Topics

1

Mini-Reviews by Members / ShutUp10 - Mini-Review

« on: January 06, 2020, 07:11 PM »

Original post date:	2020-01-07
Updated:	2020-01-11

Basic Info

Application name:	O&O ShutUp10 Antispy/privacy tool for Windows 10.
Thumbs-Up Rating:
Support:	https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 (This software has been mentioned in several past discussions on DC Forum.) Download the software from: the support link above.
Application Version Reviewed:	ShutUp10 v1.7.1405
Test System Specs:	Have used an earlier version successfully on Win7-64 HP, but this latest version seems to be specifically oriented towards Windows 10 32-64bit
Upgrade Policy:	$FREE for Private use.
Pricing Scheme	$FREE for Private use.

1.0 Intro and Overview:
(From the support page)

O&O ShutUp10 means you have full control over which comfort functions under Windows 10 you wish to use, and you decide when the passing on of your data goes too far. Using a very simple interface, you decide how Windows 10 should respect your privacy by deciding which unwanted functions should be deactivated.

O&O ShutUp10 is entirely free and does not have to be installed – it can be simply run directly and immediately on your PC. And it will not install or download retrospectively unwanted or unnecessary software, like so many other programs do these days!

2.0 Using O&O ShutUp10:
The user is presented with a panel listing the toggles (On/Off) switches.
Select those toggles you want, per the example below.



3.0 Who this software is designed for:
Home or business users wanting to manage their Windows 10 hidden/intrusive security/privacy settings.

4.0 The Good:
It's simple and effective.
It works just like it should.
Warns you about starting/enabling Restore Point and Shadow Copy functionality before making any changes.

5.0 The needs improvement section:
Nothing to report here.

6.0 Why I think you should use this product:
For home or business users wanting to better manage their Windows 10 hidden/intrusive security/privacy settings, this software could be of enormous help and provide peace-of-mind.

7.0 How it compares to similar software
Its simple approach and interface is one of the easiest to use that I have come across (so I have used it for years).

8.0 Conclusions:
Worth using in Windows 10 especially, as it addresses all the telemetry concerns.
Will need to be re-run periodically after Windows updates as they will tend to have restored the old default Registry settings (for the hidden/intrusive security/privacy settings ). Microsoft seems to never give up.

2

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.

3

LaunchBar Commander / Outstanding LBC issues/bugs

« on: February 11, 2019, 03:42 AM »

@mouser: Could I just "bump" this for action, please?:

Couple of queries and an odd thing - using LBC v1.154.2.0 (2018-11-21) ...

-IainB (December 01, 2018, 03:07 AM)

4

Living Room / Avaiability/outages of the DCF website.

« on: December 22, 2018, 11:24 AM »

Is there a log of service level incidents/outages of the website?
I got an Error 522 today, reported by Cloudflare  - copied per the attached file which is just text in an .mhtml file, in a .zip file.
I wondered whether it was a known outage/incident or an unknown intermittent error of some kind.
Thought I should report it.
 There was a diagram that showed the connections between:
  Browser (me) <---> Cloudflare (Tokyo) <---> Host (donationcoder.com)

 - with the Browser and Cloudflare shown as "working" and their link OK, but the link between Cloudflare to Host was X'd out (not working).

I did a Ctrl-R (refresh) and after a rather longish wait, the DCF site came up OK.

5

Living Room / Intel drivers and support - The Intel Driver and Support Assistant (IDSA)

« on: December 22, 2018, 08:05 AM »

I have discovered that the best or most suitable Intel drivers for my Intel i7 chip-based Win10-64 Pro laptop might not necessarily be the ones that have been installed via the sometimes unreliable/unwanted Windows Update process.

For what it's worth, here are some notes on The Intel Driver and Support Assistant - this app could be useful to you.

The Intel Driver and Support Assistant.
These are my notes, made as a record and published here as I consider this app is useful and could probably be well worth having for many other PC users, as it helped to bring my laptop up-to-date with the latest Intel hardware driver versions applicable to that laptop - when it had not so been brought up-to-date by the WinUpdate process.

File:           Intel Driver and Support Assistant Installer.exe
dl from:      <https://downloadmirror.intel.com/24345/a08/Intel%20Driver%20and%20Support%20Assistant%20Installer.exe>
Web page: <https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html?iid=dc_IDSA>
_______________________________

I came across this app by chance last month (Nov. 2018), after doing a duckduckgo search for: Intel 1815.12.0.2021
 - which was the Intel driver that WinUpdate was trying to dl + install. I wanted to know what it was for.
I was hoping that the Intel Driver and Support Assistant would be able to tell me whether I needed to install anything - and, hopefully, WHY I needed to install it. I wish to avoid inadvertently installing Meltdown/SPECTRE fixes as they are reputedly likely to degrade CPU performance.
___________________________
The installation includes "an invitation" to join the  Intel® Computing Improvement Program: the Terms of which are in the spoiler below: (I DECLINED.)

Spoiler

Terms - The  Intel® Computing Improvement Program.
The information collected includes the web browsing histogram telling how long and how often specific categories of sites have been visited on this device.
All sites visits are classified into one of up to 30 categories. We will not send URLs, web pages titles or any user specific content without an additional explicit permission from you.

Collected information contains your device manufacturer, CPU model, memory and display configuration, OS version, software version, region and language settings, regional location and time zone, other devices in your computing environment, software usage (e.g. number of times used, duration of use, etc.), and feature usage. Collected data is associated with a randomly generated unique identifier (GUID) that is stored on your device. Other devices in your computing environment includes universal plug and play devices (e.g. Smart TV model and vendor information, Video Streaming devices) or other devices that broadcast information that is available to your computer on a local area network.  This information is used to help Intel understand how well our products perform over time, to determine how useful they are, to detect issues and to identify future product improvements. The information collected does not include any actual content you create or view and will not be used to identify you without an additional explicit permission from you.

A frequently asked questions providing additional details is available here: https://policy.syste...eport.intel.com/faq/ .

