Topics

1

General Software Discussion / CSS File Content "Vanishes" on Ubuntu Machine

« on: November 06, 2012, 12:27 PM »

I do know this isn't a bug or a problem with Ubuntu as such, but I couldn't think of a short subject that encapsulated my problem any better. And I'm probably missing something obvious, but I have tried to figure this out myself.

To set up the background, I have a set of HTML files which use a custom CSS file. These files are not online, they are for my own use, on my own machines or a USB stick. They contain most of the writing I've done (and will contain the rest when I get the time to add the rest of the files). On Windows XP, under Firefox, they work fine. (The last I checked, the formatting was broken in Opera, but that's presumably because each browser implements the HTML codes differently.) On my PortableApps USB sticks, they work fine. So the relative paths seem to be correct.

Now, I've also copied exactly the same files over to a ThinkPad running Ubuntu. And, although the HTML is there, and the links work, the CSS has no effect at all, in any browser. So I did what I could to track down what was going wrong. I installed Firebug, and it shows the the line calling the CSS file is working - but the CSS file appears totally empty in Firebug as if it contains no style info at all. So I assumed I might have saved it in a text format Linux doesn't like, so I opened up the file in a text editor in Ubuntu, then resaved it. The problem persists... At this point, I'm going crazy.

As I said, I'm probably missing the blatantly obvious. But if any of you can guess what is giving me so much trouble here, with what is meant to be a simple, universal set of files, I'd appreciate some advice. Specifically, if at all possible, I want to be able to use these files on a CD or a USB stick in any OS, without having to tweak them for each one. The fact they don't work perfectly in every browser isn't such a big issue, since Firefox is common enough for my purposes. But these are supposed to be an emergency backup set of all my manuscripts, and the fact I can't make them work as intended is driving me insane.

2

General Software Discussion / New Launcher app with automation feature: Blaze

« on: August 28, 2009, 02:13 PM »

I use FARR, I like FARR a lot, and I really, really hate to say this, but I just read about a new app launcher + called Blaze which looks highly intriguing. It is hosted on SourceForge http://blaze-wins.sourceforge.net/index.php, and as well as launching apps (FARR does that more than well enough, thanks!) it observes what you are doing, and offers to automate those tasks it "thinks" can be automated.

Has anyone tried this? At least in theory, it is an incredibly interesting idea. (I'm planning on trying it out, so I'll post my thoughts here once I discover anything worth sharing. It may be a while; as far as I can tell, a lot of what I do can't easily be automated. I just hate doing the stuff that can be. And there's a point where it takes just a bit more time creating an AHK routine to do it for me than it takes just to slog through. That's where I'm hoping this tool can help. Well, of course, if it can save me setting up routines manually for the big jobs, too, I won't object.)

Then again, it is in beta. One good bug might wipe out all the savings in time and annoyance. Well, if it does, I guess I'll have only myself to blame. I just can't resist trying it out...

3

Living Room / A Problem for A Real Expert - the Haunted Router(s)

« on: July 14, 2009, 02:04 PM »

Sorry; I'm going to have to go into a bit of detail here, as I have no idea what might make a difference.

My computer system as I have it set up and connected to the Internet dates from spring 2006; the computer is a bit older but the setup was different and probably does not affect this problem. In 3+ years, I've been through three routers, about to find it necessary to buy #4 if I can't fix this one. (Still working, but past experience suggests it won't be long.)

First router: a cheap Belkin. I worked okay for about two years. Then, one day when I tried to access an unavailable site, the "wrong" DNS page popped up. I'd set my router to use OpenDNS, I got my ISP's version instead. So I accessed the router's settings and discovered something had messed them up (I assumed - and still do - heavy electrical storms not long before might be to blame). Fixed them. Very strange things started happening on my system: I didn't suspect the router, since most of the issues involved programs that were (at best) peripherally connected. I thought it must be malware, so I tried scanner after scanner with no real result (one or two advertising cookies, a key in my Registry that was adware, nothing extreme - and nothing that fixed the problem). I started having Internet connection problems, tried to access the router's settings again - and couldn't even get the login page to come up. Soon after, the router died. Total brick, so I tossed it and picked up a replacement. All problems, including what I'd thought must be a malware infestation, cleared up immediately.

