tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42360985088653138492024-03-06T06:39:29.204+11:00DevGoodiesThis blog serves as a repository of references to useful, neat or just plain cool tools, technologies, info or ideas.
I like creating new products and enhancing existing ones through innovation, with a dash of pizzazz thrown in.
The articles collected here reflect all aspects of technology, from hard-core tech to aesthetics.
You can also check out my music (original compositions) at https://play.google.com/store/music/artist?id=A6qquqenbr767npxmb3wo33itcundamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-84862366174498761062018-01-12T15:32:00.001+11:002018-01-13T18:02:59.527+11:00Install Virtualbox Guest Additions to Kali Linux<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Start the Kali Linux VM.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Edit your official repos list:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">nano /etc/apt/sources.list </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and ensure that the following 2 lines are there</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>deb <a href="http://http.kali.org/kali" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1abc9c; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">http://http.kali.org/kali</a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> kali-rolling main contrib non-free</span></li>
<li>deb-src<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> </span><a href="http://http.kali.org/kali" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1abc9c; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">http://http.kali.org/kali</a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">kali-rolling main contrib non-free</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Save and exit nano.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Open a terminal window and type</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">apt update </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">apt -y dist-upgrade</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">reboot</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />Check your version to ensure it is the latest.</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">uname -a</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Install the X11 guest utilities package, which p<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">rovide closer integration and improve the virtual machine's interactive performance.</span></span><br />
<div>
<ul><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">apt -y install virtualbox-guest-x11</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">reboot</span></li>
</span></span></ul>
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now mount the VirtualBox Guest Additions image, using the "Devices/Install Guest Additions CD image" menu option on the running VM window.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When that is done, open a terminal window and type the following commands (assuming you are logged in as 'root')</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">cd /root/Desktop</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">cp /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run /root/Desktop/</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">chmod 755 VBoxLinuxAdditions.run</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" /></a></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-72203952656452377572017-11-29T11:12:00.002+11:002017-11-29T11:12:21.474+11:00How to move files into different folders while keeping git (TortoiseGit) happy<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
<ul>
<li>Create the folder you want to move the files into.</li>
<li>Select all the files and right-drag them (i.e. drag while pressing the right mouse button) into the relevant folder.</li>
<li>When you release the right-button, a menu will popup offering various copy/move options. <br />One of them is "<b>Git move versioned item(s) here". </b></li>
<li>Select that option and your files will be moved into the selected folder.<br />Git will also be aware that the files did not disappear but were moved.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-61592280243152766872017-05-17T18:11:00.001+10:002017-05-17T18:11:17.495+10:00Selecting a worksheet from within a userform in Excel VBA<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
I came across this problem recently.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
I had a 'Goto to sheet' button in the main sheet of an Excel workbook that contained a large number of sheets.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
Pressing that button caused a userform to popup, showing a list of all the relevant sheets. This is the code behind that button</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> With UserForm1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> .StartUpPosition = 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> .Show vbModeless</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> End With</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
The user would select a sheet from the listbox and press Ok, which would activate the selected sheet, using this code.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Dim s As String</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> s = ListBox1.Value</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Worksheets(s).Activate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Worksheets(s).Range("B1").Activate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Unload Me</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
All appeared to be working well, however, it seems that Excel showed the correct page but, internally, it was pointing to the main sheet.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
(The main sheet had named A14 as 'emailAddr'. </div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
Clicking on A14 in the main sheet would show 'emailAddr' at the address cell, which is the cell above A1 - the one that shows the cell names...)</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
When VBA switched to the selected sheet, if I clicked in A14, it would show 'emailAddr' in the address cell instead of A14.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
If I then manually went the previous sheet and then back to the one I wanted, it'd all be ok.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
When I changed the </div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">.Show </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to </span></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">.Show <b>vbModeless</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">everything worked as it should!</span><br />
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-26809128406249572242016-12-10T18:15:00.003+11:002016-12-10T18:15:47.697+11:00Very useful interactive CSS reference<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I came across this very handy, interactive, <a href="http://cssreference.io/">visual CSS reference guide</a>.<br />
<br />
It describes all CSS properties and shows how they would appear on a page.<br />
<br />
