Smitter, Release 2  is out now.

Changes

• Better error handling (please report any bugs)
• Proxy Support
  (NB: ClickOnce deployment may not work with Proxies requiring authentication!)
• More efficient posting (no refresh necessary)

Requirements

• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Installation

• ClickOnce (See “ClickOnce Notes” below), or
• Download it and install yourself. 
  Note: Download the zip file, and extract it to a new directory. Then run “Smitter.exe”.

ClickOnce Notes (updated!)

• By Default, only works with Internet Explorer 6 and above, with the .NET Framework 2.0 installed
• Does not work correctly if you have Internet Explorer configured to use a proxy requiring Authentication (eg: Corporate Firewalls)
• Firefox users can run ClickOnce applications by installing the FFClickOnce addon, and then going to the normal installation page.

Upgrades

• ClickOnce automatically updates next time you run it.
• Manual Install: Download the zip file and replace the existing files.

Source Code:

• Smitter R2 Source.

Application and Source Code Licence

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License

Please give your feedback in the comments, or add me on Twitter.

Features Confirmed for R3 (updated)

• Minimise to Notification Icon (”System Tray”)
• Balloon Notifications (optional)
  If Smitter is minimised or not visible, and your @Username is mentioned in a new tweet. 
   
  Note:  To deploy the above two features, I need an icon for Smitter.  On the screen-shot above, I am using an icon borrowed from Iconfactory’s Twitterific client icon in the   Litho Extras Volume 5 collection.   Due to licensing rules, I can’t distribute this icon, so it’ll remain for internal testing at the moment
• Minor bug fixing (removal of the “Loading” messages if it errors, and fixing of the hammer-prevention so that it allows you to refresh)
• More?

Smitter R2 is out, go to the announcement.

What is Smitter?
It’s a Small Twitter client, for Windows.  It’s also an excuse/reason for me to start writing software in C#, since I’m used to writing in VB.NET. (Boo, hiss, etc).

What’s with the “Battleship Grey”?
I’m not a designer, and fiddling with Windows Presentation Framework / etc wasn’t in my list of things I needed to learn right at the moment. 

What’s cool about it?
Nothing particularly, it’s pretty much all functional. But it’s the only windows twitter client I know of that shows you the source of messages.

How do I install it?
If you’re using Internet Explorer, just click here, and then click Install.
This is the recommended method as it will enable automatic updating when I release a new version. 

Alternatively, You can download the zip file. Just extract all the files to a new directory, and run Smitter.exe

I’m behind a proxy - it doesn’t work for me.
I’m adding proxy support shortly, but I wanted to get this out there as a first release.

This broke my system, who do I sue?
This application is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis, and at your own risk. Do not use this on “production” or important PCs if you’re particularly nervous.

Can I look at the Source Code?
Yep, that’s available too.  Download the source code here.

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.

Can you add feature x?
Maybe - Add a comment here, or send an email. Alternatively, if you’re good with C# - you can have a crack at it yourself.

You do realise you did {giant, list, of, things} wrong, and the structure is crap?
The structure is crap because I went with the Twitteroo .NET API at first, but that doesn’t support certain functionality (like for example seeing if a message is private, what the source was, and being able to specify a proxy server). 

There are probably a whole number of violations of best coding practices here too. Again, this was primarily created so that I can learn the C# syntax and slightly different event modeling, etc. When I start off with a proper project spec, and don’t shift around on your a whole bunch, things work out a lot nicer.

Credits, Mentions, etc

FAMFAMFAM  - For the Silk Icons used within the GUI. (Creative Commons License)

Karsten Januszewski for this great pointer on how to generate classes from well-formed XML using XSD.   (nb: On Step 2, you need to use the ‘/classes’ switch.)

Paul Jenkins, for making me feel guilty for not actually knowing C# when he asks for advice/pointers about .NET stuff.

