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1801

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on February 28, 2016, 04:31 PM »

...E-banking tip: Mom's maiden name? Say 'grapefruit'

-Arizona Hot (February 27, 2016, 12:54 PM)

Interesting link, thanks.
It's to USAtoday.com that seems to be one of those sites that has an annoying pop-up telling you what you are "agreeing to" by default:



Note the instruction: "By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Notice and Terms of Service."

/RANT ON:
Unfortunately, having someone instructing me like this is almost guaranteed to spark the immediate thought in response:
"No I don't agree, and you can't make me agree in a free society, so you can shove it where the sun don't shine." - and I'd avoid using that website in future.
I mean, why do they have to take such a silly dictatorial stance - one which is almost guaranteed to put some people's backs up?
Why the heck can't they be polite, respectful and apologetic - like so many other sites are - about the fact that they are obliged to treat the website access as a tacit agreement and to tell you about it, due to some (stupid) bureaucratic ordinance?
Well, the answer is likely to be that their editorial staff either haven't got a polite and respectful attitude towards their readers (unlikely), or have had their editorial control in this matter taken away from them by corporate lawyers who certainly don't possess a polite and respectful attitude towards any readers.

I say this because I couldn't care less about reading the Privacy Notice or Terms of Service, and I am unlikely to ever read either of them, and furthermore there is a well-established rule of law in Contract that "Silence does not constitute agreement" to any contract - particularly relevant, for example, in the case of the formerly prevalent unethical practice of some companies that would send people unsolicited goods (Encyc. Brit. being one of the prime offenders as I recall) and then demand payment.

Thus, it is a contractual matter. The law was eventually changed such that (I think) the recipient of such unsolicited goods had no liability except maybe for a temporary duty of care only for the goods, allowing sufficient time for the senders to retrieve them at their own cost.

/RANT OFF.

1802

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

« Last post by IainB on February 27, 2016, 06:40 AM »

LOL moments.
I collect humourous things - like written/spoken jokes - but a lot of them come from real life.
Here are two recent ones:

Logical conception:
This was in a family court hearing where a female solicitor was questioning a witness (the father of a child named "Becky") about the child's birth and where the mother ("Sally") was living at the time (real names and details not used):

• Solicitor: So when and where was Becky born?
  
  
• Father: On 24 October 2002, in Singapore.
  
  
• Solicitor: Is that where Sally was living?
  
  
• Father: Well, yes, Singapore at the time of birth, but it could have been Auckland (New Zealand) if Sally had stayed there after visiting over January and February of that year, which would have been where Becky was conceived about 9 months before. So Becky was conceived in one place and born in another.
  
  
• Solicitor: So, Sally became pregnant?
  
  
• Father: Yes, of course. We've established that Becky was born in October of that year and that conception would have been in January or February, so Becky could not have been born without her mother becoming pregnant in the interim.

The other barrister literally fell about laughing over this.
The judge promptly adjourned the court for lunch.
________________________________

US Strategic Foreign Policy in a nutshell:
Appearing before the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, John Kerry the US Secretary of State was asked about a Gitmo detainee released by the administration in 2012 who had recently been spotted on an al-Qaeda recruitment video. (Why did that happen?)
Kerry made a statement whilst testifying about the State Department’s budget request for the fiscal year 2017.
During the hearing, Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) asked Kerry for his thoughts on Ibrahim al Qosi, the former Guantanamo detainee who is now a prominent al Qaeda leader, and had staffers hold up a picture of the terrorist for Kerry to see.

… Kerry paused for a moment before saying to Kirk, “Well, Senator, he’s not supposed to be doing that. And there are consequences for that, and there will be. But apart from that, the fact is that we’ve got people who’ve been held without charges for 13 years, 14 years in some cases. That’s not American, that’s not how we operate.”

“He’s not supposed to be doing that”?   
So that's all right then.
____________________________________

1803

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

« Last post by IainB on February 23, 2016, 06:07 PM »

@superboyac:

What is the status of being able using Onenote in a completely on-premise type situation?  No cloud storage, other than for temporary transferring back and forth.  I have an online MS account, but I don't want to use it for my notes.  I can use an enterprise local onenote/sharepoint setup for syncing onenote across all devices, right?
_______________________________

Sorry, I can't really help you there as I have no experience of using device sharing to a SharePoint server. I guess it should work, though the proof is in the pudding.
Same goes for your other Qs.

1804

General Software Discussion / Re: Software discontinued...help!

« Last post by IainB on February 20, 2016, 03:17 PM »

@pleased: Thankyou for introducing me to X2NET OneStore with your query. I have learned a lot from it and am quite impressed with its potential as a personal DMS (Document Management System). I have posted a review separately in the relevant forum: X2NET OneStore - Mini-Review ("also-ran")

Sorry I can't help to explain why you are apparently unable to install OneStore in your Win10 OS, whereas I managed to do it first time with no real hitches.

It struck me that, if your old OneStore Store(s) are big, then you might be in for a world of pain to migrate all your stuff out of them - especially given that some of your data could well be stored in a proprietary OneStore format (see my review), and thus making export standards issues potentially tedious to work around.

You could well find it worthwhile to consider continuing to use OneStore, if you could just get it running on Win10 or another OS (and if you have a default single user licence). I wouldn't necessarily say that it was dead yet. That could give you time to look for a replacement and take your time about it.

