Archive for March, 2008

Akount “revision 11” released

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

This update fixes the cookie used to track the type of authentication last used. Akount currently supports username/password and OpenID authentication. When you successfully authenticate, a cookie is used to track the type of authentication used so that the same authentication can be used by default the next time you need to authenticate.

Chumby works as SlimServer (SqueezeCenter) player

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

I was able to get my Chumby to work as a client for the SlimServer (SqueezeCenter) tonight. My Chumby was updated to client version 1.5.0 this evening. SlimServer client support has been built in to Chumby since at least client version 1.4.0. And before there was a menu interface on Chumby, there were ways that you could make the Chuby work as a SlimServer client with a USB memory device loaded with some software.

The Chumby interface is pretty straight forward. In the main Chumby panel, there is a “Music” button. You select this and are presented with a list of different music sources. If you select the “SlimServer” source, you get a menu that lets you enter the IP address of your SlimServer. After entering the IP address, you can press the “Play” button and then the “Done” button. Momentarily, you should see the Chumby show up as a client in your SlimServer web interface on your computer. You can control the playback of music on the Chumby from the SlimServer web interface via your computer. (You don’t control it from the Chumby. If you have an Asus Eee PC like me, the Eee PC make a really convenient “remote”. Though an iPhone or iPod touch would probably be even cooler; use the built in web browser and wifi as a client of the SlimServer, controlling the playback of the music on your Chumby. 🙂 ) When the music is playing, the Chumby continues to play whatever “channel” you currently have active. For instance, my main channel rotates between a digital clock and a five day weather forecast.

I have the SlimServer running on a Wal-Mart Everex PC. I decided to try SlimServer when I learned that the Chumby could be a SlimServer client. I was quite impressed with the SlimServer. It makes it easy to play my music collection throughout the house. Up until now, though, I have used a laptop as a SlimServer client. But the Chumby as a client amps up the geek factor. 🙂

Akount “revision 10″ released

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

I released “revision 10” of my personal finance web application moments ago. This release provides a visible indication if a transaction is a future transaction. Future transactions have a gray background and are in italics. I also added a confirm dialog before deleting a transaction. (I accidentally deleted a transaction the other day. This wasn’t a problem before, but with the recent feature enhancement to allow transaction to be duplicated, there is now a link to duplicate a transaction right next to the link to delete a transaction. I accidentally clicked the delete instead of the duplicate link. Oops. This is now fixed.)

Akount “revision 8″ released

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

“Revision 8” of my personal finance application “akount” has been released.

This new release includes enhancements to the login process. The login process has for a while supported username and password authentication or OpenID authentication. The login form showed both forms for username/password authentication and OpenID authentication. Now, only one or the other forms is shown and you can toggle between the two forms. Once you successfully authenticate, a cookie is set to remember the type of authentication that you used. Then, the next time you access the application and have to log in, the form displayed will be the one that you last used.

The code was also cleaned up a bit, consolidating the username/password and OpenID authentication into one PHP controller. (I have tried to use a model-view-controller (MVC) pattern in developing akount.)

Akount “revision 7″ released

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

“Revision 7” of akount has been released. (Productive evening–6 and 7 in one night.) In this update, transactions in the account transactions view can now be duplicated (copied). There is a “Duplicate” link that will open the “add transaction” view with the “Date” set to the current date and the “Description”, “Amount”, “Tag”, and “Transfer” duplicated from the original transaction. This feature will hopefully be helpful for entering recurring transactions that happen each month.

Akount “revision 6” released

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

I just released “revision 6” of akount, my personal financial management web application that is in “limited beta”. (Okay, very limited beta. I am the only user. 🙂 )

This release added support for a user to configure how many “items per page” are displayed on the account transaction pages. Prior to this, the number of transactions shown per page was 10. Now a user can choose between 1 and 99 items per page in the “My Info” page available from the account summary page.

Project: virtlcd 1.0.0 released

Monday, March 10th, 2008

virtlcd logoVersion 1.0.0 of virtlcd has been released. This is the first virson of the Java Swing API. The components provide a virtual LCD display for use within a Swing app. A sample swing application which illustrates how to use the API. (The logo itself, “virtlcd”, there in the upper right, is an example of the display.)