New InfoBar Build Available... Gmail Checker Module Included

Posted on 4/6/2008 10:30 PM CDT

A new alpha build of InfoBar has been released. A major change is the inclusion of the Gmail checker module. This new build contains the following changes: InfoBar: Tweaked text rendering. InfoBar: Implemented skinned text in menus. Gmail Checker: Implemented Gmail Checker module. MediaMonkey Remote Control: Updated track rating popup menu. Weather Conditions: Improved tooltip layout. Winamp Remote Control: Updated track rating popup menu. Windows Media Player Remote Control: Updated track rating popup menu. Weather Conditions: Fixed a growing width bug. This build can be downloaded on the InfoBar page, or by using Night Iguana Update with the update channel set to "Alpha Releases."

Updated installers and new InfoBar build...

Posted on 2/7/2008 4:20 PM CST

All of the installers have been updated due to a bug where the bundled Night Iguana Update installer would not run. InfoBar has also been updated with a few stability, performance, and rendering tweaks.

New Versions of all Night Iguana Products

Posted on 2/4/2008 4:03 AM CST

New versions of all Night Iguana products are available. InfoBar, NeoCleaner and NeoPaper all have been updated to make use of a new updater that has been completely written. Night Iguana Update 2.0 is stable, but not all features are complete. In the following weeks all of the NIU functionality will be completed and tested. Because of the way that products "register" themselves for updates, the only way to get these new versions is by using the installers located in the software section. The old updater is no longer available, and will give errors. The new updater contains code to safely remove the old updater from product directories.

NightIguana.com 2.0 is almost complete!

Posted on 1/11/2008 3:25 PM CST

Most of the site is complete. The news and web design sections are complete. The software section is still being worked on, and will allow people to also post their own plugins for software that supports them. Night Iguana Update will also be brought to version 2.0, containing support for scheduling and finer control over what files can be updated.

New Version of InfoBar Available

Posted on 1/2/2008 11:00 PM CST

A new version of InfoBar has been released, alpha version 3.0.1.189. This release contains some new features, such as skinning of menus, a Windows Media Player Module, a System Uptime Module, and better support for Windows XP. As usual, please use our bug reporting system to report any bugs you find, or to post any suggestions you have.

InfoBar Public Alpha Now Available.

Posted on 8/26/2007 11:00 PM CDT

InfoBar is now available to the public. Alpha version 3.0.0.8 can now be downloaded. Find out more by clicking the software link, and selecting InfoBar from the list of projects. Please use our bug reporting system to report bugs or suggestions.

Development Updates

Posted on 4/9/2007 11:00 PM CDT

Here's some quick info on what I've been working on… InfoBar is in the process of a re-write. I have the drawing engine working pretty well, and partially implemented the CPU Usage module, the Memory Usage module, and the settings dialog. New features such as Vista blur, Vista theme colors behind skins, responding to DWM message notifications and other such Vista features are implemented, and seem to be working well. The settings dialog now has a little meter that tells how much of the InfoBar's space has been used and what's left (in pixels). Skinning support is implemented only internally for now, but the skin xml schema will be implemented soon and tested. All of the other old modules, including new ways to show them, are in progress. Some new modules may be included as well. Expect the first release in a few months after features are in place, everything is stable and performance is good enough. NeoCleaner development is going strong. The Startup Manager and Uninstall Software portions of the application are really stable so far and perform well. The current task at hand is working on the most important feature, Disk Cleanup. Once DC is stable and performance is up to my standards, I may take NC out of alpha status and release the first beta. Other development points will be worked on later, such as Registry Cleanup, language support (which has been started already but is less important at the moment to be finished completely) and some of the other features such as secure file deletion and the update agent. Wallpaper Manager is seeing less development time at the moment, but I'll get to work on it soon to fix drawing issues and implement the scheduler and some other cool features. Barry's dying to get his multi-monitor support, so that will be worked on soon as well. This is my 3rd favorite app out of the 3 personally, so obviously it is being developed at a slower pace, but shows alot of promise. Expect a beta soon.

NeoCleaner Update

Posted on 3/1/2007 11:00 PM CST

NeoCleaner is coming along nicely, I’ve been doing a lot of work on mainly the Startup Manager and Uninstall Software portions of the application. There will be a new alpha available soon for testing, if anyone would like to do so. Stay tuned as well for information about me setting up a bug tracker for my projects.

NeoCleaner 0.5 Alpha

Posted on 2/6/2007 11:00 PM CST

Changes:

• Project re-launched as a .Net 2.0 application.
• Re-designed user interface, which may change as development progresses.
• Improved Uninstall Software section. (Still in progress.)
• New Disk Cleanup tasks system. Uses XML files to create “tasks” that NeoCleaner can run. Note that the Disk Cleanup section is still not implemented and the XML files are subject to change.
• New icons from Windows Vista.

Known Issues:

• No Update Agent yet.
• Disk Cleanup does not work.

EDIT: This download is no longer available. There will be a new build available soon.

Inside info on Night Iguana software development…

Posted on 1/15/2007 11:00 PM CST

I'm currently working on getting a beta of the new wallpaper manager software I've been working on. It's got some really cool features that make it a lot better than the old version available on my web site. It's also been written from scratch in Visual Basic .NET 2005, the old one was written in VB6. New features include:

• A wallpaper library. This works like Foobar2000's library, but for images. You can store information along with the images in the library, such as the position to place the image in (tile, center or stretch) and what category the image is in.
• Categories. You can now categorize your images to make it easier to find that certain image you're looking for. Categories can be turned off and you'll be back in the classic method of showing all images in the library at once.
• Improved thumbnails. You can now choose the size of the thumbnails used in the library, or just turn them off.
• Improved scheduler. The scheduler will be improved to allow very specific control on when your wallpaper will change. By using check boxes in the category tree, you can even select what images will be included in the changing process. These check boxes also work for the manual change.
• Improved performance. I hope to get performance down to where 10,000 images will be fast to load and display in the library.

A project which has been "rebooted" is NeoCleaner. NeoCleaner is a huge task to develop and maintain, as it manipulates files and registry entries. I have to make sure that everything works well. This application is being re-developed in VB.Net 2005, and the VB6 source code will be finally dumped when it is no longer needed for reference. New features are planned and are being implemented, but all of the old features, some of which were never implemented, will be there. There is no definite release schedule for this rewrite, but look out for beta versions within 6 months. InfoBar in its current form is, as of right now, discontinued. I will re-write it in VB.Net 2005 or later or even possibly XAML.