And, while studying the above, you may want to enjoy <a href="https://soundcloud.com/nick-damoulakis">some cool music</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-16296050397767494502016-10-08T21:45:00.001+11:002016-10-09T13:30:31.800+11:00Visual Studio 2015 installation issues ('package did not load ...')<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<b>[updated 9oct2016]</b><br />
<br />
I am using VS2015 Community edition and recently decided to apply some updates that VS suggested, as well as add a few more addins.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
Once the installation finished, I tried to open the solution I had just been working on, only to receive an error from VS about 'Roaming package did not load'.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
I rerun the VS2015 installer and, after a length wait, was told that all was well.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
I run VS and received the same error.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
I then uninstalled VS (which took quite some time) and then re-installed it, only to have the same error appear.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
I tried tricks from the web, like deleting the </div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ComponentModelCache</b> directory, to no effect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nothing I tried worked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I even tried an uninstall with the '-uninstall -force' option, which ended up coming back with an error about 'bad blocks' (can't recall exact message).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All in all, nothing worked.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I then resorted to using the '<a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller">Total Uninstaller</a>' tool from MS which removes all previous versions on VS.</span><br />
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br />
After a reboot, I proceeded with a complete re-install of VS2015.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
It took its good time to do the blasted install and, not surprisingly, it came up with an error at the end, regarding a problem with VC++ runtimes.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<b><i>However</i></b>, It did not say that the install failed, rather that it could not install those runtimes.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
It turns out that something that I installed, installed VC++ redistributable v14.0.24215, whereas VS2015 wants v14.0.24210 (<a href="https://download.microsoft.com/download/d/e/c/dec58546-c2f5-40a7-b38e-4df8d60b9764/vc_redist.x86.exe">32</a> and <a href="https://download.microsoft.com/download/2/c/6/2c675af0-2155-4961-b32e-289d7addfcec/vc_redist.x64.exe">64</a>-bit)</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
For me in any case, removing my (newer!) version of those runtimes, fixed the problem</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
I hope this works for you too.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">[</span><b>update:</b><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Important note: Running TotalUninstaller actually made the re-install work better! It became clear that, prior to running this, there were leftovers from previous VS installations that caused this installation to make incorrect assumptions!]</span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></div>
The steps were:<br />
- Unistall VS2015 via vs_community /uninstall<br />
- run TotalUninstaller (Setup.ForcedUninstall.exe)<br />
- reboot (it is windows after all...)<br />
- run VS2015 installer. It now looks like it should! It does a proper, clear installation.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-46518690415540750812016-06-26T18:04:00.001+10:002017-02-06T21:23:15.728+11:00open source software I use, part 2<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[<b>update 26-jun-2016</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thanks to Audrina W., I have now corrected the link to Smarty</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Note that a lot of what is shown here was relevant in 2010 or so but is now out of date.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">]</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Continuing on from </span><a class="vt-p" href="http://devgoodies.blogspot.com/2008/08/open-source-software-i-use-part-1.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">part 1</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> of this series, here are some more open-source apps I use:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- </span><a class="vt-p" href="http://jquery.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">jQuery</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. I have found this javascript library to be indispensable! It is a simple, non-imposing, yet deceptively powerful library. I will not write why or how it is so good here; there are lots and lots of articles on the web doing just that. I'd strongly suggest you have a look at it, if you do any kind of javascript work. It is not the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">only </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">library out there nor the most all-encompassing but, to me, it is one of the most useful and fun to work with!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Web development:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I will bundle all the tools I use in one and see how it goes! Most of them do not need any explanation (but feel free to tell me otherwise!)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://www.blogger.com/php.net"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">PHP</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Server-side scripting language. </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Reasonably</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> popular. I believe there are a couple of apps written in it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(cough cough! A couple of million apps maybe! I read somewhere that there are approx 50 million web-sites running on PHP!!!)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">btw, if you are a strongly-typed language developer (say, C, C++, C#, C+1, D-1 whatever, Pascal etc), do remember that this is a </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">scripting language! </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It allows you to write apps, large and small, very quickly, with nothing more needed than a text editor.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, it also allows you to create apps that suck and are full of bugs.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Since it has no type-checking nor any compile-time smarts, you are always running the risk of bugs in your source.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A small mis-type of a variable name could bring down a large app, long after you've moved onto greener pastures.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That said, see my point above about 50 million web sites. (Not that more is better!)