The Gold Coast has put on some great weather - nice and cool at night, warm and sunny during the day.
I’ve taken a bunch of photos during Tech.Ed, I’ll upload them soon. In the mean time - Nick Hodge has heaps of photos on his photo stream.

I’ve attended a bunch of interesting sessions - but there’s a heap of information on offer, so it’s easy to overload.

Next year I think MSFT needs to organise a few more social-networking things around the events. For example, get attendees to put ‘teched07au’ tags on photos on Flickr, and blog posts, etc. Use SMS-broadcasts (possibly through twitter) to inform people of session changes and things like that (link it back to their commnet subcription).
I’ll probably think of a bunch of other small improvements as time goes on.

Overall, it’s been good fun the last few days, and I have learnt things which are relevant to my job, and which will help a little further on too.

I’ve also successfully avoided the vendors who want to steal my information so they can sell me stuff.

Updates - LOLCode.NET, Movieworld, Bye-Bye Developer Guy

Nick gave his LOLCode presentation, to much incredulity by some people who attended.

Yes, LOLCode is a proper Turing complete language. And LOLCode.NET compiles into MSIL as well.

 Movie world was… interesting. About 3,000 people were packed into busses and trundled up to movie world for dinner and some rides.   There was the BatWing, Superman and a few others - we didn’t have access to the full park, but there was a large area open.

  Homeward Bound

Frank’s “Catch Up with Frank” talk was interrupted so he could be serenaded to a version of Don McLean’s “American Pie” called “Developer Guy”.

So, I spent a little while today going through the huge number of sessions on at Tech.Ed at the Gold Coast this year (160 or so) and picking out a rough guide for what I’m thinking of going to.

If anyone else is going and wants to meet up for a chat - drop me a line

Tuesday, August 7, 2007
09:10AM - 10:20AM
     DJ903 - Newcastle to Brisbane.

11:30AM (est) - Check In @ Crowne Plaza

6:30PM
    Welcome Party     

Wednesday, August 8, 2007
8:15AM
    Opening Keynote     

(9:00AM to 9:30AM is the tentative timeslot for Nick’s LOLCODE ‘ChalkTalk’. The Keynote runs until 9:45AM though.)

9:45AM
    CON204 - Introduction to Microsoft Windows CardSpace; OR     
    DEV231 A Lap around Microsoft Visual Studio 2008     

11:00AM Morning Tea     

11:30AM
    CON205 Programming Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation: A Developer’s Primer; OR
    DAT302 - Database Schema Versioning: How to Use Microsoft Visual Studio Team System for Database Professionals and Team Foundation Server to Version and Deploy Your Databases

12:45PM
    Lunch          

1:45PM
    ARC303 Principles and Patterns of Security; OR
    DEV301 “IronPython” and Dynamic Languages on .NET; OR
    WEB305 IIS7 for Developers     

3:00PM Afternoon Tea

3:30PM
    DEV305 Building Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008; OR
    WEB314 - Web 2.0 Programming

5:00PM
    ARC305 Architecting for Web Scale; OR
    DAT306 - Things You Need to Know for a Painless Upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server 2005     

6:15PM
    Ask the Experts     

Thursday, August 9, 2007
8:15AM
    DAT307 - Database Maintenance in Microsoft SQL Server 2005; OR     
    DEV308 A Lap around Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation     

9:45AM
    DAT308 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices; OR
    DEV317 - Microsoft Visual Basic: Tips and Tricks for the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 IDE

11:00 AM Morning Tea

11:30AM
    DEV311 NET Framework 3.0 End-to-End: Putting the Pieces Together     

12:45PM
    Lunch     

1:45PM
    DEV312 Building a Complete Web Application Using ASP.NET Microsoft Visual Studio Codename 2008 (Part 1 of 2)     

3:00PMAfternoon Tea

3:30PM
    ARC311 - Windows Client .NET: Introducing the “Acropolis” Client Application Framework; OR     
    DEV347 Unit Testing and Test Driven Development     

5:00PM
    ARC310 Learning to live with the Static-typing Fascist and the Dynamic-typing Fanboy in your Enterprise… ; OR
    SEC304 - The fortified data center in your future: build it and they will come.     

