Hi all,
I've been doing a little playing around with MT on Win7 using the VS2010 and .Net 4 Beta 1 to get some WPF MT demos running.
Here are the videos!
Basic how to get MT going code example:
Some internal demos that I've made to work on VS2010 and .Net4 beta 1 - using a WPF4 implementation of the Surface ScatterView control (or something that looks a lot like it)
Get building with WPF 4 in MT! I'm using the Codeplex MultitouchVista project which now has a Win7 driver. Works really well - very sweet when you don't have any MT kit!!!
Are getting ready to come to XNA Camp? We have a great selection of speakers AND creators club memberships to give away to attendees (4mths) and speakers (12mths). Everything in fact to get you building games or building more advanced games! With the new Community Games channel on Xbox Live you could also make some money!!!
The XNA UK user group is a great gang of hobbyists, students and professional games developers. Always happy to help fellow game builders the user group provides a wealth of experience and resources to tap into. Why not join us in Birmingham at the Aston Science Park between 09:30 and 18:00. I'm giving the opening session on recent XNA and related technology announcements, then we have an open floor for 20min sessions by attendees.
Some of the speakers confirmed include:
Peter McGann - author of the recent PC Plus XNA series.
Edward Powell - explaining XNA Game Components & Services
Andrew Griffiths - telling us some of the shader tech behind the game Encroach.
There are still a few more slots available so submit your presentation idea to SlotBooker@xna-uk.net and receive a 12month Creators Club membership after your presentation. Feel free to submit a XNA question you'd like answered by someone else!
Projector and sound system is all provided by the venue - just bring your laptop to present from and to take part in the LAN party!
Register at: http://xna.icentrum.co.uk
Arrival time: 09:30
Kick off at: 10:00
A light buffet and refreshments will be available - sponsored by Microsoft.
Hard close at: 18:00
Venue address:
iCentrum
Aston Science Park
Faraday Wharf
Birmingham B7 4BB
Car parking is available underneath this building in a pay and display.
The first ever XNA UK user group bar camp is taking place on the 21st March at iCentrum in Birmingham. Book your attendance here.
There are 12 slots that can be pre-booked if you want to show off your latest XNA game for peer review, your latest coding/effect technique or even want to seek input on an XNA coding challenge you are facing! Each session lasts 20mins max (inc. setup).
You can pre-book a session or suggest a session topic by emailing slotbooker@xna-uk.net
The days agenda looks like this:
09:30 Arrival and last chance to book a slot
10:00 Microsoft session on XNA and Community Games
11:00 Session time
15:00 LAN Party!!
18:00 Close
We will have the latest beta of Beatnik's Plain Sight to play during the lan party amongst some other games. This is also an excellent opportunity to use the iCentrum network for what they do best - testing! If you have an XNA multi-player game you'd like to test during the LAN party then please let us know by emailing slotbooker@xna-uk.net so we can work the details out.
If you are new to or an old hand at XNA development there will be lots to discuss, learn and play with. So book your place now!!!
The Windows 7 beta is only available until the 10th February to download, so get your copy now!
MSDN and TechNet Subscribers will continue to have access to the Windows 7 Beta bits throughout the Windows 7 Beta phase. The above dates do not apply to MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.
Product keys for the Windows 7 Beta will continue to be available. So if you have the Windows 7 Beta but didn’t get a product key you will be able to do so even after February 12th.
To get more information on Windows 7, check out the following resources:
Windows 7 TechCentre
Windows 7 Beta Deployment Guide
Windows 7 Forums
Visit the Springboard Series blog to keep an eye on all the announcements
Scott Deadrick dropped me a note regarding some up coming Pluralsight courses. Details below:
We have two, high profile instructors teaching three courses in London in the coming months. I thought your customers might be interested. Volume discounts are available. Details are as follows:
Aaron Skonnard [1], Microsoft MVP and DevWeek UK 2009 keynote presenter, Double Feature: WCF+WF --
http://www.pluralsight.com/main/ilt/course.aspx?id=AP14-AP16
16-20 February
08:00-18:00 each day with breakfast and lunch provided.
Ian Griffiths [2], Microsoft MVP and DevWeek UK 2009 presenter, WPF Fundamentals -- http://www.pluralsight.com/main/ilt/course.aspx?id=AP15
10-13 March
09:00-17:00 each day with breakfast provided.
Ian Griffiths,
Silverlight Fundamentals --
http://www.pluralsight.com/main/ilt/Course.aspx?id=AP19
21-24 April
09:00-17:00 each day with breakfast provided.
As an added bonus, attendees will receive a 12-month subscription, at no additional cost, to the online version of the course they attend, available in the Pluralsight On-Demand! library [3].
