Thought: Secrecy in Apple marketing and development tools.

I have been as impressed as anyone with Apple’s return to prominence as a viable desktop computing alternative to Windows. I think that a few things behind this including the popularity of the iPod, the adoption of a BSD-based core for the operating system, and of course brilliant control of their brand messaging.

However, as adoption of the Apple platform grows they are starting to spread out from the truly devoted fans into a group of users who really don’t care about the cool factor of using a Mac Book Pro, or whether their headphones are white or not.

If you look at the corporate computing environment today, IT professionals and software developers have visibility years ahead of what technologies and features their platform will have and can start planning ahead. I know it sounds terribly boring, but as these people get exposed to the big bang effect of the Apple marketing machine, I can’t help but wonder whether they will get turned off or not.

As an aside, I also don’t feel that Apple has done enough for software developers on their platform. It seems the best IDE they can manage is Xcode and the best language Objective-C whereas on Windows I can use .NET and it is fully sanctioned and supported by Microsoft. I know that I can download Mono and MonoDevelop for the Mac OS X, but the IDE in particular doesn’t look at home on the platform.

One of the biggest software houses for Mac outside of Apple is Microsoft, I wonder if they could turn their hand to producing an IDE for the Mac? I wonder whether it would cannibalise Windows sales much.

CS1934

There is some syntax that I didn’t know about. Where you can explicitly declare the type of the object that you are dealing with as a range variable in a LINQ statement. In this case I wanted to work with an Option instance from OptionCollection in the WatiN API.

I’ve just become a Media Centre junkie!

So this week I decided to dig into some savings and buy myself a few toys that I’ve been lusting after for quite a few years now. I went out and purchase myself a computer that I can use as a Media Centre PC, the rough spec of the device is:

• 4GB of RAM
• Quad Core Processor
• 8800GT Video Card with 512MB RAM
• 2 x 500GB Hard Disk Drives
• 2 x Leadtek WinFast 1000S DVB-T Capture Cards (internal)
• 22″ Screen

I got the screen so that I could configure the beasty whilst I figured out what kind of screen I could get in the living room. I could also go into detail about the exact mother board and video card, but to be honest I don’t really know or care, all I know is that the machine flys and I’m never going to have problems recording two programs to disk at once, or spewing out a nice hi resolution image across HDMI.

Getting the machine configured wasn’t uneventful though. I decided to go with Windows Vista for the Media Centre since that is the platform that I am most comfortable with. However the original MSI MEGA SKY 580 external capture device I had didn’t work - which is why I replaced it (I wanted to be able to record one channel and watch another anyway).

Once I finally got the TV stream coming through I found that channels two and ten were jumpy and the HD channels in general there as well. After some reading I went out and got myself a sub-$50 RF booster which simply made the problem go away - good, now for the TV.

Yesterday I went out shopping and looked around Dick Smith, The Good Guys and JB Hi-Fi. I wasn’t really sure what I was after other than the general advice that I should try and match the output resolution on the video card and the display to minimise scaling problems.

After looking at Plasma’s and LCD’s I decided to go for a 1920×1080i LCD at a 42″ size. The brand was SONIQ which from what I can tell is a JB Hi-Fi home brand, but I really couldn’t go past the price for that size and resolution. Time will tell whether I made the right decision.

The ultimate irony after setting all this up is that I will be away for a week and won’t be able to play with it (but I gave my house mates a crash course so hopefully they enjoy it as I set it up in the communal living area).

Now that I have it all working I’m thinking about where I want to go next getting myself set up for a digital lifestyle, on my list are:

• Getting an X-BOX to re-use the now available 22″ screen and also set it up as a media centre extender (for my bedroom).
• Get a home server up and running to provide remote access and disaster recovery capability.
• Get a proper media centre remote control. It looks like the good ones cost around $300 dollars, but after a few days of using a keyboard and mouse I realise that “the remote” is a desirable user experience.

Anyway - was a fun week/weekend getting all this set up, and I am looking forward to not missing the various TV-series that I like to watch whilst I am travelling.

Exciting new enhancements to CLR!

I was surprised to see that some exiting new enhancements to CLR have been announced. I wonder if this means that ParallelFX has been put on the backburner?

On the road again!

Ahhhh. I think I might just have missed this. I’m sitting at Melbourne Airport on a Sunday night waiting for my 9:15PM flight to Sydney. Actually, I am on the 8:15PM flight now, I was originally on the 9:15PM flight, but it was cancelled and I was bumped to the 8:15PM flight, which, due to weather is leaving at 9:15PM - although I have a sneaking suspicion that even that is a tad optimistic

Travelling frequently for work is a strange beast for me. Since I am a bit of a nomad I am happy to do it, although I did enjoy my break from travel from late November till now.

Anyway - I’m determined to have a life this year despite the amount of travel that I’ll probably be doing, and a big part of that is attitude. Positive attitude equals positive experiences - therefore I am going to sit here and enjoy my coffee before I jump on a plane with those cute hosties

Thought: When software developers go to the mountain.

I think that old software developers have more in common with novice software developers. The reason is that an old an experienced software developer knows that the best solution is probably the most simple and uncomplicated one. A novice software developer knows only how to implement the simple and uncomplicated one.

It seems to me that some where between novice and old experienced we go on a quest to the top of the mountain where we explore all the most complicated solutions. Some people spend more time on that journey than others, but eventually I think that everyone comes down wiser.

For the record, I’m still climbing.

Code Camp Oz 2008: RSVP Now!

So - you have decided to come to Code Camp Oz 2008? Excellent, we think this year is going to be huge but you need to register your attendance so that we can organise catering for lunch and making sure that Wagga Wagga imports a sufficient supply of coffee beans to cope with that many software developers.

In order to RSVP for the event you simply need to send an e-mail to registrations@codecampoz.com letting us know that you are coming (name, e-mail and phone number if possible please). Either Greg or I will respond confirming that we have received your e-mail.

Tentative Agenda for the Weekend

• Friday Afternoon; workshops! (not confirmed yet, but we realise that lots of people will arrive on the Friday, this gives everyone enough time to show the appropriate level of respect at the dawn service).
• Friday Evening; dinner at a local venue. Usually this is at Montezumas, however there are a few logistical challenges with this and we are looking at alternatives like Golden Seasons.
• Saturday Daytime; technical sessions! This is what you come for!
• Saturday Evening; whilst not confirmed, we suspect that CSU will put a wine and cheese tasting event on for us again (always a highlight), and if possible we are looking at having a BBQ afterwards.
• Sunday Daytime; technical sessions!
• Sunday Afternoon; wrap-up!

If you RSVP for the event then we will be able to keep you up to date as all the plans and specifics come together. Refer to the call for speakers post for information about what the content of the technical sessions are likely to be.

Code Camp Oz 2008: Call for Speakers

I’ve just put out an announcement about the dates for Code Camp Oz 2008 and which dates the event will run on. As a community event we rely on speakers donating their time and covering their own expenses coming to Wagga Wagga each year.

If you think that you have what it takes to stand up in front of 200+ people and present on a technical subject related to .NET and the Microsoft development platform generally then you might like to consider submitting an abstract for Code Camp Oz 2008, to be held on the 26th and 27th of April.

Each year Greg and I sit down and figure out what subjects we think people will be most interested in and then seek help from the community to fill in speaking slots. This year there will be fourteen time slots to fill with content so we expect competition to fill them is going to be tight so it is absolutely critical that you put some serious effort into producing your abstract. Even still, submitting an abstract is no guarantee that you will get a speaking slot (be we hope you will come along anyway).

This year, the topics that Greg and I have decided are going to be most popular are:

• Visual Studio 2008 with a practical focus.
• .NET Framework 3.5 Fundamentals (LINQ etc)
• ASP.NET and ASP.NET Extensions (AJAX and MVC Frameworks)
• Silverlight and Rich Internet Applications (RIA)
• Team Foundation Server 2008
• Upcoming Technologies and Research Stuff
• F#
• PEX
• Rosario (TFS vNext)
• PowerShell?
• SQL Server 2008
• New Features
• Business Intelligence?

We would like to invite all potential speakers to submit abstracts around these topics. This will maximise your chances of getting a speaker spot, of course if you feel passionate about some other subject Greg and I will always consider alternative sessions (for example, sessions related to the business side of software development).

Timeline for Speakers

In order to streamline the speaker selection process this year we are announcing the key dates in advance so everyone can get their abstracts in on time and so that they know when they can expect a response.

• Call for Speakers (NOW); we are going to try to get the word out as far and wide as possible to give people as much time as possible to prepare their abstracts.
• Abstract Submission Cut-off (15th of February); potential speakers need to have submitted their completed (see below) abstract to Greg Low and I via info@codecampoz.com. Abstracts submitted after this time are unlikely to even be considered.
• Speaker Selection Announcements (29th of February); Greg and I will post on our blogs, and on the codecampoz.com site who the selected speakers are. Speakers who are selected can expect to be contacted by Greg or myself before this date to confirm dates and other arrangements.

Finally - before deciding to submit an abstract please ensure that you can attend Code Camp Oz 2008 in Wagga Wagga on the 26th and 27th of April (we assume that most speakers and delegates will arrive in the afternoon on the 25th) and that you have an appropriate amount of preparation time so you can deliver a great presentation.

What is a good abstract?

I’ve mentioned in this post a few times about the session abstract that speakers need to submit. Here are a few tips for putting together an abstract that will catch our attention.

• A concise but punchy title.
• A clear description of what material is to be presented.
• A clear description of who the intended audience is.
• A description of why you should be presenting on this topic.
• A description of what your previous speaking experience is (if any).
• The lotto numbers for the next few months.

Anyway - good luck submitting your abstracts, we are looking forward to receiving them and picking the speakers for Code Camp Oz 2008!

Code Camp Oz 2008: April 26th and 27th

Save the date!

Greg Low and I are happy to announce the dates for Code Camp Oz 2008, the fourth annual community event for .NET developers from all over Australia. This year the event will be held on 26th and 27th of April in Wagga Wagga at the Charles Sturt University campus.

Thanks for the new web-site have to go to Greg and Mae who have done a great job updating the Code Camp Oz web-site for the new year. Last week we all got together to talk about the various logistical aspects about putting the event together including the schedule for abstract submissions, when the cut off date is and when speakers will be selected.

Look forward to more announcements on this blog, Greg’s and of course codecampoz.com.

Self awareness is critical.

And Paul Stovell has got it in spades. Having said that, I think this bit borders of the delusional

“Then, three months later, someone else would find X and claim all of the money and fame”

I have the same delusions.