I was searching for some good DAM (Digital Asset Management) software - more on that later - when I stumbled upon Tiddlywiki, a neat little piece of web software.
From the author's description:
"TiddlyWiki is a single html file which has all the characteristics of a wiki - including all of the content, the functionality (including editing, saving, tagging and searching) and the style sheet. Because it's a single file, it's very portable - you can email it, put it on a web server or share it via a USB stick."
For its size (Current version, 341 KB, empty) it's a pretty powerful little tool, and since it's a single file entirely written in JAVA and HTML, it's very easy to customize - without even getting into the number of plugins available.
I had actually toyed with running a copy of MediaWiki through XAMPP on my laptop, but had been avoiding setting it up, as that's an awful lot of trouble to go to for just making some quick notes. TiddlyWiki, however, fills this need quite nicely, without overdoing things.
I'm now using several TiddlyWiki files to organize code snippets, writing notes, maintain my freqently-used bookmarks page and a few other simliar projects, including writing an interactive user manual.
I've also been using one to organize my stupid joke collection (mouseover for answers):
What is red and smells like blue paint?
What is brown and sticky?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Heads up... Incoming browser.
Internet Explorer 8 has been listed as a critical update by Microsoft. This means that if you are running Windows XP or better, you may already be downloading the newer version of IE.
For those of you not yet ready to make a switch, or are like me and using FireFox or another browser exclusively, and do not want IE8 or its updates on your machines, the link below will take you to the MS Toolkit which will block the critical update.
IE8 Blocker Toolkit
And for those of you that missed it, it's probably too late, but here's the blocker kit for IE7 as well:
IE7 Blocker Toolkit
For those of you not yet ready to make a switch, or are like me and using FireFox or another browser exclusively, and do not want IE8 or its updates on your machines, the link below will take you to the MS Toolkit which will block the critical update.
IE8 Blocker Toolkit
And for those of you that missed it, it's probably too late, but here's the blocker kit for IE7 as well:
IE7 Blocker Toolkit
Friday, April 24, 2009
Portable and/or Financial Software
Following up on my post the other day about portable software, it is worth noting that while a lot of software isn't specifically labeled as "portable," it can be made portable with a few tweaks. Sometimes this is as easy as moving the program from its default install location (typically %programfiles% or "C:\Program Files") to whatever portable location you so choose.
Other software isn't so easy. Some software installs additional support files to the system or drivers folders or requires specific services installed or configured or just has a load of registry entries. It may not be possible to make the software portable at all, or it may be worth it to find software that is portable that does the same thing.
If you have the smarts enough to install/uninstall software and copy files, it might be worth looking into the option of making it portable. A good rule of thumb is that the smaller a software package is, the less likely it is to require support files or lots of registry entries.
In the case of the two programs I recommend below, both by default will install to %programfiles% and both create a few registry entries. I have, however, successfully tested both of these apps as "portables." The few registry entries each creates are in fact only informational and/or information about the uninstallers for Windows.
To make these (and similar) programs "portable," follow these simple steps:
That all being said, I take no responsibility for your actions should you go mucking about in your Program Files, Windows, system or anywhere else on your computer, including the registry. I also take no responsibility should you follow my instructions, as I don't recommend you do this, especially if you don't know what you're doing, I'm just pointing out that it's possible. If you screw something up or void your warranty or violate the license on the software or piss off your sysadmin, it's your problem, not mine. Step up and take responsibility for your actions, ya lazy bum.
Two bits of software which I use on a regular basis are both freeware programs for financial calculations.
The first is a replacement for the windows calculator, called by some as "JD Free Calculator" and others as "JD Standard Calculator" or just as "JDCalc," depending on where you download it. It's about 313 KB, making it rather small, but has a lot of features, including a tape. As I said before, all calculators should have a viewable tape. JDCalc's tape is not only viewable, though, it's printable with a big, friendly button that says "Print Tape," which is just plain awesome. JDCalc also has built in loan and savings calculators (albeit summary versions only, though you can view two loans side-by-side), which make it for its size a good competitor against all the other windows-calculator-replacements out there.
Because JDCalc's loan calculator only provides a summary of a loan, in order to get a full amortization schedule for a loan and run estimates, I use a program called Amortizer by Quantech Software. In addition to giving you a full schedule, it also allows you to specify irregular or balloon payments on your loans, something that is useful if you want to see what would happen if you pay a little extra each month on your mortgage or skip a credit card payment (other than the bank releasing the hounds I mean.)
I have a few other thoughts on little utilities, but those shall wait for another day.
