I hate the format of the AI class. The guy said its difficult so if you get a question wrong you can look at the explanation to the question. The dude waffles on with a complicated explanation of something or other and then the solution, which might be nice to look at and let sink in for a couple of seconds disappears at the same moment that his last pen stroke ends.
Perhaps if these guys applied some of their own intelligence principles to the presentation it'd be less frustrating and more educational and interesting!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Windows Homegroup Sharing
It's not often I get absolutely fuming mad with an application or some aspect of my IT setup but if anything is guaranteed to drive me to total flip-out mode its that ridiculous heap of steaming DUNG called Windows Homegroups.
I have a large house. It has four staircases to go up and down, there are computers in the bedrooms, in the workshops, installed in the infrastructure of the kitchen, even in the garden. The house is almost 400 square meters of floor space and the furthest computer in the network is about 50 yards away from the central hub so having one printer or one scanner is a pain. Hence we have the now tamed and subservient HP printer in the main living room, an epson inkjet in my workshop and an epson laser printer in the office.
The trouble is that one can go through all the required steps to erase and re-initialise homegroup membership on all the machines in the place and within a week there is one machine or another that can no longer access a printer or a scanner or connect to the media server. This means that to reinitialise one machine requires an almost complete reset of the whole system and so all the machines in the network.
Windows Homegroup utterly and completely SUCKS!!! In order to make it work, all the machines have to be on the same workgroup, ok, not difficult, and on a familiar network with all the clocks syncronised and then everyone within a one kilometer radius of your house has to put their left index finger in their right ear and stand on one leg in a bucket of icy water before you can print a blasted test page!
Once you comply with all this, one or other machine decides to invent a new network connection which throws the whole lot off kilter and you have to start again.
Microsoft. Get your bloody act together and sort out homegroups! This is for non-technical people to use and its too dammned complicated and unreliable.
I have a large house. It has four staircases to go up and down, there are computers in the bedrooms, in the workshops, installed in the infrastructure of the kitchen, even in the garden. The house is almost 400 square meters of floor space and the furthest computer in the network is about 50 yards away from the central hub so having one printer or one scanner is a pain. Hence we have the now tamed and subservient HP printer in the main living room, an epson inkjet in my workshop and an epson laser printer in the office.
The trouble is that one can go through all the required steps to erase and re-initialise homegroup membership on all the machines in the place and within a week there is one machine or another that can no longer access a printer or a scanner or connect to the media server. This means that to reinitialise one machine requires an almost complete reset of the whole system and so all the machines in the network.
Windows Homegroup utterly and completely SUCKS!!! In order to make it work, all the machines have to be on the same workgroup, ok, not difficult, and on a familiar network with all the clocks syncronised and then everyone within a one kilometer radius of your house has to put their left index finger in their right ear and stand on one leg in a bucket of icy water before you can print a blasted test page!
Once you comply with all this, one or other machine decides to invent a new network connection which throws the whole lot off kilter and you have to start again.
Microsoft. Get your bloody act together and sort out homegroups! This is for non-technical people to use and its too dammned complicated and unreliable.
Baelzebub.com
Check out Baelzebub.com. The Evil Search Engine. Whatever you type in it always finds the most evil or wicked results.
As the internet is made of cats and fluffy bunnies I tried those first..
Its all just good clean fun.
As the internet is made of cats and fluffy bunnies I tried those first..
Its all just good clean fun.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Dennis Ritchie
It seems like this is a bad time for groundbreaking computer pioneers. Maybe its a mark of maturity for the industry that the people that effectively invented our business and the way we use our machines are dying. Dennis Ritchie was a brilliant fellow who literally wrote the book on modern programming. I still have a copy of K&R on my bookshelves, right alongside my copy of Stroustrup's book on C++ and they are both still referenced from time to time..
As someone in his fifties, I've worked in the industry from it's infancy. I went from learning about valve radios and televisions from the context of a TV repair engineer because there were still many vacuum tube TVs in the mid 70's, to designing discrete transistor amplifiers and creating computers with 4004 and 8080 processors.
I guess that we'll see the great names of the computer industry pass away more often now. I really wonder if there are any new names that will create as much change in the future or whether the next generations of those will be like the Zuckerbergs of this world who have merely used the tools of others to create an idea that captures the imagination of a chunk of society. Ok, so he's rich but his fame is a crass celebrity style recognition of the same type as that of someone like Madonna or Lady Gaga. I don't suppose I'll have any copies of Mark Zuckerbergs books on my shelves alongside the others that have had true value for so many years.
As someone in his fifties, I've worked in the industry from it's infancy. I went from learning about valve radios and televisions from the context of a TV repair engineer because there were still many vacuum tube TVs in the mid 70's, to designing discrete transistor amplifiers and creating computers with 4004 and 8080 processors.
I guess that we'll see the great names of the computer industry pass away more often now. I really wonder if there are any new names that will create as much change in the future or whether the next generations of those will be like the Zuckerbergs of this world who have merely used the tools of others to create an idea that captures the imagination of a chunk of society. Ok, so he's rich but his fame is a crass celebrity style recognition of the same type as that of someone like Madonna or Lady Gaga. I don't suppose I'll have any copies of Mark Zuckerbergs books on my shelves alongside the others that have had true value for so many years.
Up!
DSL back on again! Its not fibre optic but at almost 8mbps its waaay better than it was before considering i'm out in the countryside far from the nearest DSLAM.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
AI class at Stanford
I signed up for the Stanford AI class and got notification that the class has started and the first videos are available. Well, this might be so but one would have thought that a proper AI system would be able to see that there are many requests from iPad users and re-encode the video so that flash isn't required.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Steve Jobs
I think that in the history of computing there can only be a handful that have had as much influence as Steve Jobs. I just can't think who they might be at the moment.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Update from the shed...
What’s
going on then? Well, I have returned truly to my roots and I am working on
electronics projects that will be available soon online and possibly in a store
near you.
I began my career as a radio and T.V. engineer fixing things that still had vacuum tubes in. I had to know what a triode valve did and how to do the math to allow me to bias one correctly. Later, I wrote software in assembly language which drove the MIDI equipment I had designed and today, I have come full circle because I am still looking up the functions of TTL and CMOS integrated circuits to complete my designs for electronical gizmos that I am creating.
Lately, I have become aware that the desire for real understanding has surfaced again. We want children to learn Ohm’s law and to be able to actually program the computers that they use. Why? Because if we don’t, the next generation of electronic design engineers will suffer the same fate that this generation’s chemical engineers have suffered. There won’t be enough young people to take over the task of designing and building tomorrow’s iPad or tri-corder or whatever is needed. This is scary. I challenge you to find 10 people that you know and ask them what a spark-plug does. If more than four of them even know that one goes in a car engine I will be surprised. Then ask them where a nand gate is used…
I have begun a series of videos, soon to be released, that show how to make clever stuff with things like Arduino or PIC or Propeller microcontrollers. I have proven to myself that I can program an Arduino using Visual Studio 2010 and that I can use cheap or even free tools to create seriously cool electronics. There is a new move towards comprehending our complicated world and simplifying it in such a way that kids can grow up in it without thinking that they must consume but cannot control. The time for re-understanding has arrived. Be part of it!
As I
mentioned some time ago, the announcement that Google were adopting the Arduino
open-source hardware platform for Android phones smacked me in the forehead
like a well-aimed Cricket bat. I’ve never been a great proponent of open source
but the idea of open source hardware
somehow pushed my buttons (see what I did there?) Anyhoo, hacking, making,
re-purposing and general interest in electronic hardware fiddling has
resurfaced in a big way recently. Even in political circles, a realization that
so many people are consumers of “stuff” and yet not many have the faintest
inkling of how that stuff really works. Eric Schmidt tore the British Government
off a strip for allowing education to bypass technical subjects (and rightly so
Eric!) so now there is a scurry to create classes that teach programming in
schools.
I am about
to don my grandfatherly hat now and say things that I shuddered to hear when my
own grandfather spake them many years ago. He said (and I reiterate) “Young
folks of today have no clue of what it was like in my day, we had to….” and then he went off on a long rant about
bicycles and motorbike engines and how to make a steam engine out of discarded
tin cans. I feel the same way about kids who consume XBox 360 games or Facebook
apps without the slightest understanding of how a computer program functions or
having never had to sit through the annoying whistle of a Sinclair Spectrum
program that one wrote oneself loading via tape-cassette.I began my career as a radio and T.V. engineer fixing things that still had vacuum tubes in. I had to know what a triode valve did and how to do the math to allow me to bias one correctly. Later, I wrote software in assembly language which drove the MIDI equipment I had designed and today, I have come full circle because I am still looking up the functions of TTL and CMOS integrated circuits to complete my designs for electronical gizmos that I am creating.
Lately, I have become aware that the desire for real understanding has surfaced again. We want children to learn Ohm’s law and to be able to actually program the computers that they use. Why? Because if we don’t, the next generation of electronic design engineers will suffer the same fate that this generation’s chemical engineers have suffered. There won’t be enough young people to take over the task of designing and building tomorrow’s iPad or tri-corder or whatever is needed. This is scary. I challenge you to find 10 people that you know and ask them what a spark-plug does. If more than four of them even know that one goes in a car engine I will be surprised. Then ask them where a nand gate is used…
I have begun a series of videos, soon to be released, that show how to make clever stuff with things like Arduino or PIC or Propeller microcontrollers. I have proven to myself that I can program an Arduino using Visual Studio 2010 and that I can use cheap or even free tools to create seriously cool electronics. There is a new move towards comprehending our complicated world and simplifying it in such a way that kids can grow up in it without thinking that they must consume but cannot control. The time for re-understanding has arrived. Be part of it!
Friday, September 16, 2011
The more I use Visual Studio the more I'm impressed by the way it outshines other development systems. The surprising thing is that I use Visual Studio for writing software on all sorts of platforms, not just Microsoft ones.
Currently, I am using VS for writing code to run on Arduino boards thanks to the Visual Micro addin.
Visual Studio can manage makefile projects easily as well as the VS solution files. This means that given the right makefile, one can edit and compile all sorts of code on the same IDE.
Currently, I am using VS for writing code to run on Arduino boards thanks to the Visual Micro addin.
Visual Studio can manage makefile projects easily as well as the VS solution files. This means that given the right makefile, one can edit and compile all sorts of code on the same IDE.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Parallax
I
just took delivery of two PARALLAX P8X32A Quick Start boards. These micro-controller boards have 8 32 bit cores each.
I’m thinking parallel programming of some kind of complicated sensor mechanism.
I’m thinking parallel programming of some kind of complicated sensor mechanism.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Arduinos in the kitchen!
Had a couple of days of pure fun. I have been having a new kitchen fitted and one of the requirements from my wife was a touchscreen PC for recipies and streaming radio built in to the cabinets.
