klein0r.de - Blog

Lion Tweak

2011-12-20T16:41:00.001+01:00

Today I want you to introduce a nice tool which is named Lion Tweak. Actually about 3% of all Mac OS Lion users have installed this nice piece of software. Lion Tweak helps you to improve/change several hidden software features and settings which are not available on the normal system preferences UI.

Short introduction: Flash2Softbox

2011-12-19T18:46:00.002+01:00

Today I want to introduce the (in my opinion) best light former solution on the market for system flashes: Flash2Softbox. There already exists a big collection of different light formers and the system is compatible to nearly every flash! It is also possible to combine this solution with remote flash sets like the Yongnuo RF-602.

Due to the usage of system flashes instead of studio flashes you are independent from a power source and you get a maximum of mobility and flexibility. On the other hand you save a lot of money!

You can find more information, example shots and a great review on the blog of Krolop & Gerst. This is one of the best photography Blogs in the web (but the most content is in German).

My Facebook Site

2011-10-16T23:33:00.002+02:00

I want to ask you to have a look to my Facebook site! I'm very close to 100 likes - please help me to do beat this magic number!

Kate

2011-10-16T23:08:00.001+02:00

Title: Kate

3 Oct '11, 5.47pm CEST
A portrait of my last portrait session with Kate. Enjoy

Create GParted bootable USB device in OS X

2011-09-19T20:54:00.001+02:00

Insert the USB-Stick/Device and format it by using the disk utility to FAT16/FAT32
Download GParted live ISO file
Download UNetbootin
Start UNetbootin, select ISO mode and choose your ISO file
Click OK and wait until the process has been finished

Another alternative is to use UNetbootin to download and flash your USB drive with Parted Magic (available in choose box).

Nice plugins for Aperture 3

2011-09-13T20:38:00.000+02:00

Today I've checked some plugins for Aperture 3 which I wish to own!

Noise Ninja is one of the best noise reduction plug-ins on the market! Check it out! But: It seems like it is very complicated to purchase. I even don't find a price just for the plug-in... The pro version costs $79.95 and includes all plug-ins.

Photomatix Pro is one of the most known HDR tonemappers on the market - and it's also avaiable as an Aperture 3 plug-in. But at a very high price of $94.

Focal Point 2 is a nice tool to simulate a bokeh. You're able to set the focus wherever you want in your photos - but at a very high price: $99.95!!

I think most of the prices are very very high - because you can purchase Aperture 3 in the Mac AppStore for at least $60! Just one plug-in is even more expensive than the product itself. Incredible...

AppDump

2011-06-14T20:31:00.000+02:00

AppDump is a really nice application for your mac which allows you to check how much apps have been downloaded and how much you've already paid for them. A really nice, smart and powerful must have application! And the best: It's free!

Samsung H1 - Cracking it

2011-06-03T15:07:00.001+02:00

Today I have searched again for some H1 input (because I have no iPhone right now and have to wait some month).

So I found the following "community": H1Droid. This community tries to port Andriod 2.2 to the Samsung H1/M1. You can download the latest version on code.google.com.
You can finds lots of useful information in this thread.

How to compile an own version of H1droid (on a Mac):

1. Download Git. (I have downloaded version 1.7.4)
2. Run the installation.
3. Open a new terminal and create a new directory. Switch to that directory.
4. Type: git clone git://gitorious.org/h1droid/odin.git
5. Switch into the odin directory and make

Another nice tool is BinPim which allows you to transfer files to Samsung phones. It is also available for Mac! But I haven't tested it right now.

(You can reset you phone to the shipping settings by using the following code: *2767*3855#)

Very useful: Dockdrop

2011-05-27T17:10:00.002+02:00

Since I started to use Aperture, I've searched for an easy way to share my photos with friends (more often in instant messaging). So I've searched for an Aperture 3 plugin which allows me to upload a version of a photo to a FTP server of my choice. This plugin does exist, but it costs some money. Due to that fact that I've already bought Flow for FTP transfers, I was not willing to investigate more money for FTP transfers (which is a very simple task in my opinion).

Some weeks later: I've watched a video about the workflow in fashion photography - not very special but still interesting. In the end of the video the photographer talked about a very great solution to quickly share files (via FTP, SCP, Flickr, ...). This tool is called dockdrop.

