AutoIt: Scripting language for Windows apps

AutoIt

In DOS days I did far too much using Microsoft's Batch programming "language" (still a surprisingly useful skill). In OS/2 days I was fond of ReXX (spelling?). At various times since then Microsoft has had a variety of batch or scripting tools; they've never been very well accepted. Even AppleScript, often forgotten, has gotten more traction. (Recently AppleScript has become very useful, and it will be even more central and critical in Tiger.)

Disappointing.

AutoIt is one partial solution; open source and free. No 'build by recording' mode unfortunately (that peaked w/ AppleScript classic). Correction (thanks to a comment by the author of the scripting utility! see below) -- AutoIt has a recording tool - ScriptWriter. It is included in the SciTE distribution of AutoIt. I'll try it out and comment here. AutoIt is starting to feel like serious tool.

I've also used Hot Keyboard Pro, which is only a partial solution.

Does 10.3.9 resurrect the iBook CPU fan?

Mac OS X 10.3.9

This was a very, very good upgrade for me thus far. The .7 and .8 upgrades for me went from bad to worse. Notably in networking, sharing printers, Finder weirdness, among other things. All of that is now fixed! and what's more important is a noise that I heard that I hadn't heard since .6 update ... the CPU cooling fan...IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!

I thought for a few months that my iBook was turned into a convection-cooled device (as the infamous Cube) since the CPU fan never went off. Ever since I upgraded to .9 it's all (the CPU fan included) running again.

Ok, if this is true then I'll upgrade. I too have noticed how quiet my iBook fanhas been for a while. Quiet is good, but hot is not so great.

OS X 10.3.9 includes Safari 1.3

Surfin' Safari

wow. This didn't get much discussion in the release notes! 10.3.9 includes a major Safari update. I wonder what else is in there. I'm waiting a few days before installing.

BlogAssist: make Safari a better Blogger client

BlogAssist is a clever OS X menubar application that applies simple operations on text in the clipboard to speed entering HTML. It's particularly relevant to blogging, especially when working with Safari and Blogger (Safari is not well supported in Blogger, so one has to type HTML directly).

For example, you could copy a URL from a web page, choose the Web Link option, paste the result into a blog comment, and then replace the placeholder display string. In other words:

1. Select text and copy into clipboard (btw, it's easy to forget to copy!)
2. Apply BlogAssist operation (operations can be user modified or defined via menubar.
3. Paste into text area.

via TUAW.

Bloglines may be out of commission

Bloglines

As of this morning my public blogs are gone and I cannot login. I hope they have good backups!

Update: They're back.

Cringely likes Simple DNS Server

PBS | I, Cringely . April 14, 2005 - A Cup of Bandwidth

Cringely likes JH Software's Simple DNS Server. Actually, the entire article today is full of advanced network tips and hints.

"... This easiest of all DNS servers to implement requires almost no customization at all and runs beautifully behind my firewall, providing DNS service to every machine on my network. It worked just the same over the bootleg wireless links."

SSHFun: connect your laptop to a home machine

MacInTouch Home Page

"SSHFun 0.4 is an AppleScript Studio application designed to establish a secure connection between Macs. The application tunnels ports 548 (Apple File Share) and 3031 (Apple Remote Events) through port 22 (Secure Shell, SSH) using Terminal, allowing SSHFun to operate inside a secure environment. SSHFun is free (donations accepted) for Mac OS X 10.3."