The Intel® Computing Improvement Program utilizes reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect the information collected against unauthorized or unlawful access, alteration, disclosure or destruction. You can access more information about Intel's privacy practices online at http://intel.com/privacy
_____________________________________________________

When first run, the IDSA (Intel Driver and Support Assistant) works with a web-hosted application to analyze and report on the status of drivers for all the Intel hardware on your particular PC (i.e., the on-board Intel hardware). The report is interesting and very informative - fairly detailed - and is displayed in a browser page. It indicates the software (driver) update packages that are required to be installed on your particular PC to bring it up-to-date.
This it did for me, identifying the device and the driver update required, and asked me to select the download if I wanted to proceed - which I did.

Once installed, the IDSA reloads at system Start-up, and seems to just monitor and check whether the latest drivers applicable to your particular PC's on-board Intel hardware (e.g., including Intel CPU, GPU, bluetooth and wifi processors) are installed. If not, then I think it will automatically download and install it (hasn't needed to do that for me yet), which then would maintain your Intel system(s) up-to-date with the current driver versions - which is what you would expect it to do, at any rate.

Given the - what seems to me to be - excessively inquisitive terms and nature of "The Intel® Computing Improvement Program" (which I declined to join), I do not trust the IDSA to be entirely innocent and so I delete the process after Start-up, though it does not seem to present a burden on the CPU or other resources. Once the process is deleted, it does not seem to automatically persist/reinstate itself - e.g., unlike the annoyingly persistent Google Update processes that are sometimes bundled with Chrome and other Google products.

At the very least, the IDSA provides a useful and independent (of Microsoft) confidence check on the validity/currency of the Intel hardware drivers required to be installed on any given PC.
Probably worth having, therefore.

6

General Software Discussion / K-LOC Calculator - for when you desperately need a number - any number...

« on: November 01, 2018, 07:31 AM »

I was rummaging through the rather interesting blog and website of the excellent http://www.analogx.com/       looking for updates to the audio/music files that can be found there, when I became diverted by the headline for the K-LOC Calculator application - which I did not recall having seen before:

K-LOC Calculator, version 1.01
    Over the years, the software development community at large has gotten a whole host of valuable information about project management from good old Big Blue (IBM)... I should clarify that - valuable information on how NOT to manage a project. For fun, I decided to resurrect one of their worst ideas ever, K-LOC (or more appropriately, paying programmers based on K-LOC).
    The AnalogX K-LOC Calculator is the exact opposite of PCalc, my programmer's calculator - this has almost no real world application, but it is fun for the number crunchers out there who want some sort of metric about the project. Sure, the metric is completely arbitrary, but hey, you can feed it into a spreadsheet! heheh... Actually, I would say that K-LOC does have its uses (a simple way to measure project complexity, perhaps), but there aren't too many.
    AnalogX K-LOC Calculator can scan any number of files, any wildcard extension, and even recursively check subdirectories. It returns not only the total project K-LOC rating, but the average file K-LOC rating and total file size of the project as well!

K-LOC Calculator works on all versions of Windows, from Window 95 to Windows 7 and everything inbetween (including XP, Vista, Win2k, etc). If you have a general question related to any of the programs on the site, or would like some additional info related to the downloads in general, then check out the downloads FAQ.

Copied from: K-LOC[/b] Calculator, version 1.01 - <http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/Programming/kloc/Freeware.htm>
_____________________________

So what the heck is a KLOC?   

Etymology:
K (thousand) + LOC (lines of code)
KLOC (plural KLOCs)

1. Noun: (computing, programming) thousand lines of code

• In IBM there's a religion in software that says you have to count KLOCs, and a KLOC is a thousand line of code. – Steve Ballmer in Triumph of the Nerds II: Riding the Bear (Robert X. Cringely, Paul Sen, 1996), about 38 minutes in, relating events around 1989.
  
  
• It concludes that defects are found 2 to 4 times faster with inspection than with testing, that defects are typically found at the rate of one defect per man hour invested in inspection, and that inspection finds about 37 defects per kloc if it is done properly.
  – Terry Shepard in Proceedings of the National Workshop on Software Engineering Education (IBM Canada, 1993)
  
  
• The formula is based on thousands of lines of source code (kLOC) and incorporates Fagan's recommendations for inspection pace, meeting duration, and frequency:
     - elapsed time (in days) = 3 × n kLOC
  Here n is an estimate of how many thousands of lines of code will be inspected.
  – Glen W. Russell, Experience with Inspection in Ultralarge-Scale Developments (Bell-Northern Research, 1991)

Copied from: KLOC - Wiktionary - <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/KLOC>
_____________________________

Ah. OK, so it's a Thneed* variant.   
This is eerily redolent of a Thneed* called FPA (Function Point Analysis), another utterly useless (from experience) piece of computing's store of religio-political ideologies and which was often found cohabiting with yet another Thneed* called IEM (Information Engineering Methodology)      [my emphasis]

Function Point Analysis has been proven [Yeah, right] as a reliable method for measuring the size of computer software. In addition to measuring output, Function Point Analysis is extremely useful in estimating projects, managing change of scope, measuring productivity, and communicating functional requirements.[Amazing, eh? It also cures cognitive blindness.]

There have been many misconceptions [Translation: by people who who are misunderstanders of, or are not true believers] regarding the appropriateness of Function Point Analysis in evaluating emerging environments such as real time embedded code and Object Oriented programming. Since function points express the resulting work-product in terms of functionality as seen from the user's perspective, the tools and technologies used to deliver it are independent. [Translation: it can also be used to mean whatever you might want it to mean.]

Copied from: Function Point Analysis - <http://www.qpmg.com/fp-intro.htm>
_____________________________

Note: * Thneed:

"I'm being quite useful.  This thing is a Thneed.
A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!
It's a shirt.  It's a sock.  It's a glove.  It's a hat.
But it has OTHER uses.  Yes, far beyond that.
You can use it for carpets.  For pillows!  For sheets!
Or curtains!  Or covers for bicycle seats!"



-Words and illustration from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.
_____________________________

7

DC Gamer Club / Humble Bundle: Fallout games on sale - incl. Fallout4 + Fallout4 Season Pass.

