Dosboy's Bits and Bytes

More Singapore

2011-01-24T01:50:00.001+07:00

I'm back in Singapore, for 2 weeks this time. A friend of mine has started his own consulting company here and wants me to work with him, so I'm here to learn the product-line (OpenText). It'll be nice to make some real money again.

And as an aside, it's -18 in Toronto right now according to my weather widget. MINUS EIGHTEEN! It's 26 here in Singapore, though I did wear long pants today cuz the air conditioning makes me cold.

Funcards

2010-12-23T03:08:00.001+07:00

A good buddy just released his first iPhone app, Funcards. It's a flash card app to help small children learn. It comes with a bunch of pre-made cards, but you can make your own through a variety of methods.

Trust me when I say that if this guy put his blood, sweat and tears into Funcards - especially when his goal was to help is own son learn - that it'll be the best iPhone flashcard app ever, and worth every penny. And really, at $1.99, it is only pennies you'll be spending. Isn't your child's brain worth a couple of bucks?

From the website...

How long did it take for your child to learn to swipe to the next photo on your iPhone or iPod touch? It didn’t take our little guy very long. I wrote this App so that little people like him could experience iPhone photos with full sound and titles and they could learn as they swiped. Funcards lets parents and older children create card decks from your favorite photos and add sounds (even sound effects) to entertain and educate your little ones.
Funcards comes with two sample decks (letters of the English alphabet and numbers from 1-9) but the real magic is in making your own. For example, you could make card decks for:
family and friends who you don't see as often as you would like
favorite foods for you child to learn to recognize
letter and words in your own language, or a second language
animals from your local farm or zoo, with sound effects
cherished toys that could not come on your vacation

And a special quote from the man himself...

Swiping left and right on my iPhone is one of the first fine motor skills that my boy learned (right after throwing my iPhone against the wall). He was a master of the swipe by the time he was a year old. Now he's 19 months old and is already able to recognize and say many letters and numbers. We use Funcards to keep our extended family on the tip of his (giant) little brain and are coming up with new ideas for card decks all the time. It's a blast.

Grinning Gecko

2010-12-11T11:53:00.001+07:00

I'm in the process of launching a new site called Grinning Gecko. It will be focused on web development, and will eventually include tutorials, tips, tricks, thoughts, rants and other tidbits of webby goodness.

I will continue to update dosboy.ca with the occasional blurb about my life, but for all things technical Grinning Gecko is where it's at (or will be once I get some content up). This phase is always painful. There's so much I want to share, but there's only so much time in a day. So, slowly but surely Grinning Gecko will evolve into something that I hope can be of use to other developers.

Pizza Delivery

2010-11-11T02:02:00.000+07:00

In Thailand they have a lot of different street food vendors. They sell all sorts of things, from pork and chicken to crickets and beetles. The latter mostly in Bangkok. But today I saw the best street food vendor ever. The picture isn't great (should have taken it from the other side so that you could see the scooter that powers this contraption), but it is a mobile pizza kitchen. Two dudes drive around on this thing and for 190 baht (or about $6) you can buy a pizza that they cook off their mobile pizza oven. And it's powered by a 150cc scooter (and probably a couple of tanks of propane). They say it takes 6 mins, but it really took more like 10-15. But for $6 it's a pretty good pizza (actually, I don't really know; I didn't try any). They also sell slices for 50 baht (or about $1.70), but I don't think they'd compare in size or quality to Pizza Pizza.

Oh, Toronto pizza, how I miss thee.

Holy Shit I Love Google!

2010-10-12T22:34:00.004+07:00

I realize that every once in awhile I proclaim my undying love to the big G. And every time I do I feel like a bit of a sycophant. But I really do love them.

Today I realized that some other company had created a Boat Charter Phuket listing on Google Places. All of a sudden my listing wasn't coming up anymore. Then I realized that not only had they stolen my name (granted, I could see someone else using it since none of those words are really trademarked or anything), but they were also using my logo! Which you can see below, is really just an image with my domain name. But they had a different domain name! Yet, they were coming up in all the listings where I should have been, and all of a sudden my traffic had dropped by about 40%. And to top it all off, their site is currently under construction! There's nothing even there but a splash page from their hosting company!

So I decided to report them. Wasn't sure which method to take, so I did a multi-pronged attack. First I submitted their Places listing as spam via Google Webmaster Tools. Then I reported copyright infringement on the logo since it's obviously mine. THEN I reported their business listing as inappropriate.

