| A math problem. |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|02:33 pm] |
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Given two arbitrary angles (between 0 and 360) how do you determine whether the shortest distance is clockwise or counter-clockwise? |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|05:16 pm] |
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Does anyone actually *like* objective C? |
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| C# |
[Apr. 3rd, 2009|09:06 am] |
So, I have already admitted it-- I like C#.
I like its rapid development and easy prototyping, I especially love the integration of the language with the IDE, and I have even made a truce with the garbage collector.
You know what's bugging me about it right now though? When I go searching for answers to my XNA or Windows Mobile questions, I wind up surrounded by forum topics from web developers! |
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| WTF |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|04:01 pm] |
Why does the BREW header file AEESTDLIB.H have this?
#define COMPRESSMEM() MALLOC(0xdeadbeef) |
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| On OS X and Windows 7 |
[Jan. 23rd, 2009|01:55 pm] |
I've already ranted else where about the ignorance of Vista-haters. How quickly they flock to the new Windows 7, despite the fact that it's really Vista 2.0; the negative-hype surrounding Vista is unbelievable.
In other news though, screen shots of the new Windows 7 Task Bar were received by the public with many (not-unfriendly) remarks that it's pretty much ripping off OS X's Dock. Recently, though, Ars Technica's Peter Bright wrote up an in-depth comparison of the two interfaces here: http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/dock-and-windows-7-taskbar.ars
Bright does an excellent job of highlighting the history and subtle differences between windows in the two operating systems. However, he is trying to state that the new Task Bar is categorically unlike the Dock. Specifically, he says: "Ultimately, the new Taskbar is not Mac-like in any important way, and only the most facile of analyses would claim that it is."
For those of you not familiar with the term 'facile' being used here, it means 'easily attained' or perhaps 'shallow' or 'lazy'.
It's true that it is easy to see the similarity between the two. But perhaps calling them similar is not a matter of ignorant reviews.. perhaps everyone who has looked at it is saying that the new Windows 7 Task Bar is a rip-off because IT QUITE OBVIOUSLY IS.
Let's take a look at how Windows is OBVIOUSLY ripping off the Mac in a very important way:
In OS X, how do you start an application? You either type its name in the Finder, or you click one of the icons that is pinned to the Dock.
In XP, how do you start an application? You click a shortcut, or find it in the Start Menu.
In Vista, how do you start an application? You click a shortcut, find it in the Start Menu, or type its name into the search box (similar to the Finder).
In Windows 7, how do you start an application? You click a shortcut, find it in the Start Menu, type its name into the search box, or click one of the icons that is pinned to the Dock.
Do you see any similarities? Windows 7 is trying to reduce the amount of work it takes for a user to be productive, like any good interface should. And they have come to the same conclusion as OS X. Pinning shortcuts to the Task Bar/Dock is an Apple idea that Microsoft is borrowing. The end.
I'm not even saying its a bad thing. Hell, Windows and Mac have been converging for years now. Being able to read each other's file systems, porting Office to Mac, game install discs with both Windows and Mac distributions, adding more than one button to the Mac mouse, porting OS X to run on Intel CPUs. It's really not a big surprise.
I don't know if Windows is becoming Mac, or Mac is becoming Windows but until a new interface paradigm becomes prevalent (touch screens), both systems are slowly going to find the same solutions to the question: what is the most efficient interface to combine a keyboard, mouse, and monitor? |
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| One down.. |
[Jan. 19th, 2009|06:16 pm] |
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I just sent off the first 'real' chapter in my book to the editors. It's still a little too early to feel accomplished, and I need to start work on the next chapter soon, but: ahhh. |
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| I have to admit... |
[Dec. 18th, 2008|09:50 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  It's winter.. whys the A/C on? | ] |
I just used VBScript.
Basically, I've got to do these tedious email work requests as a part of my job (tedious but admittedly necessary). And I was just asked to stop batching requests together, which means 8x more of these things.
Typically I just copy an old one I sent previously and change the info, but that is still painful AND it leads to a lot of typo emails where I forget to replace something somewhere for the new request.
So as a programmer, naturally, I decide to script the process.
First off, let me tell you, figuring out how to do this was not easy. There are no tutorials. The windows knowledge base thing has a 4 step list that gets you into the 'form editor' and thats it. You're on your own.
There's a toolbar to drop in some buttons and labels and things. And fooling around I also manage to find a way to create 'user defined properties' and dragging those into the form editor automatically creates a label and text input box for the user to input those values.
