While the Apple App Store is without doubt the largest available medium for a mobile developer to get their app in the hands of the users, for developers new to development using C / Objective C, the barrier to entry can be quite significant. Many developers working with other platforms (particularly Windows / Windows Mobile) have made significant investment into products developed in the .net languages (e.g. C#, VB.net) and therefore may be reluctant to completely port their application to a completely new environment.

Enter Novell with a commercial offering of their open source 'Mono' .net runtime dubbed 'monoTouch'.

Available immediately, monoTouch enables applications developed in any .net language to run on the iPhone. Significantly, monoTouch provides .net bindings to native API, allowing application developers will have access to iPhone specific functionality from within their .net applications. monoTouch integrates with both the free MonoDevelop IDE as well as Apple's XCode toolkit.

Applications developed using monoTouch compile completely to native code - they are not JIT compiled or interpreted.

We don't know whether this is more an indicator of some hacker's bountiful free time or of the popularity of exploiting cats and kittens for cheap laughs online. Either way, we think it's gnarly. A user of the photo-sharing, feline-themed web site LOLCats.com has built a programming language using the preferred dialect of LOLCats users: which is a cross between toddler talk and l33tspeak. The formula for LOLCats photo captions is to apply this odd way of writing, and the result is usually hilarious. Ie. my "kugfu" iz stronger.

Inspired by such sayings as "do you want karate" and "I'm in ur chair ignorin ur seetin reqwirmnts", the .NET language is called LOLCat. Take a look at this code snippet:

IM IN UR LOOP
IZ APPLE BIGR THAN CHEEZBRGR
BTW comment here.
YARLY
DIAF 1 "Can I haz apple plz"
NOWAY
DIAF 1 "Can I haz cheezbrgr now"
KTHX
[....]

Who knows? LOLCat might end up bigger than Java.

Having trouble keeping up with your blog? If it's not lack of time, it might be having your precious thoughts and diatribes locked away in some blog hosting service; the -- not so irrational -- fear of having your blog hosting company go belly up and leave you unable to get your data back. Wouldn't it be better if you could manage it all yourself on your server? Or, maybe you don't like the way the blog hosting company does what it does, and you would prefer modifying the system to work the way you want it to.

If a full featured open source Content Management System is overkill, and a streamlined blog engine is what you are looking for, the search may have ended. When blogengine.net was noticed by a fellow blogger here (thanks Grant), it seemed to have great blogging features. It's written in .net and you can get the source code if you're so inclined. So we decided to install it and give it a try.

Read the installation process after the jump...

As regular computer user, I don't have much interest in migrating to Vista in the immediate future. I don't think it offers any great leap in usability or functionality over XP. UAC (User Access Control) is definitely much needed and will improve security overall but it can be annoying as hell for average users. Aero Glass UI is nice to look at but does nothing to actually let you work more efficiently. Added to which, there are still doubts on how well Vista performs as a home media center or gaming platform.

On the other hand as a .Net software developer, Vista is both a blessing and a curse. I want every single Windows user migrated to Vista as soon as possible because having the .Net framework included as part of Vista's standard installation is a very big deal. This means that application installers will no longer need to check for the presence of the .Net framework or provide a method to automatically download and install it if absent. This is a huge time and effort savings for the user as the framework is a large download. Also some users are turned off by the mere idea of downloading yet another component in order to run an application in XP. With the framework part of the OS, users will have one less thing to worry about.

CoreCLR, cross-platform .Net Framework, DLR, Silverlight, the list goes on! But what is so great about them all, you ask? Currently we have the .Net Framework with ASP.NET AJAX and a library of free components to help web developers. But despite what those web monkeys try to convince us desktop developers, web programming sucks in general, and JavaScript/CSS in particular, because we have to deal with the web browser and the messy standard(s).

Ben Forta and Adobe are getting into full swing with ColdFusion 8 Scorpio Pre-Release tour. Last night Ben gave us in Seattle a taste of things to come. Here is why it will kick the tar balls out of everything else on the market.

1. Built in AJAX widgets. Create AJAX windows, auto complete forms, calendar popups, grids, WYSIWYG editors, and much more. All using simple ColdFusion based tags and generating industry standard solutions such as Prototype and Yahoo User Interface Javascript.
   
2. Native JSON support. ColdFusion components now know if they are called by a web browser and will return JSON formated data automatically. You can also create JSON packets directly or consume them and turn them into native ColdFusion objects.
3. .NET (and Java!) integration. Pull in .NET objects and use them like native ColdFusion objects. Combine .NET and Java on the same page if you like. Easily the best web based middleware solution.
4. Microsoft Exchange integration. Love it or hate it, most organizations use Exchange religiously. Now you can read and update email, calendars, tasks and much more. No change to the Exchange server is required.
5. Flash based presentation builder. Combine HTML, Audio, Flash Movies, Images, and CFCharts to create spiffy flash based presentations on the fly. Just wrap your existing pages in CFPRESENTATION and you are on your way.
6. Full PDF integration. Create, combine, update, and interact with PDF files using CFPDF and CFPDFFORM tags.
7. Native image manipulation functions. Blur, sharpen, draw, rotate, stream to browser, and much much more. This finally brings ColdFusion's image support in line with PHP and other frameworks while keeping it so simple that even I could use it.
8. Across the board enhancements. Improvements in security, speed, Flash Forms, Report Builder, and more.
9. Administration API. Now you can access, audit, and snapshot all the information the server knows about itself. No longer is ColdFusion a black box. Audit long running processes, most frequently run queries, and bottle necks. SnapShot the server before making your change or doing a reset so that you can analyze potential problems later.
   

Admittedly I am a ColdFusion fan boy, but I know that it isn't for everyone. Still, ColdFusion is easily the BMW (both in price and in raw engineered quality) of the web application languages out there. With ColdFusion 8 it now becomes possible to build and integrate a vast amount of functionality with only a few lines of code. Imagine letting users quickly create their own presentation by uploading photos and editing slides using a WYSIWYG editor. Then, when they are all done, they can view and share it on the web via Flash or push it to a PDF file. ColdFusion 8 lets you wrap up all this up into a tight package using heavily documented yet extremely simple tags. No scripting required!

ColdFusion 8 Scorpio should land sometime in mid-2007. You know I'll be there.

Still holding out on that perfect domain name because you can't choose between a few different ones? Try not to hold back any longer, VeriSign, the company that controls the domain name registry for .com, .net, among others, is set to raise prices.

Verisign will initiate a 7% yearly price hike effective October 15, 2007, raising prices from a wholesale cost of $6/ year to $6.42/ year. This amount isn't a considerable difference, however VeriSign does have the right to renegotiate their contract with ICANN to continue a 7% per year raise indefinitely.

[via TechCrunch]

The open source Mono Project, which is sponsored in part by Novell, Inc. announced today that it has developed a Visual Basic compiler which allows software written in Microsoft's most widely used application programming language to be compiled and run on any platform which Mono supports. Until this announcement, Visual Basic applications could only be run on the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems.

"The ability to write software that runs easily across multiple platforms has long been a holy grail for developers," says Mono Project founder and VP of developer platforms for Novell, Miguel de Icaza, "The Mono Visual Basic compiler is a milestone step forward in this direction. Using the software skills they already know, developers can now reach a much broader audience, creating applications that run without modification on all the major operating system platforms."

It isn't de Icaza we have to thank for the Linux VB compiler, at least not in full. Google's Summer of Code project in 2006 brought Raulf Jarve, a Norwegian student programmer who now lives in Spain, to the project. Jarve finished the compiler and has since been hired by Novell.

First, let me start with the full disclaimer: I develop Windows .NET application by day (and by night too for ecto) and use Mac OS X at home for everything else. Before getting my Mac Pro last December I used to work on ecto using a second Windows machine, but since then I have been using Visual Studio 2005 in an XP virtual machine using Parallels.

Whether you love or hate Microsoft, you have to give them credit for popularising programming on Windows. While I was a junior programmer fresh out of college learning C++ and working on train control software, truckloads of CS/Engineering graduates were learning to program in Visual Basic. Whatever faults VB has, the way it allows even beginner or causal programmers to learn the craft and produce quick and dirty applications means that programming for Windows was no longer the eminent domain of the traditional CS/Engineering graduates, where FORTRAN and C/C++ rules. Microsoft continues this trend with C#/VB.NET and the .NET Framework, providing a lot of built-in functionality that used to require hand-crafted code or expensive third-party libraries, freeing up developers' time to concentrate on problem solving instead of mechanics.

With OS X, Apple began with Objective-C and Java as the programming languages of choice but ever since version OS X 10.3 Java had been put onto the back burner and is expected to be phased out eventually. Unfortunately, making Objective-C the sole language of the platform also makes it difficult and 'expensive' for Windows programmers, such as yours truly, to join the party. The difference in syntax (despite the 'C' in the name it does not have much resemblance to C or C++), difference in framework and API, difference in IDE philosophy, and the lack of refactoring tools (ReSharper, CodeRush, etc.) and unit testing tools (NUnit, JUnit, etc.) mean that some of the more open-minded programmers (mostly Java and .NET) will not take an active interest in Apple software development.

The upcoming Xcode 3 looks like it would make a big step in closing the gap, but the IDE still lacks the tools mentioned above to attract the time-constrained, less hard core developers from the Windows side of the world. The dark horse may be the combination of Eclipse IDE and Mono project. The Eclipse IDE is mature and has a flexible plug-in architecture so refactoring and unit testing tools can be integrated into the IDE by third party developers. Meanwhile the Mono project has been making lots of progress as far as compatibility with Microsoft's implementation is concerned. And the ability to take code written in Windows and runs it in Linux or OS X (with some limitation, of course) will appeal to Windows developers, at least as a starting point.

In fact, Eclipse/Mono may actually achieve what Sun tried to do with Java all those years ago. Remember 'Write once, run anywhere'?

I have been using Paint.net for a while now, and it really is a decent editor. Everyone who needs something more powerful than the Microsoft Paint that comes with Windows, but can't figure out Adobe Photoshop needs to take a look at Paint.net. The new alpha release (for testing only of course) has a multiple document interface, which is one of the biggest improvements in the new version. Though it is labeled Alpha, 3.0 is quite stable and usable. It now has common color palette and even a common colors panels too. The formerly slow font-loading problem has been smoothed out, and the fonts show up quickly now. Check it out!

If you have applications written in Visual Basic 6 (VB6) it would force you to rewrite the entire thing to bring it into Visual Basic.net. Have no fear, an add-in tool from Microsoft is here. Microsoft's Interop Forms Toolkit 1.0 (free download) is an add-in for VB6 that will bring .net WinForms to your VB6 application. Microsoft's goal here was to help developers stuck between both worlds to develop code and focus on business needs in their VB6 apps while slowly moving the application to the new world of Visual Basic.net without rewriting everything from scratch. This allows you to include many newer ideas into your older apps easily, such as RSS, web services, and newer multimedia components.

You've heard of Microsoft's InfoCard, right? Now it is called CardSpace, and it is an access control mechanism that may allow enterprises to grant easy access to a third-party locally, so the corporate red tape can be duly avoided. The technology is part of Microsoft's .Net framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX). CardSpace should allow local management to temporarily open access for third-party vendors without having to jump through so many hoops, and can limit the access to particular users at particular times. Microsoft is touting this feature for helping businesses manage security access, which will be a breeze to use with Windows Vista early next year. Microsoft's focus here is that local users need to be able to grant access locally, but administrators need to have the ability to control and monitor access as they have traditionally. Giving local users this ability is key for eliminating the bottleneck that exists in most organizations to get access for outsiders to do a job for the company. This will also eliminate the problem of borrowed logons for third-parties and contractors as well.

[Via ZDNet]

37Signals' Basecamp is pretty slick, wouldn't you agree? Tablet PCs, in their own right, have quite the slick factor as well. Wouldn't it be cool if someone, say a small software company called Luckymonk, came up with the idea of combining the two, say with a product called Scout? It sure would!

While Scout isn't quite ready yet, Luckymonk offers a preview screencast of everything that will be possible once it's released. As an added bonus, the company will be releasing their Basecamp API wrapper for .NET 2.0 as well. For now, however, you Tablet PC owners will just have to bookmark Luckymonk's Scout product page under 'ToDo'.