Existing users, 
User Name pohld
Member Since 2004-03-27
Total number of Feedback Posts: 19
Total number of comments: 9
Last 10 Feedback Posts by pohld [ Search for All ]
iAlarm 2.03 (Mac OS X)
Nearly perfect, with a nice Sleep Timer feature letting you set volume level and time period for iTunes to play while you go to sleep. The Alarm options to wake you back up are several, and again you can set a different volume level than the one played at bedtime by the Sleep Timer -- essential for heavy sleepers like me. I crank the wake-up volume to max and Sleep Timer volume way down -- terrifies the neighbours and the cat in the morning when the Alarm mode kicks in, but manages to wake me. The Energy Saver issue is the only drawback, and a minor one IMHO. You have to make sure your Energy Saver panel in the Mac's System Preferences is set to put the computer to sleep "Never", cuz if it does, iAlarm can't wake the beast back up to play the alarm. You can use iAlarm's built-in energy-saver feature to put the Mac to sleep in a way that will allow iAlarm to wake it back up on time and play the alarm, but only at the expense of not being able to use the Sleep Timer feature, which is my main use of iAlarm. The trade-off is OK with me, but prevents me from giving iAlarm a 100% excellent rating. It only gets 95% -- still pretty good and well worth the modest registration fee, or delayed startup and reminder message if you don't register. [alert admin]
Monday, May 12 2008 @ 09:26 PM PDT
Tunatic 1.0.1b (Mac OS X)
Doesn't work on my Mac OS X 10.2.8 system
On Tunatic's VersionTracker page and the Tunatic website (http://www.wildbits.com/tunatic/) it says the application works with Mac OS X 10.2 and up. However, it certainly doesn't work on my Mac OS X 10.2.8 system. Within seconds of launching, and after a brief appearance in the menu bar, Tunatic crashes, taking down the Window Server and Loginwindow system processes with it. The Console log of the crash reads: dyld: /Applications/Audio Apps/Tunatic.app/Contents/MacOS/Tunatic Undefined symbols: /Applications/Audio Apps/Tunatic.app/Contents/MacOS/Tunatic undefined reference to _getlogin_r expected to be defined in /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib From my experience this is a typical Console log report produced by the crash of an application that the developer thinks is OS X 10.2 compatible, but actually isn't because of the version of compiler used. I don't recall the exact details, nor am I a developer myself, but a while ago I dug around online trying to resolve a similar failure of a supposedly 10.2-compatible app, and I think it was in a document on the Apple website that explained how this happens if you compile with certain versions of GCC? Does that make sense? Anyway, it wasn't too hard to find the info, if any actual developer is interested in the question -- just google with some of the text form the Console log excerpt I give above, and whatever other terms make sense to you. I know I found it fairly quickly. [alert admin]
Wednesday, September 12 2007 @ 01:48 AM PDT
Tunatic 1.0.1b (Mac OS X)
Doesn't work on my Mac OS X 10.2.8 system
On Tunatic's VersionTracker page and the Tunatic website (http://www.wildbits.com/tunatic/) it says the application works with Mac OS X 10.2 and up. However, it certainly doesn't work on my Mac OS X 10.2.8 system. Within seconds of launching, and after a brief appearance in the menu bar, Tunatic crashes, taking down the Window Server and Loginwindow system processes with it. The Console log of the crash reads: dyld: /Applications/Audio Apps/Tunatic.app/Contents/MacOS/Tunatic Undefined symbols: /Applications/Audio Apps/Tunatic.app/Contents/MacOS/Tunatic undefined reference to _getlogin_r expected to be defined in /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib From my experience this is a typical Console log report produced by the crash of an application that the developer thinks is OS X 10.2 compatible, but actually isn't because of the version of compiler used. I don't recall the exact details, nor am I a developer myself, but a while ago I dug around online trying to resolve a similar failure of a supposedly 10.2-compatible app, and I think it was in a document on the Apple website that explained how this happens if you compile with certain versions of GCC? Does that make sense? Anyway, it wasn't too hard to find the info, if any actual developer is interested in the question -- just google with some of the text form the Console log excerpt I give above, and whatever other terms make sense to you. I know I found it fairly quickly. [alert admin]
Wednesday, September 12 2007 @ 01:43 AM PDT
RandomNum 2.1 (Mac OS X)
Simple, easy to use, with a nice dash of extra functionality 
This is a nice simple tool that does what it's supposed to nicely, with a bit of added functionality that raises it above the sheer bare-bones minimum of simply providing one random number out of a user-set range at a time, as is the case with its too-simple rival DefGenerator 1.0. RandomNum's handy extras include being able to generate a list of random numbers rather than just one at a time, but this list is unnecessarily limited to a maximum of 100 entries. The user can set both a minimum and maximum value for the range from which random numbers are generated, but the results are limited to whole numbers, so if for some reason you want non-whole random numbers, you have to divide the results by the appropriate multiple of 10, which could be a nuisance if generating lists of more than just a few members. One can also set an option for "Gaussian" results, which generates random numbers between 2.5 and -2.5 with six decimal places of precision (i.e. six numerals to the right of the decimal point) in a non-uniform distribution (i.e. in some sort of bell curve with most values near zero and progressively fewer toward the positive and negative extremes), serving some undoubtedly useful statistical purpose. There is no documentation or help text, which along with the limitations mentioned above is why I'm not giving RandomNum an overall five-star rating. While it is true that no documentation is really needed to use the program (assuming anyone using the Gaussian option would know what that's all about without further elucidation), the topic of random number generation is not a simple one and it would be a nice extra touch to include some brief discussion to educate curious users, particularly regarding the fact that true random number generation is not actually possible through a software-only application like this, but requires a hardware component designed to provide truly random seeding. The Wikipedia entry for "Random Number Generator" provides further details for those interested, and tells us that software-generated pseudorandomness is close enough for all but the most demanding technical purposes (e.g. cryptology). However, Wikipedia also says that some software uses quite poor pseudorandomization algorithms, so again it would be both reassuring and educational if RandomNum included some documentation describing its own pseudorandom-generation methodology and relative validity. [alert admin]
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Thursday, June 07 2007 @ 08:26 AM PDT
Max 0.6.1 (Mac OS X)
Can it extract chapters from AAC files (non-protected)?
