Why should you read all the words? It will make your developers so very happy. We are kind of like your car mechanic. You want to be friends with us, it’s in your interest. And we want to be friends too, it makes the whole experience better for everyone (bad bug reports make us suicidal homicidal).

The Steps

Step 0.5: Get the latest version from staging. Are you in a browser? Reload and/or clear cache. Does the software download something in order to function? Make sure it has the freshest copy.

Why step 0.5? Because doing this is half way to finishing step 1.

Step 1: Reproduce the bug. If you can’t reproduce, then I don’t really want to know about it right now. If you think you have valuable details to document (e.g. screen shots, error logs, data files) then post them in an unassigned bug report and indicate that you were unable to reproduce. If the bug is intermittent say so in the bug report.

Step 2: Document and report the bug. I need details: links you followed, data you entered, buttons you clicked/tapped. If you are able to determine that a specific input or action is crucial to causing the bug, even better.

Are you in a browser? Browser version (saying “latest version” here is OK) and platform version (e.g. Windows 8.1, Mac 10.10.2, Android 5.0.2, etc).

If you followed step 0.5 then good news! I don’t need to know the specific version of the software you were using. If for some reason you had a good reason not to follow step 0.5, then provide any relevant version numbers.

I run a triple boot setup with Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.7, and Arch Linux. Linux is my go-to OS but I get most of my paid work from Windows .NET and iOS development. As a result I’ve had to spend lots of time in every ones favorite non-unix OS. I’ve compiled a few tricks that make using Windows 7 a bit more bearable (maybe even enjoyable) for the Linux nerd.

I was inspired for this build by an instructables user who used my teensy ps3 gamepad code to build a SNES USB controller for the PS3.

I can’t say enough good things about the Teensy development board. It’s affordable and just so damn versatile.

John’s code is great and all but I just needed something to work with my Linux media center PC so I set out to create a simpler version. Click through for some build tips, links to the code, and a few more photos.

I stumbled upon this video by Phil Levchenko showing how to turn an ATX power supply into a bench power supply. I had an old PSU laying around and thought this would be a perfect way to give it a new life. Phil’s video is great, but I found the video tutorial format a bit tricky to follow at times.

Click through for some pictures, tips and diagrams that you may find helpful.

Several months ago a friend of mine really into making bread inquired about a possible solution for proving bread dough and making pre-ferment starters in the winter. You see, here in Canada winters are cold. Very cold. And heat isn’t free. Yeast likes to be in nice warm moist conditions, but my wallet likes to be in the cold with a thick sweater.

So the goal was to create an efficient device that monitors temperature and switches a heat source on/off as necessary to maintain a constant temperature inside of an enclosed space such as a camping cooler.

And here is the result! It’s based on the bare minimum circuitry needed for an Arduino compatible board and then builds on top of that; character LCD display, two buttons, DS18S20 temperature sensor, and a small relay for switching an AC lamp.

Are you as annoyed as I am about the superfluous screen real estate consumed by the toolbar buttons in Nautilus 3? Of course you are, that’s why the oracle brought you here.

To remove them, modify /usr/share/nautilus/ui/nautilus-toolbar-ui.xml and comment out all the <toolitem> elements.

<ui>
<toolbar name="Toolbar">
    <!--<toolitem name="Back" action="Back"/>
    <toolitem name="Forward" action="Forward"/>
    <toolitem name="Search" action="Search"/>-->
</toolbar>
</ui>

If we look at all of the popular mobile platforms, they each provide some sort of native development kit all based around a GCC toolchain with OpenGL ES 2.0. So obviously we want to use as much portable C/C++ as possible, but what about all the little (and not so little) differences between the platforms? I needed to get my hands dirty and write a proof of concept.

The result is a simple bouncing ball simulation and it runs on Android, iOS, and desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux). Box2D is used for the physics engine, and the rest of the code is licensed under the permissive beerware license; please respect the license and buy me a beer… if we ever meet.

Here is a nifty weekend project. It’s a 2-stage shutter remote for my Canon T2i DSLR. The red push button is a full press and the arcade button is a half press. Since it requires less force to push the arcade button than it does the red push button, it functions exactly as the cameras built-in shutter switch. I got the inspiration for this project from a guide on diyphotography.net.

This really is depressing. Being Canadian and all I really want to root for the home team. Moreover I hate polluting my blog with complaints about BlackBerry development. Alas, here we go again…

Todays topic: BlackBerry Push Service. BlackBerry push can be routed through BlackBerry Internet Service or it can route through a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The difference? BIS is the one you want to use if you are a developer targeting the consumer market at large. To route push notifications through BIS, you must request to evaluate the push service. It also appears you must submit another request when you want to go live, but I haven’t made it that far.

This is where the problem lies. I have submitted three requests in the past two weeks with no response. Each time I submit one, I’m greeted with a friendly message:

“Thank you, someone will contact you in two business days“

Bottom line I can’t finish OR test my app without access to this service.

What about the other guys?

This is where it gets sad. The software I’m working on is also being developed in parallel for Android and iOS. So what does the process look like for the other platforms?

Android

The Android Cloud to Device Messaging framework also requires developers to signup to access the service. The difference being two seconds after you fill out the signup form you are ready to go!

Slightly off topic, but the C2DM API is extremely simple to use. It was a pleasure to work with since I could use basic Unix shell scripting to send requests to the service during testing.

Apple

After you register as an iOS developer (and you drop $100 US for the privilege), Apple gives you access to something called the iOS Provisioning Portal which is a web interface for generating all manor of certificates and mobile provisioning bits and bobs. In this portal access to the APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) can also be enabled with a few mouse clicks… instantly.

So what have I done so far?

Not wait on RIM, that’s for sure! In the last two weeks I have managed to completely finish the iOS and Android versions of my app including full push integration.

Let me say that again. In the time it’s taking RIM to grant me permission to write software that uses their services, I have created the same thing on competing platforms.

I don’t pretend to be a master of wire lacing. To be honest this is my first attempt but I am thoroughly pleased with the results. I was inspired by a recent article by Keith Neufeld in which he showed off his x0xb0x Wiring Harnesses.

This is my latest arcade joystick build incorporating my recent teensy++ based controller. Locating resources on the web describing the art of wire harness lacing can be tricky as it doesn’t seem to be a popular practice but I found a decent writeup here. The wires on my controller are 24 gauge so the thick string Keith used would have been overkill. Instead I opted for waxed dental floss to wrap the wires (tip: waxed is important as it helps the knots stay tight).

It’s no secret the PS3 will work with most USB HID gamepads or joysticks. However the Home button is something special. If you connect your sixaxis controller to your PC and monitor button presses, the Home button comes up as button number 13. If you then create a standard gamepad with the same button mapping, the PS3 will refuse to recognize the Home button.

After some tracing of the USB traffic from an official Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightStick I was able to come up with a solution! There are 8 bytes transfered during the enumeration phase, just after the device sends it’s report descriptor. Mimicking the same exchange results in the Home button functioning correctly when button 13 is pressed.

I used the amazingly awesome Teensy++ development board after being inspired by this guys work. I also used the report descriptor from Toodles UPCB project which appears to come from the SEGA VIRTUA STICK. This descriptor is very similar to the one from the Madcatz controller, except their is one endpoint instead of two which simplifies things somewhat.

I also created a shield (pictured above) which brings several pins on the Teensy to convenient screw terminals.

Source code and Eagle files are available in a git repository. Code is licensed under the GPL v3 and the PCB design is distributed under a Creative Commons license Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5.

This document can be printed onto transparency for exposing your pre-sensitized copper clad. To use this for toner transfer, be sure to mirror the image first.

And a compiled version of the code in ihex. This is for the teensy++ 2.0. The code might work with other versions of the teensy, but a re-compile will be required.

It’s based on another design by Raphaël Assénat.

You’ll find the source code and Eagle files here, both licensed under the GPL.

PS: It’ll also work just fine on a Window/Linux/Mac OS X computer as well since all operating systems come with drivers for USB HID gamepads.

I thought to myself, self: “certainly there must be some way to tame this beast?”. Wouldn’t you know it, there certainly is.

If you attempt to sign a .cod file larger than 64KB (ie: contains sibling files or child files or whatever files) then you will likely get a file created in your current working directory that looks something like kd8m34jkf/my_lame_app-1.cod. When you load the file to the device it will result in an error of some sort. The fix for this is relatively simple. Read on for the details.

The simulator doesn’t sim and the signing tool doesn’t sign. These two issues cause a serious problem.

First the simulator. If you take an OS 4.3.1 simulator and a device also running OS 4.3.1 the two will behave very differently in a few subtle, but important ways. My gripe is localized to the mmapi api (handles audio/video playback). Long story short, the simulator can’t be trusted so we have to debug device/OS idiosyncrasies on the device itself.

But hold on a second. The signing servers aren’t working so I can’t debug on the device in all it’s developer friendly glory with lack of usable debugger and lack of even something as simple as a means to read text written to freaking standard output!

Thank you RIM! Thank you for wasting my valuable time. Thank you for reminding me that no amount of money can justify writing software for this platform any longer.

(10:30, signing servers still not working)

Some time ago I started a little experiment to see what this whole “Web 2.0” development thing was all about. The goal of the experiment was to develop a simple application without the help of any server side web framework, and instead use JSON as a data interchange format. All HTML, CSS, and JavaScript should be cleanly separated.

