Programming Trail

Full 100% height container

2011-06-21T06:15:00.000-07:00

html {
height: 100%;
}

body {
height: 100%;
}

main-body {
height: 100%;
}

inner {
min-height: 100%;
}

iphone update

2011-04-07T06:46:00.001-07:00

http://www.blogsdna.com/10999/how-to-manually-update-ios-4-0-on-iphoneipod-touch-now.htm

Creating your own IPA file from appcelerator

2011-02-15T07:39:00.001-08:00

Build the app using the distribution build mode of Titantium
Navigate to the project's build > iPhone > Release-iphonesos folder
If there is a *.ipa file as some get, just use it.
Otherwise create a new folder at that level called Payload
Move the project.app folder to inside the Payload folder
Zip the Payload folder
Rename project.zip to project.ipa

Creating your own IPA file from appcelerator

2011-02-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

iPhone SDK: Application failed codesign verification

2010-12-29T19:41:00.000-08:00

Check the following:

1. We are using release | device - during compilation, if you cannot select release then chances are configuration for arvm6 was not selected (we need to use standard)

2. check that the codesign has distribution selected and not any other certs

3. the release shoudl be at: Release-iphoneos

4. if there is no popup that asks for permissions to do codesign, then chances are the setup is wrong some where.. for example the active executable is towards that of the iOS simulator and not for release.

Aaron

Get today's date mysql

2010-12-26T06:00:00.001-08:00

"SELECT * FROM netl_hiscores WHERE DATE(scoreDateTime) = DATE(NOW())";

Weird floating DIVs

2010-12-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

If you run into problems with div floating on the side of another div despite having clear seperators, then you need to inform the browser to 'stop' floating.. using the following command.

<div style="clear: both;"> </div>

Haversine Formula Calculation between two points

2010-10-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

seems like safari does not support torad() function of javascript.

function getDistance(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {

var R = 6371; // km
var dLat = (lat2-lat1) * Math.PI / 180;
var dLon = (lon2-lon1) * Math.PI / 180;
var a = Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
Math.cos(lat1 * Math.PI / 180) * Math.cos(lat2 * Math.PI / 180) *
Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2);
var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a));
var d = R * c;

return d.toFixed(2);
}

mysqldump and restore

2010-10-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

mysqldump -u [uname] -p [dbname] > bak.sql

mysql -u [uname] -p [dbname] < [bak.sql]

format base strip sscanf php

2010-09-17T22:53:00.001-07:00

mysql php installation errors server 2008 zlib.dll

2010-09-17T04:46:00.000-07:00

When IIS is complaining about a missing DLL file either a zlib.dll or oci.dll, chances are soemthing is wrong with the msi file, disable some of the extensions and try to install again, as long as php-cgi.exe runs properly, the program should work.

after ensuring that php works, follow the insturctions to edit the php.ini file to point to the correct fastcgi settings.
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/246/using-fastcgi-to-host-php-applications-on-iis-7/

I installed PHP on C:\PHP and not within program files directory mainly because of the space.

lastly, take note of the appliaction pool, the manage pipeline mode should be integrated and the "enable 32 bit applications" setting should be set to true.

Performance xpath->query vs dom->getElementsByTagName

2010-09-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

xpath works much faster, with speed of over 3 times faster compared to that of doing normal traversal using DOM.

// dom method
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);
$nodes = $dom->getElementsByTagName('td');
foreach($nodes as $node) {

if($node->nodeName == 'td'){

$inodes = $node->childNodes;

if ($node->getAttribute('class') == 'usedcar_InfoName usedcar_InfoName_padding') {
echo $node->nodeValue . "
";
}

if ($node->getAttribute('class') == 'usedcar_InfoContent usedcar_InfoContent_padding') {
echo @mb_convert_encoding(htmlspecialchars($node->nodeValue), 'utf-8') . "
";
}

foreach($inodes as $inode){

if($inode->nodeName == 'a' && $inode->getAttribute('class') == 'breadcrumb_link') {
echo $inode->nodeValue . "
";
}

if($inode->nodeName == 'td' && $inode->getAttribute('class') == 'usedcar_InfoName usedcar_InfoName_padding') {
echo $inode->nodeValue . "
";

