With the internet, there has never been a better time to be a programmer. Before, you would have to spend a lot of time in college libraries and buy a lot of expensive books in book stores. Then the internet and Google came along, and now you can search for almost anything and find a code sample and documentation for what you wanted to do.

Now Microsoft has taken learning on the internet to a whole new level. Microsoft has come out with a product called Microsoft Virtual Labs at the website:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx

With Microsoft Virtual Labs you actually go through a lab-like experience where you are given an Internet Explorer interface to a virtual machine running through the browser. Microsoft gives you a PDF to follow along and 90 minutes to complete the tasks. It can be from configuring IIS to cache web pages and check the statistics to programming C# web forms in .NET framework 3.0. It’s an excellent learning tool for technology.

This means you can not only get documentation but hands on learning without buying anything. It still will not do the work for you but if someone really wants to learn a new skill, they have the ability to do so; it is a great time to be alive and programming.

We are getting ready to release our first Vista tested software next week - Art-Copy Scripting 4.0. Vista really messed up our development cycle. Vista broke our activation system so we had to wait for the vendor who provides our activation system to come out with their Vista version so we could come out with Vista software.

Also on Vista compatibility, we have been working with a printer company who is developing a new CD printer. Their first release will not support Vista. Many of our users who upgraded to Vista have found their scanners no longer work and big companies like HP have no plans to update their scanner drivers.

Which brings me to my point, if you are getting a new computer with all new hardware, only using MS Office software and buying from one vendor like Dell. You might be OK but if you have an existing computer don’t upgrade unless you want to buy lots of new third party software and hardware. Vista may be released but it is six years away from being good for the average person and by then Microsoft will have released their next operating system and we will do this all over again.

P.S. Dell has recently said it would be offering XP again as an OS option on its web site because so many customers were requesting it but as of the 15th of May, when I tried to buy a Dell XP computer for my father in-law, Vista was all that was available. It must be nice to be able to force software down our throats.

Have you ever been waiting for the next release of a software package?

Have you ever wondered why it takes so long?

It has been real apparent to the me the last few months. We have been in the process of upgrading our Art-Copy Scripting Edition and Art-Copy SDK. We have added some really good features such as OCR, Scan to Existing databases, Image naming.

We have had the core of coding done now for about three months. Unfortunately, since we release only quality software, we have to test for as long as it took us to code. This means over the last few months we have been fixing little bugs. Just about the time you think you have a final release, you find a minor bug or a bug that results from strange combination of settings happens and you start all over again.

Even after the final, we still have to do manual and web site updates

Stay tuned.. It a great release. Hopefully this month or next.

I just hope I can wait that long.

Is just me or does it seem like all the neatest gadgets and software these days are coming from Apple, Inc.? 

1. We do a lot of Mac development work for outside companies and right when Apple came out with the Intel laptop along with BootCamp our work life got much easier. We could finally do Mac and Windows work on one portable system without the headache of having to work with Windows on a clunky (Dell?) laptop. Currently, our office has been using Mozilla Thunderbird so we have access to the same email when either booting to Mac or PC but that will probably go away when Paralells releases their 2.0 version, which will more fully support the Mac hardware. From then on out we will only have to boot Mac to run Windows based software. 

2. I just went to Apple’s web site and fooled around with the newly announced iPhone. Just one look at their 160ppi screen you can easily view and read a web site on a small screen, which really makes it worth it. After Leopard, supposedly iWork and iLife too will be available for the iPhone.  Just playing with it on the web site makes me want one even more. My current phone is starting to fall apart, so in June I will probably be in line to get one. I wonder, is this going to be the laptop of the future? 

 If only the American auto makers could duplicate Apple’s comeback!

I just wanted to welcome everyone to my new blog. We have a lot of knowledge about scanning, imaging, and technology that can not really fit into our monthly email. A lot of this information is hard to format into html pages. This blog will be an opportunity to get this information out to our members in a quick way formatted in a more down to earth conversation style format.