• Why use Android?

    Posted on December 20th, 2011 Alan No comments

    This is why Dave uses it.

    I use it to test our Android version of TabbedOut.  I was able to buy a no contract phone for about $150 and sign up for a 200mb data plan for $15/month.  That compares to $200 for an iPhone and about $90/month total plan.  I don’t use my phone as a computer so 200mb is actually plenty.

  • Prefer Interfaces over Base Classes

    Posted on December 20th, 2011 Alan No comments

    Why Java Extends is evil

  • Let it crash programming

    Posted on December 20th, 2011 Alan No comments

    I’m not sure I’m sold on the notion of “Let it crash programming”.   Here are some posts on the subject.

    1 2 3 4

  • Dog For Sale

    Posted on December 6th, 2011 Alan No comments
    A guy is driving around the back woods of  Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: ‘Talking Dog For Sale ‘He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.
    The guy goes into the backyard and sees a  nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.
    ‘You talk?’ he asks.
    ‘Yep,’ the Lab replies.
    After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says ‘So, what’s your story?’
    The Lab looks up and says, ‘Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA.
    In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.’
    ‘I was one of their most valuable spies for eight  years running…
    But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.’
    ‘I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.’
    The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.
    ‘Ten dollars,’ the guy says.
    ‘Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?’
    ‘Because he’s a  Bullshitter . He’s never been out of the yard’
  • Working with Adobe Illustrator Files (.ai)

    Posted on December 6th, 2011 Alan No comments

    I received a logo created with Adobe Illustrator but didn’t have anything to view it.  Or so I thought.  Jon has a great post on how you can view .ai files by renaming them as PDF files.  He recommends InkScape as a free opensource vector based editor that can import .ai files.