I am using this to upload my exported photos of Aperture 3 quickly to the temp directory of my web server. The good news: The tool automatically generates a URL to the photo and puts this url to your clipboard. Uploading photos is very easy now:

Export the photo to Finder
Drag it and drop it on the Dockdrop icon
Wait a few seconds
Paste the URL to any place you want to

Nadine @ Studio

2011-02-18T13:25:00.002+01:00

Title: Nadine @ Studio

18 Feb '11, 1.24pm CET PST

Photo - Park deck 4

2011-01-31T18:52:00.003+01:00

Today I was in a parking garage after shopping some food. Here are the results - enjoy!

Title: Park deck 4

24 Jan '11, 9.45pm CET PST

Title: 3 01

24 Jan '11, 5.55pm CET PST

Apple AirPort Express

2011-01-31T18:36:00.000+01:00

Today I bought a AirPort Express to replace my router and to use the AirTunes feature! If you want to use the AirPlay features with all audio components instead of just using iTunes, you can try AirFoil.

HFS defrag

2010-12-07T18:35:00.000+01:00

Sometimes HFS is fragmented. That could be caused by slowly grown files.

In this case you can use one of the following programs:

iDefrag (€26.12 inc. VAT)
fileXray (hfsdebug)
...

Enjoy these tools!

(I haven't tried one of them right now)

My new Adium style

2010-11-29T22:08:00.000+01:00

Today I want to indroduce my new Adium style. The style is very simple, grey and black. So don't try it if you like a colorful surface with lots of effects!

Status icons: Reality
Message style: GAIA
Emoticons: Riceballs
Menu bar icons: Marten plain black

Photo - Silver mirror

2010-11-01T17:44:00.002+01:00

Title: Silver mirror

1 Nov '10, 5.35pm CET PST

Mac OS X - How to create ISO images of CDs/DVDs

2010-10-24T19:00:00.002+02:00

Step1:
Insert your disc.

Step2:
Unmount the CD by using the following command:

diskutil unmount /Volumes/<Volume Name>

You will get a response message like this:
Volume New PC Studio on disk1s0 unmounted

Step3:

Rip the disc by using the following command (Make sure that you have replaced the disc identifier with the one you got in the last message):

hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o ISOFileName.iso /dev/disk1s0 -verbose

Step4:
Wait....

Step4:
Mount your successfully ripped image!

Stolen equipment - just to help

2010-09-30T20:38:00.000+02:00

The following equipment was stolen on the Photokina 2010 (as you can read in this blog - GERMAN) - I post these information to help the involved persons.

NIKON D3S = N° 2011240
NIKON D3 = N° 2003785

NIKON 24-70mm/2,8 = N° 202109
NIKON 24-70mm/2,8 = N° 249413

NIKON 14-24mm/2,8 = N° 201255

NIKON 70-200mm/2,8 = N° 416705
NIKON 70-200mm/2,8 = N° 20030264

NIKON SB800 = N° 2901542
NIKON SB800 = N° 2066333

Please contact the members and authors of ro-photography if you find information about these components in the web. Its very important that you don't buy this equipment!

Playstation 3 - Update 3.50

2010-09-28T20:23:00.000+02:00

The latest firmware version of the Playstation 3 (2010-09-21 - Version 3.50) supports BluRay 3D content! You just need a capable 3D screen and you will be able to view 3D content by using the Playstation!

You can find detailed information on Sony's Playstation 3 web site.

NAS - QNAP TS-239 Pro II

2010-09-28T19:15:00.000+02:00

I plan to buy a TS-239 Pro II Turbo NAS for secure storage of data. It costs about 500 Euros in Germany and offers a wide range of functionality and great features!

The most important points (for me) are:

Support of virtual machines (VMware vShpere) - Great possibility to host smaller machines for testing etc.
Wake on LAN and power settings
Printer sharing (USB) - great to use one single (existing) laser printer without the need to buy a new WLAN driven printer
DLNA support for my Playstation 3
Time Machine support for my MacBook Pro 13"
Download management Server - no need to run my Notebook on longer downloads
iTunes Server (Audio and Video sharing) - all music can be saved on the NAS instead of the computer and can be used by many devices the same time
Web and Database server - All possibilities to write small and helpful web applications or other applications which use the database on the NAS
Possibility to mount ISO files directly on the NAS
256 Bit volume based encryption to guarantee full data security even when the hard discs are physically accessible.
RAID 0 / 1 support
Easy Administration by usage of a web interface

As you can see, QNAP offers lots of very very useful features. You can get the whole list of features on the QNAP homepage. I will inform you if i bought such a device! Hope this will be possible as soon as possible.

