The absolute best for consumers is AVG in my humble opinion and limited experience, but for developers with root access to your phone it causes too many flags to be thrown.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.antivirus&feature=search_result
For most users they will find Lookout Mobile Security easier to use with less configuration
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout&feature=search_result
Found the drivers for my Sanyo Zio - SCP-8600 enabling me to use the debug configuration to deploy to my phone in a very hypothetical sense.
http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/support/phone_drivers.htm
Here’s the kicker, a completely unsigned driver that gets a bunch of security prompts when installing on Windows 7…simply unprofessional IMO. Anyways, if you want to deploy to the phone you’re going to need the drivers!
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 11 Review Notes
There’s always a few built-in dialogs to any platform and Android Development is no different. I’ll be working with the DatePickerDialog and exploring others (reading about) and then learn to build my own custom dialog. This looks like a fairly short chapter, so I’ll track how long it takes to complete.
Below is the generic implementation of the DatePickerDialog with the current date set as the default.
Time dateOfBirth = new Time();
dateOfBirth.set(dayOfMonth, monthOfYear, year);
Completion time for this chapter/hour: ~50 minutes
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 10 Review Notes
Collecting data with forms!! In this hour the following controls are introduced: EditText, Button and Spinner. The saving of the form data will be with SharedPreferences!!
First new thing was the Arrays.xml as a values resource. Didn’t know this was possible, and the syntax looks like this in the file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string-array
name="genders">
<item>@string/gender_neutral</item>
<item>@string/gender_male</item>
<item>@string/gender_female</item>
</string-array>
</resources>
The setting screen is complete, and yes, that is a little bit of a different emulator than previous screen shots. I’m learning to view in other AVDs, though I haven’t been able to connect via USB and deploy to my Zio… http://www.ebay.com/itm/120822080982?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
Watch a video on Developing Android Applications!!
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 9 Part B Review Notes
Took a forced break (issues at work side tracked all my home and family time as well as learning time) and now I have finally caught up and able to do a couple things I would like to do on the weekend.
This hour focuses on the TabHost control including the layout and population of controls on each tabs.
There was some wire up type code for each of the tabs that was a bit confusing but manageable. Surprised that the default tab had to be *configured*.
In most of my web applications XML objects are among some of the lightest weight options for loading date, while database objects are weightier. In Android programming a 10k XML doc creates some screen flicker!
This completes Hour 9’s review notes!!
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 8 Review Notes
This hour is all about main menu that users will see after the splash screen.
The layout was a bit tricker on this screen and the book, just didn’t give it you, there was some work involved.
The screen looks cheesy but I sure learned a lot about how to place controls and the ListView control. I still need to research that one as I’m unclear about most of its nuances.
Hour 8 is complete!!!
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 7 Review Notes
Splash screen up next
There was even a bit of code to do simple animations, like the Been There fades in.
All the animations presented in this hour/chapter are programmatic in nature with no GUI designer.
I would like to have explored the Tweening animations
Overall a quick intro but I left the hour lacking the ability to do anything real… the other Hours I didn’t feel that way. Overall I’ll explore this more on my own.
Examples were a little harder to follow as the Hours progress in difficulty this would be what I expect.
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 6 Review Notes
Promising hour (or chapter depending on how you view the book) going to create an Android Trivia Game, but first a moment from my sponsor – LUNCH!! brb
I’m up to page 117 and got the prototype built consisting of screens, not much on them but the framework of an application is there based on the game of ‘Been There, Done That!’
Wrote some *real* code for the final exercise.
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Date date = new Date();
String currentDate = dateFormat.format(date);
SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences(GAME_PREFERENCES,
MODE_PRIVATE);
Log.i(TAG,"Last Launched QuizSplashActivity:
" + settings.getString("lastLaunch", currentDate) );
SharedPreferences.Editor prefEditor = settings.edit();
prefEditor.putString("lastLaunch",
currentDate);
prefEditor.commit();
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 5 Review Notes
Hour 5 is “Configuring the Android Manifest File” Does programming euphoria start in this hour?
If the ADT plug-in creates most of the important configuration settings, why would you ever use anything else??
Not euphoria, but configuration memorization begins in the AndroidManifest.xml file.