This was duly done with a nice little Asus touch screen running Windows 7.
The PC fits in a frame that hangs nicely in the 600 mm wide cabinet that is really designed to take a built in fridge and behind it there is a lot of unused space. I fitted an electrical socket in there to power the PC and the under-cabinet lighting (All LEDs) and wondered if the PC could be used in some home automation applications too.
I had an Arduino board hanging about and a relay adapter which I have assembled into a big PVC junction box. There are three mains sockets on the side and the arduino can switch mains power to each socket in response to a message sent to the USB port.
I have written a little program on the PC that sends commands to the arduino to turn the sockets on and off so now the lighting in the kitchen is all driven by the touchscreen.
The family are now realising the potential of this and have asked for an alarm clock that will start the coffee machine at 6:50 so that coffee is ready by 7:00 AM.
Wake up and smell the arduino...
This was duly done with a nice little Asus touch screen running Windows 7.
The PC fits in a frame that hangs nicely in the 600 mm wide cabinet that is really designed to take a built in fridge and behind it there is a lot of unused space. I fitted an electrical socket in there to power the PC and the under-cabinet lighting (All LEDs) and wondered if the PC could be used in some home automation applications too.
I had an Arduino board hanging about and a relay adapter which I have assembled into a big PVC junction box. There are three mains sockets on the side and the arduino can switch mains power to each socket in response to a message sent to the USB port.
I have written a little program on the PC that sends commands to the arduino to turn the sockets on and off so now the lighting in the kitchen is all driven by the touchscreen.
The family are now realising the potential of this and have asked for an alarm clock that will start the coffee machine at 6:50 so that coffee is ready by 7:00 AM.
Wake up and smell the arduino...
Sunday, August 07, 2011
So, now I'm impressed.
After a hard day upgrading the Mac I thought I would sit in front of the box for an hour and rewatch an episode of Stargate Universe just for a break. I fire up the PC in the living room and ITunes shows the list of episodes on my library but when I tried to play it; nothing.
Checking on my library, the three pilot episodes have been deleted. I know they were there someplace but in the reorg of my Mac they got trashed.
I'd never actually used Time Machine in earnest before so I was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which the backups were found from a few days ago and restored not to their original positions but to the new directory where I had placed the iTunes library.
Time machine is a brilliant bit of kit!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Checking on my library, the three pilot episodes have been deleted. I know they were there someplace but in the reorg of my Mac they got trashed.
I'd never actually used Time Machine in earnest before so I was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which the backups were found from a few days ago and restored not to their original positions but to the new directory where I had placed the iTunes library.
Time machine is a brilliant bit of kit!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Big Mac Day
Installing Lion and the new version of Monotouch as well as Xcode 4 and such began to push my 80 gig hard-drive that the Mac Mini came with to its limits. Moving my iTunes library off of the main disk helped but still didn't give me that feeling of security that a nice large disk provides. I could have shopped for a terabyte drive but on rooting around "chez moi" I discovered a 2.5 inch SATA drive with 500 gigabyte capacity and thought I might swop out my main hard drive and replace it with that.
I attacked the hardware side of it with confidence having already upgraded the memory in the machine some while ago so apart from my fifty plus year old eyes having trouble with tiny screws (tip, don't get any older) I was ok.
Rebooting the machine was uneventful, inasmuch as nothing happened, but after I plugged the old main drive into a spare external drive case, the machine booted with no problems.
I downloaded Carbon Copy and did a brain dump of the old drive to the new one then rebooted. Two hours start to finish for a Mac Mini hard-disk upgrade including drive cloning was a seriously hassle free experience. Could I have performed the equivalent on a PC in as short a time? I really do wonder.
Thanks to Carbon Copy it definitely went smoothly. My donation is on it's way!
I attacked the hardware side of it with confidence having already upgraded the memory in the machine some while ago so apart from my fifty plus year old eyes having trouble with tiny screws (tip, don't get any older) I was ok.
Rebooting the machine was uneventful, inasmuch as nothing happened, but after I plugged the old main drive into a spare external drive case, the machine booted with no problems.
I downloaded Carbon Copy and did a brain dump of the old drive to the new one then rebooted. Two hours start to finish for a Mac Mini hard-disk upgrade including drive cloning was a seriously hassle free experience. Could I have performed the equivalent on a PC in as short a time? I really do wonder.
Thanks to Carbon Copy it definitely went smoothly. My donation is on it's way!
Stats...
My blog stats seem to indicate a preponderance of traffic from the Russian Federation. One hopes it's programmers and not spam robots or hackers.
MonoDevelop on Lion
I installed OSX-Lion on the Mac at the end of last week and consequently updated all my Mac dev-tools. The latest version of Xcode 4 is far more of an integrated environment than before but unfortunately, the process of UI development for the iPad or iPhone when used in conjunction with MonoDevelop and MonoTouch isn't a clean one.
XCode has changed the way that outlets are connected and have opted for a code modification system that requires an actual Xcode project to be used. MonoDevelop hasn't as yet taken this into account, they are working on it, but this has rendered my ability to develop for the iPad to a very limited state.
I guess I need to concentrate on the C# aspects and wait for MonoDevelop to catch up.
XCode has changed the way that outlets are connected and have opted for a code modification system that requires an actual Xcode project to be used. MonoDevelop hasn't as yet taken this into account, they are working on it, but this has rendered my ability to develop for the iPad to a very limited state.
I guess I need to concentrate on the C# aspects and wait for MonoDevelop to catch up.
Scroll wheels
I am now a fully integrated Mac and PC user. I found however that motor planning plays a part in one's Mac/PC experience because I am constantly annoyed that the Mac scroll wheel works counter intuitively. As a UI designer, the concept of scrolling the mousewheel towards me immediately equates with pulling the scroll-bar down, on a Mac, the process pulls the page down, effectively scrolling up.
When I switch from one system to the other with my handy-dandy TrendNet KVM switch I have a moment of confusion before I get reoriented again.
------------
I reckoned that there must be a setting for this and so there was. On the Mac, the mouse options have a checkbox one can select.
When I switch from one system to the other with my handy-dandy TrendNet KVM switch I have a moment of confusion before I get reoriented again.
------------
I reckoned that there must be a setting for this and so there was. On the Mac, the mouse options have a checkbox one can select.
Friday, August 05, 2011
Back to work...
A couple of hectic weeks away in the Rhone Alps and camping with the family for a few days and I'm back to find my web-site broken and a pile of stuff to do.
OS-X Lion is installing on the Mac Mini as I type and I wil probably be upgrading the hard-disk in that machine to something more suitable for requirements. At least one Terabyte, possibly two if I can find a small drive with a big capacity to go in it. I just put a 1 terabyte external drive on it but have decided to use that for a Time Machine drive.
My site is broken because of what seems to be a problem with the global.asax being denied permission to run. That is still under investigation by the admins at Brinkster.
More later. I have to update all my stuff..
OS-X Lion is installing on the Mac Mini as I type and I wil probably be upgrading the hard-disk in that machine to something more suitable for requirements. At least one Terabyte, possibly two if I can find a small drive with a big capacity to go in it. I just put a 1 terabyte external drive on it but have decided to use that for a Time Machine drive.
My site is broken because of what seems to be a problem with the global.asax being denied permission to run. That is still under investigation by the admins at Brinkster.
More later. I have to update all my stuff..
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Web site broken
The component I put in place to translate HTM requests to ASPX requests on my website is broken,
Unfortunately at this second I am on holiday in the Rhone Alps with limited connectivity and no development system to try fix the site.
All .htm pages were recreated as .aspx pages a while back.
Sorry for the outage.
Unfortunately at this second I am on holiday in the Rhone Alps with limited connectivity and no development system to try fix the site.
All .htm pages were recreated as .aspx pages a while back.
Sorry for the outage.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Mac webcam
Macs are so easy! I just found a Logitech USB web cam and plugget it in to my Mac Mini so I could use FaceTime and...
NOTHING!!
So, ha ha a Mac can't recognize or use something as simple as a USB webcam?
Hmmmmm.
NOTHING!!
So, ha ha a Mac can't recognize or use something as simple as a USB webcam?
Hmmmmm.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Apple OS-X on an intel box?
I have become an Apple fan simply because the stuff they produce is great. I like the iPhone and iPad hardware and I am willing to pay for it. I have however been kind-of blackmailed into buying a Mac Mini box because I wanted to do development work on their platforms. Don't get me wrong. I love the Mac Mini too but despite the fact that it's neat and pretty its really just a well thought out but expensive PC clone with a security chip in it. I could throw away the OS and install Windows on it if I wanted. As I could Linux or even Google Chrome.
So, here's the thing. Apple are still trailing market share behind Microsoft. Why? Not becuse OS-X is bad. It's really quite good. They trail Microsoft because the Apple Mac is a western world toy for rich folks who can afford do drop a couple of hundred bucks or even a couple of thousand bucks extra for a sexy white box, cool design and a pretty white logo that is as technologically useful as the "swoosh" on Nike shoes.
Apple just made a big deal about the low cost of upgrade of their OS to Lion. 29 bucks gets you all the cloud enabled goodness but in spite of the fact that OS-X really is competittion for Microsoft Windows, Especially for the non-professional user, they will never break out of the niche market unless Steve Jobs announces that OS-X Lion or whatever the upcoming iterations will be called can be installed on a cheap box that a family in Bangladesh can afford.
We have an OS-X that can run on Intel hardware. Go the last step Steve. Kill the Trusted Platform Module and see how real compettition will drive an industry that doesn't need to innovate much at the moment.
So, here's the thing. Apple are still trailing market share behind Microsoft. Why? Not becuse OS-X is bad. It's really quite good. They trail Microsoft because the Apple Mac is a western world toy for rich folks who can afford do drop a couple of hundred bucks or even a couple of thousand bucks extra for a sexy white box, cool design and a pretty white logo that is as technologically useful as the "swoosh" on Nike shoes.
Apple just made a big deal about the low cost of upgrade of their OS to Lion. 29 bucks gets you all the cloud enabled goodness but in spite of the fact that OS-X really is competittion for Microsoft Windows, Especially for the non-professional user, they will never break out of the niche market unless Steve Jobs announces that OS-X Lion or whatever the upcoming iterations will be called can be installed on a cheap box that a family in Bangladesh can afford.
We have an OS-X that can run on Intel hardware. Go the last step Steve. Kill the Trusted Platform Module and see how real compettition will drive an industry that doesn't need to innovate much at the moment.
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Pour rend mes ex collegues jalous...
Je me réveille à 9 heures (environ).
Un de mes chers enfants me donne une tasse du thé.
Je prends mon iPad pour lire mes e-mails reçu pendant la nuit, je réponds à quelques une des mails, surtout celle qui m'apporte du business.
