Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Try Gadget Designer 1.1



If you've ever thought about creating your own Google Desktop gadget, try the latest version of Gadget Designer, a Windows application that's part of the Google Desktop SDK. You can find instructions for downloading and using this app in a new tutorial, Using Gadget Designer.

Here's what people have to say about latest version of Gadget Designer:

With the designer I have my whole development process in one place and one window: javascript coding, xml editing and buttons arranging. A preview is just an F5 push away and I get the whole thing packed up with F7. It doesn't get any easier than that... errr, okay, it will probably directly parse human thoughts in the future.
- Yannick Stucki

Apart from [an issue in creating packages], I must say that this version of the designer is a perfect tool to develop gadgets, with everything you need in the same window (API reference, preview, sources, debugger, etc.)
- Luca Ongaro

PHP5 on a Java App Server

Yep you can do it. My co-worker write it up, check it out at:
http://blogs.sun.com/tiger/entry/php_on_the_sun_java

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Generation Y - You've got to be kidding me!

A recent management-issues article claims "Generation Y still wants it all". Here's quick list of Gen-Y demands that many managers will have to deal with even in these difficult times:
  • less than a 40 hour work week
  • flexible work hours
  • concerned they would not be able to keep up with interests outside of work
  • concerned they would be overworked by their employers
  • 33% want to 'travel' on the job but less than 10% want to relocate
Hey Gen-Y! Get a clue! It's called work for a reason - you're expected to work your A$$ off. If you're concerned about your social life try being 'social' w/o a dollar in your pocket! It doesn't work so well does it? Concerned you'll be 'overworked'? Get used to it!

Here's my suggestions to Gen-Y:
  • Be thankful you have a job
  • Work your a$$ off
  • Keep your mouth shut
  • Keep your eyes open
  • Help those in the cubicles around you
  • Show up early
  • Leave late
We IT veterans are tired of picking up the pieces left behind by you Gen-Y flunkies! Get a clue! You're young, inexperienced and now you want your boss to cut you some slack because your social life is interfering w/ your work assignments? Not on my watch!

Grabbing a Grid Row with Dojo 1.1

I'm working on a project in the Dojo 1.1 JavaScript framework at work. The framework is very comprehensive and powerful. It has all the widgets of a Visual Basic or Java Swing. However, at this stage of its development, let's say the documentation could be a little better.



So I'm using the Dojo Grid widget to view some tabular data. What I needed to do was allow a user to select a row from the grid and then click on a button. This pops up a dialog with the data in a form for the user to edit. Well I figured it out, but it wasn't easy. So I thought I should post this code example for any other poor souls trying to do the same thing. Here is the code.



   1:<div id="grid" dojoType="dojox.Grid" model="model" structure="structure"
2: autoWidth="true"></div>
3:<button dojoType="dijit.form.Button" id="updateButton">Update
4:
5:<script type="dojo/method" event="onClick">
6: var row = dijit.byId('grid').selection.getSelected()[0];
7: var selected = dijit.byId('grid').model.data[row];
8:
9: if (selected) {
10: dijit.byId("someFormField").setValue(selected[0]);
11: }
12:</script>
13:</button>


The real heart of the issue is on line 6 and 7. First, you need to use the Dojo dijit.byId() function to grab the grid and get the selected row. This returns a integer number identifying the row in the grid. You then pass this number to the data model which returns an array containing the row data.



On lines 9 to 11, array data is assigned to the form text field. Note I check to see if selected is not empty first. If a row has not been selected, the selected array will be empty and this will cause an error if you try to assign it to the field. If there is data in the array, then line 10 assigns the first column in the row to the field identified by its ID.



I saw examples that identified the column in the grid by its name, but I could not get that to work. Using the column index numbers seems to be the only method that works for me.



I hope this will help others trying to do the same thing. Good luck!

Tuesday, 22 April 2008

Introducing the Energy Saver gadget



On this Earth Day 2008, we're very pleased to announce the release of the Energy Saver gadget.

This Google Desktop gadget for Windows XP and Vista helps you save energy (and money) by minimizing the power that your PC consumes when you're not using it. The gadget works by enabling and optimizing Windows power settings so that your PC meets EPA-recommended standards.

If saving energy and money isn't exciting enough, you can also see how much energy you've saved, both individually and as part of the group of people using the Energy Saver gadget. If you're like me and don't know the difference between a kilowatt and a kilowatt-hour, you'll appreciate the nifty, real-world comparisons:



Please join us in reducing power usage, and download the Energy Saver gadget.

Happy Earth Day from the Google Desktop Team!