Well, I'm happy to say that within 5 hours I had an automated response from Webmaster Tools saying they'd received my spam report. Now, received is one thing, but when I checked out the Places link again it had all been fixed. My listing now comes up where it used to, and their site is now showing Under Construction as the only indexed content (which was obviously manually triggered by the Goog as "Under Construction" doesn't appear anywhere on their site).

Thanks Google!

UPDATE: Seems like Google kind of mashed our listings together. It's now got my website and address, but it's got their description and phone number. And I don't have the rights to edit that listing... but when I edit MY listing through the Google Places interface then click the link to view it live, it takes me to the mashed up listing. Hope this gets sorted out, but at least it's got my website so the traffic drop should stop.

Blog Posting

2010-09-18T01:35:00.000+07:00

Sometimes I feel really inspired to write a blog post. But then I feel like I have more important things to do. So I don't write it.

This is one of those times. This was not the blog post that I was inspired to write, but I feel like I have more important things to do than write the original, so I'm writing this quick little blurb instead.

Also, it usually happens late at night (early in the morning) when I'm trying to sleep. I hate that.

And for those of you that care, the original post was going to revolve around ideas vs. execution, and work hard vs. work smart. Seriously, it was inspired. Bah. However I will provide the inspiring link (content alone did not inspire me... it was content + comments, so check those out as well).

http://sivers.org/multiply

Infrastructure vs. Development

2010-09-12T03:38:00.000+07:00

I just spent about 2 hours trying to resolve a problem between a web app and the db. I considered writing this post tomorrow, but decided that given my mindset right now it was more appropriate not to wait.

I remember the days of working infrastructure that we would schedule maintenance at 11pm. We'd meet up at the server room and bust our asses to get everything done by 1:30am so that we could hit Jack Astor's (or whatever bar was nearby to the hosting environment / office) and order a pitcher before last call. Because, as infrastructure monkeys, we knew that when the bits started flowing, our job was done.

But, as mentioned above, I just spent about 2 hours (from 1:00am to 3:00am) trying to resolve a problem between a web app and the db. I got it resolved. But, as a developer, all that means is that it's now time to BEGIN doing work. Cuz as a developer, when the infrastructure is finally working, my job has just begun.

Mike and Fred, I miss you guys. And our late-night downtown Toronto drunken server escapades. And Lemmiwinks.

Google Chrome Status Bar

2010-08-04T20:22:00.002+07:00

Having just switched to Chrome cuz Firefox's rampant CPU utilization was annoying me, I was immediately struck with another annoyance. Chrome is lacking a proper status bar. It truncates long URLs at the END and cuts off any query string variables. Not very nice for developers.

So, I took it upon myself to create a little extension that shows the full href attribute of any <a> elements in an unobtrusive status bar of my own. Hope it helps someone out there.

Download: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ojjdiklbbogaliiljdbpbkkkghendjja

Support: http://groups.google.com/group/google-chrome-status-bar-extension

Facebook is Dead to Me

2010-07-06T19:29:00.001+07:00

I am officially cancelling my facebook account. The other day someone in my friends list had a "Like" about some video. Curious, I wanted to check out the video, so I clicked the link. Well, it turns out that in simply VIEWING the video the site developer injected a "Like" on my account for that video as well. I never said I liked it. In fact, I didn't really like it. Having my own little pocket of information on the web that I can direct my friends to is nice, but when people start doing stupid shit it makes me angry. Google "facebook auto like" and you'll see a bunch of black-hat forums where script kiddies are doing this all over the place. Next it's gonna be "auto let-app-have-access-to-my-details", then "auto take-over-my-account". No thanks. And just now I tried to download a PDF from Scribd. It said I could use my facebook account to log in and download it instead of creating an account there. So I chose that option... then it said it needed access to my account. Well, eff that. I'm not giving some random website access to my facebook details so I can d/l a pdf file that's already visible for me to read (just not to save). So, this blog (soon to be migrated to a different environment and spruced up quite a bit - when I have time that is) will continue to be my personal pocket of information on the web. Which _I_ control.

Gregg, you had it right all along. Fuck Facebook.

Funniest Thing I've Read In Awhile

2010-06-17T07:57:00.003+07:00

From an email conversation with a friend which degenerated into a thread about TV Trivia, and me citing my Three's Company expertise:

[I] Wasn't allowed to watch three's company because of God.

I don't even know 100% what that means, but it makes me laugh... nay, guffaw... every time I read it. Go God!

As an aside, I chose this picture because I love Terri. Literally. God be damned!

