Inside Bennie

Hiatus

2006-09-05T16:11:00.000+12:00

Well I am in Vietnam at the moment.
So I will be taking a break from blogging, for the next month or two, as I meander my way around this crazy country.

I may post some pics or something depends on the net connections.

After this I will be looking for work as a .NET Mobile Solutions Specialist. Most probably in the UK.

Thats, all. Hope the net survives without me.

Windows Mobile MCP Exam

2006-08-22T09:08:00.000+12:00

Well I've found the next exam I will sit.
Windows Mobile 5 Applicaiton Developement.... coming soon.

Google maps v1 turned off.

2006-08-16T09:18:00.000+12:00

So went to look at my blog this morning and got a run time error. Seems google maps has turned off version 1.
Of cause when version 2 came out the first thing I did was upgrade my location photo app to version 2 (closed alpha, will post info about this when I can get a location from my cell site strengths). However I forgot about little travel map on my blog. So this is currently broken, will fix when I have time.
If you're reading this over RSS, please ignore.

HTC device with phone and GPS

2006-08-15T12:00:00.000+12:00

This is exactly what I want for wondering around the world. A HTC device with phone and GPS hook this up with an application that intergrates with Web services for Google Maps or MS Map Point.
The I could be anywhere and look at my device and see satellite images of where I am. Very useful for navigating around foriegn countries IMHO.

Would be kinda like this map I "made" showing the hotel I'm staying at in KL

Setting up Windows Mobile devices with cab files

2006-08-15T09:53:00.000+12:00

(updated grammar).

Well after seeing articles on MSDN like Provisioning for Windows Mobile-Based Devices. I have realised for a while now that it should be possible to create XML files that can be used to setup things like RAS Connections, Security Settings and Email. However after several small attempts (no more than an hour or two). Lots of documentation seems aimed at the OEM with information on how to bootstrap a device (set it up in ROM), like Vodafone or HP device do (when you hard reset them and they automatically install stuff). There is information on creating a cpf file however this never seemed to work.

However after playing with it for a day I finally figured it out. This provisioning WM5 doc helped.

So did this; all the Configuration Service Provider settings available. Good thing is, if there isn’t a custom provider to do what you require, you can use the Registry provider to set up what ever you need in registry.

Cpf files need to be signed to run, however Cab files do not. So if you use the same method but produce a cab file it will work (unsigned). YAY.

Next a post on why cab files can only have 998 files in them gave me another idea. Decompiling the cab file, I was using to install an application on the device, I saw all the files included in the cab with extensions ending in 003,004 etc, and a _setup.xml, hmm now that sounds familiar.

Opening the _setup.xml file displays information like this:

< characteristic type="Resources.dll" translation="install" >

< characteristic type="Extract" >

< parm name="Source" value="RESOUR~1.025" / >

< /characteristic >

This is basically an XML translation of the inf file you use to create cab files.

So I then added my RAS connection setup information to this _setup file and archived it all back to a cab file. This produced a cab file that not only set up my RAS connection on the device but also installs my application. Brilliant!

I will be using this all the time from now on, I just wish I had worked it out sooner. I am unsure to if it works on 2003 SE or not… will have to try.

mmm apples.

2006-08-08T15:16:00.000+12:00

With all the talk about Vista usability learning curve and people switching to macs. This was interesting Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs keynote Some great thing there, I loved the Web Clip feature. I would like to have Air New Zealand flight specials cut and pasted into my sidebar.
This would be a whole lot easier than:

decompiling the flash (swf) file
finding the XML data store behind it
converting this into an RSS feed
adding it to ~~my RSS reader~~ somebody elses RSS reader (because I wouldn't do this because it would violate the terms of the Air NZ Website).

