Recent Posts

1526

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by rjbull on December 05, 2010, 04:34 PM »

Just finished: Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
  The first volume in a series that's a sort of a Spanish equipment of the Three Musketeers, by an author who's a fan of Dumas.  I was a bit disappointed, especially after the same author's excellent free-standing present-day novels, The Flanders Panel and The Seville Communion.

• Arturo Pérez-Reverte home page
• Arturo Pérez-Reverte's FantasticFiction record

Just finished:  The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins.
  The original ley-line book, that was later to inspire a multitude of nutters.  The ley-line fuss seems to have died down at present.

1527

Found Deals and Discounts / AJC Software Christmas 25% discount

« Last post by rjbull on December 02, 2010, 11:30 AM »

Disclaimer:  I am a registered user of AJC Active Backup, and received this offer by e-mail.  I asked for, and received, permission to post it here.  I have no other connection with the company.

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1528

Living Room / Re: is someone stealing my bandwidth?

« Last post by rjbull on December 02, 2010, 11:12 AM »

what about bandwidth monitor you can try use ProteMac Meter. It;s really nice prog)

-Timoth (December 02, 2010, 06:01 AM)

^^^ Spam^^^ Double posted and (way) off topic.

-Stoic Joker (December 02, 2010, 06:36 AM)

Er, didn't he just steal our bandwidth?   

1529

Living Room / Re: Still holding out, won't join Facebook

« Last post by rjbull on November 29, 2010, 02:11 PM »

Quoting IT'S NOT YOUR DATA NOW, by Daniel Lyons, in Newsweek, November 29, 2010, page 14:

Facebook has rounded up 500 million people and intends to generate billions of dollars in revenue by gathering data about them and selling it to advertisers.

(I think someone on DC has already said the same thing, but I can't quickly find their post)

1530

Living Room / Re: Regular Expressions (Regex) - Your Thoughts?

« Last post by rjbull on November 28, 2010, 01:38 PM »

And if you love regex, you might also like the Awk Programming Language. If you regularly need to manipulate large amounts of text data, Awk is a great way to do it.

-40hz (November 28, 2010, 01:14 AM)

Back in 1988/1989 the first program I started to learn was the shareware word processor/editor PC-Write.  It was a great program, but only had simple repeat-key macros, i.e., nothing like flow control.  When I began to feel a need for automated editing, the first thing I tried was the stream editor SED.  I couldn't work out how to do something in it, popped up a question on a bulletin board, and someone kindly said, "I don't think SED can do that - try AWK."  So I did.  It became the only programming language I have a passing familiarity with and did huge amounts of work for me (mostly back when I had a job).  A lot of data I handled was fairly ordered, like patent abstracts and files of formulations, and AWK was invaluable for manipulating it.  The book The Awk Programming Language by its original three authors, Aho, Kernighan and Weinberger, is not only good on AWK itself, but a very good tutorial on regular expressions.

You can find out more, and download AWK executables, at either of Prof. Brian Kernighan's home pages:

• Brian Kernighan at Princeton
• Brian Kernighan at Bell Labs

The most popular version of AWK is probably Gnu AWK, Gawk.  Another remarkable extended version, TAWK by Thompson Automation Software, includes a compiler.  Other versions abound, many listed on the AWK FAQ page.

1531

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: For non-programmers: Editpad is the best text editor (for now!)

« Last post by rjbull on November 21, 2010, 10:28 AM »

superboyAC, did you also look at the same author's complementary program AceText, which looks a useful adjunct to EditPad Pro?

• AceText home page
• DC thread: AceText - text & clipboard manager (for coders, writers, etc.)
• DC thread; Another ClipBoard and text manager etc.

1532

Find And Run Robot / Re: Hotkeys to control windows?

« Last post by rjbull on November 20, 2010, 03:22 PM »

There must be a AutoHotkey script out there for minimising/'normalising'/maximising current window - anyone know of one?
I actually use PowerPro for this but it's really complete overkill as I use hardly any of it's other features...

-tomos (November 19, 2010, 04:05 AM)

As I understand it, PowerPro is still quite a compact program with fairly modest requirements, and you still have all its power available if you need it in future.  On the other hand, you could fill up your PC with single-purpose AHK scripts, and forget what they all did...

