Friday, July 04, 2008
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Today is Indepence Day here in the United States.
While you're having a good time and watching the fireworks, remember those who fought an d stood up for our freedoms from 1776 until the present day.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
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Tuesday, July 01, 2008
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Rich Internet Applications (RIA) have been around for a while, but they've always had one major flaw: search engine optimization.
TechCrunch has a story about fixing this Achilles heel. [emphasis added]
Adobe has created a special Flash player for the search engines that acts like a virtual user going through each application. It actually goes through the runtime of each Flash application and translates it into something the search engines can understand. So all of those fancy interactive Flash Websites and other rich Internet applications that have been invisible to search engines, can now be seen by them.
Basically, the problem is that search engines can't "see" inside of a Flash file, called an SWF. The cool kids pronounce it as "swiff."
Macromedia/Adobe has been working on this problem for a while now.
In my heyday of working in Flash (1998-2004), one of the kludges was to include all the text in meta tags and comments on the HTML page the Flash creator automatically generated.
So, it surprises me to hear that, after all this time, the best Adobe could do was to create a player application that "acts like a virtual user going through each application."
You would think that a better approach would be to generate an index file when the SWF file gets generated and give it a standard naming convention so search engines could easily find it.
In other words, Foo.swf would reside in the same directory as Foo.index.xml.
And yes, XML would be the ideal format for the index file.
Work to Do
Michele Turner, Adobe VP, says "Google is already rolling out the SWF-indexing technology, while Yahoo still 'has some work to do.'"
Presumably, the Flash player in question doesn't render graphic content and uses the code to simulate user activity.
But is simulating user activity really the best approach?
It seems a bit brute force to me.
You have to wonder what the extra load on the search engines' servers will be.
Why not distribute the processor load across all the content creator's machines rather than at the server level?
Clever, But Not in the Way You'd Expect
Obviously, I'm a fan of Silverlight.
That having been said, this seems to me to more of a business strategy move for Adobe, rather than what's good for the users and creators of RIA sites.
Adobe can now claim that "Flash files are indexable"
Limiting that ability to Flash rather than opening it up to all RIA platforms gives Adobe a competitive edge.
Deja Vu All Over Again
There's nothing stopping Microsoft from releasing their own search engine player, but then it's up to each individual search engine company to add it.
Seems like a lot of effort for the search engine companies and increased load on their systems.
With effort comes cost and each RIA vendor will have to "convince" the search providers to add their player.
It sounds a lot like the plug-in mess of Web 1.0.
Except this time, the battle is in the server room.
[found via ForgetFoo]
Although no one ever asked me to download the internet to a bunch of floppy disks, I'm sure the question was asked by many a n00b (newbie).
But here's a little illustration of what that process would look like.
[found via Nitin Reddy]
Technorati Tags:
Humor,
Internet
Monday, June 30, 2008
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Pete Brown called me out on the Software Development Meme, so here is my response.
How old were you when you first started programming?
I was eleven years old (in sixth grade) when my parents got me a Commodore 64.
We got it on April Fools' Day, which that year happened to be Easter Sunday, on sale at Crazy Eddie's for an "insane" price. :)
How did you get started in programming?
This was in the days before pre-installed software, when you fired up the C64 and it did nothing.
The following week, my folks bought a word-processor and a spreadsheet program.
Naturally, I wanted games for it.
My mom told me to write my own games and the rest was history.
My first game was a moon lander clone and my last game on the C64 was based on the film 2010, which sold 2 copies.
I would get sued today.
What was your first language?
Commodore BASIC.
This was a simpler time, when filling up a screen was enough to impress people.
Two lines of code = big payoff.
10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 GOTO 10
What was the first real program you wrote?
I suppose it depends on how you define "real."
I hated math, but loved programming. Go figure.
I wrote a program to calculate the area and circumference of a circle. The C64 had a predefined value for Pi.
I also wrote a program to generate all the possible combinations of a phrase for a contest at school, where the one who came up with the most words out of a particular phrase won.
My C64 put me over the top and I (we) won.
