Sean's Idea Kitchen

Surface Has Been busy since Mix08

2008-04-18T15:36:28Z

It looks like the Surface group has been really busy since Mix08. Found by way of Long Zheng, are refined and polished versions of existing apps and a bunch of new applications.

Check our Long's post.

At Mix 08

2008-03-06T17:37:00Z

I haven't really had a chance to blog to much while I've been here at Mix 08. There's just to much to see. From Surface to Elvis there is just to many cool things here and even more great people to meet. I've been twittering most everything because I can do it from the session. You can follow those at www.twitter.com/ideakitchn

I've run into a lot of folks here from chatting with Miguel de Icaza about running MoonLight on a the ASUS EeePC to Karsten and the need to add an architect role to "The New Iteration", which actually became a quick conversation about different workflows for different organizations (Enterprise, Startup, etc)

I'll post more later on, with pics and also add more about what's going on with my new job.

Sean

Off to MIX 08

2008-03-04T11:27:00Z

I'm getting ready to head out the door for MIX 08. Looks like the weather here in Atlanta may be a little nasty. I'll be twittering along the way. I'm looking forward to hitting the tables at MIX, once the Sandbox is open. I had started a Flotzam restyle, but only did a little on the Digg template.

I was just having some fun creating the "Venetian Pantry". I was going to do "Digg Beer", "Flickr Cheese", and "Twitter Soda". If you want to XAML for it, meet me at MIX08, contact me or wait till I get back to put it online. See you there.

Sean

Tufte in Atlanta

2008-02-25T11:51:00Z

Edward Tufte, master presenter, author and information design visionary will be in Atlanta on March 24th and 25th. If you haven't seen him, register here. You also get all four of his books included in the price. I'll be here and if I can go, possibly we could have a meetup with Professor Tufte after.

Sean

(edited on 26 Feb 2008 for date corrections)

Photosynth usage idea

2008-02-25T02:13:00Z

Here's an idea for Photosynth that I'd like to see happen, that I had about a year ago.

Premise: Visual hyperlinking that uses Photosynth style photo mapping for search matches.

Usage: You're out looking for a place to eat and you snap a pic with your camera phone of a café, the send the image to the Photosynth query engine and you get back a tagged result set with items. Places to eat, businesses, history, events, and ratings to name a few. You could then click through a couple of results and get impressions of other people that have eaten there.

With the increase in geotagging of photos (2.2 million this month), online public photos galleries (ala Flickr) and hyperlinking to blog posts the information is already there. All we need now is the Photosynth query service.

I'll be at Mix if you want to chat about it.

Sean

Wayne Gretzky "gets" new technology

2008-02-19T02:46:00Z

Whenever the discussion comes to new technology and why would an organization risk using new technology, I think that Wayne Gretzky, yes the hockey player, got it right with this quote.

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.

Wayne Gretzky

Just swap "puck" with "technology" and "skate" with "code" (or "architect" or "move") you get...

I code to where the technology is going to be, not to where it has been.

Hockey and new technology, I guess being in Canada for a day or two is influencing me. :)

Sean

I'm now Twittering

2008-02-19T01:20:00Z

I've now got a twitter account. Follow my twitter updates at http://twitter.com/IdeaKitchn or if you'd like here's a RSS feed.

Sean

Predictions for MIX08

2008-02-14T04:13:00Z

I thought I'd put together a list of predictions for MIX 08. Some could happen, some will happen and some could not happen, you decide!

Steve Ballmer gives Keynote in black turtleneck and jeans.
IE 8 demo
IE 8 uses the "Office Ribbon" toolbar.
Popfly version 2.0, now with DLR
SilverLight 2.0
Expression Design running on a Mac
ASP.NET MVC
Surface SDK
Six foot wall mounted version of Surface
IIS 7
IIS 7 speed race with Apache for PHP
Great sessions by the good people at Identity Mine
Actual WPF line of business applications
The new default "charcoal grey" color scheme for Visual Studio
Expression Blend storyboard mode
New UX ROI koolaid for business owners and project managers
Steve Ballmer says "Designers" twenty seven times in a row in the keynote.
SilverLight on the iPhone.
(added 25 Feb 2008) Apple to release iPhone SDK at MIX08.

If you've got some to add, leave them in the comments (You'll need a profile if you've got something to say) or send it to me on my "contact me" page.

See you at MIX.

Sean

RIA is about to get richer

2008-02-02T18:33:00Z

Over at the ISV Developer Evangelism blog, jpelak posted about a couple of preview SilverLight control toolsets, that are now available. They're from ComponentOne (the Sapphire toolkit) and InterSoft (the WebAqua toolkit). Both are beautiful and usable, (remember that UX is not just about looks) and would be at home on either a LOB (Line of Business Application) or on a Windows Media Center.

Sapphire has six different demos and you should check them out. They are:

Editable DataGrid
Stock Portfolio
Encyclopedia (shown above using Astoria, which is now ADO.NET Data Services)
Amazon Store
Video Library
ComponentOne "Sapphire" Control Explorer

WebAqua brings the Mac interface to the web, with controls like WebFishEye and WebCoverFlow.

