Recent Posts

1026

Living Room / Re: Arizona sunsets

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2017, 09:04 PM »

^^ Well, it would be a kinda "light effect". We naturally "see" things by their reflected light (except when looking at unnatural light-emitting sources, such as a video display, for example). The light from the low (rising) sun in this case is being bounced around haphazardly by reflection/refraction via the zillions of small drops of water (mist) which have condensed in the cold/dense early morning atmosphere. Some of that bounced light comes towards the viewer as just white light, partially obscuring the reflected light from the objects (mountains) behind the mist, like a natural veil. The effect dissipates as the air and moisture is warmed up by the sun, and the moisture evaporates.

At those times, depending on air temperature, there are different layers or thicknesses of such haze "veils" through which the reflected light from the mountains has to travel to get to your eye and the camera lens. The effect on the view of the mountains in your shots is quite beautiful, with the shy mountains furthest away being more demure and obscured (with a thicker veil) than those brazen wenches nearer (with a thinner veil). The white haze is like visual "noise". I've been inside that kind of haze/mist in freezing high alpine conditions, and the visual effect can sometimes be far from beautiful. When it is very dense, one literally cannot see anything - no reference point - so which way is up/down is unknown, because it is a visual "whiteout". Extremely disorientating - and potentially highly dangerous. A fog.

Similarly, a rainbow is a light effect when the sunlight gets refracted and split into its constituent colours (a prismatic effect) by the zillions of small drops of water in the atmosphere. The result is seen as a circular rainbow - per the sun - from an aircraft flying above, and as a partial circular rainbow from the ground.

If I have the time, I could happily watch the changing light on mountains all day long (preferably accompanied by a crate of beer and some BBQ meat). From experience though, sadly the best shots are usually those ephemeral ones captured by the senses - via the eyes - and photographs unfortunately tend to run a poor second to those. Which is a good reason for putting down the camera and just watching. Try telling that to Japanese tourists though...

But I do appreciate being able to view "your" mountains, from somewhere else halfway around the world.

1027

Living Room / Re: Arizona sunsets

« Last post by IainB on May 30, 2017, 12:58 AM »

^^ That's similar to your sunrise "Shadowed Mountains" shot, earlier. I guess lots of haze (humid air) makes for that kind of effect.

1028

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Classic Shell (shell alternative for Windows 10, 8, 7) - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on May 25, 2017, 04:31 PM »

Yup, loving the "Classic with two columns" start menu replacement for Win7. 
__________________________

-dr_andus (May 25, 2017, 10:57 AM)

Yes. Once trialled, rarely uninstalled, I suspect. Of the three components of Classic Shell, the older-styles of Classic Start Menu are arguably the most impressive and useful, but the other two components - the older-style Windows Explorer GUI and IE GUI - will probably have their adherents too.

1029

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 24, 2017, 09:05 PM »

... Then there was that damn nifty system calendar in 10 that - got moved from where it had been for years... - I never could figure out how to launch back when. How the hell White Tiger found the damn thing I'm not sure...but he did shortly after taking over the project.
______________________________

-Stoic Joker (May 24, 2017, 06:27 AM)

I posted a reply to this in the general thread at: Re: Welcome to the new T-Clock forum section
(It seemed rather off-topic.)

1030

T-Clock / Re: Welcome to the new T-Clock forum section

« Last post by IainB on May 24, 2017, 09:00 PM »

... So the old Display Settings may very well just be gone...
____________________

-Stoic Joker (May 23, 2017, 11:24 AM)

Oh, good point. If they have been progressively decommissioning the old Control Panel, then you might well be proven right. Ha-ha and there I was gullibly presuming that they would probably fix it...   

-IainB (May 23, 2017, 06:12 PM)

And actually - come to think of it... - as precedents go, there's already a workaround in T-Clocks I had to do years ago when the sound control target changed (IIRC) somewhere in the Vista era. So this will probably just be one of those: if(not X) do Y;

Then there was that damn nifty system calendar in 10 that - got moved from where it had been for years... - I never could figure out how to launch back when. How the hell White Tiger found the damn thing I'm not sure...but he did shortly after taking over the project.
___________________________

-Stoic Joker (May 24, 2017, 06:27 AM)

I rather like the latest T-Clock calendar settings. I got this set up:



- which is ergonomically (for my purposes) almost as good as I had set up with Beta-Clock:   

1031

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Classic Shell (shell alternative for Windows 10, 8, 7) - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on May 24, 2017, 08:41 PM »

UPDATE 2017-05-25 1341hrs: Minor updates to the OP, including the latest version currently being v4.3.0.