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://www.smarty.net/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Smarty</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Template engine for PHP. Allows separation of presentation logic from PHP code</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(makes using MVC just that much easier)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://xdebug.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">XDebug</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Debugger for PHP. Works well with Eclipse. Must-have</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Eclipse</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">PDT: The mother of all IDEs. Initially written by IBM, later offer to the OSS community. Thank you Big Blue!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(The PDT version is tailored to PHP development)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">SAJAX</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: This library will help you write ajax-enabled apps; it provides all that is needed to make calls from javascript to PHP and back, passing arguments to and fro.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have found it very useful, however I am now using the jQuery ajax support for most of this work. It is not the same but achieves the same result.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(<b>NOTE: Jul 2010:</b> jQuery provides all that is needed to do AJAX easily, so there is no need for this)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://www.mantisbt.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mantis</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Bug-tracker, written in PHP.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<strike><a class="vt-p" href="http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">XAMPP</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: If you need a LAMPP stack (Linux Apache MySQL PHP Perl) or a WAMPP (Windoze....) then your best shot at a simple, no-hassles installation is via the XAMPP installer.</span></strike><br />
<u><strike><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Download and run it and, presto, your machine has all the </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">essentials</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> for web development.</span></strike></u><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>[update 2015]</b>I now prefer <a href="http://www.wampserver.com/en/">WAMP</a>. One of the great things about it is that it allows you to easily switch between different versions of PHP, Mysql and Apache, all via a menu entry.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a class="vt-p" href="http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">PHPMyAdmin</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: MySQL database administration tool. Simply extract into a web dir onto your LAMPP server, point your browser at it and there you are! You now have a web-based, browser-driven MySql administrator!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://jasperforge.org/jasperreports"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">JasperReports</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: OSS's answer to Crystal Reports.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is just the reporting engine and runs off XML report-definition files. Do not panic, there is a </span><a class="vt-p" href="http://jasperforge.org/plugins/project/project_home.php?group_id=242"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">GUI designer Eclipse plugin</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> for it that makes report design a breeze (</span><a class="vt-p" href="http://jasperforge.org/scm/svndownload.php?hash=3fd837616b2f706602a15f99027be977&ct=text/html&filename=ir_nb_shot01.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">screenshot</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">). There is also a stand-alone GUI for it, called </span><a class="vt-p" href="http://jasperforge.org/plugins/project/project_home.php?group_id=83"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">iReport</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Note: Eclipse also has a reporting tool, called </span><a class="vt-p" href="http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">BIRT</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. I haven't used it a lot, however you should have a look at it too.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And now, for some non-development-related OSS tools:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- </span><a class="vt-p" href="http://keepass.info/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">KeePass</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Password vault. There is also a PocketPC version of it. It has a smart 'find out what form I am in and paste out the correct credentials' way of doing things.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I use it to store all my passwords. Before I leave work, I export the password to KeePass's native format, upload it to gmail, go home and download from gmail. I then get KeePass to import it and update existing keys and add new ones. I then export the merged results, upload to gmail, go to work, download from gmail and repeat all over again.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a class="vt-p" href="http://www.blogger.com/www.webmin.com"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Webmin</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: A web-based, browser-driven Linux management tool. Allows you to manage almost everything on your Linux box from just a browser. You can start/stop jobs, administer users, administer server apps (such as Apache, MySql, ProFTPD, Samba etc etc).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It pretty much does everything. All you need to do is extract the webmin source (PHP) files onto your web server, point your browser to https://myserver:10000 and you are in control!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you do end up using any of the above, let their authors know; they'd appreciate acknowledgement.<br />
</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">more later...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome! </span></span>ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-83595326827455531282016-05-11T10:25:00.000+10:002016-05-11T10:25:04.194+10:00Uninstall remnants of Visual Studio 13 and above<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Microsoft has created a utility that is run from the command line (administrator level needed), which cleans up any leftover files or registry keys that may be left over after a failed un-install.<br />
<br />
This can come handy when a VS uninstall fails. If you try to install VS again, you may find that it detects the partial, previous installation and misbehaves.<br />
In my case, it kept insisting that the installation dir was on the D: drive and would not let me change it.<br />
<br />
<br />
