ProFox August 2019

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Re: [NF] Seeking well-equipped laptop recommendations
by Ted Roche 15 Aug '19

15 Aug '19

On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 2:02 PM Ken Dibble <krdibble(a)stny.rr.com> wrote: > > >SSDs make a lot of sense for speed, weight and less noise and if > >everything's on the network or the internet, 128 Gb SSD is just as good as > >a 1TB HDD. > > Thanks Ted. > > "Everything's on the network or the internet" seems to be a common > assumption and is apparently the reason why it's pretty hard to find > larger HDDs on laptops that also have the other stuff I want. Weight > seems to be a major consideration for marketers, but it isn't for me. > We do not keep stuff on the network or the internet here, with some > exceptions. > Well, as always, it depends on how you use them. One of the coolest FoxPro apps I ever shipped worked on 2 Gb 10" tablet-network hybrids with 32Gb SSD storage. Taken into the field for data gathering and docked in the home office to upload data to the mothership and gather tomorrow's assignments. If they dropped one out of their truck onto the driveway, we had to spend another $129 to replace it. > Windows 10 now requires 32 GB of space for itself (build "1903"). > That means you need 64 GB in order to cope with the > download/installation/cleanup process for those eventual feature > "upgrades" that we, as mere pawns in MS's marketing game, are no > longer allowed to ignore. And some people have been speculating that > the OS space is likely to double to 64 GB in the near future. That > would mean a 128 GB HDD would have no room left at all for anything else. > 128 Gb (billions of bytes! sheesh!) was a minimum, absolutely. You spec'ced machines without customizing. More is better, nearly always. > So modernity expects a person like me to be happy with 256 GB. But > I've always been a fan of over-provisioning because the unpredictable > and the unexpected is an everyday thing in my life. > Sure. Are these field machines you expect to be beaten to death in a couple of years or long-term cubicle machines as investments you plan to keep alive for 4-5 year? And what do you run on them? That would guide you to pick between workaday Inspirons vs. high-performance Lattitudes for example, sticking with Dell as a f'rinstance. -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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Re: [NF] Seeking well-equipped laptop recommendations
by Ken Dibble 15 Aug '19

15 Aug '19

>SSDs make a lot of sense for speed, weight and less noise and if >everything's on the network or the internet, 128 Gb SSD is just as good as >a 1TB HDD. Thanks Ted. "Everything's on the network or the internet" seems to be a common assumption and is apparently the reason why it's pretty hard to find larger HDDs on laptops that also have the other stuff I want. Weight seems to be a major consideration for marketers, but it isn't for me. We do not keep stuff on the network or the internet here, with some exceptions. Windows 10 now requires 32 GB of space for itself (build "1903"). That means you need 64 GB in order to cope with the download/installation/cleanup process for those eventual feature "upgrades" that we, as mere pawns in MS's marketing game, are no longer allowed to ignore. And some people have been speculating that the OS space is likely to double to 64 GB in the near future. That would mean a 128 GB HDD would have no room left at all for anything else. So modernity expects a person like me to be happy with 256 GB. But I've always been a fan of over-provisioning because the unpredictable and the unexpected is an everyday thing in my life. Ken

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Re: [NF] Seeking well-equipped laptop recommendations
by Ted Roche 15 Aug '19

