touch base

I've been reading Microsoft's Code Complete in recent weeks. I highly recommend it for those of you, who like myself are mostly self taught. Yes we may be trying to b rockstar programmers but, we can't plan or organize a project to save our lives.

With that being said i've got a couple of old projects and a few new ones in the pipeline. As usual most are open source. As the term winds down and the amount of time i have to spend grows larger i hope to release a few.

Also as usual for the summer, i'm looking for work for the summer so if you run a start up and your looking for a half decent programmer in and around greater london and the south west, drop me a line.

Coming to Alderaan

My favourite Youtube video of the year, enjoy

Introducing JGrid 0.01: Simple inline Table Editing

Introducing Jgrid.

Basically i got fed up of the sheer amount of configuring that was required by most inline data grid editing systems. And because programmers are lazy, and big headed, i wrote my own.

Currently it's very rough around the edges, and i would imagine it's got a few bugs. Not to mention all the console/debuging code still in place. But i am releasing more for feedback purposes.

I'm always looking to improve my development practices, so please tell me what you think.

Jgrid was built on top of jquery, and is a jquery plugin. I've built it using jquery 1.2.3, which is included in the release package below. A Documentation document (PDF/ODF) is also included as well as a basic html page, which draws data from a database, [HINT: it will break when you run it on your machine!], i plan to update in version 0.02 when i have more than a single callback.

Enjoy.



Download

Memories ... of Lego Aircraft Carriers

Over at Gizmondo, they are showing some of the best lego sets in history.

I'm quite proud to say, that they in fact have two of my favorites.




I spent may a good day, in PJ's playing with them in my grandma spare room in jamaica. She had a kingsize bed, which i used as underground airport, and the wardrobe that was the super secret submarine base. Not to mention the drawers with where the hills surrounding the valley, which had my custom built lego aircraft carrier, which could store a helicopter, a VSTOL aircraft, and a hovercraft, all technic size i might add! It also had two escape canoes, as well as an armory, and control tower, SAM launcher and ....

Ok, i remember it a little too vividly considering it's been 6 years since i last saw it, and a few more since i last really played with it. But it was a lot of fun, and my favorite toy of my childhood. Oh, and to add it could also carry my weight on the carriers deck, thanks to a well placed supporting beam that ran across the ship and tied the hull walls together! It was 2 feet long, and foot wide, and half a foot high.

Enough carrier talk for one night don't you think!

Quote of the Day

"I Guess to you Starbucks is like Dr. Phil"

Some people seek solace at Starbucks

The gift that just keeps on giving

After my 14 hour stint yesterday, i'm back on the trail.

Today i've cooked up a Javascript shopping cart. In true fashion it's all OO, and shiny. However very unlike me, it's JS library agnostic! Yes, thats right, i wrote by very own 'getElementById' staements!. I've only provided methods for adding, removing, and getting the price of all the objects. There is also a method for updating a ordered or unordered list, with the items stored in the object.

Javascript (No Library required!)

//Basket Object
//Library agnostic
var BasketObj = function(){
this.items = new Array();
this.bindToElementId = null

//Add an object to the basket
this.addItem = function( pObj ){
retVal = false;
if( pObj.name.length > 1 ){
this.items.push( pObj );
console.log('Object added to basket');
retVal = true;
}
else{
console.log('Not a valid object');
}

return retVal;
}
//Remove the first matching item from the basket and return it
this.removeItem = function( pItemName ){
var retVal = null;

for(i=0; i < this.items.length; i++){

if( this.items[i].name == pItemName ){

console.log('Object removed from basket')
// reference the obj
retVal = this.items[i];
//dereference it
this.items[i] = null;
//exit the loop
break;
}

}

return retVal;
}

//Calculate the total basket value
this.total = function(){
var retVal = 0.00;

for(i=0; i < this.items.length; i++){
retVal += this.items[i].price;
}

return retVal;
}

//Updates the gui display of the object
this.updateDisplay = function(){
if( this.bindToElementId != null ){
//Empty the element first
document.getElementById( this.bindToElementId ).innerHTML = '';

//Sort the array before we print
//this.items.sort();

//Now proceed to fill it
for(i=0; i < this.items.length; i++){
document.getElementById( this.bindToElementId ).innerHTML += '<li>' + this.items[i].name + '</li>';
}
}
}
}


To use it, you must first create the object,


x = new BasketObj();


Once thats done you can set it up, the only thing that you really need to set, is the id name of the object you wish to have the results shown in. This is store in a variable called bindToElementId.

x.bindToElementId = 'basketList';


Now you can add your objects to it. Your objects can be as complex as you want, however they must have the following properties,
name: This is the display name for the object, and the name that will be used for internal lookups
price: This is the value that will be added to create your total,

You use the addItem() to add items to the object, and the removeItem( nameOfObject ) to remove items.

To update your list with the current objects you call updateDisplay. And to get the total value of all the objects you can call total().

One other thing to mention, is that i use console.log statements, so be aware of those, and also i check for the name attribute before adding objects to the internal array, so don't try and add them, and prototype the method to your object later on.

Anyways, this object features in my DFTI coursework, which i've been streaming though over this past weekend, i've now implemented the Drag and drop shopping and it looks a little something like this...



I still have to do the admin page, and stock control logic, however imagine this could be done in a day or so.

When it rains it php's

Ever wanted to convert a camel case string into something more user friendly?

Introducing the super dupa know it all function, should be good for PHP 4+

PHP

/*
Make a camel case string user friendly ^_^
*/
function implodeCamelCase( $pStr, $delimiter = ' '){

$strArr = str_split($pStr);
$retArr = array();

foreach( $strArr as $val ){

if( ord($val) <= 90 ){
array_push($retArr, ' ');
}

//add to return array
array_push($retArr, $val);
}

//explictly destroy array
$strArr = null;

return mb_convert_case(implode('',$retArr),MB_CASE_TITLE);
}


It's a bit rough around the edges, anything thats not a lower case character or anything else with a decimal ascii number over 90, will have a space inserted before it, of course thats easy enough to tweak.

Json Encoding

For a enterprising young developer like myself, i don't take advantage of json enough. So since i'm in the mix at the moment, with my DFTI course work, i thought now would be a good time.

Unfortunately the json_encode() function that i had seen in the PHP documentation, is only in the CVS distributions at the moment (v 5.1.2), so i came up with the below.

PHP

/*
This function converts an array to a Json string.
*/
function jsonEncode( $pArr ){
$arr = Array('{');

foreach( $pArr as $val ){

if( is_numeric( $val) ){
array_push($arr, $val );
}else{
array_push($arr, '"');
array_push($arr, $val);
array_push($arr, '"');
}
array_push($arr,',');
}
//Remove trailing comma
array_pop($arr);

return implode('',$arr);
}

/*
This function converts an associative array to a Json string.
*/
function jsonEncodeAssoc( $pArr ){
$arr = Array('{');

foreach( $pArr as $key => $val){
array_push($arr, '"');
array_push($arr, $key);
array_push($arr, '"');
array_push($arr, ':');

if( is_numeric( $val ) ){
array_push($arr, $val);
}
else{
array_push($arr, '"');
array_push($arr, $val);
array_push($arr, '"');
}

array_push($arr, ',');
}

//Remove trailing comma
array_pop($arr);

array_push($arr,'}');

return implode('',$arr);
}


Both functions take either a regular array, or a Associative and converts it to a json string, which looks like ...


{"id":1,"name":"Ham And Pineapple","description":"<p>Fusce magna sem, gravida in, feugiat ac, molestie eget, wisi.</p>","categoryId":1,"hasNuts":0,"vegetarians":0,"imagePath":"ham-and-pineapple.gif","price":4.95}



The above is just some data from my database. It's a pizza ordering system. I plan to go all ajaxan with a Drag and drop shopping cart, as well as some other shiny stuff.

I haven't a clue what i'm going to do concerning javascript, i'm looking at mootools, mochikit, and of course jquery and maybe even yahoo ui. Might be a last minute thing.

My Broadband got upgraded!

Or at least so it would appear

Happy posting :), and don't write anything too stupid!

I don't know about you, but this is the fastest torrent speed i've witnessed, ever. Speedtest.net put the connection speed at 6mb!

Happy New year, have a server for 08

Happy 2008.

I'm in the middle of finishing up my Object Orientated Application Assignment, and i ran across this piece of code in my repository.


import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;

public class ServerInstance {

private Socket Connection;
private BufferedOutputStream Outbound;
private InputStream Inbound;
private HTTPData RawHttpData;

private int listeningPort;

//ClassFlags
private boolean connectionEstablished = false;
private boolean instanceComplete = false;

public ServerInstance(){
//This one Sets all variables to defaults
listeningPort = Preferences.DEFAULTPORT;
}

/*public ServerInstance(Preferences){

}*/

public boolean run(){
ServerSocket ListenSocket;

boolean retBool = false;
boolean endLoop = false;
int readValue = -1024; // Set to extreme value to show that it is default;
int i = 0;

/*
* How the Server Will work
*
* 1. Get the Data from the browser / Read the Stream
* 2. Send Data off to extract the headers
* 3. While Data is being Processed Send data back to the client
* 4. Flag that server action is complete, and shutdown and clean up
*
*/
try{
ListeningSocket = new ServerSocket( listeningPort );

Connection = ListeningSocket.accept();

connectionEstablished = true;

//1. Get Data from Browser
Inbound = Connection.getInputStream();

Outbound = new BufferedOutputStream ( Connection.getOutputStream() ); //Place output in a Buffered Stream

//Write to both Objects simultainously
while( !endLoop ){
readValue = Inbound.read();

if(readValue != -1){
Outbound.write( readValue ); //Send data to the client
RawHttpData.write( readValue ); //Write data to a HTTPData Object
}
else{
endLoop = true;
}
i++;
}

Outbound.flush(); //Make sure all the data has been sent back to the browser
//Just while we code
System.out.println("Server: has RX/TX " + i + " Bytes of data");

//4. Clean up
Inbound.close();
Outbound.close();
Connection.close();

instanceComplete = true;
}
catch(IOException e){
System.out.println("<-- Server Error -->");
System.err.print( e );
}
catch(IllegalBlockingModeException e){
//I doubt this will come up, but refer to java documentation on serversocket.accept() in the event it does
System.out.println("<-- Server says no! -->");
System.err.print( e );
}
finally{
return retBool;
}
}

public boolean isConnected(){
return connectionEstablished;
}

public boolean isComplete(){
return instanceComplete;
}
}


Code is released under the GPL 2.0 License, go forth and improve (and credit).


This is a working server implementation in java, a relic from my isolation project,( Isolation was meant to act as a personal proxy, similar to how google gears works, however their wouldn't need to modification to the web app, as isolation was meant to pre-fetch the data, based on monitor the users actions/http requests.).

Anyway as you can imagine this was a big project, coupled with my second major data disaster, it didn't really ever see the light of day.

Couple of things to mention, the Preferences class was a data structure to store, ... well user preferences, and the class was meant to implement the runnable interface, so that you could operate multiple server instances.

I learnt a lot researching for it, and thanks to it i have a very good idea of how the HTTP protocol works, however i think it was a little too complex for someone at my current level, i should really stick to trying to reverse engineer front row, and learning lisp.

On the note of the reversing of front row, a plugin called sapphire was released last year. From what i can determine they have worked out how to beat apples protection scheme governing the loading of foreign NSbundles (Yeah, i know about them!). So when i finally get around to it, i'll (try to) reverse it as well.

Quote of the Day

"Rave for business"

I love Capitalism, don't you

rounded corners anyone?

You may notice my new rounded corners.

Well in true fashion, they're CSS corners.

Instead of loading up one of the many css corner library, i decided to take the opportunity to write my own. The other plus is that as this is a blogger account, i have no real file storage, so linking against the jquery lib makes way more sense.


//Corner rounding function
roundCorners = function( pElement, pSize, pForeground, pBackground ){
//Logging
/*
console.log( 'Corner size ' + pSize);
console.log( 'Fore color ' + pForeground );
console.log( 'Back color ' + pBackground );
*/
if( pBackground.match('none') != null ){
pBackground = 'transparent';
//console.log('transparent background');
}

//constants
containerStr = '<div class="cornerContainer" style="margin:0px 0px;height:auto;background:'+ pBackground +'"></div>';
cornerAttributesStr = 'border:none;overflow:hidden;height:1px;background-color:'+ pForeground +';';


//Reset the parent element
$( pElement).parent().css('padding','none');

