Channel 9 - Discussions by An_Angel

Coffeehouse - Ten Reasons Why You Should Date a Geek

An_Angel — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:32:46 GMT

The irony to you actually commenting on this post is that today I noticed that there is now a Ten Reasons Not to Date a Geek facebook group... Now I did write the original on that one... but who on earth thought it deserved a facebook group of it's very own I have no idea! It's just crazy...

I don't think the people who set up the group even knew where the original came from... viral marketing...

Coffeehouse - Booking for UK DDD6 (Saturday Nov 24th) is now open.

An_Angel — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:41:37 GMT

Registered and will be happy to give Sabot and Ian a big hug... Not seen either of them for aaages! Will be good to catch up!

Let me know if there's any talk of an evening geek dinner after this one.. I'd be happy to come along but won't be organising it this time. (too much on right now to do that too... last time Zi did a good job with it...)

Coffeehouse - Web 2.0 Expo Girly Geekdom Competition - for UK Students

An_Angel — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:39:09 GMT

Fantastic! Thanks!

Coffeehouse - Web 2.0 Expo Girly Geekdom Competition - for UK Students

An_Angel — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:13:56 GMT

The irony... Free tickets and offer to find a way of funding travel expenses and not one student has dared to put in an entry!

Well if the student girls don't want it then someone else will get it!

I've not decided how I'll give the tickets away if they don't enter... any suggestions?

Coffeehouse - Web 2.0 Expo Girly Geekdom Competition - for UK Students

An_Angel — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:07:06 GMT

Of sugar and spice and all things nice!

Pass the details along to any of the girls on your course! (you never know they may donate the prize to you if they win!)

Coffeehouse - Web 2.0 Expo Girly Geekdom Competition - for UK Students

An_Angel — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:45:29 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Firstly I'm going to apologise in advance as I'm pretty sure the guys on here are going to go mad at me... but the comp is only open to the girls!

Secondly... I'm going to say I also have a discount code for 100 Euro off of the list price to the Expo Conference... so if you are interested in going and want the discount then contact me via the girlygeekdom blog

And finally! Girls if you are interested in the competition then please go to the website and read all the details!

Best of luck!

Sarah

ps I'm hoping you don't all shout at this and call it spam, I saw it as an opportunity to get more of the C9 guys getting the girls involved with the scene as well as getting the girl students involved a bit... I'm also hoping that this will get passed along to the other relevant MS groups to pass the details out to the students. (I can but live in hope!)

Coffeehouse - Follow Channel 9 on Twitter

An_Angel — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:36:51 GMT

Nice idea but please use it properly... you have a team of people who work on C9 let them tweet their geeky thoughts through the C9 twitter channel. It's about conversation not one way communication.

Sending out url's when the site changes is all well and good but the site's not mobile enabled so the links in Twitter to mobile phones are basically useless until you are back at a machine. (after all that seems to be one of the primary use scenarios for this comms channel.)

I'm glad to see you all using new media tech though! It's definitely a good start.

Tech Off - Sick of working as a phone monkey, I wanna code!

An_Angel — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:47:38 GMT

OK I'm probably going to end up putting a different angle into the mix here and it won't necessarily answer your question about which language but it will give you a bit more of an idea of what areas to concentrate on.

Firstly, anything written in C# for a mobile requires the .net Compact Framework. There are a lot of windows mobile devices out there but they are mainly used by business people and mobile enthusiasts. They are great devices but they do have their limitations, you will also need C++ to be able to do any lower level stuff for this.

So where to next... you mentionned Java... (J2ME) it's a powerful technology and requires the right version fo the JVM on the device for on device apps to run. Most phone providers lock their devices down and require third parties who want apps running on them to jump through hoops to do so... The OS's that I know of that work with Java... Windows Mobile (to some degree but by no means perfectly!), Symbian (beware of version issues) and Linux... yes I did say linux on a mobile...

