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4/23/2008

Sessions Follow-up: Visual Studio Connections Spring 2008, Orlando

Thank you for all of you who attended my sessions in the Mobile Development track of Visual Studio Connections. If you want to see more mobile sessions at the show, please make sure to send feedback to the conference organizers and communicate your request.

As promised, here are the session slides and demos from my 4 talks, conveniently zipped together.

VMD301 - Deep Dive into .NET Compact Framework 3.5, Windows Mobile 6 SDK and Visual Studio 2008 for Devices
VMD304 - Mobile UI Best Practices with .NETCF 3.5, Mobile Client Software Factory (MCSF) and OAC.NET
VMD306 - Your Phone is Talking to You:Working with Device States in Windows Mobile 6.0
VMD305 - Windows Mobile Application Security

Feel free to email me if you have questions about these sessions, or if you need assistance in your current and future mobile development projects. Infusion can be involved as much or as little as you want, providing mentoring, training and custom software development services.

Posted at 3:37 PM by Nickolas Landry | Category: .NET Compact Framework; Events; Microsoft .NET; Mobility; Security; Session Follow-ups; SQL Mobile | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (73)

10/3/2007

Webcast Follow-up: XNA Game Programming on Geek Speak

Thanks to all of the attendees who participated in and/or watched (live or streaming) my Webcast on Geek Speak about XNA Game Programming.

Geek Speak is a demo-driven show where online attendees can ask questions over LiveMeeting. The demo I presented consisted in building an XNA version of Space Invaders in 3D... from scratch!!! So even if you've seen my XNA talks before and want to do more than build Pong in 2D, don't miss this show if you have not seen it yet and get the code here!

Unfortunately I did not have enough time to get very far beyond moving the ship around in the demo, but you got to see the end result before we concluded. But as promised, the game and full-source code for the final version is available below.

Download Space Invaders 3D for Game Studio Express demo code
Download the presentation material from a recent XNA talk at the NYC .NET Developers Group for more information, technical overviews and tons of references and links about XNA Game Studio.
Read my Code Magazine article titled "Microsoft XNA: Ready for Prime Time?" to learn what the game development professionals say about XNA Game Studio.

Enjoy! Hope you liked the show, and good luck with your XNA projects. Let me know if you end-up building the best Space Invaders mod ever using XNA!

Feel free to ask questions or post comment here about the presentation or demo. If you have technical questions about XNA, I strongly suggest that you join the rest of the community in the XNA Creators Club Forums.

Posted at 4:30 PM by Nickolas Landry | Category: .NET Compact Framework; Events; Game Development; Microsoft .NET; Microsoft XNA; Online Gaming/MMORPGs; Session Follow-ups; Xbox 360 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (303)

10/2/2007

Geek Speak XNA Webcast on Channel 9 Tomorrow

For those of you interested in getting started with XNA and who have not had the chance to try it yet, or to see one of my talks so far, then this is your chance. I will be the featured guest on Geek Speak tomorrow morning on Channel 9.

You can get more information on the Channel 9 blog page for the show on MSDN. make sure you use the proper link to register for the free webcast.

Geek Speak is a demo-driven show where online attendees can ask questions over LiveMeeting. The demo I will be presenting consists of building an XNA version of Space Invaders in 3D... from scratch!!! So even if you've seen my XNA talks before and want to do more than build Pong in 2D, don't miss this show.

Posted at 8:17 AM by Nickolas Landry | Category: .NET Compact Framework; Events; Game Development; Microsoft .NET; Microsoft XNA; Xbox 360 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (13)

9/21/2007

NYC .NET Developers Group Session Follow-up: Game Programming for Windows and Xbox 360 with C# and XNA

Thanks for all those who attended my XNA talk last night at the NYC .NET Developers Group. As promised, here are the session materials that were used for the talk:

Slide deck in a zipped PDF doc (I included a lot of extra hidden slides I did not show for information purposes)
Game Demos (I included both the version I built during the talk and the full version I showed at the end)

My email is in the slide deck, so feel free to contact me if you have questions about the talk or the demo code, or you can also post comments here. For technical questions about XNA development in general, I would highly recommend that you visit the XNA Creators Club forums since you'll get a access to a wider audience and faster responses. This is also where we all hang out.

If you enjoyed the talk, let Andrew, Stephen and Bill know and I'll try to come back later for an XNA talk on 3D games this time.

And for those who missed it, not only did you miss agreat session, but we had 5 giveaway prizes at the end: 2 copies of Microsoft Expression Web, 2 copies of Chad Carter's XNA Unleashed book (special thanks to Addison Wesley who graciously provided the books), which is an awesome book IMHO, you should buy it, and the grand prize was an Xbox 360 Premium!!!! Thanks to Peter Laudati, our great Microsoft DE, for providing the grand prize. Congratulations to the lucky winners!

See you next time!!!

