No need to elaborate:
Reading code is way much harder than writing code. So please write readable code.
–jeroen
via Twitter / @Erik van Appeldoorn: Reading code is way much h ….
Archive for January, 2011
Twitter / @Erik van Appeldoorn: Reading code is way much h …
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/31
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Fox News’ guess on where Egypt is…
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/31
–jeroen
Posted in Opinions | Leave a Comment »
If you have an account on SourceForge.net, then you need to reset your password now
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/31
If you have an account on SourceForge.net, then now you need to reset your password by visiting https://sourceforge.net/account/registration/recover.php.
SourceForge.net was attacked recently (the whole story is on exploit-DB), so they are requesting everyone to reset their passwords.
I got a mail about it last weekend, and their blog now contains this message: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Power User, Software Development, Source Code Management, SourceForge | Leave a Comment »
Windows Dropbox: Clear the cache
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/28
When have a lot of Dropbox activity, then your Dropbox cache can grow, especially when you have clashes of files in use on other machines, and manipulating them from another.
In fact, I managed to get the Dropbox cache to be about as big as the first post on this thread.
Here are the steps to clear your cache on a Windows system:
- Stop the Dropbox.exe (from the tray, right click you your Dropbox icon, then click exit)
- Verify (in the Task Manager – make sure you view all processes from all users – or in Process Explorer) that Dropbox.exe is not running any more
- Delete the dropbox cache directory (or move it to the Recycle Bin)
- Start Dropbox (from the Start menu, it normally is under the Dropbox group)
The location of your Dropbox cache is in: %APPDATA%\Dropbox\cache, the actual location depends on what Windows version you are:
- For Windows Vista and up (including Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server), it is at C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\cache.
- For older Windows versions (XP, 2003 Server, and older), the Dropbox cache is at C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Dropbox\cahche.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Chrome will never add Find-As-You-Type to the Chromium core
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/24
To quote the comment below:
we have no plans to ever add FAYT to the core product.
Wow, that is a pretty strong statement.
The core chromium team somehow seems heavily opposed to FAYT, a feature you see more and more in modern products (not only browsers, also word processors, web sites, software development IDEs, etc).
Some people might know FAYT as “incremental search“, or “type ahead find“.
I’m wondering about the cause of this very strong statement.
Did some portion of the comment thread in the bug report seriously piss someone off at the Chromium team?
Are there technical objections?
Are there any usability objections?
It is a real pity that the Chromium team doesn’t go into more detail as to why the object to adding FAYT into the core.
The bug report is not the only thread about this, there is at least this help forum thread on it too.
Both are from 2008 (hey: that is ancient in internet years!) and are still active, so there clearly is demand for FAYT.
Internet Explorer does not have FAYT in its core either, but does Chrome really want to be compared with that?
Luckily, there are two FAYT extensions:
- FAYT for Chrome (Use
/for search or'for link-only search) - FAYT for Internet Explorer
Posted in Chrome, Power User, Web Browsers | Leave a Comment »
iPod shuffle (4th generation): Checking battery status
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/21
For my own reference: just press the voice over button twice so it will tell you the status.
via: iPod shuffle (4th generation): Checking battery status.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Delphi dcc64 compiler engineer Yooichi Tagawa now on twitter as YooichiTagawa
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/20
Thanks to this thread, I learned that Yooichi Tagawa (also known in the Delphi world as Tagawa-San) got himself a Twitter account named YooichiTagawa.
Boy didn’t I know he was involved at the end of the 80s with the UNIX and VAX/VMS versions of LHa/LHarc during my university years.
Trivia: Years ago, he entered the team as a localization engineer.
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
In Memoriam: Marcel Oud
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/19
Last night, Marcel Oud – a friend and inspirator – passed away at the age of 47.
Suffering from Cystic Fibrosis, he carried his fate with optimism: every moment for him was a gift (hence the “present”).
He had two famous quotes, characterizing his life long battle:
- “ziek zijn is slecht voor je gezondheid” which translates into “being ill is bad for your health”
- “ons leven is wat onze gedachten er van maken”, which translates into “life is what our mind makes of it”.
He and his wife Sandra enjoyed playing and listening to music – especially percussion – very much.
Marcel was conductor of the Percussion Ensemble at Harmonie “St._Caecilia”, Lutjebroek for almost 20 years.
Shortly after he stopped being conductor, his wife joined the percussion group at Drum- and Showband Adest Musica, which Marcel was very proud of.
Eventually having to live by the day, the our and even minute, his optimism stayed.
I’m proud to have known him, as he taught me a lot about the mental things in life.
I wish his wife Sandra, family and friends all the best.
–jeroen
Posted in About, Personal | 4 Comments »
Fritz!BOX 7340 Firmware-Version 99.04.86 issues
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/19
It seems that Fritz!BOX forgot to test some of their model 7340 Firmware-Version 99.04.86 features with the English language.
If you have any of these problems, then the solution is to switch the device to the German language, and reboot it:
- WLAN connected devices cannot connect to LAN devices (no ping, telnet, RDP, SMB, et cetera)
- You get HTML error messages and HTML trash in your browser when configuring IP-settings for a specific LAN device
See these threads:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Fritz+7340+Firmware-Version+99.04.86+english+german
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Formatted sourcecode in WordPress: uses SyntaxHighlighter 3.0; complete list of supported languages
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/18
In the past I wrote a few blog posts on posting sourcecode in WordPress.
Nick Hodges‘ last Flotsam and Jetsam blog post pointed me to the SyntaxHighlighter JavaScript that is used by WordPress and many other engines/sites.
Their site contains an even more elaborate list of supported languages.
I had the basic list right in my last post, but was missing all the aliases (which often are easier than the longer proper names).
This is the new table adapted from their list: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in .NET, Batch-Files, C#, CSS, Database Development, Delphi, Delphi for PHP, Development, HTML, HTML5, Java, JavaScript, PowerShell, RegEx, Scripting, SQL, VBS, Web Development, WordPress, XML, XML/XSD, XSD | 5 Comments »
TVGids.nl trick – verder dan overmorgen
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/17
Een hack kun je dit niet noemen: de TVGids.nl werkt gewoon via URL‘s, dus kun je er met een simpele trick meer mee dan er via de standaard uitgebreid zoeken pagina wordt aangeboden.
Bijvoorbeeld de lijst programma’s bekijken die verder in de toekomst liggen dan overmogen.
Het gaat hierbij om de d parameter: die heeft het aantal dagen aan.
Meestal ben ik geïnteresseerd in de programma’s die ‘s avonds (t=4) worden uitgezonden op Nederlandstalige (z=1001) zenders.
De url ziet er als volgt uit: http://www.tvgids.nl/zoeken/?q=&d=2&z=1001&t=4&g=&v=0
Enkele voorbeeld URs: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Wikipedia 10 turns ten – happy anniversary, be sure to donate to Wikipedia today!
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/15
Wikipedia turns 10 today.
So from this place: congratulations Wikipedia with this anniversary.
And for everyone reading this: please donate to Wikipedia today, and help celebrate this unique event.
–jeroen
via: Wikipedia 10.
Posted in About, Personal, Power User | Leave a Comment »
SEO guys taking over Google results: Search Filter and Stackoverflowizer Chrome extension
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/14
Over at least the last year, I keep adding more and more “site:domainname” clauses to my Google search queries because somehow content scrapers somehow rank higher in the Google results than the original content.
Some domainnames I often used because of good content:
- stackoverflow.com
- microsoft.com
- wikipedia.org
- apple.com
- reference.com
- …
Others too noticed the SEO guys are steadily taking over Google results: Jeff Atwood just wrote a great article on this topic (with an even greater list of comments), and there is even a Stackoverflowizer app redirecting back from the scrape sites back to the content!
The world upside down, but maybe this is some good news:
an opportunity for other search engines to fill the gap.
And it looks like they do, and Vivek Wadhwa wrote a nice article on those too.
