MikeFoden.com

So I came across a situation the other day.

I had been given some source code for a .NET assembly, but it was missing some code that was in a compiled version we were also given.

But it was ok! A friend recommended a free .NET decompiler by the guys at Telerik called JustDecompile.

It took only a few seconds to assess the DLL and allow me to navigate to the class I was looking for and allowed me to retrieve all the methods I was searching for.

I kind of wish I could find a sort of compare feature a bit like WinMerge to compare the old code’s compiled version with the supplied version to see if there wasn’t any other changes, but oh well.

Another limitation (which makes perfect sense really) is that enumerables from other projects can translated into their associated values.

You can check JustDecompile out here: http://www.telerik.com/products/decompiler.aspx

A friend once showed me this brilliant app for the iPhone that can be used to do interface design and prototyping for Objective C applications on the iPhone.

Personally, I have only just started using it to test ideas that I have when I have them, which is quite handy as more often then not you tend to come up with ideas when you are away from your computer.

Here is a very basic mockup I made just before in about 2 minutes:

Interface is only $9.99 on the App Store, and now comes with a feature to export your mockup interface to Xcode.

Trying to be healthy? Eating lots of fruit and vegetables, and doing heaps of exercise? Well there is one more thing you should be considering: how much food you actually eat. Most of us eat way too much – the excess calories helping to form the “beer gut” that seems to be an ever growing symptom of obesity. But to help with dieting, watching the size of your meals is the key to losing weight. The issue we currently have is most of us don’t realise exactly how many calories are in the food we eat. For example, I found out that I was eating THREE TIMES the amount of cereal I should be eating in the morning. All those extra calories were a hassle.

Most people typically will eat whatever they have on their plate, and with plates getting larger and larger, that is much more food then what we need. Overeating is also caused by people being bored, or by some people as a means to alleviate depression. By switching to a more maintained portion control eating plan, you will reduce the amount of calories consumed.

The common rules for correct portions are roughly as follows:

• Protein such as meat should not be larger than a palm size piece..
• Carbohydrates such as pasta can be measured by fistfuls.

Also don’t forget the 5 vegetables and 2 fruit servings per day rule!

Over the last couple of months I have been forced to tackle some debt. After calculating my tax return, I ended up owing the government a nice little sum last financial year, as I worked several jobs and managed to earn over the HELP repayment threshold. I also had to pay car registration, car insurance, a PPCA license, and a couple of other things.

After getting through all that, I realised that I needed to get into a better way to pay off my other long-term debts, such as my car loan and my HECS (HELP) debt. A little bit of research on the internet helped me find out about the Debt Avalanche method for handling debt. Flexo‘s post details how to best look at tackling your debt, by first targeting the higher interest rate debts in order to minimise the effect interest has on your overall balance. I’m going to quickly give a brief overview of this method.

1. List all your debts, sorted by interest rate


List all your debts, ordered from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate. This shows you which debts will cost you more over time. Most people will have credit cards up the top of this list, as they are designed to charge us the most!


2. Pay off the minimum amount for each debt


We don’t want any extra fees now, do we? Make sure you pay the minimum amount for all your accounts so you don’t get any fees.


3. Send extra money to the highest interest rate debt


By paying off the highest interest account, you will save more money by having less interest to repay.


4. Rinse and repeat


Do it every month, and eventually you will have paid off your debts!

Sounds simple ey? Make sure you check out the full post by Consumerism Commentary to learn more.

Just wanted to quickly show you all what a friend of mine got as a Captcha earlier today whilst attempting to comment on a story by The Age.

Quite funny to see, but seriously, Captcha images should have numbers and letters. Oh, and if you are wondering what Captcha stands for, it’s “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”

Bills. We all have them, we all hate them. Being able to budget effectively helps gives us financial freedom in order to enjoy the rest of our lives.

A good way to start budgeting is by visualising how much of your income gets eaten up by bills. A great post by Matt over at Steadfast Finances talks about an exercise you can do using a calendar in order to get a better grasp at how your money is actually being used. I would recommend doing this exercise using February as the month you complete this on, as 28 days = 4 weeks = easiest time to do it.

As you can see, I have personally used this method to see how my pay is spent on my things. As you can see, half of my pay per month goes straight to bills. This means I can put aside some of my money into my special savings account, and then keep some aside for social outings.

By visualising what you spend, you can start to work out where you could be saving additional money. For me, I was spending over $200 a month just on lunches for work. By switching to home-made prepared lunches, I have additional money to add into my higher interest bank account (as well as being more healthy). In turn, that is an addition $2,400 a year I can save.

Try it, and see how you go.

If you are a user of Facebook, you will have most likely encountered the wave of spam applications that have been going around for years, such as ‘Photas’. These applications pose as official notifications, and are designed to trick you into accepting them as a genuine application. The latest one mimicks someone liking your photos.

The best way to tell you it’s a spam application is it will require you to authorise the application after you click on the notification.

However, if you have added the Photas (or any other) spam application, go to the Application Area at http://www.facebook.com/editapps.php and remove the application from that list.

So I thought I’d do a quick post about my top 5 iPhone applications. I like the fact that I use my phone for more than just texting and making phone calls.

5. Foursquare [Link] Free

One of the growing trends on the internet these days are social networking websites, and it’s now expanding into new directions. One of these new paths, and a range of services have popped up to meet these needs. FourSquare has taken a great leap for this, turning it into a game. By ‘checking in’ into various venues, you earn points and badges. It’s quite a bit of fun, good to compete with friends to see who can become the ‘mayor’ of the most venues.

Another good feature is people can leave tips about venues, which allows you to find out what other people think of that place. FourSquare is even being adopted by companies to use in rewards schemes and more.

4. Tweetie [Link] AU$3.99

There are a slew of twitter applications out there for the iPhone, but my favourite one is Tweetie 2. When I first got my phone, I used to use the free version of EchoFon, but as I started making more and more accounts, I needed the added functionality. Combined with lists, landscape tweeting, easy tweeting of videos and pictures, url shortening, it’s the perfect mobile twitter client.

The only thing it seems to miss is push notifications. For that, I use iTweetReply.

3. Sleep Cycle [Link] AU$1.19

An application I’ve been using (thanks to @snarkle and @richokinetic) is Sleep Cycle. It helps monitor your sleeping patterns, waking you up in the lightest phase in your sleeping pattern in order to make you feel the most refreshed. The website has a nice little ‘how it works’ page that explains how it works, but it seems to work. And even if it doesn’t, it produces cool graphs that show what your sleeping patterns are like. It is very accurate based on my testing.

2. Consume [Link] AU$2.49

Bjango have a habit of making some awesome applications. Consume is a wonderful usage monitor that you can add your phone and internet account details to in order to see a visual monitor of how much you have spent. I currently use it to monitor my internet usage on my mobile, allowing me to not go over my data allowance. At last check, there are now over 100 providers in over 10 countries that are currently compatible with the app. Definitely useful if you get high fees for going over your limit.

1. Spend [Link] AU$2.49

The #1 position is held by my favourite budgeting app, Spend. Being someone who really doesn’t save money well, getting into a good financial pattern is the key to reducing debts. Using Spend, I can input my purchases when I make them, and have my remaining funds right there on the screen. By doing that, I know I won’t go over the budget I have set for myself.

There is also a lite version available, but I went straight for the full version.

A quite funny video!