Posts made in July, 2008

Breaking Out of the Box With CSS Layouts

Posted by Alex on 29 Jul, 2008 in My Stream | 0 comments

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/breaking-out-of-the-box

A very good CSS tutorial

Programs – Beebhack

Posted by Alex on 28 Jul, 2008 in My Stream | 0 comments

http://beebhack.wikia.com/wiki/Programs

Links on how to download content from BBC iPlayer

Wall•E: Top-notch entertainment!

Posted by Alex on 21 Jul, 2008 in Articles | 0 comments

Pixar does it again!

I know there are many reviews saying great things about WALL•E, the latest creation from Pixar, but I want to add mine into the mix.

Films that really stand out seem to come along less and less often these days, as the Hollywood money machine churns out more and more sequels to scrape the maximum profits from each franchise (the trailers before the film seemed to confirm this – High School Musical 3, Madagascar 2 and Ice Age 3). Which makes it all the more refreshing when a really original and thoroughly entertaining film like WALL•E comes out. Pixar really did save Disney!

It’s hard to know what to say without spoiling the film; it certainly has a very engaging plot which is presented in a very believable way. What’s amazing is how animated blocks of metal can be brought to life so convincingly.

How to write Java software for your mobile phone

Posted by Alex on 20 Jul, 2008 in Geeky Stuff | 4 comments

How to write a “Hello World” program using J2ME

So, I’ve just managed to get a Hello World program running on my mobile phone. Thought I would share this as a simple set of steps, since it wasn’t obvious. To figure this out I referred to this guide plus the Sun Wireless Toolkit manual which you will find in {install-dir}/docs/UserGuide-html/index.html after install.

OK, without further ado, here are the steps. This is just one way of doing it!

1. Install a current Java J2SE Development Kit (such as JDK 6 update 7 (or later) from Sun
2. Install the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit for CLDC
3. Run the toolkit ({install-dir}/bin/ktoolbar.exe on Windows – shortcut in Start Menu)
4. This is the build/compile environment for J2ME apps. Note that bizarrely, it has no text editor, so you need to use your own text editor to create/edit the code, then use this tool to compile/build
5. Click the “New Project” button
6. Enter HelloWorld as the Project Name
7. Enter Hello as the MIDlet Class Name (corresponds to Hello.java, your main java file)
8. Click OK
9. Choose your target platform (to keep things simple, use MIDP 1.0 for now)
10. Make note of the text in the main toolkit window ,this tells you where to put your code and other files. Mine said “Place Java source files in ‘C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\j2mewtk\2.5.2\apps\HelloWorld\src'”
11. Using your text editor of choice, open two new text files in that directory, called Hello.java and HelloCanvas.java. The code for these can be found here. Copy and paste the code into each, then save them.
12. Go back to the tool, and press Build. This compiles your code. Assuming no errors, continue to the next step.
13. Click Run, this will launch your program in a mobile phone emulator. It should work.
14. Now, to transfer it to your real phone, you need to generate two files – a .jar file (Java archive) and a .jad file (Java application descriptor). Go to the Project menu, Package submenu, select “Create Package”
15. You can now navigate to ‘C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\j2mewtk\2.5.2\apps\HelloWorld\bin\’ and see your generated JAR and JAD files
16. Now use your phone’s file transfer software to connect to your phone (via Bluetooth, USB etc). I used Nokia NSeries PC Suite from www.nseries.com. Transfer the JAR file and the JAD file.
17. If your phone does not pick up the app as installable automatically, navigate to the JAD file on your phone and execute it, this will install the app.
18. You should now find an installed icon for your HelloWorld program in your phone menu (on N95 this is in the Applications sub menu). Click the icon, and voila! Your first mobile phone app!

So, now you can write HelloWorld, in theory you can write any mobile phone application you like – the rest is just programming!!

Yahoo! Movies Presents: The 10 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies

Posted by Alex on 20 Jul, 2008 in My Stream | 0 comments

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/10mosthistoricallyinaccurate.html

interesting list highlighting how inaccurate the movies we see are at portraying history. Sad to think most people believe what they see in the movies. Don’t know why 2001 is in there. That would be like putting 1984 in there – just silly. Also U-571 should be in there for claiming that the US rescued the Enigma machine.