For the past three weeks I have dedicated myself to really learning C#. Now I have used C# on a couple of projects. Its not difficult to code. However, just felt that with a little better foundation I could code more efficiently. So… I picked up an O’Reilly book titled Programming C# by Jesse Liberty. This is a very good book. It’s a crisp 608 pages in length. Currently I am on page 288. Throughout I have found the text clear and to the point. The sequence of subject matter presented is logical and builds on what was previously covered. When complete, I am confident that my objective of becoming a better C# coder will be achieved. I really like C#…to bad there is no CLR for the Mac.

All of my C# development is on a Mac Duel 1 G G4 using Visual Studio running under OS X 10.2.6 and Virtual PC. I love my Mac… with Virtual PC I don’t have keep a PC around for windows projects or testing. The only downside is that windows applications run a little slower then on the 1.8 G PC I use at work. To bad there is just no work for Mac developers, at least not in my area, (Phoenix, AZ). The demand here is for C# developers. So C# it is.

Our latest family addition makes his entry into the world May 27, 2003. He is a beautiful addition and one more grandchild to spoil.

Ran across an interesting JavaScript anomaly at work today. We have instances where we want to limit the number of days worth of data that our customers can select for inclusion in a report. It’s a function of resource loading. To implement these controls, I wrote a JavaScript function, which just looked at the selected start and end dates and figured out what the difference was in days. If the delta was to big, the user received a message and was given the opportunity to change the date range. Nothing really fancy just used the date and time methods in JavaScript. The anomaly occurred when I tested its functionality. For the same input dates the function calculated different delta days when run on IE under Win2000 and Netscape 7.0 on Mac OS X 10.1. The difference was one day. Who would of thought that these implementations of JavaScript would do that? Wonder where else this is a problem and how it is impacting our other code.

Its over, the relationship with the Newton has ended. It was a whirlwind experience. It started with a stumble into splorp.blog along with some lurking on Newtontalk. I was totally hooked. Purchased my first Newton from eBay. When it arrived it was instant love. This device was everything I had come to expect and more. I even started this blog to conical the Newton experience. From the information gleaned at Newtontalk and the many sites it referenced I was able to configure my Newton to connect with my G4 via serial cable, ethernet, and 802.11b. Even managed to post to my blog with the little guy. I was happy. I was content. Sold my Handspring Visor and Jornada on eBay and went totally Newton. The problem started when Palm released the Tungsten C. The advertisement caught my eye. Thought this might be the 802.11b magic I was looking for and I bought one. The intent was to just try it out then return it. It couldn’t possible compete with my Newton. As expected, it could not compete and I returned it as planned. Unfortunately I returned it for a Tungsten T. Just wanted to check it out. Well, now my Newton’s are gone and I’m a Tungsten T guy. The Newton is still a very remarkable devise, but for me the Tungsten T just does it.

Well, I did it. Went out and picked up a Tungsten C PDA. Found it to be a really slick device. Nice bright colorful screen. Built in 802.11b, which connected to my airport with zero effort. The provided browser worked well. Displayed any site. Of course with your average site you only see a small part of the page. Sites designed for PDA’s were great. Had a terrible time getting the unit to sync. Don’t know what I did that finally got it to work. Found that it used Grafiti 2 and had no traditional palm writing areas. It has a 400mhz processor and is fast. The screen is fantastic. However, Grafiti 2, no traditional writing area, and keypad were just too difficult. So returned it. However, did pick up a Tungsten T. Just had to check out the blue tooth feature. I use a Sony Ericson T68i phone and just love syncing with my G4 using blue tooth. The Tungsten T worked flawlessly. Synced on the first attempt. Blue tooth connected effortlessly. The screen is bright clear and colorful. It has a slower processor, but seems just as fast as the C. It has a traditional palm writing area, and the original Grafiti. Seems to do a much better job recognizing my handwriting then my old Handspring Visor. It is definitely easy to read. Really never expected to keep it. However, found it to be an excellent tool. Sadly, it has replaced my Newton as my primary information tool.

Found a great Newton site the other day. Have added it to this blogs links list. If you get a chance please check it out….lots of great info.

The url is www.inventors-emporium.co.uk/pages/newton.html

Did not accomplish everything planned this last week. Did manage to find some time Saturday morning to paid my gate. Living in Phoenix, AZ is hard on any wood exposed to the elements. The only wood so exposed are the slats on a metal gate that provides access to back yard. We have been in this house for almost 4 years and the gate has never been painted. It was a very rewarding feeling to leave everything else and just paint the gate.

My attempts to install AbiWord on a Mac G4 and Linux met with mixed results. Never got in to install on a RedHat box and the Mac install only runs under X11. Under X11 the interface is poor at best. Seem to remember reading on slashdot that the AbiWord developers are unhappy with Apples support and as a consequence taken the position not to develop an aqua interface. To bad, this could have been a really nice cross platform product.

Made significant progress on a rework on the nQueue site. The site owner is to be complemented in providing overwhelming design input. One of the very few jobs where one really knew what the customer wanted.

Have been looking at the advertisement for the new Palm Tungsten C. Very tempting. Have spent some time playing with the Tungsten. Like its size, brilliant color screen, and functionality. One feature was missing, in my view, and that was a good 802.11b interface. It seems like this issue has now been addressed. Might pick one up and take it for a test drive.

Did manage to get a little more work complete on Your Development Team, LLC site. This is a complete rework including getting all the portfolio item to word in demo mode. Reworked the mySql database connection and table structure to get the poetman site working. Need to make a little progress every week.

Have not worked on my Newton Note project this week. Looks like it will be a little longer then I had hoped to get something out for testing.

Back in early February, I committed to the development of an application that could read and display the contents of the Notes Soup just like on the Newton. Well this is now a work in progress. As of this weekend the application, dubbed “Newton Notes” can now open and display notes from a Notes Soup downloaded using NewtSync. Hope to have something to post within the next couple of weeks that others can download and test.
Discovered a great FREE word processor for multiple platforms. Its AbiWord. I have installed it on my win2000 box at work. There is a RedHat rpm of this product. However, it crashed package installer on a RedHat box at work. Plan to install it on my G4 later this week.

Had a wonderful Easter weekend…lots of family gatherings. Hope yours was the same.

I hate tax time…..my typical modes operandi is to file for an extension and delay the inevitable as long as possible. This year was different. Spent the best part of Saturday just doing it. Used TaxCut on a G4 Mac. Found it a relatively simple process. Was really lazy and also purchased the state version. Once the federal portion was complete is was a simple matter to say me-to for the state part. The electronic filing was nice. Opted for direct deposit. What we really need is a flat tax with no individual tax reporting. Just think of the money our government could save not having to process tax returns. There would also be one less bump in my road.

Another week has slipped by. Where does the time go? Have been very busy at work coding tools for our accounting folks. Then at home coding for nQueue and reworking our business site Your Development Team.

Just using the Newton. Starting to think that perhaps I really don’t need my iBook. In the last month I have only powered it up three times. Before acquiring a Newton the iBook was used for daily journal entries. Now I do it on my trusty Newton. My only difficulty is that I have not found a way to move a notes soup into another application on my Mac. I can view it as an XML file. However, I want to be able to import into a word processing application and have it look similar to its appearance on the Newton.