1805

Mini-Reviews by Members / X2NET OneStore - Mini-Review ("also-ran")

« Last post by IainB on February 20, 2016, 02:48 PM »

Herewith are my brief review notes on X2NET OneStore:
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.



The text is in the spoiler:

Spoiler

X2NET OneStore (v1.1.1.205) dated 2009-03-23 - brief review.
System installed 2016-02-20 on Win10-64 Pro with UAC set OFF.
System is a 32-bit application and seems to have Win10 compatibility issues.
• Filename on disk: X2NetOneStoreSetup v1.1.1.205.exe
d/l from: Free X2Net OneStore Download:
 - http://www.brotherso...d-114677.html?bottom
• During installation there was a suspect Trojan in the Uninstaller.exe file (see below), but that was from a download via Brothersoft, where I downloaded onestore by x2net 1.1.0.205 from Free X2Net OneStore Download and found it had actually downloaded Version 1.1.1.205.
• The downloaded file passed examination by my Windows Defender and Malwarebytes OK, and Virus Total.
• Very good X2NET product closedown info. page at: http://www.x2net.com/
        - but does not refer to OneStore … !
• Useful discussion here: Outliner Software: X2Net OneStore
• The latest (2010) Wayback website copy for http://www.x2net.com here: https://web.archive....net.com:80/onestore/
- which referred to Version 1.1.0.205, but I was unable to download from Wayback, so they hadn't captured a copy.


Screen clipping taken: 2016-02-20 00:30

Screen clipping taken: 2016-02-20 00:31
Ø User security details 01: (not shown in clear in these notes):

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Ø User security details 02: (not shown in clear in these notes):

Screen clipping taken: 2016-02-20 00:34

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Screen clipping taken: 2016-02-20 00:35
Given the fact that the setup .exe file had been cleared by Windows Defender, Malwarebytes, and a Virus Total re-scan, this suspected virus alert was probably a false positive.
However, after restart, I checked that Win10 Defender had
Quarantined the suspected Trojan, and then I
removed/expunged it from Defender's quarantine/loq.

Then X2Net OneStore was started up:

Screen clipping taken: 2016-02-20 00:52

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Summary of experience on this trial/test:
Overall conclusion:
        • The downloaded installer file is apparently valid for a 30-day free trial period, but I have not tested that.
        • Despite the "Virtual Printer" utilities not installing and the Hotkey assignment conflicts necessitating setting alternative hotkeys (probably all due to Win10 incompatibility issues), OneStore seems to work quite well, and seems to be very robust and well-designed - i.e., fit-for-purpose.
        • The GUI employs a ribbon-type interface and works smoothly. Good ergonomics.
        • OneStore It is NOT a note-taking PIM (Personal Information Manager), but is more like a DMS (Document Management System) and as a DMS it is pretty good and has some useful DMS categorisation (similar to tagging") features. Must look into this some more.
        • OneStore is a client-server database system (SQL with a Nexus engine) providing information Stores (classic filing cabinet concept) and management of same in a hierarchical, nestable drawer/folder structure. What is Stored are information objects captured by OneStore capture functions, or otherwise imported into the Store, where each object is a file for one of:
                ○ Text (note that these cannot be created or edited in the application).
                ○ Image (note that these cannot be created or edited in the application).
                ○ Audio (note that these can be created but not edited in the application).
                ○ Document (various types; cannot be created or edited in the application).
        • Quick Capture Utility:
                ○ The QCU is persistent in the Systray.
                ○ The GUI for the QCU is somewhat deformed (probably due to a Win10 incompatibility issue), but workable - and a very handy/efficient object capture utility it is too, duplicating/augmenting some of the main GUI ribbon functions to a partial extent.
                ○ This QCU links to the Clipboard.
                ○ It captures clips without OneStore actually running. I am unsure how many clips it can hold in buffer (not tested) when OneStore is not running.
                ○ If you start OneStore, then the QCU-captured clips are shown in the Store as "Clipboard capture" (date/time) and can be seen in the Preview pane.
                ○ In a normal installation, I  suspect that the QCU would automatically start up OneStore if it was not already running, but this doesn't happen in my Win10 installation of OneStore.
                ○ Capture of images/pictures can either be to the default proprietary OneStore format, or to a image proper file. This default is settable and makes a difference for export purposes. Must look into this some more.
                ○ Same for text capture from Clipboard. Confusing, but seems to have a purpose. Must look into this some more.
        • Audio tool:
                ○ This is an audio note creation tool (for making on-the-spot audio notes), and it works beautifully - just click-and-talk. Very nice.
        • Note-taking:
                ○ Given the quirky fact that that the user can make/create audio notes using a utility within the application and save them as a file in a Store, the absence of a simple text note creation and editing tool could be a design oversight.
                ○ The user is apparently obliged to make text notes using a text editor, and save the notes as an object (e.g., .txt file) in a Store. Must look into this some more as there is definitely some kind of text note creation/edit facility.
        • Object Preview:
                ○ Objects in the Store can be viewed (or listened to) via an expandable Preview pane.
                ○ I did not establish how many of the potential different file/document types could actually be viewed legibly in the preview pane.
                ○ A brief test indicated that Text, Audio and Image files seemed to preview just fine.
        • Help:
                ○ OneStore has an excellent Help .PDF file - very well-written and comprehensive with a full TOC incorporating embedded page hyperlinks.
        • Search/Index:
                ○ The system apparently indexes some - not sure if all - files in the Store that contain text.
                ○ Haven't figured out how to use or get the search tool to work. It looks quite powerful in function.
                ○ I did not study the Help file on this, so am unsure whether it is me or the software that is at fault, but I suspect it is probably just me.
        • Database Server, Access Control, and Licences:
                ○ Files in specified Stores can be shared by other users across a LAN, according to access control rules set for documents in (I think) the relevant Store  - i.e., access control it is at the Store level.
                ○ Shared files can be checked in/checked out of a Store - i.e., similar to SharePoint and other DMS concepts.
                ○ Sharing necessitates multiple user licences.
                ○ For personal/home use, a single user licence is assumed with no DMS sharing functionality, and according to an old (Dec. 2008) BitsDuJour item, a single user licence is now $FREE.Refer: http://www.bitsdujou...tware/x2net-onestore
                ○ However, after a brief search, I could find no published information regarding single user licence keys, so I am unsure whether a single user licence is assumed by default at the end of the 30-day trial period.
       