1032

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Classic Shell (shell alternative for Windows 10, 8, 7) - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on May 24, 2017, 08:29 PM »

Cross-posted from: Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

@anandcoral:
Thanks for the response. Very interesting (to me).
If, as you write,

...It is the interface which has some learning curve. You may have to give your user some time to guide them "how to find in Win10 which was in WinXp/7" This is the biggest problem/change of this upgrade. And more is coming ... as we finding after each OS update.
________________________

- then I would strongly suggest consideration be given to installing Classic Start Menu - refer Classic Shell (shell alternative for Windows 10, 8, 7) - Mini-Review
Classic Start Menu also provides an alternative XP, or Vista, or Win7 interface (take your pick). This could be useful for you with your users' needs (as you have described them).

In any event, this worked very well for me and my 2 favourite guinea-pigs (my now 15½ y/o daughter and 6 y/o son). They never noticed the migration from Vista-->Win7-->Win8/8.1-->Win10.

Ergonomically, Classic Start Menu seems to provide a far better GUI anyway (compared to the arguably ergonomically atrocious Metro GUI) and performance/stability seem to be unimpaired and the overhead seems to be minimal.

By providing a consistent and ergonomically sound interface as one migrates across OS upgrades, the process will be relatively transparent - i.e., hardly noticeable by users - and thus they will have little difficulty (minimal learning curve) after the upgrade. It's quite impressive to see this happening with users of the Classic Start Menu.

A lot of my perspective on GUIs comes from experience including, for example, managing the implementation of corporate-wide systems upgrades, where the greatest challenge was often trying to get a large population of users (e.g., knowledge workers in offices, or bank tellers in bank branches) up and running productively as quickly as possible - i.e., with minimum downtime/re-learning. Consistency with the old GUI and ergonomic efficiency were always a priority at the outset, during the system requirements analysis stage.
Good ergonomics may be a very real requirement, especially in military and office-based systems and where the ergonomics have already been been finely crafted to meet fairly stringent requirements in the first place.

My experience is that consistency and good ergonomics in the GUI generally tends to be universally beneficial and improves user-acceptance and take-up of the new system, whether it be in cases as above (the military, or banks) or (say) the family unit, or educational programmed-learning environments.

-IainB (May 24, 2017, 07:58 PM)

1033

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 24, 2017, 07:58 PM »

@anandcoral:
Thanks for the response. Very interesting (to me).
If, as you write,

...It is the interface which has some learning curve. You may have to give your user some time to guide them "how to find in Win10 which was in WinXp/7" This is the biggest problem/change of this upgrade. And more is coming ... as we finding after each OS update.
________________________

- then I would strongly suggest consideration be given to installing Classic Start Menu - refer Classic Shell (shell alternative for Windows 10, 8, 7) - Mini-Review
Classic Start Menu also provides an alternative XP, or Vista, or Win7 interface (take your pick). This could be useful for you with your users' needs (as you have described them).

In any event, this worked very well for me and my 2 favourite guinea-pigs (my now 15½ y/o daughter and 6 y/o son). They never noticed the migration from Vista-->Win7-->Win8/8.1-->Win10.

Ergonomically, Classic Start Menu seems to provide a far better GUI anyway (compared to the arguably ergonomically atrocious Metro GUI) and performance/stability seem to be unimpaired and the overhead seems to be minimal.

By providing a consistent and ergonomically sound interface as one migrates across OS upgrades, the process will be relatively transparent - i.e., hardly noticeable by users - and thus they will have little difficulty (minimal learning curve) after the upgrade. It's quite impressive to see this happening with users of the Classic Start Menu.

