Monthly Archives: September 2017

Zazzled

10 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in Ooops!

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It appears that Bing Images is including paid-for? Zazzle ad-results in Image Search results, and refusing access to all results if one tries to remove the offending Zazzle crapware with a -zazzle search operator…

Search Bing Images for: “postcard” “stoke-on-trent” “realphoto” …

The Zazzle ad-results are the two naff pictures with brightly coloured hearts.

Search Bing Images for: “postcard” “stoke-on-trent” “realphoto” -zazzle …

Jay Kay Klein archive

09 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in Spotted in the news

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The Jay Kay Klein archive has just released nearly 6,000 vintage photographs of U.S. science fiction fandom. Mostly it appears to be convention room-parties, panels/auctions in progress, and author signings with the head turned down – but there are more than a few gems in there. For instance, here’s Ray Bradbury with young artists from Oakland at BayCon in 1968, holding a lizard-man head made by Philip Tippett. Phil — as he was later known — went on to work on the first Star Wars films and lead the animation team at Industrial Light and Magic.

Sumatra PDF – launch in magazine mode with no gutters

02 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in JURN tips and tricks, My general observations

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I’ve waved goodbye to the Foxit Reader software on Windows. Foxit had added one to many nags, extra bits of unwanted ‘extra’ software such as its Connected module, and generally felt like it was headed toward more and more bloat. Then there was the recent security glitch which still isn’t patched.

I’m now using the freeware Sumatra PDF instead, with its Book view (Cover page + Facing pages) for magazines and books. This view mode is found under Settings | View | Book View. Super-quick launch and very smooth page-turn.

You can set Sumatra PDF to always launch in Book mode by editing the Advanced settings list. Find:

DefaultDisplayMode = automatic

and change this to…

DefaultDisplayMode = book view

The other initial drawback appears to be a slight sliver of gutter between double-page spreads, which spoils magazine spreads in art / architecture / fashion etc magazines. This can also be fixed in the Advanced settings. Find:

PageSpacing = 4 4

and change this to…

PageSpacing = 0 0

It also has an ugly icon for PDF documents, in a garish yellow. To change this on Windows 8.1.x use the freeware FileTypesMan. Scroll to the .pdf setting, and double-click it. From there you can assign a new icon for PDFs.