KludgeHack

One more step in the right direction
29 January 2009 in Random tidbits | Comments (0)

I’ve already said countless times how much I like TED. It brings to the web content of astonishing quality. I thought I should let you know about Academic Earth.

Ok, its not really the same. The latter is more about college lectures made available online, like the Openware has been doing for sometime. But this one, does that in a simpler way. It collects lots of great content in one place.

I only complain about the missing comments on the lectures. I can’t get around the idea that a website like this wouldn’t try to create a two-way discussion on the available subjects.

Looking for Zam3D
26 November 2008 in Random tidbits | Comments (0)

I’m looking for the trial of Zam3D. Its a great application, that for reasons I don’t know, isn’t available as Trial anymore.

If you know where I can find, please tell me. Or just send over the installer if you have it.

Thanks.

Two way HashMap in Java
17 November 2008 in Random tidbits | Comments (1)

I recently had a project in hands were there was the need to use a two way hash map in Java, so I just wanted you to know the alternatives I found.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to you, if you sometimes need a different kind of data structure, that Apache Commons provides this in the Collections component. This library is very useful in this matter. In the current version (3.2.1) they implement a BidiMap class that offers bidirectional access to a map, that assures constant access time for both ways (just like we want) while assuring a 1:1 relation between keys and values.

My problem with this library, is the missing generics support. I’m a programmer that loves the type-safety that generics offers in all kinds of data structures, so I kept searching.

Fortunately, there’s a sourceforge project named Collections that provides just this. Its a branch of the original Apache Commons code, but with generics support.

Its precisely what I’ve been looking.

But, because Google gives me more than 1 result, I found out about Google Collections Library. Its built with the same purpose as apache commons (different and advanced data structures) with built-in support for generics.

I end up using the Google lib, just because its getting more “attention”. The Apache Collections isn’t updated for some months.

Did you know you could split windows in VS.NET?
6 August 2007 in Programming & Random tidbits | Comments (0)

You can do that by:

• Using the menu: Window - Split.
• Using the mouse, grab the splitter control found directly above the document scrollbar

But the split command only works horizontally.  If you need to split vertically try using the Window.NewWindow command found on the Menu Bar at Window - New Window.

Blend Candy goodies avaiable
4 August 2007 in Random tidbits | Comments (0)

LiquidBoy has some Blend goodies available for download (XAML code) here. He created a “Blend Candy” area where he will be adding more over time.

I just hope we make some screen-casts on creating fantastic eye-candy graphics.