Topics

1

Developer's Corner / Free Scripts - PHP Street Validation – Commercial or Residential?

« on: November 01, 2010, 03:26 PM »

#include <hello_world.h>

Link to Page: http://codebyter.com/2010/10/30/php-street-validation-commercial-or-residential/

I have been working on a PHP script to supply the answer to whether an address is classified as “residential” or “commercial.” Originally, I started designing scripts around UPS’s validation services. That’s where I went wrong.

UPS offers two types of address validation web services (both XML-based). The first is an Address Validation (AV) tool, which allows you to use their web service to determine whether or not an address is valid by supplying city, state, and zip. To my knowledge, the AV web service only works for U.S. addresses. The second service is XAV, street level address validation, which allows you to query their servers for address validations, given the address supplied exists within New York or California. Thats great and all, but what about the rest of the country?

To prevent some poor individual from going through the same headaches as I went through, and for the general purpose of building my code collection, I have uploaded the UPS address validation script for you to check out along with the FedEx street level address validation script.

Needless to say, after spending further time researching, I have concluded that FedEx currently has the best street validation web service. FedEx’s version of address validation provides the following features:

    * Provides street-level matches
    * Contains a growing database of company listings to improve your results (not all companies are currently
      listed)
    * Receives monthly updates to its address database
    * Checks addresses within the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada.
    * Distinguishes between business and residential addresses in the U.S. if an exact match is found
    * Is Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS)-certified (a service and rating system for mailers that measures and helps to improve address accuracy)
    * Checks up to 100 addresses in one Web Service request

Enough said.

I just wanted to repost my thoughts about this and share some code with the world. Maybe it will save you some frustrations. If you found this helpful, all I ask is that you leave me a comment on my site Enjoy!

2

Developer's Corner / Kodingen.com - Free PHP web hosting with your own domain name and much more!

« on: October 21, 2010, 11:58 AM »

Today, I stumbled across this rare gem. It's a website called Kodingen. They support free web hosting for web developers. They offer support for PHP and everything. You sign up, create your account and BAM. instant FTP access from web based stuff AND your desktop ftp client... It's sick. I might consider switching my web service to them for hosting once I feel better about centralizing my ftp credentials and checking to see how they do things, etc. Check it out:

http://kodingen.com/

Make sure you watch the screen cast. It's amazing.

I modified the title for a more eye-catching note in hopes of inspiring conversation about this amazing service.

3

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / NANY 2011 Withdrawn: ProtoCards

« on: October 01, 2010, 03:51 PM »

Mouser, myself and possibly a few others will be pledging for this year's NANY event. We will be writing a generic browser-based board/card game table system. We will be releasing more details concerning this project in the coming days/weeks. We plan to release our project for NANY and then ask YOU for as much feedback and participation as possible to help us prepare it for entering in this years 1st Ever Mozilla Gaming Labs Competition. The competition is located here: http://gaming.mozillalabs.com in case you have not had the chance to check it out.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Relevant Links:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=21494.0
http://www.codebyter.com - I'll be blogging here about my experiences with the project if you want to stay up to date.
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=24147.0 - Post by Lashiec for Mozilla Labs Gaming

4

FARR Plugins and Aliases / [IDEA] FARR Plugin: FARRDevelopersBible

« on: April 27, 2010, 09:28 AM »

Project Name: FARRDevelopersBible
Project Codename: FARRDB

Project Description:
FARRDB will allow developers to enable FARR with an offline developers "bible" that contains descriptions of functions for each language. This allows FARR to quickly search the developers "bible" using a syntax like "fdb php explode". After typing this expression, FARR will search its dev. bible for php functions, find explode, and return a beautiful description of how to use the explode() function, its parameters, a few examples of explode()'s common usage, etc. (Note: explode() is just an example.) When a user types the expression and then hits enter after viewing its usage, FARR adds an example to the clipboard so we can paste it into place and modify as needed.

