Travis's lame ol' blog

musicForProgramming(); [del.icio.us]

travis — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:59:33 PST

A series of mixes intended for listening while programming to aid concentration and increase productivity (also compatible with other activities).

And a good time was had by all. [Flickr]

T-Rav — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:14:14 PST

T-Rav posted a photo:

Genny Bock

If you look really close, you can see the reflection of a crappy phone [Flickr]

T-Rav — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:44:31 PST

T-Rav posted a photo:

French press is awesome.

Social Folders [del.icio.us]

travis — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:30:25 PST

sync media from social networks back down to your computer

HTML5 Please [del.icio.us]

travis — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:56:35 PST

Look up HTML5 features, know if they are ready for use, and if so find out how you should use them – with polyfills, fallbacks or as they are.

Just chilling at the beach [Flickr]

T-Rav — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:07:17 PST

T-Rav posted a photo:

Emmett's idea.

Visual Studio Achievements - Visual Studio Gallery [del.icio.us]

travis — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:18:15 PST

Gamifying Visual Studio.

With great power comes great responsibility [Flickr]

T-Rav — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:42:28 PST

T-Rav posted a photo:

What kind of person gives their child chocolate right before bedtime?!

HUBOT [del.icio.us]

travis — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:26:47 PST

Hubot is your company's robot. Install him in your company to dramatically improve and reduce employee efficiency.

EaselJS: A Javascript Library for Working with the HTML5 Canvas Element. [del.icio.us]

travis — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:25:35 PST

a javascript library for working with the html5 canvas element

TABLEIZER! -- Spreadsheets to HTML Tables Tool [del.icio.us]

travis — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:33:24 PST

paste in xls data, get html table

Sherry's new vs old [Flickr]

T-Rav — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:04:43 PST

T-Rav posted a photo:

Subes

The Always Up-To-Date Guide to Rooting Any Android Phone [del.icio.us]

travis — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:37:23 PST

rooting your android phone with superineclick

Moment.js - A lightweight javascript date library [del.icio.us]

travis — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:16:11 PST

Moment.js is a javascript date library that helps create, manipulate, and format dates without extending the Date prototype.

Saxonica: XSLT and XQuery Processing [del.icio.us]

travis — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:40:18 PDT

Source and binaries for Java and .Net for advanced xml parsing, supporting latest spec drafts. Saxonica is a co-author of the specs. Documentation at http://www.saxonica.com/

Adding An Easy Shortcut to the JSHint javascript validator to Visual Studio

Travis — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:36:30 GMT

I went to add JSLint to my Visual Studio tools and was disappointed that the WSH version has disappeared (or was discontinued). Luckily the new and improved JSHint supports a WSH wrapper.

Grab JSHLint.
In Visual Studio → Tools → External Tools…
Add a new tool with the following field values:

Title:

&JSHint

Command:

%systemroot%\system32\cscript.exe

Arguments:

//Nologo "%YourJSHintPath%\env\wsh.js" $(ItemPath)

Initial directory:

"%YourJSHintPath%\"

Use Output window

checked
Open up any *.js file you'd like to validate
Select the all new JSHint from your tools menu:

The output that JSHint provides appears to be much more useful than the old JSLint version as well.

Embedding an XSLT as a string in a DLL binary

Travis — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:00:05 GMT

If you want to distribute a class library that relies on an XSL document and only want to worry about a single DLL then this is probably the easiest solution. In Visual Studio follow these commands (and save): Project Properties → Resources → Add Existing file

In this case, I am embedding a file named Core.xsl with a key named Core. That will generate a bit of code that looks like this:

~/Properties/Resources.resx:

<data name="Core" type="System.Resources.ResXFileRef, System.Windows.Forms">
	<value>..\Resources\Core.xsl;System.String, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089;utf-8</value>
</data>

~/Properties/Resources.Designer.cs:

public static string Core {
	get {
		return ResourceManager.GetString("Core", resourceCulture);
	}
}

Be sure to set the properties of the file so that its Build Action is set as an Embedded Resource.

