Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes Show 50
A chat with the ScreenEdit crew.
Happy Coding!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Dr. Neil's Notes 49
Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes Show 49
Warning lower than average recording quality, sorry.
A week of travel.
TechEd South East Asia in Kuala Lumpur, 2 sessions on the Windows Live Platform
Mix UK, a session on designing user happiness.
Feedback on the ViaWindowsLive site.
A call for participation, get involved in the community.
Happy Coding!
Warning lower than average recording quality, sorry.
A week of travel.
TechEd South East Asia in Kuala Lumpur, 2 sessions on the Windows Live Platform
Mix UK, a session on designing user happiness.
Feedback on the ViaWindowsLive site.
A call for participation, get involved in the community.
Happy Coding!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
TechEd South East Asia
I am just heading out of Singapore now and spent the day in Kuala Lumpur at TechEd South East Asia. I gave two presentations this morning on the Windows Live development platform. The first session was an overview of the Live Services and I did a demo of the new ScreenEdit site. The new ScreenEdit site uses Live Id, Live Search, plugs into Live Spaces and pulls content from Silverlight Streaming.
The second session was a more detailed look at Virtual Earth and Live Search.
I am now heading to Mix UK for some fun with Developers and Designers tomorrow :)
The second session was a more detailed look at Virtual Earth and Live Search.
I am now heading to Mix UK for some fun with Developers and Designers tomorrow :)
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Dr. Neil's Notes 48
Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes Show 48
News:
A long week, lots going on in the online communities with weekend.
New version of Via Windows Live is up and ready for you to play with, get involved, contribute.
New version of ScreenEdit.com is about to be launched. It uses lots of Windows Live services :)
Tip: Use Virtual PCs
Virtual PC's help you create isolated development environments on the same machine.
Happy Coding!
News:
A long week, lots going on in the online communities with weekend.
New version of Via Windows Live is up and ready for you to play with, get involved, contribute.
New version of ScreenEdit.com is about to be launched. It uses lots of Windows Live services :)
Tip: Use Virtual PCs
Virtual PC's help you create isolated development environments on the same machine.
Happy Coding!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Dr. Neil's Notes 47
Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes Show 47
News:
Partner Maps went live this week
A few new articles on ViaVirtualEarth
New imagery on Virtual Earth
Keeping Focussed
keep tasks small and achievable in small time frames.
Happy Coding!
News:
Partner Maps went live this week
A few new articles on ViaVirtualEarth
New imagery on Virtual Earth
Keeping Focussed
keep tasks small and achievable in small time frames.
Happy Coding!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Dr. Neil's Notes 46
Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes Show 46
Week around Oz.
Show Notes:
Smart Client or Web application, that is the question.
Live ID is live (1.0)
Happy Coding!
Week around Oz.
Show Notes:
Smart Client or Web application, that is the question.
Live ID is live (1.0)
Happy Coding!
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Sydney Design 07
Today was the last day of the Sydney Design 07 Festival.
A lot has been happening in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, which is always worth a visit anyway.
I spent most of today at the museum and took in much design, some good and some bad (IMO).
I also attended a couple of talks and a film.
The first talk was by Krispin K on 'Design Doing Good'. A great presenter with lots of audience interaction.
The second talk, was about futuristic designers and was followed by a movie about Jaque Fresco an amazing inventor and futurist.
A lot has been happening in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, which is always worth a visit anyway.
I spent most of today at the museum and took in much design, some good and some bad (IMO).
I also attended a couple of talks and a film.
The first talk was by Krispin K on 'Design Doing Good'. A great presenter with lots of audience interaction.
The second talk, was about futuristic designers and was followed by a movie about Jaque Fresco an amazing inventor and futurist.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
My name in a Microsoft product page
I think it's known as ego surfing, I expect you have all done it, you search for yourself on the web, go to a search engine and enter your name.
I am not sure what triggered this 'ego surf' but I entered my surname into Live search today and was surprised that the second result was a link to the Microsoft lifecam product page. What is going on here? There is no mention of my name on the page.
I am not sure what triggered this 'ego surf' but I entered my surname into Live search today and was surprised that the second result was a link to the Microsoft lifecam product page. What is going on here? There is no mention of my name on the page.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Dr. Neil's Notes 45
Welcome (back) to Dr. Neil's Notes Show 45
Long time no speak, the podcast is back.
Show Notes:
Travel around the globe
TechEd - Orlando, USA and Gold Coast, Australia
Test Driven Development
Tip for team communication.
A ScreenEdit podcast?
Happy Coding!
