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Are you a great problem solver?

Then you should try your skills at Code Jam 2009

It's all about solving problems so knowing the latest development fads will not help you. You can access last years tasks in the practice section to get a feel for the problems you will have to solve. You can use any programming language, development environment or text editor as long as the compiler or interpreter you use is freely available and easy to download and use. Visual Studio can be used as there is a free version available: Visual Studio Express.

The top 25 online contestants will travel to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California where they will will compete for ACRush's title of Code Jam Champion and the grand prize of $5,000.

Registration ends September 3rd so register now.

Good luck!

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How to fix The address is not valid error in Internet Explorer 7

I hardly ever user Internet Explorer so I don't know when it broke, but today it gave me this error for all sites:

The address is not valid

Most likely causes:

• There might be a typing error in the address.


• If you clicked on a link, it may be out of date.

Looks like one of the latest set of security patches messed up something as the problem went away after I reset the browser settings:

• Go to the Tools menu


• Choose “Internet Options“


• Click on the “Advanced“ tab


• Click the “Reset“ button


• Close the browser

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Make sure you subscribe to the Chrome dev channel

You can get a preview of the next version of Google Chrome  by enabling the developer preview channel. It is not for the faint of hart so only do this if you have time to waste or like to be on the cutting edge:

The Dev channel is where ideas get tested (and sometimes fail). The Dev channel can be very unstable at times, and new features usually require some manual configuration to be enabled. Still, simply using Dev channel releases is an easy (practically zero-effort) way for anyone to help improve Google Chrome.

The latest build picks up a lot of fixes from Web Kit so you will notice increased compatability and several new features like user scripts.

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Trouble....

Trust me. You do not want this message flashing on your TV when you transfer old camcorder videos of your kids to a DVD Recorder:

It will be a pain to edit the pieces together, but I hope I got most of the tape starting/stopping/rewinding a few times. At least I hope so or I'm in trouble...

 

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The last barrier to developing for Android is gone

Developing with emulators is “fine” but you have no idea how it works on the final device. Which is why I usually make builds for the real device as soon as possible to verify that what I am trying to do is feasible on the real device.

So I'm thrilled to see that Google has launched a $399 Android Dev Phone that is not locked to any provider:

The Android Dev Phone 1 is a SIM-unlocked and hardware-unlocked device that is designed for advanced developers. The device ships with a system image that is fully compatible with Android 1.0, so you can rely on it when developing your applications. You can use any SIM in the device and can flash custom Android builds that will work with the unlocked bootloader. Unlike the bootloader on retail devices, the bootloader on the Android Dev Phone 1 does not enforce signed system images. The Android Dev Phone 1 should also appeal to developers who live outside of T-Mobile geographies.

I got an Apple iPhone 3G this summer but this is pretty tempting as I haven't done much device coding after I changed jobs last year. I have got several requests for improving my Windows Mobile apps but I'm still evaluating my options; make cross device web apps (iPhone, Android, Win Mobile), buy a (very) expensive Mac, buy a expensive Visual Studio license or go for the free and open source Android. I had loads of fun, and I have learned a lot, developing the apps but at the moment they are frozen as I don't use my Windows Mobile device anymore.

I firmly believe that web apps (with syncronization in some cases) are the way to go but they are not very well suited for the apps I have developed for Windows Mobile so far (password manager, gmail notifier with Today Screen support). Android has a very interesting model for extending built in features so that may be the way to go (if Santa gets me a Android Dev Phone :-)

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Finally solar powered!

It took longer than planned, but we finally made it:

 

“The Plant“ is finally live, producing 9 kWh on a short day like today. I cannot wait to see how much it produces during a typical Italian summer day.

It may not look like much but it should be enough to cover our energy needs based on the data from last year.

Installed with the fantastic support of the local Lega Ambiente di Limbiate and the 0 tax loan from http://www.bccbarlassina.it/

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A Guinness World Record holder at dancing???

We set the new Guinness World record for sirtaki dancing last month. Cool Or What?

I'm notoriously bad at dancing but we managed to break the record in the single attempt we had. The most challenging and surprisingly fun and satisfying team building I've done.