When software attacks!

Blogging On The Move

Rik — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:07:00 GMT

We try to dogfood here at Black Marble so I'm writing this on my HTC TYTN. How? With Richard's new app

Community Launch Events

Rik — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:04:21 GMT

A big thanks to everybody who came to the Server 2008 launch event last week. Andy and myself had a great time presenting to such an enthusiastic crowd. In the end we ran long because of the amount of dialogue around the new features of Server 2008 and I hope everyone went away having got something useful.

Now I need to reduce the two hours of material down to a perky 45 minutes for delivery at the VBug-hosted launch event on April 30th. Richard is there too, and Iain is also speaking, making up the triumvirate. It's my first non-Black Marble community event and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Hats off, lads

Rik — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:48:00 GMT

Just seen the sad news of the passing of Arthur C. Clarke. The world was better for his having been in it, and will not be the same without him.

Insightful

Rik — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:20:19 GMT

Joel Spolsky has a biting and articulate article on the IE8 standards debate.

A great article on handy SharePoint controls

Rik — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:52:03 GMT

I don't know about you, but I always mean to gather various bits of knowledge into one place, but just like tidying my filing at home, I never quite get around to it. Fortunately for me, Chris O'Brien is a bit more organised and in my ever expanding blogroll today I saw a great article about really useful SharePoint controls to use in custom pages for that handy bit of functionality.

Taking time to enjoy the scenery

Rik — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:42:06 GMT

You know, the thing about RSS is that it's a bit like the advent of the motor car - you miss things. Just as driving around means you don't get to pass the time of day with folk, or discover that tiny little deli you'd never notice from the road, RSS dehumanises the web.

For example, I subscribe to the blog of my good friend Nick Smith. Since he hasn't posted about his new redesign, I didn't know about it. Which is a shame, because I like it - it puts me in mind of Tim Burton's animations with it's tendril-like curves.

It just shows that every now and then you need to get out and enjoy the scenery, before it's not there any more.

Searching SharePoint through an IE8 Activity

Rik — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:19:20 GMT

IE8 Activities look cool. They're almost like favlets from where I stand, but they offer a very simple way for users to access online services and pass simple parameters.

I decided I wanted to play, and we use SharePoint heavily here at Black Marble. The obvious thing to do was to create an activity which would allow the user to search for the selected text using SharePoint search.

Activities are defined through XML. Essentially, you give it a name, an icon and define the actions that can be performed. There are execute and preview actions, but the small preview window doesn't really lend itself to SharePoint search (I tried!).

Here is the xml for our sharepoint search activity. Note that I've replaced our hostnames. I called this file SharePointSearch.xml

   1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>   2:   <openServiceDescription xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/openservicedescription/1.0">   3:   <homepageUrl>https://portal.blackmarble.co.uk</homepageUrl>   4:   <display>   5:     <name>Find in Black Marble Portal</name>   6:  <icon>https://portal.blackmarble.co.uk/_layouts/images/favicon.ico</icon>      7:   </display>   8:   <activity category="find">   9:   <activityAction context="selection">  10:       <execute action="https://portal.blackmarble.co.uk/search/Pages/results.aspx">  11:         <parameter name="k" value="{selection}" type="text" />  12:       </execute>  13:     </activityAction>  14:   </activity>  15: </openServiceDescription>

So what does that lot do? Well most of it seems pretty self explanatory. The key to the activitiy is in the section which defines the custom action. That has a url which IE8 will call and a list of parameters into which information is passed. A simple search in SharePoint uses the 'k' parameter to pass in the search term, so I have set that here.

So now we have our file, how do we get it into the browser. Well, I copied the xml file into the LAYOUTS folder in the SharePoint installation folder on the hard disk of the server, which is reference via _layouts in a url. I then added a Content Editor web part onto one of my pages and pasted the code to add the action into the source view:

   1: <p>Search Portal easily from IE8 with our custom activity.</p><button onclick="BLOCKED SCRIPTwindow.external.addService('/_layouts/SharePointSearch.xml')">Add Portal Search Activity</button>

This simply shows a short paragraph and a button. When the user clicks the button, IE8 asks whether it should install the activity and hey presto, a new menu item appears under 'More Activities' on the context menu. When I highlight text in my browser I can now quickly search our SharePoint for any relevant content.

IE8 Rapid Fire Site Test

Rik — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:57:30 GMT

I can't spend much longer playing with IE8 or my wife will skin me. However, from my cursory browsing experience I'm worried. Either the devs have a good deal of work to do or I'm going to be very busy with CSS rules for a while.

Here's the University of Bradford site in IE8:

And to try to compare apples with oranges, here it is in Firefox 3 beta 3:

More surprisingly, here is the Web Standards Project site in IE8:

and again, in Firefox 3b3:

Apple.com, IE8:

and Apple.com, Firefox 3b3:

As you can see, there are issues with the placement of some elements on each of these pages. I have not yet started to investigate why, but I am honestly surprised. Given the much-touted, 'vastly-improved' web standards support I was not expecting the number of issues I have seen. Ironically, as usual, old style table layouts look great...

