tea time continues at http://blogs.windward.net/tomasr/ Shmeow! Continue reading

I've been working with linux for the last year or so, and I have to say, I'm stunned at how poor the documentation for many applications is. I'm not a windows fan boy or anything (although I have a lot of windows experience and relatively little linux experience), but before I started getting into linux, I remember reading all the time about how things in linux are so well documented. But I'm finding that well documented really means "there is documentation". I think the Linux and Windows worlds are about the same when it comes to documentation. I have definitely... Continue reading

If you're getting the error saying something like "there are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request", here's a potential solution. Logon to the machine with a different user, connect to the VPN, and use the runas command to ping a machine as the user that cannot log in. I was trying to add a machine to the domain. Also, I was doing this remotely over the internet. I was at the machine, and I added the machine to the domain while I was connected to the VPN. Adding the machine worked, but when I tried to... Continue reading

:D Continue reading

If you can't get the wireless to turn on, and airplane mode seems to be stuck in the 'on' mode, check the wireless key (or button or switch) on your machine. I have one that you can't tell if it's on or off, and it was off, which explains why I could not connect (Dell Inspiron N4010). On the wireless drop-down panel, it said wireless was off and no networks appeared. I turned it on, but it didn't go on. I opened the wireless network settings and tried to turn it on, but it wouldn't go on. I noticed Airplane... Continue reading

Ok, I'm pretty new to rooting, and I did it because I just got an iPad but I don't want to get another data plan, but I've tried these two tethering apps, and I've found that OpenGarden works on myTouch 3G rooted with ginger yoshi 1.5 (32b), but Barnacle didn't work for me. To be fair, rooting is all hackery. There's a lot of variables involved and there's different stuff to do on each device, so just because Barnacle didn't work on this particular device doesn't mean it's bad software; from what I've seen, it's quite popular. It's also possible... Continue reading

Ok, here's my pitch on why working here is awesome, because I know you're dying to know. Seriously though, it's a good place to work. Always Training, Always Improving The main thing that has kept me here is the continuous education and the challenging work. I've been learning new technologies, and developing new skills ever since day 1. I started out as an intern years ago, and just to give you an idea of some of the highlights, I've developed an HTML parser, a printing system, an entire SharePoint reporting solution, and a backend data and payment system. And of... Continue reading

For some reason, I haven't been receiving notifications of comments except for spams, which I've been ignoring so that I can just take a bunch out at once. I've approved the real stuff today, so sorry to those of you that put something legit and I didn't approve it for a while. A little info about why I've been slacking on the bloggage. This fall/winter has been intensely busy for me. I've been working furiously on charting stuff for the Windward Reports Engine, and working on Code War and self-improvement projects in my free time. Speaking of Code War, it's... Continue reading

One of the most challenging parts of developing software is keeping up your willpower when a task has many parts to it. Why? I don't know, but I have an idea. As a developer, it feels good to make something. If you write a bit of code, like an if-statement that's part of a large process, that's not really something to you. The something is the whole thing, the finished thing; and you have a vision of what that is, or at least you know if you have it or not; and until you do have it, you do not... Continue reading

If you follow my blog, then you know I've been quiet for a while. Well, I've been deep in the code dungeon, toiling away – but now I return with treasure! An awesome new feature, just for you – Native Charts. This lets you carry a regular old chart from Word, Excel, or PowerPoint out to your report. You get a perfect replica on output to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, but we also carry them out to PDF and HTML – awesome. We're releasing this with version 11, which is coming out very soon. Here's a quick example. Below I... Continue reading

There's a couple things I've been trying to focus on when I work on code. I feel like it's yeilding good results. 1) Make Your Intentions Clear If your intentions are clear, you get two good things out of that. First, the person maintaining your code will be able to understand it quickly. Second, that person will be able to understand what the code was supposed to do, not just what it is doing. Obviously, if the maintainer is able to quickly understand your code - both what it says, and what it does - she saves time, and code... Continue reading

There are certain pieces of information where you don't need them very frequently, so you tend to forget them, but when you do need them it's a pain to find them. I'm talking about notes about this or that, things at work, things at home, even things that aren't so important having to do with our social lives or hobbies. I haven't found a system yet, that keeps all this information and makes it really easy to find it, no matter how frequently you access it. I've tried lots of things. Notebooks, electronic files of all sorts (eg word docs),... Continue reading

We've been looking at Microsoft's Crecent lately, and Today I thought, you know - with all this new BI stuff and SharePoint, Microsoft is starting to look a lot more like Oracle to me. If you use one piece of their stuff, it’s hard not to use all of their stuff. Great lock-in strategy. I guess they’ve always been like this, but it’s becoming more pronounced with their new BI products. Continue reading

Here's an interesting idea I just had. If you can’t explain something to someone, they probably suspect you’re lying, stupid, or mistaken. In such cases, it may be best to hold your tongue. On the other hand, collaboration and creativity demand this sort of risk – so keep an open mind and try to see the possibilities. I think this has implications and importance in all parts of life. What do you think? Continue reading

Trying to install the driver and you can't see your device listed? I just tried installing the Google USB Driver for Windows 7. When I got to the step about selecting the device in the device manager, I saw that my phone wasn't listed. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable to no avail. Then I noticed Windows was notifying me that the device driver didn't install correctly. I disconnected the phone, shut it off, turned it back on, and then connected it once it was fully booted. Voi-la! Success! However, I didn't actually have to do anything after... Continue reading

This was a total PITA for me, so here's what I found after a bit of playing around with the UI. I'm using GNOME 3 (the sexy new tablet friendly interface). I didn't see a place in the network connection drop-down to connect to a hidden wireless network, so I clicked on network settings. You see three options on the left, Wired, Wireless, and Network Proxy. I clicked Wireless, but everything appeared to be disabled. It's not! Click the Network Name drop-down and select other. This takes you to the interface that let's you easily setup a connection to a... Continue reading