General Interest

DevExpress webinar series for Windows Phone

Chris G. Williams — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 12:32:15 GMT

When I was at TechEd 2011 in Atlanta, I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of the DevExpress folks and working out some of the details for a series of Windows Phone Development webinars. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure:

#1 Introduction to WP7 Development with Silverlight and XNA - http://tv.devexpress.com/#WP7Dev1Webinar

#2 Deeper Dive Into XNA on Windows Phone - http://tv.devexpress.com/#WP7Dev2Webinar
The source (in C# and VB.NET) for the demos in this talk can be found in my book, or downloaded here.

#3 Deeper Dive Into Silverlight on Windows Phone - http://tv.devexpress.com/#WP7Dev3Webinar

#4 Building a Scrolling Tile Engine with XNA on Windows Phone - http://tv.devexpress.com/#WP7Dev4Webinar
The demo code is available here.

#5 Building a Pathfinding System Using Waypoints with XNA on Windows Phone - http://tv.devexpress.com/#WP7Dev5Webinar
The demo code is available here.

#6 Using the Push Notifications Service in Your Apps or Games - http://tv.devexpress.com/#WP7PushNotifications
The source (in C# and VB.NET) for the demos in this talk can be found in my book, or downloaded here.

#7 Making Money From Free Apps with the Microsoft Ad SDK - http://tv.devexpress.com/#WP7Dev7Webinar

The feedback on this series has been really positive, with lots of really good questions posted during the webinars (and to my inbox.)

If there are any topics you would like to see that aren't covered by this list, let me know and I'll see about adding it to an upcoming talk or maybe adding additional webinars.

You can also find the complete list of this series here: http://www.devexpress.com/Support/Webinars/series-details.xml?series=WP7 Webinar Series

The randomly selected winner of the Windows Phone (HTC Surround) is Nicolas St-Amour!

Making the move to Wireless N

Chris Williams — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:38:11 GMT

A couple weeks ago I was watching Netflix on the Xbox 360 in my living room and every so often, it would have to take a moment and rebuffer and just generally spoil my television enjoyment. As I thought about this, and thought about how often I was having to cycle the power on my aging Linksys Wireless G router, I decided it might be time for an upgrade.

This is no small undertaking, mind you. With 8 desktop/laptop computers, 1 Windows Home Server, 4 Xbox 360s, 2 Wiis, 1 mini cell tower, various smart phones and other WiFi aware devices... I knew I was in for a major evolution.

The first step was picking out a router. I decided to go for the Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router. The price was < $100 which was nice, although the lack of Wired Gigabit support did have me considering the next better model.

The N600 also has support for attaching USB storage. This is especially nice if I want to share something locally with a guest without going through the hassle of adding them to my Home Server. I just drag the files to the mapped share and they can grab them.

So... with the router purchased, it was time to gradually move my various devices over. The wired computers were easy enough. That took about a minute. My work laptop had built in support for 5GHz 802.11N, so that was easy. The other laptops didn't but they connected easy enough as G. One of the non-wired desktops had built-in N support, so that was easy. The rest are sporting G adapters, which will need to be upgraded, but at $70 each, I'm not in a big hurry. I can gradually upgrade them oer the next few months. The phones weren't a big deal, nor were the other devices.

Where I really ran into problems was when I started looking at the Xbox 360s. The basement Xbox is one of the new ones, and has Wireless N already. That was easy enough. The Xbox in my office is wired, so no worries there either.

The Living Room and Loft units are both older and need Wireless Adapters. The Loft unit has one that supports G, but I wanted N for the additional range and speed. The Living Room unit was actually using a 3rd party router in slave mode to the old G router and simulating a wired connection to the Xbox. So I knew that had to be replaced.

Unfortunately, almost nobody sells Wireless Network Adapters in stores anymore. Sure, you can find them online but being impatient, I wanted it local and by God, I wanted it NOW. So I went on a hunt. I tried Craigs List, the local classifieds, and searched the websites of every local business that might have carried it. I did manage to find one unit nearly 30 minutes away, with the next closest unit being literally a state over. (I can only surmise that since Microsoft is producing Xbox units with built in wireless, they are discouraging vendors from selling the adapters... so as to get people to upgrade.)

