Mini-Review: The Hunt
Even though “The Hunt” came out in theaters less than a month ago, it is streaming now $20. I watched it last night. I was afraid at first it was going to be overly political…it isn’t. It was a fun film to watch with some surprises.
3.5/5 stars
The Best (analog) Notebook
I prefer taking notes in meetings using paper/pen. I did some research and found the perfect notebook: The Oxford Black n’ Red Wirebound Notebook.
What I like about it…
- Opens flat so you can write on two pages
- Can store a pen in the wire binding
- Paper is thick enough so that you can write on one side and the other side still looks blank
- Elastic red band to use as a bookmark when closed
- Protective plastic front and back covers
- 5 3/8″ x 8 1/2″ size…small enough to easily carry around, but big enough to write notes
- Perforated pages are easy to remove cleanly
- 70 college ruled pages
- Distinctive look: all have black cover with red binding, red elastic band, red title
- Cost: $9.65 at Amazon
Long Paths on Windows
When you create a file path with Windows, you are limited to a length of MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters.
That limitation was removed in Windows 1607 (Anniversary Update) released in July 2016. Now you can have a path with 32,767 characters. Each component of the path (directory/file name) can be at most 255 characters.
To enable long paths, open a PowerShell window and type:
sp HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem LongPathsEnabled 1
The setting will apply to any process started after you enable long paths.
Let’s see this in action. This PowerShell script takes the opening crawl of Star Wars and creates a directory for each line. Open a new PowerShell window to ensure you have the long paths enabled setting. Copy and paste this script:
$crawl = @" LONG_PATH_TEST Episode IV A NEW HOPE It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy... "@ $crawl -replace "[.']", "" -split "\n" |%{$d = $_.trim(); md $d -f; cd $d} write-host "PATH LENGTH IS $((pwd).path.length)" -ForegroundColor Green
Creating Desktop Wallpaper
Download 15MB 5472×3638 Full Sized Image
I am using my own photography for my desktop wallpaper. Today I switched to some images I took a couple of days ago on a hike to the Dawn Falls Trailhead. The hike is one of my favorites with huge Redwood trees, ferns, and a stream.
I have been learning about photography recently. I purchased a camera with a large aperture (F/1.4) so that I could get Depth of Field (DOF) effects. I like the look of DOF where things in the background are blurry and the subject is in focus. The camera I use is a Panasonic Lumix LX10. I am using Adobe Lightroom to organize and cleanup my photos.
Mini-review: No Safe Spaces
“No Safe Spaces” is a documentary about the attack on the first amendment. Who doesn’t want freedom of speech? The people featured in this movie.
It is scary stuff that does not get much airplay. It’s worth checking out.
It is available for $20 for streaming from https://nosafespaces.com/
4/5 Stars
Rethinking Taskbar Location
The taskbar is normally on the bottom of your screen. You can optionally move it to the top, left, or right. I decided to try a different location for one reason: I need more vertical space.
Since I need vertical space, I did not consider placing the taskbar on the top. So the question is: left side or right side?
I decided to go with right side. Why?
- Muscle memory: The clock placement is in bottom right, same as bottom taskbar
- Muscle memory: The Action Center button is in bottom right, same as bottom taskbar
- Muscle memory: The Notification Area is in the bottom right, same as bottom taskbar
- Muscle memory: The peek desktop in in the bottom right corner, same as bottom taskbar
- Minimize mouse travel: When you click on Action Center it opens on the right side. With the left taskbar, you click on the left side of your screen to open Action center and interact with it on the right side. With the right taskbar, you click on the right side to open and interact with it. For dealing with Action Center, Fitt’s Law says it should be on the right.
- Left to Right: We read left to right. With the taskbar on the right side, it stays out of the way of our natural vision pattern. I also put my primary app on the left side, which allows me to focus better with less distractions from the taskbar.
Mini Review: The Black Cauldron
The Black Cauldron is a Disney animated movie that is hard to find. I was interested in seeing it after I read it was the first Disney animated movie to receive a PG rating and use computer generated imagery. It is not available on Disney+ nor will it be. It is not available for streaming. It is not available to rent. It is not available on Blu-ray.
It is available on DVD. I bought that so I could see it.
And…it sucks. It looks like TV-quality animation. It was boring. The characters were awful (think Jar-Jar).
0/5 stars
Shelter in Place
We are in our 2nd week of shelter in place. Bay area schools announced today they are remaining closed until May 1st. Sounds like this is the new norm for the foreseeable future.
One of the things I want to do during this period is write more. So let’s do this.
Back to Blogging
I started a blog back in 2003. I was pretty good about updating it on a regular basis until…Facebook. Facebook killed the blog for me because I loved the instant gratification you got when you wrote something and then you could see those “likes” rolling in. I eventually dropped my blog completely and used Facebook as the replacement.
I started to question my Facebook use over the past few years. It is addictive and depressing. I’ve weened myself from Facebook but long for the ability to keep in touch with my friends and family.
I decided this weekend to give blogging another go. I set up my own WordPress blog site…so I have complete control. It was easy to get WordPress going but I noticed I destroyed all the links to my old blog. I’ll look into fixing that later.
Goodbye Facebook.
Hello blogging.