Post subject: Two weeks? How about 24 hours! Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 7:42 pm	I thought I had two weeks to test this product. 24 hours after downloading, the product indicates that my trial period is over. What can I do to test this product?
Post subject: 24 Hours? Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 10:36 pm	That's not how it's supposed to work, can you please check your "Console.app" log to see if there are any error messages related to Anthracite? I'll be glad to follow-up by e-mail, but I can also say publicly that I'm sorry this happened to you and I'd like to know why. Most users seem to get the full two week trial, so there must be a bug, and I'll hope to be able to get it fixed asap. Thanks for letting us know about this problem! Joe Joe Pezzillo, Metafy LLC joe@metafy.com
Post subject: One other thought on timeout... Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 10:42 pm	Which version of the software are you using? Either from the Splash Screen or "Get Info" in the Finder. Versions older than a certain release will time out, all users are encouraged to use the latest version, currently 1.0.7 Thanks! Joe
Post subject: Received your e-mail response, and promptly, too....Thanks Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2004 12:28 am	Thanks, Joe, for your quick follow-up. I have responded to your mail. I know many of these problems are user errors, so I look forward to working with you to examine this software for our use at Penn State. Best regards.
Post subject: UNIX Commands (?) Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:54 pm	I'm curious to know if anyone is using the UNIX Command objects. I spent some time awhile back working to try and perfect it (you can find my posts to the Cocoa-dev list on the internet from last year), I tested the heck out of it once I thought it was stable and have been using it in various forms for months with great success. However, I've been noticing today while pre-release testing M109 that it's not working as well now as it had been, where sometimes you have to run the process more than once to get usable output (ie, the first time it runs it produces no output, the second might work fine, third could go either way, etc.) I've got three different OS X versions to try it on, and I don't see any consistency to the results. Please let me know if you have any problems with it, and if so, please let me know if there are any messages in the Console or Log Window that appear to be relevant. In the meantime, I'll continue to dig into it and hope to have it back in tip top shape ASAP! Thank you, Joe
Post subject: Good Sources of Test Data Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 5:10 pm	There are a variety of sources for test data that you can play with if you don't have something of your own. PLEASE NOTE: Anthracite is intended only for use with material for which you have the proper rights. The materials listed here are all public domain resources. Please consult an attorney if you are unclear about your rights to use any material. Project Gutenberg
Post subject: license expired Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 4:59 pm	I downloaded Anthracite quite a while back, but I'm just now getting a chance to look at it. However, I can't run the app, as it says my trial has expired. How can I reset the trial so I can peek at your goodies? thanks, cam
Post subject: "Immediate" Trial Expired Issue Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:02 pm	Problem: User downloaded previous Anthracite version for trial period at some point in the past but only used it once, has now downloaded the latest version and it immediately says "Trial Expired" Explanation: The "two-week trial" period is indeed designed to be a continuous two-weeks from the first use of the software. That is, it is expected that the user will try 1.0.x and decide if they wish to purchase the software, when 1.0.y comes out a few months later, it does not "reset" the trial so that the user can get another two-weeks. Solution: If you encounter this problem (as has been reported on this board and via e-mail), please contact us at support@metafy.com and explain your situation and we may provide you with a temporary use key. Otherwise, we hope that users will make the maximum use of their two-week trial period as designed, and then decide that Anthracite is a valuable addition to their software library and purchase a license to help us continue to develop the product. We certainly appreciate every Mac user's interest in our software, so please contact us
Post subject: First impressions Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:38 am	Hi there! I know it may be not too qualified to just have started the trial period and talk about the things you don't like, but those are my first impressions in a workflow. The first thing I do in new applications is to change the toolbar (I prefer "icons only, small size", then I put a flexible width on both ends to have all icons arranged in the middle, take the most important icon - would be "run" in this case - to the left most side)  but I can't in Anthracite Any preview opens in Safari but not in my default browser (OmniWeb)  I can live with that but would like to know if it is by purpose Not that I can't read or write English, but it's not my native tongue  what about localisation? Talking about that: I know I can set the language in a Google search, but is it "DE" or "German" or "Deutsch"? If I can contribute a translation, just let me know, I'd be glad to support such a good application I know Anthracite is a web mining tool - nevertheless, I wish the help was completely integrated, not linked to the Internet, thus searchable From what I have tested so far, it is a really good looking software and excellent to work with and I really enjoy looking forward to using it (and, of course, become a real customer). Regards, Ben
