viernes, 31 de octubre de 2008

Tweeting like the pros...With Twitwall


If you're a Twitter addict, like me -;) You should be aware of Tinypaste and TwitPic, two wonderful Twitter companions...But are you aware of Twitwall?

This free service created by Michael E. Carluen provides the same functionality as Tinypaste and TwitPic with some more cool features...Let's see some pictures...



You first notice that the interface is very similar to Twitter, but you can change font size and color -:)


You got a very nice RichText editor with the change to include pictures on the same post...


The pictures gets embed in your post...And yes...I attached the same picture as above -:) Have you noticed that you can actually add a title and description to your post?


On Twitter you see the title, and a link send you to Twitwall to see both the picture and the description on your post.

After seeing this...Why you haven't create you account yet? You even got Twitter Grader inside you account -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

martes, 21 de octubre de 2008

Requiem for a cat...



Last Saturday...My cat Cheko passed away...What can I say about him? Cheko was more than a cat to me...He was a friend, a confident, a brother...He lived some great and productive 11 years of sleeping, eating and chasing bugs...Now, he must be in heaven listening to his all time favorite Punk Rock Band The Misfits.

Cheko and I spend some great moments...He was there when I start programming, he was there when I was getting ready to went to the church and get married, he was there when I take my daughter to my mom's house...He was always there...


Cheko, you were and you're always going to be...The best cat ever...Man! You'll always be missed -:')


Greetings,

Blag.

viernes, 3 de octubre de 2008

Quake Live...It's alive!


A couple of weeks ago...Well...Actually last week LOL I sign up for the Quake Live Beta program...Gladly...Got accepted -;) So I create my account...Download the browser client (Works great on Firefox, haven't test it in other browsers...yet).

So...Have you ever played Quake, Doom or Wolfenstein 3D? I had surely do...I'm a big fan of ID Software games...

Let's look at some pictures...First, you can choose from various characters...


You can access a "Learn first" arena...


A bot called Crash is ready to give the first lessons...


You can even fight Crash in a small DeathMatch practice game...


The graphics are very cool, the movement is very smooth and you got a nice range of weapons...


As in most On-Line games, some additional data is downloaded when you load a new Arena, but this download is very quick -;)


In other words...Quake Live rules!!!

Greetings,

Blag.

jueves, 25 de septiembre de 2008

Introducing...Blag Software


Yeah...I know...I'm kinda crazy...Blag Software? Sure -:) My new space to share freeware software...

Blag software is my attempt to create useless software (Applications and games) using ABAP, Java, Ruby, Flex, AIR, C#, Euphoria or whatever language I wanted to use.

The page is still under construction...No downloads are available yet...But you can check it out at your own risk -:)


Greetings,

Blag.

martes, 23 de septiembre de 2008

SCN Badges...


I remember the first time I sign to SDN...They give away a lot of cool prizes...You just needed to make some amount of points in a month to get a prize right at the door of your house...That was really nice, but people started to cheat in order to get more prizes...At that time I started to think...
Why is SAP spending so much money on this?

Surely, it was to get more people involved...Gladly the stop doing it...But only after I get some really nice gifts LOL

Then, they started to give aways T-Shirts...250, 500, 1K, 2K, 5K and a fleece jacket for 10K...That was awesome...I got the 1K, 2K, 5K T-Shirts...And they stop sending them before I reached 10K -:( At that time I started to think...
Man! SAP doesn't want to give me my fleece jacket -:(

But believe me...They had a pretty good cause...Food for Points...If that's not good enough...Then nothing is -:)

But...You know SAP, they always love to give away things...So know you can got a very nice Dog Tag if you have get at least 250 points...Sure, I got an extra Dog Tag for being a Moderator -;)



This year at Community Day Las Vegas 2008...We didn't get T-Shirts either...But a really nice SAP and Adobe harmonica -:D

I asked Mark Finnern about the Community Day T-Shirt and he told me...
Sorry Blag, no T-Shirts this year...That's we give the harmonicas.

After that I think...

Sure man...Harmonicas are pretty cool...What how I'm supposed to wear it???

