Saturday, June 30, 2007

Book of faces

I first heard of Facebook aeons ago but never bothered taking a look. Then suddenly, a few weeks ago, there was huge hype about South Africans on Facebook in the press. There was mention of it on the KFM breakfast show and then Eishman, author of a blog I read regularly posted about it. I decided I should take a look.

At first I struggled to find anyone I know. The methods provided for finding friends are pretty lame. None of the schools I went to showed up in the search list. Neither did the companies I have worked for.

One of the expectations I have of this kind of site, is to be able to link up with long lost buddies whose e-mail addresses I don't have. I don't know why they don't just provide a facility to search for friends by name like other sites do. That would be the simplest and no harm could come of it as people have to confirm they are interested in linking up with you before you can interact with them.

The only way I eventually found a friend of mine was when I went to invite him to join Facebook. I happened to enter the same e-mail address he used to register on Facebook (an unlikely coincidence as he, like most of us, has several e-mail aliases) and then it told me that he was already a member.

Once I had found one friend, I was quickly able to find some others through his profile. To my surprise, it seems that half of the company I work for are Facebook addicts. I wonder why my company name search never yielded any results?

After playing with Facebook for a few weeks, I have concluded that it is a clever web site with some great ideas, but that is all there is to it. I don't think it's going to change the world and I certainly don't see what all the hype is about.

I heard from a network admin at the office that over 2GB of bandwidth went to Facebook this month. No, it wasn't me and yes, I guess it won't be long before it gets added to the blocked sites list.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Mobile codes

I discovered a neat technology on the Nokia web site called Mobile Codes. Nokia have included barcode scanning software on the N95 and other S60 devices facilitating scanning of 2D barcodes using the built-in camera.

2D barcodes can carry much more data than old fashioned 1D codes so there are loads of possibilities for this technology. For example, it would be possible to print a 2D barcode containing your contact details on the back of your business card. Contacts could then scan your business card directly into their phone's address book. Pretty cool!

I think I could use this technology to scan a Sudoku puzzle into the N95 and then have the N95 solve it as suggested by Craniac in response to my post entitled Sudoku Success.

Here is a 2D barcode containing this site's URL:

Wayne's Spot

These are screenshots of my N95 reading it off my computer's screen. After the phone has read the URL, clicking on it opens the phone's web browser and navigates to it.

Barcode Reader URL after scanning

The Blind

The BlindStretched beyond the limit
Straining, pressing in
Looking but not seeing
Reeling deep within

Tighter than a drum
Icy steel-cold mind
Heart of stone not flesh
This side of the blind

Prison bars still choking
Walls where doors have been
Radiant light once reaching
Too far to be seen

Tender hearts are aching
Solutions hard to find
Hear the cries for answers
From within the blind

Monday, June 18, 2007

What is a Dad?

Jusin and Daniel speaking on what Dads are all about...

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Father's Day

It's Father's Day tomorrow! Time to wax soppy...

Dad, what can I say? You played such a big roll in moulding and shaping me throughout my life. Words can't describe how grateful I am for all your input and endless encouragement. Your unwavering grasp of what's right and what's not has always been an inspiration to me. Thanks for eveything you've done for me. I love you!

Dad

Wow, what a blessing it is to be a father! I am so grateful for my four precious sons. They are such amazing gifts. Guys, I love you too. You are the little lights of my life.

My beautiful boys

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Mobile GMaps

On Saturday I posted about Google Mobile Maps on my N95. Well I found a much cooler application called Mobile GMaps which supports Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and a host of others.

Unlike the current version of Google Mobile Maps, Mobile GMaps integrates with the built in GPS in the N95 so now I can see my current position and navigate using any of the map providers it supports.

GPS integration is available in Google Mobile Maps for some phones but not for the N95. Maybe Nokia have arm wrestled Google into omitting it because it would impact the sales of their proprietary navigation software?

Unbelievable!

After being without electricity for twenty four hours, we were finally able to buy a token just after 8PM.

While I am thrilled to have electricity again, I am extremely annoyed that the Oostenberg / Helderberg municipality took so long to get the system up and running again!

I sincerely hope that they learn from this incident and put suitable backup systems in place!

Electrical blues

When we did extensions to our home a couple of years ago, we required an upgrade to our electrical system. The municipality forced us to change to their shiny new prepaid system. At the time we were not too keen on the idea because we knew we would be at risk of forgetting to top up. That happened a few times and we quickly got into the habit of checking the meter and topping up timeously.

Last night I noticed that we were running low, so I used my cell phone to attempt to purchase some units from iBuy. To my dismay, I received an SMS from their server indicating that the municipal server was down and that they were unable to issue me with a token. Dump and I jumped in the car and raced down to the 7-Eleven on Main road only to be given the same story there.

The iBuy site had a notice on it that said that the server would be back up by 21h00. As we were critically low by then, I ran our generator (thank goodness we have one) until we went to bed. I kept checking the iBuy site until about 22h00 and it seems the municipality kept moving the goal posts.



This morning iBuy had posted a new notice on their site with no indication of when the server might be available. They included a number to phone for "EMERGENCY electricity".

Now I know this is no fault of iBuy's - they are just an agent who sells tokens on behalf of the municipality, so I phoned the municipal "EMERGENCY" number and the lady who answered politely told me that there was no-one there who could issue me with a token because they had all worked until 3AM and had now gone home. They would be back in the office around 8 and they might be able to help me then.

