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You may have hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, took a peek at the Task Manager and noticed a Process List and wondered what the hell is all that. Simply this is a list of processes (tasks) that the system is currently running and knowing what they are used for can be very helpful in cleaning up your system. If there was only a place to get information on each one of the processes - Oh wait there is: Process LibraryThis is such a cool site and really lets you know what is running on your computer and whether its safe, can be stopped, and a whole bunch of other information. (Check out the DLL search located on the same site)
Give this a try too: Usage Monitor - This tool will let you monitor your processes beyond what is available in Windows Task Manager.
 Do a search for: 115 48'45"W 37 14'3"N in Google Earth. If you start to look more north at the cords: 115 49'03.88" W 37 38'28.50" N You will see and area that is blacked out. Is this the actual Area 51 and not the one I have listed which is splattered around the net?
There will be a Service Pack 3 for Windows XP operating systems. Service Pack 2 introduced alot of new security features in Windows XP that was in serious need. What will SP3 bring?
You just never know if the spyware application you are using is actually a front for some very questionable software. The ' Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites' list contains a very comprehensive listing of anti-spyware and websites that could be doing more harm than good. I stick with the big 3: - SpyBot Search and Destroy
- Adaware
- Microsoft Antispyware (beta)
Yes, another Google post. Interesting to see some of the domains registered by Google. GooglePorn.com - What is Google venturing into next?
It has been brought to my attention that there is an extension for Firefox for Google Suggest. I should have known there would be one - is one for everything else. (just curious if Google is logging your search phrases since information is being sent back to them)
Gotta love Firefox... Show us what you got IE7!
Just stumbled across Google Suggest and its much, much better than the Instant Search feature from Yahoo. Check it out and let me know what you think...
Google has dropped the pages index count that it used to maintain on its homepage. Did the count actually mean something to somebody or was it just used to flex the index muscle?
FrogPad is a one-handed keyboard solution for your mobile device. Probably could hook up to your PC if you really wanted to...
Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/discover/nek4000.htmContains a Zoom Slider to zoom in and out with the movement of a slider control.
According to the Microsoft Office Download of SP2 the new service pack contains a new Phishing Protection feature. Strange, to use this new phishing protection you need SP2 and the new Junk Mail update. Not sure why the required junk mail update wasn't included in the service pack. Not too much information on how this new phishing protection works - will look into it more once I install the updates.
 Pixeur makes identifying colors from anywhere on the screen as easy as it could get. While you get the currently selected color you also get a history of all previous colors you selected. This makes my life so easy when trying to get color ideas to use in various design. Enjoy!
Microsoft Office Downloads: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/default.aspxI'll be waiting a few weeks to make sure no bugs are introduced as a result of this service pack. Been burned too many times in the past from updating software too quickly. Keep in mind if you are going to install this Service Pack that Sp's for Office 2003 can not be removed
There has been an update to the Google Video Player - not like I have seen this before so this is new to me. Not sure how much use this will have yet but still kinda nice to be able to search archives from the various news stations - will get better with time. Seems hard to keep up with all the things that Google is doing and what they are coming out with. A site that helped me is the Unoffical Google Blog.
Photo Story 3: http://www.microsoft.com/.../photostory/default.mspxYes, its does require WinXP (any flavor) but at least it doesn't require SP2 like most of the new, free applications being released from Microsoft.
Part II in the MyComputer series of posts. refer to Part I: The auditIn Part I talked quickly about auditing your system to know what you have. This time I wanted to mention some tools that I use to identify what is running on my system. Tool List: - Usage Monitor: This tool not only will get you a list of running processes but also let you monitor and set alarms on any process
- Services.vbs: Quick little Visual Basic Script (VBS) that will get you a report of all running process and the executable that started it.
- Startup List: A list of what starts when you system starts - everyone should now this.
- Process Explorer: Tells you just about everything you need to know about processes, handles, and threads.
Stay on the look out for Part III - While its running
GoogleNet Is Coming… Free Wi–Fi with citywide coverage sounds like an element from a futuristic Sly Stallone movie. But, according to an article in the August 2005 issue of Business 2.0, it may be closer than we think. The word is Google’s already buying defunct telecoms in an effort to build its very own nationwide ISP network, which it will use to offer free Wi–Fi in major U.S. cities. The reason? By cutting out the middlemen ISP providers, Google will save millions in data transit fees. Plus, in a move that would have made Orwell proud, Google will be able to pinpoint users’ exact locations to serve geo–targeted advertising. Only time will tell if users will forgive Big Brother if he lets us surf free wirelessly.
This is a follow up to my Search two at once post. I found, thanx to Rich Levin's blog, a much better search tool that searches all the main search engines at once called Myriad Search. The UI is much cleaner and it has a very convienent export to CSV option. All in all much better than Twingine.
Check out the Beta version of CNET News and the new interface. No longer designed for 800 x 600 displays.
Twingine allows you to search Google and Yahoo at the same time. The way results are displayed needs some work but it has possibilites. What would be cool is to mix the two results into a single resultant set that identifies if it is a Google or Yahoo result. You would have to come up with a way to give more weight to one result over another to know how to re-order the results...
Wanted to try out some of the new tools that Microsoft is offering but seems like everything is now being geared towards WinXP with Service Pack 2 (SP2). Wonder if this is some sort of way to influence more users to install the service pack or move to WinXP all together. Even IE 7 is for WinXP or greater...
The newly released Internet Explorer Toolbar just seems to be chasing the Web Developer extension (must have for any web developer using Firefox) available for Firefox.
I have a small collection of MP3s at around 2500 and growing as I convert my CD's to MP3. All of these MP3s are stored on an external 250Gig drive and are located in a single folder. My girlfriend had requested a CD of about 130 songs to burn to CD so it can be played in our home stereo. Started to think that looking through the 2500 songs for the songs she had requested was going to be time consuming. Fire up my 'View Directory' registry hack to create a printout of all the songs. Quickly through together a CopyFromText script to take that list and copy the songs to a temp folder for burning. 5Min to create the script and about 1min running time made my life easier.
Gotta love a bayesian based spam filter that plugs right into Outlook and is free. SpamBayes: http://sourceforge.net/projects/spambayes/index.htmlBeen using this tool for a couple of years and works great....
Opera Software today permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee. Link: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2005/09/20/
Received a DVD today and went to play in Windows Media Player and got the common 'can't locate decoder to play movie' error. So, off to Microsoft's download section for decoders to see what they have to offer. Looked around a but and noticed that all link. Fired up Google and located a great codec pack - for free. Installed and fired up the movie - sweet! Download the Codec Pack All in 1
The 86,800 most popular words in the english language. Oh ya, and its in order of popularity - cool! Link: http://www.wordcount.org/main.php#shwah
"Introducing powerful new software tools for shared computers in schools, libraries, Internet cafes, and other public places. The Shared Computer Toolkit helps make it easy to set up, safeguard, and manage reliable shared computers running Windows XP."Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx
This is more of a continuation of a post I made about Seeker making it into Tucows. I guess I still had more on my mind and want to get it out. Most of the software I create ends upbeing submited to numerous shareware websites. Whats funny is when you submit the software and they immediatly give you a 5 star rating. Does anyone actually think this award means something? The only reason for the award is to get you to place a link to their website on your website. The purpose of most shareware websites is to generate revenue through advertisement or increase the visibility of a few applications (sometimes the owner of the website is a developer looking to put his application out there). Even though the awards are meaningless (like most that are given out by Shareware sites) the increased visibility of your application is invaluable. There are a couple of exceptions. These are the two websites where it actually means something to get listed. - The Great Software List - To get onto this list is no easy task. Zaine Ridling, the website owner / developer / reviewer really puts alot of work into his evaluations of each piece of software. Making it on this list means that you have impressed someone that truly believes in well-developed software.
- Tucows - Probably the most well know software review website around. Tucows will grade and rate each piece of software on many aspects (from usability to support to interface design) - make they grade and get listed.
I should also mention Softpedia and Snapfiles as they do review a little but know where near the amount as the above.
