Category: Software, IP & Companies

Blogs.CodeGear.com to convert to WordPress MU

CodeGear Blogs  

A WordPress Explosion

That’s right folks there are gonna be about 90 new WordPress blogs out there. Blogs.CodeGear.com, Borland’s home for Employee Blogs, and Blogs.TeamB.com, home for a sqad of volunteers who support the CodeGear community,  are leaving the open source .Text  solution behind forever.  And they are moving to WordPress MU, baby! 

What the heck are .Text and WordPress MU (Myooo? Moo?) anyway????

.Text is a .NET 1.1 blogging software package said to be at the top of the heap back before 2004 ended.  2004 was the year of it’s last update.  Meanwhile WordPress MU is a Multi User wrapper around the current source code for the very popular WordPress blogging softare.

WordPress MU

OK… Spill the beans…

“How do I know all this juicy gossip?”, you might well ask.  Well, it just so happens that those 90 or so blogs are going to be converted by none other than YOURS TRUELY! 

That’s right, as of today, a goal I had dreamed about back in 1987, as I helped my highschool computer teacher figure out how to use Turbo Pascal (and supplied the school’s pirated copy of Fortran 77 too SHHH!!!) has finally been met: I am now a Borland CodeGear (contract) Programmer.  How cool is that???

I pitched this project to Allen Bauer back in February.  Their current implementation of .Text seemed somewhat dated and limited in its ablities, from a readers perspective.  I knew that even just working evening hours and weekends, I could quickly turn their site around and give them something MUCH more robust.  I’d not heard anything back from Allen.  So, I’m not certain if my original suggestion had anything at all to do with the fact that John Kaster went looking for a WordPress developer or not.  Either way, I saw a post by John asking for someone experienced in WordPress, and I leapt at the opportunity.  Well, as of tonight, it’s official.  The “Please welcome Brian Layman” email has gone out to the powers that be.  And after a few conversations,  I’m now set up with all sorts of CodeGear goodness that I can tell you absolutely nothing about! MWAHAHAHAHAAHA!

Seriously though, this is gonna be a great project to work on and I’m going to be enjoying every moment of it. I’ve done my share of blogs and sites, (I actually should be anouncing another new site tomorrow btw), but an 88 site conversion is certainly exciting enough to raise an eyebrow or two on any WordPress developer’s face.   I just want to thank John Kaster for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this project.

So, keep your eyes out for the switch over sometime in the not too very distant future.   I’ve just begun work tonight, learning the ins and outs of their current infrastructure.  If all goes well… well, actually, I’ll leave the end of that sentence up to the fine folks at CodeGear.

CodeRage Encore Event: 24 hours of Delphi 2007 for Win32 – Thursday March 29th

This just in from Davidi

To all Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 Developers

Mark your calendars for this one-time only, online exclusive FREE event! On Thursday, March 29th (for registered users of Delphi 2007 for Win32), you’re invited to spend a virtual day with the engineering team that developed Delphi 2007 for Win32.This is your chance to get answers to your toughest Win32 development challenges – directly from the team that created Delphi 2007 for Win32. Whether it’s Windows Vista, XP, or 2000, AJAX or VCL for the Web – you’ll get the answers you need to give you the edge, share tips and tricks with your colleagues, and meet the luminaries that are blazing new trails in Win32 development.

The Details

When is it? Thursday, March 29th starting at 12:00AM Pacific Daylight Time

Who is it for? All registered users of Delphi 2007 for Win32

What do I need? Bring your Delphi 2007 for Win32 license key, it’s required for admission

Where is it happening? The event is hosted online at the CodeGear Developer Network. Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers will receive an email with the URL and event details before the 24 hours of Delphi 2007 for Win32 starts. If you don’t receive an email before the event starts, send an email to davidi@codegear.com and I will look up your registration entry and get you the URL.

How much does it cost? It’s FREE! (for registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers)

24 hour event is for Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers

If you haven’t already purchased your copy of Delphi 2007 for Win32 – do it now! The more time you have to spend with the product – the more you’ll benefit from this exclusive opportunity. Have your license key on-hand to gain entrance to the event.

Purchase a copy today at the CodeGear online store: http://www.codegear.com/HowtoBuy/tabid/103/Default.aspx

Choose the electronic delivery method (ESD) to get your product within minutes!And you’ll save money too!Schedule of Events/Theme/Participants – Thursday March 29, 2007:The following is the current schedule of topics and participants. Note: Participants are subject to change depending on engineering team availability.

