Recent Posts

101

General Software Discussion / Re: A good program for transcribe handwritten text to mechanical text in the pc

« Last post by rjbull on February 14, 2021, 04:29 PM »

Not quite what you asked for, but this Cool Tools web site entry is probably as close as you are likely to get: Rocketbook Everlast Reusable Smart Notebook

Convert handwritten notes to computer text

I write a monthly commentary for a small local newspaper and blog extensively. For years I have been looking for a way to convert my script into text that I can load into Word. My astute brother-in-law sent me a RocketbookEverlast Notebook ($30) and the closer I looked into it I realized that this may be the tool I have been looking for.
[...]

Make sure to read the comments.  Not everybody likes it.

102

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Explorer "File manager" Alternative

« Last post by rjbull on February 04, 2021, 03:23 PM »

I have the excellent Total Commander; it has a built-in DIFF tool that's good enough for most of my needs nowadays. Back when I needed something significantly more I used ExamDiff Pro, which is very good.  You can trigger it from Total Commander.

I bought my Total Commander license in 1999, I think, and have never been asked to pay for an update.  I also have XYplorer, which is not only portable, but offers a definite lifetime license and is updated so often you feel surprised if you check and find you're already up to date.  It's a second string for me, but has done some useful work.  Thirdly I have ZTreeWin, but for all its virtues, it's more a nostalgia trip now 

If by index you mean something like a catalogue, I'd suggest Cathy, which is small, lightning fast and free.  It can search duplicates across catalogues, so should be able to meet your offline requirements (I think).  I don't find the UI as intuitive as all that.  There's also a command-line version for updating catalogues, good to put in your scheduler.

103

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Standalone CSV Editor like CSVPad

« Last post by rjbull on January 30, 2021, 04:42 PM »

They may not offer exactly what you want - and I haven't tried them - but Nir Sofer offers two utilities, both of which can be operated from the command line, as well as thee GUI:

CSVFileView v2.48 - CSV / Tab-delimited file viewer and converter for Windows

CSVFileView is a simple CSV file viewer / converter utility that allows you to easily view the content of CSV or tab-delimited file created by NirSoft utilities or by any other software, in a simple table viewer. You can sort the lines according to one of the fields, remove unwanted fields and change their order, and then save the result back into CSV file, tab-delimited file, XML file, or HTML report.

Known Limitations

    CSVFileView cannot load extremely large csv files.

TableTextCompare v1.20 - Compare csv / tab-delimited text files

TableTextCompare is a small utility that allows you to easily compare 2 tab-delimited or comma-delimited (csv) files, and find out the difference between the 2 files. You can use this tool for comparing 2 different snapshots of data, created by other NirSoft utilities, like DriverView, ServiWin, USBDeview, CurrPorts, WirelessNetView, ShellExView, and many others...
For example, You can use DriverView utility to save 2 snapshots of loaded drivers list into a tab-delimited file, and then use TableTextCompare to easily find out which device drivers were added, removed, or changed since the time that the first snapshot was taken.

TableTextCompare can make the comparison even if the records of the 2 files are not sorted in the same order, or if the fields are not positioned in the same order.

Looks like a "diff" for CSV files.

104

Easy Screencast Recorder / Re: capture audio from speaker instead of microphone

« Last post by rjbull on January 30, 2021, 04:30 PM »

I asked the people at PCWinSoft  "Is it possible to capture the audio that is playing through the computer (internal speakers output) instead of through the microphone?" with their software.

This is the reply:

Yes. Hi-Q MP3 Recorder Pro does that.

The program captures audio from the 'Stereo Mix' audio device.

Check the link bellow to learn how to enable your 'Stereo Mix' audio device:

https://thegeekpage.com/stereo-mix/

So check if your 'Stereo Mix' device is enabled and then download Hi-Q
MP3 Recorder Pro from here:

http://www.pcwinsoft...3RecorderProInst.exe

The application records the audio you hear and allows you to edit it,
cut, trim, split, join, and apply fade-in, fade-out, volume gain or
reduction, equalization, bass, treble.

Regards,
Alessandro Ferri
PCWinSoft Software
http://www.pcwinsoft.com/

It's not free, but it's only  $19.90.

105

General Software Discussion / Re: Batch Word Text Replacer

« Last post by rjbull on January 26, 2021, 02:41 PM »

Try HandyFile Find and Replace Text Aid Kit Office Edition.  It definitely isn't free.  Web site blocked by Malwarebytes, but they tend to false positives.  I used an old edition of HFFR years ago for other purposes.

