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November 2005 - Posts

Wednesday, November 30, 2005 2:39 PM

Need a new unofficial mascot

Now that Sam, the worlds ugliest dog is no longer with us, I guess I need to find a replacement (unofficial) mascot... I'm probably going to regret asking this question, but here goes anyway... any suggestions for a replacement (unofficial) mascot? -
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005 11:11 PM

WE-DIG December Meeting - Inside the Platform Builder (and Christmas Party!)

Here's what's happening for the December 2005 WE-DIG meeting What goes on inside Platform Builder when a new Windows CE image is created? Join us for a backstage pass to find out. You are also invited to our Christmas Party (I wonder if Jon Fincher
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005 10:29 PM

Windows Template Library (WTL) 7.5 Released

WTL 7.5 has just been released on Sourceforge - The Windows Template Library (WTL) is a C++ library for developing Windows applications and UI components. It extends ATL (Active Template Library) and provides a set of classes for controls, dialogs,
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005 12:07 PM

Will the Real Embedded Leader Please Stand Up?

I was recently interviewed by EDN's Warren Webb (Technical Editor, EDN) to discuss Windows CE/XPE/WEPOS, an article has been published based on that interview - here's a link to the "Movers and Shakers" article - it's interesting that Wind declined to
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
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Sunday, November 27, 2005 5:22 PM

Windows Embedded Student ChallengE 2006 - Registration pushed out to Jan 22nd 2006

Following on from my last post about the Windows Embedded Student Challenge 2006 the registration date has been pushed out to January 22nd 2006. - Mike 
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
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Saturday, November 26, 2005 1:05 PM

Windows CE: Drivers can delay o/s boot.

When building a custom Windows CE 5.0 operating system there's a good chance you may be developing drivers for the system - Drivers can slow the boot process of your device, but how ? You should be aware of the load order of drivers on your device -
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Wednesday, November 23, 2005 9:45 AM

Does anyone still use 800x600 on their desktop PC ?

I've been recording some videos over at Microsoft Studios, once recorded, edited (only if needed!), the videos are transcoded down to 800x600 and 300k/100k - is 800x600/300k ok for watching tutorials? - does anyone still run at 800x600? - Would you prefer
posted by mikehall | 14 Comments
Tuesday, November 22, 2005 5:29 PM

A sad, sad day, goodbye Sam...

From Don Gambrell - Sam, the worlds ugliest dog is no longer with us, this from Dons blog, and my original post - Mike  
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 12:11 PM

Technology Lights of Christmas

ok, no words to describe this, just check out the video here. - Mike
posted by mikehall | 10 Comments
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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 9:51 AM

Visual Studio 2005 - Do we need a Windows CE SDK ?

So, I've been thinking... To write managed or native code applications for Windows CE 5.0 you need to generate a custom SDK (Software Development Kit) from Platform Builder - Why do I need to do this? Generating an SDK takes time, and is a multi step
posted by mikehall | 11 Comments
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Monday, November 21, 2005 7:56 AM

ActiveSync 4.1 Updated/Released

ActiveSync 4.1 has been released to the web, this is required for devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 - Here's a link to the download. The 4.1 release fixes issues with syncing devices as described on Jason Langridges' blog. - Mike  
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Thursday, November 17, 2005 10:06 AM

Windows XP Embedded - Change the boot screen.

This is a pretty common question on the newsgroups, and also came up on e-mail this morning - how do you change the Windows XP Embedded boot screen/logo ? From Sysinternals.com - modify your boot.ini as follows. /BOOTLOGO Use this switch to have
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
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Wednesday, November 16, 2005 7:19 AM

Windows CE 5.0 - Comparing Workspaces - Part 4

I've been doing some additional work on the Windows CE image diff tool, here's the first (exclusive!) look at the application running and showing (for the first time) differences between a baseline platform template and a workspace. I'm parsing the
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, November 15, 2005 1:27 PM

Windows Embedded Student ChallengE 2006

It's that time of year again, the Windows Embedded Student Challenge 2006 is open for business.    Are you ready to change the world? Then enter the third annual Windows ChallengE! The competition challenges undergraduate teams of four—with
posted by mikehall | 5 Comments
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Monday, November 14, 2005 10:16 AM

Windows CE 5.0 and Visual Studio 2005 - Recording tutorial videos today.

