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IM Translator eXpress - Made in PakistanAn app that helps your favorite IM speak your language August 15 Microsoft Goes (A)Live!It seems like Micro-soft recently got Macro-hard on its competitors.. While embracing MSN Spaces into the RSS/Web 2.0 -aka Live technology, the big giant just didnt stop there. It went out of the way to give us an app that could possibly make it more easier to blog. The new software is dubbed "Windows Live Writer" and is available from here. It not only fits well into Live Spaces (Duh!) but also other blogger sites. Although limited, I think we can expect good things from Microsoft in the future as well. Waiting for the competitors to heat up now. Meanwhile, I uploaded screenshots of my messenger client which is focused on the Google/Jabber protocol in my photo album. Check them out. Furthermore, the projects have gone into the voting phase and are now awaiting for your appropriate response. You can check me and my application out on the site where files relating to the project have been uploaded. Also forgetting the most important thing of all Pakistan's independence day was celebrated with much fanfare... however, I feel that this is more a time to brood in lieu of the Lebanon issue and also that a dictator is in our face which really doesnt say much about Pakistan's transition to democracy. India celebrates its independence on 15th August and I would cheer for these people as well since we share a common heritage. So go Indians and Pakis celebrate your independence but do remember that ye are all brethren. Note: You need to have .Net 2.0 framework installed.. If its not your lucky day, fear not since you can download the redistributable from MSDN according to your system specs i.e. 32-bit or 64-bit processors. Confessions of a Developer's Mind (Part Deux)Meanwhile, on the other side of the world a lot of developments have been happening lately in various areas around the World. First and foremost is the Lebanon issue which I feel is a total mockery  of international norms and rules. I think that people definitely need diplomacy rather than annihilation. Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike have been killed and this is an atrocity against humanity.Secondly, the issue of the planes in UK-US was something of a surprise. This got the  rumor mills going.. Being from a country where generally any sort of "loving" overtures by the US government are seen with a sense of caution, this recent development was itself seen as a ploy to cover the ongoing heated debate in Lebanon from the world over. The ceasefire that recently took place was followed by the DHS (Homeland Security) lowering its level from Critical to Severe does tend to cast a shadow on the dealings of the US and UK. Nontheless, I feel that there needs to be a call for greater transparency in the "catching" process of Western governments and they need to sensitize themselves to the ongrowing resentment showed by Muslims who feel that for a fact they are being sidelined as terrorists.On the more lighter side of life... MSN Spaces upgraded itself to its Live family and I must say it is an improvement over the previous blogging service  . This new version as can be seen tries to do more with less. Since the original blogging site contained an array of options that befuddled the user. The interface is now more streamlined and provides a better blogger experience. Thankfully, my blog needed only minor adjustments to it and it was as good as new. However, initially it did wreck havoc with some of the other contestants blogs. My sympathies are with you mates.Just a question I ask myself now.. How is it that no women got into the last twelve? Where have the geek/developer chicks disappeared? Maybe the Microsoft guys should provide a document to all entries so we could also possibly look at other  bright ideas in the World out there.Confessions of A Developer's MindSince the project deadline has now passed, I will take some time out to tell you of my experiences during the whole time period. First and foremost, my apologies to all those who have been frequent-ers (sic) on my not-so-frequently updated blog  . I assure you all that there is no ingrained aversion to blogging whatsoever. The details of my project that I have posted on this blog have been very un-technical to say the least and there are many reasons for that. Foremost is my own personal disliking of "unloading" heavy and abstruse programming details on the faint of heart. From the comments that I got and otherwise, I could assess that most of the blog visitors were more the users (end users) rather than abusers of technology (a term I coined for us people in the developer community) and it would be very difficult to document how to workaround complex details of the project. Therefore, I tried to keep my documentation as simple and clear as possible so as not to harass the people with the information overload. Furthermore, for the novice users if the details are not kept simple and sweet these people have a tendency to taper off and become disinterested aka  . Since I value people's opinions and would like them to be as much a part of the process as I am, I sacrificied hardcore details of the project for a more concise and brief explanation Rest is upon you guys to see and judge how I measure up to your expectations  . Since work on the translator is an on-going thing, I would suggest all of you to download and try it and then tell me about bugs so that I can fix in later versionsNow on with the details of how I got to where I got.. this month of July and August has been crazily busy for me. Trying to barter between family gatherings, social events and the project, the latter won out most of the times, albeit, I wound up with broken limbs from the gazes I got from my family members. Then there were the man made troubles of power outages. In the sulty summer I was forced to work on my laptop perspiring like a pig (which i had become from the pigging out at nights and days) due to lack of electricity. I called upon God to help me  and sometimes he helped and sometimes i was forced to improvize and bug other people for some workspace. Pizza became my staple food and alongside Coke was the only liquid i subsisted on as a dosage to stay away from sleep. Mother Nature in all her motherly capacity cried for my plight and send in the rains for cooling it down but i guess it was a double edged sword since the Sun next day shone on Earth with all its intensity.  