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User Name robbnashville
Member Since 2003-09-27
Total number of Feedback Posts: 26
Total number of comments: 5
Last 10 Feedback Posts by robbnashville [ Search for All ]
Bento 3.0.1 (Mac OS X)
This is a fine update to Bento. The integration with iPhoto is very nice and some of the minor tweaks, such as icons that represent different libraries and the ability to sort libraries into folders is a welcome addition. For users who wish to share libraries on a small network, that ability has been added. There's more; but you can learn those from the official site. Those who have previously purchased Bento receive a $20 discount, making this upgrade very affordable. I just want to say that for those who criticize Bento, I'm not sure why that is. It is a low priced database for the rest of us. Even the $49 full price for version 2 was not that high; and the new discounted price for version 3 certainly can't be argued with. As for features, if you need FileMaker, by all means purchase it. For the rest of us who do not have those needs, Bento is a blessing and has been from Day One. I love VersionTracker and consider it a fine resource; but it continually surprises me how cheap some folks on here are. I suppose I can understand that if you are a small developer and have been accustomed to spending lots of time on a project and then sharing your hard work for free, you probably admire those who do. However, most people work to make money. There's no need to bash a developer or company who work hard on their software and then expect to be shown the money! No offense ... just my take on what I perceive as a lot of extreme complaints that have no bearing on a program's usefulness. If you don't want to spend money, that is fine. Some of us don't mind paying for what we use. [alert admin]
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Thursday, October 01 2009 @ 03:56 AM PDT
MacTarot 3.0 (Mac OS X)
I've reached my limit with this developer.
I have supported this developer for years. For several years when this was a subscription item, I paid the $25 per year ... not because the software ever improved but because it would expire if I didn't. In August 2009, I was promised a CD version of the software that would not expire for an upgrade fee. I sent the PayPal payment and have never received the software. I wrote to the developer after several weeks and was told that it was an international shipment and to wait a few more days. I waited another ten days or so and wrote back. I have not received a reply to my last email ... more than a week ago. I have today filed a PayPal dispute. My conclusions are that I should have paid more attention to some of the other comments about this software & it's developer. I did not give these comments their deserved attention because I assumed they were written by those who tend to poke fun at the tarot and those who use it. However, I must say that this developer does not provide excellent customer service; and I will no longer support this software. As a side note for those who do enjoy using the tarot, I have recently learned that there is a free widget that has a lot more layouts than this software, which has not changed substantially since the first version that I paid for. It's true that MacTarot has a somewhat prettier interface; but the tarot widget also allows you to save it's layouts to html which carry over card interpretations that you can see if you roll over each card. [alert admin]
Saturday, September 19 2009 @ 07:44 AM PDT
ShoveBox 1.7.2 (Mac OS X)
Great program & fantastic developer response! 
I have grown to depend on ShoveBox to keep myself organized. I own both the desktop version and the iPhone version. It does everything it should do and more.I am totally happy with both versions of the program. Because I am a well-organized individual, I need something I can depend on. Before discovering ShoveBox, I used EverNote and even paid for the pro version. I bought ShoveBox because I had issues with EverNote being "down" too much for my tastes and because I had to refresh EverNote for the iPhone each time I wanted to see the latest version of my note. This does not happen with ShoveBox because syncs are performed between the desktop & iPhone versions directly instead of going through a cloud, so to speak. EVEN BETTER, I upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5.7 last night which produced a syncing conflict. I wrote to the developer about 7 PM CDT. He replied almost immediately telling me he was working on a fix. When I got up this morning, he had already developed a fix. That was quick! This developer obviously takes pride in his work. I recommend this program to anyone. [alert admin]
Wednesday, May 13 2009 @ 02:56 AM PDT
OmniFocus 1.5 (Mac OS X)
Final Decision: The winner is OmniFocus!
