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I'm so fed up with (software or hardware) KM / KVM switches working so badly
ital2:
@wraith808
You're oh so right about the non-readability of my paragraphs addressing you above, in my editing field it didn't show up as horrible as then on the page, but still... So you've had any reason to NOT read that text bulge; I've enhanced the wrap accordingly now, which doesn't imply I'd exacted your comments on my arguments, but you will probably want to make corrections where they apply. This being said, in case you're still interested in that Fences matter, you'd now be able to see that I brought arguments to back up my opinion-from-experience, whilst I, for the heck of me, cannot remember a single argument of yours in favor for Fences, you've just made (very) clear your very high opinion of it, which isn't the same thing.
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It's interesting that you say, you use Multiplicity with "differing OSes"; you refer possibly to Linux here? Or to different Windows version? 10 AND 7? Well, they say, "System Requirements - Windows 10, 8 and 7 32-bit and 64-bit", so that would be within the rules anyway. While ShareMouse makes available for download also the previous version, so that I could install that "XP"-compatible version on both machines, Stardocks doesn't do similarly, so I had to install the current version onto my XP machine, too, and it worked well so far, except for the facts I observed and described.
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But then, what's "facts", eh? "I did bring my arguments [your absence of problems with Multiplicity has very well heard, noted and accepted], but you choose not to hear them nor take them for the fact that someone else can have a differing opinions or experiences [I didn't dump your opionion/experience, I stated your absence of backing them up as far as Fences was concerned]." - note that when I bring the term "fact" together with my impressions (which can always be wrong), I also use the term "seem" (see above), while you're definitely wrong in what you tried to observe here.
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As for efficient visual indicators, the stance "I don't need them" is NOT to be respected ("heard/taken") when it comes to software, any more than any other "I don't need that functionality" when other users have a real, comprehensible need for that individually-unwanted functionality, my processor continuously running at about 3 p.c., my memory constantly being under 30 p.c., and most people's computers nowadays being alike, and btw when I was on XP with 2 GB, I NEVER complained about too much functionality of any program, albeit less functionality could probably have put less strain on my continuously in full-load running system. People who "don't need" functionality craved for by others, are highly-co-responsible for developers' laziness and even so-called "crippling updates" (we should create a thread for those indeed).
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You know, nobody wants to impose things upon you, everything's to be strictly optional, but others want to impose absence of things for those who need them, so you see there's no symmetry here: Some people need something which wouldn't bother others, not taking away anything from them, while others simply don't want others getting either something they need, for the simple reason that for the no-crowd taking away / not allowing is more satisfactory than just giving a sh**. Oh, those votable road-maps, yeah: There, I'd understand such behavior at least, but its recurring behavior also and predominantly in the respective software product forums where you cannot utter any wish without immediately at least some nay-sayer jumping in and rassuring the developer(s) that no, oh no, such functionality is totally expandable, and don't waste another second on the sheer thought of it!
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And with that, I'm even tremendously more fed up than with malfunctioning KM/KVM switches. Again, affirmation and negation are not two sides of a coin, but negation is rotting and destroying the coin itself. I've been politically very active for around 2 years, but now, any political saying against the mainstream has been criminalized in the countries concerned, so like in any fascist state of your choice, there's no more political activity possible except for followers: It's way OFF "neutral" to say yes to free speech, or to say no to it, and the masses who have AGREED TO NO SINCE THEY PERSONALLY DON'T NEED IT have doomed Europe (and will continue to do so and to accelerate nemesis with every poll to come).
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Of course, I'm totally speaking off-topic here, but I think the parallels leap to the eye: I know lots of now-crippled software which had been so much more functional before; I know the state of democracy in some European countries from some 30 years ago; the "I don't need it" pack's responsible for the seizures on both fields and will ultimately be for the ruin of the whole system(s). (You know, when I read thread titles like "Still using Chrome? Enjoy being watched." here, I just laugh instead of trying to participate; we all know it's just the slightest, brightest facet of a beginning of whole nother things to come upon you.) - And now back to joyous applied-informatics arguing while we can.
