PowerPro v3.8
http://powerpro.webeddie.com/
Win 95/98/NT/2000/XP
Free

[Command launcher] Run commands, programs, and system configuration all from a button bar. This is a tough program to describe because it can be customized many ways to suit your needs. Karen Carter, who recommended this program, finds this program is indispensable. She says, “It will replace many separate utilities, and can be configured in almost unlimited ways. It has extensive help files, plus two user groups on Yahoo.com for extra support/assistance.”

When I opened the program for the first time, I was overwhelmed by its options. Taking baby steps, I picked two of my frequently used commands and added them to the task bar. On my desktop are a few one-click icons for running a command. I moved these icons into PowerPro and the desktop became less cluttered. Speed up the computing process by taking advantage of the hot key and mouse action items.

Tick tock, the program ran scheduled items right on time such as registry cleaning programs, back ups, and reminders.

I rarely used CAPS or SCROLL LOCK, both of which could be disabled with PowerPro. I could also create virtual desktops and send keystrokes when running a program. The Web site shows menu examples to give you an idea of how different implementation can be per desktop. If the program looks familiar, it was formerly known as Stiletto.

In sum, PowerPro is a task bar, keyboard macro, and program launcher rolled in one. Although the site has not been updated in over a year, the program is worth looking into if you’re looking for a tool to do all of these things.

Note: This is an interview I conducted with Joel. He was so kind to provide long and clear explanations that I decided to leave them alone rather than make it into an article. The beginning and end are my comments and everything in between his Joel. Thanks, Joel.

Estimation is daunting in Web design with its many variables and the differing for each project. If I could teach everyone one thing about estimation, it’s this: the shorter the tasks, the better the estimate. I tell people to break every schedule down to tasks that are between 4 and 16 hours. If you have a task on your schedule that says something will take a week, it probably means you haven’t thought enough about that steps are involved and you’re pulling the estimate out of thin air. If the requirements indicate, “We need a logon module,” then how long will that take? Aw geez, maybe a week, you guesstimate. Thin air. Back to reality, think about what’s involved in the logon module and break it into manageable tasks.

* Create user table in the database (4 hours)

* Develop a way to enter new users (2 days)

* Ability for users to get password emailed to them if they forget it (1 day)

* Create logon page (4 hours)

* Add password checking capability (1 day)

* Add back-end security (2 days)

* Add HTTPS server (1 day)

* Build code in every page to check that the user has logged on (2 days)

That adds up to TWO weeks. The guesstimate means trouble just for this one requirement. Imagine under-guesstimating for more and finding the project way behind schedule.

By thinking about small tasks you get an estimate, which is not only more precise, but also vastly more accurate. Of course, the client doesn’t know everything that’s needed while working on the requirements.

For the first 11 years of my career, I went around assuming that clients somehow know what they want and our job was to pin them down, maybe by writing a super-detailed spec and getting them to sign every page of it (as some have suggested).

You can try that; it won’t work. It’s too hard to envision the whole system working together until it works together. You’ll start to notice all kinds of things that you thought were requirements, which you never use, and all kinds of things that never occurred to anyone, least of all the client, which turn out to be ultra-crucial.

Manage your client relationship in a way to give you room to frequently adjust even in the middle of the project. I approach handling requirements by suggesting to the client that I’ll start building the minimal system that implements some of the requirements and show the client how it works. Afterwards, decide on which requirements to add next even if it’s not on the original list of requirements. Deliver the next product with the added requirements and continue the process until the system works as expected.

This approach allows repeatedly changing direction while the client learns about the system and how it serves his needs. Requirements that seem important may turn out not to be needed, thus saving money. Regularly delivering functionality builds the client’s confidence in the developer’s ability to stay on track.

Unfortunately, this process doesn’t help with estimating the cost of the whole project before starting. Work through this by explaining that you’ll keep adding and delivering features that have the biggest ROI until we’ve run out of features that are cost effective.

Expect the client to keep requesting more features beyond the budget. When it happens, demonstrate the cost is higher than the budget and it’s time to prioritize. Be ready for politics. The person signing the check
is usually not involved in the project activities.

Here is where the incremental system works since you and the client
address the higher priority items first and keep adding to it until you
run out of time and money. By then, you’ve proven yourself by regularly
delivering functionality.

What do you think? How do you estimate? How accurate is it? I’ve been reading about Galorath’s SEER-SEM estimation tool and hear great things about it. Has anyone used it?

Bio:
Joel Spolsky is a software developer in New York City who has worked at Microsoft, Viacom, and Juno Online Services. Currently, he runs his own company, Fog Creek Software, which makes CityDesk content management software. He is the author of Joel on Software: (long subtitle follows and I am avoiding carpal tunnel – grin). Apress, August 2004.

Many people have written about their experiences with Mozilla and FireFox (FF). It sounds like about half of them have had no problems with FF while the other half experienced problems like I did. My household reflects the statistic since two of our four computers run FF without issues while the other two constantly fight fires with it. Read on for the good, the bad, the so-so, and the uncategorizable…

The good…

Ted Marsden says he has cut spam about 60 percent by switching to Mozilla, FF, and Netscape. Leigh Klotz has been using Mozilla for a long time and never uses IE unless a Web site doesn’t work with Mozilla. Izzie has been using FF for several months and has had no problems.

Jean Jacque Duguay loves FF. He has tried Netscape v7.0, but it was too big and too slow. He has tested Mozilla, which he believes is a better version of Netscape. He is hooked to tabbed browsing. Slim Browser is another he has looked at, but he later learned it uses the IE engine, which means it carries the IE security issues. After trying FF, he believes he is finally free of IE.

Jerome Miller writes he has been non-IE browsers for many years; Netscape, Mozilla, FF, and Opera. FF is the pick of the lot. For Jim Harkins, the switch to FF was seamless.

Dwight Romanovicz has been using Netscape as his primary browser since version 2. Through all those years he has never been bothered by an e-mail virus or a home page hijacker. In the past couple of years webmasters have become too slack to test their pages with Netscape so the visual may have problems but far more important is that some file types are corrupted upon download.

Michael B. Johnson switched to FF for the following reasons:

1. Security – For example, Mozilla won’t run Active-X controls without his permission. I’m using Win2K (not XP), so the shell exploit doesn’t affect him.

2. Ease of use – Mozilla’s tabbed browsing and background loading. Also the “just type and I’ll find it” feature. And the Ctrl+Grey Plus key zoom-in/zoom out feature. And the Adblock plugin.

3. Open Source – He supports the movement.

Jo Ann Weaver made the switch and use FF as the default browser with Avant as backup. Jo Ann hasn’t used IE in almost a year.

DeVaux McLean loves FF. Steve Hydrick has switched to FF and Thunderbird (email client) and has no complaints. Though it does take a PC-savvy person to explore its options for extensions etc, but he likes that option! And, it is somewhat faster than IE6 so that’s a good thing too. Ad-Aware doesn’t detect any spyware since he switched.

Wayne Tuttle has been using Mozilla for years and has replaced the suite with FF since I only used the browser. FF safely transferred all of his bookmarks and, more importantly, his banking certificate like a regular upgrade of Mozilla, and after a day, he removed Mozilla.

Geoff Loats has been using Firefox for about six weeks and finds it leaves IE for dead. The only problem he has with it is that a page must completely load before you can activate one of the links on that page. It beats having pop ups galore making surfing a nightmare.

Myrl changed to FireFox and was astounded when running anti-spyware and found not one new occurrence since the switch. Myrl has only one disappointment, the ability to send only plain text emails from the Yahoo account, no hyperlinks, no color, nothing unless I use an attachment.

The bad…

Dick Bellin understands the reasons for switching and has no arguments. He has tried Mozilla and FF more than once, and each time after frustrations and failure to get the programs to work as promised, he gave up and went back to IE. He uses Avant Browser, however, Avant uses the IE engine and inherits all of IE’s security problems.

Cliff Walker removed FF within 15 minutes of installing it because it presupposes that the designers already know how you want the browser configured. They assume that you want all these commercial links on your toolbar, leaving about one-third of it for custom links and no way to get rid of these commercial links that we’ll never use and, actually, would prefer not being reminded they exist. No, there’s no way to free up this space and there’s no way to add to what little space they leave you with.

Cliff says, “Conspicuous by its absence was ANY control over animated ads: there’s no way to disable these flashing, flickering, looping distractions (and leave them off). In an application that I would have hoped would be advanced enough to have actually figured out a way to turn off Flash at will, we end up having to try to scroll the lowly GIF off the screen in our attempts to read what’s on the page.”

The so-so…

Sid Huff reports a few problems at his office, a New Zealand University, as a few systems don’t work with FF, but work fine with Internet Explorer (IE). He says when he clicks on a link, he gets a ‘save file’ dialog box. I have had this happen before and fix it by closing / re-opening FF. For him, FF takes longer to load. But others report it’s speedier. Sid says, “All in all, while I appreciate the theoretical advantages, I am not impressed with the practical on-the-ground results.”

Ben Trotter switched browser because of the warnings with IE. He chose Netscape and says it is acceptable, but not as convenient as the IE engine.

Ed Norris used FF occasionally and liked it. Somehow it became contaminated and every time he opened the program, it would also open all my favorites in IE, forcing me to close all the tabs individually. He uninstalled FF and downloaded it again, same problem.

Virginia Scofield changed to Firefox and it was working like a charm. Then she did an update on it and installed the security patch. She used it the next morning and it took about two minutes to load – then was almost impossible to use due to the slow reaction of the mouse with the menus. Since then, I have uninstalled, reinstalled, tried all the little tips, etc., etc. – and still cannot use it due to the jerky slow movements of the mouse/menu. It doesn’t get her vote.

Sally Davenport lost out on a good deal on eBay because of FF. She used FF to access eBay to complete a transaction. She ended in a loop between “Buy It” and the Legal Agreement page and couldn’t proceed with the purchase and missed out on a good deal. She contacted eBay and its prompt answer was that Mozilla/Netscape wasn’t compatible with its software. She likes the program in general, but not its method to add sites.

The uncategorizable…

Allan Erdman suggests using Deepnet Explorer, but the program shares IE’s engine and therefore, inherits its problems. Here is a quote from the Deepnet Explorer forums, “As Deepnet Explorer shares the HTML rendering engine with IE, it is exposed some security vulnerabilities from IE. However, these are confined to only vulnerabilities in the HTML engine. There are many other security enhancements in DE that makes it much more secure than IE. Please see this for more info.”

I have bent Excel over backwards to do stuff it was not meant to do like track training metrics and use it as process bug-tracker (think programming bug tracking system except it’s for processes). These spreadsheets require many workarounds not found in the help file or on the Internet. It just takes a few keyboard banging sections and formula screw ups to make these workarounds work.

Excel also has a few glaring features that are missing and the workarounds are available on Microsoft. One such feature is the lack of totals on a stacked column chart. Excel adds the total for each item in the stacked column, but doesn’t add the value for the whole column.

PivotTables are useful, but when I need them, I have forgotten how to use them to their fullest. My mind goes blank when I face the PivotTable wizard. A whole chapter is devoted to its magic and scanning the hack titles helps you quickly decide what you need and go to work.

The hacks go from easy as pie to tough as nails. Did you know the comments boxes don’t have to be square? It’s a simple hack and the first cool thing I learn from Excel Hacks. The hacks covering XML and macros are for the advanced users, but intermediate users should be able to do them and hard working beginners can get there.

Excel isn’t just for accountants anymore and the book shows how to use it for other things. The book is worth the investment for anyone who uses Excel. Make it break a sweat with these hacks and have fun doing it.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: Excel Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools
AUTHOR: Raina Hawley and David Hawley
PUBLISHER: O’Reilly & Associates
PUBLICATION DATE: March 2004
ISBN: 059600625X
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 304
PRICE: US$24.95

Paul upgraded WinAmp once and went back to its older version because it was better. Sometimes the sequel is not better and we revert to the older version, but it is not always possible. OldVersion.com is a site for searching for … yeah, I think you know.

Getting ready to travel to another country? Already carrying a handheld device? Don’t buy a book, download SloveEd for your multilingual translation needs and just add the languages to the PDA. Choices include the following languages converted to another: Croatian, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.

Using the Spanish / English dictionary for the review, just select the Folder icon from the top menu to quickly switch from English to Spanish and vice-versa. The dictionary sorts the words according to its native language alphabet and includes special characters like ñ and é.

New entries can be added and existing entries edited. Switch to full screen mode to view the translation by clicking on the icon left of the Folder. Search the history of words previously searched to review words again from the drop-down arrow next to the entry. Multiple languages can be loaded into the PDA at the same time. Save handheld space by loading the dictionaries and even the program onto an expansion card.

A unique feature is the resident module, which gets the translation of word without exiting an application that is currently active. Just select the word you would like to translate and do an up and down motion over the magnifying glass (FIND silk button). The dictionary appears as a pop-up on the lower half of the screen. While it’s open, either scan other words or close it by clicking on X.

It’s easy to immediately start using the dictionary. The software is accompanied with the usual help file, which is likely needed to understand some of its features. It uses all of the handheld’s functions to the fullest including the graffiti area, up and down buttons, and touch screen scroll bars. Some programs make the unfortunate mistake of disabling the up and down button. Not so with this and there are multiple ways to do one task giving the user a choice of what works best. No one can ask for anything more in a handheld dictionary.

SlovoEd is from Paragon Software. The Palm version is compatible with Palm, Handspring Visor, Sony CLIE, HandEra, TRG Pro, IBM WorkPad, and other Palm OS 3.x-4.x devices. Pocket PC and other devices have a compatible version available, see the site for details.

I’ve literally been buried in Excel trying to create tracking metrics for a training program. The problem is that there are too many variables to create a pivot table or other automated function to provide meaningful information. The key is to show how much training has been completed and not completed by month so the bigwigs know when we have to pull their employees for training and for how long.

Shown is an example, but the real thing is more complex as there are 10 classes, 11 departments, and 300+ names. I’ve searched the Internet for Excel ideas and tutorials, but most are focused on financials or creating forms. Nothing like this. We do not have a training program in place that would make it worth it to invest in software or create an Access database to give us what we need.

<edit>Finally making headway, but it is a long, slow method. It will be easy to maintain once I get all the formulas set up.</edit> A fresh night of sleep provides a new perspective and a decent solution to the Excel blackhole. Not the dream solution, but good enough to make bigwiggette a happy gal.

This is one way to get creative with Excel for non-monetary needs. The basic steps:

1. pivot tables based on original data (one for each class with all the departments).
2. create worksheet that connects to pivots so chart is automatically updated when pivots are refreshed. It calculates hours.
3. Put in a purty graphic chart.

The pivot tables (step 1) don’t organize the data in the way that we needed it, hence the reason for the worksheet (step 2). Plus, I added formulas to calculate the hours for the department per month. At the bottom is the total hours added from all the classes combined without the specific class information (just to show you what we’re looking at).

This tells the director the total number of hours that her people are in training by month. Looking at the graph (step 3), shows that most of the training is done in April with the Test team spending a total of 15 hours in April.

The Step 1 usage of Apr-Y, May-Y, and Jun-Y indicates the student takes the class in month and Y indicates the student has completed the class. The reason for combining the month and whether or not the person has attended is to avoid another column — another variable to the mess.

We had to track students required to take the class, but haven’t attended. This is done by using Apr-N, May-N, and Jun-N. Obviously, the ‘N’ represents ‘No.’ Blanks mean the student is not required to take the class and should not contribute to the numbers.

This is a simplified version of the spreadsheet. This concludes our Excel as a training tracking spreadsheet tutorial. Questions?

I’ve literally been buried in Excel trying to create tracking metrics for a training program. The problem is that there are too many variables to create a pivot table or other automated function to provide meaningful information. The key is to show how much training has been completed and not completed by month so the bigwigs know when we have to pull their employees for training and for how long.

I provided an example, but the real thing is more complex as there are 10 classes, 11 departments, and 300 names. I searched the Internet for Excel ideas and tutorials, but most are focused on financials or creating forms. Nothing like this. We do not have a training program in place that would make it worth it to invest in software or create an Access database to give us what we need.

Any geniuses out there with a few hints to help a poor crossed-eyed girl?

<edit>Finally making headway, but it is a long, slow method. It will be easy to maintain once I get all the formulas set up.</edit>

Home is the desktop where you’re seeing the top navbar and right navbar. News takes you to the News Aggregator. Stories is where you enter long entries, essays, stories, and whatnot. You can see the three files I have in stories. Folder is where all your Radio files are located and it looks just like a file manager. Events lists all the activities including upstreaming and posting. The orange question mark is sprinkled through the Radio app for when you need help.

