April 2006 - Posts

CSSA new server update

The style and template of the forum are updated. I've put a copy of css file (test.css) and a copy of the header template (new_hearder.html) at /var/www/html/forum/skin_cache/.  They're just backups. The changes have been applied within the forum's Admin CP. There are weird issues with the styles. The border/margin or whatever for image links in the table cell cannot be set properly...

Use SQL commands to update links in the forum. Most problems (such as http://cssa.mit.edu/new/new/ or http://cssa.mit.edu/new/forum/) Some issues remain...
posted by wenyang with 0 Comments

Wink 2.0 for Windows released

Wink version 2.0 (build 1000)  was released a few days ago. This new version adds support for audio, so you can record voice as you create the tutorial. I don't have a chance to try it yet, but it's probably a nice feature.  Details at http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
posted by wenyang with 0 Comments

Firefox 1.5.0.2

I just got my firefox upgraded to this new version. Details at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/releases/1.5.0.2.html
posted by wenyang with 0 Comments

Calendar.google.com

Worth trying...
posted by wenyang with 1 Comments

FileFinder v1.3.1

Finally we have a new version of this handy (and free!) tool to search and open files on Windows. The author, cygwin@newSMTH, released version 1.3.1 today.  The new version is more customizable and more user-friendly (see below for the change log). 

I have used it (formerly known as "run.exe") for a long time. This tool is somewhat similar to the "locate" utility for Linux.  Unlike those desktop search software (such as GDS), this tool indices the file names only, not the contents. Although it is less powerful,  the advantage is obvious: it uses far less resource and runs much faster.  With a good file/directory naming convention, it can quickly find what I want, almost immediately. That's why I like it a lot and I even used hoekey to bind it to the hotkey of Win+Shift+F for my PC.  Actually I could have bind it to Win+F, as I seldom use the window "find", anyway. 

More details about this tool can be found at http://www.newsmth.net/bbscon.php?bid=99&id=853498

[v1.3.1@2006-4-12]
+ tool tip to see long names.
* only 2 chars is needed for a background search when typing.
! fixed a problem: the folders can't be end with a backslash in exclude list.

[v1.3@2006-4-8]
+ win98 support
+ multi selection support
+ multi selection context menu support
+ multi selection drag&drop support
* improve full path search speed.
* database format changed!
* rename executable file

posted by wenyang with 0 Comments

RFID for flow/speed data

RFID brings an easy implementation of detecting (average) speed: two tag readers -> time difference
Similar to AVI data. Privacy is always a concern.

LA evaluation:
why most freeway sensors report significantly less flows in the past 6 months, compared with our archived data of 2004?

posted by wenyang with 0 Comments

HFS - Http File Server

HFS (http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/) does for HTTP the same thing as what Serv-U does for FTP.  It can turn the PC into a web server to send and receive files.  It has a lot of features yet still intuitive to start with. It is free software (GPL).  Another link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/hfs

I tried it yesterday. It is easy for sharing files. It allows multi-threaded downloads.  There is one thing I am not quite sure about, however. I can use some download software such as NetTransport to start the download from my browser. But if I want to add the task directly in NetTransport, it fails to run even if I set the correct referrer. Maybe I miss something...

posted by wenyang with 0 Comments

Using Wink to create demos for DynaMIT and MITSIM

Wink (http://www.debugmode.com/wink/) is a free tool to create tutorials and presentations. It can generate Flash (swf) or stand-alone output. It can run on Windows and some distributions of Linux (for x86).

I heard about this software a long time ago, but have not had a chance to try it until recently when I was asked to create demos for both DynaMIT (for LA) and MITSIM (for NY).  It is quite handy and easy to use.  Yesterday I even created a tutorials for my father,  to show him how to capture screen using QQ.
posted by wenyang with 0 Comments