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1476

Mini-Reviews by Members / PIM-related Mini-Reviews ("also-ran") - CintaNotes PRO.

« Last post by IainB on September 17, 2016, 12:17 PM »

Herewith are my brief review notes on a trial of CintaNotes v3.3.1.1 PRO:
I have put an image of my notes from OneNote below, and below that I have pasted in a spoiler just the accumulated text (for searching/indexing and extraction of text and links) from the OneNote notes.

Spoiler

Notes from trialling CintaNotes v3.3.1.1 PRO (10-day free trial licence) - 2016-09-17.
      From:    http://cintanotes.com
      
      General notes:
              1.  I had dl and briefly trialled two copies of the very limited Free portable version: (they did not have the Tagging hierarchy and other features I wanted to try out).
                      • CintaNotes v3.3.0.2 (FREE).zip
                      • CintaNotes v3.3.1.1 (FREE dl 2016-09-17).zip
              2. So I dl + installed CintaNotes v3.3.1.1 PRO (10-day free trial licence) to give it a whirl. I thought 10 days was probably unlikely to be long enough to give the thing a decent trial. The install was no problem and the trial licence was sent to me via email and was hassle-free.
              3. I usually go into a PIM (Personal Information Manager) trial with a feeling of hopeful anticipation of things useful to be discovered, but this one was a bit of a fizzle.
              4. On spec, the CN PRO version looked to be more interesting/useful for my purposes than the hobbled FREE version. I couldn't see why anyone would actually want the free version as it was too hobbled.
              5. The GUI in the FREE and PRO versions looks quite tidy, and is ergonomically efficient and fairly intuitive with only a couple of minor kludgy idiosyncrasies to learn (most software tends to have those).
              6. In the PRO version (don't know about the FREE one), the GUI fonts are nicely adjustable - which could be a real plus point for people who might need to wear specs for reading laptop screens (like me).
              7. As a PIM, the PRO version was OK and unremarkable. It had better/more functionality than the FREE version, but in terms of its functionality it really did not seem any better than (say) CHS (Clipboard Help and Spell) - in fact, its tagging hierarchy and auto-tagging were arguably not as flexible as CHS' drag-and-drop and Virtual Folder (SQL) functionality, though CN did have a simple tag rules process and a good idea (which I didn't really test) of dropping down a suggestion menu of tags when you started typing - both of which could make it simpler/less complex to use. However, I suspect that that tag menu thing could well become a PITA if one had a large tag hierarchy tree.
              8. CN only allows tags to be contiguous alphameric strings with no spaces or dashes. Multi-word tags had to be conjoined with an underscore.
              9. CN's GUI display was arguably prettier than CHS', but actually I found it to be less information-rich.
              10. CN can't handle images very well at all (though it employs the concept of Alternative Text, but the user apparently has to manually enter that).
              11. Both FREE and PRO versions are plain text only, which is a PITA.
              12. CN can apparently sync via SimpleNote (but of course plain text only).
      
      Conclusions:
              1. As a database, CN may have reached the limit of its designer's original scope and is somewhat archaic (e.g., can't handle images or RTF). For example, contrast it with Wezinc, which, with its RTF, HTML, image-handling and auto mind-mapping etc., is only in beta stage development, but which already looks to have more info management functionality and more potential than CN. NoteFrog is another great beta-stage tool that is/was functionally more progressive than CN.
              2. Thus, CN probably can't really anywhere near justify US$40 for PRO, or US$120 for a Lifetime licence. I mean, come on guys, it's development is so limited and so static that it's almost become stagnant abandonware. I have the CintaNotes blog in ny bazqux feed-reader and quite frankly the blog is a procession of small ideas for minor changes with nothing terribly significant actually being planned/implemented.
              3. Get the pricing right and design in some more useful and up-to-date functionality for goodness' sake. I mean, I have a clipboard system (CHS) that beats CN pretty much hands-down.
              4. So I  uninstalled CN PRO right after seeing what it could/couldn't do. I didn't seem to need the 10-day licence after all, and I probably won't spend any more time looking at it again unless it gets significantly changed/improved.

1477

Living Room / Re: How to stop friends getting notified of my posts in groups?