Long time no speak, the podcast is back.
Show Notes:
Travel around the globe
TechEd - Orlando, USA and Gold Coast, Australia
Test Driven Development
Tip for team communication.
A ScreenEdit podcast?
Happy Coding!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
The Internet is a Time Machine
It's 3:30 pm I have just received an email from a colleague. I decide to see if he is online to chat about the email, he is on my Instant Messenger list and he's online.
It's 10:30pm yesterday and my friend is sitting on his sofa sipping some wine and answering emails. He receives a 'ping' on Instant Messenger from me.
This world has got so small in the last few years.
Think back 10 years, yes you could communicate with people all over the world with ICQ and email but somehow the ubiquitous nature of of IM and email have really changed the landscape in the last 5 years and it seems that the social networking websites that have become all the rage in the last couple of years are merely fueling this change.
So what does this mean? (apart from a good title for my blog post)
I expect it means we are moving closer to a global community. I hope it means we are slowly breaking down the physical boundaries that define countries and cultures.
While I like to see the upside of this mass communication and constant connectivity, there are some challenges that it creates, such as my 3am online meetings :)
It's 10:30pm yesterday and my friend is sitting on his sofa sipping some wine and answering emails. He receives a 'ping' on Instant Messenger from me.
This world has got so small in the last few years.
Think back 10 years, yes you could communicate with people all over the world with ICQ and email but somehow the ubiquitous nature of of IM and email have really changed the landscape in the last 5 years and it seems that the social networking websites that have become all the rage in the last couple of years are merely fueling this change.
So what does this mean? (apart from a good title for my blog post)
I expect it means we are moving closer to a global community. I hope it means we are slowly breaking down the physical boundaries that define countries and cultures.
While I like to see the upside of this mass communication and constant connectivity, there are some challenges that it creates, such as my 3am online meetings :)
It's a Web Application!
The web is changing. For a couple of years now the shift in the way people use and develop content on the web has been called a number of things, most commonly web 2.0.
One of the shifts that has occurred is something that the average user (and often client) may not be aware.
Many (if not most/all) of these new wave of web sites are not simple images and some simple but clever HTML and javascript but rather full applications. These web applications are just as complex (sometimes more so) than the client applications that run on your PC or Mac.
Along with this shift in complexity of code needed to run these web sites comes all the other challenges introduced by complex software systems; collaboration, process, and tools.
The interesting thing to me is that the collaboration skills and process skills should (and seem to) be transferable. Whereas the tools and technologies may still be immature.
If you are looking to get a new Web 2.0 site put together then you should be thinking about all the things you would consider if you were asking for a client application to be built. There will always be a functions vs. time and resources trade off to consider as well as making sure you break the project into small manageable portions.
This new world on the web is not a simple case of slapping some images and text in markup but rather a full development process.
Many of the traditional 'online agencies' that have built a business model around slapping images and text into some markup and selling that to clients.
As more functional demands are made from web sites I expect these agencies will have to change their process or go out of business.
The web is finally starting to grow up into a real platform and running on top of this platform are applications build by software development teams (which include designers).
One of the shifts that has occurred is something that the average user (and often client) may not be aware.
Many (if not most/all) of these new wave of web sites are not simple images and some simple but clever HTML and javascript but rather full applications. These web applications are just as complex (sometimes more so) than the client applications that run on your PC or Mac.
Along with this shift in complexity of code needed to run these web sites comes all the other challenges introduced by complex software systems; collaboration, process, and tools.
The interesting thing to me is that the collaboration skills and process skills should (and seem to) be transferable. Whereas the tools and technologies may still be immature.
If you are looking to get a new Web 2.0 site put together then you should be thinking about all the things you would consider if you were asking for a client application to be built. There will always be a functions vs. time and resources trade off to consider as well as making sure you break the project into small manageable portions.
This new world on the web is not a simple case of slapping some images and text in markup but rather a full development process.
Many of the traditional 'online agencies' that have built a business model around slapping images and text into some markup and selling that to clients.
As more functional demands are made from web sites I expect these agencies will have to change their process or go out of business.
The web is finally starting to grow up into a real platform and running on top of this platform are applications build by software development teams (which include designers).
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
TDD session at TechEd last week
Last week at TechEd Australia I presented a session on Unit Testing and Test Driven Development. Presenting this session raised a dilemma for me.
I have been using Unit Testing, Test First and TDD for eight years now. I have been teaching the benefits of a test first approach for seven years.
Should I assume the attendees coming to this session are already sold on TDD and therefore target the content at some of the issues with TDD and tooling or should I focus on teaching the benefits of TDD to attendees who are not yet TDD believers?
