Sharp-edged tools, recent additions | Bangkok Post: tech

SLOAN Ranger

Out on the edge of computing, past the Microsoft office, past the apres-disco benches lining Ratchada alongside the khao thom restaurants, past even Pantip Plaza booths, there are artisans at work.

When you log off or quit Windows, Flash Drive Reminder pops up to remind you to retrieve your thumb drive before you leave.

There seem as many... no, scratch that, there seem many more craftswomen assembling useful software than ever.

By "useful" I mean small, carefully made, one-chore programs that are easy to remember, totally uncomplicated to use, and flawless in execution.

The late and great Post Database contributor John "The Maven" DeHaven called such software sharp-edged tools. He made a lot of them himself.

Some sharp-edged tools are a little geeky. One of John's would make a file of any size, to test other tools. Eatmem.com would use up RAM, for the same purpose.

Others were amazingly helpful. Purge deleted all files in the current folder and every folder below it - one keystroke. NoNum turned off the NumLock key and kept it turned off. And others were good looking, such as the WipeLeft and WipeRight commands to clear screens attractively.

Today's freeware utility writers are no less imaginative, helpful or generous.

AutoSaver is by prolific programmer Kishan Bagaria, a Grade 7 (yes, no type) student at the Don Bosco School in Assam.

The achievements of young Kishan aside, AutoSaver is a lovely little (71KB) program that does one thing.

It automatically saves pretty well any data you have on your Windows computer. Any program that uses the Ctrl-S shortcut to save - Microsoft Word, Notepad, Photoshop, you name it - AutoSaver will save automatically.

The usefulness is that if you are too engrossed or busy elsewhere to save your work, AutoSaver will do it for you. You can easily change the amount of time between saves, and it will start automatically with Windows if you want.

AutoSaver is a silent helper that saves almost all open documents for you automatically every so often, as you desire.

AutoSaver is a silent helper that saves almost all open documents for you automatically every so often, as you desire.
Go to Kishan's web page for more at door2windows.com.

Flash Drive Reminder is one of my current favourites. I regularly carry data from computer to computer on a USB drive.

Once in a while I have to turn around on my way home and go back to the gaudy but somehow relaxing Post Database suites to retrieve my forgotten USB drive. And does that ever cut into dancing time!

Reminder sits silently while you're working, noting only whether there is a thumb drive attached to the computer.

When you log off or shut down Windows, Reminder pops up a message telling you that you forgot to remove the USB drive.

Brad Greco, a student at a Michigan college, invented and wrote Flash Drive Reminder. If you use his program, send him a thank you note. He (and Reminder) live at http://www.bgreco.net.

The cleanest, the most efficient and frequently the fastest way to wipe old material off a USB drive is to format it.

Martik USB Disk Formatter totals 49KB of useful size to do the job for you, with a variety of choices. Older people who used to use a lot of floppy disks will remember these.

Quick Format is well named, and essentially simply means deleting all files and folders on the drive. You can do a full format of your USB in either FAT32 or NTFS formats.

Like pretty well all small and useful software, the USB formatter requires no installation. Just drop it into your Utilities folder and use it whenever you need a clear USB drive. Get this utility at the author's blog at martik-scorp.blogspot.com.

Pixie is an amazing 11KB program I've switched to for my colour picker. This is a semi-geeky need for anyone doing a website, but useful for many projects in the general category of "looking good" on a computer.

Pixie can tell you the colour of anything on your screen, with full details about it - hex code, RGB details, CMYK, HTML and more.

With Pixie, you can copy HTML codes for any colour, and even mix two different colours to see if the result is any good.

When you pick a colour, Pixie will copy the details into the clipboard so you can save and use the code you need. Webmasters and designers will love this program most, but us regular computer users will use it occasionally. A few details and download links are at http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.php.

Finally, for today, is a somewhat inscrutable utility of 288KB.

Once you grasp the purpose of On Top Replica you will have one of two reactions. Number One is, Wow, that is neat! The other is, Huh?

You know how some programs can be made to "stay always on top" so they never disappear from view? Start this program, draw a box around part of any program currently running, that only that small section of the program will stay always on top.

And why would you do this?

Well, let's say you are watching a lakorn on YouTube in your browser, but you also have to write a report for your boss. You can draw that stay-on-top box around the YouTube screen.

Now, Keuy Baan Nok will continue in your view, even if you sink the actual browser into the background while you're using Microsoft Word for your report.

Here is the URL to go directly to this imaginative project by Italian university student Lorenz Cuno Klopfenstein: (http://www.klopfenstein.net/lorenz.aspx/ontopreplica.