March 6th, 2010
The first release of USB AutoBackup is now available for download and purchase.
USB AutoBackup is a new backup application developed to automatically backup your USB flash drives as soon as they are connected. It supports incremental backups and dated backups (stores daily backups in dated folders).
It’s extremely easy to use; simply connect the USB drive you want to backup automatically, and add the drive to USB AutoBackup selecting the destination location and the backup type you want to use. And that’s it. If you want to backup more drives simply repeat the process.
A single user licence costs just $8.99 and is available for Windows 2000+ and Mac OS X 10.4+. Educational discounts are available and a custom build (Windows only) is also an option. The custom build allows you to locked down the file exclusions (prevent .mpg, mp3, etc from being backed up).
For full details please visit the USB AutoBackup website:
http://www.arsoftware.co.uk/products_usbautobackup.php
Tags: Backup, USB, USB AutoBackup
Posted in New Product Release, USB AutoBackup | No Comments »
February 15th, 2010
A new application is about to be released, USB AutoBackup, a little application that will backup your USB flash memory drives as soon as you connect them to your computer.
Why develop such an application? Well, I use a few different computers for development, 2 PC’s and a Mac Book, keeping project files on different computers is a pain the neck, so I thought I’d start using a USB drive instead, it’s convenient as I can just unplug from one, connect to another and keep on working. The downside is that if the memory stick was damaged I’d lose a lot of work,so I decided to make a backup program.
Most other backup programs I found didn’t work the way I expected them to, or insisted on backing up to the USB stick and not from it.
USB AutoBackup will hopefully be released in the next few weeks as I’m just running the last few tests and compiling the user guide (although it really is very easy to use). So, keep an eye out for the new application coming soon. I will be adding the product pages to my website very soon.
Also, coming up very soon, as in the next few days, is AutoWallpaper update 5.2, this update is particularly special. It reintroduces Mac OS X 10.4 support (albeit for one monitor only), and adds the ability to cycle monitors individually.
And finally I thought I’d update everyone how may (or may not be) interested in how my Toyota Aygo is doing fuel efficiency wise. So far I have filled up 3 times since purchasing the car. The first tank achieved 485 miles @ 63.5 mpg, the second tank was slightly worse due to crazy traffic in the week, but still managed 475 miles @ 61.8 mpg, finally my latest tank didn’t last quite as long due to me having to do a fair number of short drives and town driving, still it surpassed my Ford Fiesta and managed 455 miles @ 58.6 mpg. My Fiesta would do 49 mpg for motorway driving and that would drop a lot when I was in towns. So, there you have it, a nice little money saver.
Tags: AutoWallpaper, Backup, car, ford, fuel efficiency, mac OSX, toyota, Toyota Aygo, USB, USB AutoBackup
Posted in AutoWallpaper, General, USB AutoBackup | No Comments »
February 5th, 2010
In addition to the forth coming AutoWallpaper update that adds the ability to cycle monitors separately, I am also hoping to ‘turn back time’ and reintroduce Mac OS X 10.4 support. Version 4 originally discontinued support for the 10.4 OS because of limitations in controlling multi-monitor wallpaper configurations, and this hasn’t actually changed. However, I am planning on adding support back into AW5.2. The support will be limited to a single monitor as there is no way for me to change multi-monitors on 10.4, but at least it will finally bring the AW5 feature set to these users and allow them to upgrade from AW3.5 (the final version to support 10.4).
If you read my last post I mentioned that I had bought a new car, a Toyota Aygo Black. Obviously by now everyone knows that Toyota in the US and Europe is performing a massive, and very costly, recall of millions of cars. This has concerned me a little and I have been checking on the UK Toyota site daily to see what the latest is; and fortunately for me the Manual transmission version of the Toyota Aygo is NOT affected by the accelerator pedal issue, it only affects the MMT (Mulit-mode transmission) models of the Aygo. Phew!
The Aygo is going very nicely and I’m thoroughly enjoying driving it. I completed my first evaluation of the efficiency of the car and was very pleased. I expected the first week or so to be a little lower eco wise as I adjusted to the gearbox and the engine, however managed to travel 485 miles before needing to fill up, giving me a truly marvellous 63.5mpg. Obviously I didn’t push my luck with the fuel gauge as I didn’t want to run out of petrol. The 485 miles equates to 35 litres of petrol (unleaded). The amount of money I’m saving is going to be quite substantial. Road tax is £35 per year, it’s in the lowest insurance band in the UK, and I can get an extra 2 days of driving out of a fill up compared to the Fiesta (I do 90 miles a day driving to and from work).
Tags: AutoWallpaper, car, ford, fuel efficiency, mac OSX, recall, toyota, Toyota Aygo, update
Posted in AutoWallpaper, General | 1 Comment »
January 23rd, 2010
If you’re wondering why the blog has been a little quiet recently it’s mainly due to me having to change cars. I had a Ford Fiesta on hire purchase with Ford and that has come to an end, so I’ve been working on finding and buying my new car – Toyota Aygo Black.
