Posts Tagged: ‘Software’

Zooming 2020-08

July 5, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

For the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of something I never thought I would do.  Until the start of the pandemic, I only attended one on-line video conference.  That was about four years ago.  I don’t remember which program I used, but I uninstalled it the following day.

I’m a member of several clubs.  They have all been using Zoom Video Communications.  With reservations, I first installed it on an older laptop with the Linux Mint OS.  It worked perfectly from the first.  Since then, I have installed it on Windows 10 and Android Phone.  It works great on all these systems.  I didn’t even have to update any drivers.

Before I review Zoom, I should make a few comments on security.  Initially, there seemed to be a lot of problems with “video bombing.”  This is when an unexpected appearance (usually obscene) appears in a video feed.  It turned out that most of these were due to sign‑in credentials being posted on YouTube or other places.  I have been attending at least three meetings a week and have not seen this happen.  There have been other problems.  Tom’s Guide has a comprehensive list in Zoom Security Issues. I haven’t noticed any untoward background activity on my computers when I am using the program.

With Microsoft Team, Google Meet, TeamViewer, Skype and so many other options, why has Zoom become so popular?  The answer is simple.  It is easy to use.  You don’t even need to create an account to attend a meeting.  Registration is only required to host the meeting.  You can use Zoom in a web browser, but I’ve found it is much easier when you install the program on your machine.

To join a meeting, you will need both a meeting ID and a password.  Both are provided by the meeting host.  You are then given the choice to sign in with audio and/or video.  Both options can be changed after you join the meeting.  After clicking “join”, you should see a message that says waiting for the host to let you in.  When the host does so, you’re done.

After you have joined a meeting, there are three viewing layouts you can choose.  These are selected with icons on the Zoom Room Controller (usually found in a corner of the screen). The options are:
1.  Speaker displays a large view of the person currently speaking, with a smaller thumbnail of the previous speaker as a picture within picture.
2.  Thumbnail combines the Speaker view with a scaled down version of the Gallery view.  A small strip of thumbnails, showing up to eight participants, displays beneath a relatively larger view of the active speaker.  The thumbnails show the participants who were most recently the active speakers.
3.  Gallery displays up to 25 participants on each screen, with the active speaker highlighted.  For meetings with more than 25 participants, an arrow displays next to the icon.  Tap the right arrow to display the next group of participants on the screen.  Tap the left arrow to display the previous set.

When you are in a meeting room, moving your mouse to the bottom of the screen reveals more icons.  The most important are the two on the left edge.  Clicking on the “microphone” icon mutes or un‑mutes your outgoing sound.  Clicking on the “video” icon starts or stops your outgoing video feed.  Both icons have small up arrows.  These give you more options.

If the meeting host has enabled it, you can share your screen.  Be careful if you do this.  Anything you see on your monitor will be seen by everyone in the meeting.  You don’t want to accidentally share any naughty pictures.

One feature I especially like is the ability for virtual backgrounds.  These are enabled in settings.  There are several built‑in backgrounds or you can upload your own.  I have several that I use, depending on the meeting.

There are several other options that I am not going to explore in the article.  You can find complete information and video tutorials on the Zoom Support Help Center.

Thanks for reading.

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BlueGriffon Web Editor – Originally Published July 2020

July 5, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

The club website is one of seven that I am currently maintaining.  To do so, I need some specialized tools.  For years, I was a “real” designer and wrote all my code in Notepad and later in Notepad++.  I may be showing my age, but I remember when I purchased Microsoft FrontPage in the late 1990’s.  I acquired it because DreamWeaver was just to darn expensive.  It turned out to be a good decision because DreamWeaver was later purchased by Adobe, which isn’t one of my favorite companies.

FrontPage taught me that I liked “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors.  I’ve tried many of them.  For the past year, I’ve been mostly using BlueGriffon.  Their tagline is “The next-gen Web and EPUB Editor based on the rendering engine of Firefox.” Old timers may remember the NVU Editor. BlueGriffon is a descendant of the program.

There is a new document wizard which is handy for starting a new page. You can easily select the page language: HTML 4, XHTML 1, XHTML 1.1, HTML 5 or XHTML 5.  The wizard then lets you enter document information: Title, Author, Description, Keywords, Language, etc.  You can also choose, fonts, link colors, background image and more.

