Development Downtime

My video card fried on my development machine yesterday (my only machine), so it will be a few days before I'm up and running again. I was been thinking about investing in a new card for a few months, to replace my ancient 8800 GT. This event, however, forced me to upgrade a little sooner than planned. It's a good thing I'd already did the researched and was prepared to replace it. Thanks in part to recent donations, I should only be able to afford expedited shipping and should only be down for a few days.


Update: I've found an older card laying around to use for now. It's OK for a six year old card, but it's not easy on the eyes at all. The scaling blurs text too much to use a resolution lower than native and the refresh rate is a bit low at this size.

A New ArsClip for the New Year

ArsClip v3.2.0 has officially been released. The goal of this version was to go back to older sections of the program and clean up clutter and fix old problems. This did, however, require adding new functionality and features to alleviate some of these issues.

The Configuration window has received quite a bit of work. I've added settings that were previously only found on the Popup window and re-categorized/re-organized the options. Options should be easier to find and the more important options should appear first in the list for each page.

The default view of the popup has been simplified for new installs. This makes learning the program much easier by having much less clutter and implicitly adds value to the 'Full Mode' menu command.

External Editor support adds a convenient way to edit clips directly in the programs associated with text files and bitmaps. This automates almost all of the steps required to edit clips in your favorite editor.

Lastly, I've replaced the the Shift+Select and Ctrl+Select keystroke commands with user definable actions. This adds a quick way to execute any command normally found on the right-click menu.

Housekeeping

It's been a very long time since I've actually read some of my program's pages. I've noticed quite a few outdated things that needing fixing. For example, the screenshots for some of the programs were very old.

To fix this, I've been doing some rewriting and creating new screenshots. I've also included a few award links for my most popular programs. My skeptical side has prevented me from posting most of the awards, since I don't trust many of the freeware download sites.

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Those that visit the Public Betas section already know that I've recently been doing the same type of work with ArsClip and Rename Master. My goal is to improve the initial learning experience and to fix sections of the program created long ago that I rarely visit.

The New ArsClip

Version 3.1.6 of ArsClip is now an official release.

In this update, a new popup trigger method has been added that's very mouse user friendly. The new Trigger Window is a small strip that resides on the edge of the window. After an optional amount of time, the popup is triggered when this window is hovered over.

Another new option is the Destroy Clip option. Sometimes, you copy sensitive information and ArsClip does all too good a job of remembering items. Even when you remove the item from the list, it gets moved into the Removed List and is also shown on the Recently Removed popup submenu. This new option will prompt to delete the clip completely.

Lastly, I've updated the Edit Clipboard to automatically work like most people edit the clipboard - with a text editor. ArsClip will open a temporary file containing the clipboard's contents with your favorite text editor. Saving and closing the editor will automatically update the clipboard with the new text.

As always, bug have fixed in this version. Most notably fixed, is the popup menu position for progams that use non-standard Windows controls -- commonly browsers like Firefox and Opera. ArsClip will move the popup to the mouse cursor automatically in specific cases. The most common case is when the popup shows on the top/left of a program's window.

All of these new features are a direct result of user feedback. Big goes thanks to all those that participated in the Public Beta versions and helped me fix and fine-tune the program over the past few months.

I Forgot

Early last year, an artist made a portfolio stop animation piece and used Rename Master for re-ordering large batches of photos. I was sent a private link to the video and asked not to release because of all the legal issues. Several months later, it was posted but restricted for viewing directly on Youtube's site because of the issues. I, however, hadn't even thought of looking for it online, until over a year later.

So, here is the video. Yes, joejoesoft.com got a mention in the credits.

Trivia Time

Since 2004 there have been:
- ~7 million files served
- ~2500 page views a day
- Over a terabyte of data transfered
- Over a dozen magazines distributing my software
- ~2000 e-mailers and commenters
- ~50 official Rename Master versions
- ~50 official ArsClip versions
- ~150 donations

Thanks again for all the support. Ad revenue and user donations contributes significantly to the cost of running this website. It's what has kept this website alive for all this time and will continue to do so.

Release Reminders

Rename Master v2.9.5 is now officially released. While there are a few new features, this releases is mostly comprised of bug fixes. Like ArsClip's last version, released a few months ago, it was worked on in public beta versions for a very long time. Even with the grim warning on the Public Betas page, these beta releases have been very stable since the changes to the program a usually small or trivial.

As always, the updates are based almost purely on user feedback. If I get no feedback, I just assume everything is good as it is.

MakeLinks for Opera 11

I've submitted MakeLinks to the official Opera Extension catalog. Currently, the only page I have made for it is in the Public Betas area, but I will be creating a standard page for it soon.

This extension's task is very simple - turn a non-clickable web address into a clickable address by simply highlighting the text. Unlike the "Go to Web Address" feature in Opera's right-click context menu, this is performed automatically when links are detected anywhere in the highlighted area. Execution requires no precise highlighting and can be performed in just one click.

The 'Test 3' upload in the Public Beta is the version that was submitted for approval, so you can download it now before it is added to the catalog (see the link at the beginning of this post).

Update: A new page has been added for the extension and it is now downloadable directly from the extension catalog.

Outage and Updates

Yesterday, there was an outage due to an update from my web server provider. I've updated my application to work around the problem and all appears to be in working order again. If you notice something not working, please let me know using the email or comment section at the bottom of the page.

NOTES: The Author link is still not functional and may just be removed if a functional work-around is not discovered.

Oops

It appears I posted an older build of the program that crashes immediately. It looks like Test 12 was uploaded instead of Test 13. Those that don't want to wait for me to figure out the problem can use Test 13, since this is supposed to be the official release of version 3.1.4.


EDIT: I've uploaded an updated official version to fix this problem.

A long public beta for ArsClip

ArsClip v3.1.4 has been a Public Beta for over a year, until now. In this official version, there have been updates for Windows 7 jumplists, updated icons, a new Permanent Clip command for inserting items from the popup directly into a Permanent Clip, and quite a few bug fixes.

For the most part, my public betas of this version have been quite stable. This has caused me to be a bit lazy about creating an official release because I felt confident recommending using the beta release version for those that were having problems.

Since Windows 7 discourages use of the system tray (aka notification area), I've updated ArsClip to use the new Jumplist system. This allows for accessing windows and commands directly by right-clicking the taskbar's icon.