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Messages - Josh [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 131next
1
General Software Discussion / Re: Text Expander for Windows
« on: March 31, 2019, 11:27 AM »
Oooh! That looks promising. Thanks :)

2
General Software Discussion / Text Expander for Windows
« on: March 31, 2019, 08:04 AM »
Greetings all, it has been quite a while due to lots of things going on over the last few years (personally, professionally, medically, etc.). That said, I know I can come here for honest and open recommendations so that is what I seek to aid my wife.

She has recently started her own business as a copy editor (much thanks to Stephen for his help in getting her launched) and I am looking for a text expander product for her for the Windows platform. I wanted to see what everyone's thoughts were in the area as I know this has been a long and discussed topic in the past. I use Keyboard Maestro on my MBP and am hoping for something as simplistic. I know there are free scripting tools such as AutoHotKey which is used by quite a few folks here, but I am looking for something with a nice UI she can use on her own.

What recommendations does the group have for this category of software?

Thanks in advance!

3
Living Room / Re: I'm getting married, wish me luck!
« on: October 13, 2018, 07:39 PM »
Oh man, oh man, oh man, congrats to you both! Truly, M, M, and I wish you both the best and a huge Mazel Tov!

4
It was the case of the missing PhD student.

As another academic year got under way at Imperial College London, a senior professor was bemused at the absence of one of her students. He had worked in her lab for three years and had one more left to complete his studies. But he had stopped coming in.

Eventually, the professor called him. He had left for a six-figure salary at Apple.

“He was offered such a huge amount of money that he simply stopped everything and left,” said Maja Pantic, professor of affective and behavioural computing at Imperial. “It’s five times the salary I can offer. It’s unbelievable. We cannot compete.”

Source

5
Living Room / Re: Best Programming Jokes
« on: February 01, 2017, 07:21 PM »
When you just want to watch the world burn, commit this:

#define true (rand()!=0)
#define false (rand()==0)

6
Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?
« on: January 04, 2017, 06:44 PM »
I didn't like it. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found it boring and slow paced ... But that just me; you should give it a chance ...
Mind you, I'd usually have a preference for non-fiction if I expected to learn something, though sometimes fictional stories can be quite thought-provoking, if not educational - especially SF.

Speaking of thought provoking and educational, if you want that you should check out "A short stay in hell" which I linked to previously. It was a really interesting take on the "Library of Babel".


7
Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?
« on: January 01, 2017, 11:21 AM »


Panzer,

How was "The Fireman"? I found this one and have it on my wish list. I am interested in hearing your thoughts on it.

8
Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?
« on: January 01, 2017, 11:20 AM »
This is an interesting take on the concept of hell and tells one man's journey through this temporary plane of existence.
If you like weird stuff, you might like Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.


Finished this one a few months ago and wanted to say thanks for the recommendation! What an interesting tale that dives into quite a few different topic areas. I kinda predicted the ending (at least the major premise behind it, not necessarily how it came to be) but that didn't take away from the journey of finding the third policeman.

Thanks again!

9
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WinRAR: 1/3 off
« on: December 29, 2016, 08:02 PM »
WinRAR, man this brings back memories. Finally caved and bought a license several years back. Still have my rarkey.rar somewhere around here (although I use the Mac platform now).

This brings back memories like that of my mIRC license. Talk about a throwback Thursday!

10
Finished Programs / Re: DONE: The Mouser Utility - Requested by App103
« on: December 15, 2016, 02:41 PM »
So many memories of IRC conversations just recently passed!

11
Living Room / Re: Thank you Donationcoder!
« on: December 13, 2016, 12:21 PM »
Mouser told me I was forbidden from posting until I shaved my head. He could not approve of me looking the way I did :-/

12
Living Room / Re: Thank you Donationcoder!
« on: December 12, 2016, 09:15 PM »
Wife fixed me up :-D

15439721_1203183066431344_7385862820381693072_n.jpg

13
Living Room / Re: Thank you Donationcoder!
« on: December 11, 2016, 07:10 PM »
unnamed.jpg

In recovery mode!

