Moving Home..

Few days ago, I bought a new domain for my blog. Going through the history of this domain, few years back I used to own this domain.

However, for some reason, I was busy and got sidetracked with many things. Poor little domain, he expired and got taken by someone else. Finally, the awaiting paid off!

I will be moving my blog to the new place (http://www.d-maz.com). Therefore, I announce this blog to be inactive (or rarely active). :-)

Looking for Team Member for IC08

For those of you out there who are interested in IC08 (www.imaginecup.com), an annual competition held by Microsoft, and keen to join my team, please give me a buzz on dimaz.pramudya[at]gmail.com

Yes, there are few main criteria we are looking for. First, you need to reside in Australia (preferably Melbourne). Second, you are currently enrolled as a student in University (in Australia). Third, you gotta be PassionatE about .NET or Technology in general. :-)

For further information on the competition itself, please visit their website at www.imaginecup.com

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks.

WPF New Features on .NET 3.5 Beta 2

Recently, Microsoft announced the release of Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 (previously codenamed Orcas), SilverLight 1.0 RC, and .NET 3.5 Framework Beta 2.

On this post, I am just gonna list the new features of WPF on .NET 3.5 Beta 2.
* Application Model
o WPF builds on the new add-in model in .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 to allow developers to create visual add-ins, where add-ins provide UIs that are displayed by the host application. You’ll find the add-in types in the System.AddIn namespace in System.AddIn.dll, System.AddIn.Contract.dll, and System.Windows.Presentation.dll.

o XBAPs can now run in FireFox.

o Cookies can be shared between XBAPs and Web applications from the same site of origin.

o Improved XAML intellisense experience for higher productivity.

o Data binding and journaling by URI work together.

* Data Binding
o A new debugging mechanism makes it easier to debug data bindings. (new attached property: System.Diagnostics.PresentationTraceSources.TraceLevel)

o The data validation model now supports the IDataErrorInfo interface. (new class: System.Windows.Controls.DataErrorValidationRule)

o Improvements have been made to BindingListCollectionView to provide better support for binding to a collection that is of type BindingList and for LINQ.

o The behavior of data bindings with a CollectionView over an IEnumerable has been improved to provide better performance and better support for binding to results that are produced by LINQ.

* 3D
o UIElement concepts such as input, focus, and eventing have been brought to 3D. (new classes: System.Windows.UIElement3D which is abstract, and ContainerUIElement3D and ModelUIElement3D in the System.Windows.Media.Media3D namespace)
o Developers can now place interactive 2D content onto a 3D object. (new class: System.Windows.Media.Media3D.Viewport2DVisual3D)

* Documents/Annotations
o The annotations framework now exposes the capabilities for matching annotations with the corresponding annotated objects. (new interface IAnchorInfo and new class TextAnchor in the System.Windows.Annotations namespace)

* Better IME support, RichTextBox extensibility (new property IsDocumentEnabled), performance improvements, and more!

6th Generation iPod UI

There is a rumor floating around about the new iPod UI. It seems to have similar look-and-feel as their siblings, iPhone.
However, the chance is, this is still an early design mockup.

MSDN Channel 8 - Launched!

After being delayed almost a week, the awaiting finally paid off. Microsoft Channel 8 is officially launched as of today [21 July 2007 Australian Time].

For those of you who are wondering what Channel 8 really is, here is the official quote:

Channel 8 is THE place to be for STUDENTS who want to code, connect and create technology. Stay plugged into tech news and share in the experience with students around the world just like you who want to see their creations come to life. This is also a back door directly into Microsoft just like Channel 9 but from a student point of view. This means access to the inside scoop about our products and life working inside Microsoft and information on cool things coming out. This is your community – a place for you to share your tips and tricks and even your problems. Go check out what others are doing and talk about what you think is cool.

MSDN Channel 8 [HTTP 403 - Not Authorized]?

