I am pleased to announce that I have decided to join the Cambridge, Ontario based Software Development company BITtelligent Software and Media, Inc. BITtelligent Software is owned by Mark Dykun [@markdykun], a member of both Canada’s Technology Triangle .NET Users Group and Guelph Coffee and Code.
BITtelligent can develop a wide range of Software projects, including Windows Desktop Applications, Web Applications (leveraging ASP.NET MVC2), Rich Internet Applications (leveraging Silverlight 4), Mobile Software Development for Blackberry or Windows Mobile (and soon Windows Phone), Sage SalesLogix Customizations, and other emerging technologies.
I will be playing my strengths in my role handing Web Development, using both ASP.NET MVC, and Silverlight. If you’re looking for a custom Web Portal with SalesLogix integration, or need a Silverlight based Rich Internet Application, be sure to Contact BITtelligent Software.
Last week I was in New Orleans, Louisiana with Sean Kearney, Mitch Garvis, John Bristowe, Damir Bersinic, Ruth Morton, Rick Claus and about 10,000 other Developers and IT Pros from across the World. We were all attending TechEd North America a four day Conference put on by Microsoft to train Developers, IT Pros and Managers about new Technologies and Best Practices while using Microsoft Software and Development Tools. I was Particularly interested in attending as many Windows Azure, Windows Phone 7, and Developer Fundamentals sessions as possible.
After watching so many keynote addresses of Microsoft Conferences online, it was quite amazing to finally be one of the live audience members on location. I didn’t get the best seat in the house, but it definitely will be an experience I will not soon forget. Outlined in the keynote were many enhancements to Windows Azure, Bing Maps, Office Communication Server, System Center as well as Power Pivot [a new feature in Excel 2010] and Pivot Viewer.
The pre-Keynote performance was by a local band which got the crowd Energized, which isn’t an easy task when your audience is full of Developers and IT Pros at 8:30am on a Monday morning.
The keynote, although not a very launch heavy address, was mind blowing. Watching a keynote via a Browser and a Silverlight video player doesn’t do justice to everything that is going on. Literally 10,000+ Developers and IT Pros mesmerized by the demos of the tools in which we use in our day to day lives.
I look forward to attending a future Microsoft Conference, as TechEd 2010 was my first large scale conference.
Some advice on attending conferences
First off, don’t schedule a block of three conferences over a span of three weeks, not only is it exhausting, but you really don’t get the chance to appreciate each conference, the somewhat blend together. Travelling between Montreal, Regina, and New Orleans was a crazy adventure, and I left little room for fault tolerance, luckily nothing went wrong.
Secondly, Make sure you leave a few hours for the Expo. The Expo is a great resource for swag and other possibly great connections. I didn’t spend nearly enough time collecting free T-shirts (I only got 7 or so), or getting demo software, but I did walk out of the Expo with some great stuff. I also managed to see a Windows Azure Data Center up close and personal, as well as getting to meet many people on the Windows Azure team [Watch for an upcoming blog post on an interview I did with David Robinson of the SQL Azure Team].
Last but not least, follow up! You’re spending a few days at a conference which is an information overload on it’s own. Be sure to note which sessions you liked, and where the resources will be posted so you are able to review the content again. Luckily Microsoft was kind enough to post the sessions publicly on the Microsoft TechEd Website.
One Last Thing
I’m in the Cloud, Everybody take a look at me!
I’m sitting in on the Windows Mobile 7 Session featuring Joey Devilla and Paul Leberge.
Joey has just demonstrated that the emulator is completely compatible with 4-point touch so that you can begin creating Windows Phone 7 Series 7 Applications without having the hardware. This emulator and the full IDE is available on the Windows Phone Developer Portal, FREE-AS-IN-BEER.
