@ Head

Why Live Maps sucks compared to Google maps

bill — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:22:52 GMT

The user experience of Live Maps completely sucks compared to Google Maps. It’s that bad I really don’t think they even bother testing it.

Live Maps experience:

go to maps.live.com. Here it redirects to http://maps.live.com.au/? which seems to fail to properly load every single time. Instead you have to hit refresh.
the page loads with a script error :
Message: 'dapMgr' is undefined
Line: 480
Char: 9
Code: 0
URI: http://network.ninemsn.com.au/share/js/spac_adx.js
as I scroll to zoom, the zoom ignores where my mouse is, meaning I have to often drag the map to centre it before continuing zooming
once I have zoomed in, the map lacks allotment boundary details.
the “aerial” view seems a lot older and a lot less detail compared to google
there’s no context menu !! I can’t right click and add a pushpin or get directions form or to there, instead I have to type in an address (how utterly lame !!)
when I click on directions so as I can add an address, the map goes back to a view of Australia, meaning I lost all that zooming and scrolling I just did.
If I can’t specify an address I’m rooted (as opposed to being routed <g>). So I guess nearby addresses but then aren’t able to move them.
I can’t re-route directions, instead I have to try to add stops.
I can’t hide that directions pane

Google Maps experience:

No redirection. I get to choose if I use the .au one or not !!
Pages load first time without any script errors !! (OMG what were they thinking. How dare they actually test it !!)
As I zoom in, the zoom centres on my mouse and gives me a visual indication it is doing that. (a responsive UI. What the ???)
the maps show lots of details including allotment boundaries. Aerial view is really good.
I can right click. OMG, a “context menu” : this app must have been written in the last 15 years !
I can add pushpins for directions From here and directions To here
I can re-route the journey simply by dragging the route line. It seems these guys have heard of a mouse !!
I can hide the directions pane

That’s just a brief synopsis of the very obvious user experience. I found Live Maps totally useless for planning my afternoon’s bike ride. Seriously Microsoft if you are going to go to the bother and expense of licensing the maps and aerial images, of setting up servers etc, then you can at least try to compete. At present it’s just a pathetic waste of money. Say “yes you can” or go home.

Iterators: a flag for simplification ?

bill — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:02:16 GMT

A couple of months ago I blogged about iterators in VB (or the lack there-of), and pointed folks to an article I wrote for Visual Studio magazine that provides snippets and templates to help with iterators in VB.

One of the things I talk about in that article is often the use of iterators in C# code that I have seen is superfulous, especially given the LINQ libraries. Yesterday I read another example of this where the developer(s) had written a custom iterator instead of using a LINQ query. Their code required the defining of a generic class:

public class EnumerableGeneric<TClass, TInterface> 
              : IEnumerable<TInterface> where TClass : TInterface
{
   private IList<TClass> list;

   public EnumerableGeneric(IList<TClass> list)
   {
      this.list = list;
   }

   public IEnumerator<TInterface> GetEnumerator()
   {
      foreach (TClass item in list)
      {
         yield return item;
      }
   }

   IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
   {
      return this.GetEnumerator();
   }
}

And the example of using this required the calling code to instantiate an instance of this class:

MyMethod(new EnumerableGeneric<ClassA, IClassInterface>(caInstance));

A simpler alternative is to actually use LINQ, eg:

MyMethod(caInstance.Cast<IClassInterface>());

In VB talk I think it’s even more natural flowing:

MyMethod(caInstance.Cast(Of IClassInterface))

It is in places like that I like the (Of T) syntax of VB a lot better, but some folks prefer a Cup<T> to a Cup(Of T) . The key point here is the use of “yield return” in C# is a good indicator that the code can often be replaced with far simpler LINQ constructs that reduce your LOC’s, and hence reduce your debugging and maintenance loads. There will of course be times where there isn’t a simple LINQ replacement, but if you do ever come across custom iterators, do take pause to think about using LINQ.

