Communicate, communicate, communicate – and Windows 8 release preview and Visual studio 2012 release candidate
For newcomers to the Microsoft dev world: RC stands for Release Candidate and is what others would call a beta; or “late beta” to show that it is close to release. RP stands for Release preview and is similarly a beta. To be honest RC and RP and RTM and what else of abbreviations have a deeper meaning like “feature complete”, “production worthy” etc. I just can’t remember what means what.
What does this more mean?
You’re close to your next update.
Dotnet micro framework still doesn’t work.
This Cccommunicate letter is sponsored by the great slide.
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- CODE AND DEVELOPMENT
- Moonlight is getting abandoned – end of Silverlight on non-windows?
- Github releases client for Windows and it also works with non-Github repositories
- CSS3 new stuff – what to use, not and meanwhile
- Visual studio 11 crippled in Win8 (win)
- PRODUCTS AND RELEASES
- Webcast introducing Raspbery pi
- Online kanban board – gratis for 3 users
- Konkurrent till Raspberry pi (android)
- Leapmotion – desktop gesture tracking
- Yahoo axis
- SECURITY, PRIVACY AND RIGHTS
- Windows8 machines will be crippled, OS-wise (win)
- Apple details Ios security features (ios)
- I was wrong – steam has been cracked
- MISCELLANEOUS
- Gameboy emulator in Javascript and HTML5
- Ikea hackers – hardware real-life hacks
- Combined wallet and iPhone case
- Galaxify
Code and development
Moonlight is getting abandoned – end of Silverlight on non-windows?
Moonlight is the Silverlight implementation on Mono.
Mono is the Dotnet implementation on non-windows platforms.
It comes as no surprise since everything looks like Silverlight is being abandoned.
IIRC Silverlight exists in Windows 8 but I still wouldn’t recommend it. Silverlight I mean. I predict that if Silverlight survives on Windows8 it will be rebranded as “WPF for Metro” or something incomprehensible as “WPF NextGen”.
– http://www.infoq.com/news/2012/05/Miguel-Moonlight
Github releases client for Windows and it also works with non-Github repositories
There where earlier one or two GUIs for GIT on Windows plus Posh that is a Powershell lib for GIT.
Now Github has released a windows client for Github. It isn’t limited to Github so you can use it for your Bitbucket repository too. That is exactly what I intend to do.
– http://haacked.com/archive/2012/05/29/using-github-for-windows-with-non-github-repositories.aspx
CSS3 new stuff – what to use, not and meanwhile
There are lots of new stuff in CSS3. Many thing of them are not sorted, only partially, comme ci comme ca, or not at all. Below is linked some tricks for getting you through the jungle. Until CSS4 comes out and it possibly works without all the copy paste of today.
– http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/05/css3-best-practices-for-designers/
Visual studio 11 express crippled in Win8 (win)
Rumours, rumours, rumours.
They say that the gratis version of Visual studio, Visual studio express, will not handle anything but Metro apps. This means that one can’t develop anything that doesn’t run in the Metro biosphere with sandboxing, surveilled application market and all. With VSExpress that is.
Is this dangerous for devs and win and microsoft? Personally I will have a paid version of VS for the overseeable future so I won’t raise a fuzz. But what about newbies? Crippling the development environment for a platform hinders the birth of new developers for said platform. I admit that I am biased but I claim that developers are a special kind of users on a computer and they must be kept happy for a computer/OS to thrive.
The Sharpdevelop IDE will of course continue to run on Windows8 outside Metro and Java, Ruby, Python and the like will all run. But they will only be able to create non-Metro stuff.
What will happen with development for Windows phone? My guess is that there will be a special version Microsoft visual studio windows phone express.
What will happen with development for netduino? I don’t know if Microsoft has invested anything in Netduino but they do have in Gadgeteer.
Then there are rumours about WinRT ditching the desktop. WinRT is the name of Window8 running on tablets. Without a desktop on WinRT much is lost; file management, many settings, freedom to run whatever You like on Your machine. If you think this sounds like the iPad world you are totally right.
According to rumours Metro will only run IE so any WinRT machine will only be able to run IE. iPad… GoogleOS…
Products and releases
Webcast introducing Raspbery pi
An hour long presentation of Raspberry pi.
A guy is sitting down talking, showing some slides and writing a helloworld. I kept an eye and ear on it while keeping the rest of my eyes and ears and limbs to my real task at hand. I learned some. And really want one. And time to play with it.
