Vekis

My First PC

Matt — Sun, 20 May 2012 01:06:19 +0000

My mother found a couple interesting old check registers today. One of them listed the first PC my family ever owned dated March 26, 1987 for $1,304. (From a company called ANI. It had an 8088 processor)

The next PC was an Acer 486DX2/66 purchased on December 5th, 1994 for $2,224.68.

Ahh, memories.

MIS 431 – ADO.NET

Matt — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:42:00 +0000

A couple bits of ADO.NET

IsuStore04242012_2

MIS 431 – ASP.NET Tags

Matt — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:25:37 +0000

I was about to start compiling a list of ASP.NET tags for reference, but the work has already been done!
http://naspinski.net/post/inline-aspnet-tags-sorting-them-all-out-(3c25242c-3c253d2c-3c252c-3c252c-etc).aspx

Thanks, naspinski!

I’ve copied the examples here for my own reference. See the above link for more detailed information.

<% if (User.IsInRole("admin")) { %>
    You can see this
<% } else { %>
    You are no admin fool!
<%} %>

The Date is now <%= DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() %>
The value of string1 is <%= string1 %>

<asp:Repeater ID="rptMeetings" DataSourceID="meetings" 
    runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <%# Eval("MeetingName")%>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

<asp:SqlDataSource ID="party" runat="server" 
    ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:letsParty %>" 
    SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM [table]"
/>

<asp:Label ID="lblAwesome" runat="server"/>
<%-- sometimes end users make me angry --%>

<asp:LinkButton ID="lbEdit" Text="Edit"
    OnClick="Edit_Click" runat="server" />

<%: Html.TextBox("FirstName") %>

MIS 431 – ASP.NET (VB) shopping cart. Auth/ACL and custom SiteMapProvider

Matt — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:00:08 +0000

IsuStore04192012

This project includes all the features I demoed in class along with a custom SiteMapProvider and Server component tag (

It also uses the “ADO.NET Entity Data Model” for managing persistence. Please see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e80y5yhx.aspx

I’ll discuss ADO.NET for managing the data tier next Tuesday in class if time allows.

MIS 431 – ASP.NET simple layout

Matt — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:16:35 +0000

IsuStore

Simple string permutations in PHP

Matt — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:40:12 +0000

I wrote this as part of a small project and quickly realized it had other entertaining uses.

<?php

$str = "I like driving/flying/eating cars/aeroplanes/lunch";

$lines = array($str);
$results = array();
while ($line = array_shift($lines)) {
	if (preg_match("/(\w+)(?:\/\w+)+/ui", $line, $match, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE)) {
		list($string, $offset) = $match[1];
		array_push($lines, sprintf("%s%s",
			substr($line, 0, $offset + strlen($string)),
			substr($line, $offset + strlen($match[0][0]))
		));
		array_push($lines, sprintf("%s%s", 
			substr($line, 0, $offset), 
			substr($line, $offset + strlen($string) + 1)
		));
	} else {
		$results[] = $line;
	}
}

print_r($results);

How to count weekend days between two dates

Matt — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:35:09 +0000

This VB.NET method returns the total number of weekend days between two dates.

Public Function CountWeekendDays(ByVal FromDate As Date, ByVal ToDate As Date)
        Dim TotalDaysInt As Integer = ToDate.Date.Subtract(FromDate.Date).Days
        Dim WeeksInt As Integer = Math.Floor(TotalDaysInt / 7)
        Dim WeekendDaysInt As Integer = WeeksInt * 2

        If TotalDaysInt Mod 7 <> 0 Then
            If FromDate.DayOfWeek = DayOfWeek.Sunday Then
                WeekendDaysInt += 1
            Else
                Dim SaturdayOffsetInt = Math.Max((TotalDaysInt Mod 7) - (DayOfWeek.Saturday - FromDate.DayOfWeek), 0)
                WeekendDaysInt += Math.Min(SaturdayOffsetInt, 2)
            End If
        End If

        Return WeekendDaysInt
    End Function

It works by multiplying the number of full weeks by 2, then it takes the leftover days and calculates how many of those days overlap the weekend.

For example:
Sunday = 0, Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2 …(and so on)

Let’s say FromDate is Wednesday, and the total number of days to ToDate is 18:

FromDate = Wednesday = 3
TotalDays = 18

TotalWeeks = Math.Floor(18 / 7) = 2
LeftoverDays = (TotalDays Mod 7) = (TodalDays – (TotalWeeks * 7)) = 4
DaysUntilSaturday = (Saturday – CheckInDate) = (6 – 3) = 3
DaysThatOverlapSaturday = (LeftoverDays – DaysUntilSaturday) = (4 – 3) = 1

Saturday is overlapped by 1 day, so we add 1 to the total number of weekend days.

WeekendDays = ((TotalWeeks * 2) + DaysThatOverlapSaturday) = (4 + 1) = 5

Of course if DaysThatOverlapSaturday < 1, don’t add anything.

If TotalDays = 19, then there would be 2 days that overlap Saturday. Since we know Sunday is the next day, we add both days.
If TotalDays = 20, then there would be 3 days that overlap Saturday, but that third day is Monday, so we only add 2.
If TotalDays = 21, then that’s 3 full weeks, and we know that 3 full weeks will always contain 6 weekend nights, so there’s nothing more to do.

The only other case is if the total number of days aren’t divisible by 7 and the Check-In date is Sunday. Since we know the remaining number of days are less then 7, we only have to add 1 for that Sunday.

Go board with canvas tag

Matt — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:25:20 +0000

Here’s my first attempt at a Go board with javascript and the canvas tag.




	Simple Go board with canvas tag

Resetting a Mac’s hardware

Matt — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:01:31 +0000

There are a lot of little hidden support features built in to a Mac that you’ll only ever find out if you dig deep or call Apple tech support directly. One quite useful procedure I recently learned of is how to reset all hardware in your mac. This may be useful if you are experiencing odd behavior that doesn’t seem software related.

Step 1: Shut down the Mac normally.
Step 2: Remove all power and peripherals. (Pull every last cord out of the back)
Step 3: Hold the power button in for 10 seconds. (I believe this is to ensure that all power is thoroughly drained from the system as there are certain electronic components that can hold on to a charge for quite some time.)
Step 4: Plug everything back in.
Step 5: Turn on the power and hold command+alt+p+r
Keep these keys held until you hear the boot up chime ring twice. There may be a slight pause between chimes.

Once this is complete, resume using the Mac normally and see if your problems have been solved. (If not, don’t despair. This is after all only one of a number of possible troubleshooting steps)

Fantastic Frameworks

Matt — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:21:19 +0000

Perhaps I’ll write more about this later, but for now I’ll just say that I’ve been using a lot of the Zend Framework and Ext Javascript library. I enjoy writing code with these fantastic tools.
Zend Framework
Ext Javascript Library