 Seeker, has been approved and will now be available through Tucows. This only took about 3 months to go through their approval process but it feels good to actually get approved. Tucows is still one of the only download sites that actually reviews your application prioir to listing. Another great site that actually reviews your software first is The Great Software List - this is another site where it actaully means something to get your software listed on. This is the problem I have with these shareware sites that give awards. If don't already know they are only giving you an award in an attempt to get you to place the award, and a link, to their website on your website. This helps them gain a better ranking with Google. So, when it comes down to it only a handlfull of sites provide an award or review that carries any weight...
 I recently released a new version of Note-It. This version contains some additional editing tools like; bullets, indents, and text alignment options and few minor bug fixes. Now I'm starting to run out of ideas on what new features to add. I had originally built the application out of need and started adding new features as users had requests or I came up with additional things I would like to see. I also started to add new features to Note-It to run some test that would help me with other projects. Note-It helps me run tests on new coding techniques, getting familiar with some libraries (like the Microsoft XML library) and things that I wanted a real-world test but didn't really feel like creating a new application for it (like the Stock Quote special note which help me develop classes for scraping data from web pages). Users need not worry as I only test coding techniques and writing code around different things, never test things that would in any way affect the end user.
So, when you download Note-It and you wonder why a simple note application has a 2.5 Meg installer, this is one reason why (plus Note-It is full of features). Nows the time to contact me and let me know what you want out of Note-It.
Not sure how long this will be up but here it is.. Labels: videos
Instant search from YahooThis has the potential to be extremely useful. Curious to see how this develops over time, especially when the search has more in the database. To get a better feel for its power try searching for "microsoft office templates" and see how its jumps from each main result to drill down to the one you want.. I like this line on the instant search beta site " Why feel lucky when you can be right?" - little jab at Google?
Well, boot disk thats it. This site has helped me in the past when dealing with older systems and didn't have a boot disk handy. As time goes on seems like you need these less and less but still good to know where to get one in a pinch...
LAMPPIX makes this very possible and easy. "LAMPPIX allows you to burn your web projects (i.e. PHP presentations or Perl scripts) onto a CD-ROM and give them away to others. They will only have to insert the CD and reboot"
Very much like Knoppix
I was looking for information about how to build an IE toolbar similiar to the IE Google Toolbar (and for Firefox). After much searching I came across IE Toolbar Builder. Check out their client list. How cool is this and how much easier could it be. $75 may be alot for an application but think of the traffic you could push (maybe pull) to your website with a well designed, useful toolbar.
Another thing I stumbled upon.
"Gadgets are DesktopX widgets that are exported as stand-alone program (exe). In other words, they are mini programs that are created wth DesktopX Pro. Gadgets can be just about anything, from weather monitoring tools, rss readers and much much more."Link: http://www.desktopgadgets.com/Feedback Request: Do you think something like this would take off? If not, why?
#1 - UltraVNC ( built on the VNC engine) Others: TightVNCZVNCxVNC
Some screenshots of Windows VistaPretty cool. I like the style and the simplicity of the windows they are showing. Not sure yet about the flow but that will come when I start beta testing it - just need to find some time and a system that could run it. Feedback Request: What do you think of the direction for the UI for Windows (based on the screenshots above)?
 Usage Monitor from the makers of Seeker and Pixeur - yeah that would be me. Usage Monitor lets you set watch various process properties and be alerted when a user set limit has been reached. Watch limits can be placed on Memory Usage, GDI Objects, and USER Objects.
SyncToy v1.0:"The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers."
(requires Microsoft Windows XP SP2)
Additional PowerToys for Windows XP
Why go out and buy a big screen TV when you can buy a projector and paint your wall a special reflective coating like from Goo Systems to make a very large screen.
Flow | State UI Design blog Very interesting read...
YouSendIt allows you to send large files (upto 1Gig) to anyone with an email address. File is stored on their server while an email is sent to your recipient with a link to the download. Link: www.yousendit.com
Had some installation problems with MS Office. Nothing I could do would work; Add / Remove applications failed and installing on top would not work either. In walks Microsoft Installer Cleanup to the rescue..
As a developer I often need to know what is going on with my computer. More often than not I am looking for what is occuring during the running of an application: what files are being addressed, what is happening with the registry, where is an application trying to connect to, what are the details of my system... This is the first part of a series. Taking an audit of the system to know what you are working with. The Hardware: Everest Home Edition (free) The Software: Belarc Advisor (free) The Database Drivers (MDAC): MDAC Component Checker (free) Part II: What's running
Microsoft is working on an application code named Acrylic that will offer features found in Adobe Photoshop. From the Acrylic website: "Acrylic" (code name) is the professional design program that brings together the richness of pixel-based painting and the performance of editable vector graphics for a more fluid and flexible creative workflow. Create sophisticated designs and graphic elements for your on-screen, web, and print projects."
(did you notice the folder of the URL is called Expression - possible name for the application?)
The next version of Windows named Windows Vista will be available in 7 different versions: - Windows Vista Starter Edition
- Windows Vista Home Basic Edition
- Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
- Windows Vista Professional Edition
- Windows Vista Small Business Edition
- Windows Vista Enterprise Edition
- Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Read more at Windows IT Pro. As someone that does alot of computer support that is just plain crazy..
License Type: Freeware Ultimate Boot CD: - Run floppy-based diagnostic tools from CDROM drives. More and more PCs are shipped without floppy drives these days, and it is such a royal pain when you need to run diagnostic tools on them.
- Free yourself from the slow loading speed of the floppy drive. Even if you do have a floppy drive, it is still much much faster to run your diagnostic tools from the CDROM drive, rather than wait for the tool to load from the floppy drive.
- Consolidate as many diagnostic tools as possible into one bootable CD. Wouldn't you like to avoid digging into the dusty box to look for the right floppy disk, but simply run them all from a single CD? Then the Ultimate Boot CD is for you!
Link: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/Also check out Ultimate Boot CD with Windows
There is nothing more frustrating than working hard on an application only to have it pirated. You spend your time writing an application with 100,000+ lines of code, testing and debuging, creating the installation package so it will install properly on any computer, laying out and writing the help file, updating the website (or creating a new website if needed), writing the PAD file, submitting the application to 10's of shareware sites to get exposure, and coming up with the payment options only to have it cracked. All that hard work and thousands and thousands of users got it for free. Isn't the downloads good exposure for the application? Yes its good exposure but downloading the application takes bandwidth and bandwidth costs money. Plus there's the factor that you worked so hard only to have people get it for free. Kinda takes away the inspiration to develop the software any further. Sure I could go out and buy some big, expensive component to protect my software from being cracked but what good what would that do. Its hard to justify the cost when most off-the-shelf components have been cracked and I could find tutorials on most for cracking software. So what is a small time developer to do? One option I have considered, and started using in some of my applications, is to turn the software into Donationware software. Seeker is the first application that I have turned from Shareware to Donationware. What this means is that anyone wanting a registration key only needs to make a donation, of any size. Hopefully this will deter piracy as any donation size gets you a legally registered version of my software. We'll see if this makes any difference. Now some people may not have the means to make a donation (no credit card or ability to make an online payment) so how do I handle these users? What I am considering for future releases of Seeker or Cfont Pro is to expand the definition of Donationware. The new definition of Donatioware would be as simple as the latin statement: Quid pro quo which translates to "This for That". This means that I would give out registration codes for something of value, to me, in return. As a developer there are several things I can receive that are of value; - Money to aid in off setting the development costs
- Bug reports so I can make the software more stable
- Feature request so I can make software that my users want
- Place a review on software sites like Download.com or FileForum since this attracts new users
Some developers would never go the Donationware route and I can understand that. You work hard and spend many hours on an application and you want to get some return on your investment. For these developers you need to work hard on protecting your software. Here are a few helpful tips: - Read "Defending Shareware Against Cracks"
- What ever you come up with keep to yourself. The best protection in an undocument, custom protection scheme
- Shy away from commercial components as the best crackerz have come across most commercial components and already know how to bypass
- Check out the tips at "How to Protect Better"
- Change things with each new release
When it comes down to it, if they want to crack it bad enough you won't be able to stop it. Back to developing the next big thing...
I had wanted to run some tests on older software versions but was having a hard time locating the older version on the developers website. In comes OldVersion.com and all is well. I was surprised that there was quite a good selection of software. Link: http://www.oldversion.com/
 Finally, after a very long wait my Outlook Enabler Application is now listed on Download.comOutlook Enabler Application controls what attachments Outlook has deemed to be unsafe and gives you the power to open any attachment you like. You can also add to the blocked attachment list.
There is a neat little trick to locate files using Google. Just Search for: "index of/" " filename here" (keep quotes, just replace bold text)Labels: google
The archiver review over at DonationCoder.com has got to be one of the most comprehensive reviews of Archive Tools I have ever seen. Awards are given for Best Commercial, Bext Freeware, and Best Open-Source archiver.
Just wondering how much popularity and use is there for download managers, like GetRight, anymore. As broadband becomes more wide-spread it would seem that the market for download managers would get smaller and smaller. I guess I just can't see the need anymore. Anyone reading this that uses a download manager post a comment on what features the download managers offer that you like / use.
WhatTheFont is a very neat idea in determining what a font is from a graphic image. Link: http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
Seeker, search and replace application, picks up where Microsoft left off in its own search capabilities within Windows Explorer. I set out to create an application that had a familiar interface, very much like the interface in Windows Explorer, with features that I felt was lacking in Windows itself. Seeker includes what Microsoft doesn't in Windows: - Support for Regular Expressions
- Replace feature that will replace any text inside of a file (making mass changes has never been faster)
- Command line support so you can run this application from your application or through Windows Scheduler
- Create several type of reports, from simple (which is blazing fast) to detailed file list
All this and best of all Seeker is donationware. This means a donation of any amount will get you a registration key.
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000, XP, or Server 2003. Its free too.
This tool has helped me in the past when dealing with Hijacked systems. Basically it will give you a list of all the processes and services that are running on your computer. I know the task manager (pressing ctr-alt-del) does the same thing but what it does not give you is the file or application that started the process or service. This tool is a Visual Basic Script (VBS) file which means no installation is required. Just unzip and double-click the services.vbs file to execute. (thanx to Larry Serflaten for creating and letting me share this tool)
I have been helping an organization work on a system to transfer documents to and from each other and down to its members. The problem isn't that they have trouble creating the documents, the problem is the organization is made up of members that are scattered around and not located in a single place (common for smaller non-profit organizations) and thus documents are being created in different formats You have some people created documents in Word, Excel, Publisher, and even Word Perfect. Since these documents have to be viewed by the members and you can't always be sure how or what their system has installed I started working with Portable Document Format (commonly called PDF) Printer. What a PDF Printer does is install a virtual printer on the users system that prints to a PDF document. Then anyone can view the document using a tool like Adobe Acrobat - which is loaded on most computers and if not can be installed from the Adobe website in seconds. Now all you have do is download and install PDF Creator on anyone's computer that has a need to create a document that will be distributed widely. Then all they have to do is print, like normal, choosing PDF Creator and a PDF document is created. You can find more information and more tools at Planet PDF.
Google EarthNot much to say, just something you need to try..
Have you ever noticed that Outlook 2000 (and greater) will sometime block attachments? This is Outlook preventing you from opening a potentially dangerous file. You could go into the registry and add extensions that you want blocked always or always want access to download. Keeping in mind that doing the wrong thing inside of the registry could destroy your computer. Outlook Attachment Enabler is simple, stand-alone application that safely lets you modify these blocked extensions at will.
 Many, many years ago I needed a note to lay on top of a 3D modeling application that I was using and Note-It was born. It started as more of a hobby and just to test out some new code and coding techniques. After many years and lots and lots of code later Note-It is one of the best PostIt like applications around. A recent upgrade to version 3.1.0.0 fixed some minor bugs and sets the ground work to the major 3.5 release...
