simon.says

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED - PLEASE UPDATE YOUR FEEDS!!!

smguest — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 01:26:32 GMT

I've had a happy time on http://blogs.msdn.com, but having decided to make some changes to my site, I'm going to go it alone and run my own version of Community Server. If you are reading this message and would like to stay up to date, my new URL is:

http://www.simonguest.com

If you use an RSS reader, you can use:

http://www.simonguest.com/rss.aspx

I look forward to more comments and discussions across at my new site!

Thanks,

-Simon

Summary of SPARK UX

smguest — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 01:57:00 GMT

Software Architects have a tough job. They need to be experts in mapping business needs to technology, understanding the IT organization, and domain specific areas such as service orientation, workflow, security etc. One of the areas that often gets overlooked however is User Experience (UX). If many software architects were building architects we'd have structurally sound buildings, but one ugly city!

This "UX for Architects" message is one that I've been taking on the road to a number of events recently, including TechEd in Boston this year. Judging from the feedback from these events, this is a topic that resonating well, but doesn't seem to be getting the attention it needs. To help this along, the Architecture Strategy Team at Microsoft hosted SPARK UX, a two day workshop on this very issue this week at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, CA.

We invited 30 top thinkers from a mix of UX and Software Architecture backgrounds to discuss the issues that surround this problem. The attendees included a few that have already publicly blogged, including Adam Richardson from Frog, Brandon Schauer from AdaptivePath, Lou Rosenfeld, and Phil Barrett. Analysts from Ovum and Gartner were also in attendance.

This workshop style gathering was moderated by two professional facilitators, and focused on card-storming and working group exercises as we covered a number of topics during Monday and Tuesday.

One additional highlight for many attendees was a presentation by John Hill, who is the building architect responsible for the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, along with a number of additional resort hotels across the world. It was fascinating to listen to some of his experiences, especially when someone asked "what's the worst mistake you've ever seen". To this, John thought for a minute and answered "Hmmm... nothing I can really think of". If we'd have asked the same question to an architect in our industry, I think we would have been inundated with tales of projects that hadn't been completed on time, or didn't meet the needs of the clients! For me, this was very indicative of how immature our industry is.

So, did we get a single, all encompassing answer on how to solve this problem? Not in the day and a half - but we did come away with a set of actions and outcomes that I think will set this in motion as we continue down this path. These included:

On the last day we discussed whether a "User Experience Architect" was a role or discipline within an organization. The answer is always going to be "it depends" based on who the organization is, but the group did agree that that many roles included a blend between architecture and UX. I believe that identifying this role is an important step to understanding what guidance we need to create.
I think there was a lot of agreement that we need to do more to incorporate UX into the Software Development LifeCycle (SDLC). We were fortunate to have Jeff Patton from Thoughtworks who admitted that many people are thinking about this today, but not much is really available publicly.
We need more UX sessions in architecture events and more architecture sessions in UX events. I'm personally going to be kicking this off by introducing an "experience" track at our next Strategic Architect Forum (SAF). I'm also looking forward to seeing more architecture related sessions in user experience and design events such as MIX, DUX and AIGA.

Lou Rosenfeld summarized the event well by saying that this is a journey, not a destination. For those that attended I'm hopeful that this unique and non-typical event from Microsoft demonstrated this, and look forward to continuing the discussion.

Looking for a User Experience Architect Evangelist

smguest — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 01:49:26 GMT

I have a new position in my team looking for a User Experience (UX) Architect Evangelist. I'm still working on the official job description, but given the level of interest in my last posting, I wanted to get it uploaded here first.

The ideal person will have the following mix of skills:

Knowledge and prior experience with software architecture. Prior experience as a software architect or senior developer, or working close in a team with software architects is desired. You should be able to communicate credibly with an audience of software architects on many different topics.
Knowledge of user experience. This includes design, usability, prototyping, personas, and search, which you should be able to demonstrate through a portfolio of released applications.
A great communicator. I'm looking for someone who is a great communicator - both through written materials and standing on stage in front of a large audience.

In return, you'll get the chance to work with a great team on educating and realizing the vision of user experience for software architects. This is an incredible opportunity to build up guidance in this emerging area.

If this sounds like you, please send through a resume and any other details using the "contact me" option on this blog. No agencies please.

What do you need to know to be an IT Architect?

smguest — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 18:46:00 GMT

Update: This post has moved to here.

My team has been spending a fair amount of time recently asking this question "What is it that you need to know to be an IT Architect?". What you should be reading? What skills should you be honing? Who should be following?

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with IASA (the International Association of Software Architects) to try and answer this very question. I spent a week with Paul Preiss (the president), Angela Yochem (a fellow, and VP of Enterprise Architecture at SunTrust), Aaron Tan Dani (who runs the ISAC in Malaysia), and a few people from Redmond. During this week we created a taxonomy for what we believed were "the essential things you need to know to be an IT Architect".

We started by defining what we believe as the fundamental skills that every Architect needs. We classified these into five areas, known as IT Environment, Business / Technology Strategy, Design Skills, Quality Attribute Skills, and Human Dynamics:

IT Environment is about the organization of the IT department, Engineering, Operations, Governance, and Project Management. These represent the fundamental skills required for understanding how the IT organization works and how the IT Architect functions as part of this.

Business / Technology Strategy is understanding how the business maps to technology (and hopefully vice versa). It covers business fundamentals, business and technology alignment (mapping), valuation (e.g. is an IT project going to return value?), and industry concerns.

Design Skills are an IT Architect's primary tool for creating solutions. Skills required here include knowledge of patterns and best practices, building blocks, artifacts, tools, and methodologies.

Quality Attributes are the considerations that cross cut every technology solution (or at least they should!). These include management and monitoring, attribute types (security, reliability, supportability - this list can go on), and implementation.

