Messages

76

Living Room / Laptop overheating or noisy fan - Cleaning the cooling system.

« on: December 14, 2019, 09:05 AM »

Thought this might be of general hep/use. Let me know where it may need correcting/improving please.

First off: Install Speedfan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php.
Use it to study your laptop and make a note of the current typical CPU and GPU temps in normal operation and under different load types  - e.g. (say), when playing games, or browsing the web or building a spreadsheet.
This will provide you with a starting-point as a basis for comparison - a factual AS-IS picture.

Causes of overheating:

• As a long-time laptop user, I have learned that the single most common cause of overheating and fan noise in my laptops tends to be that the heat exchanger becomes clogged. The heat exchanger looks like a small radiator matrix (grill), usually located on the left or right side of the laptop, but sometimes on the rear side.
  
  
• A small fan sucks the unfiltered cold air (usually from the base) into the laptop, and pushes it as exhaust hot air through the matrix of the heat exchanger.
  
  
• The heat exchanger gets heat transferred to it via thermal conduction along a solid copper bar that picks up the heat and carries it away from the CPU (and GPU if fitted). The bar is screwed/clamped to the CPU/GPU, with a heat-conducting thermal grease smeared between the faces of the components before they are assembled. The grease can break down over some years and its conductive efficiency reduced as a result, leading to overheating and automatic thermal cut-out.
  
  
• Over time, the heat exchanger matrix tends to become blocked with the accumulated dust and fluff that unavoidably accumulates (sucked/blown in by the fan). In addition, the blades of the fan can become loaded with accumulations of particles of dust, such that the fan aerodynamics can change and its weight can be increased appreciably and thus its operational and aerodynamic efficiency is impaired. These things can lead to overheating, fast/noisy fans and automatic thermal cut-out.

To see what you may need to clean:
NB: If you don't like the idea of using a vacuum cleaner to suck back through the fan, then go to the thorough clean section, below.

• Step 1: Have on standby:
   - a horsehair paintbrush.
   - a variable-speed vacuum cleaner.
   - a bright LED torch.
   - a few plastic bag ties (with the wire center).
  
  
• Step 2: Turn the laptop off and remove the battery.
  
  
• Step 3: Shine a torch into the fan's cold air-intake (assuming there is one). Observe whether the intake is blocked with fluff/dust and the condition of the fanblades - if the latter are black, then they are probably not too dirty, but if a grey colour then they are probably loaded with dust/dirt. Wipe/dust off the intake surface with the paintbrush. Don't clean it otherwise, just make a mental note of the visible status.
  
  
• Step 4: Next, whilst In a darkened room, shine a torch into the fan intake whilst looking through the heat exchanger matrix on the side of the laptop. The light should be visible The matrix should appear to consist of clear, rectangular little tubes, but they will be unable to let light through to varying degrees if they are blocked at all. Make a mental note of the status.
  
  
• Step 5: Press the round end of the vacuum cleaner pipe against/over the air intake vent, sealing the edges with your fingers so that most of the suck is through the fan intake. Then SUCK: Turn on the vacuum cleaner and hold it in that position for around 2-5 seconds (experiment). The airflow will be sucked backwards through the fan (which you will hear whizzing backwards) and the air intake, along with most of the crud blocking the heat exchanger matrix. After switching off the vacuum cleaner, on inspection, you may need to slowly ease out larger chunks of fluff with a fine screwdriver, from the air intake vent. Repeat the suck until the air intake seems clear.
  
  Then repeat Step 4. Check - If the matrix seems clear/unblocked and if the fanblades are relatively black and shiny and the air intake is clear, then you probably don't need to do anything further.
  If the fanblades seem clean enough (black and shiny), but the heat exchanger matrix still seems a bit blocked, then you can clear the matrix further by using one of those plastic bag ties with a wire centre. Poke it through each hole in the matrix from the outside, then, when you have done that  thoroughly to them all, reverse-suck as before to clean the dislodged crud out.
  Inspect per Step 4 again.
  
  Step 6: Restart the laptop and check performance compared with the  AS-IS Speedfan performance metrics. If there's no change, then you probably need to do a more thorough clean, as below.
  

___________________________

DIY steps to do a thorough clean: (i.e., laptop is still overheating, cutting out, or has a noisy fan.)

• If possible, download a manufacturer's service manual for that laptop. Read up on removal of the necessary parts to get access to those I have mentioned.
  
  
• Prepare a clean work surface with a white cotton or microfibre towel to cover it.
  