As you may know, if you burn a big multichapter AAC file to an audio CD with iTunes, the individual chapters are laid down as separate audio tracks named after the chapter titles. Very handy! Now I'm looking for a program that will cut out the middle man, so to speak, and extract individual chapters from AAC/mp4 directly to the hard drive, either as mp3 or AIFF. The desired final product is mp3. Does anyone know if Max can do this? Or anything else that can? Thanks! [alert admin]
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Sunday, October 01 2006 @ 09:03 PM PDT
Structure 1.0.2 (Mac OS X)
Very cool look at molecular structures of life
Beautifully rendered close-up view of the incredible molecular complexity that is the physical substrate of life. It would be a genuinely educational piece of software, and get a full 5 stars from me, if it included documentation on things like the intriguing substructural elements in many molecules, such as large shimmering transluscent spheres attached by thick, white hexagonally-shaped sticks (like a wooden pencil), or the radially symmetrical patterns of balls and sticks rendered in a dwarfed form within a large tube-modelled molecule. Of more practical urgency would be documentation explaining the various Preferences settings, like the choices for what property is represented by the molecule's colouring -- the default is "temperature". What's that mean? One might find some of the missing documentation at the website of the open source molecular modelling software used by the screensaver, NCBI's C++ Toolkit. A similar problem beyond the screen saver author's control is the absence of accompanying info displayed with some of the molecules. Structure downloads these models from a public database, so just like those annoying people who create mp3's with no identification of artist or song, some molecular biologists must be posting new molecules to the database without filling in the info fields. Grrr... [alert admin]
Wednesday, September 06 2006 @ 12:01 PM PDT
Cabos 0.6.2 (Mac OS X)
I've been using Cabos for a while and am very happy with it. One thing I'm not sure of is whether it is equivalent to plain old Limewire or Limewire Pro in terms of how much it can find. I was using Limewire and even paid to use Limewire Pro for a while, but I found Cabos a bit more responsive and streamlined, and less prone to crashing. But I haven't tried Limewire for a while, so maybe it's improved now. Cabos remains in active development, with regular updates. [alert admin]
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Friday, March 17 2006 @ 10:25 PM PST
Cover Version 1.1 (Mac OS X)
It gets 3 stars because none of the competition for OS X 10.2.8 can display album covers in an enlarged format, but on my system (Mac OS X 10.2.8, iTunes 6.0.4) it has the following limitations: a) Quitting the visualizer in full-screen mode crashes iTunes. This is not a show-stopper for me since I don't mind running it in windowed mode - in fact, I prefer it since then I have ready access to the iTunes controls. b) Can't access the visualizer's options. When I click on the colourful flower icon that appears in the upper right of the iTunes window while running Cover Version in windowed mode, I get a window with a splash screen for the visualizer, but I can't get past that to access the actual options. An earlier poster here said you can access the options if you turn the visualizer on with no song playing, but that doesn't work for me. Despite these two limitations, this visualizer does perform its basic function perfectly well in windowed mode, and nothing else I've been able to find for OS X 10.2.8 can do the same, i.e. display album cover in an enlarged format along with track info, so I'm happy and look forward to updated versions. [alert admin]
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Sunday, March 05 2006 @ 04:48 PM PST
Droffett 1.0.1 (Mac OS X)
I've only used Droffett a couple times, and it works as advertised just fine on my Mac OS X 10.2.8 machine. Seems to be one of those "do one thing and do it well" or at least "do it without crashing and causing immense annoyance" programs. Two additional features would make it more useful -- 1) if instead of just not moving files that have the same name as files already in the target location, it would rename the files in a user=configurable way, or even just by adding a number like a lot of other programs do in a similar situation; and 2) it would be great if it could optionally rename or add to filenames the name of each files enclosing folder. So if you've got a bunch of folders with, say, student names, and each contains a set of files with identical names like "test01", "test02", etc. it would be good if Droffett could add the folder names to those file names, so you would end up with the "flattened" collected files having names like "Smith test01", "Macy test 01", "Fritz test 01". [alert admin]
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Wednesday, March 01 2006 @ 11:54 AM PST
NETsettings NowPod 1.2b5 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
Can NowPod help in transferring data from Now Contact to Address Book?
