RGdot

Month: June 2010

  • ClipboardFusion: Free Alternative Clipboard Manager

    ClipboardFusion: Free Alternative Clipboard Manager

    ClipboardFusion is a freeware clipboard utility. I think good and easy ways of managing text copied to the Windows clipboard often leads to a better Windows experience and ClipboardFusion does its part.

    Text Scrubbing is the main feature of the program. In the program’s settings (accessed by right clicking its tray icon) one can set all copies to be ‘scrubbed’ or only those which are copied by clicking the native Windows Ctrl+C twice. Some of the things scrubbing can do is to remove or strip any white space from the beginning of the copied text or remove all HTML code from the copied text. The Text Replace feature automatically replaces character(s) with others in any copied text. For example one can replace all instances of double quotes (“) with single quotes (‘). ClipboardFusion gives the user the option to use hotkeys to enable or disable its features, for example to temporarily disable any text replace rules one can assign a combination of keys to toggle it on or off.

    A more advanced feature is Macros, one can write and test one’s own in the included C# or Visual Basic editor and also assign hotkeys to them. A selection of pre-written macros are also available for download from within the program, these include ‘Convert Text to Upper Case’ and ‘Search For Copied Text using Google.com’ just to name two.

    Another feature concerns colors and images. Copying a HTML color hex value (say #FFFFFF for white) will trigger a small popup in the far right of the system tray with a preview of the color and also its RGB value ((255,255,255) for white). The same applies if an image is copied, in this case a small preview of the image will be shown. One can also set ClipboardFusion to ignore certain programs, when this is done text copied within those specified programs is not operated upon by ClipboardFusion.

    The author also offers, for $24/year, the ClipboardFusion online or ‘on the cloud’ version for sharing clipboards and macros across computers and the ability to pin a clipboard item for repeated use. ClipboardFusion runs on all post 2000 versions of Windows and requires .NET Framework v2.0.

  • World Cup 2010 Day 11, A Brief Recap

    Portugal 7-0 North Korea
    Raul Meireles (29′) Simao (53′) Hugo Almeida (56′) Tiago (60′, 89′) Liedson (81′) Cristiano Ronaldo (87′)

    A Carvalho early header hit the post. Not too long after a Tiago pass opened it for Meireles to score. North Korea were on the brink of losing it in many early exchanges though it wasn’t a total loss. On a day when the Korean were less defensive and less organized – perhaps the rain wasn’t helping – the Portuguese were opportunistic and close to every thing was going in for them. As the match moved on it became more and more like an exhibition match and the Koreans only threatened from wide and rarely at that. The midfield was conceded to the Portuguese more as the game went on as well. So the Portuguese made it almost impossible for Ivory Coast to catch them with the odd chance that the Africans can replicate a similar result to this game when they meet the North Koreans in the last group match.

    Switzerland 0-1 Chile
    Mark Gonzalez (75′)

    Chile continued their offensive, going for goal ways. Switzerland their organized ways too. Referees their inconsistent ways as well. Status quo all around then. Therefore it came as no surprise that Chile came close often, were denied often and Behrami was sent off early (in the 31st minute). Successive semi-breakthroughs by Chile were occasionally interrupted by the Swiss moving forward. Finally and unlike the previous Swiss match, versus Spain, the former Liverpool man Mark Gonzalez managed to score well and his goal was predictably very much not against the run of play. Swiss haven’t done anything to deserve wins (or losses) and should be happy with their three point haul from two matches. Chile on the other hand deserve their six points from two matches if for nothing else than going for the attack.

    Spain 2-0 Honduras
    David Villa (17′, 51′)

    The very early minutes of the game produced possession for Spain and a Torres ball hit the crossbar to emphasis that point. Those first few misses also hinted at another frustrating night for them. On the other end of the pitch Iker Casillas, in the Spain goal, didn’t look very confident the few times times the ball was brought to him. Spain buzzed and swerved around the opposing box for long stretches and finally David Villa cut in towards goal and scored into the middle-far end of the net. Spain nerves were therefore calmed early and more chances flowed. The occasional semi-dirty and play acting continued to rear its ugly head as well. Early second half featured another Villa goal not too unlike his first. A Villa penalty miss – ball was shot to the right and inches wide of the net – came later and was followed with Cesc Fabregas and Juan Mata making their first appearances. In the end little more than three points was achieved and the final score though it could have been more was also another warning that Spain must be less wasteful.

  • World Cup 2010 Day 10, A Brief Recap

    Slovakia 0-2 Paraguay
    Enrique Vera (27′) Cristian Riveros (86′)

    This game should be most remembered for the tame effort by Slovakia, the disappointment of losing the three points at the last minute in their first game against New Zealand must have weighed heavily on the players. Vladimir Weiss, Marek Hamsik, and Robert Vittek very rarely featured and nothing was created by the Slovaks until a solitary shot on goal very late. The Paraguayans were not neccessarily a much superior team but didn’t need to be. Coach Marino was at least the more enterprsing as he gave a start to three forwards in Roque Santa Cruz, Lucas Barrios and Nelson Valdez. The goals were nicely taken and the Slovak goalie, Jan Mucha, was tested on a few additional occasions.

    Italy 1-1 New Zealand
    Vincenzo Iaquinta (pen 29′) Shane Smeltz (7′)

    One of those matches that on the day of the draw, back in December 2009, looked one sided produced something not so much one sided. That is not to say Italy didn’t dominate possession. New Zealand’s first goal came when a freekick took a slight deflection, ricocheted off defender Fabio Cannavaro and in the path of Shane Smeltz. The goal should have been offside if that slight deflection had been seen. Italy took control without being spectacular and were offered a penalty when Daniele De Rossi’s jersey was tugged. Marcelo Lippi made two somewhat early substitutions at half time (Camoranesi for Pepe and Di Natale for Gilardino) to get more movement out of the offense but things didn’t improve enough to take the match in the needed direction. Credit must go to New Zealand goalie and defender, Mark Paston and Ryan Nelson respectively, for doing the job when called on.

    Brazil 3-1 Ivory Coast
    Luis Fabiano (25′, 50′) Elano (62′) Didier Drogba (79′)

    The game started with the Ivorians showing hints of promises but Brazil, in particular defensively in Juan and Lucio, didn’t let them threaten. Minutes later some good passing with Robinho and Kaka involved freed Luis Fabiano to shoot hard into the top of the net. Brazil were working hard, frustrating the Africans and using the flanks well. As the second half started more of the same led to some good ball juggling by Fabiano and he scored again. The quality of the ball control was helped in part by the inept and naive Ivory Coast defense. However replays showed that Fabiano had handled the ball and subsequent replays showed that ref had seen that too! Ivory Coast then brought on Gervinho, who had ceded his starting place to Dider Drogba, and he changed the face of their attack with his speed and skill. This freed Drogba and he seemed to be able to do better. Before that could happen however, Brazil got another when an accurate low cross allowed Elano to tap in the ball. Later on Drogba scored an easy header that left Brazil goalie Julio Cesar stranded. The game ended poorly when Kaka was first shown a yellow for complaining. He then received a second yellow for what looked like an elbow into the face Kader Keita but replays showed that Keita had exaggerated. A Kaka-less – but owners of six full points – Brazil face Portugal in the coming week unless the sure to come yellow card appeal succeeds.

  • World Cup 2010 Day 9, A Brief Recap

    Holland 1-0 Japan
    Wesley Sneijder (53′)

    The first half was fortress Japan as the Asians defended well and didn’t let the Europeans do much at all. The second half necessitated a more open match because Sneijder scored early. He shot hard from the edge of the box, his shot was not properly handled by Japan goalie, Eiji Kawashima, as the ball made its way behind him. Japan tried to break down Holland and came reasonably close on a few occasions. Holland themselves had a few more clear cut chances of their own, especially by substitute Ibrahim Afellay. In the end Holland gained the three points without too much trouble.

    Ghana 1-1 Australia
    Asamoah Gyan (pen 25′) Brett Holman (11′)

    The Game started brightly for Australia and they soon scored from a freekick. Kingson the Ghana goalie let the ball shot at goal rebound in front of him and Holman rushed and slotted it high into the back of the net. Soon after that Ghana actually grew in confidence and took control. Good play by Ayew, a cross later and a shot towards goal struck Kewell’s hand. Although he tried to plead innocence he had gifted Ghana a penalty and also got himself sent off. Asamoah sent Mark Schwarzer the wrong way and converted the penalty. Ghana continued to be the more dangerous team as the half ended all square at 1-1. The second half saw hints of more confidence or perhaps desperation by the socceroos as they made offensive subs to bolster their chances. Despite being one man up Ghana didn’t take much advantage but had their own share of solid possession.

