CSS

Well, I got a book on CSS from Borders. I figured I should learn the stuff. There's not that much too it really. But I think part of it is the fact that it's a really excellent book. It's one of those "visual quickstart guides."

I was thinking about genetic algorithms(as I seem to do daily) and I thought if I could apply them to predicting the stock market or horse races, I could apply them to my job search. I'd really like to find a programming job. Anyway, I could take a bunch of job hunting techniques, see which ones work, then keep the good ones, slightly mutate them, and let them compete again. Sounds good in theory, right? ;)

I love it.

I love having to program something I have never done and having to figure out how the hell to do it. Man it's nice to be able to work symbolically with arguments I put into things like:

document.getElement.ByID(div+i).innerHTML=something.responseText;

and I can fill in a bunch of divs at one time.


Now I will go listen to MiniPop and have their beautiful melodies haunt me.

Damn, maybe I am good

So I worked on the chat client assemblage again today and figured out that the best way to do it was probably...the way I was doing it. I looked at many ways for the web service to store the state variables. (There are state variables for web services). All of it came down to the variables being tied to a specific user session, which wouldn't do me any good. I looked at cache, session, even using a small dataBase. The dB would take too long, longer than just writing a file to the server. I may move to another interesting project. I still gotta get me a job. UPDATE: It works, and it fetches text as a person types. So in midsentence you'll get an update then it will fill in the rest. Thank you setInterval.

Almost Social Networking

I got all excited and decided that I could make my own Google Wave. I started writing code yesterday afternoon and I have a chat client...that works like a very simple chat client. I used AJAX type stuff to post the text in divs. The way(this is ultra tricky, I know) that data is passed between instances is by saving the text to a common text file which is then periodically viewed by the Javascript and posted. It's ultra low tech but it does work. I wonder if I could do it with a web service. Almost certain I could. I learned a lot and it was fun too. Crazy. The thing is web-based, by the way.

Job Search and New Page Idea

I'm officially in the job hunt now, and I'm looking for volunteer opportunities because my resume isn't exactly overflowing with development experiences. I program in C#, ASP.Net, JavaScript, AJAX.

I'm thinking of a next project--it would be social networking in a sense, but musical. The idea is that two or more people will rate a piece of computer generated music. What ever piece is rated highest (of a group of 5) will move to the next round, be mutated, then voted on. The crux is that people will get to do it "together". It would be interesting to see how ratings are different depending on who a person is paired with.

Regex Pt. II

For some reason my page was transferring to client side when it should not have been at all. To solve the problem I put

myString.match(/^\d+$/)

in JavaScript to determine if a string had any non-numeric values. I didn't want to be passing them to my c# routines. Was getting some nasty errors, boy. I'm still figuring out why my

javascript:CallMe

was being executed at all. I'll think on it.

More User Friendly

I found some nice code to use for additional popups--nice simple popups that really make the page easy to understand. I may implement them tomorrow. I also downloaded an SDK for a phone that I just bought. The world of Linux??? Maybe not so much. I think the IDE is pretty distant from the Penguin.

more improvements

So I have simplified my page and it works better now. I have also added some instructions in the css popup that direct the user a little better. Almost ready for the world, it is. Got a G1, trying it out today. Weird change from that other smartphone I had.

Wow what I have done

I've had such a productive summer. Mainly I figured how to use pagemethods/webmethods for passing params back and forth between c# and javascript. I found out that you can't really intercept and have your way with the passed param--it's kinda untouchable until you send it back to c#. I added a little css. I got my postback(there is a section that posts back) to end up in the correct spot using a method in page_render and an anchor. I figured out what task is okay to use a postback and what ones can be ajax'd. Also learned alot about the crazy way that validation is implemented. Right now I think I have the validation pretty good where no stray values are being input. Oh yeah, I learned how valuable javascript is.

I found out how to make a textbox have a finger mouse pointer onhover. That was cool. I also figured out what needs to be done for uploading a project to a server. Currently my project is at www.tobymgraves.com and the only problem that is occurring is due to the server not saving my pictures immediately. I am constantly working to improve the page. I've tested it in IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari and Camino on a Mac. Also Safari on iPhone.

Now time to look for a job.

Success

I've succeeded in getting the username from a cookie, automatically accessing the DB to find the user's favorite drawing of a cellular automata. I can also draw the picture without a postback--it happens right on the page. Also I have the code assign a new usernumber if the person has not been to the site, or if they haven't been there in a long time. Phew. Took a lot of work.

Right now I am writing the code for the half of the page that evolves digital circuits from scratch until the fulfill the truth table. Find out it's not super easy to convert a 1 to boolean without doing a few steps in between. That's about ready to run.

Integration

I have succeeded in triggering an event on a page written in C#, then passed parameters to a Javascript/Ajax function, passed the params to a C# function, back to a Javascript function and ended the program. Now I intend to do my cellular automata/evolutionary algorithm page in Ajax, getting data from the user via cookies, retrieving the data in the background processes, and drawing/retrieving a picture in the background processes. I need to find out how to draw a pic without opening a new window. I may perhaps use the UpdatePanel directive.

AJAX

Since I have a lot of time on my hands at this time, I'm getting back into studying code. Like multiple hours daily if possible. Right now I'm implementing AJAX to make a page that deals with AI concepts. Half the page is cellular automata, the other half is evolutionary algorithms. The idea is to calculate and retrieve data behind the scenes. I found a way to do it, but I'd rather come up with my own way, which does not employ ScriptManager.

Cloud pt II

So I changed the use of labels in my tag cloud to the use of hyperlinks. I decided to make it work by using a query string which contains the text that you click on. As a result, when the page is reloaded, the term you clicked on is used as a search term. Right now I have to deal with the postback/pageload logic to make sure it doesn't try to search for a null term. The hyperlinks are left justified now but I will figure out a way for them to fill up some container in a nice orderly fashion.