Blog :: CharlieO

I'm interested to know what topics you might like for me to cover here regarding developing for Windows XP Media Center Edition in the coming weeks. If you read this blog and want to see a particular topic covered, please provide feedback.

Today I was given the opportunity to use an i-mate JAM PocketPC Phone Edition device to see how it compared to an Audiovox SMT5600 . Wow! All of the features of PocketPC in a form factor not that much larger than the Audiovox -- I'm nearly sold since...

[Courtesy of my friend and colleague John Canning , who isn't blogging but should be -- especially about his world traveling photographic expeditions...] Here is a resource we nailed for the 2004 version of Media Center and revised for the 2005 version...

I had a blast at the Blog Business Summit . A couple of observations from about 30,000 feet up... 1) Want to make money with a blog you write? Then... A) Get hired by Google and start collecting stock options or... B) Sign up for Google AdSense and AdWords...

Check out the Java TivoDemo for a TiVO box with the TiVo Home Media Engine (HME) . I think it's great eBay is looking at the living room and ten foot presentations of their service. For you see... I'm a fan of eBay although not a heavy user (I'm cmozen...

Robert Scoble has a rule ( The Corporate Weblog Manifesto #12) which states 'Never change the URL of your weblog.' Unfortunately, I started blogging before reading The Manifesto. Yes, I know: RTFM. However, I see this as a definite success story about...

Hand on the Guitar

Second in a series of responses to Media Center Development: What topic(s) shall I blog about next ? --> Niels: An idea: In a number of countries (like Denmark...) we don't have tv-guides in MCE2005. So we are forced to rely on the build-in screen...

One of the problems I have with my digital camera is I take way too many pictures (typical outing fills up two 512MB CF cards). It takes me a while to sort through the ones I really like, tweak them in PhotoShop and order prints. In the meantime, I keep...

When I was growing up my Grandma Bessie would record cassette tapes of herself reading childrens books and mail them to me (along with the books, of course). Luckily I still have these tapes to enjoy (and most of the books) and I've recently begun to...

I took some time to respond to Thomas' blog this morning at MCE Television and LaCie Big Disk Problems . Thanks for taking the time to post your experience -- we do listen.

I've been wanting a way to do this -- and Sean took the time to write up the instructions for all of us. Download & HowTo: AutoSync Podcasts in MP10

This will be the last post I make here -- everything from now on will be available at http://blog.retrosight.com .

Michael mentioned this over at his blog and I have yet to pile on -- if you want the original details go here . Sean tells me I'm in for one heck of a fun ride, so I'm looking forward to this and hope to see you there. Like Mike, I'll be wearing a black...

Found something over at Robert Scobles blog tonight after the Geek dinner: http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/12/08.html#a8831 . Downloaded this puppy and installed on my Tablet PC with the three microphones and have *finally* found the replacement...

A colleague of mine pointed this out to me this morning. You can get the latest, greatest Windows Mobile based Smartphone AND get $25 put in your pocket after rebates. There are some caveats (you have to sign up for a 2 year service plan and all of the...

First in the series of responses to Media Center Development: What topic(s) shall I blog about next ? --> Henry: How about telling us a way how to skin the MCE? Officially there is no way to skin Media Center. [We do hear this request multiple times...

My name is Charlie Owen and I am a Program Manager with the Windows eHome team (a compatriot of Ethan Zoller ( http://blogs.msdn.com/ethanz ) and Michael Creasy ( http://blogs.msdn.com/mcreasy ). This is my first ever blog, so be gentle with me. :-) I...

The Software Development Kit for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 includes several enhancements for creating dialog boxes. In addition to MediaCenter.Dialog ( screenshot ) we now have... MediaCenter.DialogEx ( screenshot ) with support for custom...

One of the common areas of confusion I see when working with Online Spotlight partners is the concept of UI scaling for their applications in Media Center. This is a bit of a mind shift for designers and developers familiar with the rest of the Windows...

Working through some more stuff in purposeful design for the Media Center platform gave me the chance to enhance understanding of the mouse transport and navigation bars... The design template (see the Demystifying Scale in Media Center Hosted HTML Applications...

Third in a series of responses to Media Center Development: What topic(s) shall I blog about next ? --> Dave Neigler: I'd like to see some samples using addins and html apps to communicate with web services (WSE2) hosted via http.sys (instantiated...

Well, I was going to blog about these new Online Spotlight partners over the weekend, but Sean beat me to the punch. Check out his blog for details on the Discovery Channel, Yahoo, XM Radio, Fox Sports and TitanTV. I'm so lucky my team gets to work with...

By way of Sean Alexanders' blogroll pointer to Thomas Hawks' reference to Chris Anderson (*really* loving this whole blog thing -- it's replacing my newspaper more and more -- paradigm shift anyone?): Check out the Long Tail TV: Wishlist where Chris states...

I've been watching Ethan build this since pretty much day one, and it goes a long way to show how *serious* PMs take their work. Ethan (along with many others) is the primary driver for the Media Center API and this proves he eats what he specs. :-) Check...