So, I managed to get ONE Wireless N adapter, which I hooked up in the Living Room. The Loft is still on Wireless G until I can find another N adapter locally (or I break down and order one from Amazon.)

So by the time it's all said and done, my $80 router upgrade will end up costing me almost $400 in additional upgrades. Of course, considering I got rid of Satellite and Cable TV and watch pretty much everything over the internet, it's worth it.

Professional Windows Phone 7 Game Development: Creating Games using XNA Game Studio 4

Chris Williams — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:24:03 GMT

In 24 short days*, my (along with the awesome George W. Clingerman) first book will be released:

Professional Windows Phone 7 Game Development: Creating Games using XNA Game Studio 4
(or as we like to call it, that damned 550 page monstrosity that nearly killed us)

Weighing in at 552 pages and featuring a foreward by the legendary James Silva (Ska Studios, creator of The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, I MAED A GAME W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1, and more...) this book gives thorough coverage of XNA 4.0 as it relates to Windows Phone 7.

The book is written in a light, conversational tone, which means (unlike some books) you won't be compelled to gouge your eyes out with a rusty spork after reading the first few pages. At least, that’s the intent. If you do feel compelled to engage in some feats of eye-gouging sporkage, we (the authors of this book) would like to point out that we are not responsible and that seeking the help of a mental health professional might be advised. (We’re not qualified to dispense medical advice either.)

The book is structured to introduce relevant material first, with code snippets and samples of how to use various phone features and XNA concepts, with helpful side notes along the way. After you've been exposed to a few chapters worth of concepts, you get the chance to bring them together by building a game that leverages those features.

This book contains THREE (3!) complete games, including: Drive & Dodge (a racing game), Poker Dice (roll dice to make poker hand combinations) and Picture Puzzle (take a photo and turn it into a jigsaw puzzle.)

Writing this book has been an incredible experience, and we hope reading it will be equally informative for all of you. We’re also happy to announce there will be a Kindle edition available, along with various other electronic media.

Get your copy from Wiley.com, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and anywhere else awesome books are sold.

*more or less… some sites list the publication date as early march, but the official street date is 2/21/2011

new year, new goals, same old blog...

Chris Williams — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:54:24 GMT

So, I've been kind of a slacker on the whole blogging front. I pretty much took 2010 off from blogging, not necessarily on purpose of course, but I was doing a lot of tweeting and I guess after condensing things down to 140 character bites, I didn't have much else to say here.

Unsurprisingly, I've grown bored with Twitter. (I find the busier I am, the less interest I have in what everyone else is doing... go figure.)

So, I need a good outlet to talk about the things I'm working on and what I've been learning, etc. So it's back to blogging. Maybe one of these days I'll find a good way to balance tweeting and blogging, but but for now... I'll stick with what worked for me in the past.

Last year, I made a resolution to do better at less, meaning I would try and focus my efforts on few things and do a better job at them. Overall, I think I accomplished that:

I wrote a book on Windows Phone 7 and XNA 4.0 (which you can order here: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Windows-Phone-Game-Development/dp/0470922443) with fellow XNA MVP George Clingerman.
I moved across the country, back to South Carolina from Minnesota.
I organized and delivered a speaking tour of 14 cities (THE GREAT ~~SOUTHERN~~ WP7/XNA TOUR)
I write a bimonthly community column for CODE Magazine
I published a Silverlight app (GuestList) to the Windows Phone Marketplace
Served on INETA Board of Directors and revamped the Speakers Program into something useful.

Speaking of INETA, one thing I discovered this year is that while I love the Developer Community, and I really do, INETA isn't one of my priorities anymore. So... I won't be running for a spot on the board in the upcoming election. I've been involved with INETA in one form or another for about 6 years now and I'm really ready to do something else with my time and energy.

So that's more or less it for 2010. What does 2011 hold?

I've got a few things on my plate already, but I'm trying to clear it off as fast as reasonably possible. Here are my goals for 2011.

