It's alive! Run for your lives! Ahhhhh! Ok, don't do that. Run for the web site and order your copy today. I hope you like it. I tried to fill in the things I thought were missing in the previous book. As always: I look forward to your feedback. If you purchase a copy, please post your comments and ratings on Amazon? I really want to know what you think. Be honest. Your feedback is the only thing I have to go on for future books.
Here's the direct link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004U2UWRU
Every so often, it does the mind good to learn about, or experience a situation which demonstrates unsolvable problems. I think this is important in that it reminds us that we are not all-powerful. There are problems that the smartest humans on this planet, past and present, have not been able to make a dent in. Some are sad, some are curious, some are tragic. Ask anyone who's experience combat firsthand. Ask anyone who works in law enforcement or the fire department. Ask an ER doctor. Logic oftens runs for the nearest door before anyone notices it's gone.
Two documentaries I've watched in the past few months that have brought this home to me are:
I highly recommend both of these. Grab a box of tissues and tell all your macho guy friends that you're sick and can't come out to play. I would caution you not to watch them both back-to-back. I would suggest you watch something funny in between, and probably afterwards as well.
I was describing my thinking and speaking process to someone and realized it was a pretty good analogy:
Picture a big, open grassy field under a warm, sunny, blue sky. At the far end of that field is a gigantic pile of big, fluffy, happy-looking stuffed toys. On the near-side of the field is a school bus, stopping and opening the door to let dozens of happy, yet screaming, little over-caffeinated toddlers off. They see the stuffed toys. Now imagine the field is full of land mines.
Some of you might read that and get the wrong idea that I'm favorable to that scenario. I'm not. It's how my mouth runs out ahead of my brain without bothering to look for the dangers in between. That is all.
I just submitted the final cut to Amazon for publishing. It should be available for purchase in a few days. I'll be honest: This one snuck up on me. I really didn't expect as much work and time to be involved in this edition. My first impression of the changes in AutoCAD 2012 were that it was all about the product itself and very little (if any) to do with deployment aspects. I was wrong. Not incredibly wrong, mind you, but somewhat wrong. Is that proper English? "Somewhat wrong"? Is that like "sort of dead" or "kind of pregnant"? I don't know.
I put more work into the new Deployment building process, the small-but-important changes to the components and prerequisites (DirectX 9, 10 and 11 now), Visual C++ Runtimes 2005, 2008 SP1 and 2010, and of course - no party would be jumping without .NET 4.0 showing up with four bottles of heavy liquor in each hand.
I also spent more time capturing screen shots of the Development build process, discussing the options and caveates of folders, permissions, shares, logging and so forth. In addition, I spent more time with SCCM on the packaging, customization and advertising aspects with DirectX, and .NET 4.0 as well as with AutoCAD 2012 itself. I included some screen shots of Wise Package Studio 8 during the DirectX component packaging process. There are updates, tweaks, adjustments, shifts and changes scattered throughout the book this time. I hope the structure is better this time as well. I will post an update here when the book is available for purchase.
I'd like to thank Ralph Grabowski, Shaan Hurley and Rod Trent for being supportive and offering valuable advice and guidance, as well as the readers of the previous edition for (A) purchasing the book and (B) providing valuable feedback. Cheers!
Michael Pietroforte posted another in his series of articles on dissecting the impact of mobile apps on tradtional (i.e. desktop-based) web applications and web sites. It's a very good series to read if you (a) work in a field related to web development, web-based marketing, or (b) manage desktops and/or mobile devices on a large scale, and (c) give a crap about tech trends as a whole. I have been known to occassionally give a crap, but mine don't exude a fowl aroma, of course. posh posh and all that, pass me another crumpet please?
Here's why small, handheld mobile devices cannot completely wipe out desktops and laptops, or at the very least: tablets. The following tasks are simply impractical and painful to even attempt on a small handheld device form factor:
Ok. I'm sure some of you are shaking your heads and spinning up into a decent argument mode right now. "Oh yeah?! Well, what about…" Ok, let's hit those counterpoints too…
Some will say that it will soon be common practice to dock mobile devices within stationary systems (large video display, larger keyboard, mouse/pointer, etc.), which is already possible with some devices, but still is a limited practice. This concept defeats and NEGATES the mobile form-factor argument entirely. Sure, it makes the core computational device a bit more portable, but you're still only able to expose and exploit the full capabilities while it is docked. In between it is less capable. Period. Sure, you can message, tweet, take pictures, play music and all that, but compared with the docked experience it's a subset, because everything that can be done while undocked can be done while docked, but more can be done while docked. This is a basic mathematical principle.
Are mobile devices then an inferior form factor? No. Just different. But if we confine our discussion to comparing the aspects of a mobile device with what "threat" it poses to traditional desktop form-factors, then the gloves come off and it's apples-vs-apples from that point on.
* By "REAL Multi-tasking" I am referring to the ability to visually and manually view multiple sub-environments at the same time and simply move the eyes between them to consume their individual dynamic states. You cannot do that on a smart phone. Period. You have to hide one app to access another. I don't care how tricky the UI engineers get with that process, it's hamstrung by viewing space. On a desktop video display (or my flat-panel TV, even better, umm…. "Hello? Winner!") I can have multiple applications open without them competing for display real estate. I simply move my eyes to see what each is doing and make a quick decision as to which I want to interact with. On a mobile device I have to use my fingers to view each one, then discern the state and make a singular (serialized) decision about interaction priority, not a multi-nodal comparison with only my eyes (which are faster than my hands).
So. In the end: desktops, laptops and tablets aren't going to dissappear anytime soon.
From Ralph:
I wanted you to let you know that the brand-new What's Inside? AutoCAD 2012 ebook is now available.
In this release, Autodesk concentrated on 2D drafting -- along with throwing in a copy of Fusion, access to AutoCAD WS, and a host of 3D CAD translators. AutoCAD 2012's got 46 new commands, 26 new system variables, 64 changed commands and system variables, 9 removed commands and system variables, 6 undocumented commands, and 2 commands converted from Express Tools. The guide to all of this is the 120-page What's Inside? AutoCAD 2012 ($12.00 ).
To Order by PayPal or by Mail
To order this brand-new ebook, follow these steps:
1. Go to www.upfrontezine.com/wia12 .
2. Scroll down to the PayPal link.
3. Click the Buy This eBook Now button.
4. Follow the instructions.
You can expect the 3.5MB PDF file in your email in under 24 hours.
To pay by cheque , money order, or purchase order, include your email address and write to:
What's Inside? AutoCAD 2012
34486 Donlyn Avenue
Abbotsford BC
V2S 4W7 Canada
Thank you for being a customer!
Ralph Grabowski
Publisher
If you're one of the many folks that wishes Autodesk would put a leash/muzzle on InfoCenter (wscommcntrl.exe, etc.) you should be happy to read this:
"If you're upgrading to AutoCAD 2012, don't forget to also disable InfoCenter (unless you really need it). Just download and install AcadInfoCenterOff to disable it on any version of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. If you already have AcadInfoCenterOff installed, you can just run a repair install to apply to a newly installed instance of AutoCAD 2012."
Read the source:
PS. Thank you Owen! 