In the garden: Mid April 2009

bill — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:43:22 GMT

Just a quick update. Lots of tomatoes at present. Picking a tray full every 3 days or so.

The floppy: It’s back …….

bill — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:56:33 GMT

In breaking news today Microsoft announced it will be releasing Windows 7 and Office 2010 on floppy disk !

Microsoft said it heard complaints from customers that their old floppy drives were made obsolete because Microsoft didn’t release software on floppy disks. They also heard complaints that people felt detached from the software installation process. An alledged Microsoft spokesperson was said to have said “Bringing back the floppy disk means people will feel more involved, getting to change the disks as quick as the data can be read”.

A leak form their product survey test data showed that one set of customers loved the 150 disk set for Windows 7. They loved that getting something substantially huge and heavy for their money. Interestingly enough many of these people owned SUV’s or Hummers. Another spokesperson said they hope to capture the excessive consumption market.

A secret pilot program was run which had customers install an early beta of windows 7 using 142 floppy disks. Results were mixed with some people not being able to install due to a bad image format or read failure on the second last disk. Microsoft said this was a problem with their quality control as they only tested the first 3 disks and the last disk in each set. Microsoft has apparently already fixed this problem and in the future they will also test the second last disk.

Rumour has it Apple plans to go one better and bring out a retro model, which has not one floppy disc drive but two ! An unnamed apple fanatic said the plan is to give you that same interaction with the installation, but make it quicker by allowing you to have the next floppy in the other drive. Plans also include making the disks all white, not just on the outside but as a bold fashion statement also on the inside. A leaked prototype showed some rounded corners as well, but currently only works with apple’s own drives.

Microsoft is already planning to launch an advertising campaign showing how the Mac double floppy drive system costs more then twice as much. At the same time Microsoft is working with other hardware vendors to develop the auto floppy disk changer.

In the garden: March 2009

bill — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:43:22 GMT

It’s been a very strange season this year. A cold start, then some massive heat waves. autumn is shaping up to feel normal, and also lovely weather.

The hot spells brought some veggies season to an early end: in particular beans and peas. But the good news is I got plenty of seed from them:

That’s beetroot seed, garlic cloves, broad beans, carrot seed, bush beans and mixed snow pea seeds. I need not worry about the seed viability as many of them have self sown with nice crops of beans, broad beans, slenderette beans and carrots on the way. This adds to the wild lots of potatoes, silver beet, lettuce, beetroot and parsley.

The garden is remaining very self productive :)

Tomatoes are in main season now:

as well as the cherry tomatoes:

and Tom Thumb tomatoes:

And what would tomatoes bee without lots of basil :

I’m leaving a lot of the basil to go to seed this year as well. The bees are busy pollinating them at present. (see how many bees you can see in this photo :) )

And there’s cucumbers (almost finished for the year) and lots of sweet corn. I kept the early crop for seed as it was an older open pollinated variety with a rich flavour (like corn use to have) instead of these sweeter hybrids that are common these days. The zucchini as slowing down. The capsicums are just starting… only had three or four so far.

The pumpkins have gone crazy and are not only taking over half the veggie patch they are also climbing the fence and escaped onto the lawn. I grew some heirloom varieties this year along with the queesland blue that sprouted in the compost. I’m not sure what the name of this one is, but despite the strange outer appearance it’s a nice eating pumpkin:

Elsewhere in the orchard it’s the end of the apples and the beginning of the pears. Chestnuts still a month or more away. The apples and pears make lovely desert :)

Microsoft: make VB like C#

bill — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:48:24 GMT

I was reading yet another VB versus C# rant: I don’t want to get sucked into wading into that, but I will say that anyone who thinks folks that use VB can’t use C# has really got things back the front. Most people who use VB can read and write C# quite well; they choose VB knowing both. Whereas so many C# developers I’ve met have absolutely no idea about VB or concepts such as declarative event handling etc, etc. For them they don’t have the basis of choice.

The reason VB folk have to read and write in C# is because a lot of SDK’s etc are all in C# originally. Even things like the enterprise library provide source code only in C#; this even after Soma promised to do better in regard to that. So for VB folks there is a real need to learn C#.

The big problem though is if you want to use C# source code in your VB project: you often have to re-write it or separate into different assemblies. That’s not productive. What I want is for VB to like C# and vice versa. I don’t mean make them the same, I mean for them to like each other; to get along well inside the same project. I’d like to be able to add a C# class to my VB project and happily compile it. And I bet some C# folk would love to have some concurrent basic or XML literals in their C# projects without all the current barriers.

Maybe the talk of compilers as a service type thing will give us that true cross language project, where VB and C# like each other so much that they then are free to diverge again :)

String.IsNullOrEmpty : update on that nasty null reference exception

bill — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:08:26 GMT

Back in April 2006, I blogged about a nasty JIT compiler optimisation that would cause String.IsNullOrEmpty to throw a null reference exception; ironic really given that is the very thing you’d use the IsNullOrEmpty method to check against. Well since then, due to popular demand on the connect site, this bug has been fixed in .NET 2.0 SP1 (which implies .NET 3.0 and 3.5)

940900 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940900/ ) FIX: You receive the NullReferenceException exception when you call the String.IsNullOrEmpty function in an application that is built on the .NET Framework 2.0

When ….

bill — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:56:52 GMT

VB has a lot of high level features other .Net languages, in particular C# don’t. Sadly these are often overlooked by some developers because other languages like C# don’t have them – the lowest common denominator syndrome. This is sad because many of these features are actually part of the .NET runtime. For example, VB has full interface mapping, C# has only a limited form of interface mapping they call explicit interface implementation which for them relies on a constrained naming pattern. Another example is custom events in VB, where VB provides the full encapsulation the CIL provides: being the Add, Remove and Raise for the event. (C# doesn’t support the Raise or Fire). The most obvious example would have to be Optional parameters. For years the C# brethren dismissed them as evil and in C# 4.0 now tout them as their amazing new feature they’ve added ;)

Another rarely spoken of feature that VB and the .NET runtime support are exception filters … the When clause.

Read why you should use When in the CLR team’s blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/clrteam/archive/2009/02/05/catch-rethrow-and-filters-why-you-should-care.aspx

Back from Alexandra

bill — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:08:08 GMT

Got back early Sunday morning from Alexandra complex. While there we stayed at what we dubbed the “Alexandra Hilton”

I think only half those tents were there when we first got there, but new ones were going up all the time. Inside the big white marquee are the same kind of tents again for those on night shift. Saw a lot of people from around here there: DSE, CFA, earth moving contractors and logging contractors all travelled there to help fight the fires. A lot of good people.

We were dispatched out along the Yarra Ranges: Buxton, Marysville and Narbethong. I had my camera but never got around to taking any photos other than at the staging ground. Most of you have probably seen enough of it on TV anyway. There are some images though that I wish I did take a picture of.

The first thing I noticed which you don’t see on the news is the places hit by fire where the houses did survive. Some seemingly miraculously on top of silver black hills where the trees were all just black poles.

In another site, the tops of mature gums were all blown out of them, snapped off about 10 or 15 meters from the ground. This was where two fire fronts had converged. It really looked like a bomb had gone off or a meteorite had hit the forest.

But probably the number one image I’ll remember and wish I had a camera on me at the moment was this: My team leader, who really did an amazing job (as did all my team), had been showing a 7 year old boy around the fire-truck. He was sitting in the drivers seat and hit the sirens. So big fireman Bill jumped in the passenger side and said “let’s go”. Quickly assured him we were playing, and I put my helmet on him. He grabbed the wheel with both hands and said “vrooom.. vrooom” and had a smile from ear to ear. Kids and fire-trucks hey ;)

The real challenges ahead are helping these communities rebuild. Donations are getting to them: we helped unload a couple of big trucks of food essentials, clothing and drinking water. It will take time to rebuild and lots of support. I’m confident the fires will be controlled; there’s some great crews and operators working on that from all over the world. The challenges of housing seem more daunting. We stayed in tents for a few days, but for some families all they have are tents for homes in other relief centres. There really is a mammoth task of rebuilding that lays ahead.

