Cuil is a new search engine. It has been the subject of posts on the popular tech blogs in the last few days (1 posts, they all post )

While I haven’t read them all the only thing I really picked up was that the pictures disabled didn’t always correspond with the search result.

So Why Am I Posting?

Well, because I gave it a try and was surprised at the results (or lack of them returned).

Cuil have some very good PR words on their About page and on their Philosophy page. They talk about some very interesting values for web searches which I am mostly in agreement with if only they can deliver them.

Some of the main points Cuil make are:

(Please click on any image to enlarge where necessary)

The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search engines have not kept up—until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance.

and

Cuil’s goal is to solve the two great problems of search: how to index the whole Internet—not just part of it—and how to analyze and sort out its pages so you get relevant results.

it’s well worth reading their About Us and Philosophy pages if you are interested in what Cuil (and good search engines should) strive to achieve.

The current problem seems to be that they are failing to meet their aims by a rather long way.

So What’s the Evidence

Well I am as bad as anyone when it comes to the “ego search” and fortunately I have the advantage of a less popular first name and an uncommon surname, so the combination of the 2 normally result in fairly limited hits from a search engine. I am also fairly familiar with the hits I expect to see from the “major” search sites in popular use . I also regularly search against proreviewer and my name as well as post subjects to see how my posts rank.

(Generally pretty well – )

So when I read the posts on Cuil I set out to try a few of the standard searches that I usually try on Google. (If you want a good reason as to why I use Google then look at this report on traffic sources to Proreviewer from Google Analytics – it seems that most of the world use Google)

I first tried a basic search in Cuil of

barry cleave

and got the following result:

as you can see there is no barry cleave in the first returned result (top left)

Google will return:

and in fact al the results down to 15 except number 10relate to me and other results I see are expected relating to other barry cleave web pages for people with the same names.

You will notice above that barry cleave does not appear on Cuil in the first position nor does it appear on the page or subsequent pages Ok you may say that this is vanity on my part but the fact is that I am using a fairly unique search term on a search engine that claims to index more pages than Google and is meant to be providing relevant results. No hits of barry cleave, whether me or someone else, is not providing relevant results.

So I tried the search again and interestingly now got 26,331 results for barry cleave as against the 36,302 results for barry cleave from the first time I searched – what caused the difference in a couple of minutes?

Moving on to a phrase search – “barry cleave” appears to be no better:

Go to Page 2 for more details and screenshots

Go to Page 3 for ProReviewer Summary

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(Picture from last year – we are going back as it was so nice and so very peaceful)

For the past week I have been too busy with my day job to write any posts. The normal having to do two weeks work before I go on leave and two weeks when I get back!

I had hoped to get a couple of posts ready before I go but haven’t had the time so please be patient service will resume as normal when I return. In fact if things go to plan I will have written a few posts on my trusty old Acer laptop while I am away.

If I can find an Internet cafe where I can upload I may be able to  post something but I can’t count on it.

Barry

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My current installation of Windows XP is now grinding to a halt. (Not sure if that is the right expression as whenever a Windows OS reaches this stage, in my experience, it is in fact resulting in endless disk activity and very little else

Anyway the time has come to reinstall an earlier backup, update with the latest “Windows Security Updates” and then reinstall the essential software.

This gives me a great opportunity to share with you all the details of the software I currently have installed, the programs I consider essential and the ones I won’t be bothering with in future . Of course this will be my very subjective view but I hope it will be of some use to you all in your decision making. A you probably know by now one of the main aims of my Blog is to help you in making decisions about what software and particularly Freeware to install. So the next couple of pots starting next week will cover this aspect.

So I intend to produce a table of my currently installed software, whether I will or won’t reinstall it and the reasons why!

Holiday Weekend

It’s a Bank Holiday this weekend in the UK and I am off to see my new grandson for the first time. You will therefore have to forgive the lack of posts over the next 3 days. It would be a great opportunity to reinstall a new XP system if I was at home but then it’s going to have to wait.

