Recent Posts

2501

Living Room / Real code vs. Code in the movies

« Last post by zridling on December 07, 2006, 03:38 PM »

Matthew Inman has it right, and his explanation of each is hilarious:

1. Code does not move

2. Code is not green text on a black background

3. Code has structure

4. Code is not three dimensional
 
5. Code does not make blip noises as it appears on the screen

6. Code cannot be cracked by an 8-year-old kid in a matter of seconds

7. Not all code is meant to be cracked

8. Code isn't just 0100110 010101 10100 011

9. People who write code use mice

10. Most code is not inherently cross platform

2502

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Microsoft fears Open Source (in their own words)

« Last post by zridling on December 06, 2006, 05:01 PM »

The 1976 Bill Gates sounds a lot like the 2006 Miguel de Icaza of Novell when talking about all their exaggerated contributions to OpenOffice, ha! "Nobody's done more than us!"

2503

General Software Discussion / 2006 Great Software List Awards

« Last post by zridling on December 06, 2006, 04:38 PM »

via The Great Software blog:
________________________________________________
MOST EXCITING SOFTWARE OF THE YEAR
— XYplorer
http://www.xyplorer.com/index.htm
XYplorer's combination of raw power and creative efficiency screams German; its developer, Donald Lessau, has built XYplorer into a power user's paradise.
________________________________________________
BEST CHALLENGER TO SHAREWARE
— Screenshot Captor
https://www.donation...hotcaptor/index.html
And incredible donationware screen capture utility that will instantly impress you, and make you want to think of new ways to use it.
________________________________________________
SOFTWARE YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT
— AutoHotkey
http://www.autohotkey.com/
From scripts to spelling to starting programs to autocorrect to autocomplete to coding, AutoHotkey is an absolute must-have app for your desktop.
________________________________________________
MOST PROMISING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR
— ODF, OASIS OpenDocument format becomes ISO certified
http://en.wikipedia....rg/wiki/OpenDocument
OpenOffice is the first office suite to use the new OASIS OpenDocument format, the future-proof international standard for office software (ISO/IEC 26300:2006). ODF is overseen by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and is supported by Microsoft rivals IBM, Google, and Sun Microsystems, among other companies.
________________________________________________
BEST UTILITY
— Bulk Rename Utility
http://www.bulkrenam...co.uk/Main_Intro.php
A well-designed fast, easy renamer with all its functions on one screen. Every app should be this easy.
________________________________________________
BEST SOFTWARE UPGRADES OF 2006
— EmEditor Pro
         http://www.emeditor.com/
— TextMaker word processor
         http://www.softmaker.com/english/tmw_en.htm
________________________________________________
BEST ONLINE APP OF THE YEAR
— Google RSS Reader
http://www.google.com/reader/view/
Google gave readers what they wanted: an RSS reader that's fast, simple, and always on.
________________________________________________
BEST TECH BLOG
— Bob Sutor: Open Blog
http://www.sutor.com.../blog-open/index.php
________________________________________________
BIGGEST SOFTWARE UPGRADES OF 2007
— Microsoft Office 2007 — If you like the UI, you'll love Office 2007.
— OpenOffice 3.0 — Now set to be the future standard around the world.
________________________________________________
SOFTWARE ASSHOLE OF THE YEAR AWARD
— Microsoft Corporation
http://www.microsoft.com/
Microsoft beat out the RIAA with its Windows and Office "Geniune Advantage" and validation programs that phone home and offer a kill-switch for Office 2007 and Vista, despite company denials. Microsoft tried to mitigate the damage by tweaking both WGA and OGA, but the damage was done. And don't forget the whole silliness of tying Vista's EULA to the hardware contained in "one device." That, too, was changed, but by then customers were left wondering what hit them.

2504

General Software Discussion / Re: Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site

« Last post by zridling on December 04, 2006, 03:25 PM »

Ken delivers again! Love the Bear Bottoms' layout and his recommendations. Thanks for sharing.

2505

General Software Discussion / Re: Agored.com — Bilingual OpenOffice!

