Port25
SMTP This New site from Microsoft focused on "Communications from the Open Source Software Lab @ Microsoft" Check out Port25 (http://port25.technet.com)
Monday, June 05, 2006
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
Red-Gate software does it again
Finally, Intellicense for SQL Query Analizer - Free http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Prompt/index.htm Get it now (free until September 1st)
Sunday, May 21, 2006
WEB 2.0 and other developments
I am extremely impressed with the latest developments of the web. It is definitely taking on a 2.0 format, where I clearly see the next level of usability and usage advances. First of all the use of AJAX is finally making the web pages usable without going trough the regular "Fill the form" -> Submit -> Wait -> "Correct the Form" -> Repeat procedure. I finally see interfaces that resemble usability of the rich UI that we are all used to in the think client applications. No, there is still room to grow, and SmartClient applications are still safe, however, Web 3.0 might change that completely. Second, I am VERY impressed with the competition that google is receiving. Don't get me wrong, google is great. Search is amazing, I love the pluggable homepage, I use GMail and think that it's a truly great thin email client. However, the competition is getting really close. Even though I like the pluggable webparts, I still like the design of my.yahoo.com better. I prefer to have a two or three section design. I love the site, the idea of tags is just amazing. GMail works, but it is still hard to file the emails, I'd love to be able to have return receipts, multiple tags for emails, etc... Desktop search from MSN Toolbar, has a cleaner interface with the outlook then Google deskbar does. Overall, competition created a lot of great software that can be utilized. Third, I am really, realy, really impressed with the online communities. del.icio.us, Blog explosion, Flicker, WIKIs, etc.... It is really amazing how the community is driving the advances in the technology, and it is no longer a vendor who is making application happen, but rather the people who are using the application. The application is no longer the software that a you as a user gets to use, it is the content that is provided and the way that the content is created and organized by others within the community. Each application is like a giant ant farm, that with the proper display ca become a living and breathing form of art. well, what Web 3.0 will be we can only dream of, Or is it that we can change the world to make it happen :)
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Agile Projects in the real world
It's been a while since I've written a post, but this topic has been on my mind for a while. I've always been in favor of Agile project delivery, the Simplicity and "you are not going to need it" principals. I've seen it time and time again, that projects are overarchitected, overdesigned and are overpromissed. Teams spend months upon months on design meetings, requirements gathering, architecture comeeties. Then before the project is even close to the stable beta stage, multiple things happen:
- A key developer leaves and developers who were not 100% sold on the design start picking parts of the projects to rearchitect
- A new technology is introduced in the market that makes a lot of work already done on the project absolute
- The customer (or business sponsor) changes his mind on the need for the project in the first place because the timeframe for the key deliverable was missed.
The article in the computerworld reflects on these issues, and I found it to be very comforting that I am not the only one thinking about this. http://www.computerworld.com/ managementtopics/management/story/ 0,10801,110951,00.html
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Technology-less solution
I've been reading some of the old saved blog entries on bloglines, and came to one very interseting entry by Chris Sells. http://www.pocketmod.com/ Provides a analog solution that is extremely simple and might (I've not tried it yet) be very good at orgonizing the simpe daily actions in your life.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Who ever said VB is dead?!?!?
It appears VB is not only alive, but is growing strong. It seems that the feature is all about data and merging the divide between application and data. Hmm.... So is the n-tear design supposed dying... doubt it http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/future/
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Music Format Annoyances
Well, nother dollar waisted due to the music format incompatibilities (and bickering between companies) I just purchased a song from music.msn.com It came in WMA format. However, my IPod does not play WMA files, even though ITunes player does. And apperantly you can not convert "purchased" files to MP3 even though you purchased them, and they should be yours to do with what ever you want. Can someone explpain me the logic in selling me something, and yet not allowing me to do with it what I want? When I buy a car I can alter it how I want. When I buy a house, I can rebuild it. True.... I can not break the rules, but I am not planning on doing so. I am only trying to listen to the song that I paid good money for. I would not even let anyone else listen to it.... I promice.
Friday, June 10, 2005
A Bug, is a bug, is a bug
it is interesting how the more computers enter our lives, the more software bugs effect us. Computers are everywhere now, and I am not talking about the deskktops or laptops that we use, I am talking about everythng from Cars to appliances that we use in our daily lives. No matter how different those 'computers' look from the desktops and laptops, the software running on them is still the same software.... just as buggy. Here are some examples: My DVR slows down to a crawl after about two weeks of continuous operation. My MP3 player stops connecting to the USB port and requres a 'reboot'. There are old jokes on what would happen if cars would be designed by Microsoft. I don't think it's really Microsofts fault, however it is disappointing, that the reach of computers advanced, howver, the quality of software decreased. I understand that the complexity increased, however, you can't argue that since our cars are more complex then they used to be, they should crash more often...
