Recent Posts

5101

Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Compare locations and remove duplicate folders

« Last post by IainB on June 16, 2012, 05:54 PM »

That's great! I thought it might be what you probably needed.    
In answer to your Q:
I don't think you mentioned subfolders for "releases" in this thread before. Do you mean you have the situation as above in 3. Inconsistent naming standard, or is it 2. Varying depths of nested folders?

Otherwise, if you want to delete some of the folders selected, the quickest way is to turn on Edit-->Sticky selection (hotkey is Alt+S), then the files you have selected can be unselected by just going down (cursor DOWN) them and pressing the spacebar to deselect an already-selected item. The rest of the selected items will remain selected ("sticky select", you see). This saves you from a lot of trouble/mucking about with Shift or Ctrl keys.

If you make a mistake and inadvertently press the spacebar on an unselected item, it will merely become a selected item (the spacebar is a toggle), so you can deselect it the same way.

xplorer² is a seriosuly powerful file management tool. Please do a backup of all your relevant files before doing this, in case you have to repeat it because you made a mistake and deleted something you wanted. It's often easier to start over in such cases.

If there is anything complex you need to do with files, a read through the xplorer² User Manual will generally surprise you with what it can do. I regard it as being rather like a database management system, where the files and folders are components in the database. I probably only know how to use about 20% of the tool's functionality, and learn something new about it every couple of weeks.

5102

Living Room / Education - a $100 genuine Master's Degree?

« Last post by IainB on June 16, 2012, 05:18 PM »

The biggest constraints to getting an education would probably include:

• access to education - you generally need to go to college.
• money - to fund it. You either need wealthy parents or access to a huge student debt, which will hang over your head for a large part of your working life.
• availability of freely disposable time - you might be too busy earning a living or looking after children to be able to get to a college.

How about a real, potential opportunity to overcome those constraints?
Couple of useful links below, and I have lifted a comment out of another thread (which was about learning Python) to help start this thread off.
I would be very interested to read of any DCF members' experiences of using the innovative UDACITY educational effort.

• On Statistics and Open Education: A Brief Chat with Sebastian Thrun
• The $100 Masters Degree From Udacity

This quote is from @40hz in the thread Re: Book: Learn Python the Hard Way

If you're a rank beginner to Python (and programming) look no further than this free  course offered through Udacity.com.

Intro to Computer Science (cs101)
Building a Search Engine
with Professor David Evans - University of Virginia

Class Summary
In this course you will learn key concepts in computer science and learn how to write your own computer programs in the context of building a web crawler.

What do I need to know?
There is no prior programming knowledge needed for this course. Beginners welcome!

What will I learn?
At the end of this course you will have a rock solid foundation for programming in Python and built a working web crawler. This course will prepare you to take many of Udacity's more advanced courses.

Really quite a step up from many free 'university level' online courses in that they offer an interactive web-based programming environment (no need to install Python so you can use any PC when you want to work on the course); graded exams, live people to ask questions of - and a certificate when you successfully complete the course.
Some other good courses available there as well. Check it out.

-40hz (June 10, 2012, 11:22 PM)

5103

Living Room / Re: FOI Documents Show TOR Undernet Beyond the Reach of the Federal Investigators

« Last post by IainB on June 16, 2012, 07:04 AM »

This is another sobering view from torrentfreak: How Long Before VPNs Become Illegal?
Exactly.

5104

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by IainB on June 16, 2012, 05:41 AM »

@4wd:
PAL: I'm in NZ, yes. PAL does not seem to be a mandatory standard here nowadays, as a lot of kit supports dual PAL/NTSC, but you are probably right - a refurbished product could have come from anywhere. I have purchased two other Sony products at approx. 50% discount:

• A set of new/refurbished wireless headphones. They came with a Sony 110V AC PSU, so were probably from US - Japan is 100V AC, I think). The vendor recalled the headphones as they had the wrong PSU AC rating for NZ (should be 240V AC), but I had checked that they worked OK with a spare 240V AC PSU of the same DC output, and asked for the refund of the cost of a PSU as I wanted to keep the headphones (they are very good). No problem.
• A new (not refurbished) Cybershot camera that came with a Japanese-only handbook, so it was probably obvious where that came from.

By the way, refurbished tech products in NZ seem to generally come with a 6-month warranty, as opposed to the usual obligatory (by law) 12-month minimum warranty. However a very nice refurbished DELL laptop that I got for my daughter had a 12-month warranty. Good on DELL for that!    

What I wanted to do with the video: I have already done it. Basically cutting bits out, and splicing it back together. It seemed a bit constipated with the de facto software, but at least it works without any apparent visible loss.

