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General Software Discussion / Re: no VLC bookmarks

« Last post by IainB on March 01, 2020, 02:23 PM »

@holt:
These might help:

https://www.vlchelp.com/ : VLCHelp - is a website to provide some quick help, guidelines and instructions for everyone's favorite media player, VLC Media Player.
https://www.videolan.org/support/ : User support and help - VideoLAN - user support is provided by volunteers doing it in their free time.
https://www.vlchelp.com/guides/ : Guides - VLC Help - Interesting VLC Help Articles.
https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:User_Guide/ - Documentation:User Guide - VideoLAN Wiki - official VLC media player Documentation (User Guide.

You will be able to find these and several other useful links if you do a duckduckgo search on "vlc Help". You will probably find the answers to most of your VLC-related questions at those various links.

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2020: How can I be of service to you?

« Last post by IainB on February 22, 2020, 08:43 PM »

@Contro:

For me the most difficult thing is focus the mind in a target.
So if someone else have the same problem will understand me when trying to acomplish a task step by step. ...
...Do you know an app to do this in windows ?
-Contro (February 21, 2020, 11:35 AM)

The best I have used (for years) is MS Project.
It enables you to use two types of view:

Gantt charts (conventional) - useful for most small-to-medium and large projects.
"Network" charts (similar to PERT) - useful for getting the bigger picture in really big projects.

It also enables costing and fairly sophisticated resource planning/utilisation.

Takes a bit of learning to be able to fully utilise the software, but, if you've ever studied Critical Path Analysis or PERT methods, then you're likely already half-way there (able to put approx 50% of the product to good use at the outset).

I always thought the old MacProject was superb (ahead of its time), but I think MS Project has probably long since eclipsed it.
__________________________________

Screenshot Captor / Re: Congratulations Mouser for #1!!

« Last post by IainB on February 22, 2020, 08:25 PM »

I had already figured out, quite some time back - from fairly extensive testing and without help from TECHRADAR or others - that SC was probably the best such application "all round" that one could find out there in the field.
So TechRadar would seem to have been just a tad slow figuring that out, I guess.

And IMHO that goes the same for CHS, FARR, ProcessTamer, LaunchBarCommander...to name but a few...

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell Extended Clipboard Format Data Discussion Thread

« Last post by IainB on February 19, 2020, 08:46 PM »

@mouser:

Any more thoughts about what features are most important that still need to be added to make this multi-format stuff useful?
-mouser (February 19, 2020, 06:07 PM)

Yes, I have a couple:

Enable wiki-like linking within Clip contents, to other CHS Clip IDs in the same database.
Enable viewing and editing of RTF and HTML clip content in the Memo pane (similar to last ß version NoteFrog).

The changes you are making would seem to be in line with some already defined requirements, as detailed in User Requirements for CHS
I gather some other users have added their requirements to that document.
The more you could meet of those requirements, the better!

General Software Discussion / Re: Merge or combine worksheets from the same excel workbook

« Last post by IainB on February 09, 2020, 04:33 PM »

Interesting...

Clipboard Help+Spell / Re: Clipboard Help+Spell Extended Clipboard Format Data Discussion Thread

« Last post by IainB on February 01, 2020, 02:52 AM »

Brilliant plan!

Living Room / Re: Google - News + Hate + Lurve: Brexit is your friend, UK.

« Last post by IainB on January 31, 2020, 09:56 PM »

Following the MAFIAA FIRE projects (do a search "mafiaafire dhs" and see their projects Redirector, and Gee! No Evil!), we knew that Goggle was probably NOT your friend (censorship).
So I was rather amused by this Samizdata post:

Name me one good thing about Brexit…
tags: European Union, Internet, Media & Journalism, Science & Technology, UK affairs
January 26th, 2020 Natalie Solent (Essex)
Start with this:
Article 13: UK will not implement EU copyright law

Universities and Science Minister Chris Skidmore has said that the UK will not implement the EU Copyright Directive after the country leaves the EU.

Several companies have criticised the law, which would hold them accountable for not removing copyrighted content uploaded by users, if it is passed.

EU member states have until 7 June 2021 to implement the new reforms, but the UK will have left the EU by then.

The UK was among 19 nations that initially supported the law.

That was in its final European Council vote in April 2019.

This Samizdata post from March 2019 contains a list of links to other posts that give the background.

I see that the Brits have celebrated this event with a choreographed triumphal little dance given by a traditional Morris dancing group from Sunderland – famously the first place on the 23rd June to vote leave:

General Software Discussion / Re: What was a great program that's now been forgotten?

