If you don't already know, MIX'06 is coming to India in the form of IndiMIX'06 (http://www.indimix06.com). The keynote will be given by Steve Ballmer.

I've been given the honor of being on the same stage as Steve B. I'm going to be doing a piece on .NET Framework 3.0 - essentially about Windows Presentation Foundation and the Designer / Developer work process. I'll be co-presenting the demo with some really cool people.

IndiMIX'06 will be held at the National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point, Mumbai. It's a free public event and you can register for it at the official website. If you're not able to come to Mumbai, or if the event is sold out you can watch the live webcast. Register for either at the official site.

My presentation will be from 2:00pm to 3:15pm (local time, +5:30GMT).

For more info, visit http://www.indimix06.com

.NET | Aesthetics | Avalon | Code | Geek Stuff | Graphics | Microsoft | My Insignificant Life | Web | Windows Vista | WPF

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The last blog skin I made was kind of weird and had some technical and usability problems as well. I decided to drop the hi-tech look and go with a simple design inspired by Japanese aesthetics and animé. So hop out the RSS reader and head on over to http://www.naesthetic.com

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I recently was at the Microsoft R&D Campus at Hyderabad (India) and me and a UX designer interning at Microsoft were having a discussion with Kevin D'Souza, an evangelist for Live. The event of the day was Expression, and so was the topic we were discussing. This was just an informal discussion before the event. I was invited as an outside expert (imagine that!) and they wanted to know my opinion about Expression and UX and everything.

Suddenly the topic of designers and developers came up. I told Kevin that, in my opinion Microsoft will need to do some work to warm up to the designer community. Not because of competing technologies or anything - but because designers are a whole freakin' new species for MS to handle. Developers - despite their independent egos - know how to work together. Designers can be a bit cranky that way. And that's just ONE example of the whole deal. Kevin's interested to know more, so I give him an example - one I live with every day and night:

I tell him that when you tell a dev that you want an app that does this and this and this and talk to a web service at your extranet, he (and maybe his team) will find some paper or a whiteboard, throw around some ideas and decide which objects or libraries to create to get the job done. (I know its an over simplification, just bear with me)

Now, you tell the DESIGNER that you want an app that does this and this and this and talk to a web service at your extranet, he (quite possibly without a team) will find some paper or fire up Photoshop or even Visual Studio or ExprID itself and start designing the UI first and THEN think of the code.

As soon as I say this, the Microsoft intern goes "That's how you do it". And he wasn't being sarcastic or clever. He was honestly saying that.

Point made.

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I'll be presenting an almost hour-long presentation on Microsoft Expression at the Expression Design Jamboree, a special event for Designers (and Developers) which will be held at the Microsoft Campus at Gachibowli, Hyderabad (India).

The event is at 5pm on 6th October. Registration is still open. You can register for free by email designercommunity@hotmail.com or by calling (+91) 40-65192133.

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Working with a designer for your application is a concept many developers find a bit new. A lot of developers we have been working with have struggled with different methods for working with us to design their app in WPF. So we wrote this little guide that explains one of the most efficient and effective methods of working with a designer or design studio to skin your WPF app.

Anyone can use this simple method. It allows the designer to work separately from the developer(s) in Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer or any other XAML editor. The developers work in Visual Studio (using "ORCAS" / "Cider") or ExprID and create forms as usual. The application would look just like any other Windows application. When the designer is finished with the styles, he or she gives the devs the file, they reference it in the project, compile, and voila!

You can read about the process, including source code, in detail in this file below:

PDF File (452K)

NOTE: This document is a draft version. Ignore any lingual or conceptual errors. The code, however, is error free.

.NET | Articles | Code | WPF

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Nukeation Studios has divided right into the thick of WPF since the first bits were released. We were the first company to offer WPF consulting services on the Internet. Over the last year we have made a lot of progress in WPF and are ready to offer even more services and products to the industry - all based around WPF and .NET 3.0.

We are looking for freelancers for the following roles:

• Windows Presentation Foundation Designer
• Windows Presentation Foundation Developer (C# or VB)

Intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer is a must. Basic knowledge of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is also required. For WPF Designer position, extensive knowledge and experience with CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator, and Corel PhotoPaint or Adobe Photoshop, is a must.

Geographic location irrelevant. You will be expected to work via the Internet. Professional experience is not a requirement, but is a plus. We offer some of the finest perks and the opportunity to work on some seriously high-profile projects. If you're really good, you can also expect a long-term relationship with us.