Posted at 8:05 AM by Nickolas Landry | Category: .NET Compact Framework; Events; Game Development; Microsoft .NET; Microsoft XNA; Session Follow-ups; Xbox 360 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (18)

8/11/2007

CoDe Magazine Article - Microsoft XNA: Ready for Prime Time?

Here's a quick notice to let you know that my latest article for CoDe Magazine, titled “Microsoft XNA: Ready for Prime Time?”, was just published online, just in time for the Microsoft GameFest.

About the Article
The XNA Framework and Game Studio Express form Microsoft’s new offering to open the doors of game development for Windows and the Xbox 360 using managed code with .NET and C#. Following a trip to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last March, I approached a number of subject matter experts from the gaming industry to assess whether or not XNA holds any interest for professional game development. This is primarily an editorial piece where I explore XNA from all angles using testimonials from Michael Austin, Chief Technology Officer, and Mark Terrano, Design Director, both founders of Hidden Path Entertainment, Jamie Fristrom, Technical Director of Torpex Games, Raph Koster, President of Areae and industry expert on virtual worlds and MMORPGs, Dave Mitchell, Director of XNA Game Platform Marketing in the Game Developer Group at Microsoft, Benjamin Nitschke, Founder of exDream Entertainment and XNA book author, and Josh Williams, CEO of GarageGames, developers of the new Torque X game engine for XNA.

The article is the main feature for the September/October 2007 issue of CoDe Magazine. Since the article was so long (approx 25 printed pages), the first 8 pages were printed in the magazine, and the full version of the article is available online.

You can read the full online version here at at http://www.code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0709041

The issue also features a technical introduction to writing games with XNA Game Studio Express by George Clingerman, who is an XNA MVP, and an excerpt of the XNA interview on the .NET Rocks! internet podcast with Frank Savage from Microsoft. I also invite you to read the MVP Corner column in this issue, which I wrote as well, titled “Perspectives from a .NET Guy at GDC” (http://www.code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0709021).

I hope you enjoy this article and I welcome any comments you might have about it. Feel free to pass the link around to anyone you feel might be interested in reading it.

Off to GameFest!
Note that I will be at the Microsoft GameFest in Seattle next week where I will be doing research and conducting interviews for a follow-up article to be published later this year about XNA game Studio 2.0, both from a technical and editorial point of view. If you plan on attending, please look me up and come say hello. If you work in the gaming industry, I would definitely like to meet with you and have a chance to ask you a few questions and discuss the upcoming XNA-related announcements.

Posted at 9:07 AM by Nickolas Landry | Category: .NET Compact Framework; Events; Game Development; Microsoft .NET; Microsoft XNA; Mobility; Online Gaming/MMORPGs; Publishing; Star Wars Galaxies; Xbox 360 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (84)

5/10/2007

MEDC 2007 Session Follow-up: Mashing Up Virtual Earth and MapPoint in Location-Aware Applications for the UMPC

"Mobile applications need more than data and connectivity. Field workers need to rely on their location to easily pinpoint key resources around them based on their application context. This data could be maps, addresses, Points of Interest, routes, services and more. Come learn how to create a custom mobile application that integrates Virtual Earth with the MapPoint Web Service, and several other content services. This session provides an overview of location services and Windows Live Local in general, including the MapPoint Web Service (MWS) and Virtual Earth (VE). Insightful demonstrations will help you understand how to use your own location data and find POIs in a “Yellow Pages”-type search with Virtual Earth. We’ll also explore how you can write code for Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPC) and call the MapPoint Web Service, augmented with the Virtual Earth benefits such as getting access to more location data, satellite imagery, routes & directions, traffic information, mapping local Outlook contacts, leveraging the scratch pad, finding addresses via reverse geocoding, and more. This presentation is jam-packed with all the details, tips, tricks and code you need to get started and make your mobile UMPC applications location-aware for a variety of scenarios such as Fleet Management, Asset Tracking, Field Service and Mobile Sales."

Thank you to all those who attended my session on location intelligence for the UMPC on Thursday, May 3rd 2007 at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

As promised, I have posted the session material here on my blog. You can download the PowerPoint slide deck here, and the IntelliEarth for UMPC demo code here. Remember that you will need to get a developer account for the MapPoint Web Service to call MWS objects. See the deck and code comments for morre information.

Posted at 12:16 PM by Nickolas Landry | Category: Events; Microsoft .NET; Mobile PC/Tablet PC; Mobility; Session Follow-ups; Ultra Mobiles/Origami | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

4/24/2007

XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh Gets Released: Let the Sharing Begin!!!

At last, XNA developers now have a chance to share their games with others without sharing the whole source project, or force their friends to install XNA Game Studio Express. You can now package your XNA games and share them with your friends, including on the Xbox 360. However, not that you or your friends still have to be a member of the Creators Club to simply play the games on the Xbox 360. I hope this requirement disappears in the future, but at least it's a step in the right direction. We'll now finally see more XNA games being released online as developers unwilling to share all their code (which I can understand, game development takes time and effort) will finally be able to share their games nonetheless.