oh Timemachine and Spaces also sound like usefull features, man its almost like they make mac's for actual people. My Dad got a portable HD for $139 (quickly followed by me when I saw how neat it was) everyone I know has been asking about getting them for backing up. Because it must suck to be my flatmate, her laptop got stolen last month, (yoink) there goes all her photos and music from the last 5 years :(

while searching for windows mobile 5 slow .net 2.0 cf sql mobile

2006-08-08T11:13:00.000+12:00

Interesting Rant on Windows Mobile 5 and Microsoft Mobile division in general: http://blogs.msmobiles.com/mobilephonefan/?p=2212

Raises some good points;

Microsoft's push email in reality is a continuous poll solution
all Pocket PC phones with processor TI OMAP 195MHz (200 MHz) are piece of junk (this is doubly so in NZ as we don't even have the comms to use the 3G functionality of most of these)
no intergration to Xbox

Tho there are quite a few there I wou disagre with:

HTC has secret agreement with HP not to produce Windows Mobile phones with single-handed QWERTY keyboard
built-in cameras in all Windows Mobile phones are piece of junk

World Crisis

2006-08-02T15:51:00.000+12:00

This is cool. See all the bad stuff happening in the world on one easy google map :)

Also while I'm here, Joel has a great post on programming.

PS, with all the PPC devices I work with I am almost imbarised to admit that If I was purchasing a mobile computer it would be the latest Sony Viao (the one with 20GB solid state!), these things seem incredible.

VSTS customisation

2006-07-21T13:43:00.000+12:00

I've been doing a lot of work customising team system lately and wow is it easy. Here at Orbiz I have just finished adding a time component to the system so we can track how much time is spent by who and on what. Integrates nicely with our existing timetrtacker website, just had to replace the backend frm a SQL db to VSTS :)

anyone thinking of working with team system:
download the VS2005 SDK and check out the VisualStudioTeamSystemIntegration folder. It contains samples labs object models, everything you need for learning.

also a good post listing the kind of stuff that can be done thanks vertigo software.

Web World Strikes again

2006-06-22T11:57:00.000+12:00

First Google does excel. (Google Spreadsheet)
Now theres powerpoint online. (http://www.thumbstacks.com/)

Things are not looking good for large desktop app providers.

Windows Live as a homepage?

2006-05-12T14:38:00.000+12:00

Adding My 2cents to the latest .NET NZ disscussion
This whole customised home page thing I just find wierd. It reminds me of the days of free dial up where it was paid for because your homepage would show advertising.

Why I do not use live as my homepage?
Because when I log on to my computer it automatically loads firefox with the last open tabs. This stays open the whole time I am using my computer. Of the last tabs loaded there are about 4 that are always there, which contain the information that I would put into a live/googlehome page. That is my blog feeds (mmm bloglines) meebo(online MSN/GTalk/ICQ) my blog(just cause) and a page showing the NZ/GBP exchange rates in graph form over the last day, month, year and decade. I tried creating the exchange data as a widget but the only raw data I could get to was the current rate (Why reinvent the wheel?).
Using preset tabs in firefox did what I wanted with the least amount of hassle for me. End of Disscussion.

An a simialar vein I agree with JD "people realised that portals weren’t the best idea in the late 90’s. Just because I can personalise it now doesn’t make me want to use it anymore than I did then." This whole idea of personalisation of webcontent is a pain. Unless its automated! Now I have to jump through hoops of fire with pits of spikes underneath just to setup the page to display the information I want to see. Which Is probably the same information that 75% of the visitors to this site want to seee anyway. I'm looking at you "My Learning".

New Mobile Devices

2006-04-05T09:20:00.000+12:00

Wow

512MB ROM, 512MB RAM, GPS mobile devices from TWF look increcible!

Thanks to Jason Langridge for the link.

Embeded Active X is going to get a whole lot harder

2006-04-04T11:22:00.000+12:00

I thought this would be getting a whole lot more coverage.
The tag in HTML has a patent on it and it is going to be enforced??

OK I don't really understand this one but basically any page that uses to embed stuff in a web page (like Adobe's Reader, Flash, Apple's QuickTime Player, Microsoft's Windows Media Player, RealNetworks' RealPlayer etc). They will have to click to start or something? more info.