106

General Software Discussion / Re: wanted: file manager for moving files (possibly with speed limit)

« Last post by rjbull on January 26, 2021, 02:27 PM »

There's also Multi Commander (free, donationware), favourably mentioned by Shades in Re: Batch file to move files (less than total size) from A to B, along with a link to 26 third-party file managers.

But, from the OP, is a FM really what you want?  The task sounds rather like backup/directory synchronization, e.g. by something like Karen's Replicator (free, donationware)

107

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software

« Last post by rjbull on January 19, 2021, 09:52 AM »

And again:

In response to the pandemic last year and as a way to lend some support to the creative community, we made a 90-day free trial available for the Mac and Windows versions of the whole Affinity suite, while also cutting the price of all of our apps, including iPad versions, by 50%.

When those offers ended, it appeared things were getting better and we all hoped that by now the situation would have continued to improve. Sadly, it’s clear that the pandemic continues to have a serious impact and so we’ve decided to bring back these offers once again.
Moreover, the free trials are available to everyone, including those who have previously completed one—so even if you used the free trial last year, you can do it again. There’s also 50% off content in the Affinity Store too.

50% OFF ALL APPS

90-day free trials

50% off all content

108

Non-Windows Software / Re: A good app for paste premade phrases and multimedia ?

« Last post by rjbull on November 03, 2020, 02:58 PM »

If you're on Android, try going to the Google Play Store and searching for "phrase express"...  There's doesn't seem to be an Android version of Phrase Express itself, but a search throws up several other things that claim to be similar.  I haven't tried them.  If you just want boiler-plate text, without expansion, try Clipper/Clipper Plus by rojekti.  It's a clipboard manager that can save permanent clips in folders.  So can ArsClip Mini.

109

General Software Discussion / Re: How to manually set clock in Windows 10 Pro?

« Last post by rjbull on November 03, 2020, 02:45 PM »

Many thanks, folks!

I tried 4wd's advice to change to uk.pool.ntp.org, and so far, after a couple of days, things seem to be OK.  I was annoyed with myself for forgetting TIME in a console, considering how much I did at the command line in the old days: too much windows atrophies your brain...  I've also downloaded Dimension4 against need.  If a Windows update resets to time.windows.com, that's what I'll try next.

110

General Software Discussion / How to manually set clock in Windows 10 Pro?

« Last post by rjbull on October 30, 2020, 07:14 AM »

UK clocks have recently gone back for Daylight Saving time.  My Windows 10 Pro is still showing summer time, not winter time.  I went to Settings > Date & time.  The date is correct.  "Adjust for daylight saving time automatically" was On.  I clicked "Sync now" and had to elevate to Admin (Really?  Just to correct the clock?).  Time server: time.windows.com.  Waited and waited while the little dots trudged around.  Eventually, "Time synchronisation failed."  Tried again with "Adjust for daylight saving time automatically" Off, same result.  Tried again with it On, same again...

Please, is there any way to set the clock MANUALLY?

<rjbull seethes with frustration>

111

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by rjbull on October 25, 2020, 05:13 PM »

Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance

I own a paper version, but with different cover:

-panzer (October 24, 2020, 03:57 PM)

Mine's paperback too, but it's quite old, a UK edition published in 2000.  Publishers seem to have a habit of changing the artwork when they re-publish, as well as by country.

112

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by rjbull on October 24, 2020, 03:42 PM »

Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance

An omnibus edition of The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvellous.  Although Vance's two SF short stories The Gift of Gab and The Potters of Firsk stuck in my mind, I hadn't read much of his other work before, and didn't realise that The Dying Earth was a foundational work for twentieth-century fantasy.  Nobody else I know of has his baroque intoxication with language and with colours.

Penric's Progress by Lois McMaster Bujold

The first three "Penric" novellas, finally available in dead tree form (hardback now, paperback due in January 2021).  Set in the "World of the Five Gods" (same world as The Curse of Chalion and others).  Terrific!  Don't miss this series!

113

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

« Last post by rjbull on October 13, 2020, 03:48 PM »

If you don't want to use K-9 Mail, what are you going to use?  Most of the alternatives I glanced at wanted an insane number of permissions.

This has come into sharper focus for me because I've used a Yahoo! UK email account for ages.  Now, Yahoo!  are desperate to make users adopt Yahoo!'s own app for 'security' reasons.  They may be offering a work-around, but it would be nice to have alternatives.

