Messages

1

General Software Discussion / Re: Form letters for medical use

« on: March 08, 2023, 05:17 PM »

I'm wondering if I can maybe suggest the use of something like a Publisher template with mailmerge fields and use the latter to call up a graphic / textbox pair, prebuilt and preformatted to be dropped into a precise position on a page / group of pages. If I can make TFLM spit out csv style data, that might work...

-oblivion (March 08, 2023, 05:04 PM)

Just saw your Re: GS-Base Mini-Review post.  If you're thinking of the mailmerge route, Serif Affinity Publisher might be a good-value alternative to Microsoft Publisher.

Although, I have to say, I'm still not very clear on what you really want.

2

General Software Discussion / Re: How to prevent unwanted File Explorer window?

« on: February 22, 2023, 05:14 PM »

If you are talking about Windows, maby Autoruns help you to identify the bad guy?

-KodeZwerg (February 21, 2023, 06:20 PM)

Yes - sorry, I should have said it was Windows (10).

I tried Autoruns - good suggestion, thanks.  I'm not very good at system level stuff, but it looked to me like I had a shortcut pointing to a non-existent file:

"c:\Program Files.exe"

But, I couldn't get rid of it by Autoruns.  It would let me go through the motions, including elevating the prompt, but the entry stubbornly stayed where it was.  However, I install most things with Total Uninstall (TU).  In the end, I used TU to uninstall it, then re-installed.  Now things look OK, no File Explorer popping up so far.

Now I realise TU has an Autorun manager of its own - pity I dind't notice that before 

3

General Software Discussion / How to prevent unwanted File Explorer window?

« on: February 21, 2023, 04:20 PM »

Possibly as a result of a botched install of Battery Limiter, every time I boot up now I get a File Explorer window pointing to the Battery Limiter folder.  It's annoying me, and I don't know how to stop it.  I put in a PTFB Pro macro to close File Explorer, but I really want to stop it popping up in the first place.

Any ideas, please?

4

General Software Discussion / Re: Twitter harakiri‘d. All was gone.

« on: January 22, 2023, 04:57 PM »

Time to start screaming myself.

-Tuxman (January 20, 2023, 09:26 PM)

I was never interested in social media, but I had a Twitter account for a short while.  I just didn't 'get' it, and only wanted to follow three things, two of which I lost interest in.  Then Twitter pestered me to follow more people, so I closed it.

I'm very wary of what now calls itself 'Meta' for its creepy surveillance practices and the way it awards itself free usage of anything you post.  I did, however, want to follow some local artists, and they were all on Instagram.  Hence I inched closer to getting an Instagram presence, only to find several articles raging about Instagram's sudden aping of TikTok, spamming you with auto-playing videos instead of things you actually want to follow. Exit Instagram.

In another part of the wood, I really liked using Simplenote to transfer text items between Android devices and the PC.  I used Glance Note on Android (at one point, recommended by wraith808) and CintaNotes on the PC, both of which keep data in local databases.  But now Simplenote have gone like Twitter in dropping the API and banning third-party applications, which would mean sticking to their own apps - apparently their PC app is a huge Electron thing - and worse, keeping my data solely in their cloud.  Well, I want access to it even if I don't have an Internet connection.  The latest iteration of their Android app includes "Simplenote Sustainer.  Help support the ongoing development of Simplenote with an annual subscription."  We know that keeping things forever free is a hard ask, but I'd have preferred them to make it payware or even donationware from the beginning, and retain third-party API access.

The moral seems to be beware big tech companies offering "free" goodies.  As for Twitter, Mastodon looks set to gain.

5

General Software Discussion / Re: Lastpass hacked proper

« on: December 28, 2022, 04:26 PM »

What's insane is all of these password managers are absolutely fanatical about convincing you to put your passwords on the web -- ostensibly so that you can sync to multiple devices, but perhaps more importantly so they can sell subscription software as a service regular fees.

-mouser (December 23, 2022, 04:50 PM)

That's what I thought, too...

Roboform has been pathological about forcing people to move to their roboform "everywhere" plan where your all of your sensitive password data is stored on their servers.

-mouser (December 23, 2022, 04:50 PM)

I find their hyping of "Everywhere" tiresome.  Yet they still allow you to use RoboForm "Free," if you are content not to sync and not to have the other extra features in "Everywhere" (such as 2FA).  Comparison of "Free" and "Everywhere" is here: https://www.roboform.com/en/everywhere  Presumably they genuinely value their cloud storage.  I don't; I think there's some kind of principle here.  I don't intend to generate important things like passwords, hand them to someone else for storage, then hire back their use.  But, I've reinstalled RoboForm Free, because it still seems better than e.g. Sticky Password for complicated form-filling.