Setting the min version of SDK <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="10" />
And you have to set the Debuggable attribute to true, but don’t forget to set to false when going to production!
Got bogged down on the first example… had two activities in the Application Nodes of the manifest file.
Made it past the permissions issues… http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html
Hour 5 done, but it took about 1 hour 25 min… mostly my own misdirections… including a @shanselman conversation on twitter.
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 4 Review Notes
This hour is about Managing Application Resources… first thought is graphics and files.
Darcey and Conder are lumping Strings, colors and layout files as resources… I’m down with that.
Huh? Resource filenames must be lowercase and no dashes… thought that died with the fax machine. Grrrr we still have those in the insurance department. Welcome, your time travel experience starts with a visit to 1994.
Good muggle-esque quote: “Displaying an application correctly on a handset, rather than the Eclipse layout editor, should always be a developer’s primary objective.”
Creating a bunch of .xml resource files in the exercises…not glamorous, but essential
Final exercise was to place an image into the layout… used one of my blacksmith and anvil shots from my Mount Vernon trip a few months ago.
Hour 4 took about 1:10 to complete cause I got lost in tweeting about the experience and playing with more properties than listed in the book!
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 3 Review Notes
Hour 3 is tantalizingly titled “Building Android Applications” and I’m going to stay up past midnight in order to complete it.
No coding during this hour but lots of discussion… like the link on intents http://www.openintents.org/en/
WRONG there is coding but it’s in the exercise section on the last page of the hour. Some custom logging that illustrated when some events fired… I played with an phone call interruption to see when create, start, stop, resume, pause and destroy.
Got them to all fire according to the text book, and Hour 3 is complete in about 25 minutes… Hour 4 will have to wait until tomorrow!!
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 2 Review Notes
Hour 2 is all about tools and getting acquainted with what’s at your disposal and how to use. You might think this to be really cool, and I’m sure it is to someone, but the content is weak here just a few things to do.
Learned that CTRL + F11 and CTRL + F12 change orientation of a running emulator. Alt + Enter goes to full screen mode and even causes my second monitor to flash black for a second.
Something funny about seeing my blog site on the phone emulator… chalk it up to geek humor.
Did find a listing of more tools…http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/index.html
One cool exercise to change your photo in an AVD
And now I’m done with Hour 2 in about 38 minutes.
Here’s the skivvy on the review. Since, I made the commitment to read this Droid book, I’m going to provide review notes for each hour of the book immediately after I complete that section of the book. In theory you’ll see 24 separate posts over the next few days containing my personal notes on my experience with the book.
Hour 1 Review Notes
I already had the Android SDK installed and Eclipse, though my version is a couple new than used in the first example so I went to the SDK Manager and downloaded the 2.3.3 API Level 10 version in a blind attempt to minimize compatibility issues. I have no idea if this will reap dividends.
The authors mention API level 9 and you aren’t going to see it in the latest versions of the SDK
Project setup covered and a quick explanation of the different project files and page 16 is complete!
Like the breakdown of the AndroidManifest.xml file in both tabbed UI implementation and the XML… BTW the print copy of this book is in COLOR that matches my default text colors in Eclipse
The first *real* change in the application is to set up debugging… +1 for early debug recognition
Next up the Hello World app, and the dreaded create a new AVD and wait and wait and wait before it even launches for use. Not sure how much time my future self will spend staring at this screen!
According to the clock on my machine it takes 1 min 21 sec to get from zero to the application running
In reviewing the questions and answers at the end of the book, the workshop and the Exercises I found them to be the most time occupying and ended up spending about 45 minutes on Hour 1 of the book.
“What are you going to do this weekend?” Hanging out with the family, and reviewing a book makes the perfect getaway!
Generally my expectations are low of the “learn in 24 hours” series, so the only way to move on the Reynolds’ expectation scale is UP!
Check back on Monday and see if I made I lived through my 24 hours…
While scouring the blogosphere I ended up at this page showing a relatively easy configuration for attaching your Kindle Fire to ADB for Android Development!!
