the untold story of a remarkable ENIAC programmer

Watch this:


Resource: Here.

IPhone 3G problem.

Few days ago I started to have problems with my IPhone, problem is very simple then I'm turn on 3G (Settings->General->Network->3G) my mobile operator is gone - "No Service... Searching..." Then I turn it off, my "Omnitel" is back.

Maybe anyone have similar problem? 

More Google Code!!

Few days ago google announced this:

We're increasing the maximum file sizes from 20MB to 40MB, Subversion quotas from 100MB to 1GB, and download quotas from 100MB to 2GB.

Google Code

So have a nice coding folks! :) O.S.4eva. 

Monumental Video projection 2009

Wow! this is really cool stuff!

Unit Testing 2

Is your code full of if statements? Switch statements? Do you have the same switch statement in various places? When you make changes do you find yourself making the same change to the same if/switch in several places? Did you ever forget one?

This is very nice. The guy really knows how to explain things in easy to understand way! Thanks Misko!

Password Protect any application.

Don't know how to do this?

Then EMPHATY is for you.

Empathy is a special utility allowing you to password-protect any executable file. Empathy can modify an EXE file so that it will require a password to run. Only a person knowing the password will be allowed to run the protected program.

Empathy is postcardware. You can use it freely for an unlimited period...

Google Tasks

Today I noticed that Google added new feature to it's Labs, it's called Tasks! Now You can organize your day, meetings and etc.. It's like TODO list in your Gmail.

Resource: Here

Google Web Security.

Hehe today I found intresting video, IMHO it's very logical idea for Google since Google has the information about practically everything.

"Guide to Writing Testable Code"

To keep our code at Google in the best possible shape we provided our software engineers with these constant reminders. Now, we are happy to share them with the world.

I found these guidelines useful not just for testing purposes but in general, it is great to have such style design. It's more readable, more understandable and have more performance.

Resource: HERE.

Snake Game, different way.

hehe, this the old good snake game, but in different(very intresting) way.

Notice when web site goes down/up !

Have you ever was pisse* off checking some web site which is currently down, or your home page/blog goes down and you notice it just some time latter.
Now I have an solution for ya:

Ding It's Up is a free service that alerts you via text (SMS), twitter or email when a website goes down or when it comes back up. We will never send you a text/email unless it is to inform you about a website you requested information for - you can unsubscribe at any time.

Resource: Here.

Unit Testing.

This is great video from Google about Unit Testing:

I really want to start doing UT in my code.

Yes, it's time consuming(it seems like this at first :) ).

Yes, the amough of code is approximatelly the same as your original code.

But hey, then you have unit tests you can easily know that all your classes and etc works correctly, you can easily catch bugs, you can easily reproduce the bugs latter.

And in the end it really helps to save time after you finish your product, because it's tested already in some cases, and if some bug happens you can easily write a test for it and see what will happen, Then you exactly will know what went wrong.

New Google Reader Look.

Nice, Today I noticed that Google reader has new look, awesome! 

What's new:

• Updated look and feel - nice smooth looking ;)
  
• Collapsible navigation - thats is, I think, Very useful then you have subscribed lots of feeds.
  
• Hide unread counts - hehe this is most useful think for me, because sometimes it really disturbs me, then i come to work and see that i have 1000+ unread messages, so I HAVE TO read or at least look at them all, and that's just consumes a lot of my time, since I could do some code instead :)
  
• More feed bundles! - Feed bundles are small sets of feeds related to a topic that you can subscribe to all at once. Historically, these were done "by hand" by the Reader team :)
  

What's moved:

• The "Refresh" button from the subscription list is now in the Subscriptions options menu or triggered by simply clicking on the word "Subscriptions"
• The "Show all - updated" controls are now in the Subscriptions options menu.
• The "Add subscription" button has moved to the top of the navigation pane.

I think Google Reader  is the best RSS reader ever :) 

Some time ago I was using some application to read RSS and that is just silly then you have to open it each time, it lagged a lot, and was looking like real sh*t :) and it was not synchronized with each other, so that I read at work, and need to remember and mark as "readed" then I back home.

Resource: Here. 

Another Google Phone.

Australian-based tech importer Kogan has revealed the first Google Android-based phone that will ship in Australia -- and only the second that will ship worldwide.

