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[disrupting my schedule]

Folder-RSS generates an newsfeed containing changes within a folder. Use it to see what files are new in a particular folder by subscribing to the feed with an RSS reader like SharpReader:
Syntax: folder-rss.exe c:\temp > d:\temp\test.xml

               
People talk of (including my own yappity yap) moving from desktop to web. The reverse, it now seems, is even more interesting.
I was going to sit down and complete some programming tasks. But, you've succeeded in disrupting my schedule 

File filters should work, put paths with spaces in quotes. Run it as a scheduled task once a day to generate a new feed. Defaults list the last 100 items that have been modified /are added within the last 14 days.
AHK source + compiled .EXE provided. Your suggestions and comments are much appreciated  

Feature-packed and open source! drool drool droooooool.....

Also the software is really beta stage (first public appearance), so there's bound to be bugs, but as it's not doing much harm so safe to use. RSS2.0 validated feeds.

How about "Patent-pending standards-compliant webdesk(TM) technology"?

[Openoffice.org, online, free:]

See this:

http://www.gravityzoo.com/products/overview.py#1

ThinClient/GridComputing + distributed executable components + distributed scalable on-the-fly-modifiable network-wide storage !!!!!

This company is up for grabs.
Who's got more cash - Google or Microsoft?

Massive. Really really massive.
 

All of it is not new (Sun - Network is the computer)

The distributed storage part is new, and the idea of using clients as distribution nodes, a la Torrents, for programs and data, is new.

ISP caches becoming part of the official platform?

And now, the part that is relevant to us: Openoffice.org, online, free:
http://www.openoffice.org...?list=dev&msgNo=19660

Wham! M$ take that! God save M$ from all this!

So, there's much much more than meets the eye to the $3 announcement for Windows Vista for kids in schools and the Windows Vista for OLPC

It wasn't the OLPC alone. It's much more than that. Then, there is EyeOS and Xcerion.
Microsoft will have to do something really really quick to actually wave off this huge thing.

If and when Google pick up this company, or release their own "super-thin-client" OS, M$ will be ..........

I'm strangely getting feelings of sympathy for Microsoft. That's new. I'm feeling bad for them suddenly.
And this isn't M$-bashing. Just how are they gonna cope?

That is why probably the XBOX, the media content, the DRM stuff and the "youth development centers" all over the third world and the multi-faceted pressure on governments to choose Microsoft products for e-governance.

They've been forced to come out of their palatial mansions on to the road and shout out loud "choose us, we are the best" ........... whatever the technical facts of the matter

opinions, criticisms, rants welcome.

This is a nice piece explaining what FOSS is, to the layman or the newbie:

http://www.freesoftwarema...derstanding_free_software


Do have a look.
PS: it could also make you hungry

See: http://www.blumentals.net/order/special.php

Edit HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, ASP within single program

[Plugins]

this is sort of bigger.

Now, FOSS is going to spread all over the place with Redhat and Sourceforge.net opening their FOSS exchanges.

A sharware author who is just starting out or is small (just one or two small programs) has two options:
1. Opensource the program, get people involved, get publicity and therefore make money.
2. Remain closed source, shareware, fight, invent and market the new features to keep up with the fiery pace of code perfection that FOSS is all about (many minds solving the problem, instead of one person)
3. Develop a loyal user base and keep them always interested.

The first two are already well-studied methods.

The third is what I'm talking of: Plugins

Write (or rewrite) your applications so that people can contribute with *minimum* effort.
Markup of any kind, preferably XML, seems to be the best bet.

If your users are typically non-technical, as in, "Do you have to actually learn a programming language to add a feature ?!?!" or "XML, yeah! I've heard it's hot, but I don't know when I'll get around to actually learning it", then maybe you should be using .ini files.

You then have to do some marketing
1. free licenses or discounts for the best plugins
2. let your user community earn from the plugins they make
3. Ask your users openly, to submit plugin ideas and feature requests
..........[your novel ideas here]
and so on.

I personally prefer FOSS, but it's quite obvious that the *dominant* Windows world has a ton of shareware programs, authors, professional organisations and so on. Naturally, they aren't going to make money if there is free software available to do just what their product is doing, but better.

As an afterthought, Donationcoder is probably an experiment in just this.

Ideally, FOSS should have run on donations and all would be well. But people will happily use your programs to make a huge difference in their computer productivity, but won't donate. That's the unfair part. But that's how it is.

Although my strong bias is towards a free, open culture and open source software, the hard fact is that people with money do not donate fairly. In fact I would go as far as to say that the richer you are, the lesser you donate, because in today's economic scenario, only those who are unfair become rich quickly.

Fair, straight good guys almost always just manage.

So, your best friend is the small user with a bigger heart. Notice him, pamper him. He will probably support you far more effectively than the rich user.

Just my opinions. YMMV.

There is another very useful tool at Dr.Explain for people who are not experienced in authoring shareware or good at making help files:
http://www.drexplain.com/software-help-planner/
Although the page says this:

Please consider this amusing tool like a little joke that makes your life easier.

I think it is quite the opposite - it is a good solid starting point to your manual when you are wondering where to start. Often when you are writing the manual, your head is cluttered with a lot of important bugs you have fixed and so, if you are not trained in manual writing you could end up highlighting those areas of the program which took you maximum time or effort to fix. That may not be the best way to start writing a manual - for the manual *and for you*. So IMO, this tool  is *good*, however elementary it may seem.

-2stepsback

wreckedcarzz,

Please post here whoever's computer you have succeeded in fixing.

OR

whoever has got their computer fixed, please (obviously, you will, but just to ensure) post as much.

"Testimonials" give great value to the whole thing.

dc.members.carl.thanks++;

(too much coding )

dc.members.tinjaw.alert("cool!");

Now that's what you call a really good idea 

Not to sound like a jerk or anything (which I probably will anyway), but why is the fact that they're Israeli pertinent? I don't believe I've ever wondered where a programmer was from. Even when the documentation has broken english I don't try to determine where they are from.

I agree that could sound political. The intention was not that
Almost all of the leading (or at least well-known) stuff in development comes from either US, Canada or Europe. Other parts of the world generally busy themselves with outsourcing, business applications and stuff like that. PHP is the most popular development platform on the internet according to some surveys. Something of that magnitude has probably never come out of anything outside of the North American continent. Hence the emphasis. Nothing else.

Great!
I'm all for this! Except that I don't have the time right now.
Some preliminary questions:
1. Is it windows only or linux as well?
2. Will you be using one of the VNC variants from sourceforge or a Microsoft VNC product?
3. If I want my commercial business PC repaired online will that too be free? And no, I'm not going to ask for help in ensuring that I get a permanent crack for an illegit Windows XP install (for the record, my one and only windows PC is my business PC and its the electronic license backed up by a M$ CD $20 shipping  extra   - the other one is a P1 166 Mhz snail and has ...guess what ..... FreeDOS + GEM !!)

And as far credibility goes, it says that you should be "thirteen years of age or above " - and, you have *five* years of hands-on fighting - that should jolly well suffice



PS: everyone, party time!! I reached a 100 posts!!

             

Hi all,
this site: http://www.shlomifish.org/
belongs to an Israeli opensource evangelist I know.

In particular, this is a nice article about IT management and procedures:
http://www.shlomifish.org...gement/end-of-it-slavery/

Worth a good read, IMO.

Other articles are also good, pertaining to humour, and general observations on industry.

PS: Folks, did you know that the makers of PHP (actually they rewrote the PHP-FI parser of Rasmus Lerdorf) Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski are Israeli?
Now they run Zend (= ZEev + aNDi).

[Map Of Online Communities]

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language
Map Of Online Communitiesfrom http://www.xkcd.com/

O Great traveller of the (flat) world! I salute thee, for thou hast visited many lands and shown the way to thine fellow travellers! I hereby bestow upon the, by the decree of her lordship the Queen, the title of "Knight of the Joining Seas"!
Hail thee!





 

And that little detail is why I've rejected weekly offers to "endorse" software on my little site.

Wow!

Someone does the Microsoft thing every other day of sending me a request for ads or they'll send the big Pro version license key with a download link. I reject them because I want to go through the same process any user would when evaluating and buying their software.

  Zaine, that is awesome! 

I get to find out how crippled their trial version is, check out the version I could afford first, and so on. That way if I don't like it, I can return some initial feedback, but it doesn't make the list. And I'm free never to feel obligated.

True. Clean heart, peaceful mind, nice sound sleep 

Awesome Zaine! Refusing green is something not everyone does daily.

Hi all,

See http://install4free.wordpress.net/

Its very nice to read. it is spread over 4-5 pages, so if you don't have the time, bookmark it for later.

But do read through.

HTH
-2stepsback

Where's the equivalent for Vista? It's hardly Microsoft Expression Web, even if that does look like a sweet app in its own right. I shall try the latter soon

M$ is always the patient, shrewd, observing, analytical, ....er..... rat! They wait and watch the whole world invent, sit back and make a nice spreadsheet with "Good - to copy" and "Bad - to throw" and about six months down the line, they code the most appealing combination of all the diverse independent attempts and calll it a cool, hip name - say this thing would be Codeo (a la Rhodeo) or Web++ or something like that  and shove it down everyone's throat by bundling a trivially crackable 120-day trial version so that it spreads more virally than the GPL is supposed to be. That is then the end of these pioneers. Either they offer to get bought by M$ or die in neglect. So, it's good this is on Apple. I'm more and more contemplating moving my whole computer existence into the Mac dimension - at least you don't have to fight the monopolistic pirate.

