August 2013 – TexasSwede

Bootstrap – An Overview

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Bootstrap, Frameworks, HTML/CSS, jQuery, Web Development 1 Comment

As I mentioned in a previous article, my boss asked me to write some short summaries of a couple of common web technologies and frameworks. I already wrote about jQuery, and now the turn has come to Twitter Bootstrap, commonly called just Bootstrap.

Twitter Bootstrap is one of the durrent darlings of web developers. It is a CSS framework, and it also includes some Javascript and the icon set GlyphIcons. Personally I use Font Awesome, a larger set (currently 361 icons) of icons compatible with GlyphIcons.

Just like jQuery, you can use Bootstrap from a CDN (Content Delivery Network). There are also several themes available (both free and premium), so you can quickly get a different look than with the default Bootstrap colors. The free themes are also available through a CDN.

With Bootstrap it is very easy to quickly create nice looking websites/applications. There are several ready-made templates on the Bootstrap site, and there are many more available all over the internet.

So what you typically do is to download a template that fit your project, and then start customizing it. A couple of weeks ago I needed to quickly put up a one-page marketing website. I simply downloaded one of the templates, changed the headline, added my content and removed the sign-up button. In 30 minutes I had the site up, and that included writing the inital text. Then I spent another hour or so tweaking and editing the text, but the actual design part took just minutes.

I am also currently working on a larger web application (which I hope to be able to blog about later this fall), and I choose to use Bootstrap there as well. One of the issues I always had in the past was to find a nice menu system to use on my sites, and this actually caused me to abandon the redesign of my personal website for over a year. When I discovered Bootstrap it just took me a few hours to totally revamp my website (including adding some functionality), and I now have a nice and functional menu system. The site also include icons for the menu entries, using Font Awesome.

Bootstrap contains a large number of elements: buttons, dropdowns, tables, labels, input controls, alert messages, a grid system (totally redesigned in Bootstrap version 3), etc. There is plenty of documentation available online, both at the official Bootstrap website and on other sites and forums.

Bootstrap Documentation

So if you haven’t looked at Bootstrap yet, see if it might help you in your next web project!

My IBM Notes project on GitHub

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Lotusscript, Notes/Domino, Programming Leave a comment

I decided to play around a little, and as an experiment put up one of my Notes projects on the open source repository GitHub. You can see the result here: http://github.com/TexasSwede/Class.MailMerge

This is a script library in Lotusscript to create documents based on a source document and a template document. I have blogged about it before, but I added some functionality to it, and thought it would be easier for people to download a complete database.

Bootstrap 3 released

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Bootstrap, Frameworks, Web Development Leave a comment

Back in June I wrote about the availability of Release Candidate 1 of Bootstrap 3. Today the finalized version have been released.

If you are migrating from version 2 to version 3, here is a list of what changed.

Among the many changes is a modified grid system, using percent instead of pixel-based width, responsiveness built in to the code files, a new flatter/cleaner look, and a number of new elements. You can read more in Kathy Brown’s article at SocialBizUG.org.

You can read more at http://getbootstrap.com/, where you also can download it. If you prefer to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network), you can use BootstrapCDN at http://www.bootstrapcdn.com/

Also, if you are developing using XPages, don’t miss Philippe Riand’s latest amazing project, Bootstrap for XPages. It uses Bootstrap 2.3, as version 3.0 probably will not work correctly in XPiNC (XPage in Notes Client), due to the fact that support for IE 7 and Firefox 3.5 have been dropped in the latest version.

Steve Ballmer announcing he will resign – Microsoft stock up 7%

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Software, Technology Leave a comment

Microsofts CEO Steve Ballmer this morning announced that he will resign within the next 12 months. The 57 year old CEO will depart after a successor is choosen.

Directly after the announcement, Microsoft shares went up 7% in the first hour of trading. Microsoft under Steve Ballmer have been criticized for his directions by investerers and others.

Microsoft stock at 10am Friday August 23

Microsoft Store – #fail

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Computers, Tablets, Technology Leave a comment

I visited Houston this weekend, and we decided to go to the Microsoft Store in The Galleria. The plan was to look at the Surface devices for a project I am currently working on (I will blog about this later this year, when we are closer to release). The thought was to take a look at the application on the web, before decided which device(s) to get for further testing. We also went to the Sony Store (pretty much next-door to Microsoft) to look at some laptops and to the Apple Store on the level above to check out their devices.

At Sony there was no problem looking at their laptops and other devices. They did not really have any tablets we were interested in, but we were still able to look at our application on their laptops, using Windows 8. Same thing at Apple, I accessed the application on an iPad Mini, no problem.