Robots!

2006-03-30T10:12:00.000+12:00

Man is making some great robots theses days. I like the idea of making them only 50am high. It must cost a whole lt less, and when they turn evil and attack, you can just pick them up and throw them against a wall.

Robot Videos:
Jumping, Running Robot

are they arms or legs robot

Rendering a Crusie liner in 720 hours

2006-03-28T11:31:00.000+12:00

WOW.

Kevin Hulsey creates a cruise liner from scratch in 720 hours using illustrator and photoshop! This is just crazy, printed out at asize where you can view the detail accuratly it would be 12 feet high!

Michael Crichton breaks the Law

2006-03-22T08:49:00.000+12:00

hehehe.

I find patent law soo funny, in the IT industry people have patents on hyperlinks, dockable windows, just about everything... so it's mostly ignored.
However when there are silly patents in the real world, its not quite so funny.
This article in the NY Times highlights a current case that would be obsurd, if it wasn't so depressing.

Biodegradeable plastic?

2006-03-21T09:41:00.000+12:00

Wiicked. I've only just recently discovered potato plates, but now there is clear plastic looking resealable containers, That can break down! well I suppose there not really plastic, but some corn resin thing. Still very cool.

I wonder if they will taste as good as the potato plates?

Music

2006-03-14T10:10:00.000+13:00

A while ago I found Pandora which streams you music over the net based on words you enter/song you pick. great way to find music you might not know but you might like.

Now I found Musicip. Same sorta thing except on music on your own computer. Great for at work where we have 15Gb of music. I selected Minuit (of course) and now am listening to Boom Bip, Vibrasphere and Anika Moa. Two of those I've never even heard of before let alone listened to :)

Finally a phone for my folks

2006-03-13T10:50:00.000+13:00

Any one else got parents who have trouble reading their call phones? specially if they don't have their glasses?

Well I've seen a few phones that claim to have easy to read text and big buttons, and I suppose compared to most phones they do. But this one , from samsung (seen at CeBit) actually has large buttons and large text, and is supposedly simple to use. About time (when it actually makes it to market).

TGIFJust a little web update :)

2006-03-10T16:30:00.000+13:00

PPC's getting closer to perfect devices, with this. (An Intel PXA270 624MHz CPU, an Intel 2700G3 GPU with VGA-out support, 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, an 8GB integrated micro-drive, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support, 802.11b Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, IrDA, USB On-The-Go (OTG), dual displays (2.8" QVGA TFT and 3.5" QVGA TFT), dual cameras (both 2.0-megapixel), biometric support, a QWERTY keyboard, a microSD slot, and Windows Mobile 5.0.) WOW.

Interesting news article on tech in India sounds like the US may have a fight on its hands in a few years to come.

Hurry up and GO!

2006-03-08T10:56:00.000+13:00

Well I now have tickets :) (Tickets? I love tickets!)

$2000NZ got me:

Auckland -> Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur -> Vietnam

Vietnam -> London

Flying Malaysia Air
Staying in KL for 4 nights, Vietnam for 25 days!!
When do I leave? check the countdown, on right (sorry no RSS).

Found a travel blog website click on a continent, country or city to view peoples posts from there. Really great to get names of good hotels or trips. Yeah most of the posts are ignorant, arrogant americans but you can easily skip those. I wonder how long till hotels n stuff start fake blogs on this for free advertising?? I wonder if that "how long?" is a negative amount? I wonder if I could get payed for fake bloggin? hmm?

It's been a while

2006-03-03T13:49:00.000+13:00

No posts for a while. been really busy. Working on normal pda stuff, not really cool pda stuff :(

But I've been reading about some inovative ideas in handhelds kinda, like this on using a handheld touch screen device one handed. This is cool, I think the more devices get out there the more people will realise a stylus is not a good UI mechanism.

Or this on multipoint touch screens, this is definately the coolest demo I have seen theis year. I think the possibilities are shown in the video. Photo management, Live DJing VJing etc. I wish i was working on stuff like that. but not quite enough to actually go back into education.