You can find it <a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller/releases" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-11733256459826194592016-02-02T11:38:00.000+11:002016-02-02T11:38:03.380+11:00I've published my first music album<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span class="commentary" id="control_gen_28" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">All work and no play... </span><br />
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Well, I decided to have a little fun (while still working) and published an album of my music! </span><br />
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally! </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">They are all composed and played by me (I play electric guitar; all the rest are via MIDI) </span><br />
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There are many more tunes in the pipeline; alas, it takes quite a while to finalise a tune. </span><br />
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hopefully, more will be out in the next 6 months. </span><br />
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Check it out on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/music/artist?id=A6qquqenbr767npxmb3wo33itcu" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Play</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">, </span><a href="https://soundcloud.com/nick-damoulakis" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SoundCloud</a><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">and </span><a href="https://nickandtheband.bandcamp.com/releases" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">BandCamp</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Enjoy!</span><br />
<span class="commentary" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-17151893020907751962015-12-17T09:48:00.000+11:002019-02-06T08:58:58.204+11:00Make Logitech keyboard media keys work with AIMP and Google Play Music<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If your <span style="background-color: white; color: #24292e;">Logitech keyboard media keys are not working, it is probably because </span>Logitech's Setpoint software does not support your media player.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have an <strike>MK300</strike> MK520R keyboard and when I press the volume up/down, mute and pause keys, all is well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, when I press the prev/next keys, nothing happens.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is a solution that works with my keyboard and Setpoint</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Find the file <b>players.ini</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(in my case, it is in: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPointP</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Open it with an editor and add the 2 lines I've highlighted</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(please note that due to line-wrap, things look a little messy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have used <CRLF> in places where the line needs to break.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Any line breaks anywhere else are actually just word-wraps)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">#List of supported players<CRLF></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">#{btn|key|msg|emg|cmd|wac},exeName, wndClass,wndCaption,xxx,play_delayplay,pause,stop,prev,next,remove_flags,ShowOSD,menu_item<CRLF></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">#special char --> ^ ctrl;+ shift+ctrl; $ ctrl (no translation); * alt (no translation); @ ctrl+alt (no tanslation); & (no translation) <CRLF></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><CRLF></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">[Players]<CRLF></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b style="background-color: #fff2cc;">AIMP3=cmd,AIMP3.exe,Winamp v1.x,xxx,xxx,40045,40046,40047,40044,40048,0,1,WinAmp 5</b><CRLF></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b style="background-color: #fff2cc;">AIMP2=cmd,AIMP2.exe,Winamp v1.x,xxx,xxx,40045,40046,40047,40044,40048,0,1,WinAmp 5</b><CRLF></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">MusicMatch7=wac,MMJB.EXE,MMJB:MAINWND,xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx,0,1,MusicMatch<CRLF></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">[</span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">EDIT 3 may 2017</b><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">]</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Modified to suit Google Play Music</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the players.ini file, add the following to the corresponding sections</span></div>
<div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">[Players]
GooglePlayMusic=key,chrome.exe,Chrome_WidgetWin_1,xxx,xxx,&0xB3,&0xB3,&0xB2,&0xB1,&0xB0,0,1,Google Play Music </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">[Players.Run]
GooglePlayMusic=path,%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Web Applications\_crx_icppfcnhkcmnfdhfhphakoifcfokfdhg\Google Play Music.ico </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Players.Display] </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">GooglePlayMusic=Google Play Music</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You then need to kill the SetPoint process and re-start it, for the changes to take effect.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">[</span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">EDIT 5 feb 2019</b><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">[Players]</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">AIMP3=cmd,AIMP3.exe,Winamp v1.x,xxx,xxx,40045,40046,40047,40044,40048,0,1,WinAmp 5 </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">AIMP2=cmd,AIMP2.exe,Winamp v1.x,xxx,xxx,40045,40046,40047,40044,40048,0,1,WinAmp 5 </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">AIMP4=cmd,AIMP.exe,Winamp v1.x,xxx,xxx,40045,40046,40047,40044,40048,0,1,WinAmp 5 </span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">[Players.Display]<br />AIMP=AIMP<br />AIMP2=AIMP2<br />AIMP3=AIMP3<br /><br /><br />[Players.Seek]<br />AIMP=cmd,40060,xxx,1,1<br />AIMP2=cmd,40060,xxx,1,1<br />AIMP3=cmd,40060,xxx,1,1<br /><br />[Players.Rewind]<br />AIMP=cmd,40061,xxx,1,1<br />AIMP2=cmd,40061,xxx,1,1<br />AIMP3=cmd,40061,xxx,1,1<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Remember to restart Setpoint after you made your changes to the INI file.</span></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com57tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-84075206596558101272015-01-16T03:25:00.000+11:002015-01-16T03:25:04.836+11:00Playing my music from my NAS to a Raspberry Pi player ... and beyond<div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
[work in progress]</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Due to audio issues with Win7 and 8, I had to move my music playback off the PC and onto a Raspberry Pi.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Here is a brief description of what I have:</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<b><u>Raspberry Pi</u></b> </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I use a Model B+ (Model B also works perfectly) with MPD.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
