Programming
I’ve decided to split out the Car Locator application into a free and paid versions. The free version will be ad supported. The only functional difference between the two versions is that the freebie is missing the history feature (which basically gives you a chronicle of all your vehicle searches). Why? Simply because a free app always gets a lot more eyeballs. And I am not really making an earth-shaking amount of money with it. Plus I want to do more with the app – thus user feedback is important. Now that Microsoft has announced the Mango version...
I’ve been wanting to a build a robot for a long time. The problem is that I can’t do hardware: when someone says, “well, just drop the electricity down from 5 volts to 3.3”, I am like what??? So when I saw the Robot Kit that can be programmed with a .NET MicroFramework, I knew I had to have it. But I want more than just a disconnected programmable robot. I want one that’s connected to the world. I was inspired by brilliant folks at anybot.com and a belief that I can build one for a fraction of the $15k...
I like the Android OS. There is a foregone conclusion in many circles that it’s the heir apparent to the iPhone OS. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t. But after seeing it at last year’s Google I/O conference, a seed has been planted in my mind that I should develop for it. The barrier to entry for developing Android apps is really low. Basically all the tools are free (SDK, Eclipse). The language is Java, which even c# refugees such as myself can easily pick up in an afternoon. Documentation needs to improve, but other than that any question...
And now for something completely irrelevant and totally out of date. I was cleaning out “My Documents” folder today when I ran into something from another lifetime (like around 2000). A co-worker of mine used to refer to VB6’s Run button as the Play button, among other things. That inspired me to write a Top 10 list (i was a fan of Letterman back then) as to why one shouldn’t be a VB programmer. It will only make sense to you if you coded VB5/6 in the 90’s. In fact, for some of the terms, I had to take...
The other day I saw a really cool and to the point post entitled 8 ways to be a better programmer in 6 minutes.SecretGeek was talking about .NET development, of course, and so am I. I thought I’ll come up with my own list, but focus on efficiency and speed. Anyway, here it goes. Make commenting and uncommenting dead easy. Right on the toolbar, click Customize… Drag Comment Block and Uncomment Block onto the toolbar. Using the ampersand, make shortcut keys, respectively, to be Alt+c and Alt+x. How? Just rename the menu items to &Comment...
Recently I was talking to my relative who works at the American Airlines counter at the airport. He was telling me that the kiosk computers, that are in most airports now, haven't made a dent in how busy the counters are. Bottom line, he says, is that people are afraid of using computers. I have a totally different opinion. Just happened to fly a bit ago and used a kiosk to get a boarding pass. My opinion is that the User Interface is ALL wrong and that is what scares people off. Problem #1. The starting page had...
After a couple of months of putting in an hour here and two there, I've finally ported Subtext to MySQL. Note, that this is NOT an official Subtext release. This post is a digital catharsis of sorts. It's an attempt to "out" some of the knowledge I've gained from the port. And someday, when I forget all about the port, this post might serve as a reference for why I did something that seems dumb. But first things first. While we figure out where the source should reside, here are the downloads. !!! UPDATE - March 30, 2008 !!!...
While Mr. Haacked and company fight emergencies, I've been making some progress with Subtext's MySQL port. So here is what is done so far. All SQL has been converted to MySQL. The effort was actually pretty enormous, considering time constraints. There were 7 installation files full of CREATE TABLE scripts. And then there were 90 stored procedures. Two thirds of stored procs converted with minor tweaking. Some, particularly ones that fetch paged data were greatly simplified, thanks to MySQL LIMIT command. And a few had to be basically rewritten. All in all, good learning experience in MySQL. Compared to the original,...
After reading Scott Hanselman's Developer and Power User Tools List, I took inventory of my system and, surprisingly, found very little overlap. Other than the typical stuff, like SysInternals, of course. My list tends toward the developer productivity tools, the things that makes you lazy and make your life convenient. I actually have a lot more utilities, but these are totally essential, awesome and are in use every day. On to the list. Agent Ransack - the built in windows search is basically next to useless (particularly on Windows XP) when looking for some nugget of text. Agent Ransack makes it...
In the old country, before I came to US in 1988, I never saw a VCR. I vaguely heard of the concept, but never seen it nor knew anyone who had it. Given that I didn't know of a VCR, I didn't really have a desire to get one. The reason I mention this, is because I spent most of my professional and hobby programming life in the Microsoft world and have been more or less oblivious to advances in parallel universes like MySQL or Linux or Mac or whatever. As I've been porting Subtext to MySQL, it's...
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