14
Living Room / Re: Thank you Donationcoder!
« on: December 10, 2016, 04:51 PM »
Josh is home!

15
Living Room / Re: Thank you Donationcoder!
« on: December 07, 2016, 02:11 PM »
Thought I posted that one too. Here it is :)

16
Living Room / Thank you Donationcoder!
« on: December 07, 2016, 01:52 PM »
Hi all,

As those who hang out on the IRC channel are aware, this afternoon I depart in order to undergo brain surgery. During a visit to the dentist in July for what I thought was an infected tooth requiring extraction (turned out to just be a bad sinus infection), a CT scan was done. As an incidental finding to this scan, a colloid cyst was found within my third ventricle. The cyst measures at 1.3cm x .9cm.

Tomorrow, I am scheduled to undergo the removal of this cyst. 99% of the time these are found to be non-cancerous, typically gelatinous in nature. The risk of not removing this cyst is a sudden shift which could lead to rapid-onset hydrocephalus and even sudden death if it blocks the ventricle.

I wanted to post a picture of a mug and letter I received from Jesse on behalf of DonationCoder and express my sincerest thanks for him taking the time to rush this to me prior to my departure for the hospital.

Melissa will be posting updates online and I am sure Stephen will be more than willing to transcribe the here.

Thanks again for the support from the DoCo team and I hope the procedure tomorrow is uneventful (minus the removal of my brain-born hitchhiker).

- Josh sends

17
Living Room / Re: What other forums do you participate in?
« on: September 27, 2016, 08:32 PM »
Somethingawful.com

18
Living Room / Re: The Walled Garden Closes In
« on: September 12, 2016, 08:46 AM »
Audio quality aside, how many of Apple's primary target demographic actually care that much about studio quality or better audio? How many are downloading FLAC files or FLAC-HD files and hoping for top quality playback while listening to audio on a mobile device? The technophiles of <insert technology here> will always take issue when a major shift takes place in the tech realm. However, unless you are talking about a tech-specific manufacturer (Monster audio, Bose, etc), most consumer-level products will adapt and provide "Good enough" quality.

When you walk around and see people listening to music or sitting somewhere listening to a book/watching a video with headphones on, what do you see? I see one of two things: I either see people with the "Factory standard" Apple earpods or I see some form of "Beats by Dre" design headphone. I rarely see top of the line headphones while people are out and about. Something tells me this is Apple's target market and is who they are really after. As I said above, the technophiles in ANY market will always cry foul when a technology is changed which hinders their investment. It happened with DVD (Yes, I remember a lot of VHS junkies complaining about the cost and transition) and then again with Blu-Ray. Heck, we still have folks who state that a turntable is far superior to any digital format.

As for the NSA and DRM groups, I am all for more control on the consumer end of what we can/can't do with property we purchase. We absolutely need groups looking out for the consumer and we need to maintain our rights. That said, I still don't see this as a major issue. Does digital audio create a chance occurrence of more integration of DRM? Absolutely. But, with the transition, led by Apple, away from DRM-based audio, will this likely occur? Apple pushed many manufacturers to eliminate DRM from audio and provide their audio files DRM-Free. I can still download any file from Amazon, Apple, and various other audio sources and use it anywhere I choose. I can transcode it, back it up, and even alter it in any way I see fit. Unless we get to a point where these DRM-free files are restricted to a certain device (as in you cannot transfer them off), then I fail to see where this will become an issue. I really doubt the NSA cares about controlling what you listen to or monitoring it, for that point. Many fail to understand exactly what the NSA's job is and how they operate. I am not an apologist for the NSA, Apple, or any other organization, but I do try and level the extreme views of any side, or in some cases paranoia, with a well-rounded logical balance.

Disclaimer: I own an iPhone and MBP. I only own the iPhone because the Nexus was sold out for 6 months as I waited to buy it from Google.

