Monthly Archives

September 2012

AutoResponder

IMAP is Easy

The IMAP protocol, like SMTP and POP3, is a text based protocol. This kind of protocol can be processed by hand using a telnet client or other similar interactive terminal. I just modified the Auto Responder to use IMAP instead of POP3 as its mail retrieval protocol. The…

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Computers & Programming

Done with the Crossword Puzzles

I got the puzzle generator working well enough to generate the puzzle I needed. I’m done with this project. It was interesting when I decided to add clumped words to the algorithm. Four words can all come together  in a four-letter clump. It’s a situation that the normal…

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Computers & Programming

Close to Having Clumps

Clump of Letters After looking at this for a while, I figured out how to write the code to handle it. I also figured out another type of clump that I could try to handle as a special case but only if I had some three-letter words. To…

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Computers & Programming

Saving a Bitmap File

I added code to save my crossword puzzle and solution to two bitmap files. It is interesting how many people write code to do things of this sort that don’t write it correctly. Puzzle Bitmap void CChildView::SaveImageToFile( const char *pFilename, bool bSolution ) { CSize GridSize = GetGridCellSize();…

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Computers & Programming

Crossword Generator

Crossword puzzles are supposed to be designed with a lot of white squares in clumps and with some sort of symmetry. There are different style traditions in the U.S., the U.K, and Japan. Sweden has a very strange looking puzzle style that is a bit different but having…

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Linkage Program

Menus With Icons in CMfcRibbonBar

I searched high and low for information about icons in menus. The only thing I found was a lot of people discussing how to use SetMenuItemBitmaps(). Unfortunately, SetMenuItemBitmaps() is for setting the check mark bitmaps, the checked and unchecked image, of the menu item. I tried this in…

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Uncategorized

Animal Parade

I am working again on the puzzle race. I got distracted six or eight months ago with a paying programming gig but I’m free now and I want to have the puzzle race next Spring. In case no one reading this knows anything about a puzzle race or…

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Uncategorized

Which Social Media Location Do I Use?

I have a Facebook account, a Linkedin account, a blog, a personal website, and a Twitter account. I mostly use the blog for any type of information that I want to share but the blog has its shortcomings. For one thing, no one reads it. I use the…

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Sculpture and Art

New RBS Finished

I have finished another RBS (Rolling Ball Sculpture). The wife and kid picked out the colors. RBS Still Image RBS Video This is about 12 inches tall. It has one reversing section and a cool looking finale. The ball track is 3/32″ steel welding rod brazed at all…

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Linkage Program

To Blog or Not To Blog

… or How I added something rather unimportant to the Linkage program but had to blog about it just to make a blog entry today. The Microsoft Ribbon Bar, which is just a toolbar designed to completely replace the program menu and toolbars, has an interesting feature that…

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