That's it, Noteman is now open source - a tool for taking notes, sorting them by categories; designed for quick and easy access to the collected information.

This is a program I wrote some years ago; before any kind of formal education in programming - see the details in the sections that will follow.

At its time it was pretty successful, I relied on it, and a couple of my friends still use it (it has been more than 7 years). I promised I would release updates, but somehow I never had the time to actually do that.

Here is the program itself - download Noteman 4.0, there is a readme in the archive, with a detailed description of what it does, what the features are, and how they are used.

Some stuff about the feature set (from the fine manual):

NoteMan v4 (tLPT) The Lazy Ppl's Tool (tm), features

• As many note-windows as you wish
• Custom colors for each tab in the window
• Customizing Hotkeys
• Beep @ sharp hour
• Auto-add to registry (if neccessary)
• Configuration in ini-file
• Auto-Calculate form size and position and write the values in the ini (also automatically)
• Auto-Save the notes
• Icon in the systray that offers control of the program
• 15 TimeReminders (see Reminders in pop-up)
• Custom actions for TimeReminders, Shutdown PC added. works in 2k as well
• unlimited number of DayReminders (via ini)
• Install/Uninstall using command line params

Disable/Enable

• hotkey usage
• dayreminders
• wordwrapping
• tabs
• text centering

Changing

• Font type
• Font size
• Color of the text (in RGB)
• Color of the background (in RGB)
• Form Size
• Form Location
• Primary and secondary hotkeys
• TimeFormat mask

It also comes with a nifty feature that allowed me to use free dial up internet from Relsoft (and other providers); they had a free login/name that you could use for 15 minutes if you dialed precisely at a sharp hour. If you call and someone else made it ahead of you - tough luck. With Noteman's help I was able to log in almost all the time - the program renders the exact system time in the top left corner (above all other windows), and I had a prototype version that would tell my dialing program to start dialing at SharpHour-delta (delta is how long it took my modem to wait for tone, dial, connect, and perform authentication). Ah, the memories... My dad once removed the modem from the computer because the phone-bill exceeded the boundaries of common sense :-)

Programmers, read on to find out why this is an example of "how not to write software", how to get hold of the source code, how to compile it, and so on.

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English • Technology / programming, Academia • 3 comments

Imagine that you have a cube made of the hardest material in the
universe (tm), so hard that nothing can break it; so heavy that each
pound of this material weighs one hundred thousand pounds!

Now, imagine that you take a rabbit, accelerate it to the speed of
light, then throw it at the cube.

Will the rabbit succeed in breaking up the molecular structure of the
cube? Of course not, because it is made of the hardest material in
the universe (tm).

Even an infinite army of rabbits won't make a single dent in the cube :-)

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English • Poems, Photo / graphics • 9 comments

Here is some stuff I've discovered recently:

• What the Prefetch folder does in Windows (no point in deleting it, it will be created anyway; deleting it won't make the system faster; there is an upper bound on the number of files that will be in that folder - so there is really no need to "optimize" it in any way);
• How to disable system $ shares in Windows (previously I used a BAT file which was executed automatically when the system starts);
• [Russian] Exotic things in Python, part 2 (I really like the else trick, subtle and handy);
• Abstraction and Variation;
• Another short story on humans and multitasking (it is assumed you've read Joel's Human task switches considered harmful);
• Another point of view - Active vs Passive voice (recommended reading - Use passive voice to shift the blame on someone else);
• [Russian] Goal-oriented vs process-oriented people;
• [Russian] Humans, learning, input channels (recommended reading - Mnemonic chains);

I'd like to make two highlights here, you will notice that two entries point to Diomidis Spinellis - my latest greatest discovery. His web-site is packed with interesting articles, I read all the 2005-2008 stories in one breath! Insightful, informative, interesting, useful. I wish I were his student... I strongly recommend his site, it is an invaluable source of information for folk interested in computer science, engineering, operating systems, programming. He is also the author of several books, one of which I will probably buy in the near future.

The other highlight is this blog in Russian, it's quite difficult to describe it. The focus is social connections in IT [in a company, between companies], thoughts on human resources, human behaviour, how programmers think, etc. Some entries can be filed under "psychology". The audience is also pretty advanced, as the comments are informative too (although not even close to the comments on Slashdot). Many ideas covered there are also a part of the "office space" stories which I currently have as drafts for this website.

Happy reading!

English • Recommendations • 1 comment

Another funny and insightful story for office dwellers.

Homework: think about ways to avoid such things from happening within your company.

In the Beginning was the plan.

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English • Jokes, Office space • 2 comments

This is a funny story I've heard a long time ago, and today it has reached my mailbox again. It is not only funny, but also insightful; a great entry for the "office space" section.

Homework assignment: analyze your corporate/academic/family/personal habits, and find examples of "that's the way its always been around here". Naturally, the other assignment is to do something about it!

Start with a cage containing five monkeys...

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English • Jokes, Office space • Leave a comment

A fost odată un site, care a devenit un alt site, apoi un alt site, apoi un alt site - acel pe care îl vezi acum. Timpul trece, feţele se schimbă, feţele se uită, şi mai apoi nici nu poţi recunoaşte o faţă care îţi era cunoscută cândva.

Recent am aflat că veştile circulă repede, şi că lumea e un loc destul de mic; cu toate acestea, multe lucruri nu se observă, spre exemplu: linkul "the beginning" din partea de sus a acestui site :-)

Ultimele cercetări arată că dicţionarul "Tipologia fetelor" a ajuns mult mai departe decât se presupunea din start. Se pare că faima fetei comune, a "bârfitoarei goroţkaia" a reuşit să treacă de pereţii liceului Liviu Deleanu. Tot atât de departe a ajuns şi "bicika nativus", "petite femme ruralis", şi chiar şi "rabdus vletelnis"!

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Română • Thoughts, Jokes • 3 comments

Ştim cu toţii că moldovenii au o trăsătură unică, despre care alte popoare habar nu au. Spre deosebire de ei, noi suntem ospitalieri! Aceasta este evident.

Română • Photo / graphics, Jokes • 7 comments

I am terribly bad at managing money. I don't know how much I have on myself at this particular moment, I don't know how much I have in my bank account at the moment, I don't know how much I have in my stash, I don't know where my stash is, nor I know which currencies the money in the stash is in.

I don't know how much I paid for all the bills last month, I don't know whether it was more or less than it was the month before. I have not the slightest clue how much it is compared to what I will pay this month, the one after it, or three months from now.

I don't know if the water company is being honest by charging me as much as the meter said I consumed.

I don't know if I use the most efficient Moldtelecom package, because I have no idea how many of the included minutes were not used. Maybe I should switch to a low-end package?

Am I paying too much for my Internet? Do I really need an unlimited traffic contract with my ISP, if in the past N months my needs never exceeded X GB?

This is just the tip of the iceberg; if I add all my minor expenses (5 lei here, 20 lei there) to the game, I might discover that the sum of little parts ends up being greater than the sum of the big ones!

Could it be so that it is much more efficient to buy a home theatre and invite my friends over, instead of going to the cinema?

A couple of months ago I was disconnected by the electricity company for "not paying the bill"; they didn't bother asking me whether I received it in the first place; I didn't even notice that that month I received fewer "papers" than usual. On the other hand, if they sent two papers instead of one, would I foolishly pay both invoices without noticing?

I have no clue, because I am terribly bad at managing money. And so are you, if your response for most of the above was "I don't know either"; if you think you're not, you should review your definition of "good at managing money". Things become a zillion times trickier if we add "living on my own" and "wife and kids" to the equation.

I hope I've convinced you, that there is a need for an instrument that can aid us in dealing with the points described above.

Technology will help us.

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English • Technology / programming, Thoughts • 7 comments

Work is going to kill you if you don't enjoy spending time at the office. If your work-day is keeping you focused on "time left until the lunch-break" or "how many days there are until Friday" you're very likely not to be enjoying your job.

Why does that happen? Is the problem in you? Is it the job itself? Should you get a new one?

Let's see what the typical problems are, and get a better picture.

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English • Thoughts, Office space • 5 comments