Ross Hawkins - March 2010 Entries

March 2010 Entries

After breaking your legs..

Following up from my previous post, if you wanted a Visual Studio add-in for IRC then check out this post: Day 9 - Jedi Visual Studio IRC Add-in. (Thanks Sonic)

posted @ Wednesday, March 31, 2010 7:55 PM | Feedback (0)

“Break My Concentration and I Break Your Kneecaps”

I love simplicity. There’s something about this screenshot which shows IRC integrated into a development environment that just appeals to me so much. I use MSN Messenger quite a lot, but I can’t stand it’s blinking windows. They’re distracting as all hell and other than install a client such as Trillian or dedicate a separate PC for instant messaging I’ve not found a good way to mitigate them. IRC is so beautiful in that it sits there when you have spare cycles. Visual Studio IRC add-in anyone?

posted @ Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:59 PM | Feedback (0)

CouchDB and Damien Katz

CouchDB and Me is a video from RubyFringe where Damien Katz documents some of his experiences in selling his house and going to work for himself creating open source software. I’ve been following Damien’s work with CouchDB for a while, but even if you don’t know who he is the video is still well worth a look. He’s an amusing guy and his is a great story. Quite simply I found the video to be a great reminder to make sure that you’re working on things that you’re passionate about. Watch the video here: Damien Katz -...

posted @ Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:51 PM | Feedback (0)

Silverlight – is it time to pay attention again?

I’ve recently had cause to stop and think about Silverlight again. The recent preview and then release of Mindscape’s Silverlight Elements control suite followed by the need to put some video on the web for a customer got me feeling like it was time to start paying attention again. I did a bit of work with Silverlight many years ago during it’s early 1.x days, but have largely been ignoring it for the past year or so. Why? I don’t really know. Initially I think it was just that it didn’t explode like some Microsoft developers (including...

posted @ Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:46 PM | Feedback (0)

Using Dynamic data with multiple databases

At the risk of becoming too much of an echo chamber here, Using Dynamic Data with multiple databases is a useful post describing... exactly what the title says. Their example refers to Entity Framework and Linq2SQL – in my case I was trying to use L2S alongside Mindscape LightSpeed, which also worked very well. I had low expectations around how Dynamic Data would handle multiple models, much less multiple O/RM tools, so I have to say I was pretty pleased in how it was handled. Tags: .NET, O/RM, Mindscape

posted @ Wednesday, March 24, 2010 5:42 PM | Feedback (1)

OpenNTF projects for Feb

Yes, I know it’s March – I clicked this link in Feb but haven’t had a chance to sit down and watch the video until now. There’s some very good stuff in here. The widgets I can mostly take or leave (although the File Manager one has some good potential for anyone using a Notes client for day to day use), however xTalk, the Next Gen Discussion template, and the xPages Wiki all look very useful indeed. On the developer’s side of things, part 2 covers some useful XPages controls. These are the...

posted @ Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:06 PM | Feedback (0) Filed Under [ Notes/Domino ]

iUi and XPages

I’ve used iUi in conjunction with ASP.NET MVC to create simple web applications for the iPhone before – it’s a useful way of adding a quick iPhone layer to any web application. As the title suggests, Build your first iPhone App in five Minutes via XPages and iUI is a quick primer on doing the same thing with XPages.

posted @ Tuesday, March 09, 2010 10:16 PM | Feedback (1)

Mindscape Silverlight Elements now available for preview

Mindscape has just released a preview of their Silverlight elements suite. They all look very slick, but for me the coverflow and the scheduler could be particularly useful. Maybe it’s time for me to start paying attention to Silverlight again! We’re pleased to announce a technical preview release of our Silverlight Elements suite, a pack of controls for Microsoft’s Silverlight Rich Internet Application platform. Silverlight is becoming an increasingly popular solution for building business applications as well as graphically rich media-oriented applications, and Silverlight Elements builds on that. Check them out here: Mindscape Silverlight Elements...

posted @ Monday, March 01, 2010 4:07 PM | Feedback (0)

About me

My name is Ross Hawkins and I'm a developer, consultant, business owner and writer based in Auckland, New Zealand (pictured below!). My current work revolves around ASP.NET, C#, jQuery, Ajax, SQL Server, and a mix of other Microsoft development technologies.

I also have about 15 years of experience with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and associated technologies. While Notes/Domino is no longer my primary focus I still like to dabble and keep my skills up to date.

I own and run 2 businesses - Hawkins Consulting Services, and Ignition Development.

Bethells Beach, located in sunny West Auckland, New Zealand

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