It's called "Agora", and there are two models that will be sold outright, without contract to any network. Agora will cost $299, and Agora Pro $399. Both models include HSDPA 3G, Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR, QWERTY keyboard, 2.5” touchscreen and a microSD slot. The Pro adds WiFi, GPS and a 2.0 megapixel camera to the base model's specs. 

I think this is nice news, since I'm happy with my iPhone but in another hand I want to try this one too :) The biggest plus of Google android is that Google Android is Open Source.

Resource: Here.

Melt Mail. Your Temporary e-mail forwarding

Have you ever downloaded a software, where you have to register with your e-mail to receive the activation-code or the download-link?
Have you ever registered to a forum with your real e-mail, just to post one question?
There are a lot of scenarios as such. And in every case, you give your real e-mail address and get tons of junk-mail as a thank you.
With Melt Mail, you only give your unique Melt Mail address (which forwards to your own), get the desired information and after a defined period of time (the melting point) the Melt Mail address will be deleted.

I found this very useful few days ago, then i had to register to some random forum for some information.
But others can hate this service by saying that what if they forget password or smth, so I have to say, that for random forum/etc. use simple password, which one you will never forget.

You can read more/ try it HERE.

Best browser

extremetech.com made a very cool test of all top-used browsers these days,

Browsers used:

• Firefox 3.04,
  
• Chrome beta,
  
• Internet Explorer 7 (7.0.6001.18000),
  
• Opera 9.6,
  
• Safari 3.2 (526.26.13)
  

Test results

Winner

Resource: Here

IMHO:


Yeah, maybe Google Chrome is the best in speed, but I still cant use it every time, because it does't have any plugins support, that why Mozilla is my default browser, Chrome is good for fast links review, news reading, web surfing, but not for my work :)

History of led's: "The LED"

Make magazine presents very intresting and infuent video :

MAKE presents: The LED from make magazine on Vimeo.

Photo Post No.1

Hey folks, this is my first post in this case, for now I only share this on DeviantArt account, but I  think it might be interesting to show *best* of them here (these are first photos of my tests with my new camera):

Leaf Life

 

Long Conversation 

 

Daily Routine 

 

Freshness Tools 

 

Budding Thing... 

 

Before Night  

 

Please, sit... 

Please, feel free to leave your comments, critics, suggestions, and whatever you want to say about it :)

Threading in C#

FREE Book can be found here

This post is just recomendation for all who want to know/learn more about threading, especially threading in C#.

This book, helped me understand a lot about threading, and how it really works, how I can use it in my software sollutions and etc. After this I can say I have a quite understanding about what I do in this area :)

Thanks you Joseph, thank you a lot :)

Encounter

(image taken from here)

This weekend i'm and my friends will try to start our mission in this intresting game :)

More about game:
Everyone has, at some point, searched for an entertaining new activity – just like the character played by Michael Douglas in the movie "Game,” who seems to have everything but is easily bored. One year Douglas’ character receives a very special present for his birthday. His brother presents him "the game,” which mixes fantasy with reality and it is impossible to get out of until it is finished.

After watching that movie a very adventurous man from Belarus, Ivan Masljukov, decided to turn it into reality. In 2001 he created the active urban game called "Encounter.”

At the moment, there are about 6,841 teams and 69,371 players registered in 159 cities around the globe. These are people of different professions, sex, religions and age (starting 18 by the rules of the game and going up to 60 as the practice shows) all united by one thing – the passion for adventure.

This is only "the game” at first sight – the real "encounter” prepares itself for each game like for war and each level is a battle of minds. This is a game that becomes one’s reality, makes eyes sparkle and takes the breath away. Little by little it draws the participant deeper, taking them in with its absolute unpredictability. This is a lifestyle.

There are a few types of "encounter,” but the most popular are the combat games, played by teams. Each team is divided into a "coordination center” and "field players,” who in turn set up the car-crews. Everyone has an access to the Internet – that’s where the game starts and all assignments and communication happens.

The coordination center is obviously for "coordinating” where to go while the crews are doing the dirty work – they go to the place and actually take the code. There are approximately 10 codes in each game, hidden in uninhabited places. These places could be anything from old houses and huge abandoned factories to military and industrial objects, pipes at boiler-houses where one has to climb to the very top to get the code, or under the ground in a sewerage system.