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/sdk/Connecting_your_Kindle_Fire_to_ADB.pdf
Quick side note: Since I’m writing mainly about Android I added the tag to my posts instead of the ubiquitous “Java” tag…at least I didn’t file ‘em all under '”internet”
This evening I explored a variety of emulators. So far the fastest (hey, 2.2 –API 8 flavor) to load and develop from is the Galaxy Tab from Samsung, though I haven’t loaded the latest HTC’s
If Tab is your style then add the following URL under Tools | Manage Add-on Sites
http://innovator.samsungmobile.com/android/repository/srepository.xml
Go to Packages and hit the Reload option and you’ll see the add on in the location in the screen shot below…
Create your new Galaxy Tab in the AVD (select the new Target type that was added in the previous step)
And you should get your new emulator looking like this!!
Not sure why I can only get an emulator to run for a couple days before I have to kill it in AVD manager and create a new one. As soon as I blow it away I’m able to create a new one that will last a few days, but after that it’s toast!
Trying to map it to an action that I’m doing but all the emulators are really slow… on my 64 bit Windows machine.
There I was, just a codin’ my classes away and then that nasty LogCat had to display that “FATAL EXCEPTION: main”
I’m missing some basic setup code (probably just a line or two), and until I find that line I won’t see a darn thing in my emulator!! Another likely candidate for my error is the switching between different layout modes… I was trying to get a label somewhere on the screen besides underneath it’s predecessor.
I’m not too far from my first app, now I just need a device to run it on!!
CNET provides the first option, but it’s hardly a developer podcast though the focus on new devices and latest features is relevant
http://www.cnet.com/android-atlas/
Android weekly is nice and short (under 5 minutes): http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/android-weekly/id424035710
And MOTODEV weekly is another Android podcast with a development flair. To be brutally honest I can’t listen to podcasts where the host has more filler words than [ummm uuh] content and Frenchmen who name drop past clients in hopes of building credibility.
Listen to the first two and completely ignore the last one!!
First step is to make a single icon according the best practices document that Google has published @ http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design_launcher.html
Then select from the main menu File | New | Other and you will be taken to this wizard. We’ll be creating an Android Icon Set
We are creating a Launcher Icon. That’s the top option and already selected for us. The default name for the Icon Name is ic_launcher. Keep this name if you’d like to overlay the current icons out there that all application utilize today.
The SDK will attempt to help you create your icons in text mode. I already had mine created and switched the foreground button to image and provided the path to my custom designed icon.
Using the default name does bring up a ‘File Already Exists’ prompt. Clicking ‘Yes to All’ will get you 4 images for different pixel density displays created and your icon set will be switched out to your custom logo.
My Temperature Converter application just got a Launcher Icon upgrade!!
Just a few days go I was learning the very basics of Android application development. Now, I’m moving into some UI design, in particular the Launcher Icon.
Looks like I’ll be creating a high density icon for the market place so I’ll be going 864x864 at 320dpi!
Google leads in documentation and has a good read on the subject: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design.html#design-tips They even offer out templates for designers in PSD format for all of us Photoshoppers out there! Android Icon Templates Pack, v4.0 »
Also, I was asked by readers, what kind of phone do I have… sorry peeps I don’t have an Android phone, I’m building for the Kindle!!
P.S. I got to upgrade to a newer version of PhotoShop!!
Ok, I finally waited long enough for the emulator to boot up and got my application running (the C to F temperature converter), but it seems like the AVDs (Android Virtual Devices) aren’t very stable. Like each time I stop debugging I have to create a new one. Is this some kind of conspiracy against 64bit windows or me just missing the most basic of steps?
Tomorrow, I’m going to look at packaging my application with my own graphics instead of the standard package ones! Check back on this blog to find out how it goes!
Yes, for the first time I experienced my Eclipse development environment crash. It wasn’t very graceful as the entire screen was locked and had a white transparent background over it and finally spewed forth the following error message:
I’m guessing that to some rocket science geek this means something, but to me it’s just one more impediment to Android application development!
Wow, it took a few hours but I know have an emulator working and my first sample application
is now running. BTW is this Java thing supposed to be hard? 
Took a little more of a manual install than Visual Studio, and what should I expect since I’m sure this will run on any computer ever made… probably going to be some steps that just can’t be automated??