Of course...I didn't tell him anything LOL (He's my boss...The problem is that he hasn't realized that)...I really love the harmonica and my wife as well...Good choice again -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

SAP Mentor 2009



This year...I got elected as an SAP Mentor...It's my second year and I can't be more proud about it -:)

I got my new Mentor plaque...Which looks better than last year -;)


Also, I got extra features at SAP TechEd 2008 in Las Vegas...Which included some Press Conferences, Meetings with SAP Executives, Special seats at DemoJam, Keynote and Concert, Photo shoot session, Mentor Meetings and all the good things that only SAP can provide -:)

I really don't have a clue on how the SAP Mentor Program is going to evolve in the next couple of years...But if you want to be next SAP Mentor...Here are some special tips -;)

* Participate in the Communities (SDN, BPX).
* Write blogs.
* Improve the WIKI.
* Help in the forums.
* Do things with value to the Community.
* Try to be a good Communicator.

Sure thing...Community Members, SAP Members and SAP Mentors got to raise their votes...But by following those simple tips...You're chances are going to become high...

Just in case you wondering...NO! I'M NOT GOING TO HELP ANYONE TO BECOME AN SAP MENTOR...SO PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME MAILING ME...IF I SEE THAT YOU'RE A GOOD CONTRIBUTOR AND GOT THE NECESSARY SKILLS, THEN I'M GOING TO CONTACT YOU...BUT AGAIN...I DON'T CHOOSE SAP MENTORS...

Now I'm feeling better -:)

Greetings,

Blag.

Learning Flex 3


Yep...I'm learning Flex 3...I already know Flex 2...But Flex 3 got a lot of cool features that are worth to be learned -:)

Andre Salazar from Adobe kindly give this little pocket book Getting Started with Flex 3: An Adobe Developer Library Pocket Guide


Even when the book is pretty small book, both in size and number of pages...Is a must for Flex 3 newcomers and pretty interesting for Flex 2 users looking for some Flex 3 action...

If you can...Buy this book...If you can't...Well...You better find a way to get it -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

When friendship goes beyond...


Many of you knows that I'm an SCN addict...So of course, when my friends published books...I bought them -;)

That's very cool I know...But it's even cooler, when you can meet them in real life, so they can sign the copies of the books you bought...That happen to me this month, when I attended SAP TechEd 2008 in Las Vegas.

I bought Ein Ami comes to Lippstadt from Craig Cmehil and Next Generation ABAP Development from Rich Heilman and Thomas Jung.






Thanks guys...You made my life happier -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

What's in a Mockup?


A couple of days ago, mi friend Anne Kathrine Petteroe also known as Yojibee post a blog about Balsamiq Mockups titled Great tool for creating UI mockups...Of course, I take the time to download and start to play with the tool...

Mockups is an awesome Flex based tool for creation of...well...Mockups, which are UI screens...So what the deal with this tool?

As Yojibee said in her blog...

I am a person, who still likes to hand-draw my mockups on paper first, so the fact that the controllers in this app all have a hand-drawn look to them, give these mockups the same feeling to them as if they were drawn on paper.


By looking at the interface, you can quickly realize that your working on a sheet of paper, and all the components seems to be drawing by hand...Which makes you feel like you're drawing by hand...Feels weird at the beginning, but sure it's fun -:)


For example...I'm working on an Open Source project called ABAPIF which stands for ABAP Interactive Fiction...And ABAP engine and client for Interactive Fiction games...Thanks to Mockups you can see how the client interface is going to be...That would be a lot of pain if I had to do it using classic image tools like Photoshop or The Gimp...

What about a web based form?


Easy right?

Mockups is not only an fun and innovative tool...I think it's a must for any web or software related project.

You can download the free trial at Balsamiq Mockups.

Greetings,

Blag.

miércoles, 10 de septiembre de 2008

Is the second TechEd better than the first one???


Ok...This is more a joke than a rant...So please don't take it seriously -:)

Last year...It was my first TechEd...I meet a lot of cool people...I was just walking around...People looked at me an told me "Hey! You're Blag...Nice to meet you man!"...And that was really great...But...

This year...It's my second TechEd...And when I walked around...People look at me and say..."Oh Man! There's Blag again...Let's hide so he don't see us..." -:(

Jokes apart...I'm so happy because I have meet really cool people this year, including Graham, Ryan, Sonia, David, Marcelo, Gail, Aslan and many others...

So...Is the second TechEd better that the first one? I should say YES!

Greetings,

Blag.