MoreWally.com

Mapping and Location in iOS and Android at Xamarin Evolve 2013

wallym — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:30:00 GMT

The following is a link to my talk on Mapping & Location in iOS and Android at Xamarin Evolve 2013. Obviously, the talk is centered on MonoTouch, aka Xamarin.iOS, and Mono for Android, aka Xamarin.Android. In this talk, I cover the native functionality of each platform. In addition, I cover Google Maps for iOS SDK. I hope that you find the talk to be helpful.

http://xamarin.com/evolve/2013#session-d336r1byq5

Testing WebAPI with Fiddler

wallym — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:20:00 GMT

I was wanting to test some WebAPI Methods via Fiddler so that I could all be working on one machine, debug, and make sure that everything is working. Here is what my fiddler setup looks like:

We're calling into a method with the signature:

        public List<CustAd> Post([FromBody] UserLocation value)
        {
//............
    }

The UserLocation object has the following signature;

    public class UserLocation
    {
        public string AppKey { get; set; }
        public double Latitude { get; set; }
        public double Longitude { get; set; }
    }

Xamarin.iOS Visual Studio Plugin Article

wallym — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:06:00 GMT

Url: http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2013/04/01/ios-development.aspx

Developers working with Xamarin MonoTouch have been stuck with developing on a Macintosh and working with MonoDevelop. This hasn't been a bad thing. The Apple iOS SDK only runs on the Mac, so this requirement hasn't been a major limiting factor in iOS development.

Unfortunately, .NET and C# developers are used to using Visual Studio. Microsoft has spent a lot of time, effort and money to make Visual Studio the premier software development tool in existence. Xamarin Inc. has heard from those developers who want to integrate Visual Studio with iOS development. On Feb. 20, Xamarin introduced Xamarin.iOS for Visual Studio. This plug-in allows developers using Visual Studio to write iPhone and iPad applications for the iPhone using the Microsoft .NET Framework and C#.

Juice Up Your Android UI

wallym — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:34:00 GMT

Recently, I wrote an article for our Mono for Android column about improving your user interface of your applications. The url is: http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2013/03/01/enhancing-your-uis.aspx

I hope that you enjoy the article. I spent a lot of time on the article plus, helping out users and creating applications that are helpful to them is a personal/pet project of mine.

One thing that I wanted to mention in the article and could not besides a side mention is the part about reverse geocoding. Reverse geocoding is the process of taking a latitude/longitude and getting back an address. Users are familiar with addresses, not latitude/longitude. Unfortunately, I was not able to show the Android reverse geocoding that is built in. Why? Well, at the time, I was pre-release tester of what would become Mono for Android 4.6 and all the new stuff inside of it. I couldn't come out and say that's why this didn't work and I was not comfortable trying to go ahead with the code anyway. I know that the code worked in previous versions. Unfortunately, deadlines will sometimes hit you over the head when you don't expect it. Bottom line: I apologize to you the reader. I will have an article out on mapping at a later time and I will discuss reverse geocoding there.

Mobile Web Development Featuring jQuery Mobile

wallym — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:57:00 GMT

Url: http://elearning.left-brain.com/event/mobile-web-development-jquery-mobile?code=EP3234W1

I'll be doing a seminar on jQuery Mobile on April 23. I hope that you can attend. Here is the info:

Start: 4/23/2013 11:00 AM (UTC -05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
End: 4/23/2013 4:30 PM (UTC -05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Rates: $199.99

Mobile development is a hot item. Customers are buying iPhones, iPads, Android devices, and many other mobile computing devices at an ever increasing record pace. Devices based on iOS and Android are nearly 80 percent of the marketplace. RIM continues to be dominant in the business area across the world. Nokia's growth with Windows Phone will grow on a worldwide basis. At the same time, clearly web development is a tremendous driver of applications, both on the public Internet and on private networks. How can developers target these various mobile platforms with web technologies? Developers can write web applications that take advantage of each mobile platform, but that is a lot of work. Into this space, the jQuery Mobile framework was developed. This eLearning series will provide an overview of mobile web development with jQuery Mobile, a detailed look at what the jQuery Mobile framework provides for us, how we can customize jQuery Mobile, and how we can use jQuery Mobile inside of ASP.NET.

Sessions (each session runs approximately 75 minutes):

Session 1: Mobile Web Development

What web developers need to know about the idiosyncracies of mobile development
Tools to use for mobile development
- ASP.NET development options: Webforms v MVC v Web Pages
- Web browsers
Javascript language features useful for mobile web development
Integrating with the Phone
Meta tags to improve the user experience

Session 2: jQuery Mobile

You are probably aware of the jQuery javascript library. This seminar will introduce jQuery Mobile, a library that will make the development of web applications for mobile devices easy. We’ll look at the basics of jQuery Mobile, including

Page Setup
Toolbars
Navigation
Integrating basic controls with jQuery Mobile
- Buttons
- List components
- Form/UI components
Basic options for jQuery Mobile
AJAX operations with the ListView

Session 3: jQuery Mobile Advanced with ASP.NET

jQuery Mobile allows developers to create an application with a mobile-specific user interface. There are many options to optimize and change the default behavior of jQuery Mobile, as well as how ASP.NET developers can easily integrate with jQuery Mobile. This session will look at

Creating a Template for ASP.NET developers
Creating a custom theme
Build one ASP.NET Page with jQM Themes to target multiple devices
Offline operation and the application manifest
Plug-ins and optimizations for tablets
jQM Events

Instructors

Wally McClure graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) with a BS & MS in Electrical Engineering. Since that time, he has done consulting and development for companies large and small. Wally has authored books on iPhone Programming with Mono/Monotouch, Android Programming with Mono for Android, application architecture, ADO.NET & SQL Server, and finally AJAX. He is a Microsoft MVP and an ASPInsider, and a partner in Scalable Development, Inc., where we're ramping up to provide training on iPhone, Android, and HTML5.

Customer Service

If you have any questions regarding this event, the registration process or would like to register more than one attendee, please contact us directly.

Email: service@devproconnections.com
Phone: 800-793-5697 or 913-967-1719

Free Xamarin Studio and Free Chapters 1-4 Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#

wallym — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:33:00 GMT

On February 20, Xamarin announced a new version of MonoDevelop called Xamarin Studio. We've been big fans of Xamarin and Miguel de Icaza's work all the way back to the inception of the Mono project so we're especially amped to see Xamarin release a Free Starter Xamarin Studio to bring this great mobile development tool to an even bigger programmer audience.

In the spirit of free then, we're happy to share this free starter from Wrox's Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#. Download this free starter is a PDF with chapters 1-4 of the book to get you started developing Android apps in the Xamarin tools. While the new Xamarin tools have changed a bit, we do still think these chapters will be useful if you're new to using Mono and Xamarin for Android development. Here's the outline of what's covered in these free Mono for Android chapters. We hope if you find this useful, you'll come back and buy the complete book from Wrox here at Wrox.com or at your favorite book retailer.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Android, Mobile Devices, and the Marketplace

Product Comparison
Mobile Development
Android
Cross-Platform Alternatives
Summary

Chapter 2: Introduction to Mono for Android

Before You Begin Developing
Visual Studio Development with Mono for Android
Mono for Android Development with MonoDevelop
Summary

Chapter 3: Understanding Android/Mono for Android Applications

What Is an Android Application?
Binding the Components: The Android Manifest
Summary

Chapter 4: Planning and Building Your Application's User Interface

Guidelines for a Successful Mobile UI
Building an Android UI
Choosing a Control Layout
Designing Your User Interface Controls
Controlling Your Menus
Resolution-Independent UI
Constructing a User Interface: A Phone and Tablet Example
Summary

MonoTouch Training Course now online: iOS 6 PassKit Coding and Events

wallym — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Url: www.learnnowonline.com/learnmobilenow/topic/300

Course Description: So what is a PassKit, this course will introduce you to the PassKit , the types there are, the file structure, security and other items. Next you‘ll be shown how to create a PassKit manually with such things as provisioning, KeyChain access and other items. Then you will learn about coding for a Pass, including complain applications, classes, list of passes to name a few items that will be covered. Next you will learn about reminders and events. You’ll see the EventStore, Enumerate Calendars, create an event, and create a reminder, running a query plus more.

