Visual Studio 2010 testers unhappy with help

By tim, on February 16th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

Visual Studio 2010 comes with a brand new help system, based on a local help server rather than a database plus viewer as in the past. There is also an option to use Internet-based help for the most up to date content.

Sounds good, but developers are not happy. The problem: the new help

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Windows Phone 7 Series and Microsoft’s partner problem

By tim, on February 15th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

I watched Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Joe Belfiore, and Andy Lees introduce Windows Phone 7 Series. It appears to be a complete departure from previous iterations of Windows Mobile, in fact borrowing more from Zune than it does from earlier Windows phones. At one point, Lees noted that it has a “new core OS” optimized

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Nokia Maemo, Intel Moblin gives way to MeeGo

By tim, on February 15th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

Nokia’s Maemo operating system, a Linux distribution for mobile devices, is being merged with the Intel-sponsored Moblin distribution to form MeeGo, under the direction of the Linux Foundation:

MeeGo combines Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo projects at the Linux Foundation to create one open source uber-platform for the next generation of computing devices: tablets,

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Flash developers are now mobile developers

By tim, on February 15th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

Adobe’s announcement of AIR for mobile today at the Mobile World Congress means that any Flash or Flex developer can compile an AIR application that will run on a supported mobile device. I understand that AIR for mobile is a subset of desktop AIR, but does include Flash Player 10.1, local database support with

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Miserable user experience continues with Windows 7

By tim, on February 14th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

I’ve just spent some time with a non-technical person who has just signed up for a £30 per month Vodafone internet dongle, which came with a “free” Samsung netbook running Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The user is returning it under the terms of the 14-day trial offer.

Why? Well, the requirement was for a

…continue reading Miserable user experience continues with Windows 7

Buzz buzz – Google profile nonsense

By tim, on February 10th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

Google has launched a new social media service called Buzz (as if you did not know) and I’m on it – here’s my profile.

You had better follow that link too; because whenever I visit the profile when signed into Google I see this not-too-subtle banner:

“Your profile is not yet eligible

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XML literals come to PHP via Facebook: XHP

By tim, on February 10th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

Facebook engineer Marcel Laverdet has written up the XHP project on which he has been working at Facebook, and which he says is “quickly becoming a cornerstone of front-end PHP development at Facebook”. XHP enables XML fragments to be valid PHP expressions. In addition, most HTML elements have been pre-defined as variables. The project

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Should IT administration be less annoying?

By tim, on February 9th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

I am more a developer than an IT administrator but sometimes find myself doing (and writing about) admin-type tasks. I am usually under time pressure and I find myself increasingly irritated by annoyances that take up precious time.

It seems to me that there is a hidden assumption in IT, that usability is all-important

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Visual Studio 2010 RC arrives with go-live license

By tim, on February 9th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

Microsoft has made the Release Candidate of Visual Studio 2010 available for download to MSDN subscribers. From tomorrow (10th February) the same release will be available to everyone. There is a go-live license so you can use this in production if you wish, though if the full release comes in April as planned, it

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Palm Ares: an online IDE for WebOS development

By tim, on February 8th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

I spent a few minutes trying out Ares, Palm’s web-based IDE for WebOS, the OS used in the Palm Pre smartphone.

Ares is in public beta and I’m not going to pretend I found it smooth going. No doubt it will be fine after a little patient learning. It is amazing, with drag-and-drop visual

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