01 March 2007
Blend videos
Richard Godfrey links to some expression blend videos. These are designed to help with the "What do I do now" experience that you get when you first open Blend...
28 February 2007
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is available free for download. It runs on XP, and can host Vista. For now, this is the only way I am going to be able to do anything with Vista, as my BT Wireless Network 1250 broadband modem is not compatible.
I need access to the internet.
I need access to the internet.
27 February 2007
Vague UML
How vague should your use cases be?
It depends how you are using use cases. If your process is to do big design up front then it becomes important to get them "right". The longer this takes though the more likely it is that the customer will change their minds about what they want. Then your carefully crafted use cases are not so much use.
Now, in an agile process, you might develop your use cases to the level of detail required to be able to prioritise them. Then develop just the ones required for each iteration to more detail.
It depends how you are using use cases. If your process is to do big design up front then it becomes important to get them "right". The longer this takes though the more likely it is that the customer will change their minds about what they want. Then your carefully crafted use cases are not so much use.
Now, in an agile process, you might develop your use cases to the level of detail required to be able to prioritise them. Then develop just the ones required for each iteration to more detail.
26 February 2007
FEELIX Growing
The BBC has a story on a European project, called Feelix Growing, the aim of the project is to create robots that learn from people.
25 February 2007
WPF Planets
Karsten Januszewski has posted a beautiful demo of WPF Planets using some texture maps from NASA and some 3D tools from CodePlex. I didn't realise what he meant at first but the trackball code lets you use the mouse to rotate the model in 3D.
Very cool.
Very cool.
24 February 2007
Web design from scratch
The web design from scratch website has lots of articles, and ideas on web-design.
23 February 2007
Low energy web site design
White on Black web designs are quite fashionable, and in some cases could save lot of energy. They tend to be a bit hard on the brain though, after a while.
I'm not sure if they only save energy on CRT displays, but there are still a lot of those about anyway.
There is some interesting advice on energy use of different colours and screen savers.
EcoIron has also come up with a low energy palette for web designs. It uses white but only for highlights and accents.
The best way to save energy is to remember to switch off when you have finished ... You could even remind your visitors to do that. Switch off now!
I'm not sure if they only save energy on CRT displays, but there are still a lot of those about anyway.
There is some interesting advice on energy use of different colours and screen savers.
EcoIron has also come up with a low energy palette for web designs. It uses white but only for highlights and accents.
The best way to save energy is to remember to switch off when you have finished ... You could even remind your visitors to do that. Switch off now!
22 February 2007
StartupSpark
StartupSpark is a site giving advice on starting a business... not specifically microisv style, more general advice.
21 February 2007
20 February 2007
More petitions
The petition in favour of road pricing is doing well, with 3170 signatures so far. Although I noticed that someone has given their name as "AnyonewhosignsthisisaTrotskyistwhoouldbebettersuitedlivinginRussiainthe1900's".
The site would be improved if you had to register to sign a petition. There is really no need to show the names of people who have signed.
We are likely to get road pricing in Bristol sometime, since the planners are removing all the car parks. Personally, I'm in favour of anything that will finally stop me spending 2 hours a day in the car, even if it means spending longer on a bus...
The site would be improved if you had to register to sign a petition. There is really no need to show the names of people who have signed.
We are likely to get road pricing in Bristol sometime, since the planners are removing all the car parks. Personally, I'm in favour of anything that will finally stop me spending 2 hours a day in the car, even if it means spending longer on a bus...
19 February 2007
18 February 2007
List of Trouble Makers
Why not add your name to the list of trouble makers and sign a petition?
It seems number 10 has got tired of recycling all those paper based petitions people used to deliver, and now it is all done electronically.
It seems number 10 has got tired of recycling all those paper based petitions people used to deliver, and now it is all done electronically.
17 February 2007
16 February 2007
OpenID
I signed up for an OpenID account.
"OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity."
It is supposed to mean that you don't have to register on web-sites that are OpenId enabled. You register with your OpenID account and it lets you share just the details you want to, you can set up different personas (personae?). You can use your own name, or your own URL as your OpenID.
There is more information on OpenIDEnabled, and a list of enabled sites at myOpenID.
"OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity."
It is supposed to mean that you don't have to register on web-sites that are OpenId enabled. You register with your OpenID account and it lets you share just the details you want to, you can set up different personas (personae?). You can use your own name, or your own URL as your OpenID.
There is more information on OpenIDEnabled, and a list of enabled sites at myOpenID.
15 February 2007
Company info on emails and web-sites
The Register has an article on the new regulations about including company details on web-sites and in emails.
14 February 2007
13 February 2007
Accessible Image Replacement
A simple technique for providing alternate text for images accessible to screen readers.
12 February 2007
Scott Guthrie's slides from Reading
Scott Guthrie's slides and code from WebDD at Reading available here.