  
• Have on standby:
      - a good strong magnet (to hold metal screws on disassembly).
      - a horsehair paintbrush.
      - isopropyl alcohol.
      - a variable-speed vacuum cleaner.
      - cotton ear-buds (to clean in confined spaces - also use with isopropyl alcohol).
      - toilet paper (for cleaning surfaces - also use with isopropyl alcohol).
      - a bright LED torch.
      - heat-conductive thermal grease (if required).
  
  
• Disassemble the laptop CAREFULLY as necessary to get the access required to clean its innards. Place the screws on the magnet so as not to lose them. Keep the magnet in a small tray or bowl to catch any screws or metallic bits that may fall off or are non-magnetic. You may find some screw anchors have already broken (or break on reassembly - so take care!) due to over-tightening or (typically) the plastic having become brittle (their design being unfit for long life).
  
  
• Clean dust/dirt off the motherboard and other parts as you proceed inwards, using the paintbrush and vacuum cleaner on low suction. Using CO2 pressure cans to blow the dust off is arguably a waste of time as it tends to redistribute a lot of the dust (along with your money).
  
  
• Clean the heat exchanger in situ. You may need to use a small flat-bladed screwdriver to scrape off accumulated fluff/dust/dirt or corrosion. Use a torch shone through it to check whether all the holes in the heat exchanger are cleared and clean.
  Carefully remove and disassemble the delicate fan, and separate the fan blade unit. The fan operates upside down and when operational hangs in the air utilising a magnetic field as a bearing (frictionless bearing). In operation, the upside-down rotating fanblade unit over time can become gradually more weighed-down with accumulated deposits of airborne grease and dust onto the fanblades. It can cease to be in its optimum aerodynamic blade profile or position, so becomes less efficient and can become noisy. The noise may be due to friction between surfaces where there should be no contact (or friction) in the optimal case.
  
  
• Carefully clean the fanblade and housing using the paintbrush/earbuds/isopropyl alcohol, as necessary. After cleaning the fan and its housing, clean the bearing "faces" and smear them lightly with a fine coat or drop of CRC - or similar lubricant that can be used with electronics. Don't drown it with CRC as the excess oil will be thrown out along the fanblades when in operation, attracting and adhering to dust particles that pass through.
  
  
• Heat-conductive thermal grease: You probably only really need to tackle the task of cleaning off and replacing the heatsink thermal grease if the CPU/GPU has been overheating and shutting down the system. I read somewhere that the grease has a 10-year life expectancy. I have tended to replace it only when I have opened up a laptop for the usual full cleaning (as above) and as a just-in-case measure on older laptops. Speedfan metrics will generally be a good guide as to whether this overheating is a problem. Those greases seem quite expensive, but maybe you get what you pay for. I'm not sure.
  
  
• Reassembly: This is the reverse of disassembly, so, if you don't have a service manual, then make notes as you disassemble the thing.

77

Living Room / Re: Arizona sunsets

« on: December 08, 2019, 08:27 PM »

@Arizona Hot: Thanks. Another fine piece of ephemeral beauty.

78

General Software Discussion / Re: Brave: A new browser with built-in adblock and payment solutions

« on: December 08, 2019, 08:10 PM »

@holt:

Sometimes on Youtube I can't find any date for when the video was made. Is there actually none posted, or how or where do I find it?

-holt (December 08, 2019, 06:26 PM)

Do you mean when the video was actually made, or simply when that particular YouTube item (file) was posted onto YouTube?
I don't think the actual "made" date would necessarily be known/given and would not form part of the file metadata if you downloaded it.
Otherwise, the date that video file was posted onto YouTube usually/always(?) seems to be given. You could also presumably see the same metadata on the channel of the person who posted that video, where all their videos will be listed.
I usually make a note in CHS (Clipboard Help & Spell) of the video title, the YouTube source link and the date it was posted when I download a YouTube video.

79

Find And Run Robot / Re: Launching Windows Apps in FARR - EXAMPLE: Microsoft Edge.

« on: December 08, 2019, 04:22 PM »

@joes_garage: Cross-posted here in case you might not have seen this - it was a response made where you had been asking a similar/same question in another thread:

@joes_garage:

How about Launching Windows Apps (Edge, etc)? Will it be in V3 or will it make it to FARR before that? Mouser, you said like 6 months ago that this feature was coming in soon. :-)
____________________________

-joes_garage (October 19, 2017, 03:08 PM)

I thought it was possible to launch Win10 Apps with FARR already, no?
Apps normally seem to have to be be loaded by the Windows Explorer Shell, which I find to be a pain.
Take MS Edge, for example.
Open the FARR window, Type/paste this string:
      run shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge
 - into the FARR search box, and then press Enter.
MS Edge will load.

