z33driver

• Windows Marketplace: Write a Windows app. We'll sell it for you.

  Aug 29, 2006 at 8:34 AM

  W3bbo wrote:

  at 38:00 they talk about showing a list of all your downloaded software, yet I'm not personally keen on downladable-only software.
  
  There should be an option/facility to buy the game's physical media (CD, box, manuals, etc) as well.
  

  They have an option to let you burn physical backups of the software.
  

• Windows Marketplace: Write a Windows app. We'll sell it for you.

  Aug 29, 2006 at 7:05 AM

  dahat wrote:

  Pretty cool stuff and while I’m only about half way through I am kind of disappointed.
  
  They spoke of a requirement for being listed is to have the application be logo certified as ‘Designed for Windows’ (or better I assume) ... something that can be a bit expensive and outside of the range for the smallest ISV’s like those one man shops run out of ones bedroom in their free time where they build a small app or two with a limited audience and exposure.

  Actually Microsoft has some pretty cool programs for the "Micro-ISV" type of shop.  Have you seen Empower for ISV's?  $375 gets you into the Microsoft ISV Partner program, 5 MSDN user licenses, etc. etc. and they will support you in getting your app certified and shipped.
  

• Microsoft Platform Vision in the Post Bill Era: Meet Craig Mundie

  Jul 31, 2006 at 12:00 AM

  Haven't watched the video yet as I'm just surfing a bit to try and get to sleep again, but...  with regards to development technology "churn" I don't see it as a huge issue for developers, although I started going through the latest Windows SDK tonight to try and get a head start on WPF etc. and it is like staring up at a mountain...
  
  The bigger issue in my mind is platform adoption.
  
  Assuaging corporate IT department fears that .NET 2.0 is not "dangerous", .NET 3.0 is not dangerous etc.  There is some technology coming down the road in .NET 3.0 that is going to solve a lot of specific technical problems for us that I would like to use but I am already getting some resistance within my organization as there is a perception that it will be harder to sell an app that requires the new platform to large organizations.
  
  That said, I haven't felt much effect of "churn", and I like to see continued innovation on Microsoft's part.  Some of the stuff coming out is so radically advanced it is truly mind boggling how quickly they've managed to produce it.  But I don't see it so much as churn as extensions of existing technology, it seems Microsoft have been taking care to ensure there are "bridges" so you can preserve your investment in the previous version of the platform.
  

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

  Jul 20, 2006 at 1:09 PM

  I haven't watched the video yet, but is there anything here that is different/better/new compared to the object persistence frameworks already available (Gentle.NET, Hibernate, etc.)?
  

• Satya Nadella - Running the Dynamics Team

  Mar 27, 2006 at 10:06 PM

  One thing Pringles can do is look at some of the line of business applications he has already built or will build in the future for his clients, and think about what it would take to 'productize' them.  What would it take to productize them as their own standalone product?  How about productizing them by re-implementing them as vertical solution add-ons to a popular system like Dynamics or Sage MAS90 or even QuickBooks (you'd be surprised how many companies hang onto QuickBooks even as they grow substantially).
  
  One other thing Pringles should do is examine his existing contracts with his clients, and make sure he is retaining the right to productize and/or remarket the solution and/or create derivative works.  In some cases he (or she?) could derive additional revenue if a client is willing to pay extra for an exclusivity deal.  Its all in how you market it and/or present it to your clients (I would recommend not making a big deal of it unless or until they ask about it, and sell it as standard).
  
  If Pringles has an MSDN subscription, he could download development versions of Dynamics, Axapta, or Solomon, and start building vertical solutions TODAY.  This is a big deal and I'm surprised it hasn't been promoted more by Microsoft.  It used to be (and still is the case with other vendors) that you would have to pay a substantial fee and become a vendor partner/ISV partner, etc. (distinct from a VAR/reselling relationship).  The fact that you can pull this stuff down from MSDN and you have easy access to it is a really big deal, at least to me.
  
  I think it would be impossible for Microsoft to build a monopoly on the mid-market because it is just so big, with so many competitors.  To get an idea of just how many solutions are already out there, take a look at:
  
  FindAccountingSoftware.com
  
  It is a website affiliated with CPAOnline, and is basically a directory of both horizontal and vertical software solutions.  Big and small names in their database.
  