Second router, the replacement, was a cheap Netgear, the first thing I could find on a store shelf, since I wanted to get back online. After less than a year, there was an incident with non-computer equipment on the same circuit. A fuse blew, and the ground-fault interrupter I have my surge protectors plugged into tripped. I started having connection problems (w/o too much strangeness; there's enough junk on my system it is hard to be sure what is due to those issues and what is a real problem - I know, one of these days I'm going to have to bite the bullet and reinstall). I didn't want to have to rush out to get another one this time and cash wasn't too tight at the time, so I didn't wait to see if it would die. I looked around, decided what I wanted, and ordered a nice Linksys WRT54GL.

Third - current - router: the Linksys. I was meaning to install open source firmware, but never got around to doing that, so it is 'out-of-the-box' except for changes to the settings. A week or so ago, we had a bad electrical storm come through (we've had an unusual number of strikes for the area this year). I pulled out my computer's power, but my son insisted he had to stay connected, so I left the router plugged in and on. (And connected to my computer, which seems fine.) I started having weird things happen on my system. Again, nothing that would point to the router. Then, I got messages about trouble with the Internet connection (still working, but apparently bothering some of the stuff I run). I tried to access the settings: again, I can't get the login page to even come up. "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 10.10.10.1" (I know this is not Linksys' default: had to set it to this to get it to work with the modem my ISP provided). I pinged 10.10.10.1 and got the following results:

(Last night)
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 10.10.10.1: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1 ms, Average = 0ms

(Just now)
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.10.10.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 10.10.10.1: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 2 ms, Average = 0ms

I'm concerned that the first result seems to be slowing down, but don't know for certain if this means anything. I think the fact the first result is the slowest is normal, but beyond that, I can't figure this out. Why can't I access the control settings? Is there an alternate way to do this? (Yes, I'd try Googling, but time online may be limited, so I'm trying all approaches, and didn't want to waste time on a search before at least posting here.)

More importantly, why do routers keep dying on me? Yes, there is the lightning - but the modem is plugged in to the same surge protector, which seems to have protected it. (True, I don't know if I'll have trouble with the modem this time, but both other times, replacing the router fixed every problem.) My other gear is in a separate surge protector, and none of it is having trouble.

I've thought about the factors I know affect routers, and this is all I can come up with:

Heat: yes, I do have all this stuff in a computer "armoire" (I have cats ) so ventilation is not perfect. Yet the computer runs hotter than the router, yet has no trouble, and has never overheated. (HDD is the only monitor I have, never above 60 degrees C, and usually not above 55 C). Even when the vents in the computer's case became clogged with dust, and the fan was howling like a jet all the time, things stayed fine until I could make the time to go in there and clean it out. And the Linksys has the best ventilated case of the three models that have died, yet it lasted the least amount of time. So I find it hard to believe heat is the culprit.

"Dirty" power: Thanks the most absurd house wiring layout I've ever seen, I have no choice but to have all this stuff on the same circuit as the refrigerator. Sigh. I know that isn't great - but, again, why just the router? Why isn't anything else having problems? (In all that time, I lost one cheap printer that was already on its way out - to a clogged print head. That's it, except for the routers.) So, not good, I agree (and if anyone has cheap suggestions for improving the situation, I'm all ears), but that doesn't seem right, either.

Power surges / lightning: In two of three cases, there was a bad storm right before I started noticing any weirdness. Both of these cases acted very much the same. In the third case, there was an incident which blew a fuse / tripped my GFI. This acted a bit differently, but the connection was utterly clear in this case. So that would seem to be the issue - but then why don't I need a new modem as well? One router might just be bad, but three? From different manufacturers?

I have no idea if I'll have a chance to read them before my router turns into a brick, but any and all thoughts would be appreciated, on the general issue of what might be causing such a failure rate for routers in specific, or on how I might get into my settings and perhaps fix whatever is wrong (I think I'd try re-flashing the firmware, to see if that did any good) before I lose this one. Thanks in advance.