Please submit your résumé with a link (do not attach!) to at least one sample (compiled EXE only, no source required) of work done in WPF to dax [at] nukeation [dot] com. Please make the subject of the email "WPF Designer" or "WPF Developer" as appropriate.

There is no deadline, but positions are limited.

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I'm expecting a rush on my blog soon - very soon. So I went ahead and made the blog interface more user-friendly. As usual, people reading this via RSS feeds are encouraged to visit http://www.naesthetic.com and check out the new UX.

There are some big, big, big things in the works. Stay tuned. ;)

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Aero Glass
Just about everyone making (or thinking of making) an application for Windows Vista wants to try out the cool new Aero User Experience. Software such as Windows Media Player, Windows Calendar, and the Windows Sidebar really show off the Aero glass look.

While overusing the glass bit is a certain possibility (and a probability), using it judiciously can seriously help spice up your app. A few things to keep in mind when using Aero Glass:

• Avoid a full glass window. This creates performance as well as usability issues.
• Use full glass windows only for non-resizable, non-maximizing windows.
• The glass portions of the window should always allow the entire window to be dragged.
• When designing the window, keep in mind what it will look like in a pre-Vista OS – i.e., without glass. Always have a non-Glass look ready to fall back on if Aero is disabled or if the app is run on an older Windows.

This exercise will require a good GPU (128MB AGP recommended).

Thanks to Adam Nathan for the original code!

The Code

Create a new code file and add the following code:

In your Window.xaml file, make the DocumentRoot object's Background to NULL then just insert the following code (marked in bold) in the codebehind file:

You will get the following result:



If you replace the thickness(-1) with thickness(5,70,5,42) you get something like this:



You can download the full code below. It requires Windows Vista RC1 or later, .NET Framework 3.0 (RC1), and Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer September CTP.

AeroGlassExample.zip (14.43 KB)

Aesthetics | Articles | Code | Windows Vista | WPF

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I've tried often to keep a personal website. First there was this unmentionable, horrible website (my first actually! back in the day you made a web page - not a web site), then long years later, there was AFTER-IMAGES (art), then PIXELATED FOCUS (photography), then recently DIGITAL EXILE (art + photography).

In this long tradition the newest generation shall soon be unveiled - PERPLEX. The site will no longer be nomadic but be anchored to http://dax.nukeation.com where it shall stay until the end of time.

Perplex? That's a weird name.

Oh, not really. If you personally know me, you may know that I live by the motto: "the purpose of my life is to confuse as many people as possible". And I always do. I'm often confused myself.

This name was also chosen to reflect the look on the viewer's face when seeing my work or words.

Subscribe to the new RSS feed (a category of this very blog) for updates to my photography and art collections. The site will be online soon enough.

Aesthetics | Art | Perplex | Photography

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Lt. Cmdr. D. Code:

"Aye, laddie, when we cohded back in the dayh, we haid no stryctyrs. We just payssed 'em vayriabuls one by one."

Gen. A. Bugbyte:

"vayriabuls? you had vayriabuls? Back in my day we didn't even have 1's and 0's, we just had 1. (we had to simulate 0)"

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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to cover new territory near Solitude. The whole place is amazing! As I've mentioned a hundred times, we actually have GRASS this year! And a desert animal like me goes wild when he sees all this green!

Now the trek from Solitude to the new place I've dubbed Solace, is not quite that long. But it is a bit deeper into the hills, and these parts are known to have wolves and even a panther or two. I've seen both of 'em first hand (in another place) so I know the danger. Joining me for this little adventure was Nukeation's newest addition, Parvez Ansari. We were both armed. No, no. No firearms. Just your standard issue melee weapon (see Parvez try to attack me with it in a later photo).

Just look at this photo from the point where we started. Wouldn't that make you just want to go ahead and explore?!

We started at around 5pm. Just 20 minutes of walking later, I saw this cool roundish hill that I just HAD to climb. The surface was covered with small loose stones, hidden by the new grass. Parvez decided to stay back (afraid of heights, I believe) as I ventured forth. To boldly go where some men have gone before. That's my motto. So I climb easily halfway up the hill when I suddenly realized that the rest of the slope was practically unclimbable. The loose stones were dangerous. So then I decide to turn back only to notice that the climb down from the hill would be just as bad, if not worse. Too bad I had the camera, otherwise Parvez might've gotten some cool shots of me panicking.

