Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day: 08/28/2011

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

I'm not too old to have a Piñata at my next birthday.. am I? I wanna Death Star Piñata!

technabob - Death Star Piñata: Stay on Target! Stay on Target!

"Star Wars and piñatas – they go together like… um… Star Wars and piñatas. Despite the fact that there’s not that much in common between the two, I still love this Death Star piñata.

..."

Naaaa! You're never to old to have a Death Star Piñata!

Wait to have a birthday party I'd need friends (What is a party with one person called? "Sad")... and to be social too. GRRR...

And all my kids are too old and no grandkids yet. Double GRRR!!!

Wait! I know! A Thanksgiving Death Star Piñata! Or a Christmas Death Star Piñata! WAIT, WAIT,WAIT... A New Years Death Star Piñata! Drinking and a Death Star Piñata!... oh... um... wait... um... err... never mind... sigh...

Stanford Web Application class available online free (and more in their OpenClassroom too)

Stanford - OpenClassroom

"Full courses. Short Videos. Free for everyone

..."

OpenClassroom - Web Applications

Course Description

Although the World-Wide Web was initially conceived as a vehicle for delivering documents, it is now being used as a platform for sophisticated interactive applications, displacing the traditional mechanism of installable binaries. Web-based applications offer numerous advantages, such as instant access, automatic upgrades, and opportunities for collaboration on a massive scale. However, creating Web applications requires different approaches than traditional applications and involves the integration of numerous technologies. This class will introduce you to the Web technologies and give you experience creating Web applications. In the process you will learn about markup languages, scripting languages, network protocols, interactive graphics, event-driven programming, and databases, and see how they all work together to deliver exciting applications.

..."

Another cool learning resource...

The "short videos" in the tag on the OpenClassroom page made me laugh. Seems they understand our YouTube generation attention span well... :P

(via Jason Haley - Interesting Finds: September 7, 2011 )

[Humor] Geek bumper sticker humor - There's no place like...

Saw this picture in another post (P2P lawyer: IP address not enough, let me search all PCs in the house) and got a chuckle out of it...

Photo, There's no place like 127.0.0.1, courtesy of timo_w2s

"Building Applications for Windows Phone 'Mango' Jump Start" sessions are now available on-demand on Channel 9

Mango Jump Start (01): Building Windows Phone Apps with Visual Studio 2010

"Microsoft MVPs Rob Miles and Andy Wigley are back! The "Building Applications for Windows Phone "Mango" Jump Start" was hosted by Microsoft Learning as a follow-up to last year's Windows Phone 7 Jump Start sessions. Mobile application developers rave about the fast-paced, demo-rich, real-world and often-times humorous approach Rob and Andy use to deliver this timely content. Now that "Mango" has made such a huge splash in the industry, we've asked them to put together another great course.

This course is specially tailored for developers looking to build cool applications and games for the new Windows Phone Mango Platform.

During this module, Rob and Andy outline how to create Windows Phone applications using Visual Studio. This introductory content covers how to create Windows Phone solutions, edit program source files, and add and manage program resources, build and run the solution. Next, they demonstrate options for debugging solutions using the Windows Phone Emulator or an actual device as well as managing the solution properties for deployment in the marketplace.

Mango Jump Start (01): Building Windows Phone Apps with Visual Studio 2010

Mango Jump Start (02): Silverlight on Windows Phone—Introduction

Mango Jump Start (03): Silverlight on Windows Phone—Advanced

Mango Jump Start (04): Using Expression to Build Windows Phone Interfaces

Mango Jump Start (05): Windows Phone Fast Application Switching

Mango Jump Start (06): Windows Phone Multi-tasking & Background Tasks

Mango Jump Start (07): Using Windows Phone Resources (Bing Maps, Camera, etc.)

