Assuming you read the last post, you should have a basic understanding of projects, targets and tasks. In this post, some different tasks, and try to make a slightly more practical ant script. Suppose our build requires a little bit more complexity than displaying “Hello World.” In this case, it has to meet the following requirements: The file HelloWorld.java must be compiled HelloWorld.class should include debug symbols. HelloWorld.class must be zipped Let's start by creating a basic project skeleton.…

To me, some of the most fascinating problems are the ones that are only visible in hindsight. The angled measuring cup might be the best example of this. With a standard measuring cup, you have to bend over or lift the cup to see how much of a substance you've measured. On the other hand, the angled measuring cup can be read while standing upright. Yet when asked, most people didn't realize the problem with a normal measuring cup until after having seen the one from Oxo.…

My wife and I are paying off student loans. Obviously we didn't just take on debt because we wanted to. Going into college, she wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to be a software engineer. The only practical way for either of us to get the job that we wanted was for us to get the required degrees. That meant student loans. However, we took them on with the belief that they would be an investment that would pay for themselves in time.…

A few weeks ago, a few of us from work went to GiveCamp. Hampton Road Studios used footage from the weekend to make a promo trailer. The weekend was awesome. Take a look at the embedded promo trailer, or visit givecamp.org to learn more. Give Camp Birmingham | Promo from Hampton Road Studios on Vimeo.…

I usually listen to Pandora at work. I'd rather listen to my personal library, but Pandora makes for a good second place. There's no question that it beats trying to store / sync untold gigabytes worth of audio on my work computer. Still, sometimes Pandora just doesn't cut it: especially when I want to hear a certain song. So, I decided to use lunch to figure out how to get my music collection into iTunes at work.…