Recent Posts

1601

General Software Discussion / Re: Fixing File Associations (PDF)

« Last post by tomos on December 21, 2016, 08:55 AM »

today, PDF's, when opened indirectly (i.e. called by another software e.g. via a link in spreadsheet, or say Help file via menu) they open via my default browser (PaleMoon). The browser opens the file as if it was being downloaded.
I am bemused, to say the least

Since you've got DOpus you might find it easier to do it in there, Settings->File Types->System File Types

[ Invalid Attachment ]

That's usually how I end up fixing associations that screw up.

-4wd (December 04, 2015, 05:18 AM)

that was interesting -- even though it (Dopus) shows the Adobe Acrobat icon and states: "Opens with: Adobe Reader", when I go to edit as per your screenshot, it had the following for open:
"C:\Windows\eHome\ehshell.exe" "%1"
which turns out to be Windows Media Center ...

-tomos (December 04, 2015, 05:40 AM)

I checked DOpus as per 4wd's screenshot and unlike my last experience, it seems to have correct path:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe""%1"

I'll shutdown later and report back tomorrow if that fixes it.
Otherwise will go rooting around in the registry.

1602

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by tomos on December 21, 2016, 03:20 AM »

thanks 4wd, you're a mine of information

Work out what you want to do with the phone, then work out what functions the phone has to have to fulfil them.

-4wd (December 20, 2016, 06:39 PM)

I live in the woods, and do cycle and walk a bit. I have used my current phone (Nokia 730) on occasion to find out where the hell I was and what direction I should be heading -- it did seem to work pretty quickly, but not sure whether I had internet connection at the time (unlikely, but possible). Hence, I did think the navigation thing was important/of interest. I'll have to come back to this when I have a bit of time:
figure out what my current phone can do (I dont *think* it has a compass), and what I would like in a new (android) one.

1603

General Software Discussion / Re: Word experienced an error

« Last post by tomos on December 20, 2016, 02:39 PM »

Hello. It is not spam. I really need help with this issue.

Tom,
I have seen this article, thanks

-JoelRoy (December 20, 2016, 02:28 PM)

sincere apologies Joel

What have you tried so far (did you try what was suggested at that link?)

1604

General Software Discussion / Re: Word experienced an error

« Last post by tomos on December 20, 2016, 11:30 AM »

Not saying you're wrong, but when I see something that makes me think it might be spam, I put it in the report to the mods space, so as not to out someone who might be asking for help legitimately...

-wraith808 (December 20, 2016, 10:53 AM)

yes, can be I'm being presumptuous --
I'll edit my previous post

1605

General Software Discussion / Re: Word experienced an error

« Last post by tomos on December 20, 2016, 09:30 AM »

When I try to open a Word  file, an error message "Word experienced an error trying to open the file." occurs, and the file couldn't be opened properly.

-JoelRoy (December 20, 2016, 08:30 AM)

see here for first steps:

When I try to open a Word 2007/2010 file, an error message "Word experienced an error trying to open the file. Please try the following suggestions" occurs, and the file couldn't be opened properly.

-https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/kb/2749199

https://support.micr...com/en-ca/kb/2749199
(my emphasis)

1606

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by tomos on December 20, 2016, 07:27 AM »

surprised to read that none of the three Moto G4 variants have regular compass capability, which means most navigation apps will not work.

-tomos (December 19, 2016, 05:03 PM)

A compass is not required for (GPS based) navigation, it is only of interest if you want to know what direction you are facing while stationary, (and if you want that added to photo metadata).

GPS based navigation programs will give you the direction you are heading in as soon as you move more than a few meters.
I have had only had one phone that has had a compass (my current one), all my previous (5 Android phones) never did, yet they have no problem doing satellite navigation.

Most early GPS receivers never had compasses ... they still work.

