File Sync

Been using Syncback Pro for years now for all my backup / sync needs. Its main advantage was its flexibility and the ability to use volume names rather than drive letters (this was especially useful for my various USB sticks/fobs (whatever you choose to call them) for which XP seems to randomly assign drive letters - which is a nightmare for syncing / backup) - I now get round this using USBDLM but thats another post.

Syncback has now been usurped by Super Flexible File Synchroniser which is superior in almost every way, the most obvious being speed. I can now sync all my drives (between 3 and 4) in the time it took to sync 1 using Syncback. 

There are other advantages but another useful function is silent sync failure - this basically means that if drives aren't available during a scheduled sync/backup you don't get any annoying messages or popups - Super Flexible records the fact the process doesn't take place but thats it.

If you need a sync / backup program i can only recommend Super Flexible File Synchronizer. 

XYplorer is back !

After some time in the wilderness savouring the delights of Directory OPUS, I am pleased to say I am back using XYplorer. What hooked you back in you say - new functionality of course. I don't use an explorer replacement for fun it is a work horse and anything that makes my work and my life easier is a boon.

The functionality in question - Tags and Comments - it should be noted that although File Managers are not databases per se (although they are really just file databases) the ability to add comments and tags to files is sorely missing from most file managers - but now XY has it and it works in the usual slick fashion I would expect from Don (the developer of XY).

Tagging effectively allows you to create groups of files (in this case colour coded) and to have those groups remembered across sessions.

As an example in my job I quite often have to process several hundred files one by one (e.g. uploading .xml files to a database). As you can imagine this is well tedious, but even more tedious is having to maintain some spreadsheet to remind myself - which ones uploaded succesfully, which ones failed and which ones were partially uploaded - no more - once the file has been processed I simply assign it a colour tag by right clicking in XY and choosing the relevant tag (you can create your own tag names and colours - but being British I tend to stick to red, amber and green for my three state file processing - hell it works on the roads !) - a complete godsend - thank you XY.

File comments works in exactly the same way - right click and add a text comment (single or multiline) to your file - this is particularly useful when you need to add more information than a simple colour tag. You can achieve this is several file managers (including DOpus) using the descript.ion system (which is like an external comments system) but it has it's flaws and XY has comments built right in !

I should point out that XY has moved on since the implementation of tags and comments and is well into the swing of dual pane development - if I'm honest I have little interest in using a dual pane file manager as tabs have always been far more useful in my eyes, but users have been requesting dual pane for some time and as with any good developer Don is listening to his users. This includes listening to those that have no interest as the dual pane process has had little effect on those of us still using XY in single pane mode (other than some minor cosmetic changes) and some useful side effects of Dual Pane development (effectively now have two sets of possible tabs).

In my eyes this continual development of new and improved feautures while still retaining the relatively small file size (less than 2MB compared to DOpus at 16+MB) is one of the main reasons XYplorer is my No 1 file manager.

The XY beta forums can sometimes get bogged down with users all crying out for how they want the development to go, or how a particular function should work, but Don is generally receptive and seems to retain a sense of humour at all times (good for him, if XY was my baby I'm not sure I could last as long as he has without snapping back at some of the comments !)

If you need a replacement file manager - get XYplorer - it's one of the cheapest paid for alternatives and for my money worth every penny !

DKTBoard

Received my Everglide DKTboard Keyboard today. Had been reading about the DKTBoard for some time, but it has only just become available in the UK (although at the moment the US layout is still the only version available - see below).

Initial impressions are that it's a great little keyboard - and I do mean little this is one of the most compact keyboards (sporting full size keys and a numeric pad) that I have used.

Two of the DKTboard's main selling points are

Compact aluminium (read tough and light) frame - great for lugging it around to sites (I work as an IT Consultant all over the UK - so I will get to test this premise pretty extensively).

Backlight Keys for use in dark environments (e.g. at home or that LAN Party you attend).

Can well believe that the DKTboard will be nigh on indestructible (although the keys themselves will undoubtedly still be liable to damage if not treated with reasonable care).

The backlighting is however completely convincing and is the best implementation of backlighting I have seen (I include this in my comparisons section below when looking at the wholly inadequate Razer Lycosa - probably one of the biggest disappointments in my purchasing history).

The backlighting is switchable (i.e. on and off and my only criticism is that it may be a tad to bright and there is no dimmed option - take note Everglide - Although having said that - too bright is far better than too dim).