Time (PDT) Theme Participants

0:00-2:00 Performance Applications Doug Chapman and Mark Edington

2:00-4:00 Compiler and features Holger Flick and Barry Kelly

4:00-6:00 3rd party Chris Pattinson, Sinan Karajac and Markus

6:00-8:00 Help and Doc Mina Matsuchika and Chris Bensen

8:00-10:00 Database DBX4 Justin Swett and Steve Shaughnessy

10:00-12:00 IDE/MSBuild Sheree Ervin, Dave Wilhelm, and Jeanne Hansen

12:00-14:00 IDE Spencer Kimball, and Chris White, and David Lock

14:00-16:00 VCL for Win32 Joseph Tian and Seppy Bloom

16:00-18:00 Debugger Stephen Blas and Chris Hesik

18:00-20:00 Web Services Craig Farrell and Bruneau Babet

20:00-22:00 Web applications Jason Sprenger and Jim Tierny

22:00-24:00 Delphi (Japanese) Takeshi Arisawa

Note: all times listed are Pacific Daylight Time which is UTC -7.

Start times around the world will be (using http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html)UTC – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 07:00:00Bangalore – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 12:30:00 PMFrankfurt – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 9:00:00 AMSao Paulo – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 4:00:00 AMSydney – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 5:00:00 PMTokyo – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 4:00:00 PM

Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers will receive an email (on Wednesday) with the event participation information.
If you’re not a registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customer, you can watch the Delphi replays of the recent CodeRage 2007 virtual conference at http://dn.codegear.com/article/34187

You can also come see a CodeGear team member live at one of our upcoming CodeGear tour stops. The complete schedule is available athttp://www.codegear.com/AboutUs/Events/tabid/244/Default.aspxSee you online!David Intersimone “David I”Vice President, Developer Relations and Chief EvangelistCodeGeardavidi@codegear.comLegal Notices

———-

Legal notices covering this email message, software documents, files and information are available at

http://www.codegear.com/Home/tabid/225/ctl/Terms/Default.aspx

CodeGear Privacy Policy (effective date: August 31, 2004)http://www.codegear.com/Home/tabid/225/ctl/Privacy/Default.aspx

Delphi for PHP Article 3: A Brief History of Time and Delphi for PHP

When I was first fiddling around with the beta test stuff for Delphi for PHP, and before I’d gotten BetaBlogger status, I’d put together a post with what history I’d been able to scrounge about D4PHP from the WayBack Machine and Google.   I’d never gotten around to posting what I’d found.  Before it disappears forever into the nether regions of my harddrive, I thought I would hit Paste and Publish. 

I think I’ve gotten most of the details correct, but there are some guesses that might be inaccurate. Also, there are loads of links because I wanted to make it VERY clear that this info was gathered from the web and I was not breaking my NDA.  That’s not a concern anymore, luckily. You might find some of the links interesting. 

 So, here’s the history of Delphi for PHP as I know it:

Continue reading Delphi for PHP Article 3: A Brief History of Time and Delphi for PHP

Delphi for PHP Article 2: A Lazy Sunday (Video)

OK, I just got back from church and I am stuffed from the three bowls of soup and a huge salad.  So, I am feeling lazy, but I still want to get a Delphi for PHP article out (since I have a limited exclusion from my NDA and am alowed to discuss such matters or so I must say in each of these articles.)

 So, today you get treated with a video I made for the other Delphi for PHP testers.  It isn’t too exciting, but it will show you a little bit about the underlying structure of the DB Demos in the beta releases of Delphi for PHP.  I should say that it is entirely possible that the demos requiring the steps described in this video will be reworked for the final product.  If that’s the case you likely won’t have to do much, or ANY of this process in the full blown 1.0 process.

If you are new to PHP programming, you can use this process to create a webserver on your local home computer.   That’s downright handy for testing any web product.  So, you’ll benifit that way even if the Delphi for PHP stuff isn’t too handy for ya.

 OK here you go: 

The Delphi for PHP Beta Bloggers are on their way!

I was granted my Delphi for PHP BetaBlogger priveledges back on March 1.  I was the first to have that priveledge, but it was done specificaly so that I could have discussions with the WordPress folks at Automattic regarding a possible joint CodeGear/WordPress project for the 2007 Google Summer of Code™.  Unfortunately, with everyone crunching for possible product releases while the CodeRage conference was happening, the logistics could not be nailed down.  (BTW, that’s no problem.  What it REALLY means is that it openned the door for several other opportunities.  The first of which I’ll announce tomorrow.  Of course Matt‘s and Lloyd‘s readers already know all about it…) 

Though I had the legal rights to discuss the Delphi for PHP project with you, the BetaBlogger program had not officially started and I didn’t want to approve my priviledges.  So, while I did release one video and did another for the testers, I’ve kept mostly quiet until the full Beta Blogger program began.  Well that day is almost here.  

The WordPress for PHP BetaBlogger is about to start in earnest and I plan to be on top of this thing.  And I need your help to pull that off.  (Oh yeah, I should say in so-many-words that I am allowed to discuss this with you because I have a limited exclusion from my Delphi for PHP Non-Disclosure.  You will now be returned to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress)

Here’s my proposal: I will inform you of EVERY new D4PHP BetaBlogger post I hear spoken about behind the closed doors, and you all, come back here to this post and leave a comment for every one YOU see.  In return I’ll continue to put out Delphi for PHP videos and samples (as I have time) until you know this great new PHP tool inside and out.

