Messages

101

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 11, 2009, 01:43 PM »

Currently, I have Anuran set to archive my logs every day. This doesn't seem to be happening. Does Anuran only archive every day, only if it's running for 24 hours? Can it check the creation date of the log, and go by that instead?

-doctorfrog (November 11, 2009, 12:59 PM)

Correct, Anuran assumes it will be kept running and archives on a running timer.  This can be changed how you desire but I'll need to do some thinking on the most effective way.  The custom timestamping is what makes something like this difficult.  I think the best way would be to keep might be to keep the last archive time in the config.ini and base archive decisions off of that.

-skwire (November 11, 2009, 01:35 PM)

We could resolve this by having Anuran place a generically-formatted timestamp in the first (or last) line of every logfile. It could use this instead of parsing whatever custom timestamp a user might choose. This would also resolve any issues with sorting. If the generic timestamp is missing, AnuVu can just go by whatever's easiest to code: file properties?

Example generic timestamp: "[anuran_11112009123030] (do not edit this line)"

(All other items in your previous post, no reply necessary.)

102

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 11, 2009, 01:14 PM »

1. In filename order with no grouping.  This is just a simple edit control so there are limitations to what I can do with it.  Some alternatives would be for me to change to the HiEdit control or RichEdit control.  Both of these add quite a bit more complexity to the app but I've not ruled them out entirely.  FWIW, I enjoy the plain-textedness of apps...including this one.

2. I can put it above the display field but not in line with the menu items.  Would that be acceptable?

3. Again, I'm working with a simple edit control.  There are no per-line formatting options.

4. You can highlight and copy out of it like any normal edit control.

5. The reason for this is that I've set the edit control to read-only to stave off the impression that you can modify the text.  I can take off this property which will turn it back to white.  However, any changes made to the text will not be saved.

6. Toggle which behaviour?  I'm going to add a right-click menu to the listview in the next build with "Check all" and "Uncheck all" options.

7. It's a simple text match search.  If your search string is anywhere within an entry, including the timestamp, it will match.

8. Currently, AnuVu will get the folder that you have configured in Anuran and show the current.anu in that folder along with any .anu files found in the \archive subfolder.  I'll change it to display any .anu files in the configured folder as well as the \archive subfolder.

9. I can add drag & drop capabilities to the form.  I can also build in a context menu extension so you could right-click a group of .anu files and add them to AnuVu.  I've built AnuVu's display and search functions to handle whatever .anu files it has listed in the listview.  This is actually much easier to implement than it may sound.

-skwire (November 11, 2009, 12:51 PM)

1. I still prefer a white background; it's consistent with other apps, and more legible. I am staunchly against RichEdit controls. I can accept the odd 'fake-edit' behavior, mainly because this is a file viewer, not a file editor, and there should not be an expectation for editing features. Purely my preference, feel free to overrule. Tomos, please chime in as well.
2. If you can fit it in line with a toolbar with buttons, it will still look good. Otherwise, keep it where it is. The fact that it's resizable and multi-lined also adds weight to this.
3. I'm sad. Can we mark the timestamp lines with brackets or parens to make them visually stand out? This isn't too out of line with other apps that use timestamps, such as Pidgin.
5. See #1. Consistency and visibility trumps the concern for me here, but feel free to overrule.
6. I mean, toggle the select-all/select-none ability. The right-click solution you outline is fine.
7. Cool.
8. Sounds good.
9. Hey, if you can pull it off, let's do it. This would certainly solve the rare issue I describe. Keeping in line with simplicity and portability, any Windows file system context menu changes should be off by default, and easy to enable/disable.

Aside: I'm idling in IRC freenode/#bb4win if you want to chat directly.

103

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 11, 2009, 12:59 PM »

Now that I'm viewing my logs, I see what may be a bug:

Currently, I have Anuran set to archive my logs every day. This doesn't seem to be happening. Does Anuran only archive every day, only if it's running for 24 hours? Can it check the creation date of the log, and go by that instead?

Example: Anuran is launched. It parses current.anu. If the first entry is older than the 'Archive logs every n minutes/hours/days,' it archives the logfile.

