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3276

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Clipjump - Clipboard Manager

« Last post by IainB on January 08, 2014, 05:29 AM »

@IainB
  Please share your views. You can also try the second beta (only after reading about the first beta ; get links from first post) as it has some rich improvements but currently lacks the documentation file.
___________________________

-aviaryan (January 07, 2014, 11:00 PM)

I'll shall be happy to share my views. I am just now moving off the v10.0.0.0 (file date 2014-01-02), which I downloaded from the direct link you gave:
http://kaz.dl.source...jump/Clipjump_10.zip    downloads OK.

This is how I have got on with downloading the other two ß versions:

https://sourceforge.....9_beta.zip/download	does not download.
https://downloads.so...mp_10.4.9.9_beta.zip	does not download.
http://tcpdiag.dl.so...mp_10.4.9.9_beta.zip	downloads OK.
http://sourceforge.n....8_beta.zip/download	does not download.
https://downloads.so...mp_10.5.9.8_beta.zip	does not download.
http://tcpdiag.dl.so...mp_10.5.9.8_beta.zip	downloads OK.

In case it's a problem with my browser, I should say that I am using Firefox v27ß on the ß channel. (It just updated today.)

I shall try to put some time in to trialling/reviewing Clipjump_10.5.9.8_beta.

3277

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

« Last post by IainB on January 07, 2014, 06:10 PM »

Very grumpy cat.

3278

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

« Last post by IainB on January 07, 2014, 06:05 PM »

Found in my feed reader:



Good to see that, despite the hardships and dangers of being stranded in a hostile environment, they were apparently in good spirits and not averse to making a humorous satirical comment.     
Ruddy good luck they all came out of it alive.

3279

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Clipjump - Clipboard Manager

« Last post by IainB on January 07, 2014, 01:14 PM »

...What would be helpful, it seems, would be if this user would perhaps delineate exactly what happened?...

-wraith808 (January 07, 2014, 10:26 AM)

@wraith808: It's OK, I wanted to avoid getting bogged down in 3rd-level problem analysis/resolution on the downloading issue - it was a side issue anyway. The main objective for me was to press on and download/trial the clipboard manager, and @aviaryan was able to come up with a perfectly constructive approach to figuring a way around the apparent problem of blocking:

...For v10, you have the direct link http://kaz.dl.source...jump/Clipjump_10.zip

-aviaryan (January 06, 2014, 06:21 AM)

It worked a treat! - and I am very grateful to him.   
Now I can get on with trialling the thing without further ado. It is already looking like a very interesting proggie.

3280

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

« Last post by IainB on January 07, 2014, 02:19 AM »

5 ...Things I Learned as a Cop (That Movies Won't Show You)...

-wraith808 (January 06, 2014, 09:30 PM)

Thanks. Very enlightening!    

3281

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 - Pledge & Final Release: Stick A Note

« Last post by IainB on January 07, 2014, 12:34 AM »

EDIT: added quote:

Thanks, IainB. Here is the direct link to like Stick A Note on AlternativeTo.net

-dr_andus (January 07, 2014, 04:00 AM)

3282

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Clipjump - Clipboard Manager

« Last post by IainB on January 06, 2014, 07:14 AM »

@tomos: Thanks but that doesn't seem to work for me. Tried it already. Just goes round in circles, as before.

@aviaryan: Many thanks. Now I can try it out at last!

3283

General Software Discussion / Re: Cloud-storage - safe & secure? Consider Wuala (it's encrypted as well).

« Last post by IainB on January 06, 2014, 05:45 AM »

...Do you have any suggestions? ...
__________________

-ericalynne (January 06, 2014, 04:54 AM)

What I would do is go through it in a controlled manner: sit down in the same room with one of these users, with both mine and their PCs connected to the Wuala group (safe harbor testing company) using our unique IDs, and go through it step by step with that user, so they can see my screen and I can see theirs at each step. You might then discover what the problem is.

Have you already tried that?

