Ben S. Stahlhood II's Blog
.NET Framework Discussions
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Ahhh... Life
I have been absent from my blog for sometime now. I just wanted to let everyone know that has been emailing over the XM Protocol documentation and the Mac OS X Monodevelop package, that I have read your messages. I have had a lot going on over the past few months. I just now got my new MacBook and will be picking up all my open source development efforts. I also just moved into a new 3/2 condo and I have a baby on the way in 6 months. I actually feel settled for once, it has been awhile since I have felt this way.
I am just waiting for my cable modem to arrive and then I will set my office up for some serious development. I have a lot to update and catch up on...
I will post an update on my situation next week. Have a great weekend everyone! -
Mac OS X and the Apple Intel Switch
Before I go on to give my thoughts on the MacIntel partnership, I wanted to let you guys now that I am now finished isolating my self from everyone due to my wife leaving me. I have a lot to catch up on and I have individuals who have volunteered to help out with my MonoDevelop documentation and package. I will be contacting them this weekend to get things going. I will also be posting an update to the XM spec with corrections people have emailed me. I appreciate all the comments and feedback. I am very close to releasing my assembly that works with XM and Sirius. I will keep you all posted.
--- Topic Starts Here :)
Now, this Apple and Intel partnership has spawned all kinds of discussions. I have read various reports and comments from many different people. I have to agree somewhat with what there saying but I think there missing a very important factor for this partnership.
So there are some very serious factors that help develop a motive behind the switch from Apple. Most of what I state here is restating what others have said, but I want to add my own .02. So everyone agrees that when looking at the road maps, that IBM starts to fall behind Intel. So how is this a major factor? Well as Steve has mentioned and others as well, the industry is moving toward laptops over desktops. Apple's laptops are a major piece of there product volume and sales. The fact that they can not deliver a G5 Powerbook is killing them. The new Pentium M processor will solve this issue and the power requirements look more like the IBM PowerPC then the current offerings from Intel.
Another major factor is supply and demand. Apple has had a very hard time with demand because of the problems that IBM has manufacturing and delivering the CPU's. Steve wants to deliver on product demand. So going with Intel will solve this problem because of the volume of chips Intel produces dwarfs the amount of PowerPC chips IBM produces. Apple is also going to be using more standard open components by going the Intel route. This will cut cost because of the availability of these standard components.
So what is another major factor behind this decision? I feel that PC games is another factor contributing to this decision. By moving to Intel and getting away from the pain in the arse AltiVec code, porting games to work under Mac OS X will be a magnitude easier compared to writing them for the PowerPC and AltiVec platform. This is a huge selling point. PC games are a contributing factor of PC sales. The gaming industry is on track to surpass Hollywood. Halo 2 made more money then most movies do in its first 3 days of release. Gaming is everywhere. Eventually the laptop and small form factor computers will dominate the PC market and combine that with Wifi access anywhere you go and now you have the ultimate platform for gaming and productivity.
Now Apple has an operating system that I feel is much better then Windows. At this point in time it has no viruses or spy ware to worry about and it runs on the same chip that almost everyone uses that has a computer in there home. This also gives them the hail mary backup plan of opening up there OS and Software applications to anyone using Intel chips. So I must say things are going to get very interesting. I can not wait to see where things go. I know the work that the Mac Mono team is doing will be much easier now that the Mac will be the same platform that rest of the Mono framework initially targeted. I can see a lot more contributing now that this is happening.
I would like to hear your comments and opinions on this announcement as well. Let me know what you think.
I can see Steve and company working on a lot more consumer electronics and software. By establishing a broader product line at the hardware and software level, Apple is going to be in a very good position with this partnership come next year. I can see major market share gains compared to the last 5 years.
