News about GreatNews http://www.curiostudio.com/blog Sat, 12 Sep 2015 13:40:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.19 Blog upgraded http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/45 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/45#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2015 13:40:24 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/?p=45 It’s a surprisingly smooth upgrade from the ancient 2.0 version. I was fully prepared to blow away everything and import all the data. Fortunately the conversion went through without any problem. Great job, WordPress!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/45/feed 0 GreatNews source code and new development discussion board http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/43 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/43#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:45:42 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/43 The complete source code of GreatNews is now available at GreatNews development board. The source code is released to open source community under GPL license. Hope we will have talent developers joining in to help improving GreatNews!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/43/feed 82 GreatNews goes open source http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/42 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/42#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:46:36 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/42 I have to say I haven’t spent a lot of time on GreatNews lately. Save the usual excuses, the most important thing is how to keep GreatNews updated regularly. I’m considering what’s the best way to release GreatNews source code. Most of the code base are safe to open, but there are small amount of code belong to other people that I have to either ask for permission, or compile into library. I will try to finalize this in the Christmas break. In the mean while, let me know your thoughts!

Thanks for your support of GreatNews. I hope you will continue enjoying it.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/42/feed 143 Happy Niu Year 2009! http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/41 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/41#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:57:20 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/41 2008 is an eventful year for many people, me included. I hope everyone went through it unscathed just like me. 2009 is the year of Ox, which is spelled as ‘Niu’ in Chinese PinYin and pronounced as ‘New’. So it sounds like going to be a really wonderful year. I wish everyone a very happy Niu Year 2009!

Bull

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/41/feed 26 Build 383 confusion http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/40 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/40#comments Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:03:10 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/40 If you are using build 383, and got prompted to get newer version, please download the release version from download page. The nightly debug build of 383 will display upgrade message, while official release build won’t. Sorry for the confusion.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/40/feed 16 Tips on installing Vista on Dell Dimension 9200 / XPS 410 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/39 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/39#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2007 02:21:50 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/39 I’m back from a great vacation! :)

And finally decided to upgrade to Vista on my machine.

Then found it’s not as easy as I thought…

After 2 days of struggle I finally figured out the root cause of the problem:

If you have a Dell Dimension 9200 / XPS 410, and got BSOD “worker_thread_returned_at_bad_irql” during setup, or you worked around the setup problem but your Vista pauses for 15 seconds every 5~10 minutes, here is how to fix it:

Open your dell machine case, check where the DVD/Burner are connected. Most likely you will find SATA0 is connected to the only hard disk, and SATA1/2 is connected to DVD/Burner. Disconnect DVD/Burner and reconnect to SATA4/5. Mission accomplished!

It seems Vista’s RAID driver has a hard time to figure out a DVD driver is very different from a hard disk…

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/39/feed 11 Out for vacation http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/38 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/38#comments Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:33:22 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/38 I’m heading out for a vacation for several weeks. I will turn off comments at this blog temporarily to prevent spams.

Have fun everybody!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/38/feed 15 Site Migration Completed http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/37 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/37#comments Tue, 08 May 2007 01:54:33 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/37 Over the weekend, GreatNews website has been migrated to a new hosting company with much greater bandwidth and storage. Hopefully this will address download problems some users reported. Here are top level domains collected at the new server. If you still see the “Moving Website” message at the front page, you are still accessing the old site. The DNS change can take 2~3 days to propagate.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/37/feed 11 GreatNews tutorial in Chinese http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/36 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/36#comments Sat, 05 May 2007 16:26:03 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/36 Here’s the most detailed GreatNews tutorial I have seen on the web. Thank you! :)

GreatNews tutorial

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/36/feed 11 GreatNews build 382 – silent update http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/35 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/35#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:23:51 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/35 Some users found a serious bug in build 381. If an article is updated, GreatNews will update unread count but fail to save updated content. This bug was fixed in build 382. Thanks everyone who helped!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/35/feed 7 Happy Chinese New Year! http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/34 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/34#comments Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:45:16 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/34 It is the year of the Pig. Good luck, good fortune, and much happiness throughout the year!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/34/feed 8 Build 376 update http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/32 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/32#comments Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:51:39 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/32 I uploaded a new build 376 to address display style issues reported with the original build. Besides updated style files, this new build added a hidden flag. If you put the following lines into greatnews.ini:

[Advanced]
LegacyBrowser=Y

All existing user styles should be displayed correctly. But then GreatNews will not utilize the new IE7 features.

