Funcoder Technology Blog

I’m a PC adverts are back!

I recently had a situation where I had a looper displaying images, each having a delete button. This delete button would actually delete the image file from the server, so I needed a way to confirm the action. In AWP you can’t use the YesNo or Confirm functions in the server code but actually is very easy performing this in the browser code.

The important bit of code is the RETURN when the user selects No on the dialog. This RETURN will cause the browser not to execute the server code.

This is very handy to remember as there are many times when its good practice to get user conformation.

Now that the release 16 is approaching I thought it would be good to give some thoughts into what I would love to see in the next release. I’m just going to call it PC Soft What I Want but in the post I will be talking about all 3 products.

To start with I would love to be able to preview a template for testing rather than having to go to another page. If you try testing a template page you get an error.

Maybe one way would be able to specify in the template settings to page to run when testing. Its would just be nice to have to improve productivity.

In WebDev if you create a cell and set its background and opacity then the elements within the cell will also appear with the same opacity.

This is not great when you want to show text with say a crisp white colour. So how do you produce the effect without affecting the text?

Firstly you need to add an image control, set its Type to Generated.

Also make sure that you select “The control can be overlaid” on the image and then add a cell over the text. I usually set a background colour to the image to help me work with it in design.

Add a text control to the cell and set some text. Note that the Cell control also needs to be set as “The control can be overlaid”.

Even though you set the background of the image you still need to generate a new background with the opacity. Its easy and only requires a few lines of code.

Note that you have to make sure the shape of the background is set to Solid Background for this to work.

Engadget

via Kinect hacked to control Tesla coils from a safe distance (video).

This is a look to ways we will be interacting with computers in the future, using spatial movements as demonstrated in the film The Minority Report.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

This is a very cool piece of research coming out of Microsoft Labs.

Here’s a video of the PDC release (pre beta) of Windows 7. I love the gestures you can perform by flicking the mouse.

I created a simple app this morning to allow me to check when my sites get indexed by Google.

I thought that you might find it handy so you can grab your free copy here:

http://www.funcoder.com/apps/SiteCheck.zip

Once again the news has spread about the Apple Store rejecting this time the Opera Web browser. I have said this before, Apple are becoming what Microsoft was years ago and that concerns me.

Last week we purchased an HTC Touch Pro for some in house development and I had forgotten how much fun it is to develop on Windows Mobile.

I know the UI is not slick like the iPhone, but I have control over all the phones features and can develop any application I like without getting the Phone manufacturers approval.

Who would want to spend months developing an application, only to be rejected by the App Store and no other way to distribute it.

The close door approach that Apple is taking will inevitably be their downfall. I have seen it so many times that it’s incredible they still do it.

We live in a growing world of openness and collaboration. If a company wants to succeed they need to embrace this.

I never thought I would see Microsoft do this, but they have and developers are flocking back to the giant.

It’s not to late for Apple to see the light but I would say the current bureaucracy within the company will defend any attempt to become more open and trust the community.

For me, I am foregoing the iPhone for now and once again enjoying the open window from Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Blackberry and many more.