Who says you needed a Mac to crush the other kids. :)
What languages have you used since you started programming?
Since 1984, I've used:
- Commodore Basic
- PL1
- Pascal
- C/C++
- Assembly (for VAX VMS)
- FORTRAN
- COBOL
- Prolog
- Informix-4GL
- Visual Basic (starting at VB3)
- Perl
- Lingo
- PowerScript (for PowerBuilder)
- ActionScript
- Java
- C#
- Javascript
- SQL (SQL-92, PL/PQL, T-SQL)
Most of the obscure and/or ancient languages were for coursework in college and I'm sure I'm leaving a few out.
These days, nearly everything I do is C#, with a touch of Javascript now and then.
What was your first professional programming gig?
I landed a summer internship after sophomore year at the help desk for the investment banking division of a major Wall Street firm.
When things were quiet, we were asked to do typically "summer intern" work.
My world changed when my boss handed me the dozen or so disks to install Visual Basic 3 to build out some help desk related apps.
At first, I was shocked that the line numbers had gone away. ;)
Soon, I was second/third level support and coding nearly full time.
My first professional app was "Beep Mail," a program that let you send text messages to alpha numeric pagers from your desktop.
If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
Absolutely, it's been a rewarding career that has taken me places, both literally and figuratively.
It's been a career that's constantly been fun, stimulating, rewarding, challenging, and occasionally exhilarating.
If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
Don't be afraid to make mistakes, just try not to make the same mistake twice.
Actually, be eager to keep making new mistakes and you'll be delighted where you'll end up.
What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?
There's nothing like that feeling when you finally figure something out or fix that bug that's been keeping you up at night.
It's also fun to work on cool personal projects too where you can try out new technologies/approaches/etc.
Who are you calling out?
Sunday, June 29, 2008
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Some commercials are so representative of their time, they act like a snapshot of an era frozen in time.
But the only question I have, can I still buy it?
I want the instruction poster to hang on my wall.
Here's an interesting take on tip videos.
Photoshop guru Deke McClelland dances and raps his way through 101 Photoshop tips in five minutes.
The tune is catchy and the tips are useful.
Will we start seeing Jesse Liberty rap his Silverlight tip of the Day?
Will Silverlight Cream morph into a musical/skit comedy format one day?
Only time will tell. ;)
Friday, June 27, 2008
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You can watch Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot all you want, but no one is going to build a robot for you.
Much less, a flying robot with laser beam eyes and missiles that launch from its finger tips.
However, with the help of some books and the Robotics Studio, .NET developers are one step closer to having their own robot.
Here are two book Amazon recently emailed me about.
There's also plenty of books and blog posts on getting started in robotics.
Developers who live in the DC area have an added bonus, there's a Robotics User Group that meets in VA once a month.
There used to be many-a-joke in Frankfurt about how Dresdner Bank's world headquarters was in a part of town with an ill-repute.
I'll spare you the details, but it has something about bankers with lots of money.
Now it seems that Bank of America is getting in on the action with their creepy new ad campaign.
I wonder how much money they spent on this ad campaign.
Don't they have bigger things to worry about?
It seems that every few years, people in the development community get really upset about something and decide to start passing a petition around.
In 2005, it was the Keep VB6 Alive movement.
In 2008, it's the year of "Bash the Entity Framework,"
Earlier this week, some folks began passing around the "ADO.NET Entity Framework Vote of No Confidence" petition.
The words of the petition are strong and, even curious:
"The signatories of this letter are unanimous in expressing concern for the welfare of software projects undertaken in the Microsoft customer community that will make use of the forthcoming ADO .NET Entity Framework."
If you look at the list of signatories, you'll find some big names in the list.
However, if you look at the form where signatures are collected, you'll find no means of authentication.
In fact, none other than deceased labor leader Jimmy Hoffa counts himself among those opposed to the Entity Framework.
If you can get the list to work, you'll see Scott Gutrie's name in the list.
Clearly, this is flame-baiting.
My point is that petitions are somewhat pointless in an online world and anyone can sign anyone's name.
