Pem’s Tech Blog

Referencing my earlier post (here), I wanted to carry my boot drive back and forth between 2 copies of my desktop computer.  Rather than dealing with different hardware configs, I made it extra simple by just using a copy of the same hardware (same motherboard model, same graphics card model, same amount of RAM) on both.  So far, everything has worked…

A good bonus is that I’m using a 5.25” SATA enclosure, which goes in a standard CD/DVD disc drive slot.

The only real concern so far has been the Windows Activation notifications.  We’ll see later if it starts to give me problems.

Finally, it’s definitely possible that Windows 7 (and graphics drivers etc) may simply deal better with moving a boot drive to a more significantly different hardware configuration…  Or if not, there may be some work-around.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/02/17 (Wednesday, February 17, 2010) :: Operating System focused: Windows, Travel :: No Comments »

I used Java a lot in college…  But it’s been a while.  I’m trying out NetBeans IDE (for both Java and Python).  Here’s some notes from writing my Java application.

System.out.println(), System.out.print()

…

Add a .jar library:
1. Right-click the Libraries node and choose "Add JAR/Folder".
2. Browse to and select the .jar file(s).  It didn’t work when I added it as a folder, so i strongly recommend you add each .jar file separately.

3. Right-click the Libraries node and choose Properties
4. Choose the file you added (for each file), then Edit, then specify the Javadoc and Sources

5. In your java code, import the package.  The package names should be specified in the java doc.  In my example, this would be (import net.sf.sevenzipjbinding.*;) or (import net.sf.sevenzipjbinding.SevenZip;) etc.

…

Shift+F11 to build main project.  F6 to run main project.

…

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/22 (Friday, January 22, 2010) :: Software Development, Software Development - Java :: No Comments »

On Windows, try: echo hello | clip

On Linux, try: echo hello | xclip

On Mac OS X, try: echo hello | pbcopy

For example, you might do (cat myFile.txt | xclip).  This would basically allow you to edit the clipboard directly.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/21 (Thursday, January 21, 2010) :: Operating System focused: Mac OS X, Operating System focused: Windows, Software Development :: No Comments »

The biggest let-down is the “use less than 100KB/user/month" part, because Kindle doesn’t have WiFi – at least not yet.  Two applications I would most imagine myself using on a Kindle are read it later (or instapaper) and EverNote (or something that can import my OneNote notes), but 100 KB/user/month wouldn’t be enough.  Hopefully the next version of the Kindle will have WiFi, and allow applications that use unlimited data over WiFi.

Since it’s short, I’ll just quote the entire thing from:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&docId=1000476231

KDK Limited Beta Coming Next Month

Submit your e-mail address to get notified when the limited beta starts next month. Participants in the limited beta will be able to download the Kindle Development Kit, access developer support, test content on Kindle, and submit finished content. Those wait-listed will be invited to participate at a later date as space becomes available. The Kindle Development Kit includes sample code, documentation, and the Kindle Simulator, which helps developers build and test their content by simulating the 6-inch Kindle and 9.7-inch Kindle DX on Mac, PC, and Linux desktops. We are excited to see what you invent for Kindle.

Revenue Share

User revenue will be split 70% to the developer and 30% to Amazon net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB. Remember that unlike smart phones, the Kindle user does not pay a monthly wireless fee or enter into an annual wireless contract. Kindle active content must be priced to cover the costs of downloads and on-going usage.

Pricing Options

Active content will be available to customers in the Kindle Store later this year. Your active content can be priced three ways:

• Free – Active content applications that are smaller than 1MB and use less than 100KB/user/month of wireless data may be offered at no charge to customers. Amazon will pay the wireless costs associated with delivery and maintenance.
• One-time Purchase – Customers will be charged once when purchasing active content. Content must have nominal (less than 100KB/user/month) ongoing wireless usage.
• Monthly Subscription – Customers will be charged once per month for active content.

Active content applications have an upper size limit of 100MB. Applications larger than 10MB will not be delivered wirelessly but can be downloaded from the Kindle Store to a computer and transferred to the user’s Kindle via USB.

Developer Guidelines

Voice over IP functionality, advertising, offensive materials, collection of customer information without express customer knowledge and consent, or usage of the Amazon or Kindle brand in any way are not allowed. In addition, active content must meet all Amazon technical requirements, not be a generic reader, and not contain malicious code.