Friday, 18 April 2008

Privacy Policy for Adsense

The last time Google updated their terms of service, they requested that privacy policy be posted for any of their adsense users. So I found this article on JenSense.com that includes a very nice little how to. Definitely worth checking out. Plan to add it to my sites soon.

Thursday, 17 April 2008

Featured gadget: Digital Clock





Name: Digital Clock
Author: Hemakumar M
Description: Pure digital looking clock gadget

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Monday, 14 April 2008

Movie Review: Flyboys

Well I got an HD receiver from DirectTV yesterday. Wow is the picture amazing. I had no idea based on the demos in stores. I ran across Flyboys on Showtime HD, I think, so I taped it and watched it at dinner time last night.


Basically the movie is the story of a French fighter squadron, composed mostly of American's, during World War I. The story is pretty standard formula stuff. Young men coming of age, not prepared for the horrors of war, blah, blah, blah, blah.



The best reason to watch the movie is the dogfight scenes. Basically, you are flying around in a wood/cloth plain with a big old nasty machine gun on the front, not fun. The scenes are easy to follow and the cinematography is amazing.



Definitely worth watching. I'm giving it four asterisks out of 5.
rating: ****

JSON Validators

We are going to use JSON for the current project I'm working on. And based on my work Friday, I need validation tools. And people thought it was easy to mess up XML. lol.



Here is what I found for online tools:
jsonlint
yacker



For the command line I found:
kwalify



Personally, I would prefer a command line tool for something like this. Much faster having something like that in your path. Better than cutting and pasting code to the web.

Thursday, 10 April 2008

Veronica Belmont Heading to Tekzilla

Its official, Veronica Belmont is moving from Mahalo Daily to Revision3's Tekzilla. Probably just for the commute if nothing else. :)

It will be nice to have her reporting tech stuff again. I found the pop culturish stuff she did at Mahalo a solid Meh. She was always finding interesting stuff when she was at CNET.

Wednesday, 9 April 2008

Featured gadget: Mobile Meter




Name: Mobile Meter
Author: KEEN
Description: Wireless reception, screen resolution, and power status for your Mac or PC

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.

AJAX Authentication

I'm starting another AJAX project at work. So as usual, my mind was wandering and I got to thinking about how do you do authentication in AJAX. I found this really good little write up:
http://roborant.info/main.do?entry=1331

Monday, 7 April 2008

Rails Like PHP Framework

Ran across mention of this framework at work: http://www.symfony-project.org/

I haven't heard about it before, but it looks like there is a book on it. The reviews of the framework on Amazon were pretty glowing. Worth checking out if you have a few free cycles.

Amazon MP3 Store

In that last week I bought a few tracks from the Amazon MP3 store and I gotta say I'm impressed. The purchase and download of the tracks is amazingly easy. Plus, no DRM! I can copy the MP3s to as many machines as I want. Woo hoo!

I have added a few tracks to the Blue Sky Workshop Store just for fun.

Thursday, 3 April 2008

Boo Dell, Looks like eee PC 900 for me

Well, looks like I'm not gonna get that Dell Linux laptop after all. Last week, after requesting they continue with my order, they canceled it anyway. I called customer service to see what the hold up was. The lady in India I talked to said they could look that sort of thing up, but their systems were down and would be for about an hour. Oh well.



I did a little of my own investigation and it appears they are no longer offering the nonglare screen that I ordered. That would explain the long delays. However, why not tell me that I needed to choose a different screen option? Like the first week? Or any week? Why give me no info for a month and a half? In the end, Dell ended up calling me about 8 times and e-mailing me about a dozen times about this order. My guess is, they probably lost about the price of the laptop in labor costs related to telling me my system was back ordered. And in the end, they lost my business altogether.



I was thinking of still getting a Dell laptop, until I ran across the eee PC 900 stories. This is a new version of the Linux Ultra Portable that has a 9" screen with a 1024x600 resolution. Much more usable than the 7" version. Check out a YouTube review here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY2azHo0LAU



So basically, you get a machine very similar in function to a MacBook Air for about $500, maybe a little less, maybe a little more. Beats the heck out of $1700. The extra style is not worth $1200.



Anyhoo, I'll be grabbing one of these babies as soon as they are available. More to come once I get one.

Wednesday, 2 April 2008

Featured gadget: Gadget de SincroGu�a TV





Name: Gadget de SincroGu�a TV
Author: InOut TV
Description: Personalized TV guide for Spain

More information | Download gadget

Each week this blog features a recently added Google Desktop gadget that looks promising. If you'd like to see all new Desktop gadgets as they're published, subscribe to the RSS feed.