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  • Sevensteps and I are joining forces

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    As of today, I will be partnering with Sevensteps when it comes to developing great Surface, Windows Phone 7 and Windows 7 Touch applications. Below you’ll find the press release we sent out today. I am looking forward to this partnership and expect great things coming from us both in the future!   Dennis Vroegop, Microsoft MVP, joins Sevensteps partner network 1 March 2011, Seattle / Amersfoort Today Dennis Vroegop and Bart Roozendaal, both Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Microsoft Surface, announce the joining of Dennis Vroegop to the Sevensteps partner network. Dennis and Bart already worked together very closely through the Microsoft MVP connection, but decided to combined their efforts to make the new Microsoft Surface and our solutions for it, a success. Dennis will join the other Sevensteps partners in creating state of the art solutions for Microsoft Surface, Windows Phone 7 and Windows 7 Touch. Dennis brings a vast amount of knowledge about these technologies, as well as his network in the Dutch developer community. With Dennis joining the Sevensteps partner network we bring unique expertise, power and insight in the platforms, that no other company worldwide can offer. This step brings our goal of Sevensteps being the knowledge hub for Microsoft Surface of choice a whole lot closer. About Dennis Vroegop Dennis is a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft Surface and chairman of the Dutch dotNed user group. He has a long history promoting Microsoft Surface in the developer community. Dennis is a regular speaker at local and international conferences and a frequent writer of articles, including but not limited to Microsoft Surface. Dennis has a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences and has spent all of his professional life writing software for the Microsoft platform. About Sevensteps For more information about Sevensteps and Bart Roozendaal please point to http://www.sevensteps.com Tags: surface,wp7,windows touch

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  • Python: Dennis Nedry - Security

    - by Peter Nielsen
    Has anyone seen Jurrassic Park where Dennis Nedry has protected the system with an animation that says 'You didn't say the magic word' where after the system goes down. Is it possible to do something similar ikn Python ? To describe it less humoristic: A response screen which waits for a condition fulfilled by the user. And encrypts and locks the system after a certain time. Is that possible on a linux system by the use of Python ?

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  • Can't get Minecraft to run on Ubuntu

    - by Dennis
    I have installed JDK and JRE from this tutorial and have tried many methods of starting it up, yet my results are always the same. If any one could please help me I would be very grateful. Exception in thread "Thread-3" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /home/dennis/.minecraft/bin/natives/liblwjgl.so: /home/dennis/.minecraft/bin/natives/liblwjgl.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32 (Possible cause: architecture word width mismatch) at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary1(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Unknown Source) at java.lang.System.load(Unknown Source) at org.lwjgl.Sys$1.run(Sys.java:69) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at org.lwjgl.Sys.doLoadLibrary(Sys.java:65) at org.lwjgl.Sys.loadLibrary(Sys.java:81) at org.lwjgl.Sys.<clinit>(Sys.java:98) at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.F(SourceFile:1853) at aoe.<init>(SourceFile:20) at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.<init>(SourceFile:77) at anv.<init>(SourceFile:36) at net.minecraft.client.MinecraftApplet.init(SourceFile:36) at net.minecraft.Launcher.replace(Launcher.java:136) at net.minecraft.Launcher$1.run(Launcher.java:79)

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  • EVOLUTION: No such Calendar

    - by Dennis
    I am using a google calendar with evolution for quite a while now. I was never having any troubles. Just recently, I suppose just after an update, whenever I want to create a new event in evolution (for the just mentioned google calendar) I get the err message "No such calendar". When I dismiss changes an re-open evolution the entry has been added anyway. This is somewhat annoying. I googled, but haven't found anything yet which suggests that it not problem many people have!? Looking for help, maybe someone here knows an answer! I appreciate any suggestion! Cheers, Dennis

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  • Dream.In.Code Podcast 15 with Michael Crump

    - by mbcrump
    I was recently interviewed by Dennis Delimarsky for his podcast titled “Dream.In.Code”. We talked for about an hour on all things Silverlight and Windows Phone 7. Dennis asked a lot of great questions and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him. Check out the interview and let me know what you think. Listen to the podcast. Dream.In.Code Website Thanks again to Dream In Code for this opportunity.  Subscribe to my feed

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  • Windows Web Server 2008 R2 Server Core local password complexity

    - by Dennis Allen
    How can I disable the local user account password complexity settings on Windows 2008 R2 "Server Core"? I am trying to migrate our windows 2003 web server to windows 2008 R2. I am trying to see if I can use the "Server Core" install, and it has been a very internet search intensive experience. What I can't find out how to do is to find out how to disable password complexity for local user accounts. While our user account generator currently creates nice strong passwords, there was a time when this was not the case and unfortunately forcing the users to change their password is not an option at this time. Any help greatly appreciated. Dennis