[1] http://www.pluralsight.com/main/instructor.aspx?name=Aaron%20Skonnard
[2] http://www.pluralsight.com/main/instructor.aspx?name=Ian%20Griffiths
[3] http://www.pluralsight.com/main/olt/default.aspx
Microsoft Live Labs has made available a mobile SeaDragon client for the iPhone you can get it from the iTunes App store. The application utilises the Sea Dragon platform to browse Deep Zoom images. Read more here: Seadragon Goes Mobile : Microsoft Live Labs
While I was away travelling this week the postie delivered a Vellemen Mk100T - a small electronics kit ideal for that first soldering project. There is just enough soldering for your offspring to learn and practice their technique. All this for under £6!!
I used a film from Filmsforlearning.org to show my eldest son what soldering is and how to do it safely. The kit uses LEDs, Resistors, Capacitors and Transistors - so excellent intro to basic electronics.
It was a simple and fun activity for the pair of us to complete this pretty little geek Xmas decoration. My son's proud of his first soldering project and I'm proud of my son! At 8yos his awesome :-)
Recommended as a Christmas holidays activity!
I've been playing with some of B&Q's HomeEasy range of automation devices - switches and dimmers. These nicely designed pieces of kit are inexpensive - £20 will get you a remote and 3 on/off mains plugs. The remote controls and switches have a range of about 30metres - yes this is all RF stuff not your old world of X10 powerline comms.
There are several different product lines in the range - each with a different type of controller, but as you go up the line the controllers are able to control everything beneath them.
I first started with a middle of the range remote and two dimmer sockets. The remote is pretty cool because it has a built in scheduling function which enables you to setup events. For example, currently the Foster household Christmas lights are being driven by my on/off switches which run to several scheduled events during the day; namely sun rise and sun set.
Because the remote RF range is so big (30metres remember) I can have the one remote with scheduler placed in a central location able to control all the devices around my house. However, I was disappointed to discover that the range isn't long enough to pre-heat my log cabin office in the mornings :-(.
So the hardware is cool and cheap. The next good thing is that several good souls have already created the automation bits you need for Windows so your beloved computer can actually control your devices - rather than just the remote. Note this is a an AND situation. You can have several computer controllers and several remotes working with different mixes of your switches.
XPLMonkey has done most of the specific work for these devices. Based on the open source xplHub project - these is a simple little .Net assembly you can use. XPLMonkey has created an xpl service for the RFXCom RF controllers. These provide USB or network connected transmitters and receivers of RF automation protocols. The RFXCom devices are particularly cool because they support almost every RF automation frequency out there - enabling you to pick and choose which automation devices you want to use.
XPLMonkey has a several examples and well written instructions to get you going quickly. However, the xplMCE client - a client for Windows Media Centre enabling automation actions to be triggered by Media Centre events (think DVD play causing lights to be dimmed, curtains drawn, projector and screen descend from the ceiling...) is stuck on the MCE 2005 (XP) platform. There seem to be some install issues under Windows Vista. Cough. I haven't had time to help resolve these - yet!
Using the RFXCom device via the XPL infrastructure is SOOOO simple. You just create a message type, populate it and fire it off. And bang your lights go out. Or on depending on your action of course :-)
For example:
XplMsg x = new XplMsg();
x.SourceVendor = "xpl";
x.SourceDevice = "xplhal";
x.SourceInstance = "paulfox2001";
x.MsgType = XplMsg.xPLMsgType.cmnd;
x.TargetVendor = "mal";
x.TargetDevice = "rfxcom";
x.TargetInstance = "rfxcom1";
x.Class = "homeeasy";
x.Type = "basic";
x.AddKeyValuePair("unit", "1");
x.AddKeyValuePair("level", "15");
x.AddKeyValuePair("address", "DimmerOne");
x.AddKeyValuePair("command", "on");
x.Send();
This piece of code sets a dimmer controller to a level. The SourceInstance is my PC, the rfxcom1 is my RFXCom USB transmitter connected to the PC. Unit 1, in the message, is my first dimmer controller. You can name/pair off devices with controllers by putting the controllers into their configure state and sending an On command message to them via your transmitter.
So lots of fun to be had over the Christmas hols with automation - did I mention B&Q have their HomeEasy products discounted right now?
Have you seen the new HP TouchSmart tx2? Development of the tablet PC now with HP's TouchSmart technology. It looks pretty awesome and is getting some good reviews but I could only find it on the US HP site - come on UK don't dilly dally!!
Key thing for me is if Windows 7 will support this device - if I can determine this than I'm going to be making another personal purchase real soon. At £799 expected RRP the family might have to miss out on a summer holiday again - but I must have my precious!
