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1876

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

« Last post by IainB on December 15, 2015, 01:05 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbYWhdLO43Q
Sheee-it!

-Renegade (December 11, 2015, 09:52 AM)

how nice
___________________________________-

-tomos (December 11, 2015, 05:11 PM)

This idea might come in really useful, if you didn't already know about it.
Toilet-training is something that we naturally assume gets sorted out in childhood, but there's apparently a lot of room for improvement over the traditional Thomas Crapper position.

I read some research a while back that showed that adopting something closer to the squat position (e.g., as employed in Asian squat toilets and French motorway squat toilets) made all your internal guts line up for an easier, faster poo and reduced risk of straining/piles.
So I recommended it to my daughter as she often has tummy probs in the morning before going to school, and suggested that she use the plastic foot stool that we keep in the bathroom for our 5 y/o son to stand on at the basin. So she tried putting it under her feet to raise her knees up, and the changed anatomical geometry helped her a lot and now she always uses it.

So then I tried using the footstool, and whilst I was used to always taking a book and reading glasses into the throne room for the duration (or the classical 3-movement symphony), I now barely have enough time to read half a page (and I'm a fast reader), and I don't get piles like I used to. It is very effective. So I always use the footstool too.

As Ren said in the Ren and Stimpy cartoon episode "Space Madness":

"I'm not hitch-hiking anymore - I'm riding!"

______________________________________

1877

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

« Last post by IainB on December 14, 2015, 03:42 PM »

Not sure whether this has already been posted:

1878

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Spurious error or undocumented feature in CHS?

« Last post by IainB on December 14, 2015, 09:22 AM »

Well, it's an odd kind of bug. By the way, the bold and blue formatted text clips have all returned to normal black now after my having logged off and on again.

1879

Clipboard Help+Spell / Spurious error or undocumented feature in CHS?

« Last post by IainB on December 14, 2015, 12:57 AM »

1880

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

« Last post by IainB on December 12, 2015, 01:06 AM »

Original Post:	2015-12-12
Last updated:	2018-06-23

As a sufferer of CRIMP*, over the years I have trialled probably hundreds of pieces of software for PIMs (Personal Information Managers) - including Wikis, database tools and computerised card-indexes.

*CRIMP defined
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
May 10, 2006 at 01:05 PM
 
CRIMP stands for a make-believe malady called compulsive-reactive information management purchasing. Symptoms include:
   • never being satisfied with your current system of information management
   • continuously being on the look-out for something newer and better
   • purchasing every new PIM program you learn about
   • and secretly hoping you won’t find the perfect PIM, because then you’d have to stop looking for a better one

So, when someone speaks of succumbing to his or her CRIMP, it means acknowledging that they’ve purchased another PIM program even though they really don’t think they need it.
There must be a 12-step program for over-coming CRIMP, but who really wants to? It’s too much fun.
Steve Z.

From <http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/17/0/crimp-defined>
_________________________

Usually, when I write a mini-review on DCF, I do as thorough a job as I can. Since that takes time/effort - due to the constipated nature of making tabled posts and embedding RTF and links and images in this forum - I usually only write about the particularly potentially good/useful software/service that I find, and, having made that not inconsiderable effort, I try to maintain/update the reviews from time to time so as they remain reasonably current and thus still potentially useful.
However, the "also-rans" have rarely warranted much of a mention from me.

Until now, that is. Earlier this year I changed my work methods and began to methodically use OneNote to capture more of my activities in a Journal form, and this included trials/evaluations of all PIMs and other software - i.e., including the also-rans. So, I am now slowly building notes on the also-rans, which is useful when I next see them available on (say) BDJ, as I can quickly see and refresh my memory as to what my conclusions were the last time that I looked at the software on sale or being given away, and without putting any real effort into it.

Thus, in the discussion thread below are presented my brief review notes (and perhaps other people's too) on the PIMs in the index:

• Essential PIM Pro (originally posted 2015-12-12 in the OP; later moved into the discussion thread)
• The Journal - an extended daily journal/diary system.
  

1881

Developer's Corner / Re: Copy/pasting code and the last line effect

« Last post by IainB on December 11, 2015, 10:05 PM »

From my experience of working as a programmer, systems analyst, IT project manager and applications development manager, there are probably few or no mistakes that one is likely to find in this or any other discussion on errors made by skilled programmers that would be statistically "uncommon", and that will likely tend to be the way of it until human error is eliminated from the process of code-writing.
One of the more moronic statements I came across in IT management was at a meeting where a senior applications development manager, who, his team having been hit with a rash of coding errors that had manifested themselves only after operational implementation, instead of saying "We need to improve pre-production release testing", said "We need to have a Zero Error target". It was a gob-smackingly ignorant statement.
(The analyses of errors in programming coding indicated that it is not a process in statistical control, and even if it were (or could be) a process in statistical control, the main source of error would still remain/be human error, which is impossible to eliminate unless you eliminate the human element.)

As @anandcoral says:

Happened with me many times. Either the compiler or the run time error points my mistake.
I think the mind really gets 'tired' of repeated copy-paste-change work and starts registering 'Oh come on, it is done' before the last line ends. 