I began testing both THINGS and OMNIFOCUS last summer and didn't make my final choice until after the near-final version of Things was released a few days ago to those using the beta version. Things is a beautiful program & it is very easy to use. However, my final decision is to go with OmniFocus because of it's superb power. IMO the purpose of a program like this is the ability to organize and view data easily in a number of ways to facilitate planning and actually accomplishing goals. While Things provides a great deal of what I need, the bottom line is that I found it's approach a little too scattered. It was often difficult for me to see all my actions & projects in one view for a given period of time. Because I am an organizer, I would file some tasks in "Someday", others in "Scheduled" and the rest in "Next". When I would try to see where I had an opening for another task or project, I often could not get a clear sense of my planning with Things. It's heavy use of tags is just not to my liking. I prefer the use of contexts, which are like categories. OmniFocus follows the use of contexts. (Things has something similar called "Areas"; but they are just not the same thing in practice.) Things does not allow the use of start dates as well as due dates. Even though it is true that projects should be constructed of single actions that can be accomplished at a given time, the ability of OmniFocus to assign start dates allows tasks to be unavailable until their start date. This approach gets them out of the way until I am ready to review them or focus on them. Also, Things just doesn't use dates well. OmniFocus not only allows easy entry of dates, it also presents the due date more clearly for each task and, because it has an inspector panel, it's easy to see more about repeating items, when items are due for review, etc.l. The final straw that broke the camel's back for me was the difference between the iPhone clients. If iCal had been able to handle to do items better (especially repeating tasks) and present them on the iPhone, I might never have started this journey. Both Things and OmniFocus have iPhone clients; but there's no real comparison. Things, like it's desktop counterpart, is very scattered on the iPhone, while OmniFocus is just as organized on the iPhone as it is on the desktop. Things only allows syncing while on the same wireless network. OmniFocus allows syncing via a number of methods; and since I am a MobileMe subscriber, I use that method, which allows me to sync from anywhere. I'm sure Things will meet the needs of many people; and for those who place a big emphasis on price, it will probably win. For me, time is money; and OmniFocus helps me get the most done. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 6 of 7 users found this helpful
Monday, January 05 2009 @ 01:48 AM PST
Things 1.0RC3 (Mac OS X)
I began testing both THINGS and OMNIFOCUS last summer and didn't make my final choice until after the near-final version of Things was released a few days ago to those using the beta version. Things is a beautiful program & it is very easy to use. However, my final decision is to go with OmniFocus because of it's superb power. IMO the purpose of a program like this is the ability to organize and view data easily in a number of ways to facilitate planning and actually accomplishing goals. While Things provides a great deal of what I need, the bottom line is that I found it's approach a little too scattered. It was often difficult for me to see all my actions & projects in one view for a given period of time. Because I am an organizer, I would file some tasks in "Someday", others in "Scheduled" and the rest in "Next". When I would try to see where I had an opening for another task or project, I often could not get a clear sense of my planning with Things. It's heavy use of tags is just not to my liking. I prefer the use of contexts, which are like categories. OmniFocus follows the use of contexts. (Things has something similar called "Areas"; but they are just not the same thing in practice.) Things does not allow the use of start dates as well as due dates. Even though it is true that projects should be constructed of single actions that can be accomplished at a given time, the ability of OmniFocus to assign start dates allows tasks to be unavailable until their start date. This approach gets them out of the way until I am ready to review them or focus on them. Also, Things just doesn't use dates well. OmniFocus not only allows easy entry of dates, it also presents the due date more clearly for each task and, because it has an inspector panel, it's easy to see more about repeating items, when items are due for review, etc. The final straw that broke the camel's back for me was the difference between the iPhone clients. If iCal had been able to handle to do items better (especially repeating tasks) and present them on the iPhone, I might never have started this journey. Both Things and OmniFocus have iPhone clients; but there's no real comparison. Things, like it's desktop counterpart, is very scattered on the iPhone, while OmniFocus is just as organized on the iPhone as it is on the desktop. Things only allows syncing while on the same wireless network. OmniFocus allows syncing via a number of methods; and since I am a MobileMe subscriber, I use that method, which allows me to sync from anywhere. I'm sure Things will meet the needs of many people; and for those who place a big emphasis on price, it will probably win. For me, time is money; and OmniFocus helps me get the most done. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 18 of 20 users found this helpful
Monday, January 05 2009 @ 01:45 AM PST
Fast DVD Copy 4.1 (Mac OS X)
I'm always amazed at some of the comments & reviews I see on this site concerning this application. I can only assume that the developer or users of another well-known, but difficult to maintain, application are writing these comments just to mislead people. This application has worked flawlessly for me for the most part since I began using it way over a year ago. It completes the full process of ripping and copying, which is something none of the other applications I've tried are able to do. Having said that, I will admit that I prefer ripping with this application and burning with Toast ... but since the two-step process is all that other well known, but difficult to maintain, application can do, I don't have a problem with that. Most of the time FAST DVD COPY can do the complete job itself; but the developers did tell me that Toast has a more highly developed burning engine, so I choose the two-step process ... but it's not really necessary. Fast DVD Copy does it all 99% of the time to perfection. Using the two-step process, I have had 100% success, which is more than I can say for that other well-known, but difficult to maintain, program with the developer who believes he is God. Thanks Velan for rescuing me from paying in Swiss Francs and being made to feel like a free-loader if I don't pay often enough. I prefer a developer who states a price for his program, posts updates that are downloadable without jumping through fire each time and only asks for more money when I change machines. To me, that is a reasonable way of doing business. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Saturday, November 29 2008 @ 06:43 AM PST
