- Posted by Ian Suttle on October 30, 2007
- Filed under Open Source | Social Networking
Update: MySpace has announced themselves as a host for OpenSocial. That means you'll have access to their profile, friend, and activity info in addition to the impressive list of other hosts!
On Thursday Google will reveal OpenSocial (link live Thursday), their latest developments for the wild world of online social networking. They decided not to be just another kid on the block although they already were with Orkut I guess. This time around they've created an open API which other existing social networks will adopt. Google doesn't mess around though... we're talking about integration with sites like Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, and Viadeo. The APIs will cover the following topics:
- Profile Information (user data)
- Friends Information (social graph)
- Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)
The sites themselves will dictate how you can and cannot integrate with their systems.
Personally I can't wait. I've been interested in Facebook apps (Facebook has not adopted OpenSocial, yet), social networking platforms, the upcoming MySpace platform (I work for IGN/FIM so I'm bias), and I absolutely adore LinkedIn.
If you're interested in reading more check out these other posts on the topic:
Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday
Google-Led gang to take on Facebook
Google launches open APIs for social networks
- Posted by Ian Suttle on October 23, 2007
- Filed under Visual Studio
Download the sample code for this post.
I originally intended to write about customizing existing Visual Studio 2005 item templates such as the Class file to take the form of whatever you'd like, yet I decided that was the easy stuff. The real power is in creating your own item templates. You can likely discern how to customize an existing template based on this sample (email me if you have questions). There are a zillion reasons (literally!) why you may want to do this but a simple example that comes to mind is a custom exception. Granted the best practice of exceptions is to throw existing exception types but that would simply defeat the purpose of my example!
There are two important files included in this process:
1. Your custom file which is the template for the item
2. The .vstemplate file which provides some meta data about your custom item template
To spice up your custom template check out the available parameters to include in your file.
Here's a custom exception template which implements the four recommended constructors. I've called the file Exception.cs. Don't worry about naming conflicts with the base System.Exception type as the template specifies use of your project's root namespace. Additionally the user has the option to change the filename (seen here as $safeitemname$) or if the suggested name is kept a number is automatically appended to the filename such as Exception1.cs.
Exception.cs
Exception.vstemplate
Once you've created these files, zip them up into a file called, wait for it... Exception.zip. Drop that file in your "user item templates location" which you can find by going to Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > General. So you have some general idea of where that might be on my system it's in C:\Documents and Settings\isuttle\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ItemTemplates\Visual C#.
Now for the feeling of accomplishment. Create or open a project and add a new item to it. You should see your "Exception Template" as an option under "My Templates."
If all goes well you'll have a file looking something like this:
Download the sample code for this post.
- Posted by Ian Suttle on October 11, 2007
- Filed under General
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG! I knew it was coming, but I didn't realize the computer manufacturers were getting to this already. Alienware launched both a desktop and a laptop with optional Solid State drives, up to 64GB (32GB x 2) in size. If you can't imagine the possibilities and benefits that's okay, Alienware will tell you what they are:
Most Durable and Reliable
Solid
state drives (SSD) are ideal for road warriors and other enterprise
users who rely heavily on the data they store in their notebooks.
- With
no moving parts, SSD can withstand extreme temperature ranges, and
conditions of vibration and shock in transit, as well as in outdoor
environments.
High Performance
Flash memory delivers performance that keeps pace with "on the go" lifestyles. Compared with the HDD:
- SSD speeds up operating system boot and application launch/runtime by up to 2 times.
- SSD maintains fixed performance that does not deteriorate over time as the media fills up.
- Flash is noise-free, enhancing the user experience.
More Power Efficient
Flash
memory saves power, keeping notebooks running longer so that users in
transit can perform numerous read/write tasks every operating hour.
- SSD consumes up to 50 percent less power than the rotating HDD.
- SSD extends the battery life of your notebook.
Cooler
With no moving parts, flash remains cool in operation.
- Unlike HDDs, SSD does not require constant cooling for proper operation.
- SSD keeps notebooks cooler by consuming significantly less power than the HDD.
I still didn't believe it so I began to configure my own system and to my geeky satisfaction, it was real.
- Posted by Ian Suttle on October 9, 2007
- Filed under General
I visit Amazon fairly regularly... maybe monthly or so. Once thing I've always admired both from a consumer and an ecommerce architect view is their well-crafted recommendations engine. Recently they introduced a flash "recommendation carousel" allowing you to see pics of recommendations and rotate through them. Did this change my recommendations or increase the effectiveness of delivering info to me? Nope. In fact, I now have less data at my disposal. I don't see a name, description, or price. However what they did accomplish was they got my attention. It's new and different for ecommerce sites. I immediately checked out the recommendations, played with the rotation for a few, and have now blogged about it :). Nice work Amazon.
- Posted by Ian Suttle on October 3, 2007
- Filed under .NET 3.5
Amazingly, yes! Scott Guthrie made the announcement today. They'll be releasing this for .Net 3.5 with VS 2008 under the Microsoft Reference License. This will be great for debugging your apps, understanding how the framework behaves and executes at a deeper level, and potentially fixing bugs or writing your own language (hey, it could happen).
- Posted by Ian Suttle on October 2, 2007
- Filed under Vista
I'm a bit late to the game, but I finally took the dive and upgraded my work PC to Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit. Well, to be technical about it, the "Upgrade" inploded and I ended up doing a full install.
The install was easy but took for.e.v.e.r. - typical of large MS apps these days.
All of my hardware was compatible except for two insignificant pieces - my sound card and my secondary video card leaving me at 1 / 3 monitors (card has a DVI splitter so it supported two monitors). Vista didn't even know the brand of my sound card (neither do I). What was quite impressive however, is a couple of days after my install Vista told me it had found a solution to my sound card issue and recommended a new driver to resolve the conflict; problem solved. Awesome. No such luck with Nvidia's unresolvable "error 43" on my video card. I ended up having to swap it out.
As for software I've installed Firefox, Office 2007, VS.Net 2008, SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, and a few other apps without any conflict.
The UI is beautiful thanks in large to a number of new animations and the glass effect.
Overall my experience has been far more pleasant than most have expressed so far.