Factalius photoshop plugin

2010-09-27T22:06:00.000+02:00

The Fractalius photoshop plugin is one of the most impressive plugin I have ever seen - because I have no photoshop version, I just can guide you to the homepage!

Just try the plugin! The results are amazing!

The Unarchiver - Error on decrunching

2010-09-24T16:04:00.000+02:00

Several times I got a de-crunching error while extracting a splitted archive with the mac tool The Unarchiver. The files were named like that:

file.001
file.002
file.003
...

After changing the file names to the rar conventions, the files have been extracted:

file.r01
file.r02
file.r03
...

Mac - "Hidden" sound features

2010-09-19T18:28:00.000+02:00

The keys on the Mac keyboard for the volume control have replaced the volume status icon usage in the information bar for a lot of users. But they can do more as you may know.

Changing the volume by holding "Shift" will result in a change of the loudness without making the klick sound on each step
If you hold the Alt key while you change the volume you will get the volume settings
Holding Alt + Shift while changing the volume results in a more precise way to change the volume - every step is divided into four additional steps

Hope this post is helpful for you!

Photo - White music

2010-09-08T22:05:00.002+02:00

Title: White music

8 Sep '10, 9.54pm CEST PST

Cracking RAR passwords on a Mac

2010-09-07T21:30:00.000+02:00

Some years ago (2005) I've created a RAR archive on my PC (Windows XP). To avoid unauthorized access I have set a password to that file. 5 years later I can't remember the password. Because of that, I want to crack the password of the archive.

After some Google searches, I found the program cRARk which is a brute force tool to crack passwords of archive. This will hopefully crack my forgotten password. After the download I was informed that a library was missing.

Cuda:
In my MacBook Pro is installed a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. This GPU is supported by the CUDA driver (developed by NVIDIA). You can download the driver on this site. If you are trying cRARk and you get the message "no CUDA capable device" (like in my position - thanks!) you have to compile CUDA on your own.
How that works can be read in the blog of Yi Wang. I hope it will work for you.

Now you can start cRARk.
./crark -l4 -g10 -penglish.def ../../Misc/Temp/forgottedPassword.rar

I think that my password wasn't shorter than 4 charaters and isn't longer than 10. Hopefully I haven't used any special characters (that can take a very long time).

12 hours later: My password wasn't cracked up to now - I have interrupted the process after 6.8 million tested passwords. I will start another try on my Windows PC (because I don't need it anymore and it doesn't matter how much time the brute force process needs). I will inform you if I made some progress.

If you are working on Windows, you can also try Parallel Recovery to crack your passwords. But that tool isn't free of charge. So you have to invest some money. You will get a faster tool.

Have fun!

(Un-)Install .net assemblies to the GAC

2010-09-07T21:27:00.000+02:00

If you are developing strong name assemblies which should be available in the GAC during the development process, you can (re-)place them into the GAC with the following PostBuild Action in VisualStudio 2010:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin\gacutil.exe" -u $(TargetName)
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin\gacutil.exe" -i $(TargetFileName)

Be careful when you are developing assemblies that are already placed in the GAC in another version. You will not be able to debug the newer version which was build in your VisualStudio 2010 instance.

PS3 Media Server

2010-09-01T17:36:00.000+02:00

One of the coolest features of the PS3 is the usage of a media server. I am hosting this server on my mac by using the ps3mediaserver in Version 1.10.5! Just enable the usage of media servers in your Playstation settings and start the application on any Mac (or PC).

After that you can access all content on your hard drive right on your TV!

Just try it!

BigHugeLabs - Flickr apps

2010-08-31T22:06:00.000+02:00

The site BigHugeLabs.com is a great resource for Flickr applications and widgets to advertise your account or style your profile page.

This is an example of the profile widget:

Have fun with these apps!

Photo - Dragonfly

2010-08-21T21:12:00.002+02:00

Title: Dragonfly

21 Aug '10, 8.49pm CEST PST

Eneloop akku pack

2010-08-21T14:46:00.000+02:00

Today a bought 8 eneloop akkus from sanyo. I plan to use them in my new flash Nikon SB-900. I've payed 19.99€ in a local german store.

I read a few times that these are the best power sources you can buy. I hope this is true! Another advantage is that these rechargeable batteries can be used directly without charging them!

