Although the Mac OS has a built-in screen capture utility (just press command-shift-3 or -4) that I use from time to time, it has a drawback that bit me today: when capturing, the cursor is missing from the screenshot. This was annoying, since I wanted the cursor to appear in some documentation I was writing. So, off I went in search of a replacement.

I headed over to MacUpdate.com, where I found 13 screen capture utilities. I pared the list to eight free products which, in keeping with my guidelines for software that goes on my system, I further pared to six which appear to be actively supported.

(Apologies to Ambrosia Software, publishers of Snapz Pro X, the premiere screen capture tool for the Mac; I just don't use screen capture enough to warrant paying for their utility.)

ScreenCaptureX captures the cursor and lets the user configure the destination folder and image format for screenshots, but the interface was underwhelming. And it was apparent from the developer's description that Capture Me wouldn't have the cursor capture feature I needed. But that still left four tools.

SnapNDrag [2.1] has a couple features that are helpful for anyone taking screenshots. Besides being able to capture the cursor in a timed screenshot, you can define a filename prefix and the number of digits in the numerical part of the filename. But the program doesn't allow you to change the image format it uses and hot keys can only be set if you pay $5 for the Pro version (which also gives you image scaling and removes a fairly innocuous ad for other products at the bottom of the window). SnapNDrag also suffers from an image preview so small that it's unusable.

GrabMac [2.2] allows you to define a screen region, then capture that region with a series of timed screenshots. It adds features like image format, file naming, and destination folder, as well as image resizing. However, it seemed to me to take much too long to setup GrabMac to take a single screenshot.

Screenshot Plus Widget [2.3 modified], not to be confused with an application with a similar name, is not something I would have normally given a lot of thought to. I've disabled Dashboard on my Mac; I'm opposed to having a number of widgets taking up memory on my machine when I'm not using them. However, I was looking for an excuse to buy Amnesty Singles, which converts Dashboard widgets into stand-alone applications.

At first launch, Screenshot Plus simply failed to act when I clicked a button, but I was able to see that its features included setting a destination folder (although it's limited to the folders in your home folder) and image format; sending captures to iPhoto or Preview; and showing a large, usable preview. A later trip to the developer's website revealed that the current version is incompatible with Mac OS X 10.4.7 and above, but a modified version (with a minor loss in functionality) was available and worked well.

Capture [0.7.9] is another widget that I ran through Amnesty Singles. That actually proved to point up a flaw in the process: neither Capture nor Screenshot Plus can hide themselves as an application, which they would normally do as a widget in Dashboard. This isn't as much of a problem for me in Screenshot Plus, which—with its timed screen grab—allows me to get the screen ready, but Capture doesn't wait before the screen capture occurs.

Even so, it has features similar to Screenshot Plus, with destination folders (drag a folder to the widget to change -- not sure how that works in Dashboard) and image formats. It even has the ability to resize the image, unlike Screenshot Plus, but it cannot preview images, send them to iPhoto, or capture single widgets (yes, I did test it in Dashboard).

Conclusion

Well, I found my excuse to buy Amnesty Singles, because I chose to go with a widget. Screenshot Plus edged out Capture, due to its timed screen grab and other features. Its slick interface didn't hurt, either.

Posted by Don Morris at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and how I choose software

Since I began using OS X, I've been looking for a note manager—something to not only take the small snippets of information that I was collecting, but also larger pieces of information like PDFs and web archives. When using OS 9, I was satisfied with ScrapIt Pro and QuickScrap, but, when OS X was released, other applications began leaving my previously favored applications behind. I've looked at a couple of the contenders over the past two years, but it's only been recently that several have really caught my attention.

How I choose software

When I begin to look for a piece of software to fit a need, I have several criteria: function, or how well the product's features meet my specific requirements; form, or how the product looks (the interface); intuitiveness, or how well I can use it without looking at a manual; and stability.

Function

I need a note manager that will handle plain text, styled text, pictures, PDFs, and web archives. If it handles audio and video, that's just a bonus. I want it to encrypt all or some of my data, since I want to use it to store information that I want to restrict access to. I want to be able to get information in and out of the application quickly. And I would really like to be able to sync the data to another computer or a Palm.

Form

How the app looks is extremely important to me. Unless I can't possibly use another product, I will not use an ugly application. I'm a Mac user, and Mac users—by and large—don't put up with shoddy-looking products. I truly do judge a book by its cover; I figure if a developer cares how the product looks on the outside, he takes care that it works well on the inside.

Intuitiveness

A user shouldn't have to work hard to figure out the basic features of an application. Menus should be logical, toolbars should have commonly used items, and the workflow (e.g., key commands and drag-and-drop operations) should be similar to other applications. If I need to read the manual to learn about advanced features, that's okay, but I should feel comfortable with launching the program and beginning to use it without reading any instructions.

Stability

It goes without saying that a product should be stable. It should never lose data and it should never, ever crash. Features should also work as advertised. There is no excuse for an application that is released with blatant bugs. There are legions of computer users that are willing to beta test a product—putting it through its paces to shake out its faults—for the promise of a free copy (or just a mention of their name in the credits), so why not use them?

The search begins

If I'm looking for Macintosh software, my first stop is at MacUpdate.com (Version Tracker is another software directory, and includes Windows software). A quick search (in this case, on "notes") gives me a list of apps that may or may not be appropriate for my needs; browsing through the summaries helps me pick out a number of possibilities.

