All things to all men

29 February 2004

"The prime minister once slept rough in a north London park, his wife tells astonished guests at a Number 10 homeless charity reception."

A Conservatives party spokesman said few homeless people would feel they have much in common with Tony Blair. "Rather than pretending to be all things to all people the Prime Minister should be more genuine and focus on coming up with solutions to the problem of homelessness," he said.

"Ok, Cherie, we need the charity vote. We need to associate myself directly with the compassion industry. It'll soften the war-monger image. I know, tell them I slept rough once. They can't disprove it, especially if I say I really believed I slept rough once. Well, its worked before."

Witness Psychology

27 February 2004

A few days ago I took a call from a witness who complained that I had failed to return a call. He was very aggressive and threatened to tell my boss, my boss's boss, the industry watchdog and my professional institute. He was grumpy and pompous. After a while I realised that he just wanted to have his say. I told him I'd be pleased to see him. If he could spare the time I'd take a statement, this would help us greatly. In the blink of an eye he was a lamb, gamboling on a tide of self-righteousness. I couldn't stop him from spilling out all he knew; who said what, when; who did what, where.

We fixed a meeting and I saw him today; a compliant, helpful, verbose witness. Just what I needed for an easy statement. He just wanted someone to listen to him.

Coming back to Tinderbox

26 February 2004

About a year ago I purchased Tinderbox intending to use it as an organisational and blogging tool. I used it for my weblog for several months but got a little frustrated that all the Tinderbox blogs I looked at seemed to have the same 'feel'; they all looked the same. I printed the manual and read up on how I could alter the templates from which the HTML was written. Try as I might I couldn't get my head round the instructions. I gave up, moved on and over the months tried iBlog, Blosxom, VoodooPad, and Freeway. All had their good and bad points.

Part of the problem with storing a blog on a personal computer is the archiving of it so you always have a pristine copy of all your posts. This was a problem with Freeway. But Freeway wasn't really the tool for a blog. As an HTML editor it is very good, especially if you are maintaining pages that don't change often. Organising a blog around it just didn't work.

iBlog shows alot of promise but I felt restricted with what I could do with it. Also, I didn't feel comfortable that my database of blog entries relied on the program and wasn't easily searchable or adaptable.

VoodooPad is one of my favourite programs; it creates a Wiki on your desktop and is great for building mini-websites of research articles. It will also export to HTML using style sheet templates. The disadvantage for me was that it produced non-standard code which failed the HTML validators. I could alter the CSS but not some of the HTML automatically produced by VoodooPad. I'm a bit finicky that way. There's no reason why you couldn't just use the VP-produced pages on the Internet, it's just that I like validated pages.

So, onto Bloxsom. A very good, freeware blog creator. For me it was just too hard to set-up and maintain. Too much Perl, too much fiddling required if I wanted my own style of page design. Again, the problem of storing the archive in a straightforward accessible database. But very good, nevertheless.

Whilst I was pondering all this I updated my mac to OSX 10.3.2 and I did a clean installation. I set about reinstalling all the software I use and came to Tinderbox. To install or not to install? - that was the question. I hadn't really given it a chance, had I? I didn't read the manual thoroughly enough. Guilt took over and I reinstalled it. And forgot it.

Then one day I was considering the database I needed to store my blog entries and it occurred to me that Tinderbox was sitting on the hard drive lonely, forgotten, empty and in need of some TLC. I opened it up, made a few experimental entries, built a blog, uploaded it, and decided I had reached blog-making Nirvana. Oh, pity those souls who don't have macs, for they know not what they are missing (until the Windows version is released anyway). Tinderbox was the one! Everything seemed to click. I was beginning to understand what this software could do. It just required some time learning to use it. Not only could I write the blog with Tinderbox it would create the entire blog site and be a searchable database for all the entries, all in one place, in one file. I was, and still am, staggered at just how easy it is to create blog entries with it; I create a note, write the entry and with a couple of key presses the site is built! It even creates a coloured map of the web site.

I have read the manual and I'm still learning but I figured out the HTML templates and with the help of Taco HTML Edit and CSSEdit I can make the web pages how I want them. I was disappointed that the sample blogs supplied on the Tinderbox site didn't validate but after tinkering with them I did get them to validate. (Frustratingly the only thing I can't validate now is the special code supplied by eXtreme whose counter is on the main page).

Now I'm moving on to use Tinderbox as a Journal, Daybook, and Action Planner. It is much more than a blogging tool. It is often described as a content management system. I would call it a knowledge database. If you need to store information stick it in Tinderbox. It is a hard program to learn but you can use it at a very simple level to just store simple notes of information. But spending time reading the Tinderbox site, the Tinderbox Wiki and the manual will help you uncover the potential within. A very deep and interesting program which its own author says he is still exploring. Worth the $145? Yes.

Under Cover

25 February 2004

I don't like deceiving people but today I was able to do a little research surreptitiously, without having to lie or pretend. It did mean a quick check of a floor layout in the ladies' toilet of a public house but I'd chosen a quiet time of day and no-one saw me. I had been told to take photographs but I'd forgotten how to turn off my camera's flashgun and I didn't want to risk setting it off and having to make awkward excuses. I then sat in the bar and pretended to read a newspaper as I listened out for the names of staff I might be interested in. I get paid for this.

Butler

24 February 2004

Another simple and indispensible program finds a home on my iMac; Butler (formerly Another Launcher). This is a file launcher that sits in the menu bar with a drop-down menu of file or folder links, though this is selling it short. It manages browser bookmarks, creates hotkeys, gives easy access to system preferences, and stores clipboard information. With a simple key press it displays a search window for finding applications or another window for web searches. It is also freeware, though I can't help thinking that something of this quality deserves to be full-blown shareware with a price tag of around $25.

Keep death off the roads

23 February 2004

Got a call this morning to rush to the scene of a fatal road accident involving a double-decker bus. An elderly lady had crossed the road for the last time and the bus's offside wheels had crushed her to death. When we arrived one of her shoes lay in the carriageway. People were clustered nearby just staring. The police were busy sweeping up the mess and I took photographs of the scene and the bus. My colleagues tried to find witnesses so statements could be taken.

It was a very bright sunny day with a clear, sharp sky. Visibility was perfect, except for the lady. When she had turned to look for traffic the sun blinded her and she walked straight into the bus.

VoodooPad

22 February 2004

VoodooPad is an interesting notepad concept. Basically it works like the Internet works with links to other locations within the text. The beauty is that it happens automatically and is probably best experienced on the Wiki site Wiki to fully grasp its potential.

According to the VoodooPad site:

"VoodooPad is a new kind of notepad. It's like having your own personal hypertext library, where you can jot down notes, web addresses, to-do lists... Anything on your mind. VoodooPad automatically links each page together, to form a miniature world wide web, on your desktop! Anybody familiar with the WikiWikiWeb will feel right at home with VoodooPad."

Taco HTML Edit

22 February 2004

According to the Taco HTML site:

"Taco HTML Edit is a full-featured freeware HTML editor. It is designed exclusively for Mac OS X and uses many of the core technologies built into Mac OS X including image transparency (in the image map wizard), toolbars, Webkit (for live previewing), and much more."

Taco HTML Edit is a freeware program with a live preview, meaning that when you change the HTML code you can instantly see the affect in a browser window.

CSS Edit

22 February 2004

I recently been trying out various software products and am once again pleasantly suprised by the high standard of programs for the Apple macos. CSSEdit makes writing style sheets easy. It has an instant preview enabling you to fine tweak settings.