New Homepage For The Software Jedi

All applications can be seen and downloaded from my new home - http://www.TheSoftwareJedi.com.

To subscribe to the new news feed, use this link, or look for the RSS button on my homepage.

AnAppADay.com is not over. There will be more to follow, but in the meantime join in the news, chats, and forums at http://www.thesoftwarejedi.com.

May the source be with you.

Mission Succesful

30 application in 30 days. No sweat <cough, cough>. I have one possible candidate as an upcoming Jedi - so stay tuned. We're gonna put the app machine on hold for a week or two while I regain my sanity. Lot's more to come, keep your RSS readers tuned in. If you're just showing up - where have you been? Head over to the downloads page!

Special thanks to:
My Family
The_PHP_Jedi
DaemonCollector
CrewDawg
DB42
The Hak5 Crew
AlanMac
CowxMeister
QualityControl

Queue the theme music:
Thanks for the support!

29 Apps In 29 Days

I've made it this far - tomorrow is day 30. I have a CRAZY busy schedule tomorrow. It's my son's birthday party, and we're going to a local theme park afterwards, so I believe I'll be starting the coding session from the car on the way home to make the midnight start deadline. WOAH - Am I crazy? Yep.

Keep this blog on your reader for more to come - tomorrow is NOT the end of the Jedi. I'll probably have a good week or so downtime, and won't go back into an app a day (although my challenge to the world still stands). The IRC channel is alive and well for all you coders. I'll leave the links up. Expect much bigger and better things to come.

Cheers

Mods And More Mods

2 mods today:

CodeSaver (DaemonCollector):

This sweet mod makes the text for the code type itself onto the screen. It also has configuration options for text color, and code location. While the "debug" mode didn't work for me (Vista B2), word has it that on XP enabling that feature causes it to open random binaries and print the ASM! Wow!

JediHoneyPot (Chris):

I added a configuration window to change the Port while the program is running.
I also added in an "Admin" page that will list the IP's of anyone
hitting your honey pot inside a message balloon, modify the
"AnAppADay.JediHoneyPot.AdminPage.htm" to change how it looks.
There is also an option to set the location of the admin page,
"http://site:port/adminpage/", I'd recommend it be changed to
something unique so that only the owner can see the admin page, that
too is able to be changed while the program is running.

Both text boxes in the configuration window have tooltips.

I added a tool tip to the Notify Icon, now it shows "Total hits: 12 -
Unique hits: 8" on mouse-over, just a simple count of how many hits
the honey pot has gotten so far.

Jedi Open Enrollment

I have 3 days left. I've proved myself. I am a Software Jedi.

Check out my latest app, the Code Saver!

Are there other Software Jedii? Bring it on! Write to me at "jediapplication at mydomain dt com" and let me know if you can start coding on Sunday, and can keep it up for 30 days. The only rules are that you have to start before midnight (your local time) and finish in time to start the next before the following midnight. Simple next day bugfixes are excused. The application you write must be useful (you, and the other Jedii [me] are the judges). This is language and OS agnostic, your tool of choice.

Calling all linux, mac, and other fanboys! You think your OS is better? Prove it by showing me that you can write just as many useful desktop applications for your OS as I've written for mine. If any MS alternative OS developer writes an application a day for 30 days, I will give up my XP desktop at home, and replace with their chosen OS upon completion.

It'll never happen though. You love to brag about your OS but you don't see why I love mine so much. Sorry you can't c0de. You fanboys are all talk. I'll tell you what - I'll even have an MS software burning party at my house as I switch to another OS. I'll put the whole thing on Google Video and defame myself. BUT, I'm still the Software Jedi. ;)

Please contact me as previously mentioned ("jediapplication at mydomain dt com"), and let's talk. I'm willing to help a bit with the site, provide analytics, and give you 100% of the adsense revenue for this domain (don't expect an income - it's not pulling it's weight).

In addition, anyone who completes this will have worldwide recognition as a Software Jedi. Don't underestimate the power of this on-line resume. Just Google my name for proof. This project has been on digg's front page 9 or 10 times in 28 days as a result of my applications (I'd expect the same from any Jedi), and I've had over 4 million hits (140,000 unique visitors). All this in 27 days - join my 1337 programmer club - The Software Jedi.

Where is the next Jedi?

Enough of the web!

Too much web stuff going on right now... Sure, it was hot years ago, chilled out when the bubble burst, but now it's coming back and they are calling it "Web 2.0". Ugh... Stupid web.

Don't get me wrong, I love AJAX and mashups and all that fun stuff. In fact I've written my fair share of it all. I love sharing my pictures on picasaweb! I have only one problem I can't get past... You have to host your application in a @$#^ $%&#%^ browser! What kinda crap is that?!?! What if my app doesn't need a friggin back button?

Desktop applications are SO much cleaner and can be designed for maximum usability. Sure they're platform dependent, and you can run into issues with client configuration. But they are so much sexier when done right.

On that note, check out my latest app!