With MIX08 coming up less than 31 days away, I can't wait to see what else is in the works, especially when controls like these are available now.

Sean

Surface Possibilities

2008-01-23T02:16:00Z

I think that surface and gesture computing is going to explode over the next five years. We're going to see it in many areas of our life. We already are with devices like the iPhone and the HTC Touch, however Surface will bring more opportunities with it.

Surface brings a larger space to interact with, and more options. Here's some scenarios that I've dreamed up for it and would like to see.

Resort and Hotels - When you check in at a hotel or resort (say Walt Disney World), you receive a Eye-Fi 2 gig wifi card to use during your stay with your digital camera. When you come back to the hotel after your day of running around the park snapping photos of your kids. While you are waiting to sit down to dinner you can put you camera on Surface which would already be paired with the Eye-Fi card. (From what I remember, Surface does not automatically see all wifi and you wouldn't want that, considering security.) You could then shuffle through the photos, and email them to family or create a photo book to be printed in a store and then picked up after your meal.
Education - At a Montessori school a child interacts with real objects to learn. Surface would be great as a lead in, because of the direct interaction between the device and the child. And when you add "Contacts", you get real world with virtual world.
Library - Surface would be perfect for a rare book library that you could search, interact with and even turn the pages. And the application is already done!
Hotel Concierge - Asking for directions to a restaurant or buying tickets for a show would be much better when you're sitting around Surface.
Medical - Reviewing XRay or MRI results with a doctor could be much more enlightening. And Surface could also be used for a collaborative session between doctors. (Possibly a remote linked (think RDP remote controlled session) dual Surface devices sharing one desktop for collaboration).
Music Engineering - A multi touch mixing board.
TV - Telecasting, Weather and Sports could all make use of Surface with Video playback and drawing on the device. (Think Madden doing a review of a play).
Science - Data Visualization, Mapping and Chemical and/or gene combinations.

There's just a couple. More will come and soon. Hopefully there will be a Surface lab at MIX08.

Sean

Geek Dinner this Thursday (24 Jan 2008)

2008-01-23T02:09:00Z

Join all of us and our host, Shawn Wildermuth, for discussions from the Oracle SOA suite (it's not limited to just Microsoft technologies) to SilverLight (Shawn) to LINQ (Jim). Join us for food, brew and conversation. RSVP here! http://www.geekdinners.com/geekdinners/DinnerInstance.aspx?id=3

See you Thursday at 6:30.

Sean

Bill Gates Last Day - (Video Spoof)

2008-01-07T12:46:00Z

Check out the video spoof of Bill Gates last day at work from the CES keynote over at Long Zheng's blog.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080107/bill-gates-last-day-microsoft-video/

I've always loved the fact that Bill Gates is able to have fun with these videos. And the cast is pretty impressive.

Show off your mad WPF skills

2007-12-19T12:57:00Z

And win...

The good people over at Lab49 (New York's finest WPF consultancy) have a contest focused on using WPF in finance. I've long felt that WPF is a perfect match for the financial market, due to the rich visualization needs and the shear amount of data. So here's your chance to take their data and build something wonderful. Here's the link: http://wpfcontest.lab49.com/index.aspx

And if you win, you'll be a WPF rock star, win a truckload of prizes and you'll be so happy that you'll have to have plastic surgery just to get the smile off your face.

Good Luck!

Strategic Architect Forum 2007 Now Online

2007-12-12T03:16:00Z

The Strategic Architecture Group has put the SAF content online. What is the SAF you ask? It is the Strategic Architect Forum made up of three days of discussions and sessions about everything from UX, to Composite Applications to SAAS. Check out the content here. The video links actually pull down the video and embedded PowerPoints in a web page viewer format. If you want just the videos you'll have to mine them from the extracted file, usually in a couple of parts. Thanks to Simon's group for this content.

Sean

MIX is not about the web

2007-12-11T03:21:00Z

In the new MIX08 podcast found at "The Signal", during episode 2 or 3, it's stated that MIX is all about the Web (not the exact quote). I disagree. MIX is about UX. It's about the tools and technologies from Microsoft to build those experiences. Its about getting designers, developers, architects and business owners together.

To me MIX is there to help all of us (and Microsoft) to learn to work with each other (designers & developers) and for line-of-business owners to learn the value of design work. It's there for the cross pollination of ideas. It's there to move app's into a new realm of great software (not just great looking software).

Microsoft has UX. And MIX should be about this page.

Notice that Surface is on that page. I bet we see Surface in person at MIX. It's a perfect fit since Surface uses WPF. And the experience behind Surface is tied so closely to the device. How about a hands on WPF lab for Surface"?

But back to the Signal. While I disagree with the statement that MIX is about the Web, I will say that from listening to the Signal podcast it sounds like there's going to be some great things over the Vegas sky during MIX08.

See you there.

Sean