Blog:: Craig Pringle

Well TechEd NZ is still running but my sessions is all done. My Getting Started with Tablet Development session went over pretty well. I had a couple of little issues but nothing serious. I had a great time and have already had some good feedback. Now I have a bunch of feeds to read and lots to catch up on on my BIog.

At work we are always talking about let convergence. You know, the merging of traditional IT and Telecommunications. This is hardly surprising since I work for an IT company that was purchased by a Telco.
Kevin over at JkonTheRun uncovered the ultimate converged device... 10 gadget points to Sony!
"Sonys Vaio Mouse Talk works all day long as an 800 DPI optical mouse and moonlights during your chat-breaks as a VoIP phone for Skype. "
http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/08/convergence_war.html

A couple of days ago Microsoft announced the release of a Beta blogging tool called Windows Live Writer.  Today GBM reports that "Ed Holloway has stepped up to the plate and created an Ink Blog plug-in for Windows Live Writer. "

Well done Ed - damn that was quick!

The guys over at GBM have posted an interview with Darin Fish - Director of Business Development for the Mobile and Tailored Platforms Division at Microsoft.  This is an interesting insight into Microsoft's approach to mobile computing - straight from the source.

"If you are at all interested in Tablet PCs, Vista, Tablet PC marketing, the future of the Tablet PC and devices to come, and some new technology called “Hot Start”, then you need to listen to this Audio InkShow."

Great work team!

Before I started messing around with the touchscreen Motion LE1600 I wanted to create an image of it so I could resotre it to a known good state if I broke it.  Normally I would either use the restore CD that ships with the device or an imaging product like Ghost32.  Given that Motion shipped this to me with a Vista build that is a work in progress I was not surprised that a restore CD was not included. However Windows Vista includes a great new feature called CompletePC Backup and I thought I would check it out.  I recorded the process to kick off a CompletePC Backup - here is the screencast (9MB - AVI format).

There are a couple of things that make this a really cool feature...

1. You can create a PC image from within a running OS.  Most other imaging software you need to boot of a floppy/CD/network to create the image while the dsk is not in use.  CompletePC Backup uses volume shadow copy to allow you to image the machine "hot"
2. The procedure is easy.  This is going to be great for non-technical users.  (the restore procedure is marginally harder but it is much more important that it is easy to create the image - users can always seek help to restore it if need be)
3. Very fast - the first image I created took about 6 minutes.  Subsequent images leverage the volume shadow copy snapshot and record changes, so should be even faster.
4. Compact - the LE1600 is using about 11GB of disk - the backup is about 5.5GB on my USB hard drive.
5. The format of the disk image is - get this - VHD, the same format as virtual disks in Microsoft's Virtual PC and Virtual Server products.  In theory you are suppose to be able to add your CompletePC image to a virtual machine and boot it - how cool is that?!?!  I have not tried that yet, but I will.

The backup files wizard looks pretty cool too.  It leverages Windows Search and backs up files of the specified types where ever they sit on the PC.  No more losing data because you forgot to include a folder.  Again - great for the novice user.

WNewquay has launched what looks to be a great new site http://tabletwiki.com/
"This is a place where you can find, add, and edit knowledge about your mobile technologies. The initial focus is on Tablet PCs, Ultra Mobile PCs (Origami) and Media Center PCs. As various technologies converge, we may see articles on other gear, but for now our focus will be on Windows Tablet and Touch Technologies. "
Now all that is needed is for people like you (and me) to start adding content to make this a great resource for all.

I'm on the train on my way home and I can't help musing about the irony of it all... I'm the mobility guy in a team of consultants and I often end up all but immobilized by all the technology I'm carting around.
Today I have two geek bags with me and I'm lugging around no less than four tablets. I've got my Motion Ls800 that is my primary machine and which I'm using to pen this post. In addition to that I have my new work provided tablet-a Toshiba M400 that I'll be using as my primary Vista machine going forward. I also have my trusty HP TC1100 which is my old work provided machine that I have not relinquished yet. Lastly I have the touchscreen LE 1600 that Motion sent me to use @ TechEd NZ.
I've concluded that Tablet PCs are a bit like some of their pharmaceutical counterparts. After using them for a while it is necessary to up the dosage to get the same effect. :)

Some very good news on Geekzone.
"Hitwise has just revealed the results of traffic measurements for New Zealand-based websites, and Geekzone has qualified as Hitwise #1 for the quarter ending June 2006.
During this period, www.geekzone.co.nz ranked No. 1 by visits in the News and Media - IT Media category against other New Zealand websites."Well done Mauricio and the rest of the team!
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=6537

The next meeting of the Tablet PC User Group will be held on August 3rd. This is a little later than it should be but we wanted to get the best speakers for the topics.
We are over half way through the year now and suddenly Office 2007 and Windows Vista are not very far away. Both the Office and the Windows Vista betas are public now so we thought it would be a good time to have a look at what is in the new Windows Platform and Office suite for the tablet user.
Microsoft is hosting the meeting and we are going to be treated to two top notch speakers. Windows Platform evangelist Nathan Mercer is going to give us the lowdown on Windows Vistas new features for the Tablet PC and for mobile computer users in general.
After that Ryan Duguid, Microsoft Technical Specialist, will brief us on the new Office suite.
We will as always wrap up the meeting with prizes and a chat over beer and pizza.
Where:
Microsoft New Zealand
Level 12, 157 Lambton Quay
Wellington
When:
6pm-8pm Thursday, August 3rd 2006.
RSVP:
TUGRSVP@pringle.net.nz
Look forward to seeing you there.

I have not abandoned BlogPad - though I do think I need a complete code review. I have been doing a lot of learning about tablet and smart client development recently in preparation for the session I am giving at TechEd NZ. In line with this I have decided to add Network Location Awareness to BlogPad and combine this with defensive programming techniques. In short - I'm going to track network state and only try to talk to the server if I'm connected. Simple enough to do.
The other change I am making is something I need to do to make BlogPad easier to use on a small screen tablet - I'm adding the ability for the user to configure the pen size.
I have found that the easiest way to do this is to create a DrawingAttributes object, configure the settings and assign the drawing attributes object to the DrawingAttributes property of each InkEdit on the main form.
Right now I have it hard coded to fine to suit the LS800 until I create the GUI to allow the user to configure it. It looks like this:

' Create DrawigAttributes object
Dim myPenSettings As New DrawingAttributes
myPenSettings.PenTip = PenTip.Ball
myPenSettings.Width = 3
myPenSettings.Height = 3

Me.iEditTitle.DrawingAttributes = myPenSettings

Me.iEditBody.DrawingAttributes = myPenSettings