Finally, the area of Human Dynamics cover skills required such as communications (writing, listening, speaking etc.), situational awareness, and leadership.

What are your thoughts? Ignoring the specific domains (e.g. solutions architecture, infrastructure architecture etc.), are we missing anything from the set of fundamental skills that every IT Architect needs? Are these the right areas or would you change them?

Come Help Build a Better Architect Community!

smguest — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:51:00 GMT

Who do you know that gets to play at work all day? It could be you.

If you know the latest Web 2.0 and community technologies (RSS, ESS, IM Bots, Community Server, Wikis, VoD, Podcasts) and have a passion for IT architecture, then do we have a job in our team for you! How would you like to develop cool stuff on a community site where the sky is the limit? Thought Channel9 was cool? Come help make something even bigger!

If you are interested, please visit this link or send me your resume using the "email" link at the left of my blog. No agencies please.

Renaming GTD Tasks in Outlook 2007

smguest — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:31:00 GMT

While using Outlook 2007 as my GTD tool, one of the things I’ve been missing is having the ability to rename tasks on the fly. Here’s a pretty common situation:

· A new message arrives with the subject of “RE: Purchase Order”. It’s from Jack, and after reading the Email I realize that I need to call Bob to confirm the quantity.

· I flag it as a task in Outlook, assign some categories (let’s say @Office and ProjectX), and move it to my tasks folder.

· As you may know, this creates a new task with the subject of “RE: Purchase Order”. What I really want however is to change the name of the task to something more descriptive – for example “Speak to Bob about quantity required for the order”.

You can do this renaming in the to-do list, but this requires the step of going into the to-do list, finding the aforementioned task and then changing the name in the list.

After figuring out that I needed something more automated, I wrote the following macro:

Function FileFolderEntryId() As String

    Dim myolApp As Outlook.Application
    Dim myNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace
    Dim myInbox As Outlook.folder
    Dim rootFolder As Outlook.folder
    Dim subFolders As Outlook.Folders
    Dim subFolder As Outlook.folder
    Dim fileFolder As Outlook.folder
    Dim fileEntryID As String
    Dim fileFolderName As String

     'Set the folder name - must be at the same level as the inbox
    fileFolderName = "File"

    ' Move the the file folder
    Set myolApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
    Set myNamespace = myolApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    Set myInbox = myNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
    Set rootFolder = myInbox.Parent
    Set subFolders = rootFolder.Folders

    Set subFolder = subFolders.GetFirst
    Do While Not subFolder Is Nothing
        If subFolder.Name = fileFolderName Then
            fileEntryID = subFolder.EntryID
            Exit Do
        End If
        Set subFolder = subFolders.GetNext
    Loop

    ' return the entry ID for the file folder
    FileFolderEntryId = fileEntryID

End Function

Sub NewTask()

Dim item As MailItem

Dim myolApp As Outlook.Application

Dim myNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace

Dim fileFolder As Outlook.folder

Dim newName As String

' Pick the category

Set item = Outlook.Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)

' Mark as unread

item.UnRead = False

item.Save

item.ShowCategoriesDialog

'validate to see whether two categories exist, including an action

If (item.categories <> "") Then

If (InStr(item.categories, "@") > 0) Then

If (InStr(item.categories, ",") > 0) Then

' Set the follow up flag

item.MarkAsTask (olMarkNoDate)

' Move the item to the file folder

Set myolApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

Set myNamespace = myolApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")

Set fileFolder = myNamespace.GetFolderFromID(FileFolderEntryId())

' Ask for a different name if required

newName = InputBox("Please enter a subject for the task:", "Task Subject", item.TaskSubject)

item.TaskSubject = newName

item.Save

item.Move fileFolder

End If

End Sub

The above does everything for me – assigns the categories, and prompts me for a task subject before moving it to my file folder (highlighted). What’s really nice about this is that the subject of the underlying Email remains the same (it’s only the task’s subject that changes). This means that after I’ve spoken to Bob about the quantity, the reply to the original Email from Jack will still have the original subject of “RE: Purchase Order”. Pretty Cool.

*** Update: Fixed post with the FileFolderEntryId() function ***

Call For Papers: Architecture Journal Issue #10

smguest — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:35:00 GMT

Microsoft’s Architecture Journal is a quarterly magazine, providing a world-class forum for the publication of unique articles on how good architecture can help create great implementations. Microsoft’s Architecture Journal is available as a printed subscription (you can order your own here) and also online here

With Issue #9 almost complete, I'm looking for abstracts and ideas for Issue #10, the theme of which is Composite Applications (applications that aggregate data from multiple sources, mashups, smart client applications, applications that integrate with Office applications, applications built using the CAB/SCSF, etc.).

Writing for the Architecture Journal gives you the opportunity to get your thoughts and ideas in the hands of enterprise, solution and infrastructure architects around the world – that’s a growing number of over 45,000 subscribers! In addition, your article will be localized into multiple languages and distributed at major events and conferences worldwide.

The cut off date for abstracts for the next issue is Sep 18th. If you are interested in making a submission, here are the details:

How do I make a submission?

To submit an idea for a paper, you are asked to send the following:

- A 2 – 4 paragraph abstract explaining how your paper fits the theme of the magazine

- A 1 – 2 paragraph bio

- A list of previously published articles

Submissions should be made via Email to editors@architecturejournal.net

Each issue of the Architecture Journal follows a theme (for example; integration, workflow, data). 80% of the issue is dedicated to this theme. 20% is reserved for articles that we wish to print, but do not follow the theme.

We receive many submissions for each issue, so we encourage you to put time and thought into the submission.

When will I know whether my submission is accepted?

After the call for papers has ended, everyone that submits an idea will be notified via Email as to whether their submission was successful or not.

