According to Dictionary.com, one meaning for col-o-phon is: 'an inscription placed usually at the end of a book, giving facts about its publication'. While my site is *constantly* in a state of change, this is the closest it's even been to being 'done' so I decided it was time to sit down and write my colophon.

About shrum.net

I'm a strong believer in free and open-source software. For this reason, most of the tools that I use to create and run this site (and other sites I administer) are open-source and free. There are *some* exceptions to the 'free' philosophy, but they're few (and totally worth the price). In an effort to help bolster the open-source movement, I try to act as a mini-file mirror for these free software packages by hosting them for download on my site as well.

For your consideration, I've listed below (along with links to) the applications that I use on a almost daily basis.  As I find (or create my own) new utilities that assist me with my day-to-day routines, I will update this page with them.  Enjoy!

Backup (offsite)

WinZip :: Starting with WinZip PRO v.10, they have added a nice option of creating scheduled backups and handling FTP transfers of those files (no support for split archives). WinZip also allows for any type of backup: full, incremental, and differential as well as handles file inclusion/exclusion lists and wildcards. Now that the PRO version offers built-in archive scheduling, WinZip is practically a full blown backup app (instead of just a compression GUI). Not bad for the $50 they ask for it. Note that these features are ONLY IN THE PRO version starting with v.10.

Backup (onsite)

WinZip :: Once again, same reasons stated above.

Batch file renaming

Renamer :: Just one of my own home-grown renaming utilities. Great for quickie renaming which works for me when dealing with hundreds of video and photo files and mine is open-source and free. On the pay-side, once freeware but now shareware, Flash Renamer works great for handling more complex renaming processes quickly.

Batch image manipulation (command line)

Imagemagick :: If you work with large quantities of graphic files, then you already know about Imagemagick. Imagemagick is a (free) open-source project that has created a number of command-line driven tools for various platforms to do TONS of image manipulation ('morgrify' is my current favorite). While being great command line tools, they tie into to just about every popular programming language and OS available. My commonly used syntax reference file is here.

Batch image manipulation (GUI)

IrfanView :: While this is more of a freeware image viewing tool, it has a great batch conversion screen that works on just about any image format including ICO files and even allows for batch file renaming, resizing, and much more.

Compression utility (GUI)

WinZip :: WinZip has been around for quite some time but what makes this application great is the fact that they have a command line interface to it. Granted, for true automation , you need to own a registered version of the app but that's reasonable. V10 now supports zip scheduling and FTP transfer which makes this perfect for doing off-site system data backups; kind of like I was doing with my Backup script but not free and without having to install PHP ;-).

7-Zip :: The new kid on the compression block.  This is a GUI/command line tool that is free and open-source. I've started to use this more often in an effort to break myself of commercialized s/w.

Content Distribution System (CDS)

CATS :: Dah! I wrote the thing myself from scratch, use it for every website I'm mastering, and offer it free as open source to everyone. This content system is not a CMS in the strictest sense of the acronym...it's more of what I refer to as a content *distribution* system; or CDS for short. If you want to know more about this on a technical level, take a look at the primer. If you want to know how to install it, look at the step-by-step instructions.

Data scrubbing

Notepad :: Ever get a prospective clients website in Microsoft Word format? :-p For all intensive purposes, the Microsoft Notepad works great for stripping all the bloated and needless RTF formatting. Besides, Notepad comes as part of the Windows OS.

Desktop environment

Windows :: Honestly, I could work under any environment: Windows, Macintosh, Linux...and I have in the past. I owe allegiance to no OS. It's just...well...corporate America is still driven by the tools sold by the one they simply call, 'Bill' (well..."Bob' now).

Fedora Linux :: Since my website is running on Fedora (at least the last time I checked), I have a second machine here with Red Hat's Fedora OS (for testing purposes).

Disk(ette) / ISO imaging

WinImage :: A great tool for creating disk images. More importantly (as far as I'm concerned) is it's ability to create self-extracting archives that write back to floppies. This is also good for creating boot disk images that you want to archive to a hard drive. Also supports ISO reads / writes.

