Have you installed Java on your Windows 7 64bit computer?

Well I have, and I have not. I have tried, but so far I have had no success. There are many other folks looking for an answer. Perhaps we need to crowd source a work around.

I recently came to know about a fun program which it appears a rage in Japan.
Shimeji is a fun program that you can find details here:
http://www.ashido.com/huntersmoker/shimeji.html

English code fork here:
http://code.google.com/p/shimeji-ee/

I downloaded Shimeji-ee_1.0.3_Mischievous.zip to try it out.
I extracted the folder to my hard drive.

Java is not installed on my computer (as seen in Programs and Features). But I suspect there is a x32  bit Java on my machine. I see it on Control Panel | Programs

 

I run Shimeji-ee.exe.
I get a Shimeji -ee message:
"This application requires a Java Runtime Environment 1.6.0" and
 it takes me to Java.com site and I download JavaSetup7u65.com

I download and run. Java Installer runs
Oracle installer takes over(notice the IoT items!).

After the installation I get a message that Java was successfully installed. Does not say which version, but I suppose it is x64bit.

 

[Well, I am busy saying yes to Java Updates on this machine like once a day!]

I find it in Control Panel's Programs and Features

It is time to verify, back in the Java.com site.

I now verify it in the java.com site by clicking on 'Agree and Continue'. Looks like it did not install since I get the

http://java.com/en/download/uninstallapplet.jsp

OK. Let me assume that there is some problem with this java's jsp page and I go ahead and try to run Shimeji-ee.exe one more time.

I get a fatal exception message:
Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine (error message in Windows 8.1 is slightly different but equally useless).

This is the same message on my Windows 8.1 Professional Laptop as well.

Have I installed Java on Windows 7 x64 (or Windows 8.1 )?
           The answer is Yes according to Control Panel, no according to java.com site.

Do I have Java x32 bit and x64 bit?
           Yes, definitely (also verified in Windows Registry)

Do they work?
           No

Well I am searching if I find it you will be the first to know.

Mahalo

App development with outsystems - Cross-Platform App development - Part 2

outsystems is cloud based development platform built on top of Visual Studio.
You can create an account on the following page (by clicking Get Started):
http://www.outsystems.com/offer/ga/web-application-development/?utm_source=MSN&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=%2Bapp%20%2Bdevelopment%20%2Bplatform&utm_content=cross%20platform%20app%20development&utm_campaign=SEARCH%20-%20US%20-%20Dev%20Tools

I created an account as shown:

Once you start accessing your service by clicking on the email link from Outsystems site you are directed to the Personal environment overview where you can watch a video which describe how Outsystems works in simple terms.
For example, it created a Personal environment for me at:
https://hodentek.outsystems.com

When you click on Click here to continue you get to the Get Started page which is at

http://www.outsystems.com/hone/Personal_Home.aspx

This page is really useful and it points to many of the resources. There are tutorials, templates, app samples, etc. This is also where you start your app. I built both web apps as well as hybrid apps. You will hear about in another post.

Outsystems claims that you can build an app in 5 minutes (that's an awesome number of apps in a 8 hour day!). However, the interface is so easy and user friendly that you may even achieve this.

Watch this video,

There are two ways to use the apps:

• Use the outsystems cloud
• Or detach code (one way process) and compile for .NET or Java a ; once detached you cannot attach back to outsystems.

The platform is built on VS.NET / Java and therefore if you just wanted to use the source code (but not the outsystems platform) then you go through a process of detaching your code on outsystems and then compile the code either on VS (Visual Studio) or a Java compiler (Eclipse).

 

Quo vadis? Cross-Platform App development - Part 1

There are lots and lots of Apps. In fact there are over a couple of million Apps including all of the major brands, Apple, Google, Blackberry, Microsoft with Apple at the top and Microsoft in the bottom. But this is a growing market. The variety is truly bewildering, different size devices; different operating systems(OS); different programming languages;  and different orientations.

This post is not very recent but you can see how the various mobile operating systems compare:
http://www.ibtimes.com/android-vs-ios-whats-most-popular-mobile-operating-system-your-country-1464892
The interactive image in the article really shows the popularity of a given OS/device among different geographical regions.