4

Living Room / Wolfram Alpha - Impressions On Launch

« on: May 15, 2009, 11:05 PM »

It is late, and I'm tired, with a nasty developing headache, but I'm sure some DC readers are aware of Wolfram Alpha and are curious. I had the page loaded, with the nonworking "Launching in May" announcement, and when the announced they'd activated it, I refreshed and got in as soon as the page reloaded. It took a few seconds. Rather than rewriting all my thoughts, I'll link to what I posted on my blog, if that's okay. The post is here.

Yes, I was pretty harsh on them, but my perspective was that of a user / researcher. This is supposed to be something new, something special, and except for math problems (and how many days, weeks, years, etc. since a particular date is just a specialised math problem) it doesn't seem ready to do anything at all. If anyone is really curious, I do have screen shots of the searches I mention, although not the ones I just summarise. (I tried "What happened in 1666?", for example, and "What happened in London in 1666?")

5

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Desktop progress meter

« on: April 07, 2009, 04:02 PM »

I don't know if this can be coded quickly or not, although the basic idea seems simple. I'm looking for something simple that can display a meter on my desktop. Specifically, it must allow for multiple instances / meters. This meter would have a text title, then a progress bar that would indicate a target and the amount completed. Ideally, there'd be a text line underneath with the completed / target amounts. Although I suspect others could use this for other types of projects, I'd use it as a word count meter.

I'd put up meters for every book, article, or story I'm actively working on, listing the title. The meter itself would show targets of, say, 12,000 words, or 90,000, or whatever my target for that work was. Then I'd enter a word count (total if needed, daily if it is easy enough to add this to the previous total) and the meter would display the result. Say, 3,000 words of 12,000, and the bar would be 25% filled. Below, it would read "3,000 / 12,000". Of course, most actual percentages would not be so easily calculated, but that's what a computer is for, isn't it?

Ideally, if this isn't too hard to code (I shouldn't think it would be), I'd like to be able to specify the colour of the meter. If it isn't that hard, different colours for text, progress bar, and filled in portion of bar would be even nicer. In either case, the ideal would be settings for each meter, not just overall settings. (So I could make certain projects stand out, if I needed to.) Oh, and choice of fonts would be nice, rather than putting up with whatever MS decides is the default. But I have no idea how hard this stuff is: I know in HTML it is easy enough to specify fonts and colours, but selecting them from an app isn't anything I've tried playing with yet.

I have a feeling this might make it too complicated, but if not, the ability - just for the filled in progress portion - of being able to set different colours at different "levels" would be a real plus: say, for a particular work, any count under 20,000 would show up as red, any count under 45,000 would show up as yellow, and anything over that would be green. But with custom colour choices.

The idea is to have an easy way (yes, I know, if I go into Samurize and go through enough work - including editing every day when I need to update - I could probably get this) to list all my active projects, with a visual, easily updateable meter and stats on my progress on each. If there's no way around it, a simple pop up window with the information would be better than nothing, but I've found the ability to show something right on the desktop where I can't avoid seeing it at least sometimes to be very helpful. In fact, if it can't be on the desktop (I don't know how hard that aspect would be) the next best option would be to combine this with a routine to pop up the window at set intervals (user choice) headed by a customisable reminder / prompt.

One caveat: I don't want to mislead anyone. Right now, I don't have any spare cash to donate. I'd gladly hand some out to anyone who could do this - but I can't say how long it might take before I have the ability. I do know a lot of other people who could use this, and I'd happily point them to it, along with a plug for a donation - but writers tend to be broke, so I don't know how much result you'd see. Although we are good at understanding the position of others who are struggling to see some reward for their efforts. That may be why I think the idea behind DC is so cool.

6

Living Room / Tough Router Question

« on: February 06, 2009, 01:41 PM »

First, I need to explain the situation. I need to help my daughter & son-in-law set up their new laptop on the Internet. Simple enough, in itself. The problem is their roommate. I don't know if anyone heard of the study where someone put up a link that said something like "Click here to infect your computer with a virus" - but if she came across that site, she would have clicked on the link. (As I recall, almost 400 people did, in a depressingly short time...). Her computer is actually more screwed up than any public access computer I've ever encountered, and for a few years public access computers were my only link to the Net... No point cleaning out the crapware and any malware lurking among it - she'd just mess it right back up again.

