Pioneer Programmer Shaped the Evolution of Computers

 NSArray *pathsForDownloadedFiles = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
 NSString *pathMain = [pathsForDownloadedFiles objectAtIndex:0];
 NSLog(@"main download directory is [%s]", [pathMain UTF8String]);

The first line lets you allow Apple to put the application download directory anywhere it likes. It will also be able to change it at will, without breaking your program.
The second line means that there is only one directory you need to access and its the first one. Remember in C arrays are zero based which means the first element of the array is at index number zero not at index number one.
NSLog will let you run the app in the simulator OR on your device and send logging information back to the debug console in XCode. Nice and integrated.

An alternative method:

 NSString *mainPath = [self getDataPath];

Uhhhhh yeah a bit shorter. Its not deprecated from what I see so one can use this method also.

Finally lets see where our resource is. Again, if you use this method, then XCode will be able to re-layout the resource directory structure anyway it wants without breaking your program. You KNOW they’re going to do this someday and they won’t tell you until its been done. So lets Program Defensively. Just like you drive defensively.
To find a specific resource that was compiled into your application:

 NSString *resourcePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"mission1" ofType:@"jmf"];
 NSLog(@"Path for mission file is [%s]", [resourcePath UTF8String]);

The AT (@) sign is the NSString constructor without declaring an NSString. In case you’re wondering.

Good Luck and God’s Speed to ya mates.

Parents’ Choice Awards : Software : Mobile Apps

From an old newsgroup I found this handy tidbit: Rename the file ClientRegistry.blob.

I did as told, and Steam then updated itself, and connected successfully.

Here is a reference article on Steam’s web site:

Clientregistry.blog

Good Luck!

Number one, Microsoft should leverage the language switching capability of Windows 7 Ultimate. It is a terrible shame that Microsoft’s top operating system is always considered a joke. Reading the newsgroup postings that discuss whether Ultimate is worth the money, I usually discover that people see absolutely no value in it. Ultimate does have a great hammer and screwdriver, but they need to assemble the small house, and then sell the entire solution. The language switching feature should be promoted for schools to teach students foreign languages. Microsoft can even develop a suggested curriculum, with the help of teachers, and offer it for free on their web site. As an example of how such a program would work, teachers would instruct students to switch the language of their classroom laptops to the foreign language. Students would then type letters to their in-class pen pals. They would be required to ask a certain number of questions, and provide some information about themselves. Their “pen pals” would then write back in an appropriate manner. The instructor would have administrative access to the entire letter archive, project letters on a screen, and critically analyze the grammar. By writing in the foreign language constantly, students would learn it much more thoroughly and faster than by merely reading, doing rote problems for homework, and taking tests. Microsoft may have to create some tools for the teacher, or the classroom could use Sharepoint or even carbon copy the teacher on all correspondence, to get the information flowing between teacher and student. With a curriculum established, Microsoft would push Windows 7 Ultimate for all students. With the student purchase costs being fairly low, even if Microsoft charges students an extra ten dollars for Ultimate, that would be ten dollars they never would have made. The new standard in the schools would be the premium operating system, and the perpetual revenue increase would be a great boon to the company.

Suggestion number two for Microsoft is to add generational data groups (GDGs) also called generational data sets, to the premium Windows operating system. Long a staple of mainframes, a GDG is a historical collection of a particular file. Each time the file is updated it is saved as a new version, and a set number of previous versions are kept as well. The oldest version is purged when a new file is added, and the total number of versions that are kept is set by the user.

On PCs we all struggle at times updating files and saving backups of them. If Microsoft built in generational datasets into Windows, the user would be able to save any file, and Windows would automatically save the previous version as well as the new one. When the user makes a mistake and loses information in the file, they can easily go to the historical version of the file.  Microsoft should build a thread view of GDG’s into Windows Explorer. A file appears with a plus sign perhaps, indicating that several versions of the file are available. Explorer can show an expanded view of all versions, or a collapsed view showing the most recent file date. Additional columns can be added such as the number of generations that are saved for each file. Microsoft Office may take special advantage of GDG capability, but Windows should seamlessly allow any application to save a file, while the OS automatically turns it into a GDG. Requirements for application conformance with the new standard of course are up to Microsoft, but I suggest making it a built in function that can be turned on per individual file, file type, or global. With GDG capability I would strongly reconsider moving up to Windows 7 Ultimate. How about you?

Mechanics Seek Out ‘Right to Repair’

I am not surprised that the automakers continue to make car parts proprietary. This article talks about a Saab windshield-wiper switch that requires initialization before it can be installed. If it is not initialized, the car will not start. Now that is pretty extreme, but the automakers claim they do this to protect their trade secrets. It seems like a lot of effort to go through when designing a superior part that the cheap parts knockoff companies could not match would be the best protection for car parts sales. Independent mechanics are subsequently pushing for legislation that forces automakers to share their cars’ onboard computer data. I feel for independent mechanics, but if such a bill passed, could not the precedent be applied to all technology companies, and force them all, for similar reasons, to share their code? We shall see where this leads, but the cost for independent mechanics to collect all of the proprietary equipment to fix all makes of cars will probably never go down.

XFX has great fast support and recommended a driver scrub routine, so I did it. The next attempted install still crashed the computer. Here is the finagling that I did and I hope it works for you.

I installed the card and booted to safe mode. I ran the ATI driver. It fails on the system detection routine and had to be forced shut. But it must have copied the primary driver in place and allocated resources properly. I booted to windows normally and no error or reboot occurred. I noticed that some of the driver components, like the HD audio, were missing so I re-ran the driver. It copied in place the control panel, audio driver, and the other files that failed to install in safe mode. I may have rebooted after this I cannot remember. Voila, everything is working.

I did have to jump through other hoops: When this contention started the onboard LAN stopped working. Once a LAN driver is corrupt or missing in XP getting it back is tough. I installed another NIC, and the original one then re-appeared. I reran the driver for the onboard NIC, got it working, then removed the PCI NIC.

I must say I am ecstatic with this card. The previous card is an 8800 GT Alpha Dog that may have heat damage due to the fan being at a fixed speed from the factory. (On an over-clocked card? This was a manufacturer error!) The Radeon 5750 is cool, quiet, and the performance in FPS is fifteen to twenty percent faster than the Alpha Dog. I admit the first timedemo I did on the Alpha Dog was after it had started displaying artifacts, however, Toms Hardware does show about a twenty-percent performance increase between the regular 8800 GT and the 5750. I also chose the Radeon because Tom’s Hardware showed the 5750 as using some 30 watts less power and operating cooler than the stock 8800. It is working great.

One should always log the methods for solving these types of crazy issues. Something could come up where this card would have to be re-installed, and I probably will not remember this ad hoc solution, the only way I could get the card to work.

We have talked about Droid fragmentation and holy smokes this underscores the mess that is called Droid. Actually, its not Google’s fault, they are actively upgrading and maintaining the operation system. The problem is with the handset makers and carriers (who contract for handsets). They are not going back, testing the old droid hardware with the new OS, and then updating the new OS. We wish it were not so. We love Linux and want it to proliferate.

There is obvious demand for Droid phones, regardless the reasons for buying Droid, which are as varied as for buying the iPhone from Apple. The only way out of this mess is for Google to contract with a/some handset makers and create one phone that will step up against the iPhone. Google should be able to be innovative in this space. I would recommend that Sergey stop buying companies and put his creative genius behind this problem. A second option is to open “Google Operations and Update Program” (GOUP) that will update the OS for high volume handsets. This way Google will be able to help the handset makers, and themselves, improve the image of Droid as a mobile OS.

Sergey, you can’t be pleased with this situation. Change it.

Update 1/20/2011 10:07pm

Well the boys pulled the trigger finally. Larry is going to run the company and Sergey is back to the creative work that he is genius at. Hooray, a return to a more exciting Google. Good work guys.

If Steve steps down in a more permanent manner, Tim can take the company in whatever direction he and the board feel it should go. But until then, everyone needs to pull in the same direction that they know Steve would go. Steve is important just because he is Steve, and not because he runs Apple and is the genius behind all of these industries he has dominated. The money, the Apple stock price, the products be damned. They don’t mean anything.

Our best to you Steve, and we wish strength and wisdom to Tim.

Currently a manufacturer would set a “list price”. The seller (like Walmart) knew what they bought it for from the manufacturer, typically 35% – 55% discount from the list price. The seller would then set, what they would call, a fair price. This included their profit and overhead. For example: Huffy sells a bicycle to Walmart for $50 but the list price is $100. Walmart looks benevolent by setting the price at $75 which, theoretically, gives the consumer a $25 discount. Walmart has grown its business by competing on discounts.

Amazon wants software to be sold that way too. Currently, the boxed programs are sold to it at the vendor price, Amazon displays the List price and how much they are going to discount it. Fair enough. They’ve done a spectacular job in my opinion and have served the world well.

However, the change they are trying to implement is that the manufacturer (software developer) will have NO CLUE how much they will make off of each app. If the manufacturer wants to make a minimum price at all pricing levels, then the list price will look like a boxed set of software. This is ridiculous and has to be rethought. I understand all the people saying that Amazon knows its client base and sets the prices accordingly. No problem, let them do that, but don’t mess with the developer. We have to eat too. For us, I think Amazon is not the way the truth and the light for our apps. Amazon needs to ask “what is the minimum price you will accept for your product. What is the maximum you want for the product. What is the cheapest price you have listed it for elsewhere (if you have posted the app elsewhere).