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  • calling a different python interpreter from bash command line

    - by Dennis Daniels
    I have python 2.7 installed [user@localhost google_appengine]$ python Python 2.7 (r27:82500, Sep 16 2010, 18:03:06) [GCC 4.5.1 20100907 (Red Hat 4.5.1-3)] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. I want to use the python 2.5.2 that is in this directory [user@localhost Downloads]$ ls |grep "Python-2*" Python-2.5.2 Python-2.5.2.tgz to run a python script in Khan Academy platform against a google app engine application sudo python sample_data.py -a ~/workspace/GAE/google_appengine/appcfg.py upload Currently, when running the last script 2.7 python complains a lot (Google App Engine runs on 2.5.2 mostly and 2.6 almost) I would like to do something like sudo python env set ~/Downloads/Python-2.5.2 sample_data.py -a ~/workspace/GAE/google_appengine/appcfg.py upload Is this possible? If yes, please point the way. If not, please suggest a way to call python2.5.2 WITHOUT having to uninstall python 2.7 many many thanks Dennis

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  • Visual Studion 2008 App_Data defaults

    - by Dennis Keith
    Is it possible to use the App_Data folder in conjunction with SQL Server 2005? When I try it specifies Express even though I have changed the ToolsOptionsDatabaseData Connections to the correct server. I have downloaded SQLEXPR32_x86_ENU.exe Version 10.0.1600.22 file locally and have gone through 7 installs and deinstalls with a variety of different errors. I pretty much given up on Express and would like to find a workaround if it exists. Thanks Dennis Keith

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  • How to present a stable data model in a public API that allows internal data structures to be changed without breaking the public view of the data?

    - by Max Palmer
    I am in the process of developing an application that allows users to write C# scripts. These scripts allow users to call selected methods and to access and manipulate data in a document. This works well, however, in the development version, scripts access the document's (internal) data structures directly. This means that if we were to change the internal data model/structure, there is a good chance that someone's script will no longer compile. We obviously want to prevent this breaking change from happening, but still want to allow the user to write sensible C# code (whilst not restricting how we develop our internal data model as a result). We therefore need to decouple our scripting API and its data structures from our internal methods and data structures. We've a few ideas as to how we might allow the user to access a what is effectively a stable public version of the document's internal data*, but I wanted to throw the question out there to someone who might have some real experience of this problem. NB our internal document's data structure is quite complex and it could be quite difficult to wrap. We know we want to expose as little as possible in our public API, especially as once it's out there, it's out there for good. Can anyone help? How do scripting languages / APIs decouple their public API and data structures from their internal data structures? Is there no real alternative to having to write a complex interaction layer? If we need to do this, what's a good approach or pattern for wrapping complex data structures that include nested objects, including collections? I've looked at the API facade pattern, which looks like it's trying to address these kinds of issues, but are there alternatives? *One idea is to build a data facade that is kept stable across versions of our application. The facade exposes a set of facade data objects that are used in the script code. These maintain backwards compatibility and wrap access to our internal document's data model.

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  • Application use on website

    - by Palmer
    Is there a good way to run a C# application on clientside in lieu of JavaScript? I have done some front end work with JavaScript and backend C# for web developing at an old job, but I am interested in hosting a website myself soon. I have a C# application I would like to be open source, but before people care to download I'd like them to be able to use it. At its basic level it's a simple text editor, but there's much more to it in the nitty gritty. I could write it in JavaScript, but it would require me to keep documentation and up to date changes on JavaScript and C# in that case. I was thinking of creating an AJAX panel and somehow loading my winform application into a frame, but I don't know how or what words to google because I've never done it before except AJAX.

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  • Proper response for a REST insert - full new record, or just the record id value?

    - by Keith Palmer
    I'm building a REST API which allows inserts (POST, not idempotent) and updates (PUT, idempotent) requests to add/update database to our application. I'm wondering if there are any standards or best practices regarding what data we send back to the client in the response for a POST (insert) operation. We need to send back at least a record ID value (e.g. your new record is record #1234). Should we respond with the full object? (e.g. essentially the same response they'd get back from a "GET /object_type/1234" request) Should we respond with only the new ID value? (e.g. "{ id: 1234 }", which means that if they want to fetch the whole record they need to do an additional HTTP GET request to grab the full record) A redirect header pointing them to the URL for the full object? Something else entirely?

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  • Strategies for avoiding SQL in your Controllers... or how many methods should I have in my Models?