« Last post by IainB on September 17, 2016, 08:19 AM »

To stop all that, just stop posting and liking on facebook, take away the cause and your worries will go away too.
The sole purpose of facebook is letting others (your connections/friends) know what you write and read/like, so there is only one real solution: don't do that.
___________________________

-Ath (September 17, 2016, 04:33 AM)

     

1478

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on September 13, 2016, 09:30 PM »

Oh man, nailed it.

What's happening here? 
Musician Patrick Metzger noticed this trend and called it the "Millenial Whoop".
...
Music, especially pop music, is based on patterns.  It makes new songs seem familiar, because you've basically heard them before.

-Edvard (September 11, 2016, 06:42 PM)

Yes, I gather that it's called "formulaic music". "Musicians" have been using that approach for years, thus explaining the depressing seemingly moronically repetitive nature of a lot of the music - and there's apparently been a lot of not-so-subtle sampling/copying going on at the same time, creating copyright disputes. Every now and then though, it seems that someone with a streak of creativity or an unusual catch in their voice develops a catchy new pattern/formula, and then lots of copycats move in to ride on its coattails.
I guess that's simply what one would expect to get though, with an industry that seems to have adopted a mass-production approach.

1479

General Software Discussion / Re: Hacking Windows 10's My Computer context menu?

« Last post by IainB on September 13, 2016, 09:08 PM »

@Shades: The article How To Enable Paths Longer Than 260 Characters In Windows 10 mentions that Win10 Home won't permit access to the GPE (Group Policy Editor), but it does allow access to Regedit (the Registry Editor).
I presume it would be correct, but out of interest I shall try to remember to check it out next time I am working on a Win10 Home PC (like you, I am not usually using Win10 Home - I use Win10 PRO).

1480

General Software Discussion / Re: Hacking Windows 10's My Computer context menu?

« Last post by IainB on September 13, 2016, 08:56 PM »

@Jimdoria: I also for years have had special buttons to take me to special folders, including the Services list and the Devices list, and I have used these across several laptops and versions of Windows, with only minimal change required.
I have been mostly achieving this by the simple "no-brainer" expedient of copying the GodMode links/shortcuts. I thus never need to go near the registry, and when migrating to a new laptop or Windows OS, I simple copy the links.
Thus, achieving the "hack" via a registry change (as per the OP) is kinda unnecessary/redundant, given that you can get links to all the special folders and their icons (including the Services list and the Devices list) via the GodMode folder, thus:

• Create a folder "A" named GodMode Shortcuts (just like that, with no special characters).
• Create a folder "B" named GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} - with the dot and the curly brackets, and the string inside the curly brackets exactly as written. The string "GodMode" is optional though.
• Open folder "A" (which should be empty).
• Open folder "B" (which should be full of links - 237 in total).
• Select All the links in "B", then Alt+drag all those links into folder "A". This will populate folder "A" with the icons and shortcuts to each of the 237 links. These shortcuts can be renamed as required by the user and dragged and dropped where they are needed.

In the shortcuts folder:
The most handy Services shortcut is named "View local services" by default, and can be renamed.
The most handy Devices shortcuts are named "View devices and printers" and "Device Manager"by default, and can be renamed.

One can also use a more direct way of creating links to some of these functions by trying to understand the .msc (control) files and figuring out which function links to (is provided by) an .msc (control) file in a system folder - e.g., the C:\WINDOWS\system32\ folder.
One then creates shortcuts to that - e.g.,  C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.msc will bring up the Services list, and I use that direct path in my FARR Toolbar buttons, because it displays the plain little gear icon for Services, rather than a shortcut arrow over the icon.

Similarly, one can bring up the Device Manager with C:\Windows\System32\devmgmt.msc.

Hope this all makes sense and is of use.

1481

General Software Discussion / Re: Long Path Fixer

« Last post by IainB on September 11, 2016, 12:52 PM »

...Edit:  I wonder if a performance hit motivated MS to leave it disabled by default?  Perhaps it has to load additional code as in yet another DLL hooked to Explorer?  Just speculating.
__________________________

-MilesAhead (September 11, 2016, 12:07 PM)

Exactly. You may well be right. How to test?
My first thought was, "Finally!"
Then, "Now why would they want to leave that disabled by default in this shiny new OS?"
Then it was. "Oh well" (click). Enabled.
Perhaps I've just bogged my laptop...

1482

General Software Discussion / Re: Dropbox alternatives

« Last post by IainB on September 10, 2016, 07:27 PM »

@kilele: Thanks, I looked at the discussion thread at that link and read what I guess you were referring to, but it all seems to be hearsay and not from the horse's mouth (Dropbox), so i would tend to discount its validity on that basis alone.

There was also a suggestion in that discussion thread that people departing because of this action were "putting the final nails in" to Dropbox's coffin. I am not up-to-date, so have no idea what that was about. Have you any idea?
I shall meanwhile try and find out what rumours there are about Dropbox.

1483

Living Room / Re: The Walled Garden Closes In

« Last post by IainB on September 10, 2016, 06:23 PM »

I thought this was rather amusing:
Listening to music and charging your iPhone 7 at the same time costs extra

Maybe the designers were operating in a state of commercially-enforced haste and overlooked a couple of design considerations here...   

1484

General Software Discussion / Re: Long Path Fixer

« Last post by IainB on September 10, 2016, 06:08 PM »

Until I read that, I had not realised that you could fix this in Win10 either through a small change in Windows Group Policy (if you have access to it) or a small Registry change.
Is a dead simple fix now, it seems.

1485

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Generic windows command line gui builder

« Last post by IainB on September 10, 2016, 06:26 AM »

Ooh! That looks like it might be rather nifty.

1486

Living Room / Re: The Walled Garden Closes In

« Last post by IainB on September 09, 2016, 09:07 PM »

I'm not sure that this necessarily has something to do with DRM though. I mean, I can't see an explanation as to why it would.
_______________________

-IainB (September 08, 2016, 09:58 PM)

Did you read the linked article?
_______________________

-Deozaan (September 09, 2016, 05:42 AM)

Well, yes, but I only gave it a cursory skim. However I went back and reread it properly after you made the comment, thinking that I might have missed something, but, as I said, I don't see an explanation as to why this would necessarily have something to do with DRM. Whilst it might not be unreasonable to suppose that it might be turned into something to do with DRM - given the past machinations of the RIAA/MPAA/DMCA corporates - neither would it seem unreasonable to suppose that it may simply be the LCD thing, for example, or, as @mwb1100 puts it:

they're dropping the venerable 3.5mm stereo jack in favor of forcing people to go with the newer-fangled Bluetooth device$.
_______________________

-Stoic Joker (September 08, 2016, 06:48 PM)

...or a set of headphones that plug into the Apple-proprietary Lightning connector.
_______________________

-mwb1100 (September 09, 2016, 04:25 PM)

I suppose it could work towards several objectives:

• (a) Improve Apple's market-leadership position and market-share dominance, by setting their product as a new de facto proprietary standard as the new/raised LCD for audio output.
• (b) Improve Apple's market dominance and increase sales/profitability by creating/forcing a new niche market and expanding it, forcing consumers to accept the proprietary "new-fangled Bluetooth device$".
• (c) Position Apple as a new and possibly the new de facto DRM gatekeeper for the DMCA corporates (said position having apparently been taken previously, years ago, by a farsighted and opportunistic Micro$oft with their various embedded-DRM Windows Media Player software products).

From experience of marketing in IT companies, I would suggest that (a) and (b) could be highly likely and conventional corporate objectives, and that (c) could be a distinct possibility. Microsoft has ruled the roost for a long time in that regard.

Only time will tell whether Cory Doctorow's predictions (referred to in the article) were right, or (say) @Josh's predictions (above) were right. The history of the IT landscape is littered with predictions that were invariably well wide of the mark, for the simple reason that nobody can predict the future.

@Josh makes the valid argument about a change/improvement being overdue for the technology in devices for getting "A2E"  (Audio-to-Eardrum). In much the same way, HiFi audio became ubiquitous with the advent of the (Phillips?) digital sampling technology of audio CDs, transforming the ease and cost of delivering consistently high quality HiFi. It became a ubiquitous and affordable commodity, though the cost - to the audiophile - arguably included a loss of audio "ambiance".
However the LCD bar/standard had been inexorably raised, and yes, passive DRM control was able to be further embedded in audio CD products.

