11.28.2005
Update your FeedDemon 1.6 RC2
If you're running FeedDemon 1.6 RC2 release 1.6.0.11 or earlier, you should download and install release 1.6.0.12. Earlier releases of 1.6 RC2 expire on December 1, 2005. This date has been extended in 1.6.0.12. To get the latest version, use Help | Check for New Version on the FeedDemon main menu or visit www.feeddemon.com/feeddemon/beta/.
Two software acquisitions of note
The companies behind two of my favorite software utilities were recently acquired.
- On November 3rd, Microsoft acquired FolderShare from Austin, TX based ByteTaxi, Inc. (see the news release). FolderShare is a file synchronization and remote access service, one of those deceptively simple, incredibly useful, "why didn't I think of that?" kind of ideas. The press release indicates Microsoft intends to incorporate the FolderShare technology into its Windows Live initiative.
I started using FolderShare this summer, liked it a lot, blogged about it, and signed up for a year's worth of one of the paid service levels. About a week after the acquisition, FolderShare subscribers were informed by e-mail that the paid services were being discontinued, but that a free version with "many of the capabilities of the previous paid versions" would still be offered. Paying customers are receiving a pro-rated refund for the unused time remaining on their pre-paid service period. My refund already showed up on my credit card statement, so no complaints there.
So far the service is still functioning as before, although I don't stress it much so I can't say if the now-free service has limits my paid subscription did not have. In any case, I have to wonder how long the service will continue to exist in its present form. I hope it's a long time, because I've grown to rely on it and I'd hate to lose it.
- Although I only found out about it recently, anti-spam software maker Qurb, Inc. was acquired earlier this summer by Computer Associates (see the news release).
I started using Qurb two or three years ago on the recommendation of a colleague, and kept using it because in my opinion it's a best-in-class solution. So, whither Qurb now? The press release says "CA will continue to market Qurb's technology as e Trust Anti-Spam...", a product I'm not familiar with but found for sale at ca.com/consumer. I hope this doesn't mean the Qurb brand and stand-alone product are going to be phased out, but at least for now Qurb is still available under its own name from the Qurb website.
Not all change is for the better, but neither is all change for the worse. I'm hopeful both of these two products will continue to thrive under their new owners.
All trademarks, service marks, and trade names referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.
- On November 3rd, Microsoft acquired FolderShare from Austin, TX based ByteTaxi, Inc. (see the news release). FolderShare is a file synchronization and remote access service, one of those deceptively simple, incredibly useful, "why didn't I think of that?" kind of ideas. The press release indicates Microsoft intends to incorporate the FolderShare technology into its Windows Live initiative.
I started using FolderShare this summer, liked it a lot, blogged about it, and signed up for a year's worth of one of the paid service levels. About a week after the acquisition, FolderShare subscribers were informed by e-mail that the paid services were being discontinued, but that a free version with "many of the capabilities of the previous paid versions" would still be offered. Paying customers are receiving a pro-rated refund for the unused time remaining on their pre-paid service period. My refund already showed up on my credit card statement, so no complaints there.
So far the service is still functioning as before, although I don't stress it much so I can't say if the now-free service has limits my paid subscription did not have. In any case, I have to wonder how long the service will continue to exist in its present form. I hope it's a long time, because I've grown to rely on it and I'd hate to lose it.
- Although I only found out about it recently, anti-spam software maker Qurb, Inc. was acquired earlier this summer by Computer Associates (see the news release).
I started using Qurb two or three years ago on the recommendation of a colleague, and kept using it because in my opinion it's a best-in-class solution. So, whither Qurb now? The press release says "CA will continue to market Qurb's technology as e Trust Anti-Spam...", a product I'm not familiar with but found for sale at ca.com/consumer. I hope this doesn't mean the Qurb brand and stand-alone product are going to be phased out, but at least for now Qurb is still available under its own name from the Qurb website.
Not all change is for the better, but neither is all change for the worse. I'm hopeful both of these two products will continue to thrive under their new owners.
All trademarks, service marks, and trade names referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.
Southwest Fox 2006
Others have already blogged about this, but let me repeat the good news from Phoenix: conference organizer Bob Kocher has announced that the Southwest Fox conference is a "go" for 2006. Dates are October 19-22, details to be forthcoming. Southwest Fox 2005 was a rocking success, so mark your calendars and don't miss out on next year's event!
Excuses
I realized today that it's been a while since I posted anything here. My excuse: seasonal packet migrations, or possibly line noise from rats in the wall. If you need an excuse of your own for any reason, head on over to Eric Meyer's Excuse of the Day site (RSS feed at meyerweb.com/feeds/excuse/rss20.xml) and pick up one of your own.
10.28.2005
Bob Muglia to head Microsoft's Server and Tools business
From Microsoft PressPass: "REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 28, 2005 – Microsoft this week named longtime executive Bob Muglia senior vice president of the company’s Server and Tools business. The 17-year Microsoft veteran, who has led Microsoft’s Windows Server business since 2003, will replace Eric Rudder, who is taking on a new role working directly for Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect."
PDC05 sessions are available online
Just spotted this on Michael Swanson's blog from Monday 10/24/2005: The session content from last month's Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 (PDC05) is now available online at microsoft.sitestream.com/PDC05/. You can watch the session videos online and/or download the video and slides for offline viewing. There's a huge amount of content here, but it's only going to be available for six months. The site requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or better.
Side note: At my session on Integrating RSS with Visual FoxPro Applications at Southwest Fox 2005 earlier this month, I mentioned Microsoft is working on RSS features for Vista and IE7. In the PDC05 materials I found session DAT320: Windows Vista: Building RSS Enabled Applications, which provides some insight into Microsoft's plans in this area. The session runs just over an hour and fifteen minutes and is well worth watching if you're interested in the future of RSS as Microsoft sees it.
Side note: At my session on Integrating RSS with Visual FoxPro Applications at Southwest Fox 2005 earlier this month, I mentioned Microsoft is working on RSS features for Vista and IE7. In the PDC05 materials I found session DAT320: Windows Vista: Building RSS Enabled Applications, which provides some insight into Microsoft's plans in this area. The session runs just over an hour and fifteen minutes and is well worth watching if you're interested in the future of RSS as Microsoft sees it.
10.19.2005
Jumlbed Txet is Esay to Read
It's been said that people can read jumbled text fairly easily when the middle letters in each word are rearranged, as long as the first and last letters of each word remain the same.
This idea gained attention not long ago from an example floating around the Internet that cited "research at Cambridge University" (acutally, it cited "rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy".) That claim appears to be false and is refuted by Cambridge's Matt Davis in a writing posted at www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/, in which he dissects the Internet piece and references some real research in this field. There is, however, evidently some truth to this idea, at least in English and other languages where words are similarly structured.
In any case, it's fun to play with. By way of example, here's a jumbled version of the first sentence of this blog entry:
"It's been siad that peolpe can raed jbumeld text farily esliay when the mlidde lrtetes in ecah word are raegarnerd, as lnog as the frsit and lsat lteters of ecah word reiamn the smae."
Did you have much difficulty reading that? Clearly, some jumbled words are easier to read than others. Among other things, the degree of difficulty depends on the length of the word and the extent to which its middle letters are jumbled. In the example above, I find the jumbled version of the word "rearranged" more difficult to read than some of the other, shorter words because it's longer and the letters are pretty well mixed up.
What I find interesting is that jumbles involving the trasnposition of two or even three adjacent letters are so easy to overlook. This is evidently because our brains compensate for the errors in such a way that we don't even notice them (the errors, not our brains).
This is probably one reason why we sometimes fail to see typos in our own work, which of course has implications for software developers. For example, while working in Visual FoxPro I sometimes type 'emtpy' when I mean 'empty', but I usually don't notice it.
BTW, developers using Visual FoxPro 9.0 have an advantage in this regard over developers using previous versions of VFP. The new background compilation feature in VFP 9.0 highlights incorrect syntax as you type by underlining or changing the color of the incorrect syntax. This helps catch errors right away instead of having to wait until compile time or run time. You can choose your preferred style for this feature from the Background Compile drop-down list under Tools | Options | Editor.
Just for fun, I wrote a VFP class called JumbleTron to do this kind of jumbling on any block of text. You can download it from my website at www.ita-software.com/foxpage.htm. Look for the link to JumbleTron under "Just for fun" in the downloads section. By design, the class accepts only 4K-byte blocks of text or smaller, but you can increase this if you want to.
Usage is simple: instantiate a JumbleTron object and pass some text to its GetJumbledText method. For example, copy some text to the clipboard, then in the VFP command window do the following to display the jumbled text on the screen.
ox=NEWOBJECT( "jumbleTron", "jumbleTron.prg")
?ox.GetJumbledText( _cliptext)
Or, to return the jumbled text to the clipboard:
_cliptext = ox.GetJumbledText( _cliptext)
Play around with the JumbleTron and decide for yourself how easy or difficult it is to read jumbled text. Have fun!
P.S. Outside of the deliberate examples, there are two typographical errors in this blog entry. Both are simple transpositions of two adjacent letters. Can you find them? Did they jump out at you as you were reading this, or did your brain take them in stride without notifying you?
This idea gained attention not long ago from an example floating around the Internet that cited "research at Cambridge University" (acutally, it cited "rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy".) That claim appears to be false and is refuted by Cambridge's Matt Davis in a writing posted at www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/, in which he dissects the Internet piece and references some real research in this field. There is, however, evidently some truth to this idea, at least in English and other languages where words are similarly structured.
In any case, it's fun to play with. By way of example, here's a jumbled version of the first sentence of this blog entry:
"It's been siad that peolpe can raed jbumeld text farily esliay when the mlidde lrtetes in ecah word are raegarnerd, as lnog as the frsit and lsat lteters of ecah word reiamn the smae."
Did you have much difficulty reading that? Clearly, some jumbled words are easier to read than others. Among other things, the degree of difficulty depends on the length of the word and the extent to which its middle letters are jumbled. In the example above, I find the jumbled version of the word "rearranged" more difficult to read than some of the other, shorter words because it's longer and the letters are pretty well mixed up.
What I find interesting is that jumbles involving the trasnposition of two or even three adjacent letters are so easy to overlook. This is evidently because our brains compensate for the errors in such a way that we don't even notice them (the errors, not our brains).
This is probably one reason why we sometimes fail to see typos in our own work, which of course has implications for software developers. For example, while working in Visual FoxPro I sometimes type 'emtpy' when I mean 'empty', but I usually don't notice it.
BTW, developers using Visual FoxPro 9.0 have an advantage in this regard over developers using previous versions of VFP. The new background compilation feature in VFP 9.0 highlights incorrect syntax as you type by underlining or changing the color of the incorrect syntax. This helps catch errors right away instead of having to wait until compile time or run time. You can choose your preferred style for this feature from the Background Compile drop-down list under Tools | Options | Editor.
Just for fun, I wrote a VFP class called JumbleTron to do this kind of jumbling on any block of text. You can download it from my website at www.ita-software.com/foxpage.htm. Look for the link to JumbleTron under "Just for fun" in the downloads section. By design, the class accepts only 4K-byte blocks of text or smaller, but you can increase this if you want to.
Usage is simple: instantiate a JumbleTron object and pass some text to its GetJumbledText method. For example, copy some text to the clipboard, then in the VFP command window do the following to display the jumbled text on the screen.
ox=NEWOBJECT( "jumbleTron", "jumbleTron.prg")
?ox.GetJumbledText( _cliptext)
Or, to return the jumbled text to the clipboard:
_cliptext = ox.GetJumbledText( _cliptext)
Play around with the JumbleTron and decide for yourself how easy or difficult it is to read jumbled text. Have fun!
P.S. Outside of the deliberate examples, there are two typographical errors in this blog entry. Both are simple transpositions of two adjacent letters. Can you find them? Did they jump out at you as you were reading this, or did your brain take them in stride without notifying you?
10.12.2005
Skype and port 80 conflict with IIS
This one bit me yesterday... If you encounter "unexpected error 0x8ffe2740" when trying to start a Web site under IIS, it may be a conflict with Skype using port 80. If so, the solution, which is found on Jon Galloway's blog, is to go into Skype's options and uncheck "Use ports 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections". In Skype 1.4.0.71 this is located under Tools | Options | Connection. You may have to close and restart Skype for the change to take effect.
10.01.2005
WiX has a new Web site
Rob Mensching blogs that WiX has a new home on the Web. WiX in the Windows Installer XML toolset for building MSI and MSM files from XML. The new URL is wix.sourceforge.net.
Side note: I'll be doing a presentation on using WiX with Visual FoxPro applications at the Southwest Fox conference in mid-October.
Side note: I'll be doing a presentation on using WiX with Visual FoxPro applications at the Southwest Fox conference in mid-October.
9.29.2005
SnagIt
Ah, the things we won't do for a free T-shirt. < s > Seriously, though, I do use it and it's a great tool. Go get your own shirt.
9.23.2005
FolderShare
For the past few weeks I've been experimenting with FolderShare™, a service that synchronizes file changes between linked computers over an Internet connection. I'm impressed, enough so that I signed up for the paid version after using the free version for only a few days.
In my software development work, I use both a desktop machine and a laptop machine. The desktop machine is at my office, while the laptop machine normally stays at home so I can continue working in the evening. Keeping the two machines in sync has always been a challenge, involving varying numbers of ZIP® disks, CDs, USB drives, and other portable media to physically transport files back and forth from one location to the other. Although that solution was workable, it was cumbersome and prone to biological memory errors (i.e., I'd sometimes forget to take a file home with me, or to bring it back to the office).
FolderShare enables you to establish a link between a folder on one machine and a corresponding folder on another machine. Once the link has been established (a very simple process), you can turn on automatic sync or on-demand sync. Automatic sync keeps the two folders in sync in the background while you work. This is the way I've been using it and I haven't noticed any effect on performance—no slow or unresponsive apps—while I work, even on the older, slower laptop machine. The process has been completely transparent.
I tested FolderShare while preparing my presentation files for the upcoming Southwest Fox conference. By placing everything I was working on for this conference in one root folder and setting it to auto-sync with the same folder on the other machine, I had automatic two-way synchronization between the two machines. Files updates, additions, and deletions on one machine were automatically reflected on the other. Anything I did during the day was ready for me to keep working on when I got home, and anything I did at home in the evening was ready and waiting for me at the office the next morning. No physical media involved. Very slick.
FolderShare setup involves installing a small (less than 1MB) program on each linked computer. Configuration takes place over a secure connection to your account on the FolderShare website. The free version limits you to two shared or synched folders, while the paid versions increase this to 100 or 250 folders depending on the plan you choose. The paid versions also enable other features, including the ability to access files in any folder on a linked machine over the Web. The FolderShare website has a chart comparing plan features. According to the chart, file transfers are encrypted and secure under all plans.
In my experience, FolderShare is simple to use and works as expected. Try it, you'll like it.
In my software development work, I use both a desktop machine and a laptop machine. The desktop machine is at my office, while the laptop machine normally stays at home so I can continue working in the evening. Keeping the two machines in sync has always been a challenge, involving varying numbers of ZIP® disks, CDs, USB drives, and other portable media to physically transport files back and forth from one location to the other. Although that solution was workable, it was cumbersome and prone to biological memory errors (i.e., I'd sometimes forget to take a file home with me, or to bring it back to the office).
FolderShare enables you to establish a link between a folder on one machine and a corresponding folder on another machine. Once the link has been established (a very simple process), you can turn on automatic sync or on-demand sync. Automatic sync keeps the two folders in sync in the background while you work. This is the way I've been using it and I haven't noticed any effect on performance—no slow or unresponsive apps—while I work, even on the older, slower laptop machine. The process has been completely transparent.
I tested FolderShare while preparing my presentation files for the upcoming Southwest Fox conference. By placing everything I was working on for this conference in one root folder and setting it to auto-sync with the same folder on the other machine, I had automatic two-way synchronization between the two machines. Files updates, additions, and deletions on one machine were automatically reflected on the other. Anything I did during the day was ready for me to keep working on when I got home, and anything I did at home in the evening was ready and waiting for me at the office the next morning. No physical media involved. Very slick.
FolderShare setup involves installing a small (less than 1MB) program on each linked computer. Configuration takes place over a secure connection to your account on the FolderShare website. The free version limits you to two shared or synched folders, while the paid versions increase this to 100 or 250 folders depending on the plan you choose. The paid versions also enable other features, including the ability to access files in any folder on a linked machine over the Web. The FolderShare website has a chart comparing plan features. According to the chart, file transfers are encrypted and secure under all plans.
In my experience, FolderShare is simple to use and works as expected. Try it, you'll like it.
9.21.2005
Firefox 1.0.7 and IDN
According to mozillaZine, "The Mozilla Foundation previously issued a patch for Firefox 1.0.6 that protected users against the IDN link buffer overflow flaw at the expense of removing support for IDNs. Firefox 1.0.7 has a more permanent solution that does not involve disabling IDN functionality and any users who installed the patch will find that IDN support is restored when they upgrade." (emphasis mine)
My experience this morning is that if you did not apply the patch to 1.0.6 but rather set network.EnableIDN false by editing about:config manually, installing v1.0.7 does not set network.EnableIDN back to true. You'll have to do that manually.
My experience this morning is that if you did not apply the patch to 1.0.6 but rather set network.EnableIDN false by editing about:config manually, installing v1.0.7 does not set network.EnableIDN back to true. You'll have to do that manually.
Firefox 1.0.7 Released
With v1.5 Beta 1 already available for public download, another point release of Firefox v1.0 was not necessarily to have been expected, but recent security concerns have prompted the release of v1.0.7 today. From the mozillaZine news site: "Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7, a security and stability update to the flagship Mozilla browser, is now available for download. Fixes are included for the international domain name (IDN) link buffer overflow vulnerability and the Linux command line URL parsing flaw. There are also other security and stability changes..." The release notes are here.
9.19.2005
Farewell Drew Speedie
Words cannot begin to express the shock and sadness I felt upon learning of the death of Drew Speedie and his young son Brent over the weekend. The circumstances of this tragic accident make it even more difficult to accept. Drew was one of the most likeable and talented developers I've every had the pleasure to know. He's been a 'guru' in the FoxPro community for as long as I can remember, and his innumerable contributions have helped me and so many other people to learn and become better at our craft. My sincerest condolences to his wife and extended family. Drew, we'll miss you, old friend.
9.07.2005
Maynard G. Krebs (off topic)
Although perhaps best remembered by TV fans as Gilligan, before that Bob Denver, who died last Friday at age 70, was beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the Dobie Gillis show. One very cool cat.
8.30.2005
Free Opera license
As part of their 10th anniversary celebration, the folks at Opera Software are giving away free registration codes for the Opera browser. If you're a Web developer and want to be able to test in Opera — or if you simply want to try it out — this is a good opportunity to get what I assume is an ad-free version of their popular browser.
Jon Galloway blogs that this offer is good only until 12 AM PDT August 31, so if you're interested hurry on over to the Opera Party page or go directly to the free registration page.
Jon Galloway blogs that this offer is good only until 12 AM PDT August 31, so if you're interested hurry on over to the Opera Party page or go directly to the free registration page.
8.25.2005
ISTool 5.1.5
If you use Inno Setup you owe it to yourself to also use the companion tool ISTool, which provides a phenomenally useful GUI interface to your Inno Setup scripts. ISTool v5.1.5 was just released, keeping up its tradition of staying in sync with the latest version of Inno Setup itself.
8.18.2005
Inno Setup 5.1.5 Released
Inno Setup version 5.1.5 has been released and is available for download at jrsoftware.org/isdl.php. Read what's new in this latest point release at jrsoftware.org/files/is5-whatsnew.htm.
It's been nearly three months since v5.1.4 came out, which was the first non-beta version to support the installation of 64-bit applications on 64-bit versions of Windows. This product is very stable and has been for quite some time, but it continues to receive tweaks and enhancements.
It's been nearly three months since v5.1.4 came out, which was the first non-beta version to support the installation of 64-bit applications on 64-bit versions of Windows. This product is very stable and has been for quite some time, but it continues to receive tweaks and enhancements.
8.12.2005
Deja View, or Why Too Many RSS Feeds May Not Be A Good Thing
In the beginning, there was RSS. Along came a good feed reader, and my daily work-related surfing habits changed dramatically: 30-60 minutes every day of browsing individual websites to keep up with what's happening were replaced by 5-10 minutes of scanning headlines and occasionally reading a complete story.
Time was saved. Life was good.
But that was then, and this is now. It's no exaggeration to say the number of RSS feeds out there has grown exponentially in 2005. This is largely due to two factors: blogs, and publishers adding RSS feeds to websites that didn't have them before.
Naturally, as the number of feeds proliferated, so did the population of my Favorite Feeds folder. One year ago, there were probably 10-15 feeds I looked at every day. Today, there are easily over a hundred. My 5-10 minutes of scanning headlines has ballooned to 20-30 minutes of reading feed updates. Twice a day. And that's just to stay current: never mind the forays into new and interesting feeds that crop up all the time.
Information overload is very real these days.
What makes it worse, I'm seeing a growing amount of overlap among feeds. For one thing, many news feeds pick up the same story. Then somebody who sees that new item blogs about it, and somebody else sees that blog and posts a reference to it. And so on. I find myself seeing the same material, in one way or another, more than once on a regular basis.
Call it Deja View: the feeling of "haven't I seen this someplace before?"
Is this happening to you, too?
At least one solution is obvious, albeit painful: cut back on the number of feeds I'm reading every day. It's not an easy decision to make, but it's probably inevitable. The risk of missing something important has to be weighed against the benefit of gaining back some valuable time.
I have no idea which feeds I'll stop reading regularly. But I'm going to have to start somewhere. Tempus fugit.
Time was saved. Life was good.
But that was then, and this is now. It's no exaggeration to say the number of RSS feeds out there has grown exponentially in 2005. This is largely due to two factors: blogs, and publishers adding RSS feeds to websites that didn't have them before.
Naturally, as the number of feeds proliferated, so did the population of my Favorite Feeds folder. One year ago, there were probably 10-15 feeds I looked at every day. Today, there are easily over a hundred. My 5-10 minutes of scanning headlines has ballooned to 20-30 minutes of reading feed updates. Twice a day. And that's just to stay current: never mind the forays into new and interesting feeds that crop up all the time.
Information overload is very real these days.
What makes it worse, I'm seeing a growing amount of overlap among feeds. For one thing, many news feeds pick up the same story. Then somebody who sees that new item blogs about it, and somebody else sees that blog and posts a reference to it. And so on. I find myself seeing the same material, in one way or another, more than once on a regular basis.
Call it Deja View: the feeling of "haven't I seen this someplace before?"
Is this happening to you, too?
At least one solution is obvious, albeit painful: cut back on the number of feeds I'm reading every day. It's not an easy decision to make, but it's probably inevitable. The risk of missing something important has to be weighed against the benefit of gaining back some valuable time.
I have no idea which feeds I'll stop reading regularly. But I'm going to have to start somewhere. Tempus fugit.
8.10.2005
Amyuni PDF Converter 2.50d bug fix
Among other issues it addresses, Amyuni PDF Converter 2.50d includes a fix for a bug that sometimes caused Adobe® Reader® 7.0 to encounter errors when attempting to render images in a PDF file created by an earlier version of the Amyuni PDF Converter. In my experience this problem showed up frequently in Web pages I'd captured to PDF. According to Amyuni's release notes for version 2.50d, the issue is specific to Acrobat® version 7.
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