I thought about this and decided that while TDD is becoming popular the attendees coming to this session are most likely to not be practicing TDD and want to learn why they should care about unit testing and TDD.
It was a gamble that seemed to pay off. If you attended my session and were already a believer, I hope you learned something and I apologize that it might not have been what you were expecting.
The majority of the attendees in the TDD presentation were learning about TDD for the first time, and the feedback I received was awesome. Here is a sample of the comments about the session:
Brilliant - got my value for TechEd in a single session (especially as my manager who needed convincing re nunit was sitting with me )
Brilliant. I want to get this presentation delivered to all my developers who couldn't make it to TechEd. We've bought into Unit Testing and we need to get to 100% breakthrough, next up has to be TDD
By far this is my best TechEd experience so far. WE NEED MORE NEIL's IN THIS WORLD. Thank you for giving him a session to WOW us with.
Excellent session - I am now a believer!
Excellent session - well presented, clear and concise with lots of useful items and practices to take away. Best session yet.
For me, this has been the best session so far! Excellent content and an excellent presenter! Fantastic. I would love to learn more about this subject. I am implementing unit testing in my team starting Monday!
Great presentation. Very important way of doing development.
Highlight of the conference for me. 11 out of 10.
Thank you to everyone who attended this session.
Information on the eXtreme .NET book I mentioned in the talk
I have been using Unit Testing, Test First and TDD for eight years now. I have been teaching the benefits of a test first approach for seven years.
Should I assume the attendees coming to this session are already sold on TDD and therefore target the content at some of the issues with TDD and tooling or should I focus on teaching the benefits of TDD to attendees who are not yet TDD believers?
I thought about this and decided that while TDD is becoming popular the attendees coming to this session are most likely to not be practicing TDD and want to learn why they should care about unit testing and TDD.
It was a gamble that seemed to pay off. If you attended my session and were already a believer, I hope you learned something and I apologize that it might not have been what you were expecting.
The majority of the attendees in the TDD presentation were learning about TDD for the first time, and the feedback I received was awesome. Here is a sample of the comments about the session:
Brilliant - got my value for TechEd in a single session (especially as my manager who needed convincing re nunit was sitting with me )
Brilliant. I want to get this presentation delivered to all my developers who couldn't make it to TechEd. We've bought into Unit Testing and we need to get to 100% breakthrough, next up has to be TDD
By far this is my best TechEd experience so far. WE NEED MORE NEIL's IN THIS WORLD. Thank you for giving him a session to WOW us with.
Excellent session - I am now a believer!
Excellent session - well presented, clear and concise with lots of useful items and practices to take away. Best session yet.
For me, this has been the best session so far! Excellent content and an excellent presenter! Fantastic. I would love to learn more about this subject. I am implementing unit testing in my team starting Monday!
Great presentation. Very important way of doing development.
Highlight of the conference for me. 11 out of 10.
Thank you to everyone who attended this session.
Information on the eXtreme .NET book I mentioned in the talk
Friday, July 13, 2007
Book Review: The Black Swan
The Black Swan By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
It has been some time since my last book review, I have been reading a number of average books that I didn't think worth reviewing. The Black Swan is the first really thought provoking book I have read in some time.
Swans are white. Whiteness was considered to be a distinguishing feature of being a swan. Then black swans were discovered in Australia. This one, unpredictable, event changed the concept of what it means for an animal to be a swan. This book is by the well read and ever self-confident author of Fooled By Randomness, another great book.
I give this book 9 out of 10
Full review here
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Australia Remixed
This week has been overflowing with action. After landing in Sydney I flew to Melbourne last Sunday for Australia's Remix event. A compressed rerun of all things good at MIX 07 that happened a couple of months ago in Las Vegas.
I presented a session on Windows Live Services to a crowded but tiny room. It was hard to get everything in and we ran over just a bit ;)
I met heaps of people, some old friends, some new, including Stephen Price from LittleVoices.com. Stephen is a cartonnist and a software developer (amongst other talents) and he saw fit to put his new Wacom tablet to task and draw a little cartoon of me and my gadgets.
On one hand I like his idea of drawing cartoons of the geeks he meets, on the other hand I dont know where he gets the idea that I have so many gadgets, on the other hand I do have planety of mobile business utilities, on the other hand..... :)
Now I must get back to work, there is some serious fun going on right now with Live Services and Silverlight, but more on that later....
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
TechEd 2007 Orlando
Day 2 of TechEd already!