What happens if my submission is accepted?

If accepted, you’ll have between 4 and 6 weeks to submit two drafts and a final version of your paper. These dates will be clearly communicated. Your first draft will be reviewed by an editorial board to ensure it is on message for the magazine. Your second draft and final version will be subject to both technical and content editing. You’ll be asked to be available to work with our editors via Email during this process.

The magazine is generally available in print and online 4 weeks after final drafts are submitted.

What are the guidelines for papers printed in the Architecture Journal?

We recommend that papers are between 3,500 and 4,500 words in length – although we have accepted shorter and longer papers in the past. The article should be submitted using Microsoft Word. Diagrams should be submitted in either Microsoft Visio or Microsoft PowerPoint.

Do I still own the work?

Yes. We ask you to sign a release form that gives Microsoft permission to reprint the article, but ownership of the paper remains with you, the author.

Will I get paid for writing?

We do not currently pay authors for contributing to the Architecture Journal.

Will I get copies of the magazine as an author?

After printing you’ll be sent 10 copies of the Journal for your own use. Additional copies can be requested.

Where can I get more information?

Check out this link.

Hitting the WPF Curve (a.k.a. Falling off the WPF Cliff)

smguest — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 02:02:00 GMT

Learning WPF can be hard. Even if you have experience with Windows Forms or SWING, many concepts in WPF/XAML are very different and require a total brainwash before you can even put a button on a form. In his blog, Karsten calls this the WPF Curve and offers several resources to help.

Being on a mission to get more familiar with WPF (if for nothing else, to avoid handwaving in my UX presentations :-)), I wanted to offer this post as one of the many resources to help get you started. This is what you may learn in today’s installment:

Environment

Getting your environment right before you start following any of the code samples is critical. If you are not using a Beta version of Vista, you’ll need to install either the June or July CTP of the WinFX runtime. Fortunately, testing whether everything is installed OK is relatively easy. Simply use notepad to create a test.xaml file with the following:

<TextBlock>Everything is working!</TextBlock>

</DockPanel>

Save the file, then click on it from Windows Explorer. If you see the text “Everything is working!” you (should) have the right foundations to begin.

Which IDE?

After the runtime is installed correctly, I recommend considering what IDE you are going to use to create WPF applications. Options include:

Notepad (or other text editors) – for the diehards out there that can live without Intellisense.

Visual Studio.NET with Cider preview installed – for the VS.NET junkies that can’t live without Intellisense.

Expression Interactive Designer CTP – for the photoshop inspired bunch.

Personally, I use a mix of all three. Notepad is great just for copying/pasting code snippets that you want to test, but difficult to bind events to, or do anything advanced with. Cider is good for providing Intellisense support for XAML files in VS.NET, but don’t expect full designer support today. EID is good for drawing a shape and then examining the underlying XAML to see how it was done. It can be a little verbose, but it works well for “how do I draw a circle?” type questions.

You may have heard of XAMLPad (a utility that ships with the Windows SDK). Again, it’s a good editor for trying sample code out – saves ALT-TABing between Notepad and Explorer, but I find it difficult to manage multiple XAML files and code behind scenarios.

My First Project

After getting your IDE choice setup, I recommend creating a blank application as a reference point. This is something that you can always fall back on in time of need. After a few attempts, I created a blank project in Visual Studio 2005 by choosing File -> New Project -> WinFX Windows Application.

After you do this you may see this error:

Error 1 Could create an instance of type 'Window'. C:\Users\sguest\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\BlankProject\BlankProject\Window1.xaml 1 1 BlankProject

…but if you compile it goes away (a Cider-related bug I believe).

You now have your first project up and running – now what? I recommend the following sequence for starting out learning new controls in WPF:

Panels

Start with Panels. Learn about the StackPanel, DockPanel etc – add a few pieces of text and change the orientation around. Add a couple of buttons for good measure (although they won’t do anything yet). This will give you a good overview of layout in WPF and you’ll have an appreciation where and how objects are displayed on the screen.

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" DockPanel.Dock="Top"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

Name="StackPanel1"

</StackPanel>

Multiple XAML Pages

After you master the panels, check out the Hyperlink control. The demos in the SDK documentation show how to use it to navigate between multiple XAML pages, which is really useful.

<Hyperlink NavigateUri="Window2.xaml">Go to Window 2</Hyperlink>

Events

Once you have some mastery of placing stuff in a window, I recommend learning how to bind events. The easiest way to do this is to create a button that changes its own title. Start with a button, and add a Click element that points to a function in your code behind file (you’ll have to add the function manually).

<Button HorizontalAlignment="Left"

Width="100" Height="25"

Margin="10,10,10,10"

Click = "b1Click"

Name ="Button1">Click Me Please</Button>

…

public void b1Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

{

this.Button1.Content = "You clicked me!";

}

This is an easy way to explore events – and will give the opportunity to see how you can modify objects defined in your XAML file from code behind. Use Intellisense to dig into the options available.

Styles and Triggers

After getting an event working, you’ll next want to investigate styles. A style enables you to control the look and feel of multiple controls in your application. For example, you can create a “MyButton” style which sets the background of each button to red. When you define a button, you can then set the style as appropriate. Of course, the advantage of this is that you can change the style once and effect multiple controls in your application.

<StackPanel.Resources>

</Style>

</StackPanel.Resources>

…

<Button HorizontalAlignment="Left"

Width="100" Height="25"

Margin="10,10,10,10"

Style ="{StaticResource MyButtonStyle}">Button 2</Button>

After getting the hang of Styles, look into Triggers. These are a subcomponent of Styles, and allow events to be fired based on a style. For example, changing the style of a control when you hover over it with the mouse.

<StackPanel.Resources>

<Style.Triggers>

</Trigger>

</Style.Triggers>

</Style>

</StackPanel.Resources>

Where are we?