Singapore AGAIN!

2010-05-24T13:31:00.003+07:00

Ok, now that that's out of the way, I came to Singapore again today. Last time I just hung out at the airport in an attempt to save money. This time I decided that it's ok if I spend a little extra in order to take advantage of Singapore. And by that I mean take advantage of Brewerkz. BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and multiple Oatmeal Stouts. I am in heaven. To quote a friend, "the only thing missing is a roman orgy". Though technically that would get in the way of my burger and beer, so I'd probably pass anyway.

So anyway, there's a bit of a story (assuming a story is the ability for my readers to laugh at my expense). Woke up this morning with just enough time, went downstairs, and my car wouldn't start. Have been having battery problems lately, and from the moment I got up to the moment I heard the "click-click", I was thinking positive thoughts. "My car will start. My car *will* start." But it didn't. So after swearing for a couple minutes and calling the only 2 people I knew with cars that might be up at 7:15am (of which neither of them were awake/available), a car pulled into my driveway and I was able to get a jump. But then it started to rain. So, there I am, pulling jumper cables and attaching them to batteries while the rain is pouring down and I'm drenched (electricity and water - the breakfast of champions). Anyway, got the car started, got to the airport, got checked in, and got on my plane. Everything was uneventful until I got to Singapore. No problem at customs and all that, got in a cab and told him I wanted to go to Brewerkz. I'd already done my research last night (of course) and figured out what I wanted. But all he could say to me was "it's really far". "I've already flown here from Thailand... a long drive isn't going to deter me" I told him. So what does he do? He drives for a bit, then pulls into some sort of mall with a foodcourt and says "there's lots of places to eat here".

REALLY?! Your fare (that you picked up at the airport) asks you to go to a specific restaurant, and you take him to a foodcourt? Anyway, he sat there for awhile calling people trying to get directions, and eventually took me to a Brewerkz at some stadium. It looked a little suspicious (as in nothing looked open), but he seemed confident so I paid him and got out of the cab. He drove away. I walked around the building to where the Brewerkz is and it was CLOSED! So then I had to walk a few hundred metres to a taxi stand at another building. And I stood there for a long time before a cab came. But my new taxi driver was awesome. Had a nice conversation with her about the crazy red-shirts in Bangkok and arrived at my destination with only a $7 and change cab fare (after the nearly $20 from the airport douchebag). So, I lost about an hour of quality time with my stout(s). But I vow to finish this post now and play a little catch up. Then back to Phuket tonight.

So excuse me now whilst I enjoy my burger and stout.

Sunlight

2010-05-21T19:19:00.000+07:00

As my friends already know, I'm pretty much a vampire - even though I live on a tropical island. The other day I tried to do some work on the roof beside the pool (ok, I was actually trying to watch Breaking Bad). But it sucked. I couldn't see my screen to save my life. The whole glossy Mac screen is nice indoors, but it sucks ass outside. So just now I thought to myself that I should try to find a way to reduce the glare so that I could, when the mood struck me, work outside. So I googled "macbook pro sunlight glare" and the first link I clicked led me to this:

WTF?! Who is going to carry that PoS around with them so they can use their laptop in less-than-optimal-lighting-conditions? Not I. Could you imagine sitting by the pool with your laptop on your lap and that hoody surrounding it? Luckily, further link-clicking led me to this Anti-Glare Screen Protector, which is both cheap and unobtrusive. Now all I need to do is find an even cheaper Thai knockoff.

MacBook 3 Finger Middle Mouse Button Click

2010-05-04T15:47:00.003+07:00

As most Firefox users know, clicking the middle mouse button (or scrollwheel) on a link opens it in a new tab. Since I've been using a MacBook, whenever I don't have a mouse I've been using a 2 finger click to bring up the context menu then selecting "Open Link in New Tab". This is tedious, so today I started looking for a way to emulate the middle mouse button functionality with a 3 finger click. And after a little searching I found a neat little app that does exactly that.

Enter MiddleClick. It's a lightweight little app that lets you use either a 3 Finger Click or a 3 Finger Tap to emulate the middle mouse button. And it works like a charm. Thanks clem!

To make it start automatically (since there's no Dock icon) you have to go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and add it that way.