Font previewing

FontHit Font Tools :: This font viewer not only is free, but it lets you preview both installed and (most importantly for me) *not installed* fonts (I download a lot of fonts from fontfreak.com and 1001fonts.com and store them in a font archive folder on my NAS). It also allows you to define the preview text, size, and attributes. Works great for picking out the right font for whatever project your working on.  Unfortunately, as I have come to find out, it doesn't work under Vista. :-(

FTP client (command line)

NcFTP :: While the Microsoft FTP command line program is fine for most stuff, one thing it doesn't handle is *automated*, *wildcard-based* file uploads; it sits there and prompts for each file to MPUT. NcFTP has a couple command line programs (my favorite being ncftpput.exe) that takes off where the Microsoft left off. Only downside is that the program is extremely picky about the order in which arguments are passed but otherwise a great, free utility.

FTP client (GUI)

SmartFTP :: Free for non-commercial and educational use, SmartFTP is a great FTP client that has lots of features however it's batch scripting blows (see below for a command line suggestion). If you want CuteFTP but don't want to shell out the cash, get this.

WinSCP :: With the move to 'secure' protocols such as secure FTP or SFTP (SSH FTP) and SCP (Secure CoPy), WinSCP is a must.

Graphic editing

Photoshop :: While extremely expensive ($649 at Adobe's website), I, at one point or another used Adobe Photoshop, and life was good.  This is still the editor of choice if your doing graphic editing or publishing professionally BUT only if you do graphic editing or publishing professionally.  Otherwise...

Paint Shop Pro :: After using Photoshop and getting lost in all the features and technical aspects of it, I discovered Paint Shop Pro (PSP used to be owned by Jasc back in the day before Corel bought them).  While being considerably cheaper in price (around $80, I picked mine up for $10 from Frys after rebates), it's aimed more at the recreational graphic editor.  It does pretty much everything that I was doing in Photoshop PLUS (last time I checked) it can use Photoshop plug-ins. Paint Shop Pro is one of a few applications that I spend my cash on. After Corel's acquisition of PSP, the focus of PSP has changed from recreational graphic editing to specialized photo editing.

GUI automation

AutoIT Script :: This freeware event-driven utility is an easy way to script the Windows GUI. While it doesn't have a recorder (boo), the macro language is based on Visual Basic and is fairly easy to pick up. Comes with a Window Viewer that tells you window titles, controlID number, etc. as you mouse over them to aid in macro creation. Another big plus is the script-to-exe converter, the fact that it supports UNC pathnames, and its very knowledgeable and active user-supported forum.

HTML editing / template creation

FrontPage :: I've been writing web pages for far, far too long. I started writing HTML by hand (remember 'blink'). Since then, HTML editor apps have come a long way. Other designers that I talk to are surprised when I tell them I do all my template creation in Microsoft FrontPage. Granted, pre-FrontPage 2003 bloated pages with tons of needless tags and had quirky editing processes. However, I have to give props to the FrontPage 2003 team. The current version of FrontPage makes my template creation time almost...fun. There are only 2 applications that I shell out cash for...this is one of them.

HTTPD server

Apache :: We took their land, why not take their name for a HTTPD app? :-D While I've experience with both Microsoft's IIS and Apache, Apache is open-source and free. Therefore, it's my choice for web servers. Not to mention, most web hosts charge extra for IIS since they have to run it on a Windows box (they have to *buy* a licensed copy to run it on). Linux on the other hand works great with the Apache server and web hosts don't tend to charge extra for hosting under Linux (being that it's also open-source and free).

Icon editing

IcoFX :: This editor used to be a pay app until the author turned it into a freebie.  Works very well and is quite small for all the capabilities that are built into it.  I use this app to merge various other icons together.  This also allows for Mac icon conversions.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Crimson Editor :: I've stayed away from the high priced IDEs in favor of freeware applications. As a result, I found Crimson Editor. This freeware IDE is great in that it supports a slew of programming languages that I code in (ADA, Perl, C++, PHP, QuickBasic, AutoIT, etc.) while at the same time supporting HTML and the various SCRIPT write-ups. One of the kewlest features is the ability to edit 'remote' files via FTP (super-great if you do web-base scripting).  Last update was in 2004 but it's still a great editor.

SciTE :: Another freeware editor that can be customized (I use the version customized for AutoIT for my coding). It works just the same as Crimson Editor (minus the FTP part, damn) and I'm beginning to use this more when writing code for my own local boxes.