6

General Software Discussion / Re: Listary 6 released

« on: December 19, 2022, 04:16 PM »

I am quite happy with Listary 5, and went back to it from an earlier 6 beta when I realized the newer one left off paths in some of the filename displays, making it impossible to differentiate files having the same name.  I am curious to see how this release looks in that regard.

-irkregent (October 10, 2022, 07:03 PM)

I think the latest v.6 is similar, but I've gone back to Listary 5 too, for two reasons:

• Tapping Ctrl three times to access the Listary launcher didn't work properly.  I usually had to make a positive fusillade of taps to raise it.
• I went into Options to add a custom Keyword - and couldn't find where they were!  Maybe that's just me... 

7

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« on: December 05, 2022, 04:10 PM »

From Private Eye, No. 1587, 2 Dec. - 15 Dec. 2022:

8

General Software Discussion / Listary 6 released

« on: October 10, 2022, 04:55 PM »

In case nobody else has noticed, Listary 6 has been released, after a four-year gap.

From the download page:

What’s new in this version?
If Listary 6 is not working correctly after upgrading from Listary 5, try to uninstall it, reboot, and then reinstall.

6.0.10.28 (10/10/2022)

New: Support Windows 11 multi-tab File Explorer
New: Add a beta channel option for updates
Improved: Improve Action stability and performance

6.0.9.25 (5/25/2022)

New: New user interface – Elegant and effective, beauty in every pixel and color
New: New search and sorting algorithm
New: Web search with live suggestions
New: Preview
New: Full HiDPI support
New: Execute a search result using Ctrl + Num hotkey
New: Show Quick Switch folder after opening a file dialog
New: Disable double Ctrl automatically for full-screen games and apps.
New: Customize folder priorities and file name priorities using regex.

Still the same very generous license; free for personal use, $19.95 for advanced features and use in workplace; lifetime free updates; installation on up to three computers owned by you allowed.  In my opinion, incredible value for an incredibly useful program.

Spoiler

So jolly well yah sucks boo to the naysayers who said Listary 6 would never be released 

9

General Software Discussion / Re: Privacy, Security and bookmarkers

« on: August 18, 2022, 05:46 PM »

I'm careful about what info I put where, and keeping very personal data local. And having never having had accounts with any Meta service, let alone Tiktok. I'm not sure about the rest. I think I'm less individually vulnerable than most, but there's no way of avoiding societal vulnerability.

-Dormouse (August 02, 2022, 05:13 AM)

As satirical magazine Private Eye put it, "Beelzeberg has re-branded as Metaphistopheles."  I'm fuming and frustrated by the way Facebook and Instagram have become all-pervasive, yet hardly anyone thinks about privacy.  The more so, as I try to follow some of our local artists, and they put most of their messages on Instagram.  Instagram will sometimes let me see a few posts with a browser, but most of the time it duns me to have an account and use the Instagram app.  Which I have so far resisted, but what do you do when people you want to follow only post on such sinister platforms?

10

Living Room / Re: How to fix a keyboard with catchy keys

« on: June 03, 2022, 05:13 PM »

Sticky keys I usually fix with graphite

-Shades (June 03, 2022, 11:47 AM)

Graphite is conductive, so it would worry me a bit to introduce it into anything with switches.  You evidently haven't had any problems?

11

Found Deals and Discounts / WinCatalog 2021 on 20% discount until 22 May 2022, includes free upgrade to 2022

« on: May 22, 2022, 03:08 PM »

Here's the sales pitch:

May Sale - 20% OFF!

Buy WinCatalog 2021 until May 22, 2022 and get a 20% instant discount and:

    All minor upgrades within 2021 version
    Free upgrade to the 2022 version when it will be released
    Massive discount on future major upgrades
    Unlimited installations and activations
    90-day money back guarantee

We offer an unconditional 90-day money back guarantee.
License price includes free technical support via email, all WinCatalog 2021 minor upgrades, 50% discount on future major upgrades.

WinCatalog 2021 - Disk Catalog Software for Windows

Looking for a reliable and powerful disk catalog software to organize your huge collection of disks?

WinCatalog 2021 disk cataloger is a perfect solution! On the market since 2001.

Automatically create a catalog of all files, stored on your disks (HDDs, DVDs, CDs, network drives and other media storage devices): WinCatalog will automatically grab ID3 tags for music files, Exif tags and thumbnails for photos, thumbnails and basic information for video files, e-books, contents of archive files, thumbnails for images (pictures) and PDF files, ISO files, and much more.

Organize your file catalog, using virtual folders, tags (categories) and user defined fields, and find files in seconds, using powerful search, even when disks are not connected to the computer. Also easily use WinCatalog as a duplicate file finder. Your disk catalog can be automatically updated through Windows task scheduler.

And no matter how huge your collection of disks is - you will always have your file catalog on hand, perfectly organized.

