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1751

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CHS Note field display disappears [Bug?] - disappearing TITLE field

« Last post by IainB on March 21, 2016, 03:40 PM »

2016-03-22: This has been recurring a lot lately, and I have figured out a workaround to it.
This error seems to have recurred episodically across two laptops, several version of CHS, and 4 versions of Windows operating systems:

• Win7-64 HP,
• Win8-64 PRO,
• Win8.1-64 PRO,
• Win10-64 PRO.

The fact that I seem to be the only one to have reported it probably indicates that no-one else noticed it as:

• (a) they don't tend to need or make use of the CHS functionality in quite the same way as I do, and
• (b) it is an episodic and obscure error, and
• (c) one would not necessarily realise that something was missing unless one needed it precisely at that time that the error was occurring..

Example of the error:




New information:
The workaround seems to force the Title field to reappear at the top of the Memo pane, and for all clips.

Repeatability:
I have been unable to determine the steps I need to take to cause the error, so, though I have a useful workaround to it that works every time, the error itself is not deliberately repeatable.

The correct description of the error:
The Title field disappears from the top of the Memo pane display.

Details of the error:

• That field usually has something inserted in it by default - typically (say) the string "Note" (this is adjustable in settings). For example, I currently have it set to the string "Manual Note".
• The Title field also can be selected for display as a column in the Grid pane display.
• When the Title field disappears from the Memo pane for a clip, the Title field is still visible in the selected Grid row for that clip, and in all other rows for all clips displayed in the Grid pane.
• Selecting any different clip row in the Grid pane brings up focus to that clip in the Memo pane, but still without displaying the Title field in the Memo pane. That is, once this error condition occurs, CHS is consistently not displaying the Title field in the Memo pane for any clip selected in the Grid that is brought up to focus in the Memo pane.

Impact of the error on my work:

• When I mark ("tick") a clip as a Favourite, I invariably have to edit the Title field text in the Memo pane to something relevant to the clip contents - e.g., "Quote by so-and-so". This makes it more readily identifiable when scrolling, and more search-relevant and useful for "capturing" in Virtual Folders using SQL search terms.
• However, when the error is occurring, the user is unable to edit the Title field in the Memo pane as that field is simply not there to edit, and CHS won't let the user edit the Title field for any clips displayed in the Grid pane.
• This is a real PITA if it keeps happening when you have a lot of favourite edits like this to do.   
• The old workaround was to restart CHS and that seemed to fix it for a while - another PITA.   

New workaround:

• I found this workaround by experimentation.
• If the error is occurring, then scroll up or down in the Grid pane to the nearest image clip.
• Select the image clip.
• Click on the Clip Text tab in the lower left corner of the image pane.
• This consistently works - it seems to force the Title field to reappear at the top of the Memo pane, and for all clips.   

______________________________________________________
Value the binary and unmeasurable qualities of Truth, Beauty and Goodness above all others.
"To have done the best things in the worst times and hoped them in the most calamitous."

______________________________________________________

1752

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: bring back The Addons Bar!

« Last post by IainB on March 21, 2016, 10:20 AM »

/RANT ON
It really did annoy - and it still does - that Mozilla unilaterally decided to kill off the Add-on Bar: refer What happened to the Add-on Bar? | Firefox Help
It was thus left up to 3rd party Add-ons to fill the gap - which they did for a short while, but which were subsequently broken by changes to Firefox - e.g., The Add-on Bar (Restored).
/RANT OFF

Does anyone on this forum know of a workaround to fully restore the Addons Bar?

1753

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Some Thoughts on Sony's DPT-S1 (Digital Paper System)

« Last post by IainB on March 20, 2016, 10:28 AM »

...exactly, people use that whitespace to take notes

-kalos (March 20, 2016, 06:15 AM)

Har-de-har. Very droll.

That DPT-S1 looks rather slick. I've been wanting to try one out for ages. For example, I can't quite figure out what it does with PDF documents that are image content only. Does it do the OCR, or what? And if it doesn't and so you OCR the document using (say) PDF XChange Viewer, or something, can the DPT-S1 make use of (and search/read) the OCR'd text?

1754

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: OpenDNS + DNSCrypt - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on March 20, 2016, 03:10 AM »

2016-03-20 2109hrs: Major update to opening post, including basic steps for installing and using OpenDNS-DNSCrypt.
Hope it all makes sense and is of use.
I had been meaning to do this update for a long time. Apologies for not having done it sooner, but better late than never!