With these facts, Amazon can vary its pricing according to the wishes of the developer. Everyone wins. Just like Steven Covey and Zig Ziglar want (Habit 4). The developer needs to create a budget and project sales. When the sales numbers come in, it will be a mess by having the numbers all over the place. Also, a high level of trust needs to be had. For instance, not that I do not trust Jeff Bezos and his crew, but just imagine for a second that Amazon needed to “make its numbers”. Couldn’t they say that various apps didn’t sell for $2 they had sold for $1 because they priced it according to Christmas pricing, or some other promotion? The developer has to take Amazon’s word for it. In the Apple app store, you always know what it sold for no matter what. You change the price to reflect sales, trends, etc…

I believe Amazon needs to rethink how this all works because all the business books I have read (I bought them from Amazon) say that one needs to control their costs, their pricing, and their business. Amazon’s app store pricing gives the developer no control.

Anyway, this guy calls up last week (Jan 10-14, but I can’t find the audio clip), and it sounds like he was making more than enough money for a full time job from You Tube videos. The gist of it was that You Tube (i.e. Google) revenue shares when your video goes viral. They monitor this and are proactive by sending you an email when it hits one of their thresholds. Then they put ads on your video and share the revenue with you. Cool.

Here are a couple of links about how to get started:
You Tube
Frank Furness
Making Hot Ice – Look at the number of views. People want to know how to do things.

-T-

The question is: Once the loaned book is placed back in my library, can I loan it out again? That point is unclear from their explanation. But of course. And enough people have asked that question, that it “should be” on the FAQ for this policy, but is noticeably absent. I think they are figuring out if they really need to let you.

For me, until that question is answered, my eBook buying is limited. I’m not sure why this is such a big question because O’Reilly’s Safari does something like this, but on a global scale. No lending, mind you, but they’re all “lent” books because one checks them out and back in.

Barnes & Noble has had this feature for a year according to Tech Flash.

The reference to the kicking and screaming publishers is because “The publisher’s have the right to determine which titles are allowed to be loaned”. This is stupid, idiotic and moronic. These publisher’s have NO CLUE. What in the world do they think happens with their current dead trees? Hey CLUELESS *knock*   *knock*  I just gave my Guerrilla Marketing book to a friend who was flying out of town. DUH yeah now she can read it “from afar” like you are afraid the eLending will cause. No DUH. If you haven’t read the writing on the wall, dead trees are not in demand, Kindles are. And iPads and the eBook apps that have proliferated lately.

Publishers: GIVE  IT   UP  already. This is not the Alamo, Steve at Apple and Jeff at Amazon will make you a boatload of money if you let them. They understand your customers WAY better than you. You have lost your way and these innovative companies and people are going to smash you. In fact our next book will probably bypass you and publish right to the iBook store in the modified ePub standard that Steve is championing because you all couldn’t get you act together and make a standard that allowed multimedia, and references, etc… Long Live King Steve and the Pages app (for like $80) that creates ePub ready books for you. OOO RAHH

Does anyone have faith that the publishers will catch on BEFORE they go bankrupt? I think not. The music houses haven’t caught on yet either. Direct Author/Singer/etc to Digital is here and not going to go away. Musicians are in direct contact with their fans (called Customers in business) and that relationship is AWESOME. Say it again AWESOME. The Musicians will get a much larger cut of their profits, just like the Authors will get a larger cut.

This is not to say that the publishers don’t offer something to the authors like editing, artwork, and distribution . . . . OH STRIKE the distribution word. They don’t control that anymore. They haven’t come to grips with that yet.

Long live the Trees. . . LONG LIVE THE TREES saith the faithful.

Live long and prosper Authors, musicians, and all content producers.

-T-

http://amarsagoo.blogspot.com/2007/09/making-sense-of-standard-deviation.html

Kudos to Amar Sagoo

1 ETR4JXW94WTX
2 X99WX6MHF3AN
3 433NN3P9PXYY
4 M3FT39NN9KA6
5 M4T4AT9LRYFE
6 9F66LRN43HM6
7 J3XJKLREAXWT
8 TWHKWMRPNFFN
9 X9P7K697HTEK
10 KEA4XT7PPXXK
11 RHH4K3646WX9
12 PFH6PJEMAE73
13 PHK4ARHXXLRE
14 FKRFYAMXYAK7
15 6647P3TPAPTK
16 F9FP93TRK4LY
17 WN9F7P37JHTK
18 7WKH9EHJT43K
19 FTK74X37JJ7W
20 T43PJL6REPMA
21 6YHPKLNFYLKN
22 WFRPKW4XF6TK
23 TK9HHJXJFWT3
24 YM9AX9LPKXWJ
25 M3ARTNKWNYX6
26 AMT4R6N4TE7K
27 X36YHP9X9X3M
28 X697JYR636KM
29 7369J9TJE7PE
30 PRXAA4JJX63F

U.S. Tech Probe Nears End

In your viewDidLoad or if you call any method to do “things” before displaying then the variable that points to the text field should have the becomeFirstResponder message sent to it.
Example:
In the .h of your viewcontroller or class
UITextField *tfJoroto;

In the .m of your viewcontroller or class
-(void)viewDidLoad {
[tfJoroto becomeFirstResponder];
} // viewDidLoad

This should also set the focus to the UITextField.

Good hunting.
-T-

Today I came across this article from the former CEO of Intel, and he agrees with me.  This is a little absurd as Intel is a multinational company, but the article definitely has some lessons.

How to Make an American Job Before It’s Too Late: Andy Grove

Consider this story from the article and apply it to your job, your environment, your company, and others that you know.  Is it chiming for you now?

“The story comes to mind of an engineer who was to be executed by guillotine. The guillotine was stuck, and custom required that if the blade didn’t drop, the condemned man was set free. Before this could happen, the engineer pointed with excitement to a rusty pulley, and told the executioner to apply some oil there. Off went his head.”

With raging unemployment, and superfluous government spending that could increase inflation ten thousand percent, we are sitting on a nuclear bomb.  Figure out how to be successful, because no one is going to pay your supermarket bill when a lamb chop costs fifteen dollars.  Make no mistake:  Apple and other highly successful companies do not care one bit about the country that made them great.

What will drive your startup in the long run?  Profit margin?  Some semblance of doing the right things perhaps?

1) Create a View Based app
2) Name it of course.
3) Drop down the targets folder in the project explorer. Its where it drops you after project creation.
4) Select your named project as the target.
5) Go to the top menu drop down the Project menu.
6) Choose “Upgrade Current Target for iPad…” selection.
7) Choose One Universal Application. It is already selected.
YAH MULE. Head thumping music going now. Very loud is better.
Click OK . Umm duh
9) Holy smokes Batman it auto-created the MainWindow~iPad.xib for you. Waycool.
As my speakers blow. Joroto will buy me another set right? Part of the “support you local programmer” program. Right!?
It also created a Resources-iPad Group folder for you. It is in your BEST interest to keep your assets separated. Ya know the graphics, etc.
10) It is autoset for a device. Use the drop down on the left under the window control buttons to change to Simulator, and then choose iPad.
11) Build and Run. Everything is ok.
12) Close it and choose the iPhone simulator. Build and run. Everything is ok.
13) You have an icon for your app right? RIGHT!? Double tap the (your project name).plist.
This is the file that tells the app store and the iPlatform OS where to start when running you app and showing things when the app isn’t running.
14) Fifth line down it says “Icon file”. Double tap the blank line on the right and enter the name of your icon. You don’t need the extension, it assumes png. No path is necessary.
So how does it know where the graphic is?
15) Right two-finger tap the Resources Group line. The context menu comes up. Move the cursor over Add, then choose existing file. Now find your file and choose Add (lower right hand corner of the Finder window). A Dialog pops up. I always choose the ALSO COPY the file into the project. This is so all my projects are self contained.
16) Now we want a splash screen, because your bloated code (unless you grew up on CP/M and embedded systems like I did, or had an excellent mentor) will load too slowly.
In the editing of the (your project name).plist where you placed the icon information:
Double finger tap and choose Add Row.
From the list choose “Launch Image (iPad)” selection.
Tap the blank box to the right and enter the name of your splash screen graphic.
Import that graphic into the project using the technique in step 15.
You’ll need a splash images sized for the iPad and then ANOTHER for the iPhone. Graphic Artists are loving this.

Ok you’re cooking with gasoline. Build and run on each simulator. You should see your splash screen, then hit the round button at the bottom of the simulator and you’ll see your icon on the simulator home screen.

Naming convention, although I have yet to fully test this.
(Image name)-(orientation)~(device)@(size).png
For ours its:
Splash-Portrait~iPad.png
Splash-Portrait~iPhone.png
Splash-Portrait~iPhone@2X.png

“Remember, No matter where you go, there you are”
Buckaroo Bonsai

Peace. Unless war is necessary.
-T-

The biggest issue is addressing oil that has washed to the Gulf shores. In damaged areas in Alaska, oil still exists in large quantities just below the ground surface, and it seeps up with any mild disturbance, such as rain. We must consider novel actions for eliminating this oil.

