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Klok your time

John — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:02:15 +0000

I seem to always forget where I actually spend my time when I am working on a client’s website, and I’ve been looking around for decent time tracking software for a while – scribbling down numbers on a bit of paper just doesn’t cut it any more.

Recently, I stumbled across Klok. It is an Adobe AIR application which will run on Mac/Windows/Linux. Not only will it run everywhere, it’s also free. Bonus.

But what does it do?

Klok is a time tracking application. It allows you to enter projects, and sub projects/tasks within those. This is obviously a major plus over other time trackers that only allow you to enter a task and track time for that task. You can also enter comments for each time you’re tracking work on a task

Klok features a ‘Project View’ in which you have an overview of the project details and time entries. There is also ‘Week View’ – a calendar like view that allows you to get a nice visual representation of what you’ve worked on.

Sadly the reporting and exporting in Klok isn’t anything to get excited over, at the moment it only seems to be able to show a pie chart of projects in the root of the project list, exporting of weekly timesheets is really just what it says on the label, you can only see a timesheet for 1 week and export that to an Excel document. This is something being addressed in future versions.

For those of you keen to give it a try, I recommend the latest Beta (1.5.1 RC1.1) – it has both weekly and monthly timesheet exports.

http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm

Some new this and that

John — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:48:53 +0000

I’m in the process of actually designing and building a new website, for myself. One that I’m actually going to finish. I don’t know how many times I’ve had ideas, whims and other feelings of the like to start on my own site but never get around to actually finishing it.

The plan is to have 2 or 3 designs for the site – 1 of them is largely done already, 1 exists half in Photoshop, half in my head, and the last, so far only exists in my mind. In the meanwhile, as the site moves along, I thought it might be a good idea to give the blog a new theme and move it to the new domain (it will still be available from the old one at blog.afterlight.net.au for a goodly while).

Another thing I really need to get a handle on is this very blog, I tend to post a few things every now and then, and often don’t post for weeks after. I’ve set myself some reminders so that I might actually remember to post here regularly

Prepare for Automatic Update distribution of IE8

John — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:52:08 +0000

Finally, this is what many of us web developers have been waiting for (again). Over the next few weeks and months, Internet Explorer 8 will be pushed out over Automatic Updates/Windows Updates to upgrade users running Internet Explorer 6 or 7.

Oh, and just like Internet Explorer 7, 8 is also available completely free, without the requirement for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). This means that everyone running the latest versions of Windows XP, Vista and Server 2003/8 will be able to update!

Starting on or about the third week of April, users still running IE6 or IE7 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 will get will get a notification through Automatic Update about IE8. This rollout will start with a narrow audience and expand over time to the entire user base. On Windows XP and Server 2003, the update will be High-Priority. On Windows Vista and Server 2008 it will be Important. via IEBlog : Prepare for Automatic Update distribution of IE8.

IE6 Upgrade Warning – Google Code

John — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:11:15 +0000

I do always like a nice way to stop IE6 from further harming people’s computers. Telling them they should upgrade is but a small service website owners can use to help people upgrade their browser.

The ie6-upgrade-warning is a little script 7.9kb that displays a warning message politely informing the user to upgrade the browser to a newer version links to newest IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome are provided. The webpage is still visible behind a transparent background, but access to it is prevented. The idea is to force users to upgrade from IE6 and avoid the website from a bad reputation that website is not rendering correctly in IE6.

via ie6-upgrade-warning – Google Code.

TG Daily – Google tells users to drop IE6

John — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:16:02 +0000

Chicago (IL) – Taking a page out of Apple’s book, Google is now urging Gmail users to drop Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) in favor of Firefox or Chrome that, according to the company, run the popular web-based email service “twice as fast.” Google also labels IE6 as an unsupported browser, meaning it fails to run some Gmail features.

TG Daily – Google tells users to drop IE6.

IE’s Decline Makes ‘Cross Browser’ More Relevant

John — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:13:03 +0000

Though IE still has a commanding lead in the browser market, 2009 should see continued growth for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari (though Chrome could slow down the growth of other alternative browsers once it has extensions). Internet Explorer, meanwhile, is expected to continue its decline. As browser parity nears (at least in terms of user reach), cross browser and cross platform functionality is becoming more and more important. Already Firefox and Safari have shares of the market too significant to ignore, and Chrome could get to that point in a hurry.

SitePoint » IE’s Decline Makes ‘Cross Browser’ More Relevant.

P2P? It’s TV’s fault

John — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:39:01 +0000

As there’s clearly not enough handwringing over Hollywood suing iiNet, I should add my two cents – it’s Australia’s miserly free-to-air broadcaster wot’s to blame. Elsewhere in the first world, the film, television and music industries have warmed to the idea that setting lawyers on ISPs and consumers isn’t the most effective way to stamp out piracy. P2P? It’s TV’s fault.

I couldn’t agree more, free-to-air tv is crap, thus downloading content of the internet makes much more sense. Other venues to watch content are much more attractive. I much rather buy the season of a TV show on DVD then having to wait up until I can watch it on TV, and then I can still generally only watch one episode per week.

I’m looking forward to seeing more ventures that promote watching content online, legally. I don’t mind paying a few bucks for a service that will let me watch TV shows that I want to watch and will let me watch them when I want to.

Australia’s Net Censorship Sparks Outrage

John — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:28:34 +0000

One of the most important Internet stories in Australia right now is that country’s federal government’s plan to start requiring ISP level censorship of the Internet. As part of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s AU$125.8 million Cyber-saftey plan. The plan requires that ISPs deliver a “clean-feed” web service to homes, school, and and public web access points. The government will maintain two blacklists, one that filters out illegal material, mostly child pornography, and another that filters out objectionable material as determined by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The first list will be mandatory, while users will be able to opt out of the latter. SitePoint » Australia’s Net Censorship Sparks Outrage.

Net censorship plan backlash

John — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:41:50 +0000

As opposition grows against the Government’s controversial plan to censor the internet, the head of one of Australia’s largest ISPs has labelled the Communications Minister the worst we’ve had in the past 15 years. Net censorship plan backlash – BizTech – Technology – theage.com.au.

Just an update to the previous article about Conroy asking for Expressions of Interest. At least one ISP will participate in the trials, iiNet’s Michael Malone said he would sign up for the trials, mostly to give the government some real evidence that the entire filtering system just doesn’t work.

Conroy calls for filter pilot volunteers

John — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:14:10 +0000

The federal government yesterday called for expressions of interest from internet service providers to conduct a live pilot of the controversial internet content filtering pilot it is planning. With the pilot hoped to be commenced by 24 December 2008, the expressions of interest (EoI) document has been peppered with what appear to be small enticements for ISPs to join the trial. Conroy calls for filter pilot volunteers: News – Software – ZDNet Australia.

Haha, good luck with that Conroy! I’m sure you will have lots of ISPs that want to offer their customers a lesser service.