Dave's Tech Blog

Engineering Windows 7

2008-08-20T17:36:00.003+01:00

At the start of the week a new blog called "Engineering Windows 7" was started. Don't expect it to be the place where new features and a release schedule for Windows 7 are announced. Rather, it will be an opportunity to discuss how Microsoft realises the challenge behind a very large and complex software project (picking features, designing them, developing them, delivering them).

For details about the Windows 7 ecosystem keep your eyes open for announcements from PDC and WinHEC.

Service Packs

2008-08-12T20:04:00.002+01:00

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and .NET framework 3.5 SP1 have been released and are available from the download centre:

The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 includes lots of improvements, particularly performance improvements for WPF applications.

The .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit is also available which includes presentations, hands on labs and other material covering .NET 3.5 Enhancement features, including:

ASP.NET MVC
ASP.NET Dynamic Data
ASP.NET AJAX History
ASP.NET Routing
ADO.NET Data Services
ADO.NET Entity Framework
WCF 3.5 SP1
.NET Framework Client Profile

You can download the kit here.

Microsoft Windows Mojave

2008-07-29T19:33:00.003+01:00

Take a look at http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/. A number of people who were sceptical about the value of Windows Vista, but had never used it, were told that they were getting a sneak peek at a brand new operating system from Microsoft called "Mojave". They loved it and gave it a big thumbs up. They were then told that Windows "Mojave" was in fact Windows Vista. Their reactions are great, remembering that these are people who hate Vista but have never actually used it.

This is an interesting experiment in perception versus reality, and a lesson in just how powerful advertising and the Press can be in setting people's expectations and perceptions.

Online Storage

2008-07-29T19:26:00.002+01:00

Microsoft provide different online storage mechanisms:

Windows Live SkyDrive - 5Gb free storage.
Office Live Workspace - 500Mb free storage.
Live Mesh - 5Gb free storage.
Hotmail - 5Gb free storage.

Why so many different storage mechanisms? Well, they all have different purposes:

SkyDrive is for meant for storing finished documents, or documents that are used for reference. It can be used to share documents, but it isn't about collaborating. SkyDrive can be thought of as a USB drive on the Internet.
Office Live Workspace is for collaboration rather than storage. It's where you can build a document with input from others, allowing them to comment and suggest changes. Once the document is finished it could be moved to SkyDrive for sharing.
Live Mesh is focused on having your files available everywhere you need them, on the web or any other device.
Hotmail is all about email in terms of storage.

Microsoft Open Source

2008-07-29T19:20:00.003+01:00

Sam Ramji, Senior Directory of Platform Strategy at Microsoft, has announced that Microsoft are stepping up their participation and contribution to Open Source:

Firstly, they are providing monetary sponsorship to the Apache Software Foundation.
Secondly, they are supporting the ADOdb effort by contributing a patch for it. This is Microsoft's first code contribution to PHP community projects.
Thirdly, they are putting an increased number of protocols under Open Specification Promise.

This desire to expand interoperability between Open Source and Microsoft technologies will hopefully provide enormous benefits for businesses and users.

More Free Microsoft Software

2008-07-29T19:10:00.003+01:00

Some time ago Microsoft acquired Caligari. Microsoft have now announced that Caligari trueSpace 7.6 is available as a free download. trueSpace is a serious 3D tool that has previously retailed at hundreds of pounds (a quick search online found v6 retailing a £569.88). Furthermore, it's now fully integrated with Virtual Earth, which means that models you create can be uploaded and hosted by Microsoft, for free. You'll need to register, then you'll get some download links for the full product (130Mb), the pdf manual (51Mb) and a collection of videos (132Mb).

For details about integration, read this.

Imagine Cup 2009

2008-07-27T10:45:00.002+01:00

Next year the Imagine Cup final will be in Egypt, and the theme will be anything that addresses one or more of the UN Millenium Development Goals. The aim is to give participants more creative freedom than in the past.

For some inspiration see what Y Combinator thinks the future of software will be.

Goodbye Windows 3.11

2008-07-11T09:29:00.003+01:00

Microsoft have recently announced that as of November 1st 2008, OEMs will no longer be able to license Windows for Workgroups 3.11....in the embedded market.

Windows 3.11 has long been gone in the standard channel, but the embedded world is unique in that Microsoft allow classic OS products to be sold longer than in other channels.

