In some ways the noise Governments are making, is the same that the largest software corporations are making, trying to ensure they generate 30% revenue via App Stores.

I see no difference technically, the result is the same, innovation and entrepreneurship are thwarted

1 hour ago, Ray7 wrote

@vesuvius: Accountants who are evading tax are in prison. The good ones are avoiding tax. 

Ah, in finance evasion is trickery!

18 hours ago, kettch wrote

@Bass: The "just fork it" argument never carries any water because it assumes that you have the desire or ability to do that.

If I want a fork, I go to the kitchen...terrible *Hide*

FOSS development is even more political, when they disagree, you end up with 1000 distro's, 999 of them that will never be supported.

I would like to see announcements about additional resources being added to support WinRT on the desktop. Enterprise Library 6 came out a week or so ago, and will be the first version of it that won't be used by an Enterprise. We are developing software for enterprise customers to be consumed on PC and Laptop, but since there are a lot of XP laptops floating about, and the odd desktop, it is an impossibility for any Enterprise to use .NET 4.5. It is a difficult one, as I agree that XP has had its day, but in the real world, we would lose sales by enforcing .NET 4.5. If we could access WinRT from the desktop, it would make it easier to convince our bosses to develop WinRT applications

I would like emphasis  to be placed on Windows as a popular OS, for the poor or the wealthy. As long as Android is fully customisable by Samsung and HTC and so on, it presents the most attractive platform for third parties to develop their products, as they can customise the OS to their liking. HTC or Samsung (including the ecosystem) have significant budgets and with the application model Andriod offers. Google Chrome and Android are now unassilable and figures that have taught me that change really is the only constant

I would also like additional resources to added to C#/VB  to support Machine Learning like syntax, this is a bit of a DSL but statements like

get charactaristics to an object (taxonomic structure) returning all fields on an object

is it true that x has property

show similarities between Person with value 1 and 13

confidence..........what about Person where musictaste = 'grime' with confidence 0.5

1 day ago, blowdart wrote

*snip*

Oh I dunno, Apple get away with it

Apple charge $99 for beta software, and have developers that pay for unstable code

9 hours ago, Bass wrote

 was generally scared shitless about retribution from within Microsoft.

Care to lead by example? Please post your current employer how much you are paid, and how much money your boss is paid. Feel free to comment on your current coding project, who it is for and post some source code if you like.

Go on, show us at least that you're not scared shitless about retribution from who you work for

I guess I'm really just trying to gauge what other developers working for GenericLargeCompanies are using in their apps these days.

All the above technologies, Winforms and Webforms included

6 minutes ago, contextfree` wrote

@vesuvius: The "U-turn" etc etc isn't coming from Tami Reller's remarks. It's just made up by the writer.

The Independent is not a tabloid.

Look at the following article at the Financial Times own website http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/330c8b8e-b66b-11e2-93ba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ScaZDyEK

52 minutes ago, contextfree` wrote

This is really awful reporting. The only confirmation they have is that the next version of Windows will be changing ...

At the moment, it is pretty big news as it is coming from Tami, who runs the marketing and balances the books meaning that this story could not really come from anyone higher.

wastingtimewithforums, DeathBy​VisualStudio and the like can all say "I told you so!", all obsequious niners constantly giving a problematical operating system plaudits have what might be construed as bad judgement.

People have caused Microsoft far much more damage by being fanbois, rather than being objective about Windows 8.

The Evangelism team are susceptible to acute anger from customers when after meeting them at PDC, they convinced them to invest multi-million dollar/pound projects on the Silverlight/WPF stack only for development to be discontinued permanently

This is why there is no PDC, Build has moved focus away from developers and onto the WinRT platform. I loathe the secrecy and uncommunicativeness, being drip fed morsels from Mary-Jo and so on, but they have no choice, otherwise they leave themselves wide open to criticism, which is why the likes of John Papa left Microsoft.

left the door open for WinDiv to dominate DevDiv?

left the door open for WinDiv to perform suicide?

8 minutes ago, fanbaby wrote

@Bass: hahaha. where else can you meet developers so out of touch. Developing desktop apps today?? Who are your customers, and why are they accepting this? On second thought i'm cool with it. It seems you and your customers deserve each other.

But please no more FUD, you don't want your children learning XAML instead of HTML, do you?

Can I have an answer to this please as it is the children enjoying the desktop and the world of apps?

Hopefully they exist to please their customers, rather than dictate what is good or not. Android, iPhone, iPad, IPod , iTunes and Windows (i.e desktop applications) make people spend their hard earned money and create the biggest technology industries.