It might be as simple as (say) user error on the part of an inexperienced PC user, or that the Wuala interface is a bit odd or misleading/unintuitive.
Also, if not already done, doublecheck that users systems meet the Minimum System Requirements.

Sorry, I can't think of anything else to suggest. Let us know how you get on.

3284

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Clipjump - Clipboard Manager

« Last post by IainB on January 06, 2014, 04:33 AM »

What would be really great would be if (say) @aviaryan and/or @mwb1100, or someone, were able to come up with a constructive approach to figuring a way around the apparent problem that something is inhibiting/blocking the downloading of the Clipjump program install for this user.

3285

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Clipjump - Clipboard Manager

« Last post by IainB on January 06, 2014, 01:49 AM »

I thought sourceforge was reputable - is there something I don't know?

-mwb1100 (January 06, 2014, 12:37 AM)

Very likely. There's undoubtedly a great deal that the majority of us don't know.

I said:

...reliable/reputable download site - one that actually works...

Well, the context is that it needs to be "reliable and/or reputable", and not forgetting the "...that works", and I got seriously frustrated with trying to get it to work, and eventually gave up, as I said. And this was the 2nd time.
Maybe ABP or NoScript were blocking stuff, I don't know. Or this FF ß is probably playing up. But I tried IE11 as well.
All I wanted to do was download the blasted file, not go through a third level problem analysis and resolution. Again. Sheesh.
And I've got acute bronchitis.

3286

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Clipjump - Clipboard Manager

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 11:59 PM »

@aviaryan: Thanks for the post. I would like to try out your clipboard management tool. I tried to download it when I read about it in ghacks.net a while back, but gave up. I gave up today as well.

One suggestion I would make is that you enable people to get your software by downloading it from a reliable/reputable download site - one that actually works and that also doesn't try to force you to use their special download software with potential candyware or whatever.
I gave up trying to download it anyway after several repeated hangs.
You'll probably never know how many people have been turned away like that.

3287

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Stick-A-Note + Universal Viewer - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 09:55 PM »

@dr_andus: I use SaN in OneNote, but with a caution.: if you update the link reference point used by SaN, then you will orphan the SaN note. For example:

3288

General Software Discussion / Re: Cloud-storage - safe & secure? Consider Wuala (it's encrypted as well).

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 07:57 PM »

@ericalynne:
Thankyou. I accepted your invite to the dummy group in your Safe Harbor company called "Safe Harbor-Testing."  I am able to see the Forms folder and open and make edits in there.
Using PDF-XChange Viewer (see PDF-XChange Viewer ($FREE version) - Mini-Review), I opened two PDF files at random, and made a Comment about one of them (AdmissionDoc 1 1 1.pdf).

The PDF files were:

• HrgReqForm.pdf (location W:\Groups\Safe Harbor-Testing\~FORMS\Appeal Forms\HrgReqForm.pdf)
  This document seems to be a single-page image, and the text within it is not searchable/copyable. The Document Properties say it was produced using "PaperPort 12", so it was presumably scanned but not OCRed. To make it of optimum use to a group, you might want to consider always OCRing scanned documents - at the point of scan - so as to immediately capture the text in the document and make that text searchable and extractable across the filing system and for all users.
  From memory, I think Paperport 12 can be set up to do that.
  Out of interest, I used PDF-XChange Viewer to OCR this document (took about 12 secs.) and saved it, so the OCRed text is searchable and extractable in that document now.
  
  
• AdmissionDoc 1 1 1.pdf (location W:\Groups\Safe Harbor-Testing\~FORMS\Admission Docs\AdmissionDoc 1 1 1.pdf)
  This document has 15 pages, and the text within it is searchable/copyable. The Document Properties say it was produced using "iText 1.4.8 (by lowagie.com)"
  

Using MS Office Word 2013, I opened the document HrgRep.doc (location W:\Groups\Safe Harbor-Testing\~FORMS\Appeal Forms\HrgRep.doc) and inserted a line under the document heading.

