John Spahr

Palm Month is over... what's next? 5/31/2020   Palm Month has been a very exciting month for Tectra! It started with a major update for  PreBook , which gave me the idea to dedicate an entire month to Palm stuff. Then, I released  PreMail , a working Gmail client for webOS devices. Finally, I released a new Palm OS program called  Owner Info , which was a tool that helped people identify the owner of a Palm OS device. I also released a few minor updates to some of my other Palm-related apps that I didn't bother writing about. Needless to say, I've been working on a lot of projects this month! ​ What's next? I have a feeling that June is going to be a kind of weird month. This is because my office is going to repainted pretty soon. This means that I'll have to find another place to work for a few days. That being said, I still have several projects that I plan to do this month. In fact, I have already started on some of them. Here are the things I'm working on cu...

Arduino Star Trek Screen Lights... Thing 5/27/2020   Greetings, everyone! I recently found an Arduino compatible board in my room. I decided to try creating something with it! This resulted in a sort of neat Star Trek screen lights project... thing. You can learn more by watching the video below! ​ The Code I found the code on  this  Stack Exchange post and modified it a bit. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Arduino Star Trek Thing void setup ( ) { for ( int i = 9 ; i <= 13 ; i ++ ) pinMode ( i , OUTPUT ) ; } void blink ( const byte which ) { digitalWrite ( which , HIGH ) ; delay ( 50 ) ; digitalWrite ( which , LOW ) ; delay ( 50 ) ; } // end of blink void loop ( ) { for ( int i = 9 ; i <= 13 ; i ++ ) blink ( i ) ; } Setup Photo I tried my best to make it look nice. A Disclaimer Please keep in mind that I’m still new to Arduino stuff, so I’m not completely certain that this is the most efficient way of do...

Introducing Owner Info, Tectra's latest (and greatest) Palm OS app! 5/24/2020   Sadly, Palm Month is nearly over. However, this hasn't stopped me from finishing off the month on a high note! Introducing Owner Info, an app for Palm OS that helps people identify you if you lose your device or you experience a medical emergency. ​ Writing Owner Info has been a ton of fun! Not only have I learned a lot of important things about Palm OS development, but I also have had a lot of fun seeing my idea come to life. Owner Info has a lot of helpful features. It lets you add your phone numbers, work and home addresses, emergency contacts, medical history, email, and more to your Palm OS device! All of these features are presented in a simple and efficient user interface. If you want to learn more about Owner Info,  click here . Enjoy! As always, thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Tectra Weekly Update - 5/18/2020 5/18/2020   Hey, everyone! Welcome back to the Weekly Update! As we near the end of Palm Month, you may be wondering what’s next. Fear not, as that question will be answered in this post! Keep reading learn more. ​ Palm Month Updates I know that I haven't posted very many things on the blog since the beginning of Palm Month, but I have actually been very busy. Not only am I working on an exciting new Palm OS app, but I'm also getting ready for a massive new project. (I'll go into further detail later in this post.) Anyway, this new app will hopefully be released pretty soon. I'll keep you posted! ​ The Massive New Project By now, you've probably seen my office at some point. If not, you can watch my  office tour video  that I made around a year ago. Problem is, my office has some pretty serious issues. I don't have enough space for both of my monitors, things feel cramped, I don't like the color yellow as much as I thought I ...

Introducing PreMail, a Gmail client for webOS! 5/12/2020   Hey, everyone! Sorry for not posting in a while. I've been pretty busy working on some projects for Palm Month! Today, I'm excited to announce PreMail, a Gmail client for webOS! ​ Why make a Gmail client when webOS comes with a mail app  pre -installed? The reason is simple... the built-in mail app no longer works. Since webOS hasn't been updated in years, its security certificates are  very  out of date. It is possible to add new security certificates, but it's a difficult and tedious process. The good news is that PreMail makes it easy to email people on a webOS device! You don't need to worry about security certificates, messing with system files, or anything like that. Better yet, PreMail has a ton of handy features. You can compose, read, and reply to emails, view drafts, check your spam folder, and much more! All of these features are presented in a simple and practical user interface. If you want to s...

PreBook v1.5 "Flow" and Palm Month are here! 5/1/2020   It's May! This month, I want to do something different. As of late, I have been working a lot on Windows and Android projects. However, I haven't done much with my webOS or Palm OS apps in recent months. As a result, I have decided to dedicate the majority of this month to Palm-related projects. To start off the month, I have released an exciting new update for PreBook! ​ I released PreBook in August of 2019. I kept finding things to improve, so I updated it  very  frequently. It was a lot of fun to work on, but I eventually got bored with it. Unfortunately, I stopped working on PreBook for several months. However, this changed a few days ago when I decided to finally write PreBook v1.5. With the release of version 1.5, I really wanted to improve the flow of PreBook. I wanted to make it feel very polished and smooth, hence the "Flow" release name. I accomplished this by adding handy UI elements that mad...