Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day: 01/07/2007

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Real-Time Bus Location Tracking

"NextBus information is not a static schedule listing — it is actual arrival information, updated at regular intervals. Because traffic variations, breakdowns, and day-to-day problems faced by any transit provider can interrupt service, NextBus was designed to keep you on schedule even if your bus or train isn't.

From the comfort and security of a protected place, you can learn when the next bus will arrive at your stop.

NextBus uses satellite technology and advanced computer modeling to track vehicles on their routes. Each vehicle is fitted with a satellite tracking system.
..."

I guess it's "How Cool Net Stuff Makes Life Easier" posting week...

I came across NextBus the other day and I think it's one of cooler things I've seen recently, a service that takes a number of different technologies and merges them together to make our lives easier...

Using GPS tracking, mobile connectivity, java and the web, my city (Simi Valley) via Nextbus, provides real-time bus schedules and tracking. Via web page or mobile phone you can see exactly where the bus you're waiting on is and how long before it reaches your stop. Free...

Call me geeky, but I think it's just too cool watching the bus icons travel their route in real-time (via an optional java applet).

Personally this makes bus travel much more attractive to me. Knowing about this site/service, I'm now more likely to include using a local bus as a travel option. Go technology and go Simi! :)

BTW, there are a number of different states and transit agencies covered too...

(via LAist - RapidBus.net in Beta)

Friday, January 12, 2007

Domino's now has Online Ordering. My Waistline is never going to be the same (like it wasn't already jacked up enough).

Domino's Online Ordering

I've just discovered that Domino's now has online ordering. I just finished ordering the family dinner and all I have to say is, "Oh my... this sucks". This sucks because it's WAY to easy to use. Damn you Domino's!

Adding pizza's is just a click away and you can tweak them to your heart's content (extra this, add that, none of that.. put this on the right side, this on the left, etc). Adding sides is just as easy. And as you would expect, you can save your contact/payment info so future orders are even easier.

Oh my...

And best of it, it's all pretty much real-time.

As I read the order confirmation, I realized I entered my callback number incorrectly. So I called my local Domino's (which the online order said would fulfil my order) and told them I had just placed an order and that the phone number was wrong. They immediately responded, "You mean this one..." reading back the incorrect number, which we then corrected. That's a connected, real-time brick-and-click! Nice...

Needless to say, so far I'm a very happy (and hungry... hurry up driver guy!) online Domino's customer.

Wait, he just drove up... Dinner time!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition RTW

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Runtime

"... Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SQL Server Compact Edition) is designed for developers who need light weight, in process relational database solution for their applications that can be developed and deployed on desktop as well as on mobile devices. SQL Server Compact Edition Runtime can be used to develop and deploy applications on desktop. ..."

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Developer Software Development Kit

"... SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Developer SDK contains the files required for installing SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition on mobile devices, desktop and tablet PC. It also has the Help File, and the Header files for native development, and the Northwind sample application. ..."

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Tools for Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1

"... The download is installed after the installation of Visual Studio 2005 SP1 and updates the Smart Device Development components in Visual Studio 2005 SP1 with the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition design time UI/Dialogs, device CAB files, and includes new features like Click Once support. ..."

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Server Tools

"... Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Server Tools updates the servers running IIS to support connectivity solutions from SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition database on a mobile device or a desktop or a tablet PC to database servers running SQL Server 2000 SP3a and above versions ..."

It's SQL CE RTW day... Yeah! Download links are all working (as of right now at least).

Why am I excited about this? Because I need an easily embedded database, that's cheap, easy, simple to deploy and doesn't force me to relearn a new DB system...

XBox 360 Backward Compatibility Update (Aug 2006) Now Available for those without XBox Live

Microsoft Downloads - Original Xbox Game Support August 2006 Update

"... Original Xbox® game support enables your Xbox 360™ video game console to play an array of games from your original Xbox video game console. A list of games that are currently backward compatible is available here and we will continue to add support for additional games over time ..."

For people who do not have their XBox 360 connected to XBox Live (silly of them, I know, but sometimes there are reasons... like the console being at a friends grandparents house who doesn't have broadband, etc, etc) this download will let them update their backward compatibility.

The Aug 2006 list is a little dated (I thought there was a Dec 2005 BC update released on XBox Live?), still it's better than nothing.

Take this 5MB download, unzip it, burn the default.xex to a CD or DVD, put it in your 360 and you're updated...

Orcas Jan 2007 CTP VPC

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" - January 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP)

"Visual Studio code name “Orcas” delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.