 In fact, they got a laptop so they can use it wirelessly, as they don't dare leave a computer out where she might get her hands on it. (She is also hell on hardware: her keyboard is gummed up with peanut butter, she thinks slapping the CPU around is a great move to resolve any technical issues you get the idea.) My s-i-l is trying to manage his dairy farm remotely (it is several thousand miles away, outside the US), so they need to keep their computer secure. I've already been over-ruled on the obvious non-technical solutions. My daughter would have no idea what to do, and my s-i-l has never even used a computer before. So I really have no choice but to figure something out.

I know just enough to do some research: I figured out my best hope is a wireless router with OS firmware so I can set up the LAN ports as one VPN (the roomie's - might as well give her all, as she's the type who is just as likely to unplug her computer and stick it back in anywhere) and the wireless connection as another VPN (my daughter and s-i-l's). The best available choice seems to be the Linksys WRT54GL (as it happens, I just bought one myself, as my router is ailing). I was hoping to use Tomato, but looking over the documentation that exists online, I don't see how it would be possible to do this with Tomato. Or that could just be my ignorance...

Which leaves me with DD-WRT. I have two problems with that: first, the documentation I looked over didn't even leave me quite clear which file to download for that router (I think I know, but I do know enough to be aware when updating firmware that is an awfully risky assumption). Second, I have the definite feeling DD-WRT is going to prove a bit more than I'm prepared to take on, or, to be exact, more than I can quickly master. I could probably figure it out, given time. But my daughter already bought the computer, and wants it hooked up ASAP. (They do really need it, so I can understand her urgency.) I really don't think I have the knowledge to get up to speed with DD-WRT that quickly.

Any suggestions on anything else I might be able to do? Also, one further problem. As the roommate has a boyfriend of dubious honesty and at least some technical knowledge, the "factory reset" option seems a very obvious danger (Internet connection, and, thus, the router are in an area everyone has access to). I presume there is no way to disable or password protect this (that would more or less defeat the point) and I can't even figure out a way to monitor the router and pop up an alert if settings reverted to factory default. (Even if I puzzle out how to write a script to do it, once the settings are reverted, the script wouldn't be run, so it would be pointless to run it to check for the one condition under which it won't be run...)

I suspect there are other issues I haven't even thought of; I don't do a lot with networking, so it isn't an area I know much about. I do know wireless security is shaky (again, that factory default issue makes me nervous - that, and the fact they live in an area where everyone tries to get everyone else to install wireless so they can steal a connection). So any thoughts, information, resources, whatever you can offer would really help. I'm sorry for asking questions I ought to be able to find answers to myself - I just don't think I can find and absorb it all quickly enough (especially since some bits of information I've found contradict others, leaving me with the need to learn enough to figure out which ones were written by idiots).

7

General Software Discussion / Anyone use RoughDraft?

« on: January 21, 2009, 02:19 PM »

A workaround for one of RoughDraft's annoying bugs is available. I use RoughDraft for writing some stories, and it crashes (at least on my system) whenever it is already open and I click on another file to open it - even though RD is capable of having multiple files open at once.

Well, the point is, I put together a very tiny, extremely simple AHK hack to get around this, compiled it, and reset my Registry entries to call this compiled hack instead of RoughDraft. It seems to work, and if anyone else thinks it would be useful, I'll put it up on one of the free hosting services for you to grab. If I'm the only one who uses RD, there doesn't seem to be much point. (And if anyone else uses RD, you've probably already thought of this one: it isn't exactly a complicated idea. I just test to see if RD is open. If not, open with the filename passed; if already open, activate the window, open the File, Open dialog, and pass the filename and OK it. The hardest work was making an icon to let me know what the strange add-on in RD's program folder was for...)

8

General Software Discussion / Xenon Portable File Manager - Portable Associations!

