Catfood Software Blog

Catfood PdfScan scans documents to PDF. You can scan from a flatbed or automatic document feeder (ADF) scanners, and you can scan as many documents as you like before saving a PDF file.

Catfood PdfScan

PdfScan also allows you to set properties for the PDF file: the title, author, subject and keywords.

Download PdfScan.

In honor of the imminent spawning of my own new process I've published a contraction timer for Android.

After looking at the available options I found everything to be too basic, or too complicated. Also, I've been looking for an excuse to knock up my first Android App having recently migrated from Windows Mobile.

More...

LooseLips is an alpha release of a post only Twitter client. The idea behind LooseLips is to quickly share photos, links or other content. By focusing on the posting experience LooseLips already offers some useful capabilities:


  • Shorten a URL just by clicking it. You can restore the URL by clicking it again.

  • Share a photo by dragging and dropping to the post area, or by copying and pasting.

Download LooseLips

LooseLips

I'll update the download link with new versions as they're released. If you try out the alpha please get in touch to let me know about problems or to provide feedback.

(Updated 2010-04-11: Should have mentioned - supports XP SP3 or better. You need .NET 3.5 SP1 installed - you can pull this from Windows Update if you don't already have it.)

I've just released Catfood Follower 1.20, a tool for automatically following people who follow you on Twitter.

Download Catfood Follower

The new version fixes a bug which caused updates to fail when processing the new location information in tweets. It also supports per-run limits on follows and removals and includes better error logging.

Find NPR stations by ZIP code or from your current location if your device is equipped with a GPS.

Download NPR Station Finder

NPR Station Finder for Windows Mobile

If you're using GPS the search will time out after 30 seconds if your location isn't found. Just press Search again until the GPS gets a fix. NPR Station Finder requires the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2. You probably have this already (if not, you'll get an error at startup).

I've just released an update to Catfood Follower. Follower is a tool for Twitter users that allows you to find and remove friends who have stopped following you. It also allows you to automatically follow anyone who starts following you (but does not send automatic DMs).

Download Catfood Follower

Follower 1.10 is much better at handling Twitter API limits. Rather than failing to update it will wait until the current limits expire and then keep going. It will work much better for people with many accounts, friends, or followers. 1.10 also uses the new cursor method for paging through lists which is more reliable.

There's also a new window that shows progress when automatically processing rules:

Catfood Follower 1.10

This is now the default when running Follower.exe with no command line argument. If you prefer the old behavior run Follower.exe /silent and the update will run without any notification.

It's also now possible to cancel Follower, either from the test window or when running automatically (as long as you're not using the /silent switch).

Catfood TextShips is a simple play by text message version of battleships for Windows Mobile 6 (both smartphone and professional). There is no single player version so you'll need an opponent with a Windows Mobile phone to play. You'll also want an unlimited text message plan as one game could potentially send hundreds of text messages.

Download TextShips

Catfood Software TextShips

TextShips requires the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP2 - if the game won't start on your phone you probably need to download and install this.

After installing if you receive text messages starting with "CFBS" click Menu -> Settings and enable reading your SMS inbox. TextShips tries to intercept text messages automatically but this fails on a some devices. If you need to switch this setting on then I'd recommend exiting TextShips (Menu -> Exit) when you're not actively playing.

I've added a mobile download page at http://www.catfood.net/m - bookmark this on your phone to check for TextShips updates and to download other Windows Mobile products from Catfood Software.

You can get help with Text Ships using by sending me email.

Catfood Follower is a desktop Twitter tool for following new friends that follow you and removing friends that don't follow you back. Follower supports Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Download Catfood Follower (Current version: 1.40.0147)

After installing please read Getting the most out of Catfood Follower.

Catfood Follower Screenshot

Why auto-follow?

I have multiple twitter accounts. My personal account (@abfo) doesn't auto-follow. If you look interesting and not obviously spammy then I'll probably follow you back. Catfood Software (@CatfoodSoftware) will follow you backup using Catfood Follower. I've no idea if followers are Catfood customers or not so I want to follow everyone that signs up for Catfood updates.

Why auto-remove?

Twitter makes it hard to tell when someone you're following removes you. The auto-remove feature of Follower checks for friends who don't follow back and removes them. You can exclude users who you want to follow regardless.