19
Living Room / Re: The Walled Garden Closes In
« on: September 09, 2016, 07:01 PM »
My $30 pair of bluetooth headphones have never caused me any issues. I have a more expensive pair but that is because I wanted another set designed for running so they don't fall out. Both work fine and neither requires any further investment should I choose to move to the iPhone 7. I really don't see the issues here. The audio jack had a good run and it was always going to be met with resistance regardless of when they decided to remove it or what they decided to replace it with. This same thing can be said for any technology that is changed.

To me, this really is a non-issue as wireless is the way of the future. Bluetooth/<insert wireless tech here> will not receive due attention until a major player in the industry forces innovation to fix the shortcomings of the protocol. How long was it before we received the bluetooth 4.0 spec with low power mode?

I appear to be in the minority given the recent backlash against Apple, but something tells me this will wash over in 3-4 months as folks forget about it and move on.

20
General Software Discussion / Directory Opus 12 Released
« on: September 05, 2016, 11:01 PM »
2016-09-06_00-01-20.png

Summary of major new features
Full support for high-DPI (e.g. 4K and 5K) monitors.
Redesigned Rename dialog, with new features like:
A unique macro recorder, which lets you perform complex batch renames without regular expressions.
Enhanced scripting capabilities.
Better handling of recursive renames and filename clashing.
An Apply button which lets you perform multiple renames without closing the dialog.
 
Improvements to the Image Viewer including:
Configurable toolbar and hotkeys, including the ability to run arbitrary commands on the current image file.
A new image marking system which makes it much easier to sort through a folder of photos to identify the ones you want to keep, print, share, etc.
A read-ahead cache for faster image loading.
An integrated metadata panel which lets you edit EXIF and other metadata from within the viewer.
 
Enhanced file and folder labels including:
The ability to assign more than one label at once (label attributes are combined).
Label categories (lets you organise your labels into groups).
Adjustable label priority (for when more than one wildcard or filter label applies to a file)
A new status icon system that lets you assign one or more status icons to each files (e.g. to track which files are ‘done’, ‘watched’, ‘urgent’ or ‘to-do’).
 
A manual sorting mode that lets you sort your files and folders exactly how you want.
An integrated dialog editor that lets scripts create their own complex user interfaces.
File display enhancements including:
Vertical folder tabs (displayed down the left or right side of the file display).
You can assign your own tab colors for specific folders.
Optional vertical as well as horizontal gridlines.
Relative size and age graphs displayed as the background of size and date fields (rather than requiring their own column).
A new “show everything” mode to quickly disable all filters.
 
Improvements to Folder Options including:
Configure column widths to expand and fill the usable space in the file display.
A column filter makes it easier to find and add the columns you want.
File and folder name filters can be configured using regular expressions if desired.
 
File copy improvements including a transfer speed graph in the progress dialog.
Toolbar enhancements including scrollbars and distinct labels in drop-down menus.
Lister layouts can now be arranged into folders and sub-folders.
… and as always, much, much more!
-What's New

Directory Opus 12 has been released

22
Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?
« on: July 24, 2016, 07:44 PM »
Has anyone read any Christopher Moore or Tom Holt novels? Looking for a good place to start. I am thinking "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore.

23
Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?
« on: July 22, 2016, 08:42 PM »


So, fresh off of my "The Martian" kick, I decided to learn more about the Mars Rover, Curiosity. As such, the next book in my line-up is "Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer". This book details the challenges facing the team who built the most complex spacecraft ever designed. I am about half way through and the project was just extended from a 2009 launch date to 2011.

It really amazes me just how many topics covered in "The Martian" by Andy Weir are actually mentioned by the engineers who built Curiosity. Great read so far!
 

24
Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?
« on: July 16, 2016, 03:04 PM »
I recently got into audiobooks and I am now hooked. I listen to them on the way to work, while on the treadmill, while ruck marching, whenever I can. So far, I have completed 5 books and am on a short story right now.