Nib
I had missed another aspect (important for me) with ALL software KMs. Nib, a little tool I use for automatically triggering mouseclicks; it's around 50€ but has saved my right arm), does NOT work on the "slave" computer(s) (and on which it's installed and running too, of course), with ANY of the above tools I've trialled. I once tried to replicate its functionality myself in my macro program, with a timer, but the original has simply been working much better than my replica, so I always use Nib, and understandably, it's very unintuitive to have Nib doing the clicks on the screens of my main computer, while I wait in vain for the click on any "slave" pc. I don't expect those developers to bother with Nib, which is for (nearly-) handicapped but I would have (had) to bother again with a better implementation of its functionality in my macroing; as said, except for ShareMouse, all of the trialled contenders (with the possible partially exception of Input Director, see above) didn't break the correct functioning of my macros, be it on the "master" or on the "slave(s)", so click generating on the "slaves" seems to be perfectly possible after all, just not with "Nib".
wraith808:
I'm sorry if you took it that my expressing my anecdotal experiences and opinions were in any way denigrating your own- I was just giving a contrary view, not trying to discount or discard your own. I've found that I have taken a look at things in a different light when given opinions that run counter to my own, which is what I really enjoy about the conversations here. People can have alternate views of things without taking them personally, and we can talk and disagree and still have conversations. Apparently I failed in that with you, which I sincerely apologize for my part.
Your post above is definitely a lot easier to parse- I thank you for taking that into account, even though I know that you didn't have to do so. The tone is a lot better also to me, and I thank you for that consideration.
I do disagree with the "I don't need them" not being a serious and respectable reply. It speaks to your experience with it and reduces bloat in the software. When I said I didn't need the visual indicators, I wasn't denigrating your apparent need for it. I was saying that I've never looked into that particular thing. I've seen how sharemouse does it. And I don't like it. I also don't use it in multiplicity. It's a feature that I don't personally need, and so have no real opinion on. It's gaudy in both cases in my opinion, it gets in the way for my particular workflow. None of these work in some security instances, so I have a mouse connected to my separate computers, and indeed keyboards. For example, on my laptop, it's encrypted. I can't use a separate keyboard. Also when accessing the security software that my company put on there, remote commands don't work. So having the screen dimmed out at all is an inconvenience to me. Therefore I don't need them and need to have a way not to have them is just as big of a feature need as your need to have them. Which is the reason that having options in the software, and options in different software is a consideration in my estimation, and should not be discounted, in my humble opinion.
As far as Fences, what I liked about it was the fact that I was able to make zones where things when installed under certain conditions go. I still use that functionality. I also liked the fact that I could arrange my desktop into zones, and able to right click, draw a zone, and have that persist. And able to integrate my desktop into the positioning of it, and integrate that into customization of my windows shell and view, which was the reason that I started using Stardock software in the first place. There is a whole community around customization from a personal level and changing the look and feel of windows. That appealed to me at one time. NextStart, Rainlendar, and other software appealed to me during that time also. But over time, the effort involved in doing so, especially when the OS changed, and my own sensibilities changed. That's when I moved away from those particular types of software. At this point, I don't care about the look and feel as much, so go with something minimal- like my recent efforts to make use of the more powerful features of FARR and TLB. That particular pendulum may go back the other way at some point. But it has no bearing on the functionality of said programs. It seems to me that your particular issues with it, and your particular disposal of such as 'useful' software is also based on conflating your personal opinions on the software with the functionality, and declaring it useless for everyone, other than, but that's no reason for saying it's useful except for people unable to really sort their things. I don't like it is always valid. No one should like it is not. And we're sharing personal experiences to broaden horizons, IMO.
And as a final note, I'm not trying to denigrate your posts. I'm trying to understand them. And the use of the English language is very important in that understanding. So when I state something about that use, it's to facilitate understanding of something that makes no sense to me. It's in no way a personal attack on you or your opinions, nor personal in any manner.
ital2:
@wraith808
"For example, on my laptop, it's encrypted. I can't use a separate keyboard." - I wonder if the KM tools which offer encryption can help; with really good security on the "slaves" probably not, indeed. - I discovered that whenever there are different kb, different mice on my desk, I invariably "try" to actionate the devices nearest to me even when I "know" they don't work for pc's farther away...
You know, texting doesn't transport smiling, and thruout post which, from your textual "tone" which I might have misunderstood though, seemed to have put you in quite real anger, I had a good time - foil fencing, while you seem to have misinterpreted my tone as overly-, not just good-sport-, aggressive: it's playfulness obviously didn't transperce.
I'm sorry for my carelessness with regards to the compacted-text; it's my fault I didn't get aware of it, but it hadn't been intential; I understand it must have put you in totally-justified mood.