I took ownership of the car today so it’s back to work as normal.
I’m currently working on the next update for AutoWallpaper. I have a few tweaks already in place and one new feature left to do before it’s release, but there is something I would like to ask my users:
I’ve had a couple of users experiencing an oddity when using multi-monitors (3+) that are aligned horizontally. The wallpaper changes but it is displaying a segment of the wrong monitor on one of the others. I myself use 3 monitors and I haven’t been able to replicate the problem. If any one out there has experienced this issue please email me as I’d like to find out what’s causing it and stop it.
As for the next update, here’s what’s coming up soon (mid-Feb):
Tweaks to the Preview window resizing
Mozaic/Collage effect filter can be set to avoid putting more than one of the same image in the mix.
Settings to allow monitors to be cycled separately - for example: first monitor 1 changes, then in the next cycle monitor 2 changes, and so on.
Tags: AutoWallpaper, bugs, car, ford, toyota, update
Posted in AutoWallpaper, General | No Comments »
January 3rd, 2010
Happy new year everyone 
I’ve released a small update, originally it was my plan to release a new version with a couple of new features but January has prompted the need for a quick fix. Basically if you have the calendar display showing with it starting the week on Sunday the background tint wouldn’t cover the entire calendar; this update corrects that issue.
Also, the new update adds a new feature request by a few registered users – the ability to resize the thumbnail window that displays when you click on a wallpaper in the listing. To resize the window, click a wallpaper to display the window, then hold down the Control key, move across and resize the window to the size you want it, then release the Control key. The next time the window is displayed it will use the new size.
I’m going to be making a start on some major alterations in the next week or so, so the only new updates that might come along will be small fixes to correct any bugs discovered – hopefully none
Tags: AutoWallpaper, bugs, thumbnail, update
Posted in AutoWallpaper, General | No Comments »
December 15th, 2009
And relax
After a rather tumultuous few days after attempting to update the AutoWallpaper compiler and having a few serious problems occur, I can happily say that I have now corrected them.
The problem with the updated compiler appears to be a newer version of the SQLite implementation, this seems to have made a lot of alterations to the way it commits records, etc.
Anyway, I’ve reverted the AW base code back and implemented the fixes that were in the 2722 release into this new update.
Fixes:
Creating a new category no longer has a chance to crash AW.
Calendar back tint now allows the user to select a font and size of their choice.
The Current Wallpaper window (tray menu) no longer crashes AW when running under Windows XP. Vista, Seven and OS X were unaffected.
Typo’s corrected again.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
As the code base has been rolled back you may need to double check your category settings in case they have altered.
Tags: AutoWallpaper, compiler, crash, SQLite, update, Windows XP
Posted in AutoWallpaper | No Comments »
December 13th, 2009
It would appear that a number of database related alterations were made to the newest compiler I’m using that have surprised me. I believe I have corrected all of the category related issues in build 2806, but it does appear that there are a few more minor issues occurring.
If you do update to 2806 you may find that when you attempt to do the first wallpaper change it will fail (might fail). If this is the case go through each of your categories in turn and check that any monitor specific settings that you may have are still active. If they are not re-check them. Once you’ve done this for all the categories it should be up and running again.
Once again, my apologises for the problems this has caused, I was taken by surprise by these compiler changes.
Posted in General | No Comments »
December 12th, 2009
As promised in my previous posting 5.1.2722 (Pre-Christmas edition) has been released. This is an optional update that fixes a few typos and brings the compiler up-to-date.
Also, you may have noticed some additional features now available on this blog, these allow for a lot more flexibility. For starters I’ve added a poll (on the left hand column). The reason for this poll is to work out if I’m using the most popular delivery format for the Mac Edition. At the moment the Windows installer is just over 8Mb, but the Mac DMG file is over 22Mb. What I would like to know from my readers and users is whether the ZIP file format is a viable alternative for Mac users (not being a full mac user myself). So, please cast your vote. Also, if any of you can recommend an alternative compression method that is usable on any OS X Mac without extra software then please let me know either via the comments box or via the support form.
[UPDATE]
A number of very annoying bugs jumped in on the last update that prevented new categories from being created. Because of this I have had to release a second update today (2805). This update corrects the problem but there are a number of rare issues lurking. For now everything should be OK, and I’m continuing to work through the reported issues. The XMas break will hopefully give me plenty of time to research a data store alteration I would like to make, which I believe is the main cause of some of these new bugs.
My apologises for any irritation this last update cycle has caused.
Tags: AutoWallpaper, Compression, mac OSX, Poll
Posted in AutoWallpaper, General | No Comments »
