Unlikely Teacher

Updated Kindle for Mac now with Search and Text Highlight support

2010-10-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

If you have Kindle for Mac, try opening the application and wait for it to be updated to get the new Search and Highlight features.

Kindle for Mac comes with the auto-update feature turned on. But if you still find yourself using the old version, try checking the Preferences option and select the "Automatically install updates" option to receive the latest version without prompts.

Below is a picture of the Search function for Kindle for Mac in action. The button to the left of the Search box is for the new Text Highlight support.

Thank you Amazon!

Facebook iOS SDK post to wall problem: facebookErrDomain error 10000

2010-09-28T04:04:00.000-07:00

I was trying to post an image to a friend's wall using the Facebook iOS SDK and the DemoApp which comes with it.

I added a new button which posts a sample image using the Graph API


NSMutableDictionary * params = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
kAppId, @"api_key", imagePath, @"picture", @"testing", @"message",
nil];
[_facebook requestWithGraphPath:@"USER_ID/feed" andParams:params andHttpMethod:@"POST" andDelegate:self];

but was getting the error:

facebookErrDomain error 10000

The solution was to add publish_stream to the list of permissions passed on to the [facebook authorize] method and finally got it to work.

NOTE: The image I posted to a friend's wall was from a publicly available link and not some binary data I have on the iOS application. For some reasons (and I find this really strange), Facebook does not allow posting an image from their domain to friend's wall using the Graph API.

System.InvalidProgramException: Invalid IL code

2010-09-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

I created a program in VB Express, tested it and added the application to our daily ANT build using Mono. I then made some modifications and re-compiled with mono. The compile process went well and the program was able to start properly. But when it reached a certain part of the code, I got the error: "System.InvalidProgramException: Invalid IL code".

I searched all over the web about this problem but was unable to find the root cause of the problem. I then decided to try out re-compiling in VS Express and was presented with lots of compile errors. That's when I realized that mono's compiler (specifically vbnc) is not as good as it's supposed to be (yet). And that you should still try to compile with VS every now and then just to make sure everything's working.

Lesson of the story: If you get this error, try compiling with VS to see if there are other problems.

Apple Push Notification: Failed to register with error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain

2010-04-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on getting Push Notifications to work in my test application using Urban Airship's service and got this message:

Failed to register with error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3000 UserInfo=0x117520 "no valid 'aps-environment' entitlement string found for application"

I searched the web and most of the blogs/tutorials I found mentioned that I needed to create a provisioning profile in my iPhone developer account which is configured for push notifications.

I was pretty confident that my account was setup properly because I was already able to send push notifications before using an app id that I created so I assumed the problem was with my development setup.

Below are the steps I followed to make push notifications working again:

1. Check whether the profile you're using for the application is the one configured with push

Often times developers will have multiple provisioning profiles to test and develop on devices. In my case, I had a generic/wildcard profile (BLAHBLAHXX.*) for deploying on the device and another profile for an actual app configured for Push notifications (BLAHBLAHXX.com.companyname.appname).

I was using the generic profile when I checked so I had to switch that back to the profile configured for push. To edit your setting choose Project > Edit Project Settings > Code Signing and then choose the appropriate profile.

2. In case step 1 did not fix your problem (like in my situation), delete all the apps in your device which use the provisioning profile for push notification and perform a soft reset.

3. In Xcode, try to clean all targets. Reboot your machine (probably not necessary but it does wonders most of the time). Then re-build and deploy.

I was back in business with APNS after following those three steps.

HTH.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_dashboard_setup()

2010-03-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

I got this error in Wordpress this morning when trying to logon to the Admin pages:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_dashboard_setup() in /home/username/public_html/wp-admin/index.php  on line 15

I didn't make any changes or upgrades to the site and the weird part is that all of a sudden, two of our Wordpress installations were displaying this error.

UPDATE: March 24, 10:12 PM GMT+8 It looks like the problem is related to A2 Hosting changing the default PHP version (see Neil's post in the comments section).

I did some Googling and found a workaround.

The solution is to change this line in wp-admin/index.php:

require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php');

to this line:

require_once('./includes/dashboard.php');

I'm still trying to investigate the cause of the problem but in the meantime, hope this quick fix solves your problem.

Thanks to Florent for sharing his solution. And thanks also to Neil for providing the reason for the error and a better approach to handling the problem for those who are with A2 Hosting.

Unable to read a jre library while constructing the blacklist

2009-12-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I started playing around with Google App Engine and Java. Today, when I tried upgrading the JDK/VM that Google App Engine is using from Eclipse Galileo to Java 6 in Mac OS X, I got the error below:

com.google.appengine.tools.development.agent.impl.BlackList initBlackList
SEVERE: Unable to read a jre library while constructing the blacklist. Security restrictions may not be entirely emulated. /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home/lib/plugin.jar
The server is running at http://localhost:8888/

Fortunately, after a bit of searching I found a quick fix.

cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Resources/Deploy.bundle/Contents/Home/lib/

sudo ln -s plugin.jar plugin2.jar

Details taken from: http://groups.google.com/group/google-appe

Eclipse 3.5 Galileo and SVN (Subversive)

2009-09-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

With Subversive being an official Eclipse project (2007) and the recent Eclipse 3.5 Galileo release (2009), you may be wondering why Eclipse still does not have SVN support built-in.

But don't fuss, because it's not that hard to configure SVN support (using Subversive) with a few simple steps. This document aims to guide you with the install process.

The first time you try to run Eclipse Galileo and click any of the update sites, you'll probably receive the "Unable to read repository at ..." error like what is shown below:

To fix this problem, simply select "Galileo" (or any other update site you wish to use) from the "Available Software Sites" link (Help>Install New Software) and click the "Test Connection" option on the right.

Click "OK" when done and select "Galileo" from the "Available Software" dropdown.

From the Galileo Update site, choose "Collaboration > Subversive SVN Team Provider".

Click Finish/OK when done. Due to licensing restrictions, the connectors need to be installed using another update site.

To do this, simply "Add" the "Subversive SVN Connectors" Update Site: http://community.polarion.com/projects/subversive/download/eclipse/2.0/galileo-site/

Select the Subversion Connectors you need (select all if you're not sure which ones) and Install.

After the installation process, you will be asked for restart of a Eclipse for the changes to take effect.

To see the available options for SVN, open the "SVN Repository Exploring" perspective.

Hope this helps. Comments and feedback are much appreciated.

Thanks.

Extra Space (20px) in iPhone OS 2.2.1 Nav Bar

2009-07-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

I currently have an iPhone application which has 4 tabs, when I click any of those tabs, the application should show a new view with a Nav Bar which then contains a table view.

My problem: there was blank space (about 20 pixels) showing between the status bar and the Nav Bar. I tried looking in the Nibs about setting this value but without luck.

What's even weirder is the fact that this problem does not occur when running against the OS 3.0 simulator.

Fortunately, after days of searching, I found the workaround for OS 2.2.1 and below.

[sourcecode language='cpp']
CGRect frame = navController.view.frame;
frame.origin.y = 0.0;
navController.view.frame = frame;
[/sourcecode]

Answer taken from iphonedevsdk.com.

Hope this helps!

Show Desktop Command on Mac OS X

2009-05-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

I'm relatively new to Mac OS X and have been struggling to find out how to quickly "Show the Desktop" to see all the icons I have in there.

I have been used to clicking that little "Show Desktop" icon on the bottom left of the screen in Windows and was looking for an equivalent on my Mac.

Fortunately, there is! But it's not an icon that you would click but some keyboard shortcuts you need to type. For me pressing fn F10 did the trick.

You can find more Expose tips on this page.

P25,000 Pay Sought for Teachers, Nurses

2009-05-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

This is something I hope gets approved quickly. For reasons that are quite obvious....

MANILA, Philippines - At least three congressmen are proposing that public school teachers and government nurses be entitled to a monthly salary of at least P25,000.

Taken from philstar.com.

PHP writeUTF implementation

2009-05-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

We currently have an application in Groovy/Grails/Java that we're slowly porting to PHP (for more affordable hosting costs).

