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Hope you enjoy, and feel free to share your own recipes for chocolate chip cookies in the comments!

• 3/4 cup (3/4 stick) Butter Flavor Crisco Shortening
• 1-1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)*

1. Heat oven to 375°F.  Place sheets of foil on counter top for cooling cookies.
2. Combine Butter Flavor Crisco, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in large bowl.  Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended.  Beat egg into creamed mixture.
3. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda.  Mix into creamed mixture just until blended.  Stir in chocolate chips and pecan pieces.
4. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.  Bake one baking sheet at a time at 375°F for 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies.  DO NOT OVERBAKE.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

* If nuts are omitted, add add an additional 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

How to substitute Crisco for butter or margarine in your favorite recipes:
1 cup Crisco + 6 teaspoons water = 1 cup butter or margarine

2520 is the smallest number that can be divided by each of the numbers from 1 to 10 without any remainder.

What is the smallest number that is evenly divisible by all of the numbers from 1 to 20?

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using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
 
namespace Project_Euler_5
{
 class Program
 {
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
   new Program();
  }
 
  Program()
  {
   for (int i = 1; ; i++)
   {
    if(isEvenlyDivisibleByRange(i, 11, 20))
    {
     Console.WriteLine(i);
     Console.ReadKey();
    }
   }
  }
 
  bool isEvenlyDivisibleByRange(int value, int lowerBound, int upperBound)
  {
   for (int i = lowerBound; i <= upperBound; i++)
    if (value % i != 0)
     return false;
 
   return true;
  }
 }
}

A palindromic number reads the same both ways. The largest palindrome made from the product of two 2-digit numbers is 9009 = 91 99.

Find the largest palindrome made from the product of two 3-digit numbers.

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using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
 
namespace Project_Euler_4
{
 class Program
 {
 
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
   new Program();
  }
 
  Program()
  {
 
   int largestPalindromicProduct = 0;
 
   for (int i = 100; i <= 999; i++)
    for (int j = 100; j <= 999; j++)
    {
     int product = i * j;
 
     if (product > largestPalindromicProduct && isPalindromicNumber(product))
      largestPalindromicProduct = product;
    }
 
   Console.WriteLine(largestPalindromicProduct);
   Console.ReadKey();
  }
 
  bool isPalindromicNumber(int number)
  {
   string value = number.ToString();
 
   for (int i = 0; i < value.Length; i++)
   {
    if (!value[i].Equals(value[value.Length - 1 - i]))
     return false;
   }
 
   return true;
  }
 }
}

The default acceleration curve for mouse motion is bizarre. There are two speeds – slow and relativistic. That was fixed on day one thanks to USB Overdrive. While it does cost $20, it is well worth it for the ability to use an external mouse.

The keyboard bindings took a while to become irritating, probably because as a laptop user some degree of keyboard discomfort is to be expected. The confined space means that come concessions must be made; keys are squished or missing, some are given dual roles, and some are out of place. As a programmer, I do a lot of navigation on the keyboard. Unless I’m moving between large chunks of code, I don’t touch the mouse at all. Because of this, I use a full size USB keyboard to give me access to all of those nifty keys that are missing on the laptop (Home/End/Page Up/Page Down). Unfortunately OS X maps different functions to some of those keys than I’m used to. For instance, “Home” and “End” scroll to the top and bottom of the document instead of the beginning and end of the current line of text. Fortunately I’ve found a resolution.

User specific keyboard bindings are stored in /Users/{User Name}/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict. Note that this directory and file may not exist at first, so you may need to create it. If this is the case, you’ll also need to create the DefaultKeyBinding.dict file. I recommend copying the system wide keyboard bindings file from /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict. This will give you a good base to work from. I don’t recommend modifying this file directly, as if you mess something up you’re really screwed.

Now that you’ve copied the file, all you have to do is modify it to suite your fancy. It’s possible to do this by hand, but it’s easier to use a specialized editor. I recommend the KeyBindingsEditor (free download). Fire up KBE and look for the “Home” key (make sure the “Modifiers” field is clear), then change the action to moveToBeginningOfLine. Do the same for the “End” key, except the action will be moveToEndOfLine. Make any other modifications you want, save the file, and restart any running applications to obtain the new bindings.

