EPOC Emotiv... vale la pena?

Oggi ho avuto l'opportunità di provare EPOC Emotiv e sono molto tentato nel comprare la versione per sviluppatori (costa 500 USD, mentre la versione "normale" la vendono per 299 USD).

Ha un programma di addestramento (che a mio parere si dovrebbe migliorare) attraverso il quale Emotiv associa la tua attività neurale ad ogni azione predeterminata (la lista è lunga!).

Addestrarlo bene è tutt'altro che semplice, soprattutto se è la prima volta che lo provi, perché richiede anzitutto di registrare la tua attività neurale a riposo, il che per me è stato complicato visto che ero emozionatissimo dalla possibilità di provare sta nuova interfaccia!

Poi per ogni azione che registri, idealmente devi pensare solamente a quell'azione, se hai altre cose per la testa... dovrai pensare pure a quelle la prossima volta che vorrai ripetere l'azione!

L'Emotiv non è mio, l'ha comprato un collega, l'ho provato solo per un'oretta ed avrò opportunità di continuare a fare esperimenti una volta tornato in Messico.

In conclusione, non credo sia ancora adatto per l'uso massivo, soprattutto per la difficoltà di addestramento, ma lo consiglierei altamente a chi fosse interessato a programmare qualcosa di nuovo e usarlo con il pensiero (personalmente mi dedicherei a sviluppare un miglior software di addestramento :)

Multiple Dates Picker for jQuery UI

IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm not having much time in these days to finish documenting, but I've released a demo for you: http://multidatespickr.sourceforge.net/
All the documentation will be moved, little by little, to the sourceforge page.

Please consider that I've already done important bug fixes but had no chance to upload anything to sourceforge as my job's IP is banned :s
I'll upload the new version this weekend, so check it out :)

I love jQuery UI because it allows me to quickly create administration interfaces without the hassle of writing code for animations and common widgets.
By the way there are times when I find myself in need for a feature that jQuery UI's widgets don't cover, like -for example- the ability to pick multiple dates using the jQuery UI DatePicker calendar widget.

This time I really needed this functionality and thought that it would be easier to learn how to write a jQuery plug-in to extend DatePicker, instead of adopting another javascript tool.

The result is this multiDatesPicker I made. I spent one day to do it, trying to understand how to develop the plugin using best practices and trying to make it work.

It seems stable now, makes just what I needed it to, and mantains all the datepicker events, methods and options, exception made for the "beforeShowDay" event that had to be sacrified in the name of multiple selections (I still hope I can find a way to make it available, but I have to investigate more).

To download it just click here: jquery.ui.multidatespicker.js

How to use it?
Being an extension to jQuery UI DatePicker you need to include both jQuery and jQuery UI (with datepicker module included!) javascript files to your HTML page, and right after that, include MultiDatesPicker.

To apply it to an element, do it the same way as you would do with jQuery UI datepicker, but write multiDatesPicker instead of datepicker:

$(element-or-selector).multiDatesPicker(options-to-initialize-datepicker-and-multidatepicker);

MultiDatesPicker specific options:

• addDates
  Adds an array of dates specified in a string or javascript date object format.
  NOTE: the string format you should pass to multiDatePicker depends on the localization of datepicker, see this page for more infos on how to configure it.

Available methods:

• compareDates( date1, date2 )
  Compares two dates returning 1, 0 or -1 if date2 is greater, equal or smaller than date1 respectively.


• gotDate( date )
  Returns the index of the date in the dates array, or false in case that date is not found.
  


• addDates( dates )
  Adds one or more dates to the calendar.
  The parameter dates can be a string or an array (of strings or javascript date objects).
  


• removeDates( indexes )
  Removes one or more dates from the dates array using their indexes.
  The parameter indexes can be an integer or an array of integers.
  


• toggleDate( date )
  Adds/removes a single date from the calendar.
  
  
• getDates( format )
  Retrives the array of dates associated with the multiDatesPicker in the specified format: "string" (default) for localized string format, or "object" for javascript date object format.

Please comment if you think this plugin is useful for you, or if you have ideas on how to make it better.

Aptana (and Eclipse?) upload_current_file_on_save.js adapted

I'm just getting familiar with Aptana (a variation of the Eclipse IDE) for PHP development and I got really intrigued by the Scripts available to run custom macros within Aptana.
One I really wanted to use is "Upload current file on Save", which is coded within the file: upload_current_file_on_save.js

The problem with this file is that it comes disabled. If you get into it you'll see explicit comments that explains it.

Seems it's disabled because it is not "toggleable" like other scripts, so if enabled from within the script code, it would be always enabled in *ANY* Aptana projects, and this could be an undesired feature.
Aptana support staff say to use that script as project-specific script to avoid the previously explained issue.

Being everything scripted in javascript, a language known to me, I've tried to edit the code and obtained (at least in my case) a version of the feature that can be turned on and off just like other scripts.
Of course there could be better ways to fix the script, but I didn't wanted to spend a lot of time with it and got in the following working solution in few minutes, which is ok for me:
upload_current_file_on_save_dubrox.js

Feel free to use this script if you like. And in case you do anything better, then please comment this post with a link to your solution :)

Tweetmeme iframe with transparent background

I had to add Tweetmeme button to Aviso Oportuno so that any ad could be promoted thru twitter.


As always, I had problems with IE to display that button correctly using W3C standards. In this particular case I needed the iFrame of the button to be transparent.


Unfortunately Tweetmeme itself is not helping making things easier, but after searching on Google, I found out that IE requires an extra attribute to allow an iFrame to display transparent content: allowTransparency.


The Tweetmeme button is generated by a JavaScript code, so I can't actually hard-code that attribute in the iFrame generated, so the solution is to have another JavaScript piece of code that adds the needed attribute after page loading.


To avoid too many explanations, you could simply grab this piece of code and past within the <head></head> tags in your html page:

<!--[if IE]>
<script type="text/javascript">
   var previousOnload = window.onload;
   window.onload = function() {
      var theframes = document.getElementsByTagName('iframe');
      for(var i = 0; i < theframes.length; i++) {
          theframes[i].setAttribute("allowTransparency","true");
      }
      setTimeout("if(previousOnload) previousOnload();", 1000);
   }
</script>
<![endif]-->

The "previousOnload" stuff it is there to avoid overwriting any other onload function previously declared. In fact, if there is one, it is executed one second (1k miliseconds) after this "iFrame hack".


One last tip: allowTransparency literally allows the iFrame to display transparent content, but doesn't make the content transparent if it is declared to be opaque. This means that the background color of the html and body tags in the iframed page, must be declared as transparent (or at least you should not declare any backgrounds for those elements, so it will be defaulted as transparent).


Hope it helps.

Unlock autocomplete=off forms (bookmarklet)

Here it is, my own implementation of a cross browser unlocker to allow you to autocomplete forms and inputs that have the attribute:

autocomplete=off

Just add the following link as bookmark and click on that bookmark when you are in a page with a "unautocompletable" elements:

Bookmark this link

If you are annoyed by the message informing you about how many elements where successfully unlocked you can use this other bookmark (same stuff, without alert message);

Same thing without alert

Soon I'll post an example video for those of you that what a clearer example of what this little bookmarklet does.

If you find any bug or you find it useful and want me to know, please comment this post.

iDol

Tanta adorazione per l'iPad, a mio parere eccessiva per le capacità del prodotto, mi ha ispirato a questo fotoritocco (basandomi su uno già realizzato per la portata di The Economist).

Steve Jobs come se fosse Mosé con le tavole della legge :P