IT Shopkeeping

We have a new blog which focuses on Xamarin mobile app development called Mobile C# Café!
Dan Hermes, our founder and Xamarin MVP, covers all things Xamarin from his book, Xamarin Mobile Application Development.
Check it out here

Over a year in the making, it’s finally here: my book, Xamarin Mobile Application Development, is now available on Amazon!
Businesses looking to expand into the mobile space or to hone their existing mobile apps need a reliable way to approach cross-platform mobile development. The Xamarin platform provides that way.
This book is a hands-on Xamarin.Forms primer and a cross-platform reference for building native Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps using C# and .NET. This book explains how to use Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.iOS to build business apps for your customers and …

Building Mobile Apps for Business
July 17th, 12:00 PM
Presenter: Dan Hermes
Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC)
5th Floor, Conference Room: “Havana” directions
Here are slides from the presentation:
 

 
Mobile is for business.  Every firm with a web app must now consider the visibility and sales they are losing by not having a mobile version.  Every new business or software product  is faced with this same concern.  Responsive design only gets us so far before it’s time to build a native app for several platforms.  How do we build business apps for Android, iOS, and Windows phones …

Software development is important to many of us, so we strive to find better ways to do it.
In the late 20th century we spent a great deal of time and money developing requirements and specifications, thinking through each case and documenting possible uses and outcomes. We would plan a glorious plan before beginning development.
Wait, that never happened.

At the heart of our country’s founding is the idea that personal integrity is central to our professional success.   Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson wrote a lot about it. So what does character have to do with software development?
The recent debacle of Apple Maps offers a clue. If the manager of Apple Maps, Richard Williamson, had the personal integrity to stand up in a high-level meeting and divulge that the project was in jeopardy before the release date, this could have prevented the CEO of Apple, …

A HealthcareSource spinoff startup, Healthcaresource.com, enlisted me to help build a new product for them called Sourcing Manager.  It’s now done and successfully brought to market.  Users are clamoring for demos and signing on to for year-long license contracts.  The value this product provides is so significant that users can recoup the costs of the product in a matter of weeks.  Not bad, HealthcareSource.
Congratulations Troy Hatlevig and team!  Special thanks to Susane, Sindhura, Todd, Heather, Les, and Syrinx Consulting.

It’s easy for a software team to become so mired in their daily concerns that they lose sight of the ball.  What is the ball in Softwareball?  Let us answer with another question:  Why do people work in a software shop?
Most people work in the IT industry because it can be a reliable way to make a living.  Making a living requires a paycheck.  This paycheck is the difference between hackers coding on their own time and professionals in the software industry.  Where does this money come from that ends …

Cloudcamp came to town this week, an “unconference” on cloud computing. An architecture unworkshop was assembled to address my question:
“How does cloud computing differ architecturally from web services?”
Approximately thirty architects, developers, cloud technology vendors and consultants arrived at the appointed room to discuss the matter. The group’s answer:
The Cloud is a loose term that refers to a paradigm shift as much as an architectural solution. This includes the virtualization of infrastructure and platforms to the Internet, and the hosting of online apps and services. In formal terms: Infrastructure as a …