The first experiment that comes to mind is to farm large amounts of oil-eating bacteria. Apply this solution to the shoreline via manual sprayers or boat-based powered sprayers. We can use the bacteria to thoroughly eliminate all of the oil that has reached shore.

A major factor to consider is any dangers a solution of bacteria presents to to the applicator (use chemical protection equipment) and to humans and animals that come in contact with the area in the short term (high concentrations present) and long term (little bacteria left.)

The army core of engineers and BP should be heavily experimenting right now to obtain a safe and effective solution. On the news I saw fisherman swabbing up the oil with rags by hand. This is pretty medieval (only the rags have improved since medieval times) and we must apply much more effective solutions.

If you have not received a response to your e-mail, please re-send it. We did receive e-mail but it may have gotten lost in the scramble for sanity.

Thank you,

John

6 Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup

I have a degree in EE. Many of my casual friends can be heard saying, “Well you are an engineer…” I am not an engineer, my full time role is administering an open systems software product. My real title includes “Analyst” (which I always thought was weak.) However I do not correct my friends because I know what they mean. People equate a degree with a profession and a mindset, which is not necessarily true.

Professional Engineer: A state licensed engineer is the only one who should be called an engineer. (A non-licensed engineer should probably be called engineer in-training.) Anywhere there is a license for a profession, calling oneself the same title without a license is misrepresentation. Of course, it would be rare for a state authority to prosecute abusers. A “software architect” is not proactively trying to pass themselves off as someone who designs buildings and assures the safety of people who use the building. So we continue to live in this quasi-land of terms, the thinking being live and let live.

Despite the legalese, personally I agree with Jim Norcal. My partner did not have a degree until after he had been programming for thirty years. He is one who can figure out any system that involves code, fix it and modify it. We were just discussing titles and I was just telling him that I think Systems Engineer is an appropriate title for him considering his experience. Even agreeing with the poster above that engineering studies are infinitely more difficult that CS studies, programmers who reach the level of Jim Norcal and my business partner, they do in fact create and modify coded systems on a level similar to that of an engineer who works with mechanical, chemical, and electrical systems.

I suggest a state license for Systems Engineer. The testee would have to modify or repair two or three disparate systems. This license would distance individuals on that higher plane from POP (plain ol’ programmers.)

Onto some comments about the post itself. I like the first rule, “Don’t be helpless.” When forming our Startup, I felt somewhat helpless. My partners are highly skilled programmers. With my skills and expertise, I envisioned my role as GUI design, B2B relationships, service, advertising, and marketing. I originally questioned the importance of my role in a web & software development company. Now I have grown to understand that the skills I bring to this startup are excruciatingly important in creating success. I round out an otherwise overly-technical group of founders. Like the author implied about his experience, I get ribbed dramatically by one of our founders. Which is okay, because as far as our users go, I am the ultimate “user”, sometimes the only who looks out for their interests!

One of our clients we are programming for was astounded. They thought we would meet, they would give us the web site specs, and we would program it. We brought many marketing and design ideas to the table. From that they decided, even though our schedule is behind other programmers they can hire, that we must do the site for them because of all of the good ideas that we bring to their project.

Least of all I hope this inspires some of you who are stuck in a roomful of highly technical people who think they do it all, but who rely on you for things they sorely lack, like PEOPLE skills. (No offense to my partners…)

Here is the article:

Seven reasons to avoid using Flash on your website

And I responded:

Mikal,

“Flash development is highly specialized” I disagree. Real programmers are language agnostic and can use any tool at their disposal. Flash development does mean someone has to design the content, but this no different than a well-planned .html web site.

“Flash sites are s-l-o-w.” This is not a problem with Flash it is a problem with the programmers. We have developed internal web applications that fly as though they are completely running natively on our local machines. I am talking about querying information from a huge remote database, and the app responds nearly instantaneously. Gee, how can this be?

You are right about accessibility and you can include the blind or other handicapped people who inherently cannot use a Flash site. Web site owners should understand this and provide alternative content or direction for users.

“The boredom factor” Web sites with long animations should always offer options to skip the animations or disable them for future visits. A little planning goes a long way, but this problem does not indicate that the language itself is a problem.

For programmers who maintain Flash web sites (or any sites!) I suggest learning everything they can about Steve Wozniak. The guy was obsessive about building computers with fewer chips and at a lower cost. His motivation was probably due to the extravagant cost of parts at the time, but he is also plainly brilliant and thus took the correct approach to design. Today, programmers have gobs of CPU power, massive memory, and corporate budgets that let them putz around developing bloatware over several years that should take six months. They do not address optimization because they do not know how, they do not care, or they do not have political control over the design.

In conclusion, always use the right tool for the job. If Flash is the right tool, use it, and optimize the heck out of every step the program takes. Certainly do not accept gigabytes of graphics for content that is being viewed on the web. Get the graphic designer in the habit of compressing to the optimal size!

John,

Thank you for your email message. While I agree with what you wrote, it is still going to cost more to work with a programmer who knows what you know (when it comes to using Flash). People such as yourself charge a premium for the skill set you describe, and rightfully so. At the end of the day, that’s a simple truth (in my experience, and I’ve been producing websites since 1997).

Mikal

Anyway, my impression is that it is a larger iPlatform device. The larger size allows several things like a larger keyboard, and they had a piano simulator loaded. Pretty neat.

I also played pre-loaded video and YouTube video and it was seamless. No jitters. Very nice quality. Definitely a kid-in-the-car device. The kids will never again ask “Are we there yet”. Most likely they’ll say “Wait, I’m not done with my video. Do I HAVE to go into the hotel?”

I have big hands/fingers. Not FAT mind you, umm just big. I was in the market for a netbook. Something to hold in one hand and type with the other. Yes I can type pretty quickly with one hand. I know you can’t (and you’ll have other reasons why the iPad sucks), but that’s tough. I could type full speed. The key, it seems, is that the device is sensitive enough to notice my tapping on the glass.

Yes there were games, but I was looking more for productivity. I need to use this on the train ride into work. Have you ever tried to write while the train is jostling around? Not neat, and sometimes impossible to read. Voice is bad because others can hear what one is speaking into a voice recorder.

Overall, I “need” one. It would make the idea sessions that I have on the train more convenient to record. With the wifi I could email it back to the Guild.

If you’re not convinced, then you may not have a need so don’t get excited and buy one. If you don’t have an iPod, and have the cash (stay off the credit card) buy the iPad.

Edit 5/8/10 08:21pm EST

I’ve decided to get the 3G + Wifi model ($629). Lord help me if this happens to me. Help me . . . Spock. . . Help . . . me. . . .

So back to what was supposed to be the topic which is “Why isn’t Flash allowed on mobile devices?”. Well, to be direct. . . IT . . . IS . . . A . . . PIG. Yep I said it. Everyone dances around it, but that is the reason. Mobile CPUs do not have the power to run their OS as well as this virtual machine. That is truly all there is to it. HOWEVER, this is NOT Mr. Jobs’ issue with Flash. His issue is somehow personal and he, in some way, hates Adobe and wants to destroy it. Maybe when he was at Next, Inc. or the early days of Apple, when he was working on WYSIWYG technology that he was burned. Back then one HAD to PAY FOR fonts. Adobe had a lock on the early fonts.

I have to wonder if Steve is vindictive like this or not. However, the way Bill Gates did him in the early days, he probably playing Payback. Well, he has the right, and he definitely has the money to destroy some of his early foes. May I coin the term “Steve the Destroyer”?   Mwahahahaaaa I LOVE IT !

I would love to work with Steve or at least talk with him regularly. He doesn’t mince words, it seems. He demands excellence from his people, and he seems to pay them well for excellence. I say let the Apple machine crush their enemies under their treads. Most other companies that get large do that too. Apple is not different, why should they be? Google wanted to be different, it was for a while, and now it is like the rest of the companies. This truth is as inevitable as there is change in the Universe.

As far as HTML5 goes. I’m not an expert, but I’ve done a TON of Adobe Flash work. HTML5 addresses a small segment of what Flash offers. I would EXPECT it to be more efficient. It is the difference between a mobile phone OS and a Desktop OS. I don’t understand why this would be so profound to some people. I guess many people don’t think deeply. To all of you who love to think only about the surface of problems and offer only surface solutions, please grok your subject before talking about it. If Flash were only about presenting videos on the web then I would accept that HTML 5 is a replacement for Flash. Good luck to ya. Sounds like there is still “some” variance in “how” HTML 5 is implemented unlike in Flash that it is the same on all platforms. Just like PDF. The reason people use PDF is because one is guaranteed to have it displayed the same (or extremely similar to the original) on every platform where it is displayed. Flash runs the same everywhere. HTML 5 does not yet. Umm I would assert that HTML 4 does not, nor any of our standards. Microsoft always tries to muck up the works. Why do we not see articles that SilverLight (Microsoft’s attempt at replacing Flash) doesn’t run on platform XYZ? Because no one uses it.

Concerning Gruber, though, he had stated that for iPhone developers there will be “No change. If you’re a developer and you’ve been following Apple’s advice, you will never even notice this rule.” This is quite myopic to me. This can only apply for indie developers who are supporting themselves or there might be a couple of developers who are just targeting one platform. As far as an evil mean greedy company goes, we try to develop one app that can run on as many platforms as possible. This allows us to spread the risk across platforms and hopefully to recoup the development costs and *ghast* make a profit.

This issue is emotional out there in the developer world. I wanted to see what Steve Jobs would say and possibly write him myself. Well, he has chimed in (above first link) and said that its because these intermediary IDEs that generate code for a target platform produce mediocre code/apps. It just might be me, but XCode (THE IDE that Apple tells us we must use to develop with) does this too. You may target the SDK version that you need to target. So XCode falls into 3.3.1 and should not be used either. So really, we should ALL be coding with a simple text editor. Steve, is Notepad++ ALLOWED????? It would be an intermediate program between me and the OS, I really don’t want to think you still aren’t the god of the platform.

Btw, I like Steve. He’s amazing and has completely created, due to his force of presence, a MACHINE that is reshaping the consumer electronics world. He has entered the cell phone market at the smirk of Microsoft. And he has won. He contracted with AT&T for a piece of the pie where no one else was able to. And he won. He faced off with the record labels for $1. And he won. Yes he has slid back a bit, but one must admit he was the single force that blew the doors WIDE OPEN for MP3 song downloads on the Internet. He has done the same for the book market. However, I don’t think Amazon was that bad with their ebooks. He was not even NEAR first with a portable MP3 player, yet he blew the doors off the market.

Therefore, I am not a Steve basher, nor am I an Apple fanboy. I am, and Joroto are consumer advocates. This 3.3.1 policy is not good for consumers. Steve, doesn’t want crap-apps in his store. He already had them there and has been culling the herd for the last several months. He doesn’t want a crap-app in the store, then so-be-it, he needs to train his people to dump the crap-apps. However, this is bad for the consumer, in a way, because it limits choice, which is why Steve is a lightning rod for bashing. Steve, if this post actually makes it to your eyes, contact us (Joroto), and we’ll help you establish a policy that balances the needs of developers, the iPlatform/Apple, and consumers. There is PEACE to be made here, and we can help.

You need to drop this last policy change for the code generators. Its bad mojo for the iPlatform. It actually makes me, of all people, not want to develop for the iPlatform anymore. What I may establish is that the iPlatform will be done last because all other platforms can use an IDE, then we have to reprogram some of the code in order to make it work on the iPlatform.

Steve, you’ve lost sight of something here.

Update 3:30p

Here is a link from SlashDot on this issue. It explains that Steve has said “intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform”. I believe in context he’s talking about Flash. Following the Slashdot link is the Tao Effect Post. It seems like “most” developers agree that an extra layer on the iPlatform would be too much processing for those CPUs and “mostly” do not begrudge that decision. However, for most of these cross-platform IDEs that also target the iPlatform, they produce native code. In the case of the iPlatform, the one I was looking at produced native Objective C++ that gets compiled under XCode. So there is NO RATIONAL REASON why Steve needs to implement this policy, other than “because he can”. If a developer has a complicated project that some component or feature of the iPlatform will perform, but other platforms don’t, then one must make a decision as to how essential that feature it is. If it is essential, then it gets programmed in, and the other platforms will either: 1) No have that feature (common), or 2) the developer will need to code that feature into that other platform.

Again, I don’t fully understand this decision to implement this policy.

Update 4/13/10 9:05p

Simon over at Bloggasm emailed in a link to his blog discussing why this war is being waged in the blogs instead of the retro mainstream way. Simon’s correct, the mainstream umm authors are not techs and do not understand anything about tech. So they quote “the famous guy” and offer up a cheap “how benevolent” the famous guy is. blah blah. Right now Apple is the elephant in the china shop and I feel like one of the cheaper ceramic teacups. Go pay Simon a visit and email him your thoughts.

Update 4/17/10 8:50p

This guy doesn’t get it either. He’s drinking the Kool-aid (no I don’t own Kool-aid stock but A LOT of Apple fanboys MUST). He said “But in order for these speed improvements to be realized, apps would need to be written in objective C—which is exactly what Apple is now telling developers to do.” Umm ‘scuse me for saying this but RTFM. Mr. Steven “The genius” Jobs has stated that IF you use a code generator that outputs Native Objective-C code and then one uses XCode to compile it into the native app, then YOU SUCK! One is in VIOLATION of the development agreement. Please RTFM or go back to reporting on main-stream news that has only “some” surface tension. These issues run deep because, as developers, we are constantly trying to become LAZY. Programmers are the laziest people on the planet. We try to be the most efficient with our time so we can get back to playing Bioshock, or the upcoming Starcraft II games. We don’t have any life beyond Programming and Games. The main-stream press needs to play in another sandbox, you don’t even begin to understand tek.

We at Joroto can code your failed Census Bureau system in less than 2 years, using the equipment that you will obviously get socked with for $100 million or less. We’ve done projects like this before, and we can do them again. In fact I will also offer the U.S. government a bonus: The code will work. . . perfectly. That’s right if there is a problem we’ll fix it for free. We know how to implement mega-million dollar projects and “get ‘er done”.

Contact our President if you run across this post. I’m sure another 100 companies are clamoring to stick it to our government “one more time”.

From that article, the comment says it all. John is our user interface expert. I’m sure he’ll say “no problem, I have an idea for a more efficient interface”.

I.T. btw does NOT stand for Idiots in Training. Harris needs to go wash cars or move sand piles. They don’t have to care at this point. They’ve received their kickbacks and profits.

Mwhahahahhahaaaaaaaaa I LOVE world domination.

The Dead Sea Effect article is funny because its true. Read that also. Most of us live that article every day. This guy is a good observer. Here’s another observation for you to read. Bruce posted this link to the slashdot thread.

JB

If you represent investors, and have great vision and the ability to understand the widespread effect of a business from a generalized overview, please contact us at blog@joroto.com.

John C. Boukis

Always keep this in mind: If you are buying Joroto’s products, you will be contributing to this morbid lifestyle. You are helping to provide too much money to too few people, and usually they are programmers. Those are the last ones who will know what to do with their success. Here is an expose displaying the effects of success on Joroto:

JB

Edit the files:
./tree/src/main/webapp/styles/simplicity/layout-1col.css and change line 8 to 924 (1024 – 100 which is what it was set to initially). This will set the login.jsp menu to this width.
./tree/src/main/webapp/styles/simplicity/layout.css and change line 11 to 1004 (1024 – 20 which is the same amount that was initially subtracted to arrive at 780px by the appfuse developers). this seems to set all pages to this width.
./tree/src/main/webapp/styles/simplicity/laout-navtop-subright.css and change line 8 to 924. This changes the menu size for the mainMenu.jsp page.

Also, while we’re on the subject of menus, you may want to edit ./tree/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/menu-config.xml. Notice that your new classes (see previous posts) have a menu item for them. Well they also show up on the Login menu even though the user has to login before being able to access the menu item. This is clunky (IMHO) so I don’t want them there. In this menu-config file, you’ll notice there are no roles= attribute. Put one in there for each menu item and the menu generator (struts-menu) will take care of whether to display the menu item or not. This is one of the good things about these frameworks. You get to do a little config with no programming.
NOTE:
in ./tree/src/main/webapp/styles/simplicity/layout.css in the section marked div#main form ul li – this section affects the box around the Login fields. I added a width to this section and the login box adapted.

The fix:
To fix this, just move the data around in the sample-data.xml file. Poof no more Constraint problem.

Example pseduocode:
Class Communications {
Long uid;
Email email;
{ . . . methods . . . }
}
This Communications class is first in the sample-data.xml file because the Email class was generated second
Class Email {
Long uid;
String emailAddr;
{ . . . methods . . .}
}
So initially I had autogenerated the Email class first. Then made an addition to the email class’s attributes. Then regenerated it with
mvn appfuse:gen -Dentity=Email ; mvn appfuse:install -Dentity=Email
Did my fixup of the ./tree/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml
Finally mvn test
So before the mvn test fix the sample-data.xml file and you’ll be fine.

Peace out.

Purpose:
Which files to edit in order to personalize the existing app for my company.

Remember:
App name is: tree
Company is: joroto.com
Source is in: ./tree/src/

./tree/src/main/resources/mail.properties
Change to be your email and the login properties for your smtp server.

./tree/src/main/resources/ApplicationResources.properties
Search for appfuse and change all to your product or company name. Depends on context.
I added on line 7 the following line
webapp.image=wr_logo3_230x100.jpg
This is our site logo. I can see it being translated into different languages. We can offer one per locale. Also the colors may be offensive in some cultures, and the picture might have cultural significance as well.
This file holds all of the localization (meaning strings to be translated) strings. You’ll see different file names each of which represent a language for a specific country code.

