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Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Thu 01 Jul 2010

Liya for iPhone 1.0.2

Category : Technology/LiyaForiPhone1dot0dot2.txt

Liya for iPhone 1.0.2 with support for multi-tasking and iAds on iPhone's iOS 4 is ready for download at the App Store.

Hopefully, our other iPhone app - Luca for iPhone - will also be ready for download by the end of the week.

Posted at 3:24AM UTC | permalink

Mon 28 Jun 2010

What's on our iPad Simulator

Category : Technology/Keystone.txt

This is a project we're resurrecting on the iPad simulator :

It's a General Insurance System (for motor, cargo, fire, etc). It was developed, pre-Mac OS X, using 4th Dimension on OS 9 and cross-compiled for Windows, back in the days when we weren't allowed to use Macs in corporations, but of course we persevered.

The company we built it for had to shut down in the wake of September 11 - its US parent was already struggling, I think, with long-tail claims and 9/11 pushed it over the edge - and so the system was orphaned. But I've always felt it was a great system and even now, almost 10 years later, I don't think any other system in use in Singapore has come close to matching it - in power, flexibility, completeness, accuracy and simplicity in use. So it's an idea I hadn't given up on. This is my unfinished business - to see it in use again and pitting it against the competition.

So, all the things we've been building - MySQL & PostgreSQL installers, database access frameworks, Luca, and now Liya - were really meant to set us up for another crack at doing this kind of work again, but with modern-day, Internet-centric, untethered mobile devices.

The iPad isn't here in Singapore for another couple of weeks. But we managed to borrow one yesterday to test our database frameworks against. Theoretically, they should work, if they work with the iPhone. But I wouldn't believe until I see it for myself. They worked, and ran pretty fast, too.

Now, my favourite segment in the Steve Jobs' D8 interview was when he talked about how the things he love about selling to the consumer space were exactly the things he hated about the enterprise market :

But I love doing enterprise-level work - for the complexity, for the scale, and OK for the "messiness", and there are so many moving parts that the solution can get to be quite intricate. And so, there's a challenge there to your craft that you have to push it to the limit. But, unlike Apple, I haven't yet found a way to make an end-run past the "orifices".

Posted at 12:38PM UTC | permalink

Sun 27 Jun 2010

WebMon Snow 4.0.7

Category : Technology/WebMonSnow4dot0dot7.txt

I've updated WebMon for Snow Leopard to include the latest, most updated IP address-to-country database.

WebMon Snow 4.0.7, available now.

With this release, I've given up support for Windows - XP, Vista or otherwise. Nobody seems to be able to get the WebDAV client working on Windows, whereas it's all just one-click simplicity on the Mac. The only mention of "windows" that you'll find in the whole WebMon Snow documentation is this line - "WebMon is a Cocoa document-based application, so you can open as many windows of log records as you like." That is all.

Posted at 3:24AM UTC | permalink

Fri 25 Jun 2010

Luca for iPhone

Category : Technology/LucaForiPhone.txt

I've submitted this to the App Store - Luca for iPhone. It'll be a free download, and it should work with MySQL and PostgreSQL databases set up for any version of Luca out there (because we've only implemented the ability to access the Trial Balance, Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss reports, plus the ability to zoom into the sub-accounts).

But as we build more and more on it, it'll probably remain compatible only with the latest version of Luca for Snow Leopard (because it'll be very difficult to keep all the versions in sync, so we'll focus our work on just the latest OS X/iOS platforms).

Liya for iPhone 1.0.2 is in the approval queue (in review). This supports iAds and multi-tasking, which the next version of Luca for iPhone will also support. Actually the whole idea of doing all this is to learn from doing it, so we can build better and more powerful tools in future. There are things I still don't like about these apps, but I know more about what needs to be done than I do even a month ago. So, nothing beats the old "hands-on" imperative.

Posted at 3:16PM UTC | permalink

Wed 23 Jun 2010

Liya for iPhone does Multi-Tasking

Category : Technology/LiyaMultiTasking.txt

I've been reading the iOS 4 programming documentation most of the day - only to find that it takes just one line of code to implement multi-tasking.

It's amazing. And I think it helps improve the app's usefulness, too, to be able to, e.g. read a message, look up a database, copy and paste data from the database to the email message, and when you get back to the database to make another search, start off where you left off, rather than have to login to the database all over again.

So, Liya for iPhone now does multi-tasking. I'm now figuring out where the best places are to insert iAd banners into the app. When that's done, I'll submit this version, 1.0.2, to the App Store.

Hai Hwee is almost done with a basic version of Luca for iPhone. You'll be able to monitor the Trial Balance, Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss data, if you're using MySQL or PostgreSQL as the Luca database. No data entry yet. That will come next. But it'll be a free download.

Posted at 3:22PM UTC | permalink

Liya for iPhone 1.0.1

Category : Technology/LiyaForiPhone1dot0dot1.txt

Liya for iPhone 1.0.1 with multi-lingual text entry and search support is now available for free download at the App Store.