MPD is configured to output sound to the HDMI output, as well as stream it over HTTP. That way, I can also listen to my music from any of the connected devices (such as tablets, phones etc)</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<b><u>USB sound card</u></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
The Pi has 2 music outputs:</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
a) 3.5mm analog audio jack. This works ok but the sound is not of high quality.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
b) HDMI. Digital output. This is a much better option</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
c) USB. Digital output. This requires an additional USB sound card that plugs into one of the Pi's USB ports. The quality is very good. (Audiophiles with a golden ear will probably disagree.)</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I use option C, with one of </span><a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-Virtual-7-1-Channel-Audio-Sound-Card-Adapter-for-MacOS-Vista-Linux-/131191591860?pt=US_Sound_Card_External&hash=item1e8ba0d3b4" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">these</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> USB 2.0 Virtual 7.1 Channel Audio Sound Card Adapters.</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<b><u>NAS</u></b> </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
All my music is stored on a NAS, so it can be accessed from anywhere by anyone of my players (currently, just the one)</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<b><u>Cantana</u></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
This is the software that I use on the PC to play music. The software runs on the PC; the sound comes out of the USB sound card (connected to the Pi) and is fed to my amplifier/speakers.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<b><u>MPDroid</u></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I use this MPD client on my phone, so I can also choose what to hear, without needing to fire up the PC.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Additionally, if MPDroid detects an incoming or outgoing phone call, it pauses the music and resumes it once the call is finished. Very nice!</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
If you need more info on how this is all set up, leave me a comment.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Blatant plug! See <a href="http://blog.nickdamoulakis.com/2014/12/ive-published-my-first-music-album.html" target="_blank">my article about my album on Google Play</a>.]</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-91311635753396805402015-01-16T03:24:00.001+11:002015-01-16T03:24:48.587+11:00I can't update Android apps installed on the sd card anymore<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Connect your device to your PC (you may need to have the USB drivers that came with your phone installed)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've recently started having a problem with updating my Android apps.<br />
<br />
If they were located on the SD card then the update would fail after it was downloaded.<br />
<br />
After searching around for quite a bit, the following did the trick:<br />
</span><br />
<div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Connect your phone to your PC</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the connection is detected by the phone, it may ask you if you wish to switch to USB storage. Say yes.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From your PC, go to the phone's drive (that should have just appeared in Explorer) and navigate to <b>/sdcard/.android_secure/</b>. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Find the file called <b>smdl2tmp1.asec</b> and delete it</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Disconnect the phone</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Done!!</span></li>
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>[UPDATE 1dec2014]</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A number of people have commented that they can no longer find the file </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">smdl2tmp1.asec.</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have been told by others (<i>but have not tested myself</i>, as I don't have the problem) that another option is to connect the phone to a PC and use Windows Explorer to look at the SD card and try to find that file.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am afraid I don't have any other suggestions :-(</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Blatant plug! See <a href="http://blog.nickdamoulakis.com/2014/12/ive-published-my-first-music-album.html" target="_blank">my article about my album on Google Play</a>.]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!</span></div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-13142075345631695032014-08-12T22:57:00.000+10:002014-12-01T11:10:38.178+11:00Saffire Pro 26, Firewire, Windows DPC latency<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
For the last 6 or so months, I've had a big problem with crackles and pops when playing or recording music, due to DPC latency issues.<br />
<br />
When I ran DPC Latency checker v1.3, it would show sudden red spikes every time there was heavy network traffic. Sometimes, just refreshing Chrome would do it.<br />
<br />
This was not only happening within Reaper, while recording but also when playing back MP3 files via AIMP.<br />
<br />
Extensive searches through the web failed to find anything that would work for me. The best I could do, was reboot the PC and the start recording.<br />
Once the PC had been up for a while (especially if it had been put in 'Sleep' mode and then woken up), the crackles would come back.<br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
At the time, I was running Win7-64 and used USB3 for all external devices.</div>
<br />
So, in order to overcome this I decided to move the sound generation to external hardware and I bought a Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 for recording my music.<br />
<br />
This provides me with A/D conversion from my guitar --> PC, as well as D/A when playing back music from the PC.<br />
<br />
In addition to that, I get to use some of the best pre-amps around.<br />
<br />
Alas, it would seem that USB3 does not provide <i>sustained</i> high throughput, so most audio equipment manufacturers (including Focusrite) use Firewire.<br />
<br />
Given that I was going to move to Win8 at some point, I wanted to make sure the card I bought worked well with Win8.<br />
(It appears that MicroSchmuck saw it fit to stop supporting Firewire in Win8 and only a few chipsets actually work with it).<br />
<br />
I ended up taking a chance and buying a generic Firewire card from CPL in Notting Hill, Victoria.<br />
<br />
<img height="400" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Z3lcMhrYYt4/U-SlDHVFUbI/AAAAAAAAsLk/3-eFvTxAoEQ/w884-h1178-no/20140808_201840-EFFECTS.jpg" width="300" /><br />
<br />
<br />
Against all odds, it worked perfectly well in Win7-64.<br />
A few days later, I moved to Win8.1 and that card still works fine!<br />
<br />
Additionally, the DPC latency seems to now hover around 1-3 ms, no matter what I do with the network!<br />