Using Wuala online and offline from the Internet:

• (i) With Wuala running and with an Internet connection, everything seemed to work fine, as above.
• (ii) I then disconnected from the Internet, and found that I could still view and manipulate files in the Wuala UI and in the drive W: (in xplorer²), however, it did not play very nicely and crashed xplorer².
• (iii) When I closed the Wuala UI, it hung and crashed. When I then restarted Wuala, it would not start without an Internet connection.

Conclusion: Wuala is not designed or does not work for offline use. (Confirms what you had already established.)
I am unsure whether messing about as per (ii) above is advisable - e.g., it might result in out-of-sync, corruptions or double-update conflicts in the documents.

General notes:

• Wuala Personal and Business seems to behave exactly as one would expect from the Wuala website support documentation.
  
  
• There is no offline functionality - except if you break things as per (ii) above.
  
  
• For security, the encryption seems to work very well - drive W: being invisible when Wuala is not running.
  
  
• Cloud usage has its drawbacks. In opening, closing Wuala documents, I found the performance laggy - this is on a typical (not very fast) ADSL connection sometimes via a VPN with about 10 hops (makes things slower) to the VPN node. Under all connection circumstances so far, it has been sluggish at my end. Thus, performance in data transfer to/from the Cloud might be very sluggish/confusing/frustrating for those of your users who may have a slow Internet ADSL or 56K modem(?) connection. Lag may become aggravated by larger data volumes in the Wuala group (needs testing to establish this).
  
  
• This has been a very instructive introduction for me to the Wuala Business package, and I would be able to post this up as a Mini-Review to assist others who might be contemplating using this.
  

Thankyou for inviting me to the "Safe Harbor-Testing" group. It has enabled me to trial Wuala Business from both ends - as a group founder and as an invited  group member.

3289

General Software Discussion / Re: Cloud-storage - safe & secure? Consider Wuala (it's encrypted as well).

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 06:31 PM »

The NTFS ADS is a potential red herring, as it may not be relevant to your needs/use of the file meta-data held on the Windows OS, but it just might be important to your data quality/integrity. To explain:

Terminology:
NTFS = New Technology File System; introduced at Windows NT and used in subsequent operating systems (though it is apparently being superseded in Windows 8 using some of the latest drives, by an "Advanced" file system).

FAT = File Allocation Table. The old or "legacy" Windows file system, still in use today and especially as the normal standard on USB RAM sticks.

If your hard drive file system is NTFS - which it probably would be for all Windows NT and later OSes - then some file meta-data is held not actually as part of a file but as a logically attached component called an ADS (Alternative Data Stream).
Refer Wikipedia NTFS

I gather that:

• the Comments field is one of several fields included as part of the ADS for a file under the NTFS.
  
  
• under some circumstances where you copy/move/backup files from NTFS drives to other media (e.g., USB RAM sticks (FAT), FAT hard drives, and even some/most networked drives), the ADS component gets left behind - i.e., it does not get copied with the data file itself. So, for example, you would lose any comments made for your files thus copied/moved.
  

A purist rule: Any loss of meta-data is a potential reduction of data quality/integrity.

Thus, if you use meta-data stored in the ADS, then you need to be mindful of this potential reduction of data quality/integrity when moving/copying your data files - and moving files back and forth to the Cloud is doing just that.
To work around this and to be on the safe side, you would need to define a discrete file as being your lowest common denominator for a logical data container (i.e., exclude the ADS component and associated meta-data).
However, in my case, I do not do this, as:

• (a) I regard every file on the hard drive to be a potential component of an information management database and to form an important part of data quality/integrity.
  
  
• (b) I regard file meta-data - and thus the ADS, which includes, for example, the Comments field - as an essential, integral and useful part of data. It has value in that it can be indexed/searched by the Windows system and Windows Explorer (and Explorer alternatives - I use xplorer²) and thereby made readily accessible and can be accessed by other applications. (I have some partial workarounds for avoiding the potential loss of the ADS, but I have not got all the risks of such loss locked down yet.)
  

