Browser Central - my second widget

From now on. . . .I save my posts before I submit. Blogger crash. Argh!!

Below is my second widget.

I thought my last (first) widget did what it was supposed to do. I wanted an app that could market the self-service tools that we were deploying yet be unobtrusive.
I think that I accomplished what I set out to do. But I thought it could be better.

Instead of describing what each tool did and launching a separate browser, why not integrate the browser into the app? Or if made full screen, use the browser as a kiosk?

So first a drawing:



I use the same template I used before (thanks Brad Wardell). Resize it a bit here and there.
I use the ActiveX control for IE and throw some script to accept URLs from the buttons.
I set the functionality of the buttons to send the URL.
Pretty much done at that point.

I moved the buttons from the side to the top to allow more screen space. I also grouped the forward and back buttons at the top. Why ,make a user go all over everywhere?

I didn't want to search the web for arrows that we public and matched so I used text to control going forward and back in the browser.

I used the TabletPC to create my own font based on my handwriting. DesktopX lets me embed the font (or whatever else really) into the object. So a user without my font, can still use it.

Things I would like to do (am thinking about doing): {updated}

• Show an alert if there is no internet connection. I added some code that puts up an alert box. Maybe do something about it?
• Show the descriptions of the tool (website in this example)
• I removed the minimize image in the upper right-hand corner and repalced it with a Under score. It looks more like a standard minimize button.
• I changed the setting on the title to allow it to move the whole app.
• I resized the buttons and lined up the text

Download: link
Requires DesktopX.

Should I rip this?

I have had two conversations in the last month about ripping songs. One with a teenager and one with a father of a pre-teen.

The arguement were the similar:

1. I'm not stealing from the artist, I'm liberating from the evil record companies who are exploiting the poor artists.
2. I'm not stealing because the artist has so much money that they wouldn't notice my purchase.
3. It's not stealing becaus I would have never bought the album (song).
4. Muic should be free for everyone.
5. You don't understand! I'm not going to talk about this anymore.

Of course, you ask them how it's different from shoplifting and who knows what argument they may come up with, because, that's WRONG! Whatever.

My kids think I am harsh because I don't let them burn music at my house. I think I am giving because I don't make them remove all pirated material from the house.

I think that it's stealing. If someone produced some material and expects recompense and doesn't get it; it's stealing. Software, music, movies; all the same thing. Stealing.

I'm on the line about TV. I think I'm OK with watching a show I missed as long as the commercials are intact.
Granted, if I were watching live, I would be flipping to other channels or getting a snack or chasing a kid and probably miss the ad. But the option is there.

You want to burn music you own? Convert all those cassettes to CD (but download the hirher quality version from the web)? Knock yourself out. Have fun. Make that Eighty's mix tape of your favorite monster ballads. You did your part. Thanks.

In any case, I saw a tongue-in-cheek chart at inreview.co.uk that will help those who want to steal justify that theft. And those others . . . enjoy.

My first Desktop X widget

The company I work for does IT support. Our focus is moving users closer to solving their own problems; self-service.

We have three major componants and they ar all web based. But users don't know how to get to them. It's a marketing problem really.

So Wedneday at 11:30 PM in bed I had an idea to build a launcher. Somehting that sat on the desktop and obviosly provided links to the tools. I whipped out the TabletPC. Opened Journal and drew out the design.



The next morning I open MS Paint and started drawing buttons and stuff.

Background:


Button:


InfoPanel:


They stunk. Horribly.

So I thought to myself . . that aero thing is pretty popular at WinCustomize Link, I'll see if there is an image I can use like that. And lo and behold, there it was; an aero template by Brad Wardell.

So I grab that and start building my objects. I resized that one image over and over again for different functions. I then added a few text objects on top of my graphpical objects. Set them to do nothing.

I then added actions to my buttons; launch the right tool. Easy enough.

Now for the infopanel; I wanted to have a description of the tool displayed when a user moused over the button. By sending messages to a bunch of new text objects (with different states for mouse over and mouse away) on top of the infopanel I accomplished this.

I tried to add a fourth button to show system stats. I go the meters to work, but I couldn't get them to go away when mousing over the other buttons. Something to work on later.

Then I added a minimize object, locked everything down, and exported.

Total build time: under two hours

I also want to get the widget to start minimized. But for that I need code. And for code I need to study.

That brings up a good point. To build this object I didn't need to know any code. The property fields for objects in DX is wicked easy to understand.