11 February 2007
10 February 2007
09 February 2007
Wow
1. Download wpfe
2. Go to this site
Don't worry about the non-englishness, but wonder how long did this take?
And, why did Microsoft take so long? ;)
2. Go to this site
Don't worry about the non-englishness, but wonder how long did this take?
And, why did Microsoft take so long? ;)
08 February 2007
Project Glidepath
Project Glidepath is "everything you need regarding the technical and non-technical aspects of starting and succeeding as a MicroISV"
07 February 2007
WPF/e
Tim Sneath has a lot of useful links to information on WPF/e including a list of blogs
WPF/E is a cross-platform, cross-browser presentation technology that is based on a free dowloadable package from Microsoft. The download is about 1MB in size.
Examples on Channel9
WPF/E is a cross-platform, cross-browser presentation technology that is based on a free dowloadable package from Microsoft. The download is about 1MB in size.
Examples on Channel9
06 February 2007
05 February 2007
04 February 2007
WebDD1
WebDD1 was an excellent event.
I think this was the best of the developer events at Reading so far! Having Microsoft speakers made it very different from the previous DDD events. Not surprisingly, there was a huge demand for the sessions presented by Scott Guthrie, even though his presentations were all being filmed.
I went to two sessions that were not presented by Scott:
Zhivko Dimitrov on Usability tests and Dave Verwer on Ruby on Rails. These were both good sessions.
The free copy of Microsoft Expression was most welcome.
Thank you, to the organisers, Phil Winstanley and Dave Sussman.
webdd1
webdd
I think this was the best of the developer events at Reading so far! Having Microsoft speakers made it very different from the previous DDD events. Not surprisingly, there was a huge demand for the sessions presented by Scott Guthrie, even though his presentations were all being filmed.
I went to two sessions that were not presented by Scott:
Zhivko Dimitrov on Usability tests and Dave Verwer on Ruby on Rails. These were both good sessions.
The free copy of Microsoft Expression was most welcome.
Thank you, to the organisers, Phil Winstanley and Dave Sussman.
webdd1
webdd
03 February 2007
02 February 2007
01 February 2007
CSS Floating
MaxDesign.com has a very good tutorial on floating with CSS with some nice examples and effects.
31 January 2007
30 January 2007
29 January 2007
28 January 2007
27 January 2007
26 January 2007
25 January 2007
24 January 2007
23 January 2007
sIFR
sIFR stands for Scalable Inman Flash Replacement.
At first I thought this was meant to be a replacement for flash, but it turns out to be a way to replace text in the browser with a flash movie that shows an image of the text in whatever font you choose. The font doesn't need to be installed so the page will always appear exactly as designed.
It seems like rather a Heath-Robinson approach, but the idea is to improve accessibility without sacrificing the design. The text is still there, accessible to screen readers and search engines.
I think it's a better approach than using images, even with Alt tags.
At first I thought this was meant to be a replacement for flash, but it turns out to be a way to replace text in the browser with a flash movie that shows an image of the text in whatever font you choose. The font doesn't need to be installed so the page will always appear exactly as designed.
It seems like rather a Heath-Robinson approach, but the idea is to improve accessibility without sacrificing the design. The text is still there, accessible to screen readers and search engines.
I think it's a better approach than using images, even with Alt tags.
22 January 2007
21 January 2007
20 January 2007
Simile Timeline
Here comes the Semantic web...
"SIMILE is focused on developing robust, open source tools based on Semantic Web technologies that improve access, management and reuse among digital assets."
"Timeline is a DHTML-based AJAXy widget for visualizing time-based events. "
"Exhibit is a lightweight structured data publishing framework that lets you create web pages with support for sorting, filtering, and rich visualizations by writing only HTML and optionally some CSS and Javascript code."
"SIMILE is focused on developing robust, open source tools based on Semantic Web technologies that improve access, management and reuse among digital assets."
"Timeline is a DHTML-based AJAXy widget for visualizing time-based events. "
"Exhibit is a lightweight structured data publishing framework that lets you create web pages with support for sorting, filtering, and rich visualizations by writing only HTML and optionally some CSS and Javascript code."
19 January 2007
BBC Climate Change Experiment
The first results from the BBC's Climate Change grid computing experiment have been announced.
The BBC are not accepting any new participants at the moment, but it seems there will be another non-BBC project. My climate model is still only 47% complete, but the site says to let it continue to run and it will send in the results on completion.
The overall result so far is: a 4 degree rise in temperatures in the UK by 2080
Not good news.
The BBC are not accepting any new participants at the moment, but it seems there will be another non-BBC project. My climate model is still only 47% complete, but the site says to let it continue to run and it will send in the results on completion.
The overall result so far is: a 4 degree rise in temperatures in the UK by 2080
Not good news.