-anandcoral (December 09, 2015, 02:01 AM)

- and that could well be true. We don't really know the real cause of it in our heads.
One thing for sure is that programming requires a collection of learned skills and habits of mind that are products of our socio-cultural development rather than being associated with a necessary natural survival characteristic. If programming was associated with a necessary natural survival characteristic, then there would very probably be fewer common coding errors!

For example, you would be able to observe which areas of the brain light up on an EEG (Electroencephalograph) whilst a skilled programmer was coding, and you would probably see no lighting up of those areas of the brain associated with survival, because there is no danger.
You could contrast programming with (say) a skilled juggler juggling 3 spherical objects. Juggling, like programming, is a learned skill, and, similarly, you would be able to observe which areas of the brain light up on an EEG whilst a skilled juggler was juggling 3 spherical objects, and, again, you would probably see no lighting up of those areas of the brain associated with survival.

However, using the same skilled juggler, if you then substituted 3 very sharp knives for the 3 spherical objects, the EEG will show the juggler's brain lighting up very rapidly all over the place, including  those areas of the brain associated with survival - which is what one might intuitively expect. We are designed by our DNA and evolution to survive - all those who weren't simply dropped out of the gene pool. Once a threat to survival comes into it, our brain knows very well what is at risk, and literally "takes over".
Now I haven't studied this closely, but it would be interesting to see the statistics for the same skilled juggler, showing the number of mistakes made whilst juggling 3 spherical objects versus the number of mistakes made whilst juggling 3 very sharp knives.

1882

General Software Discussion / Re: What is Runtime Broker, and Why is it working so pathetically bad?

« Last post by IainB on December 11, 2015, 05:29 PM »

...Also, I am on a 32-bits Windows_10_Pro 4GB_RAM Dell laptop.

-Curt (December 11, 2015, 04:59 PM)

Blimey. I don't know why, but I had assumed that Win10 only supported 64-bit (i.e., not 32-bit).
Maybe there's hope for my old 32-bit Dell laptop yet...my 5 y/o son uses it for games. It has Vista Ultimate or something and runs incredibly slowly and I would not use it, though it is OK for games.

Would you mind posting to the Windows 10 thread about your experiences with the 32-bits Windows 10 Pro 4GB RAM Dell laptop, please? Potentially, it could be rather useful to a lot of people. It'd be interesting too.

1883

General Software Discussion / Need "Safe & Secure Cloud Storage™" services? Maybe Google Drive?

« Last post by IainB on December 10, 2015, 02:31 AM »

I became concerned about Google Drive security when they switched from an LLC (logical labelling concept) to an FC (Folder Concept). I had individual and separate files which were each labelled in several separate categories, and when Google switched to FC, they turned all the labels into folders, put the single file into a single folder (apparently at random), with links in all the other folders (which had been labels before) pointing back to the single file. Each link had a.doc suffix but was only about 280Kb in size. It was very confusing and made a lot of unnecessary and tedious work for me to clear up.
Such churlish disregard for their customers, confusingly populating their drives with virtually empty folders like that, and burying the actual document in the matrix.
So it was with mixed feelings that I read this post (below) on the Google Drive blog.
One thing it has going for it though is that Google seem to be making genuine improvements (albeit very belatedly), and they don't use the E-word ("excited") anywhere that I could see, so it may be genuine rather than yet another marketing puff.   
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Because it's gotta be super easy to find your files
Wednesday, December 9, 2015

When you store important files in Google Drive they’re not only safe, they’re accessible from any device. And finding them again from any device should be super easy so we’re rolling out a new search experience to get you better results — even faster. Drive lets you search across all your files, regardless of the device they came from. To make that easier, you can use these new ways to find your files:

    Narrow your search to a file type from the search box on Android, iOS, and the web.
    Open advanced search instantly from the search box.
    Access recent files or search Drive from the home screen using 3D Touch on iOS.
    Search Drive using the iOS search bar without opening the Drive app.

Several behind-the-scenes improvements give your search queries even better results than they did before. And to get more specific results, anyone can now do the following:

    Search for shared files by file owner using their name or email address.
    Use advanced search options like the date a file was modified, words it contains, or who it was shared with.

This is all part of an ongoing effort to make Drive the easiest place to find your files. Look for these features as they roll out in the coming weeks. Posted by Steen Andersson, Group Product Manager, Google Drive

1884

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by IainB on December 08, 2015, 07:10 PM »

Where @Stoic Joker says:

...I did notice a bunch of other stuff that had quietly gone missing after the last upgrade. I have a group of small no install utilities I've always kept in C:\Program Files\Mini-Tools really just to keep root C cleaner since they had to go somewhere, and I didn't want them to be scattered about. When I went looking for one of them this weekend, I discovered that the entire Mini-Tools folder was missing/had been skipped during the upgrade. It was still retrievably in the Windows.old folder, but why the upgrade took it upon itself to deem that unworthy of migration is rather perplexing.
Now here's the weird part ... While both are configured identically, my office computer moved the Mini-Tools folder during the upgrade that my home computer skipped.
_________________________________

-Stoic Joker (December 07, 2015, 07:09 AM)