General:
        • Though I quite like some of the features in OneStore, it would still seem to be a bit outmoded and kludgy in use, even if it were not quirky in this OS.
        • And though I quite like the idea of this software, the wisdom of using a proprietary and obsolete/unsupported database to hold your precious data should be questioned.
        • It is arguably an obsolete approach mirroring what you probably could do just as easily (if not more easily) using a modern Windows PC, disk, and Windows file manager (or, say, something like xplorer²) and Windows Desktop Search.
        • Having said that, with my background and interest in large DMS implementation and use, I am tempted to trial this tool some more to better discover its potential use for me as a personal DMS (and if I could tinker with and support the thing myself). Could be a useless time-bandit though…   :-)

1806

General Software Discussion / Re: Software discontinued...help!

« Last post by IainB on February 20, 2016, 01:32 PM »

OneStore does not have an import function? ...
________________________

-Shades (February 20, 2016, 11:46 AM)

Yes, it does, but you can only import an Export file!   
Good points all.
OneStore lets you tell it where to go look for a database (Store) server, so that would seem to be the best route to take.



Help file Page 6 - location of default Store on the server machine:
(You need to put all your old database/Store files in here.)
The Help notes say this is true for Vista. It is also true for my Win10 installation as well (I just checked).
However, to be sure, you will need to hunt around for this folder to verify if it is true on an XP install - it might be different.



Nearly there!

1807

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft - Windows 10 aggression

« Last post by IainB on February 19, 2016, 11:27 PM »

e, so you're a Microsoft upgrade technician. Wow, can I help you out? Which way did you come in?"

-holt (February 04, 2016, 07:46 PM)

Through the window of course..
___________________

-Stoic Joker (February 05, 2016, 06:41 AM)

Then the quickest way out would presumably be ... defenestration?   

But seriously, there would seem to be a lot of business sense for Microsoft behind their pushy approach to converting the existing installed bases/populations of Windows (i.e., XP, Vista, Win7, Win8, Win8.1) to Win10, however, this would seem to have little to do with user requirements. User requirements probably don't figure too much in Microsoft's thinking.
 
From a user perspective, the question should probably more properly be: Does the user want or need to upgrade from AS-IS to a new TO-BE state  - e.g., to one of the newer OSes up to and including Win10?
My response would probably be along the lines of: If you are happy using WinThing AS-IS at present, then don't upgrade, unless you feel it would be necessarily useful to first upgrade the PC hardware to (say) 64-bit and jump to the OS that would be most suitable/current to support that hardware. However, would that jump support all of your existing main applications? If not, then stay as you are in AS-IS for as long as you can continue to support the AS-IS state and as long as it is cost-effective and not holding you back in some way.

Following that path of reasoning, the user may decide, for example, that one of the other interim OS versions - i.e., rather than Win10 - might best suit their needs. So, for example, an XP user may decide that moving to Win7-32 would be their best option as it would leave them with a better, more stable, and still currently supported OS, and mean they could continue using all of their existing applications without problems, whereas moving to Win10 would force them to upgrade their applications as it was not backwards compatible and did not support their existing applications. With these sorts of complex considerations, one could map out an array of choices in a condition-action table.

But where it has a monopoly, Microsoft doesn't necessarily want or care to accommodate those sorts of cases, as it doesn't suit their optimum cost-efficiencies and profitability to do so, so that option for the user is effectively going to be squeezed out by persistently pushing/forcing the Win10 upgrade path, even though it might not necessarily be backwards compatible or be the best option for the user. It's the best option for Microsoft that is important in this.

IBM invented this kind of Win-Lose/Trample game and were monopolistic past masters at it, setting the standards, as it were. Microsoft have the excellent IBM model to follow, and have been pretty good at it so far. They are just being a good corporate psychopath.

1808

General Software Discussion / Re: Software discontinued...help!