Catching up with lots of people and my decks and demos are nearly finished.
It was interesting to see Agile given so much time in the keynote yesterday, and the Agile .NET session yesterday lunch time was packed out.
I am talking to lots of people who say they are getting value out of the event which is good.
There is, of course, a lot of marketing hype and BS around as well. It amazes me that peopl eactually believe that buying a software tool/product/plugin/component will make them better developers.
As I pointed out at the Agile .NET session, delivering great software is about sticking to values, not applying practices or using tools. The practices are only there to help you stick to the values, and if the practices don't do that then you need to change them.
Catching up with lots of people and my decks and demos are nearly finished.
It was interesting to see Agile given so much time in the keynote yesterday, and the Agile .NET session yesterday lunch time was packed out.
I am talking to lots of people who say they are getting value out of the event which is good.
There is, of course, a lot of marketing hype and BS around as well. It amazes me that peopl eactually believe that buying a software tool/product/plugin/component will make them better developers.
As I pointed out at the Agile .NET session, delivering great software is about sticking to values, not applying practices or using tools. The practices are only there to help you stick to the values, and if the practices don't do that then you need to change them.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
UberNewbie revealed!
The ScreenEdit newbie has revealed herself.
Her name is Cassie Smith and she is blogging, go Cassie go!
The tag line "Don't lose me, my battery is dying" has already become an in joke for the ScreenEdit team.
We all attended an event in London on Tuesday and Cassie was walking behind us. Cassie said "Don't lose me, my battery is dying". I had to wonder what type of charger was required to recharge an UberNewbie :)
Her name is Cassie Smith and she is blogging, go Cassie go!
The tag line "Don't lose me, my battery is dying" has already become an in joke for the ScreenEdit team.
We all attended an event in London on Tuesday and Cassie was walking behind us. Cassie said "Don't lose me, my battery is dying". I had to wonder what type of charger was required to recharge an UberNewbie :)
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
WebJamin' at Remix Aus
According to Michael Kordahi of the Microsoft evangelism team I am "the most connected and community focused person on planet earth"
Michael, flattery will get you places, and of course I am more than happy to tell people about Webjam @ ReMix Melbourne in June.
Webjam is where (16) people present something interesting that they’ve done online to the crowd. They only get 3 mins to present. There’s SMS voting, then at the end of the night a winner is chosen. It’s set at a bar and is very casual and a lot of fun. More info on Michael's blog and on the Webjam site.
If you have something you would like to show off, get in touch with the WebJam folks to reserve your presentation slot now.
Sounds like it should be good fun.
Michael, flattery will get you places, and of course I am more than happy to tell people about Webjam @ ReMix Melbourne in June.
Webjam is where (16) people present something interesting that they’ve done online to the crowd. They only get 3 mins to present. There’s SMS voting, then at the end of the night a winner is chosen. It’s set at a bar and is very casual and a lot of fun. More info on Michael's blog and on the Webjam site.
If you have something you would like to show off, get in touch with the WebJam folks to reserve your presentation slot now.
Sounds like it should be good fun.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Who is the ScreenEdit newbie?
ScreenEdit has a new team member, there is a camera shyness issue to resolve.
I wonder what newbie will be doing on ScreenEdit?
I am looking forward to some great things.
PDC was missing - I knew nothing, honest
From my last post you may have noticed PDC was missing. This was an unintentional slip but some people have read something else into the omision.
The rescheduling of PDC was nothing to do with me - honest.
The rescheduling of PDC was nothing to do with me - honest.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Conference season has started
Last week I was in Las Vegas (yeh baby!) for MIX and MEDC.
Doing 2 conferences that overlap was ambitious but it worked out great. I met so many amazing people and had fantastic conversations about technology, the future of the web, and heaps of other topics.
I also got to see some very cool new projects.
My friends from the ScreenEdit team in the UK were also there, recording plenty of conversation and points of view. Look out for the interviews appearing on the site soon.
So what other conferences do I plan to attend this year?
Doing 2 conferences that overlap was ambitious but it worked out great. I met so many amazing people and had fantastic conversations about technology, the future of the web, and heaps of other topics.
I also got to see some very cool new projects.
My friends from the ScreenEdit team in the UK were also there, recording plenty of conversation and points of view. Look out for the interviews appearing on the site soon.
So what other conferences do I plan to attend this year?
- TechEd in Orlando
- ReMix Australia in Melbourne
- TechEd Australia on the Gold Coast (yes the site uses Flash - can you believe it?)
- DevConnections Las Vegas
Maybe I will see you at one of these events?
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