A Reminder of Who We Should Be

Just saw an excellent quote of George Bernard Shaw saying how active people behave:

"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

Linkpool: .Net Compact Framework

Today I need to refresh my knowledge of developing for Windows Mobile. So I surfed through my favorites tagged as Compact Framework and here is what I found:

• .NET Compact Framework version 2.0 Performance and Working Set FAQ - it's an articles from Compact Framework creators. So I thinks thats the best place to start.
• .Net Compact Framework Tips and Tricks - although this presentation overlaps with previous article in many items, it also has some unique useful points like class vs structure performance.

Both articles are concentrated on older versions (1.0 and 2.0), but they still a good place for those who just need refresh knowledge or start developing for Windows Mobile.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

"Turn it off and on again" is almost as canonic recipe as "Ctrl-Alt-Del". Here is an excellent video about first from "The IT Crowd" series:

Bjarne Stroustrup's wish came true

Yesterday I saw a quotation of Bjarne Stroustrup:

I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.

My wish has come true.

I no longer know how to use my telephone.

To my mind this three sentences show that sometimes marketing people can turn even the simplest thing to a swiss knife. And these electronic swiss knifes are not so intuitive in use.

Linkpool

I'd like to share some stuff that I read/listen recently:

• Speed Up Your Website with Better Image Optimization in Photoshop includes optimization of JPEG, GIF and PNG images for usage on web.
• The Steve Jobs method article is about how Apple can be successful company without doing market research.
• FLOSS Weekly 79: David Heinemeier Hansson is a podcast with the man who developed Ruby on Rails in which he talks about how he came to Ruby and Rails and some other interesting stuff.

I believe this post will be a start of regular sets of articles that I find really exciting and interesting.

Installing & uninstalling applications on emulator

Story 1. Installing application.

To install application to emulator adb utility will be handy:

• Start emulator.
• Open command prompt (cmd.exe).
• Navigate to "tools" directory in Android SDK.
• Run installation using command "adb install application.apk". For example, "adb install "C:/com.andreware.sample.apk"" when com.andreware.sample.apk is located at root directory on disk C.
• Wait couple of seconds while application is being installing.

Story 2. Uninstalling application.

There two ways to uninstall application from emulator: uninstall like on real device or use adb utility. First way allows to uninstall any application while adb utility will allow to uninstall only application installed using it (including the ones deployed from IDE).

Let's look at first one first. It is pretty simple and straitforward:

• Start emulator.
• On the home screen press the "Menu" button.
• Choose"Settings" item from menu.
• Choose "Applications" item in the settings list.
• Choose "Manage applications".
• Choose application that you want to uninstall.
• In the "Application info" window that will appear click "Uninstall" button.
• Confirm uninstalling.
• Wait a second while application is being uninstalling and click "OK" on next window that says "Uninstall finished".

Second way requires usage of command line and adb utility:

• Start enulator.
• Open command window (cmd.exe).
• Navigate to "tools" directory in Android SDK.
• Run remote shell: "adb shell".
• Goto app directory: "cd /data/app".
• Now you can list installed applications: "ls".
• To uninstall application use "rm" command and appropriate apk file. For example, "rm com.andreware.sample.apk".
• Type "exit" to leave remote shell.

Using Android standard icons in designer

Today I wanted to use standard search icon on one of the buttons. When I want to use custom icon I use Reference Chooser dialog. As a result I have such a reference in a property:

@drawable/search_icon

But Reference Chooser dialog does not provide a way to use standard icon (or I don't see it). Fortunately we can type reference directly to property value either in designer or plane xml. So to use standard drawables "@android:drawable/id" pattern can be used. For example, to set standard search icon I used this reference text:

@android:drawable/ic_menu_search