Monday, March 31, 2025

Featured Links - March 31, 2025

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

A creek winds through a marsh
The hydro marsh

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Photo of the Week - March 30. 2025

It's time for another cat picture. This is a closeup of CJ as he's lying on my chest while I'm in bed. His nose is not damaged; the pink mark is congenital. He has bonded with me and comes up for his snuggle every night. Taken with the wide angle lens on my Pixel 8 Pro and night mode as the light was dim. To my surprise, he held still long enough for a sharp picture.

Closeup of a cat's face with the cat looking slightly to the left
CJ


Saturday, March 29, 2025

Saturdau Sounds - Trey Anastasio - 2025/03/12 - Kodal Hall, Rochester, NY

This week's musical treat showcases the quieter side of Trey Anastasio, the guitarist for Phish, a band that I like very much and have seen live and listenned to extensively. He's currently on tour playing a series of solo (almost) acoustic concerts and here is one of them, from Rochester, NY earlier this month. 

I said "almost" solo because he's accompanied on a few songs by pianist Jeff Tanksi. Trey is perhaps not quite as accomplished on acoustic guitar as he is on the electric guitar that he plays during Phish shows, but he's more than capable of carrying a solo concert. It also shines a new light on some of the material that he performs with Phish and his own band. 

The performance was captured from a stationary camera just in front of the stage. I am not sure if it's a soundboard or audience recording but the quality is very good and quite listenable. I like it more than I expected to and I hope you enjoy it. 

Thursday, March 27, 2025

The USA versus Canada 4

For bloggers like me, the Trump administration is the gift that keeps on giving. There's always something new and exciting to write about. It looks like the current clash between the US and Canada over trade, immigration, and geopolitics is not going away so I'm adding a blog topic, Canada - US, and will likely be posting every week or two about it, depending on events.

Jim Cuddy: "We Used To Be the Best of Friends"

So here's this week's installment.

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Elections Canada Resource to Combat Election Disinformation

Elections Canada has introduced a resource called ElectoFacts to helo counter misinformation and disinformation about elections and the electoral system. In their press release, they say:

To counter misinformation and disinformation about our electoral process, Elections Canada now flags incorrect information and narratives, and responds by providing accurate information and sources.

'ElectoFacts' is part of Elections Canada's overall efforts to give Canadians the information they need to participate in federal elections. Canadians should have easily accessible and accurate information about the federal electoral process and the safeguards in place to protect it, directly from the source.

The site shows inaccurate or misleading information commonly observed by Elections Canada with accurate information placed beside it.  

This is a good initiative on the part of the government and I hope it gets widely publicized.

 

Monday, March 24, 2025

Featured Links - March 24, 2025

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

Four small patches of ice and snow melting on a backyard lawn
The of winter's snow (I hope)


 

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Photo of the Week - March 23, 2025

I took this photo while walking in my neighbourhood. I remain fascinated by the fractal patterns of tree branches reaching for the sun. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Tree branches reaching for the sun

 

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Saturday Sounds - Philadelphia Folk Festival - 1970 and 1981

This week's musical treat consists of two videos of the Philadelphia Folk Festival. 

The first video is from 1970 and was produced by a small community TV station, WITF-TV, in Harrisburg, PA. It features a large roster of performers, many of whose names I don't recognize. Those that I do know are: John Hartford, John Denver, Oscar Brand, Dave Van Ronk, Bruce "Utah" Phillips, Rosalie Sorrels, Fairport Convention, David Bromberg, Tom Paxton, Doc & Merle Watson, Kate McGarrigle, Allan Fraser & Daisy DeBolt, “Mississippi” Fred McDowell, and Steve Goodman. That quite a list and this is a real treasure for folk music fans. The video quality is surprisingly good for 1970 and the audio is fine.

 

The second video of the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1981. It was produced by WHYY-TV in Philadelphia and includes performances by, among others:  Richie Havens, Tom Rush, Theodore Bikel, Jonathan Edwards, Dave Van Ronk, The Battlefield Band, Robin & Linda Williams, and Riders in the Sky and is hosted by Oscar Brand. Video and audio are comparable to the 1970 video. 

 

 If anyone knows of more of these, please leave a comment. 


Friday, March 21, 2025

More on Disinformation

It's time for another post with links to articles about disinformation and misinformation. There's been a lot of it recently. 

  • Vitamin A and Measles: What the data show (and how to talk about it). "RFK Jr. and a new form of germ theory denialism." Bad information about diseases can kill. 
  • Madonna, Extreme Weather and Disinformation. "There is a connection." No, Madonna did not cause extreme weather in Brazil despite what some conspiracy theorists would have you believe.
  • Measles Is One Of The Most Contagious Diseases On Earth. "With the Trump administration suppressing public health information, here's what you need to know."
  • Bogeymen and Trojan Horses. "How to identify and call out Trump and Musk’s fascist tactics." The amount of disinformation spewing from the mouths of these two people is truly staggering. Knowing their tactics can help you avoid it.
  • The Emperor’s New Philosophy. "Of drunkards, lampposts and economic doctrines." How to understand what Trump is saying about the economy really means. 
  • Canada’s greatest vulnerability is disinformation, and we have no defence for it. (archive link) "Targeting our population with content normalizing the idea of absorbing Canada aims to destabilize our institutions and sap our will to resist. It exploits intergenerational conflict, denigrates our history and culture, and makes America seem like the land of endless opportunity. The aim, after a couple of years of bombarding social media and torquing its algorithms, is to make us believe joining the U.S. isn’t much of a leap."
  • As Pope Francis Ails, Outlandish Rumors Run Wild (gift link). "Audio, a photo, medical reports: The truth may be out there, but when it comes to the health of the pontiff, many people prefer more fanciful tales."
  • Wednesday, March 19, 2025

    More on the USA versus Canada

    Canada's relationship with the United States has become THE hot topic up here in the Great White North. Certainly the tariff war launched by the Trump regime is a big part of that because of the widespread economic damage it's already causing. But it's affected the recent provincial election in Ontario (and not in a good way) and will likely be a major topic in the forthcoming federal election. And there are darker, deeper undercurrents surfacing in the news.

    Here are a few relevant articles.

    In The Walrus, Canada's equivalent to The Atlantic, David Moscrop asks Why Won't Trump Shut Up About Canada?

    As much as Canadians might wish to believe Trump’s attention is driven by something particular to our country, we seem to be, at best, incidental to his grander designs. Trump wants American dominance without the responsibility of soft power exercised through foreign aid or disproportionate spending on a military umbrella that stretches across the continent and the Atlantic Ocean. (He recently argued that countries like Taiwan should pay the US for defence, comparing it to an insurance arrangement.) He also wants American industry and workers to thrive without reliance on trade deficits—or wealthy people paying taxes.

    To the extent that Trump views Canada as standing in the way of his hemispheric and domestic plans, by way of a trade imbalance, an under-securitized border, inadequate defence spending, and an inconvenient geographic location in the Arctic, he will bully this country by any means necessary—and annex it if he must. Wrong place, wrong time, Canada.

    If the country can’t or won’t serve Trump’s nineteenth-century program, he’ll force it to, as a hammer forces a nail into a plank. And to Trump, that is what Canada is—a nail, piece of a project, no more animate or sacred or sovereign than a tiny spine of metal.

    In this Substack post, Warren Kinsella looks at ways in which Canada might become a stronger economic force without the United States. 

    US President Donald Trump’s tariff threat has, however, shifted the Overton window. There is now a growing political consensus to unlock Canada’s economic potential and reduce its dependence on exports to its southern neighbour. That task will fall to either Prime Minister Mark Carney or opposition leader Pierre Poilievre following an election this year.

    Canada’s GDP has long trailed its G7 peers, ranking 16th globally in purchasing power parity terms. A country with its geography could clearly generate higher output. To do so, the Canadian economy needs to become more efficient, raise investment and attract more high-skilled workers. Here’s how.

    In the Globe and Mail Andrew Coyne outlines some ways (gift link) in which Canada could respond to US threats and economic aggression. 

    Beyond that our defences against attempted American domination are more general than specific. We are limited in the degree to which we can “decouple” from them. We share a continent, and we have to work with them. Whether we do so from a position of weakness or strength, however, is something we can affect.

    One area in which this may apply more and more in future is in our capacity to resist disinformation campaigns. To now the focus of these efforts has been countries like China or Russia. It seems naive to think that an administration that is so frankly admiring of those regimes, and moving fast to align itself with them, would not resort to similar tactics.

