Seats are limited, so check the Facebook event to register.

TPL’s office is located in K300, Tan Binh District:

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As you know, Apple doesn’t allow any interpreted or run-time compiled program, that why you don’t see Java, Flash or pure .NET applications on iPhone. Mono Touch is .NET based frame work, so why the application build by Mono Touch can be run on iPhone?  The magic here is Mono’s Ahead-of-Time(AOT) feature, it generates all native code that application could generate at run-time ahead-of-time, so the application deployed to iPhone is 100% native application.

Pros of Mono Touch:

• Developers can use their existing .NET experiences.
• Developers can take advantage of many .NET features like garbage collection, LINQ, web service, OpenTK…
• It includes a great interface builder tool.
• Mono is a cross platform, so it’s possible to port application build by Mono Touch to Android or Windows Phone 7.
• The productivity increases, because C# easier than objective-C.

Cons of Mono Touch:

• It requires a Mac.
• It’s too expensive. Mono Touch costs $1000 for one developer and $3999 for 5 developers with one year free update.
• The size of application is bigger than the same one build by objective-C because it needs to include the Mono framework.
• Apple banned Mono Touch on iOS 4, they have just lifted the ban a few days ago and we won’t know if they will ban it again later.
• Can not use things that it doesn’t support like XNA or Unity3D.

There are a lot about Mono Touch that i have not discovered yet. In general, it’s a cool framework for .NET developers to start making something on iPhone, the most popular smart phone that grow from zero to 80 million devices in only three years. But, in my opinion, i would like to start learning objective-C, because learning new thing is always good for you.

As a TPL .Net developer, I have just researched about StoryTeller for some days. I think this is a good automatic acceptance test tool because it uses the same mechanic as Fitnesse tool(also a BDD test tool), especially it’s built in .Net language. In current version (v1.0), It supports almost some basic features as Fitnesse features, such as:

• Support defining test case as executable specifications.
• Run test case automatically in two modes (local or remote) and export result in visual user interface.
• Support integration test, integrated with source control, and visual studio because it’s built in .Net.
• Manage test-cases in tree level and group in project.

About comparing with Fitnesse test engine, in current version, I don’t see a very big difference in features, except these things:

• It’s built in .Net and cleaner in core code and simpler mechanic (I reviewed its core code and see that not so hard to understand and use it), so there are immediate benefits for newbie to be familiar with writing test automation code.
• It can accelerate the process of creating tests by authored with a client written with WPF.
• In current version, StoryTeller focus on supporting developer to create tests well, not like Fitnesse, It supports tester and business partner to express requirements in wiki page.
• This is an open source tool, and I think it will has more great features in the future, and we also can customize it by our-self.

Anyway, as the author said, building a new BDD test engine, cleaner, simpler and integrated better with .Net environment, also old engine framework is the first goals in current version.

I like this tool and It can be considered to use as quite good BDD test engine in our projects.

“The Saigon Mobile Dev Camp is an event focusing on mobile application development with professionals and young software developers.

Over the weekend, participants will share, learn and innovate thanks to: Workshops animated by Vietnamese and foreign experts.

A 24-hour coding contest on mobile applications development.

Attendance is free of charge. The event will be bilingual, in both Vietnamese and English.”

Last year’s MDC was a great success. It was the first event of its kind in Vietnam, combining training in different mobile platforms with a coding competition that lets developers put their new knowledge into practice. Plus, its free and open to anyone with a passion for mobile apps and some coding skills. We had over 75 attendees, and 8 teams stayed overnight to build apps for the coding competition.

TPL organizes this event every year as part of our overall mission to bring the state of the art in Internet technology innovation to Vietnam, and fast track the development of Vietnam’s top local talent. We’re looking forward to this year’s event, and are excited to see the apps developed by this year’s participants!

Paul, as usual, is discussing the rarefied world of founder/coders; while I love these guys, it’s not actually that great a description of the customers we work with, who tend to be exceptionally savvy in areas that aren’t software. Still, the idea is the same: spend the absolute minimum to build a real, working product and get as quickly as possible to ‘sustainable’.

Of course, the whole article (including recipes) is worth reading but here’s the section that resonated the most with me:

A startup that reaches ramen profitability may now be more likely to succeed than not. Which is pretty exciting, considering the bimodal distribution of outcomes in startups: you either fail or make a lot of money.

While I would love it to be true that 50% of ramen profitable companies will “succeed,” I do agree that if your company can achieve any kind of real cashflow profitability, you’ve passed a huge hurdle and your chances of success are hugely better than average…not only because the business is proven to be working, but because you’re now giving yourself several different types of success to choose from.

And isn’t freedom to choose one of the real reasons we’re in this entrepreneurial game, to begin with?