1755

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

« Last post by IainB on March 18, 2016, 01:09 PM »

@4wd: Wow! Thanks for the link.
That's a very interesting discussion there on the British Columbia Triumph Registry (Canada) website: NOS Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke Kit
- it of course includes references to the old TRs (Triumph Roadsters), which brought back some memories. As a long-time petrol-head I used to have a TR4 (2138cc) with a Surrey Top (was quite rare), with twin 1½" SU carbs that were always going off-tune - so I replaced them with 2 x twin-choke 45DCOE Webers instead. My local petrol station loved me!

But Lucas eh? I used to work as a systems analyst on the Works Engineering and Maintenance Planning System (ran on an IBM 360 at their datacentre) at the Lucas-CAV factory in Finchley (N.London, UK). I was a regular customer of the staff counter in the warehouse, where one could buy Lucas automobile electrical equipment at 50% discount (sometimes greater).
That's where I bought one of the superb Lucas 8-track tape stereo players (with under-seat speakers) for my car. I remember they also had these NOS Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke Kits on the shelves, but not for sale to staff, and I would sometimes see them being taken off the shelf by the older Electrical Engineers (never the apprentices). I always used to wonder what that was about.

1756

Post New Requests Here / Re: Transform list of url links -> copies of actual web pages - try WebPageDump?

« Last post by IainB on March 17, 2016, 11:16 AM »

I have searched the Internet for years to find something that makes a decent copy of web pages, for archive/library reference purposes.
The best I had found was the Firefox add-on Scrapbook.
More recently, I found Zotero.
Nothing else seems to come close.
They are both very good indeed.
Then I discovered that they both use the same engine:WebPageDump
(Details partially copied below and with just the download file embedded hyperlinks.)

introduction
WebPageDump is a Firefox extension which allows you to save local copies of pages from the Web. It sounds simple, but it's not. The standard "Save page" function of web browsers fails with most web pages and also web site downloaders don´t work in a satisfactory manner. This shortcomings were a serious problem for our research.

Each web page is saved in an automatic named subdirectory making it easy to create whole (shareable) web page collections. It is built upon the Scrapbook extension and enhances its capabilities regarding HTML entites, charsets and command-line/batch functionality improving the visual exactness of the local copy. ...
...
using
WebPageDump can be used simply with the "WebPageDump" Entry inside the Firefox "Tools" menu. Hence the actual web page will be saved inside a WPD named subdirectory after selecting the destination directory. This mode is going to be the "normal" mode for most web page collecting applications.

For batch processing the following options can be used through the Firefox command-line. This command-line options are mainly present for webpagedump testing purposes but maybe useful for some special applications. Be sure that a single batch command has ended before proceeding with another one. ...
...
downloads
WebPageDump v0.3 (beta) firefox extension
WebPageDump v0.3 (beta) source code
The extension is provided under the terms of the Mozilla Public License. If you want to install WebPageDump you will either have to manually allow extension installations from this url or save the xpi file with "save as". See changes.txt for the version information.
Tested web pages (~68 MB)
Because of copyright issues we have removed the package of test web pages. But we will make them available for serious scientific research. They were downloaded and modified with WebPageDump using the SmartCache Java Proxy.
_____________________

1757

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on March 17, 2016, 08:46 AM »

Pretty impressive security CCTV footage. Three men distract the shop teller and place a skimmer device on the EFT-POS terminal. Takes about 8 seconds.

Raw Video: Men Place Card Skimmer on ATM Store Machine! - YouTube

1758

Living Room / Re: Peer Review and the Scientific Process

« Last post by IainB on March 16, 2016, 05:50 PM »

I had always been interested in "shaken baby syndrome" since watching a UK TV documentary about it as a child. It was the first time that I learned that parents could snap and lose control and actually seriously harm their babies out of a sort of mental state of pent-up frustrated anger, without actually intending to harm them.
Whilst I had realised that diagnosis was based on a hypotheses rather than established facts, I had not realised that in the UK one is apparently not allowed to talk about it as being a hypothesis, but only as an established fact.

