An ASP.NET MVC4 Razor2 Bug? (Updated)

Added to Software by Rich on May 18, 2012

Let’s Get Geeky!! This week I have been updating a project I’m working on from ASP.NET MVC3 to ASP.NET MVC4 (Beta). MVC4 ships with an improved version of the Razor view engine. But “updated” apparently also means “broken”… That is, if you’re using jQuery UI Widgets. Which I am. So it is.

Let’s build a simple MVC app and show you what I mean. The steps are the same for MVC 3 and MVC 4, but the MVC 3 one works while MVC 4 doesn’t. (If you’re lazy, I applaud you. I provide both code samples at the bottom of the page).

British Airways Flies the Olympic Flame to UK

Added to Aviation by Rich on May 17, 2012

British Airways have been chosen to transport the Olympic Flame from Athens, Greece to Royal Navy Air Station Culdrose, Cornwall, UK. Airbus A319 G-EUPC was the chosen aircraft, named “Firefly” and given a special livery for the flight:

Celebrating the Lives of Two Hero Pilots

Added to Aviation by Rich on May 10, 2012

This week saw the tragic passing of two pilots revered throughout the aviation community. Both are regarded as heroes for completely different reasons and you’ll probably have seen both of them on TV at some stage doing their thing. This article is my little contribution to the memory of Dennis Fitch and Arnie Schreder who both succumbed to cancer, aged 69, this week.

Google Maps Cube

Added to Internet, Technology by Rich on May 8, 2012

Fantastic! Finally Google shows off some of its creativity and innovation!! You know my feelings about Google, but this has gone some way to reaffirming my faith in the big primary-coloured search-and-ads behemoth. You should also know my feelings about WebGL being the future of the web (and everything).

So, before you do anything else today, fire up the Google Chrome browser and hit the following link:

http://www.playmapscube.com/

Here’s a taster of what’s in store:

A Vision of Future Tech

Added to Technology by Rich on May 1, 2012

Slough, in 2022. Probably.

Nobody really knows what the world of future technology will bring. 10 years ago the word “Facebook” didn’t mean anything, Nokia was the largest mobile phone maker in the world, Apple’s very first iPod was only 6 months old, Bill Gates was still in charge of Microsoft having just settled the lawsuit filed by the DoJ, and Google hadn’t even gone public yet. In 10 years time we can expect more crazy changes as technology advancement is accelerating at unprecedented pace. Here is a story which encapsulates some of my predictions about Earth, 2022.

Commuting

@614, Sometime in August, 2022, New York City, New York

Chen slammed the door shut behind her, lept down the steps three at-a-time and hit the pavement running. She absolutely could not be late for this interview!

“Time,” she demanded.

“Six fifteen, precisely,” said the tiny earpiece. It was probably right. It was as accurate as any atomic clock on Earth. “You have nine beats to arrive for your interview.” Her music resumed, at the perfect volume for the ambient noise on the streets.

“Thanks.” She accelerated through the New York City pedestrians clogging the streets. To be fair, it wasn’t gridlock. Most business was done from the home these days so there was easily enough room to sprint without slamming into anybody (too hard). Ultra high-speed broadband connections (MassivBand®) meant you could hold MassivDef® video conferences with tens or hundreds or even thousands of people at once (Bono had broadcast to the entire world at Band Aid 2020 in aid of 3rd-world, poverty-stricken Great Britain). Where great corporate skyscrapers once stood, now enormous, futuristic looking glass towers with the sole purpose of housing telecommuters stretched into the clouds.

No time to enjoy the scenery. Chen’s suit was graphene-polycarbonate, its fibres moved and ebbed to force cool air through to her skin, keeping her cool. Even while running. Sweat is not welcome at job interviews… Read more →

Google

Added to Companies, Internet by Rich on April 22, 2012

Larry just got bad news from the Oracle.

I was all set to write an apology to tech mega-giant, Google. Even though my AdSense woes are still unanswered, there are aspects of the Google operation which really excites me. Self-driving cars is important and they’ve put nearly a billion dollars into renewable energy. In fact, they say they want to run their entire business on renewables; considering they constantly consume over quarter of a billion watts of energy that is a big statement. To put that into perspective, a nuclear power plant will output a billion watts of power…

Once Google+ has a half-decent API it will become an immensely powerful platform for developers to hook into that even Facebook will struggle to compete with and Android is the most exciting mobile operating system out there today.

But the reason that this isn’t the apology I had originally intended was because Google dropped yet another clusterfuck of incompetence this week.