Fires update: Thank you :)

bill — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:48:01 GMT

When I got home last night I had a heap of emails and messenger notes from family, friends and colleagues expressing concerned over the fires. Thank you ! I did try to reply to everyone, but I was tired and was busy washing down the dust.

Where we are, we were very lucky in that the closest fire was in Weerite, between Colac and Warrnambool, SW Victoria, on the map below. It’s denoted with a red star which means contained; red dots are the fires that are controlled, and flames are those that are going.

On the Saturday we were gathered at the station in readiness for any fires. We sharpened the chainsaw; I had only given it a quick sharpen after I blunted it at a shed fire a few weeks earlier, and it needed a good clean. We ate lunch and waited. The Weerite fire started (from a downed power line) and our slip on unit with a crew of two was dispatched. We joked, as you do, and waited and watched. We’d go outside and look over to the west and watch the smoke as the Weerite fire grew. Our truck was kept in the station in preparedness should the fire or another start in the Otways. The real concern was if the Weerite fire spotted ahead with the strong winds, which were driving from the NW. That would have set the Otways alight which have huge fuel loads, then with the forecast SW change it would have ripped right along the coast and ranges. Fortunately that didn’t happen. The SW change came early.

The Weerite fire jumped the highway, and by mid afternoon the fire was about 1000 hectares. The crews did a great job to pull the fire up. So good in fact a couple of hours after the change came through, our tanker was stepped up to Colac then dispatched to the fires in the east of the state (Warragul). They worked right through the night and were bussed back to home the next day, leaving our tanker behind for other crews to operate. Our tanker returned last night.

I got the joy of doing some mopup/blackening out at Weerite yesterday. I say “joy” both sarcastically and truly. It’s volcanic plains out there, so lots of rocks. The soil is semi peat and burns, so putting out the perimeter is a slow dusty dirty job. But it was great to get out and actually do something. The spirits of those working was high, every-one wanted to put in, and do the best they could. Commitment to the job was unwavering. I heard one conversation with one of the staging folks as a member from my brigade asked if he had had any rest yet, to which he replied he had gone home the night before but kept waking every 15 minutes or so as he would think of things to do, so he’d get up and write them down. And given the limited resources they did a great job. We also must have done a great job, because just an hour or so ago a message came across my pager saying they no longer require crews for the Weerite fire. Hopefully that means soon it will be upgraded to one of those red dots on the map instead of a star. I guess soon after that talk of relief crews for the guys who must be doing it so hard in the East of the state.

Although these are terrible times, the spirit and commitment, the wanting to help each other … it’s through adversity we get to see the best of human nature. Like yesterday while we were having lunch we were told someone was giving stress massages in the fire shed if anyone needed. That’s pretty unusual for a fire line, and a few guys rushed for the door. It’s a pity it wasn’t a the end of the day whilst I was having a beer, but I think that nice that people want to help however they can. I read some lovely news today how our blood bank (which is always all un paid donors here) was over whelmed with the number of donations as people responded to the call for donations to help the victims of the fires.

A lot of business and the community have also made a lot of donations to he red cross appeal:
http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm

a time to cry …

bill — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 11:19:59 GMT

If you haven’t seen the news, we’ve had the worst weekend in history here. Highest ever recorded temperatures (>46C or 115F)combined with winds averaging over 90 km/hr in places and gusting higher created massive fire storms, killing many (over 85 found so far), destroying almost a thousand houses, and lots of damage. The human losses tears can only start to express.

