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• Notes (weeks 33-35) - Break
• Notes (week 32) - SVN Snapshot
• Notes (week 31) - Ubuntu in use
• Notes (week 30) - 0.90 RC 3
• Notes (week 29) - SVN Snapshot
• Notes (week 28) - 0.90 RC 2
• Notes (week 26-27) - Vacation
• Notes (week 25) - Happy Midsummer!
• Notes (week 24) - New Office
• Notes (week 23) - Back to work

There’s been pretty nice progress. Many bug fixes and I added an "Arrange By" item in the background menu. I’m still working with the scripting engine and scripts to update SVN log and SVN download automatically. Anyway, I’ll keep it short this week. Here’s the download:

*** Update ***
There is a bug in this release that might crash CE when you close it. To "fix" it, disable the auto save from session properties. I’ll release new version this weeks Friday that will fix this issue.

CubicExplorer 0.90 beta 2 (0.90.0.1002)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.0MB)

Phew, finally things started to roll again. It’s been quite interesting week. I fixed many items from the todo list and did some research on techniques that I’ll be using in CE later. Also there is some fresh code from Jim which fixes few issues. Denis from MyTreeDB.com has created some nice themes that will ship with CE.

Also I’ve been doing a lot of work with automating SVN snapshots and logs. I had a bunch of batch files to do most of the stuff but using them was a pain. Also there was some other things that made me decide that it would be better to just write a program for the task. The solution I ended up using was to create a program that can run scripts. More specifically Pascal scripts. That way it’s possible to use it for other things also. All this work gets integrated into CE eventually.

Anyway, here’s CE 0.90 beta 1. It now includes the bug tracking system so if you have a crash, please send the report. Those reports do help a lot in finding the problem. Have a nice weekend everyone .

CubicExplorer 0.90 beta 1 (0.90.0.1000)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.0MB)

I’m still under the flu . No progress on CE. I did manage to do little work on the site and wrote more scripts to automate SVN snapshot uploads. You can now see all the development changes in the SVN Log. Once everything is ready, there should be a download associated with every (or almost every) revision. Also I have plans to create an updater to CE which let’s one to update/downgrade CE versions easily.

On other notes, I opened a new blog. So this site will now only focus on Cubic Reality softwares and news about them. All other stuff will go into the real blog. Also I’ve been playing around with Google Sites. Basically it’s an easy to use wiki which I would like to use for documenting CE. At the moment however, it’s not possible to customize it’s appearance enough so I’ll have to think about it some more.

Cubic Reality Blog
http://cubicreality.blogspot.com/

Well this week has been a disaster. I’ve been a bit sick and really too tired to do any work. The plan was to release CE 0.90 beta 1 this Friday but basically there hasn’t been any progress so no release this week. Now, I’m feeling a bit better so there should be some progress again next week. Anyway, I’ll keep it short this week and go back into solving Portal (what a great game ).

It’s been a bit slower week for a change. Been busy with some other stuff so didn’t have much time to do work with CE. I added full row selection option and a drop stack panel. The drop stack component is made by Jim from mustangpeak. It works fine but I’m thinking there could be some improvements done. For example when multiple items is dragged to the stack, they could be grouped in a tree so you could access individual files too. Also at the moment thumbnails are not working but I haven’t yet checked what’s up with that. Anyway, the drop stack panel is just a sketch at the moment so ideas are welcome.

I decided that version 0.91 will include the plugin support. I really want to get rid of the built-in text editor and replace it with a plugin. Not sure of the exact schedule yet. Also the SVN snapshots should start rolling soon. I’ve written some scripts to automate everything. Only thing that is missing is a script that extracts the log messages and uploads everything to the server. I’ll try to write it this weekend.

Anyway, have a nice weekend. Here’s the latest build

CubicExplorer 0.90.0.998 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (1.6MB)
Zip (1.5MB)

So here’s CE 0.90 alpha 1. The base for the new settings engine is done. Also the options dialog framework is ready. And as a bonus, I managed to code a basic sessions support. There’s still work to be done with the sessions and at the moment they only support tabs. Also I’m going to need some fresh ideas on how to interact with sessions. At the moment there is a Sessions menu and a Sessions toolbar.

