User Profile for summerstormpictures

User Name summerstormpictures

Member Since 2006-11-06

Total number of Feedback Posts: 8

Total number of comments: 0

Last 10 Feedback Posts by summerstormpictures [ Search for All ]

NetNewsWire 3.1.6 (Mac OS X)

I've been tooling around with NNW for about 2-months now but I really don't know why I need an extra piece of software just to read RSS feeds. I use something called RSS Menu, which monitors feeds in the menubar so you can just read them in your normal browser, negating the need to have a whole extra set of cookie preferences and so on. You can even set the updates for individual feeds from 5 to 10 to 30 to 60 minutes -- even to 6 and 24 hours. Much less overhead. No extra software running. Life is too busy to have to deal with something this involved to do something that can be done in existing software with just a little utility in the menubar. Nothing against NNW other than that -- but for those of the KISS (keep it simple) philosophy, I heartily recommend RSS Menu (it can be found on VersionTracker). [alert admin]

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Thursday, May 08 2008 @ 04:01 AM PDT

Miro 1.2.3 (Mac OS X)

Nicely done and a suggestion to make it better

Fairly simple and it's nice to have a sort of ''old fashioned'' way to just browse through a bunch of available channels and subscribe to a bunch of stuff I might find interesting. Suggestion: Take a look at what the folks at RSS Menu are doing. They have a very nice way to keep track of RSS feeds in the menubar and a feature like that for Miro would make this even better. This is what iTunes has been lacking since the get-go and if you want to attract a Mac crowd, this sort of quick access feature would greatly enhance the Miro experience. So far so good and I'm going to let this thing run all the time to see how it fits into my daily life. [alert admin]

avast! antivirus 2.74 (Mac OS X)

Yet another Windows bias -- how quaint

So in my confusion over how to install the license key for the "free" home edition that is linked to on the Macintosh page, I finally contacted their support, which to their credit, responded quickly. Apparently there's no free home edition for Macintosh users -- only Windows users. Why then have a link to a "free" edition for home users on the Macintosh page, and then not to anywhere specify that no such thing exists, is confusing and misleading. It's also Mac-unfriendly. Hate to say it, but this is yet another example of a Windows bias. This will turn a lot of Mac users off I'm afraid, and with a growing marketshare (who would have ever thunk?) it's not a "friendly" position to take. Another thing I also noticed upon dis-installing it (something there is also absolutely no adequate support on how to do) is that my machine (which is a very fast RAM heavy final generation Power Mac G5), suddenly ran much faster again -- noticeably so. I had no idea it was avast that had slowed things down so much. Also, once up and running for whatever grace (test drive) period was allowed, avast kept starting my email application without me asking. I have one "utility" account that has no email associated with it and to have avast constantly open it only for me to have to shut it down is a pain. No matter whether or not the mail support is checked or not this happens. Overall there is no help for Mac users other than to say "you can download a free edition" that is non-existent. Thanks, but I'll go back to using my trusty ClamXav. It doesn't provide much support either but it's free and it works like a charm and doesn't slow my system down at all. You set it to monitor email and choose a few folders (desktop, downloads etc.) to monitor and forget about it. Sorry avast guys. You're on the right track but give it another shot. [alert admin]

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Thursday, April 24 2008 @ 03:51 AM PDT

IP Address Menu 3.1 (Mac OS X)

Pay? For what? There are better ones free -- sheesh!

Seriously folks -- someone really wasted their time or is simply trying to catch some idiots here ready to throw their dollars away on something you can get free. What's the deal with this sort of thing? Should do your research and see what's free before paying for anything here. FREE: BwanaDik (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/25238) It does everything plus better -- and it's FREE! [alert admin]

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Monday, December 18 2006 @ 11:24 AM PST

Dock-It 2.5.2 (Mac OS X)

Switching users and dock disappears

When you switch between users and then back to the account running Dock-It, the dock is gone and the only way to bring it back is to do an Option-A to bring up the preferences, then simply close it -- then the dock reappears once again. Would be nice if this didn't have to be done. [alert admin]

SafariSpeed 2.0 (Mac OS X)

So what's the $8 for?

SafariStand (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26421) SafariPlus (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28647) Safari Enhancer (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17776) TinkerTool (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11967) All these are free and you can actually use them concurrently. I use SafariStand and SafariPlus. You can also use Camino with CamiTools which is even better. So I ask only, what good cause is this $8 going for? If it's world peace, by all means, go for it. [alert admin]

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Friday, November 17 2006 @ 05:35 PM PST

Edgies 1.1b2 (Mac OS X)

Pop-up still obtrusive and annoying and stuck

Two things: The first is about the nagging pop-up. This is such a great little utility but the image that is portrayed by the developers in having this pop-up that jumps in front of everything you are doing is absolutely unacceptable. Furthermore, it resides, and is "pinned" (stuck) in the middle of the bottom of the screen where I have clearly turned off where these tabs should appear and blocks other stuff. This is clearly a beta issue which brings me to the last point: If this is a beta, why do you have a nag screen at all? Are beta testers supposed to pay to test and give you feedback? Why do you shake down your "fan club" of beta testers with this useless and annoying thing? Come on. For such an inspired piece of software, you all must be capable of better than this. When you released your first version that was actually free of all this, I immediately recommended it to my "usual suspects" of Mac users to whom I provide technical support -- and all of them have turned it off now when I ask about it -- which is precisely why I am so strong in this review. One voice of discontent may mean nothing -- but many? We can't be the only ones upset with this. Unfortunately I am still unable to use or beta test this because of the above issue and still have to recommend sidenote, which again I am in no way affiliated with whatsoever. [alert admin]

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Thursday, November 16 2006 @ 04:11 AM PST

Edgies 1.0.4 (Mac OS X)

Good but annoying "*NOTE*" pops up

Liked this utility from the get-go but the latest version does indeed qualify as "nagware" for the simple reason that it is obstrusive and pops up its notice in front of all other applications. I don't know how many times I've been typing in something else and with my fast typing, I've lost concentration. This sort of "nag" really should stay with the other tabs and only come up when you bring Edgies up front. For a suggestion for a free alternative -- and I'm not in any way associated with it -- SideNote. While it doesn't have tabs, it's free and slides on and off the screen edge. Very organized and nice. Free suggestion to the Edgies programmer: How about also including applications -- allowing them to tab off until needed? This would be particularly nice with Apple Mail or Address Book -- things you want very quickly available but don't want to clutter up valuable screen space on a laptop. [alert admin]

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Monday, November 06 2006 @ 06:11 AM PST

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