Recent Posts

251

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« Last post by IainB on December 13, 2018, 06:45 PM »

@rgdot:

1809 done today on one laptop, so far no issues, fingers crossed

-rgdot (December 13, 2018, 05:55 PM)

Hahaha.     Made me LOL.
In my years of implementing conventional 3-tier client-server networks and thin client (Citrix) server farms (all Windows-based), it would have been verboten to suggest "fingers crossed" as being a passable/acceptable implementation risk management strategy!
Yet the reality would seem to be that that is exactly what Microsoft are implicitly/tacitly expecting users to do.   

252

Screenshot Captor / Re: DC Archive - a better suggestion.

« Last post by IainB on December 13, 2018, 03:46 PM »

@AndreaTX:

Thanks everybody. I turned the auto-archiving off.
Wished I had asked a long time ago....

-AndreaTX (December 13, 2018, 09:05 AM)

Ahh, my apologies, I think I misunderstood what you were wanting to do. Where you wrote:

Not sure if I'm in the correct forum, but it's my best guess:
Is there a way to change the archive settings for the Donation Coder Screenshot program so it doesn't put every single image into its own folder? That makes it absolutely impossible to find something ever again -- unless one would want to open a gazillion folders....

-AndreaTX (December 12, 2018, 04:06 PM)

If you implement the method I suggested in the long post above, then you can "fit and forget" it, and the folder-naming and image management will be able to take care of itself, via CHS (+SC), from here onwards, with minimal housekeeping.
However, if you already have that awful, huge slow-as-molasses Archive file, or the opposite, with files saved in hundreds of Archive Year-Month folders, or something, then don't despair - it would be relatively easy to fix to better suit your needs.

For example, consider using xplorer² and/or Picasa3:
1. xplorer²: (an obvious approach, but not necessarily the best, by any means)

• If you used xplorer² from zabkat.com you could view the files in that Archive file as a flat file in the left pane, and as a normal folder in the right pane, and start inserting empty folders based on (say) Year-Month (e.g., "2018-12) of Creation Date into the right pane view.
• Then sort the left pane into (say) Creation Date order and filter that view for the specific date range you want to put into the first folder on the right. Drag the filtered files from the left pane into the relevant Year-Month folders on the right. This won't alter the flat file view on the left.
• Repeat for all the other empty Creation Date folders you have created.
• This will thus retrospectively reconstruct the typical Archive folder structure you would have had, had you used the feature in the first place.
• The main limitation with this is that, in and of themselves, Creation Date Year-Month folders still won't give you any clear idea of what photo subjects are in which Creation Date Year-Month folders. For that you will need an image management database.
• However, if you already have a huge Archive file containing images in no folders, or one containing images in hundreds of Creation Date Year-Month folders, then in either case, this is where Picasa3 can come in extremely handy and save you all the hassle of trying to organise your images into folders for categorisation. (I have used it for years for simplified image database management and have so far found nothing to surpass it.)

2. Picasa3: (a not-so-obvious approach, and an ideal solution to most image management needs)

• NB: Intelligent use of Picasa3 can obviate the need to apply the tedious work method regarding xplorer² as outlined above.
• Google's Picasa3 is arguably able to provide the best answers for all typical image management needs, but it's not necessarily all that obvious a solution at first sight. You can read all about it and download, install and use it for $FREE from here.
• Using Picasa3's powerful database features, you can rapidly sort, view, categorise/tag, make notes on and organise your images (of any type) individually and in bulk, as you require.
• One of the most powerful features of Picasa3 is probably virtual folders, where any image Category/Tag can be treated as a virtual folder, giving you a virtual single-folder view of just any single category as though it was a single self-contained folder, though the images in it may be scattered across the disk storage in hundreds of variously-named folders.
  Separate Categories/Tags of images can be grouped under a new, single Category/Tag (without needing to remove them from any existing Categories/Tags. There is thus no need to use xplorer², or other file manager, to tediously logically (physically) move files around to make collections/albums.

253

Living Room / Re: Mechanical Keyboards

« Last post by IainB on December 13, 2018, 02:14 PM »

Hahaha. Remapkey.exe, old-style.   

254

Screenshot Captor / Re: DC Archive - Using CHS (with SC) as an image clip management tool.

