As stated on the IDM website, UltraCompare Professional is a folder/file compare utility loaded with features to enable you to compare text files and folders, Word documents, and even zip files and jar archives. It’s much more powerful than the lite version supplied with UEStudio and UltraEdit with some very worthwhile features. My highlights include;

• compare text files (obviously)
• compare binary files
• colour coded highlighting
• merge lines or blocks of text
• compare and synchronise folders
• tabbed sessions

Looking at the detail shows how powerful this utility application is, including being able to compare files over FTP, 3-way compare, web page compare (by typing the URL) and the option to save favourite files and folders.

There is also built-in support for comparing native Microsoft Word documents (.doc and .docx) to highlight differences in text content. If merged, the files can only be saved as unformatted text but it is a useful tool for identifying minor changes to a large document which would be difficult to find by other means. If you write your documentation in Word this would be an ideal way of checking for version differences

UltraCompare includes a useful print function for file or folder listings but the print preview doesn’t provide an option to switch to landscape mode which, considering the width required for side-by-side comparison, would have been helpful.

Duplicate File Finder

UltraCompare includes a duplicate file finder that provides the ability to find duplicate files based on name, size or binary content by selecting and comparing two folders. This is accessed from the File->Find Duplicates menu option which then opens a dialogue box to set the search criteria. Clicking ‘Start’ runs the comparison and the view switches to the Results Report tab. The duplicate file finder needs some minor tweaks on the user interface as on my screen the identified duplicate files are listed in a cramped left pane, making it difficult to scan through them. The dialogue window itself can be re-sized thereby widening this pane but the re-sizing is not remembered for the next time it’s used.

Duplicate files can be deleted by selecting the associated check boxes and clicking ‘Delete Checked’. This requires stepping through each set of duplicates to delete as you go, as there’s no option to select and delete multiple duplicates i.e. it doesn’t retain the check box state between sets for a final bulk delete operation.

The other frustration for a new user is the lack of a local help file. Using help opens a web page on the IDM website which is not ideal and can be tiresome to navigate and use.

Despite these issues UltraCompare Professional v8.3 is a very competent file and folder comparison tool that goes well beyond the basics offered by many others. Its main competitor for file/ folder comparison is Beyond Compare which is priced similarly but for users of either UltraEdit or UEStudio the built-in integration of UltraCompare with each of these, and the extra features, make it more appealing.

UltraCompare Professional v8.30 is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and can be downloaded from the IDM Computer Solutions website as a 30 day trial and purchased for $49.95

Rating: 4/5  

Right to reply: I received a response to this review from Rich at IDM Computer Solutions, who made some valid points in regard to the online help system.

“The online help allows users to access the latest documentation in their language according to their favored platform.  Our user community at large has welcomed this across our product line.  What is also noteworthy about our online help is that will allow you to download any topic or print a topic or for that matter – the entire manual.  In fact, we purchased a specific online help back-end solution to especially provide these benefits to our users. The online help is also integrated with our localization software and provider so new content is essentially provided to our user community in real time, vs only available in software upgrades.” – Richard L. Knott, IDM Computer Solutions

Don't let this happen to your data

All well and good, until recently when there was a huge stushie over file sharing company Megaupload which was shutdown by US officials on 19th January 2012 and charged with conspiracies to commit racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering. The background to the case is that Megaupload were allegedly encouraging users to upload and share popular files leading to copyright infringements including software, video and music piracy. Whatever the outcome of the case against Megaupload, it has already had an effect on the online storage industry and some similar cloud providers are restricting or closing down their service including FileSonic, FileServe, FileJungle, UploadBox and UploadStation.

For your average and genuine user, the concern of this is that the many legitimate companies that provide a useful and innovative service may be tarred with the same brush and put at risk by this action.

So where does that leave us ……?

The Silver Lining

My advice is not to be put off using cloud storage for both personal and business use but to use it as a convenience rather than rely on it as an absolute necessity. This means keeping a local copy of your files and all the best cloud storage providers will have a synchronisation utility to do this automatically, giving access to your files even when you’re offline. For extra security, sensitive files can be encrypted using an on-the-fly encryption utility such as AxCrypt and TrueCrypt can be used with Dropbox to create a secure container. The great thing about Dropbox synchronisation, unlike with many other services, is that it only transfers the part of the file that has actually changed not the whole file, so you won’t use lots of bandwidth to update your TrueCrypt containers.

Dropbox offers 2Gb free storage but if you’re looking for more, then I can recommend 4shared who provide a generous 15GB of free storage. I’ve been evaluating their service for a while and I like the web interface, which is much better than that from Dropbox and more like a proper file manager. 4shared also provides two free programs to synchronise your files with your PC, ’4shared Sync’ synchronises the whole 4shared account, while ’4shared Desktop’ is similar to an upload/download manager and allows you to synchronise a particular folder. I’ve emailed 4shared a couple of times with general questions and their responses have been quick and helpful. It stands out from the rest and is worth a look.

I hope to do a fuller review of 4shared soon.

And then there’s UEStudio v12 by IDM Computer Solutions, which as they say is ‘feature rich’. An understatement if ever there was one and potentially it’s overwhelming but the saving grace is that it can be fully customised into what IDM call ‘Environments’. This means that with a couple of clicks the IDE/ editor will re-configure to suit your needs, from Power User to Notepad Replacement. You can edit the built-in environments or create new ones of your own.

Not surprisingly, I found that on first installing UEStudio, support for Fortan syntax highlighting was not included but I quickly found a supporting file (called wordfile) on the IDM website to download and copy to my wordfiles directory. Simple as that and there are hundreds of such files available for almost any language you can think of.