    Second, Mr. Trump has seemed keen to try to probe our divisions as a country. That has failed so far – the sudden emergence of this external threat has served to unify us to a quite unusual degree – but there is no guarantee that will last. We need to be thinking about national unity as an element of national security.

    So far as our electoral system, for example, encourages parties to target their appeal to certain regions while ignoring others, racking up seats in the former while being all but shut out of the latter, it’s worth looking at systems in which every party can win seats in every part of the country, and every party must.

    As well as booing the US national anthem at hockey games and cancelling trips to the US, Canadians are choosing to buy Canadian. This article from CTV describes some of the many "Buy Canadian" apps that are being developed to help consumers give their money to Canadian companies.  

    Finally, Malcolm Nance, a US intelligence and foreign policy analyst has published a report on Substack suggesting that Trump will invade Greenland and Canada with dire consequences for Canada and the US. (archive link)

    The political rhetoric in the first five weeks of the Trump regime is giving clear indications that the United States fully intends to invade and seize Canada and Greenland at President Trump’s command. The possible timeline is 6-18 months of political destabilization to weaken the Canadian economy, split political parties, and carry out secret destabilization efforts, including identifying and making contact with Canadians who would betray their country.

    The best hope is that the operation would be compromised and the planning publicized well in advance of mobilization by anti-Trump loyalists to the Constitution in the intelligence and armed forces who would recognize the campaign's foolhardiness. However, this does not guarantee that Trump would not carry out the attack.

    The occupation of Canada would quickly become a continent-wide, high-intensity modern war akin to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It would rapidly devolve into a higher-intensity insurgency, which could lead to the deaths of thousands on both sides. Any operation would most likely collapse the American economy and precipitate a violent Second American Civil War.

    The overall outline of a possible plan makes sense though there are some details that I don't think were well thought out. (IEDs in beaver dams?!). I do think resistance would be widespread and fierce. Canadians aren't known as a gun loving country, but in northern and rural areas there a lot of long guns and people who know how to use them. Anyone who thinks that Canada can be taken by military force does not know this country or Canadians. 

    Let's just hope that this does not come to pass. But given the anti-reality insanity of the last two months, I would not bet against it.



     

    Monday, March 17, 2025

    Featured Links - March 17, 2025

    Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

    Swan on the ice

    Sunday, March 16, 2025

    Photo of the Week - March 16, 2025

    I took this picture at the Canadian Home Show in Toronto on Saturday. It is possibly the ugliest, most garish vehicle I have ever seen, at least in person. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro and the colour adjusted slightly in Google Photos to reduce the yellowish tint from the artificial lighting. It was a very vivid lime green. 

    Lime Green Tesla Cybertruck



     

    Saturday, March 15, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Los Lobos

    A week agp Nancy and I trundled into Toronto to see Los Lobos at Koerner Hall. This was the first time we've seen them live. It was billed as an "acoustic evening" but turned out to be a pretty loud and raucous performance. .

    Los Lobos at Koerner Hall

    I'm not that familiar with their songs but I recognized a few, though given our location behind the stage, it was difficult to hear the vocals. The band came through loud and clear though, especially the drummer, who was outstanding. They finished the set with "Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad" > "Bertha" and an energetic performance of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl". The show ended with the entire audience up on their feet and dancing to La Bamba. something I doubt happens often there.

    So for this week's musical treat, here's a few videos of Los Lobos performing starting with a six-song set from KCRW-FM followed by a few videos of individual songs. All are pro-shot with excellent sound. Enjoy.




    Friday, March 14, 2025

    We're Toast 58

    This post is a collection of links that support my increasingly strong feeling that the human race (or at least our technological civilization) is doomed. 

    A marsh with a creek running through it and thawing
    A thawing marsh

    Thursday, March 13, 2025

    2024 Nebula Awards Finalists

    The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has announced the finalists for the 2024 Nebula Awards. The awards are voted on by members of SFWA and will be announced at the 2025 Nebula Conference and Awards, June 5-8. 

    These are the finalists for the Novel award:

  • Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory, Yaroslav Barsukov (Caezik SF & Fantasy)
  • Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
  • Asunder, Kerstin Hall (Tordotcom)
  • A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK)
  • The Book of Love, Kelly Link (Random House; Ad Astra UK)
  • Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (DAW; Arcadia UK)

  • None of these are on my "to read" list, although that could change. 

