Moving site

My site is now moving to http://nestor.redesprofesionales.com/en.
You can go there and find all what I'll write from now on in english and spanish.

The site has and will keep improving and getting a lot info.

Regards

Sync my iPod Touch/iPhone with Google Calendar

I've being looking a way to keep synchronized the calendar in my iPod Touch with my google calendar.
The first option is MobileMe, it has a lot of good features, but for somebody like me that already uses picasaweb, google calendar, gmail, notes, docs and all google tools is not likely that I will want to switch all I have to some other.
Then making some research I found GooSync, which would work on the iPod Touch/iPhone and should synchronize contacts, calendar and notes with google for $36 one pay never expire. So I decide to try out the free trial to make sure it meet my needs in order to buy it. There I found out that I need to have my iPod jailbreaked (the reason is because things like calendar and contacts are not accesible using the Apple SDK, so the only way to achieve something like that is using the jailbreak libraries, you can find out how to do it, is easy and already support last software version.).
When I tried the application it didn't got installed and I contacted the application support and their answer was:

"Unfortunately current Syncje client is not fully compatible with iPhone 2.x. Please note that our specialists are working hard in order for the client to be up to date. For further information please see http://nexthaus.com/products_b_iphone.html"

So I decided to look for more options and then I found a tool that also works with the jailbreak and is free.
NemusSync works really fine, at this moment it only supports both sides google calendar synchronization, which is fine for me.

I hope this be usefull for you as it were to me.

Regards,
Nestor

Data Access + Simplicity = iBatis (power)

Complexity is not always the best option, actually keeping things simple can help you to boost your application and make more extensible and able to go over the limits.
This is iBatis aproach.

What is iBatis?
iBatis is a data access framework for Java, .Net and Ruby.
iBatis has two parts that can work separely: iBatis DataMapper and iBatis Data Access Objects.
iBatis is one of the Apache projects and is actually used in the JPetShopStore.

iBatis Data Mapper
The Data Mapper will let you create the access to the database whitout writing having to write a single line of JDBC or ADO.Net code, you will instead use iBatis and write XML's to match your database with your objects using SQL. This gives a great flexibility and simplicity.

iBatis Data Access Objects
This framework give you a layer to hide the details of how you are handling the persistence in your program.

Image from iBatis site.

Abator
Abator is the code generator for iBatis. It can generate the XML's and clases for you based on your database.

You can use both Data Mapper and Data Access Objects together or separly
We all know that once the project gets more complicated sometimes doing some complex tasks with complicated technologies or aproach it actually takes more time to resolve the problem that it should be. With this aproach you can actually keep a good architecture with simplicity and able to extend and there is only a short learning curve.

I will add some tutorials in future days, I'll probably start with .Net (because there are too few tutorials about it in .Net yet) and perhaps Ruby or ColdFusion (using Java) after that.

Resources:
iBatis: http://ibatis.apache.org
Abator: http://ibatis.apache.org/abator.html

Best regards,
Feto

Need multiple sites on IIS under windows XP?

If you use windows XP and you need to have several sites under IIS, then you are in the same situation that I'm, but I found a solution and I want to share it with you.

The IIS under windows has some limitations because is supose that XP is not a server OS, just a workstation OS.
Because of this the biggest limitation is that you "can't create sites".
Well, let me tell you that this is not actually true, the IIS console doesn't have an option to create sites, but you do can create them, the only real limitation is that you can't have more than one site running on the same time.
Here I bring to you two free tools to create and manage sites in IIS under windows XP.
This tool has being a great help for me and I know it will be a great help to you too.

XP PRO IIS Admin
http://www.jetstat.com/iisadmin/

IIsAdmin.Net
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/IIsAdminNet.asp

Both tools will allow you to create sites, switch between the sites, start, stop them, restar IIS and some other features.

Take a look at them, are really good and simple tools.

Best regards,
Feto

Going arround the world... in a USB

Do you use several computers, at home, at work and other places?
Or perhaps you just don't like to install software in you PC.
There are many reasons to put some attention in what I'll talk here today.

