Windows 7 is formally released to consumers this week. I guess most developers are already acquainted with it. You can however attend one of the Devchats’s next week, where we will focus on app compat, the Windows 7 logo and the new features you can leverage.
To register for Johannesburg, click here
For Cape Town, click here
The next few weeks though does promise to be interesting. The SharePoint conference starts today where Sharepoint 2010 will be shown off. I looked at the site a couple of weeks ago, and was absolutely amazed at that point when I saw that 6500 people had registered. Since then, the event has sold out and approximately 7000 attendees are expected. This is quite phenomenal. Most other events have less people attending due to the recession, while this event has doubled. If you were uncertain about “big” Sharepoint is, this ought to remove that. Sharepoint also has a largish developer component, so I would definitely recommend that developers review what is happening this week. The keynote is being streamed today/tonight.
Then in about a months time, the PDC is running again. The PDC is all about developers. You definitely want to check out the happenings here.
All in all, the next month should be interesting for developers in terms of the platform.
"We in this industry can never take a lead for granted, if you did you would be out of business." - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/technology/7334518.stm
"you never save your way out of a recession, you invest your way out". - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7857774.stm
“Microsoft plans to continue spending and trying to increase market share in key areas despite the current global recession, which can be a good opportunity to invest strategically for the economy's eventual turnaround” -http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/13268/print
The above comments are from Intel and Microsoft on the need to continue with R&D in tough times – forget about the good times. Locally I work with many ISVs and at times I find a reluctance for companies to innovate. Often, they are quite happy with what they have and the business finds it almost unnecessary to invest.
Some of the typical reasons I hear
- Our customers have not asked for that (usually when i ask if a feature is present)
- The technology is not a right fit for us – usually (but not always) when someone has not properly researched the technology
- Our customers are very conservative. We build something when they ask for it.
Now, I admit, these are all valid reasons. Even more so in tough times. I also understand that getting the correct skills can be a challenge.
However, using them over an extended period of time is quite dangerous. I have seen great applications done by ISVs who then sat on them. Little new innovation was done for many years – either on the core or on value add. Ultimately a few years pass, the industry has moved on and competitors have innovated – and customers expectations have change. ISVs who have not continued to do research and development suddenly find themselves in a spot of bother.
Now, I am not saying that you need to implement every new technology that is out there, or that you be on the bleeding edge. Also, innovation is also not all about new technologies. It is also about new ideas and different ways of doing things. What you should be doing, however, is evaluating the technology and new ideas on it’s merits , and checking to see if these ideas and technologies can add value. When building your app, you want to consider not just the core business requirements, but also innovative ideas and differentiators. Or quite simply, do you want to have features that make you a leader?
Recently, for example I saw a web application with a bunch of data. I asked the person showing me the demo, that if I wanted to query some piece information, for example who entered that info and how they got to a number, could I click on a button next to it and it would automatically paste the data and a url in an email – and maybe even know who the email should go to. Well they responded that you can just copy and paste – and the customers have not asked for that feature. Now, they could evaluate that idea, ask some customers if they would find some value in that feature, and implement it if there was enough value. Instead, it was dismissive, and a potential differentiator on their app was missed.
Often, I would find someone developing something that is now a core feature of a product – or they are trying to optimize some feature where if they just upgraded a new version, they might get that for nothing. But without spending some time to research, these opportunities are lost.
What has cricket got to do with this? Our good ol South African cricket team once again disappointed. The aspect that most disappointed me though was the approach – and the lack of imagination. The same thing happened at the T20 World Cup. When England were batting, we had them at 68-2 after the powerplay. We then just gave them a whole bunch of singles without a fight, and they played themselves in. We did not put any pressure on them – and this on a team that recently got a hiding. Compare that to New Zealand who kept the slip in place after the powerplay against Pakistan. Then it came to batting time. Instead of taking a chance and letting someone like van de Merwe or Morkel come in early, we stuck to what we knew. I hoped when Gibbs went out, when Kallis went and when de Villiers went , that we could try something different. Alas, it was not to be!. Even Duminy did not try something different to break the shackles.
This goes back to the initial comment by Intel - "We in this industry can never take a lead for granted, if you did you would be out of business."
It has been awhile since I blogged, so maybe you think this is an early, or late April’s fools joke. Brian Harry has just blogged about TFS 2010 and some of the work done on TFS 2010 to make it a lot, lot easier to install and configure.
This is absolutely a blog post you need to go and check out.