dev4good – developing for a better world

One of the cool things about doing what I do, is the simple fact I can build something from nothing with nothing but an idea and notepad (okay I haven’t hand coded a website form scratch in a few years, but I could if I had to).

Another cool part of my job is the people I work with, the other IT professionals, designers and developers (other people are cool too).

I help run @Devevening (Surrey based developer user group) and a few weeks ago we had another hack night, where developers are given a problem and 2 hours to solve it. Every time we hold these events I am amazed at how much can be done in a very short amount of time (this time was a battleship client that you had to pit against a fellow developers client to see who would win)

I am getting to the point honest…

So I wondered what would happen if you got  a group of developers together for say a weekend, throw in some real world problems (donated by a few charities) and see what amazing stuff could be done.

This idea has grown slightly and I am in the process of setting up the UK’s first ever Developer/Charity hack event, called dev4good, check out the site www.dev4good.net for more details.

We have a venue in London, on the river Thames no less (www.hammersmithriverside.co.uk) which is awesome!

If you think you would enjoy a weekend of coding with developers from all over the UK in possibly the craziest working environment, register for updates and provisional places, follow @devfourgood on twitter for updates.
Anyone from any IT background, any platform can help, designers, IT professionals, hobbyists, get in touch, we need your skills.

If you are a UK charity and think you have a problem that only the “A-team” could help with, let us know.

Obviously all of this is going to cost money, so I am looking for sponsors to help out with food/drink costs. There are no costs for charities, there may be a small registration fee to stop the ‘no-show’ effect for developers, but that’s it.

 

So what do you think, do you have what it takes to help building something cool, that could change someone’s life?

Home media platform project

I was asked to setup a home music centre for a friend, nothing too hard I thought. The requirements seemed standard, so I said yes let me at it.

3 weeks later, I found myself still trying to piece together the components, none of which I had ever used before – fun!
(This was 3 weeks fulltime)

The requirements were;

1. Must use optical out (its connecting to high end amp)
2. Needs to look like it fits in and around high end audio gear
3. Headphone out
4. Low power
5. CD drive play/burn
6. Internet access
7. Auto rip function
8. Remote control for playlists etc
9. External touch screen
10. Silent
11. Small footprint
12. Easy to use for a non technical user

Server/Base unit

I went off looking first of all for a base unit, the mini-itx platform looked like the best of what is available. And the boards are cheap enough these days to make home cinema/media PCs available to everyone.

But what I found was although the boards are cheap, its the extra bits that add up. By the time I added an external power supply, remote control, ram, hard drive it was still looking at +/- £400 with a decent case.
Add to this the problem of adding a slim line CD drive to some ITX cases, it seemed that if you did this the case got big quick.

I did find that the Acer Revo PCs were a pretty good fit, add an external CD drive and bingo, but I really wanted an all in one unit.

I found it in the form of the Asus EeeBox EB1501P Net Top PC.
It had optical out, internal CD (one of those funky soft eject ones too), Windows 7 Home Premium, WiFi, HDMI, eSata and although ebuyer didn’t mention anything, it came with USB keyboard/mouse, Media Centre remote control and a vesa bracket.

All powered by an Atom D525, Dual Core 1.8Ghz with 2Gb Ram for £270 +vat (its dropped by £30 now….)

Base unit was sorted, the screen was a little more fun, I wanted something small enough to be usable and not too big that you would notice it in the room. There are a number of 10” USB driven touch screens on the market (be careful some don’t work on 64Bit OS)  and after a chat to the guys at New IT I went for the iMo Mini Monster a 10” wide screen, single touch  monitor. It has a built in stylus that is hidden in the bezel too.

So that was the PC side of things completed sorted.

Remote controls at the ready

I wanted a tablet for the remote, but not an iPad, they were just too expensive for this project. I opted for a 10” Android ePad (10.2" Android 2.1 ZT-180a Apad/ePad 1GHZ CPU 256RAM) and threw in a 4Gb micro SD card for good measures.
I headed off the the android market place for a remote control to control the music…. I installed and uninstalled every single ‘free’ remote control literally in the market. Both iTunes and Windows variants… All were basically crap they worked most of the time or did everything except display the media library.
I did find one app that was fantastic when you had under 100 or so tracks, however as soon as we broke this level on while ripping we saw a massive drop in speed. It doesn’t cache anything on the tablet, so EVERY time you go to load an artist, genre etc it goes off and asks the server for the list, then waits until everything has been sent. We were waiting for 5 mins for a screen update… uninstalled that pretty quick.

This was when I put my IT hat on and realised that there must be a remote desktop app, there were lods of them, all were paid for and because I am tight I didn’t buy them.

What I did, which I think when looking back was a genius move and I should have done it in the first place, was to install TightVNC on the PC with the android TightVNC app on the tablet.
Instant connectivity, full screen, lag-less (pretty much) experience.

To make this better we put a wireless AP in the room that the kit lives on and only the devices in that room use that network, for an extra £40 it was worth it, the tablet and PC chatter to their hearts content without losing out to any other traffic.
The other reason for the added AP was the house we were installing in was built in the 1700’s so had walls about 1m thick of stone, which have the ability to block WiFi.

I used 3 home plugs one at the router in the 3rd floor office to run the network down to the ground floor conservatory and to the kitchen to a second AP just for the kitchen/liveing area as the BT router upstairs was dropping to under 1 bar most of the time.
The home plugs where sitting around 20Mb throughput, but this was expected as the wiring itself is a little flaky from time to time.

Conclusion

This was a great little project, the client is over the moon, a few minutes on how to connect the tablet to the PC and he is instantly in an environment he knows.

We ripped just over 3500 tracks in 2 days (used the Asus + 2 laptops running in parallel, ripping to the shared media folder – the whole D drive). The rip speed of the Asus is about 70% of my old HP laptop, not sure why this is, I am guessing the speed of the soft eject CD drive may be the problem.

If I was to do it again and I will for myself at least, I would throw another 2Gb of Ram in the Asus. It streamed DivX films okay over my network using Home plugs (70-80Mb) while playing on my TV via the HDMI, but for video I think the more ram you have the better.
When SSDs come down in price these boxes will be perfect for them, they use net to no power anyway, heat is minimal, but with an SSD it will just be that little bit better.

I would probably fork out for an eSata drive as well, or at least a NAS box/home server setup to work alongside this, the storage is great for MP3s, but would get eaten quickly with video storage.

Pics

So we have the 10” screen next to the tablet running TightVNC!

The 10” screen on its own

The Asus EeeBox

Nice to do something that doesn’t involve writing code for a change!

The end of the IT department

My response to http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2785-the-end-of-the-it-department

That was a very interesting read, not what I would call a balanced view though and made me write;


My company is the IT department for a number of companies in the UK and I have been the IT manager in charge of departments in the past.
In part I agree there are parts of the corporate IT world that need to be relaxed, but most are based around very old fashioned thinking and cost of upgrading

The IT world is an ever changing industry, people with the right skills today need to upgrade these skills next week.

Also normally the people who work in the IT departments are not the same people that make the decisions to what can and cant be changed in the company.
If I had my way every PC, server would be replaced every year and always be patched to the latest versions of their software, this is however impractical to most companies as the cost of this is inhibitive.

Yes the 'cloud' is amazing and will lower the number of IT support staff in the building, however it just moves these people and their skills outside of the business, wont this just create a hole in the companies shared knowledge?

I have moved a number of companies to the cloud (not really the cloud, but they call it that, I call it dedicated outsourced server hosting) and they are all happy, but in doing this I had to upskill to understand the implications of these technologies for each company to make sure it will do what they need it to.
Now the big problem we are facing is the local adsl circuits are topping out and we are reliant on 100% uptime from not only an adsl line, but also the infrastructure at the other end.

So when a server goes down, exchange plays up, the problem is passed to an outsourced support company, who place the problem in their 'queue', then we wait.... we have no control or input... 9/10 I could fix the problem if I had access to the servers myself (10 years of IT support do count for something) but I cam not allowed access so we wait.....

The cloud idea is good, but I can see companies jumping on the 'save money' band wagon and then realising that moving their infrastructure outside of their control could cost them more in the long run.
one thing that no one ever asks is  "So if it goes wrong (the cloud) and doesn't work for us, how much will it cost to move everything back?" - the answer - LOTS, probably more than the move out as you will need new hardware, licensing, staff, skills...

The cloud is not for everyone, be very careful about what goes where and who controls what.

utilising the power of 'remote'

Among other jobs I manage the IT for a number of small businesses and in a bid to not be on site very often (save costs,fuel,carbon etc), I have been testing a few remote support platforms.

The 2 that remained after testing were Microsoft Remote Desktop and Teamviewer.

All of my clients are Microsoft based, so when working on their servers Remote Desktop just made sense.
The down side is that there needs to be a public IP address linked to the server you are trying to connect to if you don't use a VPN that is.
On hat note VPN's are great, however they don't always give you the best user experience, like trying to connect across a 3G dongle to fix a problem can be clunky, remote desktop does hog a lot of resources. It can be done though, don't get me wrong. While on holiday in Kefalonia I did connect into a server over a very ropey 3G connection using Remote Desktop.

Teamvier has a citrix(y)/go to my PC feel about it and for connecting adhoc to client PC's it is fantastic.

You dont need a VPN (although it has one built in anyway), your client connects to their server which managed the authentication and initial connection. As far as I can tell it then drops the 2 connections together like a VOIP call, dotn quote me on that I have not done mush research into this side of things.

What teamviewer does do is alleviate the need for public IP address and firewall routing, it uses port 80 from both ends of the connection and encrypts the data as well.

I have been saved on a number of occasions by teamviewer, as you can install it to run when windows starts up, I can remote into a PC and fix VPN's etc without too much hassle.

The other big seller for me is the client PC's do not need to have teamviewer installed, they can download and install a 'no install' client for windows/mac and just tell me the ID and secure password, presto I am in.

There is no downside for me anyway with using teamviewer, its free for non commercial or you can buy a lifetime licence.

When you add in its ability to allow you to do remote presentation, VPN, VOIP calls, chat, file transfer etc, the cost of a single licence is quite resonable +/-£440

Just checked and there are clients for PC, Mac, Android and IPhone and iPad.... 

The most complicated thing I have had to try and do is move some files to a secure web server and my access is IP based, so I only have access from my office.

This happened while on a train;
I used teamviewer to get onto my desktop in the office (had to call to have it turned on though

Then remote desktop'd onto my clients PC that is on their office network, copy the files from the designer's PC to the server in the DMZ through the PC I was logged into.

Long winded and slow, but I did it without having to break any security by telling someone how to do it and it meant the client didn't have to wait for the job to be done the next time I was 'passing by'

If you do IT support and need a remote support platform to use (did I mention you can white label it as your own?).

Teamviewer gets a thumbs up from me.

Nokia + Microsoft ?

This morning BBC breakfast announced that Nokia was going to make a big announcement, possibly that they are going to work with Google on their next range of phones....

1 hr later I get to work and in that time Uncle Steve (Boom baby thats what we are talking about) Ballmer announces that Microsoft and Nokia are forming a strategic alliance.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukmsdn/archive/2011/02/11/windows-phone-and-nokia-enter-strategic-partnership.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/feb11/02-11partnership.mspx

I like the nokia handsets, the OS has been getting increasingly out of date, so I moved to windows phone 7, as a developer the plan was to build some apps and get rich and famous.
I haven't done any of that, but I have realised that MS is onto a winner with their mobile OS, I thinks it really good and possible even better than the competition.

But what does this alliance really mean for the day to day phone user?
Probably not much unless you are a symbian OS developer, maybe more flexibility and choice as Nokia do make cool handsets.

WIll be interesting what Nokia say later on today.

Company acquires new business - Q: Do we run two website targeting the same people?

I was asked over a bottle of wine what I thought the best thing to do when 'Company A' buys 'Company B' and they now have 2 websites targeting the same consumers on the net.

This is a great question and although I can remember my exact answer (blame the wine), the question keeps popping up in conversations with other clients.

Some history on search engines (mainly google)
It used to be that if you had a site and somebody copied the content (think CTRL+C then CTRL_P) the SE would think its you trying to do bad stuff. Somtimes the new site would actually beat the older site in the ranking as it was new and fresh etc. Other time both sites would be penalised and would see their result standings drop, or disappear.
Index updates would be 'rolled out' every few months, and we would all sit and wait to see where we ended up in the results, and then have 3 months to fix it and wait, then fix, wait....

Duplicate content across multiple site's was bad and I would have said back then to drop one of the sites Company A owns and permanently redirect the traffic to the other, keep it neat and clean.

Fast forward to now
SE's are super smart, they update their index faster than the sites can be created.
The idea of sites of the same content is normal, sites are sharing XML feeds, mashing up data and content onto their own pages etc.

SE's can also check domain ownership, location of hosting server, location of company who owns the site, location of the people who visit the site.
Even if the sites have identical content, an SE can see they are different sites (okay there will be instances where they are the same but that's covered later *)

With 2 sites that are relatively the same  (the 2 sites are travel/trip based), Company A has a great opportunity to maximise their traffic, across two competing sites.
Both sites are already ranking okay in SE results and have their own brand that consumers are aware of, so is there really a benefit of combining them straight away - I don't think so.

There are a lot of caveats and maybes from here on in, so have that pinch of salt ready.

If it was me I would;

• set up SiteA and SiteB to interlink where appropriate
• link to/from other 'intra company sites'
• each should (if possible) target slightly different customers
• set them to target different demographics (one high value trips other low?)
• find out if either of the sites is being hit from any particular geo location, if so use this site to target this area. (this is very easy to do)
• if targeting geo location, use local phone numbers
• use meta data and page control the content on both sites so it is NOT exactly the same
• use different staff is possible to write the content for each site, sounds a bit extreme, but web content writers always have 'accents' in the copy they write
• don't be afraid to send customers from A to B, add pages on each site that are specifically set up to send the customer to the other. If they buy, who cares which site they do it th
• leave the sites hosted where they are for the time being
• run regular benchmark reports to see if 
• sites are working in harmony (traffic/ vs sales vs enquiry)
• SE results are being helped by having 2 sites
• customers are getting lost between 2 site

Once you know how the sites are working together you can decide where to go with the sites.

