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February 2005 - Posts

Thursday, February 24, 2005 11:30 PM

Starting work on a Windows Embedded or Mobile project ? - Blog it...

I bet a bunch of people reading this blog would be interested in watching a Windows CE/XPE or Windows Mobile project coming together from day one, if you’re starting a project why not blog the good, bad, and ugly, what worked well, where you
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments
Thursday, February 24, 2005 9:13 PM

Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference - Worldwide dates...

ok folks, the dates for the worldwide MEDC (Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference) are published here Looks like the end of May and most of June are going to be busy! (tons of flights, lots of presenting, meeting interesting developers, got
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Thursday, February 24, 2005 8:54 PM

Mimimo, Mozilla Browser - Windows CE developers needed...

Doug Turner is looking for some Windows CE development help with the Minimo Mozilla Browser – anyone interested ? From the Minimo site – Doug says – “Another thing you will notice is the UI for the application is terrible.  I really need your
posted by mikehall | 4 Comments
Thursday, February 24, 2005 10:42 AM

Minimo - Mozilla Browser for Windows CE

From c|net – Minimo, the Mozilla browser for mobile devices, is being developed for Windows CE devices, according to the Mozilla Foundation. It looks like builds are being developed for Pocket PC devices – given that the Microsoft browser is built into
posted by mikehall | 7 Comments
Wednesday, February 23, 2005 6:29 PM

John Kennedy is Blogging from the MED UA team...

John Kennedy has a blog (ok, he’s had a blog for a while), but John has just joined the Mobile and Embedded Devices group UA (User Assistance) team, and is interested in your feedback on Windows Mobile application development documentation –
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Wednesday, February 23, 2005 6:19 PM

Calling native code from Managed Code.

This is a “must have” resource for anyone needing to call Win32 API’s from managed code – go check out pinvoke.net – Mike  
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Wednesday, February 23, 2005 12:12 PM

MEDC 2005 - Why Attend...

Looking at the MEDC 2005 Web Site there appear to be a number of reasons given to attend the conference… Including… BillG giving the keynote ! – last years keynote transcript is here and includes links to the keynote video  Be Entertained
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 10:41 PM

Mobile and Embedded Devcon - Web site Live !

Are you interested in attending this years “not to be missed” combined Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference (MEDC) ? [May 9th – 12th, Las Vegas) – the Conference Web Site is now live – keep an eye out for session
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 10:13 PM

Web, Blog, or Pod ?

Where do you get your daily dose of technical information, visits to web sites, blogs, podcasts? – Mike
posted by mikehall | 8 Comments
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 9:59 PM

Microsoft Press Releases are now available through RSS...

Microsoft press releases are now available via RSS – that’s pretty cool – it’s good to see that more Microsoft web content is being made available through RSS. – Mike  
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 9:44 PM

Hey - another Cool/Interesting MSDN Channel 9 video hits the web...

Chris Gray, a developer in the Windows Server team (yes, we've seen Chris before in the Windows CE videos) shows how to use managed code running on a Windows Mobile device to upload photo's from a Pocket PC to a home server - the demo shows the back end
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 1:29 PM

Developers Conference - Session Titles ?

The Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference (MEDC) is getting closer (May 9th-12th) – I’m wondering what grabs you about session titles or abstracts – do titles like “Deep Dive”, “Tips and Tricks” catch your
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Sunday, February 20, 2005 9:00 PM

Embedding the Internet Explorer Control into an eMbedded Visual C++ application.

Nick was asking how to embedded the Internet Explorer ActiveX control into an eMbedded Visual C++ application, we wrote this up as a hands on lab for an Embedded Airlift back in 2001 – here’s a link to the Hands on Lab – Enjoy…
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments
Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:40 PM

MSDN Channel 9 - Tour of MS Studios.

You may have seen some of the Windows CE and Windows XP Embedded Tutotials on the Windows Embedded web site – these are recorded over at Microsoft Studios – it’s a really interesting facility, this may be the
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:27 PM

MSDN Channel 9 - Programming Bluetooth on Windows Mobile.

This is super cool – I interviewed Anil Dhawan a Program Manager on the Windows Mobile team responsible for wireless technoliges about Bluetooth support on Windows Mobile (read Pocket PC and Smartphone) and how easy it is to code up support
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:25 AM

Study finds Windows more secure than Linux

SAN FRANCISCO — Believe it or not, a Windows Web server is more secure than a similarly set-up Linux server, according to a study presented yesterday by two Florida researchers at this weeks RSA conference. The researchers, appearing at the RSA
posted by mikehall | 8 Comments
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 9:32 PM

Slashdot - Interview with Martin Taylor

I thought you might like to read the interview on Slashdot with Martin Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy – Slashdot asked readers to submit their questions, the pick of the crop were discussed on a phone call with Martin –
posted by mikehall | 4 Comments
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 2:00 PM

MSMobiles - iPaq Mobile Messenger h6500

From MSMobiles.com – iPaq Mobile Messenger h6500 compared to Orange SPV C500 – I really like the look of the HP device, it has a square touch screen, qwerty keyboard, and is a phone device. Some highlights from the msmobiles report:
posted by mikehall | 7 Comments
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 11:06 AM

Mobile Article: How to Develop Orientation-Aware and DPI-Aware Applications for Pocket PC

Check out the latest MSDN Mobility article, resolution and orientation awareness are becoming more important in mobile applications...   How to Develop Orientation-Aware and DPI-Aware Applications for Pocket PC   Article Summary: The objective
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 9:38 AM

Internet Explorer 7.0 on the way...