Hopefully that’s enough to give you a taste of using some of the simple controls in WPF…

I’m off getting my head around 2D elements in WPF (a.k.a. Argh… All I want to do is to draw a line!) and will be back with news. Wish me luck...

SPARK UX 1 - 3 Oct, Half Moon Bay, CA

smguest — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:02:00 GMT

SPARK UX

the two faces of design

A FORUM TO EXPLORE THE INTERSECTION OF ARCHITECTURE AND EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Too often today, software products and interactive experiences fall short of their potential because the user experience does not serve the interests of its users. The engineering side of software architecture often fails to consider the full implications of its design, leading to interfaces that are non-intuitive, and experiences that compromise the product and threaten the success of the business.

To help address this, my team is inviting industry leaders and luminaries in this area for a think-tank meeting called SPARK UX. SPARK UX will examine the issues behind this problem to inspire a new framework for bringing the “art of user experience” into the process of software architecture. The event will bring together a diverse collection of architects, engineers, designers and analysts to define what user experience means for software architects, and provide guidance to all practitioners for improving both the process and end results.

The mission of SPARK UX is quite simple: to empower software architects to improve the user experience of products everywhere.

Together, we will help software architects think about user experience, define how software architects can employ UX in their software development lifecycle, and reveal how product managers can value UX as an integral part of the development process.

SPARK UX will be held at The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, CA (south of San Francisco) Oct. 2-3, 2006. If you know of someone that should be there (or if you think you should be there!), let me know by using the contact form on this blog.

Launching Applications in Vista 5472

smguest — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:54:00 GMT

Scott has a great post about replacing “start/run” to launch applications quickly – I’ve used a number of the tools he lists in the past to find optimal ways of launching applications. One of the options he does miss however is the new start menu in Vista, which now contains a field for entering search or command line requests.

This new field (at the bottom left of the menu) gives me a few interesting ways of getting stuff done quickly:

· As with the previous MSN Desktop search, I can search for things on my desktop or on the web by just typing in the box and launch applications on the path by just typing their name (e.g. notepad).

· I can find and launch applications on my start menu by typing in a portion of the name. For example, instead of going Start -> Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Word, I can type in “word” [enter]. I use “studio” for VS.NET etc.

· This also works for favorites – for example, I have a favorite saved as “owa” (for Outlook Web Access). I type owa [enter] and the URL is launched. I use foldershare to synchronize my favorites folder between machines, which works really well.

· I can shutdown/hibernate/standby the machine by [Windows Key] [right arrow x 3 times] and selecting the appropriate option (e.g. H to hibernate).

I’m still looking for a good way to do macros with this approach (for example, [amaz lord of the rings] or [quote MSFT]), but so far I’m finding this a very useful feature.

Saving Memories

smguest — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 06:31:00 GMT

When I was growing up I used to take a lot of photos. Armed with an old Canon 35mm SLR, a few lenses, filters and other stuff, I strongly believe that if my current career hadn't worked out I would have found myself doing something with photography. Like most people however, as I got older (and busier) I got swept away by the digital camera revolution - exchanging my beloved 35mm SLR for a more compact digital camera several years ago.

Looking through our family photos the other day, I started to feel cheated. I realized that I’d traded the quality of photos I used to take for the convenience of something that would fit into my pocket. Of course, the first generation of Digital SLRs definitely had their problems – many functions didn’t come across well from 35mm range, they were slow to start up, and (for me) unbelievably expensive, but after doing some research over the past few weeks, I can definitely say it's now a different story.

Because there are so many choices, I started by making a list of requirements:

· Must support functions of my previous 35mm SLR – good range of manual shutter, aperture and ISO settings – I want to be in control of the pictures I take.

· Must support multiple frames per second (ideally 3fp/s). I have a 22month old who surprisingly doesn’t feel it necessary to sit still when the perfect photo opportunity arises for Dad.

· Must have instant start up – my current digital pocket camera annoys the heck out of me when I see a shot but then have to wait for 5 seconds while it thinks about booting up.

After a long haul through all of the available dSLRs it came down to the Nikon D70s vs. the Canon Digital Rebel XT (EOS 350D). On paper and in most reviews they are virtually the same camera (with the exception of resolution – which I don’t find an issue unless you are printing larger than 12”x10”). The major difference however is size and weight. If you have larger hands and prefer a sturdier camera, the D70s looks like a good choice. If you can handle the smaller size and prefer something a little lighter (a priority for me as I travel frequently) the Canon EOS 350D could be a better fit.

After I’d succumbed to purchasing the Canon EOS 350D, it came down to the choice of lens (which is actually more important that the camera). The default lenses with most Digital SLR kits tend to be wide angle (for example, 18-55mm – the lower this number, the wider the available angle of the lens). While this is great for typical beach/sunset/view-of-the-mountains shots, it’s not so hot when it comes to portrait/family shots. Of course, many people don’t realize this until they have purchased the lens – after which you end up buying a second lens for those closer shots. I used to have a second lens (Sigma 70-300mm) for exactly this reason.

This works well, except that now you’ve got to carry around two lenses – which added to filters, extra battery, memory, power supply, and some cleaning stuff quickly becomes a travel nightmare. You also have to spend time swapping them when you want to switch between landscape and telephoto – which can be clumsy, especially if you are in the dark or next to water.

A few manufacturers have started creating “all in one lenses” – one of the favorites I looked at was the Tamron 18-200mm XR Di II - it looked really good, but some of the reviews complained that the autofocus for moving objects can be a little slow. Thinking of my son running towards me I decided instead to opt for the Canon Ultrasonic EF 28-200mm. For what I’m after, this offers a great range (28-200mm) for both semi-landscape and telephoto. I was a little worried that 28mm wasn’t wide enough for some shots – it’s of course not as accommodating as the 18mm wide angle with the kit lens, but it’s good enough – and if it saves me carrying two lenses, it’s a hit. In addition, the lens is ultrasonic – which means a) it doesn’t sound like a dentist’s drill when you are using during the toasts at weddings and b) its really fast to focus on objects.

