Do programmers dream in Byte Code?

I am all packed and ready to head off to sunny Dublin with some of the Black Marble Design group to see the good folks at Microsoft Ireland and present on some of the great things Black Marble and Microsoft are up to. Expect two days of Expression, Phone 7 and Windows 7 goodness with Black Marble flair

b.

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at EPICenter Ireland at Trinity College Dublin with my great friend and colleague Steve Spencer on our experiences over the last few decades <sigh>

This blog contains many of the links and subject information from this talk however here is a useful quick summary of some of the resources mentioned.

I think the summary I would like to pass on is, treat people well, don’ let them take advantage, provide good opportunities for training. One person what is the killer sign to watch out for, my answer “we will have to start from scratch”.

The guide to people and estimation came from  Rob Thomsett, “Double Dummy Spit, and Other Estimating Games,” American Programmer (now Cutter IT Journal), June 1996

The 13 symptoms of unhappiness came from Sam Guckenheimer Microsoft for reference here they are

13 Symptoms of Unhappiness

• It's the code, stupid!
• Actually it's the requirements!
• No, the problem is that you neglected the architecture!
• Architecture, schmarchitecture. I just want a working build.
• What good is that the way we mix up versions?!
• Not code versions, but the environments, don't you get it?
• Ever heard of security?!
• Yeah, but you ignored performance, duh!
• So what if it worked in the lab -- it's still unmanageable!
• Oh, and did we mention testing?
• Since you're not measuring it, you can't manage it anyway!
• With a process like that, what do you expect?
• It's our culture - you'll never change that.

The project success factors came from : The Standish Group International, The Standish Report, 2001

•Dynamics of Software Development

–Jim McCarthy (Microsoft Press 2006)

•The Pragmatic Programmer

–Hunt and Thomas (Addison Wesley)

•The Productive Programmer

–Neal Ford ( O’Reilly )

•Team anti-patterns

–http://ellnestam.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/software-development-team-anti-patterns/

b.

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at EPICenter Ireland at Trinity College Dublin

This blog contains many of the links and subject information from this talk however here is a useful quick summary

The Tools for developing Microsoft Phone 7 applications are free (see below), Applications are either built as Silverlight or XNA however a lot of the components are common. The phone chassis is set by Microsoft allowing us all to receive updates and have a consistent platform. The phone screen size is 800x480 or 480x320, Capacitive touch:4 or more contact points,Sensors: A-GPS, Accelerometer, Compass, Light, Proximity, GPU: DirectX 9 acceleration, Camera 5 mega pixels or more.

Microsoft provide a Market place approx 100USD ( 57UKP+VAT ) , Unlimited paid apps , 5 free apps, 70% revenue share (in your favour) , customer payments by credit card and mobile (all done by Microsoft), device unlock and a great sales support infrastructure

from the main site http://developer.windowsphone.com you can download all the tools and links to forums.

b.

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at EPICenter Ireland at Trinity College Dublin

This blog contains many of the links and subject information from this talk however here is a useful quick summary

Repository Database

Built on SQL Server 2008

Stores model definitions (structure)

Stores model instances (data)

“M” language

Declarative text-based modelling language

Aimed at “curly-brace” programmers

Can be used to define models for repository database

““M” is to TSQL what C is to assembly” – Don Box

“Quadrant” modelling tool

Graphical tool used to edit model instances

Targeted at End users “Business Analysts” and architects

 

SDK Download

http://msdn.com/data

Repository database

“M” modelling language (MSchema, MGrammer)

IntelliPad editor

NOW WITH ADDED “Quadrant”

b.

I am really pleased that I will be speaking at SQL Bits The 7 Wonders of SQL on SQL Modelling Services. SQL bits 7 is running from 30^th September - 2^nd October 2010 at the Heslington Campus of York University

You will have the first chance to see features from the next release of SQL Server – Denali. The first two days have a nominal charge and day three is free.

The agenda is here it is looking like it will be a great event

b.

