Wessel Rossing - blog http://wesselrossing.nl/blog Receive an update whenever I post something Password Manager for Android http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/27 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/27 I have just published a simple password managing application for Android, aptly named Password Manager. You can find it in the market by searching for "com.omc.passwordmanager". The interface and controls pretty much explain themselves but I will provide a quick overview and explanation here. First off, some screenshots (click on them for a larger version).

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]]> Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:29:57 +0200 Top 15 website value calculators compared http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/26 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/26 Have you ever wondered what your website is worth? I have not, but when I came across a website value calculator I was pretty curious. I soon found out that there are a lot of tools that calculate the value of your website. The different tools use different methods to put a price on your site and I thought it would be interesting to compare the first 15 I found with Google.

The calculators base there estimates on different parameters like Google Pagerank, inbound links, site age and more. Based on these parameters they guess the daily traffic and make an estimate of the websites value. Some calculators also make a guess at what the daily add revenue of the site would be if it had any advertisements.

I have not sold this website nor have I got any adds, so we can not compare those numbers with anything. However I do have Google Analytics which registered 473 unique visitors and 1455 pageviews over the last 30 days, which comes down to 16 unique visitors and 48 pageviews per day. The table below shows what the calculators came up with.

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]]> Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:53:49 +0200 Tina Time-lapse videos http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/25 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/25 Tina Time-lapse is closing in on its 2500th 5000th 15000th download and has more than a 1800 5000 active users. People have already made some very nice time-lapse videos with it, which I would like to share here. If you used Tina Time-lapse to create a time-lapse video too please share a link in the comments section below.

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]]> Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:58:38 +0200 Internship week 4 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/24 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/24 This week was not very eventful. My internship coach came by and approved my plan. The production work is coming along pretty well, at least according to my schedule. It feels different though, it feels like I am progressing steadily but slowly. I guess I am not used to the time it takes to compile and run the application on the emulator, which when using Titanium for development is considerably longer than when writing Java.

What's ahead

I am looking forward to testing the application and getting feedback from users. The application should be ready for this in a week or two, after which I will test the application within JHED Media. As soon as everyone is confident the application is ready for the outside world it will be published and I expect that there will be a lot of feedback. Most of the feedback I have gotten on Tina Time-lapse was constructive and helpful, hopefully the feedback on GPUpdate will be the same.

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]]> Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:13:21 +0200 Internship weeks 1 through 3 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/23 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/23 This is already my third week as an intern at JHED Media and it is time to write about these first weeks.

JHED Media

After searching far and wide a friend suggested the company JHED Media, a PR and news agency. The companies largest websites are GPUpdate and FCUpdate. All of their sports websites together entertain on average more than half a million visitors every day. Their reputation and the working environment as described by my friend convinced me it was a good place to be an intern. After exchanging some emails I was invited at the company for an initial meeting and to talk about what my internship was going to look like. Not long after this meeting my school approved the internship and everything was settled.

Titanium Developer

My first assignment is the production of native Android and Iphone applications for the GPUpdate website. I had already done some research on the Titanium Developer tool provided by Appcelerator before starting my internship. This tool basically allows one to write code once and compile it for Android, Iphone and other platforms. When I recommended this tool to JHED Media they agreed with me that it would be a perfect tool for this assignment. The work is coming along quite well, even though I am not yet completely accustomed to the Titanium API.

Ping pong

The half hour ping pong break at noon is really becoming something to which I am looking forward to at the beginning of the day. I am seeing lots of improvement in my play and have already won some matches against the JHED Media ping pong veterans. Of course the movie Balls of Fury came to mind as soon as I saw the ping pong table, and also this clip from youtube is very appropriate:

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]]> Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:53:38 +0200 Sweden http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/22 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/22 Last month some friends and I spent a couple of days in Sweden. We experienced very bad weather during the drive over there and although the weather improved a little when we arrived it was still mostly rain. We planned on staying a week but decided to go home after just 3 nights because according to the forecast the weather was getting even worse. We had a great time though and I am really looking forward to head over there again.

Fishing

Even though we only fished for less than an hour Eric and I both managed to catch a small pike.

Caught a small pike

Cooking

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]]> Sat, 11 Sep 2010 16:46:27 +0200 Tina Time-lapse http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/21 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/21 Since I completely rewrote the Tina Time-lapse application I figured it would be appropriate to devote another blog post to it. First of all, the name has changed. I added a dash in the middle of time-lapse which seems to be used more than timelapse. Also the interface has changed a little:

Tina Time-lapse

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]]> Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:40:14 +0200 Update http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/20 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/20 Two weeks ago I started working at JHED Media as an intern. It has been quite a shock really to work 8 hours straight with only a half hour break. During that break though we play a lot of ping pong, which is pretty awesome.