Line Rider

2008-07-02T09:49:00.004+01:00

As Microsoft progresses towards a final release of Silverlight 2, more and more sites are adopting it to create great apps. A great example is Line Rider. Line Rider is a casual game developed by a Slovenian university student. The game has received a lot of attention online and can be found here. Check it out - it's worth a play.

Microsoft Resource Refactoring Tool

2008-07-02T09:40:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I used Microsoft's Resource Refactoring Tool. The tool gives developers an easy way to extract hard coded strings from the code to resource files, thus supporting localisation. The idea is that if you want to port your application to another language (e.g. French) rather than having to go through all the source code files altering the content of any output strings (from English to French) you can just alter the strings resource file.

The tool features include:

Works with C#, VB.Net languages.
Supports all project types including web
sites and web application projects.
Finds other instances of the text being
replaced in the project automatically.
Lists existing resources by their
similarity level to the text being replaced.
Automatically replaces hard
coded string with a reference to resource entry.
A preview window to show
changes.

You can download it from here.

MMU Student Wins Imagine Cup

2008-06-12T07:05:00.002+01:00

Final year MMU Computing student Dominic Green was part of the winning team for the UK final of the Imagine Cup (the worlds largest technology competition). Dominic now heads out to Paris to represent the UK in the world final.

More details at:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/204072/microsoft-announces-uk-winners-of-tech-world-cup.html

Leaving MMU

2008-06-06T11:50:00.001+01:00

Today is my last day at MMU. I've worked at MMU for the last 7 years, and now it's time for something different.

I want to say thanks to the great people I've worked with over the years, including...

Keeley Crockett, Darren Dancey, Nick Costen, Atif Waraich, Roger Slack, Andy Hurt, Pete Quigley, Dave McLean, Dave Whiteley, Pam Quick

...and students too numerous to mention.

What does this mean for my blog? Well, hopefully it will continue with it's Microsoft focus and will be more in depth about .NET software development.

Monoppix

2008-05-28T21:20:00.004+01:00

Monoppix is a live CD Linux distribution (based on Knoppix), which means you pop it in your CD drive, reboot, and you're running Linux. It works without installing a thing on your hard drive - it runs completely off the CD and RAM.

The purpose of it is to showcase and spread Mono technology, which is a free .NET framework implementation for the linux operating system.

The CD includes the Mono runtime environment, complier and class libraries, Monodevelop - a Mono enabled IDE, XSP - an ASP.NET web server, GTK# - for desktop applications (sample included), MySQL database server, quickstarts and Mono walkthroughs and tutorials.

For more information and to download visit here.

Cylons run XP

2008-05-28T21:10:00.005+01:00

This morning I was sent this link that clearly shows that Cylons (from the TV show Battlestar Galactica) are running Windows XP, or possibly XP Embedded on their base ships.

Of course the Cylons are smart enough to realise that using XP Embedded gives them a reduced operating system footprint, application and driver compatibility, and of course numerous embedded specific technologies...

MSP Deadline Extended

2008-05-20T17:41:00.001+01:00

The Microsoft Student Partner Programme allows student technology enthusiasts from UK universities the chance to engage with Microsoft to get the most from their technologies and get some great 'real world' experience on their CVs.

As it's a busy time of year (exam periods and coursework deadlines) Microsoft have extended the application deadline until June 30th. To apply follow the instructions on the here.

Pro Photo Tools

2008-05-14T19:03:00.002+01:00

Microsoft have released Pro Photo Tools, which is an application that amongst other things allows Geotagging of your photos. Geotagging means to tag the photo with information on where it has been taken and this allows it to be shown on a map, such as Virtual Earth. It will also allow automatically apply the name of the location where a photo was taken, based upon the GPS coordinates. Furthermore, the opposite can be done - the GPS coordinates where a photo was taken can be determined based upon the location name information in the photo metadata. Finally, the great thing about it is its free :)

Popfly Game Creator

2008-05-14T18:57:00.003+01:00

Popfly has launched a new service that lets you create Silverlight games without having to write code. As you'll know, Popfly is aimed at the non-developer end-user, letting them build mashups and webpages in a simple click-drag-drop style. The new game creator feature makes it pretty simple for people to make their own games with the same click-drag-drop style. Find out more by logging into Popfly, click the 'Create Stuff' tab and select 'Game'.

XNA 3 CTP

2008-05-14T18:53:00.003+01:00

Microsoft have announced the CTP for XNA 3.0. Full details can be found on the XNA Team Blog. Highlights include the ability to build games for the family of Zune media devices, and finally support for Visual Studio 2008!