- I suspect that the mistake we all make is to let Windows dictate to us that we put any program files that we wished to control, into either:

• C:\Program Files\, or
• C:\Program Files (x86)\

Recognising years back that the Windows OS did and probably always would take a somewhat proprietary control over those folders, I had always maintained a directory C:\UTIL\ which contains catalogued "type" directories (e.g. C:\UTIL\PIM\Infoselect) holding all of the no-install and installed programs that I use that are not Microsoft software (e.g., including FARR and all its associated plugins, Autohotkey, Firefox, and InfoSelect), with the sole exceptions being any program which:

• (a) seemed to have a dumb "no options" installation proggie that insisted on everything being installed into its own special explicit directory (e.g., Google Chrome Canary wants to be in C:\Users\UserID\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome SxS\Application\), or
• (b) had to install only in the usual explicit proggie directory (i.e., C:\Program Files\, or C:\Program Files (x86)\), or
• (c) which could not  work properly if you moved it out of any of those explicit directories once it had been installed there.

This means that when I want to migrate to another computer, I simply port the C:\UTIL\ directory across to the new computer, and pretty soon I have most of the proggies I can't live without, running on the new computer.

I also have several directories numbered Workdata.001, ...002, ...003, etc. which hold just operational data files and databases used by the proggies in C:\UTIL\, so that those files are not buried in any given user's "AppData" directory (or whatever the default happens to be in the currently installed Windows OS). This makes the data backup really simple.

1885

Living Room / Re: Internet freedoms restrained - EU legislating to copyright hyperlinks?

« Last post by IainB on December 07, 2015, 10:13 PM »

Whew! I hadn't known about this until I received this email from openmedia.org today:
Refer link:

• website post: Thousands of Internet users ask the European Commission to listen to their feedback | OpenMedia
• response tool: put an end to this copyright zombie once and for all.

(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

XXX,
We’ve seen the leaked version1 of the roadmap for copyright reform, and oh boy is it sneaky. And although these proposals are coming from Europe, Internet users everywhere will be affected.
It could open the door to absurd new rules that would kill our ability to link freely – copyrighting hyperlinks and charging to link to freely accessible content online.2
This makes no sense. And we need EU Digital Economy Commissioner Oettinger to hear from us loud and clear that we think so.

EU parliamentarian and copyright rapporteur Julia Reda has declared this a “full frontal attack on the hyperlink, and that “each weblink would become a legal landmine and would allow press publishers to hold every single actor on the Internet liable."3
Does that sound like the Web you want? If it isn’t, now is the time to send your message. If enough of us speak out, we can convince the Commission to listen to Internet users instead of to the big media giants pushing this plan.

The most offensive part of this leaked plan? Decision-makers are setting the direction of copyright reform before the end of their own public consultation on this issue.
That’s right. Experts at Copyright for Creativity have said clearly stated this denies "citizens and relevant stakeholders the right to be heard" and would "prejudge the outcomes of these consultations."4

We’ve already seen over 9000 Internet users5 submit their comments using our tool – now is the time to make sure those in charge can’t ignore them.
Send a message right now to the commissioners leading on the digital agenda. Our best chance to stop this is by creating a loud public outcry.

Consider this: the link tax has already been implemented twice, and both times it’s been a disaster.6 The European Parliament even rejected it (twice!) mere months ago.7 But this is the bad idea that Just. Won’t. Die.
It’s simple: this is nothing more than twisting copyright in knots to justify propping up outdated business models.
Let’s put an end to this, once and for all.

–Meghan, on behalf of your OpenMedia team

PS: Want to do more? Tweet at the commissioners leading the charge on digital policy to make sure they get the message.

Footnotes
[1] Leaked copyright communication: Towards a modern, more European copyright framework.
[2], [3] Ancillary Copyright 2.0: The European Commission is preparing a frontal attack on the hyperlink. Source: Julia Reda.
[4] Dear European Commission, could you at least pretend you’re listening to us? Source: Copyright for Creativity.
[5] Tell the European Union: protect the Web and Save Hyperlinks. Source: SaveTheLink.org.
[6] MEP Petra Kammerevert's Open Letter on copyright. Source: OpenMedia.
[7] Reda report adopted; amendment rejected! Source: Initiative Against Ancillary Copyright.
__________________________________

European nations lost millions of lives in WWII fighting to retain sovereignty, independence, freedom and liberty, and against Nazi totalitarianism and fascism. Within 60 years their governments would seem to have achieved national and legal subordination to an unelected totalitarian EU body that takes away their sovereignty and freedoms. Go figure.

1886

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

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2015, 06:04 PM »

@kuehnm:

Slartibartfast, ...

-kuehnm (December 06, 2015, 04:33 PM)

Sorry, I don't have any interest in becoming involved in a slanging match over such a trivial matter.

1887

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

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2015, 05:59 PM »

...But in the meantime, considering that you actually have such a OneNote Zettelkasten, would you mind sharing your experience about how you deal with navigating thousands of notes in OneNote?
There aren't such examples out there. One would need direct access into such a huge database to fully understand how it scales up.