Then we went to Microsoft, and I started playing with a Surface RT device. Nice small form factor and, and surprisingly nice keyboard. I entered the URL for my server and expected the login prompt to show up. Instead I was redirected to the Microsoft Store webpage. OK, perhaps I had typed something wrong in the URL. I tried one more time, making sure the address was correct. Same result. We then asked a girl working in the store what was wrong. She explained that most pages are blocked, only a small number of commonly accessed pages were avaliable to surf to. That was supposedly because people went to “inappropriate pages”.

So obviously Microsoft don’t have access to the blocking technology that most companies (including the one I work at) use to block online gaming, adult sites or other categories deemed not appropriate for work. Why even have a store, when Best Buy or similar places is a much better place to actually test the device? Total fail by Microsoft.

“Do again, do right”, as my instructors in the Swedish Army would have said.

Note: The picture was taken with my Samsung Galaxy S4, using the camera mode to erase moving objects. At least 3 people walked in front of me while I took the picture, but as you can see, the phone did a good job at erasing them!

Google Chromecast – First Impressions

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Gadgets, Reviews 2 Comments

This weekend I got hold of Google’s latest gadget, Chromecast. As you may know, it is a small device, the size or a large thumbdrive, but with an HDMI connector instead of a USB connector.

It allows you to stream video (currently from Youtube, Netflix and Google Play) to a TV, as well as mirror the screen of the Chrome browser on the TV. In the box, you get the device, a USB wall charger, a mini-USB cable and a short HDMI extension cable.

The installation is extremely simple. First of all, you need a wireless network, and a device running Android, iOS or the a Windows/Mac computer running the Chrome browser.
Plug the Chromecast device into an available HDMI-port on the TV, connect the mini-USB power adapter and plug it into an outlet.

Power on the TV, and you are directed to download the app to your smartphone/tablet or a small program to your computer. On the computer you also download an extension to the Chrome browser that let you mirror the screen on the TV.

I downloaded the Android version of the app on my Samsung Galaxy S4, and it found the Chromecast device at once. I connected to the device, and was now able to start playing videos. The total time to hook everything up, installing the software and connecting my phone to it took no more than 3 minutes.

After playing a couple of Youtube videos and starting a movie on Netflix, I decided to test the screen mirroring. The browser extension simply adds a small icon in the browser, and when I click it, the contents of the browser (excluding the title bar, menus, status bar, etc) are displayed on the TV.

I tested some streaming video from Swedish TV, watching a news show. It worked perfectly, but there was a delay of between 2 and 3 seconds between the computer and the TV.

The sounds comes out of the TV speakers, and during my testing the sound and picture quality was good. I was not performing the test on my network at home, and because of a sometimes weak signal, one of the Youtube videos had to buffer a bit.

The Chromecast device works by running an embedded version of Chrome OS, which in turn is based on Linux. It then stream videos to the TV directly from the source. Netflix, Youtube and Google Play all have software in the device to handle their streaming content. The laptop, tablet or phone is just a remote control, starting/stopping/pausing the video (or in the case of Netflix, going back 10 seconds if you missed something). I am guessing that the screen mirroring works the same. I would imagine that the browser plugin is just sending commands to the embedded Chrome browser in the device, duplicating what happens on the screen.

So what is my verdict? Well, for $35, it is a great little gadget. For me personally it is perfect, I can now watch TV shows from Sweden even while in the US, without having to hook up a computer to the TV. I can use a laptop or smart phone as a remote. I have not been able to get Chrome on Android to mirror it’s screen, but I can see apps and hacks for Chromecast coming out very soon.

If you already have Youtube and Netflix in your TV or blu-ray player, then Chromecast might not be as interesting. But if you want to use the screen mirroring, it is great. That function would also be very good for presentations on a big screen TV. In short, a very cool and fun gadget, to a very reasonable price. It is not threatening Apple TV or Roku yet, but is a nice low-cost alternative.

Currently it is very hard to get hold of a Chromecast, they sold out within hours of becoming available. A big thanks to Chrissy Hull, who let me test the one she got, making this review possible.

Today I became the father of a teenager

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Karl-Henry Martinsson Posted in Generic, Personal Leave a comment

On August 2, 2000 at noon my son Erik was born, almost a month early, through emergency cesarean. His weight was just 4 lbs 6 oz, and he was tiny.

Today Erik turns 13, he is already taller than his mom and not that much shorter than me. That little thing that only slept, ate and produced dirty diapers is now playing soccer, building LEGO and even taking a shower occasionally when forced… :-)

Happy birthday, Erik! I am very proud of you. You are a great son.