1+ hours of media runtime

PassKit Intro

PassKit Agenda
What is PassKit
PassKit Ecosystem
What is a Pass
Types of Passes
File Structure
Pass.json File
Barcodes
Relevancy
Localization
Security
Passbook
Getting Passes into Passbook

Manually Create a PassKit

Create a Pass Manually
Provisioning
Created
Certificate Signing Request
KeyChain Access
Certificate Request
Pass Certificate Created
Download
Build the Signpass Utility
Must Update
Run the Signpass Utility
Manifest.json Output
End Result
Resources

Coding

Companion Applications
Passes and MonoDevelop
Classes
Check Passbook Availability
Pass Library Instance
List of Passes
Displaying a Pass
Loading a Pass From a File
Replace an Existing Pass
Editing a Pass
Receiving Change Notifications
Resource
Demo: Passes
Demo: Pass Code

Reminders and EventKit

Agenda
EventStore
Accessibility
Requesting Access
Objects
Enumerate Calendars
Add or Modify an Event
Create an Event
Create a Reminder
Retrieve an Event
Retrieve a Reminder
Deleting an Event
Search for Events
Search for Reminders
Demo: EventKit
Demo: Reminders
Demo: Running a Query
Resources

iOS6 for .NET & C# Developers with MonoTouch - New UI Controls

wallym — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:11:00 GMT

Url: http://www.learnnowonline.com/learnmobilenow/topic/297

Course Description: The User Interface (UI) has become a very important part of any application. This course will cover application UI in iOS 6. You will see the UI refresh control and how to have the UI refresh in an application. Then you will look at UI collection view and how work with data, cells and other items. Then the course will cover layout and display. You will see section inset, sub classing layouts and how to create linear and circular layouts.

1+ hours of media runtime

User Interface

UI Refresh Control

Pull to Refresh
UI Refresh Control
Begin/End Refreshing
Other Members
What About iOS5?
Demo: iOS6 UI Refresh Control
Demo: iOS5 UI Refresh

UI Collection View

UI Collection View
Data
UI Collection View Cell
Cells
Supplementary Views
Decoration Views
Delegate
Cell Highlighting
Disabling Selection
Cell Menus
Demo: UI Collection View

Layout and Display

Layouts
Section Inset
Subclassing Layouts
UI Collection View Flow Layout
Custom Layouts
Demo: Linear Layout
Demo: Circular Layout
Key Takeaway

Introduction to iOS6 Social Networks with MonoTouch

wallym — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 02:09:00 GMT

Check out this introduction to iOS6 Social Networks with MonoTouch: http://youtu.be/t-kGZQtKSp8

I hope you enjoy this video

iOS6 Introduction with MonoTouch Webinar Recording

wallym — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:44:00 GMT

This is a recording of my iOS6 with MonoTouch Webinar: http://media.appdev.com/EDGE/LL/livelearn01242013.wmv (I think this only loads in IE)

iOS6 is the latest version of the iOS operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. With this new version of iOS comes the iPhone 5. In this Live Learning, we’ll discuss how to support the new iPhone 5’s display, support for social networks in iOS, and the new pull to refresh functionality in iOS6.

MonoTouch: iOS 6 Introduction, Social Media & Maps - Online Training with LearnNowOnline

wallym — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:35:00 GMT

One of my training courses has just been published by LearnNowOnline. I hope you find it helpful as you take up iOS 6 Development with MonoTouch. Here is some info about it below. Link: http://www.learnnowonline.com/learnmobilenow/topic/296

Course Description: This course takes a look at the iOS6 operating system and creating applications with MonoTouch. The course will start with an introduction to iOS 6 how it has grown, software support, how to support the older iOS systems plus other items. Next the course will dive into social web sites like Twitter and Facebook and incorporating updates into an application. Then the course will look into existing mapsand the new maps API.

Overview of iOS6

Introduction

Agenda
New Features
Development Requirements
iOS6 Growth
Software Support
How to Support Older iOS
Using the Older iOS/Xcode SDK
Display
iPhone Startup Images
Retina Images
Other Images
Screen Dimensions
Demo: Images
Demo: Selecting Images

Introduction Continued

ViewWillUnload, ViewDidUnload
DidReceiveMemoryWarning
ViewWillDisappear
Interface Orientation
UI Navigation Bar
Demo: Memory Warning
Demo: Orientation Changes
Demo: UINavigationBar

Social Improvements

Social Twitter

Demo: iPhone Twitter App
Demo: Twitter App Code
Social Improvements
Social Networks
Twitter Account Setup
Sending Tweets
Completion Handler
Calling Twitter API
Demo: Calling Twitter API

Social Facebook

Facebook
Post to Facebook
Completion Handler
The Facebook Graph
Demo: Facebook Code
Demo: Facebook Graph