3290

Living Room / Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 05:03 PM »

One comment in that Kincaid thread links to this post from PCWorld from July 2013, which gives some good information about some relative pros and cons Evernote/OneNote:
Microsoft tweaks OneNote to make it an even stronger cross-platform business tool | PCWorld

It's clearly not an open-and-shut case as to which one you could actually find most useful.
As usual, it seems to boil down to user requirements.
Existing Evernote users - dissatisfied or otherwise - could well be wise to stick with Evernote and encourage the development/service quality to scale up a notch or three.

3291

Living Room / Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 04:39 PM »

Huh. Just read this comment in that Kincaid thread:

Jeff says:   
January 4, 2014 at 2:59 pm   
I recently lost some text data in evernote. I have suspected other text losses as we’ll but had just chalked it up to user error or poor sync. I have gotten many merge conflicts despite never using the app at the same time. I think I may just end up using Dropbox and a text editor for my notes. Dropbox seems rock solid as a file storage system. Plus if I have made some screw up I can always pickup an earlier version of the file through the web app. Thanks for this article, I think I am finally done fooling with evernote it just seems too buggy and the code base looks like it must be a mess.

The author is presumably not plugged into the feed address at: https://forums.dropbox.com/rss.php

3292

Living Room / Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 04:33 PM »

@wraith808: The many comments - apparently from concerned users - following Kincaid's post are somewhat interesting and revealing. I hadn't read them before now.
For example:

• Some commenters are thanking him for raising the reliability/buggy issues, saying that maybe Evernote will address these outstanding issues now. The implication would seem to be that they may have been outstanding for some time.
  I'm not sure what discussion forums you frequent, but I would presume that might go some way towards answering your question:
  

  ...wouldn't there be more of a record of said lapses?
  _______________________

  
  

• Tracey Smith says:   
  January 5, 2014 at 4:15 pm   
  Read the CEO’S response to this post first though. It appears that he took Jason’s post to heart and that it’s “all hands on deck” to make improvements. Libin’s honesty has renewed my faith in Evernote.
  _______________________
  

  So, if that is true, then maybe my supposition above ("Maybe that was the objective") wasn't all that far off the mark. Good response on Evernote's part.   
  
  

• Gavin says:   
  January 5, 2014 at 4:39 pm   
  ...The software offers a service, he pays for this service, however the service doesn’t work reliably. Why would that unreliable software be above criticism? Are you really suggesting we should be finding work-arounds for poor software we pay for? This discussion isn’t anti-Evernote, this is holding Evernote to a high standard. We should absolutely be complaining when software fails provide the service we pay for.
  _______________________
  

Does  Evernote have a board/forum somewhere where is detailed what issues/bugs/features are under action/resolution/development and are to be addressed in forthcoming releases?

3293

General Software Discussion / Re: Cloud-storage - safe & secure? Consider Wuala (it's encrypted as well).

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 09:38 AM »

@ericalynne:

I am making way more progress with your assistance than I did with wuala tech support.
____________________

==> I still can't understand why they could not be of more help.

I can get in and see your company, your group with me in it, and your files. I did manage to edit the wp file and it saved. (There is not an option to save, until you click to close out the document, then you can save.) I have added files to your company...some blank forms...and they show up there.
____________________

==> I could see your changes made to the txt file.

==> I could also see, open and comment on and edit the new files you added:

• Collier Fax.docx
• WualaScreenShot010514.doc

==> I could also see the document you added and deleted (it's in Trash):
 - Filename: Residential Habilitation Referral Process.docx
 - Heading: Suncoast Region Residential Referral Process (Revised July 2013)

==> Can you see in the Trash can too?

Question: just to be sure...when you look in your business account, can you see any of my folders/files? I have not shared them, I just want to make sure I have the file sharing system working.
____________________

==> I cannot see any of your folders/files. You would need to invite me to your Business group for me to be able to see YOUR group's files.

