Rotating Knives

The tried and true Microsoft tool for creating static diagrams and UML models has taken a major step toward becoming a first-class data visualization tool.  Visio 2010 makes it even easier to create documents that are dynamically connected to data and allows for intricate, meaningful visualizations of that data.  For a great example, check out the World Cup/Visio 2010 website.  Go Espana!!!

The picture in this post is real and has not been doctored in any way. I am indeed playing a flash game on my iPad, while simultaneously running several other programs.  How was I able to do this?  I was because today, from the comfort of my bed, I ran Windows 7 Ultimate Edition on my iPad…..sort of. 

What I really did was remote into my desktop PC which is running Windows 7 Ultimate Edition.  I suppose this is cheating, but as a good friend of mine has often said “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’”.  I used a great little app called “Desktop Connect” for iPad.  It supports both VNC and Microsoft RDP and claims to be the only app that will automatically discover all computers on your network (Windows, Mac, OSX and Linux)  that are set up for remote access.  It did.  In almost no time, I was amazed to be using my desktop PC from my iPad.

Performance is not 1 for 1 here.  If you try to watch a movie via Flash, you will not get an acceptable frame rate.  However, simple, turn-based flash games are perfectly usable and you can multitask to your heart’s content.  You can also get to files on your PC without having to figure out how to transfer them to the iPad. 

When I first installed this app, I thought it would be more for the coolness factor than for anything else, but I was surprised to find that I actually used it fairly often.  When I am downstairs relaxing and need to print or view something that is on my PC, starting this app is far easier than trudging upstairs, sitting down, and logging in.  My only recommendation is that you switch Touchscreen Mode to “On”.

Up next, my son and I use the iPad for science! 

  Ok, so it’s been three days since I picked up my new, magical device at the Apple store in Lehigh Valley, PA.  I’ve taken it to my granddaughter’s birthday party and my family’s Easter gathering and shown it off like it was my new child.  Here are my thoughts on the device.

1. It is gorgeous!
   Even the most ardent Wintel supporter cannot deny that the iPad is a work of art.  So thin…so well thought out…such a beautiful HD display.  Even the core design concept, a single, multi-touch surface uncluttered by hard buttons and switches, is a winner.  When you use an app, or look at photos, or read a book, or watch a movie, the device really does seem to melt away.  All you focus on is the content.  As other reviewers have already said, using the iPad is immensely satisfying.
2. It is fast.
   There is little or no delay when using the iPad.  Responses to user input are quick and crisp.  If, like me, you have gotten used to waiting a bit after double-clicking something, you will be very pleased with the speed of the iPad.
3. The larger soft keyboard is better, but still lacking.
   If you are a hunt-and-peck typist, then the new, larger keyboard on the iPad will suit you just fine.  If, like me, you took a junior high school typing class and then worked with a keyboard for many years and are pretty fast with the letters, you will not find the iPad’s keyboard to be useful for serious content input.   I started to write this blog post on my iPad, but it was slow going compared to using my good ole laptop.  Windows Live Writer is still the best blogging application in the universe. 
4. NetFlix is the killer app!
   I have a NetFlix account and love to watch movies and TV shows on my PC and XBox 360 through XBox Live.  But here’s the thing.  My PC is at my desk in my office and my XBox 360 is downstairs in the family room usually being used by my 11 year old son, so getting in some time to watch the next episode of Lost season 3 is not always easy.  With my iPad and the NetFlix app, I can go up to bed early, put on my headphones, and watch movies to my heart’s content. 
5. If you get one, be prepared for Wintel advocates trying to explain to you why you shouldn’t really love it.
   This is the most interesting part of the iPad rollout to me.  I love technology.  My primary expertise is the Wintel platform, but I have written Java applications that ran on Unix and scripts that ran on RS6000s.  If my boss came to me tomorrow and said “We’ll pay you to write objective C” I’d jump at the chance.  I have never, ever understood why people get so religious about technologies and vendors.  This is why the response of Wintel advocates is so puzzling to me.  Clearly, the iPad is a success with consumers.  Clearly it is a great device that does what is designed to do.  Yet I constantly hear people talk about how I’ll be sorry that it doesn’t multi-task, doesn’t have a camera, doesn’t run Flash etc. etc….  Here’s the thing, though.  I know it doesn’t do those things.  I knew that before I plunked down my money for it.  And I still love what it does.  I hope that Wintel vendors will see the consumer trend toward simple, multi-touch devices and start to come up with similar creative products.  If all they can do for a public that is hungry for this type of innovation is tell them “Oh, you really shouldn’t be hungry for that”, then they will fail. 

