I got an email last week stating that Microsoft will be shutting down their Popfly service as of August 24. The full text of the email is below if you are interested. At the same time some others pointed out that Google is discontinuing their mashup editor on August 12. I have a Popfly account but I never did complete a mashup. At first when I heard of them I was excited and saw mashups as the future of web development. I still believe that the concept behind a mashup (getting data from different locations and combining it in useful ways) is important but with AJAX and web service support in more mainstream technologies like Silverlight I am not sure that the need for a separate location to host mashups is necessary.

I have seen some calls for Microsoft to open source the code to Popfly to allow the community to continue to support it. While I can see the advantage of having a place to learn programming and creating a game at the same time I am not sure that the world needs another online game site or that the learning opportunities that were available on Popfly are not also available through XNA Studio or the Web Platform Installer that we are redirected to. The ASP.NET starter kits also provide a learning opportunity for people trying to get into programming for the web.

Here is the text from the email.

 

I’m writing to thank you for registering and using Microsoft Popfly. I’ve been fortunate enough to see all the innovative mashups, Web pages, and games created by the Popfly community since we launched Popfly two years ago. It has truly been a pleasure to watch the spirit of creativity flow through a growing Popfly community over the life of the product.

It’s with a heavy heart that I share some news with you today: on August 24, 2009, the Popfly service will be discontinued and all sites, references, and resources will be taken down.

After August 24^th, your access to your Popfly account, including any games and mashups that you’ve created, will be discontinued. However, Microsoft is still very much dedicated to helping you express your creativity and pursuing a path to software development. If you’re interested in refining your skills in Web applications, please visit Microsoft Web Platform Installer. For those interested in programming on the Xbox, then please visit Microsoft XNA or Microsoft Kodu. And for those who are interested in Windows programming, please visit Microsoft Express.

Thanks again for your support and please don’t hesitate to contact us at popfly@microsoft.com if you have any questions.

Regards,
John Montgomery
for the Popfly Team

There is an announcement posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/netservicesannounce/archive/2009/07/07/microsoft-net-services-july-2009-ctp-release-announcement.aspx that a new version of the .NET Services SDK has been released. From what I have seen there have been some changes that might require recompiling code. I will have to take more time to look over the release notes and update my samples.

This seems like a refinement of the previous CTP, as it should, as we are nearing the release of the entire Azure platform.

I just finished listening to an episode of the Connected Show podcast. Most of the episode is an interview with Ted Neward about the Apache Stonehenge project. Ted brings up some really good points about the project.

1. Everything is in the open on the mailing list. Right now we are trying to decide what all will end up in our 2nd milestone release. If you want to have a say please jump in and give your opinions.

2. The projects is completely open source so you can see what others are doing and decide for yourself if the code follows “best practices” or if you have a better way. I have to admit that personally I sometimes find the idea of having thousands of people (I wish it were that many but some day it may grow to that) doing a code review on my code a little intimidating.

3. Microsoft is committed to interoperability. This is just one of several interoperability projects that I am aware of. While Microsoft is still competing and trying to make better products so we will all buy them they also have gotten the message that they have to play nice and are working hard to make sure that they do.

I really had to laugh when Ted explained that we aren’t espousing “best practices” because historically what is considered best practice when a technology is new is rarely what is best practice many years later. I have talked with some of the others on the project at different meetings we are attending. We are trying to get interoperability first and foremost with thought being put into how to make it easier to test the interoperability and also if we can provide test harnesses to make it easier to test the growing matrix of configuration and interoperability options.

If you want to see how web service implementations from various vendors can all work together check out the project at http://incubator.apache.org/stonehenge/

I am about to leave on a trip and suddenly felt the need to get a USB adapter to allow me to partner a phone and computer via Bluetooth. I found several options online and at reasonable prices but with my short timeframe I couldn’t get it shipped to me so I started looking for a bricks and mortar solution. I pulled up a search engine that touts itself as having more information about local businesses than others and searched for computer. I was mainly looking for phone numbers since I thought I knew the computer stores in the area. I found a couple of new entries and decided to look them up. One of them had the following page provided by the search engine.

Despite having an address the default map seems to show me a 500 mile radius. It wasn't at all useful. I thought it might be due to the address having a street name where most addresses in this area are based on a grid system with numeric values for north/south and east/west. After clicking on the zoom in button 10 times and sliding the map around because it didn't zoom in on the pushpin I was able to get to this map image

Obviously the map knows where the street is and could have mapped it. In the end I ended up not calling the business because they didn't appear to offer what I wanted but if I hadn't been so pressed for time I wouldn't have even messed with clicking the zoom in button 10 times. If I were the advertiser I would be asking the web site to update the map to help drive more business. As it stands I suspect that a lot of people would pass up this business if they couldn't figure out where it is located.

I read an article on ars technicha that said I could get a free copy of Office 2010 if I agreed to test it extensively. I went to the Microsoft Connect site and it looks like they are trying to get home users, students, and small businesses to agree to use Office 2010 on a “loaner” laptop for 6 months and then be willing to “share your story” through public relations and marketing. I don’t really fall into any of those categories but I would like to start using Office 2010 since most of my day is spent in Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and InfoPath with some Visual Studio and other applications thrown in.

I filled out the survey and I will see if I am selected. If you are interested too then you need to live in the US and fill out the survey before June 30.

I just saw an e-mail that says Microsoft is having a “fan drive” to get fans of the Microsoft Patterns & Practices summit on their Facebook group. You can go to the P&P Summit Page on Facebook and become a fan. On the page there is this description of the summit.

If you're a software architect or developer who is passionate about mastering your craft, you should register now to attend the next patterns & practices Summit, October 12-16th on Microsoft's main corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, USA.

According to the e-mail if the group reaches 250 fans by the end of the month a random (non-Microsoft) person will get a free pass to the summit. I just became a fan and there are 67 fans now.

I got the following announcement via e-mail. The SSWUG virtual conferences are a good way to get training at your desk. Each presentation is given several times throughout the day so you can listen at your convenience. Also with the online chat you can ask the presenter and other attendees questions as you need.

  http://www.sswug.org  
Your Database/BI/IT Tech News  
   Wednesday, July 22 - Friday, July 24

SSWUG's Summer '09 Refresher vConference

Business Intelligence, SQL Server, .NET Development and Sharepoint. Top content, top industry speakers and top accessibility...all online. 

Hi Everyone,

The first round of Early Bird discounts for the 

SSWUG.ORG Summer Refresher vConference

end Monday, June 22 so register now to get the best rates!

Tune-up your job skills over three days in:

SQL Server 

.NET Development

Business Intelligence

Sharepoint
 
Early Bird registration is $60/discipline. You can also get the Summer vConference and the Fall vConference (with all new content) for only $145/discipline.  

These Early Bird rates go up on June 22 so don't hesitate!

See you online!

Stephen Wynkoop, Founder
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
swynk@sswug.org
 

Speakers: 

Ted Malone

Brian Knight

Chris Randall

Craig Utley

Donald Farmer

Erik Veerman

John Welch

Matt Masson

Matthew Roche

Scot Reagin

Ben Hoelting

Rachel Appel

Donald Belcham

and many more...  


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I just saw that the call for speakers is open for the fall Utah Code Camp. The code camp will be on September 19. The website lists a bunch of speakers (I think they are the speakers from last year) and gives you an idea of the kind of speakers and topics that can be covered. I know that Pat is always looking for new speakers and new ideas. If you have experience in anything from a basic presentation up through the latest and greatest features of some product I am sure we would all love to hear about it.