Daily Cup of Tech

Simply Google:

Simply Google

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/31/everything-google-in-one-page/trackback/

FrontMotion Login:

FrontMotion Login is the next generation logon interface for Windows NT, 2000 and Windows XP. It goes beyond the normal Microsoft Windows logon and offers more interactivity and functionality through the use of Macromedia Flash and our custom logon implementation (gina). No DLL hacking is needed and no system files are replaced.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/31/windows-login-alternative/trackback/

Most of you have probably read about the troubles I’ve had in the past with web hosting. So, I’ve decided that it is time for a change. This is in no way a slam on my present web host, Dreamhost, but I just think that they are having trouble with my website, largely because it seems to be a bit more atypical than most other sites.

So, the hunt begins and I am turning you, my trusty DCoT readers, for your advice as to whom I should use for a web host. Here are the criteria that I will be needing for the host:

Software:

• PHP 5
• MySQL 5.0.24a or greater
• Wordpress 2.2
• MediaWiki 1.10.0
• activeCollab 0.7.1
• phpMyAdmin (any recent version)

Traffic/Bandwidth:

• About 50 GB / month
• Daily hits about 10,000

Disk Usage:

• Website: 2 GB (includes e-mail)
• MySQL: 250 MB
• Increasing monthly by 5%

E-Mail:

• 200 mailboxes
• Autoresponders
• Mail forwards

Miscellaneous:

• Easy to transfer site a bonus
• Support should be available by e-mail and phone
• Reasonably priced
• Host should be in North America
• A web host who is willing to sponsor DCoT would be awesome (but I’m not holding my breath, I’m just putting it out there)
• Web based control panel
• SSH account
• FTP access
• Reasonably priced (I am, after all, essentially an online beggar)

I would love to hear from anyone who has had a really good experience with a web host and who can point me in the right direction. Let the web host spam begin!

P.S. I made the graphic using a cool online graphic generator!

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/31/time-for-a-webhost-change/trackback/

I realize that I have been a bit lax in the Tech Blog of the Week department lately so I am going to try and make it up by posting two tech Blogs of the Week this week!

I think I am like many other tech people who just need to know how things are done. We aren’t interested so much in the destination as we are the journey. Sure, anyone can buy a piece of software but we want to know how to write the software. This is why I love the How-To Geek!

the How-To Geek has a very wide audience because it could tackle something really simple like Import Text into Excel 2007 today and then Run ASP.NET applications on Ubuntu tomorrow. Here is a sampling of some of their most recent work:

• Unzip or Unrar Many Files at Once in Linux
• View Your Google Calendar in Outlook 2007
• Quickly Translate Text to Another Language in Word 2007
• Clear Recent Documents in the XP Start Menu
• Mac OSX Expose Clone for Windows Vista
• Enable Hidden BootScreen in Windows Vista
• Mount an ISO image in Windows Vista
• Make User Account Control (UAC) Stop Blacking Out the Screen in Windows Vista

There is always something to learn over at the How-To Geek, regardless of how long you have been working with computers. Well worth your time.

Vital Links

• Website: http://www.howtogeek.com/
• Post Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HowToGeek

If you would like to have your blog considered for the Tech Blog of the Week, feel free to submit it and you may also find yourself highlighted.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/31/tech-blog-of-the-week-part-1-the-how-to-geek/trackback/

I have received a lot of publicity around the Lost USB Drive application. Daily Cup of Tech has been mentioned in Popular Science twice. The story of the lost and found child in Disneyland also gained a lot of attention.

But, there are those who do not believe it works or question how well it would work. I have to be honest, I have not actually tested to see if the application works in a real-world scenario. This is where you come in!

I am looking for one hundred loyal DCoT users who are willing to “lose” a USB drive for me. If you have an old USB drive lying around or you got one as a piece of swag from a conference, I would like you to put the Lost USB drive program on it, register it with DCoT, and then lose it. We will then see how well the program works!

All of the details about registering your drive and a special program that I wrote which will automatically configure your USB drive with the proper settings and also help you write that all important “Get me home!” message are on the official Lost USB Drive Experiment page.

I am very excited about this little experiment because I really do not know what the outcome will be.  Also, because we have such a wide audience that literally covers the globe, I am interested to see which country or city is the most honest/willing to put an unknown USB drive into their computer!

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/30/wanted-lost-drive-experiment-volunteers/trackback/

Scribus :: Open Source Desktop Publishing for Linux, Mac OS® X and Windows®:

Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/30/scribus/trackback/

Open Source Freeware : 400+ free applications and utilities : eConsultant:

Open Source Freeware : 400+ free applications and utilities Extremely useful open source applications and utilities available free under various licenses.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/30/400-open-source-tools/trackback/

I want a Freeware Utility to … 450+ common problems solved : eConsultant:

I want a Freeware Utility to … 450+ common problems solved. Extremely useful free utilities that do specific jobs really well and save time and money.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/30/450-freeware-utilities/trackback/

Programming: How to build a Firefox extension - Lifehacker:

How to build a Firefox extension

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/30/how-to-build-a-firefox-extension/trackback/

A new version (3.2.4.9) of AutoIt was released last Friday. If you are an avid AutoIt fan, make sure to update your version of AutoIt. You can download the new version of AutoIt and Scite4autoIt.