« Last post by IainB on February 19, 2016, 06:58 PM »

@pleased: my testing with OneStore v1.1.1.205 indicates that:

• It seems to function OK in Win10-64 Pro, though it has a few odd quirks.
• You won't need a licence for the default 30-day trial period, and uninstalling it and reinstalling it would probably give you another 30 days. Maybe you won't need a licence key anyway?
• You will thus be able to make sufficient time to provisionally extract and migrate your existing OneStore stores onto another medium - my suggestion would be nested folders on disks, replicating the structure of nested folders in the stores.

Though I quite like some of the features in OneStore, it would still seem to be a bit outmoded and kludgy in use, even if it were not quirky in this OS.
And though I quite like the idea of this software, the wisdom of using a proprietary and obsolete/unsupported database to hold your precious data should be questioned. It is arguably an obsolete approach mirroring what you probably could do just as easily (if not more easily) using a modern Windows PC, disk, and Windows file manager (or, say, something like xplorer²) and Windows Desktop Search.
There are some good alternative PIMs (Personal Information Managers) that are not at/near the moribund end of their lifecycle, and which have similar or better functionality than OneStore. Therefore it is probably an appropriate time to review your requirements in the light of what is currently possible using more modern technology. So don't just go looking for a OneStore twin or clone.
Testing will reveal whether OneStore v1.1.1.202 or v1.1.1.205, or both, will be able to handle your v1.1.1.202 database (stores). However, the good news may be that you are not as stuck as you might have thought.

1809

General Software Discussion / Re: Software discontinued...help!

« Last post by IainB on February 19, 2016, 09:24 AM »

I just now came across a BitsDuJour offer for X2NET OneStore, from Dec. 2008, where it says:

... Please note: An X2Net single-user license is now free! Today's promotion is for a commercial license or for a single-user license on a multi-user network installation.
Review Written by Roger Thomasson
Source: http://www.bitsdujou...tware/x2net-onestore
________________________________

From what you wrote, you would seem to have a single user licence. Would you be able to share the key? I haven't come across it in my searches so far.

1810

General Software Discussion / Re: Software discontinued...help!

« Last post by IainB on February 19, 2016, 08:47 AM »

@pleased: If you go to http://www.x2net.com/ you will find a very helpful webpage. I have copied just the text below:

We regret to inform you that X2Net Limited has ceased trading.

The following license name/key pairs can be used to enable activation of existing products for which X2Net Limited held rights.
Product    License Name    License Key
          
WebCompiler V3.x    WebCompiler    000015-8KJH5B-KDNHD5-8UNYGP-222VQZ-CTW0KJ-4MGHVH-BT96TE-GAZ3VP-JH9JKQ
WebCompiler V2.x    WebCompiler    5139-332A-796C-13E1-38CC-EE40-F176-3E0A
X2Net Smart Address V5    SmartAddress    000MKE-N4B7GG-TZY5GE-QPBUUZ-2UXMEF-9PHHNE-Q5VQAX-WN6RXH-DZN7T9
Smart Address 2000    SmartAddress    26FB - 868D - D47C - 0B33 (Multi user code for 10 users is 31F6 - B6AC - 88A0 - ECA3)
X2Net SmartBoard    SmartBoard    01C0HY-YEA8MH-BBKVW1-W7GEHX-UA8K4W-T5FWCK-EN5J4V-U5H72H-TW52R0-05Z6RM
X2Net Calendar    Calendar    018E5F-38XVGA-H4PX2T-PE3T71-0JRF4X-BN5RAH-3UJ0BD-203MB1-04HVYK-H6E7QT
X2Net Contacts    Contacts    0186KT-JRXB5R-5NPMEB-166CUU-VVF31E-EQGERU-GY0MYD-1FYVDG-HD3MUE-F43216

 If the product you want is not listed then X2Net Limited no longer had rights to issue the keys.

Final installation files are available here.

If you are having difficulty entering keys there are small utilities to force the keys in available here. Simply stop the program in question, run the keyforcer and put the keys in, then start the program again.
_______________________________________

You should be able to get the latest installation X2NET proggies and licence keys from there - BUT NOT FOR  X2NET OneStore!
Looks like the developers were a pretty professional bunch and did a graceful shutdown.

I am currently playing around with installing and running the NoteStore application on Win10-64 Pro, and it seems to work, but with a few quirks.
It seems to be a rather nifty SQL database client-server application, but the "virtual printer" installation and Hotkey assignments are giving some probs.

There was also a suspect Trojan in the Uninstaller.exe file, but that was from a download via Brothersoft, where I downloaded onestore by x2net 1.1.0.205 from Free X2Net OneStore Download and found it had actually downloaded Version 1.1.1.205.

The downloaded file passed examination by my Windows Defender and Malwarebytes OK, and Virus Total.
The suspected trojan warning only showed up towards the later part of the installation after the virtual printer installation had been giving error messages that it was unable to complete. That may be a Win10 constraint, and the trojan alert may have been a false positive, but I didn't take any chances. The software installed OK otherwise, but with a few quirks, as I said above.
 
Found a useful discussion here: Outliner Software: X2Net OneStore

The latest (2010) Wayback website copy for http://www.x2net.com here: https://web.archive....net.com:80/onestore/
- which referred to Version 1.1.0.205, but I was unable to download from Wayback, so they hadn't captured a copy.

@pleased: What is the version number of the OneStore.exe file you have, please? (Look in file properties.)

1811

Developer's Corner / Re: Ethics in Technology - fraudulent software deployed at Zenefits.

« Last post by IainB on February 19, 2016, 04:51 AM »

I wrote above:

Following the above comments, I would suggest from experience that the consideration of shady/dodgy, immoral, corrupt, unethical, borderline legal and downright illegal strategies is arguably the necessary norm for savvy senior management in many/most organisations, not just the three mentioned in the OP. ...
_______________________

-IainB (September 24, 2015, 01:05 AM)

Today I came across a very interesting case in point here: How High-Flying Zenefits Fell To Earth - BuzzFeed News

The instructions that circulated through the offices of Zenefits, the fast-growing human resources startup, looked innocent enough. In six steps, new recruits were told how to download and run a simple piece of software that would speed up the process of becoming a licensed health insurance broker in California — a mandatory credential for their work selling insurance to small businesses.

But there was something about this program that seemed a little too sensitive to put into writing.

“Let’s discuss what’s below when we chat on the phone,” one manager wrote in a 2014 email, in reference to the instructions.

Left unsaid was that use of the program, known as a macro, would allow a sales rep to shortchange a requirement under California law. By keeping them logged into an online course, even while they were sleeping or doing something else, the macro enabled Zenefits employees to spend less than the legally mandated 52 hours in pre-licensing training. Newly hired sales reps, who often lacked an insurance background, used the macro as early as 2013, the year Zenefits launched, and as recently as last year, former employees say.

This institutionalized cheating finally caught up with the San Francisco-based Zenefits last week, when Parker Conrad, the 35-year-old co-founder and CEO, was forced to resign over what the company described as widespread failures of regulatory compliance. The shakeup, announced in a blistering memo from David Sacks, the executive who took over as CEO, stunned the tech establishment, which had supported Zenefits’ rise. It showed how Silicon Valley’s cult of hypergrowth — of which Zenefits was a leading exemplar, having achieved a $4.5 billion valuation shortly after its second birthday — can create unexpected and even disastrous problems.

The macro, while leading to Conrad’s ouster, according to two people familiar with the matter, was only one in a list of ways Zenefits sought to speed up its ascent, many of which have not previously been revealed. Sales reps threatened to charge a phony implementation fee as a lever to close deals. Managers urged new recruits to try to score not much higher than the minimum passing grade of 60% on the California broker license exam. Pervading the offices in San Francisco and Arizona, meanwhile, was an almost fraternity-like atmosphere, with whiskey shots, kegs, and bottles of champagne.

“We must admit that the problem goes much deeper than just process,” Sacks told employees in his memo. “Our culture and tone have been inappropriate for a highly regulated company.” ...

1812

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff" - avoiding "Groundhog Day".

« Last post by IainB on February 19, 2016, 01:37 AM »

When it comes to trying to understand American politics, it always feels like an uphill battle for me - a battle where I invariably feel that I am the loser as it all seems incomprehensible to me.
I therefore read with interest this post by one Glen Lipka about a rule for determining which U.S. presidential candidate will get elected, based on a historical perspective: The Presidential Charisma Rule – commadot.com

Presidential Elections Rule #1: The one with more charisma will win.
__________________________

I presume that the symbols (D) and (R) as used in the post represent the divisive dichotomy of Democrat and Republican, respectively, in the essentially two-horse race that is seemingly the only choice consistently allowed the American voters - this being my perspective as one of the people who voted in a referendum for a change to the electoral process by the implementation of a system of PR (Proportional Representation) to put an end to a similar (and disruptively destabilising) dichotomy in the election process in New Zealand.
It slowly dawned on me that the above "Charisma Rule" gave one a working theory which could help to explain things more scientifically in the context of any political selection process - that is, if only one could put a notional and reliable statistical measure on the defined quality of "charisma".

I slowly realised that it joined some dots together and could potentially be very useful. I know something about charismatic leaders, having:
(a) worked for one in an an organisation at 4 and 3 management levels below a charismatic CEO (he was an excellent guy to work for and with), and
(b) studied various research of reasons for corporate collapse in the US, UK and Germany, where one of the 3 main causes of such collapse was invariably found to be a charismatic leader whose appointment/selection typically led to a kind of meteoric rise of the organisation and himself (it was never a woman), followed by an abrupt collapse and demise due typically to unintended consequences in his edicts/decisions. Thus the end result of selecting a charismatic leader was ultimately and inevitably fatally destructive for the organisation, its employees' careers, and its charismatic leader's career in that organisation. This is potentially predictable/repeatable in practice and applied equally in the case of my charismatic CEO.

Thus the "Charisma Rule" for me not only helps one to feel that one understands US politics a little more, but also it fits with the leadership selection experience in the essentially 2-party system that generally prevailed in New Zealand prior to the introduction of PR, and it fits with the researched experiences of the selection of charismatic leaders in corporate organisations, and the (now) predictable failure outcomes.

What I find especially interesting about all this is (for me) the new freedom and scope for choice that it can give one by extending one's potential capacity for choice. That is, if once one observes that there seems to be a common thread there - i.e., the selection of a charismatic leader - then one probably feels obliged to at least consider whether one wishes to passively remain stuck in a system where one finds oneself, but now being aware of its having a disappointingly predictable and disruptive cyclical outcome, or to change oneself or the system to escape the seemingly "Groundhog Day" nature of it all.

