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Living Room / Re: Reader's Corner - The Library of Utopia + resource links
« Last post by IainB on May 25, 2015, 05:47 AM »2015-05-25 2238hrs Added:
- to the index table in the opening post
- to the index table in the opening post
Recent Posts
Outliner Software: Synology Note Station
Posted by MadaboutDana
May 24, 2015 at 04:22 PM
Having recently acquired a new Synology server to replace our old, trusty but finally expired CubeStation, I’ve been very impressed by the Note Station module that can be installed on the exceptionally capable operating system behind all Synology servers (DSM 5.2 at the time of writing). It’s a really powerful multi-pane note-taking tool that allows you to share notebooks, enter rich-text notes (or indeed graphics, recordings and other attachments), and even offers a note-integrated task management facility.
The search function is still a little basic, but the rest of it is awesome. You can create ‘shelves’ for your notebooks, which basically nest them (rather like Ulysses: if you click on the ‘shelf’, it shows you all the contents of the embedded notebooks, or you can select individual notebooks to see their notes exclusively; it also has an ‘All Notes’ function). You can create tags. You can capture web page contents directly to notebooks using a nice web clipper extension for Chrome that is not unlike OneNote’s (so you can choose to save the simplified ‘article’ view instead of the full web page view). Oh, and you can import your Evernote notebooks, too (indeed, the whole thing is clearly inspired by Evernote). The search function is very fast, so the system appears to full-text index everything, but although you can constrain searches by date, notebook etc., search results simply list the notes containing the text you’re looking for - there are no highlights inside the notes, and no useful snippet previews of relevant sentences in the list of results. You can move from note to note (the search result shares the same left-hand navigation tree as the standard note management window), but you won’t see pretty highlights. Still, can’t have everything!
For to-do management, you can create to-dos from within notes. In this case, they will appear in a separate list when you click the ‘to-do’ icon in the navigation bar above the relevant note, so you can have any number of to-dos associated with a given note. Even better, they will also appear in a separate list of to-dos that also includes reminders, priorities and can be sorted by date. You can jump directly from a to-do in this list to the associated rich-text note (useful because the notes, again like OneNote, support checkboxes, complex tables and other such task management paraphernalia). This jump function doesn’t work, by the by, in the mobile app (yet), but the software appears to be evolving very rapidly.
Currently the whole thing runs through a web browser (although you can set up the server so it opens directly into notebooks for you, effectively treating a Chrome tab as an application). Best of all, there’s a very good app for iOS - called DS Note - that runs very nicely on iPad. I’m just checking out the iPhone version to see if it’s as nice as the iPad one. Ah, yes, it is. Very nicely done. It even shows web pages. Excellent!
One of the advantages of running stuff on your own Synology server is the company’s QuickConnect function, whereby you can set up a direct link to your server from anywhere at all, protected by HTTPS if you wish (always advisable). This is seriously useful. For me, it’s a no-brainer: this immediately supersedes Evernote, because it’s under my direct control and I can share stuff with colleagues (and friends and family) if I wish to. The sharing function is very powerful, and you can share entire notebooks with a couple of clicks, as well as individual notes.
Indeed, it even supports sharing through a fairly broad selection of social media. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all evolves, I must say.
I hope this is useful for others interested in collaborative note taking! For those alarmed at the thought of buying an entire server just to get access to an outliner/info management app, do bear in mind that Synology servers are incredibly capable machines that support all platforms, are compatible with e.g. Apple Time Machine and have their own built-in file version management system, and are available in many different guises, ranging from very modestly priced single-drive machines to huge rack-mounted monsters with multiple disk arrays. Our old CubeStation was a four-disk NAS, but this time we’ve opted for a two-disk NAS (a DiskStation) because we already synchronise most of our key work files to the Cloud. This machine will act as a secondary backup option plus a useful repository for other info. The two disks are held in an advanced RAID array called a Synology Hybrid configuration. No idea what that means, but one disk is mirrored to the other, which means that running a couple of Western Digital Red 3TB disks, we’re got about 2.7 TB of storage space. Oh, and the DiskStation itself can use OneDrive for Cloud backups, too, so if you’ve got an Office 365 subscription, you can use some of your 1TB of storage space for DiskStation backups. I think the word I’m searching for is ‘neat’. Or possibly ‘awesome’.
Cheers,
Bill
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Posted by Franz Grieser
May 24, 2015 at 05:04 PM
Thanks Bill.
I just checked: Note Station is also available for my DS115j NAS. I’ll install it after my holidays. This could be the easiest way to replace Evernote as notetaker on Win/OSX/iOS.