==> Do you want to try inviting me to your Business group to confirm it works OK?

Also, do you see any way to sort files in wuala by last date modified? And I don't see anyway to have the documents available on my hard drive (ie, without internet access.) Dropbox does this automatically and Box.com offers it as an option. And, the search function in wuala doesn't seem very "smart." I can search, but without the exactly correct file name, it doesn't look for it. Windows search function doesn't see it, presumably because it isn't on the hard drive, but instead in the cloud.
____________________

==> You can sort the files in Wuala by date modified by accessing them in Windows Explorer.
Whilst Wuala is running, it can provide access to the Wuala encrypted folders and files on drive W:.
To view this drive, type "W:" (without the quotes) into the Windows Explorer address bar.
Note: You can only view/operate on drive W: whilst Wuala is running on the client. It is an encrypted folder/file structure on your PC's drive that becomes invisible to the OS when Wuala is closed.
I think (but have not checked) that you can view and operate on drive W: whether ON or OFFline to the Internet.

Drive W: looks something like this in Windows Explorer (I use xplorer²): (scroll to the right to see the comment I put for the last file in the list)



You can operate on drive W: files as normal - including open and edit them, rename them. These changes are made to the copies on your PC's hard drive, and get synced to the Wuala Cloud copies.
So, you can sort files on the drive W: by the modified date field, and add comments - comments go into the NTFS ADS (Alternate Data Stream) for that file. I am unsure as to whether the ADS gets synced to the Wuala cloud-based version of the file. I suspect that it might not, and thus would only exist on the PC's hard drive. The implication of this would be that collaborators may be unable to access anything put into the ADS.

3294

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... assistance with a tenacious BHO ...

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 05:50 AM »

Benjamin Franklin once said that "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure", but this can prevent and cure stuff as well - I've used it to clean malware (e.g., hijack trojans) off clients' hard drives: Malwarebytes FREE and PRO - Mini-Review.
It certainly works to prevent things as well, especially malware trying to sneak in down Internet links.

So, I'd love to know how it got past MBAM. Did you have it running with Realtime Protection ON?
I read that there is one malware that turns MBAM off, and there is a fix for that.

3295

General Software Discussion / Re: Cloud-storage - safe & secure? Consider Wuala (it's encrypted as well).

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 04:55 AM »

@ericalynne:
I have your 2 x acceptances:




Here is a view of the test documents I have put up, together with comments.
You could try editing/adding to the comments, and editing the txt file.




@tomos: I shall send you a link to the anonymous web page for the group collaboration, when I can get it to work. You won't need to install Wuala for that.
EDIT:
The link is here.

Apparently anyone with the link can download and view, or share (i.e.,facebook, tweet, or email) the files from there, and when you click on the little red cloud it asks you if you want to download the Wuala client and view the files in the client application. Quite nifty.

3296

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... reasonable backup software

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 02:12 AM »

Note:[/b] "PCMCIA" also apparently stands for "People Can't Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms").

-IainB (January 03, 2014, 04:09 AM)

And "USB"? 

-cranioscopical (January 03, 2014, 05:14 PM)

Sorry, but you've lost me there.

3297

Living Room / Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by IainB on January 05, 2014, 02:05 AM »

...If it was so endemic, especially being a web application used quite extensively by the userbase that he quoted, wouldn't there be more of a record of said lapses?  More people rising up as their data was lost? ...
________________________

-wraith808 (January 04, 2014, 01:02 PM)

Yes, one could presume so. I guess you could check the several Evernote user forums/discussion boards for an answer. Probably the user forum sponsored by Evernote would not be the most likely place to look though.
Like I said, "I haven't used Evernote in ages", so hadn't really kept up with its fortunes. I always thought it probably did what it was expected/designed to do, and so was surprised when I read about Jason Kincaid's post - it caught my eye in my RSS feed reader (BazQux).

