Got the kinks worked out on the Mobile feed. The post links are now working. You can now browse the last 5 blog posts on your mobile phone.
Just point your mobile browser to:
http://www.redheadedlefty.com/mobile.php (and remember to link hehe)
Yes, I know there are tons of people out there that want to do this (sarcastic), but now that I got a new cell phone with web access, I figured I could mess around with some toys and see if I can get this site to work on a cell phone.
Been trying to get this site compatible with WAP, that the phones use in order to display web sites on mobile phones. As of now, you can get the last 5 blog posts titles listed when you go to this site, but once you try to click on one of them to read the post, there is some problem. So that might give me something to do in the next couple of days in order to try to figure out what is going on.
Want to test it?
Point your mobile phone to:
http://www.redheadedlefty.com/mobile.php
Been working on a simple app to transfer images from USB-connected digital cameras, that I am naming “DigiCamCopy” right now (although if you have a better name, please suggest by clicking “Contact” in the nav links). Its a wizard-style prog, and you should have the ability to copy, resize, and convert the pictures to other filetypes as well in one shot. So in a few clicks you can have the original picture, a nice web-size photo, as well as thumbnails with only having to check a few extra boxes. Want to convert it to a GIF, BMP, JPG, or PNG file as well? Just a few extra button clicks. Look for it in the next couple of weeks. A rough version is complete, but have to add all the finishing touches (graphics, look, flow, etc) that usually take the longest to work out.
In case you didn’t know, the two most-used internet browsers have came out with new versions: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0. IE7 is sporting tabbed browsing to try to compete with Firefox, and sports a more slimmed down look, and FireFox has a slightly cleaner looking appearance. Appearances aren’t everything, of course, and the new versions of both have new features and improvements happening in the background that you don’t notice right away, and I don’t want to make this a comparison post ;). I downloaded and installed both, and they appear to be working ok, although be it with a couple of crashes on both sides. Overall, they are both pretty good at first glance, and if you have some time, check them out.
Been a while since the Ags were in the Top 25, but following their win last Saturday over undefeated Missouri, they were able to break back in. They are 6-1, with their only loss being to Texas Tech (by an much hated last second touchdown pass at the end of the game that is still making College Station peeps sick) . They are #23 in AP and #25 in USA Today. Of course, being in the Big 12, who knows how the rest of the season will end up, usually the ags decide to not play the rest of the season once they reach their 6th win. But for now, at least theres something to talk about :)
P.S. The Houston Cougars lost the last three games… went from 4-0 and looking to be ranked to being 4-3…. :( I knew it was too good to be true…
What a crappy weekend. I didnt update this until now because I didn’t feel like reliving those events….
UofH lost to Miami by 1… 14-13…
Aggies lost by a long touchdown pass at the end of the game with only 20 or so seconds to go….
Thats all :(
Well, college football is here, in case you haven’t noticed it, and 4 weeks have passed, and I must say, it started off pretty good. First of all, Notre Dame loses to Michigan, so the announcers don’t have to praise them so much anymore (national champion hopes? puh leeze), and Texas loses to Ohio State (how did they have them ranked so high with a freshman QB??).
Two things that are pretty rare, that I am loving, is the fact that both of my college teams are undefeated! The Aggies are 4-0, and so is the University of Houston! Go Coogs! They had their first win ever over a Big 12 team Saturday, beating Oklahoma State, who was also 3-0 at the time. I can’t remember the last time the coogs started off 4-0, when I was there they would have like 2 and 3 win seasons. Theyre led by Kevin Kolb, who has already broken the school record for passing yards, which says a lot because of the run and shoot offense they used to have back in the day.