Open the FARR window again, and repeat the type/paste of the string:
      run shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge
The first search result will be the same string that you just entered previously.
Select this result and Right-Click it, choosing Add to Group Alias, then select New Alias Keyword/Group..
You can then add this as a new alias. (You can call it whatever you want, but I used $Edge)
You will see that FARR will have interpreted and recorded the string slightly differently, as:
      shellexec shell:Appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge

Spoiler

(Source: C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\Clipboard Help+Spell\Database\Files\2017\10\20_710x571_23FD7004.png

Right-Clicking the same result will now show the newly-added alias in the menu:

Spoiler

Source: C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\Clipboard Help+Spell\Database\Files\2017\10\20_763x495_AC976BC6.png

(Was this the sort of thing you were looking for?)

-IainB (October 19, 2017, 10:22 PM)

80

Living Room / Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free

« on: December 07, 2019, 10:39 PM »

@4wd: Yes, the Ozzies were arguably ahead of the game. In the NZ IRD project, the designers/planners had looked to other examples of innovation in the tax system in different countries, and one good example had been Australia's. (The decision had already been taken to use XML as the Common Reporting Standard.)

The background to the project would have included these objectives and benefits:
The Standard Business Reporting (SBR) Programme would eventually transform the manually intensive AS-IS government-mandated processes for collecting data from businesses, to enable a more automated TO-BE process.
In considering the SBR Programme, the New Zealand government would be in line with international developments – for example, where Australia, the Netherlands and the UK are well advanced in the development and implementation of SBR.
This would be a whole-of-government programme using technology to reduce reporting burdens for business by eliminating unnecessary or duplicated reporting to separate government agencies – typically IR, ACC, Statistics.
SBR would provide options for increased automation of business reporting, including greater pre-population of forms.
The broad areas of benefit that would be provided by SBR are:
•   Reducing the number of different agencies to which businesses have to report directly the same or similar information.
•   Reducing the number of data elements that businesses report to government, through standardising and harmonising data definitions and eliminating duplication.
•   Reducing the cost of intermediaries to business, currently necessitated by the need to operate a more manual and duplicative process.
•   Improving cost-efficiency of the SBR process, through increased automation.
...etc.

I could be wrong, of course, but in the Intuit case in the US, those types of "no-brainer" objectives/benefits for the nation's taxpayers would seem to have been nowhere in sight. If it was not benefitting the taxpayers, then one has to wonder to whose $benefit that ultimately might have been... 

81

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: NANY 2020: quick generator peek

« on: December 01, 2019, 08:34 AM »

@Tuxman:

I won’t do anything for Mozilla anymore, sorry.

-Tuxman (December 01, 2019, 05:02 AM)

Not surprising, I suppose - considering what they seem to have done to their browser, users and extension developers. I don't think there's anyone left for them to p*ss off now. I used to be such a fan too.

82

Living Room / Re: Boeing 737 exposee

« on: November 28, 2019, 06:58 PM »

@holt:
EDIT 2020-01-09: Just pointing out that the above video is a repeat from the post you made earlier:

Another whistle-blower exposee, reporting shabby workmanship, about a completely different airliner, also manufactured by Boeing, the company whose aircraft never crash, they just go 'boeing-boeing':
Boeing 787 Broken Dreams
"Our journalism reveals the deeply-held safety concerns of current and former Boeing engineers, who in some cases fear to fly on the 787, the plane they build. We uncover allegations of on-the-job drug use, quality control problems and poor workmanship."

-holt (April 13, 2019, 06:22 PM)

@holt: [Regarding that video.] Yup. A while back, I met an engineer (retired ex Boeing, at a conference in Australia) who wished to remain anonymous, but said that the Dreamliner design was aerodynamically very sound - including the performance of carbon fibre in construction - but that Boing had effectively ensured that their incompetence and disregard for engineering build quality, safety and compliance, coupled with an emasculated and now servile FAA puppet, would kill the plane - which it did - what a surprise (NOT). He said, from an engineering perspective, it was predictable, but the management seemed to be blinded by greed and a seemingly psychopathic disregard for the safety of others.
He also said that the Al Jazeera video made a good point about the trouble seeming to stem from the point in 1997 when MacDonnel Douglas and Boeing merged. After that point, he reckoned, there was an increasing statistical probability that each new Boeing product could be a potential death-trap, and time seems to have shown that to be the case.
The engineer advised me to avoid Boeing planes, for my own safety. I still use flight insurance, but I won't fly on a Boeing aircraft now and I won't book flights for my family members on them either. I'd rather have a living wife, son, or daughter than a fat paycheck as compensation for their loss of life.

