self-awareness Am I Making the World a Better Place? Today I went to sign up for GitTip [http://gittip.com], just to be able to explore the site, and have an account ready should I decide to tip someone. If you're not familiar, GitTip is a "tipping" site where you can give money to people who you think deserve
technology GitHub Gist As a blogger about software, I often want to actually post code in my blog posts. There are multiple ways to do this, and each one has it's merits. The things I wanted were: * Basic syntax highlighting * Easy to type and read the code in the editor * Easy to read
technology Creating Application Pages in SharePoint I'm currently working on a SharePoint project which requires deploying multiple custom pre-configured pages. These are pages that have web parts, but aren't the standard "configure this page however you want" pages in SharePoint. I've found that the best way to achieve this is to create a "web part page"
Status Quo Sometimes, there are bad days. Days when I can't ignore the painfully wrong parts of our society and humanity. There are so many dumb societal "rules" that make sense when you look back and identify the motives and historical reasons, but don't make sense in a if we did this
design Ghost Themes: Designing for Simplicity Ghost [http://ghost.org] is a brand new blog engine, built on Node.js [http://nodejs.org], and designed for simplicty [http://blog.ghost.org/launch/]. The great thing about both hosted and host-your-own blogs is the ability to theme it, give it your own style. Ghost is a whole
athletics Fitbit Flex: Review The Device When I opened up the Fitbit Flex, the tracker was already inside a wristband (it comes with two wristbands – a large and a small). I was mildly disappointed to find I’d need to charge it before being able to use it, but was glad I’d be
technology Hesitating Before Buying Apps Lots of people comment about how ridiculous it is that we hesitate before or even completely refuse to spend a few bucks on an app, especially when compared to spending the same amount daily for coffee, or hundreds of times more for the smartphone, tablet, or PC that the app
self-awareness Modes One of the most important things that I’ve learned about myself is how to deal with the Good, the Bad, and the Meh. I’ve learned to recognize when I’m in certain modes, or at some point in some kind of cycle. Preference cycles are what I call
This Is [Unfortunately Not] the End [of Rape Jokes] Today, my wife and I went to see This Is the End, a movie where a number of movie stars play themselves during the apocalypse. I did laugh at a few scenes, but for the most part, the humor felt tired and stale, just like one of the first lines
technology Tablets: A Disambiguation (Part 2) Arguably the most important factor for people buying a first tablet is price. A common theme among them is to go for a “budget” tablet. I put budget in quotes because I prefer the term cheap. Using cheap more accurately conveys both the price and the quality of the device,
technology Tablets: A Disambiguation (Part 1) In the first quarter of this year, 2013, Apple shipped 19.5 million iPads1 [http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24093213]. Samsung shipped 8.8 million, Asus 2.7 million, and Microsoft 0.9 million. With others, this means in just 3 months, almost 50 million tablets were shipped
technology Asynchronous Data Calls in Windows Store Apps Below is the way that I’ve written my (MVVM, C#, XAML) Windows store app to make asynchronous data calls. This is necessary so that the UI doesn’t lock up while some network action or request is being performed. Make a function that gets your data synchronously. This makes
project-management Alarming This past weekend I got an email from a team member saying that there was an event that occurred at a customer facility which should have triggered an alarm in a system that we wrote, but didn't. Shortly after, I got an email from our project manager informing me that
technology Uploading a Photo as Multipart Form Data in C# I recently posted about adding a feature to a Windows 8 app I’m working on wherein the user can select a photo from their pictures library. After they select the photo, I need to upload it to the API I’m using in order to post the picture. The
technology Choosing a photo from the Photos library in Windows 8 I’m working on a Windows 8/RT app, and one of the pieces of functionality I needed was the ability for users to select a photo from their library and upload it (more on the uploading [http://xdumaine.com/2013/03/24/uploading-a-photo-as-multipart-form-data-in-c/] ). I wanted to use the built
technology Authenticating an HTTP Request with Client Certificates in iOS I'm writing an app that uses a client-certificate to authenticate while performing a SOAP request. Unfortunately, I'm writing this app in PhoneGap, and the iOS WebView does not support Client Certificates for AJAX requests. I found some various sources of code and examples for doing this, but it took quite
review Product Review: Nook Simple Touch I recently got a Nook Simple Touch (sans glow light), and, in short: I love it. Prior to the Simple Touch, I had a Nook color, the first all-color, touch screen Nook. It was nice for a while, but it had some major flaws. First and foremost, the battery was
technology Creating an Enterprise App Catalog Motive One of the challenges faced with developing in-house (or “enterprise”) mobile applications is deployment. For public applications, deployment is handled almost exclusively through platform app stores, like the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store. Deploying apps to employees of a single company, without making use of those
technology HFR XD 3D 1080p HD WTF Last night I went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in HFR XD 3D. The XD seems to just be Cinemark's name for their new theatre style, because HFR 3D was available not in XD. In any case, we saw the movie in 3D, filmed and played at a
technology CSS3 Animations Here's a little code-kata [http://www.codekata.com/]I did, with CSS3 animations. I really haven't done anything with CSS3 animations yet. To be honest, it's hard for me to identify good use-cases for them. Anyway, here's a little one I did based on some popular unicode-characters. Comments on the
athletics Hangboard Sessions For a while, I've just been doing general training [http://xdumaine.com/grip-training-crimps/] on my hangboard [http://xdumaine.com/the-blank-slate-hangboard/]. I recently listened to a HanselMinutes podcast [http://hanselminutes.com/345/world-class-climbing-with-audrey-sniezek]with Audrey Sniezek [http://audreysniezek.wordpress.com/]. Audrey is a program manager at Microsoft on the Azure team,
athletics Grip Training: Crimps I've been attempting to work on my grips, in addition to strength. Primarily, I've been working on closed-hand (or full-crimp) and pinches. Unfortunately, my hangboard [http://xdumaine.com/the-blank-slate-hangboard/] doesn't provide a great place for either one. It does have some pretty small lips, which most people would hang on
technology iOS 6 Assistive Touch iOS 6 brought a great new accessibility feature that's actually pretty handy for general use. The feature, called "Assistive Touch" can be enabled in Settings.app > general > accessibility. When this feature is enabled, a small dot-like button is overlayed on the screen, and can be moved and docked on any
technology PhoneGap in iOS 6 Update 9/27: This post relates to PhoneGap 2.0. 2.1 appears to have fixed a number of iOS 6 compatibility issues, and I recommend upgrading. Today I upgraded my Xcode to 4.5, which now builds apps against the iOS 6 sdk. This included many breakages to my
Windows Fixing the Trackpad in Windows 8 Installed on a Macbook Pro Update 1/16/13 – I tried out Trackpad++ [http://trackpad.powerplan7.com] despite it’s creepy malware-feel on the site and in the installer. It did successfully restore 2-finger right click and scrolling. I haven’t had any luck with any other Windows 8 specific gestures though. Use at your