This shaken baby syndrome case is a dark day for science – and for justice
Clive Stafford Smith

A leading doctor faces being struck off for challenging the theory about the infant condition. It’s like Galileo all over again
Image: Father holds newborn baby on shoulder
‘Shaken baby syndrome is almost unique among medical diagnoses in that it is not focused on treating the child.’ Photograph: Moodboard/Alamy

Monday 14 March 2016 09.30 GMT
Last modified on Tuesday 15 March 2016 11.42 GMT

On Friday, I witnessed something akin to a reenactment of the trial of Galileo, precisely four centuries after the original. Dr Waney Squier faces being struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC) for having the temerity to challenge the mainstream theory on shaken baby syndrome (SBS).

For years, the medical profession has boldly asserted that a particular “triad” of neurological observations is essentially diagnostic of SBS. Since the Nuremberg Code properly prevents human experimentation, this is an unproved hypothesis, and there has been rising doubt as to its validity.

Doctor who doubted shaken baby syndrome misled courts, panel rules

I am convinced that Squier is correct, but one does not have to agree with me to see the ugly side to the GMC prosecution: the moment that we are denied the right to question a scientific theory that is held by the majority, we are not far away from Galileo’s predicament in 1615, as he appeared before the papal inquisition. He dared to suggest that the Bible was an authority on faith and morals, rather than on science, and that 1 Chronicles 16:30 – “the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved” – did not mean that the Earth was rigidly lodged at the epicentre of the universe. It was not until 1982 that Pope John Paul II issued a formal admission that the church had got it wrong.

Shaken baby syndrome is almost unique among medical diagnoses in that it is not focused on treating the child. If an infant has bleeding on the brain (a subdural hematoma), the doctor wants to relieve the pressure – it is of little relevance how the infant came about the injury. SBS is, then, a “diagnosis” of a crime rather than an illness, and when a brain surgeon comes into the courtroom and “diagnoses” guilt, the defendant, mostly a parent, is likely to go to prison – or worse.

I have defended a number of emotionally charged capital cases where doctors have opined that a child had to have been shaken by an angry parent because it was “impossible” for the triad of neurological sequelae to result from an accident – it “had” to be caused by shaking. Many American doctors adhere to a bizarre notion that an infant cannot suffer a fatal head injury from a fall of less than three storeys. While we cannot drop a series of infants on their heads to test this, it would appear to be plain folly. The velocity of a five-foot fall means a child’s head can hit the ground at roughly 15mph, which is faster than most people – short of Usain Bolt - can sprint. I invited a series of neurosurgeons to run headlong into a hardwood wall in one courtroom, so we could see what happened to them. They politely declined, and stuck to their silly theory.

    What other doctor will be prepared to question the prosecution theory if it means the end of a career?

Squier has now been branded a “liar” by the panel, and found “guilty” of paying insufficient respect to her peers. Dr Michael Powers, perhaps the eminent QC in the area of medico-legal practice in the UK, believes that the GMC tribunal – made up of a retired wing commander, a retired policeman and a retired geriatric psychiatrist – was not qualified to understand the complex pathology of the developing brain. “It is therefore sad, but not surprising, that they have reached the wrong conclusion,” he said. “The proper forum for debating these issues is the international neuroscience community.”

Powers has a point: Michele Codd, the chair of the panel, was a general duties officer in the RAF for 32 years. One might doubt whether Stephen Marr, a retired Merseyside police officer, would hold up a constable’s hand to a prosecution theory that has sent so many people to prison.

Nisreen Booya was the sole person with any meaningful medical qualifications on the panel, but in a rather different area: she is a retired psychiatrist specialising in geriatric issues such as Alzheimer’s, an illness that, like infant head trauma, is “poorly understood”. She is quoted as saying that she “made a career of trying to provide innovative services” in her field – and yet she condemns Squier for thinking outside her own rigid box. All three are doubtless honourable people, but they are simply wrong to hold SBS up as the fifth gospel.

At the risk of being diagnosed with “I told you so” syndrome, I wrote an article 20 years ago questioning whether forensic hair analysis was really science. I was pleased therefore when, in 2015, the FBI admitted that they had got it wrong for decades – but this came after thousands of men, women and children had been convicted on the basis of latter-day snake oil, and scores had been sent to death row.

