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Dynamics CRM

So, I have been tackling a new MS beast these last few months. Her name is Dynamics CRM. In a lot of was CRM is very similar to MOSS. Sadly it's in their failings that they are most alike. The SDK is the worst. At least in CRM it's not full of placeholder content. However the content that is there is absolutely useless.

So, over the course of the last couple of weeks I have become the CRM master, as I had to become the Sharepoint master before. It all started with my desire to handle all of the data migration and integration myself, rather than let the consultants we hired for the implementation handle it. At the rate they were charging us and knowing that they required us to buy a third party tool, I felt (and rightly so of course) that I could do a better job. Most of the work was pretty easy. I created several SSIS packages to handle various tasks (full loads, incremental loads etc) from our data sources (Outlook contacts, ERP data from an Informix database etc...). The real problem came with the little gotchas. Things like assigning an owner of an account to a system user, or setting the parent company of an imported contact and sharing contacts with other system users.

These were not unsolvable problems (obviously since the code is complete) but they could have been made much easier with a properly written SDK. I'll try and put the code I came up with out on the interwebs for all to see soon.

Cheers!

SiriusXM iPhone App Review

So, I have been a huge fan of satellite radio for a while now. I have had XM in the wifes car since 2007 and Sirius in mine since 2008. I also had several radios around the house and the office. When the iPhone app was released last week I was pretty excited. I saw it as an oppurtunity to drop at least some of my radios, possibly all of them. Having used the app for only a day or so I have to say it feels like more of a novelty than anything else. While they did a great job for an intial effort it is still lacking in a couple of key areas.

First, the information displayed is too small. The artist, track etc is in small print ant the bottom of the screen. You have the option to show the station logo basically full screen, but the track info still stays small at the bottom. To me this is a huge miss. Especially for use on the go. It's hard to read at a glance if you or the iPhone is moving.

Next, and this is more a problem with Apples restriction on background apps but still, when someone calls your phone the app closes and you have to re-open it and navigate back to the channel you were listening too. That is a huge issue since you can't know when a call may come in.

Finally, the audio quality, while generally good, seems erratic. It appears that the initial 2-3 mins of listening is at a much lower bitrate, then as you maintain the stream it abruptly changes to a higher quality.

The second issue is why I consider the app a novelty. How can you use it for anything if the app can be closed at anytime? You couldn't effectivly use it to work out or connected to your stereo for a party. I guess I'll have to stick with the iPod functionality for that.

hulu Desktop

I just installed hulu desktop on my PC. All I can say is wow! I have a PC that I use for Media Center capabilities. It is connected to an HDTV via component video. The interface for hulu is fantastic and the video quality is simply amazing. It's the same as my Uverse, which is IPTV.

I may be able to scale back my TV subscriptions with all of this great content on the 'net/

Cheers!

Hi, I'm a Mac...

Ok, so I finally took the plunge and made the switch to a Mac. Specifically I grabbed an older Mac Mini off of eBay. $200 for a 1.5GHz Core Solo Mini with 512 MB ram and a 60GB HDD. Not the most blazing fast of Mac, but something to start with. First things first, I installed iLife 09 and iWork 09 and got to business. Well, Leopard blows with 512 MB of RAM, so I grabbed a couple of 1GB sticks I had laying around, and since I'd be cracking her open anyway I also grabbed a 160 GB 7200 RPM drive I had handy. Now, first things first. I cloned my existing drive to the new drive to avoid a needless OS install. Then I watched about a million 'hack your Mini' videos on the interwebs. Finally I cracked that baby open. It was really easy! Installed the RAM and new HDD and fired her up. Perfect! Or not. Suddenly core sound was gone. Errg. After trying everything on apple.com I had to open her up again. No worries. I found a ribbon cable I had inadvertantly pulled out the first time. Plug in, boot up and tada! Sound!

Post upgrade the machine is quite usable, but I think a CPU upgrade is in my future. And the reason for the switch? Windows failed me too many times. I still use Windows (ver 7) at work, and I have a Windows box at home, just in case. But my daily non-work computing is all on the Mac now. Maybe once I upgrade to a Core 2 Duo I'll throw VMWare on it and ditch the fulltime Win box forever.

Cheers!

Foxmarks = Xmarks = Greatest Thing Ever!

Ok, so I love Foxmarks, soon to be just Xmarks.

It's a tool to allow you to sync your bookmarks on one machine to all of you machines. And the best part is it works on every platform I've tried it on so far. OSX and Safari, check. Windows 7 and IE 8, check. Ububtu 9.04 and Firefox 3, check.

Simply amazing. Only problem is they somehow got reordered. I blame IE 8.

iPhone OS 3 Beta 5

So I finally got access to the beta and SDK. Yeah me! Anyways, the huge thing for us here at work is that you can now ADD calendar events to your phone, and INCLUDE invitees!! This is huge for our CEO who wants to schedule meetings on his phone and invite other people from the company to the meeting.

Planet of the Dead

Ok, I got to see the Doctor Who Easter special "Planet of the Dead" last night. I really enjoyed it, but I have to admit my enjoyment was tempered with the knowledge that each new special brings us closer to David Tennants departure. The show was really good. I love Michelle Ryan (here in the states she was the Bionic Woman in the new but short lived series of the same name) who was the Doctors 'companion' for this outing. Her character was a Laura Croft clone. Smart, beautiful and always ready for an adventure. I thought she was a good companion for the Doctor. I don't want to ruin any of the plot so I won't say much else. I have no idea when or if it will be broadcast in the states.

Cheers!

