Ok, so I have had my iPad for a little over a month now and have used it often. During this time I have been able to formulate my thoughts on it and come to the conclusion that its a OK device, but not revolutionary or magical as the commercial would try to make you think. The fact of it is its no more then a enlarged iPod touch. Features and functionality that we have been use to for several years now. The device is optimized for reading IMHO and that is pretty much what I use it for. When I break it down to what I like about the platform it really is only the blog/pdf reading capabilities and even at that I still like paper books (I know a hold out) as I find with the iPad I shift back from portrait to landscape quite often or pinching to expand/reduce enough to break my reading flow. However what I do not like about the platform seem to be far greater.

1. I feel like i am getting absolutely screwed for my 3G access with Rogers.

2. When I want to download an application that is greater then 20mb it will not do so (even though I have lots of bandwidth) without either tethering or connecting to a wifi network. Both of those options may not be available when I want to get the piece of software I purchased.

3. Most of the applications that are available ‘Are the Suck’. Lets be honest here if they want to report 250,000 apps on the store they should also report 248000 pieces of shit also up there.

4. You have to pay for that crap application to actually verify that you paid for an absolutely craptastic application. Most do not give enough detail or allow some trialware to make sure that you are happy with your purchase.

5. Games that want to reach in my pocket and scoop out the last available cents. Last night I downloaded an update to a game that I had purchased. On starting the game I get a you should by the game at .99 cents now as its going up to 1.99 in a week. No option to go to no thanks, and continue. Either purchase or go to their website.

6. Suffice it to say I do not believe the iPad in itself is a great game platform. Do not get me wrong, there are some great things that can be done however for me the platform is not only the game but the interaction with the game. 2 things turn me off 1) the size of it is too big to hold for long durations of time while twisting, turning or tilting that the novelty just wears off. 2) as playing goes on the screen becomes more sticky/difficult to do fluid motions. Fingers get moist and eventually dragging becomes encumbered ensuring that I am not having the most optimal playing experience.

So I will continue to use my iPad for reading when I do not have a book available but otherwise I will be discontinuing my 3G service with Rogers come the end of this month. I will also stop purchasing applications from the store until there is a better way to confirm that what I order is what I really want.

2 windows service components handle message synchronization for the Sage SalesLogix Mobile platform. The connector and Real-Time sync engine handle the synchronization process in different ways. Firstly the synchronization data is created and passed through the connector for all synchronization scenarios. The real-time engine is responsible for detecting and notifying a users device that new data (that has been identified in a watch) exists in the main database. If we look as the connector as the right hand, and the real-time sync as the left hand there is a time were the right does not know what the left is doing. This occurs specifically when you initiate the full sync on the device (initial load) and real-time is enabled. Since real-time is is initiated and the full sync has started and can take some tome to process it is possible that the real-time can disrupt the load process. This happens because the when a real-time sync occurs it looks into the queue to see if another sync is occurring and cancels it with the assumption that the current state of the database is newer and the changes will rollup, with the hope of reducing bandwidth requirements. In most scenarios this would be a good thing except for the initial load where having the load canceled is not such a good thing.

To get around this issue ensure that your admin does not turn on real-time sync for a given user until their initial load is completed. This will allow the connector to work undisturbed and get the load data onto the users device.

– mark

Hey did you hear, VS 2010 is released and production worthy. We at BITtelligent did not wait long to start to put it into our daily work flow and I have to say I am quite impressed and happy that we did. In in the IDE side, but more so in the C#4 language improvements.

We are working on a large project with a different complexity challenges. The project is loosely based on a current implementation that is in production. That being said there are instances of where system settings are retrieved from the database to determine the process flow.

so code exists such as

if (cbool(container.settings.LocateValueFromSetting(“aaaa aaaa aaaa”)) = true

Now for me the intent is lost in the complexity of the check. This means more comments and a harder time for someone to grok my code.

Its quite possible to wrap the settings type with either proxy or add extension methods to allow for a better maintainability.

code such as;

ProxyClass proxy = new ProxyClass(settings);
if (proxy.ShouldExecuteSomeCode())
{

}

- or - 

public static bool ShouldExecuteSomeCode(this SpecialDataSet settings)
{
   return Convert.ToBoolean(settings.FindSettingBySettingName("Should Execute Some Code"));
}

Now this code needs to be repeated for each and every setting value and that seems to me to be a pretty heavy handed way of coding up the solution.

Enter dynamic.

