PsiSpace

As some of you may know my wife has a chronic condition called Fibromyalgia.  She has had it for about 6 years and spent much of the first 5 of those in serious pain, amongst other symptoms.  Part of the reason she suffered for so long is that there is a distinct lack of awareness of the condition in the UK.  To the point where many GPs do not even believe it exists.

However, she eventually managed to find the information and support needed to get her Fibro under control. And is now in the position of being much improved and being able to work and so has chosen to work to improve conditions so that other people do not need to suffer unnecessarily as she did.

Fibro awareness in the UK desperately needs to be brought into the 21st century and to this end she is now heading a new national charity called FibroAction.  With the help of other Fibro sufferers and carers, including myself, the charity hopes to

[E]ducate people about Fibromyalgia Syndrome (Fibro), including people with Fibro, their family, friends and carers, healthcare professionals and the public at large, as well as providing support to patients.

With a long term vision that

[T]he needs of people with Fibro are universally recognised and met, with fast and accurate diagnoses and easy access to optimal treatment programs available to all people with Fibro.

To most GPs and patients, the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia is the end of the care pathway.  There is a widespread belief that there is no treatment for Fibro and that nothing can be done to help sufferers and that the outlook is bleak.  This is patently false.  Currently there are 2 FDA approved drugs for Fibro, Lyrica (Pregabalin) and Cymbalta (Duloxetine), plus many more that are being used off label, including Mirapexin (Pramipexole) that have had promising results in double-blind trials. 

Fibro has such wide ranging symptoms that it is important to eliminate all co-morbid conditions before starting to treat Fibro pharmacologically and there are also other ways of helping Fibro that form part of a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment.  Myofascial tension can be a major cause of pain in Fibro sufferers that, whilst isn't a direct symptom of Fibro, can be greatly amplified by it.  Seeing a massage therapist or myofascial release specialist can help relieve this pain.  Managing stress is also important - stress isn't good for anyone, especially if you have health issues - and when you have a condition related to changes in the brain and nervous system like Fibro is, stress can quickly worsen symptoms. Problems with anxiety and depression, possibly caused by having such a debilitating condition, can also make dealing with symptoms a lot harder.

Amongst the existing organisations in this country that do deal with Fibromyalgia there is a misconception that there is little research being undertaken.  However this is not true. There is a huge amount of research being undertaken.  In fact at the recent EULAR (European League against Rheumatism) annual European congress there were over 90 abstracts from research papers submitted that dealt with Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

So anyway.  If you have Fibro there is now some hope and an organisation that is out for your best interests.  If you've got any questions we are always ready to answer them so ping us an email.

Please forgive the sales pitch but this project has been a labour of love for us and we are very proud of it.

HMV Digital's Online Spotlight application is finally live!

From the Media Center main menu, navigate to 'Spotlight' and then from the 'Showcase' tab select HMV Digital or, if you don't have MCE, you can browse the store in IE, but like all MCE applications, outside of Media Center the functionality is limited.  Have a look around, it may even convince you to go out and purchase a Media Center PC!

This incarnation of HMV Digital supports permanent downloads as well as subscription steaming and subscription downloads and if you do have an HMV Unlimited subscription then you'll find this is excellent for parties, leave the remote lying around and let your friends add anything from the 2 million+ track library to the queue and listen for hours!

If you have an XBox 360 or any Intel Viiv device then even better because this HMV Digital is supported on the Extender.

As always with HMV Digital if you have a Plays For Sure Digital Player you can sync up your downloads to your device and take them on road...

The service is not yet part of Spotlight for Windows Vista but you can add it to the 'more programs' menu by following the instructions below:

Create an xml file called RegisterMCEApp.xml' and paste the following into it

<application
      title="HMV Digital"
      id="{B0E0DD28-6C4C-40c4-A8A1-F7B686786940}"
      CompanyName="HMV">
   <entrypoint
          id="{B0E0DD28-6C4C-40c4-A8A1-F7B686786941}"
          url=http://www.hmvdigital.com/HMV.Digital.MCE.Portal/
          title="HMV Digital"
          description="Digital Jukebox">
      <category category="More Programs"/>
   </entrypoint>
</application>

Next create a batch file with the following in it

c:\windows\ehome\RegisterMCEApp.exe /allusers RegisterMCEApp.xml
pause

Run the batch file from the same location as the xml file and you should see "success" displayed in the console.  If you navigate to 'more programs' in Media Center on Windows Vista you should have an icon called "HMV Digital".