1533

Living Room / Re: Still holding out, won't join Facebook

« Last post by rjbull on November 18, 2010, 04:23 PM »

I'm not on Facebook and don't want or intend to be.  But, my local library has reading groups and a library support group on Facebook, probably because that's the only host system the people involved knew.  If I did want to join those groups, well, Facebook is where they are.

One of my cousins has a Facebook page.  Since I had e-mail contact with him, that e-mail address has had more spam.  I'm sure those facts are connected.

1534

Find And Run Robot / Re: Hotkeys to control windows?

« Last post by rjbull on November 18, 2010, 04:09 PM »

If you like configuring hotkeys to do things, do yourself a favor get yourself a nice hotkey program, there are a lot of good free ones (here's just one example).

ps. Where FARR can excel and do things better than hotkey programs is if you like to press a hotkey and have FARR pop up with a MENU of options.

-mouser (November 17, 2010, 11:35 AM)

The example is HotKeyz, which indeed is a good one - and I'm pretty sure you can build mini-menus with it.  You certainly can with HotKeyP.  Not sure whether they'd have the power you'd want, you'd have to check.

1535

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Alternate pasting method not handling shift key

« Last post by rjbull on November 18, 2010, 03:33 PM »

Is there any plan in the future for enhancing CHS to provide some more functionality similar to Clipmate's?

-lrosenfeld (November 18, 2010, 11:38 AM)

Don't overlook CHS's ability to include your own scripts and external tools.  From the main screen, pick a clip and click Modify Format/Case to see the basic options, and it's from that screen that you get to the User Tools setup.

@mouser:  Not sure if this makes any sense - would it be an idea to make add a feature to {sendkeys} so that CHS could paste Clip X of Folder Y?  I wondered if that might help at all in the Auto-push/pull clipboarder? thread.

1536

General Software Discussion / Re: Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor

« Last post by rjbull on November 18, 2010, 05:43 AM »

I just checked and the Lite version of EditPad does NOT support the WS keyboard emulation. However, the new EPP7 beta version does continue to support this feature.

-widgewunner (November 17, 2010, 09:41 AM)

I just suggested EditPad Pro as a desirable future deal on Bits du Jour   

1537

General Software Discussion / Re: Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor

« Last post by rjbull on November 18, 2010, 05:41 AM »

I'm always a little fascinated and puzzled by how these old programs are held in such high esteem even long after the technology has advanced so much that the interface is very unfamiliar.

-superboyac (November 16, 2010, 03:18 PM)

Even back in the DOS days, the WordStar interface took work to learn.  You had to be at least a reasonably competent typist to start with, too.  Once you learnt WordStar, it genuinely became second nature and everything else seemed unbearably clumsy and slow.  If you needed to churn out and edit lots of text, nothing else came close.  The familiarity became grooved into your muscles and you no longer had to think about it or watch what your fingers were doing - which, I think, is not really true of Windows or any GUI.

  The article makes some great points about how it's difficult to write freely on a computer vs. a sheet of paper (which I prefer when I'm really sketching things out).

Unless something is really short, I usually sketch it out using a soft-lead mechanical pencil and a notebook.  You might like to read author Garth Nix's short article How I Write: The Process of Creating a Book, where he starts with pen and notebook.  When he types out the first chapter, that's the first revision.  But, once I get to the computer, I prefer WordStar editors/word-processors for handling text.  And I'd rather have plain text, so I'm not constantly bothered by formatting considerations when it's the ideas I'm trying to get straight.

I'm not convinced that Wordstar really offers something to the new user.  For people used to it, I get it...it's efficient.  But for a new user, what would they use?

As I said, WordStar takes effort to learn, and as we're in an age of instant gratification I doubt if many new users will appear - but the world will be the poorer if it's most efficient text-processing engine disappears.

I find nothing comes close to paper yet, for me.  [...]  Just recently, i even bought a spiral-bound notebook to jot my ideas down.  But even that was too restrictive.  I've settled on just loose leaf paper.

Careful - you'll be starting on the whole new world of Moleskine vs. Rhodia vs. Clairefontaine vs. Filofax etc. notebooks and the whole vast realm of which are the "best" pens and pencils! 

1538

General Software Discussion / Re: Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor

« Last post by rjbull on November 16, 2010, 03:09 PM »

I don't mean to sound rude, but what is the big deal about Wordstar?