-dr_andus (December 06, 2015, 05:04 PM)

I navigate using the OneNote 2 or 3-pane GUI and search across "this"page/notebook or all notebooks, also WDS (as described above).
Notes can be structured hierarchically or randomly.
There is also a Tagging system and Wiki-like links, which can be very useful.
As to scalability, it seems to be fine. If you read my notes above, you will see that I haven't yet been able to break it.
I would suggest "Nullius in verba" - motto of the Royal Society, London. Literally, "Take nobody's word for it; see for yourself".

1888

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

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2015, 03:43 PM »

Actually, that's not quite correct

-wraith808 (December 06, 2015, 11:23 AM)

Now I see to my utter astonishment that MK has written a further post apparently referring to and countering my post in this DC forum, entitled Taking note: Is OneNote Your 21st-Century Zettelkasten Pim?

-IainB (December 06, 2015, 04:27 AM)

I don't get it.  First you say that's not quite it, and then you link the same post as a reply.  Meh?

-wraith808 (December 06, 2015, 11:23 AM)

I had been trying to put the matter into its correct context, which you would probably have been unaware of at the time.
Sorry if I did not communicate that terribly well. I shall try again with a sequential "timeline" (as best I can figure it out):

• MK made a very interesting post about Zettelkasten and Wikis on the Taking Note blog.
• I made a published and (as I had thought) helpful Zettelkasten PIM related comment on the Taking Note blog.
• MK's  initial response was a blog post rant about his dislike of OneNote, apparently triggered by my previously published comment on his blog. MK made this initial response as a response to my published and (as I had thought) helpful comment. My comment was of essentially the same content as my initial Zettelkasten PIM tip subsequently posted to this thread.
• Then my published comment on Taking Note was deleted (and I presumed that was because it was unwanted).
• So as not to waste the knowledge-sharing I then posted my initial Zettelkasten PIM tip subsequently to this DCF thread. In that post, I made no reference to the Taking Note blog.
• MK then apparently posted a second response as a blog entry on Taking Note, linking to my initial Zettelkasten PIM tip on the DCF forum. It's rather like he might have been following me and needed to "put the matter straight", though I had no argument with him.
• You referred to  that second response of MK's as a response to my initial Zettelkasten PIM tip posted on this DCF thread. However, that was not quite correct, as it was actually more of a compounded response to the foregoing events (QED), rather than being just a response to my initial Zettelkasten PIM tip on this DCF thread.

As I wrote:

...I don't understand it. Maybe the objective is to get clicks or something.

-IainB (December 06, 2015, 04:27 AM)

So your statement now apparently makes two of us that don't understand it for some reason (or lack thereof). It's absurd.

1889

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

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2015, 07:59 AM »

Lion Tamer.
A circus owner runs an ad "Lion Tamer Wanted" and two people showed up......

One is a retired golfer in his late-sixties and the other is a drop-dead, gorgeous brunette with a killer body in her mid-twenties The circus owner tells them, I'm not going to sugar coat it.
This is one ferocious lion.  He ate my last tamer so you two had better be good or you're history."

Here's your equipment -- a chair, a whip and a gun ......
Who wants to try out first?"
The gorgeous brunette says, "I'll go first."

She walks past the chair, the whip and the gun and steps right into the cage.  The lion starts to snarl and pant and begins to charge her.  As he gets close, the gorgeous brunette throws open her coat revealing her beautiful, perfect naked body.  The lion stops dead in his tracks, sheepishly crawls up to her and starts licking her feet and ankles.  He continues to lick and kiss every inch of her body for several minutes, then lays down and rests his head at her feet.

The circus owner's jaw is on the floor!  He says "That's amazing!  I've never seen anything like that in my life!"

He then turns to the retired golfer and asks, "Can you top that?"

The old golfer replies, "Possibly...but you've got to get that lion out of there first."

1890

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

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2015, 06:33 AM »

Boy Iain, sometimes you blow me away.  I have always avoiding committing to Onenote, but you make some strong points...with many years experience with it.
Right now, i've settled on a lot of random pieces of software to do everything, but I am interested in some of your suite integration techniques that you value.  I probably use up to 5 notetakers and outliners on a regular basis right now.

-superboyac (December 06, 2015, 03:15 AM)

I had avoided committing to OneNote as well, and I didn't like it - I was resistant to change - but, after forcing myself to adapt to it and make optimum use of the functionality that it offers and doing a thorough suck-it-and see job, I have been grudgingly very impressed.

One of the things I look for in software (an unwritten mandatory requirement) is stability.
My primary PIM was InfoSelect v8, and was always rock solid - still is. This has now become my secondary PIM.
In OneNote 2007, the application was stable most of the time, but would sometimes crash for no apparent reason, though seemed to recover with no problems. Over the years I have had some interesting problems which I learned from and have noted some of these in this discussion thread, but overall the application has been progressively improved and is rock solid. It has now become my primary PIM.

In OneNote 2016, I can still sometimes make it crash or go into a suspended ("not responding") state by overloading it it with a task queue, but it always recovers or restarts just fine.
I had one crash at the migration point between OneNote v2013 and v2016 and that left me with a permanent "cannot sync" (to the Cloud) for one Notebook. Only last night did I track this down to a single corrupted record - which was the only thing that was not syncing . The rest of the database was intact, and the corrupted record was intact and uncorrupted in the Cloud-based primary Notebook (so it was only the local offline cache that held the bad record). I need to write up the fix to this problem, in this thread, when I have figured out the simplest way.