H.G.Wells: Prisoned From The Cradle To The Grave
- Author: H.G.  Wells (from "The History of Mr.Polly")
from Chapter 9 - The Potwell Inn
But when a man has once broken through the paper walls of everyday circumstance, those unsubstantial walls that hold so many of us securely prisoned from the cradle to the grave, he has made a discovery.  If the world does not please you, you can change it.  Determine to alter it at any price, and you can change it altogether.  You may change it to something sinister and angry, to something appalling, but it may be you will change it to something brighter, something more agreeable, and at the worst something much more interesting.  There is only one sort of man who is absolutely to blame for his own misery, and that is the man who finds life dull and dreary.  There are no circumstances in the world that determined action cannot alter, unless, perhaps, they are the walls of a prison cell, and even those will dissolve and change, I am told, into the infirmary compartment, at any rate, for the man who can fast with resolution.
_____________________________

1813

Living Room / Re: In-Car Emergency Kit - Your Recommendations

« Last post by IainB on February 16, 2016, 11:38 PM »

@CWuestefeld: "Next Exit" sounds like a seriously useful - if not essential - touring aid.

1814

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

« Last post by IainB on February 16, 2016, 11:30 PM »

interesting.  I'm not ready yet to start cloud unifying everything, so I'm still in the phase of multiple client notebooks on 2-3 devices.

I just became annoyed at the web clipper...which doesn't allow me to save clips to a local/offline notebook.  what the hell?  this is using the extension for firefox.  i'm going to try with the desktop clipper.
_____________________________

-superboyac (February 16, 2016, 05:47 PM)

Using client-based Notebooks:
I suspect that your experience of setting up and using client-based OneNote Notebooks will only be good for PC clients. Other devices, not so good. Bound to be constraints. There's only so much functionality you can develop, maintain and pack into smaller capacity processors.

Getting to understand the clipping functionality in different modes of working:
I, like you, was initially "...annoyed at the web clipper...which doesn't allow me to save clips to a local/offline notebook."
Then I realised, after thinking about it, that that's the only way it could work, since it has to access one's account. So the only Notebook it can save to is a Cloud-based one - i.e., it can't know how to network back from the Internet to your PC-based Notebook. By the way, that functionality can also send a perfect scrollable web-page snapshot (image file) to your web-based Notebook. Once in your Notebook, the image is OCRed and that content then gets indexed and becomes searchable, and thus becomes part of your knowledge base (make sure you have set the switch to auto-OCR images ON, as it might not be on by default). This is the only product I have found that takes better and quicker snapshots than Screenshot Captor, and it OCRs everything too, and all perfectly done (so far). So one does not need to worry about ensuring the capture of all a web page's text...Hmm. Trouble is, any embedded hyperlinks are lost, so the Firefox add-on Scrapbook is not made redundant.

Otherwise, if you want to clip something from any application to a PC client-based Notebook, then one has some very useful alternative approaches:

• (a) Select-->Copy-->Paste: Use the conventional Select-->Copy-->Paste, directly into the Notebook on the PC that you are using.
• (b) New Quick Note: Select/bring up a New Quick Note from the Systray icon (hotkey is Ctrl+Shift+M from within OneNote, but be careful as this hotkey does something quite different in Firefox!), which pops up a narrow window on the RHS of the screen (RHS is by default, and I think can be changed). The New Quick Note is quite nifty as it provides you with automatic source-linking (a bit like Clipboard Help & Spell) and options for setting that. You need to use this to understand it and get the hang of what it is doing, or could be doing, depending on the settings/options you select.
• (c) Screen Clipping Tool: Take a screen clipping from the Systray icon (hotkey is Win+Shift+S). You need to use this to understand it and get the hang of what it is doing, or could be doing, depending on the settings/options you select.
• (d) Send to OneNote or OneNote Linked Notes: In IE use the Send to OneNote or OneNote Linked Notes buttons/functions. This demonstrates superb integration between IE+OneNote. You need to use this to understand it and get the hang of what it is doing, or could be doing, depending on the settings/options you select. There are/were extensions to do similar in Firefox, but I gave up using them as my Firefox beta updates kept breaking things and they wouldn't work.

By the way, if not already done, consider installing OneTastic macros. There are now a few really useful macros - e.g., two of my frequently-used favourites are:

• Where am I +
     This is useful when you have navigated by links somewhere into your Notebooks and need to know where you are currently "nested".
• TOC in Current Section
     This is a handy macro.

1815

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

« Last post by IainB on February 16, 2016, 07:27 AM »

@superboyac:
Audio data: Yes, my "discovery" of OneNote's the indexing of detected words/phrases in audio clips, and syncing of the playing of the audio clip with a transcript took me by surprise. The indexing also includes when (in mins and secs) the phrase occurs.

Syncing OneNote Notebooks to OneDrive: I started off with all Notebooks being Client-based, and I kept it that way until MS offered their "free" crippled OneNote, trying out the web-based Notebook they provided in my account. It seemed to work fine, so I selected Notebooks one at a time to "locate" them on OneDrive. Results as described in comments above. Even though Cloud-based, they are still backed up (backup files are) on the Client.