Expression Studio 2

2008-05-14T18:48:00.003+01:00

Microsoft have released Expression Studio 2. The suite includes Expression Web 2, Expression Blend 2, Expression Design 2, Expression Media 2 and Expression Encoder 2. It also works seamlessly with both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.

The major new features include:

Silverlight 1.0 Editing
ASP.NET 3.5 and AJAX support
PHP website design / editing
Javascript editing

WinForms comes to Mono

2008-05-14T18:44:00.002+01:00

Mono has hit an important milestone in its support for Winforms. It is now API complete, meaning that the API is exactly the same as .NET (all 12, 776 methods). As with all 115K line cross-platform windowing toolkits there are bound to be bugs, which can be reported here.

The API will ship with the upcoming Mono 2.0 release.

Live Mesh Tech Preview

2008-04-24T16:18:00.002+01:00

Microsoft have launched Live Mesh. It aims to seamlessly connect people, devices, programs and information, to wherever you happen to be. Imagine the possibilities - PCs, Macs, and mobile devices all working together to give you anywhere access to the information you want.

Ultimate Steal

2008-04-17T09:06:00.003+01:00

Students will be aware that they can buy a legal copy of Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for £38.95. The good news is that now staff are eligible for this deal too. In order to qualify the member of staff must:

hold a valid email address at a UK, Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man educational institution, ending in either ‘.ac.uk’, ,‘ac.im’, ‘ac.gg’ or ‘ac.je’.
be employed at an education institution geographically located in the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, for at least an average of 8 hours per week or 4 teaching hours per week.

SPARK Your Imagination

2008-04-17T08:59:00.002+01:00

Microsoft have recently announced the Windows Embedded SPARK Your Imagination program. Essentially it's a low cost bundle of software and hardware for embedded systems development.

Microsoft Embedded is used in a variety of hardware devices from digital cameras to point of sales (POS) machines to digital photo frames.

Retail technology research firm IHL Group has said that Windows dominates the POS market, accounting for two-thirds of the $5.56 billion spent on POS terminals in North America during 2007, and they estimate that in pure embedded systems (those with no hard disk) Windows leads with 90%-95% of the market.

This means that the demand for skilled Windows Embedded developers will further increase and provide employment opportunities for new graduates.

Launch Event

2008-03-19T12:19:00.002Z

I'm currently at the UK launch event for Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008, at the ICC in Birmingham. It's an interesting event so far with sessions on LINQ, Web Apps, Mobile Development, and Smart Client development. The sessions I've been attending are being delivered by the DEs from Microsoft. There are all sessions discussing technology for ITPro and Information Worker areas.

What I'm surprised about is the sheer number of people present. I'm currently in hall 4 and there has to be a thousand people here, and this is but one of the rooms in use. For the keynote, in the symphony hall, every seat was taken and I believe it holds a few thousand.

Anyway, have to go and give this LINQ session my full attention...

Microsoft Student Partners

2008-03-19T12:15:00.002Z

The Microsoft Student Partner is a way for students to affiliate themselves with Microsoft, getting the opportunity to represent the company at their university and play with some cool technology. Plus it looks great on your cv.

From the MSP site:

"Microsoft Student Partners carry out tasks such as organising guest Microsoft lectures, delivering technical sessions to their peers, conducting student events and giveaways on campus, and a whole lot more to help us deliver more value to universities and build better relationships with lecturers and students alike."

If you are interested in getting involved click here to find out more.

XNA 3 Announced

2008-02-21T12:31:00.003Z

Microsoft have announced the impending release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 and game publishing on Xbox Live Marketplace.

The key feature announced for Game Studio V3 is support for the Zune. The second major feature is the ability to publish games onto XBox Live Marketplace, making them available to anyone with a Live subscription.

For more information see the XNA Team blog.

Dreamspark

2008-02-21T12:06:00.000Z

Microsoft have launched a programme called 'DreamSpark' which allows students around the world to download a selection of full Microsoft products for free. DreamSpark is available to students in the UK and includes the following products:

Developer Tools

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
XNA Game Studio 2.0
12-month Academic membership of the XNA Creators Club

Designer Tools

Expression Web
Expression Blend
Expression Design
Expression Media

Platform

SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
Windows Server, Standard Edition

Each piece of software is the full product licensed for academic use and is available for instant download from the DreamSpark Web Site. All you have to do is visit the site, login with a Live ID, verify your student status (you must be in higher education) and download the software! You can verify your student status using your Athens ID.