Similarly, low power, short range wireless A2E does make sense, but I discounted the Bluetooth technology some years back, at which time I gave it up as being full of potential, but pretty useless for my purposes as it was then poorly-developed, kludgy and unreliable wifi and it was too dependent on expensive and unreliable battery technology.
If those limitations have now been overcome with newer technology (as one suspected they probably inevitably would, given time) - by the likes of Apple and others - then one also suspects that this new Bluetooth A2E technology will not be a flash in the pan and the market will thus take up the technology with alacrity, and it will raise the bar and become ubiquitous and the new LCD, though the tinfoil hat brigade might persist in objecting (and they might be right to do so).

However, this (from the article) is pretty cogent, and I suspect that it is more than likely that Cory Doctorow, The EFF and techdirt will be proven right and the DMCA tax-gatherers and the NSA will be embedding their mandatory requirements into the Lightning connection, and they and the consumers/taxpayers will be paying Apple handsomely for it:

The Lightning port works differently. Manufacturers must apply and pay a licensing fee to create a Lightning-compatible device. When rumors were circulating about an iPhone 7 with no headphone jack, our colleague Cory Doctorow predicted that big content companies would try to take advantage of that control: “Right now, an insistence on DRM would simply invite the people who wanted to bypass it for legal reasons to use that 3.5mm headphone jack to get at it. Once that jack is gone, there's no legal way to get around the DRM.”

Greedy corporate and DMCA rent-seekers and tax-gatherers and the NSA are like rust- they never sleep.
"The Lightning connection" could be aptly-named in that it may well give the consumer quite a shock when/if they wake up to realise what has been done to them by these parasites whilst they were sleeping. We shall see, as we certainly have no control (QED) over what these mostly US-created parasites are up to - which, whatever it is, is certainly not going to be "looking after the consumers' best interests'', hah-hah.  Far from it. Maybe they should rename the technology to "the Tesla connection" to make it sound much cooler and more attractive. "Tesla" has gotta be good - right?

1487

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Tropico 4 free (Steam key) for next day or two on Humble Bundle

« Last post by IainB on September 09, 2016, 02:04 AM »

@mwb1100: Thanks for this. We don't know the game but my 14½ y/o daughter and 6y/o son were keen to try it out, so I have got the key and linked it HumbleBundle<-->Steam (which was a bit of a palaver).

1488

Living Room / Re: The Walled Garden Closes In

« Last post by IainB on September 08, 2016, 09:58 PM »

Well, presumably they are trying to force the upgrading of the LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) to something they have a proprietary and $ interest in - more profitable. Good luck to 'em. It's probably a valid marketing bid.
A bit like Aodobe and Acrobat/.PDF, I suppose, only more up-market.
Many of the people who make up the iPad buyers as a group might not realise that that could be an implication, and might not even care if they did. There's probably nothing rational about buying an iPad anyway - though people will always rationalise their buying decisions, post-fact.
I don't think I'd be a member of that group though, so I can't speak for them.
I'm not sure that this necessarily has something to do with DRM though. I mean, I can't see an explanation as to why it would.

1489

Living Room / Re: The Walled Garden Closes In

« Last post by IainB on September 08, 2016, 05:36 PM »

Sorry, I'm a bit stumped on this one.
I vaguely recall reading something to that effect about the 3.5mm headphone jackplug being removed on future models of something, but I don't usually pay much attention to what is happening with iPad design or any other Apple products and so am fairly ignorant about them.
Does what you say mean that iPad users will no longer be able to listen to audio via headphones on newer iPads?