We encountered a problem when we needed to convert one of our routines for writing out a binary file. We were using Java's DataOutputStream.writeUTF(String) method and had a hard time trying to write binary data in PHP.

After much research on the web, we found a method in PHP called pack(). Below is our PHP implementation of Java's DOS.writeUTF(String).

[sourcecode language='php']
public static function writeUTF($string) {
$utfString = utf8_encode($string);
$length = strlen($utfString);
print(pack("n", $length));
print($utfString);
flush();
}
[/sourcecode]

We don't claim this to be the exact equivalent of the method, but it gets the job done and the receiving end of the file was able to parse the binary file properly with the new PHP implementation with no modifications to the client code.

Please checkout the pack() documentation for more details.

vi Page Up/Page down for Mac OS X

2009-05-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

In case you're wondering how to move up or down in "vi" from Mac OS X terminal:

Then CTRL-B and CTRL-F should do the trick.

Got this from the Mac forums at macworld.com.

SitePoint Books: The Bushfire Relief Sale

2009-02-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

Get 5 books (PDF) for the price of 1 and get to help the victims of the recent bushfires in Australia.

SitePoint is well known for their book: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

More details on The Bushfire Relief Sale site.

COM Scripting and Groovy

2009-02-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

While I was reading my copy of Groovy in Action which I won from JavaRanch, I came across an interesting tool called Scriptom.

This is the same tool that the authors used to insert the Groovy code samples into the book's draft written as an MS Word document.

You can read more about COM Scripting and Groovy from Codehaus.

Agile Modeling and Einstein

2009-02-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

Last week, a friend of mine asked me about my opinion about keeping design documents simple. What follows is a quote from the Agile Modeling article he sent me over Skype.

One of the more controversial concepts in Agile Modeling is that agile models and agile documents are sufficient for the task at hand, or as I like to say they are "just barely good enough (JBGE)". In this article I make the following critical points about a model or document (an artifact) being just barely good enough

This reminded me of a quote from Einstein which says "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler".

This Einstein Wiki Quote entry also mentions that it is likely that the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) Agile methodology principle also originated from the same idea.

I didn't get to read the whole article, but overall I agree with the concept.

Zend Framework Large File Upload Issues

2009-02-03T02:27:00.000-08:00

I tried modifying this Zend_Form_Element_File example to support larger file uploads but noticed that I've been getting "Undefined index" errors when my uploads are bigger than 8MB.

Notice: Undefined index: tmp_name in C:\quickstart\library\Zend\File\Transfer\Adapter\Abstract.php on line 589

Notice: Undefined index: name in C:\quickstart\library\Zend\Validate\File\Size.php on line 398

Notice: Undefined index: tmp_name in C:\quickstart\library\Zend\File\Transfer\Adapter\Abstract.php on line 589

Notice: Undefined index: name in C:\quickstart\library\Zend\Validate\File\Extension.php on line 228

Being a PHP and Zend Framework newbie, I wanted to put the blame on Zend but in the end I found the reason for the upload and validation errors after much googling.

The solution requires updating two properties in php.ini:

upload_max_filesize = 32M
post_max_size = 32M

With these changes you can now upload relatively bigger files!

Just make sure that your hosting provider supports your file upload size settings.

Wordpress Thank a Plugin Developer Day

2009-01-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I tried working on my first ever Wordpress plugin. It's a simple filter which includes a Google Adsense script after every post.

I'm thinking of creating a Buy me a Coffee plugin next to take this plugin development challenge on to the next level.

Coincidentally, Matt just announced January 28 as the official Wordpress Thank a Plugin Developer Day.

Hopefully next year my plugins would be included in the next 4000 plugins for Wordpress.

But for now, I'd like to thank the developers of Google Sitemap Generator and Syntax Highlighter Plus for a job well done.

Keep up the good work you guys!

Learn Objective–C on the Mac eBook for $10

2009-01-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

For those interested in joining the IPhone development craze then this book might be the one for you.

You can get the eBook version from the Apress daily deal site for only $10 for the next 24 hours.

