TIPS: Technology Internet Programming Science

Moving on to Wordpress.

2009-07-31T16:27:00.001+01:00

I've finally found the time to move my blog over to my own space, you can find the blog here:
http://www.akademy.co.uk/blog-tips/

If you use RSS then you can signup for the new one with this:
http://www.akademy.co.uk/blog-tips/feed/

Thanks for reading!

Blackbird javascript debugging with PHP

2009-04-29T18:05:00.005+01:00

If you're still using the javascript "alert()" function to output all of your debug information then take not: You need Blackbird!

Blackbird creates a little window to output all your javascript debugging information. When you need it, you can pop it up with a quick key press and all the output from your javascript programs is there.

You can put different types of information out to the window then filter the display to just show what you need. You have a choice of Information, Debug, Warning, Error or Profile. The first four just output text, but the last takes a label to start a timer, the next call with the same label outputs the time difference.

It's really simple to install. Just include a little javascript and CSS file like this:

<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/PATH/TO/blackbird.css" media="screen">
<script type="text/javascript" src="/PATH/TO/blackbird.js"></script>

Make sure the script tag is above any other javascript you might want to debug.

Now all you have to do is call one of the functions:

// Output text marked as debug:
log.debug( "I'm trying to debug this thing" );

// Output text marked as information:
log.info("Hello World!" );

// Start a timer with label testFunc1
log.profile("testFunc1");

// Stop the timer and output time (You'd usually do something between the two profile calls)
log.profile("testFunc1");

That's all great and really useful. Most of the time however, you'll not want to include the Blackbird code, with a little bit of PHP magic you can choose on the fly when to include it. Place this code in your PHP file in the HEAD section of the resulting page:

if( isset( $_GET["debugging"] ) )
{
echo <<<END
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/PATH/TO/blackbird.css" media="screen">
<script type="text/javascript" src="/PATH/TO/blackbird.js"></script>
END;
}
else
{
echo <<<END
<script type="text/javascript"><!-- <![CDATA[
var log={toggle:function(){},move:function(){},resize:function(){},clear:function(){},debug:function(){},info:function(){},warn:function(){},error:function(){},profile:function(){}};// ]]>-->
</script>
END;
}

So the simple idea here is that if you include "debugging" in your URL call then Blackbird code will be included, in all other calls, the log functions are set to empty so no code will be output. This means you can leave the actual debug calls in your code, without them causing errors or being display. Here's an example:
With debug (don't forget to press F2)
http://www.akademy.co.uk/index.php?debugging
And without:
http://www.akademy.co.uk/index.php

The javascript "alert()" function doesn't is not even come close!

Check out Blackbird here: http://www.gscottolson.com/blackbirdjs/

HP miniNote review (vs the Asus minibook)

2009-03-31T17:27:00.005+01:00

General

The HP miniNote is a fine piece of kit, but I question whether it's much of a Netbook. In fact I'd place it in a position somewhere between a Netbook and a full laptop...

The specs are pretty impressive though - the one I'm using has a 10 Inch screen, 2Gb of RAM, 1.6 Ghz process and an impressive 150 Gb of Hard drive space. The battery length is also pretty impressive, I've easily had five hours out of it, with estimates of up to 8 hours claimed. The size is bigger than other netbooks but still much small than most laptops. You can get a feel for it's size from the following images:

It's keyboard feels like a full size one - your fingers fit the keys and make typing a breeze - but is still slightly smaller than standard. You can happily type away on it for a good deal of time, it would be ideal to take with you down the coffee house for a quick drink, although prolonged typing did make my fingers feel a little cramped after a time.

Comparison
Here's the the HP mini next to the Asus miniNote:

The HP is clearly a lot wider which could make it a little harder to carry around. Another problem for its netbook credentials is its start up time. A good test of a netbook is the time it takes from when it's switched on until the time you can get a web page up, say a weather forecast. I believe this would be a typical use for a net book. Time comparison:

HP MiniNote Switch on to desktop : 72 seconds Switch on to Website: 235 seconds
Asus MiniBook Switch on to desktop : 25 seconds Switch on to Website: 85 seconds

I believe this is mostly due to the different operating systems they run (Linux on Asus, XP on HP). The Asus operating system was specifically created for speed, add even on a much slower machine the speed is impressive. The linux operating system could in theory be installed to the HP making a really impressive peice of kit.

Cost is somewhat prohibative too. The original Asus at the moment costs about £195 while the HP can cost around £450, this is well within the full laptop cost area.

Conclusion
The HP is a really great sub notebook, ideal for when you need to do a little work away from you office or home. Think of it as a really small laptop, placed somewhere between a netbook and a laptop, great for typing, not so great for a quick internet update.

Teaching programming to the masses.

2009-01-31T15:57:00.001Z

Most people believe it's easiest to learn new things when you are young, however, I believe if you are still able to think then you are still able to learn, but there is one good reason for learning earlier and that's the time to practice and gain experience.

Starting to learn programming early certainly has it's benefits, the best ones are almost always the ones who started when they were young, and this leads us to the main part of this blog: Teaching Programmers.

I grew up programming the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, not an experience I'd want anyone else to try, (though it was pretty clever for its time). This was always a rather loney pursuit, and in many cases, still is. However, programming has come a long way since then, object orientated programming was a massive improvement and Garbage Collectors have improved far enough to be pretty fast and reliable.

But has the way we program really changed that much? Well, no not really. All programming comes down to opening up a file and writing symbols in certain orders that only a select few can understand. How does the majority learn what's going on? Isn't it a little strange that the world over uses software but a tiny minority actually know how to create it?

Well, I think so, but the good news is that programming is slowly going mainstream, and there's several really useful and fun pieces of software available to teach it, here's my top picks.

Alice (http://www.alice.org/) (Personal Favourite!)
With this you first create a 3D world with characters and props through a simple drag and drop interface. You then control what happens through coding. The tutorial is excellent and gets you going immediatey. It won't be long before you are creating your own little world (See mine here)

Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/)
Two-dimensional images can be controlled to make all kinds of interesting games and tools. There's a large list of examples created by people across the world.

Kudo (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/)
This one is especially for creating games and just looks really nice. The programming is just drag and drop.

Karel (http://mormegil.wz.cz/prog/karel/prog_doc.htm)
This isn't actually a program but a fully fledge programming language. But it's designed especially for people new to programming.

Phishing for phishers: An idea

2008-11-16T20:44:00.009Z

Phishing

I just had another phishing email today and had an idea how to fight against it. (Phishing is an email which looks like it is from one company but was actually from someone else, they are designed to steal your login details - Hence, they were "fishing" for my details)

I was curious to know how close the dummy login page looked to the real one (I should point out at this point you should never normally even click on a link on email like this, it can be really unsafe!). So that you don't have to try this I show two images below for you to have a look at:

As you can see, they are pretty identical (the first one is the fake one).

Taking care
Don't worry, it isn't hard to avoid these phishing scams. Here's a few tips to help you catch these.

Is it likely?
Firstly, it's actually quite unlikely that your bank would suddenly need to contact you for any reason. If somethings important, they'll almost certainly send a letter.

Avoid links
If you do recieve an email and you think it is genuine, don't use any links embedded in the email, instean open your Internet browser and type the name in manually, or use one of your own bookmarks if you have one.

Fake URL's
If you do use a link inside an email (or even on the internet) it's a good idea to check what the URL is. This appears in the box, usually at the top of your browser (For instance, this website's URL is: "http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com/" you should see this in the box).

Phisihers usually attempt to trick you by including the real one with their own. For instance, this is a fake url: "http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com.fakingit.com/" - notice the additional text at the end "fakingit.com" - this is actually the real address of the website.

Always check the right most text of the top URL part. This is the part between the "http://" (or "https://") and the first "/", e.g. (in bold):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/episodes/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com.fakingit.com/
http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com/

Many modern browsers actually highlight this part for you now.

An idea
Once you've realised what's going on, any information can be added into these websites. In fact simply entering dummy account information will start to put of the phishers, however a much more ingenious thing to do would be for the real companies affected by these emails to set up dummy accounts, and then enter these details into the phishing websites.

Now, as soon as these dummy details are entered on the real website a company can take immediate actions to stop them, perhaps logging and banning their IP address, so that no real accounts can be used from that position. Alternatively, with the help of the police, perhaps money transfers could be tracked as they are made.

Of course, it's highly likely that this is already taking place. Perhaps it's only a matter of time before these people are caught.

Let me know what you think.