83

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks

« on: November 28, 2019, 05:53 PM »

@Dormouse: Wow. You have my sympathies. Not sure I could cope with using Windows set up in reverse colour mode, though I have experimented with it.

I keep hammering on about "ergonomics" and "visual perspective", or similar, but unless developers have studied optics, visual perception and ergonomics, or have personally experienced any sight disabilities or vision difficulty, they don't have a clue - don't understand what all the fuss is about. They seem to think that using pretty colours and Helvetica font, or something, "looks nice" and will fix it all (I'm exaggerating, of course). One exception would seem to be the developer for the BazQux feed-reader  , who seems to really understand the issues and has already done something about it.
For example:

84

Living Room / Re: Movies you've seen lately

« on: November 28, 2019, 05:30 PM »

@mouser: is that a movie? I can't seem to find it on IMDB.
EDIT: Found it A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Sorry, must have mistyped the search in FARR the first time.

85

General Software Discussion / Re: And another Google Service is biting the dust...

« on: November 28, 2019, 05:15 PM »

@lanux128: Thanks for the links to those lists. Makes for pretty depressing reading, sure, but some time ago (it was during the WAVE fiasco) I belatedly twigged to the fact that whatever new service they were offering - no matter how good/useful or interesting it might seem - it was merely some kind of a BS market testing device to see what behaviours (demand, usage, types of usage patterns, etc.) it might trigger. They were always in Beta, so I have stopped using any of their products except Gmail, and now have a full backup strategy for when that gets killed (following the trend).
It's an interesting conundrum: What do you do with your research results when they reflect that your lab rats have awareness and start to realise they're being manipulated, tested and observed and so change their behaviours accordingly? Maybe you just focus on those lab rats that haven't evinced any sense of awareness yet, I don't know.

Sorry to use a cliché, but I found the potential for WAVE to be quite "exciting" from an information management and collaboration perspective.  I found Web Hosting in Google Drive (2012 - 2016) particularly useful too, but stopped using it before I became dependent on it, assuming it would be killed off before long (it was). The main problems for users of any/most web or cloud-based services is that one generally has real risks to deal with:

• Lack of security of access and control.
• Lack of certainty that the service has any longevity for one's business needs - e.g., lack of certainty that the host or supplier will be in business 2 years from now to support the service.
• Lack of full ability for backup/restore, or migration.

Addressing mitigation of these risks would seem to be well-nigh impossible, when the service provider isn't showing all their cards and motivations - and there could be a relatively high price tag attached to mitigation anyway.

I used to be what is termed "an early adopter", but am now become a somewhat jaundiced late adopter. 

We're all mostly unpaid beta-testers for Microsoft anyway. That was so with DOS, and now Windows 10.

86

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« on: November 22, 2019, 01:02 PM »

@panzer: Thanks. You always seem to come up with such nifty stuff.   

87

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips'nTricks - Yay! Night Mode cometh!

« on: November 22, 2019, 12:08 PM »

Various news reports are indicating that MS (MicroSoft) are pulling away from the idea of going Cloud-only with ON, and are now consolidating the latest versions of ON in the Desktop software.
In line with that, they have recently released an update to MS Office (including ON 2016).
One really useful (for me) feature of the forthcoming updates to be rolled out between now and year's end is Dark Mode:

Notes:

• Dark Mode for OneNote 2016 is being gradually rolled out to customers during November and December of 2019. To ensure that you always receive the latest features as they become available, enable automatic Office updates. To do this, click File > Account, and then click the Update Options button.
  
  
• Dark Mode is compatible with OneNote 2016 version 16.0.12130 or later. To see which version you’re using, open OneNote 2016, click File > Account, and then note the information shown under About OneNote. You can also click the About OneNote button for more information.
  
  
• If you’re using OneNote at work or at school, your organization’s IT policies may affect if and when you can use this feature. Please contact your IT administrator for more information.

- Turn Dark Mode on or off in OneNote

This could be very good ergonomic news for those ON users who may be visually impaired. Dark Mode looks superb and really easy on the eyes. Pity it's not been rolled out to my ON version yet. Can't wait to try it out.