I have republished most of my technical posts at my new blog on wordpress.  From now on all of my technical stuff will get published there and all my personal, political and other rubbish will go on this blog. 

Don't forget to update your RSS feeds...

I've been getting increasingly frustrated with Windows Live Spaces over the last few months, but the realisation that in order to comment you have to sign in as a Windows Live user before you can comment is maybe the final straw.

I am weighing up the downsides of Spaces verses the downside of changing blog and having to build up my readership again.

Any comments or suggestions on what to do would be greatly appreciated, including ideas about which blogging service to move to...

I mentioned earlier about Sarah Blow's issues with internet access during her session.  She comments more on her blog saying:

[A]ll in all the organisers from the event did really well and were only really let down by the lack of internet access on Microsoft's part, which could quite easily be resolved by a guest wireless account or a relible [sic] wired network.

I hope that Microsoft will take a serious look into this for next time, especially when web 2.0 technologies and the latest softwares all interlink with the net one way or another. PLEASE sort it out for us next time!!!!! Pretty Please!  It will open up the topic areas for talks no end and demo's can then be done far easier!

I agree that, given enough notice, speakers and organisers should be able to get some sort of internet connection, but during dinner there was also talk about the need for delegates to have wi-fi.  Having thought about this over the last few days, I'm not sure that Microsoft should be expected to provide the infrastructure for a network separate from their corporate one for the 300+ guests that attend these seminars.  More to the point, why should delegates need internet access, aren't they there for the the talks, discussions, seminars and networking opportunities?

I woke up this morning to find the blogosphere teaming with news about the release of 'Microsoft Expression Blend' beta 1, which looks excellent.  'Blend', which used to be 'Expression Interactive Designer', which used to be 'Sparkle', is a product I have a great affinity for.  In fact if I hadn't had access to it I would never have chosen to develop the Regatta Manager in WPF.

Something that I think is a testament to WPF and it's power is that the 'Blend' UI is completely different to how it was back in September, and now looks reminiscent of Discreet's Fire, Flame and Combustion video production suite.  With the advent of styles within WPF reskinning a UI is a simple matter of loosing your design team on the application...

Whilst on the subject Scoble has an interesting post on the genesis of 'Blend', which goes back to early longhorn demonstrations, which turned out to have been made in Macromedia Director.

Also in a similar vein, the December CTP of WPF/E for the Windows and Macintosh platforms have been released along with associated SDKs and Sample Packs.

After DDD4 was the Reading Geek Dinner.  I was sitting with Craig, Oliver and Sarah, plus a guy called Tim Ensor who was rather drunk. I also spent a lot of time talking to Simon Harriyott and Anthony Steele in Bar Revolutions and as you can see from my naff camera phone photos below, I really need to get me a digital camera...

Thanks Zi it was an excellent evening!

Check out this aggregated feed for all blog entries and images from the evening.

Saturday was the 4th 'Developer Developer Developer' conference and it was an all round excellent day.  It was first time I've been to one on my own, which turned out to be a bonus as I actually made the effort to talk to some different people, so much so that I didn't make it to the grok talks which appeared to go down really well.  The other highlight of the day - for me at least, as it appears this was a repetition of what was said at DDD3 - was Ed Gibson's impromptu talk on security, the internet and our responsibility as developers to make our code safe and secure.  The stereotypical ex-FBI agent, certainly had a captive audience.

Of the five sessions I attended the ones by Joanna Carter, Sarah Blow and Helen Emerson stood out the most.  

I am going to talk about Joanna's session first as I don't want what I say to overshadow the other two speakers who were excellent.  There is no doubt about her technical knowledge and industry experience, but, to put it bluntly, Joanna Carter is possibly the most arrogant speaker I have listened to outside of university.  The only things I can remember from the session were the large number of references to how great Delphi is and a question from the audience about ASP.NET being dismissed because she only dealt with 'proper technology'.  She ended the session by extolling the virtues of wooden cameras over digital ones...

Anyway, enough of the bad points about the day, on to the good ones.  Helen's short and simple walkthrough about 'developing objects in JavaScript' evoked almost as many lightbulb moments as when I read Petzold.  This session would have put a lot of Atlas developers in good stead, certainly I now have a better understanding of how the object model in the Microsoft AJAX library works.

