Last time I introduced Doctor Clippy - a tool for saving your Windows clipboard to a text file. It was only upon completing the project that I realised that there was something missing.
Windows Clipboard before the release of Windows 3.1
Instead of manually saving the clipboard every time you press 'copy', most people will want to be less selective (read 'lazier') and wish the program automatically saved the clipboard every time they press 'copy'.
Introducing Captain Clip! This program runs in the background auto-saving your clipboard. Every time you press CTRL+C or 'copy', the program copies the text into a text file for you - whether you want it or not.
You are limited to ten thousand bytes of data with each clip (the program will truncate otherwise) and you get a fresh new file every day so you can see what you have been copying easily throughout history.
Have you ever wished there was an easier way of copying multiple sections from one document or webpage?
Doctor Clippy is a tool that performs just one job. Every time it runs it saves the contents of your Windows clipboard to a text file. Need to plagiarise a website? No problem: CTRL+C, then run Doctor Clippy. Do you need to cherry-pick the latest article? No problem: CTRL+C, then run Doctor Clippy.
Text that has been copied is saved to a time-stamped text file. With a slight tweak to the configuration settings, text can instead be appended to the end of a single file (all your clips in one place).
You can also specify the location that Doctor Clippy uses to save your clips.
If there is more interest, I will add functionality to save images and anything else that makes it all easier to use. For now, follow the above links to try the first version.
Chess Level 100 for Windows 10 (on the left playing black) V. Acornsoft Chess for the Beeb (on the right playing white)
I decided to start with both machines running on their lowest setting. Acornsoft Chess has ten levels of difficulty whereas Chess Level 100 has, erm... one hundred levels of play. The BBC machine was emulated using BeebEm on the Windows PC. I initially set the BBC difficulty to the highest possible, however, after waiting over ten minutes for it to make its opening move, I decided to drop the difficulty level for the sake of sanity. Both machines came to a gentleman's agreement that the Beeb would play white.
You can follow the game below, or download the PGN file to study on your own system or board.
1. Nf3 h6
Against United Nations security resolutions, the Beeb starts with the Zukertort Opening, keeping its options flexible. The PC responds with a dubious pawn defence. Maybe it doesn't know that there is a war on?
2. d3 d5
3. g3 Nc6
4. Nbd2 Bg4
Already the PC is on the offensive with bishop g4. The Beeb responds with an excellent defence from his own bishop.
PC has an active Queen and is attacking with its pawns. The Beeb is focussed on defence.
10. f3 b4
A superb attacking move from the Beeb threatens the black bishop, however, the PC makes the dubious pawn advance to b4. It was at this point that I realised that the PC was clearly outmatched by the Beeb. First blood went to the Beeb by capturing the neglected black bishop.
11. fxg4 Nxg4
12. Bf3 Nd4
13. Bxg4 Nxe2+
The PC ignores the bishop capture on g4 and sacrifices its knight for a pawn on e2.
The Beeb's white pieces are beginning to dominate the board as black makes another blunder with the g4 move.
22. hxg4 Be7
23. Qxd5+ Qxd5
The Beeb captures the pawn on d5 and forces a swap of queens. It is pretty much all over for the PC now but neither machines offered a ceasation to hostilities.
24. Bxd5 c5
25. Kf1 Rg8
A blunder from the PC puts the black rook in the firing line of the white bishop. Maybe fog of war or otherwise poor intel did not reveal the white bishop lying in wait like a sniper.
The PC makes some good play and steals a rook at f2 with probably the only good move it made all game.
34. g4 Be1
35. Bd5 Rh8
36. Nf3 Rxh6
Another blunder from black coming up. The white knight on h6 is too much of a temptation and does not seem to realise it is covered by the white bishop on c1. The Beeb does not let it get away with this mistake.
The breakthrough is complete. Black's king hides in his underground bunker and denies the reports of his generals that the enemy is massing at the gates.
So the winner of this battle was the BBC microcomputer running on the emulator. This did come as something of a surprise, but it teaches us very little. The Beeb played reasonable chess, it did not make any blunders and was both defensive and exploitative of black's errors. The PC running Chess Level 100, on the other hand, played very poor chess and was punished for it by the Beeb. It is important to note that both chess engines were playing at their very lowest settings. I am an average ability chess player and I can beat both of these programs with ease on their lowest settings. Clearly, the lowest level of Chess Level 100 is designed to be a pretty weak player.
If there is any interest in this post then I will maybe follow up with a game where both machines are playing at their very best. Important to note that the Beeb made all its moves in just over 5 minutes at this setting, yet it took over ten minutes to make a single move at the highest setting so it won't be a very quick game.
ReactOS is a free open-source operating system built from the ground up. It is an attempt to be a legal, community-driven Windows replacement. The current version (0.4.7) is in Alpha, so don't expect everything to work as expected.
ReactOS desktop in Virtual Box looking very Windows NT-like
Secondly, you will want to run your copy of ReactOS in a virtual machine. I choose to use Virtual Box.
Please note that I could not get my version of ReactOS to connect to my home internet under Virtual Box, however, I downloaded one of the Nightly versions (0.4.9-dev) and this fixed the problem. Maybe it will for you too, but I recommend that you try one of the stable releases first.
First impressions
Yay! ReactOS looks and feels like an early version of Windows, somewhere around Windows-ME era but with modern OS features. One of the first things you will want to do is to install a browser. New applications can be installed from the built-in 'Applications Manager'.
Although I managed to get (an older version of) Firefox working, it often hangs the machine or crashes making it almost unworkable. I might try an alternative solution to this in the near future, but for now, it may influence whether I continue to with this experiment.
One of many problems I am having with Firefox under ReactOS. Incidentally, this is one of my favourite error messages. It is up there with 'silly' on the BBC micro (try AUTO 10,0 for that one) and the Amiga's Guru Meditation.
Another thing that I am having difficulty with is in creating new user accounts. The system wants me to log into the 'Administrator' account, and although it lets me create other user accounts, it does not give me the option of logging into them when the machine first starts. I guess that this feature has not yet been built yet.
Stuff that works
There are plenty of open-source apps available from the application manager that will allow your version of ReactOS to behave like a useful machine. I have tried the following with some success:
Python 3.4
Yup. Python works, look!
Notepad ++
Probably the best light-weight open-source text editor for general purpose computing.
Media
I've managed to get Audacity, VLC player and WinAmp running but not without problems with audio devices on the virtual machine. So that's the most important part of the software not working then...
Open Office
It is no surprise that there is an open-source office suite for ReactOS. I have tried most of this and found it to be working well.
Some old favourites
There are a few applications that come bundled with ReactOS, with most of them being no surprise: Calculator, Notepad, Wordpad and Paint being the most notable. Oh yes, and there's minesweeper and solitaire for the full retro experience.
I think that it is a shame that there is no 'card file', but then again, I don't think that was ever in the Windows NT OS, so my complaint is rather moot.
Final Remarks
Well, it has certainly been a fun experiment. Enough of this Alpha version of ReactOS works well enough to be useful and I will look forward to future developments.
If you have found this post interesting, then you might like to watch this video from 'explaining computers dot com'. It goes into much more detail about how to get started as well as some other trouble-shooting hints and a successful attempt to install an old version of Photoshop. +1 Geek Experience point awarded to Explaining Computers.
While not an exhaustive list, here are some Windows 10 shortcut key combos that I did not know about until today, so I have decided to share them here, in the hope that you didn't know them either.
If you want to be a Windows 10keyboard ninja, read on...
Windows key + SHIFT + S
This opens the screen clipping tool. This confusing one used to be Windows key + S in Windows 7 (without the SHIFT), but this combo now opens Cortana (in Windows 10). Phew!
The snipping tool allows you to screenshot sections of your screen which then gets copied to the clipboard. I am glad I found this as it is going to save me from overuse of the PrtSc button. If you don't know what PrtSc does, find it on your keyboard and press it now.
A screen clipping of my desktop. This image is generated by the Tiny Planet Maker app for Android.
Windows Key + D
This is a useful combo for when you are working on your secret plans for world domination and someone walks into the room behind you. Unless that person is a trusted minion or lieutenant, then you might want to keep your plans secret. This combo will automatically minimise all your windows and deposit you at your desktop. Now, whoever it is will just wonder why you have been staring so intently at your desktop (unless your desktop image is something unimaginably gross or stupid, in which case they will just get the wrong idea about you and you should probably change it immediately).
Windows Key + CTRL + D
This combo is the same as above, except it will create a new virtual desktop. Press Windows Key + TAB to enter the task viewer to manage all your desktops.
Windows Key + CTRL + cursors
Pressing this combo with left and right arrows will cycle through your virtual desktops without needed to go to the task viewer. I promise that this will make you feel like a keyboard ninja.
