SurfaceScapes is a proof-of-concept platform being developed by students at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) for playing tabletop role-playing games. Heir prototype was developed around playing D&D. Watch the video and notice how well tuned the user experience is to the tabletop format and to the gameplay. Players can use the elements of the physical game they love while leveraging technology to change the more labor intensive aspects (like creating the environments using paper and pencil). Gameplay also takes on a more visual role as actions are played out on the tabletop interactively. Well done!
Via Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/29/dd-on-multi-touch-ta.html
SurfaceScapes: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/surfacescapes/index.html
Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.
On TechNet, Keith Ward has posted 77 Windows 7 Tips.
A few cool ones that are new to me:
- Shift to and from Explorer and CommandPrompt. The classic Windows power toy Open Command Prompt Here is now an integral part of Windows 7 Explorer. Hold down the shift key then right-click a folder to add this option to the property menu. While you're in a command prompt, if you want to open an Explorer window with the focus of the window on the current directory, enter start.
- RoboCopyCopyCopy. The always-useful Robocopy.exe can now run multi-threaded; run Robocopy /? to review its new parameters (like /MT for multithreading) and make your copies go faster
- Drag-and-Drop Notification Icons. The redesigned notification area displays only a minimum number of icons; all other notification icons are moved to a side window. Rather than using the Customize option to select icons for the main display, you can drag-and-drop icons from the side window to the notification area.
- Trigger Actions. Event Viewer is closely tied into Task Scheduler. You have the ability to take an event (select it in Event Viewer) and then from the Actions pane, select the option "Attach a Task" to have that event, when it appears, trigger an action. That action can be: launch a program; send an e-mail; or display a message. This feature may be very helpful in troubleshooting a problem.
Seven Web Application Toolkits are available for download at the MSDN Code Gallery. These toolkits are aim to provide web developers with resources (such as project templates, controls, code samples, and documentation) in a consistent packaged format that can be consumed and put to use in a very short time so that they can evaluate the technology and determine if it's the right solution for their problem. An introduction to the toolkits is available on Channel 9, and the kits are available for download HERE.
The current kits are:
- Web Application Toolkit for Internet Explorer 8 Extensibility [screencast]
Today users can access rich information and services while they are browsing a site; it's not a trivial task to expose this content to the same users when they are not on that site. The goal of this Web Application Toolkit is to leverage the new features in Internet Explorer 8 (Web Slices, Accelerators and Visual Search Providers) to extend the reach of your web site and services also to those users that are not on your site. The Web Application Toolkit includes a set of ASP.NET Web Controls that you can use to take advantage of these IE new features in your own Web application.
- Web Application Toolkit for Bing Search
Bing is a powerful new Decision Engine designed to help consumers accomplish tasks and make faster, more informed decisions. The Bing Application Programming Interface (API) provides developers programmatic access to Bing, offering flexible options for building or enhancing your site or applications. This Web Application Toolkit shows how to take advantage of the Bing API to add search capabilities to your Web site by leveraging the various search results that the Bing API provides, including Web content, images, news and videos, among others. Through this Web Application Toolkit you will also discover how to use ASP.NET AJAX and jQuery to provide an enhanced and more interactive end user experience when using the Bing API.
- Web Application Toolkit for REST Services [screencast]
Many Web applications today are starting to expose data as REST service interfaces, so it can be accessed through APIs by other tiers of the application or even by other applications. A RESTful web service is a simple Web service implemented using HTTP and the principles of REST. REST Services focus on resources; each one is represented by a unique URI, and users interact with them via their URI using the HTTP uniform interface. This Web Application Toolkit shows how to easily add REST service interfaces for an existing Web application. The Web Application Toolkit includes a sample REST service, two sample client applications that access the REST services, one using simple ASP.NET Web Forms and a second Web application using AJAX to asynchronously invoke the REST service and finally a custom project template for Visual Studio to make it very easy to build new REST Services.
- Web Application Toolkit for Mobile Web Applications [screencast]
This Web Application Toolkit is designed to demonstrate how to extend an existing ASP.NET MVC Web application to provide access from mobile devices. To enable mobile access, the Web application should have views targeting each of the mobile devices to be supported. The MVC pattern helps you create applications that separate the different aspects of the application (input logic, business logic, and UI logic), while providing a loose coupling between these elements. This Web Application Toolkit provides a component called MobileCapableViewEngine that enables the Web application to show the appropriate view depending on the device's browser that is performing the request. It also includes a sample site that provides different views for Windows Mobile, IPhone, and Blackberry devices.
- Web Application Toolkit for Template-Driven Email [screencast]
This Web Application Toolkit is designed to demonstrate how to generate and send dynamic, template-based emails from a web application. There are many common scenarios where notification emails need to be sent to end users. Examples of these common scenarios may involve notifying a user of their newly created account, sending a new password in respond to a forgotten password request, or emailing an alert under specific business circumstances, such as the creation of a order. Typically the E-mails sent from a Web application scenario are formatted as HTML, include CSS stylesheets, and images and need to be generated dynamically with custom or user-specific data. This Web Application Toolkit includes samples that show how to use templates to generate these dynamic email bodies.
- Web Application Toolkit for making Your Web Site Social [screencast]
Adding social capabilities to your Web site allows you to attract new users, keep them on your Web site for longer and get them to come back more often. This Web Application Toolkit shows how, using a few lines of code with the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit, it is possible to add social capabilities to a Web site with instant messaging from a website to various client endpoints like Windows, Windows Mobile, Xbox 360 and Mac. Behind the scenes is a powerful set of UI Controls and a JavaScript library that connect your website to the Messenger Service which is used by 330 million users around the world.
- Web Application Toolkit for FAQs [screencast]
The majority of web sites have the need to display a list of frequently asked questions to their users. Although it's not difficult to create a simple set of FAQ pages, creating a great user experience that supports searching for FAQs, filtering, and paging, can become more difficult. Furthermore, this is often common functionality that has to be implemented repeatedly in multiple Web sites. This Web Application Toolkit is designed to provide a starting set of code including ASP.NET pages, data access logic, and database schemas, for integrating Frequently Asked Questions into your own ASP.NET MVC Web application.
These samples are designed to up and running in no time (seriously!), you can use these with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. Give them a try … and if you're a professional web developer, designer, or startup, check out Microsoft WebSpark for opportunities to get visibility, support, and software at no upfront costs!
Microsoft's new Thrive Community offers a place to learn new skills, look for new job opportunities, and connect with your peers. The web development track of the site has comprehensive list of resources in some of the newest and hottest Microsoft technologies. The Community area has a selected set of blogs, podcasts, and a user group finder. The Job finder uses SimplyHired to find available positions in your area.
"Introducing Thrive for Developers - We've heard from lots of developers that times are tough. You're doing more with less, applying your skills more broadly, and maybe even learning new tools. That's why we created Thrive – a one-stop community hub that offers job postings, technical content, and community resources. So whether you're seeking new ways to differentiate yourself on the job, or you need to re-tool your skills for that next big role, Thrive has the resources to help you get there faster …"
From the site:
In March 2009, Microsoft added a new option for developing web applications on the .NET platform: the ASP.NET MVC Framework 1.0. You've probably heard quite a bit of buzz in the Microsoft web development community about it. But perhaps you haven't had a chance to take a deeper look at it yet. Then we have an event for you! We will be hosting a full-day ASP.NET MVC Firestarter event live from New York and online to take you from 0-300 level in a day.
At the ASP.NET MVC Firestarter, we'll give you a quick tour of the framework, then peel back the layers and dive deeper into how it works. As part of that, we'll spend time discussing the design and development practices that lead to the creation of the MVC framework. By the time you leave, you'll have enough knowledge to get fired up and start building web applications on the .NET platform.
Seating for the live event is limited, so register today. If you can't join us for the in-person event, register for the online event experience.
Where: Grand Hyatt New York Hotel/ Ballroom B - 109 East 42nd Street, NY, NY 10017 [register] OR Live Webcast [register]
When: Oct. 3, 2009 – 8:30 AM – 5:15 PM (That's a Saturday)
Price:
FREE
Other events in the series will be:
- Seattle, 9/17/2009 – Silverlight (Developer Focused)
- Seattle, 9/18/2009 – Windows 7 & Server R2 (IT Pro Focused)
- Alpharetta, 10/17/2009 – Windows 7 (IT Pro Focused)
Doloto is a Microsoft Research project that has the goal of making Web 2.0 apps faster.
"The goal of the project is to make Web 2.0 applications run faster," Livshits says. "This is a whole new area, as far as software development and how to optimize these applications. The reason why people move to the Web 2.0 model of development is because code is running on the user's machine, which means responsiveness is increased. You don't have to go to the server every time you need something done. But as you move this code to the client to make the application more responsive, the application cannot run before all the code arrives at the client. To make the current generation of applications run faster, or to enable the next generation of these applications, you need to deal with this problem of code delivery. How do you do that? That's the question that Doloto tries toaddress." – Ben Livshits
"A consequence of Doloto … is that developers can now add a new feature into their Web applications without worrying about its effect on the application's download time.
Before, the usefulness of a new feature would be weighed against its performance impact. Very useful features would be cut because the added code made the application load too slowly. Now, with Doloto, developers can continue to build richer and richer Web-application experiences and be assured that the extra code will not be a burden for users starting the application." – Emre Kiciman
Find out more and give it a try …
A few interesting posts caught my attention at InfoQ today:
- .NETZ – Compression and Packing for .NET Libraries
"From the beginning, the .NET runtime had a decent packaging system based on a collection of assemblies. While far better than loose script files or collections of class files, it is not as convenient as statically linked executables or executable JARs. Vasian Cepa's .NETZ gives developers the ability to compress .NET assemblies and pack them into a single executable file…"
- Enterprise 2.0, a New Buzzword
"A new post by Andrew McAfee tries to explain Enterprise 2.0 describing several business problems and how Enterprise 2.0 based approaches help solving them…"
- Stanford Study Shows: Maxi-Multitaskers' Performance Impaired
"A Stanford University study published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "Cognitive control in media multitaskers", confirms what seems obvious to many: multitasking, often undertaken for efficiency's sake, is definitely counterproductive. This study looked at a well known, but often disregarded, phenomenon in IT: constant, ongoing multitasking. Agile implementors take note: there's good reason to urge each team to work on one product, with one product owner - splitting attention across many different tasks is a less effective way to work…"
- Web-Oriented Architecture (Video)
"Dion Hinchcliffe presents the technologies making WOA possible: RESTful services, linked data ecosystems, mashups, cloud computing, open APIs, and productivity-oriented software development models…"
Interesting stuff!