Easy right? There are a few exceptions (imagine that). Some applications, such as Firefox and Eclipse, ignore these key bindings altogether. I’ve figured out how to fix Firefox, but I’m not an Eclipse user (give Netbeans another try, the new version is really nice). Fixing Firefox isn’t nearly as straightforward and can’t be done on a per user basis (all changes are global). In fact, this was reported as a bug back in 2003 and is still an open item.

First you need to obtain the platformHTMLBindings.xml file. This contains all of the keyboard bindings used by Firefox and its location depends on what version you’re running. For pre-1.05 users (are there any?), the file is in /Applications/Firefox.app/contents/MacOS/res/builtin/. For the rest of us it’s inside the /Applications/Firefox.app/contents/MacOS/chrome/toolkit.jar archive. A .jar archive is nothing more than a renamed .zip file, so you can extract its contents as you would any other .zip. Once you extract the contents, you’ll find the file in the content/global/ directory. After you modify it you will need to update toolkit.jar with the new version so don’t delete anything and be sure to back up the original.

Inside platformHTMLBindings.xml, you’ll need to find and modify the following nodes in the <handlers> section of <binding id="inputFields">, <binding id="textArea">, and <binding id="editor">:

<!-- Change cmd_scrollTop to cmd_beginLine -->
<handler event="keypress" keycode="VK_HOME" command="cmd_scrollTop"/>
 
<!-- Change cmd_scrollBottom to cmd_endLine -->
<handler event="keypress" keycode="VK_END"  command="cmd_scrollBottom"/>

You can find other commands at Customizing Mozilla.

After you’ve made your modifications zip the folder back up, change the extension to .jar,  and copy it over the toolkit.jar archive.

Whew, OK that’s it. If you have any questions shoot me an e-mail at edwardsdl@gmail.com.

Over the weekend my thirst for vengeance overpowered me, and I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. I spent about 30 minutes writing an app that would not only spam his phone with text messages, but fill his e-mail inbox too.  Oh yes, that would show him!

Like most developers though, I can’t just leave well enough alone. An e-mail loop is just too simple, features must be added, functions must be enhanced.

Address spoofing – check.
Randomized subject lines – check.
Randomized content – check.

Then things got out of hand. Harmless subjects gave way to “Free Viagra!” and “You’re fired!”.  Messages became, “I think I’m pregnant”.  Worst of all, spoofed addresses went from mutual friends to mutual bosses.

At the time I thought my hellish little spam app was brilliant.  When Jaime called I expected him to concede victory, to beg me to stop killing his inbox.  Nope, not even close.

“Hey dude, I think you have a virus.  It’s sending e-mails to Barry.”  Barry is our boss’, boss.

Wait, what?  I didn’t code it to do that.  It would look like it came from him, but it surely wouldn’t send it to him.  How could this be?  I checked my e-mail to see if I was getting anything.  There it was, Mr. Mailer Daemon informing me that my message could not be delivered.   Apparently Jaime had disabled incoming text messages coming from e-mail gateways, and AT&T cheerily notified the sender each time one of these messages failed to deliver.  Oh, damn.  The one feature I didn’t add was the one to route the reply address back to me.  Actually, in hindsight, I think the one feature missing was common sense.

I never got my revenge.  I did get a heavy dose of humiliation, but everyone needs that once in a while.

For anyone wanting to hang themselves, or perhaps simply to amuse themselves at my expense, I posted the code below.

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using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Threading;
 
namespace MailBomb
{
 class Program
 {
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
   new Program();
  }
 
  Program()
  {
   List recipientList = getRecipientList();
   List senderList = getSendersList();
   List subjectList = getSubjectList();
   List contentList = getContentList();
 
   string host = "localhost";
   int port = 25;
 
   int count = 400;
   TimeSpan delay = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 10);
 
   Random r = new Random();
 
   SmtpClient sc = new SmtpClient();
   sc.Host = host;
   sc.Port = port;
 
   Console.WriteLine("Mail Bomb Started");
   for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
   {
    string sender = senderList[r.Next(senderList.Count)];
    string recipient = recipientList[r.Next(recipientList.Count)];
    string subject = subjectList[r.Next(subjectList.Count)];
    string body = contentList[r.Next(contentList.Count)];
 
    MailMessage mm = new MailMessage(sender, recipient, subject, body);
 
    sc.Send(mm);
 
    if (i != 0 && i % 10 == 9)
     Console.WriteLine(".");
    else
     Console.Write(".");
 
