eddwo

• FeedSync: Synchronizing the Mesh

  Apr 28, 2008 at 11:11 AM

  We're up to about 4.5GB of content on Live Mesh stuff alone. Not that they weren't all really interesting, but it took nearly a week to download them all.

• FeedSync: Synchronizing the Mesh

  Apr 27, 2008 at 7:55 PM

  The more videos I watch on this the more it seems like its just like WinFS for the Web, implemented over HTTP rather than SQL Server.
  
  All the things WinFS was to bring, like syncronisation, notification events, relationships etc have been layed over the basic feed processing infrastructure in a way thats cross-platform and can be implemented on mobile devices of different sizes.
  
  They have avoided falling into the trap of trying to define the schemas for common types like Contacts and Calenders to satisfy all possible requirements, at least in this initial version. Instead any custom data type is just a just a blob of data that is represented with some consistent meta-data and replicated as-is.
  
  Now I just wonder how long it will take for other applications on Windows to get on board with this model. Things like Windows photo gallery and media player need to be Mesh enabled so that all the meta-data in the app specific databases can sync across machines as well as the file contents.
  
  I love the idea of installing applications into your Mesh, that then just show up on all your machines, or that can access certain parts of your data from an online service.
  You could then have a Mesh enabled photo frame that displays images from a particular folder that are inserted directly from a camera, from drag-and-drop on a desktop, or from subscribing to a feed from a photo sharing service, or all three methods at once.

• Conversation with Dr. Sneath: Silverlight

  Sep 09, 2007 at 8:03 AM

  Bas wrote:

  What on earth were those loud banging sounds at 1:10?

  
  
  Wasn't it Charles setting up his tripod?

• Windows Home Server

  Jan 16, 2007 at 2:32 AM

  It seems like the PC Backup feature is rather separate from the shared folders feature.
  
  User --------- Client PC  -------------- WHS ---------------- Remote Access
                                                             
  Peter <----------------------------->  Shared Folders -------------> Peter
  Paul   <-----------------------------> (Previous Versions)
                                                     (Data Redundancy)
                                                     (User Access Controls)
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Peter's Machine ----->PC Backup
                     Paul's Machine   ----->(Single Instance Storage)
                                                        (Data Redundancy)
                                               <-----(Complete PC Restore)
  
  Assumptions:
    
     1. Only files stored in shared folders can be accessed remotely.
     2. Only files stored in shared folders will provide previous versions.
     3. Paul cannot access a file backed up from Peters machine that is not in a shared folder.
     4. Only the most recent backup can be restored?
     5. Users can restore individual files that have been backed up from their PCs?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
         
  

• MultiPoint: What. How. Why.

  Dec 14, 2006 at 2:41 PM

  I seem to remember that on the Windows98 disc, or some other disc that came with my PC of that era there was a demo movie for the Microsoft EasyBall mouse.
  
  It was designed for small children and the physically impared to use and I'm pretty sure the demo showed how a parent and child could both have mice attached a PC at once and play little games together one one screen. The parent would use a traditional mouse while the child used the EasyBall. 
  Perhaps it only worked in a few specific programs that came with that hardware device.
  
  If this new Multipoint stuff works with Touch-Screens as well it might be cool to create virtual mixing desks / DJ interfaces.

• Jim Allchin: It's time - Windows Vista RTM

  Nov 09, 2006 at 2:50 AM

  Bydia wrote:

  Where can we download the medical demo?
  Online demos are great but would be nice if I could show my friends/ coworkers.

  
  
  That would be here

• Duncan Lawler - Virtual Earth 3D: What. How. Why.

  Nov 08, 2006 at 4:13 AM

  B_e_l_i_e_v_er wrote:

  How did you manage to add that reference, I cant find anyway of clicking on that directory and no way of actually typing in that reference. I can see its there but cant figure out how to add a reference to it
  
  Little help please...

  
  
  I browsed to the assembly through the command line to find out the path, then copied and pasted that into the filename field of the add reference dialog.
  
  According to this the best way to do it at the moment is to manually edit the csproj file to include it.
  
  I couldn't add the control to the toolbox this way, I had to add it to the form manually by editing the designer.cs file.
  
  (It might be best not to display the control at design time, just add a panel to describe its intended position on the form, then add code to instanciate the control, add it to the form, and dock it inside the panel outside of the InitializeComponent method so it only executes at run time. This will stop VS2005 going to 100% CPU)
  
  My screenshot actually shows the Microsoft.MapPoint.MapControl3D.MapControl control, rather than its base class Microsoft.MapPoint.Rendering3D.GlobeControl.
  
  The GlobeControl itself class doesn't have the  compass Controller UI or VirtualEarth markings.
  
  What will the delivery vehicle/ licenseing of the managed control be?
  
  I imagine use of the VirtualEarth tile service will require a MapPoint.Net contract, but if you plan to use your own datasource will the control itself be free or will you need a MapPoint desktop license to install it on a client machine for a commercial application?
  
  Any hint on when a supported SDK for the managed control will be available?

• Duncan Lawler - Virtual Earth 3D: What. How. Why.

  Nov 07, 2006 at 12:49 PM

  Well it works as expected. just add a reference to:
  %windir%\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.MapPoint.Rendering3D\1.0.610.27003__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.MapPoint.Rendering3D.dll
  
  add a GlobeControl to a form and away you go.
  
  At the moment it isn't loading in any data, but thats probably just a matter of setting up the data source properly.
  
  

• Duncan Lawler - Virtual Earth 3D: What. How. Why.

  Nov 07, 2006 at 11:53 AM

  I had a bit of a poke around with Reflector, and the Microsoft.MapPoint.MapControl3D.MapControl class that implements the 3D view does in fact derive from System.Windows.Forms.Control, so it ought to fit right in in a .net app.
  
  It probably goes against the license agreement though, I think officially you are only supposed to use it by embedding a webbrowser control and accessing it via the Javascript API.
  
  Anyone want to give it a try?

• ADO.NET Entity Framework: What. How. Why.

  Jul 19, 2006 at 4:46 PM

  I want it now too!, literally next week would be good.
  
  I'm currently trying to work out a design for doing updates against entities that span about 10 tables, how to generate keys for the relationships on the fly etc.
  
  I'm thinking of using SQLXML to fetch the whole entity from the DB as a single query result and then construct UpdateGrams on the fly to submit the modifications back, but I've yet to work out all the details.
  
  You guys are going to make this sort of thing so much easier, just wish I could wait another year or so to use it.

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