Reconnect through someone else

Sometimes the strangest things happen.
I received an email last week (when email still worked) from a friend in Cuppertino(can you guess where they work?) with a link to this article in SD Times.
It's a great piece by Larry O'Brien about the difference in abilities between developers. A more positive and thought through article than my rant Most programmers shouldn't write code.
Because of that article I was prompted to get back in touch with Larry and have a chat about a bunch of things going on in the tech world at the moment.
So thanks to one friend I am now back in touch with another friend and they don't even know each other. What a strange and wonderful world.

Yes my email is still broken.

MIX Essentials Austria and Denmark

Since announcing that I will not be presenting at ReMix Australia I have been asked to present Windows Live developer sessions at Mix Essentials in Austria and Copenhagen.
Looking forward to getting back to both of these cities at the end of May.
If you are going to be at either of these events feel free to drop me a note and we can meet up.

Mail hijacked

It looks like my email address has been hijacked. I have 472 messages in my inbox and they all seem to be returned mail.
I expect this means that my email will now be blacklisted and emails I send might not get through.
If you receive spam from my address, I am sorry, blame the spamhead that just hijacked my email.
Is this the beginning of the end of email?
Is email just a broken protocol now?
How much longer will it be before we give up with email?

Not at ReMix Australia

I have had a few emails asking if I will have time to meet at ReMix Australia this year. the answer is NO. The reason I can't meet is I will not be there.
I was going to do a session on Silverlight for Windows Mobile, I have been working on a proof of concept with Tricky Business and the Redmond team that I would have loved to show and talk about but it is not ready. Silverlight for Mobile is not ready and the proof of concept is not ready.
Silverlight for Mobile is currently a closed beta for a select few. I do not want to present, at the end of the day, on a technology that you cannot start playing with now (or very soon).
I am sorry if you were hoping to see me there, I am sure some of the local speakers will do a good job of keeping you entertained.

DevConnections and Live Mesh

After a successful few days in Orlando at DevConnections I am back in London.
At DevConnections I presented sessions on Windows Live (Silverlight Streaming and Data Portability) and Windows Mobile (Sync Center, Gadgets and windows Live apps for Windows Mobile). After Tuesday nights announcement of Live Mesh, I assumed that many of the attendees would be asking questions.
To my surprise most of them didn't know about it, and many didn't care. Why not? Because it is not of relevance to them, or so they believe. I think what we see with Live Mesh might be the start of something exciting, something I have spoken about for some time. I shouldn't have to print out driving directions from my home PC to take them in the car, the car should 'sync' with my home PC and know what I have been searching for on my home or work PC. It is the same story with my phone.
In my session at DevConnections on Windows Vista gadgets that speak to my mobile phone, I talk about building applications that know I am at my PC and so display content on the PC screen not on the phone. One of my biggest annoyances is still the fact that all my devices that sync with Exchange fire off reminders. I am now sitting at a hot desk I am using for a few days while in London. I have my laptop, tablet, UK phone and US phone on the desk. When a calendar reminder is raised all my devices insist on ringing bells. Why?
The keyboard of my laptop is being used and I am logged in, the other devices should detect this and only 1 reminder should be displayed on the device I am currently working with. I am hoping that Live Mesh makes these scenarios easier to deliver against.