Freeware License
Recently, I finished the “AutoBack” Plugin for TrackPro. This is an application that will automatically backup the TrackPro data file to a network server on a schedule that is determined by the user. This application is intended for TrackPro users that that run the freeware version that is not licensed for multiuser or network use.
I didn’t have a good freeware license so I decided to do a little research and see if I could improve in this area. I was fortunate to find an excellent article on the subject by Mike de Sousa, the Director of AbleStable. Please see AbleStable.
In part, the article discusses the freeware license used by 2brightsparks for its SyncBack software. See below for more information on 2brightsparks. Mike was kind enough to grant me permission to use this license for my software. Thank you Mike!
AbleStable is one of the more interesting and useful sites that I have stumbled upon in some time. The site’s motto “Encouraging Creativity” is enviably achieved by providing a forum and repository for free software, articles, E-books and exhibitions by on-line creative professionals. There is a registry/directory for creative professionals; so if your looking for 3d graphic designer, technical writer. programmer or choreographer you can probably find one there.
The site is visually appealing, well-organized and completely free from in-your-face annoyances like popups and gaudy advertising.
I would recommend this site to anyone, especially to self-employed professionals who find it exceptionally useful.
“2brightsparks”
Coincidentally, I have been using 2brightsparks’ SyncBack freeware software for over two years. I use it to perform daily FTP backups of my working drive to my web space at 1and1.com. The backup is automated in that it uses the windows scheduling service perform the backups unattended at 2:00AM.
In the time I have been using the software, it has been 100% reliable. For routine backups of my networks and client networks I have been using software that shall remain nameless. Robustness is not one of its qualities; services and backups fail routinely with the slightest provocation. Both verily and semantically I can assure you that the software is not to be trusted without intensely close monitoring. Not so with SyncBack, it is intuitive to configure and just works. Today, I decided that I have a been a freeloader at 2brightsparks too long, so I purchased SyncBackSE an advanced version of SyncBack. I highly recommend this software for anyone looking for a high quality, robust, and inexpensive backup solution. Please visit 2brightsparks.
Review of MWSnap
MWSnap is a great freeware tool that is very adept at screen captures. The software, written by Miroslaw Wójtowicz, is available from Mirek’s Free Windows Software. Installation is quick and painless. After startup, MWSnap sits unobtrusively in your system tray until needed.
MWSnap can selectively capture a fixed size rectangle, rectangle of any size, window/menu, or the entire desktop. Once copied, screenshots can be saved in GIF, JPG, BMP, TIF, or PNG format. Options such as color depth, transparent pixel, and quality, are available depending on file type. This software has become indispensable for creating screenshots for the TrackPro help file and TrackPro website.
MWSnap includes handy on-screen vertical and horizontal pixel rulers. There is a color picker that will report screen colors as in HTML, RGB, Delphi, or Windows System constant. Do you need to zoom in on a particular section of the screen? MWSnap has a zoom tool with 10 levels of magnification. The window tool reports window size, location, name, class name, and handle.
MWSnap is multilingual, speaking 13 languages. I have found only one minor fault with the program. On multi-monitor systems MWSnap can become confused if the interface is on one monitor while the section of screen to be captured is on the other monitor. This is hardly significant because it is very easy to work around. I strongly recommend this software for anyone that has even occasional need to do screen captures.
Choosing Calibration Management Software
For those of you that are looking for Calibration Management Software you may find the listed links to be useful. If you have any relevant links that you would like to share please add them to the comments.
Tracking Down the Right Gage Software
Evaluating Calibration Software
How to Select Calibration Management Software
How to Choose Calibration Management Software
The Changing Face of Calibration & Management – Calibration Software
More Fun with HTML Help Files
Here we go again! In the last article I discussed the extensive changes that were required to make TrackPro compatible with Vista. Well, I rewrote and compiled the TrackPro help file using the de facto Micro$oft HTMLHelp format. It all tested well and looks pretty good too.
Then I started testing the network installation routine for TrackPro. Everything worked well for the server installation. Then I tried the client installation. TrackPro displays its help file on the first use of the application. The help window appeared on the first use of the application. The table of contents, index, and search tabs all worked perfectly! However, the help window displays the following error message:
This program cannot display the webpage
Most likely causes:
- You are not connected to the Internet.
- The website is encountering problems.
- There might be a typing error in the address.
What you can try:
- Check your Internet connection.
- Try visiting another website to make sure you are connected.
- Retype the address.
- Go back to the previous page.
At this point I was completely happy with this error. Why shouldn’t I have been? The utter irrelevancy of the suggested causes and fixes appealed to my to my surrealistic sense of humor. An online search turned up the a knowledge base article 896358 where I was delighted to find out:
- this behavior is by design
- the result of applying a critical security update and
- all I have to do is modify the registry so that the Help file will display as originally intended.
I find it interesting that by default Micro$oft thinks that HTMLHelp files should not be able to work on an internal network or intranet. Presumably, these environments are should be trusted. Under what circumstances wouldn’t they be trusted? I am glad that security is MS’s first priority but this is over the top.
Tracking Training
Today I was asked if TrackPro could be used to schedule annual certification training a company requires for its technicians. My first reaction was that TrackPro is not particularly well suited to this task. Well, TrackPro may not be well suited to this task, but it certainly better than no system at all. So here’s an approach you might take.
- Open the Add Item Wizard
- Enter a description of the training in the “Item Description”
- Don’t bother with the “Model Number” Field
- Click “Next”
- Enter or select a “Custodian” from the list; this will be the person to be trained.
- Enter or select a “Location” from the list; this is not really neccessary but you’ve got to enter something to proceed.
- Enter something like N/A – Training in the “Manufacturer” field for the same reason as above
- Click “Next”
- Don’t enter anything in the “Contract Agency” Field
- You may want to enter a short description (<=30 characters) in the “Category” field. This will make it possible to sort reports by training category.
- Click “Next”
- Ensure “Item Status” is Active
- Enter the word Training in the “Item Type” list
- Enter the “Action Interval”
- Enter the last date of training in the “Last Action Date” field
- The “Due Date” field will be calculated for you
- Click “Next”
- Click “Next”
- Click “Finish”
Enter the remainder of your training items. In Version 2.5.0000 and higher this will be facilitated by the “Clone Item” Command button on the first page of the Add Item Wizard.
When you want to run a training report be sure to select “Training” in the “Show Item Types” list box. If desired, you may group reports by Custodian (person to be trained). Please note that only the Action Items, Item List, Activity, and Notices reports will be useful regarding training.
OK, this is not perfect but it’s better than being caught by an auditor with no records at all.
Calibration Audit Findings
I have been an auditor in the Medical Device field for over 21 years. I have performed external audits as a supplier QAE, internal audits as an employee, and in my most recent reincarnation as an independent consultant. During this time, I have identified an aspect of having a calibration program that is fundamental but is often misunderstood or ignored.
Past Due Equipment
Here’s what happens:
- You are in the shop or in a lab and you observe someone using and instrument.
- You ask to see if the instrument to check the calibration sticker.
- Fortunately you find one; however, the instrument is past due.
- You take some notes about the Cal ID number, the date calibrated, the date due, and other information for formulating the observation.
On the surface this appears to be straight forward observation such as; a micrometer, Calibration ID 347, past due for calibration, was observed in use the production area. All too often corrective action for this observation is to calibrate the instrument and return it to service. This addresses the observation…right???
As far as the corrective action goes it solves the immediate problem of the instrument being past due for calibration. If the instrument is found out of calibration you would need to study the potential impact but this is not the subject of today’s discussion. We need to ask some questions:
- Do the company’s calibration procedures require that the instrument be checked for status before use?
- Did the operator receive adequate training to perform their job?
- Was the operator pressured to “Get the Job Done” despite knowing the status of the instrument?
- What was the the nature of the failure of the calibration recall program that permitted the instrument to be available for use?
- Is using a “Past Due” instrument considered unimportant at your company?
The foregoing list is not inclusive but is designed to help establish the root cause of the problem. If you don’t know the root cause your preventive action is likely to be unsuccessful.
Microsoft Windows Vista
Last year I decided to check out the Beta release of Microsoft Vista to see what the impact would be on TrackPro. The initial installation took over 3 hours on a computer with a Pentium 3.0 GHz processor with 1 GB of memory. This was not a promising start. The disk footprint for this installation was over 9 GB! (This has gotten a little better in the released version it’s now only 8GB. Windows XP has a footprint of about 2.6 GB.
TrackPro installed OK and actually ran on the first attempt. However I found that during the testing the Help file was no longer functional. A little detective work showed that the winhlp32.exe was missing. This is the program that reads the 32 bit version of the standard Windows HLP file.
On the Microsoft site I found the following:
The Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) program is no longer included with Windows operating systems starting with Windows Vista
...Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) is a Help program that has been included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with the Microsoft Windows 3.1 operating system. WinHlp32.exe is required in order to display 32-bit help content files that have the “.hlp” file name extension.
I beg to differ, WinHlp32.exe is a 32-bit program, the last I looked Win 3.1 was 16-bit Operating System. Just to make matters even more ridiculous, the 16-bit version of the of WinHlp32.exe (WinHelp.exe) is included in Vista just in case you need to run the same help files you were using 15 years ago under Windows 3.1!
So what’s the big deal here? All I have to do is rewrite the the 550 article help file in HTML and compile it. That shouldn’t take more than a week or two. $%&^!
Here’s an update
Microsoft has now made the old help engine available as a download.
Al Weisenborn