As I next scan the descriptions for each of the possibilities, I'm looking for several things. First, what is the current version? (Is it a new or established product?) Second, what is the date of the most recent version? (Is the developer serious about maintaining and supporting the product?) Third, what are others saying about the product? While the reviews on a site like MacUpdate.com tend to be shallow and often unprofessional, they do give me an idea of how others view the product—particularly if the reviews and comments are heavily weighted for or against the application.

Speaking of reviews, I tend to read computer-related sites for real reviews by real users. For my search for a note manager, I ran across a review on The Unofficial Apple Weblog that pointed me to some applications I would not have considered. http://www.tuaw.com/2006/07/11/get-organized-a-survey-of-digital-junk-drawer-apps/

The real test, however, comes when I download a trial version of each of the products to put them through their paces. I don't download directly from MacUpdate.com; instead, I follow their link to the developer's website for the download. This gives me the opportunity to view screen shots before downloading and to see if there is a user community that supports the product. It also doesn't hurt to see how the developer "packages" the product. (It's that whole "judging a book by its cover" mentality I have.)

The Contenders

Okay, enough about my methods; let's get to the contenders themselves. After downloading a trial of each application, I matched each against my four criteria. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

My Take?

So, what did I decide? If I was looking for wiki software, I'd go with Voodoo Pad; if journaling software, I'd choose Journler. In the end, my requirements, both in terms of form and function, nearly left me with only one choice.

Yojimbo is a 1.x product with a very polished finish, both on the surface and under the hood. I found no bugs and the interface was very intuitive. That's not to say that it couldn't be improved. Several things Yojimbo could borrow from other applications include an integrated web browser; a navigation bar for PDFs (and web pages); custom icons for collections; and Palm syncing. Oh, and better tagging and categorizing.

SOHO Notes started out a close second, but soon it was easy to see that while it looked like Yojimbo, a number of bugs were lurking just under the surface. I'd accept these bugs in a 1.x release, but not a fifth-generation product. (To be fair, version 5.5 integrates a discontinued product, StickyBrain, into its feature set and may be suffering from the transition.)

However, with the release of 5.5.2, Chronos answered my objection and SOHO Notes pulled ahead with the features I'd wanted for Yojimbo. Still, SOHO Notes would benefit from better tagging and categorizing, as well as encrypted notes (which are always encrypted when not being viewed). In a last-minute decision, I went with SOHO Notes.

Now, if you'll excuse me,  I have a lot of information to organize.

Posted by Don Morris at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Challenge/Response system knocks spam out

I'm sick and tired of spam. It's gotten to the point that I'm receiving several hundred spam messages a day, and there seems to be no end in sight. What's a guy to do?

I could turn on Spam Assassin at my hosting provider, but I risk missing important messages due to false positives (good messages marked as spam). I could use a rules-based filter like Spamfire, but after using that for almost two years I find that it, too, suffers from false positives—unless the sender is in my Friends list (a whitelist)—as well as false negatives (spam messages marked as good), even with an extremely low threshold.

It seems to me that the best way to stop spam is to simply have a list of people that I will accept messages from and another list of people that I won't accept messages from. And wouldn't it make sense to have the sender of a message tell me what list they want to be on?

Enter SpamSlam, a challenge/response spam filter that runs on your desktop. At its most basic level it works like this:

1. SpamSlam downloads all your email.
2. It checks the senders of the messages against a whitelist and a blacklist.
3. If the sender is on your whitelist, it releases the message.
4. If the sender is on your blacklist, it blocks the message.
5. If the sender is on neither list, SpamSlam sends a challenge message, asking the sender to confirm their message by replying with a phrase found in the challenge.
6. If the sender confirms the message, their message is released and they are added to the whitelist.
7. If the sender doesn't confirm the message, their message is blocked and they are added to the blacklist.
8. Your email client gets your mail from SpamSlam's local POP server.

(The idea isn't new; Spam Arrest does this as well, except that Spam Arrest requires you to read all your mail on the web. What a pain! And it's much more expensive than SpamSlam.)

Version two of SpamSlam added some very basic rules filtering and a statistical filter, but I rely mostly upon the challenge/response system. The rules, which can be global (for all accounts) or per account, are great for whitelisting mailing lists or an entire domain.

My ISP mailbox receives mostly spam, so I turned on the statistical filter for that account. As a result, very few challenges are sent out for messages on that account and spam is blocked immediately.

Your challenge settings are configurable for each account you want to filter, including the type of challenge messages (image or ID), the format (HTML or text), the content of the messages, and the challenge phrase. The content of the challenge messages, however, is not configured within the program, but in a text editor.

Another version two feature is the addition of an SMTP proxy server. If you send a message through SpamSlam's local SMTP server, it passes the message to your usual outgoing server and adds the recipient(s) to your whitelist. This also reduces the number of challenge messages sent out.

Version one of SpamSlam was pretty buggy, but the latest version has wiped out most of those critters. I still have problems with the program occasionally refusing to download from an account until I exit and relaunch it (Windows version), and I've found some minor interface glitches. There also seems to be a problem with some valid responses generating a new challenge. My biggest complaint is that SpamSlam does not have an export feature for its address and rules lists.

Having used SpamSlam for nearly a year, I can can say that I'm very pleased. I've not received one single, solitary spam message that SpamSlam didn't catch, and I can now spend my time working or playing instead of pruning spam.

SpamSlam is available for both Windows and Mac OS X, and comes in versions that will filter two, five, ten, or an unlimited number of accounts. A thirty-day, full-featured demo is available.

Posted by Don Morris at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)