Dr. Neil's Notes 9

Show 9

Greetings
Still in the USA
Last week in Silicon Valley
The buzz is coming back

Web 2.0 what does it mean - Tricky is getting his head around it
http://trickybusiness.blogspot.com/

Coming up MEDC USA and MEDC Australia
http://www.microsoft.com/australia/msdn/training/medc2006.aspx
www.medc2006.com

Happy coding!

Dr. Neil's Notes 8 - special edition

Show 8

Greetings from Seattle, Washington
A special edition with Jim & Michele McCarthy - raw and unedited
http://mccarthy-tech.com/

ViaVirtualEarth

eXtreme .NET

Jim's voice navigation system - was it Madge?

Happy coding!

Dr. Neil's Notes 7

Show 7

Greetings from Seattle, Washington
Weekend in New York
Sync Center Web Cast
UMPC
CTIA Mobile.com
ViaVirtualEarth team members in Seattle
Virtual Earth Commercial use
Live.com
MEDC Melbourne Australia, May 25th
Happy coding!

Playing with a UMPC

This weekend I have been playing with a UMPC ;)
It is a pre-production unit that was lent to me for the weekend. It takes a bit of getting accustomed to a touch screen. I am used to the screen only reacting to my stylus. After an hour with the UMPC I went back to my Sahara slate and found myself trying to use my finger to interact with the machine. Touch is a very intuitive way to interact with a user interface.
I feel there a number of exciting opportunities for the UMPC. I would like one as a coffee table device at home. I can see it would be useful as quick note taking device and have been using it for IM. If the battery lasted a bit longer (getting just over 2 hours on this one) I would like it as a portable media player. The sync story needs to be better, if all my email and contacts could easily (without me having to do anything) sync between my desktop and my UMPC then I would get one as a diary / organiser.

I would recommend getting one with 512MB of RAM, or more. I see some of the offerings out there are shipping entry level units with 256MB and 30GB hard drives. WTF!
I can’t see the point, the device will be unusable for much more than web browsing. I expect many sold with this configuration will lead to disappointment.
The minimum spec should be 512MB RAM and 40GB hard drive. My iPOD has a 60GB drive and is nearly full, and that is just music, podcasts and photos.
I will probably get one this year to play with. I would like to cut some code for the device. I have a couple of ideas rattling around in my head.

What no PodCast?

Sorry I am at the end of the world here in Seattle, where things go a little slower. I am so used to living in the future in Sydney!
It has been a really busy week, members of the ViaVirtualEarth team have been in Seattle. It has been a week packed out with meetings. A true Aussie would say "I'm flat out like a lizard drinkin' "
Tricky has been hanging out with me and getting his head around some cool new technology.
The Poly9 boys have also been in town. It has been a week of mashup madness!

Webcast: Centralizing Data Synchronization - 3/30, 11am PT

I am doing a Web Cast on the Vista Sync Center tomorrow.

Centralizing Data Synchronization
The new Sync Center in Windows Vista will become the hub for all data synchronization between the PC and applications, services, devices and other computers. Join Dr. Neil Roodyn as he takes a closer look at the development framework as well as the end user experience that Sync Center helps create.


Attendee link: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/lmevents/join?id=msft033006ts&role=attend&pw=att2459

Dr. Neil's Notes 6

Show 6
Greetings from the UK
Mix 06

Vista Touchdown Airlift
Ian G. http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/
3 things Ian likes about Vista
1: UAC
2: .NET & Winfx ships by default
3: The little things that all add up ;)
Happy coding!

Dr. Neil's Notes 5

Show 5

Greetings from London
Sunday Sydney - breakfast by the beach
Singapore - Monday meetings
Tuesday night London
Richard "Tricky" Bassett from TrickyBusiness
http://www.trickybusiness.co.uk

Ways to get creative with software development
Tricky will post more here:
http://trickybusiness.blogspot.com

Happy coding!

A Tricky Blog

Over the last 10 years Tricky has become both a great friend and we have worked on some cool projects together, such as ViaVirtualEarth.com. Tricky has started blogging on things that interest him, such as design and branding. Welcome to the wonderful world of blogs!

Dr. Neil's Notes 4

Show 4

Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes
Another sunny sunday breakfast - with Wayne Smith from the Microsoft Expression group http://www.wayne-smith.org/ http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/default.mspx

SWMUG http://www.swmug.org/
Talk'n Tablet Downunder
http://ubertablet.blogspot.com/2006/03/talkn-tablet-downunder-show-3.html

Project schedules - Parkinson's Law "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"
Schedule delivery on Friday not Monday!

