A net-enabled Windows CE photo viewer | Rory

jsampsonPC
SampsonBlog.com SampsonVideos.com

Dude, Rory, Big-ups dawg - this video be bangin'. I've exhausted my ebonics vocabulary, so I'm going to use normal geeky-guy words now.

I've got to say that I really love these types of videos. Whenever I see a desk full of widgest and wires I see nothing more than a playground, and I want to explore - glad you and I share that disturbance.

This thing is awesome, and only makes me want to go out and try to build one for myself. I could totally see something like this being setup in my moms out, on her wall. Have it subscribe to an RSS feed and download images of me automatically, and then slideshow through the pictures at specific intervals...she would love that!

sc00ter
Always in motion the future is..

Mike Hall aways has a lot of interesting stuff! Loved the lil mini fridge that was once on here. I'm the same way, I really like getting my hands into/onto things and play with it/them/whatever might be around. Always curious to see how things work.

Those ICOP boxes are really tempting. Just how much would one of those be? I think at one time I actually looked it up, and it came out to be around $150-$200, IIRC.. I'd love to get one of those maybe make it out to a lil file storage box instead of having this honkin big tower (two on my desk). One is my main computer and the other is used as a play machine/storage for my music collection.

Now think of it. One of those handsom looking lil ICOP boxes would do really nicely to replace this ugly most definately unnecessary big tower.

Rory
Free Tibet While Supplies Last

If you guys like this whole take-tech-thing-parts-and-build-a-cool-thingy-from-them thing, then you're really going to like some of the videos I'll be posting next week Smiley

It turns out that MS is full of people who like to build things. I had no idea until I started doing these interviews. When you go around and get to peek inside of strange people's offices, you learn a lot about them, and one thing I've learned is that basically everybody on campus but me has built a robot or a computer or HAL or something using off the shelf parts and AA batteries.

They were all surprises, too. Some of the people in the interviews I'm going to be posting soon are people I found randomly - online or whatever - who just seemed like genuinely interesting people.

It paid off. I can't wait to get this stuff up. That's why I'm still at work editing, compressing, and prepping it all.

sc00ter
Always in motion the future is..

Rory wrote:
If you guys like this whole take-tech-thing-parts-and-build-a-cool-thingy-from-them thing, then you're really going to like some of the videos I'll be posting next week

Yeah, back when I lived with my parents, I used to love to take apart things and see how they were put together, how they work, whats inside them etc. To this day, I still do.

My mom told me once that I had started with little things, alarm clocks, radios, those lil walkie talkies, RC cars/tanks. The earliest she remembers me doing that is when I was 5-6 years old. I'd spend hours and hours down in the basement trying to get my hands on anything that I could take apart. About the only thing I didn't take apart was the TV, Fridge or Stove, only because they were up where everyone could see me if I tried.

Hahaha, once, I took apart a smoke/fire alarm and forgot to take out the battery. I accidentally pushed the test button. Scared the HECK outta myself big time. To this day, I still get the creeps when coming near those smoke/fire alarms.

Now, its taking apart hard drives, switches, routers, hubs, VCRs, Motherboards.. Replacing whats broken and sometimes I get lucky and they work again!

Rory wrote:
It turns out that MS is full of people who like to build things. I had no idea until I started doing these interviews. When you go around and get to peek inside of strange people's offices, you learn a lot about them, and one thing I've learned is that basically everybody on campus but me has built a robot or a computer or HAL or something using off the shelf parts and AA batteries.

They were all surprises, too. Some of the people in the interviews I'm going to be posting soon are people I found randomly - online or whatever - who just seemed like genuinely interesting people.

It paid off. I can't wait to get this stuff up. That's why I'm still at work editing, compressing, and prepping it all.

Hell ya, get em on here!

Rory
Free Tibet While Supplies Last

sc00ter wrote:

Yeah, back when I lived with my parents, I used to love to take apart things and see how they were put together, how they work, whats inside them etc. To this day, I still do.

I used to love to take things apart, too, but that's where I stopped. Putting them back together was somebody else's job.

To this day, it still is Smiley

Kidding aside, I've always envied the people who have the patience to sit down and build up something physical from a set of parts. I have no problem with software, but when it comes to hardware, the circumstances are completely different. You're dealing with physical stuff, which means you're dealing with the "real world," and there's no control-z in the real world. If you screw up, you can't just undo what you've done - you might have to work very, very, very hard to recover from your slip-up.

I guess another way to put it is: You don't get compiler warnings in real life Smiley

One of the videos I shot this week might change my feelings on the matter, though. I'll be putting it up next week, and hopefully it will inspire others the way it did me. I got to interview a ridiculously fun/brainy guy who has a knack for dreaming up interesting demos of common technology.

It'll be good. Good, good, good...

keeron
Obsessive Geek

holy CE! that is cool!

I've seen most of your screencasts but nothing like this got me more excited about trying a CE project with such cool hardware!

The ICEbox seems like a really useful thing to have. I've seen quite a few similar projects (probably we still have those vids at C9) using the icebox.

btw, did you manage to get a deal for that device from Mike? Wink

BillP

Rory said: "If you guys like this whole take-tech-thing-parts-and-build-a-cool-thingy-from-them thing"

What can I say...I'm a technology geek so please bring it on!

AshleyWilliams

I thought these two videos about embedded windows were great, so much so in fact that I became a member just to comment about it Smiley

.

Its great listening to somebody who obviously knows everything there is to know about their area of work and who has enthusiasm for what they do. Mike expressed his knowledge in such a clear way that it was technical but also very easy to follow along. I would love to work along side Mike as I would learn soo much just by talking with him.

And not to leave Rory out, I thought you asked some good questions and kept the flow of the video moving nicely. Look forward to more videos from you.

Anyway thats my comments (review) for what its worth.

Rory
Free Tibet While Supplies Last

AshleyWilliams wrote:
I thought these two videos about embedded windows were great, so much so in fact that I became a member just to comment about it .

Its great listening to somebody who obviously knows everything there is to know about their area of work and who has enthusiasm for what they do. Mike expressed his knowledge in such a clear way that it was technical but also very easy to follow along. I would love to work along side Mike as I would learn soo much just by talking with him.

And not to leave Rory out, I thought you asked some good questions and kept the flow of the video moving nicely. Look forward to more videos from you.

Anyway thats my comments (review) for what its worth.

Welcome, Ashley Smiley

Yeah - Mike's knowledge of the Windows Embedded/CE world is freaky. The stuff just rolls off his tongue. Very fluid. He's that way in conversation, too.

It's the sign of someone who truly knows what he's talking about, and who's spent enough time thinking about it that he knows how to communicate it as well. It's neat to encounter subject matter experts like that.

There are more videos from/with Mike coming up - probably this week - so keep watching Smiley

(I'm a big Mike fan in case it isn't totally clear already...)