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Yeee Haaaa..... Subversion 1.2.0 is released!!
Main new notable features that I was waiting for are:
- File Locking (requires new client and server)
- Full DAV autoversioning (mod_dav_svn feature)
- Faster access to old revisions due to xdelta
- FSFS repositories are now the default (server)
- Cached passwords are encrypted on Windows (Windows client)
One very important note: The server is fully backward compatible (new features will not work witht the old client, however, all the old features will work perfectly)
Enjoy....
Monday, May 23, 2005
Finally - Great Theft Auto for XBox - Are there still any reasons to get the PS2?
Finally - Great Theft Auto for XBox - Are there still any reasons to get the PS2? Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Xbox Hands-On - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Previews for Xbox at GameSpot
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
The tale of many grids
We are in the process of selecting a grid product for the next order management application. Even though the list of available grids is pretty big, once you start getting into the evaluation of the products, it narrows down pretty fast. I was not the one to do the research on the grids, so would like to give credit where it's due. All research on the grid products was done by Victoria Nemoytina, one of the senior developers on my team.
Grid Requirements:
- Ease of use - no reason to jump through hoops to create a simple grid display
- Fast Updates - don't you just hate it when you can see the pixels move as you scroll the grid?
- Easy to bind to datasets and to user defined data structures - beeing able to bind to a dataset makes it extremely easy to create a simple grid display. DataSet will give you events during the updates for validation. Sometimes, you need a more of a custom data structure, and beeing able to bind a grid to it provides for a good division betwene data storage and display. The easier both of these can be accomplished and the more flexibility we get, the more productive we will be
- Hierarchical display - pretty often we need to show parent/child relationships between the data. Contacts->Phone Numbers, Orders->Executions, Brokers->Orders, etc...
- Flexible layouts - this is even more critical for hierarchical data. The grid needs to show a lot of information, and beeing able to create a clear layout, show the relationship between the records and provide the ability for the user to adjust it is extremely important
- Grouping - a grid should assist in creating grouping and summaries.It should be possible to modify summary lines. A nice to have is to add custom grouping formuls
- Filtering - a filter bar and/or ability to add custom filtering into the grid will help out tramendously. We've implemented the functionality before without the grid support, however, wold be nice to have it all in one package
- Indepedant cell updates - a basic scenario is updating a cell value while a user is editing a row. Think "Running Stock Price"
| SyncFusion Grid | SyncFusion Inc |
| Infragistics Grid | Infragistics Inc |
| XtraGrid | XtraGrid |
| ComponentOne Grid | ComponentOne |
| Feature | Infragistics | DevExpress |
|---|---|---|
| Periodic Data Updates | Yes - When sorting if off, new rows can be added and existing rows updated in the underlying recordset while the user is in edit mode. The grid is going to reflect the changes, but the user won't be kicked out of editing. | Yes - When the new rows are added to the underlying recordset, the grid does not reflect the changes unless you do a refresh, which kicks the user out of edit mode. If you try to add new rows directly to the grid, the user also gets kicked out of edit mode once you try to commit your change (which you have to do to be able to add another new row). You can set a new value for a particular cell without switching focus from a row that's been edited. So, the real-time updates are possible. |
| Splits | Yes | Yes |
| Formulas | Yes | Yes |
| Export to Excel | Yes | Yes |
| Import from Excel | Yes | Yes |
| Virtual Mode (no data resides in a grid) | Yes - Can apply grouping, sorting and filtering in virtual mode | Yes - Can apply grouping, sorting and filtering in virtual mode. Applying grouping is faster in this mode than in Infragistics |
| Filtering | Yes - You can hide, disable or change appearance for the rows that are filtered out. For a hierarchical grid you can filter the child or the parent rows only. | Yes |
| Summaries | Yes - Can have header of footer Summaries | Yes - Can choose to display summaries for collapsed rows only. Can have header or footer Summaries. |
| Merged Cells | Yes | |
| Excel like presentation | Yes | |
| Create Columns automatically by adding them to the end | Yes | |
| Refresh Hierarhical Grid while keeping expansion status the same | ||
| Multicolumn Drop-down list | Yes | |
| Save one grid's Layout and apply it to other grid | Yes | Yes |
| Rotated Column Headers | Yes | Yes |
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Finally - A new computer - and Windows XP
Hey, it only took me 3 years to get a new computer (meaning I panned on getting one for the last three years), and finally to switch switch to Windows XP. So now I have a brand new, far from the top of the line, P4, 3.0GHz, 512MB, 160GB HD Dell 3000. For a bargain price of $450. Hey, more then enough to read some blogs. Some of the coolest features I am going to miss while working on the laptop (still 2000) are: Fast Bootup TIme All of the powertoys (Virtual Screens, Task Switcher) Better security lockdown Ohh well, may be my boss will get me a new laptop (let's see if he's reading my blog on this one :)