    - by Keith Palmer
    So a situation I run into reasonably often is one where my models start to either: Grow into monsters with tons and tons of methods OR Allow you to pass pieces of SQL to them, so that they are flexible enough to not require a million different methods For example, say we have a "widget" model. We start with some basic methods: get($id) insert($record) update($id, $record) delete($id) getList() // get a list of Widgets That's all fine and dandy, but then we need some reporting: listCreatedBetween($start_date, $end_date) listPurchasedBetween($start_date, $end_date) listOfPending() And then the reporting starts to get complex: listPendingCreatedBetween($start_date, $end_date) listForCustomer($customer_id) listPendingCreatedBetweenForCustomer($customer_id, $start_date, $end_date) You can see where this is growing... eventually we have so many specific query requirements that I either need to implement tons and tons of methods, or some sort of "query" object that I can pass to a single -query(query $query) method... ... or just bite the bullet, and start doing something like this: list = MyModel-query(" start_date X AND end_date < Y AND pending = 1 AND customer_id = Z ") There's a certain appeal to just having one method like that instead of 50 million other more specific methods... but it feels "wrong" sometimes to stuff a pile of what's basically SQL into the controller. Is there a "right" way to handle situations like this? Does it seem acceptable to be stuffing queries like that into a generic -query() method? Are there better strategies?

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  • Deployment Error: Silverlight 4.0 w/WCF RIA Services in ASP.NET MVC 2 App

    - by Dennis Ward
    I've got an MVC 2 App with an RIA Services link to a Silverlight Application. On my local machine, all is well, but when I deploy to Discount ASP servers, neither the MVC controller nor the WCF RIA services called from silverlight function: A silverlight datagrid gets a load error: System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Client.DomainOperationException: Load operation failed for query... The remote server returned an error NotFound. In the MVC page where I had a simple table that worked prior to adding an EF model and DomainDataSource, I now get the error: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information. This is very similar to an issue I had before, but after upgrading from the betas of WCF/Silverlight 4, but the fix I had added there doesn't seem to work any longer. The link for that issue is: SL4/MVC2/WCF RIA Services = Load Error I'm really struggling with deploying, and could use some help if anybody can shed any light on this. Thanks! Dennis

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  • Windows Web Server 2008 R2 Server Core local password complexity

    - by Dennis Allen
    How can I disable the local user account password complexity settings on Windows 2008 R2 "Server Core"? I am trying to migrate our windows 2003 web server to windows 2008 R2. I am trying to see if I can use the "Server Core" install, and it has been a very internet search intensive experience. What I can't find out how to do is to find out how to disable password complexity for local user accounts. While our user account generator currently creates nice strong passwords, there was a time when this was not the case and unfortunately forcing the users to change their password is not an option at this time. Any help greatly appreciated. Dennis

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  • Using constructor to load data in subsonic3?

    - by Dennis
    I'm getting an error while trying to load an record through the constructor. The constructor is: public Document(Expression<Func<Document,bool>> expression); and i try to load a single item in like this var x = new Document(f=>f.publicationnumber=="xxx"); publicationnumber isn't a key but tried making an it an unique key and still no go.. Am i totally wrong regarding the use of the constructor? and can someone please tell me how to use that constructor? The error i'm getting is: Test method TestProject1.UnitTest1.ParseFileNameTwoProductSingleLanguage threw exception: System.NullReferenceException: with the following stacktrace: SubSonic.Query.SqlQuery.Where[T](Expression1` expression) Load`[T]`(T item, Expression1expression) db.Document..ctor(Expression``1 expression) in C:\@Projects\DocumentsSearchAndAdmin\DocumentsSearchAndAdmin\Generated\ActiveRecord.cs: line 5613 rest removed for simplicity Regards Dennis

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  • Compile Problem with MySQL C API on MAC OS X 10.6

    - by Dennis
    Hi guys, i've a Problem with MySQL C API and Mac OS X 10.6. When i want to compile a SQL Client Program, it aborts with this Error Message ld: library not found for -lmysqlclient collect2: ld returned 1 exit status I compile with this command: g++ -I /usr/local/mysql/include/ -L /usr/local/mysql/lib/ -lmysqlclient main.cpp I've tried the Headers and Librarys in different locations - no effect I've downloaded the headers and the Library from an other Destination - Same effect as before Any Ideas what i am doing wrong? If there is a thread allready i want to excuse (nothing found in search)! Greeting, Dennis

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  • javascript return function's data as a file

    - by Dennis
    I have a function in javascript called "dumpData" which I call from a button on an html page as **onlick="dumpData(dbControl);"* What it does is return an xml file of the settings (to an alert box right now). I want to return it to the user as a file download. Is there a way to create a button when click will open a file download box and ask the user to save or open it? (sorta of like right-clicking and save target as)... Or can it be sent to a php file and use export();? Not sure how I would send a long string like that to php and have it simple send it back as a file download. Dennis

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  • Surface development: it&rsquo;s just like software development

