64BLOG
Occassional, direct and not politically correct.
Sunday 5 April 2009, 3:13 PM
So what of WPF?
I am a big DevExpress Fan. They have done some great things with their latest 2009 release. On of the most interesting was an issue that occurred with the original drop, but the company kept those interested in what was going on up to date using twitter.
This is not the subject today however. DevExpress are making a big push into the WPF area with versions of their controls specifically for WPF. I kind of get WPF, or at least I want to, but I can't help get the idea from what I have done with it so far, I still need to know far more XAML than I would prefer to. I want to be kept away from the various markup languages, no matter how verbose they may be.
Is the world ready for WPF and what it brings and are there any real applications out there using it properly and not just using it because its there. I had a big temptation this weekend to use the DevExpress DXCarousel control for part of an application I have been building for some time. It is a neat control, but it would look out of place in my application, which is a database application, because WPF seems to be such a revolutionary technology that unless all your app is WPF, none of it should be.
Am I reading this right? Or has the pleasant April Scottish Sunshine got to me?
This is not the subject today however. DevExpress are making a big push into the WPF area with versions of their controls specifically for WPF. I kind of get WPF, or at least I want to, but I can't help get the idea from what I have done with it so far, I still need to know far more XAML than I would prefer to. I want to be kept away from the various markup languages, no matter how verbose they may be.
Is the world ready for WPF and what it brings and are there any real applications out there using it properly and not just using it because its there. I had a big temptation this weekend to use the DevExpress DXCarousel control for part of an application I have been building for some time. It is a neat control, but it would look out of place in my application, which is a database application, because WPF seems to be such a revolutionary technology that unless all your app is WPF, none of it should be.
Am I reading this right? Or has the pleasant April Scottish Sunshine got to me?
Saturday 24 January 2009, 3:37 PM
Happy Birthday Mac
Today, I am officially old. Must admit I have been feeling this with every passing christmas and another Now thats what I call music cd comes along. I feel old because I bought the very first one.
The fact that the mac is 25 years old takes me back to my first job placement. For anyone who remembers the good old YTS or youth training scheme, a successor to the YOP. My placement was with Micro-C, they don't exist any more, but if you could kind of imaging PC World but focused totally on business computers. We had all the usual suspects, IBM PC, Sirius, Apricot, Philips P9000 system (only Kevin was allowed to touch this, but then again it only ran MP/M and Peachtree accounts) and there on a desk of its own was the Mac at the other side of an Apple IIe and a new Apple IIc.
The Mac was a funny beast back then, it was a pokey 9" monochrome CRT, but incredibly crisp, no hard drive but there was an imagewriter printer and a peculiar startup 'pheeep'. The problem I had was software, or rather lack of it. There was MacPaint, MacWrite and that was about it. The stuff that came bundled.
The interesting thing about the Mac was it had this device with a button and a ball that moved this pointer thingy on the screen.
The Mac is the first computer I can remember that had a mouse that came with the box. It had to have the mouse, you couldn't use it without. Looking back though it was a single button, and I have been out of the reality distortion field of the Mac World for so long, but I think it still has the same single button mouse, well not the same but its a long way behind my superb Logitech MX Revolution with its 5 buttons and 2 wheels.
The Mac flapped around for a while before finding its home in what was Desktop Publishing. Eventually, it grew into music and some other areas of business but it has never really ever left it's home of desktop design.
The Mac has been through troubled times, it is not that long since Microsoft bailed out Apple to some serious money, yet that is rarely remembered by the Apple Enthusiast who loves to crass Microsoft at any opportunity, yet the Apple Mac cannot survive without Windows. The Mac for years had better graphics, sound and overall usability than a DOS or early windows PC's. Yet even the Mac was not immortal and anyone who remembers the frustation of System Error ID=0 will know what I mean.
The Mac had some great software for a time, indeed my ownership was around the time of an incredible database product called 4th Dimension, eventually called 4D. What really caught my imagination for the Mac though was HyperCard. I can't say I see or hear of it anymore, but it was inspired.
The Mac never reached the market penetraction of the PC though. This was supposedly down to the fact that IBM had manufactured the PC in such a way that it was easy to 'clone' the BIOS, this lead to masses of copies from Far Eastern shores, and these were at massive price reductions to that of the original IBM PC.
Apple tried clones themselves for a period, but they didn't get it. The were 'licenced' clones and as such were cost comparable to the original. Resultantly, not many clones were sold and the manufacturers stopped bothering.
