Google Picker is:

a "File Open" dialog for the information stored in Google servers.

The only problem is the API docs, as of this writing, don’t have a link to a demo.

So here’s a demo of the Google Picker dialog.

When I switched to developing on an OS stack one of the first things I look for was a $g(Continuous Integration server) and settled on Hudson which, after some tumult with surrounding Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, was forked into Jenkins. Getting jenkins setup couldn’t be easier and the web UI is comprehensive and full of options.

My day-to-day development is in Python and I’ve written a bunch of tests based on the core unittest module though it doesn’t natively produce results that can be consumed by Jenkins. To that end, I searched around and found the necessary pieces which I wanted to capture.

First, you need to install the unittest-xml-reporting package which is described as:

PyUnit-based test runner with JUnit like XML reporting.

sudo easy_install unittest-xml-reporting

Once installed you need to add the following to your unittests so they will produce the necessary XML result output:

import xmlrunner

...

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main(testRunner=xmlrunner.XMLTestRunner(output='test-reports'))

Next, in Jenkins click the configure link for your project and check the Publish JUnit test result report and set the path to the output location for the unit tests. In my case the full path to the XML output is /.hudson/jobs/publishing/workspace/trunk/test/test-reports. In Jenkins the path to use for publishing is **/trunk/test/test-reports/*.xml

This will also add a chart to the project page in Jenkins:

As I mentioned, I’m working on Facebook support which involves the transition to the new $g(OAuth 2) authentication. What I’m going to do here, for myself if no one else, is keep a list of links I’ve found related to the topic. Without further adieu:

• Facebook SDK Docs: Authentication
  I've found this lacking and incomplete without a proper example of what the flow should really look like or how to implement it.
• Facebook forum post: Authentication Guide
  A better discussion of the OAuth issues but still refers to the fbs_<app_id> cookie which I don't believe will be sent for OAuth 2.0, it's now fbsr_<app_id>
• Facebook SDK Docs: Permissions
• Facebook SDK Docs: OAuth dialog
• Authenticating with Facebook on the Command Line Using Python
• Facebook PHP SQK source
• Under the covers of OAuth 2.0 at Facebook
• Facebook OAuth Example
• Updated JavaScript SDK and OAuth 2.0 Roadmap

Of course, feel free to leave a comment with anything useful you've found.

While working on Facebook functionality using Python I ran into a few cases where the GraphAPI.request method caused Facebook to choke on parameters with a value of None. Thus here’s a simple override to allow for None parameters which subsequently get stripped out.

def request(self, path, args=None, post_args=None):
    ''' Improves handling for post_args where any arg with a None value gets removed to avoid FB API errors.
        Allows for methods that accept all possible Facebook parameters and only passes those that are specified.
    '''
    if post_args:
        d = {}
        for a in post_args:
            if post_args[a] != None:
                d.setdefault(a, post_args[a])
        post_args = d
    return GraphAPI.request(self, path, args, post_args)

I’ve created a descendant class I call GraphAPIEx where this above method appears.

I had this question today and it turns out the answer is pretty simple

1. First, it’s important to note that as of this writing IE 8 (what I tested) doesn’t render rounded corners as implemented in jQueryUI v1.8.14 though I understand there is a plugin that enables that feature.
2. To remove rounded corners on all elements of jQueryUI (for Chrome, FF and Safari) you can include the following in your own CSS:

   .ui-corner-all { border-radius: 0px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 0px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 0px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 0px; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 0px;}
   }

Now, credit where credit is due.

We have a Samsung flat panel TV which hangs from the wall like a picture frame so it’s pretty difficult to read the back of the TV when I need to change connections. We don’t always have the Wii connected to this TV so I move the Wii and have to reconnect it using a 5 plug component cable. I seem to always forget the order of the plugs therefore I can’t easily reconnect it without visual access to the back of the TV. Google returned several bogus hits for this question so I snapped a picture with my cell phone (which was immediately uploaded to Picasa via G+, very cool) so here it is:

From left to right the plugs are red and white audio and red, blue, and green video. I’m sure there’s a great reason why the far right plug is green and not yellow but there you go.

Here’s a Google search to get you started $g(green vs yellow video plug).

Now, I only have to remember I wrote a blog post to recall the order of the connections.

Microsoft finally put a bullet in the head of Windows Live Mesh which was really a mess from the beginning. I suppose it was a good thing they never took the "beta" label off. :-)

Dear Live Mesh beta participant,

You're receiving this message because you used the Live Mesh beta from Microsoft. On March 31, 2011, the beta of Live Mesh will end, and the Live Mesh beta will stop working. After March 31, you won't be able to access any files stored online in your Live Desktop or connect to your PCs remotely using the Live Mesh software. Microsoft will not be able to help you retrieve any files you have stored online after this date. Your files will also stop syncing between your computers and your Live Mesh online storage. Please read below for actions we recommend you take.