Business Lesson: Focus on the positive things

This week I found out that a person that I have known for many years had sold me out. This person I had dealt with in the past had a tad of a habit to always elbow his way to the front when there was a little bit of praise or fame to be had at the cost of others around him, but myself having a big ego at times I felt this was just the way life when some egos clash and always saw it as good hustle no harm no foul was my rule.

I was happy to sit down with this person giving advice freely and openly when asked and assisting were I could, but a few days ago I found out that this person had not only given intro opportunities to others without the courtesy of a quick heads up but also hasnt been portraying me in the best light to others.

My first reaction was to throw one of my famous and patented “hissy fits” and swear revenge to all gods that were listening but of course this really does not help anyone especially yourself. Focusing on the negative things only in the end wastes time and energy and in the end never leaves you with a good feeling. Instead just focus on the good things that are happening and put your energies there for me it means a few extra hours a month to spend with family and friend or even to make better apps, which is something to be more proud of then getting even with someone.

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Lean Startup: So you think you have a brilliant idea, yeah who else ?

One of very common mistakes a startup can make is thinking they are on a winner, we even laugh at them during shows like Dragon Den as some more sod shows of a universal baby interchanging device thingy that he has donated the last X years of their life too. The poor person always looks so surprised too when others are not blown away with excitement when the idea is placed in front of them.

So how do you know if your in that fools camp or that you do have an idea ready to explode, where everyone will be saying with envy at parties for years to come: “I could have come up with that”.

Its not asking your friends, your partner or your mum … they always lie god bless them. Instead the truth comes from one place: customers. Get your idea out there in front of customers they will tell you bluntly and quickly if they like your idea by the action of giving you money.

I will be presenting the Sydney Windows Bizspark Camp

Believe it or not you can be a startup that is not on the web or not on the iphone, so to prove that these people do exist we have created a bizspark camp to see talk about what is happening.

It should be a great afternoon of networking so why not come along and see what is happening.

The quick overview:

Join us at the Windows 7 Modern Applications BizSpark Camp on 14, June 2010.
Get an overview on how to design and incorporate key new features of Windows 7 in your applications; giving them a modern twist while incorporating resources like multi-touch interface, ribbon menus, task bar integration, external sensors like gps, WiFi Location services, accelerometers, and other features.
This half day event will be hosted at the Microsoft Sydney Office in North Ryde.

The Event will be followed by a hands on lab event on the 25th of June at the Microsoft Training Labs in the North Ryde office. Both of these events will feature MVP & BizSpark Network Partner James McCutcheon of Foundry38.

If these two events inspire you further, and you think you have what it takes to build a Proof of concept around your Windows 7 Modern Application idea, you will be invited to participate in a three day intensive Proof Of Concept development program which includes Technical & Business experts on hand to help guide your development. This is also being held at the Microsoft Office on 28th, 29th, and 30th June 2010. On hand to help with your development will be Dr Neil Roodyn, Microsoft Regional Director & MVP.

Event Agenda

14 June Event

12:30 pm – 1:00 PM Registration
1:00 pm – 1:15 PM Keynote Speech
1:15 PM – 1:45 PM Windows 7 Modern Applications and the Business Opportunity for Startups
1:45 PM – 2:30 PM Building Modern Windows Applications (Session 1)
2:30 PM – 3:00 PM Afternoon Tea
3:00PM – 5:00 PM Building Modern Windows Applications (Session 2)

More information and registration can be found here

PdfResult a custom ActionResult in ASP.NET MVC2 Updated

I was attempting to add the functionality of a pdfresult into my site to generate pdfs in MVC, and I stumbled over this great post by Jim Zimmerman but it didnt work for me as I believe some changes that have come in MVC 2 have broken it. I have made some changes below that will get to work if anybody else needs it go for it.

public static string CaptureActionHtml(
this Controller controller,
TController targetController,
string masterPageName,
Func action)
where TController : Controller
{
if (controller == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(“controller”);
}
if (targetController == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(“targetController”);
}
if (action == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(“action”);
}
// pass the current controller context to orderController
var controllerContext = controller.ControllerContext;
targetController.ControllerContext = controllerContext;

// replace the current context with a new context that writes to a string writer
var existingContext = HttpContext.Current;
var writer = new StringWriter();
var response = new HttpResponse(writer);
var context = new HttpContext(existingContext.Request, response) { User = existingContext.User };
HttpContext.Current = context;

// execute the action
var viewResult = action(targetController);

// change the master page name
if (masterPageName != null)
{
viewResult.MasterName = masterPageName;
}

// we have to set the controller route value to the name of the controller we want to execute
// because the ViewLocator class uses this to find the correct view
var oldController = controllerContext.RouteData.Values[“controller”];
controllerContext.RouteData.Values[“controller”] = typeof(TController).Name.Replace(“Controller”, “”);

// execute the result
viewResult.ExecuteResult(controllerContext);

StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
var viewContext = new ViewContext(controllerContext, viewResult.View, new ViewDataDictionary(controllerContext.Controller.ViewData.Model), new TempDataDictionary(), sw);

viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, HttpContext.Current.Response.Output);
response.Flush();

// restore the old route data
controllerContext.RouteData.Values[“controller”] = oldController;

// restore the old context
HttpContext.Current = existingContext;

return sw.ToString();
}