Gordon Woolf's Blog

What's best for travelling?

2012-02-11T11:11:06+11:00

My most recent trip away was three days by car and for the first time I took my 3kg+ laptop. Usually I travel with what was almost the first of the netbooks, the eeePC 701.

So how do they compare?

Travelling by car, the hefty laptop is more convenient and there can be everything available that you'd expect at home. It'll run Windows if that's what you run at home - in fact it can be your main computer even at home, so you know how to do everything.

The down side is the weight (it would have accounted for half the total baggage for one allowed on our recent trip by air over Lake Eyre, and once you are out of the cities you realise the effect of all your regular internet checks for things like desktop gadgets (weather, shares, exchange rate etc) add to slowing up your 2G mail and other web downloads. It may be a good idea to set up a specific "user" for travelling.

So, for air, train etc I'll still go for the little netbook. Yes, the screen is too small (it is one of the original 7" screens, there are 10" ones now which would be better) but it weighs just over 900g or 1200g with mini-mouse, charger and modem and it is a third the size of the laptop.

I'm tempted by a tablet, but so far it is only temptation - and there's that additional benefit in favour of the netbook: it cost $500 but that's when they were something new and most of that value has been written off over the years. I could replace it for around $250 so its loss or damage isn't going to hit me hard (though its replacement could just possibly be a Galaxy if I have to make a decision while travelling and a store has one).

As to wireless availability, my experiences in central Australia late in 2010 still appear to be current. Something simpler such as a netbook with Linux will get and send email faster than most laptops but I can't yet compare that to a tablet, especially one of the cheaper ones running the Android OS. I never like throwing out something that is still working well, so for the time being my almost ancient netbook will be my main means of communication when away from home and office.

On this latest trip the wireless connection via our second major national carrier was excruciatingly slow - and the motel's wifi, running from a landline link, was not much faster. Perhaps when the networks get better outside of the capital cities I will give way to the tablet temptation.

Coping with long URLs

2012-01-30T15:31:37+11:00

URLs are one the most difficult things to cope with in written material, whether that is text in printed form or on the Web.

One way to solve this in layout programs such as InDesign is to specify the URL as having "no language" (you can even set up a character style to specify "no language" as the language). InDesign will then only break the line when it has to and will not insert a hyphen.

But in most such programs, the way to deal with URLs has improved in the last couple of versions. The biggest problem is that if the URL is broken in a word which is in the program's hyphenation dictionary it will make it impossible to just select the web address and either click on it or copy it into a browser winodw. To a computer, the hyphen turns iot into aan entirely different address.

It is also common to use a "discretionary line break" linked with a character style to put the DLB after the @ sign or before the dot of .com

Some time ago (CS3?) InDesign's internal rules for line breaks changed to include the slash(/), back-slash(\), underscore(_), ellipse(...), commercial-at(@), any dash (en-dash, em-dash, etc). They also added some algorithms that allow breaks at periods within URLs but not abbreviations... that was definitely getting better at the time I stopped keeping track and is by no means easy to achieve.

There may now be even better ways to solve the problem and I would be surprised if it cannot also be done in the latest QuarkXPress.

My main point is that there are now ways to ensure that a web address is not broken by adding a hyphen and proofreaders should feel confident in marking bad URL breaks and perhaps even suggest some of the possible solutions. In checking proofs it is also worth ensuring that if an address does include a hyphen, it is one that is meant to be there and not one which may have been added because of a line break that no longer applies.

On web sites those responsible should also ask why they are using long URLs in a visible form, though I have to admit I have been guilty, as it does ensure that if web text is copied for use in other media that the URL is copied, and not just the text of a link. Where that is not likely, just embed the full address in the HTML code as an href attribute.

For MS Word the advice is to enter the URL in both the address and text-to-display boxes of the edit hyperlink dialog. You can then add a space within the text of the URL without upsetting the link, or better still, use the zero-width space character or a no-width optional break after a character in the URL such as a forward slash. This character has no shortcut key but you can allocate one in the insert special characters dialog if you need them often.

If you have a better way, let me know.

Keeping in sync

2012-01-30T13:10:08+11:00

I've just started to experiment with Microsoft's Windows Live Mesh, which is in beta and has already changed names about three times - plus it seems it may even be coming to the Mac. Basically it is a synchronisation program that is very badly explained but which will keep sets of folders in sync between two or more computers and is linked to online storage.

I made an initial mistake of choosing to sync my Documents folders between my desktop and laptop and then wondered what on earth was happening. It seemed to be sending and receiving tens of thousands of files with the numbers it showed going up, and up, and up. And then very slowly down.

It seems what it does it create lots of placeholder files for all the files it is going to move so it knows which is going to go in what direction. All I have tyo do now is keep both computers linked to my network to give it enough hours to complete the task. At least I eventually discovered that I don't need to keep looking at its screen windows; just keep both going in the taskbar. And because it works slowly it does not seem to be having a dramatic effect on any other jobs.

Presumably if I'd just told it to sync a few small folders in my user section it would have been done by now and just watching for changes to move the files in whatever direction was needed, and to have had few enough to keep a copy in the allowed space in the MS cloud.

I'd guess that all the files that make up what (i.e. profiles etc) you mention would fill well within the cloud limits and the one advantage of Live Mesh over something like Dropbox seems to be that once you make your choices on what to sync it will then do it all for you. You may therefore like to read a blog item at:
http://www.newsome.org/2011/07/dropbox-vs-windows-live-mesh-i-can-answer-that-question/
which gives the other view. The pro view is at:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/why-i-switched-from-dropbox-to-windows-live-mesh/3512
particularly page 2 of that item.

The strange case of uP and dOWN

2011-12-31T12:49:35+11:00

What is the most annoying key on your keyboard?

For me, and maybe for you, it is the CAPS LOCK key. It seems to get in the way whenever I intend to hit the Shift key. If I'm lucky I may be in Word or some other program which allows me to highlight the mess which results and hit the command to change case, but in others there is no option but to delete and type the phrase or sentence again.

In Word 2010 you go to the Home tab and then in the Font area click on the Aa button to select from a wide choice including lowercase, Sentence case, Capitalize Each Word or tOGGLE cASE.

The CapsLock is a remnant of the old typewriter keyboard that has continued to exist to this day and has survived the many changes in computer keyvoards over recent decades which has seen the number of keys and the positions of some of them go from 83 on the original IBM PC to 104 for the US, Australia and most other countries, though many European layouts have 105 and some in Brazil and Japan have 107 and 109 respectively.

But there is something you can do about that caps lock key, and even about the strangest key, the one labelled SysReg. SysReg is also named as PrtScn, which doesn't actually print the screen but does put a screen dump or image into memory ready to be pasted in an image editor program such as Paint ot even Photoshop.

So, how do you get rid of CapsLock?

The answer lies in Windows Registry Editor. In Vista and Windows 7 you can search for the local machine code control keyboard layout and replace the scancode which activates when you press the CapsLock key. It then involves entering a sequence of around 20 hex codes.

But there are easier ways. For example, go to:
http://www.randyrants.com/2006/07/sharpkeys_211.html
and download SharpKeys

I went for the MSI version. When installed, press the Add button, select the "Special Caps Lock" with code 00 3A and change it to the default which is "Turn Key Off". You could also change it to another version of the Spceial Left Control key which may be more helpful in reaching many control key combinations.

Think carefully before selecting to write the change to the Registry (you do have a back up of that, don't you?). Then you need to reboot to see it take effect. Though the program says for Windows systems up to Vista, it does work with Win7 too.

You can also download another program, KeyTweak, from http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/
I've read equally good reports of that but have no practical knowledge.

There are other websites you may find helpful, such as How-to-geek at:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-caps-lock-key-in-windows-vista/

That page includes a downloadable set of .reg files to do what I've just done or to a Shift key or to swap the Caps Lock with the Scroll Lock key that may be sitting up there on the right between SysRg and Break. Did you even know you had those? Break dates back to the teleprinter and telegraph. It was a way for operators at each end to know that outlaws or bushrangers had not cut the line. When did you last need to know that?

