lzantal

Advanced jQuery

2010-04-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

The other day I came across this article at ibm developerworks site.
I really liked the app that got developed in the article. It also delivers
a very good intro to events with jQuery.

Here is the direct link to the article:
Advanced jQuery

Enjoy...

Create a mockapp of your next iPhone or iPad app

2010-03-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Today I came across MockApp a design tool that lets you quickly create a mockup of your iPhone or iPad app. Thats right. No need to fire up interface builder and start mocking around. Or create sketches of your new app.

I find it very valuable for app development. It not just saves you a lot of time but also gives you visual feedback on your idea. And there is one more thing it comes with a powerpoint version. So if you want to MockApp on your windows or linux, you can do it without having to be next to your mac.

Click here to visit the MockApp website and learn more about it.

Enjoy...

XServer stops working on Ubuntu 9.10 after reboot

2010-03-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

Today I rebooted my Ubuntu 9.10 desktop after making a big update. And to my biggest surprise it only booted into the terminal. After googleing the issue I could not find anything related to this. So I took the second best approach and decided to reinstall the nvidia driver.

I wanted to use a tool that would do it for me so if it happens again then I don't have to remember what made it to work. Again back to the good old friend google and it brought up this tool called envyng.
I quick $ sudo apt-get install envyng-core it was installed and ready to run.
I started it with $ sudo envyng -t and just followed the very clean simple instructions. After it installed the recommended version of the driver I just rebooted and everything works just like before.:)

Enjoy...

Indie games shoul cost more

2010-03-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

I have been an active reader of Jeff Vogel for awhile. I really enjoy his honest opinion on game development and game industry. Since I have been working on a couple of small games for the iPhone I have always felt that the prices for the games in the app store just way too low.

He wrote up a really awesome article on the issue. I belive that every game developer should read it.

So if you got this far then go ahead and read it.
Indie Games Should Cost More, Pt. 1

Enjoy...

Quick update

2010-03-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I wrote anything on this blog. I am still alive it has been just very busy at work. I have been working on a huge multi stage reporting software for a multi million dollar company.
It's been an interesting ride. The sheer amount of data they collected in the last 5 years is very impressive.

The biggest joy out of it that I can use C again for writing the actual reporting part of it and Python to do all the rest. I am enjoying the work very much but it does not leave me with very much free time.

I am getting ready to start the work on my iPad app. It will use all the new features of the iPad SDK to provide the best user experience. Even though it will not run on the iPhone because of that.
I belive that it will benefit from it in the long run.

I know I still have to write up the post on how to write a dumb but cute programming language and I will, but right now I have to prioritize my time.

Enjoy...

Python Objects

2010-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

I came across this a few weeks back. It's an article on Python Objects from linux.com.
I think it is very well written and a good first read for beginners or programmers new to object oriented programming.
Here is an expert from the article

This article will give an overview of the basic object-oriented concepts in Python. We’ll start by defining an object and learning what it is. Next, we’ll take a look at how you can discover the properties of Python's built-in objects and how you can create your own. Then we’ll finish off with a list of best practices and a pointer to where you can go to get more information.

If you are new to object oriented programming or just starting out with python here is the link
An Introduction to Python Objects

Enjoy...

Busy Reading

2010-01-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

I have not blogged for awhile and I thought I share the reason... I am reading Coders at Work by Peter Seibel. It's a great book. I really enjoy reading about these genius programmers life and how they program and what is there preference in terms of language and coding style.

Highly recommended for every programmer out there.
Again here is the link to the amazon page. Coders at Work.

Enjoy...

Install PostgreSQL on Ubuntu with python support

2009-12-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

Recently I need it to install PostgreSQL for Django.
Here is how I did it.

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql python-psycopg pgadmin3
Note that pgadmin3 is a graphical app so unless you have Gnome or KDE installed you don't need it.

After you install everything you will need to set postgresql password.
$ sudo passwd postgres
$ su postgres
$ psql template1
Last command will open PostgreSQL shell where you can type:
ALTER USER postgres WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'password';
Thats all.

You can verify it by going to the python shell and importing it.
$ python
>>> import psycopg
>>> psycopg.apilevel
'2.0'
>>>

If you get this far than everything isup and running.

Implement - Write a programming language in 3 hours

2009-12-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

Yep. You read it right.
Someone told me that its impossible to implement - write a new programming language in less than a day. I said "If I can write it in python and its just has to work... Eg: no error checking or complex operation. I can write one in 3 hours".
He jumped on it VERY quickly. We agreed on all the features: "functions, global variables, local variables, addition, subtraction, print to terminal".

It has to print "Hello World", add 2+2 together and call a function which will do something.
No other restrictions. I can choose the keywords and how I represent my data types.
I did realize that it has to be very naive and super simple. I just wanted to hack something together to prove him wrong. I decided on a mixture of JavaScript and Php. I chose those two because they have a simple construct where I can easily recognize if a variable or a function getting declared or called.

Let me jump to the end of the story... I won the bet :-)
Yes, that's right. It fulfilled all the requirements we set.

In the next few blog posts I will walk you through how I hacked it together.
Stay tuned.

Please Note!!
Don't expect a Real/True compiler or interpreter or the next big programming language!
I am NOT an expert on that field. I do love parsers/interpreters/compilers and I write simple dns(domain specific language) for work, but I am very far from understanding all the ins and outs of a language design.

Matrix in your terminal

2009-12-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

This has to be the one thing all geeks(inluding me) want to do at some point. Turn your teminal into a Matrix terminal. Folks at commandlinefu.com submitting their own implementation. It's great to see how much you can accomplish with such a small amount of code. Whats even sweeter is that all that is done with tools all ready shippid with every linux or unix machine.

Go over there and try out the code samples or even submit your own.

Here is the link www.commandlinefu.com

Enjoy...

Great deals from sitepoint.com

2009-12-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

Just came a cross on this the other day on twitter. SitePoint.com decided that they will put together a bundle on every day until Christmas. Every day there is something new, so don't forget to check back if you don't like that day's offer.

Here is the link sale.sitepoint.com

Enjoy...

Synaptic search broken in Ubuntu 9.04

2009-12-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

After doing a clean install of Ubuntu 9.04 desktop I fired up synaptic
and to my biggest surprise a quick search for apache2 did not show
any result. Google was bringing up mixed results so I just went strait
ahead to ubuntuforums.org. As always there was a fix listed there.

Here is how to fix it:
Open terminal and type in: sudo update-apt-xapian-index -f
This will force the index to be rebuild.
Now my synaptic works great!

Hope it helps... Good luck

Moving to Blogger

2008-11-07T19:15:00.001-08:00

I am in the process of moving my blog to blogger.com.

I hope it will go without a glitch.