Other software isn't so easy. Some software installs additional support files to the system or drivers folders or requires specific services installed or configured or just has a load of registry entries. It may not be possible to make the software portable at all, or it may be worth it to find software that is portable that does the same thing.
If you have the smarts enough to install/uninstall software and copy files, it might be worth looking into the option of making it portable. A good rule of thumb is that the smaller a software package is, the less likely it is to require support files or lots of registry entries.
In the case of the two programs I recommend below, both by default will install to %programfiles% and both create a few registry entries. I have, however, successfully tested both of these apps as "portables." The few registry entries each creates are in fact only informational and/or information about the uninstallers for Windows.
To make these (and similar) programs "portable," follow these simple steps:
- Install the program as usual.
- Navigate to the %programfiles% folder. Copy (Don't move) the new program folder to the new portable location.
- Use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall the program from %programfiles%
- Test the program, you'll find out very quick whether or not it will still work. If it does, great, if not, delete the folder in the new location, no harm done.
- If necessary, update shortcuts and links to the new location.
That all being said, I take no responsibility for your actions should you go mucking about in your Program Files, Windows, system or anywhere else on your computer, including the registry. I also take no responsibility should you follow my instructions, as I don't recommend you do this, especially if you don't know what you're doing, I'm just pointing out that it's possible. If you screw something up or void your warranty or violate the license on the software or piss off your sysadmin, it's your problem, not mine. Step up and take responsibility for your actions, ya lazy bum.
Two bits of software which I use on a regular basis are both freeware programs for financial calculations.
The first is a replacement for the windows calculator, called by some as "JD Free Calculator" and others as "JD Standard Calculator" or just as "JDCalc," depending on where you download it. It's about 313 KB, making it rather small, but has a lot of features, including a tape. As I said before, all calculators should have a viewable tape. JDCalc's tape is not only viewable, though, it's printable with a big, friendly button that says "Print Tape," which is just plain awesome. JDCalc also has built in loan and savings calculators (albeit summary versions only, though you can view two loans side-by-side), which make it for its size a good competitor against all the other windows-calculator-replacements out there.
Because JDCalc's loan calculator only provides a summary of a loan, in order to get a full amortization schedule for a loan and run estimates, I use a program called Amortizer by Quantech Software. In addition to giving you a full schedule, it also allows you to specify irregular or balloon payments on your loans, something that is useful if you want to see what would happen if you pay a little extra each month on your mortgage or skip a credit card payment (other than the bank releasing the hounds I mean.)
I have a few other thoughts on little utilities, but those shall wait for another day.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Amazing Honda Civic
This morning on Boing Boing Gadgets a fellow by the name of Matthew Farley mentioned that his Honda Civic has traveled one light second in ten years.
I find this interestingly timely, as I noticed on my way to work this morning that my own Honda Civic rolled over the 209,000 mile mark:
Of course, my Civic is a '91. This means that my car is traveling substantially slower than his, having moved only 1.12 light seconds in its approximate 18-year life. To be fair though, my car was out for a few days on and off over the last month for some maintenance & repairs: front rotors & brakes, spark plugs, timing belt (recommended timing belt replacement = 0.332 light seconds), water pump, oil change and a clutch issue that I don't really want to get into.
(Thanks for the help, Geoff, by the way.)
A few people have said to me that I should look into getting a new car. Truth of the matter is, though, that I can either get a new car or send the kids to the good private school, but not both.
And I kind of like my car, even though it's rusted and dented and missing a few unimportant bits. It requires very little maintenance, other than a complete rebuild from scratch every few years (it is, in the seven years that I've owned it, it's almost completely replacement parts).
And chances are, I still get better gas mileage than you.
Photo of my Honda courtesy Google Street View as their magic van drove past my house.
I find this interestingly timely, as I noticed on my way to work this morning that my own Honda Civic rolled over the 209,000 mile mark:
Of course, my Civic is a '91. This means that my car is traveling substantially slower than his, having moved only 1.12 light seconds in its approximate 18-year life. To be fair though, my car was out for a few days on and off over the last month for some maintenance & repairs: front rotors & brakes, spark plugs, timing belt (recommended timing belt replacement = 0.332 light seconds), water pump, oil change and a clutch issue that I don't really want to get into.
(Thanks for the help, Geoff, by the way.)
A few people have said to me that I should look into getting a new car. Truth of the matter is, though, that I can either get a new car or send the kids to the good private school, but not both.