After one code is inserted into the game system, the team gets another assignment and it continues until all of them are done. Combat games are played on Saturdays, starting at 9:00 p.m. and going all the way until the morning. It is definitely much healthier and more fun to spend time doing this than drinking in some sultry night club.

Another type of "encounter” game is a new development this summer and definitely worth mentioning - Wet Wars. In this game everyone is the predator and the prey at the same time.

Each player receives the profile of a victim and has their profile given out to another player. Once the prey is hunted down the object is to shoot them with a water-weapon. The prey’s task is to avoid the predator.

Once the prey is "killed” they give out their "life-code,” which then has to be entered on the Web site. By doing this, the predator receives the profile of a new victim. Finally, the number of participants is narrowed down to two and they start hunting each other.

The last but not least interesting, is the "Photo Hunt.” In this game the players receive guidelines for each task, formulated in one sentence or a few words. There are about 10 tasks all together and the objective is to make the most creative and high-quality photo according to the guidelines. This game usually lasts for a few days or even weeks, so there is the possibility to carefully plan each shoot.

Encounter is a game that is able to interest anyone of any age or character. It is an international network that makes it all too easy to get addicted for life.

This description taken from here.

Want to annoy your friends or LOL a lot ?

Watch this (wolf, bear, rabbit):

Google Profiles

Huh, Google released new interesting feature, it's easy way to represent your self it's Google Profiles.

If you want to setup yours, you can go to this link (login to your email account first)

You can find my profile here.

Tokyo, I'm comming!!!

TOKYO

I'M REALLY COMMING!

(picture taken from here)

So I have good news! I'm going to Tokyo!!! and be there for about two weeks! woohoo.

I'll celebrate new year in traditional japanese style, visit some old cities, see the deepness of the japanese culture. It was my dream to visit Japan since I was kid, first all it was about samurais, latter technology, then anime, and now I want to see it all! I definately will go to Akihabara since I'll live in about 20 minutes way by foot from it :)

So then i'll be there i'll post new things about it and what happening :)

Btw. I'll leave Lithuania 28th of December and back 12th of January.

"gold" in code

Recently I was in the middle of bug searching in some of my sources. And accidentally started to laugh, LAUD :)
And you know why ? because of a genius naming of my methods....

here is some examples:

So the conclusion of this post, is that sometimes is nice to see smth like this, cuz it's fun, and in other hand, it's very nasty thing then you need to find a bug in such a methods :D imagine if all method naming is smth like that...  =)

Hidden Visual Studio shortcuts (Tips and Tricks)

Here is an list of hidden shortcuts for Visual Studio IDE.
Go To Definition - F12
Navigate through Go To Definition Stack - CTRL + SHIFT + 7 (goes forward), CTRL + SHIFT + 8 (goes back)
Find all references - SHIFT + F12
Navigate through any list in IDE - F8
Code snippets - CTRL + SPACE
Insert snippet - press TAB 2x.
Display a list of all possible snippets - CTRL + K + X
Insert missing reference - CTRL + .

CodeRush Xpress add-in features & shortcuts (I'll mention just thous which are useful for me, but there are much more of them):
Select Camel parts of text - SHIFT +ALT + arrows (<=, =>).
Select logical code blocks - CTRL + ALT + (+/-).

Resources: Microsoft Visual C# IDE: Tips and Tricks

Google Browser

Yesterday Google Released Google Chrome - Google browser!

It's pretty nice, I really feel that it works much more faster than Mozilla Firefox (but i have lots of add-ons on it).

Chrome has some nice features, f.ex multi-threading, each tab is new process, and browser will not freeze if java script will run on one tab and etc.... 

Also you can try type "about:memory" into address bar, and you'll see all running browsers memory usage in geek style :)

I'll try to use it for a day and then i'll say my opinion about it, and what i'm missing in it.

iPhone 3G

Hey, few days ago I ordered iPhone 3G, black one, 8GB (hope it'll be enough storage for me) woohoo!!, can't wait I'll hold it in my hands :)

My first steps will be Unlock it to use in Lithuania with any sim-card, Jailbreak it - to use any software without much pain, and install tiger-x86 through vmware on my win-based pc, and try to develop some app's by my self.

