Warning: Jealous computers!!

A warning from jealouscomputers.com to all owners of nseries (and particulary N95) popped in during my vacation last week:

Thanks for the warning, Darla Mack.

technorati tags:warning, nseries, n95

Nokia Music Launched!

Nokia just announced their launch of Nokia Music!

Strangely they don't seem to support other phones than 5300, 6085 and N75..!?

If anyone knows otherwise, please comment on this post. I couldn't find any information on how to access the service from the N95. But as far as I'm concerned, all the features listed on the Nokia Music site is already available on the N95. Features such as (taken from the feature list of the N75):

• Dedicated music keys
• Synching of music from media players
• Support for many various formats
• Playlists and equalizer
• Stereo FM player
• Stereo hands-free with 3D audio, and
• Stereo Bluetooth audio
  

Hmm..

technorati tags:nokia music, n95, media player

Bidirectional binding in JavaFX

In the next version of the JavaFX interpreter, Chris Oliver introduces a genious concept he calls bidirectional binding.

In short it means that you can now bind a value, Y, to a function of another value, X. When you change the value of X, Y changes automatically - this is ordinary binding.

The magic happens if you change the value of Y. Then JavaFX performs a reverse calculation, to rectify the value of X!!

A small example from Chris's blog:

// arithmetic
 var x = 10;
 var y = bind -x + 100;
 assert y == 90;
 y = 40;
 assert x == 60; // passes
 
 

Chris' blog post also contains an example for logical negation, as well as for sequence elements.

technorati tags:javafx, interpreter, chris oliver, bidirectional binding

New N95 Firmware (incl. A-GPS)!!

By reading this I realized that Nokia has finally released the much anticipated new firmware for the N95.

The much anticipated new firmware for the Nokia N95 has arrived. And yes, it's the one that includes assisted GPS (A-GPS), which makes the GPS lock in to it's position much faster than before, as well as navigating indoor (well, perhaps not really navigating, but at least finding out approximately where you are, and in which direction you move).

Before you begin, remember to backup your phone memory! You can do this from Nokia PC Suite.

Afterwards, go to this site to get the update (and follow instructions):
http://europe.nokia.com/softwareupdate

This fetches the NokiaSoftwareUpdater_setup.exe (I got version 01.03.084.28415), which identifies the new 12.0.013 firmware:

After complete installation of the new update, disconnect the phone, and let it post install everything if it needs to (it took about 20 seconds on my phone).

Then you can restore your backup to the phone memory. You do this the same place as you took the backup. In my case from the Nokia PC Suite -> Backup -> restore.

That's it! :-)

Now it's time to play around with the new A-GPS feature. You can check that it is enabled in the settings -> general -> positioning -> pos. methods -> assisted gps.

When you start the Maps application, it will ask you to choose an internet connection, to let it ask a server for satellite positions (time based).

Have fun!

technorati tags:nokia, n95, firware, update, guide, howto, 12.0.013, assisted gps, a-gps, maps

Java SE 6.0 update 2 available

If you missed it, you can go get the newest update to Java SE 6.0 (update 2) from here:
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

The list of changes can be found here:
http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/ReleaseNotes.html

technorati tags:java se 6.0 update 2, announcement

Netbeans 6.0 M10 released

1½ days ago, the Netbeans team announced the availability of the Netbeans 6.0 Milestone 10 build!

It includes a lot of bugfixes/improvements, including JRuby 1.0 and much more.

Furthermore, it now includes both glassfish v2 build 53, and Tomcat 6.0.13.

Go get it! :-)

A list of changes can be found here:
http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/NewAndNoteWorthyMilestone10

technorati tags:netbeans 6.0, milestone 10, m10, announcement, jruby

Nice samples to (JRuby on) Rails!

If you want to try out how easy it is to build Rails applications with JRuby and Netbeans 6.0 M9 (or newer), check out the following to sampes:

1. Build a Rails based blog in less than 10 minutes, and
2. Flickr on Rails
   

The first one actually took me almost 15 minutes, because my machine crashed (I think it's a bug in my graphics adapter driver from nvidia on windows XP, on a Dell Precision M70, and seems to have nothing to do with Java/Netbeans directly). If you - like me - use JRuby 1.0 instead of the M9 supplied JRuby 0.9.8, remember to put the derbyclient.jar into your JRuby 1.0 folder instead of the folder from the M9 installation ;-) - and if you've ever before heard of a "fist post", this is it:

The next Flickr browser application, is a bit more involved. If you - as I - already have a Flickr API key, it shouldn't take you too long. I got the application up and running in about 14 minutes:

Awesome examples! :-)

technorati tags:jruby, sample, applications, getting started, netbeans, rails

99 Bottles of Beer in Ruby

Open up your JIRB (or IRB for that matter) and run this:

$i=99

def b()"#{$i>0?$i: 'No'} bottle#{'s'if$i!=1} of beer"end
$i.times{w=" on the wall";puts b()+w+", #{b}.
Take one down, pass it around,
#{$i-=1;b+w}.
"}

If you're a developer coming from the Java language, the above example represents unprecedented compactness (compared to the code needed to perform the same task in Java).

Mmmmmmnnhhh - the syntax. I like it!

Actually I don't remember where I found the above example a month ago or so. If you're the original author, I hope you'll forgive me ;)

It's easy to install Ruby/JRuby. But if you don't wan't to waste that 5 minutes of your life, you can run ruby code directly from within this site - clever!:
http://tryruby.hobix.com/

UPDATE: Found this site, showing examples of the above in 1103 different languages and variations - nice place to spend some hours ;):
http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/

technorati tags:ruby, bottles of beer on the wall, jruby, jirb, irb, try ruby

JavaFX interpreter updated

Chris Oliver has updated the JavaFX interpreter, so it now correctly supports binding of local variables, and partially supports correct use of cardinality constraints (such as 0..1, 0..n etc.).

Try it out now, by opening the notorious JavaFX Pad here:
http://blogs.sun.com/chrisoliver/resource/javafxpad.jnlp

technorati tags:javafx, chris oliver, pad, update, binding, cardinality, constraints

YouTube mobile gone live!

Just realized, that the mobile version of YouTube has gone live!

Check it out here:
http://m.youtube.com/

The mobile version of YouTube works perfectly on the Nokia N95, without installation of any 3rd party software. The videos play flawlessly from the pre-installed Real Player. The picture quality is quite nice, although I haven't tried to output the vide on my TV set. Yet.

UPDATE: Only a subset of the videos on YouTube are available in the mobile version! YouTube are working hard to "bring you more".

technorati tags:youtube, mobile, nokia, n95, nokia n95, real player