Darrell McCrone's Weblog

Speak up-and-out against Injustice

darrell — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:16:00 GMT

I read in the paper at the weekend of the untimely death of a friend's son who was brutally assaulted in Dublin. The victim went to the aid of another who was being attacked and as a consequence, the attackers followed him. I feel so much for the family and frustrated.

What is Ireland and the world at large becoming? It is time that we speak up against those who have no respect for human life and promote values in common with peace, love, freedom. We first need to FORGIVE, not seek revenge. This is challenging but if we dont learn to forgive, we only become overcome with anger. We need to make our governments listen to their "bosses" - i.e. the citizens of their country, not to create laws which remove our freedom but to create laws which set us free. Active government sponsored programs should also be put in place in Ireland to integrate all nationalities, allowing us to respect and embrace each others culture. There also needs to be proper rehabilitation of prisoners in Ireland...for most it is just a revolving door.

Finally with all our new found wealth in Ireland, isn't it time the government took a stand to eradicate homelessness? People who are homeless have so much potential. They need to be listened to...they are as much a part of Ireland as any of its citizens. Focus Ireland is one charitable organisation which helps homeless people to get their life back on track.

A380 Super Jumbo - wanna take a ride?

darrell — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:13:00 GMT

Singapore Airlines have just announced that their first commercial flight of the Airbus A380-800 will take place on Thursday 25th October from Singapore to Sydney. It will auction tickets on ebaY and bidding will take place between Monday 27th August and Monday 10th September inclusive. All proceeds go to Charity...so spread the word!

So why not bid! For further information click Singapore Airlines A380 Site

Mad about all things aviation...

darrell — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:17:00 GMT

...then sign up to AirSpace, a new interactive network dedicated to connecting the aviation industry powered by FlightGlobal.com. To join, click here.

'); //-->

Fancy trading in your car for one of these...

darrell — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:50:00 GMT

Embraer rolled out their new VLJ (Very-Light-Jet) - Phenom 100 on June 16, Brazil. The aircraft will comfrotably seat 4 passengers. It also has a refreshment centre, spacious lavatory, in-flight entertainment centre. and generous baggage area...to fit all those golf-bags in ;-).

For more information, check out http://www.embraerexecutivejets.com/english/content/aircraft/phenom100_home.asp

Image courtesy of Embraer.

Fly Greener...

darrell — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:09:00 GMT

The question is...can Airbus bring to market the A350 XWB(Extra Wide Body) with direct operating costs and emissions lower than the 787 especially since there is only one engine supplier i.e. Rolls Royce providing the sole engine on A350 XWB so far.

Check out the rollout ceremony here

For more information on the Boeing 787 click here

For more information on the Airbus A350 XWB click here

Minority Report is now!!!

darrell — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:37:00 GMT

Check out my hub for the latest upcoming events...

First look at Microsoft Surface - forget keyboards and mouse...welcome to the new touchscreen age! Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft.

Surface computing features four key attributes:

Multi-User Experience - many users can gather round and use surface simultaneously. Can't wait for real FUN project meetings!
Multi-touch contact - recognize many points of contact simultaneously
Direct Interaction - grab digital info with hands and interact through touch
Object Recognition - users can place physical objects on surface which triggers a digital response

Coming End of 2007

Fancy building some cool solutions...

darrell — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:06:00 GMT

Last night I attended a Visual Studio 2005 Tools for 2007 Office System event presented by Mike Hernandez and organised by the Dublin Area MTUG (Microsoft Technology User Group) in the quaint surroundings of Buswell's Hotel. Office 2007 is now a true platform with good infrastructure to build solutions on to. VSTO, a free add-on to VS, is effectively a bridge between Office and Visual Studio.

Developer Benefits:

Utilize key 2007 Office System UI features using VSTO and Office
RAD Design Expereince for building Office based apps
Build OBAs that leverage enterprise resources. The result being a more streamlined approach to tasks and processes. Mike advised how Elite Model Agency in New York created a new Outlook Add-In which allows user to graphical choose and select a model. Once selected, the models schedule appears in Outlook thus streamlining the process.

DEMO's:

Making a VSTO Project: EXCEL Add-In

Visual Studio > Create New Project > Office 2007/2003

Select Excel Add-In - this will build the infrastructure

In Excel 2003 and previous editions, by selecting help, a task pane would appear in the right hand side of the screen. Custom task panes can now be created in VSTO.

Create custom task pane > Add New Item > User Control > WinForm Designer appears

Place control i.e. NAME

Now go to Code VB via tab and insert snippet (Code previously saved)

Save > Build > Run Solution

Excel Opens and custom task pane opens

Excel Options > Add-Ins > Enable/Disable Add-Ins

2. Creating an OUTLOOK Add-In

In OUTLOOK, in the task list view, the user can create custom fields. If however you open a specific task, there is no user designed field. Office 2007 uses Applet Form Regions and VSTO uses a Wizard.