Embedded System Developer Shortage

2008-02-14T13:52:00.001Z

Another article bemoaning Java being taught at HE institutions. Read it here.

Jobs at Rare

2008-02-08T18:23:00.001Z

90% of roles at Rare game studio go to graduates. Read the article to find out why.

Who killed the Software Engineer?

2008-01-29T13:34:00.000Z

Universities did! A follow up article to the last one can be found here, about the perils of teaching students Java.

Where are the Software Engineers of tomorrow?

2008-01-29T13:32:00.000Z

An article about the perils of teaching students Java programming can be found here. I couldn't agree more!

Free ASP.NET Web Hosting for UK Students

2008-01-21T11:54:00.000Z

Microsoft, in conjunction with Webfusion, are offering ASP.NET hosting to all UK students for free. This is because of the prohibitive cost of ASP.NET hosting in the UK. The free hosting includes:

Windows Server 2008, IIS 7, 500 MB disk space
SQL Server 2005 database
Support for ASP.NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, classic ASP and PHP.

To get a free account you will need a unique code and an .ac.uk email address. Details on how to get a code will be forthcoming. For those of you who already have a code, go activate it here.

50+ Killer Online Resources for Computer Science Students

2008-01-18T16:27:00.000Z

Computer science students are lucky because the Internet is like a living textbook, full of information and advice for their field. Many professors, experts, and other people skilled in computer science have created essays, tutorials, and resource points, all designed to make your life easier. Click here to see 50 of the best.

XNA 2

2007-12-14T14:09:00.000Z

The release version of XNA 2.0 is now available for download. The new version adds support for all versions of Visual Studio and online multiplayer gaming.

Visual Studio 2008

2007-11-12T12:57:00.001Z

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 is due to ship at the end of November. See the press release here.

Announcing ImageLab v1.0a

2007-11-09T16:24:00.000Z

Over the last ten years I've implemented a lot of image processing algorithms in C++. Some were for research purposes, some for integration into other applications, and some were for including in imaging libraries.

Over the last few weeks I've been tinkering with image processing in C# and I've made the decision to port all my C++ imaging algorithms into C# (using GDI+), into an application called ImageLab. Sure, there's bound to be lots of other pieces of software called ImageLab but I'm sticking with that name anyway. My aim isn't to release production standard software such as Paint.NET, or create a competitor library to AForge. Rather, my aim is to just to release source code for scientific imaging routines that are hard to come by, that can be reused by anyone who sees fit.

At the moment I've ported around 15 different algorithms. My plan is to pack more features into it over the coming weeks then do a first release near Christmas. At the very least it should be of some use to my students...

Skydrive

2007-11-02T12:12:00.000Z

Skydrive can be thought of as a USB stick on the web. It's 1GB of free storage that you can use however you like - but generally its useful for transferring files between machines, and sharing files with a team. You can restrict control over who can access your files, making it simple to share documents and files - or keep them all to yourself.

IBM Mainframe Contest

2007-11-02T12:08:00.000Z

This autumn, IBM is running the Student Mainframe Contest for college and university students across the UK.

No experience with mainframes is necessary. In fact, the contest is designed for students with little or no mainframe experience, increasing with difficulty as the contest progresses. Students just need to bring drive and competitive spirit and they will be ready to compete.

Prizes include:

IBM Mainframe t-shirts
Sony PSPs
Lenovo ThinkPads
Trip to IBM Hursley, Winchester

For more information see http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/uk/z/mainframecontest/

Imagine Cup 2008

2007-11-02T08:54:00.000Z

The Imagine Cup is the world’s largest technology competition for students and is a great way to build connections with the IT industry in preparation for leaving university. It has been running for 5 years and poses a challenge that affects everyone and that you can help solve:

“Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment”

There are 9 categories to the Imagine Cup:

* Embedded Development

* Game Development

* Project Hoshimi

* IT Challenge

* Algorithm

* Photography

* Short Film

* Interface Design

There are many great benefits in entering such as great prizes, career networking opportunities with Microsoft and its partners, and also the positive association you make as an ambassador for the university competing in a worldwide competition both at the UK level and if you go on to compete at the worldwide finals in Paris.

To get started it is really simple – you first need to register for the Imagine Cup by following the link ( http://www.microsoft.co.uk/uk/academia/imaginecup/2008/quiz/default.mspx ) and then download the competitors guide ( http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/5/1/151f1456-7379-41ff-a6f6-f5ca6dd5885d/imaginecup_competitors_guide.pdf ) which will get you started on the road to success and great prizes!

