Topics

1

Living Room / Easter Island and Solar Eclispse - can't get much more 'mystical'

« on: July 30, 2010, 07:19 AM »

I wanted to share today's APOD.

http://antwrp.gsfc.n...v/apod/ap100730.html

2

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Time Of Day Synchronized Slide Show Screen Saver

« on: July 15, 2010, 07:00 AM »

Time of Day Synchronized Slide Show
This is a quirky concept but, as I have always believed, if I have a need for something there must be
at least one other person in the world who would also find it useful.

The idea is to develop a Screen Saver that rotates through photographs on the user's computer.  Nothing new
there.  But each photo will be displayed based on the Time of Day it was taken.  Thus, at any minute
of the day I will be able to see photos I took at the same time of day on some other date.

Here are the 'business rules' for the application:
 o A typical Slide-Show Screen Saver with all capabilities that are assumed in such
 o All photos to be displayed are defined by the user in the configuration - from a set of folders
 o The user can configure a 'minimum display time' for photos.  Every photo will display on the screen for
at least this minimum time.  This prevents the FLIPPING of multiple photos in succession that match the
timestamp AND prevents the change to a 'next' photo prematurely.  In other words, if the 'minimum time' is 2
minutes yet there is a photo that matches the next minute it will be skipped
 o The photos will be displayed based on the current time and the time/date information of the photo (I
believe this can be found in the EXIF; if it exists.)
 o For photos that do not contain EXIF data, the date will be used - these form a 'pool' of photos for
"random" choice (below)
 o When faced with multiple photos meeting the selection criteria any one will be chosen at random from
those that do match
 o When there is no photo in the collection that meets the criteria the Month-and-Day will be used
 o When there is no photo in the collection matching simply Month-and-Day, the current Month will be used
 o If no photo matches the selection criteria - based on date/time taken, the file datestamp will be used
Additional feature/ideas (maybe future):
 o Since we will be reading the EXIF data, the option (configurable by the user) to display the GeoTag data
over the image - as a tag at the lower corner in Lat/Lon format.
 o A 'magic' key that will identify the currently displayed photo - perhaps placing its location on the
Windows clipboard. {I find myself, many times, see an image in my screensaver and wonder "Where is that?" or
"I want to print/copy/review that one"
 o The ability to include the path to photo-sharing sites (Picassa does this and I love it)
 o Added logic to 'remember' which photos were chosen at random so there is less chance of repeat.

I would like to do this myself, maybe even as a commercial venture, but I simply do not have the time.
I was hoping someone in the DC community has the time and desire to make this idea a reality.
This is an application I would find very useful (and will gladly share some Donation Credits)

3

Developer's Corner / Roaming among the Dinosaurs

« on: February 09, 2010, 12:17 PM »

I am having trouble and hope one of my new-found friends (here on DC) can help.
In unmanaged C++ code, inside a simple DLL (for use with a proprietary interface), I need to access a COM port and read the data stream.
I can handle all the 'interpolation' of the data, but am having a real struggle getting access to the COM port; which, by the way is actually 'virtual' from a Bluetooth device.
Is there anyone out there with experience in this realm who is willing to help me?
I have scoured the Web for samples but none work as expected.

Inside this construct, I need to connect and read from a COM port:


BOOL WINAPI DllMain(HINSTANCE hinstDLL,DWORD
               fdwReason,LPVOID
               lpvReserved){
                  switch (fdwReason)
                  {
                  case DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH:
                     /* Init Code here */
                     /* If there is something you need to do before the functions in this
                     * Library can be used, perform it here and return a true (or false if it fails) */
                     MessageBox ( NULL, L"Process Attach", L"DXExternal DLL", MB_OK);
                     break;
                  case DLL_THREAD_ATTACH:
                     /* Thread-specific init code here */
                     MessageBox ( NULL, L"Thread Attach", L"DXExternal DLL", MB_OK);
                     break;
                  case DLL_THREAD_DETACH:
                     /* Thread-specific cleanup code here.
                     */
                     MessageBox ( NULL, L"Thread Detach", L"DXExternal DLL", MB_OK);
                     break;
                  case DLL_PROCESS_DETACH:
                     /* Cleanup code here */
                     /* This is called as the DLL is being unloaded (most likely when your
                     * application is shutting down. */
                     MessageBox ( NULL, L"Process Detach", L"DXExternal DLL", MB_OK);
                     return false;
                     break;
                  }
                  /* The return value is used for successful DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH */
                  return true;
}

Thanks, in advance.

4

Finished Programs / DONE: C.S.B.A.G.

« on: February 05, 2010, 03:26 PM »

This is an application I wrote many years ago.  As a new member on DC I wanted to share this.
It is an 'old idea' that is now new again.

The Customizable Slithering Button Application Generator is a useless little application you can use to pull a harmless prank on your friends.
It is small, light, fast, requires NO EXTERNAL LIBRARIES.

It is not clear exactly where/how to post something like this.

5

Living Room / Bad Code Offset

« on: January 25, 2010, 09:54 AM »

Since the idea of donations is central to this site, I wanted to share The Bad Code Offset project with my fellow coders and software architects.
This was the brain-child of Alex who operates The Daily WTF*

Although a bit tongue-in-cheek, the real mission of The Bad Code Offset is to provide incentives to those who write outstanding software code.  It is not possible to correct or erradicate poor programming practices.  We cannot 'cure the disease' of bad software design.  But, in a bit of "Pay it Forward" manner, we help support Open-Source projects that deserve recognition.

I am a proud member and encourage those here who (like me) are gainfully employed as software developers to consider helping out.

</soapbox>

*If you are unaware of TheDailyWTF I am very pleased to have introduced you to it.  It is part of my daily list of sites to view.

6

Developer's Corner / Like gitHub, but better

« on: January 19, 2010, 08:44 PM »

I am very proud of this idea.
I created a video that explains how to create your own remote git instance, without a server (no web hosting required) for FREE.
No fuss.  You can control access to multiple repositories.  Better than gitHub.  Better than Unfuddle.
Check out the video.

I encourage comments.

EDIT: A more detailed description is located further down in this thread.