18 January 2007
MicroISV on Hanselminutes
Scott Hanselman talks to Secret Geek Leon Bambrick on How to start your own MicroISV.
It has to be better than starting someone elses.
Hmmm, I can think of a few large companies that could easily turn into MicroISVs. No, that can't be the best way to go about it...
I just hope one of the 25 steps is "How to have a good idea no-one else has thought of yet". Although, I think you don't actually have to have a unique idea.
It has to be better than starting someone elses.
Hmmm, I can think of a few large companies that could easily turn into MicroISVs. No, that can't be the best way to go about it...
I just hope one of the 25 steps is "How to have a good idea no-one else has thought of yet". Although, I think you don't actually have to have a unique idea.
17 January 2007
16 January 2007
15 January 2007
Carbon neutral houses
All new houses in the UK are to be carbon neutral by 2016. There is no mention of doing anything for existing houses. I don't understand why.
14 January 2007
13 January 2007
12 January 2007
Real Climate blog
Real Climate blog, written by climate scientists...
"RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science."
"RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science."
11 January 2007
10 January 2007
Mandarin resources
很多人å¦ä¹ ä¸æ–‡。. (Many people are studying chinese.)
我喜欢Chinese Pod。(I like chinese pod)
Other useful resources include:
InputKing for pinyin text to character conversion.
Zhongwen.com for translation.
我喜欢Chinese Pod。(I like chinese pod)
Other useful resources include:
InputKing for pinyin text to character conversion.
Zhongwen.com for translation.
09 January 2007
08 January 2007
07 January 2007
06 January 2007
200 million stop blogging
200 million people have stopped blogging according to the BBC.
I think I shall carry on regardless...
I think I shall carry on regardless...
05 January 2007
04 January 2007
Open Source Web Design
Open Source Web Design has 1694 templates for web sites. Some of them must be good!
03 January 2007
MS Expression Web
Microsoft Expression Web is now available as a free trial.
It would be nice if it was just free. Anyway, I haven't tried it yet...
It would be nice if it was just free. Anyway, I haven't tried it yet...
02 January 2007
Wind Power
An interesting article from the Guardian on mini wind turbines.
I think these are only an option if you are about 30 feet above any other houses nearby. Turbulence cuts down the output.
It would be nice though, to have something that generated electricity at night or in stormy weather to fill in the times when the solar panels are not generating.
I think these are only an option if you are about 30 feet above any other houses nearby. Turbulence cuts down the output.
It would be nice though, to have something that generated electricity at night or in stormy weather to fill in the times when the solar panels are not generating.
01 January 2007
Solar PV 2006
This chart shows our Solar PV electricity production for 2006. In total we generated 885.55 kilowatts. We consumed 2,728.9 kilowatts.
So, the solar panels produced almost one third of the amount of electricity we took from the grid.
As we don't have an export meter we don't know how much we actually used, but some of the solar output would have been exported.
10 November 2006
19 August 2006
bigwavebay web 2.0 beta now available
bigwavebayBETA.png){kind=link}
23 June 2006
MCAD
At last, I have finally finished my MCAD certification. I have passed the following exams:-
70-315 Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET,
70-229 Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition and
70-320 Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework.
So, I think, I am allowed one of these...
It has take about 9 months to do this, mostly in my spare time. Now that I have finished I can start to look at VS 2005, SQL 2005, and all the other things that have happened while I was busy studying.
Next year, maybe, I will start to work towards upgrading my certifications to the new shiny ones that Microsoft brought out when I was already half way through the MCAD.
And, oh look, I have been congratulated. Now I'm just waiting for the offers of work to flood in...
70-315 Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET,
70-229 Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition and
70-320 Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework.
So, I think, I am allowed one of these...
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It has take about 9 months to do this, mostly in my spare time. Now that I have finished I can start to look at VS 2005, SQL 2005, and all the other things that have happened while I was busy studying.
Next year, maybe, I will start to work towards upgrading my certifications to the new shiny ones that Microsoft brought out when I was already half way through the MCAD.
And, oh look, I have been congratulated. Now I'm just waiting for the offers of work to flood in...
06 June 2006
26 May 2006
Windows Live Local
The satellite view of our house is much more detailed on Windows Live Local than on Google Maps.
10 points to Microsoft.
10 points to Microsoft.
19 May 2006
21 April 2006
3 things
1. Coding 4 fun on programming for Lego mindstorms with Visual Studio
2. Nice post on Waterfall
3. TypeMocks
2. Nice post on Waterfall
3. TypeMocks
07 April 2006
06 April 2006
Welcome surfers...
It's nice to see the clustrmap showing that my blog has been visited by people from America, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, and NewZealand.
All I can think is that there must be a lot of disappointed people searching for "big waves".
Surfers! Imagine them, sitting at their keyboards, they've polished their surfboards and now they are wondering where those really really big waves are.... sorry, not here.
