TechEd 2007 Orlando

Day 2 of TechEd already!
Catching up with lots of people and my decks and demos are nearly finished.
It was interesting to see Agile given so much time in the keynote yesterday, and the Agile .NET session yesterday lunch time was packed out.
I am talking to lots of people who say they are getting value out of the event which is good.
There is, of course, a lot of marketing hype and BS around as well. It amazes me that peopl eactually believe that buying a software tool/product/plugin/component will make them better developers.
As I pointed out at the Agile .NET session, delivering great software is about sticking to values, not applying practices or using tools. The practices are only there to help you stick to the values, and if the practices don't do that then you need to change them.

UberNewbie revealed!

The ScreenEdit newbie has revealed herself.
Her name is Cassie Smith and she is blogging, go Cassie go!
The tag line "Don't lose me, my battery is dying" has already become an in joke for the ScreenEdit team.
We all attended an event in London on Tuesday and Cassie was walking behind us. Cassie said "Don't lose me, my battery is dying". I had to wonder what type of charger was required to recharge an UberNewbie :)

WebJamin' at Remix Aus

According to Michael Kordahi of the Microsoft evangelism team I am "the most connected and community focused person on planet earth"

Michael, flattery will get you places, and of course I am more than happy to tell people about Webjam @ ReMix Melbourne in June.

Webjam is where (16) people present something interesting that they’ve done online to the crowd. They only get 3 mins to present. There’s SMS voting, then at the end of the night a winner is chosen. It’s set at a bar and is very casual and a lot of fun. More info on Michael's blog and on the Webjam site.

If you have something you would like to show off, get in touch with the WebJam folks to reserve your presentation slot now.

Sounds like it should be good fun.

Who is the ScreenEdit newbie?

ScreenEdit has a new team member, there is a camera shyness issue to resolve.

I wonder what newbie will be doing on ScreenEdit?

I am looking forward to some great things.

PDC was missing - I knew nothing, honest

From my last post you may have noticed PDC was missing. This was an unintentional slip but some people have read something else into the omision.
The rescheduling of PDC was nothing to do with me - honest.

Conference season has started

Last week I was in Las Vegas (yeh baby!) for MIX and MEDC.
Doing 2 conferences that overlap was ambitious but it worked out great. I met so many amazing people and had fantastic conversations about technology, the future of the web, and heaps of other topics.
I also got to see some very cool new projects.
My friends from the ScreenEdit team in the UK were also there, recording plenty of conversation and points of view. Look out for the interviews appearing on the site soon.
So what other conferences do I plan to attend this year?

• TechEd in Orlando
• ReMix Australia in Melbourne
• TechEd Australia on the Gold Coast (yes the site uses Flash - can you believe it?)
• DevConnections Las Vegas

Maybe I will see you at one of these events?

Time to switch the lights back on

I know I've gone dark for the last month (ish). I needed some breathing space to get certain projects moving in the right direction.
I am getting there now and it is time to start switching the lights on a few of the projects I have been working on.
ScreenEdit soft launched a couple of weeks ago and is the first project to switch the lights on. Screenedit is the magic antidote for designer's block, it provides ideas and thoughts from some active members of the community along with a gallery of interesting projects and of course a blog.
ScreenEdit is a joint venture with Tricky from Tricky Business.

Sorry My Inbox is Full

The impact on my inbox from spending my time travelling between Sydney, San Francisco, Seattle and London has been catastrophic.
In the last 2 weeks I have been around the world, met amazing people, caught up with friends, started discussions, concluded business deals, opened new opportunities and watched my inbox fill up.
I answered over 100 emails on the last flight from Chicago to London which made a tiny dent.
If you are waiting for a reply, I appoligize, if your email is in my inbox I will get to it eventually.

TechEd Sessions

I am sitting in the airport about to fly out of Sydney and I get an email telling me that I am going to be presenting the following sessions this year at TechEd in Orlando

Windows Live Services on Windows Mobile

Mashup Windows Live

Windows Vista Gadgets That Talk to My Mobile Phone -

The Synchronization Story: Building Windows Mobile Applications That Work with Windows Vista Sync Center

How cool! Looking forward to showing off some cool idea in these sessions :)

Audi project announced

One of the projects that has kept me busy in the last couple of weeks was announced last night by none other than UberTablet himself.
The project was to create an Audi branded software keyboard for the UMPC. The skin for the keyboard was designed by TrickyBusiness in Expression Blend. It totally rocks (even if I say so myself!)