//Insert container Div and set background color
$(pElement).prepend( containerStr );
$(pElement).append( containerStr );

for(i=1;i < pSize; i++){
$('div.cornerContainer').eq(0).append('<div style="' + cornerAttributesStr + 'margin: 0 '+ Math.round(pSize/i) +'pt"></div>');
//console.log('Insert element ' + pSize/i);
}

for(i=pSize; i > 1; i--){
$('div.cornerContainer').eq(1).append('<div style="' + cornerAttributesStr + 'margin: 0 '+ Math.round(pSize/i) +'pt"></div>');
}

}


Currently it doesn't support chaining, however according to my understanding, you just have to encapsulated within a jquery.extend, and change the passed object references call and your good to go.

New Design

Just a quick note to say here is the new design. Nice and light weight, no shiny stuff (yet). I'll add in some javascript nuts and bolts later, but now i have to set the table for christmas dinner. Btw, this took me like 3 hours, not too bad considering i have to cut and paste into the online editor.

Merry Christmas

And to think people think i waste my time

I've been hitting the Dev Trail pretty hard over the last week or so. My fringe Cocoa/Objective-C skills are getting better each day. To give you an idea of what my Programming space looks like here's a screenshot.

To summerize, i'm in the middle of linking the mysql-cocoa framework into my project. Now i have hit a slight snag on that front. The snag being that it looks like i can't sell the app.

Why? Because the use of the GPL'd open source framework means that i have to release the source code. Now for a long time, i have considered releasing an application that one has to pay for, but is also open source. However with this kinda of app, my target market, most likely already has xcode installed, and would find it trivial to download the source and hit 'build'.

I'm gonna email the FSF, and find out what they have to say. But i think i might try and release this as an open source application. I love open source as much as the next guy, so maybe this is the way it should go down.

In other news i've finally popped for a Western digital 250GB notebook hard drive. After some stupidity (and a trip to Eastleigh) on my part it's churning away inside my Macbook. The old drive is now a Time machine Drive, speaking of time machine ...



It's a nutty excuse for an interface, but it really is fantastic. Pre-Time Machine, i used a backup script i 'wrote' in automator, however it wasn't as flash as this. However it did zip my documents folder from almost 2GB to 700MB which always impressed me, or at least one side of me.

Well it's almost the end of another year and this blog has seen quite a few annual transitions now, 4 to be correct. In keeping with RSS tradition i'll have the usual wrap up posts, plus a 4/5 redesign. Hopefully this time done properly with more ajax than you can shake a stick at, and a cleaner ui, after all i'm a professional now ........



Quote of the Day

Caption

One byte

Not sure what all the moaning was about, but i must say i like the look of the new iplayer from the bbc. It's not a big slab of flash. Nice ajax like effects. Works in safari. A nice job i would say overall.

I doubt it works for those outside these fair shores, but if it does work i would recommend.

Btw this is post 255, hence the title.

Merry Christmas

Reg Exp

In case you ever need them, here are a couple of regular expressions for dealing with dates.

For dates like this: December 19, 2008

[A-z]{3,8}.[0-9]{1,2}.{1,2}[0-9]{4}


For dates like this: 05/03/87

[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}


They form part of my fantastic plan to .... write loads of regular expressions ^_^

Google's Android: My two cents

I love it. At least from a developers point of view. Now the real question is, can they get the devices with the right form factors to really complete with the big boys, MS, Symbian, and now Apple.

With HTC behind them, there is no reason why they can't. So why does a tech skeptic like me like this FOB (Fresh off the boat) platform so much. Well here's why

• SDK for OS X, Linux & Windows (Take note Apple!)
• It uses Java as the language of choice.
• Each app runs in VM, they borrowed an idea from palm os(kinda)
• They provided a C Api
• XML GUI layouts, nice and open
• The Platform is wide open

If you wanna look at this from a web 2.0 mashup point of view, its like the following

Microsoft's level developer support + Googles Open-ness + Apples inovation

Alternatively Lets compare it to it's rivals

Symbian - 'Modern' widely supported Language (Java vs C++).

Microsoft - It doesn't look like it was retrofitted to be used in a phone

Palm - Multiple device makers, means better form factors + it's a brand new os

Apple - It's not a Objective-C only world, and locked down like a [insert word of choice]

Others - It's got traction, and the developer community behind it, we all love google.

