1) Select the barcode type you want to use. For common stuff, Code 39 or Code 128 are good options. Make sure the barcode scanners available support the selected barcode type.

2) Create an algorithm for encoding the information you want to embed on the barcode.

2a) It’s a good idea to use Base36 encoding to shorten the data and therefore make the barcode shorter.

2b) It’s also a good idea to use a checksum algorithm if you use Code39 (Code 128 already has a checksum algorithm), for example Luhn’s algorithm.

3) Bind the data to the barcode control. Barcode controls are usually expensive, so if you want a cheaper solution go for a barcode font, there are free ones out there.

This time I am sharing how to connect your Wii Classic Controller to the PC and having it detected as a Virtual Joystick (so that you can use it in games). You need to have a Bluetooth adapter in your computer for this to work. The way that this works is that you connect the Wii Controller to the computer via Bluetooth, and then use a program called GlovePIE to emulate another device, like a mouse, keyboard or a joystick. Joystick emulation is achieved by using PPJoy, which is a program that can be used to emulate Virtual Joysticks and connect other joysticks by using serial or parallel ports. I think that some electronic guys use this way to connect PS2, SNES and other controllers by building a special adapter, but we just require this program so that it can provide Windows with a virtual joystick, and then GlovePIE send the commands from the Wii Classic Controller to the virtual joystick. Keep in mind that this post assumes power user skills, so I won’t go into many details (and the links are comprehensive in that regard). Anyways, here are the steps that need to be followed:

1) Connect the Wii Remote to the computer via Bluetooth.

2) Download GlovePIE (with or without Emotiv support, I used the one without).

Now, from here you can use GlovePIE to map the Wii Classic Controller to the keyboard or mouse, but if you want to map it to a virtual joystick, you need to follow this extra step:

3) Install PPJoy. This one is tricky because its drivers are signed with test signatures. This means that in order for the driver to work, you need to tell windows to accept running drivers in test mode. This is accomplished by running the following commands from a command prompt with administrative rights:

bcdedit -set testsigning on

And to disable:

bcdedit -set testsigning off

You need to reboot the computer after running any of these commands in order to take effect.

Once Windows is in test mode, you can open this script I made in GlovePIE and then you can use your wii classic controller in any games that require a joystick!

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that GlovePIE supports a lot of devices, not only the Wii Classic Controller, you can use it for the Nunchuk, the Wii Fit, non-Wii devices, etc (refer to GlovePIE for the complete list).

After venting for a bit, I decided to search for a better way to recover files than using an unerase tool. Fortunately, if you have System Restore enabled, Windows stores a copy of the files you deleted, and by using a tool called System Restore Explorer, you may be able to recover the recently unerased files (I recovered them all)!

As you may have noticed, this year I am focusing on doing exercise more often, and I intend to run a Marathon this year. This is something I have always wanted to do, but never did due to lack of self-discipline… Now that my mother has passed away (she was killed in a car crash recently), I want to achieve this goal to remember her (she was an athlete when she was young) and as a means of self treatment as well (Forrest Gump, anyone?).

In order to track my progress, I have been using a program for Windows Mobile called Marathon. It logs GPS data fetched from the mobile device, and then it gives you a lot of information, like current and average speed, a preview of the track, distance ran, calories burned (estimated, of course). It also has a feature called Announcements, where it tells you this information on a specified interval (time or distance, take your pick). This is very nice, as I am used to listening to music while I run, and I don’t want to take the phone out of the arm band just to look at the information. You can also set a goal and it will tell you how far behind or ahead of it you are.

Once finished, you can save the activity, and share the information via the program’s website (example), tweet a summary of it, or export it (this is useful as you can import the data into Google Earth or tracking services like Runmap.net or Garmin Connect and then publish to Facebook from them).

The only issue I have found so far is that my Omnia sometimes gets very bad GPS reception and the results get a bit distorted, but I think this is something due to the device itself more than the program’s fault, though.  So far, the only solution I have found is to get a better GPS receiver (and get the heart monitored along the way).

Lastly, Marathon comes in several languages, including Spanish! (I made the translations, BTW ). If you happen to know a language that Marathon does not support, you can do the translations in exchange for a free build (yes, it’s not free, but you can periodically download the latest beta bits, so it is not a big issue).

• Phone Part: Latest ROM from the official Samsung Omnia Firmware update site.
• PDA Part: One of the latest ROMs at xda-developers forum (shokka9 custom ROMs). This ROM in particular gives the Omnia an HTC look with Manila2D interface, and updates Windows Mobile to 6.5.

Here are several screenshots that illustrate the final interface:

Please stay tuned for further updates!

Today while I was setting up a Subversion 1.5 installation over Apache 2.2.10 on Windows, I was experiencing a strange difficulty. After making the necessary configuration details on httpd.conf and I tried running the server, everything went smoothly, however when I made it run as a service, it would not run and give the following error:

“Cannot load C:/../modules/mod_dav_svn.so into server: The specified module could not be found.”

