Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Layout of the Android Main.xml and friends

 

Being a Dot.Net programmer for several years now. It’s kinda hard downgrading back to good old eclipse and eclipse plugins.

 

It’s like watching RHPS at home, it’s the same except for all the bells and whistles. And tell ya the truth, You go to watch the show in the cinema because of the bells an whistles. Actually one would argue that without the bells and whistles throwing crap at each other, shouting APs and playing around with water pistols is damn right stupid – but I digress.

I found this site http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/declaring-layout.html pretty useful to understand most of the technobabble about how to setup the vocab and the naming and stuff.

 

In general, if you want to work WITHIN the framework, you must learn these rules. ELSE? else you’re a regular programmer that fights the framework rather than embracing it and then shouting that M$ is just an evil system that doesn’t allow you to customize….

or in this case I guess it’s be G$$gle’s day in court vs the undisciplined programmers.

It’s kinda hard readjusting to setText vs .Text in properties and all this workaround shit.

too bad google went all NIH on us, and didn’t take a page out of the dot.net handbook.

had the added partial class life would’ve been sooo much simpler. this is like programming in 1995 again using tools designed to fight the good fight rather than tools to just WORK. I’ve half a mind to write my own hack to offer partial classes and point click services to the ADT – but I’m too lazy and underpaid for that. (or as I said before, I have only half a mind).

 

Back to the framework, and excuse my rants

So the layout file will contain a layout type located in the res/layout directory

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
             
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
             
android:layout_height="fill_parent"

             
android:orientation="vertical" >

   
<TextView android:id="@+id/text"
             
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
             
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
             
android:text="Hello, I am a TextView" />
   
<Button android:id="@+id/button"
           
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
           
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
           
android:text="Hello, I am a Button" />
</LinearLayout>


After you've declared your layout, you need to load it.



the default Activity loads a Layout of:




public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
}



I love it how the “main” is itallicized and bolded, soo cute donchathink ?



so how do we write the ID ? we write it using



<Button android:id=”@+id/my_Button” />



this will be created in the R.java respectfully.



on the onCreate() method you can reach the Button using



Button myButton  = (Button) findViewVyId(R.id.my_Button);



HELLO GOOGLE! WAKE UP



Dot.NET solved this is Dot.Net 2.0!



Specifically in ASP.NET. the xml parser the creates on the fly dot.net code? _Default.aspx class that locates the button and makes the connection ?



Why should I be writing automatic and seziphic code instead of programming my app? This is not something a programmer should be dealing with. this is something you should have written into your designer – oof.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Android SDK

 

Installing the android SDK and starting to write my android App

Installed Java 7

Installed Android SDK : FAILED

Added path vars

%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0\bin\;

Installed SDK : PASSED

Eclipse Classic 3.7

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.7-201106131736/eclipse-SDK-3.7-win32.zip

ADT Plugin for eclispe

http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html

 

Downloading the ADT Plugin

Use the Update Manager feature of your Eclipse installation to install the latest revision of ADT on your development computer.<>

Assuming that you have a compatible version of the Eclipse IDE installed, as described in Preparing for Installation, above, follow these steps to download the ADT plugin and install it in your Eclipse environment.

  1. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software....
  2. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
  3. In the Add Repository dialog that appears, enter "ADT Plugin" for the Name and the following URL for the Location:
    http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
  4. Click OK
    Note: If you have trouble acquiring the plugin, try using "http" in the Location URL, instead of "https" (https is preferred for security reasons).
  5. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next.
  6. In the next window, you'll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.
  7. Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish.
    Note: If you get a security warning saying that the authenticity or validity of the software can't be established, click OK.
  8. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.

Pasted from <http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html>

 

image

image

Google USB Driver

http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#WinUsbDriver

clip_image001

Setting up the enviroment

5. In the Variable Name field, type ANDROID.

6. Type the full path to the tools directory in the Variable Value field (see Figure 2-14).

clip_image001[5]

Create an AVD

To learn more about how to use AVDs and the options available to you, refer to the Android Virtual Devices document.

In this tutorial, you will run your application in the Android Emulator. Before you can launch the emulator, you must create an Android Virtual Device (AVD). An AVD defines the system image and device settings used by the emulator.