Photo - Sunglasses on the floor

2010-08-18T18:56:00.002+02:00

Title: Sunglasses on the floor

18 Aug '10, 6.43pm CEST PST
Nikon D80
+ AF-S 70-300 VR
+ Pixelmator

Photo - MacBook Pro v2

2010-08-15T22:24:00.002+02:00

Title: MacBook Pro

15 Aug '10, 4.20pm CEST PST

Better task manager

2010-08-10T15:57:00.000+02:00

The Process Explorer is a much better choise for process handling on Windows than the Microsoft Task Manager. When you have downloaded the Process Explorer you can replace the Task Manager by chosing the option "Replace Task Manager" in the Options menu.

70 giga pixel project

2010-08-08T21:24:00.000+02:00

Pictures made of hundreds of photos are trend at the moment - but this project was bigger than everything else. A picture merged of 5000 single photos made with two Sony Alpha A900 (25 mega pixels each).

The picture is presented by Microsofts Silverlight technology DeepZoom.

You will find the picture here.

Pixelmator - First impressions

2010-08-02T18:06:00.000+02:00

Today I bought Pixelmator and played around a bit. First to say: It's an impressive program and you will get the most used functions you know from Photoshop. On the other side you will miss some features - but the program is still in development and improves from time to time.

Here are two "5 minute works" I made after purchasing the product:

I will inform you if i have to report something special about Pixelmator and eventually I will publish some tutorials for you!

Just download a 30 day trial version and try it out!

Cut strings to a specified length

2010-07-26T20:43:00.002+02:00

There exist many ways to cut strings which are too long - but they are very different in performance and result quality.

1. Cutting with the help ob sub string.
In this example the string will easily be cutted by the php function substr. Pro: Very fast - Negative: Not very exact, because iiiiiiiiiii is a shorter string than wwwwwwww (optically).

protected final function cutStringToWidth($str) {
 $maxLen = 80;
 if (strlen($str) > $maxLen) {
  return substr($str, 0, $maxLen).\'...\';
 }
 else {
  return $str;
 }
}

2. Cutting by the exact length of the string
The second possibility is to cut the string by counting the pixels. Pro: Very exact - Negative: Extrem slow!

protected final function cutStringToWidth($str, $width = 200) {
 $x1 = 0;
 $x2 = 0;
 $run = 0;
 $tempStr = $str;
 $font = \'./verdana.ttf\';

 do {
  list($x1, ,$x2) = imagettfbbox(12, 0, $font, $tempStr);
  $run--;
  $tempStr = substr($tempStr, 0, -1);
 } while ($x2-$x1 > $width);

 return substr($str, 0, $run);
}

3. Cut by counting the width.
A third possibilty will be to define a value for each letter in a string - e.g. 1 for i and 6 for w. Then you have to count all letters in the string up to a limitation by its value.

PHP - Unknown unicode characters

2010-07-26T19:35:00.000+02:00

These days I had a problem on my german homepage: The german characters "ä ö & ü" were not displayed correctly - instead, just a question mark was shown. To solve the problem I made the following steps:

Change the meta data tag to UTF-8

<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=UTF-8\" />

Save all (php) files on the server in UTF-8 format
Tell mySQL to send information in UTF-8

mysql_set_charset(\\\'utf8\\\', $connection);

After that, the page passed the w3 validator and works well.

Photo - MacBook Pro

2010-07-23T23:26:00.002+02:00

Title: MacBook Pro

10 Mar '10, 5.42pm CET PST
This is the first picture which was taken of my Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch.

Photo - Take a break

2010-07-23T00:41:00.004+02:00

Take a break
Uploaded by klein0r

This picture was taken in the Starbucks near the "Altmarkt" in Dresden, Germany. It is one of about 650 photos which were created on my 5-day vacation in Dresden and Leipzig.

Flickr photo updates

2010-07-23T00:19:00.000+02:00

Today I came back from my holiday trip to Dresden (Germany) - I have taken lots of pictures there and want to share them with you. I took this as a reason to connect my Flickr account with the blog - automatic posts will be created when new pictures are uploaded on Flickr.

Hope you enjoy it!

FLAC to MP3 conversion

2010-07-17T14:29:00.000+02:00

Today I had the problem that I had to convert .flac files into .mp3 files on my Mac. The way to do this (and lot of other useful conversions) is xact (Freeware).

Just try it!

