Category: Geekdom

Giving Up FeedDemon for Outlook-based RSS Reader

I love Feeddemon. It’s arguably the best stand-alone RSS reader out there. Pretty much everything the program’s author has written has been great (I have copies of Homesite and Topstyle as well, both his creations and both wonderful pieces of software).

FeedDemon just worked away, downloading RSS feeds like it was supposed to, hidden away in my system tray. The problem is that I generally work and schedule my daily life out of Outlook and posted entries to this site based on what was e-mailed to me, and didn’t have time to go through all my RSS feeds. So I wanted to get an RSS reader that integrated into Outlook so I could just check my feeds out of there. The company that now supports FeedDemon also sells NewsGator Inbox, which does exactly what I need to do (and had used before back in the day). It would sync with FeedDemon, assuming I actually ever opened up again. The problem was that I didn’t have $30 to spend on it (if they gave a discount to folks who already own two of their products, I’m all ears).

Some Googling dug up Attensa For Outlook, which, so far, is doing all I need it to do. The best part is it’s free.

Now I just need to catch up on my feeds, as I’m horribly behind. But having it in a place I’m already working on a daily basis will make it far easier.

Update: Since it was asked, why didn’t I use Thunderbird, which has built-in RSS support? My Outlook agenda versus Thunderbird is mostly for a few reasons:

1) Far superior label/filtering/rules/flagging abilities which makes it far easier for me to keep track of the 13 accounts I check.

2) Powerful calendar integration

3) Many powerful 3rd party add-ons because of it’s stupidly powerful API.

4) It totally blew up Thunderbird when it tried to import my accounts, email, and settings out of Outlook.

It actually has nothing to with Windows and syncing, though I do tend to favor it in that regard, too, as I need to be able to support it on the desktops where I work.

I honestly considered moving to Thunderbird and have been playing with it for the last few days. but after dealing with it, playing with it, trying to make it work how I wanted to, I had to go back to Outlook. I’ll certainly consider it in the future if there are significant upgrades in that regard, but there are just some times where open source != better.

December 12, 2006

The Time Fountain

The tech behind this thing is fascinating, but the video below shows it in action and the kinds of tricks that it can play on the eyes.

(more…)

December 11, 2006

Unix Geek Joke

Unix geeks will appreciate this:

sandwich.gif

Blatantly stolen from here. Thanks Greg for the link.

December 11, 2006

Comment Spammers Are Evil Bastards

OK, let me rephrase that: Comment spammers are evil, but the folks who let their systems be infected by malware that turns their systems into zombies are just as bad.

On a nightly basis, the server running this site is set to do usual middle-of-the-night maintenance chores: update cPanel and various other software packages I have installed (including the great ConfigServer products), check the logs, run AWStats, etc… . Obviously, it pushes a bit of load, but I tried to spread it around the night a bit so Apache is still responsive to the few requests that will come in. Last night, this server was attacked hard by comment spammers, with my comment script on this site getting hit by zombied computers at a rate of about 100 per second. My various MT Plugins were fighting off a lot of it, but the load was still up to 30 in top at many points through the evening (according to my log reports I read in the morning). Web pages were still getting served, but just not as quick as they could’ve been.

Renaming my comment script, and installing this plugin hasn’t put my load above .5 all day. There are still tons of requests coming in for my old comment script, but they’re just getting 404s or sand trap redirects, which Apache can serve up without issues or load.

What that does mean is that if you’re visiting this site with Javascript disabled, you will not be able to comment. I was trying to avoid that, as I know some folks insist on turning Javascript off in their browser, but the reality is that zombie spamming bots can read straight form tags far easier than broken up Javascript that actually gives the proper form action target. I’ve tested it in a few places, and it appears to work OK, but if you’re noticing that you can’t comment, e-mail me using the form to the right, tell me what browser you’re using, and I’ll see what can be done.

December 7, 2006

Hilarious License Agreement

I don’t remember at all why I was searching for funny (but legitimate) license agreements. I tried to find the image referenced here, but couldn’t. Reading the comments, there are rumors about prizes and such hidden in some license agreements, assuming you actually read it.

However, I did come across this license agreement for the software at Renegade Minds and it’s a riot. I didn’t actually install the Guitar and Drum Trainer because I didn’t need it (though it does look pretty cool), but I did save the license agreement, as it’s a hilarious read.

I’ve copied it below. It’s long, but entertaining (and hopefully the guys at Renegade Minds don’t mind me copying it here).

(more…)

December 5, 2006

Any Hardcore Microsoft Web Developers Around?

A headhunter recruiter approached me, asking if I knew anybody that was a whiz in VB.NET, ASP.NET, XML, HTML, JavaScript, etc. for a Senior Web Developer job here locally. I didn’t know anybody off hand, so if you fit the bill or want more information, comment here or email me and I’ll send you the job description and contact information.

December 3, 2006

Some People Are Such Idiots

I linked back in the day to an “elite hacker” who tried to break into somebody’s system by hacking 127.0.0.1. In a similar vein, this moron tries to steal somebody’s Steam username and password and ends up getting his own stolen instead. Thanks Jesse for the link

November 29, 2006

Random Ten (or 100 or whatever) Best/Worst/etc… Lists

I seem to have a lot of these types of things sitting in my inbox lately, so here’s a bunch of them (this could easily be made into a cheesy newstand magazine cover, though I’d hate to see the target audience for this mess):

Something there should be handy for somebody. Enjoy.

November 19, 2006

Sounds Of Windows Vista

Apparently it took them a ton of time to get the sounds just right for the upcoming Windows Vista (18 months on the start up sound alone). Here’s a video comparing the sounds from Windows XP to Vista.

(more…)

November 15, 2006

BSOD Screen Saver

And it’s actualy developed and supported by Microsoft.

November 14, 2006