From Scobles blog – Major Microsoft announcement: Bill Gates just announced there will be Internet Explorer 7.0. Read the IE Blog for the news and the Microsoft Press Announcements from the RSA conference – Mike
posted by mikehall | 11 Comments
Monday, February 14, 2005 9:46 PM

SPOT to be Found in Windows Longhorn

From SpotStop The next generation of Windows (codename Longhorn) will feature auxiliary display support. This display will be based on the same run time operating system that is used to power SPOT devices. An article from PCWorld covers some of the
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Monday, February 14, 2005 7:48 PM

Going to MEDC ? - How to get the best out of a Conference.

From Scott Berkuns Blog – How to get the most out of conferences – so, what’s good for you, meeting people, talking to the MSFT developers, going to sessions, gambling in Vegas ? – Mike
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Monday, February 14, 2005 9:33 AM

Your news and comments ?

I feel that the blog is somewhat one way communication (apart from the recent Linux discussion), I dump some random thoughts, news and ‘stuff’ onto the blog, and have a couple of readers out there that read the content – Let me know if you have any
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
Monday, February 14, 2005 9:32 AM

The killer smartphone application ?

What do you think the killer smartphone application is ? – sync to e-mail, calendar, contacts, business applicaitons, GPS navigation, games ? – or just the fact that the Smartphone platform is extensible and allows for new applications to
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments
Monday, February 14, 2005 9:30 AM

Mobility News (must be 3GSM or something)...

There’s a ton of mobility news this week from Engadget, must be something to do with 3GSM… here’s a couple of samples… Microsoft is headed back to the handset market, only this time they’ve teamed up with contract manufacturer
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 8:09 PM

A look at Security technologies that might be coming from Microsoft.

From Microsoft Watch, a look at some of the Active Protection Technologies that might be coming from Microsoft. – Mike
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 7:52 PM

Intrinsyc Software extends Windows CE to the Feature Phone.

Intrinsyc have released a press release that describes their tools and technologies for building Feature Phones based on the Windows CE operating system. It looks like Intrinsyc will be showing their tools and technologies at 3GSM this coming week. –
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 7:37 PM

Want a jump start for Win32 to .NET Development ?

Hey, if you’re a Win32 developer and are interested in dipping your toes into the big pond of .NET Framework or .NET Compact Framework development (and why wouldn’t you?) – then this MSDN page is meant just for you – this
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 4:07 PM

Win $25,000 - Windows Mobile Application Contest.

Win $25,000 and Application Distribution. Enter Your Best Applications in the Windows Mobile™ Application Contest Today. Start building “work” and “play” applications for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs or Smartphones, and enter them into the Windows
posted by mikehall | 4 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 4:02 PM

Halo Movie

The Seattle Times have posted an article that hints at a Halo Movie being made (had to happen, right?). ok, so place your bets for who’s going to be playing which role… – Mike
posted by mikehall | 107 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 9:26 AM

.NOT CF ?

Earlier this week I presented a conference session on debugging native code applicaitons on Windows Mobile devices, taking a look at Application Verifier (for detecting heap, handle, and GDI leaks), Performance Monitor, Call Profiler, and the Windows
posted by mikehall | 13 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 8:07 AM

Windows Mobile Always-up-to-date (AUTD) ActiveSync with Exchange Server 2003

I got an e-mail yesterday pointing me to and article that describes how to setup Always Up To Date (AUTD) ActiveSync on your mobile device. – Mike
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 7:05 AM

Book: Writing Mobile Code.

As if by magic the shopkeeper appeared… (anyone know where that’s from?) I’ve just mentioned that I intend to talk about mobile and embedded and just found a post on Jono’s blog about a book titles Writing Mobile Code
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005 6:58 AM

Mobile and Embedded ?

Most of the posts to this blog are around embedded technologies and devices running Windows CE or Windows XP Embedded, since I’m in the Mobile and Embedded devices group it perhaps makes sense to talk not only about embedded ‘stuff’
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments
Wednesday, February 09, 2005 8:35 PM

What is Indigo ?

You’ve probably heard of Indigo (and if not this article would also make for good reading) – What is Indigo ? – this article provides an architectural overview of "Indigo," Microsoft's unified programming model for building service-oriented
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Wednesday, February 09, 2005 7:46 PM

Desktop Rover.

ok, this is pretty cool – Desktop Rover – from the Rover web site, Desktop Rover allows you to control up to 32 computers (and now Pocket PCs) with a single computer's keyboard and mouse. By positioning each computer's monitor next to
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Wednesday, February 09, 2005 1:54 PM

WESC - Ivan has a blog.

