News

Restructuring and New Website - August 31st, 2015
It has been a while since I updated this website. A lot has changed in two years. I am no longer interested in Windows application development, nor contract web development. As a result, I think the time has come for this website - which has stood for 7 years in an almost unchanging state - to be replaced. I am working in embedded hardware and software now, exclusively with Linux. The new website should reflect that. I will remove the ability to download the applications currently on the site, as I feel they should not be used due to their extremely outdated codebase. I have no idea when the new site will be done, however it will be before the end of the year for sure. I want to thank everyone who has used my free applications over the years, and by applications, I pretty much mean Timeout. I never thought that the simple idea I had when I was learning to program (Visual Basic of all things!) would actually have users at all, let alone the hundreds of thousands of you. I never really used it myself, it was all just for the practice and for the community. I stopped because it became too much of a time commitment and I was no longer using Microsoft products, so development was impossible. I am an open source activist, however I'm not releasing the code to any of my applications out of the sheer fact that they are not fit for development in this day and age. The code would need to be completely rewritten, which defeats the point. I am working on some really neat open source and open hardware embedded projects, which I will make public once they are ready.

-Mark Furneaux

Timeout Discontinued - August 12th, 2013
Timeout has been discontinued. Romaco Canada is focusing on hardware and Linux development and is ceasing all Windows application development almost indefinitely. Timeout was our most popular application by far. Being freeware it is impossible to track how many users are out there but we estimate that it has been downloaded over 200,000 times since its introduction. It is no longer feasible for us to keep Timeout up-to-date. Many of Timeout's features are available in newer versions of Windows and other free applications. Timeout will no longer receive updates or support outside what is currently available online. We are not considering releasing the source code at the moment. Being a security application, releasing the code would result in many exploits. If we get a team who can take over the code we will consider releasing it. Timeout will remain downloadable from this website for the foreseeable future.

Timeout 3.1.4 Fixes Auto-Start Bug - December 30th, 2012
As many have pointed out, our attempt to fix the bug where Timeout was not automatically starting on some installations ended up breaking the code for every installation due to a code typo. We have corrected the issue and thus released version 3.1.4. Due to our recent upgrade to Visual Studio 2012 as our IDE, we had to hastily create a new installer using the InstallShield system as our old code is no longer supported. If there are any new bugs in the installer, we would greatly appreciate your feedback.

Timeout 3.1.3 is Ready for Download - December 15th, 2012
Version 3.1.3 addresses two serious bugs; the ability to circumvent the shutdown or logoff actions, as well as a fix for the auto-start feature not kicking in on certain installations. Head over to the Timeout page to grab a copy.

Timeout 3.1.3 On The Way - December 11th, 2012
Timeout is getting its first update in over a year. Version 3.1.3, which is due out on Saturday December 15th 2012, addresses two serious bugs; the ability to circumvent the shutdown or logoff actions, as well as a fix for the auto-start feature not kicking in on certain installations. Check out the ChangeLog for more info.

Datacentre Switch - March 16th, 2012
Due to some changes at our company, we have had to temporarily shut down our datacentre. We have recently moved our websites to another web host. This will only be temporary and we hope to get our datacentre back up and running within the next year. If you notice any new errors on the website, please let us know by contacting us.

Timeout 3.1.1 is Here! - September 25th, 2011
It's been over a month since the last update, and we thought that we'd better get moving. 3.1.1 fixes many critical bugs and addresses the most sought after feature in Timeout's history: the ability to vary the quota depending on the weekday. Check out the ChangeLog for more info, and visit the Timeout page to grab a copy.

Timeout 3.1.1 moving along - September 23rd, 2011
We have been busy working on implementing the most requested feature in Timeout's history. We have implemented the variable quota depending on weekday feature in the 3.1.1.0 Beta 1 release, which is available now. We have also fixed the 'random crash' issue that some people were experiencing.

Romaco Canada on Facebook - August 23rd, 2011
We will soon begin to notify people of software updates via Facebook. If you use a Romaco Canada product, like us on Facebook. The link is available on the About page.

Romaco Timeout 3.1 is Here! - August 23rd, 2011
You asked, and we listened. Timeout 3.1 is here with a host of new features and minor improvements. Get it now on the Timeout page, and read about the changes on the ChangeLog.

Timeout 'Error 1001' Fixed - August 9th, 2011
We have found the problem causing many people to not be able to install Timeout. We have corrected the problem, and all those who were affected should now be able to install Timeout as of version 3.0.0.3.

Romaco Timeout 3.0 is Here! - August 1st, 2011
After almost a year in planning, Timeout 3.0 is finally available for download. This marks a new chapter in this company's evolution, and to mark this important release, we have built a brand new website to go along with it. Not only that, but we are now offering our web development services to the public. You can find out more on the Timeout and Web Development pages.

Romaco Timeout 3.0 Feature List - July 23rd, 2011
Timeout 3.0 is well into development and we hope to have an alpha preview release by mid August. Here is the official feature list:

Romaco Timeout 3.0 On Its Way - July 7th, 2011
Timeout 3.0 is currently in development and is scheduled for release in early September. Some new features that can be expected are the ability to combine modules, an entirely new interface, website blocking, an improved session time limit function, Windows 7 integration and more. We hope to release screenshots of the interface, and a full feature list within the next few weeks.

Romaco LightSwitch Missing
Much to our horrification, the source code for LightSwitch has been lost, possibly forever! We have searched all of our servers and backups, but they have all come up empty. Since our intentions were to simply finish the project, we will not be starting it from scratch again anytime soon. We apologize to anyone wanting the application.

Website Bugs Fixed
We have been tediously updating and changing the structure of our website in order to support Internet Explorer 9, and to fix many problems with JavaScript errors. If you find any regression bugs, please let us know.

Romaco LightSwitch Coming Mid-March
Romaco LightSwitch, our latest brand-new application is set for launch in the middle of March. This initial testing release was delayed from December, and we apologise for the bump in the schedule.

Romaco Timeout Version 3.0 - Set For Summer Release
Due to the way the 2.x.x versions of Timeout were programmed, they are not easily upgradable and do not have a long life expectancy. This summer, Timeout will be rebuilt from the ground up. It is likely that 2.2.2 Alpha 1 will never become the stable release, and we will skip directly to version 3.0. Version 3.0 will have a whole host of new features, including the ability to combine all restriction modes. All feature suggestions recieved before June will be considered for inclusion in version 3.0.

Romaco Canada Releases Product-Sum Finder
Product-Sum Finder is a free online webapp that allows you to find the terms necessary to factor a trinomial.

Romaco Canada is Working On New Application
It has been a long time since Romaco Canada has released a totally new application - over a year.
Our latest creation (which we hope to have available for testing before Christmas) has been dubbed Romaco LightSwitch. We aren't giving out any more details at this time, so you'll just have to wait and see!

Romaco Timeout Turns One!
No one here at Romaco Canada really knows when the first version of Timeout was built, but the oldest version we have is 1.1.6 Beta, which is dated to September 5th, 2009.
Click here to see what 1.1.6 looked like!

Romaco Canada's Website has a new look!
We are proud to showcase a much more professional looking site.

Contact and bug report forms have been fixed.
There was a minor bug which made it impossible to send messages or bug reports. The forms used to always say that there was an empty field. This problem has been corrected. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Romaco Canada has a new website!
Since 2008, Romaco Canada's website has been hosted on Google Sites. While we loved their speed and reliability, the lack of support for anything other than their templates prompted Romaco to find another host, and build a new website. It unfortunately took 2 years before anything got started, but the new site is finally up.
This new website features the power of PHP and MySQL, which make it much easier to use, and much more capable.