Buddy Runner [Android App]

I can’t say enough good things about Buddy Runner, a free app for runners now available on the Android Market. Buddy Runner uses your Android Device’s GPS to track your runs. If you are listening to music from your Android device while you are running, then Buddy Runner will interrupt your music to give you updates on your distance, pace, and time. Once your run is over the details of it are automatically submitted to the Buddy Runner website. Click here to see mine. Kind of slow because I was running with my 30 pound dog.

Buddy Runner

My Buddy Runner Profile

How to Select just the Date from a DateTime Column [MS SQL]

You need to select all rows that match a particular date. The problem, you stored the dates in your database table as SQL Date Type DateTime. So all the dates will contain the time as well as the date. So to find all the results that match a particular day we will actually be selecting records from the database that are in between midnight from the previous evening until midnight the next evening. How can we do this? With two WHERE statements.

We first need to convert a date like 06/04/2009 to DateTime. This will give us 2009-06-04 00:00:00.000. Basically, this gives us the absolute beginning of June 4, 2009.

CONVERT(datetime, convert(varchar(10), '06/04/2009',120), 120)

Next we need to get the end of the date. We will use DATEADD to add 1 day to the date. The following SQL code will result in 2009-06-05 00:00:00.000 which is technically the beginning of the following day.

CONVERT(datetime, convert(varchar(10), DATEADD(DAY, 1, '06/04/2009'),120), 120)

Here is a full SELECT statement where the date is the paramater @Date. If @Date is 06/04/2009 then this statement gives us returns the rows from the table where the DateTimeColumn is equal to or after 2009-06-04 00:00:00.000 and before 2009-06-05 00:00:00.000. This way, a row where the DateTimeColumn is equal to 2009-06-05 00:00:00.000 will not be included in the results.

SELECT *
FROM Table
WHERE
DateTimeColumn >= CONVERT(datetime, convert(varchar(10), @Date ,120), 120)
AND
DateTimeColumn < CONVERT(datetime, convert(varchar(10), DATEADD(DAY, 1, @Date),120), 120)

How to Prepopulate the current date in a jQuery Datepicker Textbox with Today’s Date

I decided to use jQuery’s Datepicker in a C# ASP.NET Web Application I am currently working on.  The default behavior loaded the page with the textbox blank.  Most of the time it needs to be today’s date so I did not want my users having to select the date unless it was a day other than today. Here’s how to auto populate the datepicker textbox field with today’s date.

This example assumes you have jQuery correctly working on your website.

The following code should be in the head tag of your page. For the purpose of this example I named the Datepicker “datepicker”. If you want it to be something different just replace “#datepicker” with “#whatyouwanttocallit”.

<link type="text/css" href="../css/smoothness/jquery-ui-1.7.1.custom.css" rel="Stylesheet" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="../js/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../js/jquery-ui-1.7.1.custom.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
 $(function() {
 $("#datepicker").datepicker();
 });
 $(document).ready(function() {
 $("#datepicker").datepicker();

 if ($("#datepicker").val() === "") {
 $("#datepicker").val(getDate())
 }
 });
 function getDate() {
 var date = new Date()
 var year = date.getFullYear()
 var month = date.getMonth()+1
 var day = date.getDate()
 if(day<10) day = "0" + day
 if(month<10) month= "0" + month
 var today = month + "/" + day + "/" + year

 return today
 }
 </script>

The code for the Datepicker textbox in HTML:

<input type="text" ID="datepicker"></input>

The code for the Datepicker textbox in ASP.NET:

<asp:TextBox ID="datepicker" runat="server" ></asp:TextBox>

macam - How to use just about any External Webcam in Mac OS X

OS X supports a lot of peripherals right out of the box but it does not support a lot of external webcams. This is not a big deal since all Macbooks and iMacs come with pretty decent built-in cameras but sometimes you just need to use an external webcam.  This is where macam comes in.  From their website:

macam is a driver for USB webcams on Mac OS X. It allows hundreds of USB webcams to be used by many Mac OS X video-aware applications. The aim is to support as many webcams as possible.

I tested macam with an old Intel CS430 webcam that’s pretty hard to get to work in Windows XP so I wasn’t expecting anything.  Low and behold, as soon as I started macam the webcam showed up, but it was only giving me a black screen.  I had to click the Play, still a black screen.  Turns out I needed to up the Brightness control to see anything.  At that point though I had a decent picture and I was able to record video to a Quicktime file from within macam.  Pretty cool.  According to the documentation it is possible to make the Webcam available to other OS X apps like Photo Booth or iChat, though I did not test this part.  The video recorded at me about 5-7 fps but that’s better than nothing, and is .  I expect the results would be much better with most webcams.  You can download the program freely from macam’s homepage.

macam

Astrid - a todo list for the Android Platform

I wanted to share my love of Astrid and I figured that a video demonstrating its features would be better than just a few screenshots. Astrid is undoubtedly the best ToDo List for the Android platform. It synchronizes with RememberTheMilk and it also happens to be free. If you have an Android phone you ought to check out Astrid.

