KludgeHack

Remodelation complete, back to Blogging
31 December 2007 in Blogging & Fun | Comments (0)

I finished all major changes (domain change and new layout) and I’m starting blogging again.

In the meanwhile, Happy New Year!

Upgrading my web identity…
28 December 2007 in Blogging | Comments (0)

Ever since I started blogging I meant to change this blog name, and now I’ve decided that I will do so until the year’s end.

So, in the next few days I will change the blog name to KludgeHack and move this blog to its new domain: KludgeHack.com. I also plan to change the blog theme to something more appealing.

If you subscribe to the feed, please change the feed address to the new domain.

And let me say name changing is not an easy task! Creativity aside, domain registry has been damaged to a point, where its almost impossible to get a available domain for a small (7 letters?) name within a main top-level domain. Even so, I think KludgeHack was a very good catch. 

Do you know what a kludge is? If you don’t, you probably should

From wikipedia, its definition is:

A kludge is a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem or difficulty. In engineering, a kludge is a workaround, typically using unrelated parts cobbled together.

Translating the full name, it stands for klumsy, lame, ugly, dumb, but good enough hack.

Well, I like it so much because it relates so well with my daily hacks as a programmer.

Hope you like it, like I did.

Merry Christmas to my fellow Readers
25 December 2007 in Fun | Comments (0)

WPF Code Snippets
23 December 2007 in Programming | Comments (0)

Dr. WPF (great WPF blog by John Galt) has a great collection of C# WPF code snippets that I’m sure if you’re a WPF developer, you’ll find useful.

You can find more info on his post.

Creating Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets
22 December 2007 in Fun & Microsoft & Programming | Comments (2)

It was only about two months ago that I heard about the Microsoft Gadget Competition. Apparently they been doing this contests around the globe for a lot of countries, and they finally decided do it here in Portugal.

I was able to find some free time and started developing some gadgets for this competition. I ended up having two gadgets made in English, and two in Portuguese.

To make this gadgets I needed to go out of my way and stick my hands in the all so famous world of Javascript/AJAX. The Vista sidebar, just like Google and Apple, uses HTML to render gadgets.

The main downside is the lack of communication with Windows. Although they were developed in this way so that developers could make Web Gadgets and Sidebar Gadgets almost the same way (and offers a great level of security), they don’t allow the creation of more control over the system than a normal website.

The only upside I noticed in using HTML for gadgets, is the use of the same render engine for all gadgets: IE7+. For this environment, the special effects (Filters and Transitions) that IE bring, makes gadgets shine.

My first gadget was a FeedBurner gadget using their Awareness API to keep on the sidebar a feed readers count updated with the service. This was made so I and others can keep updated on this number without needing to visit the website.

After this, I created the very famous Jaw Breaker (Bubble Breaker?) that anyone using Windows Mobile already knows. I somehow find it an addictive game, and decided build one for the sidebar. This has been, by far the most downloaded (20000+) and well rated gadget of the four.

Not completely happy with my gadgets, I also build two more Portuguese gadgets that makes use of some Sapo services (main ISP in Portugal). One called Sapo Tráfego ADSL brings to the sidebar the current state (bandwidth) of the ADSL line, and one called Sapo Fotos that brings photos from their Photos service (very similar to Flickr).

So, feel free to test and use if you like, my gadgets. You can find them in the following links:

• FeedBurner Readers
• Jaw Breaker
• Sapo Fotos (Portuguese)
• Sapo Tráfego ADSL (Portuguese)

The contest begun last week at this website, and if you are Portuguese, go there and deliver some votes around and you will probably win one prize (six Office 2007).