Hong ⁽⁶⁰¹⁾

There are many reasons to use Web contents in a smartphone app. Its biggest advantage is quick and easy updating. Publishing an app update involves many steps, and takes at least quite a few days. It will take much longer time for all the users…

Microsoft has made Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) very attractive by providing tools that make the development of WCF web services extremely easy. Even WCF Data Services that provide the interation with complicated databases can be constructed literally in minutes. Consuming WCF services are also made…

Niall Ferguson, an Internationally prominent scholar, attributes the Western dominance to 6 "killer apps" - competition, science, property rights, medicine, the consumer society, the work ethic - that are largely missing in other parts of the world. This is a fascinating theory. However, I think…

DataStore heavily promoted by Google may be good for Kotlin-based code but is practically unusable for Java-based code unless a helper/wrapper is created to help use it.

Java-ws-discovery may not work on Android due to its dependencies not supported by Android. One may have to implement the protocol.

A Maven project may or may not work depending on whether its dependency is supported by Android. For errors related to plugins such as "null (org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2:maven-jaxb2-plugin:0.8.3:generate:default:generate-sources)", including <plugins> in <pluginManagement>. For error "GroupId is duplicate of parent groupId", just change the id.

First, it is a quite some work to use a GridView even for the simplest task. An adapter needs to be created. The mechanism of the adapter is messy, shaky. One would think that GridView.getChildAt(i) would always return the ith child of the GridView. No, it does…

The ideal way is to add the open-source library as a project in Eclipse, then include this project in the Android project's build path. In this case, one can dive into the source easily for debugging. Unfortunately, some open source libraries do not build well…

Build fingerprint: 'samsung/gtelwifixx/gtelwifi:4.4.4/KTU84P/T560XXU0AOK1:user/release-keys' java.lang.OutOfMemoryError caused by android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate

BitArray of sun.security.util is a nice class for dealing with bits. Unfortunately, Android does not support sun.security.util. One can just use its open source code for Android projects.

Starting from API 16 (Jelly Bean), Android offers MediaCodec to allow Android app develoers to access the low level media codec. However, it does not appear to be able to handle RTSP streams, especially RTSP over HTTP with complex authentication schemes. It is also not clear…

Skydio was founded in 2014 and it beat the dominant play DJI in many features, especially, object avoidance by 2019. It is the best drone for recreational use. Its motion tracking is almost as good as the job done by a cameraman. However, there is…

Check blacklisting for an IP. Signed up with Google Postmaster to monitor a domain.

Well organzed Nokia DVLUP Day is educational, fun, inspirational. The WiFi connection speed using network MSFTGUEST is good, be.tter than network CAMBRIDGE.

The no-contract T-mobile phone is out of order or in limited stock at many Walmart stores. The $30 plan for unlimited data, text, and 100 minutes talk is certainly desirable for those who talk little but surf a lot. Windows Phone is the best phone…

PPP is a great program for small businesses. A PPP loan journey First draw: Application (normal time without technical issue: 2 days): Forgiveness: Second draw: Application (normal time without technical issue: 10 days): Record the loan Create a new liability account PPP and entering the loan amount as…

Quality ranking:

Umbraco may be the best .Net based CMS for people with a string developer background. Umbraco is open source with free download, but is also backed by a company. There are a few other good choices. People with strong background in Visual Studio may feel…

Git is the most widely used version control system. GitHub is the most popular Web-based Git repository hosting service. It hosts millions of open-source software projects. It also offers paid private repositories. Since it is the most popular one, it may be the top target…

Visual Studio Emulator for Android is by far the best Android emulator. Salute to Microsoft! When it comes to software development tools, Microsoft is still the king. The official Android emulators are effectively unusable. Genymotion is a significant upgrade, but its subscription is not cheap…