Don't blame me, blame the non-semantic web.
All I can think is that there must be a lot of disappointed people searching for "big waves".
Surfers! Imagine them, sitting at their keyboards, they've polished their surfboards and now they are wondering where those really really big waves are.... sorry, not here.
Don't blame me, blame the non-semantic web.
28 March 2006
17 March 2006
04 March 2006
A number of things
1. A collection of Vs2005 C# Code snippets
2. An Ajax programming community ... with some very impressive links including one where you can drive around Seattle or San Fransisco
3. Continuous Integration with VSTS
4. Anthem.Net Ajax toolkit for ASP.NET
5. The "Most Interesting Technical Podcast " award goes to Hanselminutes
6. Video game development. Learn to write C# the fun way. If you have time
7. ScottGu's link to ASP.NET 2.0 videos online and on Security resources
8. MCTS in Sql Server 2005
2. An Ajax programming community ... with some very impressive links including one where you can drive around Seattle or San Fransisco
3. Continuous Integration with VSTS
4. Anthem.Net Ajax toolkit for ASP.NET
5. The "Most Interesting Technical Podcast " award goes to Hanselminutes
6. Video game development. Learn to write C# the fun way. If you have time
7. ScottGu's link to ASP.NET 2.0 videos online and on Security resources
8. MCTS in Sql Server 2005
27 February 2006
Microsoft Certified
Hooray! I just passed my first Microsoft certification exam, on Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition.
This means I am now a Microsoft Certified Professional.
This means I am now a Microsoft Certified Professional.
23 February 2006
22 February 2006
18 February 2006
Developer Day 3
The agenda for the third Microsoft Developer Day at Reading is already looking good.
17 February 2006
Saving the world, step 1
We recently celebrated our first 100 kilowatts of solar photovoltaic electricity...
from our upgraded roof...
from our upgraded roof...
16 February 2006
BBC Climate Change experiment
Donate your computer's idle time to the BBC Climate Change Experiment.
26 January 2006
12 January 2006
24 December 2005
AJAX Translator
This is very nice...
An AJAX translator.
English
Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe
German
"Brillig Twas und die slithy toves taten gyre und gimble im wabe"
French
"Le brillig de Twas et les toves slithy ont fait le gyre et gimble dans le wabe"
Not bad.
An AJAX translator.
English
Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe
German
"Brillig Twas und die slithy toves taten gyre und gimble im wabe"
French
"Le brillig de Twas et les toves slithy ont fait le gyre et gimble dans le wabe"
Not bad.
20 December 2005
4 unrelated links
1. More Nuggets from MSDN UK .
2. Microsoft listens to feedback on it's misleading TDD item.
3. Martin Fowler on agility.
4. 10 things about WPF from Ian Griffiths and Chris Sells.
(I think WPF is a terrible acronym.)
2. Microsoft listens to feedback on it's misleading TDD item.
3. Martin Fowler on agility.
4. 10 things about WPF from Ian Griffiths and Chris Sells.
(I think WPF is a terrible acronym.)
17 December 2005
19 November 2005
06 November 2005
30 October 2005
VS 2005 and Firefox
If you have Firefox as your default browser when you install VS2005 and then you notice that VS2005 is trying to run Firefox all the time then look at this.
With 'File-Browse with' you can set the browser you want. Changing your default browser after installing doesn't seem to inform VS2005.
With 'File-Browse with' you can set the browser you want. Changing your default browser after installing doesn't seem to inform VS2005.
27 October 2005
26 October 2005
Running just to stay in the same place
There's a new generation of Microsoft Certifications...
I knew it would happen. I had hoped to have passed at least one exam first.
I knew it would happen. I had hoped to have passed at least one exam first.
25 October 2005
DDD
Another excellent Developer day at Microsoft on Saturday.
It would be an understatement to say there were some good presentations. There were some brilliant sessions, particularly on Avalon, Indigo and XML.
There were plenty of other sessions I wanted to attend but didn't. It was difficult to have to choose one track out of five. I am still kicking myself for not attending the XP Planning game. I do think it would be good to have a whole day devoted to this subject though.
It would be an understatement to say there were some good presentations. There were some brilliant sessions, particularly on Avalon, Indigo and XML.
There were plenty of other sessions I wanted to attend but didn't. It was difficult to have to choose one track out of five. I am still kicking myself for not attending the XP Planning game. I do think it would be good to have a whole day devoted to this subject though.
03 October 2005
15 September 2005
The Walrus blog
On behalf of Odobenidae everywhere my brother Chris has started blogging. His blog has comments and trackbacks. Why doesn't mine?
09 September 2005
08 September 2005
23 August 2005
Developer Day
The TripleD Developer day agenda is looking good. Last time the difficulty was deciding which sessions to attend. This time you get to vote for sessions in advance which may help...
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