This article appeared first in the November issue of PC Update, the magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group. It may be reprinted at no cost under Creative Commons conditions with Attribution.

The need to make a profit

2011-11-02T13:36:11+11:00

The radio caller was critical of banks, which is not unusual, but she put it in a somewhat odd way: 'I have to pay them interest, but what do they actually DO (for me?)'.

This may be partly the reason for the current Occupy movements around the world. To some youngsters it may just seem that if their parents run out of money, they just have to go to "the hole in the wall', but to those parents does it also seem that if they can buy computers, washing machines, furniture and so much more on "48 months interest free", why should the banks charge interest. After all they are only giving you money for a while, not goods permanently.

I know that doesn't make sense, but it kinda sounds logical.

The reason for the demonstrations that I have sympathy with is that it is no longer true that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer -- it is, some people have pointed out with figures and graphs, that the super-rich are getting richer, and that the rich and the poor are getting poorer.

I could claim that some of my best friends are millionaires, which is not quite true but I have known a couple well enough to visit their homes and have them visit mine. I don't envy them. Sure they make more money than I ever had but they do have to work unusual and long hours and the stress level is more than I would want, even though as a newspaper editor I once flourished on stressful work.

But we now have company directors who get pay increases by the millions and yet manage to do similar work for several companies at the same time. If their individual jobs were at the stress level of "my" millionaires, they'd have been dead long ago.

That's what I mean by things getting less fair. And therefore in general terms the Occupy movement has my moral support.

I'm not particularly blaming the chain store owner with his 48-months interest free and similar offers. The one I have in mind has said that people are stupid to accept some of the offers made in his stores as they don't suit everyone.

It is necessary for businesses to make a profit in order to reinvest but there is a big difference between making a fair profit and making the most that you can. Is the first aim of company directors to make the most profit for their shareholders or a profit which will ensure that the company continues to be viable into the future? Customers are important too, with the rest of the community needing at least a little consideration occasionally.

I don't think the unfairness claim can be made against more than a small number of the people who run companies -- it just seems like that sometimes.

A reminder of air travel as it should be

2011-10-08T19:04:06+11:00

I thought that I did not like air travel. But a few weeks ago Gwen and I took a few days for a holiday trip over Lake Eyre, Australia's inland sea which is usually just salt, but which has been filled now for two years running.

I was fortunate to see an advertisement that a tiny air-travel business (four planes and a helicopter) were running a three-day two-night tour from Tooradin airfield, 20-minutes’ drive from home.

We drove in to the airfield, up to the office, carried our bag in where we were met by the pilot who took the bag, weighed it and took it out to the plane, an 8-passenger Piper Chieftain, sitting ready the other side of a fence you could have stepped over. We were introduced by his wife to the other passengers, then led back to our cars to drive to the "secure" area for them on the other side of the hanger. We ambled back across the tarmac, had a coffee and the pilot said it was time to get going.

Before we boarded the pilot ran through the usual safety preamble with the lifejacket (which still has to be done even though most of our trip was over desert, admittedly somewhat wet desert, then it was an invitation to sit where we liked and the lolly jar was handed around.

One of the "towns" we landed at, William Creek, has a permanent population of 2 and is on the Oodnadatta track, a "road" definitely more deserving of the description "track". The pilot apologised that he could no longer taxi to the back door of the pub, so we'd have to walk the last 50 yards. A sign at the sealed airstrip's parking area says to pay the $25 landing fee ($30 for ours as it had two engines) at the hotel bar.

As might be expected when you are visitng small towns in what really is the Outback, mobile phone and wireless broadband coverage was somewhat patchy (at Lyndhurst we were told you could get a connection on Telstra or Optus on a small hill a kilometre along the road) but even the most deserted pubs offer landline or satellite connections and the Lyndhurst Hotel even had an inhouse computer repair service advertised on the noticeboard).

Incidentally we can thoroughly recommend the hamburgers at William Creek which need a couple of kebab sticks to hold them together. Only about four or five aircraft landed for lunch that day but our pilot told us it is not uncommon to have 20.

So it is not air travel which is the problem, it's large airports.