Here are the changes in this version from the last major version:

• Added: StringCompare()
• Fixed: Basic string comparisons were not working with locale as in previous versions.
• Fixed: Errors with non-western codepages and ANSI format scripts.
• Added: Aut2Exe options for forcing ANSI mode compilation (/ansi and /unicode)
• Added: StringToBinary()
• Added: Additional unicode related options for BinaryToString()
• Fixed: StringReplace() and occurances parameter.
• Added: BinaryToString() for binary buffer to ANSI string quick conversions.
• Added: @Unicode macro to show if AutoIt is being run in Unicode or ANSI mode.
• Changed: StringReplace() speeded up - a lot.
• Changed: Au3Info is now resizable.
• Fixed: Chr(0) now properly works with Binary()
• Fixed: Chr(0) now acting more sensible (now acts in a similar way to VBScript).
• Fixed: FileRead() not working properly with unicode files.
• Changed: Au3Info graphical tweaks and Summary tab.
• Fixed: FileReadLine() getting bad cached data when reading specific line numbers with file handles.
• Fixed: Slight lag in GUIGetMsg() under certain circumstances.
• Added: ChrW() and AscW() for unicode operations.
• Fixed: Chr() and Asc() for character codes 128-255 in unicode mode.
• Fixed: Unicode BOM was not being written in file append modes if the file was empty.
• Fixed: Error in Include\GuiCombo.au3 and Include\IE.au3.
• AutoIt is now compiled for Unicode! AutoIt3.exe is Unicode - AutoIt3A.exe is ANSI.
• Au3Info tool rewritten.
• Binary data functions completely rewritten - scripts using these functions will need to be changed.
• Added: New modes for FileOpen() to force Unicode and binary operations.
• Added: BinaryLen(), BinaryMid()
• Added: Colored GUI buttons.
• Added: DllStruct…() can reference elements by name rather than index.
• Changed: Removed restrictions on the maximum number of #include directives.
• Changed: Removed restrictions on the maximum number of DllOpen() handles.
• Changed: Removed restrictions on the maximum number of open files.
• Changed: Removed restrictions on the maximum number of hotkeys.
• Changed: Performance improvements in StringStripWS().
• Changed: Binary data in variants are now treated as a special type, separate from normal strings.
• Changed: BinaryString() renamed to Binary()
• Changed: IsBinaryString() renamed to IsBinary()
• Changed: ControlClick() can now click a control at a certain position.
• Changed: ControlClick() can now properly simulate double-clicks.
• Changed: ControlClick() no longer forces the activation of the parent window (up to the user now).
• Changed: ControlClick() related coordinates added to Au3Info.
• Changed: Improved the searches that can be done for Windows/controls/instances.
• Changed: From DEFAULT_QUALITY to PROOF_QUALITY for Change/Set Font functions.
• Changed: x^y compatible with C99 standard.
• Fixed: Possible crash when using StringStripWS(), flag 4 and empty strings.
• Fixed: GUICtrlSetLimit() for UpDown controls wher min = max.
• Fixed: GuiCtrlSetTip() not always working correctly.
• Fixed: Slow GUI tab redrawing under Windows Vista fixed.
• Fixed: HotKeySet bad notification.
• Fixed: FileGetAttrib() on pagefile.sys.
• Fixed: Invalid default parameter in GUICtrlSetData() not detected.
• Fixed: Assign does return error on array element.
• Fixed: FileOpen(”test.txt”, 2+8) returning error.
• Fixed: Error detection in Enum statement.
• Fixed: Opt(”WinTitleMatchMode”).
• Fixed: Stack corruption resulting from improper use of DllCall() now gracefully aborts the script instead of hard crashing.
• Fixed: Crash when reading empty REG_MULTI_SZ.
• Fixed: Round() not returning an integer.
• Fixed: ControlSend() to empty “” ctrl fixed for inactive window. Also shift state behavior.
• Fixed : O^(-1).
• Fixed: Non detection of illegal statement.
• Fixed: HotKeySet(”^{PAUSE]”,… notification.
• Fixed: {CTRLBREAK} ->{BREAK} as ctrl is user responsability.
• Fixed: $var = Default passed as parameter to Com object.
• Fixed: Edit control would always have focus the first time the GUI was displayed even if it shouldn’t. This behavior also ignored $GUI_FOCUS.
• Fixed: range value for seed Number in SRandom().
• Fixed: Fileread crash if no count in raw mode.
• Fixed: Opt(”WinTitleMatchMode”, <0) really matching case insensitive.
• Fixed: FileSetAttrib/FileSetTime wrong setting.
• Fixed: Execute/Call recursive overflow display error message.
• Fixed: Aut2exe warning message if icon not found.
• Fixed: WinGetTitle() returns 1 on error.
• Fixed: Memory leak on keyword variable deallocation.

Trackback link - http://www.DailyCupOfTech.com/2007/05/30/new-version-of-autoit-released/trackback/