Posts by minnsey231

More layoffs at Microsoft: What's really going on here?

I think I've been reading about the imminent demise of MSFT for as long as the imminent demise of the EU/Euro...

20 years of .NET: Reflecting on Microsoft's not-Java

Re: The influence of Java on .NET is complex

There are a number of cross-OS UI implementations, Avalonia being perhaps the best.

Xamarin also allows the use of the native UI framework.

Re: The influence of Java on .NET is complex

For reasons beyond my understanding Java has tended to add modern language features purely at the language level,

e.g. AFAIK generics are still actually compiled as old style Object collections, whereas .NETs (more brutal?) approach has meant new features like generics are implemented in the runtime.

IMHO this gives much better features in C#, although the day job remains in Java.

Re: Notably missing in action...

Some people have been looking at using SharpGtk under MAUI AFAIK.

Alas poor SOAP!, I knew him

I'm old and grumpy enough to remain stubbornly convinced that REST only triumphed over SOAP because of the shitty SOAP tooling in Java.

In Visual Studio with C# SOAP was a doddle, "just worked" and did all the things.

Anyway back to my hodge-podge of Java HTTP, JSON, JSON-SCHEMA, Swagger, OpenAPI etc to do some of the things ...

Sigh.

At 9 for every 100 workers, robots are rife in Singapore – so we decided to visit them

Share and Enjoy

(ISO) defines a robot as an "actuated mechanism programmable in two or more axes, with a degree of autonomy, moving within its environment, to perform intended tasks."

How dull?

The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as, "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!"

Now we're talking!

Sun sets on superjumbo: Last Airbus A380 rolls off the production line

Re: A380 for long haul every time

"plain vanilla" +1

If only because I always seem to be plied with ice cream whenever flying on A380s

Cisco requires COVID-19 shots for all US staff – even remote workers

Re: now even the latest can understand

I work remotely but maybe I'm expected to visit the office from time to time or visit clients?

Re: Get rid of the religious exemption.

"with breakthrough infections"

Isn't that the money quote?

If you don't get a breakthrough infection the infection rate is much lower?

(Says he currently sharing a house with an unvaccinated , < 16, child who caught Covid a week ago. So far my double vaccinated wife and I keep testing negative .... fingers crossed)

Re: Get rid of the religious exemption.

I believe the Vatican has vaccinated > 100% of its population. E.g. ~1500 poor and homeless people outside their own immediate jurisdiction, maybe others?

Not a believer myself but seems like a job well done.

.NET Foundation boss apologizes for pull request that sparked community row

Re: Can someone explain the point of .NET to me?

There are cross Platform GUI frameworks, e.g. Avalonia, the soon to be MAUI.

I say as someone who helps develop sone cross platform GUIs in dotnet.

I personally find dotnet much more modern than Java. The constantly evolving runtimes mean you get 'real' lowe level support for things like generics and lambdas rather than simple syntax sugar that gets lost after compilation.

Also new stuff like compilation to a single native executable file is nice.

Facebook building 'on-demand executable file format' that self-inflates using homebrew compression

Surely Pied Piper have prior art?

Sounds like 'middle out' to me.

Restoring your privacy costs money, which makes it a marker of class

How I learned to love the tracking...

I used to care and/or worry about this stuff but having older kids has made me re-evaluate.

For good or bad their lives are already catalogued to the n'th degree. I have discussed online privacy etc with them so they are not naive about it but for them its almost a non-issue its just the way the world works. The apps that knit their world together have access to their data, they accept it. In return they get easy access to their friends all around the world etc.

We might look on this aghast but I think the world has probably moved on. I wonder if in the future they will look at us the same way we look at prudish victorians?

I came around to the view that I would stop worrying. From a personal point of view the benefits, the optimisations possible in everyday life made possible by all this shared data, clearly outweigh my personal reservations.

I don't believe I'm naive, I know the potential pitfalls, but I suspect I've come to a different conclusion about the risks to most commentators here.

Maybe I'm just lazy/cheap :)

The kids aren't all right: Fall in GCSE compsci students is bad news for employers and Britain's future growth plans

Re: Have they considered paying more for IT?

