Recent Posts

26

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by PPLandry on September 02, 2010, 09:09 AM »

Hey! I wrote my master's thesis on a TRS-80 Model 100 :

http://en.wikipedia....iki/TRS-80_Model_100

It would fit in the 32k memory of course, so I wrote software to transfer stuff to a PC through the RS-232 cable

I still have the Model 100, but wish I had kept the Concerto through, it was a beautiful machine...

27

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by PPLandry on September 02, 2010, 12:39 AM »

I had one of the first generation tablet PC. In fact, it was a convertible. Compaq Concerto back in 1990, running Win3.1 and a pen. Beautiful machine:
http://mvardon.com/2...apples-tablet-specs/

At the time, I was working for a large engineering company. The best thing (at the time anyway) of having a tablet PC was not to be able to enter stuff on the go (while standing up, chatting with co-workers), but accessing your information.

n.b. If (one day) voice recognition (multi-lingual, in my case) gets to be good enough, perhaps, one could consider entering significant info on a tablet
n.b. #2: Of course, now, you can achieve the access part, really easily and cheaply, using DropBox and an Ipod Touch

28

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by PPLandry on August 07, 2010, 01:35 PM »

I'm a PC kind of guy, for as long as I remember, I mean DOS days... and I bought an Ipod Touch (8G, $199 Can) 2 months ago...

And do you what, I never thought I would use it so much. In good part, because it is small, so my first recommendation is get something small so you carry it with you all the time without asking yourself if the extra weight is a problem.

And there are so many things it does... Here are my favorites apps:
- email
- Calendar and Tasks (both of which will soon sync with IQ)
- photos and music
- Facebook
- Weather
- Maps
- Local news paper
- Read e-books (there are tons of free books out there)
- Dropbox which allows me to see all the stuff in my Dropbox folder of my PC
- Tons of games of course, most free

And of course you can browse the web for stuff that doesn't have a dedicated app

(and don't listen to people you complain about battery life, it is excellent (I charge it at night and go through my day on a charge)

HTH

29

Developer's Corner / Re: Embeding content on your web pages -- iframes vs native content?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 28, 2010, 07:42 PM »

You can't embed content in a DIV from a 3rd party website.

-Veign (July 28, 2010, 06:05 PM)

Absolutely true, my mistake 

30

Developer's Corner / Re: Embeding content on your web pages -- iframes vs native content?

« Last post by PPLandry on July 28, 2010, 06:01 PM »

If the content formatting does not contain any CSS specific styles, putting the content inside a <div> </div> works quite well, and it does auto-size correctly (unlike iframe)

FYI, one way to auto-size iframes, it is to run a script to size it once loaded, setting the height property to the document height

31

General Software Discussion / Re: Software for Business Process Modeling?

« Last post by PPLandry on June 01, 2010, 07:26 PM »

This diagram will be modified big time, because we have nothing now.  So when I make it, all the managers will look at it, and we'll spend some time messing with it until it's correct.

-superboyac (June 01, 2010, 06:07 PM)

Hi superboyac !

Just an idea, but if it's going to be a work-in-progress, an online solution, such as
http://www.dabbleboard.com/

might be a good approach, initially at least.

Just my 2 cents !

32

General Software Discussion / Re: Word 2007: Are Table Styles safe to use now?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 27, 2010, 10:11 PM »

I have used the html export feature, but is that the "best" way of putting it into a Word document?  I make a point of this, because this is the first time I'm using Word the "right" way with styles, templates, fields, etc.

-superboyac (May 27, 2010, 08:46 PM)

HTML Export is one way,

The other way is :

1- Select the content
2- Edit>>Copy and choose Tab-delimited format.
3- Paste this into Word (paste special > unformatted text)
4- Select the text and Table >>  convert it to a table (tab delimited)

33

General Software Discussion / Re: Word 2007: Are Table Styles safe to use now?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 27, 2010, 08:17 PM »

Sorry to jump in, but isn't that exactly what the InfoQube built-in HTML export (settings mode) gives you ?

34

What's the Best? / Re: What's the best: Wiki Host?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 26, 2010, 06:47 PM »

I've used both wetpaint and wikispaces.

