Topics

1

General Software Discussion / Monitor web page for changes (incl. login to the site)

« on: August 27, 2014, 11:12 AM »

Hi DCers,

I'm looking for the best way to monitor a web page for changes (this is a website that requires me to login first).

Ideally, this app/script would:
  - send me an alert (email is fine).
  - crawl the page every x hours/minutes and send an alert every time the page is different from the previous state

Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers from Paris,

Jerome

2

General Software Discussion / Organize files using virtual folders

« on: September 21, 2012, 11:26 AM »

Hi DCers,

I'm looking for a different way to organize my files (on Win7). I think what I'm looking for is a concept of virtual folders... Let me explain :
I'd like to have specific (virtual) folders, for example, for all files modified or created in the last 7/30/60 days, whereas all the files are physically organized in a (physical) folders tree.
I'm maybe considering using some kind of tags that would allow me to present files in other virtual folders (e.g. by tag).

After a quick search I could find some interesting solutions like Tabbles, but I was wondering if anyone is using or has in some way tested similar solutions...

Thanks in advance folks!

Cheers  /jerome

3

General Software Discussion / Hardware question - PC building [slightly off topic]

« on: May 17, 2012, 08:53 AM »

Hi DCers,

I know this is not a software question, but since DC is the community I trust the most, I'm asking anyway...

I'm thinking about building my main PC at home, I want it to be a high-end type of machine that could also be used as a storage space for the household.

I'm looking for good sources of inspiration about a potential machine. I'm a great fan of ArsTechnica building guides for this purpose but their guides get updated once or twice a year now. And I'd also like advice from reliable sources (not individual preferences).
To give an idea, I'm considering an IvyBridge based system, 16Gb RAM (so I can run a couple of VMs on it), a dual-SSD (Raid0) for the system and probably a Raid6 area of 4 x 2Tb disks for storage.

Any pointer to reliable sources of inspiration will be warmly welcome!

Cheers  /jerome

4

General Software Discussion / Specs for new pc?

« on: June 06, 2010, 03:54 PM »

Hi fellow dc-ers,

I'm looking to build a pc for my kids (email, web surfing and some gaming). I'm looking for some ideas in terms of cpu, motherboard, case, disk, memory... possibly tested configurations. The excellent guys at ArsTechnica used to have hardware guides with several configurations (budget box, hotrod and god box) but they've not been updated for quite some time (Oct 2009), any other good trusted source?
Thanks in advance.

Cheers  /jerome

5

General Software Discussion / Good tool to batch edit EXIF date/time data?

« on: June 06, 2009, 05:27 AM »

Hi DCers,

I need to edit the taken date of several hundreds of pictures (my son's camera date/time settings were not set correctly). I've looked around and couldn't find a tool for that (my fav picture viewer IrfanView doesn't seem to be able to do that).
Suggestions anyone?

Cheers  /jerome

6

General Software Discussion / to mindmap or not?

« on: May 22, 2009, 04:02 PM »

Hi DCers,

I've been wondering for a long time whether or not I should map my thoughts using some kind of mindmap tool. Even though I like the concept, I've never really made the move to mindmap. I think I could really benefit from it, especially as a software project manager in a big corporation.
In terms of tools I think Mindjet's Mindmanager or MatchWare MindView 3 Business Edition are serious contenders, but are both quite expensive. I've tried Freemind as an alternative OpenSource solution, but it didn't really compare in terms of features (e.g. export to Microsoft Office programs like Word, PowerPoint or Project which are the de facto standard at my company).
Anyone having the same doubts or hesitations?
What are your thoughts about mindmapping? Have you used it successfully?
Thanks for your ideas/help!

Cheers  /jerome

7

Clipboard Help+Spell / More dictionaries?

« on: April 03, 2009, 04:52 AM »

Hi there,
I've decided to give CHS another try as my needs have evolved over time (last time I tried was 2 years ago I think).
I've one question though: where can I get dictionaries for other languages? Does the CHS dictionary format follow some kind of standard?
Thanks again mouser

Cheers  /jerome

8

General Software Discussion / Tool to make screenshots of web site using command line

« on: November 18, 2008, 12:00 PM »

Hi DCers,

I've to make a lot (meaning 100+) screenshots of websites from their urls, and update them regularly (once a week).
What would be the best (i.e. free) tool to make these screenshots?

I considered MiniCap by mouser, but I'm not sure it's well suited to run in unattended mode (overnight for example).

Any similar experience amongst you guys?
Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Jerome

9

General Software Discussion / Impressive list of outliners/note-taking apps

« on: July 24, 2008, 01:53 AM »

Hi all,

I wanted to share with you this impressive list of outliners/note-taking apps grabbed from outlinersoftware.com

I'm still looking for the perfect outliner program (and I've tried so many!)...

Cheers  /jerome

10

General Software Discussion / A new task manager on the block...

« on: June 28, 2008, 02:19 PM »

Hi all,

I thought I knew all existing task manager tools... I was wrong!
I just discovered a new one (at least for me) : Watership Planner
They have a very interesting, comprehensive approach to task management: it includes values, goals, time tracking, roles, daily/weekly planner... lots of things in it.