Work remotely from the UK for a Global company? That potentially offers better salaries and the option to move overseas at some point with the company.

Re: this one is an easy answer

If it is the same Exam board as the one my son is doing there is 'Course Work', a project to build a thing, but it makes no contribution to the final mark so it is kind of pointless.

Seems an unfortunate knock-on from the push to ditch coursework in favour of 100% exams in everything.

Another Chromium browser for Linux? Microsoft Edge arrives in preview form, no love for Arm yet

All to do with Devs

Probably more to do with the release of the Edge based WebView2 component, https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/10/19/edge-webview2-general-availability/ and making .NET Core UI components run cross all OSes?

Only EU can help us, pleads Slack as it slings competition complaint against Microsoft Teams

Feel for Slack but impressed by Teams

We use Slack at work, have done for a few years, and I have no complaints but I have been really impressed with how our local school has used Teams for remote learning during lockdown.

I don't know how furiously the IT swans were paddling below the surface but the speed that school got up and running with organised rooms for each year, subject and class etc was really impressive. Nothing against the local teachers but I wouldn't have classed them as unusually tech savvy but very quickly there were proper Assignments in the rooms for the kids, that could be seamlessly opened, edited and submitted in the browser or popping out to desktop installs of Office.

And it was all simple enough that bunch of 11 to 16 years old just "got it" they didn't need 'training' it was intuitive and it just worked.

So don't stifle competition, but its my impression that Slack also need to up their game to compete in that 'it just works' world.

Microsoft boffin inadvertently highlights .NET image woes by running C# on Windows 3.11

Re: Compilation of .NET code into native single-file executables

Its getting there

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/MakingATinyNETCore30EntirelySelfcontainedSingleExecutable.aspx

Microsoft programming chief to devs: Tell us where Windows hurt you

Well I'm an optimist

Not much love on the comments today, but as someone using .NET, WPF and Visual Studio every day I'm pretty optimistic about the future for .NET Core/Standard.

Its been a bumpy couple of years as they've built it all out fast in public (kudos for that) but we seem to be reaching a tipping point and the stability, interoperability, project structure etc all seems to be settling down.

If nothing else Xamarin.Forms will provide a cross platform GUI very soon including, UWP, WPF, macOS, Tizen and Visual Studio is still the best IDE out there.

Uber quits GitHub for in-house code after 2016 data breach

Re: Pay less the CEO...

Yep, Git for Windows ships with the Git Credential Manager which supports 2FA over HTTPS urls for GitHub, VSTS and Bitbucket.

Unloved Microsoft Edge is much improved – but will anyone use it?

Maybe its time to retire...

...I seem out of step most of the time. I use Edge all day everyday, I like it.

It can be a resource hog if I have too many tabs open, but less so than Chrome.

It was annoying when lots of things weren't available, and I had to switch browser for BlueJeans, FB Messenger etc, but AFAICS its all working now.

Re: hardly finished...

Open local HTML file? I must be missing some context 'cos I do that everyday with Edge.

Tired: Java. Desired: Node.js. Retired: The suggestion a JavaScript runtime is bonkers

Made me smile to see VB.NET rise above JavaScript in the latest survey

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

Windows 10: What is it good for? Microsoft pitches to devs ahead of Creators Update

If only to be a voice in the wilderness... Having been given the choice of workstation with my current employers over the last 4 years I've worked my way through Ubuntu, OS X and now back to Windows 10. And I'm very happy where I am thanks, I like Windows 10. My MacBookPro sits gathering dust now.

I've had about the same number of issues I had with the Ubuntu box, generally graphics drivers, but then that's been 1 every couple of years.

The fact that the Windows version of the product we develop continues to work on versions of Windows back to 7, possibly Vista, whereas my macOS colleagues have to deal with breaking changes every macOS release keeps me happy.

Maybe its just me, but it just works (shrug).

disclaimer: I loathed Android and really like my Lumia ;)

Microsoft's paid $60 per LinkedIn user – and it's a bargain, because we're mugs

FWIW LinkedIn seems to have a different reputation around the world, a few years ago in the UK it felt like a business orientated facebook, pointless and full of guff.

