equivocal ramblings » Software

Instapaper

admin — Sat, 15 May 2010 14:25:48 +0000

Instapaper is one of the best web-based tools I’ve used in a long long while. I love the recommendations — I just skim the headlines and click Read Later. The Google Reader integration is awesome too. It just integrates so well into my daily routine.

Instapaper, an example of a tool that does one thing, and does it well.

SVNKit + Subclipse Problems

Kevin Francis — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:35:47 +0000

If you’re experiencing difficulty getting Subclipse working with SVNKit, install the very latest. One of the dependencies pulled in will list an SVNKit beta. Install that one and it’ll suddenly show up as a provider.

This is true as of Eclipse Ganymede and Subclipse 1.6.2 (installed with CollabNet Desktop). Just thought to save someone else several hours of their life :)

On Google Accounts

Kevin Francis — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:34:30 +0000

I have several domains running Google Apps for Domains. I also have a GMail/Google account. I’ve always found it odd that I cannot link my kevin@kevinfrancis.net account to my Google account in some way.

It’s a bit funny to have to keep what appears to be multiple Google accounts sitting around… I wonder if OpenID will factor into this in the future?

Firefox Scaling Zoom Kills Performance

Kevin Francis — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:13:47 +0000

I’m rather insistent about scaling zoom being set by default 120% of my copy of Firefox. I achieve this with the NoSquint ~~plugin~~ add-on. Of late I’d been noticing that Firefox page scrolling was really really really bad.

Turns out this is caused by scaling zoom — turn the default page zoom to 100% and performance is really good, with scrolling being smooth and uniform.

Also, I today discovered that I’ve been right to avoid using the word performant — performant is not a word! Seems this is quite endemic to the technology industry as I’ve seen this word being used in everything from white papers to published books…

Safari 4 Scaling Zoom

Kevin Francis — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:10:10 +0000

Finally, Safari has page scaling in the v4 Beta. Sadly though it appears to exhibit strange behaviour with GMail for instance — When I zoom in, it also scales the width of the entire page, which means I now have to scroll left and right :(

Now, whilst this may or may not be the best thing for scaling zoom to do, my question is rather about whether it’s the right thing to do…

Page scaling should in theory scale everything right? Thoughts anyone? Perhaps you’re familiar with the W3 recommendation on this matter…

Your Next Favourite Band

Kevin Francis — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:47:51 +0000

Your Next Favourite Band is a service that ties into your Last.fm profile and attempts to predict what your next favourite band (duh) might be. I’ve run it a few times and it keeps saying the same thing: Jason Mraz. I really think they need to overhaul their algorithm because I dislike Jason Mraz.

Overall Impression of Windows 7

Kevin Francis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:23:40 +0000

After using Windows 7 for 2 weeks I think I’ve got a pretty good feel for it. I haven’t wavered once in all this time, sticking closely to my goal of using Windows through and through.

It was not an ordeal. It was not painful. It is a definite improvement over XP/Vista. Will I switch to using it full time rather than Linux? No.

Windows has improved to the point where it no longer makes me rip my hair out, but it still doesn’t impress me. It’s finally what I expected Windows XP to have been, so really, I’m not impressed. I am however not irritated by it, which is impressive.

P.S.: For all you who are considering it — nothing has proven incompatible for me except for Daemon Tools which won’t install at all. Yes it is faster. No, really.

Internationalisation and Localisation

Kevin Francis — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:10:00 +0000

Found in the comments for the British English Dictionary pack for Firefox 3:

“My favourite dictionary. COLOUR COLOUR COLOUR COLOUR COLOUR See? None of those are spelling errors!”

— scmartindale

On the Frustration Experienced in Trying to Install Photoshop CS3

Kevin Francis — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:51:26 +0000

This is perhaps the best way I’ve seen frustration with a software installer expressed in a long while:

I forsee Friends of Ed creating a book series, “Foundation Adobe CS3 Installation”, Amazon cross selling people who buy the software with something like “Customers who purchased Adobe CS3, also bought 100 capsule bottles of Excedrin, Pepsid AC, and a book titled “How to find a job when you’ve been fired for missing a deadline because you were installing Adobe CS3″.

— Dave Gillem on Crucial Limit

P.S.: Yes I like long titles :)

Windows 7 Beta: Live Messenger 2009 Connection Problems

Kevin Francis — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:11:58 +0000

If you’re having problems connecting, try forwarding port 1863 (TCP/UDP). Worked like a charm for me. No idea why this fails to work, but the OS and the IM client are both in beta, so …