Google+

This week, Google revamped the look and feel of its Facebook rival, Google+. From the photos I saw flowing through my RSS reader (yes, sometimes I still live in 2004) and Twitter it looked GREAT! Everything a modern web application should look like. I love the menu down the left hand side, the way it is grayscale until you mouse-over or select an item, and then it becomes colourful and you get an arrow indicating without any ambiguity that the content is coming from this chosen app. It is neat.

However, the first thing that I’ve noticed about the new design is just how FREAKIN’ BUSY the whole user interface (UI) is. I’ve taken a vertical slice of the home page, below, just look at how many horizontal lines there are in this picture. Some are solid, some are dotted, some have shadows, some don’t, some have white on either side, and some separate grey from white. There are six (count them, SIX!) different types of font in there too. There are different font sizes, colours, upper-case and not. It’s actually tiring to look at:

That is unforgiveable. Google is one of the richest companies in the world and their speciality is supposed to be The Internet. They have redesigned their mostly-unloved social network a mere 7 months after launch, something that gets Facebook into lots of trouble with its users every time they do it.

They should follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Software should be written for the lowest common denominator. Facebook isn’t complicated to use, that’s why it is popular. It is so frictionless. To a user experience (UX) specialist, or a software designer, or anybody with some stylistic flair, Facebook looks shit. The only “brand” that is present is that little blue bar across the top. The rest is just links, little pictures, and lists of information or activity. But it works. It works to such effect that it has a monthly userbase of over 800 million people.

That is DOUBLE the userbase of Windows 7.

The worst thing about the Google+ revamp is that it simply doesn’t work. People don’t have 800-pixel wide screens anymore, so when I use a normal, domestic widescreen monitor how come I end up with 50% of the screen showing me NOTHING at all?

One wise person realised it was the perfect place to store their streaky rashers:

Google plus... umm... bacon.

It’s daft. And I don’t mean the bacon.

Google+ User Count

Facebook are very strict about their user counts. When they say “active user” they mean somebody who has actually signed into Facebook in their browser or on their mobile device. Simples.

When they say they had 845 million ACTIVE users in December 2011, 80% of their US userbase logs in daily and 483 million people log in each day I tend to believe them. They are backed up by staggering independent stats too from places like SocialBakers:

157 million users in the US logged in YESTERDAY.
30 million users in the UK logged in YESTERDAY.

Now let’s look at what Google are claiming about Google+.

They say “170 million users have upgraded to Google+”. Well, that’s misleading for a start-off. Anybody wanting to sign up for a new Google Account will automatically get added to Google+. When you consider that “a Google Account” now means “a Blogger account”, “a YouTube account”, “a GMail account”, “a Google Earth account”, “a Google News account”, “an Android device account”, or any other account linked to Google’s digital estate, you can’t really announce that 170 million figure as being directly attributable to Google+.

A cynic might say Google’s move to move to a single Terms and Conditions document seems to be to bolster the G+ user figures…

For me, the important difference between Google (who I distrust intensely and find incredibly creepy) and Facebook (who I am neutral towards) is this:

Google makes it clear that Google+ is designed to make their search results, and thus their adverts more relevant. Facebook makes it clear that they only care about a fantastic social experience and their adverts (which you can turn off or complain about, or give feedback on, and control quite a lot) are a necessary evil for keeping Facebook going.

The tone between those attitudes is significant.

Everybody loved Google when their adverts were the necessary evil to keep their best-in-the-world search engine going. But now that they seem more focussed on profits than product everybody hates them.

My biggest concern is what happens if Facebook switches their focus to the bottom line? Post-IPO (which is set to happen in the coming weeks), they may be obliged to do so. What happens to our data then??

I went to a Microsoft event a few years back and I got talking with a Windows Vista evangelist (possibly the toughest job in the world!) about the certification process for new software that would give publishers the right to put a “Certified for Vista” gold star on their boxes. He said something like, “to be honest we’ll certify anything, because the market will get rid of all the bad products for us.” Market forces certainly seem to be at work here to the detriment of G+. In March 2012, Comscore said that Google Plus users only spend 3.3 minutes per month on the site, compared to 7.5 hours per month on Facebook.

Google Code Jammed

Every year Google hosts a developer conference called “IO”. It is damned popular and some of the most innovative stuff in the universe has come from it. Remember Wave? I loved Wave. That was Google ingenuity at its best. Pure Internet technology pushed to its limits in a new, revolutionary and (most importantly) really useful way.