Firefox High CPU Rogue Tabs

2010-05-02T14:21:00.001+07:00

Lately I've been using Firefox with a lot of tabs. Generally I'm actually using multiple windows with multiple tabs. One window for development/testing. One window for general surfing. One window for time tracking. And many tabs in each. Occasionally my machine gets sluggish, and when I check Activity Monitor it's inevitably Firefox chewing up CPU and RAM. Before today I would just sigh, go through my tabs to see if there is anything important that I still want open, then close all the other tabs, then close Firefox (telling it to open existing tabs when it opens), then re-open Firefox. Big PITA. But no more!

Enter BarTab! I just discovered this little gem and after using it for 5 mins am already in love with it. It basically lets you manage whether tabs are active or passive. If they're active, they act like they normally do. If they're passive, the tab for a page remains visible, but the page isn't loaded until the tab is actually clicked. And you can set a timeout so that if a tab isn't accessed for x hours it'll unload itself. Very nice.

Vintage Transformers (Go-Bot) Wristwatch

2010-03-04T00:33:00.000+07:00

I really want one of these. I had one when I was a kid (grey) and have been looking for some Chinese knock-off for years now. Unfortunately they won't ship to Thailand... so if any of my friends want to buy me an early birthday present or just want to do a guy a favor, I'd greatly appreciate it :)

eBay Link

Crickets Chirping

2010-03-01T08:07:00.000+07:00

Ya, it's been quiet in here lately. Been busy. At any rate, my friend just shared with me the trailer for what looks to be an excellent upcoming flick. Seems like great casting - at least from the trailer.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/theateam/

I love it when a plan comes together.

Flies

2010-01-22T12:55:00.001+07:00

If there's one thing I really hate about SE Asia it's flies. As in Musca domestica. They're everywhere. And they have no courtesy. They fly right in your field of vision, into your eyes, up your nose, in your ears... they just don't care. The mosquitos are annoying - but they're relatively slow and can be killed. Ants can be frustrating as when there's one, there's a hundred - but they serve a purpose in cleaning up leftovers. But flies?

Remember those Sally Struthers Ethiopia ads (well, not technically an ad for Ethiopia, but you know) where they have images of the kids with flies climbing on their eyeballs? I get it now. You just get so tired of waving the fuckers away repeatedly that eventually you just give up... and let them climb on your eyeballs.

I will say that Phuket isn't so bad. But northern Thailand (and Laos apparently) are horrendous when it comes to these flying, obnoxious insects. As with everything insect-related, the more urban a location is, the less insects there are. And northern Thailand is about as rural as it gets, so it's understandable that the flies have taken over.

Anyway, that's my pet peeve for the day, as I sit here typing this post on a ~40kB/s internet connection in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, on what is probably one of the faster 'net connections around. With flies divebombing me and trying to drink my coffee. And land on my eyeballs.

Getting The Word Out

2010-01-07T17:45:00.000+07:00

On the heels of my last post, I need to do something different to make money. And by different I mean still computer related, but something that doesn't involve 10 hour work days (including commute) for 6 days a week. To be honest, $24k/a will do me just fine here in the Land of Smiles, but 60 hours a week makes me want to blow my brains out. I'm looking for about half that.

So, I'm putting the word out. If you or anyone you know would like to employ a computer guru (I hate that word, but I am what I am :) for a piddly salary wherein I could work from the comfort of my own home, please let me know. Trust me... you'd be getting WAY more than you're paying for. But I'm not greedy. After all, what's the point of living on a tropical island when you're working all day? And on that note, I'll even work North American hours, as I'm a night owl and am quite content to work a 10pm-4am workday.

Not only am I a computer guru, but I'm also fun and witty and a joy to work with. Most of the time. Like when I'm not working 60 hours a week. At any rate, for more information see my resume.

Dosboy... for all your computing/programming needs.

Sucktastic

2010-01-04T17:00:00.001+07:00

I do not want to work.
I do not want to work 9-6.
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week.
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week in Phuket town.
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week in Phuket town in LONG PANTS!
I do not want to work 9-6, 6 days a week in Phuket town in LONG PANTS for $24,000 CAD/year.

I need to figure out another way to make money. Fast.

New Mac Annoyance

2009-12-28T00:06:00.000+07:00

This one has been a minor thorn in my side, but today it reared its ugly head again and for some reason really pissed me off. Creating a new file from Finder. In Windows I could right-click then choose New... and I had a ton of options (Text Document, Word Document, etc.). I can't do this in Finder. After much googling I came up with two possible solutions - some app called NuFile or Quicksilver. Since I've been told by many fellow Mac users that Quicksilver is the end all and be all I decided to give that route a try first. Well, after about an hour of struggling I decided to give up and go with the NuFile route. After installing and trying to figure out why it wasn't working, and a little more googling, it turned out that it hasn't been updated in over 3 years and doesn't work on Snow Leopard. So it's back to Quicksilver, which is causing me to prematurely go grey. I was able to get this working, but it took me about a hundred keystrokes, and was far more frustrating than opening a text editor and clicking File -> Save As... would have been. So I'm still not sure what all the hubbub over Quicksilver is.

