Category: Computers

Programming for Nerds – 21 February 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Nothing to do with Elton John.  Keyboard Maestro is a very powerful programming tool for the Mac.  I’ve been struggling with it on and off for over a year now and have to tell you that with great power comes great complexity.  I’ve programmed interesting stuff in Basic and Assembly Language along with simple stuff in C and in Pascal, and even used Visual Basic to write macros in Excel, but the programming syntax in Keyboard Maestro is back to the stone age.  It makes assembly language look slick by comparison.  All I wanted to do was add two numbers together.  It shouldn’t be difficult, should it?  It was.  Mainly because of an almost total lack of tutorials using variables with this behemoth of an app.  I eventually found a wiki for it and all became (almost) clear.  I don’t think I’ll be coding very much in Keyboard Maestro, but my macro now works and I’m happy about that.  Actually I’ve been using it in the background while I type this blog.  I’ve got it set up to alter a few of my typos and also, if I type * KM without the space, it changes it to Keyboard Maestro –  See?  It did it there and you never even noticed.  I know, lots of other apps do the same thing, but this is an app for nerds!  I’m not afraid to say it: I AM A NERD!!

Scamp went to visit her Auntie, well, her dad’s cousin [that’s close enough to be an Auntie (or Uncle, depending on the version) in Larky].  Anyway, she was going for coffee with Isobel this morning and I was looking for something to do, so I copied yesterday’s sketch onto watercolour paper and made it into a painting.  I was quite pleased with the result.  I know it’s a bit gloomy, but the real thing is gloomy too.  The house sits back among trees and there can’t be a lot of light getting in those windows.

When Scamp came home and after we had lunch we went searching for food in Waitrose which is where I found the group of Neds you see above.  Who would have thought that Neds would be allowed in Waitrose.  Either they’ve cleaned up their act or that supermarket is allowing its standard to slip.

It was such a dull day, we just drove home afterwards with our spoils.  Lamb chops with potatoes and mushrooms for me.  Salmon and potatoes for Scamp.  Still on our self enforced diet, we didn’t even have a pudding!  We did have a crayfish salad to start with though, but you can’t consider that, because it was healthy!

Played a game of my new addiction Upwords tonight, but I don’t think Scamp was impressed with this Scrabble look alike.  I think it might be going in the next but one charity bag.

Nothing planned as yet for tomorrow because the weather may be taking a turn for the worse.

Oh, yes.  If you’re in the need of someone to add two numbers together, I’m your man.  Just give me a couple of hours to write the code and debug it and I should have it done!

AirTable v Bento – 16 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Another aimless day mostly spent under grey skies with the occasional shower of rain falling to give a bit of variety.

I spent most of the morning working with and learning to use AirTable, a multi-platform database that Hazy alerted me to.  Up until recently I’d used Bento,  the delightfully simple database for IOS and OSX.  I don’t use it much on the Mac, but it’s always there on my phone, especially the books database.  If I’m browsing in Waterstones and see a new book I like the look of, I type its name into my Bento Books Database, along with the author.  Then, when I have the time, I look it up on Amazon to see a price I’m willing to pay.  More recently, I have started looking in my local library e-book list to see if there is anything there.  Unfortunately, NLC library don’t have a great deal of e-books in THEIR database yet, but it’s always worth a look.  Once I’ve borrowed or bought a book, I tick it off as ‘Checked Out’ then later when I’ve read it or junked it I mark it either ‘Keep’ or ‘Drop’.  All done on Bento.  Unfortunately, Bento was itself ‘Dropped’ by Filemaker for reasons best known to themselves in 2013 (ish) and users were encouraged to replace it with Filemaker Go which is free, but really requires Filemaker Pro which costs around £170.  A hefty price to pay for a book database.  Enter AirTable which seems to fit the bill of price (free for non-commercial) and power.  I had a bit of a problem getting my Bento database into it, but with some HazyHelp, it worked a treat.  The main problem was that Bento on the phone wouldn’t sync with Bento on the Mac.  I gave up looking for a solution and in the end, just typed in the details I was missing.  Not comes the big test, when I take it out in the wild tomorrow to see if it cuts the mustard!

Went for a walk down the Luggie Water in the later afternoon, while Gems were invading the house, but saw very little apart from the ‘Ripples’ shot.  Drove up to Hulks Road, a wild bit of country road on the outskirts of Cumbersheugh, and got some lovely light on the landscape after such a dull day.  That’s where the rest of the shots came from.

Salsa tonight was a disaster.  I couldn’t remember the move we did last week, despite having watched our record of it before we went out.  Worse still, we did Chi-wa-wa (sic) which I know and like, and I couldn’t get that either.  I must have been one of the few leaders who actually knew the move, but was the only one who couldn’t get it right.  Embarrassing?  Just a little.  Lots of folk there tonight who hadn’t been to class for ages.  Good to see.  Scamp and I went for a coffee and a soft drink with Catherine and Linda after class to catch up with everybody’s news.

Tomorrow we may go to Perth for coffee and the run.  Weather looks as if it will cooperate.

It Rained – 9 January 2017

Posted on by Zogman

All day it rained. Sometimes fine, not quite drizzle.  Sometimes heavy, chucking it down in buckets rain.  Sometime it rained through sunshine.  Sometimes it it dropped, no, chucked, hail down from on high.  It rained as only Scotland can.

In the morning I attempted to repair the damage I’d unwittingly done to Mac Mail last night.  By the end of last night after an hour and a half’s work I’d managed to get my main email address working.  I gave up and went to bed.  By the end of today’s morning shift I’d all the accounts working and the email data recovered from all of them.  Thank heavens for that.  I now know that you cannot boot from a secondary disk, no matter what the cloning program says.

After lunch I did a bit of sewing, fixing the pockets on another pair of jeans.  That’s two down one more to go.  Then it’s on to the bow tie.  That may need a bit more practise.  At that point, I began to feel the effects of last night’s lack of sleep and went for a quick snooze.  A quick snooze that lasted for about two and a half hours.

Salsa tonight was a physical and mental challenge.  Who knew dancing could be so stressful.

Let’s hope that tomorrow is drier than today.

Christmas Eve – 24 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

For once we stuck to our plan and went in to Glasgow on a freezing cold bus.  Storm Barbara was still lingering around and making its effects felt as the double decker bus wandered across the road, buffeted by her gusts.

In Glasgow, after wandering through John Lewis we headed down Bucky Street then took a left turn to get a pizza in Paesano.  Our pizzas were a bit more rustic than yesterday’s lunch, but equally enjoyable in their own way.  The food was on the table less than 10 minutes after we sat down and it was as good as any pizza I’ve ever tasted and a lot better than many.  Maybe not quite as good as those from Napoli, but that’s only a maybe.

From Paesano we went down to Argyle Street for a coffee in Cafe Nero, then along to St Enoch’s, but the German market was closed.  I’m guessing that it was closed to allow the Polish folk to get home, because we all know there are few Germans in the German markets, as they are all run by Poles.  Hope ‘Pole’ isn’t a derogatory term, because I can’t think of a ‘proper’ name.  Hope it’s not as bad as ‘Scotch’.  I’m not Scotch, I’m Scottish.

With no market to investigate, we headed back up Bucky Street.  I finally got a mini display port to VGA adapter in the accursed Apple shop to try connecting my Mac Book Pro to my old ten year old monitor.  The result wasn’t exactly high fidelity, but it did work and allowed me to test out the possibility of using a desk setup.  Better to try it out for £30 than just dive in to an iMac costing £1400. From the Apple store we walked up through Buchanan Galleries to get the bus home.  A warm bus for a change and it looks like Barbara has kissed us goodbye becaus it was a much less fraught journey home.

Finally got the last copies of my calendar printed earlier tonight, so in the next couple of days they will be punched and clipped together.  After that they can be sent out.

Tomorrow?  Well, I think tomorrow is Christmas Day, so it might snow.  With temperatures in double figures that could be difficult, but we live in hope.

Printer Problem Solved by Old Tech – 20 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

The old tech in question isn’t me.  I’m not a Tech.  It was, in fact, CUPS which has been around since OSX 10.2 (c2000).  It’s a fairly technical printing system that involves a Scheduler, a Filter System and a Backend, and of course I don’t understand any of it, I just quoted that guff from Wikipedia, but it sounds clever.  The main thing is, that once you link it up with some (legally) free printer drivers from Gutenprint it works!  And, that’s what Macs should do.  They just work.  Or at least they used to before they got all high and mighty and started going full tilt into Technology Push.  But no, I won’t get into a rant.  Someone saw the need and designed a solution to a problem.  That’s a good thing.  Apple, are you listening?

The day started cold and frosty and we didn’t want to go out and get our tootsies all froze, so we stayed in with the heating on.  By lunchtime we were brave enough to go for a swim.  The water in the pool was probably too warm, but it was good and warm and there weren’t too many folk in the pool, so it was an excellent decision to go for a swim.  Sauna has been fixed – boy, has  the sauna been fixed.  It’s almost too hot now and the steam room is the same.  Just the job on a cold day.

When we were leaving the leisure centre I spotted the wee bear sitting all forlorn on the grass by the path and decided he would be my PoD.  The best camera in  the world is the one in your pocket.  In this case the camera also doubles as a phone and a personal computer, but today its strength was in its photo taking abilities.  It’s an Apple phone, but I’m not getting dragged into that rant again.

Tomorrow is going to be windy and cold and Scamp is heading in to meet her Nancy in Glasgow for a gossip and I may go for a wander round town now that I don’t need a new printer!

Golden Light – 19 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

Today dawned, like the rest with a dull, grey cloudy sky.  It didn’t look as if it was going to get any better and it lived up to that promise, in fact it got worse.  A heavy mist came down obliterating any view that had been there.

I decided to make the best of the day and print off a first copy of my 2017 calendar.  Unfortunately, El Capitan doesn’t want to work with my Canon ip4500 printer.  Canon don’t want to supply a driver and Apple don’t care about any hardware more than seven years old as I already know.  A quick search of the internet confirmed my suspicions that there is no workaround for the problem, apart from buying a new printer.  I did manage to get the calendar printed by converting my Pages file into a PDF and using this to print it off on my old Tosh laptop.  A laptop much more than seven years old.  Despite my disappointment, or maybe because of it, I drove in to Glasgow hoping that Staples could supply me with a magenta cartridge for my ancient printer.  They could at £16.95.  Rather expensive when you find that Amazon can supply a three cart set for £26.  So Stalples is going out of business?  I think I can see why.  I didn’t buy their overpriced cart.  One interesting thing I found out is that Epson sell a 3 in 1 printer for £189, complete with two years’ worth of ink  No more dinky ink cartridges, this thing works with bottles of ink.  It sounds like a good investment as long as Apple don’t make it obsolete halfway through my second or third bottle of ink.  I’m really beginning to become pissed off with Apple’s devotion to designed obsolescence.  I may bite the bullet and go back to Mickysoft.  It’s slow and sluggish, but at least the OS just works.  Something I used to say about Apple, but not any longer.

When I was driving home my mood was lifted by the golden light making everything glow.  Now, that’s more like it.  The clouds had blown away, the mist had lifted and the sun was setting with a beautiful glancing light.  Instead of heading straight home, I took the road less travelled and with better views of the landscape.  That’s where the photo of the trees came from.  Even the mist earlier in the day had produced the water beads on the car roof and gave me one shot in the bag before I left for Glasgow.

Salsa tonight was a Christmas Extravaganza, one of JamieGal’s specialities with dancing, games, glow-sticks, silly hats and prizes.  He’d previously issued an open invitation to dancers past and present, from our school and from any other and none and there was a great party spirit.  Fun for all, that’s just his way.  Brilliant.  One of the best teachers I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

Tomorrow?  Maybe a swim.

Postponed again – 10 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

10-dec

Today we were intending to go to Embra on the train.  After yesterday’s experience on the train back from Glasgow, I thought it would be better if we travelled on a weekday, preferrably a middle weekday when the hordes were at work and not congregating in Embra as they undoubtedly would be today.  We decided to go to Stirling instead on the train.  Then I realised I had a parcel to pick up from the post office and that it would be silly to backtrack to the railway station just to get the train which would probably be overcrowded too.  Ach, to hell with it, let’s just go to Stirling by car.  Not entirely novel, but it’s what we bought the car for in the first place, to travel where and when we wanted.  Such convoluted arguments, just to go shopping!

Stirling was busy, but the carpark was fairly empty and we happily paid £1.40 for a day ticket.  You can’t even get an hour’s parking for that in Glasgow.  Wandered round the farmer’s market in the main street and I got a piece of Flat Iron Steak.  Something I’ve amazed butchers with my knowledge of in the past, but never handled before and never eaten either. It comes from the shoulder blade of the beast you know!  A fact I picked up when talking to a chef on a cruise ship.  It looks like a nice piece of meat and I’ll tell you about it once I cook it.  Other than coffee in a Cafe Nero and more redacted purchases, that was it for our visit to Stirling, although I did have an interesting talk with a salesman at the Stormfront (Apple Reseller) shop.  I was pleased to hear that although he was enthusiastic about the Apple hardware, he was less impressed with the knowledge and attitude of the sales staff in Apple shops.  I may go back to view the merchandise again once I’ve investigated it a bit more.  Three years warranty also enticed me.

When we got back there was just enough daylight left to grab my cameras and head off to St Mo’s for a few photos.  Of all the shots I took, my favourite was the one with the heron isolated among the reeds.

Dinner tonight was once again from Bombay Dreams, although this time I was less greedy and have left enough for lunch tomorrow.  Very circumspect for me.

Tomorrow?  Preparing for the Grand Salsa Ball and little else.

A dull day in the Toon

Posted on by Zogman

9 Dec

Took up Scamp’s kind offer of a lift to the station to catch the train to Glasgow. Much more comfortable than the bus and much less expensive than the car.

Had a look at iMacs in John Lewis, well actually iMac, singular as they only had one on show and a dusty example of the breed it was too. They have the best offer on iMacs, with a three year warranty, but it looks as if they are pushing the portable versions of the Apple computers. Maybe desktops are dying out. From there I went to the Apple store in Buchanan Street, but I’ve almost totally lost faith in this particular outlet, so it was a cursory glance at these sparkling devices I can’t really afford.

Next on the list … Actually, that, like yesterday’s blog must also remain redacted.  Let’s just say I did some shopping.  The town was simply mad today with folk running here and there pushing prams, dragging screaming weans and lugging jolly Xmas coloured bags with them.  Note ‘Xmas’ not ‘Christmas’ as there is nothing remotely religious about this festival or the lead up to it for most people.  So after some deeply unsatisfying shopping, I walked up Buchanan Street and grabbed my PoD which was the bloke sitting in the window.  The sparkles are a reflection of lights across the street.  Now don’t get the idea that this is in anyway an Amsterdam window.  This was one storey up and well away from the gaze of the shoppers.  I think that’s the thing about photography and especially solo photography, you tend to look around you rather than straight ahead if you are simply shopping.  Headphones and a music player full of good tunes helps too to remove the mundane, everyday things and allow you to enjoy the parts others don’t see.  Try it sometime.  You don’t need the camera, but you do if you want to record your visuals, but the headphones filled with music are essential.  From Bucky Street to Hot Mulled Bucky.  A bit of a culture shock, but I can see how this strong, sweet tonic wine would work as a mulled wine … kind of.  Only in Glasgow, or Coatbridge, or indeed the West of Scotland.  It’s a cultural thing Winking smile.  Seen in the Christmas market in George Square.

Just as I was taking my phone out of my pocket to ask if Scamp’s Taxi Service was back in business, a text came in from her confirming that it was.  Now that’s synchronicity!  Got to the station with 2 minutes to spare before the train left.  It was the Alloa train and is of ancient rolling stock.  Only last year they put roofs on the carriages and although we had an elderly diesel unit pulling ours, some are still pulled by by a late model of Stephenson’s Rocket.  Eight of us crammed into the crossways corridor between the doors.  Thankfully most of the crowd left at Bishopbriggs and that lightened the load considerably, much to the relief of the driver who thought he’d have to ask us to push the train up one of the inclines.  Abellio, what are you thinking about?  Extending platforms to take longer trains.  What you need is 20th century rolling stock.  21st century would be better, but let’s face it, it’s a pipe dream.  Scamp was waiting for me at the station and we made our way home without eventuality. 

Scamp’s out tonight so I’ve agreed to write out my Christmas cards, or is it Xmas cards?  Anyway, without further ado, I’ll draw a line under today’s wanderings and get this posted so I can get on with the work.  Battery is still working quite well on the Mac but I’m still doing ‘conditioning cycles’ on it.  You’ll understand that I’m sure, Hazy.  Curtails my Apple experience, but at least I get to use the quite excellent Window’s Live Writer.  The blog writer Apple should have written.

Tomorrow?  Maybe Embra, postponed from last week.

Coffee and a couple of jags – 7 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

EC072608-2Yesterday, the plan for today was for me to head off to meet Val and Fred at 12noon and set the Scottish education on its path to previous glory over a cup or two of coffee, then for Scamp to meet me at about 1.45pm with the stuff the nurse was going to inject us with to stop us getting some exotic infection when we were off in foreign climes.  I’d then drop her off at the station so she could get the train in to Glasgow to get even more Christmas shopping, leaving me the rest of the day free.  That was scrapped after an early morning phone call.  The nurse wanted the afternoon off, so could we come for our jags earlier, at 12noon.  (not jabs you’ll notice, we’re Scottish.  We get jags.  Much nastier – there was even a sign in the surgery advertising Flu JAGS.  Scamp wanted me to photograph it to prove to English people what the word should be).  Anyway, we agreed and changed the schedule for the day accordingly.

After the jags, I drove Scamp to the bus stop – it’s almost as quick on the fast bus as it is on the train and then went for coffee with the other two.  We solved the problem as I knew we would in double quick time.  It’s simple when you’re an outsider.  This is all you need to do:

  1. Start teaching the ‘3Rs’ again in primary school although Val tried to muddy the water by saying that it was actually two Rs and an A.  Objection noted.
  2. Get rid of Curriculum for Excrement.  That’s the core of the problem
  3. Sack Swinney and pay us the exorbitant salaries to run the whole system.

After that we discussed Celtic’s glorious exit from the European Cup to Fred’s delight and the new ‘Stones album which is actually very good.  Also discussed were “Landscape painting with felt” What the hell is that all about.  Last night’s documentary about the Italian artist who tried to steal another artist’s work and pass it off as his own.

After that we left and I gave Val a run home.  By this time (2pm) the automatic headlights came on in the car.  It was another dull day, but I had previously decided on today’s PoD and it’s almost exactly as you see it above.  The other big thing today was the arrival of the new battery for my MacBook.  It was fitted in jig time (That means quickly, Englanders) and gave just over 3.5 hours of service today from an initial 75% charge, out of  the box.  It’s now charging for the recommended 12 hours after which it must be run down to 7% again before repeating the exercise.  One of the best bits of the experience was finding that the touchpad on the mac was working again.  I’d read that if the bottom left corner switch on the touchpad stops working, it could be because the battery was beginning to swell and press on it.  It seems that was the case for me.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings in battery land.

Hoping for a better day weatherwise tomorrow.  Intending to go to Perth.

Boots – 6 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

ec062605-flickr

When we got home last night Scamp discovered that she’d left her boots in the STUC building.  One frantic Facebook message later ensured that the boots had been found and stored ready for pickup today.  That was my task for the morning.

The drive in to the STUC in the West End of Glasgow was a delight this morning.  Very light traffic and even got parked just outside the building.  Boots collected, I made tracks for home because it was a dreary, dull, dreich day – that was a four word alliteration in case you hadn’t noticed.

Firefox has been avoiding loading Flickr recently, ever since version 50.0.2 installed itself automatically.  This is the first time I’ve had a problem with Firefox, but I’ve had loads of problems with Flickr, so initially I blamed the website not the browser.  However after a bit of research today I discovered the problems with v50.0.2 are widespread and not just with the Mac version, but with PCs too.  Not everybody is affected and even my problem is not always repeatable.  For instance, today it started off with baulking at loading Flickr around 4pm, but tonight after no changes to the installation, it’s loading fine.  It’s not bandwidth, because first thing this morning loading was fine.  It’s a conundrum.  In the past few days I’ve tried deleting the caches, switching off all the extensions, rebooting the Mac.  Nothing seems to give long-term success.  What I have done now is switch off ‘auto update’.  That way I have a baseline to start from.  Maybe Mozilla will fix the problem, but maybe pigs will fly too.

Today’s photo is a start at a still life from tiny wee 00 size  (1:75 scale) figures.  I know it looks fairly simple, but this took me over an hour to set up and photograph.

Tomorrow I’ve got a meeting timetabled with Fred and Val.  The Scottish education system has been highlighted as the worst in Europe and the Scottish Government have tasked us with fixing it.  We can probably do that over a cup of coffee and also find time to discuss Celtic’s exit from the European Cup and the new Stones album.