Silly.  Here’s a screenshot of the Roomie web interface displaying the script.  I did a lot of refactoring today, and I am so close to being able to un-XMLify RoomieScript and make it look like a real programming language.

I spend most of my time on the Devices page, which lists all of the devices in all home automation networks on my account.  (Right now I only have a single Z-Wave network, but in theory I could have a potpourri of different networks that include other existing home automation frameworks, IR transceivers, and—I dunno—USB missile launchers?)

Anyway, the UI all works, and dynamically updates when a devices state changes.  Cool!

After merging all of Roomie’s desktop and web components into one self-aware Visual Studio solution, learning a ton of new technology, and a little trial and error, I now have the Roomie desktop client talking directly to the new website.  Best of all, I can locally debug everything which means that I can get quicker feedback on code changes and (shrug?) even develop offline.  Below I have a simple example pictured.  A more impressive example is when I tell the Roomie desktop client to say something using text-to-speech, but obviously that would not convey over a screenshot.

The Roomie desktop client communicates with the Roomie web service using a custom protocol that I developed.  Both the server side (web service) and client side (Roomie desktop client) reference the same Visual Studio project to do the communication, so I am guaranteed protocol agreement.  It’s really satisfying to add some functionality or refactor in one place and have the changes propagate to every related component.

Yaaaaay programming!

Needless to say, I was daunted by the huge task of migrating the whole Roomie website over from an old technology.  I also wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about CSS, and JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX, LINQ, the .NET Entity Framework, and anything else that I didn’t know I needed to know.  All of that is still in progress, but I am not to the point where I have started a new website, though it is not live yet.

Pretty!

Here’s a sample of the main layout using the Razor view engine:

This page, started on Thursday, January 7, 2011, is labeled “Ponderings.”  I revisited the page, pen in hand, whenever I had a thought-provoking idea, quip, or something like that.

And here is the text typed out:

Ponderings

July 7, 2011

7/7 It seems that the people with the most inspiring faith also have the most naïve views of the world.

7/12 Today a cop pulled me over for speeding.  As I drove away, ticket in the seat beside me, I smiled.  I can’t stand a perfect record.

8/16 Ponder daily: Do I feel whole?  Why?  What makes me feel good?  What do I need?  What is bad for me?  Who do I want to be?

8/17 Be the person you want to be, and don’t be ashamed of who that is.  (also, be kind, intelligent, and cute.)

8/22 Eventually plugging in headphones into a player and in ears will seam “steampunk.”

9/1 Going through life, write in pen, but don’t be afraid to scratch out your mistakes.

9/13 When I wear sunglasses, I make sure to smile, so that I don’t look like those empty-souled models on clothing websites.

9/13 A smile feeds the soul.

9/15 It’s the Bible, not Bigotry for Dummies.

To unlike and again like a post previously-liked post, e.g., picture, text, or video, on a social networking site in order to produce a notification for the target, e.g., content owner or someone tagged in the post, and remind them that you still like the post.  The relike is commonly used as a derpy way to tell the target that the person performing the relike as lubby dubby feelings for the target.

Example usage:

I am hopeless.  The best I can do is occasionally relike my favorite photos of him until he maybe gets the hint.

Growing up, I was taught—or inferred—that happiness was a transitory, not-really-real emotion. As in, we could all do much better to be content with what we have. Who is to say what lot you were given in life? If you want something, do the work, start the conversation, save up time and money to make it happen. Then be pleasantly surprised when good things come your way.

(picture via fashionsociety)

Here is the DateTime regular expression.  Note that when I new the regular expression object, I set whitespace and casing ignoring.

Named capturing groups allows code like this:

In the end, the utility class allows code like this:

fun!  Download all of the code here.

Have any suggestions about the code?  Any neat C# features I should have used?  Comment below!

So Bing is search, huh Google?

Sigh… I’m a jerk.

(I deleted my personal info from the email. No stalkers for me!)
 

This left me thinking, “Well that’s nice wait wut?”  Take from this what you will…

Kind of related, OkCupid does a bunch of cool (geekish) data crunching and publishes the findings on their OkTrends blog..