Anuran:
1. I had a little confusion with the Archive folder setting. I specified .\archive, which actually put files in .\archive\archive. Consider rewording "Archive folder" to "Anuran log folder (archives will be kept in .\archive)" Wordy, I know.

AnuVu
1. Feature request: ability to sort the logfile list pane by date. "Date" column should consider the first entry in a logfile as the date, rather than the file properties (more accurate). This sort should be the default. current.anu should remain on top at all times (current behavior).
2. Feature request: refresh button/menu options/hotkey (F5).
3. GUI: make current.anu in logfile list pane bold.
4. GUI: by default, when AnuVu starts, select and display only current.anu.
5. Feature request: in logfile viewer pane, offer option to sort entries by time, oldest to newest, or newest to oldest. If this isn't doable, offer option to start at bottom of logfile on startup, so that newest entries are displayed. May be a moot option if we offer the 'tail' function later on.

104

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 11, 2009, 12:27 PM »

This is what I'm talking about:
 (see attachment in previous post)

-skwire (November 11, 2009, 11:25 AM)

Impressive. I wasn't aware that we could take it this far. I like the idea of search more now, because of the possibilities of "log clog." Without some sort of search, there will eventually be so many logfiles that they simply won't have meaning anymore. The app becomes a victim of its own success, as it were. Search helps to stave this off.

Notes:
1. When multiple logifles are checked, how will they be displayed in the main viewer? In a chrono-order? Will there be any visual grouping, such that entries from different logfiles are separated somehow?
2. Minor suggestion: to keep with the current trend of searchboxes in apps and online sites, move searchbox to upper right corner, in line with the toolbar.
3. Consider changing the style of timestamps, such that they are visually separated from entries. My preference: slight reduction in font size, and bolded.
4. With search filters in place, my next want will be to "export the current view" to another text or .csv file.  At the very least, I should be able to select text in the viewer pane and copy it elsewhere, but more advanced users might want to keep the logfile markup intact for their purposes.
5. Quibble: I prefer a white background for the log viewer pane rather than gray. It's consistent with the look and feel of most other apps.
6. I already see 'select all' and 'select none' functions are planned. CTRL-CLICK on a checkbox should also toggle the behavior.
7. Does the search also respond to dates/times? Obviously, if the user changes his timestamps midstream, he's up his own creek with how consistently this would work.
8. Earlier request, repeated: When AnuVu is started by opening a .anu file, it should display the logfile, plus any other logfiles in the same directory. This is for users who end up moving their logfiles around.
9. What if a user has logfiles in multiple folders but wants to display them together with AnuVu? This strikes me as a fairly rare use case, so I don't think it's necessary to address it, but I feel it should be mentioned.

105

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a sound effects generator

« on: November 11, 2009, 02:26 AM »

sfxr, by DrPetter, was invented to create arcade-like sounds on the fly for contestants in Ludum Dare. I've redone my whole Windows sound scheme with this. The only thing that's missing, IMO, is a little keyboard at the bottom of the app to easily change frequency.

http://www.ludumdare...und-effects-for-all/

Free and open source.

EDIT: SoundBorb is something I've been looking for, for a long time. Simply perfect.

106

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 11, 2009, 02:02 AM »

Everything is still working great here. Looking forward to AnuVu 

Have people considered using this for basic time-tracking ?
e.g. if I always lead my note with say ARD for project #1 & SURV for #2 etc,
then if I was able to sort notes alphabetically (& by time) I could roughly see how long I was working on each project

The idea has been in the back of my mind - to be honest I havent really considered it practically beyond what I've written here - just throwing it out there as is

-tomos (November 10, 2009, 05:30 AM)

I've actually been having similar thoughts. This idea has always been a very simple time-tracker/personal blotter for me, but it would be interesting to see a script that could:

1. parse out the individual entries and separate them into categories based on the first word in each entry
2. Then, it could conceivably 'guess' the amount of time between tasks and types of tasks, by measuring the difference in time between the entries.
3. From there, the data can be measured on a time scale, or with graphs, and so forth.

This is all completely beyond the scope of my original request, of course. I'm very happy with what I have so far. For now, you might actually be able to do something like this with a spreadsheet and a fistful of Anuran logs.

