SetGlobal

Now available for download! (It's free man)

SetGlobal is a command line application that I wrote a while ago. It is a useful application that allows you to manage environment variables. Ever since I discovered that you can create an environment variable and then launch it from your address bar in windows, I have found this to be a useful way of creating shortcuts to launch applications, websites, and directories. I like the idea of attaching a short friendly name to a long URL or directory. Then from my address bar on my desktop I can type %myvar% to launch a URL or directory. I suppose you can do the same thing with Windows shortcuts, but then you need to find the shortcut and click on it. For things that I use often, I find this faster and less cluttered. (See the tutorial for example on how to do this.)

SetGlobal is a way for me to create a list of variables in a batch file so that I can manage variables across different machines. You could just use control panel/system but I like this better. I like to have a separate file containing all my variables.
SetGlobal does the same thing as the set command in DOS except that it persists the environment variable.

It is your own personal Shrinkster for your desktop.

There are other uses of environment variables and by all means SetGlobal is a useful way of managing any environment variable. (Note, currently only user variables can be created. I thought this would be less dangerous).

Disclaimer: Setting environment variables can overwrite variables that other applications rely on causing those applications to not work properly. It is always a good idea to check to see if a variable is in use before creating a new one. SetGlobal will not let you overwrite standard Windows variables.

%cool%

Four-Wheeled Segway

I must get one. For no reason other then it looks so cool.

http://news.com.com/Segway+may+go+off-road/2100-1041-5407205.html?part=dht&tag=ntop&tag=nl.e433

:-( I will probably never be able to afford it.

Another Windows XP SP2 Problem

After installing SP2 I was getting popup errors on my Tablet PC. (An error has occurred in the script URL is res://C:\WINNT\help\tpc_oobe.dll/tabsplash.hta.) The errors where coming from a "Tablet PC getting started" dialog that displays when you log into windows. If I had clicked the “don’t show again” check box on the dialog, before installing SP2, I would not have had this problem. However for some reason I liked the dialog and never checked the check box. Well, after I install SP2 and got the error messages every time I logged into windows. I was looking for a way to kill the dialog. With some greatly appreciated help from Microsoft I learned that the splshwrp.exe was the EXE that was running the dialog and that it was being launched from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

Windows XP SP2 and Firewalls

I recently installed Windows XP SP2. After I installed it I noticed that I couldn’t connect to my Wireless network any more. After spending a couple of hours searching the web and trying different settings on my AP, I discovered that it was my firewall that was blocking some call to or from my AP. I am running McAfee Firewall and ZoneAlarm. After I shutdown my firewalls I was able to connect. I also think that MAC address filtering doesn’t work the same as it did before (However I didn’t really look into it and just switched over to WEP security). So now I need to figure out how to configure my firewalls to work with my wireless network.

4GL?

The software industry is about to change. There have been a lot of changes as of late, however with all of the change we are still building software that is error prone, expensive, and unreliable. This however is about to change. There is a push in the software industry to build better software more efficiently and effectively. The answer is with things like code generation, application blocks and software factories. I am excited to think what this will turn into. Will 4GL finally bcome the main stream or will we have to redefine 4GL. Perhapes it will just be 3.5GL. Anyway the future will be interesting.

• Code Generation
• Application Block (Logging Application Block)
• Software Factories

Great Hackers

Great Hackers is a really great essay. (Thanks to Nick for blogging about is and allowing me to find it.) I think Paul really nailed what makes GREAT programmers GREAT. Being a good hacker (I wouldn’t call myself a great hacker. I think I my even be pushing it with good hacker) I could really relate to a lot of things Paul was talking about. I also realized why I am so frustrated with my current job. We are in maintenance mode which is not feeding my natural curiosity to learn new things. It is also not allowing me to work on anything cool. Having to look at the same code day in and day out and having little power to change the way things are done is not cool. We have a very strict change control process in place and if you want to make a major change you have to first get approval. And getting approval is not easy considering there are tons of request from clients that must be done first. Making more money is a priority. So I am stuck having to deal with the code as is, even though it has grown into a mountain of next to impossible to maintain code. All we can do is try to maintain this next to impossible code and try to build on top of it adding to the problem. I wish management would read Great Hackers an realize that in order to make things cool and exciting all they need to do is allow the developers to fix the problems by redefining the problem. As the essay points out back in the early Mac days when a lot of companies were building computers Steve Jobs came along and said “build me one beautiful”. And that, as the essay puts it “probably drove the developers harder than any carrot or stick could”. All management needs to do is give developers a vision or goal and most developers, well the great hackers, will run with it. But in our company those days seem to be gone. There was a time when developers spend a lot of time and money developing something that nobody wanted, so management decided that it is better to work on customer requests then to allow developers to go crazy. This makes me think that there must be reasons why some software is successful while others fail. But in my opinion if you are afraid of failure then you will probably never find a way to succeed.

I would also like to say that I disagree with ideas that great hackers only use Linux, Open Source software and Perl. I do agree with the idea that great hackers like control and with Open Source you have more control you can go in and change things because you have the source code. However, if you have well documented and well thought out software that is mature then that software may be wiser to use then open source. If it is easier to use and less buggy and will result in getting the end result up and running quicker then it is better. Also when it comes to operating systems and languages it is the one that allows you to do the most things that makes it better. And with that in mind it may just be the one that the hacker has the most knowledge about that makes it the better choice.

Desktops

I was reading a post from FTPOnline. There is a reference to Google’s Zeitgiest showing that Linux is only on 1% of the computers that accessed Google while Windows XP was at 51%. But the thing that I find most interesting is that 5% is given to the category of “Other”. Does that mean that Google could not identify 5% of the computers? Is there some browser that doesn't send OS information? Is it some application that is accessing Google in a way that Google cannot identify it? What is going on? 5% is quite a bit, it is a lot bigger then Linux and Mac combine.