I've got 500-800 old UK comics I've been intending to sell on eBay for close to a year now. However, the listing fees, the hassle of putting them all in (even with Turbo Lister), uploading pics and so on has just made it too much trouble. So, yesterday I repurposed an online shop I wrote a couple of years ago and coded a small app which will populate a database back-end with all the info. I'll stick the thing online, and never have to think about it again. If they start to sell, great, but I'm not making a business out of it and the solution works for me.
"What many companies are left with are legacy apps that nobody wants to support, much less enhance."
I've been writing VB apps since the DOS version, and still am. I've been wondering what to get up to in my spare time, and unravelling, fixing and improving other people's VB code is my idea of fun. Where do I sign up?
I certainly do. I run an Atari ST emulator to access my files from 1986. Mostly old DTP files in Calamus, Scribus, Pagestream and more. More recently, I did convert most of my Office 4 docs to Office 97 once I upgraded, but that's where they've remained (I now use OpenOffice.)
I second this solution... it's exactly what I've been using at home for the past 3-4 years. Both drives are partitioned and configured the same way, and if the main one dies I can just remove it and boot with the other one.
I built a laptop shelf for my exercise bike, and in 42 mins I can happily pedal 10-12 km on the hardest setting. Just the right amount of time for one episode of a TV show from my DVD du jour. I would love to have a generator on that bike to power the laptop - no pedal, no TV.
Make the screen easily replaceable by the user. My laptop is less than two years old (Acer) and has about 25 dead pixels all over the panel. Naturally, it's out of warranty. Naturally, I'm sure to point those dead pixels out to everyone who sees my laptop, and I also explain that other brands I've owned haven't had nearly as many problems.
Okay, so it was a cheap laptop. But I resent having to replace the whole thing just because one part is faulty. (I've looked into a replacement screen, and it really isn't worth it.)
I'm firmly in the desktop is king camp, and user-replaceable off-the-shelf parts rock. If they design a standard laptop with parts interchangeable between different brands, then I'll consider getting rid of my beloved desktop PC.
If the plot is like that in my novel Hal Spacejock Just Desserts then I'll be cursing a little, under my breath, politely.
I know it's just random coincidence, and I'm not really fussed about it. The only problem is that my novels are published in Australia and my agent is seeking a US deal. If the plot is felt to be too similar to that of a Joss Whedon show, guess who wins?
Fortunately it's just the antagonist's plot in book three of my series, so it's not like the entire premise of the novels has been yanked from under my feet. I'm just glad my character doesn't have a lightning-shaped scar.
Actually, when I first heard about Firefly I thought "shit, this could be bad news for Hal." Fortunately, the series was nothing like my books, even though the main character is a trader with a beat-up ship. (And I'd already gone to painstaking lengths to avoid any similarities to the Star Wars(tm)(r)(c) universe.)
And for the record, I wrote Hal Just Desserts during 2003. First publication 2004. The original Hal Spacejock novel I started in 1994.
And the other funny is that a recent Doctor Who episode mirrored an airlock/elevator cleansing gag I first wrote into Hal Spacejock in 1999. Never mind, I beat them to the punch too.
The Gently books certainly mixed a few genres;-) And as for Aussies, we've seen enough Goodies, Doctor Who, Minder and other UK shows to pick up the gist of things. Maybe it's because we don't remake shows like Fawlty Towers to suit 'our' market, and have learnt to appreciate and enjoy the originals.
I read the Dirk Gently books for the first time this year, and they reminded me of Tom Holt's 'Expecting Someone Taller' - probably the Norse Gods and suburban England. Now I'm curious.. wonder which was written first?
(Preferred Hitchhikers Guide to the Gently books, BTW.)
According to the article (I know, I know...) in modern society we just pick up the germs we need from other people. That wasn't an option in sparsely-populated times.
So they're going to block all these words, across all languages?
And what if someone is searching for the title of a Monty Python movie where they used, for example, Holy hand grenades? Or a scene from a novel, or a TV show?
I set up LTSP for a primary school and I chose ICEWM over KDE. You can edit a couple of very simple config files to block the users from doing everything, stick a handful of progs in the start menu and off they go. I used KDM with autologin, and when they're done they can just switch the machine off without logging off.
The server runs Squid and the terminals can be any old junk. Our Athlon 2500+ with 512 megs of ram happily runs 10-12 terminals over a 100 mbit ethernet connection. We use old 2gb hard drives with the rom-o-matic LILO files on a Fat32 partition (all the terminals dual-boot Win98) but NICs with the relevant boot roms would be more use in your situation.
The Atari ST WAS better than the Amiga, although not for gaming. I used to design full page ads and Yellow Pages ads on the ST, some of those ads costing $6000-$13000 each to place. A comparable PC to do the same job would have cost many, many thousands of dollars. (Just for comparison, two years later I was selling 386DX20 machines for $8000 each.)
95% VB6, a small amount of VC. A few years back I dumped MS DAO/MDAC for all the database needs and instead wrote my own database code. I also removed as many OCX dependancies as possible, pretty much sticking to mscomctl and using wrappers for system DLLs instead of using comctl32 and so on. All of this was to enable my apps to run on Wine as easily as possible.
I have a website with a bunch of my own freeware apps available. On two separate occasions I've had a number of emails from users of major AV software asking me what the hell I was playing at trying to install trojans on their PCs. In both cases it was false positives, one from NAV and the other from the company mentioned in this article (which is what prompted me to post). Each time they eventually got around to correcting their definitions, but sure as anything it'll happen again. And in the meantime, how many dozens or hundreds of people assumed I was one of them there nasty spammer trojan virus people trying to infect their PC?
Why should the onus be on ME to check THEY haven't stuffed up? You can't install and run all the different brands of AV software on one PC, unless you install a bunch of virtual machines with one AV prog on each, and then you'd have to update the definitions daily.
Actually, the two most common support questions I'm getting for all my freeware apps are (1) I just switched to Mac, and are you planning an OSX version? and (2) I just got Ubuntu, are you planning a Linux version?
In seven years of giving away my software I've never seen this many requests for non-Windows versions. Unfortunately all my apps are written in Visual Studio 6, so the current answer to both questions is NO. I am rewriting my stuff in VS2005 though, which might offer a bit more cross-platform support down the track with the Mono project. (And no, I'm not switching languages. First, because I do this for fun and second, at almost 40 years of age and with a publishing contract for my novels in hand, I'm past the days of learning new languages.)
I laughed out loud picturing the scene, but then I'd never do this for real. That's why I write fiction - I get to cause all the mayhem and fun I want, without hurting anyone else.
Not just new cars. In Western Australia (and possibly other states), you have to fit an immobiliser before you can sell a used car. I think only classic & vintage cars are exempt.
Next on the news, an attempted ram-raid by 1929 Chevrolet... which bounced off the windows.
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I've got 500-800 old UK comics I've been intending to sell on eBay for close to a year now. However, the listing fees, the hassle of putting them all in (even with Turbo Lister), uploading pics and so on has just made it too much trouble. So, yesterday I repurposed an online shop I wrote a couple of years ago and coded a small app which will populate a database back-end with all the info. I'll stick the thing online, and never have to think about it again. If they start to sell, great, but I'm not making a business out of it and the solution works for me.
Firefox with Adblock and Noscript. I can get at the OS on my PC, but somehow I don't think that's an option on shopping trolleys.
"What many companies are left with are legacy apps that nobody wants to support, much less enhance." I've been writing VB apps since the DOS version, and still am. I've been wondering what to get up to in my spare time, and unravelling, fixing and improving other people's VB code is my idea of fun. Where do I sign up?
I guess I just found a new use for my shopping bag ... upside down, right over the bloody LCD screen.
I certainly do. I run an Atari ST emulator to access my files from 1986. Mostly old DTP files in Calamus, Scribus, Pagestream and more. More recently, I did convert most of my Office 4 docs to Office 97 once I upgraded, but that's where they've remained (I now use OpenOffice.)
I second this solution ... it's exactly what I've been using at home for the past 3-4 years. Both drives are partitioned and configured the same way, and if the main one dies I can just remove it and boot with the other one.
I built a laptop shelf for my exercise bike, and in 42 mins I can happily pedal 10-12 km on the hardest setting. Just the right amount of time for one episode of a TV show from my DVD du jour. I would love to have a generator on that bike to power the laptop - no pedal, no TV.
Make the screen easily replaceable by the user. My laptop is less than two years old (Acer) and has about 25 dead pixels all over the panel. Naturally, it's out of warranty. Naturally, I'm sure to point those dead pixels out to everyone who sees my laptop, and I also explain that other brands I've owned haven't had nearly as many problems.
Okay, so it was a cheap laptop. But I resent having to replace the whole thing just because one part is faulty. (I've looked into a replacement screen, and it really isn't worth it.)
I'm firmly in the desktop is king camp, and user-replaceable off-the-shelf parts rock. If they design a standard laptop with parts interchangeable between different brands, then I'll consider getting rid of my beloved desktop PC.
If the plot is like that in my novel Hal Spacejock Just Desserts then I'll be cursing a little, under my breath, politely.
I know it's just random coincidence, and I'm not really fussed about it. The only problem is that my novels are published in Australia and my agent is seeking a US deal. If the plot is felt to be too similar to that of a Joss Whedon show, guess who wins?
Fortunately it's just the antagonist's plot in book three of my series, so it's not like the entire premise of the novels has been yanked from under my feet. I'm just glad my character doesn't have a lightning-shaped scar.
Actually, when I first heard about Firefly I thought "shit, this could be bad news for Hal." Fortunately, the series was nothing like my books, even though the main character is a trader with a beat-up ship. (And I'd already gone to painstaking lengths to avoid any similarities to the Star Wars(tm)(r)(c) universe.)
And for the record, I wrote Hal Just Desserts during 2003. First publication 2004. The original Hal Spacejock novel I started in 1994.
And the other funny is that a recent Doctor Who episode mirrored an airlock/elevator cleansing gag I first wrote into Hal Spacejock in 1999. Never mind, I beat them to the punch too.
The Gently books certainly mixed a few genres ;-) And as for Aussies, we've seen enough Goodies, Doctor Who, Minder and other UK shows to pick up the gist of things. Maybe it's because we don't remake shows like Fawlty Towers to suit 'our' market, and have learnt to appreciate and enjoy the originals.
I read the Dirk Gently books for the first time this year, and they reminded me of Tom Holt's 'Expecting Someone Taller' - probably the Norse Gods and suburban England. Now I'm curious .. wonder which was written first?
(Preferred Hitchhikers Guide to the Gently books, BTW.)
Of course earlobes are useful. I mean, what else could you possibly hang earrings off ... your privates?
According to the article (I know, I know...) in modern society we just pick up the germs we need from other people. That wasn't an option in sparsely-populated times.
Crow porn ... coming soon.
Maybe I could have expressed that better.
When my parents were young it was an Irish scientist. That's why I adapted the joke ;-)
No no. Drill a bunch more holes, just like the tear-off line on toilet paper, and California will be safe forever.
After all, did you ever see toilet paper actually rip along the holes?
How do you feel? The pain is inconceivable!
So they're going to block all these words, across all languages?
And what if someone is searching for the title of a Monty Python movie where they used, for example, Holy hand grenades? Or a scene from a novel, or a TV show?
I set up LTSP for a primary school and I chose ICEWM over KDE. You can edit a couple of very simple config files to block the users from doing everything, stick a handful of progs in the start menu and off they go. I used KDM with autologin, and when they're done they can just switch the machine off without logging off.
The server runs Squid and the terminals can be any old junk. Our Athlon 2500+ with 512 megs of ram happily runs 10-12 terminals over a 100 mbit ethernet connection. We use old 2gb hard drives with the rom-o-matic LILO files on a Fat32 partition (all the terminals dual-boot Win98) but NICs with the relevant boot roms would be more use in your situation.
The Atari ST WAS better than the Amiga, although not for gaming. I used to design full page ads and Yellow Pages ads on the ST, some of those ads costing $6000-$13000 each to place. A comparable PC to do the same job would have cost many, many thousands of dollars. (Just for comparison, two years later I was selling 386DX20 machines for $8000 each.)
95% VB6, a small amount of VC. A few years back I dumped MS DAO/MDAC for all the database needs and instead wrote my own database code. I also removed as many OCX dependancies as possible, pretty much sticking to mscomctl and using wrappers for system DLLs instead of using comctl32 and so on. All of this was to enable my apps to run on Wine as easily as possible.
I have a website with a bunch of my own freeware apps available. On two separate occasions I've had a number of emails from users of major AV software asking me what the hell I was playing at trying to install trojans on their PCs. In both cases it was false positives, one from NAV and the other from the company mentioned in this article (which is what prompted me to post). Each time they eventually got around to correcting their definitions, but sure as anything it'll happen again. And in the meantime, how many dozens or hundreds of people assumed I was one of them there nasty spammer trojan virus people trying to infect their PC?
Why should the onus be on ME to check THEY haven't stuffed up? You can't install and run all the different brands of AV software on one PC, unless you install a bunch of virtual machines with one AV prog on each, and then you'd have to update the definitions daily.
Actually, the two most common support questions I'm getting for all my freeware apps are (1) I just switched to Mac, and are you planning an OSX version? and (2) I just got Ubuntu, are you planning a Linux version?
In seven years of giving away my software I've never seen this many requests for non-Windows versions. Unfortunately all my apps are written in Visual Studio 6, so the current answer to both questions is NO. I am rewriting my stuff in VS2005 though, which might offer a bit more cross-platform support down the track with the Mono project. (And no, I'm not switching languages. First, because I do this for fun and second, at almost 40 years of age and with a publishing contract for my novels in hand, I'm past the days of learning new languages.)
I laughed out loud picturing the scene, but then I'd never do this for real. That's why I write fiction - I get to cause all the mayhem and fun I want, without hurting anyone else.
Not just new cars. In Western Australia (and possibly other states), you have to fit an immobiliser before you can sell a used car. I think only classic & vintage cars are exempt.
Next on the news, an attempted ram-raid by 1929 Chevrolet... which bounced off the windows.