I'll try to do more comprehensive testing tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Internet Explorer 8...

Rik — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:28:27 GMT

Well, as expected, the public beta of IE8 appeared on the web pretty much straight after the Mix08 keynote mentioned it. I managed to grab it within mere moments and I now have it installed on my trusty laptop.

As announced only a day or two ago, it defaults to the new rendering mode, with a big toolbar button to toggle back to IE7 mode. I haven't had time to test the browser with any sites yet, but I'll try to do that in the next few days and maybe post again.

What did strike me, though, was that there are developer tools right out of the box. Reminiscent of the Safari tools that let you view the page code, the IE dev tools are enabled with a simple icon on the toolbar. Once enabled, what you get is cool:

A nice CSS/HTML view where you can see the elements and which style rules are being inherited by the element, along with the opportunity to enable/disable individual rules. Suddenly IE is no longer Firebug's poor cousin.

More on for my developer colleagues, script debugging is also available. This will also come in jolly handy.

The new Favorites Bar I can take or leave- I just don't browser like that. Underneath, it feels like the old links toolbar to me. Nothing to see here, move along.

Activities look ike they may have legs, though, particularly in the corporate sector where they can guarantee the desktop browser. Being able to right click on the page, element or highlighted text and call functions from other web sites, such as searching for a term or cross-connecting business applications - I can see uses for that and I'll be playing with this as soon as I can.

The XPERIA X1 - A Windows Mobile device that I could really get excited over

Rik — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:05:00 GMT

Before I joined Black Marble I had a succession of Sony Ericsson smartphones - the P800, P900 and finally a P910i. They were great - the size was good, the UI was good, the handwriting recognition was excellent (with a grafitti-style interface that meant I could really get a good turn of speed) and I could work most functions one handed with the fabulous Jog Dial. Please note that the jog dial was sadly emasculated with phones after the P910i when Sony Ericsson foolishly reduced it's degrees of freedom to simply rolling back and forth and clicking.

I currently have a Windows Mobile-powered Orange M3100 (the HTC TYTN). Don't get me wrong - it's good, but it's no P910i. WIndows Mobile 5 can be uncooperative at times and Orange have not yet seen fit to release a mobile 6 upgrade. I like the keyboard a lot, but I haven't taken to WinMob's handwriting recognition like I did the Sony's

There are good looking phones on the way, to be sure - Richard has his Touch Cruise on order and I must say I was tempted by one myself. Then today I saw two things which piqued my interest...

The first was a snippet which suggested that Microsoft are in discussions with Nokia about the latter running Windows Mobile on future devices (I wish I could remember where I saw that to link). Interesting, I thought, but I can't see that happening. Certainly, the iPhone has set the cat amongst the mobile-manufacturing pigeons but Nokia own a huge slice of Symbian and I just can't see it myself.

The second thing, however, made me sit up and take notice. No rumour or gossip here - cold, hard facts and a device that people have touched. Sony Ericsson announced the XPERIA X1 and it looks lovely. There is more about it on Engadget and Engadget Mobile if you haven't seen it. It looks nice. All the features I need in a polished offering with a VGA scree, decent camera, 3G et al. Sadly, no jog dial but there is a keyboard and the whole thing doesn't seem too huge either - marginally smaller than the P800 in every axis.

The reason this is interesting (apart from the fact it's so sexy) is that Sony Ericsson as a brand occupy a space that current WinMob devices don't. Think of Sony Ericsson and you think of the Walkman phones and their bretheren - gadget phones that most certainly are not targetted at the business end of the market.

There are big numbers being thrown around by the marketing droids for this phone, but it's clear that it will be going head to head with the iPhone. Perhaps in the US market the Sony Ericsson brand lacks the cachet of Apple, but in the European arean they are well-established and the X1 is a much better specified device in terms of matching the demands of the European market.

Skipping back to something I said earlier, I would suggest that this announcement is evidence against Nokia releasing a WinMob device. Whilst Microsoft are very open about the fact that WinMob is a platform and anybody can build devices that run it, if I were Sony Ericsson I would want a clear run at the marketplace for my device and most certainly not want Nokia to come out with one very similar.

I also think the interface is interesting. WinMob 7 it isn't. Nor is it TouchFlo - the HTC UI layer that graces their latest devices. There's good and bad to this, I think. On the one hand it shows how flexible a platform WinMob is that it can support two radically different (and undeniably sexy) top-level interfaces. On the other hand, once you push beneath the oh-so shiny surface, we're still left with the standard WInMob interface. Whilst that's not bad, it's not the greatest UI for a device you want to operate with one hand at best and one hand plus a finger at worst. Does the flowering of many different eye-candy strewn UIs dilute the benefit of having a single OS underneath? Does it hinder usability by forcing users to learn each new UI? When Apple released the iPhone the one thing everybody agreed on was that they had a great UI. Just because you can put an elephant in a shiny suit and call it an astronaut does not make it so, and WinMob+UI-of-the-month feels a bit like that, to me.