Can't wait to get coding against a real multi-touch device under Windows 7 - its so COOL!!
I still have the HP TC1000 and TC1100 tablets - the forerunners to this style of 'conversion' tablet design. I love these devices because they work so well, and I can drop the kb and go slate. But the processor power and support for Vista/Win7 just isn't there - so its time for an upgrade.
While I was travelling last week two new product releases 'snuk' out. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 and XNS Games Studio 3.0. Both now supporting the VS 2008 products which makes for a more comfortable environment on Vista.
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (MRDS) 2008 has some important changes to licensing as well as exciting feature additions. There are three "per-seat" licenses:
- Express. Some feature limitations - 64 objects in the simulator, no simulator editor, no VPL compiler, no multi-node VPL and no support for Windows CE! There are no rights granted to distribute the runtime. This is a pretty big list of take backs which is disappointing - although the original Express did not grant runtime distribution either.
- Professional. Everything is included, full function and a right to distribute the runtime as much as you like. Cost $499
- Academic. As professional except free via the MSDN Academic Alliance scheme.
There is plenty of new stuff go look here for details
In addition to some of the core programming and tools features there are also some new cool simulations. Most of these are included in the Professional edition due to the Express editions 64 entity limit. The Apartment sim is included in Express and gives you a great place to start perfecting your new 'Roomba' navigation algorithm. The Urban simulation provides a 'DARPA Urban Challenge' like environment in which to perfect your autonomous ground vehicle.
All in, running the pro edition, I'm very happy with the new version. Lots of stuff to explore and understand. Lots of opportunities with my current robot projects including delivery of a full release of services for my Whitebox Robotics PC-Bot 914 - called A1-DW. This has been an on going effort challenged mainly by lack of free time.
Microsoft XNA Games Studio 3.0. I haven't got to do a lot of playing with this yet. But two key things stand out for me. Community Games - enabling us to publish our games via the Xbox infrastructure and receive a revenue share with Microsoft - 10million potential customers!! And the ability to program the Zune platform - ok for Europe this is pretty useless at the moment, but one can only hope Zune will make it across the Atlantic at some point and with new control versions that make it more appropriate for game play. I like the idea to build for Zune - I only have an original version and the controls aren't much cop for my normal game genre (action shooters), so one needs to be creative with the game design for Zune.
Download XNA Game Studio 3.0
Over the next month I plan to blog more on my MRDS projects and on XNA 3.0. I'm still new with XNA so plenty to get to explore and I intend to have a lot of fun doing so.
My experience of Windows 7 on the Acer Aspire One continues to be highly satisfactory and I've turned to exploring how I can customise the machine. I first looked at memory - I only have 1Gb, and the device can support 1.5Gb. With 512Mb soldered into the motherboard only one socket is available to upgrade. the RAM is inexpensive - typically around £12. But the memory socket is on the underside of the motherboard requiring the complete disassembly of the netbook. Even though I have only 1Gb I don't feel the need to upgrade the RAM - typically the netbook bounces along with <600mb utilised. Even running Photosynth's synther application on photos only causes this to climb to 821mb. I guess as it is a shared memory graphics card I could do with more, but it can wait.
What I'm really missing is Bluetooth and 3G connectivity. Thanks to colleague Keith I got a line on TnkGrl. She is an amazing mobile technology customizer. In a three part blog post, TnkGrl has not only upgraded RAM, but added internal USB Bluetooth, larger disk drives and ultimately 3G!
The third posting - including links to parts 1 and 2 - is posted here Modding the Acer Aspire One - HSDPA « tnkgrl Mobile
TnkGrl - I'm a new fan; looking forward to what you're going to try next!
I'm lucky enough to be part of the beta group for this new look to Xbox 360. Take a look at the detail and screen shots in this report in USA Today to see what you going to get come 19th Nov. Its awesome :-)
Xbox Live turns into 'entertainment hub' - USATODAY.com
Not so long ago I blogged the launch of the Cray CX1 - a supercomputer from the father of supercomputers that was running Windows. The BBC have the story that Ferrari are using this system: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7715249.stm
Not sure the CX1 comes fashionable red...
Ian Dixon (Media Centre MVP, UK) has been playing with Windows 7 a bit and has successfully installed it on a Samsung Q1. Ian's Q1 is the 1GB RAM, Celeron M model. You can read about his experience here.
I'm very tempted to try the current pre-beta on my OQO Model 2e - it has 1GB RAM but has the 1.6Ghz VIA C7M so I'm hopeful it'll perform even better than the Q1. I can also report that colleagues have Windows 7 running on ASUS Eee PC's - the 900 model if I remember correctly which has a similar spec to the Q1.
Ian even has Windows Media Centre running on his Q1 :-)