Does that sound like a plan or what?  Is it a deal?

No video for CodeRage 2007, this weeks live BorCon? The Fix!

Are you enjoying BorCon 2007?  Well, CodeRage 2007 is more PC I guess… 

Well, cool!  You’re not alone!  In fact SOOOOO many people joined, it crashed the video (MMS) feed.  So they had to turn it off.   It is back on Tuesday morning, but already showing signs of failing.  So you might want to just stick with Interwise.

 Here’s what to do to fix that problem…

(BTW if you haven’t join yet, what are you waiting for?  register_now for this virtual conference and join the fun!)

1. Go to http://www.interwise.com/ and download their “Participant Application” client.  If you’re running windows, just click here: aa .

2.  Choose the stream that is appropriate for the session you want to attend.  (The sessions on the left are in stream 1. Right=Stream 2)
Stream 1 – http://borland.interwise.com/borland/iSeminar/PJ8838

Stream 2 – http://borland.interwise.com/borland/iSeminar/JR8382

3.  Join the normal session from the session list.

4. Separate the video

5. Close that tab/window.

6. Click “I’m listening” to get a chance to get the prize for the session.

You now have the visual display AND a chat window without echoing sound.

Delphi for PHP Article 1: A Video Walk Through

Rumors have been flying around for the last month about Borland producing a PHP product. “PHP? Are they nuts?” some said, “Concentrate on what you know! Are you trying to create another Kylix just to have it fade away to nothing?” Needless to say, I was a bit more optimistic than that… I mean come on! RAD PHP development? How cool would that be? PHP has the EXACT same feel as Pacal did back in the late 80s. It’s a baby language just starting to grow up. Even the people in it have the same core “I’m gonna help you because I know later you will help me” attitude that Pascal and Delphi always had.

Plus, since the restructuring of Borland has sifted the chaff from the wheat, CodeGear seems have its act together and the people of CodeGear are really the cream of the crop. (Yes, I know. I just said that they are Cream of Wheat, let it go… just let it go.)

Well, dreams came true when I was invited to be a CodeGear field tester. And last Thursday morning, with the verbiage hot off the presses from the Borland legal department, I was granted a limited exemption from my NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) to pitch a possible Google Summer of Code 2007 joint D4p/WordPress project to Automattic (I’ll let you know later how that turns out…). That NDA exemption also gave me permission to post articles and write reviews of the product. So here we are today!

So, now I can show you tell you all about the cool stuff I’ve been doing and show you movies I’ve made of the product in action.

In my usual fashion, I’ve written a gargantuan article. Instead of posting huge thing, I’m splitting the sections off into separate articles. Today, I just want to give you walk through of the product and show you some of the stuff that makes it unique.

This video uses a pre-release version of Delphi for PHP. Components, look and feel, and features may change before release. THIS VIDEO HAS SOUND.
‘

If you have any problems with the video playback on any browser please let me know and I will try to get it to work.

Moral Combat: Video Games in our Culture vs. Anarchy Media’s WP Plugin

IE six has an incompatiblity with this post. If you get an error, go to the next page or try Maxthon2 or FireFox.

Doug Stewart had a good post about an upcoming video game documentary about the affect of video games in our culture. In this post, I show you that movie while demonstrating the use of a WordPress Multimedia plug in. You can also read about “Moral Combat” on the Apple Pro Video site (link).

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

How to use a Microsoft Zune as a Hard drive from Windows XP

aka How to copy music files onto your Zune.

We might be giving out Zunes at work as a reward for a fitness program. I didn’t want to lose this information. The original place that posted it is gone. It would be a shame to have a 30 Zune and not be able to use it to transfer files. Luckily a simple change in how Windows sees the Zune can take care of this problem.

In short, find the list of all USB devices you’ve attached to your computer. Under the unique ID for your Zune, you’lk find the PortableDeviceNameSpace Key. Under that key change the EnableLegacySupport=1 and PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0.

Step by step:

  1. Plug your Zune into your computer.
  2. Close all the Zune software
  3. Run RegEdit32 from the Start>Run field
  4. When RegEdit comes up, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  5. Hit Ctrl-F and enter PortableDeviceNameSpace as what you want to search for and hit OK.
  6. When it finds what you are looking for you should be in the tree HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\Vid_[A BUNCH OF JUNK]\PortableDeviceNameSpace If you are not in the right place, you can browse around and see if you can find it manually.
  7. Double click on “EnableLegacySupport” and enter 1 for the value and click OK.
  8. Double click on “PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell” and enter 0 for the value and click OK.
  9. Double click on “ShowInShell” and enter 0 for the value and click OK.
  10. Close RegEdit

That’s it. The Zune should be listed under My computer and you can drag and drop items right to it.

Cheers!