« Last post by IainB on January 24, 2020, 02:50 PM »

Could someone give me a link(s) to information sources about Zaine? I don't think I've heard of that proggy before.
I'd add Lotus Agenda to the list anyway.

Living Room / Re: Boeing 737 exposee

« Last post by IainB on January 11, 2020, 10:37 PM »

My take on this is that Ukraine International Airlines and its passengers may not have got the memo regarding potential risks around flying Boeing 737-800s. "Flying coffins"(?) as someone remarked in one of the videos - even Boeing employees involved in the aircraft assembly were apparently recorded as saying they wouldn't fly in these aircraft after seeing "what sh*t went into them" (or WTTE).
-IainB (January 08, 2020, 07:17 PM)

Well, what a stunning about face admission from the Iranians - after previously making a blanket and absolute denial of responsibility for causing the crash with a missile hit - that they did indeed accidentally shoot it down and they're very sorry about it, but it was a result of heightened alertness and "US adventurism", or something, that led to the disaster (so it's not really their fault??).

So the Boeing 737-800 was presumably airworthy, so it's not another of Boeing's failures at any rate, which is why that particular airplane had not been included in the worldwide grounding of the fleet.
I guess Ukraine International Airlines needs to review the advisability of flying its civilian passenger airlines around actual/potential war zones where there could be a risk that "air defence systems" may be controlled by nervous or trigger-happy incompetents. Oddly enough, I would have thought that taking that risk was already an absolute "no-no" for most civilian airlines, but I could be wrong, of course. That rather seems to take it back to caveat emptor - so the passengers would presumably not have understood the flight risks they were about to be exposed to by their flight captain.

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: ShutUp10 - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on January 10, 2020, 11:27 AM »

EDIT: 2020-01-11 0624hrs:
Minor corrections, including the deletion of some irrelevant text in the original post and which related to redundant content from the template that had been used to make the post.

Living Room / Re: Boeing 737 exposé - Ukranian Boeing 737-800 air crash in Iran 2020-01-08

« Last post by IainB on January 08, 2020, 07:17 PM »

As it is about a Boeing 737-800 "accident", this BBC news item of 2020-01-09 0941hrs (NZT) about the recent airplane crash in Iran may be relevant to this discussion thread:
I don't usually trust BBC (aka British Biased Corporation) when it is reporting on what could be religio-political ideological issues, but its factual reporting on world events and that do not require investigative journalism seems otherwise quite competent.
Iran plane crash: Tributes to three British nationals killed.

... They were among the 176 people from seven countries who died in the crash.
Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed just after taking off from Imam Khomeini airport at 06:12 local time (02:42 GMT).
The airline said the plane underwent scheduled maintenance on Monday. ...
________________________
... As well as the three Britons, the victims in the crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians - including all of the crew, 10 Swedes, four Afghans and three Germans, Ukraine foreign affairs minister Vadym Prystaiko said. ///
________________________
'''Ukraine's state aviation service has forbidden its national airlines from using Iranian airspace from Thursday, with the restrictions in place until an investigation into the cause of the crash has concluded.

Ukraine's embassy in Tehran and Iranian state television both initially said technical issues caused the crash.

But the embassy later removed this statement and said any comment regarding the cause of the accident prior to a commission's inquiry was not official.

Ukraine said its entire civilian aviation fleet would be checked for airworthiness and criminal proceedings would be opened into the disaster. ...
________________________

"The airline expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the air crash and will do everything possible to support the relatives of the victims," a statement said.

The airline, which is investigating the crash, said the aircraft - a Boeing 737-800 - was built in 2016 and had its last scheduled maintenance on Monday.

There was no sign of any problems with the plane before take-off and the airline's president said it had an "excellent, reliable crew".

A statement from Boeing said its "heartfelt thoughts" were with all those affected following the "tragic event".

There are several thousand Boeing 737-800s in operation around the world which have completed tens of millions of flights. They have been involved in 10 incidents, including this crash, where at least one passenger was killed, aviation safety analyst Todd Curtis told the BBC.

This is the first time a Ukraine International Airlines plane has been involved in a fatal crash. ...
________________________

My take on this is that Ukraine International Airlines and its passengers may not have got the memo regarding potential risks around flying Boeing 737-800s. "Flying coffins"(?) as someone remarked in one of the videos - even Boeing employees involved in the aircraft assembly were apparently recorded as saying they wouldn't fly in these aircraft after seeing "what sh*t went into them" (or WTTE).

