Recent Posts

201

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

« Last post by IainB on January 23, 2019, 06:40 AM »

I can resonate with this rather droll spoof from the UK The Sun:
Every Day

202

Android Apps / Re: android app keyboard

« Last post by IainB on January 19, 2019, 04:43 PM »

I cant yet figure out how to easily change (already chosen) language keyboards in it. This is very intuitive and clear in Gboard (long press on spacebar).

-tomos (January 18, 2019, 02:52 PM)

Interesting, didn't know that - my GBoard has a world symbol [ Invalid Attachment ] next the space bar: tap it and it cycles through whatever keyboards you have; long press and it shows a selection list.

Of course, that means I can inadvertently tap it instead of the space bar and find myself typing in Cyrillic 

-4wd (January 18, 2019, 08:57 PM)

That's what is meant by "poor ergonomic design" - i.e., conducive to enablement of common/predictable human error.
My users had similar problems when selecting another language keyboard using the Google keyboard (and other common keyboards). Problem went away with SwiftKey. They really seem to have thought of everything, but I suspect that that itself is probably attributable to the fact the product has been out there for some years now and has had a consistently focused development/testing/improvement program which is now in the optimisation phase. I can see why Microsoft might have wanted to buy them up.
I think the ergonomic design of SwiftKey is damn near perfect - and that's not so much just the keyboard design and functionality, but includes some incredibly smart integration with other functionality - e.g., including things such as fonts and styles (bold, italic, etc.), clipboard management, hotkey definitions for a collection of repeatable strings).
That's why I was blown away by the app.
It's a pleasure to know that there are specialised product designers/developers out there in the SwiftKey team who can produce such a result.

203

Android Apps / Re: android app keyboard

« Last post by IainB on January 18, 2019, 05:27 PM »

I cant yet figure out how to easily change (already chosen) language keyboards in it.

-tomos (January 18, 2019, 02:52 PM)

Try swiping the space bar sideways...

204

Android Apps / Re: android app keyboard

« Last post by IainB on January 18, 2019, 04:09 PM »

^I just typed an in depth comparison of Swiftkey and Gboard and it got deleted by this ddos protection system :-/   

-tomos (January 18, 2019, 02:52 PM)

Yes, I know, that can be so annoying.   
Workaround: Save everything repeatedly with CHS, so that you don't have to re-create the disappeared text.

205

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

« Last post by IainB on January 18, 2019, 03:12 PM »

Interesting: China becomes first country to Germinate a Seed on the Moon
Apparently it's a beansprout, and is the first step in an ambitious and well-thought-out longer-term strategic plan for yet another "first" and moon-breaking record - the opening of the first Lunar Chinese take-away, reportedly to be named the Golden Mao Moon.
Initial reports say that, due to the moon's low gravity, all the items on the menu are to be designated "diet lite", though I personally consider that might be stretching the trade descriptions a bit much, even though Chinese food isn't generally considered to be fattening.

“That's one small step for a beansprout, one giant leap for mankind” - Chinese astronaut and lead chef/food advisor to the successful Chinese lunar mission.

206

Android Apps / Re: android app keyboard - try SwiftKey?

« Last post by IainB on January 18, 2019, 08:55 AM »

Ultimately, which keyboard seems "most suitable" for a user will depend on the user's peculiar  requirements - which, from experience, are usually little understood and rarely defined.
There have been a few references in the DC Forum discussions to the Microsoft product  SwiftKey (MS apparently bought up the company several years ago.)
I only recently started using a smartphone for my own purposes (though I have set up smartphones for other people to use for at least a couple of years), as there is some functionality available that can't so easily be utilised via a laptop, though I do use an Android emulator on the laptop so that I can mirror the Android device's system on the laptop. I plumped for a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S7 with the Google keyboard. Very good. It was a no-brainer.

But it was whilst I was setting up a Japanese and a Thai keyboard for a couple of users that I started to research and experiment in earnest with other keyboard apps than the obvious ones mentioned in this thread (above) and which are otherwise very good.
That's when I stumbled upon SwiftKey. I was initially very skeptical (because it was a Microsoft product, after all!), but, on reading user reviews, I couldn't find a single real criticism - it was mostly all positives. So, rather than get the other users to be guinea-pigs and experiment with this unknown app, I tested it out pretty thoroughly on my own smartphone first.
Because I tend to be rather critical and see all the warts in things, I have rarely been blown away by any application's functionality and potential - sadlement, they are nearly all defective in some regard.
Not so SwiftKey, it seems. After trialling it, I subsequently installed it for the other users, and they too were blown away by it. The hardest part was getting them to actually try it out in the first place ("suck-it-and-see"). The built-in ergonomics and predictive and lots of other functionality in SwiftKey seem to leave most of the other keyboards standing in the dust.
Well worth a try, I'd suggest.

207

Post New Requests Here / Re: gpa calculator - do numbers matter?

« Last post by IainB on January 18, 2019, 07:52 AM »

@4wd: I was talking to a school head the other day who was saying that it has (apparently) been pointed out by many serious educationalists that PRE (Points Rating Evaluation) has been around in various guises in the schools/education system and in business HR personnel assessment/evaluation processes for donkeys' years, so most people are likely to have been subjected to it at some point in their lives - though they might not necessarily have been aware of it at the time. A classic example might be streaming in schools.