Maps

Existing Maps

Apple Maps
Map Initialization
Other Methods and Objects
Annotations
Overlays
Demo: New Apple Maps
Demo: Map-Kit Maps

New Maps API

New Features
MKLaunchOptions
Demo: Apple Maps

iOS6 with .NET, C#, & MonoTouch Seminar

wallym — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:52:00 GMT

I'll be doing an iOS6 with MonoTouch Seminar on Wednesday at 12 PM EST. A little about the event:

Registration: https://www302.livemeeting.com/lrs/8001676474/Registration.aspx?pageName=fxnc6h27pbdjspp6

jQuery Mobile Advanced - More jQuery Mobile and jQuery Mobile Themes

wallym — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:49:00 GMT

The second two of my three article series on jQuery Mobile have been posted to the MSDN Magazine Script Junkie Site. I hope that they are helpful to you.

Article 2: More jQuery Mobile

There’s no doubt that mobile Web applications are here to stay. As I said at the start of the previous article in this series, talk to any C-level executive at a major company or any technology startup, and they’ll tell you about mobile apps.

jQuery Mobile (jQM) provides a JavaScript framework that allows developers to easily add a mobile look and feel to their Web applications. In this article I’ll dig into some advanced features of jQuery Mobile that—with some programming—a developer can use to provide an application that looks and feels very similar to a native app running on a device. Here’s what I’ll cover:

Article 3: jQuery Mobile Themes

The first article (Introduction to jQuery Mobile) in this series looked at the subject of themes at a high level and at themes available in jQuery Mobile (jQM). In this, the third of three articles on jQM, I show how to build a custom theme using the Theme Roller, as well as look at some custom themes that allow a mobile Web application to look more like an iPhone, Android or Windows Phone application.

I'm on the Tablet Show to talk MonoTouch and Mono for Android

wallym — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:49:00 GMT

Carl and Richard talk to Wally McClure about building mobile applications for iPhone and Android using MonoTouch and Mono for Android (respectively). The conversation starts out with Wally's original interest in the Mono tools, being able to leverage his code and skills in C# for mobile development. From there Wally drills into the challenges of tooling across platforms (testing frameworks, etc) as well as dealing with fragmentation of operating systems and SDKs - a bigger issue in Android than iOS, but still an issue.

Link: http://www.thetabletshow.com/default.aspx?showNum=67

Beating the Android Fragmentation Monster with .NET, C#, and Mono for Android - Article

wallym — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:34:00 GMT

Much has been made about fragmentation of the Android platform. The truth is that the Android platform is not as fragmented as developers think. Google provides a set of libraries that allow older versions of Android to get support for newer APIs. In this article, I'll create a version of the Star Trek navigation application (from my previous column) that runs on Android 2.x to 4.x for handsets and tablets.

The Android Support Package is a set of static libraries with additional APIs that can be used by an application. These libraries back port some newer APIs to older versions of Android. At the current time, there are two versions of the Support Package.

The v4 Support Package is designed to bring Fragment and other support to Android 1.6 (API Level 4) and later. If a program needs to use some new features and run on Android 2.2, this is the library that it needs to use. Our sample application will use the v4 Support Package.

The v13 Support Package is similar in concept to the v4 Support Package. This package requires Android 3.2 (API Level 13) or later. It has some underlying implementation changes.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Learn Cross Platform Development for iPhone, iPad, and Android with LearnNowOnline, MonoTouch, and Mono for Android using .NET/C#

wallym — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:18:00 GMT

I would like to highly encourage you to learn Cross Platform Development for iPhone, iPad, and Android with LearnNowOnline, MonoTouch, and Mono for Android using .NET/C#. By taking your existing knowledge, you can build applications that are best of breed and share code between them across the the iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms. Some of the courses include:

I would not have done these videos if there was not tremendous value in the Xamarin technologies or their direction. I hope that they provide you value as you take up the iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Cross Platform Development with MonoTouch and Mono for Android

wallym — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 06:00:00 GMT

You are tasked with creating apps for the iPhone, IPad, and Android. You are a .NET developer. What should you do? Start with MonoTouch and Mono for Android. Along the way, you will want to check out my training class through LearnNowOnline.. The class is on how to architect your apps to be as cross platform as possible. I hope you enjoy the class.

