geeky

Hungarian notation

I recently came to cross the name “Hungarian Notation”. I found it quite funny as I know this method for long time but I didn’t even know it has a name… If you are a geek check this:

Hungarian notation – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And if you have really too much time, and you don’t know what to do, check this document:

http://www.coding-guidelines.com/cbook/sent792.pdf

ssh demo

Demonstrate a unix command usage from powerpoint


ssh demo

Here is the reason why I tried to demo a website from powerpoint… I needed to demonstrate how to use a new Unix application, but I wanted to do that from my powerpoint presentation. After some time spent on google, I didn’t find any way to integrate a ‘unix terminal’ component in a power point slide.

So my solution was to use the embedded browser and use Ajaxterm to connect to a remote linux host… This works… but there is a limitation as it’s not possible to use PageUp, PageDown to go up and down in your terminal… In order to fix that, you can start ‘screen’ on your unix host, and then you can navigate in your terminal using Ctrl+b, Ctrl+f.

I believe that there is a cleaner to connect to a unix host from powerpoint… but I didn’t find it. If you know other solution… please share :)

Some links to finish, I didn’t try anyterm but it looks cool too…

Chose the right component

How to demo/browse a website using powerpoint?

Problem: You are giving a powerpoint presentation, and during this presentation you need to show/browse a website. The solution that most of the persons will chose will be to hit “alt+tab” to switch the focus to their browser… Yes that does the trick… But you may want to show the website from your powerpoint to keep your audience captivated. I personally think that people has a tendency to get distracted when you switch away from your fullscreen powerpoint.
Chose the right component

My solution is to integrate a “Microsoft Web browser” component on your slide, so you can use it to browse a website. Start by adding the component as shown in this screen shot.



Editition of the slide

Then you can put several buttons on your slide to control your embedded browser. It should look like on this screenshot.


Finally you will have to add some Visual Basic code to your button’s callbacks. Something like:

Private Sub FontDecrease_Click()
    Dim Z As Variant
    WebBrowser1.ExecWB OLECMDID_ZOOM, OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER, Null, Z
 
    If Z > 0 Then
        Z = Z - 1
    Else
        Z = 0
    End If
    WebBrowser1.ExecWB OLECMDID_ZOOM, OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER, Z, Null
End Sub
 
Private Sub FontIncrease_Click()
    Dim Z As Variant
    WebBrowser1.ExecWB OLECMDID_ZOOM, OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER, Null, Z
 
    If Z < 4 Then
        Z = Z + 1
    Else
        Z = 4
    End If
    WebBrowser1.ExecWB OLECMDID_ZOOM, OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER, Z, Null
End Sub
 
Private Sub StartDemo_Click()
    WebBrowser1.Navigate ("http://samuel.happycoders.org/")
End Sub
 

Download this code: test-www-ppt.pas


And here is the result:
Result

Download the example

In the next post I will explain why I wanted to do that… I have a really geeky reason :)

Happy hacking keyboard

Status after one month with the kinesis advantage keyboard


Happy hacking keyboard

For the last 3 years, I was using a “happy hacking” keyboard. This keyboard is really small and looks
like a laptop keyboard. I really liked it and was able type really fast with it. Unfortunately, after spending too
much time behind a keyboard I started to feel wrist pain. This keyboard is comfortable, but on the long run I realized that I was typing with my left hand turned to the outside.


I finally decided to try the kinesis advantage keyboard. I’m now using it for a month and here is my first feelings about it.

Kinesis Keyboard


  • I’m using the qwerty mapping
  • I found it really hard to use at the beginning. I switched to it in one week, and as recommended in the guide, I didn’t use any other keyboard the first week. The hardest is the frustration of not being able to type as fast as before…
  • I started to do the exercises given with the keyboard but quickly stopped the second day… I used http://www.goodtyping.com/which was really really useful
  • The default mapping was not optimal for me, I had to remap some of the keys.
  • The arrows are at a very bad location… but I’m started to get used to it.
  • The {, }, [ and ] are really are to type… which can be a problem when coding.
  • I’m still slower than with my previous keyboard
  • I really found this keyboard comfortable, and it’s true that it’s hard to get back to a classic keyboard once you are used to this one.
  • Since I’m using it, I don’t have pain anymore :)

Next status in one month… hopefully I will get back to my full typing speed :)

Some links: