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May 28, 2004
The Jesus Factor
I stumbled across The Jesus Factor Factor which aired on Frontline on PBS April 29. Overall, it was really interesting. The most shocking thing for me was the argument that GWB had with his mother about if Christ is the only way to salvation. They called Billy Graham for his thoughts and he sided with Barbara that it isn't worth spending time thinking about. You've got to be pretty strong in your convictions to stand up to your mother and one of the most well respected ministers in the United States.
Posted by mikel at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2004
keep it simple stupid
ComputerWorld has an article about design considerations for mobile applications. Most of what it says is what I would call common sense. The big thing, I think, is that this is the same mindset you should have when designing any application. Just because you can give the user all that information doesn't mean you should. It's just that a mobile device forces you to make those decisions. I'll need to add this to the links for CPT 355.
Posted by mikel at 07:54 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2004
Curriculum workshop at TechEd
A wrap-up of the curriculum workshop at TechEd.
Posted by mikel at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)
Tivo for the Kitchen
Eric Gunnerson (and other people at TechEd) stole my idea of creating the Tivo for your kitchen. :) Great minds think alike.
By tying in TiVo's “suggestion” feature, your fridge can notice that since you bought a frozen pizza, you might also like other tomato-sauce-based products, and presto, when you come home, you not only can have the pizza, but you can also have a serving of lasagna, or a nice tomato soup.
Someday I'll get around to creating this...
Posted by mikel at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2004
Visual Studio Spell Checker
I removed the source code for the Visual Studio Spell Checker from GotDotNet. Since my earlier review the site has gotten a lot slower and has been down a lot. I'm using the single user Vault from Source Gear. You can still download the install file from GotDotNet.
Posted by mikel at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)
4-H Computer Programming Workshop
The Tippecanoe County 4-H Computer Project second workshop was last Saturday. It was our first time doing programming. We focused on the very basics of programming but with a bent towards writing games. We used C# and it looks like SharpDevelop is going to be a good development environment as a free alternative to Visual Studio .NET. All the links, downloads, and sample code are available on tippecanoe4h.org.
Posted by mikel at 08:16 AM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2004
XML changes in .NET CF v2
Dare points to a series of posts about changes in System.Xml in v2 of the CF. Maybe I should wait to look at the performance issues in Swoosh wrt XML? Maybe my lack of understanding XML won't affect performance as much come v2. It'd probably be a good idea to go ahead and redesign that part of the code regardless.
Posted by mikel at 08:34 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2004
C# Coding Standards
Lance Hunt posted his updated C# Coding Standards. I just gave it quick glance but it looks pretty straightforward. Closer to the semester I suppose we'll need to go back over the CPT 355 C# Coding Standards and Guidelines.
Posted by mikel at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)
Solve REAL Problems
I liked this quote:
"What I like about this story, is that I could have given up at any point since there was a large problem ahead of me: a problem I had no answers to. And I see this with many free software developers, students and even in normal social situations: people stop doing things because they see a big problem ahead of them that they can not possibly conceive working around. My advise to every young programmer is to start writing code and delay addressing imaginary problems until they become real."
I also like Dave Winer's explaination of Stop Enegry that Miguel linked to.
Posted by mikel at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2004
Graduation Pictures
Saturday was commencement. 7 years of college, 3 degrees, lots of homework. It was fun but I'm glad it's over. Thanks everybody that came to the party, sent a card, or gave me a gift. It means a lot to know I have so many wonderful friends and family. Here are some pictures from Saturday.
Now I guess it's time to get to work.
Posted by mikel at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2004
Designed for Windows Mobile Confusion
Does anybody have any clarification about the File Menu for Pocket PC applications. These are the latest guidelines I can find. The summary states that the No File Menu requirement has been removed. But on page 8 two items talk about it. The first says there must not be one and the second says that it isn't recommended.
Will a compact framework application for the Pocket PC pass logo certification with a file menu?
Posted by mikel at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
Compact Framework and custom delegates
This will be useful to have for the CPT 355 threading lectures.
http://www.demsey.org/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=3c17d1e8-5675-4544-81b8-837c35e7d26c
Posted by mikel at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)
Retrieving WinCE device ID
This came across on the DevelopMentor CF mailing list from Neil Cowburn.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetcomp/html/retrievedeviceid.asp
Posted by mikel at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2004
New stuff in the Compact Framework
Sam Gentile has a list of all the new stuff coming in the next version of Visual Studio and the Compact Framework.
Posted by mikel at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2004
Software Development like a Chinese Chef
I liked this analogy from Eric Sink's latest article.
Traditional marcomm has its place, but there are new approaches. With the ubiquity of the Internet today, one of the best ways to build awareness of your product is to develop it "in the open". In other words, using a combination of weblogs, public discussions, and preview downloads, let your prospective customers watch and talk with you as you make your software. Think of yourself as a chef in a Chinese restaurant, your customers watching as you stir-fry their shrimp and peapods.
This really is a practical way of eliciting feedback that's so critical to the agile/XPish style of development. But a lot of people get hung up on open source software when they think of being open. That's why I like this analogy. The chef doesn't tell you the recipe (though you often know most of the ingrediedents). He doesn't explain how he selects the best shrimp or peapods at the store or even where he buys his ingredients. He might explain a little about his techniques (his public API) but not everything (his IP). So in the end you've learned something and feel like you know more of the process but you're not going to go home and recreate the same meal, let alone open up a competing restaurant.
Posted by mikel at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2004
Testing BlogJet
This is a test of BlogJet.
Posted by mikel at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2004
Reflector 4.0
This is a good disassembler and decompiler. Will show VB and C# code and it works for the compact framework.
It has been hell keeping this to myself as Lutz has been sending me beta drops for the last coupla months for the completely reworked Reflector 4.0. Two very cool things about this release of Reflector:
- It supports any version of the .NET Framework, so it works great on Longhorn and Whidbey
- It has a replacement for the Class Viewer tools in the .NET SDK (wincv.exe) that I came to depend on in my writing and that hasn't been updated for WinFX, so Reflector 4.0 is even more important to me than it would normally be
If you're a .NET developer, you must use Reflector and if you use Reflector, you must use Reflector 4.0. Thanks, Lutz! We love you, man!
[sellsbrothers.com: Windows Developer News]
Posted by mikel at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
Example of a good bug report
Title: Calendar application does not launch
Environment: Smartphone <version of MS software, as found in the About Control Panel><manufacturer><model><anything of interest, like low memory>[Repro]
1. Boot device
2. Press SK1.Start
3. Action on Calendar[Results]
When step 3 is executed, nothing happens. The device just stays on the Start Menu screen. I am still able to use the device and launch other applications, but for some reason Calendar will not launch.[Expect]
In step 3, I expect Calendar to launch.[Notes]
I have been using the device now for 2 weeks and I have been able to launch Calendar several times in the past. I did add Widget Company's Calendar application yesterday, and I think that may be the reason Calendar is no longer working. I removed Widget Company's Calendar, but the MS Calendar still does not launch.[Author: Stephen Rosenthal]
[Windows Mobile Team Blog]
Posted by mikel at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)