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Advanced SearchUser Name brian163
Member Since 2000-02-21
Total number of Feedback Posts: 34
Total number of comments: 13
Last 10 Feedback Posts by brian163 [ Search for All ]
AcidSearch 0.62 (Mac OS X)
Of all the awesome free/shareware written for the Mac over the years and later seemingly abandoned, I lament AcidSearch most of all. Instantly a "must have" add-on for Safari it is another one of those features Apple should just build right into their browser and be done with it. (PithHelmet, another Safari plug-in based on SIMBL is the other. But at least begging and pleading from the Mac community have seemingly succeeded in arm-twisting the developer into keeping it alive from Safari build to build.) The latest betas up through 0.7b3 on Pozytron's site are not fully functional in Safari 3.x, constantly misbehaving by not clearing previous search lists, losing channel settings sporadically, menu items that don't function, etc. And development appears to have ceased back in November with nary an explanation-- long before the latest Safari 3.1 came along. Oh how I wish more of these little Mac gems were developed by a team of folks similar to open source projects. Of course, anyone can (and should) donate to show support to a solo developer but it's no guarantee the development will go forward when life interrupts their ability to stay up all night squashing bugs and fulfilling the endless supply of feature requests from their users. (I'm sure the few dozen donators listed on Pozytron's site can attest.) Alas, I'm left wrestling with this thing as-is because I can't make myself let go. I'll just carry on until it completely breaks and keeping praying that 0.7b3.1 will appear someday. ;-) [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 3 of 3 users found this helpful
Tuesday, April 08 2008 @ 07:28 AM PDT
AcidSearch 0.62 (Mac OS X)
Of all the awesome free/shareware written for the Mac over the years and later seemingly abandoned, I lament AcidSearch most of all. Instantly a "must have" add-on for Safari it is another one of those features Apple should just build right into their browser and be done with it. (PithHelmet, another Safari plug-in based on SIMBL is the other. But at least begging and pleading from the Mac community have seemingly succeeded in arm-twisting the developer into keeping it alive from Safari build to build.) The latest betas up through 0.7b3 on Pozytron's site are not fully functional in Safari 3.x, constantly misbehaving by not clearing previous search lists, losing channel settings sporadically, menu items that don't function, etc. And development appears to have ceased back in November with nary an explanation-- long before the latest Safari 3.1 came along. Oh how I wish more of these little Mac gems were developed by a team of folks similar to open source projects. Of course, anyone can (and should) donate to show support to a solo developer but it's no guarantee the development will go forward when life interrupts their ability to stay up all night squashing bugs and fulfilling the endless supply of feature requests from their users. (I'm sure the few dozen donators listed on Pozytron's site can attest.) Alas, I'm left wrestling with this thing as-is because I can't make myself let go. I'll just carry on until it completely breaks and keeping praying that 0.7b3.1 will appear someday. ;-) [alert admin]
Tuesday, April 08 2008 @ 07:27 AM PDT
PassportPicture 1.2.0b1 (Mac OS X)
Better than suggested by ratings 
I'm not a graphic artist but I am fairly skilled in apps like GraphicConverter, Elements, iPhoto, etc. And I have to agree with what the author mentions in his User Manual- that it is nowhere near as simple as it sounds to create a picture that prints at the correct resolution at a specific size for the average user. I spent two hours "twisting knobs" and getting less than satisfactory results in several of the above mentioned apps before doing a VT search on "passport photo" (which lead me here). 1.2.0b1 is the first version I tried so I can't speak to past experience. What I can say is that this version "works" (under 10.5.2). I took 4 photos of my family, dragged them in, sized them, selected the US Passport size, and printed them on photo paper at a very acceptable quality (as passport requirements go). I believe what at least one fellow commenter here may have been confused about is what confused me at first. Passports (at least US) have two size requirements. The size of the entire picture (2x2") and the size of the face within the picture (between 1" and 1-3/8", not kidding). So in "Picture Calibration" mode, the entire large preview window represents the "Picture Frame Size" (2x2", like a crop box) and the "Face Frame"" represents how large the face appears within the selected size. At first, I kept trying to scale the picture to fit within the face frame as if it were a crop box and wondering why all 4 pictures kept previewing at different sizes (some less than 2x2 making the software appear "broken"). So if anything, the documentation could be a little clearer and offer a few more tips. As far as price, do I wish it were cheaper? Sure. $15 for something I would -personally- only use once (US passports are good for 10 years) is a bit steep. (I don't really follow the "beta" argument as you could pay for the software and use v1.0.1.) But if I could go back in time (<insert favorite Leopard "TimeMachine" joke here ;-) >) I'd pay the $15 to get back those two hours PassportPicture would have reduced to minutes... [alert admin]
