Recent Posts

1451

LaunchBar Commander / Re: LATEST LaunchBar Commander VERSION INFO THREAD - v1.152.01 - Mar 15, 2017

« Last post by tomos on March 21, 2017, 07:16 AM »

perhaps it would sound better to say "We recommend that you do not perform this action."

-mouser (March 21, 2017, 06:53 AM)

FWIW: either is good -- leaving out the 'that' is more succinct imo -- when not included, it is understood.

Note: I'm not saying it is 100% grammatically correct (I dont know whether it is or not) but I work on the lines that grammar rules will eventually catch up with the language as used ;-)

1452

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« Last post by tomos on March 20, 2017, 06:20 PM »

There's a lot of videos out there about size of the universe etc

-tomos (March 07, 2017, 11:38 AM)

same general theme: 'building' a solar system:

"To Scale: The Solar System"

via Quora

1453

Living Room / Re: Arizona sunsets

« Last post by tomos on March 18, 2017, 11:58 AM »

And it is considered a point-and-shoot or travel camera.

-Arizona Hot (March 17, 2017, 08:37 PM)

but it has manual setting too doesn't it?
I cant remember the model name, but remember checking it out when you mentioned it before: looked good to me (whether using manual or auto).

Best thing to do with a new camera I think, is to go through all the settings to see what changes are possible. And if you dont understand things, look them up at some stage in the manual (which can take years if you're anything like me).

My first year with a digital camera, I had it set to auto, but with center/spot metering and focus. Sometimes auto will make a scene too light or too dark, I could compensate by focusing the camera on one area (e.g. an extra bright area) and then keeping focus (keep button half-pressed) and reframe the image to what I want. That way I could mostly make the image brighter or darker.

(apologies if telling you stuff you already know.)

1454

General Software Discussion / Re: I Think I did

« Last post by tomos on March 17, 2017, 05:15 PM »

So,
you're looking for a ToDo list type programme?
http://abstractspoon.weebly.com/

1455

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by tomos on March 17, 2017, 06:24 AM »

Microsoft is also starting to roll out delta updates, which should make updating in the future easier as well. Resulting in smaller downloads/patches if you've kept up to date.

-Deozaan (March 16, 2017, 09:38 AM)

will try to keep up-to-date from now:
that machine hadn't been updated for a few months, and took a couple of hours to download/apply the update

1456

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.19.1 Beta - Mar 11, 2017

« Last post by tomos on March 16, 2017, 05:24 AM »

Is it possible to add support for the file formats BPG and WebP? They've both been out for a good while now (though still not that popularized due to lack of software support), and the image comparison tool here shows a far superior image quality as well as file size ratio.

-Cocoa (March 16, 2017, 04:20 AM)

this off-topic, just to say that the difference there between BPG and JPG is very impressive

1457

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by tomos on March 16, 2017, 05:14 AM »

Looking for advice for a Windows 10 laptop that hasn't been used for a couple of months --
should I:

(1) let it update itself (if so, any idea how long that might take, and how I can keep an eye on it)
or
(2) download updates and install manually? (dont even know if that possible)

-tomos (February 14, 2017, 07:30 AM)

Microsoft has been pushing cumulative updates every month or so. Which should solve the problem you'd see in Windows 7 or earlier where if you do a fresh install of the OS you then have to download and install years worth of updates separately.

That said, they have also been updating the ISO for Windows 10 somewhat regularly, so it's not that hard to get a recent version made as installation media. But again, this is just for a fresh install of the OS. I don't know if it's possible to download and install updates manually. I'd do as Ath says, and either let it update itself or manually go to Windows Update and click the "Check for updates" button to kickstart the process.

-Deozaan (February 14, 2017, 11:35 AM)

well it got stroppy about it:
high cpu usage (first TiWorker.exe, then svchost); and unable to open system settings at all.
Tried logging off/on a couple of times, no joy, ended up rebooting twice -- on second reboot it came to it's senses and requested a reboot :D

Currently updating :up:

1458

General Software Discussion / Re: Re: XYplorer is not responding.

« Last post by tomos on March 15, 2017, 05:09 AM »

But maybe it's time to re-evaluate XYplorer and see what all the hubbub is about.

-Deozaan (March 13, 2017, 04:14 PM)

Nope. I still can't do XYplorer. It frequently locks up on me for several seconds at a time.

-Deozaan (March 14, 2017, 09:20 PM)

odd,
and you dont have the same problem with other file managers?

1459

Living Room / Re: Time lapse video (thread)

« Last post by tomos on March 15, 2017, 05:02 AM »

O R E G O N

i n f r a r e d

Invisible Oregon by Sam Forencich

via dpreview

1460

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

« Last post by tomos on March 14, 2017, 05:59 AM »

Optimistic Waiter

-Arizona Hot (March 13, 2017, 06:56 PM)

enjoyed that one :D

1461

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.19.1 Beta - Mar 11, 2017

« Last post by tomos on March 14, 2017, 05:36 AM »

The cursor selection highlight can be moved down the tree (cursor down) - i.e., down a group and into the next group - in the non-intuitive manner as described above, but not up. The cursor selection highlight can only be moved up within the group where it is currently residing, up to the first item in that group, whereupon it hits a ceiling, above which it cannot travel. I think this may be a mistake rather than a bug.  It seems counter-intuitive, anyway, and inconsistent.