Human computing power

2008-10-20T21:58:00.008+01:00

The idea

There are still quite a few tasks that computers struggle to do, image recognition is a good example. Currently there's only one way to complete these tasks and that's manually. This can obviously take a long time to do but there is a solution, you just need to find thousands of people to take part - this is exactly what we are seeing more and more of right now.

The internet is ideal way to get many thousands of people together, and with the right task really great things can be achieved. Of course, it's not as easy as uploading thousands of images and expecting people to look through them for you - if we don't find the images interesting then we are simply not going to take part. One way to keep a task interesting is to make the process into a game and compete with other like minded people.

The other problem is making sure the tasks are being performed correctly. The current preferred solution is to first train the participants and secondly to randomly test them against already checked responses. This also removes any unscrupulous individuals intent on causing problems and ultimately makes the completed task more reliable.

Some examples of human computing follow.

Clickworkers
The first test of the idea was back in 2000, and was called Click Workers. It was run by Nasa and the idea was simply to select craters on Mars. The interface is quite basic, and reflects some of the early internet's draw backs clearly lacking some of the enhancements in more recent projects, but the project proved that the concept could work.

The stardust project

One of the first projects to use some of the latest Web 2.0 ideas was the Stardust Project. Stardust was a sample return mission to collect interstellar particles passing through the Solar System. The particles were tiny and captured in a gel like substance (see image), it was as they put it

"...like looking for 45 ants on a football pitch."

more information about the project here.

For the website the "gel" was imaged at a high resolution and small pieces then farmed off to an individuals. First each individual was given a test to make sure they knew what they were looking for, then they were given a really image of the "gel" and had to decide if it contained a particle or not. The whole idea was to pretty much search for the stuff stars (and everything) are made of, as if you were some intergalatic explorer, as they put it:

"The best attitude for this project is this: Have fun!"

good advice for anyone wanted to set up their own human computing experiment.

The galaxy zoo project

The next project to give this a try was the galaxy zoo project. The idea here was to try to classify galaxies into spiral (as image) or elliptical. There exists thousands and thousands of photographs of the night sky unseen by human eyes and just waiting for the next great discovery to be made - step up the next group of intergalatic explorers.

This project was in a similar vain to the previous one but executed with a slightly slicker interface. This also had a massive following, with quite quickly millions of galaxy classifications taking place. Participants were again trained and tested during their continual classification. Friendly competition was enhanced with high score tables and records of right and wrong classifications.

The foldit game

One of the more advanced software programs in human computing tasks is the FoldIt Game, it's also one of the cleverest ideas and one of the most fun to do. The idea is you have to fold proteins so that they can have the right shape to combine with other proteins, these can then be used to cure real world diseases.

This one is attempting something slightly different from the other examples here. Rather than classification, this one actually wants you to solve some rather complex problems. Many of the puzzles have unknown solutions and there may even be some that have no solution.

It's fairly simple to get started, the puzzles have a nice learning curve and the interface has been well designed. Just use the mouse to grab or shake parts of the protein to see what happens. You'll have to download the program to try it yourself.

More detailed information can be found here.

GWAP.com
This is the final one we'll look at here, and the idea takes various human computing tasks into the mainstream. GWAP comes from "Games With A Purpose" and there are several games here to compete in. All are primarilly designed to be fun to play but are cleverly designed to help computers recognise things like images or words.

To check that it is being correctly played, couples co-operate anomonously and try to, for instance, tag a photo with the same word, or ring the same part of an image. Doing this means it effectively checks itself, and the more people that play the games the more reliable the information becomes.

Check out more info here. And for an in depth look into GWAP and similar ideas check this video out.

Summary
It seems like more and more projects are being started that utilise these unique human abilities, and with each new project becomes an ever more ingenious idea. But the question is how long will it be before computers have the abilities to do these tasks themselves? Well, with more of these projects actually aimed at improving computers in the first place, maybe it'll be sooner than we think.

One last thing I must mention though is the darker side of human computing. It's already been shown that criminals have used this technique to bypass the CAPTCHA login systems by employing enough humans to sort through the vast outputs.

Let me know of any other human computing projects you've come across.

The future is big, bendy and transparent.

2008-10-02T13:19:00.000+01:00

You might have seen bendable displays before, but unfortunately they've

always had something that stopped them going main stream. Until now.

All of the problems have been fixed: any size, any resolution, flexible and
bright.