Even though this module was at the right location. After googling for a while and reading the Subversion FAQ for this problem and another useful document, I tried all the suggestions but the problem would still persist. After a while of tinkering, I resolved it by copying the following libraries from the Subversion’s installation to the modules folder of Apache:

• intl3_svn.dll
• libdb44.dll
• libeay32.dll
• libsvn_client-1.dll
• libsvn_delta-1.dll
• libsvn_diff-1.dll
• libsvn_fs-1.dll
• libsvn_ra-1.dll
• libsvn_repos-1.dll
• libsvn_subr-1.dll
• libsvn_wc-1.dll
• ssleay32.dll

I hope this post helps those who are having problems with Subversion deployments.

It did not use to be like this in previous Subversion releases, usually after putting the *.so files on the modules entry on Apache and configuring httpd.conf it was enough to make it run…

Finally I am breaking with the inertia of not updating this place as often as I would like!

This post is mainly focused to providing tips to increasing productivity. As some of you probably already know, I am usually filled with work for the entire day and as time goes by, I am forced to crank out more stuff in less time.

When I was faced with the dilemma to increase my productivity, I started wondering if there was any way to change myself in order to be more productive. Shortly after I discovered sites like Lifehack, Lifehacker and Zen Habits that give lots of advice on how to simplify organizing efforts and also how to change oneself in order to be able to achieve the goals intended.

Some of the key tips I have encountered are:

• Get Things Done Framework
• Setting Goals
• Turn goals into Habits
• Real Productivity

Of course there are many more tips, and most of the time implementing these tips are easier said than done, it is important to practice the discipline and have lots, lots and lots of patience to achieve the desired results. Most of the time you will experience failures, but the lesson here is to learn and adjust (meditation helps). Lots of tweaks might be necessary but once you reach the desired point it is very rewarding. I have a long way reaching that point yet, here are some tips to avoid when changing habits. I really like the part of trying any habit for 30 days, as it feels as if you are just trying a new program. If you like the new program, you can continue with the habit, if not, leave it alone

Hoping this helps, I shall depart, and will try these techniques so that I can share interesting stuff more often here.

After reading this post, I decided to change the layout of the blog, so that it will be more pleasant and functional.

New features added:

• You can now share the articles to several of the popular social networking sites.
• You can see page views.

Next post will be lifehacking related, so please stay tuned!

About a month ago, my girlfriend Vero was working at the veterinary, when a coworker called her saying that she had found a kitten at the entrance door of her house, and was very small and sick. This is a common occurrence here as people often cannot take care of pets and abandon them for good and here in Uruguay there are no good laws regarding animal protection. Anyways, when the kitten was brought to the veterinary the kitten was in love for Vero and hugged her, and the kitten was so cute that Vero could not resist bringing it home, so she called me and asking to adopt her…

When I came back from work, I found that it was very cute, a female Siamese kitten, but poor little thing, it was like a skeleton with feet (malnutrition), and also had something solid on its bowels and conjunctivitis. It was also quite anemic as it was full of tick and fleas. We immediately began treating her, starting with a shower to remove the bugs, medicine for the eyes and special cat food for recovery. We also named it Isis, the Egyptian goddess of magical power and healing. The day after (May 1st), it did not tolerate most of the food and it spent most of the day vomiting, until it vomited raw potatoes and rotten tuna! luckily, she started tolerating water and milk afterwards, and eventually it recovered

Having her join our place gave a lot of life to our new apartment, as it is quite playful and very affectionate. However, it is a bit of a demon to as, after all, it has only a couple of months at most, it plays with things that should not be playing and one of our curtains was damaged… oh well, nothing’s perfect

This is also a good opportunity for me for learning parenting techniques, as I never had a cat. About.com has good tips for taking care of cats.

Here are some recent pictures, as you may notice, it has grown up a bit (and doubled in weight) and it looks great now!

What’s Continuous Integration?

As Martin Fowler said, Continuous Integration is a software development practice where several people integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily – leading to multiple integrations per day.

One specific point of Continuous Integration is that the verification of the integration is done automatically using what is called a Continuous Integration Server. This server will fetch the latest code from the corresponding VCS in use (hopefully Subversion, read my article about it).

Why Continuous Integration?

The most important advantage of following the Continuous Integration practices is that errors are detected in a much earlier phase, specially when you use it along with Test Driven Development. Errors in this context not only mean bugs but integration errors as well, as integration is done on a daily basis.

It is not the only advantage of course, for example, deployments to production are a LOT easier as the build process is already in place. I recommend reading the benefits section of Fowler’s article for a detailed explanation.

Tools and Useful Resources

I have used the following tools for doing Continuous Integration:

• CruiseControl
• CruiseControl.NET

I also heard good things about Hudson, so give it a try as well.

Useful resources:

Martin Fowler on Continuous Integration

6 Steps to Successful Continuous Integration