Update: For pictures of beautiful women stroking my keys be sure to check out Hugo's blog post :)

Vista on the iTablet

This weekend I took the challenge of installing Vista on my iTablet. Up until a little birthday present arrived in my inbox last week I had been told that the iTablet would not support Vista due to BIOS issues. Well it appears that the BIOS issues can now be resolved with a BIOS update from Amtec (the OEM).
I am always fearful of flashing the BIOS, it used to be something that would often leave a computer dead and useless (in the old days). This was a painless enough process that could all be done under Windows XP.
I was considering installing Vista on a spare hard drive just in case it all went wrong, but in the end decided to simply back up my data and zap the whole machine for a clean install of Vista. I am now super glad for it. The iTablet has a new lease of life and seems to work even better than before, faster response etc...
The screen rotate hardware button is the only thing I havent got working yet. Anyone out there solved this?

Dr. Neil's Notes 44

Welcome to Dr. Neil's Notes Show 44

Welcome back to UUUUUbertablet....Hugo Ortega!!!

Long distance chat - he is about 15 minutes drive along the beach :)

The Car project
Also here

what else has Hugo been doing?

IM- for charity ...

Dr. Neil flies out next week
Is Hugo going to make it to the MVP Summit?

TechEd talk
What would you like us to talk about?

Another SideShow developer in the blogosphere

My mate from Cambridge (UK), Richard Jones, has started playing around with SideShow technology.

As Richard points out
However to get things up and running you need to install the Vista SDK (big, download at (32bit) )

This is just so you can get the simulator. I have sent several emails to the SideShow team asking them to unbundle the Simulator so that managed code developers (such as Richard) can get started without having to download the whole Vista SDK.
So far it seems that there are 'legal' issues with doing this. Come on Microsoft, this is just BS. The Managed SDK is useless without some way to see the output, most people dont have a real sideshow device, so please will you ship the simulator as an individual download?

Dr. Neil's Notes 43

Welcome to Show 43

News:
What a week!
Meetings at Microsoft
Microsoft Research presentation
UMPC application development - UK and Aus
WPF - what is it good for?

Exercise for the brain
Reading, thinking, planning, playing
Brainstorming groups

Happy coding
This podcast was recorded with Castblaster

Book Review: Applications = Code + Markup

Applications = Code + Markup
By Charles Petzold

I know that a large percentage of my readers are software developers, so I thought it was about time I reviewed a programmers book.

Charles Petzold is the programmers author. His writing has taught hosts of developers how to build Windows applications. Most of my initial Windows programming knowledge came from Charles’ original Programming Windows books. I have been fortunate enough to meet Charles and learn that he sees himself first as an author not a programmer. This should be apparent to anyone who reads his books, he writes with style, flow and panache. His books are easy to read and stand out in the vast wasteland of badly written technical books.

I give this book 9 out of 10

Full review here

Dr. Neil's Notes 42

Welcome to Show 42

News:
Real work - well kinda!
Coding with Messenger APIs - agents and activities
Energy Levels - highs and lows

Doing your best?
Or managing upwards?

Happy coding
This podcast was recorded with Castblaster

New Version of the Route Finder Gadget

I have updated the Windows Vista Sidebar Route Finder Gadget.
It now sits nicely in the Sidebar when it is docked, provides feedback when it is still downloading the maps, and the Sideshow component includes left/right button navigation and clearer maps.


Let me know what you think.

Book Review: The God Delusion

The God Delusion
By Richard Dawkins

I have been a fan of the writings of Richard Dawkins for over 10 years now. This book is brilliantly written, stimulating, thought provoking and funny. Richard has a very British sense of humour that appeals to me. His intellectual pursuits further cement my connection with him as an author.
Richard’s ability to break down the arguments and present Religion with a scientific viewpoint is invaluable. The truth behind the delusion that still persists throughout the world is clearly stated and broken down into its (ridiculous) components.

I give this book 9 out of 10

Full review here

Dr. Neil's Notes 41

Welcome to Show 41

News:
Trip to New Zealand
8/12 exercises
Dinner with Tatham and Tom from Fuel Advance
Jennifer Forsythe - again!

Making Software Development Easier
Does lowering the bar to software development help or hinder the industry?
NUnit

Happy coding
This podcast was recorded with Castblaster

The 8/12 Gut Buster

Last week Kris posted a blog entry about what I am calling the 8/12 exercise system.
This week I started trying it out, I started on Monday with 15 minutes on the stationary bike and while it certainly made me sweat more, it felt like time went faster as I was focussed on keeping to the 8 seconds intense and then 12 seconds reduced exercise.
On Tuesday I used it while I did my normal run along the beach, this I really felt. Normally I jog along the beach at a reasonable pace. On an intensity scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is sleeping and 10 is throwing up, I normally jog along at a 7 or 8. Using the 8/12 technique on the beach on Tuesday I felt like I got to a 9.9, no throwing up but it was a close thing.
I think this must work, it certainly makes me work harder, and that has got to be a good thing.

What do you do to keep fit?