i-mate has just announced a Windows Vista SideShow debugging tool. More information is available in their forums post here and you can download the debugger from: http://www.clubimate.com/t-WINGADRV.aspx

According to their post "This debugger also serves as a sneak preview of the functionality to be available in upcoming i-mate Mobile Devices and the anticipated Momento Digital Photo Frame Version 2.  Therefore, any gadgets that are compatible with the debugger are sure to work on future i-mate devices."

It's great to see them supporting SideShow on their already very cool Momento and Ultimate devices!

Posted in Longhorn  | Comments [0] 

If you've ever attended a Tech Ed conference, and are planning on attending the years Microsoft's Tech Ed conference on Orlando, you know how great the INETA sponsored Birds of a Feather sessions are. If you're not familiar with them, they are a great opportunity to bring people together with common interest in a particular topic. They may bring together a group of experts, a group of beginners, or a mix of them all willing to share and exchange ideas.

They key to this is that the topics come from the community! Which is why it's very important that your voice is heard. If you have a session you would like to see, submit. If you want to vote on which of the submitted topics should be ensured a room, you need to go vote on the sessions.

Submit Birds-of-a-Feather topic ideas now
Vote for Birds-of-a-Feather topics

More information and voting is here.

Posted in Rant | TechEd  | Comments [0] 

The Expression team has announced the availability of Expression Blend RC1. This release includes "updated User Guide, a host of quality improvements, and a shiny all-new set of impressive and informative samples"

More info and download links on the Expression Web Site

Posted in wpf  | Comments [0] 

I love it when the man in the brown truck brings me things! This week my I-Mate Momento 70 digital picture frame arrived. I had been holding out for the 10" Momento 100, but after continued delays and Amazon having stock of the slightly smaller Momento 70's I decided to switch my order.

As with other I-Mate products that I have purchased, the product was packaged very nicely, and was easy to setup. Within minutes I had the device configured on my wireless network and feeding pictures from a PC find a permanent home for it on the mantle.

 Now let's write some code to talk to this thing....

Posted in Rant  | Comments [0] 

Today Chris Love and I spent the day up at the Roanoke Valley .Net User Group's first (anual?) Code Camp in Roanoke, Va. Code Camp's are great. If you have never been to one, go find one near you and attend. If there's not one near you, organize one!

The day conisisted of 4 tracks which included Web, Data, Framework and Process/Design. Presenters included local group memebers as well as others from places like Raleigh, Greensboro, Richmond, and elsewhere.

I attended the following:

• .NET 2.0 Tips and Tricks - Ashton Hobbs
• Reflection & Dynamic Assemblies - Will Ashley
• AJAX - Chris Atienza
• Introduction to WCF and differences b/w WCF and ASMX Web Services - Manny Siddiqui
• Applying Layered Architecture to Asp.Net - Gustin Prudner

Congrats Robin and team for putting on an outstanding event! See you in 2008!

Posted in Rant  | Comments [0]