Today I'm going to be over at Microsoft Studios recording some tutorial videos, some of which I can't talk about yet, and others that will be instantly useful. I'm recording some short (3-5 minute) introductions to Windows CE 5.0, Windows XP
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Sunday, November 13, 2005 11:32 AM

Windows CE 5.0 - Comparing Workspaces - Part 3

In the previous installments of the Comparing Workspaces posts (here's Part 1 and Part 2) we looked at the relationship between GUIDs found in Platform Builder wizards and the SYSGENs found in platform workspace files. Unfortunately there isn't a simple
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Friday, November 11, 2005 8:04 PM

TrueType - how does it work ?

Ever wondered how TrueType scaling and hinting works? - Over on the MSDN FontBlog there's a pretty neat video that explains/shows how this works. - Mike
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
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Friday, November 11, 2005 1:04 PM

Windows CE 5.0 Application Developer - What are the options?

I posted recently about the release of Visual Studio 2005 and that you need the Professional version to develop native or managed applications for Windows CE 5.0 (or Windows Mobile 5.0) devices. So what are the options for application developers
posted by mikehall | 3 Comments
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Friday, November 11, 2005 8:26 AM

Windows CE Developer Wiki

Stewart Tansley from Microsoft Research has created a Windows CE Developer Wiki - this lives over on the MSDN Channel 9 site. Go ahead and start adding your Windows CE developer knowledge to the Wiki. Oh, and there's also a Windows Mobile Developers
posted by mikehall | 0 Comments
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Thursday, November 10, 2005 10:33 PM

James Y Wilson, living life without a laptop, or, doing the Windows Mobile thing...

Is it possible to live life without a laptop? - James Y Wilson has been living with his Windows Mobile device and comments on the applications he needs and the overall experience, read more on the blog here. What do you use your Windows Mobile device
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Thursday, November 10, 2005 8:53 PM

Robot Uprising...

Today I attended a lecture given by Daniel Wilson, the title of the lecture was When Robots Attack -- How to Survive A Robot Uprising. Seems like an interesting topic, right? - here's a link to Daniels web site. One of the questions asked during the
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Thursday, November 10, 2005 8:17 PM

Visual Studio 2005 Launch - not only for desktop developers, Phidgets USA Robotics

Hey, If you thought the Visual Studio 2005 Launch was only interesting for desktop developers, then check out this video of Phidgets USA, robotic arms and devices connected to a desktop PC over USB being controlled through managed code. Visual Studio
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005 9:47 AM

Which version of Visual Studio 2005 is needed for "Managed" device application development ?

Visual Studio 2005 is now out the door (Woot!) - For Windows CE developers this means that you now have one tool to develop native (Win32, MFC, ATL, STL, WTL) and managed (C#/VB, CF 2.0) applications - of course you can continue to use eMbedded Visual
posted by mikehall | 8 Comments
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Friday, November 04, 2005 8:44 PM

Windows CE 5.0 - Comparing Workspaces - Part 2

Comparing workspaces is simple, command prompt, pipe sysgens to a text file, use WinDiff or similar to compare the sysgen list - it would be nice to have a graphical tool to do this, but text/windiff works well enough for this to be a workable solution.
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Thursday, November 03, 2005 8:36 PM

Windows CE 5.0 - Comparing Workspaces - Part 1

Windows CE is a componentized (is that a real word?) operating system, but you already knew that, right. Being componentized (there's that word again) is a good thing, it means you only put the technologies you need into the operating system (the same
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Thursday, November 03, 2005 8:12 PM

Tiny Blog - Rory Blyth is talking about mobile/embedded technologies.

Rory Blyth (of MSDN Fame) has started a blog talking about Mobile/Embedded technologies - here's a quote from Rory "I actually think it's the most exciting area at Microsoft. More exciting than the dev tools, more exciting than Vista." - ooh, sounds interesting!
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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Thursday, November 03, 2005 11:13 AM

Embedded meeting in Vancouver, Canada - November 8th 2005, 6:30pm

Hey, If you live in or around Vancouver, Canada and are interested in finding out more about (or aboot) Windows Embedded/Mobile technologies then you should plan on coming along to a meeting at the Microsoft offices in Vancouver - 11th floor, 1111 W.
posted by mikehall | 2 Comments
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Thursday, November 03, 2005 10:37 AM

Compact Framework 2.0 - comments from WE-DIG

Last night (or about two months ago if you are catching up on the blog in January 2006) we had an evening full of Compact Framework content, which was great - here's some tidbits I picked up from last nights presentations. Compact Framework 2.0 runs
posted by mikehall | 1 Comments
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