Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[sraymond]

http://developer.iomega-activedisk.com/index.jsp

JRiver,

I was thinking how great it would be if I could not only carry music on my flash media, but play it as well.  If it really only takes 15 minutes to develop, would you be interested in making MC Active Disk-enabled?

It would sure be a boon for all us corporate or school environment users (where we can't install MC).  I wonder if there are licensing control issues?

For the MC users, you might want to take a look at Active Disk technology...  it's a cool concept!  

Scott-

[phelt]

The first question for me is whether "Active Disk" requires Iomega devices. I dug through the site a bit, and found a reference in the FAQ:
http://www.iomega-activedisk.com/servlet/moonshine/goto?page_url=/faqs/item.jsp&id=4
...which says that they can only be run on "Active Disk Powered" devices. Which sounds a lot like obfuscative marcom gibberish designed to make you think you have to buy something from Iomega. That seems doubtful since Iomega get much of their internals from several other vendors and stick them into shiny shells.

The second question for me is whether Active Disk is more stable than Iomega's drivers and accessory apps, which I've found to be... well, I can't really think of a proper pejorative that's appropriate to this forum. "Not so good" will have to suffice.

That aside, Active Disk it is an admirable idea. I've noticed a few apps going toward greater portability, mostly password/PIM/email programs.

[Ingo]

don't you get just the same when moving your app and data to a usb-memory stick  or a compact flash card or ... and enable autorun for it?

Ingo

[phelt]

Ingo - most apps are dependent upon registry settings, registered support files (DLL's, etc), settings files, and so forth. So auto-launching most apps would not work that way.

[Ingo]

yes.. I know, but as the software developer can change that... and this ADT stuff needs to be done by the developer as well.
So what does it give the developer can't do without it?

Ingo

[NoCodeUK]

This whole system kinda reminds me of the retro systems like Atari 2600 with everything included on the cartridge  I guess if this catches on then it proves Atari had the right idea all those years ago!!

Adam

[sraymond]

The first question for me is whether "Active Disk" requires Iomega devices.

I've downloaded a few applications and they run fine on my non-Iomega flash drive.

I first got interested in this concept when looking for a password manager program to use with my flash drive.  It's amazing how hard it was to find an application that didn't rely on the registry.  I finally settled on Password Officer, but it's not perfect!

I hate program dependency of the registry.  Why should an operating system reinstallation require a complete reinstall of all my programs?  Sure, I know that a lot of the power (read:  tight integration with the OS) is a direct result of the registry, but can't I have my cake and eat it too?

Scott-

[phelt]

sraymond: you might also want to check out Password Agent. It has this specific feature in mind.

I am in complete agreement with folks who complain about program dependencies. IMO, the registry is another place for lazy programmers to sporge up their ideas. Given recent events in my personal computing history, I am prepared to support any initiative that deports unworthy programmers, after a swift kick has been delivered. Following the directions of the clueless halfwits at Microsoft is not a valid excuse for reasons obvious...

Please note that this excuses all J River folks, as they have not only made program changes but also changes to the installation routine in response to feedback. Not much more that I could ask for than that  

[sraymond]

you might also want to check out Password Agent. It has this specific feature in mind.

Thanks for the tip!  It looks nice, but it's lacking one important feature:  a rich webpage fill-in routine.  This is one area that Password Officer (good) or RoboForm (great) does particularly well.

Password Officer works off of the flash media, though it does add a few registry entries every time it runs.

Scott-