I'm a software developer in transition. I’ve written my fair share of web and desktop apps using a variety of languages and tools. I am pathologically committed to doing things properly, so I’m an advocate of web standards and progressive enhancement. I’m currently scratching an urgent usability itch by embarking on a Masters in HCI. I want to help to make things better. Here you will find my thoughts and ideas as I progress with UX. I’ll use this place to evaluate existing systems, and there will definitely be some code along the way.
Metamorphosis
The first books for my course have been delivered.
Tags: design, hci, human-computer interaction, reading list, touch, ucl, uclic, ui, university college london, Usability, user interfaceAdd items to a Word document using C#
I thought I had found the promised land. Then I tried adding more than one item to a blank Word document using C# and I realised it had been a mirage all along. I simply wanted to create a blank document, add a line of text, followed by another, followed by my table. I was flummoxed by the Word.Range object – and I’ll go into detail in a bit – but here’s the solution: More »
Tags: c sharp, endofdoc, word, Word Automation, word interop, Word.RangeAdd a table using Word Interop and ConvertToTable
The .NET Framework allows us to do many things with relative ease but the main cost is often the time taken in finding a decent example to learn from. I experienced pain when I wanted to create a Word document programmatically and add a simple table to it. But I got there in the end, and this is how I did it. More »
Tags: add table, c sharp, c++, converttotable, word, Word Automation, word interopIE6 Compatibility VPC IETest Password Is P2ssw0rd
I just downloaded and installed the very useful IE6 Compatibility Virtual PC [IE6-on-XP-SP3.exe] from Microsoft. Within minutes of starting the machine and getting distracted, the screensaver kicked in, locking the machine until I entered the relevant password for the IETest user. The password is P2ssw0rd. More »
Tags: compatibility, IE6, ietest, P2ssw0rd, password, vpcHotel Room Message Retrieval Fail
We’re all familiar with software applications and web sites that require us to enter a password: type in an obscure string of masked characters to proceed to the promised land. More »
URL Editor
On a few occasions recently I’ve had to deal with long URLs, or more accurately, URLs with long querystrings. Each time it was a chore: strings that are a few hundred characters in length are unwieldy, hard to read and tricky to edit. So I decided to make my life easier and build a tool. More »
Tags: http get, long url, querystring, url, url editorPath and Filename to Clipboard
Many moons ago I wrote a little helper application for Windows that would allow you to right-click a file in Explorer and get its full path, including filename, into the clipboard. Owing to underwhelming demand I have resurrected it. More »
Tags: helper app, xpHTML images using long GET strings
The Problem
You’ve got a piece of code that creates an image in your web page by passing a bunch of parameters in a GET string to some server-side process:
$('tile').src = 'http://img.com/generate.php?a=1&b=2&c=3';
But what do you do when the URL goes beyond the limit? Practically, for cross-browser solutions, the limit is around 2000 characters (thanks to IE), and I recently had to find a workaround when generating images via a WMS. More »
Tags: ajax, http get, http post, img, long url, wmsMeltdown Festival 2009
This year’s Meltdown Festival on the South Bank is looking better and better. I already have tickets to three shows, but more great artists keep being added. More »
Tags: meltdown, ornette coleman, the bad plus