« on: January 18, 2009, 09:25 PM »

I just discovered, over at Portable Apps, an interesting new tool they haven't had on offer before. It is known as Xenon Portable File Manager, and it allows you to set file associations, so when you click on a file in Xenon, it opens with the associated program. Even with the limitation (which seems unavoidable, really: any portable associations would have to be limited to the app they were set in) it looks like a great tool. It is a pretty barebones file manager, but for portable use it looks more than good enough. And it has the one feature I've wanted ever since I first put files on a stick.

As an added bonus, if you go to the developer's site, http://www.mi3soft.info/?page=software.portable, they also offer IcoFX - which, for anyone who doesn't know it, is a great free icon editor - in a portable wrapper. I'm off to load up my USB stick with a few more apps. Since prices are falling, it may be time to pick up a few larger capacity sticks, although 2 GB will hold a lot more than you'd expect (all my most essential apps, vital information, and manuscripts will fit on 2 GB with room to spare).

9

LaunchBar Commander / Anyone Else "Lose" LBC After Monitor Powers Down?

« on: January 15, 2009, 08:48 PM »

I just came back to my computer after a late dinner, and noticed a weird problem with LBC. It is there (I get the "pop" sound when I move the mouse to that side of the screen), but I can't see it / access it. I have it set to AutoHide, but usually that seems to work fine. This has happened before, but I just figured out, tonight, what the common factor was. Every time, it is when my monitor has powered down then powered back up - LBC seems to get 'lost' in this process somehow.

I suspect it is my video driver, or something similar, causing this, but wonder if anyone else has noticed behaviour like this, or figured out a fix, short of rebooting. I'm running a Dell Dimension 4700 with XP Pro, SP2 (got a weird problem keeping me from installing SP3 or any of the NET framework updates - something I really need to deal with one of these days), and use a flat panel monitor with a RADEON X300.

Edited to Add: Just posted this, shut Firefox down so I could reboot - and LBC reappeared at the side of the screen, just that thin little line that tells me it's there. I've really got to sort my system out enough that I can wipe the HDD and start over - without installing anything I don't need. I get the feeling half my problems are too many programs on here... (I've got roughly 200 installed. And 1800 fonts. Yes, I know. I'm lucky the thing's running at all.)

10

General Software Discussion / COMPLIMENT: Liquid Story Binder XE - Black Obelisk Software

« on: January 15, 2009, 12:25 PM »

I just wanted to point out, for anyone who is interested in writing, the best software on the market. LSB (Liquid Story Binder XE) is flexible enough to be useful no matter what process you use for writing, powerful, includes most if not all the tools you'll need as a writer, and works well. On the rare occasions when something doesn't work, the owner / developer sorts it out quickly as soon as a user reports it. The tech support / bug fix response time is more than just excellent - it is actually better than anything I ever imagined from any company.

Yes, my post probably sounds like an ad. I just don't know how to do LSB justice any other way. There are other software companies I'm happy with, and many more I'm at least not actively hostile towards. But of them all, LSB stands out as the most amazing company ever. If I'd had any idea how great the service was, I'd have expected to pay at least ten times what I did. I have pretty high standards: I was a WordPerfect user back when WP was its own company, and offered unlimited technical support. If any of you remember that, I doubt you've ever had an experience as good since WP was bought out and the policies changed. Well, LSB has support better than that standard, something I never even imagined was possible until I experienced it. (Yes, it's based on a Yahoo Group, which is no doubt cheaper, but all I care about - all any user really needs to care about - are the results. Which are fantastic.)

Sure, if you're only writing something short, there are simpler tools that may be enough for you, but if you want to tackle a novel, and you're using anything else, you're doing yourself a disservice.

11

LaunchBar Commander / Using CLSIDs in Launch Bar Commander

« on: January 15, 2009, 11:20 AM »

I wanted to set LBC up to open a few of the "special objects"; Control Panel (all my apps, not just the ones in the menu), Recycle Bin, My Computer, etc. So I had the idea of using the CLSIDs, as you can when creating a folder which you name, add a dot, then put in the CLSID in brackets. So I've tried adding the CLSID as a command, a folder, etc. and nothing works. So far, the best option I've found is to set up a folder somewhere else (I have a "hidden" spot I park links in anyway, for purposes just like this), create a shortcut to it, and add the shortcut to LBC as a command. This works fine, as far as it goes; it opens a special Explorer window with all the icons (I assume Recycle Bin will just open the Recycle Bin, but I haven't tried that out yet).

