Rix Bits

Today I teamed up with James Bender and Bill Sempf to present the SOLID principles at the nPlus1 ArcSummit in Columbus, Ohio.  My part of the talk focused on the first two principles – Single Responsibility and Open Closed.  There was great participation in the room of software developers, architects, and project managers.  It was very illustrative to hear everyone talk about the pros and cons of the principles, and I think I might have gotten more out of the talk than my audience did.  What was also great was that I was able to insert some SharePoint sidebars into the talk as well – I don’t go anywhere without mentioning good ole SharePoint! :)

My slidedeck is below:

I’ve spent the last couple of months developing a customized document management system in SharePoint 2007 for a client.  Many interesting challenges have surfaced as a result of working thru the different requirements for this solution, and I thought it might be useful to write about them.  Check back from time to time to read the ongoing saga.  Now, of course, it would be a miracle if I were able to discuss them here in any kind of logical order, so I’m going to settle for random thoughts instead. :)

Today Microsoft released Office Web Apps (aka Google Apps killer) 1 week ahead of schedule.

I immediately jumped into Office 2010, specifically Excel and OneNote, to see just how easy it would be.  Made some quick docs, then went to the Backstage to push them to the cloud.  Very seamless process – everything just worked, and the fidelity and parity on the web side for my client-created documents was very impressive.

The first thing I thought about was how it was nice to be able to create content using tools I already know, and have been using for about 2 decades. :)  My attempts at using Google were decent, but having to learn a new system, no matter how similar to my other experiences, was less than appealing.

The 2nd thing I thought about was using this to post some spreadsheet content for one of my study groups, who in the past have fought my attempts at getting them to use cloud-based collaboration tools.  Perhaps the familiar interface will make this latest effort more successful. :)

I’ve yet to try my Office Mobile 2010 software on my Windows 6.5 phone to see what’s offered there.  But so far, it’s looking like a good start.