Despite the session being technically plagued (no Ethernet or wifi access for 3rd parties in a lecture room on the Microsoft Campus?  Go figure!) Sarah remained cool and the talk went very well.  There was a large amount of audience participation and it felt more like an informal discussion group than a lecture but she still managed to get through all of her material in the allotted time which was great.  In general terms I garnered a great insight into how blogs, podcasts, vlogs and RSS rivers can improve communication in business and came away with a number of ideas for both myself and for work.

Those that went remember to give your feedback and maybe win an MSDN subscription.

Not only did I get to meet Robert Scoble and his lovely wife Maryam, but also Sarah Blow of GirlGeekdom and Hugh MacCloud of GapingVoid too.  Andy Jones who I used to work with at Contemi also turned up which was great, so all round great evening!

Update : Amit Koth and Ajit Joaker were also there. 

I am heading into London to meet Robert Scoble of scobleizer.com fame. Should be an interesting evening.

Acephalous is conducting an experiment to track the progress of a meme across the internet.  By asking people to link to his post on the experiement and at the same time getting those that do link to beg their readers to do the same, he hopes to have something of interest to talk about during the Meet the Bloggers panel at MLA 2006.

So, to my limited readership...go blog, oh and chant after me..."By your command" in a really bad 80's sci-fi evil robot type way.

Scorbs on WPF and the Internet Sandbox

KarstenJ on Per Frame Animation

Beatriz Costa on CollectionView and CollectionViewSource

As I've mentioned before, Microsoft sent a film crew along to Skandia Cowes Week to see the Regatta Manager in action and below are the results. There is a technical and business version of the video.  Thanks again to Tim, Heather, Barbara and Ian at Microsoft who made this happen, and to Bubble Solutions for putting together this great film.  I'll stop now as this is starting to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech...

Skandia Cowes Week, Microsoft, WPF, Windows Presentation Foundation, SiSoft, Regatta Manager, Simon Middlemiss

I recently watched Al Gore, the man who "used to be the next president of the United States" give his documentary.  It's good, it's informative and it's scary as, well, the Earth flooding due to excessive ice melt.  I'm not sure what good it will do though without governments support, and even if they do, what good it will do without the United States taking a lead.  That's why I hope this documentary and the promotional material and tours that are going with it are a prelude to a 2008 presedential bid. 

Al Gore isn't what I really wanted to talk about though.

Today ITER received final sign off.  The biggest international science investment since the ISS, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is a colaboration of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Russia and the US and is possibly the only sustainable way of providing energy needs once we inevitably burn up our remaining hydrocarbon supplies.

It is however an inconvenient truth that sustaining a nuclear fusion reaction which produces more energy than is required to keep it going has been and still is a long, long way off.  It has been estimated that we are 100 years away from an economic, mass producable fusion reactor capable of completely supporting the energy requirements of this planet.

Building on previous successful projects like the Joint European Torus, the ITER project is designed to replicate the entire lifetime of a commercial fusion reactor plant from construction starting next year through to 2016 when the first plasma is expected to be generted upto 2026 when small scale electricity generation is expected and then a decomissioning phase.

It is definately a long haul project, but the huge benefits of clean, virtually unlimited fuel are worth the time and money being spent on what will effectively be the most expensive, technologically advanced kettle in the world!

Iter, fusion, an inconvenient truth

Well, following the disaster that was getting to his talk and being turned away, it turned out the Italian restaurant we went to was really nice, and that following a couple of beers the entire thing seemed quite funny.  Anyway we managed to finish dinner quick enough to get back to the Oxford Union with enough time to have a drink at the bar and then queue up for the signing session.

Daz said something profound about the need for a rational voice in this day and age, and kept his tongue about the Allied Atheist Alliance, sea otters and Mrs Garrison.  I figured he'd heard it all before so just said thankyou to him for signing his book and asked politely if he would mind posing for a photo.

So here's a really naff photo from my camera phone of Richard Dawkins and my bodyless head, the only proof of our strange outing to Oxford.

This evening (Tuesday 14th) Oxford Union were presenting Richard Dawkins reading from and speaking about his new book, 'The God Delusion' for which we bought tickets about 6 weeks ago. 