To create an AVD:

  1. In Eclipse, choose Window > Android SDK and AVD Manager.
  2. Select Virtual Devices in the left panel.
  3. Click New.

The Create New AVD dialog appears.

  1. Type the name of the AVD, such as "my_avd".
  2. Choose a target. The target is the platform (that is, the version of the Android SDK, such as 2.1) you want to run on the emulator.
  3. Click Skin: built In resolutions : QVGA

clip_image002

You can ignore the rest of the fields for now.

  1. Click Create AVD.

Pasted from <http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/hello-world.html>

Droid Draw

  • Not needed for now – I think it’s a standalone project made prior to the ADT ?

ANDROID SOURCE CODE

http://source.android.com/source/downloading.html

couldn’t download this. tried to download Git and other stuff, just ended with a headache. NEXT

 

My Next post … Hello world

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Windows 7 – UAC and Admin issues

I like the UAC, I like that finally I am running ona regular user account and not always on admin

Finally a UNIX-like system, where you hae to login to SU to be a super user.


 

Just came across this

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11949-elevated-program-shortcut-without-uac-prompt-create.html

and this

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11841-run-administrator.html

Hope this helps you in your quest for administrative dominance.


 

M.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Setup Instructions : Google Sync - Google Mobile Help

Setup Instructions : Google Sync - Google Mobile Help

Before you start:
* We strongly recommend that you back up any data from your phone using the Nokia PC Suite or other phone management software.
* You'll also need to make sure that your phone is compatible with Mail for Exchange and that you've downloaded the latest version.

To configure the Mail for Exchange application for Google Sync, follow these steps:

  1. Open the MfE folder on your phone and start the Mail for Exchange application.
  2. Select Yes when prompted to create a new Sync profile.


  3. Configure the profile with the following settings:


    * Connection
    • Exchange Server: m.google.com
    • Secure Connection: Yes
    • Access Point: your carrier's Internet access point
    • Sync while roaming: your preferred setting
    • Use default port: Yes


    * Credentials
    • Username: Your full Google email address, e.g. jon@gmail.com
    • Password: Your Google Account password
    • Domain: leave empty
    * Sync schedule
    • Decide when you want synchronization to happen. Leaving this Always On will ensure your data is always current, but will also consume more battery than other settings.


    * Calendar
    • Synchronize Calendar: Enable or disable
    • Sync Calendar back: your preference
    • Initial Sync: Decide if you want to keep existing Calendar events on your phone or replace them all with events synced from Google Calendar.
    * Tasks
    • Synchronize Tasks: No (currently not supported by Google Sync)
    * Contacts
    • Synchronize Contacts: Enable or Disable
    • Initial Sync: Decide if you want to keep existing Contacts on your phone or replace them all with contacts synced from Google.
    * E-mail
    • Synchronize Email: Enable or Disable
    • E-mail address (default based on profile)
    • Show new mail popup (yes/no)
    • Use signature (default to no)
    • Signature
    • When sending mail (default: send immediately; alternative is send at next sync only)
    • Sync messages back (default: 3 days; alternatives are 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, all messages)

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Installing my e71 again..

Installing my e71 again.. [part 1]

I went to the shop and fixed my e71
it had a number of issues with it, least of which was the "no gps" most of which included "can't hear call waiting and finally - doe not sync calendar" which finished me completely.

So it's that time again.

First thing i did was take pictures of the screens so i know what to install

However since they completely changed my phone i need a new IEMI certificate for my new phone for all the apps i installed that are not free or cracked etc..
of which there are a lot.

So to summarize the tasks:

1) Install the PCSuit files
2) get a new developers certificate
3) setup the general/personalization
4) install apps


PCSuit installed the new versions
  • MMSSync v1.0
setup all the general data


Handy Taskman + crack allows me to have a normal task manager in my mobile allowing me to kill or end processes.


Email
eMoze
two accounts (both gmail) : one is my PC main mail that i setup as to be read once an hour in case my PC has connectivity issues or is shutdown, in which case the mobile will pickup the mail
this setup is
Delete: pc & mobile to maintain filters ahead of time when possible
Notification : Alarm 2.aac

other account: is my mobile mail
how i set it up
in google i created a filter and setup certain mail to not go through the filter, everything else goes through it.
the filter is apptly named MOBILE
and this filter has a rule forwarding all the MOBILE to another gmail account that is essentially only for my mobile mail.