I also added some new settings in the options dialog. I’m still experimenting how to layout all settings and what settings should be included, don’t want to clutter the dialog too much. Anyway, I didn’t have time to add the bug report system in this build so there’s no way to send reports if CE crashes.

CubicExplorer 0.90 alpha 1 (0.90.0.996)
Installer (1.6MB)
Zip (1.5MB)

Good progress with CE this week. The new settings engine is in place and working although there’s still some cleaning and tweaking that needs to be done. Also I’m getting closer on a solution for the sessions feature. I’ll probably do some work with it this weekend. Next week I’ll implement the options dialog. Can’t yet guess any release dates but I’m hoping to at least release SVN snapshot within the next 2 weeks.

Anyway, this year has started well. My main goal is to increase my productivity level and create more structured work environment. With the new hard drive and Windows installation, I separated work and play into two different profiles. It has had a very positive effect on my work. This separation continues next week when I get new laptop (yay!). Finally there will be a real way to separate work and play. Later this spring, the separation will become final once I’ve build a new office.

Well, that’s enough rambling. Have a nice weekend everyone .

PS. remember to update your Windows and other programs. 2 trojans had sneaked into my HTPC last week. I managed to remove them but will do reinstall of Windows just to be sure.

I’ve been fine tuning Windows and other software. There was some issues with the programming environment which took 2 days to solve but everything is up and running now. I’ve separated this computer’s usage into two separate profiles, work and play. The work profile is clean and has no disruptions or time eaters. The play profile is where I switch when I’m not working.

I’ve been using the same old Classic Windows theme with plum color scheme from Windows 95 days and it started to get a bit boring. So I tried several themes and found one (OpusOS) that looks good and clear. Unfortunately it has some issues with the BDS 2006 (the programming environment), like too bright and gray color for controls. I’m a bit dyslexic so the colors have to be just right for my brains to understand what’s on the screen. Until I can sort those issues, I’m going to use that theme only in the play profile.

Anyway, CubicExplorer development is moving forward again. I’ve started to implement the new settings engine. I don’t yet know when it will be ready since it’s quite a mess right now, but the goal is to ship 0.90 by the end of February.

OpusOS Visual Style
http://b0se.deviantart.com/art/Opus-OS-1-5-4591314

So, I finally got new hard drive (sweet!). It’s a 320GB Seagate (7200.10 - ST3320620AS). I chose this drive because I’ve heard good things about Seagate’s reliability. The manufacturer seems confident also since it came with 5 years warranty. It’s pretty quite, much quieter than my old Maxtor, also it’s faster. My motherboard (NF7-S) only supports SATA/150 so I’m not getting it’s full speed though.

Because of the new extra space, I installed Linux also. I’m using Ubuntu for now but will probably switch to Debian at some point. My goal is to eventually move completely to Linux and run Windows virtually. But that won’t happen until I get a new PC. This old Athlon 2600 is just too slow. Here’s the drive and image of the partition scheme I’m using:

On other news, I registered new address for CE (www.cubicexplorer.com). At the moment it just redirects to this site but that will change at some point. There has been no progress on the development of CE. The whole week has gone in reinstalling Windows and all the software. I had forgot how much work it actually is to reinstall everything. It took almost a day just to set up the environment where I’m building CE. Anyway, everything is now in place and the work can continue.

This week I’ve been cleaning CE’s source from all the old settings stuff. Next task is to make everything work with the new settings engine. It’s quite a mess so we’ll have to see if it works. I’ve also been doing backups of all my files. I ordered new hard drive yesterday so next week I’ll be moving to new home (yay!).

About FeedDemon, I’m not going to use it. It’s a nice program but it didn’t “feel” right. It felt kind of awkward to use, probably because I’m so used to NewsFox. However, yesterday I found Snarfer which feels more like home. Snarfer is a freeware but there is Pageflakes tab that can’t be closed. It remains to be seen whether I’m going to switch back to NewsFox or not.

Snarfer
http://www.snarfware.com/