SSW Update - Cars and user experiences

[the cutting edge ]

G'day Developers!

For the last month I have been driving through Germany, Italy, Austria and Croatia. I hired 3 different cars. Having mainly driven Toyotas, I was keen on experiencing some variety.

The 1st one was an Audi A6. It is beautiful piece of German engineering that I got up to 245km/hr without even feeling it. The only frustrating thing was learning how to use the iPod like wheel that you have to spin.

To work the dial/wheel you first rotate it, attempt to navigate up and down through menus, and press to select. You also have 4 buttons that surround the control which are very difficult to work out when all the instructions are in German.

I also used a Mercedes SLK200 which was almost as nice except it also had the dial/wheel to rotate and unfortunately a very small, iPhone sized navigation display.

The 3rd car I hired was a Kia only because my BMW fell through. The Kia unfortunately maxed out at 165km/h on the autobahn but I quickly understood what all the buttons did.

So which car did I like the most?

Surprisingly, it wasn't the German engineering of the Audi or the Mercedes. It was the Kia. "Why?" I hear you ask. Because, the Kia was the only one with a large touchscreen which made using the GPS super easy :D

It surprised me. Does it surprise you? (Add a comment on my blog)

P.S: What is an important user experience you want or don't want in your perfect car?

P.P.S: I'm glad Windows are giving us a first class touchscreen experience with Windows 8. I'm waiting for a car that has a built in Microsoft Surface!

Adam Cogan

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Featured Video:
Enabling Continuous Value Delivery in TFS 2012 with Justin Marks

Adam Cogan sits down with Visual Studio Program Manager Justin Marks to discuss:

The concept of Continuous Value Delivery
Testing
Defining the Project – Value Definition and Ideation (a new American word something to do with Ideas and Creation)
Delivering the Project – Ideas to Working Software
Getting the Project to Operations – From Deployment to Continuous Improvement
Stakeholder Feedback

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NEW Featured Event:
Enterprise MVC Apps - Two part course

New training sessions!

Enterprise MVC Apps
Cost: $330 +GST PP
Format: 1 day

The Model View Controller design pattern has been a proven and effective way of structuring applications for more than 30 years. In 2007, Microsoft introduced ASP.NET MVC to the world and since then, the framework has evolved into a mature and powerful way of writing dynamic web sites and powerful web applications.

ASP.NET MVC provides a great way of structuring your application, ensuring a clean separation of concerns, easy testability, and ultimate control over markup. It is quickly becoming the go-to framework for writing .Net web applications.

This 2 part course series will be run at 5 capital cities around Australia.

Enterprise MVC Apps Part I: Going beyond the demos

This course will introduce you to the latest version of ASP.NET MVC; version 4. Throughout the course, attendees will be guided through building a full ASP.NET MVC application from scratch.

Perth TUE 9 OCTOBER 2012
Adelaide THU 11 OCTOBER 2012
Melbourne FRI 12 OCTOBER 2012
Brisbane TUE 16 OCTOBER 2012
Sydney WED 17 OCTOBER 2012

Enterprise MVC Apps Part II: Maintainability and Testability

In this course will show you the techniques and tools SSW developers use to make MVC Enterprise ready.

Perth TUE 13 NOVEMBER 2012
Adelaide THU 15 NOVEMBER 2012
Melbourne FRI 16 NOVEMBER 2012
Brisbane TUE 20 NOVEMBER 2012
Sydney WED 21 NOVEMBER 2012

Sydney .NET User Group -
The best place to learn .NET for free in Sydney

2 Days to go!

Sydney .NET User Group
Wednesday 18th August 2012
6:00pm - 9:00pm
SSW Head Office
Gateway Court, Suite 13
81-91 Military Road, Neutral Bay

What's new in Visual Studio 2012

Software development continues to make great advances and so does Visual Studio. Come learn about the trends impacting software development and how you can take advantage of them with Visual Studio 2012. This talk provides a brief overview coupled with lots of demos to highlight how Visual Studio 2012 simplifies development, streamlines collaboration for teams, and helps you create apps that your users will love. Visual Studio 2012 helps you turn ideas into software; this session gets you started.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Adam Cogan is the Chief Architect at SSW, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner specializing in custom .NET, SharePoint and CRM solutions (with a splash of Business Intelligence). At SSW, Adam has been developing custom solutions for businesses across a range of industries such as Government, engineering, banking, insurance and manufacturing since 1990 for clients such as Microsoft, Worley Parsons and Aurecon.

To see more details and RSVP, please visit our Facebook .NET Group or our LinkedIn .NET Group.

SSW and Telerik NerdDinner

2 days to go!

NerdDinner
Wednesday 18th August 2012
8:10pm - 9:30pm
The Oaks Hotel
118 Military Road, Neutral Bay

As a change from sushi at the Sydney .NET User Group, SSW and Telerik invite you to join us for pizza at The Oaks. A fantastic opportunity for networking with peers and sharing thoughts after the User Group presentation

Sydney .Net User Group and NerdDinner proudly sponsored by:

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August 2012

Employment

SharePoint Developer

Are you looking to establish a career working with the latest software technology for a large range of great organisations? Do you enjoy managing your own clients in a fun, fast-paced and dynamic environment?
SSW has been the leading Microsoft technology company in Sydney for 21 years. We require an enthusiastic SharePoint developer to start ASAP.