-superboyac (November 15, 2010, 11:39 PM)

This article, WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor by SF author Robert J. Sawyer is the the best explanation I've seen.

1539

General Software Discussion / Re: Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor

« Last post by rjbull on November 16, 2010, 03:02 PM »

Actually, the WS emulation is pretty full-featured (including the Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+S etc). From the EPP6 help file...

-widgewunner (November 15, 2010, 11:33 PM)

Wow, that looks pretty good!  Thanks for the heads-up!  I'll have to check it some time - but I assume that's a only a feature of Pro rather than Lite.  Hope we'll see a discount somewhere.

1540

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by rjbull on November 15, 2010, 03:24 PM »

I MUST read "The Ring of Solomon"

-Darwin (November 14, 2010, 04:54 PM)

Don't overlook Heroes of the Valley either 

1541

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: For non-programmers: Editpad is the best text editor (for now!)

« Last post by rjbull on November 15, 2010, 02:45 PM »

I take it you're talking about $ Pro, not free Lite?

You might be interested to note tranglos' comments on EditPad-Pro vs. EmEditor: Re: EditPad Pro discounted at Bits du Jour on December 18

1542

General Software Discussion / Re: Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor

« Last post by rjbull on November 15, 2010, 02:35 PM »

EditPad-Pro has a one-click setting for wordstar key bindings. (Don't know about the free EditPad-lite version however.)

-widgewunner (November 14, 2010, 07:37 PM)

Those WinGUI editors I've briefly looked at that claim WordStar bindings fail miserably, with a trivial subset of features.  The problem is that important WordStar keys like Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X etc. were pirated by Gate$ for Windows itself, and hardly anybody seems brave enough to address the issue.  By far the best one I've seen for WordStar emulation is WSedit, freeware by Dr. Martin Vieregg.  I'd be interested to see any discounts on EditPad-Pro, however, given how many people seem to like it.  Perhaps that's a faint hope for now, with a new version about to come out.

EditPat-Lite, when last I looked at it, only had the Help file for EditPad-Pro, as a teaser, presumably.  I don't think it had anything significant in WS emulation.

Hmmm...  better park my hobby horse...

1543

General Software Discussion / Re: Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor

« Last post by rjbull on November 14, 2010, 10:58 AM »

My favorite editor up to this point is Editpad Pro.  2nd favorite is EmEditor.  3rd is Ultraedit.  4th is Notepad++.  Each one has a specialty for me.  Emeditor is the fastest.  Editpad is the best overall.  Ultraedit can do the most.  Notepad++ is the best of the free ones.

-superboyac (November 10, 2010, 04:59 PM)

The one I actually use most at present is Notetab Pro, because it has a reasonable set of features for this non-coder; notably, bookmarks, multi-level backup/undo, a spell checker, and the Clipbook macro system.  I don't use much of the Clipbook, but I think I quite like it because it's a bit like using the endless array of batch-file enhancers, and that's more or less where I came in.  If I still had to write a lot of text, though, I'd just go back to my DOS editor, VDE, because it's WordStar-style.  None of the Windows editors I've seen are a patch on WordStar for text handling, as opposed to code.  Having said that, VDE is written in assembler, and its author writes that in... VDE.

As for the free Windows ones, I had good service from Crimson Editor but I agree that most people will probably like Notepad++ more.  The latter is certainly more rapidly updated.

1544

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by rjbull on November 14, 2010, 10:40 AM »

The premise is a dystopic future in which computers and an internet-type feed are hardwired into our bodies and integrated directly into our thoughts. So... people walk around with constant advertising targetting them depending on what they are looking at/passing, and carry on private text conversations with others, share memories,

-Darwin (November 10, 2010, 10:28 PM)

Er...  don't you have anyone with an Internet-connected mobile phone near you?     I mean, the future is now the present?  And why engage in a series of doubtless painful, expensive operations to insert implants, probably needing them done over in a few years time for maintenance and upgrading, when you could just go to a store, buy an off-the-shelf iSucker, and you're good to go?