« Last post by zridling on December 04, 2006, 03:24 PM »

It changes the UI of the program to your preferred language. You type whatever you want. Change it back. Save your document, and voila!, it's in your second language. Great for dialects and two-language countries like Canada, and to a large extent, now the US.

2506

General Software Discussion / Why Microsoft fears Open Source (in their own words)

« Last post by zridling on December 04, 2006, 03:10 PM »

For some interesting reading, check out what Microsoft says its risk factors are against Open Source software. This is from the opening paragragh:

Our business model has been based upon customers paying a fee to license software that we developed and distributed.... In recent years certain "open source" software business models have evolved into a growing challenge to our license-based software model.... A number of commercial firms compete with us using an open source business model by modifying and then distributing open source software to end users at nominal cost and earning revenue on complementary services and products. These firms do not have to bear the full costs of research and development for the software.... the popularization of the open source software model continues to pose a significant challenge to our business model, including continuing efforts by proponents of open source software to convince governments worldwide to mandate the use of open source software in their purchase and deployment of software products. To the extent open source software gains increasing market acceptance, sales of our products may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for our products, and revenue and operating margins may consequently decline.... While we believe the breadth of our businesses and product portfolio offers benefits to our customers that are a competitive advantage, our [Open Source] competitors that are focused on a narrower product line may be more effective in devoting technical, marketing, and financial resources to compete with us.
________________________________________________
That seems about right. I wonder though, if in ten years office software will still be as central to our work as it is today.

2507

General Software Discussion / Re: Ed Bott's Microsoft Report - Great Site for Windows Vista Info

« Last post by zridling on November 28, 2006, 10:09 PM »

Ed Bott's Windows Expertise blog is also quite good, too. I like Ed because he calls bullshit on lots of FUDsters, and persistently schwacks Microsoft right between the eyes.

2508

General Software Discussion / Agored.com — Bilingual OpenOffice!

« Last post by zridling on November 28, 2006, 10:05 PM »

[via Peter Sayer]:
Here's a great project by Agored, which is bilingual office software developed from OpenOffice 2.0, and includes an international package that has been translated into over 50 languages.

"Much of the bilingual functionality that Agored adds to the interface is already present in OpenOffice, but not readily accessible, said David Chan, a programmer who worked on the project. Agored makes it easier for users to sit down in front of a computer and switch the application to their strongest language, he said.... Wales, one of the four constituent nations of the UK, has two official languages with equal status, Welsh and English, and local government bodies and other public organizations must issue documents in both languages.

"Chan said the project team took care to make their code changes useful to other bilingual communities, groups that could include speakers of English and Irish Gaelic in Ireland; of French and Dutch in the Belgian capital of Brussels; of French and German in Switzerland, and of Basque and Spanish or of Catalan and Spanish in Spain."

And Agored is available free. Cool!

2509

General Software Discussion / Re: Office 2007 has been RTM'd

« Last post by zridling on November 11, 2006, 01:39 AM »

Also, the ribbon PowerPoint is a mess. It changes depending on where your insertion point is at any given time. So it seems that every other time you look up, you're not looking at the same ribbon! Beware, because the WGA validation program has now been extended to Office 2003-07, if you don't like that.

I've been using the 2007 beta most of the year and the new UI's emphasis is just as OldElmerFudd stated — to help users find and use more of its features. But expect your learning curve of Word 2007 to increase if you're a long-term current user. Word 2007 works hard to embed a broad arrary of desktop publishing features to the word processor. However, it falls short in the academic arena and students and researchers should be advised not to use Word 2007's bibliographic feature (I'll explain in a review next month). Another annoyance is that Microsoft left all the old dialogs in place and none of them are resizable (why!). I still rue what they did to keyboard shortcuts. However, if your work demands consistent graphic documents, such as brochures, catalogs, extensive reports, or broad collaboration on projects, then Microsoft Word 2007 is well worth your time and money.

Otherwise, OpenOffice 2.x is really almost Office 2003, not Office 97 as is often quoted. Give it another try, and if you want OpenOffice with a cool database component, then consider StarOffice 8.x.

2510

General Software Discussion / Re: 50 Windows Explorer Alternatives: not compared but with a screenshot

« Last post by zridling on October 31, 2006, 12:17 PM »

Man, that's incredible. Thanks for sharing, indeed, xbeta!

2511

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Auto-complete Intelli-sense type utility ?

« Last post by zridling on October 25, 2006, 02:57 AM »

Defenestration, start with AutoHotkey because it's nothing more than a text file and you can edit it anytime you want, and it's donationware. Check out the Universal AutoCorrect with AutoHotKey and Wikipedia by Biancolo, which consists of thousands of commonly misspelled words. He leaves space at the bottom (or move it to the top if you like) to add words you either mistype or misspell. I use AutoHotkey to open programs using hotkeys along with completing complex strings or words I don't want to type over and over, such as:

:*:afn::Access Foundation
:*:ahkk::AutoHotkey
:*:bb1::<b>bold</b>{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}
:*:bb2::<strong>bold</strong>{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}
:*:bbb::bold{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}
:*:htpp::http://www.anova.org/software/
:*:ii1::<i>italics</i>{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}
:*:ii2::<em>italics</em>{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}
:*:iii::italics{Left}{Left}{Left}{Left}
:*:bruu::Bulk Rename Utility
:*:bw::between
:*:ctt::CTRL{+}
:*:ck1::customizability
:*:ck2::customizable
:*:ckk::customizable keyboard shortcuts
:*:ddc::DonationCoder.com
:*:hddc::https://www.donationcoder.com/

and to open programs or close windows, files, tabs, etc.

#y::Run C:\Program Files\DirSync\DirSync.exe
#z::Send, {CTRLDOWN}{F4}{CTRLUP}
#F12::Send, {ALTDOWN}{O}{ALTUP}{O}
`::Send, {CTRLDOWN}{F4}{CTRLUP}
Appskey::Send, {ALTDOWN}{F4}{ALTUP}
#1::Run C:\Program Files\XYplorer\XYplorer.exe
#2::Run C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.ini
#7::Run C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7zFM.exe, C:\Program Files\7-Zip\

and so on. I guarantee you'll love it. Best of all, it is universal, meaning that it applies to games, your word processor, text editor, spreadsheet, email, whatever you type. If you don't want that, or want something more specialized, all you have to do is split your "scripts" into various .AHK files. It's easier than it sounds. Like I said, just start with AutoHotkey (be sure to peruse the Help File's Intro), and then consider others if you don't like it.

2512

General Software Discussion / Re: Two New Internet Explorer 7 Reviews

« Last post by zridling on October 23, 2006, 01:29 AM »

I admit I love the new IE7 interface and tabs, and am looking forward to Maxthon 2. But like Allen, I spend a lot of time with Opera now that I'm learning its full customizability, e.g., you can combine more than one command into one keyboard shortcut. And like Allen, I'm neutral on browsers: just use what you love, as long as they serve up sites and you can tolerate each one's faults and quirks, it's all good.

2513

Living Room / Re: MIT Smartboard video — MUST-SEE

« Last post by zridling on October 23, 2006, 01:17 AM »

I would like to see a biology teacher get ahold of that board — draw vampire; draw innocent simp with juicy brain; watch vampire perform a good brain suck.

2514

Living Room / Re: Starship dimensions

« Last post by zridling on October 23, 2006, 01:12 AM »

Heck, the links page alone is pretty fantastic.

2515

Living Room / Starship dimensions

« Last post by zridling on October 22, 2006, 03:46 AM »

Ever wondered how big the ships are in Star Trek, Star Wars, and others compared to our puny 21st century objects? Check out Jeff Russell's Starship Dimensions site:

This site is intended to allow science fiction fans to get an impression of the true scale of their favorite science fiction spacecraft by being able to compare ships across genres, as well as being able to compare them with contemporary objects with which they are probably familiar.

2516

Living Room / MIT Smartboard video — MUST-SEE

« Last post by zridling on October 22, 2006, 03:39 AM »

Pretty freakin' cool how intelligent this board is. For some reason, it reminds me of what Michael Rainey does with software:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZNTgglPbUA&eurl=

2517

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Vista EULA to users: Go to hell!