Those deemed to be blasphemers often suffer a gruesome fate. Although Squier may be struck off, at least she will not be burned at the stake. But the impact on medical science will be immense, because what other doctor will be prepared to question the prosecution theory if it means the end of a career? This is a very dark day for science, as it is for justice.
______________

1759

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on March 16, 2016, 11:03 AM »

Amazing news from the UK: The UK just struck oil
Somehow I never envisioned that I'd be reading such a headline. It seems to be true though. And where once one oil-strike is made, there could likely be others. Oh dear.

1760

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on March 16, 2016, 04:19 AM »

@Arizona Hot:
Re: New York Attorney General Targets Supplements at Major Retailers - The New York Times

Very interesting about the fraudulent sale of supplements - in an unregulated (read "ungoverned") sector reliant on a so-called "honour" system for authenticity - in the US.

No surprises there then, except perhaps at the apparent level of gullibility of the average suckers consumers who must apparently be buying that "snake oil" in the entirely unfounded belief or expectation that it is all kosher - there is such a thing as Caveat emptor "let the buyer beware", after all.
The nanny State can only go so far, though it looks like it might have responsibly and albeit belatedly intervened in this case, to protect consumers from snake oil salesmen (the companies selling the products to consumers). Still, if it is invited to sort it out, it could do so at cost to the taxpayer - so at least some benefit might come out of that (employment for more government officials).

From a Consumer Justice perspective, I would recommend that there might be some justice in retrospectively and punitively fining the companies that have been selling the products to consumers, for having (corruptly) perpetuated a fraudulent process that they must have been able to determine was, or had known or suspected to be a fraud, but turned a blind eye to the matter because of the potentially huge profits that were to be made. - e.g., think of Volkswagen diesel "tests".

However, from past experience, I'd be none too sanguine of that coming about - this being "Merika" that we are talking about, after all - due to the actors in this arguably all being likely to be in each others' pockets already anyway.

1761

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Inexplicable CHS find/search results - rules not understood.

« Last post by IainB on March 15, 2016, 12:31 PM »

my memory is spaces as delimiters.  if you have just a - by itself it will probably be ignored.
_________________________

-mouser (March 15, 2016, 11:10 AM)

Oh! Then that means:

1. "Corporation - psychopathy" - CHS fails to find it (no hits), even though that is the exact string as copied from the Memo pane.

- cannot be explained.

1762

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Inexplicable CHS find/search results - rules not understood.

« Last post by IainB on March 14, 2016, 10:15 PM »

...Presumably "Corporation - psychopathy" meant "NOT space character" - right?...

-IainB (March 14, 2016, 09:45 PM)

Hmm. If that is the case, then which characters are being taken as delimiters between the contiguous sub-strings in the string "Corporation - psychopathy", or is space the delimiter, so that the embedded "-" is not directly related to a string and is thus taken to negate the entire string?   
Confuzzled.

1763

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Inexplicable CHS find/search results - rules not understood.

« Last post by IainB on March 14, 2016, 09:45 PM »

Ahhh, I see. Thankyou.
Well, that's the rule I was unaware of! That is, "-" immediately(?) preceding a character/string means "NOT".
Sorry if I should have been aware of that. I did look in the Help file for enlightenment, but didn't spot it if it was there.

I figured it would have to be consistent, whatever it was - and it is.
I think it's a great rule to have - very smart search.   
So don't change it, please!
Is this (and other rules) documented somewhere? I need to know...
For example, how close to the negated search string does the "-" have to be?
Presumably "Corporation - psychopathy" meant "NOT space character" - right?
 
CHS search otherwise does very well - and more than you'd expect. For example, if I search for "Fallout" the hits include "Fallout3", which is exactly what I might be looking for.

1764

Clipboard Help+Spell / CLOSED: Inexplicable CHS find/search results - rules not understood.

« Last post by IainB on March 14, 2016, 09:01 PM »

Interesting behaviour in CHS:
Attempting to locate in the Grid the exact clip that was being displayed in the Memo panel - CHS does not always display that clip highlighted in the visible Grid pane, so you have to scroll around for it - I copied a partial string from the Title field of the clip in the Memo panel.
The string was "Corporation - psychopathy".

I then pasted that string into the Find/Search box (where the mouseover info says "filter clips using these strings"), and the clip disappeared from the Memo pane, and the Grid was empty. That is, Search could find no clip record in the database that had that string - which was clearly not the case as the string was copied from an existing clip.