Je me levé à 10:30 (environ) et je prends ma douche, un p'tit toast et de la marmelade pour p'tit dej.
Je bosse un petit peut sur mon appli Android just pour me familiariser avec le mode d'utilisation.
Un p’tit facebook pour voir les délires de mon frère ce weekend.
Reconfigurer mon environnement de dev PC et MAC avec un seul clavier, souris et écran
Ecris un appli Android en utilisant VS 2010
Un de mes chers enfants me donne une tasse du thé.
Je prends mon iPad pour lire mes e-mails reçu pendant la nuit, je réponds à quelques une des mails, surtout celle qui m'apporte du business.
Je me levé à 10:30 (environ) et je prends ma douche, un p'tit toast et de la marmelade pour p'tit dej.
Je bosse un petit peut sur mon appli Android just pour me familiariser avec le mode d'utilisation.
Un p’tit facebook pour voir les délires de mon frère ce weekend.
Cette semaine déjà j'ai:
Réparer mon gros onduleur qui est capable d'alimenter mon ordi pendant une heure si nécessaire.Reconfigurer mon environnement de dev PC et MAC avec un seul clavier, souris et écran
Ecris un appli Android en utilisant VS 2010
Aujourd’hui je vais m’installer avec tous mes matériaux dans mon abri de jardin tout climatisée ou je vais bosser et qui est tout près de la piscine si jamais j’ai besoin cet été.
Le seul bruit est le vent ou la pluie ou de temps en temps un coq qui chante (je vais peut-être le manger plus tard si il m'embête plus)
Paris, La Défense, le train, le bruit, les abrutis dans leurs voitures et dans le bus, le "bur" me manque tellement PAS que je ne sache pas comment je peux supporter tout cette calme.
Ha ha ha, bonne journée a tous! 
The best environment for mobile phone development?
I am currently working on an appplication for iPhone and iPad. An application for Android phones and an application for Windows Phone 7.
One might imagine that changing between Objective C to Java to C# and Silverlight languages would be a mental challenge for an old chap like me. One could also assume that having a handle on the various API's that each system requires such that the aforementioned old chap could develop a well architected application on all three platforms would be a bit of a challenge too. The reality however is a bit different.
For all three platforms I use the same development kit, the same programming language and the same familiar set, or subset, of the API's I have been very comfortable with for the last ten years. You see, I use Visual Studio 2010, C# and .Net for everything.
I am able to create between 80 and 90 percent of the code using nonspecialised C# and the rest of the system, intractions with specialised APIs or the various graphics systems required by the different platforms. can be done using the Mono versions, MonoTouch or MonoDroid.
So, the conclusion for me at least is that Visual Studio 2010 is by far the most useful development system no matter what platform I am developing for.
One might imagine that changing between Objective C to Java to C# and Silverlight languages would be a mental challenge for an old chap like me. One could also assume that having a handle on the various API's that each system requires such that the aforementioned old chap could develop a well architected application on all three platforms would be a bit of a challenge too. The reality however is a bit different.
For all three platforms I use the same development kit, the same programming language and the same familiar set, or subset, of the API's I have been very comfortable with for the last ten years. You see, I use Visual Studio 2010, C# and .Net for everything.
I am able to create between 80 and 90 percent of the code using nonspecialised C# and the rest of the system, intractions with specialised APIs or the various graphics systems required by the different platforms. can be done using the Mono versions, MonoTouch or MonoDroid.
So, the conclusion for me at least is that Visual Studio 2010 is by far the most useful development system no matter what platform I am developing for.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Monodroid splash screen
If you're interested in such things I just answered this over on Stack Overflow...
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6560675/monodroid-splash-screen/6588089#6588089
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6560675/monodroid-splash-screen/6588089#6588089
Monday, July 04, 2011
One screen or two?
It seems that the norm for development systems has been a multiple screen approach for a few years. I have currently come to challenge that view thinking that one screen can suffice if the resolution is good and the aspect ratio is wide, say, 16 by 9.
I have a particularly interesting development setup requirement which implies that I use both a PC and a Mac simultaneously. Until a few days ago this implied rolling my chair from one end of the desk to the other and physically switching machines.
I tried a remote desktop approach which was ok but not as responsive as I had hoped due partly to the wireless network. Finally, I found a TrendNet keyboard, mouse and video switcher that seems to have done the trick.
So, my setup which I have begun to develop for Windows Phone 7, android and iPhone / iPad has a wide ratio LG screen, a Mac Mini, a quad core PC, a single keyboard and mouse and removes the need to scoot up and down the office on my wheelie chair to get to the other keyboard. It has the other advantage that my Mac Mini detected the fact that that stylishly White yet, to me, esoteric Apple keyboard, which is unwell since I poured tea into it anyway, has been replaced by a single ergonomic Microsoft 104 key keyboard that I am more used to working on and hence more productive.
My only problem was the fact that the LG screen only has a single audio input so my solution to that was to connect the Mac to the screen and the PC to the line-in of the Mac and to use this free LineIn program to retransmit the PC sound to the screen speakers.
So now, a simple click of the button on the KVM unit switches from Mac to PC and back all on the same keyboard and mouse. An added bonus is that I am now saving the cost of running two other screens which is going to be a bonus when my 100% off-grid power generation system comes on line in the fullness of time.
I have a particularly interesting development setup requirement which implies that I use both a PC and a Mac simultaneously. Until a few days ago this implied rolling my chair from one end of the desk to the other and physically switching machines.
I tried a remote desktop approach which was ok but not as responsive as I had hoped due partly to the wireless network. Finally, I found a TrendNet keyboard, mouse and video switcher that seems to have done the trick.
So, my setup which I have begun to develop for Windows Phone 7, android and iPhone / iPad has a wide ratio LG screen, a Mac Mini, a quad core PC, a single keyboard and mouse and removes the need to scoot up and down the office on my wheelie chair to get to the other keyboard. It has the other advantage that my Mac Mini detected the fact that that stylishly White yet, to me, esoteric Apple keyboard, which is unwell since I poured tea into it anyway, has been replaced by a single ergonomic Microsoft 104 key keyboard that I am more used to working on and hence more productive.
My only problem was the fact that the LG screen only has a single audio input so my solution to that was to connect the Mac to the screen and the PC to the line-in of the Mac and to use this free LineIn program to retransmit the PC sound to the screen speakers.
So now, a simple click of the button on the KVM unit switches from Mac to PC and back all on the same keyboard and mouse. An added bonus is that I am now saving the cost of running two other screens which is going to be a bonus when my 100% off-grid power generation system comes on line in the fullness of time.
Friday, July 01, 2011
FREE AT LAST!
Well, the corporate lifestyle is OK. I admit it's well paid, but for someone who has spent so many years working on my own exiting projects and not worrying about office politics or how further up the ladder one should climb, the strain of working full time in heirarchical companies has taken a toll.
Yesterday was my last day with my last client in Paris. I've had offers of work but I've decided to go back to my roots and begin to create innovative software for many diverse platforms. Working in a more disconnected mode will give me opportunities to be with my family for longer too.
So, even though I will be taking on short consulting contracts and serving the needs of customers when no-one else will do, my role as CTO at Daraize Technologies is taking a more visionary turn and I will be responsible for broadening the scope of their offering by creating some new and useful stuff.
Right now I'm working on ideas with Peter Gabriel blasting out of the stereo!
Bob is back!!
Yesterday was my last day with my last client in Paris. I've had offers of work but I've decided to go back to my roots and begin to create innovative software for many diverse platforms. Working in a more disconnected mode will give me opportunities to be with my family for longer too.
So, even though I will be taking on short consulting contracts and serving the needs of customers when no-one else will do, my role as CTO at Daraize Technologies is taking a more visionary turn and I will be responsible for broadening the scope of their offering by creating some new and useful stuff.
Right now I'm working on ideas with Peter Gabriel blasting out of the stereo!
Bob is back!!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
IPad 2
I am currently ramping up my mobile device development capabilities with accounts in the Apple, Microsoft and Google app stores as well as development kit and new hardware to test on.
Yesterday I finally took the plunge and bought an iPad 2 with which I hope to do a tablet version of the first application I have in mind.
I find it difficult to express the perfection of the experience that Apple provides when one opens the box and the thing you just Paid a small fortune for works perfectly, smoothly and integrates with your life as if you had always had one. Am I gushing? Well, maybe I am. Congratulations to the Apple team and thanks for a joyous experience!
I am mortified to say that my Windows Phone 7 experience has not been so wonderful. If things don't start going right a certain MVP not far from me might be tempted to write unkind things about the company he has supported for so many years.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
DropBox
I don't often do recommendations but I just started using DropBox for online storage. I am really impressed with it and usage is free!
Basically, DropBox gives you an online storage space that synchronises automatically to a folder on any machine you use.
I am currently using it to synchronise files between my Mac and my PC for when I do iPhone and Windows Phone 7 development. I am using Monotouch for the iPhone part and so all the common .Net code gets synchronised via my DropBox.
Check it out here for a free no-strings-attached account !!
Basically, DropBox gives you an online storage space that synchronises automatically to a folder on any machine you use.
I am currently using it to synchronise files between my Mac and my PC for when I do iPhone and Windows Phone 7 development. I am using Monotouch for the iPhone part and so all the common .Net code gets synchronised via my DropBox.
Check it out here for a free no-strings-attached account !!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
3D and Quantum Physics
It is said that Albert Einstien had an advanced spacial awareness and a sense of three dimensions that enabled him to imagine the structure of the universe. He also had the mathematical chops to prove this thought experiments afterwards which certainly helped his credibility.
Extending that idea a bit, and supposing that both matter and antimatter were created in equal measure in the first billionths of a second of the early universe, one could also imagine that the properties of the antimatter were all diametrically opposed to the properties of ordinary matter. The theroretical gravitational carrier particle, the Higgs Boson, would have it's antimatter counterpart and, theoretically, its effects would be reversed.
A common line of thought in physics is that gravity is attractive over short distances and repulsive over large ones. Correspondingly, anti-gravity would be repulsive over short distances and attractive over large ones.
Going back to the idea of three dimensional space then, we could imagine that at the moment of the big bang and for some time after, as the matter and antimatter were near to one another the antimatter would form a sort of shell around the matter. This would repulse to continue to maintain a sort of container around the early universe and the antimatter would all remain on the outside and expand space in front of it as it went.
As the universe aged and the distances became large enough, the antimatter began to attract and so is even now pulling the universe apart in all directions. This would explain both the lack of antimatter and the expanding state of the universe.
Technically, that expansion should continue to acellerate and spread the universe thinly. This accounts for entropic heat death.