5105

General Software Discussion / Re: Can Firefox Quick Find "shift"-hotkey be removed?

« Last post by IainB on June 16, 2012, 01:40 AM »

If Quick Find is capturing your keys/typing-ahead, then you can alter the Quick Find settings via the about:config page.
You need to know which settings to change in about:config though.
I googled "disable Quick Find in about:config" and found some good guidelines - e.g., here: How To Disable Firefox Quick Find

From experience, if you play around with the about:config settings you can pretty much tweak anything in Firefox. When you have made a change, the line of settings becomes emboldened.
If you want to undo the user changes, just double-click the emboldened settings.
I always take care in about:config because you can change/restore settings leading to unintended consequences if you alter the "wrong" ones by mistake.

5106

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by IainB on June 15, 2012, 11:25 AM »

Before investing any time in trying different editing software could you run MediaInfo over one of the files to see what it really is ?

-4wd (June 14, 2012, 09:17 PM)

Just did this. Here's a screenshot of the MediaInfo window. Is that enough?

5107

Living Room / Re: Techie News Roundup

« Last post by IainB on June 15, 2012, 09:48 AM »

Council reverses ban on school dinner blog
I've written an emailed letter of complaint to Argyll and Bute Council at their website complaints page:
http://www.argyll-bu...ments-and-complaints

5108

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: Licence key

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 05:49 PM »

This thread is interesting from a process/quality improvement perspective, because it is a sort of, or partial, log of process errors.

@mouser: Just out of interest, do you have any idea of the statistics:
(a) Total number of licence key registrations to date.
(b) Total number of failed registrations complained about.
(c) Estimated number of failed registrations not complained about.

If you could calculate: (b)+(c) as a percentage of (a)+(b)+(c)
- then you could use that as the result of human error (assuming that human error is the sole cause).

You might then take a look at the process for issuing/registering licence keys and see if there is any way you might be able to change/improve it to reduce the statistical incidence of human error.
If you cannot see any way to improve the process to achieve that, then a common and effective approach is to automate the process still further.

For example, when I was registering my GOTD PhotoStitcher yesterday, I noticed that:
The download included only 3 files:

• Activate.exe
• readme.txt
• Setup.exe

I opened the readme, ran the Setup, and, whilst PhotoStitcher was still running, I then ran the Activate.
It was all pretty well automated and the registration took place entirely automatically and seemed quite smooth, and afforded little room for human error.

5109

General Software Discussion / Re: WebPage notes

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 04:26 PM »

+1 for Anand's Stick A Note

These links might be of interest/use:
Dynamic sidenotes (CS4 and later)
Unobtrusive Sidenotes

5110

Living Room / Re: World's first 'tax' on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 03:55 PM »

I read about this too. We covered the subject/issue (the difficulty in maintaining a website to support IE's peculiarities) in this thread: What purpose does browser-specific blocking serve?, and it was apparently a real issue for some developers, but this overhead/"tax" seems like quite a novel idea.
I think it is incorrect to call it a "tax" though, because only the State can engage in legal extortion - that's a tax.

5111

Living Room / Re: May the old memory be with you

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 03:48 PM »

I remember this game too. It was kinda cute.

5112

Living Room / Re: FOI Documents Show TOR Undernet Beyond the Reach of the Federal Investigators

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 03:26 PM »

Can you spell: Black Flag? 

-40hz (June 14, 2012, 07:49 AM)

That image looks rather sinister. I had not seen that before. What is it intending to say exactly? I am not sure.
Is "Black Flag" the opposite of a white flag? Like the Spartan's defiant molon labe ("not easily taken")? Or a statement of defiant anarchy waved in the face of the State?

5113

General Software Discussion / Re: PhotoStitcher - GOTD on 2012-06-14

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 01:58 PM »

Well there have been some discussions in this forum about apps for stitching a tapestry or panorama of photos together.
I'm not sure whether PhotoStitcher was mentioned, but from what you say it sounds like it could be pretty good.

I downloaded the GOTD and installed it anyway - it never hurts to have more options. I sometimes find variability in the quality of output of these proggies - i.e., not all stitching proggies necessarily always stitch the same photo sets together the same way or as nicely as other stitching proggies, and the variability sometimes seems to depend on the photos themselves.
Having said that, MS ICE is pretty consistent, though if I look I can usually see the joins in the stitched image regardless of which proggy did the stitching.

5114

Screenshot Captor / Re: Inconsistency in Permanently Deleting Files From Screenshot Panel

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 01:44 PM »

...tendency to store things in their recycling bin...