./tree/src/main/webapp/common/header.jsp
I’m putting an image (webapp.img) into the headers instead of the text I entered in the ApplicationResources.properties. First I copied my jpg to the ./tree/src/main/webapp/images directory.
Editing this file, I am interested in commenting out lines 8 and 9. Never delete until release. You never know when you might return to the text version of the page.
Now my header.jsp looks like this:
<%@ include file=”/common/taglibs.jsp”%>
<c:if test=”${pageContext.request.locale.language ne ‘en’}”>
<div id=”switchLocale”><a href=”<c:url value=’/?locale=en’/>”><fmt:message key=”webapp.name”/> in English</a></div>
</c:if>
<div id=”branding”>
<!– TAH 2/13/10
<h1><a href=”<c:url value=’/'/>”><fmt:message key=”webapp.name”/></a></h1>
<p><fmt:message key=”webapp.tagline”/></p>
–>
<a href=”http://www.joroto.com” title=”Logo”>
<img src=”<fmt:message key=”webapp.img” />”
alt=”<fmt:message key=”webapp.name” />” />
</a>
</div>
<hr />
<%– Put constants into request scope –%>
<appfuse:constants scope=”request”/>

Note: I wanted to use the <c:url construct but this would need freemarker to produce a two pass per line mode. Not sure if it can do this, but maybe I’ll have time later to see.
My image is 100 pixels tall so I needed to change the CSS for the header.

Edit   ./tree/src/main/webapp/styles/simplicity/layout.css
I commented out line 22 and added a new line that looks like this:
height: 100px; /* TAH 2/13/10 */

Rerun the jetty:run-war and you’ll see the changes.

Add classes to initial project creation

2/12/2010

Overview:

You have done the QuickStart to see if you can get everything to work. This article assumes you DID indeed get the initial project working. You’re excited and want to “add something” to that project and begin working on your own. You need to read through this with a clear head because there is a gotcha once you get past adding ONE java class file. Not sure why but there is a fix.

Ok here’s the scoop.

Use the videos for the tutorial. They’re up to date. The other tutorials never worked for me.

This is the writeup translating the videos into text. I did not add ANYTHING to this except a little clarification for us newbies.

All we’re doing here is generating CRUD which is not normally what is needed in a real app. However, we do this here to get a feel for how all these frameworks work.

You want to create a Plain Old Java Object (POJO). This is a simply a java class file. One Object per file.

I use cygwin for development on Windows. I need to resetup my Linux box. I will try to write clarifying statements so you can figure out what I am doing.

So let’s say we create a Java Class called Person. Why? Because I need one in my project.

My app name is tree. My company is Joroto.com.

So the path to my source is:

./tree/src/main/java/com/joroto

We’re going to create this Person.java file in a NEW directory called model.

So you now have a directory structure

./tree/src/main/java/com/joroto/model

Step 1 of a “Template for working in Appfuse”. When I say execute Step 1 again, do this with a different Java Class (just trying to be clear).

Create a Person.java file in ./tree/src/main/java/com/joroto/model

Here’s mine so you can first test that this works for you, then extend it. There is a note about renaming files and objects, later in this tutorial. READ THOSE NOTES, maybe even before you do this here. Nothing devastating, but important just the same.

package com.joroto.model;

import org.appfuse.model.BaseObject;

import javax.persistence.*;

import org.compass.annotations.Searchable;

import org.compass.annotations.SearchableComponent;

import org.compass.annotations.SearchableId;

import org.compass.annotations.SearchableProperty;

import java.sql.Timestamp;

// Entity tells the processing framework that you want this object to be backed by a database.

@Entity @Table(name=”person”)

// The searchable is to help identify tables that need a search engine, are highly searched. Might be a “Trails-hibernate” module for search engine like capability.

// http://docs.codehaus.org/display/TRAILS/Querying+entities+and+full-text+search

@Searchable

public class Person extends BaseObject /* implements java.io.Serializable */ {

private Long uid;

private String title; // Mr., Dr. etc.

private String fName; // First name

private String mName; // Anything other than first and last name

private String lName; // Last name

@Override

public String toString() {

String s = new String();

if (mName.length() > 0) {

s=String.format(“%s %s %s %s”, title, fName, mName, lName);

} else {

s=String.format(“%s %s %s”, title, fName, lName);

} // if-else

return s;

}

@Override

public int hashCode() {

throw new UnsupportedOperationException(“Not supported yet.”);

}

@Override

@SuppressWarnings(“EqualsWhichDoesntCheckParameterClass”)

public boolean equals(Object o) {

Person p = (Person)o;

return(p.uid == this.uid);

} // equals

// Getters and Setters

// Indicates that this is the primary key for this event

@Id@GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.AUTO)

@Column(name=”uid”)

public Long getUid() {

return uid;

}

@Column(name=”uid”)

public void setUid(Long uid) {

this.uid = uid;

}

@Column(name=”title”, length=20)

public String getTitle() {

return title;

}

public void setTitle(String s) {

this.title = s;

}

@Column(name=”firstname”, length=100)

public String getFirstName() {

return fName;

}

public void setFirstName(String s) {

this.fName = s;

}

@Column(name=”middlename”, length=100)

public String getMiddleName() {

return mName;

}

public void setMiddleName(String s) {

this.mName = s;

}

@Column(name=”lastname”, length=100)

public String getLastName() {

return lName;

}

public void setLastName(String s) {

this.lName = s;

}

}

The statements with the @ signs are annotations that are used when this code generates the database table. The database table (in Hibernate) will store the information the flows into and out of this class.

That’s all we need to do in this file so save it.

We need to tell the system that we’ve created this and it needs to be backed by hibernate. Open the following file (it is already in the directory structure from your initial generation of the project.

./tree/src/main/resources/hibernate.cfg.xml

Add a new line at line 8 below the other <mapping class…> members.

Add the following line to that new line.

<mapping class=”com.joroto.model.Person”/>

Save and close that file.

You’re ready for the cool automation that Matt and his Magical Minions dreamed up.

In the ./tree directory execute the following command

mvn appfuse:gen -Dentity=Person

If the build is not successful, make a very basic Class file like I did up there. We WILL be able to regenerate the files with more of the Class attributes in it.

After a successful build execute the next command (Matt thinks executing these two commands is “too much” and will release a future version combining the two. However, just “think” of all the work these two command are saving us and you should be sending the guy some percentage of your commercial profits)

mvn appfuse:install -Dentity=Person

And then execute

mvn test

It will work.

mvn jetty:run-war

Point your browser to

Localhost:8080

Go back to the step 1 of this tutorial and enter a new and different Java class. When you get to the mvn test, you’ll notice that it fails the test classes. The Person class is flagged. Matt (not me) to the rescue in his MarkMail app. On the appfuse home, click on Project Information, Mailing Lists and then MarkMail. Enter the error about creating the bean and up pops his answer. You’re asking “where is the error? The console displays where to go, but for clarity go to

./tree/target/surefire-reports

Any .txt file that is not 1k is telling you about the test errors.

Here is Matt’s fix for the problem, then I’ll explain:

Open the file

./tree/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml

There are now three things that need to be done to the file. As you add Classes for CRUD you’ll need to edit its Bean element after you do the mvn appfuse:install -Dentity=Person above.

Add the <context:component-scan base-package=”org.appfuse”/> element.

AND you have to add the element <property name=”sessionFactory” ref=”sessionFactory”/> to each bean. One for the personManager bean and once for (in my case) teventManager bean. So the file now looks like this:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<beans xmlns=”http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans” xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”

xmlns:context=”http://www.springframework.org/schema/context”

xsi:schemaLocation=”http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd

http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd“

default-lazy-init=”true”>

<!– Activates scanning of @Autowired –>

<context:annotation-config/>

<!– Activates scanning of @Repository and @Service –>

<context:component-scan base-package=”com.joroto”/>

<context:component-scan base-package=”org.appfuse”/>

<!– Add new DAOs here –>

<!–PersonManager-START–>

<bean id=”personManager” class=”org.appfuse.service.impl.GenericManagerImpl”>

<constructor-arg>

<bean class=”org.appfuse.dao.hibernate.GenericDaoHibernate”>

<constructor-arg value=”com.joroto.model.Person”/>

<property name=”sessionFactory” ref=”sessionFactory”/>

</bean>

</constructor-arg>

</bean>

<!–PersonManager-END–>

<!–TeventManager-START–>

<bean id=”teventManager” class=”org.appfuse.service.impl.GenericManagerImpl”>

<constructor-arg>

<bean class=”org.appfuse.dao.hibernate.GenericDaoHibernate”>

<constructor-arg value=”com.joroto.model.Tevent”/>

<property name=”sessionFactory” ref=”sessionFactory”/>

</bean>

</constructor-arg>

</bean>

<!–TeventManager-END–>

<!– Add new Managers here –>

</beans>

Matt was right. This fixes the test errors and you’re off and running. The above file is generated during the gen and install command.

Notes:

mvn clean will clear out the target directory.

Renaming a class

Ok so you want to rename a Class. You need to search the ./tree/src/ directory for your class and all variants and clear them out.

First fix the ./tree/src/main/resources/hibernate.cfg.xml file

Then rename your class, any references inside the file, and finally the name of your class file.

In this case I’m going to rename the Tevent class (which was my second class added. I did not post that above) to Event. So I rename the @Table, the Class name is now Event. Inside the Class is a reference to Tevent that is now Event. Save your class in the

./tree/src/main/java/com/joroto/model directory.

Run the following command from the command line.

mvn clean command to get rid of the target files.

