Author Archives: Jeff Fitzsimons
Saving Money on Arduino Basic Starter Kit
Several sites are selling Arduino “basic starter kits” for around $55. That’s not a bad deal, but they tack on around ten dollars in shipping! These kits generally include: Arduino UNO board “Getting Started with Arduino” book Breadboard Jumpers USB … Continue reading
Posted in Electronics, Technology
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Eclipse for Android: No Build Targets
I installed the Android SDK and the Eclipse IDE for Java and Report Developers, but when I tried to create a new project, the Build Target list was empty. I had already followed the instructions given in this newsgroup post: … Continue reading
Posted in Technology, Uncategorized
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Enabling Wake-On-LAN on a Toshiba Satellite A505
This post describes how I fixed my Wake-On-LAN problem using the powercfg tool. My Toshiba Satellite A505-S6986 wouldn’t respond to magic packets sent over the network. Before using powercfg, I first checked the following: Wake-On-LAN was enabled in the BIOS. … Continue reading
Posted in Technology, Windows
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Job Demand: Java, C#, C++, and Windows Compared
As a long-time Windows/C++ developer, I’m curious to know what technologies are in demand. I’ve personally used Dice.com almost exclusively in the past, but they don’t provide a good interface for viewing job trends. Indeed.com is an aggregating website which … Continue reading
Posted in Technology
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iTunes COM SDK for Windows and Encrypted File System
The “iTunes COM SDK for Windows” archive from the Apple Developer Center contains files which are marked as encrypted. Shortly after extracting the files to my libraries folder, I was surprised to receive a popup dialog from Windows 7, “Encrypting … Continue reading
Posted in Technology, Windows
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Where is the iTunes SDK?
The Apple iTunes SDK (“iTunes COM SDK for Windows”) is astonishingly difficult to find. It can be found on the
Posted in Technology, Windows
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Domain Registrars as Recommended by Hacker News
If you’re looking for domain registration/DNS reviews, you probably know how hard it is to find pages that aren’t just poorly concealed spam or astroturfing ‘affiliates’. While for a registration option better than GoDaddy, I found a bunch of suggestions … Continue reading
Posted in Technology
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id3v2: Command Line MP3 Tag Editor Compiled for Cygwin
id3v2 is a powerful command line tool for editing MP3 ID3 tags. Getting it to compile on Windows under Cygwin, though, took a bit of effort. For the convenience of others, here is id3v2 0.1.12 compiled under Cygwin. It depends … Continue reading
Posted in Cygwin, Technology, Windows
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Cushion Treemaps
Today, I learned that the technique used to create visualizations like those used in WinDirStat and KDirStat is called a cushion treemap. This page has examples of treemaps used in a variety of software, and links to treemap algorithms in … Continue reading
Posted in Algorithms, Technology
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Ubuntu: Keyboard Reverts to German After Reboot
Every time I rebooted or logged out of my Ubuntu virtual machine, my keyboard layout would switch to “Germany Eliminate dead keys” (“Deu”). Removing the offending layout from the keyboard manager seemed to work, but the problem would reappear the … Continue reading
Posted in Linux, Technology
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