So there you go – if you have requirements similar to mine I can highly recommend the combination of the EOS 350D and the EF 28-200mm.

My only regret? I should have bought this 22 months ago... :-)

Windows Vista 5472 - First Impressions

smguest — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 17:57:00 GMT

I took the leap yesterday and installed Vista (5472) and Office 12 (4228) on my main machine (a Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet). Although it's still been less than 24 hours, I've been very impressed so far. Both builds seem very stable and already I'm seeing some gains over my old setup.

My initial impressions:

Installaton - I used WDS (Windows Deployment Services) to install the build, which worked really well (although a rogue Thinkpad driver crept into the build and needed to be disabled shortly after installation). Windows Update in 5472 is good, although a little "hidden" for my liking. It took me a couple of minutes to dig through the control panel to find it in order to get the drivers for my machine.

Display - The Tecra M4 comes with an NVidia 6200 graphics card (128M) – after finding the right driver online, the machine now has a 3.0 performance rating, and Aero glass works really well.

Gadgets - I'll admit, I was a little skeptical when I first heard about Gadgets in Vista, but I think they are going to be cool. I'm not one for displaying clocks, slideshows, or other such things on my desktop, so I quickly turned off the default selection - but I think custom-built, RSS "powered" gadgets will be very useful (and popular) once they start to appear. My favorite out of the default set today is the CPU load gadget. Much more entertaining than keeping taskmgr minimized in the system tray.

Tablet - I still need to work out the automatic rotate feature on the Tecra. Screen orientation is supported in this build, but detection of "going into tablet mode" looks to be a feature of the Toshiba driver set that isn't there yet. I believe there is a tool called iRotate that may provide this functionality until Toshiba release a new driver set.

Performance - I've been pleasantly surprised that the performance of this build is actually better than my old Windows XP setup. Ok, my old XP setup was in desperate need of a rebuild, but even so... Standby and Hibernate seem to be working well in 5472 on the Tecra - although I did see one glitch this morning (I think it had to do with a 2nd hard disk I was trying to plug in at the same time).

Security - When I played around with an earlier build of Vista (on a VPC) I thought I would get annoyed at the constant "do you want to allow this?" dialog boxes as part of Vista LUA. Having gone through many of these while installing stuff yesterday (even logged in as admin on the machine), they require extra time, but after a while I found myself left with a good feeling that I'd quickly know if something rogue was being installed. In a strange way, I'm actually becoming a fan of this feature...

Breadcrumb Navigation - Many explorer windows now support a "breadcrumb" navigation where you can quick navigate using "breadcrumbs", but then select all the breadcrumbs and copy the physical path - very cool.

Launching Programs - On XP, I used to run (and love) SlickRun to launch programs. The Start Menu has a way of quickly searching for things, but I don't know whether it's possible to customize it with a set of shortcuts (which I really need) – it looks like I may be able to use “pinned” menus on the start menu providing I can make them work with parameters.

Handwriting Support - Really works well - much better than XP from what I've seen.

Other Apps - I've still lots to install, but no incompatibilities yet. Foldershare is working well (and currently updating my libraries as I write this).

That's it for now - as I said, just the first impressions after a few hours of use. I'm sure I'll have more to say as I start loading all my applications...

*** Updated video driver section - found updated driver (see comments) ***

Call for Papers: Architecture Journal Issue #9

smguest — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 03:12:00 GMT

Now that TechEd is out of the way, I'm looking for abstracts and ideas for Issue #9, the theme of which is Software Factories (think modeling, DSLs, development approaches etc.). Writing for the Architecture Journal gives you the opportunity to get your thoughts and ideas in the hands of enterprise, solution and infrastructure architects around the world – that’s a growing number of over 41,000 subscribers! In addition, your article will be localized into multiple languages and distributed at major events and conferences worldwide.

The cut off date for abstracts for the next issue is July 21st. If you are interested in making a submission, here are the details:

How do I make a submission?

To submit an idea for a paper, you are asked to send the following:

- A 2 – 4 paragraph abstract explaining how your paper fits the theme of the magazine

- A 1 – 2 paragraph bio

- A list of previously published articles

Submissions should be made via Email to editors@architecturejournal.net

We receive many submissions for each issue, so we encourage you to put time and thought into the submission.

When will I know whether my submission is accepted?

After the call for papers has ended, everyone that submits an idea will be notified via Email as to whether their submission was successful or not.

What happens if my submission is accepted?

The magazine is generally available in print and online 4 weeks after final drafts are submitted.

What are the guidelines for papers printed in the Architecture Journal?

Do I still own the work?

Yes. We ask you to sign a release form that gives Microsoft permission to reprint the article, but ownership of the paper remains with you, the author.

Will I get paid for writing?

We do not currently pay authors for contributing to the Architecture Journal.

Will I get copies of the magazine as an author?

After printing you’ll be sent 10 copies of the Journal for your own use. Additional copies can be requested.

ARC202 - Slides from TechEd 2006

smguest — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:32:00 GMT

I've now uploaded my slides (hosting space courtesy of Mark) from my user experience presentation at TechEd 2006 this week. You can find them here:

PowerPoint 2003 Format (60Mb)

PowerPoint 2007 Beta 2 Format (20Mb)

*** Update - Fixed link (again) ***

ARC202 – Putting the User Back into SOA (TechEd)

smguest — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:33:00 GMT

Thanks to all that came to my session today (ARC202 – Putting the User Back into SOA) at 10.45am. I really enjoyed putting the talk together and appreciate all the feedback (yes, I know the title of the talk needs changing for next time).