I just did a DuckGo search on this, and saw that his post seems to have stimulated a fair amount of discussion. One could suppose that there is some frantic damage control going on behind the scenes at Evernote. Maybe the bug(s) highlighted by Kincaid's post will get fixed PDQ now! (Maybe that was the objective.)     

3298

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

« Last post by IainB on January 04, 2014, 10:36 PM »

3299

Living Room / Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

« Last post by IainB on January 04, 2014, 01:20 AM »

I haven't used Evernote in ages, preferring the security and controllability of a decent PIM client (currently using OneNote and InfoSelect, so I have a Client + Cloud duplication), but I was surprised to read this on jasonkincaid.net (he's an Evernote addict). Caveat emptor, it seems:
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant
Posted on January 3, 2014 by Jason Kincaid

To say this post pains me would be an understatement. More than any other technology, Evernote is part of me, having evolved from habit to instinct over several years and nearly seven thousand notes. Every day ideas flit through my head, ideas for essays, for characters, for jokes. Just now I catch a glimpse of one, without thinking I am talking into my phone like a Star Trek Communicator, telling myself that maybe I should title this post Leaky Sync. Maybe not.

Because I use it so often, I am unusually familiar with the service’s warts. Evernote’s applications are glitchy to the extreme; they often feel as if they’re held together by the engineering equivalent of duct tape. Browser extensions crash, text cursors leap haphazardly across the screen — my copy of Evernote’s image editor Skitch silently failed to sync for months because I hadn’t updated to the new version. Most issues are benign enough, but the apps are so laden with quirks that I’ve long held a deep-seated fear that perhaps some of my data has not been saved, that through a syncing error, an accidental overwrite — some of these ideas have been forgotten.

As of last month, I am all but sure of it.

I’ve been learning how to write songs. It’s terrifying because I stink, so I trick myself, diddling around without actually intending to record anything. With any luck I reach a fugue state, vaguely listening for my fingers to do something interesting; sometimes instinct steers me toward the green elephant’s ‘record’ button and I play for a while.

And so I find myself on December 5, when a meandering session results in an 18 minute Evernote audio recording on my iPhone labeled “not bad halfway through” — high praise, for me. Some of the chord changes are sheer luck, no idea what I did but they sounded good the first time.

I decide to give it another listen with more discerning ears, self-loathing eagerly waiting in the wings.

And — nothing. Zero seconds out of zero seconds. It’s a blank file.

Alarmed, I tap record again, make another note. It won’t play, either.

Another. This one works.

One more. Zero out of zero.

I check the Wifi signal (fine). I let the phone sit for a while to sync, just in case. I head to the web app, which — thankfully — shows the note intact, with its attachment as an 8.7 megabyte .m4a file.

I try to open it in iTunes — it shrugs. Quicktime spits an error. Time to bust out the big guns. VLC.

Nada.

Teeth grinding, I contact Evernote support. The process is slow and bumbling, but I’d like to think this has more to do with Evernote’s overly-structured ticket system than the people working there. Unfortunately, in the process of trying to learn what happened to my audio file, I discover another flaw in Evernote’s system.

As an apparently standard part of Evernote’s support process, it requests that users send over an Activity Log. This is a file generated by each Evernote application that records the myriad housekeeping events going on behind the scenes — ”Sending preference changes…”, and so on.

For most services this log wouldn’t make me bat an eye, but in many ways my Evernote archive is more sensitive than my Gmail account. With email, there’s always the possibility that the guy on the other end will forward the message along, so I tend to behave accordingly. With Evernote it’s just me. I try not to filter myself because that’s how creativity dies.

I ask the support person to verify that he will not have access to my data. No, he assures me. Just the meta data, like note titles (why Evernote doesn’t believe note titles are potentially sensitive is beyond me, but, in my case, they’re usually blank anyway).

Still, out of habitual paranoia, I skim through the log before sending. Thousands of lines of gibberish, dates and upload counts and [ENSyncEngine] INFO: Sending search changes.

And then I come across something more legible. It’s a text note I left a few evenings ago, a stray thought about sex, if I’m being honest. Further down, another note, the entire contents of the text, broken up by some HTML tags. And another.

Turns out there’s a bug, this time compliments of Evernote for Mac’s ‘helper’ — an official mini app that’s meant for jotting down notes without having to switch to the hulking beast that is the desktop application. On my Macbook Pro, running the latest version of Evernote for Mac, this ‘helper’ app records the entirety of any text it saves into the log file.

Alarmed and not a little bit furious that I nearly sent him some deeply embarrassing musings, I tell the support person about the issue, noting that it is a serious breach of privacy (and an obvious one, given that I noticed it in all of ten seconds).

They say to file another ticket.

As for the audio file: even more bad news.

It’s been nearly a month and the most substantive thing Evernote has said is that it is “seeing multiple users who have created audio notes of all sizes where they will not play on any platform.” The company has given me no information on what’s wrong with the corrupted file, and no indication that they might find a way to get it working in the future.

Adding further insult, the up-to-date iOS application continues to create corrupted audio notes, despite receiving an update on December 17, twelve days after I reported the issue. The support team actually couldn’t tell me whether that update addressed the audio problem — they said I should check the App Store release notes, which routinely includes the ambiguous line “bug fixes”, so I had to figure it out for myself. Two more corrupted notes later, I can say with some authority that it’s still there (I’ve also encountered a new issue, where some audio files simply vanish).

Through it all, the support team has displayed a marked lack of urgency that has bordered on nonchalance. Maybe they’re trained that way, or maybe data loss on Evernote isn’t as rare as I’d hope.

None of this has been life shattering, but given how reliant I am on Evernote it is deeply unnerving — now each note I instinctively leave myself is tinged with anxiety. I’m concerned that as I dig through my Evernote archive I’ll encounter more corrupted audio notes, and, worse, my paranoia is increasingly convinced that there may have been notes that never were saved to the archive at all.

More than that, I am alarmed that Evernote seems to be playing fast and loose with the data entrusted to it. Instead of building a product that is secure, reliable, and fast, it has spread itself too thin, trying to build out its install base across as many platforms as possible in an attempt to fend off its inevitable competition.

This strategy is tolerable for a social network or messaging app (Facebook got away with atrociously buggy apps for years). But Evernote is literally aiming to be an extension of your brain, the place to store your most important ideas. Its slogan is “Remember Everything”. Presumably the integrity of its data should be of the utmost importance.

What’s worse, it isn’t consistently improving. When iOS7 launched, Evernote was one of the first applications to overhaul with a new, ‘flat’ design, and as a result benefitted from being featured prominently within the App Store. But functionally, it was clearly a downgrade from the old app, with extra dollops of sluggishness, crashes, and glitches — it may well have introduced the audio recording bug I fell prey to (I believe it dates back to at least October, when I encountered a similar audio issue that I chalked up to user error).

Evernote’s security track record has been similarly frustrating. Asked in October 2012 why the service had not implemented the increasingly-common two-factor authentication option already offered by companies like Google, Evernote’s CEO, Phil Libin, wrote “Finding an approach that gives you increased security without making Evernote harder to use is not just a matter of adding two-factor authentication…”, implying that something better was on the way.

Five months later the promised security upgrade was still MIA — until Evernote was hacked, its database of user passwords was compromised, and the service rushed to implement a two-factor system that didn’t look much different from the sort Libin was apparently aiming to leapfrog.

This is a company with over $250 million in funding and 80 million users. And unlike many web services that promise exhaustive security and reliability, it’s one I actually pay for.

Ironically, the same day I was told Evernote didn’t have a fix for my corrupted music recording, the New York Times published an article about Evernote titled, An App That Will Never Forget a File.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Cloud-storage - safe & secure? Consider Wuala (it's encrypted as well).

« Last post by IainB on January 03, 2014, 09:31 PM »

Done.