For anybody that is interested the backlighting projects as a blue grid separating the keys (but additionally like the Lycosa (but a much improved implementation) the characters on the Keys are also backlight, This makes it extremely easy to identify keys in a darkened environment (if you are a semi touch typist like me this is a real bonus).

The typing feel on the DKTboard is a a sort of middle of the road affair, the keys themselves have a nice matte finish that means they are effectively non - slip and positive to touch. The throw (or depth) of the key presses is half way between a standard key press (e.g. cheopo keyboard you get at work, almost any Microsoft Keyboard and back again to the Razer Lycosa) and my preferred style of fairly flat laptop style keyboards (most Keysonic keyboards and my ultimate keyboard - the Enermax Aurora).

The final point I want to make about the DKTboard is something I have already mentioned - the US layout. I was slightly worried that this would be extremely off putting, but as the keyboard adopts the UK layout in software anyway, the only real problem is that a few of the symbols (most obviously the British pond symbol and the @ symbol are in their normal positions but the keyboard obviously shows different symbols).

I was going to say this is not a huge problem if you are a touch (or semi touch) typist, but if you constantly have to look at the keys as you type then this may become slightly distracting. Also as a quick fix in layout aware programs (such as Word) if you Press Left Alt and Shift together then you can swap the layouts (in the UK this appears to swap between UK and US Keyboard layouts).

Overall I give the DKTboard 4.5/5.

Doesn't quite match my Keysonic and Enermax Aurora for typing comfort, but the rugged frame and backlighting almost make up for this.

If Everglide ever do a DKTboard 2 and give it shorter throw laptop style keys (using X - Scissors technology as on the Keysonic and Enermax boards) then it could possibly be the 'Best Keyboard in the world'.

Directory Opus 9

After a considerable time using (and praising) XYplorer, I have now moved on to using Directory Opus (DOpus) - Version 9 was released at the end of April.

I had previously played with version 8 of DOpus - I could see it was a powerful product then, the number of options was simply mind boggling, but the interface was too crowded and unproffesional looking.

Version 9 is a revelation - the Preferences Dialog now has a handy filter function (that actually works- take note Toad) making it much easier to find the options you are looking for. It is also possible to set it up to actually look like a proffesional file explorer (although you can still use images for toolbar backgrounds etc. if that is your taste ?). The new icon set (whilst not 100% perfect is much better looking anf functional).

Don't get me wrong it's still a powerful and complex product - almost 3 weeks in I am still finding new functionality - and not just little things - things that make you go 'aaaahhh' why has nobody done that before ! Some of the functionality is available in other file explorers, but none of it seems to gel as well as it does in DOpus.

Rather than do a full review here I am just going to list some of the functionality I find extremely useful (and also a couple of niggles - mainly things that don't quite match my previous favourite -and still excellent file manager of choice - XYplorer) - these are in no particular order but they are ranked from 1-5 as to how useful they are.

• File Filter - This is a godsend, it's not exactly ground breaking, but it works extremely well in DOpus - Basically if you have a long list of files in a folder (some of mine run into hundreds of files) you can type into the filter box and as you type the files are reduced to match your selection e.g. typing .doc allows you to just show all the documents in a particular folder (very quickly). Rank - 4
• Thumbnail and Tile Views - DOpus has extremely powerful thumbnail and tile views - you can set what info is shown in File Info tips and the thumbnail size slider is very useful (and extremely slick in operation - you can see it in the screenshot above). Rank - 4
• Folder Groups - As with an increasing number of file managers DOpus uses a tabbed interface (although you are not obliged to use tabs - this is one of the main reasons I choose alternative File Managers to Explorer). DOpus allows you to setup groups of tabs for different uses and slecting the groups is a simple right click on the tab header bar - very slick. Rank 5
• Content Type - This is one of DOpus unique and very clever features (in my view). DOpus bascially scans the file types in a particular folder (there is no perceptable delay in this - see multi-threading below) and then sets the relevant view based on the file types - e.g. If I have a folder full of .jpg images - chances are I would want to see those as thumbnails - DOpus automatically does this for you when you open the folder. There are a number of standard Content Types (which can be turned off if you don't like them), but you can also create your own (the screenshot above is abased on a new 'Icon' content type that I created. Very useful, and as with everything in DOpus 9 - very slick. Rank 5
• To be continued...