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Friday, March 14 2008 @ 09:15 PM PDT
Readiris Pro 11.6.2 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
To spare others the digging, here is the link to the support contact form on their site. Just pulled down the "online" list and select your country: http://www.irislink.com/c2-272-189/IRIS-technical-support-contact-information.aspx Hopefully IRIS will get their act together and either get the software's auto-update working or start notifying paid customers of updates. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Wednesday, February 27 2008 @ 03:53 PM PST
Speed Download 5.0 (Mac OS X)
Just the facts, m'am. (Not "useless")
I'm not defending Yazsoft's business practices (and I have not decided to purchase the 5.0 upgrade). But can we please at least stick with the facts in regards to the function of the software. It's primarily a download accelerator. Unlike the built-in download functions of browsers like Safari and Firefox, it can attempt to use multiple connections for a single downloadable file. If you have the Internet bandwidth available to you, it will absolutely accelerate the download in most cases. I've see 1GB files come down at the full 4MB/s (bytes, not bits) of my pipe. Without SD, that download would take 4-5 times as long (it attempts 5 connections per download by default). If you download lots of little files or are still on a 56K modem, then it may be "useless" for you. But clearly it has an all time "4 star" rating for a reason. And prior to this upgrade fiasco, I can say by personal experience that the developer is responsive to bug reports & such. So I'm hoping cooler heads will prevail and something will get worked out between the MacHeist managers and Yazsoft. (And then maybe I will get a free upgrade too!) But PLEASE stop posting "reviews" of this version that have nothing to do with the software itself. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 5 of 5 users found this helpful
Wednesday, February 13 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
Speed Download 5.0 (Mac OS X)
Just the facts, m'am. (Not "useless")
I'm not defending Yazsoft's business practices (and I have not decided to purchase the 5.0 upgrade). But can we please at least stick with the facts in regards to the function of the software. It's primarily a download accelerator. Unlike the built-in download functions of browsers like Safari and Firefox, it can attempt to use multiple connections for a single downloadable file. If you have the Internet bandwidth available to you, it will absolutely accelerate the download in most cases. I've see 1GB files come down at the full 4MB/s (bytes, not bits) of my pipe. Without SD, that download would take 4-5 times as long (it attempts 5 connections per download by default). If you download lots of little files or are still on a 56K modem, then it may be "useless" for you. But clearly it has an all time "4 star" rating for a reason. And prior to this upgrade fiasco, I can say by personal experience that the developer is responsive to bug reports & such. So I'm hoping cooler heads will prevail and something will get worked out between the MacHeist managers and Yazsoft. (And then maybe I will get a free upgrade too!) But PLEASE stop posting "reviews" of this version that have nothing to do with the software itself. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Wednesday, February 13 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
This Day in History 1.0.8 (Mac OS X)
Not fully Leopard (10.5) Compatible
I enjoyed this little Widget for years but it does not appear to be fully compatible in Leopard. The navigation buttons turn to question marks after hitting continue on start. Also, the link for this Widget is dead and there is no sign of it on the developers page. Something tells me they phased it out. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Friday, February 01 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
Speed Download 4.1.19 (Mac OS X)
Plug-in problem with latest version
A battery of tests has lead me to the conclusion that something is wrong with the browser plug-in install process under 4.1.19 (and 10.4.11 at least). You probably won't notice if you do the auto-update install or an "upgrade" replacement as SD just appears to leave the previous SpeedDownload Browser Plugin.plugin (v1.7.6) in place. But if your doing a fresh install, the new browser plug-in doesn't appear to function correctly with a significantly smaller file size and no version reference. Deleting the bad plug-in and re-"installing" (launching the app) from 4.1.18 seems to be a better bet. And you can still auto-update to 4.1.19 but the plug-in does not appear to change. I've also reported this to support. p.s. This seems to be another one of those pieces of software on VT that drums the ire of a select few. But I've been using throughout the 4.x series and never had it cause a major system problem. On the other hand, when it's turned off, I remember just how long big files take to download without it. In other words, after a while it begins to spoil you if you have a decent Internet pipe to reap the benefits of it's advanced download mechanisms in the first place. I'd recommend trying the demo to see if it will for you. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Sunday, December 23 2007 @ 07:18 PM PST
MacPorts 1.5.2 (Mac OS X)
You must use self-update to get 1.5.2.