Writing:
- I'm doing a proof of concept for another book idea I have. This may or may not go anywhere. We'll see.
- I'm still writing for CODE Magazine, doing a mix of Community and Techie articles.
Speaking:
- Conferences: Codestock, TechEd and Devlink
- User Groups
- Code Camps
Business Growth:
- Growing Magenic's presence in the Carolinas. This is a big priority for me personally.
- Leading Magenic's mobility practice. (iOS, Android, WP7)
Personal Growth:
- Running more 5Ks (I have one scheduled for Feb)
- Finishing my weightloss (17 more pounds to go)
- Maintaining my Diabetes (~90)
Personal Business:
- Launching a new game store: Big Robot Games
- Finishing my WP7 game: Chief Engineer
- Finishing my XBL game: EDAKTBYD (I've decided to reboot this project. more on this later.)

So, that's my list. Funny how I planned to do less in 2011 than 2010, but the list is longer. I guess that's just the way it goes.

GiveCamps

Chris Williams — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:33:23 GMT

Since the new issue of Code Magazine is hitting the stands any day now, I'll go ahead and post my article on Give Camps from the previous issue.

GiveCamps

Chris Williams

This month I’m going to take a brief departure and talk about the growing phenomenon in the developer community known as GiveCamps. If you’ve never heard of these, keep reading (you better keep reading either way, bub).

What Exactly Is a GiveCamp?

GiveCamps are the brainchild of Microsoft Central Region Developer Evangelist Chris Koenig. A quick trip to the GiveCamp.org FAQ says that GiveCamps are “a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations.” This sounded like a pretty cool idea to me, so I reached out to a few of the folks that have organized GiveCamps recently and got their take on the how and why behind their events.

How Do You Host a GiveCamp?

There are three key factors to hosting a GiveCamp. You need one or more charities in need of help, a group of volunteers (this includes developers, DBAs, designers and possibly more depending on what you’re making) and you need a place to host the event. Sponsors are nice too, but not absolutely essential.

Some of you may cry foul on this last comment, and say sponsors are absolutely essential. That’s fine if you can get them, but don’t let lack of sponsorship keep you from moving forward. People can always come up with their own lunch, just like they do every other day of the week.

Let me go into a little more detail on the three factors I just mentioned:

Charities Surprisingly, finding a charity to benefit from your efforts isn’t as easy as you might think. Not everyone understands what you’re trying to accomplish or has a need that can be addressed in three days. Still, with persistence and a lot of legwork you can usually find at least one charity that is excited to work with you. For those of you who like numbers, here’s an interesting one: in Dallas alone, nearly 60 charities over three years have been served with new Web applications. If you look at all the GiveCamps across the U.S. that number jumps to over 200!
Volunteers You’re going to need a lot of people to pull this off successfully. Not just IT folks either. An event like this takes a lot of coordination and it’s definitely not a one person show. You need someone to contact the charities, someone to coordinate the volunteer effort, someone to locate a place to have the event and all the logistics that go with that. You need people to promote the event and of course you need lots and lots of people to do the actual project development work.As I mentioned above, you’re going to need designers, DBAs and (please forgive me) developers, developers, developers! You might also benefit from a business analyst or two to make sure you are actually building something that resembles what the charity expects.Also, and this is important, remember you are dealing with volunteers. Sometimes work life or even good weather can wreck the best of plans. You’re going to have some people drop off at the last minute, so aim for more people than you need and you just might end up with enough. (Extra people can always find SOMETHING to do.)
Location You can have charities coming out of the woodwork and volunteers lined up around the block, but if you don’t have a place to hold your event then it’s a bust. When looking for a location, there are a handful of things to keep in mind. You need a place where people can work comfortably for long hours (remember this is often a three day - all day event) so proper lighting, ventilation, decent chairs, etc., are a must. White boards are also handy. If you are fortunate enough to have multiple teams working on projects for different charities, then you may also need separate spaces. Finding all of these requirements for free can be difficult!Try your local training centers, colleges, consulting companies and of course Microsoft. If at all possible, this should be one of the first details you nail down, before even approaching the charities and volunteers.

Why Host a GiveCamp?

If you’re looking for something to do that potentially has a huge impact on other people, you really can’t go wrong with hosting or supporting a GiveCamp.

By making it easier for charities to help other people, you’re really getting a maximum return on your efforts. Not only do you get a chance to do something good for your community, but the charities are also immensely grateful as well. (Let’s be honest, charity work doesn’t look bad on the old resume either, no matter whether you’re organizing or volunteering.)

I’d like to thank Chris Koenig, Chris Woodruff and Donn Felker for their invaluable insights into GiveCamps, which made writing this article possible.