Mango Jump Start (08a): Application Data Storage on Windows Phone | Part 1

Mango Jump Start (08b): Application Data Storage on Windows Phone | Part 2

Mango Jump Start (09): Using Networks with Windows Phone

Mango Jump Start (10): Tiles & Notifications on Windows Phone

Mango Jump Start (11a): XNA for Windows Phone | Part 1

Mango Jump Start (11b): XNA for Windows Phone | Part 2

Mango Jump Start (12): Selling a Windows Phone Application

..." [GD: Description leached in full]

I had said here, 16 hours, 2 Days, 1 Mango - Online, live and free training, "Building Applications for Windows Phone Mango Jump Start" August 23 & 24 (i.e. next week), that I hoped these sessions would be available and they are! The Channel 9 On-Demand Video Fairy [err... um... err... del del del... I mean the Channel 9 Genie! Yeah... that... ] granted my wish! :)

(via Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson - Windows Phone Mango Jump Start Workshop Now On Video)

The "Windows Phone 7 Quick Start Developer Guide" free PDF [reg-ware]

Marius Bancila’s Blog - Windows Phone 7 Quick Start Developer Guide

"Earlier this year I published a series of articles on Codeguru about WP7 Silverlight development. Later on I have remastered them a bit and merged them together with a couple of articles by Vipul Patel into a small eBook that was published on internet.com, called Windows Phone 7 Quick Start Developer Guide. There is also a ZIP archive with the source code for all the sample projects presented throughout the book. While you can still find the articles online on the site, I recommend the eBook as a better learning material as it puts the various topics together.

The eBook is intended for developers with a fair knowledge of .NET programming that want to start developing Silverlight applications for Windows Phone 7. However, it is not a complete guide to Silverlight development for Windows Phone 7. The eBook covers a smaller set of Silverlight topics that is intended to prepare the reader for the most common challenges a Windows Phone 7 developer faces.

..."

Here's a snap from the PDF's table of contents;

I like how the TOC was done... Those pictures add a very nice touch.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Used to be addicted to Command and Conquer and C&C:Red Alert? What if I was to tell you about a free, open source clone? And that it was written in C#?

OpenRA

"Welcome Back, Commander

OpenRA is a Libre/Free Real Time Strategy game engine supporting early Westwood games like Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

News

Release 20110906, 05/09/2011 1:43pm

We have just unleashed release-20110906, based on playtest-20110904

This release includes a totally reworked UI for C&C, many new maps, and many bugfixes.

Stay tuned for our next release which will add some really great new features!

The full user-friendly changelog can be found on GitHub.

..."

Here's a snip from the project's github (note the *.cs, *.csproj, etc :)

I've been following this project for a while, but earlier releases wouldn't work on my notebook, so did feel right in blogging about it. But with the latest release, the app seems to run just fine... :)

Why oh why do eBooks cost more than print/hardcover? Here's some backstory why...

Nathan Bransford - Why Some E-Books Cost More Than the Hardcover

"The good people at Reddit recently noticed something peculiar and engaged in a spirited debate about it. The topic? A bete noir for many an e-book reader: E-books priced more than their print edition.

How could this possibly be? Paper costs more than electrons, so surely e-books should be cheaper, right?

Believe it or not, this isn't a glitch. And it's not happening because publishers are asleep at the wheel either.

Come down the rabbit hole with me into the wholesale/agency tunnel, and I'll tell you why this is happening.

...

But the biggest problem, as that Reddit discussion illustrates, is that it creates a great deal of consumer confusion and angst. It doesn't make any intuitive sense for e-books to cost more than paper. By keeping e-book prices high, it opens up a huge opportunity for the 99-cent Kindle bestsellers to exploit. Also: As the music industry found out, annoy digital consumers at your peril.

And it just took almost a thousand words to explain why it's happening.

..."

What how much I whine about Kindle/eBook pricing, I had to highlight this...

A few recent "books for" post round-up

Been a number of posts in the last couple days related to books for different dev purposes, etc, and so I wanted to do a quick round-up of them for future reference. And if you find this round-up useful, then that's cool too! :)

Here's a snap of each post;

3 books every (not just junior) development manager should read before diving into practice

8 books (and 3 kits) to get started with Arduino

10 must-read books for developers

Books for newly minted Scrum Masters

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Some marketing, you've just got to love...