The updated style files can also be downloaded here.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/32/feed 27 GreatNews build 376 display problems http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/31 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/31#comments Fri, 01 Dec 2006 02:30:32 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/31 Since IE7 is now included in Windows update, Build 376 switched html DOCTYPE to support new IE7 css features. Consequently some old display styles are broken. If you see overstrikes over text, please check if you are using “Default” display style. This style was replaced by “Simple” a while ago. Please select “Simple”, then delete Default.css from GreatNews Media directory.

I’m working on a fix to display styles and will release this weekend. If you have other issues like font size is too small, you can try download a copy here .

In the mean time, please check out user-supplied styles at GreatNews Style board . Some of them are even better than the built-in ones.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/31/feed 18 Video tutorial http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/30 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/30#comments Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:13:33 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/30 Rich Hoeg made 2 video tutorials on how to use GreatNews. They aim at beginners but are very professionally done. I found myself watching the whole video over.

Thanks Rich!

Update: Rich made another tutorial on “Create a RSS Feed Using Google Blog Search and GreatNews“

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/30/feed 6 GreatNews and Windows Live Writer http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/29 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/29#comments Sun, 03 Sep 2006 17:33:17 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/29 Here is how you can post to Windows Live Writer from GreatNews. Download this plugin and unzip into your GreatNews\Plugins directory, then config a GreatNews BlogThis tool with name LiveWriter.

Now under each articles BlogThis link you can use LiveWriter to post directly to Live Writer. Enjoy!

Update: Windows Live Writer plugin is now included in GreatNews setup/upgrade files. You don’t need to download it separatedly.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/29/feed 12 DiggThis in GreatNews http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/28 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/28#comments Wed, 16 Aug 2006 01:52:51 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/28 Options->Features->Configure Blog Tools 2. Creat a new […]]]> Kyles Cove suggested to add DiggThis to GreatNews. Given the popularity of Digg.com I should have added this feature long time ago. While I’m working on it, you can use the generic BlogThis feature in GreatNews to add DiggThis function. Definitely not optimal, but barely usable.
1. Goto Tools->Options->Features->Configure Blog Tools

2. Creat a new Blog Tool, and name it Digg This. The parameters are shown in the screenshot. The URL field is:
http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=%LINK%&title=%TITLE%&bodytext=%TEXT%

3. Save and close Options dialog.

Now under each article you will see a BlogThis link, click the Digg This menu you will be submitting the article to digg.com!

Thanks Kyles for the suggestion!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/28/feed 13 Creating custom styles for GreatNews http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/26 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/26#comments Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:51:32 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/26 Michael Kizer published an article on how to create custom styles for GreatNews. It’s an excellent read if you want to create your own display style.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/26/feed 4 GreatNews ranked high in Randy’s survey http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/25 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/25#comments Mon, 15 May 2006 22:59:06 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/25 Randy did an excellent analysis on the survey result.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/25/feed 15 Build 368 and GreatNews road map http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/24 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/24#comments Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:32:27 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/24 Despite of usual distraction of spring time Build 368 is out on time! Thanks to the fine folks from Zountry, GreatNews BlogThis tool now supports generic external tools for various tasks. To setup Zountry with GreatNews, please follow these simple steps. There are also many small usability enhancements like marking read/unread directly on reading pane, using quoted keyword in news watch, etc. This version has been released as nightly build for a while. I’m quite confident in its stability.

I spent some time early this month reviewing GreatNews issue tracking database. As you can imagine there are numerous feature requests and bug fixes. To prioritize tasks a little bit, I feel new functions in the following 3 categories should be implemented first:

  1. Prioritize channels both automatically and manually
  2. RSS enclosure(like podcasting) download and management
  3. Offline reading and archiving capacity.

Stay tuned. GreaterNews is coming!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/24/feed 304 GreatNews Language Pack Editor http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/23 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/23#comments Tue, 07 Mar 2006 04:14:32 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/23 I cannot express enough how much I appreciate your efforts in translating GreatNews. So I think at least I can help making language pack update a little bit easier. GreatNews Language Pack Editor is now available. With Build 365 English language pack has been updated to match the latest code.

  • To update a language pack, download build 365, start GreatNewsLngEditor.exe. Use File->Open Left to open gn_eng.ini, then use File->Open Right to open another language pack. The difference will be highlighted. Use Edit->Copy all new entries to right to duplicate new entries to right side.
  • To create a new language pack, make a copy of gn_eng.ini, then translate the copy.

LngEditor

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/23/feed 3 Updated Build 364 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/22 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/22#comments Tue, 07 Mar 2006 03:25:46 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/22 Shortly after Build 364 was published to public beta area, several users reported this build handles certain web links incorrectly when middle clicked on. I have put a new build 364 onto the server. The size of GreatNews.exe in this build is 1,400,832 bytes and was built at 3/3/2006 12:16AM.