Go to Trust Centre > Add-Ins and delete previous Add-Ins

Visual Studio: File > New > Project > Outlook Add-In

Right click desired solution > Outlook Add-In > Form Region

Double click the form region and insert snippet

Save > Build > Run Solution

Open Outlook and user designed field appears in the specific task window

3. Created a Document Level Solution

Visual Studio: Create Excel Workbook Solution - Excel now appears inside VS

Add New Data Source > Database and choose either Oracle/SQL/Access

For the demo, Mike choose SQL

Click Test Connection

If successful, Retrieve Database Information

On left hand side, you can now choose specific Tables, Fields and Stored Procedures

Drag and drop onto Excel

Save > Build

Data Integrity is crucial so check in SQL to ensure correct data has been extracted into Excel

Insert button onto Excel and in code tab, insert snippet.

Mike created a NEXT and PREVIOUS buttons so that by pressing either, the user can see for example previous Customer ID or the next Customer ID.

These buttons can now be removed and a pane can be created.

Choose Binding Navigator in WinForm tab

Double Click > code tab will open and insert snippet

Set bindingsource=customerbindingsource

Show Custom Actions Pane

Save > Build > Run

The result is that you have now created a custom task pane which allows you to scroll through various customer data via:

< 1 of 90 >

Add Ribbon in Visual Designer in VS:

From Right-hand side, you can drag and drop data sources i.e. Fields or Tables onto EXCEL. Farewell to Pivot Tables! Also if you create a chart and place on a new sheet, as you scroll through the customer orders, it automatically updates :).

Deployment

User must have EXCEL, the DLL and vsto run-time on the machine. The new version of VSTO, enables the user to click one and downloads dll with data

The dll is seperate from Excel. Email the spreadsheet. Once opened it fires up. If you need a new applet in the solution, change the dll where the code is saved and insert new snippet. When spreadsheet is opened again, it will check for changes on the network.

The fact that the code doesnt live with the spreadsheet is important both from a security and maintenance perspective.

VSTO Definitions:

Doc Level - specific to one doc/spreadsheet - useful in banking - security
Application Level - custom task pane which applies to any document in the host

Resources:

Download VSTO 2005 SE

Click here for all you need to know on VSTO

Creating Custom Task Panes

Binding Data to User Controls in Excel

Download C# VS2005 Code Snippets

Become a MS Rep...

darrell — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:49:00 GMT

Vista Launch Update - Dublin - 5th Dec 06

darrell — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:06:00 GMT

Last night, I attended the Irish Tech Community Launch (http://www.microsoft.ie/techconnection) in Croke Park (where in Ireland we play Gaelic) of Windows Vista™, 2007 Office System and Exchange Server 2007.

Rob Burke, Developer & Platform Group (http://blogs.msdn.com/robburke) presented some really cool demos especially some of the security features

For instance,

Security - You can be secure with Vista by ensuring that no-one can copy files acroos to an external USB harddrive when you are not at your PC. When the device is installing, Vista will not permit the USB to be utilised

Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 - For all students out there who are short of time, the greatly enhanced toolbars permit you to turn some of your pure text slides into graphic matrcies with the click of a button

Business - Setting a new user up onto an account in Outlook takes less than 20 secs

Icons - these are just so cool allowing you to visualise from a macro perspective the content in each file without having to open the file

Switch between windows sidebar key - just easier if you are working on multiple files at any one time

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 (http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/groove/default.aspx) - your PA! Ray Ozzie's baby (http://rayozzie.spaces.live.com/Blog/)

Sidebar is very user appealing - I moved my XP toolbar to the right hand side of my screen 2 years ago and found it easier to work with especially if you have a 17'' notebook ;).

It was also great to see some hands-on-labs...allowing you to put some theory into practice.

For more info for developers, check out http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/default.aspx

Calling all Irish developers:

- the Microsoft Developer and Platform Group will be hosting a number of lectures over the next few months convering Vista and related technologies from a micro perspective. So sign up to Microsoft Tech*connection (http://www.microsoft.ie/techconnection) to know whats happening.

- Also sign up to your local Microsoft Tech User Group via http://www.mtug.ie

MSR Talk TCD: Computer Vision

darrell — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:30:00 GMT

As 2006 is the 15th birthday of Microsoft Research (MSR), Microsoft Ireland decided to do something to celebrate. So, with the participation of local universities, they have invited a number of MSR speakers to come over and present locally. The first of these presentations is being hosted by the Interaction, Simulation and Graphics Lab in Trinity College Dublin and is due to happen on Wednesday, 6th of September at 7:30 p.m. in the Ernst Walton Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin .

Professor Andrew Blake, one of the senior researchers in MSR Cambridge UK will be coming over to give a lecture entitled "Computer Science and Illusion". He promises to explore some connections between visual perception, geometry, and computer processing of images.

The talk is on Computer Vision and Illusion – so it’s geared to a general audience.

To register please click on link opposite: http://isg.cs.tcd.ie/scollins/register/andrewblake.htm

Rob Burke also wrote about it on his blog recently: http://blogs.msdn.com/robburke/archive/2006/08/24/716793.aspx

Tell everyone you know. Hope to see you there!

Ireland Web Developer Competition extended!!!

darrell — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:38:00 GMT

Check out my hub for the latest events news, forum posts and much more!

Due to popular demand, MSDN Ireland have extended their web development competition until after the summmer. The competition is open to everyone from all walks of life to build a site (free-hosting available) using the new free Visual Web Developer tool - download it and register it and you get access to thousands of euro worth of icon suites, royalty-free images, e-books and other resources.

When you have your site hosted - you can enter into the dram for the Xbox 360s! The MSDN Ireland team are also giving away loads of systems between now and July, plus games, plus free software and a high-spec HP laptop. Check out all the details here.

If you are already building an ASP.NET 2.0 website, you might be interested in learning which Irish companies are offering special offers on Windows hosting at the moment – check here for a list.

Climate Crisis...

darrell — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 01:14:00 GMT

...if there is one film that must be seen this year, it is "An Inconvenient Truth". To learn more and to raise awareness of global warming, click here. The future is in our hands. Now is the time to act.

Portals - the future of improved productivity & communication in companies

darrell — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:14:00 GMT

Yesterday, I attended a seminar entitled "The New Role of Portals" hosted by BEA Systems.

Portals are becoming even more of an "adhocracy" in companies where teams form to solve goals simultaneously and portals pemit these team to work more productively and communicate effectively.

They are also useful from a compliance perspective in that under Sarbanes Oxley, they ensure that data meets regulatory requirements.

Portals enhances Knowledge Management within companies. Team members can enter a keyword to search through all data whether that be .XLS, .PDF, .DOC format. Thus the search engine in the portal returns all data relating to that particular user search query. Team members/users are also encouraged to create new communities within the portal.

As-Is software can be integrating together via a portal thus allowing a more single, seamless experience for the user.

Web Services:

Crawler Web Services

Scan content repository for documents and aggregate into taxonomies.

Search Web Services

Federate the query and hand-shake with other search engine

Authentication Web Services

Sychronise each user with other portals

Portal Vendors:

Application - SAP, Oracle

Infrastructure - BEA, IBM

Departmental - Microsoft

Web 2.0 will allow users to participate and share information more effectively. Portals will empower even more departmental teams to build a portal to solve a commercial problem rather than sending emails back and forth.

To read more about:

BEA Portals click http://www.bea.com/portal

Microsoft Sharepoint Technologies http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/default.mspx

Back after exams

darrell — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:21:00 GMT

Hi guys,

Apologies that I haven't been blogging. I've been quite busy with exams ;-(. But I shall be posting some articles next week.

Update from 1st Irish National Developer's Conference & Windows Presentation Foundation

darrell — Fri, 05 May 2006 00:55:00 GMT

Having just come back from the 1st Irish National Developer's Conference, I can honestly say that indeed this was a conference "for the community by the community". I attended the presentation on Windows Presentation Foundation (previously known as Avalon) by Rob Burke, MSDN Ireland Developer Evangelist.

WPF effectively improves the user experience thus making the user become more productive. It revolutionises how we will present and visualise data. It will:

make it easier to leverage graphics
builds upon a unified framework
involves designers

WPF is a medium in terms on Richness V Complexity between ASP.NET 2.0 and Dx 3D v10.

The demos in the presentation were just awesome - including Control Templates for Patient Monitoring and a Halos app which allows the user to view all his/her pictures in a real 3D environment.

Rob also demo'd Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer which is an awesome app for designers. You can download a free trial of Community Technology Preview here. N.B. WPF should be installed first

Finally we looked at Data-binding using XamlPad, a simple application that allows quick prototyping of XAML-based applications. You can download a free trial here. Rob used XamlPAD to export data from his blog and present it in the manner he wanted. XamlPAD also ships with WinFX SDK.

You can also load the data from XamlPAD back into the Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer and present the data as you like ;).

Resources:

WPF & WinForms Interop - Crossbow (New mobile OS) http://blogs.msdn.com/mhendersblog
Up-to-date info on WPF - Tim Sneath http://blogs.msdn.com/tims
MSDN Ireland are eager to assist Irish and Northern Ireland developers in creating new applications with this software. If you are interested, contact Rob Burke @ mailto:robburke@microsoft.com
For more information on INDC 06 including slides from WPF etc, check out http://indc.wordpress.com