Contapps - The best way to enjoy your contacts!

YOUR PHONEBOOK BECOMES SUPER-SOCIALLY CONNECTED:

• Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Foursquare
• Smart dialer w/ T9 search & innovative gesture search
• Contacts widget & dialer icon
• Great UI
• Maps & Navigation
• Filter contacts by Groups & more
• Quick call - long press a picture to call

PC MAGAZINE: “7 cool new apps–Contapps spruces up your contacts phonebook..”

GIGAOM: "Contapps offers a contacts app that’s more visual, with gesture-based search, social integration, search and mapping.."

EASY & INTUITIVE
Quickly find & interact with your contacts in your phonebook / addressbook via gesture search, smart dialer & groups

SOCIAL & FUN
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Foursquare, maps, groups & Google search –all inside your phonebook!

GREAT LOOK & FEEL
From the contact board (grid), groups, dialer & gesture search, to the contact profile - our UI makes it easy to sort, filter & interact w/ your contacts inside your addressbook!

Since upgrading to Drupal 7.4 I've been getting this annoying error code popup after I edit content:

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in filter_list_format() (line 675 of /.../modules/filter/filter.module)

It seems to be an informational error and doesnt seem to affect nicklitten.com website content in anyway... but annoying none the less. After a little searching around I found a cool little code fix for it. This is the first time I've editted something in Drupal CORE so was a little nervous to make the change. But after taking the appropriate file backup the code change fixed the problem all apears to be working perfectly.

Here's the link to the discussion regarding the annoying FILTER module error http://drupal.org/node/1067998#comment-4627640

Obviously I wouldnt ever do something naughty like ROOTING a Droid Phone. /me smacks myself on the back of the hand for even talking about something as rude as that.

So, I can't recommend rooting your phone and releasing international SKYPE usage, free wireless hub action, uninstalling things like VZ-Navigator and removing all the other Verizon gubbins. Obviously I cant recommend something like that because my wrist is still hurting from just slapping myself.

z4root is an application you install (currently you must side load it), that has a single button that will root your device. Should work on ALL Android devices. Should be 100% safe - nothing on disk is changed besides the root binaries, so if something goes wrong, simply rebooting the device should fix up any and all issues.

However, if you do feel that way inclined then I would recommend you do something like this   ;)

<deny-all-responsibility>

• If your using Android v2.2.x (I havent tested 2.3+) Download the (allegedly) most excellent Z4ROOT application - APK applications are basically Android package applications.
• Copy the *.APK file onto your memory card on your phone.
• Uninstall apps that you think just may affect things (anti-virus for example)
• Reboot your phone to get it all clean and ready for surgery..
• Install a file manager app like Astro File Manager and then browse to the APK
• Take a deep breat and *tap* it to run it.
• Follow the instructions on the screen.

Thats kind of all you need to do...

</deny-all-responsibility>

:)

The Zend Framework is a neat thing for letting my RPG programmers brain run a little wild. Yes it's object Oriented and not (necessarily) that easy to adapt to the linear model that us old schoolers may be used to. But does that mean we can’t adopt it?

"Hell No!"

- "Adapt and Survive" is the motto of all us lucky people who have grown up through the AS400 years.

Why are so many IBMi developers still stuck in the same application design thought process they had 20 years ago?

Why do so many IBMi developers still refer to IBM-i as AS400 (the old system that we used in the early 1990's)?

Why are some people still writing batch report programs and 5250 green screen enquiries?

Evolving past the boundaries of the 5250 display and the reams of printed paperwork is not a paradigm shift.

I spent some time tossing up between various location tracing services. Briefly:

Facebook Checkin is neat way of sharing your location with your facebook freinds but limitting because it only shares with facebook and ignores other social sharing sites

Google lattitude is fantastic mapping functions, nice reviews of local shops/restuarants etc.. but no image function and rather cumbersome to use. I really want to use Lattitude but its just quite there yet. I'm sure it will be so I'm watching the Beta version as it develops.

Then I found Foursquare which lets you check in, posts to various other sites including twitter, facebook, myspace, linkedin, etc and has an amusing points system where you can compete with your friends for ratings achievements like "first one to check in here" or "first place with a photo booth" or "longest distance between checkings".

Foursquare really is the complete package, its fun, easy to use, posts to facebook so your freinds can see where/what your up to. Most of all, my kids love it as well. Check it out!