Raspberry pi has Python2.7 on it. It would make it very easy to get started with. There is no web server.
There are wishes for putting BbbBasic on it. Brits…
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALwTAH-3h84x
– http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcbasic/history.html <- BbbBasic history
Online kanban board – gratis for 3 users
On my track on finding a good online kanban board I noticed this one.
Try it for 30 days or gratis for up to 3 users.
– http://www.leankitkanban.com/
Konkurrent till Raspberry pi (android)
Via släpper ett dator-på-ett-kort för en 300kr. OS är Android. Mer muskler än Raspberry pi.
– http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.451014/rekordbillig-android-dator-kommer-i-juli
Leapmotion – desktop gesture tracking
Place a little box on your desktop in front of your screen and the project leader never has to touch and grease your screen again. Check the vids behind the link.
The docs says 3D, the videos says 2D. Nevertheless this puts Kinekt for the desktop in serious competition.
The demos only show computer screen interaction but I see use for other touch less UIs like for surgeons or car mechanics; or with a low price and good API used in the industry instead of physical switches or photocells.
– https://live.leapmotion.com/index.html
– http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/25/leap-motion-gesture-control-technology-hands-on/ <- a too simple review
Tipstack JSandén
Yahoo axis
Web search is getting better every year.
The latest improvement is Yahoo axis that gives you previews in a slidable manner.
Check out the video linked below, they might have a fresh idea.
Security, privacy and rights
Windows8 machines will be crippled, OS-wise (win)
Old news is that Windows8 will come with a scheme for making it harder to switch to another OS. If I understand it correctly it is about signing the boot loader.
Officially this is for making it harder to tamper with the OS and get around copy protection and the app stores that are all the black now.
I have my doubts though. As long as I have full access to the machine and OS – as I have as an administrator – changing the OS is doable anyway. From Microsoft’s standpoint, on the other hand, will implementing copy protection be much easier if they know that the machine can’t boot to something else.
The WinRT (windows8 for arm based tablets iirc) will be even more locked down. It must not be able to run anything else. And That annoys me. I believe that if you have bought something then it is yours and the responsibility is yours with what to do with it.
I link to Slashdot instead of the original article because there were a pair of good comments.
Oh, almost forgot. The article isn’t about Win8 machine lockdown per se but about Fedoras view and actions.
Apple details Ios security features (ios)
The link below leads to an article that leads to a pdf at Apple.
No more surfing around and reading reverse engineered information needed – just go to the source directly.
– https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/apple-details-ios-security-features-new-guide-053112
I was wrong – steam has been cracked
Ï got a reply a while ago that I had been wrong. The replier said the (s)he knows a crack, first hand, a while back.
> It has been around for a while, still not cracked and seems to work;
> I have heard very little bad things about it. Contrary to, say, Sony’s PS3 solution.
Tipthanks AnonymousKnight
Miscellaneous
Gameboy emulator in Javascript and HTML5
Why?
Because it can be done.
– http://gamecenter.grantgalitz.org/
Ikea hackers – hardware real-life hacks
If we stop treating Ikea furnitures as stand alone pieces but instead as Lego we can multiply the uses and usefulness.
Below is linked a site that is about furniture remakes targeted only Ikea.
The upside is twofold 1) Ikea is omnipresent to an ok price 2) Ikea is quite good at keeping (some) furnitures around for years and they have series of furniture with matching measurements.
– http://www.ikeahackers.net/
– http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/05/spider-lamp-from-forsa.html
Tipthanks Stiff
Combined wallet and iPhone case
Not too bad idea to marry the wallet and the mobile phone case. I already have a put a spare business card and a key card in my phone case.
I don’t know if the radio performance is affected. That is, if you already have bad reception on your phone – will it be worse? Well… pull it out of the case for those places.
– http://www.senacases.com/apple/iphone-4-cases/walletslim/
Galaxify
There are many galaxies out there. Correction: There are very many galaxies out there. When a project called Zoo crowd sourced classifying galaxies it was discovered that some looked like letters. One thing leads to another and now there is a site that makes it possible to write text with galaxies.
There is also one that looks like an apple with a bite mark. They are in for a hell of a law suit.
– http://mygalaxies.co.uk/
– http://mygalaxies.co.uk/u7se54/ <- Me, myself, and I
Tipthanks HD
*EOF*
Tags: cccommunicate