But then what? How do you connect that to the actual content of the email?
As it turns out, you have to resort to scripting for EVERYTHING. The 'form editor' is basically a Visual Basic UI editor inside of an email window. So eventually you find the 'view code' button, which pops open a text editor window. Its basically a stripped down version of Wordpad, stripped because it has none of the functionality outside of the text input box. It supports RTF, because if I copy syntax-colored code from a real IDE into the window it maintains its formating, but it doesn't do/allow its own syntax highlighting.
Anyhow, what I have is this: a Visual Basic UI editor, a text input box that expects code of some sort, and the internet.
After enough playing around I manage to figure out some event functions (or "Sub" routines in VBScript) to hook changes in my form inputs. I can muck around in the email's DOM object representation and set the subject line. Finally I find out how I can modify the body of the email-- by parsing its HTMLbody value as a string.
So basically I have to re-write HTML? Not good enough. Instead, I seed the body of template email with easy to parse tags where I want my data to end up (like this: [DATAFIELD1] ) and simply do a search and replace on the HTMLbody string when I want to insert my values.
Except now I have no way of changing the data again if the user changes their input before sending-- so I have to keep an unchanged copy the HTMLbody string and simply modify and use that as the HTMLbody. So the next time they change data I dont look for tags in the email body, I look for them in the copy of the email body.
Except that for some reason I cant store a copy of the HTMLbody. The error message doesn't make any sense, but if I take out the code that tries to copy it works.. so I create a whole new MailItem object, and set IT'S HTMLbody property to copy my current email's HTMLbody and that works.
And after a day of tweaking I get something that generally works, except when the email is received, it cannot be viewed in the preview pane due to 'security reasons'? Whatever, the subject line has the info they need before opening the email.. good enough.
But yeah.. basically the Microsoft Way for automating office programs is still the same: use a crappy programming language and a poorly documented DOM to piece together enough functionality with a minimum of negative side effects.
If the language was Python or JScript instead of VBScript, it still would have been just as bad, but I wouldn't have felt as bad doing it. |
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| Another Reason To Hate Lotus Notes |
[Dec. 11th, 2008|10:13 am] |
So, I hate Lotus Notes. That's established.
I have managed to avoid using it for so long (~6 months), that I forgot my password.
Herein lies my account of the tribulations, and an interesting/disgusting insight, that followed:
1) Use Lotus Note's Password Recovery feature
conclusion: doesn't work.
2) Contact IT - upon hearing the result of step (1) "haha, that never works, here try this:"
advice: go to company website to download a special ID file and put it in a certain place. This will 'reset' my password to a default.
conclusion: still doesn't work. IT will have to send a message to HQ in Japan, and they'll get back to me in 3 days. THREE FUCKING DAYS. gg.
3) IT says "Try it now"
action: re-download file from the website, and follow step (2) again.
conclusion: it works, my password is reset and I'm in. I set a new password.
But wait.. clicking on the mail button gives an error. "Cant find server".
Apparently, when I wasn't using Notes they switched mail servers. So after 15 minutes of scratching his head the IT guy says.. um, lets just re-install it. But it's not that simple, so I'll get back to you in a while.
4) Uninstall it.
I feel the sweet joy of clicking the 'Remove' button on Lotus Notes, which is only partially tainted by the fact that I know I'll be reinstalling it later today.
In a few minutes, I am cleaning up my desktop and notice a curios file labeled "bookmark.nsf" -- apparently Notes KNEW that I was going to have to reinstall, for you cannot escape its tainted grasp for long. Actually this is a lie, apparently the IT guy put it there as a backup.
Anyhow, I opened it up with Visual Studio. The brunt of it is all garbled binary data, but its interspersed with readable ascii values, in the form of.. VISUAL BASIC CODE?? EEEEEEW!
Not only are they storing data AND code together. It's freaking VB Script. Ew.
5) Reinstall it.
action: IT guy comes back and shows me the files necessary to install, and the default paths they want to be used. I install one version, and then an upgrade patch, as directed. The patch is extremely laggy in the configuration stage for some reason.
conclusion: I open it up and.. NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
"Oooohh.. ", says IT guy. "We forgot to delete the Notes folder after you uninstalled it."
6) Delete that shit, then reinstall it AGAIN.
note: While configuring lotus notes they ask for the path to a Domino server. I'm guessing this is like the equivalent to a Microsoft Outlook Server or something? I just think its funny to name a server Domino -- 'Domino Effect' anyone? |
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