« on: October 24, 2018, 11:44 PM »

All Fallout series games on sale:
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/search?sort=bestselling&search=Fallout4
It looks like:

• Fallout4, together with:
• Fallout4 Season Pass

- comprises the complete Fallout4 (PC) set.
Seems like quite good value-for-money.

8

General Software Discussion / FIX to get your fan under control in your laptop? (Might not be overheating.)

« on: October 21, 2018, 01:41 AM »

NB: This might only work for HP laptops (I don't know), but that needs to be verified, one way or the other.

Some time back, I bought a rather nice HP Pavilion-15 (AKA "Star Trek" model) at a NZ$1,000 bargain discount in a closing-down bankruptcy sale in a branch of the bankrupt Australian company Dick Smith. I had had my eye on the laptop price - it was an as-new display model - for several weeks as the price kept being further and further discounted each week - as the countdown to closure proceeded. I felt very fortunate that no-one else had spotted this bargain and snapped it up before me.
The laptop has:
CPU:Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6500U CPU @ 2.50GHz
GPU: (integrated 2 GPUs)

• Intel HD Graphics 520
• NVIDIA GeForce 940M

Normally, the laptop runs dead quiet - I mean, really quiet, even when under load and when SpeedFan says the CPUs are getting hot. This surprised me as the CPU is an Intel I7 and my experience with those had been that they tend to run hot and keep the fan busy on a laptop.

However, the other day, after a minor (if there is such a thing) Win10 update, I noticed that I could hear the laptop's fan whining as though it was working hard. Hunting around with Process Hacker for which processes were using lots of CPU, I couldn't see anything significant. Then I noticed that the little CoolSense icon was not displayed in the Systray (I have Systray set to display all icons of processes running, by default).
I should explain here that:

CoolSense is a program that came with the HP laptop in the HP Service Pack sp67743 (HP CoolSense v2.2). The proggie is dated 2015, but that version remains the latest/current version in that Service Pack as at 2018-10-21. It can be downloaded from here This is the CoolSense pop-up toggle switch when the icon in the Systray is  mouse-clicked:

So, I went through the following steps to FIX things:

• 1. Investigate: On examining the CoolSense program directory:
     C:\Program Files (x86)\Hewlett-Packard\HP CoolSense
   - I saw that the CoolSense.exe file was missing.
  
  
• 2. Re-instate .exe: So I extracted it from sp67743.exe and restored it to the program directory, leaving a backup duplicate there as well, named CoolSenseBAK.exe.
  
  
• 3. Check .ini file: I also checked the CoolSense.ini file and changed it to read:
    [default]
    autostart=on
    mode=on
    ____________
  (These had been set to OFF)
   - and made a copy of that called CoolSense.ini.bak2018-10-21
  
  
• 4. Paranoia check: Just-in-case, I checked that the files and their backups had the same checksum.     :o
  
  
• 5. Run: Then I started CoolSense.exe and after about 10 seconds, the whining fan went quiet and has stayed quiet since.

Out of interest, I searched the HP forums for problems with CoolSense. Interestingly, other users reported that (surprise, surprise) CoolSense had stopped working after a Windows update, and because some of those users didn't have the expertise to investigate as I did (see above steps), they assumed/thought that CoolSense was at fault (i.e., had failed) - though clearly that was not true in the case described above.

I thought I'd post this here in the hope that it might be useful to other DCF members.
I intend to check out/test whether CoolSense will run satisfactorily on non-HP laptops, but at the moment I don't know of any reason why it should not. I'll post my results here, anyway.
If any DCF member beats me to it, please post your results in the comments below.

9

General Software Discussion / 2018-08-31 - Hiring UX Designers 2018

« on: September 02, 2018, 06:32 AM »

I posted this on the off-chance that it might be of interest to some DC developers or others they may know: (pass it on)
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Hiring UX Designers 2018
tags: Uncategorized, Work
Glen Lipka
I am settling into my new position at Treasure Data. The people have been great. Currently, I have one immediate open head count, plus more coming soon. If you are interested in working with me, please let me know via LinkedIn. Here are some good things to know:

We are going to use Figma, although FramerX looks intriguing
Treasure Data is a B2B application, not a mobile game
These are my informal levels for designers
These are some of my previous design principles
We love people who are curious, engaged, and creative
Junior, mid-level, senior are all possible
Speaking Japanese is actually a cool bonus
We are in Mountain View, CA – Remote is possible, but you have to be great
Spectacular benefits package
There is a cute, friendly dog in the office
Ten seems like a nice round number, right?

What else can I tell you about me or the company? The team is small now, but will grow pretty significantly in the coming 2 years. Ask me anything.

If you know someone you respect, please pass this along.

Copied from: bq | Glen Lipka (LBW) - <http://commadot.com/hiring-ux-designers-2018/>

10

Living Room / Black Ribbon Day (23rd August).

« on: August 23, 2018, 10:56 AM »

Just thought I'd spare a thought for those who perished, lest we forget:

Today (August 23) is Black Ribbon Day, Anniversary of the Communist-Nazi Pact.
Every year, August 23 marks Black Ribbon Day, a day of remembrance for the victims of Soviet communism and Nazi tyranny in Europe. It marks the anniversary of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, whereby Hitler and Stalin conspired to carve Europe into two twin totalitarian superpowers.
State collectivism in both its nationalist and internationalist forms waged unprecedented horror and misery on millions of people. From the concentration camps to the gulags, we will remember them…
- Guido Fawkes

European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism
The European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, known as the Black Ribbon Day in some countries, which is observed on 23 August, is the international remembrance day for victims of totalitarian ideologies, specifically totalitarian communist regimes, Stalinism, Nazism and fascism.More at Wikipedia

Observed by: European Union, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Canada, United States and other countries
Significance: Day of remembrance for the victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.
Date: 23 August
- Wikipedia

11

General Software Discussion / Slimjet - the web browser - some experiential Tips & Tricks.

« on: August 15, 2018, 01:18 PM »

Opening post (summary):

Originally started:	2018-08-16
Last updated:	2018-11-26

Slimjet is a "fork" - a chrome-based browser.

Extensions:

• Google Chrome Web Store (for all current extensions).
• Bad Ad Johnny (see .CRX installer file and FAQ .PDF file, attached below) an excellent/better alternative to the built-in Slimjet Ad-blocker.
  

