February 2006 - Posts
Check this patent that is granted to Balthaser Online. It covers all rich-media technology implementations, including Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, and XAML, when the rich-media application is accessed on any device over the Internet. The authorities must be blind...
Check out this site done by media corp TV. Any guess which software the site is using?
The first page is definitely powered by SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Evidence is splattered all over the place. This got me excited. When I click register, it is not SharePoint, but a .net application built using VS 2003.net and VB.net. As I click, more and more pages turns out to be a custom .net application... :(
That is until I click on the 14 day review, and it turns out they are using SharePoint portal search to power that!
My guess is they are storing content using Document Libraries or Lists, but because they do not know how to modify the views, they created webparts and custom web application to access the object models to give look and feel which they wanted, and let SharePoint search power the search.
Very interesting and "nicely done"...
Today, I attended a meeting. Basically, things happened in the past, and we were discussing how to put the baggage down and move on... The new guy that took over the mess bought toy baseball bats to the meeting, and hand it over to us, telling us that we are to use the bat and hit him if things screws up again.
I don't know if he is really serious in asking us to hit him, but it is really a very creative way of bringing his message loud and clear. Any guess if he is a Singaporean or foreigner?
Read about packaging and pricing here...
Updates: More information here.
I'm in the process of drawing out a few screens using pencil and paper (yup... pencil and paper. No screen capturing) for a client to illustrate the system that I am proposing on SharePoint to handle their 4000 faxes per month. Not yet to the extend of giving the system owner a pencil, let her click using the pencil and use strips of papers to change the UI. I wonder what will be their reaction tomorrow...
[Via Bil Simser]
A comparison between DotNetNuke and SharePoint. Nice work Bil,
Mike Fitzmaurice posted something about wsrp. Post it here so that I can find
it later...
Mastering caml does unleashes some gems, but even for the experienced, editing caml isn't a very easy. Thousand of lines of xml codes, and a simple error will bring down SharePoint, with very little ways of debugging it. Normally I will use IE to open up the caml file to detect any syntax error. But if there isn't, I will roll back to the last working version, and slowly add new lines of codes.
I haven't been touching caml for some time, as I haven't been working on SharePoint 2003, but I just came across Carlos (another SharePoint MVP) caml editor. Give it a try!
[Via Ian]
Business issue
The Treasury is the Government's lead adviser on economic and financial policy. Their work is aimed at helping governments achieve higher living standards for New Zealanders. In that role they manage the public purse, advising on how governments can get the best quality and value out of public spending. They also take a broad and long view of the New Zealand economy, developing strategic advice for Treasury Ministers and Cabinet on its future shape and direction.
Many citizens write to the minister with complaints, suggestions or questions. The job of replying to each letter is the responsibility of seven ministerial writers. These writers must:
• Respond within ten working days
• Provide accurate and timely information
• Be consistent with policy and other ministerial replies
• Cope with an increasing workload
In many cases citizens ask the same or similar questions again and again. The ministerial writers would be more productive and accurate if they could easily search through the previous responses, and easily re-use fragments of pertinent information into a new response.
Further, auditing or tracking the use of the response information and allowing for an easy mechanism to update stored information is also desirable.
Project goal
A system that makes it easy to find, store and reuse document fragments for Ministerial replies, increasing response speed, ensuring consistency, and improving worker productivity.
Solution
MINTS is a solution based around Microsoft Office 2003. At the heart of the system is a document template and custom Word taskpane that enables ministerial writers to find and reuse document fragments – providing the capability for writers to assemble a document from previously created document fragments.
The author begins writing the ministerial reply in the Microsoft Word main window, then uses the taskpane to search for, and copy previously created fragments such as “Reason for company tax rate” into the main document. As the writer updates existing content, or creates new fragments, they have the option to add these to the library of existing fragments.
The document fragments are stored in a Windows SharePoint Services document library, with a SQL Server database providing extra “audit trail” metadata. The category list (eg: Company tax) is also stored in SharePoint using a SharePoint list.
Source
On Saturday, I met up with my ID from Inn-Place to look at some flats he has done. Then we went to his office to settle the quote, and sign on the dotted line. Along the way, he was sharing with me something. Though he is a buddist, his neighbour is a christian, who invited him to attend church. He said he didn't have the mood, as his daughter is not well. She gets infections easily and gets high fever because of it (> 40 degrees). Both her kidneys are affected, so doctor says need to have two operations done.