Logik LPV2250

Just purchsed this baby to replace a defunct Pace Twinview (the Twinview had it's problems over the 4 years or so that I owned it but the final update from PACE did actually manage to iron most of these out).

My Twinview died a couple of days ago so I was looking for a replacement - I had always considered the Toppy as I was wary of fan noise from other (lesser) machines, had also considered the Inverto, but then I read What Hi-Fi's review of the TVOnics PVR. After a bit of research I found out that the Logik (which I obviously bought) was a re-branded TVOnics with a 250GB hard drive rather than the 160GB in the TVOnics (and the difference in price was only a couple of quid - you do the maths).

Got the Logik home today (I say home as it's Xmas I'm staying at my aunts house, but she was having problems with TV reception anyway - I think the Tuner lock on her 21" Mitshubishi has gone a bit haywire). So I decided to hook up the Logik and see how it fared ?

Have to say I am well impressed !! - the picture and sound quality are excellent (even on my aunts ageing TV). The Logik is NOT completely silent but after complaints about some Sony PVRs sounding like hovercraft about to take off the unit is almost silent anyway (the Logik is basically manufactured by Sony on behalf of TVONics - And then re-branded - don't ask why I have no idea).

The next big + is the speed of digital text (on all the other units I have owned Digital text has been next to useless as waiting 5 mins for the first page to load and then up to 2 mins for each subsequent page is a complete waste of time). The Logik is lighting quick (well 2-5 secs to load) and actually makes Digital Text useful for a change (I never knew there was so much useful info available on text !).

All the menus, EPG, setup etc. are all also lightning quick - the Twinview was no slouch in this repects except for the EPG which could take an age to load initially and then had numerous dropouts (e.g. channels with missing info). No such problems with the Logik - it loads instantly (and looks pretty good as well). The ONLY downside with the EPG is that is is limited to 9 channels on one screen (the Twinview only had 10 but then I only had 10 channel listed so it worked out). It is quite a chore to have to scroll down just to see the final channel. Also unlike the Twinview you can't select the amount of time to display on the EPG (you are stuck with 1 hours worth of viewing) - results in a lot of scrolling but as far as I know this is in line with most other manaufacturers EPG's (infact I think the Twinview is one of the few EPG, Toppy aside that lets you customise the amount of info displayed).

Havn't tested the recording abilities yet, but general concensus is that recorded programs are almost indistinguishable from the live broadcast (as was the case with the Twinview). You cannot change the compression ratio (same as Twinview again), but then who needs to with 125 hours to play with (2GB per hour seems about standard for near perfect replication).

The only thing missing from the Recordings Library is the live preview (Twinview) but I can't see myself actually missing this (it was a nice feature) but did cause some delay when navigating the library (I guess with 125 hours worth it may have caused more problems than it was worth).

Other standard abilities of the Logik include being able to pad recordings (I havn't checked to see how this works when recording two different channels which would overlap with the padding), but will post if there are any issues. This also brings us on to similtaneous recording of two different channels - The Logik does NOT have this functionality (nor is it advertised as such). The Twinview also lacked this ability so I can't say I will miss it. It would occasionally have been useful (and would be a nice feature), but as somebody said in one of the forum posts I read, programs are repeated so often on most freeview channels that it's not the killer function you may think. There are also a suprising lack of PVR's out there that have this ability (I believe the Toppy is one that does).

There has been some discussion re. the feasability of having Dual Record Ability, I'm no expert but I assume that it has something to do with the hard disk - if my understanding is correct (please feel free to correct me). Hardisks have seperate read and write arms (which is why they can read and write at the same time ?) but are incapable of writing to two different sectors at the same time (my understanding is that you can set Windows copying two different files and it appears to copy them simultanesouly but that this does not actually happen - it just writes chunks from each operation in sequence ?).

Going a bit of track here - so far after approx 3 hours use - would I recommend the Logik (or the TVOnics if you can stomach the smaller disk size) - a resounding Yes - I need to set it up at home (hooked up to my amp and HD TV) but so far I am more than impressed - 9/10.

Just a side note. the Logik does NOT have proper RCA adaptors (if has a 3.5mm Stereo jack which also doubles as a Toslink Optical connection), but I will most likely just use the stereo outputs from my TV to send sound to the amp (in my now defunt Twinview setup (which did have proper RCA connectors) the difference in sound quality between direct connection of the PVR and from the TV's output was NOT noticable). Although I may buy a 3.5mm jack to RCA convertor from Maplin (just to double check !).

XY 32x32