Why must I set Sensor in Google Map API request?

I was playing with the google map v3 API, and encountered this error, "The Google Maps API server rejected your request. The "sensor" parameter specified in the request must be set to either "true" or "false"." The sensor parameter doesn't give you any geo location capabilities it just lets Google know as part of their licensing terms with their data providers that the map is being used in conjunction with some sort of geo location functionality.

Why are Boobs Bad for Crime Fighting?

I woke up sleep deprived and googled "boobs" for some reason. I will probably be mistaken as a horny 17 year old by Google's horrible ad-prediction engine now *not really caring*.

Happy 2nd Birthday Go!!!

I remember at the time of release I thought that Google was going to replace Android's Java base to Go base, especially with the court case by Oracle. Guess not. I learnt a bit of it but my heart was anchored on the adorable Gordon itself. Man, it was not meant to be. Of all the programming languages in the world, I hate C++ the most.

PS. Yes I do realize this is the old logo for Apple. =P But I like the contrast, so there!

New Blogger Interface

I was reading on Mashable that Google has finally done something to Blogger. So I was watching out for the changes while logging in. Now that I am trying it out, I am thinking, it looks awfully like Gmail? Google doesn't reinvent the wheel huh...

Pluses:

I like that now that I finish an entry, it goes to the dashboard instead of the blog.

It is now easier to label my stuff, as Blogger autosuggests the labels.

Cool, I can change language on the interface.

Minuses:

I wish I can see the stats more readily.
I thought that they would add new things that will show which country is accessing your blog at any time, just like those free live feeds.

Blogger stats - not sure it can be believed. It seems to be changing everytime (even old Blogger). Note: I mean the All Time tab obviously. There is now a count against each entry, but I am not sure what is it counting? The accumulated, methinks. Still not accurate, when you compare the entry's total against the "All Time" total.

Interesting:

Is there any stats for labels?
New Post Page => Good to have a "edit posts" or have a side panel for accessing the posts I have written before, so that I can access or link if necessary. 

All Posts => Can we sort the entries by stats or date or name or label?

I removed my nick and email address, but otherwise here is most of the new interface. To be updated.

I am extremely disappointed in Google

I cannot believe this. 

I have been faithfully generating huge amounts of content for this blog in the hopes that I can up the traffic in the blog so that more people will visit, and hopefully click on my adverts. All this effort has resulted in a significant ~1800-2000 visits a month.

I have been excitedly telling my colleagues that I am very close to my first USD100 after so many months of effort. This, together with the USD200 that I will be getting from my Android app distribution in South Korea, was going to go into my fund for buying a Android 3 device, so that I can test my new app on a tablet sized device.

And today, I discovered that my Google ad account has been banned. WTF.

Google, see for yourself. See where my traffic is from, and tell me who the fuck has been clicking on my blog so much that my account has been banned. It can't be me, I am so busy with my stupid new project, I haven't got time to update much except to check my blog stats. And if I click on one or two, it's because I am interested in the product. Don't let me find out who you are, arschloch.

I am really damn angry now. My days of being a Googlephile is officially over as of right now.

I hate Google Instant

I really hate Google Instant.

I hate that it moves and brings forward new search results at every word I type. It is very distracting. I am most infuriated today when I went to google search my blog and discovered that when I typed "nibblez". You can search it yourself. B1 was laughing like mad when I told him what I saw. He was wondering why they were called nibblez.

I don't think that is the point... 

The ten second rule: How to recall your Gmail email

I made a terrible booboo yesterday, and needed to recall my Gmail email.

After hunting around, it seems that if you sent it out, it's too bad. However to guard against your next email booboo, Google does have a function under "Settings-> Labs-> Enabled Labs" and choose "Undo send".

Within 10 seconds from sending, you can decide whether you typed a booboo and undo your send. What I can say is: for god's sake, read before you send, don't be stupid like me. I wish Google labs will allow us to configure how much thinking time instead of just 10 seconds.

Google knows what we are thinking

Google has donated two opensource tools to Eclipse platform. Finally a more technik substitute to the weird ass App Inventor. I am grateful. One of them looks like a rival version to Microsoft Visual, which certainly welcomed. I will look forward to the new Eclipse release.

20 things I learned about Browsers and the Web

This is an online book that Google came up with to teach people about the Internet and other fun geeky facts when they were showcasing Chrome, with illustrations from Christoph Niemann.

SADC 2010

Apparently there is a local Android Developer Challenge hosted by NTU for tietiary students. Why the hell didn't they have it two years ago when I was still an overaged student in school? When I saw the $$ and the prizes, I am even more sour now.

Haha.

If you are still in uni or poly now, pleae remember to register and take part.

Screen sizes in Android

After playing with B1's iPad, I marvel at the quality of the images in the (paid) games and also how they can scale according to your preference.

Seeing that Dell Streak is out and more Android-OS based tablets are coming soon, I am wondering if I should learn to scale up my android apps. I am reading up on Google's directions on screen size, before I start drawing my images. I previously toyed with the idea of making different xml files for different screens for Burger Stacko, but figured the images were horrible anyway, so didn't bother.

So far, I figure out that if you need to manipulate screen size in your game, use WindowManager and DisplayMetrics.