107

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 09, 2009, 07:40 PM »

We're lookin' real good here. Using this build now.

108

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 08, 2009, 10:59 PM »

1. The download is for the 1.0.1 build. Screenshots are tantalizing, though.

2. I agree that having the viewer sort logfiles according to the timestamp in the filename is best, I was just concerned that if the user can change the filename timestamp to whatever he wants, AnuVu would get confused.

109

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for November 6th, 2009 - Codename "Bird Meets Frog"

« on: November 08, 2009, 12:32 AM »

Look at all those links. Nice job! And for some reason, I like the title.

110

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 07, 2009, 06:20 PM »

I was actually going to suggest this exact method of archiving. Glad you anticipated it. Needless to say, I approve.

1. File collisions could be avoided if the filename included the time as well as date. However, I find [1], [2] to be personally acceptable.

2. Right-click option to Archive current log = good thing.

3. An advantage to using current.anu is that when the viewer is invoked, it can easily be programmed to display the most current logfile. Obviously, it should not lock this file when it is being viewed.

4. I see the viewer as a separate .exe from Anuran. From the limited comments in this thread, there are some who want one, some who don't, so a separate viewer would please both crowds.

If you don't mind another of my drawings, here's another mockup of a simpler two-pane viewer layout. (Stick with whatever you feel works best, however):

[attachimg=#1][/attachimg]

Notes:
0. Proposed viewer names: Anuview, Anuvu, Anuran Viewer
1. The panes and window itself would be resizable, of course.
2. The items in the logfile pane would be organized according to file datestamp, or according to the first datestamp contained within the file itself, in case the file properties get messed up by Windows.
3. On startup, Anuview defaults to current.anu. Logfile pane defaults to \archive, but the current.anu is always displayed on top.
4. If Anuview is started by double-clicking on a .anu file, it displays the file, regardless of where it is, plus any other .anu files that are in the same directory as the .anu file it is displaying. This is for folks who end up moving their logfiles around.
5. Do we want a full-on file tree in the logfile pane, or just a 'flat' list of logfiles in \archive?
6. Ignore the titlebar and status bar ornamentation, they come from bblean's skinning engine.
7. And yes, I basically took a screenshot of MiniAim, and cut and pasted around.

Blue-sky possibilities:

1. If you apply a 'tail' function to the viewer, it could even auto-update the contents, which provides a fingertip-ready view of the last x hours of entries. I worry a little about people who want to tail their own personal log, but it does provide a quick answer to the question "Now, just what the hell have I been doing the last hour?"

2. An automatic vertical timescale that visually measured the time between each entry would still be a pretty neat Stupid Coding Trick.

111

Living Room / Re: Dr.Frog - Nice blog entry about DonationCoder.com and Coding Snacks

« on: November 07, 2009, 01:18 PM »

Neat, I made the newsletter!   My blog is now getting views in the double digits.

112

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 06, 2009, 09:47 PM »

It's looking real good so far, more or less feature complete. The icon goes better with it than I thought it w- ALL HAIL HYPNOFROG.

113

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 06, 2009, 02:40 PM »

It sounds like we want the same thing in terms of simplicity, so please just take my spec as suggestion and the fleshing out of an idea, nothing more. I've written for some pretty persnickety folks, so being extremely specific is a force of habit.

In the end, I'm happy with a polite popup, and automatically archived text files.

The .anu extension works for me.

I'm also totally stoked that you're using my idea for NANY. Let me know if I can help out with any drudgery.

Looking forward to a snapshot!

114

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 06, 2009, 01:03 PM »

Hey look I wrote another impenetrable wall of text.  

Viewer paper prototype (see notes at end):

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

File format and viewer brainstorm:

Requirements:

• Keep format human-readable, but meaningful for an external viewer.
• Sufficient information stored so that the viewer can organize the data in a meaningful, interesting, and useful way.