15 Aug '19

As a professional developer and consultant, the laptop is as much a socio-economic statement as a working tool, so I'm a big fan of "top of the line minus one" or last year's top of the line for best bang for the buck, longevity and reliability. We went shopping at a couple of the Big Box stores to actually hold a couple of machines in hand and be reminded that cheap feels cheap and if you can't type 80 wpm, you're wasting the most valuable component in the process. I just recently picked up a Thinkpad T590 for an associate, and it is one slick piece of hardware. You won't do Levovo, so... never mind. (ProTip for others: watch for wicked sales!) Dell would be my second choice. Depending on the use case of what exactly it is your users do, you may get by with one of the lesser models, but I strongly prefer Lattitudes and won't buy another Precision no matter how good a deal it appears, not PC-compatible. 15.6" 1080p is pretty much required for these old eyes, and UHD and 4K is just a waste of little pixels for my use case. SSDs make a lot of sense for speed, weight and less noise and if everything's on the network or the internet, 128 Gb SSD is just as good as a 1TB HDD. Since I run Linux, I strongly prefer Intel video but that's just me. Re: CPUs: let me say again, depends upon the apps they run, but a 4-core i5 of recent vintage keeps up with all I do on the desktop. It would be slow if you ran AutoCAD, edited videos, rendered 3-D, and compiled kernels, but most people browse, word-process, email and do data-entry, so... You can't buy too much RAM. On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 11:31 AM Ken Dibble <krdibble(a)stny.rr.com> wrote: > Hi folks, > > I'm finding it's getting really difficult to find a non-customized > laptop that meets my agency's requirements. Granted, I'm pretty > picky, though I am somewhat flexible on the potential trade-offs involved. > > Many of you use quite nifty hardware so I thought you might have some > ideas. > > I need it to be non-customized because I'm being required to purchase > through a MWBE vendor. (This is New York State, USA.) These vendors > generally refuse to provide customizations; in fact, most of them > just buy stuff off the rack from established electronics retailers > and mark it up (don't get me started....) > > First, I won't do Lenovo or HP or Surface. > > I prefer ASUS or Acer, as I've had good experience with them. I'd > rather not do Dell but if that turns out to be the only way to > accomplish this I might accept that. > > I need (won't compromise on): > > Windows 10 Pro 64-bit > i7 processor or better (I don't know what the AMD equivalent would be > but I don't object to AMD chips) > At least 15.6" screen > At least 8 GB RAM > At least 512 GB HDD (I don't care if it's SSD or mechanical, but I > want all of that space) > LAN cable port > WiFi > At least 3 "old school" USB ports (some mix of USB 2 and USB 3; USB C > is nifty and all, but I'm not looking to replace my peripherals or > get a bunch of adapters). > HDMI port > VGA port (I have some old projectors and external monitors that I > don't want to spend $$ to replace; I probably could be convinced to > drop this requirement, at least for some users, if absolutely necessary) > Must have a TPM chip and UEFI BIOS (the latter seems to be standard > now but the former is often optional); these devices have to be > full-disk encrypted using Bitlocker > > I would prefer the processor speed to be 2.2 GHz or faster, but a 1.8 > GHz i7 is minimally acceptable. > > I would like an internal optical drive but it's not required. > > I don't care how much it weighs or how long the battery lasts or any > of that other stuff. > > I'm not going to be super picky on price, because the whole MWBE > thing is based on inflated prices anyway. > > (And BTW, I am not opposed to MWBE set-asides in principle, but I am > opposed to the situation that has been created, in which, because the > state mandates that we purchase from these companies, the companies > effectively face no competition and can therefore set absurdly high > prices for largely inferior products.) > > Thanks for any thoughts any of you may have. > > Ken Dibble > www.stic-cil.org > > [excessive quoting removed by server]

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[NF] Seeking well-equipped laptop recommendations
by Ken Dibble 15 Aug '19

15 Aug '19

Hi folks, I'm finding it's getting really difficult to find a non-customized laptop that meets my agency's requirements. Granted, I'm pretty picky, though I am somewhat flexible on the potential trade-offs involved. Many of you use quite nifty hardware so I thought you might have some ideas. I need it to be non-customized because I'm being required to purchase through a MWBE vendor. (This is New York State, USA.) These vendors generally refuse to provide customizations; in fact, most of them just buy stuff off the rack from established electronics retailers and mark it up (don't get me started....) First, I won't do Lenovo or HP or Surface. I prefer ASUS or Acer, as I've had good experience with them. I'd rather not do Dell but if that turns out to be the only way to accomplish this I might accept that. I need (won't compromise on): Windows 10 Pro 64-bit i7 processor or better (I don't know what the AMD equivalent would be but I don't object to AMD chips) At least 15.6" screen At least 8 GB RAM At least 512 GB HDD (I don't care if it's SSD or mechanical, but I want all of that space) LAN cable port WiFi At least 3 "old school" USB ports (some mix of USB 2 and USB 3; USB C is nifty and all, but I'm not looking to replace my peripherals or get a bunch of adapters). HDMI port VGA port (I have some old projectors and external monitors that I don't want to spend $$ to replace; I probably could be convinced to drop this requirement, at least for some users, if absolutely necessary) Must have a TPM chip and UEFI BIOS (the latter seems to be standard now but the former is often optional); these devices have to be full-disk encrypted using Bitlocker I would prefer the processor speed to be 2.2 GHz or faster, but a 1.8 GHz i7 is minimally acceptable. I would like an internal optical drive but it's not required. I don't care how much it weighs or how long the battery lasts or any of that other stuff. I'm not going to be super picky on price, because the whole MWBE thing is based on inflated prices anyway. (And BTW, I am not opposed to MWBE set-asides in principle, but I am opposed to the situation that has been created, in which, because the state mandates that we purchase from these companies, the companies effectively face no competition and can therefore set absurdly high prices for largely inferior products.) Thanks for any thoughts any of you may have. Ken Dibble www.stic-cil.org

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Re: SET DEFAULT or ?
by Alan Bourke 14 Aug '19

14 Aug '19

You need to know the location of the data, say lcLocation then: If you're using a DBC it's just open database (addbs(lcLocation) + "mydbc") use table1 in 0 use table2 in 0 If you're opening tables explicitly then then: use (addbs(lcLocation) + "table1") in 0 use (addbs(lcLocation) + "table2") in 0 And so on. Beyond that it doesn't matter where they are as long as the user has r\w access to the location. And it's not opening them directly over the internet or something silly. -- Alan Bourke alanpbourke (at) fastmail (dot) fm

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AW: SET DEFAULT or ?
by juergen＠wondzinski.de 14 Aug '19

14 Aug '19

Normally a SET PATH TO would be sufficient. If you're using a DBC, then just explicitly open that DBC with the provided path is all you need. wOOdy -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: ProFox <profox-bounces(a)leafe.com> Im Auftrag von Gene Wirchenko Gesendet: Mittwoch, 14. August 2019 05:58 An: ProFox Email List <profox(a)leafe.com> Betreff: SET DEFAULT or ? Hello: I have an app that has for years been executed out of the default directory with the data there, too. Now, I have to give at least the data an arbitrary location. Can I use SET DEFAULT for this and save having to rewrite hundreds of table referring statements? Or are there nasty things to worry about? I am thinking of having a config table in the startup default directory that specifies the data directory and then SET DEFAULT to that directory. When executing a .exe version of the app, I think this will not cause trouble, but for a debug version with separate .fxp, I think I also need to SET PATH for the code to be found. I join all my code together with SET PROCEDURE TO ... ADDITIVE in the startup .fxp if that makes a difference. Are the gotchas going to get me? Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko [excessive quoting removed by server]

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Re: SET DEFAULT or ?
by Peter Cushing 14 Aug '19

14 Aug '19

I can run my app from any location as long as all the supporting files are there. Your default folder will be the folder you started the EXE in unless you have a DEFAULT = line in your startup config.fpw At startup I set a public variable ps_home = FULLPATH('') Any paths referenced in my app will use this var. HTH Peter Cushing IT Department WHISPERING SMITH On 14/08/2019 04:57, Gene Wirchenko wrote: > Hello: > > I have an app that has for years been executed out of the > default directory with the data there, too. > > Now, I have to give at least the data an arbitrary > location. Can I use SET DEFAULT for this and save having to rewrite > hundreds of table referring statements? Or are there nasty things to > worry about? > > I am thinking of having a config table in the startup default > directory that specifies the data directory and then SET DEFAULT to > that directory. When executing a .exe version of the app, I think > this will not cause trouble, but for a debug version with separate > .fxp, I think I also need to SET PATH for the code to be found. I > join all my code together with SET PROCEDURE TO ... ADDITIVE in the > startup .fxp if that makes a difference. Are the gotchas going to get me? > > Sincerely, > > Gene Wirchenko > > [excessive quoting removed by server]

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Re: SET DEFAULT or ?
by Johan Nel 14 Aug '19

14 Aug '19

Gene, Again, I am not a VFP developer, but my understanding from the Clipper/VO/X# XBase fork: SET DEFAULT change the path where when not specifying a path, will determine where it will first look at trying to find the file. The default is the Executing directory. SET PATH is used as alternative places to look when not found in the DEFAULT folder. There are certain file open commands that does not adhere to this which I cannot set my hands on now since it is stated in the Clipper/VO/X# help to be documented in the specific commands/functions help description. HTH, Johan On 2019/08/14 05:57, Gene Wirchenko wrote: > Hello: > > I have an app that has for years been executed out of the default > directory with the data there, too. > > Now, I have to give at least the data an arbitrary location. Can > I use SET DEFAULT for this and save having to rewrite hundreds of > table referring statements? Or are there nasty things to worry about? > > I am thinking of having a config table in the startup default > directory that specifies the data directory and then SET DEFAULT to > that directory. When executing a .exe version of the app, I think > this will not cause trouble, but for a debug version with separate > .fxp, I think I also need to SET PATH for the code to be found. I > join all my code together with SET PROCEDURE TO ... ADDITIVE in the > startup .fxp if that makes a difference. Are the gotchas going to get > me? > > Sincerely, > > Gene Wirchenko > > [excessive quoting removed by server]

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SET DEFAULT or ?
by Gene Wirchenko 14 Aug '19

14 Aug '19

Hello: I have an app that has for years been executed out of the default directory with the data there, too. Now, I have to give at least the data an arbitrary location. Can I use SET DEFAULT for this and save having to rewrite hundreds of table referring statements? Or are there nasty things to worry about? I am thinking of having a config table in the startup default directory that specifies the data directory and then SET DEFAULT to that directory. When executing a .exe version of the app, I think this will not cause trouble, but for a debug version with separate .fxp, I think I also need to SET PATH for the code to be found. I join all my code together with SET PROCEDURE TO ... ADDITIVE in the startup .fxp if that makes a difference. Are the gotchas going to get me? Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko

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[NF] Search String
by Charles Hart Enzer, M.D. 13 Aug '19

13 Aug '19

I need a Search String: - All Documents in OTHER DIRECTORIES - That are NOT in a SPECIFIC DIRECTORY Thank you. *Shai / שי **Charles Hart Enzer, MD(Ohio, USA), FAACAP* *Aliyah <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah>: Cincinnati to Jerusalem <http://www.gojerusalem.com/items/263/German-Colony/>'s German Colony <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Colony,_Jerusalem> May, 2017* *Volunteer Associate Professor of PsychiatryUniversity of Cincinnati Medical CenterWebSite: **EnzerMD.com <http://EnzerMD.com>* *Publications* <http://www.enzermd.com/CV.html#Publications> *Tiny Country, Huge Dreams* *ארץ זעירה, **חלומות ענקיים* *עם ישראל חי* --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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