As to the rest of the missing universe. the dark matter, it is inside the black holes which are more numerous and larger than was once thought,
Now, if only I could do the math. I might get a Nobel!
I wonder if Stephen Hawking reads my blog?
Extending that idea a bit, and supposing that both matter and antimatter were created in equal measure in the first billionths of a second of the early universe, one could also imagine that the properties of the antimatter were all diametrically opposed to the properties of ordinary matter. The theroretical gravitational carrier particle, the Higgs Boson, would have it's antimatter counterpart and, theoretically, its effects would be reversed.
A common line of thought in physics is that gravity is attractive over short distances and repulsive over large ones. Correspondingly, anti-gravity would be repulsive over short distances and attractive over large ones.
Going back to the idea of three dimensional space then, we could imagine that at the moment of the big bang and for some time after, as the matter and antimatter were near to one another the antimatter would form a sort of shell around the matter. This would repulse to continue to maintain a sort of container around the early universe and the antimatter would all remain on the outside and expand space in front of it as it went.
As the universe aged and the distances became large enough, the antimatter began to attract and so is even now pulling the universe apart in all directions. This would explain both the lack of antimatter and the expanding state of the universe.
Technically, that expansion should continue to acellerate and spread the universe thinly. This accounts for entropic heat death.
As to the rest of the missing universe. the dark matter, it is inside the black holes which are more numerous and larger than was once thought,
Now, if only I could do the math. I might get a Nobel!
I wonder if Stephen Hawking reads my blog?
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Windows Phone 7 keyboard
My experience with Windows Phone 7 continues with some thoughts on the quality of The on-screen keyboard.
Maybe my thumbs have taken on some motor programming thanks to the iPhone keyboard but I find the Microsoft OSK layout to be very hard to use. Fatfingering the wrong character is too easy and the cash register feedback that pops up like whack-a-rat is too lrge and unsubtle enough to make me want to position my finger lower on the key which seems to exascerbate the situation.
Maybe my thumbs have taken on some motor programming thanks to the iPhone keyboard but I find the Microsoft OSK layout to be very hard to use. Fatfingering the wrong character is too easy and the cash register feedback that pops up like whack-a-rat is too lrge and unsubtle enough to make me want to position my finger lower on the key which seems to exascerbate the situation.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Arduino and android, a match made in heaven?
As an electronics designer from aincient times and having been playing with arduino systems for some time I find myself hugely inspired by the news of Google's open hardware accessory initiative based on arduino designs .
I am currently working on two arduino projects. A power control system for an autonomous house and a cruise control for my Land Rover. Sadly project 2 is on hold as the Landis needs a new clutch. The ease of programming and simplicity of the ATMega microcontroller design makes this an almost perfect match for a smart accessory choice.
I was looking for a way to return to my hardware roots and this seems to be an ideal opportunity .
I am currently working on two arduino projects. A power control system for an autonomous house and a cruise control for my Land Rover. Sadly project 2 is on hold as the Landis needs a new clutch. The ease of programming and simplicity of the ATMega microcontroller design makes this an almost perfect match for a smart accessory choice.
I was looking for a way to return to my hardware roots and this seems to be an ideal opportunity .
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Ceres and Vesta better than Mars for a first try.
While the technical achievement of a mission to Mars would be phenomenal, the danger involved in such a mission would be huge in comparison to those that didn't require descent into a deep and unforgiving gravity well.
Mars is also known to be arid and has a poisonous atmosphere so there would be a need to take every ounce of air and water required for the whole trip even if recycling was good..
Furthermore, the explorers of old didn't launch themselves on a journey into the unknown with a high probability of no return without first trying things out in more familiar and friendly local waters.
It's relatively easy to get a spacecraft down onto a planet. You can fall mos of the way. You just have to be travelling slowly enough that the last few feet are not a problem. Getting up off the planet later is however an enormous challenge.
A mission to Ceres in the asteroid belt would pose far fewer problems however. Ceres has water in the form of ice and so air, fuel and drinking water would be far less of an issue. Even rocket fuel can be manufactured by electrolysis using sunlight so a mission to Ceres would require far less material to be taken with the mission and the duration of stay could be longer and simpler.
We may not discover quite so much on such a mission but it would be far more useful from the point of view of learning how to do an interplanetary voyage.
Finally, getting off Ceres at the end of the mission would be a walk in the park in comparison to trying to loft a spacecraft from the surface of Mars back to orbit safely.
I strongly recommend manned asteroid missions before manned missions to Mars or anywhere with a significantly steep climb out.
Mars is also known to be arid and has a poisonous atmosphere so there would be a need to take every ounce of air and water required for the whole trip even if recycling was good..
Furthermore, the explorers of old didn't launch themselves on a journey into the unknown with a high probability of no return without first trying things out in more familiar and friendly local waters.
It's relatively easy to get a spacecraft down onto a planet. You can fall mos of the way. You just have to be travelling slowly enough that the last few feet are not a problem. Getting up off the planet later is however an enormous challenge.
A mission to Ceres in the asteroid belt would pose far fewer problems however. Ceres has water in the form of ice and so air, fuel and drinking water would be far less of an issue. Even rocket fuel can be manufactured by electrolysis using sunlight so a mission to Ceres would require far less material to be taken with the mission and the duration of stay could be longer and simpler.
We may not discover quite so much on such a mission but it would be far more useful from the point of view of learning how to do an interplanetary voyage.
Finally, getting off Ceres at the end of the mission would be a walk in the park in comparison to trying to loft a spacecraft from the surface of Mars back to orbit safely.
I strongly recommend manned asteroid missions before manned missions to Mars or anywhere with a significantly steep climb out.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Seeking Julie
On Saturday March 5th 2011 My family and I went to Mont St Michel in France. It was a beautiful day and a lot of other people had dcided to take the trip also. I had remarked to my wife that there were a lot of japanese tourists around that day, stylish girls and thin young men, all having fun.
We picnicked in a walled garden near the top of the mount and my children played hide and seek in the bushes and rocks of the garden.
They were befreinded by a little Japanese girl of two or three years who came and picknicked with us, much to the amusement of her parents. The couple were a young man of European and Japanese extraction who spoke good French and a young woman in her twenties. He told me that the little girl's name was Julie, a coincidence because my own daughter's name is Julia.
They were obviously on holiday so one supposes that they returned home sometime during the last week or so. Now, I am haunted by the vision of that beautiful child and her young strong parents and I wonder what may have become of them given the awful circumstances of the recent days. I just hope that they extended their holiday or live in the south west away from tsunamis and radiation.
I would dearly love to know that they were well.
We picnicked in a walled garden near the top of the mount and my children played hide and seek in the bushes and rocks of the garden.
They were befreinded by a little Japanese girl of two or three years who came and picknicked with us, much to the amusement of her parents. The couple were a young man of European and Japanese extraction who spoke good French and a young woman in her twenties. He told me that the little girl's name was Julie, a coincidence because my own daughter's name is Julia.
They were obviously on holiday so one supposes that they returned home sometime during the last week or so. Now, I am haunted by the vision of that beautiful child and her young strong parents and I wonder what may have become of them given the awful circumstances of the recent days. I just hope that they extended their holiday or live in the south west away from tsunamis and radiation.
I would dearly love to know that they were well.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Design tutorials
I have absolutely no artistic talent but I fervently wish that I did have.
I see the web sites and applications that are created by those designers that instinctively know how to assemble colours, images and layout into something that is intrinsically pleasing to the eye and I become purple with jealousy.
Well, like me, you may have the artistic talent of a gnat and all the creative abilities of a turtle but you'll have no excuse whatsoever for saying that you don't understand how to create a UI experience with Blend because now you can use this great site to learn step by step how to utterly fail to be talented and stylish in your UI design.
I see the web sites and applications that are created by those designers that instinctively know how to assemble colours, images and layout into something that is intrinsically pleasing to the eye and I become purple with jealousy.
Well, like me, you may have the artistic talent of a gnat and all the creative abilities of a turtle but you'll have no excuse whatsoever for saying that you don't understand how to create a UI experience with Blend because now you can use this great site to learn step by step how to utterly fail to be talented and stylish in your UI design.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Do not track considered harmful
Despite ones desire to remain anonymous these days it is important to keep sight of the fact that participation in any civilised society must come at the price of some loss of anonymity. In years gone by, a postal address was new and scary to some yet America's mail system was more influential than any other single factor in the stabilization of the frontier into a country.
Having a telephone number requires a loss of anonymity that we accept even though some of us don't publish our number in a directory. We might still be reached by officials and the agents of the phone company as well as by robot random diallers.
The Internet makes the hackles of the privacy advocate rise even more quickly, especially when the subject of tracking cookies and targeted advertising is broached.
I believe we are walking a fine line today between a vibrant, open an competittive internet and one that is far darker, closed and oppressive. Strangely, the thing that may stand in the way of vibrancy and unbounded freedom is privacy.
Today, the internet is interesting because it makes a whole heap of money for loosely regulated businesses. Businesses that enable new technologies and new freedom of access to almost unlimited and ubiquitous information and all you have to do in return is put up with a few adverts. I don't suggest that unbridled advert targetting is a good thing but i certainly do think that if privacy stopped the advertisers fron spending then companies like Google would cease to enable free and instant access to everything possible. Without a little loss of privacy, maybe, the only people willing to share information would be our governments and we all know how much we can trust those guys to give us free and instant access to all the information we want.
Opt in to freedom. Allow the advertsers to track your netwok usage a bit. Sure, become net savvy, limit what they know if you think its important but don't demand strict regulation or tight control from your government. Privacy is important but freedom is more-so.
Having a telephone number requires a loss of anonymity that we accept even though some of us don't publish our number in a directory. We might still be reached by officials and the agents of the phone company as well as by robot random diallers.
The Internet makes the hackles of the privacy advocate rise even more quickly, especially when the subject of tracking cookies and targeted advertising is broached.
I believe we are walking a fine line today between a vibrant, open an competittive internet and one that is far darker, closed and oppressive. Strangely, the thing that may stand in the way of vibrancy and unbounded freedom is privacy.
Today, the internet is interesting because it makes a whole heap of money for loosely regulated businesses. Businesses that enable new technologies and new freedom of access to almost unlimited and ubiquitous information and all you have to do in return is put up with a few adverts. I don't suggest that unbridled advert targetting is a good thing but i certainly do think that if privacy stopped the advertisers fron spending then companies like Google would cease to enable free and instant access to everything possible. Without a little loss of privacy, maybe, the only people willing to share information would be our governments and we all know how much we can trust those guys to give us free and instant access to all the information we want.