According to a senior retired officer and psychiatrist from the UK military with whom I had some dealings with a few years back, it's (PRE is) only half of the equation and that VA (Vocational Aptitude) testing/assessment/guidance is likely to be potentially of greater significance and use than (say) subject grades. For max productivity and happiness, you apparently have to try to fit people to those roles for which they have the relevant vocational aptitude and an appropriate and relevant minimum functional IQ. Apparently people with an IQ of less than 80 (I think it was) can't be trained - can't retain the learning - for anything. He also told me that the military (especially the Army) are the only organisations who seem to be able to get it right most of the time - and that's largely because they have such tremendous experience of doing it and such a tremendous vested interest in the outcome, because they absolutely have to get it right. I know from hiring training/experience that if a job applicant has had military training, then that's another useful tick in the box of desirable attributes that can positively differentiate a candidate.

The school head reckoned that a lot of problems can tend to occur in society when the touchy-feely brigade start to water down the PRE scheme or educational standards, or start to dumb things down, or break the measurement rules, to avoid potentially sensitive or even "disadvantaged" students (or their parents) getting their precious feelings hurt by them being assigned a low score, or something. Apparently, schools in NZ have moved away from the more traditional and tried-and-tested knowledge-based educational model. She pointed me to an interesting body of research on the subject. She thought this was perhaps one of the potentially adverse consequences to society of everybody having to be regarded as being equal, etc.,regardless, in what is becoming an increasingly prevalent politically correct post-truth environment.
Of course, that esteemed German leader and head of the progressive German National Socialist party might have had something to say about that.   

208

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on January 14, 2019, 02:29 AM »

@Arizona Hot: I dunno. "Heads-up driving" would seem to be a bit passé if not a contradiction in terms, in this day and age of txting-whilst-U-drive. 

209

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Steam Giveaway

« Last post by IainB on January 13, 2019, 09:20 AM »

A Story About My Uncle is free to keep if you claim it by the 14th.

-Deozaan (January 13, 2019, 01:54 AM)

Thanks! Looks interesting.   

210

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! Fallout4 --> Fallout76 - RIP Console mode.

« Last post by IainB on January 03, 2019, 12:27 AM »

Fallout4 --> Fallout76 - RIP Console mode:

_________________________________
In Fallout 76, what I'll miss most is cheating my damn ass off. ...
...But most of all, more than anything else, I'll miss my console cheats. Goodbye old friends. When I'm 100 hours into Fallout 76 and some little repetitive task has become too bothersome to perform, I'll tap the tilde key in my heart and think of you.
 - Christopher Livingston, October 25, 2018. <https://www.pcgamer.com/in-fallout-76-what-ill-miss-most-is-cheating-my-damn-ass-off//>
__________________________

I can empathise with this.

211

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! Is this a joke or (more likely) a minor bug?

« Last post by IainB on January 02, 2019, 11:37 PM »

Is this a joke or (more likely) a minor bug?
Happens when I mouseover the Quick Reply panel in Slimjet:

212

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! - BBC TV Christmas 2018 Programme Scheduling.

« Last post by IainB on December 27, 2018, 08:46 PM »

There's a rather amusing video clip from LBC with a presenter called Nick Ferrari who is taking a detailed look through the BBC TV Christmas program scheduling - which scheduling appears to be chock full of repeats with little if any original content. (The BBC is paid a shedload of tax to meet its mandate to spend the taxpayer's money wisely - including on sponsoring lots of original UK content.)
I couldn't find a link to the video clip on the LBC website, but you can see it on the page where I originally found it at TV Licensing

I don't think I'd heard Nick Ferrari before, but I found his factual, methodical, blow-by-blow account of the scheduling quite amusing. (I was also quite surprised as I hadn't realised the BBC still produced such rubbish nowadays.)

213

General Software Discussion / Re: Et Tu, CCleaner!

« Last post by IainB on December 27, 2018, 07:10 PM »

For deleting cookies as I go, in Slimjet (Chrome) I use Cookie AutoDelete.
The info page says that:
"During this session, Cookie AutoDelete has deleted 237 cookies and in total 32497 cookies."
It "Auto-deletes unused cookies from your closed tabs while keeping the ones you want." and is apparently based on https://github.com/C...te/Cookie-AutoDelete

I recall that when I used Firefox (before Mozilla destroyed it for me), I had a useful cookie-killer that deleted newly-arrived cookies after a pre-set time interval (10 seconds or so), even if the tab was still open. You could tell it to leave cookies from selected websites alone. The advantage was that those websites that forced you to accept their cookies, or objected if you wouldn't accept their cookies, were none the wiser when their cookies were subsequently individually deleted, and it kept the place really tidy.

