Please download and enjoy.

José.

—-

A todos los fanaticos de StupidZombie, la versión 1.1 al fin fué liberada. Esta entrega contiene correcciónes importantes, es más rápida y también contiene nueva funcionalidad.

¡Por favor baje la nueva versión y espero que la disfrute!

José.

I think the 1.1 release is just one week away, so stay tuned!

A quick preview of what is coming:

Use Nimbus!

Nimbus is beautiful, but will require some customizations. Good thing is that is based on Synth and everything can be tweaked using UIManager.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

		for (LookAndFeelInfo laf : 
			UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) { 
			    if ("Nimbus".equals(laf.getName())) { 
			         try {
						UIManager.setLookAndFeel(laf.getClassName());
					} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
						// TODO Auto-generated catch block
						e.printStackTrace();
					} catch (InstantiationException e) {
						// TODO Auto-generated catch block
						e.printStackTrace();
					} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
						// TODO Auto-generated catch block
						e.printStackTrace();
					} catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException e) {
						// TODO Auto-generated catch block
						e.printStackTrace();
					} 
			    } 
			}

JavaFX GUI?

Very likely. Here I will try to come with something that looks totally awesome, less “Swingy” . Still, the old GUI will be supported so you will have two flavors of it. Let’s see how that goes, but I expect it to be a combination of Swing + JavaFX.

More localization?

I’m thinking seriously to add more languages to StupidZombie. If the audience is global then it should, right?

OK, too much thinking, time to do some coding instead

So which is the best Twitter library for Java out there? Looks like Twitter4J. I’ll give it a try, but that also means I may have to add Cryptography to StupidZombie as the API requires the user / twitter password in order to send tweets. Or maybe not, as the API seems to support OAuth.

Java store and StupidZombie

The Java Warehouse is the repository for Java and JavaFX applications submitted by developers for distribution through the Java Store to hundreds of millions of desktops worldwide.

Right now the offer a private invitation and I luckily got accepted to try their beta program. And guess which application will be part of the Java store?

Dear Jose V Nunez Z,

Congratulations! Your application to the Java Warehouse was reviewed, and you have been approved. You may now start submitting your applications at the link below.

Developer Dashboard »
Please do not reply to this email, as this is an automated email which no person monitors. If you have questions, please refer to the FAQ page.

Sincerely,
The Java Warehouse Team

Very excited, I hope that people will get interested in the application and will start requesting features. Right now I’m working out some Icon details but as soon is ready I will post the link of the application at the Java store so you can play with it.

StupidZombie world domination!

“Blockhead” as I lovingly call the mascot is a zombie done in classic green, and sucken eyes. The eyes are a little off to relay the message he might not be all that bright. Blockhead used to be a bellhop before he was bitten by zombie some time ago. The bellhop uniform speaks of servitude, friendliness and at your “beck-n-call.” To quote wikipedia:

“The job’s name is derived from the fact that the hotel’s front desk would ring a bell to summon an available employee, who would “hop” (jump) to attention at the desk in order to receive instructions.”

Sounds like a good association for what the StupidZombie program does to me.

I chose royal purple for the uniform – i because when paired with green it just kind of speaks of fun. Purple is also a unique color that not alot of places in society use especially for bellhops. It provides a nice contrast to the other colors and is very complimentary.

The light blue is very upbeat and again speaks of “clear blue skys” and creativity – good energy.

The circles are something I envisioned from the start – maybe its because the main vowel sounds in Stupid and Zombie are o’s. Maybe its a full moon. I know that circles represent often wholeness, completeness, etc. Anyway I think they work real well together.

My last thoughts on a logo: Somewhere inside myself I always think a logo should be cool enough that I would want to wear on a t-shirt, a hat, have a poster of it, just be really cool looking. I think, at least for me, that I really dig this logo. and would be happy to wear any swag with this logo on it.

I think the previous paragraph explains it all . But now it is time for you to meet “Blockhead” the official mascot of StupidZombie!:

Blockhead, StupidZombie official mascot

Great stuff. Now about the code, I have put together a Java Webstart shortcut for those of you who want to kick the tires and play with the application. No known bugs at this point, but if you find one then please tell me about it and I’ll fix it, and core functionality works. For the release 1.0 I plan to finish the look and feel of the Java GUI and this website and then will focus on adding more functionality.

Run it, enjoy it and eat some brains (OK, only if you’re a zombie)!

Veneblogs: zombie, blockhead, logo, java

Blogalaxia: zombie, blockhead, logo, java

To2Blogs: zombie, blockhead, logo, java

Technorati: zombie, blockhead, logo, java

Del.icio.us: zombie, blockhead, logo, java

Now is time for the next step which is to add some sexyness to the GUI using Synth.

Initially the HTML Tag generation and the Ping GUI were separate.

Now the new version offers more details in a more organized way:

Big difference using a JTable. Also ping updates are handled better using a Observable – Observer pattern.

The idea is to be able to navigate all the ping types more easily (yes, more directories are comming).

Version 1.0 details:
And when version 1.0 will be ready? Well, I plan to release a beta version with all the functionality enabled before having the website ready. But the following changes are coming pretty soon:

• Sorting and filtering on the table. Easy one but need to sit down and code it
• Use Synth for the look and feel of the application
• Merge the new logo and look and feel with the GUI and the website. No ETA on this one, except than is a work in progress

Once all this is ready I will offer a Jar for download and a webstart link. Stay tunned, more changes comming this way !

And for version 1.1?

Version 1.1 will be mostly bug fixes but also will add two more important features:

• More directories. Yes, there are lots of directories out there and StupidZombie will support them all!
• Soporte para Español (Spanish support). Should be easy to plug in. Also other languages will be added

So let’s the Zombie domination begin!

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41

import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.TreeSet;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import java.util.prefs.Preferences;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;
 
import javax.management.MBeanServer;
import javax.management.ObjectName;
 
/**
 * Factory class to return the proper Ping instance
 * @author undead@stupidzombie.com
 */
public final class PingFactory {
 
	/**
	 * Supported ping types
	 */
	public static enum PingTypes {
 
		UNKNOWN("", ""), 
		TO2BLOGS("To2Blogs", "PINGBLOG_TO2BLOGS_UNIQUEID"), 
		BLOGALAXIA("Blogalaxia", "PINGBLOG_BLOGALAXIA_UNIQUEID"), 
		VENEBLOGS("Venblogs", ""), 
		WEBLOGS("Weblogs", ""), 
		TECHNORATI("Technorati", ""), 
		BITACORASCOM("Bitacoras.com", ""), 
		PINGOMATIC("PingOMatic", "");
 
		public String desc;
		public String id;
		private PingTypes(final String aDesc, final String aId) {
			desc = aDesc;
			id = aId;
		}
	}
 
	private static PingFactory factory;
       // Rest of the code ommited :)

it is amazing how simple Enumerations simplified the code on this class. Now working on the ping controller, that section is long overdue