Opt in to freedom. Allow the advertsers to track your netwok usage a bit. Sure, become net savvy, limit what they know if you think its important but don't demand strict regulation or tight control from your government. Privacy is important but freedom is more-so.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Odd thought about PI
I was just looking at an article that suggests replacing PI with Tau which is not shocking in any way. The relationship to the circle is just a multiple of what we're used to. However, in thinking about this I thought that the reason PI and indeed Tau is such an odd number is because they are based on a single dimension rather than a geometric relation between two two-dimensional values. A radius is always the same radius whether it is thought of in two dimensions making a circle or three dimensions making a sphere. It occurs to me that the complex nature of PI is so because it has to do with the relationships of a particular value expressed in different dimensions.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Extra unwanted empty namespace when adding XElement
I've been scratching my head over a problem today. While writing a program to modify an XML document I discovered that adding an XElement and then writing the document out to file results in an extra and unwanted xmlns="" being output. For example:
Original XML=
<root>
<doodaa>value</doodaa>
</root>
When we add an element to the root we get:
<root>
<doodaa>value</doodaa>
<wimwam xmlns="">value</wimwam>
</root>
This often upsets things which is a pain and happens when the XML document has a namespace specified somewhere.
To overcome this problem we need to ensure that the namespace of the added element is the same as that of its parent so we can interrogate the parent element and set the namespace accordingly.
In my example I just looked at the document root element but you may have a more complex scheme to cope with. The actual code I used was as follows:
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("somestuff.xml");
string docNS=((XElement)doc.FirstNode).Name.NamespaceName;
XElement ne = new XElement(XName.Get("wimwam", docNS), false);
Now, writing out the document I get the desired effect of:
<root>
<doodaa>value</doodaa>
<wimwam>value</wimwam>
</root>
Original XML=
<root>
<doodaa>value</doodaa>
</root>
When we add an element to the root we get:
<root>
<doodaa>value</doodaa>
<wimwam xmlns="">value</wimwam>
</root>
This often upsets things which is a pain and happens when the XML document has a namespace specified somewhere.
To overcome this problem we need to ensure that the namespace of the added element is the same as that of its parent so we can interrogate the parent element and set the namespace accordingly.
In my example I just looked at the document root element but you may have a more complex scheme to cope with. The actual code I used was as follows:
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("somestuff.xml");
string docNS=((XElement)doc.FirstNode).Name.NamespaceName;
XElement ne = new XElement(XName.Get("wimwam", docNS), false);
Now, writing out the document I get the desired effect of:
<root>
<doodaa>value</doodaa>
<wimwam>value</wimwam>
</root>
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Guns don't kill people
The American archetype of today is a tall blonde man shouldering his way through a doorway with an automatic pistol clenched in his doubled fist. This image seen on popular television programs, films and movie publicity posters all over the world shows an American who is impotent without his 9mm weapon in his hand.
The more this image diffuses into the consciousness of the world, the more violence we see, not only from the youth of America whose "right to bear arms" affords them easy access to the tools of death but from the other young people of the world who are too so inured to death and violence through Hollywood anaesthesia that it becomes an option to solutions that no unpolluted person might consider.
Teenage school rampages and the gunning down of persons who lead lives that place them in the public gaze is so commonplace that we are almost immune to the shock of it now. I remember the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy. I was too young to understand but shocked all the same when my mother told me about what had happened and the world was shocked too because the rarity of the events made them exceptional.
The more we see of men peering from behind guns, the more it becomes an accepted part of
our field of view.
our field of view.
Will we ever rise from the barbaric throwing of stones and stabbing with sharp sticks to solve problems and become truly civilized enough to forever leave our brutal ape heritage behind? I often admit that we are nothing more than sophisticated monkeys. Perhaps it's time to become people instead.
Friday, January 07, 2011
Visual Studio 2008 dies without error when editing XAML
I only post this because working on a client's machine recently I had a new install of Visual Studio 2008 that just disappeared whenever I tried to edit XAML files or even XSD files. This was due to a known problem with the Visual Studio editor system and some time back a hotfix was issued for the problem (KB968760).
It happens that this hotfix has been superceded several times now and in order to fix the problem Mark Wilson-Thomas from Microsoft kindly provided be with the link to the hotfix that worked. I now have my VS 2008 up and running again. If you need the fix it can be obtained from here
It happens that this hotfix has been superceded several times now and in order to fix the problem Mark Wilson-Thomas from Microsoft kindly provided be with the link to the hotfix that worked. I now have my VS 2008 up and running again. If you need the fix it can be obtained from here
Thursday, January 06, 2011
WOO HOO!!!!
Been talking about this and looking forward to it for more than a decade!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12124887
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12124887
Saturday, December 18, 2010
A window on the Drake equation
Frank Drake's famous equation for the number of detectable civilizations is based on one seriously flawed idea. That a civilization wants to be detected.
This is not a given and there may be all sorts of reasons for this. A planet populated by a prey species may have a serious problem with advertizing their presence, for example.
Thre may also be another factor, that of the digital revolution. We have discovered that analogue signal transmission is horribly wasteful of overcrowded electromagnetic radiation bandwidth. As a result, we have moved relatively swiftly towards low power, digital transmissions. Our massive radio and television transmission arials are becoming rarer as we switch to digital signals. The off planet transmission of high power signals are slowly being phased out, not because we want to hide but because analogue signals are too expensive to transmit and totally unneccessary.
In this case, the case of Earth, the high power transmission phase will last for about a hundred years. We began pumping the airwaves full of high power signals in the 1930's and it will have stopped well before 2030. Other civilizations may have made the digital leap earlier on and so will not need a high power analogue transmission phase.
This means that civilizations which have surpassed the analogue transmission phase that bleeds vast amounts of signal into space, will have to take a positive decision to transmit something visible over great distance.
Ten thousand detectable civilizations may be reduced to a half dozen who are stupid enough to advertise their positions through the use of low frequency, high power analogue signals.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Utterly brilliant use of phone data (and a little scary)
Not often that I do nothing but post a link but here goes...
http://senseable.mit.edu/network/network&society2.html
http://senseable.mit.edu/network/network&society2.html
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Metadataattribute???
The person who came up with this idea obviously hadn't had his or her coffee that morning.
The death of the post-script
One has to laugh these days at people who still insist on using the post script form in electronic communication.
When you read over letters of old, usually penned in ink with a pen dipped in an inkwell, it is easy to understand the value of being able to add a thought to the end of a laboriously constructed letter without redoing the whole thing again. Today however, the P.S form should be dead and gone because it's nothing more than an admission that the author was too lazy to use the arrow keys and put the completed tought into the context of the unfinished ones above.
Often in a movie, you will see the "deleted scenes" but no one would be idiot enough to run all the credits, sign off with the producers logo and then come back with "oh bye the way, here are two scenes that we thought would clarify scene 27 and 31a"
When you read over letters of old, usually penned in ink with a pen dipped in an inkwell, it is easy to understand the value of being able to add a thought to the end of a laboriously constructed letter without redoing the whole thing again. Today however, the P.S form should be dead and gone because it's nothing more than an admission that the author was too lazy to use the arrow keys and put the completed tought into the context of the unfinished ones above.
Often in a movie, you will see the "deleted scenes" but no one would be idiot enough to run all the credits, sign off with the producers logo and then come back with "oh bye the way, here are two scenes that we thought would clarify scene 27 and 31a"
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Breaking out of an iframe.
On CiteYa I wanted to provide a link from the rating wiget to the main site so that people could go see what it was all about.
I tried the usual javascript parent.document.location.href setting but that caused an error because the contents of the iframe doesn't have the rights to access the stuff int he parent page.
In the end I found that top.location.href worked a treat.
I tried the usual javascript parent.document.location.href setting but that caused an error because the contents of the iframe doesn't have the rights to access the stuff int he parent page.
In the end I found that top.location.href worked a treat.
Monday, November 15, 2010
CiteYa
I am an avid science junkie and I read loads of scientific posts, papers and books that use citations as a way to validate the paper. If a work cites another then it is an acknowledgement of the original work by the author of the new work.
We live in a world where trust cannot be taken for granted. Trust must be earned and the best way to earn it is to have other people say how good your work is. When we use a hyperlink however, that trust is implied. I will go to your site and see what you have to say.
This is the moment when the popup box tells you that your computer is infected with a Trojan virus and, oh, we can scan your computer for you. It's free.....
Wouldn't it be nice to have a measure of trust for a hyperlink? One measure of course would simply be to know how many people link to that page. If loads of people have created a link, then we can assume that the content is good and follow the link.
Google of course do this. They use billions of watts of power to crawl the web, searching for links and noting where each and every one goes. This is proprietary information though and using it comes at a price. We either pay for advertising or we pay by giving away information about ourselves when we use Google.
I awoke at 2:30 in the morning, a couple of weeks ago, and thought that it would be great to have a system that gave you a measure of trust in a page before you click the link. My solution is CiteYa.com
CiteYa enables you to create a link that tells you how many others link to that same page. It can also tell you how users rate the site before you go there. It works with some simple ASP.Net and javascript and is in need of users.
The site is simple, free, easy to use and does nothing but enable you to build trust for your pages. Try it out...
http://www.citeya.com/
We live in a world where trust cannot be taken for granted. Trust must be earned and the best way to earn it is to have other people say how good your work is. When we use a hyperlink however, that trust is implied. I will go to your site and see what you have to say.
This is the moment when the popup box tells you that your computer is infected with a Trojan virus and, oh, we can scan your computer for you. It's free.....
Wouldn't it be nice to have a measure of trust for a hyperlink? One measure of course would simply be to know how many people link to that page. If loads of people have created a link, then we can assume that the content is good and follow the link.
Google of course do this. They use billions of watts of power to crawl the web, searching for links and noting where each and every one goes. This is proprietary information though and using it comes at a price. We either pay for advertising or we pay by giving away information about ourselves when we use Google.
I awoke at 2:30 in the morning, a couple of weeks ago, and thought that it would be great to have a system that gave you a measure of trust in a page before you click the link. My solution is CiteYa.com
CiteYa enables you to create a link that tells you how many others link to that same page. It can also tell you how users rate the site before you go there. It works with some simple ASP.Net and javascript and is in need of users.
The site is simple, free, easy to use and does nothing but enable you to build trust for your pages. Try it out...
http://www.citeya.com/
Cross domain scripting is a pain
I'm working on a project that has both inspired me to learn new stuff and frustrated me immensely.
The system is akin to a page rating database which enables users to give an opinion on the quality of a page. The wiget is delivered as an iframe and uses a little bit of javascript to perform the mouseover and click detection. The wiget is then supposed to send the data back to the server where the database can be updated. All this runs a treat on the local server when debugging but as soon as the code gets a sniff of the live server, the iframe has no access to the parent page so the rating of the iframe source gets updated, not the page that contains it.
Another problem which I had was to deliver a popup containing the rating information, this was messed up again by the fact that my script was unable to access the web service from which the data was to be delivered. Access denied to the XmlHttp object.