1490

General Software Discussion / Re: Dropbox alternatives

« Last post by IainB on September 08, 2016, 04:51 PM »

Dropbox has dropped XP support and it will be discontinuing the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links or Public Folder.
Do you know some alternative which supports xp and works the same as dropbox, that is, drop files on your public folder, direct links following the same path as your folder (no encryption nor redirecting to webpages), html5 files Rendering on browsers..
_________________________

-kilele (September 07, 2016, 07:16 AM)

Where you say: "Dropbox has dropped XP support and it will be discontinuing the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links or Public Folder.", are the two things necessarily combined or separate, or did Dropbox just happen to do the two things at the same time?
The timing seems curious anyway. The reason I say that is that Google Drive also just recently killed off the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links - which put me out, because I used to use Google Drive to host a few static webpages of information on different topics. It was a very handy facility. There seemed to be no real reason given by Google for killing this off. I wondered whether Dropbox had stated a reason.

1491

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR and Windows apps

« Last post by IainB on September 08, 2016, 02:38 AM »

@nitrix-ud: I thought I recalled this having apparently been solved in a prior discussion, and this seems to be it:

just drag and drop to a new folder
______________________

-skajfes (November 15, 2013, 04:16 PM)

@tomos: alt + drag and drop (?) (to create shortcuts)
______________________

Awesome, works perfectly, thanks guys!
I created the Godfolder, (by creating a new folder called "GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}") and then selected ALL the items, Alt Dragged them to a new folder called Shortcuts (in my documents/donationcoder folder) and vioala!
Thanks fellas,
Mark.
______________________

-fredphoesh (November 16, 2013, 06:52 AM)

So, the steps are:

• open up Fred.{4234d49b-0245-4df3-B780-3893943456e1}
• select ALL
• alt + drag-and-drop the files thus selected to an empty folder named (say) ViewAllAppsShortcuts, which is in (say) ...my documents\donationcoder folder
• this will create 268 (I just did it myself, now) shortcuts to those apps

So then I guess (?) you create a FARR alias to use that folder - I haven't done that yet as I am being directed to go shopping for groceries pronto.   

1492

General Software Discussion / Re: HashTab Shell Extension

« Last post by IainB on September 08, 2016, 01:41 AM »

... if it has an option to limit the feature to smaller files I would take advantage of the setting.  Anything that hooks Explorer and bogs can make the shell very flaky. ...
_________________________

-MilesAhead (September 07, 2016, 11:02 AM)

Yes, xplorer² can give a column showing checksum, and I use it fairly frequently, so I have that column displayed in most of the pane layouts that I use. I find it very handy - e.g., when comparing file versions in the archives - but the user needs to set a lowish limit to the max file size for hashing, otherwise it can engage the CPU/HDD too much and impact screen display/refresh rates with all that computing overhead going on. That overhead is multiplied, of course, the more files you have in a folder, so I employ a pane layout without the checksum column for those folders with lots of files.
When I want to check the hashkey for a larger file, I prefer to use the HashTab Shell extension, as that seems to function only when you invoke that Tab in the File Properties view, and it seems pretty efficient.

1493

Living Room / Re: Improving the ergonomic readability on laptop screen displays - Tips and Tricks.

« Last post by IainB on September 07, 2016, 07:13 PM »

I happened to download for trial Redhaven Outline after reading a review of it at RGdot. It's apparently an outlining tool developed for students, to help them write more structured papers.
I am mentioning Redhaven because it provides an example (see below) of a nifty way to enable the user to modify the font sizes on different sections of the GUI, using preset Hotkeys as font size (bigger/smaller) controls. It is dynamic, in that you can see the fonts changing in size as you press whichever hotkeys are relevant to your needs.
I thought this was ergonomically efficient. The  developer of this app has presumably put some thought into the ergonomic ease/efficiency of the font controls. There are also controls for different colour schemes/backgrounds and which offer more flexibility on the visual perception front, but which seem to be more complicated than the font controls. I'm not sure whether that colour schemes control is a good example though, as I find it over-complicated and a bit rigid in use, but maybe I haven't learned how to use it properly.

1494

Living Room / Re: Improving the ergonomic readability on laptop screen displays - Tips and Tricks.

« Last post by IainB on September 07, 2016, 04:34 PM »

I mentioned this (about CHS) above, and here's a more explanatory example.
This sort of thing is not only good for helping one to quickly make changes to the GUI to optimise (ergonomic) readability for one's personal needs, but also is ergonomically efficient.

1495

TapTap / Re: CTRL-C shortcut not recognized in Win7-Explorer

« Last post by IainB on September 07, 2016, 03:26 AM »

@damax: Argh!! I don't think I was recommending that!!
Keep it simple. You don't need TapTap.
You might not need the ClipWait, but I put it in there just-in-case.
Try:

[Select]

>^m::   ; RightCtrl+m is to send <^c (COPY)
           Send, ^c
   ClipWait, 2 ; wait for up to 2 seconds for state change before proceeding, so as to ensure capture to clipboard
           Return

>^n::    ; RightCtrl+n is to send <^v (PASTE)
           Send, ^v
           Return

By the way, I discovered that OkayKeybees v1.04a does not seem to work under Win10-64, so don't bother with it.

As I said, I can't actually test this to prove it as I have my RtCtrl key mapped to something else. You should be able to test it OK though, I think.
Do you need any help with editing your Autohotkey.ahk file?
If you do, then post it here as a generic script (press the # button whilst in edit mode, on the website).
There's lots of people here can help you.

1496

Living Room / Re: Laptop stuck in "Airplane" mode

« Last post by IainB on September 07, 2016, 12:46 AM »

Interesting problem.
Nice laptop - I have the smaller Pavilion-15, but it's an Intel-based system, not an AMD-based system, so is probably not the same thing.
However, I have had some peculiar transient keyboard issues that I don't quite understand, though so far nothing such as you describe.
Though I have not had any problems with the Airplane Mode switching per se, I wondered whether what you are experiencing might not in fact be a physical keyboard problem. Do you think you have eliminated that possibility?
Do you always (repeatedly) get the same results when pressing the physical AM key as you do when clicking the software on-screen "buttons"?

One suggestion that comes to mind is an experiment: find out what the Autohotkey code is for pressing the the physical AM key, and try sending that as output, to see what happens to the wifi state. It's a toggle switch (on/off/on etc.), so presumably alternate sends should reflect the toggling. But if no toggling happens then it could be a keyboard jam or a keyboard controller (hardware) problem that is defeating/blocking the software toggle. I don't see how the software toggle itself could get stuck, especially if you have checked/reinstalled the associated drivers etc. to eliminate the potential of it being a software issue.

Out of interest I did a duckgo search:
https://duckduckgo.c..._one=form&ia=web

These seemed potentially relevant, but I am not sure whether they might be of any use. Still, one never knows:
http://www.howto-con...ssues-in-windows-10/
https://www.cnet.com...ck-in-airplane-mode/
https://answers.micr...-588d39e8499d?auth=1
https://answers.micr...-7c7dac47d69a?page=2

Also, if your laptop is still under warranty, you could try an online chat via HP Support Assistant. They are quite responsive. I was using that online chat about a week ago, discussing an obscure and seemingly innocuous error (reported by HD Sentinel) that had occurred on my laptop's 1GB HDD:
     2016-06-06 22:43:45,S.M.A.R.T. 187 (Reported Uncorrectable Errors): 0 -> 1 : Attribute changed

The HDD checks out fine otherwise - 100% Health and Performance. However, backblaze statistics indicate this error to be correlated 100% with eventual total disk failure over varying periods of time, so backblaze just throw those disks out when that error occurs, without waiting for failure. It's a statistically predictable failure.

Of course, the support guys (based in India in this case), though trying to be helpful, couldn't help me as they have no authority to divert from HP policy, which dictates that, regardless of such statistical probability, HP liability only extends to a drive that has failed within the warranty period, so I shall just dump it anyway at my own expense and before the warranty expires.   
If you do have an online chat with them, be careful to capture the text before they sign off, because the chat seems to be abruptly expunged at that point and you cannot recover it (well, I couldn't anyway). You may need a record. Anticipating this, I managed to capture my entire chat with them so I do have a record.

1497

General Software Discussion / Re: HashTab Shell Extension

« Last post by IainB on September 06, 2016, 11:25 PM »

I did a Sherlock Holmes and think I have sorted it now.
Big footprints for anyone who wants to get at these versions of the same thing.

