I am a developer currently working on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 ERP software. I also maintain some .net code as well as casually contributing to Open Source.
I was trying to follow the directions listed here (Google's factory images) for updating my Nexus 6 to the latest Android build and I kept getting an error about the zip file not containing system.img. Well it appears that there is a limitation into the memory size that fastboot will let you use and the flash-all.bat file supplied in the download from Google surpasses that memory limit causing the…
I recently got a chance to speak to some of the Microsoft team members at AXUG Summit 2013 and got an opportunity to see some of the upcoming changes around the Dynamics AX community. One of the major changes I have seen is in the upgrading of the Websites associated with AX (community, customer and partner source, and the documentation pages). One of the key aspects of this change is in the…
Before I pick up where I left off last time, I wanted to make note of the screen capture software that I have been using for these posts. I have been using this free and open source screen capture software called Greenshot . It is terrific and I wanted to take the time to give them some credit. If you haven't seen part one of this series, please read this first.In this post I will discuss how to…
I was reading Hacker News the other day when I came across this . The author is clearly unhappy with his/her profession, but that is not to say that all developers are unhappy or that it should be taken so far as to tell others not to become professional programmers. The author states "In the end, it's just a job. You figure out what's needed, write it, test it, fix bugs, get input from customer.…
We all have a language that we choose to use whenever it is that we have a choice. Recently, my go to language has become python. Usually the things that I do with it are small and unimportant scripts to parse logs or iterate a list of data (I mean... list comprehensions ...am I right). I have never tried to use it for anything other than that until my wife had asked if I could help her with…
A few months ago I was in the market for some noise cancelling headphones. I had spent a fair amount of time looking around the Web and reading reviews to ensure that I chose a quality set and did not end up paying too much. I decided to go with the Audio-technica ATH-ANC7B Active Noise-Cancelling Closed-Back Headphones and I am certainly glad that I did. First, let me say that I bought these…
I enjoy reading and I think that reading is a key part of growing as a person and increasing your knowledge base. I also know that there is a sea of non-fiction and technical books that are available to any developer with an Amazon account. I often find it hard to determine what books to read and in what order. So when I do find a great book, I feel the need to share it. I (not so recently) read a…
As an AX developer, I find myself using the built-in editor scripts that come with AX a lot. I noticed that there are several times when I would like to have a template for a display method. I create a lot of custom reports that use display methods and it would save me time if I could build them from a template. The great thing about AX is that if you want something, you can always build it…
When I first started writing code the general stereotype of a coder was that of a loner geek sitting in front of a computer in his mom's basement. This stereotype has gone on to cause a decline in the number of Computer Science students that this country produces every year. We may have rightfully earned this reputation (I have at times called myself an indoor enthusiast ). There are, of course,…
As an AX developer, I have learned that there is (almost always) at least two ways to accomplish any task inside the Microsoft Dynamics AX Environment. I have had the opportunity to work with several consultant developers and I was (and still am) surprised by the fact that none of them knew the procedure for importing and exporting .XPO files with labels. Instead what they do is provide you with…
Every year around this time there are a ton of blog posts and news articles about how this will finally be the year of Linux on the Desktop. NO IT WON'T! I love Linux, I use it all the time, I think that there are several terrific distributions . I even switched my parents over to Ubuntu. The problem exists, not just with Linux, but with the rest of the software development world. Below are the…
Pic Stolen From WebAppers It seems to me that with all the talk about HTML5 and Web 2.0 we would have a little more standardization from one browser to the next. Somehow this is not the case. I can't quite figure out how pages can look so drastically different from one browser to the next. I do some Web development on occasion and I must say that even for a flat site with little going on, it can…
Over the past few months there has been some changes to Blogger's format and I was unable to update my blog. I recently had the time to convert all the old entries to the new format and forward all the old links to the new Blogger location. Sorry about the delay. New posts coming soon. Until then enjoy the new layout :)
As I mentioned in my last post , January and February were to be devoted to getting to know Emacs better. After reading "Tip 22: Use a Single Editor Well. Choose an editor, know it thoroughly, and use it for all editing tasks" in The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master , I decided that I would go ahead with Emacs because I have used it some in the past and it would be available in both…
In the last few years I have found that software developers generally come in only three flavors: 1) The Rockstar: In this case, I am not talking about the standard definition , I'm talking about the programmers who get by on talent alone. They come to a job and they know about as much as they are going to know. They may pick up a few tricks here and there, but they are good enough that they don't…
When I was a kid, I used to love to watch The Jetsons. That was a great cartoon! I marveled at all the possibilities the future would hold. Robot maids, video phones, and of course, flying cars! Over the years, promises of household robots have come and gone (with the exception of the Roomba). Flying cars, while a great concept, are a practical nightmare. Even if we are able to design and build an…
I do not normally make a habit of writing about other blogs or stories that I have read, but this is something that I could not ignore. There is turf war going on between traditional programmers and Web programmers, and it's time to put an end to it! This all started with a highly contested blog entry by Michael Barude , which was quickly followed up by Jeff Atwood . They both had some pretty…
For the last six months or so, I have been spending some quality time with Groovy . For those of you who may not already know, Groovy is awesome! Groovy is a programming language that is an extension of the Java Platform. It is a scripting language that is similar to Ruby. Groovy uses a lot of the standard Java syntax and since it compiles down to Java bytecode, it can be used in any Java project…
Alright, as many of you may know, I am a self proclaimed Linux Evangelist. I love Linux and I am a big fan of the Open Source Community. I have been a long time user and promoter for Ubuntu. Today, I am going to give some love to a Gnu/Linux distribution that does not get enough credit and that is gNewSense (not just open source, it's Free Software). I downloaded and burnt the ISO file for…
The last few weeks have been very busy for me. I got my invitations to both Google Voice and Google Wave ! I have definitely been feeling the Google Love lately. Since I have been given these lovely invites, I figured I would share the goodness with you. Today I am going to cover the Google Wave Developer Sandbox. I will cover Google Voice next week. In case you may have noticed that the page…
I have used Opera on and off for the last few years and I have recently been using Google Chrome (except on my Blackberry, for which I will always use Opera). I've tried the latest version of Safari, Firefox, and even IE8. Today I learned that I have been missing something. What I have been missing was true innovation! Since the days of Netscape Navigator, no company has done more for browsers…
The Eclipse Foundation is about to release their newest version of their IDE , nick-named Galileo. I should say first that I am a fan of Eclipse and that it is my IDE of choice for Java development. I have recently tried NetBeans again for some JavaFX coding and I was unsatisfied with the experience (not because it did not handle the code well, but because I did not like the UI and the code…
Recently, a fellow blogger named Steve Yegge has decided to pack it in. I have been reading Yegge's blogs (I say blogs because there are a few here and here are examples) for several years and I can honestly say that I have and will continue to learn alot from him. Steve has done a great service to those of us who were smart enough to listen to what he had to say and investigate those ideas for…
Anyone who knows me, or reads this blog, knows that you can rely on reading several posts a day from me on Twitter ( @molex ). I love reading Tweets from developers like Jeff Atwood( @codinghorror ) , writers like the great William Gibson ( @GreatDismal ), famous geeks like Felicia Day ( @feliciaday ) and great radio personalities like Peter Sagal ( @petersagal ). I enjoy letting strangers into my…
Have you heard? Google is about to take over the world! They are in process of developing a real game changer. Their new product, called Wave , looks to be the real deal. It is an HTML 5.0 Web App that is going to change thew way people see and use Web Browsers. The project is going to be completely Open Sourced (so you know that I am backing it). Google has really out done themselves on this one.…