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Topics - cranioscopical [ switch to compact view ]

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76
Living Room / Hallow-e'en
« on: October 19, 2007, 09:18 AM »
Hallow-e'en is a big event here, in Canada.

It's also my son's birthday.
We didn't celebrate Hallow-e'en in the U.K. so, when we moved here my son, who was five at the time, was thrilled to find that everyone in his world would hand him a 'birthday' treat if he just knocked on their door.

The picture is of what my wife just created from a pumpkin.
We and others donate decorated pumpkins to a local organization that sells them and puts the proceeds towards food for some who are less fortunate than ourselves. It's fun and mildly useful at the same time.

Does anyone have Hallow-e'en favourite images/stories to share here?

Does Cody eat pumpkin seeds?

77
Living Room / Conserving energy
« on: September 19, 2007, 06:20 PM »
With all the buzz about global warming and energy conservation, I wonder what positions members here are taking.
I see that a lot of us leave our computers running 24/7 for example.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the situation. The principle is fine. The implementation leaves something to be desired.
Here's where I'm at.

1) I've replaced all of the incandescent light bulbs in my house with low-energy bulbs.
Pros:
Certainly saves some power, which is good for the community. That's fine because it's not all about what's in it for me.
Cons:
The initial outlay was considerable (over 100 incandescent bulbs were changed).
I honestly doubt that I'll see a financial return.  That's because the quoted life of low-energy bulbs is totally inaccurate.  Within 2 years, 5 of my '6-year' bulbs have failed.

2) I've lowered the level of my heating and raised the level of my cooling.
Pros:
Saves some money.
Cons:
Takes a lot of acclimatization.

3) I've changed the big (old) second fridge that I keep in my basement for a new low-energy model.
Pros:
Saves some energy.
Cons:
Long payback period.  Realistically it'll be about 6-8 years to reach the break-even point.

4) Sometimes I now turn off my computers overnight.
Pros:
Small energy savings.
Cons:
A distinct sense of unease   :)

78
Living Room / Acceptable expletives
« on: August 17, 2007, 09:42 AM »

At times I am forced to eschew my favourite Anglo-Saxon oaths.
In what passes round here for polite company I still have a need to express extreme frustration, and there are times when "Oh bother!" just doesn't seem to cut it.

When hard pressed, my expression of choice is "Castor and Pollux." 
For example,
Castor and Pollux!  The data say that we have been wrong all along!
So, your mother is coming to stay for a week... Castor and Pollux!"

On what favourite expressions do others rely?


79

I have to update my wife's (very simple) web site.

I know there exist various tools to let me easily preview a page/site at various resolutions and/or browser sizes.
I don't know what they are.

Can readers please point me to any such utilities that they find to be the simplest and best?

Thanks in advance!

80
I have a couple of external drives which might be on or off, depending what I'm doing.

I really don't want them running all the time, especially overnight, but I can easily forget about them.

At the moment I have a few lines of AHK to tell me if they're on during shutdown.

What I'd like, for the (majority of) times when I don't shut down, is this:

Something that can run after a time I choose (let's say 22:00) and look periodically (let's say every 30 minutes) to see if specific drive letters are in use (let's say Q: and X:).

If one or both of the drives are on, I'd like to be reminded about it/them.  Then, when I wander off for the night, I won't leave them running.                                                                               

81
I'd like to ask the collective brain here, at Donation Coder, which devices it recommends.   My hope is to have answers ONLY about devices that the brain has used itself, not about interesting-sounding stuff of which it has no direct experience.

I now use (here comes the collective laugh) a Palm IIIxe.
That's because:
  • I can run it from AAA batteries available at any corner store
  • It lasts for ages without needing to be recharged in any way
  • I have several, so losing one is really no big deal
  • My requirements are fairly minimal

This is a list of all that I must have :
  • A calendar
  • An address book
  • Some kind of note-taking/keeping function
  • A couple of calculators/converters
  • A reminder function
  • Some way to secure sensitive data
  • Small enough size to fit in shirt pocket

Having laboured mightily in my childhood to learn how to do real, joined-up writing I'd also like to deploy this amazing skill and enjoy handwriting recognition that doesn't depend on letter-by-letter entry or a special, esoteric, pseudo alphabet.

Any expert responses will be much appreciated.

82
I would very much like a tool to do the following:
I wish to select a range of icons and have these distributed, with equal spacing, based on the positions of the first and last in the selected range (similar to dtp/graphics applications' align/distribute tools). 
The object is to achieve differential spacing for different groups of icons.
I'd like this to work for vertical and horizontal spacing.

Thus, one group of, say, 5 icons on the desktop could be equally spaced, based on the positions of 1 and 5 in that range. Call this range A.
Another group of, say, 3 icons could be equally spaced based on the positions of 1 and 3 in that range. Call this range B.
The spacing in range A could be different from the spacing in range B.

I don't mean the 'align to grid' feature built into Windows.
I use a utility called Align Icons 2.0 (see https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=6491.0). That will align selected items by Top/Bottom/Left/Right. While it does a nice job on 'align', it won't 'distribute'.   

83
Living Room / Demise of the trackball? What's the alternative?
« on: November 28, 2006, 07:47 PM »
Has anybody else noticed the recent absence of trackballs from just about every computer-peripheral store?

I have used a Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel for years, the ball on mine is thumb driven.
Being right handed I keep the thing between the right edge of my keyboard and my graphics tablet. I'm used to it, and can cover a lot of real estate without requiring constant hand movements. That way I can work comfortably with both it and the tablet without having to keep moving stuff around.

Lately one of my units has been sticking, so I decided to pick up another. None are to be found in the stores (in Toronto, Canada). Precious few are to be found on the web, most of them refurbished (of which I've ordered several). New product seems to have vanished.

Anyone who uses a mouse would probably experience horror and dismay if asked to use a trackball (my wife does!) but that's just how I feel about using a mouse.

Since the writing appears to be on the wall, I'd be glad to hear recommendations for a mouse--that people have actually used--to scoot the cursor fast around a 3200x1600 desktop and yet still allow excellent precision (not at CAD level but certainly good enough for working with tiny increments in stuff like Illustrator and InDesign). I'm looking for something that keeps hand movement to an absolute minimum.

I thank you in advance for any help you might offer.



84
Living Room / Hooked!
« on: October 02, 2006, 07:13 PM »
Okay, when I joined DonationCoder I planned to take advantage of really cheap, really good software.
 
I never dreamt that this would become an insidious habit and land me in debt but, look, now I'm in the red!


85
General Software Discussion / IDEA: Colour matching wizard
« on: September 07, 2006, 09:11 PM »
Setting up effective colour matching between monitor screen(s) and input/output devices seems to be a hit-and-miss, not to mention tedious business.

Microsoft's 'Color' control-panel applet doesn't seem too useful.

Current software approaches don't appear to offer a good link between screen calibration and, say, printer output... or between camera input, monitor, and printer.

Computers are meant to resolve tedious issues for us.

How about some kind of wizard-based approach to getting the best match between devices -- from start to finish -- without using hardware tools such as a colorimeter or densitometer? Can this be done, given that so many different input/output devices exist?

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