I have tried keeping Notebooks all in the Cloud or all on the Client, or split between the two. I have had lots of separate Notebooks and then merged several into one humungusly big one. Nothing like this seems to upset the application or its efficiency. This is working with Notebooks which have by now (since 2007) become gigabytes in size, singly and collectively.
Though Client-based Notebooks are preferable for me (I am paranoid), I have to say that Cloud-based Notebooks on OneDrive probably offer, in theory if not in practice, a better guarantee of backup/recovery and better peace-of-mind, but I am having difficulty accepting this. The clincher is seeing how the Cloud-based Notebooks are so reliable, easily accessible and can be shared via the web, though the web-based OneNote UI itself is rubbish and nothing like as good/flexible/functional as the Client-based application.
By the way, the "$FREE" OneNote web UI (discussed elsewhere in the DC forum) is a cynically minimally-functioning product and should be avoided IMO. I would recommend that the user goes for the Client application every time (which necessitates MS Office), or not at all.

One of the biggest gripes I have with OneNote is the reduced ergonomic efficiency of the UI between OneNote 2007 and 2016. The present washed-out glary Metro colour scheme is rubbish IMO, and this goes for the MS Office suite of products in general.
I keep tabs on the MS Office and MS OneNote user forums, and am appalled by the hundreds of daft user problems with OneNote. They seem mainly all due to user error or inadequate knowledge/training in the proper use of the OneNote product.

My conclusion from that is that OneNote should not be used by novices unless they undergo or subject themselves to some training. The product has a relatively steep learning curve and is sophisticated but somewhat unintuitive, and can do far more than the typical user is likely to appreciate at first. I am still learning about it, and at the same time it is undergoing significant change and improvement such that a problem that I might have figured out a fix for yesterday cannot necessarily be fixed the same way tomorrow after a product update.

So, a lot of caveats here then.

1891

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

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2015, 04:27 AM »

He has a reply to this post: http://takingnotenow...ur-21st-century.html

-wraith808 (December 05, 2015, 06:58 AM)

Actually, that's not quite correct. I have had Taking Note in my Bazqux feed reader/aggregator for some time, under the category of "PIM-related". My feed-reader showed that "MK" had made a post on that blog: Taking note: My Zettelkasten
I thought it was a very interesting post, and that it covered the subject rather well, but on reading it I realised that the author (MK) had started to come to some of the same/similar conclusions that I had started to come to 7 or so years ago and which I used as a basis for my experiment. Yet here he was, apparently still seeking. So I thought it might be useful if I described the crucial aspects of my ongoing experiment. Because I had been solely focused on my own PIM requirements, up until then it hadn't really occurred to me that other people might be looking for something similar and might be able to learn from my experiment with building a Zettelkasten PIM using OneNote - an experiment that I sort of blundered into.

So I put some effort into writing and posting a comment, along the lines of the tip above, and was interested to see in my feed=reader the next day a new post in Taking Note entitled: Taking note: What I don't Like about OneNote
It seemed to be a somewhat irrational rant against OneNote, and it looked as though it might have been triggered in part/whole by my comment. I went to look at my comment to see what I had written that could have so upset the author, only to find that my comment had been deleted after I posted it - I know I had posted it, because I had to make it twice - once using a Wordpress signon (which didn't work) and once more using a Google signon (which did work) and I checked that it had "stuck" after writing it that 2nd time.

I figured that my comment must have been simply unwanted for some reason and thus was deleted - it clearly did not seem to have aligned with the blog owner's views at any rate. I don't mind if people delete my unwanted comments from their blogs - why shouldn't they if they want?  So, I mentally dismissed the matter and, rather than waste the effort, I thought I would re-use the content of my comment and post it as a useful tip in this discussion thread, and that is what I did (I hope it proves useful anyway). I did not refer to any posts on Taking Note, or mine being deleted, since that was not relevant to what I had to say.

Now I see to my utter astonishment that MK has written a further post apparently referring to and countering my post in this DC forum, entitled Taking note: Is OneNote Your 21st-Century Zettelkasten Pim?

I don't understand it. Maybe the objective is to get clicks or something.

1892

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

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2015, 12:31 AM »

I don't see a case as to why "Zettelkasten should probably be its own thread" - at least not on the DC forum. It would be an absolute yawn, since, in terms of a being a PIM, it is an archaic tool, and I would not have been interested in it per se.

-IainB (December 05, 2015, 05:14 PM)

I think he meant the process/platform, not the tool.

-wraith808 (December 05, 2015, 05:37 PM)

Eh? Well, thanks for translating for me, but, as a pragmatist and with my process re-engineering hat on, I have to say that there doesn't seem to be very much to the "process/platform" - that is, if you take the approach that the Zettelkasten is potentially implementable with alphameric keys as just a form of generic Wiki.
Would we actually gain in knowledge from discussing the Zettelkasten "process/platform" operation in the context of Wiki technology? I'd answer that with a "Probably not".
The Zettelkasten (card index) idea, though useful, can be effectively described - from our modern perspective - as being just a kind of Wiki-on-paper, you see, but using numeric indexes/links and with inherent shortcomings in terms of TOCs/indexes. That would seem like a bit of a yawn to me. The fountain pen was a pretty good idea too, but there again, would we actually gain in knowledge from discussing its operation in the context of touch-sensitive tablet pens? I'd answer that with a "Probably not".