Spoiler

      Further notes on HashTab Shell Extension (prepared using MS OneNote).
      After further investigating my archives and searching the Internet a bit more thoroughly, I think I have made sense of the versions.
              1. beeblebrox.com v3.0 (2009) - this was from a now defunct website (404).
              2. implebits.com v5.1.0.23 (2014-03-14) - this was in my Archives and came from http://implbits.com/.../HashTabWindows.aspx (404) and I initially mistook it to mean that the domain was defunct, but when I checked, it wasn't defunct.
              3. implebits.com  v6.0.0.28 (2016-09-07) - this was the latest version on that domain.
      So I now had 3 versions - 1 x beeblebrox and 2 x implbits. They seem to be the same things, probably developed by the same people. They certainly look the same, anyway.
      The beeblebrox one is free, and the implbit ones are free for private use.
      The main difference between the 3 versions seems to be, as shown below, in terms of the number of hashing algorithms that they can employ. Presumably, more is better, but it also makes the program files larger too.
      
      The other main difference is in that the beeblebrox v3.0 has that nice friendly licence agreement, whereas the two implbits versions have the more unfortunate threatening licence agreements plus an angry warning that it is "Not Licenced for Commercial Use" (with title capitals like that).
      
      If you asked me which I might prefer, I would probably plump for the beeblebrox one, because of its friendly  licence agreement and its smaller footprint - I don't really require all those extra hashing algorithms.
      
      15 settings in beeblebrox HashTab v3.0 (2009): (Wayback sourced)
      
      Screen clipping taken: 2016-09-07 15:09
      
      22 settings in implbits HashTab v5.1.0.23 (2014-03-14): (my Archives)
      
      Screen clipping taken: 2016-09-07 15:16
      
      30 settings in implbits HashTab v6.0.0.28 (2016-09-07):
      From: http://implbits.com/
      
      Screen clipping taken: 2016-09-07 15:19      

1498

General Software Discussion / HashTab Shell Extension

« Last post by IainB on September 06, 2016, 08:54 PM »

I couldn't find this version:

Just thought I'd revive this thread to say that I've been using HashTab (v5.1.23) for a while now and am finding it very useful in my file management tasks - e.g., when I am wanting to determine whether two files of the same or different names are in fact the same (duplicated) file.
However, I might dispense with using it on those occasions when the xplorer² Checksum column is likely to be more useful (see below).

Also:

• HashCheck Shell Extension: Thanks to @PhilB66's mention of it in this thread (above), I am about to trial this.
• WinMD5sum: I have been using this on occasion.
• xplorer² Checksum column:: is a column you can invoke in xplorer² to give you a checksum of files in (say) a directory listing. The manual warns that invoking the Checksum column could be a resource hog:
  

  x² extracts certain information from each file and displays it in different columns of the folder pane (e.g. checksum).
  However, this additional consumes CPU resources and slows down other operations.
  To make the operation more efficient, x² has a provision that it will display the information only if the file-size is below a [settable] threshold value.
  

  (A very handy feature.)

-IainB (April 23, 2014, 01:45 AM)

Current notes are in the (sharpened) image below, and the text is copied in the spoiler below that.

Spoiler

      Notes on HashTab Shell Extension (prepared using MS OneNote).
      (Notes posted to DC Forum as this is such a useful Shell Extension.)
      I wanted to install this very handy shell extension - which I have been using for ages - on an HP Pavilion-15 laptop (Win10-64 PRO), having last used it on the Toshiba-L855D under Win10-64 PRO. However, I could not find the setup proggie in my online Archive.
      I couldn't recall where/when I I originally got this proggie, not could I find any notes in my OneNote Notebooks about this either, so I determined to make some notes (these) this time around.
      I knew the setup proggie would be on my backup, but I thought it would probably be simpler/quicker to download it afresh from the Internet.
      I was wrong.
              • A duckgo search turned up a review (which I took a copy of) from 2010 on freewaregenius.com, which gave the source website  as http://beeblebrox.org/
              • However, that source had gone 404 and the domain was up for sale.
              • I found the 2010 version 3.0 on Wayback: https://web.archive....tp://beeblebrox.org/
              -  (which I also took a copy of) and downloaded the setup file from there:
      https://web.archive..../HashTab%20Setup.exe
      
      Then I took a cursory look over the years after 2010, and didn't find anything useful on Wayback.
      One of the files (.dll) in the installer was dated 2009, so I figured the dl file was the latest version. I saved the setup file into my Archive and these notes, just in case.
      File: HashTab v3.0 Setup (2010-06-20).exe
      (The above links to the file in the Archive, and the file is also inserted
      to the right of this note.)
      