Databases and Data with MonoTouch and Mono for Android

wallym — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:31:00 GMT

Learn Now Online (formerly AppDev) has just released a free section of one of my recent training series about relational databases with MonoTouch and Mono for Android. I hope you find it helpful and enjoying!

Android 4 Fragments with Mono for Android

wallym — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:53:00 GMT

With the release of Android 3.0, Google added support for larger displays and attention-grabbing UI designs and layouts. On a tablet screen, UI components can be used to present better information. How does Android do this? It has a technology called Fragments, and I'll look at its implementation in the currently shipping operating system, Android 4. (Let's get past all the jokes about Android and fragmentation on its device platform.)

For more information on this, check out my article at Visual Studio Magazine - http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2012/12/13/android-4-and-fragments.aspx

Webinar Recording on Cross Platform Development with MonoTouch and Mono for Android

wallym — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:07:00 GMT

The iPhone and Android are dominant in the marketplace. The two platforms currently have 85% of the smartphone marketplace and are continuing to grow that marketshare. Developers are being tasked with targeting these two platforms. In this session, we’ll take a high level look at how we can use c# and .NET knowledge to share code between iOS and and Android. We’ll look at linked files, using the Xamarin Mobile API, the challenges of running across platforms and frameworks, as well as other features of Visual Studio, Monotouch, MonoDevelop, and Mono for Android that allows us to write as much code that can run on both platforms.

The following link is a recording on Cross Platform Development with MonoTouch and Mono for Android. I am guessing that the link only works in IE. That's out of my control.

Atlanta Startup Weekend (November, 2012) Report (or Why Knoxville Can't Win)

wallym — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:16:00 GMT

I was at the Atlanta Startup Weekend last Saturday. I had a great time. I met some great people, including Taryn Crouthers (who was the star for our team), TJ, Jen Bonnett, Bill Lyman, Keith McGreggor, and many more. I was on the team for "Bed, Wed, or Dead." We won! Taryn was the team lead and did the pitching. What an unbelievable job she did. I believe that she won the competition for us.

Overall, the Atlanta Startup Weekend had a mix of people that I think are necessary for startups:

Idea people
Marketing people
Technical people
Existing entrepreneurs
Former entrepreneurs that have made it (and some that haven't)
Angel investors
Venture Capital investors
People that can get *** done
Some people from the media

Basically, you put together a lot of people with a lot of good ideas and you bring them together in a 48 hour rush to see who can get what done. I don't know if "Bed, Wed, or Dead" will make it beyond this week, be sold for $20 million, or die later today. I do know that I got to expand my network of people. That's always good. The event was fun, it gives me a different view on life, and dang it, its fun to meet people.

Working with Taryn and TJ was great. Taryn did great pitch work. Let's be honest, she won it for us with her pitch work. We wrote the code. I think TJ did most of the work and I was along for moral support. Great meeting both of them and working with them. Somehow out of all of that, WE WON!!!!

You may be wondering, why I would go down to this event and would compete in it. After all, I'm in TN, why do this in Atlanta. Well, that's the 2nd half of this blog post........and unfortunately, the truth is that the rest of this isn't going to be pretty. If you have a weak stomach, I'd suggest turning away now............

I've read a lot over the last 10-15 years or so about how Knoxville, and the East Tennessee area, are going to go out and be a technology juggernaut and we're going to do this and that and blah blah blah to be successful because we have "Oak Ridge" (as if that is some magical key to the success washroom). Unfortunately, the truth is that we don't want to be anything besides what we have always been, an area tied to government with a very few successes built in that mostly depends on the outside world. Why is that? We seem to want to want someone else to solve our problems. Yeah, its true, I've just said it, we're lazy. Before you can go to be successful, you have to fix the problems that you have. I thought it a good idea to list out those problems here. Some people will think that this is just sour grapes. That is not my intention. Even if it was, it would not change the fact that these are problems and should be solved. First off, let's think about what our goals should be:

Grow the income of our region as a while.
Create an ecosystem of start up companies.

