Tod1d's Thought Process

Sunday November 22, 2009: “Fish and visitors smell in three days”

Tod Birdsall — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:40:22 GMT

Why Familiarity Really Does Breed Contempt: "...we like other people less the more we know about them." http://is.gd/4UheN
"Fish and visitors smell in three days." -- Benjamin Franklin
Reading: A simple Binary Search Tree written in C# http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipes/BinarySearchTree.aspx
Need to write a console app that copies contents of one folder into another:http://is.gd/4Ykxo
Best way to copy the entire contents of a directory in C# http://is.gd/4Ykvv
Extreme Programming words of wisdon: "Avoid speculative design for possible future changes"

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Sunday, November 8, 2009: Learning Scrum and log4net

Tod Birdsall — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:34:51 GMT

Learning ins and outs of log4net. Using it in a one-off .NET console application.
Best log4net quick-start tutorial, I have found, thus far.
Using desktop version Balsamiq Mockups for web tool layout. Loving it.
Learning how to create button that follows u as u scroll browser, using jQuery plugin inside of ASP.net page: http://is.gd/4Loht
I am selling a Nikon D40 digital SLR camera with 18-55mm lens. Less than 2 months old: http://is.gd/4MbmX
Fixng ASP.NET problem: The Controls collection cannot be modified because the control contains code blocks. http://is.gd/4MdNn
Looking forward to Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood expansion. Check out the latest trailer.
Learning Scrum from Agile & Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide
I really like that the Scrum Master's roles is to remove blocks, provide resources, act as a firewall, and otherwise stay out of the way.
Similar to Scrum, my product/sprint backlogs are referred to as "wish-lists", organized by the Product Owner.#programming
Unlike Scrum, my iterations average about 6 weeks and estimates are broad and team size is 1. #programming
Sounds like Scrum suggests customer demos and feedback at end of 30-day sprint. I prefer earlier and often. Learn what's not working early.
Learning about WordCamp: community-organized WordPress events. I did not realized how popular WordPress is.
Would like to add feature to my search tool: Enter 'Robert' automatically search for 'Rob' and 'Bob'.
Sounds like first name variation search may not be such a great idea. Probably better to leave in hands of user.

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Twitter Inserter 1.1.5 Released

Tod Birdsall — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:41:00 GMT

This release of Twitter Inserter fixes the bug that occurred after another Twitter API change. The bug was preventing credentials validation. You can download the Twitter Inserter 1.1.5 from the Windows Live Writer Plugin website.

Notes on “How to Think Like a Computer Scientist” Chapter 1

Tod Birdsall — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:07:00 GMT

Dear reader, these notes were taken while reading How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, by by Allen Downey, Jeffrey Elkner and Chris Meyers. I was reading through it as part of MIT OpenCourseWare’s 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming. My notes are just a snapshot of this chapter with some of my commentary. I highly recommend reading the chapter in its entirety. In fact, if you are new to programming, you should probably read the whole book.

C, C++, Perl, and Java are high-level languages. For whatever reason, I never think of C as a high-level language.

Low-level languages are sometimes referred to as "machine languages" or "assembly languages".

Benefits of writing in high-level languages:

much easier to program
take less time to write
shorter and easier to read
more likely to be correct

Two kinds of programs that process high-level languages:

Interpreters – Alternates between reading a line of a high-level program and executing it.
- examples – Python, Lisp, Ruby, Perl
- Many interpreted languages are first compiled to some form of virtual machine code, which is either interpreted or compiled at runtime to native code (aka machine language). (via Wikipedia)
  - examples – .NET Framework languages (C#, VB.NET, etc.), Java, Lua
Compilers – Reads the program and translates it completely before the program starts.
- source code – high-level program
- object code (aka executable) – translated program
- examples – C, C++, BASIC

Three kinds of errors can occur in a program:

Syntax errors – refers to errors in the structure of the code.
Runtime errors – does not appear until you “run” the program.
Semantic errors – you program runs successfully and does not generate any errors; but, it doesn’t do the right thing.

“remember that formal languages are more much more dense than natural languages, so it takes longer to read them”

The above statement reminds me of Joel Spolsky’s article, Things You Should Never Do, Part I:

“The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a cardinal, fundamental law of programming:

It’s harder to read code than to write it.”

BNUG July 2009 Meeting: Silverlight 3.0

Tod Birdsall — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:00:00 GMT

The July Bloomington .NET Users Group meeting is tonight, July 14th. Keep reading for details:

Colin Blair from EKI is going to talk about Silverlight 3.0 and how it can be used to create rich business applications. Colin is currently developing Silverlight applications for the State of Illinois and has a ton of experience with this great new technology.
Microsoft Silverlight is a programmable web browser plugin that enables features such as animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback which characterize rich Internet applications. Version 2.0, released in October 2008, brought additional interactivity features and support for .NET languages and development tools. Microsoft made the beta of Silverlight 3.0 available on March 18, 2009. The final version is expected to arrive on July 10, 2009.
The timing and subject of our meeting can’t be more perfect with the July 10th go-live of Silverlight!!!

Like Twitter Inserter?