I'll let you know how I unlocked it and etc. Maybe I'll post an article how I did that.

Many cool stuff you can find at iPhone wiki. (Thanks to George Hotz ).

Visual Studio 2008 Image Library

Today I found intresting thing, that Visual Studio contains an image pack, which you can find in
\...\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\VS2008ImageLibrary\

it contains more than 1800 images for your software applications :)

Blizzard Announced Diablo 3

 (image from here)

Yesterday as always I was reading slashdot. And accidentally I found intresting news that Blizzard  announced Diablo 3!!! that's just GREAT!

And also today I found another new thing : "Blizzard Introduces One-Time Password Devices For WoW"

The A-Z of Programming Languages: C++

Bjarne Stroustrup of C++ fame dissects the history of his famed programming language

Read here:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;408408016;pp;1;fp;16;fpid;1

super uber IRC.

Hey ;) my dream was to have cmd-style irc client on windows based system, one moment i thought to write one by my self, but yesterday I found super, SUPER IRC client, it have all features I need and much more :) just i'm very excited about it now :)

Just chect it out :) http://irssi.org/ << the client of the future :)

New work place wol.2

My new work place wol.1

This is my new work place

GCJ 2008!

Hey folks, today when I came to work I got an e-mail from Google that they are inviting me to GCJ 2008 :) so I think I'll try to participate, if I'll have time to prepare :) heh.

You can join the contest here:
http://code.google.com/codejam/

Visual Studio IDE

Whowaviba!

Does your programming IDE is borring ? NOT ANYMORE! ;)

This might be interesting:

http://idehotornot.ning.com/

Also look at the:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=22e69ae4-7e40-4807-8a86-b3d36fab68d3&displaylang=en

And:

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/index.html

My IDE now looks like this:

Cheers ;)

Deviantart

So as you know now i'm starting to do some photo thing :) so I think that posting my photos here have no point ;) because none of you commenting them and etc, so I decided to post them on deviantart site, i have small ( for now ) gallery there. And users from whole the world can view it, comment it, and i'm learning from that.

visit my page here:
http://halfas.deviantart.com/

My first nice photo :)

So... yesterday I was walking in the forest with dogs :) and cathed some nice sunset views. This is the one I like most:

Latter I'll post more.


Ah.
P.S.
in the day I've taken some more not so good photos, but I can still post few of them here:

My new digital photo camera ^_^

Yesterday I bought Nikon D60, I tested it a little bit, and I think it's wonderful thing. Also I have two lenses its: 18-55mm VR and 55-200mm VR I think I'll use them for a while, and latter maybe I'll buy another new one :)

So some time latter I'll start posting my photos :) Maybe I'll try do some photo-art thing. First I need to learn how to use it, and how to do beautiful things.

So that's it for now.

Programmer

My colegue

4 Months.

So my last post was long time ago. So what happen in that time..? Not much...( if I can say so, in other case there was LOTS of new things to me and etc, but I talk about them latter ), I started to work in wonderful company, I'm very happy about it, and every morning I go to work like I go to the party, it really exciting :) I don't want to say why it is so :) so live with it :) or you always can ask, and I'll try to answer your questions :). Also I bought ms ergonomic keyboard 4000 It's magic thing :) you can't imagine how comfortable it is, you can type all day long and you'll not feel any pain in your wrists, fingers or anywhere else in your arms...

My seconds posts will be smth about my work and what I've learned in C#, or about my new photo camera :D

gl dudes:)

Laptop lid crackle problem.

Some days ago my laptop lid started to crackled then I close/open it. At first I haven't noticed it, but latter it started to crackle more and more loud. I step up and solved this problem with WD-40. I sprayed some to these places:

Now my lid works ( moves ) smooth and soft.

P.S. If you will do the same be careful!! do not spay onto lid screen, keyboard, ect.. ( you can't hurt them but you can have a long trip to clean thing ( oil ) out :) ) also save your or your work watching friend eyes!

Lost (and i'm happy) in my education.

