The Word
Got a parcel today. Not from the Post Office, they are on strike, but from DHL. In it were ten copies of my book. Amazing. I daren't read it, as I'm scared that the first thing I'll see will be a huge glaring mistake, but it is very nice to actually see printed pages wot I wrote. There is even a picture of me on the back.
You can get the book from Amazon in the UK here. And in the 'states from here.
Have you ever thought that there is more to life than you know? That there some fundamental truths out there, just beyond your grasp? And that knowing these truths will empower you in ways that could change your life forever?
Well, I've no idea about that kind of stuff myself, but if you come along to our session at TechEd 2007 on Thursday at 11:30 (LNC16 room N210B) Roger Wolff and I will show you how to take your C# and Visual Studio 2005 skills and use them to power tiny embedded devices.
You will also be privy to what could be the worlds first Zigbee powered poker game, and learn my current favourite joke in all the world.
If you are not lucky enough to be in Orlando, you can always catch up on the session in the webcast. Sign up here.
Another day on the stand describing the Micro Framework. Half way through an explanation I mentioned to one chap that on Thursday in our lunchtime session Roger will be demonstrating his program that lets you play wireless poker using Zigbee devices connected to a Micro Framework board. The delegate thought about this for a moment. "You mean the .NET Micro Framework lets you play poker against your fridge?" he asked.
I can't think of a better way of putting it. You can easily add lots of intelligence to a tiny device, and then connect it to other things to make life interesting. Although in that situation a poor poker player might starve to death, or at least have to drink black coffee for the rest of their life.....
After stand duty it was time to head up to a demonstration of the framework. I had been invited to provide some closing remarks (nobody can close down an event better than me) and so I told everyone there about one of my major claims to fame - around 10 years or so I wrote some code which helps put datestamps on bottles of Budweiser beer. There was no .NET Micro Framework then, of course, so the application was forged in the hell of cross compiling, no debugging, and code that had to be strange "just so it would work". I made the point that if I was doing the job today it would take me a lot less time, and be much more fun to do. You can read one report of the event here - it is great to hear nice things about the platform.
On the way to the event I poked the camera out of the bus window and grabbed a few snaps.
Apparently "Inverted pimply pyramid" means "Titanic Museum" in Orlando
Believe it or not
Nirvana in a box?
I spent a big chunk of today telling folks all about the .NET Micro Framework. We had a stand near the Visual Studio booths, so I had the pleasant duty of telling lots of people who had C# and Visual Studio 2005 experience they are now fully qualified embedded developers too. Embedded development is the fiddly business of putting code onto tiny processors.
One example application we have is a C# controlled massage char (which proved very popular as the day wore on) but we also have Micro Framework controlled RSS display sign and also a Z-Wave network interface device that was developed in weeks rather than months thanks to the fact that the company was able to use C#, VS 2005 and all the powerful emulation and debugging support that comes with it.
Once folks cottoned onto the idea they were well keen. Quite a few had experienced the horrors of writing embedded code and really relished the thought of controlling hardware with software again. Particularly as there are no new skills to learn (I'm starting to sound a bit like a salesman now, but what the hey, I like the stuff).
Then it was back to the hotel. I had a quick shower, lay down on the bed for a minute and then woke up four hours later. I love jetlag....
Another satisfied customer
What it is all about
I'm on the road again. TechEd 2007 in Orlando is beckoning. I'm doing some stuff about the .NET Micro Framework including promotion for the book, helping at a press launch of the Micro Framework, manning an exhibition booth and giving a lunchtime session and webcast.
If you are going to be at TechEd be sure to come and see me at the .NET Micro Framework stand or at the talk on Thursday lunchtime. If you are not at TechEd you can join in with the fun at the webcast above. Signing up is free and I'm going to tell a new joke - so it will be well worth a listen.
I'll also be taking the medium sized camera and blogging like crazy. Well, you have to do something when you are wide awake at four in the morning....
I've just done some digging. You can buy our book at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. If you buy one and bring it along to me you can have a signed copy. Or you could buy one and sign it yourself. I'm easy either way.
Oh, and there is no truth in the rumour that it comes with a set of crayons.
Yesterday I was really concerned that we only have a couple of weeks to finish "The Book". Turns out that I was wrong though. We actually only have ten days. Arrgh!
The good news is that number one wife is very keen on the robot vacuum, which should arrive tomorrow. And I have written around 10 pages today.
The .NET Micro Framework book is coming along OK. And I've managed, by means of some clever wangling, to get myself permission to buy a robot vacuum cleaner as part of the job.
The reasoning is that we need something to control with our Micro Framework device, and the Roomba vacuums from Irobot look fun. And you can control them via a serial port. So I've been digging up references and making plans. Should be fun.
I managed something today which I didn't think was possible. I managed to get my machine to use up nearly all its memory. I was testing a SideShow gadget application which starts running automatically when the SideShow device is connected. But because I haven't completed the code yet, the program didn't finish properly. So Vista started it again. And again. So I ended up with several hundred copies of the program in memory before I realised what was happening.