Tod Birdsall — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:23:56 GMT

If you are a fan of Twitter Inserter, please rate it on Windows Live Writer plugin gallery. Or, better yet, write a review. You can do both by going to the Twitter Inserter Windows Live Writer Gallery page.

Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes it easier to compose blog posts and submit them to your blog service.

Twitter Inserter is a Windows Live Writer Plugin that compiles your most recent Twitter posts into a well formatted bullet list so you can post them to your blog. I first released Twitter Inserter June 28th, on Windows Live Writer plugin gallery. Since then, it has been downloaded more than 200 times.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009: Fixed Twitter Inserter

Tod Birdsall — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:31:45 GMT

StackOverflow Podcast 57
Platform vendors: What happens when you build an iPhone app that made obsolete by an iPhone OS upgrade? http://is.gd/10bDN
Star Wars the Old Republic: Meet the next playable class, the street savvy, credit seeking Smuggler.
Wondering what First Person Shooters the kids are playing these days? http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/
Installed the Battlefield 2 demo to see if I finally want to break down and buy it. I think I will pass.
I have to fix an issue with Twitter Inserter. Probably due to a Twitter API change. Need to get latest version of TweetSharp.
I am starting to look at books like Head First Statistics as college courses. I won't get any credits, but I get the benefits of learning
Sims 3 diary blog: Funny and sad at the same time
Learning about the C# lock statement
How to queue session requests to the same COM object in an ASP.NET application
We SAY we like to learn new things, but do we really? Why don't students like school? (via KathySierra)
Figuring out what changed in TweetSharp and caused Twitter Inserter to break.
Figured out that an TweetSharp extension method is no longer called "Accounts", but "Account". That is why the VerifyCredentials broke.
Fixed Twitter Inserter and submitted version 1.1 to the Windows Live Writer gallery for approval.
My job isn't to program; it is to delight my client by creating tools that solve his problems and increase his productivity.

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Thursday, June 16, 2009: “You’re like a blister on a skunk’s colon.”

Tod Birdsall — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:08:03 GMT

Great Thinkers on Self-Education: Socrates (via writingjamie)
Reading highlights from StackOverflow Podcast 56.
What’s your favorite “programmer” cartoon? Funny and often true
Useful links for studying Harvard Classics and other classic literature: SparkNotes and CliffsNotes
Han Solo, P.I. (via codinghorror)
"You're like a blister on a skunk's colon."
The trailer for Real Racing (for the iPhone) looks awesome. I need to pick it up for my iTouch. (via codinghorror)
This could be a "philosophy 101" goldmine (via writingjamie)
Ivy League Education at Home Part 6: Moral Reasoning (via writingjamie)

Tweet Summary: Thursday, June 4, 2009

Tod Birdsall — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:09:13 GMT

I love my Sennheiser HD 202 headphones. The sound is clear, the have great ear coverage w/out being bulky. Plus they are inexpensive.
Consulting on Different Platforms & Varying Requirements: Experiences in getting gigs for .NET, Ruby on Rails, and iPhone
I need to check out the Google Wave video and see what all the hubbub is about.
rbazinet Recommended Spreedly for subscription service billing.
Have you seen the very entertaining Star Wars Old Republic MMO E3 trailer?
Building Intellectual Character: 6 Attributes That Will Make You a Better Learner
War of Art is on my Father's Day wish-list. Hope to read it soon.
Finished Pilgrim's Progress. Starting to read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography today. Loving Instapaper.
New Wii Workout Games Debut at E3
Brink: From the people who brought you Quake Wars: Enemy Territory
Star Wars Old Republic MMO: Smuggler class details and 100% voiced dialogue. That's just plain crazy.
Next time you purchase an app that includes "free" customer service verify 2 things: 1) When the salesperson said "phone support", they didn't mean "email only". 2)that their "email only support" isn't in a time zone that is about 12 hours different than your own.
Great Thinkers on Self-Education: Socrates

Tweet Summary: Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Tod Birdsall — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:56:02 GMT

Bought Mario Kart Wii. Whole family played for much of the day. Lots of fun. Love the online multiplayer mode.
77 is my highest on Flight Control, the fun little iPhone / iPod Touch game, thus far.
Learning: Flot, a pure JavaScript plotting library for jQuery. Simple, attractive and interactive charts and graphing
Learning: reCAPTCHA; a free anti-bot service that helps digitize books. Improve security while helping a good cause.
Re-familiarizing myself with Remember the Milk for task list tracking. Have not used it in over a year.
I see that Remember the Milk is still in "Beta". Should your app be out of "Beta" before you begin offering a "pay for Pro" version? LeeDumond says: What's better than getting users to test your app? Getting users to PAY you for testing your app!
Remember the Milk: Wishing I could drag an item up or down (see NetFlix Queue) to change order of priority.
Ran into an issue while uploading my Windows Live Writer plugin to the Windows Live Writer Gallery website. I figured out that the Microsoft site doesn’t play well with Firefox. Go figure.
Using jQuery in ASP.NET
Learn iPhone Development for Free: via Stanford U's online courses. Looks extensive.