Google Maps Test

2006-02-28T10:00:00.000+13:00

Those that actually visit my site (rather than using RSS) may have noticed a google map on the side, well heres a test post explaining that:

"Yeah so I was thinkin it would be cool if I could add a google map to my blog and get my friends in the UK to add their locations as POI's this would enable me to see the nearest couches to crash on when I get there :) So this is a test post to see if I can get google maps going..."

Well its displaying, except for the fact It thinks im in the ocean beside brazil?? anyway, I will work on that a bit more when I have time.

Google Video

2006-02-16T09:47:00.000+13:00

Can some please explain to me how google video is legal? doesn't it infringe on copyright? is google big enough to take on the industries?

I love watching things like top gear or family guy (alot of the family guy doesn't seem to be there any more?).

Today I tried watching some of the olympics and got this:

"This video is not playable in your county" ??? oh well.

It may take two to tango but...

2006-02-16T09:37:00.000+13:00

Thanks Savage Chickens for brightening my day :)

Ah Long weekends

2006-02-08T09:23:00.000+13:00

Well Waitangi weekend is over so I'm back from Great Barrier Island. This was the view from the deck where we stayed. Thanks so much to Kelly's Dad for taking us fishing and getting crayfish and scollops for us to eat. :)

Anyway, not much happening Mobile wise, apart from HP releasing an update to WM for the 4700, I really wonder where all the AKU2.0 devices are at??

Since, I've posted one photo I feel like posting another, this one from the Davinci Exhibit at the Auckland museum. Found this interesting blog post about a suppposeded encrypted suicide note, I wonder if it will turn out to be spam??

Still trying to plan my OE, thoughts at the moment are going to Kuala Lumpur for a few days then on to south central Vietnam for 3 weeks then on to London. Can't find many cheap flights to help me do this, might have to go to Singapore instead of KL :(

Death by risk aversion

2006-02-01T15:52:00.000+13:00

Although I think Scobleizer has far too many posts for any man to make and still remain sane, I alway find interesting links.

Like this one by Kathy Sierra, on Death by risk aversion.
"Risk-aversion is the single biggest innovation killer, and of course it's not just Microsoft that's been infected. Taking risks is... risky. But if not taking risks is even riskier, then WTF?"

In the fast moving IT world those not taking risks stagnate and die.

could someone combine these devices please.

2006-02-01T09:09:00.000+13:00

I would like the features of this device (i-mate PDA-N) :
-GPS-WiFi
-300Mhz processor
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=129261

Combined with phone edition features like this (i-mate JAMin):
-Quad band
-GSM, GPRS, EDGE
-128MB ROM
-64MB RAM
http://www.imate.com/t-DETAILS_JAMIN.aspx

All in that lovely JAM size form factor.

OK maybe I would like UMTS instead of EDGE, but I will be out of NZ soon enough...

Egyptian Queen Unearthed

2006-01-26T12:39:00.000+13:00

Wow, http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/ is a really interesting blog. Among the many wonders and treats I found today was this:
'A Johns Hopkins University archaeological expedition in Luxor, Egypt, has unearthed a life-sized statue, dating back nearly 3,400 years, of one of the queens of the powerful king Amenhotep III.'

View the archaeological teams website here:
http://www.jhu.edu/neareast/pages/12206-2.html

Now I'm not one to keep up to date often on archaeological news, but this is what I love about RSS, It doesn't take much effort, you can subsribe to a multitude of blogs, and you find some truely interesting stuff.

So what your off topic link for the day?

USB to USB mini on a keychain

2006-01-24T18:21:00.000+13:00

oh oh. Charging my phone/camera/mp3Player by connecting them to my computer just got a whole lot easier. As long as I don't forget my keys. (OK my camera has tiny USB not mini, but I wish it did). http://usb.brando.com.hk/mini5pinkeychain.php

MSDN connection

2006-01-23T12:12:00.000+13:00

My new MSDN Connection has arrived, yay.