I'm now working on adding support for multi-tasking on iPhone's iOS 4. Plus, I've already got iADs working (less than 30 minutes of work).

Hai Hwee should be ready with a Luca for iPhone by the end of the week.

Posted at 3:26AM UTC | permalink

Thu 17 Jun 2010

Liya's Multi-Lingual Support

Category : Technology/LiyaMultiLingualSupport.txt

I remembered, a couple of days ago, that a design objective for the database frameworks we've been building has been to support data entry and search in any language - Chinese, Japanese, Thai, whatever, so that, e.g., for the case of an insurance system used in Thailand, motor policies can be recorded with their underwriting terms written in Thai, and the system will all just work.

But I realised that I hadn't tested this notion in quite a while. So we put Liya to the test and found that it already supported input in multiple languages for PostgreSQL, but not for MySQL. Debugging this, we found that we only had to fix a couple of lines of code, and Liya (connected to MySQL) can do entry and searches in Chinese, say, as shown below :

And, since these fixes were at the database frameworks level, Maven automatically gets multi-lingual support, and Luca too.

Shows the importance of good design. Instead of adjusting two lines of code to get something so enormously useful, we would have had to comb through any number of programs, at any number of levels, simply for a lack of foresight and discipline in coding.

So, Liya 1.0.1 with multi-lingual support has been submitted to the App Store. It'll probably be available for download in a week (well, I just submit it & forget it, the App Store way).

And there'll be new versions out soon for Luca and Maven for Snow Leopard.

I'm going to rename Maven to Liya for Snow Leopard. So, we have the odd couple - Luca and his girlfriend Liya. I seem to have two completely different group of users - Luca and Liya users on one side, and users of the Enablers on the other. And they don't usually cross over. I find that interesting. Had expected different.

Posted at 9:24AM UTC | permalink

Mac OS X 10.6.4 Snow Leopard Software Update

Category : Technology/10dot6dot4.txt

I've updated my live server to 10.6.4 and all the services (mail, web server, DNS server, ftp, ssh, fetchmail, SSL, WebDAV, etc...) continue to work.

So I think it's safe to upgrade, in case you've come on over here to find out.

P.S.: It's not always like this. Sometimes things break, and they break horribly, and we've got to scramble to fix things in Apple's wake. So I'm never complacent about OS X Software Updates. All's well, for now, until the next time it breaks. In the mean time, we get some peace to work on some new stuff.

Posted at 8:27AM UTC | permalink

Wed 16 Jun 2010

MySQL & PostgreSQL Installers

Category : Technology/MySQLPostgresInstallersAnnouce.txt

So, I managed to bug Hai Hwee into doing a MySQL installer to add to the one she did for PostgreSQL. And she's just updated both to their latest (generally available) versions.

Once installed, new versions of these installers will upgrade the previous version automatically, including bringing over existing data.

They'll also install Preference Panes that'll work reliably. They're 32/64 bit Intel fat binaries, Snow Leopard only.

The MySQL installer installs version 5.1.47 of MySQL, whereas it is version 8.4.4 for the PostgreSQL installer.

Posted at 8:51AM UTC | permalink

Liya on the App Store

Category : Technology/LiyaOnAppStore.txt

Liya for the iPhone is now available on the App Store, exactly within 7 days of app submission.

[As Steve Jobs said on D8, 95% of the apps are approved within 7 days].

It's a free download.

Now that I know that the system works, I'm going to submit an update that'll make Liya work with data in any language (Chinese, Japanese, etc).

This is all so fun. Now watch out for Luca on the iPhone. Coming soon.

Posted at 8:35AM UTC | permalink

Tue 15 Jun 2010

Berlin Wall Comes to Bedok Reservoir

Category : Commentary/BerlinWall.txt

Fragments of the Berlin Wall at Bedok Reservoir, depicting two kings, one bright and joyful, the other blind to the wishes of his people :

It made me think of the book about North Korea that I've just finished reading - "Jia by Hyejin Kim". That was harrowing, like living inside a Hieronymous Bosch painting. I finished it with a sense of gratitude that the author did not turn the screws on our emotions but kept her touch light. But still, your heart will go out to the North Koreans.

Now, if you switch media for the moment and compare that with this viral YouTube video of a South Korean applegirl002 making music with four (count 'em) iPhones. She looks so bright and happy, it doesn't leave much doubt that South Korea has the better political/economic climate, does it? The "Dear Leader" up north is the King on the right, "oblivious to the wishes of his people".

Posted at 3:02PM UTC | permalink

Goodbye, Twitter

Category : Commentary/LastTweet.txt

I'm game to try anything once but I really don't understand Twitter and can't quite figure out what it is that it does that isn't already covered by the other stuff, like Facebook and the blog.

So, goodbye Twitter and all that.

Posted at 2:39AM UTC | permalink