Tickets cost $900 but delegates get loads of brand new hardware (last year they got Samsung’s 10.1″ Galaxy Tab tablet and a Chromebook) and deep-dive software previews and coding session that give them a headstart on their competition.

This year the tickets for IO sold out in 20 minutes, but Google started a competition called Code Jam to offer 100 more tickets to good coders. Very generous.

Coders had to code solutions for four problems posed by Google. However, people ran into problems almost immediately. The first problem would only accept incorrect answers. Anybody with the right solution would be turned away. Many, who had stayed up all night to enter the competition, gave up after this first hurdle. Those who had done a shoddy job of coding and came up with the wrong answer were allowed to proceed and ended up being offered the tickets.

Totally unfair, and proves how seriously Google takes its Quality Assurance processes. Maybe that explains the Buzz fiasco too…

Update 22/04/2012:

Google have relented and say all developers who entered, regardless of their success, will be offered the chance to buy tickets to IO.

While the Google IO Code Jam Google+ page is full of initial spite and subsequent praise of Google for their “generosity”, it is very difficult to see what other options were available to Google over this unfortunate event.

The real irony is that Google cocked up verification code of a competition which looked down its nose at cocked up code.

What a clusterfuck.

The Gentlemen’s Guide To Toilet Etiquette: Part 2

Added to Places and Events by Rich on April 11, 2012

Cute, cuddly teddy bear, Trevor, drops a log that could sink a battlecruiser

After the generous feedback from Part 1, it seemed only right to continue The Gentlemen’s Guide to Toilet Etiquette. Womenfolk, look away now. This gets graphic!

When an aircraft unexpectedly smashes into the side of a Tibetan mountain range at 550mph, those with the foresight to keep their seatbelt on (even after the movie starts) often suffer from a serious psychological burden called survivor’s guilt. There is a similar condition that the men of our noble nation are afflicted with on a regular basis. It is the origin of the British stiff upper lip. It is the very roots of our infamous constitution. It is a veritable pain in the arse too.

There are two types of shitter’s guilt:

Woe! Man Interrupted

You’ve spent hours traversing the halls at work looking for that most holy of holies: an empty gents. There is something so sublime about finding your very own vestibule of serene purgation.

You dance (figuratively speaking, dancing is strictly forbidden in the magical chamber of purification) with unbridled glee as you flit from cubicle to cubicle finding the most well-proportioned and cleanest throne. After a dalliance with almost CSI-like forensic skill, you enter your chosen cube, drop trou, and settle in for the duration. A well practiced porcelain monarch can get comfortable in as few as four or five shuffles; for those less accustomed to precision buttock parking it can be considerably more. Remember: there is no greater sting than a bogseat-induced red ring.

You’re sat, comfortable, calm. And with the greatest of contentment you apply the most subtle of downward pressures to your innards awaiting the indescribable relief after a long and effortful search for toilet perfection. Read more →

35 Years On: Tenerife Disaster, 1977

Added to Aviation, Civil Aviation, Places and Events by Rich on March 28, 2012

35 years ago, two 747s collided at Los Rodeos Airport killing 583 people, making it the deadliest accident in aviation.

On March 27th, 1977, a Pan American 747-100, “Clipper Victor” with registration N736PA, left John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) in New York bound for Gran Canaria Airport at Las Palmas on the Canary Islands. Meanwhile, a KLM 747-200B, “Rijn” (The Rhine) with registration PH-BUF, left Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (AMS) also en route to Gran Canaria Airport.

At 1:15pm a bomb exploded at Gran Canaria Airport by the separatist group Fuerzas Armadas Guanches. They had called in the bomb and as such the airport was closed, the two jumbo jets were diverted to Los Rodeos airport on the island of Tenerife.

Both aircraft were parked at a holding area just next to the opposite end of the runway that they would need to take off from. When the terrorist threat at Gran Canaria Airport had subsided, the KLM and the Pan Am flights were cleared to resume their journeys to their original destination. The KLM flight, Captained by Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten (seen in KLM marketing literature below), was told to taxi the full length of the runway, perform a 180º turn and wait for take off clearance. The Pan Am jet was told to taxi most of the way down the runway behind the KLM plane but leave the runway at taxiway C3. A dense fog had descended on Los Rodeos Airport. Read more →

Top 5 Worst Companies

Added to Companies by Rich on March 20, 2012

We’ve all had them; horrific experiences with companies who, through a series of totally incompetent actions, have impacted your life negatively. Here are my Top 5 Worst Companies.