Reasoning:
I cannot begin to tell you how annoying it is to waste a browser tab to php.net or some other web source. This plugin would be ideal for developers of any age or experience as we all forget syntax every now and then, especially when switching languages on the go (javascript and php are very close.) I was looking for something like this on DC and found FARRWebMetaSearch. While FARRWebMetaSearch is a great idea, the purpose of this plugin is to use an offline version to eliminate the requirement of internet access. Syntax doesnt change, internet access does.

Parts:
This plugin is a HUGE project as it contains several parts: the FARR plugin that handles searching and reading the individual developer "bibles," the actual developer "bibles" themselves and the example usages for functions.

This plugin would be EXTREMELY popular in my honest opinion. It will add alot more functionality to FARR (as if FARR doesn't already have enough functionality - thanks mouser )

Note: It's probably a good idea to let this post age into maturity before developing this plugin. The reason I am posting this idea and not coding it is due to the fact that I am extremely busy with my web development and side projects as it is, I wouldnt be able to take on another project for awhile.

Please post your ideas for this plugin so we can formulate, as a community, what would be the best way to approach the project, what features to add, and who would be up for coding it

Updates:
- [Change] Made FARRWebMetaSearch a link in 'Reasoning.'

5

Developer's Corner / PHP GD Library

« on: February 18, 2010, 01:15 PM »

So question for all you PHP coders out there... I've been writing a class to deal with image manipulations, such as adding watermarks to images etc... Is there anyway to speed up the image load process? I understand this is a very generic question, but i'm hoping it sparks the conversation im looking for Thanks for your time!

6

Developer's Corner / C++ Help

« on: February 12, 2010, 08:30 PM »

Alright so here it goes... I've been experimenting with creating macros based on pixel color changes... I'm not understanding why GetPixel() is returning 0 constantly when I have the target game open... I can see the cursor coordinates, but not the color value... What am I doing wrong? I need to find the color of the pixel underneath the cursor while in a full screen game window.

Here is my example I wrote in a couple minutes to output coordinates and color:

Code: C [Select]

1. //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. #include <windows.h>
3. #include <iostream>
4. //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. using namespace std;
6. //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. int main(void)
8. {
9.         HWND wowHandle = FindWindow(NULL, "World of Warcraft");
10.         if(!wowHandle)
11.         {
12.                 cout << "WoW is not open atm..." << endl;
13.                 system("pause");
14.                 return 0;
15.         }
16.         else
17.         {
18.                 cout << "WoW is OPEN..." << endl;
19.                 ShowWindow(wowHandle, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
20.                 SetForegroundWindow(wowHandle);
21.                
22.                 while(1)
23.                 {
24.                         POINT cursorPoint;
25.                         GetCursorPos(&cursorPoint);
26.                         COLORREF color = GetPixel(GetDC(wowHandle), cursorPoint.x, cursorPoint.y);
27.                         system("cls");
28.                         cout << "(" << cursorPoint.x << ", " << cursorPoint.y << ")" << endl;
29.                         cout << "COLOR: " << color;
30.                 }      
31.         }
32.        
33. }
34. //------------------------------------------------------------------------------

it's probably sloppy... don't hate on the 5 minute "im at work and in a hurry on my break" coding...

7

Developer's Corner / Beautiful Code: In your opinion, what makes code Beautiful?

« on: February 18, 2009, 10:38 PM »

Tonight a highly subjective question was proposed concerning "What Beautiful Code should be." There are a lot of important questions and while I understand this might be a very debatable topic, let's take some time to talk about this... Why? you might ask. Well, because it's important... Take a look at some of the following points made by our very own mouser, Gothi[c] and Deozaan:

1. It is better to have 20 lines of understandable clear simple code than 4 lines of complexity. - Mouser
2. The real question is does it make any non-negligable difference when it's all compiled down to bytecode anyway? If so, it probably needs to be evaluated for each programming language. - Deozaan
3. If it uses more memory, so what? Premature optimization is the root of all evil. Lets not optimize that until a problem is created by being too organized, which is near impossible. - CodeByter
4. Would you rather have a program use 100k extra memory or have the same program crash more often because its code is hard to understand? - mouser
5. If the program needs to read millions of pieces of data, then 1ms of delay can add up. - Deozaan
6. There's a balance between clear code and complex code with less lines. Just clarity at the cost of crazy insane slowdown would be silly. - Gothi[c]
7. Even when code is slower, you have to ask yourself, is it happening in a place that matters. There are very very few cases where it is better to have ugly short code than longer clearer code. - Mouser
8. We shouldn't strive to write longer code but rather to write code that is easy to understand. - Mouser
9. The goal should be: efficient easy to understand, short if possible, code. - Gothi[c]

In this discussion, Mouser mentions a list that I post on my site. Take a look at the list here: http://www.codebyter...9/02/beautiful-code/

Now, you are completely briefed and ready to go. Post some thoughts you have concerning this highly debatable topic and keep in mind that no one is against you

8

Developer's Corner / Programming Paradigms

« on: February 02, 2009, 12:03 PM »

So I ran across some great content on youtube concerning a course offered at Stanford. The Title of the course is "Programming Paradigms" and the lecturer is Jerry Cain. I'm going to start watching this every day and wanted to share with you all... Enjoy!

Also, here are some other cute clips too:
Binky Pointer - http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=f-pJlnpkLp0
Write in C - http://www.youtube.c...&feature=related

9

Living Room / Culture of Computer Programmers

« on: January 26, 2009, 05:07 PM »

I have decided to do my first speech of this semester on the Culture of Computer Scientists... I wanted to get some feedback from you all (to include in my speech) by this Wednesday night. Post some personal opinions concerning what you think about the Culture of Computer Scientists! Just open thoughts for the time being and if I dont get enough feedback, ill propose some questions... I could really use a few good opinions so dont be afraid to share yours!

Thanks for the help,
CodeByter

10

Living Room / Apple Wheel macbook - revolutionary

« on: January 05, 2009, 10:52 PM »

Enjoy this

http://www.theonion....oduces_revolutionary

11

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / NANY 2009 Release: WishList Maker

« on: January 03, 2009, 12:24 AM »

NANY 2009 Entry Information

Application Name	WishList
Version	1.2
Short Description	Manage your WishList's with ease!
Supported OSes	XP/Vista
Web Page	http://www.codebyter.com
Download Link	http://www.codebyter...ishList/WishList.exe
System Requirements	Windows PC XP/Vista
Version History	A list of the (ongoing) version history
Author:	CodeByter - http://www.codebyter.com

Description
Manage your WishList's with ease Refer to this thread: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=16398.0

Features

Version 1.2 Changes:

    * Fixed the issue loading "Default Profile."
    * Removed Default Profile and added a "Create New" speed button next to load/save buttons.
    * Added the ability for WishList to check and set File Associations for .wlp files

Version 1.1 Changes:

    * Users can now edit entries.
    * Users have the ability to check things off now (which simulates "buying" an item)
    * "Link" column is now changed to "Notes" column and users can now store any notes they would like for this item here.
    * Increased the amount of priority levels from 3 to 5 and changed the way the user can select the priority for the item
    * Users can now save/load wishlists.
    * The Form is resizable but has limits on min/max sizes. WishList also now remembers the last Height/Width.
    * Fixed the "text with gray background" issue reported by "Kamel" on DonationCoder.
    * Users can now search their wishlists for generic text.
    * Added animations to several buttons.
    * Added the ability for users to switch to saved wishlists "On-the-go." This ability can be found in the combo box to the upper right corner of the form.
    * All wishlists created can now be properly managed, even deleted from "WishList."

Planned Features
I think its pretty solid for the most part... Was just a simple, quick app to write for Kamel on the forums.

Screenshots


Usage
Installation
Copy the executable into a folder of its own. Make a shortcut to it and have at it. If you're running Vista, make sure you run it as an administrator so you can manage your wishlist's through the program.

