RobMeerman.co.uk

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====== Links ======
This page is meant to be like my bookmarks, only used infrequently (I only install software once typically..)

===== SQL =====
  * [[http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/article.php/10897_3382171_2/Transactions-in-MySQL.htm|Transactions in SQL]] -- Talks about ''SELECT ... FOR UPDATE'' and locks



===== Web-based applications =====
Most useful for when you are not at your own PC.

^ [[http://www.ece.osu.edu/ssh/|SSH2 Client Java Applet]] | Works like PuTTY, but in a web browser. (Needs Java installed though... :-()(([[http://gotoSSH.com|gotoSSH.com]] looked interesting because it is entirely Javascript + AJAX based, but seems to require subscription (but it's only $12 a year.. may be worth it...) )) |

===== Website Related =====

^ [[http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer|Webalizer]] | Apache log analyser, works very well |
^ [[http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess.shtml|Comprehensive guide to ''.htaccess'' files ]] | Solves my annoying issues with per-directory web permissions |
^ [[http://www.pjirc.com|pjIRC Java Applet]] | A very good java-applet IRC client - support all the ''/server'' type switch I am aware of. Personally I use the demo on their site and then use commands to connect to the server I am really interested in. ;-) |
^ [[http://www.torrentflux.com/|TorrentFlux]] | Very handy WebUI for controlling a modified version of BitTornado, thereby allowing you to use a webserver / LAN-gateway machine as your BT client --- supports scheduling of torrents (by share ratio or stopping upon completion) and multiple users (so you can give each person in the house-hold a user account) |
^ [[http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/|GreaseMonkey]] & [[http://platypus.mozdev.org/|Platypus!]] for FireFox| Dynamically modify webpage layout (and content) using //Platypus!// with a WYSIWYG interface. Platypus! uses GreaseMonkey to do it's thing, so you'll need that. I use it to overcome those annoying width restrictions on page layout! I hate increasing the text size only to find it's being squashed way before reaching the limits of the screen! |


===== Photography =====

^ [[http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html|AutoStitch]] | Automagically stitch photos |
^ [[http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/index.php?w=1920&h=1200&sort=date&id=&page=4|Interfacelift]] | High Resolution Wallpapers, pretty too! |

===== Automation and Related Hobby Stuff =====
^ [[http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/parallel_output.html|Parallel Port Output]] | Plenty of info on using and programming the parallel port of a PC |
^ [[http://www.mediatexx.com/download/index.htm|uICE]] | The universal Infrared Control Engine, and it really is! It works with the remote control for my TV card, even when the TV card and it's drivers are not installed! |
^ [[http://www.promixis.com/|Girder]] | Girder remote control and automation tool. While I've never gotten this to support my remote control directly, it does support many other things, such as joysticks as controls, and perhaps much more importantly allows you to control just about anything in windows. I use this to map the external numpad my Gamer's Keyboard has to function such as turning the screen on and off, changing //winamp's// volume and inverting my screen colours. |

Private note: azui is 56886 and aztui is 56870

===== Smart Phone Stuff =====
See also [[:p900]]
^ [[http://matrix.tmit.bme.hu/putty/|PuTTY for Symbian OS]] | PuTTY for smart phones! (alpha-release at time of writing) |
^ [[http://gnubox.dnsalias.org/gnubox/|GNU Box for Symbian OS]] | This handy tool allows you to use your PC's internet connection through you phone((via Bluetooth or cable)). I have it working on my SE P900 |

===== Essentials =====
Software and tools I consider essential, and install instantly upon a rebuild. For useful tricks when rebuilding a PC, see [[:tools]].

^ [[http://www.getfirefox.com|Firefox]] | Free standards-compliant webbrowser, which is vastly friendly to use than IE. Also be sure to check out PortableFirefox, which I have migrated to, it's the same thing but lives completely within a single folder, handy if you want to take your settings with you, or sync them between PCs |
^ [[http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_thunderbird/|Thunderbird (portable) Mail Client]] | Firefox's sister project, Thunderbird, is an open-source email client of a similar standard to Firefox --- it has all the functionality you'd expect (akin to Outlook (Express) et al) but is less annoying. This is the "portable" edition, which runs directly off of a disc (or more likely, a USB drive). Got some spare space on your USB-drive based MP3 player? Then you can carry your email around with you - very handy if you want to synchronise your email between work/home or just laptop/desktop. I'm personally using the otherwise-useless 32MB Compacy Flash card which came with my digital camera for the task, it's really quite convenient! |
^ [[http://adblock.mozdev.org|AdBlock]] for FireFox browser | An extension (plugin) for FF which blocks ads, rather effectively |
^ [[http://www.pierceive.com/filtersetg/|Filterset.G for AdBlock]] | A filter set for AdBlock --- a frequently updated master list of URLs you probably want to have blocked... |
^ [[http://perso.wanadoo.fr/marc.boullet/index.html|All-in-One Gestures]] | Another extension for FF, with this you hold the right mouse button and draw symbols (it draws a red line while you hold the button) and when you let go does a specific action based on the symbol. If you've played the game "Black and White" this ought to be familiar to you. |
^ [[http://www.bugmenot.com|Bug-me-not]] | Both an extension and just nifty website which provides "member login" details for //free// sites who ask you to register to access their material |
^ [[http://www.cygwin.com|Cygwin]] | Linux-like BASH shell for Windows, very very useful for linux types |
^ [[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/|PuTTY]] | SSH client for connecting to SSh servers, such as found on Linux machines |
^ [[http://alax.info/blog/ntfslinks/|NTFS Links]] | !!If you've had to **re-**install windows (not merely repair it) then this may be just what you're looking for to easy the transition!! This basically adds symbolic links (aka "soft links") to windows. They were already there, but not readily taskable to users. If you've reinstalled windows you might note that all your Documents & Settings directories have new names, such as "All Users" becoming "All Users.WINDOWS" in my case. I recommend you do what I did - move all the files to the new (nasty) names, and then create soft links to the old name, so you don't have to update all your software. Most of my stuff just runs from Program Files now ;) yay. |
^ [[http://www.trillian.cc/|Trillian]] | All-in-one Instant Messenger client - MSN, ICQ, AOL, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber (including GoogleTalk), Rendevous and probably others. See the skin for it below. |
^ [[http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/|Ultramon]] | Multi-monitor utility, adds buttons next to minimise, maximise/restore and close on each window for "stretch across screens" and "move to other monitor" as well as more usual multimonitor functions (wallpaper assembly etc) |
^ [[http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/|Unison]] | Wonderfully useful multiplatform file synchronisation system, I use it to sync this site between my webserver, desktop and laptop regularly, as well as to sync my email betwen my PCs and more. I use this baby a lot! |
^ [[http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx|XP Powertoys]] |  |
^ [[http://www.ipi.fi/~rainy/index.php?pn=projects&project=rainmeter|RainMeter]] | A great utility for displaying system (and other) info in a skinned manner |
^ [[http://www.ipi.fi/~rainy/index.php?pn=projects&project=rainlendar|RainLender]] | Adds an interactive calander (with scheduler), todo list and event list to the desktop. Amending your todo list has never been this easy, and it looks great! |
^ [[http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml|Process Explorer]] | A truly excellent replacement for Task Manager |
^ [[http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html|AutoRuns]] | Shows you a **complete** list of everything which is loaded during a windows boot. Another great tool from [[www.sysinternals.com]] |
^ [[http://www.customize.org/details/35347|Smoked Glass for RainMeter]] | My personal favourite RainMeter skin, used on my desktop to show me system info |
^ [[http://robmeerman.co.uk/downloads/3D%20Color%20Changer%203000.rar|3D Color Changer 3000]]((Not sure if I am allowed to put this up here, but the author's site seems to have issues.)) | This tool allows you to tweak **all** the colours in Windows 9x/NT/XP, and it also allows you to switch schemes instantly. Included is the night-time and day-time schemes I switch between almost daily. This link is for an archive I'm hosting myself, it contains everything you need to do hack an "install" of it (files + registry fragment), I personally install it this way since the offical site went down. |
^ [[http://www.textpad.com|TextPad]] | A text-editor for Windows so good that I paid for my copy. It's aimed at coders and other who might find use for regexp Find & Replace dialogs and similar. |
^ [[http://www.rabidsquirrel.net/G-Mailto/|G-Mailto]] | Use the GMail webmail interface as your default email composer, instead of launching an unwanted application (such as Outlook (Express)). |
^ [[http://www.elpros.si/CDCheck/|CDcheck]] | Scans discs and checks for CRC32 errors, also **can attempt recovery of a disc.** :-) |
^ [[http://www.dvdinfopro.com/|DVD Info Pro]] | Wonderfully thorough and well-crafted DVD Info utility, does what Nero Info Tool does, plus scan for CRC32 errors, perform PI/PIF/Jitter scans, speed tests, and can read disc manufacuter codes. |
^ [[http://www.rcis.co.za/dale/tclockex/|TClock-Ex]] | A windows clock augmentation, it allows complete control over how and what is displayed in that area (not strictly limited to date and time!) and has a very nifty pop-up calander, although if you use the calander a lot consider RainLender which is also in this list! |
^ [[http://www.rarlab.com/|WinRAR]] | Simply the best compression utility. No-frills but very practicle GUI, great command-line support and very well thought out and reliable. So good I registered my copy 8-) |
^ [[http://mbm.livewiredev.com/|MotherBoard Monitor 5 (MBM5)]] | Very nice little utility for monitoring misc. motherboard settings, such as temperature of the CPU, Fan RPMs and the like. |
^ [[http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php|Speed Fan]] | If Motherboard Monitor doesn't seem to work on your setup, give SpeedFan a try. It works with my Acer TravelMate C312XMi tablet PC, showing me the harddisk temperature and two other temperatures I presume are either CPU or something quite mysterious. |
^ [[http://www.hmonitor.com|Hardware Sensors Monitor]] | More compact that MBM5 (see above) and simpler than SpeedFan, this also has the ability to fetch the GPU and Ambient temperatures from various graphics adaptors! |
^ [[http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp|Monitor Calibration Wizard]] | The best (freeware) tool I have found for fixing gamma (and hence colour) problems on my screens. Does a pretty good job of making my very dark, dying, screen usable again. |
^ [[http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/|HashCalc]] | Calculated CRC32, SHA1, MD5SUM and many other hashes from text strings or files. Handy for checking downloads. |
^ [[http://grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm|Wizmo]] | The windows gizmo, a very useful little tool which lets you turn your screens on and off. I use it for scripting via my remote control. |
^ [[http://www.winamp.com|Winamp]] | Obviously. :-)|

===== Shady =====
^ [[http://www.dvdshrink.org/|DVD Shrink]] | DVD transcoder which allows the file size (and subsequently quality) reduced enough to fit on a DVD-R |



===== Fun =====
^ [[http://www.bluecave.net/products/slider/|Slider! for Winamp]] | (A winamp plugin) This nifty tools slides winamp off the screen when it's not in focus (or you tell it to) and back again when you place your mouse in a specific position. Also offers some nice keyboard shortcuts too (using WinKey combinations) for general winamp control|
^ [[http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/xshots|Luminocity]] | Awesome window manager and composter for Linux |
^ [[http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/|The Future of Keyboards!]] | A truly drool-worthy keyboard concept - each key is a colour back-lit LCD screen. |
^ [[http://www.everythingusb.com/ergodex_dx1_input_system.html|A lego-style of keyboard?]] | This is an awesome gadget that lets you place keys on a board like magnets on a fridge. The buttons work of course! :) |
^ [[http://www.last.fm|Last.FM]] & [[http://www.audioscrobbler.com|AudioScrobbler]] | AudioScrobbler provide plugins for all usable music players which generate statistics on what music you listen to, and display these on their website along with 'neighbours' who share your taste. Last.FM allows you to use this information to create a personalised radio station, playing music you listened to anyways, along with music which statistically you ought to like. I use this whenever I have the bandwidth and it's awesome, I've been introduced to some new bands thanks to this! |
^ [[http://despair.com/viewall.html|De-Motivational Posters]] | Making light of those crappy posters you see that have a pretty picture and a cliched slogan like "There is no I in team-work". I have the Motivation one pinned above my desk at work.|

===== Coding =====
  * [[http://www.eandem.co.uk/mrw/vim/syntax/index.html|VIM Syntax for Standard C]] and others.
  * [[http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=1272|Remapping keycodes in VIM (fix broken function-keys etc)]]

===== Sites =====
Websites which I recommend and frequently use.

^ [[http://www.TVtorrents.com|TVtorrents.com]] | Very good source of torrents for the TV episodes, as well as a good source for episode titles (as used by my [[coding/file_renamer|renaming script]]). |
^ [[http://AniDB.info|AniDB.info]] | Fantastic source of anime ED2K links and episode titles (as used by my [[coding/file_renamer|renaming script]]) |
^ [[http://www.TV.com|TV.com]] | (//Formally TVtome.com//) A great source of info on TV series, especially episode titles (as used by my [[coding/file_renamer|renaming script]]). |
^ [[http://www.GMail.com|GMail.com]] | Free email account from Google.com. The best web-based email interface I have ever used, openly support POP3 access |
^ [[http://www.Mailinator.com|Mailinator]] & [[http://www.spam.la|Spam.la]] | Two services for disposable email addresses - used to fight spam but still recieve the initial emails |

===== Cambridge =====
^ [[http://www.camcycle.org.uk/map/route/|CamCycle.org]] | Turn-by-turn cycling route planner for Cambridge |

===== Recommendations =====
I thought I'd write a bit about some of the more interesting things I link to.

==== Microscopic Pro Skin ====
[[http://robmeerman.co.uk/downloads/MicroscopicPro.rar|Microscopic Pro]] is a skin for trillian. It's really quite tiny, but is not lacking in usability.

{{trillian_microscopic_1.jpg }}{{trillian_microscopic_2.jpg }} Far Left: The contact list, with icons showing which medium they use. The individual avatars of friends can be viewed in a large tooltip which appears when you hover the mouse over a name, also it appears in a corner during conversations. Those that are "away" or similar are in a colour similar to the background, and hence harder to read. 

Left: This shows what windows are available (visible and hidden). 

Below: A conversation window. The grey text is the history of our last conversation. If they responded they name would appear in blue and their text in white (see IRC conversation below).

{{ trillian_microscopic_5.jpg}}

{{trillian_microscopic_3.jpg}}

Above: An IRC window. Note the horizontal rule showing where the window last lost the focus - this serves as a visual aid to find what you last read before switching to another task.

Below: Another IRC window. This is the expanded layout - this is also available for normal conversations, but without the IRC Topic ticker along the top.

{{trillian_microscopic_4.jpg}}

This skin has multiple colour themes, and can be configured using the GUI tool which comes with it. Below are all the colour previews:

{{trillian_microscopic_6.jpg}}
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