Tuesday was my Birthday!! I got iLife 06 http://www.apple.com/ilife/

ViaVirtualEarth news
- new competition http://www.viavirtualearth.com/vve/Blog/1/108.ashx
- Driving Directions http://www.viavirtualearth.com/vve/Blog/1/110.ashx

Windows Live Preview at NineMSN office in Sydney
If you want an invite to Windows Live Messenger let me know

Happy Coding
Background music by Alex
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=dfad1507256f9a67e967eacd17ee9991

Tablet Guys Hijack Windows Mobile User Group

Tonight was the Sydney Windows Mobile User Group, I was going to give a presentation on ActiveSync development but for various reasons that got side tracked and then canned. It turned out that Craig Pringle was in Sydney from New Zealand and Uber Tablet Geek Hugo Ortega was also at the meeting.
So all the talk was about Tablet PCs, apps such as Active Words, speculation about Origami and Vista on Tablets. Oh well people seemed to have a good time, maybe that was because we were in the XBox room :)

Another Sunny Sunday Breakfast

This morning I drove into the CBD to meet Wayne Smith who is in town from the UK. Wayne works in the Expression group at Microsoft and was in Sydney for WebDU.
It didn't take much to persuade him to get a ferry across the harbour to Manly and then to my favourite breakfast place.
We chatted about many things; news in England, Tablet PCs, Windows Vista and of course the new Expression tools.
It was a gorgious morning and a perfect way to start a Sunday.

Dr. Neil's Notes 3

Show number 3 is up.

Shownotes
Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes
Breakfast by the beach - Cogans, Billy Hollis, Luke Burton, UberTablet Geek Family Ortagas
Doing the night shift - a week of getting up in the middle of the night for LiveMeetings
Vista LiveMeeting for Sync Center
MEDC http://www.medc2006.com/
Virtual Earth Madness - want to win an XBox 360? http://viavirtualearth.com/vve/Blog/1/105.ashx
AusDotNet -
Origami discussion
http://www.origamiproject.com/
Estimating time for developer jobs
Break it down - break it down
New version of Windows Live Messenger Beta
what happened to seeing contacts by status?
Happy Coding
Background music by Alex
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=dfad1507256f9a67e967eacd17ee9991

Dr. Neil's Notes 2

Show number 2 is up.

Shownotes
Greetings
Weekend in Coffs Harbour making new friends.

Patterns and Practices Summit in Sydney
http://www.pnpsummit.com/apac2006.aspx
Lots of content on Agile ;)

Patterns for Introducing Change

Win32 development left for dead?

Scoble nudges us towards Origami Project, what could it be ?
http://www.origamiproject.com/

Until the next time, Happy Coding

Dr. Neil's Notes

Dr. Neil's Notes is the first in what I hope will become a regular podcast. Containing my thoughts and comments for software developers.
Show Notes:
Grettings to Dr. Neil's Notes
Why am I doing this?
Alex Brooke http://japanese.libsyn.com/
UberTablet - http://ubertablet.blogspot.com
Topics from the AusDotNet mailing list
http://www.stanski.com/services.aspx#dotnetlist
Zero Defect Mindset
Chairs - Aeron - Herman Miller

Happy Coding

SWMUG

Last night I went to the Sydney Windows Mobile User Group. A great bunch of gadget geeks. UberTabletGeek, Hugo presented on Tablet PCs, he is very funny and you should read his blog post and his demo video is great!

Update: I promised I would post which VNC viewer I was using on my Pcoket PC - I use the VNCViewer from http://dotnetvnc.sourceforge.net/

Update 2: Leon's email arrived!

Another Tablet Fan Downunder

Hugo Ortega has been busy preaching the benefits of Tablet PC's ever since I introduced him to the wonderful technology last year.
He has now started blogging at UberTablet.
Great work Hugo, and welcome to the blogosphere.

New Wheels for new technology

'tis the season to recieve new technology! One of my recent aquisitions has been a desktop PC to replace the 3 year old box that has been hidden under my desk. The new box is heavier and bigger than the previous one and I have had enough of messing around under my desk.
The plan a set of wheels for the new PC, essentially a skateboard for my PC. The parts; 1 shelf, 4 casters, 2 door handles a bunch of screws. The tools; a drill, a screwdriver, some elbow grease.
The results:

Tablet Guy has left the building

Tablet PC Guy decided to leave yesterday. He now has his own blog where you can follow his adventures.
Good luck Tablet PC Guy.

The Desktop Goes Online with Goowy

If you want to waste some time and explore a possible future for the desktop check out Goowy.com
This is very cool. I love the streaming podcast feature, really neat.
I hope they produce some kind of API so 3rd party developers can start to produce content for Goowy.