I was copying 220GB over the network without any problem.<br />
<br />
I hope this helps others struggling with DPC issues while recording/playing back music.<br />
<br />
<b>[UPDATE 16aug2014]</b><br />
Hmmm, it would seem that VirtualBox can sometimes mess with DPC latency...<br />
It is quite amazing running an i7 CPU and yet still struggle with performance at this level.<br />
Something tells me Billy-Boy's creation is at fault.<br />
If only Reaper and the VSTs I use were available under Linux!<br />
<br />
<b>[UPDATE 13oct2014]</b><br />
So, even though I now run an i7-4790 CPU @3.6GHz, I still (sometimes) get atrocious clicks and buzzes when generating music from the PC itself.<br />
<br />
<br />
See my article on how I moved my music playing off the PC and onto a Raspberry Pi.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-26099260082955396572014-07-19T21:10:00.000+10:002014-07-19T21:10:02.427+10:00Laravel, Composer, WAMP/PHP 'missing open_ssl' fix<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;">If you are trying to install Laravel and are encountering the '</span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;">The openssl extension is missing' </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;">error with the Composer installer, here is a fix:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WAMP maintains a different php.ini for the Apache dir and the PHP dir.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;">The WAMP control panel maintains the PHP.INI in the apache dir </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;">(for example </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;">C:\wamp2.4\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\php.ini)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is also another PHP.INI, using by the command-line PHP, in the PHP directory </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(for example C:\wamp2.4\bin\php\php5.4.16\php.ini)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Edit the PHP.INI file in the PHP dir and uncomment the following line</span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>extension=php_openssl.dll</b></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;">Done!</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.8048000335693px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-6431324081067231142013-10-15T20:26:00.001+11:002015-09-29T12:18:49.941+10:00Compile LESS CSS files and compress/minify CSS and JS files using node.js<div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Here is what you need to do, in order to</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
- compile your LESS files into CSS whenever they are changed and also compress those CSS files into .min.css <b>(*1)</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
- compress your JS files into .min.js whenever they are changed</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
The 2 scripts described here will automatically perform the above actions upon invocation and will then also set up a file-watcher on the specified directory.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
But first:</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
- Download and install node.js from <a href="http://nodejs.org/" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
- Download and install uglifyjs from <a href="https://npmjs.org/package/uglify-js" target="_blank">here</a>, using</div>
<pre style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); color: #333333; font-family: Consolas, 'Liberation Mono', Courier, monospace; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; overflow: auto; padding: 6px 10px;"><code style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: none; font-family: Consolas, 'Liberation Mono', Courier, monospace; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: normal;">npm install uglify-js --global</code></pre>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
- Download and install LESS compiler from <a href="https://github.com/jonycheung/Dead-Simple-LESS-Watch-Compiler" target="_blank">here</a>, using</div>
<pre style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); color: #333333; font-family: Consolas, 'Liberation Mono', Courier, monospace; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; overflow: auto; padding: 6px 10px;"><code style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: none; font-family: Consolas, 'Liberation Mono', Courier, monospace; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: normal;">npm install less --global</code></pre>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<div>
Download <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwj1oaISHdfVQVFYWTFTZ2cxUms/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">this RAR file</a>, which contains all the script files that I have modified, so all you need to do is adjust the contained sample batch file and off you go.<br />
<div>
<br />
<br />
These scripts allow you to specify a source and a target directory.<br />
For LESS/CSS, the LESS file is compiled into CSS in the same directory.<br />
The CSS is then compressed into the target directory.<br />
<br />
For JS, the js file is compressed into the target directory.<br />
<br />
When you run the batch file, it will scan and process all matching files and then it will stay in the background, monitoring the source directory.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many thanks to the guys that have created all of the above tools.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The original idea for this was from Jonathan Cheung's code <a href="https://github.com/jonycheung/Dead-Simple-LESS-Watch-Compiler">here</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Blatant plug! See </span><a href="http://blog.nickdamoulakis.com/2014/12/ive-published-my-first-music-album.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">my article about my album on Google Play</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author"><img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-19500227665857242502013-09-01T14:09:00.000+10:002013-09-01T14:09:14.219+10:00Freepascal/Lazarus decimal rounding vs Excel rounding<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
I found this <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10965759/how-to-get-delphi-currency-type-to-round-like-excel-all-the-time">thread </a>quite useful, regarding decimal rounding in freepascal/Lazarus.<br />
<br />
This <a href="http://rvelthuis.de/programs/decimals.html">article </a>also describes a unit somebody has written that handles decimal values more accurately (and also more like .net does (much as it hurts me to say this!))<br />
<br />
</div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-20844000791863820872013-08-11T22:52:00.000+10:002013-08-11T22:52:08.135+10:00How to achieve shift-click (contiguous) select on a Lazarus TDBGrid<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
Please follow this link to my <a href="http://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,21758.0.html">post</a> in the Lazarus forum<br />
</div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-54058186733890301532013-07-18T13:16:00.002+10:002013-07-18T13:16:48.813+10:00FortesReports: Misc info<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