Post subject: Thanks for the First Impressions! Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:20 pm	Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to write up your impressions. (Viele Dank!) I just read Blink, so I'm extra sensitized to first impressions right now! And, you thin-sliced right into a few known software limitations that are still going to take some time for me to catch up on. A few quick answers to the particulars: Toolbar: I'll have to spend some more time working on the toolbar to provide that level of customization, which as of right now means that it will be a little while, since there are a few other somewhat major tasks ahead of it to integrate more Tiger (and other new) functionality. Default Browser: The default browser for preview is going to be a selectable setting in a future version as well, I'm sorry for the inconvenience it causes now. I'll bump that up in priority for a near future release. Localization and Google language support: Localization is another one of those tasks that I'm eager to get underway on, too (ich bin austauschschuler gewesen, und watashi wa nihongo ga warakimasen, or, as I like to say, "no mas verstaenden, capishe?"), and I may very well take you up on your offer to help, but for now, I hope the Unicode support proves useful enough for your immediate needs, and to find out more about the Google language options, check out the Google API Source Object docs page, to save you some clicks, the language code for German is "lang_de"...and the country restrict code is "countryDE"...(yes, those should be a pop-up menu asap) Help: Early versions of the app included the entire documentation tree on the disk image, which nowdays would make it Spotlight searchable, at least...it got too unwieldy and that's when that stopped. The documentation is indeed another one of those areas that needs more time and attention. What I'd really like would to still keep in online, but have it be more like the documentation on PHP.net where there is an easily-indexed set of pages that also include copious user-added commentary and samples. Until then, as we grow and get more customers we're able to spend more on developing the important added components, like a real users manual, that will also help improve what we include with the distribution disk image (and built-in help). Thanks again for your kind words about the program, I hope it helps you improve the productivity and efficiency of your web mining work. If you encounter more issues (and since I know it's not perfect, you probably will), please don't hesitate to post them here or contact me directly. Joe Joe Pezzillo, Founder Metafy LLC
Post subject: Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:03 am	Hi joe, ebenfalls vielen Dank for your answer. It's good to hear those limitations were already known and set on your to do-list, and thanks for reminding me to rtfm more carefully  when I read Google API I just copied my number and skipped the rest of that point in the manual About the help - wouldn't it just make more sense if the link in the menu would directly link to your existing documentation on this site then? And, even more advanced, only link to the Internet if the program has checked for an active connection on start up and else provide some local (somewhat abstracted, shortened) help? That's it for now, I'm going back for some mining. If I happen to stumple upon something, I'll let you know. Regards, Ben P.S.: Blink really sounds worth reading  I shall give it a try.
Post subject: Good Sources of Test Data Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 5:10 pm	There are a variety of sources for test data that you can play with if you don't have something of your own. PLEASE NOTE: Anthracite is intended only for use with material for which you have the proper rights. The materials listed here are all public domain resources. Please consult an attorney if you are unclear about your rights to use any material. Project Gutenberg
Post subject: Others working with MySQL Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 2:04 pm	Experimenting hard here and coming up against some issues with passing values to MySQL. Project 1. I have some templated pages from which I want to extract a variety of data. I want to enter data from each page into a separate record tagged with the URL of the source page. Extracting the data (from multiple pages) works well and I can write to appropriate fields but for some reason I cannot find a way of attaching the source URL (even when "Put source URL..." is selected). If I select single entry (as opposed to multiple) then source URL gets filled but all the data (for all pages) ends up in a single record. Probably something blindingly obvious that I am missing? :-) Project 2. I will want to update my database with new information (from different sources) and would like to extend each record rather than add new ones. The current MySQL interface does not seem to allow updating of existing records. Perhaps this is a feature that could be added to the wants list. Thought this was probably the best place to mention these problems Joe, so that other people get to hear the answers. Loving it! J _________________ Jonathan Briggs the OTHER media www.jonathanbriggs.com
Post subject: MySQL follow-up Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 2:51 pm	[E-mail support might be slighly faster, at least when I'm online, since I'm in e-mail constantly, but may only check the forums a few times a day. The benefit of the forum is exactly as you point out, so that everyone can share the info, and perhaps someday other users may be able to answer faster than we can even! e.g. - we've had more than 50 Apple Consultants Network (ACN) members sign up.] Okay, onto MySQL: Number 1 sounds like a bug, and that would be my fault. I'll have to look into why you wouldn't get the source when in mutliple entry/insert mode. One work-around might be to add a Custom Snippet Report Object and have it simply output __SOURCE__ (that's all-caps SOURCE surrounded by double underscores on both sides). We've been working on a couple other minor fixes and a few new features, I'll hope that this one is easily fixed for 1.2.1 as well. Number 2 is a known limitation of the software, and certainly a feature we're planning on incorporating, although I don't have an ETA on that now. I know that at least one user has simulated this by using a Custom Snippet Report Object to craft a large SQL statement and then run that. I'll try to work up examples of these two work-arounds, sorry that's the state of it. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know about these issues, I truly want to make Anthracite the best possible solution for your web mining needs! Thanks for your support of Anthracite (and your patience)! Joe
Post subject: Version 1.3 Fixes Multiple Insert Source Bug Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 7:41 pm	Just a quick note to let folks know that version 1.3, now available, fixes the "source url missing in multiple insert" bug described above.
Post subject: M106d Testing Notes Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 4:53 pm	Just wanted to take a moment and report on some of the informal testing results for M106d this morning. These tests are performed using just a few of the files that I've been working on for awhile in some cases, and others that are intended to continually push the limits of what can be done. Google API
Post subject: Anthracite Test Suite Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 5:49 am	I've started working on a set of tests for folks to try out a few of, they're still in a rudimentary state, but this will become the "test suite" and I'll create some sample documents to go along with it. For now, links are offered to the relevant reference material (as available). A testing survey will also surface eventually. Anthracite Test Suite: http://www.metafy.com/anthracite/testing/test_suite.html