New Project - WebScraper for OSX

I love starting new things. This project uses the Integrity V6 Engine for the crawling which means that I could get right on and build the output functionality.

I noticed that this is something people have been trying to use Scrutiny's search functionality to achieve. Scrutiny will report which pages contain (or don't contain) your term in the text or the entire code. And you can export results to csv and choose columns.

But Scrutiny (currently) can't extract data from particular css classes or ids.

This is where WebScraper comes in. It quickly scan a website, and can output the data (currently) as csv or json. (Anyone want xml?) The output can include various meta data (more choices to be added), the entire content of each page (as text, html or markdown) and can extract parts of the pages (currently a named class or id of divs or spans).

Webscraper is new and in beta. Please use it for free and please get in touch with any requests, bug reports or observations.

http://peacockmedia.software/mac/webscraper/

There's a short demo video here

OSX uses 1000 bytes = 1kb

I've just noticed that OSX is reporting its file sizes using 1000 bytes = 1kb (incorrectly IMHO, 1kb = 1024 bytes which is a nice round number in binary and hex)

Apparently this has been the case since Snow Leopard, never noticed.

Reselling opportunity - Scrutiny for Mac

Scrutiny is a suite of webmaster tools for Mac.

It extends the link checkers Integrity and Integrity Plus, adding SEO / scraping functionality, spelling and grammar checking (in a choice of languages), sitemap visualisation, page speed analysis, site sucking, scanning sites that require authentication, and much more.

Scrutiny retails for a one-off $95, and I believe it is a serious competitor for other tools that are more expensive or have ongoing charges.

It's a native (ie not Java) desktop app (ie not online). You install the app on your Mac, enter the licence key. You own it and it will always work. (There may be fees for upgrades but I've rarely done this and it would be a major new version.) We offer good support and that's free.

If you're interested in re-selling Scrutiny (you offer the product at a discounted price, and keep a generous share of the sale price) then please contact me.

Easy clipboard sharing added to ClipAssist

Clipassist has had a bit of a makeover, it's now easier to manage those standard clips of text and organise them into folders. But it has a much more exciting new feature.

If, like me you like to run more than one mac then you very quickly feel the need to access a snippet of text on a different computer.

There are ways to achieve this, such as creating a text file and saving it to the other computer. As straightforward as that is, it's overkill if you have just an email address, so you type it on the other computer and risk a typo.

Copy and paste (cmd-C and cmd-V) are so fundamental to computing. We do it without thinking.

So why  shouldn't it be simple to just copy on one mac and paste on another? In fact in the past I've attempted to do this without realising I've switched computers.

I've found a way to share your 'copy' with other Macs on the local network, ready to just 'paste' at the other keyboard. Without any messy connecting / logging in.

Simply run ClipAssist v4 or higher on all Macs, set the send/receive preferences as appropriate and you're ready to go.

This applies to anything you copy to the general clipboard, not just within ClipAssist.

10.6 and upwards are supported, in line with our policy of supporting other fans of the beautiful Snow Leopard.

This is all new. You're welcome to download v4 and try it (please let me know how you get on) under the caveat that this is still beta.

http://peacockmedia.software/mac/clipassist/

New theme in Screensleeves

Welcome to the new 'Ambience' theme.

It goes against the idea of a screensaver a little to have a static coloured background (I've been toying with the idea of adding a little 'Ken Burns' to the background, but this would have little benefit if the album cover is fairly homogenous in colour.)

But there is a fade to black and repositioning of the album cover and details every 30 seconds, which existing users will be familiar with. And if you're listening to individual tracks rather than complete albums or audiobooks, then there's no problem as the coloured background will change significantly every few minutes. Plus as now, when the music stops you either get a black screen or random artwork (whichever you choose) so no problem there.

Above all, it just looks so cool. I'm so excited about it and love using it.

[Update] This theme is now available in Screensleeves Pro v5.1.  You can download and use the Pro version without paying, just certain Pro features will be disabled before you obtain a key.