I'm trying to get contact data from Now Contact 3.9.3 to Apple's Address Book 3.0.3. I'm running Mac OS X 10.2.8. Problem is Now Contact is totally hosed on this system (used to work fine) and now every time it starts I get a "no such volume exists" error message even after a totally clean reinstall. So unless and until I can fix that, I don't have the option of going into Now Contact and exporting the data in LDIF or vCards (the only two formats this version of Contact supports for exports). I need to get the contact data straight from the Contact file itself. I realize this file could be corrupt as part of the general Contact melt-down on this machine, but I also have backups of known good copies of the Contact file from before "the troubles" which contains most of the data I need. I don't have an iPod, but can NowPod be used to convert a Now Contact data file into a form which can be read or imported by Address Book? Thanks, - Derrick [alert admin]
Wednesday, August 17 2005 @ 09:55 PM PDT
Last 10 Comments by pohld [ Search for All ]
OMG, it really does seem to run on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)! Well, at least the basic recording at default settings does. Haven't yet delved to see if everything works as it should, or if the basic default setting recording that seems so far to be working breaks down with longer recording times. I'll post any such problems here, or if all goes well, post a glowing review in a week…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Monday, May 19 2008 @ 12:17 PM PDT
Asks for "Disc Tomato Torrent"
I've been using Tomato Torrent 1.5b1 for several months now on my Mac OS X 10.2.8 system, and it has always worked fine for me. This page offers a link to download it: http://sarwat.net/bittorrent/ though I haven't tried this particular link, and don't remember where I downloaded my copy from.
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Sunday, April 29 2007 @ 12:52 AM PDT
I'm pohld who posted the initial review in this thread, and I can confirm what the author says. 1.2 works very well indeed in Mac OS X 10.2.8 on my 500 MHz G3 iMac. Text is configurable, all three album art display modes (plain, waving flag, rotationg cube) work just fine. The only remaining instability is when I am updating my iPod shuffle with iTunes 6.0.4 -- combining that operation with Cover…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Wednesday, April 19 2006 @ 11:29 AM PDT
I don't think using software like this to limit kids' time on the computer is a cop-out. It's just a tool for doing the job. So rather than having to have the kids tell you when the're going to start their session and then you get out your stopwatch and then yell at them when time's up, you have this program take care of that. Think of it as a super-powered stopwatch.…
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Thursday, February 23 2006 @ 08:23 AM PST
xACT 1.4b25 .dmg file may be damaged
Sorry, should have mentioned that I got the link for the xACT 1.4b25 installer from the Developer's site at http://xact.fellowtraveler.org/. There's a link for the latest version of xACT too, 1.4b28. But apparently 1.04b25 is the latest version that will support OS X 10.2.8. Sometimes it sucks being two cats behind (Panther and Tiger).
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Wednesday, June 22 2005 @ 08:08 AM PDT
This problem of lock ups and Spinning Beachball of Death (SPOD) may be related to an ongoing difficulty Firefox is having with Flash, at least on Macs. I've worked around it by installing two extensions: Adblock and Flashblock. As their names suggest, Adblock blocks ads (and can be set to block Flash content), while Flashback solely blocks Flash stuff, which I think is the main thing that helps reduces freezes and SPOD's, though there are…
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Sunday, May 22 2005 @ 01:54 PM PDT
leocandian wrote: "I've never seen an app that modify my system preferences.... When I run the program , It change all my sound settings and I need move the VLC prefs to trash , and than restar my G5 to return to normal....." I don't seem to be having this problem on my system (VLC 0.8.1, OS X 10.2.8, 500MHz slot-loading iMac). Which system preferences and/or sound settings in particular are being modified…
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Sunday, March 20 2005 @ 02:53 AM PST
Just a quick addendum -- In my earlier message I claimed that MP3Gain could only adjust the volume of a track in 3 dB increments -- I think that's wrong, and it should actually be 1.5 dB.
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Friday, December 10 2004 @ 05:01 AM PST
I reckon its freeness is just the usual Microsoft strategy to dominate a sector by giving away for free an inferior but "good enough (just)" version of what the existing leading program (Flash or Illustrator in this case?) has to charge for, because they can't subsidize a free product like Microsoft can with its oceans of money and endless cash cow Windows. It's actually a predatory monopolistic strategy that should be illegal, but Microsoft…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Saturday, April 24 2004 @ 05:11 AM PDT