Unfortunately, that's not what the goals of those in economic development are in Knoxville and East Tennessee are. I've been told on more than one occassion by people that can make things happen "We want to get rid of startups. They compete for labor resources." These types of statements were made matter of factly, in an "in your face" kind of way, and by more than one person in more than one organization. Because of this, I have a hard time believing that this is not an unwritten rule in this region. An interesting question is "Why does this happen?" I think that there are multiple reasons driving this:

Living for the Fight - I have found that for whatever reason, the folks in this area, would rather live for the fight instead of understanding the point and trying to get to the end game. We would rather be like Nancy McCoy, who fought with Johnse Hatfield, for ego and honor than worry about actually doing something important like building a business, generating income, and being successful. It was a powerful scene in the "Hatfields & McCoys" TV Miniseries when she would rather stay and fight for nothing than leave the entire feud behind with Johnse. Johnse just wanted peace and to be successful. Ultimately, we need to be more like Johnse, who left to make money with timber and moonshine in Oregon. He went with a solution, not kept fighting the old fight.
90% of $10 million - Would you rather have 90% of $10 million of 2% of $20 billion? I once listened to Scott McNealy (Founder of Sun Microsystems) ask this question. He followed up with statements like "You do the math." & "Which is a better deal?" If you are building a company, you need to people to help, be your equal, discuss, market, open doors, and many other things. Unfortunately, I have found that the people of the area would rather have the control fo the 90% and only get to $10 million. How do I know this? I see rather short sighted decisions being made. Here is an example: Would you like to grow your business by taking on a partner and some venture funding? You have already generated some growth, by taking in some capital, you can hire some more sales staff, add some engineering, and get a product to market faster and make more sales than if you did this by yourself. Perhaps these investors can open some doors into some bigger clients. The people of this area would rather have the 90% control and think that they can get it to $20 billion. Unfortunately, business isn't mix and match like a buffett. The 90% and the $20 billion tend to be "one or the other but not both."
If you get yours, that's going to mess me up - I have been told on multiple occassions when I have tried to make some sales that the reason why the customer would not buy from us is because if they did, that would mean I might create a successful business, keep money in the area, create jobs, and ultimately raise the wages that the customer would have to pay their own people. Excuse me? Given that these statements would made so openly, it is clear that these are policy at some level in some companies that are HQ'd in the area along with economic development organizations. Unfortunately, this belief is like religion, there is no hope in changing someone that has this ideology. Given that they can arrogantly say this in front of multiple people, there is no hope in this. The leadership at these companies will have to be changed before this can be resolved. Personally, people with this view can be allowed to fade into oblivion. I'd fire them, but that is a different discussion.
I was asked to be a part of a startup weekend in 2011 for Knoxville. I met with the person that was supposed to put this on. He had no idea what he was doing and wanted me to be the face of it, yeah scary I know. His idea was to just put a bunch of developers together in a room and see what happened. No, that's a hackathon. Startup weekends are more serious endeavors. What can you build as far as a company? How many idea people, Angels, VCs, marketing people are going to be there? None, he didn't understand that these other types needed to be there. Ultimately, I said that the event wouldn't be successful and I didn't want my name associated with it unless a bunch of other people and types were involved. Once it was determined that real work had to be done and that I wasn't giving my time away for free to something that I thought was a disaster, the idea faded away into oblivion.
Oak Ridge -Yeah, I said it, Oak Ridge, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. First, let's be honest, Oak Ridge has done a lot of good things for our area. They have done their part in building nuclear weapons to defend our country and they have helped in the area of nuclear energy, a relatively clean energy. Unfortunately, Oak Ridge has created a set of problems for us. These include:

Oak Ridge looks to DC for money and direction. This is not a bad thing, however, it means that:

Oak Ridge does not compete in a very large marketplace. This can blind the people there from understanding what consumers and marketplaces want.
Oak Ridge is disconnected from the private marketplace. When was the last success that came out of Oak Ridge. I remember IPIX and how it was going to be worth billions of $s. IPIX was an interesting technology that allowed for a 360x360 view of the world via a set of fisheye lenses in cameras. Real estate was one of the market segments that IPIX targeted. My father is in real estate and I asked him what value the ceilings and floors have? He couldn't see much value to IPIX beyond the open source 360 degree image files that could already be used. I remember having lunch in the fall of 1997 with someone from IPIX. I asked about the value of ceilings and floors to real estate agents. Ultimately, the response was that I didn't understand the marketplace and that real estate agents were going to fall all over themselves for IPIX technology. In about 2000, IPIX drastically scaled back, got involved in a number of money losing lawsuits, and lost them. Finally, it was sold off and is now in Reston, VA.
Another technology that was highly associated with Oak Ridge, though not a direct descendant, is IdleAire. IdleAire's idea was to provide trucking in-cab services so that truck drivers could turn off their trucks while they are on the road. The benefit to the driver is that the truck won't continually burn fuel, at the rate of about 1 gallon per hour. The in-cab services include air conditioning, electricity, TV, power, telephone, and many other services. IdleAire attracted some interest from the Department of Energy. Unfortunately, there are several issues:

IdleAire's services required a lot of capital outlay for each location. The locations just didn't want to do this.
What's wrong with a small diesel generator on a truck that only burns .2 gallons per hour and provides all of the power for a user in a truck cab. After probably around a billion dollars of money being thrown around, this idea finally gave up the ghost.
Cell phones for communication back home.
DirectTV and other satellite based TV systems.
Why do I need IdleAire again?