XP – Vista – Linux

I am seriously considering taking my need for this XP reinstall to set up a multi-boot system for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux. This will greatly increase the relevance of my posts. Also it is the ideal time to install XP SP3 (Service Pack 3). Again I will “post” on progress to let you know what is successful and what is not. (in my opinion )

Whatever I decide in the end I will keep you all informed of the good, the bad and the ugly of this process.

Other Relevant Posts:

Why I decided to Write this Blog

What Do You Think About – Reviews – Research – Testing – Subjective Viewpoints – Philosophy

Save Time, Effort & Maybe Money – Use Web Reviews Before you Install or Purchase – Part 1

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Warning: This is a subjective and slightly philosophical post – My Personal Viewpoint – Feel Free to Disagree or Just Ignore

What resources does a program use, how do you measure them, does it mean anything?

Research, software testing, subjective viewpoints of the user all present challenges to giving expert opinion.

I received an interesting and valuable comment on my AVG 8 Free post (NEW – AVG Anti Virus 8 FREE – Quick Review) from mulligrub:

Good review but a few questions.

The 2 biggest pluses for AVG free in the past are:

1. Free &;

2. Very low overhead – doesn’t use much system resources in day to day operation

The negatives include:

Not the fastest when scanning

Only daily upadtes

Outdated User Interface (looks like that has been addressed)

No Spyware, rootkit, spam protection (Spyware included in AVG8)

So if we are getting more (spyware scanning) in a flashier package
still for free the only achillies heel I can see will be the resource
usage

have you compared what level of resources it is using now?

Does the user experience ‘feel’ slower?

I am keen to know before recommending to family and friends and will test for myself too

Cheers

Well firstly thanks to mulligrub for the comment, and secondly thanks for sparking my interest to write this post!

I felt a more detailed answer and explanation is required, far more than just a comment reply on the original post. This is because it gets into some of the basic philosophy and policy I have tried to put in place for this blog.

A bit of background information is relevant to explain where I am coming from:

When I first decided to start this blog I was keen that it should provide information in a way that was a bit different to some of the other blogs in this area. I wanted to give readers a bit more detail in order to help them with decision making in terms of whether it was worth their time and effort to try a particular program or utility. The idea was to help with the decision making process not to make the decision and say this is “best” or don’t use something because it performs badly in some way or another. That I want to write about something, a program, a tip or some advice, means that I feel it is worth some effort and will be useful to the reader.

I was also keen not to get into the position of being overly judgmental on the merits of any particular item of free software against another. In particular I was very aware that I would never have the time to carry out proper comparative testing, so any opinion I could ever give would be subjective and based on a very few available facts.

It is my background as an engineer and researcher/scientist that makes me cautious to provide opinion without proper testing. I am more comfortable with giving my personal and very subjective viewpoint. The reader can value that, or not, based on their opinion of my posts.

To understand where I am coming from a little more information. I am a Civil Engineer by profession and my work over the past 10 years has involved me in research and “high level” consultancy into the performance of infrastructure assets (highway assets – that is anything that is built as part of the highway infrastructure – roads, bridges, tunnels, drainage, lighting, signs, barriers, signaling systems, etc.) and into the development of systems to manage them which includes developing software tools. Therefore, I hope I am in position to talk with some expertise on research/testing and subjective views/perception.

My approach is therefore from this point of view when asked particular questions such as:

1. Have you compared what level of resources it is using now?
2. Does the user experience ‘feel’ slower?

Question 1 raises several points regarding research/testing:

To “scientifically” measure resources to compare the two versions of AVG (or any two or more software utilities) would require defining a detailed test procedure that was, as far as possible, exactly the same for both versions. It would also require to properly test all the various working aspects of the software over a range of conditions, hardware and operating environments, some of which may use more or less of the defined resources to be evaluated than the other, this would include -

What resources are important – What difference would a limit on one or more resource in the test set up make to the results eg slow CPU, small amount of RAM, slow FSB, slow disk drives, etc.

I could raise a lot of other “variables” that could effect the results and opinion but I hope you can see the difficulty.