A lot of my perspective on GUIs comes from experience including, for example, managing the implementation of corporate-wide systems upgrades, where the greatest challenge was often trying to get a large population of users (e.g., knowledge workers in offices, or bank tellers in bank branches) up and running productively as quickly as possible - i.e., with minimum downtime/re-learning. Consistency with the old GUI and ergonomic efficiency were always a priority at the outset, during the system requirements analysis stage.
Good ergonomics may be a very real requirement, especially in military and office-based systems and where the ergonomics have already been been finely crafted to meet fairly stringent requirements in the first place.

My experience is that consistency and good ergonomics in the GUI generally tends to be universally beneficial and improves user-acceptance and take-up of the new system, whether it be in cases as above (the military, or banks) or (say) the family unit, or educational programmed-learning environments.

1034

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 23, 2017, 06:12 PM »

... So the old Display Settings may very well just be gone...
____________________

-Stoic Joker (May 23, 2017, 11:24 AM)

Oh, good point. If they have been progressively decommissioning the old Control Panel, then you might well be proven right. Ha-ha and there I was gullibly presuming that they would probably fix it...   

1035

Screenshot Captor / Re: What is Screenshot Captor doing to my Windows?!

« Last post by IainB on May 23, 2017, 11:46 AM »

Does anyone know anything about this weird phenomena?
________________________

-mouser (May 22, 2017, 02:22 PM)

In response, I can tell you what I found out.
I have wondered about this sort of thing - repeated/duplicated "Banner, Sounds" icons in the list of Notifications & actions settings in Win10.

However:

• (a)  I don't see this sort of thing happening with SC. In fact, SC doesn't occur in the list at all, even though it does appear in the Systray when it is running - which seems a bit strange, but I presume that might be correct, because I have it as a "portable" app.
  
  
• (b) I do see this sort of thing happening with a few other apps that have a Systray presence. I had assumed it to be duplicated hooks in the Registry, or something. ABBY Screenshot Reader seems to be the worst offender with 30 so far, some of which I turned off as an experiment, but it seems to make no difference.
  Interestingly, of those 30 ABBY icons, 27 are an identical type of icon, and 3 are another.
  __________________________________
  

Using CCleaner to clean up the Registry seems to make no difference either.

Win7:
The Systray notifications was buggy and harmless, and ergonomically annoying, in Win7, as some notifications that one needed would sometimes disappear from the Systray for no apparent reason. The workaround was to get them restored by restarting WE (Windows Explorer).

Win8/8/1:
Don't recall noticing any problems in this regard in Win8/8.1, but then I was in the habit of periodically restarting WE as a matter of course anyway, as WE often seemed to be at least part of the cause of some other problems.

Win10 and subsequent versions of that:
In Win10, the Systray icons seem to be buggy and harmless also, but in a different way (as described above) and which is not (so far) ergonomically annoying. So I tend to ignore it. I guess it's just cluttering-up the Registry.
Restarting WE seems to have no effect on this either, though it can still help to clear some other problems.

1036

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 23, 2017, 11:02 AM »

I don't think it's a bug, and I don't think this is a case of just wait until Microsoft fixes it. ...
________________________

-bobofeta (May 22, 2017, 12:25 PM)

Ah, well, if you think that, then maybe I could be accused of being a tad optimistic in supposing what I did there.

/Rant ON
Maybe, for whatever reason, MS won't, in the end, take responsibility for fixing whatever they seem to have broken, and which apparently only they could fix, so then it would be left to the app developer(s) to adapt the apps affected, so that they point to the new address (or whatever it is).
Then again, maybe MS will fix it, given time. Fortunately, in terms of priority, at least the wheels don't seem likely to fall off anything critical because of it, meanwhile.
I suppose the question is: In this Richmond variant of "Waiting for Godot", how long does one actually wait?

And then, the possibility is that the app developer(s) will adapt the app(s) to be in sync with the new address (or whatever it is) and then, having done so, MS belatedly actually fix it like they should have done in the first place, which then could leave those apps already thus adapted to be out of sync again. Such fun. Stranger things have happened at sea.
Some people (not me, you understand) might say that it could thus seem more prudent to take a "Wait-and-see" approach in such cases. They might add that they admit the allure of getting on with and enjoying one's life, rather than spending one's cognitive surplus hovering over a partially crippled Windows OS with a spanner and screwdriver in hand, trying to fix up someone else's obscure mistakes. However, I couldn't possibly comment.

This is all kinda academic in my case anyway, as I am not generally predisposed towards being a "Creators Update" or "pre-release" or whatever-kind-of-ß-tester of new versions of the OS, because being the usual kind of enforced in-production-ß-tester is more than sufficient joy for me.
/Rant OFF

1037

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 22, 2017, 06:05 AM »

IainB, it doesn't look like you're running the Windows 10 Creators Update. It was just rolled out recently. If Windows Update says "you're up to date", there should be a message underneath that text explaining how to download the Creators Update from Microsoft.
_____________________

-bobofeta (May 21, 2017, 02:39 PM)

Yes, thanks for the helpful tip, @bobofeta. I was aware that I was not running the Windows 10 Creators Update version (I'm in no hurry to install it either). It was that fact that made me say "That's odd" and why I copied my Windows version details. I wondered whether the error was an error in T-Clock, or (more likely) the result of changes in the Win10 Pro 64-bit Creators Update version
It rather begins to seem that it might be the latter.

If it is, and if it is indeed a case of broken backwards compatibility, or something like that, then Microsoft may well patch it in while - it's a non-critical error (I would suppose), so not urgent to fix.
MS are usually pretty good at maintaining backwards compatibility.

1038

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 22, 2017, 05:43 AM »

@anandcoral: Sorry for the off-topic request, but could you please provide the hardware spec that you have running the Win10 32-bit OS?
And could you summarise your view of its overall performance when using that OS, please? Do you have a basis for comparison? - i.e., did you previously have Win7 32-bit, or something, on that hardware?
I'm just interested in your experience with that, as I am considering putting Win10 32-bit on a 32-bit laptop for someone, but am unsure whether it's advisable - i.e, whether maybe it'd be better to stick with the existing Win7 32-bit installation.

Thanks in advance for any input.

1039

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 22, 2017, 05:30 AM »

So it seems MS (Creators Update) problem.
MS hasn't advised me to get Creators Update, and no error in 32 bit Win 10, same result as IainB.
...
_________________________

-anandcoral (May 22, 2017, 03:46 AM)

Yes, I wondered about that maybe being an error peculiar to the Creators Update Windows version, or maybe it's an error caused by the update.
From the looks of the error panel, I thought that T-Clock might be correctly linking to the correct folder address (the special folder/pane number/address) for the Control Panel\Appearance and Personalisation\Display pane, but that that address may no longer be the correct address for that folder/pane anymore.

The address may have been changed to something different by the Creators Update (i.e., it may have been changed to something else just in that version).
Thus, T-Clock is faithfully linking to what was previously the "correct" address, but it's no longer the correct address, post-Creators Update. Broken backwards compatibility.

Just a guess, as I have no idea how T-Clock is getting/using the address for that system pane.

1040

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 Display Properties throws error

« Last post by IainB on May 21, 2017, 02:35 PM »

That's odd.
I just happened to download/install T-Clock 2.4.3 build 471 for a trial today.
It seems to work fine. (The calendar is very nice - I can set it almost perfect for my needs.)

I can't reproduce that error you are reporting. If I right-click on the clock in the systray and select Display Properties, it brings up the relevant properties page window: Control Panel\Appearance and Personalisation\Display
(and no error message)

OS is Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Build 14393.rs1_release_sec.170427-1353

1041

General Software Discussion / Re: Black Hole Organizer updated to v.4.00

« Last post by IainB on May 20, 2017, 10:33 PM »

I think BHO was one of the first reasonably well-known organizers, and is still one of the few three-pane ones.  But the field has moved on, and I'm not disposed to upgrade
_______________________

-rjbull (January 18, 2017, 03:33 PM)

Yes, and that's largely why BHO falls into my category of PIM Also-rans.
The omens don't seem to look so good for it to be catching up with the field after all that time spent languishing in the backwaters with apparently little or no development in the meantime.

1042

Living Room / Re: [Breaking News] Cyber Attack cripples UK NHS.

« Last post by IainB on May 15, 2017, 06:03 AM »

...If I was a non-US large organisation such as the NHS, I would think twice about continuing to invest into MS products and would start very quickly to consider alternatives (such as the French police that went with Linux). There are also national security issues for a non-US country to have such a total reliance on the product of a single US corporation:
Europe's reliance on Microsoft has governments under a worrying digital 'killswitch'
____________________________

-dr_andus (May 14, 2017, 06:37 AM)

That's evidently a valid point - or at least, the French police would have presumably thought so, anyway. How did that Linux thing work out for the French police, by the way? Was that project completed on time and budget, having delivered to its objectives, or was it sabotaged from within and turned into an expensive trainwreck? (I have no idea, but it might be interesting to find out.)

Whenever I read of some strategic IT project that breaks "new" territory - a potential trainwreck - it reminds me of a New Zealand project that did notoriously become an expensive trainwreck. It was the NZ police INCIS project in New Zealand, in the early '90s. I saw it happen, and it was like watching a trainwreck in slow-motion, and one knew that it was wrecking and that the taxpayers were going to have to foot the bill (cost overruns).

What happened was that the NZ Police put out a tender for project INCIS (Integrated National Crime Information System) as their IT platform to deliver IT services for the '90's and beyond.
A lot of their existing technology at the time was delivering services to online terminals from IBM and/or Univac mainframes hosted in a high-security data centre in Wanganui (New Zealand) by GCS Ltd. (Government Computing Services), which was the first of the SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises) to be privatised by the NZ Government and put up for sale (EDS Corp. eventually bought GCS Ltd.).

There were 2 major competitors for the INCIS tender - IBM and Microsoft. GCS also could have easily done the business, but, as the incumbent supplier, their bid was largely unwanted/rejected. The tender was won by IBM, whose response to the tender (as I vaguely recall) had proposed the general approach of a fairly conventional distributed 3-tier client-server architecture based on IBM OS/2 (Surprise!), with maybe some IBM mainframes/minis acting as central or distributed local servers for some services. I thought it was a pretty solid and feasible proposal, though it required detailed planning. At the time, OS/2 was recognised as being a stable OS that was technically way ahead of and out-performed the then current Windows OS in almost all benchmarks.

Then the fun began.
For some inexplicable reason, an ICIS project manager was appointed who apparently favoured Microsoft and was apparently openly critical of the IBM contract and the OS/2 technological direction and approach, or something. An antithetical schism rapidly formed within the project team(s), between the OS/2 camp and the Windows camp, and it was all downhill from thereon, and the project eventually (inevitably) failed.

A LOT of obvious conventional risks and lessons were re-learned from that project failure (see the links below). One of the main ones - straight out of Project Management 101 Risk Management - is the risk of staffing-up with inexperienced resources. The PSC (Project Steering Committee) needs to monitor and avoid the risk of staffing the project with human resources (people) who are not experienced in/with, or capable with, or who may be hostile to, the IT technology they will be required to use to implement the project according to the project technology implementation plan.

I have personally been put in a similar position, where I was assigned to recover a failed strategic $multi-million project which had run foul of exactly that risk - the risk of staffing-up with inexperienced resources - some of whom were openly hostile to the technology they were required to implement. The technology was not what was "conventionally acceptable" to the bulk of the IT project personnel assigned to the project.
I knew nothing about the technology, but I agreed to undertake the role, but only on condition that I was allowed to cast a new budget and plan, and that I was fully authorised to replace those personnel in the project team of 10 people whom I felt it was necessary to replace. I replaced 8 of them within about two weeks, and the project ran smoothly and was recovered on-time and on-budget, exceeding its delivery objectives - all enabled because I had a superb project team that knew what it was doing and pulled together collaboratively all the way.

The rule is: If you are going to undertake an important and potentially costly strategic IT project, using a new or potentially controversial technology, then prepare for war. Provide the project with all the resources necessary to support it and to enable it to deliver and survive and protect itself for the duration of the project, in what will probably inevitably be an almost palpably hostile political environment - an environment that may ensue, where landmines, grenades, torpedoes, homing missiles, flack and nay-saying could well be the order of the day for months on end. And stick to a regularly-reviewed plan.

For all the above reasons, and though I could be wrong, of course, I would suggest that the UK NHS IT opportunities could very much belong to the Microsoft monopoly already and that it could thus cost potentially too much in terms of $money and political aggro to pull away and be put on a war footing by going down the Linux (or other) technology path, no matter how good that technology path may be.

Refer:

• Insights into Incis debacle
• INCIS - Wikipedia
• INCIS: NZ Police

1043

General Software Discussion / Re: On software pricing

« Last post by IainB on May 15, 2017, 12:14 AM »

...Fact is, the more sophisticated software is - and all those file managers, DO, XY..., xplorer2 are -, the lesser the chances for a competing product to replace software a user is quite accustomed to already, for the additional reason of their time / learning / knowledge / know-how investment then being invalidated. ...
____________________________

-ital2 (May 10, 2017, 01:09 PM)

Yes, I reckon that is generally likely to be true - and is specifically so in my case (being a longtime user of xplorer²). I reckon that, in xplorer², I have what is the "best" (as in "meets approx. 80% or more of all my peculiar requirements for a file manager") from what is a relatively wide selection of arguably very good alternative file managers. I have trialled all/most of these main alternatives too, out of interest and for comparison. As a software "agnostic", I can quite see why other users could have different peculiar requirements for a file manager that might (say) be better satisfied by some other file manager product(s) than xplorer², though I am almost daily reminded how brilliantly useful xplorer² is for my purposes.

Preference/choice for software can be a complex matter. There are so many criteria - and they are not necessarily always properly understood or articulated by the user - that one might consciously and/or unconsciously apply to selection of a piece of software. Some of those requirements one only newly-discovers on using/trialling a product, but once discovered, they become "yours". For example, that is what happened a lot to me whilst I was trialling MS OneNote.

I learned some time ago that it could be amazingly useful to help users identify and prioritise their requirements for product functionality (not product "features"), by means of conducting a methodical analysis. I apply this approach to my own requirements also.
For example, I drew this up a while back for a clipboard manager - another brilliantly useful piece of software called Clipboard Help & Spell (CHS):  User Requirements for CHS

I'm not really all that interested in clipboard managers for their own sake, but in how they can help me as a tool in a set of tools to better meet my evolving functional requirements for information/knowledge management. You will be able to see my approach to this detailed here: Microsoft OneNote - how to make it your 21st century Zettelkasten PIM.

1044

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion of ignore feature

« Last post by IainB on May 14, 2017, 10:24 PM »

Weeell, having only just now read it, I'd not be in such a hurry as to discount the value of that OP (Opening Post) by @ital2 as the comments that follow it would seem to do.
I say this because:

• (a) Starting from the basis of 3 specific references to threads elsewhere in the DC forum, the OP makes some valid and pertinent points and arguments about some perceived deficiencies of software trial periods. Those trials would thus arguably seem to have been ill-conceived trials. I could understand this approach only too well, as the sorts of deficiencies described have often been perceived by me as being just that (i.e., "deficiencies", and mostly annoying) - this is from the experience of some years of developing, selling, Beta-testing and trialling software of various types, including CRIMPing(*1).
  
  
• (b) The post then makes some valid and constructive suggestions, with some new ideas, about how those trials could be better-conceived and targeted for optimum user take-up, increased user/vendor benefit and improved overall marketing of the software products.
  ________________________________
  

Thus, given that the title of the OP is "How NOT to Conceive Trials (and some new ideas about them).", the post itself would seem to be pretty much exactly on-point.

It takes some effort on the reader's part to read and digest (or maybe even internalise?) some written material where the writer is attempting to communicate several different, but interrelated/interwoven threads in a complex argument. Whilst one's mind might be able to grasp such a thing "in the round" - maybe even seeing it as "simple" - attempting to articulate it as a cohesive whole in such a manner as that others might then be able to comprehend it is not necessarily always going to be an easy thing to do - and I would suggest that that could be the case with the OP above. The classic model for communications theory - if not the initial responses (above) to the OP - would seem to confirm this.

Unless the OP was written by a clever AI program, it would seem to be a tad discourteous not to make the effort to at least try to understand and recognise the sense of what the writer of the OP was trying to say to us. Having made the effort, I consider that the OP seems to be spot-on with its subject and I think the ideas suggested are new (to me at any rate). (I say this without wishing to comment on the style or use of English in the OP.)

The conclusion/summary is sufficiently concise about that (the ideas):

So, it's about giving the user the chance to really (!), effectively trial your application, and even when they missed that the first turn around for personal reasons, there should be second chances (and those users should know about them*), and if you do a free version, there should be repeated chances to get another, quick, but complete look, another 10 days with limitations, or another 5 days without any limitations (but then only once a years, not for minor updates).

-ital2 (May 12, 2017, 03:23 AM)

In addition, I find the reference points and the expansion of points following the conclusion to be rather interesting and worth discussing. Generally, anything that could be done to improve the usefulness, value and marketability of software trials would probably be welcome.

I wouldn't necessarily say that it was all an overly easy read, but I hope that I was at least up to the challenge of trying to read and understand it and I also got some value from it - in the shape of some new/innovative (to me) ideas and some alternative ways to articulate/perceive some of the relatively familiar (to me) deficiencies in software trialling.

References:
______________________________
(*1) CRIMPing:

OneNote note: 2014-01-25 1625hrs: Definition of CRIMP (Compulsive-Reactive Information Management Purchasing):
CRIMP, crimp
CRIMP defined
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
May 10, 2006 at 01:05 PM
         
CRIMP stands for a make-believe malady called compulsive-reactive information management purchasing. Symptoms include:
 • never being satisfied with your current system of information management
 • continuously being on the look-out for something newer and better
 • purchasing every new PIM program you learn about
 • and secretly hoping you won’t find the perfect PIM, because then you’d have to stop looking for a better one

So, when someone speaks of succumbing to his or her CRIMP, it means acknowledging that they’ve purchased another PIM program even though they really don’t think they need it.
There must be a 12-step program for over-coming CRIMP, but who really wants to? It’s too much fun.
  Steve Z.

 From <http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/17/0/crimp-defined>
________________________________         

1045

General Software Discussion / Re: DRM Management - TrackErr v1.0.1.1 works fine on Windows 10.

« Last post by IainB on May 13, 2017, 02:13 PM »

2017-05-14 0659hrs: Just thought I'd report from a brief test that for TrackErr v1.0.1.1:

• (a) TrackErr seems to work fine on Windows 10 (http://skwire.dcmemb...om/fp/?page=trackerr says it is not tested on Windows 10).
• (b) DCUpdater shows installed version of TrackErr as being v1.0.1.1 (which is apparently correct), but the version on the Web as being v1.0.0.1. Not sure why the web version is older.

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DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.32.01 - May 9, 2017

« Last post by IainB on May 10, 2017, 07:44 PM »

@mouser:
Please, don't put too much effort into it on my account, as it is a minor (non-fatal) issue, as I indicated above. It's probably only me that has experienced this minor problem, because I tend to push apps a bit more than most (which can sometimes be useful in Beta testing).

I invoke DCU directly via a button in FARR, rather than tell FARR to run an update check. That way, I get DCU to scan all apps (as per the screenshots in an earlier comment posted above) and report on the currency of all installed versions of those apps versus the latest version on the DC website.

I figured that it was, as you describe above, "...likely that it's related to the DcUpdater functionality that purposely only shows certain items if it's invoked and told to explicitly only scan a certain folder.".
I was aware that it would happen, as you say, if I did "...an update check FOR/FROM A SPECIFIC PROGRAM.".

What happened was I read the threads about DCU and SC being given new updated versions, and so I then triggered DCU via the button in FARR (1st time). This gave the report of all apps, with DCU and SC highlighted as having updates available. I then started the update for those two, and the updates installed OK.
I then triggered DCU via the button in FARR again (2nd time), and just the two apps - SCU and SC were reported on. I checked the paths in the two relevant .dcupdateredirect files to see if they had been changed (they hadn't).
I then shut down FARR, restarted it, and then triggered DCU via the button in FARR again (3rd time) and DCU provided the expected and correct full report of all apps, including the two (DCU and SC) that had just been updated.

So yes, it does seem that, as you say, "...what's happening to you is that on your second call it is maybe restricting itself to items in a specific folder.".