Earlier today I was trying to use the Outlook Social Connector for Linked-in Facebook and live but it would not display the View/People Pane

the answer was odd after ensuring the add in was selected in File/Options/Addins, I changed the registry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\SocialConnector  key=RunOSC, from the value 0 to 1

after some checking on the web it looks like this is a problem a lot of PDC Acer users are having.

hope this helps

b.

SQL Azure Labs have released Project Houston a lightweight web based Database management tool for SQL Azure. Houston allows you to develop, deploy, and manage SQL Azure and includes support for basic database management tasks like authoring and executing queries, designing and editing a database schema, and editing table data.

b.

It must be said that Microsoft has provided me with some of the most memorable and sometimes surreal opportunities in my life. Today was most certainly one of those occasions. I was privileged to see former President Bill Clinton deliver a powerful and passionate speech about the world in which we live and the work that he is doing to help. His message was one of realism and hope, kindness and practicality, stark warning and insight. A portion of Bill’s speech focused on partnering by encouraging businesses to help people and other business, even though helping other businesses grow might not always make immediate sense to a hard nosed business leader.

The speech hit me quite hard and it made me very feel proud of the social aspect the Black Marble has been treading for many years and our continued support the business, professional and development communities in the UK and Ireland

Rest assured that Black Marble will continue and expand its social commitment to groups such as BizSpark and WebSpark over the following year

b.

The awesome team at Microsoft responsible for Kodu have now now released a new technical preview which has a load of enhancements including save and publish for games

get it here

They have also released a Classroom kit which is VERY VERY good, it would be great if there was an update for UK Teaching but I am sure they will do that at some point.

get it here

also recently a new version of Small Basic (0.9) is out

get it here

b.

Well in that case the ever fantastic Eric Nelson is your man, if you join the fans of Windows Azure http://ukazure.ning.com/profiles/blogs/free-100-page-windows-azure

I am sure Eric will find it in his heart to send you the password to download this masterpiece.

b.

The Visualization and Modelling Feature Pack for VS2010 Ultimate is now available from here it is only available for MSDN subscribers.

The Feature pack allows you to generate code from UML class diagrams,create UML class diagrams from code,Generate dependency graphs and layer diagrams for C, and C++ projects and more.

The Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power tools are also now available here.

b.

At TechED one of the many important announcements is the release to manufacture of Windows Server App Fabric

I will be running some events on App Fabric later in the year so keep watching.

get App Fabric from here

b.

Following Richards lead, I have decided to post on my thoughts about the BCS AGM. While I don’t quite agree on some of Richards points. I think that the reasons behind the call EGM are valid. It certainly seems to me that the governing body has thrown a funded PR machine against the EGM and has not spent anytime listening to the members on the issues raised.

The actions of Len who has as far as I can tell used the skills we treasure as a part of the computing community namely of asking questions and analysis to look at our society and conclude in my opinion correctly that there are massive flaws, this “thinking” of the membership seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to the BCS management and their response of “PR flannel” has not made me any happier.

The BCS does need to change and evolve and it will, it does not need to be a fully fledged commercial organisation, but it does need financial prudence, it also needs to maintain a higher quality bar, rather than devalue the membership for cash, offer less and maintain standards.

Ironically the BCS is dismissing comments by Len with comments about being stuck in the past and not being commercial, Len is asking for fact and figures which the BCS does not have to hand but good businesses know how much things cost and budget.

I am still proud to be a Fellow of the BCS, both myself and Black Marble will continue our support for the BCS. I am very proud that Richard and I have built a business on strong ethical, transparent and moral foundations and I expect that any organisation I put my name to will do the same, my current feelings on the central management of the BCS is that is not the case.

b.

This time for Visual Studio 2010, CodeRush Xpress is a great developer productivity tool from DevExpress. Microsoft has made arrangements with Developer Express to make its CodeRush Xpress product available as a free download to any customer with a full Visual Studio license (i.e. not express). CodeRush Xpress includes a sub set of the full CodeRush features, CodeRush Xpress fully supports all language features of Visual Basic and C#

download it here

Once you have tried Xpress and seen how useful it is,I would strongly suggest looking at the full product

b.

The new Silverlight 4 tools are now baked and fresh out of the oven get them here

b.