Monthly Archives: April 2006

Sakai Summer of Code Projects

Here is a list of projects in Sakai that coudl be done by a talented individual in a fixed period. All of these efforts are on Sakai’s long-term roadmap but none are on the short-term roadmap. Generally these are not in the “Sakai core” areas – they add functionality rather than trying to refactor existing mature technology so they can be done without requiring much coordination with the rest of Sakai.
Each of the tasks would be useful even if partially completed. Each of the tasks would naturally fit in a Sakai contrib area. Each of the tasks are relatively simple to describe at a high level but would require any individual to do a lot of research to figure things out. That individual should not expect to be “spoon fed” all the decisions and design – and just sit anc code. Part of the challenge is to truly figure out “what to do” and “how to do it”.
The individual should expect reasonable mentoring to get high level questions answered but should expect to be looking at a lot of code in the beginning of the effort. A key aspect of the sumer of code is that people taking these tasks cannot be a “drag” on existing resources executing the short-term roadmap. High level mentoring can come from me and others and tactical mentoring should come from the Programmer’s Cafe group.
If folks want more detail – let me know – I am perfectly happy to have an hour-long phone call with anyone who is ready to spend a sumer or more working on any of these tasks – but until a resource shows up – these will continue to sit on the back-burner.
At least now I have a list. Someday I should put these into the requirements – but they are hardly “requirements” at this point – they are “things that would be cool to have”.

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Experiences with macBook Pro and bootcamp

I just installed windows XP on my MacBook pro. I followed the instructions perfectly. Here are a few notes.
You really need a USB keyboard and USB mouse – the MacBook keyboard and mouse pad will not work until you install the mac drivers. I used a PC USB Keyboard and a targus USB mouse – just peachy.
CTRL-ALT-DEL (to bring up the Task Manager) is CTRL-Shift-ESC.
I had corrupted images when using Windows Media Player as a plugin in a web browser. Go to Display Properties (Right-Click on Desktop Select Properties) -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot -> Set Hardward Accelletation to the third clik from the left. It says “Disable all Directdraw and Direct3D accellerations…”. I kept “Enable write combining” turned on.
— Continued —-
I installed remapkey (using the resourtce kit tools) and mapped the del key to the right windows Key (the right Apple command key) so I can do CTRL-ALT-DEL.
Also I will need to turn on and off the Hardware Accelleration when I use Pinnacle Studio as it really wants DirexctX.
My oinly remaining problem is the lack of a right click. There is a software solution to this, but I think that I will stick with a USB mouse because the solution is a third party thing. SO fart I have used official stuff.
So far so good running Windows XP on my Macintosh. Now that it works – probably back to the Macintosh Operating system. I frankly don’t exactly know why I wanted to do this – but I did :)

Cocoa Notes

NSString *s = [NSString stringWithFormat: @”This is a format string %d xyz”
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/LegacyTechnologies/WebObjects/WebObjects_3.1/DevGuide/Foundation/StringMethods.html
When editing code in XCode – Option-Double-Click goes to NSString.h Command-Double-Click goes to the Documentation
– (IBAction) start:(id)sender
{
[sender setTitle:@”stop”];
[sender setAction:@selector(stop:)];
}

Driving on the left hand side of the road

It is strangly funny. I was so worked up about driving on the left hand side of the road (aka the wrong side of the road) and then when I got to Australia, it was almost anticlimatic. Things went very smoothly.
Here is the weird part. Now, back in the states, when I am a little tired, or in a confusing situation, or there is no traffic to give me any cues, all of a sudden, I flash and think that I am on the wrong side of the road. I am on the right side of the road. I am doing nothing wrong. My subconcious just jumps in and does a “gut check” to make sure that I am driving correctly.
This never happened while driving in Australia. Everything seemed perfectly natural while driving there.
All I can guess is that little bits of hardwired code deep in my brain are being reprogrammed to handle driving on either side of the road – once in a while these reprogramming actions are noticable (i.e. a few neurons are being rebooted with a different Spring configuration).
Damn weird how the human brain works. It will be interesting to see how long these little flash backs last. Also when I next drive on the left hand side of the road – if perhaps, I am more confused than I was the first time.