Logfile Sample:

[Select]

[[[[What are you doing?]]]]
[[[personal_log]]]
[[20091106 09:03:00 AM]]
[20091106 09:07:00 AM] - Eating a sandwich []
[20091106 09:35:00 AM] - Working on TPS reports []

Format:
External viewer should be smart enough to only need six bits of data:
1. Title
2. Logfile Name
3. Logfile Timestamp
4. Entry Timestamp
5. Entry Content (following the timestamp)
6. EOL Marker (following Entry Content)
That's it.

Elements:
Title

• Comes from: "Pop-up note title text" setting
• Format: text string enclosed in quadruple brackets, ie. [[[[What are you doing?]]]]
• Viewer: sees the quad-brackets and knows it is looking at the title
• User: title is presented to user in title bar and/or subtitlebar. Depending on how the user is using FrogDiary, this title may change (ie. What are you doing?, Write a creative sentence!, etc.)

Logfile Name

• Comes from: "Archive note prefix text" setting
• Format: text string enclosed in triple brackets, ie. [[[personal_log]]]
• Viewer: sees the triple-brackets and knows it is looking at the logfile name prefix
• User: sees the logfile name in a titlebar and/or sub-titlebar

Logfile Timestamp

• Comes from: timestamp automatically affixed to the logfile title when it is created
• Format: time/date enclosed in double brackets. actual time/date format TBD.
• Viewer: sees the double brackets knows it's looking at the logfile's creation date/time. Expects a specifically formatted time/date.
• User: is presented the logfile timestamp when viewing the logfile in the viewer, likely in a titlebar (see the attached illustration).

Entry Timestamp

• Comes from: obvious
• Format: time/date enclosed in single brackets. actual time/date format TBD.
• Viewer: sees the single brackets and knows it is looking at the beginning of a logfile entry, and knows the timestamp of the entry. Expects a specifically formatted time/date.
• User: is presented the timestamp (less the date), along with the entry, in the logfile viewer. (Date already should appear in the subtitlebar as previously described.)

Entry Content

• Comes from: obvious
• Format: user text string
• Viewer: sees string in between Entry Timestamp and EOL Marker and knows it is looking at a user entry.
• User: is presented the Entry Content in the viewer, along with the Entry Timestamp, visually separated from other Entry Content.

EOL Marker

• Comes from: automatically put in after each entry to demarcate the entry's end
• Format: empty bracket, ie. []
• Viewer: sees the empty bracket pair and assumes an entry has concluded
• User: doesn't see this unless he opens the log file with a text viewer. The EOL marker should be minimal and not interfere with plaintext readability.

Viewer Example:
Viewer sees the data in the logfile sample (way up at the top of this post) and presents it as follows:

• [[[[What are you doing?]]]] - becomes the titlebar and subtitlebar text in the viewer
• [[[personal_log]]] - becomes subtitlebar text in the viewer.
• [[20091106 09:03:00 AM]] - demarcates the beginning of an entry. Time and/or date is used as the beginning part of an entry as presented to the user.
• Eating a sandwich - becomes the 'body' of a log entry
• [] - the viewer sees this and marks it as the end of the entry. No visual cue to user, except that the next entry, if any, is appropriately placed further down on the timescale.
• AND SO ON.

Notes:

• My use of brackets can obviously be substituted with other computer-friendly markup, but it's still vital that the file be human-readable.
• Having both title and logfile name in the same title or subtitlebar may be confusing, but I don't want to dispense with one or the other.

Illustration notes:

• Look and function is somewhat similar to Outlook, Palm Desktop, EssentialPIM, etc.
• Log viewer presents data in the form of a vertical timescale. Each entry is timestamped and the relevant text is shown.
• Timescale automatically lengthens vertically based on the density of entries.
• Clicking on a date in the calendar causes viewer to search through all logfiles specific to that date and compile that information in chronological order in the Log viewer pane.
• Clicking on an individual logfile in the file browser causes the viewer to present data for that logfile only.

115

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 06, 2009, 11:07 AM »

Wow...lots of replies and requests.  I'll try to answer them all.  That initial build only represented about an hour of work so, obviously, there is plenty of room for improvement.

-skwire (November 06, 2009, 12:49 AM)

Thanks for taking the time to make the additions. I really like what we have so far.

