Microsoft Surface Computing (Multi-Touch Devices)

I think multi-touch is going to revolutionize the next generation of computer interfaces. We have already seen an impressive usage in iPhone earlier this year in Steve Jobs Demo of the product and now Microsoft has come up with some really mind blowing scenarios using Multi-Touch. Specially the device recongnition and then reacting to the device is pretty amazing !

I can’t stop thinking of scenarios and possibilities with Multi-Touch systems.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271552687/bctid933742930

Using Sharepoint Services Object Model to Create and Update Lists

Microsoft Sharepoint Services 3.0 provide a rich Object Model to work with sharepoint data and configuration. A good introduction can be found here.

The following code creates a sharepoint list ‘Application Errors’ if it does not exists and adds a List Item into the list.

Dim oSPSite As SPSite = New SPSite(“http://aleem:14433/”)
Dim oSPWeb As SPWeb = oSPSite.OpenWeb()
Dim listFlag As Boolean = True
oSPWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates = True
Dim oSPErrorList As SPList = Nothing
Try
         oSPErrorList = oSPWeb.Lists(“Application Errors”)
Catch ex As Exception
         listFlag = False
End Try
If listFlag = False Then
         oSPWeb.Lists.Add(“Application Errors”, “Application 
         Errors”, SPListTemplateType.CustomGrid)
         oSPErrorList = oSPWeb.Lists(“Application Errors”)
         oSPErrorList.Fields.Add(“Error Details”,
         SPFieldType.Note, True)
          oSPErrorList.Update()
End If
Dim oListItem As SPListItem = oSPErrorList.Items.Add()
oListItem(“Title”) = “Application Error”
oListItem(“Error Details”) = strErrorMessage
oListItem.Update()
oSPWeb.Dispose()
oSPSite.Dispose()

Windows sharepoint Services also provide different webservices to manage its data and configuration. More information here

Loading a Font File in .NET

System.Drawing.Text.PrivateFontCollection fontcoll = new System.Drawing.Text.PrivateFontCollection();
fontcoll.AddFontFile(@”C:\badrobot\badrobot.ttf”);
System.Drawing.Font font = new System.Drawing.Font(“bad robot”, 20);
this.label1.Font = font;
fontcoll.Dispose();

In WinAPI, the same can be achieved using AddFontResourceEx() and RemoveFontResourceEx().

There is a wonderful resource Win32 to .NET Framework API Mapping which is great if you know a Win32 API and could not find a .NET solution or vice versa.

Deception Point

I completed Deception Point by Dan Brown a couple of weeks ago and really it was a wondeful read. Although Deception Point is a lesser popular Dan Brown Novel than some of his other great writings like ‘Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels and Deamons’, but I really had great fun.

The writer gets you interested right from the start and even a person like me who is not a great Novel fan got so interested just after reading the first few pages that I had to finish it. The story and the suspense that he builds up is awsome. Also, I enjoyed the depth of informaiton and command Brown has over the technology. He used actual technologies, scenarios and the political drama in the Novel was superb.

I was a little disappointed in the end though, about how he wrapped up the whole thing. The NRO director Pickering should not have provided Rachel and the guys with the transport to Micheal’s ship if he actually wanted to kill them. He could have simply sent a team to kill them while picking them up. Also, Senator Sexton also did some dumb things in the last few pages, whereas he was a real smart person who knows what he was doing in rest of the Novel.

Anyway, as I said before it was fun. I have ‘Digital Fortress’ with me now which I intend to read next but not getting time for last two weeks.