2012-11-30

2012-11-24

Securing files in Google Drive

Just a quick round-up of methods of securing files in otherwise almost perfect Google Drive:

This also made me wonder: with Windows 8 Microsoft gave users their SkyDrive - what about securing this little beast?

2012-09-10

New programming jargon

  • Egyptian Brackets
  • Yoda Conditions -- hello, Java programmers!
  • Nopping
  • Loch Ness Monster Bug
  • Ninja Comments
  • Smurf Naming Convention
  • Jenga Code
  • ... and more!
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/07/new-programming-jargon.html


2012-09-06

Using Trello for IT project management

As Joel Spolsky wrote on his blog:
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The folks over at UserVoice are using Trello quite extensively throughout their development process.


Founder Richard White describes it all in detail.

2012-09-04

Trello - a real gem!

Well known an respectable blog owner, Joel Spolsky (joelonsoftware.com) has recently published info about their new product: Trello. Actually, he published this info exactly one year ago, but I've found it just today.

Credibility of Fog Creek Software company (which produces FogBugz), where Joel Spolsky is a co-founder is very high to me. To add more, they also run Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange. So in this light, after reading about something new like Trello, it almost immediately aroused my curiosity.

As Joel Spolsky wrote in his announcement post:
Around the time of Fog Creek Software's ten year anniversary, I started thinking that if we want to keep our employees excited and motivated for another ten years, we were going to need some new things to work on.

And to be honest, Trello is one of those things in Internet, which creates big waves and influences way the people work. As soon as one starts collaborating with at least one another person on the same board, the very idea of Trello shows up. It's a real, genuine gem, which is quite rare in Internet nowadays. Chances are its creators will really have something interesting to work on for at least ten years.

My advice? Sign on, and USE IT!!!
Trello team wants to have 100 million active users, and since their service is free and non-discriminatory, there's no excuse not to use it.

Read more:

2012-07-09

Log-off, restart and power-off in Windows 8

Recently I've installed a Release Preview of Windows 8 in virtual machine. Luckily apart from completely new Start menu, all other major features are similar to Windows 7. Also the new Windows Explorer includes the scenic ribbon, which I prefer much more than previous "hidden-until-alt-key-pressed" regular menu.

But there are some basic things in Windows 8 I needed to re-learn, even though I find it unnecessary to be so complicated (compared to previous Windows):

  • Power options: (restart, hibernate and power-off)
  • Logging off
  • Swithing users (WinLogo+L)

To find how to turn off the system I needed to consult Windows Help (it proved to be helpful this time). But to find out how to use new "Sign-out" function I needed to use Google for it, but again I've found what I was looking for:

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-log-off-restart-and-shut-down-windows-8-pc/

To be honest, sign-off is now similar to web e-mail programs, where one needs to click user account image to close the session (okay, I consider this to be a slight improvement). But putting power options inside a hidden, pop-up vertical bar of new Start menu is way too complicated! Since Windows 95 a user needed just to click "Start" to find option to close the system - now it's so well hidden I suppose less experienced users will just pull the physical plug than to find where the damned power-off button is.

2012-05-26

Elegant Event Handling in Java

Here's a comment I added to a great post with a very nice piece of Java code:
Elegant Event Handling in Java

Yes, that's very elegant. I was implementing some Java class, when I went "hey, I need to handle events". I know how to do this in Delphi and .NET/C#, and I know how to use Swing events (even if I don't really like their approach).

So I've looked into JButton searching for "actionPerformed()" method, but no luck.
Then I went to AbstractButton and found "fireActionPerformed()" - which looked pretty ugly.
I even went to EventListenerList - to confirm my suspicion, that there is a mess in Java regarding events. And it is inherited from old, pre-generics, Swing design.

I knew there must have been some better way.

I've found Mr HappyObject - funny, but not so useful.
Then this: How To Create Your Own Events In Java - little better, and with synchronized methods (nice bonus).
This one looked promising: Generic event code - quite promising, but I kept on looking.

But your code is the best so far. I'm going to test it and will probably use it in my internal, little project.

Thanks a lot!

And here is a link to original code on GitHub: EventListeners.java