I have solved part of the problem by delivering the popup information as an image, The way to deliver user ratings back from the inside of an iframe however still escapes me.
Any suggestions?
The system is akin to a page rating database which enables users to give an opinion on the quality of a page. The wiget is delivered as an iframe and uses a little bit of javascript to perform the mouseover and click detection. The wiget is then supposed to send the data back to the server where the database can be updated. All this runs a treat on the local server when debugging but as soon as the code gets a sniff of the live server, the iframe has no access to the parent page so the rating of the iframe source gets updated, not the page that contains it.
Another problem which I had was to deliver a popup containing the rating information, this was messed up again by the fact that my script was unable to access the web service from which the data was to be delivered. Access denied to the XmlHttp object.
I have solved part of the problem by delivering the popup information as an image, The way to deliver user ratings back from the inside of an iframe however still escapes me.
Any suggestions?
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
If a job's worth doing...
Years ago, there used to be a saying; "If a job's worth doing it's worth doing well"
A tradesman was judged and employed according to his skill and quality of work. Today however, in the disposable "made in China" world in which we live, quantity at low cost has become the norm and quality that you enjoy because you pay well for a job well done, is a thing of the past.
As I go through my working day I hear the phrase "quick win" more and more. Unfortunately, the idea of a quick win is more about "how can we make it look like we didn't screw up" than it is about improving the code.
Computer programming is not a craft, like blacksmithing is a craft. Programming is an art, like painting or like musical composition. A program must be carefully designed to be pleasing to the user and to use the resources, the C.P.U, memory and network bandwidth in a sympathetic manner.
If you attack the artist's canvas with a paint roller and a hammer you are unlikely to end up with a work of art. If you start the project with an eye to composition and attention to detail and aesthetics you are more likely to have a work of art that has no need of a "quick win"
Monday, November 08, 2010
Fixed the supportsearch page
Conversion to ASPX wasn't a good idea for some pages. My support search page which some of my users kindly use for their google searches was busted.
Its now fixted.
Its now fixted.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Mac crashes more.
Well, after all these years of listening to Mac users tell me I was an idiot for even thinking of buying or learning to prograam a PC I can say with my hand on my heart that the Mac crashes more than the PC.
I bought a Mac Mini about 18 months ago and, I admit, I like it. It is however not easier to use than the PC, In fact I find it downright pig headed but that may be just because I am so used to Windows. I can say however that the software is uneccesarily expensive, the range of stuff available for it is poor and it certainly crashes more than all of my Windows PC's put together.
Worst of all the thing keeps locking up in Apple software, not even third party apps. It is sat here now next to my PC with its lovely little rainbow cursor running and a totally unresponsive iTunes running.
I don't even know if there is a process killer or if I have to reboot...
I bought a Mac Mini about 18 months ago and, I admit, I like it. It is however not easier to use than the PC, In fact I find it downright pig headed but that may be just because I am so used to Windows. I can say however that the software is uneccesarily expensive, the range of stuff available for it is poor and it certainly crashes more than all of my Windows PC's put together.
Worst of all the thing keeps locking up in Apple software, not even third party apps. It is sat here now next to my PC with its lovely little rainbow cursor running and a totally unresponsive iTunes running.
I don't even know if there is a process killer or if I have to reboot...
Friday, November 05, 2010
Conversations with a doctor
Imagine this situation: A woman goes to her doctor and tells him that her leg hurts. She explains that she's a professional athlete and running and jumping became difficult just after she fell down some stairs.
The doctor gives her a thorough examination and is horrified to find that her leg is badly broken, has been for a few days and is likely to cause her really serious problems if it doesn't get fixed straight away.
The doctor explains that the bone needs to be set, the leg immobilised and a plaster put on the leg for anywhere between six to eight weeks.
In response, the woman gets up, hops around the room, grimacing a bit with pain, but saying all the time that she is fine and that there is no way she could possibly have a plaster as she was so busy with her job and a plaster would really get in the way on the hurdles track. She refuses treatment and in a week, dies of septicaemia brought about by a bone infection.
Of course, this is something that would be very unlikely to happen. A woman in this situation would be physically unable to walk with a broken femur and she would be grateful to the doctor for any help that he might be able to provide. Unfortunately, the relationship between the software architect and the client is often very similar to that of the lady and the doctor in the story you’ve just read.
As an architect, I have seen more than one example of this scenario. After being called in to consult on a job and after having advised the client of serious problems with the state of health of the software, the client decides that hopping around is easier than fixing the problem. One company in Surrey (in the UK) for which I explained that the problems in their architecture would end up costing them more in maintenance than they could afford in development, went bust because they were unable to continue due to maintenance costs and the haemorrhage of unhappy developers who quickly went to look for other jobs when the boss of the company put more and more pressure on them to deliver what was effectively impossible.
Sometimes the patient is simply not qualified to make a good diagnosis of their own illness. A company that has pressure to deliver product may believe that the status quo is more desirable than the risk of change. If you fall down stairs and you can’t walk anymore, go see a doctor and take his advice. If your software isn’t working, is costing you more to maintain than it does to upgrade, go see a good software architect and take his advice.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Silverlight and Mr. Muglia
I have spoken to several friends who work for MS and they all said that it was all news to them too,
I have been reassured by one friend, who is in a good position to know, that all is cool and there is nothing to worry about.
I guess the moral of the story is that some people should never give an interview without someone first approving the script.
I have been reassured by one friend, who is in a good position to know, that all is cool and there is nothing to worry about.
I guess the moral of the story is that some people should never give an interview without someone first approving the script.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Muglia back-pedals on Silverlight. Too late?
There are sometimes when I loathe ZDNet's approach as they seem to be very anti Microsoft but there are others when I think that they are the only people who can really find out what's going on.
In an inteview with Mary Jo Foley, Bob Muglia reduced Silverlight to the development system for Windows Phone 7, angering developers, myself amongst them, who have listened to the hype over the Silverlight, browser, desktop, cross-platform for several years now and have comitted to following the line laid out by Microsoft by investing in that technology.
Many years ago, after speaking to top level program managers within Microsoft, I believed that the only reason virtual machine technologies existed, particularly those that enabled delivery of Windows CE applications to hand-held machines that ran a variety of processors, was specifically for enabling standardised Windows programming across all devices. I waited in vain for this to come to fruition because I truly believe that to have a virtual machine system capable of running the same p-code on all devices would be a fantastic solidifier for an industry that has too many diverse standards.
Recently, with Silverlight I had begun to believe again in the possibility of a unified developer platform that could adapt seamlessley to many, or any, form factors and devices. Now, with this latest development I can see another period of wandering in the wilderness looking for some sign of sanity from what seems to be an insane guide.
Microsoft pulled a similar stunt on the Windows CE developer community back then, virtually dropping Windows CE, reducing it to a minor player and now they're back to the same old tricks.
People at high level, Like Muglia and Ballmer don't say this stuff off the tops of their heads and retract it because it was an unfortunate mistake. You can bet that this has been on the table for a long time inside Redmond and that talking about it in this way has become so second nature that Bob Muglia never even thought it would be a problem when he spoke about it.
I know of front line silverlight applications that companies have, and still are investing millions of Euros in which will be in some doubt after this statement. It's one thing for a company to change strategy on an immature product and, despite Silverlight's relative youth in the marketplace, it is after all a version 4 product with a large amount of promises and "trust us, this is the future, believe in it" messages having come from Microsoft.
This is a problem that destroys trust and causes immense turmoil that Microsoft doesn't seem to care about. As an architect I feel a responsibility to guide my clients down a road that is beneficial to them. I need to be able to trust Microsoft to deliver on promises. In the case of Silverlight I had been reticent to push clients towards it until version 3. Recently however I have been looking at the possibilities of using it for some seriously important applications but now, I predict another struggle trying to persuade conservative IT departments in two or three companies to even allow a sniff of Silverlight code into their applications.
Way to go Bob!
In an inteview with Mary Jo Foley, Bob Muglia reduced Silverlight to the development system for Windows Phone 7, angering developers, myself amongst them, who have listened to the hype over the Silverlight, browser, desktop, cross-platform for several years now and have comitted to following the line laid out by Microsoft by investing in that technology.
Many years ago, after speaking to top level program managers within Microsoft, I believed that the only reason virtual machine technologies existed, particularly those that enabled delivery of Windows CE applications to hand-held machines that ran a variety of processors, was specifically for enabling standardised Windows programming across all devices. I waited in vain for this to come to fruition because I truly believe that to have a virtual machine system capable of running the same p-code on all devices would be a fantastic solidifier for an industry that has too many diverse standards.
Recently, with Silverlight I had begun to believe again in the possibility of a unified developer platform that could adapt seamlessley to many, or any, form factors and devices. Now, with this latest development I can see another period of wandering in the wilderness looking for some sign of sanity from what seems to be an insane guide.
Microsoft pulled a similar stunt on the Windows CE developer community back then, virtually dropping Windows CE, reducing it to a minor player and now they're back to the same old tricks.
People at high level, Like Muglia and Ballmer don't say this stuff off the tops of their heads and retract it because it was an unfortunate mistake. You can bet that this has been on the table for a long time inside Redmond and that talking about it in this way has become so second nature that Bob Muglia never even thought it would be a problem when he spoke about it.
I know of front line silverlight applications that companies have, and still are investing millions of Euros in which will be in some doubt after this statement. It's one thing for a company to change strategy on an immature product and, despite Silverlight's relative youth in the marketplace, it is after all a version 4 product with a large amount of promises and "trust us, this is the future, believe in it" messages having come from Microsoft.
This is a problem that destroys trust and causes immense turmoil that Microsoft doesn't seem to care about. As an architect I feel a responsibility to guide my clients down a road that is beneficial to them. I need to be able to trust Microsoft to deliver on promises. In the case of Silverlight I had been reticent to push clients towards it until version 3. Recently however I have been looking at the possibilities of using it for some seriously important applications but now, I predict another struggle trying to persuade conservative IT departments in two or three companies to even allow a sniff of Silverlight code into their applications.
Way to go Bob!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Silverlight Slideshow control
The full source code for the Silverlight slideshow control and the explanation of how to pass parameters from an ASP.Net site to a silverlight control enbedded on the page is explained in this article You can download from the bottom of the page.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Silverlight slide show control.
I wanted to provide something akin to a powerpoint presentation on a page today so I thought of a simple Silverlight control that takes an XML file and provides images and captions. I'll post the code on my site.
Take a look...
Take a look...
Page of shame
I had a great thought... For spammers who insist on contacting me via my contacts pages and offering me one time only 50% money off extra special deals on paid directed traffic etc. etc. I will put their e-mail address on a page that robots can harvest. Muhaahaahaahaa...
