Andrew MacNeill - AKSEL Solutions

http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2005/01/not_quite_fully.html Shel does an excellent job of explaining what is going on with the red couch project.

Good news for those who want the images and bitmaps in their apps to be consistent with Windows... New/updated Icon Sets with Visual Studio 2005

(Verna) Another perfect example of why NOT to always hire "perfect" university graduates...not every test is laid out for you, kids.   One of my best recollections is of working at Statistics Canada in the early 90s - the majority of people who were actually making things work were "College" (canadian) as opposed to "University".   What matters is what you put into it. If you can't do it, it doesn't matter what you've done, where you've been, or who you know, you just can't do it.    

Now THIS is something I'm looking for. Not so much on the "voice recognition" (I can see the office with everyone shouting "Back" , "Home", "Block" at their computers) but rather the "reading of text". My question is : why can't I get this on my Pocket PC? I know the resources is one key issue especially with VOice Command but when I'm driving, I want my PocketPC to be able to read my messages just like the old Auto-PC did. Back to Opera: One problem with all of these voice commands is that you have to hit a key to initiate it (the default for Opera is the Scroll Lock). I'm using a notebook where the Scroll Lock is some mutation of holding the Function Key and hitting F12. That's just too tough in many cases. so I turned off all keys and seems to be pretty cool now. I just say "Opera, Speak" and it speaks whatever the highlighted text is. But on the Text to speech, come on! I've been...

Calvin, ever the source of really useful information about how FoxPro works under the sheets, describes some undocumented API calls and how it may affect FoxPro. Undocumented APIs and 16 bit DLLs

That is PRICELESS! Reason #43423 - why not to leave your IM window open From Scoble . I am soooo pisssed on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

When Dave mentioned Keyhole and ImageAtlas in the same post, I knew I had to check ImageAtlas out. WOW! For a web product, that is truly awesome and only $29.95/month. Mapping x2

Craig points to a post by Kol Kiet about OzFox in ComputerWorld (Australia) What's great about this piece is why Talman did it: "Then the company hit upon the idea of hosting Sydney's resurrected FoxPro user group conference. " As Peter Metcalf, managing director put it: "I guess our approach is, if Mohammed won't go to the mountain then you bring the mountain to Mohammed. " And the conference was a HUGE hit! Great job guys! FoxBlog

:: Markus Egger , in the latest Publisher's viewpoint, talks about how he sees a rebirth of the thick client, powerful desktop applications as opposed to lame feature-skimmed web clients. I'm not sure I entirely agree, although when you read the entire column, you'll see that he is not advocating all and out thick clients. Yes, there will always be cases where the functionality on the desktop has to be there but I think design needs to be done to make an application treat its functionality as a service - available when needed and where possible. To his credit, Markus notes that the Smart Client is really the technology that closes the gap and this is really where the power is needed. In response to his note: "Would you rather use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web Access? " My response is simply "it depends on where I am". I want my information everywhere and I want tools that give it to me. Yes, if I'm doing heavy data entry, I don't wa...

The ultimate startup checklist from Guy Kawasaki. Make a List, Check it Twice

Maybe I'm just jealous of hearing Adam Curry talk about the entire town of Guildford having Wifi access because of stores and restaurants (like Starbucks) offering it.   It would be nice if Ottawa did that but I doubt it. Ottawa is built like many major cities today with a downtown and then suburbia. This approach works well for those who want to get out of downtown ( some studies said they cause health problems but were easily debunked ) but the reality is one more of how towns and communities get built.   Ottawa (and other cities) basically build neighbourhoods and then eventually build a small strip mall where a convenience store goes, along with a pharmacy, or a bank and a pizzeria and so on. The ratio often feels like about 500 homes to one mall area. Well, although some people can walk there, typically the end result of these malls is to have people drive there.   Trish and I were talking about this today. England has it right. Towns are only a f...

Good night, Johnny. What amazing memories I have of watching him from being a child to when he left the Tonight Show. He was responsible for the best of what television comedy has to offer in yesteryear, today and tomorrow.   He will be greatly missed.

This isn't entirely unexpected but it is Kind of eery. Next you'll see the army recruiting at the next Halo game conference?

I've been taking advantage of my new SDRAM card with my iPaq and catching up with Adam Curry's podcasts as well as others (Carl Franklin's DotNet Rocks ). (I would watch the blogcasts on channel 9 but it's not generally recommended to watch video while driving). I've tried both iPodder and Doppler  with great success.   I know that Doug did a web cast on some of the new reporting and VisionData has done some others here: https://secure.visionds.com/webinars/  but I'm thinking of something maybe a little more interactive. Ya, and Ken's overview with Scoble was nice but we need more. I'm especially thinking of other developers like John Jones who don't get the opportunity to get to conferences.   Where are the Visual FoxPro ___casts? I'll find them or I'll be asking you to collaborate on some.