If in cygwin, issue the find command find . -name “[tT]event*” to see all of the files leftover that need to be deleted. In windows search for the name of the OLD class. Delete all those files. In cygwin do this:

find . -name “[tT]event*” | xargs rm -f

Let’s generate the files and test them by running the commands on the command line:

mvn appfuse:gen -Dentity=Event

mvn appfuse:install -Dentity=Event

Edit the file

./tree/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml

Delete the old Class reference for the bean. You have to take out the whole <bean ….> to </bean>

Add the <property … sessionFactory line from above. Save the file. Then enter on the command line:

mvn test

Should be good to go. Lets check. At the command line:

mvn jetty:run-war

Point your browser to localhost:8080

You’ll notice that ALL of the Classes are on the tab bar. You’ll need to clean out the jsp files for the classes that don’t exist. SO. . . Let’s look for all of these references. Change directory to the ./tree/src directory. Run the cygwin command:

grep -lri tevent main/*

This will list the files that need to be cleaned up. I don’t know how to do this automatically, so let’s edit each file looking for the reference to the old class name.

My list is (Use this as a learning experience as to how to modify your web application. These are the pages and values that go to the final html that is output):

main/resources/ApplicationResources.properties - You’ll see the section for your old class. Pretty easy to delete it.

main/resources/struts.xml - You’ll see the section for your old class. Pretty easy to delete it.

main/webapp/common/menu.jsp – You’ll see the section for your old class. Pretty easy to delete it.

main/webapp/WEB-INF/menu-config.xml – You’ll see the section for your old class. Pretty easy to delete it.

Now edit these files:

test/resources/sample-data.xml – You’ll see the section for your old class. Pretty easy to delete it.

test/resources/web-tests.xml – You’ll see the depends clause. Now each time you gen a Class you’ll see it added here. So if you mess up and keep gen’ing the Person class, it will have that many Person entries here. Then down further in the file you’ll see the section for that your old class created. Delete that section.

Change directory back to ./tree

At the command line run

mvn clean

mvn test

The test should be successful. If not, then recheck your editing. Mine always worked. However, your editing is definitely where the problem lies at this time since you’ve already tested the New class you generated above.

Finally, to make sure the old class “stuff” no longer displays in the web app. Execute from the command line:

mvn jetty:run-war

I’m done here. Hopefully this gets you quickly up to speed on this cool stuff that Matt and his Magic Minions create. Kudos to the the AppFuse team.

1) Do not put in an e-mail address until you are ready to send.

2) Copy text from the problem application(s) and try pasting in notepad first, then copying and pasting again into Outlook.

3) Try using any available built-in copy function in the problem application, in my case it was TPX.  TPX has a “COPY” function that captures pure text, versus <CTRL><C> which does more of a screen capture from TPX.

Our business has since migrated to a different e-mail client.  I am not sure but it does not seem to be sensitive to this problem.

@Astro_TJ Are you experiencing flashes due to cosmic rays? Tell us another unique space experience that we may never have heard of. 35 mins ago

“Astro_TJ @joroto Yes,I do see flashes occasionally,when I close
my eyes.Another unique story?The noctilucent clouds are both mesmerizing & beautiful.”

Wow, this IS neat: Noctilucent Clouds in Wikipedia

Seriously, where is it written that just because things have been done “this way”, that “this way” will forevermore be THE ONLY CORRECT WAY? Well ok we’ve seen that in Amazon’s management books, but who are they? People who want to self-promote. Rant over. Bring the rain.
1) Give your top developers the best tools that money can buy. They will produce ten times more than the mediocres.
2) Fire all the mediocres. There is no room in a startup for those people.
3) Budgeting your department DOESN’T mean to say NO to every purchase that you’re asked for. If you trust them with developing the future of the company, they “PROBABLY” aren’t asking for crap that they won’t use. They are saying “I want to be more productive, please help me . . . .Spock. . . . help . . . . me. . . “. Why are you turning them away? For what a $500 piece of software. Are you batty? Fire yourself, THAT IS A SMART MOVE.
4) If they’re late or leave early an hour or 10 minutes. IT . . . IS . . . OK. The world will NOT stop turning ok? Don’t be so draconian to forget about what it means to be a drone. Its hellish sometimes. But guess what pinhead, when you NEED that person to work overtime, they won’t make an excuse to NOT work overtime. Use the T word THINK! (We should make a tshirt of this).

Ok I’m done. I’ve seen enough. I’m going home.
-T-

Steve,
This isn’t a pile on session, I’ve seen the ignorant bashing you incessantly.   I’m too tired). I’m not here to do the same.  Well of course I am. Its fun, its the NEW new thing to bash Apple for not providing everyone their own personal spaceship to Mars (see previous blog post).
iPad: This name, sucks. Steve, next time spend some money on drugs like you used to do (I’m from your past) and come up with something sexy like “The Apple Tablet”. At least it isn’t blah and sound like some hygiene product. That one’s free, pay me and I’ll let Joroto make a memorable descriptive name. We do that for a living. We’re idea men (yes we’re gay mwhahaaa).

The iPad will succeed, and not because Apple’s behind it. Steve did a good job at a first cut features list. One glaring missing one is the video iChat. He would’ve cornered the market on that one. The iChat on the Macbook is seamless, impressive, rock solid, awesome. Now I’ll REALLY tell you what I think.

The price on the iPad is correct.

Those with a hundred gadgets won’t buy it because, well they’re gadget freaks and ran up their credit card bills. They can’t afford it and are envious. Those of us who held off buying a netbook waiting for a tablet type device will buy one. I will be in line for one. I believe it will serve the niche when I ride the tram or wait in queue at the unsympathetic doctor’s office. I need another, um script.
The larger size is good. The display is gorgeous. Processor is fast.
Oh NOOOO no multiple apps ALL running at the same time. Save me Superman ahhhhhh I’m falling. Pinheads listen closely. No a little closer. If you want that BUY A LAPTOP. You’ll have the screen real estate to have a movie AND browser open. OH JOY. You can be completely distracted and not remember either the movie nor what you scanned on the Internet. Duh.
On the netbooks people RAILED at Microsoft for limiting, yet another windows OS, from being able to run only 3 apps because it would bog down the Atom. Well some of our Quad core 4G systems are bogged down by Windows Vista 7. Ummm well my work here is done.

The 3G plan price is excellent.

The ebook reader app (or whatever) is fine and I’ll buy into that one. Where this will kill (small k) the Kindle is in the rich output of the books. I don’t care a rat’s a** about the authors. They will or won’t get paid. If one doesn’t pay the workers, then the workers stop working. Very simple. From what I’ve read, the authors barely get paid anything now. I couldn’t imagine trying to eek out a living as a no-name author. It HAS to be just a Napoleon complex for them. Its like the rush we get from open source (umm I mean others, not us good corporate drones who work for a paycheck).

iPad needs a webcam though Steve. Did you miss this, or as I presume, was this left out because AT&T’s overwhelmed network couldn’t handle the crush as millions buy this device.

Another goodie is the pads wirelessly connecting to each other to play games like the Nintendo DS/DSi playthings do. Can anyone say Apple competes with Nintendo? Nintendo takes the iPlatform VERY seriously (Management: I need a researcher to insert links here). Apple, it seems, is trying to elbow into Nintendo’s bread basket. My son has a DS and MANY games (spoiled brat) and I just bought a DSi for my wife. Yep she asked for one specifically. She uses some brain game, and my son just got Scribblenauts and says it is absolutely awesome. I’ll just take his word for it. We also have a Wii. The little punk beat me at Wii Resort’s Swordplay. One works up a sweat trying to kill his son.

The iPad will sell millions. Up to the 6-8 million in 2010 as predicted by fanboy analysts? Ummm probably not. However by Christmas 2010 I believe they will be closing fast. If they put this A4 processor into the iPhone as rumored then that will send iPhone sales up. However, can the iPhone sales go up higher than they are now? Nokia had better do something or they stand to become the next Microsoft: i.e. marginalized because they have no visionary and are paralyzed with fear about LOSING customers. Nokia needs to slap their senior management, who have been highed to MAINTAIN the business. Idiots. Don’t maintain JACK, grow the sucker. Innovate, or YES the T word THINK.

Apple will win. Others will lose. They don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t ask questions about what they don’t know. If any of you are reading this, then contact Joroto, and we can help you come up with real ideas about either extending your existing products, or creating new products that no one has thought of yet. Until then, we work on our black projects.
-T-

Chinese Web Users Plan Tech Workarounds

A funny thing about network security is that people are always working around it. Someone is always trying to hack into a restricted system. With this in mind I would like to present a a contrarian argument about doing business in China. Keep in mind that this is from a guy who believes in treating people with dignity, paying above market rate wages, and creating business and thus jobs in the United States whenever that is possible.

I ask the question: Is it so bad to do business in China as an Internet services company if one must filter content to comply with the government’s rules? Clearly from the above article we see that people have been able to access content outside of China’s filters. Eventually China may decide it is fighting a losing battle and remove its restrictions. However, Google, or any other company, must pursue business in China first, in order to push the boundaries, and gt the Chinese people excited about the web.

I would never condescend to the Chinese people and think that they are clueless about the restrictions put on their Internet. Emigrants from China may occasionally return to family and inform all of their family and friends of what the rest of the world is seeing on the web. Again, the inevitability of an open web in China seems to be sneaking up on the government whether they like it or not.

I argue to you that all of us technology companies should keep pushing the boundaries with communist countries. At a minimum we can introduce the people to new things and help lead them down the road to eventual information freedom. That freedom may never happen, this is a possibility. However if we segment ourselves from these countries,we remove any chance the people have of discovering the freedom that others enjoy.