If you use more than one computer and you need to keep you notes, calendar, contacts, data and hopefully software close to you, I see 3 good options: use a mobile device, use internet services (I'll talk about this in a future blog) or use portable applications.
I don't have a mobile device so I use internet services and portable applications, and today I'll talk about portable applications.

What is a portable application?
These are applications made or adjusted to work without installation, this makes them perfect to be copied into any USB drive and carrie them to any place.

Where can I get these applications?
There are several places, but I have a favorite, so I'll add at the end some links, but I will mostly talk about PortableApps.com.

PortableApps.com is a site dedicated to adjust open source or freeware programs to work without installation and they all work on the same standard way.
In the site you will see programs like OpenOffice (similar to MS Office), SunBird (calendar and task manager), ThunderBird (email client and address book), Firefox (web browser), Gaim (chat and messenger client), Gimp (photo and image editor), VLC (Media Player), Xampp (Web server), games and many other, also if you check in the forums you can find more programs like GVim (a great editor), Frozen Bubble (Game), Perfect-Mines (improved version of Minesweeper) and many others.
And now they created a fancy menu to have them all accesible quickly (which you can see in the image above).

Using these programs you can always have with you all you need. And are all safe to use.
I recomend you to try some of these, anyway they are free and you don't have to install them ;)

List for sites dedicated to portable applications
PortableApps.com - **Collection of Microsoft Windows portable applications (Recomended)
PortableFDM.net - Lo Mejor en Software Portable !
Blog for Portability - Blog for Portability
USBSpace.com - Portable software for USB flash drives
OS X PortableApps - Collection of Mac OS X portable applications
winPenPack - Italian site. Collection of portable software
TinyApps - Tiny applications for USB flash drives
Portable Freeware - Collection of portable software
No-Install - Collection of portable applications as well as portable devices and software news
Portable Apps Collection - Collection of portable applications
StandAlone - Portable applications for USB flash drives
kikizas.net - Freeware programs to run from a USB flash drives
AppOnKey.com - Portable environment
FramaKey - Collection of packaged or standalone applications
Bureau de Poche - French site. Collection of packaged applications
Installing SLAX compilation to a USB flash drive in Windows
Portable apps - Portable application for usb stick
USB Hacks - Listing of USB exploit tools and mitigation

I hope this help you.

Best regards,
Feto

.. that could be better implemented!

Refactoring...

Things can always made better, there is no perfect code, you can always improve your code and applications.
But, how? The code is already there, but you need to change it so it may support an additional feature that you must add now.
Well, as many of us has fall into this situation, somebody created refactorings.

What is refactoring?

"Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior." Martin Fowler, refactoring.com

This means you can change or improve your code, causing the least impact possible and improving your code.

How can I do a refactoring?
Well, here I have a site by Martin Fowler where you will find books, links, tools and a catalog... yes, a refactoring catalog!
Site: http://www.refactoring.com/
Catalog: http://www.refactoring.com/catalog/index.html
This catalog is a book of recipes for specific situations, in an easy way it will tell you how to do the refactoring you need.

I hope this help you a lot.

Best regards,
Feto

Need remote access?

Hi,

This is pretty much my first blog.
I'll try to keep interesting stuff posted here.

For today I have a couple interesting and really helpful tools to get connected to remote computer.
Have you ever need something you have in your work computer? or have your boss called you to get to the office to do some quick emergency fix in your day off?
Well, for that and many other reasons (perfect for persons who like to work from home) this two tools will make your live easier and the best of all... it's free!!.

LogMeIn:
http://www.logmein.com
This is a site that will install a little program in your computer and this will stay always connected to the logmein servers that will server as a bridge, then any time you want you can get connected to your computer from anywhere in the world without having to configure anything.
The free option includes a RemoteDesktop tool that you can use to virtually work on that computer, there are many other payed options that has many other great features.

Hamachi:
http://www.hamachi.cc/
This is a little program that will let you create a virtual network and let you and some people connect to this network as if it would be a local network, then share files, access local services, etc. You could even play network games as if you would be all in the same room.
For this product you have free access, but if you pay you get a service like for an enterprise.

I hope this tools help you.
I use them all the time.


Regards,
Feto