But enough technical talk.  Lets get to serious business.  Here I have a little RoomieScript that I wrote, just as a proof of concept.

<RoomieScript>
  <ZWave.PowerOff DeviceName="Coffee Pot" />
  <Core.Loop>
    <ZWave.WaitForChange DeviceName="Coffee Pot" PollInterval="5 Seconds" />
    <ZWave.PowerOff DeviceName="Coffee Pot" />
    <RoomieBot.TextDavid Text="No coffee!" />
  </Core.Loop>
</RoomieScript>

Here Roomie waits until the coffee maker is turned on, then turns it off and sends me a terse text message. Yes, it works!  And yes, I do use Roomie for legitimate things, but ah… it’s so just that much fun to be dumb.

Interested in beta testing Roomie?  Send me a message.

As you can see above, I have the Roomie website’s main page displaying on an iPad.  The first two controls are an example of the new feature.  Before I go to bed I might want to click the “set alarm” button, which would run a RoomieScript that I wrote that wakes me up in the morning.  The same deal goes for coffee. (Of course, making coffee is also part of the alarm routine.)  It would be easy to imagine many other virtual devices.  Eventually I will likely make a “basement” device, which would have buttons like “Movie” for nice movie lighting, “all on”, “all off”, and of course, “PAAARRTAAYY!”

I mentioned that these controls were highly customizable in code.  In the C# code-behind I can set the size of these controls with pixel precision.  That came in really handy when I made an iPad-specific page, which resizes the controls to be just the right width to fill the screen horizontally and high enough for easy pressing with a finger.  A tweak of the sizes only takes a few seconds.

All of this has been a really good learning experience for me, and of course I am far from done.  I’ve applied so much of what I’ve learned writing Roomie, which is just for fun, to other projects at work and in school.  If you want to help test Roomie, send me an email.

I’m not really a fan of jumping on the “mock Microsoft” bandwagon, but this is priceless.  I could say something intelligent-sounding about non-Google search engines’ difficult task of changing users’ mentalities about “search = Google”, but I wont.

Even with all its limitations, my iPad hooks into my Windows- and Microsoft-dominated world quite nicely.  I have hundreds of ripped DVDs on my Windows Home Server for viewing on my Xbox 360 through Media Center Extender.  Do I also want to view those videos curled up in bed with my iPad?  To quote Apple’s less-than-meek advertising slogan, “There’s an app for that.”  While I hate, hate, hate Apple’s uncanny ability to command attention, that doesn’t mean they don’t make some pretty nifty products.

Why do I have a picture of my iPad and Zune making hearts to each other?  It just so happens that I want to download an album that isn’t available on the Zune Marketplace.  Checking Amazon MP3, I discovered that the album wasn’t available there either.  What about iTunes?  I tapped open the iTunes app on my iPad, and sure enough there it is.  What’s great about DRM-free music?  I can download a song from iTunes, on my iPad, and sync it over to my Zune.  (I would say this is interoperability at its finest, but I suspect to have a less-than-satisfactory user experience with iTunes on Windows.)

The point, however, is that less and less consumers are having to choose sides.  Mac or PC?  The real issue is AAC or OOG, or why not support both?  The platform is losing significance.  Microsoft Exchange, a protocol for synchronizing email, calendar, and contacts, is available on Windows Phones, Android Phones, and iPhones.  The protocol itself is being served up not just by enterprises in business-type scenaros, but also for consumers.  Gmail, for example, offers Exchange support for free.  When every platform speaks a common set of protocols and file formats, something customers shouldn’t have to bother worrying about anyway, customers can more easily mix-and-match different devices and services.  A year ago got a Windows Mobile phone because it would easily synchronies with my Windows Live Mail.  Now, however, the phone and the email service can easily be interchanged independently, since both pieces can speak Exchange. (side note: yes, yes, IMAP exists blah blah.  That only synchronizes email.)

How long until there’s a Zune app for iOS?  What about a PlayStation Home app for Windows Phone?  Arguably the latter is more likely to happen, but all is possible in the magical world of technology.

(It’s like the error message is commenting on my relationship. It’s ironic.)

(link)