Both teams received some votes for the top 25, which is a first for me. Neither has yet to break the top 25, but if either of them can win again, we might see one or both of them jump into it. Houston, in the top 25. I wonder if it’s possible… They play a battered Miami team this week that is 1-2 already, who are hurting for a win, because, well, they are Miami. But, if they are able to beat Miami, that just might be enough to put em in the top 25. The game is televised, and if you want a game to watch, watch this one, especially if you like seeing Miami lose (who doesn’t?). Ain’t nothing like watching Houston’s spread offense and weird formations. Its a nice change, and something you normally don’t get to see on TV because of Houstons past (un)success. So ESPN2… 6PM Eastern… thats what I’m doing…
After months of saying I was wanting to update the program, it is finally done. UnJumble 3.0 uses the newer .NET 2.0 Framework, and the newer version has a more optimized anagram feature, as well as a better overall look and theming. It now boasts an actual compiled help file instead of the nasty looking text file :)
The major change is with anagrams, as stated in previous posts. Anagrams now work 3-4 times faster, as well as maintaining the spacing in between words in the results. There is a progress form which allows you to see the status of the anagram process, as well as the current results, and gives you the option to cancel the process. Once you cancel, you can see the results it had found up to that point in the results box. The minimum length box can now be used to help speed up the anagram process. Before, it was ignored, but now you can specify a higher minimum length in order to ignore the 1,2, or 3 letter small words which make the entire process much longer. In order to process an anagram like you would have in the old program, you simply set the minimum length to 1.
Find the new version in the download links to the right :)
UnJumble 3.0 is going to take a little longer to finish, since I am trying to re-think the anagram algorithm. Even with the 300-400 percent increase in processing already, I think I can make it better with a few changes since 4 times faster than a really long time is still a long time. It will take some time to sort out and implement, but the program is still “in production” so to speak…
Here a few of some newborn lil kitties for ya…. Click on the pic for a larger view…. Ain’t they cute…
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I replied about 4 months ago regarding an update to Unjumble posing several issues that I wanted to fix in a newer version. Well since getting the Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite edition from my MVP award, I began twiddling with it again in order to fix a lot of those issues, and I am here to say that most of them are resolved and a new 3.0 version will be released soon.
One of the major changes of the program is switching from the .NET 1.1 Framework to the 2.0 Framework that Visual Studio 2005 uses. This framework has several improved and streamlined functions that help boost the overall performance of the cpu intensive recursive algorithms that the Anagram function uses. What does this mean? A test of an anagram in the old UnJumble program versus the new one showed an increase in speed of 400 percent! That means something that used to take 1 minute in the old program now only takes 15 seconds. This is also including an updated function that now retains the word spacing in the anagram results, so you can actually read the return values easy instead of trying to decipher the spaces yourself, while retaining the same speed increase.
Once more important improvement is the correct use of threading. While doing a lengthy anagram solver routine, you now have a progress form that updates every second that shows the total number of matches found as well as total passes that the program has done, so there are no form freeze-ups. You can also cancel out of the anagram and have the results that were found already displayed in the results box.
There are further improvements that comes along with using the 2.0 framework, like added support for visual styles, and a better look to the menus, forms, and controls.
One last feature that I am wanting to implement (which is why it is not being released yet) is some sort of Word List editor. I want the user to have the ability to add a list of words to the current list by some sort of import, as well as giving them the option of editing current words, by adding or removing them. So stay tuned in the next week or two to see if its ready :)
As the receiver of the Microsoft MVP award, I was able to snag a free premium MSDN Team Suite software subscription. Well a few days ago I received my first shipment, with a new shipment coming once a month for the next year. In it I received a zipper folder and about 40 DVDs (yes, DVDs, not CDs) of software, betas, and SDK’s. Some of the notables:
So I have lots of toys to play with :)
Yes.. I did… Here it is…
I am the new recipient of the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. I was nominated by a member of VBForums for my VB.NET programming posts, and just received my notification a couple days ago. What does this mean? Means I get some goodies! I get a free Team Suite MSDN Premium subscription (worth around $10,000), as well as 150 bucks to blow at the Microsoft store (available to only Microsoft employees or MVP’s :) ). Even get good discounts on Xbox 360 games and gear hehehe, like first party Microsoft Xbox 360 titles for only 25 bucks instead of 50. So when I get my award package in the mail in a few days, I’m going to have lots of nerdy stuff to play with. Can’t wait!
Yes… the console that has been taking up a lot of my time can actually blog, written all by itself. Don’t believe me? Check it out…
It just started, so check back in another day or two to see what it writes :)