The neighbour brought her pastor along to pray for the daughter. Prayed for her during the operation as well. When the operation is over, by ID asked him how is it. The doctor said only one minor operation was carried out. My ID said, how come? The doctor said, "it was already healed". My ID was surprised, and ask the doctor, can this happen? The doctor said, "never ever".
Even when the daughter was at the ward, the neighbour and pastor prayed for speedy recovery. Within two three days, the daughter was already jumping around playing. My ID believed that Angel of the Lord can and touched her, hence the miracle happened. But even though he believed, he is not ready to receive, as he felt it was a betrayal to his current god who helped him when he was down.
I hope one day by ID will receive Chirst as his Lord and Saviour. I've signed on the dotted line, so I pray God will open opportunities. :)
[20 Jan 2006]
After sending my boss to the airport, we head to the flight museum. Yup, I've been here before, but this time I can slowly relax, and tour the red barron are as well... Some of the exhibits changed. There were a bunch of kids there, and one of the staff was teaching them about flight.
Then we went of the the red barron. The first section was about the boeing workshop, and all the different planes they made.
Pretty life like models huh? I had fun taking pictures in between the machineries.
At the corner, is a model of how Boeing looks like (I think) I was too busy playing with my camera to read the text.
The picture above is the overall model, while those below are close up shots taken with my camera inside the model... I feel like I'm taking movie... ha ha... I attracted lots of attention too, with one guy saying "Good idea!"
The rest of the section is models and blue-print of planes, commercial and war planes.
Then we went to the world war I and II sections, where they show case lots of planes, and lots of video footage as well.
Interesting place to go... I actually took lots of photo here...
Yippe, Weehyong, one of the tutors that taught in the Human Computer Interaction module that I took when I was in university, and also a new council member of SgDotNet is blogging too. He is a database guru, and I'm sure you will learn lots of academic insight about database, especially when it comes to SQL 2005. You will see his eyes literally shine when you talk to him about the progress SQL 2005 has made!
Nice, more and more people blogging in SgDotNet :)
My colleague, Willey Tang, a member of SgDotNet too, is starting to blog at SgDotNet. He used to blog in his own msn space, but now he is with us! :)
Go check out his blog later, as you will read about him learning SharePoint and other business related news that interests him.
Agenda
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6:45 - 7:00 Registration
7:00 - 7:45 Optimisation and Linear Programming by Tri Le
7:45 - 8:00 Break (Snacks will be provided)
8:00 - 8:45 Team Foundation Server (Part 2) Focus on Team Foundation Build and Work Item Tracking by Lim Boon Tiong (Best Speaker [VS Track] for Community Launch)
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Venue
NTUC Centre, 1 Marina Boulevard (near Raffles Place MRT and next to Neptune Theatre) Level 21, Auditorium
Synopsis
Optimisation and Linear Programming by Tri Le (Power Systems Consultants NZ Ltd)
To be advised.
Team Foundation Server (Part 2) Focus on Team Foundation Build and Work Item Tracking by Lim Boon Tiong (MVP)
It's amazing how Visual Studio transformed itself from an award winning developer tool to a first class development platform. This session focus on the Team Foundation Server (TFS) part of Visual Studio 2005 Team System - specifically Team Foundation Build and Work Item Tracking. Team Foundation Build utilizes MSBuild, the new extensible build engine that ships with the .NET Framework 2.0 and it supports the concept of a build server. On the other note, working item tracking provides a good deal of communication between the project manager and the rest of the team, including developers, business analysts, and testers. You should expect 75% of the session duration on demos and the rest on the slides.
Date/Time:
9th February 2006, 6:45pm to 8:45pm
How to get there:
For attendees who drive:
We recommend to park at the Neptune Theatre car park
For attendees traveling by MRT:
It is a 5 minute's walk from Raffles MRT Interchange, passing by the Asia Building.
For attendees traveling by bus:
Nearest bus stop is at Clifford Pier and it is a 2 minute's stroll to the OMB. Buses that service this bus stop are:
- SBS 10, 70, 97, 100, 107, 130, 131, 162 and 196
- TIBS 75, 167 and 700
- CSS 605 and 608
Register here
See you there! BTW, I'm an introvert, so I normally don't walk up to people to say hi. But I would like to meet any of you people out there... Just walk up to me k? :)