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: ShutUp10 - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on January 07, 2020, 06:07 AM »

@Tuxman: Well, to be fair, O&O (whose software always seemed to be pretty honest work to me) have apparently designed SH10 (ShutUp10) to only enable the user to control their Win10 client's broadcasting, or otherwise opening its doors, on privacy/security details. SH10 doesn't stop servers opportunistically listening/fishing for that client's data/metadata in the first place, whilst that client is online.
Not many organisations that I know of seem to actually eschew the latter approach (listening/fishing) to some degree - only two come to my mind: Duckduckgo (search engine) and Brave (browser), though there are probably several more that I don't know of.
One of the things I really like about the Chrome BadAd Johnny extension (which I still use, despite Google seemingly trying to kill it off) was that it went rather savagely on the attack against such fishing exploits. JunkBuster did much the same, but rather more cleverly, so it had to be defeated by the invention of new technology/protocols and which it could not use - all in the interests of "security", no doubt (ha-ha).

Mini-Reviews by Members / ShutUp10 - Mini-Review

« Last post by IainB on January 06, 2020, 07:11 PM »

Original post date:	2020-01-07
Updated:	2020-01-11

Basic Info

Application name:	O&O ShutUp10 Antispy/privacy tool for Windows 10.
Thumbs-Up Rating:
Support:	https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 (This software has been mentioned in several past discussions on DC Forum.) Download the software from: the support link above.
Application Version Reviewed:	ShutUp10 v1.7.1405
Test System Specs:	Have used an earlier version successfully on Win7-64 HP, but this latest version seems to be specifically oriented towards Windows 10 32-64bit
Upgrade Policy:	$FREE for Private use.
Pricing Scheme	$FREE for Private use.

1.0 Intro and Overview:
(From the support page)

O&O ShutUp10 means you have full control over which comfort functions under Windows 10 you wish to use, and you decide when the passing on of your data goes too far. Using a very simple interface, you decide how Windows 10 should respect your privacy by deciding which unwanted functions should be deactivated.

O&O ShutUp10 is entirely free and does not have to be installed – it can be simply run directly and immediately on your PC. And it will not install or download retrospectively unwanted or unnecessary software, like so many other programs do these days!

2.0 Using O&O ShutUp10:
The user is presented with a panel listing the toggles (On/Off) switches.
Select those toggles you want, per the example below.

3.0 Who this software is designed for:
Home or business users wanting to manage their Windows 10 hidden/intrusive security/privacy settings.

4.0 The Good:
It's simple and effective.
It works just like it should.
Warns you about starting/enabling Restore Point and Shadow Copy functionality before making any changes.

5.0 The needs improvement section:
Nothing to report here.

6.0 Why I think you should use this product:
For home or business users wanting to better manage their Windows 10 hidden/intrusive security/privacy settings, this software could be of enormous help and provide peace-of-mind.

7.0 How it compares to similar software
Its simple approach and interface is one of the easiest to use that I have come across (so I have used it for years).

8.0 Conclusions:
Worth using in Windows 10 especially, as it addresses all the telemetry concerns.
Will need to be re-run periodically after Windows updates as they will tend to have restored the old default Registry settings (for the hidden/intrusive security/privacy settings ). Microsoft seems to never give up.

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can't change the configuration files location - W10 OneDrive

« Last post by IainB on January 06, 2020, 06:03 PM »

katykaty:

...I tried that (even though I used the regular installer not the portable version) and it didn't appear to work - although FARR didn't create a new folder in my OneDrive. A filename search revealed the config files had now appeared in the Program Files (x86) folder. ...
-katykaty (January 06, 2020, 04:54 PM)

Oh right. Sorry, I forgot about that prob. as it was a while back. That problem probably occurs because you have residual entries/pointers in the Registry. It will otherwise keep proliferating and expecting FARR folders/files in odd places.
You may need to uninstall and expunge all traces to FARR (use RevoUninstaller on severe scrub setting) and reinstall it from a .ZIP file as Portable only - so the only instance of FARR will be a portable version.

By the way, I also looked inside and tinkered with the DCUpdater metadata files to point to the latest FARR version and where the app lives, as opposed to where the DCUpdater metadata file(s) assume that it would live. That way, you can use DCUpdater to tell you when there's a new version of FARR - or other @mouser app. It's a bit fiddly to get right, but DCUpdater is very handy after doing that.