As a long time Microsoft Developer, I’ve dabbled in Java/Websphere development but only at work and nothing too complicated (think connecting and writing web services). Now all of a sudden I want to write Android apps and I installed on my machine at home. The world may never be the same!
Hey, I submitted myself, so why shouldn’t it have got listed.
http://www.readablog.com/feed47485.aspx
Not often do I get excited about template sites, but I’ve found one I can use. Best of all it’s free! Not even required is a link back to the site… completely free with no strings is the best way to describe.
http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/
Enjoy!
Today’s tidbit isn’t about software development but more a reminder and a plug. Often times I see stuff (my wife would say junk) laying around the house that has no real purpose or has outlived its’ usefulness. Why wouldn’t you sell those items on Ebay?
Get rid of the clutter and make a buck or two! Here’s the latest from our household to go up for auction! 21 different Bob the Builder DVDs in 5 separate auctions.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320487991571&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320487992839&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320487993391&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320487993973&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320487994546&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
Hard to believe I’ve been an Ebayer since 1999!
That’s the question I’m trying to find out the answer to, tonight! I submitted PhotoConstrux.com as I update that blog much more frequently than this one. Also, I have more detailed tracking tools like Google Adsense and Analytics than just logs. I doubt that my traffic will increase significantly, but each little step helps, right?
The top ways to drive traffic to your photography website are all time and relationship intensive. The first issue you have to cross before you can even consider driving traffic to your website is “will your users ever come back?” Without good content few will return, but that’s obvious so lets just skip that topic for another time. Here’s three ways to drive traffic to your photography website.
1. Develop a great working relationship with a famous photographer. If he mentions your work on his website, you have the potential to get thousands of hits in a single day from just one link. Overall, this is a short term solution. A single mention from David Hobby will change your life.
2. Use Flickr.com and get involved within the photography community. People love to see your work. In fact if you’ve read this far look at my photostream! Create links to your website from within the descriptions of your posted photos.
3. If you’re not blogging about your experiences, then you’re not contributing to the photography community around you. Being grateful and helping others brings good kharma… try it.
I’d love to hear about other’s experiences in this arena.
Some sites sell things and others educate you, this site does both. The Sunbounce web site sells some awesome equipment at fantasticly high prices, cause it’s worth every penny. Most of the web sites I review I do have some sort of relationship, either I’m an affiliate, I know the owner, or I just like site. This is one of those sites that I wish I knew the owner or was affiliated in someway, because the videos they make using their product and the end results that they do post are simply amazing. The site is geared towards learning and as you see the product in use in numerous videos (over 100+) your desire to recreate what your seeing grows to the point that you feel the need to buy a sun-bounce product.
URL: http://www.sunbounce.com/cms/index.php?id=1143&L=1
Summary: The web site looks like it’s outgrown it’s current design as the ad and video links are haphazardly thrown on the home page. Font sizes jump in point size throughout the web site indicating that more attention should be devoted to stylesheets. Localization of the web site is not complete, meaning that the site is primarily a European web site and the English version appears to have many translation issues, though none to distract from content. As an international user I expect more.
Pros:
Cons:
Hosting a web site is always a challenging event. First, the client must consider how fast they are going to grow versus how much they are willing to spend for the service among a variety of other technical decisions. What I like about FullControl.net’s web site is they are very clear about the services they offer. On the front page you will quickly see they are tech driven company for techies. If you don’t know what server specs you need then you will quickly bounce from this web site to one less technical in nature. After all if you don’t know if you need 1000GB of Monthly Bandwidth, you really shouldn’t be purchasing it!
Summary: Every web site I have reviewed so far and every will, I have some association with and FullControl.net is no exception. I have hosted a server with them for over 4 years now, with absolutely no issues. And their simplistic web site with just the details absolutely works for me. The web site looks very portal-ish. There are small sections dedicated to to each of the services they offer and navigation is straight forward. Every time I forget the phone number I look right on the front page and a real life person answers the phone and directs my call exactly how I would like it.