In playing about with Notebooks, I experimentally merged most of them into one very big one, then split that up a bit later. Some of my Notebooks are a few Gb large now, as they contain lots of text, images and multimedia (audio and audio-visual) files, as well as program and document files.
What I learned is that file/database size seems to be a non-issue, as Cloud-based OneNote files are automatically synced with changes on the Client at the .ONE file level - so whole notebooks are not being repeatedly updated/synced, but only the changed elements.

I have the concern noted above where my first experience of (so far) a single corrupt Note page in a Notebook was one too many. The Client-based Notebooks worked flawlessly, and were actually faster in use (no bandwidth-sucking downloading/caching/syncing of parts of a Notebook stored on OneDrive).

OneNote OCR functionality and search: Ruddy brilliant IMHO.

I don't know who they had in the OneNote development team, but from MS Office 2007 and onwards, there seems to have been some very cogent thinking going on - and not just for OneNote. Respect.   

1816

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

« Last post by IainB on February 16, 2016, 07:12 AM »

^ yeah, I know what you mean.
Guess I'm a bit disillusioned what with thinking lately of the insecurity of google products.
I dont even use Picasa myself, but have recommended it's to lots of more basic users I know. It had it's flaws, but also a lot of great points.

EDIT// it's also another step in the drift away from desktop...

-tomos (February 15, 2016, 05:51 PM)

Speaking as a longtime Picasa user, I'm not sure that's necessarily the case. The Picasa client tool is a standalone piece of software, rather like the early Evernote client was standalone. One issue seems to potentially be whether Google are deprecating some of the the standalone functionality (e.g., metadata database, including facial recognition) in Picasa, and if so, then why? Otherwise Google Photos seems all good, no?
An analytical  comparison of Picasa v. Google Photos would seem to be in order...   

1817

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on February 11, 2016, 01:28 PM »

As a parent, I find those "Common Core" critical videos somewhat disquieting.
I looked at some others that were linked/associated with them in YouTube, and the one that helped me make sense of it all was the description of how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pumped and is pumping billions of dollars into what seems to be a half-baked bureaucratic approach to education, driven by some kind of a high-sounding slogan of "No child left behind" ideology, or something. As Deming pointed out, an ethos based on slogans can be devastating in its destructive consequences in any process, and is an example of irrational behaviour - "Action that is not based on sound theory is irrational by definition". Combine that with money/power and you find a motivation for almost anything stupid or evil that mankind has done or is doing around the globe. So Common Core would seem to be in the mix there.

The ideology is bankrupt. The reality would seem to be that we are NOT all born equal in the mental faculties department, and some people will inevitably start to lag behind from the moment of their birth, as HJ Eysenck pretty much established, there being a relatively large distribution of IQs in any given population sample, being arranged about a relatively classic bell curve of a normal distribution with the notional average of 100.
Let's not forget here that IQ tests measure not intelligence per se but a person's ability to answer the artificial IQ tests devised by unscientific psychologists, who suffer from their own human fallibilities, so they will probably only get things partly right at best - with the odd lucky exception, I suppose.

Core Curriculum represents a change, and, good or bad, the majority tend to resist a change. It seems to me that the point made in some of the videos about Core Curriculum math laboriously teaching understanding of how and why basic math calculations are performed was not shown as a necessary preliminary transitional state before teaching efficient calculation methods/algorithms. So be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water.

When it comes to helping children to become speedy calculators, I think nobody has yet improved on the Trachtenberg speed system of basic math, yet most teachers would not even know what that is and I don't know of any school that teaches it. The fact seems to be that when we calculate (using mental arithmetic), we do it using learned mental algorithms or "tricks", and whilst we are doing it we are not actually really thinking per se about what we are doing. Research has shown fairly conclusively that we can focus on only one mental process at a time.

That's the problem facing educators. To establish its worth, each new approach is essentially going to have to be tested on an unsuspecting population, and only time will tell whether it was better or worse than the last/previous experiment. Kids are the guinea-pigs in all of this. This is the research in prototype.
Using this unresearched hit-or-miss (QED) methodology inappropriately with a secondary objective of also determining some measure of teachers' efficacy/performance as teachers is likely to be a double fail. It will be demoralising, intimidating and likely to cause unintended consequences and sub-optimal coping behaviours as the beleaguered teachers desperately struggle to work the system such as it gets them the best results for their own performance measure.
I predict outcomes of fraud, incompetence and disaster for the teachers and the luckless students who are to be compulsorily afflicted with this experiment. The quality of educational output will necessarily suffer in all of this. One probably only needs to look at India's educational system for a comparison.

1818

Living Room / US National Debt hits $19 trillion.

« Last post by IainB on February 10, 2016, 06:00 AM »

I missed it whilst I was sleeping, but the US Debt Clock carries the news that the US is now in uncharted waters, due to the US National Debt - as tracked by the US Debt Clock - having exceeded $19 trillion.
I would presume/suppose that there is no way back to get out of this condition, should anyone want to try.
We are living in interesting times...

1819

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of an alternative to InfoSelect ...