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XM / Sirius Protocol and Monodevlop on Mac OS X [Update]
Hey everyone,
Sorry for the lack of posts or updates. This past month has been pretty hard for me to deal with. My wife cheated on me and then left. So I basically gave up on everything I was working on and did not touch a comptuer for quite some time. I am finally becoming my self again and getting things caught up. Just wanted to let you know I will update the XM / Sirius protocol spec. I will also pick back up on my package for Monodevelop. I will get with the Mono guys and find out where things stand compared to when I dropped of the face of the planet.
I will also be posting my Satellite Radio assembly I have been working on for both XM and Sirius. I was thinking of even making an open source project out of it. So we can all work on it and keep it updated. I want to create a bridge pattern for it so we can easily add new radio models or new protocol changes with no changes to the API we would be use in our front ends.
Hope all of you have had a better month then me ;)
l8r
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A fresh new juicy Apple?
I have been following and using Apple computers now since around 2000. I was intrigued by Mac OS X and being an OS freak, especially *NIX based OS platforms, I had to have one so I could play with Mac OS X. Once I got on a Mac and started playing around with Cocoa/Objective-C, I really did not want to go back to a PC. This is a Windows world of course and being a developer, Windows development is what paid the bills. Apple/Jobs has always been set in their ways, with no chance of change in sight. The unbelievable happen though and something seriously changed...
Since 2000, we have seen Apple release there best version of Mac OS X yet (Panther) and there about to do it again next month with Tiger. Each time they are ahead of there competitors as far as technology and innovation. They released the iPod for Mac and Windows, which is now hitting a target estimate of 5.5 million total sold in Q1 of 2005, 1.5 Million of which are the new iPod shuffle. They also relased the new PowerMac G5's which have been very popular with goverment and educational facilities. An Apple based super computer made it in the top 5 of the Super Computer list for a fracion of the cost compared to the others in the list. Then they release a sub $500 dollar Mac (Mac mini) at Macworld 2005, which is estimated to have sold around 150,000 units in Q1 of 2005.
Apple has always been known to have secret projects in the works. There are "rumors" that there definitely is a Mac OS X version for x86 based machines. Apple is also working on small form factor computers; palm top sized as described by some. This would go well with there InkWell technology. Apple has also had plans for a movie store following the theme of the iTunes store. The industry is shaping up to where many of the things Apple is working on makes a perfect fit. I definitely see the Mac mini being a target for the living room and many other things.
What's next? Apple is expected to make many big announcements this year, which includes the release of a dual processor dual core G5 PowerMac, PowerBook G5, and *gasp* a two button mouse. It seems Apple has learned some valuable lessons in how to sell and work in a Microsoft world.
Now with Mono getting more mature everyday for Mac OS X, you will be able to add the large base of .NET developers to the Cocoa developers Apple already has, this will be huge. It is hard for me to imagine Apple not getting market share gains this year. The iPod halo effect is kicking in and it's just beginning.
I have been developing on DOS/Wintel with a mix of *NIX for 10 years now and I defintely welcome the fresh change of environment the Mac provides. I still use all the other major operating systems such as Windows and Linux. because like I said I love technology and operating systems. I will always play with the new toys out there, but my primary OS and hardware of choice comes from the company at 1 Infinite Loop ;)
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XM / Sirius Protocol Programming
Some of you are aware of the document I put together for the XM protocol. I am now working with an individual well known in the Sirius community on documenting the Sirius protocol using the Alpine serial interface. So eventually I will make a document that covers both standards and we will be working together on making an SDK. Nothing will be officially released public until this individual gives me the okay.