Now as I'm trying to decide whether to go up, down, or sideways, I suddenly look down and find myself standing not more than 3 centimeters away from a SNAKEHOLE! It's actually a mouse hole. But you can often find snakes living inside them after having the previous resident for dinner. I threw my backpack to Parvez, and slowly began to climb back down. It's a wonder that I did not fall. I did manage to get this beautiful shot of Solitude as seen from this hill. It's a good thing I wasn't able to climb up the hill. The top, as we saw from the other side later, was filled with dry bushes that would definetely hold one or more snakes or other small creatures that might be harmful.

We decided to go around the hill and the nearby lake. Just take a look at all the grass covering the land!!! Woohoo!

We kept following the small creek (see the first photo above) as it had made a clean path through the rocks. I was a bit disappointed that there were no snakes around. But here's a resident of these parts. Isn't he a beauty?! (that one's for you Steve-o!) It's a dragonfly! I've seen this particular dragonfly and his mate (or her mate?) before, I think. The photos I took have the same wing and body patterns. I wonder how long they live.

As soon as we followed the creek path to its end, I saw this AMAZING rocky structure. I couldn't not climb it!! It was beautiful! See for yourself:

The rock was roughly 25 to 30 feet in height. Not making the same mistake again, I gave my camera to Parvez and climb this sucker. This one had loose stones on it as well (the whole damn place was covered in them, it seems), but this was pure rock not gravel, and I'm much more comfortable climbing those. Took me only a couple of minutes to climb it, and the view from atop was AMAZING! Too bad Parvez had the camera. Too bad we took only one camera!!! I have to go back there soon!

This rock, dubbed The Holy Mound of Solace (hey, I had climbed it, if that ain't holy, nothing is!) may seem easy to climb but I tell you there were sharp rocks jutting from bigger rocks, and the climb wasn't as easy as it seems. I nearly broke my leg. What I noticed AFTER I was on top was that this was a quake damaged rock. Half of it had fallen (behind the face you see here). And the whole thing was somewhat unstable. Look at this photo I took of the underside of the rock I was standing on.

A few inches of rock supporting the whole top of one side. Scary. Especially if you have been standing on it. That put a scary end to my rock surfing career you see here.

It was getting dark and we had a lot of ground to cover to get back to the car. But I definetely intend to visit this place again real soon. I plan to spend a whole day scouting out the area as well following the now almost empty river bed of a cool river where you can find crystals inside just about every rock! Check this out!

I'm not rock expert but this seems to be somewhere between a flintstone and a rubble ... I mean flintstone and granite. But its only semi-precious and has no real value.

Here are some other shots from the trip including a vulture that hovered over us a couple of times, Parvez getting tired of my antics (I knew I should've kept the short sword!), a cool spider I found under a rock in the river, the Eye of God we saw as we were leaving, and a strange manmade (?) rock formation we found near the lake.

This was one of my more fun adventures and I definetely intend to revisit this place. Like I said I'm gonna go spend a whole day in the hills and scout out all the paths.

My Insignificant Life | Photography

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The alien kickin', monkey smackin', ditch diggin', code rushin' hero (?) of the geeks is here and caught in the middle of an international incident.

Get your ass over to http://www.millahseconds.com and get your overdose of Millah!

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One of my primary machines burnt to a crisp from overuse recently, and I had to build a new computer. Must say, Windows Vista running on 2 gigs of RAM and a Pentium D 2.8GHz is really cool. Not to mention a nVidia PCI-E worth 256 megs. Anyways, so there are some compatibility issues - especially with games and applications that rely heavily on 3D hardware. So I decided to install Windows XP on a separate hard drive.

Everything worked fine until I went to reboot to Vista. It couldn't. After several seconds of panicking, I understood that the bootmanager was overwritten.

After some research, this is what I essentially did:

1. Get the Windows Vista media (on E: in this case) and run the following commandline:
2. E:\boot>bootsect /nt60 /C: (/nt60 is for Vista, C: is the target drive)
3. Then run BCDEdit (found in C:\Windows\System32 - the Vista installation)
4. Execute the commands mentioned in my previous post.
5. Reboot and you're done.

 Everything is intact as far as I know.