« Last post by IainB on February 07, 2016, 06:32 AM »

@skas: Well, I for one am always interested in this thread, so thanks for posting what you did.
Yes, TreeDBNotes Pro looks like a rather good PIM, to replace not only Infoselect 9 (or IS8 in my case), but also as a OneNote Replacement.
The difficulty I have is that my requirements for holding what I now regard as "data" have changed to include other things not previously considered as feasible for PIMs. Hence my post about using OneNote as a 21st-Century Zettelkasten.
I'd much rather be able to navigate around my OneNotes database using something like IS8 or TreeDBNotes Pro, but I can't, and they can't meet my changed requirements, so I'm currently stuck with OneNotes as the only option (for me).

1820

Living Room / Re: In-Car Emergency Kit - Your Recommendations

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2016, 06:19 AM »

For emergencies, in any car I own, I would usually carry a metal box containing:

• a decent and inexpensive first-aid kit (I build one up from supermarket/pharmacy purchases, rather than buy an expensive ready-made yet inferior one),
• a current/recent fire extinguisher (you never know...),
• a couple of lightweight tow ropes (mainly to help other people, as I also always have a towbar fitted),
• a pair of jumpstarter cables (again, mainly to help others). (NB: In use, these are rumoured to have the potential to cause surge damage to modern alternators, so now could probably be replaced by one of those new small lithium-based starter-pack kits.),
• a toilet roll (paper),
• a kitchen roll (paper),
• a few lengths of lightweight nylon rope,
• a small portable foot-pump,
• a small tyre-pressure gauge (foot-pump gauges are unreliable).

And don't forget to prudently check the pressures on the car tyres at cold every couple of weeks, and on the spare tyre every couple of months, maintaining the latter at a few PSI above its highest normal recommended operating pressure (front/back tyres tend to have different recommended pressures).

Also, hung from the central rear-view mirror, to forestall emergencies, to appeal to or appease the gods, or to otherwise improve one's statistical odds of good fortune on the road (can be used variously singly or together):

• a Saint Christopher (patron saint of travellers) pendant,
• a cross pendant (Christian/Anglican),
• a crucifix pendant (Roman Catholic),
• a rosary or prayer beads, etc,
• a Buddha pendant (Buddhist,
• a freshly-killed chicken (Voodoo),
• two soft dice cubes (for atheists).

However, be warned, from personal experience, that the freshly-killed chicken or the two soft dice cubes can seriously inhibit the driver's forward vision through the windscreen, which could well cause/induce an accident. Used together they could make the driver "a menace on the roads", as one traffic officer politely but sternly told me after booking me for failing to stop at a STOP sign because it was obscured from my vision by these objects being hung from my mirror.

1821

Living Room / Re: Why GOD has not updated the world ?

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2016, 04:36 AM »

Oh! About leaving. If God could change the laws of the universe so that all paths are mobius strips, that'd be just awesome! We're talking major version upgrade here! 
________________________

-Renegade (January 21, 2016, 05:50 PM)

Well, presumably your own experiences can substantiate that the laws of the universe had already been thus changed in your case, no?
I mean, some time back, didn't we have it on good authority (yours) that you were leaving and had indeed left, or something, and yet here you are now, apparently back again - as if you had merely taken a mobius trip? (Enquiring minds need to know.)

1822

Living Room / "Fear not, the universe is in good hands." (Cradle of the nuclides.)

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2016, 04:06 AM »

"Fear not, the universe is in good hands."
This encrypted message in all matter in the universe is readily seen in this
three-dimensional plot of potential energy per nucleon (M/A) versus mass
number (A) versus charge density (Z/A) for all 2.850 known nuclides*.
* "Nuclear wallet cards", 6th edition (2000) National Nuclear Data Center. Brookhaven Nat'l Laboratory, 74 pp.
_____________________________
nuclide /"nju;klVId/
· n. Physics a distinct kind of atom or nucleus characterized by a specific number of protons and neutrons.
- DERIVATIVES nuclidic adj.
- ORIGIN 1940s: from nucleus + -ide (from Gk eidos 'form').
Concise Oxford Dictionary (10th Ed.)
_____________________________

1823

Found Deals and Discounts / Dr.Explain (documentation authoring tool) - 70% off via BitsDuJour

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2016, 03:37 AM »

The Dr.Explain deal is here: http://www.bitsdujou...#8090457295218049707

As it was described as "An Amazing Automatic Documentation Authoring Tool", I went to look at the website to see what was so special about it, not having come across it before.
I took a look at the developer's Dr.Explain overview (click on link to read).
It looks as though that overview has been written using Dr.Explain, and it is pretty impressive.

1824

Found Deals and Discounts / Notezilla 8 ($29.95)) - offer via BitsDuJour [now closed]

« Last post by IainB on February 05, 2016, 03:20 AM »

Just for information. This offer has apparently just closed. I didn't have time to mention it here before.
The product and its marketing/business/pricing model seems to be not what it once was, so might not appeal to everybody.
Details here: http://www.bitsdujou...=search-for-software

1825

General Software Discussion / Re: Opt-in before January 31, 2016 to keep your current OneDrive storage size

« Last post by IainB on January 31, 2016, 06:41 AM »

@lanux128: Thanks for posting this. I did actually already know that I had a limited time to opt-in, and so promptly opted-in, but your post would have been a useful nudge had I not known about it.