Best wishes, Franz
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Posted by MadaboutDana
May 24, 2015 at 07:22 PM
Ah, another Synology lover. Yes, although it’s still only at version 1.xxx, Note Station appears to be developing very rapidly now: the task management apps were only introduced with the last revision, but already come across as fairly mature (apart from the glaring omission of a note link from the task lists on iOS). In fact, I’m toying with the idea of moving my ever-mobile task management over to the DiskStation…
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Note Station helps you fully enjoy writing, viewing, managing, and sharing content-rich notes. It is very easy to create content with rich text editing, media embedding, attachments, and much more. Manage your notes by using tags and grouping notes into Notebooks. When you are ready, Note Station makes sharing your content via social networking platforms simple and quick. Create, share, and enjoy!
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Release Notes for Note Station
Description:
Note Station helps you fully enjoy writing, viewing, managing, and sharing content-rich notes. It is very easy to create content with rich text editing, media embedding, attachments, and much more. Manage your notes by using tags and grouping notes into Notebooks. When you are ready, Note Station makes sharing your content via social networking platforms simple and quick. Create, share, and enjoy!
System Requirements
DSM 5.0 or onwards is required.
Version: 1.1-0205
(2015/05/12)
Added to-do list feature. You can add tasks to notes or add them independently to the to-do list.
Manage tasks by specifying a priority, due date, and reminder.
Synology Web Clipper is now available on the Chrome Web Store. You can clip web content directly to Note Station.
Export notebooks to a nsx file for backup or for importing to another Synology NAS.
Export individual notes as HTML files so that users without Note Station can read them.
You can archive seldomly used notebooks so that they will not be displayed in the notebook section or in search results.
Enhanced Note Station file structure. A three-tier structure (Shelf, Notebook, and Note) provides greater flexibility for organizing Note Station.
You can display notes in presentation mode.
You can create new notes in a joined notebook if you were given modify permissions.
You can share notes via the built-in DSM email application.
You can change the default notebook.
You can adjust the default note font size.
Import notes from YinXiangBiJi.
Better note version conflict handling.
Todo badge number on Desktop icon.
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Version: 1.0-0074
(2014/12/16)
Fixed Issues
Enhanced the stability for importing notebooks from Evernote.
Fixed an issue where deleted notes might still be accessible in tag views.
Fixed an issue where deleting encrypted notes via the right-click menu might not work properly.
The display order of notebooks in the tree view is now sorted by notebook name.
Minor bug fixes.
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Version: 1.0-0069
(2014/12/09)
This is the initial release for the package.
May/23 in Add-ons Reviews
Open in Wayback Machine is a very cool addition to the browser. A button and context menu item to open URL in the Wayback Machine, service to view previous versions of websites from archive.org.
How many times have you opened a dead link before? Do you know about the Wayback Machine, amazing web service from guys at archive.org which silently spiders the Web and periodically remembers how pages looked like before?
This extension is a shorthand for easy access of features of Wayback Machine.
Button in toolbar, which opens currently opened page in Wayback Machine. If you already opened the dead link, just one click and you probably will get the content you wanted after all.
Context menu item, which opens given URL link in the web page in Wayback Machine. If you already know or see that the link is dead (Wikipedia is pretty anal in this case), you can open this link straight in the archive.org UI for searching the past.
Pick up the Open in Wayback Machine in the Firefox Add-ons website.
Why did you ditch the software? Just curious...-wraith808 (May 23, 2015, 08:15 AM)
there was nothing wrong with the software. I am just more comfortable with default features and the enhanceability that Autohotkey provides. I also have a Logitech K800 keyboard, whose Fn keys are configurable via AHK without the need for Setpoint software.
________________________________-lanux128 (May 23, 2015, 08:34 AM)
guys, I have that MS Gantt chart....
and I specify a start date 18/05/2015
then I specify 1wk as duration
and it fills automatically 28/05/2015!
and I correct it manually to 22/05/2015
and it automatically makes the 1wk to 0.3wk!!
and whatever I correct, I cannot fix it!
isn't this a badly designed program?
____________________________-kalos (May 22, 2015, 09:42 AM)
May 20, 2015 Mark Jeftovic
easyDNS has met the automatic renewal requirements under our ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement and will thus renew into the 2013 RAA on June 23rd, 2015,
WHY THIS IS UNFORTUNATE
This means that as of June 23rd we will be subject to enforcing the new Whois Accuracy Program (WAP) which was enacted by ICANN earlier this year. All registrants of any domains under which easyDNS is directly accredited (.COM, .NET, .ORG .BIZ, and .INFO) will henceforth be subject to the WAP. (Note, all new GTLDs such as .website, .host and are handled through our OpenSRS Resellers tag and are thus already subject to the WAP).
WHAT IS THE WHOIS ACCURACY PROGRAM?
The Whois Accuracy Program (WAP) was created by ICANN, the body that oversees internet namespaces such as .com/.net/.org etc in co-operation with various Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) in attempt to increase accuracy of data supplied in domain Whois records (see "What is a domain Whois record" below)
In this stage of the program what is required is that at certain specific points in a domain name's like cycle, domain registrants must complete an action that attests to the accuracy of the data supplied in the Registrant data supplied.
Key domain lifecycle points or events that trigger the WAP are:
Registration, renewal or transfer of a domain name using a new (previously unverified) contact data.