For more information on GiveCamps, please visit http://www.givecamp.org

Devs For Wendy

Chris Williams — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:53:06 GMT

If you're in the NYC area, please consider donating to or participating in Devs For Wendy. (http://devsforwendy.com)

If you aren't in the NYC area, please consider donating anyway to this good cause.

You've got questions? These guys have answers...

Chris Williams — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:47:54 GMT

I'm sure most of you reading this have heard of, seen or actively used Stack Overflow. If you're like me, you probably thought to yourself... this would be such a great resource for other stuff... like games.

Fortunately, that's exactly what www.SmarterGamer.com is. Quite literally, it's StackOverflow for gamers. It doesn't matter if you're into board games, video games, card games, minis games or those weird games you used to play with your older cousin when your mom wasn't home (ok, maybe not THOSE games...)

Whatever your game, SmarterGamer is the place for you to ask questions and get answers.

Much like StackOverflow, there is a system of point rewards, badges, reputation, etc. It's good stuff. After all, why mess with a system that works?

UGSS / INETA .net user group support kits have arrived

Chris Williams — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:07:57 GMT

After a lengthy break, the user group support kits from Microsoft have resumed. FedEx dropped off a big white box this morning, so if you are still awaiting yours... it should be there when you get home from work (or maybe in the next couple days.)

User Group leaders didn't have the option of picking and choosing the contents for this cycle (or any future cycles, I would assume...) but don't fret, the contents are quite good. Assuming all the "Dev Group" kits are identical, this is what you can expect:

5 copies of Windows 7 Ultimate
3 copies of Office 2007 Standard
1 (180 day trial) of Windows Server 2008 R2
3 Arc Mouses (mice? meese? mooses?)
3 Silverlight 3 books
3 Developing Service Oriented AJAX Apps books
1 Microsoft Online Services offering
1 Free Camtasia License (couldn't actually find this in the box)
1 BI Resource Kit
1 Microsoft Directions book
1 Word of Mouth Marketing book (which I am REALLY excited to read)
1 Building Technical User Communities Book
miscellaneous buttons and pins

So, like I said... some good stuff!! I look forward to hearing your thoughts about it.

What's new in VB 2010

Chris Williams — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:35:30 GMT

Hello VB Folks,

These sessions are designed to be a primer for getting started using various features in Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. (Yes, some have already occurred... you can still watch them, just not live.)

·         Nov 3rd 10:00-11:00AM -Getting Started with IntelliTrace (formerly the “Historical Debugger”) by Habib Heydarian and Justin Marks
·         Nov 4th 10:00-11:00AM - Getting Started with SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010 by Boris Scholl
·         Nov 5th 9:00am-10:00am - A Lap Around Visual Basic in Visual Studio 2010 by Lisa Feigenbaum
·         Nov 5th 10:00am-11:00am - Getting Started with Managed Extensibility Framework by Glen Block
·         Nov 6th 10:00-11:00AM - Getting started with Design and Discovery Tools (Architecture) by Mark Groves

All times listed are PST and all these sessions will use the same LiveMeeting connection information.

LiveMeeting:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/0000000379_103/join?id=76P755&role=attend&pw=p%2C%2Fzk2K%7CM

Conf call:
Toll Free (US Only): 866-500-6738
Toll: 203-480-8000
Participant code: #198585

WPF / Silverlight Tooling Quick Poll
Finally, Mark Wilson-Thomas put together a few follow-up questions after last week’s WPF / Silverlight tooling session. If you would like to volunteer answers to these questions please email Mark at mwthomas@microsoft.com. And as always, lots of great WPF/Silverlight designer discussions taking place in the forums.

1.       Do you see yourself using Visual Studio 2010’s WPF and Silverlight tooling to build a line of business application in the next 6-12 months?
2.       Do the features for building these applications make sense to you?
3.       Is there anything clearly missing from the tooling in Visual Studio 2010 for getting the job of building line of business applications missing that you would like to see? If so what is it?
4.       Do you intend to try the Beta 2 release? If you’ve already tried it, what did you make of the WPF and Silverlight designer features?

Mark would love to hear your answers!