July 13, 2010

I am seeing more articles lately about protectionist policies in China. As their economy grows they may restrict outside businesses even more. At the risk of eventually losing China as a marketplace I think we need to strive more than ever to market U.S. products and services there.

1) Go to the SSL link at your Internet Provider. If you are using secure e-mail, this is the POP3/SMTP link in your e-mail configuration.
example: http://host271.hostmonster.com/

2) Click on the “lock” icon in the web browser, or choose SAFETY/SECURITY REPORT, or figure it out for your browser.

3) VIEW CERTIFICATE

4) COPY TO FILE

5) Save the certificate to the hard drive as *.P7B
a) Enable “INCLUDE ALL CERTIFICATES IN THE CERTIFICATION PATH IF POSSIBLE”

6) In your e-mail client (instructions here are for The Bat!)

a)Right click on one of your accounts and select PROPERTIES

b) Select EDIT PERSONAL CERTIFICATES

c) Select IMPORT and choose the certificate file

d) When the certificate entries are displayed:

1) Double click each entry

2) Select ADD TO ADDRESS BOOK

7) Send some e-mail and bask in the glory that you have overcome either your software vendors intelligence or your provider’s pride.

Mr. Know It All can tell us who the culprit is.

In the above article Joel Stein nails how many of us have come to hate the telephone. I bring this up because Tom was just telling me how ubiquitous teleconferencing will replace travel for corporations in the future. While that may be so, most telephones are owned by individuals, and I might suggest that telephone communication among individuals could completely evaporate. Read the article and tell me what you think.

Funny I should come across the above article as Tom was just telling me about a book he just read on Tesla, about Tesla’s amazing inventions and his great understanding of how electricity works. From our discussion it sounds like Tesla had some understandings and accomplishments that have been completely lost in history.

Here is my letter to the Wall Street Journal writer of the above article. I could not let this one slip:

Daniel,

Some facts: God made the human body fairly insulated. We have all heard of people being struck by lightning and surviving. In such cases, the lightning flowed on the outside of the person’s body, then directly into the ground. Their skin would be burned because the electricity penetrated to some level. However to live is a great gift as lightening consists of a current that may be as large as 100,000 amps. Unlike static electricity, this current is quite dangerous as it has the power to penetrate through the body, given the right (or wrong as it may be) circumstances.

Pennsylvania Tax Incentives Questioned

I am not sure if there was a time when I was a true proponent of tax incentives for business growth. There are too many problems with such policies and as the article states, the results can be minimal, even negligible. Number one, if tax incentives become a competition among different states, where does the race end? One state offers a two year tax abatement, so the next state offers five, then next twenty years, and so on. In the end the citizens get hosed as each new deal assures they will get less tax revenue for their area irrespective of how much the area grows with new businesses.
Additional examples of the people being flattened by the corporate steamroller include corporations receiving sweetheart deals from local communities, only to move elsewhere when the deal runs dry or when another deal comes along.

Note the article’s point is that tax incentives are used by companies looking for a location but they are the absolute last factor considered. Labor rates are a priority for location selection. Apply this to a real situation: A company chooses an area with extremely low labor rates. The area then gives the company a tax abatement. I think that this is a slippery slope, a self-perpetuating industrial slave machine that lowers wages and reduces the municipality’s income. Consider that this may be one of the cycles, (another being offshoring) that has helped reduce America’s standard of living, even assuring that generations x, y, z, aa, and bb have a lower standard of living their their baby boomer parents.

Looking at a top down view of taxation, I do not think that corporations should be taxed at all. Such tax gets passed onto the consumers in the form of higher prices, and reduces employee compensation and stock holder returns. (Lest you think I am a proponent of the wealthy investors, many of us average people own stock.)

What actions can increase technology development with no side effects? Individuals starting companies, angel investing, venture capital, and new business partnerships among others. I personally like to leave the government out of the equation completely. Every action the government takes results in even greater negative reactions. Just watch as a health care plan crafted in the name of providing health care to more people actually results in significantly increased costs for us citizens.

I have the latest Rhapsody software and Windows XP. Periodically Rhapsody stops playing music. I click on the song, and no indicator appears to indicate it is attempting to play. I think this is triggered by Windows XP going into standby mode, but I am not positive.

I wrote Real support and the brainless wonder response I got was to shut off all XP power saving features. I lambasted them but have not heard back, and do not think I will hear back in this lifetime.

I found a temporary fix:

1) CTRL-ALT-DEL
2) Shut down the process RHAPHPLR.EXE
3) Restart Rhapsody

At least it brings back the music pretty easily.

UPDATE: May 23, 2010

Presuming that your software is set to download the files for off-line listening, like mine, try this: Delete all of the downloaded songs. I suspect that when the computer is authorized, it ties the downloads to that particular authorization instance. When you upgrade the software, or Rhapsody on its own decides to re-authorize the computer (have you seen the authorization dialog and wondered why it popped up randomly?) it decides it cannot play files that were saved from the previous authorization event.

After deleting all of my downloaded songs, I listed the library by play count, and started playing the first song. I walked away knowing that it was re-downloading all of my favorite songs.

I closed Rhapsody twice, re-opened, and it played music. It did not do this before without killing the RHAPHPLR.EXE service once or twice.

Let us know how you fare!

UPDATE: June 26, 2010

Well those bozos at Rhapsody decided to re-authorize my computer. So, back to deleted two gigabytes of local files, and the system will have to re-download everything at least once. BAH!

Software patent vote delayed

February 13, 2010 update

Here is an interesting blog entry, the title speaks for itself:

Debunking the ‘Patent Troll’ Myth

Go into your iTunes (mine is on the Mac).
Choose Store from the Menu.
View My Account.
Put the credit card security code into the app.
Close that pane.
Click on your iPod device.
Choose update.
Click on Buy now.
WHOA! It works now. AMAZING. Stupid. Imbecile. Mediocre programmers need to be shot. Where is Adolf Eichmann when we need him.
You’re done baby. Wait the 20 minutes to download this puppy.
Remember to BACKUP your iPlatform before upgrading dude and dudettes.

The name “Shark Tank” is apropos in that the cast offers “puny” amounts of money to the entrepreneurs in exchange for a large percentage of the entrepreneur’s business.  The idea that the millionaires convey is that the entrepreneurs will become millionaires themselves if they take one of the highly aggressive deals offered to them.  Of course the investors are bound to make a great deal of money also, or they would otherwise not offer funding.

The entrepreneurs asking for money need to seriously consider the next funding step in their businesses.  Take for example Marian Cruz, inventor of the Turbo Baster.  She accepted $35,000 from Kevin Harrington in exchange for a two percent royalty on all sales.  The first question to ask is what can this amount of money accomplish?  I would say that $35,000 would build a prototype baster, and allow the start of the manufacturing tooling to manufacture the baster.  Of course, this is all in China, as costs in the U.S. would be far higher.  So what happens when this money is quickly burned through?  Marian will need more funding.  She will approach Kevin for the money, and Kevin will state that he needs something in return.  He will forward her some cash, and take an even larger stake in her company, leaving her with practically nothing.

Of course, Kevin may be willing to give this product to his existing manufacturing resources and cover the cost of development.  He might also take the initial manufacturing costs out of Marian’s paltry two percent commission.  None of these details are hammered out in the parts of the show that are shown on television.

Here is a more recent interview with Marian Cruz where she does give us more detail of the business deal.

AfterShark: Why isn’t Marian Cruz’s Turbo Baster cooking yet?

[Check out this cool web site billed as "After Shark" with interviews with the entrepreneurs who appeared on the show.]

In this interview Marian states that she made a licensing deal and that Kevin is going to create the prototype.  If it is a pure licensing deal, and all other costs are covered by Harrington, that answers more of the issues that I presented.  Apparently there is a lot of the show that is not shown on television, and also they may do several takes for each entrepreneur.  This format of only highlighting the major negotiations leaves me uncomfortable as I want to see and understand the entirety of these deals.  That is television for you!

I am not so worried about the inventors being under capitalized seeing these after show interviews.  It does sound like the millionaires are willing to see these projects completely through.  Only time will tell as we continue to keep an eye on the show participants’ lives.  I know that I want to see products such as the Turbo Baster making one billion dollars and offering these budding entrepreneurs massive amounts of cash.   Now that would be cool.

I am working in Excel 2000. Hey, why upgrade? Any feedback on the options in later versions of Excel is certainly welcome.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Right click the field(s)

2) Select FORMAT CELLS

3) Select CUSTOM.

4) In the TYPE field, type this: ##.#[$%]

* Use your symbol of choice in place of the percent sign.

The pound signs represent the numbers in your data, so adjust the number of them before or after the decimal as necessary. The period is a decimal, of course. The bracketed expression is telling Excel that “In this country, we use a percent sign rather than a dollar sign.”

Ah, I feel better now.

This will be fun.

Today Tom continually iterated how much he hates people and there is no way he is going. Therefore, if you are interested in talking high-level tech talk with our lead developer, I must apologize. That is okay by me though. At least Tom will not embarrass us by showing up at this posh event wearing the same green polo he has worn to work for the past three months.  Instead, we should send him to CES the next round. That is, if he can bear to sit next to a human being on the plane ride.

