Cristi Potlog's Weblog

Google Reader's New Look

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:06:21 PDT

Finally the new minimalist look of Google's sites has come to Reader.

But besides the new design, which mimics the likes of GMail or Google's main page, comes the integration with G+, the sharing service from Google. At first you may miss the stream of RSS posts shared by your peers that was built in Reader, but I found the new Share on Google+ button, and all posts go straight on your G+ stream, where you find also the shares of others.

It's a nice piece of functionality, that finally seems to have found it's way. With the demise of Buzz, and this new integration I found more reasons to check my G+ stream.

RONUA.RO Launches Visual Studio 2010 in Romania

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:46:51 PDT

RONUA.RO launches Visual Studio 2010 in Romania at its annual Summer Codecamp Tour

Highlights:

What's new in Visual Studio 2010 and has improved since the 2008 version!
.Net has hit 4.0 version mark with ASP.NET 4.0, Entity Framework 4.0, ASP.NET 4.0, MVC 2.0! No marketing - Just technoly!
Silverlight 4, Windows Phone 7, Expression Studio 4, SketchFlow, TFS 2010 - evaluated and inside out!
BONUS: You can talk with other developers from the community, make new friends, and find new opportunities!

Should You Use Open Source Software or Stick to Microsoft Proprietary Tools?

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:01:40 PDT

I am working on a new project using NHibernate, Spring.NET and even trying to port Envers from Java to .NET. We are using Visual Studio 2010 (RC) UML Modeling Tools to desing our class model and to generate C# code annotated with NHibernate mappings attributes.

The short story is that I got stocked when trying to apply custom defined stereotypes on UML relationships' MemberEnds as I described in this post on Stack Overflow. Sadly, no answer there.

I went then to Cameron Skinner's Blog, who is product unit manager on the Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) team, overseeing the Visual Studio Architecture product line, and I received this answer to my question:

Unfortunately, this is a bug in our code. We need to fix this one, but until then, I don't have a good story for you. :(

The even sadder part is that I contacted the man offline as he suggested and all I could get from him was that this bug will be fixed as soon as SP1 (meaning a 6-9 months time span). Needless to say that I wasn't happy with the answer.

We got a workaround for this and I'm not going to comment any further on the particular issue. I just want to say that since delving into open-source software I came to enjoy the bug fixing speed of the open-source communities. There are bugs in open-source software too, even some nasty ones, but at least you can hope for a quick fix, and if nobody helps and time is not pressing you can contribute yourself.

Something to blog about

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:28:43 PST

Thinking to put more time into blogging. I neglected this blog for quite a while. It was a pretty intense year, the last one. Most importantly, I expanded my family with a little boy, and this is an accomplishment enough for me.

So my personal life was evolving rather great last year, taking more time for itself than previously. This not being a bad thing after all. My son is now almost 3 months old, so the hard part has passed. Now I'm eagerly expecting him to grow up. My little daughter and wife also complete my life, and I am just happy in that way.

At work it was a tough year, struggling with old projects in maintenance that were getting nowhere and hoping to start new ones. But the crisis hit the economy and new projects were hard to find, if not impossible.

As for blogging, last year I dedicated more time reading other blogs than writing on this one. I realized that simply echoing tech news from established blogs was not enough to build an audience. In fact I didn't had much to say, but I hope that I will be able to improve in this area. I'm not saying I have a dull life, with nothing to say, but just that I don't easily find the right words to put it into text, nor I make time for writing.

The other blog I started last year was not gaining any traction either. Even though I thought that simply posting photos captured with my phone would be less time consuming, after some posts I lost interest.

This year started rather slow, giving me time to gather some momentum, so I am restarting this blog on a new ground, hoping that I will fill this space with more personal stuff and let the others talk about the news. I am hoping to start some new projects this year. Maybe they would be interesting enough to blog about them. That's what the new blog will be all about.

Google Wave is coming soon to a browser near you

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:40:47 PDT

Since first unveiling the project back in May, Google has remained quiet about Wave.

