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A380 Cockpit - 8/24/2008
You like planes? You'll love this virtual tour...
TDataModule - 8/23/2008
Better not to use datamodules than to use them incorrectly...
Want to find out more, come to SDC this October
Safari! WTF? - 8/21/2008
This isn't the first time it's happened...serious memory leak. Sitting on a blank page, just going up and up and up.
Anything "wrong" with this design? - 8/20/2008
Using a IoC container (irrelevant which one but let's assume it's Unity). Here's my main method: And there's my CustomerController class. Assuming this code compiles, you see anything "wrong"?
Theater Security - 8/19/2008
Theater Security really annoys me. A couple of days ago I made a reservation for one night in a Hotel. I called the Hotel directly and they asked for my details, the typical: full name, number of nights, etc. I offered to give them my CC number over the phone and they said that they don't allow for that; the correct procedure is to write the numbers down (in handwriting) on a sheet of paper, put my full name on it and fax it to them (note there is no requirement to sign it). So I do that, and call them back to make sure all is in order, and it seemed to be.
Today, I get a call from them, informing me that I did not correctly follow their instructions. It seems I had to also fax them a copy of my card.
"Why?", I asked. "Company policy". "Why?", I asked again. "Sir, it's Company Policy". After going back and forth a couple of times, she tells me that they need to have some "physical" proof of the validity of the card. I told them to just charge me the room now to make sure the number is valid and save me the "trouble" of faxing it to them again, to which she replied "well once you send the copy of the card, please indicate on the piece of paper that you authorize us to charge the room now", at which point I decided to give up and send them the fax.
However, for some odd reason, my fax machine switched to Low quality when the fax was going through. Unsurprisingly when I called them back, they told me that the card had come through completely black; they couldn't see anything on it. I asked her if I needed to now find another fax machine to send it to her in higher quality, to which she replied no. She said that this was normal, that all customers cards pretty much were unreadable once they came through the fax machine, and that was the reason why they ask for the numbers to be written down in handwriting. Since I had already done this, it seemed all was OK and my reservation was now confirmed.
I then asked what was the whole purpose of sending the card if it was illegible, to which she politely replied: "It's Company Policy Sir".
Kind of reminds me of the same type of theatrical security we have to suffer at airports. I once asked asked one of the security guards at Malaga Airport why I had to switch on my laptop for him to see it boot up Windows. I was expecting something in the line of "Sir, it's policy". Instead he told me to ask those that suffered the attacks in New York. No comments!
AppStore now active - 7/22/2008
AppStore is now active for Spain, which is very cool. And yes, the first app I downloaded was PhoneSaber. My wife thinks I'm a strange sad little man, waving my phone around. They'll never truly understand the power of The Force .
Ok, that last sentence was lame...
Safari - 7/17/2008
I've been really impressed with Safari on my iPhone. All my favorite web sites look good and work correctly. Even Web Access to Outlook Exchange. Since I dropped Firefox a couple of weeks ago, I have been desperately looking for a replacement browser for Internet Explorer. There are many things of IE that are most annoying, specially in regard to tabbed browsing, password management and that it just doesn't seem to like the auto-type feature of KeePass. Having had success with Safari on the phone, I decided to give it a try. Wow. It's great. All the features I like of Firefox are there, but even better than Firefox, it works with Sharepoint sites (TFS) perfectly. However, for some odd reason, it won't authenticate my Web Access to Exchange...WTF???
WPF Business Logic - 7/14/2008
His proposed solution is taking advantage of WPF's extremely powerful binding capabilities. I "quote" again:
He's happy with that. I'm not! He's putting business logic inside the view. And it scares me to see things like this because it tends to non-testable and "obscure" problems.
Protecting the iPhone - 7/14/2008
I have a tendency of dropping and scratching my phones (also known as having two kids). So I decided to be cautious this time. Seeing how new the device is, and nearly all shops are out of stock, there was little chance of finding a cover for it. I had a better chance to pick an iPod case. First shop I went to, I found one. Tried it on, a little tight, but overall fit. So decided to take it.
Next day I notice a strange behavior while making a call. I dial the number and the screen goes black. I can't get the damn thing to come back on. I click the sleep/wake-up button and it hangs up the phone. WTF!!! Well turns out that the iPhone comes with some sensors on the top left part to detect when your phone is next to your ear and save backlight (battery). My cover is iPod focused, not iPhone focused, and therefore, the sensors, as well as the camera and the receiver are covered by the case. Now the camera is obvious, but not the sensors (unless you hold it at a specific angle and correct lighting). So if you buy a iPod case, "hack" it for the iPhone.
I'm mostly happy with the device. The biggest issue I see right now is the AppStore, being tied to your iTunes account limits what applications you can buy or get for free. In fact, so far, every app I've tried to install is denied. It tells me I can only access products from the Spanish store. This is going to be a major show stopper IMHO, unless it's just a matter of time for the apps to be available worldwide. Also, there's no support for Skype directly, but you can buy a IM+ Skype subscription for $30 for lifetime. I've tried it. Can't tell if it works or not since every message I've sent out I've never gotten a reply for. Again, could be it doesn't work or as usual people ignore me.
(I had a slight issue with battery duration. If it turns out to be a real problem, I'll blog about it...)
iPhone - 7/12/2008
It was released in Spain yesterday, and I managed to pick one up today. The best way to describe it, is "it just works!". The really know their stuff on user experience. I'm really impressed.