So there I had it, my first DesktopX object:



I wanted to share my object with the community at WC. But the tools referenced are all on the intranet or otherwise non-accessible. So I updated the Text on the three button objects and title. Updated the descriptions on the infopanel objects.

Updated the URLs on the button objects to point to some great sites. Exported and uploaded.

Total time: 23 minutes

Launch Central



Download: Link (DesktopX required)

Miriam learns well from her sister . . .

. . from a certain point of view.

When we moved into the new house the "Green Room" became my den. We moved in some furniture that was very comfortable but a wee bit too stained for the livingroom.

Gwen discovered very quickly that the couch, seat, and ottoman made great platforms to jump from. I was cool with it. Susan . . . put up with my choice.

Then Miriam came. And she watched. And she learned. And she put it to practice.

She does not nail the landings like Gwendolyn does. But she is not two yet. I have faith.

Miriam Jumping: wmv (380KB); AVI (8.86 MB)
[I made a token effort to find a free MPEG encoder . . . failed.]

A tribute to my Aunt: Pizza Burgers!

http://www.favoritebrandrecipes.com/Recipes/220/3674001220.htm

Last summer the family went to Green Bay, WI for my father's wedding. We stayed a few days at my Aunt Gail and Uncle Jim's house (with cousins Paul and Jeni) and one night had Pizza Burgers. I vaugly recall having these as a child but had not had them in years. And I didn't recall them being called "Pizza Burgers."

But last night dinner was a little loose. So we had Pizza burgers. Used Susan's delicious no-recipe sauce and vegie pepporoni for those of us who are freakish about our cunsumption of dead animals.

And I thought of my Aunt.

---

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
2 cups RAGÚ® Old World Style® Pasta Sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 English muffins, split and toasted

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

1. In small bowl, combine ground beef, 1/2 cup Ragú Pasta Sauce, 1/2 cup cheese and salt. Shape into 6 patties. Grill or broil until done.
2. Meanwhile, heat remaining pasta sauce. To serve, arrange burgers on muffin halves. Top with remaining cheese, sauce and muffin halves.

It's Freedom of Religion, Not Freedom FROM Religion

I'll continue my theme of government involvement in our lives. My two previous rants were about about Freedom of the press and government charity. If you read those you can guess my views on the subject; "Freedom of" is not "freedom from" religion.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the Government for redress of grievances.” U.S. Const.,
Amend. I."

Today the Supremes will hear two arguments about religion (specifically the Ten Commandments) in public places.

It's amazing to me, after reading the briefs, it's apparent that the supremes really have to make a decision. Case law supports both sides of the arguments. That's where I think we went wrong though. There should not be case law supporting the the petitioner in the first argument (Van Orden v. Perry[Governor of Texas]) and the respondent in the second (McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky).

The Constitution is very clear; the federal government will not force a religion or prevent a citizen from choosing their own religion. Some of the other arguments justifying why the commandments should remain in place seem spurious to me. They claim that the monuments are part of history, or part of a museum setting., or it's less religious than other religious symbology that the Supreme Court has already allowed.

The only argument that needs to be made is that the commandments are not endorsing any specific religion or religion at all. Believe, don't believe, change your beliefs, whatever. If you think that the government is cramming faith down your throat, petition them to put up a monument to your beliefs. Petition the government to take it down. Call all your friends, family, neighbors, mosque-mates, church-buddies, temple pals, and vote. Then you can make the rules. Have fun, good luck.

On a personal note, I think the ten commandments are good rules to live by. Ignore the first 2 or three (depending on your interpretation) if you don't believe in Yahweh or any other deity. And I don't see the harm. They don't take anything away from your faith or lack of faith.

Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion

A Fun and Twisted message to Congress

Consumers Union is working to drive attention to a bill (s.470)to amend the Public Health Service Act so that we the people can see all the results of clinical trials.

The video has a Schoolhouse rock kind of thing going but the cause is just.

Watch the video and fill out the linked letter. You may do yourself some good.

My take on Bankruptcy Reform

This week the U.S. senate is scheduled to look at the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (S.256). The meat of the act is that if a person can afford to pay back debt, they must. And the determining factor is if the debtor is above the state median income.

It illustrates in my mind the type of thinking that is wrong with this country. Who in their right mind would argue that people that accrue debt should NOT have to pay it back.