To save time and sanity, I'll directly address your questions and clarifications, skipping over unimportant things:

• (Nice to have) Taskbar blinking: user-configurable, with a default of 9 blinks (with 20 maximum). 0 no blinks, -1 is blink forever.
• (Nice to have) Missing CR bug: This is very minor, and doesn't bug me much. I'm just being thorough. See my thoughts on a viewer below.
• File extension (rejected): this is fine, we can figure out the file extension after the program name is settled. TXT works for me, anyway.
• Timestamp in entries: If we do move to a viewer format, I vote we keep the date human-friendly, so the logfile itself can still be read separately from the viewer. That said, it can be a little friendlier than it is now. See my thoughts below.
• Timestamp in filename: Currently, the log filename only has the date affixed to it. If FrogDiary creates more than one log in a day, this means that they have the following name structure: logfile_for_20091105.txt, logfile_for_20091105[1].txt, logfile_for_20091105[2].txt. It's not terrible, but a the option for a configurable timestamp would be better.
• Timestamp feeds off of one setting/individual settings: If it's easy enough to create individual settings for logfile entry, logfile name, and popup titlebar, let's do it.
• Application name: Anuran is the best of those you list, and it's unique enough. And Frog Diary very quickly turns into "Frog Dairy" if you type it enough times, the implications of which are mildly disturbing. Alternatives: Anura, Ainu, EndOfLine, EndLine, Fritter. (Fritter? Frog+Twitter? Yes, this is like a personal offline Twitter feed of a sort. *shudder*)

Feature request (yes, more):
User-configurable location for log files. Archive will continue to be a subfolder of this location.

Possible bug:
I left my PC running overnight, whereupon it went into Standby. I started it again today and notice that FrogDiary did create a new logfile, but did not move the old one into archive. Not a big deal as-is, but once we get a viewer the expectation for smarter automation will be greater.

A general curmudgeony statement about a viewer:

I like text files. They're simple, portable, and viewable a year from now or a hundred years from now. I'm not opposed to a viewer at all (indeed, I could definitely see a use for it), but I do request:

• that the log files remain in a human-readable text format, whether seen through the viewer or notepad.exe. For me, this is vital.
• that we retain the user-configurable rotating archive model (avoiding cramming a whole bunch of data into a single fat database).

Why: The last thing I want is to cram all this personal info into a database or an XML file (not that this is necessarily where this is headed). With Firefox, EssentialPIM, Outlook, Thunderbird, Pidgin, etc., I have plenty of non-human-readable databases holding my personal data. I barely can be arsed to dig through their individual data viewers, and I'm up a creek if the database file becomes corrupted. This selfish little software request of mine started out as a means to escape the tyranny of other bloated, proprietary productivity software. (Rant ends here.)

That said, I still consider this app to be the work of another (if not a community) and will not complain if it evolves accordingly. If other features makes it useful to others, I'm happier for it!

I'm going to do some brainstorming on the file format and the viewer, and get back to you later in the day. I'll see if I can't get a sketch up as well.

--frog

116

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 05, 2009, 04:49 PM »

Two more minor requirements:

• Need an option to detect and block multiple instances of FrogDiary. (Though I could see how multiple instances might be desirable.)
• Need an option to toggle whether FrogDiary asks for new options at startup. (Currently asks every time.)

117

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 05, 2009, 02:04 PM »

Ok, feedback time!

First of all, this is really good. I've been wanting something like this for a while. Nice and simple, no proprietary formats or ridiculous runtimes. I also see that on certain minor details, you anticipated things I was looking for, but did not explicitly state. Thank you and well done!

Here is my feedback. All items are feature requests, unless otherwise stated. Please let me know if anything needs clearer explanation, doesn't seem worth the effort, or just flat out isn't doable. I might be able to plead my case either way. 

