Life and Code » karl.lockhart

Artwork for Upcoming Project

karl.lockhart — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:56:46 +0000

Though I should be asleep, I have spent a large portion of the night working on assets for my android project. Check out some of the artwork for my upcoming project.

Tank Auth 1.0.8 + Code Igniter 2 = Easy fix

karl.lockhart — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:23:01 +0000

I just did base install of Code Igniter 2 for an internal project I am working on, everything worked okay except for Captcha on the registration page. Quite a simple fix actually, since plugins have gone, and only helpers/libraries remain.

Line: 494 in auth.php

// KL: 2011-02-02 $this->load->plugin(‘captcha’);

$this->load->helper(‘captcha’);

That should get you rocking and rolling again

Why I Don’t Believe in New Years Resolutions

karl.lockhart — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:16:40 +0000

I am always asked what my resolutions for the new year are, people are sometimes taken aback that I don’t make resolutions when the calendar year rolls over, y++. That said, here is the short version of my feelings on the subject. New Year resolutions imply static goals to me – don’t get me wrong I think the new year is a great time to examine the progress on goals and make new goals. I do feel that once a year to make broad sweeping resolutions is too long an interval to make any kind of measured progress on a resolution. I much prefer a dynamic approach to goal setting as smaller goals tend to be easier to measure and accomplish. Broad sweeping resolutions hardly ever are meaningful – Stretch goals are awesome, making small measurable changes often work better than nebulous ideas like, I am going to lose weight this year or to the extreme, I am going to work on world peace this year. I will agree these are both good goals, but without a specific plan both are pretty meaningless and it is almost certain that neither will happen. So I guess, really, what I am saying is that deciding on December 31 that you will change major things without a specific plan is equal to running at full speed into the darkness with no idea of why or where you are going. I am a big believer in goal setting, but in general the only thing broad goals are useful for is general direction/policy. So to save yourself the FAIL that most experience a year after they decide to do whatever thing they planned to the year before my suggestion is simple.

Make simple goals that you can actually accomplish in the time period. The goals should be specific and quantifiable and the review period should be way less than a year.

I Miss Unlimited Data

karl.lockhart — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:44:54 +0000

Today, I am mourning my unlimited data plan. I got my first limit warning email from AT&T, a courteous but bubble bursting email/text message. It just reminds me that I miss my unlimited data. In reality, I didn’t think that I was that big of a data user. Music is a big part of my life though, and I am usually streaming Last.fm (iamzerokos — my username) in the car and at work most days. I just miss the sky being the limit, don’t like living under this AT&T imposed glass ceiling.

One day, one photo

karl.lockhart — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:54:15 +0000

So one of my friends posted an article about a guy who took one Polaroid a day for 18 years. It occurs to me that this is an awesome way to document your life.

Being a tech guy, I have the resources to make this hap.pen and have decided to follow in this photographer/film maker’s footsteps. So, here we go. I will rely on my blog here at http://www.karlockhart.com along with my photo album at http://foto.karlockhart.com. the underlying technologies being WordPress and Gallery 2. I saw the need to have a camera I can take with me, something more portable than my D60, and as a result I have decided on the Olympus X-560WP. This camera is described, by Olympus, as waterproof and sporty going on to describe it as being able to ‘survive whatever you can dish out.’ On paper it is the perfect camera for the job, and $70 bucks off retail via http://www.dealnews.com doesn’t hurt either.

I see this experimental homage as a great way to document life and as a great way to practice my photography. My intention is to snap compelling shots that represent the highlight of my day, or something I just really want to share. I have decided there will be no captions and no descriptive photo names, so that I do not color the interpretation of the pictures. I plan to start this project today, so photo quality will vary as cameras change.

Links related to this post:

http://bit.ly/caXOwk - the article that inspired me

Olympus X-560WP – Digital camera – compact – 10.0 Mpix – optical zoom: 3 x – supported memory: xD, microSD – green

UPDATE

Sept 1, 2010 - http://daily.karlockhart.com

Android Coming to Intel x86 Processors

karl.lockhart — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:45:25 +0000

Intel recently announced that they are on track to release Android 2.2, codenamed Froyo, for their x86 atom processors. The implications of this to the netbook/table community are huge.

Microsoft has continued to push Windows 7, unfortunately not very well suited to tablets, as their primary tablet/net-book operating system. Windows 7 is great on a desktop or even on a laptop and tolerable at best on a low-power net-book, as a tablet operating system it falls flat on its face. The buttons are not at all well suited for a finger based touch environment, seen most readily in tiny, if you have normal sized fingers, window controls and the reliance on the start menu to launch programs not cluttering your desktop. In practice, on the Lenovo S10 3t I am writing this on, I find myself in net-book mode when working in windows and converting to tablet mode for Kindle for PC etc. Windows 7 is HEAVY, almost too heavy, for the Atom processors running most PC based tablets. In short, Microsoft needs a tablet OS to compete on tablets.

On the other side of this usability divide is Apple, iPad customers seem to be satisfied and, from my stint as an iPhone user, I will agree that the UI is very well suited to touch. Unfortunately, no PC based development tools mean that any developer rooted in a PC world cannot build for IOS.

Enter Android, the knight in green robot armor and the reason I am excited about Intel’s announcement. Unlike Windows 7, the Android OS is well suited to run on low power devices and offers a touch friendly user experience. Android development is not segregated to one platform as is iOS development, but freely given for development wherever the SDK will run. In addition, Android applications are written in Java which has a huge developer base, and on a device that has not been crippled by a carrier, you may install whatever Android software you wish. All in all, the Android OS is perfect for net-books and tablets, especially for those seeking a bit more freedom than iOS will allow.

Intel has made a great move here with Android, there is no reason why manufacturers would not build upcoming Atom powered portable computers, net-books and tablets, with Android. Unfortunately, for Microsoft this will equate to a loss of market share. It seems that Microsoft is struggling to stay relevant, especially in the non-business sector. I don’t really understand their reluctance to commit to a dedicated net-book/tablet OS. Android, however, promises what Windows 7 cannot i.e. speed, touch friendliness and the ability to run well on lower powered hardware.

With Intel’s promised release time frame rapidly approaching, the future looks bright for Android and tablet/net-book users.

Life and Code 2 – SEO suicide

karl.lockhart — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:24:41 +0000

The new ‘Life and Code’ launched yesterday with not much fanfare. I had been talking for while about a refresh and really the time is right for a new site.

There really wasn’t too much wrong with the old site, but I felt a re-launch was not the worst move I could make. As life changes, we too must adapt and I have decided to adapt in the focus and execution of my personal blog. The old blog will move to my development machine, probably.

Looking forward to a more focussed blog.