You might be familiar with MSDN Channel 9, but.. what the heck is Channel 8?
I heard a rumor that Channel 8 will be a social-networking-kinda-site that focus on students! Plus, I was informed that the site will be up by Monday night (Australian time).

But, see what happened when you try to browse the site!


A nice HTTP 403 Error!

Imagine Cup 2007 Australia - The Rundown

On today's ReMix 2007, the three Australian Imagine Cup finalists delivered their presentations.
Here is the brief rundown.

1. Group: The Intelligent Gorillas
   Univ : Queensland University of Technology
   Project: Enhance Peer-Based Learning
   Deliverables: 
   * PowerPoint add-on to allow lecturers to identify 
     themselves before the lecture started. Once 
     completed, it upload the recording to the server.
   * Desktop Application. Allow lecturers and students
     to access the content of the presentation and 
     involve in the verbal discussion.
   * Mobile Application that extends out the features
     of the Desktop Application.
   * Main Server (incl Web Services) that handles the
     incoming requests and responses respectively.
   Comment: 
     I love the idea of being able to record the
     lectures (incl the slides) and store it on a server, 
     so that others with appropriate privilege will have
     access to it. However, this team lacks on several 
     things. 
     
     First, it should offer the ability to download the
     whole lecture at once (instead of slide by slide). 
     However, doing it this way means that you will have
     to join up the wav files of each slides as well. 

     Second, the architecture might cause performance 
     issue when it comes in to place in a real-life 
     environment. Imagine the scenario where 100+ lecturers
     and 10000+ students are accessing or uploading data
     to this system at the same time.
     In this case, you will need to put Messaging-Queue 
     in place. Also, make use of Async Call when calling
     the WebService. 

     Third, how does the data (audio, slides) are stored
     in the DB? The team didn't explain this point during
     the presentation. In my opinion, it is best if you 
     store it as Base-64 format as opposed to Binary. 
     Takes less space.
   Photo:


2. Group: Team APA
   Univ : University of Canberra
   Project: Helping Visually Impaired People to Learn C#
   Deliverables: Audio .NET, Audio Website, Audio Browser 
   Comment: 
   Just by reading the project title, I can feel the spirit 
   coming out of this team. I should admit that the idea is 
   great. However, there is one major feature that is missing 
   from all of these. The ability to adjust the speed of the 
   speech. FYI, the visually impaired people tend to be able 
   to listen at humongous speed (hundreds of words per second).
   
   Audio .NET
   It is a great tool with some of the functionality to build 
   GUI. I also like the error-reporting feature. Although this 
   might actually raise another issue. In C#, variables are 
   case-sensitive. If you typed the wrong case, the compiler 
   will report that it couldn't find that variable and this 
   gets picked up by the speech engine. However, it doesn't 
   mention anything about the wrong case. Other thing, have 
   you guys thought of creating VS add-in (with Audio support) instead?
   Photo:


3. Group: Smart Education
   Univ : University of Canberra
   Project: WebCT mashed up with FaceBook
   Deliverables: ???
   Note: 
   I missed this session. Therefore, I am unable to give any 
   details regarding this.

And finally, at 4pm this afternoon, the result was announced by Nick Ellery.
The winner is... [insert drum music here]... Team APA with their Audio Suite.

ReMix 2007

Today, ReMix 2007 is officially ended. For those of you who missed out, give it another shot next year.

Personally, I reckon that this has been a GREAT, AWESOME, [put extraordinary words here..] experience. The presentations were incredible. They had couple guys from MSFT HQ in Redmond to deliver the presentations.

The ones that made it to my list

Top 1 Presenter: Go Deep with AJAX
Top 1 Presentation Content: Silverlight in .NET
Top 1 Demo: Prototyping in WPF


Here comes the pictures.
XBox Stand
Wacom [Sponsor]
Microsoft Virtual Earth [Sponsor]
ReMix 2007 Banner

Cheesy Videos

1. Ruby On Rails VS Java


2. IPhone Commercial