sbisson: (Default)
2009-09-03 03:47 pm
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More power, more power...

Scott Hanselman's annual list of developer and power user tools for Windows is just out, and there are a lot of good tools in there - many of which I use every day. They range from memory joggers and notetakers to DOS emulators and deep debugging tools.

It's one of those lists that every time you look at it, you'll find something more and something that solves one of those nagging little issues (like the application that take a screenshot of your desktop every hour or so, so you can remember just what you were doing when...).

There's one area where Scott doesn't have some of the problems I have - working with more than one machine at a time. I try to keep distractions off my main screen when I'm working, so I have a laptop on an old monitor stand on my desk. I can just pull it out to type on when I need it. These days, however, I don't even need to do that.

A software keyboard mouse switch does the work for me, and all I need to do is slide my mouse of the side of one screen, onto another - in fact on to another machine. I'm currently on my third tool of this type. I started out with Synergy, but the project started lagging OS development and there hasn't been a new build for years. Then I switch to Multiplicity, but it too drifted off into the realms where updates are few and far between.

So I'm now using Input Director, which is one of those Ronseal applications, that just does what it says on the tin. It's easy to set up, easy to use, and works well with Windows 7.

That's me happy.
sbisson: (Default)
2009-08-08 05:57 pm
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Shared Reading

I've switched to using Google Reader as my main RSS platform (as my long term synchronisation tool Newsgator is turning off its platform at the end of August).

The change has been relatively painless thanks to the tools built into the latest beta versions of FeedDemon and NetNewsWire, and as an added benefit it means I can now use its Shared Items feature to highlight RSS feed items I found particularly useful or interesting.

If you think you might find what I find interesting interesting, you can find my shared items here. I've also made it an LJ syndicated account, as [livejournal.com profile] sbisson_shared.

Share and enjoy!
sbisson: (Default)
2008-03-19 05:39 pm
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A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld

I've been looking for a back-up brain for sometime now, and the latest version of Evernote is an interesting step along that road.

It's a notetaking application that mixes mobile, desktop and web tools to make sure that you can take notes anywhere, and synchronise them through one service. I've found it very useful over the last few days, and it works across my Windows and OS X machines, as well as through my Windows Mobile phone. I can take a note on the road, and it'll be on my desktop as soon as I get back. Clipping tools let me copy text from web pages straight to the web service too...

I've got nine eight seven beta invitations to give away. Ping me if you want one!

Desktop is Windows XP, Vista and OS X Leopard, and mobile is currently only Windows Mobile - Java and iPhone versions should be along soon...
sbisson: (Default)
2007-11-21 06:21 pm
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Uploadd

I'm trying out the beta of the latest version of the Flickr Uploadr, and I'm already tempted to say: "Great job, chaps". Sure, it's beta code, and there are still known bugs, but it seems to fix most of my issues with the Uploadr.

This is a complete rewrite of the old Uploadr, using a completely different set of technologies. The biggest visible change is a cross-platform UI built using Mozilla's Xulrunner. The result is an application that looks very similar to the site's recently updated web-based uploading tool, but with many more features.

My favourite feature so far has to be batch tagging, the ability to select a group of images, and quickly apply the same tags, descriptions, and titles (as well as other basic image settings). That's the big win for me - it makes uploading a day's images a lot easier, and reduces the time taken tagging. Group management has been improved too, and if an upload fails, tags and targeted groups are saved for the next attempt.

The result is a big improvement in work flow. I can get a batch of images tagged and uploaded in a few minutes, when using a mix of the old Uploadr and the web UI took at least three times as long...

Recommended.
sbisson: (Default)
2007-11-11 09:41 pm
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Useful Firefox extension of the day: Read It Later

I've just started using a really useful browser extension.

I'd used to keep a Temporary folder in my bookmarks, where I'd keep links I wanted to read later. However, to be honest, it got clogged up, or just plain forgotten about.

Friday I came across Read It Later. It's a really simple idea - it just adds a new option to the browser's right click menu, and a couple of extra buttons in the menu bar.

Right click Read it later instead of opening a link (or click the Read Later button in the toolbar when you're on a page), and the page is added to the Reading List. When you want to read the page, just click on the Reading List drop down, and when you're done click the Mark as Read button to remove from the list and add to any of a whole host of bookmarking services (including Firefox's own...).

Simple, and sensible.

Now all I want it is a synchronisation web service, so I can access the same Read It Later bookmarks from my laptop and my desktop.
sbisson: (Default)
2007-09-17 11:39 am
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Hamachi isn't just for Sushi

It's not easy setting up a new PC when you're 8 timezones away from your network and servers - especially when your router has decided it doesn't want to pass VPN packets, and your mail software decides it needs a direct connection to the server as part of its initial set up...

A bit of googling threw up a rather useful piece of software: Hamachi. Now run by the folk at LogMeIn, Hamachi is a cloud-based UDP VPN that needs very little configuration. All you need to do is install the client software (available for Windows, OS X and Linux) on all the machines you want to connect to the network. These build UDP tunnels to the Hamachi servers. You can then define a network name (and password), and your systems can then be connected to each other through your new network. There's a free version which runs as an application, and a premium paid version that can be run as a service. The free download gives you 30 days of premium service - a good way for LogMeIn to add paying customers!

Sensibly the Hamchi servers issue IP addresses from the 5.x.x.x range, so there's very little chance of colliding with IP addresses on the local network (something that happens all too often with traditional VPNs which try to map one network's structure onto another's...).

It's not quite the promised zero-configuration VPN - I did find that I needed to open up one set of UDP ports on my home network firewall, but everything else ran smoothly, and I'm back with email at last...

Another tool for the mobile computing toolbox.
sbisson: (Default)
2006-07-30 07:23 pm
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We don't no steeenkin' buttons...

Or perhaps we do.

Here's Google's library of more than 600 new search buttons you can add to the newly customisable Google browser toolbar. There's a nice selection of reference sources, and buttons that'll search many other search engines.

Useful...
sbisson: (Default)
2006-07-28 09:00 pm
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Neat Tool of the Day: The PC De-Crapifier

New PCs tend to be full of shovelware - applications and ISP trials you'll never use. You could do a vape and reinstall, but if you don't have a vanilla OS to hand you're probably stuck with a restore image that'll just put the shovelware right back again. That's where today's neat tool comes in: The PC De-Crapifier. Regularly updated, it's a one stop shop for cleaning out a new PC.

Run the script, and it'll remove most of the most common shovelware:

see just what it kills behind here! )

Originally designed for Dell PCs (and originally called the Dell De-Crapifier), this is one for that USB key of useful tools you end up having to carry every time you go visit your relatives...
sbisson: (Default)
2006-07-24 05:23 pm
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sbisson: (Default)
2006-07-19 08:07 pm

The Five Social Media Technologies You Couldn't Do Without

Drew Benvie at Lewis PR was wondering what social media tools various folk use. His list is pretty decent and has given me a new tool to try out...

So what are my five tools?

Newsgator: it's my standard RSS reader thanks to its Outlook integration, and it synchronises with its online reader well. The online side needs a bit of work to catch up with Bloglines or NewsAlloy, but it's pretty decent all the same. On the road I tend to use RSS Bandit, as it's small and fast. However, I'm looking forward to what the Newsgator folk do with the RSS technologies in Windows Vista and 2007 Office System. I keep a local archive of my RSS feeds and index it with Lookout. That gives me a whole long tail on RSS that turns it into an excellent research tool.

Trillian: IM is the ultimate in social media tools. While I use Skype and Skylook for work purposes, most of my social network is managed through IM (friends, colleagues, contacts, folk from previous jobs), and having a single tool that gives me access to MSN, AIM, Y!, ICQ and Jabber is vital. Its metacontact tools make managing all my many IM contacts incredibly easy. Now that my main blogging tool has turned on a Jabber server it's opened up a whole new layer of interaction - that's already more than proved its worth.

LiveJournal: my main blogging platform with a built in social network tool. LJ's "friends" model may be a combination RSS reader and buddy list on steroids, but it does give the LJ platform something lacking from other blogging tools - a community. As I've got a permanent LJ account bought several years ago when the service was needing new servers urgently, I get a lot of benefits that have more than paid for my $100 contribution to the service - and I've mapped my LJ blog to a personal domain. I also use Wordpress for a more esoteric occasional technical blog that I really must do more with... LJ's also blessed with a whole range of offline blog editing tools, which leads me neatly on to...

Semagic: an excellent free blog post editing tool. It works with LJ, Blogger, and Wordpress (even MSN Spaces!) - and also links to online photo hosting services. An excellent little tool, with a lot of powerful features. It's also free. It's not the only tool I use. I keep a copy of PocketPoster on my Windows Mobile 5.0 device for moblogging, and I occasionally use the Firefox Performancing extension for quick blog posts without leaving my browser.

Flickr: I photoblog a lot, and a good image hosting service is important - and it needs to be social media friendly. Flickr wins out by a long way here. It also has good tool support - and API that lets me do and find out interesting things with and about my pictures.

So there you have it - five social media tools (and combinations of tools) that are an essential part of my day.

What do you use?
sbisson: (Default)
2006-07-14 09:09 pm
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A (Flickr) Inspector Calls.

I've been having a play with the Flickr Inspector, a web application that looks at the contents of your Flickr photostream, and tells you interesting things about it...

Here's a look at mine.

Useful (in a limited sort of way)...
sbisson: (Default)
2006-02-14 07:29 pm

"the web, tested"

Following links from the ever helpful Lifehacker, I came across Siteadvisor.