They tend to be fairly separated from a marketplace. I've spent some time trying to sell over there and just given up. They tend to be fairly dogmatic and uninterested in what is happening in every other place in the world. I remember several conversations about web technologies in the early 2000s up through about 2006 and it was like talking to a brick wall. There was way too much arrogance out there, "We're Oak Ridge, we're DOE, we're the best and brightest, you don't tell us, we tell you." How's Solyndra working out for you?

There it is, Atlanta Startup Weekend for November, 2012 and why I think it was successful and how it compares to Knoxville. Along with that are my thoughts on why Knoxville can't win. I hope you enjoy the read and it gives the people doing economic development in East TN an understanding of what has to change and why it does. Unfortunately, I expect that anyone that runs across this will just put this in the "That's just sour grapes" file and move on. They've done it that way forever and that's how it is. Did I tell you what happened to Mike Neel the final year he ran CodeStock and Oak Ridge.....................

Webinar on Cross Platform Development with MonoTouch for the iPhone and Mono for Android on Wednesday

wallym — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:58:00 GMT

Here is the registration link: https://www302.livemeeting.com/lrs/8001676474/Registration.aspx?pageName=2w197495hzh0t56g

Thoughts on Microsoft Surface RT

wallym — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:23:00 GMT

Like many others, I was excited by the idea of the Microsoft Surface. Unlike many others, I have had the full experience with the Apple iPad. See, my family has fully bought into the iPad. The iPad is fully integrated with my children's school. I have a fairly good feel for what will work and what won't. Admittedly, I have a foot in both camps. I'm a Microsoft asp.net MVP and have written books on iPhone, iPad, and Android.

I'm not sure how much I bought into apple's idea that a tablet, laptop, convertible device was a compromise and not worthy of a product. I also have not bought into Microsoft Steve Ballmer's idea that the apple iPad is a device that no one wants. I've always felt that the marketplace was the best in the marketplace, apple is clearly the mobile leader. They have shipped 100 million iPads, a ton of iPhones, and sales continue up. I'm about giving the marketplace what it wants, and that's the iPhone and iPad. It's what my customers are asking for. Now, I have no love for apple. I remember their response to problems with the Apple Macs at The CocaCola Company when I worked there, "if you would just get rid of all these other systems and put in macs, it would solve all your problems." Excuse me, but were not replacing our network infrastructure, as400s, mainframes with macs; they won't solve the problem any betters and there is no need for this change; have you not listened to the fact that you must integrate with everyone else? Its acts like this back in the mid 90s along with things like the stupid Apple iOS SDK licensing a few years ago that keep me from being interested in tying upto their view of the world. Yeah, yeah, I know all about Android, but they aren't a platform that is making tons of money and none of my customers are currently asking about Android anyway.

So, why don't I just fall 100% in love with Microsoft? Well, just like Apple, they don't understand the end customer, merely the fact that they are selling products to customers. I've had so many run ins with the MS folks over the years, some of the interactions have become comical. Interestingly enough, none of the MS evangelists in my region will even talk to me any more. I would think that being an author of 9 books related to .NET and numerous magazine articles would get me somewhere, but as one once told me "Wally, you just aren't on our message properly." With that kind of backing, good luck on getting any referrals from MS.

Anyway, the point in the lead up is to state that I really don't consider myself a fanboi (fanboy?) of either technology, merely just someone that tries their best to look out for their customers and to provide these customers with a fresh point of view that helps them out the most. If that is a MS solution, then its a MS solution. If its a mobile solution with Apple (or Android), then its that solution. I'm always trying to understand the best of what a company is doing so that I can understand how a technology solution can best fit that company's needs. I honestly have no dog in the fight, merely want to try out and test the best solutions possible.

With the above in mind, I eagerly put a $699 Microsoft Surface RT Tablet. I was excited when it arrived. I did a "live tweeting" of the opening of the package and starting it up. I tried it out. I downloaded and installed several apps for it. I worked with it. Unfortunately, I came away disappointed. Here are my thoughts on it:

Its a great piece of hardware.
Its thin and sexy. The keyboard tucks up and is thinner than the ipad and cover that I have sitting right next to it.
The virtual keyboard is not very good. I continually tried using the virtual keyboard, but the pointer on the screen kept jumping around. Typing the same way on my iPad and Android tablets don't have anywhere near the same problems. If you can't input properly, it doesn't matter how cool the device is.
Originally, I didn't think the lack of apps would be a big deal. It is. There is no native twitter app. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but I tried several 3rd party twitter apps and they sucked.
Office is cool, but the virtual keyboard sucks.
Office RT has to run in desktop mode. Wow, that is a shitty experience. I knew this going in, but didn't realize how bad it is.
The touch keyboard, which is what came with my surface tablet, is not the easiest to use. I do agree with the folks that say that you can get used to it over the course of few days.
The 16:9 display isn't a big deal to me. I find the 4:3 of the iPad to be more comfortable to use. This is more about personal preference.
On the subject of pricing, I still think the device is $100 too expensive across the board. I wish that each purchase package was $100 less.

Ok, there it is. I'm not overly thrilled with the Surface RT device. I find the basic input steps to be just a little to flawed for me. Will this be fixed in the future? I hope so. This would seem to be a problem with the virtual keyboard software detecting things inconsistently where the iPad does not have the same problems. While this is something that should have been caught in the previews, it obviously wasn't I'm going to assume that this will be fixed via a software update in the future.

I'm sure that you may be reading this and wondering, why the f*** did you buy the device or why haven't you returned it? I bought it because I was promised that Surface RT would work and that MS was going to drive this product out into the marketplace. I'm not returning it because I will hold out hope that MS will drive Surface RT into the hands of users and businesses and that this investment will pay off as I use it and it is helpful in the development process (afterall, I am a developer).

PS. There are a number of people that I get along with really well at MS in the field. It just seems that they aren't in my region. I didn't mean to paint them with the same broad stroke.

MSDN article on jQuery Mobile

wallym — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 14:49:00 GMT

My article on jQuery Mobile has been published. Please check it out.

There’s no doubt about it. Wherever developers look and whoever they talk to, mobile is at the top of the list. Talk to a C-level executive, and the conversation turns to mobile, and the question “How do I get me some of that?” comes up. Talk to other developers, and they tell you they’re targeting mobile devices. Mobile has become a big deal as smartphones have taken hold in the consumer marketplace.

In the years leading up to the current focus on mobile applications and devices, Web developers have been adding more and more client-side functionality to their applications. You can see this in the use of client-side JavaScript libraries like jQuery.

With the growth of the market for mobile devices, the ability to create applications that run across platforms is very important for developers and for businesses that are trying to keep their expenses in check. There are a set of applications, mostly in the area of content consumption (think Amazon.com), that run well in a mobile Web browser. Unfortunately, there are differences between Web browsers on various mobile devices. The goal of the recently introduced jQuery Mobile (jQM) library is to provide cross-browser support to allow developers to build applications that can run across the various mobile Web browsers and provide the same—or at least a very similar—user interface.

The jQuery Mobile library was introduced in an alpha release in the fall of 2010 and released to manufacturing in November 2011. At the time of this writing, the current version of jQuery Mobile is 1.1.1. By the time you read this, jQuery Mobile will almost certainly have reached version 1.2.0. The library has been embraced by Microsoft, Adobe and other companies for mobile Web development. In August 2011, jQM had 32 percent market share compared with other mobile JavaScript frameworks such as iWebKit and jQTouch. This market share is impressive given that it started from zero little more than 12 months ago, and the 1.0 release is the first officially supported release.

Location, Orientation, and Writing a Custom Control with Mono for Android, .NET, and C#

wallym — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:04:00 GMT

Like real estate, mobile is about location, location, location. That means that direction is an important item. And just as important is how this information is presented to the user. In Nov. 2011, we talked about building a user interface in Mono For Android. In this article, I'll expand a little bit on that by creating a compass that displays north. We'll use Android's built-in sensor support to determine the orientation of the device, then use a custom control to display North. The output will look like