Find And Run Robot / Re: Can't change the configuration files location - W10 OneDrive

« Last post by IainB on January 06, 2020, 04:30 PM »

@katykaty:
I had similar probs. This works for me:

In the file: C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\ConfigDir.ini
______________________________
/ NOTE: you have to *remove* the // in front of one line below to activate it
//CONFIGDIR=C:\UTIL\Windows utilities\FindAndRunRobot\Keys
// CONFIGDIR = .
// CONFIGDIR=%MYDOCUMENTS%
PORTABLE=TRUE
CONFIGDIR = .

// This file (ConfigDir.ini) defines the directory where all configuration
// files for the program will be stored.
// There should be only 1 actual line in this file that has any meaning,
// the CONFIGDIR assignmane above. Everything else here is just comments.
//
// By default it is normally set to the program directory itself, meaning
// that all configuration/ini/settings/preferences will be store here
// with this ConfigDir.ini file. This is also best for when you want to
// put the program on a usb drive.
// Sometimes it is preferable to store the configuration files in a
// different directory, like a "C:\Documents and Settings" subdirectory
// which is designed to store program configuration data, or a custom
// directory specified by a user on a separate drive.
//
// TIPS:
// 1. You can comment out lines by prefacing them with //
// 2. You can use the following replacements:
// . (actual program directory -- use this for portable usb, etc.)
// %MYDOCUMENTS% (like C:\My Documents)
// %APPDATA% (like C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data)
// %PROFILE% (like C:\Documents and Settings\{username})
// %COMMONAPPDATA% (like C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data)
// 3. The specified directory will be created if it doesn't exist.
// 4. If configuration files are not found in the specified directory,
// any existing configuration files in the app dir will be copied
// from the app dir to the specified directory.
// 5. If you edit this file while the program is running you need to
// exit and restart the program before it will take effect.
//
// EXAMPLES:
// CONFIGDIR=.
// CONFIGDIR=%MYDOCUMENTS%
// CONFIGDIR=E:\MyCleverSettings\
// CONFIGDIR=%APPDATA%
//
// NOTE: the company and application subdirectory name will automatically be
// added to the path specified (except for %APPDIR% which includes the name
// already, i.e.:
// "E:\MyCleverSettings" -> "E:\MyCleverSettings\DonationCoder\AppName\"
//
// NEW:
// You can now signify that an app should run in portable mode (no files saved to anything but app dir)
// by specifying the uncommented line:
// PORTABLE=TRUE
//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: NANY 2020: quick generator peek

« Last post by IainB on December 26, 2019, 09:37 AM »

@smaragdus:
Well, it's a bit of a digression, but I don't think I would disagree with much of what you say there. I mean, look at The Royal Society's motto "Nullius in verba" - which is taken to mean "take nobody's word for it" - yet it doesn't stop them from issuing edicts of "scientific" hypothetical dogma, signed apparently by lots of their members.
That would seem to be 3 (three!) logical fallacies right there:

argumentum ad ignorantiam (forwarding a proposition without any certain proof).
argumentum ad populum (appeal to the people/consensus, popular sentiment - appeal to the majority; appeal to loyalty).
argumentum ad verecundiam (appeal to authority; conventional propriety).

Fascism loves an appeal to the consensus. The German Population in 1939 was estimated as approx. 80,600,000 people (i.e., before they started killing off their Jewish citizens wholesale). Apparently the Germans were right behind their Führer to a man. One wonders: They couldn't possibly all have been mistaken, could they?

Regarding science, a bloke called Eisenhower nailed it in 1961:

In those notes, Haapala also writes (my emphasis):
In his farewell address to the Nation in 1961, President Eisenhower cautioned against the power of money from the government in influencing scientific research, and the “danger that public policy could itself become captive of a scientific-technological elite.” Andrew Montford has articulated how this danger comes about. Please see links under “Politicizing Scientific Organizations” and Article # 1.
.
-IainB (May 03, 2012, 09:43 PM)

But I'm still curious as to what @Tuxman might have been getting at re the 2 potentially "contrary truths" he seemed to be referring to.

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: NANY 2020: quick generator peek

« Last post by IainB on December 26, 2019, 03:11 AM »

@Tuxman:

There cannot be two contrary truths.
-Tuxman (December 26, 2019, 02:03 AM)

That would seem to be axiomatic, no?
What 2 potentially "contrary truths" are you referring to though?

