Since I’ve wanted to begin developing programs for my n800, python seemed like a good route to go.  I’ve only heard good things about beginning development with python, and that it’s a good language to star things out with.  Since I already know PHP and Java, python is also a good language to get under my belt.

So, today I started my development, and I have been able to develop two programs.  One which was requested, one which I thought was useful.  So, I present two new programs for the N800/N810 running os2008 (could also work with os2006 and os2007, but untested):

• Tip Calculator
• Weight Watchers Points Calculator (was requested)

Both programmed using Python and Glade.  The Tip Calculator took under an hour.  The Weight Watchers Points Calculator took a little over an hour, but only because I had trouble using PyPackager.  This all makes Python look really good in my eyes

On the ongoing fight of grammar nazis for better grammar:

We recently purchased a new car.  (New being relative… it’s new to us, a ‘95 Corolla)  The other day, we got a letter in the mail telling us our license plates were ready.  This letter helped us by telling us what hours the dealership is open:

We are open Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 7:30 pm and 9:30 am to 4:00 pm.

Now, it took me a couple reads, but I’m pretty sure they meant to say “Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 7:30 pm and Saturday 9:30 am to 4:00 pm.”  From what I could tell, this was printed with a copy machine.  So, the dealership made a bunch of copies of a letter that doesn’t even make sense.  One would think that a dealership would hire someone to proof-read things like this.

Since I recently aquired a “new” linux box (900 MHz, 600-some MB RAM), I decided the summer would be a good time for me to make GUIEncode compile on Linux.

So, in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting some updates on how compiling for linux is going, and what improvements I’m making to GUIEncode because it needs to compile on Linux.  Overall, this should not only result in cleaner source code, but also a new and improved version that works great on Linux!  Initially, everything compiles fine, but there are some complaints in the program if you try to run it.  So, stay tuned for all the updates in the next couple of weeks.  Depending on what time allows, I hope to have a working Linux version of GUIEncode within the month.

Once it compiles and runs on Linux, it should also be able to compile and run on Mac OSX.  However, I don’t have the money to buy a REALbasic license to compile for OSX, so I won’t be able to do that myself.  If someone has OSX and REALbasic, please contact me!  When the code has been cleaned up, if you can compile it, credit will be given!

In programming, a lot of writing code isn’t actually writing code.  A lot of programming is either finding code and using it as a reference, or finding code and just copying it to your program with slight modifications.  This saves programmers time and effort.  Why rewrite code?  However, sometimes code needs to be written because no reference can be found.  For large projects, this is often done in groups.  Which brings about an interesting problem: debugging other people’s code.

Ask any programmer what they hate most about programming and the answer will most likely be debugging.  Finding what’s wrong with code you wrote is the worst.  Because, in your mind, nothing’s wrong with it.  Why would you write code wrong the first time?  Often, the easiest way to debug is to wait a little while between coding and debugging, and taking a fresh look over your code.  So, this would mean that debugging other people’s code is easier. Read more

As a small followup to my post on Fildropper, I recently needed to upload a larger (about 180 MB) file somewhere for hosting.  Not wanting to kill my bandwidth, filedropper was my first choice.  Instead of sitting and waiting for the file to upload, I decided to leave it overnight.

I checked my computer in the morning to be greeted with an error.  A really weird one.  Firefox could not find the page, because there was HTML in the URL.  Somehow, the entire source code for the filedropper main page had been put in the address bar after http://www.filedropper.com/.  So, I figured it was just a one time thing.  I’ll just upload it again, I figured.

By now, I have tried uploading at least seven times!  Sometimes the upload freezes in the middle, and other times I just keep getting the HTML in the URL.  Naturally, my next move was to e-mail Filedropper.  I went to their support form on their website, filled it out, and I haven’t heard a thing back in almost a week.  I realize that this is a free serivce, but for a company making such vast claims as filedropper has, this is simply unacceptable.  They do offer a paid service, and if they ever want to get my money they have a lot to fix.

First, for those who don’t know, filedropper is an awesome file hosting website. It allows anyone to upoad files of up to 5 GB in size, and it will simply host them. That being said, it is not without its faults.

However, I’d like to start off on a more positive note: filedropper is a great service. Being able to easily share any file up to 5 GB in size? AWESOME! Being able to create a free account (there was a promotion for digg, reddit, and other social news sites) that allows me to store and manage 250 GB of files? SWEET! And, of course, there are the features like being able to password protect your files, e-mail them to other people, etc.

Now that I’ve gotten through that, filedropper could use some major improvements. Read more

What if Michael Jackson hosted “Kids say the darndest things”?

Technorati Tags: thoughts

While the 770 was the original internet tablet, the N800 proved to be light years ahead of it. The N800 not only has a faster processor, but more memory, a camera, and is still supported (and will be for a while) through operating system updates. Still, whenever I show my N800 to someone, or describe what it is, they remark that it’s “like an iPod Touch.” To which I reply, “kind of, but this is better.” Read more

Well, the day came when the URL for the XKCD comic should have been http://xkcd.com/404, however, today’s comic is http://xkcd.com/405.  They just skipped 404.  Goes from 403 to 405.  Quite disappointing.  I was looking forward to seeing a 404-based comic, but XKCD has let me down…