The BlueGriffon interface is fairly basic and closely mimics a word processor toolbar layout.  Icons to the most common options are clearly laid out: adding a table, a single image or a thumbnail.  Switching from WYSIWYG view (where you can arrange objects visually) to the web page source code (where you can manipulate the web page by editing the HTML code) is done by clicking on two buttons at the bottom of the page.  You can also view WYSIWYG and source code in side by side windows.

I am definitely a user of the multiple tabs feature, which makes it easy to quickly switch from one document to another, copy and paste, etc.  My only problem is that inactive tabs are not easily seen without mousing over.  This sometimes makes it difficult to quickly go to the desired tab.

BlueGriffon is cross‑platform with versions for Windows 7, 8,10, Mac OS X and many Linux distros.  There is also a portable version (for Windows only).  Like much modern software, you can purchase a license and get more features.  One of these is a manual.  I’ve found that a web search works just as well.  You can find a complete list of features here.  To download the program, click here.
If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Rooting An Old Tablet – Originally Published April 2020

April 18, 2020 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

One thing about Android products is that they are easily recyclable.  Years ago, whenever I’d buy a new Android phone or tablet, the first thing I would do is root it.  Rooting is the process of allowing users running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as root access) over various Android subsystems.  Because Android uses the Linux kernel, rooting an Android device gives similar access to administrative (superuser) permissions.  In layman’s terms, rooting gives you complete access to the file system.  You are able to add, delete and modify any files on your device.

Rooting can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing.  If you change or delete the wrong file, you can “brick” your device and render it useless.  Rooting can also be dangerous if you know what you’re doing.  Sometimes, a moment of inattention and you’ve deleted the wrong file.

Years ago, the first thing I did to a new phone or tablet was root it.  I quit doing this when the devices came with hardly any bloatware.  I recently had to recall my old skills and do it again.

My wife exclusively uses a Samsung ten inch tablet for her online activities (which aren’t many).  She recently upgraded to the latest model and I gained control of her old one.  It is a Samsung Galaxy Tab E, about six years old, running Android 5.1 Lollipop.  My plans are to use it mostly for playing “The Room” games and watching videos.

There are several Nougat ROMs (Operating Systems) that I could download and install.  Instead I opted for installing TWRP (TeamWin Recovery Project).  This app allows you to install new operating systems, freeze files so they cannot be used by the OS or delete files.  One of the best features is that you can uninstall any application from your android device.

Although I could update to Android 6 or 7, I decided not to.  For my uses, Android 5 is more than adequate.  I may change my mind if I ever want to download an app that requires it.  Instead, I deleted all of the Samsung programs.  I also deleted many Google apps, such as Maps, Gmail, Cloud Print, etc.

This ended up being a good project while being stuck at home during the COVID-19 scare.  The result is that I now have a six year old tablet that boots fast and runs smoothly.  Additionally, I got the chance to hone some old skills that I haven’t used for a while.  Although it wasn’t as easy as “riding a bicycle”, it was fun finding out that I could still do it.

Thanks for reading.

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Core FTP LE – Originally Published March 2020

March 4, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is still surprisingly popular.  If you need to set up a simple way to transfer a file, FTP is a reliable, suitable method.  People and companies of all sizes use FTP every day when transferring files between clients and colleagues.  FTP is a great way to transfer large files or large amounts of data.  There are many free FTP Client and server applications.  For many years, I have been using Core FTP.

Core FTP is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software that is used to transfer files between remote devices directly.  It is completely packed with features and functions which will assist you efficiently.  It is free software that is available only for Windows devices.  The most important feature of the software is that it provides support to a many protocols like FTP, SFTP with SSH and HTTPs/HTTP.  Other than that, the security of data is pretty important while transferring.  For that reason, it encrypts all the data as well as account information while the transfer of data is occurring.

The interface of the software is intuitive and easy to use.  To use the program, you must first connect to an FTP Server.  This is done by clicking the “new site” icon an inputting the host URL, user name and password.  After the initial connection is completed, the site is saved in the program’s “Site Manager”.  The next time you can easily reconnect by clicking on the site.

After the connection is made, the program shifts to the upload/download window.  There are two panes in the window.  Local files are on the left and the remote files on the right.  It is very easy for you to differentiate.  To upload a file(s), simply highlight them in the left pane.  You can upload clicking the upload button, right clicking, or drag and dropping.  Downloading is done in a similar manner.  If the file already exists, you are given options to overwrite or cancel.

The picture shows my connection to the club’s website. The left pane is the SWLAPCUG folder on my computer.  You may recognize some of the folder titles.  On the right you can see some of the files on the HostGator club website server.  The upper pane (below the menu bar) shows commands that are executing and their status.  The lower pane shows the progress of file transfers.

Core FTP LE/Lite is free for commercial, business, educational, and personal use.  There is a pro version, but I find it interesting to note that the website doesn’t list a price.  I assume that the price is dependent upon usage.  It is a Windows only program.  The CoreFTP download page has several options, including a voice pack.  If you have need of an FTP client, I highly recommend the program.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Rbdigital Reading App – Originally Published February 2020

February 16, 2020 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

There are several Android programs that aren’t very good, but I use them anyway.  This is usually because there just aren’t any good alternatives.  Let me give you an few example.

I’ve always been an avid reader and frequent user of the public library.  To check out ebooks and magazines, I am forced to use the Rbdigital app.  I can describe the program with one word: “terrible”.  I quit using the app for audio books and ebooks.  The Hoopla Digital app is supported by the library and is much better.  I do most of my book reading with FBReader (Favorite Book Reader) and Google Play Books.  I have found plenty of great reading within my budget of zero dollars.

I like to go to the Rbdigital website the first of every month and check out new magazines.  There are usually 25‑30.  Then I open the app on my phone and download them to my SD card.  Many times the Rbdigital app just fails to open. I have to go to Android settings and force stop and then restart.  If there isn’t an internet connection, the app often will not allow me to view more than two checked out magazines.  It doesn’t do this all of the time, but enough to be frustrating.  (Once is enough.)  I haven’t found any reasons why sometimes it needs a connection and sometimes it doesn’t.

At least I know I’m not the only frustrated loser.  Although the app has a 4.3 rating for almost 17,000 reviews, there are many comments from other users with the same problem(s).

Thanks for reading.

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Rufus – Originally Published January 2020

January 31, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Do you ever need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs?  Do you need to work on a system that doesn’t have an OS installed?  Do you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware?  There are several utilities you can use for these and other USB purposes.  For several years, I’ve been using Rufus.

Rufus is a small utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys, memory sticks, etc.  In today’s world of computing, laptops and PCs are often shipped without DVD drives and Blu-ray players.  In their absence, Rufus plays a powerful role in helping users to turn their flash drives into a form of reusable DVDs.

It can be especially useful for cases where:
• you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs.
• you need to work on a system that doesn’t have an OS installed.
• you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS.
• you want to run a low-level utility.

Using Rufus is easy.  To create a new bootable USB flash drive, simply browse and load your ISO file.  Click start, sit back and watch it work.  There are a few of customization options.  You can change the file system type, edit the volume label, disable quick format or enable disk checking on the USB drive to scan for bad blocks.  Advanced options allow you to manipulate cluster size and partition scheme.

Rufus supports both GPT and UEFI boot systems.  Depending on the ISO file and how Rufus loads it, there may be additional features and options.  For example, selecting a Windows installation ISO, you may be prompted create a Windows installation disk or setup Windows To Go.

Keep in mind that any device you plan to use with Rufus will be formatted and all content will be destroyed.  An excellent feature of the program is that only removable drives are listed under available devices.  You can’t accidentally format any of your fixed drives.

Rufus does not have to be installed.  Just download the file and extract the program.  It runs on Windows 7 or later.  The program is 1.23KB and runs really fast.

Like most of the software I review for my lagniappe column, Rufus has a price I really like.  The cost is zero.  Unlike most freeware, there is not even a donate button on the website.  The developer explains it like this: “Let me ask you this then: Would you pay $0.99/€0.99 for a utility that simply creates bootable USBs? Or would you just pick one of the many free alternatives? Heck, even I would not pay $0.99/€0.99 for this, despite being acutely aware of the cost associated with its development. So, even if I could try to cash in on the success of Rufus, I see it better to try to benefit millions of users, by providing a free application, instead of just a few thousands with a paid one.”

You can download the program from the Rufus Home Page.  I also recommend that you peruse the FAQ page.  It is not only informative, but is also interesting.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Is This the Year for Linux? – Originally Published January 2020

January 31, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’m thinking that this is the year I may finally completely wean myself from the Windows Operating System.  This is largely because Window 10 seems to be getting worse.  They have moved many of the programmers from Windows OS to Azure and other projects.  It seems that they don’t do very much in‑house bug testing anymore.  Instead, they now farm it out to the “fast ring” and the “slow ring”.  Could this be part of the reason why there are often so many problems when updates are released to the public?

Meanwhile, Linux continues to get better.  Many of the distributions have evolved to where they are stable and mostly error free.  There are many programs that run on Linux.  Even most Microsoft software can be used on Linux with the Wine compatibility layer.

Linux is a very secure system.  I can make this statement because Linux is open‑source software.  There are thousands of eyes constantly examining for security issues.  Like any OS, there are trojans, viruses and back‑doors.  These are far fewer in numbers than Windows.  This is probably because there are far less installations of Linux.  When found, they are usually quickly fixed.

Since Windows 10 was released, there have been many vocal complaints about Microsoft “spying” on users.  The fact is that both Apple and Microsoft have always collected telemetry on usage data for years.  If you are concerned about this, Linux collects nothing, unless you specifically install it.  Considering the size of the Linux user base, not many profit motivated companies build tracking applications for Linux.  Of course, web browsers track data the same on all operating systems.

Linux is highly stable.  If you’ve spent any time around Windows forums, you know that after a while the system starts to slow down.  The OS often needs to be freshly installed so that it will run correctly.  You do not need to do this with Linux, which runs exactly as it did when first installed.  There are many tales of Linux distributions that have been running for years without rebooting the computer.  Add this to the fact that Linux runs on a wide variety of hardware.  Like many users, I got my start in Linux by running it on old computers that would no longer easily run Windows.  Now I use it almost daily.

Windows updates have become more nightmarish in recent years.  Maintaining Linux is easy.  All of the variants have their own software repository.  These archives are used to update both the system software and installed programs.  There is no need to update third party software individually.

Linux is completely free and users do not need to pay for anything.  All of the basic software required by a typical user and even an advanced user are available.  Linux is only for geeks isn’t true anymore.  It has become user‑friendly and has a good graphical user interface (GUI).  You will find almost all the functionality that Windows has.

Finally, maybe the biggest reason for switching to Linux.  You can brag on the internet that you’re a Linux User.

That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading.

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Sudoku Free by A1 Factory – Originally Published December 2019

December 8, 2019 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I was looking through my list of Android app reviews when I noticed that I had installed one on September 27, 2012 and had never written about it.  This was mildly surprising since it is a game that I play nearly every day.  Needless to say, it is one of my favorites.

When I searched the Google Play Store for this article, I found hundreds of Sudoku apps.   A sudoku puzzle is a grid of nine by nine squares or cells, that have been subdivided into nine sub−grids or “regions” of three by three cells.  The objective of sudoku is to enter a digit from 1 through 9 in each cell, so that each row and column contains each digit once.
Sudoku Free by A1 Factory Limited has the following features.

• 1500 puzzles five difficulty levels.
• Smooth interface and graphics.
• Statistics tracking, including fastest times, average times and completion % for each level.
• Optional hints and board aids.
• Two sets of Sudoku board art and fonts.
• Two different modes for notes input.
• Supports undo.

The game has an easy to use interface.  Screenshot 01 shows the opening display of the program.  It is a completed game.  The black numbers were the starting given numbers of the game.  The blue numbers have been filled in by the player.

Screenshot  02 shows that I have completed puzzle 80 on difficulty level 4.  It took me 16 minutes and 20 seconds.  The arrows on the side of the grid allow you to advance to the next puzzles or return to previous puzzles.  There is also a button to replay the puzzle.

In Screenshot 03, I’ve advanced to puzzle 81 and am ready to hit the play key.  Screenshot 04 shows the opening grid after I’ve started the game.  In the Screenshot 05, I’ve entered the digits 1 and 5 in the upper left block of the lower left grid.  These are the two possible numbers that could fit in this space.  I’ve also entered the number 9 to demonstrate an incorrect entry.  To correct it, I could either hit the 9 button or the Undo key.  Screenshot 06 shows the game options selectable by the player.

If you like to play Sudoku, I can highly recommend you download and try Sudoku Free from the Google Play Store. It is ad supported, but I can honestly not tell you if they are obtrusive.  After playing a game or two I purchased Sudoku for $1.99.  That was more that seven years ago.

Thanks for reading.

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Diffractor – Originally Published November 2019

November 10, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

For the past year, I’ve been on a mission to finally organize all of my digital photos.  Like many people, over the years I’ve saved them in several folders on different computers.  I finally placed a SSD drive in a portable enclosure and moved all my photographs to it.  I’m a little embarrassed to say that there were much more than 10,000 files, going back almost twenty years when I bought my first digital camera.  There are also many pictures that I’ve scanned from old photographs that were taken with film cameras.  Centralizing the pictures was the easy part.  The biggest problem I faced is tagging and organizing them all.

For editing photographs, I like to use Paint.net, Teorex Inpaint and FastStone Image Viewer.  These are all excellent for editing, but not so good for filing.  I downloaded and tested hundreds (I’m not exaggerating) of organizing programs, both paid and freeware.  I was looking specifically for ease in filing.  My main complaint with most of the software I tested was that they emphasized photo editing and did a poor job of tagging.  One day, in the comments section of a review site, mention was made of a relatively unknown program.

Diffractor is a tool for viewing and managing photos, videos and other media files.  It is a lightweight (less than 20MB) application built specifically for helping organize your media files in a clean working environment.

The first time you run the program, time is spent indexing your files.  This took about fifteen minutes on my computer.  Results are displayed in a simple thumbnail organizer.  There is a preview window on the left, folders and thumbnails are on the right.  Double‑clicking will open a file to view full‑screen (or play a video).  The Esc key returns to normal view and browsing.

The search bar works much similar to Windows Explorer.  Click it to display your viewing history.  You can also start typing to display anything with matching file, folder names, or metadata.  An Overview screen has canned searches you can use immediately to group files by date, rating, sizes, cameras, albums, artists and more, depending on file type.

One of the best features is that Diffractor is location aware.  You are able to sort your media display by location.  It will organize photos as recorded by their location data.  If you didn’t initially save location date, a Google Maps Powered Locate function makes it easy to add your chosen location to any set of photos.

Editing functions are limited.  You can rotate pictures to different angles, crop them, apply sharpening and denoising, adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and a few others.  I’ve only used a few of the editing options as I am mostly interested in filing and searching.

Many image organizers overwhelm you with complex features that most people never use.  Diffractor is different.  It focuses on building a usable interface that is easy to use.  If you don’t need too much media management power then you should check out this program.

A note from the developer’s website: You can use Diffractor for free but if you find it useful please become a sponsor.  Diffractor developers and testers are unpaid volunteers, we rely on sponsors to pay our costs.  If you use it at work, get your company to become a sponsor.  Indexing and searching non‑standard folders is only available to sponsors.  We have to reward our friends somehow!  The money is used to keep servers running, we are not buying Ferraris.

Diffractor is a Windows only program.  Diffractor can be downloaded on its website.  There is also a short video (6.25) on YouTube that is worth watching.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Cryptogram for Android – Originally Published October 2019

October 6, 2019 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

Android phones and tablets are the perfect size for playing some of my favorite games.  Most of the time, it is some type of a word game.  In the past, I’ve reviewed Wordiest, 7 Little Words, Monkey Wrench, Crossword Puzzle Free and many others.  I’ve recently found another word game that I’ve played daily since I installed it.

Cryptogram for Android is a puzzle where a sentence or phrase has been encoded by substituting the actual letters of the sentence with different letters.  The challenge of the puzzle is to decode the sentence to reveal the original English sentence.  The cipher used to encrypt the text is a simple substitution of letters and is easy enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand.  The solution to each puzzle is a message by one of hundreds of different poets, preachers and prophets.  There are thousands of puzzles to solve.

The features of the game as listed in the Play Store are:
• Hundreds and hundreds of hand-picked puzzles without any religious or political bias;
• It works completely offline, so you can enjoy some brain teasers while traveling;
• Compare statistics about how well you’re doing with friends;
• Keep track of which puzzles you’ve solved already and revisit them;
• Get help by revealing letters or showing hints.

The game is easy to play.  As you progress in the game, the puzzles get harder.  The quote topic and author name can often give you clues to what some of the words might be.  You can get hints by revealing letters.  As I write this article, the Play Store has 14,209 reviews with an average rating of 4.6.  The puzzle author is very responsive to reviews.

                                                     

Did I mention the best feature?  Cryptogram for Android is completely free and has no ads.  There is a donate button in the settings menu.  You can download Cryptogram from the Google Play Store.  If you like word puzzles, I highly recommend this one.

Thanks for reading.

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