Yanachik.org

Pownce is a service backed by Kevin Rose (of Digg fame) that lets you send stuff. From their website:

Pownce is a way to send stuff to your friends. What kind of stuff? You can send just about anything: music, photos, messages, links, events, and more. You can do it all on our web site, or install our lightweight desktop software that lets you get out of the browser.

The service, although simple in concept, is amazingly useful for sending larger files. I’ve tried a number of different concepts:

• Sending files directly through instant messenger
• FTP to a server
• Email
• Using MSN Messenger’s shared folders

These services either work fine for small files, require the recipient to be online and interacting with the sender, or are fairly complicated and not easy to use.  Pownce aims to make the sending of files (large or small) much easier.  After testing the service I have upgraded my account to pro ($20 per year) so I can send files up to 100MB in size, the free version allows up to 10MB in size.  I am able to send video files from my hard drive video camera to recipients now in an easy manner.

Pownce also allows you to send messages, events, and links to your friends.  You can send these to a single friend, the general public, all of your friends, or groups of friends that group as Sets.  This is all done through a web browser, there is a desktop client available to make the sending and receiving much easier.  The desktop client is written in Adobe Air (think offline Flash), so it can run on alot of different platforms - Windows, Mac, Linux?

After you sign in you see your recent activity and a toolbar for sending stuff.

Sending a message is quick and easy, almost like using a regular instant messaging client.

Pownce can send links as well (not really sure why this is here, but it does make Pownce able to send just about anything.

To me, send a file is Pownce’s strength.  Which I believe is the entire purpose for the service being created.  From their website:

Pownce is brought to you by a bunch of geeks who were frustrated trying to send stuff from one cube to another.

Event planning could get much easier too (assuming all of the invitees are on Pownce).

Microsoft has just released DreamSpark.  A great idea to get students using their software, so they then go on to careers that use Microsoft software.

DreamSpark is simple, it’s all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.

Who can get this right now?
We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed keep checking back, we will be adding more countries throughout the year.

Does that mean that I might not get in?
Possibly, if you are not residing in one of the countries listed, not attending an accredited university or not a member of one of the student organizations that we’re connected with. But keep checking back, as we’re working on adding more ways to verify your student status all the time.

Microsoft DreamSpark

SVN is short for Subversion, which is a source code management system.  It tracks changes to source code, trunks, branches, merges, etc.  Subversion is open source and many open source projects use it.  One issue with it is determining a client to browse, download and upload your source code.  Linux has a command line client that works really well, but what about GUI clients?  Here are your choices…

Warehouse

Warehouse is a browser-based SVN client that is really quite beautiful, but not quite what a developer would use regularly.  It’s mainly used for browsing in style - such as allowing your clients to browse the source code.

Tortoise SVN

Tortoise SVN is a Windows Explorer shell extension that allows you to work directly in Windows Explorer to Check in and Check out files.  It works really well, although is at times confusing.

Subclipse

SubElipse is an Eclipse/Aptana plugin that integrates the IDE with subversion.

I recently signed up for the Livestation technical preview and they invited me into the beta trial quite quickly.

Signing up is done on the website to register for the technical preview.  An email is sent shortly thereafter confirming your registration and acceptance into the preview.  A link to download the software is listed in the email.

When you run the program you are prompted to login.  Afterwards, it appears as if the program isn’t running at all, but it is - just in the system tray.  Once’s it’s able to connect it will open the player.

Stations

The stations in the US are very limited right now:

• Al Jazeera (English) - Video
• BBC Radio 4 - Audio
• BBC World Service - Audio
• France 24 (English) - Video
• France 24 (French) - ideo

Buffering of the stations are fairly quick, not really too much of a delay - slightly longer than digital cable delays.

Livestation is supposed to replicate broadcast tv and radio - therefore there are no controls to stop, pause, play, fast forward, re-wind.  The only controls are volume and changing a channel - just like a regular tv and radio with no time-phasing capabilities.

All in all the application seems ok, but the future of it rests in it’s station lineup - which is underwhelming right now.

Starbucks QuickOrder Mockup

Originally uploaded by Keith Yanachik

“Get your coffee fix, fast!” iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows the users to purchase their favorite Starbucks drink without waiting in line. This application also includes QuickPay, a swipe transaction system using semacode technology.

http://www.genoco.com/link/interactive_quickOrder.html

Here’s an article posted on the 24 ways advent calendar regarding how to handle Javascript dependencies.  It’s an issue that I’m currently wrestling with as my application requires more and more javascript libraries and files.

24 ways: Keeping JavaScript Dependencies At Bay

Here is a nice piece of code how to Scroll a  Div using the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries.

Gary Haran.com » How To Unobtrusively Scroll A Div With Prototype & Scriptaculous

Well, my latest and greatest attempt at migrating from Windows to Linux has failed again.  There are just certain applications and settings that I cannot replicate that are essential to my computing experience.

1. Quicken - I tried the various Linux flavors of financ ial management suites, and I tried the online applications.  But none of them could compete with the total package from Quicken.  I ended up creating a virtual machine and installing Windows on that and then Quicken on that in order to do my banking.  But it became too much of a pain to boot up the virtual machine, log in, and then run Quicken.  The lack of Quicken is by far my biggest complaint about Linux.
2. Screen Resolution - Even though Ubuntu correctly ran my display at 1440 x 900, it just seems as if the fonts were bigger (even after I set them smaller), and the window decorations seemed to be larger.  Vista seems to be able to fit more on the screen, easier.
3. Remote Desktop connection - When running in full screen Windows has a bar at the top letting me minimize the full desktop and get back to my local desktop. Linux’s version couldn’t do this and I had to log off the remote desktop to make any changes locally - such as read email, send an instant message, or change the music I was listening to.  Ubuntu’s version of remote desktop is supposed to allow alt+enter to switch out of full screen mode, but it appears to be buggy.  It never worked for me, and there were launchpad bugs created for it.
4. iTunes - I know there are a plethora of media suites available for Linux, Amorak being the leading one, but none of the could compare to the full features of iTunes (let alone to store).  Amorak seemed to be the best at syncing with my iPod, but even it had problems.  I did not fully appreciate iTunes until I didn’t have it anymore.
5. Visual Studio 2008 runs on Vista nicely.  I can now develop remotely on my laptop and not have to remote desktop into my work pc.  SQL Server Management Studio 2005 runs nicely as well.  I enjoyed Eclipse in Ubuntu, but my work requires me to run Visual Studio.

flickr - Blog This!

Originally uploaded by Keith Yanachik

I’ve been using flickr to store the images in my blog in order to decrease the data traffic from my site. It’s been rather time consuming to put one of these images into a post because I have to open the image in flickr, then view the size I want, then copy the code necessary from flickr to embed the image, then view the HTML for my blog post, and paste the code.

Flickr has alleviated this inconvenience with the Blog This button.

When viewing an image on flickr there is a button now called Blog This. When clicking this button you select your preconfigured blog (or configure it the first time) and then enter the blog post’s Title and Post and click the Post Entry button. Flickr configures the blog post to include the image. This post was created through Flickr’s Blog This application.

VS-2008-Check-In-Filter-By-SolutionOriginally uploaded by Keith Yanachik

One of the little things that annoyed me when checking items into Team System’s source control was the fact that every item I had checked out (whether in the current solution or not) was displayed. The items were not selected to be checked in, but they were still listed there.

By clicking on the toolbar button that looks like the solution icon in the Check-In Window you can filter the check-in window to only display items from the current solution.