My biggest complaint about the act has nothing really to do with the act. It has to do with some of the major backers; credit card companies and the auto finance companies. These companies are predators. They feed off the American dream to have the "good life" now and pay for it later. And they know full well that most Americans don't pay off the full mount of their debt every month and the interest eats them alive.

Don't get me wrong; I think that those people are morons (excluding yourself, of course). [Susan and I have two debts, the house and one of our three cars. We don't do credit. We save and buy. And sometimes we have to wait for the things we want. And sometimes we don't get what we want at all. But we know that bankruptcy is not in our future.] I believe credit is a bad thing. And I have a hard time listening to people who say that it's required, even if just for emergencies. Saving a little something on the side is good for emergencies, credit just puts it off.

And the thing about bankruptcy is that the stigma of filing is gone. You hear about huge corporations filing all the time. and they stay in business, make acquisitions, get bailed out by the government. And with the current laws, personal bankruptcy doesn't have to change your life. You keep your house, your car, no one is going to repo that PCyou bought because you were feeling blue. What's supposed to happen to break you of your habit is your credit is shot. I hear stories though of people in bankruptcy that can get approved for new credit cards.

You can look at the stats yourself, bankruptcy filings are going through the roof. I am glad to see this reform go before the Senate. I think you should go out and find what your senators and representative are going to do and make sure they know what you want them to do.

And save some money, don't rely on credit. Because if you file bankruptcy, someone has to eat that debt, and someone else is going to have to pay for it.

Gwendolyn wanted pancakes this morning. It's pretty hard to say no to someone so cute.

Voodoo Knife Rack

Have you ever seen a cooler knife rack?

It even matches the kitchen. It almost make me wish that Susan would open up her kitchen to my own peculier tastes. But I get the "green room" downstairs and she gets the kitchen.



Viceversa-Voodo knife rack

Humble Independant School District in the 21st Century

My wife is so lucky! Usually she is forced to listen to the following rant as we register one of the kids for school here. This year I get to rant here and she has the option to read it. Isn't the internet great?
Every year the school district sends send home around eight pages of forms. The forms have so much duplicated information required. It is such a waste of time filling out the same fields over and over aain.

Why must I put the child's name, address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, parents' contact information, emergency contact information, grade, sex, doctor, parents' work information on multiple forms? And why must I do it every year?

Here's an idea. Let's put it all in a database. Let's put it on the web. Let's allow parents to populate it and every year the school district send a single form to the home with all the information so the parents can go online or mail it back if anything has changed.

I would love to know what the district does with all these forms. Do different departments use different forms? Do they put them in filing cabinats? Do they enter them into a computer system themselves? Do they shred them because the forms aren't really used but they've got to collect them.

I'll bet they use Macs too.

Heritage Days at Jesse Jones Park

Today Susan and I took the little girls to a local park to experience "American heritage".

On a hay ride (behind a tractor!) to the main area . . .





Dressing up . .



Crossing the nation by wagon (average speed of a covered wagon - 12 mpd [miles/day])

Do I Need A Jacket? - The Weather Right Now

There are lots of ways to tell the weather. But do you really want the weather?

No.

You want to know if you need to wear a jacket. maybe you want to know WHY you need a jacket. Try Do I Need A Jacket? - The Weather Right Now.

A Valentine's Gift from Gwendolyn (and Susan)

Forgive the crappy photo. All I had on hand was the eyemodule for my Handsping Visor and if the light isn't perfect . . you get shots like this.

But the point is that Gwendolyn with Susan's help made me a pencil cup for work as a Valentine's Day gift. So here it is on my desk.

Susan's YMCA Partners Kick-off

Superbowl Sunday was also the kick-off of Susan's big fundraiser for the year. The theme this year is a western one.

This of course strikes anyone who knows Susan as funny. She is creeping up on being more of a Texan than a New Yorker (based on time spent) but she wallows in her Yankee-ness. Never have I met someone who has four kids born in this state, friends for life, and political involvement disparage a people and customs more.

The kick-off and theme did lend themselves to fun pictures though.



All four girls on a hay-ride. (Hay ride is defined as driving around the YMCA parkinglot twice [TWICE!] behind a pick-up truck. For reference, in Kansas the trailer would be pulled behind a tractor or horse, in Green Bay by a tractor or snow-mobile.)

Miriam rides her first horse . . Susan seems pretty comfortable in her denim shirt and bandana . . hmmm . . . interesting. I wonder where this can lead?

It could only lead to LINE DANCING!!


And we close out this little album with Gwendolyn on another hay-ride.