Using the Application
This application is great for managing WishList's and keeping track of things you would like to buy or have bought.

Uninstallation
Delete the executable and the folder it was placed into.

Known Issues
None currently.

12

Living Room / HAPPY NEW YEARS DC!!!

« on: December 31, 2008, 11:11 PM »

Just wanted to start the thread! Happy New Years May you all have a wonderful '09 and best of wishes!!! Feel free to post pics of your new year or share how your experience was

13

DC Gamer Club / Something similiar to XFire...

« on: October 02, 2008, 01:24 PM »

So i've been wanting to use IRC inside of my games when they are running... so I dont have to alt-tab out and what not... I've figured out the core of what I need to do to make a program overlay a game and here it is:

   //scan for the game handle with
   bool WINAPI EnumDesktopWindows();

   //With the HWND you can access the DC with
   HDC GetDC(HWND hWnd);

   //now create a DC where you can copy the screen
   HDC CreateCompatibleDC(HDC hdc);

   //and a bitmap to access the data
   HBITMAP CreateCompatibleBitmap(HDC hdc, int nWidth, int nHeight);

   //link them together
   HGDIOBJ SelectObject(HDC hdc, HGDIOBJ hgdiobj);

   //copy the screen into our DeviceContex
   BOOL BitBlt(...);

   //access the bits with
   LONG GetBitmapBits(HBITMAP hbmp, LONG cbBuffer, LPVOID lpvBits);

But, what im wanting to know is: Does anyone else know what im talking about here? If so, lets work together on this... could be amazing since there is only currently only 1 IRC Client that works in games (Gamepe) and it doesnt work with NVIDIA cards...

14

DC Gamer Club / WoWAM - An addon manager to replace your WoW Launcher

« on: September 23, 2008, 12:02 PM »

With the constant flow of new updates for your favorite addons, it can get very tiresome to continually keep your World of Warcraft addons updated. I wanted a simple solution that made the task at hand easy. I didnt want a million extra options that clutter my addon manager. I checked some of the other addon managers available and while most of them did the job very well, none satisfied me personally. So, I took it upon myself to code something that I, along with other users, would enjoy. WoWAM is the result and it does the job very well! This addon manager provides the latest news straight from WoW Insider and checks to see if your addons are the latest greatest! I even added a button to launch WoW right from the program. Take note to the fact that you have to install the addon from my manager for it to show up in the list of currently installed addons but future plans to make this program recursively scan your addon directory to find the list of installed addons is in the making (given WoWAce's future plans don't take place too soon.)

Long story short, download it here.

15

DC Gamer Club / Who Amongst us Plays WoW?

« on: September 19, 2008, 05:23 PM »

Unfortunately, I am a very big fan of World of Warcraft... If I could change the habit, I would... lol! I just love the game and the dynamics behind MOST of it... (not all)... But, anywho... My starter questions are: (1) Who Plays WoW? (2) What server and PvP or PvE? (3) What race/class?

I'll go first....

Dalvengyr - PvP
Night Elf Druid (Resto spec)

16

Living Room / Sad Weekend....

« on: September 15, 2008, 04:39 PM »

Hey DC Friends,

Long time, no talk. Been really busy with college and everything... But I'm trying to stop in here and there just to catch up on the forums, etc...

This past weekend was probably one of my worst weekends of all time... I went out on Saturday night to go see that movie "Righteous Kill," which was amazing, and came back at 5:30am to my apartment only to find that it had been broken in to. I found out that my beautiful laptop had been stolen along with my flat screen TV... I was a mess and partially still am... That laptop had EVERYTHING on it.... including all of my source files for LineByter (www.codebyter.com/linebyter .) My parents ended up coming up just to help me out with everything for the weekend... I actually went out and bought this bad boy:

http://www.gateway.c...roduct/529668123.php

It's very nice and everything I could ask for in a notebook, hardware wise. Very good pricing too. Anyway, My University has the MAC address of my NIC and I was wondering if I could call the local ISP (Brighthouse Network) and see if they could monitor this MAC address to gain access to an IP address which could be tracked by the police? Idk if this is any good solution but I've already included the Serial numbers of the stolen software in the police statement, etc.

It has been quite a busy weekend and I have a couple of exams to study for still, lol. Reality hit me in the face... once again!

17

Living Room / DonationCoder credits for money...

« on: August 25, 2008, 05:50 PM »

Possible that anyone would be willing to send me $17.75 to my paypal, and ill give you $17.75 on these forums... They are loose credits that I could use on something for college atm... Thanks

18

Developer's Corner / Problem?

« on: August 02, 2008, 05:16 PM »

Is there something i have to initialize? If so, I was unaware... this is a quick post as I am in a hurry to leave...

19

Developer's Corner / Mutex Problem

« on: July 15, 2008, 01:15 PM »

Im using RAD Studio... This is the code:

[Select]

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <vcl.h>
#pragma hdrstop
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
USEFORM("Unit1.cpp", Form1);
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPSTR, int)
{
HANDLE mutex;
try
{
const char mutexname[] = "SingleInstanceProgram";
mutex = OpenMutex(0, false, mutexname);
if(mutex == NULL)
{
mutex = CreateMutex(NULL, true, mutexname);
}
else
{
ShowMessage("Application is already running.");
return 0;
        }
Application->Initialize();
SetApplicationMainFormOnTaskBar(Application, true);
Application->CreateForm(__classid(TForm1), &Form1);
Application->Run();
}
catch (Exception &exception)
{
Application->ShowException(&exception);
}
catch (...)
{
try
{
throw Exception("");
}
catch (Exception &exception)
{
Application->ShowException(&exception);
}
}
ReleaseMutex(mutex);
return 0;
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somehow, every time i launched the compiled executable it seems to just recreate the mutex as if it was never created in the first place... Any Ideas?

20

Developer's Corner / Collision Detection...

« on: July 13, 2008, 07:24 PM »

Anyone familiar with a good collision detection algorithm for 2 objects? Im messing around with a networked game atm.. bored, lol

21

Developer's Corner / Cross IM service

« on: June 29, 2008, 08:38 PM »

How would I go about making one of my TCP/IP chat programs able to talk with AIM or something... Is this difficult?

22

Developer's Corner / Programatically determining your IP Address...

« on: June 27, 2008, 11:40 AM »

So, I'm working on a little application that has a few random utilities for myself... I'm using CodeGear RAD Studio and wondering if someone could explain the logical process of how to determine my IP Address (locally and externally) programatically... Is there some DLL I could call or some system command that I could use... I know there are commands I could use in the command prompt for windows but I was wondering if there was any other way to do it... Help is appreciated much

23

Developer's Corner / Digital Signature to verify Publisher...

« on: June 26, 2008, 10:47 PM »

So I was wondering how I could sign my executables with something that would verify the true Publisher... Here is a sample image referring to what I am talking about:



I wanna get it to look like this:

24

Developer's Corner / Question...

« on: June 26, 2008, 08:19 PM »

So, I am currently going through some college classes in an effort to make a living through software engineering... I LOVE using Borland Developer Studio (specifically Visual C++)... I know that alot of new languages are still being introduced and what not... What is the "Hot" language to get into? What do companies want nowadays?

Pardon me for my inexperience in the corporate world, but Im just trying to get a feel for things as far as my career goes...

25

General Software Discussion / Delicions Library 2

« on: June 26, 2008, 01:30 PM »

Ok... so, I went over to a friends house who is a die-hard macintosh user. He was showing off some of Mac's cool app's and he came across this:

http://www.delicious-monster.com/

I wanted to know if there was a windows version of this... It seems like an amazing idea... If there isnt, I was gonna mess around coding my own but i'd have to find someplace that I can pull album covers from for anything you can come across... Any ideas?

UPDATE:http://www.imediaman...roduct-overview.html
Gonna try this out... I came across this but not sure about it yet...