I'm getting to work on developing some apps for this platform. As i said it's got my support, it's solid under the hood, and i look forward to queuing for my first device. 

BTW i hate the iphone if anyone is wondering.

Quote of the Day

Red Light District

Some are more hungry than others...

Quick and Dirty Leopard Dock Image replacement script

This one is for all the dock hackers out there. I'm gonna try and roll this into a application during my lectures today ^_^

Cut and paste the script into a text editor of your choice, and save it as "dockSwitcher.sh"

To use this save your new dock images on the desktop and then run the script. Beware i haven't tested as i A. Use the non-glass dock, and B. didn't have time. So use with caution.


#!/bin/bash
## Quick and dirty Dock Image Replacement script
## Jonathan Dalrymple
## November 6, 2007

##Root Checking
## Thanks to
## http://blog.mecworks.com/articles/2006/02/23/bash-scripting-tip-running-a-script-as-root/
CMDLN_ARGS="$@" # Command line arguments for this script
export CMDLN_ARGS

# Run this script as root if not already.
chk_root () {

if [ ! $( id -u ) -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Please enter root's password."
exec su -c "${0} ${CMDLN_ARGS}" # Call this prog as root
exit ${?} # sice we're 'execing' above, we wont reach this exit
# unless something goes wrong.
fi

}

# Check if user is root
chk_root

##Back up dock
cp /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app ~/Dock.backup.app

##Remove the old files
rm /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/scurve-l.png

rm /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/scurve-m.png

rm /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/scurve-sm.png

rm /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/scurve-xl.png

##Put in the new files
mv ~/Desktop/scurve-l.png /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/

mv ~/Desktop/scurve-m.png /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/

mv ~/Desktop/scurve-sm.png /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/

mv ~/Desktop/scurve-xl.png /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/

##Remove dock images from desktop
rm ~/Desktop/scurve-l.png

rm ~/Desktop/scurve-m.png

rm ~/Desktop/scurve-sm.png

rm ~/Desktop/scurve-xl.png

##
killall Dock




Leopard Hacking : Front Row

Thanks to my coffee, i can't seem to sleep. So to pass the time i decided to do some more work on a new brain wave i just had this evening.

It centers around front row. Well actually it had nothing to do with front row, however building on top of front row makes more sense, than starting out from scratch.

Now as you may or may not know, like most of the cool gui stuff on osx front row is a closed environment. Which means it's hacking time. Something i always wanted to play with is a decompiler. Now i'm no Dmitry Grinberg, so assembly doesn't wash with me. Instead i found this little gem.

After a a brief compile it gave me this wonderful output



struct _NSZone;

/*
* File: Movies
* Arch: Intel 80x86 (i386)
*/

@protocol BRMenuListItemProvider
- (long)itemCount;
- (float)heightForRow:(long)fp8;
- (BOOL)rowSelectable:(long)fp8;
- (id)titleForRow:(long)fp8;
- (id)itemForRow:(long)fp8;
@end

@protocol NSObject
- (BOOL)isEqual:(id)fp8;
- (unsigned int)hash;
- (Class)superclass;
- (Class)class;
- (id)self;
- (struct _NSZone *)zone;
- (id)performSelector:(SEL)fp8;
- (id)performSelector:(SEL)fp8 withObject:(id)fp12;
- (id)performSelector:(SEL)fp8 withObject:(id)fp12 withObject:(id)fp16;
- (BOOL)isProxy;
- (BOOL)isKindOfClass:(Class)fp8;
- (BOOL)isMemberOfClass:(Class)fp8;
- (BOOL)conformsToProtocol:(id)fp8;
- (BOOL)respondsToSelector:(SEL)fp8;
- (id)retain;
- (oneway void)release;
- (id)autorelease;
- (unsigned int)retainCount;
- (id)description;
@end

@interface RUIMoviesAppliance : BRAppliance
{
}

+ (id)moduleKey;
- (id)init;
- (void)dealloc;
- (id)moduleIconName;
- (float)moduleIconReflectionOffset;
- (id)moduleName;
- (id)moduleKey;
- (id)applianceController;