  Note: BAJ was withdrawn from Google Store, but still worked fine in Slimjet as at 2018-08-16), however it was apparently deleted from Slimjet and from the Sync (what a ruddy cheek!) by the installation of Slimjet v21.0.2 (2018-11-23) - sjt7z_x86 (Portable).exe. No matter, BAJ was easily reinstalled using the .CRX installer file, and kept its rather informative log history of number/type of ads blocked.

General:

• Comparison with other web browsers (on Slimjet.com website).
• References to Slimjet in DC Forum.

12

Living Room / Privacy (collected references)

« on: June 28, 2018, 01:02 AM »

Original post:	2018-06-28
Last updated:	2018-11-16

Privacy - especially in the "Internet Age" - is something that has the potential sometimes (often?) to be overlooked/ignored or abused:

• Sometimes the personal privacy of oneself may be overlooked/ignored by individuals who might not realise the relevance/importance of their own right to personal privacy - or that of members of society in general - people who probably might care a lot more if they were more aware (less ignorant) of some of the potential and wider ramifications/implications of privacy issues.
  
  
• Sometimes the personal privacy of others may be overlooked/ignored or abused by people, government functions and corporations who are focused on, or being driven by objectives which may be incompatible with the rights to personal privacy of others.

So I thought it might be useful to create a "Privacy thread" to collect/collate some salient privacy-related points that we come across and provide some kind of index to same.

About Privacy:

• This discussion thread.
• The NEED for privacy:
  
  • Three Reasons Why the "Nothing to Hide" Argument is Flawed.
  • I’ve Got Nothing to Hide” and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy.

____________________________________________

DNS-related:   

• CloudFlare launches privacy oriented DNS servers
• DNSCrypt (to be added).

DonationCoder forum (DCF) and user privacy:

• DCF Privacy Policy (FAQ) - comprehensive summary and detail.
• GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation, 2018) implemented for DC forum (announced 2018-05-24).
• Search DCF Site: for "privacy" - https://duckduckgo.com/site:donationcoder.com/forum/_privacy

GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation, 2018):   

• California passes its own GDPR (2018-06-29)
• GDPR implemented for DC forum (announced 2018-05-24).
• MEGA - General Data Protection Regulation Disclosure.

Government-authorised privacy breaches:   

• US NSA (National Security Agency) + "Five Eyes" nations (SnowdenGate) - Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

Search engines and websites that are apparently committed to preserving the user's full right to privacy:

• Abine.com
• DuckDuckGo
• https://duckduckgo.com/newsletter
• https://reddit.com/r/duckduckgo
• https://spreadprivacy.com/
• HAT (Hub of All Things).
• LastPass.com

Search engines and websites that apparently rely on tracking/utilising the user's personal data/metadata to maintain their marketing and/or revenue streams:

• Facebook.com - and most other "social networking" sites and their assets.
• Google.com - including Google search engine and most of its other assets - i.e., "free" and paid services.
• Google enforces its ownership of user data.
• Microsoft.com

  - including Bing search engine and most of its other assets - i.e., "free" and paid services like LinkedIn.com.

• Just about any website that insists that you "Subscribe" by providing your ID.

Software:

• Abine.com - apps and browser extensions - Passwords, Payments, & Privacy.
• Windows 10 Privacy Concerns.

Tips & Tricks:

• 8 Steps to Secure Your Facebook Privacy Settings
• 10 tips recommended  for teachers' privacy sanitisation.

Vested interests antithetical with Privacy regulation:

• See corporate interests referred to here - California passes its own GDPR (2018-06-29)
• Re: Privacy: IT companies intend to profit from your loss of privacy?
   - includes: Twitter, Facebook, and Google are Fighting Internet Privacy Laws

13

DC Gamer Club / Myst 25th Anniversary Collection (9 days of 15 left to go).

« on: May 14, 2018, 01:12 PM »

Only just now saw this special offer in my mailbox: (only 9 days of 15 left to go)
<https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1252280491/myst-25th-anniversary-collection>
There's a good FAQ at the link.

Myst 25th Anniversary Collection
A limited-time, limited-run opportunity to get an exclusively packaged collection of all of the Myst games - only through Kickstarter.

Example:



About
The Myst 25th Anniversary Collection
To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the epic game that became your world, Cyan is offering a never-been-done-before, historical anthology of the complete series, along with some special, Atrus-approved, authentic game artifacts! The collection and artifacts will be packaged in a unique box - available only through this Kickstarter, with a limited run, for a limited time. (Seriously, the games will be available later, but the special packaging and artifacts will not be sold again!)... (lots more at the link).

14

Mini-Reviews by Members / BazQux Reader - Mini-Review

« on: April 19, 2018, 01:31 PM »

Originally posted:	2018-04-20
Last updated	2018-06-16

Basic Info

App Name	BazQux Reader service
Description	A service - an online $PAID RSS feed-reader or "feed-aggregator".
Thumbs-Up Rating
App URL	https://bazqux.com
App Version Reviewed	This is an online, browser-based service, and the version is always "latest".
Test System Specs	Win7-64 Win8/8.1-64 and Pro Win10-64 and Pro - variously using: old (now defunct) Firefox browser, latest Slimjet (Chrome-based) browser <-- superb with display control NoSquint Plus extension, IE11 browser, MS Edge browser. Brave browser.
Supported OSes	Any web browser.
Support Methods	Help: is via https://bazqux.com/
Trial Version Available?	30-day free trial.
Pricing Scheme	This is a commercial service with a 30-day free trial period and then $19 or $29 (pay-what-you-want) annual subscription fee.

Intro and Overview:
BazQux Reader is a very fast online Web-based feed-aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds.

It shows comments to posts, able to retrieve full article text, have several view modes, search, can subscribe to Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/Google+ pages and has sharing and bookmarking to popular services.

It is commercial service with a 30 days free trial and then $19 or $29 pay-what-you-want annual fee.
Copied from: BazQux Reader Alternatives and Similar Websites and Apps - AlternativeTo.net - <https://alternativeto.net/software/bazqux-reader/>

Someone was asking me how I arrived at using BazQux reader, and I thought it might be helpful/useful to post this review, as it could potentially save people a lot of time (if they were not already happily using a feed-reader).