That deleted file can live again

2011-10-08T18:37:06+11:00

The mysteries of 'Previous Versions' in Windows 7

I just deleted a document and photo I desperately need. And I've rebooted since so they are not in the Recycle Bin. Can I get them back?

Who just said "No"?

That ain't so. If you are using Windows 7 and had read this article, the answer is almost certainly "Yes!"

There's a thing that Microsoft generally doesn't say much about, called "Previous versions", or, in technical circles it’s known as “shadow copies”.

And there may be a reason they say little, although that is not a reason why you should not add it to your backup arsenal. It is part of the system restore setup and system restore has an annoying habit of occasionally switching itself off. So every now and again, especially after any system changes, just check the settings detailed below to make sure everything is still as it should be.

First click on your start icon, then right click on Computer and select Properties. In the left-hand pane select System protection (you may be prompted for administrator permission) and then click on the drive where you keep your data files and then click on the Configure button. To turn on the ability to restore previous versions click the item which states "Restore system settings and previous versions of files". Then click OK.

This will create backups of changed files on that disk whenever there is a system restore point created. That will usually be once a day or when you install a program or when you tell the system to do so.

If you only have one drive then this setting will be turned on by default but there is advice around which tells users to turn off system restore for drives other than C:

What is the downside of having this setting turned on? It takes space and on a slow computer it can slow things at critical times but on the whole Windows 7 handles system tasks, even indexing, far better than earlier forms of Windows. Basically if you can use Win7 efficiently on your computer you will not notice anything extra going on.

The amount of extra space used is controllable from the dialog box mentioned above using a slider. As you increase the percentage used, you will also have bigger backups (and this is not a substitute for regular backups). But space, in the terms of bigger drives is now cheaper than it has ever been. I now regard a 500GB drive as an annual running expense.

In future when you right-click on a file or folder you will see an option to "Restore previous versions" and that will give you a dialog listing all the previous versions available. Select one.

If the file you want has been deleted, then right-click the folder it was in and select "Restore previous versions" and you will get the choice of previous versions of the folder. Double-click a version of the folder which would have contained the file. You will not want to restore the whole lot but you can select an individual file and drag it to another location, such as the desktop.

If you can't remember the name of the file, you can use the search box or select another view of the folder such as by date. To avoid confusion the OS adds a timestamp to the name if it is a previous version.

And if you double-click a previous version of a file it will open in whatever the default editing program is and you can edit it and resave to wherever you want ... or just abandon it if it is not what you want. You cannot just save it back to the previous-version folder, which makes sense if you think about it.

There are some known problems between System restore and Norton's "Product tamper protection" but they mainly interfere with full restoration rather than single file restore. However turning off system restore is one of the common actions of malware so if you think you may have been attacked, check the settings.

An easy way to check the settings is to create a new shortcut on your desktop. Right click any open space on the desktop and click on New and then on Shortcut. In the dialog which opens type in the following:
control.exe sysdm.cpl,@0,4

Now click Next and give the shortcut a name. I suggest: Check system restore

Clicking on that shortcut will open the box which shows what disks have system restore switched on and in the bottom right is a button to create a new system restore point.

System restore only works with disks formatted as NTFS, not FAT32, disks must be larger than 1GB and must have at least 300MB of free space. As new restore points with these shadow copies are created so the existing oldest ones will be deleted. They are temporary. For real security you still need a full backup system in place.

The biggest gotcha is that if you have a dual boot system, then starting another version of Windows will delete any restore points created by the previously running version of Windows. Going back to Win7 should start the creation of restore points again but the old ones will be gone. Similarly, using Disk Cleanup to remove old restore points will also remove the previous versions of files.

The methods described here will also work in the Business and Ultimate versions of Vista but they apply to all versions of Windows 7. The technology on which it is based has been part of NTFS formatting and Windows Server operating systems since 2003. That may help explain why, in larger organisations, the individual right to turn this service on may be restricted.

