OpenOffice issue

Wow, they keep coming. OpenOffice appears to be offine for some mysterious reason. Looks like grounds for a re-release.

Update: I tested a fresh download of the latest OpenOffice and got a similar result. Looking into if this is a bug in my computer or a bug within the program.

CAFE issue

If you use CAFE, or the Extras.exe file, there's a problem with starting up OpenOffice documents. Here's how to fix it:

1. Download this file: cafe.zip
2. Unzip and replace this file: /cafe-manage_associations/cafe.ini
   

Should fix problems with OpenOffice file associations.

February release information

Major release changes:

• 50+ program updates
• Added and removed some programs, repaired others whose install was wonky
  
• Fixed autorun.inf and exe icons.
• CAFE -- added support for 100s of file formats -- Kitchen Sink is now a glorified file-opener.
• Extras.exe will start both CAFE and HotKeyz to increase system integration.
• Much better web page support (mostly through Google Docs cuz its so easy to update and I can give others write access if I need to)
  

There are hundreds of small changes but that's it for now. Having some trouble distributing the latest Kitchen Sink file so I haven't gotten any feedback on whether or not its any good. We'll see I guess.

Release: 0.9.8.6

Its been six months and here's the latest-and-greatest:

kitchensink-0.9.8.6.7z

I should have solved the problem of people needing to download the DLLs (1) and (2) but users may still want them as they run a bit faster when they're on the local system.

I will make a torrent available if people ask for it. For right now I just want to get some initial feedback.

Updates: program start and blog

I decided I hated reading the old blog format so I'm trying another, much cleaner one. You like?

As for the portable archive, I generated some BAT files that I then converted into EXE format.

Contents of batch file (thanks to m^(2))

@start "" "%~dp0pstart210\pstart.exe"
@set path=%~dp0dll;%path%

CoSince some users won't want the system shortcuts or CAFE program, I put those in a separate EXE file called Extras. Here are its contents:

@start "" "%~dp0cafe-manage_associations\cafe.exe"
@start "" "%~dp0HotKeyz\HotKeyz.exe"

Unfortunately the created file comes up as a virus on ClamAV (but no other antivirus program). Sigh.

Where did these icons come from?

Attribution time -- all the icons I use are by some extremely talented people.

• The totally badass "official" icon as well as for "Network" tools
• A few icons also by this guy.
• Most of the Pstart menu is populated by these.
• Icon I use for Firefox - Secure version

CAFE config files for XnView

Two programs I've been working with include XnView and CAFE.

CAFE is an associations manager, which is a funny way of saying that when you double-click a file it opens a program to use that file. For example, Microsoft Word opening .DOC files. But lets say you don't like Microsoft Word and want DOC files to open with your editor -- but not perminantly.

CAFE uses a config file (cafe.ini) to manage itself. Well, I set up my previous version of Kitchen Sink with this config file but the latest version doesn't really use Irfanview, which I decided I don't like as my primary viewer.

However, for those of you that *really* like XnView, here's a config file to make CAFE open up everything that XnView can view with XnView.

Maybe someone will find a use for that.

Ready or not

Official release date is now February 22nd. So much has changed since the November release, its time to make it available and ask for help.

Some missing pieces of note:

• Update the core software - create an autorun file, update the startkitchensink.exe, fix the doc icon)
• Official web site - Setup an official web site separate from Google Docs (might end up being this site -- not sure)
  
• Make software operate WITH the operating system, not as an accessory. Customized user interface settings for automatic virus-checking, system-wide hot-keys, and file associations manager.
• Improved WINE and virtualizations (like VirtualBox) testing
• Marketing - try to tell more people about it, get community assistance

Hopefully this will get me back on a 3 month release schedule I planned for.

More virus false-positive problems

In doing some computer repair yesterday, I ran into the issue of Norton anti-virus not even allowing me to copy files onto the computer. I'm working on an easy-to-use tool that will auto resume and get the maximum number of files transferred over.

I'm also trying to find a way to make the archive self-update. Toucan has some options for this but I don't know how to personalize it to Kitchen Sink.

Lots to do before 1.0 comes out.

Additionally, Xmedia Recode is no replacement for MediaCoder. Bleh.