Solarbotics

I don't usually do posts like this, highlighting a storefront, but I saw this and loved it (could it be that my current reading of an awesome zombie book, Married with Zombies, is impacting my judgment a bit?... lol ;)

Okay WinForm/WPF Dialogs with Ookii.Dialogs

ookii.org - Ookii.Dialogs

"Ookii.Dialogs is a class library for .Net applications providing several common dialogs. Included are classes for task dialogs, credential dialogs, progress dialogs, input dialogs, and common file dialogs.

This package contains two class libraries: Ookii.Dialogs.dll for use with Windows Forms, and Ookii.Dialogs.Wpf.dll for use with Windows Presentation Foundation. The classes inside are pretty much identical; only the input dialog is not available for WPF. Some additional utility classes for Windows Forms are provided that are not available for WPF, see below for details.

The included sample applications Ookii.Dialogs.Sample.exe and Ookii.Dialogs.Sample.Wpf.exe demonstrate the dialogs for Windows Forms and WPF respectively. View the source of these applications to see how to use the dialogs.

Full reference documentation for the class library is available in the online and in the help file included with the download.

..."

This is a pretty cool looking collection of Winform/WPF dialogs, a library that I've not seen before. I doesn't look like it's been updated in a couple years, but the source is provided and the license looks very friendly, so have at it!

Here's some snaps of the mentioned sample app.

(via http://www.delicious.com/tag/wpf - rtaylornc)

When will the 1000th XKCD will come out? F# knows (as in using F# to figure it out...)

Robert Pickering's Strange Blog - Calculating when the 1000th XKCD will appear

"Like so many geeks I’m a massive XKCD fan. But I’m often troubled by questions like when will the 1000th XKCD appear, or the 1024th or even the 2000th? Even though the first two numbers are getting quite close now, it’s still more fingers and toes than I have so working it out by hand is out. Fortunately we have computers to this kind of heavy lifting for us, and the solution in F# is kinda cute.

We need 3 pieces of information to be able to work out when any given XKCD will appear: an epoch date and number as well as the days that XKCD is published on. I chose todays date, 2nd September 2011 when XKCD 946 was published. I would have been nice to start with issue 1, but in the early days of XKCD it wasn’t published regularly so starting at the beginning would considerable complexity the task, and besides, we already know when numbers in the past were published. XKCD is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so here’s how we encode this information in F#:

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There's something that's just dev-geek awesome about this...

Thursday, September 01, 2011

While it can be too later to prepare, it's never too early... Being ready is not hard, just do it, bit by bit...

LAFD News & Information - This September: A Time to Remember. A Time to Prepare.

"As you know, this September will mark the ten year anniversary of 9/11 and the Los Angeles Fire Department asks you to take time to remember those lost as well as time to make sure you are prepared for future emergencies. September is National Preparedness Month (NPM), which was founded after 9/11 to increase preparedness in the U.S. It is a time to prepare yourself and those in your care for an unexpected emergency.

Please plan in the event you must go for three days without electricity, water service, access to a supermarket, or local services for several days. The Los Angeles Fire Department along with our friends at FEMA and Ready.gov suggest you follow these three simple steps:

1. Get a Kit: Keep enough emergency ...

2. Make a Plan: Discuss, agree on, and document....

3. Be Informed: Free information is available to assist you from federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial resources. ...

Some have asked, "Why do I need to prepare?".
Fire, police, and rescue personnel may not always be able to reach you quickly, such as if they're overwhelmed by demand from multiple emergencies, or trees and power lines are down blocking access. The most important step you can take in helping us, is being able to take care of yourself and those in your care; the more people who are prepared, the quicker the community will recover

..."

You've heard me sing this song before, and you're going to hear me sing it again... "Being prepared is not hard to do..."

Just do it a bit at a time. A flashlight here, new batteries there, a pre-packed kit (the American Red Cross has some, and building your own isn't hard either) there, extra water then, some extra pet food, etc, etc.