Of the two, wetpaint has a better editor. Performance-wise, wikispaces page loads are faster than wetpaint (as far as I've observed)

HTH

35

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by PPLandry on May 20, 2010, 08:08 AM »

Hi,

1- I haven't tested it in Chrome or IE, but in FF, printing is more of a screen capture, so if your wave is more than a screenful, you won't see it all.
2- True you can link and embed a wave, but if you email the link to someone which is not a participant (i.e. you want them to view the content, but not participate), he/she cannot view it.
3- Copy/paste of a wave to an email client sort of works (formatting is just OK, outlining is lost)
4- There is no export (XML or OPML) to transfer the wave to an outliner

36

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by PPLandry on May 19, 2010, 02:11 PM »

But still no printing, export or even copy/paste   

37

General Software Discussion / Re: Instruction manual creation recommendations?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 11, 2010, 11:22 AM »

what I've noticed in these wiki collaboration software is that the documents quickly become a format mess.

-Armando (May 11, 2010, 11:18 AM)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think superboyac doesn't need the collaborative aspects of these online wikis and all allow you to disable it, leaving only the public (or by invitation) viewing of the content

38

General Software Discussion / Re: Instruction manual creation recommendations?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 11, 2010, 10:00 AM »

Have you considered using Wikispace or better yet WetPaint for the content and then when completed, print to PDF or better still, export and compile to chm ?

39

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by PPLandry on May 10, 2010, 08:23 PM »

I think I misread this thread title.  But I wanted to offer that I have been using Google WAVE for Note-Taking and Brainstorming.
It is great for collaboration; although it requires a little patience getting accustomed to it - because it is so 'different'.

-parkint (May 10, 2010, 08:15 PM)

Also be warned that there is no way (currently) to export / print a wave 

40

General Software Discussion / Re: Instruction manual creation recommendations?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 10, 2010, 08:19 PM »

I would offer a word of warning: be sure to keep some sort of backup copy of EVERYTHING.
Especially with MSWord, there will be a time* when a user makes changes to a document and it becomes unreadable.
I am a big fan of git for version control & backup.

-parkint (May 10, 2010, 08:13 PM)

Or put the file in a Dropbox folder and every change will be saved and you can go back to a working copy if corruption occurs

41

General Software Discussion / Re: Instruction manual creation recommendations?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 10, 2010, 08:17 PM »

Going back to the original tread subject...

So, my question is, what is the best way to handle this situation?  All I can think of is to carefully organize all the files, keep track of the changes in MS Word.  The only additional thing i would do is use some kind of task management software (InfoQube, most likely) to keep track of the status of all the tasks. (...)

-superboyac (May 10, 2010, 04:25 PM)

It seems to me a help authoring tool is what you want. Google "html help authoring word" gets you a whole bunch, one of them certainly supports multiple files (but ask yourself if you really need multiple files, why not a single file...)

I've used a Word add-on in a previous life, (don't remember which one, but could find it if you want) and was quite satisfied with the way it worked (a Word Add-in) and of the final result.

42

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by PPLandry on May 03, 2010, 10:28 AM »

Wow !!! Thanks superboyac for such a nice testimonial. 

As far as my level of commitment to this project, no need to worry. I'll bring it to v1.0 and beyond !

43

General Software Discussion / Re: Question - Does anyone know of such a program? - Data organizer

« Last post by PPLandry on April 12, 2010, 09:31 PM »

I used SQLNotes (now InfoQube, I guess) and wanted to like it so much... but it does not support the hierarchical organization of tables and documents... a serious failing, IMO.

The best tool for these kinds of things is MS Access, though.  An experienced software guy can do this sort of thing relatively easily

-JohnFredC (April 10, 2010, 07:12 PM)

InfoQube database model is different than other relational databases, such as Access and as such, it is not a competition... it is complementary, solving problems that are not well suited to something like Access.

So... if, as you say, Access is best suited for a particular application, then it is best to use it. InfoQube is best for less structured, more multi-facet type applications.

HTH

44

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple CRM and biz management tool for a small business?

« Last post by PPLandry on April 01, 2010, 08:45 PM »

If someone designed a functional CRM solution using IQ and were willing to share it with me and/or the community, they would definitely get 3 free IQ licenses, especially if coming from such a friendly group as DC is.  

Afterall, the now relatively quiet InfoQube thread, is 47 pages long... and many improvements to InfoQube were suggestions from DonationCoders.  

45

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple CRM and biz management tool for a small business?

