mcinroy.org

Just installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 from Microsoft’s Servers. It’s not up on Windows Update yet, but this LifeHacker post posts a link to download the exe file from the Microsoft Servers.

The download itself for the english version is around 300Mb in size, which didn’t take long to download. Usually I wait a while before downloading anything Microsoft release, but the fact that I was really bored made me decide to install it now and see what happens. Another reason for downloading it early is that by tomorrow the Microsoft servers may be a lot slower due to the fact that they are serving up 300Mb of Service Pack 3 to everyone at the same time.

I haven’t really noticed any big changes from Service Pack 2. I think primarily SP3 is basically a collection of a lot of hotfixes etc. I do feel that Windows is a lot more responsive and the start menu and right context menus pop up almost instantly but I may just be imagining it.

It didn’t destory my Windows install so I guess it can’t be bad. I doubt I’ll notice any changes but if I find anything interesting I’ll post here.

Oh yeah and I have Iron Man Fever. I. Can’t. Wait.

Peace

Afer moving from Ubuntu back to Windows XP (Not by choice) I found that what I missed most was the ability to quickly access the terminal, either by using yakuake or pressing F4 in any conqueror window. I tried installing the “Command Prompt Here” powertoy for Windows XP, but I’m more of a command-line cowboy and I find right clicking a bit tiresome so I’m always searching for a better way.

Launchy is one alternative, just install, run, press alt+space and type cmd. Very good and all but if what your really looking for is an alternative to yakuake then i just might have found the closest thing: a mix of AutoHotKey, Console and cygwin. The original instructions I followed can be found here but I think I’ve made installation and configuration a lot easier.

So, start off download this .zip file and extract its contents to the root of your C:\ drive, you can then launch C:\Console\term.exe to get started right away. If you wish to use cygwin (installed at C:\cygwin) as your shell you must delete C:\Console\console.xml and rename C:\Console\consolecygwin.xml to console.xml.

To get our quake-style terminal to start automagically we can either follow the instructions here to create a sheduled task every time someone logs on, or we can drag term.exe from C:\Console to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup to start term.exe automagically everytime Windows starts.

Once thats done and term.exe has been started, press Win + ` to start using your new quake-style terminal.

Screenshot (Click to enlarge)

I’ve also hidden the Console and AutoHotkey icons from my system tray as I hate having a cluttered system tray, quick launch bar or desktop. If you wish to do this you can get the modified term.exe here, the modified console.xml here and the modified consolecygwin.xml here.

[Update] If you wish to use F12 as your console activation key (the same key as Yakuake’s default) use this term.exe

I’ve decided that to pair with my 32″ Hannspree HD TV I would build myself a HTPC.

The PC has a few requirements:

• Must be able to play all formats(mkv, avi, mpeg, wmv etc…) at at least 720p, or 1080i.
• Be able to upscale DVDs.
• Near silent operation.
• Look good next to my TV.
• Complete for less than £400 for hardware, £100 for extra accessories.
• Connect to my HDTV as the primary display.
• Allow for upgrades such as TV Tuner, BlueRay Drive or PCI-Express Graphics Card as required.

To be able to provide these requirements for such a small budget the PC will not be a powerhouse, but will provide at least the minimum specification for these requirements.

The hardware I have chosen is:

• Case: Antec Fusion V2 Black, 430w PSU (£113)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H (£45)
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 5000+ Black Edition, 2.6GHz (£65)
• CPU Heatsink/Fan: Scythe Mini Ninja (£28)
• RAM: 2GB Corsair TwinX DDR2 PC2-6400 (800Mhz), 4-4-4-12 (£38)
• HDD 1: 80GBMaxtor IDE (£0) //Have lying around
• HDD 2: 500 GB SATA2 Samsung Spinpoint (£61)
• DVD-RW: Pioneer 10 (£0) // Have lying around
• WIFI Card: Asus WL-138g 54G Wireless PCI Adaptor (£13)
• DVI to HDMI Cable: 3m Scan Gold Plated HDMI v1.3 Male to DVI-D Male Cable (£7)

Total: £370 // Under budget!