For those looking for the PPT, I am working on it! The deck is 60Mb (don’t ask!) and I need to get some more space so that I can host it!

Implementing Getting Things Done using Outlook 2007

smguest — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 00:14:00 GMT

Last week, I made the switch from Office 2003 to Office 2007 Beta 2. Prior to the upgrade I was organizing my “stuff to do” using David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology and using the NetCentrics GTD Add In for Outlook. Unfortunately, as I discovered after the upgrade was complete, the NetCentrics GTD Add In is not yet compatible with Outlook 2007. They have plans to release an upgrade, but closer to RTM.

My Requirements

Not wanting to revert back to Outlook 2003, yet still wanting to implement GTD style functions in Outlook, I wanted to see whether I could implement a system that takes advantage of some of the new features in Outlook 2007 (such as the improved categorization for items) without requiring any custom Add-Ins for Outlook.

To start, I drew up a list of ten requirements I needed for implementing GTD using Outlook:

1. File Email. I want to set a project (e.g. TechEd) for an Email and then file it to a searchable folder.

2. Create Task from Email. I want to set a project and action for an Email (e.g. TechEd, @Office) and then convert the Email to a task item.

3. Filter Filed Email and Tasks. I want to filter my filed emails and tasks, both on project and action as applicable.

4. Create Waiting For Tasks. I want to create a “Waiting For” task when I send or reply to an Email that delegates an action to someone else.

5. Create Tasks from Any Machine. I want a quick way of assigning new tasks from any machine, and ideally any Email account. (For example, sending myself a task from my Pocket PC Phone when I’m on the road)

6. Sync with PDA. I want all my tasks to synchronize with my Pocket PC – and with the ability to filter on both project and action.

7. Works with the Command Line. I want to implement a system that also supports my command line add-in from an earlier post.

8. Supports Keyboard Shortcuts. I want to use keyboard shortcuts for everything above. I need a rapid fire way of going through my Email box without using the mouse.

9. Leverages New Features in Outlook 2007. I’d like to leverage the new features of Outlook 2007 (e.g. the ToDo bar) if possible.

10. No Add Ins. I want to avoid a COM Add In, although rules and VBA macros are OK.

Phew!

I spent a few days after the upgrade thinking about the above list and looking at the best ways of implementing this using Office 2007. I checked out other add-ins (Omar turned me on to ClearContext – I actually really like this add-in, although the current version doesn’t have great support for exposing topics (projects) through tasks. They use their own topic category system which was incompatible with #6 and #7. I’m looking forward to the next version, which is supposed to fix this).

The Approach

Here’s my approach:

1. First, I store tasks in Outlook 2007 as “tasks”. I did contemplate keeping a folder of “tasks” using mail messages only – after all, 99% of my tasks seem to come from Email – but decided against it as I wanted the tasks to appear in the new Todo list in Outlook (Requirement #9), and creating a new mail and saving it to a folder is hard.

2. I use a single task folder. I did consider separate task list folders for each action (@Home, @Office etc.), but this proved difficult to synchronize with my PDA. (Requirement #6)

3. I use categories in Outlook to define both the action and the project (e.g. @Office, Blog).

All my tasks have two categories - both an action and a project. All my filed Emails just have a project assigned to them.

4. To turn an incoming Email into a task (something I have to do), I assign it two categories (action and project) and move it to my tasks folder. Using Keyboard shortcuts, I discovered this can be done as follows (to create a task from the currently selected item, set the project category to TechEd and the action to @Office):

ALT-A, I, A, @ O F F I C E, [SPACE], @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER] (to categorize)

CTRL-SHIFT-V, T, ENTER (to move)

To file an item from my inbox – I select and:

ALT-A, I, A, @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER] (to categorize)

CTRL-SHIFT-V, F, ENTER (to move) (this sends it to my “file” folder, which is the only one beginning with “f”)

I found this worked well, but after a couple of mishit keys, I couldn’t help thinking there was a more efficient way of doing this. I blew the dust of an old VBA book and wrote a couple of Macros. This one does exactly the same as above, excepts opens the categorize dialog and moves the item automatically:

Sub Task()

Dim item As MailItem

Set item = Outlook.Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)

item.ShowCategoriesDialog

Dim myolApp As Outlook.Application

Dim myNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace

Dim myTasks As Outlook.folder

Dim myFolder As Outlook.folder

Set myolApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

Set myNamespace = myolApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")

Set myTasks = myNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks)

item.Move myTasks

End Sub

Now all I need to do is assign this macro to a button on the tool bar (called GTD Ta&sks) and it’s:

ALT-S, @ O F F I C E, [SPACE], @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER]

Same with filing an item to the task folder (a little trickier this time as we need to search for the folder):

Sub File()

Dim item As MailItem

Dim myolApp As Outlook.Application

Dim myNamespace As Outlook.NameSpace

Dim myInbox As Outlook.folder

Dim rootFolder As Outlook.folder

Dim subFolders As Outlook.Folders

Dim subFolder As Outlook.folder

Dim fileFolder As Outlook.folder

Dim fileEntryID As String

Dim fileFolderName As String

'Set the folder name - must be at the same level as the inbox

fileFolderName = "File"

' Pick the category

Set item = Outlook.Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)

item.ShowCategoriesDialog

' Move the the file folder

Set myolApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

Set myNamespace = myolApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")

Set myInbox = myNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

Set rootFolder = myInbox.Parent

Set subFolders = rootFolder.Folders

Set subFolder = subFolders.GetFirst

Do While Not subFolder Is Nothing

If subFolder.Name = fileFolderName Then

fileEntryID = subFolder.EntryID

Set fileFolder = myNamespace.GetFolderFromID(fileEntryID)

item.Move fileFolder

Exit Do

End If

Set subFolder = subFolders.GetNext

Loop

End Sub

With a 2^nd button called GTD F&ile I can do:

ALT-I, @ T E C H E D, [SPACE], [ENTER]

Much easier!