There are three parts to the right navbar: Cloud Links, Status Center, and Support Center.

The Cloud is a new concept to many, me included. It’s a perfect name because it’s the “area between home and heaven” and on the Internet the cloud is the space between your hard drive and the Internet server. It’s the space where you can see interaction with other Radio users.

Home is this page, the front door of the Web site. Referrers is a list of other sites that bring people to your site. These other sites have links to the home page. It’s a way to find out who is linking to your site and make sure they’re not saying anything bad about you. Also, you get to find out where you get your traffic. Ranking by Page-Reads is a list of all the Radio users and how many hits they’ve received for today and for overall. Woe is me! I’m not in the top 10. I guess I better suck up to the hotshots to get some attention my way.

The Status Center provides time and temperature, errr.. date and time. Actually, it gives you the latest snapshot of the site. It shows when the News Aggregator completed its last check for new news and the number of subscribed resources. The Hotlist is self-explanatory. Weblogs, oh my gosh, this is truly original and all Userland’s own creation. I have spent way too much time in this area. Frequent visitors to weblogs.com will somewhat recognize this page. The left has the latest updates to weblogs.com, instead of seeing it at the weblogs.com site, it’s on your own desktop when Radio is open. On the right is your favorites in the order they have been updated. So, if you don’t see your name on here, don’t get mad at me. You are on my list, you just haven’t updated as recent as this list you see. Anytime you see a weblog you like on the left, click in the checkbox and it’ll join your favorites list. Enough on that or I’ll end up stuck there and not finishing this report.

Web server tells you number of requests that have been processed by the server, not the number of people coming to your server. That’s the referrer‘s job. Events shows the type of event, what happened, when, and how long. Such events are hourly scans of news, upstreams (uploads from your computer where only you can see it to the server so everyone can view your work of art), archives, and weblog pings. Frequencies is not in a typical Radio installation. In fact, it’s one of the “extras” I installed later. It’s a tool from Jeff Cheney that shows you how many times you’ve posted, how many categories you’ve created, how many news items you’ve posted from the News Aggregator, and how many different sources you cite. These tools are cool! I’m user number 1194, hence the url: radio.userland.com/0001194. Also, occasionally, the Radio Userland folks sneak in subliminal messages. OK, they would give interesting newsbytes from time to time.

The Support Center provides quick links of where to go for help. Radio has discussion groups and mailing lists with many knowledgeable users ready to help. The email features sends your radio configuration to an email address that you enter. It tells the receiver how your Radio is set up to be able to provide you with better and more accurate support. We rarely think about such a feature, but it can be incredibly handy. How often do you call tech support and they ask you a ton of questions such as operating system, computer specs, software version, on and on? The email has all of this information.

Executive Summary (the I don’t have time to read this whole damned thing, so give me the quick lowdown)

I’m free!!! I can now spill my guts and tell you all about radiating Radio eight-dot-oh (R8) since I’m no longer bound by NDA. It’s everything RAD (RADio, rad, radiating)! Because of its addicting features on the desktop, it’s making it difficult for me to get writing done. Here’s what grabs me:

Weblogs
You can look at the latest weblogs.com update right on your R8 desktop without entering weblogs.com in your browser. Not only that, you can even select your favorites and see them in a second column, so you’ll know when they were last updated. If they’re not on the list at all, it’s been awhile (Internet time) since they’ve been updated.

News Aggregator
No more schlepping from news site to news site or to places like DayPop40. Get it all on your R8.0 desktop by clicking on NEWS from the top navigation menu. When installing R8 for the first time, go to the hotlist on your Radio home and select the news sources you wish to receive (DayPop40, CNet, Salon, Wired, Slashdot, Register, and more). Then, these will update every hour in your News Aggregator page.

You can click POST next to a news item and it’ll already be linked. Just add any comments and PUBLISH! Another option for those ready to add a new tool: try out Doug Kaye’s News2mail tool. After you download it and unzip it, move the file into the TOOLS folder of your RadioUserland folder (in file manager). It sends the News Aggregator news to your mailbox every hour. Then, if you combine it with Jeremy Bowers’ customBlogPost tool, you can post it the news item right from the email. Load it the same way as News2Radio by putting in it in the TOOLS folder.

