Trying to Stop Inevitable Decline
There are two related stories today about improving the lot of rail passengers and improving the Royal Mail.
The Royal Mail is probably past saving especially if they raise prices, as people will not be prepared to spend more to get letters delivered, when e-mail and the telephone is there. After all phone charges are dropping because of competition and the Royal Mail will only compete by dropping prices.
As to improving trains, we need to replace some old stock like the Pacers, but many are saying they’ve had enough with commuting five days a week and are using the Internet to cut some of those journeys. We are also getting to a point, where people won’t pay more to commute, if stories about low-ridership on the fast commute lines to St. Pancras are true. So perhaps we might see some strategic spending on the worst parts of the network, but the grandiose plans of some are surely dead in these austere times.
The Daisy 2011 Presentation Browser
I’ve just rewritten the first of my suite of Daisy Web Tools, the Presentation Browser.
Presentation Browser Screen Shot
I originally wrote the program for three reasons.
- You can control the size of the browser window, so that it fits your on-line Internet-based presentation. In the screen-shot above, the browser has been set to 800 x 600 pixels and some of the tolbars have been removed to give a cleaner view of the web page.
- The program allows you to print clean copies of pages from the Internet. The classic is wanting to print say a recipe or a set of instructions and instead of one page with what you want, you get the first bit on one page, the second on another and ipmteen pages of garbage. The Daisy Presentation Browser, allows you to select the part of the page you want and then print it.
- The program also allows you to take copies of web pages and then paste them into other programs, like Word and Paint. It makes producing manuals and on-line documentation a lot easier.
The software is free and can be downloaded from this page. There is a simple registration process to unlock some features of the program. As I hate spam with a vengeance, I only use e-mail addresses collected in the registration process to return user and registration codes.
The software works on any version of Windows later than 2000 or NT4.
To run the software you need to have Internet Explorer installed on your computer, but it doesn’t have to be your default browser.
Would You Trust Western Union?
I’ve never used them, but I’m led to believe they are a reputable company.
But as I get at least five e-mails every day, where the company is mentioned in some form of scam, I don’t think I would even use them to transfer money to someone who I knew to be totally genuine. And I wouldn’t accept any money from someone who wanted to use Western Union!
So why do they allow their name to be taken in vain, by all these criminals?
One In and One Out!
I had a bone density scan some weeks ago and as I’ve not heard anything, I asked the nurse to see if there was anything on their computer, when she did my Warfarin blood test and gave me a shot of B12 today.
There wasn’t any news and judging by how I feel, my bones may not be tip-top, but they certainly aren’t in falling apart mode, as I would have hoped that I would have been called in for the bad news.
It strikes me that there could be a big increase in efficiency here, with possible cost savings!
If you have a test that can be quantified accurately and you are well on the right side of the problem level, surely, you can be told the results either by a more or less standard e-mail and/or letter.
With my bone scan, it might say that I’m reasonably fine, but I should come back for another scan in say six months. A copy could also go to my GP, so she would know as well. I have a feeling, that a lot of communications from hospitals to GPs are actually letters not e-mails and are scanned in the surgery. If I’m wrong, which I hope I am, about these letters please correct me!
There must be hundreds of instances in the NHS, where a sensible bit of automation could save money and redeploy staff to more important duties, than writing lots of similar letters.
We are seeing instances of automation, like appointments systems that text you reminders, but we need to see more. I personally would like to see a better system for anti-coagulant testing.
Visual Basic 6 and a Gammy Left Hand
I program in Visual Basic 6 and despite the language being probably ten years old now, it still does what it says on the tin with all versions of Windows and Internet Explorer up to 7 and 8 respectively.
But also because it is such a well defined language and so easy to use, I can effectively run it one-handed, with just a little bit of help from my gammy left hand for Shift and Tab. I do all the other typing with my right. But then the sort of things you need to do with the keyboard in most programs, you can do with the mouse.
Despite my two strokes, I can still do everything I need to do! I’ve even remembered most of the code I’ve written over the years, so at least that part of the brain works, even if the hand doesn’t!
The first new program will be a 2011 version of my Daisy Presentation Browser. This program does three main things :-
- Allows you to set the size of the browser to improve your presentations based on web sites.
- Print clean copies of web pages to a pre-defined size or the maximum available on your printer.
- Copy the web page in the browser to the clipboard for pasting into another program.
My heart goes out to the genius who designed Visual Basic 6 in the first place, without whom I would be seriously suicidal!
I’m Programming Again!
I may still have pain in my face, a left hand that doesn’t know its Alt from its Control or Caps Lock, but I have to do something so I’m starting to program again. Or should I say reprogramming again as I’m only updating each of my Daisy Web Tools for 2011!
The first one that I will reprogram is the Presentation Browser. I wrote this a few years ago, to solve the problem of being able to print or capture a clean image of a web page, without the toolbar and all the other things that insist on being printed, when you do this from within Internet Explorer or another browser.
I shall announce the program here when it is ready. All of the Daisy Web Tools, will be available separately and free.
Producing PDF Files
PDF files have lots of uses.
- They are smaller than Word documents and are easier to transfer between computers or to the web because of this.
- Nearly everybody has an Adobe Acrobat Reader to display them and it’s free software available to all types of PC’s.
But what if you want to create PDF files from your Word Documents say? Adobe does have professional software, but it tends to be comprehensive and for that reason it’s not that affordable.
There are cheaper alternatives. I for instance use PDF Complete, but even that costs $49.95, but in my case it may have been bundled with this HP computer.
There are also a host of products found, if you type “creating PDF documents” into Google. Some are even free. One that looks like giving a trial to is CutePDF. But I haven’t tried it, so use it at your own peril, after first seeing if there is a review of the software somewhere. If anybody has used it perhaps they would post their opinion here!
This overview on Gizmo’s web site is worth reading, as it lists and reviews free PDF file creation programs. It’s probably worth searching Gizmo’s site for other free software you need.
Bloody McAffe
I have been trying to get this machine to work properly for months. For instance, I was trying to get Google as the default search engine and no matter what I tried, it never got installed. Eventually I gave up and someone came and diagnosed the problem as a broken McAfee virus protection. I’d thought this might be the problem, but although I tried many times to remove McAfee from my computer, I’d never succeeded. With great difficulty the engineer eventually removed it and now I’ve got a working machine again.
So now I’m going to install ClamWin, which works so well on my laptop.
A New Twist on an Old Con Trick
Be warned about this new scam, that appears on a first read about how a resoureful US doctor got her money back from the Nigerian scammers.
Good day,
I am Dr. Sarah Lindsey, I am a US citizen, 48 years Old. I am one of those that took part in the Compensation in Nigeria many years ago and they refused to pay me, I had paid over $20,000 while in the US, trying to get my payment all to no avail. So I decided to travel over to Nigeria with all my compensation documents, and I was directed to meet Mr. Michael Craig, who is a member of COMPENSATION AWARD COMMITTEE, and I contacted him and he explained everything to me. He said whoever is contacting us through emails are fake. He took me to the paying bank for the claim of my Compensation payment.
Right now I have received my compensation funds of $1,500,000.00 Moreover, Mr. Michael Craig, showed me the full information of those that are yet to receive their payments and I saw your name as one of the beneficiaries, and your email address, that is why I decided to email you to stop dealing with those people, they are not with your fund, they are only making money out of you.
I will advise you to contact Mr. Michael Craig directly through the below information.
ZENITH COMPENSATION HOUSE
Name: Mr. Michael Craig
E-mail:
Phone: +234 702 719 2947
You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and telling you that your fund is with them, it is not in anyway with them, they are only taking advantage of you and they will dry you up until you have nothing. The only money I paid after I met Mr. Michael Craig was just $420 for the paper works, take note of that.
Thank You and Be Blessed.
Dr. Sarah LindseyTrustee/Treasurer, Grameen Foundation Inc.
25 Beaver Street, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10004
But look at the Japanese e-mail address, the Nigerian phone number and other clues, like the use of Good Day and Blessed, which show that this is another attempt to part you from your money.
Use the Delete key immediately.
The Scam That Doesn’t Stop
The Nettemps/Juliette Barnes scam, I reported on some time ago, doesn’t seem to show any signs of stopping.
For instance today, I got 105 search hits looking for more information about the spam e-mails and yesterday it was 57.
At least it pushes my blog up the search engines!
The Anonymous Widower 