Android & Cloud

The android app can show now a map overlay after login.

An cloud based backend has been started to serve map overlays to the mobile device.
The basic data collecting rest services are coded and tested.
Next step is to push the implementation to the cloud.
First move is into AWS using elastic beanstalk.

New Android App

Currently I am working at a new mobile app.
Mobile Device Support to help enjoying festivals better. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Festival ;)

So its an android app which provides extra information to users regarding the event that is loaded and the friend users having been connected.

Good fun the android studio and the framework. Just a bit dynamic sometimes.... regarding API changes and having to assess applicability of examples to the issue at hand.

So juggling android sdk lib version numbers is the new sport!

wordpress and ecommerce beta is online

 http://dev1.shitkatapult.com is the beta version of the wordpress oscommerce marriage.
a smooth AJAX  interface to the oscommerce product database.

oscommerce & wordpress

Goal would be to plug all product data straight into the wordpress post system

WHY

all wordpress themeing could be applied to the shop without any coding!

oscommerce & wordpress

1. start using oscommerce plugin:
1. it provides access to the osc database -> ok
2. catalog & product data are listed with inline HTML -> unflexible
2. develop  a jquery based viewer on the product data -> funky
3. use injected JSON for initial data download to delegate rendering on javascript completely -> fast
4. use jquery templates to split design from logic -> nice
5. add templates to PHP class osc_products using inheritance -> neat
6. use osc shop for shopping cart -> no existing classes can be used
1. use the application_top for setup
2. remove all output modules
3. return the oscid only to reference the cart again
4. use ajax based shopping cart in wordpress

nmake postbuild.mak visual studio command failure backslash missing trailing space

one important contribution to programmers life from microsoft are the backslash path separators.

A really nice example of why this is so brain dead I discovered using Microsofts own  nmake tool which can be integrated into visual studio.

For example, if you use a rule like below and you forget to put a space behind the trailing backslash
suddenly the smart nmake semantics decides to use the backslash as a line continuation causing a syntax error.
As a trailing space is clearly not visible this is a nasty ditch to fall into.

Thanks Microsoft for such a smart choice for the path separator.

CopyFdoComponentsDebug : ..\..\..\Oem\FDO\*.*
    if NOT EXIST ..\..\bin\debug\FDO\nul mkdir ..\..\bin\debug\FDO
    if EXIST ..\..\..\Oem\FDO\bin\Release xcopy /r /d /y /s ..\..\..\Oem\FDO\bin\Release ..\..\bin\debug\FDO\[space] 
    if EXIST ..\..\..\Oem\FDO\bin\Debug xcopy /r /d /y /s ..\..\..\Oem\FDO\bin\Debug ..\..\bin\debug\FDO\

STOP 7E error on VISTA SP2 WORKAROUND

My Vista installation on Lenovo SL500 (otherwise a surprisingly fine machine)
repeatedly crashes on Driver Power State Failure BSOD STOP 9F

The fun bit is that when I try to reboot I end up with another BSOD STOP 7E.
This happens after loading CRCDISK.SYS.

However, the following procedure turned out to boot up the system again:

1. Unplug all external harddrives! 
2. Try LAST KNOWN GOOD Configuration (boot -> F8)
3. If that does not boot do a CHKDSK of the Vista drive
4. Try Again.

I did this like > 20 times now and this seems to be a reliable approach.
Would love to find instructions how to identify the faulty driver which causes all this......