    Locus Magazine has the complete list of finalists

    Wednesday, March 12, 2025

    Canada Is Not Yours to Take, America!

    Back in the fall, I figured that if Trump somehow got elected, things would get bad , but I didn't expect them to get this bad and this crazy. I can't possibly comment on all of the insanity going on south of the border, but being Canadian, I do want to focus on one thing: Trump's irrational delusion that Canada should become "the 51st state". 

    If you know anything about Canada, you will know that it's NOT going to happen. This is what happened the last time somebody tried to take over Canada.

    Image of the British burning Washington in the War of 1812
    The British burning Washington 

    I don't remember Canada being mentioned much, if at all, during the election campaign. But it cropped up in a comment at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and the Canadian prime minister; a comment that was thought to be a (rather inapproriate) joke at the time, but may have been the first shot in a campaign by the Trump regime to undermine the Canadian economy. 

    This article from the New York Times (gift link) goes into some detail about the discussions between Trudeau and Trump and reveals that the US wants to renegotiate agreements on water sharing and treaties setting the location of the border between the two countries. 

    On those calls, President Trump laid out a long list of grievances he had with the trade relationship between the two countries, including Canada’s protected dairy sector, the difficulty American banks face in doing business in Canada and Canadian consumption taxes that Mr. Trump deems unfair because they make American goods more expensive.

    He also brought up something much more fundamental.

    He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation.

    The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States.

    The Globe and Mail reported on this as well, going into some detail about negotiations to update the agreement governing water from the Columbia river, (gift link) which originates in British Columbia. 

    U.S. President Donald Trump raised the 61-year-old Columbia River Treaty among a list of grievances with Canada during a call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month, a source in Ottawa said.

    The agreement, which is currently under renegotiation, co-ordinates hydroelectric power production and flood control along the 2,000-kilometre Columbia River flowing from B.C. through the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and has long been seen as a model of international water co-operation.

    During a Feb. 3 phone call between the two leaders, Mr. Trump read from a four-page memo listing U.S. irritants with Canada that the Prime Minister and Canadian officials believed was an attempt by the President to soften him up as part of the tariff negotiations, the source with direct knowledge of the conversation said.

    The President, reading the memo, said the treaty was unfair to the United States and that it needed changes Canada had yet to agree to.

    This post by Zoe Ellen Brain on Facebook is a good timeline of events up to March 11. 

    Trump's imposition of tariffs, his gaslighting about fentanyl crossing the border, and his "51st state" comments has ignited a firestorm of reaction in Canada. I'm going to link to several articles from Canadian writers.

    In The Globe and Mail, Kristen Hopewell has a suggestion for how Canada can retaliate against Trump's tariffs.

    For Mr. Trump, weakness is a provocation. Canada needs to respond to his aggression forcefully and with strength. Retaliating against U.S. goods alone is not enough. Today, it is no longer manufacturing but technology, services and intellectual property that lie at the heart of the U.S. economy. Companies such as the Magnificent 7 (Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc.) – which make up 35 per cent of the S&P 500 – are the foundation of America’s current global economic dominance. The U.S. has a large services trade surplus, and knowledge-based industries that rely heavily on IP account for more than 40 per cent of U.S. GDP. This is where Canada’s retaliation needs to be targeted.

    Canada should explore more innovative forms of retaliation, including a ban on American social-media platforms such as X and Facebook, digital streamers such as Netflix Inc. and online retailers such as Amazon. An alternative to an outright ban is to jack up digital-services taxes on these companies to levels equivalent to Mr. Trump’s tariffs.

    This is from Charlie Angus

    Trump's gang, on the other hand, are thriving on the chaos, uncertainty and fear in America. But the reality is that a deeply divided nation will not put up with the shocks caused by destroying the greatest trade relationship in the world. Even the MAGA voters will start to question the cost of satisfying whack-job ideology. It doesn't bode well for any long-term adventurism.

    And they didn’t factor in the determined resistance of the Canadian people.

    They thought we would just roll over.

    As if.

    Canadian economic and political resistance has thrown Trump. He is scrambling to find a way to keep the high ground. But Canadian resistance has only grown stronger.

    This political and economic resistance will be key in the coming months and years. That is why the boycott is such an important weapon.

    A unified Canada will never be defeated by a nation distracted by its own political chaos and dissension.

