After alot of searching I decided to try good old LINQ to SQL again, hadn’t really played with it since VS 2005! so was time to see how it was in VS 2008.

There are plenty of good things and a few annoyances, when I wanted to updated my model after making a few database changes I couldn’t find the “update model” as we all should be used to with the good tools like MindScapes LightSpeed & others like SubSonic etc.

So after a bit of frustration and the reluctance to add the 1 new field manually I began searching again and came accross some very very cool LINQ to SQL Templates, PLINQO is not just a mere template, its a whole bunch of awesome stuff that makes LINQ much MUCH more attractive.

Caching and auditing were all they had to wave in front of me before I took a more closer look!

Now my Linq to Sql life is much easier thanks to the great guys over at PLINQO,

Cheers Guys

I really wanted to revisit User Interfaces (UI) & User Experience (UX) as this is what the user see’s, in my new project I plan to work a backwards to what I would usually & create the UI first then link it to data.

After reading & playing with a few technologies I have come to really like the idea that “the user interface should be independent of the data & business layer and can be changed with ease at any time”. This way you could dynamically change the user interface at any time while still keeping the existing data & business logic.

I came across this amazing video by adaptive path with their “aurora concept video”

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

After watching this it has give me many things to think about, have a look here for the page this video comes from as well as the rest of the series.

These guys have done a brilliant job, cant wait to see what they come up with next but more interestingly WHEN all these new ideas will be implemented.

If anyone from Adaptive Path is reading this, HIRE ME, this is where I want to be, at the head of change, thinking and implementing new ideas.

Looks cool, heaps of hype & ney sayers as there is with everything new, going to be interesting to see how this changes development.

More interestingly I found ZoHo’s Business services, I have been a zoho user for ages, even a few of my ORM comparisons use some zoho services but now taking a closer look a year or so later there is heaps on offer.

ZoHo’s Business services has a dynamic “apps” section where you can “add” anything (uses a iframe) so you can comine many sites, services & data into a comprehensive, workable “web application”.

They have mostly a 1 for 1 with the google services (including email & custom domains), I like ZoHo’s “desktop” interface better as a functional application than google’s services. On the other hand I like google sites better.

ZoHo does a “wiki” but I’m not sure how functional it would be as a all in one solution for those looking for that sort of thing (as I am). 

Going to investigate what the limits are with the zoho wiki & compare it to googles sites. For now it looks like I may end up with 2 domains & services (google & zoho) and use ZoHo’s Business services to put it all into 1 usable interface.

Stay Posted…

There are things I want to do that just aren’t possible (yet) with Google sites & Google Apps, so if you are considering moving to Google sites/apps do your homework first (I tend to dive right in).

This is not a downer on ther service, its a great service & I will probably move towards it & understand its still in its early days.