Java Swing vs. C#
Currently I am developing on the .NET platform using C#. We've had a TON of problems with Windows forms and how immature and hacked together the API is. Bascially it's an object wrapper around the win32 api and not even all the widgets are the best win32 api widgets. Example the toolbar provided in Windows Forms is weak. It supports 8-bit color images so when you put a 24-bit color icon / bmp you get a downleveled image that looks like crud. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
DANGIT! You're pretty much ruining my life!
kyle gray (http://corbin.blogspot.com) stole my preferred blog address. Oh well I've lived with a goofy last name my entire life I guess a goofy blog address isn't too bad! Humm... I wonder if he'd give it back, he doesn't seem to be harnessing the power of his blog right now. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Longhorn 5048
I just installed Longhorn 5048 build from WinHec 2005. Holy crap... it's crap! I never did get the PDC 2003 builds to check it out, but the screen shots looked awesome and it had a lot of new features (sidebar, glass effects, etc....) but 5048 was WINDOWS XP but uglier. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Displaying a Log4Net log file on an ASP.NET website
I wrote a simple web page to display the log file in a textarea from a data synchronization application that logged all it's juicy details to a Rolling log file. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
ORM vs. DataSet
I have been doing a lot of ORM research and prototyping lately. I am convinced of the importance of a real domain model, one that is designed with OO concepts in mind. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Picasa UI Magic
Picasa's UI is just too interesting. In a world of applications where they all work the same and rarely improve on anything Picasa has done some awesome things with their GUI. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Microsoft needs to understand Open Source
I just got done reading a very interesting thread over on TheServerSide.Net about James Newkirk releasing a conversion tool from NUnit units tests to Team System. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Novell and the new desktop wars
It's interesting... Novell is rising from the ashes. They are showing some great leadership in the Linux world and creating one compelling desktop. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
KISS
I read a very interesting comment about complexity in software design... it was in response to the latest Vista slip, now shipping in 2007 (ugh...) Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Really useful people...
It's interesting... I've had chats about this exact topic with other people as I've started to work in Agile environments. The need for specialists is decreasing... the smaller the team the more efficient the project. An interesting article about Agile SDLC and how it changes people's roles: http://www.ddj.com/dept/database/187203749?pgno=1 Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Making the pitch
Phil blogged on pitching your ideas to Venture Capitalists here: Phil801 - Geek Blog » More on Pitching Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Brillant way to attract good talent
Finding really good developers is tough... this is one interesting way to catch a driven smart person: Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Web 2.0 Office -- getting there
Reading more about Web Office Applications and how they are starting to become more viable. There are definately some cool applications that exist right now. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Creating a Web 2.0 company
10 ideas for creating a Web 2.0 company: Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Open Source Graphing Library!
Yea! I learned from Joe Audette on the Mono list about Zed Graph. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
An alternative theory for "subconsciousness", Part 2
When people talk about consciousness versus unconsciousness, there's usually the assumption that there's a "conscious" part of the brain that is thinking and experiencing the world, and other "subconscious" parts of the brain that are in the dark and just doing stuff without actually experiencing the world on their own.
But the disconnect/reconnect thought experiment made me consider an alternative explanation.
Perhaps a brain can be thought of as comprised of a set of regions, where each region is independently conscious? When two regions merge (i.e. integrate their information flows), they form a single unified consciousness, and when a region splits it forms into two separate consciousnesses.Â
For example, imagine that you're concentrating very hard on a tough intellectual problem. A significant portion of your brain would orient around solving the problem and isolate itself from other areas such as the... Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 18, 6:12am
The New Desktop Wars... (part 2)
I blogged earlier about Novell and the new desktop wars. I've been playing with Mac OS X and love it. Leopard is coming out and it looks like it's taking user interface concepts further with Time Machine, which makes backup intuitive to a user. If I need an old version of a file I just enter the time machine and locate it by flipping through snapshots of my application (iPhoto) or my folder. Wow...so simple but it works. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Avalon and XAML
It's about time... Avalon and XAML are pretty much where UI should be. I am learning more about XAML and not sure it's the absolute simplest markup for designing GUIs in but it works and is 1000% better than writing imperative language such as C# / Java etc... Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Writely is part of the google family...
Okay... back on this Web 2.0 companies don't run on Microsoft's platform thing. Well it ain't so. Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Web 2.0 Startups
If you were going to startup a new web company providing software services in a browser what would that company look like? What is it's culture, what does it's first year look like (and it's second etc...)? What type of technology do you build with? Read more...
In the new building..., May 18, 6:12am
Great EDU 2.0 Review
Check out this great quote from a very complimentary review of EDU 2.0:
"I was in my quest to find online education tools when I stumbled upon Edu 2.0. After playing with it for a while, I think it’s safe to say that Edu 2.0 is by far the most complete online educational tool that I’ve come across."
Nice!! Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 18, 6:12am
R.I.P. My dear cat Agatha
R.I.P. My dear cat Agatha, who was a loving, kind, and constant companion for the last 20 years. I will miss you my furry friend. Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 16, 6:41pm
VSLive! NYC Talks and Demos
I presented 4 sessions at VSLive NYC over the last two days and had a great time.
I love the set up of this conference – not too spread out, good sized rooms, great
attendees, and lots of great speakers. Read more...
.NET Ramblings - Brian Noyes' Blog, May 16, 4:10pm
File System Wrappers for Unit Testing in C#
I’ve asked this on twitter, and here’s what I got: Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 16, 8:29am
Test Driven Validation Logic with Extract & Override
In the NerdDinner project, there’s this amazing test (see the bottom, second one). Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 16, 5:24am
New EDU 2.0 Home Pages
We're going to refresh our home page design significantly in about 3-6 months, but in the meantime we've decided to improve the color schemes and layout a little. The main ideas were:
1. Make the EDU 2.0 for School site more appealing to higher education by moving away from the current "colorful" version.
2. Make the EDU 2.0 for Business site more professional by moving to a darker monochromatic appearance.
Here are the two leading candidates:
EDU 2.0 for School (http://www.edu20.org):
EDU 2.0... Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 15, 6:11pm
Zen of python revisited with code samples
I really like reading this code. I will look deeper into it this week. Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 15, 5:14pm
Test Naming Conventions With Unit of Work
When I name my tests I use the name of the “unit of work” as the first part. If the unit of work is bigger than a method, I usually name the test with the name of the initial public method that starts the unit of work. Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 15, 12:15pm
What does the 'unit' in 'unit test' mean?
I used to think it was a method. Then I thought it coule be several methods. then I thought it might be several classes. then I realized it changes all the time. Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 15, 12:02pm
EDU 2.0 in the News
EDU 2.0 just passed 275,000 members and is starting to get some really good press!
Here are a few items that I noticed this week:
1. From the person who runs the EFL CLASSROOM 2.0 site:Â
"EDU 2.0 is the place I'm now recommending teacher's start their own classroom LMS (learning management system). I've waited awhile on this call - for a lot of new sites to consolidate and be built. IMO - EDU 2.0 wins for both SIMPLICITY OF USE, FUNCTIONALITY AND POSSIBILITY. Available free to all members and just follow the instructions after registration to gain admin access there. On EDU 2.0, teachers can freely and easily sign up students and create their own course environment. Unlike other LMSs, it is totally online, no downloading and servers necessary. Easy to add or change applications (of which it has a large slate - chat , video, photos, blogs,... Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 14, 6:13pm
Wedding
Here's a slideshow with some beautiful pictures from our wedding. Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 13, 6:12pm
EDU 2.0 passes 500,000 members!
EDU 2.0 just passed 500,000 members!
This is a significant milestone, and we're expecting to pass the 1,000,000 member milestone sometime in 2012.
Here are a couple of graphs related to our growth (they don't include November):
Members: Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 13, 6:12am
EDU 2.0 mobile improvements
We've recently made a lot of improvements to the EDU 2.0 mobile interface, and it's looking beautiful now! We're going to release native iPhone, iPad and Android applications in Q1 2012, as well as continuing to improvement the generic version that runs in any mobile browser.
Here's a screenshot of the new home page that you will see if you log into http://www.edu20.org from any mobile browser: Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 12, 6:13pm
EDU 2.0 growth curve - WOW!
Check out the EDU 2.0 growth curve, which now includes March signups! At this rate, we should pass 500K members quite soon. Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 9, 6:11pm
[Video] Vimming - Natural Selection in Visual Mode
My third vimdeo Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 9, 9:07am
EDU 2.0 2010 Statistics
For fun, I compiled a few EDU 2.0 2010 statistics:
3,000 new schools
170,000 new users
1,000,000 files in storage (200GB)
3,500,000 site visits
45,000,000 page views
It will be interesting to see how these numbers increase during 2011! Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 9, 6:11am
[Video] Vimming - All about change
here’s my second attempt Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 8, 10:32am
Enterprise Mobility Best Practices With Chris Love
Enterprise mobility is one of the hottest trends in today’s IT industry. However, like any other emerging technology space, the industry is still trying to learn about the challenges and establish best practices and patterns that can help organizations...(read more) Read more...
Jesus Rodriguez's WebLog, May 8, 9:56am
[Video] Vimming - Hello World with vim
My first foray into trying to teach vim related stuff. hope you like it. Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 7, 3:15pm
EDU 2.0: Revenue Growth
We added premium plans to EDU 2.0 for School about 9 months ago, and launched EDU 2.0 for Business (which has no free plan except for the 30-day free trial) about a year ago. Here are plots of the revenue growth for both companies (actual numbers are intentionally omitted):
EDU 2.0 for School:
EDU 2.0 for Business: Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 7, 6:13am
Rails no-brainer?
I've been using Rails for about 4 years and have often wondered why it doesn't implement the following concept;Â a Rails controller could define a method like:
def mymethod(a, b) Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 6, 6:11am
Prezi: EDU 2.0 vs. Moodle 2.0
Here's a Prezi that one of the EDU 2.0 teachers made that compares EDU 2.0 vs Moodle 2.0. For a full-size version, click here. Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 6, 6:11am
Disney and EDU 2.0
Here's a link to a nice blog entry from Disney about how they use EDU 2.0 for their Disney college program:
"EDU 2.0 is a communication resource like none other! It gives our Disney College Program participants the ability to make the absolute most out of their program via a one-stop-shop communication and resource masterpiece!"
That quote definitely made my day! Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 6, 6:11am
Amazon EC2 issues
Amazon EC2 is having issues right now, which is affecting a large number of sites including EDU 2.0. Amazon is usually pretty good and fixing things quickly, so hopefully EDU 2.0 will be available again soon.
The Amazon status page is at http://status.aws.amazon.com/ and news commentary on the outage is here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/04/amazon-web-services-experiencing-one-of-the-worst-ever-regional-disruptions.php Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 6, 6:11am
Nice blog post re: EDU 2.0
This post is one of the best overviews of EDU 2.0 so far..... Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 6, 6:11am
EDU 2.0 in 2010 - a reflection
As the year draws to a close I thought it would be fun to outline the progress we made on the EDU 2.0 site during 2010. The feature list is not complete - I left out a myriad of minor improvements that we typically roll out each week.
Compiling this list was an eye-opener to me - I had forgotten how much the site had changed in just a single year! We plan on making even more improvements in 2011 (I posted our initial 2011 roadmap a few days ago).
Jan
Customizable home pages (blocks)
Curricula & proficiencies
iPhone support
SSL login
Passes 125,000 members
Feb
Bronze premium plan introduced
Foreign domain support
Lots of performance tuning
SMS integration
SCORM support
Mar
New quiz design
Many district... Read more...
Graham Glass, etc., May 6, 6:11am
Annual Poll: Which Isolation framework do you use if any?
Please answer the following: Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 4, 5:44am
Hire me for a day or two in Oslo, in June
During the week of NDC, I will be spending some of my time doing absolutely nothing but look at apartments (we’re planning to move to Norway in august, given all works out and I find a good place to work). Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 3, 7:22am
The Zen of python should be the zen of good unit testing
I’ve come across the “zen of python”. A list of siple rules for style and thought. Overall, I’ve heard that python folks like to be more explicit, and I always felt it’s a good idea. but when I came across the full list, I can see how I believe in most of these thigns when I teach my students about readable, maintinable tests: Read more...
ISerializable - Roy Osherove's Blog, May 1, 5:20pm