All the OS's will run C++ apps too... although this is a much slower and clumsier process.

The big mobile growth area at the moment is mobile web. Now that is something you can get into without having to be constrained by a specific language, however it does mean that you need to be up on the latest mobile web best practice guidelines and ideally conform to the .mobi standards but that's not so bad as all that.

You then get to play with all sorts of technologies including mobile tv, video, payments etc. Something that you need to be aware of in this environment however is the sometimes connectedness of mobile web... you also have to contend with the ideosyncracies of the different browsers and capabilities of devices. What works for one may not work for all!

So where would I suggest you start... Start off with a web service that does something fun and do this in any language you like... (think about a mashup of some sort) Then create a fun UI for it that is designed to the .mobi standards and finally look into the issues of sometimes connectedness and work it from there.

You may find that you need to learn some new skills and you will learn for yourself over time what languages work best where... one thing I will say is try not to use anything too bandwidth heavy in the UI or data transfer... as your user will get charged.

And most importantly of course, have fun and experiment. Figure out the areas of mobile that you are most interested in. Saying you are fascinated by mobile is one thing. Figuring out that it's UI, context, web services or something else is another entirely. There are almost as many areas of mobile as there are pc software development.

I hope the above is a little helpful... also consider going along to a local mobile dev usergroup at some point, they are around here in the UK... I'm sure there will be a Mobile Monday or something similar around.

Coffeehouse - New Blue Badge at Microsoft Australia or Not?

An_Angel — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:27:09 GMT

The silence from the women on this subject speaks volumes. I would have thought by now that Microsoft amongst others would have learnt their lessons about using "model girls" to sell technology and tech concepts.

I guess if they are going to do such things (in the light of sexual equality) we should have the guy in his tight little swim shorts selling the software too if they want to sell to a women's market then What do you think boyz? Anyone want to put themselves forward for the Male body of tech...

Coffeehouse - Mobile Barcamp London Registration now Open!

An_Angel — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:11:14 GMT

In case you haven't yet heard BarCamp for Mobile developers is now up and ready for sign up's! Yep you heard it here! (and I heard it from BlogNation UK Mobile and now we all know!)

You can sign up for the event here!

I look forward to seeing some of you at the event!

Coffeehouse - 3G or Mobile Internet

An_Angel — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 09:49:57 GMT

Personally I'd go and find the nearest cyber cafe. They seem to be about in most towns, it would be cheapest option I'm sure. Datacard or Phone will be hugely expensive and not worth the hassle.

Does all your work require you to be online, or can you collect the online data that you need before going, if so do as much prep that requires internet before you go and then work offline for as much time as possible, and nip into the cyber cafe when you need a connection.

Coffeehouse - Geek Day Out

An_Angel — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:28:43 GMT

I'll be in London that weekend at the Red Bull Air Race that weekend so will be in the city. It should be a good weekend. If anyone else is about and wants to catch up that evening for a geeky evening I'm up for it.

C u in the city Colin, let me know what you end up planning.

Coffeehouse - Yahoo.com site down.... again!

An_Angel — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:43:26 GMT

It seems to me that Yahoo are having a few issues with keeping their servers up over in the US... There are reports from China that they have been down for up to 12 hours before now, and I've just tried accessing Upcoming.yahoo.org and that's down at the moment along with yahoo.com. (Update: Flickr is also down... )

The even more ironic thing in this story is that the .co.uk site is still up and running but there seems to be no place to report such issues, so there is the possibility that they haven't even noticed or been informed.

I wonder how long it will be until MS and Google pick up on the issue... and what about the Register....

I know that earlier today the HotLan-A Trojan hit Yahoo and Hotmail email accounts so maybe they have had the main servers pulled down whilst they sort the issue out... All that being said... surely they have some sort of solid disaster recovery plan! Interestingly the MS Hotmail site is still up and running.

Tech Off - IGNORE >>> FIXED - Windows CE 6.0 toolbox items disappearing act

An_Angel — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:26:26 GMT

We are having an issue with CE 6.0 Platform Builder in Visual Studio 2005. The toolbox items have totally disappeared. We have tried right clicking the toolbox and restoring it but that only restores 2 buttons, not the full set.

Have you ever come across anything like this at all? If so any solutions found other than uninstalling CE6.0 and re-installing it. We've already tried repairing Visual Studio which seems to have done absolutely nothing to either help or hinder the issue.

If we can't find the solution it looks like we may have to do another one of those rather looooong support calls that everyone knows and hates.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Fixed this by going to Documents & Settings/Username/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/VisualStudio/8
Deleted the 4 hidden toolbox files.
Re-started VS 2k5

Coffeehouse - DDD5 at Microsoft TVP

An_Angel — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:12:30 GMT

Only if the US community starts it and their community leaders get in touch with their community contact and work together to create, market and run such an event.

I guess the US community leaders or the community could start working together to create the events over there... it depends on whether people have the time and desire to get it going. Lets hope so, they are great events here.

Coffeehouse - UK Developer! Developer! Developer! 5 Booking Now Open

An_Angel — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:16:16 GMT

Interviews for what? Video or Podcast?

Are you doing your very own geek show or something?

Are you going to be able to sit still through all the presentations btw?

Coffeehouse - UK Developer! Developer! Developer! 5 Booking Now Open

An_Angel — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:43:24 GMT

I'll be there for this one too, and I'll try not to cause too much chaos

Coffeehouse - SME's and Vista - Are you going to give it a go?

An_Angel — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:16:27 GMT

Out of personal curiosity and as someone who gets involved with SME's from time to time I was wondering how many UK SME's are considering moving to Vista and what is stopping them from doing so at the moment. Also what time scales they are looking at to move over to it.

As a developer I'm wondering at what point we need to start considering re-testing our released softwares for Vista and the people that seem to be closest to moving over seem to me to be the SME's as they generally seem to adopt new technologies earlier

So who (company wise) is considering it, who's done it and who's just not going to bother in the UK?

Coffeehouse - Whose Bright Idea Was This?

An_Angel — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:57:14 GMT

You should use SoapBox and get the SoapBox team to look into something like the viddler style tagging and comments system. That way you wouldn't need to split the video's up, just tag the time points and have it as a long video, unless the issue is upload time and such. Also even better than that when people are watching the video they can comment at the time point so that there is a context to the comment

(OK so I'm a Viddler.com fan!)

Coffeehouse - Math or CS?

An_Angel — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:34:13 GMT

As a Manchester Uni Graduate (UMIST) I would have to say look carefully into all the different courses being offered by the uni in the comp sci department I know that there is a course that includes an HCI module in it but I've not managed to find it yet. (as I remember it was an optional module) They also have a Comp Sci and Maths joint honours degree. This may also suit you, dependent upon what you are looking for in a course.

I wouldn't rush the decision of which of the courses to take. Make sure it's the right one from the start. It is possible to switch from one course to another in the first year so long as there is space on the one you want to move to. (this however is subject to the universities discression)

When I was there the department did a Computation course which had a good mixture of all the things you are looking for, it may be worth finding it's current equivalent.

Also something to be aware of is the fact that at Manchester they currently have the Computer Science department and the Informatics department. Informatics is due to be split up into the Computer Science department and the School of Management. The Centre for HCI is based in the Informatics department currently and you may also wish to look at the courses in that department, however with all the changes to the department you may find that there is a lot of unknowns around the futures of those courses. It would be worth getting in touch with the department and finding out which of those courses is likely to stick around if you want to concentrate more on HCI than Mathematics.

Best of luck with your application. You'll enjoy Manchester, it's a fun city and one I always enjoy going back to!

Coffeehouse - Are bloggers pandering to terrorism

An_Angel — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:22:42 GMT

ScanIAm wrote:

As for threatening, hire a bodyguard if you feel threatened. Or call the police. Hiding out in her house is just a sympathy move that essentially brought her into the limelight (thanks to scooby and crew). Prior to that, I've never heard of her.

Unfortunately, this blog-based 'cult of me' thing tends to bring out those kinds of people. You have narcissistic navel-gazers on one end (bloggers) and hero-hating/worshipping sociopaths on the other end (fans).

I guess you didn't read her post properly and forget that although she is well known, she is not as you seem to be assuming, a celebrity with a big purse. Bodyguards are expensive and for an IT professional just trying to do their job of teaching people about good design practice this shouldn't be necessary.

She has involved the police but that doesn't make her feel safe, and why would it... the police can only do so much, they can't be there 24/7.

United approach would be good, so long as everyone can agree on the correct course of action... and people refuse to tollerate and stop encouraging this sort of behaviour online.

Coffeehouse - C9 V4 Update

An_Angel — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 12:55:14 GMT

When your doing the testing of v4, please can you test that it works on a few mobile phones, especially windows smartphones. (i do a lot of my browsing on my htc s620 so it would be useful, at the moment the site is unusable on it. Something to bear in mind with the headers and layouts) Also please consider any videos having a link for downloading to mobile windows media player. (I know there is a tradeoff with download size and image resolution... maybe have a mobile content button for it or something.)

I think in the long term you will find this beneficial as the current trends in web browsing seem to be done a lot more on mobiles than they used to be. If you need any advice on designing for mobility then I'm sure the mobile patterns and practices team will be happy to help and advise.

Many thanks
Sarah

Coffeehouse - Are bloggers pandering to terrorism

An_Angel — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:29:39 GMT

Cybermagellan wrote:

Sabot wrote:

The great thing about a blog is it's yours you have control over it, it does not have control over you so if you don't like a comment, delete it, forget about freedom of speech if it crosses your personal line and after all it's your blog so you set the boundary. I see no problem at all with switching anonymity off if you wish to.

Perfectly said. That's why I'm kinda "blah" on Scoble taking a week off about it.

I can totally understand why Scoble has taken the week off... If I were in either his or Kathy's position I would disengage for a while to collect my thoughts, calm down and then find a logical approach to dealing with the situation. Stopping blogging does not mean that he has totally disengaged from the net, comments of his can be found all over the web, just not on his blog site.

Regarding Sabot's comment about having control over your blog... this is true, but what you don't have control over is other peoples blogs, message boards and websites. I agree with the fact that you can delete comments on your own sites that are crossing the line as well... I do the same... inappropriate comments are deleted from my site... in fact let me correct that, they are never published in the first place! The people that try this don't get a chance to gain any glory from it... they are cut off, ignored and turned away.... (and on occasion added to a blacklist!)

I for one don't tollerate this sort of threatening behaviour online and I don't expect others to endorse it either. Those who endorse it are as guilty as those who are being threatening in the first place. If you see this behaviour on your sites, remove it, do not encourage, do not rise to it, and do not tollerate it!

Question: How many people on C9 have been threatened online via blogs, message boards etc? Also is this a gender thing or not... I personally doubt it but the question keeps coming up online all over the place.

Coffeehouse - What do you want to know about Vista?

An_Angel — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:43:25 GMT

Just tell me how it will make my life easier and where the value proposition is for me to move to it.

Why would I move from XP when I am happy with it and have everything just as I want it right now?
Where will I see performance benefits and what is the cost of those benefits in terms of hardware upgrade costs?
How can the costs of upgrade be justified to management?
How do I know if my harware has drivers that are guarunteed to work?
Can I trust it to work with my current softwares that I have running in XP?

Coffeehouse - How is your website? share it here

An_Angel — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:39:26 GMT

I have a few but if you go to the first one it has links down the side to the others:
http://www.sarahblow.com

http://girlygeekdom.com
http://geekswithblogs.net/waterbaby
http://www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk