http://www.rcook.net/index.htmlNews Feed for RCook.netenrcook@rcook.netCopyright 2008 Russell Cook2009-01-21T10:44:31-06:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:50:39 -0600rcook@rcook.netSpeedCalcAnnouncement2009-01-21T10:44:31-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/speedcalc_1_0_released.php#unique-entry-id-7http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/speedcalc_1_0_released.php#unique-entry-id-7

My latest iPhone application, SpeedCalc, has been released into the iTunes Application store. You can find it here.

Speed Calc is an iPhone application that is used to calculate the transfer time of a file over a network, hard drive or serial connection. The user interface has been kept simple and clean to help make navigation and selection with a single finger a snap. No on-screen keyboards needed.

You can find more information about SpeedCalc including more screenshots here.]]>rcook@rcook.netSoftwareRecommendation2009-01-06T22:51:09-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/awesome_customer_service_no_thirst_software.php#unique-entry-id-6http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/awesome_customer_service_no_thirst_software.php#unique-entry-id-6No Thirst Software. I recently had a problem with a new feature of his MoneyWell product. It was not really due to a bug in the software, but primarily due to slight non-standard deviation in a data feed from my bank. I just wanted to thank Kevin for working with me for several days to track down the problem, and release a patch to his product that fixed my issue ... the same day he diagnosed the problem.

If you are in the market for personal finance software for Mac OS X that follows the envelope budgeting methodology, I would highly recommend MoneyWell by No Thirst Software. ]]>rcook@rcook.netReflectionProductivity2008-12-26T23:32:02-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/turning_down_the_volume.php#unique-entry-id-5http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/turning_down_the_volume.php#unique-entry-id-5
Today I read a post on Bruce Keener’s blog titled The Noise in Our Lives that struck a chord in my mind. Bruce mentioned a couple of sources of his mental noise such as Twitter and Google Reader feeds. I’ve certainly found myself under an avalanche of RSS feeds all too often. How many tabs are open in your browser right now? Yeah, mine too ...

In these days of constant contact to the world through our wireless gadgets, it has become increasingly hard to maintain focus on the larger picture as we are distracted by the chitter-chatter of the electronic noise. It has become easy to lose our vision of the long-term goal and be swallowed by the immediacy of the information piled upon us relentlessly.

If you had to build a bucket list right now, how many rss feeds would be on there? Podcasts to listen to? Blogs to read? New friends to add on Facebook? Forum posts to read? Emails to respond to? Then why is it we fill our lives with these self-perpetuating activities that aren’t what we really should be doing? I don’t even want to mention how many times I checked my email while writing this post. Uugh.

So I think one of my goals for the coming year is to find better ways to turn down the volume of my electronic noise.

]]>rcook@rcook.netAnnouncement2008-12-22T09:37:34-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/spotlighted_at_renderosity.php#unique-entry-id-4http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/spotlighted_at_renderosity.php#unique-entry-id-4Renderosity Spotlight. As Renderosity celebrates their 10 year anniversary, they are digging up some of their old staff and finding out where they are today. My wife and I both worked on the staff at Renderosity previously and were honored to be asked to participate in their Spotlight feature.

The Spotlight is a very interesting feature for a community website. We answered a list of questions provided by the Renderosity editor. He formatted it all up and presented it as an article. Then, the floor is open for questions from the members for a week or so. Not exactly like a forum thread, but a semi-moderated Q and A session with the person/people in the Spotlight.

And I have to give some props to the Renderosity staff for asking us to participate. Liz and I didn’t exactly leave Renderosity on good terms, and even ran a competing website for a few years. At this point, years later, neither of us harbor any ill will towards Renderosity at all. However, the community can be quite fiery at times, and we’ve made a few un-friends along the way. ;)

Should be an interesting week in the Spotlight.]]>rcook@rcook.netGraphulatorAnnouncement2008-12-03T22:22:34-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/graphulator_1_0_released.php#unique-entry-id-3http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/graphulator_1_0_released.php#unique-entry-id-3

I’m pleased to announce that Graphulator 1.0 has been released into the Apple iTunes App Store. You can find it here (link opens in iTunes).

What is Graphulator? Graphulator is a graphing calculator application for Apple's iPhone. Graphulator allows the user to enter a mathematical formula using a familiar calculator-style interface, then display a two dimensional graph of that formula.

You can find more information about Graphulator here.]]>rcook@rcook.netGraphulator2008-11-30T13:15:33-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/graphulator_1_0_uploaded_to_app_store.php#unique-entry-id-2http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/graphulator_1_0_uploaded_to_app_store.php#unique-entry-id-2
In the process of getting the upload together, I took a few more screenshots and cleaned up the ones I already had. Apple prefers to have the status bar removed from top of all screenshots, so I did that. I’ll be updating the screenshot pages on the website with the new shots.
]]>rcook@rcook.netSoftwareProductivity2008-11-15T09:45:18-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/xmind_now_opersource.php#unique-entry-id-1http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/xmind_now_opersource.php#unique-entry-id-1

During my morning news feed reading this cold and rainy Saturday morning, I saw an article on TUAW that XMind has gone open source. XMind was a commercial mind mapping tool, and I guess it still is, as there is still a Pro version which includes online collaboration, a few extra report types and support. It’s written in Java and there are downloads available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, including a “portable” version that runs from a USB stick.

During my quick evaluation I saw no performance issues despite XMind being written in Java. Adding new nodes to the mind map was quick and easy. This is definitely a quality piece of software that I plan to add to my list of productivity tools.

Thank you XMind Ltd. for making this application open source!]]>rcook@rcook.netAnnouncementSite News2008-11-14T22:17:28-06:00http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/site_redesign_and_relaunch.php#unique-entry-id-0http://www.rcook.net/news/index_files/site_redesign_and_relaunch.php#unique-entry-id-0
So things are a bit sparse at the moment, but I’m working to keep adding content, while trying to launch a new product at the same time.
]]>