Today, September 30 Google announced ot will be sending out more than 100,000 invitations to preview Google Wave to:

Developers who have been active in the developer preview we started back in June
The first users who signed up and offered to give feedback on wave.google.com
Select customers of Google Apps

I'm not yet among those few, but I'll get back with first impressions when my chance will come.

Google has been kept developers in touch with it's plans hoping to build an apps ecosystem around Wave. The ongoing developer preview has enabled developers to extend and embed Wave. Even more, Google has started an open-source project called Google Wave Federation Protocol that aims to enable developers to build their own Wave clients.

To get a taste of what developers have been working on, you can check the Wave's developers blog.

Google has launched Chrome Frame

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:39:39 PDT

A few days ago Google has launched Google Chrome Frame, an open source plug-in that brings HTML5 and other open web technologies to Internet Explorer.

The intended purpose of this plug-in to help web developers deliver faster, richer applications like Google Wave. Using Google Chrome Frame, developers will be able to take advantage of the latest open web technologies, even in Internet Explorer. Developers may choose to use it, but the success of builing an app with features like HTML5's offline capabilities and <canvas> or modern CSS/Layout handling will depend on whether users that have IE will have this plug-in installed too.

I think though this starts a new trend for Google, by helping Microsoft to be more standards compliant instead of waiting for Microsoft to make up its mind. This will also help the addoption of Google's new apps, such as Google Wave, developed based on new HTML5 standards.

Photoblog?

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:11:58 PDT

Everybody I know is starting photoblogs:

Maybe this is the winning trend. Maybe is something I should consider for myself.

Here are some shots I took with my mobile phone:

What do you think? Am I worthy?

UPDATE: after some consideration and a long weekend I decided to start a photoblog.

Glimmer: New Tool from Microsoft Labs

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:13:45 PDT

Microsoft has released Glimmer, a tool that allows you to easily create interactive elements on your web pages by harnessing the power of the jQuery JavaScript library.

Without having to hand-craft your JavaScript code, you can use Glimmer’s wizards to generate jQuery scripts for common interactive scenarios. Glimmer also has an advanced mode, providing a design surface for creating jQuery effects based on your existing HTML and CSS.

You cand download it for free (as in open source) here.

If you like to see what the tool is capable of, please review the samples:

Internet Explorer 8

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:15:59 PDT

Here it is: http://microsoft.com/ie

Microsoft has released ASP.NET MVC 1.0

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:32:41 PDT

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 has been released today at MIX09!

Here's the download link.

Phil Haack explains on Channel 9 what makes this version 1.0 of the MVC Framework for ASP.NET and spends a little time explaining the MVC pattern. Phil then demos the scaffolding functionality which allows you to quickly build a functional website based on your existing data services.

Free ASP.NET MVC eBook

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:27:17 PDT

After the second release candidate of ASP.NET MVC, Scott Guthrie is publishing a step-by-step tutorial on the theory and approach for using this new technology that enables you to build Model View Controller (MVC) applications by using the ASP.NET framework.

Well, actually, the free eBook is a single chapter of 185 pages, filled with screen-shots from NerdDinner.com a complete ASP.NET MVC reference application. It begins by using the File->New Project menu command within Visual Studio to create a new ASP.NET MVC Application. And then incrementally adds functionality and features. Along the way it covers how to create a database, build a model layer with business rule validations, implement listing/details data browsing, provide CRUD (Create, Update, Delete) data form entry support, implement efficient data paging, reuse UI using master pages and partials, secure the application using authentication and authorization, use AJAX to deliver dynamic updates and interactive map support, and implement automated unit testing.

This is an unedited draft, the rest of the book being still in production. The free chapter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives 3.0 license.

You can download a copy from http://tinyurl.com/aspnetmvc, or you can use this direct link.

You can also download NerdDinner.com application from CodePlex.

Social Software Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:59:34 PST

Here's a great talk about Social Software, the many-to-many two-way communication pattern and group psychology.