Bold: Very important
Normal: moderately important
Italicized: nice to have, but can live without

Feature Requests:

Popup:

• user-configurable sound on popup event (this can be included in the options dialog, or can default to .\alert.wav)
• toggle: taskbar blink on popup event (blink/no blink)
• toggle:
  a: (default and current) ENTER dismisses popup and creates entry, CTRL-ENTER creates new line in popup text field
  b: (alternative setting) ENTER creates new line in popup text field, CTRL-ENTER dismisses popup and creates entry
• remember last position
• stay on top if lose focus

   

Logfile:

• user-configurable carriage return in between logfile entries (1,2,3 (or n) carriage returns, 1 is default)
• toggle: ENTER on popup with no text creates/doesn't create an empty entry in the log (doesn't create is default)
• user-configurable file extension (.txt is default)
• MINOR BUG: Currently, if there is no empty line to write an entry to, the entry is written to the previous line. (this happens if the log is opened and edited, and no carriage return is inserted at the end of the document). Desired behavior: automatically insert carriage return as necessary when writing a new entry.

Tray icon:

• right-click menu on systray icon: Diary entry, Options, About, Exit
• double-click on systray icon: popup shows, no event sound
• user-configurable tray icon, provide default (can use creepy frog icon at http://turbomilk.com...downloads/zoom_eyed/)

Timestamps (affects popup, logfile, and logfile entries):

• user-configurable timestamp in logfile entry
• user-configurable timestamp in logfile name
• user-configurable timestamp in popup titlebar
• user-configurable timestamp format can be UNIX style string, ie. %a_%d_%H%M (see http://bb4win.source...htm#Clock_Formatting)
• all three of the above can feed off of one setting, or off of individual settings for each.

Hotkey:

• user-configurable hotkey to bring up popup
• user-configurable hotkey to bring up options dialog

Me:

• I can assist with writing a readme.txt if necessary, and finding a suitable application icon.
• I can also attempt to compose a FrogDiary icon with my horribly limited GIMP skills and access to some clip art.
• Using sfxr (http://gog.is/sfxr), I've created a few sample alert sounds for the app (attached).

118

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 05, 2009, 11:23 AM »

great idea doctorfrog  

a couple of thoughts:

A reminder/diary system should never, ever, EVER steal focus away from what I'm working on. EVER! Something like this should help with workflow, not interfere with it.

-doctorfrog (November 05, 2009, 03:27 AM)

I would suggest that it stay on top though (that's maybe presumed - but just in case!)

Hitting ENTER makes the window go away. No other interaction is necessary.

If the window shows on top without focus - you'd then have to give it focus & then press enter - that would work. Otherwise I'd suggest not using ENTER - in my experience (with App103's "Instant Boss" app) hitting the Enter key at the 'wrong' time sends the reminder window away unintentionally, sometimes before I even see it. Could be done via a hotkey or maybe even with the mouse?

-tomos (November 05, 2009, 05:38 AM)

• Yes, I should have put that in my list. Behavior should be on-top, unfocused, and ENTER dismisses only if it's in focus.
• Given that one might want to enter a diary entry at any time, or may have accidentally dismissed a popup before creating an entry,
• I should have also said: the app should live in the system tray, but the popup should appear in the task bar and be visible during ALT+TAB.

Give this a shot:  FrogDiary

Notes:

• Put the executable in its own folder since it will create an "archive" folder on first run.
• Press ctrl-enter in a diary note window for a newline.  Simply pressing Enter will save the note and close the window.
• Right-click the tray icon to bring the Options window back up.
• This is a quick prototype.  If it's close to what you had in mind, I'll flesh it out like my other apps.

-skwire (November 05, 2009, 07:34 AM)

Skwire to the rescue. I'll be giving this a run-through over the next hour or two. Thanks!

In the meantime, tomos, thanks for testing this out with me. If you find that this proggie is also useful, your input is just as valid as mine is.

119

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

« on: November 05, 2009, 03:27 AM »

I'm looking for something fairly basic, but very specific: A rotating, automatic-prompting personal text log.

• The following happens at a user-defined interval: once every hour, half hour, five minutes, 3600 seconds, whatever.
• A small note window shows (but does not steal focus, unless the user specifies it should). It has a titlebar with a timestamp, a user-defined message, and enough editing room on it for a line or two of text. Hitting ENTER makes the window go away. No other interaction is necessary.
• The line of user-entered text is appended to a text file. A time/date stamp is affixed to the entry. As the day continues, the list of datestamped entries grows: a diary.
• The text file itself is also named with a datestamp and a user-configurable string. (ie. personal_log_11052009.txt. If the proper text file doesn't exist, it is automatically created.
• The text file is rotated into an archive folder every day, or every user-definable interval (be it seconds, minutes, days, years).
• An archive of simple text files slowly grows. A personal .log.