Free Book Download - The Art & Science of CSS

2008-11-20T04:04:00.000-08:00

Hello,

You've downloaded samples of our books in the past, so I thought
you'd be interested to hear that for 14 days you can download The
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All you need to do is follow @sitepointdotcom on Twitter. It's
a two week Twitaway, so don't miss out —- follow us today!

Don't do Twitter? That's cool, we've got you covered. Check
out our 14-day CSS Twitaway here:

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Freebies like this are few and far between, so help us spread the
word. Tell everyone you think might be interested in a FREE CSS
book about the SitePoint 14-day Twitaway!

Warm regards,

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sitepoint.com

Flex/Flash navigation link problems in Mac OS X

2008-11-14T04:24:00.000-08:00

I've had one of the weirdest problems last week when a friend reported that our newly designed navigation menu created in Flex was not working on her MacBook.

Basically, I had a couple of moving Flex Canvas's where I attached mouse click events.

[sourcecode language='jscript']
private function homeClicked(evt:MouseEvent):void {
getURL('/');
}

private function updatesClicked(evt:MouseEvent):void {
getURL('/category/updates');
}

private function storiesClicked(evt:MouseEvent):void {
getURL('/category/stories');
}

private function galleryClicked(evt:MouseEvent):void {
getURL('/category/gallery');
}

private function getURL(url:String):void {
var request:URLRequest;
request = new URLRequest(url);
navigateToURL((request), "_self");
}
[/sourcecode]

We had no problems running this on IE, Firefox and Safari on Windows and Firefox on Ubuntu Linux so we got a little worried why it was not working properly on a Mac.

I initially thought that a popup blocker was probably causing the problem with navigateToURL() so I tried exploring changing the AllowScriptAccess parameter to "always" and use Flash/Flex's support for calling ExternalInterface.

The animated Canvas's also had rollover and rollout effects but they worked fine on all the mentioned platforms including Mac. So the problem must be with the Mac Flash Player not getting the mouse click events.

After several days of searching we discovered that the div where I placed our Flash object had a negative z-index declaration on its stylesheet which was getting in the way of Mac OS X's Flash Player ability to receive mouse clicks.

I simply removed the z-index value and we finally got the links to work on those lovely little MacBooks.

Anyway, thanks to all my friends and their MacBooks for helping me with this very tricky problem.

Now we're off to exploring PaperVision3D...

The Secret to a Successful Website

2008-11-12T05:41:00.000-08:00

Got an email today from Manning with the new sets of books due next year.

One of them was of particular interest, the Website Owner's manual.

I've been a web developer for a number of years but mainly focusing on backend technologies.

So it goes without saying that I do not have much experience in managing a site.

The free chapter entitled: The Secret to a Successful Website discusses the crucial role of the site manager.

The book is still in "Early Access" phase and should be available early next year.

Free Certification Beta: SCDJWS 5

2008-10-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

This post has moved to a new location but is kept here for archiving purposes.

It's here! The long awaited update to Sun's Java Web Services certification exam.

Get it while it's hot...

FREE BETA: Sun Certified Developer for Java Web Services 5 Certification Exam

Are you a Developer who is responsible for creating web services applications using Java technology components such as those supported by the Glassfish Metro Web service stack and the Java Enterprise Edition 5 platform? If so, this is your opportunity to get involved in the creation of the Java Web Services exam!!!!!

As a beta tester, you officially test the test and will be able to provide Sun with valuable comments and technical feedback about the Java Web Services questions. The Sun beta exam counts towards official SCDJWS 5 Certification!

Beta Dates: October 31st, 2008 thru November 21st, 2008

Registration Exam Start Date: October 29th, 2008 - November 5th, 2008

Passing the exam entitles you to the full status of Sun Certified Developer for Java Web Services 5, and you will receive a Sun "certification kit”. A certification kit will have your certificate, Logo Agreement and Letter.

Candidates will have 240 minutes to complete 160 questions, which should allow you time to respond to all questions and provide your valuable comments while taking the exam.

This beta exam is offered Worldwide at any Authorized Prometric Testing Center!

