Cleared out the loft, found some old code!

30/9/2007 Craig Murphy 2 Comments

Way back in the early 1990s, I found myself writing some code using the C language. I was using an Acorn Archimedes at the time, a machine that was very advanced for its day.

In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. And programmers were real programmers. We didn’t have any of your namby pamby frameworks to rely on, we were men of steel, we worked a bit and byte level, heck, we even had to perform our own memory management. We didn’t even have an IDE, we used the command-line compiler with builds performed via a makefile. Winning a byte here or there was a real boon, especially as our target machines had only 1MB, 2MB or if we were lucky, 4MB of main RAM available. But we had to code to the lowest common denominator, so we found ourselves working to a minimum spec of 1MB. None of the luxuries of today, no sir.

I’m clearing out the other side of the loft next weekend, may be I’ll find some old COBOL that I wrote?!

Technorati Tags: Acorn, Acorn Archimedes, Archimedes, makefile

Community, Developer Events

Next Geek Dinner – 9th October 2007 – London

30/9/2007 Craig Murphy

Zi is organising another geek dinner, this time to be held in the Kos (which proved so successful for the MIX07 dinner on the 11th of September).

More details and sign up can be found here:

http://www.zimakki.com/blog/index.php/2007/09/30/9th-october-geek-dinner/

Technorati Tags: geekdinner, london, zi makki

.net, Community, Developer Events, Podcasts

026 – MIX07 – Men Of Iron – Michael Foord, Dave Verwer – IronPython, IronRuby, the DLR

29/9/2007 Craig Murphy 3 Comments

Men Of Iron, Top: Michael Foord; bottom: Dave Verwer

Welcome to podcast #026. I’m talking with Michael Foord and Dave Verwer about IronPython, IronRuby, Ruby On Rails and the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR). Michael runs until 15:30, then it’s Dave. Recorded live at MIX07, there is a little bit of background noise, apologies for that!

If you’re wondering why you might want to use dynamic languages, you should listen to this podcast to learn why.

The future’s bright, the future’s Python and The future’s bright, the future’s Silverlight! – two quotes that appear in this podcast…

Michael Foord’s session
The web was built using dynamic languages. Their plain-text format made it easy to mash up scripts to create the next great app. Similarly, dynamic languages will find a home in Silverlight applications. Silverlight can be easily deployed, which means that a wider range of dynamic languages will be used in building browser-hosted applications.In this demo-centric talk, you will see dynamic languages interacting with each other, the browser DOM and traditional Javascript. This unprecedented level of integration is possible because of the new Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) and the Silverlight browser plugin. Rich internet applications can be created using existing tools combined with the power of Silverlight.

Dave Verwer’s session
With the introduction of the DLR, dynamic languages are getting their day on the .net platform but why would you even consider a language like Ruby over C# or VB.NET? At a first glance Ruby code on the CLR can look very similar to code written with existing CLR languages but that there is so much more to discover about this beautiful language, this session will show you what delights await you as Ruby makes its debut on the CLR. The session will also give an overview of the progress made so far by the IronRuby team and discuss some of the interesting issues that are being raised during its implementation.

Podcast feed – subscribe here!

This podcast:

Michael’s book
Michael’s company, Resolver Systems

Dave’s company, Shinydevelopment
rubydoes.net

Technorati Tags: Michael Foord, Dave Verwer, IronPython, IronRuby, Ruby On Rails, Dynamic Languages, DLR, MIX07, Men Of Iron, MIXUK07

Opinion

Has Apple shot itself in the foot? What do you think?

28/9/2007 Craig Murphy 8 Comments

I’ve been thinking about my earlier post a little more. You know, I’m no marketing guru or press relations expert, but I can’t help but think that Apple might have opened up a whole can of worms: a possible marketing disaster? I do appreciate that there is a breach of contract in play (by those folks who unlocked their iPhones), but if every contract was enforced in this way, where would we be? Surely customer alienation isn’t the right option?

I guess that Apple are simply covering themselves if AT&T decided to seek compensation for the lost revenue. Working out how much that compensation might be is anybody’s guess – are Apple able to identify and quantify all the unlocked iPhones that are in use? Probably not. Instead, they rely on the fact that folks always want the latest and greatest, so they release a firmware update that is capable of identifying unlocked iPhones at source, then it disables them. I would imagine that makes for one rather upset customer (“upset” probably doesn’t really do the customer’s feelings that much justice, but it’ll do for this blog, thanks!)

Apple shoots itself in the foot?

Has Apple shot itself in the foot?

Do you think Apple were right to release firmware that essentially disables the iPhone if it’s not on an AT&T network?

How else could Apple have dealt with this sitution?

Tell me what you think please!

—

On another note, I couldn’t help but notice my Google Ads on the iPhone post…the irony of the ads still offering iPhone unlocks!

unlock you iPhone ads

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPhone unlocked, hacked iPhone, Apple, AT&T

General, Opinion

Do Apple iPhone users who have unlocked their phones deserve to be locked out?

28/9/2007 Craig Murphy 8 Comments

Recent press has confirmed that Apple’s threat to disable iPhones that have been unlocked appears to have come true.

The Guardian’s article title is rather amusing: Apple bricks some hacked iPhones.

Gizmodo has a good piece about it here.

Twitter has gone wild with folks reporting problems, not just with hacked ‘Phones but with regular unhacked devices too. And even Robert Scoble’s son is having problems.

Do you think iPhone users who unlocked their devices deserve to be locked out? I suppose it *is* breach of contract and Apple are simply enforcing that contract…after all, I guess AT&T have a legal position on this too. I’d appreciate your comments.

Apple shoots itself in the foot?

Technorati Tags: iPhone, unlocked iPhone, iPhone firmware 1.1.1, Apple iPhone

Community, Developer Events

Reminder: Free Edinburgh Event 3rd October – Astoria and XBAPS

26/9/2007 Craig Murphy

Further information can be found over at Scottish Developers

Microsoft Codename “Astoria”
The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies has brought new opportunities and caused us to solve old problems in new ways. AJAX and Silverlight applications need read/write access to data and business objects without performing full page refreshes and without dumbing down the data so much we are just left with primitives. Microsoft’s answer to this problem is Microsoft Codename “Astoria”. In short “Astoria” is a data access layer for client-size technologies such as AJAX and Silverlight. This session shows how it works, how you can write “Astoria” data servers and how you can customize “Astoria” to your applications requirements.

Using ClickOnce and XBAPs To Deploy Windows Forms and WPF Applications
ClickOnce provides the ease of web form deployment for Windows Forms applications. The same technology is used in XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs) which are Windows Presentation Foundation applications that are hosted in a browser. This session introduces the ClickOnce technology and demonstrates its use in many scenarios including: zero touch deployment, one touch deployment, reversion to previous versions, uninstallation. We also cover deploying WPF applications through the browser (known as XBAPs) and illustrate the similarities and differences between XBAPs, MSI-deployed WPF applications and Windows Forms applications deployed using ClickOnce. This session represents an opportunity to understand how to get the ease of web deployment together with richness of Windows Forms or WPF.

When and Where?
We’ll be meeting at the SKM offices in the 160 Dundee Street building, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ at 19:00 on Wednesday 3rd October. The offices are between Fountainbridge Leisure complex and the Victor Paris Bathroom Shop.

Technorati Tags: Scottish Developers, Guy Smith-Ferrier, Astoria, XBAPs, Deployment, WPF, zero touch deployment, AJAX, Silverlight

Community, Developer Events, Podcasts

NxtGenUG chaps on Mix07, including mentions of Scott Guthrie, Robby Ingebretan, Simon Peyton Jones

26/9/2007 Craig Murphy 2 Comments

Following on from podcast 39, the NxtGenUG chaps have released podcast 40 – both of which focus on the MIX07 event held in London 11-12 September 2007.

After their long climb up the stairwell (listen to podcast #39), Rich and Dave reach the top of the lighthouse, so to the sound of waves, seagulls and foghorns, they look back at Day 2 of MIXUK. Amongst interviews with Robby Ingebretan and the ubiquitous Scott Guthrie, and between highlights of ‘Swagily Fortunes’, Dave apparently has lost his flute but marvels at Simon Peyton Jones’ presentation technique while Rich reminisces about the scouts and wonders what we all need to do to live, thrive and survive …

Technorati Tags: NxtGenUG, Scott Guthrie, Robby Ingebretan, Simon Peyton Jones, MIX07, MIX07 UK, Swagily Fortunes

General

WordPress 2.3 upgrade complete

25/9/2007 Craig Murphy 2 Comments

Well, I bit the bullet very soon after the 2.3 announcement went out. Here I am running 2.3 on this blog.

