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Hello Susan. I am one of the Lucky Ones. Santa did not bring me a new computer this Christmas. Instead I am plodding along with my familiar keyboard, screen, limitations etc.

“By all means, it’s your computer to do with it whatever you like. ”

I respectfully disagree, to a cautious extent.

Back in the mid 80s, the XT-chassis was indeed MY computer hardware and the DOS/MASM/PCWrite software on it, while not mine, was licensed as is for my perpetual use and would work forever, with whatever flaws and bugs came with it.

The advent of MSWindows and the Internet changed that, as is evident daily from posts in AskWoody forums on how to resist change by inhibiting updates.

This laptop (and the other two within my home) can no longer be said to be mine in the sense that they were forty years ago.

Today there is always another party making changes that are essentially beyond my control.

It is true that knowledgeable members of AskWoody can devise and pass on tweaks to thwart MS. It is also true that something like 98% of all PC/Windows users can get updated without their knowledge and the world is a better place for that.

But 2% of us spend a significant part of our lives struggling to maintain a stable platform for purposes of development and testing of software.

And now you know where my heart lies!

Cheers
Chris

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ibe98765 wrote:

I have had a post awaiting “moderation” for almost 7 hours now.

Happens to me frequently. Happened just 30 minutes ago.

I like to stay “logged in” to AskWoody, but about once a month I am logged out, by what or by whom I do not know. Not by me unless, perhaps, I do a system restore.

If I were smarter, when I see “awaiting moderation” I would immediately check my login-status.

If this site made a serious distinction in a banner that I was no longer logged in, I would possibly see the difference before I typed in a response and then submitted it half a dozen times (“Hit it again, but even harder!”)

I hope this helps.

Chris

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Charlie wrote:

I was sort of hoping to find here an explanation of why the days and months are flying by so fast!  Oh well.

I have it on good authority that the days are growing longer here in the northern hemisphere.

The southern hemisphere is, as usual, lagging behind us in this progress.

I will take this opportunity to wish a “Super Solstice Season” to everyone here.

Chris

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Hi Drcard.
An auxiliary technique to PATH is the SUBST command

::
:: Map folders to drive letters
::
for %%a in (a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do subst %%a: /d >>nul
if not exist A:\NUL subst A: C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Greaves
if not exist B:\NUL subst B: T:\Blotter\%DAILY%
if not exist V:\NUL subst V: T:\Pers\Places\LivingInBonavista
if not exist W:\NUL subst W: T:\Greaves\Admin\Domains

 

I believe that this technique causes a slowdown in File Explorer as that beast re-evaluates the drive to a path, but overall, the convenience of mapping a work-in-progress project folder to a drive letter makes it worthwhile.

Cheers

Chris

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

“Is the UI easier to use?”

Absolutely correct, and this is just ONE of your points with which I agree.

A quick review of initial threads on any new “version” of the Windows OS is a flood of comments about “the new user interface”, or “the new IMPROVED  user interface”, or perhaps “the new IMPROVED user interface now with added RINSO”, but the user is neither new nor improved.

The user has yet-another-learning-hill to climb. Typically “Where did they put the reboot button this time”. Win10 is laughable: “Control Panel is dead; you must use Settings”. which immediately propels you into Win7 Control Panel for essential tasks sduch as System Restore Points.

 

I agree: A rock-bottom redesign of the o/s, starting with management of the user’s files and including malware security, put that out as a basic kit. Simple. Fast. Lean etc, and then provide add-ons for those that require them. After forty years in the O/s development business, MSoft ought to be able to do that.

 

My most telling account of Windows o/s failure is when I set out to purchase a new laptop 18 months ago.  The overwhelming advice was “get a laptop with an SSD drive”, which warned me that an o/s that was supposed to be good at managing my files had become so bloated that it was inept at managing its own files.

Turned out to be just so.

Cheers

Chris

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Hi Alex.

For the faint-of-heart (me!) these two commands can be run from the command print as a trial.

As another trial I stopped the spooler, then tried printing (to PDF) the web page with your response. The only difference I noticed is that the PDF printer (PrimoPDF) seems to have switched its command button to “Save”; I am sure the command button used to read “Print”.