Now i am being a bit too melodramatic. However, it was an interesting and exhilirating experience and I was enjoying and dreading of the deadline alongside. Now at the end of it I can say that my words finally carry weight and some cheese .August 03 My Tell-All TaleProject Details: A) Current Development: I would be dropping the development of AOL Messenger and will only be developing the Google/Jabber and the MSN messenger for now. I am just scaling back on the scope of work due to time constraints since the deadline looms near. I am not, however, reneging on my commitment to add support for these messengers in the future and shall keep you guys n gals posted on further development. B) Design and Conceptual Issues: Initially, I had planned to implement the translation application as a web service. The advantage that this approach offered me was the ability to add further translations in future by just updating the Web service. In layman’s term suppose that Google decided on adding a new language translation so I just would have had to add that to the web service and it would automatically update on the Messenger available list of translations. However, I encountered a few bottlenecks along the way. Firstly, there was the obvious constraint imposed on me in terms of moolah, bling bling aka money. Lacking the appropriate cash to fund a good web server, I shied away from this approach. Furthermore, the interest that people showed for my project made me fear of the potential problem of loading the app on a debilitated web server. A poor server due to lack of load balancing (ability to take on a huge amount of user requests in a given time span) from hits would have lead to considerable downtime and this could have been more of a hassle than a solution and I wanted this app to be available to all of my well-wishers and critics alike 24/7. If I am able to win the coveted MS award I would be able to direct some of my prize booty on acquiring an account on a sturdy web server. As it stands for now, I have implemented a method by which the client while chiming merrily on his keyboard directly accesses Google Translate behind the scenes, translates the body of text automatically into the desired language and then displays the translated text at the designated destination. This approach using Google servers offers greater stability and better speed than my “web service approach”. In a more user-friendly language this goes something like this. “User1 wants to send translated text to User2” Original Approach: User1 types selects his translation preference and types in his native language-> Messenger accesses Web Service -> Web Service accesses Google Translate. Translated text appears on User2 screen while User1 sees his original text on IM screen. New Approach: User1 types selects his translation preference and types in his native language-> Messenger accesses Google Translate (Time Saving here) -> Translated text appears on User2 screen while User1 sees his original text on IM screen. C) Development Issues: I tried out various messenger libraries and SDKs and choose the one that suited me the most in terms of ease of use, simplicity and documentation available online. For MSN Messenger, I used the “Dot MSN Library” however, since I am relatively new and inexperienced in Windows Forms development I ran into trouble initially causing me to drop the development of MSN messenger then. I planned on getting back at it once I had divided and conquered the other messenger. Thereby, I began the development of Google/Jabber client for which I used the AGSXMPP SDK developed in C# and is pretty intuitive. The online documentation and sample code available freely on the website is very helpful, usable and developer friendly and I was able to get down and dirty in a few clicks. Slowly, I started warming to Dot MSN and able to decipher the hieroglyphic-style writing (kidding) and got down to business. Currently, I am working on the MSN Client and pruning problems as they come alongside. D) System Requirements: I shall be compiling a set of system requirements for the proper functioning of the app and I shall post it as soon as I get it done. E) UI Tweaks: Since my project’s inception I have focused on simplicity and user-friendly as much as possible. Therefore I had to broker between keeping it simple and sweet vs. a huge list of feature set with little time available for making it look simple and I choose the former since the latter makes the messenger more complex for the developer. Features can be added alongside. For the purpose of ‘beautification” of the user-interface (UI) I used the Krypton Toolkit to make my messenger visually more pleasing. Well you guys shall have to try it out to give your opinions. Screenshots and Download: This shall be uploaded soon so keep clicking and surfing to and maybe you shall be one of the lucky few pioneer testers to get your chance on this tool. F) Future Development: I plan to add a couple of features in the foreseeable future but at an unforeseeable date. While surfing the web, I found something that grabbed my eye which was particularly interesting both from a developer’s viewpoint but also that of a user and could be a possible future feature in my app. This tool dubbed Shareware Starter Kit can according to the website’s claim be used: "to centralize User Registeration, Error Reporting and More !" This service integrated into an application be used to send Windows Error Style Reporting to the developer of the application and provides not only a developer with quick feedback but also allows the user to report errors as and when they come. Well that’s about it for now. Wish me luck fellas and cinderfellas. Scandal Proves TrueSo the illicit liaison between MSN and Yahoo turned out to be true. Indeed, the two companies finally came “out of the closet” and professed their undying love for each other and the “compatibility” they share. The move may be in an effort to counter the ever so growing popularity of Google which is giving these corporations a run for its money but could also possibly be as a consequence of the companies finally paying heed to the constant and continuous pleading, supplication, and requests of many users to allow cross IM compatibility since keeping multiple IMs can be truly a hassle for the average end user. This move has ushered in a new era for the Messenger World and I am sure we shall be wowed, awed and elated in the future to come. The new MSN Live Messenger comes with a bevy of features. However, although being a staunch supporter and follower of MSN I am a little disappointed by the current version not by their feature set but by its stability since for me it crashes way too much and this actually becomes a nag. The situation may be aggravated by the fact that I have patched the messenger with the MsgPlus Live app which may have some issues properly hugging and cuddling with Live Messenger. Nonetheless, I hope that the MSN people are aware of that and listening to our prayers from their holy pedestal aloft in the skies. For More Info on how you can get your MSN to jiggy with Yahoo. Click this link. Not leaving Yahoo! behind I cannot help but sing praises for its messenger which has constantly wooed users and newbies by its stunning interface and cutting edge features. The beta crashed on me a couple of times but I guess it’s expected out of something that was just in its testing phases. Currently, I am in the process of downloading the final version but that is itself a hassle considering the download speeds we get on dialups here which summed up in a single word is “Appalling”. But don’t worry Yahoo darling, coz baby I got your back. Yahoo fanatics and my recent fellow convertees check out Yahoo 8 point OOOH blasting off. Join the “Unholy Alliance” and get your copy today. How? Check this web link for further details Are we in for the “Messenger Wars”? |
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