-Stoic Joker (June 14, 2012, 06:55 AM)

Made me smile.     
Isn't that storage/retrieval system rather like "Living on the edge?"
There must be an app for that somewhere...

5115

General Software Discussion / PhotoStitcher - GOTD on 2012-06-14

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 04:07 AM »

PhotoStitcher on GOTD (GiveAwayOfTheDay)

- if you are interested in a photo-stitching proggie.
I don't know what this one is like.
I generally usually use Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor), which is FREE.

5116

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by IainB on June 14, 2012, 02:54 AM »

This is a pretty hefty requirement...

-Renegade (June 13, 2012, 11:09 PM)

Well, I am a rank amateur, so maybe I should have referred to the .m2ts format, which is the file extension of the video files that are transferred from the camera to disk.    
The software that I use and that came with the camera and handles the .m2ts video files is PMB (Picture Motion Browser).

5117

Screenshot Captor / Re: Inconsistency in Permanently Deleting Files From Screenshot Panel

« Last post by IainB on June 13, 2012, 08:48 PM »

Yes, I had noticed that SSC sometimes seems erratic/inconsistent in its file management interface.
I had never thought to mention it before now, because my requirements for SSC do not currently include a mandatory:

"Must have a reliable file management interface replicating relevant Windows Explorer functionality".

The current SSC behaviour in this regard is not a showstopper for me, and I am accustomed to switching to the relevant screenshot directory in my File Explorer (xplorer²), for all file management-related tasks (e.g., deleting, renaming). That is a workaround.

So for me, the priority to fix this would probably be "C" - i.e., "Nice-to have".
(Where "A" would be "Mandatory", and "B" would be "Highly desirable".)

5118

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Editing software - Any recommendations?

« Last post by IainB on June 13, 2012, 08:09 PM »

I have found that the market offers plenty of options for what looks like good video editing software.
However, from experience, it pays to try it out ("suck-it-and-see") before you can establish whether it is good for your requirements.
I say that because we often don't usually have a clear or definitive list of our peculiar requirements when we start out, and each person's requirements could be different. So if you ask them "What video editing software would you recommend?", you will get a wide response that might not be of much use in practice.

For example, being completely new to the field of video cameras, I was wanting to be able to take decent HD (High Definition) family video, and last year I chanced across a good starter video camera - a Sony HDRCX110 Handycam Camcorder at a bargain price. It was a half-priced, new refurbished product. (I usually prefer to buy refurbished new technology products at half price than at new retail prices). The Camcorder can take HD video - 1920 x 1080 standard. I used the video editing software that came with the camera, and it did a great job, but I felt it might be a bit limited in features.
So I tried another video editor - I think it was the Microsoft Live media video editor, or something, and it did a great job and was easy to use, except that it reduced the whole video to a lower definition/resolution standard - which probably makes it useless for my purposes. So I continue to use the video editing software that came with the camera, and which gets free updates by Sony from time to time.

So, one of my requirements - a new and mandatory one - could be defined as "Video editing software must be able to input, edit and output HD 1920 x 1080 standard without loss/degradation."

Do you think you might have those sorts of - as yet undiscovered/undefined - peculiar requirements?
If you do, then I would recommend that you try out as many video editors as you can, and that will probably help you to "discover" what it is that you actually need, as opposed to being in the self-constraint of what you or other people think you might need.

5119

Living Room / Re: FOI Documents Show TOR Undernet Beyond the Reach of the Federal Investigators

« Last post by IainB on June 13, 2012, 07:26 PM »

Yes, I read about this on the Activist blog. I am skeptical, because of the history of such technologies.
My take on it is that it may or may not be true.

• (a) If it is true that Tor is impenetrable by the SS (includes Government military, CIA, FBI, para-military, police, or other Secret Services in any form), then maybe we can anticipate a piece of legislation that outlaws its use for civilian communication purposes. The SS after all have a legal duty to intercept and monitor all civilian communications as necessary, for them to meet their obligations for maintaining national security/defence. A government's job, after all, includes the responsibility for "protecting" the people - right? It's all about "Protect & Serve".
• (b) If it is not true, then the "documents" may have been deliberately released to con people into thinking it is true, so that the people continue to use Tor in blissful ignorance that their communications are being (or can be) intercepted, decoded and monitored by the SS.

The reasoning behind this is that all forms of modern electronic communication transmission, security, and encryption tend to stem from a purpose that originally had a solely military/defence use.
For example, 2 cases:
CASE #1 - Encryption:

Spoiler

In the '70's, there was a legal limit on the level of encryption technology that could be employed in acoustic telephone modems. The standard (level) of encryption permissible was limited by the US DoD. The standard that was permissible was generally referred to as "Commercial" grade encryption, and it was allowable because it could be broken/decrypted by the military.

