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.

Blog and Program Updates

Obviously you can see the blog has been updated and I also created an e-mail list.

Updates:

• MediaCoder has been cut. Very sad to have finally removed it after a long list of annoying problems. I've tested it at length and love it but I just can't seem to make it work. I replaced the program with Xmedia Recode. If it works even half as well, I'm happy.
• Notepad++ is performing even better than PSPad so ... definitely going to add it to my next release. A user over on PortableFreeware told me to try it out and I'm glad I did.
  
• Office programs have gotten too big has been cut into two parts.
• PortableTor has been added and "TorButton" extension for Firefox Secure. I've just found too many uses for semi-anonymous, encrypted browsing lately.
• One of my favorite programs, PhotoScape, has been updated. Really happy about that.
• About 15 various program updates both from portablefreeware.com and portableapps.com that have been integrated. I also cleaned up the CamStudio install, which was very messy and turns out wasn't working.
• Minor tweaking of the Pstart menu -- organization, cleanup, etc.
• Been running almost all files under a compressed NTFS folder. Pleased to say its working fine and saves around 30 megs of space.

Other non-updates:

• Programs that are showing up as viruses. I still haven't deleted them and still don't know what to do about them.
• Pstart XML file seems to periodically get corrupted. Not sure what that's about and hoping users don't have this issue.

Finally, a program I'll likely use to create the README file is TiddlyWiki. An amazing self-contained program all in an HTML file. Brilliant.