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2006, 12:53 AM »

I also think Vista will put a chink in the hardware market. Enthusiasts aren't going to suddenly stop building their own PCs and run to buy Dell's latest fire sale (pun intended). Carol has argued this in several places online, but Vista's EULA is equivalent to saying you can buy a piece of furniture for your home, put it in any room you want. You can even move it once, but if you do, you have to call the furniture store and ask their permission to approve the move, and you must let them inspect your house to make sure that you moved it to an approved "room." But if you move it twice, then the furniture store has the right to come in your house and burn the furniture piece to the ground, making it unusable.

Got it? Not me. I'll stick with XP and save money on hardware in the meantime.

2518

General Software Discussion / Re: Scrybe: an online organizer that goes offline just as easily

« Last post by zridling on October 20, 2006, 11:48 PM »

Holy crap, Chris, I just opened your Unhandled Perception blog along with 20 other sites. Had I read yours first, I could have simply linked to your better description. Chris posted his link about 30 minutes before me, so go read his Scrybe post. Thanks, man!

2519

General Software Discussion / Scrybe: an online organizer that goes offline just as easily

« Last post by zridling on October 20, 2006, 11:37 PM »

I don't have a screenshot, but first, go watch the Scrybe video to the end (love the print, fold, and carry option). No really, go watch.

I've been skeptical of the whole Web 2.0 "thing" beyond collaboration and synching, but Scrybe takes time management and online organization to another, more practical level altogether, which unlike the rest, allow you to safely work offline when not connected, and sync with the online info the next time you login. Too bad the beta's not released and you have to rely on the video, but this is going to get exciting, and if I were a desktop PIM, I'd want to figure out how I'm going to connect with and extend my program through Scrybe as soon as possible.

2520

General Software Discussion / Re: Internet Explorer 7.0 Final is out

« Last post by zridling on October 20, 2006, 12:43 AM »

mrainey, you don't have to use it, but it's a good idea to upgrade to the final version anyway. The installation worked flawlessly on the four machines I updated yesterday. Took longer on the slower machines, of course. I love the new UI, but for Microsoft to skip so many CSS2 specs is just stunning. Opera and Firefox have dusted IE. IE8, anyone?

2521

General Software Discussion / Re: New Winzip will open rar archives

« Last post by zridling on October 20, 2006, 12:30 AM »

[allen]: SO NIKO-MAC CAN KISS MY ASS. THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'M PAYING 50 DOLLARS FOR COMMAND LINE SUPPORT.

I second that emotion. Based on the archive tools review I did here last year after WinZip 10 hit the scene, I was dumbfounded at their PPMd format, which was like introducing a new file format beyond Word and OpenOffice. Adding RAR extraction only now is hilarious. And Corel has no business buying a company like WinZip. I walked away with four great ones:

(1) WinRAR with its Lifetime license;
(2) The Open Source 7-Zip;
(3) PowerArchiver; or
(4) Squeez archiver

$50 for the full WinZip is like saying Uncle Fred has a "nice" toupee.

2522

General Software Discussion / Windows Vista EULA to users: Go to hell!

« Last post by zridling on October 20, 2006, 12:13 AM »

From Wendy's Blog, a techie lawyer: Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user:

"Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe at least six impossible things about what users want from software.... It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system has any of these 'features' of the Vista EULA in mind:

• Self-limiting software
• Vanishing functionality through invalidation
• Removal of media capabilities
• Problem-solving prohibited
• Limited mobility
• One transfer only, and a bonus,
• Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video

Read the details...

2523

General Software Discussion / Re: Cool Open Source file-sharing app: HTTP File Server (HFS)

« Last post by zridling on October 20, 2006, 12:04 AM »

Thanks for the corrections, Herbiman! As Peter Herbert noted, HFS can be used to host websites, but it wasn't necessarily designed to do so.

2524

Living Room / Re: Vista licensing - will it kill enthusiasts interest ?

« Last post by zridling on October 17, 2006, 04:36 AM »

More interesting responses here. We're not alone!

2525

Living Room / Re: Vista licensing - will it kill enthusiasts interest ?

« Last post by zridling on October 17, 2006, 04:33 AM »

Here's a link to Vista's just completed licensing terms. Attached is the Ultimate version's PDF. Page 6, #15 is the point we're interested in.