It's funny you mention Rainlendar, that's another piece of sh** - oops, I shouldn't say that, I see. But then, it's allegedly free, while it cost me more than 40€, more than 60 bucks at the time - howzat? In fact, I had just started to use it some weeks ago (coming from paper agendas), and I also entered my various lending periods in it (different university libraries, different periods for the same lib, so no chance to memorize core dates or to do it with leaves in the books), and one fine day, I suddenly was charged nearly 50€ for overdue charges, just like that.
I then discovered that I had entered the common due date for multiple books on the correct day, but one month too late, and that's oh so easy with Rainlendar, much too easy in fact! I'm a fervent advocate of key control, but it should not as easy to change the month, inadvertantly, as it is in that calendar/agenda tool, neither should it be accepted or that the month doesn't immediately revert to the current one after some input into the next - so there are at least two traps wide open for missing appointments with Rainlendar which in this markedness don't exist with acceptable agenda tools - for my 60 bucks, I would have got some really good stuff, for example what was it called again? Remember the milk? no, that's online now. Remember my life? Neither. Oh, it's My Life Organized - oh yes, you CAN fold your sales by nutty naming...
So after that, I bought ListPro, even in intimate knowledge of its numerous faults, but since, I didn't pay another dime for overdues, while with Rainlendar continued, I probably could have easily spent the worth of the annual fee for Swift To-Do List (100 bucks plus VAT) per year.
I even considered an iPad - I mused about it here - for ListPro then... up to the point when I discovered that ListPro does NOT give alarm on the iThings, which makes it useless for me then. (Entering dates isn't as easy but seems more or less foolproof to me, so that's a pity.)
Fences: We more or less agree: One outgrows of fences - you did - since its order-capabilities are too limited, it's just that I discovered this within an hour or so, years ago, whilst you discovered hidden qualities, when I dispended with it immediately: "the fact that I was able to make zones where things when installed under certain conditions go" - ephemeral use indeed, just like I playfully but being serious at the same time mentioned ago. I admit I'm severe with Fences, but then, application launchers are about FAST access, and switching to the desktop and then stirring around with the mouse isn't that fast, is it.
I didn't want to equate not needing software features with not wanting democracy anymore; I just jumped in - faultily disrepecting your right to not wanting unneeded features for some good moment, I must admit that - because I've heard the "not needed here, move on" reaction from fellow users, not even waiting for the developer's own reaction, in various software user forums a bit too often, and then it occurred to me that this generalized hyperconservatism
(yes, I know what's bloatware, and you're right about it, but if they had realize their bloat in some optimized way, we both would happily welcome it: it's the badly-done bloat aspect in bloatware that puts us off, almost any well-designed (!) additional feature'd become highly useful in the end, for most of us)
in politics is ruining Europe: people waive what they should battle for. I'm certainly not out now to bother fellow compsters with politics, just let me mention here some news I got late this evening only and which is suitable here for two aspects:
From some German blog (see the screenshot over there: "somebody's [Twitter] account has been withheld in: Germany" [while you'd expect for example Egypt here]): http://www.danisch.de/blog/2017/07/16/artikel-5-grundgesetz-account-has-been-withheld-in-deutschland/ I followed this link: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169222# - "Country withheld content" (over there, everything's in English):
They obviously censor whole Twitter accounts for READING in specific countries now, and in countries you would have sworn a short while ago still they were perfect democracies (well, I know better, but I entirely acknowledge this forum isn't the place to discuss those things).
Twitter's a subject here, and, as said, just mentioning, not opening a thread or such, not bothering anybody with it except for just drawing attention.
And the second aspect: I don't use Twitter, I don't need it, I even don't know it but for its name and some screenshot here and there. So I could say now, I don't need it. May they hide'n'kill there what pleases them. I don't. See above. ;-)
Peace.
wraith808:
I'm glad we could end on a better note :Thmbsup:
I can see my own part in this... one of my pet peeves (I suppose from my Libertarian and/or Centrist leanings (not sure what the difference is)) is people categorically saying things about my (or indeed others') needs. But that's not really what you meant- it's my own failing at not being able to let such things go.
As far as Fences goes, I think I have an image of my desktop at the time around- I might try to find it. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think it might do me well as my words fail.
Thanks for the conversation!
wraith808:
Two posts where I showed my use of Fences if you're interested:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30980.msg386893#msg386893
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30980.msg387094#msg387094
It wasn't so much a maturing past the use of it. It's just that my workflow changed, as did my focus on computing. I still think it's a great piece of software, and go back to it occasionally.
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