Radix Fidem Blog

Top Two Windows Text Editors

Posted on February 23, 2009 by ehurst

Over the years, whenever I ran some version of Windows, I was always hunting down new and better text editors. I’ve purchased a couple of the premium versions, but in the long run, it’s hard to beat these two: Cream and Crimson Editor.

My primary use for a computer of any sort is writing, followed closely by reading and research. I’m old-fashioned enough to appreciate having at least a plain-text copy of everything I write. It’s the easiest format to preserve, and it’s the easiest to share. Of course, I’m conscious of the studies which show the human brain and eyes can best process text when it falls between 50 and 75 characters per line. Given the original standard on the Net was 72 characters per line for plain text, that’s what I use for storage and sharing.

Most editors for use in Windows will not do hard returns properly, if at all. A good text editor will allow hard returns where you want them, easy reformatting within that limit, plus a simple way to indent quotations and formatting within that, too. It helps to offer quick and easy case changes, and spell-checking is a must. On-the-fly spell-checking is even better. When I produce a text file for storage, I use Cream. It does far more than I’ll ever use, but it is just about the only text editor for Windows which does all the formatting correctly. It doesn’t hurt Cream also offers extravagant syntax highlighting like nothing else, so when I code my XHTML files, it’s almost a pleasure.

However, Cream is just a bit heavy for ordinary use, and isn’t suitable for those few compositions where I need soft returns initially. That’s where Crimson comes in. It pops open very quickly, and offers a tree-view file browser on the side. It’s perfect as the default text file opener in Windows. Most blog articles are best prepared with soft-wrap until after it’s posted. While not as fancy with syntax highlighting as Cream, it does well enough for the manual coding I always do on when blogging.

Best of all, these two are free.

Posted in computers | Tagged windows, writing | Comments Off

Economic Hysteria All Around

Posted on February 22, 2009 by ehurst

On the one side are voices from within our official government pretending all this economic trouble can be fixed. They are lying. Our economy won’t recover via the route they are taking. At the same time, they are allowing to slip out stories tell us how very bad it really is. That’s so they can scare us into following their lead.

On the other side are activists warning how this will all dissolve into chaos. It will, but not in every place. Some metropolitan areas will experience rioting once the welfare system starts to falter. Also, the instability across our southern border has already begun to bleed across to our side, and it will surely get worse. However, for most of the land area of the US, it’s not the end of life as we know it.

Yes, I’ve stocked up on things, but they are a select group of things currently available only as imports. That is, those things we don’t make here, and haven’t for quite some time: toiletries, various cleaning supplies, nutritional supplements, certain food items, most electronic devices and related supplies, and any consumable paper item. We also have tried to gather human-powered versions of things we consider important to our lifestyle: bicycles, hand tools, kitchen implements, plus alternative cooking and heating equipment.

We do this because there will be a transition period when imports will disappear, and local production won’t replace it for a while. But eventually it will. At some point folks are going to realize they won’t get their jobs back, and they’ll have to find something they can do or sell. They’ll probably try to match what’s demanded most as previous supplies run out. Manufacturing will return here. I suspect most public utilities will stay around, some with reduced services. On the other side of this mess, you’ll see a return of the small independents.

Prices relative to income will go back up where they should realistically be. Our recent decades of relative wealth were phony, and we’ll find out the real cost of living and purchase accordingly. At least, it could happen this way, if we make it so. This may all come on the wings of a new currency, but it will surely not come as long as we allow the folks in Washington, DC, to decide things for us. Let’s face it: They would trade your life for a rat’s hind quarters in a second.

Posted in social sciences | Tagged economics, survival | Comments Off

XP: Give Me Control

Posted on February 21, 2009 by ehurst

One of the virtues of Linux is total user control, at least in most situations. If you want to delete a critical file, by all means delete it. Linux will allow it. Just remember it probably won’t restart if you shut down, and it may well crash pretty soon when it needs to access that file. But no matter; you are in control. So it’s a mixed blessing. Windows has always tried to deny users that sort of control. It has ways of locking files which it considers “in use” and you can’t delete them. It’s one of the reasons viruses and other malware can be such a pain.

This evening my wife ran across some hassle with a folder she didn’t want, was not useful, but would not delete. When she tried, she was denied access, with the warning the file was in use, and she needed to close the program. Well, Windows uses naming conventions which make no sense to *nix people. We never could identify what was using that folder.

Then I remembered something I ran across years ago: Sysinternals to the rescue! Granted, those tools require you know enough to recognize what stuff is and why it’s there, and why it maybe should not be there. I probably had just enough experience in this case to do that. I downloaded Process Explorer to her system, and ran it.

You can run a search for the file you want to delete to see what process is keeping it open. So I opened the “Find” box and typed in the name of the offending folder. Sure enough, we identified the process. Not that I knew what it was, and I worried if it was something essential. But when I right clicked on the name of the “handle” which kept the file in use, it offered me the option of closing that handle. I tried it. Handle closed; we got rid of the offending folder.

So the means to gaining that control is not so straightforward in Windows, but it can be done.

Posted in computers | Tagged linux, xp | Comments Off

Stuff I Miss on XP

Posted on February 20, 2009 by ehurst

While playing with XP on my system, I’ve picked up the usual Open Source stuff most people know about: Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, etc. I’ve tried to find a few other things, but it seems some are just not available.

Nano I can get, but I can’t get it to do any spell-checking. I have Aspell installed with a dictionary, of course, but Nano can’t use it. I get this cryptic message about not being able to create a TEMP file because it doesn’t exist or something like that. All my Googling reveals nothing on that for Windows.

I can get an ancient version of Joe, but what’s the point? I need the syntax highlighting. I’ve found discussions of getting the latest to build on XP, but no conclusive information whether it will or won’t. Further, nobody offers for download any binary copies after version 2.9.6. So I guess I’m out of luck.

I’ve also been searching for a serious CLI editor for XP, but most of those are ancient DOS programs which often don’t work at all on XP, giving errors and crashing of the program. I guess nobody considers the Windows CLI worth any trouble any more.

Posted in computers | Tagged writing, xp | 2 Comments

PC Study Bible: Ripoff

Posted on February 18, 2009 by ehurst

Biblesoft sells a boxed entry-level Bible software package called PC Study Bible. It’s junk.

The library included is fine, but the the software is just atrocious. It hogs the CPU, offers very slow screen repaints, and generally dogs down the system. I’m running a very fast dual-core Athlon with more RAM than I’ll ever use, and it runs slow on me. This, when it has a primitive Windows 3.1 style interface. I am deeply disappointed. It also offers no obvious way to move copied Scripture passages from the internal clipboard to the system clipboard. Half the reason for buying such a package is to save time with cut and paste from selected verses.

If you want something actually usable, try eSword or The Sword Project.

Posted in personal | Tagged computers, scripture | Comments Off

XP: Making Me Sick

Posted on February 17, 2009 by ehurst

Just on a lark, I decided to drag out my XP disk and install it on my main desktop system. It took quite a while to get all the updates, because many of them were strictly sequential.

Every piece of my hardware works better in XP than in Linux — any Linux. That’s what makes me sick. You and I know it’s because the manufacturers of hardware aren’t exactly friendly with Linux for the most part. Even those who are, and who allow the specs for Open Source developers to write drivers, still can’t solve the problem. The drivers for the most recent distros of Linux don’t work as well. Let’s face it, many Linux drivers are marginal.

For example, the GUI. My monitor gives less flicker, and everything renders quicker. The same Firefox renders every page quicker and with fewer errors (mostly I no longer have missing images, something all too common under Linux). Regardless how I tweaked my X settings, it never looked this clear and sharp.

It reminds me just what a boondoggle we have with the X server architecture for the GUI. It drives me nuts I can’t find a good multi-view desktop driver for XP, and that’s about the only thing X does right. Otherwise, it’s still ten years behind, if not more. That is, ten years behind if one looks at it from the common user’s experience.

That’s what hits me the hardest. If I were a non-techie testing all this out, I would never use Linux. It’s better at some things, without any argument, but those are things I do as a techie, not as an ordinary user. This worries me. When I compare how it works under XP with everything else I’ve tried, I can’t make it work this well under Linux. They don’t care why, they only know it’s not the same.

More: webcam, sound, printer, mouse, power controls… everything works better. My ancient Panasonic KX-P2123 prints so neat and clean, I forgot how bad Epson emulation could be under CUPS. Further, it hasn’t locked up on me as it often did under CUPS. Granted, that may have been an issue with the mobo chipset and the printer port, but I’m using the same BIOS settings and it’s never a hiccup (so far).