6:15PM
    Final Party     

Friday, August 10, 2007
8:15AM
    DEV319 LINQ and XML for the Microsoft Visual Basic Developer; OR
    CON312 - Rules Engine Use and Extensibility in Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation     

9:45AM
    DAT309 Implementing Scale-Out Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2005; OR:     
    DEV309 Best Practices for Team-Based Software Development     

11:00AM Morning Tea

11:30AM
    DEV315 Building a Complete Web Application Using ASP.NET “Orcas” and Microsoft Visual Studio Codename 2008 (Part 2 of 2); OR
    SEC313 - How Did They Find THAT?: Implementing the New Microsoft Fundamental Computer Investigation Guide for Windows     

12:45PM
    Lunch     

1:45PM
    SEC303 Securing Your Friends and Family; OR
    WEB301 - MS DLR for OSS developers     

3:10PM
    Closing Locknote     

Saturday, August 11, 2007

11:00AM
     Check out of Hotel

4:30PM-5:45PM
     DJ903 Brisbane to Newcastle

If you’re like me, and have registered for Tech.Ed 2007 at the Gold Coast, you will probably have recieved two emails in the past few days with your details to login to CommNet.

I’m not sure about anyone else - but the emails I got didn’t actually include the URL for CommNet. A quick Google search leads me to the TechEd Orlando CommNet site. All well and good, except it doesn’t accept my details.

The correct site for Aussies (and I assume Kiwi’s too) is actually https://aunz.msteched.com. Hopefully me posting this will let some other confused souls figure out how to access all the session planning tools.

Edit, Monday afternoon Just got an email with the appropriate CommNet URL in it.

Hit Nick’s blog forall the other sites that’re blogging about ReMIX 2007 Melbourne.

A few short (and blunt) thoughts on ReMIX:

Good Stuff:

* Getting to meet and speak to various interesting people.

* Hearing honest case-studies/opinions from non-Microsofties as to how well the whole Silverlight thing worked for them. They were all using pre-release very early beta/alpha code, but it was interesting to see that several of the speakers basicly said “don’t bother with Silverlight 1.0, if you’re not comfortable with Javascript in a big way, and/or just want to do more advanced stuff”

* WebJam + Galactic Circus.

Not so cool things:

* Lack of free wifi (I’ve mentioned this already, but it’s a bit of a sticking point for me)

* Expression Web
Expression Web is of limited or no use to designers, and most or all of it’s functionality is replicated inside Visual Studio 2008, so it’s of limited value to developers. Expression Studio + Vista Ultimate were given out at MIX in Las Vegas - so Expression Studio would’ve been nice.

* Overrcrowding
There was a serious lack of space in many of the rooms and public lunch/morning tea areas. Some crowding is okay, but the way it was laid out meant that there were often very narrow walkways, which quickly get blocked by guys with backpacks (like me).
Very limited places to sit down for lunch. (Maybe about 40 spaces for people to sit down, for 300+ people - There really needed to be a sperate lunch/morning tea area)

And, uhm, yes, that’s Paul and me with the blue monster. I’m dreading my video showing up on Nick’s “The Geek Stories” site. Lots of “Umm… Ahh… ” + Shifty Eyes.

This blog has taken a rather negative tone for the last few days, maybe it’s just the weather, or maybe it’s because I’d really just like people to produce better software.

So, to illustrate the difference between adding a mod to, say, Wordpress and PHPbb 3, I’ve drawn up this flowchart.
I think it’s quite obvious the difference in complexity (and thus, ability of non-experts to manage and maintain a forum running PHPbb).

I run a relatively active forum for an online (unpublished) Author. We run on phpBB, because that’s what the previous hoster was running, and it’s open source - so no licensing fees.

