Michael's Profile

Member since February 22, 2000

  • Name

    Michael Emero

  • Location:

    US

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Recent Posts

  1. Review - Weather1

    6.08 Beta (Jun 22, 2005)

    As I said over a year ago, the only reason I used this software was for the little feature it had of taking weathercam shots and putting them as your desktop wallpaper. It was kind of neat to have it auto-update a rotating view of Scotland, Big Ben, and a few other favorite places/cams while working at the pc.

    Apparently that was too much trouble; the author now has a totally pointless "wallpaper" tab that rotates saved images on your pc. Well, you lost another user.

    If anyone knows of a little simple app that does what I described above, please, let me know. I can get weather by glancing out the window ;)

  2. Review - ViPlay

    2.09 (Oct 12, 2003)

    Amazing! Stupendous! I'm totally impressed. I actually changed my file type association for most media types over to this, and I never do that. Plays all newest divx files fine, default skin looks a bit like Winamp. Uses very little cpu on my lousy 1Ghz/256ram/xp pc here. All the great features you need (color/brightness is a godsend for some dark tv-rips I had) without all the nasty clutter. Simple, but does it all! Perfect for the minimalist who needs functionality.

  3. Review - BitSpirit

    1.0.5 Beta (Oct 12, 2003)

    If the author could add Torrent Search into this program, it'd be absolute heaven. Roughly like Kazaa, but much better technology. Nice GUI, though I still prefer burst! Perhaps it's just habit, though ;)

  4. Review - HoverWeather

    1.1 Beta (Dec 1, 2002)

    Would be nice... if it worked! Yahoo weather must have updated or something- even the default locations only came up with page errors. Beware XP users: my XP latched onto a *.ttf file it came with, making it impossible to delete (no uninstall included). Great idea, nice features... if it worked.

  5. Review - BootXP

    1.90 RC1 (Apr 14, 2002)

    I was wondering why no one has commented on this new version yest, then I installed it and figure out why; they're probably all reinstalling windows. This program changes your boot.ini to no longer use ntoskrn.exe, but another exe- one which froze my system everytime upon bootup. The fix is to (in DOS, I suppose, since you can't get into windows) change your boot.ini kernel referance back to ntoskrnl.exe. Trying to repair your windows using the cd doesn't fix this, by the way. I gave this a 2, not a 1, because I used to really like this program; before it made me spend an hour trying to fix my system...

  6. Comment - DTV study: Most broadcasters are ready, most consumers aren't

    1.90 RC1 (Feb 25, 2008 - 2:02 PM)

    I have cable TV. Though I rarely use it, I've also got about two dozen HD/SD channels and excellent reception. Some old rabbit ears picks up all the major stations anywhere in this valley. But most people are rich / young enough in the cities to get 300+ pay channels via satellite or cable, so don't care.

    My mother-in-law, however, lives 2-3 hours north in a little rural town the next state up. She's not rich or picky; her only television is analog antenna, and broadcast channels are all she wants/needs. Heck, her TV was 15+ years old until we bought her a larger one some years back.

    Now, I've had half a dozen digital receiver 'converter boxes' sitting in my living room for the past year (no one around here wants them). I'd happily have given one to her, but there hasn't been a single digital signal in her area. I just checked and it looks like there's now a temporary CBS signal 35 miles away- wow, one channel.

    I can't imagine I'm the only one who's figured this out: isn't it the rural/fringe areas that actually still USE broadcast TV? Yet they are the ones who can't "hurry and change over" because DTV simply doesn't exist yet. Maybe they aren't ready because they CAN'T yet.

  7. Comment - Trillian Fights Back as AOL Boots its Users

    1.90 RC1 (Feb 10, 2002 - 11:13 AM)

    Having a login/pw (account) with AOL for IM service means exactly squat. Your membership brings them no money. Your usage of their service costs them money. No, I'm not siding with them, but I'm explaining their point of view. They (in theory) require the revenue from the advertising that they build into their own software in order to pay for the servers. A good example- ICQ. An ad-supported messaging service that wouldn't still be around if they hadn't made it that way. Granted, AOL The Conglomerate Giant doesn't "need" any more income from ads; but do you really expect them to allow use of their servers for "free?"

  8. Comment - Trillian Fights Back as AOL Boots its Users

    1.90 RC1 (Feb 9, 2002 - 2:34 PM)

    AOL wants you to use AIM, not Trillian, not any other 3rd party software, the same reason they fight against ad-buster programs; they can't spam you with ads on Trillian. They can't have constant "Try AOL Now" or paid adverts blinking, flashing, and annoying the heck out of us (and putting $ in AOL's pockets). I use AIM, but I use it in conjunction with DeadAIM- a simple program that removes the annoying ads and banners. It's a compromise between using a nice prog like Trillian, and actually being able to reliably log onto AOL's IM servers. If Trillian allowed AOL to stick all their banners and ads in their software, I'm betting AOL would be fine with them.

  9. Comment - RealNetworks Intros RealSystem iQ

    1.90 RC1 (Dec 12, 2000 - 7:39 PM)

    I spend a great deal of my time cleaning up, converting, and restoring old video files on my pc, and I simply must say RM format bites the big one. Name any other format in which you can convert TO it, but NOTHING converts FROM it. ASF's, DiVX avi's, everything else can be brought back to MPEG format (even if sometimes it's a roundabout method with mixed results) but RM is simply stuck as a lousy RM file forever. I suppose it's just their way of making sure people will keep having to install this Bloated peice of garbage just to play the two .rm files they have on their pc. Pathetic. If somone develops a codec for WMP to play .rm files, I personally will send them $. ;) Shouldn't be TOO hard... WMP had a RealVideo codec ages ago, before Real whined about it and stopped them. If somone could find that old thing and update it to modern RealVideo standards..

    Enough Babbling, no one's reading!
    -CharredPC
    (my 0.0000002 cents)

  10. Comment - Napster Shares Their Defense With the RIAA

    1.90 RC1 (Jul 6, 2000 - 6:40 PM)

    It's the net... everything's free if you know where to look... c'mon, is ANYONE really HONESTLY having some moral dillemma over this Napster legality thing? Of course it's illegal (ok, wrong) to d/l copyrighted material... but nothing is sacred here on the net. Perhaps no one's really talked about this current newsbit yet becuase everyone who has no problems of consience is still downloading mp3's... if not off napster, then off of Scour Exchange, or websites, or ftp's, or Hotline, or IRC, or aol chat rooms, or...
    And anyone who does have moral issues... isn't on the net... or is maybe 93 years old and uses the net to trade recipes...
    Ok, I'm done now, stop reading.
    CharredPC ranted here, '00
    I said stop! ;)