This article first appeared in PC Update, the magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group for September 2011

Create your own book on a Kindle

2011-06-25T15:56:56+10:00

This article was first published in the July 2011 edition of PC Update, the magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group. The article refers to a Kindle-formatted file of this article, which can be Download here: Create your own book on a Kindle

Let us assume you have bought a Kindle, the best selling ebook reader from Amazon. In addition to some free classic novels and a couple of best sellers you may have bought. you would rather like to add the first draft of your own Great Australian Novel, or, more likely, the report you have been preparing for your local service club.

I looked at several methods and my first attempt used a page layout program I am used to, InDesign, which recently included abilities to output to ePub files that can be converted for the Kindle and other ebook readers.

That worked well, but it was complex and I am not about to tell MelbPC members that they should go out and buy programs in the four-figure price range.

Can it be done for nothing? The answer is Yes.

Firstly, what is a Kindle book file? As supplied by Amazon they usually have an .azw extension and appears to be a proprietary format though similar to the published .mobi format. which is the same as the Palm format with the .prc extension. Both of these are recognised by the Kindle.

All these formats are based on XML, eXtensible Markup Language, which brings us to the best known such language which is HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, as used by the vast majority of web sites. In fact, a restricted form of HTML, with a small number of extra tags, is as good a means as any to use for creating an ebook.

There is a very limited range of HTML tags which can be used for formatting a book to read on a Kindle. If you have ever formatted a web page then this will come as no problem to you.

The main ones you have to play with are the set of heading tags:

to

getting progressively smaller (and their associated closing tags

etc;

for a horizontal rule; and for italics (or you can use the tags for "emphasis"; and /b> for bold (or use the set); and
and close with
for a long quotation inset from the left margin.

As well you can use a limited number of CSS (cascading style sheet) commands either in your HTML file or in a separate file that is linked as it would be for a web page and include that in the same folder. If you are used to working with CSS do not try anything far from the most common tags.

Among a very few specific mobi tags is for a page break (suprisingly this seems to be forgotten by many book converters -- a new page for a new chapter does make the whole production look professional). Note that there is a space before the ending slash.

A PDF of the tags which can be used is available from http://kindleformatting.com/ but here is a simple template which might get you going:

My first Kindle book

My first Kindle book

By firstname lastname

Based on a template published in PC Update, the magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group

Chapter one

Here goes all the text you need in as many paragraphs as you need.

Chapter two

Here goes all the text you need in as many paragraphs as you need.

This is simple enough to edit in Notepad without getting lost in the tags, but you may find it simpler to use a Text Editor, most of which put the tags in a different colour to the text so that you can easily tell the difference. I currently use Gizmo but I have also used NotePads++ from http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ which is also free.

Calibre at http://calibre-ebook.com/ is a program which will manage an ebook collection for one or more ebook readers and will convert between formats as needed within the limits imposed by Digital Rights Management. But Calibre offers many options, often hidden from obvious control, so while it is a program I would recommend, it is easier for the beginner in this field (which was me a matter of a couple of months ago) to use simpler and more specific converters.

For this article I used the free Mobipocket Creator from http://www.mobipocket.com which is a French company that was bought by Amazon in 2005. It is simple to use in that you create a new blank publication and then drag in the HTML file and any required graphics files (plus the CSS file if you are using one), and then click on the Build icon. We will ignore the optional steps to add a cover page and a table of contents. Try these when you have achieved your first success. There is a clear Help file.

Once you have you file, you can then connect your Kindle and drag the completed file, which will have a .prc extension to the documents folder of the Kindle, ready to read.

This article is available as a PRC (Mobi) file at the link shown at the head of this blog post and is available as a Zip file with the complete article as an ebook ready to view on your Kindle and as an HTML file so that you may examine the original code.

The nastier side of Torrent

2011-06-13T10:32:27+10:00

I finally got round to trying the Torrent system, and could not resist doing a torrent search on myself. With quotes around my name I got several entries, most on a site called Docstor, and for articles written years ago, such as one titled "Is there really a PageMaker 7?"

I was able to add a comment to the pages where some of the articles were listed, pointing out that the articles were old, out of date and that I had no objection to their use provided a link to my website was included -- and that more up-to-date articles, also free for use in non-profit situations, could be found on that website. It had the desired result. Some time later, downloads were listed as zero.