Having travelled for 3 hours, driven approximately 60 miles and dodged crazy on coming traffic on Wantage back roads due to a multi-car fire which closed the A34 North we arrived at the Oxford Union.  Spotting a huge queue of people trying to get in we joined the back only to be told about 10 minutes later that the venue was full and that we, along with the huge queue of people would not be able to get in. So we're sitting in an Italian restaurant drinking beer and waiting for the signing session, which is in....frack. 15 minutes. So 60 miles, 3 hours and we're not gonna even meet the guy...grrrrr....

Rant over.

About a month back we had need to do some load testing, and due to a misunderstanding about what exactly Visual Studio Team System for Software Testers included and how that was different to the Load Test Agent, I overlooked it and started looking for a free web load tester. 

I eventually realised we had the tool we needed already, but I am actually glad I didn't for two reasons, first because it gave me a better appreciation for where VSTS for Software Testers comes from and second as I was new to how load testing works and what tools were availiable I think I came away with a better understanding of why and how it can lead to a better end product.

Whether or not there is a shared code base between the three load testing tools that Microsoft have produced I don't know, but the similarities and evolution are unmistakeable.  There is a logical progression from the 'Web Application Stress Tool' through ATC and then Team Test.  The end result being a finely tuned piece of software with incredible power.  We managed to identify problem areas, bottlenecks, bad data, plus a whole host of other things using it that we wouldn't have otherwise.

Team Test is an excellent product, but it's big, so take the time to learn how to use it properly. 

Check out Bill Barnett's blog as a starting point, and this post inparticular, the 'Monitoring and Analyzing a Load Test Result' article on MSDN, plus the MSDN training resources from the Visual Studio Team System Developer Center.

Why am I worrying over a few days wait to get the RTM versions of Vista and Office from MSDN?  It's been so long in the coming you'd have thought I'd have bored of the hype...

Well I haven't and that's mostly because I am still using Beta 2.  Back around april I had to make a decision on which version of Vista and the WinFX (as it was still called back then) I was going to use for the Regatta Manager, at which point my home dev machine became a Vista PC, and as happens in the 6 months since then I've got it just how I want it.  Having now backed everything up, made sure I've got original media for all the utils, applications and powertoys I use day-to-day, I am itching to blank the machine and stick Vista RTM and Office RTM on there.

Boys with Toys.... :D

I once commented (on a post by Karsten Januszewski where he's talking about 'Hitting the Curve') that:

There isn't a curve.  It's more like jumping of a cliff, hitting the ground hard, dusting yourself off and then finding another cliff to do the same over.

Well, having just finished Petzold's latest book (Microsoft Press, Amazon, Waterstones) I'm extending that analogy.  His book is your parachute;  having read it, you'll find you have a better view of the WPF landscape, and when you reach the limit of your knowledge, you won't hit the ground quite so hard. 

I wish I'd had this huge asset a year ago, and had had the time to fully absorb what is in it, instead of ploughing in head first with only samples, forum's, blogs and a huge amount of trial, error and intuition. 

I envy those developers that are coming to the RTM version fresh, this technology has been proven in live environments, there is now a huge amount of documentation, samples and support and now with this book, there is everything a developer needs to create really stunning applications.

These are exciting times :D

WPF, Avalon, .NET 3.0, WinFX, Vista

Looks like I just can't keep my thoughts to myself anymore!

Tony Blair in an interview (summary, full text, podcast) with New Scientist tells of his difficulties with science at school and his new found appreciation for it since becoming a political leader.  He talks about his ideas for getting children and business more involved with science across the board and expresses his confidence in the public's ability to see scientist's point of view following healthy debates around issues such as stem cell research and GM crops.

But he also dismisses questions on the movement away from rational thought and increases in religious fundamentalism.

In certain areas, we seem to be moving further away from rational thought, whether it’s the rise of fundamentalist religious beliefs or the use of unproven alternative therapies. Do you see any shift in this direction?

I don’t. I think most people today have a rational view about science. My advice for the scientific community would be, fight the battles you need to fight.

He raises as an example homeopathy, saying a battle over that isn't going to change the world, which may be the case, and he may be right that most people aren't anti-science, but the problem is, that the people that are have both influence and power in our society.  This lack of understanding is highlighted by the answer to the next question.