Windows Phone Apps is for example based on Microsoft's Window 7, 8, 8.1 OSs using .NET. With Windows OS and Visual Studio one can build Apps for all of Microsoft devices covering Phone, Tablet and Desktop. However Microsoft Windows Apps sans Html5/CSS/Javascript is OS specific. Even for apps built with Html5/CSS/Javascript the WinJS file is required (or recommended) in most cases.

Apple Apps can be used on both iPad and iPhone as long as certain files specific to each device profile is available, in general iPhone apps can be used on iPad but not the other way. However the so called iOS Universal apps can be used on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (before the advent of iOS Universal there were two binaries created for each type). XCode/Interface Builder was used to create the iOS Universal. Although XCode, a superset of Objective-C makes this easy it is not straight forward mainly due to device size differences. Again Apple Apps are specific to devices running Apple iOS.

The same is true of Android Apps. It is built using Java in a multi-user Linux system. The recommended development platform is Eclipse. Read more here, http://developer.android.com/guide/components/fundamentals.html

Latest version of Eclipse Standard here:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-standard-44/lunar

However there have been several developments (bridge programs) to have a single program that can build Apps to work on any device.

• With Xamarin you can use C# shared library to build native iOS, Android, Mac and Windows apps.

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/01/master-c-and-become-universal-coder.html

•  PhoneGap (Apache Cardova) developer app used with Windows can bundle the App for a variety of platforms.

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/06/open-source-mobile-app-development-with.html

• XDK Platform from Intel can similarly create apps for multiple OSs using Html5/CSS/Javascript similar to the PhoneGap, in fact using a later version.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/html5/xdkdocs

• Outsystems cloud based development platform can build apps that works with both Java and .NET environments and you can derive source code for each of these OSs

http://www.outsystems.com/

Html5/CSS/Javascript not dependent on any specific vendor together with responsive design should address most of the cross-platform requirements. I am sure more programs on the way in this general direction.

 August 20:
Get a good brief on Intel XDK here including installation:
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2014/08/cross-platform-apps-are-easy-with-intel.html
 

Azure RemoteApp Service - Things to know - Part 3

You can access corporate applications like the Office applications from anywhere using a variety of devices. In the last post you saw a Windows Client accessing WORD application on the 'hodenremote' service instance on Azure RemoteApp service.

Creating a Service:
Read here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/creating-azure-remoteapp-service-now-in.html

Using the service:
Read here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/using-azure-remoteapp-service-part-2.html

In this post you will learn a few more things about the 'other' clients as well as the terms for using the preview service.

You can have other clients on other platforms as well.
Get to this page to look at other clients:

Click on See all clients.

Get the App for iPad here:

 

Get the App for Android here:

 

All clients work with Azure RemoteApp the same way.

You get the scalability benefits as the service is coming down the cloud and you can centralize your assets in one location instead of being spread out. This is more secure.

Right now this service is in preview but when it goes into production there will be charges for using the service.

These are the terms for now for using this service per Microsoft.

•  Microsoft is offering the Azure RemoteApp free during preview.
• With your preview service, you are allowed to build two instances and 10 users for each instance.
• Your Azure RemoteApp preview service will be cancelled if it is unused for 7 consecutive days.
• You will be notified two business days prior to any action taken on your account.
• Please contact us if you would like to request a quota increase during preview. Quota increases are provided on a best effort basis and are subject to availability. 

LEGO is out, Welcome MODIO

The difference between LEGO and MODIO will be something like Black and White TV and Smart Color TV. Why would you want to play with square and rectangular objects when you can run your imagination run amok!

After all it is imagination that counts.

Makerbot (Startasys) is playing both ways.

David Sher is saying LEGO a perfect match for 3D Printing.
http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/01/31/lego-3d-printing-makers-perfect-match/

I think Modio is an even better for 3D printing. Read this at Modio site.
http://modio3d.com/aboutus/

Also Visit:
http://modio3d.com/madewithmodio/

Get your iPad app here and start designing now:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/modio/id872606271?mt=8

3D Printing industry is growing.  Read more at, 3D Industry site here.