Mix UK Videos

2007-10-19T12:35:00.000+01:00

Videos of the sessions from MIX UK can now be found online at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/mix07/agenda.aspx.

Photo Stitching

2007-10-19T12:32:00.000+01:00

Windows Live Photo Gallery enables you to automatically joins up a number of separate photos of a scene into a single combined image, providing a panoramic view.

Foldershare

2007-10-19T12:30:00.001+01:00

Foldershare allows you to access files on your home PC from any web browser. Alternatively, it will allow you to access files from any number of machines from any web browser. You can keep a folder synchronized automatically between multiple machines, share files with friends etc.

It's easy to set up and use, it works, and it's free!

Popfly

2007-10-19T12:25:00.000+01:00

Popfly is now in beta so you can sign up for access.

Popfly is a online tool built in Silverlight that allows you to easily create your own web applications through a simple GUI.

XNA and Silverlight Resources

2007-10-08T11:04:00.000+01:00

Silverlight

Getting started: http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/

XNA

XNA creators: http://creators.xna.com/
Getting started: http://blogs.msdn.com/edunhill/archive/2007/09/03/getting-started-with-xna.aspx
Starter Kits: http://creators.xna.com/Education/StarterKits.aspx
Tutorials: http://creators.xna.com/Education/Tutorials.aspx
XNA Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/

MIX UK

2007-09-14T10:39:00.000+01:00

Earlier in the week I was at MIX UK. It was an interesting two days with the highlights being sessions from Scott Guthrie on Silvernight and ASP 3.5 and Danny Thorpe and Angus Logan talking about Windows Live Services.

The sneak peeks at the end were fun with the best contribution coming from Simon Peyton Jones of Microsoft Research, on Software Transactional Memory.

All in all it was a great event, as I had access to the latest technical offerings from Microsoft, good hospitality, and much free swag! The swag included a t-shirt, 1Gb memory stick, bamboo recorder (don't ask!), and full retail versions of Windows Vista Ultimate (RRP £370), and Expression Studio (RRP £399). Not bad for the £200 registration fee!

Office 2007

2007-09-14T10:30:00.000+01:00

Students can buy Office 2007 for £38.95. The background details are here. To buy it visit http://www.theultimatesteal.co.uk/

XNA

2007-09-05T11:09:00.000+01:00

Ed has written an article on how to get started with XNA. Check it out.

XNA 2

2007-09-03T09:13:00.000+01:00

Microsoft have announced the release of XNA Game Studio 2. The main new feature I'm glad to see is that it will work with any version of Visual Studio 2005. No more having to installed VS2005 Express just to use XNA :)

For those of you who don't know what XNA is, it's a set of tools, complete with a managed runtime environment that faciliates computer game development. It's based on the .NET framework v2 and includes all kinds of specific game development class libraries in order to enable code reuse. The XNA runtime is available for Windows XP/Vista and Xbox 360, meaning that games you write (in C#) can be deployed to both Windows and Xbox 360 without any redevelopment.

Imagine Cup 08

2007-09-03T08:59:00.000+01:00

The website for the Imagine Cup 2008 is now open for registrations. If you are interested in entering a team then come and have a chat with me.

Popfly

2007-08-20T17:08:00.000+01:00

A month or two ago I was signed up as an alpha tester for Popfly. I've finally found the time to have a play with it. Popfly is an online tool that's used to build and share gadgets, mashups, applications, and Web pages. In essence a mashup is a web application that combines the functionality of two or more web sites.

It’s power lies in the fact that it allows non-developers to create web applications without having to learn to code, and allows developers to extend it using an SDK for Visual Studio. It was but the work of two minutes to create a mashup that got images from the Live Image Search website and animate them on a rotating sphere. Another few minutes work produced a mashup that got Twitter posts and displayed them on a virtual Earth.

Popfly is built using Silverlight. More on that another time.

Not Good

2007-08-20T16:31:00.000+01:00

I've just found this on the BBC website - I'm not impressed.

PhotoSynth

2007-08-20T11:42:00.000+01:00

I've just found a nice tool at Microsoft Live Labs. It's called PhotoSynth and allows you to upload a collection of photos of a place, which then get analysed, and displayed in a reconstructed 3D space, allowing you to explore the scene from any angle. Check out the collections for a demo.

It's an impressive tool as, as anyone who has a background in computer vision will know, image registration is a non-trivial problem. If only it were available as a desktop application...