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July 2005 - Posts

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 2:35 PM

What is http://www.escapeyesterworld.com ?

So, what is http://www.escapeyesterworld.com ? - Mike
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 2:24 PM

Windows Vista Revealed - Interview with Chris Jones on MSDN Channel 9

Check out the interview with Chris Jones (Corporate Vice President for Windows Vista) over on MSDN Channel 9 - you can find some background information over on Johnmont's blog Oh, and the Windows Vista Developer Center is now live on MSDN - Mike
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 10:29 AM

Is Windows CE Real-Time ?

Is Windows CE a real-time operating system? - There are many definitions of real time. In the context of the Windows Embedded family of operating systems, we use the definition that was adopted by the Open, Modular, Architecture Control (OMAC) user group:
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, July 26, 2005 12:59 PM

My Browser Skin (was Virtual Earth)

I've had some comments and e-mails asking about the Browser/Skin I'm using on my desktop (image here) - I've installed Windows Blinds from WinCustomize - the tool ships with a number of sample skins (I'm using XP Corona) - there are a ton of
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Tuesday, July 26, 2005 10:48 AM

Moto Q Announced.

Hey, check this out, the Moto Q has been announced - there's a flash demo of the device on the Motorola home page - does this look to be super cool or what ? - Mike
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, July 26, 2005 10:00 AM

Virtual Earth - Locate Me...

Now this is super cool - go to http://www.virtualearth.com - click on the "locate me" button and see what happens... - you can then do a local search of the area for gas, food etc... I'm sat in a team meeting in building 117 on Microsoft Campus, here's
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
Monday, July 25, 2005 10:35 AM

Windows Embedded for Point of Service

Take a look at the CRN article on Windows Embedded for Point of Service - I gave a demo of WEPOS at last weeks MGB conference, it's really neat to be able to show a RPOS device using a barcode scanner and showing failover by unplugging one barcode scanner
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Sunday, July 24, 2005 9:39 PM

Channel 9 - Virtual Earth Video.

The Channel 9 crew have been back to interview the Virtual Earth team, there are some awesome new features, including "locate me" - watch the video here - Mike
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Friday, July 22, 2005 8:23 PM

Scoble in Atlanta...

I caught up with the Scoble in Atlanta, you’ve probably heard about the new name for Longhorn, Windows Vista, take a look at the photo below, notice anything about the baseball cap he’s wearing ?  – Mike
posted by mikehall | 4 Comments
Friday, July 22, 2005 6:03 AM

Longhorn Official Name - Windows Vista

Longhorn is going to be called "Windows Vista" - Checkout the Longhorn official naming video here It looks like Beta1 is going to be coming soon... Also, keep an eye on this page for more upcoming Windows Vista information - Beta 1 is due
posted by mikehall | 4 Comments
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 3:34 PM

RoboCup: Cornell running Windows CE runners up World Champions.

Since we've already kicked off the project to port Windows CE to the Gumstix, and hopefully also move that project over to a sumobot platform it's timely news that Cornell University have come 2nd in the World Championship using robots running Windows
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005 8:20 AM

Florida Mobile and Embedded User Group up and running (or... booted?)

Just seen that there's a Florida Mobile and Embedded User Group started up, first meeting is September 8th - more information should be available on the user group web site - Mike
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005 7:54 AM

Windows Mobile 5.0 - Persistent Storage, why ?

Windows Mobile 5.0 devices now support persistent storage, if you've been using Windows CE powered mobile devices for a while you will probably agree that this is a good step forward, when your (older) devices battery drained you would lose all of the
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Monday, July 18, 2005 1:22 PM

Podcast: Interview with Roger Capriotti, Windows Mobile 5 and the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP)

On Friday of last week I met with Roger Capriotti, a product planner in the Windows Mobile team at Microsoft, we discussed how Direct-Push e-mail works, what the benefits of the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0 are for end users
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Saturday, July 16, 2005 9:17 PM

Super Cool OLED Keyboard.

Now, this is super cool, a keyboard that is made up of individual OLED screens, the image on each key can be changed on the fly for games, languages etc... Check it out on Engadget. - Mike
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 9:05 AM

Windows Automotive 5.0 - Ready to roll...

Windows Automotive is ready to be released, check out the C|NET article for more details - I would also expect details to be posted to the Windows Automotive site. - Mike
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005 1:07 PM

Tortilla "Bread" Board - ideal for those late night electronics projects (or a quick snack)

This has been around for a while, but I though this might be amusing enough to post out to the blog. You're working on a super cool electronics project and want to prototype something quickly, you need a bread-board, but the local electronics store is
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Monday, July 11, 2005 7:52 PM

Windows Mobile : Global Contact Access Powertoy

Microsoft Global Contact Access is a free power toy for Windows Mobile devices which enables you to look up contacts in the Global Address List (GAL) and check co-worker schedules. Global Contact Access is available at the Windows Mobile download site.
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Monday, July 11, 2005 7:41 PM

This weeks Podcast - How Direct Push E-Mail works on Windows Mobile 5.0

This week I'm having a chat with Roger Capriotti from the Windows Mobile team, we're going to be discussing how Direct Push e-mail works on Windows Mobile 5.0, should be interesting. I will be sending out a link to the interview, and of course updating
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Saturday, July 09, 2005 2:51 PM

World Wide Partner Conference - IT Pro meets Developer...

During the rehersal for Andy Lees keynote at the Microsoft World-Wide Partner Conference I managed to capture the rehersal of an "Infotainment Spot", IT Pro meets a developer - check out the video here. - Mike
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Saturday, July 09, 2005 5:02 AM

NOC, NOC... Who's there ? (Slience)...

Yesterday I mentioned that there had been an outage on RIM's mail service - this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident, interestingly I don't see anything on the RIM web site about the outage, there are of course reports from 3rd party sites, including
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Friday, July 08, 2005 4:08 PM

Virtualization Conference - I don't get it...

I've just received an invitation on e-mail to "the largest virtualization conference in the world".... which in itself is fine, here's what I don't get... the event is being held in Las Vegas, what's wrong with that I hear you ask ? - well, it's a virtualization
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
Friday, July 08, 2005 2:50 PM

Living with EFP (Messaging and Security Feature Pack).

I'm at the World Wide Partner Conference in Minneapolis and have been presenting some demos on Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Windows Mobile 5.0 with the Messaging and Security Feature pack, showing how to configure a device to connect to the exchange server
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Thursday, July 07, 2005 4:25 PM

Chat with Steve Ballmer on MSDN Channel 9

Check this out - Scoble met with Steve Ballmer, here's the interview on MSDN Channel 9 - Mike
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Thursday, July 07, 2005 6:23 AM

Caribou spotted in Minneapolis !

I spotted my first Caribou on the way to the World Wide Partner Conference today - very neat. - Mike
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Wednesday, July 06, 2005 6:36 PM

World Wide Partner Conference - Minneapolis.

Demos are working, devices are charging, I’ve had a Grande Vanilla Latte, and all is well… This is my first visit to Minneapolis, I like the mix of new and old architecture, here’s a couple of photo’s from around the town – it’s interesting to see the
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Wednesday, July 06, 2005 2:13 PM

That was TechEd Europe - some random thoughts...

TechEd Europe was a hoot – The TechEd conference team do an excellent job of looking after speakers and attendees – the TechEd team are like swans, looking graceful on the surface, but I bet they are flapping like mad under the surface – it was really
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005 8:29 PM

Smartphone Tip Calculator - Numeric Input, my version.

A couple of days ago I sent out a link to a Smartphone “Tip” calculator, quite handy if you don’t want to be seen counting on your fingers or using napkins or slide rules to figure out how much tip to pay. This seems like a really useful, simple application,
posted by mikehall | 4 Comments
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005 4:17 AM

TechEd Europe - Technology and Coffee...

Sorry, couldn’t resist this one… to show the displays of the Windows Mobile MC50 Symbol devices during the TechEd Europe keynote we used Wolf-Visions (see below) After the keynote the Wolf-Vision seemed to have a wool jacket draped over it… So,
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
Monday, July 04, 2005 7:09 AM

TechEd Europe - Blogging, Forums, Communities - Tuesday 14:45 - 16:00 BOF001

There's a blogging, forums, and communities session at TechEd Europe, this is running on Tuesday from 14:45 - 16:00 in BOF001, I'm going to attend, and it looks like Betsy Aoki is also going to be there - if you're blogging at TechEd then I hope to see
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
Monday, July 04, 2005 4:03 AM

Top Smartphone tip of the day...

So, you're out for a meal with friends and need to split the bill, you need a quick and easy way of calculating how much everyone pays, and (if needed) how much the tip is going to be... I've just installed and  - played with TipCalc - seems
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
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Monday, July 04, 2005 3:33 AM

Blogs - useful, or just more noise you need to deal with ?

Here's some questions for you... Why do you read blogs, and more specifically, why do you read Microsoft blogs ? Has your impression of Microsoft as a company changed from reading blogs and viewing MSDN Channel 9 or the video podcasts from MEDC/TechEd
posted by mikehall | 19 Comments
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Sunday, July 03, 2005 10:57 PM

TechEd Europe - Day Two (One day to conference start).

It's 8am in Amsterdam and I'm back at the RAI conference center, keynote rehersals start at 10am today, I think my rehersal slot is at about 1pm, this gives me a few hours to catch up on e-mail, write some code, and perhaps drop into one of the pre-conference
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
Sunday, July 03, 2005 2:38 AM

TechEd Europe - Day One (two days to conference start).

I've just arrived in Amsterdam, got checked into the hotel and headed straight for the RAI Conference center (about 10 minutes walk from the hotel) to start setting up hardware and software for the day one keynote (Tuesday morning). The direct flight
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
Friday, July 01, 2005 6:14 PM

ok, that's it - Video is a Podcast - listen to Adam Curry...

From Adam Curry's The Daily Source show <snip>Listen to this MP3 file</snip> and then tell me that Video isn't a Podcast... Case Closed... - Mike
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Friday, July 01, 2005 11:31 AM

Podcast Interview : XBOX 360 - Interview with Major Nelson.

Yesterday I caught up with Major Nelson from the XBOX team - we discussed XBOX 360, processors, operating system (that's interesting!), game portability between XBOX and XBOX 360, pricing, availability, updates to XBOX Live, and a number of other things
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments