Recent Posts

1101

Living Room / Re: For the Facebook Haters ;)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 13, 2012, 09:21 AM »

Which just goes to prove all the best poets are scousers - it is even funnier because he put it on YouTube

1102

General Software Discussion / Re: Any way to embed a search box on the desktop?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2012, 06:09 AM »

Anyone know how to use FARR to search file property data as well as file names?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Any way to embed a search box on the desktop?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 10, 2012, 03:15 AM »

I tried FARR (used to have it installed but for some reason hadn't used it for ages) and that works fine for finding artists and song titles and is pretty damn minimal (even portable if you want).

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General Software Discussion / Re: Any way to embed a search box on the desktop?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2012, 07:14 PM »

I'm sure with a little tweaking FARR could do what you want.

Everything is a blisteringly fast search tool (but only on file names not contents) provided you are using NTFS. You can minimise to the tray and it opens with a single click or you can define a keyboard shortcut. You can limit it to any folder you like (but as far as I know you would have to specify the path in the search box).

A free tool that will do what you want is Windows Search - let it show its taskbar search box and drag it anywhere you like on the screen. It won't launch music but you can search contents. You can also configure the indexing to only index folders you want to search.

Never used it myself but I bet Google Desktop would do the job too.

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Living Room / Re: Three little words

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2012, 11:21 AM »

Buggered if I know (and I can't count)

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Living Room / Re: "Save the internet"

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2012, 04:12 AM »

Nice idea about the worldwide boycott - but can you ever imagining it happen on anything but a token level.

What you forget is that the biggest western disease is the loss of any kind of personal interaction that isn't media based. Sad as it sounds the majority of people are either watching TV or movies or listening to music most of the time and if they aren't they are talking about it. To make this really effective you would also have to stop people going to concerts (which only really exist to increase music sales), going to clubs or any venue where copyrighted music is played in public ... hell you couldn't go to the supermarket! What about sports events - sports have just as draconian attitudes to 'rights' management.

Three days would bring on massive withdrawal symptoms for most people - three months would be like a heroin addict going cold turkey.

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Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 09, 2012, 02:50 AM »

My personal feeling is that libraries are a public service that is paid for by and largely wanted by the public - even those who don't use it that often see the usefulness and need for a public library system.

Consolidating library services in a single or a couple of locations is a bit like the consolidation of medical services that means you have all the services concentrated in one location where the majority don't have realistic access. Currently I have to drive 25 miles to my nearest hospital - but if local health managers get their way that hospital will close and health care will be consolidated in a town involving over 100 miles round trip - doesn't do much for the chances of heart attack victims in my area - plus we only have on ambulance in the vicinity and it will likely take the whole day to deal with one incident leaving the largest medical practice area in the country uncovered!

I don't think there is a national coordinated approach to closing libraries but there is a demand from central governments to reduce the cost of local government. My local district council are currently battling to reduce their budget by 33% because of pressure from national government, and the national park I live in has had its budget cut by over 25%.

Unfortunately the only areas of budget they can cut are the non-statutory ones and generally that seems to mean non-statutory education facilities such as libraries, museums and out of school classes, public sports facilities and care for the disabled, sick and elderly that goes beyond the minimum statutory requirement.

Libraries are simply seen as a soft target.

My argument is that if the local library is being closed without the consent of the people who paid for it, and currently there doesn't seem to be any way locals can persuade their councils to reconsider, they should at least have the right to take it over rather than allowing the whole lot to be chucked on a bonfire (which is what I suspect happens now) and the building being sold to the highest bidder.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Easy Remote access to another PC?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 08, 2012, 07:28 PM »

I was responding to the original premise of the thread - which was a remote connection over the internet.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Easy Remote access to another PC?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 08, 2012, 01:21 PM »

Using Teamviewer QuickSupport on a client computer requires only a click on a website and then click Run or double click the downloaded file. There is no set up or config required at the client end.

You can even generate a customised version of the software yourself and host it from your own website.

The only minor issue I have had with TeamViewerQS client software is if the client has a 3rd party firewall - it may ask to allow access. This is pretty rare these days though because most firewalls recognise TVQS as legitimate and apply preconfigured access rules.

1110

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 07, 2012, 07:16 AM »

Pretty much I fear, the same is happening in North Yorkshire in response to government demands for cutbacks (a pretext I am sure).

I have to say I am guilty of not using the library (mainly because it is a 16 mile round trip and the local library is very small) but it doesn't alter the fact that the market town where it is located is nowhere near any other town where there is likely to be a library and that it is used for more things than just borrowing the odd Mills and Boon!

One of the things I think should happen is that collections should be handed over (preferably with the buildings) to local community trusts. That way local authorities lose the cost and local communities retain their library. What most councils fail to recognise is that libraries are bought and paid for by local people - it is not their right to destroy these faclilities without any genuine consultation.

1111

Developer's Corner / Re: Web designer needed to convert a Joomla template to a WordPress theme

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 04, 2012, 03:34 AM »

If you want to do it yourself download the trial version of Artisteer from www.artisteer.com and create the template you want (it is very easy to use - just work through the tabs from left to right and pick the settings you fancy graphically).

The trial version is fully functional but the template you have produced will have a watermark on the page. You can grab graphics etc. from your exisiting template and include them if you want.

PM me when you have something you can use I will help you further or better still buy a license for Artisteer (much cheaper than paying someone - around $50) and generate your template yourself (it generates templates for a number of common CMS systems - and the cheaper license includes WordPress).

If you prefer I can give you a hand to get Joomla doing what you want it to do instead

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Developer's Corner / Re: Web designer needed to convert a Joomla template to a WordPress theme

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 03, 2012, 05:08 PM »

There is a very simple three click solution to your problem in Joomla - open the Article manager, click on the Paramters button (top right) and turn of article titles linkable.

-Carol Haynes (January 03, 2012, 02:39 PM)

Thank you, Carol, but article titles are linkable all over the world, as well they should be. But that doesn't solve the problem at all, because someone out there is always going to link to a specific article on your site, linkable titles or not. And when visitors arrive, they will see the article but no useful navigation to related pages. How would you like to click a link in an application review, go to the app description page and see no links to download or screenshots?

I could manually add the necessary navigation links to each and every posted article, but CMS-es were invented to relieve people of such tasks in the first place...

-tranglos (January 03, 2012, 02:53 PM)

If someone provides a link to the page it will go to the page - that will have the full navigation. It is only links to articles that go to an article specific page that are causing the problem. On your website there is absolutley no need to have the title of the article as a link because it would not provide any further information to the visitor - it just takes you to another copy of the same article.

I have never come across this as a problem with Joomla before - it may be a problem with the template.

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Developer's Corner / Re: Web designer needed to convert a Joomla template to a WordPress theme

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 03, 2012, 02:39 PM »

There is a very simple three click solution to your problem in Joomla - open the Article manager, click on the Paramters button (top right) and turn of article titles linkable.

This is an option for clicking on the titles of blog style articles when only summaries are presented and not relevant to what you want to do. By the way you can also apply this on a per article basis in the edit screen look in the Parameters (Advanced) section.

1114

Living Room / Re: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 01, 2012, 10:31 PM »

I resolve to give up resolutions - they always back fire on me!

Happy New Year everyone - lets hope 2012 brings more peace, health and happiness around the world. (Well we can at least hope)

1115

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for a hosted MS Exchange service

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 31, 2011, 04:52 AM »

If you want easy offline backup and storage try Mailstore Server - the basic package includes 5 users and it is set it up and leave it. Has great search facilities and can backup up multiple accounts. Built in backup facilities too.

Not cheap - IIRC it is around 300 euros for 5 users and you can add more as you need them.

Note it is called 'server' but it runs on any modern version of windows - main software on one computer and client software on the others.

1116

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for a hosted MS Exchange service

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 30, 2011, 08:28 PM »

Not sure it ticks all the boxes but how about

http://www.microsoft...exchange-online.aspx

1117

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: $5 for the $50 Manga Studio Debut only via facebook

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 30, 2011, 07:20 PM »

Edited:
Can also be found via https://www.facebook.com/DonationCoder

-Curt (December 30, 2011, 06:12 PM)

  Yep I added it

1118

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: $5 for the $50 Manga Studio Debut only via facebook

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 30, 2011, 06:01 PM »

Thanks Curt - I had version 3 but haven't installed it on Win 7 x64 so it was a good opportunity to get the latest version.

1119

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 28, 2011, 01:56 PM »

daddydave, yes, those orbitals (s,p,d,f) are fascinating!  I used to love that stuff, it really motivated me to learn more about chemistry and quantum physics, even though the actual work and math exercises (pain in the ass) took the fun out of it.  If I'm not mistaken, those orbital shapes were first described mathematically using the Schroedingers equations, and THEN it was observed physically.  Just amazing stuff.