UEStudio is a fully integrated development environment supporting over 30 compilers and assemblers, although these need to be installed separately and are not part of the package. A Quick Start Guide and online tutorials and tips are provided for many common tasks and there is also an active user forum.

I’ve seen complaints that it can be hard to find your way around UEStudio, which may be true at first, but once you’ve set up each environment for whatever uses you have, then its complexity is not a problem.

I’m still evaluating UEStudio but so far some of the features that I like are;

• Environments
• Project management
• Ability to compile, build and debug within the application
• Built-in FTP client
• HTML preview
• CSS style builder
• Huge number of customisation options (including toolbars and menu items)

IDM Computer Solutions also sell UltraEdit which is the same as UEStudio but without the IDE features and UltraCompare, which is an advanced file/ folder compare utility. I’ve not tried UltraComapre as there’s a built in Lite version with UEStudio but as you’d expect the professional version provides many additional features.

With a little more effort to learn its extensive capabilities, UEStudio is a strong contender to be my favourite editor/ IDE and notepad replacement.

A fully functional trial can be downloaded from the IDM Computer Solutions website. At £50 it’s not cheap but if you need a professional level text/ HEX editor and IDE, then UEStudio v12 is definitely worth a look.

Rating: 4.5/5  

Notable dates after this are:

• 24^th February 2012 – Joomla 1.7 reaches end of life and is no longer supported
• April 2012 – Joomla 1.5 reaches end of life
• September 2012 – Next version of Joomla is released

After a first look at the beta release this latest version looks good and offers some core improvements. These are well reported in the Joomla Community Portal so I won’t repeat here.

Touchline customers will be offered migration options from 24^th January but contact me if you want more information.

A stream of inane drivel

There are many good reasons why a business should use Twitter, most of which are to do with brand promotion including news, advertising, special promotions and support. Another may be simply that your competitors are using it and you feel the need to match them (although also see Don’t Compare). Twitter can give the impression that your company is young and trendy, which for some industries is an advantage.

But therein lies a potential problem. In the early days of the web, company websites were often the sole responsibility of a junior in the IT department who was keen on playing with new technologies, with no budget and no buy-in from senior management. The result was that, despite substantial central marketing budgets, the company message and image (on the web at least) were in the hands of an enthusiastic junior baggy jeans and an overriding interest in Star Trek. And so it may be with Twitter, for a new generation of social media enthusiasts, resulting in a stream of inane drivel in the guise of customer social interaction.

For a Twitter account to have real business value, it needs to be under the control of senior management with a consistent style and message. Thought needs to be given to what you want to achieve using Twitter and how you can build credibility as a source of useful information relevant to your customer community. As with your website, you will need to track your impact in the Twitter community, whether it’s increased sales, better support or other measurement related to your goals.

If used properly Twitter can improve relationships with customers, increase sales and help in developing customer networks. Improper use will damage your company reputation through a lack of substance or inappropriate messages.

As Steve Jobs said "think differently"

For Product Managers, the process of developing their product backlog will, at some point, lead to drawing up a feature comparison matrix or gap analysis to compare their product area with the competition. This is often driven by the sales teams for whom it provides a useful checklist to show to new prospects in a battle of who has the most features.

So what if we don’t compare?

The real art of Product Management is to look beyond our present feature list by observing and understanding what our customers are trying to do right now and by defining what they will need to do in the future. The interaction of creative and talented groups within the framework of thought leadership and technical excellence leads us to a vision of where our product should be going, how it will be used and how it may look. It’s within this area of thought that we can reach the Holy Grail that is disruptive innovation.

Once the vision starts to become clear, we realise that the gap that we should be interested in is the one between where we are now and where the vision takes us. Taking the strategic route puts us ahead of the competition by redefining the market and driving market needs. The conversations with customers then become more about how the product not only solves their present problems but also takes them into new market possibilities and provides them with new ways of working.

So rather than taking the ‘me too’ approach we can aim for greatness in our own right.

All of my Touchline clients’ websites have been converted to use an open source CMS from Joomla!, CMS Made Simple or WordPress. The chosen solution depends on the type of website. For a very quick and simple CMS, WordPress is a good choice (now used for this website) and there are lots of good commercial and open source templates available. For a more bespoke look, that is still easy to use, I recommend CMS Made Simple which I find ideal for converting static websites as the templates are straightforward to develop. This is demonstrated in the Shotokan Worcester website and its sister (or should it be mother) website for the International Japan Karate-Do Association.

Joomla! is more suitable for content rich websites and is used for the colloborative group website for Advanced Power Generation Technology Forum.

Any of these systems can be installed for you and if you’re interested you can develop your own look and feel or Touchline can provide recommendations and bespoke development.

The free application is called ‘Mouse Without Borders’ and it lets you share your mouse and keyboard with other Windows OS computers and even lets you drag and drop files between them.

Download it here

Rating: 4/5  

Note that renewals are not discounted and are priced at £10.49 exVAT, which is more than their previous registration price and probably set high to claw back the discount – swings and roundabouts.

So my advice is to register new domains with UKReg and transfer out to Domain Monster near to renewal.

See http://www.ukreg.com/

The introduction of Joomla! v1.6 and now Joomla! v1.7 isn’t just an upgrade from v1.5 , it’s a migration to a whole new release and requires some serious work. Also, v1.7 is an interim release that will be replaced by v1.8 (or other version number such as v2.5! – don’t ask) in January 2012. The January release will then become the next Long Term Support (LTS) version (after v1.5) lasting for 18 months.

So migrating now will mean applying an update in January and hence involve more work and expense.