Hey, what’s a couple of years between posts right?
I recently had the opportunity to demo our Contoso Riders Quick App at EnergizeIT in Toronto. A big thanks to Jean-Luc David and Chris Dufour for being such great hosts and for making our Services track a great success!
So you might be asking yourself; “What’s a Quick App?”
Quick Apps are projects that showcase the Microsoft Live Platform service offerings and also serve as templates which developers can use as a springboard to base their own projects off of. They are open-source projects release under Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL).
In the case of Contoso Riders, we implemented services and APIs such as:
- Live ID for user authentication
- Live Messenger Presence API and IM Control for Instant Messenging
- Virtual Earth Map Control to display and Virtual Earth Collections for storing map and routing information
- Silverlight Streaming for hosting videos
- Live Spaces Weblogs and the Metaweblog API to store and manage content
- Live Spaces Photo Albums to store photos
You can download the source for Contoso Riders on CodePlex as part of the Windows Live Quick Apps project.
Tags: 2008, chris dufour, conference, demo, energizeit, jean-luc david, microsoft, quick app, services, Silverlight, virtual earth, windows live
September 24th, 2006
Buta
I attended the Microsoft presentation of “Atlas“, Microsoft AJAX Library and ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions, hosted by .Net BC this past Wednesday.
Something that had me intrigued was when Shaun Walker of DotNetNuke fame showed how easily it was to integrate “Atlas” into DNN. I’m wondering if the simplicity of the changes is due to the .Net Framework itself or if the DNN developers had pre-wired some hooks for “Atlas.”
While the rest of the presentation was pretty much the same top-level information I’ve heard in previous previews of “Atlas,” there are a few points about “Atlas” I would like to touch upon.
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September 22nd, 2006
Buta
Danny Choo just got a new cell phone. I have gadget envy.
This cellphone is loaded to the hilt with features: GPS, 400×240 WQVGA display, 2 mega-pixel camera, MiniSD slot, 2Mbps net connection, radio receiver and on and on and on…
Why doesn’t North America have phones like these? Why are our networks so damn slow to adopt new technologies?
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September 21st, 2006
Buta
Timeliness is everything when blogging. If you wait too long, whatever you were planning to write about may no longer be relevant or as news breaking. You’ll also start to lose details of your experience or the thoughts in your head, even if you originally took notes.
Unfortunately for me, I think I’ve missed the window of opportunity to blog about the Future of Web Apps Summit. I may still get around to transcribing my notes over the next few weeks.
Fortunately for you, there are plenty of good posts on the InterWeb to read about in the mean time.
UPDATED September 23, 2006:
Added CenterNetworks coverage of the Summit.
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September 19th, 2006
Buta
A big thank you to my cousins Jeff, Kelvin, Lillian and her hubby Rick for taking the time to show me around San Francisco in the evenings.
After the fold are quick recaps of some of the other restaurants that I had a chance to eat at while I was down in SF. It’s unfortunate that I have no photos to accompany the reviews. That’s what happens when you run over your camera and the crappy ISO800 disposable is only good for taking shots in the day.
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September 18th, 2006
Buta
It seems my lady and I are quite the material couple. My eyes grow larger at the sight of techy gizmos, her’s at the latest from Europe’s fashion houses.
My eyes must have been really big last week at the Apple Store in San Francisco. I’m at the store to meet up with my cousin for dinner, and the next thing you know, I’m leaving with a brand-spanking new 2nd-gen iPod Nano. Naturally it’s the black 8Gb version.
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September 13th, 2006
Buta
In San Francisco and staying by the Presidio until Friday for the Carson Workshops’ The Future of Web Apps Summit.
Landed yesterday evening and had nothing to do so I went for a walk down Chestnut Street. Remindes me of Yaletown, boutique shopping and every other place is either a bar or restaurant.
Two foods that I’m a sucker for and will almost always order at a new restaurant are Ahi tuna and calamari.
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September 11th, 2006
Buta
mootools is a very compact, modular, object-oriented JavaScript framework and is less than 19Kb in size (compressed JS, 34Kb uncompressed) for the entire set of scripts and add-ons. mootools replaces the moo family of JavaScript libraries (moo.fx, moo.dom, moo.ajax, etc).
I prefer the moo.* libraries over the Prototype/Script.aculo.us combo due to the former’s much smaller file size. Prototype by itself weighs in at 60Kb uncompressed and add at least another 30Kb for Script.aculo.us.
What’s really interesting is the way you can download mootools. The download page allows you to pick and choose which parts of the library you want and whether or not you want to compress the JS source file.
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September 10th, 2006
Buta
Did you know that if you have a monthly FareCard, another adult and four children can ride with you for free on Sundays and holidays?
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s the scoop:
Plus, On Sundays and Holidays you can use your FareCard and take five others with you for free. A total of six: Two adults (14 and older) and up to four children (13 and under) ride on a single Adult FareCard, West Coast Express 28-Day Pass, or Annual Employer Transit Pass (does not apply to Concession Passes).
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Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved the green cream soda from Schweppes. It has this smooth, silky and not overly sweet taste to it. Schweppes Cream Soda’s totally unlike the super sweet radioactive pink stuff that you find in Canadian cream soda.
It’s a good thing I live in Vancouver where it’s found in most asian supermarkets as an import item. A bonus that it’s not too expensive compared to other imports like Calpis.
I was about to ask why this was the case but there’s a wikipedia article on the subject of cream soda and all its different variations around the world.
I love Schweppes Cream Soda and I love this interweb thing even more. Can you imagine trying to find out the truth behind cream soda in the pre-web days?
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