-IainB (March 14, 2017, 02:24 AM)

was wanting to ask about that lately


@IainB
Re clicking on Headings showing first sub-item:
is initially a mini-surprise of sorts, but once that is accepted, it is an efficient way of moving on to the sub-items.
The only alternative I see would be to show a list of the sub-items in the main pane when you click on a Heading. (Which hardly seems worth it to me.)

1462

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: New program: Ethervane ActiveHotkeys (freeware)

« Last post by tomos on March 12, 2017, 02:22 PM »

sorry -- never mind...
[got mixed up with Ethervane Echo thread]

1463

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.19.1 Beta - Mar 11, 2017

« Last post by tomos on March 11, 2017, 05:47 PM »

FHD 15.6" screen; fonts @125%
...
[beta] Options text a lot bigger -- fine for me, still a little smaller than the couple of other apps I looked at.
Tooltips are a good size.

-tomos (March 09, 2017, 02:38 PM)

mine is Windows 7 x64

On first look/try, new beta is good
The only quirk I've seen, and it's tiny, is the bolded text is slightly cut off at the bottom.

1464

Living Room / Re: quick poll, please vote! (2 questions only)

« Last post by tomos on March 10, 2017, 06:34 AM »

Are you going to allow us change the future :D
(voted)

1465

Living Room / Re: Disobedience Award — MIT Media Lab

« Last post by tomos on March 10, 2017, 02:40 AM »

The link for the nomination form that will also provide the very basic ideas of the award as you view the first few pages before the actual nomination form pages:

https://www.media.mit.edu/disobedience/

-6DecadesOld (March 09, 2017, 11:15 PM)

I'll just throw in a quote from there:

We are now accepting nominations for the first-ever MIT Media Lab Disobedience Award, which carries a $250,000 cash prize, no strings attached.
This award will go to a person or group engaged in what we believe is an extraordinary example of disobedience for the benefit of society.

What does this mean? Societies and institutions lean toward order and away from chaos. While necessary for functioning, structure can also stifle creativity, flexibility, and productive change–and ultimately, society's health and sustainability. This is true from academia, to corporations, governments, the sciences, and our local communities.

With this award, we honor work that impacts society in positive ways, and is consistent with a set of key principles. These principles include non-violence, creativity, courage, and taking responsibility for one’s actions. This disobedience is not limited to specific disciplines; examples include scientific research, civil rights, freedom of speech, human rights, and the freedom to innovate.

Deadline for submissions is May 1, 2017. Award recipient will be announced live on July 21, 2017.

sounds interesting

1466

Living Room / Re: Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish

« Last post by tomos on March 09, 2017, 04:30 PM »

In answer to the 1st Q:
[..]
In answer to the 2nd Q:

-IainB (March 08, 2017, 08:55 PM)

thanks for the clarifications, and more

1467

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.16.1 - Dec 12, 2015

« Last post by tomos on March 09, 2017, 02:38 PM »

FHD 15.6" screen; fonts @125%
(that's not especially high resolution, but SC options dialogue had not adjusted to the 125%)

Before:



which was too small for my eyes...

After:



Options text a lot bigger -- fine for me, still a little smaller than the couple of other apps I looked at.
Tooltips are a good size.

1468

Living Room / Re: Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish

« Last post by tomos on March 08, 2017, 06:26 PM »

The Fifth Discipline sounds interesting.

-tomos on 08-03-2017, 12:44:19

I found it very interesting and it taught me a lot, and is very useful as a paradigm for understanding the weaknesses and strengths of different corporate cultures

-IainB (March 08, 2017, 04:29 PM)

yes, that 5th Discipline is very impressive -

Reading again the wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia...The_Fifth_Discipline
amongst things listed to avoid:

•     "I am my position."
•     "The enemy is out there."
•     The Illusion of Taking Charge
•     The Fixation on Events
•     The Delusion of Learning from Experience

and the 'laws' listed:

• Today's problems come from yesterday's "solutions."
• The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.
• Behavior grows better before it grows worse.
• The easy way out usually leads back in.
• The cure can be worse than the disease.
• Faster is slower.
• Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.
• Small changes can produce big results...but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.
• You can have your cake and eat it too ---but not all at once.
• Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants.
• There is no blame.

what amazes me (but probably shouldn't) is how much all of this can apply to the individual just as much as to the group.

The first four of the 'things to avoid' list are just so incredibly common, and, as a friend of mine says: oh I haven't done that myself, but I've read about it ;-)

Re the fifth 'The Delusion of Learning from Experience', if one looks at the way we dont learn from history, I guess it's not a suprise that it's just as easy not to learn from our own personal or or business history.

And re the laws:

# 2 'The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back' is not the same as, but reminds me of a Tai Chi lesson: you learn that the harder the other pushes, the easier it is, with a little help from you, to let them push themsleves over. When the other is rigid, it's easy to steer them off-balance. Otherwise you have to find an opening, but if you use too much strength, you become the rigid one who's easy to topple.

There's a few of them there I dont understand, but they're all thought provoking.
I love number 11.

1469

Living Room / Re: Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish

« Last post by tomos on March 08, 2017, 06:02 PM »

@IainB, re step two of the CMM, Wikipedia says:

Repeatable - the process is at least documented sufficiently such that repeating the same steps may be attempted.

Does that mean that at the first level they were so disorganised that they couldnt say what exactly they did even?
And that then enough of a sense of awareness was learned to notice what they were doing so as they could repeat/reproduce it?

1470

Living Room / Re: Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish

« Last post by tomos on March 08, 2017, 08:35 AM »

hi 6DecadesOld,
not having any background in corporate anything, I was a little surprised by the use of the word culture in the original article. I know outside the corporate world it has many different usages and meanings. But what caught my attention in that article was not so much the usage of the culture word, as the difference between our perception of how we are, and the reality of how we are.

1471

Post New Requests Here / Re: How to print a multiple page forum thread?

« Last post by tomos on March 08, 2017, 07:33 AM »

Don't know . . . I don't see it print multiple pages in forum threads.
=

-dcwul62 (March 08, 2017, 04:15 AM)

You print each separately to fineprint without sending it to the printer.  It collates them into one print job, that you can adjust/manipulate as you will.

-wraith808 (March 08, 2017, 06:55 AM)

@dcwul62 it's gonna need work i.e. printing of each page.

I do something similar with InfoQube (IQ): clip each page to IQ's webclipper, which if left open will combine them into one view, I can also strip out whatever I want. Clip is saved to an HTML pane which could then be printed to a PDFprinter.
Although I'd say Fineprint is more specialised and suitable for the job (unless you want other IQ features/capabilities).

Maybe some other webclipper could also be suitable? (But dont know of any that will do the magic 'automatically save all pages'.)

1472

Living Room / Re: Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish

« Last post by tomos on March 08, 2017, 05:44 AM »

@IainB, interesting post, although a share of it goes over my head, being fairly ignorant of the topic.
The original article jumped out at me because of the dichotomy between the idea and the reality. I see that a lot: I see it in individuals, myself included, and in groups.

This did jump out at me as being related to that:

Again, unfortunately in my experience - though I am a great fan of the 5th Discipline - attempts to implement the 5th Discipline generally tended to be undermined or frustrated by management that was corrupt, or driven by specific religio-political ideologies - e.g., MBO (Management By Objectives) - either of which could generally tend to run counter to and destructive of the Learning Organization approach and its inherent principles -  including, for example, openness, honesty, integrity and what was defined as a "safe" (non-toxic in a physical and psychological sense) cultural working environment for all employees.

-IainB (March 07, 2017, 09:44 PM)

The Fifth Discipline^w sounds interesting.

1473

Screenshot Captor / Re: prt sc not working

« Last post by tomos on March 08, 2017, 05:01 AM »

Has anyone ever noticed any conflict with any Microsoft installed program/tool/service with the Screenshot Captor?

-6DecadesOld (March 08, 2017, 04:14 AM)

not here (Windows 7 x64 pro)
I'm using the installed version of SC.

One thing worth noting:
I use an admin account but with UAC at highest level.
If an app is running 'as admin', some of the hotkeys will not work: just checked and PrtScr or Shift+PrtScr dont work, but Alt+PrtScr does (grab active window). Using the SC systray context menu works for any capture I tried though (with 'run as admin' software).

And the print screen trouble has caused me to find this place and that might be pretty cool.

IIRC, I was having trouble with the app key and one software, got an AHK solution here and stayed

1474

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« Last post by tomos on March 07, 2017, 11:38 AM »

There's a lot of videos out there about size of the universe etc, but I really enjoyed this one.
You know, the usual: full screen, dark room, loud volume recommended

Star Size Comparison 2

could also have gone in the 'interesting thread', or the music thread (Alpha by Vangelis)

Forgot to mention my source, What if the Earth were a middle-aged adult and other comparisons which is worth a read (may even have gotten the link here somewhere?)

1475

Living Room / Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish

« Last post by tomos on March 07, 2017, 11:17 AM »

The word culture, rarely defined when used, has many meanings.

Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish talks about the values of a work environment. So you may have grand values, or a wonderful image of your work culture, but it boils down to what is rewarded, and punished. The idea isn't taken beyond the work place, but the way I see it, the article applies to society, the family, the individual even.

It's a simple straight-forward idea, but I guess it's easy enough, at any level, to think things are different from the reality.

Also some interesting thought there about how you can have an influence.