Tina Time-lapse

Although my internship makes it hard to work on my personal projects during the week, I managed to spent some hours on Tina Time-lapse. I rewrote it completely and have gotten a lot of positive feedback since it's launch. The latest version works on Android devices running Android 2.1 or higher, but I will make it available for Android 1.6 in the near future.

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]]> Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:24:12 +0200 Tina Password Manager http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/19 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/19 Tina Password Manager is a simple application that creates passwords based on a base key and a profile. When you start the application it will ask for a base key. You should think of this as a master password, but keep in mind that the system will work with anything you enter here. If you accidentally typed in the wrong base key you can change it via the menu. The system will periodically ask you to enter your base key again.

The first screen shows the profiles that you have created. When you touch a profile a password will be generated based on the profile content and the current base key. Note that when you change your base key the outcome of the profiles change as well (until you enter your original base key). When you have just installed the application this screen will be empty. Use the menu button to find the following 5 options:

  • New profile
  • Backup-settings
  • Backup
  • Base key
  • Help

New profile

The new profile option will bring you to this screen below, in which you can create a new profile. A profile consists of a name, algorithm, strength and length. The name can be used to describe the profile, e.g. the name of a wireless access point. If you are creating a password for a website which requires you to login using a username and password, I recommend placing the username in the profile name as well. E.g. example.username, to create a profile for user <username> on website <example>.

The algorithm field is for future purposes and contains only one option. The other fields are pretty self-explanatory.

Backup-settings

The backup-settings screen allows you to enter an email address to which backups will be sent. You can also choose to send these backups automatically, if you do not check this box you can send backups manually through the menu option "Backup".

Backup

Sends a backup email to the email address specified in the backup-settings.

Base key

A quick way to change the base key.

Help

Shows this webpage.

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]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:59:03 +0200 Tina Password Manager announcement http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/18 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/18 I am about to launch my second Android application, Tina Password Manager. This is another simple tool, like Tina Timelapse, which allows you to generate and keep track of different passwords. It will be available in the market somewhere tomorrow, for every version of Android! Actually it will be in the market somewhere today, given that it is already past midnight.

Tina

Tina stands for two things:

  • This Is Not A...
  • There Is No Alternative...

It is what I keep in mind when writing software. It started with the PHP framework I programmed, which is really different from other PHP frameworks thus when you start using it you are like "What?! This Is Not A framework!" But as soon as you get used to it, for you There Is No Alternative framework. I can not say this will be the case for everything I write, on contrary I do not think it will really be the case any time. But it is what I keep in mind when writing software, because there is no need for copy cat software.

RC helicopter progress

The weather is not really cooperating and therefor I have not been able to fly with the E Sky Belt CP V2 nor with the Big Lama. As soon as there is any news on this subject you will be the first to know!

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]]> Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:05:03 +0200 Tina Timelapse published http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/17 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/17 I am proud to announce that my first Android application is available in the Android market. It is a free download, but only available on Android 2.1 and higher. I have also updated the previous post with a video tutorial, on how to convert the recorded images into a playable video.

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]]> Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:31:37 +0200 Tina Timelapse http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/16 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/16

Update (02-09-2010):

I have completely rewritten the application a few days ago and published it under a new name: Tina Time-lapse. I have received a lot of positive feedback. Check this page for more info on the new application: Tina Time-lapse.


Somewhere in the middle of last week I suddenly felt the urge to do some programming for the Android platform. I started at 10 o'clock in the morning and I was immediately hooked. After setting up the Software Development Kit I raced through the tutorials offered by Google and started working on my own application. Because I have not worked with Java recently I wanted to keep it simple and made a small timelapse application. It is not yet available in the Android market, but this is how it looks:

Tina Timelapse

And this is how it works

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]]> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:21:28 +0200 Crashing eye in the sky http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/15 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/15 It was already past 19:00 so I was in a hurry to get the camera in the air because I wanted to shoot some footage with the sun still shining bright. Maybe I should have done some flights to get comfortable with the controls again before flying with the camera because I crashed twice. The combined forces of the wind and the swinging camera made it very hard to control the helicopter. I am, however, very pleased with the image quality. The first video below was captured at 59.94 FPS and played back at 29.97. The second video ends in a bladestrike quickly followed by an inevitable crash. Enjoy, and make sure you watch it in HD!

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]]> Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:44:29 +0200 Game of Life revisited http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/14 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/14 About 1 year ago I wrote my first Game of Life application, and I still find it quite fascinating. The Game of Life produces seemingly random output, but when you give it some time patterns will start to emerge. I was wondering if these patterns could be put to some useful purpose and after a while I came up with the idea to make those patterns create music. Unfortunately I am not a musician and I do not know a lot about creating music. So this will be a process with a lot of trial and error, but at least the basic Game of Life is running:

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]]> Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:45:47 +0200 Krav Maga seminar http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/13 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/13 Together with some friends who also train in Krav Maga we attended a Krav Maga seminar yesterday. The seminar was held at the Willem Lodewijk van Nassaukazerne, a military base with the largest training village in Europe. The village is called Marnehuizen and consists of more than 120 objects including residences, a bank, an underground sewer and more.