• Satya Nadella - Running the Dynamics Team

  Mar 26, 2006 at 9:07 PM

  The mid-market accounting/business mgmt software space is huge with many vendors.  Microsoft just happened to cherry-pick and buy the best ones (well, some of the best ).
  
  Building a horizontal accounting application is probably not a good idea for a startup.  But building vertical market solutions on a good foundation might be, and a lot of people have made nice businesses for themselves doing so.
  
  I haven't watched the videos yet but I am interested to know if they are still keeping Dexterity around and if it will target the CLR   That would be a pretty neat trick.
  

• Bill Gates and Tim O'Reilly - A conversation at MIX

  Mar 23, 2006 at 5:34 PM

  Unfortunately all of my pics of Bill from the keynote came out blurry!
  
  I really enjoyed myself at MIX and learned a lot more than I thought I would.  The discussion panels were interesting.  The go live license for Atlas is really great.  There was a real mix of people designers/developers/businesspeople.
  
  Oh, and Microsoft knows how to throw a party!
  

• MIX it up at MIX06 - Live in Las Vegas

  Feb 26, 2006 at 5:19 PM

  Just thought I would post some info if you are looking for affordable accomodations, I'm surfing Expedia looking at hotels and flights and for Friday through Wednesday (5 nights) I'm seeing pretty much every major strip casino/hotel falling in the $1100-1300 range.  That's not too bad and includes Fri/Sat rates.  If you are just going to fly out Sunday through Wednesday you can probably knock $300-400 off that.  I'm not going to pay the $225 discounted rate to stay at the Venetian, I can see the value in staying at the same place as the conference but there are a bunch of cheaper casinos right next door/across the street.  The Bellagio comes out at $4400 though!!  The Excalibur is currently coming out the cheapest on Expedia, at $850 including my airfare for Friday through Wednesday.  Maybe they are running an Expedia special?  If you are willing to hike it all the way up the strip or take the monorail maybe it is an option.
  

• Concurrency and Coordination Runtime

  Feb 09, 2006 at 10:09 PM

  I find CCR extremely interesting and can't wait to get my hands on it.
  
  Is there anything similar out there that we might also want to take a look at, that is downloadable now?   
  
  The scenario I have right now is, I am building a product that uses a lot of multithreading.  It is a smart client application that is using the Smart Client Offline Application Block along with a number of other threads handling various tasks like incremental synchronization of data from the offline block, user interface updating, etc.  I also have a number of singleton classes that act as gateways into different core functionality.  I'm using the lock statement in C# in my singleton classes to control access to public property setters from multiple threads.  I'm looking for ways to improve performance in some areas.
  
  One issue I'm working on right now is, there are various bits of user interface information that get updated from multiple threads.  I'm using Control.BeginInvoke etc. to manage the user interface updates when some of this data changes (for instance, wireless signal strength, online/offline status, data synchronization status information, etc.).  I'm working on solving some cases when it seems there is contention to update the UI on the UI thread and it causes "pauses" that are noticeable when mousing over toolbar icons that hot track for instance (I have a XAML toolbar where the icons "zoom" 50% when moused over).
  
  Are these types of scenarios things that the CCR can help me with?
  

• Scott Isaacs - MSN DHTML Foundation unveiled

  Sep 30, 2005 at 8:25 PM

  alanc5 wrote:

  That's great, Scott.  I too have written and finished an entire DHTML application platform with all of the resuable components you mention plus a whole host of applications.
  
  Check it out:  http://www.convea.com
  
  The platform is called oneVision, my application built on the platform is called Intranet Suite.
  
  I plan on launching the open platform as a kind of virtual webOS in the coming months, so anyone can signup and basically tick off the apps they want and they will appear inside of desktop environment, integrated with each other, running multiple web-apps at once.
  
  It's pretty exciting, sadly nobody knows I exist!  Maybe when I launch the Virtual Office System somebody will notice what I've been working on for so long!
  
  Let me know what you think if you get time to take a look.  I find your work inspirational )

  Wow!  Did you write this all by yourself?!?!???

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