Category Archives: Software

Random notes

Posted on May 15, 2008 by acb

Everything seems to be running fine to judge from the error logs: a few robots complaining that they find themselves hors texte, a place that structuralists believed could not exist; I have meanwhile been running around when not writing nonsense … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Net stories, Software | 2 Comments

Ultimate procrastination

Posted on November 20, 2007 by acb

Thanks to John Naughton I have just stumbled upon a site which appears to list every public or semi-public talk being given in or around Cambridge University. It is a glorious searchable toyshop of interesting ideas and almost the best … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, God, Journalism, Net stories, nördig, Science without worms, Software, Worms | 2 Comments

I hate software (rollup post)

Posted on August 18, 2007 by acb

I was trying to install the Flickr plugin for MT and got a message about being out of disk space. It turns out that in two months, 220 MB of spam had silted up in the inbox where I kept … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | Comments Off on I hate software (rollup post)

It had (haved?) to come

Posted on May 29, 2007 by acb

LOLCODE is a much better language than Ruby, and so we need to work hard to make LOLCODE ON MONORAIL the standard web development language! For a stunning example of what can be done with this almost completely natural language, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Net stories, nördig, Software | 1 Comment

An unusual software plug

Posted on April 16, 2005 by acb

I’ve said this before, but Abby FineReader is the best 70 Euros I have ever spent on software and proof that the stuff built in Russia is much better than its American rivals. I am using it this afternoon to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 2 Comments

too clever by half

Posted on April 8, 2005 by acb

I wasted five minutes this morning trying to get the RSS feed from the Guardian’s election blog working in Opera. The icon was there, but nothing I tried seemed to subscribe me. I dragged, I dropped, I clicked and control-keyed. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | Comments Off on too clever by half

A wonderful discovery

Posted on February 18, 2005 by acb

I have been completely overwhelmed by Picasa. Once upon a time, I played solitaire when I was on the phone, to keep the rest of my mind bubbling along. Now I fool with my picture library, straightening them out and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | Comments Off on A wonderful discovery

A neat gimmick

Posted on January 23, 2005 by acb

Yahoo Desktop search is elegant. It’s not perfect, but it’s very quick, and has important advantages over Google’s. It doesn’t rely on IE; it can be tweaked to search openoffice files and display their context in plain text — actually … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 3 Comments

an awful warning

Posted on December 13, 2004 by acb

Adobe Acrobat 3.whatever for the palm is a horrible piece of software. I have been trying an ebook in Adobe DRM format. It has one good point: you can shift the book and its activation between computers. But on a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 1 Comment

Ecco open sourced?

Posted on December 7, 2004 by acb

I can hardly believe this, but one of the most original and useful programs of the last fifteen years may finally be available for improvement. for some time now Ecco has been given away free as a donwloadable binary, and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Software | 3 Comments