It’s a priceless tool for writers trying to keep up with IT news.

Referrers
Most Webmasters have Web site visitor stats emailed to us or go to the online stats screen to find out from where our visitors arrive. For example, if Dave posts a link to Meryland (I can dream, can I?) and people start clicking on it, the referrer list would show www.scripting.com along with the number of visitors who arrive from Dave’s link. In R8, you click on Referrers from the top left menu and bada-boom! You’ve got your referrer list!

Remote Posting
Posting to your Radio site when you’re remotely located from your computer loaded with Radio is not always possible. I connect to the Internet with a cable connection, but I installed a firewall. Radio can’t get through this firewall without disabling the settings (too much trouble and opens up the computer). There is a clever alternative. You can post to Radio by emailing yourself with a specific subject that you’ve identified in the Radio preferences.

For example, you can set up the preference to make the subject, “cool_radio” and enter an email account for Radio to watch for the email with the subject. Word of warning, don’t use your heavy-duty email account because Radio scans all incoming messages. There are so many free email accounts for the taking, so grab one and use it.

The hitch with this method is that Radio has to be running on the computer. When I’m slaving away at the office all day, I don’t have my computer and Radio on at home. Sure, I can be connected to the Internet 24-hours, but it’s not worth the security risk or a power outage.

Conclusion (to hell with all of that, what do *you* think of it???)
The crew of Radio 8.0 has truly separated the product from any others on the market. Is it revolutionary? I wouldn’t call it “the next best thing since sliced bread” because there are many people who aren’t even touched by applications like this. I know an IT hardware manager who still doesn’t know what weblogs are or the big deal about them. There are web designers who do know what are weblogs or online publishing, but aren’t interested. Radio, or any other similar app, isn’t going to pull them in.

Is Radio better than [fill in the blank with your favorite (or heard of) weblog or publishing system]? Yes… and no. It is superior in its unique ability to move files upstream (to the server) from your computer without your doing anything. Just push PUBLISH and it goes right to the site. Most places require FTP to get there, and many people (including students I’ve taught in a second level Web design course) have no idea what it is or how it works. Just work on your desktop like any word processor and save it. You’re done. It’s online.

Radio’s Cloud, Weblog, News Aggregator, and other technical behind the scenes stuff also stand out from the crowd. It’s very easy for a beginner to get set up and run with it. It took me five minutes (maybe less, but I didn’t have a stopwatch handy) to install it and post the first entry. This is without doing any tweaking, personalization, or fancy stuff.

If you do Web design and like to do fancy stuff like CSS, creating your own templates, and such, you can certainly do it in Radio. It’s not easy to do, but setting up templates is almost never easy even for the seasoned HTMLer.
It has some quirks that I can’t straighten out. Some of the links don’t go where they should despite checking, rechecking, and republishing. The articles are supposed to list three stories. Then, when you try to return Home from that page, you get a 404. There are testers who have not had this problem. I’m still trying to figure out why the links aren’t working. They work on some pages and not others.

Another quibble is putting images into an entry or story. I’ve tried it three ways:

• Copy and paste – This is based on the instructions from Userland. It works fine when on 127.0.0.1 (Radio cloud), but it doesn’t work in the public site because the img src refers to 127.0.0.1 instead of radio.weblogs.com/0001194.
• HTML (WYSIWYG) editor – I clicked on URL and entered /images/imagename.gif/ and it still puts 127.0.0.1 in front of it instead of the 0001194 address. I thought that when local URLs get upstreamed, it is adjusted.
• Source editor – this is the only way I can make sure it is accurate because I hand code the image source address.

The Comments feature is growing popular with weblogs and that doesn’t come built-in Radio. I’m sure someone will develop a macro for it soon enough. It’s impossible to have all the features that please everybody and keep costs down. The $39.95 is an excellent value just to have the weblogs, referrers, and the news aggregator features along with the server space. It’s good that it’s low because I need the money to go to a weblogs anonymous meeting to cure me of my Radio desktop addictions.