Ivan Joseph the product manager within the Mobile and Embedded Devices group that’s running the Windows Embedded Student Challenge now has a blog – If you’re involved in the competition this is going to be the place to get information
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005 5:09 PM

Secret Bunker Revisited...

JR asks the following question on the Secret Bunker posting – When it is still easy to attack a system without access to the source, and we all know it is, why doesn't any advantage (like being able to patch the system directly yourself) become an instant
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005 4:04 PM

Portable Gaming

What portable gaming device has the following specification ? Great games Camera Music Player Movie Player Messaging GPS GPRS Bluethooth Thinking of the PSP ? You would be wrong, this is the Gizmondo – a neat looking mobile
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005 3:19 PM

Windows Embedded Student Challenge - Student Blog.

Hey, if you’re taking part in this years WESC (Windows Embedded Student ChallengE) then why not start a blog! – it would be a great way for people to keep up with your projects, your choice of project, the tools you are using, additional hardware, problems
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005 11:37 AM

Windows Embedded Student Challenge - Over 275 Teams from 30 Countries !!!

The Windows Embedded Student Challenge has over 275 teams registered from over thirty countries – to get a complete listing of registered teams and countries check out the Excel spreadsheet here With names like “Rocket Studio”,
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005 10:39 AM

MEDC Behind the scenes...

James Pratt owns this years Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference (MEDC), there’s a ton of work that goes into arranging one of these events from signing up speakers, making sure we have (excellent) content, arranging the keynote, the web site
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Monday, February 07, 2005 9:37 PM

Mike Zintels Blog - .NET Compact Framework, Past, Present and Future.

Mike Zintel has an article on his blog which discusses changes to the .NET Compact Framework for v2.0 and some of the reasons for the changes. Go check it out. – Mike  
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Monday, February 07, 2005 2:35 PM

New Windows Mobile MSDN Articles.

Check out the new Windows Mobile articles on MSDN… How to Create a Database Browser Application for Pocket PC in C# by Using Visual Studio .NET 2003Article Summary: The objective of this lab is for you to learn how to display data from a Web service
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Monday, February 07, 2005 11:35 AM

Ruttensoft - New Theme Designer for Smartphones.

If you have a Pocket PC or Smartphone then there’s a good chance you would want to customize the today/home screen, perhaps a photo of you wife, kids, favorite pet, or other interesting image – creating themes by hand can be a time consuming business
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Sunday, February 06, 2005 5:53 PM

Running as Admin

Aaron Margosis blog on MSDN talks about running your PC as non-admin – the blog looks at some of the problems associated with running with full Admin rights on your desktop PC, and some of the tips/tricks to running in a less privileged mode. –
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
Sunday, February 06, 2005 4:50 PM

Conference or Web ?

Communication between companies and customers is becoming increasingly personal and available through blogs, podcasts, online chats, video tutorials and other technologies. Are you using these technologies to find out about what’s new with
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
Friday, February 04, 2005 7:25 PM

MSN Search goes colorful...

I’m using MSN Search as my search engine, just went looking for something and noticed that MSN Search has gone all colorful – I guess there must be a rugby game on this weekend – Mike
posted by mikehall | 7 Comments
Friday, February 04, 2005 10:16 AM

Secret Bunker...

Only in England… A thought came to me at the Gym this morning… perhaps there is a link between the “Secret Bunker” sign and Open Source, if you have full access to an application or operating system source you could perhaps exploit vulnerabilities in
posted by mikehall | 13 Comments
Thursday, February 03, 2005 1:35 PM

Bill Gates on Interop.

BillG sent out an executive e-mail today which talks about Building Software That Is Interoperable By Design – you should go read it… – Mike
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Thursday, February 03, 2005 1:31 PM

Upcoming Embedded Chats...

If you have questions around Windows CE, Windows XP Embedded or Application Development for Embedded Systems then you should check out the MSDN Chat Schedule (there’s a ton of other interesting chats also listed) Here’s some of the Embedded
posted by mikehall | 14 Comments
Thursday, February 03, 2005 1:23 PM

Point of Service (POS) - Linux or Windows Embedded ?

I’ve just found the following case study on the Microsoft web site – the video is pretty interesting, go take a look. Regal Entertainment Group Switches from Linux to Windows, Significantly Reduces TCO (1.5 MB video) Hear from
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments
Wednesday, February 02, 2005 10:19 AM

Operating System Fragmentation ?

There’s an interesting article on O/S News which talks about the potential fragmentation of Linux – Having a standard operating system platform is a good thing for users and developers – why would Dell and other PC manufacturers continue
posted by mikehall | 7 Comments
Wednesday, February 02, 2005 9:58 AM

CE/XPE - how to choose ?

A question that comes up at every customer meeting is how to choose between Windows CE and Windows XP Embedded – The answer can be pretty simple… Windows XP Embedded is a componentized version of Windows XP Pro, broken down to approximately
posted by mikehall | 6 Comments