My first book was one recommended by a co-worker and it is related to the IT/DevOPS culture in any organization. If you've ever worked in an IT or DEV business, check out The Phoenix Project. Almost every character in the story is one I can point out at work. Bottom line, make sure you protect Brent.



The next book was Dark Territory which is a deep history on the start of cyber warfare, ending with the Snowden revelations. This is a great introduction into cyber war and gives some insight into the underground threat market.



The next book was "Countdown to Zero Day". This was a very in-depth history of the Stuxnet worm and I recommend it to anyone who has any interest in cyber war being used for physical destruction.



The next book on my list was an in-depth history of ID Software (Creators of Doom) and the troubles that plagued them (and continue to do so to this day after being purchased by Bethesda and previously with the split-up of the two Johns). Masters of Doom told that tale and showed a couple of developers whose A-Type personalities got the best of both of them (I imagine Jesse being similar to Carmack).



The last book I listened to was "The Martian" by Andy Weir. I listened to this one after watching the movie at least 30 times (it is now my favorite scientific/space movie) and still find new things to like about it each time I watch it. The book was far better than the movie and I recommend it to anyone who watched the film.



Finally, I am listening to what I view as the single most novel idea for a short story. This is an interesting take on the concept of hell and tells one man's journey through this temporary plane of existence. "A short stay in hell", even 30 minutes into it, is well worth it just for the opening chapters.


25
Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR for mac
« on: June 05, 2016, 08:51 PM »
I was wondering the same thing as f0dder. Since moving platforms, I have found spotlight infinitely useful.
You've totally moved to Mac?  How are you finding it?
The question was for Josh, but let me chime in.

I've been exclusively using OS X (on decent, but overpriced, Apple hardware) for work, since October last year. For the stuff I do, there's some advantages to this - a lot of OpenSource stuff just works better on something semi-unix, since programmers are too lazy to write properly portable code... and homebrew *is* easier than hunting down all your tools manually on Windows (even though the combined OS X ecosystem is worse than package managers on Linux).

A lot of things are a bit too dumbed-down for my taste, and the OS is pretty unstable compared to any Windows release since Vista. I've had a bunch of gray-screen-of-death kernel panics doing such OUTRAGEOUS things as trying to drag a window to another monitor, or fullscreening a youtube video. And while the machine is silent under normal operation, it goes full jet engine (as well as thigh-scorching hot) when the GPU is involved.

Sans the "runs opensource easier", I see no reason whatsoever to run OS X - definitely wouldn't be doing it at home. It really isn't "easier" that Windows these days, it's less stable, and while MS are pulling some nasty stuff with Win10, Apple are even more evil. I'd be closer to moving the home setup to Linux than OS X :)


I've actually yet to experience the "grey screen" effect yet. I've had the occasional app lockup where I had to force close it or kill -9 it, but I have had no stability issues on my 2015 MBP. I will concur with the dumbed down aspect of the OS. However, I've found myself being able to work around those shortcomings. The only thing I wish I could find at this point is a decent replacement for DOpus. I grew accustom to it while I was on Windows but am managing with CommanderOne. While not the sae, it is a good compromise for what I need. The only reboots I've had to perform are because I have to shutdown or because my NAS stops responding (Problem with the NAS OS and its emulation of AFP, not a problem of the MBP itself).

I would use Linux, and do at times, but I feel that the distros I've tried are nowhere near ready for primetime and I find myself being nagged by issues that should not be (I should not have to hack pulseaudio or alsa on a fresh install, just one example). Again, to each there own and I do enjoy Linux, I just don't want to have to spend more time hacking the OS to make it work properly on different systems and would rather a system just work (Win10 and OSX fit that bill for me). That said, OSX is a breath of fresh air.

I've noticed some fan activity on my MBP when gaming but otherwise it is silent and cool. However, I would likely experience the same jet-engine sounds on the other hardware I was considering at the same price point I paid for this machine (Think AORUS or MSI Gaming Laptops). I settled on this as I can play a majority of the games I care about on OSX with more being added every month.

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