    Denmark 2-1 Cameroon
    Nicklas Bendtner (33′) Dennis Rommedahl (61′) Samuel Eto’o (10′)

    The game started with Eto’o taking up a much needed more offensive and direct position, it immediately paid off as he managed to score after a rather bad giveaway/bad pass from Christian Poulsen. A lot of opportunities followed, many due to questionable defendoing courtesy of both teams. Before the half Bendtner poked one in when Rommedahl, after receiving a 50+ yard ball from Kjaer, stormed down the wing and crossed into the area. Cameroon could claim to have the edge at half time and Eto’o hit the post late on too, courtesy of another one of the aforementioned questionable lapses. The second half saw an increasingly desperate contest that lacked defensive focus. This led to the second Denmark goal as Rommedahl curled one in to score inside the far post. More misses followed as the African challenge suffered another set back.

  • M3U Dropper: M3U Playlist Creator And Launcher

    M3U Dropper: M3U Playlist Creator And Launcher

    M3U Dropper is an open source offering from the maker of dirhtml. M3U Dropper not only creates the text based music playlist format (M3U) but does not restrict itself to media files. By Dragging and dropping any file (or folder) one can create and keep a launch or playlist file and use M3U Dropper as a portable launcher.
    Eric, the author, develops actively. For example one of the latest changes or tweaks to the program is that while the program used to start with the first item at the top of the (play) list it now does so with the previously visible (last time the program was exited) top item. The order of items can be changed via the Item menu, selections can be checked, unchecked and sorted in various ways. Since the playlist format is essentially a text file it is possible to make text operations on any whole list or on individual entries. For example it is also possible to manipulate, edit or change sections of any folder path using M3U Dropper’s replace features (see the Misc menu). This is convenient when carrying a list from one computer to another and needing to accomodate for any differences in file paths.
    M3U Dropper also generates a config file, with the *.m3udrop file extension, with such settings as ‘always_on_top=FALSE’. M3U Dropper is a simple useful program that can serve a useful purpose or two.

  • World Cup 2010 Day 8, A Brief Recap

    Germany 0-1 Serbia
    Milan Jovanovic (38′)

    The game started with a torrent of yellow cards. Germans and equally the Serbians and there neutrals were entitled to question the consistency if not the legitimacy of some of the cards shown. This soon led to a second yellow for Klose inside 40 minutes and before any player could compose himself Serbia went ahead. Krasic’s crossed ball was headed back towards goal and an unmarked Milan Jovanovic scored. The Serbians gained confidence and threatened more. Germany followed this by throwing in offensive players, in Mario Gomez for example. All the work seemed to be undone when yet another Serbian player, Vidic, handled the ball in the penalty box. The subsequent penalty was taken by Podolski but Stojkovic saved it well. A slew of close chances followed by both teams but in the end Mallenco, the Spanish referee, probably had more influence on the game than any official should have.


    Slovenia 2-2 USA
    Valter Birsa (13′) Zlatan Ljubijankic (42′) Landon Donovan (48′) Michael Bradley (82′)

    The early clashes were slightly to Slovenia’s favor and it wasn’t long before the Slovenian midfielder shot from around 30 yards and left US goalie Tim Howard completely flat footed. What followed was somewhat of a stalemate that had Handanovic making a few acrobatic saves. US seemed to sense more was needed and started to exploit some questionable Slovenian defending. Slovenians however surprised again, as Zlatan Ljubijankic just avoided being offside and scored. The second half had barely started when Landon Donovan took advantage of a defensive lapse, courtesy of Bostjan Cesar, and shot hard into the roof of the net from a tight angle. This was beautifully taken as he was only a handful of yards away from the goal post. USA piled on the pressure but Slovenia had a few of their own. One of the US chances finally paid dividends as Bradley shot well into the back of the net. The US had a third goal questionably called back soon after and so the game ended with one point for each team.

    England 0-0 Algeria

    The game had both teams changing their goalkeepers for respective blunders. The game started with Algeria with better possession but nothing really came of it. England took brief control towards the end of the half and they themselves only troubled the relatively inexperienced Algeria goalie only once or twice. Any fluency and passing was missing form the English team with Rooney in particular contributing very little. The second half followed much the same pattern with England giving away possession rather too easily at times. The few times England threatened things just didn’t happen for them. Some credit goes to Rais M’Bolhi, the aforementioned goalie, Nadir Belhadj, Rafik Halliche and the entire Algerian team for keeping their cool. On the English side this was a disappointing performance not unlike the much maligned Steve McLaren coaching era. And so back to the drawing board for current coach Fabio Capello.