@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController : BRMediaMenuController
{
NSArray *_headerRows;
NSMutableArray *_titlesWithUnplayedContent;
RUIMovieFolderCollection *_movieFolderCollection;
BRMovieTrailersProvider *_trailersProvider;
unsigned int _hasLocalMovies:1;
unsigned int _movieTrailersPreviewRequested:1;
unsigned int _movieTrailersSelected:1;
BRDataStore *_dataStore;
Class _msClass;
}

- (id)init;
- (void)dealloc;
- (id)musicStoreBaseType;
- (BOOL)menuDisplaysLeftIcon;
- (void)networkStatusChanged:(id)fp8;
- (BOOL)isVolatile;
- (id)loadModelData;
- (void)refreshControllerForModelUpdate;
- (BOOL)shouldRefreshForUpdateToObject:(id)fp8;
- (long)defaultIndex;
- (void)itemSelected:(long)fp8;
- (void)wasExhumedByPoppingController:(id)fp8;
- (void)wasPushed;
- (void)willBePopped;
- (void)wasPopped;
- (id)previewControlForItem:(long)fp8;
- (BOOL)brEventAction:(id)fp8;

@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController (AsyncNotifications)
- (void)_movieTrailersLoaded:(id)fp8;
- (void)_swapNewController:(id)fp8;
@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController (DataSourceAccess)
- (id)_movieTrailers:(id *)fp8;
@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController (MediaParadeBuilders)
- (id)_moviesFolderParade;
- (id)_movieTrailersParade;
- (id)_stingrayMediaPreview;
@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController (MovieLoading)
- (void)_cacheUnplayedTitles;
- (BOOL)_hasUnplayedMovies;
@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController (MovieSelection)
- (id)_movieSelectedAtIndex:(long)fp8;
@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController (MenuBuilding)
- (id)_buildMovieTrailersMenu;
- (id)_movieTrailersController:(id)fp8;
- (id)_buildMyMoviesMenu;
- (id)_stingrayFrontPageController;
- (id)_headerRows;
@end

@interface RUIMoviesApplianceController (DataProviders)
- (id)itemForRow:(long)fp8;
- (long)itemCount;
- (id)titleForRow:(long)fp8;
- (float)heightForRow:(long)fp8;
- (BOOL)rowSelectable:(long)fp8;
@end

@interface RUISDMovieTrailersController : RUIMovieTrailersController
{
}

- (id)initWithTrailers:(id)fp8;
- (id)previewControlForItem:(long)fp8;
- (id)titleForRow:(long)fp8;
- (long)defaultIndex;
- (id)itemForRow:(long)fp8;
- (long)itemCount;
- (void)itemSelected:(long)fp8;

@end

@interface RUIMovieTrailersController : BRMediaMenuController
{
NSArray *_trailers;
}

- (id)initWithTrailers:(id)fp8;
- (void)dealloc;
- (BOOL)isNetworkDependent;
- (void)itemSelected:(long)fp8;
- (long)itemCount;
- (id)itemForRow:(long)fp8;
- (id)titleForRow:(long)fp8;
- (float)heightForRow:(long)fp8;
- (BOOL)rowSelectable:(long)fp8;
- (id)previewControlForItem:(long)fp8;

@end

@interface RUISDMovieTrailersController (Private)
- (id)_HDMovieTrailers:(id *)fp8;
@end

@interface RUIMovieTrailersController (Private)
- (id)_movieTrailersTitle;
@end

@interface RUIMovieDirectoryController : BRMediaMenuController
{
RUIMovieFolderCollection *_collection;
NSString *_path;
}

- (id)initWithMovieFolderCollection:(id)fp8;
- (void)dealloc;
- (id)moviesForParade;
- (void)itemSelected:(long)fp8;
- (id)previewControlForItem:(long)fp8;
- (id)mediaPreviewMissingMediaType;
- (BOOL)mediaPreviewShouldShowMetadata;
- (BOOL)mediaPreviewShouldShowMetadataImmediately;
- (long)itemCount;
- (id)itemForRow:(long)fp8;
- (id)titleForRow:(long)fp8;
- (float)heightForRow:(long)fp8;
- (BOOL)rowSelectable:(long)fp8;