Windows Free

Well, I am now Windows free. It was a really hard decision emotionally since I have been a die hard PC guy since the beginning. And I do mean the beginning. I guess I am dating myself when I say that I have been using and developing on PCs since they were invented. I had the first IBM PC and several clones. I always ran MS-DOS and later Windows. I was a beta tester for Windows 95 and the MSN! I have installed and loved the betas of every MS OS since. I even had Windows 7 installed until two weeks ago.

So what changed? Virii! I have always had PCs and have never used or needed anti-virus software. The few times I tried it it seemed to always make things worse. Slower running machines and overall poor user experience. Well, in the last few months my system has been brought to it's knees several times by nasty little bugs. And it's not my fault! I blame the kids these days. They have no idea how to be careful net citizens. Apparently they listen to warnings about computer viruses and trojans as well as they do our warnings about sex and drugs! So after three rebuilds in four months I had to make a change.

I am now running Ubuntu 9.04 on my work laptop as well as my home desktop. So far everything is working perfectly. I still have my Windows 2008 VMs for doing dev work locally, but I do most everything via RDP on real Windows Servers. I also bought a Mac Mini for the family to use for general computing tasks that are not handled elegantly on Linux (ie iPhone sync and games for the kids).

I will really miss you Windows. Maybe we can hook back up one of these days, you know, for old times sake?

Convergence 2009

Well, I just got back from attending Convergence 2009.  It was a pretty typical MS conference.  Bad food, lots of walking and moderately useful sessions.  We did get a few nuggets of info from each session.  The CRM/SharePoint session was by far the best.  I will definitely be combining the two in the near future.

Adventures in New Orleans

Having just returned from my first trip to NOLA, or N’Orleans as they call it, I have a really funny story that I’d like to share.  Now, for those who are hoping for something tawdry, well you’ll have to look elsewhere.  I was a good boy.  This story is however quite funny.

So, like all Microsoft conferences there are lots of after-hours receptions and ‘events’.  These things usually involve an open bar and a barrage of Microsoft salesmen and partner salesman harassing you about buying/upgrading/implementing some new software.  Well, after one beer my co-worker, Gavin, and I had decided we’d had enough and decided to make a quick, and unobserved exit.  Once free from the clutches of the beast we set about trying to decide where in the big easy to go and grab a bite for dinner. 

Rather than walk around town till something came to us we decided to stop in at a bar we were passing and have a beer or two while we pondered our options.  Now this bar looked like something you’d see on Bourbon St, although it was nowhere near there.  Typical French Quarter architecture with the large wrap around balcony on the second floor.  Gavin decided it would be much cooler to be up on the balcony than on the street, so up we went.  Upon reaching the top of the stairs we were confronted with balloons and a table that read ‘Friends of Joe Landry Election Committee’.  Well, it seemed they were having some sort of private party upstairs, so I turned to leave.  This is of course where the story gets good.  Gavin marches up to the table and signs us in, gets us a couple of nametags and heads for the bar.  ‘Wow’ I think, but decide to just roll with it and follow him to the bar.  We grab a couple of beers and head out onto the balcony.  After finishing the beers Gavin decided to head back in for something a little harder, and why not.  It’s all on Joes dime!  So we head to the bar again so he can get his double Patron on the rocks.  As we turn to walk away from the bar we run into Mrs. Joe Landry.  She turns and introduces herself to us and asks how we know her husband. 

At this point my mind totally blanks out.  I have no idea what to say.  Gavin however spins a wonderful yarn about how our co-workers at the local branch (we actually do have a branch in New Orleans, so not really a lie) told us about how great Joe is and that we should go out and support him.  Well, she is truley touched by this story, so after introducing us to her four grown daughters she decideds we MUST meet Joe.  Now I am really starting to freak out.  This has gone from bad to worse to OMG!!!!

We decide its better to follow and meet Joe than wait for him to come to us (or try to sneak out) so we set off after Mrs. Joe.  Upon meeting Joe, we can tell he knows we are full of it but he seems to be rolling with it.  We throw out the names of our local co-workers and play it up pretty good, but Joe’s BS detector seems to be working pretty good.  So, Joe gets called away for a second and we blend in with a group heading out and make our break.

It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever done and was a lot of fun.  It was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Update for March 2nd 2009

Wow, I’m really bad at blogging huh?  Things have been really crazy the last month or so.  Between work and taking the family to Disney World I have been too busy to post anything.  Ahh well.  Here it goes.

First, I have to say that I hate Informix.  I also hate vendors who lie and say their product uses SQL Server when it clearly uses Informix.  With that being said, I have been working on some new data classes that combine data from Informix with SQL Server data to create a holistic view of our corporate data.  Exciting isn’t it?  I am also going to be pulling a lot of data from Informix soon so if anyone has any good tips, please pass them along.

Disney World was a blast, as usual.  The kids loved it, especially the princess breakfast at Cinderella's castle.  It was pretty cold while we were there (high was only 45 one day!!) but we all survived.  The only real problem was that it happened to be Mardi Gras week (which, being a good Catholic boy I knew, but not being from Louisiana I didn’t think meant anything too special) so the place was pretty busy.  Who knew Mardi Gras meant a week off for all the school kiddies?  Much busier than our crafty planning thought it would be.

Looks like I will be attending Convergence 2009 next week in New Orleans, so if anyone is going to be there drop me a line and we can grab a drink and geek out over some code talk.

 

Cheers!

I’m Baaaack!

Hello all.  I have recently ended my employment with BinaryWave.  I had a really great time working with Eric and everyone these last couple of years but I felt it was time to move on.

I plan to resume blogging here in my original home.  I will probably expand the content from being so SharePoint centric, since I am involved in a lot of other technologies now.  I still love SharePoint, but it is no longer my whole world.

Keep an eye out here for new content!