I had hoped that the new built-in tag support would emulate the functionality that I get from Simple Tags. However a brief test using information found here, revealed that the tagging mechanism appears to be limited to within this blog and doesn’t insert Technorati tags as I expected. Once I’ve got some sleep I’ll have another look.

Anyway, I need a really nice, simple, clean 2 or 3 column fluid theme – does anybody have any suggestions? I am very close to writing my own theme as I’m really struggling to find one that I can settle down with.

Technorati Tags: WordPress, WordPress 2.3

.net, Community, Developer Events, Development

Scott Lovegrove interviews Danny Thorpe and Angus Logan

24/9/2007 Craig Murphy 4 Comments

Angus and Danny

Whilst at MIX07 UK a few of us were running around grabbing podcasts with speakers and attendees.

I podcasted with Scott, he then podcasted with Danny Thorpe and Angus Logan. Scott’s podcast is here, over at LiveSide.net.

One thing that caught my attention about this podcast was the fact that it available via Silverlight streaming [here too], complete with chapter points. This is a great feature, especially where a single podcast contains two or more short podcasts back-to-back – making navigation that bit easier. It’s certainly something that I’ll be looking into for my next series of podcasts later this year.

Technorati Tags: Angus Logan, Danny Thorpe, Scott Lovegrove, MIX07, Silverlight, Silverlight streaming, LiveSide, LiveSide.net, Google Bashing

.net, Community, Developer Events, Development, Podcasts

024 – NRW07 – Mischa Huschen – Dynamic loading of code, plug-ins/add-ins

23/9/2007 Craig Murphy

Welcome to podcast #024. I’m talking with Mischa Huschen about the dynamic loading of code using plug-ins and add-ins. Recorded live, just outside the conference venue (Die Börse in Wuppertal), there is some passing traffic. Please remember that Mischa is graciously speaking English, his second language – I’m obviously very grateful to Mischa for podcasting in English.

Podcast feed – subscribe here!

This podcast:

Resources & Related Posts
Prodot

016 – NRW07 – Daniel Fisher on Community In Germany
020 – NRW07 – Vinzenz Feenstra – Grisoft – AVG
021 – NRW07 – Stephan Oetzel – On Community In Germany
022 – NRW07 – Frank Solinske – Windows Home Server
023 – NRW07 – Michael Willers – On security and rootkits

Technorati Tags: Mischa Huschen, NRW07

Community, Developer Events, Podcasts, Security

023 – NRW07 – Michael Willers – On security and rootkits

23/9/2007 Craig Murphy 3 Comments

Welcome to podcast #023. I’m talking with Michael Willers about security, rootkits and the NRW07 Community Conference held in Germany on the 24th of August 2007. Recorded live, just outside the conference venue (Die Börse in Wuppertal), there is some passing traffic. Please remember that Michael is graciously speaking English, his second language – I’m obviously very grateful to Michael for podcasting in English.

Oh, and Michael has a super MSDN watch!

Podcast feed – subscribe here!

This podcast:

Resources & Related Posts
DevCoach
MSDN Security Week

016 – NRW07 – Daniel Fisher on Community In Germany
020 – NRW07 – Vinzenz Feenstra – Grisoft – AVG
021 – NRW07 – Stephan Oetzel – On Community In Germany
022 – NRW07 – Frank Solinske – Windows Home Server
024 – NRW07 – Mischa Huschen – Dynamic loading of code, plug-ins/add-ins

Technorati Tags: Michael Willers, NRW07, devcoach, devcoach.de, justcommunity.de, justcommunity, MSDN, MSDN watch

The Social Programmer

Monthly Archives: September 2007

Cleared out the loft, found some old code!

Next Geek Dinner – 9th October 2007 – London

026 – MIX07 – Men Of Iron – Michael Foord, Dave Verwer – IronPython, IronRuby, the DLR

Has Apple shot itself in the foot? What do you think?

Do Apple iPhone users who have unlocked their phones deserve to be locked out?

Reminder: Free Edinburgh Event 3rd October – Astoria and XBAPS

NxtGenUG chaps on Mix07, including mentions of Scott Guthrie, Robby Ingebretan, Simon Peyton Jones

WordPress 2.3 upgrade complete

Scott Lovegrove interviews Danny Thorpe and Angus Logan

024 – NRW07 – Mischa Huschen – Dynamic loading of code, plug-ins/add-ins

023 – NRW07 – Michael Willers – On security and rootkits

Craig Murphy: author, blogger, community evangelist, developer, speaker, runner