« Last post by PPLandry on March 31, 2010, 10:05 PM »

If I may chip in, IQ strength as a flexible CRM solution are:

1- Easy import of contact lists
2- Easy filtering and hoisting of this list to focus on a shorter list
3- Outline view with Contact list as main items and exchanges as sub-items (i.e. calls, emails, etc)
4- True multi-user database
5- Each data entered is date and user stamped
6- Pivot tables (and charts) are integrated to summarize activity (by month, by user, by region, etc)
7- Can pull and use data from ODBC sources, local or remote (SQL Server and MySQL hosting web data)
8- Rich-text pane can hold documents or link to web sites
9- Mail-merge (either integrated or using Word/Outlook)
10- Row and Column equations (calculate taxes, totals, licenses, etc), directly or through the built-in VBScript editor
11- Configuration requires some expertise, but once configured, can easily be used by on-technical users (a couple hours of training is all that is required), as the main UI is an Excel-like grid
12- Numerous backup options
13- Data can be viewing in many ways (any field can be a source of data, Calendar, Gantt, Journal)
14- Live search to quickly respond when "the phone rings"
15- Word and Excel can view and use IQ data "live", no need to export
[edit] 16- Built-in phone dialer (Ctrl+T). Finds numbers in all fields, even the HTML pane (i.e. a linked company web page). Looks into parent items too and provides a list of numbers for you to choose [/edit]

HTH

46

General Software Discussion / Re: RTF --> HTML editor

« Last post by PPLandry on March 31, 2010, 09:41 PM »

I think the "Paste from Word" feature basically filters out non standard tags, but do not do RTF->HTML conversion. Word puts a number of formats on the clipboard, one of them is HTML.

47

General Software Discussion / Re: RTF --> HTML editor

« Last post by PPLandry on March 31, 2010, 08:14 PM »

If you're looking to program it yourself through a DLL or you want to batch process alot of files, checkout IRUN RTF converter. It is free and does a good (but not perfect) conversion of RTF to HTML:

http://www.pilotltd....x_en.jsp?pagenum=221

HTH

48

Developer's Corner / Re: Can Buttons be Dynamically Moved, Resized, etc. in Your Language?

« Last post by PPLandry on February 26, 2010, 11:48 PM »

Ok, does that sound doable in your language?  

-CodeTRUCKER (December 11, 2009, 02:00 PM)

Way back in 1995, I was given a mandate by the National Reseach Council of Canada to do just that. It was called ScreenSurvey. Using VB (version 3 IIRC), there as a module to design forms with GUI elements (buttons, checkboxes, etc). Another module would run the admin-designed forms on a pre-defined schedule. Data entered by end-users (in those admin-designed forms) was stored on a network for later analysis.

It is still available on their web-site:
http://www.nrc-cnrc....k-performance.html#5

I still have the source code (but I don't own it)

IIRC correctly, VB supports control arrays (something that was dropped in VB.net). So simply create 1 instance of every VB GUI element, give it an index (it then becomes an array), set Visible=false and you're all set to create new controls using code.

49

Developer's Corner / Re: What's your *favorite* programming language and *why* ?

« Last post by PPLandry on January 28, 2010, 08:54 PM »

The odds of have the correct version of .Net on a random machine (Internet café, at the office, etc) are quite small.

-PPLandry (January 27, 2010, 04:20 PM)

So you consider 80% to be quite small?  I've never tried to run a .NET 2.0 app on any machine and not had it installed.  Even for 3.0 56% is decent penetration less than a year after release... I remember when VB6 had been out for about the same time and had less penetration.

-wraith808 (January 28, 2010, 07:56 AM)

It is very good, indeed.

My point was strickly in regards to portable applications. If you carry your app + data on an USB stick, you want to be able to use it anytime, anywhere. Only a COM app + an optional manifest file (whether VB or C++) can guarantee you this. With a .Net app, you may or you may not be able to run your app. You don't know.

If you're out of the office, on the road or in a meeting or something and you need your data, 56% or 80% is just not enough. You need 100%.

50

Developer's Corner / Re: What's your *favorite* programming language and *why* ?

« Last post by PPLandry on January 28, 2010, 12:54 AM »

The odds of have the correct version of .Net on a random machine (Internet café, at the office, etc) are quite small.

-PPLandry (January 27, 2010, 04:20 PM)

<.<
>.>

Ummm... what?

-wraith808 (January 27, 2010, 08:27 PM)

http://www.nbdtech.c...k-installed-and.aspx

as of may 2009:

   Version     Percentage
 
   none    17%
    1.0    0%
    1.1    3%
    2.0    24%
    3.0    30%
    3.5    5%
    3.5SP1    21%

Or, to put it another way:

17% of visitors don’t have .net at all
80% of visitors are able to run .net 2.0 software without any lengthy download or installation.
56% of visitors have .net 3.0 or later and can use WPF, WCF and WF.