Archive for April, 2007
April 23, 2007 at 11:27 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife, Projects, Mix Event
Mix07 is coming closer. I’ll be leaving on the 28th in the early morning to arrive around 4.30 PM in Vegas after a small stop in Chicago. It’s going to be an awesome adventure with lots of great sessions, keynotes and panel discussions. From Europe, around 150 influentials will be sent over to the event, and I kind of have to help out to welcome all those people and create digital memories (movies, pictures) around the entire experience.
In the light of that event, I’ve been busy all day today creating a mobile site with some handy content for during the event. More info about that can only be revealed at the event itself, but I’ve put the microsite online here, so you can have a look. It’s nothing awesome, just tried to create a nice design around it.
MIX is Microsoft’s conference for Web designers, developers and decision-makers who make their living at the forefront of the consumer Web. Join the conversation with Microsoft and others on how to harness the latest technologies, unlock new revenue opportunities, reduce development costs and improve customer experience. MIX is for cutting-edge Web professionals designing and building next-generation experiences.
Mix is THE networking event… it’s like ‘information gallore’. Plus, I finally get to meet Tom Raftery, and if he doesn’t punch me in the face in the first 5 seconds, I’ll buy him a beer.
Things I want to attend, if possible (the list is very extended):
- “Family.Show”: I See Dead People, with Windows Presentation Foundation
Speaker(s): Scott Stanfield - Vertigo
Audience(s): Designer, Developer
For a hobby that revolves around dead people, genealogy is remarkably popular: it’s the fastest-growing scene in North America. And a perfect study for Vertigo’s next Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) reference application for Microsoft. Our designers employed every trick in the WPF book (styles, resources, templates, data binding, animation, transforms) to present an innovative visualization of the classic family tree, freeing our developers to concentrate on behind-the-scenes features like XPS, printing, PInvoke wrapper for Windows Vista common dialogs, and Click-Once for WPF. See all of this with hands-on demos and our top-10 list of stuff to know about WPF and Microsoft Expression Blend. And, unlike the real-world case studies, you get the source code.
- “ZAP!, WHAM!, KAPOW!”: Windows Presentation Foundation and the Next Generation of Online Comic Book Reading
Speaker(s): Nathan Dunlap - IdentityMine, Robby Ingebretsen - IdentityMine
Audience(s): Business Decision Maker, Designer
Come see us demonstrate the development of the comic reading experience using the Microsoft Expression suite of design tools. Just as the NY Times Reader project dramatically improves the newspaper reading experience, our Windows Presentation Foundation-based approach to comic reading does the same thing for traditional print-based comic books.
- Build a Media Player
Audience(s): Designer, Developer
Build a WMV file and media player with Microsoft Expression Media Encoder, and edit with Expression Blend. Within this exercise, you’ll create chapters, a chapter view with thumbnails, and an overlay.
- Create Your Own Windows Presentation Foundation RSS Reader
Audience(s): Developer
In this Mini-Lab, you will build your own RSS reader using WPF. You will be introduced to the concepts of data binding and data templating. In addition, you will style your RSS reader using Expression Blend.
- Fumbling towards AGENCY 2.0
Speaker(s): Clement Mok
Audience(s): Business Decision Maker, Designer, Developer
Marketing organizations are broken. Three out of four marketing departments have reorganized in the past two years. Almost 80% of marketers don’t influence a critical customer interaction, and 85% don’t even own the “four Ps” of marketing anymore (product, placement, promotion and price). In this session, learn about approaches that make it easier for marketing organizations to succeed in today’s complex environment.
- IE7 Past, Present, and Future
Speaker(s): Chris Wilson - Microsoft
Audience(s): Business Decision Maker, Designer, Developer
Hear from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 team about the journey from mea culpa to broad market acceptance. Hear what went right, what had to be cut, and how development priorities are set. Also, understand what Microsoft’s browser investments mean to you, and make sure you get a voice in shaping the next version of Internet Explorer. Hear about what features and layout issues are being worked on, and let us know what causes you the most problems.
- Microsoft Expression Web Overview
Audience(s): Designer
In this lab, experience first-hand what Standards-based Web design is all about. Play with Microsoft Expression Web in different scenarios, gaining quick insight into this tool.
- Thinking in CSS: How to Build Great Looking Sites
Speaker(s): Molly Holzschlag - Digital One Corporation
Audience(s): Designer
Delve into CSS with Molly Holzschlag, and look at the power CSS offers to Web developers and designers. Hear Molly’s secrets about how to build stunning sites quickly and easily.
I’ll probably have to cut in the sessions and workshops, but at this time, these really seem to be the best ones for me, apart from the keynotes.
Obviously I’ll also be going to the Mix Party at the Pure Nightclub, the mythical club that hosted hundreds of famous parties already… Yeah, it’s going to be a great Mix. Find me there from April 28th til May 3rd!