Obviously if one of the sites is new or has no SE value and no one ever uses it, then I would say kill it and focus on the other, but if the sites are both strong then its a waste of SE value to just get rid of it.

Its very hard to put a price on SE value, but it can cost a lot in time/£££ to get a site up to the level of a site that has 'some' value.



These are just my opinions, they could be wrong or they could help you, either way comment and ask questions.




* I see my site twice in the results
This can happen if you have sub domains that are displaying the same content ie public.site.com and www.site.com have the same content and are hsoted onthe same server, same owner etc.
In this instance I would shut down the duplicate sub domain and redirec the traffic to the main site.

There is no use setting your own site and sub domain as competitors

SQL Server does not handle comparison of NText, Text, Xml, or Image data types.

When adding XML to an XML field in SQL server via Linq to SQL it all works fine, however when you try and update this XML field, you get this error;

SQL Server does not handle comparison of NText, Text, Xml, or Image data types.

Fix to my solution was to edit the dbml and set the updatecheck to false

<column canbenull="true" dbtype="Xml" name="OrderXML" type="System.Xml.Linq.XElement" updatecheck="Never"></column>


Works like a dream now.

LinqSQL tip #2– linqDatasource binding funkyness

Binding controls via a datasource is nice and easy, however when you try and change the way the data is displayed in a dropdown for example, Linq can be a pain.

Example 1 – Add text variable flag to show what entry is a primary category and which are secondary categories

<asp:LinqDataSource ID="LDSRentalDefinition"
runat="server" ContextTypeName="DB"
Select="new (ID, (iif(isPrimary==true,' ','+') + Name)  as TextValue)"
TableName="Categories" OrderBy="iif(isPrimary==true,' ','+'),Name" >

Weird thing is in the SELECT, IF statements don’t work, but old fashioned IIF statements do.

Still gets me that some C# code works inside the LinqDataSource on a VB page, but some VB works as well.
( || does work where | doesn’t )

Its a nice visual thing for the users as they can see straight away that any child category has a + in front of it in the dropdownlist

Annoyingly I was only allowed a single character inside the ‘’, page would crash otherwise.

Example 2 – add multiple data fields to a single item in the listbox

This is an easier one, but still very powerful to make your UI make more sense to the user

Select="new (ID, (Name + ' ' + Description) as TextValue”

List box items are displayed as “Bob boss”, “John cleaner” rather than just a first name.

LinqSQL tip #1– dynamic queries

I had to build a reporting page for a client the other day that pulls a load support ticket data from the DB and makes it look nice on the screen.

Simple I thought, once the first version was done, I get the emails asking for date filters, easy.

Then the filters for member of staff, easy.

Then for the categories, easy

And then the sub categories, but sometimes we will want to filter by  one and sometimes all of them, or maybe one or two….

This got me stuck there didn’t seem to be anyway to look at a list of checkboxes and add a ‘where’ statement to the Linq statement for each subcategory selected.

In SQL you would build the query up, using and/or statements to get the data back you need, in Linq this is farily tough to do on the fly in standard Linq code.

After a fair old time on the net I came across the LinqKit which has a Predicate builder!
This is an awesome piece of code, I could have tried to build something like this (I would never have got there in the time I had), but why try and reinvent the wheel when there is a handy .dll that does it already!

All I needed to do was create an array of the categories I need to filter by and throw them at the Predicate builder.

Function FilterSubCategories(ByVal iQuery As IQueryable(Of DB.Issue), ByVal  _ searchTerms As ArrayList) As IQueryable(Of Issue)

    Dim predicate = PredicateBuilder.[False](Of Issue)()
    For Each keyword As String In searchTerms
        Dim temp As String = keyword
        predicate = predicate.[Or](Function(p As Issue) p.SubCategoryID.Equals(temp))
    Next
    Return iQuery.Where(predicate)
End Function

The function simply returns a queryable set of data that I can either bind to a control of continue to work with.

There are more extension sin the LinqKit, if you are looking for an easy way to deal with dynamic Linq clauses, this is definately worth a look.

Three UK create an unhappy customer (me)

chillfire on October 26, 2010

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Thanks for the response,

To be honest, for now I am happy with the phone, only 4Gb left after 5 days and that’s without any music on it..

As I mentioned I need a windows phone as part of my job, but I don’t have any other options on 3 for a different win 7 phone.

So there are no options for me at the moment to swap and even if I did pick another handset I would definitely end up with a phone I didn’t want for 2 years, a big fat catch 22 you might say.

What I am not at all happy with is the fact that the information I was given (and so have 3 retail staff I have spoken too) was incorrect when I purchased it leaving me with a phone that I am going to HAVE to upgrade in the next 12 months, leaving me out of pocket by +/- £400. This is really a trading standards issue I suppose?

I really do not understand how I cannot be allowed to get a free upgrade in 12 months time to a new win 7 phone, I suppose it really depends on if I am going to spend more than the trade price for the phone over the next 12 months, surely over the last 4 years or so I must have built up a fairly nice profit for 3?

On a side note (kind of) who does you ‘real’ testing for new handsets when they get released?

Is there any chance of testing the new 7 phones when they come out on behalf of 3, this wont cost you anything and would give me the chance to possibly get a phone that does what I need it to?

By the way I was told by the upgrades team I could not return the phone if I have turned it on/used it…

Can someone please tell me what the email address is to send my complaint to?

The one 333 gave me was incorrect and the email has bounced.

thanks



Moderator on October 26, 2010

@Chillfire – If you’re not happy with your Omnia 7 you can return it, as you’re still within your 14 days. If you want to discuss other phones then yes that’s a call to 333 and they’ll run through all your options. I don’t believe we can let you keep the phone until an upgraded model is released because we will need you to fulfil your contract with us. Thanks for the feedback you sent across to me, this has been sent to the retail team and they are making sure all the team are up-to-date.



chillfire on October 26, 2010

morning, can someone drop me an email if anything is being actioned for me or if I need to try to talk to 333 again?



chillfire on October 25, 2010

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

 Again not for public info;

Just thought I should let you know I think this “Does it have SD expansion” problem may be bigger than I thought.

I went into the maidenhead 3 store to ask about protective skins for the omnia and the guy there asked about my thoughts on the phone, when I mentioned the 8Gb limit he said that cant be right as all the training he has been given said it came with an SD slot.

I gave him the phone and he was amazed it didn’t have it, even took the battery cover off to prove it ha ha.


cheers



chillfire on October 24, 2010

Your comment is awaiting moderation.


Hi,

I hope you can help, you dont need to post this publicly, but I am running out of places to get help from.

The email address I was given by the 333 upgrade team guy, proofs@3mail.co.uk has just bounced, what is the correct email address for the complaints team?

cheers



chillfire on October 23, 2010

Yes I know Arne refused the delivery because I told him my phone didn’t have the SD slot…
The problem I have is the phone is part of my job, ie I build mobile apps, so I need a phone on the 3 network that is windowsphone 7 series that has more than 8Gb of storage, this leaves me stuck with the phone who’s spec changed from when I bought it to when it got delivered.
I tried to explain this to the 333 guys – all I want to be able to do is use the phone as it is now but have the opportunity upgrade it if/when the new phones get released to 3 that have more memory. I explained that if I return the phone I have to leave 3 to get a different one on a new network, they weren’t very passionate about wanting me to stay.
I have emailed proofs@ to see what they can do, but the 333 guys were trying to tell me that this blog wasn’t owned by three so I shouldn’t believe what is posted here (until I gave them the URL for it) and that the 3 site never said the phone was expandable..(I got screenshots as oone as the confusion started).. so I wasn’t too impressed with them to be honest.

Is it possible to meet up to discuss the problems I have had/am having around this phone?

On a plus side I was at a developer event today and the phone was enjoyed by many a greasy finger, also a lot of impressed faces when I told them the deal they can get on 3.

cheers



Moderator on October 22, 2010

@Arne Helseth – It’s not a problem if you want to return your phone within the first 14 days of delivery. If you do have any problems getting through to customer services then I can arrange for them to call you.



Moderator on October 22, 2010

@Chillfire – You should be able to return it, no probs, within the first 14 days. Sorry you’re disappointed



Arne Helseth on October 22, 2010

chillfire: You should have done what I did, refuse delivery. By now all their internal systems will be updated to show no SD slot so any attempt to speak to their customer support will be like having a root canal.

Good luck in returning it.



chillfire on October 22, 2010

I can now confirm the Samsung omnia 7 doe NOT have a microSD slot, very disappointed to say the least.



chillfire on October 21, 2010

I see the omnia 7 specs have been updated on the site to say it does not have any microSD slot anymore.

Does this mean we can return the phone if we don’t want it now due to the lack of expansion and wrong info on the site?

cheers



chillfire on October 21, 2010

may have found the problem US and UK version of the phone may be different

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2010/10/13/samsung-focus-will-have-microsd-support-omnia-7-wont/

cheers



chillfire on October 21, 2010

Same question as arnehelseth, can anyone confirm if the omnia really does have an SD slot?

The review here http://windowsphonesecrets.com/2010/10/12/windows-phone-7-and-removable-storage/

says that the SD slot is under the battery it is NOT a standard expansion slot for cards to be taken out and used elsewhere, it is storage extension only. Once the card goes in there it gets used by the phone as part of the total storage available.

I will more then likely send it back if I cant extend the storage space, shame really.

cheers



Arne Helseth on October 21, 2010

That’s what I figured. You should be getting quite a lot of devices sent back then as everyone I’ve spoke to needs more than the 8GB onboard storage.

What’s especially worrying is that I had a long chat with your support rep and he went away twice to confirm it did indeed have a slot.

Tanks for your answer though.



Moderator on October 21, 2010

@Arne Helseth – I’m sorry but you’ve definitely been misinformed. No Windows Phone 7 has an HD slot. Thanks for flagging, we’re getting all our copy amended and our teams rebriefed



Arne Helseth on October 21, 2010

So, does the Omnia 7 really have a SD card slot? All information online (as well as info from Microsoft and Samsung reps) points to it being 8GB with no SD slot, yet Three has it listed on their website with upgradeable memory (upto 32GB) – this was also confirmed to me by your customer support, but he was most likely quoting the Three website or intranet knowledgebase…

My handset is going back to Three and contract cancelled if in fact it turns up with no expandable memory

It sucks there are no stores (at least up in the NE) with stock though, had there been I could have verified with my own eyes rather than taking some random persons word for it.

Question: Is the launch shambles down to you, the operators (including all others like Orange, O2, T-Mobile etc), Microsoft or the device manufacturers? According to sources elsewhere shipments have contained a lot less handsets than ordered by networks/stores – this kinda makes me worried there is an inherent fault with either the hardware [or more likely] the software.



Moderator on October 21, 2010

@Chillfire – Phew!! Hopefully the hunt is over. Let us know how you get on with your new Windows Phone



chillfire on October 21, 2010

Just had a call from 333, new omnia 7 arrives tomorrow – very happy

thanks



chillfire on October 21, 2010

I found the buy now button unfortunately I was hoping to upgrade in store.

Called 333 and they have no stock, possibly this afternoon.

Is there anyway to find out if there is physical stock in stores

cheers



Moderator on October 21, 2010

@Chillfire – Launched the same phone as Orange today too You can buy it online here



chillfire on October 21, 2010

Morning, any updates on omnia 7 availability?

It looks like orange had a good morning in London with the microsoft hardware launch – http://bit.ly/8ZROE7

cheers,



Moderator on October 19, 2010 @Chillfire – No probs, I’m just checking this out for you and a few others asking on twitter. As soon as I know, I’ll let you know



chillfire on October 18, 2010

Thanks moderator, is there anyway to find out where there will be stock?

Or will the people at 333 have a better idea on from the 21st?

cheers.



Moderator on October 18, 2010

@Chillfire – Thanks for your feedback, really useful to know. We’re launching the Samsung Omnia 7 on Oct 21 as planned. As an existing customer, calling 333 is your best option for getting hold of the handset quickly. We’ll have limited stock, so it’s possible the Maidenhead store won’t have a batch from day one. So there is no hold-up as far as we’re aware



chillfire on October 18, 2010

I just came out of the Maidenhead 3 store.

I asked about the Omnia 7 and was told they were only launching the HTC and the nokia this month….

Called 333 (and after wrestling with the myriad of number selections…)

I asked about the Samsung omnia…. long pause, no updates about when it will be launched and no specific dates either…

Then was told I could get any phone I wanted on that operating system, but there was only one windows phone available.

This is really disappointing, can anyone at 3 comment on whether this lack of information is a manufacturing problem or an administration issue. I really thought the phone was to be launched on the 21st of October?

And with no information form the 3 team it makes me wonder what the hold up is or who is causing it?

My live with a Samsung Omnia 7 - WIndowsphone series 7

Mit liv tillsammans med en Samsung Omnia 7 - WIndowsphone series 7


First things first, this phone does NOT have a microSD slot, even if your phone provider says it does!

I have never owned a touch screen phone, my last smartphone which has server me well for the last 2 and bit years is a Nokia N95 8Gb, a simple and robust phone.
So in a way I am a noob with all this fancy touchy feely slidy, greasy finger stuff.

Things I have noticed about the phone itself;

• It gets warm when charging from the mains but not from USB
• The off/lock button is in a stupid place
• The battery life is not great, it will need charging daily if you have everything turned on
• This is a consumer only phone* (more on this below) 
• The phone has no expansion slot
• It is lightning fast and very usable
• Integration with windows live/skydrive/office is fantastic
• It will not connect to an exchange server with a self-certified SSL certificate
• Browsing the internet has its limitations ** (more below)
• It does have a habit of rebooting *** (more below)
• You must have a windows live account to use the phone to its full potential
• The designers have listed to the user and done a great, the UI has been very well thought and gives just enough spice to make it interesting without being cumbersome.
• There are some bugs, but it is 1st generation # (see below)
• There is no cut/copy/paste, but the 1st gen iPhone didn't have that either I am told
• It runs a lite version of silverlight
• Internet browser is IE7 (ish)
• Its awesome!!!!
• Apps and installing them from marketplace is very simple

* What do you mean a consumer only phone?

I work in IT and generally have access (code or screwdriver) to all the devices I use, sometimes I even know how to fix or configure them.
The problem I have with the WP7 OS is I cant do anything outside of 'using' the phone, I cant edit things that are wrong. 

So basically the phone is aimed at the social end of the market, I just find it limiting because I want to get into the menus and change stuff. For the average person on the street the phone will slip into their connected world unnoticed, it will complete the magic 3 screens and a cloud strategy Microsoft talk about.

From auto uploads of photos/video to skydrive, to building MS Office docs on the road knowing they will be stored safely on the cloud to playing your mates on xBox live while on a train to work, it all just works out of the box.

One of the coolest bits in the messaging system is the way it keeps track of conversations for SMS messages on a single scrollable screen with each one in its own little speech bubble, corny I know, but quite practical and what we expect now from what is basically a chat interface.

** The internet

Although the internet browser is an IE7 variant the phone itsel runs its UI through silverlight and weirdly enough wont work on silverlight based websites, or flash, or anything that relies on javascript.

This is going to be a pain i the arse very quickly, but there are plugins for youtube and I hope an iPlayer app is released soon too.

So all the kerfuffle over iPad not supporting flash seems a little silly now.

Most sites I have been work well and the zoom in/out ala two finger shuffle is fantastic.

*** Rebooting/Locking up for no reason

Right this is a bit weird and may be down to the app I was trying to run, it only seems to do it when I try and open/resume the twitter client (from twitter). The phone also locked up a few times with this app as well (or the seesmic twitter client).

I may have the answer to the locking, I think it may be down to the 3G  connection, it looks like when the phone is off network the app opens and tries to update, so it waits for a network response...... still waiting then does not know what to do.

The rebooting is a weird one, will keep an eye on it. or am I hitting the off button?

# Bugs

I have found a bug in the way it manages contacts (this could just be me, but would be interested in hearing what others have found). The first time you view your contacts the phone asks if you want to import your SIM contacts so I did this, all very easy (The phone will sync these SIM contacts with your Windows Live account). I also connected to my facebook account (yes I have one but its not actively used) and instantly had all of them in my contacts list as well.

Now I decided to take my facebook contacts out cos I have none of their mobile numbers etc. So I disconnected the phone form facebook.

However all of the facebook contacts were still in my contact list and these could not be selected or deleted even after a reboot.

So I had to do a factory reset and reimport my SIM contacts to get a clean list.

The good thing is you can link your facebook contacts with your SIM contacts on the phone to give 1 person multiple presences an interesting link but it means that you can still keep phone contacts separated out.

An extra bit to this is if you have any issues with your contacts on the phone and because it syncs them on you windows ID, you just login to your windows Live account and edit/delete them there, which is easier than on the phone until you get used to the keyboard.

Conclusion after 1 day of proper use

Okay the phone is fantastic and the platform in my opinion is going to make a it a great environment to develop apps for.

Everything about the phone screams, 'this is my phone REALLY' and the OS apart from a few niggles is pretty solid. In the next few months hopefully there will be a way for developers to deploy their apps to small corporate groups privately (the only way now is to load your app up to the marketplace for anyone to download so securing it is vital).

The COOLEST thing so far
I am sure this wont stop people trying to steal these phones, but if you have the phone enabled to sync its location with your Windows live account and you ever lose it....

• Map it - view the location on a map
• Ring it - ring the phone for a minute
• Lock it - locks the screen and optionally add a screen note saying 'please return'
• erase it - reset to factory settings

Oh did I mention all of this is avaible via the windos live site, ie you can do all of this remotely!!!!!

I really like the phone, can you tell, and everyone who had a play at todays DDD8a thought the same, well no one said this is shit, they all just spun/pivoted their way through the UI, just like the peoplein the WP7 ads do, its very engaging.

As I get more used to the phone and its quirks I will add more posts, follow me on twitter @chillfire for updates on my life with a Windows Phone Series 7.