Cleanly separating the HTML from the JavaScript posed a challenge and thus jQTemplate was born. The concept is simple: write snippets of HTML code with annotations (in the form of special XML attributes) that can be used to transform the snippet into elements in the DOM.

The result I think is actually quite nice, and I love me some pretty code!

This is mainly a show and tell post. What we have here is a NES controller that has been converted into a USB HID device. This means it can be connected to a computer without installing any drivers (Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows XP).

The circuit, PCB design, and firmware for the Atmega8 micro-controller are courtesy of Raphaël Assénat. His website is a veritable cornucopia of awesome circuitry. And the best part? All of his work is fully documented and provided for use under the GPL license where applicable.

Now the show part is over, time for the tell.

1. Rapc compiler
2. Signature tool
3. Simulator
4. Javaloader

At the time of writing the first two worked fine. The third, Simulator, is if’y at best. And the fourth was just not possible.

Until now. In late December, a saviour by the name of Nicolas Vivien dropped by the barry mailing list to let everyone know that he was hard at work on reverse engineering the Javaloader USB protocol. Within a few weeks he had developed a proof of concept that enabled users to load cod files to the BlackBerry.

Since then several developers (including myself) have chipped in to implement all of the crucial aspects of the Javaloader needed for day-to-day use.

Hopefully this fixes the sporadic behavior people have reported with their LCD’s. It certainly fixes the problem with the two LCD’s I have tested.

I also added a schematic to the package. It just outlines where to connect VCC, GND and where to put the 10K pot.

Naturally instead of adjusting the encoding parameters, I decided to begin the hunt for a new video player… oh and it has to be cheaper than that AppleTV thing since it does h264. It also has to be similarly quiet, power efficient, and small.

Well this is the result. It’s a bit bigger than an AppleTV but it’s certainly quiet and power efficient. And I actually quite like the look of it.

While this is effective, it has a few caveats:

• makeMenu gets messy
• separators must be added explicitly
• doesn’t play nice with context menu items added by framework

Disclaimer: I am not an expert with wine nor have I ever claimed to be. But if you setup an override for the msxml dll it seems as though the BlackBerry simulator is a bit more reliable in Linux. In fact, the JDWP seems to actually work for debugging your applications.

1. Rapc compiler
2. Signature tool
3. Simulator
4. Javaloader

The first two components works fabulously in Linux. The second (signature tool) needs a kick in the pants to work (shame shame shame!).

The third is hit or miss when using Wine. So a less painful option is to put windows in a virtual machine and run the simulator there (more on that later).

And the fourth I just can’t get past. There is the barry project which has made impressive progress in the last few months and lists javaloader support as on the roadmap for milestone 4. RIM, if you have any sympathy for us non-windows users show these guys some love and send them some specs for heaven sakes!

This article presents the basics for compiling, signing, and debugging BlackBerry applications with Linux.

Call me crazy but I just can’t seem to accept that if you want to (or have to) write BlackBerry software you’re stuck with Windows. It bugs me.

There is good news and bad news regarding the simulator. The good news is with a recent version of Wine you can actually get the BlackBerry simulator to run. The bad news is that it’s a bit buggy, and debugging hardly works at all.

I don’t know what the legality is regarding redistribution of RIM’s development tools, specifically ones that have been modified so what follows is a description of the steps required to modify SignatureTool.jar to work in a Unix style file system (forward slash for directory separators).

Specifically, this version removes the hard coded delays after each command is sent to the LCD and checks the LCD’s busy flag. This is a cleaner approach and should mean that the library works more reliably with various LCD modules (hopefully). The setup method has been cleaned up as well to make initialization by instruction just work without any hacks.

Of course, this does mean that the RW pin on the LCD must be connected to the Arduino instead of connecting to ground.

As before, see the Arduino LCD Library page to get the latest version of the code.

Check out the Arduino LCD Library page for more details.

So top 5 dream jobs:

• Robot maker
• Prop maker for the movie industry
• Google Python developer
• Bar owner
• BlackBerry software developer

I don’t really want to be a BlackBerry developer but I had a hard time coming up with a 5th so I just put what I am currently doing (check out bbTv).

Well that’s not fair, it can be cool if you use something like Spider Man or Optimus Prime. But these people these days seem to want to use some picture of themselves smiling having fun with all their smiling friends. I don’t want to see you and your friends having fun. I want to see something clever and original.

So with that said, I’m out. I’m not doing anything interesting these days so I should probably put “something” on this damn blog.

Ok, so you have an arcade joystick which you either built or bought but you really want to play some “Golden Tee” or “Marble Madness”. Well you could buy an arcade trackball already assembled, or if you are lucky enough to find one for cheap at a surplus store you can be a man and build one yourself.

Check out the Arcade Trackball page for details on how to connect a USB mouse to an arcade trackball. Your drunkin’, arcade gamin’, buddies will be super impressed.