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Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - v2.31.0 - Sep 15, 2015

« Last post by IainB on September 14, 2015, 03:22 AM »

@mouser: Just installed this. Thanks.

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Community Giveaways / GHacks have Scrivener discounted at 50% and a further 10% off retail US$40.

« Last post by IainB on September 12, 2015, 03:05 PM »

I was a bit late to spot this on the GHacks blog.
Be warned: I was delayed a couple of days as the purchase site was consistently unable to complete the deal - simply would not work using Firefox, or Google Chrome (Canary), or IE11(64-bit), or IE11(x86), even with AdBlock etc. turned off. Their Support site response to my query was to suggest I tried a different browser and with AdBlock etc. turned off ...

Anyway, I finally got it to work today using the Microsoft Edge browser (this is all using Win10-64 Pro).

Scrivener is currently on offer via GHacks at 51% discount + extra 10% if you sign up for GHacks' newsletter - refer Scrivener 1.8.6 for PC
Details:

Offer is only open for 2 or 3 days more.
Scrivener v1.8.6 for PC or Mac.
Price: US$40.00
Discounted price after 51% discount: US$19.50
Less GHacks promo code 10% discount: -US$1.95
Net price: US$17.55

Alternatively, if you use this referral link to buy the licence, you will get the 51% discount and I might get $10.00 credit towards my next purchase via GHacks: https://deals.ghacks.net/?rid=2312009

By the way Scrivener Download for Windows is an 83.4MB installer file.

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Living Room / Re: Peer Review and the Scientific Process

« Last post by IainB on September 07, 2015, 08:49 AM »

Some time back, in the interests of promoting truth and independent critical thinking in this thread, I put quite a bit of effort into correcting some logical fallacies and uncritical thinking that appeared in comments arguing against the truth of a presentation that had been made to a US senate scientific committee - the reality being that the presenter (a scientist) had been called to make the presentation and had essentially put forward a summary of what was all solid, properly peer-reviewed and repeatable research that was not (and had not been) refuted and which thus stood on its own two feet, as it were. It was a good example of how to objectively communicate repeatable peer-reviewed research.

At the time, the problem seemed to be that the somewhat absurd comments in question were apparently (and admittedly) made from a position of relative ignorance. There's nothing wrong with being ignorant - we all are (it's the human condition) - but it is up to us to choose not to remain ignorant where a knowledge gap has been identified.
I used to teach as a lecturer, but the audience usually consisted of maths and computer science graduates and post-graduates who were expected to work on - and who were used to - filling-in the knowledge gaps for themselves when they were required to reduce their relative ignorance on a particular subject. So it wasn't as though one had to spoon-feed them or anything.

However, I was still left with the puzzle as to how one could could explain in simple terms, to someone who was ignorant of the pertinent facts, what the overall background to the apparent MMGW (Man-Made Global Warming, aka Climate Change™) fallacy was, and how it seemed to arise from a necessary dichotomy between the historic political drivers and the current science involved, and how one could verify these matters for oneself.

Well, I didn't have an easy answer, but the puzzle resurfaced anew as my 13½ y/o daughter started to study science and is interested in the environment and how it could potentially be affected by any climate changes.
So, I started to hunt around for readily available and substantiated background information that would enable her to "find out for herself". (I do not tell her what to think, but encourage her to think critically for herself and to always question the truth of things.)
Through most of my adult life to date, and more so latterly since I perceived the principle in operation, it has been a serendipitous case of:

"Ask, and it will be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it will be opened unto you."
- New Testament, Matthew 7:7
____________________

So I am posting in this thread the links to two potentially very useful posts in the DCF Basement on the matter, for those who - like me - might be interested in closing some of their knowledge gaps in this area:

I found them both illuminating.
I hope this helps, or is of use.

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

« Last post by IainB on September 06, 2015, 04:19 AM »

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General Software Discussion / Re: Test cell value for BLANK in Excel and take action (or not) based on it

« Last post by IainB on September 06, 2015, 03:41 AM »

Actually Iain you could be on to a nice little tip for him because Nulls and ISBLANK could fail out if he somehow hit space and it got in there. So he could write it as a compound effect to check for two or three of those cases.
_________________
-TaoPhoenix (September 05, 2015, 07:54 AM)

Yes, I realise that is a possibility, however, as @Target put it:

...but without knowing more about your particular case...
_________________
-Target (September 03, 2015, 12:35 AM)

The issue as I see it is data quality, - i.e., not so much that there is this apparent "problem" that you need to check for something (whilst performing a calculation) in the spreadsheet data that has the potential to mess up your calculations at that or a later stage, but that the "something" could actually be there in the first place.