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Creating properties for list objects? Don't use a setter.
Browsing code today I noticed a potential problem that can cause horrible consequenses if not fixed.
An object exposes a list like so:
public List<Wimwam>Wimwams{get;set;}
which may seem to be quite normal until you look again a the the implications of the property. Here, it is the content of the property being set, namely the collection object itself! This means that it is perfectly possible for a class to fill this list carefully and then have some outside actor change the list under it's nose. This clearly breaks the rules of encapsulation and is a potentially serious bug.
That collection property should in fact be read-only. That is to say that the list itself is not read only but the property to obtain that list should only provide a getter.
The correct way to create the class and the list would be as follows:
public class Doodaa
{
private List<Wimwam> _wimwams = new List<Wimwam>();
public List<Wimwam> Wimwams{get{return _wimwams;}}
}
In this way, the class encapsulates the list in such a way that the reference to the list object cannot be changed. The contents of the list therefore remain under the ownership of the class.
An object exposes a list like so:
public List<Wimwam>Wimwams{get;set;}
which may seem to be quite normal until you look again a the the implications of the property. Here, it is the content of the property being set, namely the collection object itself! This means that it is perfectly possible for a class to fill this list carefully and then have some outside actor change the list under it's nose. This clearly breaks the rules of encapsulation and is a potentially serious bug.
That collection property should in fact be read-only. That is to say that the list itself is not read only but the property to obtain that list should only provide a getter.
The correct way to create the class and the list would be as follows:
public class Doodaa
{
private List<Wimwam> _wimwams = new List<Wimwam>();
public List<Wimwam> Wimwams{get{return _wimwams;}}
}
In this way, the class encapsulates the list in such a way that the reference to the list object cannot be changed. The contents of the list therefore remain under the ownership of the class.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Arduino Visual Micro addin for Visual Studio
Visual Micro has done some great work helping to integrate Arduino development into the Visual Studio IDE with a really cool addin. I must say that I absolutely love this kind of tool that brings an esoteric and quirky programming system to a mainstream audience.
There is one little problem with the addin inasmuch as it was built for a thirty two bit OS. I have Windows 7 64 bit installed so my directory layout is a bit different. I modified the addin such that it loads the DLL from the standard install directory on my 64 bit system.
The updated addin code can be downloaded from my site. I will of course send it to Visual Micro too who can keep up that fantastic work!!!
There is one little problem with the addin inasmuch as it was built for a thirty two bit OS. I have Windows 7 64 bit installed so my directory layout is a bit different. I modified the addin such that it loads the DLL from the standard install directory on my 64 bit system.
The updated addin code can be downloaded from my site. I will of course send it to Visual Micro too who can keep up that fantastic work!!!
More on the awfulness of Safari
I posted earlier (yesterday? it all seems so far away) about what a useless result Safari gave when used to view an ASP.Net web site. Just as an experiment I went over to my site stats and looked at the browser and operating system stats for the various sites I manage. I was more than a little surprised, although I can't imagine why I suppose, to see that whereas Apple operating systems constitute a small percentage of users who view the sites, of those fewer than fifty percent of those people actually use the Safari browser!
That is truly an inditement of that miserable excuse for a browser. What makes me laugh too is the way Apple have tried to push it along with iTunes to PC systems all over the place. I guess that quality really does matter eh?
On Mac systems it seems that Firefox, Chrome and Opera do quite well. I haven't tried Chrome on ASP.Net yet. Hmmmm... Despite the motto of "Don't be evil" I still hear a faint Muhaahaahaa in the background whenever I think of Google so I haven't had the courage to install Chrome yet.
That is truly an inditement of that miserable excuse for a browser. What makes me laugh too is the way Apple have tried to push it along with iTunes to PC systems all over the place. I guess that quality really does matter eh?
On Mac systems it seems that Firefox, Chrome and Opera do quite well. I haven't tried Chrome on ASP.Net yet. Hmmmm... Despite the motto of "Don't be evil" I still hear a faint Muhaahaahaa in the background whenever I think of Google so I haven't had the courage to install Chrome yet.
Architecture Matters blog
This blog has been an adjunct to my web site I suppose. The reason it exists is because I was too lazy to write a blog engine of my own, a task that I started but never finished due to pressures of the day job, and the fact that this all integrates so nicely with my mobile lifestyle.
As you know, Even though I do an amount of technical stuff here and it is after-all an MVP blog, I sometimes get sidetracked by personal interests and so, the content here is mixed.
My day job is taking on a new significance these days. I am still working, at least part time, in the banking and finance sector doing work for a big bank in France but I have seen a resurgence in other requests from clients around the world through my company, Daraize Technologies, where I am C.T.O.
As a result of this and the desire to create a technology only blog I have asked our webmaster to add a link to a new blog I will be working on, The Architecture Matters Blog.
The idea is to create a regular series of articles dedicated to the diverse subjects of software architecture as a big picture subject.
You may be interested to look at it yourself.
As you know, Even though I do an amount of technical stuff here and it is after-all an MVP blog, I sometimes get sidetracked by personal interests and so, the content here is mixed.
My day job is taking on a new significance these days. I am still working, at least part time, in the banking and finance sector doing work for a big bank in France but I have seen a resurgence in other requests from clients around the world through my company, Daraize Technologies, where I am C.T.O.
As a result of this and the desire to create a technology only blog I have asked our webmaster to add a link to a new blog I will be working on, The Architecture Matters Blog.
The idea is to create a regular series of articles dedicated to the diverse subjects of software architecture as a big picture subject.
You may be interested to look at it yourself.
A little late...
Looking back at Ray Ozzie's tenure as Chief Architect at Microsoft one wonders just what it was all about. Bill Gates, although being the definition of the word nerd and the worlds uber geek was outspoken, opinionated, interesting and a great ambassador for his company. Something that I cannot say about Mr Ozzie. His blog has just been updated with it's second post in five years. Admittedly, he says some interesting things but really, how in the heck can someone in such a position be so quiet?
Live person verification
I just added a quick article on doing capcha style live person verification.
Google really needs a meta hint tag...
I find Google ad placement increasingly annoying as the advertisement delivery seems not to be at-all in keeping with the site content on my pages or on the blogs.
More often than not I have technical articles and posts which would benefit from ad placement pertaining to the subject. For example someone reading a technical blog might actually be more interested in buying software components online than ordering a pretty Fillipina girlfriend. (well, you're supposed to be at work after-all)
Google would therefore benefit a great deal by enabling subject hinting on the sites that would allow a webmaster to target a proportion of the ads for a certein genre and which they could then "pad out" with the other inconsequential and ridiculous bla bla that they seem to be serving these days.
More often than not I have technical articles and posts which would benefit from ad placement pertaining to the subject. For example someone reading a technical blog might actually be more interested in buying software components online than ordering a pretty Fillipina girlfriend. (well, you're supposed to be at work after-all)
Google would therefore benefit a great deal by enabling subject hinting on the sites that would allow a webmaster to target a proportion of the ads for a certein genre and which they could then "pad out" with the other inconsequential and ridiculous bla bla that they seem to be serving these days.
Spam really can be controlled!
I have been an active participant online for twenty years now and interestingly I receive little or no spam mail despite having a reasonably high profile inasmuch as bots that harvest e-mail addresses have plenty of access to my posts and blogs.
I think that a major contributing factor to my low spam count is that I use my own domain name and refuse to use Hotmail, Google or Yahoo etc for mail.
I run my mail server on Godaddy's secureserver which itself has a spam filter that catches 90% of Nigerian 411 spans and Viagra adverts and the remaining immunity I can only attribute to my use of an obfuscated mail address for forum posts in which I use @_spamtrap_bobpowell.net which a live person could easily fix and which robots seem too stupid for still.
Finally, the contact page on my site has a simple "capcha" system that I created to do live person verification. The result is that I probably get 3 spam e-mails per day.
I would kindly ask that you wags out there like my pal Ricky etc do not go subscribing me to every list available. :-)
I think that a major contributing factor to my low spam count
I run my mail server on Godaddy's secureserver which itself has a spam filter that catches 90% of Nigerian 411 spans and Viagra adverts and the remaining immunity I can only attribute to my use of an obfuscated mail address for forum posts in which I use @_spamtrap_bobpowell.net which a live person could easily fix and which robots seem too stupid for still.
Finally, the contact page on my site has a simple "capcha" system that I created to do live person verification. The result is that I probably get 3 spam e-mails per day.
I would kindly ask that you wags out there like my pal Ricky etc do not go subscribing me to every list available. :-)
Windows Phone 7
Will kick Apples butt if Steve Jobs doesn't recover from his severe recto-cranial inversion and allow Flash and Silverlight onto iPhone and iPad.
Surprisingly, Safari on the iPhone handles the site I mentioned in an earlier post much better, although it still had a problem with font sizes and pagination, but without active content the effect is lost.
I'd love to see Microsoft hire the quick pwn boys to create a jailbreak install for Phone 7 that ran on the Apple hardware.
Surprisingly, Safari on the iPhone handles the site I mentioned in an earlier post much better, although it still had a problem with font sizes and pagination, but without active content the effect is lost.
I'd love to see Microsoft hire the quick pwn boys to create a jailbreak install for Phone 7 that ran on the Apple hardware.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Opera does it right too!
Just tested the same site in the Opera browser. It works a treat, Even ran the Silverlight without a hitch.
What use is Safari??
What use is Safari??
BlogEngine
Going nuts today trying to integrate BlogEngine.Net into a site.
A nice drop-in blog component would be great.
Life is never easy it seems.
A nice drop-in blog component would be great.
Life is never easy it seems.
ASP.Net and Safari. Not good bedfellows.
I've been working on an ASP.Net website this weekend. It's just a simple site with a few pages but it uses ASP.Net menu components to provide the page navigation. I tested it on a PC with both IE and Firefox. The site looks as good as I expected it to.
Just as an afterthought I tried the site from my Mac using Safari. The result was not at all optimal.
Menus and breadcrumb trails lost their colour mouseover elements and the font sizes were not at all respected.
Apple... could do better it seems.
Just as an afterthought I tried the site from my Mac using Safari. The result was not at all optimal.
Menus and breadcrumb trails lost their colour mouseover elements and the font sizes were not at all respected.
Apple... could do better it seems.
Friday, October 22, 2010
So, gravity is stronger than a vacuum.
The results from LCROSS are in and... The moon is not a useless lump of uninteresting regolith after all.
The moon is smothered in resources from Ammonia to Xenon all frozen or chemically bound in compounds found on the surface. There is water too, in quantities that make living on the moon and wanting for little a very tantalizing prospect.
Elon Musk has the right idea by investing in space. Governments are too concerned with elections to take risks or make mistakes. Private enterprise is the only way for space to be exploited properly. If anyone has a job for an old programmer on the moon, let me know ASAP.