86% and counting...
By the time I worked out what was happening I had 86% of my memory filled up. The nice thing is that Vista never really slowed down or seemed to suffer. I just saved my files, shut the machine down and rebooted. Which is quite impressive when you think about it.
I can't get my hardware to work. Lights flash but nothing happens. I've got some lovely toys to play with and I can't get anything to go. It's like "Christmas morning and no batteries" all over again.
Except with RS232 cables.
I've got me some .NET Micro Framework hardware. Donald, my co-author, has sent me an i-MSX system to play with. It is very nice, but scarily fragile. Given my experience with hardware earlier in the week (current thinking is that I converted a functioning but wrong memory device into a non-functioning but still wrong device by cunning use of a nailfile- at least it should give the chaps at Ebuyer something to laugh at before they stamp "Rejected" on my letter) I fired the device up with some trepidation.
At present it doesn't work. This is no surprise. It connects via RS232 and so I'll need to use one of my copious collections of cables and lights to get the signals aligned correctly on the plugs. But it does light up. And it looks very promising.
My co-writer on the .NET Micro Framework book put me on to this. This is a machine which can make anything. So called fabbers can be regarded as three dimensional printers. We have one at the university which is used in the engineering department and it is amazing. It even makes spare parts for itself.....
Anyhoo, you can now think about making one of your own. Take a look here.
I'm writing some background stuff for the .NET Micro Framework book. We've been working on the final project, which we want be a mobile robot of some kind. I suggested a Micro Framework controlled vacuum cleaner, and so today I started work on the emulation environment for it.
The idea is that we can simulate "pixel dust" on the floor and the "virtual sucker" will sweep this up and collect it. Our vacuum will have a dust meter which will allow it to tell how much dust is being collected and the name of the game will be collect as much dust as possible whilst avoiding crashing into the "virtual furniture". Then we are going to try to put exactly the same code into a real roving robot and see what happens, Great fun.
It also means that I can write properly factored, well commented code with methods called "doSuck". Wonderful.
I'm writing some software which works with GPS. It is for the .NET Micro Framework book and will let you use a Micro Framework based device to log and display location information (assuming I can find a copyright free source of aerial maps).
Anyhoo, it occurred to me that I'm going to need some test data for the system so today, as we drove about East Yorkshire dropping people off and getting free food of friends and family, we took the Samsung Q1 with the Microsoft GPS sensor and a little program to capture the data stream. If you want to relive last night's epic journey from Howden to York you will soon be able to do this. Oh yes.
I've started waking up in the night every now and then (last night it was easy because number one son and daughter got up at some ungodly hour to go to London). Quite often I find it hard to get back to sleep, but this is sometimes a bonus because I do have some of my better ideas at that time (or perhaps it is because my critical faculties are asleep at that time as well).
Anyhoo, last night I had a neat idea for the "Flashlight for the Fiftieth Century" (US version) or "Posh Torch" (UK version) that I'm developing as a worked example for the .NET Micro Framework book I'm presently writing. Yesterday I got a GPS interface sort of working. As I was lying in bed it occurred to me that it would be nice to add some mapping features to the software. So now I'm going to download some map images so that the device can have a "you are here" kind of display for certain areas.
You may not know I'm writing a book (there must be some people left on the planet that I've not told yet). Anyhoo, I am. Writing a book. (makes a change from colouring them in I suppose)
The book is about embedded development using the .NET Micro Framework. This is something I'm very excited to be involved with. I reckon the framework could do wonderful things for the process of writing code for very small processors (the kind you find in remote controls and other small computer controlled devices). It makes embedded code more reliable and easier to write. Wonderful stuff.
If you want to read bits of the book before it gets printed, and even pass comment on them, you can take a look here.
A nice way to end the day (drawing with the .NET Micro Framework)
I'm writing a book. I'm very excited about this. The schedule is deeply scary, in that we hope to have the bulk of it completed by the end of January next year, but then again if you don't set a deadline you don't know when you are late. Anyhoo, myself and Donald Thompson of Microsoft are writing a programmers guide to the new .NET Micro Framework.
This is a new embedded platform which Microsoft have been working on for ages (it is what powers the Microsoft SPOT watches). For me it is a terribly interesting because it means you can write code in a high level, managed, environment using C# and then run it on a device the size of a postage stamp which costs pennies to make.
I am anticipating that it will do amazing things to the world of embedded development, as it makes it much easier to write code and put it into any kind of tiny system.
I've had a .NET Micro Framework microsite on my pages for some time. We've just set up a site for the book and we will be posting sample chapters and the contents for comments soon.
I've added a new article to the .NET Micro Framework area of the site. It has a sample program which flashes an LED. On Saturday I bought some switches, so the next step is to write a program which uses a switch to control a light........
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.
Make your own programming language. Find out more here.