The Mac did survive, it's product line increased and it Apple could have patented the letter i, I am sure they would have. Apples fortunes have expanded though, as they have ventured into other areas. Consumer electronics has been a great success for Apple although everyone will likely credit the iPod with this, their first venture into handheld technologies was actually the Apple Newton, and although it was relatively short-lived, did show the innovation that Apple had, albeit under a different captain.
I wish the Mac well, it keeps those people who think they are different happy, and it also keeps their iPod, ithis and iThat all working together swimmingly. Also, they swelled Apples coffers and gave Forest Gump enough money to buy a shrimp boat after Vietnam.
Me, I'll stick with my PC, I built it myself and it has served me well. I'll likely build my next one too. Funny, I never met a Mac owner yet who built his own Mac.
Happy Birthday.
The fact that the mac is 25 years old takes me back to my first job placement. For anyone who remembers the good old YTS or youth training scheme, a successor to the YOP. My placement was with Micro-C, they don't exist any more, but if you could kind of imaging PC World but focused totally on business computers. We had all the usual suspects, IBM PC, Sirius, Apricot, Philips P9000 system (only Kevin was allowed to touch this, but then again it only ran MP/M and Peachtree accounts) and there on a desk of its own was the Mac at the other side of an Apple IIe and a new Apple IIc.
The Mac was a funny beast back then, it was a pokey 9" monochrome CRT, but incredibly crisp, no hard drive but there was an imagewriter printer and a peculiar startup 'pheeep'. The problem I had was software, or rather lack of it. There was MacPaint, MacWrite and that was about it. The stuff that came bundled.
The interesting thing about the Mac was it had this device with a button and a ball that moved this pointer thingy on the screen.
The Mac is the first computer I can remember that had a mouse that came with the box. It had to have the mouse, you couldn't use it without. Looking back though it was a single button, and I have been out of the reality distortion field of the Mac World for so long, but I think it still has the same single button mouse, well not the same but its a long way behind my superb Logitech MX Revolution with its 5 buttons and 2 wheels.
The Mac flapped around for a while before finding its home in what was Desktop Publishing. Eventually, it grew into music and some other areas of business but it has never really ever left it's home of desktop design.
The Mac has been through troubled times, it is not that long since Microsoft bailed out Apple to some serious money, yet that is rarely remembered by the Apple Enthusiast who loves to crass Microsoft at any opportunity, yet the Apple Mac cannot survive without Windows. The Mac for years had better graphics, sound and overall usability than a DOS or early windows PC's. Yet even the Mac was not immortal and anyone who remembers the frustation of System Error ID=0 will know what I mean.
The Mac had some great software for a time, indeed my ownership was around the time of an incredible database product called 4th Dimension, eventually called 4D. What really caught my imagination for the Mac though was HyperCard. I can't say I see or hear of it anymore, but it was inspired.
The Mac never reached the market penetraction of the PC though. This was supposedly down to the fact that IBM had manufactured the PC in such a way that it was easy to 'clone' the BIOS, this lead to masses of copies from Far Eastern shores, and these were at massive price reductions to that of the original IBM PC.
Apple tried clones themselves for a period, but they didn't get it. The were 'licenced' clones and as such were cost comparable to the original. Resultantly, not many clones were sold and the manufacturers stopped bothering.
The Mac did survive, it's product line increased and it Apple could have patented the letter i, I am sure they would have. Apples fortunes have expanded though, as they have ventured into other areas. Consumer electronics has been a great success for Apple although everyone will likely credit the iPod with this, their first venture into handheld technologies was actually the Apple Newton, and although it was relatively short-lived, did show the innovation that Apple had, albeit under a different captain.
I wish the Mac well, it keeps those people who think they are different happy, and it also keeps their iPod, ithis and iThat all working together swimmingly. Also, they swelled Apples coffers and gave Forest Gump enough money to buy a shrimp boat after Vietnam.
Me, I'll stick with my PC, I built it myself and it has served me well. I'll likely build my next one too. Funny, I never met a Mac owner yet who built his own Mac.
Happy Birthday.
Saturday 17 January 2009, 1:36 PM
Which comes first Driver or OS?
Over the last few years, there has been a slow impetus to move to 64-Bit Operating Systems and applications. Nowhere near the speed that people moved from 16 to 32 bit, but what does this mean? Are people happy with 32-Bit? Are the benefits to 64-Bit still only there for software developers, and those with many memory hungrey applications?