  • World Cup 2010 Day 7, A Brief Recap

    Argentina 4-1 South Korea
    Park Chu-Young (og 16′) Gonzalo Higuain (33′ 76′ 80′) Lee Chung-Yong (45′)

    An unfortunate own goal off a freekick and off the foot of Park Chu-Young, who didn’t really know much about it, was an early omen for the Koreans. Argentina controlled and managed the ball better and showed some of the best attacking plays of the World Cup, through their usual star names. The aforementioned led to the second goal but just as half time was approaching Demichiles made a blunder and allowed the Korean to carry the ball in for a 2-1 half time score. The Korean goalie, Jung Sung-Ryong, deserved some credit for keeping the score low but that is not to say that Korea didn’t have their own chances as the Argentine defense looked iffy at times. Of particular note was the 57th minute glorious chance totally wasted by Yeom Ki-Hu. Amid some nervy moments for both teams the newly arriving Aguero worked well for Messi to deliver a simple tap in for Higuain and soon after another well worked play led to the hattrick for Higuain.

    Greece 2-1 Nigeria
    Salpingidis (44′) Torosidis (71′) Uche (16′)

    Both teams needed a good result to get back into contention after opening game defeats. The game started with a glimpse or two of promise and it was Nigeria who scored first when Greek goalie, Alexandros Tzorvas, simply missed the ball off of a freekick. Then late in the first half Sani Kaita showed his studs in a kicking motion, got himself ejected and handed an advantage to Greece. Instantly the Nigeria goalie, Vincent Enyeama, came back into focus as Greece brought on Samaras and piled on the pressure. The move paid off as the Greeks managed to score off of a deflection just before half time. The game continued to have a totally different look after the sending off, Greece was more alive than ever and missed a glorious chance with Enyeama making one of the saves of the World Cup. Nigeria missed one of their own right after but could not cope with being one man down and conceded another not long after. At the end Nigeria proved their own worst enemies and Greece took full advantage.

    France 0-2 Mexico
    Javier Hernandez (64′) Cuauhtemoc Blanco (pen 79′)

    France dropped Gourcuff and handed a start to Malouda while keeping both Diaby and Toulalan in the starting lineup. From the creative standpoint this solved little as the game was not impressive. Mexico seemed the better team but not by much, as they had to search and search for a decisive play. As both teams had started the World Cup with a draw a result was needed but the match trodded on reversing some of the exciting results starting to emerge. Substitute Hernandez made a nice run, however and evaded offside to dribble past Lloris and shoot into an empty net. Not long after that Blanco, the elder statemsman of the Mexican team and himself a substitute, converted a penalty that was delivered to Mexico via a clumsy Abidal tackle. And so France’s chances faded, as with their midfield creativity and freekick takers.

  • World Cup 2010 Day 6, A Brief Recap

    Chile 1-0 Honduras
    Jean Beausejour (34′)

    Honduras’ squad, for the first time at a World Cup, featured 3 brothers. Wilson Palacios in the starting line-up with Johnny and Jerry on the bench. Chile missing Humberto Suazo to injury and therefore less of an scoring threat, Honduras missing a good scoring chunk as well with Carlos Costly and David Suazo missing. And therefore the offense left in the hands of veterans Carlos Pavon and Jorge Valdivia for Honduras and Chile respectively. Early possession and half chances were almost exclusively for the attacking Chileans with Alexis Sanchez and Matias Fernandes doing some good work. The 65%+ possession paid dividends with Beausejour scoring from a low cross. The domination mostly continued and had the Honduran goalie, Noel Valladares, making one of the nicest saves so far in the 63rd minute. In the end Honduras produced little and Chile came reasonably close on many occasions, dominated possession and showed more attacking intent than most, as promised by coach Marcelo Bielsa.