When processing data, the best practice approach would typically be to validate the data and clean it up at the outset - before you start to process it - so that the possibility of having invalid data during processing is eliminated. I'm not sure whether data quality is being considered in this particular case though.

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Living Room / Re: The weirdness that is Electron

« Last post by IainB on September 06, 2015, 03:06 AM »

...I guess we'll all soon grow tired of those "oooh, I look like TextMate!" applications altogether, but until then, I wonder what we normal programmers can do to help prevent the world to consider seriously bloated runtime environments a must-have. ...
___________________
-Tuxman (September 05, 2015, 07:38 PM)

Well, they say that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", or something, but probably those fat, bloated look-alike pieces of software are at best only academic experiments to discover the answer to questions such as, for example (say), "What happens if we try to do this or emulate that using Language X?"
The crunch test is likely to come when you try to emulate something that is seriously compute-intensive and high volume (e.g., transaction processing), whereupon the inherent inefficiencies of bloated software will tend to stand out like a sore thumb. So, you consider maybe keeping those in assembler...

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General Software Discussion / Re: Test cell value for BLANK in Excel and take action (or not) based on it

« Last post by IainB on September 05, 2015, 06:57 AM »

there are probably dozens of ways to do this, but without knowing more about your particular case you can try this (obviously this is for cell Cx)
=if(aX = "","",XXXX)
______________________
-Target (September 03, 2015, 12:35 AM)

Yes, but bear in mind that:

"" = NULL (which is neither a text character nor a numeric value).
" " = SPACE (which is a text character).
0 = a numeric value of zero.

You could also consider using this (from Excel Help): the ISBLANK function - Returns TRUE if the value is blank.

2058

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Forte Notation free until Sep 14

« Last post by IainB on September 01, 2015, 09:08 PM »

Just a heads up reminder that this offer expires on Sep.14 2015, so the window is about to close. I gather it's been on offer since April - 6 months isn't a bad run.
I've played about with it a bit now. It's very nifty software - e.g., you can import some audio files like (say) .MID/.MIDI, and FORTE can generate the music sheet from the input.

Link is here: http://www.fortenota...a-24-value-for-free/

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930 - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on September 01, 2015, 08:44 PM »

...As someone who did install it, it's no different that what you have in the G software. You can install the G930 without installing the complete gaming bit, but the gaming bit integrates it in if you install that.
______________________
-wraith808 (September 01, 2015, 01:40 PM)

Yes, that probably helps to explain it.
The G930 headset software switches the headset off after X (approx 10 or so) minutes of continuously having detected no sound input.
The tweak that @Deozaan describes is to the file Device_Manifest.xml, which is apparently set by default to switch off the headset after a specific period of time (15 mins.). What an annoying setting! - but I would presume it's a mistake (human error).
It seems that the file Device_Manifest.xml is probably installed by the gaming software (which I haven't installed).

The G930 software - for the software pre-amplifier and graphic equalizer - seems to be a fantastically good method for delivering excellent simulated surround-sound (7.1 or 5.1 channels) to the headphones at something close to or approximating the Dolby standard. The software seems to be effectively emulating a soundcard. In most cases, keeping the headset switch to the Dolby surround-sound produces the best results, but sometimes the stereo-only switch can seem to deliver an arguably better listening experience. Suck-it-and-see is the best option here, and personal preferences will probably be a deciding factor.
That's certainly the case with chip music, which can sound quite different on (say) ordinary headphones, as compared to the G930 headset with surround-sound or stereo.

Playing about with the headset and its software - particularly the software pre-amplifier and graphic equalizer - I have found that, on some audio files, for some bass frequencies, when these 2 softwares are ON, they can create a "tearing" sound (like speaker overload).
This is noticeable for some chip music - especially Impulse Tracker files (extension ".it"), where, for some bass frequencies, when these 2 softwares are ON, they can create a "tearing" sound (like speaker overload) and even a deafening accumulative noise load at those low frequencies. The latter means that some noise slowly accumulates like an increasingly noisy echo that doesn't go away or fade out. I'd never experienced that kind of sound effect before using this G930 headset.
Switching the 2 softwares OFF seems to eliminate the tearing sound, but not the accumulative noise load. The latter has so far been only noticeable when listening to Impulse Tracker files - which I think were designed for specific soundcards, most now probably being obsolete.
All of which leads me to suppose that, though the soundcard emulation in the G930 software seems to be generally very good for most listening purposes, it isn't perfect by any means for some specific kinds of output signals/frequencies.

