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June 29, 2004
FreeUnknown low cost versions of Visual Studio
Slashdot mentions the Visual Studio Express line. Free Unknown low cost versions of visual studio for students and hobbiests. This could be a great resource for the 4-H computer project.
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/default.aspx
I don't see anything about supporting compact framework development for those students and hobbiests with Pockect PCs. If Microsoft really wants to drive the sales of Pocket PCs, SmartPhones, etc. they'd be wise to add a Smart Device product to the line. Any compact framework bloggers at MSFT have any comments on if this would happen?
Posted by mikel at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2004
My thoughts on SimIndiana
I signed up for a SimIndiana account just because I was curious. Here's my thoughts:
Why do you have to select a state when signing up? This is supposed to be for Indiana residents only, right?
It never mentions that you have to use IE to signup. I originally tried in Firefox, but it always redirected me to a missing page when creating my account. So I switched to IE. But then it said the account name I wanted wasn't available, so it was still hanging onto that failed attempt.
It's a big download (18MB). I guess Indiana is getting this for free (why was Indiana picked?) for the next two years. Before they start paying for it, they should subsidize residential broadband. That alone would do a lot more than than offering services like this, which as Kyle said are often already available for free anyway.
If the state used Citrix, like they used at Purdue they could offer clients for non-windows machines. The benefit over Citrix is that SimIndiana is downloaded locally so it can be used offline.
SimCalc - a spreadsheet program, didn't have any problems open up a few simple Excel spreadsheets I had.
SimMail - email client, I accidentally left of the .com of an address I was sending mail to. When I hit send it warned me that it was an invalid address and then the email disappeared! So then I retyped the email and had the address right. When I clicked send this time it disappear again! It turns this one got sent, but it didn't show up in the Sent Items.
SimMessenger - looks like a basic messenger but since I don't know anybody else I couldn't test it. My SimIndiana name is mberger, IM me if you got it working.
SimPim - this launched into a really small window. I would guess it integrates into the other stuff (Mail and Messenger)
SimWord - this opened up a couple of Microsoft Word docs I had lying around.
SimExplorer - this lets you browse your storage area. This is where you can store all your docs about corn. I couldn't find out how much storage space is available, but this could be the most useful feature (to me anyway). Again, this piece in particular would be much more useful if everyone in Indiana had broadband.
Other than the storage space, you can pretty much get everything for free already with OpenOffice, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AIM, Windows/MSN Messenger. The best use will probably be if it's already installed on library, school, and other public computers.
Posted by mikel at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
SimIndiana and Kyle Lutes
Well, Indiana made Slashdot news today with SimIndiana. They linked to an Indy Star article that quoted Kyle!.
Kyle Lutes, associate professor of computer science at Purdue University, said he hadn't heard of SimDesk but expressed skepticism at the program.It seems like a good deal, he said, but the company may be using the "crack dealer method of marketing -- give it to 'em free until they're addicted."
Plus, he said, many of its features already are available for free online.
As it always seems when I know the behind the scenes info on a newspaper article, there is a mistake. Kyle is a professor in the Department of Computer Technology not Computer Science.
CNET, Inside Indiana Business and the South Bend Tribune also had articles.
Posted by mikel at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2004
Kossuth Street Baptist Church New Site
The site redesign for www.ksbc.net is live! Sermons are now online too. We'll be backfilling some older sermons in addition to adding a new one each Sunday.
Posted by mikel at 04:42 PM | Comments (1)
June 22, 2004
4-H USA Web Crew
Emily Cox, one of the 4-Hers in the computer project, has been selected to be on the national 4-H USA Web Crew to redesign www.4husa.org. Check out the announcement and the article in the J&C. Congrats Emily!
Posted by mikel at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2004
Coincidence?
There have several long posts in response to Joel's API War article. I don't know if Scoble's was on purpose or not, but it's the simplest, most effective response I've read yet as to why there will always be a place in this world for the features of a rich client application. I guess you could try to cram that stuff into the browser, but ClickOnce or even Java Web Start would be the way to go when depth or richness is preferred over breadth or the lowest common denominator.
Posted by mikel at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2004
RE: Saving a bitmap from the .NET Compact Framework
There was a CPT 355 student who figured out some way to save a bitmap. It was pretty slow, if I remember correctly but it worked. Something else to look into closer to the semester.
Interestingly, you cannot natively save a bitmap from within the .NET Framework. Here is an article telling you how to do it.Via The Daily Grind.
[Via Mobile Weblog]
Posted by mikel at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)
David's Blog
My brother, David, now has a blog. It took a little googling to find it, but here is the ATOM feed so you can subscribe.
Posted by mikel at 08:18 AM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2004
Indiana Small Business News
Some interesting talk. We'll see if what impact it actually has once it gets up and running or if it turns out to be a bunch of election hot air. I like the idea of the "Buy Indiana" website. It'd be nice to list DelMar Information Technologies products and services.
Kernan
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=11185
http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/155531-6780-095.html
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=11166
Daniels & Kernan
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/148299-9648-009.html
Daniels
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/149808-8342-098.html
Posted by mikel at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2004
More C# programming guidelines
Ran across some more C# programming guidelines. Need to review closer to the start of the semester for CPT 355.
Posted by mikel at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2004
Who are the other Christian Technology Bloggers?
Brian hopes to start a conversation. I hope so too (I've trackbacked to Brian's site and he's commented on mine). The combination of my involvement at Kossuth and the exposure to something that is in some ways so similiar but also so different has been really intriguing.
I like the idea that you would invite the experts in their area to speak at a church conference instead of always looking internally. Why not expand this to the blogs? Since I volunteer at Kossuth, I spend more of my time involved in the business world writing code and trying to start a small business. Who are the other Christian tech bloggers like Brian? Regardless of if it's your job or your hobby or the size of your church, we all have a common mission. It'd be awesome to see God use someone's business trip to say TechEd to expose them to some technology and have that technology be infused into churches.
So I agree with Brian that we bring in experts for new ideas, but then you have to distribute those within the church as widely as possible.
Posted by mikel at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
Church Impact of Technology
Brian Bailey, from Fellowship Church, has some interesting points in his posts "Expand your Territory" and "Risk and Reward".
I forwarded Scoble's original article to a few friends who are involved with church and technology (either volunteer like me or professionally). Those emails led to some thoughts about the message getting lost amid all the technology. Scoble points to Bernie Simon who asked the same things. Reading Brian's posts and checking out their website, it looks sure looks like Fellowship Church attempts to keep the message at the core of all they do. But I watched ten minutes of a sermon about some topic that I don't remember because I spent most of the time watching the Ferrari that was on stage. So for me, the message was lost because of all the "extra stuff". But, I'm not FC's target audience. According to Brian they are reaching out to those that aren't comfortable in a "regular" church and are used to ESPN, MTV, etc. So those type of individuals would probably be distracted at KSBC by the hymns, lack of polish, or just the single preacher with the aid of only PowerPoint instead a quarter million dollar sports car.
My other thought is how does any church, but specifically one as large as Fellowship Church, make decisions about how to spend money on technology vs. say something like missions. How many missionaries or Sunday school classes could be supported for each plasma TV? But if the church didn't use this technology would they be able to support all their members? It's obviously a tough choice. Taking Prof. Goldman's IT Economics course has increased my inclination to measure everything to prove the efficiency or lack there of. It had a business bent, but the same thing is true in a church. It doesn't matter if your goal is to make more money or save souls, you hope to do it as efficiently and effectively as possible. God has command us to effectively use the talents and resources he has given us. As always, the technology isn't what is good or bad, it's our use of that technology that needs to be questioned whether you're a church as large as FC, smaller like KSBC, or a business (large or small).
Posted by mikel at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
NUnitForms
Something else to research as I learn more about unit testing.
http://nunitforms.sourceforge.net/
Posted by mikel at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2004
C# Plug-in resources
http://www.thecodeproject.com/csharp/PluginsInCSharp.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/pluginframework.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/03/10/Plug-Ins/default.aspx
http://www.divil.co.uk/net/articles/plugins/plugins.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/07/CuttingEdge/default.aspx
Posted by mikel at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2004
Write and compile code on your Pocket PC
Cool, but I'm pretty sure I'd never want to do this...
Paschal writes about a C# compiler for your Pocket PC device
[Via Nino.Mobile]
Posted by mikel at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
Mark's Rules - Sweat Equity
Looks like Mark Cuban is starting a series of business rules. Excellent!
The Rules of SuccessThe reality is that for most businesses, they don’t need more cash, they need more brains.
[Via Blog Maverick]
Posted by mikel at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2004
Church and Technology
I've been getting more involved with the technology at KSBC (we'll have sermons online soon!) but it's nothing like Fellowship Church. Scoble and Brian Bailey both blogged about it.
Posted by mikel at 09:17 PM | Comments (1)
Most wanted terrorists
Because of Swoosh, I was browsing around the Mobile Application Catalog and found the Most Wanted Terrorists Pocket Directory (TM) Database. This just seems crazy, I mean, are you supposed to see some guy on the street, pull out your Pocket PC, and then browse through the DB looking for the guy's picture? There really is software for everything :)
Posted by mikel at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)
Swoosh in the Mobile Application Catalog
Swoosh - Software for Basketball Statistics was recently logo certified as "Designed for Windows Mobile". Because of that it has now been listed in Microsoft's Mobile Application Catalog!
Posted by mikel at 06:33 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2004
stuff to read
some stuff that i picked up listening to .NET Rocks that i want to read sometime
http://www.ericjsmith.net/codesmith/
http://www.fawcette.com/vsm/2003_05/magazine/features/dollard/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/using/columns/wonders/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnforms/html/winforms03162004.asp
Posted by mikel at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
June 02, 2004
Windows Sell By Date
Loren says computers need a sell by date. An interesting idea that the software (Windows in this case) spoils over time.
Posted by mikel at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2004
Layers and Tiers
Scott Hanselman has a good post about the values of separation of duties (data/business/presentation). This aligns more with CPT 450 but it will be good to pass along to the CPT 355 students also along with his "Myth of .NET Purity" which is now up on MSDN.
Posted by mikel at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)