This happened last week, but we finally have artwork for the award we won in Visual Studio Magazine’s 2004 Reader Choice Awards.

C#Builder was awarded "Best Development Tool"

Yay C#Builder!

Russell Beattie has an interesting take on what Nokia/Symbian needs to do to compete against Microsoft in the Enterprise Mobile space. If I can summarise, basically he says that where Symbian currently falls down is in the development tools area. They have C++ API’s, and GNU-based tool chains, but need a good RAD tool to really make development accessible.

Nothing terribly controversial there I should think. However, my take is that it’s not C++ that is unapproachable for your average, line-of-business developer, but the C++ API’s into Symbian.

I’m hesitant to launch into a Borland Marketing pitch here, but, in my opinion, one of the "sleeper" features of C++BuilderX 1.5 Mobile Edition are the components which wrap the Symbian API’s. They cover all sorts of areas such as accessing Address Book functionality, dealing with Bluetooth, accessing the camera on your phone etc. This combined with the RAD Form Designer, goes a long way to making Symbian development as approachable as, say, Delphi and VB did for Windows.

© 2004, Malcolm Groves

I have a bunch of ISO images of product installs, and it’s always a pain in the bum to have to either burn them to CD or extract them using something like WinISO to use them. To make matters worse, I’ve just downloaded a not quite 3gig DVD ISO file and need to install, and of course, can’t find a DVD Burner anywhere.

Luckily, a quick Google turned up this, Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP, an unsupported tool from Microsoft which lets you mount an ISO file as a drive letter. You have to manually install (there is a readme.txt file) but it seems to work well, even with 3gig ISO’s.

I’ve always been quite interested in extending Delphi using the Open Tools API. My first add-in was back in Delphi 2 days, called CodeQuick. Amazingly, it’s still listed on Torry’s for all you D2 users out there :-).

Anyway, lately I’ve been writing a few add-ins for Delphi 8 on flights and in spare moments, the first of which is ready for some more public scrutiny.

FileExplorer is a free add-in for Delphi 8, which provides Explorer-like functionality in a dockable window inside the IDE. There’s more info and some screenshots on the project page, along with some ToDo’s, but please feel free to grab this version and try it out. Feedback is of course welcome.

This probably only of interest to Aussie readers, but anyway…

I’ve ordered Anime from www.fbo.com.au a couple of times with no problems, but my last order never arrived. Talking to Lexie (spelling?) at FBO, it appears to have been delivered to our building, but where it went after that I don’t know.
Strictly speaking, this probably isn’t FBO’s problem. They could probably have legally said “tough” and I’d have been out of pocket. But, they have ensured that they will be my first stop for buying DVD’s in future. They are resending my entire order at no charge!

Problems occur, but a company that thinks like this will always get my recommendation.

In an earlier post, I mentioned the new C++BuilderX 1.5 which, amongst other things, includes a Visual Designer for Symbian apps. Well, we’ve finally posted the Flash Demo. Well worth a watch before you download the trial version.

Update: More detailed screenshot here

One of the guys in the Borland Korea office mentioned in conversation that most Credit Card companies in Korea offer to send you SMS messages whenever your card is used. Apparently they pitch this as a security measure, but it is not much used for its original purpose. It’s wildy popular, apparently, among husbands who get their mobile numbers assigned to their wife’s Credit Card, thereby letting them monitor their wife’s spending.

I told my wife about this (who, by the way, was out shopping while I was at work being told this), who quickly declared that it would never take off in Australia, and added, with a challenging look, "certainly not in our household".

Funnily enough, my bank back here in Oz has just sent me an email saying they are about to start trialling it for all their accounts, including Credit Cards. They aren’t pitching it as a security measure, more as a way to find out when that important payment gets deposited into your account. Hmmm, wonder if I’m brave enough to tell her 🙂

© 2004, Malcolm Groves

Australia, a country in denial.

Man, this is kinda the same feeling as when you were a teenager and one of your parents tried to act cool around your friends 🙁