Furthermore from the ProReviewer point of view, I only currently have the ability to test under an XP OS environment on a couple of PCs, so I wouldn’t be able to do justice to the software I was reviewing at the level of detail required to carry out proper detailed comparative testing, even if I had the time.

Many of the professional PC magazines cover this area fairly well but even with these you can see there has to be limits to their testing methods. They can’t test all possible combinations of software, hardware and operating systems.

Question 2 is also very interesting because it raises the question of subjectivity:

Here I am happy to give MY subjective viewpoint, this is what I do in the “What is the Proreviewer Experience” section of my review posts. What you must understand is that subjective means that is how I perceive the software.

Again I feel I need to write a quick note on subjectivity.

If you open a program and it is up and running in a couple of seconds you are probably happy. If it takes a minute you won’t be. Or is that really true, if it takes a minute but it is an autostart program do you really notice? Maybe yes – maybe no.

If you run your PC 24/7 and have an Antivirus program set to scan your system at 2.00am in the morning when you are asleep until 6.00am do you care if it takes 4 hours. If you only scan your system in the brief periods you turn your computer on and it slows everything down then obviously you will care a lot!

If your Antivirus program “realtime” scanning of files (as they are opened by an application) has an impact of say 0.1 second when a file opens do you care? Probably not.

However if you have say desktop search software scanning thousands of files for content then the 0.1 second per file has a very real impact on system performance. Now you really do care.

Have you noticed how when you need to open a document and print it, or go to a website for some directions to a place when you are already late leaving seems to take forever?

I hope you can see that your subjective view of a program is dependent on many factors but principally how it effects your experience and what you are trying to accomplish.

Congratulations to anyone who has stayed awake long enough to read this far into the post .

Feel free to tell me what you think just remember:

A couple of quotes to put things in context:

There are no stupid questions – just stupid answers!

——————————————————————–

A man is getting along on the road to
wisdom when he begins to realize
that his opinion is just an opinion.

——————————————————————–

One accurate measurement is worth
a thousand expert opinions.

——————————————————————–

What Other Relevant Posts are There?

NEW – AVG Anti Virus 8 FREE – Quick Review

Site Index

Save Time, Effort & Maybe Money – Use Web Reviews Before you Install or Purchase – Part 1

Save Time, Effort & Maybe Money – Use Web Reviews Before you Install or Purchase – Part 2

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This is part of the series :

10 Ways to Save & Protect Your Data – Even files You Just Saved or Text You Just Typed

The aim of which is to present good ways for backing up data in various different time frames, depending on the importance of the data and the need to restore it quickly or not.

Disclaimer

By necessity the information given is a simplified version of the situation you will normally encounter for a Windows OS and is based around XP. The infinite number of ways in which installations of a Windows OS can be varied followed by all the different ways in which programs can be stored or the places in which personal files can be written makes it impossible to be totally precise or to cover all eventualities.

What’s the Problem?

In order to develop a backup plan you first need to know what you should be backing up and where it is located. Unfortunately Microsoft and program developers for Windows based systems have found numerous different places to store program and personal data. Many of the ways are inconsistent and are often not intuitive, meaning that just because one program stores its data in a subfolder of a particular directory doesn’t mean that program X will do the same. In fact there are numerous different locations where program data may be stored and the same program may store different types of information in different locations. Confused? You will be .

Ultimately if you want to have a full recovery backup for a PC hard drive failure of other catastrophic data loss you will be interested in all the information necessary to restore your PC. However, for this type of backup you probably don’t need to know to much about where the data is stored except for which drives and partitions it is on. For backups targeted at particular personal files or programs you have loaded you need a lot more information.

What are the Different Types of Data & Where are They Kept?

For the purposes of this series of articles I am going to simplify the process and define the different types of data into four different groups:

1. Operating System
2. Applications/Programs
3. Applications/Programs Settings
4. Personal Files

In reality there will be a certain amount of overlap between groups and some data that may arguably fit into another area altogether.