It seems all I'm doing these days is complaining but why is it that when I forward a link from a web site on my iPAQ, it doesn't get recognized as a valid hyperlink in my email? It's being sent as plain text and not HTML.   I'm not crazy about having to upgrade to a brand new ipaq to fix this and since Windows Mobile 2005 won't be available for mine, maybe I'll find another way of reading my feeds. Why can't the mobile team just get a fix for this and just release it as a patch?   If Apple can make a Mac for $499 and I can upgrade the OS, why can't I buy a Pocket PC for $399 and have it at least last longer than one year without having to upgrade it?

I'm having a particular problem that only recently started happening in Outlook 2003 and it's beginning to really bug me.   Whenever I send an email, it goes into my Outbox before sending. No problem there, right?   Well, if I go back INTO my Outbox just to look at the messages, the messages no longer get sent. It's like they think they are "DRAFT" messages. This never used to happen (and I can't think of what's changed unless it was a service pack or something). I have to actually re-open the message, cut and paste it and then resend it as a brand new email.   But now, it's even worse. If I am in the Outbox folder, and try to open the email to create a new one (so it will actually send), it automatically looks as though I'm reading it and so it won't send.   I'm going to post this to a forum somewhere but if someone off hand knows the solution, please advise. I'm currently running a few add-ons in my Outlook inclu...

Now that makes more sense than trying to figure out what 582970365 means. Decoding the timestamp in class libararies and forms

From Calvin - explaining garbage collection (also noted in Craig's blog ) Heartbeat: Garbage collection in VFP and .NET are similar

Now I'm excited. MindJet's MindManager really changed the way I do planning for a variety of things. I use it on both my PocketPC and my main desktop (I still want a tablet for it) I was complaining a few years ago about where's the latest user interface and found that many of the "mind-mapping" user interfaces worked just like MindManager - which is an application for just about everything. Now, they get to present at Demo@15, a tech show designed to show the latest and greatest. If what they show is as revolutionary as MindManager, then we're all in for a real treat. Mindjet: Software for Visualizing and Managing Information

Every now and then, I find Tom Peter's Dispatches from the new World of work a lot of fun, including his earlier posts on bad advertising . His blog page logo states "Lead the customer" which actually links very well into Craig's latest post on "The Customer Is Not Always Right" (great post Craig). But his 100 ways to help you succeed are quite interesting to read. #44 states : "Are you ... Hip? If not, what ... EXACTLY ... do you plan to do about it?" which created a number of comments about how hip wasn't really a good success strategy at all. Here's where I think the readers were wrong (as posted into his comments as well) Apple is a "hip" company. Why? Because they CONSTANTLY redefine themselves. You're hip if you are able to change (and change successfully) to the point where people or customers look to you for that fresh state that says 'that's where we want to be'. Yes, what constitutes ...

Sounds like GM got on the Tom Peter's Bad Billboards bandwagon... GM - Find The Message- home page

The Wiki has started a fairly comprehensive list of what users would like to see in VFP 10. While some are unlikely (removing the 2GB limit, converting activeX controls into native controls,etc), some are great ideas. I love the idea of doing DEFINE CLASS xxx (without specifying an class) and have it automatically do a DEFINE CLASS xxx as EMPTY. A particularly interesting idea though was to make SQL Server access built directly in. The example provided was: open data mysqlserverdb and then let me use sqlsv tables like vfp tables. with use, select, Realistically, it would have to be something a little more comprehensive but what's wrong with : OPEN SQLDATA ServerName.DatabaseName so you might do: OPEN SQLDATA Local.NorthWind USE NorthWind.Customers etc As more of a comment, it seems some things that people want are things that are READILY available in the PublicDomain or within the code (like object menus, etc), so adding support for some of them sho...

For those of you who subscribe to FoxPro Advisor, be aware that Advisor now offers RSS feeds to many of its magazines, including listing all new articles.   It's too bad they don't post more of the summary though - the one line tag just doesn't do it for me.   http://member.advisor.com/adv/AdvisorRSS    

Interesting post that shows copyright issues are starting to hurt education needs as well. I think, for purely education reasons, things like this should be more a matter of courtesy after x number of years. (I don't know what "x" should be but I think there is likely a useful number). Who owns the rights to the Zapruder JFK shot? If someone was doing an educational (i.e. no money being made for it - and YES that includes documentaries!) broadcast/video, then common sense should prevail, ensuring that valuable footage is never lost. Boing Boing: How copyright is killing culture

Once again, Cliff nails it on the head with a simple and easy way of making presentations more meaningful. I've been doing a number of presentations online for a while now where the slide show is about 45 slides long and about a quarter way through, I stop it and switch right over into the demo. I keep on trying to find time to change the entire presentation and make it simply more meanginful. One or two slides, all leading into a demo. Slides that don't have a title but simply have a meaning - an image that demands explanation but doesn't offer one - one that forces the presenter (me) to make the connection, instead of a slide that does it for them. Great post. beyond bullets: Zen and the Art of PowerPoint

Many developers have production applications running with one version of a runtime yet do development in a later version. This lets daily work take advantage of the newer productivity tools while the final application is still using the older runtime. The challenge here is ensuring you don't use features in the newer version in code that will run in an older version.   A great example is using MESSAGEBOX() to show numbers or dates. Recent versions of Visual FoxPro let you do a MESSAGEBOX(5) and it will do the internal translation between the numeric value and the string equivalent. Seemingly a very simple function yet if you get used to using it, and then have to run on an older version of FoxPro that doesn't support it  - you get a invalid type error message.   Likewise with VFP 9 and VFP 8 but this time, it's something a little more hidden. VFP 9 allows developers to take advantage of MemberData, the ability to extend the property sheet further with yo...

Here 's something you don't see everyday as noted on Craig's FoxBlog!

For those of you looking for a low-cost RSS aggregator for Outlook, check out RSS Popper: . It's still in beta but works fairly well and automatically includes links to a few common places, such as BBC News, Microsoft Watch, Rolling Stone, etc. You can import from OPML as well as export your feeds into your own OPML file. It works in a simliar fashion to NewsGator but the Outlook edition of Newsgator costs $ (not expensive but still $) whereas RSS popper is free. All of the feeds are put into a new folder in Outlook called RSS. The post says it reads both RSS, Atom and RDF but most of the feeds I see are all RSS.

I don't think Scoble gets it completely. There's no way you can compare an HP Pavilion from Walmart to a Mac mini . Why not? 1. HP Pavillions are not built the same way. I've owned a few - they hang regularly (not just due to Windows) and they are VERY limited boxes. 2. The Mac Mini is targeted as a second computer for someone who wants to experience the Mac for the first time and already has the other stuff (Monitor, keyboard, mouse). Apple still has things to do to get it right (read MS Monitor for a good analysis of the challenges ahead) and the Mac mini is not going to cause a huge dent in the Windows market share but would you pay $499 for a machine that is extremely stable and "just works"? It will be interesting to see how inventory levels are by the start of summer. Mini Macintosh announced by Apple today

If you use one of the various online or web-based bug tracking systems (DragNet, BugCentral, etc), add it to your VFP task pane to make it easier to access.   1. Bring up the Task Pane. 2. Click on Options and go to the Task Pane Manager. 3. Click on Customize and go to the Customize Panes section. 4. Add a new pane as a  Web Page. 5. Click to the Data Tab and enter the URL for the web site. 6. Click Save and you're all set up!   Now when you bring up the Task Pane, you can go directly to your bug tracking system and have it available to you while you work directly within Visual FoxPro!   At first I thought about simply trying to hook into the SQL Server database and link all the bugs to the VFP Task List but this way, I'm still using the online component but I have access to my items quickly and easily. Yet another way to stay completely in my VFP IDE and still use other tools at the same time.  

With Apple set to rock the world next week, possibly with a home device ( iHome ?), I found this neat site that has all kinds of cool ideas, including (likely for Scoble's benefit, the MSN iPad ). Some very cool ideas here. iPod Photo Galleries - iPod Concepts

There have been many articles (Discussions, posts, whatever) on how Visual FoxPro gets its speed from and how the VFP index actually works. Calvin's most recent post, What is an index anyway? , goes into full detail. As a quick note on indexing and VFP 9, VFP 9 includes a new Binary index, useful for handling logical indices. The new BINARY index is smaller and also much faster. INDEX ON DELETED() TAG DELETED BINARY Example: Table with 8000 records (a few deleted) INDEX ON DELETED() TAG DELETED : CDX file size was about 22K INDEX ON DELETED() TAG DELETED BINARY: CDX file was only 4 K There used to be a time when almost every application created an index for DELETED() until Chris Probst (referenced here on ProFox - I would link to the entire article but FoxPro advisor never put it online - hey Chris! did you know you could revise it and put it online yourself?) shattered the illusion that it would make things faster. As it notes in the VFP9 help file, this ne...

All 38 different stations of the CHUM Media network are doing a donor show all day today to provide relief to the tsunami-stricken areas through the Red Cross and other organizations. So far (as of 9:25am today), they have raised over $250,000 (not including an initial $100,000 donation from the CHUM network itself). As Trish and I were discussing last night, if every person in Canada only gave $1, we would be giving over 36 million dollars. If every person in the Western world only gave $1, imagine how much it would bring. If you can, give generously.

I'm not always a big fan of Dave Winer's blog but in his first set of posts this new year, he hits the nail on the head Bringing the Press into the story I'm VERY tired of reporters saying they are objective yet their bias shows through regularly. Maybe it was ironic then that the pro-democratic media pretty much shut down Dean's campaign by making him appear as a ranting maniac (that seems to be Dave's comment " when a campaign can be deleted, and its supporters disenfranchised, by cable networks because a candidate showed enthusiasm," - but Dean pretty much did do it to himself - there's a difference between a rant and enthusiasm). But his point is bang on: "Net-net: the professional journalist is totally part of the story he or she is writing. That they believe otherwise is the major bug in their process." His other reference to his comment on competition from three years back is absolutely right on as well: "Simply...