Nokia Messaging: allows me to read data off of imap v4, which is my corporate account.


Next install WhatsApp (WhatsApp_2_1_15.sis) which allows most phones (iphone, bb and nokia s60) to converse between them - this is basically messenger service where all you need is someone's tel number to communicate with them


Opera Mobile - a great browser - very important to have multiple browsers on your phone for different web experiences

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Conditional row color based on a cell value

The Excel Conditional Formatting : Advanced



Have you ever wanted to color a cell by checking status of another cell and found it... not so simple ?

I read this excellent Excel 2003 article about conditional formatting , and decided to update it to the 2007 version of Excel.


Lets start with just a rudimentary worksheet about toDos and statuses

as you can see our statuses are "ok" and "not ok" (or nothing)





Next create a condition


Now add a conditional formatting by selecting the rows you wish to color (not the rows to be tested!!)

In our case it's all of colums B and C so select'em

go to Conditional Formatting and select NEW RULE

a popup will open called New Formatting Rule.

Select the last option (Use formula to determine which cells to format)




















The conditional INDIRECT

=INDIRECT("A1") will give you the reference to cell A1 So
=ROW() will return the current row number and
=INDIRECT("B"&ROW()) will reference the B1 , B2 ,B3 cells etc as if you were dragging a formula down the rows

back to the issue at hand ...

The formula in a conditional requires the format: =X=Y

where X=Y needs to return a true or false.

this allows you to do this like testing many different sit
uations and if one of them is true to conditionally format the cell (and stop other test conditions for that cell)

In this section we add the format value for a conditional on status="ok"


=INDIRECT("B" & ROW() ) = "ok"

This means

For the cell B and whatever Row I'm on, test if the value is equal to "ok" and if it is, format according to the format chosen (I just chose fill color orange..)







So now how do I manage my rulez if I am so inclined??

Go to Manage rules in the menu

Then select the rule from the list

This list allows you to manage the following

  1. The certain rule you can view all the rules in the worksheet, in another sheet, or in the selection
  2. Applies to, allows you to change the cells that are affected in this case =$B$4:$E$8
  3. If you wish to change this to the entire row 3 to 8 you would write =$3:$8
  4. Stop if True, and stop testing for other rules.
  5. Delete, add new, or move rule Up/Down (makes sense with point 3 - above)

And that's all folks ...


comments would be appreciated!

Friday, August 20, 2010

FAQ

Assisted GPS with a twist - Tagin
uses Wifi signal strengths from different MACs of different APs to map 3dimentional locations in building.

pretty ingenious!!

FAQ

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Mac-Like gestures on a windows


 

I was looking at my friends' mac and I see he is doing lots of stuff directly from his touchpad. So I asked him about it and turns out it's a function in the OS X allowing him to do 2 and 3 figured gestures. I remember I looked at 2-3 fingered gestures in different applications (blogs about multi displays and tracking) but not on the touch pad


 

Then I came across the lifehacker website, and saw a bunch of programs it talks about.

I have a LENOVO T60 with (I guess) and IBM TouchPad so I can't use the Synaptics Scrybe Driver for multi gesture on Synaptics touchpads for windows

I am however using the TwoFingerScroll app created by arkadius...@googlemail.com

I am getting used to it, but it looks like a lot of fun,

Im strating to think about maybe installing a hackintosh

Thursday, January 21, 2010

PayPal X

I have started writing for a blogging community called Fintech,
so most of my blogging will go to them.

my last blog about PayPal was completely in their space, so If you're interested in PayPal on the pseudo-technical side, read my http://fintechisrael.com/2010/01/19/paypal-x-a-new-community/

Saturday, December 12, 2009

PDFs and security

First b4 going to special issues here's a nice blog post about pdf optionals
http://www.tothepc.com/archives/5-alternatives-to-ever-so-slow-adobe-pdf-reader/

now for the juicy stuff


A) If you SECURE a pdf file by clicking on the SECURE button without giving a password, it just turns a bit on/off. most secondary [non adobe] pdf viewers dont even consider this as protected.