Windows Key + Alt + D
This one opens the Windows Calendar. It is the same as aiming your mouse pointer at the digital time display in your taskbar and clicking. This is very useful for when you need to remember how long you have until your BFF's birthday, or when you plan to use the doomsday device that you have been building in your shed, for example.
Oh, and Happy new year by the way
Windows Key + T
This toggles through the apps you have pinned to your taskbar. Hold down SHIFT to toggle in the reverse direction. Press enter to load your selection.
Windows Key + cursor keys
This one deserves some experimenting. First press Windows key with the right arrow. Then press Windows key with the up arrow twice in rapid succession. What happens? I'm not telling you, but you will enjoy it, you keyboard nerd.
F2 in file explorer
This one will save some pointing and right-clicking. Simply press F2 to rename any selected file in the file explorer without having to take your hands off the keyboard. Need to quickly rename 'my secret diary.docx' to 'osughsdmbfw'? Windows has your back.
CTRL + 0 in your browser
You probably already use CTRL with the plus and minus keys to zoom in and out of a webpage. Pressing CTRL + 0 will restore the page to the default magnification again. I have tested this in Chrome, Edge and Firefox so far.
So last night I updated my main work horse, the 'beast' i7 Windows 10 machine to the latest update - the so-called 'creators' update.
The download took over an hour on my home network and the whole process was left to complete for several hours overnight. If you are thinking of updating then do so when you wont need to use your machine for maths homework, or general world domination.
What's new?
The new stuff is few and far between, to be honest, and I suspect that most people will either miss it, or not notice or need it at all.
There's the new Paint 3D app that you will get whether you like it or not. I am not sure that I need to create three-dimensional artwork, and my main go-to for digital art is SketchBook for Windows in all its 2D glory. I still remember the days when the best app for my IBM 286 was the Paintbrush application in Windows 3.1. I firmly believe that if all world leaders got together over a copy of Paintbrush, drew a doodle and then used the flood fill tool to colour it in, then the world would be a better place.
In the previous update Microsoft added functionality to Edge browser to let you draw on webpages. In the Creators update you can now draw on the Maps app, which no doubt will be of some use to the lost and confused. I've already drawn a big circle around my house and then sort of coloured it in a bit. Oh, well, moving on...
There are a load of new updates for Edge browser. I have been impressed with Edge from the beginning and it looks like this browser is getting ever closer to being a very good experience. It will at least help wean me off my destructive Chrome habit. Seriously, I am fed up of Chrome hogging system resources and failing to load pages.
The new night light setting allows you to change the amount of blue light your screen emits at night. This is because some studies have suggested that blue-light affects sleep. You can set it in synchronicity with the setting and rising of the sun for your location. I am not overly convinced that blue light has an effect on my sleep though. I am usually asleep like a baby at night, and if I am going to have sleep problems it is because I have woken up at 3am with a brain buzzing with more thoughts and worries than Macbeth. I have turned on the night light feature, but I will turn it off again if it doesn't look right; or if I need to stay up late coding, then I'll wear shades, increase brightness and turn the high-contrast settings on.
Which feature do I actually like?
There is one new feature that I have been long anticipating and that is that live tiles on your start menu can now be conveniently grouped together into folders. This is exactly the same as what you have been able to do on the Windows 10 phone and is incredibly useful for gathering tiles together and neatly packing them away.
Windows 10 live tiles on Lumia 950, now available for desktops running Creator's update.
To use this feature just grab a live tile and move it over another tile that you wish to join together.
Well, that's all for now. No doubt I will be back when I have discovered something else, either way I will be back posting something geeky for all you nerds to laugh at soon.
I noticed that my new home router comes with a USB port. I figured that it was possible to connect an external hard-drive and use my router as a home file server. This means that I will be able to share files between my Chromebook, Raspberry Pi, Android tablet and Windows machines.
Here are the steps I used by device.
First steps
Plug in your usb drive and check the admin settings on your home hub. I get there through the default address of my router which is 192.168.1.254 and yours is likely to be similar. It is a good opportunity to change the admin password at this stage.
In Windows 10
Access to the shared network drive is as easy as opening the file explorer and typing the address into the address bar eg //192.168.1.254
Your files are now ready to be accessed on all your devices.
Your shared files are now available in the ChromeOS File app.
On Raspberry Pi under Raspbian
1. You need to mount the network drive into the Raspbian file system. To do this you need to have cifs-utils installed. My Raspberry Pi 2 came with this pre-installed. You can check whether it exists or not by running the following command: dpkg -s cifs-utils
2. Should you need it, you can install cifs using the command sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
3. Next create a directory on your pi for where you want to mount the network drive: sudo mkdir -p /media/network/public
4. You need to edit the etc/fstab file in order to mount the network drive. You may need to give yourself permission to do this, so navigate to your /etc folder and type chown pi: fstab (where pi is your username).
5. Now open the etc/fstab file in your text editor and add the following single line:
Note that the first part is //IP ADDRESS OF ROUTER/directory name of network folder
If your network folder has any spaces in the name, eg "My Documents", then replace the spaces with \040, eg My\040Documents.
The second part is the path to the folder you created in part 3.
You will need to put in your own username and password .
6. Now mount the drive using sudo mount -a
Android
There is no single file explorer app for Android, but many of them allow you to access network drives. I use ES file explorer which has a nice 'search' feature which will find your network drive in a few seconds. You can also pin your network drive to your desktop for easy access.
Accessing your network drive in Android
Windows Phone
I have downloaded Metro File Explorer to access my home network files on my Lumia 950.
That's all for now (I've run out of devices to try). It's time to backup to my file server and tidy up a bit.
Recently some relatives made a long flight. Naturally I wanted to track the progress of this flight (should be called 'mission').
At first I used flight radar. I found this very difficult to track an individual flight because although I knew the flight code (used by the airline operators), I didn't know the callsign code (used by air traffic control). I am not even sure whether I have got this distinction correct.
In some desperation I then typed the flight number into Cortana and was delighted to discover that she had it all covered.
Switching to my Lumia 950, the details were there in a nice Cortana card too. Go Microsoft!
Next steps - Implement this feature in gorgeous ASCII for Susan.
Reverse polish is a mathematical notation in which the operators are place to the right of the operand. For example 3 + 4 becomes 3 4 + in reverse polish. Calculations in RP are much simpler as you do not need to use parentheses to indicate the order of operation of your calculation.
My reverse polish calculator allows you to perform calculations in RP, but it does much more than that!
1. Load a web page. Simply type the url of the page you want.
Not just a calculator. Type a url to open any web resource.
2. Load any resource from your computer using the open command.
Open specific resources, or type one of several commands for navigating windows file explorer.
3. Search the web. Anything the calculator does not processes as a direct command, url or rpn expression is sent to the browser of your choice.
4. Run Windows Shell commands. Windows 10 allows you to run shell commands allowing for command line access to all parts of the computer. You can runs these shell commands directly from your calculator using the shell command.
Run Windows Shell commands directly from the calculator
5. There are loads of new features in the online help, including how to rename your window, lock your computer and restart your machine.
6. Did I mention you can perform reverse polish calculations with the calculator?
Perform calculations using binary, hex, octal or denary numbers. Up to 26 variables. Accumulator mode on/off. Timer.
I've just caught up with the announcement from Microsoft, and can say that I am genuinely excited about Windows 10 which looks truly amazing. Code written once that runs on every device in an appropriate way. Seamless transition between tablet and desktop mode. The MS-Word engine sitting inside your outlook app. Cortana integrated into desktops. It all looks like good stuff for those interested in productivity, but they have improved the experience for gamers as well, with the Xbox app sitting on every device. I know my gamer friends will be interested in the ability to stream Xbox content onto any Windows 10 device. Even the new web-browser (codename Spartan) looks great. Microsoft have revolutionised the way we can share content from the web (please, please, please be standards compliant). I am very interested in the new Surface Hub device, an 84 inch screen with integrated Win 10 and OneNote. They didn't talk education, but this device has clear applications in the classroom.
All the best of Win 7 and Win 8. Am I dreaming? This looks like a quantum leap in Computing.
Oh...and did anyone mention holograms?
Addendum: Do check out the competition as well. I understand that Apple may make one or other of their devices a little bit bigger or a little bit smaller this year.
Windows is 29 years old today. Here is a timeline showing some of the versions of Windows (that I have used).
It begins! Oooh look, Reversi!
Windows 3.1. I remember this version fondly, from a time when playing on the computer meant drawing a picture in MS-Paint or getting killed in Minesweeper. No World Wide Web yet...
Windows 95. How do I uninstall Internet Explorer?
Windows 98. How else would I play Lemmings?
Windows ME. Again fondly remembered, and I think I still have a working machine tucked away in the back of a cupboard somewhere.
Windows XP - totally mind-blowing at the time.
Vista. Enough said.
Windows 7. My first two win 7 laptops are still soldiering on.
Windows 8.1. Perfect for tablets and phones. Works well on my desktop computer. Where is the start button?