Interpreted language

ActivePerl :: If you've done web site scripting in the past 5 years, PERL was the dominating language.  ActiveState produced a freeware distribution of Perl called ActivePerl that was being used on many web servers (and still is today)

PHP :: While I started out scripting with ActivePerl (freeware), I'm currently almost 100% PHP (also freeware). PHP's meteoric rise to fame alongside MySQL, along with the fact that PHP is *very closely* related to the Perl programming language, made PHP the primary choice for me...although I've no problem writing scripts in either of the two languages...except when I mistakenly use Perl function calls in my PHP scripts.

AutoIt :: While Perl and PHP are great languages for web development, AutoIT *rocks the socks off* them for general scripting. I use AutoIt for everything nowadays from simple 2-4 liners scripts to full blown GUI'ed programs. AutoIT scripts can even be made into executable files...sweet!  The code is very close to Visual Basic in terms of language and the best part is that AutoIt is totally FREE!

Network boot disk

Brad's Universal TCP/IP Network Boot Disk :: There are actually 3 utilities I use but Brad's just comes out on top since he updates it more (as of this writing, it supports 85 NICS). The other two are Bart's Network Boot disk and the Teledata Network Boot disk. In my own experience, Teledata's boot disk worked well with PCMCIA based NICs like the Xircom whereas Bart's did not. Then again, Bart's boot disk auto-detects NICs where Teledata's does not. I haven't used Brad's disk on a PCMCIA situation as of yet but it works, this disk would be the only one I'd need. At the time of this writing all of these are freeware. Kudos to all 3 sites for putting together such a utility as sharing it with the rest of us monkeys in the tech jungle.

NT password resetting

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor :: Whenever you need to access a system but don't know the administrator password, THIS is the boot disk I use.

PDF creation

CutePDF :: While being free (but not open-source), this is a great choice in the event you need to generate PDF files.  Supports font embedding as well. Works like Acrobat's PDF Writer (in that it creates a printer).  Not as full featured as Acrobat, but hey...it's free!

RDBMS

MySQL :: Not my favorite but something you have to work with if you do any PHP scripting.  MySQL's close tie to PHP is great (and the fact that it's free is even greater). There are other free open-source databases out there like PostgreSQL and even some others (which are faster on queries, slower on inputs), but MySQL is the current dominant leader. The current versions are chock full of SQL-usable functions that let you manipulate recordset data in tons of ways to get the output you want.

SQLite :: My current fav.  This open-source database utility is the fruit of Google's 'Summer of Code'.  It is a single EXE can be used via the command line or access thru its DLL.  I currently use this with AutoIT programs that I write for storing large amounts of data.  It quite fast and is only ~230kb in size.

Remote control

RealVNC :: RealVNC is a open source, standardized remote control software that allows me to control a PC at another location as if I was there. RealVNC is a offshoot of this (along with UltraVNC, TightVNC, etc). I use this at home paired up with Win2VNC which allows me to work on multiple computers at home with 1 keyboard, 1 mouse, and multiple monitors as one continuous desktop :-) Sweeeeeet!

Screen capturing

ScreenCap :: On the freeware side of town, ScreenCap is a AutoIT-based utility I wrote that gives me basic screen capture functionality while allowing me to set a prefix filename, destination, hotkey, and output file type (jpg, gif, bmp, tif, and png).  It works great and, did I mention, is free!

Telnet client (GUI)

PuTTy :: Open-source (and free). This GUI-based interface handles RAW, SSH, RLogin, and Telnet protocols and also allows for a number of options like saved sessions.

About the man behind the curtain

Everything at shrum.net is the work of one person: Sean Shrum (me).  From all the programming and scripting, to graphic design, to page layout, and all the content that fills them.

I currently work as a contractor with various head-hunting organizations and moonlight as a computer consultant for residential, business, and educational clients under my own proprietorship, Shrum Consulting. Outside of these hours, I spend time with my wife and daughter, listen to music, drink mass quantities of carbonated soft drinks (Mr. Pibb whenever my *supplier* smuggles it into the state), build/fly/crash remote control models, write code, and work on other open-source projects.

While contract work is fine, I am always looking for a full-time position within a company that will allow me to remain within Orange County, CA. I have extensive experience with HTTPD servers, scripting, SQL, RDBMS, graphics, browser compatibilities, and desktop support.

My current resume can be found here in the following formats: .xps / .doc / .pdf

Inquiries and reference requests can be made via email to sean@shrum.net or by phone, 714.746.2801 (cell)