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Drive your Lego Mindstorm NXT Robot with Android
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Fun, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on September 02, 2010
We have just published a free demonstration application to the Android Market named SenseBot. This application was written as a demonstration for the Unlocking Android Second Edition title soon to be published. The application demonstrates the use of the Bluetooth and Orientation Sensor functionality of the Android platform.
The application connects via Bluetooth to a Lego Mindstorm NXT robot in a "stock" configuration: two motors connected to the B and C ports of the robot.
Once the application is connected to the Robot (which must be named NXT) you simply tilt the phone to drive the robot. Tilt forward, back, left and right. Even though it is arguably not the most attractive or best performing remote control -- it is a bit addictive and fun.
Search the Android market for "Lego Mindstorm" or "SenseBot".
The application requires a minimum level of Android 2.0 as that is when the Bluetooth data functionality was made accessible to third party developers.
MSI Services provides consulting and software development for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and on occassion Palm WebOS.
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AIRTIME-Manager for iPhone version 1.2
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Software Development, Technology, iPhone on September 01, 2010
Version 1.2 of AIRTIME-Manager for iPhone was accepted for download into the Apple App Store today. This version adds enhancements for the stopwatch feature as well as support for the Associate dictation software from PortNexus.
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Monitoring Android Events
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on August 31, 2010
This week's Linux Magazine Upward Mobility column demonstrates the use of a BroadcastReceiver. OK, so what is that you ask? A BroadcastReceiver is a coding mechanism within the Android operating system permitting you to avoid polling -- in other words, it is your friend. The article demonstrates listening for power connection events.
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Tame your Inbox, Use Outlook Rules & Folders
Posted by: Phil Beach in Network Services, Tips and Tricks, Technology on August 31, 2010
Almost everyone is inundated with email messages. Fortunately, there are a few tricks that I use every day to reduce strain on my own inbox. The most helpful of these is Outlook Rules & Folders.
The first step to make use of Outlook Rules is to implement an effective folder tree. The image on the right shows my Outlook folder tree. I frequently use email to communicate with my co-workers, making it beneficial for me to create separate folders for each of my associates. Your inbox folder structure should be unique to cover your particular organizational needs.
How To: Create a folder structure
1. Right click on Inbox
2. Select New Folder
3. Enter a name and select OK, the folder will appear below Inbox on your folder list
4. Additional sub-folders can be created in the same way
After setting up an effective structure, it's time to create Outlook rules to sort your incoming mail.
How To: Create Outlook Rules
1. Select Tools, Rules & Alerts...
2. Select New Rule
3. Select "Move messages from someone to a folder" & click Next
4. Select the person or distribution list & click Next
5. Select a folder & click Finish
Please note that this rule merely sorts based on who the message is from. It's possible, using the other rule types, to sort on a variety of the criteria including subject, sender, and message size. Rules become useful when you know a specific person, subject, or other criteria that is important to you. By creating a rule that recognizes one of these important messages and moves the message into a specific folder, you can alleviate inbox-overload.
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Twitter Tips
Posted by: Phil Beach in Network Services, Tips and Tricks, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology on August 26, 2010
It seems that tons of people know what Twitter is but at the same time overlook and fail to completely realize the benefit and value it could potentially add to their life, their business, or both. "How can I use Twitter?", and perhaps more importantly "how can my business use Twitter?" are important questions to ask.
Wikipedia defines twitter as a site that "enables its users to send and read other user messages called tweets", but this just scratches the surface. Twitter is a culture. It is millions of people listening to each other and communicating through random broadcasts of 140 characters or less.
Twitter could benefit your business. In the beginning, twitter users told what they were doing. Now, Twitter has evolved to encourage sharing what's on your mind. Twitter opens huge doors into what people are really thinking about when online.
In this issue of The Point, I'll explain the basics of Twitter usage. Keep your eyes open for part II, where I explain the benefits Twitter might offer to your business.
Sign up and first steps
Go straight to the Twitter homepage at twitter.com and sign up by clicking the big yellow Sign Up button on the right side of the screen. You will have to enter a few personal details, including your name and email address.
Follow someone
After signing up you will be presented with an screen that allows you to view popular Twitter users based on a variety of different interests. One of the cornerstones of Twitter is the concept of "following" someone, and no, we don't mean CIA agent style. To follow someone on Twitter is to simply monitor their posts so that you are notified when they post something. It's also possible to follow someone but shut off notifications of their posts - useful for controlling the flow of information from over-zealous tweeters - think how annoying "sitting down at my desk", or "just got to work" can get.
Your first tweet
After your account is created, you will be presented with a question - "What's happening?" The power of twitter resides in this small textbox. Type in something and click "Tweet", the rest is history, or is it?
Searching the Twittersphere
When you broadcast a tweet, even if you have no personal followers at all, the tweet will still be indexed and archived in real-time by Twitter. The tweet will be immediately available through the search feature. To search for tweets, type your query into the box on the right of your Twitter home page. As an example, a quick search for "twitter tips" returned hundreds of tweets pointing to useful blog posts and websites with great Twitter tips.
Re-tweeting (RT)
Re-tweeting is just that. Taking what someone else posted and re-posting it to your own followers. This can be useful if you know your own followers would be interested in something someone else said. However, the converse is also true - if your followers aren't interested, your re-tweeting could quickly become annoying.
To re-tweet, type "RT" followed by the originator's username and post. For example: "RT @example Great twitter tips!".
If you have any questions about Twitter, feel free to email them to me at pbeach@msiservices.com.
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Hybrid Android applications article @ IBM Developerworks
Posted by: Frank Ableson in IBM, Software Development, Technology, Android on August 25, 2010
A new article written by MSI's President, Frank Ableson, presents strategies for developing Hybrid applications for Android.
A "hybrid" application uses an embedded WebKit user interface control to permit sophisticated user interfaces and programmatic interactions. You can read the article here. The article demonstrates extending the browser's JavaScript environment with custom application code available to be run by an underlying Android application. The popular Phonegap open source project uses a similar approach to bring cross-platform development capabilities to Android, iPhone and recently, BlackBerry.
MSI Services, Inc.
Northern New Jersey's Trusted Technology source
http://msiservices.com
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Handling user interface clicks with Android Buttons
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on August 24, 2010
There are a number of "right" ways to perform certain programming practices. In fact, the whole topic of which way to write code is closer to religion than science. In this week's Linux Magazine Upward Mobility column we review three different techniques for setting up Buttons in an Android Activity.
MSI Services, Inc.
Northern New Jersey's technology leaders
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Byram Township, NJ 07874
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Get more out of Microsoft Word: Use Quick Parts
Posted by: Phil Beach in Network Services, Tips and Tricks, Technology, Windows on August 17, 2010
Microsoft Word keeps track of a large amount of information automatically and stores it for quick insertion later. These pieces of information are known as "Quick Parts" and include items such as the document author, creation date, and subject. This information is useful, especially when working on a document that references this information frequently.
Steps:
- Place the cursor where you want to insert the particular document property.
- Select the Quick Parts drop-down button from the Insert menu of Word 2007. Here is the button circled in red:
- Hover over "Document Property" and choose the appropriate document property from the list that appears.
The feature becomes especially useful to allow a change to be reflected in multiple places throughout a document. For example, in the event of having to change your company's phone number, if each instance of your company's phone number had been inserted using the Quick Parts menu, the change would only have to be made to one of the instances. All of the other instances of the phone number would automatically be updated to reflect the change.
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Launching Android Applications
Posted by: Frank Ableson in Linux Magazine, Software Development, Technology, Android, Unlocking Android on August 11, 2010
One of the strengths of the Android platform is the ease with which one application may launch another. The latest installment of Upward Mobility @ Linux Magazine demonstrates techniques for expanding the reach of your Android application.
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Microsoft Office Object Linking an Embedding (OLE)
Posted by: Phil Beach in Network Services, Tips and Tricks, Technology on August 03, 2010
How to link data to a Word document
There are more than a handful of features included within Microsoft Office that the vast majority of users simply don't know about. One of these features has the potential to be useful in several business scenarios - Object Linking & Embedding (OLE).
Object Linking
Object linking allows an Excel worksheet to be displayed within a Word document as a non-static, active object. When a change is made to the Excel file, those changes will be reflected on the linked copy within the Word document. The feature becomes useful in a variety of scenarios. As an example, a monthly status report could contain data that is maintained in a seperate Excel data file.
Object Linking Steps
First, copy the area of data from within the Excel worksheet that you want to display in the Word document. In this shot I have selected an annualized expense report for a demo company project:
After copying the data, open up the Word document and move the cursor to the place you want the Excel data to be displayed. Select the dropdown from the "Paste" button on the menubar and select "Paste Special", as shown below:
The selected portion of the Excel worksheet will then appear on the Word document as a linked object. Any future changes to that portion of the original Excel data file will be reflected by the copy inside the Word document. Just remember that if you move the location of the Excel data file, the object link will break. The final result as applied to my sample data is shown below:
Object Embedding
Object embedding, on the other hand, merely stores a static copy of the Excel sheet on the Word document. Any changes made to the original Excel file will not be reflected on the Word document.
Object Embedding Steps
To embed an object simply copy and paste the desired content as usual, but use the standard paste option - don't use "Paste Special".
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