Check out the new report here:

http://www.physorg.com/news142140073.html

I think it's hard to imagine the many ways this will transform today's world, but just imagine what a roll up, light weight, flexible screen could do:

Wrap around your arm like a bracelet.
Sewn directly onto fabrics.
Floated into the sky by balloons.
Embedded into spectacles or any glass surface.

Do you have some good ideas?

Project Euler. Problem Solving, Maths and programming

2008-09-19T16:19:00.003+01:00

Here's a fun little website to stretch those little grey cells.
http://projecteuler.net/

Named after the great Mathematician "Leonhard Euler", it's a website to test your programming and Maths prowess. Of course I'd only recommend it if you do actually enjoy solving maths puzzles and enjoy programming, otherwise it might be just a little torturous!

Each puzzle has a single number which you can enter on the website as a solution. It will keep a record of all the solutions you've found and if you solve enough, your name will be immortalised on the high score board (Though there's a lot of work to do to get there!). Once you've got the right answer you can see how other people worked it out too in various different programming languages. You will certainly learn a few new skills and probably improve your own programming along the way.

I'll see you there.

Update: It's also a great way to practice any new programming languages you may be learning. Check out the list of languages people have used.

Exciting software: Photosynth

2008-08-22T16:27:00.002+01:00

Already mention in my Exciting software blog, Photosynth is now released to the public.

This has been around for a while now, but is still pretty impressive software. The idea is it can take multiple shots of the same area and stitch them together to create a 3D world. You can then move about in this world, moving in and out of various areas.

You can try the software out for yourself here:
http://photosynth.net/

(A warning though, any photos you upload become public.) They say you can create a impressive shot with as little as 10 photos and they suggest you start small. For a guide on taken photos see this PDF's but some quick tips to get you started:

Overlap the shots alot
Take zoomed out shots
Shoot the same thing from different angles.

The software works on either XP or Vista across most of the leading browsers. Let me know how you get along and have fun.

Coding fonts

2008-06-30T17:16:00.004+01:00

Is it time to change your coding font?

A font created especially for coding sounds like a strange idea, but there are several things you can include in a font that can make coding an easier experience. For instance, most common fonts show the 0 ("zero") and the O ("oh") characters in an almost identical way, with a specific font these can be clearly identified.

There are others too, seemingly tiny changes but with big payoffs

Telling other charaters apart like "{", "[" and "("
Highlighting key characters like "{" or ";"
Changing the typical space size so more text can be displayed along a line.

Here's a couple of examples you can download:
http://www.proggyfonts.com/index.php?menu=download
http://damieng.com/blog/2008/05/26/envy-code-r-preview-7-coding-font-released

Then there's enhanced colours and font styles. Another from the website above is a rather nice colour scheme, very pleasing to the eye, even relaxing in a way:
http://damieng.com/blog/2007/10/14/colour-schemes-for-visual-studio

This is an example of what beauty you can achieve:
Let me know if you have any more examples or know other ways to improve your coding.

The paper and pen operating system : Livescribe

2008-05-19T09:52:00.001+01:00

As interfaces go, handwriting and computers have never really got on together. Either the interface to actually write with is totally alien to how you actually write or when you can get some writing to the computer,they are notorious at trying to work out what you're actually writen.

So, the solution - stick the computer inside a pen and turn paper into the screen. Oh, and why you're at it, why not record what's going on around you and associate that with what you're writing - now no need to miss what is being said in meetings and lectures.

Sounds clever, no? That's just what I thought but here's the demo of this clever system: (There's an advert on before it unfortunately)

There's more information available at their website here:
http://www.livescribe.com/

It uses an infrared camera (records 70 fps) to record your writing and can store upto 2 GB of data. The website claims it can hold more than 100 hours of audio, which should be plenty even for a week of meetings. It doesn't explain how the notepad buttons work though, which I find really interesting...

I haven't yet used one of these in real life but I think in many meetings I've been in, not to mention some unfortunately dull lectures, they'd be very useful. They are also relatively cheap, (you can buy more expensive conventional pens than this) and with falling prices of solid state memory and infrared camers (have you notived these are popping up on everything lately) they'll soon be recording in everyones hand.

Let me know if you get to play with one of these.

Flickr Video

2008-04-23T12:39:00.002+01:00

Vienna Palace
Originally uploaded by akademy

Following on from an earlier post, and true to their word, Flickr have now added video to their sites.

