Beta testing Buienalarm v2

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Franklin

Right now, I’m working on a new version of Buienalarm with some highly requested features. I’m announcing new versions on Google+ when I build them. If you want to help me out testing those builds (and if you live in or around the Netherlands), please send me a notice on Google+.

For those that were a bit worried after Tweakers.net announced (in Dutch) that developers should start paying for using the Buienradar data in their apps: no worries! I still have permission to use the precipitation forecast data in Buienalarm.

Hibernation on newer MacBook Pros

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Franklin

Apparently, since Apple started shipping MacBook Pros (MBPs), the original way of sleeping used on the Powerbook wasn’t ported over to the MBP. On Powerbooks, if you would let it go to sleep, it would just keep RAM powered on, sleep almost instantly, and wake rapidly. An MBP also keeps RAM powered on by default, but also writes its memory contents to a sleep image. The machine still wakes rapidly, but sleeping takes a lot more time. In my case, it needs to write 4 gigabytes of RAM to that sleep image (which resides in /var/vm/ by the way). I don’t like putting my MBP in my bag while I don’t have the audible confirmation of the fans that it’s turned off, so I decided to write a bash script with some information about different sleep modes in the back of my head.

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Slides from my session at Droidcon

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Franklin

Here are the slides that I’ve used during my yellow room session at the Dutch edition of Droidcon. The talked about how to integrate Google Analytics in your Android app. The response from the audience was positive, so I’m very pleased with that!

I released example code as well to go along with the slides.

Speaking at droidconNL 2011

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Franklin

droidcon logo I am invited by the organizers of droidconNL to speak at their conference, which is to be held on November 22/23 in Amsterdam. During that conference, I will be talking about integrating Google Analytics in Android apps. I will also cover some of the caveats that you might encounter and how to overcome those by showing example code. So, if you’re interested, please come to my talk on November 23rd (the second day of the conference) at 12:30 PM in Room B. We’ll grab a drink afterwards.

Be sure to check out the rest of the programme as well. It includes speakers from Google and Research In Motion, as well as other interesting speakers. Tickets are still available.

Must-have Chrome extensions for Google+ users

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Franklin

If you’re among the lucky few that have access to Google+, you might want to add a few Chrome extensions that will improve the ‘Google+ experience’. These are two extensions that I find very useful.

Surplus — This extension let’s you add the red box for notifications to your Chrome extension bar. This way, you don’t have to be on any site of Google to see that you have new notifications. You can click on the red box and respond to those notifications, just like you would with the regular red box.
+1 Plus One Extension — With this extension, you can +1 any website, even if it doesn’t contain one of those nifty +1 buttons itself.

Surplus

+1 Plus One Extension