This reminds me the one time I loved Linux printing was when you could still get drivers which would print in character mode, instead of graphical rendering. The one time I loved using Linux most was on the commandline, on a laptop too old to run X. It reminds how much I really wish there were a framebuffer interface, a TUI for Linux. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single developer interested in pursuing that, but I’m not alone in wishing for it.

Now, granted, most people who have messed with Vista would prefer Linux. I suspect Windows 7 will be no better. Still, I am beginning to think I’m going to check out ReactOS and pray it gets solid real soon.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Trail: Nearly a Mile

Posted on February 17, 2009 by ehurst

Oklahoma is mostly laid out in a square grid, with some tweaking to account for the curvature of the earth at this latitude. Each square is theoretically one mile on each side. Most of the state is criss-crossed by roads which follow these survey lines. We call them “section lines.”

Took a second look today and realized when I crossed an open area, I was quite close to the next section line north of the woods. It required recalibrating my estimates. By the way the crow flies, the trail is now about three-quarter mile, but if you account for all the twists and turns, it’s just about a mile.

Today the trail turned east and crossed the open area just exactly where I planned, entering the largest wooded section again. I probably made about 100 yards in three hours. It was slow going because I had lots of dead fall to move. If I can’t feasibly get on the other side and pull it off my intended path, I am forced to chip away at it until the path is clear. I few more yards east and I’ll turn back north for the last loop. I’m watching the terrain and trying to avoid any significant declines.

I estimate when the entire trail is finished, it will easily cover two miles. I’m looking forward to it, because lately my knees have quit hurting so bad, and I’m able run a bit.

Posted in cycling | Tagged health, nature | Comments Off

Can the US Economy Be Fixed?

Posted on February 16, 2009 by ehurst

In a word, NO.

I’ve already explained previously the fundamental nature of economic activity within a community. I also explained when you centralize the controls and the ownership of economic activity, you destroy it. If you operate from a fiat currency, it is only a matter of time before it crashes hard. I also said I am utterly certain this was planned by high-level international bankers.

A friend of mine asked what the government might do in the short term. The answer is “nothing.” Yes, we know people will probably starve, crime will soar, violence in particular. It’s too late to stop that; it’s going to happen anyway. The only difference the government can make now is simply stop and dissolve itself as quickly as possible so individual states can address the problem, themselves devolving controls down to the lowest level.

The only correction possible is to rebuild the local economy of each community. That means start from scratch. Yes, that would be painful, but this idiotic bailout stuff will only prolong the agony, and it will guarantee more people dying from starvation than if it simply stopped now. In a sense, the federal government has already signed a million death warrants, or more. It did so by choosing to hide the problem, by deficit spending, by not closing down The Fed and by not returning to the gold standard.

This wasn’t simply an economic decision to bring wealth and prosperity, it was a decision to grab a bunch of it on the front side and leave nothing for the end. Even before the creation of the Federal Reserve, economists warned it was handing the bankers a sword to kill us. There is a natural cycle to economies based on fiat currencies and we are at the end of ours. Too much too soon means building a habit of conglomeration, and that cannot but be deadly. Having huge multinational corporations could never have worked without eventually enslaving millions and starving them to death. That is inherent in the system.

So within a year or so, the incredibly wealthy will still be incredibly wealthy, while the vast bulk of the human population in the world will starve, succumb to diseases, face social breakdown and chaos, etc. This is what happens when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few. That stuff about a growing economy lifting all boats is only true when it grows off savings, at a natural pace, not off mass credit. Fiat currency fundamentally is mass credit. Credit guarantees wealth will not lift all boats for very long. The commoners are hitting bottom now.

Update: A little support for my contention.

Posted in globalism | Tagged economics, survival | Comments Off

OS Agnostic?

Posted on February 15, 2009 by ehurst

I’m trying to become more agnostic about computer OSes. I know what I like and what I want, but I also know the rest of the world, particularly those whom I help, just don’t care. All my effort in the CentOS meta-distro is probably not going to fly very far. I accept that. As I’ve already told people, most of the world is not involved in computer hobbies.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged computers, culture | Comments Off