I have developed a small window application called “FlashCard” which can be used as learning aid using response system.

Flashcard or flash card is a piece of paper which has question on each card and an answer overleaf. Flashcard can be use to learn vocabulary, formulas, foreign languages, technical or domain terms etc. This system was developed to maximize efficiency of studying memorization-intensive subjects.

This application is small capsule like interface occupy very little space of your screen. I usually run this application at top-center of the screen. Application reads questions and answers from pipe (|) separated text file, and its display those question and respected answers sequentially or randomly.

FlashCard Screenshot

You can select option to display those questions sequentially or randomly. Right click on capsule, and check/uncheck the popup menu “Random Order”.

FlashCard Popup Menu

You don’t need to run any kind of setup to run this application. Just unzip the attached flashcard.zip to any folder and run the .exe file. Application will ask you to provide path for flashcard text file (which will have all questions and answers). And thereafter, application will display those question and answers in the small capsule.

If you want to create your own flashcard text file, you just require any text editor. Open your favorite text editor and write down your question and respective answers separated by pipe (|). Please read ReadMe.txt for more details.

I developed this application in Delphi 5. I choose Delphi as it generates native binary (EXE) which require no depended DLLs to run and thence, perfect development environment to develop small utility applications.

I hope you will find this learning aid useful. If you are facing any problem or have any suggestion please do feel free to contact me.

Download: FlashCardv1.zip

Attached zip file also contains English vocabulary FlashCard file as an example. You can add more FlashCard files like this in your repository based on your requirement.

Are you dealing with hundred of passwords scattered around different places? And so, are you managing endless lists of passwords right from your windows logon, two official email accounts, five personal email accounts, and six ftp passwords to ten gaming forums passwords, and fifteen programming web sites passwords?? Then its time to install KeePass and let it stores and manages your passwords in single place. With that, what you just need to remember is only one master password to access these hundreds of stored passwords.

KeePass stores passwords in single encrypted file which means you can easily move your password database from one machine to another.

It can even suggest you strong random password based on provided number of characters and other consideration like options to include special characters, having combination of lower and upper characters in password etc.

And when you want to use password, just double click (or press Ctrl+C or right click on any field and click “Copy Password To Clipboard”) on list item to copy password into Windows clipboard. No need to reveal to provide it in your web page. And as you pasted your copied password, it will automatically remove copied password from your clipboard. Further, it you didn’t paste your copied password within specified time then KeePass will automatically remove copied password from clipboard.

That’s a whole lot of features to manage your passwords. Check it out!

Application URL : http://keepass.sourceforge.net
Download URL : KeePass-1.06-Setup.exe

One of the major contributors of repetitive stress injuries in developers is having limited micro-break while programming. No, I am not talking about those long one hour break you take at work, but its while break for smaller duration (usually 5 minutes.) after say every 30 minutes of work. These frequent micro-breaks in your working habit gives proper time to heal from wear and tear because of contraction occurred through using keyboard and mouse. These breaks are very important to give adequate relaxation to muscles that involved in computing. There is no hard and fast rule for length of break one should take, as it varies depending from person to person. Usually 5 minutes break is enough for every 30 minutes but this figure can vary depending upon the nature of work he involved in. You can decrease or increase the micro-break duration based on your conformability and work load. But the bottom-line is that you should take proper and regular breaks at work.

Well, deciding on taking regular and consistent break and being firm of that are two different things; and I know it’s very difficult to stick on that and you do want someone who will remind you regularly to take these breaks. And this is where those break reminder utilities comes handy.

You can find lot of utilities readily available in internet (just google break reminder download) but I will recommend Workrave. Its free and its open source application.

Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit. Its available for both OS, Windows and Linux.

WorkRave URL: http://www.workrave.org
Download URL: workrave-win32-1.8.3-installer.exe

Still not convinced of having regular breaks? Here is the great single page leaflet from WorkRave with explanation of why one needs regular micro-break while working.

Thanks Rob Caelers for creating this nice utility.

This is one of my favorite utility tools. PowerMenu is the collection of extensions to the window control menu come in really handy when I work with lot of applications at a time. This tool will add more options to windows control menu in addition to standard restore/move/size/minimize/maximize menu items.

Here are the listing of extensions:

Priority > Changes the priority of the window’s parent process
Transparency > Changes the transparency level of the window (Windows 2K/XP only)
Always On Top > Makes the window sit on top of other windows even if it doesn’t have focus.
Minimize To Tray > Remove the window from the task-list and places the window’s on the system tray.

Usually my taskbar always filled with many applications every time. Some of these “always needed” applications like explorer, CVS client, textpad etc. remains open all the time. That results to very cluttered taskbar. So with PowerMenu tool, I can move to applications to system bar and make my taskbar more cleaner and manageable.

Tool Name: PowerMenu
Url: PowerMenu

I have also created a small batch file and placed it into the Startup folder so that I don’t have to run it every time. Batch file contains following command:

PowerMenu.BAT
"E:\Utilities\PowerMenu\PowerMenu.exe" -hideself on

Thanks Thong Nguyen for this handy tool!!

I have found this really cool utility that adds drop-down lists to regular textbox control in virtually any program installed on your computer.
Edit Buddy

Edit Buddy is a small fully configurable program that saves your time and hassle by adding drop-down lists to regular input fields in all programs throughout your system. These lists can remember history of input entered before by user and also can be pre-configured to contain certain set of data.

Picture 1: Regular edit field.

Picture 2: Edit Buddy shows drop-down list.

The sample dialog box above represents “Find” feature of regular Notepad. Edit Buddy can also attach itself to all standard “Open” and “Save” dialog boxes to store the list of most recently used folders and/or files.