Frustrated.

Pulling My Hair Out!

2009-12-10T22:58:00.002+07:00

Please, all MacHeads reading this... HELP! I can not believe that there is no way to merge two directories through the GUI in OS X. Yet every forum thread I read tells me to use mv or cp or ditto or opendiff or some other cryptic Terminal command instead of just dragging and dropping the contents of one folder into another (which, as we all know, obliterates the target directory, overwriting it with the source). This is utterly retarded, and I'm really starting to hate it.

Oh ya, and I also really hate that I can't right-click a file (or directory) and choose ~~"Copy"~~ "Cut". Or ~~Cmd-C~~ Cmd-V. Or via the Edit menu. Why??? Why can't I ~~copy~~ cut a folder, THEN navigate to where I want to go, then PASTE?! So fucking frustrating.

Don't get me wrong... the Mac has a lot of redeeming features... but these two simple file system UI oversights are driving me bonkers. I just don't know what to do... for every other issue I've had a forum or blog solution has appeared within minutes of searching... but the only solution I seem to have for these is to go command-line or buy some sort of product - for functionality that SHOULD BE NATIVE!

Argh.

And please, if there's something ridiculously stupid that I'm overlooking or don't know about, feel free to make fun of me - as long as you also provide the appropriate solution. I don't mind being mocked, as long as it's a learning process.

Work

2009-12-08T15:03:00.000+07:00

So it looks like I'm gonna be getting a job. I was planning on doing contract web dev, and I still might do some on the side, but this job is gonna be 6 days a week. Ugh. After not working for 2 years (and having a relatively lax schedule for a year or two prior to that) this is gonna be TOUGH. And for anyone that's ever complained about how much they're making, well, I'll be making 60,000 baht/month. Which is roughly $2000 CAD. Which is $24,000/year. Which is 10 times the minimum wage here. So I suppose it's all relative.

What is it you might ask? Well, it's working for a media company who does both print and web media. I'll be second in command under the owner and managing 13 Thai staff - graphic designers and web developers, as well as interfacing with clients, putting together requirements and quotations, etc. Though I think I'll be getting my own personal assistant, which sounds appealing. I've never had an assistant before.

The thought of working again definitely does not appeal to me (as I sit here typing in my underwear). At any rate, I need to start making some dough, so I'll give it a whirl and see what happens. Who knows, I might quit after a day.

In Search of a Great Pad Thai

2009-11-27T02:30:00.000+07:00

I just got back from Laos (via Bangkok) a couple days ago. Passing through Bangkok I spent a night at a friend's place and went to a Thai Karaoke, outside of which there was a Pad Thai vendor. And let me tell you... this was the best Pad Thai I've ever had. Before this experience, I wasn't even a fan. And now, I'm back in Phuket and went to my favorite cheap Thai food place to see how theirs compared. Suffice it to say, it didn't. Not even close. So now, I'm on a hunt. Where in Phuket (the closer to my abode the better) can I find good ... nay, GREAT ... Pad Thai. I'm not going to rest until this mission is complete. On the downside, each time I get a shitty Pad Thai I end up hungry. On the bright side, each attempt only costs me around 30 baht. Tonight's attempt was a failure. Maybe tomorrow I will succeed. I just need to remember to say "mai ao koong, mai ao moo, mai ao gai" ("don't want prawn, don't want pork, don't want chicken")... I don't know why, but the veggie-only Pad Thai in Bangkok was way better than any meat-oriented dish I could imagine. So screw the animals... I just want noodles, peanuts and veggies.

Off to Laos

2009-11-16T14:38:00.000+07:00

I'm off to Laos again. Overnight bus to Bangkok tonight then overnight train to Laos tomorrow. Will probably be gone about a week, and with the shitty internet there it's unlikely that I'll be updating... but we'll see. After all, a post is just text... might only take an hour or so for it to upload.

A Sailing We Will Go

2009-11-10T09:44:00.000+07:00

Ok, technically there's no sail, but I'm off to the boat for a few days of seafaring action. I'll be back Thursday or Friday. Until then, ahoy matey and all that.