So if we go back in time ( with time machine or somehow ) , I was young and stupid(not so, keep reading and you will know why). My birth (&soul) town is Vilnius I've finished school there. All my life I've thought about my future being a programmer, because I started wondering about programming when I was a little boy, so I've imagined that being a student will be so cool and interesting. But I didn't know where to go up to study, yes in Vilnius there are two good universities where you can study Computer Science, this is VGTU and VU but there are some minuses that I don't like, this is a lot of theoretics, so I entered to best in Lithuania university in Computer Science this is KTU (Kaunas University of Technology), best is because that there are a lot of practice, they use newest technology (sometimes), but I need to relocate to Kaunas. I thought it would be nice to know new city, new people, new (student) life-style and etc. Yes at very first half of years it was nice, interesting and wonderful, but latter it became to a sad sight, because I'm so ALONE there, all my best friends and my girlfriend was in Vilnius, all my soul is in Vilnius. So I've suffered some more time ( about an two years ). And thats it. Now I've made my decision, I will go back and continue one's studies in Vilnius. Also I've a got very good job in DtecNet software international company as a anti-piracy and tools to change human factor in the company, division programmer(C#).

And I have no regrets about unfinishing my studies in KTU. (maybe I'll back there to finish my Master degree but it will be some time latter and with big MAYBE)

Now I'm very happy ( how to ) and will try to live with that.

My second discrete mathematics term paper is finished.

Last week I finished my discrete mathematics second term paper. It was pretty interesting and kinda very simple, the assignment was to create an algorithm to calculate Gaussian Inverse of matrix ( huh, work with old good matrix ) .


The features are:
# Unlimited* *(±5.0 × 10−324 to ±1.7 × 10308) matrix size (but C# dataGridView component is VERY and VERY slow...)
# Very fast calculation algorithm.

REPOST: My discrete mathematics term paper is finished.

Yesterday I finished my discrete mathematics term paper, it was about comparing two heuristics graph coloring algorithms, it’s RLF [Recursive Largest First] and DSATUR - named because of it’s saturation degree. It’s was pretty fun programming My findings was that RLF algo works faster, and kinda better.

h ere you can see a screenshoot:

REPOST: My new (old) thing for my ears.

Last week I bought iPod NANO Second Generation 4GB, and I’m really happy about it, it really worth that price, because it’s very small, VERY FAST working (no stuck’s, no glitches), battery life is up to 24 hours !! :), it’s easily synchronizes with my PC and all songs are updating automatically (not by default), and I can bring with my self about 1000 mp3. It’s just amazing.

I found just one minus, I don’t find photos possibility useful, IMHO apple could do iPod nano 2g more smaller and just for music and that you could see CD cover, that would be very enough :). So this is my opinion about my new techy thing.

REPOST: Some fresh news in Music organizing.

Do you have a lot of music? Do you organizing/tagging it by your self (like me) ? then keep reading.

I always was using Winamp 2.91 + HotKeys plugin, because it’s small, low memory usage and etc. I have about ~9000 songs. And I organizing my music by my very self, tagging by my self, tagging is most boring process… Until now. I downloaded newest Winamp version 5.5, and found pretty nice new feature “Auto-Tag”. Auto-Tag connects to Gracenote music databas , checks mp3 fingerprint (I think so ) and gets tags. So I tagged ALL my music in ~ 10 mins. Isn’t it cool ?

REPOST: Tools vol.1 (On Fresh System)

Now what about tools that my be useful to every one who works with pc more than 6 hours a day :) Then i reinstalled XP, first I installed was ant-virus(need to be fast, and with low memory usage), my choose was NOD32, because it’s very light and ultra fast. Also I installed, Mozilla Firefox, why ? because it’s best browser in the world! Also CCleaner to remove all kinds of junk. This was first software I installed on fresh system. Now I’ll prepare for work: fist I install Free Launch Bar and create structure like this :

Now I can install software I need and put shortcuts into right places.

REPOST: My New System.

Few weeks ago I both new laptop (my first one) Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi2528. It’s pretty nice laptop, BUT by default it has vista installed… I thought It might be cool to work with new OS, but vista s*x, yes it good looking, but that’s all.

1. Vista uses a lot of ram (if you work with Aero it might be about 1.5 GB ram usage).

2. Vista lags (my laptop is Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz).

Thats why, I as fast I could installed win XP, of course with some problems, I needed XP installation with integrated jRaid & SATA drivers.

I solve that pretty fast, just used nLite ( more here )

Now my system is full set up & ready to go

Next my post will be about Tools that I use, and recommend.