Iย moved all my documentation to Google docs, for backup purpose.
Yahoo shut down briefcase so the only place to make backup is Yahoo mail, I will do it later.
Apr 122009
Apr 112009
I got a sample from Windows SDK that uses DirectShow to capture video from webcam, it works for now but I’m still reading, just need to know how much it can fit into my PPCam project.
The problem is, I need to make the C program works for me to capture video and put an extra filter to grab data and send to the other end, and after that I need to convert the program from C to Ada. Or, I should start from the sample provided by the SDK and convert it to Ada, then see how to get the extra filter.
I just made the decision to go with the #2 option, it will make more activities in PPCam project, and would let me think more in Ada way.
By the way, I got all my useful search results from Yahoo, it seems to me Yahoo is not that far away from Google in web search, guess we can slowly get market share back.
Apr 102009
I changed robots.txt and start allow spider/crawler/robot crawling my blog.
I disabled it whenever I first setup this blog, as this is a paid service with quota, and I don’t want to overspend or get my service suspended in mid-month. After 2 or 3 months run godaddy shows that every month I’m utilizing less than 200M bandwidth while quota is 1,500G so I guess I can allow search engine index my blogs.
I don’t know how much use information I have here, in another blog I no longer update (actually it is shutdown already) I have something useful for setting up a Linux box, as I use blog as my notepad. Since I now longer running my own Linux (not 100% true, but none of my Linux boxes are publicly accessible), so I won’t do too much sysadm stuffs.
Let’s see if I can make my blog a Ada + Windows resource center, it’s nice to help others.
Apr 102009
Reading everything I have for DirectShow and Ada, hundreds pages, enough for killing time during the weekend.
There is not much to do during the weekend other than yard work (need to plant some new flowers) and reading, but once I have time I want to re-think about the project I’m currently working on. There are way to many uncertain parts in the system, from functional requirements to technical support, and people are becoming uncertain as well. Also, I need to spend time reading related docs if I do want to make those functional/technical details clear, so again it is about reading.
I’m not good at reading for all the time, people tend to agree I’m good at troubleshooting, especially with partial information. However, I’m losing that ability now (or actually I’m trying to hide?), so I’d better learn something new to keep my job.
Let’s start reading. ๐
Apr 102009
We will move back to 3rd floor next week, the new cube plan is pretty open that almost everybody can see what you are doing, so I picked the cube closest to the hallway, at least I won’t bother others whenever I’m in and out.
The biggest change is no privacy at all, good to the company as everybody has to at least pretend working on business. There are something I can no longer do after moving back, include:
- Long talking to personal friends
- Play with Ada, Ubuntu, or any other non-work related technology
- Surfing … actually I didn’t do lot
I’m going to leave non-urgent stuffs to home hours, if there is anything I have to deal immediately, I will find a conference room and get my privacy from there.
Last time I sit right beside hallway is 5 years ago, in 3 months I left the company, let’s see how long I can survive this time. ๐
Apr 092009
Seriously, I’m thinking about using DirectShow instead ov VFW to capture video, I know DirectShow will be much more difficult than VFW, but it’s modern technology from Microsoft and it was said it has more features, who knows if I need some of those features or not.
I found a DirectShow book a while back but never had time read it through, it was named as the best DirectShow book so I think I’d better spend some time on that, even just pick some pages so to get basic idea of how things are going.
I need to be prepared for potential losing job, it is no longer impossible now, so I’d better know more than less, anything seems to be useless could be pretty useful in the future.
I should learn some Java stuffs, I know ๐ .
Apr 092009
It’s raining, really weird thing of it is April already, but it does not I don’t like it, actually I like all sorts of rainy days.
Traffic is an other story – after leaving office for an hour, I’m still crawling on Mission Blv. I don’t know how bad 680 is now, just wish I can get home before 8.
Apr 092009
My daughter’s school is having music show today, and their misuc teacher told parents there are more than 20 languages being spoken in just 1st garde.
Hard to believe it, this is what I was thinking by the first time I heard about it. I know kids there can speek Chinese, Japanese, German, Russian, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, maybe there are 3 or 4 different Indian languages (I don’t think there are all 20+ Indian language speakers there), so there must be somethings else I never heard of.
I will try to dig out what they are, I guess some of them are European languages, as to me almost all European people have the same accent (other than British).
Apr 072009
I was trying to figure out how to load a file from the path where the executable stays, the first thing came to my mind is using Win32’s GetCommandLine, and then do GetFullPathName. It seems ideal in C/C++ world but obviously things don’t work quite well in Ada, especially delimiter changed from / to and then changed back, I have no idea what does Ada’s run-time library is doing.
Then I found Ada has this package – Ada.Directories, it is actually what I want. Using GetCommandLine to get the executable’s full path name, and use Ada.Directories.Containing_Directory to get the directory, all set.
This got me recall similar things in C/UNIX, though UNIX API can do whatever I want, it is usually convenience to use C functions as it fit the language well. Things are getting worse with Ada on Windows, since we all know Windows was not developed by Ada …
BTW, Ada’s identifier is really long, and actually this is the style I’m trying to follow.
Apr 072009
I’m watching a stupid movie – a detective always lost his memory after he got up in the morning, then whole crap happened.
I cannot stop laughing while watching him jump into a lecture, while everybody believe he’s the expert who’s going to do the presentation, while he has no idea about what’s that for. However, he managed to catch up the slide show quickly (did he?), telling some non-sense to audience, and mde it a, sort of, perfect presentation.
I always want to be that smart. ๐