Sorry, just obscure silliness: no offence intended 

Hey Perry, what do you say we start a humor thread or pester mouser to start a jokes section. We are pretty good at restricting it to respectable, acceptable humor, IMO.

And yes, I wanted a mixed color option, blue happens to be my favorite color but it's democratic world, give everyone a chance!
Even not-so-well-known PowderBlue , OldLace , LightGoldenRodYellow, Chartreuse and BlanchedAlmond

and this for those not used to precision search using google.
That is, newbies to the internet should probably start here:
http://www.lexxe.com/



HTH
-2stepsback

For the typo experts (I lead from the fortn, bkac, and everhywerr esle ;-) )

http://www.deepy.com/

[d]

and for those interested in literature,

this:

http://www.gnod.net/

For example:
http://www.literature-map.../william+shakespeare.html
It's animated *well* (@ all you wordy folks)

Hi all,

Here is another gem :

http://allth.at/home/welcome

You enter a few terms that you want to search, tell them where you want them to search, then go off to your work or to bed. come back later and find it nicely ranked and listed.

Custom search made fresh for you *after* you told them what you want to look for.

superb concept!

And, I tried, it is awwwwwwessssommmmmmeeeeeeeee!

All this started with grokker.com, IIRC.

They came up with this non-linear search and semantic search and stuff.
It still looks pretty good.

HTH
-2stepsback.

I dunno what to call you   

http://www.infactsolution.../projects/coghog/demo.htm   -> 

[support]

I have sought out, and read, a number of reviews, all of which extol the virtues of the services, showering praise on the companies for great results, excellent communication, and lightning speed.

Unbiased reviews at third party websites?

1. Why on earth would I code my own design if I can truly outsource it so cheaply?

Because most customers who pay in USD and GBP will want to get exactly what they want, and not a general template.
Images, graphics, flash, stuff.

2. How can an independent designer, like me, compete with a machine like this?

As above. Plus the all-important S-word: support

3. Is this the way the design industry is set to go, with designers who design, and coders who code?

Partly. Not across geographies. Not global, even if you *want* to get panicky about the fact that it is a *web* based service.

4. Has anyone at DC tried one of these services? How did it go?

Webdeveloper myself. (Not into this automated thing) So I haven't. But they can easily do a good job.
BUT, I'm not the least bit worried, because I know a huuuuuuuuuuuuge market here that does not know of those sites out there. They are not computer savvy (Where's that letter-printing thing?) and they have a lot of money (Not that I charge looking at their pockets - I charge looking at my watch) and they need a human throat to catch when they feel stuck. And they like the idea of having a website for themselves. So, relax.

IIRC, ESR has gone on record saying that due to FOSS, software will change from the product+license model to the (free product)+(paid services) model eventually.
YMMV. But surely thereabouts.

Meanwhile, it would also be very useful if you keep upgrading your skillset in diverse stuff like adding more *channels* to your website - more value than just (X)HTML, CSS - mainly:
1. AJAX,
2. Flash, now Flex,
3. VOIP (yes, VOIP - place an order now! using not your phone, but *this website* ) - type - who wants to type, I'll rather *speak*.
4. Have my favourite items emailed to me in a nice printable list format.
5. Email me this and that - newsletters, offers, etc.
6. Social bookmark this site
7. Mobile access, SMS, VoiceMail

These + above = much better value than machines.

HTH
2stepsback

[does anyone know of a program]

Hi,
nice idea, but i didn't quite get your problem ...... or is it just an idea that struck you and no problem as such. I mean, what's wrong with your regular *converting* from one format to another?

Programs like IrfanView do a damn good job of converting between so many formats.
To quite an extent OpenOffice as well. We have the Win32 API and these programs that do the conversion, batch mode, cropping, resizing whole hog.

Probably I'm missing the point....   

Also, IMO, keeping this out of Windows core is *beneficial* considering the so many undocumented things Windoze has and their ability to leave security holes in code and file formats.

This "Software995" thing has all sorts of convertors as well .........

Btw, side note, does anyone know of a program that takes a folder tree (directory, subdriectory, sub sub directory..., files, everything) and makes a single M$ CHM (compiled help manual) file from it?
Assumption: relative links inside the files are correctly in place.

TIA,
2stepsback

tinjaw, you're an angel!   
Wow! that's news!

everyone interested head to
http://osflash.org
and
http://osflash.org/open_source_flash_projects
in particular

yay!