Whereas now, here in SF-land, real CVs seems to be a thing of the past, most of our news hires now come in courtesy of LinkedIn profiles and GitHub/Bitbucket etc activity. I don't think I've seen what my old UK comprehensive taught me was a 'proper' CV in a couple of years.

Microsoft's Scott Guthrie wrote code live on stage for Azure devs

Re: F#

FWIW we use this as our main build scripting tool http://fsharp.github.io/FAKE/ for our .NET projects, its all written in F#.

Microsoft's Windows Phone folly costs it another billion dollars

I might be the only one but...

For $29 dollars (admittedly locked to AT&T) from BestBuy here in the States, whats not to like about my 635 running Windows 10.

How many apps do I use? Not many email, calendar, office, 2FA, The Guardian, a couple of games, the camera. Its been a while since I tried an Android, but I find Outlook and the converged messaging in Windows 10 great.

Does it have quirks, absolutely. Is it responsive, yes, does the battery last twice as long as any Android smartphone I've used, absolutely. Is it good for making and taking calls, yep.

Do I use Facebook, Social media and 101 other things other use their phone for, probably not.

But, personally, I'll be sad to see MS Phone die.

Another go at remote objects: Google gRPC hits beta

ah SOAP, I miss you so.

Having worked/ran to/ran from one ecosystem to another over the years I've always had the sneaking suspicion that SOAP bit the dust because Java et al were cursed with crappy tools.

Using SOAP in a .NET world with Visual Studio was alway a doddle, "Add Service Reference", and your done, even talking to Java etc services. A complete set of working classes and services for your instant use.

Additionally there was no need of this poking around in written documentation, if you are lucky, to try and work out what parameter does what to the data returned with a REST APIs, it was all self documenting. And whats with JSON schema, surely thats just reinventing the wheel?

I always seem to get withering looks whenever I point this stuff out to my Java colleagues, but maybe its just me.

New dirt-cheap Chromebooks: Team Google keeps jackboot on throat of PC titans

Re: Windows on 2 Gb of RAM

Pop into PCWorld etc and try one of these http://www.trustedreviews.com/asus-transformer-book-t100-review-performance-features-and-verdict-page-3#tr-review-summary.

An Atom with 2GB running Windows 8.1 and it feels fluid and fully functional. I was seriously tempted if it wasn't for my fat fingers and the little keyboard.

I'm keen to try the cheapy windows ones.

Microsoft takes lid off .Net Common Language Runtime sauce

Linux implementation?

Looks like work is indeed in progress, there are builds here:

http://dotnet-ci.cloudapp.net/

Microsoft .NET released from its Windows chains... but what ABOUT MONO?

I think this is a positive move for Mono

If you read the blog it implies that the new .NET Core will come to underpin Mono in the same way as it currently underpins the .NET Framework. Replacing Mono's alternative implementations.

Mono will bundle the value added things on top, as will Microsoft with the .NET Framework.

e.g. presumably WPF will remain a Windows/.NET Framework think while Mono will have MonoMac, XWT, MonoTouch, Xamarin.Forms etc.

The game changer will really be the fact that it looks like you will be able to run the lightweight .NET Core independently of the .NET Framework and/or Mono and have it pull in only the dependencies you need at run time. .NET Core also has the neat feature that effectively allows you to re-implement core .NET namespaces and have your implementation used in preference to MS or Mono's one.

At that point .NET really is cross platform. Personally I think its a really exciting prospect, and I think they are serious about Open Source now.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/archive/2014/11/12/net-core-is-open-source.aspx

Look, no client! Not quite: the long road to a webbified Vim

Visual Studio Web Essentials to the rescue?

A little back to front compared to the gist of this article but Visual Studio's Browser Link lets you push changes from your source code directly to your browser under test and push changes made in the browser's dev tools back to the source code.

The demo is impressive, though to be fair I've yet to find a reason to use it.

http://vswebessentials.com/features/browserlink