1. Operating system data resides (principally) in it’s own drive and folder. This will normally be on the C drive in a folder called Windows but both the drive and the folder name can be defined differently when the operating system is installed. To check this you can start the System Information Utility (Start>Program Files>Accessories>System Tools>System Information – System Summary option – The Windows Directory and System Directory items show you where the data is kept. By the way this utility gives you a lot of details about the system) . This is where all the main programs/utilities/drivers and the system registry reside.

The Windows Registry, from my personal perspective, is a complete nightmare. Have you ever watched one of those crime programs where they spend days looking for body parts in a landfill site, well that’s my mental picture of the registry. Not only that if in your search for a something important and you move a half eaten can of bake beans a mile away then civilisation as we know it ends and cannot be recovered! OK that’s a bit of an exaggeration but years of experience have shown me that it takes about 40+ man hours to reinstall a Windows system plus all the programs and settings for one of my average setups (assuming I have reasonable backups of data files but not the system itself). Trying to sort out registry problems always takes longer and is never perfect.

2. Applications/Programs generally reside in a folder called “Program Files” on the C Drive which is normally the default location in a system that has been installed as standard. (Remember though that you can install a Windows system to almost any fixed drive and name the folder to anything you want) Occasionally some programs will install into the C Drive under a folder name associated with the program. Generally the program installer utility will ask you where you want to install the program so if you prefer to install all your programs on another drive or in another folder you can do this. BUT beware quite often the program will still install some “common” library functions or drivers elsewhere. For instance these may be under C:\Program Files\xxxxxx for the library files and in the Windows System folder for drivers. So already there is a problem in knowing where all the data resides for the programs you install.

3. Applications/Program Settings – Program settings can be stored in many places and frequently are. A single program will frequently put data in more than one place. At one time (long, long, ago before MS decided everything should be stored in the registry or user settings folders) programs stored information about themselves in terms of user configuration and last used settings in a file (*.ini) associated with the program or maybe some sort of data file (often a *.dat file) in the programs own folder or subfolder. This seems a pretty good idea to me in terms of backup, if I save the programs folder then I have essentially a complete backup of that program, if everything I need to run the program the way I want it is in there and nothing is in the registry that seems to be a great solution. If I am in a multi user environment then what’s the problem? Just name files or have pointers within files that deal with each user. Finally keep the files in a simple text format so that you can see what’s going on or (for the “power user” change anything that is obviously wrong) – why not?

So generally this type of data will be stored in:

1. The Windows Registry
2. User Settings folders (Generally C:\Documents and Settings/All Users or C:\Documents and Settings/”username” where username is your login name)
3. Files kept with the program installation folders or subfolders
4. Somewhere else (unusual but not unknown)

4. Personal Files - Personal files will generally be stored under the My Documents/My Pictures/My Music etc. folders and subfolders which are within the Documents and Settings folders for the user on a Windows system (C:\Documents and Settings/”username”). However, individual programs may choose to store files created elsewhere or the user may set folders in which to store particular files. Files may be stored in other folders in the Documents and Settings area that are designated by the program being used which may be under My Documents but also may be an independent folder. At other times they may (unusually) be stored in a folder on the main drive (generally C:\xxx) or in the Program Files subfolder for the program. Where you have control over the place files are written then some thought needs to be given on where you store these files and the reasons for this will be given in a future post in this series – Where to Store Your Original Data.

Portable Programs/Applications

Regular readers will know that I am a great advocate of portable applications. One of the best things about them, when they are properly set up and implemented is that all the essential data is located within a single set of folders and subfolders relating to the program. Where some data may need to be written elsewhere say to the registry or Startup folder then this is non critical and should preferably be included in an data file within the program folders so that it can be automatically replicated when the program is copied/ to another system and started for the first time.

Summary

1. Different data files for different purposes are stored in a variety of places and formats
2. Windows and program developers control where much of this data is stored
3. The storage of critical data files may be (is?) inconsistent in terms of where and how it is stored
4. Where the user has control over where data is stored this needs careful consideration in terms of accessibility and backup planning
5. Using Portable programs/applications generally gives better control over data location and backups

Other Relevant Posts:

10 Ways to Save & Protect Your Data – Even files You Just Saved or Text You Just Typed

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

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How to Stack the Odds to Get a Good Experience

Having used the purchase of the external hard drives as an example of where I had a bad experience I will use their replacement to demonstrate how to try to avoid some of the pitfalls.