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    Surface is magic. Everyone using it seems to think that way. And I have to be honest, after working for almost 2 years with the platform I still get that special feeling the moment I turn on the unit to do some more work. The whole user experience, the rich environment of the SDK, the touch, even the look and feel of the Surface environment is so much different from the stuff I’ve been working on all my career that I am still bewildered by it. But… and this is a big but.. in the end we’re still talking about a computer and that needs software to become useful. Deep down the magic of the Surface unit there is a PC somewhere, running Windows Vista and the .net framework 3.5. When you write that magic software that makes the platform come alive you’re still working with .net, WPF/XNA, C#, VB.Net and all those other tools and technologies you know so well. Sure, the whole user experience is different from what you’ve known. And the way of thinking about users, their interaction and the positioning of screen elements requires a whole new paradigm. And that takes time. It took me about half a year before I had the feeling I got it nailed down. But when that moment came (about 18 months ago…) I realized that everything I had learned so far on software development still is true when it comes to Surface. The last 6 months I have been working with some people with a different background to start a new company. The idea was that the new company would be focussing on Surface and Surface only. These people come from a marketing background and had some good ideas for some applications. And I have to admit: their ideas were good. Very good. Where it all fell down of course is that these ideas need to be implemented in a piece of software. And creating great software takes skilled developers and a lot of time and money. That’s where things went wrong: the marketing guys didn’t realize and didn’t want to realize that software development is a job that takes skill. You can’t just hire a bunch of developers and expect them to deliver the best sort of software, especially not when it comes to Surface. I tried to explain that yes, their User Interface in Photoshop looked great, but no: I couldn’t develop an application like that in a weeks time. Even worse: the while backend of the software (WCF for communications, SQL Server for the database, etc) would take a lot more time than the frontend. They didn’t understand. It took them a couple of days to drawn the UI in Photoshop so in Blend I should be able to build the software in about the same amount of time. Well, you and I know that it doesn’t work that way. Software is hard to write, and even harder to write well, and it takes skill and dedication. It’s not something you can do as fast as you can draw a mock up for a Surface application in Photohop. The same holds true for web applications of course. A lot of designers there fail to appreciate the hard work that goes into writing the plumbing for a good web app that can handle thousands of users. Although the UI is very important, it’s not all there is to it. And in Surface development this is the same. The UI should create the feeling of magic, but the software behind it is what makes it come alive. And that takes time. A lot of time. So brush of you skills and don’t throw them away if you start developing for Surface. Because projects (and colaborations) can fail there as hard as they can in any other area of software development. On a side note: we decided to stop the colaboration (something the other parties involved didn’t appreciate and were very angry about) and decided to hire a designer for the Surface projects. The focus is back where it belongs: on the software development we know so well and have been doing very well for 13 years. UI is just a part of the whole project and not the end product. So my company Detrio is still going strong when it comes to develivering Surface solutions but once again from a technological background, not a marketing background.

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  • Windows Phone appointment task

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dvroegop/archive/2014/08/10/windows-phone-appointment-task.aspxI am currently working on a new version of my AgeInDays app for Windows Phone. This app calculates how old you are in days (or weeks, depending on your preferences). The inspiration for this app came from my father, who once told me he proposed to my mother when she was 1000 weeks old. That left me wondering: how old in weeks or days am I? And being the geek I am, I wrote an app for it. If you have a Windows Phone, you can find it at http://www.windowsphone.com/en-in/store/app/age-in-days/7ed03603-0e00-4214-ad04-ce56773e5dab A new version of the app was published quite quickly, adding the possibility to mark a date in your agenda when you would have reached a certain age. Of course the logic behind this if extremely simple. Just take a DateTime, populate it with the given date from the DatePicker, then call AddDays(numDays) and voila, you have the date. Now all I had to do was implement a way to store this in the users calendar so he would get a reminder when that date occurred. Luckily, the Windows Phone SDK makes that extremely simple: public void PublishTask(DateTime occuranceDate, string message) { var task = new SaveAppointmentTask() { StartTime = occuranceDate, EndTime = occuranceDate, Subject = message, Location = string.Empty, IsAllDayEvent = true, Reminder = Reminder.None, AppointmentStatus = AppointmentStatus.Free };   task.Show(); }  And that's it. Whenever I call the PublishTask Method an appointment will be made and put in the calendar. Well, not exactly: a template will be made for that appointment and the user will see that template, giving him the option to either discard or save the reminder. The user can also make changes before submitting this to the calendar: it would be useful to be able to change the text in the agenda and that's exactly what this allows you to do. Now, see at the bottom of the screen the option "Occurs". This tiny field is what this post is about. You cannot set it from the code. I want to be able to have repeating items in my agenda. Say for instance you're counting down to a certain date, I want to be able to give you that option as well. However, I cannot. The field "occurs" is not part of the Task you create in code. Of course, you could create a whole series of events yourself. Have the "Occurs" field in your own user interface and make all the appointments. But that's not the same. First, the system doesn't recognize them as part of a series. That means if you want to change the text later on on one of the occurrences it will not ask you if you want to open this one or the whole series. More important however, is that the user has to acknowledge each and every single occurrence and save that into the agenda. Now, I understand why they implemented the system in such a way that the user has to approve an entry. You don't want apps to automatically fill your agenda with messages such as "Remember to pay for my app!". But why not include the "Occurs" option? The user can still opt out if they see this happening. I hope an update will fix this soon. But for now: you just have to countdown to your birthday yourself. My app won't support this.