Recommended Prerequisites:

**Prior to attempting this certification, candidates MUST be certified as a Sun Certified Programmer (SCJP), any edition
**Candidates should have at least six to twelve months experience developing Java Web Services

BETA EXAM REGISTRATION PROCEDURE

Unlike other SUN Microsystems certification exams, this exam does NOT require a voucher. To register for the "Sun Certified Developer for Java Web Services 5", exam number (311-230)" Beta exam, you may register online at www.prometric.com, and follow the prompts. Or, you may register by phone, by calling your regional Prometric registration office, listed at http://www.prometric.com/Sun/default.htm.

Asia/Australia 61-2-96405830
Europe 31-320-239-800
Japan 81-0120-107737
Latin America* Contact your local Prometric testing center, listed at www.2test.com
USA/Canada 1-800-795-3926

Please contact SunBeta@prometric.com for any questions

The detailed exam objectives can be found here.

Related Resources:

FREE Certification Beta: Sun Certified Specialist Netbeans IDE

2008-10-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

This post has moved to a new location but is kept here for archiving purposes.

FREE: Sun Certified Specialist Netbeans IDE Beta Certification Exam

Are you a Programmer who is responsible for developing Java desktop and Java web applications using the NetBeans IDE? If so, this is your opportunity to get involved in the creation of the Netbeans IDE exam!!!!!

As a beta tester, you officially test the test and will be able to provide Sun with valuable comments and technical feedback about the Netbeans IDE questions. The Sun beta exam counts towards official SCSNI Certification!

Beta Starts: October 15, 2008

Registration Exam Start Date: October 13 - 15, 2008

Passing the exam entitles you to the full status of Sun Certified Specialist Netbeans IDE, and you will receive a Sun "certification kit”. A certification kit will have your certificate, Logo Agreement and Letter.

Candidates will have 195 minutes to complete 160 questions, which should allow you time to respond to all questions and provide your valuable comments while taking the exam.

This beta exam is offered Worldwide at any Authorized Prometric Testing Center!

Recommended Prerequisites:

Candidates should have six to twelve months experience programming with the Netbeans IDE.

Taken from JavaRanch.

Related books:

Free Alternative to Flex Builder

2008-09-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I last played with Flex. I feel like starting from square one.

This also means that I have a more difficult path ahead of me, with my Flex Builder trial license already expired.

Fortunately, it's not that hard to setup basic mxml auto complete functionality with a plain Eclipse installation with XML support.

First we need to define the .mxml file association in Eclipse (Preferences > General > Editors > File Associations).

Then map this file association to the XML editor (see screenshot below).

Add the Flex 3 schema (flex3.xsd) to Eclipse's XML catalog.

Try creating a test mxml file and open it from Eclipse.

Test.mxml

[sourcecode language="xml"]

[/sourcecode]

You will most likely receive an Unsupported Type error.

Complete the process by adding the content type definition (shown below).

Close the mxml file and re-open. You should now be able to see the auto-complete functionality in action.

Hope this helps and let me know if you encounter any problems.

If you're a student or a full time Flex developer, you shouldn't even bother trying out the outlined steps.

Flex is free for students. But, if you make a living out of developing Flex apps, you might want to consider buying a license.

Related resources:

Setting Up Eclipse For Flex 2

Flex and ActionScript 3 Books

Installing AXDT (Eclipse AS Plugin)

FlashDevelop IDE

SEO basics

2008-09-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

I've been creating web applications for quite some time but never got interested in SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) until now.

The primary reason I think is that most (if not all) of the web applications I've been developing are for internal use only (think Java and banks).

But this outlook changed as my wife and I started playing with a Christian Music Site called Sling & Stone Music.

For starters, I've converted most of the dynamic URLs to use mod_rewrite to somehow make them search friendly.

I was thinking of buying a book for this purpose but luckily I found some very good articles from IBM developerWorks on the said topic.

Here are the links:

Search engine optimization basics, Part 1: Improve your standing in search engines

Search engine optimization basics, Part 2: SEO keyword and infrastructure strategies

Search engine optimization basics, Part 3: Get your Web pages into search indexes

Search Engine Optimization basics, Part 4: Improve search marketing for large sites

Hope you find them useful!