B) If you add text frames/to hide data like tables in sample pdf files using an online pdf viewer such as PDFescape which doesnt show these will render your "security" system helpless:

i.e.

take this document
http://www.the-infoshop.com/report/bc28878_forensic_business_toc.html
the Full document costs a little under 5000 dollars to purchase
too bad they dont pay the IT guys alot

download the sample file [fill in garbage they dont even check your email] and get the file.
read it with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Nice huh ? Sample Boxes are a big hoot.

Now upload it to a less standardized pdf viewer such as PDFescape .

so ? how's security now ?

we didnt even do anything.
we just uploaded it to a viewer that cant show adobe 6+ additions and that's all the security these guys can muster.
it makes me sad, I mead there is real security available for adobe, but it's 3rd party and must be bought corporately. This is what happens when IT is outsourced and becomes too far from the company execs, with no RELAIBLE - thinking about your benefit - not afraid to loose you as a customer - IT VP, I'm sure these guys would think twice.

So summary

Adobe Security - rotten
Adobe optional viewers - excellent.

bye

Monday, November 30, 2009

Locking Word docments

So as I am now an MBA student I sometimes need to submit a word document.

The problem is when you give someone a word document, it moves around on their computer, pictures move atc..
this is bad as it makes glitches, and then it looks bad.



So how to lock a document?

The Statistics paper we handed in was locked by my team mate Yosi Atias, and I was wondering how this is done
-google to the rescue ofcourse -
a few choice words and i came across this Gem

I found this from Chibban on a site called www.yedda.com

In order to lock the content of the doc - you need to work a bit :
1) Go to the "Office" button (top left office logo)
2) Choose "Word Options" (buttom right of the menu)
3) Goto "Customize"
4) In the first list box choose: "Commands not in the Ribbon"
5) Look for "Protect Document" command and add it to the menu
6) Now, next to the "Office" button you'll see a green dot - click it
7) Choose "Read only" and save the doc



and then this from Zulla



To lock a docx file jus follow the following 5 steps:
1:left click on the office button.
2:highlight Prepare.
3:select encrypt document.
4:create a password.
5:your docx is encrypted..

so now you too know how to lock and unlock word dox..

happy trails

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Outlook Crashes

Suddenly Outlook started crashing when I tried moving to calendar view.

I restored to two weeks back...
same thing.


this really fuc*ed up my life, I live IN OUTLOOK!

I found this correspondence

I found this solution : [Start]-[Run]-
"Outlook /cleanviews " and it works

more here:

how to fix outlook from crashing

And this MVP answered the guy and solved the problem in 20 sec flat! That's an expert!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Symbian stuff I learnt

So I got my new E71

now I find out it's chock full of certificates and obstacles, no wonder iphone is killing the market.

Anything I download is not for version 9.1 or s60v3 so not good. WTF??? why cant symbian be backwards compatible. this sux.

So I downloaded a bunch of stuff and this is what I currently have on my machine:

iPhone-style sms chat software for S60 3rd&5th–Free-iSMS v1.01

I love this crap, it's like the iPhones sms viewer. [unsigned]
















Handy Profiles - allows you to automatically move from silent to general to meeting according to times, timed profile, filters in meeting etc..

Y-Browser - free file browser
SkyFire WebBrowser - a lightening fast web browser that cheats, it sends the url to it's server that does the work for your mobile and send your mobile the pic - who cares, it's fast and doesn't drain my cpu/battery = good for me
Opera 4 Web Browser
NimBuzz
Files On Ovi - OVI in general rulez
Mobbler - music via last.fm
Fring - allows you to call skype users on the web using your phone - even skype client doesn't allow this
CorePlayer - view DIVX movies no compression/changing
Handy Calendar - great color calendar
Voice Inbox - an answering machine to use instead of your mobile's vm that costs minutes to use
AccuWeather - Checkout the weather
Live PVR - Voice recorder - record phone calls, regular record voice, meeting notes
TaskMan - a replacement for the task manager
AudioCube - edit music files and convert them on the phone
StopWatch - just a free utility
WebCam v3 - mobio's product, excellent - make your phone into a webcam
SymSMB - allows you to log in to your network neighbourhood, and share folders off your phone like a regular computer - unsigned
oh signed/unsigned

To allow an app to be installed on your mobile you need it to be signed.
couple of certificates
- developer - about that later
- public - will be signed by a company that bought the certificate

If you are a developer, you can get a certificate FOR YOUR OWN PHONE - works with your IEMI numbers

some private developers are not in it for the money, and are just playing around with the app, hacked/cracked apps are also not able to be publicly signed for obvious reasons.

so you need to get yourself a developer certificate and sign files by yourself.