2060

General Software Discussion / Re: How are we all getting by with our reading organization/tracking post-RSS?

« Last post by IainB on September 01, 2015, 02:48 AM »

After migrating my multifarious lists from Google Reader to Basqux, I haven't seen any difference except for the better, and as for those sites that only give "limited content" - well, in Bazqux, there's a button you can press that fetches the contents using Readability ... and that seems to cater adequately with all but a few stubborn websites.
Bazqux is also pretty good at figuring out the appropriate RSS/Atom/etc. feed for sites that don't seem to declare that they have one. Very few really don't have one, and those few I monitor with Update Scanner, if I want to.

2061

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by IainB on August 30, 2015, 12:02 PM »

All seems fine using Firefox 41.0b5.
https is good too (and when using https everywhere Add-on).
So far, it looks like an uneventful changeover. Nice work.

2062

General Software Discussion / Re: free Windows 10 Tweaker @TheWindowsClub

« Last post by IainB on August 28, 2015, 09:37 AM »

Win8.1-64 and now Win10 are not so horrible for me, because, for a year or so, I've been progressively using these excellent $FREE (Donations accepted) bits of software from Winaero:

These are worth a look too:

2063

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Context Note

« Last post by IainB on August 27, 2015, 02:21 AM »

Refer: Re: Extremely simple and minimal sticky notes for windows

Not sure if it's quite what you want, but DC member anandcoral wrote Stick-A-Note. IainB's review is here: Stick-A-Note + Universal Viewer - Mini-Review

There was a very simple Stickynotes by Toren K. Smith at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/tbone , but that page has gone (WayBackMachine?). Or, take a look at KNot v2.04b
__________________________________
-rjbull (December 07, 2014, 03:14 PM)

Yes, I wondered whether Stick-A-Note might fit the bill for lifeh2o.
Stickynotes by Toren K. Smith is in the Wayback (I just looked) - e.g., http://web.archive.o...xas.edu/users/tbone/
He has apparently moved his website and Stickynotes to http://www.torensmith.com/?page_id=9
The Stickynotes version there is the same as the latest download from the Wayback pages (identical file hashes) - i.e., v2.0.0.4 (2004-09). Apparently, it's not been developed since. I haven't tried it out, but I did take an archive copy of both the .ZIP and .EXE (installer) files as I was fossicking about. He only offers the installer file now at torensmith.com.

The old online Stickynotes User Guide is here: http://web.archive.o...tickynotes-docs.html
_________________________

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

2064

DC Gamer Club / Re: Viva Piñata - can it be run on Windows 10?

« Last post by IainB on August 27, 2015, 02:09 AM »

@Deozaan: ^^ That's a new one on me, though in my case the GFWL Client was not already installed and was downloaded fresh as a virgin installation from the MS website anyway.
There's all sorts of things suggested in the forums, though most of it seems to be hearsay or blind experimentation and if it works then it's probably by pure chance. So far, I have found nothing that confirms that a VP installation on Win10 is repeatedly successful if you do such-and-such.
What I find quite surprising is that there seems to be little or no comment on or support for the thing from Microsoft.

2065

DC Gamer Club / Re: Viva Piñata - can it be run on Windows 10?

« Last post by IainB on August 26, 2015, 10:32 AM »

^^ Yes, the VP (Viva Piñata) installation eventually works OK - takes A-G-E-S though (about 2 days of very slow unpacking and I/O, and I have no idea why) - and the DirectX needs to be installed after that because VP checks at startup and complains if it can't find the relevant DirectX DLL files (they are not automatically installed). The DirectX installer is on one of the source DVDs.
You then need to download and install the GFWL (Game For Windows Live) Client installer.
I'm currently stuck at the point where the GFWL Client starts up but for some reason will not accept perfectly valid logins. You need to get it to do that because VP won't start up unless:

(a) it has the original DISK1 in the DVD drive, and
(b) it can make a connection to your already logged-in game account via GFWL.

