Why Use MVVM with Silverlight?

December 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Why Use MVVM with Silverlight? The probability of hearing or reading about the title question of this article if you are either a Silverlight or WPF developer is substantial. However, there are significant problems when searching for a proper answer to this question. To begin with, there are numerous and varied ways in implementing methodologies like MVVM, most of which are used based on personal preference. To a novice trying to educate themselves, this leads to disparity in information. Complicating this factor is that many of the articles or videos that attempt to describe the MVVM pattern also include components of other architectural patterns. This adds unnecessary complexity to understanding the MVVM pattern because of the inconsistencies in the pattern being described. In this article, I will elucidate only the MVVM pattern – nothing more, nothing less. First of all, let me answer the title question succinctly. Silverlight (XAML) and the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) … [Read more...]

Filed Under: David J Kelley, Hacking Silverlight, Kim Schmidt, LASLUG, Silverlight, User Groups I Led, vNext_OC Tagged With: ,

A Concrete Example of How to “Really” Think “Out-of-the-Box”

December 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment

A Concrete Example of How To “Really” Think “Out-of-the-Box” (Note: This is a Sample Editing by Kim Schmidt of David J. Kelley’s blog post http://hackingsilverlight.blogspot.com/2010/09/its-ok-to-think-out-of-box.html) A common axiom that both educators and employers are currently encouraging is to “think out-of-the-box”. Frankly, this axiom is also used to measure intelligence: not monkey see, monkey do, but rather challenge the norm and think differently, unconventionally, and from a new perspective. History has proven with geniuses’ of the past such as Einstein, Thomas Edison, and a copious list of other innovators of current truisms and creators of ingenious inventions or theories that most “out-of-the-box” thinkers were ridiculed in their day; yet, they are the fathers of innovation that have literally changed our world forever. Consequently, you might often be asked to do this in your job as a developer or designer. You’re often asked to “push the envelope” and create … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Articles, Brainstorming, Hacking Silverlight, Interviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Google Glass: Companies that Stood on Google’s giant shoulders and augmented OHMDs

June 28, 2014 by 1 Comment
AWE2014 Smart Glass Face-Off Session of Key Players

Continuing from my last post on Diane Von Firstenberg's fashionable Google Glass designs that can incorporate a user's eyeglass prescription lenses into the shades, I promised I'd dive deeper into the companies that have stood on Google's giant shoulders and augmented the functionality and capabilities on OHMDs (definition below). From the Augmented World Expo 2014 I attended May 27-29 2014 in Santa Clara, I took the below photo to show you who these companies are that have extended Glass as other OHMDs ("Optical Head Mounted Display", vs. "Head ounted Display" or "Helmet Mounted Display" which is abbreviated HMD) to really do cool things. Although these companies truly do largely extend the Glass concept to work in different environments (which will be detailed in another upcoming post), in order to do this the sleek Google Glass form factor had to become bigger, and sometimes bulky and heavy. Realize all the OHMD companies below are still in beta or POC stages, albeit some of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Atheer Labs, Atheer One Smart Glass, augmented reality, AWE2014, David J Kelley, Epson, Google, Google Glass, Innovega, iOptik Smart Glass, Kim Schmidt, Meta, Moverio BT-200 Smart Glass, Optinvent, ORA Smart Glass, Smart Glass, SpellTheGame, Vuzix, Vuzix M100 Smart Glass, Vuzixz M2000AR Smart Glass, wearables Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,