      
      When I ran the setup/installer it proved to be a quick, no-fuss affair.
      The opening panel:
      
      
      The opening panel led to an incredibly verbose licence agreement:
      
      
      Then it wanted to install to C:\Program Files\HashTab Shell Extension
      So I changed that to C:\UTIL\Explorer software\HashTab Shell Extension
       - whereupon it installed 2 files ( a .dll and an .exe) and set itself into the Explorer Shell.
      
      The download page gave MD5 hashes - this one for Windows setup:
                HashTab Setup.exe:   5845F52D425C75E232B1AD5EE3B189A8 (windows)
      So copied that hashkey, right-clicked the setup file, selected Properties-->File Hashes
      and pasted the hashkey into the empty box Hash Comparison
      The big fat green tick signified that HashTab had verified its own setup file's MD5 hashkey.
      (Note the version and date towards the bottom of the box below.)
      
      Screen clipping taken: 2016-09-07 12:20
   

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Living Room / Re: Improving the ergonomic readability on laptop screen displays - Tips and Tricks.

« Last post by IainB on September 05, 2016, 03:26 PM »

...
Actually, I suspect the problem is more fundamentally simple than that though, in that web-page designers and/or programmers generally would seem to be unqualified in (or ignorant of) visual perceptual ergonomics 101 - and there seem to be not a few examples of this.
_______________________

-IainB (September 05, 2016, 02:55 PM)

Just to make it clear, I wouldn't put @mouser in that bag. Quite the reverse. For example. after extensive fiddling about with CHS and its GUI controls/options, I have nothing but admiration for his thoughtful and intelligent design - actually, I think his solution to the usually messy task of of column placement, in the CHS Grid is brilliantly executed.   
Great idea to make all those choices in the drop-down list draggable objects as well. I don't think I've ever seen that approach used before in quite that way.

To see what I mean, press the little "hamburger" rectangle with horizontal lines/dashes in it, in the top LH corner of the Grid that has the pop-up note "Click here to show/hide/move columns", and play about with it.
EDIT: I've shown a more explanatory example of this in the post below.

The Virtual Folders and Layouts are other very useful ideas from an information management perspective, and not restrictive. On top of that, the ability to fine-tune the fonts/sizes and colours in the GUI (as I have described in a post above) is really nifty, and enabled me to get to a "just right" configuration for my peculiar eyesight. From the perspective of visual perceptual ergonomics, this is very good. Similarly for ScreenshotCaptor, which, though I am not so familiar with all of its workings, seems to be arguably a lot about implementing good visual perceptual ergonomics and a GUI with a good ergonomic interface.   

I would argue that the main limitation of using apps like this could sometimes be said to lie in the user's imagination, and to make optimal use of them one needs to experimentally discover what feature suits oneself best.
That could also be said of MS OneNote, incidentally, though that does not score too highly (in my view) for offering a GUI with controls over ergonomic readability (visual perceptual ergonomics).

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Living Room / Ergonomic readability on laptop displays - This is what I'm-a-talkin' about.

« Last post by IainB on September 05, 2016, 02:55 PM »

This is what I'm-a-talkin' about:

Below is a partial screenshot of the incredibly useful [sarc] Slimjet Downloads page (Ctrl+j), which seems to defy the reader to read it. Who knows but that it may be deliberate, an experiment to see how far one can push the user/guinea-pig before he/she/it squeaks?
That might not be as far-fetched as it might sound - I mean, if they will populate the decks of US warships with healthy living beings as guinea-pigs to ostensibly "observe" nuclear bomb tests, then there's apparently no limit to the potential for careless human cynicism.
Actually, I suspect the problem is more fundamentally simple than that though, in that web-page designers and/or programmers generally would seem to be unqualified in (or ignorant of) visual perceptual ergonomics 101 - and there seem to be not a few examples of this.