm...port 443? I don't have an imap account with them? Why is it trying to connect to them as well? If I may divert on this for just a moment I would like to add that too many developers are doing this. Why can't Allume tell me why it attempts to connect to the internet when I launch stuffit? Oh I know it's because it's checking for an update, but why not just tell me that? They do provide a button to disable it which is great but why not add an explanation right there for less sophisticated users? Give me more controls right there in the window so I don't have to make a trip to preferences? (Why isn't Walter Mossberg all over this?) It's quite simple. Allow us the choice to be more informed and state it clearly and simply at the beginning of launching the program, give us additional warnings with the option of turning off addtional warnings for the savvy user who understands their purpose and then be reminded next time so if they are a non-savvy user the next time they get prompted they will have had time to check with someone but were still reminded and able to temporarily shut off "phone home" connections. If you agree say Aye! OK end of inserted rant... On importing. Boy does this module need work. I gave up trying to import addressses because the method they use for mapping the fields is terrible. They need to follow Microsoft, Claris, or some other example of field mapping to make it more simple. Their method is really sub standard and needs a lot of work. Hopefully they will clean this up. In the addresses you get a "Map" button which as one would logically assume will go online and fetch a map for you for the selected contacts home or work address. There doesn't seem to be any way to change the four custom field lables which I would like to see changed. What good are they if you can't fully customize them? One glitch I noticed was that when I was in a compose window for email and clicked on the "save" button the resulting popup stayed there even while switching windows and views. Not sure if this is a feature or a bug. They have also positioned a security button in the top of the window which is pretty handy to have if you want to digitally sign or incrypt your messages. Nice feature. Overall it's a nice gui with some really clean windows. I gave it five stars in most areas except for documentation, features and quality/stability. ~j [alert admin]
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Saturday, December 04 2004 @ 03:11 PM PST
Saft 7.2.1 (Mac OS X)
Correction Hao Li ...Not once per hour but 7
Hao, I don't know what computers you used to test and I certainly am not trying to be a jerk, but the nag prompts were not coming every hour. They were coming about 7 times an hour. Once an hour would be no big deal. I re-installed again tonight to test and see if I was nuts or something and guess what? I got two prompts within the first 5 minutes of launching my browser. Is this what you intended? You should really try testing it on a Titanium Powerbook. If you like I can make a list of the software I am running so you can duplicate the setup. But if you think it's once every hour you are mistaken. I have to say though, I am kinda surprised that you would counter my negative review giving you a '1 Star' rating with your own '5 Star' rating in a desparate attempt to try and raise your "Star Average" back up again. This makes you appear to lack integrity. I don't think that was your intent. If I am looking at reviews and see a negative review, I think about the facts presented by the person who is being critical and weigh them carefully and then move on. It's not a big deal. Most people would have probably just ignore my post as a mindless rant. Check your facts. The timing is off. I expressed my opinion about it. You seem to think you have to neutralize my opinion. Just fix the darn thing and move on. that's my Opinion. ;-) [alert admin]
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Thursday, December 02 2004 @ 01:20 AM PST
StickyBrain X 2.0.2 (Mac OS X)
I had tried all the notepad apps available before I received an offer on dot mac for a free download of StickyBrain. Since it was free I couldn't turn it down. I tried it and I was instantly hooked. You can store links, email addresses, just about anything. The search feature is really handy because instead of flipping through pages of notes you can find exactly what you want with just a few keystrokes. There is a password proctection feature so you can protect any notes you choose. You can setup keywords and there are even some already created for you. There are quite a few handy lists that have been added as well so it is a great resource. States, Weights and Measures, 800 numbers for airlines, hotels, etc., check lists with handy checkboxes ready to go, pop in a calendar for easy reference. You can setup hot-keys, a quick launch button, there are even some pretty intuitive contextual menus. I would say give it a try and don't judge it until you really spend just a few minutes poking though the menus and creating some of your own 'notes'. The best part is the automatic backup. In fact before you start using it go straight to the preferences for the program. I was pleasantly surprized by what I found. I give it high marks for functionality. ~J [alert admin]
Saturday, October 30 2004 @ 08:03 PM PDT
SuperDuper! 1.5(69) (Mac OS X)
...why spend twenty bucks for something when there are several things already built into the OS for copying, including ASR & Disk Utility. Maybe someone can iluminate this issue for me? Are you using it? If so why? I have ditto, cpmac, cp, rsync, psync...oh yeah the free one "Carbon Copy Cloner". Please don't tell me it's left to an interface. (gui) What could it possible be except that? Come on guys n' gals, I would love to hear some opinions. What are your thoughts? Thanks! ~j [alert admin]
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Wednesday, October 27 2004 @ 10:34 PM PDT
CADintosh 5.2 (Mac OS X)
Needs improvement-especially the manual 