How to get a developer Certificate
I got mine off a Chinese website - for explinations click here
it helps and also works with expired certificates

I downloaded a 175mb torrent with lots of cracked s60v3 apps [thanks guys]
most are unsigned ofcourse.


just some musings....

Mick

Friday, July 06, 2007

איך גונבים אותך בגודל הכונן הקשיח


קניתי לפני כמה זמן כונן של SEAGATE

רציתי שיהיה לי כונן גיבויים ל LAPTOP שלי, להורדות וכדומה. גם חשבתי אולי לחבר אותו
ל-PS2 שלי.
הדגם שלו ST3320620A דגם IDE Baracuda 7200.10 320 Gbytes
לא קניתי מחבר USB קוראSATA, המחבר שלי די ישן, כמעט בן שנה..
חיברתי אותו למחשב וקיבלתי הודעה שהוא אכן 320GB אבל אני יכול לפרמט רק 298GB.

מה זה ??? רימו אותי?

ואז חיפשתי בגוגל, כי זו באמת לא הפעם הראשונה שככה גונבים ממני גודל HD.

ומה גיליתי ??

גיליתי את הכתבה הזו: שמדברת על בעיות בגודל HD

בכתבה אחד הטוקבקיסטים ציין שכל הכוננים מגיעים מהיצרן עם הגודל בבסיס 10 (דצימלי) .

ואם אתם רוצים לחשב גודל עושים ככה





1. קח את גודל ה HD שרשום לך (שקנית%^$%^)
במקרה שלי 320GB
2. הוסף לו 9 אפסים או 3 כפולות של 1000 (דצימלי כן??)
3. חלק בשלוש כפולות של 1024 (בינארי כן? .. 2 בחזקת 10 זה 1024)
4. קבל את הגודל האמיתי.



במקרה שלי:
320000000000
/
1024
/
1024
/
1024
=
298.02322387695312






אז הנה הרמאות הגדולה של ההייטק, גניבת גודל HD.

הם גנבו לי 22GB שזה כמעט גודל הHD שיש לי במחשב הנייד שלי.



כאן לא מדובר על איבוד של מגה שניים או 10\ מדובר על איבוד מקום של מספר DVDים שיכולתי
לעבוד איתם.



אני כועס, אבל יותר לא יעבדו עלי.


Monday, May 28, 2007

Microsoft getting even with Adobe..

For a few months now every developer around has been noticing Microsofts' unilateral interest in destroying the user experience regarding Flash. It started with the infamous "Click to Activate", continued with Window Presentation Foundation and Expresion and now, welcome the new comer to the stage: Silverlight.

It's easy to see why. Flash programmers have been taking a back seat at macromedia for years.
Any flash application you encounter holds some type of programming behind it. Be it 3D graphic computations or simple user/password authentication systems, the flash programmers have their work cut out for them.

Basicaly the problem is this:
  • designers ARE NOT PROGRAMMERS
  • developers ARE NOT DESIGNERS

For some reason macromedia didn't really understand this phenomenon, so designers learnt crude programming, and programmers didn't really touch flash (ActionScript).
Usually what you met in the industry were flash designers who took some interest in Programming ActionScript, and become flash programmers.

To find a good flash programmer was quite a task.

Anyone reading this who is an experience programmer should be grabbing their hair just about now, as I did when I came across this phenomenon at my previous job. I employed flash programmers who didn't know simple design patterns, who didn't understand events and delegates, who had no idea what a Web Service is or how to manipulate it.

The Development Environment

Anyone who is used to program with Microsoft Visual studio, Eclipse, PHP Studio is used to a very comfortable IDE.

  • Search across files
  • a good sound framework.
  • Object oriented programming.
  • Intellisense (code completion)

Are just a few of the attributes we take for granted in the environments we use.

Flash programmers have none of these. They have Flash studio, which is a terrible IDE for programmers (as it sould be, it was designed for Designers; and they love it).