I really dislike OneNote's visual ergonomics - to me it looks all "glary" and fuzzy. This is due to gradually progressive clouding of my vision - sort of premature cataracts - plus what's called Fuchs endothelial dystrophy. It's not genetic and has been creeping on for years now, all apparently/probably brought on by my having been hit by acute and severe snowblindness when I was 16 and on a high altitude expedition over the Swiss alps. I'd lifted my snowgoggles onto my forehead as they were steaming up, I was sweating so much. It didn't seem too dazzling to me as we were in a freezing cloud. For about an hour our party of about 20 was in this freezing cloud, moving slowly, no stamping, silently and carefully, spread out 2 meters apart in single file, skins on the skis, following in each other's tracks as we traversed along a ridge metres above a huge avalanche slope, in snow conditions which meant the slope could be about to collapse. We were relieved when we got safely clear and laughed at each other's faces, with our ski hats, eyelashes, nostrils and eyebrows festooned with ice crystals formed from our sweat, tears and the steam of our exhaled breath.
However, at high altitudes where the actinic rays are very strong, it was a long enough exposure to do my eyes in. On the descent, my vision became fuzzy at first, and then over dinner in our hostel, my peripheral vision started to go and then I went temporarily partially blind. Very sore eyes too. We'd already the day before had 4 casualties with broken legs (very difficult snow conditions for skiers) within 10 minutes as we made the descent to the Grande St Bernard monastery (our destination for that night), so I was just one more, but luckier casualty.
As an aside:

Spoiler

I was delighted when I later learned that the little worm we had as an expeditions master (a house tutor who also taught economics and from whom we prefects had to protect the junior boys from his perving them in the showers and their dormitories) held it against me that I hadn't successfully completed that expedition. Anything that annoyed the detestable worm was a singular success in my book and only served as an incremental marginal increase to my enjoyment of life. The fact that it was I who happened to have been the source of his displeasure was an unexpected and added bonus that almost made the snowblindness seem to have been all worthwhile. So, to mark this achievement, we held a celebratory afternoon tea in the prefects' room, making peanut butter sandwiches with lashings of Heros black cherry jam, and tea and coffee heavily laced with brandy...and there was also some wine. One of us got horribly drunk and this idjut had to be carried by his fellow prefects to the showers, where he was undressed, left in an icy cold shower for 5 minutes, dried off and carried up to his attic room that he shared with one other boy and where they left him for 15 minutes or so, sat by the open window, to vomit up the contents of his stomach onto the roof tiles. When the flow and bile had stopped, they then carefully cleaned him up, put him to bed naked but wrapped warmly in blankets and excused his absence at dinner by telling the housemaster that he had been ill and gone to bed (which was true). Who was this individual? My lips are sealed, but I do know that he will never forget the experience as he was fully aware of what was going on most of the time and he was horrified and frightened by what he experienced - being shut inside his head aware and observing his total disengagement of motor control - so much so that he vowed never to get drunk like that again. He never forgot the kindness of his fellow prefects. It had been a sobering experience.

The "glary" ON interface apparently looks that way (glary) to me (is perceived that way by me) because of semi-opaque particles in the lens causing intraocular dispersion/refraction of the unpolarised light coming from the light source (the LCD screen). The result is a lot of optical "noise" falling on the retina making the main image indistinct. I can see better at night (less noise) than I can on a sunny day. My eyesight would be pretty good otherwise.

88

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« on: November 09, 2019, 08:05 AM »

@tomos:

thanks both, I just wasn't really familiar with the word tbh

-tomos (November 09, 2019, 06:12 AM)

Well, being a pedant, I wasn't comfortable with this usage either, but I tried what Dorothy did in the Wizard of Oz - she clicked her heels together three times and said "refactor" each time, and all became clear in the morning when she woke up - and it did for me too!
This Dorothy trick incidentally was apparently the origin of the modern verb "to be woke", as in "He/she/it is 'woke'." When things become clear to one, not quite as sudden as in an epiphany, but more like a bubble rising through oil. Not a lot of people know that, though the concept was hinted at in Lewis Carroll's writings:

“Must a name mean something?” Alice asks Humpty Dumpty, only to get this answer: “When I use a word… it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” - Through the Looking Glass(1871), by Lewis Carroll.

89

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2020: How can I be of service to you?

« on: November 09, 2019, 07:27 AM »

@BGM:
Just correcting what I wrote above:

@BGM: CodeBank v2.1.2.100 (June 9, 2011 is still available via:
https://files.downlo...=CodeBank2_Setup.exe
Refer Wayback: http://web.archive.o...5/http://zeraha.org/

-IainB (November 07, 2019, 05:01 PM)

Out of interest, I downloaded that file and ran the install.
Confuzzling result:
Which is the "Current/latest" version?:

• Installer says: v2.0.1.74
• "About" says: v2.1.2.95
• Notes for June 9, 2011 (in Wayback) say: v2.1.2.100

So I downloaded the installer kindly provided by you (@BGM) at http://www.sspxusa.org/temp/CodeBank2Setup.exe
@BGM's CodeBank installer says: v2.1.2.100
"About" says: v2.1.2.100

So you seem to have the latest version, indicating that at least some (if not all) of the sites that CodeBank formerly used to distribute the software have only earlier versions of it - which I guess is what you had probably(?) already discovered.
Thanks for providing that latest version anyway. Interesting proggy.