I'm only a silver member tho (have to speak at a .NET user group soon).

are you registered yet?

Inside Bennie Dam It Inside!

2006-01-20T16:07:00.000+13:00

This review of the Treo 700 (Windows Mobile Palm), makes it sound really good, Palm have the experience in mobile to know what the customer wants, and from the sounds of it have produced a remarkably decent device. Can't wait to try one out myself.

A real aquarium that looks like a screen displaying an aquarium?

outside bennie (more music)

2006-01-20T14:47:00.000+13:00

well there seems to be more and more outside bennie posts on the inside bennie blog. hmm, oh well.

Turns out Minuit think they are playing at the Auckland Zoo on Feb 4th even thou the zoo thinks Nesian Mystic are playing... hmm super secret gigs are the best! (like that time I saw PJ Harvey at the Dogs Bollix[live recording 2.3Mb]).
Except thats the same weekend as soundsplash and I will be on great barrier that whole weekend anyway. oh well. Speaking of the zoo, gotta get Katchafire tickets

More Minuit news (can you tell who my favourite band is?).
They are playing at LittleWeed :) now that will be cool! I tried to go to LittleWeed last year but ended up going to Melbourne instead (can't complain).

UPDATE: I've just worked it out, on Ticketek you can see the support acts. Nesian Mystik are playing with Minuit and King Kapisi. WOW that will be an awsome gig. damn Great barrier better be fun :)

outside bennie

2006-01-20T13:34:00.000+13:00

Well It was a great summer break / xmas holiday.

To those overseas... you're missing out. So here's my summer montage!

click image for bigger view

-Under the kiwifruit trees at Purangi
-Music in Myers park
-Ladies bay
-Cooks beach for New Years
-Xmas on Waiheke

Opera browser for WM5.0

2006-01-20T10:14:00.000+13:00

well and for PPC 2003 but thats not as exciting :)

Opera Browser 8.5 has been released in Beta for Windows Mobile
Features:

Open URL with auto-complete
Zoom
Download
Multiple Windows
Navigation and history
Bookmarks
Landscape/Portrait Mode
Full screen/ Fit to screen
Pop-up handler
Pad-lock icon on secure sites
User preferences
Context menu

Unfortunatley it's not for Smartphone 2003 (my current phone is an i-mate sp3).

link for jo

2006-01-19T13:32:00.000+13:00

If you're not jo. ignore this post, unless you want to learn how to play WMA files on an apple.

Jo as I don't have you email address and I would forget this otherwise,
Russell Brown has a good post ("Oh my GOD it Russell ~~Crowe!~~ Brown!") on some appley stuff to get it going: http://www.publicaddress.net/default,2847.sm#post2847

I love finding things on msdn

2006-01-19T11:03:00.000+13:00

Sometimes when looking for something you know is there, it can be damn near impossible to find.
Other times you just stumble across reams of useful information...
Like this list of Windows Mobile devloper web casts, scroll down for the prerecorded on demand ones :)

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Programmers

2006-01-19T10:28:00.000+13:00

Great article on development.
Applies not only to programmers but anyone doing programming or working with programmers.
http://www.technicat.com/writing/programming.html

Quotes I especially like:
"One requirement for being an effective software engineer is to be taken seriously. You need to have the respect of your peers and managers, at least for your technical capabilities, to have control over your own work and influence over others. "

"People always talk about "optimization", but that isn't really a correct word. We're rarely shooting for the optimum - instead, we make improvements and tradeoffs to achieve good-enough performance."

Thanks to Craig Pringle for the link :)

Installing SQL CE 2.0 or SQL Mobile onto the storage card

2006-01-18T13:23:00.000+13:00

Great 'how to' on installing SQL CE 2.0 or SQL Mobile onto the storage card instead of the RAM :)

I'm going to have a play with this, as it might mean the mobile apps I've created will only need to be reinstalled with a single cab for the shortcuts and the whole application can reside on SD. Of cause this isn't nessecary if you have a WM5.0 device with permanent storage, and if asks you where to install the cab when you run it. But we can't all be futuristic enough to have WM5.0 devices, especially as there is STILL NO PUSH EMAIL!!