They've added a few restrictions to the video, the strictest being that video can not be more than 90 seconds long. I think this is a good idea, as the video's most people will be putting up are the short ones that we take when we are on holiday. This ensures Flickr doesn't become something it doesn't want to be.

Here's a video I took in Vienna.

"Infrared camera and Johnny Lee" or "Wii hacks"

2008-03-31T14:50:00.002+01:00

The Wii remote is one of the most advanced game controller ever produced. It's position and movement can be read in three dimensions, it's wireless, has a built in speaker and you can point it straight at the screen.

It's the last ability that Johnny Lee is most interested. The Wii Remote has a infrared camera in the end and it is this (together with the Sensor Bar which transmits infrared) that allows you to point at the screen.

But the camera can actually pick up any infrared transmissions and it is this that brings us to Johnny Lee's WiiHacks.

I'll let him tell you the rest here:

there's also an additional feature in this video:

Now, you're almost certainly asking, how do I get me one of these? Well, quite simply:

Buy a wii remote (they come seperate),
Get a bluetooth reciever for your computer if you need one.
By some Infrared transmitters and some batteries.
Download Johnnys code from his website. Which is here: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/
For some of Johnnys hacks you might also need the sensor bar (which can also be obtained seperatly)
Play

I haven't had a chance to play myself yet but I'll be updating as soon as I can.

Exciting software - Phun

2008-02-21T10:45:00.000Z

Continuing from my previous blog Exciting software, here's another one.

Phun is a very clever 2D physics engine. With realistic water movement, gravity, friction and tweakable. The interface is actually very intuitive to. A very nice user experience.

See a video here:

And you can actually try the software from here:
http://www.acc.umu.se/%7Eemilk/

I've found it to be very impressive, easy to use and accurate.

Let me know what you think.

Hacking the Asus MiniBook - or Having some programmer fun.

2008-01-29T16:40:00.002Z

I've been playing around with my new Asus miniBook and thought I'd share a few tips with you:

Tip 1:
This is basically a Linux build, so it must have a command line interface... and it does. Just press Ctrl-Alt-T to get it up.

Tip 2:
So if it's Linux were is the interface then? It's there you just need to install a few apps to see it. It will only use an additional 6 Megabytes, and you can always set it back later. Make sure you have internet access too - if you use a proxy server you'll have to enter that before attempting this.. So: Open a command line (Tip 1) and type:

"sudo apt-get update" - To update your repositories of software to the latest ones
"sudo apt-get install kicker" - To get the first little app you'll need, press 'Y' when asked.
"apt-get install ksmserver" - For the second little app, again press 'Y' when asked.
"exit" - to leave the screen.

Now if you press the power button you'll see another option on the left, click this to boot into full mode. (Note, that it will only boot into full desktop the next time you start the machine, normally it will boot into the simple interface, this shouldn't be a problem because it literally takes seconds to boot anyway)

Tip 3:
The camera. The built in camera is actually turned off by default to save battery power. Some software will realise this and turn it on automatically but others won't and you'll have to do it yourself. A quick way to turn the hardware on is with a quick text command, open a command line and type:

"sudo echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/camera"

Replace the '1' with a '0' (zero) to turn it back off.

Tip 4 :
Skype Video. There's currently a beta version of Skype available for the Linux system, you'll have to upgrade to this one to get video calls as the currently installed one doesn't have it. You can get it from here:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/download/skype/linux/beta/choose/
select the xandros edition.
UPDATE: There is now a released version of Skype with all the video goodness already included. Get it from here:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/download/skype/linux/

When you've downloaded this installer (It should be in your "My Documents" folder) run it using the File Manager or through the command prompt. Now you can launch Skype from the same place as before. Don't forget to turn on the camera (Tip 3) before you run it though.

If I think of any more I'll post them here. If you have some of your own, please let me know.

Photo Websites - Photobucket, DropShots, Webshots and Flickr

2007-12-13T18:50:00.000Z

Intro
I've been looking into photo websites so I can stick my photos up for the world to see. I decided the easiest way to pick was to try several out at once to see which ones I like.

I've been using Webshots for some years but not quite happy with it, so I decided to test these three Photo Websites (in alphabetical order):

DropShots
Flickr
PhotoBucket

To compare each I signed up for a free account, and therefore the information here is based on the free account. You can see each of my accounts here:

My Favourite
In the end I felt Flickr was the one for me. I've detailed why below.

