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Travel is nice, but being home is better. Even with jetlag that makes you fall asleep in the middle of a sent

Virgin on the Ridiculous

Tonight I had to fly back to the UK. I'm a tall person. On the way out Virgin Atlantic were kind enough to swap my seat for one near the emergency exit so that I could sit with my legs in front of me. On a normal seat I just can't do this, so it is always nice when an airline makes an allowance for my particular shape. 

On the way back Virgin Atlantic were also happy to swap my seat. As long as I paid them 75 dollars. I thought that stank. I paid up though, since the prospect of nearly nine hours sat with my knees above my ears and no circulation in my feet did not appeal. Are they really so strapped for cash that they have to resort to ripping off people who have no choice in the matter? Up until that point I had been very impressed with the airline, who seem to have the most chirpy and upbeat cabin staff I've ever encountered.  Now I'm a bit less pleased. I've emailed customer relations (I'm reaching the age where I can dash off "Yours, disgusted" emails quite quickly) and we will see what happens.

Inside Orlando Airport. Big place.

.NET Micro Framework for Card Sharps

Today was the day that Roger and I hit the stage to present the Micro Framework. I did the easy bit (the slides) and Roger did the hard bit (the demos). This arrangement worked fine for me.

Getting set up

We had a good sized audience, and they were polite enough to laugh at most of my jokes (I've never had anyone actually laugh at all of my jokes - and this is probably just as well). I did my bit and then Roger took over for the demo.

I didn't know exactly what he was going to do. We had rehearsed the timings and I knew he would be using two Micro Framework boards which he had managed to connect using the Zigbee wireless protocol. The only other thing I knew was that we would be playing poker with the boards. What he did though just blew me away, literally and in a card playing context too.

He had a very pretty program in which two C# programs were running, passing card data and plays between the two devices. So we played poker. I'm not very good at poker. If the money isn't real I just bet huge amounts and try to bluff every time. If the money is real I just leave the game out of cowardice.

Anyhoo, we started playing and I kept raising. Towards the end Roger decided that it would be really nice for him if the next card that was dealt was a six. So he stopped the program running inside his embedded device, tweaked the deck so that the top card was the six of hearts, and then continued the program. He got the six, and I got the shaft. This was a fantastic demonstration of the power of the embedded environment that you get with the Micro Framework, and a lesson to me never to play poker by computer.

Then we went off and reprised the whole session for a webcast.

Prime Outlet Shopping

After a morning on the booth telling people they were now embedded developers as well (most people with C# and Visual Studio 2005 are, thanks to the .NET Micro Framework) it was time to head out for some shopping. I quite like strange watches, and I knew that at the Prime outlet there was a Fossil watch outlet store.

My plan was to catch a bus up to the top of International Drive, have a wander round and then catch another back. As I was leaving the conference hall I heard a strange sound, like a very long round of applause. It was the rain on the roof. Lots of rain. I carefully charted my route back to the hotel so that I was under cover for most of the way, except for the last 50 yards.

I got soaked. In Florida, when it rains it rains. Muchly. After a complete change of clothes I ventured out again, but standing at a bus stop was not a plan. So I was forced to spend a goodly chunk of cash on a taxi ride instead.

I much prefer buses to taxis. In a bus I reckon you have safety in numbers. Being alone in a taxi cab with a person I've never met always makes me nervous. In a bus, even if the driver does turn out to be an axe wielding maniac with a passion for driving off cliffs you have a few people with you to help take him on. In a taxi it is strictly one on one. Also, with a bus when it stops at the lights or in traffic there is no worry about the price going up. In a taxi I can always see that number steadily rising, and making me poorer. And I always think that the taxi driver will spot that I'm from out of town and take me to my destination via Brazil or something.  Having said all this the taxi drive was, like just about every one I've ever had, smooth and uneventful and within around 15 minutes I was at the Prime discount mall.

Which was a dump. I'd taken a camera so that I could snag some pictures, but there was nothing worth photographing. Everywhere had an air of decay and moving on, I suspect there must be other discount malls in Florida doing well, because this one was more than a bit quiet. Anyhoo, I found the watch shop and after a long and happy search through the display (I like looking at watches, OK?) I selected one for me and one for number one wife.

On the way back I was lucky to walk straight onto a bus which took me right back to the hotel.

View from a bus

The path to enlightenment

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.

Play poker with your fridge

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?

So Many Questions

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

Free Massages

One of my favourite ever jokes was on an old Monty Python record. As I remember it went "And now for a massage from the Swedish prime minister". Followed the sound of heavy slapping. Wonderful stuff.

We haven't got the Swedish prime minister available, but we are giving out free massages at our stand in the TLC Blue area at TechEd 2007. We have a couple of .NET Micro Framework controlled massage chairs which are just the thing to ease away the strains of the day. And you can find out all about how you could be an embedded developer but just not know it yet....