[Astrid]

Find a column name by searching an entire SQL Server 2005 database

I am having to learn to be a DBA for my job and I finally figured out how to search a SQL Server 2005 database for a particular column name. This keeps me from having to look through every single table.

If you know the exact name of the column you can use the first example.  Just replace SEARCH_TERM with the name of the column that you are looking for.

SELECT name FROM sysobjects
WHERE id IN ( SELECT id FROM syscolumns WHERE name = 'SEARCH_TERM' )

If you only know part of the column name just enclose the name you are looking for in parentheses.

SELECT name FROM sysobjects
WHERE id IN ( SELECT id FROM syscolumns WHERE name like '%SEARCH_TERM%' )

I hate to think how much time I wasted before I discovered this.

Proof that PETA Kills Animals

Anyone who knows me could tell you that I have never been a fan of PETA. I had heard that PETA put down a ridiculous number of animals each year but the only proof I had seen was on opinion websites.  Now I have seen proof.  At the end of this article there are links to pages on the Virginia.gov website that prove that something is rotten at PETA (FYI, PETA is based in Virginia). If you don’t feel like reading this article please skip to the bottom and at least click one of those links.

PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of animals. So how is it that they kill so many animals under their care? Apparently, they believe that the animals would be better off dead than in the hands of another human who could possibly mistreat them.

What if we looked at abused children this way. Foster care? Adoption? We can’t risk the child being mistreated or abandoned ever again. What can we do? Let’s murder the kid!

Not a good solution. I adopted Caplan, my dog. He eats only human-grade dog food, he’s given plenty of attention every single day, he lives inside with me, and he visits the Vet regularly. I have never had him kenneled nor have I ever chained him up. Heck, it’s not often that he even has to be on a leash when we go for a walk. He has a great life and he’s very happy. Would it really have been better for him to have been “mercy killed” just because circumstances beyond his control brought him to an animal shelter?

• In 2006 PETA killed 2981 of the 3062 animals under it’s care, PETA found homes for only 12.
• In 2007 PETA killed 1815 of the 1896 animals under it’s care, PETA found homes for only 17.

Want to see it for yourself? Click the links below. They will take you to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.  Here’s how to get my numbers.  Look at the totals, subtract those returned to their owner (the majority of these were most likely animals PETA spayed or neutered for the owner).

PETA 2006 VDACS Record
PETA 2007 VDACS Record

Check out the links below for more info and be sure to spread the word.

Better dead than fed, PETA says - San Francisco Chronicle
Picking Vick Over PETA - NYTimes.com
PETAKillsAnimals.com
PETA Killed 95 Percent of Adoptable Pets in its Care During 2008

Guide to watching 720p HD in XBMC on Apple TV

There is one major problem with XBMC on the Apple TV.  It doesn’t have access to the GPU so all the video processing is done on the CPU.  This is fine until you try to play some HD content.  The standard 720p MKV TV show you can get off the web will play in XBMC on the Apple TV, but it will drop frames.   I mean a lot of frames.  So it works, but not to where it is anywhere near watchable.  What to do?  Convert the video file from h.264 to MPEG.  This is quick and easy.  I can convert an hour long show like House in about 20 minutes.  This codec is simpler and requires less CPU to decode.  Now the file will play perfectly through XBMC on the Apple TV, even over the network (well, wired anyway).  Here’s how I do it using the free video conversion program, Handbrake.  The screenshots are taken on a Mac but it should work the same for a PC running Windows.

Before continuing you might want to download and install Handbrake.

Then select the file you would like to convert.

Set your destination and now you just need to match the settings to the ones see below. For 30 minute TV Shows I set the Target Size to 550 MB, and for hour long shows set it to 1100 MB.

Click Audio and Subtitles and set Track 1 to AC3 Passthrough if available.

Click the Start button at the top of the window and half an hour later you will have a 720p HD file that is ready to be watched in XBMC on your Apple TV.

Men’s Essentials (Humor)

I saw this endcap in my local Target store. I never knew that bandanas were essential Men’s Wear. You learn something knew everyday, I guess.

A try at Sports Photography

I got my replacement D80 Friday.   The company that I work for owns a local professional basketball team, the Wilmington Sea Dawgs.  I decided to try my D80 and my new Nikkor 50mm 1.8D prime lens out at some sports photography.  I shot in manual mode most of the time pretty much wide open with a shutter speed of 1/400th of a second.  I was pretty pleased with the results.  Let me know what you think.  Any and all criticism and comments are welcome.  Click the thumbnails to see the fullsize images.