Accessories:

• Logitech diNovo Mini Bluetooth Handheld Keyboard (£75) // If I can get one!

After much research the software that I will allow on the HTPC will be:

• Windows XP Media Center
• MediaPortal
• KMPlayer
• CoreAVC Pro
• Haali Media Splitter
• iTunes
• uTorrent
• winRAR
• Mozilla FireFox
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• AVG Free Edition
• Spybot Search and Destroy

Since I have a laptop that I use for Uni/Games/Whatever I would like to keep my HTPC as clutter-free software wise as possible.

Well thats the planning done. Now all I need to do is gather the required items and get it built! I will be documenting the build process, hopefully with pictures. Check back soon for more!

Now that I’m back at University for the start of a new semester I have a lot of classes that require the planning of and the development of applications. To be as successful as possible in this development it is a key requirement to have all the tools you need at your disposal and that each tool is properly configured to be able to work right away especially when your deadline is looming and you need to develop quickly and well. Speed is not the only factor however, quality is also important. The better the development environment you have setup the better your code. I’m not saying great code can’t be developed using just notepad, but I am saying that it makes my life a lot easier to use a wide range of tools to help me develop.

What do I mean by an integrated development environment? Wikipedia’s definition of a development environment (which redirects to Integrated Development Environment or IDE) states:

In computing, an integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build automation tools, and (usually) a debugger. Sometimes a version control system and various tools are integrated to simplify the construction of a GUI. Many modern IDEs also have a class browser, an object inspector, and a class hierarchy diagram, for use with object oriented software developemtn.

So basically an IDE is a software application that gives a programmer help to make an application. Some of the best known IDE’s are Eclipse and NetBeans. Some people like to pick an IDE that gives them everything and say okay, that’s me. I’ll just use all the features in this one. Personally I like to mix and match. I’ve found some applications better than another for certain things.

My main development language is Java but I also develop in PHP, Perl, C or anything else I’m asked to write code in.

For Java I usually prefer using Kate or emacs but since the applications I’m developing are becoming more complex I use Eclipse to keep it all together and give me quick access to the code I’ve already developed. Its auto-complete feature is extremely useful. It even knows the methods you can use from other classes and allows you to auto-complete them and if it can’t find the method it can tell you right away as it compiles the program as you type. Being able to pick up such errors as you code is a godsend. You can immediately see where the problem lies and debugging becomes less of a chore.

For Java GUI design/mockups I decided not to use Eclipse’s built in editor, I find working on the GUI in such a busy window distracting and it makes abstraction more difficult. So I opt to use NetBeans IDE . It’s very simple to startup and get straight into dragging and dropping swing components into a JFrame. You can also quickly run the GUI you’ve created to see it in action. Aligning components is very precise and it has a very wide choice of swing and ADT components to use.

For UML diagram creation I use two tools: violet and Eclipse UML. I use violet for when I wish to create a quick and dirty diagram, usually when it’s I’m not using Java and I use Eclipse UML for more complex diagrams where dependencies and inheritance are more important.

For a PHP server I have a few options. I could use the department’s web servers, mcinroy.org, or a locally installed Apache/PHP/MySQL install. I choose the latter as it’s not dependant on a working internet connection (which always goes down when you need it the most) and because of the fact that I usually develop by trial and error and making small code changes and then uploading them every time is sometimes painfully slow.

The package I use to provide Apache/PHP/MySQL is xampp. There are many packages available, such as EasyPHP or wampserver but for me, xampp (xampp lite to be exact) provides just what I need. You can easily start and stop each service individually and the installation/configuration is easy as pie.

To actually write my PHP code I use Notepad++, basically because it provides good syntax highlighting and a nice clean cut editor window without any bells and whistles to distract from work.

Also for any image manipulation or creation I need to do I use Adobe Photoshop CS3.

There you have it, that’s all the tools I use to make my life a lot easier and to make my applications better. I know I’m probably not using the best applications for the job but they get me along just fine. If you have any recommendations on any other software you use to develop leave a comment, or use my contact page.