Just do a little at a time and after a bit you'll have quite a bit.

Make it a family project. Have your kids help with the plan and the contact list, make it a game or a fun activity (like a scavenger hunt for preparedness supplies or something). Making it fun makes it less scary.

But start. Today. Please.

"Intro to NoSQL" or "Noodling NoSQL" or "No NoSQL? Now know NoSQL...")

FRD - Intro to NoSQL

A Brief Overview:

Databases have been a major part of software since the earliest days of computing. Hence, it didn’t take long for Database Management Systems (DBMSes) to be developed and quickly become a staple in software development. Their history can be traced back to the 1960′s, but most of the DBMSes still in use today trace their origins to Relational DBMSes (RDBMSes) originally developed in the 1970′s.
However, there is a new group of DBMSes that have gained support and relevance in the last few years, all sharing certain characteristics and collectively known as NoSQL DBMSes.

The term “NoSQL” was originally used in 1998 to describe a new lightweight open-source relational DBMS that did not expose an SQL interface. The name was then reprised and used 10 years later by Eric Evans (of Rackspace) and Johan Oskarsson (of Last.fm) for the NoSQL meetup/conference focusing on the topic of “open-source, distributed, non relational databases“.
Clearly the name NoSQL had grown past its initial meaning (note how the original NoSQL DBMS is indeed a relational system).

...

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Any blog post that begins with a picture like that deserves a second look... :P

Anyway...

You'd have to be living under a rock (not that there's anything wrong with that) to not have at least heard the term, "NoSQL." But you might be in the boat (cough... with me... cough) wondering what it "is.". I mean I know, or can pretend to, what it means and implies, but my knowledge lacks depth (cough... to say the least... cough) (cough... I really have to have this cough looked at... cough)

I dug the way this article presented NoSQL, that it did so where I learned some intelligent sounding words, while not hurting my brain too much and all the while learning about NoSQL too.

(via Jason Haley - Interesting Finds: September 1, 2011 )

[Humor] Road signs you've got to love...

CBS Los Angeles - Pictures: Most Useful Road Signs of Summer 2011

Got to love these kind of signs...

NodeJs on Windows & Azure round-up from the awesome Angel...

Angel “Java” Lopez on Blog - Playing With NodeJs (1) Running on Windows (and Azure)

"Up until some weeks ago, the only way to run NodeJs on Windows were to download it from the Git repo and compile it using CygWin (another case of get the bananas AND get the monkey).

Building node.js on Cygwin (Windows)
How to install Node.js on Windows

But now there is an alternative: NodeJs team has published a Windows pre-compiled version (0.5.4 and 0.5.5):

http://nodejs.org/#download
http://nodejs.org/dist/
http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.5.4/node.exe
http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.5.5/node.exe

(there is a new version http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.5.5/node-186364e.exe)

I’m using the 0.5.4. Let’s run a simple demo that use Socket.IO:

...

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Node.Js is getting something of a following and some geek-press. I'm not jumping on it yet, but I am watching, especially now that there's a compiled binary...

PrivBar updated for IE9 and Win7 (Think "What privilege mode/level am I running" in toolbar for Win7 Explorer/IE)

Aaron Margosis' "Non-Admin" and App-Compat WebLog - PrivBar Update

"PrivBar is a toolbar I first published over seven years ago (!) for Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer. I updated it three years ago to add support for x64. Today I am updating it to offer better support for Vista and Windows 7 and the corresponding Server versions. Specifically, instead of showing a group name such as Users or Administrators in the toolbar, it shows the integrity level of the current page. One significant benefit is that this helps mitigate the removal of the Protected Mode indicator from the IE9 status bar.

Download the .zip file attached to this post; extract the DLLs to a shared location (e.g., under Program Files) and register each with regsvr32.exe. (Note that PrivBarX64.dll can be used only on x64 editions of Windows.) The toolbars need to be enabled separately for Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, and Internet Explorer (64 bit): press Alt to display the menu, then choose View | Toolbars | PrivBar x64. (It says “x64” even for the 32-bit version.)

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