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Steve Irwin made a profound impact on my life. The death of my "other hero" (as a close friend put it) was a huge shock. If you would like to help - either as a tribute to Steve or just to help our magnificient wildlife - you can find many ways to do so by becoming a Wildlife Warrior at http://www.wildlifewarriors.org.au/ - this is an organization set up by Steve himself, and I'm a proud donor.

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Mahim Pandhi
1946-2006

I'll miss you, Dad

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If you have a Flash control that needs to be "activated" - especially on a fully Flash site - you know how problematic and anti-productive it can be. Here's a workaround:

This code will "activate" all OBJECT tags in your page. Use with care. The irritant in IE may not fun, but the security concern is valid.

Microsoft | Code | Web

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An incident today reminded me of an email I wrote (exactly) one year ago. I was reading WinInfo Daily Update SHORT TAKES, and had the sudden inspiration to write a very non-characteristic anti-Microsoft funny story and sent to Paul Thurrott who reportedly "spit coffee all over his monitor". This is my only anti-Microsoft story ever, so I thought I might as well immortalize it in public.

To give you some background in case you don't remember that SHORT TAKES, here's the truncated version:

WinInfo Daily Update Short Takes August 5, 2005

==== Short Takes Blog ====
   by Paul Thurrott

It's been quite a week. Thanks to the release of Windows Vista Beta 1 last week, I've been inundated with email messages, many of which I haven't been able to reply to yet. I'll keep trying. But summer is usually a slow time, and as I've mentioned before, my family tries to spend as much time as possible at the beach during July and August. I wonder how ridiculous I'd look sitting on the beach with a laptop.

I expected that my Vista Beta 1 coverage would generate a lot of activity--and it did--but one thing that really took me by surprise was the reaction to my "Boycott IE" comments in an otherwise pretty mundane article about Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 Web standards support. I told Microsoft's Gary Schare and Chris Wilson that I frequently don't think through the effects my words can have. I know that sounds disingenuous, but it's true. I honestly thought nothing of the article; I've been recommending Firefox over IE for years. My mistake. Apparently, I'm leading a crusade now. Note to self: Think, then write.

On a related note, on Tuesday a minor post on my personal blog, the Internet Nexus, brought Microsoft down on me like a lead hammer. This incident, too, was completely unexpected. I can't discuss the post per se, but I will discuss Microsoft's interaction with me during this event because it was so silly. After demanding that I remove the post, which appears on a free blog read by about 12 people, I was told that I had violated a nondisclosure agreement (NDA--I hadn't) and that the information I had posted--in all its vagueness--was a Microsoft trade secret. I was also told that various people at Microsoft were "very upset" with me, although none of them contacted me directly. And yes, they have my phone number. So... I'm not sure what all this means. But like I said, it was quite a week.

==== Short Takes ====
   An irreverent look at some of the week's other stories, by Paul Thurrott

Windows Vista Hasn't Slipped to Late 2006
   I love the media--and not because I have the dubious distinction of living within its outer fringes. This week, I saw several reports noting that the release of Windows Vista had slipped yet again, this time to late 2006. I'm particularly amazed at the lack of research that went into those reports. At the annual Microsoft Financial Analysts Meeting a week ago, Microsoft Senior Vice President Will Poole noted that Vista won't ship until holiday season 2006, which places the release in the October 2006 to December 2006 time frame--exactly when the company said the OS would ship the last time it publicly discussed the date. However, some people saw this announcement as a slip from the "second half of 2006" time frame the company has also mentioned. News
flash: Vista has been expected in late 2006 for quite a while now. This "news" isn't new.

Download IE 7.0
   Although Microsoft intended to ship Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 Beta 1 only to private beta testers and Microsoft Developer Network
(MSDN) and TechNet subscribers, the browser began appearing on a variety of download sites this week, and Microsoft doesn't seem to be doing anything to stop the downloads. So if you're really interested in getting IE 7.0 Beta 1, here's your chance. Just don't say I didn't warn you. The browser overwrites IE 6.0, is buggy, and has compatibility problems with certain plug-ins. Still interested? OK; go nuts.
   http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=10337:25693

First Windows Vista Virus Appears
   Just a week after Microsoft shipped Vista Beta 1 to the world, the fledgling OS has been blessed with its first virus. OK, maybe blessed isn't the right word. (Come on, Paul. Think, then write.) An Austrian hacker has released a virus that uses Vista Beta 1's new command shell (code-named Monad) and actually includes a tutorial about writing other Monad-based viruses. "Monad will be like Linux's BASH [shell]," the hacker noted. "We will be able to make as huge and complex scripts as we do in Linux." The virus is categorized as proof-of-concept only and doesn't do anything harmful. But it raises some interesting concerns.