« Last post by IainB on December 13, 2018, 07:48 AM »

@AndreaTX: You asked almost exactly the question that I had some time back. The solution was not immediately apparent at the time, but when the penny dropped I discovered what (for me) was an ideal solution and way of working:

EDIT: Post updated 2018-12-14 to reflect current use.
Usually, when I spend some effort in editing images, it is because I need to keep them for subsequent re-use - e.g. (say), as image attachments when making a post in the DC Forum. So I like to keep searchable meta-data with them, for easy search/find at a later time.
The usual constraint there is that you can only add metadata directly to JPG files. For me, that would sometimes necessitate considerable mucking about and thus, editing images always seemed to become an arduous task and was accompanied by the creation of separate metadata notes and the proliferation/duplication of image types for the same image. Then I realised that CHS might be able to help me, and I adopted what - for me - has been (from experience) a really simple and time-saving approach:

STEP 1: Install CHS (Clipboard Help & Spell).
In CHS Options | Image Capture

• set the preferred application you want as the External Image Viewer - I use irfanview - which is also a good image file/folder manager and editor in its own right.
• set the preferred application you want as the External image Editor - I use SC (Screenshot Captor) - which is considered by many to be one of the best image clippers/editors out there.

STEP 2: Determine what image clipping/snipping tools you are likely to want to use, and have hotkeys set up to invoke each of them separately, as required, at the press of 2 or 3 keys.
I use:
EDIT: Updated 2018-12-14 to reflect current use

• frequently OneNote Clipper - e.g., using Shift+Win+S, which captures into both OneNote and the CHS database..
• frequently SC (Screenshot Captor) - e.g., I use Alt+PrtScr to capture specific Windows into the CHS database.

Method
When you clip an image using OneNote Clipper, the image is copied not only into the default set (a OneNote notebook page), but also always into the CHS database. Having the image in the CHS database, the user can:

• switch straightaway to the full CHS view (Ctrl+Alt+A),
• locate and select the relevant image clip in that view (shows in the Clip Image tab),
• click on the editing tool icon for that image (the tool is set as SC),
• edit the image in SC and when done save it to the original file (which is still in the CHS database), thus overwriting the original image file with the edited image (which is usually what one wants) - thus updating the image in the CHS database and without changing the the file name. So CHS still points at the same (but now updated) image file.
• you can then select in CHS the Clip Text tab for that now edited image and copy the file path from there (path for that image), to use to send it, as below,
• whilst you are in the CHS Clip Text tab, you can add in some metadata about the image, for subsequent search/find and for reference (IMHO you can never have too much metadata, so don't be afraid of littering) - this all goes into the CHS database.

Then switch to where you want to send/copy the edited image - e.g., (say) the DC User Forum post you are working on - and paste into the attachment field the path to that image that you already have from above.

One needs to try this out a few times to appreciate:

• (a) how much time/trouble it can save one,
• (b) how useful it can be for consolidating the image with its metadata in the CHS database - it literally becomes a consolidated part of one's set of knowledge/data that one could probably not previously achieve so readily/easily and have readily accessible/searchable.

So, thanks to CHS (and SC), and credit to @mouser for some excellent tools that work well together.
The really useful thing about SC for clipping images is that the user can set SC to automatically save image clips to the Clipboard, which puts them into the CHS database for subsequent editing by SC. Incredibly useful/efficient!        

What about collecting images by Year/Month?
IMHO, this is a useful thing if it can be automated, as it avoids accumulating images into one humungus bucket folder, which would then be slow-as-molasses and take forever to search in a file Explorer, but could still be viewed as a flat file - e.g., (say) in xplorer².
Because I always initiate SC to manipulate images saved in the CHS image files (database) folder, and because CHS is set to update image folders by Year/Month, SC is (usually) already always pointing at the last current CHS Year/Month folder where it was last invoked for operation.
What this means is that the user can forget about Year/Month as it is managed/controlled automatically by CHS, and SC gets the correct folder to use by always invoking SC from within CHS.