When I re-ran DCU (2nd time and 3rd time), I did not think to check whether DcUpdater was already running in the systray - I suspect that it must have been on the 2nd time. I would have made more careful a note of what occurred at each step, had I not been in a "workaround" frame of mind and had I been expecting to tell you about the problem. Telling you about the problem was just an afterthought - it was a belated "I should probably report this to mouser" thought. I shall try to remember to take more careful note of each step at when I run any new updates after this point.

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LaunchBar Commander / Re: Open LBC - Tree Nodes Collapsed - Not Expanded

« Last post by IainB on May 10, 2017, 04:09 PM »

@slc7:
Yes, it can be tedious finding those settings. They seem to have been buried away, as though to deter people from finding them in the first place. I don't understand it.

The long way to getting there is:

• Go to the The Windows 10 settings "PC Settings"-->"System"-->"Display"
• Once you ar in the Display section, the first title is "Customize your display".
• Scroll down to the bottom of that section and click on "Advanced display settings", which will take you to a new section with that title.
• Scroll down to the bottom and click on "Advanced sizing of text and other items" and that takes you to the page I have a jagged-edge screen clipping of, in the above notes.

That page is a Control Panel sub-menu and can be more quickly got to via the Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display.

For anyone who has deteriorated eyesight and needs specs for reading a computer/laptop display, those settings could be a real boon. I've certainly found that to be true in my case, anyway.

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DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.32.01 - May 9, 2017

« Last post by IainB on May 10, 2017, 12:53 AM »

@mouser: I've manually worked around this minor problem for ages, but running DCU (DCUpdater) on itself today, reminded me to ask you: Is there any way that the user can force DCU to always adhere to using the app folder path that is set in the .dcupdateredirect file for each of the apps?
DCU seems to somehow temporarily get its knickers in a twist when it runs and updates itself or another app, and I have not so far been able to figure out what is going on.
After doing an update, DCU seems to "see" only the apps that have been updated, and does not seem to "see" the other apps. - I think it expects to see them in the default program files folder, but doesn't find them there, and yet it can "see" those that it has just updated.
Otherwise, it runs very smoothly as per my post above.

I have FARR installed in a path C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\ and I have all my other DC apps (including DCUpdater) that I am using on a regular basis, or trialling, in subfolders in a path C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\
I put that path and the app folder into the .dcupdateredirect file for each of the apps - e.g. in the DCUpdater app folder, the path in the .dcupdateredirect file is:
   C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\DcUpdater
 - and so on for each of the other apps.

That's how I get the very useful output (app listing) from DCUpdater that I posted about, above, and is how I keep track of any updates to the DC apps that I am using.
When I ran DCUpdater (from a button in the FARR app) today, it detected and updated the two apps that had been just updated by you - DCU and SC (DCUpdater and ScreenshotCaptor) - but when I re-ran it (again from the FARR button) it could only "see" (list) those two updated apps.
Restarting FARR seems to fix the confusion, and after running DCU from the button I have for it in FARR, DCU worked fine again.

It may be that (say), somewhere in the update app process, the default path (programs folder) is being temporarily set in a variable somewhere, and somehow overrides the path(s) set in the .dcupdateredirect file(s) or causes those files not to be opened. Thus, restarting FARR and DCU seems to clear everything and fixes it.

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LaunchBar Commander / Re: Open LBC - Tree Nodes Collapsed - Not Expanded

« Last post by IainB on May 09, 2017, 05:09 PM »

I will add an option to customize the menu font size.
____________________________

-mouser (May 09, 2017, 07:25 AM)

You might not need to do that for Windows 10 users, as the user can set text (menu and other) font sizes system-wide.
For example, look what I got with these settings (Note as at 2017-03-29):



 - so that when LBC pops up a menu one can get something like this:
(The user needs to experiment to get what best suites their peculiar visual/perceptual needs.)

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UrlSnooper / Re: Help with a link

« Last post by IainB on May 03, 2017, 05:55 AM »

^^ Oh yes. Interesting. That seems to be the same stream file thing via what looks like a different route.

Quite nice music on that station. My 6 y/o son likes it too.