Upside down round and round

˙ɯəs nə sıləɟ oəl ɐʇɹod ləʌ 'ɹoʇɹoʇ ɐpıʌɐɹƃ lsıu ɐuɹn 'ənbıʇsıɹʇ səɔıɹʇln pı ɯəs 'ənbsıɹələɔs ɯɐu ˙uɐsɯnɔɔɐ ʇəƃə ənƃnɐ əɹɐuɹo ɯnʇuəɯɹəɟ ɹnʇıqɐɹnɔ ˙ʇılə ɯnʇɔıp ɔəu 'ısıu ɹolop ʇɐ ɔunu ˙ʇɐ ənbsıɹələɔs lsıu ʇəəɹoɐl ɔɐ 'sıɹnɐɯ sıʇʇıƃɐs əɹənsod ʇuəsəɐɹd ˙ʇılə ƃuıɔsıdıpɐ ɹnʇəʇɔəsuoɔ 'ʇəɯɐ ʇıs ɹolop ɯnsdı ɯəɹol ˙sılnɔɐı uɐsɯnɔɔɐ ınp nə ɯɐıp ʇɐɹəɔɐld sıɹnɐɯ ˙uəıdɐs ɐlnƃıl ʇn uɐəuəɐ ˙ɹoʇıʇʇɹod ıɔɹo ʇɐɹəɔɐld ʇəƃə ɐɹɹəʌıʌ sıɹnɐɯ ʇə ıɯ ɹoʇıʇʇɹod ıqɹoɯ ˙ɯəs sınb ɔɐ sıllɐʌuoɔ ɐɹʇəɹɐɥd ʇılə ʇə oəl nə ɯnlnqıʇsəʌ ˙ənbıʇsıɹʇ ɐ ınp ʇunpıɔuıʇ ʇɐıƃnəɟ ɔəuop ˙sıɹnɐɯ pəs ɐssɐɯ snʇɔəl ɹodɯəʇ ɔɐ 'sıdɹnʇ snqıdɐp ʇıləʌ ɯɐnb 'ʇıɹəɹpuəɥ ɯnʇuəɯɹəɟ əɐʇıʌ sıɹnɐɯ 'ʇəıpɹədɯı əssıpuədsns ˙ɐpɐnsəlɐɯ sɐʇsəƃə ɐssɐɯ ɐpıʌɐɹƃ ənbəu snsɹnɔ uɐəuəɐ ˙snqıdɐp sıdɹnʇ ʇıpuɐlq ʇə ʇɐɹəɔɐld sıɹnɐɯ ɔɐ ɐuƃɐɯ ɹodɯəʇ ɯɐnbılɐ ˙ƃuıɔsıdıpɐ ʇsə ɯnʇuəɯıpuoɔ pı ɐıuıɔɐl oəl ʇn sıdɹnʇ sıʇɐuəuəʌ snlləsɐɥd ˙snsıɹ snʇəɯ ʇɐ sɐuəɔəɐɯ ˙ləʌ ʇıpuɐlq snɹnd snsɹnɔ ʇə 'ɐllnu ʇıdıɔsns snʇɔnl ɯɐu ˙ɔunu ʇɐɹə sıʇɹoqol pəs ˙ıʇuəʇod əssıpuədsns ˙lsıu sıʇʇıƃɐs ɔəu ɔəuop ˙sısılıɔɐɟ sılloɯ ɯıssıuƃıp ɐllnu ˙ʇılə ƃuıɔsıdıpɐ ɹnʇəʇɔəsuoɔ 'ʇəɯɐ ʇıs ɹolop ɯnsdı ɯəɹol ˙snsɹnɔ ıɯ uɐsɯnɔɔɐ ʇə ʇıɹəɹpuəɥ ɯɐnb ʇəƃə ɹolop sılnɔɐı uıoɹd ˙ʇıləʌ ɐɹɹəʌıʌ ʇəƃə əssıpuədsns ˙ɹoʇɹoʇ sıləɟ ɔɐ ʇn ˙ɐuɹn uı ɐ ɯıssıuƃıp ɯnʇuəɯələ sıɹnɐɯ əɐʇıʌ oɹəqıl ɐ ɯɐllnu ˙sıdɹnʇ nɔɹɐ ʇɐ uıoɹd ˙ənbəu əʇuɐ sınb ɔəuop ˙ənƃuoɔ sndɯəʇ snsıɹ əɐʇıʌ ɯɐıp ɯıssıuƃıp snɯɐʌıʌ ˙ɔəu ʇɐıƃnəɟ snɹnd ɹoʇıʇʇɹod puəɟıələ 'nɔɹɐ əɹɐuɹo snʇɔnl ɯɐllnu ˙ɹədɯəs əʇuɐ snɔuoɥɹ nə ʇəəɹoɐl ʇsə pı snʇɔəl snsɹnɔ uı ˙ɹnʇəʇɔəsuoɔ ʇənbılɐ ʇəəɹoɐl uı ˙ɯəs uı əɐʇıʌ ɐllıƃuıɹɟ ʇəıpɹədɯı oɹəqıl ʇɐ soɹə pəs ɯɐllnu ˙sınb sıllɐʌuoɔ ɹolop ɯnpɹəʇuı ʇəƃə 'sıɹnɐɯ ɯnpɹəʇuı ɐʇɹod sıɹnɐɯ ˙oɹəqıl sınb snsıɹ ɔunu əʇɐʇndlnʌ ɹədɹoɔɯɐlln 'ənƃnɐ puəɟıələ lsıu ɔunu 'ʇunpıɔuıʇ opoɯɯoɔ ʇn ɹoʇɹoʇ 'əɹənsod ıqɹoɯ ˙sısılıɔɐɟ ʇəəɹoɐl ɐllnu səlɐpos əɹɐuɹo uı ˙ʇıləʌ ɐpıʌɐɹƃ ʇə əɔsnɟ ˙snqıdɐp ɯɐnbılɐ ɯnʇuəɯıpuoɔ snɯɐʌıʌ ˙ʇıləʌ oəl ʇɐ sɐuəɔəɐɯ ˙sɐʇsəƃə sıdɹnʇ ɔɐ səɯɐɟ ɐpɐnsəlɐɯ ʇə snʇəu ʇə snʇɔəuəs ənbıʇsıɹʇ ıqɹoɯ ʇuɐʇıqɐɥ ənbsəʇuəlləd ˙soɹə ənbəu ɔɐ ənbsınb ˙ɹoʇɔnɐ ɯnıʇəɹd sıɹnɐɯ ʇɐ ɐuɹn ʇə snlləsɐɥd ˙soəɐuəɯıɥ soʇdəɔuı ɹəd 'ɐɹʇsou ɐıqnuoɔ ɹəd ʇuənbɹoʇ ɐɹoʇıl pɐ nbsoıɔos ıʇıɔɐʇ ʇuəʇdɐ ssɐlɔ ˙ʇəƃə sıʇʇıƃɐs nɔɹɐ ɹnʇəʇɔəsuoɔ ʇəɯɐ ʇıs 'soɹə uıpnʇıɔıllos ɯnpuəqıq ɯɐnbılɐ ˙sıʇɐuəuəʌ əʇɐʇndlnʌ ɯnʇuəɯıpuoɔ ıqɹoɯ ˙snɹnd sndɯəʇ ʇə ʇn ˙ɹɐuıʌlnd puəɟıələ ɥqıu ɐlnɔıɥəʌ soɹə ɐ ənbsınb ˙snqıdɐp ʇɐɹəɔɐld snlləʇ ʇəəɹoɐl ʇɐdʇnloʌ ənbsəʇuəlləd ˙ʇɐɹə ɯıssıuƃıp ʇəƃə 'ısıu ɐssɐɯ ʇɐ ɔəuop ˙snlləʇ ʇıləʌ ʇɐ ɯɐllnu ˙snʇɔnl ənƃuoɔ ɹoʇɔnɐ ɯɐllnu ˙ıɔɹo ɯnʇuəɯələ ɔəu ʇn ˙uou sıʇɐuəuəʌ ɐllnu snsɹnɔ ɔɐ 'sıdɹnʇ ʇunpıɔuıʇ ənbsıɹələɔs ɹnʇıqɐɹnɔ ˙sıʇʇıƃɐs səɔıɹʇln ɯɐnb əʇɐʇndlnʌ ɐuƃɐɯ ʇəıpɹədɯı sınp ˙snʇɔəl ʇəƃə snqıdɐp 'ɔəu ʇənbılɐ ʇəɯɐ ʇıs sıʇʇıƃɐs 'ıɔɹo snɔɐl əɔsnɟ ˙ɐıuıɔɐl ʇıpuɐlq əıʇsəloɯ uıoɹd ˙ənƃnɐ pəs ʇn ʇıpuɐlq ʇɐdʇnloʌ ɐuɹn ʇn oɹəqıl ʇn ənbsəʇuəlləd ˙oəl ɹədɯəs sınb 'ənƃnɐ ʇılə ʇɐ sɐɹɔ ˙sɐʇsəƃə sıdɹnʇ ɔɐ səɯɐɟ ɐpɐnsəlɐɯ ʇə snʇəu ʇə snʇɔəuəs ənbıʇsıɹʇ ıqɹoɯ ʇuɐʇıqɐɥ ənbsəʇuəlləd ˙ɐɹɹəʌıʌ ɐɹɹəʌıʌ ɯɐıp ʇəɯɐ ʇıs ɐuƃɐɯ pı ʇn ˙ʇılə ƃuıɔsıdıpɐ ɹnʇəʇɔəsuoɔ 'ʇəɯɐ ʇıs ɹolop ɯnsdı ɯəɹol ˙əɐʇıʌ ənƃuoɔ ɯɐıp ʇıpuɐlq ʇə 'ɯɐnb opoɯɯoɔ ʇɐıƃnəɟ snlləsɐɥd ˙ɯıuə ʇıdıɔsns ʇəɯɐ ʇıs 'ʇılə nɔɹɐ ɐ ɯɐllnu ˙ɯnsdı əɐʇıʌ ɐpɐnsəlɐɯ 'uou əɹɐuɹo nə ɯnpuəqıq 'ənƃnɐ ʇılə ɹəƃəʇuı ˙oəl ʇn ʇɐıƃnəɟ 'ʇə ɯnʇuəɯıpuoɔ ləʌ sndɯəʇ 'ɯɐnb nɔɹɐ ɹəƃəʇuı ˙sıʇʇɐɯ snsɹnɔ ɐssɐɯ ɔəu ɯnsdı uɐsɯnɔɔɐ ɯɐu ˙sıʇʇıƃɐs pı ɹolop snsɹnɔ səlɐpos ıqɹoɯ ˙ɐuƃɐɯ ɐʇɹod sınb 'snlləʇ oıpo ʇəɯɐ ʇıs ɯɐllnu ˙sıləɟ ʇɐ sılloɯ 'ɔəu snɔuoɥɹ ʇn ɯnʇuəɯələ 'lsıu snsıɹ ʇuəsəɐɹd ˙uəıdɐs ɔəu səɔıɹʇln 'ɔəu əɹɐuɹo ʇɐ ɯnpɹəʇuı 'ʇıləʌ ɔunu ɯɐu ˙snsıɹ sınb ənbsıɹələɔs 'əɐʇıʌ ɐɹʇəɹɐɥd ʇɐ snɔuoɥɹ 'ʇıləʌ sıɹnɐɯ əssıpuədsns ˙uıpnʇıɔıllos ɐuƃɐɯ ɐpıʌɐɹƃ uı əɹənsod snʇɔəl ɔəu nɔɹɐ ɐllıƃuıɹɟ snɯɐʌıʌ ˙ɹədɯəs ɹnʇəʇɔəsuoɔ ɐllıƃuıɹɟ ənbsınb ˙ənbəu ɐ ɔəu snıɹɐʌ ɹədɯəs snlləʇ pı snsıɹ əɹɐuɹo ɯnlnqıʇsəʌ ˙ɐlnƃıl ʇəɯɐ ʇıs ɯnʇuəɯələ 'ɐʇɹod ʇıɹəɹpuəɥ ʇɐ əʇɐʇndlnʌ 'ɯıuə ısıu ɔunu ˙ənbıʇsıɹʇ ɐlnƃıl ʇəıpɹədɯı poɯsınə ɯnʇuəɯələ ɯɐıp ɔɐ ɐssɐɯ ɯnʇuəɯɹəɟ snɯɐʌıʌ ˙ɐlnƃıl pəs ɯnpuəqıq 'sınb ɯnʇuəɯıpuoɔ ʇɐ puəɟıələ 'ɯɐıp snlləʇ sɐuəɔəɐɯ ˙sıləɟ ɯnpuəqıq ləʌ ɯɐıʇə ˙ɐɹʇəɹɐɥd sıləɟ snsɹnɔ ɐ sısılıɔɐɟ lsıu uou ɯıuə əɹənsod uıoɹd ˙sıɹnɐɯ əɐʇıʌ ʇə ʇıdıɔsns ɯıssıuƃıp snlləʇ nə snʇɔəl pəs uɐəuəɐ ˙sɐʇsəƃə ʇunpıɔuıʇ oɹəqıl pı ənbəu ɐpɐnsəlɐɯ ʇuəsəɐɹd ˙ʇılə ənbıʇsıɹʇ ɐpıʌɐɹƃ 'əɐʇıʌ ɐʇɹod ʇə əʇɐʇndlnʌ 'snsıɹ snʇəɯ ɯɐıʇə ˙snıɹɐʌ ʇıɹəɹpuəɥ sıdɹnʇ ʇɐ oɹəqıl poɯsınə sınp ˙oəl ʇɐ sıɹnɐɯ sıɹnɐɯ poɯsınə ʇɐıƃnəɟ 'lsıu ɯnlnqıʇsəʌ oəl ɯəɹol 'sıʇʇıƃɐs puəɟıələ ʇn oəl 'əɹənsod ənbsınb ˙uəıdɐs ɯnsdı ɔəu ɹnʇıqɐɹnɔ ˙ʇılə ƃuıɔsıdıpɐ ɹnʇəʇɔəsuoɔ 'ʇəɯɐ ʇıs ɹolop ɯnsdı ɯəɹol

I am Not the STIG

So here is my theory on STIG -gate.

Background:
Top Gear is a great show, loads of viewers and has a very strong brand, here in the UK and around the world.
It has however come under a lot of flack from people saying its just 3 grown men acting like teenagers in cars (I think this is the whole idea, but anyway) and a lot of people saying it's boring and past it.
In some ways I agree about it being same story different packaging each season, but like any good brand if it works, why would you change it (think Coke and Coke Classic from the 80's).

The STIG is a media icon, a silly name (its means 'path' I think in Swedish) but another globally recognised brand, possibly a longer lasting brand if the TG show was axed you could quite easily see this character popping up in different show formats?

Theory (Okay I might be a little cynical):
If I was the BBC or whoever produces the TG show and I needed to guarantee some ratings, how would I best do this?
- Fire a presenter? dangerous, they might write a book or start their own show (ah most of them have anyway) and finding a replacement would be tough.
- Change the format? not worth the risk and cost
- Kill the STIG? They have done this on a few occasions, and he magically appears again even more powerful then before -http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/the-stig--hms-invincible
-Piss the man in the white suit off enough to force him to try and make some cash (or even tell him to reveal himself) a different way.

So the Stig has been unmasked, now they have a gap to fill, what will they do with all of this 'press' coverage?
My guess is the Stig will magically reappear and be as elusive and 'exotic' as ever before and we will still not know who is the Stig again, it could be anyone or it could be Ben Collins, who knows and to be honest anyone who watches the show probably wont care.
The fact there is a mystery person inside the suit is all that anyone really cares about, we know this person has changed before in the past, there are loads of YouTube footage of the different Stig's tall, short, tanned
The other 3 presenters have all made a bomb out of the show, the Stig was on £70k a year and I am pretty sure was not in on the merchandising payroll. So why not try and get a few quid (I heard £230k banded around for the book deal) out of what could''ve been the last year for the Stig anyway, if the show is cancelled then what really?

I was amazed that once the court injunction went through and he was seen without his white helmet, the 3 presenters were all doing the media rounds saying how disappointed they were, Clarkson said he had the stig around for dinner and felt betrayed (a little Clarkson humor me thinks).
Noramlly to get these guys involved in anything takes a lot of pressure from the BBC etc, but they were amazingly free to take questions....

So to the man/lady behind the unveiling should get a pat on the back, they have created a media frenzy over something that in the real world (outside of TV) is not very exciting.
But has guaranteed the viewing figures for the first TG next season will be through the roof and that Ben Collins book will be on the top of every TG viewers Christmas list.

I will be watching the first show and probably will get the book if I ask Santa nicely (wonder who he really is?)

Exporting Excel 2010 to XML

After many expletives and banging of keys, I finally found that it is really easy to export an excel sheet to XML – that is as long as you remember to;

 

1-      Turn the developer tab on in the ribbon

2-      Create a valid XML file to map to (the special word is valid, it might be valid to us mere mortals but Excel is an odd beast)

3-      Map it up

4-      Export – no really that’s it

 

 

1- Turn developer bar on

File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon -> From the Main tabs list on the right tick the developer tickbox -> OK

 

Once this is turned on go to the developer tab and click the Source button.

A new panel will appear (empty probably) this is where the XML file will be once it has been mapped.

 

 

2 – Create an XML file

 

<services>

    <Service>

        <code></code>

        <description></description>

        <comment></comment>

    </Service>

    <Service>

        <code></code>

        <description></description>

        <comment></comment>

    </Service>

</services>

 

The important bit to note is the 2^nd instance of the service node, if you only have a single instance, excel only allows you to export the top row of your data….. hmm a bug maybe?

Save your  XML mapping file somewhere easy to find (don’t delete this as you will need this if you ever need to export the data again, it’s not stored as part of your workbook)

 

 

3- Map it up

 

Back in Excel, Click the XML Maps button from the XML panel and select an XML file you just created, if asked click yes on the schema message box (saves time unless you want to make your one).

Once the mapping structure is in right click on any of the nodes and click Map Element, now select the range of data from the excel sheet you want to populate your XML file.

If your nodes and columns are ordered the same, you can right click on the top level mapping node and map the whole XML file to all of your columns in one go.

 

 

4- Export

 

Now click the Verify Map for Export, if all went well Excel will now be able to export your data using your XML mapping file via the Export button in the developer tab.

 

 

goodluck

Just back form a great holiday in France (stayed in Manninghem, inland form Le Torquest and south of Calais).

Arriving on a bank holiday was meant there wasn't a lot open or people about, although at times it felt like we were living in a post apocalypse universe... where do the people go?

As holidays go it was just what I needed, the house we stayed at had NI (no internet), limited heating (so we had to get a roaring fire going each night -very manly) and even squeezed in a BBQ and some drunk golf in the back yard!

We didn't do much, bar sitting on the beach for 2 days (not too hot, but got a bit burnt) drinking a bit much each night and chilling, which was great.

back to real life and real projects!

Must admit I didn't really miss the internet or emails.... well not much

nice to hear good stuff about new zealand

As a patriotic Kiwi living abroad it is always good to hear that NZ hasn't gone to the dogs just yet!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8683377.stm

Outlook 2010 can connect up to 15 Exchange accounts

This saved me loads of time, I realise not everyone has more than one Excahnge mail account, but every company I work with gives me an email address, and normally as I setup their servers its going to be on a Mocrosoft Excahneg box...

Thanks to the Microsoft Office team (they listed YAY), Outlook 2010 can host more than 1 exchange account now!!!

But I needed more than the default allowed 3 and here is how to do it -

Bink.nu | COOL: Outlook 2010 can connect up to 15 Exchange Organizations - Bink.nu

note: this involves a registry edit, please backup everything before doing it as we all know how bad a registry error can be!!!

Avatar - the movie

Firstly WOW!

Avatar is an amazing movie, the attention to detail is immense. I mean they production team created not just a world, a language and a culture from scratch but they immerse you into this place called Pandora from the start. There is a short no intro to the story form the main character but the rest you learn as the movie unfolds.

I have tried to leave any big story line bits out of this, but if you haven't seen the film, trust me it is good and stop reading now until you have seen it.

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Some small things I think made the movie;
- Real pandorians have 3 fingers, human avatar clones have 4 (guessing its because of the genetic mix)
- Every breathing animals breathes through openings on their body, not through their mouths
The Hallelujah mountians.... cool (glad to see earth physics doesn't have to follow humans around the universe)
- The big tree - it is BIG, I mean BIG
- The scene where 'Jack' walks for the first time.
- Sigourney Weavers Avatar was 6 yrs younger than anyone elses as hers was the first to be created

A couple of things that got missed during the edit;
- One of the human avatars gets killed then appears in the closing sequence?
- Where humans can and cant breathe the 'air' on Pandora needed to be explained a little as sometimes they could other times they needed breathing masks.


My thoughts;
Okay I did think having an 'Aussie' with a blue face getting the crowds riled up to go to war was a little too braveheart, but who cares really at that point of the film you are so immersed in the story that it does not matter. But maybe as a kiwi I am biased.

The story behind Avatar is not a brilliant one, however if any more time was spent on explaining this and that it would never have got finished and would have ended up a bit like The Lord of the Rings films - a lot of film for a single story - keeping everything in one film was a big project on its own, I wonder how much footage we will get in the directors cut?

So many times during the film I found myself going 'cool' or 'wow' or 'awesome'. I realise it is being pencilled in as the most expensive film of all time and I dont care if it is because you get to see all of the money being spent. In every scene there is something hapening on the edge of the shot, moving, changing colour.
I am a geek but even the computer termail workstations in the human complex with their curved translucent touch/hologram screen were cool - and unlike other SciFi films you can see these being built soon with the current technology we have now.

Okay Avatar is set in 50-60 years in the future, but all of the cool military kit would fit in now to our world now, it was all 'petrol' powered, it looked real and sounded real, it fired bullets, not laser beams etc.

Avatar had some amazing scenes, but everything was so (and I say it again) immersive that you had no problems believing that what was happening on the screen wasn't impossible.
The film has something for everyone, even the girls get a hidden chick flick romance in the background. For the guys there is a bit of "murder, death, kill" and the kids get cool plants animals and ofcourse loads of blue people.

All in all an amazing film that I will happily see again, probably in 3D.

realisation - its all about knowledge

Last week I attended the Devevening.co.uk - codefest event, Matt Lacey set us all a task to build a competitive Connect4 player to compete against each other and a 'Random' player he wrote, we had 2 hours.

Seemed like an easy task, use visual studio to build a .dll that can beat the pants off the other developers attending - simple, bring it on.

This is when I realised, that after 7 years of programming, that I had forgotten a lot of my windows forms days (desktop software).

Web vs Windows
Now if the code is the same, the data is the same and the architecture is similar (more so now than when I started), what was the problem? - one too many pints before we started (nope).

Using a stateless environment (the web) to run my systems has made me far too reliant on session variables, view state bits'n'bobs etc.
The fact I had no data source of any kind to store any data in threw me, how would I know where the connect 4 pieces were, let alone who owned which piece. How would I count to 4 in any direction ... aaarrgghhhh I need a session.item()!

After much playing and re-coding, all while running the clock down, I ended up fudging the code to play a set stratedgy of moves, all dependant on where the last piece was played. Not good code and well embarrassing. With everything hardcoded I was a sitting duck for an intelligent player.

I lost by the way, full credits went to someone who knows far more about desktop software than I do!

Conclusion
The blackhole of knowledge between web and desktop publishing is not a big one, however I think to hop from one to the other without thinking about the two is something I am gong to try and tackle over the next few months.

It is so easy to get into a comfort zone of code, I know all of my code and what is possible to do within a web environment, but throw me a windows app and I really have to think about what I have to do and what can and cant be done in that environment.
There is no easy step-by-step to make this transition easy, it is hands-on process, you make a mistake and fix it.

I found it really interesting to hack my way through Matts project, I do think that I have forgotten more about developing for windows than I would care to remember.
A humbling experience, it's the small things that make you sit back and think!

Thanks to Matt and everyone else who thrashed me at devevening, look forward to seeing everyone next year on Jan 28th!

wemoot.com has been nominated for 3 crunchie 2009 awards

Wow, I just found out my big project for the year has been nominated for 3 crunchie awards, thanks to those who nominated wemoot for the awards!

To win this I need everybody to vote for wemoot by clicking on the links or buttons below and remember to use the 'share' button on the crunchies site to tell all of your friends, if you haven't registered with wemoot, now would a great time too.

Voting closes on 21st December - Only one vote per day per link per IP address, but dont let that stop you!

Vote for wemoot - Best Social Network App

Vote for wemoot - Best Bootstrapped StartUp

Vote for wemoot - Best International StartUp