Logos go Computational

Was searching for a tool to “ORGANIZE” my cluttered notes. I was using a “tabbed” hierarchy on simple txt files to organize my notes. But it so happened that the files multiplied and kept on multiplying. Now I have a lot of files scratch_* where * is misc, research, desktop_lab, desktop_room, online , links, lecture notes, for, …

In my search for an efficient anough organizer, I stumbled upon a free-open source tool called FreeMind. This helps organise the notes into a tree-like structure, which has helped me to collapse all the scratch_* to a single scratch.mm file 🙂 .. It is a great tool as such and I am looking forward to it getting better.

I always had plans to put my notes online, so that I can access it from anywhere and also anyone else interested in it can access it. I came across a Javascript plug-in which allows one to display the FreeMind tool online as a Javascript file.. and one Important thing is that it is written in Java and hence compatible with all OSes ( anything which can run the JVM ). So it also ensures that ur notes can be accessed across different platforms

A great find for me .. 🙂

Research Tools

I was searching for a tool to extract the relevant data from PDFs ( mainly resaerch papers from various journals etc, some book chapters and some old free ebooks ) and to export the metadata for citation. A summary of a few tools I came across ..

NOTE:

Some tools are desktop tools , some are online and some tools provide both these capabilities. In case of online backup, it is easier to syncronize across computers, which are connected to internet. The user can choose to share/upload files and comments ( a very welcome option! ). I feel this can serve as a bridge between researchers 🙂 . Also refer to this Wiki Page on comparision of reference management softwares ( for a table of comparision between different options available ).

Mendeley

OS : all
type : free , closed source

last modified : frequently updated
syncronization options : users can sync with online database.

my comments :

easy and nice to use. Aimed for research purposes only (i.e, gives not so good output while parsing book chapters and other PDFs ). Has easy to use drag-n-drop interface. I am currently testing/using this.

homepage : http://www.mendeley.com/

Zotero

OS : all
type : free , OPEN source ( thats why some prefer to use this over Mendeley)

last modified : frequently updated
syncronization options : users can sync. with online database.

my comments :

easy and nice to use. Has a web interface, can cling on to the bottom of your mozilla. This was is better online note taking, if you read online. Aimed for research purposes only (i.e, gives not so good output while parsing book chapters and other PDFs ). Has easy to use drag-n-drop interface. Am experimenting this. Can be used with Mendeley for a open source solution for reference organizer.

coming soon
homepage : http://www.zotero.org/

Referenecer

OS : Linux

Type : C code, mainly, out of development

my comments :

You can get the source code -> Good for organizing your non-academic desktop PDFs such as books or book chapters. Allows a python interface. Have not tried using it.

Home page : http://icculus.org/referencer/

[page was written in dec 2010 , last modified : dec 2010]

View All Mozilla Passwords

I wanted to switch from Windows to Linux. Was searching for options to export my Mozilla passwords. Have gathered a couple of links here

Option 1 :

In Mozilla firefox, goto Tools->Error Console and then copy and paste the following code into it. All the passwrods are exported in
[javascript]

(function(){
function twodigits(string) {return (string.length < 2) ? “0” + string : string ;}
function fourdigits(number){return (number < 1000) ? number + 1900 : number;}

var now = new Date();
var hours = twodigits(now.getHours() + “”) ;
var minutes = twodigits(now.getMinutes() + “”) ;
var seconds = twodigits(now.getSeconds() + “”) ;

var timeValue = ” | At ” + hours + “:” + minutes + “:” + seconds;
var days = new Array(“Sunday”,”Monday”,”Tuesday”,”Wednesday”,”Thursday”,”Friday”,”Saturday”);
var months = new Array(“January”,”February”,”March”,”April”,”May”,”June”,”July”,”August”,”September”,”October”,”November”,”December”);
var date = ((now.getDate()<10) ? “0” : “”)+ now.getDate();

var today = “On ” + days[now.getDay()] + “, ” + date + ” ” + months[now.getMonth()] + ” ” + (fourdigits(now.getYear())) + timeValue ;

var Cc = Components.classes;
var Ci = Components.interfaces;

netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege(“UniversalXPConnect”);

var tokendb = Cc[“@mozilla.org/security/pk11tokendb;1”]
.createInstance(Ci.nsIPK11TokenDB);
var token = tokendb.getInternalKeyToken();

try { token.login(true);} catch (e) {}

if (token.isLoggedIn()) {
var passwordmanager = Cc[“@mozilla.org/login-manager;1″]
.getService(Ci.nsILoginManager);
var names=””,signons = passwordmanager.getAllLogins({});

for (i=0;i<signons.length;i++) {
try {
var host = signons[i].hostname;
var realm = signons[i].httpRealm;
var user = signons[i].username;
var userf = signons[i].usernameField;
var password = signons[i].password;
var passwordf = signons[i].passwordField;
var submiturl = signons[i].formSubmitURL;
if (user == “”){ user = “<br>”; }
names+=” <tr>n <td> ” + host + ” </td>n <td> ” + user + ” </td>n <td> ” + password + ” </td>n <td> ” + submiturl + ” </td>n </tr>n”;
} catch(e) {}
}

void(window.open(‘data:text/html,
<html><head>
<meta http-equiv=content-type” content=”text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1″>

<title>Exported Mozilla Passwords</title>
<style type=”text/css”>
td {
font-family: “Trebuchet MS”, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Verdana, Sans-Serif;
font-size: 85%;
padding: 1px 2px 1px 2px;
}
</style>
</head><body style=”margin: 1em 3em; background-color: rgb(0, 126, 255);”>
<b>MOZILLA PASSWORD INFORMATION</b>
<p>Produced by <i>Pasting Code in the “Tools > Error Console: Code field”</i> ‘+today+
‘</p><p>
<table style=”empty-cells: show; background-color: rgb(231, 240, 249);” border=”1″ cellspacing=”0″>
<tbody><tr style=”background-color: rgb(77, 138, 212);”>
<td>
<b>Host</b>
</td>
<td>
<b>User name</b>
</td>
<td>
<b>Password</b>
</td>
<td>
<b>Submit URL</b>
</td>
</tr>’+names+'</tbody></table>
</p></body></html>’,””,”menubar=yes,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,width=1000,height:600″));
}
})();

[/javascript]

Option 2 :

Use password exporter plugin . Firefox Password Exporter exports the passwords to an XML
or CSV file with the option to encrypt them to increase security. (The
file can still be imported to Firefox where all passwords are visible)
The very same file
can then be used on another computer to import the passwords into
Firefox. All websites saved this way can be accessed without having to
remember the password.

Option 3 :

Use the Firefox Environment Backup Extension to export the whole firefox envireonment

Option 4 :

Copy your complete profile folder or the relevant parts of it into the Linux’s Mozilla profile folder

Visual Basic Links

This is my log/bookmark entry – NOT YET ORGANIZED

Have created this page to put the bookmarks in my mozilla available to me from anywhere I go ( and Mozilla is getting annoying slow, when I have the complete history.. I never delete them ! .. coz these can come in handy, when I am looking for them )

Generic codes / Snippets / collections

Visual Basic Programming Tips and Techniques by Peter Aitken

You can read the full text of past Basically Visual columns. These were originally published in Visual Developer

magazine. Unfortunately this excellent magazine stopped as of May 2000, so Column 24 was my last.

And lots of Visual Basic Tips and Techniques

TheScarms.com Classic VB 6.0 / Win32 API Library

contains primarily Visual Basic and C# related programming information

Code Libraries Source Code Summary – Older one

Code Libraries Source Code Summary – Newer one

Window Handling n stuff

link 1 – MSDN help

Finding A window snippet @ VB Helper

Automation ( AutoIT ?? )

Recognized a color and click it

MSDN

Limiting CPU usage

MSDN

PDF Utils

PDFsharp @ Sourceforge

PDFsharp is a .NET library for creating and modifying Adobe PDF documents programmatically from any .NET language like C# or VB.NET. PDFsharp defines classes for the objects found in PDF files, so you never have to deal with IDs or references directly

.NET

TwitterVB – A .NET Twitter Library

TwitterVB is a .NET library that allows desktop and web applications to communicate with Twitter.

A collection of misc source codes mainly from visual basic 2008 and some from visual studio 2010 & visual c++ 2008

Programming – Regexp links

Info

Regular-Expressions.info – Regex Tutorial, Examples and Reference – Regexp Patterns

Wiki

RegEx in Autoit

Regular Expression Library the Internet’s first Regular Expression Library

BOOST Regex : …one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library projects in the world. — Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu, C++ Coding Standards

Regex for Windows (!! at last GNU they managed to port it !! :P)