I was hoping to be able to set those objects up as a menu; obviously, I can do this manually by creating a menu and adding each object. The trouble is, then if my system changes (some program installs a new app in Control Panel or whatever) I'll have to add it manually. Yes, I can live with this: I'm not asking for the feature to be added if it doesn't exist. I suspect it would be far too much work for too little result. I am just tormented by the idea I'm just missing some simple trick of syntax that would make this work. So if anyone has worked out a way to use CLSIDs with LBC, please share how you do it. If not, I can live with a manual menu. I just hate wondering if I'm just missing what I want to do by leaving out a semi-colon or something. 

12

Developer's Corner / "Folder Shortcuts" in Windows

« on: January 10, 2009, 08:54 AM »

I've been playing around with AutoHotKey, with a little success, but my next "great" idea was to automate the process of creating Folder Shortcuts. It seems to be a pretty undocumented feature (I'm not talking about shortcuts to folders; I'm talking about the Folder Shortcuts that will wipe out the target folder's files if you delete them without dismantling them first). Now, I know enough to copy a folder just to test things out on, so if anything goes wrong, I'll only lose my copies. But I have noticed, in the past, there are some features it is just safer not to play with. Does anyone know enough about Folder Shortcuts to say if they are safe to automate? (The only source I have on them is not entirely accurate - for example, it says you can change the icon afterwards, when, in fact, on every one I've created, the only way to 'set' the icon that has worked has been to specify it in the "Target" link before the Folder Shortcut was created. So I'd rather be cautious than sorry.)

13

Find And Run Robot / Idea for Incredibly Helpful Feature

« on: January 09, 2009, 02:55 PM »

FARR is a great tool; what it does, it does very well. But I got to thinking of something it doesn't do, trying to figure out how to do it in AutoHotKey - then I realised this would make a great addition to FARR.

I like to set up a lot of apps on a USB stick, so I have them, and my documents, in an emergency. The one thing that is toughest about using them this way is the loss of file associations. Browse to find the file you want, double click on it - and find out that the computer you're using has associations set up to open HTML in IE, or TXT files in Notepad. Uggghhh!

So what would be really, really, really cool if you could add it to FARR would be a section the user could turn on or off for "associations" - FARR would find the file, check its extension, then open it with the app specified by the user. Sure, it would be a pain to set up all the associations we have in our Registries - but most of those are things we seldom if ever use. For the dozen or two dozen file types we use all the time, it would be a really excellent solution for making file associations portable. AFAIK, no other app does anything remotely similar. This would need to use a variable for drive letter, of course, since it would be possible to add the relative path from the stick's root, but the drive letter might change.

One bit that would be even cooler, if it wouldn't be too tough: allow built-in aliases of Open and Edit - with different associations for each. Say for a HTML page, Open would open the page in Firefox, and Edit would load it in Notepad++ or whatever other choices the user made.

If this were just something I'd like, I wouldn't bug you about it, but I know there are a lot of users out there who would find the ability to make 'portable associations' the greatest invention since the wheel.

14

DC Website Help and Extras / Chance of Displaying Advert - Does This Help DC?

« on: January 08, 2009, 05:31 PM »

I noticed a setting in my profile which read "Chance of Displaying Advert" and can be set to any percentage between zero and one hundred percent. I understand what the setting does easily enough - and I took it for granted at first the reason it was there was because DC can benefit by showing the ads. Fair enough, I don't mind helping out DC, and I pushed it up - I even thought about setting it to one hundred percent. Then I got to wondering, having once known someone who actually wanted to see ads, if it was just there to satisfy those with such tastes. Does anyone know? I'm going to bump it up all the way until I find out, but I would be interested in knowing.