Currently in beta, it's a tool that informs you whether the link you've followed (or even are about to click on) points to a site that delivers malware, or spams you when you give it a registration email.

It's not too obtrusive - though it does add a rating icon to links on Google. You can use a JavaScript-driven pop-up to drill down to find out what was seen as to give a site a bad rating, whether it's sending spam or downloads with embedded spyware.

Rather useful - and available for both IE and Firefox.

Put this one on your parents' PC!

You'll be pleased to know that this blog gets a clean bill of health!
sbisson: (Default)
2005-09-15 10:36 am
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Too much information, too soon...

...as Chris Pratley's latest OneNote 12 entry means that I want it now!
Audio/Video: Audio and Video you have recorded or placed in OneNote will also get indexed (Video is indexed by the audio stream). This is some cool MSR technology from our lab in Beijing that we're quite pleased to have. The way this works is pretty cool. The audio is converted from waveforms to phonetic equivalents, and those are indexed. You can type your search term, then this is converted by OneNote into a phonetic equivalent which searches against the phonetic index of the audio. Actually this is a gross oversimplification but you get the idea. You can use this to search your notes for a particular voice note you took, or to find the point in an hour-long interview when a particular word is mentioned (way better than fast forwarding and rewinding to find a spot)
OneNote is possibly the most useful piece of software I use - it's the ideal tool for a working journalist, and this one feature will make it invaluable.

Hmmm. OneNote 12 as podcasting client, anyone?
sbisson: (Default)
2005-09-13 05:20 pm
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Thank goodness....

...for BT's online directory enquiries.

Our mail server had crashed, failing to reboot after a power cut. Luckily we were able to find Tom-downstairs' number and walk him through power-cycling the box.

All back now, and 200+ emails read and dealt with. And a nifty tool bookmarked for future use...
sbisson: (Default)
2005-08-22 02:09 pm

Return of the sidebar...

...Windows Vista may have lost its sidebar, but the new Google Desktop Search adds one.

Not as invisible as Blinkx's tool, but still quite useful, the Google bar gives you plenty of information in one place. Just look across to see news headlines, notes, recent web sites, weather - and if its not there a published API allows you to develop new plugins.

Worth looking at.



Google gives what Microsoft taketh away...
sbisson: (Default)
2005-08-12 02:15 pm
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YAUT*: Fog Creek Copilot

Developer tools company Fog Creek have produced a rather useful tool for those of us who have to occasionally fix other people's computers. A web-initiated secure VNC session, routed through Fog Creek's servers, Copilot allows you to work with someone's computer simply by making a request at a website. Windows only at the moment, but the GPLed code is available if you want to port it to other platforms!

Yes, there is a fee, but at $9.95 it's less than the cost of your time when trying to debug VNC or RDP connections through someone's firewall...

*Yet Another Useful Tool - and this was an intern project too!
sbisson: (Default)
2005-08-02 01:33 pm
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Useful application of the day: Synergy

Synergy is a rather nifty little tool that allows you to share a mouse and keyboard between several PCs. As it's a software tool it also allows you to share clipboards between your machines - so you can cut and paste from one machine to another, avoiding all that tedious file transfer...

It's easy enough to set up - the same code acts as server and client.

Just choose the machine that'll be the server (I use my desktop), and then the machines that will be the clients - choosing where they'll be in relation to the server screen. As I'm using it with a desktop and laptop, the server is my main PC, with the laptop a client off to the right of the server screen.

Hooking my laptop to my main PC means I now have a 4.3 million pixel desktop.
sbisson: (Default)
2005-07-26 05:01 pm
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Open wide! Here comes the aeroplane...

...or at least the babyplane: a set of wings you clip onto a spoon.



"Speedbird Heavy 156 now cleared for landing with a cargo full of Gerbers..."
sbisson: (Default)
2005-07-15 02:11 pm
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Got those comment spam blues?

Hit the spammers where it hurts: in their Google juice.

Google now offers a place where you can report any signs of spammers trying to get around the Google crawler.
If your Google search returns a result that you suspect is spam, please let us know using this form. We investigate each report of deceptive practices thoroughly and take appropriate action when abuse is uncovered. At minimum, we will use the data from each spam report to improve our site ranking and filtering algorithms. The result of this should be visible over time as the quality of our searches gets even better. In especially egregious cases, we will remove spammers from our index immediately, so they do not show up in search results at all. Other steps will be taken as necessary.
All to the good, methinks.
sbisson: (Default)
2005-07-12 07:47 pm
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It does all sorts of chat...

...as now there's a Skype plug-in for Trillian.

Not quite a true standalone tool - it uses the Skype APIs to handle integration, so Skype needs to be running. But you can start calls, and have Skype IM chats without leaving Trillian.

All in all, quite useful.

[Update: Trillian 3.0 and above only - Sorry Alan!]