There were a couple of calculation bugs in the Poker Copilot version I linked to in the previous post. Also, the HUD performance was not good with lots of hands – because I forgot GUI basics (for the techies: do long-running calculations in a background thread, update the screen in the event-handling thread).
So here’s an updated version 1.3 beta:
http://pokercopilot.com/downloads/pokercopilot1.32.dmg
Today I’ve put together an alternative HUD view, showing a bunch of stats in tabular form. Here’s the new view:
And as it was (and still is, if you choose):
I’m misusing standard Apple buttons. But as I intend to dramatically enhance the HUD over the next month or two, I don’t want to spend too much time on this interim solution.
Here’s a Java feature in Leopard: You can use the system images, found on Apple toolbars and applications, in Java. They exist in a virtual file system called “NSImage”. Here’s an example to show the image for “Icon View”.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
public class ScratchSpace {
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
final Container pane = frame.getContentPane();
pane.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
/***********/
Image image = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(“NSImage://NSIconViewTemplate”);
pane.add(new JLabel(“Icon”, new ImageIcon(image), SwingConstants.LEFT));
/***********/
frame.pack();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
The full list of system icons can be found here. Scroll down the page to see examples of each icon.
Alas, this doesn’t work on Tiger. To get around this, you can use Leopard to create a copy of the image as a PNG. Then you can use the PNG. This code creates a PNG file for a specified image template.
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.RenderedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
public class ScratchSpace {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
writeImage(“NSListViewTemplate”);
}
private static void writeImage(String imageName) throws IOException {
Image image = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(“NSImage://” + imageName);
ImageIO.write((RenderedImage) image, “png”, new File(imageName + “.png”));
}
}
I’m big on continuous improvement in software development. Every week, every day, I hope to find something I can do marginally better. If that change makes my one-person show only a fraction of a fraction better, it beats a fraction of a fraction worse.
Some marginal things I have done to make things better for users and to make more profit for me include:
There’s still plenty of improvements to make, to the processes, my systems, and of course, to my software. Continuous improvement is never a completed task. I can’t make everything perfect at once. But I can make things a little bit better tomorrow than they were yesterday.
Every week, every day, I aim to do something marginally better.
To my loyal blog readers:
You can download the beta release of Poker Copilot 1.3 (aka the Funky Dashboard version) now.
What’s new:
Known issues:
If you discover any irregularities in statistics, please let me know.
Ay, ay ay. I don’t play poker for a week or so while on holiday and Full Tilt Poker goes and releases an update and a new innovation – the Matrix tournament – on me. New features, new ways to break Poker Copilot.
I just gave the Matrix tournament a shot. Lots of fun. Six players play simultaneously on four tables, with points awarded for knocking other players out and for winning a table. I came first on my initial attempt, which naturally made it even more fun!
Unfortunately the Matrix tournament seems to confuse Poker Copilot a little. I’ll need to spend some time tweaking the parser.
While I was on my trip to a little-explored corner of Europe, not only did I see some breathtaking Balkan scenery and fascinating Ottoman-style towns, I also passed a significant milestone with Poker Copilot. I have now earned back every cent I put into Poker Copilot. That’s right, I’ve now broken even – and in fact, started earning a tidy profit – on my one-man, boot-strapped, personally-funded show.
Peldi wrote a detailed post about the hows and whys of starting up Balsamiq, his one-person software company with a cool name. It’s good reading for anyone dreaming of throwing in the day job and starting up shop. My opinion: Peldi had the benefit of skill and luck: skill, in that he seems to be blessed with a broad range of skills one needs for such an endeavour; and luck, in that the niche he chose for his first product has turned out to be a very good one.
Matt asked:
what Java IDE do you use? (and recommend?)
IntelliJ IDEA. It costs money ($249 for a personal license), but if you are a professional Java developer it is more than worth it. It is far ahead of the competition in quality and features. They release a new version once every year or so and I always purchase an upgrade immediately. I feel it is my competitive advantage over the hordes of Java developers who use Eclipse or NetBeans simply because they are free.
If you find yourself heading to Tirana, the capital city of Albania (and I can’t really think of why you would be), and you want free wireless, head to the cafe of the UFO University. Yes, it’s really called the UFO University. It probably stands for something poignant in Albanian. It’s just off the the central plaza, nearby the Opera. Not only does it have free wireless, but a cafe espresso costs way less than a euro.
Now for some news that has left me gobsmacked, flabbergasted, and astounded – in a positive way. MacPokerTools.com has gone to the trouble of writing a “Guide to Reading Poker Copilot“. It’s nice indeed to have an ecosystem forming around Poker Copilot.