MetroStar Systems has implemented Microsoft’s Pivot technology to create a new way to search Supernova: Visually! If you haven’t checked it out yet, give it a try by clicking here and see what catches your eye!

What is Pivot? Put simply, it’s an interactive navigation system built by Microsoft (on top of Silverlight) to organize vast quantities of data in a way that’s both fun and easy. To learn more about the product, check out the Pivot website: http://getpivot.com/

What excites us most about this technology is the variety of ways our posts can be visualized: By Author, Category, Post Date, or even by Tag! This is the kind of navigation that you simply do not get with a traditional archive.

For those of you who are more technically oriented, you can check out Lee Kohn’s earlier blog post to see what code we implemented to get our new visual search up and running.

What are you waiting for? Scroll up and click on the friendly alien to give it a shot!

1. A much, much simpler interface. In both the theme/layout and in the organization of the blog, we took every step to ensure that we ended up with a much cleaner, easier-to-navigate blog. We literally cut our categories down from 57 to 5! All of the widgets in the sidereel were re-organized into a better configuration. Search is now prominently featured at the top.

2. A whole bunch of behind-the-scenes: Not all of the work that was done is immediately visible on the front page. We went through a kind of “spring cleaning” phase: deleting old and unused media, evaluating and updating plugins, consolidating tags, that sort of thing.

3. A shift to WordPress 3 “Thelonious” of course! This is a powerful platform that gives us the flexibility we need to make a blog like Supernova. A huge thanks to the entire WordPress team for putting together this awesome package! We found the upgrade to be simple, and easy.

4. Visual Search functionality! Using Silverlight + Pivot we are now able to visually navigate Supernova posts and pages. If you haven’t seen it in action yet, check it out!

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Threading;
using mshtml;

namespace JSInjector
{
    class Program
    {
        [STAThread] //needed for COM compatibility
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            /*
            this is the javascript which will be injected
            it takes one parameter and returns it multiplied by the number of images in the page
             * */
            const string jsToInject = @"
                function doStuff(foo)
                {
                    return document.images.length * foo;
                }";

            //create a new WebBrowser and point it to a website
            WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
            wb.Navigate("http://metrostarsystems.com");

            byte loopCount = 0; //we wouldn't want an infinit loop would we?
            while (wb.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
            {
                if (loopCount > 200)
                    throw new Exception("Page did not load after 20 seconds!");

                Application.DoEvents(); //needed by the WebBrowser so that events are processed

                Thread.Sleep(100); //if the page hasn't finished loading wait 1/10 of a second
                loopCount++;
            }

            HtmlElement scriptEle = wb.Document.CreateElement("script"); //create the script element
            scriptEle.SetAttribute("type", "text/javascript");

            /*
             Load the javascript into the script element.
             The type casting is necessary since the HtmlElement will not let you set the innerHtml or innerText of a script element
             Note: You must have a reference to the MSHTML (Microsoft HTML Object Library) COM dll in order to do the typecasting
             */
            ((IHTMLScriptElement)scriptEle.DomElement).text = jsToInject;

            wb.Document.Body.AppendChild(scriptEle); //add the script element to the page

            int jsParam = 5; //5 will be the parameter passed in to the JS function
            object returnedFromJs = wb.Document.InvokeScript("doStuff", new object[] { jsParam} ); //call the doStuff JS function with 5 as the argument and store the result

            Console.WriteLine("Returned " + returnedFromJs);
        }
    }
}

Error “Failure To Import Audio Stream”

1. Open the command prompt application
   1. I do this by typing cmd in the “Run…” text box
   2. Navigate to the directory where Adobe Captivate 4 is installed
      1. For me it is located here, [C:\Program Files (X84)\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 4]
      2. Once  you’re in the directory type “regsvr32 NSaudio.dll” and press Enter

Error 42001

1. Open the command prompt application
2. Navigate to the [c:\windows\sysWOW64 directory]
3. Once you’re in the directory type “regsvr32 c:\…\Adobe Captivate 4\PpsUplo.dll” and press enter

Day One

As my two month internship here in Reston draws to a close, I have taken the time to reflect back on the time spent at MetroStar Systems.  The experience has given me a window of perspective into life at one of the most personable, friendly and team-oriented companies I’ve ever had the pleasure to have known. The past nine weeks have provided me with so many minuscule tidbits of information and pieces of knowledge that will surely stay with me throughout my professional career. Some of the things, such as managing social media accounts via HootSuite and social bookmarking, were simple yet useful workplace tools that were unbeknownst to me until my arrival at MetroStar. Other tasks provided me with skills and the preparation for life in the real world of business. Sitting through and watching a business model presentation come together from scratch and watching it progress until just hours before it was to be presented was one of the most useful learning experiences I’ve ever had.

I have yet to take a class that could come close to emphasizing the value of implementing BMG and applying it to all aspects of a project/business/anything in life.

The month of July went by faster than I could have ever expected it to. The World Cup came to a close after a month of random outbursts of cheers, streaming games in minimized boxes in the corner of the screen, and a first WC win for La Furia Roja. Soon after the Cup ended, the marketing squad gained two new members: Monica Huie and Patricia Joo. After the new additions, the team moved forward at a previously unseen pace of speed and multitasking. New projects seemed to come in from all directions and it quickly became clear that this new formidable block would be more than capable of handling its workload.

As I near the end of my last task here at Metrostar Systems (this blog post), I can’t help but to smile when I try to think of any negative aspects of my experience. There was one thing that will always stand out and bug me about this place. Over the course of all of the FIFA 10 soccer matches played by the company B-Team, not ONE of the games ended in our favor. Oh well, I couldn’t have asked for a better duo to pair up with than Daniel and Ethan and I’m sure that one of these days (maybe years from now) we’ll  pull it together and beat a football side a prominent as the KC Wizards or the Colorado Rapids

-Jon Malley

Another year has passed here at MetroStar Systems and yet another Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Visual C# award has been bestowed upon our own Mostafa Elzoghbi. In what has seemingly become an annual occurrence, Elzoghbi secured a Visual C# MVP award for the fifth consecutive year. This exclusive award is given to those who survive the extensive review process that encompasses around 100 million technical community participants worldwide. Not only is this an outstanding personal achievement, but it helps everyone on the MetroStar Systems team by improving the overall reputation of the company as a Microsoft Gold Partner.

Ever since he had the innovative idea of establishing the first .NET community in Kuwait (known as DotNet Boom), the MVP status has been a yearly staple for Mostafa. Though, it’s hardly surprising when an accomplished professional such as himself has stated his intentions of winning the award each year as long as it’s being offered. Over the past year, Mostafa has traveled across the globe to speak at various SharePoint Saturday events, including New York City and the Arabian summit. Some of the projects he has worked on include War Gaming BPM for the Air Force and SharePoint ELearning for the USMC. He also has a resourceful blog where he advises on various .NET issues and problems.

The summer of 2010 has been a hot one in the DC metro area with temperatures averaging in the 90′s for most of July.  So it’s no surprise that MetroStar Systems was recently recognized as one of the “Hottest DC Area” Companies.  Temperature was not really one of the requirements, it is really because of our growth over the past 3 years.