Wow. Unexpected. I recently got an email from Softpedia, a prominent freeware directory service, telling me that otak has been tested and certified by their labs to be “100% Clean.” It means that otak “does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors.”

Well, I could have told you that myself.

Anyway, it’s great that it’s recognized as such by an independent party, and such a distinguished party at that. So I’m grateful to the Softpedia team for this award.

Check the statement by Softpedia here, and if you want, you can download otak from the Softpedia site too.

One of the things I’m also doing is cleaning up my otak code and repackaging it… this time to make it a step towards portability. Soon, I’ll make it run from a USB thumbdrive, although my idea is pretty experimental.

I’ve added the ability for you to add yourself to the otak Announcements Mailing List, found in the Releases/Announcements link under Contact/Feedback. Users and the curious may now be able to add themselves to the list, and be updated when I have something to announce.

I have a couple of things yet to add:

1. Closer integration with phpList (what I use to manage the mailing list)
2. Tweak the website colours
3. Do up the main page – it still feels wrong, and I will fix that soon.
4. Add new FAQ entries on USB drive usage, upcoming fixes/enhancements, and using it on multiple PCs (it can’t, btw, unless you do some magic.  I’ll teach you the spell, as it were).

Man, I gotta go sleep.

I’ve finally completed the first phase of the refurbishing otakpim.com. After years of using the previous otakpim.com design (which I coded by hand), I’ve decided to change it. I’m using WordPress as the base, and slowly moving in content that I’ve backed up.

When I embarked on this this morning, I thought I’d be done in half a day, max. It turned out to be a full day, with meals and a couple of hours out shopping in between. I’ve used WordPress previously when I set up my wife’s blog, but I had no idea that when I’m customizing it to my very precise needs that I’d have to invest the time to really study the nuances of the software. Granted, it’s powerful, but it’s also not terribly efficient. Takes a long time to get the simplest edit done, and I have to move back and forth menu items to change the CSS. Maybe when I get a little more experience things will ease up.

I’m glad to say the worst is over.

I’ll be spending the next few days putting in my prior blog entries, warts and all, and will continue to update this site more regularly.

On the otak development front, I’m happy to announce that otak is not completely forgotten, although if I’m honest I’ll admit being distracted with a brand new project. You’ll see nothing there at present, but soon… In any case, I’ve never relied on otak more in my current work, so I will definitely continue to develop it.

As if it’s not enough, I’ve found out a little about the iCalendar standard, which I hope otak will support in the future. Ah, on second thought, maybe after a short list of urgent enhancements first…

Well, at least I’d be surprised if this takes more than a day.

To quote the Californian governor: “I’ll be back.”