New URLs

2010-07-15T20:46:00.000+02:00

Today I have configured my domains klein0r.de and mkleine.de to redirect to my blog! I hope the number of visitors will increase the next days.

Enjoy the new easier way to access my blog!

Bye bye Samsung

2010-07-15T20:43:00.000+02:00

These days I have decided to sell my Samsung H1 mobile and switch to the iPhone 4 or iPhone 3Gs - which iPhone I will buy depends on the price and the offers I will get.

My decision is based on the poor extension possibilities for the Samsung H1 and the development options. There doesn't exist a real community and no one uses the Vodafone 360 Services.

I plan to develop iPhone and iPad applications in the future - you can find links to these applications in my blog!

New blog layout

2010-07-15T19:40:00.003+02:00

Lot of thanks to Google! I hadn't had enough time to design my own Blog Layout - but with the new designer it is so easy to create a custom design.

Hope you enjoy it! I will improve it the next days.

EDIT: The following sites are holding a lot of useful gadgets - just try them out: bloggergadgets.org, gadgetsforblogger.com! Another great source for developing gadgets is bloggerbuster.com

Samsung H1 hacking - First steps

2010-06-09T19:07:00.000+02:00

I've updated my Samsung H1 just two days ago - and today I found an article how to "hack" the H1/M1! But I was not able to test it, because of the new firmware version (Phone: i8320BUJA2, PDA: i8320BUJC1, CSC: i8320VD2IJ6) - Just type *#1234# to see the version of your mobile.

You can find all about the "hack" in the following thread:
http://www.limo-os.com/

Just to summarize the thread:
In older versions of the H1 it was possible to type file:/ in the browser to get access to the complete file system. I don't know if opera is able to modify system files, but it was possible to open any document.

Another hint is the "Perfecto Mobile Interface" - you have to dial *#782872#. But I don't know what it is or how I can be used.

It seems like there exists a software which enables downloading the software from your mobile. You can find it on this site:
http://samsungflash.webs.com/apps/wiki/odin-multiloader + tutorial.
Additionally you can download some i8320 firmware versions here.

I haven't tested any of the files or executables.
ALL DOWNLOADS ARE NOT A PART OF THIS SITE - YOU TRY ALL FILES AND METHODS AT YOUR OWN RISK! IT IS POSSIBLE THAT YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR GUARANTEE WHEN YOU WILL EXECUTE ONE OF THE LINKED FILES! IT IS ALTHOUGH POSSIBLE THAT SOME FILES MAY DAMAGE YOUR PHONE!

MacBook Pro - problems with DVDs

2010-05-29T15:36:00.002+02:00

Today I had the first problems with my macbook: I wouldn't read any DVD - CDs worked well. After some time with google, I found the following solution: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2801

I had just to shutdown the system and to start it again (reboot will not help!).

Hope this will help as much people as possible!

Batch image conversion

2010-04-20T16:04:00.000+02:00

At the weekend I took hundreds of photos with my Nikon D80 in RAW format (.NEF). These days I planned to upload them to a mobile.me account. But before I started uploading, I had to convert the RAW-Files into JPEG files - but which is the easiest way to do this?

After some usage of google, I found a nice tool called Rawker. This tools enables you to define batch jobs to convert all of your images! Very simple, very cool! And the best: Its free!

Just try it!

Rawker download link:

http://raifra.fh-friedberg.de/Mac/index-en.html

Very useful Mac OS X Software

2010-03-05T20:17:00.000+01:00

Hi there, this will be a post about my favorite software for my brand new macbook pro!
I still know that there exists a lot of posts like this. But I just want to make a list which contains the software which helped the the most! So I will share this information with you.

Here we go:
Firstly I want to show you gimp Glims, this is a Safari plugin which gives you a lot of new options in the preferences menu. You can change tab behavoir for example. Futhermore it shows the site icons and modifies the search engine. Very useful!

The second 'must have' is Perian which adds lots of codecs to QuickTime. After the installation you can play nearly every codec with the shipped player - nearly means: everything instead of windows media player files. To play wmv-files you have to install Flip4Mac.

If you are using ICQ (or another messenger), you have to install Adium. This wonderful messenger supports lots of protocols. You can customize this IM as you like it - you will find plugins, skins, themes, icons, ..., on AdiumXtras.

When you want to get more information about you mac, you can install some dashboard widgets. I really like iStatPro which is although available for you iPhone or iPod. This widget shows you many information about current traffic, cpu speed, fan speed, temperatures and many many more!