However, I had previously thought that CHS Search would unfailingly and almost instantaneously find what you asked it to search for, so I presumed that the string had something in it that was causing Search to be "blind".
Thinking that maybe it was the dash/minus character in the string ("-") that could be causing the problem, I experimented with the string. The results (hits) from CHS were interesting, though somewhat confusing:

• "Corporation - psychopathy" - CHS fails to find it (no hits), even though that is the exact string as copied from the Memo pane.
• "Corporation psychopathy" - (with just 1 space or n spaces between the two words) CHS hits show that it consistently finds the clip(s) with those words in.
• "Corporation -psychopathy" - CHS had several hits, which seemed to be only those clips with "corporation" in it, but I'm not sure about the consistency. I suspect that there may well be more to it, as I didn't go through all the hits.
• "-psychopathy" - CHS had lots of hits, but I couldn't figure out what was a consistent reason (there will be one) for selecting those hits. However, it didn't seem to be the word "psychopathy" anyway.
• "Corporation- psychopathy" - CHS had no hits.

What this would seem to indicate is that, whilst we might take it as a given (or I had, anyway) that CHS will consistently find clips in its database, and thus we might rely on CHS to do just that, the reality could be somewhat different.
I am now unsure of the rules governing this CHS search function.

1765

Living Room / Rather odd Firefox hyperlinking error from duckgo search results.

« Last post by IainB on March 14, 2016, 04:20 AM »

I ran a search in duckduckgo for"error code is 0x80072EE7" (without the quotes).
The 1st result is copied below:
__________________________
Error Code 0x80072EE7 - Microsoft Community
Error Code 0x80072EE7 - Microsoft Community
Error Code 0x80072EE7 MR. Mr.Al asked on June 5, 2009. Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #17 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #32 Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #37 Microsoft ...
answers.microsoft.com /en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardwar...
__________________________

If I click either of the links in Firefox, I get this error message page:

We are sorry...

The page you requested is not available at this time.

You can try the following:

    Search Microsoft Community
    Go to the Microsoft Community home page

This is consistently repeatable.
If I copy just the location of either of the links, and then paste that into the URL bar, FF takes me to the correct page every time.

If I run the same duckduckgo search in Chromium, I cannot repeat this error - it works fine.
If I click on the pasted links in this post, in FF, it works just fine.

So what is the duckgo search result panel (or its script?) doing to send FF to the wrong page?
This is happening a lot, but seems to only occur with searches linking to microsoft sites, where FF always goes to the above error message page.

1766

Living Room / Re: Consider installing 2 x 8Gb RAM cards in your 64-bit laptop.

« Last post by IainB on March 13, 2016, 08:35 PM »

@Edvard: Yes, not paranoid anyway.
"Terribly depressed" - yep. I could empathise with that, at least.

1767

Living Room / Re: Consider installing 2 x 8Gb RAM cards in your 64-bit laptop.

« Last post by IainB on March 13, 2016, 07:37 PM »

@f0dder: Yes, I did use the word potentially for that reason - it was a potential.

What I have found:

• Firefox: this seems to typically use between 1.6 to 2Gb RAM - so (say) up to ¼ of my previous 8Gb RAM configuration - and that was probably frequently swapping out to the pagefile. Now that I have 16Gb, I have set the FF cache entirely to RAM, and FF now seems to behave better/more responsively - e.g., especially when bringing up Zotero in a tab, or opening the Scrapbook side-panel (containing thousands of items).
• SIMS3: My daughter plays this, and the game would frequently stutter and/or crash when saving a game. Since a lot of her game-playing is actually designing houses and landscaping them (she's very artistic, and who knows but she might be heading towards being an architect, landscape gardener, or something), a crash would lose a lot of design effort, so she stopped playing SIMS3 as it was too dispiriting. After upgrading her laptop (a refurbished Samsung Series 3 Quad Core) to 16Gb, she says the game is playable now - though interestingly is still not as responsive as it was on her previous laptop - which had an an Intel i5 CPU, under Win7-64 with 8Gb RAM.
• Fallout3: Seems to play more smoothly now, even when I have other applications running in the background. However, that is kinda academic because switching from Fallout3 to one of those applications is seriously hit-or-miss where there is every likelihood that Fallout3 will crash and the only way to get back to Windows then seems to be to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and force a user logoff (otherwise a reboot is necessary). It's very messy.
• Large databases/spreadsheets: Generally better. I sometimes have some very large loads on RAM. For example, opening up all my OneNote Notebooks or InfoSelect databases at the same time, or manipulating large Excel spreadsheets (tables and pivot tables). Previously, these could have been impacted adversely by other applications competing for scarce RAM, and become sluggish - now not so much.