If someone feels sufficiently strongly about it, or if they feel that the numerous other websites don't do the subject matter justice, then don't let any of that stop them from setting up a separate thread or website on Zettelkasten (or fountain pens). One can easily find and review Zettelkasten-related (or fountain pen-related) websites (see links above, for Zettelkasten examples, or just do a DuckGo search on "Zettelkasten").

This discussion thread is about "Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks", and I was sharing the tip that, if one wanted a Zettelkasten PIM (as I did) - and one that can handle a diverse set of data types and information as per my possibly somewhat demanding requirements - then MS OneNote can be used to do that (QED). Furthermore, it would seem that OneNote (so far) is the only feasible candidate that I have come across whilst proving the above concept in my 8-year experiment. I mean, I've tried (and have kept retrying) all sorts of old and new tools as potential alternatives, over the 8 years, but they just don't pass muster on those requirements - and it's a bit of a travesty that they don't, in my view.

By the way:

As for OneNote, I still haven't seen an example or explanation of how it handles thousands or tens of thousands of notes, and in the absence of that I have a hard time seeing how it would work as a Zettelkasten in the long run.

-dr_andus (December 05, 2015, 08:36 AM)

Well, judging from my own humble experience, one has had at least 8 years to build one's own example, and also to go look at some other examples, but on the other hand I suppose one shouldn't rush into these things too hastily.

1893

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

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2015, 05:14 PM »

While Zettelkasten should probably be its own thread, I would invite you to look here http://zettelkasten.de/posts/how-to-program-yourself-productivity/ for a discussion about why you dont need fancy programs to do Zettelkasten... it has greatly influenced my own thoughts on the subject. Another good resource is http://takingnotenow.blogspot.com/.

-kfitting (December 05, 2015, 05:50 AM)

I don't see a case as to why "Zettelkasten should probably be its own thread" - at least not on the DC forum. It would be an absolute yawn, since, in terms of a being a PIM, it is an archaic tool, and I would not have been interested in it per se.
However, seven years ago, the implemented concept of a numerical linking/indexing system for a card index (despite some obvious limitations) was very interesting to me, because this is what a database can be organised to do, and in fact was already being done, for example, in Wiki tools (using hyperlinking).

There are a lot of good website links about Zettelkasten, and I for one wouldn't want to add to them, but a lot of the discussion seems to take a purist approach and treat a Zettelkasten as some sort of key subject area for just text information. As I pointed out in the OP, in 2007 my information already included a lot more than just text. I had been very frustrated in my search for a PIM that could cope with it all.
I really had not liked MS OneNote at all in 2007. I already understood that OneNote was able to cope with the diverse information (data types) that I classed amongst my information needs, but it's information organisation was bit of a mystery. It was only when I belatedly saw that it included an option for Wki-like linking that the penny dropped and I realised that it might have the potential to be a Zettelkasten PIM (i.e., able to use an extension of the Zettelkasten numeric key indexing system, to include alphameric keys). So that is when I started my experiment.
I had previously spent a good deal of time examining Wiki tools to this end, but had given up as they could not handle all my data requirements.

Luhmann was arguably ahead of his time, with computer technology catching up later on to enable the concept for implementation in more widely useful form on computers in today's more diverse information age, as relatively generic computer software.

1894

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Exclusive Giveaway for DonationCoder - HD Video Converter Factory Pro

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2015, 04:28 PM »

I still don't get why he doesn't have the "permissions to post a thread."  That was why I didn't heed it and reported it as someone spamming the PM system.  They could easily have contacted mouser if that was the case, and he is more prevalent on the boards than any members.

* wraith808 shrugs

-wraith808 (December 05, 2015, 04:19 PM)

It mystified me too. He seems to think that he does not have permission to post. However, I was happy to oblige as the Wonderfox Soft products seem OK.

When he reads this thread now, he may realise that it is OK for him to post.
I shall tell him in PM as well.

1895

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Exclusive Giveaway for DonationCoder - HD Video Converter Factory Pro

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2015, 04:09 PM »

Sorry for not providing the correct links. I merely posted what I had been given.
I have since received an update from Kevincy at WonderFox Soft:

Hi IainB,
Thanks for your thread. But you forgot the activation key, I haven't sent you yet.
(Key redacted)
This is the activation key for HD Video Converter Factory Pro. Please modify your thread and ask your members to contact [email protected] if they have any problem or suggestions. If allowed, please change the product link to http://www.videoconv...erter/?donationcoder which is convenient for us to make statistics.
Thank you so much for all your help.
Here is an activation key of WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro for you:
(Key redacted)
Download here: http://www.videoconv...tory.com/dvd-ripper/

Thank you again.
Kevincy
WonderFox Soft
_______________________________________

I'm not sure whether I am supposed to post the 1st activation key (i.e., for HD Video Converter Factory Pro) if it is just for me, in clear on this discussion thread, so have redacted it, just in case.

