Month: October 2014

ArcGIS Runtime for .NET

For the past 10 months my working life has been consumed by implementing functionality in and around ArcGIS Runtime for .NET. Our product does much more than just be a front end for a map but having that map nod working against the API has been a big part of what we have been doing.

I have had to remain fairly tight lipped on what we have been doing as we signed a NDA bit know that runtime for .net has been released I can start to talk about things more.

For the past year or so know it is plainly evident that Esri has upped their game. I always liked what the Silverlight/WPF/.NET team have been doing but the work that has been put into the core c++ runtime is impressive.

Over the course of the next few months I will blog on all things runtime so watch this space.

Rangers FC

I am a Glasgow Rangers fan. Have been since the day I was born, I just did not know it yet!

The past few years have been torture for any Rangers fan but I believe this year has been the worst so far. We successfully navigated the lower two leagues with relative ease and 50k watching in Ibrox every other week.

Everyone knew that this season was going to be difficult. Hearts and Hibs being in the championship adds an extra dimension to a league that was already going to be challenging bit let’s face it, the wage bill at Ibrox should be making these games a cake walk.

There are a few shining lights out of the whole thing though.

Lewis MacLeod is one of the best Rangers prospects I have seen. He’s the best player on the park right now and I hope he stays fit and stays at he club.
Nicky Clarke is fast and has an eye for goal, the missed him up front against Hibs and will be glad when he comes back
Ian Black gets a bunch of stick but he is consistently getting talked about a man of the match and I agree.

Kris Boyd was a beast for us before he left and I respect that but he is not firing right now. Take him off and put Clarke and Templeton up front. Their pace and ball skills will get goals and scare most defenses.

Mohsni is a liability but that’s ok if you pair him with a decent defender. Zaloukas looks composed sometimes and downright scary at other times. I don’t know how hearts did not leak goals. He’s not had much game time though.

The most scary thing about rangers right now is not on the park, it’s who is running it. Ibrox is a ghost town compared to other years as plenty of fans are boycotting the games. The club managed to blow all of the IPO money with some of it being dubious at best.

I would really like for Rangers to be like Hearts setup where the fans own the club and there is a fan group that decides matters. The club is never going to be a European giant if it stays in Scotland, the money is not there so any business owner is doing it either for the love of the club or, like the most recent set of management, to make money. I believe making tangible money is impossible so the owner and the well being of the club are at odds.

Hopefully a true rangers fan (where is Dave King in all of this?) steps up mad does the right thing.