There is an opportunity for browser extensions too, so here are some Google Chrome extensions:
Be prepared to fill your machines with some more memory as browser plugins do eat some.
–jeroen
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Mac OS X v10.6.6 Update
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/11
Last week, Apple released OS X version 10.6.6, of which the main feature is the Mac App Store.
The about Mac OS X v10.6.6. Update document describes how to update.
In addition to the Mac App Store, this update also contains an Apple security updates: a fix for a PackageKit man-in-the-middle vulnerability.
Download: Mac OS X v10.6.6 Update (or perform an automatic download)
–jeroen
Posted in Mac, Power User, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
batch file scripts to get current date and current time in sortable ISO 8601 format
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/10
ISO 8601 is a great format for date and time (and combined) values.
It allows for both interchange of information, and ease of sorting values.
Recently, I had to create some backup and logging scripts for a 3rd party turn-key installation at a client.
You know: the kind of installation where the 3rd party manages to break their own scripts, but at the mean time close the system so much, that you cannot do anything but standard batch-file scripts.
The system runs partially on a Workstation that is based on a Dutch version of Windows XP, and a server that runs an English version of Windows Server 2008.
Recipe for some twiddling in order to keep the scripts working on both systems, and not to get bitten by localization.
This answer to a StackOverflow question got me a nice head-start: it was said to work in both the English and Portugese versions of Windows.
This post is the process to get correctly function batch-files towards the end of the post.
Of course, we Dutch are persistent enough to have yet different output for the %date% pseudo variable and the date and date /t commands.
The same holds for the %time% pseudo variable and the time and time /t commands.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 4 Comments »
Lode Runner – the on-line nintendo 8 version
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/07
Classic game: Lode Runner at on-line nintendo-8 emulator.
I remember the days at high-scool in the mid 80′s when I played lode runner on the Apple ][ machines, and even designed my own levels!
Boy, I wish I cload load these floppies (which I still have them!) on my PC.
This comes close, but lacks the famous “HELLO” welcome screen.
(somehow it reminds he of the “DON’T PANIC” large friendly letters on a book I read at about the same time).
–jeroen
via: Lode Runner – Play the Nintendo game Lode Runner online.
PS: need to check out the Apple 2 GS emulator version of Lode Runner later; it needs some manual fidding to get it working in Chrome.
L8r 
Posted in Emulators, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Bloemencorso Bollenstreek 2011 zonder muziekkorpsen #fail
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/06
Op dit moment zegt de site van het bloemencorso bollenstreek nog ditover het bloemencorso 2011:
Voor een extra feestelijke uitstraling wordt de stoet begeleid door muziekkorpsen.
Maar inmiddels zijn al veel muziekkorpsen gebeld door de organisatie dat dit jaar het bloemencorso bollenstreek plaats vindt zonder korpsen.
Jammer, zowel voor het publiek als de korpsen.
Het publiek kijkt elk jaar uit naar de korpsen.
En de korpsen gaan het lastig voor elkaar krijgen om voor die datum vervangende inkomsten te regelen.
Ik ben benieuwd hoe die korsen daarvoor gecompenseerd gaan worden.
Veel korpsen zouden iets met het huidige thema (Reis door Europa) kunnen doen, dus ik ben benieuwd naar de achterliggende reden.
Voor zover ik het nu kan overzien een gemiste kans.
–jeroen
Posted in About, Adest Musica, Personal | Leave a Comment »
my 2010 blog in review
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/01/03
Don’t you love automated stuff.
Wordpress has a helper monkey that wrote me an email with stats, very similar to the results below.
From the stats page, I already know that popular posts not only include Delphi (where I originally came from) but also lots of other technologies: vmware, .NET, JRE, infrastructure.
Currently I’m doing quite a bit of iPhone/iPad work, so that likely will be reflected in the results next year.
What amazes me is the most popular day: according to the helper monkey it had 1 view
Don’t you love the computing business
–jeroen
Helper Monkey Results
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
