macOS New App Release – Panorama X 10.1

Product Announcements – ProVUE Development of Huntington Beach, California has released Panorama X 10.1, the latest version of their high-performance general purpose database system for Macintosh computers. This version introduces powerful new visualization and analytics tools that take advantage of Panorama’s RAM-based speed to enable the transformation of raw data into actionable intelligence, and enable rapid, interactive exploration of any data space. Notable new features of Panorama X 10.1 include:

• Analytic Tables: Summary Tables transform unorganized data into concise tabular analysis, including computations of subtotals, averages, standard deviation and more. Crosstab Tables display a two-dimensional grid summarizing and analyzing two database fields against each other, for example, Spending vs. Month or Income vs. Age. Analytic tables can be displayed side-by-side with the original data, and remain bound to the data, allowing the user to instantly drill into and audit the backing detail behind any summarized value.
• Charts & Graphs: Integrated chart options include bar, stacked bar, line, area, stacked area, and pie charts. Charts are interactive, displaying data values when hovering over chart elements, as well as zooming and enabling/disabling individual chart elements.
• Applescript: Panorama X code can now be invoked from AppleScript, allowing Panorama to be automated from external applications (Panorama X 10.0 already provided AppleScript support in the other direction, allowing Panorama to automate external applications).
•  Automatic Report Construction: The new report constructor dialog automatically generates a custom form for printing a tabular report (with rows and columns of data) to your specifications. This report can be used “as-is” or tweaked with Panorama’s graphical layout tools. Using this dialog can save dozens of minutes over manually generating a custom report form, and makes it easier to produce a pixel-perfect report.
• Variable Height Report Rows: Custom reports can now include records of different height, to accommodate fluctuating text or image sizes, for example when printing a catalog.
• Printing Multiple Page Records: Can now print an individual data record across up to 9 pages, for example, an invoice, packing slip, and envelope address.
• Clickable Data Sheet Buttons: Individual fields in the Data Sheet can now be configured as clickable buttons (checkbox or pop-up menu) for faster data entry.
• Dynamic Tab Order: When the tab key is pressed, custom code can now direct Panorama to automatically skip to different fields depending on what data has been entered.

Panorama X 10.1 also includes performance enhancements, additional documentation and training videos, and numerous bug fixes.

System Requirements: macOS 10.9 or later (including macOS 10.14 Mojave)

Media Guide:
Additional information, including links to ready-to-use artwork (screenshots and icons), are available in the ProVUE Development Media Guide online.

Pricing and Availability:
Panorama X introduces a revolutionary new flexible approach to software subscriptions. Unlike a traditional subscription, a user only pays for months when he or she actually uses the software. If they don’t use it every month, they don’t pay every month. The initial expense can be as low as $15, and ongoing usage can be as low as $5 per month.

Subscriptions are purchased from within the application. A user can install Panorama X on as many computers as he or she likes. As long as they use it on only one computer at a time, they pay nothing extra. Organizations pay for each computer in use during a month, but without any serial numbers or activation hassles. An organization can scale up or down the number of computers in use at any time – it’s all taken care of automatically within the app itself.

Upgrade Pricing:
All Panorama X upgrades, including 10.1, are included in the standard pricing. There is no additional charge for the Panorama 10.1 upgrade.

Free Trial:
Panorama X can be downloaded directly from the ProVUE Development web site. When Panorama X is first installed, the user is offered a 7-day free trial. Trial days don’t have to be consecutive, they can be spread out over an extended time period. When the trial is complete, the user can simply purchase their subscription from within the application.

Review of “The Banished Craft”

Book Reviews – “The Banished Craft” eBook was published in 2015 and was written by E. D. E. Bell (https://www.edebell.com). Ms. Bell has published four novels, with this being the first in her “Shkode” trilogy.

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Situations. The story is set in a land of fantasy where humans and intelligent dragons exist. They each are having their separate adventures, but a common thread to them is the use of the drug ‘ha’.

There are several characters that the story follows, both human and dragon.

A world has been spit – now there are separate human and dragon worlds. The woman Cor lives in a world where women are not allowed to read or study or have a career. Yet she wants more and discovers when she tries ‘ha’ that she has powers. She is a witch.