Don't drive yourself crazy like I did trying to find a packaged 1.5.2 installer. As noted in the version comments, you have to obtain 1.5.2 through the command line (ports -d self-update). (Or try "Porticus" on this site for a decent MacPorts GUI which includes an "Update MacPorts" menu option.) Only download the above link if you don't have MacPorts 1.5.0 yet. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Monday, December 10 2007 @ 10:03 AM PST
Adobe Flash Player 9.0.60.184 (Mac OS X)
Not sure where VersionTracker folks dug this one up but it is definitely a BETA. Which means things may not work! For example, for those of us with young kids and like Webkinz- the site will no longer finish the login process and just hangs at 100%. Reverting to the 9.0.47.0 release will fix this. [alert admin]
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Saturday, October 06 2007 @ 03:24 PM PDT
Last 10 Comments by brian163 [ Search for All ]
Any chance it's coming out of beta soon?
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, September 03 2008 @ 09:55 AM PDT
Better than suggested by ratings
Sorry for the duplicate posting. Then again, it seems to happen all the time here on VT. :-( The first time I hit submit the site responded with a weird page about a "table crash" which lead me to believe it didn't take.
Original feedback item : Read More
Friday, March 14 2008 @ 09:18 PM PDT
Adds little - largely useless software
I'm not defending Yazsoft's business practices but let's stick with the facts in regards to the function of the software. It's primarily a download accelerator. Unlike the built-in download functions of browsers like Safari and Firefox, it can attempt to use multiple connections for a single downloadable file. If you have the Internet bandwidth available to you, it will absolutely accelerate the download in most cases. I've see 1GB files come down at the full…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Wednesday, February 13 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
If you browse through the developer's site, you'll come across a link to their beta test info. It appears the 4.x beta was latest updated August 2007 so that doesn't smell too good. I signed up for the beta anyway, maybe I'll get a response.
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, January 14 2008 @ 07:36 PM PST
2.x is 10.5 only, under 10.4 the installer will quit.
Original feedback item : Read More
Sunday, November 11 2007 @ 03:23 PM PST
2.x is 10.5 only, under 10.4 the installer will quit.
Original feedback item : Read More
Sunday, November 11 2007 @ 03:23 PM PST
Yeah, this comment is a serious heap of crap also. I wrote the author weeks ago when b12 died and no one has responded to date. Maybe he was in a coma. Maybe he's Rip Van Winkle. See? Anyone can make up excuses as dumb as this explanation. Why even try to cover the mistake? He screwed with a bunch of paying customers that expected better. Leave it at that, apologize, and start working on…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, October 22 2006 @ 10:13 PM PDT
Yeah, this comment is a serious heap of crap. I wrote the author weeks ago when b12 died and no one has responded to date. Maybe he was in a coma. Maybe he's Rip Van Winkle. See? Anyone can make up excuses as dumb as this explanation. Why even try to cover the mistake? He screwed with a bunch of paying customers that expected better. Leave it at that, apologize, and start working on beta…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, October 22 2006 @ 10:12 PM PDT
Yeah, this comment is a serious heap of crap. I wrote the author weeks ago when b12 died and no one has responded to date. Maybe he was in a coma. Maybe he's Rip Van Winkle. See? Anyone can make up excuses as dumb as this explanation. Why even try to cover the mistake? He screwed with a bunch of paying customers that expected better. Leave it at that, apologize, and start working on beta…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, October 22 2006 @ 10:09 PM PDT
I don't understand this either. However, I've found a strange work around. Open the installer DMG file and copy to your hard drive (again). Run that version instead. For me, it seems to launch as if the beta has not expire. This really is the paid shareware twilight zone.
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, October 16 2006 @ 08:16 AM PDT