CASE #2 - GPS:

Spoiler

GPS had a similar military history. It was created and implemented by the U.S. DoD. I think it was originally operated via a 24-satellite GSS network, and fired up in  1994. It was enhanced in/by 1998 and given a much higher resolution (accuracy) technology, which was not available for civilian use (think Cruise Missile self-navigation/guidance systems). Civilian use was allowed only for a downgraded ("fuzzy") version of GPS. I recall that the U.S. government (under the Clinton administration) legally allowed the civilian use of the higher resolution technology in 2000 - the DoD presumably by then having a still higher resolution technology. This was a boon to cartographers and for cadastre upgrade. By now, China and European countries either have developed/implemented or are planning to implement their own GPS technology, so as to be independent of the US-DoD controlled variety.

From these 2 cases, you can see that, for such technologies, there seems to be a "Pandora's Box" type of window of opportunity:
Secure and impenetrable telecommunications, impenetrable encryption, and GPS, are each rather like a Pandora's Box. Once you start using a new military technology, it is only a matter of time before it spreads and the military advantage of that technology dissipates. The trick is to control it as "secret" for as long as possible.
In the case of encryption, recent history provides a sobering example of what can happen when the SS wishes to maintain control over such new technologies and prevent the advantage from being lost by them being made available for civilian use. When Phil Zimmermann invented PGP, he circumvented the prevailing US SS legislation restricting such a technology by publishing the complete source code of PGP in a hardback book, which was sold worldwide. Books are protected by the First Amendment. Anybody could buy the book, OCR-scan the pages, and they would thus have the full set of source code as text files, from which they could build the application using the GNU Compiler. From 1993, the SS hounded Phil Zimmermann under prevailing statutes (including prohibited export of military technology), with legal investigations/actions for several years. Eventually, the SS seemingly closed the matter without filing any criminal charges against Zimmermann or others associated with PGP's publication.

We have seem from a recent court case in the US that the owner of a laptop with impenetrable encryption (PGP - Symantec version) can be legally forced to divulge their encryption key or face criminal charges. You can probably lay a safe bet that the root problem - impenetrable encryption - is probably quietly being addressed at source between the SS and Symantec, possibly under threat of the "Zimmermann treatment", which is still legal - unlike waterboarding. So that loophole will be closed.
And, if it really is impenetrable, then arguably the same could apply for the Tor technology.

And - for them as needs it - all this probably provides just more fodder for the argument that the First Amendment needs to be scrapped, for the public good, so that the SS can get on with their mandated and difficult job of security/defence. The potential "enemy" for the SS has also necessarily become Joe Public - and vice versa, perversely and by implication. We created this.

5120

Finished Programs / Re: SOLVED: Compare locations and remove duplicate folders

« Last post by IainB on June 12, 2012, 09:39 PM »

Well my need is so specific that I doubt something actually exists. And since it's one shot need, I've started to do it manually. A long way to go, several months I guess, of 2511 folders to check :-)

-dikiz (June 12, 2012, 04:13 PM)

Apologies for this belated input. I only just saw this comment. I could have replied sooner if I had been looking more closely at this discussion.

What you want to do appears to be a really dead simple exercise that will probably not take you more than a few minutes at most to do using the standard features already built in to xplorer² - that includes sorting and filtering for folders in 2 panes side-by-side, identifying and deleting all the unwanted duplicate folders in B, as per your example above. You can do this for any two folder structures of the Parent-Child sort A + B as per your example. No coding required.
I think you should be able to do this using an evaluation copy - or maybe the free version - of xplorer².
(I'm not sure as I have had the PRO (paid) version for years.)

xplorer² makes this easy due to:

• (a) It being able to sort and display "flat" file/folder lists of your nested folder tree structure ("local search"), and you can filter out files so you only see the folders - which is what you want, because the actual file contents of those folders are apparently irrelevant to what you require to do. Just tested it now. Time: probably take about 5 to 10 sec. for each - (A and then B) - to set the search filter, have the results (the flattened, filtered folders list) displayed in one panel (side) of the "container" window. So both folders' lists flattened, sorted, filtered and displayed side-by-side, showing just the bottom-level folders that you want to compare/delete. Time: (say) 20 sec. max. (New users of xplorer² will probably be slower.)
• (b) It having a sync wizard (invoked using Ctrl-F9) where you select a target panel (I selected the B folder list side first) to highlight all those folder names that are the same in A. Time: about 3 sec.

At which point you press the delete key and all those highlighted folders in B are deleted. Time: about 3 sec.

Finished/Done.

The only things that I could think of that might slow you down are:

• 1. Multiple duplicates: If, on seeing the flattened folder listing, you then discover that you have identical duplicated nested folder/subfolder names in either of the A or B display panels, because you will then have to manually identify them from the flattened folder listing (path can be displayed to help) to establish which ones you may want to rename/keep/delete.
• 2. Varying depths of nested folders: If your folders nest more deeply than the consistent Parent-Child example you give above, in which case deleting folders could be dangerous and not what you want, as it will also delete all subfolders and files of the folders deleted.
• 3. Inconsistent naming standard: If you don't have a consistent naming standard, and especially for the bottom-level folders that you are wanting to compare/delete. This will make the list view filtering trickier.

5121

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by IainB on June 12, 2012, 08:07 AM »

Not so much a view from my window as a view from a bridge which is in the view from where I live.
File: 01488_spaghettijunction_1680x1050.jpg

It's a rather nice nighttime shot of Auckland city (NZ) that I found amongst wallpapers in a .ZIP file from minus.com. I have seen many photographers shooting this view (day and night) from the bridge, but had not previously seen what the actual photo looked like.
(I have so far never taken a photo of the city from this particular vantage point.)

5122

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

« Last post by IainB on June 12, 2012, 07:03 AM »

Bad poker player.

5123

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

« Last post by IainB on June 12, 2012, 07:02 AM »

...are really just putting on a deliberately absurdist performance for our amusement, and don't really believe anything they are saying.

-mouser (June 12, 2012, 03:22 AM)

Yes - what a coincidence! - this is a principle that I have had to learn to apply and have applied for a long time. It helped me cope with Asperger syndrome (runs in the family). As a child, I would take any apparently factual statement or argument that I heard/read, and I would analyse it for rationale/truth, and it would disturb me greatly if it did not stand up to critical analysis. I could understand if it was flawed out of some mistake, but I could not understand if it was flawed out of some deliberate untruth - why would someone deliberately articulate an untruth? (Nowadays, I just become intensely annoyed when I catch someone lying.)

But that principle is so useful. When I hear/read about what seems some interesting but outlandishly daft statement or proposition that has no real substantiation in fact (e.g., James Lovelock's "Gaia Hypothesis"), I do wonder whether they "...are really just putting on a deliberately absurdist performance for our amusement, and don't really believe anything they are saying."
The depressing thing (for me) is when you realise that apparently they do not intend to entertain with absurdity and they apparently seriously do believe in what they are saying - e.g., Tom Cruise's freaky Scientology interview - Tom Cruise Scientology Video - (Original UNCUT)

Apologies for my obscure humour, anyway. I think I acquired it by being brought up by Yorkshire folk. It doesn't always "translate" very well into other cultures.

There are three kinds of people in this world, them as can count, and them as can't.

5124

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

« Last post by IainB on June 12, 2012, 03:09 AM »

But I was too busy "playing along," defending my silly argument to point out that I understood your humor.

-Deozaan (June 12, 2012, 01:17 AM)

I could see from your comment that you had got the joke, but I wasn't too sure about the comments that followed it - whether they were taking my comment seriously. I don't wish to inadvertently offend anyone by mistake/misinterpretation.
Quite the opposite, I only wish to offend people when I intend it to be offensive.

5125

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

« Last post by IainB on June 12, 2012, 12:36 AM »

To explain:

• 1. "The Hulk could often be happy..." An absurd statement. How could I possibly know/believe this unless I lived in a fantasy world?
• 2. "...it was only in comics that he was depicted as being morose/unhappy." Another absurd statement. The implication is that he was somehow a real person who in real life was often happy. But he was never a real-life person (as far as I am aware) and only ever a comic-strip character, and so it could only be that he was ever depicted in comics (or TV/movies of the comic character) as unhappy/morose, or anything else for that matter.
• 3. 1st Conclusion: The speaker would seem to be living in a fantasy world to have believed such a thing.
• 4. Rethink: This was posted in "Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]". Hmm...
• 5. 2nd Conclusion: Anyone making such a statement is either saying it tongue-in-cheek as a joke or is completely off his rocker. Since this is in a silly humour thread, assume the former to be the case, and smile at the joke someone apparently just made about himself.   

Actually, explaining it like that rather seems to kill it stone dead. (Sigh.)

I was of course saying it tongue-in-cheek, but I suppose I could be off my rocker without realising it.