Long time no blog - I’ve been hugely busy as there was a competition to write an app for a new hand held thingy - I guess they see it as an iphone competitor so they want lots of Apps as selling point. How to get lots of Apps, cheaply and quickly ? Offer us daft muggins-iz a prize if we write one - sorry guys it was a closed competition otherwise I’d have invited you all in.

As this was on my time but I could use a bit of “slack” (joke) work time I’ve been up to my eyes day & night. It’s a shame that has left me too busy to write up what I’ve been doing because it has been quite interesting.

Most of the app is in Java Script which I have done a couple of dozen lines of before. Google for Java Script advice is like asking an Eskimo about snow - you get lots and lots but none of it simple enough to understand. It was quite fun really because it took me back to the bad old days.

To start with I don’t know the language, there isn’t any auto complete which I have got used to on stuff I don’t know - type class.m and MS Visual Studio C++ (or in VB / VBA) it will suggest all the methods starting “m” for that class, and show the parameter types - which helps if you are guessing what methods there might be. Also an F12 will take you to a class definition where you can read what methods there are - with maybe a comment about what they do!

Given I don’t know the language a bit of syntax checking could help - “error line 10 class doesn’t have that method” etc. Oh no, I’m back to type it, run it and if it doesn’t like it you get a blank browser! My tactic was to comment off lines until the error went away and then figure out what was wrong. Actually it was worse than that because with some errors the code would run up to that line and then skip out of the method - leaving bits of code un-executed but not telling you which ones!

Finally debugging - no debugger. Well not without installing a load of junk I didn’t want. So no break points, no examining variables, no tracing through executing code. I’ve worked that way before, you need a lot of patience and output debug strings. No out put debug strings - not without installing a load of junk I didn’t want. I ended up using an on screen text box to display debug messages.

Still, it all worked (by hook, crook or bodge) and is submitted so now I’ve got time to blog (between catching up on work and life) but not such interesting things to blog about!

I’ve been told that hackers can redirect a tab that has been left open so that although you navigate to a valid page, if you then switch tabs for a while and then go back and enter (say) your bank details the page is no longer the valid one and you’ve been scammed.

Sounds a bit far fetched but I haven’t seen any “it’s a hoax” information either - not on here or on snopes which is my usual first port of call when “I don’t believe it!”

Do your own search or check out http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2010/06/10/tab-napping-the-new-kind-of-phishing/

I am horrified at the money people spend on weddings. Call me an old Scrooge if you will but it seems such a waste, and more importantly such a pressure on newly marrieds. Sex, money and relatives are supposed to be major topics for dispute in a marriage and a “big” wedding certainly covers two of those (”money” and “relatives” or you are doing something wrong).

I get spammed by lovemoney and it is a worrying thought that I actually responded to some of their spam - I clicked a link in an email, they’ll know it’s me and send more & more

However, a blog on how to have cheap but lovely wedding seemed a good idea.

http://www.lovemoney.com/blog/mybigfatfrugalwedding/how-to-have-a-cheap-but-lovely-wedding-3191.aspx?source=1000461