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  • Dutch for once: op zoek naar een nieuwe uitdaging!

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dvroegop/archive/2013/10/11/dutch-for-once-op-zoek-naar-een-nieuwe-uitdaging.aspxI apologize to my non-dutch speaking readers: this post is about me looking for a new job and since I am based in the Netherlands I will do this in Dutch… Next time I will be technical (and thus in English) again! Het leuke van interim zijn is dat een klus een keer afloopt. Ik heb heel bewust gekozen voor het leven als freelancer: ik wil graag heel veel verschillende mensen en organisaties leren kennen. Dit werk is daar bij uitstek geschikt voor! Immers: bij iedere klus breng ik niet alleen nieuwe ideeën en kennis maar ik leer zelf ook iedere keer ontzettend veel. Die kennis kan ik dan weer gebruiken bij een vervolgklus en op die manier verspreid ik die kennis onder de bedrijven in Nederland. En er is niets leukers dan zien dat wat ik meebreng een organisatie naar een ander niveau brengt! Iedere keer een ander bedrijf zoeken houdt in dat ik iedere keer weg moet gaan bij een organisatie. Het lastige daarvan is het juiste moment te vinden. Van buitenaf gezien is dat lastig in te schatten: wanneer kan ik niets vernieuwends meer bijdragen en is het tijd om verder te gaan? Wanneer is het tijd om te zeggen dat de organisatie alles weet wat ik ze kan bijbrengen? In mijn huidige klus is dat moment nu aangebroken. In de afgelopen elf maanden heb ik dit bedrijf zien veranderen van een kleine maar enthousiaste groep ontwikkelaars naar een professionele organisatie met ruim twee keer zo veel ontwikkelaars. Dat veranderingsproces is erg leerzaam geweest en ik ben dan ook erg blij dat ik die verandering heb kunnen en mogen begeleiden. Van drie teams met ieder vijf of zes ontwikkelaars naar zes teams met zeven tot acht ontwikkelaars per team groeien betekent dat je je ontwikkelproces heel anders moet insteken. Ook houdt dat in dat je je teams anders moet indelen, dat de organisatie zelf anders gemodelleerd moet worden en dat mensen anders met elkaar om moeten gaan. Om dat voor elkaar te krijgen is er door iedereen heel hard gewerkt, is er een aantal fouten gemaakt, is heel veel van die fouten geleerd en is uiteindelijk een vrijwel nieuw bedrijf ontstaan. Het is tijd om dit bedrijf te verlaten. Ik ben benieuwd waar ik hierna terecht kom: ik ben aan het rondkijken naar mogelijkheden. Ik weet wèl: het bedrijf waar ik naar op zoek ben, is een bedrijf dat openstaat voor veranderingen. Veranderingen, maar dan wel met het oog voor het individu; mensen staan immers centraal in de software ontwikkeling! Ik heb er in ieder geval weer zin in!

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  • Designing for the future