I’ll say more about the iPad when I have more to say.  Now if you’ll excuse me, i have to go.  That pilot episode of Modern Family isn’t going to watch itself. 

Well, the day is here. I find myself sitting in a folding chair, drinking a free Starbucks and waiting to pick up my reserved iPad. It’s an interesting place to be. It’s not quite a carnival atmosphere, but you can feel the excitement and anticipation in the line. It’s hard to blame them. This thing has been SO expertly hyped over the past few weeks that it’s hard to be here and not feel a little tingle in the belly.

(The Apple staff just came out of the store doing a little clapping cheer.)

I am eager to get my hands on the device, and I truly believe it will be a game changer, but I’m a skeptic by nature. I still love my Windows 7 PC. I still love coding .NET applications. I don’t know if this device can take the place of a good laptop, but I know it will be tremendously useful to me. More when I get some hands on.

I have spent a lot of years working in technology.  When I was in 6th grade my best friend Jason decided to get a computer. It was an Ohio Scientific model with a 6502 processor and a a whopping 3k of RAM.  He and I taught ourselves BASIC.  He taught himself 6502 assembly language and used it to write his own Atari-style Tank game.  I played with for about 2 seconds (Jason was and is WAY smarter than me) .  That was 34 years ago and I’ve been in love with technology ever since.  I also played with Apple II computers at that time, but I have naturally gravitated toward the PC rather than the Mac for the same reasons most of us at that time did.  The PC was more affordable, had an open architecture, was friendlier to low-level fiddling and had more titles written for it.  And so, my technology hobby, which became my technology career, has been PC-centric.

I got a job with Microsoft in 2002.  As you might imagine, Microsoft is a fantastic company for which to work.  I had access to early builds of pre-release products, got to work with some of the smartest people I had ever met, and (and this is most relevant to my post) got the best Windows Mobile phones money could buy.  As a technology evangelist, I would talk with customers about building applications on Windows mobile.  I would try to show off my new devices to friends and family and was always puzzled by their remarks.  One of my younger friends in tech industry commented that my Pocket PC Phone looked like “a brick”.  He and the others at the after work gathering, openly laughed at it..  I didn’t get why they weren’t as excited about it as I was. 

Last year, I left Microsoft and started work as manager of an architecture department at an insurance company.  On a lark, I decided to get an iPhone.  It is difficult for me to state how thoroughly I was blown away.  My Windows mobile devices of the past 6 and a half years were slow and rebooting them was a regular occurrence.  Any applications I tried to use other than solitaire or basic email were not useful to me.  Even the Windows Live Search application, which came the closest, was not particularly useful because of slow response time. 

Then, I started to use the iPhone.  I was blown away.  It was fast, responsive, had an incredibly intuitive and well-thought out interface and had created and leveraged an ecosystem of creativity in the App Store that made it altogether different from any mobile device I had ever used.  I ACTUALLY USED this thing!  I used it for GPS.  I used it for texting. I used it for blogging, taking photos, editing photos, playing poker, reading news, BROWSING THE WEB (all but impossible to do on my previous devices).  I came to understand that Microsoft’s approach to mobile devices was the past and purpose-built hardware/software architectures were the future. 

So, with great anticipation, I reserved an iPad.  This Saturday April 3rd, I will be one of the first consumers to buy this new technology.  Like many of you, I’ve read the articles talking about what a disappointment the iPad has turned out to be.  Some have predicted its failure and even insulted people like me who will buy it on day one.  No multi-tasking.  No camera.  No phone capabilities.  Ugly bezel.  Did I mention no multi –tasking?