Perhaps my first “net stop spooler” diverted attention away from Printing, and  towards Saving.

Regardless, I was still able to create a PDF on my hard drive and read it bock with Foxit reader.

 

Perhaps one could be more secure by abandoning printing with PrimoPDF, but whether the command button reads “Print” or “Save”, I suspect that there is still something there that does the printing.

Stopping the spooler might be an extra level of security for rabbits like me! Especially if it is specifically The Print Spooler that is vulnerable. That means that folks who no longer use physical printers are a little more secure.

Thanks

Chris

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1 user thanked author for this post.

AlexEiffel

A pedantic point on terminology: “… an industry that keeps promising we are going paperless …” I grew up with this, and the common press articles at the time, used “paperless” as a synonym for “paper-free”, but “paperless” can mean “less paper” (than was used before). We have certainly achieved that goal, especially with the rise in online banking/debit/credit cards and online newspapers.

Paper-free we are not, and are unlikely to reach since contract law and program specifications alike share the maxim “If it ain’t written down, it don’t exist”. I detest telephone conversations about what is expected of a computer  program, unless the conversation is followed by an emailed document.

 

That said I read that, like me, you are probably printing to PDF (“let’s just print everything to PDF because that should be more secure, right?”) and this turns out to be extremely useful as an extra level of proof-reading. I continue to be puzzled as to why I can pick up glaring errors in a PDF of a DOCument I have proofread repeatedly.

I understand too that printing anything to anything is printing, and must conform to whatever rules of interface have been set up, and will suffer from any shared vulnerabilities.

I suspect that printing vulnerabilities will never be resolved, that they can never be resolved, that it is logically impossible for them to be resolved because operating system program code for printers (printer drivers, printer spoolers and so on) has now grown to a level of complexity that outstrips human management processes.  I suspect that operating systems passed this threshold sometime between Win3.1 and Win95.

Automobiles show the same pattern; The Ford Model-T could be fixed by the above-average farm hand, but today even diagnostic computer packs (the size of a 1970s portable casette tape player) cannot cope with all-that-can-go-wrong.

In this sense, I believe that we can be “less vulnerable”, but never entirely free of vulnerabilities.

 

For the record, I got rid of my three printer devices when I retired and now get by with emailing PDF files to the local print shop and then walking down the hill to have a chat with Kim or Peggy; also to collect the hard-copy.  I am no longer plagued with laser cartridge supplies, blocked jets and so on. Paradise!

Chris Greaves

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2 users thanked author for this post.

doriel, wavy

The main advantage of operating systems circa 1970s was to reduce the need for error-prone humans to manage the computer system facilities. We think immediately of tapes and removable disks, and of course, decks of 80-column punched cards.

From this I propose that the primary purpose of an Operating System is to be VERY good at managing files of data for the user.

I am at Win10, and have given up hope of ever having File Explorer (and the various Windows-based dialogue boxes (File, Open, …)) maintaining for me a standard view of “Name, Date Modified, Size and Type”.

Until The Latest Version can promise that (let alone deliver ) I can’t see any point in upgrading. Everything else is just larger tail-fins on a Customline.

Cheers
Chris

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Charlie

“I’ve been working in IT for 20 years”

Then you have received a salary for twenty years while, like all of us, observing change and coping with new circumstances/problems in IT.
That is quite a different experience from selling smart-phone jackets from a small kiosk in the mall.

I retired ten years ago and have reinforced my view of myself:-
(1) My passion for programming computers has not abated since 1967. Today I can be as busy as I like upgrading my own applications or writing applications for local clients. (Apart from gardening, reading books with no-one to nag me etc.)
(2) My problem-solving brain, so useful when presented with a 4,000-line COBOL program with no documentation, remains a problem-solving brain, and I can solve any problem presented to me. Well, maybe not a Cure For Cancer, but my logical approach to breaking down a problem to get at the root cause provides insight to people who are confused/scared etc.

So, why restrict yourself to IT? If I am correct, your twenty years in IT has given you the knowledge/courage that you can provide benefits for people with problems. Strike out and become the person you are – a problem-solver.
Cheers
Chris

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

2 users thanked author for this post.