    Thread.Sleep(delay);
   }
  }
 
  List getRecipientList()
  {
   List recipientList = new List();
   recipientList.Add(string.Empty);
   // A bunch of e-mail addresses go here
 
   return recipientList;
  }
 
  List getSendersList()
  {
   List senderList = new List();
   senderList.Add(string.Empty);
   // A bunch of e-mail addresses go here.
 
   return senderList;
  }
 
  List getSubjectList()
  {
   List subjectList = new List();
   subjectList.Add("You're fired!");
   subjectList.Add("Navigator status");
   subjectList.Add("Something to tell you...");
   subjectList.Add("We need to talk");
   subjectList.Add("Check this out!");
   subjectList.Add("I LOL'd");
   subjectList.Add("spaceghost coast to coast");
   subjectList.Add("free VIAGRA!");
   subjectList.Add("this weekend");
   subjectList.Add("Need you to call");
   subjectList.Add("Looking for a good time?");
 
   return subjectList;
  }
 
  List getContentList()
  {
   List contentList = new List();
   contentList.Add("We need to talk.  I think I'm pregnant.");
   contentList.Add("contentList.Add(\"contentList.add(... <- its recursive!");
   contentList.Add("Starting to run out of ideas for content");
   contentList.Add("The subject lines were easier to write.");
   contentList.Add("Just got an idea!");
   contentList.Add("What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?");
   contentList.Add("You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?");
   contentList.Add("What goes up and down the stairs without moving?");
   contentList.Add("What can you catch but not throw?");
   contentList.Add("I can run but not walk. Wherever I go, thought follows close behind. What am I?");
   contentList.Add("What's black and white and red all over?");
   contentList.Add("What goes around the world but stays in a corner?");
   contentList.Add("I have holes in my top and bottom, my left and right, and in the middle. But I still hold water. What am I?");
   contentList.Add("Give me food, and I will live; give me water, and I will die. What am I?");
   contentList.Add("The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?");
   contentList.Add("Yup, my idea was to paste riddles!");
 
   return contentList;
  }
 }
}

So far we’ve placed a bid on a pretty small project involving a wine database management and reporting software. It’s nothing too ambitious and I have no doubt we’d be able to handle this easily. Hopefully we’ll get the bid, though last I checked there were 17 others. Wish us luck!

The DMCA has yet again been used in an attempt to squelch free speech and fair use, this time by Ralph Lauren. A post last month on Boing Boing featuring an advertisement in which a model had been photoshopped with bizarre proportions has drawn the ire of Ralph Lauren’s lawyers.  Soon after posting the ad, Boing Boing ISP, Canada’s Priority Colo, received a DMCA takedown notice, apparently citing a copyright violation.

Either these guys haven’t heard of fair use or they’re so embarrassed they’ll do anything to cover up this blunder.  Perhaps someone should introduce them to the Streisand Effect.

I thought this was interesting: if you search “prime factor of 600851475143” on Wolfram Alpha it gives you all of the factorizations, including the answer.

The prime factors of 13195 are 5, 7, 13 and 29.

What is the largest prime factor of the number 600851475143 ?

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using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
 
namespace Project_Euler_3
{
 class Program
 {
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
   new Program();
  }
 
  Program()
  {
   ulong compositeValue = 600851475143;
   ulong compositeFactor = compositeValue;
   bool isDone = false;
 
   while (!isDone)
   {
    ulong prime = getNextPrime();
 
    while (compositeFactor % prime != 0)
     prime = getNextPrime(prime);
 
    compositeFactor /= prime;
 
    if (isPrimeValue(compositeFactor))
     isDone = true;
   }
 
   Console.WriteLine(compositeFactor);
   Console.ReadKey();
  }
 
  ulong getNextPrime()
  {
   return getNextPrime(0);
  }
 
  ulong getNextPrime(ulong value)
  {
   ulong nextPossiblePrime = value + 1;
 
   for (; !isPrimeValue(nextPossiblePrime); nextPossiblePrime++) ;
 
   return nextPossiblePrime;
  }
 
  bool isPrimeValue(ulong value)
  {
   for (ulong i = 1; i <= (ulong)Math.Ceiling(Math.Sqrt(value)); i++)
   {
    if (value == 1)
     return false;
    if (i == value)
     return true;
    else if (value % i == 0 && i != 1)
     return false;
   }
 
   return true;
  }
 }
}