Following on from the Innovation Accelerator Event earlier this week…
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0227/1224241883479.html
Quick one for those enrolled on the BizSpark program, I’ve set up a group on LinkedIn to help with Networking…Sign up here
I know this is a bit of old news for some, but I was showing a friend the New York Times Reader this weekend and realized I had never mentioned that they have gone back to having a free version.
If you’ve never seen the NYT Reader application, it’s really worth checking out. It is definitely the nicest reading experience I’ve ever seen for anything on a screen. It adjusts to any screen size, you can control the font size, and it synchs seven days of news in case you need to catch up. You can get a slide show of photos of the latest news. It’s a very beautiful and unique application that has looked fantastic on all of the machines I have tried it on. It’s really easy to navigate, and there’s no scrolling.
Personally, the best part about the Reader is that it’s all RSS-based, which means that I can load the application on my laptop, let it sync, and then disconnect and get on a plane or train and read the news as if I were online.
The New York Times Reader is a Windows Presentation Foundation application, so it has some really nice, unique features. FlowLayout allows for adaptive columns and dynamic layout of text & graphics, unlike most fixed-width news websites we’re all used to. To help improve readability there are enhancements to text from WPF’s ClearType engine and embedded fonts, too. And it’s the caching ability of WPF that allows you to disconnect from then Internet & still have all your content.
The free edition includes the latest news, top technology articles and other popular stories. It also has articles from the Times Magazine and the weekly crossword puzzle. For all sections & articles from the New York Times, you can upgrade to the full version for $14.95/month. Home delivery subscribers get the Times Reader for free. Lastly, there is a free beta for Mac available now too!
Did you just do a double-take? I mentioned this was built in WPF, yet there is a Mac version! No, Microsoft hasn’t ported the entire .NET 3.0 framework to the Mac. The Mac version uses Silverlight. It’s not exactly the same experience, as Silverlight is mostly a subset of the WPF controls, but it looks great, too.
If you like this application and are interested in building your own version for your content, there is a free SDK available.
I was on the MIX09 site earlier today and noticed a few interesting discounts I thought I’d mention here.
Last Chance to Save on MIX:
If you haven’t yet bought your MIX09 ticket, be sure to use RSVP code MIXLastChance to save $300 USD when you book by February 27th.
$200 Hosting Credit for MIX09 Attendees:
Only for MIX09 Attendees, you can get a free $200 USD credit in hosting services from GoGrid. All conference attendees will receive a GoGrid redemption card, which you can then redeem on their site to score your free $200 in hosting.
Free Third Night at The Venetian:
When you book three nights at the Venetian, you’ll get the third night free. With everyone trying to save on travel expenses at the moment, this is a really great deal. The Venetian is a fantastic hotel, and it’s always a treat to stay there. Update your registration information on the MIX09 site to reserve your room at the Venetian to take advantage of this deal.
Cirque du Soleil 15% Discount On Select Performances:
I am a huge Cirque du Soleil fan, so I was really excited about this one. Select performances of three of their shows, Zumanity, Kà, and Mystère, are discounted at 15%. For this discount, please call 866-241-2833 and give the promotion code "DE15".
Voting is now open for DDD Belfast.
As mentioned in my previous blog post, Developer Developer Developer is a free, day-long event with great presentations submitted by professionals. Now is your chance to make your voice heard and ensure the sessions you want to attend and the speakers you want to hear are at the top of the list.
Registration will be opening on March 4th, so be sure to keep an eye on the site so that you get all the juicy details.
One more note – the location has been set. It’s the Belfast Metropolitan College, and here’s a handy link to the location from Multimap.
I spent this past weekend in Limerick attending SkyCon 2009, which was a really fun and diverse conference, organized by the University of Limerick Computer Society (Skynet). Besides having great topics such as Demoscene, Swarm Robots, Open Source, and WiMax, Randall Munroe from xkcd(!!!) was the keynote speaker.