April 23, 2007 at 10:36 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife, Projects, Vista, Vaio
Jeezes. I feel like a running helpdesk trying to get things all worked out. Apparently, from what I’ve learned up until today, there’s been an error in the image IT created from my original configuration. The error might have appeared while creating the image from the ‘mother’ laptop, or it might have occured whilst putting the image on the network, or while using the network boot to load the image on the other laptops. Whatever way it is, there’s something wrong and it’s somewhat my fault, I guess.
So, what have I been up to these last ten days? I installed and formatted the test-Vaio about 9 times from scratch, using the original Windows Vista Ultimate that came with every laptop, then I installed Office again, then all the drivers and utilities from the Sony site, then the sidebar. When it was all done, I tried every known issue, until it was unreproducable.
The there’s a tiny little small issue with OneCare. I can activate it, it’s added to my Live account, but it doesn’t seem to be able to communicate with the software on the laptop, because that seems to keep on believing I’m still running the trial however the serial key has been entered and accepted. Ugh. Luckily some people are on it, trying to fix it asap, so I can get the other bloggers to enjoy the same service and normally, in the end, everything will work smoothly.
That said, if there’s anyone out there who has issues with Vista and Vaio combined, I think in the meantime I qualify as a certified problem solver… This sooo reminds me of the time when I was working at an ISP and I spent my lunches laughing with the guys over at the helpdesk… with the people who called in. Karma always comes back to haunt you. Trust me.
Other than that, the good news is I finally actually got to help out Tom Raftery, and also Hans Mestrum who’re now able to run Second Life on Windows Vista, just like I am. And on the Vaio. Yeey.
So, before I head to Vegas I’ll fire off an email to all bloggers and describe the install procedure from scratch, should they have the need to reinstall. Sorry for the inconvenience guys. I didn’t really think it would be this tricky to do a sysprep and copy the image you created afterwards.
April 7, 2007 at 7:47 pm ·
Filed under XBox 360
Incredibly cool features are going to be launched in May with the dashboard update for XBox360 Live. You can add Windows Live Messenger contacts to your friends list. The market place will have a tuned-up customizable user interface. Basic text chat functionality will be provided, you’ll be able to chat with up to 6 friends while playing games or watching movies. Your Messenger friends will know what game you’re playing and vice versa. Microsoft also speeded up downloads, so you’ll to wait less long before your content arrives, downloads can also be done in low-power mode. The new download tool also allows you to view partially downloaded video files while they’re still downloading. Neat !
Video Link | via
April 6, 2007 at 3:20 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife
Waugh! It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything here… Sorry about that! I’ve had so much things to do that I hardly had the time to document it. Last week I went to Switzerland for the FY08 planning meeting. It’s something terribly boring, but it’s one of the most necessarry things to do. Basically you sit down with the team to think about how much money you’ll need in the next fiscal year, and then you have to support that funding request with all the campaigns and actions you’re going to launch. Long meetings… very very long meetings, with a lot of words and abbreviations I never heard before. But like I said, it’s something that needs to be done, you can’t avoid it because otherwise there’s no cash to get anything done.
Then this week, I also had some issues with the Vaio project for influential bloggers from across Europe. I’m pretty convinced now that putting an image on a laptop isn’t the best idea ever. I had never done it before, but apparently it causes a lot of weird things to happen that normally shouldn’t happen. It could be that the Vaio’s hardware config is too weak, but normally it’s not. Maybe I should’ve formatted all of the Vaios manually and install them one by one instead of doing it with an image. Damn, I feel like a helpdesk. I want to help out everyone as good as I can, but I’m depending on a lot of factors I can’t control myself, and that makes it a rather stressy project.
Also, I can advise anyone never to send a laptop to Israel. The device was seized by customs and we’d had to pay a lot of money to get it released, then you need to pay import taxes, which I didn’t want to do. So I asked DHL to send it back to me, and that seemed to take aaaaaages. When it finally arrived in Belgium again, Belgian customs seized it too and held it, probably because it came from Israel. The amount of paperwork you need to fill in to send it out is pretty decouraging as well, and despite all the pro forma documents… it still gets seized. Bureaucracy is such a bummer. By the time you get the laptop back, there’s probably going to be a new Windows or so.
So, now I’m figuring out what can possibly be wrong with the Vaio config, I’m working on 3 other projects as well, but I can’t say much about it yet until it has a decent structure and a green light to go ahead with it. I’ll talk about it as soon as possible.
Tuesday morning at 7 the flight to Switzerland leaves again, this time for final budget discussions. Kind of looking forward to that, because it means the end of a stressful period for a lot of people. I have to lock down my commitments this weekend and set my goals for the next fiscal year, define my audience and the metrics to measure effects of campaigns and events. Still quite a few things to do… Stay tuned, this ain’t over yet :)