July 22, 2009 Update

The event was very cool.  Seven hundred-something did I hear?  More accomplished people in one area than I have ever seen.  Real tough to do this sort of thing at the end of the workday, but well worth it.

1) Go to the ADMIN Panel – http://www.YOURBLOG.com/wp-admin

2) Select TOOLS on the lower left. Use the down arrow to expand the TOOLS section.

3) Select EXPORT

4) Select ALL AUTHORS

5) Select DOWNLOAD EXPORT

6) Save the xml file to your computer.

This backs up posts, comments, essentially the written content. To backup plugin information and other data store in the SQL database, you should do a database backup. This can be done through your Hosting Control Panel.

Here are backup instructions, including how to backup the database. Sure, I am not afraid to send you to another site. It is 3 AM and I am done writing!

WordPress Backups

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups

2-Name it Default.png.

3-Add it to the Resources tab of your Xcode project.

This will add this splash screen automatically to your program when it runs, and will place this graphic on the screen as your app loads into memory and runs.

Select the graphics files with a click, and then scroll down and do a Shift Click (if the files are in a contiguous list). A click is a single tap on the touchpad. The alternate way is to hold down the command key and click once for each additional file. This creates a list of files that you’ll delete.
Now do a two finger tap on the touchpad.
Choose delete.
Choose “Also move to trash”.
Boom they’re gone.
Now go to finder in your project directory. You’ll see the links are still there. So you need to “move them to trash” also. Its the same sequence as above.
Go back to Xcode.
Double finger tap the resources tab.
Choose “Existing files”.
At the top choose the project’s default directory. I choose the drop down control, select my directory where the original graphic is and then select my graphics.
Now click “Add” or press .
Make sure “Copy items into destination group’s folder (if needed)” is selected. I do this so I can zip up the entire development directory and have zero external references.
That’s it. Just another tidbit to hopefully help you develop for the iPlatform.

UPDATE JULY 24, 2009 I found in the following blog the reason for the login failure:  The password must be between 6 and 16 characters.   I used more characters and the page said it was accepted.  However LinkedIn truncated the password to the first 16 digits.  So if you created a password longer than 16 digits, try logging in with the first 16 and you should be good to go.  Lastly, I had no problem using symbols, upper and lowercase letters, and numbers in my password.

Credited article:

Password Format

Recruiting: Enough to Make a Monster Tremble

A clear sign that a formerly super-successful dot com with a spectacular profit margin has turned into a typical Fortune 500 Company run by a myopic big city businessman: The CEO eliminated paper cups in the break rooms.

Newsflash:  Just like Monster.com replaced the newspaper, Monster better think completely out of the box in order to gain some new, currently unknown, advantage over its online competitors.

As I have worked for major corporations that have gone the same route, here is some advice Mr. Iannuzzi: Put the paper cups back. Not only is your business revenue hurting badly, but you just made all of your employees resentful.  These are the people whom you will rely on for innovation and superior service.

Mr. Iannuzzi, I have an idea for you to steal a very cool niche in recruiting. Contact us if you are interested.

JB

Rest assured, Tom is not duplicating the efforts of either of the above shady characters. He is taking a rare break from developing device drivers all day, and developing web apps all night, to spend some time with his family.

I do not miss the twenty-something e-mails a day that each details some new, advanced system or method that gets Tom all excited, but which I could care less about. For one week I have been able to spend most of my time communicating with magazine editors, developers, and users in the tech blogs, continually trying to figure out what we can do for them. People are awesome. Life was never better.

Alas I fear the honeymoon is over, and I will be chastised for my marketing prowess and lack of high level tech insight any minute now…

JB

aGauge WEB SITE

Or visit the Joroto iTunes Store:

Just after seeing the price increase I was notified that AT&T will be dropping Usenet. Tom said this is a decision made solely to gain bandwidth. He is right (only because he is always right…just ask him.)

I feel like I am back in 1999 with Internet companies raising prices and dropping services.  (At least the constant, unexplained communication outages are not still a problem for me.)  Anticipating AT&T pulling another stunt in two or four days, I must look at my options. The only big problem with switching providers is changing my e-mail address. Whoop! Time to register a personal domain, select a permanent e-mail address, and update all of my contacts for the final time. I wonder if “tomslesserbusinesspartner” is taken? In any case, a personal domain can stay with a person forever. This is something I should have done ten years ago.

Registering a domain name is in the ten dollar range. Additionally, if one is already hosting a web site (joroto.com for example), they may be able to use the same hosting service for the new domain (tomslesserbusinesspartner.com). That means the additonal domain’s yearly cost is limisted to the registration fee, which is quite a bargain.

If you are not tech savvy, you should be warned that there is more effort associated with managing your own domain.  This is only moderately difficult, but if I can do it, you can do it faster and better.

Now  I am seriously considering the personal domain option.  Once I have an e-mail address established on my own registered domain, I can switch to any Internet provider, at any time, without having to worry about updating all of my contacts (hi mom!)

Just a thought for the day for the millions of you who just got jacked by AT&T.

Time to surf for a good responsive newsgroup server before AT&T cuts off Usenet on July 15th.  Ideas?

JB

This setup assumes you are hosting your own WordPress blog, which does support xml-rpc. Edit the url or settings appropriately if you are using WordPress.com or another protocol.

1) Turn on XML-RPC in WordPress

Admin Panel
Settings (lower left)
Writing (lower left)
Remote Publishing (middle of page)
XML-RPC – Check this box

2) In Adobe Contribute create the connection

From the Contribute home page, or if the home page is hidden, select the “Ct” icon on the right side of the toolbar to bring it up.

CREATE NEW BLOG CONNECTION

(FYI to manage connections select EDIT/MY CONNECTIONS from the menu…Yea, the EDIT menu makes sense for managing Internet connections. SPLAH!)

What do you want to connect to? CONNECT TO BLOGS
WHO HOSTS YOUR BLOG? OTHER BLOG SERVERS

“What is the URL of your blog” Skip this. Make yourself happy.

USER Type your WordPress username
PASSWORD Type your WordPress password

ACCESS POINT

http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/BLOG DIRECTORTY/xmlrpc.php

DONE

Contribute will download the blog. You may get an error such as “Cannot create template…”, then it may continue to download. You are on your own, I just set up your connection, I do not work here.

Here are the same instructions in a 1-2-3 form. Feel free to copy this to your own reference document:

In WordPress:

Admin Panel
Settings (lower left)
Writing (lower left)
Remote Publishing (middle of page)
XML-RPC – Check this box

In Adobe Contribute:

CREATE NEW BLOG CONNECTION

CONNECT TO BLOGS

Who hosts your blog? OTHER BLOG SERVERS

“What is the URL of your blog” Skip this. Make yourself happy.

USER Type your WordPress username
PASSWORD Type your WordPress password

ACCESS POINT

http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/BLOG DIRECTORTY/xmlrpc.php

DONE

Many say that bloggers are karaoke journalists. Forget them. Blog on!

jb

Here was our promotional video for our game Trisaic for the iPod.

VIDEO

We were hoping for responses such as “Awe, that’s funny.”  Along with some positive comments like that, we immediately began receiving comments like this:

“LOL, I thought it was funny. Sad thing is, there is probably some truth to it. My nephew had a friend who was a XXXX developer for XXXXX and told me stories of some of the things they would do to meet dead lines.”

Okay, so we are now as worried about you all as we are about our developers.

What comes to your mind as you view this?

JB

President John Boukis states: “In the world of software and web development, electricity is productivity. On Earth Day, we will be monitoring the electricity use of our employees. We have outlined a set of rules that define cheating. Employees will be forbidden from executing such tactics as adding accessories such as portable air conditioners to their personal network stations, or playing 3D games (restricted only on this particular work day.). We have basic monitoring capabilities which will help us determine which individual used the most electricity on Earth Day. The winner of this internal contest will receive an additional $5 million dollars in Joroto stock options.”

Asked about observers’ gut reactions that these actions are generally irresponsible Boukis cautions all to carefully consider their reasoning: “The problem the world faces is not overuse of electricity. The macro problem is that our lifestyle depends on electricity more than ever, and we need to produce a great deal more electricity in order to continue growing our new computer-based economy. ”

“We absolutely believe that energy should be produced using the latest, most efficient, and most sustainable technology.  Every new house should be built with solar panels, and local governments should bury their bureaucracies, and allow the building of private wind turbines in all but the most dense areas, in order to generate significantly more electricity while producing (including manufacturing processes that produce solar and wind power materials) greatly reduced pollution levels.  With this in mind, consider that this contest is a celebration of the computer, and what it has meant to our employees and this company: Creativity and most importantly, freedom. Electricity is productivity. The more electricity we as an IT company use, the more applications we crank out. The more applications, the more revenue, the more we grow, the more people we hire, right on down the line. This is Productive Energy Tap, and we will continue to vehemently promote all of its tenets.”

Find all Joroto products at the following web page:

PRODUCTS

Thank you for coming!

John Boukis
President

blog@joroto.com

Send us information on your capital investment company. Once we research your company, we will provide a generalized design and monetization project plan for your review. If you are able to visualize our concept, work from a  generalized overview, and you show an interest in our project, we will provide a detailed CV for each Joroto employee.

John

Co-Founder & President, Joroto, Inc.