simon.says

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

2006-10-17T01:26:32Z

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

2006-10-07T01:57:00Z

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

2006-10-07T01:49:26Z

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?

2006-09-10T18:46:00Z

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!

2006-09-07T21:51:00Z

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

2006-09-05T07:31:00Z

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

2006-08-31T19:35:00Z

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)

2006-08-26T02:02:00Z

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

2006-08-10T21:02:00Z

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

2006-08-08T18:54:00Z

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

2006-08-04T06:31:00Z

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

2006-07-29T17:57:00Z

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

2006-07-06T03:12:00Z

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

2006-06-15T21:32:00Z

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)

2006-06-13T12:33:00Z

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!