Google mapping phone numbers

I received an email last week warning me that if you typed your phone number into google it would return a link to map the address associated.

The warning centered around the possibility of kids giving out their number and a pervert using it to get the address of the child.

The email went on to provide instructions on blocking your number.

I have to counter that the problem isn't with Google and blocking your number is not the solution.

The solution is two-fold.

1. Teach your children not to give out personal information. Don't give it out on-line or at the park or anywhere. It's a bas idea.
2. Know what your kids are doing. Talk to them about who they are chatting with and emailing. If they get evasive, watch more closely. Read their mail. Check their browser history. Know their passwords. Make sure they know that they have a right to privacy, not secrecy.

The goal is not to be a tyrant, the goal is to keep your kids safe.

And do me a favor, don't block your phone number from google, I forget where you live, I need that map.

"What Democracy Means to Me" - Johnny Carson

"What Democracy Means to Me"
by Johnny Carson ()

To me, democracy means placing trust in the little guy, giving the fruits of nationhood to those who built the nation. Democracy means anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.

Democracy is people of all races, colors, and creeds united by a single dream: to get rich and move to the suburbs away from people of all races, colors, and creeds. Democracy is having time set aside to worship — 18 years if you're Jim Bakker.

Democracy is buying a big house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties.

Democracy means freedom of sexual choice between any two consenting adults; Utopia means freedom of choice between three or more consenting adults. But I digress. Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto — usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money.

Democracy means a thriving heartland with rolling fields of Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Spanky, and Wheezer. Democracy means our elected officials bow to the will of the people, but more often they bow to the big butts of campaign contributors.

Yes, democracy means fighting every day for what you deserve, and fighting even harder to keep other weaker people from getting what they deserve. Democracy means never having the Secret Police show up at your door. Of course, it also means never having the cable guy show up at your door. It's a tradeoff. Democracy means free television. Not good television, but free.

Democracy is being able to pick up the phone and, within a minute, be talking to anyone in the country, and, within two minutes, be interrupted by call waiting.

Democracy means no taxation without representation, and god knows, we've just about had the hell represented out of us. It means the freedom to bear arms so you can blow the "o" out of any rural stop sign you want.

And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head. This signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle. I thank you.

How Bush Won

This is old news, but it came up in conversation during a Superbowl party last night. Most of the blue states really weren't all that blue when one looks at the county map.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

Star Wars Ep. III - Please don't be too bad

Lucasarts has released the opening crawl of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith:

Episode III

REVENGE OF THE SITH

War! The Republic is crumbling

under attacks by the ruthless

Sith Lord, Count Dooku.

There are heroes on both

sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the

fiendish droid leader, General

Grievous, has swept into the

Republic capital and kidnapped

Chancellor Palpatine, leader of

the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army

attempts to flee the besieged

capital with their valuable

hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a

desperate mission to rescue the

captive Chancellor....

I am so hoping that this movie is a good one. And I define good as rekindling the magic of the first one for me.

I am not crazy. None of the movies are great. The dialog, the acting, they are not going to go down in history books the same way To Kill a Mockingbird will. [Man I love that movie. Gregory Peck was amazing. And filming it in black and white . . . brilliant. {Sub note, props to the cast of TKaM St. Mary's College, Leavenworth KS 1992, I miss you guys, wherever you are}]

But I saw Star Wars in '77. We were living in El Paso, TX and I remember clearly my Dad reading the crawl for me. And I remember looking up at the stars after we left the theater and KNOWING that Luke and Han and Leia were out there, fighting the good fight.

My children were going to be Anakin because of that memory. Because I shared it with my father. [It's hard to think of him as a young guy. He was only 24, a kid himself.]

And I remember vividly the horror when, in Empire, Vader claims to be Luke's father. My friends and I argued for that spring and into summer whether Vader was telling the truth or just screwing with Luke's head.

I block out Return of the Jedi. It's just better that way. I do need to say though, my older kids like Jedi the best.

I read all the novels and they sparked that something . . . that joy that was Star wars. The Brian Daly Han Solo adventures . . . Tim Zahn's . . .the X-wing series. Fun reads. I saw the special editions and they still had what I was looking for. They took me back to a galaxy far, far away.

The first two movies of the current trilogy haven't done it for me. Being in the theater with all the fans was great . . the movies . . . eh. Gwendolyn watches Episode II the most. It's better than Jedi and I love reading the crawl [Thanks Dad].

I just want that magic back . . . just for a little while . . just one more time.