Thursday 25 November 2010

Windows Azure Table Storage stupid mistakes

Don't program when you're tired ...

I've been working through the Azure labs and as usual I don't stick exactly to the script (how're you supposed to learn anything if you don't challenge the boundaries? ;) ) So after 2 late hours I couldn't figure out why:
"storageAccount.CreateCloudTableClient().CreateTableIfNotExist("ThingOnes")
"
Created tables, but the more common
"CloudTableClient.CreateTablesFromModel(typeof(ThingContext),
                                                    storageAccount.TableEndpoint.AbsoluteUri,
                                                    storageAccount.Credentials);"

didn't.

I just noticed now that in my "ThingContext" here:
"
        public IQueryable<ThingOneThingOneEntities
        {
            get
            {
                return this.CreateQuery<ThingOne>("ThingOnes");
            }
        }
"
the property name of the entity set was different to the EntitySetName I declared.

Setting them the same made everything happy again.

In other words ... magic strings are evil!

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Windows phone 7 impressions : 2 weeks on

So it's 2 weeks on since I finally got my grubby mits on my Omnia 7, and overall I'm pretty happy with it. It's solid without being cumbersome and the UI is really slick.
The AMOLED screen is a marvel of crispness.

Having said that the phone, as any v1 product, has issues. The most jarring being without doubt the combination of tombstoning and capacitive face buttons. Being unceremoniously dumped out of "the harvest " and having to wait a minute again to resuming is something that would prevent me recommending the phone.

Overall though, I'm pretty excited about what should be in the pipeline for wp7 when I see top class apps like ninemsn and bye bye brains.

That and the fact I managed to type this entire post on my phone without issue is a testimony to both the keyboard and the browser.

Oh and the Omnia 7 camera is pretty good, I just don't get the reasoning of having  the default video format unplayable on the Xbox 360.

From a dev perspective the tools are really excellent, with a bit commitment I should have something presentable soon.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Silverlight ... HTML5 ... *sigh*

*sigh*

Steve Ballmer and Bob Muglias comments on HTML5 & Silverlight are nothing new. Well, except it being by the CEO, the relevant VP and at PDC. I guess that can look worrying if you want to it to.

I've actually found the fallout quite positive. In truth their comments were completely expected, if Microsoft was trying to "take over teh world" by installing silverlight on every device I'd say they were foolish and naive. It failed for Java, it failed for Flash, why would Silverlight be any different? Silverlight fulfills a different role to html, that explaination was the only bit missing from the keynote.

That's what's been great about the aftermath: The role and future of Silverlight has never been better expressed in so many ways and in such detail. If these perspectives had been made clear during or before PDC it would have been a none issue. Here's some of my favourites:

Bob Muglia's response
http://team.silverlight.net/announcement/pdc-and-silverlight/

Great detailed post from Mike Taulty
http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2010/11/01/silverlight-versus-html5-really.aspx

MVPs Jeremy Likeness & Laurent Bugnion also weighed in nicely 'from the coal face' on the subject:
http://csharperimage.jeremylikness.com/2010/10/so-whats-fuss-about-silverlight.html
http://csharperimage.jeremylikness.com/2010/11/silverlight-and-html5-microsofts.html
http://blog.galasoft.ch/archive/2010/10/30/my-position-on-the-silverlight-debate.aspx
Rather go look at the portable library project (http://player.microsoftpdc.com/Session/638f610a-ea51-4aef-9657-e3fe425ae745/469.163) to go see exactly what makes Silverlight so awesome.