12

General Software Discussion / Re: What was a great program that's now been forgotten?

« on: May 22, 2022, 02:43 PM »

I'm missing spartan clipboard.

-flamerz (May 22, 2022, 09:11 AM)

If it was your favourite, OK, I understand - but there are an awful lot of good alternatives...

13

Found Deals and Discounts / MindVisualizer mind map updated, re-released as FastMindMap, 50% off

« on: May 20, 2022, 04:49 PM »

MindVisualizer mind mapping software just received a rare update and has been re-released under a new name, FastMindMap.

Release notes:

Re-designed icon markers & new filter pane
Customizable Icon Names
Enhanced Dark Theme Support
Summary of other  changes
°   Large screen (High DPI) support.
°   Enhanced the overall user interface.
°   New spell check engine.
°   New mind map samples.
°   Modern Windows OS Support.
°   Full Unicode (International) support.
°   New "version check" feature.
°   New error report engine.
°   Many small fixes and enhancements.

FastMindMap is aiming at becoming the best tool for visually organizing your ideas, notes, to-dos, projects and writings.
(<sigh> Don't they all)

There is a  50% off coupon valid until the end of the month: CBNEAQ
Full price is $79.  License is perpetual for the version you buy, with 12 months of updates.  After that, there would be 50% off for a new version.

14

Found Deals and Discounts / Serif Affinity on 50% offer (again)

« on: May 16, 2022, 04:28 PM »

Serif Affinity offers:

*All apps and add-ons now half-price*

*50% OFF FOR A LIMITED TIME*

https://affinity.ser...il_1&mc=SPRING22

I didn't spot the exact length of time the offer is on.

15

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Zabkat i-DeClone and DeskRule deals coming on Bits du Jour

« on: May 12, 2022, 05:40 PM »

I like the power it offers; some features I don't remember ever seeing in any other program, which would make it worth persevering if you really need them.  But, I genuinely found it hard going.

16

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Zabkat i-DeClone and DeskRule deals coming on Bits du Jour

« on: May 12, 2022, 03:49 PM »

I am curious if anyone is using Deskrule?  It looks like it can search the contents of a file [...]

-sphere (May 12, 2022, 10:50 AM)

I was interested in Deskrule because it can do obscure searches like finding which of your JPEGs does not have your name in the copyright field of its EXIF data.  The problem is that I find Deskrule one of the most impenetrable programs I've ever tried to use.  A GUI where you can tear bits off and dock them somewhere else does not help me, and I think it makes Help more confusing, because there's no guarantee your version will have the same appearance as is shown in Help.  I hate online Help anyway, the more so when it forces Edge, a browser I never use, and which isn't even set as my default.  It wasn't just me that had problems with the UI, either. At one point the author revised Deskrule to offer an alternative interface that was supposed to be easier.  I didn't find it much improvement, or maybe I was just jaundiced by then and didn't persevere.  Hence it may be the most powerful search engine ever made, but remains a mystery to me.  I'd rather have the relatively simple and straightforward UIs of programs like Nir Sofer's SearchMyFiles or the search part of XYplorer or maybe Binary Fortress' FileSeek.

17

Found Deals and Discounts / Zabkat i-DeClone and DeskRule deals coming on Bits du Jour

« on: May 06, 2022, 04:45 PM »

Zabkat, best known for the xplorer2 file manager, are soon to offer Bits du Jour deals on two of their other programs:

i-DeClone 50% promotion
<http://zabkat.com/stsil/lt.php?id=Yh1WAxhRC09RCFFTUA>
May 7 & 8
(Search and remove duplicate files)

DeskRule 50% promotion
<http://zabkat.com/stsil/lt.php?id=Yh1XBBhRC09RCFFTUA>
May 12 & 13
(Advanced desktop file search)

18

General Software Discussion / Re: WinPatrol appears dead

« on: April 04, 2022, 03:33 PM »

There's still Chameleon Startup Manager, which has been mentioned several times in rather old DC threads.

19

General Software Discussion / Re: Best way to cull old browser bookmarks?

« on: March 26, 2022, 05:45 PM »

Maybe look at AM-DeadLink?

Freeware to detect dead links and redirections.
AM-DeadLink can check URLs for dead links and redirections from the following sources:

    Text files
    Tab delimited files
    CSV files
    HTML files
    Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox
    Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, IE

But note this:

Why bookmarks cannot be deleted directly in AM-DeadLink

Browser bookmarks should only be deleted within the browser user interface, not via external tools. Changing bookmark databases outside of the browser will be in conflict with various functions and will also produce side effects when synchronizing bookmarks between devices.

20

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

« on: March 14, 2022, 06:45 PM »

For what very little it may be worth, the Zufuliu fork of Notepad2 now does Markdown, but not I think WYSIWYG.

