Bookmark Organizer 0.2 with SkyDrive Integration

I am pleased to announce the latest iteration of Bookmark Organizer. It now comes with the ability to synchronize your bookmarks with SkyDrive. Please read the original post for application pre-requisites and installation.

improvements

• Ability to synchronize with SkyDrive
• Various bug fixes and performance improvements
• Update to WP7 Root Tools SDK 0.2.1.0 alpha
• New splash screen :)
  

known Limitations

• Synchronization is limited to the root folder of SkyDrive. I might include the ability to choose the location if there’s demand for it.
• The app is limited to one way synching, its either Device to SkyDrive or vice versa. Source bookmarks are mirrored to the destination.
• The available sync file extensions are restricted. This is a limitation imposed by SkyDrive. Please read more about it here.
  

disclaimer

The usual disclaimer applies; I am not responsible for anything you might break by using this application. Please use at your own risk.

download

Please feel free to suggest any improvements and I will try to accommodate you as best as I can.

Bookmark Organizer 0.1 for Windows Phone 7.5

UPDATE: Version 0.2 is released!

I saw a tweet a few days back where someone wanted to sync favorites within windows phone. Unfortunately, the current iteration of the OS does not allow developers that level of access to their favorites. I was curious if it was still achievable, at least via un-supported means and this app was the result.

A little research revealed that the phone stores the favorites as url files within the \Windows\Favorites folder and that Internet Explorer treats every file with a “.url” extension as a favorite entry. It was only a matter of reading and manipulating these files.

This initial version allows to do basic CRUD operations on the available bookmarks and also import from a hosted CSV file. The CSV file itself should be a valid 2 columned file containing the Title and Url of the bookmark.
The app is built around the WP7 Root Tools SDK 0.1.6.0 alpha which does most of the heavy lifting.

Pre-requisites:

• An Interop-Unlocked Windows Phone running Mango (7.5)
• WP7 Root Tools by Heathcliff74

Installation:

1. Download and deploy the XAP file using your favorite deployment tool.
2. Make Bookmarks Organizer a trusted app using WP7 Root Tools

Future version:

• The ability to do 2 way sync with a cloud service.
• Improved UI maybe?

Disclaimer:

This app interacts with system files that were not meant to be accessed. I hold no responsibility if your phone gets ‘bricked’, blows up or any other unfortunate mishap by using this application. Please use at your own risk.
Please feel free to email me your comments, feature requests or bugs.

Download:

Styles of Programming

I came accross this link while cleaning up my bookmarks:

http://www.codeinstructions.com/2008/10/styles-of-programming.html

I think I fall somewhere between a Surgical and Butcher Programmer.

Death Metal Rooster!

Oh man!

http://www.thechickentest.com/2010/05/how-could-i-not-repost-this-death-metal-rooster/

Media Coder Samsung P2 presets

I’ve been using Media Coder to encode videos into my P2 for a while now and its been a great alternative to what comes out of the box.

Well, all *was* great until I lost the presets for the P2! It took me an whole afternoon to reconfigure the settings that work with the P2. I’m posting the preset file here in the interest of saving someone else some time.

These setting work great for me. Your mileage may vary.

The Microsoft Habu - 2000 dpi of gaming goodness

As most of you would know, I like to waste most of my free time gaming online. So it wouldn't come as a surprise that I've been hunting for the perfect business/gaming mouse for a while now. I was pretty excited when I finally got my hands on one of these babies. And what makes it sweeter is that I got it at real good price as well.

Like every other input device, its still taking me some time to get used to it. Its not an overly complicated mouse as far as gaming mice are concerned(this is a good thing). It feels solid and fills your hand pretty good (I still don't understand how and why some people use micro laptop mice). The on-the-fly dpi changer might come in handy. Haven't played any games with it yet, since I'm away from my main gaming rig at the moment, but I'm sure it would bump up my frags by a few kills at least :).

Get the Full Reviews and Specifications:

• X-Bit Labs
• Tech Power Up

Warning: Grand Theft Auto is addictive!

I had a good laugh with this, thought I'd pass it along.

GTA 4 Liberty City Google Map

Its a coincidence that I found this today, as lately I've been messing around with Google maps myself.

http://grandtheftauto.ign.com//maps/1/Liberty-City-Map

Looking at the map,  I see only one airport ???!!! Is flying not that important anymore? Surely I must be mistaken.

Playing San Andreas, the Hydra (Harrier clone) was one of the more entertaining forms of transport and I have wasted so many hours just blowing up stuff with it.

Halotography - Photo realistic Halo

Taken off the destructoid website.

Joshua used a combination of Halo 3 and Photoshop CS to give some of these images a more photorealistic look, with some impressive results. "I think this gives a much needed breath of fresh air to Halo," he writes to us. Anyone agree?

Check out his Filcker Page. The attention to detail is just super!

Karateka and the IBM 8086

Karateka was the first game I ever played. I think I started playing this when I was like 5. Produced and Published by Brøderbund Software, Inc. this game would be the stepping stone for them to later create the famed Prince of Persia.
Sadly I was never really able to finish the game or rescue the princess. I used to get stuck at this position of the game (shown below), not crash or freeze, my character would literary just stand there not responding. Where the "evil-ninja" would then proceed to kick my ass.



I'll blame this on a hardware limitation or some software glitch or maybe it was just a shareware version I had. I used to play the same level over and over until I got bored. What else can a 5 year old to do?

And speaking of hardware, this is the beast I used to run it off:


The great IBM 8086. Oh man! I have so many fond memories around this machine. I guess my love(addiction :) ) for programming and computers as whole started out from here.

And just so you know here are the specs of this beast!

The first IBM PC ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor. The PC came equipped with 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k. The PC came with one or two 160k floppy disk drives and an optional color monitor. The price tag started at $1,565, which would be nearly $4,000 today.

Direct Download YouTube Video

So why download a YouTube video when you can just stream it?
Sri Lanka is not best known for it's blazing internet speed (especially the "home" packages). I for one just got tired of looking at choppy video.

Works great if you want to use your videos with your own home brew player/organizer.


Why don't you just go to keepvid.com or use a browser plug-in?
What? Where's the fun in that?
Think command line, think quick launchers, think batch process. Exactly!

Screen scraping 101

This is what I needs to be done to get the download url:
http://www.walkernews.net/2008/02/25/youtube-video-direct-download-link/

This is how we go about doing it in C#:
Download Watch Video page


Parse it for the download Url (this is where the magic happens)

Parse it for the page title (more magic!)


Construct your final URL and That's It!

Download the source and try it out for yourself.

Look forward to a powershell version in the future.