DisplayMetrics metrics = new DisplayMetrics();
getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(metrics);

Games wise, I like PopCap's Plants vs Zombies. I wonder how many developers and game designers do they employ? It was rather funny that PopCap claimed Microsoft wanted to acquire them some years ago, and then they only estimated the company was worth US$5M when the executives said they had US$4M in the bank at that point. Dude, bad luck. Anyway they earned US$1M from 9 days of sales of PvZ in Apple AppStore.

As for my misalignment struggles in displaying the scoreboard in Burger Stacko, a Development Lead advised me to use Courier or some other monospaced font. I learnt something new~! This is why I love hanging out with geeks and developers. :D

B1 joins the dark side again

Brainwashed by the iPad he received for his birthday, B1 became besotted by the Apple AppStore and is getting iPhone. He said the games in Apple AppStore has a bigger market than the limited Android market.

I am so annoyed now I can pass out bricks. Though my love for Google is going unappreciated, I am still trying very hard to code some decent stuff for Android. I sourly commented that his iPhone will probably join his Android phone in the glove compartment since neither of us can carry camera phones to work.

I am supposed to be working on the expansion for Burger Stacko and a new game. But the heat is getting to me so much, I fell asleep when watching Babies in air-conditioned comfort. Zzzz. I can't even play Company of Heroes, I am so tired. I am toying with the idea of buying a Bamboo drawing tablet. The previous pad I bought was terrible, and I reverted to using a computer mouse to sketch. The little girl you see as my avatar is drawn by mouse, as are the images in Burger Stacko though it is obvious I spent lesser effort when drawing those images. Haha.

It has finally happened - Oracle sues on Java

I knew it was coming. At first I thought it was going to be MySQL, but turns out Oracle is suing Google for leveraging on Java for Android. Why didn't Google buy Sun when they had the chance? Didn't see Oracle coming from the left field?

Which may make my other prediction accurate, we are all going to have to learn Go. Hahaha, think Google will switch over to Go instead for Android. Heavens help me, I cannot even understand Wave code and I hate C++ (and C to lesser extent). Who invented C++ anyway!?

According to Go's blog, Google hasn't actively looked into moving Android into Go.

From
An angry Android developer-wannabe

Googlers have a sense of Humor

I was checking out the Log class in Android, when I came across the suggestive "wtf" function.

Sorry to disappoint you if you thought it meant (W)hat (t)he (F)uck?

The function is supposed to capture

At the rate I am going, I am probably going to use it pretty often. Sigh.

What Happens when you google "World Cup"?

Unparsed aapt error

So you played too much with your xml, and now you get a stupid "Unparsed aapt error" that blocks you from running your app.

Don't panic like I did.

1) Delete that error message.
2) Run your app again.
3) If you encounter a "Could not find [app name].apk", just make some lame change in your code or xml then run the app again.

Android Struggle - Re-installation failed due to different application signatures

What do you do, when you encounter this?

Re-installation failed due to different application signatures.

You must perform a full uninstall of the application. WARNING: This will remove the application data!
Please execute 'adb uninstall [package name]' in a shell.
Launch canceled!

1) Open command prompt.
2) Go to [directory path]:\android-sdk-windows\tools
3) adb uninstall [package name]

Or you can always delete the app from the "Manage Applications" in your phone. Then install again.

In Your Face, Google

The 山寨 strike again.

They miss Google so much, that in anticipation of Google pulling out of China (not even sure if that is even happening), they made Goojje. You know, 谷歌 （phonetically 哥, meaning brother） now 谷姐 (姐 meaning sister). In fact they made a really sardonic, somewhat lame and yet oddly amusing line about “哥的留下是为了姐，哥依然迷恋着姐”. Direct translation means Older Brother stayed behind because of Older Sister, because he remains captivated by her. Up to you to interpret who is Sister and who is Brother. haha.

I smell a lawsuit.

I went to test the search engine, thinking that it was reflecting search results from google. Oh yes, it is... not even Bing is that "in your face" to Google. This is going to be fun!!!

Why Google Wave is DOOMED

I feel bad for Google. I have been trying the Preview for the last few days and it's a bit of the Big Brother for me. On top of that, I couldn't get anyone to take the 23 invites I have left (I only invited my techie friends, cos I thought they were more likely to be interested). And no one wants to talk to me on the sandbox. *sobs*

And the complaint is the same, we cannot untype what we are typing, i.e. conversation participants can see what you are writing right at the moment of writing, and you cannot correct it. Which is very dangerous...

Feeling the Wave Part 1

Well, I got into my Google Wave account, and it looks damn fine. = d Must cut back on Company of Heroes and concentrate. Focus!!!

PS. I notice that IE is not supported. Funny =D Anyway I noticed that they are trying to play DnD 4ed in the wave. *Home away from home feeling* FF does not support drag-and-drop. You need Chrome for that (not very portable).

Things that are happening in Google Wave Land (will update as I go)
Google Wave itself
Wave based IDE, Wavid (think: Eclipse)
Google Wave robot Twiliobot(read more: http://googlewavedev.blogspot.com/2009/06/twiliobot-bringing-phone-conversations.html)