Latest News
Able2Extract Professional 11
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- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 28 December 2016 23:33
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 7746
Investintech PDF Solutions have just launched Able2Extract Professional 11 and even if you tried it before it is time for another look.
In early 2015 I reviewed Able2Extract PDF 9.0 which excelled in it's ability to convert PDFs back to word, excel, powerpoint, publisher, autocad, image formats and open document formats. I still use it regularly to turn the many PDFs I receive into usable documents.
At that time the ability to create PDFs had been launched with some basic editing capabilities that worked but didn't wow, but the PDF OCR engine was amazing and able to convert text and images whether native or scanned with ease.
Now with version 11 Able2Extract has matured into a complete PDF creation, editing and conversion tool that replaces the many individual applications I use for editing, splitting and merging, redacting, resizing and annotating PDFs. Somehow they have done this while keeping it affordable for home or office use.
So what's new?
- PDF Annotation with great edit and review options
- Selective redacting of sensitive information
- The ability to add and update content including
- images (jpg, bmp, png, gif and tiff)
- vector shapes
- text
- Improved PDF content editor with drawing properties and image manipulation
- More precise AUTOCAD conversion for complex images
- Enhanced PDF security options
- Improved OCR Engine (I didn't think it could get better, but it did)
Packet for Windows released!
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- Category: Software News
- Published on Wednesday, 30 November 2016 18:23
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 6974
Packet, a JSON web packet sending tool perfect for System Administrators, Web developers, system integrators and IOT afficianados has now been released.
Packet and IFTTT allows you to automate nearly anything including skype conversations, posting to twitter, linked in or facebook or turning on my lights.
Packet provides the flexibility to send JSON packets to any WEB API including Yo and the IFTTT Maker service. The application can be run silently from the command line or as an interactive application and requires no installation on any machine with .Net 3.5 installed.
I am a big user of IFTTT (if this then that) as an online API that allows me to automate the interaction of many services. While testing the new Maker functionality I identified that I had a program built for a different purpose that would be the simplest way to test and use this service in Windows. I also realised how many APIs these days are based on REST functionality and use JSON packets to transmit data.
So now that I have built it I am giving it away. If you have a little bit of experience with JSON (or can follow the documentation on your preferred REST API) and love to tinker then this is a great little testing or automation tool for windows.
You can get Packet here.
How Packet Works
Packet allows you to send a JSON packet to any web API by specifying a URL and also the JSON content. You can do this from the command line or interactively.
The user interface is self explanatory with fields for the URL and JSON.
You will receive a confirmation of successful requests and your data is saved in the application to speed up data entry when you next open it.
That's it!
You can get Packet here.
So now the only question is what to automate? I think setting the WeMo CoffeeMaker to make me another coffee every 50 emails is probably a good start....
Upgrade in Progress
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- Category: Site News
- Published on Saturday, 23 July 2016 23:44
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 17776
I would like to thank everyone who has discovered my site, software and services in the last 19 years since first inception!
This is not a goodbye message but a welcome to a revitalised www.chris.dunn.name and to a lot of new users, members and visitors.
This site is currently undergoing a major transformation making it easier for you to find and download great software, get great insights into IT, administration and system monitoring and to provide additional value to my members.
I apologise for any inconvenience as I work through reviewing and updating my software catalogue and thank you for your patience. If you can't find what you are looking for or I could make it easier for you - Let me know!!
Christian
MonitorThis passes 150,000 hours!
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- Category: Software News
- Published on Saturday, 09 July 2016 23:23
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 7111
MonitorThis has now passed 150,000 monitoring hours (that I am aware of) and is there any better way to celebrate than to add more functionality.
MonitorThis is an enterprise focused monitoring service configured from a single XML file which includes a suite of monitors that can be configured to perform environmental monitoring checks.
New to MonitorThis is Windows Event Log Monitoring allowing you to configure checks for specific types of events or applications allowing you to proactively identify and resolve any issues before your users do.
Xsemmel MT is a customised version of Xsemmel designed for validating and configuring MonitorThis XML files.
Based on XSemmel by Frank Schnitzer this great XML editor has been further enhanced to assist you in validating your MonitorThis configuration before deployment.
The Desktop is Dead. Long Live the Desktop!
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- Category: Opinion
- Published on Wednesday, 06 January 2016 00:23
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 7607
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Mark Twain
30 years ago business computing required a server and a collection of dumb terminals. As the personal computer became prevalent on the coat tails of the Apple II we began to see personal computers become a cornerstone of the office and by the late 90s nearly every office was running personal computers in a loosely connected workgroup. For those running Windows NT or 2000 you may have been big enough to setup a domain tying it together but it wasn't until Small Business Servers started appearing in the 2000s that this became common place. This led to a proliferation of small business networks setup to provide the services an office needed. Then there was internet...
