1.0 Readme

System Requirements

OS X 10.3 + Java 1.4

Using Laughing Man Effectively

With the release of Laughing Man 0.7 comes several features that you can use to make browsing the sites you check regularly more effective.

The first new feature is the ability to open links in the background (focus of laughing man is not lost, and the link opens in Safari). This allows you to open all the changed bookmarks you are interested, then close laughing man, jump to your browser and look at what's new.

The second new feature is that the "Space" bar now cycles to the next changed site. This allows you to quickly jump to the next changed site without searching manually for it.

So the steps to use Laughing Man effectively are as follows...

1. Mark the preferences checkbox "Open links in background"
2. Load up the application and start a refresh, go for a coffee or walk the dog until it is done
3. Cycle through the changed sites with the "Space" bar
4. Hit the right arrow key to open the site in Safari
5. Repeat 3 and 4 until desired consistency is attained

Frequenty Asked Questions

1. I would like more options in frequency to check. How can I check a site every 30 minutes?

The minimum frequency to check is intentionally no smaller than a day. The source code is available if you want to check more often. My reasons for having the smallest frequency as 24 hours are as follows:

• To avoid swamping web servers
• You may be using the wrong tool (i.e. Slashdot and other news sites provide RSS feeds)
• Avoidance of contribution to internet addiction, this tool is supposed to save you time; time to walk dogs and read books.

2. Where does LaughingMan store it's data?

In hidden file in your home directory called ".laughingManEncodeBean.xml". You'll have to use the terminal and the ls -a command to see it. You are encouraged to do a backup when upgrading.

3. The program crashed; what can I do to help?

4. I don't understand the hash code in Laughing Man. Does it change when the site content changes, or what?

You may have noticed that the hash code is in the drawer and falls under the category of ugly details, you are asking about the ugly details so don't be surprised if the answer ain't purdy.

Short answer: Yes the hash code will change when the site changes, hash codes are used when lastmodified dates are not available. You should not see a site that has a hash code and a lastmodified date.

Technical answer: Some, but not all, webservers provide the date when an html page last changed. When it's available the last modified date is used to determine a change. For those interested read rfc2616

So what the heck are these hash codes? Since Laughing Man does not store the contents of the page (though it may in the future), if we don't have a lastmodified date to work with we have to do something. So we run the contents through a function that returns a user unfriendly number and if that changes we assume that something has changed. The function simply takes each line of the document, represented as a String and sums their hashcodes, ignoring integer rollover.

5. I'm a pseudo-uber-coder, where's the beef?

The beef is in LookupDataSource.java, in particular the methods checkSite, and getHashNumber. Everything else is simply api robustness and user interface fluff.

Request for Testimonials

Has Laughing Man changed your life? If so please send your testimonial to particularistEleven@Gmail.com. Testimonials that are written in mockery of movie and book reviews are preferred.