    And on Facebook, Danny Ivan has written a long post with a series of suggestions about what Canada can and should do to combat Trump and his regime. Here's a small part:

    What Canada Must Do—Right Now

    This is no longer about preparing for a worst-case scenario. We are in the scenario.

    1. Confront Trump’s Lies Immediately

     • The Carney government must publicly and aggressively counter Trump’s fentanyl disinformation campaign.

     • Demand proof of his accusations and expose his economic destabilization strategy.

    2. Prepare for Economic War

     • Strengthen trade partnerships with the EU and Asia to break dependency on the U.S.

     • Prepare emergency trade measures to counteract tariffs and economic sabotage.

    Canadian public reaction has been overwhelmingly against the idea of joining the US in any way, shape, or form. The US anthem has been booed at hockey games, "Buy Canadian" movements are spreading across the country, and people are cancelling plans to travel to the United States. 

    I'm gong to close with a few videos. 

    First, "Not Your 51st". "This song is a bold and ironic remake of the U.S. Marine Hymn, turning a patriotic American anthem into a defiant Canadian protest song against Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats of annexation. Originally repurposed as a pro-Trump campaign song in 2016, we’ve flipped the script—using the same tune to reject his trade war tactics and his suggestion that Canada could become the 51st state."

    Next, "MAGA Man (A Neil Young Parody - Canada Ain't Your 51st State)". "Canada has always been a good friend to America—but that doesn’t mean we’ll roll over. With some in the U.S. floating the idea of annexation, this is a Canadian response to the madness. Inspired by Neil Young’s Southern Man, this parody, MAGA Man, calls out the chaos, corruption, and threats to democracy south of the border."


    Finally, an update of a Canadian classic.

    Monday, March 10, 2025

    Featured Links - March 10, 2025

    Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

    Interior of Koerner Hall from the balcony behind the stage
    Koerner Hall

    Sunday, March 09, 2025

    Photo of the Week - March 9, 2025

    This week's photo is of our local mall. I liked the symmetry though I didn't get the composition quite perfect. (Perfect composition on a phone is hard, even with the Pixel 8 Pro's big screen). I resisted the temptation to fix that using Photoshop's new AI tools, though I did use Google Photos' Vivid filter to give it a little more punch. 

    Mall ceiling



    Saturday, March 08, 2025

    Saturday Sounds - Kneebody

    This week's musical treat features a US jazz group called Kneebody. They're new to me although they've been around for about twenty years. I first encountered them on this post on the Little Green Footfalls site. The featured piece of music is "Repeat After Me", which will be on their next album out in April. 


    I was immediately taken by the music and checked out more of it on Spotify. If you watch the video you'll see the drummer simultaneously playing bass which is a neat trick and something I haven't seen before.

    This is their most recent album, Live at Le Crescent, which came out in 2022. 

     
    Their most recent studio album is Chapters, which was released in 2019, and which includes guest vocalists on some of the tracks.
     

    Friday, March 07, 2025

    Working with Multi-File Word Documents

    Note: I wrote this guide about when I was working at the Toronto Stock Exchange and had to create a couple of large documents that had content that was being shared with another writer. I did not trust Word's Master Document feature so came up with my own solution. It took a bit more effort than using Master Documents but was stable. Seeing the recent Office Watch article on master documents made me think that this guide might still have some value so I'm posting it here. I've checked it against the current version of Word in Microsoft 365.


    Most people work with Word documents as a single file. This has the advantage of simplicity. However, there are times when it makes sense to split a document up into more than one file:

    • Large documents (more than 200 pages) or documents with many tables and graphics can become slow to work with and are prone to corruption.
    • You may need to compile a document that has many authors or contributors.

    This guide explains how to construct a document that is made up of several Word files without using Word’s Master Document “feature”. To avoid confusion with Word’s Master Document terminology, I will call the document that you are trying to produce the container document. The individual documents that it contains are subdocuments. Each subdocument will be a separate file.

    Most technical writers do not recommend using Word's Master Document feature. They are highly unstable and can corrupt your work. The method outlined in this guide, while it involves more up-front work, is much more stable. That being said, if you must use Master Documents, follow the guidelines at the end of this guide.

    Prepare Your Documents

    It is very important that all documents that make up your container document:

    • Have the same template attached.
    • Have the same paragraph and character styles.

