I was registering for access to the Sencha forums (www.sencha.com) today when I saw the following on the registration form:
Figure 1
That's pretty advanced math for a CAPTCHA, isn't it?
So, is the math problem this:
6 – (2 x 3)
Or is it this:
(6 – 2 ) x 3
Having a degree in Physics and more than 30 years of experience as a professional software developer, I was certain I knew what I was doing. However, I'd be lying if I told you I got this right on the first try.
All of my years of experience with math told me that the actual problem I was trying to solve was this: 6 – (2 x 3). Everything I knew from high school and college told me that without parenthesis clarifying the problem, the more complicated math happened first followed by less complicated. Even Wikipedia confirmed this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_operations.
The answer's Zero, right?
Nope, that's not the case. So, not only is the registration forum asking me to do more complicated math than simple addition, subtraction or multiplication – but it's also scoffing at normal precedence of operators and essentially forcing me to give the deliberately wrong answer which, according to them, is 12.
BlackBerry Facebook Application Broken
Tue, May 14th 2013 6:14a John Wargo Something’s up with the latest version of the Facebook app for BlackBerry. Parts of the UI simply don’t work and I don’t know how to let BlackBerry know about it. Apps like TeleNav Navigator have a feedback function which allows you to let them know when something doesn’t work or if you have suggestions for the application. All of the different mobile OS are adding APIs for Twitter, Facebook and so on, why not add a feedback API that allows an app to send customer comments/feedback to th [read] Keywords: application
blackberry
facebook
mobile
twitter
92
What Were They Thinking #13 – VZ Navigator
Tue, Apr 30th 2013 10:22a John Wargo While I worked at AT&T, I became a big fan of the TeleNav Navigator application which later became AT&T Navigator. The interface was intuitive and it worked pretty well. When I joined SAP, they gave me a Verizon BlackBerry 9900 and I lost access to the navigation solution I was accustomed to using. On Verizon, they have their own navigation solution called VZ Navigator; here’s what it looks like:
Figure 1
I was using it recently to navigate somewhere and noticed something about th [read] Keywords: application
applications
blackberry
interface
sap
276
The Solution to My Domino Server Configuration Problem
Thu, Apr 18th 2013 7:21p John Wargo Thanks to all of you who helped out last week as I struggled to get my IBM Lotus Domino server to accept HTTP PUT and DELETE requests. I posted two articles about my issues, you can access them here:
Domino Server 405 Error
Update on My Domino Server Problems
Essentially, I was building a sample Sencha Touch application for an article series I’m writing for The View (www.eview.com) and the Sencha Touch proxy by default uses different HTTP request types for each of the CRUD operations. T [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
application
java
javascript
server
91
Calatrava
Mon, Apr 15th 2013 7:21p John Wargo My publisher told me about a cross-platform mobile framework today called Calatrava (http://calatrava.github.io/). I still need to do some reading about what it really is, but something in the announcement caught my eye:
"Mobile is the oncoming train of the future of computing. For more and more users their mobile device is becoming their first way to reach everything on the Internet. You need to be on-board with this. But there are three platforms to support: iOS, Android and Mobile Web."
I [read] Keywords: mobile
286
Update on My Domino Server Problems
Sun, Apr 14th 2013 11:18a John Wargo Thanks to all of you who helped out last week trying to help me fix my Domino configuration problem. Tom Verleysen and Michael Dudding suggested creating an Internet Sites document which I thought made sense based upon what I’d read on the Internet but wasn’t sure exactly how to implement it. I followed the instructions I was given (I think) and setup the following:
I updated the server document so it uses internet sites documents:
Figure 0
I now have an Internet Sites document with th [read] Keywords: agent
domino
lotus
application
server
243
Domino Server 405 Error
Wed, Apr 10th 2013 7:13a John Wargo I’m trying to wrap up an article series for The View (www.eview.com) on developing Sencha Touch applications for IBM Lotus Domino and ran into a problem that I can’t seem to find a solution for – can you help me out? Please?
I’ve created a simple competitive information database in Notes and exposed it to mobile devices using several methods. I first built a Rhodes application (www.rhomobile.com) that synchronized data with the Domino server and wrote a series of articles about it. You [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
application
applications
database
mobile
server
118
PhoneGap Essentials Korean Translation
Mon, Mar 25th 2013 5:14p John Wargo Last week I received a copy of my PhoneGap Essentials which had been translated into Korean (at least I think it’s the Korean translation, I can’t actually be sure – as I don’t read Korean). Here is the book, perhaps you can read it:
Figure 1
Anyway, apparently the book has been licensed for translation into Korean and Traditional Chinese. The Chinese version of the book was supposed to have been published months ago, but I don’t know what happened to it. I’ll receive a copy as s [read] Keywords:
159
Coolendar - Not Today
Thu, Mar 21st 2013 7:14p John Wargo I was going to write a bit about a cool calendar site called Coolendar, but apparently it's not working right now. I'll try again later. [read] Keywords:
271
Wi-Fi Only Tablets
Wed, Mar 13th 2013 4:14p John Wargo I’m not quite feeling the benefits of a Wi-Fi only device. Having worked for a device manufacturer then a carrier, I guess I’m a bit spoiled when it comes to connectivity. Over the years I’ve had several tablets, some with cellular connections and some with only Wi-Fi connections.
I have to admit that I find that the Wi-Fi only devices never seem to have connectivity when I need it the most. At home (of course), at most airports and at many national chains (hotels, restaurants, stores), t [read] Keywords: connections
blackberry
network
networking
office
284
More on Email Message Format for Mobile Devices
Mon, Mar 4th 2013 12:11p John Wargo A few weeks ago I posted an article complaining about how major brands don’t consider mobile email clients when they craft their blast email content. I even showed some examples of poor email content design from American Express and RIM. A reader of the site missed the point of my article and suggested I learn how to use my BlackBerry and enable automatic download of images in the email. Apparently he (or she, not quite sure) skipped reading the article and instead simply saw the screen shots [read] Keywords: blackberry
email
mobile
rim