Since I was looking for the most efficient and manageable way to provide settings access I moved into using a dictionary<string, object> as my local storage mechanism.  and for explanation purposes the following code is included;

 public class DynamicSettingClass : DynamicObject 
    {
        Dictionary<string, object> _values;

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the DynamicSettingClass class.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="values"></param>
        public DynamicSettingClass(Dictionary<string, object> values)
        {
            _values = values;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the DynamicSettingClass class.
        /// </summary>
        public DynamicSettingClass()
        {
            _values = new Dictionary<string, object>(StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);    
        }

        public void AddSettingValue(string key, object value)
        {
            if (_values.ContainsKey(key))
                _values[key] = value;
            else
                _values.Add(key, value);

        }

        public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
        {
            string keyName = FormattedName(binder.Name);
            if (_values.ContainsKey(keyName))
            {
                result = _values[keyName];
                return true;
            }

            return base.TryGetMember(binder, out result);
        }

        private static string FormattedName(string name)
        {
            if (name.IndexOf('_') > 0) name = name.Replace('_', ' ');
            return name;
        }

    }

What this class enables is the ability to address each of the setting values as a property of our object instead of as a collection item.

Now the secret sauce is in the TryGetMember, and Formatted name. Within the TryGetMember we are provided important information in the binder object but for our sample the most important is the name property. From it we can derrive the targeted setting we are looking for. I add a little preprocessing to the key value as settings values can contain spaces, so a little token replace is required. The final outcome is that I can use this utility class to enhance the readability of my code and reduce the amount of lines to write to get the experience for all of my setting requirements.

so to now access the setting using the following code I would do the following;

dynamic simpleSettings = new DynamicSettingClass();
simpleSettings.AddSetting("Should_Execute_Some_Code", true);

if (simpleSettings.Should_Execute_Some_Code)
{
}

This seems to be a simpler syntax for accessing my settings list but really having to call the AddSetting method seems incomplete. So we can finally and a little more ‘magic’ to our settings class;

    public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
    {
        string keyName = FormattedName(binder.Name);
        AddSettingValue(keyName, value);
        return true;
    }

With this little snippet the round tripping is now possible with our Dynamic property example;

simpleSettings.Should_Execute_Some_Code = true;

if (simpleSettings.Should_Execute_Some_Code)
{
}

So this completes this post. I hope it helps you out in seeing the power of the DynamicObject’s power.

I have had in the past a reservation in attending conferences. In general I set lofty expectations and feel somewhat let down when they do not come to fruition. If I am to put my life on pause, leave my family and put my customers on hold for a week, with an investment cost greater then just the fee, transportation or hotel, I believe the content that is presented should be not some re-hash of what I can get on the web after 5 minutes of Goggling or Binging (is that the term).

I decided to cut away from this hesitation and this year attend the DevTeach conference (It is still on). I had heard good things, and the speakers were recognizable and notable. It was also a bonus as it was quite literally 30 minutes down the highway from my house. I felt so compelled initially that I even booked a room at the delta where I believe the conference was taking place so that I could spend some afterhours time with some of the other attendees enjoying a frosty beverage.

Just after arrival I was able to sit down and spend the balance of the evening with Peter Richie, Rob Windsor, Mario Cardinal, K. Scott Allen, Donald Belcham, Kelly Cassidy, Erik Renaud,  and Rob Daigneau. A great bunch of guys and they all seem passionate about their Tech.

After a very lousy night of sleep, I decided to abandon my decision to stay in the hotel for the duration of the conference and booked out during lunch, actually before, I wanted to get into a session on architecture put on by Michael Stiefel but was unable.

The first day for me was somewhat of a let down and I think it was due to the fact that I started off by going to some of the tooling session (language C#, V.net, Keynote, and VS for Architects). Except for a few notables these sessions for me were nothing more then marketing and a rehash of pre-canned content that has been available on the web, not much substance, and definitely no wow factor or call to action.

Both of the presenters in those sessions are very likable, and I believe great people for our community as a whole. I just felt that after the commitment that the attendees the payback was minimal. That being said I like where Sharepoint development is going and the slight overview of how to create sharepoint customizations in 2010 was good.

I am getting ready to head back to the conference for Day 2 and hope that If I change my ways (no more ms tooling sessions) the content will be engaging and provide the value I so really seek. The saving grace so far is the promise that all the sessions are being recorded, giving me the chance to view the ones that I cannot attend, at home, in the office at a time when they are not disruptive to my business practice.

Time for a coffee and a car ride,

I have been on a course of reducing debt over the last few years. More purchases using cash, paying most bills as quick as possible. But like most Canadians (Americans as well) I carry some credit card debt. My interest rate for my cards was quite reasonable so I had gotten somewhat use to using them to make mostly online purchases. Over the last little while my rate had jumped several percentage points. I was upset, however I decided that I could live with an increase for now. However today on my latest credit card statement the rate was bound to jump another 2%. I can absolutely understand when the cost of debt is high or that the account is in poor standing that interest rates would reflect those realities, however neither is the case here since the current overnight lending rate in Canada is 1/4 percent and my credit card account is always been in good standing. I am not going to speculate on why this is happening, when I spoke to the representative on the phone I was told that lots of accounts were going up and that the actual base rate was almost 20%. I have decided out of principal that I can no longer deal with the vendor and be cancelling my credit card (paying off the remaining balance). After this we will be down to one household card, just enough for those emergency requirements/needs. I suspect I am one of the fortunate ones that can afford to pay off and close out an account but I wonder how many others will do the same when faced with this reality.