Hot Spot

I wandered out to register at the conference. I mutter about my air-con in the room (I call it "Old Faithful" now) but I'm darned glad that it is there, because when you leave the hotel it is like stepping inside a hair dryer. This is not a cooling breeze, it is the output from a blast furnace.

Branded Lamp Post

My hotel

This probably symbolizes something

Why we are here

Guess what it is, and win a prize

My universe for the next few days....

Apparently it is going to be even hotter for the rest of the week. Oh goody.

Bright and Early

Slept surprisingly well considering. I seem to have an air conditioner in the room which was designed by the same person who does jet engines. And air raid sirens. It came on by itself in the middle of the night. The first time it did this I managed the amazing feat of leaping up in the air from the bed, whilst remaining completely horizontal. Since the unit seems to start up every ten minutes or so, I'm now mostly used to it, the sound only causing mild palpitations at the moment. By the time I leave here you'll be able to drop a piano on the ground behind me and I'll hardly bat an eyelid.

Noisy beast

The room is huuge. It is the entertainment part of a luxury suite, which means I get the sink, the fridge (bigger than the one at home and also with a distinctive sound) and the bed that pulls down from the wall.

Rich Living

I managed to sleep in until around 5:00 am, which for a first night away is pretty good. I was lured from my bed by a rather nice sunrise.

I bet all the sunrises are all like this here....

Later today I'm off to meet up with the rest of the team. For now, it's time for breakfast.

The Road to TechEd 2007

Author's Note:

From now on pictures are going to be presented in "SlightlyLargerVision" (tm). I've modified my Flickr plugin for Live Writer so that imported images now fill up the available screen width. Just one of the many ways I strive to make your lives better. Next I'm going to add a settings page so that you can adjust this. Not sure when, depends on how the jetlag goes.. 

Today's the day I head out to Orlando for TechEd.

My plane (although there were others on board)

The taxi from the airport. Note the rather worrying umbrella handle..

Trees and planes

The conference centre looking good

Pretty skyline

More tomorrow

Presentations for Fun and Profit

The .NET masters students got to present their projects to us today. We made them all stand up in their teams and talk about what they have been doing for the last few weeks.

I was very impressed by the way that they all got into the spirit of the occasion; I think there were some who managed to surprise themselves with how well they did. I made some notes during the talk, which I'll pass on to the whole wide world (or at least both my readers....) They don't reflect any particular person, just my general impression.

• At the start of the presentation it is good form to introduce the people in your team who are going to be talking. But as the person being introduced it is important that you acknowledge this presentation by nodding at the presenter, and then at the audience. It helps in building up a bit of relationship between team members and the team and the audience.
• During your team presentation, if you are not talking you should be looking at the person who is talking, and at least giving the appearance of paying attention, even if you are not actually listening. It is distracting for the audience if you look at the floor, shuffle your feet, whisper to the person next you about plans for tonight or whistle (nobody actually whistled though). From a planning point of view it is a good idea to put "idle" team members on seats or stools, to stop them swaying in the breeze as the presentation continues.
• The presenter must make eye contact with the audience. This is hard but necessary. Just about everyone did, but some didn't, and it makes an amazing difference. Remember that if you are more than 10 feet or so away it is impossible to look at just one person directly so if you just look at empty seat in the audience that will work fine.
• Nobody used flashy slides transitions. Good on you people. Some folk used bullet by bullet drop down of points. This is OK, but you need to be careful that you pace these bits, otherwise the audience spends two minutes with just a slide title to look at.
• Nobody actually read off the slides. Well done. Never do this. The slide content re-enforces the message and gives you hooks to talk around. It does not tell you exactly what to say. You should/must know that already.

For more links to good presentation content and some very funny videos you can go here.

TechEd here I come

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....

Wonder of Webguide

Some time ago I bought a thing called a Slingbox. Then I sold it. Never used it much and it was too fiddly to make it control the TV. And if I did do this I got into terrible trouble with the family for switching channels from a hotel room in India. (I didn't want to watch anything, I just wanted to prove I could do it).

The underlying idea (get at your recorded programs from anywhere in the world) is a great one, but it relies on fairly kludgy technology, with the Slingbox digitising an incoming video signal before sending it off down the network.

Things are a lot easier now I've got my Sony media PC sitting under the PC, with a hard disk full of recorded TV. Because everything is networked I can navigate my way to recorded programs and view them over the network. But it is a bit of faff to find the program files, and I still have to go to the Media PC itself to set up my recordings.

That is I did, until I installed Webguide. This is a smashing little program that runs on the media centre and serves out web pages that let me set up recordings and stream media around the house (and onto the web if I open up the firewall and sort out IP address discovery).

It even works to mobile devices too. The idea is very simple and it works a treat. There are versions for Vista PCs and also Windows XP Media Centre edition machines.