There’s lots of press coverage at : http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/

When nature throws it’s fury at us, sadly there often is little we can do; instead we have to wait till after and focus on the rebuilding

Snippet Editor 2.1 screen-cast

bill — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:08:31 GMT

I’ve just uploaded a new screen cast:

Snippet Editor Tips and Tricks

Enjoy :)

(oh and don’t forget the “buy me a beer” button)

New release of Snippet Editor

bill — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:31:38 GMT

Snippet Editor 2.1 is now released on codeplex:
http://www.codeplex.com/SnippetEditor

Apart from the few minor bug fixes, it includes improved search and now support for Visual Studio 2010 as well as 2008 and 2005.

I’ve also added a “buy me a beer” button to this blog, and on the codeplex site, so if you like the Snippet Editor you can help put a smile on my face :)

The snippet editor remains free: no advertisements, no nag screens.

yep, free as in beer ;)

Enjoy :)

Iterators in VB 10 ?

bill — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:56:01 GMT

Although VB 10 won’t have a formal syntax for iterators, it will have all the necessary ingredients to easily write iterators. In VB10 you can use a generic template and multi line lambdas to create iterators.

This iterator in C# :

static public IEnumerable<String> Lines( this TextReader rdr)
{
     String line;
     while ((line = rdr.ReadLine()) != null) {
              yield return line;
     }
}

Can be written as this in VB10:

<Extension()> 
Public Function Lines(ByVal rdr as TextReader) As IEnumerable(Of String)

     Return New GenericIterator(Of String) 
          (Function(ByRef nextItem As String) As Boolean
              nextItem = rdr.ReadLine
              Return nextItem IsNot Nothing
           End Function)

End Function

The above code uses a generic iterator class that accepts a lambda function. The lambda function sets the Current item of the iterator and returns True if MoveNext should be True. The above example is written as an extension method, but you can also use the inner part of the function inline.

For more on using iterators in VB 9 today, as well as the generic class for the above example, see my latest article in Visual Studio Magazine .

In the garden: January 2009 update.

bill — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:42:49 GMT

Last week I posted my “In the garden” post for January: that was before the heat wave came and hit. Since then we had record high temperatures for here, up to 45 C (113 F). We had three days in a row of above 43 C temperatures (above 110 F), and the night time temperatures were about the usual daytime max ! Lots of the state faced power blackouts, as the demand for cooling sky rocketed. The damage done to crops was significant. a lot of grape harvests are ruined; for some wineries there will be no 2009 vintage. (a good time to stock up on 2008’s)

Here a lot of my plums shrivelled under the heat and apples suffered severe sunburn. On the positive side of that, nashi and the apples look like they will all come in earlier this year. I was eating some of the nashi yesterday.. they’re small, but beginning to ripen. The apples probably needed some thinning anyway, so although there’s a lot of damage, I’m hopefully there’ll still be some quality harvest from them.

The veggie patch weathered a bit better. There’s some damage to the male kiwi fruit, but it is still healthy. the early crop of snow peas has dried up, but that’s good as I was about to leave what was there for seed anyway. I had to pick a lot of beans as they had grown too rapidly, and I harvested half of the broad beans yesterday as well. The broad beans were still good, but some of the pods had suffered from the heat. And the zucchini of course decided it was time to make baseball bat sized fruit overnight <g> The good from this was I dug up some of the potatoes as well, and there was plenty of veggies from the harvest for the locals :) Other plants like the cucumbers seem to have thrived from the heat and I hope to harvest the first cucumbers within days. Prior to his heat wave it had been on the cold side, and crops like the cucumbers weren’t doing much. I guess that’s a positive of diversity.

The heat also made some animals slower, so easier to take photos of. Like the yellow tailed black cockatoos I posted pictures of the other day. I also managed to get some photos of some butterflies :

The common brown butterfly (well more orange than brown if you ask me <g>),
Heteronympha merope merope:

And the cabbage white butterfly :

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos

bill — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 03:34:08 GMT

I’ve been wanting to get some photos of these magnificent birds for some time now. I think the recent heat wave made them less likely to fly off. These guys come and eat/shred the dead protea flowers, which really does me a great service. I don’t need to prune the plants and they make fantastic mulch for them .

This is the male:

He seemed to be standing watch while the female was busy eating/shredding. The female doesn’t have the pink/red ring around the eye, and the beak is a gray instead of black:

As I got closer the male let out a warning cry (mp3 from Birds in Backyards):

Magnificent birds to watch fly. Huge, with a seemingly slow wing beat, yet I’ve seen them dart through the trees in the forest at incredible speeds.

One Sentence

bill — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:58:37 GMT

Came across this site today:

http://www.onesentence.org/

Enjoy :)

Centaurium sp.

bill — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:28:16 GMT

That pink flowered weed I posted yesterday is likely to be a member of the Centaurium genus.

I’m guessing at Centaurium pulchellum. (Century).

“pulchellum” coming from the Latin word pulchellus meaning beautiful

Centarium is said to be from Greek mythology:

The lore associated with centaury is that it was used by the famous centaur, Chiron, to heal himself from an arrow laced with the poison of the hydra. Chiron is notable to herbalists as he was known in Greek mythology for his knowledge of herbs. The genus was even referred to as Chironia.

In medieval times it was mixed into incense to increase psychic awareness and altered states of consciousness. It was also burned on its own and the smoke was said to repel snakes from an area.

Excerpt from : http://www.bastyr.edu/academic/botmed/centaurium_erythraea.asp

Still a weed of course ;)

a note on content:

bill — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:51:27 GMT

I got this note from Julie I liked so much I just had to share :

Pretty flowers...good

Screaming bunnies...bad

:-)

Mixo

bill — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:24:01 GMT

WARNING: If you’re feeling squeamish, please don’t read any further.

Most of you have probably heard of the film “The Rabbit Proof” fence. The fence is a striking symbology of the mistakes we’ve made, and the often flawed later attempts to address those mistakes. I’m not going to talk about the actual subject of that film, the stolen generations, that’s way to massive mistake for me to give justice to. But I did want to give you some insight into rabbits in Australia.

Rabbits were first introduced into Australia with the first fleet, but the main outbreak is attributed to a farmer who introduced 24 rabbits in the mid 19th century, claiming they could do little harm . He even had his workers dig holes for them. Well they bred like rabbits. The population grew exponentially, causing severe environmental damage, loss of habitat, severe soil erosion, and economical impact on farms. At the start of the 20th century, the rabbit proof fence was an example of the structures the government put in place, with best of intentions, but failing to really understand the issues they were dealing with. It was of course a failure. By the mid 20th century, a hundred years after that two dozen were introduced, the population was estimated at being over half a billion rabbits !!

Mid 20th century saw the introduction of biological weapons. “Mixo” or myxomatosis was introduced and wiped out large number of the rabbit population. A mosquito transmitted disease, rabbits develop tumours and can often be seen wandering around during the day with eyes scabbed over. It takes weeks for the animals to die. It seems incredibly cruel. Yesterday I saw a rabbit with mixo, eyes scabbed over, but it was still grazing, so was early stages I’d say. It’s really hard to know what to do. I’m conflicted between knowing how bad these pests can be and doing what I would think is the humane thing. Putting the animal out of it’s misery stops it spreading the disease to it’s brood, which eventually will just lead to an even bigger problem. I tend to let the un-natural nature take it’s course.

Last night I heard some rabbits scream. If you’ve never heard a rabbit squeal, it’s a terrible sound. I doubt that was the virus, more likely to be some other introduced animal, dog, cat or fox finding easy prey. I was trying to explain this to a friend, hence this blog post. The terrible truth is when you see that little bunny rabbit hopping around the fields during the day, don’t look to close, because it will likely reveal a horrible disease, the compounding of human mistakes. We do have other biological controls these days which are somewhat limited in their spread, but from all accounts are a lot less cruel.

For more on rabbits in Australia see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbits_in_Australia