Archive for May, 2013
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/22
My Google Reader alternatives shortlist comes down to these 3
- PRO: imports GR including which posts you already read.
- PRO: GR imported posts contains all history (even from blog feeds that are now defunct)
- CON: slows down browser considerably
- CON: UI has too much whitespace
- CON: UI is slow (browsing with j/k takes ages)
- PRO: uses as much screen estate as possible
- PRO: very fast UI
- CON: GR import misses the read/unread markers
- CON: GR import incomplete (so now defunct feeds do not appear)
One of the reasons I want to have the defunct feeds, is that it contains the old blog of a friend that passed away.
Did you make a choice yet?
–jeroen
via: Google Reader stops at 2013-07-01: How can I download my Reader data? (via: Reader Help) « The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff.
Posted in Google, GoogleReader, Power User | Tagged: blogging, technology, ui | 10 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/22
Despite the radically different first look, lot’s of Windows 8 is the same as in Windows 7
So this Windows 7 trick works just as well in Windows 8:
This is how you get the underline character to show for Alt and other keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 (the link shows you how to do this with the mouse, but we are keyboard lovers, are’t we?):
- Press the WINDOWS-U combination to open the “Ease of Access Center”
- Under Explore all settings, select “Make the keyboard easier to use” by pressing TAB a couple of times, then press ENTER to select it.
- Press ALT-N to select and check “Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys” under ”Make it easier to use keyboard shortcuts”
- Press ALT-O to fire the OK button action.
- Press ALT-F4 to close the “Ease of Access Center”
Done!
–jeroen
via: I love my keyboard; why did they hide “Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys” in Windows 7 so far away? « The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff.
Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/22
On my research list (Thanks Uwe!): DataSnap in the Cloud – DelphiFeeds.com.
It shows you how to do DataSnap from the Azure clound, including getting some of the default Delphi database demos to work on SQL Server (erm, SQL Azure).
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Delphi XE, Delphi XE2, Delphi XE3, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/21
One of the things you must be careful with is reentrancy in your application through a message loop.
The most obvious way is Application.ProcessMessages: it will loop until all messages from the Windows message queue are processed, whether your application is ready for them or not.
A less obvious way is because of modal dialogs or forms. They have their own message loop which might cause global reentrancy in your application (for instance through TTimer objects).
That was the case for this problem: stack overflow with repeated DispatchMessageW in the call stack.
A couple of ways to try to avoid these issues:
- Don’t cause a secondary message loop.
You can refrain from calling Application.ProcessMessages, but you cannot always avoid modal dialogs.
- Protect each of your event handlers by disabling the path to it as soon as it gets called.
This means disabling the Enabled property for instance of TTimer, TControl, TAction, or other objects that cause events.
–jeroen
via: windows – stack overflow with repeated DispatchMessageW in the call stack – Stack Overflow.
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | 7 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/20
CrossLoop is on my list of software to try out soon:
Free screen sharing software and remote access solutions. Get affordable Technical Support & Computer Help with money back guarantee.
–jeroen
via: Free Screen Sharing and Remote Access Solutions.
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/17
LOL, I didn’t know about “XKCD Explained”, but since I didn’t know about synesthesia, I found 1213: Combination Vision Test – explain xkcd.
Now I wonder how they created the colorized picture in an efficient manner (:
Probably would have been just as fast to dim the 0, 4, 6, and 8 digits.
–jeroen
Posted in Comics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/17
Sometimes I get messages like the below No Disk error on virtual machines, mainly in Windows XP and lower, but sometimes in more recent Windows versions too.
---------------------------
Windows - No Disk
---------------------------
Exception Processing Message c0000013 Parameters 75b6bf7c 4 75b6bf7c 75b6bf7c
---------------------------
Cancel Try Again Continue
---------------------------
The 0xc0000013 is a No Disk Exception.
Every time the solution has been to uninstall the floppy drive device from the VM image.
I never had it on physical hardware, but for that, disabling all unused removable and USB disk devices seem to work.
Somehow, lots of software thinks it should scan ALL media, even the removable ones that might not have media inserted.
–jeroen
via: A Consuming Experience: Windows – no disk Exception Processing Message c0000013 Parameters 75b6bf9c 4 75b6bf9c 75b6bf9c – fixed!.
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/16
Nobody but very wealthy research institutions could afford CRAY machines.
They were the computing workhorse of their time. Now your smartphone is faster (:
BitSavers just added a bunch of CRAY documentation of the 1980s and early 1990s.
–jeroen
Posted in BitSavers.org, History, Power User | Tagged: cray documentation, cray machines, technology | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/16
For 10 months ago, Iris started Asking a ‘stupid’ question, every day for 365 days.
Virtually all of them very valid questions that remind me of various stages in my software career, and will remind me during the stages still to come.
Her motto is “there is no such thing as a stupid question”.
I agree, and would go even further: keep the questions coming every day of your life, as it is the only way of learning.
Recommended reading!
–jeroen
via: For 10 months ago, Iris started Asking a ‘stupid’ question, every day for 365 days ».
Posted in Development, Software Development | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/15
It is unwise to pass objects allocated in one framework over a DLL boundary to a different framework.
In the case of Using C dll in delphi return nothing, someone tries to pass an Interface to some memory in the C side over to Delphi.
Unless that interface is COM based, don’t do that!
In a more general way: don’t pass memory allocated on the DLL side over to the client side, no matter what kind of client you have.
From the DLL, either pass simple types, or fill buffers allocated at the client side.
Edit:
There was a nice Delphi DLL return string from C# … .NET 4.5 Heap Corruption but .NET 4.0 works? Explain please? – Stack Overflow question explaining in detail what to do for strings in a specific case: use the COM heap on the Delphi side using CoTaskMemAlloc (actually it uses the OLE task memory allocator as the Old New Thing explains).
–jeroen
via: Using C dll in delphi return nothing – Stack Overflow.
Posted in .NET, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, Delphi, Delphi 1, Delphi 2005, Delphi 2006, Delphi 2007, Delphi 2009, Delphi 2010, Delphi 3, Delphi 4, Delphi 5, Delphi 6, Delphi 7, Delphi 8, Delphi x64, Delphi XE, Delphi XE2, Delphi XE3, Development, Software Development | 5 Comments »
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