So, I used this Facebook application called 'Androgyny' to neatly export all my Facebook friends information into my GMAIL contacts... including their pictures so when they call me on my Android Phone their handsome pictures display... which is amusing...

Here is a snippet of a write up for the aforementioned app which explains what it does and how it does it... 

I've been trying to think of a Logo for nicklitten.com for a while now.

But while poking around this wonderful web of worl wide-ish-ness I stumbled across a lot of folks using cartoon images of themselves... sort of wee-mee style. Anyway, I also found a neat way of creating one for yourself... check out http://www.faceyourmanga.com

It lets you create your facepic in a manga-style cartoon image which you make look like yourself or, obviously, the exact opposite. Quite good fun to play with, takes a minutes or so and then it emails you the copy of the graphic for free.  It uses a neat little point and click interface, flash based, and is quite a giggle to create.

OK. I admit it doesnt really look like me. Kind of a better looking, hipper more dude'ish version of a younger me... But it was fun building it amd it represents the inner-Nick   :)

Last week, my office started a health and wellness campaign to promote a little activity for us sedentary office folks. Great idea.

So, I joined the IT TEAM with an aim of getting of my substantial backside and walking a few miles every day. This should be good news for my waistline, great news for my heart and fantastic news for Bonehead (the insane labradoodle).

First week is just completed. I've been office bound this week and combined with April Showers (even tho its May) my out-side walkies exposure has been low. It's been a sedentary week in the office, with every day raining and my walking limited to hotel-ofice-watercooler type scenario. Overall, a Very poor showing by me just averaging under a mile per day in the office – only saved by my outdoors life last weekend.

A shave under 9 miles for me = 17,410 steps

I’ve written a program to improve my walking rates for next week J

For NEXTWEEK;
  Dog_walking_mode = *ON;
  If Not Tired and Sunshine = *on;
    Pedometer += 1;
  Else;
    Goto Pub;
  Endif;
EndFor;

:)

Imagine my surprise, browsing through a copy of USA Today this morning, I turn a page and see a full color ad telling me that the world is going to end on Saturday May 21st!

According to Pastor Harold Camping, the Churches *cough* Religious Loon Leader the world is going to end on Saturday, with a ‘World Wide Earthquake’. I guess this is the Lords version of Rocky Horrors ‘It's just a jump to the left. And then a step to the right….’

I've been writing a reasonably complex RPG4 program to extract order/shipment/invoice information from JBA and create a spreadsheet in the IFS showing shipping percentages against various targets...

I like to have some cool background sounds on that wont distract my brain too much from what I'm doing: I have been known to accidentally start typing lyrics. I'm currently loving 'The Books' who I discovered courtesy of SHAZAM on a long roadtrip and loved their eclectic electronic and groovy sounds.

This morning my ear buds have been expelling sounds courtesy of:

So... this morning I was following a forum discussion on linkedin. A convoluted discussion about what the modern man-about-town should call himself if he works in IT. This is something thats been bubbling around in my mind for a few years now... everyone knows what a dentist, optician, scaffolder or butcher does right? But what do I call myself working in IT?

When I started in this game (in the 1980's *gasp* am I that old), we had a kind of natural progression of Junior Programmer to Programmer to Analyst Programmer for techies and Operators, Analysts and Project Managers for system guys who knew the technology but dont want to code.

Nowadays, our technology toolkits are much more diverse. Programmers no longer just write programs.

I code in a handful of languages on platforms ranging from IBMi to Web and PC operating systems... I write specs, manage projects, perform system operations, tune Databases, lock down system security, code websites, handle SEO/SEM for customer websites and still love to get my hands dirty and code RPG on good old green screens.

Everyone knows what a 'Butcher' does without having to refer to them as a 'Culinary Meat Dissemination and Preperation Technician'.

If anyone asks what I do, I call myself a Programmer which encompasses all the things, without having to resort to describing myself as an IBM-i Ninja Warlock... ahhh... wait... [click] Linkedin job title updated   ;)

I’m looking forward to embarking on a Spring fitness walk-a-thon, encouraged by a health and wellness push in the office.

Human Resource peeps handed out these little blue plastic pedometer jobbies to encourage a some fun competition between walkers. Obviously, being a pointy headed Geek, I looked into a more techie solution to this problem. A quick poke around on my (most excellent) Motorola Droid-X and I found this Android App: ‘Noom Walk’.