For housekeeping:

• Any separate spurious/unwanted duplicates that the user may cause SC to make in its own set/default location can be periodically quickly searched for and deleted using (say) Everything, based on the SC default filename - e.g., which will be something like: Screenshot - 2018-12-12 , 23_31_40 -.png
  In my case these are in the default SC save folder, currently defaulting to the CHS folder:C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Plugins\Clipboard Help+Spell\Database\Files\2018\12\
  
  
• Thus, spurious/unwanted duplicate files of the form 2018-12-12 , 23_31_40 -.png can be readily identified and expunged.

-IainB (May 08, 2016, 03:58 AM)

Hope this makes sense and is of some use.

255

Living Room / Re: snipping tool with image editor

« Last post by IainB on December 13, 2018, 05:45 AM »

@tomos:

In case anyone wondered, the only reason I avoid using SC for clipping images is that I haven't had the time to yet figure out how to get SC to automatically save image clips to the Clipboard, so as to get them into CHS' database for subsequent editing by SC...   

-IainB (May 08, 2016, 03:58 AM)

this part is easy enough, although, now I look at it, I'm not 100% sure which choice to make:
Options >Basic Capture >Post capture options:
Copy to Clipboard: [select one of] Image Bitmap / File itself
=>
I'm not sure what the difference is between those two options.

-tomos (May 08, 2016, 06:52 AM)

Thanks for your helpful comment, which I just now came across whilst searching for my post above: Re: snipping tool with image editor - Using CHS as an image clip management tool

Though I did figure out for myself the answer that you give anyway, I'd just like to give a belated thanks for your helpful comment - which I don't think I had read/seen before now!   
I have edited my post to include your comment.

256

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by IainB on December 10, 2018, 08:52 AM »

Julian von Abele - An eighth grader's physics theory

257

N.A.N.Y. 2019 / Re: NANY 2019 - Android App - Fasting Schedule

« Last post by IainB on December 10, 2018, 05:45 AM »

@mouser: You want feedback on a dieting app.?   
Hmm.

258

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock mostly obscured by black rectangle

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2018, 10:57 PM »

@WhiteTigX:

...try T-Clock's method to see if that is able to restart explorer...

-WhiteTigX (December 06, 2018, 12:54 PM)

Quite nifty. Thanks. I had never realised that feature was there until you mentioned it earlier in this thread. Anyway, I tried it and it seems to work just fine. I shall use it in future, but shall retain RestartExplorer to use for those times when the Start Menu is playing up and one cannot select anything in or below the Systray (this is when the Start Menu is vertical on the LHS).

259

Living Room / Re: The quest for a completely silent PC

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2018, 10:41 PM »

I always get a funny feeling in my tummy when I look at Russian dolls now.

-IainB (December 06, 2018, 02:26 AM)

You get a funny feeling in your tummy? Spare a thought for the Russian dolls, they have much more to stomach, stomach, stomach, stomach, stomach, stomach...

-cranioscopical (December 06, 2018, 08:15 AM)

That's a rather insightful comment. Is that what they call "duodenal insight"?

260

General Software Discussion / Re: Stitch two windows together

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2018, 10:13 PM »

You might take a look on this AutoHotKey script that i found.

-KodeZwerg (December 06, 2018, 07:09 AM)

Nice find and helpful, as ever! 

-cranioscopical (December 06, 2018, 08:03 AM)

Yes, That's rather a nifty find. Thanks @KodeZwerg.

261

Living Room / Re: The quest for a completely silent PC

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2018, 02:26 AM »

or cut the corrugated cardboard out of the side of a box...

-Target (December 05, 2018, 08:03 PM)

I did that and then put the box over the computer. Now the machine is still very noisy and I can't reach the switch to turn it off.

-cranioscopical (December 05, 2018, 11:38 PM)

I had a similar problem and fixed it by wiring up a switch in parallel with the first switch, as an extension, inserting the new switch itself into the outer cardboard box. Still the PC was too noisy, so I hit on the idea of layering a slightly larger cardboard box around the one just done, and giving that an extension switch also. I got the idea whilst showing my son a set of nested Russian dolls. After 8 carboard boxes and extension switches,  the PC was noticeably much quieter - almost silent actually.

I was so pleased with the result that I went off downstairs to the kitchen to brew up a triumphal cup of tea to celebrate my success. Unfortunately, I had left the PC switched ON and hadn't thought about the potential heat build-up with all those nested cardboard boxes, and the whole thing must have caught fire whilst me and the missus were enjoying the triumphal cuppa tea. By the time we came out of the kitchen there was smoke curling down the stairway and the fire had just about consumed the upper storey of our 2-storey house. We called the fire brigade and fled outside. When they finally damped down the last embers the house had been pretty much levelled.
Fortunately we were well-insured and safe and the pets also escaped unharmed, but once we moved into our new house I never seemed to have much enthusiasm for restarting that project after that experience, and I always get a funny feeling in my tummy when I look at Russian dolls now.

262

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.31.0 - Dec 2, 2018

« Last post by IainB on December 06, 2018, 01:56 AM »

@mouser:

I'm having a hard time imagining why you would get that error with Screenshot Captor.. and you're saying reverting to prior version works? That is bizarre.  Anyone else?
Are you using some kind of network mapped drive? Or maybe some antivirus program doing something weird..

-mouser (December 05, 2018, 10:08 PM)

Thanks for responding.
I know what you mean. I sometimes have a hard time imagining that I will be able to get up in the mornings, but it usually all works out somehow.
There have been no recent changes to mapped drives or anything. The system remains relatively stable (or whatever passes for "stable" with Win10...).

My drives: (what I use most)

• The HDD.
• 3 x Cloud Drives (accessed fairly frequently).
• 1 x Cloud Drive (accessed occasionally).
• 1 x 2GB dynamically changing RAMdrive (set as the TEMP variable).

The only slightly unusual thing I do with drives (have done for ages) is set hard links to cloud storage volumes/folders. I use these hard links as virtual folders, some of which are my main "working folders".
The hard links are very stable and never cause any problems. The drives I use are unlikely to be causing the problem, because - and as you have also observed -  the earlier version of SC consistently works OK, whereas it is only the latest version of SC which consistently does not.

The only "odd" thing I have found with folders is the mysteriously-appearing "QL folter temp", which I referred to in a Launch Bar Commander - Latest Version thread. I wondered whether it might have something to do with the observed LBC long delays.

263

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Polywick Story Server

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 11:47 PM »

@PolywickStudio:
Oh, sorry. The elephant in the room = The big/important thing nobody is talking about = (in this case) The Business/User Requirements.

I mean, you didn't arrive at whatever design objective(s) you have arrived at without first having some initial problem/idea of what the user requirements were, did you?   
If you did, then I would be kinda impressed, but not in a good way.

264

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.31.0 - Dec 2, 2018

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 09:58 PM »

@KodeZwerg:

I use the latest Setup.exe version and run on Windows 10 x64 latest build, the options i use (create a screenshot and save) are working like ever.

Could you try Setup.exe aswell to minimize error to portable package?

-KodeZwerg (December 05, 2018, 05:19 PM)

This was addressed to me - right?

I indicated that I initially used the CHS setup (through DCUpdater).
I then tried Portable.zip
Same result - System Error.  Code: 1722.
I then reverted to the earlier version and tried the whole thing (Setup and then Portable install) again.
Same result - System Error.  Code: 1722.

So the causal problem would seem to be in the latest version. Specifically - by deduction - it would seem to be in one or more of the three (apparently only) updated files:

• ScreenshotCaptor.chm        3551838   10/10/2018 4:06 PM   10/10/2018 4:06 PM
• ScreenshotCaptor.dcupdate      1104   29/11/2018 4:07 PM   29/11/2018 4:07 PM
• ScreenshotCaptor.exe        9465096   29/11/2018 4:07 PM   29/11/2018 4:07 PM

265

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Polywick Story Server

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 09:28 PM »

Impressive.
Some design objectives, but apparently not a user requirement in sight?
Hmm. I feel that I may be missing something here.

-IainB (November 01, 2018, 04:35 AM)

The design is to make a one-pane organizer.

-PolywickStudio (December 05, 2018, 07:28 PM)

Hahaha, very droll.
What about the elephant?

266

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

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 09:01 PM »

Talking of Haters, I had an absolute LOL moment today whilst watching this USTV clip of something called "The View", in which was a group of women apparently discussing/making a tribute to the late 41st president of the US, (George H.W. Bush) - God bless 'im - who died recently.
Now I don't know much about the women in the clip, but what it clearly shows is that one of them seems to be moronically obsessed with using the pretext of paying tribute to the deceased president to address the single issue of a manufactured negative political comment against the current president (Trump 45th).
To paraphrase Yoda:

"The Hate is strong in this one."