They may be right, but I highly doubt it.  The iPad will be an enormous success.  It will because it is a game changer in several markets at once.  Readers, casual gamers, people who are normally technophobes..these are all markets that the iPad will hit hard.  In other words, there are many, many people who will buy one and love it. 

I pick mine up in 7 days.  Count on hearing more about my experience with it here.

  Kudos to my good friend and colleague Joe Rubino!  Like me, he’s an ex-Microsoftie and, also like me, he’s got a little more time to dig into Apple technology.  With me, it’s my iPhone.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I am still a big Microsoft champion.  They still create some of the best software on the planet and their work is changing the world for the better.  But after 6 and a half years of the best Windows Mobile phones money could buy, my mind was blown by the elegance, simplicity and power of the iPhone.  But that’s food for another post.

For Joe, it’s his iMac.  His new machine is a thing of beauty.  He’s running Snow Leopard and Windows 7 through Parallels software and he tells me it’s been a great experience.  But here’s the thing about Joe.  He’s what you’d call “handy”.  For example, a while back, he needed more space for his music than his Zune provided.  Most people would go out and buy a bigger Zune, but not Joe.  Instead, he cracked it open and swapped out the standard hard drive for a bigger one.  That’s the kind of guy Joe is.  His motto seems to be “I void warranties.”  He still gets email to this day about his blog post on the Zune hard drive swap.

Now Joe is sharing his new adventure with his iMac with the world.  If you have a Mac and are interested in getting to your Windows Live Mail, or in using Entourage with your Exchange account, or in any of a number of nifty tricks, you owe it to yourself to visit Joe’s blog Adapting to a Mac.

Good article done as a slide show with screen shots and explanations of features in both. Well done. http://www.pcworld.com/article/170882/snow_leopard_versus_windows_7.html

The July CTP release of Windows Azure came out today. The biggest new feature is the ability to write services that have multiple worker roles and/or Web roles. While it may not seem like much at first, this will allow for more elegant designs that separate concerns and workloads for better manageability and scalability.  The new release also supports building Azure services through TFS Build and has the ever-appreciated "Enhanced Robustness and stability." Download it here, and as always, run pre-release software at your own risk

Those of you who enjoyed creating mashups on Microsoft’s PopFly.com will be sad to learn that the service is being discontinued after August 24th. As a registered PopFly user, I got the email this morning from John Montgomery. Not sure what was behind this decision, but I suspect that the mashup maker had run its course. This is by no means a death blow to creating mashups with the Microsoft platform. .NET is still a great platform for consuming services from multiple sources and mashing up the data in whatever way you wish. Not every idea evolves to the next level, I suppose. Rest in peace, PopFly.

LINQ is an excellent technology, but moving from T-SQL syntax to LINQ syntax is not an easy jump when you start getting into complex queries.  Enter Linqer, a tool that converts SQL to LINQ.  I tried it out recently and it worked like a charm on some pretty hairy SQL.  When you put something like this:

SELECT AttributeTypes.TypeName, AttributeValues.AttributeValue
FROM  Attributes INNER JOIN
               AttributeValues ON Attributes.AttributeValueID = AttributeValues.ID INNER JOIN
               AttributeTypes ON Attributes.AttributeTypeID = AttributeTypes.ID AND AttributeValues.AttributeTypeID = AttributeTypes.ID
WHERE (Attributes.SystemID = 1)
Order by AttributeTypes.TypeName

 

into Linqer, you hit a button and get this:

from t in db.Attributes
join t0 in db.AttributeValues on new { AttributeValueID = t.AttributeValueID } equals new { AttributeValueID = t0.ID }
join t1 in db.AttributeTypes
      on new { t.AttributeTypeID, Column1 = t0.AttributeTypeID }
  equals new { AttributeTypeID = t1.ID, Column1 = t1.ID }
where
  t.SystemID == 1
orderby
  t1.TypeName
select new {
  t1.TypeName,
  t0.AttributeValue1
}

Using the tool actually helps you learn LINQ syntax more quickly as well.  Definitely worth the $60.

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