Windows Phone 8.1 is out but where can you get it?

I received in my email a message from Microsoft Store that a Nokia Lumia 635 is available with Windows Phone 8.1.

I tried to find if my Nokia Icon 929 gets the update. At this point Microsoft (chat) could not say anything positive. My carrier VERIZON is also unable to confirm, they think probably towards the end of August. I do not find Windows Phone 8.1 Upgrade on the store.
It is very interesting that the Nokia Icon was touted as the most current device and it is funny that there is no update.

My guess is it is something to do with the contract between Nokia and the carriers, because for Nokia Lumia 635 there appears to be just two vendors, AT&T and T-Mobile.

Verizon says they are not responsible and that Microsoft should be contacted and I drew a blank with Microsoft.

Story continues here:

Finally found this site which promises something:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp8/basics/how-do-i-get-windows-phone-8-1

Do not bother to look up this important tip- It's quite useless

This whole business of Phone proliferation has not brought customer satisfaction.
For example, I seem to have bought a Nokia Icon from Verizon that seems not to exist in the NOKIA site. I tried to look up my Model 929 and it does not exist! With Microsoft's ambivalence vis-à-vis NOKIA, I may end up with an unsupported phone.
 

Using the Azure RemoteApp Service - Part 2

I have a Windows 8.1 Professional computer but I have not installed any Office application such as Word, Excel etc. By using the Azure RemoteApp I can access these Windows programs on the Azure servers and do everything I want to do with them.

Read my previous post about creating a Azure RemoteApp Service here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/creating-azure-remoteapp-service-now-in.html

The Program works in a Client / Server mode (ah!). You have a client sitting on your computer and it sends requests to your Azure RemoteApp Service in the Cloud. After establishing a connection you can work with any of the published programs on the Azure Cloud. In the Preview there are 6 or 7 programs that you will see in the rest of the post.

I test drove to see how it works and here are some screen shots and notes. It worked as it should but when I saved the files I edited/created to either OneDrive or my computer they did not get saved. Oops!

I am sure they are on the server, because I could connect to server and open them. It is just they are not saved. There should be some explanation somewhere(!).

Here is how I went about editing a document on my OneDrive using the Word 2013 on my Azure RemoteApp Service.

Click on Microsoft RemoteApp client in your Metro page. The invitations page is displayed.

The client user interface opens as shown and the Microsoft RemoteApp
login page opens.

Enter the login information (Windows Live account)
Now all the applications get displayed in the user interface of client.

Let us open a word document. Click on Word icon in the client.
The client connects to the Azure RemoteApp as shown.

A little later you will see the Word Application opening and displaying as shown.You get a Sign in page as shown, a modal window on top of a Word document.

I did not sign in and took the other option.

Then you get the OneDrive page as shown.

Click Next.

Then you get a 'Good to Go' page.

Click on All done!.
The Word document opens as shown with a number of templates.

Let us try out to open an existing document.
Click on Open Other Documents on the left.
The Word document window changes to the following;

Click on OneDrive. The OneDrive wizard page is displayed as shown.
Sign in to OneDrive by providing username and password (Windows Live
account)[You get two separate pages for username and password]. This is an annoying feature requiring you to sign in multiple times, although the computer is working with Administrator login which happens to be Windows Live account the same used for creating the Azure RemoteApp Service as well as access to OneDrive.

Once you are authenticated you get a display of stuff on OneDrive as
shown.

Clicking on the 'The Author and the Book.docx', the document gets displayed.
Click on File, the 'Info' page opens where you have several navigation
items(links) that you find in most Word documents.

Now if you open your Azure RemoteApp (herein hodenremote, review the first link in this post), the hodenremote service page opens displaying the current session.

When I sign out of the client, the Dashboard still displays one session but the Sessions tab shows that the Session State is disconnected.

In 'hodenremote' you can access the Dashboard as shown.

In the 'hodenremote' you can create/modify user access (Users/Groups).