114

Living Room / Re: Wanted a software collection software

« Last post by rjbull on September 04, 2020, 04:17 PM »

For a small, very fast and free file/disk cataloguing tool, it's hard to beat Cathy.  It doesn't do version numbers if you mean according to Windows Properties, but obviously shows them if they're part of the file name.

There were lots of such tools back in the DOS days, when files were offloaded onto floppy disks.  I used to use CatDisk (shareware).  That site seems to be down. You can download the last version, dated 2003, from various web sites. It may no longer be possible to register it. WinCatalog seems popular and fairly up to date.  It's payware, but seems to be on permanent 20% discount, either via its home page, or via Bits du Jour WinCatalog deal.

115

General Software Discussion / Cyren ends F-PROT Endpoint Antivirus for home users

« Last post by rjbull on August 12, 2020, 03:33 PM »

e-mail received today, 2020-08-12:

Dear Valued Customer,
This note is to inform you of the upcoming End-of-Sale (EOS) and End-of-Life (EOL) dates for the F-PROT Endpoint Antivirus products.
F-PROT endpoint has had a long and successful history, and we thank you for your support as a Cyren customer. There are many other options in the market for endpoint AV, and Cyren has decided to focus on enterprise solutions. As a result, we can no longer support the F-PROT Endpoint product line.
The following dates will be in effect:
°   1-Aug-2020 - End-of-Sales Date (the product cannot be ordered from Cyren beyond that date)
°   31-July-2021 End-of-Life Date (last data when the product will be supported and signature updates provided)

We thank you for your support and commitment to Cyren and F-PROT.

Sincerely,
Cyren team

I presume 'Endpoint' is jargon for individual users.  I used F-PROT for years on DOS and then Windows.  Shame to see it go.

116

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« Last post by rjbull on August 11, 2020, 04:49 PM »

If you ever worked extensively with DOS computers, you probably used Vern Buerg's famous utility LIST.COM at some stage.  It was the premier file viewer for DOS.  If you yearn for something similar, The V File Viewer is the nearest thing I've seen to a spiritual descendant:

V is an all-purpose File Manager for Windows with a powerful inbuilt text file viewer which excels at viewing files quickly - whether they are 100 bytes or 100 gigabytes.

It is an indispensable utility for anyone who spends much time navigating directories and viewing files.

    Tabbed File Manager with Dual Pane interface
    Powerful text and hex file viewer (views large files quickly)
    Support for CSV files
    Search/GREP functionality
    EBCDIC support
    Unicode support
    Extensive Command Line support and keyboard shortcuts
    Thumbnails mode
    Greenbar mode
    2UP printing
    Support for ZIP, CAB, TAR, RAR, GZip, BZip2 and 7Zip archives
    Support for Alternate Data Streams and 4DOS descriptions
    Bioinformatics/DNA search (experimental)
    Spanish, French, Italian and Russian translations available

Can also do file tailing.

Take the "file manager" bit with a pinch of salt; it's primarily a viewer, with modest (but potentially useful) management features tacked on.  And the 'Dual Pane interface' isn't quite set in stone, it depends on how you set it up and invoke it.  It isn't free, but low cost, with an unusual license:

A single user license costs US$20
(and includes 6 years of free upgrades).

In practice, upgrades are exceedingly rare, but it's good as it is.

Screenshots:

117

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« Last post by rjbull on August 11, 2020, 04:26 PM »

For those that want a very fast grep tool with a GUI (Windows): BareGrep

-Shades (August 09, 2020, 09:54 PM)

+1 

118

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« Last post by rjbull on August 04, 2020, 03:57 PM »

the photos you combine in the double spreads work really well together. (That's a real talent in itself.)

-tomos (August 04, 2020, 01:46 PM)

I got candidate images printed out as the smallest, cheapest prints that PhotoBox offered, layed them out on the floor, and played endless games of Snap to find matching pairs (as far as possible, some don't).  It's more natural than you might expect.  In the explanatory section under the book I wrote "This plays into the "inscape" idea of my photography mentor, Philip Evans of North Wales, that people have sets of lines, blocks and points in their minds, and when out in the world, only press the button when what's in front of them happens to match one of their innate patterns."  In other words, people are apt to repeat compositions in terms at least of shapes, even when the subjects and scales are different.  In a somewhat similar idea, Karen, the lady who ran the classes when most were made, "likes the idea of photos "talking to each other," i.e., the whole being more than the sum of the parts."

Was listening to a photographer a while back talking about selecting prints -- for sale or maybe for a calendar. They would print them and hang them on the wall for a week and see how they felt about them after that time.