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I can't imagine any program like this costing $99. I'm sure it's 99 cents. It actually looks quite nice for a buck. [alert admin]
Friday, September 12 2008 @ 09:09 AM PDT
Fast DVD Copy 4.1 (Mac OS X)
Update -- Superior Customer Service / Intelligent Reply
I thought I would update my previous review. I continue to have excellent results with this application. Since my previous review, I did encounter one DVD that presented problems. For that DVD I finally ripped the content to a folder and burned the DVD with Popcorn; and it worked fine. Keep in mind that this was ONE DVD out of many ... so I would say that this software works almost flawlessly overall. One comment suggested that Fast DVD Copy burned a DVD with an inferior format (ISO9660), so I wrote to customer support about this. Basically, the comment is not true. This is the response I received from customer service. Again, I was very impressed with their professional response ... such a wonderful difference from the responses received from MTR (that is if you ever receive a response at all). This is the response from Velan: "Dear customer, That is not true, Fast DVD Copy burns the copies in UDF format which is the standard format for DVDs. In any case note that Fast DVD Copy uses the burning engine of the OS. Burning with Toast (or PopCorn) can sometimes produce better results, particularly when you are using an external drive that do not have a proper burning profile installed in the OS. This is because Toast includes its own burning engine that has many many years of development and supports virtually every DVD burner available in the market. Let us know if you need further help. Regards, Velan Technical Support" This is the company that deserves our support. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Monday, February 25 2008 @ 06:51 PM PST
Fast DVD Copy 4.1 (Mac OS X)
Honestly, I'm not sure why people have left negative feedback for this product. It amazes me really. Personally, I don't have much use for a product like this since I am single, don't have children to damage my DVDs and certainly want to purchase honestly what I use. However, I have a very good friend who has EIGHT children and was sometimes replacing damaged DVDs at an alarming rate. Since he is not computer savvy, I tried to help him come up with a solution. I read reviews here and decided to go with a different option, which proved to be quite difficult. First it took two programs to accomplish the task. The first involved sending Swiss francs to some cantankerous individual named GetterButz (I think) for a program called MacTheRipper. Even after receiving my friend's money, GeeterButz made him jump through hoops, addressing email a certain way before responding, etc. to get his serial number. I could go on and on about how difficult it is to deal with GeeterButz; but what's the point. Suffice it to say, all was finally resolved and the program worked OK but not nearly as intuitively or conveniently as Fast DVD Copy. However, there was never any notification of updates. Again it was a hassle to get any upgrades from Mr. Butz. Secondly, a second program is required to actually burn a copy of a DVD made with MacThe Ripper. Therefore, my friend had to purchase Popcorn, which is fine since it is from Roxio. Altogether though the investment was more than this program and produced no better results. Needless to say we finally gave up on dealing with the mysterious Mr Butz and bought this program. Fast DVD Copy works as advertised. It both copies the DVD and burns the archive copy from a single program. After having burned 25-30 archives of my friend's legally purchased DVDs, we have yet to make a single failed copy. (Of course, we used high quality Verbatim discs.) The only reason I can think of that people would give this program a negative rating is that they are cheap. Yes, it's $100; but as I said, it's really no more expensive in the long run than the other solution and so much more convenient. Spend the $100 if you need this; and use quality DVDs for your archives. You won't have a problem. [alert admin]
Read Comments (2) | More Info | 1 of 3 users found this helpful
Saturday, February 09 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
SnapWeb 4.0.1 r1 (Mac OS X)
Excellent application & developer support.
I recently wrote to Marcel regarding SnapWeb & Leopard. He has shown incredible responsiveness and has made SnapWeb totally compatible with Leopard. SnapWeb can snap pages the others can't. Developers like this deserve the respect and the support of the Mac community. [alert admin]
Thursday, November 08 2007 @ 03:41 AM PST
Last 10 Comments by robbnashville [ Search for All ]
I understand your issues. However, I must say once again that Bento does not do everything a full database program does. Perhaps any database program SHOULD print mailing labels; at least, I would have said so ten years ago. However, nowadays I admit that I don't print mailing labels since I no longer mail much of anything. Like most people, I email almost exclusively. Even newsletters are emailed. I know a lot of people have…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Monday, October 05 2009 @ 10:48 AM PDT
I haven't really used this particular app; but RipIt also creates a package file with the "dvdmedia" extension. If you like the tidiness of this approach, as I do, you can also just right click on the file and select "show package contents". This opens a finder window with the VideoTS folder visible. You can then drag that onto a Toast window; and you should be fine. As I said, I have not used this…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, April 30 2009 @ 03:26 PM PDT
Omnifocus-Cannot see my actions in context
No offense ... but you have not learned the program. There are several great videos on the Omni Group's site and Screencasts Online has others that would benefit you if you prefer not to read the manual. Basically, you "plan" in the project view and "do" in the contexts view. Perspectives and the view menus help you to filter in or out actions that you want or do not want to see at any particular…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, January 08 2009 @ 01:49 AM PST
Too difficult to make a gift for a great program
Before you resort to getting a Windows machine to do this, have you tried Fast DVD Copy? Honestly I know what you mean about GeezerButz. He's just not worth it anymore. I had read negative reviews of Fast DVD Copy; but I bought it when I became so totally disgusted with jumping through hoops for Mac the Ripper; and I was so pleasantly surprised. One program does it all. Using high quality Verbatim media has…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Saturday, February 09 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
I second your sentiments entirely. It's true that Intuit needs to outfit the Mac version of Quicken with a better look and add some features, although it pretty much does what I need it to do now. At this point, Quicken is the only program out there that gives me even that much.
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, October 11 2007 @ 05:54 AM PDT