The RemoteApp Apps published to hodenremote are listed out here

The Sessions page is shown here.

For an in depth understanding read this blog here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2014/05/12/windows-apps-in-the-cloud-introducing-microsoft-azure-remoteapp.aspx

The portal allows you to disconnect named users/ all users from the Dashboard as shown.

I edited a document and created a new one. After editing/creating I saved it to my OneDrive which the Azure RemoteApp Service displays as being saved but I did not find them on my OneDrive or on my computer when it was saved to computer.

Have fun!
 

Creating an Azure RemoteApp Service (now in preview)

A step-by-step procedure to create a Azure RemoteApp Service.

Please review this post before you proceed with this one:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/microsoft-offers-in-2014-desktop-as.html

In order to get on to it, you need to sign up by following this link:
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/RemoteApp

You will be directed to the next screen here where several services are
listed.
Scroll down and click on TryIt button for Azure RemoteApp as shown.

 

Since I have already signed up I get the following screen. I did receive an email today.

You may have to log in a couple of times during this installation.
The following is when you sign up for the first time.

If you have not signed up you would get this screen where you download the RemoteClient as
shown:

 

You install the client from the download link provided as shown:

RemoteApp Client starts off as shown.

 

Click Get Started and after logging in you will get to the client user interface as shown.

Microsoft RemoteApp Client interface have these RemoteAPP client demo apps which you will probably find on Azure RemoteApp service as well.

 

When I double click the Excel 2013 demo, the following screen is displayed. I do not see any of the extensions on this screen.

The Azure RemoteApp is a Windows APP on your desktop.

Now you know that you need to signup for the Azure RemoteApp (read the comment in pink)

When you close out you may see this screen displayed.

Your Azure RemoteApp may not be immediately accessible on the portal and you may have to wait out for an email from Microsoft when it is activated. It may take a couple of days to get this email. If you try to access it you may get a message that you are queued.

After the activation in Azure you get a message as shown.

Now if you login to the portal your Azure RemoteApp is activated.

Right now these are the items I have on Microsoft Azure and the RemoteApp is not in it because I have activated but not created a service.

I need to create a RemoteApp service to see  it in my list of services.

I can quickly create a service by providing a name for the service as shown. Note that I had to shorten the name to be within what is required.

It will take a quite a bit of time (confess to being on a Wi-Fi connection) to provision the RemoteApp desktop client URL. Microsoft indicates something like 30 minutes to provision after which your service is ready to go.

Enjoy the service!




 

Visual Studio "14" CTP 2 is released

The CTPs of the next major release of Visual Studio "14" (like other CTPs) are for testing and early adopters to try out (and hopefully provide no cost useful information to Microsoft) exciting new features.

You can download and install them or, you can use the image on a pre-built Azure Virtual Machine. You can access the Azure site gallery for information regarding this.

If you are planning to install on your desktop/laptop then you must read the release notes here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2967191

as some side-by-side installations with other versions will not work without a little bit of lifting. You will be better off on a new machine without any of VS 2013.

Release notes also provide details regarding the enhancements to ASP.NET and web development; Visual Studio IDE, and Visual C++.

The Visual Studio 14 CTP1 download details here:

CTP 1

3 June 2014

14.0.21730.01.DP •

• Visual Studio Professional (web | iso)

Web:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=399011

ISO:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=399010

 

ISO SHA1: 3A02CD387314E8F8E56CEB20048E89A97FA9EC25

• Remote Tools (x86 | x64 | arm)

 x86:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=399015

x64:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=399014

arm:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=399013

• Visual Studio SDK (exe)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=399012

Visual Studio 14 CTP2 download details here:

CTP 2

Date: 8 July 2014

Version: 14.0.21901.01.DP

• Visual Studio Professional (web | iso)

ISO SHA1: 49B068267F0EA532028B9644797789757B53EC29

 

Web:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=401041

 

ISO:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=401042

 

• Remote Tools (x86 | x64 | arm)

x86:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=401046

x64:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=401045

arm:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=401044

• Visual Studio SDK (exe)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=401043