My views on torrent availability are mixed and not helped by finding that a surprising number of sites seem to offer free downloads of copyright material, but then offer faster downloads if one pays a fee. The person who created the material will not be receiving any of that fee so, at the very least, I feel that such pay-for-speed services should be boycotted.

Certainly many musicians, singers etc have been dudded by record companies, to the extent that the most rewarding way for many to make music is to record their own material and sell copies at concerts, plus a few to independent retailers who will hold stock so that the artist can advertise on flyers, websites etc and at concerts and other performances about where their records can be bought. There are good record companies around but they tend to be the smaller ones.

To a substantial extent the same goes for software. There are a small number of businesses that represent small software businesses, providing a means of registration and downloads and for the collection of money.

And after saying all that, I have to admit that I downloaded the Torrent version of a CD that was recorded by a singer I know, or knew, because I last heard her live 40 years ago, but who was recently in Melbourne as one of the overseas guests of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

I needed the recording to persuade my partner to also come to the concert as while she likes some jazz she is more at home with country music. Listening to a singer who uses her voice more as a musical instrument than for words was not done by choice, but she did enjoy it, and I hope by the time you read this, she will have enjoyed the concert. (update: she did).

I hope too to have been able to buy a copy of the record (update: I did) as I'd much prefer to listen to a legal recording of someone I know and whose coffee I drank at her home many times after gigs when I was in her backing band.

How easily things can go wrong

2011-05-06T14:00:56+10:00

(or how a simple OS update lost both sound and email!)

My problems started because I decided to install the Windows 7 service pack and is a typical mess caused by not realising all that was going wrong and getting in an increasing mess as more things went wrong as a result.

Because installing SP1 left me with speakers that were not working I got into a situation where I could not get my email. As ridiculous as that may seem, it was quite logical at the time... Here's the sequence:

Install SP1 via Windows Update. All appears to go well.

Open a YouTube video and can hear no sound. Check speakers and though Windows tell me they are working and green bars go up and down on the test in Control Panel, no sound comes out. Check that I have not set the speakers to mute.

I have a cloned hard disk that I made only the previous weekend so I decide to pull out the faulty drive and slot in the previous, pre-SP1 drive. Before I do that I realize I must copy the important constantly updated files to a USB stick: MozBackup copies the necessary files for Firefox and Thunderbird; I copy the data file for KeePass and the couple of text files I was working on.

I boot to my desktop as it was a week ago and all looks good, and I restore the files from the USB stick.

Thunderbird tells me it can't connect to my main mail server and as I look down the left-hand panel I realise it has gone back in time; there's mail for a domain I let expire six months ago, and some mail addresses I set up several months ago are not there.

I find via Google where Thunderbird keeps its profiles and go into my Acronis backup to copy the files from that backup. But when started Thunderbird shows the same ancient setup.

I sleep on the problem and next morning do some more Googling. It seems that Thunderbird profiles can be in two places under Win7 and this has been causing confusion for some users. I'm now among those. The profile in Vista was usually under the User folder tree going into the Local branch. But in Windows 7 it can be found in both the Local branch and the Roaming branch.

MozBackup had copied and restored the wrong Profiles folder. So I copied the Acronis backup files for both and at last Thunderbird opened with the right look. But missing the mail I downloaded after doing that backup. Of course immediately I opened Thunderbird it started downloading the overnight mail, quite a lot of it.

Fortunately I remembered to add an ".old" to the profiles folder before restoring the right one, and I can remember a couple of the emails lost in the interregnum so there is a good change they are in the ".old" folder somewhere and Thunderbird does store its mail in text files so all is not lost, just well hidden.

I still have not reinstalled SP1, so the job which started all this has still not been done. But I have found that there is an updated version of MozBackup. Mine dates to before the latest release version 1.4.10 from December 13, 2009, (which added support for Thunderbird 3) and there is a beta version of 1.5 dated March 7, 2011.

I have also found that MozBackup files are just Zip files, so, if you change the extension to Zip, you can look inside them and be selective. It may seem paranoid but I have also started to back up the mail files (now I know which are the right ones to back up) every four hours.

Lesson learned: no matter how well prepared you think you are, you can still get caught.