Randall gave a hilarious talk about some adventures he has had working at NASA, what it’s like to draw comics for a living, and a very serious problem facing Ireland and other countries today (shown at left). He brought along some cartoons for us and we all laughed a lot. Then he answered questions about velociraptors (of course), his career plans and whether or not he is the only American with a sense of humour. Sadly, I forgot to ask the question I really wanted to know, which was whether he had any trepidation about coming to a conference organized by a group called Skynet.
Randall was also incredibly nice and stuck around to sign autographs, draw cartoons, chat and eat this perfect cake that Skynet baked him. After the x-cake-cd, we all headed to Kilmurry Lodge for a lovely dinner and table quiz. I noticed on Twitter that Evert is offering a prize for the best answers, and he links to the table quiz questions, which were awesome. E-mail him with your answers to win a wifi router.
My talk at the conference unfortunately did not involve cake or comics. Instead, I talked about how (and why) to build video games from scratch, and walked through writing some basic XNA code. Right before I went to bed the night before the conference, I decided that my demos needed a certain something. I ran an XNA lab at LIT the previous day, and I was reusing demos, but I thought there might be some audience overlap. So I stayed up a bit longer and put together VelociAptor – a very simple XNA application that demonstrates simple sprite animation in a most terrifying way. I know you can’t wait to get the code, so I’ll go through it tomorrow and clean it up a bit and post it here as a .zip file.
Someone had asked me about 3D tutorials & examples, and I promised I’d post more information on that. First of all, one starter kit I recommend is the Spacewar starter kit, one of the most basic ones, because it has two modes to its game – 2D and 3D. So you can take a look at both versions and see the differences in the code. This link is the direct link to all the starter kits, utilities, samples and tutorials from creators .xna.com (the main hub for developers learning XNA) on everything 3D related. Take a look and let me know if you have any further questions.
My slides: http://www.slideshare.net/martharotter/creating-video-games-from-scratch-sky-con
VelociAptor XNA code: Coming Soon!
Interesting article http://www.sans.org/top25errors/ – also useful as a checklist for code reviews maybe?
I guess the question is, how many of them are you / have you been guilty of? (ending a sentence with a preposition doesn’t count, thankfully :-))
Digital Media Forum and Microsoft Ireland are delighted to bring you the Microsoft BizSpark Innovation Accelerator Event – an event designed to help accelerate the Start-up community in Ireland and Northern Ireland. This day-long conference will run on Tuesday, February 24th in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Dublin’s city centre. Entrance is free of charge.
The aim of the event is to provide business guidance for Start-ups and anyone in Ireland or Northern Ireland who thinks they might like to start-up a tech company. The plan is to get together some of Ireland’s most experienced entrepreneurs and business people to share their stories about what makes businesses succeed and what are the pitfalls to avoid.
The Innovation Accelerator Event will feature practical sessions on business areas key to success of any Start-up such as Sales, Marketing, Finance and Legal. Participating speakers are coming from every area of the Irish tech community to help with this initiative. Seminar style-sessions will run alongside some panel discussions where our more experienced entrepreneurs can relate stories from the trenches.
The agenda is available at http://digitalmediaisland.com/on-tour/bizspark-innovation-accelerator-feb-24th/schedule/
You can find more details and register at http://digitalmediaisland.com/on-tour/bizspark-innovation-accelerator-feb-24th/
I'll be attending the 5th Feb 2009 OpenCoffee meetup in Limerick this Thursday (5th Feb), starting at 11am in The Absolute Hotel
If you're involved in a startup (or thinking of it) come along to discuss what BizSpark entails...Looking forward to my first OpenCoffee :-)
Innovate!Europe is hosting a networking meetup in London for local entrepreneurs, investors, executives, government officials and members of the press. The meetup is co-host by Enterprise Ireland, Guidewire Group, Orrick, and Innovate!Europe's partners and sponsors.
You need to register, but it's free.
February 4th, 2009
18:30 - 20:30
4 Dame Lane
Dublin 2
I plan on attending so if you've any questions about BizSpark, Microsoft's program for early stage software startups, come along!