A comment on one of the blog entries got me started looking for additional information on what the new fonts will be in the next Windows version called Windows Vista. The new fonts: Calibri has a rich soft character that makes the font suitable for documents, email, and Web design.
Cambria is suitable for business documents and supports extended (2000+) mathematical, scientific, and technical characteristics.
Candara is lively but not intrusive and suitable for email, Web design and informal settings. Consolas is a monospaced font (like an old typewriter) and good for programmers setting code (its core purpose).
Constantia is ideal for e-book and journal publishing both online and in print, and
Corbel was designed to give an uncluttered and clear appearance onscreen. Meiryo, the comprehensive Japanese font, was designed to set text lines in Japanese with Latin characters seamlessly and harmoniously. It possesses a very large character set, with over 20,000 kanji, hiragana, katakana, and very extensive Latin glyphs. 
Cariadings!
For your viewing pleasure, here’s a preview of a new decorative symbol font that will be included in Longhorn. “Cariadings” (Cariad means love or affection in Welsh) was designed by Microsoft’s own Geraldine Wade, one of the project leaders of the ClearType Font Collection. Link: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/design/ClearType.html
Ever curious about what Microsoft applications had installed what fonts? Look no further: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/default.aspx
After finishing a clients brand spankin new website and uploading to the servers there was a major issue. Pages where not being displayed properly and it seems that the pages where be built from include files that did not appear on the server anymore. Hmm. strange. Updates the server with the new files, verified the content of the new files, but the website was still using the content from the old files. I then added some code to prevent the caching of ASP pages and still nothing. Come to find out that the web host Interland has some issues where they cache ASP pages. From Interland: "All servers are set to Cache ASP pages. Because ASP uses alot of system resources, and you are in a shared enviorment the option to set Cache on the server is needed."
The only good to come out of this is I called Interland and got through to their tech support fairly quick and within 3min they resolved the issue. Unacceptable to have a page cached on the server in excess of 48 hours and I will never use or recommend Interland to clients.
WindowsXP users can tune their ClearType settings and improve the display of fonts. You can use either the online tuner or download the ClearType Tuner PowerToy and have it on your system ready to go at any time. What is ClearType? Answer: " ClearType delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as those in laptops and high-quality flat panel displays." (Microsoft Typography website)
I was Amazed at how well the AntiSpyware tool from Microsoft was able to assist in cleaning a hijacked system. After going through all the normal steps of clearing the Run / RunOnce keys, stopping all processes, attempting to uninstall any software that would allow it, and manually cleaning everything in sight, I was left with a few DLL's that I was not able remove. I was also pretty sure there was some hidden keys in the registry that was aiding in the fact that some processes would restart themselves. So, I loaded up the AntiSpyware tool and let it start scanning the system. To my surprise the tool was able to locate and clean the remaining infections. I restarted the system and fired up IE and everything was firing on all cylinders.
 There had been alot of interest in the Link200 application and the way it was able to go through all of your Internet Explorer favorites and determine what favorites where pointing to invalid websites. Link200 would also clean the bad favorites. It had to happen and I decided it was time to support Firefox and provide the same robust cleaning engine pointing towards the Firefox bookmarks. The good thing is the bookmark file is based on the NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1 Doctype so all I need to do know is write a parser for the file.
 In an ongoing effort to become the top Font Manager around a new version of Cfont Pro has been released. The big things I added in this release is support for Postscript Type 1 fonts, better support for OpenType fonts, and the ability to handle fonts no matter what folder they are installed in. Dealing with fonts in Windows in not always an easy process. There is alot of things that are not documented and therefore trial and error is required to figure things out. Questions like: How do I extract the proper face name from a TrueType font, How do I properly install a font in Windows, What face name will Windows use in its menus. These are some of the tricky questions that must be answered to create a truly top-notch font manager. Helpful Links: OpenType Font Specification: http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index.htmlMicrosoft's Typography: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/default.mspxAll About TrueType: http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/SubPixel Rendering: http://www.grc.com/ctontheweb.htm
This is nothing more than a kickoff post to get this blog started. The purpose of this blog is to give me a place to post information around the software I develop.
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