A simple "search everywhere" to locate a piece of code SOMEWHERE in the flash file is impossible, all you can do is "search the current OPEN file" – and what good does that do ?
Oh, the flash file is a huge jumble of binary code, you can't search with external editors.
Infrastructure is terrible, you want to build your own classes, fine. You can’t compile and re-use the code, you have to have all the sources there, all the time.

Oh, you remember code-compile-test-recode ? in the flash IDE it can take 3-5 min to build your app. So remember to code as much as possible else you spend most of your day staring at the build screen.

These are just a few problems that we encountered.

The biggest one ? Flash is a proprietary format, and Adobe isn’t releasing it. So you can only build Flash apps via the ActionScript run with the Flash Studio (you get my drift).

Recently adobe came out with FLEX, which was the answer to flash programming problems, this is an IDE based on the Eclipse platform, but it was still too little, too late and not enough of a change. The intellisense isn’t close to what is needed, and don’t get me started about the Flash Plugin versions.

Silverlight

Silverlight launched very recently is Microsoft's comeback to Adobes' impotence. With Silverlight you can program using the new Visual Studio (code named "Orcas"). It can be programmed using any Dot Net language. The format is licensed under open-source code, so anyone can add things to it. The plugin works for Safari, Firefox and IE.

checkout these posts:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/30/silverlight-the-web-just-got-richer/

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/02/yahoo_launches_.html

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/05/mashin_with_mic.html

http://www.popfly.ms/

http://zero1infinity.stumbleupon.com/

Friday, May 18, 2007

Aptana JavaScript Editor

I love good IDE's.


One of the reason's I love eclipse is because it is so versatile. You can add any type of addin to Eclipse, and there are many out there. Today I wish to talk a little about APTANA IDE.





The Aptana is an IDE for Javascript (AJAX anyone?) with an excellent bonus.
It allows you to use code-Assist, or as Microsoft users call it "intellisense". You can add your own libraries to the code assist area, and it considers them part of the framework.

It works with CSS, HTML, JS, RUBY, RHTML, RAILS.


It's pretty easy to use with Microsoft's excellent Ajax Framework (formerly known as atlas).
It's still not as god as microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 IDE. check out the free version
Microsoft Web Developer Express

Since VS2005 and the free version as well, do not have good javascript support, i rally my work around both IDE's leaving the hardcore JS to APTANA and the debugging and design to the VS2005.

They work well together, and do not step on each others toes.

give them a try.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Bluetooth away

The Bluetooth technology that has hit us is nothing short of incredible. I have always been one for technology, and for protocols that have been standardized.

  • When I sync'd my nokia's, it was always via IR, never via cable (waste of money, each cell phone having its own cable...) .
  • Having an IR keyboard was fun (and I never suffered all the loss-of-connectivity others complained about all the time).
  • Having an Fm wireless keyboard/mouse is also cheap, and fun.
  • I guess having a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse is the same. - I dunno I don't have 'em.

However, most of the BT accessories have been aimed at the cell phone market.Mostly the BT earphones are most popular.

I have a nokia 7370, and a nokia 813i BT earphone. I also own a couple of laptops some with BT embedded devices as well as a BT USB dongle (Motorola). I use BT to sync my phone to my outlook via Nokia's free software.

Yesterday-night I couldn't sleep. I'm an insomniac, but it's irrelevant right now. So I was thinking:

"I have an ear-piece, why can't I connect it to the computer and listen to music (mp3) at the 7m distance I speak with my cell-phone ?"

So I started digging and came up with Wei-Meng Lee's input, he wrote at WindowsDevCenter. In his article he states that you need to use broadcom's stack to change your BT profile.I have to say, It didn't work... and I am still very disapointed.

However... I have come across an excellent little piece of ingenuity.

Use your Cell Phone as a BT remote control

I think it's an ingenious idea.

The guys a www.salling.com have created this awesome program called "Salling Clicker" for PC and MAC.

What it does is by using Java scripts that run via the windows scripting host in your computer you can control anything on your computer from your BT enabled phone.Now I must say for the cost of $23.95 you can have your own BT Remote control from your Laptop is an ok deal.

Besides this being an excellent idea, with tons of supported phones, it also allows ME to add my own JS or VB scripts, and enhance the basic functionalities of the Clicker.I tested the free version and it works (on Bsplayer, my fav app) , and think it's a cool idea.