Insert Tweets Into Your Blog Post

Tod Birdsall — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:38:25 GMT

I use Twitter as a micro-blogging platform. I assume that many of my readers do not use Twitter, and I want to share my Twitter posts (called “tweets”) with them. Enter Twitter Inserter.

Twitter Inserter my first Windows Live Writer plugin. It compiles your recent tweets into a nice bulleted list and converts all of the appropriate text to clickable links, then inserts it into your Live Writer blog post.

Windows Live Writer is “a desktop application that makes it easier to compose compelling blog posts using Windows Live Spaces or your current blog service.” It also works well with Community Server, which is what my blog is built on.

Download Twitter Inserter

Requirements:

Additional Credits:

The icon was created by Alex Mathers.
I am using the TweetSharp .NET library to interact with the Twitter API.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions at the bottom of this page.

BNUG June 2009 Meeting: XNA

Tod Birdsall — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:43:00 GMT

The next Bloomington .NET Users Group meeting is Jun 9th. Keep reading for details:

What's this XNA thing I keep hearing about?

This talk will cover what XNA is (and isn't) along with what's needed to develop with XNA 3.0. We will also cover target platforms of Windows, XBOX 360, Zune and Surface. We'll go through some demos and take a look at some code, identifying key aspects of the XNA Framework and game development. We'll also discuss the Xbox Live Community Games.

We will also welcome our new BNUG President!!!

Location:
Bloomington Microsoft Office

Event start: 6/9/2009 6:00:00 PM

Tweet Summary: Monday, May 25, 2009

Tod Birdsall — Tue, 26 May 2009 03:06:00 GMT

Learning: Google Web Toolkit: Write AJAX apps in the Java language, then compile to optimized JavaScript http://is.gd/2bt5
Learning: Helma, a Javascript Web Framework http://dev.helma.org/
Don't let title fool you; the part about starting your own biz is useful to anyone: How to Succeed Writing Mac Software http://is.gd/zPtl
Project: Start a Commonplace Book http://tinyurl.com/q6cbyo (via writingjamie)
Thanks to Instapaper (http://is.gd/Ajjo) and Bartleby (http://is.gd/1QTq), I am enjoying reading Pilgrim's Progress on my iPod Touch.
Finished good documentary The Conscientious Objector: Man refuses to carry weapon in WW2, but received Medal of Honor http://is.gd/AkjP
Returned from vacationing in Branson, MO with my wife and son. Lots of fun.
Shimer College: You like to think. You love to read. You don't want to sit in a lecture hall. http://www.shimer.edu
Learning Modal Dialogs - first attempt: #aspnet Modal Dialog with PostBack and return values to Parent Page http://is.gd/Cm5e
The 80/20 Rule of Reading: http://tinyurl.com/omwf8j (via writingjamie)
Wanting to move from beginner/intermediate JavaScript developer to advanced. Tempted to buy Professional JavaScript for Web Developers http://is.gd/CnEh
Experimenting with ModalPopup control in ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit http://is.gd/CoNx
Lawn Mowing Material: got Made to Stick audio book from public library. http://is.gd/CpTU
"A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." - Mark Twain
Are You Addicted to Power Porn? http://is.gd/CxtE

Today's Summary: Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Tod Birdsall — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:23:00 GMT

Stumbled upon: TimmyOnTime; a time tracker that works via IM. http://is.gd/wZCE They need to move "help, FAQ" to top of page. Too hard to find.
A File Manager in MooTools, looks nice, maybe you will like the link: http://is.gd/x02v
Having tons of fun with Burnout Paradise PC demo. Too bad, it's only a 30 minutes long. http://is.gd/x5vb
Looking for a document diff plugin for Notepad++. Found "Compare Plugin" http://is.gd/2xdY
A decent summary: Maintaining state in ASP.NET: Know your options http://is.gd/xuQB
A more in depth look: Nine Options for Managing Persistent User State in Your ASP.NET Application
Finished reading How to Win Friends & Influence People. A very satisfying read. Just the right length.
Open Source or Die – The *Real* Future of Graffiti? (via @mhinton)
#dotnet software developer position open in Bloomington/Normal, IL area. http://is.gd/zB9a
Great Thinkers on Self-Education: John Holt http://tinyurl.com/oqplc4 via writingjamie
Working on my Windows Live Writer install package. Just about done. Then I will need to submit to WLW plugin site. http://is.gd/zHcn
Been having a lot of fun playing TrackMania Nations with my 9yo son. Fun racing #game. You can play it free. http://www.trackmania.com/tm/

Today's Summary: Monday, May 04, 2009

Tod Birdsall — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:54:00 GMT

Hacker breaks into Twitter's network, again http://tinyurl.com/ddlowx (via jongalloway)
Having fun with jQuery. Creating an interface that will be similar to Google Docs' file/file folder interface.
Learning: jQuery Context Menu Plugin http://abeautifulsite.net/notebook/80
Learning: jQuery Treeview plugin http://tinyurl.com/2ngukw
Learning: jQuery Splitter Plugin. Create split-pane views. http://www.methvin.com/jquery/splitter/
balexandre pointed out that I may end up with a long load time for my solution, with all of this Javascript. How does Google manage to do it?