alvin's blog

A quick note here today (December 10, 2011) that I have moved to Boulder, Colorado. I'm starting a new computer programming and web design firm in Colorado named Valley Programming., where I'll be offering similar services, such as Drupal website design and programming, and business analyst consulting services.

A friend of mine, Sandi Williams, owns a "pet waste removal" service in Wasilla, Alaska, and I just helped her create a new website for her business, Valley Poop Patrol.

As you can see from her website, we wanted to create a website that is light and fun, but still professional. We started with a base theme and then added some elements to it to emphasize both dogs and the Mat-Su Valley, Alaska region.

Besides the basics, the website has:

Just a quick note here today that I just released my Cato CRUD Generator software tool. Cato is a web app that lets programmers generate Java, PHP, XML, and other types of software code based on database table definitions.

Free HTML5 book contest announcement: On the devdaily.com website I'm giving away two free copies of Introducing HTML5, a really terrific HTML5 programming book. Please see that URL for more contest and prize information.

If you're a web programmer you've probably seen this book in the bookstores. If not, here's what it looks like:

Java String/array FAQ - How do I create an array of Strings in Java (a Java String array)?

I wrote this article because I can never remember the Java array syntax myself, so I use this page as a reference. There are a couple of ways of declaring and using Java String arrays, and I'll try to cover those in this article.

1) Declaring, sizing, and using a Java String array

The first way to use a Java String array is to declare it in one step, and then use it in a second step. Within a class, you declare a Java String array like this:

Just a quick note here today (as I continue the transition from Mat-Su Valley Programming to a new company named just Valley Programming) that I just shared some of my experience as a Business Analyst and writer of software requirements specifications.

Announcement: The devdaily.com monthly newsletter has just been released, and includes information on how to win a free copy of the book jQuery in Action. Here's a link to the monthly newsletter. And here's a link about how to win a free copy of jQuery in Action.

I just ran into a situation of getting a Drupal 7 "PDOException Unknown MySQL server host" error message while running Drupal 7 on a GoDaddy server. The full Drupal 7 error message looked like this:

I'm happy to announce that I'm just about to reach fifty Drupal tips, tutorials, and examples over on my devdaily.com website. Actually, if you do a search for "Drupal" on the devdaily website it shows up in more than eighty different articles, probably because I categorized some of those as "PHP" instead of Drupal. (Note to self: Fix that.)

I'm currently going through the process of establishing my computer programming business here in Alaska, and while many people think it's hard to start a new business, it really isn't, at least not the legal part. Here are the steps I'm following to create my new Alaska computer programming business.

1) File Alaska LLC paperwork