Current book in progress:  The life and works of Alfred Bestall, illustrator of Rupert Bear by Caroline G. Bott

Just finished:

• I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett  (one of the Tiffany Aching ones)
• The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud  (Bartimaeus rides again, or rather, before!)
• German Requiem by Philip Kerr (third in his Bernie Gunther series)

1545

General Software Discussion / Re: Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor

« Last post by rjbull on November 10, 2010, 04:17 PM »

HippoEDIT's nice.  I'm just waiting for it to have some kind of macros, and ones I can cope with; don't want to have to learn a whole programming language.

I used to use it at work - back when I had a job - for saving text from the Web.  I always wanted to save as plain text.  If the clip was unicode, when I went to save it, HippoEDIT would ask me whether I wanted it converted to plain text.  Very convenient.

1546

Living Room / Re: How do I test router vs. Internet connection?

« Last post by rjbull on November 07, 2010, 10:46 AM »

Was the modem/router provided by your ISP?

-4wd (November 06, 2010, 07:07 PM)

No.

Do you have access to its configuration settings?

Yes, but, I think I have to dig out the cable.  When I first configured it, I had to connect via cable to get at security settings etc.  It couldn't be done wirelessly.

USRobotics website shows that the modem/router has very good statistics/logging capability as well as diagnostics, (there's even a nice interactive demo).

Thanks 

for your physical line provider, (copper cable - BT, etc), to perform a remote test on your phone line - ring them up and say your getting intermittent noise on the line.

Good idea.  I should ask my next-door-neighbour too, as they use broadband a lot.  I think they use a different ISP but the wiring would still be BT (I think).

is the phone working normally when it happens, ie. dial tone, no noise (crackling, etc).

Hadn't thought to check that!  Another good idea, thanks.

If it's happening often enough, disconnect ALL other devices connected to the phone line, (and I mean ALL - phones, filters

I once had a faulty filter, just one out of three on the line.  It was a real pain finding that one...

Many thanks! 

1547

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a folder monitor app...

« Last post by rjbull on November 07, 2010, 10:32 AM »

The following lists things I've heard of, but not tried.

Mouser has promised a utility of this type: NANY 2011 Pledge: Reliable File Watcher Batcher Robot

Other possibilities:

Log Monitor, which has been mentioned on DC several times, e.g.
Re: Backup My TXT Files Everytime I Save - AKA incremental saves / wiki(-like)
Free, abandoned.

Always Watching
Payware - can't immediately see a free version.

You can find quite a few other utilities that are primarily slanted towards system files (presumably for monitoring installs).

1548

General Software Discussion / Re: photo duplicate scanner

« Last post by rjbull on November 05, 2010, 05:30 PM »

Unique Filer looks shareware.  As you say it's abandoned, does that mean the author is no longer accepting registrations, or what?

1549

Living Room / Re: How do I test router vs. Internet connection?

« Last post by rjbull on November 05, 2010, 05:25 PM »

Normally you connect your laptop straight to the ADSL or cable modem in your house and work like that for a while.

-Shades (November 05, 2010, 05:10 PM)

I wasn't clear enough...  I think the problem is either inside the router, or, on the telephone line side of the router.  That is, when all my router lights are on and steady, the wireless connection between router and laptop is fine.  So it doesn't seem to be radio transmission per se that's causing trouble.  I'm therefore assuming that it's either an intermittent fault in the router, or an intermittent fault with the telco/ISP.  In another thread, IDEA: Internet disconnection logger I noticed a reference to Karen's Net Monitor, but while I may eventually have to log events, that may not help diagnose the reason for drops.

1550

Living Room / How do I test router vs. Internet connection?

« Last post by rjbull on November 05, 2010, 04:53 PM »

I'm in the UK.  I use a laptop via a wireless router, a US Robotics Wireless MAXg ADSL Gateway, Product Model 809108.

Lately I've been getting poor Internet connections.  Watching the router's status lights; Power ON, wireless transmission ON, ADSL ON, Internet ON; then after a bit the Internet light goes out and I lose connection.  In the last couple of days, I've had all four lights ON, but no connection, except that the Internet light has been flickering a bit, which I assume means a poor connection.  When the Internet light goes out, I usually have to switch the router off and back on again to get it to reconnect.

Please...  how can I test whether the problem is with my router, or with the telephone company/ISP?

I only have one router and one ISP, so I can't easily eliminate one from the other.  If the problem is likely to be the router, what replacement would you suggest?

<sigh>  nearly typed witless for wireless...

Thanks in anticipation!