Path Finder 4- Not enough reason to switch

I tried Path Finder 4 this morning. The useful features for me seem to be the drop space and the tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing is supposed to make it easier to transfer files but I still find it slower and more difficult than a two-column view like Total Commander.
It seems a little quicker for launching applications vs. launching from the application folder in dock. It's nice that you can copy text out of a document in preview mode.
Path Finder seems better than the Finder but not worth paying for or having to deal with using it as well as the Finder. I think I need to use it more to evaluate.

Bugs/Missing features
It can't undo file moves or renames. Not really sure what it can undo.

Mac security

Clamxav and Henwen
I looked into some mac software today. I downloaded Snort which monitors network traffic and Henwen which is a graphical interface to Snort. I also got Clamxav which is a virus checker. Clamxav takes a long time and has no pause button. I haven't detected anything so far.

Console
I tried to find a good log viewer for a while. I had forgotten about Console. I do think they could have named Console to have log in the title. Console is a bit short on features.

.hosts
I made some edits to my hosts file to block some time-wasting sites. There is evidently some synchronization problems with this. If you visit a site, block it in hosts file, close browser and reopen access will still be allowed. Clearing caches doesn't affect this. I guess this is not done by the browser but by some backend DNS service.

Common Criteria
I also installed the Common Criteria stuff from Apple. There isn't much documentation but it seems that all this does is install the Audit Log Viewer.


X-Statistics
Give some basic info from log files. I didn't find it useful.

Neooffice, Openoffice x11, and Abiword

I was annoyed by Neoffice's slowness so I took a quick look at the alternatives. Openoffice X11 had a very bad looking interface but even worse the font look jagged and distracting. It was faster.
Abiword has trouble with my document- letters are cutoff. There isn't much in the way of navigation besides a Table of Contents. I might be able to make it work if I saved as Rich Text. Very snappy performance.

T-amp vs. Panasonic reciever

I tried out the t-amp (@$20, low energy, small) against my Panasonic reciever (@$250, high energy, big) and there was no clear difference in quality. There may have been more presence on the Panasonic but I suspect it was modifying the signal.
If I were doing it again I'd get the t-amp. Now I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the Pansonic.

Panasonic sa-he100 amplifier- using with power strip causes overloar

Occasionally the amp was shutting off with an overloaded message. I would have thought that this would mean it was getting too much audio input. In reality it got better when I plugged the electricity directly into the wall.

Audio recording problems tonight

From the Behringer mixer there is a lot of hiss. If I have any of these above the middle I get it: Gain, level 1, and main mix. I have all the other inputs down.
These results occur whether or not the mic is on or even plugged in. It also does not matter whether I listen through headphone jack or main out.

I wasn't able to use Audacity's monitor function but then suddenly it started working. It may be that you have to start a new project or track.

It wasn't until I started recording that I had these systemuiserver problems.

Wrong directions

Sometimes when you are in a strange city you have to ask directions and the person, without complete confidence, sends you in the wrong direction. I always feel the same way after talking to tech support.

Unable to record this evening

Recording and any other efforts are shot for the evening. When I tried to record today nothing was showing up. The monitors within the software were showing sound coming in so it was a software issue. I talked to Apple Support an experience which as usual made me never want to deal with Apple again.
I refused to accept the first guy's answer that it was a microphone problem- (Sound could be seen in monitor waveforms and heard in the headphone monitors!).
I talked to a second guy and we did a lot of reboots and cord changes but no preference or system changes and eventually it worked. So neither of knows anything more about what caused it.

Performancing blog extension and keeping blogs synced

I'm finding Performancing easier to use than Blogger due to keeping posts persistent (not having to Publish or save as draft) and having a convenient history. Unfortunately editing the same post with both causes many extra line breaks.

I'm going to use this space for edits to other posts until I figure out what I'm going to do.
Garageband advantage- Because it exports to iTunes it has a syncing advantage.