The best commercial software for mac is developed by Panic. Here you will find extremely nice software like ftp tools and development tools.

New hardware arrived

2010-03-02T21:18:00.001+01:00

Hello together,

this isn't just my first post in 2010 - no, this is my first post on my brand new MacBook Pro 13 inch! I spent about 4 hours on Mac OS X Snow Leopard right now and it is just incredible! I love everything! I can't imagine how I could stay such a long time with different versions of Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, Vista, 7).

So, from up this point I will primary develop software for Mac OS - with the help of XCode. But before I can start programming, I think a have a lot to learn about the new operating system, my new development interface and so on.

I hope I can report the first success stories as soon as possible!

Regards

Installation of GoPear in a windows XAMPP environment

2009-12-13T16:40:00.001+01:00

On the web there exist a lot of providers for web space / web hosting. The most of them (if you haven't a dedicated server with full access) you can't install PEAR extensions by yourself. In this case you have to install GoPear. When you follow the posted link you will get a lot of PHP code. Copy this code into a new file with a name of your choice into a new folder on your web server.

After that, open this file with a web browser. You will find some installation instructions which you have to follow. When you install GoPEAR on windows (in an XAMPP development environment), please read the following hints:

In the field with number 4 you have to change the slash in a back slash - the fields 5 to 7 should although contain back slashes only!
In the fields 4 to 7 you have to change the name of the variable from $php_dir to $prefix (this will ensure that you won't get conflicts with the normal PEAR installation).
Field 8 is allowed to hold normal slashes ;)
In the field with number 11 you have to change the path to your PHP executable (with leading drive letter and back slashes - e.g. C:\XAMPP\PHP\php.exe)
When the installation is completed, it is possible that you have to configure your index.php (which has been downloaded): Uncomment the line which sets the $pear_user_config variable and set the value to the pear.conf file.
After opening the PEAR front end in a web browser you have to change the configuration: Change all normal slashes in path definitions to back slashes and add the path to the php.ini file.

Now you should have a running PEAR environment. Add all channels you need and add packages of your choice. The channel for doctrine is pear.phpdoctrine.org.

When you install this environment on a productive system you should protect the directory with the help of .htaccess and .htpasswd!

ORM framework for PHP

2009-12-12T17:52:00.000+01:00

At the beginning of 2009 I have planned a new web site. In this project I planned to use on feature which I haven't used in PHP until that time: An ORM-Framework. After some research on the web, I've found the propel framework which looks very good. The first challenge was to install the framework as a PEAR extention for PHP. This wasn't very easy because my web hoster doesn't allow the installation of additional PEAR packages. So I had to install GoPEAR. I will write a short introduction to install GoPEAR in another post in the future.

After I've installed propel and had written my first xml configuration, there were some relationships in the generated PHP classes missing. But, all in one it was very easy to generated tables and classes with this configuration files. The only challenge was to add new columns or change existing. After I set up this environment, I hadn't time to finish that projekt. Now - about one year later - I'm planning to continue the project. Because on the software market the times are changing fast I had a look in the internet again about alternative ORM frameworks. After a short research I found the doctrine framework which is although a part of the PHP Symphony framework. This look very promisingly because it contains more features than the propel framework. I will port the existing database to the new framework this afternoon and will report about the results and new collected experience.

I've read that propel is more stable than the doctrine framework because of the longer existance. But I will try something new.

My first steps in Widget development

2009-12-10T18:24:00.000+01:00

About one week ago, I've made my first experiences with widget development for the Vodafone store - which were not as good as hoped. So lets start:

Widgets are nothing else than little web applications - written in Javascript and designed with HTML and CSS. Every widget contains a config.xml which holds some settings and the whole content is simply zipped into a file with wgt extention. So it is possible to extract every widget downloaded and to modify whatever you want. Please recognize that the widgets which you can download from the Vodafone widget web site are signed by vodafone. You have to configure your mobile to trust every downloaded widget - in case of my Samsung H1 you have to type a gsm code which allows you to set the trust level manually. But, back to the widgets:

You can use any editor you want to create a widget. There is no need of any additional tools or programs. All you need is an editor (like Notepad++) and a zip packaging program. You can find a short how to on the Vodafone AppStar web site.

