This is the coolest thing I've seen at Teched so far (apart from the .NET Micro Framework stuff). It is a fully featured Windows Mobile 6.1 system with GPS, GPRS and all the trimmings. Which you wear on your wrist. Find out more here.
There is already one superb .NET Micro Framework book available (the one wot I helped to write) but now there is another.
Expert .NET Micro Framework by Jens Kuhner is excellent. It is written for those who want to really find out how to use all the features of the framework.
Whereas our book is more of an introduction to the field the Expert book, as the name implies, goes into more detail on the various class libraries and how you can use them. It also has the benefit of having been published a year or so later, and so has more up to date detail on the platforms that are now available. The people "lucky" enough to be at my session yesterday all got a free copy of the book (which really put a spring in their step) and they will find it very useful.
If you are serious about the framework you should get this book. If you are not serous about the framework you should this book and become serious about it.
Well, I did my session. Thanks to everyone who turned up. I enjoyed doing it and it was nice of you to all laugh in the right places. For some reason (perhaps because this was my first "proper" TechEd session (last time it was a lunchtime session) I was a lot more nervous than usual, even to the point where the brain went blank and I forgot that the word for pin is "Pin" when typing in the demo code. Such is life, I did manage to make it work at the end and I hope that everyone who turned up got something out of the talk.
My name in lights, still can't quite believe it
After the talk I went down onto the exhibition floor to catch up with the .NET MicroFramework crew. There seem to be loads more devices and configurations now and it is great to see the platform progress. If you have ever thought "this hardware stuff is too hard" then please remember that in this case the clue is not in the name. Hardware can be easy, and the .NET Micro Framework is a great way to start making code really do stuff.
Loads of toys!
Then I went on to meet up with Dan Fernandez, who wanted to do a video interview for the famous Channel 9. We spent some time chatting and got on so well that I unbuttoned my serious speakers shirt to to show him the very-silliness of the T shirt beneath. When the video is up on the site I'll post a link so you can revel in my embarrassment.
Today it was check in time for TechED
What I'm here for
I signed in so early that they were still building the conference. I'm always amazed how quickly and efficiently they can put these events together and take them apart again. They are effectively building a small town in a huge hanger, on brand new carpet. And come the start it will all be there and it will all work. Of course this is not the only conference on here at the moment.
Of course, I could do a session at both.....
Once I'd checked in and had a quick look at my slide deck to make sure that the jokes were still in it I wandered back to the hotel. We are in the same place as last year, the air-conditioner has a wonderful control.
There's something great about having an area labeled the "Comfort Zone".
Next we went out to do some shopping.
In the US the buskers have harps....
Obligatory jumping killer whale shot
Seaworld was excellent. Gave me plenty of chance to play with the new camcorder (this including recording five minutes of "non-video" when I forgot to press the record button...).
There is probably something very interesting and fish related in this picture, but I'm darned if I can find it now...
Experience those penguins...
Back to work tomorrow, my session is at 10:30 in the morning, right after the keynotes. I quite like this, in that it means that I get it over and done with.
We flew out to Orlando today. We flew with Mr. Branson's favourite airline, which meant going to Manchester Airport to get on the plane, along with 450 other soon to be close friends. Normally I fly from Humberside Airport, which is just down the road and tiny. When you ring them up and ask them what time the plane takes off they ask "What time can you get here?". They don't have a luggage belt, just a chap with a wheelbarrow. Actually I'm being a bit unfair here, they have everything that you get at a proper airport. Last year they even had a delay. I love flying from Humberside, but I also love money, and unfortunately flying from Manchester was much cheaper.
Anyhoo, we got to make a two hour drive to Manchester and queue for a while. I tried to check in on-line, but the system wouldn't let me because all the on-line check-in was full. I wasn't sure what that meant until I got to the airport. The idea of internet check in is that you do all the hard stuff before you just turn up and drop off your luggage. The funny thing was that the queue at the airport for the luggage drop off was about three times the size of the normal one, which I thought was rather funny. Although of course our queue ran at a quarter the speed, which I guess more than levels things out.
The reason for this seemed to be that people were very fussy about where they were going to sit. I think that planes are now so big that they are becoming like cities. You have your east side and your west side, and a very dodgy neighbourhood down at the tail end. During the flight I went up to the galley to get a drink, and saw a rather nasty incident between the Sharks and the Jets which had to be defused by the stewardess lobbing in those little cans of cola (Virgin of course) and a barrage of small bags of pretzels. Down towards the cockpit someone had set up a gated community and where we were sitting several of the seats had been boarded up. In the middle over the wings there were loads of skips outside the seats, each full of last year's furniture.
But I digress. At least I got an aisle seat. Unfortunately it was behind the only person bad mannered enough to tip their seat back. I don't know whey they make the seats recline, because although you get that 75mm of extra space you also have to listen to the crunching of bones and the screams of pain from the person sat behind you. I had to put my legs into the aisle where they were run over by the drinks trolley and every one of the hundred or so small children that were also on the flight. Great stuff.
Eventually, we arrived more or less intact and made the taxi ride to the airport. The hotel is actually quite posh, and I'm really looking forward to the conference. And Disneyland.
Heading 'stateside again tomorrow. I've giving a session at TechEd 08 in Orlando, Florida which should be fun. Anybody who is turning up and wants the "Rob Miles Experience" (patent pending) can come along to my Micro Framework talk on Tuesday morning. I'll be giving away copies of my book, and one from someone else.
Today I finished marking the exam scripts (bad) and starting taking a look at final year projects (good). I've seen some amazing ones. From a student using cellular automata to make ambient music all the way through to flying around the solar system and looking at the planets.
Wonderful stuff.
Today (in fact this week) I have been mostly marking. Got dragged in to invigilate a Japanese examination this morning. I was supposed to just be the reserve, but someone must have failed to turn up (what a surprise) and so it was off to stand over a whole bunch of students writing something their Japanese exam. Which I really couldn't understand at all. Normally I have a look at the exam and think about answering a few questions and putting the answer book in at the end and seeing what happens. With this paper I don't have a chance.
What surprised me was the number of Japanese students there.....
Yesterday was nice in Hull (particularly pleasing as it was horrible in the south of England). But today we seem to have got a real blast of cold air from somewhere. It really is quite brisk. And after spending a while yesterday watering all the plants in the garden (not that I put them there) I was a bit cross to wake up after a downpour and find the whole place freezing.
Oh well, at least I'm at work in the bad weather.
Spent a big chunk of my Bank Holiday working, but I did find some time for Lego Star Wars. I've enjoyed it so much in the past that when I got a chance to buy the entire saga (all six episodes) on one disk I jumped at it.
If you've not played with the game then where have you been? It is a classic, not least for the quality of the cut scenes which are wonderful. It is also very had to get killed and two player action is a hoot. I have very fond memories of working through "Revenge of the Sith" with number one daughter. Much more fun than the film.
The new game is very much more of the same, but there are some nice tweaks here and there.
...and the Lego Indiana Jones game will be out soon.
I've bought a new toy. It is a Panasonic HD camcorder that records direct to HDSD memory cards. And it is lovely. Quality is amazing, and because I got the less than newest model (i.e. one that is six months old) the price wasn't too painful either.
I went on to Amazon to price up some memory cards and also a reader (high density cards use an interface that my old card reader doesn't like.
I found this. It looks like a real bargain. Until you find that the price does not include shipping (which is rather high at 4 quid, and even more if it goes for the overnight option - which is what the item seems to default to). Closer inspection reveals that it is, of course, not sold by Amazon themselves, but by a "partner".
I've noticed this more and more on Amazon. I bought a CD from a partner which turned out to be a different disk. Weasel words in the description told me that rather than being the album I thought I was buying it was instead a "special edition" (i.e. knockoff copy) of one of the singles from it. I never got my money back there, and I'm not prepared to risk it on this memory card reader either.
I expect a certain amount of rough and tumble when I buy from ebay, that is part of its charm. But when I go to Amazon I'm looking for quality because I equate it with a shop. I think they are going to be careful if they are not going to be tarnished by the sharp practice of the people they let onto their site. I must admit if there was a "don't show me partner offers" setting for my Amazon account I'd use it right away.
You can download all the material from DevDays 2008 from here. Have fun!
These "lucky" people were at my XNA talk today.
..and here is the rest of the room
Another smashing audience, thank you for laughing in all the right places..
I'll put all the content up here tomorrow.
Then it was off to do book signing. The man who runs the bookshop had, perhaps somewhat optimistically, got 100 copies of my book in to sell.
I ended up selling 10, which was nice. Then I went around and took a look at what the students here are doing with XNA.
The answer is lots, and very well. I saw some Imagine Cup entries and some very impressive work. Well done folks. And now I'm zooming of to catch a plane home for fish and chips.....
Geek night was a blast.
I've always wanted to see my name in lights. This is the project of the team presenting before me, who showed what happens when you marry dance floor displays with Wii remotes. They could draw on it, play games and, as you can see above, write silly messages.
The audience. Sorry it is a bit blurred, but the house light were off at this point..
The talk was fantastic, even the 8 player button bash game went well, although the players on controller one did suffer a bit when someone reset the counter....
I'm doing it all again tomorrow. And a book signing.....
So today it is time for another chapter in my jetsetting life...
The view from the plane was nice.
They had this special machine for installing tall presenters..
The talk was on the .NET Micro Framework, which is something I really enjoy taking about. The audience were great, and put up with my jokes, which is nice. I got to know them so well that I told them about "My Awful Experience in Schipol Airport a Toilet" this morning.....
I always take the pictures at the start, while the audience is still smiling. And in the room....
Tomorrow is DevDays in Amsterdam. I'm just packing and charging gadgets for the trip. I'm giving three talks, including one at Geek Night. I made a spectacularly embarrassing video for the event where I pretended to confuse the name with Greek Night. Fortunately I can't seem to find it on the site.....
First I must declare a vested interest here. David has promised to buy me a vest if I mention his software.
Actually no. In the old days only my mother bought my vests. Now number one wife does it.
But I work with David, which is how come I can recommend things he makes. Like Powerdown. You can get it here. It turns your computer off when you aren't using it. And makes it come back on quickly when you need it again. It is particularly interesting for large companies, who might have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of machines which they would like to make greener.
Powerdown also provides a way of controlling the power characteristics of large networks of computers from a single point, properly integrating with corporate systems to make things easy to manage.
Well worth a try.
I was messing around with some software to see if I can use webcam as a video viewer of the screen of a Zune. It doesn't work. (I can't focus close enough). But you do get amazing pictures when you leave the webcam lying on the desk.
I'm doing a session at Dev Days next week in their Geek Night slot. It is on XNA, and so I thought I'd have a play with "Hot Salad Death with Cheese" and get it running on the Zune.
Took 30 minutes.
Took another 20 to make the game play a random music track and display a spectrum analyzer as the music plays. Great stuff. I'm really looking forward to the talk now..
Hot salad death with music and cheese.
Rob Miles is technology author and educator who spent many years as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Hull. He is also a Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP. He is into technology, teaching and photography. He is the author of the World Famous C# Yellow Book and almost as handsome as he thinks he is.