Ultimately it depends where you sit. One man's 'great for manufacturers because it allows them to differentiate their offerings and tailor the their customers' is another man's 'why do you have to be different just for the sake of it - it makes it hard to use'.

One thing I will say - if anybody from Sony Ericsson is reading this, and they want an enthusiastic tester for the X1, sign me up!

Spring cleaning

Rik — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:21:00 GMT

You know, one of these days I'll find the time to properly redesign this blog. In the meantime, the excellent Kid Congo theme from the latest version of Community Server will suffice, albeit with the alteration of colours to match our corporate blue.

@media 2008

Rik — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:01:00 GMT

After sadly missing last year due to workload, I am excited to be able to attend @media 2008 in London along with Tom and Lauren from Black Marble. If you know me and you want to meet up please get in touch!

Balancing customer needs against forward motion: IE8

Rik — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:37:00 GMT

I've watched the debate with interest but not posted anything until now. The news of Internet Explorer 8 keeping it's new rendering engine to itself unless you tell it otherwise caused a strong outpouring of opinion around the web.

I must admit, my initial reaction mirrored that of many others - that it's just plain wrong (although my good friend Nick's posting took some concentration to ascertain his thoughts!). Why hold back on improved support for CSS; why hide the fact that the engine now passes ACID2?

Then I thought for a bit, and tempered my view with the knowledge that the coming of IE7 caused much angst amongst companies because what worked in IE6 failed in IE7. Perhaps an additional switch to toggle this new rendering marvel on and off was a good idea. But surely, you'd want it to default to the shiny new engine... wouldn't you?

I have now changed my mind. Why? Because at a recent event, after presenting for a while on upcoming Microsoft technologies including IE8, one of the attendees came up to chat. He worked for major financial organisation and was pressing for more information on the new browser. Would it really keep the rendering behaviour as previous versions by default? If so, that was great! Why? Because he was faced with many different divisions within his organisation, all of which had web-based applications and all of which cried foul over IE7 breaking their systems. This was still giving headaches with the rollout of IE7, and he was very keen on being able to convince his stakeholders that if they would just shoulder the pain of the version 6 to 7 transition, he could guarantee that there would be no more pain with future upgrades. This would mean that the IT department could push out the newer, more secure browsers without the battle.

There are many large organisations like that around the globe. Their strength in terms of buying power and opinion is what has led Microsoft to the solution we now see with IE8. Whilst purists may hate it, the truth is that IT Managers around the planet are smiling.

Which would you rather see - massive companies sticking to insecure browsers on their desktops because the investment in internal systems would be too large to allow movement, or a steady push forward in versions safe in the knowledge that there will be zero impact on existing investment?

If you've managed to avoid this issue entirely thus far, the ever thoughtful and tactful Eric Meyer has some excellent posts discussing the matter.

EMEA Project Conference: Keynote Thoughts

Rik — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:55:08 GMT

Well, the keynote just ended and I needed to check email so I thought I'd do a quick post. A good chunk of the keynote had already been covered by yesterday's partner-only sessions. However, Mike Angiulo publicly announced that the Office 2007 family Service Pack 1 will be available on December 11th, 2007. I guess that means we can tell the world! I'm surprised, actually, that I haven't noticed this on any of the SharePoint blogs I frequent.

Anyhoo... We were given a short demo of Project 14. It has some useful new features that should make it easier to build a new project when you don't have all the details - much more so than Project 2007. Much to Paul's horror, however, Project 14 has a shiny ribbon bar! I guess that's going to be a real love/hate thing. Personally, I quite like the ribbon bar, but I can understand why some folk think of it as burying functionality because not all the millions of toolbar icons are visible at once.

Also interesting is that Project Portfolio Server is being merged into Project Server with version 14. As someone who is new to the area of EPM this is a product which I am not familiar with, but merging functionality into a single system would seem to me to have serious benefits, not least in terms of having one less system to manage.

I'm not going to blog every session I attend, but if I see something interesting I will post later. Right now, it's time for the first 'real' session of the day - a sysadmin chalk and talk.

Project Partner Day

Rik — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:51:00 GMT

Well, it's the end of day zero, the partner-only day here at the Madrid Project Conference. It's been an interesting day. I'm not sure what I am allowed to say, but service pack 1 for Office 2007, which covers the desktop products, sharepoint, project server et al is very close to being available now. That was an interesting announcement, as we are looking at installing Project Server in Black Marble. I'd like to wait for SP1 - it makes sense - but because SharePoint will be patched at the same time I need to do some testing of our customisations first.

Meanwhile, outside the conference, we managed to leave the hotel for a few hours this morning before the partner event. The part of Madrid we are in has an incredible amount of building work underway; all all the roads are dual carriageways with big cloverleaf junctions. A fifteen minute taxi ride to the local Shopping Centre would probably have been a ten minute walk, had we realised where the shopping centre was in relation to the hotel. Ah well!

Tomorrow, the conference starts in earnest and I am planning to follow the system administration track, leaving the project management stuff to Paul and Jim. There are some interesting sessions ahead...