But a highly articulate blonde lady (Meghan McCain) - who seems to have clearly done her homework on GHWB - won't stand for the nonsense and disrespect of perverting the occasion to try and score political points on the speaker's single issue, and so tries to pull it back on track.

What amused me was that, if one wanted to FAIL and make a complete, public and spectacular ass of oneself, then there are probably other/better ways to do it, but this one would arguably be up there with the best of them. Priceless shooting-oneself-in-the-foot stuff.
But it's beautifully compounded by the disrespect and lack of honour shown in the act of attempting to abuse such a solemn occasion by mindlessly trying to score political points. If it were about (say) trying to make a $ profit from the occasion, then the speaker could be labelled as being "venal", but in the context of paying tribute to and honouring a great US president on his death there's an English phrase that could be used to describe this kind of thing: "Don't sh#t in your own nest."
This was definitely an own-nest-fouling of the greater kind. Highly successful and amusing, made all the more so because it was so brilliantly executed by a speaker who clearly didn't seem to appreciate the potential impact and/or blow-back of what they were doing. Talk about target fixation.

But hey, when the Hate is that strong, I guess a gal's just gotta evacuate her bowels pronto, regardless. Gives a whole new meaning to"let it go/flow".  Ahahaha, I slay me.

 

267

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

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 07:27 PM »

As a follow-on from the above HVV item, I should apologise to French-haters and Francophobes alike that it was not used as an opportunity to get yet another dig in about how awful the French are. We should of course never forget that there are plenty of reasons for hating the French:

268

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

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 07:03 PM »

You may have read that the French are revolting. (Yes, they are, aren't they?)
This time it's whilst dressed in fluorescent HVVs (yellowish-green hi-visibility safety vests). All drivers of vehicles in France are required by law to have an HVV in their car.
Samizdata.net had an interesting comment about this:
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

The unsung genius of the yellow vest
2018-12-03
tags: Environment, French affairs, Media & Journalism
Natalie Solent (Essex)
Whatever one thinks about the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests/riots in France – and I happen to know that they are the result of a deal made between a French green activist wishing to see more protests about what the government was doing to combat climate change and a particularly literal minded demon – the choice of the yellow Hi-Vis waistcoat or vest as a symbol of the protests was inspired. As every schoolboy knows, St David told the Britons to wear leeks in their caps to distinguish friend from foe in their battles with the Saxons. In many struggles since then some item snatched up in haste from whatever was lying around in order to improvise a uniform has duly become an icon of that cause. Here are some reasons why the gilet jaune is destined to join that illustrious list:

One: Protesters want to be seen. Hi-vis vests make people highly visible. This is one of those linkages that manages to be both obvious and surprising at the same time. Why did no one think of this before?

Two, anyone driving a car in France has got one in the boot anyway because a 2008 law says they must. Might as well put the thing to use.

Three, and this is the one I love, it turns a symbol of compliance into a symbol of defiance. Cop pulls you over. Cop saunters up to the car. “Is monsieur carrying a gilet de haute visibilité as required by law?” “Why of course, officer. I always carry my yellow vest. One never knows when one might need it.”

I reckon that's a typically "French" thing to do - to turn the tables on an oppressive authority by flipping the bird with an oppressive symbol used by that authority. The guillotine of the French Revolution was a prime example. The irony is biting/cutting.

269

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

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 06:43 PM »

@Shades:

@IainB:
That reminds me of the little joke
Masochist: "Hit me..."
Sadist: "....No"

-Shades (November 28, 2018, 07:02 PM)

Yes - you're so right! There's often truth in humour.

270

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - SC v4.31.1 System Error (Code:1722)

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 05:13 PM »

@mouser: Feedback - I have been stumped by an error.
ScreenshotCaptor v4.31.1 NOT WORK (dl 2018-12-06)
I initially installed it via DCUpdater, but it failed to start.
I then tried installing it from .ZIP Portable, but to no avail.