Background to my use of BaxQux:

• The former exemplar: Google Reader - Mini-Review
  
  
• DC Forum: Go to the Search page for DC Forum: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=search.
  Do a search there for: Google Reader BazQux
  The rearch results will will display lots of references, many from people who - like me - looking for an alternative to Google Reader (an RSS feed-reader/aggregator). That is, something that was at least as good as, or better. This followed Google's announcement that their excellent Google Reader was to be killed off.
  
  
• References to BazQux: I always mention BazQux when noting interesting items I may have read, because many people won't know what it is, nor what they could be missing (how excellent it is as a research and information-gathering tool). I rarely browse web-pages per se now without first reading them in BazQux, and usually I don't need to browse them after reading them in BazQux - including comments on blogs and in user groups (and it's all Ad-free as well!). I think that last bit (Ad-free) might be why Google killed off their RSS Reader.
  
  
• BazQux? For starters, see Re: Google Reader gone

There are also some useful discussions in the DC Forum that refer to Google Reader, and these two seem most relevant:

• 1. Google Reader kills support for sites without RSS feeds
• 2. RSSOwl Alternative?

Why use a feed-reader?

• If you don't want to have to spend time wading through the often confusing mass or clutter on a website in order to read the few bits of something that could be of interest, then the best you could do would probably be to subscribe to a thread/posts on the website, or to comments in a forum (e.g., including the DC Forum) without having to post something and requesting email notification of responses - as you normally would have to do. (This only applies to websites where you are already a member.)
  
  
• To do this, you have to initially subscribe for yourself (providing an email address), rather than expect the website to do it for you. For example, I have been doing this for several forums and blog sites for years, including the DC Forum. The subscriptions come to one's email box.
  
  
• However, many people do not seem to realise that they could avoid cluttering up their mailboxes and achieve the same ends (getting focused and selective reading of the items they want) by subscribing to the RSS feed for the forum/website, and getting all the posts/comments delivered via a feed-reader – as I do.
  
  
• I currently use BazQux Reader, but there are others probably just as good, though none I have come across so far that meet my peculiar requirements

The reasons that I settled on BazQux Reader (in Slimjet) were mainly:

• (a) Performance: BazQux emulates and surpasses the excellent Google Reader service that I used and that Google killed off (Curse you, Google!     ), and
• (b) Ergonomics: I have a couple of peculiar eyesight problems and need to wear spectacles. To enhance/adjust the perceptual/visual and reading experience in  Slimjet, there is a Chrome browser extension that provides a simple and superb display control NoSquint Plus

Screenshot of the Google Reader UI.
Reading the comments from DC Forum.
This was via the old/defunct Firefox, using GR's "Compressed" setting and add-ons that control/filter the layout and colour of the GR display screen. (This results in some of the on-screen artefacts appearing as black or opaque objects, but that doesn't particularly interfere with the efficient reading process.)
One of the subject lines (about Cody) has been opened, displaying the contents of the comment.




Screenshot of the BazQux Reader UI.
This is a similar view via Slimjet, using BazQux's "List View" setting (there are 5 view settings), and control over the layout and filtering is part of BazQux functionality. The colour of the display screen is controlled via the excellent NoSquint Plus Chrome extension. (This results in some of the on-screen artefacts appearing as black or opaque objects, but that doesn't particularly interfere with the efficient reading process.)
One of the subject lines has been opened, displaying a short snippet of the contents of the post.




Description:
To get started, you can set up a 30-day trial account for BazQux.
Try it out for 30 days, and, if you like it, then pay what you decide to pay (see $above).
To sign on, you could use a Gmail account to sign on with, or alternative methods (e.g., valid IDs for social networking sites).
Then you can start to add/import to BazQux the websites or RSS feeds that you want it to deliver to you (these are your subscriptions). (I imported all of my old Google Reader feeds, and have added many more since.) If a website does not seem to have an RSS feed, then BazQux will make a decent attempt to feed the site from its URL, if it can. I have found that most sites can provide a feed this way, with few exceptions, and for the exceptions, you can often obtain a pseudo-RSS feed by searching the net for same (usually for free).

The comments on some websites, or the discussions on some forums could make for very cluttered BazQux pages, but, because it has very good good filtering tools, the user can declutter the bulk of the website subscriptions in BazQux, affording a near-ideal presentation according to one's preferences.

However, a few discussion forums do not seem to feed through in conformance with the same labelling standards that one finds in many/most other forums, thus making them currently difficult to access or filter in any useful fashion.
For these sites, I am still playing about with browser extensions that might be able to send the user information about changes to webpages that have been marked for monitoring.

Though it is a major timesaver for the time-conscious reader, from a website Admin's perspective, the probably bad thing about feed-readers could be that the user can read a lot of what they want on a website without actually going to the website itself – unless of course they want to read more about a certain post or comment thread, or make/post a comment. Thus, the website probably doesn’t get all the users' “flypaper clicks” to support advertising revenue - as they otherwise probably could if the user was obliged/forced to always have to wade through the confusing mass on the website.

It can usually be a tremendously useful timesaver – of your valuable time. Your reading material is served up to you on a plate in the Reader, grouped in whatever order you have chosen, for you to pick and choose by scanning headers/labels and then clicking on those items that you want to read more of.
We only have so much spare time or cognitive surplus, and I’d rather not waste any of either on wading through such clutter and trying to identify and then scan/read anything/everything that I might have found useful on a website. I rarely actually visit a website unless there is something I want to do whilst I am there – e.g., to read more of an article or related posts, to seek help or points of view for some debate or resolution of an issue, or to make a point, or to communicate something that might be of help/use to others (as in this post).

In the BazQux Reader GUI screenshot above, one of the subject lines has been opened, displaying a snippet of the contents of the post. More - sometimes the whole page - can be read in the viewer (press a small "Expand" button on the top right), or by going to the website itself. The DC forum is one of several websites that does not allow collection of more than "snippets". However, one can generally get enough from the headline items and the snippets in the BazQux interface so as to determine whether one might actually need to go and read that post on that page (most times, I don't), or whether it is informative or superficial - e.g., "click-bait" - which could be a potentially major time-saving factor.