Af first glance, it seems to be quite powerful, but it may be a bit too rigid for me (lack of customization from my very own perspective), I'll continue using MyLifeOrganized as my main task manager. But seeing what they've done in Watership Planner gave me new ideas for customizing MLO (using values to tag some tasks for example)...

There's a trial download on the site above, no time limit, just a limit of 30 tasks. The full version costs $89.95 or €54.95, I've no relation whatsoever with the editor, I've no idea if they're responsive to user requests. Current version number is 1.73.

Enjoy!

Cheers  /jerome

11

General Software Discussion / TheBat, calendar and MS Outlook

« on: February 02, 2008, 05:44 AM »

Hi all,

I'm currently switching away from MS software... After some research and some testing, I've decided to use TheBat as my email client (for both work and personal accounts). The only issue at the moment is how to manage my calendar. Some people (quite a few actually) around me are using Outlook extensively, especially to send meeting requests (which are actually emails containing vCalendar data).

TheBat has no built-in calendar application (which I'd love to see)... I'm considering using Google Calendar, but I've not yet found the right way to integrate it with TheBat, and especially manage as seamlessly as possible the Outlook meeting requests I'm receiving. I might also consider using an external Calendar/PIM software as long as I can integrate it with TheBat (through a plugin maybe?)

Anyone in a similar situation willing to share his/her setup?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers  /jerome

12

General Software Discussion / Electric Sheep: Great and unique collaborative screensaver

« on: December 03, 2007, 09:09 AM »

Hi all,

Following a recent thread, I'd like to share this with you great folks at DC!
I've never been too fond of screensavers, most of the time I simply used the default windows screensaver... but recently a friend of mine showed me Electric Sheep. It generates beautiful animated sequences (some might call them hypnotic!)...

In the creators' own words:
"Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver run by thousands of people all over the world. It can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep", the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep". The result is a collective "android dream", an homage to Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep."

Some screenshots (taken from their web site):







Enjoy!

Cheers  /jerome

13

General Software Discussion / RoboTask for free...

« on: September 28, 2007, 09:52 AM »

The program RoboTask, which seems to be a powerful automation tool, is given away for free today on GiveAwayOfTheDay... I thought you might want to know...

Cheers  /jerome

14

General Software Discussion / Good parental control software

« on: September 11, 2007, 11:20 AM »

Hi there,

I'm looking for a good (potentially free) parental control system that can be installed on a child pc, that would allow parents to control web access as well as instant messaging software, and the like... Im looking for a system that could allow white or black url lists as well as content-based filtering with either auto-updated (multi-language) or custom keywords lists...
Any suggestion welcome!

Cheers  /jerome

15

Clipboard Help+Spell / AutoCopy ?

« on: August 27, 2007, 10:39 AM »

Hi there,

Just wondering why the 'Try to AutoCopy on Mouse Select' option is grayed-out for me?
By the way, I'm not sure I totally understand what the option 'Auto Invoke Ctrl+C Copy on trigger' means?
Thanks again for this wonderful piece of software mouser!
I'm becoming mouser-dependent!

Cheers  /jerome

16

General Software Discussion / Dumb question re Website Watcher

« on: August 23, 2007, 05:43 PM »

Hi there,

It seems like several people are very fond of Website Watcher (http://www.aignes.com/), however I've downloaded the trial version, and I can't seem to find the right way to use it, even though it seems to be very powerful. I'd be interested to get some usage scenarios from people who are using it on a daily basis.
Personaly, I get most of my information through RSS feeds (I'm using Google Reader as my main rss reader). I'm just afraid I might be missing something with Website Watcher, advice welcome !

Cheers  /jerome

17

General Software Discussion / Paperless Home: Need document management software

« on: January 13, 2007, 09:29 AM »

Hi dc'ers,

I'd like to try implement something close to a paperless office, what I'd like to do is:
1. Scan all paper documents received at home (bank statements, letters,...)
2. Use OCR if applicable (maybe, I'm not sure whether it's a good thing to do at the moment)
3. Store the scanned document in the right format (multi-page TIFF, multi-page PDF, other?)
4. Use a clever document storage (filesystem with nice/clean directory structure, dedicated database/revision management system,...)

Interesting user story: http://www.onlamp.co...ment_management.html

Possible software I've seen so far:
PDFFactory : http://www.fineprint...dffactory/index.html ($49.95 or $99.95 for the pro version)
ABBY Fineprint Reader Pro: http://www.abbyy.com...reader8/?param=44890 (~$160)
Perforce (see article by Jason Hunter referenced above) : http://www.perforce.com/ (free version available, limited to 2 clients)

Any comments on this? Has anyone set up a similar system?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers  /jerome

18

Find And Run Robot / big, warm thank you to mouser

« on: December 04, 2006, 01:53 PM »

I'd like to say a big warm "thank you" to mouser for giving us Fin&Run Robot. For years, I've been using powerpro as my launch-tool-of-all-trades, I've built some complex bars, I'm now using Find&Run as my main launch tool, I just realized I was loosing way too much time with my mouse.
Thank you mouser, you're the man.

Cheers  /jerome