Results are consistent and repeatable:
At SC startup, the SC Systray icon momentarily shows, but then it fails/abends with the error message:

---------------------------
Screenshot Captor
---------------------------
System Error.  Code: 1722.

The RPC server is unavailable.
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Not sure what "The RPC server" is referring to. I can't identify a file/app of that description on the HDD and it doesn't seem to be an identifiable Service process.

I reverted to ScreenshotCaptor v4.29.0 Portable (dl 2018-04-13) - which works fine.
Then I reinstalled ScreenshotCaptor Portable v4.31.1 (dl 2018-12-06), but it still abends.
So I reverted to v4.29.0 again and shall continue using that until a fix/workaround is provided for the latest version.
OS is Win10-64 PRO.

271

Living Room / Re: Privacy - Are your thoughts really your "own" thoughts?

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 03:06 PM »

I had always considered that the privacy of my mind was unassailable and that my thoughts were my own, and nobody could take them away from me - even if I were in the Stalags. Now I am not so sure. I commented the other day to my now 17 y/o daughter that, as an experiment, I had for the first time deliberately allowed Google permission to use "my" data - data about me that it already captures and holds and has access to, by default - to aim targeted ads at me. I told her that I found the result interesting, but somewhat disquieting.

Here is a very interesting - if not alarming - review on what happens, apparently almost immediately, when we succumb to allowing this kind of access through our privacy walls, reported on by spreadprivacy.com. Such a loss/reduction in privacy effectively enables third parties to engineer algorithms that could manipulate/modify our paradigms, sometimes without our even being aware of it, and it is happening now, even as I write this. It goes far beyond subliminal advertising, since it can clearly be used - and is being used - to subtly control/manipulate our perception of the reality of the world about us:
Measuring the "Filter Bubble": How Google is influencing what you click

This goes far beyond merely allowing access to private data, being, in effect, more like giving permission to be brainwashed by a third party(ies). And we seem to be highly susceptible to it. It's very clever, and insidious, though I suppose it could be argued that it's not harmful, but merely a conditioning of one's thinking.

Again, Pandora's box has been well and truly opened:

Fast forward to 2018, where we can perhaps now better understand why we might have the apparent privacy shambles that we see around us. It was a gold-rush, opportunistic, every man for himself. Presumably the Google/Facebook founders (and others) would have seen it coming. There were little/no regulations to limit or constrain the progress of BI and its application in the field of mass demographics. Now that some regulations have belatedly been or are being implemented, it arguably may be too late anyway - locking the stable door after the horse has bolted; Pandora's box has already been opened.

-IainB (August 22, 2018, 04:45 AM)

272

Living Room / Re: Good video on climbing Mt Everest

« Last post by IainB on December 05, 2018, 07:19 AM »

@mouser:

One of the things you learn from reading these books on high altitude climbing like Everest, is how the lack of oxygen at this altitude (even when using supplemental oxygen) completely messes with their brains and slows down and muddles people's thinking to the point where they are not thinking properly at all.

-mouser (December 05, 2018, 03:42 AM)

The manifestation of that phenomenon doesn't seem to be restricted to just a very high-altitude phenomenon though, as it has also been observed and documented as happening with people who were breathing oxygen at sea-level at the time it was manifested, and even though they may have sometimes been taking an elevated "high-level view" or "helicopter view" of things.
There was a rumour going round that I read about that supposed that the problem may be genetic in some way and lay with a class of folk who were deemed to be genetically "undesirables", or something (no, I don't think it was a reference to Hitler), but I couldn't possibly comment. So, whilst high-altitude oxygen starvation or (say) any state of diminished ability to absorb oxygen at the "normal" rate of absorption may be a causal factor in muddled thinking, it's not necessarily the whole story nor the only causal factor.

It is thought (Brinkley, et al) that this strange phenomenon was originally encapsulated in about 1934 by the renowned Yorkshire pigeon fancier, ornithologist and inventor of "blogging", Prof. Fred Bloggs, who, when, attempting to discover the reason as to why some of his prize-winning homing pigeons seemed to occasionally lose their way during races and lose him the race, he declared obscurely, but (in hindsight) with penetrating insight:

"Them as is 'igh oop cannot allus see tut'way forrard clear. There's now't so queer as folk."