@end

@interface RUIMovieFolderAsset : BRBaseMediaAsset
{
NSString *_displayName;
NSURL *_mediaURL;
NSString *_folderPath;
BRImage *_posterImage;
BOOL _requestedImage;
}

+ (id)assetForName:(id)fp8 folderPath:(id)fp12 andMediaURL:(id)fp16;
- (void)dealloc;
- (void)setDisplayName:(id)fp8;
- (void)setMediaURL:(id)fp8;
- (void)setMovieFolderPath:(id)fp8;
- (id)assetID;
- (id)title;
- (id)mediaURL;
- (BOOL)hasCoverArt;
- (id)coverArt;
- (id)dateAcquired;
- (id)mediaType;

@end

@interface RUIMovieFolderAsset (ArtLoading)
- (void)_loadImage:(id)fp8;
- (void)_imageLoaded:(id)fp8;
@end

@interface RUIMovieFolderCollection : BRBaseMediaCollection
{
RUIMovieFolderCollection *_parent;
NSString *_displayName;
NSString *_folderPath;
NSArray *_childCollections;
NSArray *_childAssets;
}

+ (id)collectionForName:(id)fp8 folderPath:(id)fp12 andParent:(id)fp16;
- (void)dealloc;
- (void)setParent:(id)fp8;
- (void)setDisplayName:(id)fp8;
- (void)setMovieFolderPath:(id)fp8;
- (id)childCollections;
- (id)parentCollection;
- (id)collectionType;
- (id)collectionID;
- (int)count;
- (id)mediaAssets;
- (id)title;
- (id)titleForSorting;
- (BOOL)hasCoverArt;
- (id)coverArt;
- (BOOL)isLocal;

@end

@interface RUIMovieFolderCollection (Private)
- (void)_generateCollectionChildren;
@end

@interface BRMediaCollectionType (FolderCollectionExtension)
+ (id)folderCollection;
@end

What you see here is the headers/interface & protocol files for all the different classes located within Front rows movies appliance.

If you want to see your own front row app, it's located @ /system/library/coreservices/front row.app

Now i had heard that some good folks over at Awkward TV forums have hacked appliances for the Apple TV which is basically what the new front row on leopard is, however these don't seem to work 'out of the box', and apparently Apple updated this version before the roll out.

Coupled with all the above, i have reason to believe that the new appliances are digitally signed by [chinese] ni cai, Apple.

By reasoning for this, is a did a hex dump (using 0xED) of the appliance executables, and found the following string(s) @ 135535

"Apple Certification Authority1301U*Apple Code Signing Certification Authority"

Now just after typing the above sentence, it dawned on me that this might be for the transactions with the ITMS, for movie trailers, however i checked the settings appliance and found the same thing.

Also i tried deleting the various applications from a running front row, and it handles them gracefully, and also doesn't mind having new ones dropped in. I tried droping in the rss apple tv plugin, however it didn't like it very much.

I'm a programmer, not a hacker so this is about the limit of my skill, especially if it envolves digitally signed apps. I can barely deal with the symbian signed apps, never mind about these ones. If got some ideas or feel like getting dirty and dodging some DMCA takedown notices let me know.

UPDATE

i found this URL above the previous string, http://www.apple.com/appleca/

turns out that the certificate may be freely available, which might make life a tad bit easier.

PS. to any one wanting to warn me for breaking the law, i'm not a US resident ^_^

Mobile Web development

In recent months I've seriously considered getting into mobile application development. My platform of choice has been symbian thus far. However yesterday something dawned on me. Most people don't understand that modern phones are miniature computers hiding in pink cases. As such the idea of additional applications is moot. However what everyone is now seeing is that the internet on mobile devices is possible. In this crazy online world of ours that means one thing web 2.0!

So from today, i'm gonna put some fuel into creating mobile web 2.0 applications. I have a vague idea of where i'm going, but only time will tell.

In other news, this is my 250th post, meh.

I'm slowly becoming myself again, best reflected by the fact that i have time to write this monologue!

Plus i got the 24" in the end, Benq fp241. ....

Well until another time




Quote of the Day

Caption

Database Table Size Calculations

As a professional Developer, every once in a while you'll need to create a Database, for one reason or another. It's always nice to apply structured thought to your design process and work out your proposed database size before who release it upon the unsuspecting database server.