214

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

« Last post by IainB on December 27, 2018, 04:49 PM »

@Arizona Hot: Just to let you know that, after I showed her your post about the "If guns kill people" T-shirt slogan, my 17 y/o daughter now plans to buy one online. She's a member of the local school ABB (Anti-Bullsh#t Brigade) - as am I - an advocate of womens' rights, a budding scientist (studying molecular biology) and an advocate of critical thinking, and of the Austrian School of Economics, and the Westminster model of democracy. She is already a proud owner of a MAGA hat -  which goes everywhere with her (most recently to Japan), though I'm not sure whether it means much to the Kiwis or Japanese who see it.

215

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

« Last post by IainB on December 27, 2018, 04:13 PM »

^^ No, the 1st person (present tense) of the verb "to guess" would do fine for this context, and I know what I'm talking about, as you will be able to see from my profile.

216

Developer's Corner / Re: Bored Developer's Dilemma: What to code and what to code it in?

« Last post by IainB on December 27, 2018, 01:04 AM »

The answer to all of your points is "FORTRAN".

217

General Software Discussion / Re: The user trap no one ever spoke of in general

« Last post by IainB on December 27, 2018, 12:57 AM »

@ital2:
What you talk about here is nothing new.
@4wd is correct: avoid proprietary file management systems that change your data, if possible.
Especially, avoid Lock-In, which is actually the usual name for the old and time-tested IT "marketing" concepts to screw the users and to which you are referring.

218

Screenshot Captor / Re: How to disable saving notes to PNG "description" EXIF field?

« Last post by IainB on December 27, 2018, 12:37 AM »

Not sure if this helps much:
I don't know that .PNG files have EXIF fields - they only relate to .JPG files, right?
File properties is different - all files will have that, as part of the file system, but I don't know that SC saves anything special to File Properties.
What it does seem to have is some kind of database of its own - not sure where it keeps it - which also seems to be able to filch metadata from other proggies - e,g,, from CHS (ClipboardHelpAndSpell). But I don't think that's saved in, nor does it travel with .PNG files (unless it's say an ADS - AlternativeData Stream?).

219

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Is DC attacked again? - "No subject filled in"

« Last post by IainB on December 26, 2018, 03:55 PM »

Well, I had been noting a huge amount of spam in my RSS feed ever since the new website was launched - spam had occurred before, but to a much lesser extent. And there seemed to have been some even more excessive bursts of spam over the last couple of weeks.
But this latest Cloudflare checking:

Checking your browser before accessing donationcoder.com. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please allow up to 5 seconds… DDoS protection by Cloudflare Ray ID: 48f6b9a437629529

- seems to be a really great innovation as it tells you "No subject was filled in" and expunges the content of your typed responses when you click the Preview button.
Hmm...which is a rather effective automatic censorship system, come to think of it.

220

PBOL / Re: High res version of PBOL?

« Last post by IainB on December 26, 2018, 01:50 AM »

...remind me if i forget to release a new version by the new year.

-mouser (December 25, 2018, 09:29 AM)

There's an app for that - or maybe you could write one...

221

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Is DC attacked again?

« Last post by IainB on December 26, 2018, 01:42 AM »

@Tuxman: You should report these through the proper channels.

222

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by IainB on December 26, 2018, 01:28 AM »

^ her microphone
... staged to the fraction of a second, I would say.

-Curt (December 25, 2018, 05:57 AM)

Ah, I see. Crikey, they must be a superbly well-rehearsed group. Real pros.

223

Android Apps / Re: Problems getting started with Checklist DC

« Last post by IainB on December 24, 2018, 09:14 PM »

@cyberdiva:
Now I is confuzzled:

I tried to set Checklist DC up to handle this, but I got nowhere ...
... I'm beginning to suspect that the app simply isn't designed to do this sort of thing. ...

-cyberdiva (December 22, 2018, 02:44 PM)

I suspect that thanks to NigelH's suggestion, Mouser's Checklist DC may wind up being the app that will best meet my needs. 

-cyberdiva (December 24, 2018, 05:21 PM)

Does that mean you've seen how to work within what might have previously looked like its constraints, to do what you wanted to do?

224

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by IainB on December 24, 2018, 08:38 PM »

@Curt:

Caravan Palace @Le Trianon. Rock It For Me

-Curt (December 24, 2018, 05:06 PM)

Wow! Caravan Palace @Le Trianon. Rock It For Me - is superb.   
Thanks for posting that.
What the heck was that at 3:28? Did a guy run on with a fake gun? It looked staged.

225

Android Apps / Re: Problems getting started with Checklist DC

« Last post by IainB on December 23, 2018, 08:12 PM »

...What I'd like to do is have a shopping list that includes several stores, such as Safeway, Trader Joe's, etc., or perhaps several lists, one for each store.  For each store, I'd like to have a list of things I want to buy. I'd like these things organized into sections, such as Produce, Dairy, Meat, etc. And then under each section, I'd list the things I want. Under produce, I might list tomatoes, butternut squash, grapes, etc. ...
... I'm beginning to suspect that the app simply isn't designed to do this sort of thing. ...

-cyberdiva (December 22, 2018, 02:44 PM)

Out of interest, I searched "comparative shopping list" on Google/Android Play Store, and came up with a stack of apps that might fit your needs.
One in particular: Price Cruncher Shopping List, by Brainservice Apps - looked pretty useful.