90

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2020: How can I be of service to you?

« on: November 07, 2019, 05:01 PM »

@BGM: CodeBank v2.1.2.100 (June 9, 2011 is still available via:
https://files.downlo...=CodeBank2_Setup.exe

Refer Wayback: http://web.archive.o...5/http://zeraha.org/

91

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive

« on: October 29, 2019, 05:09 PM »

Some comments here (above) seem to be redolent of comments along the same lines at two excellent reference links:

• Outliner Software forum: where there's a long history of useful discussion on all Notetaking and PIM-related methods, workflows, software/apps. Still in search of the Holy Grail of PIMs though.
  
  
• Taking Note blog: has very useful thoughts on Notetaking methods/philosophies in general and Notetaking software/apps. Strongly favours the Connected Text PIM, but I gather CT may no longer be being developed/maintained (its future seems uncertain/obscure). Seem to have been no posts since December 2018, though comments from readers have been added since then.

92

Living Room / Re: DC on Discord :O

« on: October 20, 2019, 01:46 AM »

Um, I'm no expert, but it seems to me that this technology may have been superseded somewhat by newer technology, several years ago (on August 14, 2013) - by what seems to be the stuff of nightmares for the NSA and other Five Eyes members - Telegram.
Includes: (some of this is from memory)

• Requires no server, just client devices.
• $FREE "forever".
• Ability to support Channel providers by voluntary donations and/or subscriptions.
• Security based on your unique phone number and passphrase (similar in that regard to the Japanese LINE social network system).
• Works on various clients:
• Android.
• Windows and Windows Portable.
• macOS
• MacApp Store version
• Linux 32-bit
• Linux 64-bit
• Absolutely secure + private end-to-end encryption. with distributed Cloud storage.
• Text messaging with some RTF capability.
• Voice (audio) telephony.
• Voice (audio) messaging.
• Concepts of Channels, Discussions, Groups, and social/business networking, secret chats.
• Dynamic links to URLs, with content partially shown in posts containing those links.
• Posts are left as editable, for a period, or can be replaced (with current date) by new posts.
• Your own posts can be permanently removed by you, for yourself only (e.g., to remove clutter in a thread), or for all others also.
• Files that you download from links or upload to links (documents, images, audio files, audio-video files, compressed files) don't seem to have a limit on size (though I could be wrong) and are stored encrypted in your Cloud Account and regarded as your permanent property. That means only you can delete them, or they will be expunged if you don't use your account for a preset period of your choice (up to 12 months).
• You can "clean" these files from your client device's Telegram cache (to recover storage space), but they will remain yours in the Telegram Cloud and can be downloaded again (useful for backup and for video junkies).
• The use of programmable "bots" (similar to Yahoo! PIPE, IFTTT).
• etc.

See also:

Extracted notes from the Telegram FAQ:
(Copied from: Telegram F.A.Q. - <https://telegram.org/faq#q-how-are-you-going-to-make-money-out-of-this>)

-IainB (July 24, 2018, 12:27 AM)

93

Screenshot Captor / Re: Is there any plan to update to ScreenShot Captor ?

« on: October 19, 2019, 11:09 PM »

I'd appreciate a rules-based file-renamer within Screenshot Captor.
-lanux128 (2019-10-05, 01:09:56)
Would it be enough, or easier, to harness a command-line file renamer like BRC  (brother of the better-known Bulk Rename Utility (BRU)) or Rename Master?

-rjbull (October 06, 2019, 03:55 PM)

Could I suggest, before getting lost in the weeds regarding what sort of file renamer might be the best approach, that some consideration be given to whether there is a real need for this file renaming functionality to be added-in to SC in the first place?

Presumably, the idea of changing the image file's name is "because we've always done that" or maybe there's a desire to have it show pertinent metadata that one might wish to be reflected in the image name, for easier searching, or something.
You don't actually need to change the file's original name to do that. You just need to add/associate the metadata to the image, somehow. One way to do that is, if the images are in .jpg, then add the metadata as (say) EXIF data, and you could then use a sophisticated image management tool (e.g., Picasa) to index, catalogue and search that data. (Works brilliantly). Filenames could largely become irrelevant.
However, if you're capturing images using SC (ScreenshotCaptor) and prefer having .png files, then life can become very easy - if you're also using CHS (ClipboardHelp & Spell). You can use it as an excellent image capture management tool, and save your captured image file(s) in a path such as (for example):
...\Clipboard Help+Spell\Database\Files\2019\10\17_603x276_DF0CFDD5.png - with all sorts of metadata associated:
e.g., including:
*  Size/resolution: | 603x276  (20.69kb)
*  Notes: Any notes, text, URL links, or (say)references to other files (limit 9,999 characters, I think).

Using CHS and its tagging and especially its Virtua Folders feature, you can then categorize sort, classify, search and order that meta-data (and the images it relates to) pretty much any which way you want.

...This is why I keep banging on about CHS (ClipboardHelp & Spell) as being an ideal image capture management tool, if users (and its author) only but realised it. The user can forget about worrying about image filenames or what directory the ruddy image is stored in or where it is.

It really does seem rather like a no-brainer, to me: If CHS is running, then every screenshot image that goes to Clipboard also is saved to the CHS image database folder [NB: together with any post-capture SC(ScreenshotCaptor} artefacts added at time of capture, if SC was being used to make the screenshot], from where the user can, at their leisure, view that image saved - just scroll through the images flagged in the CHS Grid display and view the image (with zooming) in the CHS Memo display. The user can at that point also trigger a separate image viewer (e.g., Irfanview) from the view button in the CHS Memo display, which will have previously been associated with images in the CHS settings. Any half-decent image viewer will also have a built-in image management tool and metadata editing tool. The latter would typically be an EXIF editor - e.g., Irfanview is very good in both regards.

If the user then wants to operate on (edit/change) that image, then they can invoke the third-party image editing tool (e.g., SC is very good) from the edit button in the CHS Memo display and which would have been associated with image editing in the CHS settings. (NB: This would require that SC or other image editor be installed first, of course.)

Done this way, the user:

• can forget about the image file (if/when needed, it's path and name are given in the Text tab in the CHS Memo display), and
• can forget about the viewer/editor applications (they are seamlessly integrated into CHS settings), and
• concentrate on the task at hand - namely the functionality that is required (e.g., image view and/or edit) regarding any particular screen capture or clip or other image selected in CHS.

All the above boils down to making the whole process of image capture management more effective/efficient. It's a useful time-saving approach, simply because it automates the integration of image application functionality. The user typically doesn't generally capture an image because they want to capture it per se, but because they want to do something with the image - or its file -  once it has been captured.

When seeking to improve a frequently-used and manually intensive process, the rule of thumb is generally to automate wherever possible/feasible and cost-effective to do so.
(As usually described in most/any Work Study practitioner's handbook.)

-IainB (January 23, 2018, 05:54 PM)

94

Living Room / Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free

« on: October 19, 2019, 09:31 PM »

Regardless, the idea of automating the tax-gathering process using ubiquitous, non-proprietary and lowest-common-denominator technology (i.e., the Internet, in this case) and thus making it less complicated/easier and the cost of compliance less expensive for taxpayers is not a novel idea and should be a key objective for the State treasury - for example, as it is in New Zealand:
As I wrote under: Re: Privacy - Why can't the government do my taxes for me?

In 2008/9 I was contracted as a project manager to establish and commence a project that was going to transform the gathering of revenue/tax data by doing it online. This was for individuals and accounting agents of SMBs (Small to Medium-sized Businesses). It was to automate and dramatically improve the efficiency and speed of the processes involved, which, up until then, had been prone to massive manual processing holdups.

Fast forward 9 years. I was doing my personal online tax return the other day and was impressed with how easy it was,, as the Inland Revenue already knew an awful lot of the private details about my income. What potentially had been likely to take me hours by the old methods was now taking minutes. This was for my individual tax return. (I had read in the press that the SMB side of things was still having hiccups though.)

Then my train of thought reminded me of this silly humour post I made in 2014:

Scott Adams Blog: Message to My Government 03/06/2014
Mar 6, 2014

I never felt too violated by the news that my government can snoop on every digital communication and financial transaction I make. Maybe I should have been more bothered, but the snooping wasn't affecting my daily life, and it seemed like it might be useful for fighting terrorism, so I worried about other things instead.

This week, as I was pulling together all of my records to do taxes, I didn't get too upset that the process of taxpaying is unnecessarily frustrating and burdensome. As a citizen, I do what I need to do. I'm a team player.

I have also come to peace with the fact that my government now takes about half of my income. I figure most of it goes to good causes. I'm here to help.

I take pride in the fact that I don't let the little things get to me.

But the other day, as I was crawling my way through mountains of statements and receipts, trying to organize my records for my accountant, with several more days of this drudgery ahead, I had a disturbing thought. I must warn you in advance that this disturbing thought can only be expressed in all capital letters and it must include profanity. It goes like this.

Message to my government:

DO MY FUCKING TAXES FOR ME, YOU ASSHOLES!!! YOU ALREADY KNOW EVERY FUCKING THING I DID THIS YEAR!!!

Seriously.
-IainB (2014-03-11, 05:57:32)

-IainB (July 01, 2018, 01:54 AM)

95

Living Room / Re: TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free

« on: October 19, 2019, 09:03 PM »

@mouser: Not being au fait with US Inland Revenue processes, I had been unaware until reading your post just now that Intuit TurboTax was secure in what seems to have been an obfuscated monopoly/cartel of sorts. Funny how nobody had noticed over the last 20-odd years that Intuit seemed to have had some kind of monopoly, or something there, and thus nobody had done anything to remedy it, eh?
Under what circumstances do you suppose that could happen?   

96

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: NANY 2020 Release - Android App - DiscussionList

« on: October 19, 2019, 06:57 PM »

@mouser: My apologies, but I've had to switch focus to some urgent/unexpected issues that have cropped up locally and thus can't promise to be able to spend time in ß testing to give you any useful feedback right now.

97

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: NANY 2020 Release - Android App - DiscussionList

« on: October 15, 2019, 10:59 AM »

@mouser: Re: NANY 2020 Pledge - Android App - DiscussionList.

Keep the suggestions coming.
If anyone wants to help test beta version, let me know.

-mouser (October 11, 2019, 11:51 AM)

I think the suggestions would be akin to "requirements" rules, so I guess this is partially about the incremental development/refinement of a prototype tool to meet some defined requirements and some as yet unknown/undiscovered/undefined potential requirements.
I'd be happy to help as a ß tester - it could be quite interesting, as, during the testing process, I could get to understand the tool better in terms of what it does now, as well as its potentially expanding context for possibilities of use. I quite enjoy being a ß tester for a couple of Android apps at present and I enjoyed being a ß tester for other software (including Google WAVE and NoteFrog and Wezinc) for the same reasons.

98

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: WizNote (a PIM from China) - Mini-Review + Provisional User Forum

« on: October 07, 2019, 05:18 PM »

@sphere: Thanks for the update. I had largely lost interest in WizNote as they seem to have gone to a subscription basis or something for using their Cloud, and I don't trust the confused chopping and changing that's been going on.
I shall follow up on the LeanNote link. Thanks. Looks interesting.
EDIT: I checked out LeanNote. Seems to be just another Cloud subscription-based app.
Not an ergonomically intuitive or easy-to-use GUI either, No thanks.

99

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the future of OneNote?

« on: October 02, 2019, 01:28 PM »

@rgdot:

In other words:
"You don't like the cloud then leave, we don't give a $#&%"
 

-rgdot (October 01, 2019, 09:14 PM)

Well, at least it's a rather clear statement of future OneNote direction from MS    - one that I hadn't seen before, but which apparently expressly excludes that sector of the market that wants/needs to hold its databases on local devices (PCs, laptops).
I wonder whether all of MS Office (i.e., not just OneNote) is being sunsetted in the same way? Not sure whether that idea would meet my requirements.
Another Q I have now: Why didn't MS sunset Microsoft Money in the same way (migrate to the Cloud)? They could have done, and the market was clearly headed in that direction.   

In my OneNote experiments, I've migrated my Notebooks to the cloud, and it's been pretty much rock-solid stability and dependability for those Cloud-based Notebooks, and a real boon for when I move to using another laptop.
However, I'm now wondering whether I will in fact be able to revert and migrate my Notebooks back to the local device, or even use the backups locally that I have made along the way.
Just supposing: Maybe it's a "gotcha" - "Oh, didn't we tell you there's no going back?"   
 
Google led the way when they introduced the Chromebook, Suddenly, there was another generically useful bunch of Cloud apps that didn't need an expensive DOS/Windows-based device, but was compatible with them anyway (because the Cloud apps are Agnostic in terms of OS dependency).  Shock horror for MS.
So are MS heading in the same direction?

Incidentally, I came across  this today: (might be of use, but it's just migrating to another Cloud-only system)

evimsync
Sync Evernote notes with IMAP, Import Evernote to Onenote
EvImSync is a simple tool to sync notes between Evernote and GMail Evernote2Onenote is a tool to import Evernote notes to OneNote.

100

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks

« on: September 30, 2019, 05:46 AM »

Hmm...Interesting post at asap-utilities.com/blog/

For developers; Application.Version returns 16.0 for both Excel 2019 and Excel 2016…!?
Is Excel 2019 just Excel 2016 with a new name?
(Click on link to go there.)

One wonders whether the same is true of OneNote...