The Home Stretch

Day 24 complete. I have only 5 more days to go. Would it be cheating if on day 30, I made a huge mashup of the best apps I've written? Personally, I'd love that. Maybe I'll save that for next month, but let me know what you think.

Download today's application here - it's a ton of fun...

As for what's after this, I'll need at least a month to put something together, but it's obvious that the demand is there. Stay tuned!

New Mods!
Modded Jedi Console
Modded Jedi Window Dock

Another RSS option, Util library growing

With my latest application, you can get the RSS feeds you like spoken to you during the times you wish. Download it here.

For those of you following my source code, you'll notice my utility library growing larger and larger. If there's anything good for myself that comes out of this, it's that library. It includes EASY ways to do global keyboard hooks, global mouse hooks, a window hosting control, RSS parsing, and more...

While writing these apps very quickly, I'm still able to make peices of them generic enough to put into a common library. This allows me to complete applications faster everynight. Lack of ideas will stop me after 30 days - not lack of time ;)

More Mods from Daemon Collector!
Enhanced Jedi Visual Studio IRC Client - colors!
Tonights RSS speech app with voice choices!

Developer Efficiency

There are a lot of ways to make a developer more efficient. For one, give them more monitors. At least 3, but 4 is best. Anything over 4 tends to have limited gains.
I used 6 monitors at work for 3 years, and now am down to 4, arranged as follows - 15", 17", 17", 15". The left monitor is email, the center two are visual studio (tool windows on the left, main code on the right), and the right monitor is a web browser. By eliminating the clutter - I can get things done much faster.

With multi-monitors, a MUST HAVE TOOL is Ultramon. This application has a ton of features, but most noteworthy is it's ability to put a seperate taskbar on each monitor. No more filled up taskbar. It also allows dragging a maximized window from one monitor to the next - another time saver.

To that same effect, is the application I wrote tonight. It docks any number of applications into one tabbed window, freeing up your taskbar and allowing you to group similar things together. Check it out here!

The code for this app is sure to be modded like crazy. It's this spark of innovation that I love to see - especially in the young coders out there.

May the source be with you.

RAD already

So, look at RAD in C#! I can develop this many applications (20 now) in an average 4 hours per night, 80 hours total.

For those who don't know it, RAD stands for Rapid Application Development. It's where you buckle up, go into tunnel vision, and just write code. While you don't worry too much about clean code, and scalability - if you know what you're doing these things come naturally.

In 80 hours, I've written 20 applications - at least 10 of which could be made into commercial apps in just a couple more hours of polish. So why don't we see large organizations doing this? Is it just the brainwashing of large consulting companies who want to convince you that a team of 50 programmers (40 in India) is necessary? Who knows....

Bottom line - we the programmers of the world today can write massive amounts of functionality very quickly if given the freedom to innovate. With tools like google and krugle, we have everything we need. Use cases? Yeah, I got your use cases.

Never heard of krugle?!?!?!? Check them out! "A search engine for developers". w00t!

Next up, SPAM!

<SPAM>
As you read this, I don't want you to feel sorry for me, because I
believe everyone will die someday. My name is Mr.Abdul Nasser Naji,a
merchant Dubai in the UAE. I have been diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer
which was discovered very late,due to my laxity in caring for my health.
.
.
.
The last of my money which no one knows of, is the huge cash deposit
of twenty four million dollars($24,000 000.OO) that I have with a Security
Company outfit in Europe for safe keeping. I want you to help me
collect this deposit and disburse it to some CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS,
THE LESS PRIVILEGED AND VICTIMS OF CURRENT HURRICANE KATRINA, AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTER.
<SPAM>
Of course he goes on to say that he's loaded and wants to give me all his money if I give him my bank account, social, and mother's maiden name. It's so nice of him to care about hurricane katrina! o.0

And of course, enjoy today's app. I'm sure someone will get a kick out of it. Especially you script k1dd1es.

What Fun

People are really having a blast with this code... So great to see how inspired people are by me doing this. The chat room is ever growing, digg users are loving it, and I've hit the lifehacker download of the day twice! I'm receiving positive feedback even from folks who play poker! Somehow, I just don't think people expected the apps to be of this quality when my little stunt was first announced.

Tonight I wrote an app that shows a "Heat Map" type of graphic where your mouse has been. It's pretty wild! I'm looking forward to seeing how this looks after weeks of running. See this app in the download blog!

Check out what DaemonCollector threw together tonight! He merged the JediConcentrate application and the WPMTray application. So when you are typing quickly, concentrate mode is automatically enabled, then disabled when you stop. THIS is awesome. Download his hybrid creation here (source here).

So what's next for the Software Jedi? Stay tuned!

13 Days Remaining

Whew - I cannot begin to explain how tiring this is. I've run out of good ideas, I'm tired, worn out, and drained. I think I can still make it to 30 days, but I'm hurting.

A quick shout out to the guys over at Hak.5! You guys do a great job. Head over to Hak5.org to see what they're all about. Their next podcast episode releases on Thursday!

My latest app is sure to be a favorite. It shows you how fast you're typing both now, and over time. Check it out!