SueW, Kenneth Stephens

Geekdom, thank you for this inspired and inspiring thread. How good is this thread? I became enthusiastic enough to download WuMgr, run the darned thing, and now feel qualified to present a few Traps For Young Players:-

(1) WuMgr is a better interface for the Windows Update process.
(2) WuMgr does not replace the Windows Update process, it gives the user a better feeling of control.
(3) WuMgr works so smoothly and neatly that one feels inclined to actually install the updates.

What could possibly go wrong?

(4) Nothing much, really, except that on a non-SSD laptop, the actual Windows Update process is still going to take an hour or more, and the Windows Update process is still going to say “Update is now complete” in three different ways, each way followed by another message saying “Now installing your updates”, followed by a re-boot with a couple of blue screens along the lines of “Installation is 35% complete” (snide grin).

The novice would be well-advised to buy a house with a garden before attempting all of this, so there is a place to do useful work while the Laptop (“Do NOT turn off your computer!”) is left to Do Its Own Thing.

Truly, thanks again for introducing me to WUGR; I feel more confident about updates today.
Chris

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2 users thanked author for this post.

wavy, Bob1515

Thank you to all who responded.

I have clicked on the “Thanks” text link to all those who agreed with me, that the icons do/can look like ThumbsDown, but remain a tad-disappointed that the “Thanks” text link is not represented by a ThumbsUp button.

Or Thumbs Down depending on your history level.

Cheers

Chris

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Interesting product, and I favour the configurations.

I note the note about shortcut links towards the end , reminiscent of Sun Microsystem’s triple-tier data storage system.

I have spent some time looking at content matching, and am currently at the stage of optimizing the “binary compare” mechanism. This gets tricky with specific file types. MP3 content can be broken into chunks by the meta-data tags, but I hadn’t started on image files so “pixels” is a good hit.

Back to links: Vitally important and a principle cause of failure of any system where deleting duplicates can leave hard-coded links (say, to an image file) hanging, basically destroying a word-processing document which wakes up to find all its hard-coded image files gone!

A great deal hinges on an individual user’s definition of the term “DUPLICATE”.

One version of “Jingle Bells” in my T:\Music\ folder is enough, but I will never have enough versions of “Charles-Marie Widor Toccata from Symphony No. 5 for Organ & Orchestra”; preferably at amplified volume! For me, any version of Jingle Bells is a duplicate to be tossed out of the nest, but Widor? No!

Cheers

Chris

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“… Any suggestions for making this easier? …”
Hi Chris.
I have spent quite a bit of time developing a set of VBA procedures to tackle the problem of duplicate MP3 tracks (also duplicate JPG images etc). I have 90GB of MP3 tracks in 18,381 files in 1,937 folders.
Finding duplicates by name does not work for me, because “Liberty Valance.mp3” and “(The Man Who Shot) Liiberty Valance.mp3” can be seen as two different tracks. (Note the doubled “i”)

I am partway to a solution by comparing file content. Two copies of the same tracks ripped from different compilations CDs or different uploads to YouTube works for most of the duplicates. I am contemplating using the MP3 tags (metadata) to isolate fragments of a track, since two copies of a track, one with the two-minute standing ovation/applause truncated from the end, will appear as different tracks when overall content is compared.

There are problems with illegal file names. Windows allows me to download tracks with foreign characters, but Word/VBA will not allow me to manipulate that file, for example, I can’t rename it because, to VBA, the file does not exist!

I have been documenting my work to date with a UserGuide, a WhatFAQ.doc, and several other documents.

This may be overkill for you, but let me know if you’d like a copy of the documentation

Cheers
Chris

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1 user thanked author for this post.

CeeJay

I agree with the posting, but here is a head-up. The Firefox d/l reported a virus, but Win10 Defender said there was none.
This may well be a common occurrence for all I know.
Cheers
Chris

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Hi Kathy,

No, not the Maritimes but BONAVISTA! The centre of the known universe (grin!). Closer to The Azores than to Toronto. My lat/long is, of course, 48.4;-53.1.

Set desktop Ventusky to your location, then check out your jet stream at 300hPa/9,000m (attached image).

Cheers

Chris

 

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