It's kinda obvious to do, but just in case heres how i do it.

First create your data dictionary. In my case it was for a questionnaire management system, (QMS, might release it as OSS when i'm done).

i wanted to dynamically generate a new table for each questionnaire, so i need to work out the system limits before hand.

first we would have our "user id's"

id - UInt
hostName - 128 byte (unicode 64 character string)
ip addr = 15 bytes (it's ip v6)
assocQuestionnaire = 4 bytes aka 32bit unsigned integer

then depending on the questionnaire you could have upto 32 questions/ comment, (32 columns). These could then store upto 1024 characters so thats basically double in UTF-8, so 2048 bytes, bringing in each row at almost 65Kb, now the company i work for has 40 000 members of staff, so lets assume they all anwser the same questionnaire (Great advertising for me), the database would swell to 2.5 Gb!

Well i think thats sight over kill, so by tweaking the the system to only implement the larger fields when requested by a user, and assuming that they only want one comment field per questionnaire, we get a much more wholesome figure of 100 Mb.

So to summerize the formula is

sum( column types ) * num of rows.

Remember this is only an estimate, and doesn't account for the master tables or relationships or any of that other RDMS goodness. So it's a guide not, E=MC2

Jonathan

Display Madness

For once i have a little time, which makes a huge change. In the last hour or so i've been exploring my options around getting a new display to help support my Mac lovin life style. However what should be a joy filled ride through the online e-commerce world, is turning out to be a little less simple then i had imagined.

I have a budget of around £600.
My current setup is two 19" @ 2560 * 1024

However there is a major problem with my current setup, My Blackbook only supports one display. However with a little box from matrox it can support two, but at a maximum resolution of 1024 * 768 each or 2048 * 768.

Current i share the setup with my nix box, but that is getting axed (Yes blu-ray is dead/dying) in favor of consolidating all my development onto one physical machine, and running nix, solaris, windows via parallels.

Now normally i would the following choices given the price.

2 x 22" displays (3360 * 1050)
1 x 24" display ( 1920 * 1200)
1 x 27"
1 x 26"
Now two 22's would be nice, not only cause because it's big but it's also a Jay-z song(well in reverse)!

Now based on current machine specs i've actually got three choices
1 x 24" display ( 1920 * 1200)
1 x 27"
1 x 26"

These are all below my current resolution, so maybe it's the machine that needs changing ...

Ok, lets do the math

Macbook pro (legit) £1149 with student discount
2 22" displays £ 500
matrox dual head to go £140

total £1700!

sweet price point, not. What makes it worse, is that i love the macbook's form factor and would hate anything bigger. ie MB pro.

Plus for that price i could get a mac pro which i have often considered and drooled over with phil. (the computer not phil).

The other solution is to build a osx86 machine, however as developer, and with Leopard coming doing all my work on a unsupported, illegal, in-frequently updated, hacked platform strikes me as dumb.

So that leaves the single units

All of which mean i lose about 1/2 million pixels, and a couple of inches.

Heres the price breakdown
24" £430
26" £ 500
27" £ 680

So on price the 24" is a winner models in that range, that have 8bit color panels, good response times, and adjustable stands, and multiple inputs are ...
Dell's 2407wfp
Benq's 241 wp ( HDMI included!)

On the 26"'s there is one that i know of
Acer 2604
It's got a crapy stand, and no Digital inputs, infact it's only got a VGA input

And then there is 27's

Dell 2707wfp

Which is basically the 24" dell with a phat-er panel and no rotation. And a pixel pitch closer to a 19" lcd (0.294 vs 0.3)

Now we consider the pros and cons of the 24 vs 27

1. I have personal issues with spending seven bills on a lcd display, that i don't really need while people starve to death, and go to war over food.
2. The pixel pitch of the 27 is ideal, the high pixel pitch of my 19's is why i sprang for them over the 17"'s.
3. No rotation, how do i show off those cool XGL effects without being able to rotate the display as well!
4. Both give me less working resolution then i have currently.

Conclusion...

I'll wait to see if apple brings out a super notebook next week, that razor thin macbook pro that all mac geeks dream about, and if it's what i want i'll upgrade.

BTW

i recently bought my name (www.jonathandalrymple.com) as well as a couple of domain names for some projects that are in the pipeline.