Lookup MYOB integration Posted Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:14:00 +1000 by Chris
I have built my first beta of the myob integration database for Lookup.
It is not available online yet but will be available shortly.
iChris 1.0 (chris.dunn.name for iPhone) Posted Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:58:00 +1000 by Chris
Like most things on my site it started out as a test.
My mobile site had been fairly neglected and was originally designed for a basic pda nearly 10 years ago with only minor updates since.
Playing with iUi http://code.google.com/p/iui/ I have finally converted my mobile site to a smart phone friendly version which will play well with the iphone and ipad.
Funny enough it required even less code.
You can add it to your home screen and run it as an app. It is only version 1 so no push messaging or funky features yet.
All you have to do is visit this site on a smartphone or go to http://m.chris.dunn.name.
LaunchMe 2.0.30 Posted Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:17:00 +1000 by Chris
I have release a Windows 7 update for LaunchMe, the CJD Presentation Launcher.
Windows 7 has disabled Autorun for USB drives as a security feature. As a result you can only use autoplay to open the drive and see the files. To make this more user friendly and cleaner I have moved all of the configuration and content files to to a folder called 'content'. This also makes it cleaner and simpler when using LaunchMe on a network or as a desktop menu as you can hide all the configuration and images away so that users do not have to search for the LaunchMe.exe file.
I have also made some changes to the Autorun creator in the Setup Wizard. Enjoy.
PQM 4 - The wait IS over!! Posted Sun, 30 May 2010 03:55:00 +1000 by Chris
I am currently finalising the release of PQM 4 and hope to have it online in the next day or so.
I have to give special thanks to Florence (in France) and Marcelo (in the United States of America) who have made this release possible. Without their thorough testing and assistance this release would have taken a lot longer. I also must thank my partner Danielle for putting up with me as I developed this over the past few months.
Why PQM 4 not 3.5?
PQM 4 is more than just a feature update or Patch but is a whole new application. Based on the framework of version 3, first released in September 2009, it now provides the missing enterprise pieces of functionality with a massively overhauled interface and a major engine rewrite. Don't be fooled, it may look similiar to previous versions but this is due to a lot of hard work. As you begin using PQM you will find that it is the same but different. Unfortunately all of this time and hard work is not cheap and as a result this is the first time a paid version of PQM will be available. Don't fret, the features you have come to know and love are still free but users who upgrade to PRO will now be able to take advantage of an extensive feature set designed to make Print Queue Manager friendly, flexible and convenient allowing you to customise the application to your environment and your staff.
So when will it appear?
NOW you will see the next version appear online with a new webpage and PRO payment gateway.
In the coming week it will be reviewed and then published by my friends at CNET (Download.com) and distributed to the hundreds of third party sites around the world that support my products.
I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Christian.
Where is PQM 4? Posted Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:28:00 +1000 by Chris
Print Queue Manager 4 is alive and well and still coming...
Over the last few weeks I have been experimenting with WMI and I even have a version of PQM with an entirely new WMI framework beneath it to replace the IADs connection.
It seemed like a great idea and from a management and reporting point of view WMI does provide significant benefits over IADs, but it lacks performance.
While I could extract more information from WMI the time it took to retrieve that information made refreshing the queue painful and using the program became very slow and difficult. That even occurred when looking at print jobs on my own computer. I tried caching connection objects and all sorts of tricks to improve performance but I could actually see the items being added to the results grid half a second apart when loading lists of only 5-10 jobs. This was not acceptable.
I did like some of the new features however. I built the WMI interface as a module so I could easily take this interface and reuse it. As a result of my experience in rebuilding PQM from underneath I learnt a few new tricks and discovered a few flaws, hopefully all rectified in PQM 4. As a result, in one case, less jobs should be able to sneak through the queue as I discovered a flaw in the timing of the queue monitor.
Reverting back to my previous version prior to WMI but prepared I could then use some of the new features to enhance the current PQM without affecting it's integrity. PQM 4 now uses IADs and WMI. WMI provides better reporting and some feature (printing test pages) while IADs provides better performance for print queue control. I may look at upgrading the results list to WMI in a future release (4.1?) for more detailed job information but I would still use IADs for background polling and control.
Some of the new features not previously advertised:
- Printer, Server and Favourites Reports
- Configurable Reporting Path and Command Line Report Generation for Intranet integration.
- HTML and Javascript reports include printer and job details
- Configurable Logging Path and automatic log file creation when nearing capacity.
- Simple View to hide advanced features for non technical users.
- Polling Indicator to show idle, job list update and high speed job release for AutoQueued printers. Also indicates WMI connection and query execution.
- Test Page function
- Import and Export Favourites
As you can see my feature list is getting longer and all the while I am improving the features I have already added. There have also been some massive menu changes and design changes even from the previews available online.
It is now coming together and the current release 4.0.77 is now stable, tested and ready to meet the audience. First step is to now distribute it to my UAT testers. Interested in becoming a tester? Email me: chris@dunn.name. Then if it gets the thumbs up it will be released in about 3-4 weeks if we find no major problems and I have time to release it.
Hang in there, I promise it will be worth the wait.
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