Unfortunately, PHPbb2.x has some issues - there’s no easy way to track mod actions or user-notes, the anti-spam stuff is a joke (it all comes down to requiring registration, and battling spam-bots at the registration page), and mods (the PHPbb word for plugin) are, frankly, a pain in the backside to install.

A few weeks back PHPbb3 RC1 was released, and I was running a test board just to try it out.

It has a number of major improvements - performance seems to be improved, and overall management is significantly better. You can track what moderators and admins have done too, so there’s more transparency on that end. 

However, when I tried to install a mod (to provide a basic RSS feed from the forums) - I got a bit stuck. In PHPbb2, there was a mod which allowed you to upload other mods, and install them with just a few clicks. Somewhat similar to Wordpress’s plugin model, though more prone to breaking things.

I thought that the PHPbb3 developers would have taken a leaf out of Wordpress’s book, and implemented a proper plugin model - and given that there’s now this MODX format (basicly a zip file, with a bunch of other files in it, in a certain structure) - it seemed like that would be the approach.

The problem I was having was that I couldn’t find the location where to upload the MODX file. So, I jumped onto the PHPbb irc site hoping someone could quickly set me straight.

Here’s what happened (ps: “Spec8472″ is me)  - trimmed for brevity, but otherwise people’s comments are as written.

Start of #phpbb buffer: Sun Jun 17 15:52:59 2007

* Now talking in #phpbb
<Spec8472-> Okay, question that’s probably really obvious to some, but I can’t find an answer online… where do I actually upload the mods to, in the phpbb3
  directory?
<iWisdom> …
<iWisdom> You don’t.
<iWisdom> Unless, of course, the MOD instructs you to upload a file
<iWisdom> In which case, you follow the directions included in the .MOD file
<Highway_of_Life> .xml file
<iWisdom> There is no automated MOD installer
<Spec8472-> There’s not an automatic mod installation thingy like easyMod for PHPbb2?
<Spec8472-> damn
<iWisdom> Just open the .xml file in a web browser
<Highway_of_Life> no, spec, and don?t curse

Okay, so there’s no automated installer… Thats… disappointing. 

<bsdboy> how hard is it to install mods manually?
<bsdboy> i dont think ive ever automatically installed a mod
<iWisdom> bsdboy: Not hard
<Spec8472-> Brilliant… that, and no event hooks… 
<iWisdom> Spec8472-: Pardon?
<Highway_of_Life> bsdboy: it would depend on your level of expertise, for me it?s like combing my hair in the morning… well, easier actually… coming my hair can be difficult at times…
<iWisdom> Highway_of_Life: That’s since you basically live in the Olympus codebase
<karlsemple> following txt instructions on what changes to make is easy whether you know the code or not :p
<Highway_of_Life> But for some, they never seem to get it right, no matter how many times they try… but it usually depends on the quality of the instructions and how many code changes need to be made
<Spec8472-> Mod installation, should imo, be automatic - upload a file somewhere, click a few things,   hey-presto you’ve got some new functionality (see Wordpress) - sure, you might need to include some stuff in your presentation layer, but that’s all.
<WizardJames> ..
<iWisdom> …
<Highway_of_Life> ….
<iWisdom> Well, each person has the right to their own opinion
<iWisdom> But frankly that doesn’t mean we agree
<bsdboy> Spec8472-: You’re bloody lazy.
<iWisdom> Personally, I think it would be a bad idea
<iWisdom> It encourages users to go MOD crazy
<iWisdom> Which makes for a support hell
<WizardJames> bsdboy said my thoughts
<iWisdom> And it also increases the chances of things breaking during upgrades
<bsdboy> Highway_of_Life: Thhey shouldnt be allowed to live.
<iWisdom> It also encourages users, as bsdboy said and WizardJames echoed, to be lazy and not learn their way   around the codebase
<Highway_of_Life> I prefer to control the whole aspect… but still, MODs should be of good enough quality   that only a very small handful of changes need to be made
<Spec8472-> bsdboy: I don’t believe in extra effort, where effort isn’t needed.
<bsdboy> lol
<iWisdom> Spec8472-: To each his own
<bsdboy> Then write a fucking mod to install mods.
<bsdboy> Dont expect someone else to do it.
<karlsemple> please do not swear
<Spec8472-> bsdboy: Well, I would, except that I don’t code in PHP. Besides, that’s just more effort
<Highway_of_Life> you don?t need to code in PHP to install a MOD
<bsdboy> Spec8472-, go shove it where the sun don’t shine if you expect someone to come on IRC and make your   mods auto install. IF you don’t know at least basic PHP you shouldnt be running phpBB.
<Highway_of_Life> you just have to be able to follow instructions, that is all
<iWisdom> Copy/paste
<bsdboy> I didnt know PHP when i first started using phpBB, but you know what< I went and RTFM and followed   the instructions
<iWisdom> It’s not complicated
<bsdboy> its nNOT hard.
<iWisdom> Considering the endless hours MOD authors invest
<iWisdom> It’s not work at all
<WizardJames> not that hard,  just open file, find,  paste, save, next file..
<Highway_of_Life> bsdboy: knowledge of PHP isn?t necessarily required to run phpBB, but it might be required if you want to modify your board in any way…