    Use the Developer > Document Templates > Organizer command to ensure that the same template is attached to all of your documents. To be on the safe side, you should use the Organizer to copy the styles from the template into all of your documents.

    All documents that you need to work with should be in the same directory.

    Create the container document

    When working with subdocuments:

    • Use Insert > Object > Text from File to insert your subdocuments.
    • Put a section break after each subdocument.
    • Inserted documents are not editable. To make changes, edit the subdocument file.
    • Press F9 to update subdocuments.

    Important Note: Never try to edit text in the subdocuments while you are in the container document. It will seem like you can, but you will lose your edits as soon as you update the fields in the document (when you print or switch to Page Preview mode, for example).

    Create your headers and footers in the container document. Word does not use the headers and footers in the subdocuments. (This is important, and it will drive you crazy trying to figure out what is going on with your headers and footers unless you know this).

    Always open your subdocuments with Word’s File > Open command. Never open the subdocuments from within Windows Explorer. (If you do, Word can lose track of path information, messing up your links inside the documents.)

    Manage page numbering

    One downside of this method is that you will have to manually set the page numbering for each subdocument. 

    1. Check the page number at the end of your first subdocument. 
    2. Open the second subdocument.
    3. To set the starting page number for the second subdocument, choose Insert > Page Number > Format Page Numbers.

    You can use chapter-page numbering to get around this. If you do, your Heading 1 numbering should correspond to your chapter numbers. If this isn’t possible, don’t use heading numbering in your document.

    Use a SEQ field to insert a chapter number in your document: 

    { SEQ Chapter \r1 \h }

    in the first file inserts the chapter number of one and hides it. The second chapter would be:

    {SEQ Chapter \r2 \h}

    or

    { SEQ Chapter \n }

    which will put the chapter numbers in sequence automatically in the container document, but not in the individual subdocument if you have to work with it that way.

    To put the chapter number as part of the page number, put

    {SEQ \c Chapter}

    before the page number.

    Add a TOC or index

    If you are using the Insert > Object > Text from File method to put the subdocuments in the container document, you can use the standard Word TOC and INDEX fields for your table of contents and index.

    Otherwise, use RD (Referenced Document) fields to pull in information for a table of contents or index.

    { RD “Chapter 1.doc”}

    If you are using chapter-page numbering add \s Chapter to the TOC or Index field code. Do not check the option in the Page Number Format dialog box to include the chapter number. Doing so will result in a duplicate chapter number in the TOC.

    Manage cross-references

    For cross-references inside a file, you can use the standard Word command: References > Cross-reference.

    Because you cannot edit the subdocuments as part of the container document, you cannot use the References > Cross-reference command for cross-references between files. Any cross-references would be lost as you as you update the INCLUDETEXT field that contains the file’s data.

    Instead, you have to create a bookmark at the cross-reference target and use an INCLUDETEXT format where you want the bookmark to appear. The INCLUDETEXT field will have the following form:

    { INCLUDETEXT “B.doc” “Bookmark_name” \! \* Mergeformat }

    where B.doc is the target file.

    To include a cross-reference that references a page number, you must first include a hidden {PAGE} field on the page that you want to cross-reference in the target file, then create a bookmark of the {PAGE} field. Then use the INCLUDETEXT field method as described above.

    Working without a container document

    A container document may be needed if you have to have a single Word file that contains all of the content; for example, to make it easier for people to print a document. However, it is difficult to maintain and can be unstable.

    A simpler approach is to create a file just for the front matter of the document, which would consist of the cover, preface (copyright, approvals, etc.), and table of contents. After the table of contents, use RD fields to pull in the headings and page numbers from the subdocuments.

    To control pagination, you can use chapter-page numbering or manually force continuous page numbering using bookmarks and REF fields. Chapter-page numbering is probably simpler in most cases.

    With this technique, you will need to override heading numbering for the first Heading 1 paragraph in each file (likely there will be just one).

    If you use Word's Master Document feature

    There is enough evidence that Word's Master Document feature is unstable to make most technical writers avoid it. That being said, if you do want to use it, follow these guidelines rigorously:

    • All authors MUST use the same template.
    • Do NOT modify any character or paragraph styles in the subdocuments.
    • Do NOT apply direct formatting. All formatting MUST be applied from the template styles (this is especially important for bulleted and numbered lists).
    • NEVER paste formatted text from another document. If you must paste text from another document, use the Paste Special > Unformatted text command and reformat it from the template styles.
    • Use the .docx format instead of the older .doc format for your files. It is more stable.
    • Backup, backup, and backup again. I recommend daily backups of all documents in a different directory each day.