On the topic of WM5.0 has anyone notied that all the devices are coming out with ROM updates that aren't the AKU 2.0. This strikes me as really odd, I mean if AKU2.0 is coming out at the end of this month [cough, cough] then why would they release these patches?

devices, devices, devices, yum.

2006-01-17T14:21:00.000+13:00

A Windows Mobile Smartphone with a 4Gb harddrive yes please :)

An HP device not made by HP or HTC??... OK

Oh and a nice msdn compact framework developers blog thrown in for fun :)

Exchage Rate NZD to Pounds

2006-01-16T12:49:00.000+13:00

This is just for me to quickly access exchage rate from my phone.

Am intending on going to england in august and want to start changing savings at optimal times.

Motor Geeks?

2006-01-16T11:44:00.000+13:00

Dunno if anyone reading this likes fast cars as much as me. But I found this really quite interesting:
Channel 9 show on the technology of an indy car race team.

After walking through the pits of the RedBull F1 team I have to say 1/2 the pits was cubicles filled with geeks on laptops, hmm I really wonder what they do... surely I could do it too. Perhaps I will try to find out before I head on my OE ?

year of the PPC Phone Edition?

2006-01-16T11:20:00.000+13:00

Upcoming PPCphones
Pocket Loox T800
Symbol MC9097 and MC70
Samsung SCH-i830

Looks like I might have to retract some statements about the HP6515 now it seems lots of devices are coming out with square screens :(

Jason Langridge points out an upcoming webcast on Connecting to the Enterprise with Windows Mobile Will watch about a week after it happens as I never seem to see these live.

outside bennie

2006-01-13T14:31:00.000+13:00

Lots of good music coming up this summer.
Splore is the only ticket I have so far but on my definate list are (in time order):

Katchafire at Auckland Zoo (Sunday 29 January)
splore (17-19 February)
Minuit at Summer Series (Sunday 26 February)

More Music for the summer:

Auckland Zoo:
Saturday 21 January 6pm Boh Runga
Sunday 29 January 6pm Katchafire
Saturday 4 February 6pm Nesian Mystik
Saturday 11 February 6pm Pluto
Friday 17 February 6pm The Black Seeds
Saturday 25 February 6pm Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters
Sunday 5 March 6pm Che Fu

BFM Summer Series:
Sunday, 29 January 2006
The 95bFM Summer Series at Albert Park w/ Frontline, Ryan McPhun & The Ruby Suns, North Shore Pony Club, Sola Rosa, The Hot Grits, Connan & the Mockasins, Dunc Tha Funk and DJ Exile

Sunday, 26 February 2006
The 95bFM Summer Series number 2 at Albert Park w/ Open Souls, Module (live band), The Chandeliers, Minuit, Cassette, Cornerstone Roots, Timmy Schumacher & MC Kyla, Tourettes & Michael Pipes, DJ Dubhead and DJ Exile

Soundsplash Reggae Festival:
Saturday, 4 February 2006
Soundsplash Reggae Festival at Raglan Tickets from Ticketmaster outlets & Real Groovy w/ Third World, Big Youth, DJ Earl Gateshead, Salmonella Dub, Katchafire, Rhombus, Cornerstone Roots, Kora, Ladi 6, The Open Souls, Batucada Sound Machine, bFM DJs and more

OneLove:
February 6, Waitangi day 2006
The BlackSeeds, Cornerstone roots, Sounds Almighty.

