Advice on "first bike" comparison

Mine was built in Italy and had a rear disc.

Build quality wasn't bad, but the silver engine paint started to peel and
flake badly.

Exhausts are shite too.

Other than that, a nice little bike.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005), DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

Depends what you want out of your newsreader. XN has a number of really
useful features that I use regularly and has a clean intuitive, easy to
use interface. In many ways similar /looking/ to OE.

Things it does: very fast; multiple servers; very configurable (fonts,
colours, hotkeys etc); bookmark posts to go back to etc; excellent
threading (no orphaned posts from Google); spellchecker; multiple (and
quickly changed) identies; random .sigs or lines within sigs; excellent
search capabilities; quick find replies to, threads I've posted to, that
sort of thing; automated batch processes and messagebase management;
manageable killfiles; filters (this could do with a bit more work but
useful nonetheless); identify posts, with a little coloured marker by
them, containing a keyword and can be set to download headers or headers
and bodies (which is how I have it).

All of this on a newsgroup by newsgroup basis or globally - your choice.

There are a number of little touches that make it a cinch to use; wide
range of right click options; a recent addition is a toggle between fixed
font (makes ASCII art work) and proportional (easier to read) in the
message pane. On the easy to read front the levels of quoting can be
coloured, which makes wading through UKRM much easier.

Handles binaries well by all accounts - I don't use it for that though.

I would like to see better troll filters rather than the simple don't
download, don't display; perhaps a kill threads started by troll or kill
replies to a troll to a level of, say, three.

All in all it's a good bit of software written by a 'local' who responds
to request and suggestions. Actually, it's *very* good. Free too.

What do you want out of Gravity?

 

Agent does all of these (apart from multiple servers).

 

Ben Blaney wrote:

Agent Lite doesn't - let's compare like with like i.e. free versions. I
have to add the multiple server problem is a pretty key point IMO.

 

bah humbug, I *speeet* at XanaNews

ok, let's compare like-for-like: the top of the respective product
lines from the respective software houses.

I've always wondered about it, but as I'm not missing the feature
right now, that it can't be too important /to me/.

 

I was a long-time Gravity user - in fact I remember telling you how to
give groups nicknames to change their display order back when you
started using it.

However I've been using XanaNews for a few months now & won't be going
back. I'm not a 'power user', so can't really comment on the more
techie features. But the main things I like about it are:

1. It displays different people's messages in different colours so it's
a lot easier to see who said what, especially when the line length goes
awry.

2. It handles wrapped URLs much better than Gravity.

3. You can setup batches to do various things at the click of a button,
like download all the messages in one group, just the headers in
another etc.

4. It displays pictures in the message pane, so if you fancy a quick
dose of pr0n you don't have to download the jpeg & save it somewhere,
or use the flakey Gravity built in viewer.

5. It's 'live' software, unlike Gravity which is effectively dead AFAIK
& won't be developed any further.

 

Bear wrote

The negative point of all negative points from my perspective.

 

Potentially. The default colours, it has to be said, are pretty garish;
you can select more subtle ones or not have them at all.

 

No, once it gets to a certain 'depth' it makes everything deeper the
same colour. So everything with three or more > is the same colour on
mine. It's all configurable anyway, so you can change the colours &
make it subtle for those hungover moments.

 

TBH, that's where any similarity ends - in the layout.

 

Dan L says...

I thought I might have got that wrong somehow. I googled but couldn't
find the reference I'd seen to it.

Right then, Italian built ones have a disc on the back.

Sorted.

 

Well, I've used Agent and Gravity on a PII300, under Win95 and 98, so
I can't see there being a problem, tbh.

 

Funnily enough, when we were looking for a bike for James we were told that
CBR125's were built in Italy, whereas NSR125's were built in Japan.

His NSR has a made in Italy sticker on it.

 

oldbloke at work says...

Both are built in Italy

 

Apparently, it will be in the next release. According to the site, that
is...
--

Cheers!
Fr Jack
96 Tiger.
FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM
skype: fr.jack (without the dot)

 

You can twiddle with the layout to suit yourself pretty much. Mine
looks a lot like Agent (that I used to use and like and paid for, but
got fed up without the ability to easily use multiple servers etc).

 

Jolly good! But why? Just because they're heavier? Or because you don't
have to work the gearbox so hard? Or what? Just curious, like.

 

Ditto with Agent and SOPC, using the latest release with no problems.
And I've also used the same setup with win2kpro, despite reservations from
friends who know.
--

Cheers!
Fr Jack
96 Tiger.
FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM
skype: fr.jack (without the dot)

 

Lemmiwinks, The Gerbil King says...

Stability, smoothness, and just overall ease of use.

 

Weight I'd guess. Less energy is needed to produce a wobble on a small
bike, as compared to a big bike. Think pedal cycle, then think gold wing.