15 Nov 2010

Automatically connect to VPN at Windows startup

VPN connection

I use VPN for work quite often, and lately more often than not.  I found that some programs that load on Windows startup and rely on this connectivity were trying to connect before I had a chance to establish a VPN connection.  I needed a way to connect to VPN as soon as possible, even […]

10 Nov 2010

Quick tip: Firebug console output

Source code

I’ve found debugging my JavaScript projects much easier since using the Firebug add-on for Firefox, but more specifically outputting to the Firebug console.  It’s as easy as this: var myVar = 42; console.log(‘my variable: ‘ + myVar); This will output ‘my variable: 42‘ to the Firebug console, just like using System.out.println() in Java. There are […]

14 Oct 2010

IE9 is the IE6 of CSS3

If you’re anything like me when it comes to IE9 you’re viewing Microsoft’s hype with a measure of skepticism.  Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is both the most popular web browser and the biggest pain in the ass for us web developers.  When I first heard that Microsoft were making an effort to support the latest standards […]

10 Oct 2010

jQuery: Automatic HTML element manipulation

Source code

When working on my latest project I discovered a feature of jQuery that wasn’t apparent to me in the API.  When using the .append() method I noticed it would automatically close HTML elements.  After taking a closer look at the jQuery 1.4.2 code, I found that .append() makes use of an internal function called domManip(). […]

20 Sep 2010

Quick tip: Linux Xkill

Need a fast and easy way to kill an unresponsive application in Linux? Press Alt + F2. Type xkill in the Run Application dialog. Click the application with the X (or skull and crossbone) cursor. I discovered this after having a fullscreen Java app freeze on me a few times in Ubuntu. Further reading Xkill […]

17 Sep 2010

Connective Icon Calculator: iPhone app review

When I began in building controls engineering just six years ago, function block diagram programming was already an established engineering tool for may control systems.  I began my controls programming with an older technology control system that used mostly point-oriented boolean algebra which was surprising very powerful, but difficult to get an overview of the […]