Category: thegeekstories

Windows Live Chat on Windows Mobile

Imagine: you are out having a pleasant dinner with your parents-in-law. One thing leads to another, and you start playing with your new toy: Windows Mobile 6.0 and my new Palm Treo 750.

Minutes before leaving the house, I had downloaded and installed the Windows Live client for Windows Mobile into my Treo, and had yet to log in to the service.

Over dinner, when the conversation turned to something where I could merely "nod", I un-pocketed by Treo 750 and signed in.

 

 

 

Appearing on my "Today" screen was my Windows Live login details: Windows Live / Windows Mobile pic 1
Ooh, Messenger sign in. Tap here to sign in, let’s sign in and see who is online. pc_capture2
I nod politely pc_capture3
At 6:10pm on a Friday, Sydney time only my European friends tend to be online. In this instance, Paul Foster fellow enthusiast from the UK is online, so I start up a quick chat.

The Contacts are exactly the same as your desktop and web list. No matter where I am, with my trusty Treo I can chat with them.

Windows Live / Windows Mobile pic 4
Yes, in our chat we refer to each other as "dude" as it sounds cool.

Notice the little "Voice clip" option at the bottom left? By clicking on this, I was able to send a quick "G’day" to Paul.

 Windows Live / Windows Mobile pic 5

A voice clip? Yes, just like the desktop version of Windows Live Messenger on your PC.

 

 Windows Live / Windows Mobile pic 6

 

I demonstrated this to my parents-in-law to show them I was a worthy husband for their daughter. Thankfully, they were impressed.

Oh, and thanks to Paul Foster for his assistance.

A Geek’s 4.5 Days in Perth

perthaug07 001

Whilst driving from Perth airport to the Hotel on Sunday, I determined that I haven’t been in Perth since late 2005. Nearly 2 years. Perth is greener now.

My first visit to Perth was in 1993. I think I’ve been here at least 27 times through my last 4 employers.

The Duxton Hotel’s high-speed internet access is wireless only, and keeps dropping VPN connections to work. As a video-blogger, I am constantly moving around multiple-hundred of Mb files around the world, and the lack of network stability is frustrating.

This danah boyd video is killing me. Note to self: choose a different hotel. And one that doesn’t think I am a Ms.

Duxton Perth gets Creepy...

I’ve already captured two videos: one with Gary Barber and one with Stephen Price.

Stephen is the cartoonist who created my new avatar, and Gary is the geek-father of Perth.

My discussions with Gary revolved around “why Perth?”. Is it the tyranny of distance that forces Perth people together; which is like Australia. Why then do humans seek like minded people out and see a need to get together in meatspace? There is no doubt that Perth people have this innate drive to help each other in a way that you do not see in other cities. Maybe Melbourne at little. Adelaide should learn from Perth.

By strange coincidence, I ran into Nick Randolph and Brian H Madsen (and a bunch of .Net dudes) at the centre of Perth Silicon area, Tiger Tiger. Thankfully, they didn’t ask me some obscure .Net technical question. If they had, I’d probably called Joel Pobar.

On the return walk to the hotel, Stephen lead me astray into the Hay Street Border’s Bookstore. Yes, my book collection +1. And friendly staff. The geek-girl behind the counter loved my “geek” t-shirt. rscpt.

perthaug07 002

Tomorrow is more than another Wednesday for Perth: its WebJam day. Lachlan Hardy and Lisa Herrod land to get the Perth experience. I hope that WebJam is a two-way experience for all conference people in Australia, especially in the online space.

Some Monday Links

Alivetec (That’s the Gold Coast health gadget guys) go larger than The Geek Stories: ABC’s Good Morning America. MSR + Australian goodness goes really large! A phone that tells you when you are not breathing. W00t!

John Lam gives an update on IronRuby. The first drop is available now. LOLCODE, Ruby, Python. A difficult choice!

Want to step out with Silverlight in Brisbane? Pop me an email and I’ll connect you up.

AMD Dual Core (2007) vs. Mac Plus (1986). Interesting comments on “large software” — as I actually remember using Mac Plus’s for hard work (word processing, spreadsheets) and System6.0.8; I should write up what the Mac could not do in 1986. Meh.  The Mac was only throwing around 22K of graphics (512 x 384 pixels / 8 bits as the Mac was only B&W) ; Word didn’t even repaginate in the background. This Mac could not have TCP/IP’d as there wasn’t enough memory on the logic board (1Mb hardwired, no upgrades) or speed in the SCC (serial controller for the RS423 on the Macs).  An interesting read to see how far we’ve come.

Alive at Pamplona

Hey, Jeffa The Geek Stories has the scoop, before The New Inventors: watch the interview with the Alive Tec CEO Bruce Satchwell – that blue device attached to the patient is made on the Gold Coast!

Emailing Bruce last night, apart from complementing me on my sharp eyes and good memory – he also broke the news that Alive’s Web Developer, Tim Hilliard, is wearing the monitor for the running of the bulls in Pamplona in a couple of weeks.

Alive  have made a very crude map of the bull run route using Windows Live maps.

Map view

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=42.81795~-1.642793&style=r&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=11721060&&cid=62DC070579519371!130&encType=1

Birdseye view

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=r42pyngvwrkz&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=11721060&&cid=62DC070579519371!130&encType=1

Youtube video of the run in 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTHHgxFOD_g

I hope this doesn’t end in tears.

Stephen Price, a WACOM Tablet and Popfly:

Monday morning at ReMIX. Coffee hadn’t quite kicked in. I wandered over to a man standing, rather bemused, near the wall. Stephen Price. He was all the way from Perth on an overnight flight (read: 2 hours sleep). Steve’s card has cute cartoons.  A .Net developer in the daytime and a cartoonist in “his shed”

Stephen let me use the following cartoon in my Popfly session:

popfly

Cut to midday Monday. I draw his name out of a hat as a winner of a WACOM Bamboo tablet. Steve was over the moon: although he wasn’t quite sure if it would help or hinder his cartooning. http://littlevoices.com/photos/scribbles/images/42/original.aspx:

Popfly geek

Later on Monday night, as I left WebJam, Stephen was still going shooting aliens in some game at Galactic Circus. 

Want to Study Gaming at University?

QuT has a Bachelor of Gaming and Entertainment. Coolness does not begin to explain this course. More than C++, it is also about the social aspects, history, design – the whole works.

Dr Ross Brown and Penny Drennan are really cool: passionate about their areas of expertise (and geeks from deep in their lives) – and pass on this to the next generation of games designers.