This download is the January 2007 Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Code-Named “Orcas”. This CTP is available in English only.

Note: This CTP is available as a Virtual PC image or as a self-extracting install.

..."

Saying there's tons of updates in the CTP is an understatement... Lots of C# 3 stuff, Linq stuff, ADO Entity stuff, etc.

But the thing I'm excited about? The movement in the add-in support! There's an article in the latest MSDN about it (CLR Inside Out - .NET Application Extensibility), and now we're seeing it in code.

"...

Support for advanced lifetime management of add-ins and their AppDomains

We’ve added the helper classes that manage the lifetime of add-ins, the objects passed between the host and add-ins, and even of the AppDomains the add-ins live in. By using the ContractBase and LifetimeToken handle, pipeline developer can let the hosts and add-ins act as if everything, including the AppDomain the add-in was activated in, was controlled by the garbage collector even though .Net Remoting would normally make that impossible.

..."

As you know, I've been saying for a long time that application Add-in support needs to be backed into .Net. It's great to see that happening in this release...

I'm looking forward to Orcas's release at PDC (which is my WAG release date for Orcas ;)

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

SQL Server Compact Edition RTW Tomorrow (11 January, 2007)

SQL Server Everywhere Blog - SQL Server Compact Edition Release To Web (RTW)

"Hi,

SQL Server Compact Edition will be released to web on 11th January 2007.
For Runtime binary, we will be refreshing RC1 link hence RC1 bits will not be availble on web on Jan 10th.
We will be releasing following packages in 10 languages (English, chinese -simplified, chinese - traditional, spanish, korean, japanese, french, german, russian and italian);
SSCE Runtime
SSCE Developer SDK
SSCE Server tools
SSCE tools for VS 2005 SP1 and
SSCE Books on line
Thanks
Sachin" [Post leached in full]

So tomorrow is SQLCE day... yeah!

I'm spec'ing a project now where I plan to use this, so the timing is pretty darn good...

I'll post the RTW download links as soon as I get them.

"Getting Started with the XNA Creators Club" Video

Microsoft Downloads - Getting Started with the XNA Creators Club

"...This video demonstrates the steps necessary to purchase a membership to the XNA Creators Club, obtain the XNA Game Launcher, and connect your Windows PC to your Xbox 360 in order to deploy a game to your Xbox 360 using XNA Game Studio Express. ..."

I've been wondering about these same things (mostly wondering how the deployment to the 360 works...)

The video (11 minutes) is clear, concise and focused on the task at hand (i.e. it's not a marketing splash/blab fest).

Hooking the PC to the 360 (and deploying games) is not hard, but not exactly easy, so this video can help ...

"A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods"

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

This site provides samples and examples of a bunch of different diagramming and visualization methods. From normal pie, line, bar charts to buzz word coverage of value chain, strategy map, failure tree to treemaps, heaven 'n' hell charts to cartoons.

A diagram for every need...

PS. The above website capture was done with the cool IECapt utility...

(via Insomnia - Link porn)

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

IE Developer Toolbar Beta 3 Released

Microsoft Downloads - Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta 3

"...
This Beta 3 version of the toolbar contains functionality and stability enhancements over previous versions, including:

Style Tracer: Right mouse click on a style value for an element and select Style Tracer to find the style rule that is effecting that value.
CSS Selector Matches: View a report of all style rules set and how many times they are used on the current page.
View Source: View the formatted and syntax colored source of the original page, currently rendered page, element or element with the styles that are effecting it.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Please visit the Developer Toolbar Wiki on Channel 9 to enter bug reports, comments, and suggestions.

..."

To get it to install on my Vista install, I first unblocked the EXE and then ran the MSI from a "Run as Admin" command prompt.

Initially I tried just double clicking on the MSI and clicking through all the normal security dialogs, but that didn't seem to work. Maybe I wasn't patient enough or had a running instance of IE in the background, etc, etc...

Still the second install try ("Run as Admin" comment prompt install) worked right off, so... draw your own conclusions. Your mileage may vary, yada...

Update #1 1/9/2007 @ 6:22PM PST:
On the IEBlog there's some more in-depth information and pictures... ;)

IE Developer Toolbar Beta 3 - Now Available

Orcas WinForm Additions

Bill Evjen's Blog - Windows Forms Additions in the Next Version of .NET

"Talking with Microsoft, I learned of some of the additions they are making for .NET Orcas (due at the end of this year)...Some of the highly touted items that are being added to Windows Forms are a lot of WPF interoperability items. This was announced at last year's TechEd, but the idea is that you will be able to host WPF controls directly inside of a Windows Forms application. You will also be able to do the reverse. ...

...

Getting rid of the "White Screen of Darn"

...

The Visual Basic group is shipping some additional controls, such as a Repeater and Line/Shape control , but since this is .NET, you will be able to grab the DLL and use it in your C# project if you so wish. This will probably be released as some kind of VB toolkit instead of being included in the actual framework. ..."

That last one made me chuckle. Such as simple thing...

I hate coding GUI lines and shapes. This is also a simple thing that could help bring more VB6'ers to VB.Net. Yeah I know, it's a little thing, but when all you need is a simple line it becomes a big thing.

Check out Bill's post for the rest of the scoop (like the Vista stuff, etc)...

RTF 1.9 Specification (Word 2007)

Microsoft Downloads - Word 2007: Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification, version 1.9

"...The Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification provides a format for text and graphics interchange that can be used with different output devices, operating environments, and operating systems. Version 1.9 of the specification contains the latest updates introduced by Microsoft Office Word 2007. RTF uses the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), PC-8, Macintosh, or IBM PC character set to control the representation and formatting of a document, both on the screen and in print.

..."

Yeah, I know... RTF is so... um... 90's? Still I might need this this year... sigh...

Monday, January 08, 2007

ExcelPackage Project - An Open XML Excel Wrapper API

Open-source API for SpreadsheetML documents

More people are starting to build and share open-source APIs around Open XML development. ...

For .NET developers, the System.IO.Packaging API handles the low-level heavy lifting chores of Open XML development: dealing with OPC packages, relationships, and content types. But once you have those details under control, you're going to have to write a lot of XML markup to create a useful document...

...
A great example is the new ExcelPackage project on Codeplex. It was created by Dr. John Tunnicliffe, and he wrote a nice article about it for the OpenXmlDeveloper web site: "Using the Packaging API and Office Open XML to create Excel 2007 files on the server."
John's approach mimics some of the syntax and concepts that have been used in the Excel object model to allow for simple document creation.
...
using OfficeOpenXml; // namespace for the ExcelPackage assembly
…
FileInfo newFile = new FileInfo(@"C:\mynewfile.xlsx");
using (ExcelPackage xlPackage = new ExcelPackage(newFile)) { … }
ExcelWorksheet worksheet = xlPackage.Workbook.Worksheets.Add("My Worksheet");
worksheet.Cell(1, 1).Value = "My Data #1";
worksheet.Cell(1, 2).Value = "My Data #2";
...
Pretty cool. The ExcelPackage class makes it possible to "think like a spreadsheet" when creating the document, focusing on which cells contain which values, and hiding all the messy details of the underlying XML that is being generated...

That looks pretty cool.

When/if I need to generate XLSx's I want to remember to check this out... One issue I see is that it's licensed under GPL, so using it at work looks problematic.

Still it looks like an interesting project, one that I'll be keeping an eye on.

VSTE4DBPro (Data Dude) for VS2005 Team Suite Users

Microsoft Downloads - Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals Add-on for Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Edition

This add-on provides Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite users with the additional functionality provided by Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals....

...

To install this software you must have Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite installed (retail or trial edition) on your machine. If you are using the Trial Edition of Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite, the Database Professionals functionality will also expire when the Team Suite Trial Edition expires. If you do not already have Team Suite, a link to the trial edition of Team Suite is in the related resources list.

To install the add-on, first download and run the .EXE file which will extract the installation files. Then run Setup.exe. An optional .ISO image is also supplied for the convenience of burning an installation CD or DVD.
...

If you already own/have VS 2005 Team Suite, and want Data Dude (aka "Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals") all you need to do is download and install this 7.9 MB file and it's yours...

Cool Thing of the CES Day - R2D2 Projector

Gizmodo - Star Wars Projector Shaped Like R2D2, Does Not Project Leia Holos

"Star Wars and gadget geeks, you may want to sit down before reading this post. This 1/2 scale remote controlled R2D2 has a projector stashed in his dome, capable of an 80-inch picture. And said controller is shaped like the Millenium Falcon. By the falcon's command, the sassy little droid can be driven forward and back and right down the trash compactor. The remote'll also spin his cute little dome piece around, trigger 11 R2 sounds from the movies. And there's a built in DVD player with stereo speakers, an iPod dock connector, USB and memory card slots, as well as AV inputs...."