Worldwide numbers for the Extra Credit Homework
Argentina
Buenos Aires:+54 11 6777 0660

Australia
Toll Free (Non-VoIP): 1800 202 713
Adelaide:+61 8 8217 7432
Brisbane:+61 7 3218 7022
Canberra:+61 2 6122 4672
Melbourne:+61 3 9286 3225
Perth:+61 8 9420 8419
Sydney:+61 2 9870 2922

Austria
Vienna:+43 1 61064 5270

Belgium
Brussels (Non-VoIP):+32 3 400 2811

Brazil
Sao Paulo -Toll Free (Non-VoIP):0800-891-1983
Sao Paulo:+55 11 5504 4800

Bulgaria
Sofia: N/A

China
Beijing - Millennium:+86 10 5896 8000
Chengdu:+86 28 8620 8000
China, GuangZhou: +86 20 8510 8000
Shanghai (Toll Free): 800 819 8000
Shanghai:+86 21 6151 8000
Shenzhen:+86 755 8611 8000
Wuhan: +86-27-5960-8000
Hong Kong: +852 2804 4338
Hong Kong (Non-VoIP): +852 2286 5645

Czech Republic
+420 261 197 300

Denmark
Hellerup:+45 4489 0997
Vedbaek:+45 4489 0997

Dubai
+971 4 3917654 - Enter 9

Egypt
Cairo:+2 02 3539 3430

Estonia
+372 6679 804

Finland
Helsinki:+358 9 525 50 270

France
Paris (Non-VoIP):+33 17070 6275
Paris EHQ:+33 16986 8866

Germany
Aachen (Non-VoIP):+49 (241) 99784 5366
Bad Homburg (Non-VoIP):+49 (6172) 661 8366
Berlin (Non-VoIP):+49 (30) 39097 370
Böblingen (Non-VoIP):+49 (7031) 7168 3366
Hamburg (Non-VoIP):+49 (40) 89722 8366
Munich (Non-VoIP):+49 (89) 3176 3366
Neuss(Non-VoIP):+49 (2131) 708 8366
Toll Free (Non-VoIP):+49 (800) 0006359

Greece
Athens:+30 211 1206 303

Hong Kong
(Non-VoIP):+852 2286 5645
+852 2804 4338

Hungary
+36 1 4372 893

India
(IP Phones):+1 203 480 8000
(Nortel VoIP Phones):+1 203 480 8000

Indonesia
Jakarta:N/A

Ireland
Dublin (Non-VoIP):+353 1247 5443

Israel
1800 884 884

Italy
Milan:+39 027039 2888

Japan
Tokyo (Non-VoIP):+81 3 5539 5167
Tokyo:N/A

Korea
Seoul:+82 2 531 4999

Latvia
+371 704 6580

Lithuania
+371 704 6580

Luxembourg
+32 2 704 3809

Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur : +60 3 2170 7399

Mexico
Mexico City:+52 55 5267 2162

Netherlands
+31 20 500 1111

New Zealand
Toll Free (Non-VoIP):0800-448-997
Auckland:+64 9 362 5566

Norway
Oslo:+47 2202 2599

Peru
Lima:+51 1 611 5600 5692

Philippine
Makati:+63 2 860 8611

Poland
+48 22 594 1568

Portugal
+351 214 407 803

Russia
Moscow:+7 495 540 85 55

Singapore
APOC:+65 6370 9390
OMB:+65 6888 8008

South Africa
+27 11361 7098

Spain
Madrid:+34 9139 19800

Sweden
Stockholm:+46 8632 4844

Switzerland
Zurich (Non-VoIP):+41 44 580 6291

Taiwan
Taipei:+886 2 3725 3588

Thailand
Bangkok:+662 257 4988

Turkey
Ankara (Non-VoIP):+90 312 4099376
Istanbul (Non-VoIP):+90 212 3265480

United Kingdom
Reading (Non-VoIP):+44 118 909 2000

Japanese Bug Fights

Chris Williams — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:08:03 GMT

What's that, you say? You've never heard of Japanese Bug Fighting? The Bumfights of the Insect world?

Imagine this... 30 ROUNDS (yes, that's right THIRTY ROUNDS) of 1 on 1 fights to the death... all building up to the FINAL BATTLE!!

Check it out: http://www.japanesebugfights.com

If this isn't the coolest thing you've ever seen, well... then I want to see what is.

I bet the PETA people just love this (and if they don't care... then I guess they're hypocrites... I dunno.)