I shall update the opening post with the correct links:

• DCF members please contact [email protected] if they have any problem or suggestions.
• DCF members please use the product link to access the deal http://www.videoconv...erter/?donationcoder - which is used by Wonderfox Soft to gather statistics about the campaign offer.

1896

General Software Discussion / Microsoft OneNote - how to make it your 21st century Zettelkasten PIM.

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2015, 10:40 PM »

I hope that this is/will be a useful experiential tip.
The Zettelkasten (German Wikipedia) was invented/devised by Niklas Luhmann (German Wikipedia) (1927-1998) as an information collecting, numeric cross-referencing and indexing system for handwritten/typed information held on sheets of approx. A5 paper/card.

1954-1962 he was the administrative officer in Lüneburg, 1954 to 1955 at the Higher Administrative Court Lüneburg assistant to the president. During this time he also began to build up his card indexes (Zettelkasten). 1960/61 Luhmann received a further training grant for Harvard University, which he could perceive by his leave of absence. (German Wikipedia)
_________________________________

I gather that wooden cabinets holding an array of suitably-sized filing trays were built to the inventor's design, for his use.
There is even a computerised Zettelkasten available from a German website: Zettelkasten. Nach dem Vorbild von Niklas Luhmann - Eine OpenSource-Literaturkartei für Windows, Macintosh (Mac OS X) und Linux.
Several years back, I had wanted to make a computerised Zettelkasten PIM (Personal Information Manager) for all of my information, but the problem was that my information included not only text-based information, but also, for example:

• Images.
• Images displaying text in them.
• Sound files of spoken words, and songs/music.
• Video files.
• Clippings of text and images from browser screens.
• Various document files - MS-Word, RTF, PDF, Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, etc.

I was not a fan of MS OneNote per se, but in 2007, whilst trialling MS OneNote (as part of the client-based MS Office 2007 Pro suite under the $10 Corporate Home Use licence) I realised that if I adapted my work methods and took the relatively steep learning curve to make optimum use of OneNote's functionality, then I could probably enable it to be used to max effect to implement a Zettelkasten. So that is what I decided to do as a suck-it-and-see experiment, and the experiment has gone very well to date, and updates to MS Office (and OneNote) and Onetastic for Microsoft OneNote have made things significantly easier towards that end.
Though I settled on OneNote, I did trial other PIMs, and I still keep an eye on them and any new PIMs I come across (including, for example, Zoot, Evernote, Zotero, Wezinc, Connected Text, and WizNote) but they didn't/don't meet my past and newly-discovered requirements, which include, for example:

• Mandatory: Notes had to be able to be client-based and/or web-based by user choice (it's all the same to OneNote, and even if it is web-based, client-based copy is always retained as cache and backup, regardless, for working offline).
• Mandatory: There had to be faithful retention of metadata, formatting, images, links .etc from web page capture (or partial capture). OneNote is not necessarily the best tool for this, but it is pretty good. (The best I've seen for this are actually Scrapbook and Zotero, which use the same engine for copying web pages, and WizNote gets a special mention as it is amazingly good.)
• Mandatory: It had to have OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) of files, which files may be saved/embedded within a note, or as a link to the file on hard or Cloud drives. In particular, integration with MS Office files and Internet Explorer was a must in this regard (though my preferred browser is Firefox).
• Mandatory: Integration with Win7/8/10 OS services - *especially* Windows Desktop Search (so a Notebook's contents can be searched via OneNote OR WDS).
• Mandatory: OCR of any text in saved images, which text then becomes searchable via OneNote OR WDS, and extractable.
• Mandatory: Ability to record and/or play sound files, and have spoken words in the files searchable via OneNote OR WDS. This can be a great timesaver when you have, say, a recorded radio interview, speech or meeting, but no written transcript of same.
• Mandatory: Hyperlinking of notes in Zettelkasten fashion, but using alphameric reference terms rather than Luhmann's purely numeric indexing, and using the same square-bracketed [[reference term]] hyperlinking approach as used in Wikis.  In OneNote, if you type in [[reference term]], it will search for an existing Note page in any of the Notebooks (only opened ones, I think) with that exact title, and then link to it, but if there is none, then it will automatically create a new Note page with that title, at the bottom of the section you are currently in, so that you can put in any relevant text later, but meanwhile it leaves you in the text where you were currently writing. These hyperlinked (wiki-like) pages can be moved around and OneNote will keep track of them. If the user is unsure whether "reference term" is correct for an existing hyperlinked Note title, then a search within OneNote for all or some of the terms in "reference term", will find them, with any OneNote page titles bearing the terms being listed first in the search results, which makes it easy to find them.
• Mandatory: To be able to have Notes structured in hierarchically-arranged collections if/as required. (OneNote offers a 2 or 3-pane display for this, as required.)
• Mandatory: The ability to create/paste/edit text, tables and numeric tables and bits of Excel spreadsheets into a Note, and perform simple math operations on them as well as in a line of typed text (e.g., to calculate the product of 2 x 12 as being equal to 24).
• Mandatory: The ability to convert a table in a Note into a spreadsheet (for those occasions when you realise you have exceeded the capability of OneNote).
• Mandatory: Very flexible rich text formatting capability, similar to MS Word, but without having to use MS Word and able to be copied into an MS Word (or any other RTF) document or email (especially per MS Outlook) with formatting intact.
• Highly desirable: Ability to integrate with MS Outlook for exchanging Notes, emails, tasks, flags and tags.