It's a free Pedometer and is working very nicely on my Droid.  It runs in the background on the phone and records all steps during the day and stores a history broken down by date… so you can see what steps you’ve taken today, last Thursday, total this week, last month, etc … It tells you how many steps you’ve taken, how many calories your burned and how many yards covered in total.

Also means I haven’t got to worry about carrying a little blue plastic thingie….   :)

So, using Amazon as a costing point, Windows 7 Ultimate costs $275, Office 2010 costs $210, Project costs $500 and the list of groovy (but wallet denting) Microsoft software goes on and on Following this weeks acquisition of Skype...  Is Skype destined to become another chargeable piece of software or perhaps get merged into Messenger?

But wait! Help is at hand.... Check out Technet:

Microsoft TechNet Subscription Standard

Tailored to help IT Professionals evaluate, test, and troubleshoot Microsoft software for Desktop environments. TechNet Subscription Standard does not include Enterprise editions 1 of Microsoft software.

$199 ($149 Renewal)

 

Microsoft TechNet Subscription Professional

Geared towards IT Professionals who need a more comprehensive subscription and are primarily focused on supporting Enterprise wide environments such as the following scenarios: server consolidation, interoperability, network management and more. 

$349 ($249 Renewal)

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy.aspx

A subscription giving you licenses access to every piece of software starting at $199!

That is very Groovy.

Joining Microsoft Tech-net lets you download full working versions of virtually every piece of Micro$oft's software catalog. A fantastic idea and a huge bonus for us IT Pro's who like to try out all the new toys from the Bill's little technology firm.... Big thumbs up from this Tech-Net subscriber....

Apparently IBM has embraced Second Life in a big way for its worldwide network of employees. (See IBM eyes move into Second Life ‘v-business’) This video gives an interesting look at what IBM’s strategy is with Second Life:

I'm in the middle of refactoring a load of old Projex400 RPG code from RPG3 upto RPG4 and using all the modern BIF's. It's a fun thing to do in the evening while I'm hiding in an hotel room in rainy Ohio. But I digress...    Inevitably my first compile will fail and I normally want to jump to the 'C' specs to have a look at what I've got wrong... this normally involves repeatedly pressin the page-down key until my finger tip gets numb.

But wait, I stumbled across a neat little code snipper that saves time and looks good in the code as well.

Use the /title command in the source code to add a comment to your spool file listing.

This was used a lot in the old days of programming along with the /page and /eject codes. I have started using the ‘/title mainline’ as the first line of ‘c’ specs in RPG4/Column-Based, or just before the /FREE in RPG4/FreeFormat.

Why?

Social networks (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc..) rule the web. The ability to share your likes and dislikes with your friends has a huge impact on a websites popularity. Google is now adding a neat function to its search listing called Google +1.

Just like Facebooks “LIKE” button. It’s a very simple idea and will be a big bonus to the Google experience.

So what does this mean?

Well, next to all of Google search results this little +1 button will be listed. You click it when you like something and that page is highlighted to other surfers. I’m guessing that pages with more +1’s will drift to the top of the listing while those poor little non-plussed websites will sink. Your list of +1 websites is shown as part of your Google Public profile.

Of course, I will bet you a dollar (yes, one whole big $1) that the sites that you click the +1 button will be used as part of the Google Ad’s targeting algorithm. For example, if you click +1 on lots of websites related to ‘sausages’ then I imagine that you and your friends will start to see more meaty ad’s being served to them.

So ‘+1’ simply means ‘I like this’ or ‘this is cool’ or ‘interesting’. It’s a simple function that adds a real benefit to my surfing experience.

I just love me some Google Chrome Browsing Action.

To compete in today’s competitive developer’s arena the modern System i developer needs to acquire the work habits of software developers from other platforms such as Linux, Unix and Windows. This training video will help you learn these subtle work habits:

Ever wanted to see a quick list of everything that is checked out for a Turnover Project? Lets imagine that Project has many subprojects?

Very easy to see with one simple SQL command: select * from softturnd/toutlgll where coref# like 'PROJ0099%'

This will show you every object that is checked out for that 'PROJ0099' and all subsequent 'PROJ009901' '02' '03' etc.. projects

If you want to exclude specific levels (on our system Level='20' is production) just use the colev field. ie:  select * from softturnd/toutlgll where coref# like 'PROJ0099%' and colev <> '20'

ps: and "No." The giant angry dog graphic has nothing to do with Turnover Change Management. I just thought it was amusing.