NEW BLOB FIX!!!! RE: Birthday coming soon

[John Esak]

 Ken, 

Hold on with the birthday stuff... This is important...

There is a MAJOR (and I mean MAJOR) blob fix in the latest filePro. I
discovered the problem about 6 months ago when our blobs were just getting
SO huge.  The fix brings blobs down to exactly the size they should be
(which is actually quite small)... You can easily calculate how big your
blobs should be with a simple multiplication in the exact same way you
calculate key size. I'm talking about using blob fields as MEMO edit type
here. The Blob file has space added to it in 8k chunks. So, as your text
moves up past an 8k boundary, a new 8k chunk is attached to the file.  If
your blobs are gigantic, hell if they are simply bigger than the amount of
text you have per memo dividing exactly into the blob file size...
Remembering that you might have just 1 extra 8k chunk for the first
available free space... Then you NEED the latest version.  Actually, this is
an absolute bug, if you use the MEMO edit type in your map, this error
*will* happen to you.  By getting the new version (I guess that would be
5.6.10 now or is it 11?) you can run the new "blobfix" program that comes
with it, and shrink/fix your blob files on the order of 2Gb files become 3Mb
and similar.  It simply makes the blobs infinitely more stable. There was a
time when the blobs I used as MEMO type were so unstable that I always
passed and used some other text saving method. Now, I use the MEMO function
everywhere and they are solid as anything else I could muster up.  It's
actually nice to have the feature. Now all we need is a better printing
function for them. A while back I posted a method for being able to TAB into
and out of MEMO fields on the screen.  I feel they need to act similar to
the way other fields on the screen work... But that is just my hang-up.
There are lots of great uses for the MEMO exactly as they are.  One last
thing... I'm not sure if the PageUp and PageDwn while in a text (MEMO) field
has been fixed. In previous versions it didn't work, and I think that is a
must fix to make the MEMO editor have the look and feel anyone would expect.
Ken told me one time that he thought it should work and was surprised to
find out it didn't, so it may have been another bug fixed in the new
version. I didn't put it in as a specific bug report, so maybe that's still
hanging out, don't know.  

But if you're having problems with MEMO/BLOB's being unstable and WAY too
big, you need to get the new version. I think anything to do with file size,
(like ddefine and other executables have the fix in them.

Now, birthday stuff. 51 to 61 was a horrendous decade for me... At 50 is
when I lost my sight. It kind of ruined any of the good stuff that was
happening else wise like grandkids, having enough money for things I always
wanted, making a nice house and home... Relaxing a little, etc.  You I hope,
should be doing all those things and really enjoying it. But, don't let
those muscles go down. I remember when you could do *pull-ups* on my door
frame... Hanging by your fingertips!!!  Go on an Outreach trip or
something... Just don't fall into Mt. Saint hellen.  :-)

Funny, you're listing to blues lately... Remember when we loved the Rock so
much. And there were great bands to go hear like Happy The Man.  I, too, am
playing a lot of blues. (I still love Blue Grass, and am going to see
Allisyn Krauss in May at Gettysburg...) but Saturday night I'll be playing
Rock Me Babe, and A Man In Love (a Clapton tune on "Money And Cigarettes")
also, two of my own bluesy things... Oh, yeah, also Cripple Creek (The
Band... Old standby's like that just never die.  "She told me just to come
on by if there was anything that she could do..." [and she could do a lot of
things! :-)]).

Am I getting punctuation crazy in my old age?  Truly, if it matters, over 60
and I don't feel like it's old age... Not until I try and get up after
sitting on the floor for a while... Or when my fingers cramp up after two
songs... Or any number of other things... But inside... In my head, where it
counts... I'm about 25.  :-)

Take care,

John


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ken white [mailto:kenwhite at verizon.net] 
> Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 8:33 AM
> To: john at valar.com
> Subject: Re: Birthday coming soon
> 
> 61 - woof,  that must mean I will be 51 soon.
> 
> What are differences between 48 and 51    ?
> Quantity of Hair and Hair color
> Need glasses to read
> Tinnitus
> Injury's take longer to heal
> Finding muscles not used in years to shovel snow
> I listen to the blues more than rock and roll
> 
> What do I have to look forward to over the next 10 years?
> 
> On a side note:  How is the quality of the current release of 
> filepro?  DSI 
> has random blob/memo corruption problems on 5.6.06D4,  
> thinking of upgrading 
> them over the weekend with my fingers crossed.
> 
> Happy Bday
> 
> 
>  
>