How to use Catfood Follower

Follower supports multiple twitter accounts. For each account you can decide if you want to auto-follow, auto-remove or both. The screenshot above shows the settings for a single account.

You can add exclusions for both auto-follow and auto-remove. For auto-remove you can also set how many days to wait before removing a friend who is no longer following you. This prevents Follower from automatically removing new friends who haven't had a chance to follow you back yet.

Once you've entered rules for each account click the Test button on the main window. You can run the rules in test mode to see who would get followed and removed, or run in live mode to actually process the rules.

You can just run Follower manually when you want to run the rules, or you can use Task Scheduler to run it automatically. To schedule Follower (on Vista) run Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Task Scheduler. Click Create a Basic Task and follow the Wizard to set the schedule (i.e. once a day). If you accepted the defaults during installation then the path to Follower is "C:\Program Files\Catfood Software\Catfood Follower\Follower.exe". Running Follower with no arguments will automatically process the rules that you entered in Catfood Follower Settings. There is no display when Follower is running automatically.

Need Help?

If you have any problems or questions send me an email. If you have any feature suggestions please leave a comment below.

(Updated 2009-05-04 to 1.00.0108: Fixed a problem where new exceptions for an account were not processed, this led to Follower auto-removing exceptions. Also, the installer is now digitally signed.)

(Updated 2009-06-25 to 1.00.0122: Handle a twitter API bug with returning the correct number of friends/followers per page this is a critical update, added logging.)

(Updated 2009-07-21: Note that Follower does not follow new users for you. If you're looking to do this check out Twiogle Twitter Friend Adder.)

(Updated 2009-12-12 to 1.10.0061: Improved API limit handling, progress window during automatic processing, can now cancel and update. See Catfood Follower 1.10 for more information.)

(Updated 2010-03-16 to 1.20.0019: Fixed a bug related to location data in tweets. Added follow/unfollow limits to account settings. See Catfood Follower 1.20 for more information.)

(Updated 2010-09-02 to 1.30.0051: Updated from basic auth to XAuth - this is a critical update, added manual step for removing followers (unfollowing).)

(Updated 2011-11-06 to 1.40.0147: Added support for Klout and Twitter Lists. See Catfood Follower 1.40 for more information.)

This screensaver shows the twitter public timeline, posting a new tweet every three seconds. I wrote it while experimenting with the twitter API and I love watching the deluge of random thoughts.

Twitter Public Timeline Screensaver

Download CatfoodTwitterScreensaver.exe. Once downloaded right-click the file and choose Install (Now packaged in an installer so just run / double-click to install the screensaver).

The screensaver requires that .NET 2.0 is installed. You probably have this but it you see an error when you try to run the screensaver you might need to install it. (.NET now automatically installed if needed)

If you don't see any updates (just a blue screen) make sure that your firewall is configured to allow TwitterPublicTimeline.scr to access the Internet.

If you have any problems get in touch here. Please leave a comment on this post for any feature requests. Also, if you like the screensaver please follow @CatfoodSoftware.

(Updated 2009-02-25 to 1.00.0080: Improved tweet display and support systems with multiple monitors.)

(2009-04-22: Profile pictures aren't displaying correctly at the moment - you just get the default twitter image. This is a known issue with the Twitter API. As soon as the Twitter bug is fixed the screensaver should start displaying the right pictures again.)

(Updated 2009-05-08 to 1.10.0138: You can now add your own account (or accounts) to follow as well as the public timeline. Colors are also now configurable. I've added an installer so just download and run to get started.)

I've created gadgets inspired by several Catfood Software products. All of these gadgets can be added to iGoogle or Google Desktop, World Webcams is also compatible with the Vista Sidebar. If you can't see the gadgets in the post see the Google listing for World Webcams, Desktate and Life.

World Webcams

World Webcams rotates between 200 of the streaming webcams in the WebCamSaver directory. You can click the description for any webcam to jump to the page that allows you to control the camera.


Add to Google | Add to Vista Sidebar


Desktate

The gadget version of Catfood Desktate. Shows the current extent of day and night together with local sunrise/sunset times for any longitude and latitude.




Life

Life is a JavaScript implementation of Conway's Game of Life. It starts with a random population which you can then alter by clicking on the gadget to flip individual cells between being dead and alive. You can also download a screensaver version of Life.


Add to Google

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