Flick is one of the most popular photo websites and is populated by people who really take photos seriously. The free account gives you a good feel for all the functionality the payfor account does, unfortunately the free account restricts the amount of data you can upload per month to just 100 Mb - a visit to the local zoo would soon use this up - so this makes the free account mostly unusable, photobucket has the best free account, if you don't mind the speed and all the ads.

Flickr does have some nice features though. You can tag your photos with words but or by position on the Yahoo world map (called "Geo tagging") and all with a rather nice and simple drag and drop interface making it easy to organiseyour photos (none of the other websites are this easy). You can also divide you photos in to numerous sets (which are like folders) and the same photos can be placed in more than one set - for example: Your zoo outing could be one set with the inevitable animal shots also being dropped into your "Wildlife" set too - (You only get a total of three sets in the free account). There's also collections, which Flickr says are like "Sets of sets but better than that" but these aren't available in the free account. Basically, it allows you to collect together groups of related sets, and groups of other collections. (This again is unique on Flickr, the other websites only have single sets.)

The web upload is pretty basic with a few text boxes which is a shame as you could feasibly use this a lot if you upload on holiday. (PhotoBucket excels here, with easily the best online uploader - although it technically it downloads and runs a program inside your browser) The installed version Flickr's upload program is quick and simple to use, very similar to all the other websites.

One thing that Flickr excels in is its great API - this, together with its many uses, means that many applications, both online and off, have been created to use your photos - check out places like FaceBook or download a screensaver for your computer. It also means you can write you own unique photo app and from experience they have made it very straight forward.

One negative is it's lack of video, this goes against all the other websites. I think this is mostly due to them trying to concentrate on the Photos and not wanting to become another YouTube, it would be good to store my holiday videos right next to my holiday photos. (Note however, that Flickr has said it will soon be doing this... I'll update when know)

Summary
Here's a quick list of the good and bad points for each.

DropShots
Good: Simple unique timeline interface, quick, ad free, video, drag drop interface.
Bad: Basic features, single sets, free account limited, no api.
Recommend: For beginners or people not to confident with photo websites.

Flickr
Good: Multiple sets, Installed upload, geo tagging, api, drag drop interface
Bad: No video, online upload, free account useless.
Recommend: For people series about photos, people who what to do a lot with their photos, programmers and people with a fascination with categorising everything.

PhotoBucket
Good: Free account unlimited photos, video, geo tagging, online upload excellent
Bad Slow, Full of ads, single sets, no api.
Recommend: For people who don't want to pay anything and just want to show them off but have a ton of photos.

Webshots
Good: Free account useful, video, upload useful. Good screensaver/desktop changer
Bad: A few adverts, single sets, no open api.
Recommend: For people who want a free account but don't like tons of adverts. Also has a very nice screensaver program.

Let me know...
... which ones you like, hate, recommend and stay clear off.

RM Asus Eee (by gum) PC - The miniBook.

2007-11-28T09:32:00.000Z

Just got my hands on a new RM Asus miniBook machine today - how cute the little fellow looks!

My first impressions are that it is certainly a capable machine which you can take anywhere with you. The Keyboard is very small but I got used to it - I'd recommend the two finger entry approach. It uses a linux operating system.

Here's a size comparison of the miniBook with the book (which I now propose should be an official standard size) "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", The miniBook is slighly longer, slighty deeper but about half as thick:

And here's a comparison with my 17 Inch Widescreen Dell laptop (Which was somewhere in the region of 8 times more expensive...):

Easy Mode
Here's some pictures of the Easy Mode the computer boots up into, it's basically a list of tabs of applications split by type.

The Internet tab (Includes for example FireFox and Skype):

The Work Tab (Includes for example OpenOffice and FileManager)

The Learn Tab (Includes Subjects folders which include for example a planetarium and fraction Tutorial)

The Play Tab (Includes for example Games folder and Media Player)

The settings Tab

There's also a favourites tab where you can add your favourite apps.

Apps
And here's a few screenshots of a select applications, all as they appear with out any tweaking.

OpenOffice Writer:

Frozen-Bubble Game (Screenshot slightly cut off, the game runs in full screen)

FireFox:

The explorer (The observant amongst you will have noticed how similar some of the shots look to WindowsXP - Check the title bars out, and especially this screenshot)

I'll be following up with some tips on using the Asus miniBook soon.