I have been involved in IT for donkey's years and am very familiar with problems that keep one at work until all hours. I have worked countless all nighters on systems that are down, but I have never quit and gone home at 3AM with a system down and paying customers getting more and more irate!

Dump has just phoned the "EMERGENCY" number again and was told by the bright individual on the other end of the line: "Sorry maam, the main server is down. It has a virus so they are busy replacing hardware and we cannot issue any tokens." Clearly he has no clue what's going on!

So we have no electricity at home and no hope of getting any in the foreseeable future.

How on earth can a critical system like that have no backup infrastructure? This shocking service would never be tolerated by our customers. Why should we have to put up with it?

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sudoku source code

For those intersted, I have put the executable and source code for the C# Sudoku solving program I mentioned in my previous post on MediaFire.

Running the executable without any commandline arguments will solve the hard coded demo puzzle and display the solution.

The program will also accept a single commandline argument containing the path to a text file with a puzzle to solve. I have included four sample text files in the .ZIP file so you can see what format they must be in. There is no exception handling in the program so if you pass it a bad file it will display an ugly exception.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Sudoku success

During the Christmas holidays a couple of years ago, I wrote a program in C# to solve Sudoku puzzles. My first attempt was able to solve some puzzles but not all of them. I realised that I did not know enough about Sudoku solving strategies and I ran out of time (the holidays came to an end), so I left it for a while.

A few months ago I bought a book entitled "How To Do Sudoku" by Carol Vorderman and I got stuck into learning to solve Sudokus starting with easy puzzles, all the way through super difficult ones.

Armed with more knowledge, I decided to have another go at writing the program and I am delighted with the results. I managed to get it right this time, using a recursive, back-tracking algorithm. I am pleased to say my second attempt can solve any Sudoku that is solvable.

It solved this "super difficult" puzzle from Carol's book, which she says would take an expert around an hour (it took me almost 2), in just 228 milliseconds!

Zero represents a blank cell:

000 000 000
000 390 280
040 021 093

600 070 900
900 502 006
005 060 001

180 250 030
064 018 000
000 000 000


Here is the output from the program:

SOLVED after 496 recursions in 228 milliseconds

239 485 167
751 396 284
846 721 593

628 173 945
913 542 876
475 869 321

187 254 639
364 918 752
592 637 418

Google Mobile Maps

I downloaded Google Mobile Maps for my N95 this morning. Wow, it is really cool and it works really well.

To download it for your N95 or any other S60 3rd Edition device, simply browse to http://www.google.com/gmm in your device's web browser.

Screenshots thanks to Screenshot For Symbian OS.

Satellite map view of our home

Vector map view of Jo'burg

Friday, June 08, 2007

Brick layer or architect?

I am one of those fortunate people who can honestly say that my job is my hobby. I have always had a passion for computer programming and electronics. Over the last 12 years or so, I have had the privilege of being involved in the development of some awesome products. I am really grateful to those who have enabled me to mould and shape my job into the dream job it is today. You know who you are!

Some of my favourite days at work are those when I can get stuck into serious programming without interruptions. I had a few of those days this week. I find it mega rewarding to end my day with the sense of accomplishment that comes from having built something.

Dump says I become distant when I am in this mode. It's not intentional. It's just that writing software is an all consuming pastime. It utilises most of my CPU cycles leaving just enough processing power for breathing.

As much as I love programming, I love working with smart people around a flip chart or whiteboard designing something cool. Through the years, I have had the privilege of working with some exceptionally bright people. You know who you are too!

Last but not least, there is little more rewarding than having the opportunity to show off the fruits of our labour. I really enjoy getting to travel from time to time, meeting customers, demonstrating our products and training people to get the most out of them. My job affords me this privilege too.

So in the debate about whether it’s better to be a brick layer or an architect, I say a bit of both, with a dash of salesman and a dose of trainer does it for me.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

There's a lot of negativity out there...

I haven't been blogging for long (see my first post, The Web Heads made me do it), but in the short time I have, I have noticed that there's a heck of a lot of negativity out there in the blogosphere!

Now don't get me wrong, I have found some great blogs that put a real smile on my dial. There are some excellent writers out there and I am really impressed with the quality of some of the posts I've read, but I am continually amazed at how much unnecessary flaming, whining and moaning goes on.

Maybe I'm being a bit too idealistic? Maybe I'm just naive? Or Maybe I'm just a wuss, but I think the blogoshpere would be a better place if there was more agreeing to disagree, more constructive criticism and less antagonism?

Sunday, June 03, 2007

UFO?

UFO?

Spotted this real early this morning.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Carting Fun

Carting fun
This mobile blog post was created and uploaded using my Nokia N95.

Dump's Dad fixed up the cart he built for us in Jo'burg many years ago.

G will remember it too well! He crashed into the wall and broke his hand when he and I were doing time trials in the garden back in the late 90's.

Dad has added an automatic clutch now making it easy for the guys to drive. We had a ball.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Can't wait to get airborne!

Dump and Dad

Yipee! We have booked tickets for the whole family to go to Jo'burg in July. I can't wait to be with the family there and I am really looking forward to flying the Thunderbird again. I haven't flown for ages.

My Dad, Mom and brother run a business called Davies Aircraft Corporation from their airfield named Crosswinds in Tarlton on the West Rand. They build Thunderbird ultralight aircraft and operate a top class flying school. It's a real tough job but somebody's got to do it.