-4wd (December 19, 2016, 08:45 PM)

as can happen (to me), I didnt understand fully what I was saying [edit] there's technical term for that, isn't there [/edit]
Went back for a second look, below about the Moto G4 (in translation) from amazon.de:

Much worse is shame on you Lenovo, the abandonment of basic sensors for navigation. What the hell is that? These are absolute basic features, which even 100 € Smartphones easily master. For a 249 UVP smartphone absolutely unworthy. What does it mean in the plain text?

The Moto G4 supports only A-GPS! And it has no magnetometer. There is therefore no Glonass support and a compass. A-GPS needs additional WLAN or mobile phone reception. How to navigate however 99% of the mobile navis and as long as one is in the area of ​​the net cover with mobile Internet is there no problems. There is also a real GPS sensor. Inlandsnavigation by car is thus very well possible (with good satellite reception on 3m accurate).

However, if you do not have an Internet connection for a long time, the corresponding help data can not be downloaded and the GPS fix can take several minutes (otherwise 5-20 sec). Glonass support would have been great, however, to enable even faster and more precise location determinations through a dual system. And a compass for the orientation on the map is also indispensable, if you have no orientation points and you do not want to go a stretch to know in which direction of heaven one moves. Even in the city, it is sensible to know where to go. Where the needle points is the direction of view.
[..]
No idea why these important parts have been rationalized away a few cents away, but a gyroscope is there. If you never navigate with your mobile phone as a pedestrian Problem-free access, who does it, well consider whether one can do without the feature! For me it is a often used basic feature, since I am often in foreign cities and also for wild walks less suitable.

As I said, for a 249 UVP smartphone absolutely unworthy. I hope Lenovo soon reworked. These arguments seem to be unimportant for most and overall, it is still a very good smartphone with limited pedestrian navigation. In addition, I often need a compass when walking and other situations (for example, astrophotography is also facilitated). For me it is however one of the most outstanding negative aspects of this smartphone, which for most should already be an indication that not much wrong can be when relatively bad speakers and a missing compass are the biggest drawbacks.

https://www.amazon.d...&ASIN=B01FLZC8ZI

I'm fairly ignorant of these things, but navigation is something I'd like to work 'properly'

1607

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by tomos on December 19, 2016, 05:03 PM »

best camera in a smartphone under 250€ / 300$US appears to be the Lenovo Moto G4 Plus.

-tomos (December 18, 2016, 02:01 PM)

The opinion of UK reviewers seems to be that the Moto G4 is not only the best budget smartphone (for a given value of "budget") but better than most mid-range phones.  If you want something a bit cheaper, and physically smaller, check out its small brother, the Moto E.  See e.g. this Expert Reviews roundup: Here are the best budget smartphones in 2016.

-rjbull (December 19, 2016, 03:31 PM)

thanks rj,
that prompted me to check out prices on amazon.de, and read some reviews there --
surprised to read that none of the three Moto G4 variants have regular compass capability, which means most navigation apps will not work. Seems really odd, but I read it on reviews for the regular G4, the Plus, and the Play models

1608

Community Giveaways / Re: TIS-100, a programming game

« Last post by tomos on December 19, 2016, 01:45 PM »

TIS-100 is basically Human Resource Machine's older and veeeeery geeky brother :-)

-f0dder (December 19, 2016, 12:45 PM)

? any parallels there with f0dder being p3lb0x's older ... brother ?
 

1609

Living Room / Re: Looking for smartphone

« Last post by tomos on December 18, 2016, 02:01 PM »

Me, I'm still humming and hawing...

For the record & in case anyone else is looking for similar:
best camera in a smartphone under 250€ / 300$US appears to be the Lenovo Moto G4 Plus.
Many of this model seem to overheat, and it's above my planned budget, but still considering it.

Here a link in German (w. easy to follow ranking), but I've heard/read many recommendations of the camera
https://curved.de/to...era-smartphones/full

1610

Living Room / Re: My board game recommendations for family holidays

« Last post by tomos on December 17, 2016, 10:38 AM »

Continuing on, another great game for families of ALL ages, is Telestrations
Telestrations is more of an activity than a game.  Players pass around drawing pads and have to alternatively draw and then guess what other people are drawing.
It's frequently hillarious, and the worse people are at drawing the funner it is.