We will work to refine the above guidelines throughout the beta.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/21 (Thursday, January 21, 2010) :: Mobile Devices/Services, Notes and Organizing, Software Development :: No Comments »

In recent times, I’ve mostly used Visual Studio, for C++, and for C# .NET.  Plus, EditPad Pro as a simple text editor.  But I’ve also done plenty of Java (in college) and Python (right now).  For Python, I’ve just been using EditPad Pro.  But now I’d like to try an IDE for Python, and for Java too.  Python has a list here:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments

I mainly focused on the (IDEs with introspection-based code completion and integrated debugger) choices:
* NetBeans IDE: primarily for Java; Sun Microsystems owns NetBeans IDE, runs on Solaris too; also works with JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy, C, C++, and Clojure
* Eclipse with PyDev: written primarily in Java; for developing with Java, and via plug-ins for other languages including: C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP, and others; started by IBM but now more fully open source community
* WingIde: for python only, not free: $35 personal or $179 professional, for one developer on one OS; source assistant shows documentation in the IDE for code completion text
* Komodo: British company, closed source; not free – $295 for license
* others: IDLE written in python and looks weak, Spyder written in python and scientific, PyScripter is Windows only

Just based on that, my current top choices for Python are (NetBeans, Eclipse with PyDev, WingIde).  For NetBeans I did Tools -> Plugins -> Available Plugins -> Python (version 0.103 beta), then linked my new project to my python install, since by default it referenced Jython (right-click project –> properties –> Python –> Manage –> New).  For Eclipse, I went to Help –> Install New Software, pointed it to ( http://pydev.org/updates ).  For WingIde, I tried the professional version trial.

NetBeans code completion with Python, with doc:

Eclipse code completion with Python, with doc:

WingIde code completion with Python, with doc:

All three show some form of code completion with integrated dynamic documentation.  As seen in the above screen shots, it shows code completion and function comments for my pemTest1() and pemTest2() functions.

As seen in the above screen shots, both WingIde and Eclipse gave me function comments for my pemTest1() method that I wrote, via pressing ctrl+space.

For Java, looks like the top IDE choices are NetBeans or Eclipse (or IntelliJ IDEA, which costs $249 for a personal license).

Based on one review, it sounds like: Eclipse has more plugins vs. NeatBeans has more-and-simpler out of the box.

As of 2010/01/10, the NetBeans Python plugin is marked as beta version 0.103, and it referenced Jython 2.5.1.  Python 3.0 has been out for a while, and I was hoping this would run with Python (not Jython).

I noticed the latest Grammar Version choices for Python (with Eclipse PyDev) were 2.6 and 3.0, even though I have Python 3.1.1 installed.

Based on this very brief survey, it’s not obvious which one I’d like better in the long-run.  But even just for the ctrl+space code completion (with convenient function comments), this looks promising to use a real IDE, rather than just using a basic text editor.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/10 (Sunday, January 10, 2010) :: Software Development :: No Comments »

I’m adding a new category…  Probably what I should do is create a separate blog (or page / area) that is for software development (programming, computer science, graphics programming, game development, virtualization programming, code tools, application development, etc) related stuff.  In fact, probably what I should really do is just delete this blog and focus on development topics O:-).  But for the moment, I’ll just make this a new category: Software Development

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/10 (Sunday, January 10, 2010) :: Blogging, Software Development :: No Comments »

Fun magnet shapes on my office cube

Top is Ball of Whacks: 1 piece, 2 piece, 3 piece, then two 5 piece (the star and the bow tie)

Bottom is X-Ball: 1 piece, 2 piece, 3 piece, 4 piece

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/10 (Sunday, January 10, 2010) :: Personal :: No Comments »

Here’s all I did:

1) Disable all plugins, use the automatic upgrade link inside wp-admin/upgrade.php, re-enable recently active plugins

2) I noticed that my Categories and Archives URL links were broken (actually, since before this upgrade), but this was fixed when I reactivated the plugin “Customizable Permalinks”

3) The new default theme gets changed with the upgrade, so I renamed the ftp folder /wp-content/themes/default/ to default_2.9.0, then uploaded (from my hard drive) my existing folder \wp-content\themes\default\ … to get back my old wordpress theme (web page style)

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/01 (Friday, January 1, 2010) :: Blogging :: No Comments »

Installed WPtouch iPhone theme: A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android and other touch-based smartphones.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/01 (Friday, January 1, 2010) :: Blogging :: No Comments »

DropBox is an awesome easy way to sync your files with the cloud and with multiple computers.  To start, just install it, point it to a data folder, and let it automatically sync your files with DropBox in the cloud.  Please click my referral link:
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTEyODU2ODk

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/12/18 (Friday, December 18, 2009) :: Operating System focused: Mac OS X, Operating System focused: Windows, Web :: No Comments »