Because I never use Hibernate, I hadn't though until you mentioned it that a Hibernate operation might be slower when both hibernating and restoring, but I would say that would have to be right - i.e., estimating that a 16Gb core dump would take approx 2 times longer to read/write than an 8Gb core dump).

An interesting point is that, according to this: Memory Limits for Windows and Windows Server Releases (Windows) - computers with current 64-bit Windows OS technology could theoretically use up to a maximum of 128 GB, with addressability up to 16TB, or something.
You'd have a room full of RAM chips with a little computer buried in one corner of the room.   

Reminds me of Marvin the paranoid android (HHGTTG) where I think he said something like: "Here am I, brain the size of a planet, and 'Get me a cup of tea' he says".

1768

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 - pros and cons

« Last post by IainB on March 13, 2016, 06:59 AM »

Is there a way to display the weekday number (e.g. 1 for Monday, 2 for Tuesday, etc.) ?

-andrejtm (November 19, 2015, 12:16 AM)

will be added once I've added the ordinal day number (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc) which kind of requires a rewrite of internal format processing

-WhiteTigX (November 19, 2015, 11:33 AM)

"multiple formats"? Some say Sunday is the first day of the week, some say Monday is. And Saturday and..., and...
Anyway, I came to say Thank You for writing the TClock Redux version!, but haven't we tested it enough by now? Isn't it time for a proper installer? I cannot launch a new version of TClock without first closing my security program. That's not how we want DC programs to function.
_____________________________

-Curt (March 13, 2016, 01:57 AM)

I'd have to say that @Curt seems to make some valid points, though I'm not sure I can agree that the statement "That's not how we want DC programs to function." makes any valid point, since it seems to be an appeal to the consensus.
From my perspective:

•    T-Clock is a more ergonomically efficient and display-space utilisation-efficient clock display for my purposes (per my post above).
•    The 12-month calendar displayed by T-Clock goes approx 80% towards what I would want (per my post above).
  
  
•    T-Clock disables the 3-clock display (per example below, showing different timezones), which is a potentially useful feature of the standard Windows clock - and it can be annoying not having that when you need to work across different timezones.
  
  
  
•    Windows Defender virus checker quarantined the file: C:\...Clocks\T-Clock\misc\Options.exe because it apparently looked like a seriously bad Trojan called Trojan:Win32/Varpes.L!plock
  
  
•    As a result of point 4, Windows keeps popping up a warning that it can't find misc\Options.exe (because it's in quarantine, you see).
  

Therefore - on balance - I have just uninstalled/removed T-Clock.

So, in my view, for this particular software, it's the problems/interruptions that seem to make a negative difference - but they will probably be transient. I am otherwise usually more than happy to Beta-test or otherwise trial this and other software, so keep it coming, please!

1769

General Software Discussion / Re: bookmark management tool

« Last post by IainB on March 10, 2016, 06:57 AM »

Like @x16wda, I too have used Xmarks. I started using it in 2008/9, but had to uninstall it eventually as it made a nightmarish duplication of hundreds of my bookmarks, which took me ages to sort out and I still occasionally trip over its duplicated bookmarks. I'd never use it again after that experience.

One thing I have found that works extremely well however is the Firefox Sync function. It's undergone steady improvement and is very reliable. I use it to pool and sync bookmarks, passwords, etc. (I tick all the boxes) between 3 laptops - 1 of which is "mine", and 2 are used by my children. This means that we can each seamlessly use our own IDs on each other's laptops, and my daughter can tell me to (for example) look at such-and-such a link for something she is researching, and there it is on my laptop (or whichever laptop I am using).
You need to trial it to see just how useful that can be.

1770

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by IainB on March 10, 2016, 03:45 AM »

A very dear friend of mine died prematurely of cancer a while back, and left me his two laptops for my children to use:

• Compaq Presario CQ61 (32-bit) with Windows 7 Home Premium with 1x2Gb RAM
• HP Mini 110-3500 (Intel Atom CPU, 32-bit) small netbook-type laptop with Windows 7 Starter with 1x1Gb RAM

I beefed up the 1x2Gb RAM in the Compaq by the addition an extra 1x1Gb RAM in the 2nd (empty) RAM slot. That made it 3Gb in total and it ran much better. I shall eventually replace that with 1x2Gb RAM, making 4Gb in total.
I beefed up the RAM in the HP Mini by replacing the 1x1Gb RAM with 1x2Gb RAM (it only has the one RAM slot). It ran incredibly slowly before the RAM upgrade, and reasonably well after the upgrade. It's OK, but a bit slow.