5. After getting the categories and shortcuts out of the way, I started thinking about requirement #5 – to quickly create new tasks on the fly. With the NetCentrics Add In, I was creating a new task (CTRL-K) and then assigning the project and action. This is still possible, but in Beta 2 I couldn’t find any keyboard shortcut to bring up the categories – and I really wanted to create something that could work from my PDA also.

I wanted a system that would allow me to send an Email to myself with the associated project and action in the body of the Email.

I then wanted Outlook 2007 to categorize accordingly and move it to the task folder. To do this, I started creating rules in Outlook that would fire everything an incoming Email came in and I was the sender and on the TO line (i.e. I had sent it to myself). I had one rule for each category – e.g. a rule that set the category to @office if the body of the Email contained Office etc.

One thing I quickly found however (unfortunately, after having entered about 50 rules), is that the total size of all rules cannot exceed 32k. This is because Outlook sends all rules to the server using a single RPC call (the maximum size of the data in an RPC call is – you’ve guessed it – 32k). Even though these were considered client side rules I found Outlook bombing out after I created over 30.

To overcome this, I wrote a script in VBA that does the categorization for me. This is really nice as it’s easy to add and remove categories.

Sub SetCategories(MyMail As MailItem)

Dim body As String

body = MyMail.body

Dim action As String

Dim project As String

Dim categories As String

'Actions

If InStr(LCase(body), "@blog") > 0 Then

action = "@Blog"

End If

‘ etc…

'Categories

If InStr(LCase(body), "projectx") > 0 Then

project = "ProjectX"

End If

‘ etc…

categories = action & ", " & project

' Save

MyMail.categories = categories

MyMail.Save

End Sub

As you can see, the VBA function looks at the body of the incoming Email, checks whether it has any matching categories and sets the categories accordingly.

With this, all I need is one rule that runs the categorization script, and a second rule that moves the incoming mail to the task folder. I call these GTD Categorize and GTD Move To Task.

One important point: I was finding that my categorization script was failing for two reasons. 1. The macro security has to be set accordingly and 2. I had download headers and then full items enabled on my mailbox. This was causing some synchronization errors (some of the time) and the categorization would fail (depending on whether the full item or the header was downloaded). To resolve this, I set the option to download full items and everything worked perfectly.

6. Creating a Waiting For task. Now that I had the quick and dirty way of creating new tasks I wanted to enable creating a waiting for task on my delegated mail. (Requirement #4)

To do this, I created a third rule called GTD Waiting For. This rule checks Email as it arrives in my Email box to see if it was send from me and if I’m on the CC line. If this is true, it sets the category of the Email to “@Waiting For” and moves the Email to my task folder.

Now, to set a waiting for action, all I need to do is to make sure I’m on the CC line of Email that I send (which I’ve seen a number of other GTDers do).

7. Searching for stuff. To search for stuff, I created a third macro that opens my “File” Folder (which is very similar to the “File” macro above – except it does a folder.Display instead of moving the item – I’ll spare you the VBA listing).

Once the folder is open I hit CTRL-E which moves my cursor to the top of the email list. I think type and using Windows Desktop Search (WDS) 3.0 Beta, it provides a really quick way of searching my file folder. This is probably my most favorite feature of Outlook 2007.

One note of caution however: By installing WDS Beta, you’ll lose the UI of Windows Desktop Search (i.e. the search edit box on the task bar). I was happily using this until the beta, so have moved to SlickRun until the UI re-appears. (Actually, SlickRun provides me more options for shortcuts, so I may just keep it J).

Other GTD Habits with Outlook 2007

Well, that’s pretty much how I implemented GTD in Outlook 2007. Other good habits I try to use:

1. Decide when you are going to check your Email. I check mine first thing in the morning, at lunchtime, and then do a “zero email” session in the evening (i.e. take my inbox down to no items).

2. If you do need to cursory glance at your inbox during the day (after all, things do come up that need your attention), I recommend creating an Outlook rule that sets the color of mail sent directly to you to a different color (e.g. blue) vs mail sent with you as a CC (e.g. green). That way you can easily tell the important Emails and get back to your task list.

3. Related to the other 2, I also recommend removing Mail from the Navigation pane. This will prevent you “accidentally” clicking on your inbox to have a sneak check!

To get to your inbox you can use CTRL-SHIFT-I, which will add enough cognitive friction that you’ll think twice before doing so. I also recommend keeping TASKS as your top most pane, the default view as you open Outlook, and learning to love CTRL-4 (which takes you back to the tasks view at any time).

Conclusion

Well, I hope some of the above is useful – especially if you are looking to implement GTD using Outlook 2007. I’m going to start work on creating a new version of my command line add-in to work with the new categories in this upgrade. (I need to work out where the complete list of categories is being stored in Outlook 2007 – for previous versions it was in the registry, but this no longer seems to be the case).

In the meantime, I’d love to hear any more tips and tricks for implementing GTD functionality in Outlook! Enjoy.

Putting the User back into SOA - my first ARCast!

smguest — Sat, 20 May 2006 00:36:00 GMT

After the US NAF (National Architect Forum) last month, I sat down with Ron Jacobs to record my very first ARCast. The topic was "Putting the User back into SOA" - you can listen to it here.

Architecture Journal - now in 8 languages!

smguest — Sat, 20 May 2006 00:32:00 GMT

Issue #7 of the Architecture Journal is now available in 8 languages (English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Simplifed Chinese, Japanese and Korean).