How I got started in IT
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- Category: Opinion
- Published on Monday, 19 January 2015 23:58
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 7954
How did you get started in IT? This is my favourite and most hated question to ask or be asked in this industry. This is because it is never a simple question but always a fascinating one. This primarily stems from the fact that the IT industry itself is only young. While the first personal computer, the Programma 101, was launched in 1965 it was the Apple II and the Commodore in 1977 that really kicked off the computer industry. If we consider Windows 1.0 was launched in 1985 and the internet reached Australia in the late 80s before becoming mainstream in the mid 90s then it really is apparent how young this industry is.
This all came back to me after reading Okepi's blog recently on how he became a programmer by googling well and highlights my 8th golden troubleshooting rule, you don't need to know the answer to everything, you need to know how to find the answer to anything and reminded me how I got started in this industry.
My 8 Golden Rules to Troubleshooting
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- Category: Opinion
- Published on Tuesday, 23 December 2014 00:02
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 8875
These are my 8 Golden Rules to Troubleshooting....
1. The 'best' solution is always a compromise.
No solution is perfect. Every solution requires some compromise. This could be a compromise on a business process solution as opposed to a technical solution, or could be a compromise on what is achievable by tomorrow and what is achievable next week. Understanding the critical measures when developing a solution will assist in ensuring the best solution is implemented.
2. There is never just 1 solution.
If my car breaks down tomorrow, I can call a mechanic or a taxi, or walk or cycle to work. There might be a reason why some of these aren't suitable but they are all solutions to the problem. If you only see one solution look again.
Danger, Will Robinson!
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- Category: Opinion
- Published on Monday, 27 January 2014 21:23
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 8718
Admittedly I am too young to have been around for the original Lost in Space series which aired in the 1960s and the cult classic Space Odyssey 2001 which launched in 1968 when Hal uttered that most infamous line, "I'm sorry I can't do that Dave". Little did they know it would be more than 40 years before our IT began actually talking to us, yes I am referring to you Siri and your step-brother Google Now.
See IT through a child's eyes
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- Category: Opinion
- Published on Monday, 09 December 2013 00:44
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 8340
I believe Newtonian mechanics is better understood by children than adults. Classical mechanics, based on the work of Isaac Newton is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the action of a system of forces. Watching my 15 month old son play with a new toy he first starts by trying to understand how it responds. If he pushes it does it move? If he hits is does it make a noise? If he drops it, does it bounce? As he is now getting to the walking stage he has discovered things that he can walk with whether it be a walker, a push trolley or a tricycle. Once he can stand up and hold on to it, he pushes it in the hope it moves. If it doesn't (usually due to a wall) he pushes it a few more times often getting frustrated at it's failure to respond. Knowing that his parents can turn him around again, he often pauses to gain our attention for assistance, knowing that he can't resolve the situation himself. After repeated attempts, or unless he is turned around, he will give up and move on to the next object of his affection.
It is usually our lack of naivety that makes us think problems are harder than they are or impossible to fix. I know that if I hear the words "exchange is down" I will always pause for a breath before diving in as email problems can be complicated and time consuming to resolve. This assumption is based on experience but may not always be correct. It is amazing how many times re-mounting an exchange store or rebooting a server can resolve the problem. That 1 time out of 100 that you experience a damaged mail store that takes days to resolve is more permanently etched into my memory. The iconic British Channel 4 TV series, The IT Crowd, said it best with "Have you tried turning it off and on". While a traditional IT stereotype, like most stereotypes it is true in many cases.
If you can make a coffee you can fix a server
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- Category: Opinion
- Published on Monday, 25 November 2013 00:32
- Written by Christian Dunn
- Hits: 8954
In any IT department the only piece of equipment more valuable than the server infrastructure is the office coffee machine. When the servers fail engineers rush around in a panic, trying to find the guy who "knows what to do" and providing a general "we are looking into it" response to staff desperate to send that important email or complete that presentation for today's big meeting. This continues until someone can finally resolve the problem. Yet when the coffee machine fails, the department does not descend into the caffeine deprived anarchy we would expect instead it either gets promptly fixed or the staff resort to that archaic alternative, the kettle.
Considering that in this post Beyond-2000 society the coffee machine probably has more choice than the barista across the street, more computing power than a server in the early 1990s and more technology than your mobile phone in the year 2000 why is there such a difference in the approach and reaction to an problem?