I'm an MCP Now

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:03:24 PST

In case anybody cares, I just passed my first Microsoft Certification Exam today. I hope it will not be the last, as I plan to gain a full MCPD Certification (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer), hopefully by the end of this year.

Microsoft launches open-source CMS

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:25:02 PST

Microsoft has developed and released via CodePlex an alpha version of a new open-source content-management system, codenamed “Oxite.”

This is a simple blog engine written using ASP.NET MVC, and is designed with two main goals:

To provide a sample of “core blog functionality” in a reusable fashion. Blogs are simple and well understood by many developers, but the set of basic functions that a blog needs to implement (trackbacks, rss, comments, etc.) are fairly complex.
To provide a real-world sample written using ASP.NET MVC.

The Oxite content-management platform is built to take full advantage of ASP.NET MVC but broken into assemblies so that even ASP.NET WebForm developers can use the data backend and utility code, supports use of Visual Studio Team Suite (DB Pro, Test, etc.), and Background Services Architecture (sending trackbacks, emails, etc. all done as a background process to prevent delays on the web site itself).

I should give it a try and come back with more details in the following days.

Microsoft's MIX Online site is run on Oxite. This is the first real-life implementation of the CMS system.

Lean Software. What it is?

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:25:35 PST

I've just read an article in eWeek about lean software development, which is an approach to building software that promotes simplicity and minimizes resource usage.

In fact the term is a translation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain. Adapted from the Toyota Production System, a pro-lean subculture is emerging from within the Agile community.

The term Lean Software Development originated in a book by the same name, written by Mary and Tom Poppendieck The book presents the traditional Lean principles in a modified form, as well as a set of 22 tools and compares the tools to agile practices.

But what's most interesting from this article is Rymer's predictions. First prediction was, "Lean software specialists will thrive." The second was, "SAP's platform influence will shrink." Third was, "Microsoft will beat IBM and Oracle to PAAS ... I think Microsoft is being much more aggressive in developing this new cloud-based model than IBM and Oracle." What about that?!

jQuery IntelliSense in Visual Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:44:34 PST

Just two months after announcing its intent in supporting open-source JavaScript library jQuery, Microsoft's Scott Guthrie, corporate v.p. in the Microsoft Developer Division, published a blog post stating: "Over the last few weeks we've been working with the jQuery team to add great jQuery intellisense support within Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer 2008 Express (which is free)."

The jQuery IntelliSense annotation support will be available as a free Web download. He also posted some installation instruction for this plugin in the same post.

Microsoft's Application Architecture Guide 2.0 - Beta 1 released

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:11:41 PDT

Microsoft's Application Architecture Guide 2.0 (Beta 1) has been released on codeplex. This is a guide to help solution architects and developers make the most of the Microsoft platform.

Welcome to the Windows 7 desktop

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:18:23 PDT

Microsoft showed off publicly for the first time Windows 7 at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC08) on October 28.

You can see some screen-shots from the presentation on flickr.

An here's a list of new features of Windows 7, including:

The New Windows Taskbar
Jump Lists
New Moves on Aero
Unified Search
Fewer Annoying Pop-ups
Device Stage

UPDATE: Here's a great overview of new desktop features on Gizmodo.

Microsoft Announces Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:28:56 PST

Old news for some, but I need to mention this announcement from Microsoft a month ago (just for the record :-).

Microsoft described the next release through the following five focus areas:

riding the next-generation platform wave,
inspiring developer delight,
powering breakthrough departmental applications,
enabling emerging technology trends such as cloud computing,
democratizing ALM (application life-cycle management).

S. “Soma” Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, stated that:

“With Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, we are focused on the core pillars of developer experience, support for the latest platforms spanning client, server, services and devices, targeted experiences for specific application types, and core architecture improvements. These pillars are designed specifically to meet the needs of developers, the teams that drive the application life cycle from idea to delivery, and the customers that demand the highest quality applications across multiple platforms. You can expect to hear a lot more about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 in the coming months.”