To access these in PDF format, visit http://www.architecturejournal.net and select the lanuage from the top menu.

Enjoy.

Microsoft at JavaOne 2006

smguest — Tue, 16 May 2006 22:35:00 GMT

I can't believe it's been a year since I was at JavaOne last year - it seems like only yesterday I was getting my picture at Duke's 10 year birthday! (only kidding, of course :-))

Although I'm not in San Francisco for this year's conference, Microsoft do have a couple of sessions and a booth on the trade floor. I've been following Mohammed's excellent blog on the in's and out's of the event. If you in the Moscone Center, be sure to track down the team!

Cliff Atkinson / Beyond Bullet Points

smguest — Wed, 10 May 2006 20:35:00 GMT

Cliff Atkinson is my new hero. For those that don't know, Cliff put together an MS Press book called Beyond Bullet Points. In the book, he describes a new way of compiling and putting together presentations using PowerPoint (without bullet points!). I used this style in a recent keynote I did at the US NAF (National Architect Forum) last month and it seemed to be very well received. Half way through the presentation I was amazed at how many people were engaged with the message I was saying - actually 100% focused towards me and not doing Email!

Cliff also has a blog - you can check it out here.

Iron Architect at TechEd US 2006

smguest — Tue, 09 May 2006 03:22:00 GMT

Coming to TechEd US this year? Think you are a pretty good architect? Think you are the best architect at the conference?

Now you can prove it by entering our "Iron Architect" competition as part of the Architecture Track. You'll get the chance to work on a solution to a real life problem and submit it to an audience and panel of judges during the week. The winner will win free entry into the MCA (Microsoft Certified Architect) program.

More details here...

Getting Things Done - Command Line Processor

smguest — Mon, 08 May 2006 01:55:00 GMT

I’ve been doing a ton of work recently around user experience (UX) – and the importance of UX for architects. One thing that has become apparent is context for user interfaces – often the prettiest, most glamorous user experience does not lead to the best user experience.

I got thinking about this in the relation to the way I manage tasks. As you may know, I’m a big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. Since seeing David present in a seminar last year I have been a convert. If you also use GTD you may know that NetCentrics have developed an add-in for Outlook. The add-in is pretty good - adding custom actions to Outlook and allowing you to add additional attributes to tasks, which fit in well with GTD.

One problem I’ve been having however is while Outlook does a good job of storing the tasks, it can be a little clumsy to use – especially for “rapid fire situations”. For example, my boss may come into my office and say “Hey Simon – what’s the status of project X you’ve been working on?” I’ve then got to go into Outlook, switch to tasks, scroll down for the project and try and find the list of tasks. It’s not bad – but it’s not very efficient, especially when you have a list of ~200 ongoing tasks. The same goes for adding a new task – even with the CTRL-K short cut selecting project and action can be slow at times.

Now I’ve been a big fan of the command line for many years. I came from a background in UNIX, and this has stuck with me. I do most of my file organization using the command line and have a lot of scripts that help me be more productive than I am through Windows explorer. During a recent trip to Japan (and lying awake at 3am due to jetlag) I had an idea – wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way to access my tasks through the command line? :-)

A couple of more sleepless nights later and I had a pretty good working version.

Using gtd.exe from the prompt you can use commands such as:

>list @home

A780 @Home House Install New Kitchen Cabinet

A781 @Home House Install shade in Family Room

This lists all of the tasks marked with the @home action – right to the command line.

>list ProjectX

5C2A @Waiting For ProjectX Waiting for Bob Smith to call about invoice

5C32 @Office ProjectX Setup meeting with Dan’s group to discuss sessions

This lists all of the tasks marked with the "ProjectX" project tag. All of the tasks have a unique 4 digit ID (providing you don’t have more that 65535 tasks of course). This means that you can reference them and perform actions. For example:

>complete A781

Task A781 has been completed.

>list @home

A780 @Home House Install New Kitchen Cabinet

…or even open the task within Outlook:

>open A781

(task opens in new window)

In addition, you can also of course create a new task:

>new @home House “Paint bedroom red”

………

New task A9BF (Paint bedroom red) has been created.

>list @home

A780 @Home House Install New Kitchen Cabinet

A9BF @Home House Paint bedroom red

Other functionality include searching for tasks, setting a task to “@Waiting For”, and moving tasks between projects and actions. You can supply gtd.exe with command line parameters also (if for example you wanted to do task-related actions from Monad (sorry, ermm.. PowerShell :-))).

This is still very v1.0-ish, but I’ve posted the sample up on this CodeGallery workspace. If you want to play around with this you’ll also need to install Redemption (you can get this from here) – which is used to provide some of the access to Outlook.

Finally, if you have some cycles and want to work with me on some improvements let me know :-)

PhotoMontage in Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer

smguest — Fri, 05 May 2006 17:00:00 GMT

I've been playing around with the "photo montage" effect in Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer. This effect lets you stitch together multiple photos to form one image - all done automatically. Here's an image I created with 9 separate photos from my hotel window in Shinjuku (Japan) last week.

(Click on the image for more detail)

Mix06

smguest — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 06:58:00 GMT

On Sunday I'll be heading down to the Mix06 conference in Las Vegas. Over the past few months I've been working on a new set of materials around user experience design (for Architects), so I'm really looking forward to the conference.

T-Mobile MDA

smguest — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 06:50:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I switched from Verizon Wireless to T-Mobile, and at the same time had the opportunity to pick up a new cell phone.

After a lot of deliberation I went with the T-Mobile MDA Vario. This is the first PocketPC phone I've owned since the Samsung i700. The Samsung was a bulky phone so I was a little hesitant at first (and as a result was leaning towards the SDA), but now that I've used the MDA for a couple of weeks I definitely made the right choice.