Splore:
17-19 February
TALIB KWELI, Hexstatic, THE CUBAN BROTHERS (UK), FAT FREDDY'S DROP, THE NEXTMEN (UK), Fort Knox 5, PITCH BLACK, SOLA ROSA, KORA, Hollie Smith, MODULE, Spikey Tee, RHIAN SHEEHAN, Whirimako Black and Russel Walder, Ladi6

Music in the Parks
Sunday 19 February 2006
Three Kings Reserve
Australia's Thirsty Merc, The Feelers who are back by popular demand, ElemenoP fresh from their summer tour with Steriogram and Deja Voodoo, and some serious rock 'n' roll from Pluto

Friday, 24 February 2006
Katchafire, Kora and DJ Dubhead at AUT Quad 8:00 PM

I'm baack

2006-01-12T13:10:00.000+13:00

Well, its been a great holiday (waiheke and Corromandel). Might post some photos later on.

Any way quite a lot has been happening while I was away things are looking great for the future of mobile:
tiny NZ made GPS chips
tiny vga screens
rollable displays

Works been real fun to get back into after the break, been working on a prototype application using an Intermec CN30, may post a review later.

Yay windows mobile 5.0 is fun.
While still using VS2003 and CF1.1 :( but that mainly cause I didn't have tme to install 2005. Must get around to that soon. There is this annoying issue with activesync 4.1 and vs2003 where it doesn't deploy if you disconnect the device and reconnect when you IDE is still open, grrr. I remember reading a fix for it somewhere about a month ago, but can't find that now :(

Features of WM5.0 i like so far:
-Cab installs will uninstall previous versions before installing
-If you only have two menu items they are spaced on either side of the menu bar and are supposed to work off hotkeys (the CN30 doesn't have said hotkeys). But it still looks cool.

Seagate Buy Maxtor

2005-12-22T13:01:00.000+13:00

First Adobe Buys Macromedia
Now Seagate Buys Maxtor

What next Google buys AOL? wait a minute.

Oh My god it's arrived!

2005-12-20T12:33:00.000+13:00

(well arrived in Taiwan) First Windows Mobile device with AKU 2!!!!!!

the Gigabyte G-Smart http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/archive/2005/12/19/505653.aspx

AKU 2 contains the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5 which provides the 'Direct Push' email capability.

Now we just need HTC and HP to follow suit.....

View the stars online

2005-12-20T11:58:00.000+13:00

I have been looking for something like this for ages:
http://www.neave.com/lab/planetarium/

Basically you can set where you are and what the date is and it will show you the sky. Seems to only be stars not planets?

ps. New Zealand is Lat/Lon: -34/172

Say NO to battery farming pigs.

2005-12-20T11:07:00.000+13:00

When I was in the South Island I heard that battery farming pigs was going to become illegal by the end of 2006, with chickens following in 2008. I certainly hope that’s true.

In the mean time don’t eat Premier Bacon, anti-premier site here

Hopefully they don’t have to lose their domain name because that’s funny. And http://www.whitehouse.org/ don’t have to.

Oh, on a similar note, when I went to the supermarket on the weekend the eggs were split into two big shelves. With a sign on one shelf saying “These eggs come from battery farmed hens” and one saying “These eggs DO NOT come from battery hens” and a sign in the middle saying “If you do not like battery farming, do not by battery farmed eggs”!! Nice one New World Vic Park J

Why Upgrade to Version 2.0 of the .Net Compact Framework?

2005-12-20T10:34:00.000+13:00

Steven Pratschner from the .NET CF Team provides a good post on actual improvements you will se when running .NET CF 2.0.

I especially like:

“new capabilities include application tracing and logging, a new set of performance monitoring tools and the facilities to help developers accurately pinpoint errors in their code”

http://blogs.msdn.com/stevenpr/archive/2005/11/30/498481.aspx

Mobile News

2005-12-19T15:11:00.000+13:00

Wow. I work in the mobile space every day and try to stay on top of all the news, so I am embarrassed this one slipped past me.
"In April, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, Gates announced that he was considering pushing a potential rival portable computing platform into the market called Ultra Mobile 2007." more info found at the bottom of a tabletPC article here

while were on random quirky ideas for the future a device with XP and WM5? that just odd.

The HP65xx

2005-12-19T14:23:00.000+13:00

You know the device that decided it would make use of the fact 2003se lets you have a square screen.