The new version will feature modeling tools through Architecture Edition, enabling both technical and non-technical users to create and use models to collaborate and to define business and system functionality graphically. The new version supports both UML (Unified Modeling Language) and DSL (Domain Specific Language), so development organizations will have the right tool for the right job. Microsoft has already developed support for five types of UML diagrams, previous versions having only one type of diagram (Class Diagram).

UPDATE: The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 CTP has been released after PDC08.

Next version of Windows will be known as "Windows 7"

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:14:58 PDT

I'm blogging from Paris airport in France, on my way to Tunis in Africa.

I just stumbled on this post on webmonkey. It's news worth notice, if proves to be true, as the first time since Windows 3.1, that actual version number has been part of the name.

It could be a cool new trend for Windows, as many don't have a clue what "XP" or "Vista" are really meaning.

Back in (the monkey) business

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:15:13 PDT

I've been offline for a while, busy programming.

Now I'm updating user manuals... Tough job, but somebody has to do it. Seems that the interesting part of the project has passed away.

I hope to be more active online in the near future.

This blog is not dead! (Yet)

Top 25 Free Icon Resources for Web Designers

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:04:52 PDT

I just stumbled upon this gem: Top 25 Free Icon Resources for Web Designers.

If you are in despair for some free graphics those may come in handy.

Ballmer's Letter To Yahoo!: Nothing but FUD

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:48:32 PST

Joe Wilcox, posted two news commentaries on his Microsoft Watch Blog, here and here.

Basically, he states that Ballmers' letter is one of the nastiest pieces of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) communications of the high-tech era.

"Microsoft seeks to set Yahoo shareholders against the 10-member board of directors. The letter, while written for the board, is really for shareholders. Microsoft's publication of the letter is evidence enough of the audience."

Joe Wilcox further analyzes the letter, paragraph by paragraph, revealing the real meaning of Ballmer's words: fear that Yahoo shares will further decline and during a period of huge economic uncertainty, the "large premium" is overstated.

"Microsoft will take the company or take it out. This isn't even an implicit threat. It's direct and deliberate."

Blogging is not sustainable as a business

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:26:02 PDT

A friend on mine pointed me at a recent article about blogging from New York Times , which raises a difficult question after enumerating some tragic deaths of some bloggers, hearth disease related.

"Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December."

Blogging is a lucrative business, many bloggers being well-compensated for their efforts to keep the rest of us up to date with breaking news and the latest gossip. It is unclear how many people blog as a job, but surely there are several thousand out there.

There is a growing number of online writers, reporting and even reflecting about sports, politics, business, technology, celebrities and every other conceivable niche. Some write for fun, but thousands write for publishers, or have started their own online media outlets with profit in mind. One of the most competitive categories is blogs about technology developments and news.

Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, said “I haven’t died yet”, but “this is not sustainable”, as he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. “There’s no time ever — including when you’re sleeping — when you’re not worried about missing a story,” Mr. Arrington said.

Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo! Board of Directors

noreply@blogger.com (Cristi Potlog) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:41:16 PDT

Microsoft press officials released the text of Ballmer’s letter to the media one day after unnamed sources close to Microsoft told some reporters that Microsoft was losing patience with Yahoo’s reticence to take up Microsoft on its January 31 offer to buy Yahoo.

Microsoft says Yahoo has three weeks to negotiate a decent deal, after which time Microsoft is going to take his case directly to Yahoo! shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy bidding to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board.

I don’t believe that Microsoft has any real intention of walking away from this deal. I feel there’s so much overlap between Microsoft and Yahoo that this merger seems feasible, but a hostile proxy battle is the surest path to mutually assured destruction. Microsoft shares have already fallen more than 10 percent since the company first sprang its unsolicited bid on Yahoo, and market research has shown that it can take years before companies recover from a hostile takeover.

However, even thou Microsoft implies that Yahoo! has not answered their offer, Yahoo! has released to the press a statement on February 11, concluding that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.