If you have got a media pc you should (or even must) get a copy of this program. The installation is a tad fiddly, but it does most of the hard stuff for you automatically.

The price for this is only 18 dollars, or less than ten pounds. Well worth it.

Don't Answer the Phone

Went out to see a real, live, play tonight. Dial M for Murder, made famous by the Hitchcock film staring Ray Milan and Grace Kelly. We had "that bloke from Taggart" and "one of the girls from Steps" instead of those two, but the play was great nonetheless. Faye Tozer as the heroine (can you say that now - or does everyone have to be a hero?) was just right, and the role of the evil husband was excellently taken by James MacPherson. Everyone else played their part very well too, although I was initially a bit taken aback by the detective with the comedy brummie accent (unless of course he actually comes from Birmingham, in which case I apologise).

I love going to live theatre, even if someone on the front row treated us to a first class display of freestyle coughing (even going as far as the "triple whoop with a double gurgle finish" which I don't think has been heard since we had smog) for most of the first half.

I was pleased to see that the theatre was pretty full, and gave the players a well deserved round of applause at the end. The show is in Hull for the rest of the week and is on tour around the country.

Evil Weather and and Hungry Robots

Bank Holiday : like a normal day, but with much worse weather.

We had all kinds of plans for today. We were going to drive out into the country, walk round some rocks and eat scotch eggs in the car. And maybe even drink coffee from a flask whilst sitting on a piece of cloth on the grass.

As if.

After practicing on Sunday with a horrid display of freezing wind and rain the weather gave us a full on "Bank Holiday Experience" today with a pretty much perfect display of nastiness, even down to the hint of sunshine around teatime, when it was too late to go anywhere.

We stayed at home instead. We turned the robot vacuum loose in the bedroom and it ate my headphones. Not good. After spending a few minutes untangling the wire from the wheels I managed to get the robot back on the road (although I gave it a stern telling off) but the headphones looked to be a write off, with part of the earpiece missing.

So we went out and got a replacement set. At which point of course, the earpiece turned up and the original phones were found to be working fine. Wah.

I love bank holidays.

PS3 Firmware Upgrade

I really rather like the PS3. It is kind of growing on me. Late last week Sony released a firmware upgrade that made it even nicer. It adds quite a few nice features, including upscaling and the ability to fetch media from other devices.

I can remember when DVDs were the last word in quality. I suppose that compared to VHS video tape they probably still are. But these days we are used to bigger and better things. A lot of DVD players now have built in "upscaling" which attempts to take a standard DVD signal and convert it into one which will look OK on a high resolution display. This is a fraught business, in that the software has to add data where none was before, smoothing lines and filling in gaps when things move. Up until now the PS3 could play DVDs, but it couldn't upscale them. But now, with the firmware upgrade, it can. And it works too.

If you freeze the frame on an upscaled DVD the picture doesn't look that much better. But when the movie is running the effect is pretty impressive. I put on a high quality, action packed sequence (the car chase from Ronin) and the results were very good, to my eyes there is a significant improvement. Not as good as a proper HD source, but a good half way house, and good enough to stop me from re-purchasing all my DVDs in Blu-Ray (which is kind of a marketing own goal from Sony's point of view I suppose).

The PS3 can now also upscale old Playstation 1 and 2 games. First off I took my original Ridge Racer, bought with my PS1 all those years ago and popped that in to see what upscaling did. This was not quite as impressive, but then again each pixel was around a quarter of an inch square on the screen, so it was perhaps unlikely it would make much difference. I still enjoyed the race though. Yellow car, all the way.

My PS3 could see my media shares, and I managed to browse some folders but I ran out of time before I could get much going. They say you can also control your PS3 using a PSP via the Internet, but I've got to do some firewall fiddling to make that work. Maybe later.

Bottom line though, if you have a PS3 you really should upgrade the firmware. It takes around half an hour to download and install, but it is well worth the effort.

Best Cafe in the World

I've found the best cafe in the world. It is in York station and the coffee is good, but everything there is annotated in a most amusing way.

Message coated sugars

I know that all the slogans and clever artwork were actually concocted by a bunch of soul-less advertising executives for a franchise owned by an uncaring global corporation working out of an anonynous office somewhere in Slough, but I still think they are neat.

Indeed it is, but we got one anyway

York station looking good.

I'm in Love

I've seen my new phone. It's wonderful. And I can't buy it just yet. Which is unfortunate.To make matters worse, I saw it hanging from David's belt. I was going to advise him to buy one - after I'd got mine. Unfortunately he has taken my advice before I gave it to him. How temporally anomalous.

And annoying.

Anyhow, for those with a gadget bent and a drip proof drool tray, follow this link.

Finished Marking

I've just about finished marking now. All the first year exam papers have been passed on to Mike (I'll bet he was pleased to see them) and now I can get on with the rest of my life.