Pros
Cons
Some sites grab you as rip offs and some just seem like rip offs until you open up the hood and do a real close inspection. The software developer in me has a real hard time condoning web sites that are a proponent of allowing programs to create your website, however; the business side of me slaps me across the face and says Lisa is offering advice for free, so why in the world wouldn’t you take it? What really had me is Lisa’s video’s. She speaks from experience and is genuinely sincere, and her advice is rock solid. Not many people who are proponents of making money on the internet discourage people from their techniques, but Lisa tells future web entrepreneurs that there is no get rich quick scheme and that you should expect to work 10-12 hour days. All of the content on the 2CreateAWebSite blog appears to be sponsored by other companies or are distributed for free by Lisa, which in my book goes a long way towards credibility. While I’m not rushing out to become an affiliate of SBI! (Site Build It!) I will continue to read and listen to Lisa Irby’s advice.
Summary: This post won’t make you rich. Wealth doesn’t just fall into your lap, good hard work sure does help. And let’s face it even if Great Aunt Matilda leaves you a fortune in her will you still have to work at being nice and not ticking her off. Lisa’s reference to BAM (Brains and Motivation) as an essential element for success is right in line with my value system.
URL: http://blog.2createawebsite.com/
Pros
Cons
This review is about a web site that I wish some of my relatives read before they called the computer guru up and asked if what they were reading is for real. Let’s face facts not everything on the internet is real and it will never be that way. So before you become known around the office as an utterly naive internet addict whose sole purpose is to perpetuate urban legends please, check out Snopes. At the very least Snopes identifies common emails that are just plain bogus and in some cases can help guide you from making a costly mistake, and hopefully prevent you from looking like a goober, too.
Summary: Snopes has a lengthy history of exposing internet falsehoods and ending debates of *is that email real*. Through the years the only purpose of the site is to gain readership through stories and capitalize on advertising dollars. Snopes has several useful features including a top 25 list, a newsletter and message board. Snopes web design does contain some marketing tricks including exchanging the header of the web site with adds, occasionally using Google Ads in the left navigation and inconsistent page layout. Long story short if Snopes wants to move up, invest in page design as they have already mastered content accumulation.
Favorite Urban Legend…Tainted Baby Carrots
Pros:
Cons:
No, this web site isn’t full of computer glitches instead this web site sells real, live bugs! That’s right they sell insects and if you really want to make a 7 year old boy happy you’ll buy him bugs like the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, Pray Mantis, or Earthworm cocoons.
The problem with this site is that Mom won’t approve any purchases… that’s right not a single one. Though I’d bet Carter Hayes of Pacific Heights wished he could have bought insects to drive out other tenants from Insect Lore.
URL: http://insectlore.stores.yahoo.net/index.html
Summary: This web site appears a bit outdated in the design department like a circa 1997 HTML book hack, but due to the nature of Insect Lore’s business the site works for me. I’m not going to give at an A or a B but in the end it works, which is all that’s necessary to survive in the web world. The descriptions of each product and how to order are very informative and cross selling is very good and not overly aggressive. Disclaimer: I have not ordered from Insect Lore so I cannot recommend their services, but recognize the company does use a Yahoo storefront which does give them a little more credibility than the crackpot that’s writing this post!
Pros:
Cons:
This is day two in my week long experiment to review seven web sites in hopes of developing a matrix to further evaluate web sites. If you missed my first post, it was about Project Gutenburg. Today’s web site for review is under the direction of the Bureau of Land Management and is the repository for the General Land Office Records for many states. The link is below:
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
Summary: Once in awhile you find a site that you just type in random names to see what pulls up. This is exactly the kind of web site you can spend hours plugging in your great grandparents names and get information about where they lived and in some cases how much they paid for their land. My first impression is that this is a very clean site, though I’m not sure how the row of landscape pictures across the top serves a purpose for the overall User Interface design and therefore recommend it’s removal and the site would look a step up in the realm of presentation. After using the site for a over 100 searches of my ancestral home lands, I was impressed by the performance of the site and its ease of use, which is obviously a goal the developers placed high on the requirements list.
For example my Great Grandfather Charley F Reynolds lived in Arkansas I found in less than a minute and I even spelled his first name incorrectly. The document that was provided listed the legal land description. Some one with a little more skill than I have acquired to date, might be able to determine the exact location where Charley lived, unfortunately I’ll just use the City, State and County information to do more genealogical research. One final recommendation for change… in addition to legal land descriptions, integrate with either Bing Maps or Google Maps and show your users exactly where the land is located.