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]]> Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:18:15 +0200 GoPro Hero HD carried by the E Sky Big Lama RC helicopter, video http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/12 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/12 Today the weather started with some wind and rain, but around noon the wind calmed down and the clouds began to disappear. Perfect weather to try and find the best way to attach the GoPro Hero HD to the Big Lama RC helicopter. After making some test flights with different constructions we arrived at the conclusion that the vibrations coming from the helicopter were too violent for the camera to make a decent video. The first video below was made when the camera was attached directly to the helicopter:

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]]> Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:29:32 +0200 Big Lama outdoors with payload, video http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/11 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/11 Although my flying skills are barely enough to call me a novice RC pilot, I was eager to test the lifting capability of my E Sky Big Lama RC helicopter . I tried it today with a 50 gram weight attached to the skid, which you can see in the video below. Despite reducing the battery life to 5 minutes the helicopter performed very well.

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]]> Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:20:11 +0200 Big Lama maiden flight http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/10 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/10 The E Sky Big Lama is a big (51 centimeters) radio controlled helicopter suitable for outdoor use. I bought one a while ago and first flew it yesterday. The helicopter came with a controller which could be connected to the computer, so I had been practicing quite a bit at home with a simulator. Still I crashed the helicopter twice, damaging 6 rotor blades and some other essential helicopter parts beyond repair. Luckily the shop where I bought the helicopter advised me to buy a repair kit as well, so after replacing the damaged parts the helicopter looks (and hopefully works) fine again:

E Sky Big Lama

Eye in the sky

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]]> Mon, 24 May 2010 18:04:54 +0200 NHL Academy Award http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/9 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/9 During my previous minor at the NHL Hogeschool I worked together with Eric Cuperus, Richard Venneman and Laurens Dijkstra on a serious game called Watermanager. This project has been nominated for the NHL Academy Award :D. You can vote for us here: http://wr0.org?k, we are project A. If you have a dutch mobile provider you can also text the following (without quotes) to 1008: "SMS NHL A"

Watermanager goal

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]]> Thu, 20 May 2010 09:40:04 +0200 Becoming self-sufficient http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/5 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/5 During this year I am going to try to become more and more self-sufficient, I have thought about this for a while now and I think it is time to take the first step. You can read my plans below but I want to talk about the why part first. Why would one want to be self-sufficient? and what is it exactly? Offcourse Wikipedia provides and answer to the second question: Self-sufficiency. As for the first, I think there are many different reasons.

  • The approaching end of the world
  • Trying to be good for mother nature
  • It is a way of life

For me, I just think it is interesting to see what is possible for a person living in the middle of the city with a small garden.

Plans

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]]> Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:04:31 +0200 Teaching http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/4 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/4 I was following an advanced PHP class yesterday, and out of the blue the teacher asked me to show the class how I would solve a certain problem.

Despite a few problems I was able to keep the class interested for over an hour. And afterwards I received a lot of positive feedback from both the class and the teacher.

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]]> Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:16:25 +0200 URL shortener, base convert and cURL http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/3 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/3 Weekends always give me some time to work on my own projects, and today I decided to create an URL shortener at wr0.org. I had written one before, so after an hour it was up and running. It basically works by inserting the long URL into a database, and then converting the assigned ID to base 36.

Base convert

Humans normally work with a base 10 system, we use 10 digits for counting: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. When we reach the end of our 10 digits, we append another and continue counting. Computers work with a base 2 system, using the digits 0 and 1. To write the number twentyfive in base 10 we write "25", in a base 2 system this would be written as "11001". In base 36 you generally use the letters a - z as extra digits, and then the number twentyfive would give us "p".

This is quite useful when trying to make a URL shortener, because you want to be able to shorten a lot of URLs, and they all need to be given an unique ID. When we assign IDs using a binary system, we run out of single digit IDs after shortening 2 URLs. The "normal" base 10 system allows for 10 single digit IDs and 36 single digit IDs can be assigned using base 36. This seems like much effort for little reward, but it gets better, take a look at this table.

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]]> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:58:34 +0200 Hello World!? http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/2 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/2 Hello World!? It should be working... Whenever I post something new to my blog it should be visible in my Google Buzz feed. For those not in the know, I did some programming and created my new blog. It has some cool features, the one I like most is the infinite scroll. As for now it is a one way street, there is no way for you to comment, but I will be working on a comment system this weekend.

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]]> Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:08:34 +0200 Quick update http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/1 http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/1 I finished most of the work I wanted to do before starting to blog. Next to an RSS feed that contains all the posts, each of the 3 categories has its own RSS feed.

I will be using this post to test new features of the website, so if you encounter anything odd don't worry.

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]]> Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:23:52 +0200