Atesh is one of the most brilliant scientists in the dragon kingdom. His avocation is studying the plant that ‘ha’ comes from, but he is tasked by the emperor to create a deadly poison. His world is facing destruction and he is struggling to save it against all odds.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 9.5+ hours I spent reading this 346-page fantasy. I liked the human characters but I struggled with the dragon characters for some reason. The plot was a bit unique, but with it too I had a bit of a hard time. I also felt that the story ended rather abruptly. The cover art is well chosen. I give this novel a 3 out of 5.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Short World War II Film “Sons of the Fatherland”

Short Films – WWII – The short (12:39) World War II era film “Sons of the Fatherland” was published to YouTube in January of 2017 by JUNTEX. The synopsis per IMDB:

Taking place a few days before the Battle of the Bulge during WWII, a small conflict between German and American scouts unfolds.

This is a well-done video, though a little bloodier than most. A pair of young German soldiers encounters a pair of young American soldiers. Both sides are scared, but both have a mission to accomplish.

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If you are a student of the World War II era in history, you may find my pages “World War II Sources” (a collection of museums, websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds with information on the World War II era in history) and “World War II Timeline” of interest.

macOS & iOS App Sale – XwaveSoft Apps

Product announcements – XwaveSoft of Odessa, Ukraine announces a Back-to-School sale on their entire range of macOS and iOS applications. Starting on August 28, all their applications on Mac and iOS App Stores will be offered at 40% discount. The range consists of widely known applications, where the most effective productivity techniques are incorporated to help people maximize their time, avoid burnout and get rid of procrastination.

Acknowledging the worldwide research about Work-Life balance, the XwaveSoft team are excited about the chance to help people manage their time more effectively, and easily align their daily routines in order to achieve better results. These apps increase personal productivity and help to focus on things that really matter naturally organizing plans, projects, and ideas in a clear way for faster goal achievement.

• Be Focused Pro (iOS) – $1.99 (USD) – now $0.99 (USD)
• Be Focused Pro (Mac) – $4.99 (USD) – now $2.99 (USD)
• Focus Matrix (iOS)- $2.99 (USD) – now $0.99 (USD)
• Focus Matrix (Mac) – $4.99 (USD) – now $2.99(USD)
• eXtra Voice Recorder (iOS) – $1.99 (USD) – now $0.99 (USD)
• eXtra Voice Recorder (Mac) – $2.99 (USD) – now $0.99 (USD)
• Cloud Outliner (iOS) – $2.99(USD) – now $0.99 (USD)
• Cloud Outliner (Mac) – $9.99 (USD) – now $5.99 (USD)
• Chrono Plus (iOS) – $1.99 (USD) – now $0.99 (USD)
• Chrono Plus (Mac) – $4.99 (USD) – now $2.99 (USD)
• Guest List Organizer (iOS) – $2.99 (USD) – now $0.99 (USD)
• Guest List Organizer (Mac) – $9.99 (USD) – now $5.99 (USD)
• Daily Habits (iOS) – $2.99 (USD) – now $0.99(USD)
• Magic Cutter (Mac) – $9.99 (USD) – now $5.99 (USD)
• Christmas Gift List (iOS) – $1.99 (USD) – now $0.99(USD)

The discount in the Mac App Store and iOS App Store is valid from Tuesday the 28th of August through to Tuesday the 4th of September.

Short Science Fiction Film “Hyperlight”

Short Film – I recently came across the short (16:29) science fiction film “Hyperlight”. The film was posted to YouTube in June of 2018 by DUST. The synopsis:

Two elite astronauts wake up in the abyss of space; they return to their stranded ship and discover the surprising reason behind their mission’s catastrophic failure.

I thought that this was a well-made film with good graphics. It also has a good story to tell. It is rated 7.1/10 on IMDB.

Singapore, Singapore – Din Tai Fung Restaurant

Food & Locations – After my wife got home from work yesterday we walked over to one of the nearby malls to have dinner. She took me to a place where she has eaten a few times here in Singapore (Where is Singapore?), as well as in other locations in Asia, a Din Tai Fung restaurant. There are many locations here in Singapore. The one we visited is at The Centrepoint, 176 Orchard Road #02-55 Singapore 238843.

Eating here is a little different than restaurants in the States. You are seated at your table, then handed a menu.  After you look the menu over, you mark your selections on an order slip. Your waitress then picks up the slip and your order is delivered to your table.

We made several different selections that were all very good: Green Chillies with Marinated Stuffed Minced Meat, Hot & Sour Soup, Stir-fried Dou Miao with Pork, and Steamed Pork Dumplings. This is a nearby location with good food. I am sure we will be visiting it, or the other locations many times during our stay here. I know I want to try some of the other dumplings in the future.

As you can tell from the top photo, this is not an elegant restaurant. It does have good food though. I would certainly recommend these establishments for good food at a reasonable price.