Pros:
Cons:
I’ve decided to do a short experiment. For the next seven days I will review one web site, afterwards I’ll analyze my reviews for common points and create a matrix which I will use to review more web sites, though I won’t make the promise/commitment of doing one per day after my initial seven.
First up, is Project Guttenburg.
Summary: As far as web sites are concerned, if you fall into the camp that content is king then this web site is right up your alley. With over 28,000 downloadable classic novels and many off the ordinary beat books you can easily get your high class reading material here, for free.
Pros:
Cons:
Searching is my life long mantra. I searched for 25 years for my wife and found perfection. I’ve searched for 2 years for blog software… and I still haven’t found the perfect tool.
The hang up is I want to write my own controls like an image rotator with some domain logic, but I don’t want to write all the features, just this one. So far my best choices are listed below:
and
http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/
I’m a fan, probably too much. My cheeks turn a slight shade of pink when I think how much Stephenie Meyer’s books influence my actions.
If you can’t get enough, too, check out the story called Midnight Sun (Edward’s version of Twilight) at her web site.
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html
I received a phone call tonight asking if I was the Michael Reynolds who was accused of deserting the Army Reserve. No, I'm not being held in the Johnson County jail and my family will be just fine. Thanks for your concern.
http://www.kmbc.com/news/19241295/detail.html
Mike’s fast, very fast. Reader that is. Recently, I read the entire Twilight Saga in 1 week (I even worked overtime :) I subscribe to 40+ blogs and listen to a dozen podcasts. No doubt that I’m living it up in the information age. But all is not blissful, there are still a few topics not in my mainstream reading that I want more of…
No mistake about it, I work for a large company. When you have 20,000 employees there is just so much overlap and finding the one person who knows how to help you is tough.
I wish that my company had a status update like Facebook.com. That way I could see what people are working on and offer my advice if I’ve done something similar. My status would be updated about 20 times a day though, because I’m so attention deficit inattentive to any one thing. I so want to pitch status updating to my management… I need to figure out how to sell it… you know, got to have business value.
Who writes this stuff?
I’m Mike Reynolds, a software developer and avid photographer. I studied Spanish,
Education and Civil Engineering at more universities than any one I know. Yes,
I graduated multiple times! I have taught web and database programming at Intel,
Sprint and AT&T and loved every minute. I manage a small group of software
developers and help as many people achieve their dreams as humanly possible
When/why did you start this blog?
Originally, I launched this blog to rant about technology, but I’m quickly ramping
up on the photography side more than ever. One day I’ll focus my attention on
a single topic, but until then enjoy my randomness.
How much time do you spend blogging?
I spend about 8 hours a week and have tons of fun doing so. Chris, my wife,
loves reading my typos as it makes me look more human.
What Blogger template do you use?
I use DAS Blog, because Scott Hanselman does. He’s my favorite rock star famous
programmer. If he’s smart enough to figure it out, I figured I could, too.
How do I subscribe to your blog?
I make my entire post available over RSS feeds. You can subscribe by clicking here.
Being
an avid photographer and Dad of a Tiger Cub allows me the unique perspective of shooting
anything outdoors and passing it off as educational. The kids and I were at
the Prairie Center Park when I noticed several varieties of Chrysalis among the trees.
The kids found it very amazing that each kind of tree yielded a different kind of
moth, though I’m still not sure what kinds of moth/butterfly is inside each.
Since we are proponents of the Leave
No Trace program the little critters stayed very safe from little hands, but my
next task will be to identify from these pictures what type of insect we are dealing
with. There are three different Chrysalis represented in the accompanying pictures
and any help identifying would be welcome. One step that should probably be
taken is to identify the trees that the different moth/butterfly homes on which the
cocoons were built. In any event if you have ideas to help identify the photos,
please, post in comments.
P.S. You might not know this but in High School I won 1st place in an FFA entomology contest and placed in two state contests. Yep that’s right, I’m the bug guy. Strange, how wildly popular this made me with my classmates. Popular and delusional.