This post will accumulate info on FortesReports, the reporting tool used in Lazarus/FreePascal.<br />
<br />
Once enough info has been collected and cleaned up, it will be passed on to the Lazarus group.<br />
------------------------<br />
<br />
- Grouping and ORDER BY<br />
Groups in a report do not force a sort by that field.<br />
If you have a SELECT f1, f2 FROM dooda ORDER BY f2<br />
and create a report which groups by f1, you will end with multiple breaks, as f1 changes values while moving through the recordset.<br />
To avoid that, you will need to SELECT f1, f2 FROM dooda ORDER BY<b style="background-color: yellow;"> f1, </b>f2<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-62112907882769969332013-05-25T01:14:00.000+10:002015-09-29T12:18:04.125+10:00FreePascal/Lazarus: How to use lookup combo in DBGrid<div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I recently worked on a project where I used FreePascal in order to create an app that consisted of a single EXE and which did not need to be installed (portable app).<br />
<br />
I had some difficulty in getting a lookup column in the grid and, after lots of searches pointing to convoluted solutions, I came across the following 2 pages, which gave me the info I needed to solve the problem.</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/XE3/en/Defining_a_Lookup_List_Column">Defining a Lookup List Column</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/XE3/en/Defining_a_Lookup_Field">Defining a lookup field</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a nutshell, you need to create a lookup field in the TSqlQuery (or whatever query type you use).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You then add a new field in the grid control and link it to the lookup field you created in the query.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Using this method means that you <b>must</b> specify the UPDATE and INSERT SQL (just in case you used to rely on what FreePascal/Delphi generated).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
For example, in this case, the CrewMembers table contains a CrewID but not the CrewName.<br />
<br />
A lookup field is created in the CrewMembers query, as show below<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uWgk0f2D4pU/UZ-BeSpsjJI/AAAAAAAAEJ8/7mogZfgQMNo/s1600/Image+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uWgk0f2D4pU/UZ-BeSpsjJI/AAAAAAAAEJ8/7mogZfgQMNo/s1600/Image+1.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4hdeOYjnoHE/UZ-BeQrVHbI/AAAAAAAAEKA/EKV3At1txjo/s1600/Image+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4hdeOYjnoHE/UZ-BeQrVHbI/AAAAAAAAEKA/EKV3At1txjo/s640/Image+2.png" width="332" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I want to show the CrewName from the Crew table when I am editing the CrewMembers table.<br />
The CrewMembers table contains only the CrewID, not the name.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
LookupDataSet= A Dataset that loads data from the Crew table<br />
LookupKeyField= The name of the key field in the Crew table that I will link to via my CrewID<br />
keyFields=The name of the key field in my table/grid (in this case, CrewID)</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
This is a just a quick overview. Leave a comment if you'd like more info.<br />
<br />
[Blatant plug! See <a href="http://blog.nickdamoulakis.com/2014/12/ive-published-my-first-music-album.html" target="_blank">my article about my album on Google Play</a>.]<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-16110087868793720662013-03-21T15:04:00.002+11:002013-03-21T15:04:48.624+11:00Extensive comparison of rss/news readers<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I recently found this <a href="http://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/google-reader-replacement-alternative-flipboard-vs-pulse-vs-google-currents-vs-feedly" target="_blank">page</a>, containing a large number of rss/news readers and a features table comparison.<br />
<br />
Now that Google Reader has been shot in the head, this page may just help you find a replacement.<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-66020071409939529702013-01-20T16:41:00.003+11:002013-01-20T16:41:46.943+11:00Win7 window-title double click does not maximise...<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Somehow, I found myself double-clicking on the top border of a window in Win7 and...nothing happened.<br />
I had rather hoped that the window would maximise vertically, as it had countless times before.<br />
<br />
I blamed it on the extreme heat we've been having here in Melbourne (no, not the one in the US, I mean the real one), so I put up with it for a week or two.<br />
<br />
<br />
Eventually my nerves couldn't take it any more, so I found this fix:<br />
(This fix should also work in Vista. The best fix though is to ditch Vista, kick yourself for ever installing it on your computer and stay with Win7-64.<br />
Also, <b>there is no need to pay more money to Microsnuff. </b><br />
<b>No, you don't <i>need</i> Win8!</b>)<br />
<br />
- Open Control Panel.<br />
- Click on 'Ease of Access'<br />
- Click on 'Make the Mouse easier to use' <br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(be warned, the computer will start talking to you. Don't worry, its just subliminal messages from Steve Balmer trying to make you:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> - Buy Win8</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> - Switch from Google to Bing (Bing what???I hear you say)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> - repeat above 2 steps forever)</span><br />
<br />
- Make sure the 'Prevent windows from being automatically arranged...' checkbox is *not* checked<br />
- Done!<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-33029359627002326822012-12-18T15:29:00.001+11:002012-12-18T15:30:42.797+11:00How to cater for Internet Exploder...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found (yet another) a very <a href="http://css.dzone.com/articles/when-ignoring-ie-isnt-option?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zones%2Fcss+%28CSS+Zone%29" target="_blank">handy article</a> that will be of help to anyone that has to support Internet Exploder.</span><br />
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" /></span></a><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!</span></div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-61077278353772880742012-11-04T23:33:00.004+11:002012-11-04T23:33:52.077+11:00List of JS/CSS loaders<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Here is a handy <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aqln2akPWiMIdERkY3J2OXdOUVJDTkNSQ2ZsV3hoWVE#gid=2" target="_blank">feature-comparison list of JS/CSS loaders</a> that helped me<br />