The GFWL game account is tied to your Microsoft Hotmail/Outlook account ID. There is a workaround for the fact that the GFWL Client cannot cope with two-step authorisation to the Hotmail/Outlook account ID - you just make a special one-off app password for the GFWL gamertag to be used as the ID input to the GFWL Client. That doesn't seem to work though - not sure why. I haven't tried going back to one-step authorisation yet.

I suspect that part of my problem just might be a scratched DISK1, so I am going to get that polished up. It reads OK using IsoBuster (which is a great tool for DVD data recovery/backup), but I suspect that the VP startup process (not the installation process) might be having difficulty deciphering some licence data through some of the scratches - I say this because the drive head sounds like it is "hunting" at VP startup.

2066

DC Gamer Club / Re: Viva Piñata - can it be run on Windows 10?

« Last post by IainB on August 26, 2015, 09:03 AM »

@4wd: Yes, I did mean Viva Piñata - thanks for pointing that out. Fixed now. (More haste, less speed...)

I had seen both those discussion threads by the way - thanks for the links anyway. They don't actually lead to a solution of the problem of how to get Viva Piñata to run under Win10.

2067

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930 - updating the software.

« Last post by IainB on August 26, 2015, 07:23 AM »

@Deozaan: That's odd. Maybe you are not using the latest Logitech G930 software? I don't have any file such as Device_Manifest.xml in any directory, related to G930 or otherwise. So I guess it's the Logitech gaming software that has this, not the standard G930 software. I don't have the gaming software installed.

Thinking I might have old drivers of G930 software, I checked.
The Windows 10 Device Manager showed that I was running the G930 driver v10.0.10240.16384 (2015-07-09), and when I got it to check for updates, it said I was using the latest version.
The G930 software interface did not display what version it was, but it did say that there was a newer version of the software available (right-click the G930 Systray icon to check for updates), so I let it download/update itself. However, the driver remained unchanged.
The image below shows that the installer (g930_g930.exe) updated the G930.exe software to a 2011 version (v1.9.364.0).

When I right-click the G930 Systray icon to check for updates, it now says I have the latest version. Still no Device_Manifest.xml in any directory, related to G930 or otherwise.

Logitech G930 - software update 2015-08-26.png

Logitech G930 - software update 2015-08-26.png

2068

DC Gamer Club / Viva Piñata - can it be run on Windows 10?

« Last post by IainB on August 25, 2015, 08:13 PM »

Viva Piñata: This game is/was a favourite of my daughter's, and I have been trying to get it to run under Windows 10, but so far no joy.
Has anyone here managed to get VP to run under Win10? I'd be interested in comparing notes.
I have scoured many web forums for ideas, but to no avail.
TIA.

2069

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Lintalist - searchable interactive text to copy & paste with plugins

« Last post by IainB on August 24, 2015, 07:51 PM »

@Lintalist: Thankyou. Very interesting proggie (speaking as another AHK user). I read through the details at the website: http://lintalist.github.io/
Lintalist looks like it could be a pretty powerful tool. I see what you mean about the TextMate concept for Windows.
A few really useful applications in DOS/Windows started off being cribbed from the Mac environment and being transplanted into Windows.

2070

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« Last post by IainB on August 24, 2015, 03:39 PM »

Fix for installing unsigned add-ons in Firefox Dev and Nightly - gHacks Tech News
-IainB (August 24, 2015, 08:54 AM)
wrong link, IainB
------------------
Allow me once again to recommend Nightly Tester Tools https://addons.mozil...ightly-tester-tools/
It can do a lot more than I'll ever need, but I only use it for allowing me to have whatever extension I want to, signed or not.
_______________________
-Curt (August 24, 2015, 11:20 AM)

Thanks. Hyperlink is fixed, now.

2071

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Extensions: Fix for installing unsigned add-ons in Firefox Dev and N

« Last post by IainB on August 24, 2015, 08:54 AM »

^^ You may need this...
Fix for installing unsigned add-ons in Firefox Dev and Nightly - gHacks Tech News

...To fix the issue, do the following (please note once again that this will work in all versions of Firefox until Firefox 42 is released. When that release hits, only Dev and Nightly versions support the switch).

   Load about:config in Firefox's address bar and hit enter.
   Confirm you will be careful if a warning message is displayed.
   Search for xpinstall.signatures.required.
   Double-click on the preference name so that its value is set to false.

You may install unsigned extensions again in Firefox once you have set the preference to false, a restart of the browser is not necessary. ...

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