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The story of Windows Universal Apps is the result of advancements in three areas: The platform convergence between Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 The (ongoing) unification of Windows and Windows Phone stores. Shared Projects and other enhancements in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 to support cross-platform development. I have written about my experience in converting an existing Windows 8 app, CensusMapper, to a Universal App on the AIS Blog. Read the article here. I have also created another Universal App, LRMS, using Windows App Studio. This app is available in both Windows and Windows Phone Stores. ...

I noticed a barber shop sign at a local strip mall last year and stepped inside, hoping to get a haircut. The lone barber turned away from the customer in his chair, looked at me and said, “Sorry, man. It is by appointment only”. It was relatively spacious place. There were no other waiting customers there. It felt peaceful and quiet. Local NPR station was playing on the radio. I took his card and left. I got my haircut somewhere else that weekend. Over the next month or so, I called him on Saturdays, for the hair cut appointment. He was booked. Every single weekend. I wised up and called him on Friday. I got the appointment for the next day. I did not get the slot I wanted, but I picked from a couple of open slots. I showed up for my appointment, and I have been going to him ever since. ...

I am very excited to announce a new feature of CodeDemo. This feature integrates with ZoomIt and enables you to use ZoomIt much more fluently. ZoomIt is a great presentation tool. It helps speakers and presenters deliver very effective presentations. But many presenters are not using this great tool as much and as effectively as it can be used. The reason is that ZoomIt has a bit of a learning curve. It takes practice to use it fluently. You have a lot going on in your mind while you are doing a presentation. Using ZoomIt distracts you from your presentation. Practice helps you get over this distraction. A lot of presenters use ZoomIt very effectively with practice. But for the rest of us, ZoomIt mastery has been elusive. ...

As software developers, many of us agonize over which programming language we should learn next. I have a suggestion - don’t learn another programming language. Learn a creative design skill - graphics design, 3-D modelling or Game Development. Learn basic photo editing skills instead of F#. I know Jamie and Chip will agree with me ;). I have a bit of a designer inside me. Not a lot. Just a bit. I was probably 15 when I learned how to do architectural perspective drawings. I created a few of the house renovation my dad was doing at the time. One of my dad’s friend asked me to create a drawing for the addition he was doing to his house. More recently, I have designed some logos (for my own use), as well as UI design of Windigo, a Windows Phone app I created a couple of years ago. These are some of the logos I have created : ...

Extending Bootstrap is a new Bootstrap book by Christoffer Niska, published by Packt Publishing. The publisher contacted me to review the book after reading my blog post about my experiences with Bootstrap and LESS. I am glad I accepted to do this book review. I learned several ways to extend and use Bootstrap by reading this book. The book is for intermediate to advanced level users of Bootstrap. It is a quick and to-the-point read. It may feel opinionated to some readers. It is a concise distillation of author’s real-world experience with the current state of the Bootstrap technology. It is perfect for individuals and teams who are looking to go beyond the basics with Bootstrap on their projects. ...

You may have questions like these - What are my NoSQL options in Windows Azure? Can I run MongoDB on linux on Windows Azure? Why would I want to do that? Which one of the NoSQL options are available as managed services? Are all kinds of NoSQL databases available? Are there any limitations? What are options for data analytics? Or may be you have questions like these - Is it true that NoSQL databases don’t have schema? Do they have indexes? What about Views? Should I choose MongoDB or Redis? What is eventual consistency? In this presentation, you will learn all about NoSQL technologies in Windows Azure Cloud Platform. And you will get get answers to questions like these. Carolina Code Camp - 2014

It is a challenge to use code snippets in presentations, demos and live coding sessions. I have struggled with this and seen many speakers jumping through hoops to assimilate code snippets in their demos. I had to create something to ease this pain. Today, I am announcing the general availability of CodeDemo. A tool for instructors, presenters and speakers who create instructional demos, record screen-casts or do live presentations. CodeDemo pastes code snippets into your favorite IDE without getting in your way. ...

TRINUG January Main Meeting You will learn how to use MVVM in your own Windows 8 application - desktop/mobile You will learn MVVM fundamentals. You will see the contrast between an MVVM application and a non-MVVM application.

Raleigh Code Camp 2013 is wrapping up this afternoon. The venue and the crowd was phenomenal. I really enjoyed presenting“Using Layer Diagrams - Keeping your MVVM code from turning into spaghetti”. Thanks to everyone who attended the presentation. John Sonmez, Our Keynote Speaker, made my day by accepting my request to attend my presentation. It was awesome to have him in the audience and to get feedback from him! ...

NCDevCon 2013 (tentative) session schedule is up. The topics seem quite interesting and varied : From “Web Penetration and Hacking Tools” (David Epler) to “Better UI/UX with Bootstrap : A Developer’s Primer” (Steve Keator) to “Getting Control of Your Asynchronous JavaScript” (Bucky Schwarz). I am picking the sessions to attend. Looks like I will be able attend around 11 sessions in 2 days, if that is all I do while I am there. Sometimes, there are good reasons to not attend a session : ...