5. Stratstone

2006 Audi A4 Avant (Blue)

Stratstone was founded in 1921 by two blokes, Ernest Instone and (possibly the coolest first name ever) Undecimus Stratton, and is a seller of prestige-brand vehicles; Europe’s largest prestige car sales network in fact!

87 years after Ernie and Undie founded the company a fresh-faced Geordie of 23 years called into a dealership with a wad of cash ready to buy an Audi A4 Avant. That fresh faced Geordie was me! The car I was after was lovely, metallic blue with chrome roofrails and it looked the mutt’s nuts.

I was trading in a 2005 Vauxhall Corsa SXi which I had owned from new and, due to a recent promotion, I was looking to dip my toe in the awesome pool of German automotion. I was £4,000 short of the asking price of the A4 and needed my car to be valued at that much to make the deal. I even said as much.

“£3,300,” said the greasy-haired manager.

Bugger. I knew the car was worth more than that because I had shopped around. Similar models were going for between £4K-4.5K. I said I thought my car plus my cash would be sufficient for the deal.

“£3,300,” he said again, irritating my very core. He wasn’t going to budge. An hour of bartering hadn’t progressed things further and had only left me bloated and agitated from machine-dispensed coffee.

I left, feeling thoroughly downtrodden.

A week later, I ended up at Carlisle’s Lloyd Jaguar dealership who not only offered me £4,400 for my car, but I ended up with a slightly newer, better-specced A4 for less than the man with the oil slick in his hair had for sale. Result! But, as a result, I won’t shop at Stratstone ever again, and I recommend to anybody else that you shop around before engaging in negotiations with the company that came so close to being called Erndecimus. Read more →

Beginning Running: Lessons of a Novice Runner

Added to Fitness, Sports by Rich on March 19, 2012

Fat Runner Just after Christmas I decided to take up running. I’m not very good at it, but I have learned some important lessons that I wanted to share in case anybody else out there was thinking of taking up this noble sport.

Two Shoes!

It sounds obvious that you need decent shoes to go running in, but that “decent” word doesn’t quite describe the complexity of your choice. When I first started I had some normal £15 trainers which quickly vapourised once I exposed them to a bit of light treadmill effort. I upgraded to some £44 Nike “Full-Length Air” foam-soled jobbies, which I forget the name exactly but it was something like “Nike Citrus”, which explains the neon yellow highlighting, and why my inability to run longer than 7km without keeling over makes me so bitter… They’re great trainers and have lasted the 100km or I’ve waddled to date and show only minor damage to the inner sole after this distance. I am now looking at something a bit lighter and more robust.

The current trend is for “barefoot running”, which sounds really dangerous given the state of today’s pavements. The smart folks at various running-shoe manufacturers have invented barefoot trainers. Some are just normal running shoes but with a bit less sole so you can feel more of the paving (and occassional shattered glass) under your feet. Others, like the Vibram Fivefingers:

Vibram Fivefingers (they're toes, ya eejits!!!)

… are built around the ethos that your running shoes should be mere veneers over your fleshy hooves.

A great article about running shoes, and in particular the Vibram Fivefingers, is at Rogers Is Running by elite runner, and my ex-colleague, Stacey Rogers. Read more →

eBuyer: Another Great Customer Experience

Added to Companies by Rich on March 7, 2012

eBuyer: Delivering Another Cup of Awesome

After eBuyer’s epic customer experience win shortly after Christmas I recently had reason to buy another graphics card from them. Surely they couldn’t repeat such a fantastic display of customer service again, could they? Well, yes actually, they can.

I ordered the card at midnight on Saturday night after a bit of a peruse around eBuyer’s deals and digital shelves. Having just had to fork out an unexpected £100 for a graphics card I chose the free “5 day delivery” option. It would be with me by the end of the week.

An email early on Monday morning let me know that it had been “Despatched”, but looking online I couldn’t get a tracking number for the consignment, so I assumed “Despatched” was eBuyer’s internal vocabulary for “sitting in an outbox waiting to be picked up by a courier”.

I was wrong. Despatched means despatched, and yesterday (Tuesday) morning arrives, guess what is waiting for me as I rock up to work? That’s right.

Remember, folks, great customer experience isn’t sorting out the problems when they happen; it’s taking every step to make sure those problems don’t happen to begin with, while keeping a huge smile on your customers’ faces.

eBuyer, I salute you!

(Well, not really. That would be weird. But I’m dead impressed).

Android Market Becomes “Google Play”

Added to Internet, Technology by Rich on March 6, 2012

Google Play - It's like iTunes, but with added evil

After fucking up their core search business in favour of ghost-town Facebook clone, Robert Scoble+, innovationally stunted advertising megacorp, Google, have decided to have a crack at destroying part of their other global success: Android.