Other features have also been added, including Windows Vista support, 3D audio support with XACT, using fonts in the framework itself and others. Read more about it here on the XNA team blog and download it here.

Posted at 2:53 PM by Nickolas Landry | Category: Game Development; Microsoft .NET; Microsoft XNA; Xbox 360 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (428)

4/13/2007

CoDe Magazine Article - Windows Vista Mobility: Why Should You Care?

My latest article is out in the current issue of CoDe Focus. It's an overview of all the new features for mobile users and mobility developers in Windows Vista. The issue itself is all about mobility, the Mobile PC and Windows Vista. The CoDe Focus issue will be packaged with the regular issue of CoDe Magazine for the next 2-3 issues this year. The easiest way to get CoDe Magazine is to subscribe here.

“Why should I upgrade to Windows Vista™?” is the single most-asked question I get at work these days. Curiosity is driving a lot of folks towards this latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft. What’s new? What does it do? What’s in it for me? Everyone wants to know what’s so special about it and if it is worth it. “How much time do you have right now?” is usually my first reply, closely followed by, “Do you have a laptop?”

Of course many professionals and knowledge workers do have a laptop, and that often includes application developers too. Windows Vista offers tons of new features and enhancements, from the new spiffy hardware-accelerated user interface with Aero to all the built-in .NET Framework 3.0 technologies (WPF, WCF and WF), Microsoft® Windows® SuperFetch™ to Windows ReadyBoost™, Microsoft packed a lot of power under the hood (see sidebar, Windows Vista: Beyond Mobility). But throw Windows Vista on a mobile PC and get ready for some serious improvements for the mobile professional.

Keep on reading here.

Posted at 9:34 AM by Nickolas Landry | Category: Microsoft .NET; Mobile Lifestyle; Mobile PC/Tablet PC; Mobility; Publishing; Ultra Mobiles/Origami | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (17)

4/12/2007

Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.5 CTP is Out: Includes Windows Mobile Support

If you attended one of my Microsoft Robotics Studio talks last month either in Orlando or Toronto, you know I talked about using a Windows Mobile device as the "brain" of your robot.

Using such a deployment model, your MSRS application would run as a .NET Compact Framework application on a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone, and talk to the robot's CPU (such as the NXT Brick in my samples) over bluetooth. It's in fact very similar to the default model where your computer controls the robot, except that with Windows Mobile devices, they are small enough that the robot can carry them around, thus making the robot autonomous.

Well, I did not lie. I said the Microsoft Robotics Studio team was working on porting the MSRS runtime to Windows Mobile and they have. It's now available in the new Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.5 Community Technical Preview (CTP) which is available for download here. There are many new features as well, and I'll let you explore them for yourself by reading here.

Microsoft is also hosting Robocup 2007 in Atlanta in the coming months and is providing a soccer simulation environment for the iRobot Create robots. These will also be showcased in a Sumobot competition at MEDC 2007 in May. While I will be speaking at MEDC, I'm not sure I'll have the time to enroll in the competition this time. Last year's humiliating defeat our Infusion team suffered in the Sumobot competition was bad enough, where one of the "eye" sensors on our robot got disconnected on the way to the event. The poor thing kept attacking in circles, it was pathetic. I'll be sure to watch the competition at the very least though. Read more about the Sumobot competition and the simulation environment here. You can also download the Sumobot simulation here.

Posted at 11:19 PM by Nickolas Landry | Category: .NET Compact Framework; Events; Lego Mindstorms NXT; Microsoft .NET; Microsoft Robotics Studio; Mobility; Random Rants | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

4/2/2007

Toronto Code Camp Session Follow-up: Microsoft XNA - Justification for purchasing an XBox 360

Session Abstract: "We love to write software, that’s why we attend Code Camps. We spend our days, evenings and weekends churning out source code that solves the business problems of the world. I doubt anyone said “I’m going to write a pipeline management system!” when they envisioned themselves becoming a software developer. No! Instead, we had grandiose visions of being the next John Carmack and writing the next Quake! During this session we’re going to take a look into the awesome side of software development - games development. We’ll explore the new XNA Framework and Game Studio Express that will enable us to develop fun and exciting games using C# and .NET for both the Windows platform as well as the XBox 360! You’ll learn tips & tricks working with sound, graphics and input devices and even a bit of AI to help you build the next killer FPS, MMOG, RPG, or racing game. Additionally, you’ll learn sound design practices with XACT to ensure you’re game not only rocks, but is also architecturally sound. If nothing else, we’ll give you a great argument for the justification of purchasing an XBox 360 to your significant other: “Honey, I’m not playing games! I need it for software development!” You can't miss this one folks!"

Thank you for attending my talk on the game development with Microsoft XNA last weekend at the Toronto Code Camp. You can download the final version of the session slide deck here in PDF format, or here in XPS format. The XNA Pong demo files are also available for download here. Also visit the following links to download the XNA community games I demo'd during my session: