deskrule build 1.0.26

[nikos]

now you can tweak many program options pressing F12 key
www.zabkat.com/test/deskrule_setup.exe

[Kilmatead]

Oh, yeah, now you go and add a settings adjustment thingy, after me memorising all the bloody bit-positions all week. Tantric sex was easier to learn! (And more fun - more positions too, with fewer defined constants. )

Getting some assertion failures on programme closure after viewing the <F12> modal - just mentioning it as you "usually" iron such things out before stuffing the body-parts in the installers...

[nikos]

that other time i turned off the "end of program assertion" because it was meant to be for mass use. Now we're back to hard core testers

FYI it was your nagging about the settings the other day that prompted this release

[Kilmatead]

Now we're back to hard core testers

Hard-core testers don't use no stinkin' installers man, you should know that - when I get hit by a car crossing the street I wanna see that Porche-driver's eyes blink red first, real slow and close-up like, ya know?

FYI it was your nagging about the settings the other day that prompted this release

I'm aware of that, I just wish you would pay attention to my nagging when it actually matters, not when it's just because no one's wiping their feet before traipsing over the linoleum! ("You can't win for losing," as they cryptically say.)

[Kilmatead]

While we're at it, shouldn't GAOPT_FOLLOWJUNCTIONS be part of GAOPT_ENTERALLDIRS? No? Well, then where's the option for us reparse-junkies? Only soft-core testers use boring pleb-like regular folders. (How else am I to know whether icon overlays are being extracted "the hard way" or not? Hmm? Leave me alone, I'm trying to crash your toy...)

Will this thing ever be DPI-aware? Bloody eyes are getting worse... changing the "Text Font" doesn't actually do anything (except, ironically, change the font-size of that one item in the settings dialog! Oh, the loneliness of a well-watered GUI...)

[Kilmatead]

While I'm still at it, if this were aimed at hard-core testers again, why the worldwide CSS-feed message? Hard-core people don't use CSS-feeds - we wait for pigeon droppings to hit us on the head first...

[nikos]

deskrule is supposed to be for grannies, so you won't find tweaks for more obscure settings like "follow junctions". Perhaps I'll add a super mode in the settings dialog for all the advanced settings. Also check your mailbox

[Kilmatead]

Show me a granny that'll intuitively understand algebraic search rules laid out in a flexi-structure format, and I'll show you the ghost of Émilie du Châtelet turning in her grave (or at least surreptitiously spreading pigeon-poo all over my inbox).

What kind of super-granny you have? Mine were happy enough if the pies were baked and the floors were cleaned. And, when I was 12, the lawn mowed. After that, they all more or less died happily. I don't recall them doing complex searches of anything but the attic, and that's what grandchildren were for anyway, as I was the only one who could climb the ladder and fit through the cubbyhole on long dolorous Saturday afternoons.

(My rewards for searching the attic were always apple-pies. Deskrule seems a bit short on those, so far. Easter eggs, maybe?)

[nikos]

but surely the plain search mode is easy enough for the elderly?

what DPI problems are you having? The "font" setting isn't for the window but for the text previewer. When are you going to admit defeat and order some prescription glasses old man?

[Kilmatead]

When are you going to admit defeat and order some prescription glasses old man?

Tell me about it. This middle-age thing is seriously overrated - everything seems to be falling apart much faster than it was a few years ago.

Just the other day I was outsmarted by a couple of horses playing tag-team with me. I'm not joshing, this stupid horse just decided that it didn't want to walk peaceably unto its stable (where there was hay and garlic and all sorts of meuslix-gunk that it loves so much), so it ganged up with the other horse to distract me while it sauntered through the gate and onto the lawn (a proper lawn, of a proper house). Whereupon it decided to just go nuts, charging back and forth digging up the freshly-mown turf as if it had never seen planet earth before. Now, granted, this horse was only 4 years old, but the worst part is that his 7-year old evil twin brother (who should have known better) decided to take advantage of his sibling distracting me (trying to catch the bugger) to make a break for freedom and he too joined in the fray to attack the lawn. Have you ever seen 2 horses going crazy intentionally trying to ruin your nicely manicured existence in a confined area about a quarter-acre in size? I mean, I couldn't have done that much damage if I derailed the forklift and put the JCB on drunken autopilot overnight.

All because that sneaky little hoofed hunter snookered his harness with a twig on the sly while my back was turned! They do this, you know, it's their way of testing your resolve against the winds of madness and phylactic hopes.

And before you go making comparisons to looking after your own two kids, unless they have inherited some kind of super-genome from that super-granny of yours, they probably aren't the size of (and possess the muscle-mass of) a bleedin' BMW. In fact, I can personally vouch for the fact that just one of these horses can shite more in an hour than your two kids probably weigh (combined).

Middle-age was supposed to be about driving a Ferrari and dating women 20 years younger than myself. It turns out that Ferrari's are for posers and women 20 years younger are amazingly dumb and all seemingly obsessed with their phones. I hate phones. And not a single one of those girls could outsmart me at anything.

But a horse - that's a different story. Trust me, it's humiliating being outsmarted by a horse. Makes you re-evaluate your entire existence. For some people it's near-death experiences, or getting diagnosed with cancer, or helping an uncle with his own alcoholic euthanasia. For me, it's a horse.

And you want me to worry about my eyes? The visible world is just a quantum-illusion anyway: it's not worth getting too upset over. Which is what I keep telling myself as I spend my fading days repairing the once-manicured lawn and dreaming up rules for equine-chess, where I can beat the buggers in a more civilised manner, with the valour of the mind, and the noble repose of the scruffy (and blind!) middle-aged mongrel I have become.

[drac]

Please watch those "elderly" comments! I have been working with (system design, software design, programming, project management, etc.) computers longer than most of you have been drawing breath. I am, officially, "elderly" - but that does not mean I am stupid and I am not computer illiterate, either. It is also true that I am not as current as many of you in the intricacies of the modern operating system (there was nothing wrong with DOS).

Please do not confuse age with lack of knowledge or technical ability. One day, if you are lucky and live well, you too may be elderly AND computer literate.

[Kilmatead]

Ah, but did you (like miss Émilie du Châtelet above) have an affair with Voltaire whilst you were sowing your computerised oats? Oftentimes, the context of all our experience is more important than the experience itself. We have to keep these things in perspective here... the first being that Nikos was supporting the elderly (that's what it says on the inside lapel of his PR jacket anyway), whereas I was just pointing out that entropy is slowly placing me one rung below equus ferus caballus on the evolutionary scale, so anything I manage to do in a day which surpasses consumption and defecation counts as a boon for my humanity.

Unless you have (or are married to) one of those super-Greek-grannies yourself, the question of one's technical acumen is not the issue, it's the perception itself which sells the mayonnaise to the bread and cheese.

At the risk of publishing Nikos' intellectual property (Wikileaks here I come), an excerpt from one line of the source-code will tell you volumes about the truth behind the man:

Code: Select all

#define GIOPT_GRANNYSORT      (1 << 1)  /* 1,2,11 instead of 1,11,2 */ 

(No, I didn't just make that up, I have an email full of defined constants he expects me to memorise, this is just one of them - it's a play on the natural-number sort algorithm being slower than the generic-sort algorithm, codewise.)

As you can see, not only is the source-code itself ageist and sexist at the same time, but it hardly even mentions Voltaire at all! What kind of justice is that?

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

[drac]

I am not THAT old (to have had an affair with Voltaire - or Arouet if you prefer) nor am I of the right proclivity (sexually) to be interested in doing so.

Not sure what your horse reference is referring to - a physical attribute, your place in the order of the universe or your passion to be ridden hard and put away wet.

My comment was just to alert you all that elders are everywhere (we get lost a lot) and will protect our reputation from slander (real or perceived). So, when you talk about elders, I suggest you do so with a song in your heart and a smile on your face - and with the dignity and respect we have (most of us) earned during our lives.

[nikos]

we are all elders or getting there. Nothing more certain than death, taxes and kilmatead taken with a pinch of salt

[Kilmatead]

Salt and tequila (for the multiple personalities). Drac needs to watch Soylent Green again - the truth is out there.