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Living with Xojo

Xojo is a fantastic, integrated development environment. With it, you can do multi-platform software development. I think there is no faster way to go from an idea to a running prototype. For MacOS, iOS, Windows, Android, WebApps. It can do it all. Xojo as an organization, itself has learned to develop fast. Something they have been struggling with in the past. The disadvantage of the focus of Xojo on continuous improvement with a relatively small organization causes some challenges in the users development process. Frequently it is impossible to finish a project after upgrading to a newer IDE version without redoing major parts of the code. Xojo when it starts up, gives a nice Recent Projects menu, where you can select a project you are working on and want to continue to work on. It does not separate in what version of Xojo you work on for what project, however. So if you have to maintain production code in an older version, the only save way too work is to have separate machines for ...
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Recent posts

Localization is not one class, they are four

It is rather stupid that localization and language in web-apps are the same. They are not one, but separate classes. While US English is the dominant language in science, the old Roman Imperial measurement system is not. One should be able to use en-US for spelling etc. While using metric measure; ISO date format and in numbers the ‘,’ for thousand separator and the ‘.’ for decimal separator. So there is not 1 class, there are four: language; measure-system; dating-system and number-notation system.
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The end of Windows is underway

Thanks to the virtual machine (VM) revolution, slowly but surely UX (unix like) operating systems are becoming the defacto industry standard. All Apple OS-es are UX based. Android is UX based. All internet is UX based. The whole Linux family of OS-es are UX based. The only remaining exception is Windows. The virtual machine revolution and cloud based (UX) computing is nail in the coffin for Windows however. Now  Google acquired Cameyo and with that brings Windows apps to ChromeOS. It is only a matter of time and all the functionality only available on Windows will be available as a SaaS or ( first  in VM mode) on Linux. All companies (for example SolidWorks ) start to offer SaaS, forced by the market. They feel the pressure  of OnShape . Most development work is already done on Linux based machines. Windows is also becoming legacy because there is extra cost involved to make apps for Windows compatible  with the newest generation of hardware (linke Tablets). This is...
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Brussels could do a better job

Abstract Legal systems should enable good public services, not just complicate things. We (the people) don't really need governments, we need good public services. These days, too little is done to ensure a level playing field for companies on a global scale. Enabling big companies to lock buyers into their influence sphere and squeeze as much as possible money out of them. Below three examples where our public services fail. Selling hardware with preinstalled OS should be illegal If a consumer buys a smartphone or a personal computer, it is always sold with an operating system preinstalled. This fixes the consumer into the commercial influence sphere of the hardware seller. Apparently, the Brussels bureaucracy is not really interested in a plane playing field that enables European suppliers to participate in the smartphone and desktop computing market. Would Brussels really be interested in a plane playing field, it would not be allowed to sell end-user devices (smartphones and pe...
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Alphabet should rebrand their Other than search and advertising business

Alphabet Inc. should rebrand their Other than search and advertising business if they want to make serious business from it. The “Google” brand name is for a large part of the world associated with sneaky advertising practices. Not with a solid IT service supplier. Consequently, the other than search related products under the brand name “Google” are avoided. Why do I think this is the case? I started early with Google (then Suite) Workspace and supported several small businesses in the Netherlands to switch from Microsoft Exchange to Gmail. I also helped them with implementing Drive and G-Suite. After initial enthusiasm, I can see them all going back to Microsoft Office. They just trust the Microsoft brand more for the desktop. If Alphabet really wants to make a serious business out of Workspace, they need to brand it outside the Google brand as a separate division under Alphabet.
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2024 Haneda Airport runway collision should not happen again

On 2 January again a runway incident happened. Known as the 2024 Haneda Airport runway collision . This kind of accidents should not happen on modern runways used in a high frequency. In this article, we sketch an architecture of a simple and cost-effective system that we think should be used to reduce the possibility of this kind of disasters happening again.  We made a draft design for a system to r educe the possibility of this kind of disasters happening again. More on this on our website
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Better laptop keyboard by Google than by Apple.

Apple was on the forefront of human interfacing. Not only technical but also emotional. The better feel of Apple products! In one area, however, they missed the boat. The keyboard! Google with their Chromebooks are catching up on the feel and user experience. Their keyboard experience is even better than the MacBook experience. Just take a look at the keys left of the space bar on a MacBook and the ChromeBook.    MacBook ChromeBook Apple needs 4 keys! Google only 2! Industry standard knows the Control and Alt key. But Apple has the strange legacy from the early days of Apple computing called the Command key. Apple wake up! Linux has become the industry standard (not knowing the Command key concept). Much more user would switch from Windows to macOS if they were not hindered by the stupid Apple keyboard legacy. Google makes the switch experience smooth. Apple makes it hard. Guess who will win?
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