I then ran all the updates for the Win7 OS on each laptop. They had not been updated for about a year, so it took a while.
Eventually The Win10 update adverts started on the Compaq, but not on the HP Mini, so I guess the latter can't support Win10, so it's stuck with Win7 Starter.

Before I allow the Win10 update to install on the Compaq, I thought I'd ask members on this forum of their experiences with making that change.
Was it worth making the change from Win7 to Win10?
As it stands, the Compaq runs very nicely under Win7 HP, even before the last extra 1Gb RAM has been added.

1771

Living Room / Re: Peer Review and the Scientific Process

« Last post by IainB on March 10, 2016, 02:29 AM »

@Renegade: By the way, I just watched Alternate Viewpoint-Cancelling Headphones - We the Internet Sketch 9
I've met quite a few people who might like to buy these headphones, so, thanks for the link.   

1772

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks

« Last post by IainB on March 09, 2016, 08:16 PM »

is there a way to control the container of a note?  they are too big.  i keep trying to create new notes around existing notes, and especially below them, the software assumes i'm adding to the existing note, and the margin extends a good 3-4 lines below the content.  i want the container to end pretty close to where the content is.   i don't want all that space, it is very annoying.

-superboyac (March 08, 2016, 02:57 PM)

A double click with the mouse should force a new note to open - although you will still need to leave one line after the previous text.
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-David1904 (March 09, 2016, 01:53 PM)

@superboyac: You ask "is there a way to control the container of a note?". The answer is YES. It's all draggable and resizeable you see.
Experiment.
Try to break it.
Also try out using table cells as sub-containers. I do that a lot because the Containers are too flexible and keep changing to accommodate new or changing text in the notes. The table cells behave differently and are more precisely controllable and less likely to expand automatically. The Container walls can set hard boundaries for table cells.

(Sorry if any duplication. I thought I'd already posted this comment - or something like it - but I can't find it. Maybe I forgot to press "Post" or maybe I posted it to another discussion thread by mistake.)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks

« Last post by IainB on March 09, 2016, 08:05 PM »

Wait, that is also possible? Could you elaborate on how to do it? I just did a quick search online, but it seems it is only possible for audio and video recorded by OneNote?

-Attronarch (March 09, 2016, 01:18 PM)

Yes. For example in ON 2007, refer: Searching for information in audio notes in OneNote.
And it's been improved since then (I'm using ON2016 now).
So, no, it is NOT "... only possible for audio and video recorded by OneNote".
Drop an audio talk in an MP3 file into a OneNote Note and play a bit of it.
Make sure you have search audio set to ON in Options  | Audio & Video.
It might take a short while, but you will then be able to use WDS and ON Search to locate decipherable spoken words in the audio (or video) clips. And it's not just MP3 files for audio either. I recall that there are several audio file types it can cope with.
Find out by experimentation.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Picasa to be 'phased out'

« Last post by IainB on March 09, 2016, 02:56 PM »

Oh, right - it's still there for the time being but just not usable anymore. I'm positive that this will never happen with any other centralized storage.
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-Tuxman (March 09, 2016, 09:27 AM)

Oh, I think history will probably show that your cynicism is absolutely correct - if it hasn't already.
Over-dependency on centralized or Cloud-based storage is potentially a mug's game. Same is probably true for cloud-based SAAS (Software As A Service).
From lessons learned from past experience, I would recommend that we avoid becoming dependent on either/both, but then one thing that history shows us is that those who are unaware of that history or that experience of it will probably tend to need to go through it first before they learn the same lessons.

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Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on March 09, 2016, 10:01 AM »

Here's How You Can Replace Your Rusty Brake Lines
Good article about replacing unsafe corroded hydraulic brakepipes, but what puzzles me is that the replacement brakepipe they use seems to be the same corrodable type as the original. I thought copper pipe had been the normal replacement for 20+ years now - in the UK, at least. Maybe not in the US?