So, as a journey, I'm pretty much there, but there are still improvements I would like to see in OneNote and my Zettelkasten PIM structure. The add-ons and Macros available from OneTastic might certainly help to mitigate some of the shortcomings I perceive in OneNote, to some extent, but they seem to have been kinda fringe items so far.  The only qualm I have is that, having explored probably around 80% of OneNote functionality and capability, there is absolutely nothing that I have seen out there that even comes close to it, so I could risk becoming dependent on OneNote, and I don't really like that. To some extent, because of what I have seen in the possibilities of what OneNote is able to do - e.g., automatic OCR capture, output and indexing of text in images, automatic capture and indexation of deciphered spoken words in sound files - OneNote has caused me to become much more demanding such that this functionality now becomes part of my mandatory requirements set.
I don't want to go backwards.

As Ren said in the Ren and Stimpy cartoon episode "Space Madness":

"I'm not hitch-hiking anymore - I'm riding!"

______________________________________

1897

Found Deals and Discounts / Exclusive Giveaway for DonationCoder - HD Video Converter Factory Pro

« Last post by IainB on December 04, 2015, 06:41 PM »

UPDATE 2015-12-06 1110hrs:
Please note that the correct links for this special offer to DCF members to use are:

• DCF members please contact [email protected] if they have any problem or suggestions.
• DCF members please use the product link to access the deal http://www.videoconv...erter/?donationcoder - which is used by Wonderfox Soft to gather statistics about the campaign offer.

__________________________________________
ORIGINAL Opening Post is below: (with broken link corrected)
Just a heads up regarding a special offer. I received this message in my DC personal messages Inbox today:

Dear Sir,
Greetings! This is Kevincy from WonderFox Soft (videoconverterfactory.com). Hope everything goes well on your side.
Here I write to you for a request about Exclusive Giveaway for DonationCoder. We plan to offer the latest version of HD Video Converter Factory Pro (RRP $39.95) totally FREE for all DonationCoder members. The giveaway version can enjoy free update and technical support within 6 months. After that, you can still use it as long as you wish but not support further update.
Learn more about this software: http://www.videoconv.../hd-video-converter/
Since I don't have permission to post a thread, could you please help share this news on the appropriate place? In return, we can offer you a full license key of any one of our products which you can enjoy all service for lifetime.
We sincerely hope you could give us this chance. Looking forward to your reply at any time if you got interested.
Many thanks,
Kevincy
WonderFox Soft
[email protected]
_________________________________

I have actually used this software in 2014, and here are my notes about it (copied from my OneNote PIM):

2014-01-28 1446hrs: d/l + install WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro via BitsDuJour (FREE):

• Doesn't seem to be very good or efficient at what it is supposed to do.
• Tried to "merge" 4 x .VOB files and the output at 8Gb was about 3 x larger than the collective input files added together.

__________________

I recall spending quite a bit of time trying to see what on my system might have been causing the above problems, but I gave up eventually, so it remains a mystery.

Having said that, Wonderfox seems to have some good/interesting stuff, and this is my take on some other Wonderfox software that I got for $FREE:
2012-08-17 0248hrs: Installed this - WonderFox Document Manager: (Verdict - Not much cop.)

• 2014-10-28 0118hrs: I recall trying it out briefly, but I think this must have been useless for my purposes, as I seem to have expunged it.

2014-10-27 1601hrs: d/l + install WonderFox DVD Ripper PRO:

• Tried it out on ripping a few videos. Seems to work well and is less constrained than DVD Shrink (could copy videos that DVD Shrink could not copy), and much faster.
• Not sure what the diff is between the DVD Ripper "SpeedY and "PRO" versions.

I think I shall try out HD Video Converter Factory Pro again and see if I have any better luck with it this time.

1898

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock 2010 (download)

« Last post by IainB on December 03, 2015, 10:17 PM »

Before and After T-Clock installation: The clock display at the bottom of my vertical Win10 Classic Start Menu Taskbar is more legible (good ergonomics), and takes up less vertical space: (worth keeping)




Though the XPCalendar 12-month calendar display is very good, it's not entirely what I'd like (i.e., I'd prefer something like BetaClock):




Nice job. Thankyou.

1899

DC Gamer Club / Fix: Fallout 3 GOTY no longer working under Win 10

« Last post by IainB on November 30, 2015, 12:07 AM »

1900

Living Room / Re: Automakers Want to Outlaw Gearheads From Working on Their Own Cars

« Last post by IainB on November 25, 2015, 04:52 PM »

...Control freaks generally have a very low tolerance for either irony or humor. 

-40hz (November 25, 2015, 02:31 PM)

Just what exactly do you intend to mean by that?