Category: Development

PHP (un)serialize and VB.net

SBrain-Bulberialization is changing any object, array or variable into a simple string, so it can be easily transfered over a network or stored into a database. Plus the change back into the original of course. There are many options available, and your best choice is using XML or JSON.

However, if you happen to have a PHP object serialized with the php function… you have a problem when you receive this serialized string from a web request and need to process the data and use the object in a windows visual basic .net application.

So what does My Brain do?
First search for a class or other code sample to do this. But when none is available? Simply write code and start developing my own solution.

Need something like this? Contact My Brain.

App Approvals…

dislikeI would like to have an App. Sure. Development time depends on the complexity of the App, could be weeks, could be months. And after going over several versions and improvements, it’s finally time to submit the final App to the various App Stores.

“So that’s it? Good, so my App will be live tomorrow. What? Not tomorrow… So how long does it take? Really?”

Yes, check it yourself… this is the time Apple takes from the moment of submitting, to when the App is live in the App Store. See: http://appreviewtimes.com/

Damn!

Google Play and Windows Phone Store usually take a day for approval.
But all these periods are of course excluding the extra time/rounds it takes when the App gets denied at first. Could be incorrect screenshots, bad App descriptions, the App functionality, anything!
Apple, Google and Microsoft all made up their own rules for approving Apps. My Flappy Cows App for example is still not live on Windows Phone, because “it doesn’t offer any additional or unique functionality”… Thank you, Microsoft. Your loss, you’re missing out on my freakin’ cute cow game.

Self-Elevating App

Say What?aaaaaaa

Yes: My Brain wrote a Self-Elevating App.

I have been writing a Windows Application (32-bit x86 executable) in Visual Studio 2010, that uses the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/AppName registry key to save some basic settings. After some strange accesss errors I figured out that you need administrative access to actually be able to do this. Continue reading Self-Elevating App

SEO = Marketing

ctrl-ZVXCOPY – PASTE (Source: SPROUT):

Voor ondernemers die met hun bedrijf op internet gevonden willen worden, is er geen ontkomen aan: zoekmachine-optimalisatie. In de praktijk komt dat neer op zorgen dat je hoog scoort in Google. Maar hoe?
Dé Nederlandse expert op het gebied van zoekmachine-optimalisatie is Eduard Blacquière. Op uitnodiging van de Nuon Academy gaf hij daar onlangs een webinar over. Continue reading SEO = Marketing

Loading speed vs code readability

ctrl-ZVXAs a developer I like structured code. The browser however could not care less about the right amount of tabs and spacing; it just need to get the code, with as little data-traffic as possible.

So, what do I do? When speed is really important, I create my stylesheets and javascripts as I normally do, but then also convert these into a “.min’ version – minified, and refer to those from the html source code.

To get this done Continue reading Loading speed vs code readability