WARNING: The content of this e-mail is purely fictional and intended for entertainment purposes only. Any resemblence to any person, organization, events, or other entities – living or dead – is purely coincidental.

Internal email from Microsoft Executive John Conner of the Inhuman Resources Division. Intercepted via temporal vortex created by the Microsoft Borg (formerly “Microsoft AntiSpyware”).

To: T-1000
CC: B. Gates
From: J. Conner
Subject: Termination Order
Importance: Urgent
Sensitivity: Medium
Sent: 2:39pm July 8, 2012

Our research division has shown that 87% users chose to uninstall the pre-installed version of Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista released last week. We did some extensive digging and have found that the root cause of this is a small “supposedly insignificant” article written by Paul Thurrott back in mid-2005 about boycotting IE. Our shares have dropped drastically because of this. Bill has personally asked for your “special touch” in this matter. He particularly praised your handling of that Netscape matter back around the turn of the millennium.

Your primary objective is: Terminate Paul Thurrott.

Direct termination is not an option. It is recommended that you travel back in time to August 2005, and instruct the SWAT Team (referred to as the Microsoft Legal Division back then) to start harassing Thurrott with petty matters at first. Get him all riled up. Facilitate a state of agitation. He will make mistakes. Our recon shows he is prone to writing before thinking. Take full advantage of that weakness. Once everyone starts dismissing him comments, and unsubscribes from his newsletter, you are authorized to enter the Thurrott residence and initiate termination protocols. Do not leave any evidence.

Secondary Objective: You are to self destruct after the primary objective is achieved. If possible, initiate self destruction inside the Mozilla foundation building.

Report to the Microsoft® Time® Machine® (formerly code name “Bull”) in Building 398 at 0700 hours tomorrow. I’ll see you off myself.

Thanks,

John

STANDING INSTRUCTIONS: Delete all e-mails regarding the Microsoft Inhuman Resources Division after reading them. Failure to do so will result in immediate termination.

Paul, don’t sit on your computer with your back to the window. If you see a red dot on your screen – duck! We are trying to salvage and send back an old T-800 model built to silently replace the former Californian Governor in 2004.

Good luck to all of us.

Tux

Now that I've blogged this, I'm going to go hide somewhere before Warner Bros, Arnie, Bill, Linus, or all of the above try to kill me. In case you are a lawyer for these parties, I didn't do it - I was in Cleveland that week!!

Geek Stuff | My Insignificant Life | Purely Idiotic Stuff

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10 minutes ago, I recieved an email asking me to update my eBay account info. Seeing that it was obviously a phishing attempt (and that I don't have an account on eBay) I decided to ignore it. But I couldn't. I clicked the link, entered a random user and pass and got to this page, which I lovingly filled up and submitted.

If anyone else wants to do the same, please email me for the link.

PS. Do note the small print right under the CONTINUE button.

Purely Idiotic Stuff

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Fighting the borg with a lightsaber. It works, but it doesn't fit.

Geek Stuff | Philosophy

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...that damn slave go?

My Insignificant Life | Purely Idiotic Stuff

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The 2006 version of Pwop Productions Inc's website has officially been launched. Take a look at what Pwop (in my, and others, opinion, THE place to go for making podcasts) has to offer at http://www.pwop.com

The new Pwop website was created by us in record time (something under 2 hours - from pixels to code, everything!).

Geek Stuff

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Vista keeps getting better! Sure, there are still many bugs and improvements to be done, but this is a very stable work, and we're doing all our WPF experiments in Vista now.

Setup still managed to erase my Windows XP from the bootloader, and had to do the same thing as with the previous CTP. But other than the experience has been very good.

There are some neat new graphics - especially the Aero cursors now on by default!

I also noticed that the performance of WPF applications is much better on this build. There is a small glitch with ExprID and Vista, tho. Unless I disabled Desktop Composition, the menus dont show or rather don't draw.

I highly recommend trying out this build!

Windows Vista | WPF

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Didn't you read the title?

Purely Idiotic Stuff

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Parvez Ansari, the new Chief Software Architect of Nukeation Studios, is being shown the world of Nukeation.

For those of you who don't know (seriously!?) the guy with the guitar is Carl Franklin.

Purely Idiotic Stuff