And I kind of like my car, even though it's rusted and dented and missing a few unimportant bits. It requires very little maintenance, other than a complete rebuild from scratch every few years (it is, in the seven years that I've owned it, it's almost completely replacement parts).
And chances are, I still get better gas mileage than you.
Photo of my Honda courtesy Google Street View as their magic van drove past my house.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Portable Software
I am becoming a big fan of portable software. Most software with the "portable" label is designed to allow you to run it directly from a USB disk or an SD card or something similar, but in addition to those there are a number of small programs and utilities which are portable not by specific design, but simply by the fact that they are tiny, self-contained and don't litter the place up with unnecessary registry entries, support files and other nonsense.
In my particular case, I find I am using more and more portable software because it's easier to maintain across multiple computers/devices. I have a laptop that travels with me wherever I go, a computer on my desk at work, a desktop used for gaming and application development, the wife's computer at home, a second older laptop that (will be) used as a file server whenever I put the hard drive back in it, and a dozen or so USB drives, SD cards and external hard drives. Having one set of portable software and utilites - especially ones I can run across network - makes things much simpler.
As a side note, speaking of external hard drives, I picked up a masscool hard drive adapter the other day. I went looking for a 2.5 to 3.5 IDE drive adapter, and found this thing for the same price (about $20). It takes 2.5 IDE, 3.5 IDE and SATA drives all to USB. You can even hook up more than one drive at once.
In any case, back to portable software, the kids over at PortableApps.com do a nice job of keeping a package of portable software and utilities together - especially pretty standard stuff like FireFox and OpenOffice.
I have one problem with PortableApps.com, though, and that is their menu-loader, which allows you to organize and run the applications off a USB disk, only works with their packages. If you have another utility, you either have to use a workaround or skip the menu.
Today I found another nice little menu though, Pegtop Pstart, which has the nice add-on of also keeping short notes for you - something I'm forever doing in text files. You can also create shortcuts to folders. Probably the best bit of all, however, is the fact that you can run multiple instances concurrently (for different drives, perhaps, or different menu trees) without conflicting with each other. It is even possible to change the color of the tray icon so you can tell the different menus apart.
As a second runner-up in my search for a better menu was Porta'Menu by Jose Falcao. It's a quick menu, if you just want something that's small and works. (Small and works being the two biggest requirements of portable software.)
Porta'Menu lost in my comparison because I really liked the notes feature of Pstart, but Jose Falcao deserved a mention because he has a lot of other handy-looking, freeware utilities. The tiny calculator even has a viewable tape, something ever calc should have.
I have a respect for any software developer who creates, out of necessity or design or luck, software that just gets the job done, without any random nonsense added.
In my particular case, I find I am using more and more portable software because it's easier to maintain across multiple computers/devices. I have a laptop that travels with me wherever I go, a computer on my desk at work, a desktop used for gaming and application development, the wife's computer at home, a second older laptop that (will be) used as a file server whenever I put the hard drive back in it, and a dozen or so USB drives, SD cards and external hard drives. Having one set of portable software and utilites - especially ones I can run across network - makes things much simpler.
As a side note, speaking of external hard drives, I picked up a masscool hard drive adapter the other day. I went looking for a 2.5 to 3.5 IDE drive adapter, and found this thing for the same price (about $20). It takes 2.5 IDE, 3.5 IDE and SATA drives all to USB. You can even hook up more than one drive at once.
In any case, back to portable software, the kids over at PortableApps.com do a nice job of keeping a package of portable software and utilities together - especially pretty standard stuff like FireFox and OpenOffice.
I have one problem with PortableApps.com, though, and that is their menu-loader, which allows you to organize and run the applications off a USB disk, only works with their packages. If you have another utility, you either have to use a workaround or skip the menu.
Today I found another nice little menu though, Pegtop Pstart, which has the nice add-on of also keeping short notes for you - something I'm forever doing in text files. You can also create shortcuts to folders. Probably the best bit of all, however, is the fact that you can run multiple instances concurrently (for different drives, perhaps, or different menu trees) without conflicting with each other. It is even possible to change the color of the tray icon so you can tell the different menus apart.
As a second runner-up in my search for a better menu was Porta'Menu by Jose Falcao. It's a quick menu, if you just want something that's small and works. (Small and works being the two biggest requirements of portable software.)
Porta'Menu lost in my comparison because I really liked the notes feature of Pstart, but Jose Falcao deserved a mention because he has a lot of other handy-looking, freeware utilities. The tiny calculator even has a viewable tape, something ever calc should have.
I have a respect for any software developer who creates, out of necessity or design or luck, software that just gets the job done, without any random nonsense added.
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