Software review – Wiki in a jar

A nice tool for all who want to carry their knowledge around ist wiki in a jar. This little peace of software is quite amazing, it is a nearly fully blown wiki you can use to organize your thoughts immediately and keep it carrying around. The package you download is a zip file download here at a size of approximately 120KB of size. To keep the wiki mobile, all you have to do is check out a memorystick and unzip the content of the zip file there. A new folder named wiki.in.a.jar will be created. The content of the folder look like this:

Within the bin/ folder you find two binaries: start.cmd for windows and start.sh for linux/unix/osx (osx I have not tested).

If you execute the binary wiki in a jar starts a small webserver on port:3003 where you wiki can be accesses.

From there you can start to edit your wiki entries. The application provides a Wiki Formatting Demo page which you should contact frequently until you have recent knowledge abou the syntax which is not very different from other Wiki’s like TWiki or Moin Moin.

You should be aware of having the wiki structured at your own or organizational needs to be useable. Use the tagging inside a page to make the pages searchable with the built in search functionality.

You can also allow external access to your local wiki using the admin page link on the home tab.

So far I am using this beautiful small software to have my important knowledge always nearby. Use a memorystick like described below, add information, add structure for your everyday use, unplug the stick, go home plug it again and have it all at hand

Cams Ahoi for the iPhone

My first application review (sooo excited ).

Yesterday I tumbled over this application which provides us with the aid of detecting all the nasty speed boxes on our way into our cubicles around the world. I was a little sceptical that the application would properly work in “Austria” – where the f*** is Austria, but I was surprised in a positive way because the software detected all stationary boxes on a test drive through a not very well known small city in Austria called Mödling. The user interface is intuitive like most iPhone applications are:

1. the top most part tells you how strong the gps signal ist, on the right side when actualizing a cursor is running
2. the car inside the “green ball” signals that there are no cameras within the user devined range (the range is a circle in meters around your gps signal). The “green ball” changes to a speed box symbol if one is near. If you have turned on signals you will be notfied with different signals.
3. the blue bar below the car signal tells you how far away the next box is.
4. the circle section below the blue bar signals the type of speed box (traffic light, stationary or mobile) and the speed limit you have to obey for not getting fined.
5. right below this the street where the speed measurement takes place is listed.

If you tap on the info icon in the right bottom corner you will come to the settings pane:

This preferences do not have to be explained at all I think. What I suggest is, that you configure the alert distance within cities or villages to 100-300m and outside to 500m so you don’t get too much warnings when you are in town and you can have a break the right way on the highways.

The date Cams Ahoy is using come from the scdb, this is the european speedcamera database. So if want to have more  detailed information on the scdb visit their homepage.

An additional comment maybe placed here, the energy consumption of the application is quite enormous due to high gps activity in combination with the display on all the time, so be aware that 1 hour driving with this can empty you iPhones battery. You will have to purchase a carcharger too if you want to use it on long distance trips. This one made some good tests.

The price for me is perfect. Nice application using good data. Go on like that guys.