Come-on Apple!

April 9th, 2010

I can’t believe Apple’s new developer agreement. It is draconian. When people complain about Microsoft practices of stomping competition, or fear that with Google’s size they are losing their “Don’t be evil” matra, they need to take a look at this new agreement.

Health care protester – seriously?

March 25th, 2010

The health care protester has been identified at Chris Reichert. Watch the video here. Never mind what political party he belongs to, he’s just wrong. I’m guessing he also thinks of himself as a very religious person. Come on, seriously, is this how adults act?

iPhone apps with Flash

February 24th, 2010

Looking forward to the official CS5 release!

January 5K

February 3rd, 2010

I made the first 5K in 2010, barely. I ran the Frigid 5K, sponsored by the Columbus Running Company on the 30th. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I have to say it was cold, 19 degrees at the start of the race. I did manage to finish before the guy with one lung and asthma!
  

Mobile applications for 2012

November 18th, 2009

Gartner’s take on the top 10 mobile applications for 2012. How many of these do you already use?

MySQL Backup

February 8th, 2009

I needed a PHP script that would backup a MySQL database and email the copy to a specified email address. I found parts of the script below on the we and added them together along with some
of my PHP code. This script will backup all tables in a single database, using mysqldump, zip the resulting file and email the zip file as an attachment to a specified email address.

To use this script, download the file, change the .txt extension to .php and change the parameters at the top of the file. You can run the script interactively or setup a cron job or a Windows Scheduled Task.

[The requested file http://threegerbers.com/examples/mysqlbackup.txt could not be found]

Flex Forms and PHP

January 19th, 2009

Does anyone really like HTML forms? Seriously, just say no to HTML forms! Most of the IDEs and server-side technologies give you some visual tools to handle html form creation and validation but these tools lock you into specific technology and still leave the problem of cross-browser formatting up to the developer. After looking at Flex it seems like a potential answer to the cross-browser formatting problem and supports using whatever server-side technology you desire.

Here’s a quick sample to show you want can be done. The MXML source for a form is below. The form includes simple validation and will post to a web server that is running PHP. The post variables are echoed back to the Flex form.

How to deploy this example

1. Download SampleForm.mxml, edit the url in the httpservice to point to your web server and build the Flex project.
2. Download Form.txt, rename Form.txt to Form.php and move it to your web server
3. Preview the Flex form!

Flex MXML File

[The requested file http://threegerbers.com/examples/SampleForm.mxml could not be found]

PHP file to handle the response

[The requested file http://threegerbers.com/examples/form.txt could not be found]

What to do in 2009

January 2nd, 2009

News Years Eve we were talking over dinner with some friends about resolutions for 2009. My wife, while proud of my success with my 2008 resolution of running a 5K each month for charity, pointed out that this really wasn’t a resolution but more of a goal. I did challenge her “resolution”. Her resolution is to waste less. While I think this is a noble resolution I argued that measuring the success of this “resolution” is very subjective. It’s just my personality, things have to be measurable to determine if there is success or failure. There are numerous quotes from Caddyshack, Office Space or Talladega Nights to support my argument. Needless to say I lost the argument. That said, my goal (notice this is not a resolution) for 2009 is more conservative than 2008. I plan on running the Cap City Half Marathon in May. I’m planning on posting a running calendar and if things go well I might extend the “goal” to include the Columbus Marathon.

Only someone with a PhD

December 30th, 2008

Researchers in the U.S., Switzerland and the Netherlands use a cluster of Playstation 3s to hack web site certificates. Seriously, that’s what a group of PhD’s do when they get their hands on 200 Playstation 3s? Check out the story at http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/berlin.html.

Jingle Bell 5K

December 7th, 2008
December 5K December’s 5K was for the Arthritis Foundation. The 5K was held in dowtown Columbus. It was really cold, about 23 degrees at race time. It was a lot of fun, probably about 4000 runners. There were a few runners in full Santa costumes, as well as lots of reindeer anglers and Santa hats. What a great way to kickoff the holidays and finish my year of 5Ks. Now I need to come up with something for 2009.