-mouser (December 17, 2016, 03:22 AM)

Deozann describes the version he knew of this game:

Just get some pieces of paper, enough so that each person has as many as there are people playing (so if 26 people are playing, each player needs 26 sheets of paper). Then you just start by writing a word or sentence, then pass the paper to the left. Everyone plays simultaneously. When you get a drawing, you try to write the sentence that the drawing was of (on a blank paper) then you pass it to the left. When you get a sentence, you try to illustrate it with a drawing (on a blank paper) then you pass it to the left.

When everyone is out of blank paper, they pass their entire stack to the right. The person to the right takes the paper from the bottom of the pile (assuming oldest drawings/sentences are on bottom) and passes the remaining stack to the right. This process is repeated until all the stacks are gone. Now everybody should have all the papers for their original sentence, in order (or reverse order, depending on which way the stack was facing). Then you go around one at a time, reading the original sentence, then showing the drawing, then reading the sentence of the drawing, then showing the drawing of the sentence of the drawing, etc. until everybody has had a chance to be the center of attention and laugh at all the silly drawings and twists of the original sentence/word.

If you use pads of paper, it simplifies the process of getting the story back in order, since you can just flip back toward the front of the pad. But other than that there's not much difference and no need to limit the number of players or the possible "secret words" since you're limited only by the number of people who want to play and their imagination. Even people who use the same starting word/sentence could result in very different stories by the end of it.

-Deozaan (July 10, 2014, 03:33 AM)

We've played this a fair bit, it's especially popular with my 11 year old niece.
Can be great fun, but always interesting what comes out at the end

has been christened here (translated) the drawing-writing-drawing game

1611

General Software Discussion / Re: New PDF editor: FlexiPDF from SoftMaker

« Last post by tomos on December 15, 2016, 04:39 PM »

For anyone who might want to check out FlexiPDF, there is (currently) a free basic version for download (+ a donation to charity from Softmaker with each download).
See here for details
https://www.donation....msg404699#msg404699

(Naturally they have a trial of the full/non-basic programme at the main Softmaker site)

1612

Found Deals and Discounts / Softmaker FreeOffice 2016 Win/Linux + FlexiPDF Basic free

« Last post by tomos on December 15, 2016, 04:35 PM »

It's the annual Softmaker Christmas download offer, with a donation to charity for each download*

    FreeOffice 2016 for Windows
    FreeOffice 2016 for Linux
    FlexiPDF Basic 2017 for Windows

http://www.loadandhelp.com/en/
This year with the added interest of FlexiPDF
(I have no idea what the difference is between these and the full programmes.)

We give the money to carefully selected charity projects around the world, which are presented by the non-profit charity platform betterplace.org.

1613

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Tips

« Last post by tomos on December 15, 2016, 02:36 PM »

If unfortunately you forgot the login password of Windows 10, you can easily reset it with Hirens Boot CD.

-Queensney (December 15, 2016, 05:40 AM)

does that work for Win.7 too ?   

1614

General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?

« Last post by tomos on December 14, 2016, 07:36 AM »

bvckup v2 ?

-MerleOne (December 14, 2016, 06:36 AM)

Absolutely, Bvckup!
http://www.bvckup2.com/

-tranglos (December 14, 2016, 07:33 AM)

Filehamster was all about versioning (and what was very important for me was the ability to write a comment/note that would be saved with that version).

Bvckup2 doesnt do versioning: the author did at one stage write about possibly trying versioning in another software, I asked him today about it here

1615

General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?

« Last post by tomos on December 14, 2016, 04:57 AM »

Stopped (passively) using Filehamster today.
TBH I wasn't using it for new jobs the last couple of years, but still had it running and covering a couple older jobs that were very occasionally revisited.

I tried adding a job to it lately, but find Filehamster is basically no longer working properly (Windows 7 x64)

So looking for alternatives again -- specifically where I can comment on a file when it is saved.