15

General Software Discussion / Looking for Notes / Database Software

« on: January 06, 2009, 03:26 PM »

I have a love / hate relationship with this category of software. I understand everyone has their own preferences; mine are more specific than most, I think. For a lot of my notes, I use something called DebriefNotes - one of the very few programs I've paid for and been happy I did. It is perfect for a lot of my needs. That said, I also have some notes I need to be able to filter, not just search. DebriefNotes won't permit the level of filtering I need, so I've checked out anything I could find. Most of them were nothing even close to what I want.

Finally, I found a program, AZZCardfile, that is almost what I need and want. Almost. But those two sticking points are driving me nuts. First, it saves all notes in a proprietary format. I hate that; I like open formats that are easily readable by half the stuff out there. Then, if you lose your license key, or whatever, you don't have to go crazy trying to figure out how to save the information you've collected. Yes, it will export to HTML and RTF - those formats are fine, but I don't want to have to remember to export each time I add information. Well, I could live with that if I have to, but the other point is the "biggie" for me.

In order to do what I want, I had to design my own system, of adding a line of coded "switches" to the end of each card's title, then I can search on any "switch" or set of them I choose. That way, I can filter out groups based on the criteria important to me, and custom design those criteria. I can even live with that; it is probably better than any predefined system for some of the things I want to do. The trouble is, I don't want to have those stupid lines of code printing with each card's title if I print them out. I'd like something just like this, but with a second "title bar" - one that can be filtered, separately OR in combination with the title (two filters, both operate to filter the list, but if one is blank it does not filter at all) but that remains hidden EXCEPT when the user chooses to create / edit it.

Does something that can do just this even exist? The thing would be a great, flexible tool for authors, researchers, what have you if only it didn't have those two annoying properties. (Even better, from my point of view, would be one that does all this does, saves in RTF or HTML or some other common format, and that allows any number of user-defined, hidden checkboxes that can be used to filter. Much less work, but I fear that would be too much to hope for... I've got to learn coding myself, so I can write the custom stuff I want and can't find.)

16

Developer's Corner / Seeking Programming Language To Learn

« on: January 06, 2009, 02:25 PM »

I'm pretty new here, and while I've found I can figure out what is wrong with my computer before tech support does (not that that's such a feat...  ) and have written some pretty complex macros for WordPerfect, DOS batch files, and batch routines for something called Norton Batch Runner (acquired in 1993 with my first computer) most of you have probably never heard of, I have never quite taken the next step and learned a programming language. I bought a kit at one point, think it was Visual C++, but found that language - or perhaps the explanations - difficult to handle. I'm a writer; my brain's OS is hard-wired to English by this point, which means I have to find a language which works in ways I can manage.

I've got a lot on my plate right now, so I'm just mulling things over, but I'm trying to figure out the best programming language to learn, for my own style of learning. In case this helps, I picked up WordPerfect's macro language(s) - version 5.2 through 12 - easily enough. When for a short time I was stuck with MS Word, and tried to figure out the macro language it used, I might as well have been trying to read Sanskrit. Of course, I've never found MS products, "help" instructions, or anything else particularly helpful. It all, to me, seems oriented, more and more, towards "you're just a poor stupid user; why don't you lie back and let Bill decide what's best for you?" - and Bill's opinion seldom if ever suits me.* So I don't know how much was the "help" (You don't really want to do this, it's too complicated, so we tell you as little as we can, ha!) and how much the macro language.

I would like to use something I can write stuff with for my own machine - Windows XP - without too much fuss, and for Linux and a Web environment without too much fiddling. I suppose Java sounds like the obvious choice, except my machine always runs slowly when running Java apps, so I'd rather find something else. I've heard good things about Ruby, but I don't know enough to be sure if it is what I want. I did find one little free "toy" I downloaded that was supposed to teach the basics of Ruby - it was called Hackety-Hack and it seemed to be broken. From what I could see, Ruby did look like a language I might be able to get my head around. But how well will it suit me in other ways?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts on this, so I can take some time and think them over. Thanks.

* I know there are software "holy wars" on many sites, and I'm not out to start one. This is purely my own opinion, offered so you can judge how my mind and preferences work. If you're happy with Windows, that's fine with me, as long as you don't expect me to be...