Let me know...
...what your experience's of the machine have been.

Top 10 developer tools or "What every developer should have installed and bookmarked"

2007-11-15T21:04:00.001Z

I never seem to program enough at work and as such I've needed to collect a whole toolkit full of apps to help me with all the other things developers seem to have to do.

So here's a list of some of the type of apps that you'll want to get hold of, these should really help you with all those none programmer tasks.

Apps
Here's the list every good developer should not be without, in not particular order:

File and folder comparer
Source control
Archiver
Browser (and search engine)
Office Suite
Paint Package
Text file reader
Calculator
FTP Client
Bug tracker

And here's some quick recommendations:

File and folder comparer
Essential when you're not quite sure which version of your program is the newest, or which file is missing from a long list.

I'd recommend: Beyond Compare. I find it to be an excellent comparison tool which can be extended to include image comparison and others. It's one of the few pieces of Software I don't mind purchasing - remember to also download some of the enhancements like the image comparer. You could also try WinMerge, or TortoiseMerge.

Source Control
Not just for your application creations, source control can be used to keep track of all files. Keep track of your documentation or website, or keep a log of all the changes you've done in the novel you keep trying to write.

I'd Recommend: Subversion. A free open source' source control, very useable and out performs many expensive packages you might have. I'd also recommend TortoiseSVN which complements Subversion nicely. You could also try SourceSafe (if you like punishment) or Perforce.

Archiver
Transporting files is always easier when they are zipped up, and software always needs backing up and the easiest way to do both of these and save upload times and disk space is to archive them.

I'd recommend: IZArc. It opens up lots of archive formats, even allowing direct editing of things like Google Gadgets. It also allows zipping up with the 7z format, my archive format of choice (much better compression than zip and open standard). You could also try WinZip or 7Zip.

Browser (and search engine)
Findng how to copy a file or reorder an array has never been easier. Just open your browser and type in the questions.

I'd recommend: Firefox. It's a great browser which can be enhanced just about anyway you want. (Try the FireBug extension, and see FTP below). You could also try Opera, or Internet Explorer.

Office Suite
At some point you'll need to write some documentation, either before during or after any project you're working on. And you know you'll have to create a report in a spreadsheet, maybe with some nice graphs that don't mean much but look pretty.

I'd recommend: OpenOffice. It does everything you'll need and comes to you free of charge. It contains the full suite of apps you would expect in an office collection. You could also try StarOffice (Although almost identical) or Microsoft Office.

Paint Package
At some point you'll need to include a picture or too in your app, but you can pretty much guarantee that !. It will be the wrong size and 2. It will be the wrong format. In these cases you'll be glad you've got your own tools to sort them out quickly avoiding another game of email tennis.

I'd recommend: Paint.Net. This was a hard one to decide as actually Paint that comes with windows usually does the job well enough with out anything else. However, occasionally you'll want to do a bit more than just change Size and Format, and in these cases you'll want something a little more powerful. You might also like Paint (as previously stated) or GIMP (Which I use to manipulate my photos but don't use much at work)

Text file reader
Files are either binary or text, if it's text then you'll need a good app to edit the numerous types there is (e.g. txt, javascript, ini, bat, xml, cpp, html).

I'd recomment: Notepad++. It's a tab based edited, but with all the usual enhancements you'd expect like drag and dropping of text and auto formatting of different programming languages. You could also try, Notepad2(which is actually based on the same engine ans notepad++, but slightly different interface) or WordPad (Free with Windows)

Calculator
Programming is adding up, that's all it really is in the end. If you can't do Maths then don't bother trying programming. However, just because you can add up doesn't mean you want to be working everything out in your head...

I'd recommmend: Casio FX 85 ES. Yes that's a real calculator! You can't beat a really calculator sitting on your desk for ease of access and use. However, if you really need a software one then the free microsoft one is pretty much all you'll need, it's got a useful conversion of hexadecimal, binary and decimal (Though I don't know why anyone outside of programming land would want that). There's a google gadget scientific calculator you could also try.

FTP Client
A good ftp client can save you a lot of trouble and there's no doubt you'll have to send someone a couple of files, or upload to a web location, or download a new patch for the website you're looking after.

