Freeplane: Mind mapping tool

To those who are not aware of Mind Mapping, it is a very interesting technique that promotes non-linear thinking and changes the way one thinks/organizes/presents. Google to understand more about this concept.

I started off with FreeMind, which is a free software available at http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page and can be used to develop mind maps. As is the case with many Open Source Software, it had a fork due to one of the core developers leaving the team. Result: Freeplane!

Apart from Freeplane having many more features, it is also more actively being developed compared to FreeMind, the latter of which is seeing very infrequent updates.

Freeplane is available for download at http://freeplane.sourceforge.net.

On a side note, I was shocked to learn that this technique is being taught to children nowadays at a level as early as elementary school education!

CoLT: Copy hyperlink text/details

CoLT is a very useful Firefox add-on to help you copy the text and the actual URL of a hyperlink in a variety of ways. Let me just put in the add-on’s brief straight from its homepage:

CoLT (short for "Copy Link Text") makes it easy to copy either a link's text, or both the link text and its URL in a format you specify. This non-invasive extension simply appears as context menu items when you right-click a link. Fully customizable!

The add-on can be installed from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/colt/.

Merge, Split and Collate PDFs

Ever felt the need to take merge multiple PDF documents? How about taking just a page or two from a PDF document? Or how about updating the PDF document’s metadata? If yes or if you now want this functionality, then this Techbit is for you!

PDFTK Builder is the tool that can help you all that was mentioned in the above paragraph and much more. You could password protect a PDF document, you could add watermarks to the pages, you could rotate the PDF pages etc.

PDFTK Builder can be downloaded from http://angusj.com/pdftkb/#pdftkbuilder.

There is also a PortableApps compatible version available at http://portableapps.com/apps/office/pdftk_builder_portable. If you're unaware of what PortableApps is, check out http://spatnala.blogspot.com/2013/12/are-your-applications-portable.html.

How to delete blank or certain lines in a text file?

Notepad++ is the text editor used for these tasks. Refer to this Techbit in case you're not aware of it.

How to delete blank lines?

Under the menu path “TextFX” >> “TextFX Edit”, there exists an option “Delete Blank Lines” to serve this purpose. A similar option to achieve this is present under “Edit” >> “Line Operations” as well.

How to delete certain lines i.e. lines having a specific text pattern?

1. Search i.e. Ctrl+f
2. Select the “Mark” tab
3. Put in the pattern you want to search for
4. Tick the checkbox of “Bookmark line”
5. Select “Mark All”
6. Select the menu path “Search” >> “Bookmark” >> “Remove Bookmarked Lines”

Are your applications portable?

Installing software applications on your computer is one thing. However, what if you want to use them on a different system? Or how about the situation when your OS has to be re-installed? This brings up the question posed in the title of this blog post: Are your applications portable?

One solution is to use “portable” versions instead of “installable” versions – meaning, you’d be able to just extract the application binary to just a directory directly and use it from there on. Having portable versions of the programs is good. Wouldn't it be better to have an entity to manage all such portable applications? This is exactly where the solution offered by this Techbit, PortableApps comes into picture.

PortableApps lets you install various applications and manage them easily. It can be downloaded from http://portableapps.com/. Not all the applications are covered as of now but the positive side is PortableApps is gaining popularity and we should be seeing the application repository of PortableApps ever increasing.

To summarize, following approach is what I would generally suggest in the context of installing software:

• If the software has a portable version compatible with PortableApps, use it.
• If not, check if a portable version of the software exists and use it if so.
• If the software does not offer any portable version, only then install it in the installable mode.

EPIC: Eclipse-based Perl IDE

Are you a programmer? And, is Perl one of the languages you use? If so, then this Techbit is for you.

EPIC is the point to start from for your Perl programming. It is imperative that one uses IDE for programming and it is precisely where EPIC comes as aid in the case of Perl-based development activities. As an IDE, EPIC provides all the standard functionality like syntax highlighting, syntax checking, content assist, debugging aids etc.

EPIC is located at http://www.epic-ide.org/.

For a quick head start, you can go through http://web.archive.org/web/20120113222246/http://www.cs.wcupa.edu/~rkline/Ubuntu/eclipse-perl.html (archived version of the no longer accessible http://www.cs.wcupa.edu/~rkline/Ubuntu/eclipse-perl.html). The detailed documentation can be found at the official website listed above.

Process Hacker

Process Hacker is similar to Process Explorer, which was covered here as part of an earlier Techbit.

There are differences though. While there are parties taking sides on either of these as usual, it is commonly said that Process Explorer is more helpful from a process inspection perspective whereas Process Hacker is stated to excel in process manipulation. As you use both the utilities, you’ll find the use-cases that only one of them can realize or those that can be realized in a better manner though one or those that can be realized equally well through either.

This utility is homed at http://processhacker.sourceforge.net/.

Process Explorer

You tried to delete a file on your Windows system and the system complained that the operation cannot be completed as the file is being in use. Which process or processes have the file handle? Or is it due a runaway process that did not do proper cleanup before exiting, in which case system restart is the only option? How about finding out what process does an open window correspond to? And, how about then checking the details like description, corporation etc. of that process?

Process Explorer lets you achieve the above tasks and much more.

This utility was from Sysinternals and later became part of Microsoft’s kitty as part of an acquisition. This utility is hosted and available for download at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.

Disable clicking sound in Windows Explorer & Internet Explorer

Are you irritated by the clicking sound while navigating in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer (IE)? If so, this Techbit is for you. Are you annoyed about bad things happening to good people? To make matters worse, are you bothered about good things happening to bad people? Well, neither can this Techbit be of help nor can I comprehend the rationale. Are you miffed at why the subject of this Techbit is not yet covered? Here we go, I can help you here and jump right into the topic!

Windows XP

• Click Start
• Click "Control Panel"
• Click "Sounds and Audio Devices"
• Click the Sounds tab
• Scroll down the list under Program Events
• Under the Windows Explorer section, highlight Start Navigation
• Under the Sounds box, select (None) > OK, close Control Panel

Windows 7

• Click Start
• Click "Control Panel"
• Click "Hardware and Sound"
• Under Sound, Click "Change system sounds"
• Scroll down the list under "Program Events"
• Under the Windows Explorer section, highlight "Start Navigation"
• Under the Sounds box, select "(None)"
• Click OK
• Close "Control Panel"

That should shut it!

Note that you would normally need to do this only once. That is unless the OS is re-installed on your computer after which the defaults would have to be changed again.

MyUninstaller: An alternative to the default Windows Add/Remove utility

MyUninstaller is an alternative uninstaller utility to the default Windows Add/Remove program. The additional features provided by this utility are the display of details like product name, company, version, uninstall string, installation folder etc. of each of the applications and the ability to export the installed applications to a text/HTML file.

Some of the use cases where the exported file can be used: for references in case of migrating to a new computer or replicating to create a similar setup, taking automated snapshots to compare what has changed between two points in time, to share the configuration setup with someone else etc.

The tool is available for download at http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html.

MobaXterm

I wanted to include a one-liner in the title of this Techbit than just the tool name i.e. MobaXterm - it was very difficult though. There are so many wide-ranged features integrated into one single app.

Listed below are some of the features/findings:

1. Tabbed Console with UNIX-like interface – replacement for Console & accommodates part of Cygwin
2. Tabbed Console with support for embedded terminal server sessions – replacement for PuTTY Connection Manager
3. X-server client – replacement for X-based commercial tools like Exceed or Reflection-X
4. Multi-Execution Mode – you want the same command to be invoked in parallel on several servers? Then, this is what you want.
5. Ability to download files (SFTP/FTP) from the terminal session – In general, if you want to fetch a file while working on a terminal server session, then you open a separate file transfer app (like FileZilla) and then download it. This can all be done from the same session in this tool.

MobaXterm is free and available for download at http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/.

Tip to open Word documents quickly

One tip to open word documents quickly, i.e. reduced time between when you double click the Word document and when the document is presented, is to press Esc key.

This prevents Word from making a connection to the printer (if any), which results in opening the document right away.

Those working and connecting to office network from home via VPN might find this tip even more helpful while opening word documents, especially if the computer is not connected to the VPN/printer or if the VPN connection is slow AND if you don’t need to print the document being opened.

In fact, Word presents this tip on the document’s status bar but it goes unnoticed mostly.

Wink: Screencasting Software

What is a Screencast?

As the Wiki page says, a screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot; whereas screenshot is a picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on a computer screen, enhanced with audio narration.

Where or how are Screencasts useful?

If you want to create illustrative videos explaining how to use a specific software or its feature. If you want to report a bug and would like to do so by video capturing the exact steps that reproduce it. If you want to record your desktop for the purpose of record or afterwards replays. These are some of the scenarios that I could think of and I'm sure there would be more.

Now, what is Screencasting Software?

With the above explanation, one should be able to understand what Screencasting Software is meant by – it is that software that helps you in creating Screencasts.

Wink is one such software that is free and well reputed. Using Wink, you will be able to create screencasts and use in demonstrations, trainings or just for better illustration simply.

Wink (not the verb!) @ http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
Comparison of Screencasting software on Wiki @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software

Unable to drag cell corner in Excel to auto-increment?

If you ever run into the issue of not able to get auto-incremented numbers when you drag cell corner in Excel, then this is for you.

1. Select Office Button
2. Select Excel Options
3. Select Advanced
4. Tick the check-box “Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop”

Note that this is for Excel 2007. A similar option should be present in earlier/later versions as well.

File Shredder: Remove files permanently

One way to shred a file on your hard drive is to take its printout and then feed it through the physical shredder that you can usually find near your Office printer ;)

Jokes apart, “File Shredder” is a tool that can be used for shredding (destroying) unwanted files beyond recovery. Provided below are couple of paragraphs from the tool’s documentation to provide a quick overview. Go to the website for complete details and to download the tool.

Why is this tool required? There are quite a few software tools today for retrieval of deleted files under Windows OS. Those tools, often referred to as "file recovery" software, are taking advantage of shortcoming of Windows "delete" command that we all use regularly to delete files. Actually, the "delete" operation in Windows only removes bits of information from files so they appear deleted in OS. It is easy to retrieve those files using aforementioned specialized file recovery software.

In order to remove, or shred files permanently from your system, you have to use a program that is capable of rewriting the files with random series of binary data multiple times. This process is often called shredding. That way, the actual content of the file has been overwritten and the possibilities to recover such a shredded file are mostly theoretical.

http://www.fileshredder.org/

Reduce Microsoft Office document sizes

There are many ways to achieve reduced file sizes for your Office documents like Word or PPTs. This is very helpful if you are sharing the documents by email – enabling you to meet the etiquette of not clogging others’ mailboxes.

Tips to reduce document sizes

1. Compress pictures
2. Do not paste snapshots directly
3. Turn off versions (revisions)
4. Turn off Preview Picture
5. Turn off Fast Saves
6. Embed true type fonts only if required

Tips 1 and 2 turned out the most helpful as I found on lot of situations.

How to compress pictures?

• Select a picture
• Select “Picture Tools” on the window bar
• Select “Format” section
• Select “Compress Pictures” option.
• Choose a resolution of 96 ppi (pixels per inch) – unless you want your recipient to print the images you sent over!

Note that the way to do these settings might vary a bit depending on the Office version (2003 or 2007 or later).

Do not paste snapshots directly

A common practice while embedding snapshots is to perform either “Print Screen” or “Alt + Print Screen”, and then paste it directly into your Word / PPT. However, the image is copied in BMP format in this case – leading to large document size. Instead, paste the snapshot into an image editor like MS Paint, save it into a format like JPEG & then insert the JPEG into your Office document.

SSH or Telnet using Java

Ever wanted to find out how one can programmatically connect to a server or a network element like router, switch, firewall etc. using SSH or Telnet – specifically if the programming language is Java? If so, then JSch and Apache Commons enable you to realize it.

SSH in Java using "JSch"

JSch can be downloaded from http://www.jcraft.com/jsch/.
Examples can be found at http://www.jcraft.com/jsch/examples/.

Telnet in Java using "Apache Commons"

Apache Commons can be downloaded from http://commons.apache.org/.
Example can be found at http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-net/examples/telnet/TelnetClientExample.java.

JD-Eclipse: Java Decompiler

JD-Eclipse is a plug-in for the Eclipse platform. It allows you to display all the Java sources during your debugging process, even if you do not have them all.

JD-Eclipse is free for non-commercial use. This means that JD-Eclipse shall not be included or embedded into commercial software products. Nevertheless, this project may be freely used for personal needs in commercial or non-commercial environments.

JD-Eclipse >> http://java.decompiler.free.fr/?q=jdeclipse

WinDirStat: Disk Usage Analyzer

WinDirStat is a disk usage analyzer that gives you a visual representation of what files are taking up the most space on your disk. It scans a disk and displays a treemap representing each file as a colored rectangle, the area of which is proportional to the file's size.

Here is a sample use-case: If you find a large file or two taking up loads of space that you had forgotten was/were there and don't need, it's very easy to find the culprit(s) from WinDirStat. Once the tool finds the files, you can either open the folders containing the large files in Windows Explorer, open the files directly, or delete the files altogether directly from the tool itself.

WinDirStat is located at http://windirstat.info/.

Startup Delayer

Sometimes, hearing it straight from the horse's mouth is much more beneficial compared to rephrasing and repeating. The topic of this Techbit is one such example. The below mentioned summary of the application "Startup Delayer" is taken from its website directly.

Does it take quite some time till your computer is ready to use after starting it up? Do you find your computer is really unresponsive even though you can already see the Desktop? Do you want more control over what starts on your computer? If so, you would definitely be interested in Startup Delayer that gives you the power to optimize your Startup Process by delaying applications from starting up as soon as you log into your computer.

When Windows loads its startup file, it attempts to load every program in there at the same time. Therefore if you have quite a lot of programs starting when Windows starts, each program will try and grab CPU and Disk time so that it can load. If each program tries to do this at the same time, you will soon notice the slow down that occurs due to your CPU trying to help all the programs to load, and your hard disk accessing multiple files.

Startup Delayer allows you to add some order to this process by determining the best time to launch your Applications. You can choose to do this based on how idle your computer is, or you can set an arbitrary time.

Startup Delayer can be downloaded from http://www.r2.com.au/page/products/show/startdelay.