when I was searching for just such a loader.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-55547700930250315972012-09-19T12:10:00.000+10:002013-04-19T08:42:46.860+10:00PHP, LESS CSS and css/js minify<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">UPDATE: Link and source updated on 19-apr-2013. See bottom of page</span></b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lesscss.org/" target="_blank">LESS CSS</a> is a pre-processor for CSS that provides lots of added functionality to plain ol' CSS. For more info visit the <a href="http://lesscss.org/" target="_blank">LESS website</a>.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a brief description of what it does:</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LESS extends CSS with dynamic behavior such as <span style="color: #7a2e1f;">variables</span>, <span style="color: #7a2e1f;">mixins</span>, <span style="color: #7a2e1f;">operations</span> and <span style="color: #7a2e1f;">functions</span>. LESS runs on both the <span style="color: #7a2e1f;">client-side</span> (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) and server-side, with <span style="color: #7a2e1f;">Node.js</span> and <span style="color: #7a2e1f;">Rhino</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is also a <a href="http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/34929/scss-support" target="_blank">LESS plugin</a> for Netbeans.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">CSS and JS minify is the process of compacting CSS and JS files, in order to speed up page loads.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While there are lots of different ways of minifying CSS and JS files, I needed one that was simple to use and that was available on my dev PC.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have combined a number of tools and have come up with the following solution that:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">compiles LESS files into CSS, if the LESS files are newer than the corresponding CSS. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">minifies the CSS files into .min.css if the CSS files are newer than the .min.css files.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">minifies the JS files into .min.js if the JS files are newer than the .min.js files</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The above is achieved by simply visiting a page on the local development PC. Every time the page is visited it executes all of the above.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For PHP projects, the dir structure could be as follows:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- <project root></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- - styles</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- - scripts</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- - LESS</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- - etc</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A LESS.INI file specifies which directories to process for JS and whcich for LESS and CSS.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The LESS directory contains the </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">compile.php</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">lessc.inc.php</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">cssmin-v3.0.1.php, </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Minifier.php</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LESS.ini</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> files. See download links inside the compile.php sourcef file.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Compile.php</b> is the one that does all the work.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While developing an app, I have a browser window open that points to</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><project root>/LESS/compile.php.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whenever I refresh it, all of the above actions are executed.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Magic!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwj1oaISHdfVWU9VT2hTNUN2djg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">link </a>to the complete source of the version that I use.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Updates</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></u></b></span>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Link and source updated on 19apr2013:</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It also checks inside LESS files for </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">@import statements and uses that to determine if the main LESS file needs to be recompiled.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- The LESS compiler emits more info in error messages</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!</span></div>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-79989142395562012922012-08-30T16:09:00.000+10:002012-08-30T16:11:07.910+10:00How to use PostgreSQL with WAMP server<div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Assuming you have installed PostgreSQL and your WAMP installation is on c:\wamp, you will need to copy</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<strong style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">c:\wamp\bin\php\php5.3.9\</strong><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">libpq.dll to c:\w</strong><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">amp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\bin</strong></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 20.766666412353516px;">Make sure you also have the following files</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.3.9\ext\php_pdo_pgsql.dll and</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.3.9\ext\php_pgsql.dll</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Also, make sure you have enabled the above 2 files as extensions, either via the WAMP menu (click on WAMP icon on taskbar, PHP, PHPExtensions, find the above 2 and 'check' them)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Please note that </span><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">php5.3.9</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"> and </span><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Apache2.2.11</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"> refer to my specific PHP and Apache versions.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Adjust those to suit your installation. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">That's it!</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
</span>
</div>
ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4236098508865313849.post-73337827442194590952012-08-09T19:10:00.001+10:002012-08-09T19:10:55.156+10:00Save any web page as PDF, without plugins... in Chrome<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
(I have only tested this in Chrome)<br />
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When viewing the page you want to save as PDF, simply press Ctrl-P and, from the printer list (Destination) select 'Save as PDF'.<br />
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That's it!<br />
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/117555575917154188778/posts" rel="author">
<img height="32" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-32.png" width="32" />
</a>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">
ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!
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</div>ndamoulakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286406043314178820noreply@blogger.com0