If you find GreatNews can’t display some web pages on new tabs, please download and install Build 364 again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/22/feed 11 GreatNews keyboard shortcuts http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/21 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/21#comments Mon, 27 Feb 2006 15:45:36 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/21 Michael Kizer posted a list of GreatNews keybord shortcuts. I thought this might be useful for other users too. Here’s an updated list:

In channel tree:

  • F2 to rename a channel/group/watch/label directly on the tree
  • Ctrl+click to switch channel w/o marking previous one as read

In news list:

  • Ctrl + ENTER to open web page in new tab
  • Shift + ENTER to open web page in external browser
  • Mouse wheel click to open web page in current tab
  • ENTER to open web page in current tab
  • Double click to open article according to settings.

In reading pane:

  • Ctrl+S to save current web page
  • Ctrl+N to open current internet page in default browser
  • Ctrl+F to find text on current page
  • Ctrl+click to open link in new tab
  • Shift+click to open link in external browser
  • Ctrl+PageUp/Down to turn to previous/next page
  • Ctrl+Tab to switch among tabs
  • Ctrl+W / Ctrl+F4 to close a tab
  • SPACE Bar will scroll, goto next page, go to next item etc depending on what you are reading. Scrolling mouse wheel at page bottom or scrolling mouse wheel holding right button works similiarly.

In menus:

  • Ctrl+F – find text on this page
  • Ctrl+H – search news item
  • F3 – search next
  • Ctrl+T – new tab
  • F12 – maximize reading pane
  • F7 – Next unread channel
  • F8 – next unread group

Navigation:

  • Tab/Shift+Tab to navigate among panels
]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/21/feed 8 GreatNews plugin interface http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/20 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/20#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2006 01:24:00 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/20 GreatNews build 362 can use plugins to extend BlogThis funciton. A sample plugin to support w.bloggar is included with default installation. The source code of this sample is available here.

GreatNews plugins are regular windows dlls that export the following two functions:

LPCTSTR GetGreatNewsPluginName();
void BlogThis(LPCTSTR itemXml, LPCTSTR options);

where LPCTSTR itemXml is the news item and its channel in rss 2.0 format, and LPCTSTR options is the URL parameter set in BlogThis configuration dialog.

Very simple, right?

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/20/feed 10 Tracking comments in GreatNews http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/19 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/19#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2006 03:26:50 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/19 In case you don’t read release notes(I myself usually don’t…), GreatNews build 354 added ability to track comments automatically. If an article has comment feed, GreatNews will show “Track Comments” link like this:

If you click the link, GreatNews will start monitoring the article, and mark it as unread when new comments posted.

This function is enabled for new users by default. If you upgraded from previous version, you can enable it in Tools->Options->Features.

Enjoy!

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/19/feed 7 Upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.0 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/18 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/18#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2006 16:38:25 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/18 Simply one of the smoothest upgrading experience I had. No tricky steps, no surprises, it just worked… Folks at WordPress did an excellent job on this.<

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/18/feed 1 Happy New Year! http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/17 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/17#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2006 05:45:27 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/17 2005 was an eventful year for me. But everything turned out to be pretty good. Looking forward to a great 2006!

I wish you all a happy new year!

(GreatNews users, how about leaving a comment in your native language? I know you are from more than 60 countries! :D)

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/17/feed 75 Greg Duncan comments on GreatNews http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/16 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/16#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2005 01:26:58 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/?p=16 Greg discovered GreatNews a week ago. And he still likes it after a week’s use…

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/16/feed 10 RSS Poll http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/15 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/15#comments Sun, 11 Dec 2005 02:03:56 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/15 Randy Charles Morin over KBCafe is doing a rss usage poll. The numbers more or less confirmed what I always guessed, that a lot of rss users are reading 100+ channels regularly (try that with a plain browser!).

]]> http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/15/feed 6 How to upgrade GreatNews http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/14 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/14#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2005 00:47:06 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/14
  • If you use GreatNewsSetup.exe before, please download the newer GreatNewsSetup.exe and run the setup.
  • If you use GreatNews.zip before, please download the newer GreatNews.zip and unzip to your existing greatnews directory, overwrite existing files when prompted to.

    • Both GreatNewsSetup.exe and GreatNews.zip will keep your subscriptions, and will upgrade them to new data formats automatically if necessary.

    ]]>     http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/14/feed 17     Einstein’s todo list http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/13 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/13#comments Sat, 29 Oct 2005 05:29:31 +0000 http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/?p=13 Highly recommended! 😀

    http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php

    ]]>     http://www.curiostudio.com/blog/13/feed 15