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    User interfaces and user experience design is a fast moving field. It’s something that changes pretty quick: what feels fresh today will look outdated tomorrow. I remember the day I first got a beta version of Windows 95 and I felt swept away by the user interface of the OS. It felt so modern! If I look back now, it feels old. Well, it should: the design is 17 years old which is an eternity in our field. Of course, this is not limited to UI. Same goes for many industries. I want you to think back of the cars that amazed you when you were in your teens (if you are in your teens then this may not apply to you). Didn’t they feel like part of the future? Didn’t you think that this was the ultimate in designs? And aren’t those designs hopelessly outdated today (again, depending on your age, it may just be me)? Let’s review the Win95 design: And let’s compare that to Windows 7: There are so many differences here, I wouldn’t even know where to start explaining them. The general feeling however is one of more usability: studies have shown Windows 7 is much easier to understand for new users than the older versions of Windows did. Of course, experienced Windows users didn’t like it: people are usually afraid of changes and like to stick to what they know. But for new users this was a huge improvement. And that is what UX design is all about: make a product easier to use, with less training required and make users feel more productive. Still, there are areas where this doesn’t hold up. There are plenty examples of designs from the past that are still fresh today. But if you look closely at them, you’ll notice some subtle differences. This differences are what keep the designs fresh. A good example is the signs you’ll find on the road. They haven’t changed much over the years (otherwise people wouldn’t recognize them anymore) but they have been changing gradually to reflect changes in traffic. The same goes for computer interfaces. With each new product or version of a product, the UI and UX is changed gradually. Every now and then however, a bigger change is needed. Just think about the introduction of the Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2007: the whole UI was redesigned. A lot of old users (not in age, but in times of using older versions) didn’t like it a bit, but new users or casual users seem to be more efficient using the product. Which, of course, is exactly the reason behind the changes. I believe that a big engine behind the changes in User Experience design has been the web. In the old days (i.e. before the explosion of the internet) user interface design in Windows applications was limited to choosing the margins between your battleship gray buttons. When the web came along, and especially the web 2.0 where the browsers started to act more and more as application platforms, designers stepped in and made a huge impact. In the browser, they could do whatever they wanted. In the beginning this was limited to the darn blink tag but gradually people really started to think about UX. Even more so: the design of the UI and the whole experience was taken away from the developers and put into the hands of people who knew what they were doing: UX designers. This caused some problems. Everyone who has done a web project in the early 2000’s must have had the same experience: the designers give you a set of Photoshop files and tell you to translate it to HTML. Which, of course, is very hard to do. However, with new tooling and new standards this became much easier. The latest version of HTML and CSS has taken the responsibility for the design away from the developers and placed them in the capable hands of the designers. And that’s where that responsibility belongs, after all, I don’t want a designer to muck around in my c# code just as much as he or she doesn’t want me to poke in the sites style definitions. This change in responsibilities resulted in good looking but more important: better thought out user interfaces in websites. And when websites became more and more interactive, people started to expect the same sort of look and feel from their desktop applications. But that didn’t really happen. Most business applications still have that battleship gray look and feel. Ok, they may use a different color but we’re not talking colors here but usability. Now, you may not be able to read the Dutch captions, but even if you did you wouldn’t understand what was going on. At least, not when you first see it. You have to scan the screen, read all the labels, see how they are related to the other elements on the screen and then figure out what they do. If you’re an experienced user of this application however, this might be a good thing: you know what to do and you get all the information you need in one single screen. But for most applications this isn’t the case. A lot of people only use their computer for a limited time a day (a weird concept for me, but it happens) and need it to get something done and then get on with their lives. For them, a user interface experience like the above isn’t working. (disclaimer: I just picked a screenshot, I am not saying this is bad software but it is an example of about 95% of the Windows applications out there). For the knowledge worker, this isn’t a problem. They use one or two systems and they know exactly what they need to do to achieve their goal. They don’t want any clutter on their screen that distracts them from their task, they just want to be as efficient as possible. When they know the systems they are very productive. The point is, how long does it take to become productive? And: could they be even more productive if the UX was better? Are there things missing that they don’t know about? Are there better ways to achieve what they want to achieve? Also: could a system be designed in such a way that it is not only much more easy to work with but also less tiring? in the example above you need to switch between the keyboard and mouse a lot, something that we now know can be very tiring. The goal of most applications (being client apps or websites on any kind of device) is to provide information. Information is data that when given to the right people, on the right time, in the right place and when it is correct adds value for that person (please, remember that definition: I still hear the statement “the information was wrong” which doesn’t make sense: data can be wrong, information cannot be). So if a system provides data, how can we make sure the chances of becoming information is as high as possible? A good example of a well thought-out system that attempts this is the Zune client. It is a very good application, and I think the UX is much better than it’s main competitor iTunes. Have a look at both: On the left you see the iTunes screenshot, on the right the Zune. As you notice, the Zune screen has more images but less chrome (chrome being visuals not part of the data you want to show, i.e. edges around buttons). The whole thing is text oriented or image oriented, where that text or image is part of the information you need. What is important is big, what’s less important is smaller. Yet, everything you need to know at that point is present and your attention is drawn immediately to what you’re trying to achieve: information about music. You can easily switch between the content on your machine and content on your Zune player but clicking on the image of the player. But if you didn’t know that, you’d find out soon enough: the whole UX is designed in such a way that it invites you to play around. So sooner or later (probably sooner) you’d click on that image and you would see what it does. In the iTunes version it’s harder to find: the discoverability is a lot lower. For inexperienced people the Zune player feels much more natural than the iTunes player, and they get up to speed a lot faster. How does this all work? Why is this UX better? The answer lies in a project from Microsoft with the codename (it seems to be becoming the official name though) “Metro”. Metro is a design language, based on certain principles. When they thought about UX they took a good long look around them and went out in search of metaphors. And they found them. The team noticed that signage in streets, airports, roads, buildings and so on are usually very clear and very precise. These signs give you the information you need and nothing more. It’s simple, clearly understood and fast to understand. A good example are airport signs. Airports can be intimidating places, especially for the non-experienced traveler. In the early 1990’s Amsterdam Airport Schiphol decided to redesign all the signage to make the traveller feel less disoriented. They developed a set of guidelines for signs and implemented those. Soon, most airports around the world adopted these ideas and you see variations of the Dutch signs everywhere on the globe. The signs are text-oriented. Yes, there are icons explaining what it all means for the people who can’t read or don’t understand the language, but the basic sign language is text. It’s clear, it’s high-contrast and it’s easy to understand. One look at the sign and you know where to go. The only thing I don’t like is the green sign pointing to the emergency exit, but since this is the default style for emergency exits I understand why they did this. If you look at the Zune UI again, you’ll notice the similarities. Text oriented, little or no icons, clear usage of fonts and all the information you need. This design language has a set of principles: Clean, light, open and fast Content, not chrome Soulful and alive These are just a couple of the principles, you can read the whole philosophy behind Metro for Windows Phone 7 here. These ideas seem to work. I love my Windows Phone 7. It’s easy to use, it’s clear, there’s no clutter that I do not need. It works for me. And I noticed it works for a lot of other people as well, especially people who aren’t as proficient with computers as I am. You see these ideas in a lot other places. Corning, a manufacturer of glass, has made a video of possible usages of their products. It’s their glimpse into the future. You’ll notice that a lot of the UI in the screens look a lot like what Microsoft is doing with Metro (not coincidentally Corning is the supplier for the Gorilla glass display surface on the new SUR40 device (or Surface v2.0 as a lot of people call it)). The idea behind this vision is that data should be available everywhere where you it. Systems should be available at all times and data is presented in a clear and light manner so that you can turn that data into information. You don’t need a lot of fancy animations that only distract from the data. You want the data and you want it fast. Have a look at this truly inspiring video that made: This is what I believe the future will look like. Of course, not everything is possible, or even desirable. But it is a nice way to think about the future . I feel very strongly about designing applications in such a way that they add value to the user. Designing applications that turn data into information. Applications that make the user feel happy to use them. So… when are you going to drop the battleship-gray designs? Tags van Technorati: surface,design,windows phone 7,wp7,metro