Modification of a domain's Whois record to new values that are not previously verified.
If an administrative email such as a renewal notice, or a Whois Data Reminder Policy (WDRP) bounces or is otherwise undeliverable.
In any of these case, a Whois Accuracy Program process is initialized which takes the form of sending emails to the Registrant (yes, this can mean sending this notice to the same address that bounced and started this process in the first place), requesting them to verify their Whois data:
Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 2.16.34 PM
This normally takes the form of visiting a web page that displays the current Registrant data for a domain, and clicking on a button that asserts that the information is true and accurate:
whois_verification
The initialization of this process commences a time limited process (we refer to this process internally as the "Domain DOOMSDAY CLOCK", which is 15 days in length.
YOUR DOMAIN WILL CEASE FUNCTIONING IF YOU FAIL TO CONFIRM YOUR DATA
If the Whois data remains unverified after 15 days, the Registrar must suspend the domain, causing it to cease resolving over the internet, until such time as it can verified.
THIS IS NOT A SICK JOKE
This is a real policy, enacted by ICANN, which binds all domain registrars accredited unto the 2013 RAA. Many Registrars are already operating under it, and there are already numerous horror stories in which high profile, super busy domains have been shut off and ceased operating because of failure to comply with this policy.
IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL EASYDNS MEMBERS TO BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:
After June 23, 2015 whenever one of your domains hits an event outlined above, you will be receiving an email notice from us asking you to "Click this link to verify your Whois data". Even though it looks like an obvious phishing attempt, it isn't.
THANK ICANN
You can thank ICANN for this policy, we because if it were up to us, and you tasked us with coming up with the most idiotic, damaging, phish-friendy, disaster prone policy that accomplishes less than nothing and is utterly pointless, I question whether we would have been able to pull it off at this level. We're simply out of our league here.
Follow Up Questions:
What is a domain's Whois Record?
You may not be aware of this but every time you register a domain name your registration details (name, address, email, phone, fax) must be entered in the relevant registries "Whois Database", which is a publicly accessible database and those details are visible by anybody.
For examples see http://www.easywhois.com which is our web based gateway to any whois database in the world.
What if I use Whois Privacy / MyPrivacy For my Domain Records?
If you use Whois Privacy, you will still have to confirm your underlying Registrant data – even though your public Whois records will be those of the privacy proxy.
Filed Under: What's New
Freeware, Copyright © 2002-2004 by Elias Fotinis
Released on 2004.05.03
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/
____________________________________________
DeskPins
DeskPins can be used to make any application topmost, that is, to keep it above all other windows. Just grab a pin from the DeskPins icon in the system notification area and click on any window. This functionality is identical to the "Always on Top" setting found in some programs. With DeskPins you can add this feature to any program.
See more screenshots in the DeskPins gallery.
Features
Unlimited number of pins available.
Intelligent handling of various application types.
Powerful wildcard-based automatic pin support.
Global hotkeys.
Negligible system resources usage.
What's New
v1.32 — 2015.02.20
Fixed inability to autopin windows of 64-bit processes.
See the complete changelog for more information.
...My inner geek squealed at turning my Android devices into TI-8x graphing calculators. Yeah, I know. I'm easily amused.Yes, same here, it's really a brilliant idea. I had not known that this emulation code was even available or that TI had made this code available. Hats off to TI for that. Impressive.
_______________________-Innuendo (May 16, 2015, 05:04 PM)
Ever since I had to buy my daughter a TI 84+ CSE for school, I have been using Wabbitemu when I need [her to use] a calculator.(No downloaded TI ROM required, and there's an Android version too!)
And since Lauren has... err... misplaced her calculator, she is now using Wabbitemu on her laptop as well when she has that sort of assignment...
____________________________-x16wda (May 11, 2015, 07:16 PM)
Wish I would have had knowledge of this in my college algebra class! And it looks like it will even load modules/programs designed for TI calculators as well.
All versions are freeware so I don't know why IainB left it off his list, though. There's nothing out there like this & it sure beats buying one of those expensive TI calculators.
OpalCalc looks brilliant. I would never use it enough to justify buying it, but I'm glad it's available *and* it is $5 cheaper than the program listed in the OP.-Innuendo (May 16, 2015, 10:35 AM)
URL:
- CalcTape: http://www.sfr-softw...pps/calctape/windows
- CalCute: http://calcute.com/details.html
- FARR: http://www.donationcoder....Mouser/findrun/index.html
FCALC plugin: http://www.donationcoder....um/index.php?topic=8769.0- FreeCalc (Moffsoft): http://www.moffsoft.com/freecalc.htm
- MS Mathematics: http://www.microsoft...etails.aspx?id=15702
- OneNote is part of the MS Office suite of tools.
- SpeQ: http://www.speqmath....ex.php?id=1#features
- See latest free versions at: http://www.freewarep....net/math.php?page=6
(WARNING: Malwarebytes gives warning about some of the links on that page.)