-superboyac (December 28, 2011, 09:36 AM)

I love Feynman's comment (loose paraphrase):

"Students don't understand this stuff - hell I don't understand this stuff, anyone who says he does is lying or deluded. It just works - nature knows what she is doing."

If you have time on your hands (and a compelling desire to hit yourself on the head with a brick) try this series of lectures by Feynman:

http://www.vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8

Probably about 5 hours of viewing - very entertaining as well as bewildering.

1120

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 27, 2011, 05:49 PM »

Just finished reading Feynman by Ottaviani & Myrick.

See (UK): http://www.amazon.co...aviani/dp/1596432594
or (US): http://www.amazon.co...aviani/dp/1596432594

I have to say I felt disappointed when I opened the book to find it was one long cartoon strip but having read it I found it absorbing, quite brilliantly written, inspiring and witty.

Pretty sure Richard Feynman would have approved.

Impressed that they managed to get quite a lot of physics into the book.

If you are interested in science and/or Richard Feynman it is definitely worth a read.

If you aren't interested in science it is a good biography of, perhaps, one of the greatest minds of the 20th century - esp. as he simply didn't think or work like other people.

One moving anecdote that I wasn't aware of before reading this book is that of his sister's interest in science at a time when girls weren't expected to do anything other than marry,  cook and drop sprogs. Feynman was horrified by this attitude and encouraged his sister, taking her out one evening to watch the Aurora Borealis. She was captivated and having become a scientist against the odds made a study of the Aurora her life's work - such was her brother's inspiration. Many years later Feynman was asked to get involved in research into the Aurora himself but declined saying that was his sister's field and he didn't want to tread on her toes.

1121

Living Room / Re: More Complete Patent Insanity (Warning -- You may vomit)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 27, 2011, 05:43 AM »

The bigger irony is that BT don't even make/sell mobile technology any more - so they are effectively saying 'we don't use this and neither can anyone else'.

You have to laugh though - at last a British company has finally realised that there is a quick buck to be made from this scam.

Soon no one will be able to do anything as all the tech companies are locked out of their own products and the lawyers have one giant worldwide orgasm - maybe the solution to dwindling fossil fuels if someone can harness that energy. Now where is my patent application form ...

1122

Developer's Corner / Re: Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 26, 2011, 05:34 AM »

But then again, I was surprised to see that adobe is on the Apple app store, but even those are only the consumer level applications.

-wraith808 (December 25, 2011, 09:02 PM)

Not really surprising - if they want to sell anything for Apple iPods/iPads/iPhones they are froced to sell through the app store.

There is a big problem now - at one time people used to write computer programs to solve problems or purely for entertainment an they made a bit of money.

Now led by companies like Apple all of that is turned round - make money, money, money - doesn't matter whatever you sell is worth the money so long as the marketing forces people to part with money, money, money.

1123

Living Room / Re: More Hilarity - "Can I have my spy plane back?"

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 25, 2011, 07:27 PM »

The Obama administration said it has delivered a formal request to Iran for the return of a U.S. surveillance drone captured by Iranian armed forces, but is not hopeful that Iran will comply.

-Renegade (December 13, 2011, 03:53 AM)

Now lets turn this round - if Iran sent a spy plane over Washington I'm sure the US would return it without question.

Terrifying (and stupid) as the whole thing is you have to wonder if Obama is actually more intelligent than George W. Bush because everything seems to indicate "White House Out to Lunch" (nothing new there then).

Reminds me of the huge amount of hope we had in the UK when Tony Blair was originally made PM, the same seems to have happened with the new politics Obama promised.

Hope is the commodity used to win elections these days, and the first casualty of every new government!

1124

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 25, 2011, 06:28 PM »

A simple and fair library lending model would be the publishers provide the books for the standard eBook price and in the traditional way the library only gets the copies they buy - that means that is the maximum they can lend at any one time. To account for the fact that books never need to be replaced they could charge a subscription of a few cents per loan. That cost could be passed on to the borrower.

To maintain the traditional interlibrary loan system books could be lent temporarily to other libraries on a similar basis but put in a delay as there is now to add 'friction' to the system.

1125

Living Room / Re: Season's Greetings December 2011

« Last post by Carol Haynes on December 24, 2011, 11:44 PM »

Nadolig Llawen  



I was going to look up lots of languages but its easier just to say Happy Christmas one and all, and thanks for making this a great place to be each year.