I'd recommend: FireFTP. It's actually an add on to the Firefox browser. It does the job as good as any other ftp client I've used. SmartFTP is rather good although not free and you could also FileZilla.

Bug tracker
And finally. It may not be the most interesting item on here, but it sure helps when you're creating software, you'll know you'll need one eventually as no one's perfect, and certainly not any ones code.

I'd recommend: Bugzilla. It's used by thousands of projects because it's easy to use and very accessible. You could also try Mantis or (if your rich, have a huge tester team and someone to keep it all running) TestDirector.

And that's the lot
I've only recommend the ones that I have used quite considerably. I'm quite picky about the software I use and usually end up trying a dozen different apps to find the right one. However, not doubt your tastes will be slightly different, so I've also recommend some of my second choices.

Let me know...
...your favourites and your essential tools.

Visual .Net's most useful enhancement.

2007-11-01T15:28:00.000Z

Just a quick one. And really simple.

If you're like me you'll always be routing through the folder structures to fin where the project is you're currently working on. Well no more, this is something I added in to my Visual Studio back in the old ages, but it's one of the first things I do when I install a new version.

Go to the Tools menu and select "External Tools...", then set up a new item as below:

If you can't see the image: Set Title to "Project location" (or whatever you like), set Command to "Explorer.exe" and Set arguments to "$(ProjectDir)" (That's a build in variable that stores the position of you project folder - try the arrow button at the end for other locations)

And that's it. Just click it when you need to get to your files.

Top 8 exciting software (or "A list of software programmers want to work on")

2007-10-20T21:50:00.002+01:00

Here's a collection of some of the best (non-secret!) software projects out there at the moment. Some are available for you to play with right now and I've attached links to these.

Photo manipulation to 3D
A pretty slick demonstration of what we can expect to see in the near future. 3D world objects created from 2D photos:

There is a great demo of this software using photos from the Space Shuttle here:
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/NASA/default.htm

You will have to install an early version of the software (and you can only use Internet Explorer to see it.). Once it is installed you'll find some buttons in the top right. Make sure you click the "Fly around" and similarity view, as well as just clicking on the main window.

They know what you are drawing
This is a simple demonstration of what could be a powerful tool for all kinds of projects. Just draw your objects on the page (or "touch wall", see below) and the software knows just how they will interact. This one shows the power of gravity on a few doodles:

There is no demo for this yet, but keep watching the "Assist Sketch Understanding System and Operation" project at MIT for more.

Touch is the new click
Using the mouse is old hat, what you should be doing is using your fingers, and yes, that does mean more than one.

"Jeff Han" is one of the most famous tech guys out there and has really made the multi touch screen a reality. Check out his presentation at TED below.

You may have seen this technology on some of the very latest mobile phones, the iPhone being one of the more well known.

Jeff has now started his own business around the "touch wall" which is an obvious enhancement to the touch screen:

Objects and computers talk
The next step is to get all objects to communicate seamlessly with the computer, again all by touch. Microsoft bought out "The Surface" based on some of the work for multitouch, but enhanced with new sensors to recognise all kinds of real objects.

The concept isn't really new (and appears a little buggy in places), but it has come together nicely in "The Surface" and looks like it is pretty usable. It is currently being sold to some commercial outlets, so expect to see it at your local restaurant or bar or where ever there is a table!

Here is a similar idea but with objects storing different applications. Each of them is able to interacting with another:

Desktops get real and funky
Here's a cool idea for making the normal desktop much more intuitive. First make it look 3D, then make all the files act like paper might on a real desktop, like bumping in to each other or stacking up:

There is no demo of this yet but there are similar projects around if you would like an example, just don't expect the functionality of BumpTop just yet.

And here is a demonstration of a really funky desktop, which I should also add is very usable. The desktop is courtesy of Ubuntu and Compiz:

I've used this program at home and you can get it by downloading the latest version of the operating system Ubuntu and then switching on some of the advanced Compiz features. You can find more information about it at the Compiz website here:
http://compiz.org/

All of the above
Now I don't know about you but a lot of these systems borrow from each other and it is not hard to imagine all these technologies joining forces to create one awesome computer system - That, my friends, is called seeing the future!

Other Useful links
BumpTop: www.bumptop.com
TED: www.ted.com
Ubuntu: www.ubuntu.com

Let me know...
... what you think of these projects and what exciting projects you've come across too.