HazteK Software

I have been doing a lot of web development for work lately, and part of the development was making graphics for buttons and headings and such. The design called for buttons that looked like “glass,” and every time I needed a different color, I had to open my template file, change the colors with Photoshop, and re-save a copy. I decided it would be much simpler to have an application that could do it for me by just dragging color bars around until I found the perfect color. It saves me a lot of time creating new buttons that match all the previous buttons on the same site.

Glass Button Maker Main Interface Screenshot

It is a very simple application that requires little input to generate the desired results. It then allows you export the image as a full image for static buttons or as a simple CSS tile-able graphic that saves on bandwidth and disk space. The buttons on the main page of the HazteK Software site were made using the same technique that is applied within the application, along with some extra CSS to make them look like they are floating over the header. I hope this application will save other people time, or at least give them a starting point for making graphics that seem to be so popular these days.

As always, you can read more about Glass Button Maker through its application page or download it directly from this post.

A new program is available for download on the Applications page. The program is called SMTP Mail Sender. SMTPMS is an application that allows you to send messages without having a full email client installed and configured. If you are interested in using the application, you can get it in the usual ways, either visit the information page for the application, or download it directly from this post.

SMTP Mail Sender requires the .NET 2.0 framework. You can download it from the Dependencies page.

I have a Zune. I don’t like the Zune software. I use Winamp to play all my music on my system. I created some playlists for my Zune that I wanted to also listen to in Winamp. I didn’t want to convert the playlist through Windows media player or perform any of the other cheesey hacks that are commonly used to convert the files. So I bring you… Zune Playlist Converter. Another original application by HazteK Software. For more information and a download, you can visit the information page, or you can download the application directly via this link: ZPL2M3U.zip. Zune Playlist Converter can convert a ZPL file into either a M3U file or PLS file, both of which are compatible with Winamp, along with many other players.

And here is a screenshot:

Note: This application has been updated since this original post. It originally could only create m3u playlists, but can now create pls files as well. The new version is 1.0.0.2.

I just recently started using StarDock’s ObjectDock application in Windows XP. I couldn’t find an easy way to launch the “Run” command from the object bar, so I decided to write my own application that mimicked this feature. It is a very simple application, with very limited use. It is basically for people who don’t know the Windows+R command or have those hot keys disabled on their system. It functions identically to the Windows “Run” command.

If you feel that this might be of some use to you, feel free to download it from the RunWidget information page or directly from this post.

Update: Version 0.0.2.0 is already available. I fixed a pretty significant problem with handling arguments and “quoted” paths like “C:\Program Files\StorURL\storurl.exe”. It should be fine now, and is downloadable from the exact same place. Sorry for anyone who ran into this problem before I fixed it.

While re-writing TrueIP to include more features, it occurred to me that it would be nice to be able to access a webpage containing a list of all my computers with dynamic IP addresses. With this application, it would be easy to log into the site from anywhere in the world and view the listing. So I built a new online application called TrueIP Online. It is in a very early beta stage, but the current features are fully implemented. If you have the need to track one or more dynamic IP addresses remotely, then TrueIP Online will probably help you tremendously. Go ahead and register and try it out with the new TrueIP desktop client. If you have any comments or questions, please send them via the contact page or leave the comment on this blog posting.