Now I've had a play with this device on and off at different shows (we had one kicking around the office for a while as well), and the thing I noticed...

Not one freaking app handled the square screen nicely and this about sums it up:

Want to download sudoku for your ppc? which version would you like? the version made for PPC/WM OR the version for HP65xx?

This is silly.

What about my companies apps? well I think you would have to ask the marketing manager for the appropriate answer there...

Windows Mobile Legal Action

2005-12-19T13:30:00.000+13:00

"So.. the day couldn't get much worse for Microsoft and RIM could it ? Well.. you'd think not, until Visto announced Japan’s First “True Push” Wireless Email service on Vodafone. Doh, doh and indeed... doh.
Visto are also marketing "ConstantSync" which gives.. err.. real-time push based email for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices... DOAH! ""

Read full article here

Battle for AOL

2005-12-19T13:19:00.000+13:00

Yeah I just stole the link off scobleizer but it's damn funny: AOL battle explained south park style

flickr and photo sharing

2005-12-19T10:49:00.000+13:00

As Rod pointed out on his blog and as I discovered when setting up a account for a friend.

Flickr is now owned by Yahoo, so you need a Yahoo account before you can setup a flickr account. I think this bites. But I am unsure why? Yes yahoo are big. Yes they are probably evil. But what do you lose? or they gain by you having a yahoo account?

I know I’m late jumping on the bandwagon, but I used Textamerica for my photo blog (www.southisland.textamerica.com) I found that service great J

MS getting sued for Push Email

2005-12-16T10:26:00.000+13:00

Ok it is funny when NTP sues Blackberry for it’s push email service.

But now Visto are suing MS for their push email. (what me have double standards, that’s unpossnible).

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/4684.html

Rumours are that this is why push email is being delayed.

2005-12-14T09:42:00.000+13:00

My Favourite Gaping Void Cartoon :)
Not only can Hugh draw funny cartoons, he's also the only blogvertising consultant I know (and therefore the best).

It's still available on a T-Shirt if anyone wants to get me an xmas present :)

Future of Windows Mobile

2005-12-14T09:06:00.000+13:00

brief post with no real information here.

It mentions an updated WM5.0 in early 2006, I assume this is WM5.0 with the stuff to do push email (AKU 2.0). Which isn't actually push email, as I said earlier.
I'm really worried about this as in some countries Mobile data is charged per minute. "Push Email" will really surprise people on plans like this as MS version of "Push Email" is just a pull with a really long time out so if they go three days without recieving or sending any email they will still end up being charged for mobile usage!!

Oh, the post also mentions Photon the next WM OS. Which supposedly finally integrates Smartphone and PPC OS's. Just like WM5 was hyped to do.

ps. I'm not anti-MS It's just this "push email" thing that really gets to me.

Telecom may finally start catching up

2005-12-13T16:08:00.000+13:00

Motorola Q, Windows Mobile 5.0 phone edition to be released in US.

It’s going to be CDMA and EV-DO, which I assume means Telecom NZ is going to start reselling these as competition to the HP6515, which looks very similar but has GPS.

Ok so they both look like Blackberrys, so what! At least they aren’t going to have to fork over arse loads of cash or stop offering push email capability:

OK OK so the Microsoft platform isn’t able to push email YET anyway:

Yeah yeah even when it is released and functional it wont actually be push email:

Man that’s interesting the end of this post has absolutely nothing to do with the subject. Oh well, I’ll have to think ahead a bit next time. Or just stop ranting. Or even just hit the freakin send button (as this post was supposed to be a test for email posting, I wonder If I can HTML format my links when posting email?).

Now you can subscribe

2005-12-13T12:29:00.000+13:00

Now with atom goodness... mmm atom.

First Post

2005-12-13T11:57:00.000+13:00

Ok finally got around to creating a blog.

I wonder what will happen....

It's title is "inside bennie" which is a pun (or play on words) hehe.

Probably lots of mobile tech stuff, as well as various rants and raves.