If it aint broke, don’t fix it, Mountain View.

Ferrari F12 Berlinetta: Ferrari’s Design Mojo Climax

Added to Cars by Rich on March 4, 2012

I was right. Presenting, the best looking car, ever. Ever!

Ferrari F12 Berlinetta

8 Things Windows 8 Needs to do to Be a Success

Added to Software, Technology by Rich on March 1, 2012

1. Stop Stealing My Focus!!!

I can’t stress this enough. The single greatest threat to the economic recovery, continuation of the species and integrity of my sanity is the way Windows is completely dense about giving applications focus.

I simply can’t count the number of times I’ve been typing away merrily and Windows switched applications under me. This is a huge security threat!! I have seen people typing passwords into password boxes during demonstrations only to find that just as they typed the first keystroke of their ultratopsecret, high-entropy passphrase Windows switches to an open Word document and the million people in the stadium, and the forty billion people watching the webcast see you’re a fan of obscene passwords. (And immediately, empty your bank accounts). Read more →

Solving the English Drought Without a Hosepipe Ban

Added to Places and Events, Politics, Technology by Rich on February 27, 2012

The South of England, in the UK (hello foreigners), is experiencing its second “dry winter”, which isn’t good for water levels in reservoirs and, ultimately, people. The Government is mulling the idea of hosepipe bans and reinstating the Bathe With a Friend Act of 1975, but these actions aren’t tackling the underlying problem.

Graeme, my very tall, very handy, infinitely clever, very single (hello Ladies), resourceful, Land Rover-loving chum has done what our elected Overlords are incapable of doing, he has seen a problem and looked for its root cause. Not just painting over symptoms in the hope that they will go away.

Take a look at his ideas, ranging from the downright insane (nuclear powered desalination) to the downright simples (squawk!) at his Land Rover themed website:

http://www.l4ndrover.co.uk

P.S. That photo on the front page with the Public Byway signs in it? That’s mine that is. I’ll have to contact him about my royalties…

Emirates to start daily 777 to Newcastle

Added to Aviation by Rich on February 25, 2012

Emirates 777-300ER at Newcastle Airport with the "Emirates Tower" in the background

In July, 2010, Newcastle Airport celebrated its 75th birthday in style. The lunchtime Airbus A321 “Shuttle” flight from Heathrow operated by British Airways was replaced with the much larger Boeing 747-400. The daily Airbus A330-200 flight from Dubai was replaced with a Boeing 777-300ER. From September 1st 2012 Emirates will be repeating its Birthday gift to Newcastle Airport (and the hundreds of geeky plane spotters who turned up to watch the spectacle) on a daily basis.

Emirates operates one of the largest widebody fleets in the world flying such iconic aircraft as the Airbus A380 Superjumbo on some of the longest non-stop sectors of any airline. Newcastle currently receives the smallest aircraft type that the United Arab Emirates-based company sends to the UK (Airbus A330). The upgrade will bring it in line with other airports such as Manchester, Glasgow, London Gatwick and Birmingham. London Heathrow receives 777s and a double-decker Airbus A380s.

For those of us who quite like watching heavy metal come into land at the Geordie airport, the 777 will be a very welcome sight.

Microsoft Unveils New “Windows” Logo for Windows 8

Added to Software by Rich on February 20, 2012

Microsoft have clearly unleashed a 1st year GCSE Graphic Design student on their Windows logo and she has crapped out this supposedly minimalist (read: lazy) monstrosity:

Farewell energetic flag logo, hello monotonous trapezoids.

The Truth About Computer Programmers

Added to Uncategorized by Rich on February 19, 2012

The Truth About Computer Programmers

Disobeying The Three Laws

Added to Aviation by Rich on February 19, 2012

Would you trust this shifty-eyed robot with a gun?

Uh-oh. I’ve just had a very nasty realisation. We’ve already disobeyed Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and if Hollywood has taught us anything, doing that is a fast-track to global human annihilation.

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws

So it seems that giving a robot guns, missiles and a directive to use them against people is in direct violation of these Laws. But are we daft enough to give a machine this much power?

Well, yes. In fact, there is a whole industry blossoming around giving enormous amounts of destructive capability to boxes of printed circuit boards and wires. War robots are becoming the de facto standard on the modern battlefield, and as a result we have doomed ourselves to being massacred at the hands of these gun-toting iPods. Read more →