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  • Windows 8, the biggest struggle&hellip;.

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    As always, it’s hard to be original. It’s easy to copy great stuff others have done but to think of something nice that others might have done is not trivial. The number of applications in the Windows 8 Store is growing rappidly. That was to be expected; a lot of developers already have the skills needed to build Win8 apps so all it took was some ideas. And they have ideas. Another factor that helps with the growing number of apps in the store is the availability of the project templates in Visual Studio 2012. When you start a new project you are given a ready to run sample that you can adapt to your needs. All the stuff needed to navigate through the app, to display data, to do semantic zoom, it’s all available. So what do we do? We tweak, change, adapt and modify these samples to fit our application. However, the underlying structure of the app remains the same. Somehow developers can’t seem to break free from the structure that the sample apps give you. Result: all apps looks alike. My tip for the day: take the samples and use them to learn. Don’t use them as a foundation of your app. Make you app different from those others and you’ll find you will have something special. I’m curious to see what you come up with!

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  • Charms and the App Bar

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    Ok. I admit. I made a mistake in the last post about our planespotter app. I have dedicated a full part of the hub to Social. I also had a section called Friends but that made sense since I said that “Friends” is a special group of people that connect to each other through our app and only our app. Social however is sharing our spots with Twitter, Facebook and so on. Now, we could write that functionality in our app in a different section but there is one small problem with that: users don’t expect that. Ok, I admit. The mistake was quite deliberate to give me an excuse to write this part. But still: the mistake is one I see a lot. People are trying to do stuff in their application that they shouldn’t be doing. This always strike me as slightly odd: why do some work when others have already done it for you and you can just use it? After all: good developers are lazy (lazy people will always try to find the easiest way to do something and in development land this usually means the cleanest and best to support way…) So. What is that part that Microsoft has done for us and we don’t have to do ourselves? The answer lies on the right hand of your Win8 screen: This is a screenshot of my tablet (as you can see I am writing this right now….) When I swipe my finger from out of the screen on the right inside the screen (or move the mouse to the upper right corner) this menu will appear. Next to settings and the start menu button we’ll find the Search and the Share charms. These are two ways that your app can share the information it contains with the rest of the world, or at least: the rest of your system. So don’t write a Search feature in your app. Don’t write a Share feature in your app. It’s here already. Users, once they are used to Windows 8, will use that feature and expect it to work. If it doesn’t, they won’t like your app and you can kiss you dreams of everlasting fame goodbye. So use these two. What are they? Well, simply they are parts of a contract. In your app you say somewhere in code that you are supporting Search and Share. So when the user selects Share the system will interrogate the current app in the foreground if it supports this feature. Your app will say “But why, yes, I do!” Then the system will ask the app “Ok then, wisecrack, then share!” and you will have to provide the system with some information about the format. Other applications have subscribed to be at the receiving end of the Share contract. They have told the system that they support Sharing (receiving) and which formats they understand. If one or more of them support the formats you specify, the user will see them. The user clicks / taps on the app of their choice and data is moved from your app to the new one. So if you say you support Facebook and Twitter users can post data from your app to these networks by selecting Share. The same applies to Search. Don’t make a “search” button in your app but use the contract to tell the system that you support search and use that instead. Users will be grateful (remember that bar with men/women/creatures that are waiting for you?) The more and more people get to know Windows 8, the more they will use this. And if you are one of the people who wrote an app that helped them learn the system, well, that’s even better. So. We don’t have a Share or a Search button. We do have other buttons. Most important: we probably need a “New Spot” button. And a “Filter” might be useful. Or someway to open the camera so you can add a picture to the spot. Where will be put those? The answer is the “Appbar” . This is a application / context aware menu that slides up from the bottom of the screen when you move your finger / mouse from below the screen into it. From above downwards works just as well. Here you see an example of the appbar from the People app. (click on it for a larger version). This appears whenever you slide your finger up from below of down from above. This is where you put your commands. Remember, this is context aware so this menu will change when you are in different parts of your app or when you have selected different items. There are a few conventions when you create this appbar. First, the items on the right are “General” items, meaning they have little to do with what is on the screen right now. I think this would be a great place to add our “New Spot” icon. On the far left are items associated with the current selected item or screen. So if you have a spot selected, the button for Add Photo should be visible here and on the left hand side. Not everything is as clear as this, but this is what you should strive for. Group items together. And please note: this is the only place in Metro design where we are allowed to use lines as separators. So when you want to separate a group of icons from another group, add a line. Also note the simplicity of the buttons. No colors, no lights or shadows, no 3D. After a couple of years of fancy almost realistic looking icons people have finally decided that hey, this is a virtual world: it’s ok to look virtual as well. So make things as readable and clear as possible and don’t try to duplicate nature. It’s all about the information, remember? (If you don’t remember I’d like to point you to a older blog post of mine about the what and why of Metro). So.. think about the buttons a bit and think about Share and Search. What will you put there? Remember: this is the way the users interact with your apps and while you shouldn’t judge a book by its covers when it comes to people, this isn’t entirely so when it comes to apps. People DO judge an app by its looks and the way it feels. Take advantage of that. History has learned that a crappy app with a GREAT user interface gets better reviews than a GREAT app with a lousy UI… I know: developers will find this extremely unfair but that’s the world we live in (No, I am not saying you should deliver rubbish apps). Next time: we’ll start by building the darn thing!

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  • adding hard drive failed

    - by dennis ditch
    i was using von welch's instructions at http://v2kblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/adding-second-hard-drive.html] to install a 500 gig seagate drive to write the recordings to. everything seemed to be going ok until mkfs /dev/sdb1 then we get an error message mkfs.ext2: inode_size (128) * inodes_count (0) too big for a filesystem with 0 blocks, specify a higher inode_ratio (-i) or lower inode count (-N) my son is trying to help me but this is beyond him. our knowledge of unix/linux is very limited. at work the support people just sent me a line by line cook book. i would appreciate any help you can give us. the computer is a gateway mdp e4000 . mythbuntu is installed on a pata drive and we are adding a sata drive for the second drive. the bios sees the drive.

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  • Everythings changes, except that it doesn&rsquo;t

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    You may have noticed this. Microsoft launched a new product this week. Well, launched is a strong word, they announced it. They call it.. The Surface! What is it? Well, it’s a cool looking family of tablets designed for Windows 8. And I have to say: they look stunning and I can’t wait to have one. There’s just one thing.. The name..Where have I heard that before? Why, indeed! Yes, it is also the name of a new paradigm in computing: Surface Computing. You may have read something about that, here on this blog for instance. Well, in order to prevent confusion they have decided to rename Surface to Pixelsense. You know, the technology that drives the ‘camera’ inside the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface…. So now, when we talk about Surface, we mean the new tablet. When we talk about Pixelsense we mean that big table… So there you have it… Welcome PixelSense! For more info see http://www.surface.com for the tablet and http://www.pixelsense.com for Pixelsense.

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