    Spain 0-1 Switzerland
    Gelson Fernandes (52′)

    The game had Frei and Behrami missing for the Swiss while Torres not starting for Spain. For the second game in a row one team had a good lock on domination as Spain controlled the ball for long stretches. Early in the second half we witnessed one of the bigger shocks of the World Cup when the Swiss, through Fernandes, scored first. Iker Cassilas, Pique and the whole Spanish defense made a meal of a high ball. The Spanish were then forced to bring on Navas and Torres for Silva and Busquets. Of the many close calls that followed Xabi Alonso’s crossbar was perhaps the closest. Not long after the Swiss themselves were a post away from making it 2-0 and the game turned into one Puyol and Pique would want to forget. Iniesta left the field due to injury and was replaced by Pedro but half and full chances amounted to little as Switzerland changed the face of group H. Criticism of Spain’s starting line-up followed.

    South Africa 0-3 Uruguay
    Diego Forlan (24′, pen 80′) Alvaro Pereira (90′)

    Uruguay started with more of an attacking line-up in this their second game as all three of Forlan, Suarez and Cavani started. The advantage of the earlier exchanges went to the South Americans but Tshabalala wasn’t shy to shoot when he could. The game wasn’t the most exciting but Forlan did his part with a long range shot that showed that the Adidas Jabulani ball is not all bad. Uruguay had the better of chances with Cavani in particular very wasteful with those few chances. In the last quarter of the match the South Africans became more desperate knowing a loss would make second round very unlikely. Soon after however a debatable penalty and red card resulted from Khune’s slight contact with Suarez, the South African goalie perhaps too harshly judged. Forlan scored and as the crowd was leaving in dismay Alvaro Pereira finished it off right at the whistle.

  • World Cup 2010 Day 5, A Brief Recap

    New Zealand 1-1 Slovakia
    Winston Reid (90′) Robert Vittek (50′)

    The pattern of timid matches continued with neither team dominating. Slovakia showed glimmers of better technic but Hamsik and others were rarely dangerous. The game didn’t change much as it went on but Vittek managed to score on one of the few real forays into any of the penalty boxes. New Zealand came alive, slightly, towards the end and Slovakia didn’t react much and as happens often were punished with a the late goal by the young New Zealand player.

    Ivory Coast 0-0 Portugal

    Drogba made only the substitutes bench and Simao couldn’t start due to a training knock. Cristiano Ronaldo showed glimpses of his power and hit the post early on. The teams seemed to cancel each other out with a few probing forays. Ivory Coast held a slight advantage throughout, however. The Africans started the second well but Portugal responded well soon after as well. Drogba came on in the 65th minute for Kalou, sporting the FIFA approved elbow cast. He was greeted with some of the loudest roars of the this World Cup. Among the notable incidents were Drogba and Keita, another substitute, getting close in added time amid several players suffering cramps.

    Brazil 2-1 North Korea
    Maicon (55′) Elano (72′) Ji Yun-Nam (89′)

    This match will be most remembered for the defensive resistance and even few half chances that the North Korean unknowns created, especially by the player dubbed the Asian Rooney, Jong Tae-Se. Brazil seemed to be headed for a historic failure. But early in the second half Maicon rescued Brazil with a goal from the tightest angle possible, one that some may claim was only a cross. Instead the ball made its way between the Korean goalie, Ri Myong-Guk, and the near post. Minutes later a classic through pass from Robinho found its way on the foot of Elano who shot past the goalie. As the game was ending with a sigh of relief for the Brazilians Ji Yun-Nam ran through the Brazilian defense and scored a nice goal. Brazil have a lot to think about and need to show more variety offensively, but can they?

  • Notepad X: Open Source Notepad Alternative

    Notepad X: Open Source Notepad Alternative

    Notepad X is described by its author as

    Notepad X is an open source text editor, with a lot of customization options created to help users managing text documents, featuring tab navigation

    Notepad X stands at 1.8MB including its plug-ins and icons. It is a simple no frills tabbed Notepad alternative with the usual shortcuts including the likes of Ctrl+D1, D2, D3, and so on to go to the first, second, third and subsequent open tabs. It offers the standard features but also syntax highlighting for such languages as Boo for example. It also comes with a set of included plug-ins which include a File Explorer sidebar, a Google translate sidebar and a Snippet sidebar. It is possible to write one’s own plug-in by going through the C# tutorial. Notepad X also includes a BBcode toolbar that works on highlighted text (see image above)

    Notepad X is available in a zip format or alternatively one can download the program’s installer. It is also translated to a good number of languages. A final important note: Using the zip format it was not possible to activate the aforementioned plug-ins (on a XP machine).