Adventures As Me » Software

Application Focus Amock

telcor — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:43:27 +0000

Applications that steal focus are the bane of my computer experience. Particularly egregious are the ‘sudo’ type authentication dialogs on the OS X platform. On a multi-monitor setup ( which I have at work ) these dialogs remove the focus to a place where one is not looking. It is too easy to continue type [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Posting From Emacs

telcor — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:26:26 +0000

Today marks at least my 10th attempt at making Emacs my main editor. I’m trying harder this time however. For example, this entire post was composed and submitted directly from Emacs. A co-worker has been using Emacs exclusively for 1 year and I’m drawing on his knowledge and experience to improve my conversion. One element [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Unlocking the OS X screen saver from the command line

telcor — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:26:34 +0000

My OS X Desktop system has a problem. When the screensaver activates, there is a small window, one or two seconds in length, wherein if I depress a keyboard key or move the mouse, the screensaver does not fully activate. However, it does not de-activate, leaving me with an unusable desktop.

The system does not [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

directx is not backward compatible

telcor — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:59:11 +0000

Directx, the most common API on Windows for game development, is not backward compatible. Why?

When you upgrade to a new version of Windows ( e.g. from Windows XP to Windows Vista ) you need to install older versions of directx in order to use your older games. For Windows Vista, this means installing directx [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Twittergation needed

telcor — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:00:51 +0000

Twitter went from being “why would I use this?” to “hmmm, look how many of my friends are using it” to “why doesn’t this integrate easily with anything I use?”

The closest is via SMS, but that can be costly for how often updates happen. What I would like to see:

1. Better integration with [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

OpenSUSE Meanderings

telcor — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:00:52 +0000

At work we debated adding OpenSUSE 11 as an officially supported platform[ 1]. In the past, when doing this, I’ve preferred using the targeted platform exclusively for an extended period. For various reasons, this hasn’t been feasible this time. While testing time has been devoted to it, that doesn’t give one the same familiarity as [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

cPanel Language Module Interfaces

telcor — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:28:35 +0000

Scripting languages often provide a central location to obtain modules for use in user applications. For example, Perl has CPAN and PHP has PEAR. cPanel 11 provides an easy to use interface for managing modules for Perl, PHP and Ruby, both from WHM and cPanel. In this first of a two [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

From Tech Support to QA

telcor — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:17:10 +0000

Resolve the issue and move to the next one. This is a common mind set among the Tech Support personnel where I work. This is certainly commendable from the customer’s view point as the customer certainly wants the issue resolved and in a timely fashion. However, what benefits the customer more:

Resolve the immediate problem; [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Writing Bug Reports

telcor — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:57:14 +0000

A key thought to remember when writing a bug report is:

“The information provided must facilitate reproduction of the bug”

In other words, could a complete stranger read the report and be able to reproduce the bug in the system?

Many times, when reading bug reports submitted by customers, there are enough details missing [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Software quicklinks

telcor — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 20:44:47 +0000

When Pythons Attack. Common problems new Python developers make and how to spot and fix them MS Access Security FAQ. Details the various levels of security MS Access supports, how to use them and how to access them programmatically Why C is not my favorite programming language. Great tear down on kuro5hin. Why C [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.