Archive for March, 2006

(Software) size matters.

Initially I decided to write infoscape in .NET using C#. 24 hours after I had a functional running release of the software (called “DesktopNews” in formal times). That was cool and exciting for me on my brand new laptop with a lot of RAM and a fast processor.

In the other hand, the executable size was 400Kb and the memory consumption was more than 20Mb with only one channel subscripion. This and George Ou’s article “Can great software live in 130 kilobytes” pushed me to rewrite the software in C++.

After a couple months of development the software has become more and more functional and stable, and in version 1.2 the executable size has been reduced to 204 Kb’s without using executable packer, after throwing away unnecesary image footage and doing some code refactoring.

infoscape Emilio 26 Mar 2006 No Comments

Version 1.2 in the way.

After accomplishing all the goals expected for v1.2, its code has been freezed and some testing will be done during this week to ensure that no bugs are delivered together with the release.

Not only new features have been added; a huge effort on redesigning some obsolete/unefficient parts (authentication, headline pooling, message processing…) of the code has been invested in the project to ensure that new features work perfectly, and incoming ones are cleanly attached to the software system.

infoscape Emilio 25 Mar 2006 2 Comments

5 cool things to do with infoscape.

For those who don’t get yet the point about infoscape, here is a list of five nice things you can use infoscape for:

  • Local weather: Get current conditions and forecasts updated hourly via RSS in Yahoo! Weather
  • Gmail inbox: You can recieve notifications for all your incoming mail adding something like this to your channel list: https://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom. Authentication required.
  • Finance & stocks: Want to stay in the shoulder of giants? Checkout the RSS interface from Yahoo! Developer Network to the global markets at: Yahoo! Finance
  • Chuck norris facts: Chuck Norris spreads the word about roundkicking and unjustified violence. Here are the facts.
  • Get Wired!: Don’t you feel still geek enough? be up-to-date with the latest nerd stuff via the Wired frontpage feed.

    • infoscape Emilio 24 Mar 2006 No Comments

    infoscape 1.1 awarded by Softpedia


    After submitting latest version of infoscape to the Softpedia, the software has been granted the “100% clean Award”. As they said:

    “[infoscape 1.1] has been tested by the Softpedia labs and found to be completely clean of adware/spyware components.[Softpedia guys] are impressed with the quality of your product and encourage you to keep this high standards in the future.“

    infoscape Emilio 14 Mar 2006 No Comments

    Software roadmap

    Ok, since version 1.1 infoscape seems to be usable and stable, but a lot of improvements and ideas come to the author’s mind. The aim of this post is to group all these ideas, plan the execution of good ones and throw the hell away the bad ones.

    Version 1.2

  • Tabbed configuration window. Done
  • Proxy configuration support. Done
  • Move “Run at startup” option from installer to application code. Done
  • Ability to enable/disable channel polling on-the-fly. Done

    • Version 1.3

  • Online help.
  • Channel list import/export via OPML.

    • Version 2.0?

  • Zeitgeist generation from fetched contents (ain’t it cool?).
  • Headline linked content management (links, images, podcasts).
  • Desktop panel drawing routines migration to GDI+.

    • infoscape Emilio 12 Mar 2006 No Comments

    Latest release (1.1) is out!

    Well, not much to say… somewhere in the way to Germany infoscape 1.1 has became a reality and all the new fixes/features area available to the masses. Check changelog in download package for details.

    Now you also have the choice to help popularizing infoscape, either digging or adding it to your favourites in del.icio.us.

    infoscape Emilio 10 Mar 2006 No Comments

    We want YOU.

    Infoscae needs now help in many fields of its development. Up to now I can handle programming stuff, and increasing the developer count whould need an extra infrastructure (Source Control and Bug Tracking services) which I don’t have and can not pay.

    But anyway, infoscape needs talented and enthusiastic persons ready to share their skills with this project’s community (developers & users). Help in the following fields would be specially appreciated:

  • Web hosting, design and advertisement: I know it, you know it, everybody knows it; this website (weblog, formally) sucks… infoscape deserves semething better and a really cool site would help not only to increase download count, also to provide additional features like channel sharing and tagging, forums, web services… (just thinking out loud).
  • Graphic designers, helping with software’s visual identity, application gfx, website design, etc…
  • Ideas! I’m not the only one who has nice stuff in his head, so comments and emails regarding new functionalities or possible improvements will be strongly appreciated.

    • infoscape Emilio 10 Mar 2006 No Comments

    infoscape 1.1 planned for this weekend.

    Unless I find out some critical bug in its code, version 1.1 of the software will be packed and released during this weekend, featuring all promised stuff plus some extras.

    As a remark, I consider this version featured and stable enough to start a small advertisement campaign in popular software blogs/websites.

    infoscape Emilio 08 Mar 2006 No Comments