So, the question is have you moved, and if so where did you move? Server, Desktop or laptop or are you a techno-hugger and done all three?
Personally, I left it at server. I wanted my last laptop to use Vista 64 Bit, but the manufacturers advice was well you can have it, but most of the features of your laptop won't work as we don't have drivers. This was similar to an experience I had with XP on 64Bit, the support for drivers was pretty dire.
Hardware manufacturers are kind of stuck because they don't want to spend development money on drivers used by a small minority of users, while at the same time, users won't move over to a technology until it's fully supported.
I would love to have Vista 64-Bit on my desktop, as I have a really annoying embedded resource problem that just won't go away and I am sure that Vista 64 would resolve it.
So, the wires are no longer chattering about Windows Vista, instead we are being treated to a heap of pre-marketing about Windows 7. There is a beta, and you can play with it and see if it's any good. What I haven't heard is any speak of 32 or 64 bit versions, is there just one version and its 64 Bit? That would definately accelerate the 64 Bit acceptance.
Problem is, the next line is logically 128-Bit and these processors exist in mainframes today, but will they make it to the desktop? Indeed there is talk from the usual chip vendors that this is feasible, but would compatibility be needed with 32 and 64 Bit? I kind of think that the multicore has been far from exhausted yet and it still has much to offer, before stepping up another power of 2.
Discuss?
So, the question is have you moved, and if so where did you move? Server, Desktop or laptop or are you a techno-hugger and done all three?
Personally, I left it at server. I wanted my last laptop to use Vista 64 Bit, but the manufacturers advice was well you can have it, but most of the features of your laptop won't work as we don't have drivers. This was similar to an experience I had with XP on 64Bit, the support for drivers was pretty dire.
Hardware manufacturers are kind of stuck because they don't want to spend development money on drivers used by a small minority of users, while at the same time, users won't move over to a technology until it's fully supported.
I would love to have Vista 64-Bit on my desktop, as I have a really annoying embedded resource problem that just won't go away and I am sure that Vista 64 would resolve it.
So, the wires are no longer chattering about Windows Vista, instead we are being treated to a heap of pre-marketing about Windows 7. There is a beta, and you can play with it and see if it's any good. What I haven't heard is any speak of 32 or 64 bit versions, is there just one version and its 64 Bit? That would definately accelerate the 64 Bit acceptance.
Problem is, the next line is logically 128-Bit and these processors exist in mainframes today, but will they make it to the desktop? Indeed there is talk from the usual chip vendors that this is feasible, but would compatibility be needed with 32 and 64 Bit? I kind of think that the multicore has been far from exhausted yet and it still has much to offer, before stepping up another power of 2.
Discuss?
Tuesday 13 January 2009, 11:46 AM
There be dragons here.....
It would seem that there are 25 Most dangerous programming errors in the world today.
Only 25? Wow.
It would seem that a group of IPCC like people from all manner of companies across the US and also a few government bodies have got together and decided that these 25 problems are a real issue and should be stamped on as soon as possible. Which is probably correct.
There are some real names on this list, which incidentally can be viewed here http://www.sans.org/top25errors/
What is actually concerning is that they state that these errors happen because present IT training, both academic and professional doesn't cover how to avoid them.
So, is this a case that University Education doesn't quite cut the mustard? Or is it a deeper problem.
When I started out in IT, there wasn't a lot of training or college courses available. I knew what I wanted to learn but the only way to do it was to learn it yourself. You could get a good Pascal course if your college had a computing department, but I wanted to do C, and BCPL and of course learn about object oriented development, it was fairly new back then. Yikes, I am getting old.
More recently, I had a student placement working for me over the summer, the guy was an adept programmer and was more than up to speed on programming technique however, the problem here was that although he cut code, he didn't have a clue about business process. He had no idea about how a sales order should be constructed, nor how this might relate to an invoice. We didn't get onto the granularities of stock control. Maybe I was asking too much of this guy but he was a 2nd year student, so he was about 19-20. I look back to my own career and at 19-20 I had written a number of accounting systems, stock control packages and other database applications across a variety of hardware.
So, I am asking, is academia failing the software development industry not only in that they don't teach business process but they don't show how to avoid the major software development issues, like the list of 25.
This could all come under a heading of best practice, but you know I hate best practice, because it ages. What is best practice today, may not be tomorrow, or next week or next year. This is because we evolve, hopefully we get better and find new more useful ways of doing things.
So, are these 25 your list of the most unwanted, or would you have an alternative set?
Only 25? Wow.
It would seem that a group of IPCC like people from all manner of companies across the US and also a few government bodies have got together and decided that these 25 problems are a real issue and should be stamped on as soon as possible. Which is probably correct.
There are some real names on this list, which incidentally can be viewed here http://www.sans.org/top25errors/
What is actually concerning is that they state that these errors happen because present IT training, both academic and professional doesn't cover how to avoid them.
So, is this a case that University Education doesn't quite cut the mustard? Or is it a deeper problem.
When I started out in IT, there wasn't a lot of training or college courses available. I knew what I wanted to learn but the only way to do it was to learn it yourself. You could get a good Pascal course if your college had a computing department, but I wanted to do C, and BCPL and of course learn about object oriented development, it was fairly new back then. Yikes, I am getting old.
More recently, I had a student placement working for me over the summer, the guy was an adept programmer and was more than up to speed on programming technique however, the problem here was that although he cut code, he didn't have a clue about business process. He had no idea about how a sales order should be constructed, nor how this might relate to an invoice. We didn't get onto the granularities of stock control. Maybe I was asking too much of this guy but he was a 2nd year student, so he was about 19-20. I look back to my own career and at 19-20 I had written a number of accounting systems, stock control packages and other database applications across a variety of hardware.
So, I am asking, is academia failing the software development industry not only in that they don't teach business process but they don't show how to avoid the major software development issues, like the list of 25.
This could all come under a heading of best practice, but you know I hate best practice, because it ages. What is best practice today, may not be tomorrow, or next week or next year. This is because we evolve, hopefully we get better and find new more useful ways of doing things.
So, are these 25 your list of the most unwanted, or would you have an alternative set?
Thursday 8 January 2009, 2:36 PM
Programming Is Childs Play, I KODU you not!.
Unlike Mr.Bridgewater, who seems to get invited to every envelope being opened in the world, I had to make do with watching Steve Ballmers CES keynote via the Microsoft Site.
This was Steve's first crack at this show as it has always previously been Bills domain. He pulled it off with his usual enthusiasm, and the next 12 months looks interesting to say the least.
One thing that really bit my imagination was KODU, this demo involved the participation of a 12 year old Sparrow Buerer who had created a 'world' using KODU. Kodu is described as being a programming concepts game coming soon to an xbox near you thru the Live Community Games Channel. Now this probably means US first, UK and ROW, who knows. Kodu though is really great. The ease at which this girl chose the commands and made things happen made me think back to my first days learning how the hell to make the blocky graphics of a Sinclair ZX81 appear on a screen.
Being the proud father of a 10 year old who is grossly into the antics of Sonic The Hedgehog and friends and also the little plumber guy Mario, he has had many ideas for games of his own, complete with power-ups, levels and before even a line of code is written, the cheats. Actually trying to get him into the programming aspect has proven difficult. I have installed Scratch, KPL and even the new SmallBasic from Microsoft hasn't really enthused him.
Having seen KODU in action, this could be what starts the ball rolling for him, at least I hope.
Do you have children who have taken to programming? If so, what worked for you?
This was Steve's first crack at this show as it has always previously been Bills domain. He pulled it off with his usual enthusiasm, and the next 12 months looks interesting to say the least.
One thing that really bit my imagination was KODU, this demo involved the participation of a 12 year old Sparrow Buerer who had created a 'world' using KODU. Kodu is described as being a programming concepts game coming soon to an xbox near you thru the Live Community Games Channel. Now this probably means US first, UK and ROW, who knows. Kodu though is really great. The ease at which this girl chose the commands and made things happen made me think back to my first days learning how the hell to make the blocky graphics of a Sinclair ZX81 appear on a screen.
Being the proud father of a 10 year old who is grossly into the antics of Sonic The Hedgehog and friends and also the little plumber guy Mario, he has had many ideas for games of his own, complete with power-ups, levels and before even a line of code is written, the cheats. Actually trying to get him into the programming aspect has proven difficult. I have installed Scratch, KPL and even the new SmallBasic from Microsoft hasn't really enthused him.
Having seen KODU in action, this could be what starts the ball rolling for him, at least I hope.
Do you have children who have taken to programming? If so, what worked for you?
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