Now when you compile, the entire contents of the XSL file get embedded directly into the DLL as a string. You can now use the new property like this:

public static XslCompiledTransform GetXsl(XmlDocument xDoc)
{
	bool enableDocumentFunction = false;
	bool enableScript = true;
	XsltSettings xslSettings = new XsltSettings(enableDocumentFunction, enableScript);

	// only enable debugging in DEBUG mode
	bool isDebug = true;
#if (!DEBUG)
	isDebug = false;
#endif

	XslCompiledTransform xsl = new XslCompiledTransform(isDebug);
	xsl.Load(xDoc, xslSettings, new XmlUrlResolver());

	return xsl;
}

public static XslCompiledTransform GetXsl()
{
	XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
	xDoc.LoadXml(Properties.Resources.Core);
	XslCompiledTransform xsl = GetXsl(null, xDoc);
	return xsl;
}

Previous XSLT stuff:

Compiling An XSLT Into A DLL Binary

Compiling an XSLT into a DLL binary

Travis — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:51:30 GMT

Did you know that Microsoft provides tools to compile XSLT files into DLLs? Neither did I before a client recently suggested that I do that on a recent project. It turns out it's extremely easy.

Fire up your favorite console and run the following:

"%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin\xsltc.exe" /out:SomeProjectPath\bin\SomeXsltDllFileName.dll /class:SomeXsltClassNamePathAndFileNameOfXslt.xsl

xsltc.exe might be located somewhere else on your PC and be sure to update the appropriate info in the command above. If it works you can add a reference to this new DLL in your project and use the new class in your code:

XslCompiledTransform xsl = new XslCompiledTransform();
xsl.Load(typeof(SomeXsltClassName));

You can also add a pre-build event command line to your project:

"%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin\xsltc.exe" /out:$(ProjectDir)bin\SomeXsltDllFileName.dll /class:SomeXsltClassName $(ProjectDir)RelativePathAndFileNameOfXsltInProject.xsl

Then every time you hit CTRL+SHIFT+B it will build your XSLT's DLL automagically each time. Here's a sample of what your output should look like:

------ Build started: Project: ProjectName, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------
Build started 7/22/2010 2:36:11 PM.

Target PreBuildEvent:
    "%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin\xsltc.exe" /settings:script+ /out:D:\Projects\ProjectName\bin\SomeXsltDllFileName.dll /class:SomeXsltClassName D:\Projects\ProjectName\Xslt\NameOfXslt.xsl
    Microsoft (R) XSLT Compiler version 3.5.30729
    [Microsoft (R) .NET Framework version 2.0.50727]
    Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
    
Target CoreCompile:
    C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Csc.exe /noconfig /nowarn:1701,1702 /errorreport:prompt /warn:4 /define:DEBUG;TRACE /reference:bin\SomeXsltDllFileName.dll /reference:bin\SomeXsltDllFileName.script.dll /debug+ /debug:full /filealign:512 /optimize- /out:obj\Debug\ProjectName.dll /target:library ClassFiles.cs

Compile complete -- 0 errors, 0 warnings

Target _CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal:
    Copying file from "bin\SomeXsltDllFileName.dll" to "bin\Debug\SomeXsltDllFileName.dll".
    Copying file from "bin\SomeXsltDllFileName.script.dll" to "bin\Debug\SomeXsltDllFileName.script.dll".
Target CopyFilesToOutputDirectory:
    Copying file from "obj\Debug\ProjectName.dll" to "bin\Debug\ProjectName.dll".
    ProjectName -> D:\Projects\ProjectName\bin\Debug\ProjectName.dll
    Copying file from "obj\Debug\ProjectName.pdb" to "bin\Debug\ProjectName.pdb".

Build succeeded.

Time Elapsed 00:00:02.31

More info:

Adding An Easy Shortcut to the JSLint javascript validator to Visual Studio

Travis — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:38:09 GMT

Update: 2011-05-13: JSLint WSH no longer available, see JSHint WSH.

Ever wish that Visual Studio had a JSLint add-in? Inspired by a reply to my tweet, I discovered the following solution.

Grab the WSH version of JSLint.

Add this jslint.bat file to the same folder you have JSLint in:

@echo off
cscript jslint.js //Nologo < %1
echo.
echo Done.

In Visual Studio → Tools → External Tools…
Add a new tool with the following field values:

Title:

&JSLint

Command:

%YourJSLintPath%\jslint.bat

Arguments:

$(ItemPath)

Initial directory:

%YourJSLintPath%\

Use Output window

checked
Open up any *.js file you'd like to validate
Select the all new JSLint from your tools menu:
Try not to let JSLint hurt your feelings too much:

In short, JSLint is awesome.

Welcome to the new TraviBlog

Travis — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:40:07 GMT

Hello and welcome to the newly re-skinned TraviBlog. This site is running on a version of dasBlog. I forget which version I originally downloaded, but I've heavily modified the source to be standards-compliant, accessible, removed as many images as possible and also added this ugly theme. Really though, who cares about the theme since most people read blogs in an RSS reader right?

If you want the source feel free to post a comment and let me know and I can generate a huge diff file showing the changes that I've made to the original source.

Brilliant CSS for the KBD element

Travis — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:07:00 GMT

Stack Overflow recently implemented some brilliant CSS for <kbd> tags:

kbd
{
	padding: 5px 3px;
	white-space: nowrap;
	color: #000;
	background-color: #EEE;
	border-top: solid 2px #CCC;
	border-right: solid 4px #AAA;
	border-bottom: solid 5px #888;
	border-left: solid 3px #BBB;
}

There's something inherently beautiful about CSS used to style HTML to look like the physical object it represents.

Example: CTRL+C

Conversations around the Campfire: an Obama/McCain CSS comparison

Travis — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:47:00 GMT

This conversation originated at work when we started comparing the CSS used by McCain and Obama (thanks for the link Sam!)...

Ralph W.

http://js.johnmccain.com/App_Themes/McCain08/newstyles.css

Travis H.

haha

compare with: http://www.barackobama.com/css/globalv3.css

even by the file names alone you can tell that obama's is a more scalable solution

Ralph W.

It's even localized
/* Espanol Navigation 2.0
-------------------------------------------------------------- */
Travis H.

i like how the absolute last section of mccain's is for the header

Ernie B.

that is so fitting

Ralph W.

cause you can only get head in the white house by going down

Travis H.
TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase;
Ernie B.

hahaha

Ralph W.

that's great

Travis H.

it looks like his css was developed by the department of redundancy department since the font-family is defined in almost every selector

Ralph W.

more of the same

Travis H.

haha, good one

Ernie B.

may as well be tables

Travis H.
INPUT.groovybutton {
not that there's anything wrong with that

i love this class name:
DIV.actioncenterbluebutton_red A {
interesting, Obama's uses EM sizing while McCain's uses PX

Ralph W.

not that there's anything wrong with that

Ernie B.

also fitting

Travis H.

I swear it's as if their CSS files directly correspond with their campaigns

Obama knows the IE6 hack:
* html #nav li * { position: relative; }
interesting, they also use CSS sprites

those trendy fuckers

wow and their spanish classnames are actually spanish!
#nav-donacion {
Ralph W.

McCain blocks those classes at the firewall...see what I did there?
This conversation has been reproduced without anyone's permission

Conversations around the Campfire: an Apple/Palin comparison

Travis — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:17:00 GMT

This conversation originated at work when Ralph and I started flaming our resident MacTard developer, Ernie.

Travis H.

*grabs some gasoline*

Travis H.

Mac's are the Sarah Palin of the computing world

Ernie B.

in what respect, charlie?

Ralph W.

not true...Mac's do not have Tina Fey glasses

Travis H.