1616

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Bvckup 2 is in open beta !

« Last post by tomos on December 14, 2016, 04:52 AM »

It doesn't do versioning, but here are my thoughts on this.

I firmly believe that versioning needs to be done in a way that doesn't lock file history to specific software. This means that the version archive format needs to be open and documented. This in turn means that I should either invent and document such format (but then someone else will need to code alternative tools to work with it) -or- I can adopt an existing format.

Can you guess where this is going? ... 3,2,1 ... That's right - it should use Git :-)

So the plan as it stands is to get the V2 on the road first and then to tackle file versioning.

-apankrat (October 22, 2013, 02:24 PM)

wondering if you still considering this idea?

1617

Living Room / Re: Thank you Donationcoder!

« Last post by tomos on December 13, 2016, 03:18 AM »

In recovery mode!

-Josh (December 11, 2016, 07:10 PM)

Not to kick you while you're down, but... You should ask your barber for a refund.

I'm glad it went well and that you're recovering!

-Deozaan (December 12, 2016, 07:26 PM)

I liked the stripe

but the shaved head looks good too Josh
shaved my own lately prompted by hair loss, shaving is a pain, but I like the feel of it (literally and metaphorically)

1618

N.A.N.Y. 2017 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2017 Announcement

« Last post by tomos on December 09, 2016, 01:11 PM »

Maybe two fonts on the left ?
NANY
and a different one for
2017
?
I'm just throwing out ideas now.
Maybe a monospaced for the numbers? (Consolas has nice number 'shapes', but I not well up on monospaced fonts)

But that does make it more complicated, getting two fonts that work well together...

1619

N.A.N.Y. 2017 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2017 Announcement

« Last post by tomos on December 09, 2016, 11:58 AM »

^ this all just personal taste, others will vary!

Just to help me choose things you might like better, what do you dislike about this one? (Berlin Sans, for what it's worth.)

-oblivion (December 09, 2016, 11:50 AM)

I dont like the 'plasticky' feel of it, and I dont like the way the numbers are done in the font.
Afraid I'm not good at creative suggestions, just able to say what I dont like :-/

1620

Living Room / Re: Funny Animal Videos

« Last post by tomos on December 09, 2016, 11:53 AM »

This guy adds improv jazz to youtube videos.  Here's a funny one:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/kSZlyNGj3dg[/youtube]

-mouser (December 09, 2016, 11:05 AM)

the way that cat is yowling, I'd say there's a strange cat in the room there.
Very impressive voice though and nice music to it

1621

N.A.N.Y. 2017 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2017 Announcement

« Last post by tomos on December 09, 2016, 11:34 AM »

Okay... I think I still need to tweak this a bit -- there's at least one major error! -- but just to be going on with -- and any suggestions for less obvious modifications or changes will be welcome, naturally
[ Invalid Attachment ]

-oblivion (December 09, 2016, 11:26 AM)

me, I love the right-hand-side, but not the font used for the big 'NANY 2017' text -
any chance you could do a couple different versions with different fonts?

1622

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by tomos on December 09, 2016, 11:32 AM »

And another useful post from oblivion makes it 400!

-Ath (December 09, 2016, 09:42 AM)

we'll really have to post his 401'st, and 402'nd, and his 403'rd, and his 404'th, and his . . .
 

1623

N.A.N.Y. 2017 / Re: DIA4

« Last post by tomos on December 09, 2016, 10:54 AM »

thanks chesterw, apologies about the paranoia!

1624

Living Room / Re: Guide to Living with Introverts

« Last post by tomos on December 08, 2016, 06:31 PM »

Please don't follow this to its conclusion.

-fredemeister (December 08, 2016, 06:15 PM)

no worries

1625

N.A.N.Y. 2017 / Re: DIA4

« Last post by tomos on December 08, 2016, 05:48 PM »

Why DIA4 *and* DIA5 ?
spammy vibe from that what with the same text in each thread