stuff

Google Prefetching: Watch Out

Link: Google Prefetching: Watch Out.

Google has implemented a “prefetching” tool that affects some searches conducted in Firefox and other Mozilla browsers. Prefetching loads the top result of a search into the browser’s cache (using Mozilla’s prefetching protocol), …

Importing QIF files into Microsoft Money

No one will tell you this, but if you want to import a QIF file into Microsoft Money, you have to make sure your system's date format matches the format in the QIF file, otherwise Money will not import any date data.

So if your QIF file has the transaction dates listed as YYYY/MM/DD but you have Windows set to display dates as, for example, MM-DD-YYYY you must go into Control Panel, open  Regional and Language Options, click on Customize, select the Date tab and change your Short date format as needed.

You can change it back after importing the QIF files if you like.

Win a PSP or an Alienware laptop!

Yes, download Messenger Plus 3.50 (for use with Microsoft Messenger 4.7, 5, 6 or 7) from the link below and enter to win many great prizes (6 Playstation Portable packs and one Alienware Area-51m 7700 laptop):

http://www.msgplus.net/download_contest.php?id=2176

Good luck!

Mysterious Runtime Error 9

Why would a smoothly-running application suddenly decide to start throwing "Runtime Error 9 - Subscript Out of Range" error messages? On all three of my client's computers... not on all my clients, though, just this particular one.

I'm guessing they installed something that broke the software, but I'd like to make sure it's not my fault before I go blaming somebody else.

Has anyone seen this in their VB6 apps before? Comment if you can help. Thanks.

UPDATE: Well, it seems we may be on the verge of solving this problem. So far, I believe the problem is that at some point my client began generating data files in the wrong order - which was tripping the software. At least this would explain the way the problem behaved at their location. I have successfully replicated the error on my development workstation (and have fixed it by correcting the data files). Just waiting on confirmation from client now.

GMail accounts

Got four new GMail invites. Ask nicely and it's yours. First come, first served.

More Gmail invites

I got a new batch of Gmail invites, so if you're looking for the perfect Xmas gift, leave a comment and I'll hook you up with one.

First come, first served.

Merry Xmas.

OnFolio 2.0: RSS heaven

The OnFolio bunch have released OnFolio 2.0 Beta and I'm not complaining. It seems they have implemented all the features I wanted in an RSS reader, even though they originally were not and RSS tool. Gone from my daily usage are Jäger, NewsGator and Bloglines (I'll keep Bloglines and Newsgator for those times when I'm away from my laptop and need to check my RSS feeds).

If I weren't on vacation, I'd post a longer review... I'll do so eventually.

So far: OnFolio 2.0 Beta correctly read the OPML file generated by NewsGator Online; shows you a nicely formatted page of all new items for each feed or folder; automatically marks as read all items you click on and move away from; creates nicely formatted e-mails of items you wish to send, using your default mail app (Outlook 2003 in my case); easily selects items and moves them to a special "Reading List" folder for later; blogs items; saves items in OnFolio collections; flags items; sorts items by date, feed or flag; shows items by all, today, week or month...

If you're an experienced RSS reader, give OnFolio 2.0 Beta a try - you'll probably like it. If you're new to RSS and are also looking for an information manager, check out OnFolio... it has only gotten better with time.

Oh, and did I mention they have achieved the best Firefox integration I've seen for any app?

Cleaning day...

Today was clean-my-computer day at the anonymonk's lair. It basically consisted of going into Add/Remove Programs and deleting everything I don't use.

So here are today's winners and losers:

Gone are:

Entbloess - An Exposé clone - It's too slow and I don't like the way it opens all minimized windows before showing the desktop and then leaves them open after you select an application. Besides, I already paid for WinPLOSION, which works really nice.

NewsGator Outlook Edition: I could never get used to it. I'm trying Jäger, which I think could be a great program but I feel it asks me to change my ways too much. I'm also trying out Omea, which is offering free licenses until the end of the year - but I think it tries to do too much. I may just stick to NewsGator Online and Bloglines for the time being. While on the subject, why are all RSS readers offering Bloglines synchronization and not NewsGator synchronization?

Also gone are a bunch of trial software whose evaluation periods had expired.

I completely uninstalled Thunderbird and Firefox because I had a bunch of entries in the Add/Remove box (Firefox 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, etc) that were annoying. I reinstalled Firefox from scratch because it was randomly crashing. I then reinstalled only those extensions I really use. Things look fine now. I did not reinstall Thunderbird yet, because I went back to Outlook - and X1 indexes all my old Thunderbird email anyway.

Last night I installed the MSN Toolbar Suite Beta in my search for the perfect desktop-search tool. Also installed on my system are X1 and Copernic Desktop. Both MSN and Copernic are free, but I algo got X1 for free - so it's all the same to me. Gone are FileHand Search and Google Desktop.

Also gone is Cool Desk, a Virual Desktop Manager. I've never really "gotten" these VDMs. Besides, I connect my laptop to an external flatpanel at work (for a two-monitor setup) and revert to a single display anywhere else - not sure if VDM's can handle this efficiently.

Also gone: WinRAR and WinZIP. I use BitZipper and only downloades those because I had trouble with a particular RAR file. Turns out WinZIP cannot handle RAR files and WinRAR had the same problem as BitZipper, although it did manage it more elegantly - which led me to realize the problem had to do with a path/filename combination that was too long when extracted.

Konfabulator in now gone too. Although it looks nice, the widgets are pretty much useless to me - fun, but useless. Most of what I need from Konfabulator I can get from StatBar. And Konfabulator had the nasty habit of remaining in memory, hogging all resources, when you quit the application. Gone.

Finally, I removed the trial version of ActiveWords, since I can do most of what I used ActiveWords for with the MSN Toolbar Suite Beta. I've created Deskbar shortcuts in MSN Toolbar Suite Beta (type @ in the search box to see what I mean) that allow me to quickly load any application. I've set Ctrl-Q as the Deskbar quick-key, so I can now simply press "Ctrl-Q, w" to load Word (e for Excel, ps for Photoshop, n for Notepad, etc.).

I'm sure I deleted more stuff... the fact that I don't remember what it was should tell you something about how relevant I found it to be.

Gmail's spam filter becomes overagressive.

Gmail's spam filter has gone from being one of the best (caught almost all the spam I got) to one of the worst (it now classifies as spam almost every single newsletter I get - PC Magazine, Anchordesk, Microsoft, ZDNet).

Let's hope they realize this (or read this) and cut back a little on the agressiveness of their spam filters.

Gmail: Help Center

Gmail now offers POP access.

* Over the next several weeks, we are introducing POP access to all of our users. To make sure the feature is fully stable, we're giving users access to POP in phases. Once POP access is available to you, a 'New Features!' link appears at the top of your account, along with a 'Forwarding and POP' tab on your 'Settings' page.