People initially thought that he had been referring - possibly unkindly - to the race judges who had cost him the loss of the annual Nantes - Oldham race, which he had won for 5 years running, because one of his birds was judged to have arrived a minute too late due to a timing error, but when he was later asked to explain he said:

"If'm yew got yer 'ed oop in't clouds, allus yew c'n breathe an' allus yew c'n see is tut'clouds an' when yer sh#t yew dun't know nor care 'oo it's fallin on."

On the shoulders of giants.

273

T-Clock / Re: T-Clock mostly obscured by black rectangle

« Last post by IainB on December 02, 2018, 12:45 AM »

@Hrafn:
That's odd. I never had any problem with T-Clock (Win10-64 Pro or earlier). It starts at windows startup, automatically.
I am using T-Clock v2.4.4.492 also.

As to the black rectangle, I have no idea.
I sometimes find that other proggies can leave residual artefacts like that, when they have had some kind of non-terminal error (e.g., FARR occasionally does it). Terminating and restarting them usually fixes it.
Could it be the residue of a "toaster" notification box?

When I have problems with Notifcation icons not appearing (or not properly) in the Systray, I usually find that terminating/restarting explorer.exe can clear it. It might help with the T-Clock window also.
There's an explorer.exe restarter utility from Windows Club I use for that, but there's one (or used to be) from NirSoft also.

Where you wrote that "The problem occurs at startup", I wasn't sure whether you meant startup of Windows or of T-Clock.
Does simply terminating/restarting T-Clock not help?

274

LaunchBar Commander / Re: LATEST LaunchBar Commander VERSION INFO THREAD - v1.154.01 - Nov 17, 2018

« Last post by IainB on December 01, 2018, 11:33 AM »

@tomos:

The wording "QL folter temp" Sounds like it could be Dutch or Deutsch, I guess.

-mouser (November 17, 2018, 10:58 AM)

'folter' means torture (!) in Dutch and Deutsch -- probably does mean folder in some other language though..

-tomos (December 01, 2018, 10:25 AM)

Well, thanks, that's, er, fascinating, but it doesn't really help me get any nearer an answer to my queries. (Maybe its pidgin English. Who knows?)

275

LaunchBar Commander / Re: LATEST LaunchBar Commander VERSION INFO THREAD - v1.154.01 - Nov 17, 2018

« Last post by IainB on December 01, 2018, 03:07 AM »

Couple of queries and an odd thing - using LBC v1.154.2.0 (2018-11-21)
LBC in "Portable" mode.
System is Win10-64 Pro
Temp is a RAMdisk: R:\Temp

1, Docking is not persistent:

• The docked window does not consistently pop down when the hotkey trigger is pressed. I have to keep doing a "restore from tray" to get it back.
• Am I missing something about making it persistent?

2. Slow display on hover/select of an item in the drop-down menu:

• Display is usually slow, sometimes interminably so. Sometimes quite quick.
• I wondered if it was a RAM problem, but I have 16GB of RAM, so it shouldn't be. Doesn't seem to make any difference if I clear the Standby List in RAM.
• Is there any way to consistently speed up LBC here?

3. Strange folder creation:

• I don't know what is doing it, but this path repeatedly gets created (even after I delete it), always with empty folders:
  C:\Workdata.001\Hold\SCRAP 0-ANY\QL folter temp\2018-08-07 1326hrs  Quick Launch (HP Pav-15)\User Pinned
  
  
• There is an actual folder on my HDD:
  C:\UTIL\.Quick Launch Backup\.Quick Launch Backups.zip\2018-08-07 1326hrs  Quick Launch (HP Pav-15)\User Pinned
   - but note that it is in a .ZIP folder.   
  
  
• Folder C:\Workdata.001\Hold\SCRAP 0-ANY\ is often used by me to execute/run setup proggies from and I wondered whether LBC had something to do with it. So far, I haven't figured out what keeps creating this empty path. The wording "QL folter temp" Sounds like it could be Dutch or Deutsch, I guess.
  Pinned links are "magic" links. The only reason I though LBC might have something to do with this strange path creation is that there are pinned links in the folders that LBC is attempting to display, and I wondered whether the pinned links might be causing the delay in LBC, as it tries to resolve the paths of those links.