The recently-released Notezilla 9 can do Markdown, and now has hyperlinks that point from one sticky note to another.  I don't know if you can collapse a group of linked notes into a single document.

21

General Software Discussion / Re: Does this "blog/shared notes" exist?

« on: February 12, 2022, 03:49 PM »

Maybe Simplenote?  It's a "free" cloud service by  Automattic (the people behind WordPress?) that you can access by browser or by their own (Electron behemoth) Windows app, or their Android app, but it can also be synchronized with CintaNotes (free and payware, I think even the free version will sync with Simplenote now) and ResophNotes (free, mentioned by wraith808 of this parish) on Windows, and with Glance Note on Android.  Certainly CintaNotes and Glance Note, and I think ResophNotes, keep their own local databases.

It's possible to use Simplenote collaboratively.

Big caveat; as a cloud service, you are at the mercy of their policies.  The ResophNotes site has a note that Simplenote might remove the API for third parties, though that hasn't happened yet, as far as I know.  Also, at present anyway, you can export from Simplenote to plain text files.

22

General Software Discussion / Re: How to check several sites daily with ease?

« on: February 12, 2022, 03:28 PM »

Website Watcher: https://www.aignes.com/

-mouser (February 12, 2022, 08:38 AM)

That won't work since half of the sites are password-protected.

-brotherS (February 12, 2022, 08:43 AM)

The Personal edition of WebSite-Watcher can do passwords.

23

General Software Discussion / Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?

« on: February 04, 2022, 04:51 PM »

I could swear there was a tool that was discussed here years ago with the need to do just that (the mapping)... I don't think there was complete success at that time but I remember the discussion!

-x16wda (February 04, 2022, 05:50 AM)

There was New program: Ethervane ActiveHotkeys (freeware), but the entire thread is dated 2009.

24

General Software Discussion / Re: What Android Apps Do You Use?

« on: February 01, 2022, 04:43 PM »

Are any of you hold-outs who stick to the older version of K-9 Mail, with its better accounts list, having any problems with it?  Two of my accounts (with GMX) no longer work; K-9 hangs or crashes now.  This happens to me both on my old Android 4.2.2 (!) tablet and on my Android 11 phone.  I presume the webmail provider has changed something, because my other accounts still appear to work. 

Admittedly, I'm mostly using FairEmail now on the phone (thanks to 4WD for the recommendation) but it doesn't, as far as I can see, use Android Share.  Pity; K-9 Mail does that, but doesn't always render HTML email properly.  I wish people would stick to plain text, but they don't 

Correction: FairEmail does have Android Share enabled, but it's well hidden.

25

General Software Discussion / Re: Please suggest compact, lightweight email client

« on: January 24, 2022, 03:57 PM »

+1 for Pegasus Mail. Note that the developer has been working on the 5th major version for quite a while now, version 4.x is not quite contemporary in look&feel*. (Which is OK for me, but less OK for other people - especially as you come from The Bat!.)

-Tuxman (January 23, 2022, 10:22 PM)

I dabbled with Pegasus long ago.  I much prefer The Bat!'s permanently-visible tree of accounts, but the thing I hated about Pegasus was its default of deleting all mail on the server.  It felt like a deliberate attempt to lock you in.  Still, forewarned is forearmed.

I, personally, also own and primarily use a license for Pandora Mail which I - incidentally - first saw on DonationCoder.
[...]
Pandora Mail 4.1 uses roughly 53 megabytes (plus the profile folder which can not completely be moved off %APPDATA% as far as I can see) of disk space, it seems to not have a portable mode (yet?). Of course, you should be fine with 90s GUI design... (you can configure some of that.)

-Tuxman (January 23, 2022, 10:22 PM)

I briefly tried Pandora when I saw your earlier post, and couldn't make head nor tail of it!  Software doesn't usually leave me baffled (though a trial disk of DOS AskSam did).  But, I spent the 90s (and after) determinedly clinging on to DOS software, and I don't think it was until 1998 or so that changes at work meant I finally had to come to terms with WinGUI.  Maybe I missed out on that era.

It has replaced The Bat! for me when RITlabs decided to use ribbon toolbars which I don't want to use.

-Tuxman (January 23, 2022, 10:22 PM)

Nor do I.  I'm still using The Bat! 9.1.18.  Perhaps the new UI is responsible for some of the recent bloat:


thebat_64_9-1-18.msi                              42,135,552   
thebat_64_9-4-5.msi                              143,663,104   

If you like Alpine (which is good software, I admit), other interesting command line clients for Windows include NeoMutt and a few others, but note that usual "ported to Windows" software mostly requires jumping through quite a few hoops to use the file system over Cygwin...

-Tuxman (January 23, 2022, 10:22 PM)

Ouch.  That could be a disincentive