    Wednesday, March 05, 2025

    Backing Up Mozilla Thunderbird on Windows

    If you are using Mozilla Thunderbird for your email in Windows 10 or 11, and you have installed Thunderbird from the Microsoft Store, you may want to look at this article

    I spent about three hours on Saturday trying to find the location of Thunderbird's data files on Nancy's laptop, after I realized that the files in the default location were out-of-date and not being updated. This made no sense as Thunderbird was running perfectly. It also meant that I did not have a current backup of her email, as I had just been putting the standard location in my Free FileSync program and assuming everything was OK. 

    It turns out that if you install from the Microsoft Store, it puts the data files in a non-standard location. Instead of being in

    C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

    they are in 

    C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\packages\MozillaThunderbird.MZLA_h5892qc0xkpca\LocalCache\Roaming\Thunderbird

    (I think that the .MZLA_h5892qc0xkpca portion of the directory name may vary by machine).

    It's been 18 months since I set up Thunderbird on her laptop. I remember having trouble getting it to find the files from the previous PC, which I had copied to the default location. I'm not sure how I got it running in the first place, but I did get the mail from our desktop PC into Thunderbird. I made the mistaken assumption that they were now in the standard profile location, and those were the ones I was backing up. 

    Incidentally, in this situation, Thunderbird will give you an error message if you try to open the Profiles directory in Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profiles Folder. The error message does show the correct path of the Profiles directory, but it won't open it.

    Looking at the AppData\Local\Packages directory containing the Thunderbird files leads me to suspect Windows is using this directory for other programs as well. 

    Tuesday, March 04, 2025

    Movie and TV Reviews - February 2025

    Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in February. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory.

    Movies

    • The Order: This thriller is based on the book, The Silent Brotherhood, about the FBI taking down a white supremacist terrorist group in the 1980s. I don't know how accurately it portrays the history, but it's well made, compelling viewing. Bonus: It's a Canadian production filmed in Alberta. (Amazon Prime)
    • Lost Together: A documentary about the career of the great Canadian Band, Blue Rodeo. 5 Days in July is on my 10 favourite albums list. (CBC Gem)
    • Conclave: A Vatican thriller based on the book by Robert Harris. I enjoyed this even though I had read the book and knew how it ended.  (Amazon Prime)
    • Moondance Daydream: It's hard to describe this movie about David Bowie. The closest I can get is a musical biography. Lots of live performances, interviews, and voice overs by Bowie, with a lot of music video-inspired cinematography. It does give a good look at Bowie's wide ranging interests and immense talent. (Amazon Prime)

    TV Shows 

    • The Gone: A murder mystery set in rural New Zealand. This was quite twisty and compelling with a lot of emphasis on Māori culture. It easily could be in Canada. (Acorn TV)
    • Tsunami: A four-part documentary about the 2004 tsunami, mostly about the stories of the survivors. (National Geographic/Disney+)
    • Antiques Road Show (season 6): Our comfort viewing continues. (PBS)
    • The Rig (season 2): More oceanic weirdness as the survivors of the first season try to survive the second. (Amazon Prime)
    • The Catch: Murder in a fishing port. This one is pretty grim.  (Acorn TV)
    • SNL 50th Anniversary: Mostly disappointing. Wish I had seen the music tribute special. (Global)
    • Liaison: A spy thriller set in Europe (mostly London, Paris, Brussels). Well done and twisty, though maybe should have been a bit shorter. (Apple TV+)
    • North of North: A comedy/drama set in Iqaluit. This is one of the funniest shows I have seen in years and brilliantly done. Highly recommended. It will be going to Netflix later this year and I expect it to be a big hit. (CBC Gem)
    • Sherwood (season 1): Another British police procedural based on true events, set in a mining town still suffering 30 years later from the effects of a contentious miners' strike. One of the best we've watched in a while with a complex, compelling story and a plethora of some of the best British character actors. (BritBox)

    Monday, March 03, 2025

    Featured Links - March 3, 2025

    Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

    A model train layout at the Ganarska Railway Modellers show