I was recently running Open Office, loved it but found it pretty restrictive when working with MS Office users. So….I moved over to the dark side L. The problem is, that I have my whole library of docs in Open Office format. I have already uninstalled Open Office and am not too keen on reinstalling and converting every single document. My other option was to open the documents using Google Docs and convert them there. I would still need to convert each document in a very tedious way. The lazy side of me came shinning through and I started the big hunt for a conversion program. I found it here. This is an Add-In which allows you to open ODF and ODS files from the MS Office file menu.
Thanks very much to the developers for this!
Labels: Handy Stuff, software
By: bossmanthe | Friday, June 27, 2008 at 9:44:00 AM | |
As an avid user of regular expressions, I find any RegEx tool very very handy.
Here are some that I have used and like and a short review of each. I rate
Expresso as
the best tool I have used!
Expresso (
http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm )
A powerful tool for both beginners and advanced RegEx programmers alike!
Pros:
- Very powerful visual expression builder including hex expressions (for those people like myself who always seem to get the syntax wrong!)
- RegEx Analyser to show you visually what your expression means
- RegEx Validator to show your expression parsing visually
- Timing tests to help you optimize very complex expressions
- Export results to XML, CSV, TAB delimited and plain text
- Expression Library for common expressions
- Recently used expression list
- Code generator(C#, c++ and VB.net)
- Compile to Assembly DLL
- Load test data from file or load expression from file
- Hints at startup
- Lots of built in help and RegEx guide
- Freeware registration
Cons:
The Regulator (
http://tools.osherove.com/CoolTools/TheRegulator/tabid/185/Default.aspx )
Not a bad tool with a few unique features.
Pros:
- Plugin Support
- Built in support for http://regexlib.com/ online RegEx repository
- Generate Code (C# and VB.NET)
- Compile to Assembly DLL
- Javascript or JScript support
Cons:
- Online search of repository did not work for me
- None of the advance analysis and testing features of Expresso
- No clear visual feedback of expression results
- Not as polished as Expresso
RegExDesigner.NET (
http://www.sellsbrothers.com/tools/#regexd )
A lightweight tool to perform basic regular expression operations.
Pros:
- .NET (C# and vb.net) Code Generator and Compile to Assembly DLL
- Really small download (260Kb)
- Nice and small and quick to use
- Freeware
Cons:
- Not very feature rich
- No advanced features
- No "debugging" of RegEx
Labels: Handy Stuff, Programming, software
By: RexMan | Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 8:40:00 AM | |
TortoiseSVN has released another very useful tool to manage your SVN (Subversion) repository.
CommitMonitor: It sits in the task tray and allows you to poll your SVN repository every few minutes and shows you the new commits!
Tool's homepage is here!http://tools.tortoisesvn.net/CommitMonitor
Labels: Handy Stuff, Programming, software
By: RexMan | Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 3:50:00 PM | |
YAY For Bugnet! Bugnet is a fantastic tool to track support issues and log calls as well as being able to log time spent on issues.
Here is the tools homepage!We have been using it in our organization since January 2007 and have found this to be a great tool for tracking support issues and making sure that all our bases are covered when it comes to customer services. We also use it to plan our development strategy going forward and see how effective we have been in the past with patches or new features. We have tracked over 400 issues and ideas using this system.
Our organization covers a wide variety or IT services.
Namely:
1. Custom Software Development
2. Product Software Development for corporates
3. Product Software Development for the general public
4. IT Infrastructure for our group of companies
5. IT Support and networking for selected clients
Here are the features I really like:
1. Open source.
2. ASP .NET 2.0.
3. Multiple Project Support.
4. Ability to add attachments to issues.
5. Easy to read ticket numbers are issued by the system.
6. Automatic Changelog and Roadmaps for your software projects.
7. Very granular user security from totally public to solidly locked down.
8. Nice project metrics.
9. Easy navigation and filtering.
10. Project Summary shows nice overview of issues.
11. Full history on tickets.
12. Nicely formatted comments on issues.
13. Ability to link an issue to a related issue.
14. Active support from the developers.
15. Export a project list to Excel, or subscribe via RSS to a project or issue!!
16. Each project can have multiple categories, versions and milestones. You can also give deadlines and time estimates on issues.
Here are some features which I don't use but you might like:
1. Ability to log calls sent to an email account.
2. Very good reporting.
3. Custom field definitions on support tickets.
4. Active Directory / SAM authentication.
Overall this is a very powerful product and well worth investigating in your business.
Once again, here is the tools homepage! Enjoy!
Labels: management, software
By: RexMan | Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 1:07:00 PM | |
Spiceworks the great free network and workstation auditing softwareIn our business keeping track of the IT Assets for a group of companies is challenging. There are numerous products out there to help an IT Manager do this, however they either cost an arm or a leg, or the software provider wants a copy of the information gathered, or the free stuff is just pure crap!
Well in my travels across the NET I came across
SPICEWORKS. It is seriously good remote WMI auto-discovery software.The management interface is a set of web pages with a consistent and clean look.
Key features:
- SNMP, network device and network printer scanning
- Linux scanning via SSH
- Alerts on customizable definitions (eg machines with no anti-virus or low printer toner)
- Ability to manage your software licenses
- Software automatically categorizes machines into groups. eg Laptops, servers, routers etc
- Ability to define custom devices
- Ability to compare one machine with another
There are several catches:
- Some clients you will need the administrator password for, a problem when it comes to private hardware
- You need to make sure the firewall is opened from the machine you are running the scan from to the target machine to allow WMI requests through
- The software is not 100% free as it displays some adverts
All in all this is a fantastic piece of software. I was involved in writing this type of software in the past and compared to what I wrote these guys have really taken the cake!
Download it from their website immediately and start pro-actively managing your IT assets today!
Labels: Handy Stuff, management, software
By: RexMan | Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 8:42:00 AM | |
[ I Bid ]Wanna fly a flight sim in Google Earth. Here is how:
Step 1: Download the latest Google Earth, yes this is v4.2 with the ability to view the sky as well as the earth. (I had version 4.0 and this did not work)
Step 2: Fire up Google Earth and wait for it connect.
Step 3: Press CTRL-ALT-A for windows users.
Step 4: Choose an aircraft and an airport. (Or fly from the current location)
Step 5: And fly.
It is very difficult to fly using the keyboard but it does have joystick support!
The image is of OR Thambo International Airport in Johnnesburg South Africa.
Labels: humour, software
By: RexMan | Monday, September 3, 2007 at 10:29:00 AM | |