There's also a sense of grandeur (or delusions thereof) in the wording of the petition.
Something that Kevin Hazzard points out:
"I feel as though the signatories of the petition feel like they are playing Continental Congress against King George. But there's no Boston Tea Party here. Microsoft didn't raise any undue taxes from any of us. They simply put out a framework that's clearly a v1.0 product. Microsoft doesn't win with v1.0 products. It wins with version 4 products"
Well said.
"Let he whose V1 software is perfect cast the first stone"
The EF may not be perfect and chances are it's far from being perfect.
I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of the Entity Framework, as I've not had the time to get dirty in the details of it, but it's a v1 effort and v1 efforts are rarely excellent.
Anyone remember IE1? Windows v1? Netscape 1?
Even .NET 1.0 was quickly followed by version 1.1.
The point is that software development is iterative.
This is a point that you'd think that the proponents of the petition would immediately understand.
There's a Better Way to Get Results
A lot of folks agree with providing feedback to Microsoft, just not in the way these folks are going about it.
Josh Holmes has an excellent blog post on the controversy and puts it down quite simply:
What I disagree with is the way in which it's presented. The language of "Vote of No Confidence" is intended to start a fight and is long hand for "You suck".
The whole MVP program exists to solicit feedback from the developer community.
Microsoft's pretty open as to its inner workings and thought processes with newsgroups, blogs, even Twitter.
So much so, that even non-MVPs can get their ideas across to individuals on product teams.
Is there a back story to this?
Were their voices not heard in the normal feedback channels?
Is there a reason for this or is this just an attention ploy?
Name Calling is So Second Grade
Another strange thing about this controversy is the personal attacks and name-calling.
Let's all step back, take a deep breath and remember that software development is not about achieving perfection and there's always v Next.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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Monday, June 23, 2008
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Congratulations are in order to Andrew Duthie for taking Community Megaphone national.
The site aggregates developer community events and separates in them into categories: user group meetings, Code Camps, etc.
You can filter events based on location or event type.
Each event has an "Add to Calendar" feature which adds the event to your calendar automatically.
There's also a gadget you can add to your site.
Best of all, you don't have to sign up or register for anything.
While watching Lindsay Rutter's webcast on DeepZoom last week, I noticed in her demo what looked like a Silverlight temporary tattoo.
Turns out that there is a such a thing, here's a photo from Flickr.
If you don't have the swag, you could always drop by the Silverlight Tattoo Studio and draw your own.
If tattoos aren't your thing, but Silverlight is, then you can check out Lindsay's next webcast today on Web Services in Silverlight ( 
) .
Friday, June 20, 2008
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Thursday, June 19, 2008
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Guns N Roses's perpetually upcoming comeback album, which has been in the works for 14 years, has been leaked to the internet. (again)
The first site to post the album was forced to remove the content after the record company got wind of the leak.
The album is entitled "Chinese Democracy" and has been eagerly awaited and watched for.
Rumors are that Axl has turned in the final cut of the album for distribution and release.
Given the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing, there's a natural marketing/meme message there.
Fan reaction to the leaked files has been good.
I had heard some tracks from an earlier set of leaked files in 2002 and I liked what I heard.
Some tracks seemed a bit rough around the edges.
Based on the reactions, the tracks have been polished.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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Vikram Madan is back with another cartoon.
We live in the era of expensive oil, inflation fears and social networking.
It's kind of like the 70's but with social networking and internet access.
Photos from last night's Geek Dinner in Chantilly, VA.
Technorati Tags:
Geek Dinner
The purpose of sites like TinyUrl.com and Shrinkster is to shrink down URLs to a smaller, more memorable format.
For example, fellow AISer Pete Brown wrote a lengthy blog post on why he's stayed at AIS for 14 years.
It's a great post for recruitment, but the URL is pretty long, but www.shrinkster.com/wee is easy to remember and fits nicely on a slide.
Twitter automatically convert an URL over a certain size to a shorter format to help conserve space.
Needless to say, I was a bit surprised to see this monstrosity the other day:
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
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