}
}
}
}

// xpath method
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);
$title = $xpath->query("/html/title");
$elements = $xpath->query("//*[@class='usedcar_InfoName usedcar_InfoName_padding']"); // header
$elements2 = $xpath->query("//*[@class='usedcar_InfoContent usedcar_InfoContent_padding']"); // content

// dump all the header tag into an array
$headers = array();
if (!is_null($elements)) {
foreach ($elements as $element) {
$nodes = $element->childNodes;
foreach ($nodes as $node) {
array_push($headers, $node->nodeValue);
}
}
}

// dump all content tag into an array
$contents = array();
if (!is_null($elements2)) {
foreach ($elements2 as $element) {
$nodes = $element->childNodes;
$count =0;
foreach ($nodes as $node) {
if ($count == 0)
array_push($contents, $node->nodeValue);
$count++;
}
}
}

for($count=0; $count < sizeof($headers); $count++)
echo $headers[$count] . ": " . $contents[$count] . "
";

Android Screen Cast

2010-08-23T21:18:00.001-07:00

http://code.google.com/p/androidscreencast/

asp.net session extension

2010-08-21T11:51:00.001-07:00

Confucius

2010-08-11T19:26:00.001-07:00

quote from Confucius' book Genuine Living says, "Developing in accordance with one's own nature is called "the way of self-realization." Proper pursuit of the way of self-realization is called "maturation"." In this quote, I believe Confucius proposes education for a but subject matter and form for that education would vary according to one's own nature. C.T.M.A.T.M. 78 At Confucius' own school, he would not teach "duflards", and would "only teach those who were bursting with eagerness for enlightenment." However he would not turn someone away because they had no money.
http://www.qddx.gov.cn/n435777/n435782/n435826/n436845/n436862/5307.html

Pressing enter in textbox asp.net

2010-08-09T16:32:00.001-07:00

<INPUT type="text" style="VISIBILITY: hidden;POSITION: absolute">

Start debugging again. You cannot see the second textbox, and everything looks like before. Try again to write something in first textbox. If you press enter now, form will submit, and your code for button's click event will now be executed. This is extremely different behavior, and you did nothing except you placed one invisible textbox on web form. :)

Compiling mobile apps

2010-08-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

Blackberry
1. Clean project
2. Project -> Blackberry -> Package All
3. *the program should automatically launch code signer
4. Inside Blackberry Manager, locate the ALX file and have it uploaded

iPhone
1. Download the latest version
2. Double click and launch the xcode project file
3. debug first and run on simulator (this is important)
4. if it works, connect the iphone
5. Select release (it will show base sdk is missing)
6. Select device
7. BUILD!

linux directory search

2010-07-29T09:05:00.001-07:00

find -type d -iname "*$mydir*"

Android Camera Picture Errors

2010-07-22T01:56:00.000-07:00

Its important to createnewfile(), because it creates the file. also it is important that during testing, the sdcard is unmount, there will be an exception about the parent directory being unreachable.

This can be potentially useful:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1431042/problem-in-creating-temporary-file-in-android

File photo = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(),"modcloth/placeholder.jpg");

try {

photo.createNewFile();
FileOutputStream fileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(photo.getPath());

BitmapFactory.Options options=new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inSampleSize = 5; // sets image quality

Bitmap myImage = BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(imageData, 0, imageData.length,options);

BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(fileOutputStream);

myImage.compress(CompressFormat.JPEG, quality, bos);

bos.flush();
bos.close();

} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}

Placing Div above flash

2010-07-03T22:11:00.001-07:00

place: "wmode", "transparent"

inside the following areas:
AC_FL_RunContent
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />

Blackberry spacer whitespace generator

2010-06-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

I thought android was bad, but Blackberry is 10 times worst. I spent an entire day doing a simple UI. Its not even easy considering the useless API documents. Anyhow I came up with a whitespace method (in place of padding)

private BitmapField whitespace(final int width, final int height) {

Bitmap img = Bitmap.getBitmapResource("transparent.png");
return new BitmapField(img) {
public int getPreferredWidth() {
return width;
}
public int getPreferredHeight() {
return height;
}
protected void layout(int arg0, int height) {
super.layout(getPreferredWidth(), getPreferredHeight());
setExtent(getPreferredWidth(), getPreferredHeight());
}
};
}

validation javascript

2010-06-20T16:55:00.001-07:00

5 Reasons why GoThere.sg is overrated

2010-06-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

So Aditya and I was talking over lunch about mapping services and how Singaporeans (in general) do not use Google Maps. Rather, they (Singaporeans) are appalled by Street View when they first see it. Aditya went on and said, oh Singaporeans uses GoThere.sg but not Google Maps. I was like. Why? This does not makes sense. Aditya say, "its better". In what ways? I asked. Aditya said, it is "localized, e.g. you can search for chicken rice on it and they have their own maps which don't resemble Google maps." That phrase basically sparked a 30 minute intensive research by myself and the results in this post as follows:

So here are five reasons why it is overated:

1. Its buggy?
On first entry and just doing nothing but essentially "dragging".. I got an instant error "stack overflow". Most likely something is wrong with their Arrays.

2. It is a variation of Google Maps
Yes on first glance it looks different. But you can't trick the expert (look at what I found, the street view is completely the same). I digged a little deeper and found that creating gothere.sg is relatively simple. its basically KML. You can find out a little more about KML here: http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/whatiskml.html

3. It does not find directions
I tried and tried and tried.. many combinations ranging from SMU to Boon Lay and Orchard road. I may have been typing the wrong keywords, but hey if the system can't even give proper instructions on how to find directions, how are you going to expect people to use it? Google is simple on this, two text boxes at the start of the page and you are all set.

4. I can't get directions to Johor
I love going into Johor, in fact most if not all Singaporeans drive/get driven there at some point in their life. Why limit their market to Singapore? I know, bowling pin strategy. But if you are already ripping the maps off Google, why don't you just rip the rest off?

5. Lacks contextual information
I must say, Google maps on the PC is still rather bad on this, but its moving in strongly in this area with the mobile phones. So for instance, an example of a missing contextual information is "time". When it calculates ERP, does it take into factor the time of the day and give you the cheapest route base on price? When it estimates time of arrival, does it takes into account weather and traffic? I may be better off sticking to my radio if they don't have such things.

-----------------------------------------------
All in all i felt that GoThere.sg has got some potential (not a lot). Why?

1. Low barriers to entry, from my experience. I am sure I can replicate this in less than a month with a team of four programmers.
2. It is hard to scale and replicate this 'success' overseas. Face it, try coming to the USA and you will be swarmed with Google Maps. Almost certain a flop if it comes to the US of A.
3. Crowded space, Google is moving strongly in this area. So is Microsoft and Apple. So the golden question is, will it be a take over target of Google or any of the Giants in future? My answer is - no. The Singapore market is too small for any of the giants to bother. Also, most importantly, there is nothing truly novel about their approach. Everything they have done was already done in Google Maps (transit fare calculation etc).
4. In fact the very nature of their existence is due to the existence of Google. So if Google (one day) decides that all companies that uses Google Maps will have to pay for it. They are going to be in trouble.

BUT..

5. It is the first company (other than streetdirectory) to create such things, created perfectly in time to fill that void that the company left. It uses a different map (but actually it is just google's map) and mashed everything up together. Honestly, it does save you time e.g. you don't have to find parking information elsewhere. But the question is this: "what is your value proposition?" Any body can just come in and create a mashup in no time, how much time can you save?

To summarize it all: Mr Lesmana, i am not still not sold by gothere.sg, i can also search for chicken rice on Google maps (you pretty much get the exact same results) also they are USING google maps, not their own map.

Flex Mouse Cursor on Non Buttons

2010-06-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

<mx:Image source="image1.jpg" useHandCursor="true" buttonMode="true" />

Phonegap Eclipse

2010-05-04T10:35:00.001-07:00

1. create directory C:\xampp\htdocs\omniproxrewards
and place icon.png, index.html master.js and phonegap.js into it

2. remove any existing directory in the workspace (i.e. omniproxrewards) if any

3. C:\Program Files (x86)\phonegap\android>ruby build.rb oward com.omniprox C:/xamp
p/htdocs/omniproxrewards C:\Users\Aaron\workspace\omniproxrewards

4. phonegap.jar has to existin in framework directory it can be found online or genearted internally.

5. rename the auto generated project into omniproxrewards2

6. inside eclipse. select to create a new android project NOT from existing source

7. after creating, go back and copy everything in omniproxrewards2 folder into omniproxrewards

8. back in eclipse add phonegar.jar as build path
(right click -> build path -> add to build path)