Have used Vectorworks and love it but it's so expensive. This looked like a bargain. Only problem is I spent two hours trying to draw what should have taken me 5 minutes even while stepping through a tutorial. I am not impressed. This guy should hand off writing the pdf to someone else who is more skilled at writing manuals. "Cadintosh an introduction.pdf" should be "Cadintosh Part two" He should have someone write a quickstart guide. Who friggin' cares if the decimal point is an international standard. Thats a piece of minutia that should be left in the reference manual. Not in the "Introduction". I found that while stepping though the instructions many things didn't behave the way the developer indicated that they should. At first I thought I was doing it wrong so I reapeated the steps finding that even the repeat processes were not consistent. I will keep watching though. It's improved from the last time I tried it. Besides he makes Graphic Converter which is a GREAT program. [alert admin]
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Sunday, October 24 2004 @ 12:17 AM PDT
Revival 1.0.7a (Mac OS X)
tried to download and the link is broken. tried other links to similar pages on the site and it looks like this guy is down. [alert admin]
Saturday, September 18 2004 @ 11:11 AM PDT
SyncUp 1.1 (Mac OS X)
I found SyncUp doinig a search for sync/backup programs. It was the last item on the last page all by itself. I downloaded it and tried it. I didn't check the integrity of the data but it looks like it works. I am impressed by the interface. It is clean, simple and very 'mac like'. There aren't a lot of controls or buttons and I predict this will probably make SyncUp really popular with individuals who just want a simple back up utility. I note in the read me it says it "no longer tries to preserve the owner, group or permissions of files." I wonder about that and hope Thomas Bauer will comment. I have been looking for a solution for a client of mine and have to say that this program has to be the easiest to use and understand of all the programs I have looked at to date. The only thing I would change would be the use of the question mark (?) as an icon to choose your destination file. Using the question mark is a little confusing since so many programs use the question mark for "Help." Funny thing is I contemplated for a few moments on what Thomas could have used and was unable to think of anything better. (Not that I necessarily would have! :-/) This app looks really good and I will continue to follow it's progress. [alert admin]
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Saturday, September 18 2004 @ 10:45 AM PDT
Snapz Pro X 2.0.1 (Mac OS X)
I downloaded it and tried to use the movie part. I can't seem to get the hang of it? It doesn't feel intuitive at all. The normal keystrokes for screen shots, (apple-shift-3, apple-shift-4) don't seem to work at all with it. I did see something about a bug with that so I tried another set of keystroks as a substitute and they didn't work at all. Any one have any suggestions or tips on how to use this? Thanks >@ @< { [alert admin]
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Friday, July 09 2004 @ 09:56 PM PDT
()
Nice, but one thing blows the whole deal
Great idea. However tying the registration to the computer name was pretty dumb. I would buy it if only it didn't work that way. I frequently change my computer name at work for varied reasons. There must be a different way they could protect the license then this. [alert admin]
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Saturday, January 10 2004 @ 10:28 PM PST
Last 10 Comments by bossa nova [ Search for All ]
Jelockwood, I whole heartedly agree. I change my computers frequently. Many times because of budget restrictions in our department I end up using hand-me-downs from vips at the company. Since I can't keep my old computers (they have to be turned in and every user is only granted one computer), I frequently install software to test on my computer and sometimes it gets hosed so I have to re-image. I made the dreaded Quark call last week…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, October 31 2004 @ 11:11 AM PST
Where is Ortlieb's post? ...Correction
I begin to feel socialist oppression when I can't find a post that several people refer to. Where is Ortlieb's post and if it's gone what was he saying? Can someone enlighten me? Thanks J
Original feedback item : Read More
Sunday, October 31 2004 @ 10:53 AM PST
I begin to feel socialist oppression when I can find a post that several people refer to. Where is Ortlieb's post and if it's gone what was he saying? Can someone enlighten me? Thanks J
Original feedback item : Read More
Sunday, October 31 2004 @ 10:45 AM PST
Gene have you contacted Chronos directly? I had that problem once and they guy who owns Chronos contacted me directly and gave me a way to recover my data. It seems that Sticky Brain does automatic backups, check in the preeferences under Backups for the file location you currently have setup. I later learned that the problem was not Chronos but some corrupt system files.
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Saturday, October 30 2004 @ 04:51 PM PDT
Frank, Thanks for a wonderful reply with lots of insight on why you like to use the program. Before I comment further I thought I would like to clarify my comments because it appears I offended you. That was not my intention. I am the kind of person who needs to get a lot of information about something before I fully commit to making it part of my 'regimen'. I like you are no expert in the terminal.…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, October 28 2004 @ 11:27 AM PDT
If You're Looking For Internet Security This is It
The only thing I worry about is we can't be totally sure that Little Snitch isn't phoning home.
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Thursday, October 23 2003 @ 01:25 AM PDT
Buggy application you grow to hate
deadman, I support quite a few writers who use it and I have never seen the issue you are referring to. I must admit I have seen some screwy things since they added the OS X version updates. My favorite was the version that didn't print. AT ALL. But I was always able to fix it by downloading the latest update. I do wish they would do something else with the Authorization scheme. It really sux…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Wednesday, August 06 2003 @ 09:10 PM PDT