-tomos (August 04, 2020, 01:46 PM)

That's a good idea; similarly, I find it best to leave something I've written for a week or so before I can hope to proofread it properly.  I wouldn't have printed all those out full size, though, too expensive! 

Re the number of photos -- it's a lot of photos! I think any photographer would struggle to get that many together.

-tomos (August 04, 2020, 01:46 PM)

I've got more now    in case there's a revised edition, or, heaven help me, a second volume     ( definitely not imminent!)  Five of the photos were made earlier, but the great majority were gathered over almost a whole year.

If I may be critical I like the black and white photos but not sure they fit in with the rest of the images.

-tomos (August 04, 2020, 01:46 PM)

I think so too.  I also wrote in the blurb "I am not an instinctive monochrome photographer, and think that sits a little uneasily amid the rest."  I put the mono ones in because Karen likes black & white (her degree had an element of art photography) and was very determined that we should all have a go.

Thanks for your kind comments 

119

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« Last post by rjbull on August 03, 2020, 03:59 PM »

Lovely!
Great to see some of your photos. And the presentation works very well

-tomos (August 02, 2020, 04:33 PM)

Thank you I released the book to the CEWE Photoworld Community.  It didn't win their 'book of the month' prize, but got an honourable mention: better than a slap in the face with a wet fish, anyway.  They don't seem to require you to be a logged-in member, so you may be able to see it complete here.

I put too many photos in... some are better than others No sooner than I saw them in print, I noticed things in some photos that I hadn't seen on screen, and not improvements.  Conversely, at least one photo looks better on screen than in print.

120

Living Room / Re: Share your photos! Travel shots, photoblogs, etc.

« Last post by rjbull on August 02, 2020, 04:11 PM »

I recently had a photo book made by CEWE-Photoworld, with photos of my local area.  There's next to no text, bar acknowledgements, as I wanted something more like the look of mounted prints in a gallery.  Here are four screenshots from the CEWE software's WYSIWYG view.

121

General Software Discussion / Re: How to automate Windows with a fast & easy (minimal programming) solution?

« Last post by rjbull on July 27, 2020, 05:24 PM »

suggest a minimal programming Windows automation solution

-m9833 (July 22, 2020, 04:17 PM)

"minimal programming" might never be as minimal as you'd like    The closest you can get might be something like Macro Express, a well-featured, long-established program.

Cheaper but less featured; Axife Mouse Recorder (apparently written in AutoIT).

Even cheaper, plus a free version; Mini Mouse Macro.

122

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommended replacement for Push The Friggin Button (PTFB)?

« Last post by rjbull on July 02, 2020, 05:00 PM »

I was curious how PTFB compares to other options.

-sphere (July 02, 2020, 08:36 AM)

If you check Alternatives to PTFB Pro Software Automation Tool, it doesn't look there are any direct replacements.  Most of that list are either for software testing or general macro programs.

A quick look at my Automation tools archive turned up WinSendKeys by DC member Ath.  Don't know of that would work.  Warning - Ath's site is yet another one marked as "possible Trojan" by trigger-happy MBAM.

123

General Software Discussion / Re: notepad calculator?

« Last post by rjbull on July 02, 2020, 04:43 PM »

FWIW, I don't have the Windows version of CalcTape, but think well of the Android version.

124

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Chiral motion.

« Last post by rjbull on June 28, 2020, 04:02 PM »

Have you considered trying a Trackball^w?

125

General Software Discussion / Re: A classic menu software like Direct Access for Dos but for Windows 10

« Last post by rjbull on June 27, 2020, 04:55 PM »

I just wish there is a sort of classic menu system for me to launch my favorite programs. [...] there is just nothing that looks like the Direct Access for me.

-tofulover (June 20, 2020, 08:56 AM)

Everything is different in Windows    You might take a look at Qsel

Qsel is a "launcher" for frequently used programs, documents and web links.

    Create any number of categories with individual launcher window settings
    Easy configuration of launcher windows using drag&drop
    Switch categories: click on category title opens popup menu; back to previous (stacked)
    Access to options and configuration through context menu (right mouse click)
    SystemTray mode with tray menu for quick access to all windows and functions
    Auto-hide mode in docking position at desktop edge (right mouse click to bring window back)
    Windows optionally without title bar (see image)
    Optional at Qsel startup: auto launching items from special "startup" category
    Special launcher items: pop-up file lists to pick from
    Automatic drive letter handling on USB Flash Drives
    Unicode support

It's very different, yet might be a fairly close work-alike.