I love my Android phone, and so far, I hate Eclipse (ok, hate is such a strong word. But I DO dislike it  ). When one is used to Visual Studio, Eclipse is very very different, and difficult to work with. In addition I have a lot of trouble with the Java namespaces and etc. etc.

I have big plans for applikations for Android, not that I expect to make them generally available, but mostly because it is really a toy and a tool for me.

So far, mostly due to time constraints, Eclipse and Java have managed to stop me dead in my tracks while I struggle to relearn Java. The syntax as such is not a problem, I usually code in C#, and the syntactical differences are really minor. The main difference is the strict programming model I have to follow, lack of easy documentation (and more importantly, the RIGHT real-world code examples).

Oh, and the Java namespaces….

So, imagine my exhilaration when I discovered this.

Now, I am just waiting anxiously for this to be released ;)

Well, I have been looking, briefly so far, at development for the Android. Man, when you're used to Visual Studio and C#, Eclipse and Java is a pain.

Strange error messages, weird project structures and so on. I just don't get it. The worst part, I think is to actually getting Eclipse and the Android SDK to play nicely together. Visual Studio just works.

Well, I'll persevere, but it sure ain't easy. I had Eclipse set up a while ago, and due to other stuff I had to let the learning lay for a while. Now I fire the IDE, and nothing works.

A couple of months ago, I got my first real smart phone, a HTC Tattoo. It is not quite in league with the big ones, like Hero or Droid. Not to mention Nexus One or HTC Legend.

It is however a nice little phone, and although the screen is relatively small (2.8" and QVGA) it suits my needs quite nicely.

Now, I am a software developer and as such a phone which is programmable is really a toy for someone like me, as well as a tool. So I have plans, oh I have plans.

My normal development environment is Visual Studio and .NET (C#), so Eclipse and java is quite far away from what I usually use. Although the syntax in C# and Java is very like each other, the SDK is very very different.

Even a simple Hello World applikation is a struggle. But I will get there, I have no doubt. It is what I want, all I need is the time for it.

So, my plans for Android development?

1. Develop something simple, but useful. I have decided to write an Android application for retrieving the server status for City of Heroes, which is available from the site. This will be accomplished through several steps with the first being very very simple.

2. Develop something more complicated, like maybe an application for blogging from the phone to e.g. a BlogEngine.NET blog.

There are blog applications for Android, but those I have found sofar is for Wordpress, no one seems to implement the meta weblog API.

That is the plan, now for the time to follow it…

So, I seem to have finished upgrading the blog to BlogEngine.NET 1.6.

As usual, there were some problems caused by the way BE.NET loads everything into memory, instead of reading it from the app_data when needed. This causes some problems, especially with the users/roles and my widgets.

Easily solved though, but it IS a problem that there is no way to force a reload of e.g. settings.

Actually, that is not entirely true, it is possible, but you have to upload the web.config file again, then IIS restarts the application and thereby forcing a reload of settings. It just seems cumbersome.

So, my wish for the next version of BE.NET is a way to force a reload of everything. It is a bother the other way.

Other than that, the upgrade went very smooth.

I just realized that there is a new release (1.6) of BlogEngine.net available.

So, now I need to find some time for upgrading my blog.

Nice...

I found a nice little extension for blogengine, which enables me to add my xbox gamercard to posts.

The extension was found here.

Right, so it works in posts, but not in widgets.. something needs to be done ;)

Aha! Got it. From here I got a Literal widget, which will show anything as written, instead of trying to parse it, as the textbox widget does.

Then from here, I got the snippet for showing my gamercard.

And presto! I got my gamercard put into the widget zone on the right, without having to debug why the widget found here, isn't working for me.

Well.. work has been crazy for two months strait, family life is as demanding (and rewarding) as ever, so free time for something as unimportant as this == none...

But, I just added my nerdiness score to the page (look to the sidebar towards the bottom), and thought I might as well post a bit of chatter.

Anyways, here's to a belated merry x-mas and a happy new year.

Well, work began a week ago, and so far it has been rather quite.

So all in all, a nice start after vacation.

Well, my summer vacation is almost over, but it hasn't exactly been boring.

The garden has been replaced by a patio, the most-despised-by-neighbor cherry tree has been felled, the roots (mostly) removed and the hole filled and covered by tiles.

We have a magnificent little backyard now.

Tomorrow work starts again, it is going to be great with some relaxation.

Now we've done it. We've gone and ordered tiles for the patio, so we've got to remove about cubicmeter of dirt and make sure it is fairly even before they arrive.

It gonna be nice when done, but boy oh boy, is it going to be tough.