Who the BazQux Reader is designed for:
Anyone who might wish to automate their reading input as far as possible, and minimise waste of time or cognitive surplus on material which is peripheral to their main needs.


The Good:
An excellent feed-aggregator/reader. Does what it is designed to do, and very simply and effectively.
The layout of the UI (User Interface) is petty near perfect for me, and is stable (not subject to periodic changes).
I only discovered/realised on 2018-06-16 that, as well as acting as a feed-reader for web pages, BazQux can act as a feed-reader for YouTube channels. Thus, if one wants to keep abreast of (say) what is happening on a particular YouTube channel, then, rather than subscribing to it - which effectively means accepting the disadvantages of offering oneself up for reduced privacy and being targeted and inundated with spammy emails about additions to the channel - the changes at the channel will appear as new items in a feed in BazQux. This realisation has pleased me mightily, as I usually refuse to subscribe to channels, purely because of the above disadvantages.   


The needs improvement section:
Nothing to add here.


Why I think you should use this product:
We are being inundated with information, but how much of it is really useful/informative/educational is debatable. The majority of it seems to be driven by commercial advertising and/or political propaganda (e.g., "fake news", "click Subscribe or Like to my YouTube video"). If you would like to optimise the use of your time/cognitive surplus, then automating your reading input via BazQux as far as possible would help you to focus on material which is more central to your core needs and avoid the clutter of subject material that might be peripheral to those needs.


How it compares to similar products:
There are various online and offline feed-readers, but your effective use of BazQux would tend to depend on your peculiar preferences and needs.
Some feed-readers and news-readers are browser-based online tools - e.g., as is BazQux - whereas others are client-based. I find that by using:

• BazQux,
• .mhtml page saves of webpages and
• the Chrome extension OneTab,

- most of my news-reading and information-gathering needs can be met.


Conclusions:
BazQux is a very good online browser-based feed-reader.
You don't need to install anything on your PC (except for the browser and the NoSquint Plus extension, if wanted/needed).
The NoSquint Plus extension can probably help to overcome a majority of any eyesight or perceptual ergonomic constraints and thus make the Reader much more effective than might be possible otherwise.

15

Living Room / Terms of Service; Didn't Read” (short: ToS;DR)

« on: January 29, 2018, 04:44 AM »

Terms of Service - How good are they?
By "How good?", I of course intend to mean, "To what extent are they in the user's/consumer's favour?".

For the first time that I was aware of, someone has shone the hard light of scrutiny on the ToS of various well-known software and service providers.
I am referring to ToS;DR

Turns out that this has actually been going as a project since 2012 (first occurs on Wayback in 2013), but I don't recall having come across it before. I didn't recollect whether ToS;DR had been mentioned before on DC Forum, so I did a search, and came up with this from 2014: Nobody reads Software licenses...not even the people who made my router it seems
There, the link is given to the project website: Terms of Service; Didn't Read

Worth a look from a consumer information perspective, but worrying when you look at the Privacy/Control issues. The vendor basically seems to dictate the Terms.

Spot your "favourite" (or recommend it) there.
Their blog is also linked to, and is worth a read: http://blog.tosdr.org/

EDIT 2018-02-14: I improved the content of this post as it seemed a bit disjointed the way I had originally written it. (Apologies.)

16

Mini-Reviews by Members / Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Mini-Review and anchor-point

« on: January 23, 2018, 09:57 PM »

Originally posted:	2018-01-24
Last updated:	2018-10-24

Basic Info

App/Service Name	Picasa3 "Sunset"
Thumbs-Up Rating
Download URL	picasa39-setup - v3.9 Build 141.259 (2015-10-14) Sunset version.exe MD5 hash: F5E535745F0E2140C31623DF8F9AD746
App Version Reviewed	"Sunset" v3.9 Build 141.259 (2015-10-14).
Test System Specs	Windows XP and upwards.
Supported OSes	Windows XP and upwards.
Support Methods	Help web pages: https://support.goog...picasa#topic=6247471.
Upgrade Policy	No upgrades.
Trial Version Available?	N/A (free to trial or use)
Pricing Scheme	$FREE

1.0 Introduction and Background:
This Mini-Review is more of an anchor-point for people interested in exploring the features/functionality of Picasa3 and wanting to know where the now discontinued software can be downloaded from.
The version referred to is the Picasa3 "Sunset" (my name for it) version released by Google at the product end-of-development point.

The content of this Mini-Review follows on from my comment on DC Forum:
Re: Picasa to be 'phased out' (File link updated 2017-09-12)
« Reply #26 on: 2016-07-21, 06:33:42 »

Ghacks wrote:

… I suggest you download Picasa from the official website to have local access to the installer. While Google may keep it up after it shuts it down, you may want to have a backup of it at hand should you require one.

From <http://www.ghacks.net/2016/02/14/want-to-keep-running-picasa-you-can/>

The download source was (on Filehippo.com): Picasa  3.9 B 141.259 - http://filehippo.com/download_picasa/
This "Sunset" version was downloaded by me and saved as:  picasa39-setup - v3.9 Build 141.259 (2015-10-14) Sunset version.exe

The file is apparently still available from there: Picasa  3.9 B 141.259
_____________________________________
EDIT 2017-09-12:
The download source at Filehippo.com (above) apparently no longer hosts that Picasa file.
However one can still obtain it from the good link here, and it works just fine: picasa39-setup - v3.9 Build 141.259 (2015-10-14) Sunset version.exe

-IainB (July 21, 2016, 06:33 AM)

That good download link is to a Public file on my personal box.com account. I saved it there for posterity when I suspected that the file would become publicly unavailable (which it has, apparently). For posterity, it would be appreciated if DCF members could mirror that file, so that my site was not the only one. I am unsure as to whether Picasa3 "Sunset" (as I call it) is or will be available via Wayback or other public archiving service.
 

