Kyle Spears

Woohoo, I did it, this is blog # 70. I was saving this blog to say congratulations to all of us (myself included) who are graduating this semester. And for those of you who still have some time left to do at EMU, hang in there it goes by really fast. And good luck to everyone in your future endeavors. I hope we can all end up with very successful jobs as a result of the CIS major. Enjoy your winter break everyone!!!

I wanted to share a few PC hardware web sites with the Learning Remix crowd since most of you are avid computer users. When first hearing about Mike Souders Computer upgrade idea, he had planned to buy a $4,000 Alienware computer. These are great computers but you can build a computer with the same specs for much less then you will pay retail anywhere. I personally use newegg.com for all my computer needs and have been building my own gaming and otherwise PC’s for years. This is one of the reasons why Mike ended up upgrading his PC himself because you can get the same result for much less cash. So the 2 websites I recommend are newegg.com as mentioned earlier and pricewatch.com . You can really save a bundle of PC hardware and other electronics.

Hi all, my contract on my current cell phone plan is just about up and I will be getting a new phone within the next 2 weeks or so. I am sticking with Verizon Wireless as my carrier, and I was wondering of anyone else has gotten a new phone recently that they would recommend. I went to the Verizon store and was not particularly impressed with there selection of phones. Too bad my contract does not run out next year when Verizon opens there network to any phone made (Unlocked and otherwise) with a few stipulations. But in the mean time if anyone has a suggestion for a good quality phone please let me know. I do not particularly care for any of the gadgets they are adding to the phones now like cameras and mp3 players although just about every phone has those features now but I can take it or leave it. The features important to me are battery life Bluetooth capable and small size. Comments please.

I just wanted to share with everyone that since this is my last semester at EMU I will be removing all content from my people.emich.edu website. But I have placed both my mini project and my teams group project on my own personal website to show off to others what we have accomplished. I may also continue to play with these API mashup’s in the future and create some mega mashup of my own which I will place on the same website. So if anyone is interested in tracking my progress after this semester is over keep an eye out on my website by clicking here.

Eltima sells software that will convert any USB device on your computer into a virtual Ethernet device so that you can access the USB device remotely or locally as if it were attached to any computer in the world that you are sitting at. This could be a very useful tool. For instance I have remote access to me computer at work from home but I cannot access the printer. This software would allow me to do so. The software is called USB to Ethernet converter and costs $90. It is not software for the average computer user but as with most the software I share on the Learning Remix, if you are into many different things with computer hardware and software this could be a cool addition to your collection of software.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is now available and I for one am excited to get a hold of a copy. The new version is supposed to be everything that the 2005 version is plus all the new features necessary for creating proficient programs for Windows Vista and Office 2007. The new version of Visual Studio also requires the new .net framework 3.0 and 3.5 which is to be released soon. I cannot wait to try out this new software should be amazing for writing the C# application that I work on, on a regular basis.

If you are into writing your own programs and modifying retail applications and then repackaging them for easier installs on multiple computers like me then you will love this software. I found software called CDMenuPro, which allows you to create auto runs files along with startup menus to run or install specific applications from CD, DVD or USB flash drives. This software will come in very handy for me as I am definitely an application junky, I am always tweaking thing s and making my own creations, this will be a bonus tool in my huge arsenal of utilities. I really like the ability to program a flash drive to use these menu’s I already have a few needs for this. Previously I have written my own auto run files and such but this software gives you the option to also add GUI menu’s upon startup which is something I have not been able to do before. Great tool for anyone out there like me.

I know a lot of you are using File Zilla as your FTP client to upload your files to the internet. File Zilla is a good client basically only because it is free. If you are looking for an upgrade, I use Cute FTP Pro, I find the software is much more user friendly and yet much more advanced then File Zilla. If you are willing to pay for it and still have classes left to take that will require you to use an FTP client I would highly recommend this software. I have been using it ever since high school (upgrading it as new versions have become available). Download the trial and see if you like it. I think it is one of the best windows FTP Clients on the market and I have tried 7 or 8 for comparison.

After seeing the progress Job Friends has made on there mashup I have to say I am extremely impressed. You guys have probably by far had the most issues and difficult coding to overcome out of all 3 groups. I am truly amazed that your group has been able to do what you have thus far especially with the facebook API. Our team knows from experience that the facebook API is very hard to work with. You page layout and the features you added for iteration 2 really cleaned up your project and make it a truly useful web application. I really like the different color map points and that now the info for each point comes up by clicking just the map point rather then the map point then the link in the info window. You have also parsed the information incredibly well so that only useful information is displayed below your map. In my opinion your team has by far the most impressive group project in our class and that is only due to the complexity of what you guys have done. I really am in awe that you guys were able to get all of this to work and all three API’s run together seamlessly. My only suggestions are to the layout of your web page, I liked the job info better when it was displayed to the right of the map rather then below the map and the legend should be on a single line below the map rather then wasting all that space to the right f your Google map. Great job overall though.

I looked over the team NoSpace website today and I really like the progress that they have made. I see that you guys have implemented the suggestions made in last class about adding a next and previous button next to the date under the persons name. I think this is very useful if you are just looking to scroll through a particular persons information rather then having to keep clicking on the calendar. My only suggestion for you to possible add for iteration 3 in 2 days is that the calendar itself should also have next and previous buttons so you can go back and look at past months and then click next to come back to the current month. This would allow us to see more information then just the current moth because for instance this month gruber has only one thing on his calendar which is somewhat boring. We should be able to go back and see his flicker items from last month for example. But this is just a suggestion and I know time is running out. But over all I think your group has done great work and I am glad you added the icons to the calendar and to the home page just to add a little color even though it is very minimal. Great work guys, the functionality is spot on and your integration of the API’s is perfect in my opinion.