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See my other Food & Location articles

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macOS New app Release – Output Factory 50% Off

Product Announcements – Zevrix Solutions of Toronto (ON), Canada announces that Output Factory for Adobe InDesign is available on sale at 50% off until September 2 only. The discount offer also applies to Output Factory Server which processes InDesign files automatically from watched hot folders. Output Factory lets printers, ad agencies and publishing houses worldwide eliminate repetitive tasks, streamline their output workflows, and easily repurpose InDesign files for the web and mobile devices. The offer lets users save $85 on each copy of Output Factory and $350 on Output Factory Server.

“Using Output Factory is straightforward. You determine your settings and sit back while Output Factory does all the heavy lifting. The time savings are huge,” writes Jamie McKee in a 5-star review in InDesign Magazine. “If you find yourself repeatedly exporting InDesign files in various formats, you owe it to yourself to install the free trial and see just how much time you’ll save using Output Factory.”

With Output Factory, users only need to queue the desired InDesign files and select pre-defined output options. The software will then print the files or save them to PDF or other formats with just a click of a button. Output Factory can automate the processing of hundreds of documents in the background while freeing users time for other important activities and eliminating repetitive tasks. Output Factory supports printing as well as exporting to PDF, PostScript, EPS, Flash, IDML, EPUB and several image formats. It offers the following key features:

• Batch printing and exporting of InDesign files
• Hot folder processing (Output Factory Server only)
• Export as single pages or spreads
• Output to several formats with one click
• Layer versioning: output layer combinations as single files
• Variable output file names
• Run custom scripts
• Preflight InDesign and PDF documents

Pricing and Availability:
Output Factory can be purchased from Zevrix online at 50% off for $85 USD (Output Factory Server – $350) until September 2 only. A trial is also available for download. Output Factory requires macOS 10.7-10.13 and InDesign CS3-CC 2018.

Review of “The Razor”

Book Reviews – “The Razor” eBook was published in 2018 (November) and was written by J. Barton Mitchell (http://jbartonmitchell.com). Mr. Mitchell has published five novels.

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Language. The story is set in the far future. Humanity has spread throughout the stars and one planet, Razor, has been designated as a prison planet for the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals. The main character is Marcus Flynn, a brilliant engineer.

Flynn has been sentenced to Razor, though he contends that he has been set up. Being sentenced to Razor is usually a one-way trip, and conditions there are severe and the work dangerous. .nexpectedly ‘Lost Prophet’ – a catastrophic failure – is declared and before long most guards and civilians have been evacuated from the planet surface. The prisoners though are expendable and are left behind.

Chaos and anarchy reign as the prisoners free themselves and struggle to gain power and settle old grudges. They may have only days left before the barely habitable zone on Razor ceases to exist. Flynn may have an answer, but he must ally himself with murderers, assassins, pirates, and smugglers in order to survive and find a solution.

Will Flynn and his allies survive long enough to save the planet, and more importantly themselves? What will the hidden secrets of Razor they uncover mean for their future? Will there be any kind of future with the young woman Flynn has met, or will she turn on him and slit his throat? Even if Flynn is able to save the planet, will there be any future for those sentenced to Razor?

I enjoyed the 10.5+ hours I spent reading this 400-page science fiction thriller. While this is science fiction, because of the dark setting for much of the story and the savages that Flynn and his allies must face, this almost has a horror feel to it. It also reminded me of some of the first person shooter computer games I have watched my son play where you must make your way through some deserted facility filled with crazies that want to kill you. I do like the characters and would enjoy reading a sequel to this novel. The cover art is OK. I give this novel a 4 out of 5.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

macOS New App Release – FmPro Migrator Platinum Edition 8.73

Product Announcements – .com Solutions Inc. of Fremont, California has released FmPro Migrator Platinum Edition 8.73 with full support for FileMaker Pro Advanced 17. This upgrade supports the automated conversion from Microsoft Access and Microsoft Visual FoxPro to FileMaker Pro Advanced 17. This release supports FileMaker Pro Advanced 11 – 17 on macOS and Windows.

FmPro Migrator Platinum Edition has been enhanced with a new FileMaker 17 container field export feature for transferring images and embedded files directly to SQL database servers.

The problem:
You have gigabytes of images and digital workflow documents stored within FileMaker database files and need to scale up to a SQL database solution.

The solution:
FmPro Migrator Platinum Edition makes it easy to transfer images into the existing database tables already created by FmPro Migrator within your SQL database.