One subject that is of great concern to scientists is creationism. There has been a suggestion that creationism is being taught in some British schools. What are your views on this?

His answer?

This can be hugely exaggerated. I’ve visited one of the schools in question and as far as I’m aware they are teaching the curriculum in a normal way. If I notice creationism become the mainstream of the education system in this country then that’s the time to start worrying.

This shows a deep disconnect with the problem at hand; we need only look at the United States to see that.  Their Christian right has so much influence and power that they can continually push creationism into science classrooms across the country despite a constitutional defined separation of church and state.  If it wasn't for the dedicated teachers, professors and scientists across America fighting this battle I have no doubt that they would have succeeded by now. 

I would normally say "where America goes we are never far behind" but in this case we are leading the way.  There are several schools in the UK that already teach both creationism and evolution in the science class, and as such we cannot accept that this problem is hugely exaggerated.  When we have organisations such as Truth in Science, funded by people like The Discovery Institute who are sending "Information Packs" to every science department in the country pushing bad science, lies and creationism wrapped up in new moniker, we cannot accept that the time to worry is when this becomes mainstream; by the time it becomes mainstream, it will be far too late!

We lost the first battle without even noticing, lets hope we don't lose the war.

Creationism, Intelligent Design, Tony Blair, Prime Minister, Evolution, Science

I am aware that my posts of late have been getting increasingly political in nature, something I didn't want to do when I started this blog, and I promise to get back to talking about WPF, Vista and how I'm using it soon, but I felt I had to post on this topic.

Whilst traveling into London on Saturday the guy across the isle was reading The Telegraph, and I noticed the headline Mother is denied Pill by Muslim pharmacist.  After reading something that Lindsay and Amanda had posted about on a similar subject, I looked it up.

A Muslim chemist repeatedly refused a mother the "morning after" pill because of his religious beliefs.

Jo-Ann Thomas, a school crossing patrolwoman with two children, was told that even though the item was in stock she should go to her doctor for her supplies.

When she was denied the pill at a Lloyds Pharmacy near her home in Thurcroft, Rotherham, she asked why and says she was told the pharmacist was a "deeply religious Muslim".

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Head of Professional Ethics, Lyndsey Balmer, replied with

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Code of Ethics and Standards requires that pharmacists act in the interests of patients and the public.

However, as with other regulators of healthcare professionals, the RPSGB recognises that a pharmacist's beliefs or personal convictions might prevent him or her from providing a particular professional service (for example the supply of emergency hormonal contraception). Although the code does not compel a pharmacist to provide a service that is contrary to his or her religious or moral beliefs, it does require pharmacists to respect patients' decisions and beliefs, and to advise them of other ways in which they can access the required service to ensure that their care is not unduly compromised.

If a pharmacist's beliefs or personal convictions prevent him or her providing a particular service, the pharmacist must not criticise the patient, and either the pharmacist or a member of staff must advise the patient of an alternative source for the service requested.

Now I suppose you can argue that the pharmacist did fulfill this obligation by recommending she see her doctor, but given the crucial time requirements of EC, and the usual time it takes to get an appointment to see a GP, you have to ask yourself, at what point do personal beliefs and convictions actually become harmful to others?  Quite frankly I think it is reprehensible that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and, if the above quote is to believed, other healthcare regulators allow those that they regulate to abscond from duty based on belief, when that duty is the provision of care to society.

Amanda puts it neatly when comparing this scenario to a diabetic using insulin.

In terms of actual use, hormonal contraception reminds me most of insulin. Insulin was invented to deal with an inborn medical issue that could, in theory, be controlled through abstemious behavior [but] if you suggested to a diabetic that eating a sandwich was wildly irresponsible, as if they aren’t demonstrating responsibility by measuring their blood sugar and dosing themselves with insulin, you’d rightly be called an asshole. And probably crazy.

I can’t even imagine what would happen if a sourpuss pharmacist refused to give out insulin prescriptions under the theory that he thinks that the people getting them just want to eat too much.

Although she's coming at this from a different angle it's still a valid point for my argument - that no healthcare worker should be protected because of belief (or any other reason) when they refuse to do their job - but why limit this to a discussion about woman's and sexual health care?  Shouldn't everyone be entitled to expect their health care professionals to deliver no matter what?

healthcare, emergency+contraception, religion