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209 days ago
I've been filling my brain with all kinds of data and discussions surrounding the MVVM model lately. I really like the pattern, but there is a particular piece of the puzzle that's been bugging me. I spend a lot of time developing demos in WPF that use a lot of advanced graphics techniques. Every single change to the UI needs to happen smoothly, and that means a lot of animation and transitions. When I look at my code and try to think about how I would move more logic out of the view and either into XAML or into the ViewModel, this is an area that is most often the sticking point. Well, after being inspired by Josh Smith's post about that very subject, I took my own crack at this. My primary motivation was finding something that would work for transitioning items in and out of itemscontrols as well as single child content controls. I also wanted to avoid adding code to the view. Josh was sticking with current "production-ready" code, but since my apps are often ...
316 days ago
I see Microsoft has announced their Retail Experience Center (REC). I've been there, and I can definitely say they've built something really cool. In fact, they've included so much detail it's actually kind of surreal. You can easily forget you're not in a real store. Right down to the giant mural of a parking lot that's behind the sliding glass doors. Anyway, if you have the means, I recommend checking it out. Also, Avanade's retail demo is installed on their Microsoft Surface, and you can catch a glimpse of it in the video (it also appears in one of the gallery images). So that's cool to see! :)
323 days ago
We've finished another Surface demo and that means I get to embarras myself in another video. Hopefully you're too distacted by how amazing the app is to notice my performance. I had a lot of fun developing this one, and while I'm sure everyone will have their own positive and negative reactions, I think we produced something that showcases several good ideas in a short amount of time. So I'm happy. Please let me know if you have thoughts or questions. I'm happy to discuss.
450 days ago
I just finished a drive from St. Paul to Seattle. 2.5 days, 1800 miles, lots of fun, 1 perspective shift. I have a new position at the same company, but now it makes more sense for me to work out of our headquarters in Seattle, so here I am. Technically, I could have flown. It would have taken about 6-7 hours total, and would have put me here in time to enjoy a beautiful august weekend. The company is paying for relocation, so whether I drove or had my car shipped was totally up to me and made no financial difference. So why did I drive? It was a rather an easy decision to make, even though I put on a show of going back and forth about it for a couple weeks. Really though, I knew I wanted to drive the first time I thought of it, but it’s only in doing it, that I understood why. The fact that I hadn’t ever been in Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho was something I thought should change. I’m also planning to sell my car shortly, now that I don’t need it to get to work or the gym, so I ...
502 days ago
I decided that the only way I can express my decision making process, which has led me to NOT buy a new iPhone tomorrow, is to externalize the conversation taking place in my head. So here ya go: WM Owner Ok, I've decided to stick with my HTC Touch Cruise (substitute any of the latest wm phones with 3G and GPS). iPhone 3G Owner But how can you think WM is still a better choice when the new iPhone is so great? WM I know, I have to keep reminding myself of the reasons. Let's do this though. You start telling me the things you love about the iPhone that you think are either unique to it, or better than WM. And I will respond with something that is unique or better on WM; OR demonstrate equivalent functionality on WM, and see how far we get. And I'm not just going to list features for features sake; these are things that really matter to me iPhone Alright. Let's start with mobile web browsing. Web pages are displayed like they are on a desktop. WM Yeah but ...