This feature transfers FileMaker embedded (not external) container field data of supported data types and binary files from FileMaker into SQL database BLOB columns. The image transfer feature is optimized for use with FileMaker 14 database files and supports SQLite, MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL and Oracle databases.

FileMaker 17 directly supports embedding of GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, EPS and PNG files when using the Insert Picture… feature. Embedded Binary files of all types are supported when selecting the FileMaker Insert File… a feature which would commonly be used for storing spreadsheets and other files.

Other improvements with FmPro Migrator 8.73 include:

• Added support for FileMaker Auto-Enter Get ( UUID ) calculated fields when creating MySQL database tables.
• FileMaker Timestamp fields named “ModificationTimestamp” for MySQL tables will also have the “ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP” field option added automatically. The NULL/NOT NULL option from the original field is respected during the creation of these columns.
• Fixed an issue with Unknown Script Step errors displayed for comment script steps created by FmPro Migrator for Repeating Fields data transfers.
• Fixed an issue with the Table Consolidation data import scripts not being created properly before they were put onto the clipboard for pasting into the FileMaker database.
• Fixed an issue PostgreSQL database connections on macOS.
• Fixed an issue .NET C# conversions with table names being replaced with the text “placeholder_table” in the CollectionViewSource code within the generated .NET code for XAML forms.
• For LiveCode conversion projects, added the quoting of table names in gDataCRArray_ references within the SaveRecordsAsExcel card scripts, in order to prevent possible errors with variable checking or reserved words.
• Made further improvements to the Demo mode data transfer feature by removing the field count mismatch error message and simply transferring only 5 fields of data.
• Improved the reliability of saving application and project level preferences.

Pricing and Availability:
FmPro Migrator Developer Edition is priced at ($200) per developer, FmPro Migrator Platinum Edition is priced at ($600) per developer, and both versions are available immediately through the website. A functional demo version of FmPro Migrator may be downloaded from .com Solutions online.

Do You Use “Do Not Disturb” on Your iOS Devices?

Tech Tip – Early this morning, just after 0500, I received a SPAM call on my iPhone. I was not happy. That got me to thinking about “Do Not Disturb” mode and how it might be used to solve my early morning call problem. I would rather not have sounds from calls, notifications or Messages disturb us in the middle of the night. This is particularly a problem at the moment as we are in Singapore, which is 13 hours ahead of Central Time in the US where most of our friends, family, and contacts live. That means that business hours for them is the middle of the night for us. So we don’t want to hear our devices going off at night unless there is truly an emergency.

What is “Do Not Disturb”?

The “Do Not Disturb” mode on iOS devices does exactly what I want – it blocks notifications, alerts, and calls from making any noise, vibration or lighting up the device screen while the device is locked. iMessages are still delivered to your devices, but no sound is made.

NOTE: Alarms set through the Clock App are NOT blocked by “Do Not Disturb”.

How do you turn “Do Not Disturb” On/Off?

The easiest way to turn “Do Not Disturb” On/Off is through the device Control Panel. Open the Control panel (swipe up on your device screen), then click on the crescent moon icon. That toggles “Do Not Disturb” on and off. If you have a device that supports 3D Touch, then pressing and holding the Do Not Disturb button will give you additional scheduling options.

The second way to turn “Do Not Disturb” On/Off is through settings. Go to Settings >> Do Not Disturb >> then click on the On/Off toggle. This approach also offers further options for you regarding “Do Not Disturb”.

1. Scheduling – you can set up a time range to automatically put your device into “Do Not Disturb” mode each evening and then turn it off each morning. As shown above, I have configured my iPhone to turn on “Do Not Disturb” at 10PM and then turn it off at 7AM every morning.
2. When is your device silenced – this can be always or just when locked. I chose to silence my phone only when it is locked.
3. Allow calls – You can set who, if anyone, can disturb you while in “Do Not Disturb” mode. The options for this are: Everyone, No One or Favorites. Alternatively, you can select your contacts or a subgroup of your contacts. I chose to just allow those in my Favorites.
4. Repeated calls – You can turn on “Repeated Calls” so that if anyone calls you twice within three minutes they are allowed through on the second attempt whether or not they are in your Favorites.

When “Do Not Disturb” is On, a small crescent moon icon is displayed at the top right of the screen.

When to use

The most common uses of “Do Not Disturb” are sleep time “quiet hours”, class time or during meetings. I have both my iPhone and my iPad now configured with “Do Not Disturb”. I hope that this leads to a more restful slumber.