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.NET Framework 2.0, Mono, MonoDevelop, Mac OS X / Cocoa#
I started contributing to the Mono project recently. Nothing big yet, but it is a start. I contributed an updated System.Diagnostics.DebuggableAttribute class with 2.0 features. It is fun working on a project like Mono and slowly seeing a majority of the code starting to work with current .NET Framework binaries. They have mcs, gmcs, and bmcs compilers now. The mcs being the C# compiler, gmcs is the C# with generics compiler, and bmcs is the inital Visual Basic compiler. Mono also has moved toward a much better System.Windows.Forms implementation. They are making backend drivers for each platform UI. They have a native one for Windows, X11, and OS X. This will allow your app to run seamless and have the native look and feel of the UI platform it is being executed upon. A lot of this is possible because of a gentlemen by the name of Geoff Norton (http://blog.sublimeintervention.com)
The current Mono HEAD compared to .NET FX 2.0 is still aways off, but progress is being made at a very quick pace. Our company just recently got some Mac mini's for development. I started looking into Mono progress on Mac OS X. Mono 1.1.3 runs very well on Mac OS X. The most wanted lacking feature being System.Windows.Forms right now. Cocoa# will allow you to use Cocoa in your .NET applications. This will of course tie you to the Mac OS X platform, but it is still a great option to have. This works just like the Java/Cocoa bridge.
MonoDevelop can also be used on Mac OS X. It requires an extensive install process though. One thing about the Mono project is the documentation is not accurate and not well written in some cases. You can find a lot of articles to help you on these subjects. I will be posting more info on my blog as I get accurate sources of information. I will also be making a MonoDevelop package for easy installation on Mac OS X.
Things are looking great for cross platform .NET development!
Here are some links for further investigation:
Mono Project Home Page - http://www.mono-project.com/
Managed Windows Forms Home Page - http://svn.myrealbox.com/blog/
Cocoa# Home Page - http://blog.sublimeintervention.com/
Mono SVN Sourcecode Repository - http://svn.myrealbox.com/
MonoDevelop Home Page - http://www.monodevelop.org
Have Fun!
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XM Protocol Spec
I finally got around to writing a document covering the entire XM Protocol Spec. This is for the XM PCR, XM Direct, and XM Commander. It is most likely most of them, if not all there devices, but I can vouch personally for the 3 mentioned. If any of you need help or have questions using this, post a comment with your return email address and I will get back to you.
If need I can post some sample C# code here using the spec.
Hope you enjoy and get good use out of the document.
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Credit Stalkers
You know what I am talking about... it seems like every job you get, either as a contractor or employee there is a Credit Stalker near. The people who take credit for your hard work and IP. You work your butt off coming up with cool ideas and innovative things and someone takes credit for it all. The worst part is they not only get credit but in some cases they get filthy rich off your ideas. I feel like the common corporate America company is becoming polluted. All the little guys are the ones that come up with the excellent ideas and get nothing in return except get let go because there job is "cheaper" over seas.
I see companies like Panic and id Software that for the most part are run by small teams and that impresses me. They keep coming up with innovative software and ideas and not with 1 Billion dollar wallets. I hope to keep seeing companies like this stick around and keep kicking out cool technology. I am not saying all corporations are like this, but most are...
I am fortunate that the company I am with now is also a small company. Innovation does not slip through the cracks with layers and layers of processes and management. I think companies sometime in the process of trying to make things more organized, create more chaos. That is just my .02 and opinion though...
I was reading some posts and articles about credit being taken from individuals and it just ticked me off a bit, sorry for venting ;) -
XM Magic Hex Byte Codes
For those interested in playing around with talking to an XM Direct or Commander unit from you computer. Here is the info you will need.
Here is the magic byte codes to get the XM Direct and Commander units into a PCR mode Once this is done all original byte codes for the PCR work fine...
You send 3 commands to the commander or direct and then it will accept all original XMPCR commands.
They are the following, sent in this order:
5AA50003740001740D
5AA5000474020101740D
5AA50003740B00740D
If you want the info on how the original PCR protocol can be used as well, email me.
bitoholic [(a]) gmail [(dot)] com
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XM Hacked =]
Well, the article at news.com about my self and the new company I work for is up and news.com. Talks about the new cable and software we made to talk to XM Direct and Commander units. I wrote the Software in C#/.NET Framework. Fun stuff
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5410250.html?tag=save