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The Bleeding Edge Of Software

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Loading Zone March 2010 • Vol.10 Issue 3 Page(s) 72 in print issue
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The Bleeding Edge Of Software Inside The World Of Betas

Griffith 0.11

Griffith 0.11 Beta
Publisher and URL: Vasco Nunes & Piotr Ozarowski, www.griffith.cc
ETA: Q4 2010
Why You Should Care: Griffith will rein in your movie library once and for all.

Is that disorganized shelf full of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs mocking you every time you look at it? Do you loan out movies and forget who has what after a few months have passed? Do you think that every element of your life would be better through computerization, and the more specific the program, the better? If so, then you’re going to love Griffith. Clearly written by a tortured movie lover, Griffith’s main goal is to organize your movie collection and help you keep track of what you’ve watched, provide you with movie details at your fingertips, and act as a librarian for your loaned discs.

Sure, you could probably do a lot of what Griffith does with a good Excel spreadsheet, but then you’d be manually inputting movie details like a sucker. Griffith can scrape information about movies from one of 20 Web sites, such as Amazon.com and IMDb; just type the movie title, and Griffith grabs the director, year, cast, notes, box art, plot summary, and lots of other information. With this info, you can sort your library by nearly any attribute, any tags you’ve assigned, or even by whether you’ve viewed a particular film. Another module keeps track of who’s borrowing your flicks. Just add people to your list, highlight a movie, click the Loan button, and select someone from the list.

There isn’t much more to Griffith than this, but there are versions for both Linux and Windows. There’s a dedicated user base populating its forums, generally filling in for the absent Help file. Updates are rather rare, but the program is nearly bulletproof-reliable, working with its own built-in database.

We think Griffith is the most well-crafted one-trick pony we’ve seen in some time. Hopefully it will pick up some new tricks in future versions.

by Warren Ernst

What’s Running 3.0 Beta 8

What’s Running 3.0 Beta 8
Publisher and URL: Christer Fahlgren, www.whatsrunning.net
ETA: Q2 2010
Why You Should Care: Keep tabs (with tabs!) on all of your system’s goings-on.

Windows does a good job of hiding certain complexities from users. In fact, sometimes it's too good. The Windows Task Manager can show you what programs and processes are running in the background but basically only shows you the essentials. What’s Running can show you the details and make tracking system changes simple.

What’s Running is a fairly busy window, but it’s trying to show you a lot. The top of the window displays tabs for different categories of “stuff” it can show you, including running processes, services, open modules, IP connections, loaded drivers, your startup programs, and general system info. This isn’t a lot different than a lot of other programs (Microsoft’s own Process Explorer comes to mind), but the additional panes in the main window show more details of the selected item. For example, selecting a program in the Process tab shows three graphs that display real-time CPU usage, memory consumption, and throughput. The Startup tab acts similarly to the Startup tab in Msconfig but has many more options. In addition to simply enabling or disabling startup programs, you can create new entries and edit existing ones. Use the Startup folder or the Run (or RunOnce) Registry key, designate the Windows user names under which programs actually start up, and, of course, specify file names and path names.

Looking at how a system changes over time can be tricky, but the Snapshot feature makes checking differences, well, a snap. Just choose Take Snapshot and save the file. Then, load new programs or do your tests. Choose Compare Snap With Saved Snap. After a moment, a collapsible tree shows all the newly opened or closed programs, TCP/IP connections, and drivers, making debugging easy and tracking down malware much easier.

Version 3 is brand-new and very solid. Its setup program can install What’s Running to a portable flash drive, where it also works fine. Lacking only a Help file, we look forward to its full release.

by Warren Ernst

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