MOST IMPORTANT THING: POLITENESS

A reminder/diary system should never, ever, EVER steal focus away from what I'm working on. EVER! Something like this should help with workflow, not interfere with it.

Example: I love EssentialPIM's features list. I hate how it steals my attention and my keyboard focus when I'm working. Of course, it refuses to respect TweakUI's "don't steal focus" setting. I'm on XP, and will continue to be in the foreseeable future (I'm broke), so I can't make use of W7's enhanced focus stealing prevention feature.

Thus, nearly any solution I can cobble together on my own won't work, because all reminder applications I've tried ALWAYS insist upon stealing focus, no matter what I do.

Barring that, I'd still be happy to accept any light, portable software capable of the bullet list above. (.NET and JAVA apps need not apply.)

I already know I can use Notepad to do this in conjunction with basic reminder software, but that option lacks the rotating backups and the 'politeness' feature.

120

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Toggle mouse acceleration with a simple program

« on: October 01, 2009, 01:18 AM »

Cool, I'm actually just now updating to the latest 1.17 of bblean and creating a new suite of styles. I thought I had the latest 1.17, but I guess I've been using an RC of 1.17 for more than six months. Oh, the bugs that I've endured...

I've foregone the Windows shortcuts by now and now call Mat directly from Blackbox hotkeys. Ah, but it's a good time to be alive, and also a nerd.

121

DesktopCoral / Re: Usefullness

« on: October 01, 2009, 01:12 AM »

Can I make the humble suggestion that this project be called simply "Coral" instead of "Desktop Coral?" Every time I see it, the grammarian in me wants to march down to your home with a ruler and smack you on the knuckles. At this point, I realize that the software will not adopt "corral" as part of its name, so why not stick with Coral, and drop the "Desktop"?

Derp

122

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Toggle mouse acceleration with a simple program

« on: September 28, 2009, 02:30 AM »

Now this was exactly what I needed. Thank you, Skwire!

For what it's worth, I blogged about it here: http://drfrog.wordpr....com/2009/09/28/mat/

123

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Toggle mouse acceleration with a simple program

« on: September 27, 2009, 04:52 PM »

If you would like to improve it, I think it would be best improved by having mouse sensitivity and/or acceleration options, and store/load all of them according to which one you're using.

-Kamel (September 27, 2009, 01:16 PM)

Just to clarify, you would like to be able to set the pointer speed value, right?
 (see attachment in previous post)

-skwire (September 27, 2009, 02:34 PM)

Just a quick update: yes, this simple software has solved my problem. However, being able to toggle pointer speed settings would also be preferred, since in my specific case, mouse acceleration isn't quite enough to make the touchpad respond the way I'd like. Instead of simply toggling a single setting, the software would also have to retrieve, store, and apply two alternating speed settings.

I do realize that this would increase the scope of the software, so I choose to be happy with what I have right now, especially since I'm in a little financial difficulty at the moment and don't have a roll of quarters to drop in some kind programmer's bucket. 

124

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware Website Creator For Dummies?

« on: September 20, 2009, 10:23 AM »

I might get thrown out for mentioning this, but if it's just a bio with pictures, any social networking site will handle this just fine, and you'll likely be easier for others to find as well.

If you want to have a little more control, or LinkedIn gives you hives, you can use Wordpress. Either get a free blog at yourname.wordpress.com, or get a cheap host to set up a Wordpress blog for you. The same cheap host could probably set you up with Website Baker in no time flat as well.

Learning HTML, setting up MySQL and PHP is a fine thing, and you'll get lots of help doing it, but there's also nothing wrong about simply using a preset solution, and putting your energy into creating content instead of setting up the framework for it.

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Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Toggle mouse acceleration with a simple program

« on: September 03, 2009, 02:56 AM »

Perfect. Thank you!