The article talks about the Math Worksheet Generator that's built on top of Microsoft's Math Engine. This tool help teachers devise new match problems for their students:
"Microsoft's Education Labs launched a new project this afternoon and it's better on trees and the environment. The group just announced a new Math Worksheet Generator where teachers can generate math problems and email them in paperless Word format to their students. In addition to Math Worksheet Generator, the group also announced plans for two additional projects to be released in the Fall …"
A demo video is available here.
News about the latest WW Telescope release:
"Examine astronomical data in unprecedented detail. Take a Web tour of the universe. Explore the heavens in 3-D.
WorldWide Telescope keeps expanding its horizons.
On Aug. 17, the External Research division of Microsoft Research made public Aphelion, the latest release of WorldWide Telescope, the widely acclaimed, Windows-based application, launched in May 2008, that enables users to use their computers as a virtual telescope, gathering imagery from the world's best ground- and space-based telescopes to provide a seamless exploration of the universe."
""We have a significant number of rich science features that are going to be available to researchers," says Jonathan Fay, principal architect for the WorldWide Telescope project, "and we have a completely reworked data set for our beautiful, 3-D universe mode.""
You can find out more and download WorldWide Telescope here.
Interesting article by Microsoft Research's
Mary Czerwinski on the new ways that we might interface with computers in the future: Muscle Interfaces, Tongue-based interaction, Bionic Contact Lenses, etc.
"The idea is that by freeing people from keyboard-based interaction, we won't just make it easier to work with computers, but we'll enable brand new experiences that aren't possible today…"
"The bionic contact lens project allows contact lenses to continuously perform blood tests on an individual by sampling the fluid on the surface of the cornea and without having to collect a blood sample. The lens could eventually analyze the fluid and send that analysis wirelessly as part of a healthcare monitoring program …"
Cool stuff.
A very interesting article at the New York Times by Miguel Helft about Qi Lu, the President of Microsoft's Online Services Division [Wikipedia]:
"Qi Lu knows as well as anyone just how difficult it is to take on Google. For nearly a decade, Mr. Lu played a leading role in building Yahoo's Internet search and advertising technologies. The effort was so important that Yahoo backed it with billions of dollars …"
"… Mr. Lu said he was not underestimating the challenge. But over time, he said, Microsoft has a chance to offer a service that is different and compelling enough to compete effectively…"
"…his intellect is matched only by his work habits. He sleeps three to four hours a night. One most weekdays, he wakes up around 4 a.m., goes through his e-mail and runs four miles on a treadmill while listening to classical music or watching the news…"
"On his last day at Yahoo, for example, a problem came up with a database, and he worked side by side with his engineers trying to fix it. He left only when, at midnight, his e-mail and network access were automatically cut off"
"… Mr. Lu declined to talk with Mr. Ballmer, who had become interested in meeting him, until after his long-planned departure from Yahoo because he thought it would be improper …"
I think I have a new favorite MSFT Exec …. Sorry Ray and Steve ;-)
Nigel Eccles, co-founder and CEO of Hubdub Ltd, guest blogs about the 'Customer Development Methodology' developed by Steve Blank, and outlined in his book 'The Four Steps to the Epiphany' at TechCrunch - Europe. Nigel discusses how he applied this to two recent start-up projects.
TechCrunch - Europe: The long lost formula for start-up success. No, really
If you'll be visiting the New York MTC, or New York City in the not too distant future you might find this olfactory guide to the city either useful or entertaining:
NYT: Scents and the City :-)
· Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog: SharePoint 2010 Partner Training for SharePoint 2007 Partners!
“SharePoint 2007 Partners: You’ve heard the buzz about SharePoint 2010 and seen the sneak peeks. Now learn how you can get ready to start building with and deploying SharePoint 2010!
SharePoint 2010 Ignite is a 5 day instructor-led training program for SharePoint 2007 partner developers and implementers coming soon to a city or virtually to a PC near you!
…
Want to know more about Ignite and explore how you can participate? Visit the Ignite Page, review the pre-requisites and learn more at http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/topics/Pages/IgniteProgram4.aspx. …”
· Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog: Announcing the Fourth Release of the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit
· Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog: Session Sneak Peek for the SharePoint Conference 2009
“Have you watched the SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek videos and are hungry for more?!
The SharePoint Conference 2009 will be the first time Microsoft will publically share all of what SharePoint 2010 has to offer. We know you want to know what you can expect to see and hear about during the conference – so here’s your SharePoint Conference 2009 session sneak peek! …”