The moon is smothered in resources from Ammonia to Xenon all frozen or chemically bound in compounds found on the surface. There is water too, in quantities that make living on the moon and wanting for little a very tantalizing prospect.
Elon Musk has the right idea by investing in space. Governments are too concerned with elections to take risks or make mistakes. Private enterprise is the only way for space to be exploited properly. If anyone has a job for an old programmer on the moon, let me know ASAP.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Is Sarkozy the new Thatcher?
I don't often talk politics but the situation in France is really getting to me so here goes.
In the 1980's and early 1990's I lived in England under the reign of Margaret Thatcher and her right wing government. Over the space of my youth until adulthood, the right wing managed to turn a proud country into a nation of downtrodden sychophants who accept that the poor should be made poorer and the rich made richer and that public opinion should be squashed by force.
Thatchers utter destruction of unions followed by the putting in place of safeguards to enable many forms of public assembly to be tightly controlled -even brutally put down- and the consequent construction of a CCTV surveillance system that communist China would be proud of has served to keep the populace in line, even through the supposedly socialist government that followed it.
In 1993 I voted with my feet after the British people voted conservative again and elected John Major to deal out more punishment and to ride roughshod over ordinary folk, of whom I was one. One reason I came to France was because I loved the way ordinary people were still able to express displeasure at the government and how, if elected officials didn't make some compromise, a good demonstration, followed by a bit of civil disobedience and maybe a lorry load of cow crap in the local council office lobby soon put things right.
Today however, Sarkozy is behaving in a more and more right wing manner. The virtual pogrom against Romany people was something one might expect to hear of from middle european countries, not France. Now, quashing unarmed public demonstrations and blockades of fuel with what are effectively SWAT teams makes the appearance of a "conservative" government look more and more like a fascist state.
The social security and pension system in France takes vast chunks of money from wage earners. With employers contributions, the cost of a wage is almost twice the takehome pay and that doesn't include any eventual income taxes that might be paid. French people live for and plan for their "Retraite" and to raise the pension limit will cause problems.
I will be honest and say that I hope the French people can hold out against Sarkozy's brand of Thatcherism and remain a free and proud people who are able to give their elected officials the finger from time to time. Vive La France!
In the 1980's and early 1990's I lived in England under the reign of Margaret Thatcher and her right wing government. Over the space of my youth until adulthood, the right wing managed to turn a proud country into a nation of downtrodden sychophants who accept that the poor should be made poorer and the rich made richer and that public opinion should be squashed by force.
Thatchers utter destruction of unions followed by the putting in place of safeguards to enable many forms of public assembly to be tightly controlled -even brutally put down- and the consequent construction of a CCTV surveillance system that communist China would be proud of has served to keep the populace in line, even through the supposedly socialist government that followed it.
In 1993 I voted with my feet after the British people voted conservative again and elected John Major to deal out more punishment and to ride roughshod over ordinary folk, of whom I was one. One reason I came to France was because I loved the way ordinary people were still able to express displeasure at the government and how, if elected officials didn't make some compromise, a good demonstration, followed by a bit of civil disobedience and maybe a lorry load of cow crap in the local council office lobby soon put things right.
Today however, Sarkozy is behaving in a more and more right wing manner. The virtual pogrom against Romany people was something one might expect to hear of from middle european countries, not France. Now, quashing unarmed public demonstrations and blockades of fuel with what are effectively SWAT teams makes the appearance of a "conservative" government look more and more like a fascist state.
The social security and pension system in France takes vast chunks of money from wage earners. With employers contributions, the cost of a wage is almost twice the takehome pay and that doesn't include any eventual income taxes that might be paid. French people live for and plan for their "Retraite" and to raise the pension limit will cause problems.
I will be honest and say that I hope the French people can hold out against Sarkozy's brand of Thatcherism and remain a free and proud people who are able to give their elected officials the finger from time to time. Vive La France!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Hiker killed by mountain goat
While the ignominy of such a death may be shocking to the poor victim and his family, for whom I have the utmost sympathy, one wonders why a magnificent wild beast should be killed because it poses a risk to hikers who have the temerity to infringe upon it's domain.
Hiking is, after all, a way to get closer to nature and, despite the childrens picture book view of real life that we seem to adhere to these days, nature is wild, rugged and often savage.
If someone strays into the domain of a Lion or Tiger and is eaten for his stupidity people are not surprised but, when the agressor is a lowly goat people are horrified. Herbivores are quite capable of defending themselves and their territory. They are used to dealng with savage tooth and claw predators to survive. They should not be underestimated.
Hiking is, after all, a way to get closer to nature and, despite the childrens picture book view of real life that we seem to adhere to these days, nature is wild, rugged and often savage.
If someone strays into the domain of a Lion or Tiger and is eaten for his stupidity people are not surprised but, when the agressor is a lowly goat people are horrified. Herbivores are quite capable of defending themselves and their territory. They are used to dealng with savage tooth and claw predators to survive. They should not be underestimated.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Downtime
So, My site has been inoperative for the longest time in ten years, due to Visual Studio 2010's apparent inability to publish to an FTP site without crashing.
I am currently uploading via FTP using a direct client but effectively, since Tuesday night, BobPowell.Net has been dead in the water.
Note to MS. Could do better!
I am currently uploading via FTP using a direct client but effectively, since Tuesday night, BobPowell.Net has been dead in the water.
Note to MS. Could do better!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Website broke
Oops. Thanks to all of you who mailed me so quickly to tell me the site is broken. I am working on it and will upload again ASAP.
I think this problem stems from my upload being interrupted.
I think this problem stems from my upload being interrupted.
A tool to convert .HTM files to ASPX
Well, it may be a little late but if you read my latest article in my ASP.Net section of my site you'll see why a certain reluctance to make this change came about.
It has always been a laborious task to make such a change, especially if you want to apply some sort of master page strategy to the HTML pages on the site.
Being a lazy person at heart, rather than do the job with repetitive and boring hands-on editing I have created a little utility program that can convert all the .htm pages on a site to ASPX while applying a master page if required.
I ran this on my own site and it seems to be OK, at least for my purposes. I still need to tidy some pages but the bulk of the work was done automatically. Just right for a lazy old duffer like me.
It has always been a laborious task to make such a change, especially if you want to apply some sort of master page strategy to the HTML pages on the site.
Being a lazy person at heart, rather than do the job with repetitive and boring hands-on editing I have created a little utility program that can convert all the .htm pages on a site to ASPX while applying a master page if required.
I ran this on my own site and it seems to be OK, at least for my purposes. I still need to tidy some pages but the bulk of the work was done automatically. Just right for a lazy old duffer like me.
Windows Phone 7 SDK
I reported last week that the Windows Phone 7 SDK includes Visual Studio 2010 express. This is true, the downloader will get those components from the server when you run the web-based download. It is also true however that if one already has Visual Studio 2010 installed, as I have with the Ultimate edition, the installer does not setup the VS2010 part.
This is reassuring but, for people who still have limited bandwidth this may be a problem. Last week I was downloading via my tethered iPhone so I cancelled quickly.
I just installed the SDK on my desktop machine over the DSL line so it was less painful.
This is reassuring but, for people who still have limited bandwidth this may be a problem. Last week I was downloading via my tethered iPhone so I cancelled quickly.
I just installed the SDK on my desktop machine over the DSL line so it was less painful.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Hungarian Sludge.
I used to have a calculator that used reverse Hungarian notation. I loaned it to a pretty girl once and she never spoke to me again. The idea of Hungarian sludge has impinges upon my consciousness and may be as hard to remove as the real thing.
Splash.. the saga continues
Well, I wonder if the scientists who published the idea that Saturn's rings were created by a moon or large asteroid falling into saturn were inspired by my blog post?
Hey, remember you saw it here first. The'yre handing out Nobel prizes at the moment, perhaps I can pick up the astro-physics prize ;-))
Hey, remember you saw it here first. The'yre handing out Nobel prizes at the moment, perhaps I can pick up the astro-physics prize ;-))
Windows phone 7 developer tools...AARRGGHH
Just checking out Scottgu's blog and noticed the link for Windows phone 7 dev tools.
They immediately try to download Visual Studio 2010 express.
This is obviously a no no if one already has 2010 ultimate installed.
They immediately try to download Visual Studio 2010 express.
This is obviously a no no if one already has 2010 ultimate installed.
New life for an old laptop
Some years ago I bought myself a lightweight laptop that I thought would be good when commuting or travelling on business. As it turned out, the Phillips machine was actually pretty useless with a short battery life and a bit slow.
Recently, I took up the commuting lifestyle again but I took the plunge and wiped the laptop, installing a 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate OS on it. It's a diferent machine! it's fast, shuts down quickl, boots up quickly, resumes from hibernation reliably and is generally usable after years of me complaining about it.
(The battery life is still useless but I may buy a new battery because this one is obviously tired)
Congratulations to Microsoft for getting Windows 7 right!
Recently, I took up the commuting lifestyle again but I took the plunge and wiped the laptop, installing a 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate OS on it. It's a diferent machine! it's fast, shuts down quickl, boots up quickly, resumes from hibernation reliably and is generally usable after years of me complaining about it.
(The battery life is still useless but I may buy a new battery because this one is obviously tired)
Congratulations to Microsoft for getting Windows 7 right!
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Software technology patents are BOGUS
Patents are a great thing when they cover some innovative mechanical process that is not obvious in nature. They can also be a great thing for certain algorithmic processes if that algorithm took a lot of thought and work to come up with. Patents that cover the positions of pixels on a screen however are totally bogus. Todays news about Apple being liable to pay 600 million dollars for the infringement of patents that describe Cover Flow etc are ridiculous!
In the same way that patents which might cover a certain sequence of my D.N.A, patents which ultimately concern the colour of certain pixels on a screen are totally frivolous. Compettition to greate great UI is a great goal for designers of good software but to patent the positioning of a button or the method of a user interface is too much.
In the same way that patents which might cover a certain sequence of my D.N.A, patents which ultimately concern the colour of certain pixels on a screen are totally frivolous. Compettition to greate great UI is a great goal for designers of good software but to patent the positioning of a button or the method of a user interface is too much.
Facebook "Like" button as an ASP.Net control
Fiddling with my site today I decided to create a master page with a Facebook "Like" button on it. This turned out to be harder than I thought because the Facebook developer site spits out a dedicated iFrame for the page URL you enter.
I thought to myself that a simple ASP.Net user control could be the solution so I went ahead and wrote one.
Check it out! http://www.bobpowell.net/likebutton.aspx
I thought to myself that a simple ASP.Net user control could be the solution so I went ahead and wrote one.
Check it out! http://www.bobpowell.net/likebutton.aspx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)