Free note taking software from FruitfulTime

June 5, 2009

At FruitfulTime we have just released a free version of our note taking software NoteKeeper. NoteKeeper really helps with keeping notes organized in one place, where they are easy to update and find.

For more information click on the following link: Free note taking software

WordPress 2.7 - 404 Errors with Permalinks

April 26, 2009

Upgrading or installing WordPress 2.7 on certain servers will give you 404 errors if you choose to use permalinks such as day and name. This depends on the PHP settings configured.

If you are having this problem, the solution is the following. Create a php.ini file in the root folder where you installed WordPress and paste in these two lines:

magic_quotes_runtime = Off
magic_quotes_sybase = Off

Save it, try to load your blog once again and everything should be working nicely.

Track your computer time automatically

December 29, 2008

I guess nearly everybody from time to time wonders at the end of the day where did I spend my time today? If like me you spend most of your work time on a computer the above happens more frequently than say for manual workers.

Pretty obvious I guess. If you are a construction worker for instance, you can physically see your work so you do not need anyone or anything to track your time. This is not the case for information workers who cannot measure their work so easily.

Tracking time for information workers is even more important these days due to the internet. While the internet can be credited for simplifying, speeding up, and making possible certain business processes, on the other hand it has to be heavily penalised for millions of hours wasted each year by employees on unproductive activities such as social networking, chatting and emailing jokes.

So at FruitfulTime we designed and developed FruitfulTime ProductivityMeter a software tool that tracks your computer time automatically. FruitfulTime ProductivityMeter is FREE for personal use so you can download it now to start tracking your computer time.

A new year is just around the corner so this is the perfect time to start tracking your computer time. You can only improve what you measure and so if you want to boost your productivity you first need to track and measure the time you spend on your computer activities.

In these hard economic times, being productive and making efficient use of your time can make the difference between being employed or seeking a job.

Changing StumbleUpon Password

November 4, 2008

So you, just like me, want to change your StumbleUpon account password and are experiencing frustration. You logged into your StumbleUpon account and spent a few minutes going through the available options without finding the simple option to change your password.

The simple answer is you cannot find an option if it is not there. StumbleUpon decided that it will provide all the options and settings in your online account profile except changing your password. This is ridiculous.

To change your password you need to download and install the StumbleUpon toolbar in your browser and then from the Tools drop-down menu choose change password. I might be wrong, but to me this seems like a marketing ploy to force users to download and install your toolbar. I for one won’t bother to download and install any toolbar.

I like the whole idea of StumbleUpon and this password changing decision goes against the grain of online communities. First of all, I do not like to load my browser with myriad toolbars, hence the Minimalist Geek, and secondly if I want to change my password while not on my personal computer and haven’t the option to install toolbars, how will I manage to change my password.

Please StumbleUpon listen to your community and let them be free to choose whether to download and install your toolbar. Add the change password option to our online profile.

Good password policy… not!

November 2, 2008

Following good security practice I recently went through the process of changing my passwords. I started off this exercise by changing my ISP account password. So I went through the process, entered my strong password, and logged out to try out the new password.

Next, I tried to log on with my new password but I got an invalid account or password message. As happens to common mortals I thought, oh I must have entered the new password wrongly. So I tried again carefully typing in every symbol. Same result same frustration.

Read more…

SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express

September 24, 2008

I am writing this post to save your precious time if you happen to be looking for the Management Studio of SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.

Recently I upgraded my 2005 express edition of C# to 2008. As part of the installation they include the 2008 version of SQL Server Express. I thought since the installation is upgrading my current 2005 version to the 2008 versions it will include everything I already have installed. Unfortunately, it turned out I was assuming too much from an installation.

C# 2005 and SQL Server 2005 Express editions were both upgraded to the 2008 version but the Management Studio was not. Surprisingly, or not, the 2005 management studio could not connect to the new 2008 installation. So I uninstalled it and went looking for the management studio version 2008.

Read more…

FruitfulTime TaskManager 2 Launched

July 1, 2008

As I wrote in my last blog post, I was busy working on FruitfulTime TaskManager 2.

Today I am happy to announce that after months of hard work, today we launched FruitfulTime TaskManager 2.

Time to celebrate :D

Go check it out and download your own free 10 day trial from here.

Installation is only 300KB, so you can download and install in less than a minute :)

Alive and kicking

June 4, 2008

It has been a while since my last blog post here since I was busy with some other stuff. Last month I had my degree exams and as you can imagine that was a busy month. After the exams were over I continued to work on the next version of FruitfulTime TaskManager.

FruitfulTime is a startup company developing productivity software, and I am co-founder along with my friend Gaetano. Our first product, FruitfulTime TaskManager is a simple, lightweight, yet powerful to do list management software.

Following the success we had with the first version, we continued to research ways to improve the product further and include feature requests received from our customers.

The next version of FruitfulTime TaskManager is a major release and includes many enhancements and new features which further simplify the product whilst making it more functional.

You can read more about FruitfulTime TaskManager 2 here.

Google’s simplicity vs Yahoo’s complexity

April 19, 2008

I continued to think about what I wrote in last Wednesday’s post, The Minimalist March to Success, and did some more research on the internet. While doing so, I came across two interesting posts one by Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror fame, and the other one by Prof. John Maeda, associate director of MIT’s Media Lab, on his blog simplicity.

Read more…

Real or Artificial Intelligence

April 18, 2008

Jeff Hawkins, the guy behind Palm Computing and mobiles such as PalmPilot and Treo, argues in his book, On Intelligence, that the current way of thinking about intelligence and how the brain works is flawed and therefore we cannot create intelligent machines based on this knowledge. He is so convinced of this that he founded his own research institute, the Redwood Neuroscience Institute (RNI), now permanently relocated to the UC Berkeley campus as Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience.

In his book, Jeff Hawkins states that we currently have a lot of data about the brain but not much as regards theories of how it really works. In fact, the Redwood institute task is to ”to use mathematical and physical principles to understand the nature of coding, dynamics, circuitry and plasticity in nervous systems.”

Read more…