I’ve been helping my kids with their homework, and one of them (I wont name who, so as to avoid any embarrassment) had to deliver a presentation in PowerPoint. I wanted to add a bit of pizzazz to the experience looked at hooking up a Kinect so that they could present with gestures, rather than clicking with a mouse.
Seems like a good idea, right?
I grabbed the Kinect for Windows SDK, and went looking on codeplex for kinect related samples, where I found the Kinect PowerPoint Control. It was nice, but It didn’t do exactly what I wanted.
By coincidence, Dr Neil sent me an email about nsquared slyda, which just lets me change between slides using hand gestures.
Perfecto!!
We had a practice session and kiddo can move forward and back, with a wave of the hands.
Next stop, the classroom!!!
BTW – I see that boffins at nsquared solutions are working on more Kinect apps. I got a ping last night from Dr Neil about nsquared spydar, which is like the Coding4Fun Kinect Turret minus the violence. I got it set up – now let’s see who comes and uses my PC when I’m away….
Michael Kordahi, aka Delicate Genius, is asking for Geek Origin Stories.
How can I not contribute to this worthy cause……
The year was 1981, and my high school, CBC StKilda, got a fancy new Cromenco computer system. I was asked to man the computer lab by my math teacher, Mrs Fagin, and to pass the time, I wrote programs in Structured Basic. I remember putting in programs that would to print out ASCII art – playboy bunny logo and Alfred E. Newman stick in my memory. After spending time playing in that lab, I decided to following a computing path, even though I had been planning to go on and do medicine. I signed up for the EDP (or Electronic Data Processing) course at CIT in 1982. In my first year we used punch cards to input out programs. I still have some those punch cards someone in the garage – I’ve carried them for almost 30 years! In my second year, the class had access to time sharing terminals connected to a PR1ME computer and we worked on PR1ME Information (which was similar to PICK), as well as COBOL and FORTRAN, and in my third year, we had a dedicated Data General system, we programmed in COBOL and PL/1 and we had access to a new fangled a IBM PC and a software package called KnowledgeMan for our group project. After graduating, I entered the workforce as a humble programmer and my first job was converting FORTRAN applications for an engineering company on St Kilda Rd, who were migrating systems. That was the start of many projects during my time
The year was 1981, and my high school, CBC StKilda, got a fancy new Cromenco computer system. I was asked to man the computer lab by my math teacher, Mrs Fagin, and to pass the time, I wrote programs in Structured Basic.
I remember putting in programs that would to print out ASCII art – playboy bunny logo and Alfred E. Newman stick in my memory. After spending time playing in that lab, I decided to following a computing path, even though I had been planning to go on and do medicine.
I signed up for the EDP (or Electronic Data Processing) course at CIT in 1982. In my first year we used punch cards to input out programs. I still have some those punch cards someone in the garage – I’ve carried them for almost 30 years! In my second year, the class had access to time sharing terminals connected to a PR1ME computer and we worked on PR1ME Information (which was similar to PICK), as well as COBOL and FORTRAN, and in my third year, we had a dedicated Data General system, we programmed in COBOL and PL/1 and we had access to a new fangled a IBM PC and a software package called KnowledgeMan for our group project.
After graduating, I entered the workforce as a humble programmer and my first job was converting FORTRAN applications for an engineering company on St Kilda Rd, who were migrating systems. That was the start of many projects during my time
So there you have it….
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.
1991 was a big year for me.
I got married.
I bought a house.
My first child was born
AND
I joined Microsoft on May 20, 1991
Today marks my 20th year anniversary at Microsoft.
As I have done for the past few years (19, 18, 17, 16. 15, 14, 13), time to reflect a bit on my time at Microsoft. Yes, I still *love* the job.
The resume stays the same, but I’m now back in Australia, based in Melbourne.
This year, I find myself in a different situation -- I don’t have an office, so no 20lbs of M&Ms sitting in a bowl outside my door to share with my work colleagues.
It’s kinda weird that I have no one to share the moment with. It’s just another day.
But, I did get a rather large and heavy parcel sent to me.
which had another box inside
and inside that box was another box addressed to me
it was like a Babushka doll!!
So – what’s in it?
Well – it’s my 20 year “crystal” from Microsoft. (yeah – crappy photo, I know. I’ll take another one in the morning)
So – 20 years down, and the future looks promising – skype is joining the family, kinect is going gang busters with it’s own SDK , windows phone is getting Angry Birds soon.
Seems like there’s a lots to still do, and I’m pretty excited to continue doing it.
Plus, now that I’m back in Australia – I can get along to some local events, such as DDD Melbourne, PREMIX & REMIX
Bring on the next 20! Maybe I’ll get some M&Ms just for me and the kids!…
Ok, so I’m on a roll! Last week I got my first #WP7 App out.
This week , I grabbed the v2 of the Social Viewer Template for Windows Phone 7 from codeplex and put together another windows phone 7 app, which I called Saints Footy.
It has twitter feeds, feeds from news sites and fan sites, and the facebook feed from saints.com.au – the best way to experience Saints Footy on Windows Phone!!
Now, if only the Saints would win a few more games….
Big shout out to Nick Randolph and Dave Glover for a wonderful job with the Social Viewer Template.
I’ve been meaning to write an Windows Phone app for ages. I even told Brandon Watson that I would.
I just never got around to it, until I saw a tweet from Nick Hodge which inspired me to get started
Nick pointed me to the Windows Phone 7 Social Viewer Application Template that Nick Randolph and Dave Glover had put together.
The Social Viewer template is a Visual Studio template that allows you to jump start the development of a Windows Phone 7 application. It provides the foundations of an application that can aggregate multiple RSS/Atom feeds, Facebook and Twitter.
I downloaded the zip file, looked over the documentation the guys had put together, and then I got started.
First, I got the tools installed onto my Samsung Series 9 laptop.
Next, I fired up Visual Studio, opened up the Social Viewer App Template and got coding.
Then I got my kids involved to design the app icon.
Emma suggested I put “Tech Frank” onto a radar image – so off I went.
I futzed with Paint.Net for a while trying to get the image just right. Dave was right – the icon is the thing that took the longest time!
Bill gave me a few pointers and voila - application icon created!
So what does the app do?
Well, you’re going to have to install it and find out for yourself
Enjoy!! Who knows, you may find FrankArr in your neck of the woods!
I made the long trip to the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, which is where MIX 11 is being held this year.
It should be a good one this year – the sessions look great and the keynotes are not to be missed.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again – the team missed an opportunity to play with the name with some good old fashioned roman numeral hijinks.
I love playing foursquare, and I have just started using a wonderful foursquare app on my Windows Phone called 4th and Mayor.
So, I am the “mayor” of a bunch of places. At one point, I got to 30 venues.
Anyways, since I’m leaving town, the mayorship of the spots will be up for grabs.
Casa Arrigo
Starbucks - Rosehill
Microsoft Building 24
24/2362
Microsoft Main Campus
Hoffman's Fine Pastries
Morsel's
Heathman Hotel
Top Of South Parking Garage @Bell Square
Kinect XBOX 360 @ Macy's
Newport Hills Park
Gap Kids
Enterprise Rent A Car
Juicy Couture
Prime Meridian
Fuego
Cafe Vita - microsoft commons
Chevron - Clyde Hill
Brown Bear Car Wash
I would love to see how long it takes for all these go – a week? a month? a year?
Happy Foursquaring.