The Windows Phone has been completely rehashed in order to focus on the users needs with a smart design and Integrated Experiences. The Windows Phone is looking to be the most well rounded phone to hit the market place right now. The ’Metro’ User Interface was influenced by street signage which is something that is familiar to anyone that leaves their house. With Silverlight driving the User Experience, users are guaranteed to have a smooth, slick, and rich experience while interacting with their phone.
The Internet Explorer version for Windows Phone is currently a little bit different from what is currently running on Windows 7. The reasoning behind this is to get the phone to the marketplace and scale up the features of the browser to bring both desktop and mobile versions inline for future releases. For more information on this keep an eye on the IE Mobile Blog. This just in, Flash and Silverlight is slotted to be supported in browser on the Mobile 7 Phone.
There are will be only two supported form factors 800x480 & 480x320. All Windows Phones will need 4 point touch, a set RAM requirement, and a consistent Processor/GPU. This will keep things running smooth and take a lot of issues that developers run into out of the build cycle.
With Microsoft’s release of Windows Azure and moving towards a future of Cloud Computing, I’ve been waiting to hear what is to be done in the Market of Gaming, more specifically the Community Contributions using the XNA Framework. Up until XNA version 3.0 Microsoft’s plan was to keep Community Content as a Closed faced application that wouldn’t be able to communicate with the outside world. XNA 3.0 delivered Xbox Live integration into Community Games, allowing hobbyist developers the ability to make their creations multiplayer. With the Resent release of XNA 4.0, which falls after the Release of the Cloud, I was hopeful to find some sort of Cloud Applicable use for community developers.
XNA 4.0 did however bridge a recent gap that would have been introduced with the Release of the Windows Phone. With the number of Gaming platforms that are being introduced it would be beneficial to tie them together with the Cloud. Lets close our eyes and dream for a moment.
Fading into Dream Land
Recently, I’ve downloaded a new game from the Xbox Live Marketplace, and I’ve become fairly addicted to this game as it allows me to be creative, as well it is extremely educational [Hey, it’s a dream right?]. I’ve been playing this game all morning but have to meet a friend of mine across town, but I’m about to reach Virtual Nirvana. I open up the save menu, and there is an option to save to a Cloud Drive. I don’t really understand what this is at the time, but think sure why not? I leave my house and head for the bus stop. As I wait for the bus I get a bit bored and pull out my Windows Phone, and go browsing through my games. I’ve downloaded my favourite game but am disappointed as I won’t be able to continue on from where I left off. I launch the Game, and it reports to me that there has been a recent game session saved to a Cloud Drive that is associated with my Xbox Live ID. The bus finally arrives, I step on the Bus and reach my seat. Looking down at my phone I realize that my game has loaded up to the exact place in which I saved it before I had left the house.
Once I arrive at my destination I save the game before exiting the bus. I stop into my friends house, he tells me he’s found this amazing game for the PC on Xbox Live. Wouldn’t you know, it’s the same game that I’ve been playing all day. Wanting to impress my friend I show him that I can load up my session by logging into my Xbox Live Account.
Snap Back to Reality
If saving to a Cloud disk seems a little far fetched [There would be a lot of security folk at my neck for even suggesting it], it could re-introduce the Latter match back into games, like PC games back in the early 90’s. Saving information from gaming sessions out to a SQL Azure database to offer a bit more than most community run games. I would really enjoy to see content being able to be delivered for an in game experience, however that opens up a large number of security talks, especially with the ability for Media Extenders to expand the content onto a PC.
I have a game idea which would benefit from fresh content being delivered from a Web Service to be injected into game play. Currently the only way to expand a game would be to create game add-ons in which Gamers could download and attach to your game, but I am still searching to find if this ability is enabled for Community Developers using XNA.
Get In the Game!
If you haven’t tried out Developing for Windows, Xbox 360, Zune, or would like the jump on Developing for the Windows Phone. Check out the XNA Game Studio 4.0 CTP. Microsoft has also released a full tool set for developers that are specifically interested in Developing for the Windows Phone.