I don’t agree with the approach that PHPbb3 devs are taking to it - they’re obviously not taking the (quite active) modding scene into account, and it just makes both administrators and modder’s lives more difficult.

Defined interfaces make things much easier all around - take for example something that we all use every time we use a computer - Device Drivers for hardware.

Hardware manufacturers, for the most part, stick to defined interfaces for their drivers. They don’t need to patch the kernel or other parts of the operating system. When they do step outside those bounds, things get… interesting. Updates to the OS, or indeed changes by other drivers can trample all over each other, and result in system or driver crashes.  All in all, a messy situation.

The same goes for other bits of software - if you need to extend Windows Live Writer, you use the SDK to create a plugin that conforms to certain specifications. You don’t need to patch the application’s code to add new functionality. 

I don’t think I’m wrong in asking that PHPbb also take this model - and I think over time it would reduce the level of work required by the developers and support staff.

This is my response to Frank Arrigo and Brian H Masden:

via LOLCat Builder

If you don’t know what the LOLCat craze is all about, Wikipedia has the answers (as usual).

Are you scared yet?

Oh - and the original image is mine - took it in Austria, actually.

Having Google Reader available when I’m not connected to the ‘net, is something I’ve wanted for a while. 

Luckily for me (I think) Google released Google Gears the other day - and made Google Reader implement it.

The idea itself is good - Being able to read your RSS feeds when you’re not connected to the ‘net, and have it sync back to the “mothership” (as the Googler’s put it) when you reconnect - marking read items as read, and downloading new content.

There’s a few key things missing though:

#1 - No Automatic Synchronisation.
I was hoping this would be something like Outlook in Exchange mode - i.e, I connect to a network, it realises it’s connected and updates all my items, sends mail that needs sending, downloading new bits, etc.

Google Reader however, doesn’t do this - it requires you to hit the Offline button, whence it takes a snapshot of some 2000 items (read? unread? latest? who knows).  Ideally it should do the synchronisation in the background - i.e when you’re connected, and it’s setup for offline usage - it should just sync in the background.

#2 - Doesn’t download even basic post resources (like images).

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER without images? ’nuff said. 

PS: Even if you’re actually connected, but that Offline button is pressed, you don’t get images.

#3 - Doesn’t remember previously sync’ed items (I think)

I go online. Then click offline - it pops up this little progress meter:

Once it’s finished syncing - if I hit online again, then offline - it pops up the same sync thingy, and takes just as long to download.

Okay, so Gears is a very very early beta*, and this is just the first implementation of Reader Offline, but I do hope they’ll fix these things and make it a truly seamless experience in later iterations.

* Aaron Boodman said something like “Google Gears is a real beta, not like our usual level of Beta” about a dozen times during his talk.