2.0 Overview:
There is a good overview in the Help web pages about Picasa3 "Sunset" at:
https://support.google.com/picasa/?ctx=picasa#topic=6247471

It covers these points:
Heading: Welcome to the Picasa and Picasa Web Albums Help Centre.
  Get started with Picasa & Picasa Web Albums.

• Selecting file types
           Photos
           Videos and audio
           RAW format images

  How to use Picasa & Picasa Web Albums

• Add photos to Picasa
• hotos in Picasa
• anise photos
• Email or export photos
• lideshows. photo collages & movies
• Do more with Picasa
• Uninstall Picasa

  Accounts, abuse and privacy

• What's happening to Picasa & Picasa Web Albums?
  (NB: This discusses switching/migrating to Google Photos)
• Use the Google album archive

3.0 Specific/Notable Functionality:
Tags:

• Using Tags in Picasa.  Can be used as a very powerful tool for creating persistent "virtual albums" by tagging random images to create a subject-specific album. (NB: Has to be tried to be appreciated.)
• Re: Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Picasa Tags and creation of virtual albums.
  

Thumbnail caches:

• Re: Google Picasa "Sunset" version - Treatment of thumbnail caches/databases.

3.0 Who this software is designed for:
Any PC user of Windows (probably from XP and upwards) who needs:

• an image media management tool which provides an extensive cataloguing database;
• an image database that caters for all/most image types and common video types;
• an image database that uses extensive metadata and facial/object/colour recognition, labelling, virtual album folders;
• an image database that incorporates comprehensive media editing and presentation tools.

4.0 The Good:

• An excellent (first-class) and stable image media management tool, with very good ergonomics in an intuitive GUI.
• Comprehensive Help file.
• Surprisingly fast and powerful in what it does..

5.0 Needs Improvement:
Have found nothing so far.


6.0 Why I think you should use this product/service:
Having used several different media image management tools, I have yet to come across one as good or as comprehensive as Picasa3.
It literally "set the standard" for other image media management tools to follow.


7.0 How it compares to similar products:
For some years previously, I had been a confirmed user of the excellent ACDSee, but I migrated to Picasa after trialling it and being blown away by its superb design and functionality. It was much more than I had thought I required, and this caused me to then accrete more/new "learned" requirements/expectations. Picasa "raised the bar", as it were.

Thus, to some extent, Picasa has spoiled me. There are apparently some similar/alternative tools to Picasa3, but none that I have come across so far actually seem able to meet my newer requirements set, or match Picasa3 for comprehensiveness or accurate face recognition and metadata cataloguing/searching.
A search of the web will no doubt turn up many perfectly good, alternative tools and reviews of same. For example, one on the DC Forum:
[url=https://www.donationcoder.com/legacy/Reviews/Archive/GraphicsViewer/index.html]The Image Management Tool Shootout(Archives - Informative and excellent review, though arguably dated by now.)


8.0 Conclusions:

• Very useful: An impressively solid and useful desktop program, which retains its ability to use uploading/downloading to the Cloud, even though Picasa Albums is defunct (now become Google Photos).
• Reliable: Stable. Never seems to give any trouble. I had two database crashes on earlier version(s), but not with this "Sunset" version (so far).

[/list]

17

General Software Discussion / Microsoft Excel - some experiential Tips & Tricks

« on: January 16, 2018, 01:35 PM »

2018-01-17 0904hrs: Every now and then, someone in the DC Forum posts a question about Excel, and sometimes there's a good reply and sometimes we learn something new, but the isolated thread rather seems to get buried, over time - becoming a sort of "gradually lost knowledge".
After starting the "Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks" thread, I have been wondering for some time whether something similar might not be useful for Excel - things discovered, problems encountered and needing a solution, problems solved; that sort of thing. With some kind of index at the front - if that is workable (we need a wiki...).

Anyway, in my wanderings, I today stumbled upon a brilliant Microsoft Garage Project (Excel Add-on: Transform Data by Example) that had been released 2017-05-17 and that I simply had not known about.
So, I installed the Add-on and (as is my wont) "captured" the knowledge about  it in the form of some detailed notes about it in my OneNote journal - i.e., what I call my "21st century Zettelkasten PIM". That's one of my main methods for knowledge curation.
At the same time, I would like to share the knowledge in this thread, and perhaps other DCF users could contribute their Excel problems, solutions, tips and tricks as well.
If people find useful Excel posts in the forum, please point me to them or make a quote post to them, and I shall then be able to index it.

18

General Software Discussion / User Requirements - the risks.

« on: December 17, 2017, 10:24 PM »

I have often struggled to understand the problems described by users when they state their requirements - i.e., what users actually say they "want to do", or "need to do" - because that is usually what they think they want/need to do, whereas the best solution might be to fulfill a need that they are unable to articulate, but that can usually be discovered by some business/systems analysis.

Until one has performed that analysis, one, at best, can only assume that one thinks one understands the user's requirements. It's a potential minefield of errors - and risks. I have seen the mismanagement of these risks effectively bring about the failure of very large projects, and sometimes whole companies, or cause layers of top management to be fired/made redundant, together with the staff who had been correspondingly mismanaged.
I once was fortunate enough to discover one such risk, embedded in a large (7-year) World Bank funded government project in Thailand. This was in Year 2, before the risk had fully manifested itself, and corrective action was taken to mitigate it, with the project concluding successfully. However, at the time, it wasn't easy to get the Thai management's attention on the potential risk, because they were in  a state of cognitive blindness and simply couldn't see it. I literally had to force their attention on it, and then they started to see it - you could almost see the lights coming on in their heads. Then shocked silence, followed by prompt corrective action to mitigate the risk(s) identified and already being manifested. It was a really interesting demonstration of human group behaviour and adaptability to risks inherent in dynamically changing circumstances.

I was reminded of this when re-reading the attached document today:
Requirements Risks Can Drown Software Projects (2002) - leishman.pdf
(File was originally downloaded from a now defunct link to <http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2002/apr/leishman.pdf>
 - but that is not available via Wayback.)

19

Living Room / Christmas is coming! - Consider HELPING your local charities.

« on: November 26, 2017, 03:22 AM »

"Poverty doesn't take a break at Christmas."
This is a summary post:

• Started:  2017-11-26 2044hrs (NZT)
• Updated: 2017-11-26 2349hrs

The purpose here is to collect links from DonationCoderForum denizens to charitable institutions which they sponsor and which have been set up to recycle and co-incidentally help the poor and homeless - in your area.

A lot of people don't realise how easy and helpful it is to donate not just money, but stuff, and also how helpful/supportive it can be to buy stuff at charitable outlets. Please post and contribute your links, and I shall add them to the list below:
______________________________
"Charity begins at home"
(Please PM me if you are unsure what to do and would like me to assist/advise in a donation/delivery to an Auckland (NZ) charity.)

New Zealand, Auckland:

• Auckland City Mission (@IainB local) - deliver to their premises in Hobson Street: Please donate unopened/fresh food containers, clean/undamaged clothing, toys, small chattels, books, working and safe appliances, CDs, DVDs.
  Every Christmas, The Mission makes Christmas bundles for children and families of the poor/homeless, and throughout the year feeds the homeless in their canteen. They have retail "Op-shops" across Auckland which you can help if you not only donate stuff to, but also if you buy stuff from.
  Telephone them to collect heavy chattels/furniture.
  
  
• Red Cross, Auckland, Dominion Road, Mt Eden (@IainB local) - list of NZ Red Cross shops. Please donate clean/undamaged clothing, toys, small chattels, books, working and safe appliances, CDs, DVDs.
  They have retail "Op-shops" across Auckland which you can help if you not only donate stuff to, but also if you buy stuff from.
  Telephone them to collect heavy chattels/furniture.
  
  
• Salvation Army - next door to Red Cross, Auckland, Dominion Road, Mt Eden (@IainB local) -
  about The Salvation Army (NZ, Fiji & Tonga) Please donate clean/undamaged clothing, toys, small chattels, books, working and safe appliances, CDs, DVDs.
  They have retail "Op-shops" across Auckland which you can help if you not only donate stuff to, but also if you buy stuff from.
  Telephone them to collect heavy chattels/furniture.
  

20

Living Room / Smartphones - use this search string for an easy comparison between 2 models.

« on: November 12, 2017, 08:09 PM »

I got this (new?) tip from Gary North's newsletter (see below). I'd not come across this before. It seems to work rather well, despite potential ambiguity and imprecision with or without the syntax he suggests - e.g., I fed the string "Lumia 830 vs Samsung S7" (without the quotes) into duckgo and got a good result.

GARY NORTH'S TIP OF THE WEEK
Google is introducing a new feature: a comparison option for smart phones.

It isn't universal yet. It is in limited testing mode. But it may be
operational for you.

(1) Type a quotation mark.
(2) Type a smart phone's name and model.
(3) Type vs.
(4) Type another smart phone's name and model.
(5) Type a quotation mark.
(6) Click.
- See what you get.

The story is here: https://www.garynorth.com/snip/1303.htm

My wife is shopping for a smart phone. Sadly, the search did not work.

Gary "Dumb Phone" North

Visit my site, www.garynorth.com, for the latest charts on the U.S. dollar, gold's price, and Federal Reserve statistics.

Reminds me of an excellent website I used to use where you could get several cameras lined up for comparison, in columns, on one page.

21

Developer's Corner / Python - useful notes and references.

« on: November 08, 2017, 10:21 AM »

I set this up 2017-11-09 to collect useful and educational notes, references/links to Python - a sort of a Python "nook" within the Developer's Corner.
Couldn't seem to find a suitable place on the existing forum as it stands.
Not intending to duplicate anything that already exists.

This originally stemmed from my intention to help my daughter (and her classmates) find a better/more comprehensible route to learning Python. I am resigned to having to learn Python to do this - time permitting - so it is likely to be a bit of a journey.
Thought it could potentially be of use to other DCF members as well, and hoping they might be able to contribute too...     
______________________________________
Python education + books:

• Links to free ebooks on Python available on Amazon's Kindle store (as at 2017-1-10).

Python tools:

• Python Autocompleter.

22

General Software Discussion / RUSSL - Really Useful Software Sites and Links

« on: October 29, 2017, 09:19 PM »

2017-10-30 1512hrs: Thread set up after reading Curt's post (see next post).

23

General Software Discussion / Kodi Add-on TVCatchup.com - watch streamed British TV and all Major UK channels.

« on: September 28, 2017, 11:14 AM »

Some DC forum members might be interested in using Kodi for this (if not already using it).
There's a long, but very informative and helpful post at addictivetips.com:
TVCatchup.com Kodi Add-on: Watch British TV and All Major UK Channels:  <https://www.addictivetips.com/media-streaming/tvcatchup-kodi-addon/>

2017-09-28
The TVCatchup.com add-on for Kodi is a great little add-on for all fans of British TV. It has all the major UK channels laid out in a simple fashion. We’ll show you step by step how to get it and install it and then we’ll do a tour of the add-on and see what it has to offer. We’ll also explore the pros and cons of the add-on and look at a few other add-ons that might appeal to you if you like TVCatchup.com.
... (read the rest at the link).

24

Living Room / Jerry Pournelle - R.I.P.

« on: September 09, 2017, 07:21 PM »

Notice at JerryPournelle.com/Chaos Manor:

Passings….
  By TheWebGuy | Sep 8, 2017 - 5:01 pm | Updated: September 8, 2017 - 10:06 pm | View
From Jerry’s son Alex:

I’m afraid that Jerry passed away
We had a great time at DragonCon
He did not suffer.

Condolences to his family and friends.

Readers may use the Well-Wishing page for remembrances.  (Note: the site is being accessed by many of Dr. P’s fans and friends….you may see timeout errors because of that extra load. Site admins are working on the issue.)

Bookmark the permalink.

Copied from: Passings…. – Chaos Manor – Jerry Pournelle - <https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/passings/>

25

Clipboard Help+Spell / Highlight not working on the last few instances of a word in a clip.

« on: June 28, 2017, 12:36 AM »

Highlight in the CHS Memo pane seems to not work on the last few instances of a word in a large clip.
What are the constraints to the highlight function? Does it not go beyond a certain point in a clip?