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: NANY 2020: quick Tuxman peek

« Last post by IainB on December 26, 2019, 01:36 AM »

@Tuxman:

Every time someone talks about an omnipresence, I wonder where we scientists have lost the fight.
-Tuxman (December 25, 2019, 12:06 PM)

Hahaha, good one! Amusing.
But - and more seriously - I had not realised that anyone was "fighting" over it (or "something"). Are people fighting over that mythical hypothetical and (presumably) mis-named "dark matter" as well? I wonder.
I mean, if there is a fight here, what exactly is the fight about?
Aren't we simply seeking truth and understanding?

Living Room / Re: Merry Christmas to All

« Last post by IainB on December 25, 2019, 10:54 AM »

We were going to have turkey... and then I thought stuff that!
-cranioscopical (December 25, 2019, 09:33 AM)

Same here. We gobbled it down!

Living Room / Re: Merry Christmas to All

« Last post by IainB on December 25, 2019, 06:32 AM »

Merry Christmas and "God bless us, every one!" - the blessing offered by Tiny Tim at Christmas dinner, in Charles Dicken's story, "A Christmas Carol".

N.A.N.Y. 2020 / Re: NANY 2020: quick generator peek

« Last post by IainB on December 25, 2019, 06:15 AM »

@anandcoral:

The one NANY 2020 I am working is not getting full times as desired, due to my work pressure. I still have hope that Almighty will give me free time from all these "must-do" works.
-anandcoral (December 25, 2019, 03:27 AM)

Hello,
Your hopeful prayer has been answered. As it is Christmas and the Season of Giving, I hereby allow you the necessary free time from all those "must-do" works, so that you can attend to Paste Text and your other children, like a good father should. They're looking rather neglected as it is - don't make it worse by subjecting them to further neglect. Use your new free time wisely though - e.g., stop browsing the DC Forum or "social notworking" forums generally...remember, I'll be watching you.
Don't listen to any of those annoying pointy-headed jerks on the DC Forum who may try to tell you to ignore this message and that the Almighty doesn't have an account on the Forum - there is such a thing as omnipresence, you know.

Happy Christmas!

Living Room / Re: laptop temperature fluctuations

« Last post by IainB on December 21, 2019, 10:19 AM »

@holt:

What about a few shots of Duster in intake or exhaust; 'canned air'?
-holt (December 18, 2019, 03:42 PM)

Clean dust/dirt off the motherboard and other parts as you proceed inwards, using the paintbrush and vacuum cleaner on low suction. Using CO2 pressure cans to blow the dust off is arguably a waste of time as it tends to redistribute a lot of the dust (along with your money).
-IainB (December 14, 2019, 09:05 AM)

You need to remove the dust with a suction device.

Cleanliness is important. Dust and dirt are generally enemies of electronic or electromechanical devices, typically leading directly or indirectly to shorts or tracking in the former and shorts and/or friction problems in the latter.

Find And Run Robot / Re: Launching Win10 "Apps" from FARR.

« Last post by IainB on December 18, 2019, 06:04 AM »

Hi,
Sorry to bring such an old topic back to life.
Has anybody found a solution to access Windows 10 "Apps" from FARR?
I have tried addind "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" to search folders without success.
Thanks.
Fran
-fjorge (December 18, 2019, 04:36 AM)

Try: Re: Launching Windows Apps in FARR - EXAMPLE: Microsoft Edge.

Living Room / Re: laptop temperature fluctuations

« Last post by IainB on December 18, 2019, 05:57 AM »

@Holt:

I take your meaning to be that spinning the fan blades the wrong way can ruin the fan.
-holt (December 17, 2019, 11:43 AM)

That might be what he means, but the pragmatic approach I took was:
1. If the fan runs on a frictionless (magnetic field) bearing (as seems to be the case)
2. Then running it backwards for short periods is not going to hurt it.
3. - but only IF the laptop battery has been removed, so there is no possibility that you will be forcing the fan to run backwards (by reverse suction) when it could already be running in the correct operational direction under battery power.

I haven't broken anything so far...

Living Room / Re: Boeing 737 exposee

« Last post by IainB on December 14, 2019, 09:37 AM »

@holt:
Where you wrote:

"You can fool all of the passengers some of the time, and some of the passengers all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the passengers all of the time." -Abraham William Boeing
-holt (December 14, 2019, 07:49 AM)

This is my "updated" version:

"You can kill all of the passengers some of the time and some of the passengers all of the time, but you cannot kill all of the passengers all of the time without FAA approval." - Boeing MacChainsaw

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