For anyone who knows me knows 2 things:

  1. I give lectures with PowerPoint slides
  2. I am an avid film buff.

I now have a customizable/scriptable remote control!!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

בדיחות

בחור אחד הגיע לראיון עבודה בכלבו גדול ומפורסם. המראיין ששוחח אתו התלהב ממנו מאוד, אולם דבר אחד הפריע לו מלקבל את הבחור לעבודה: כל הזמן הוא היה ממצמץ בעין אחת. "תראה בחור", הוא הסביר, "כאן זה כלבו מכובד ולא נוכל לקבל איש מכירות שיקרוץ כל הזמן." "אה, זה שום דבר", אמר הבחור, "אני לוקח כדור אספירין וזה עובר. "באמת?" שאל המראיין, "אפשר לראות?" הכניס הבחור את ידו לכיסו כדי להוציא את האספירין. תוך כדי חיפוש הוא הוציא חפיסות קונדומים בצבעים שונים. "תראה בחור", אמר לו המראיין, "אנחנו כלבו מכובד ולא נוכל להעסיק עובדים שכל הזמן מסתובבים עם חפיסות קונדומים ומחפשים בחורות."- מחפשים בחורות? מה פתאום?? אני בחור הגון שנשוי באושר! אני לא מחפש שום בחורות!- באמת? אז מה זה כל הקונדומים הצבעוניים הללו?-אה... זה... אני אסביר לך: ניסית פעם להיכנס לבית מרקחת ולבקש מהרוקח חבילת אספירין תוך כדי קריצה?

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Kill Kazini

How to kill the Kazini Web Development Server

Kazini is a very nice development server, and is a great blessing for programmers, however there are times you wish to neuralize all the kazinis at the same time.
It would not be ne
When you wish to get rid of all the webservices together, kill the Application, test a-new, whatever the reason. (This function wouldn't be needed if when you clicked on the [STOP] button. it would kill the kazinis itself, but since it doesn't:

  • run this little snippet from the command line (Start->Run)
    C:\>taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq WebDev.WebServer.EXE"

Although they stay visible in the taskbar, they are dead (just move the mouse ober them to see)
this happens because the Windows hasn't yet updated the bar, because it does not monitor the commandline (for obvious reasons)



  • another option would be to save it to a batch file
(everything on the same line)
C:\>echo taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq WebDev.WebServer.EXE" > c:\KillKazini.bat
then you can run (Start->Run->C:\KillKazini)

  • another option would be to add it to the External Tools menu

in Visual Studio 2005

  1. [Tools]->[External Tools..
  2. Click on [Add]
Title: Kill all Kizinis
Command: %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\taskkill.exe
Arguments: /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq WebDev.WebServer.EXE"

3. Click [OK]

Now to use:

[Tools]->[Kill all Kazinis]

c you next time

Monday, May 07, 2007

Bookmarking..

Bookmarking

I think it's been quite a chase to locate a good bookmarking site.

I have narrowed it down to 2 providers:

Sync2IT
www.sync2it.com - I have used their services for years now.
They are free.
you d/l and use a small resident program that PHYICALLY syncs your bookmarks in IE, Firefox, Opera to the site.. also reads hebrew and other non english and accented bookmarks and titles.

plus side - very fast, reliable, puts your bookmarks on the computer and syncs your office bookmarks and your home bookmarks, your laptop etc.. you can search your bookmarks, search others bookmarks, create collections, recieve updates of others collections etc..


downside - the only way i am able to add a bookmark is via my browser, so if i dont want to install the client for some reason, or i just want to manage my bookmarks i must be on my own machine. - this is a big downside - but maybe i just didn't read the faq.


Del.ico.us
http://del.icio.us

plus side - Everything is on the web, including the management software. you can use Tags to say what the bookmark is about, and you can put a bookmark in many different "virtual" locations, this eliminates the "sophies choice" syndrome of where to keep the bookmark: under programming? under customising, under dot net or under framework ? or maybe under cool stuff? or Object Oriented Ideas? - you get the idea.

downside - Everything is on the web, so you need to have a browser page open at your account.. this is bothersome for me, i hate having lots of windows open (and i usually have at least 7 if not 10 browsers open together) - I use Maxthon.. www.maxthon.com