"we're enterprise ready, we sold an ipod in Russia"

Travis H.

also, i heard that the iphone 3g is retarded

Travis H.

and that the nano is pregnant

Ralph W.

3g has down syndrome ... get it right

Travis H.

you can put EFI in a PC, but it's still a pig

Ralph W.

What's the difference between Ernie on a PC and Ernie on a Mac?

Ralph W.

Lipstick

I have to pick on Ern while I can, I think pretty soon I might be the only developer in the company on a non-Mac PC.

This conversation has been reproduced without anyone's permission

Replacing Notepad with Notepad 2 on XP SP3, the easiest way possible

Travis — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:21:00 GMT

After installing SP3 on XP I noticed that Notepad was reverted back to its crappy self, so I decided to write a handy batch script to install Notepad2 again. This script will work in XP SP2+. Place the batch file in the same directory as notepad2.exe and run it.

InstallNotepad2XP.bat

@echo off
echo *IMPORTANT*
echo This will kill all open instances of Notepad.
echo To cancel, end this batch file now (ctrl+c), or hit any key to continue.
pause
echo Killing all instances of notepad running...
TASKKILL /F /IM notepad.exe /T
echo Backing up...
call :backup %systemroot%\servicepackfiles\i386
call :backup %systemroot%
call :backup %systemroot%\System32
call :backup %systemroot%\System32\dllcache
echo Installing...
copy notepad2.exe %systemroot%\servicepackfiles\i386\notepad.exe /y
copy notepad2.exe %systemroot%\notepad.exe /y
copy notepad2.exe %systemroot%\System32\notepad.exe /y
copy notepad2.exe %systemroot%\System32\dllcache\notepad.exe /y
echo Done.
pause
goto :end
:backup
call set npath=%1
set count=0
for %%i in (%npath%\notepad.original*.exe) do (
set nname=%%i
set /a count=count+1
)
echo backing up to %npath%\notepad.original%count%.exe
copy %npath%\notepad.exe %npath%\notepad.original%count%.exe /y
:end

So That's What Happened To Doogie Howser, M.D.

Travis — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:28:00 GMT

It's actually kinda funny.

(if you were looking for more Doogie, Hulu will save the day)

JavaScript is just as easy as Ruby (even without jQuery!)

Travis — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:02:00 GMT

Ernie sent this ruby snippet and marveled at its brilliant simplicity:


class Date  
  def at_some_point  
    (at_midnight..tomorrow.at_midnight).to_a.rand  
  end 
end 

Date.today.at_some_point # => Tue May 21 10:23:00 -0500 2008 
Date.today.at_some_point # => Tue May 21 02:10:00 -0500 2008 
Date.today.at_some_point # => Tue May 21 18:28:00 -0500 2008 
Date.today.at_some_point # => Tue May 21 07:25:00 -0500 2008

I recalled using Date.prototype in JavaScript in the past to add some helpful date functions, so I thought I'd see if I could write a similar function just as elegantly:


Date.prototype.atSomePoint = function() {
    return new Date(rand(this.atMidnight().valueOf(), this.tomorrow().atMidnight().valueOf()));
};

new Date().atSomePoint();   \\ Wed May 21 2008 06:33:28 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
new Date().atSomePoint();   \\ Wed May 21 2008 12:57:13 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
new Date().atSomePoint();   \\ Wed May 21 2008 08:37:44 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Unfortunately .atMidnight() and .tomorrow() don't exist in JavaScript's Date object by default (that I know of), so I had to write those helpers as well as a random number helper, rand():


Date.prototype.atMidnight = function() {
    this.setHours(0);
    this.setMinutes(0);
    this.setSeconds(0);
    return this;
};

Date.prototype.tomorrow = function() {
    this.setDate(this.getDate() + 1);
    return this;
};

function rand(lowerBound, upperBound) {
    return Math.floor((upperBound - (lowerBound - 1)) * Math.random()) + lowerBound;
}

While I probably would never find a use for .atSomePoint(), it certainly was easy enough to write.