As I said in the first part of this article my preference was for Network Attached Storage for this particular purpose. The reason for my previous purchase of FireWire/USB was that this option was considerably cheaper than any NAS devices I could buy at the time. Therefore I let the savings weigh too heavily against the lack of available information or reviews on my purchase. This time I was more determined to go for NAS rather than external hard drives but price still had a big part to play. The main requirements were preferably 2TB, NAS, secondary preferences were RAID configuration and user security/login options. Other facilities such as print server and Internet file access/server were not important.

Over time I have built a short list of reputable Internet companies that I start of by using to see what is available whether I am looking for the best deal on a particular item or I am looking for a product in a particular class as in this case. This list remains fairly stable as a core list of trustworthy companies with competitive prices as well as excellent “terms & conditions” for support and returns. This forms a starting point for my “research” but is not an exclusive list as far as any decision is concerned as I will explain later.

Using my core list I quickly narrowed things down to a short list of NAS devices that met the requirements of storage size, price and overall specification. It was clear that NAS devices still seem to command a premium price when compared to “External Hard Drives” which is surprising as in terms of hardware and production costs they must be almost identical. In fact when you see NAS boxes with “TB of storage selling for substantially more than a Windows Home Server PC plus some additional hard disks to make it up to 2TB you have to wonder what’s going on .

Having narrowed my options down I found that the best value money, by some way, was the Western Digital My Book 1.5TB NAS which also offered remote access and sharing. I then set about looking for reviews and information on it at various locations. The main sources | normally use and would recommend are :

• The Internet sales sites for specification, user manuals, policy on guarantees and customer reviews (for positive and negative feedback)
• The manufacturer for detailed check on specifications, support area FAQ’s, firmware or software updates, Forums
• Major Technology sites and PC magazine Internet sites for reviews and reports
• Blogs for Reviews and Comments on products
• Groups and Forums for reviews, comments and particularly negative feedback

In going through this process I keep an eye out for alternative products that may appear in the reviews or comments. I also watch out for similar products by the same manufacturer as this may be a further guide to quality and service.

The most important thing is to take a balanced view of what you read. Reviews by the manufacturer will of course set everything in the best possible light but if they also point to independent reviews and awards then these should be followed up. (Make sure that you believe the authenticity of any independent review, you should have no problem with reputable magazines and tech sources but it is not unknown for some smaller operators to be up to no good)

When I was looking at the 1.5TB reviews and comments there were quite a lot of very negative comments from customers on a couple of the major Internet sellers websites. At first I was rather disappointed as I thought this would mean I needed to find an alternative which would be far more expensive. However looking at some of the reviews in detail and making comparisons with other comments and the product specification revealed a lot more. What became clear was that many comments resulted form unrealistic expectations or understanding of the product followed by a somewhat prejudiced reaction. In this case two things were clear, the bundled software for connection and sharing appeared to not work properly and secondly the Western Digital approach to DRM and sharing over the Internet was being attacked. So a little more delving showed that the bundled software was not necessary except for Internet sharing and that if the device was uses as a straight NAS device and configured through the internal Web Interface then there were no problems.

The final part of the decision making process is where to purchase from. For me this is very dependent on the type of product I am purchasing. If it is electronic or mechanical (or a combination of both as with disk drives) I consider this quite high risk in terms of possible early failure through bad luck or manufacturing problems. I will already have considered this in selecting the manufacturer but I like to know that the online retailer is likely to provide a good returns and support policy and I am prepared to pay a little more for this. If I am buying low cost or low risk goods such as software or consumables then I will look for the best price option. In making these decisions remember that you need to take into account postage costs, delivery times and additional security or rights you may get through the method of purchase. (e.g. In the UK using a credit card provides additional rights and even insurance for certain purchases).

In Summary I suggest that the following process is advisable:

1. Select possible products
2. Gather “Research”
3. Review research for validity and weight accordingly
4. Decide Yes/No to purchase
5. Find prices including postage costs
6. Decide level of cost v “terms and conditions” that is appropriate
7. Check delivery times etc. meet your requirements
8. Use most appropriate payment method

Good luck in all your future purchases

Technorati Tags: Electronics, External Hard Drive, Free Reviews, NAS Device, Network Attached Storage, Pro Reviewer, ProReviewer, Reviews, Windows, Windows Home Server

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A Bad Experience

About 9 months ago I bought a 2TB external storage device. My preference was to go for a NAS (Network Attached Storage) unit as I already had a couple of these and liked the fact that they were universally available over the home network. A bit of searching around on the Internet showed that there was a 2TB FireWire/USB interfaced unit for about 60% of the price I would be paying for a NAS device. The 2TB unit was new on the market but came from what I understood to be a large, reputable company with plenty of other external storage products which had a good track record. This was quite a sizeable purchase at over £400 ($800) so I did not commit to this lightly, but I decided the saving was to good to pass and ordered it (over the Internet). The device duly arrived, I plugged it in and everything was up and running quickly with no problems. In fact I was so pleased that I decided to buy a second unit a couple of weeks later and daisy chain them together.

The second unit arrived and was duly connected up without any problems. However I soon noticed that the second unit which was daisy chained to the first on the FireWire connection kept loosing connection to the PC. This could be overcome by powering off and rebooting the unit but connection would again be lost in a matter of hours. If I connected the new unit directly to the PC things were better although connection would still go down randomly, but if I then daisy chained the original unit to the new (or vice versa) then it would loose connection. I overcame this by connecting both units directly to the PC via FireWire. The other problem was that the devices run very hot, in fact I would stand my coffee cup on one of them to keep it hot. The power supplies ran even hotter which is probably why they were failing as they appear to be under designed for the task.

Then after about 6 months one of the units would not connect at all, the power light was on but never got past the boot stage where the light flashed rapidly (on completion of booting the light should be on steadily and only blink when data transfer occurred). I started to do a bit of searching on the Internet and soon discovered that these units were having (external) power supply problems. Luckily (??) as I had two devices I was able to swap the power units over and this confirmed it was the problem. I duly contacted the manufacturer and explained the problem (via web forms, no alternative contact by phone or direct email was available) also saying that as this appeared to be a known problem would they supply two new power supplies. Of course standard replies came back and they would only exchange on the basis of retuning the old failed unit so no chance of two new power supplies. I sent the unit back by recorded (signed for) delivery about a week after I the unit had failed, 4 weeks later the exchange unit arrived and no offer to pay postage costs. Needless to say I was not impressed!!

A couple of months later the other power supply failed and I was pretty hacked off about that. At this point I decided to go back to to Amazon (UK) who had supplied the units. I felt that the two storage devices were not fit for purpose for the following reasons:

1. Failure of power supplies
2. Excessive temperature of power supplies and drives
3. Random Loss of connectivity

Amazon(UK) agreed that they could be returned for full refund so I started to look for replacements to move the data to before returning them. (One of the reasons that Amazon is one of my favorite Internet supply companies for electronics is their excellent policy on support and returns)

See the next post in this series (to be posted 24/03/2008) for information on how I chose the new units and how with some careful research of reviews you may get yourself a bargain!

Save Time, Effort & Maybe Money – Use Web Reviews Before you Install or Purchase – Part 2

Technorati Tags: Electronics, External Hard Drive, Free Reviews, NAS Device, Network Attached Storage, Pro Reviewer, ProReviewer, Reviews, Windows

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Chairs, Waste Disposal Units, External Hard Drives and Garden Fences

So what’s been the problem?

First of all my faithful study chair gave up on me and had to be replaced, I am now sitting on my spiffy new chair writing this but my back is aching from using an old fold up chair since Saturday. It took me an hour to unpack and assemble earlier this evening.

The waste disposal also packed up over the weekend so a new one had to be ordered over the Internet, having wasted time trying to see if it could be fixed.This also arrived today  and that was another hour spent installing it.

I also have had problems with two large (2TB) FireWire/USB connection external drives I purchased some time back. Not only did they run hot but the power supplies were so hot you couldn’t grasp them in your hand for any length of time! The replacements arrived from Amazon on Friday and I have been busy transferring data so the originals can be replaced. Even using TeraCopy (see TeraCopy – High Speed Copy and Move Files for my review) this is taking a long time. I reckon it will be the end of the week before I am finished. I will go into a bit more detail on the original products and the replacement items in a future post. A tale of poor service, good service and whether to trust the reviews (personal opinions) of purchasers you find on many of the sites selling electronics and computer products.

Finally 2 panels of the garden fence have blown down in the high winds we have had here in the UK over the last couple of days, luckily these are my neighbours responsibility to pay for .

Google Calendar Sync

I started testing Google Calendar Sync on Sunday and all seemed to be going well. However I seem to have run into a couple of issues which have slowed me down while I try to work out whether it’s the Google utility, the PC/Outlook combination or the Internet connection. I hope to get the post out tomorrow with some answers, so watch this space .

Other Relevant Posts

GTD – Getting Things Done

News – Google Calendar Sync Released – Sync with Outlook & More

TeraCopy – High Speed Copy and Move Files

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I wrote in a recent post – GTD – Getting Things Done

At present I am constrained by the need to use MS Outlook at work so I really need some freeware utilities that can intelligently exchange data with Outlook.

This seems to be a very significant step in the right direction but is not a complete solution as yet.

I picked up on this at the Downloadsquad blog in the post – Synchronize Google Calendar and Outlook with Google Calendar Sync so I followed the link over to Google Calendar Help where the download link is, grabbed the file and installed it.

All went smoothly and up popped the options screen which I duly filled in. Then disappointment, it only works with Outlook 2003 and 2007.

So I left the following comment at Downloadsquad and will follow up with testing on my home PC later.

3-06-2008 @ 8:01AM

Barry Cleave said…

Great step forward!
In a post on my blog on 5 Feb 08 (GTD – Getting Things Done) I said:

“At present I am constrained by the need to use MS Outlook at work so I really need some freeware utilities that can intelligently exchange data with Outlook.” I am sure this applies to lots of other people.

Unfortunately we are still using Outlook 2000 at work and the Google Sync utility only works with 2003 and 2007. We also sit behind a firewall and proxy so I wonder if this will also be an issue (Anyone know the answer to that?) Anyway I shall certainly use it at home but will still have to rely on Activesync and my mobile phone to sync my work calendar

Regards

Barry
http://proreviewer.com

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In a nutshell clicking on an image in Pro Reviewer will now show a full sized picture overlaid on the current webpage. There are navigation and close buttons at the bottom of the image. This is all provided Javascript is enabled in your browser otherwise the picture/image will be shown as before – Try it on the image below.

Regular readers of the Pro Reviewer blog will be aware that the reviews like to "tell the story" as much as possible using screenshots of the software. This is because the screenshot will show quickly exactly what you will expect to get from the software and the text notes will tell you anything additional or about bugs. The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" definitely applies to the approach here!

The downside to this is clicking on a lot of images to enlarge them to see the detail which creates a new webpage or loads the image in the current page so you have to use the back button on your browser.

LaptopTips – Great Plugin – Even Better Support

Shutter Reloaded is a WordPress Plugin that provides this functionality from LaptopTips.

I installed the plugin on ProReviewer yesterday evening but it wasn’t working. I checked the webpage code and everything seemed to be there. Looking at the LaptopTips site I could see that it was probably a conflict with some other code but sorting that out was beyond the time I have available. So I left a comment asking for assistance:

This was late yesterday evening for me but 11am local time for LaptopTips

I received an answer 4 hours later but didn’t pick it up until this morning (my time).

Brilliant Service!!!

By the way I have displayed the question and answer as images just to use Shutter Reloaded

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