Because at first I want to collect some experience bevore writing my own widget, I have downloaded the meebo widget with the intention to resize it to my mobile (because it was definitely to small and filled not even the half of the screen). After some modifications the widget worked with the new resolution of 480x800 in Opera dragonfly very well. Now I wanted to store the widget on my phone. It is not enough to copy it directly with the windows explorer (or anything else) to the phone memory. You have to upload it to the web and open this URL with the phone (in my case - it is possible that other mobiles handles this in another way). After opening the widget with the web browser the phones asks if the widget should be installed. When you confirm this message, it is added to the main menu.

Okay, lets start the widget... But... It isn't working. Just the background image with no controls. Thanks a lot... But why? I had no chance to debug this widget remotely. So I have decided to delete all installed tools (yes, there exist some official packager which do nothing else than help you to create the configuration XML file and to zip all files - useless!). Now I am no longer interested in developing widgets. I think it is nearly impossible to create a (more or less complex) widget which will work on all phones which are able to run widgets.

Please leave a comment if you know how to debug widgets (I wouldn't tell them applications) for the Samsung H1!

Code highlighting in blogs / the web

2009-12-08T19:42:00.001+01:00

I've written a little PHP application which is using GeSHi to highlight different codes and generates HTML content for highlighting. It's very simple but very useful. I will use it to post code in this blog.

Try it!

Heres a short C# example:

class VerySimple
{
    int    simpleValue = 0;
}
class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        VerySimple vs = new VerySimple();
    }
}

It is planned that i add some styles and a border around the output. At the moment I haven't time to implement that. Have fun with this feature!

Samsung SGH-I8320 / Vodafone H1 development

2009-12-08T18:48:00.002+01:00

A few day ago I've bought a new cell phone - a Samsung H1 powered by Vodafone. The phone has everything you need: GPS, HSDPA, WLAN, HSUPA, five mega pixel camera with HD video ability and so on. I thought it is a nice alternative to Apples iPhone - which everyone bought already. But it isn't:

I've tested the phone some days and missed some information about developing 'apps' for my new mobile. So I've contacted the German Vodafone support to give me the required information. But, is is hard to explain a young girl in the first level support what developing software means... She asked me which software I'm planning to download from the Vodafone web site. But, this was not very helpful... After a longer discussion she phoned the back level support by herself. After a few minutes in the line with some 'suboptimal' music, she told me that Vodafone is not responsible for this and I should contact Samsung directly - thats what I've done. I wrote an email to the German support team and got no answer right now (about one week ago).

So I've decided to collect information by myself. I found the following information:

The operating system is LiMo - a new Linux distribution of Android
The phone has the same CPU as Apple`s iPhone - an ARM Cortex A8 with 600MHz
The 'Vodafone AppStore' is nothing special. Vodafone named their little programs widgets - which are nothing else than small websites written in HTML, CSS, supported by JavaScript (which allows some interaction with integrated hardware like the GPS module)
Samsung has an open source platform where you can download some source code. But, this is useless for me, because I don't know how to copy new software to the phone or change existing parts.
A portscan of the mobile has shown, that there a some open ports (I found 3 - but I got no answer on any port using telnet - my skills in networking aren't the best...).

Please leave a comment if you found more information about software development on the H1.

Visual Studio 2010

2009-12-08T18:25:00.000+01:00

I am currently installing beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010 by Microsoft. At work I already got some impressions of the new version, but now I want to go more into detail at home. I hope this version will be a little firmer than the first beta. I haven't worked a long time with the Studio already, but got already some crashes and exceptions.

The reason why the visual studio setup is currently executing: I want to check out the new features of the .NET framework 4.0 and of Silverlight 4 ! I hadn't much contact with Silverlight right now. But I hope this will change the next weeks and month! I think this a future technology which has a better concept and structure than products of other companies (like flash/flex by Adobe).

I will inform you when I've build up my first applications!

My first post

2009-12-08T17:39:00.001+01:00

Hi together,
yes, I have created my first blog. I don't know exactly if i will spend as much time as i expect in this blog. But I hope I will post a lot of information about my development 'experience' - to say it the way Microsoft does.
Okay, a few words about myself. My name is Matthias, I'm 22 and I live in Germany (where I was born, too). This summer I have finished my vocational training as a software developer. Now i want to share my new impressions - regarding software development - with the world. I hope anybody will read this! ;)
I know my English is not the best, but I will try to post everything in English to reach more people!
So far. I hope the next post will follow as soon as possible!