People are not exited about booking trains or checking their bank account which the web does brilliantly, it is the desktop they find immersive.

2 minutes ago, Bass wrote

Standard Disclaimer: The opinions of people on Channel 9 do not remotely match the opinions of the larger technology industry.

Hopefully they exist to please their customers, rather than dictate what is good or not. Android, iPhone, iPad, IPod , iTunes and Windows (i.e desktop applications) make people spend their hard earned money and create the biggest technology industries.

People are not exited about booking trains or checking their bank account which the web does brilliantly, it is the desktop they find immersive.

1 hour ago, evildictait​or wrote

*snip*

Desktop developers on the outskirts aren't "jumping ship" to the web because the web is shiny and beautiful and does everything they want it to. They're standing on their aircraft carrier laughing at your dingy made of logs tied together with some string you found on a beach.

This may seem like a dig, but it is true. I write software using the complete stack, from dinky Intranets, to Websites to middle-ware and so on. A lot of programmers today developing software commercially have to know and use both.

Some guys just prefer CSS and JavaScript, compared to Winforms or XAML, but most end users will tell you the prefer a desktop app to an HTML site, especially if you need to use it every day

I will never write another webforms website again....evah!

20 minutes ago, Ian2 wrote

@vesuvius:Surely the point is that if a platform is getting busier then it follows that it is being used more (which probably equates to it being more successful).

To be expected with the pick-up in advertising, if your hits are not converting to sales st this time, then that is an issue.

I want the platform to succeed, sometimes you see what you want to see.

3 hours ago, Ian2 wrote

Figures that I get for my own apps also bode well with a significant surge in downloads over the last couple of months:

http://websurfaces.co.uk/2013/04/08/windows-store-download-stats/

Have you made any money? It is a bit like having a busy day in a shop where no-one buys anything, I would hide the fact that so many visits failed to convert into a sale, just like loads of hits on your blog don't necessarily means people are really interested, it is all about "Likes", "Votes" and "Sales"

3 hours ago, felix9 wrote

And Windows Phone is 'the five percent' now

http://wmpoweruser.com/full-kantar-numbers-for-march-2013-shows-steady-windows-phone-progress-reaches-highest-sales-share-figure-so-far/

I'm not so sure, Windows Phone grew the least in the last quarter. With Android selling 64% of all smartphones in the world, I think it is time Microsoft concentrated on popularity, rather than the Apple money making model. There was a time when Windows ran on any PC, even the young or those on tight budgets could be part of the software revolution.

We used to laugh at Linux fanbois here on Channel 9, but the Linux kernel is probably running on more devices than Windows PC's, if it isn't already, it is only just a matter of time.

I am not as obsequious as some that never post anything even mildly negative about Microsoft, having developed for iOS and Android, it is a no-brainer that Microsoft are the best tools, I just hope someone at the top changes things around by telling the accountants to stick their business models in the rubbish bin.

4 minutes ago, kettch wrote

@vesuvius: A few months ago we started a project where the project manager told the customer that he wasn't going to devote a single development hour to the project until the information gathering, business analysis, and other planning was all complete. This was something very new for our organization. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth the customer relented, and they did 4 months of business analysis, gathering specs and all of the stuff you wish you could do all the time. When the development package was handed off to the developers, we were in awe. It was a complete departure from previous projects. So far it's been quite fun. We never have to ask questions, it's all in the documents. Plus, it looks like we're beating our time estimates.

4 months planning is just too long for most projects that fail, so you are writing of the essential practices that contribute to less stress all round and better chances of success.

Be very careful though, sticking to documents that were written 4 - 6 months ago means that you may finish the project and when the project fails, you can say you did what was written down, but supplied the customer with a product that does not suit their needs.

Be prepared to have to do a big rewrite midway, because of a subtle but essential detail that was misinterpreted or the customer finding out that what they said they wanted wasn't exactly what they wanted. It is the ability to accommodate this type of change in well managed projects which results in a successful project, rather than wasting time and money blaming the person that gathered the requirements or the customer.

37 minutes ago, ScanIAm wrote

Usually the subject matter experts (a.k.a. eventual users) will drag their feet and/or wait until the last minute to test (and find bugs). 

You need to take mind-reading classes

42 minutes ago, kettch wrote

@spivonious: And if that's consistently the case, then you need to be somewhere else, because poor project managers rarely take the blame.

poor project managers never take the blame