items tagged with Microsoft

   In one of out last interviews at the PDC Underground Techzulu’s Geoffrey Emery get in touch with two of the members of the windows mobile team Loke Uei and Lillian Eng. In this interview we talk how developers can Build Cool Stuff for windows mobile using the Windows Mobile Developer kit. Its amazing that you can use just this one developers kit to develop apps for so many great phones on the market like the black jack 2  and the htc touch pro, and the Palm treo just to name a few.  One of the newest things that has come out for the windows mobile device the mesh environment where uses can sync files and folders from the phone to their computer using there data plan on the phone or the wifi network. Microsoft open its Live Mesh mobile portal to the public, available at http://m.mesh.com, the website provides access to the basic functionality of Live Mesh through the browser, albeit without the ability to automatically synchronize folders that comes with a native client application.

Here’s our quick walkthrough:

•  First you’ll need to sign in with the LiveID you use for Mesh. While it can be a bit cumbersome to enter the first time around, the username + password tend to get automatically saved between sessions.
• Once you’ve logged in, the homepage shows the aggregated news feed for all your folders, including new people joining your Mesh and new files/folders that have been created. Across the top of the page there are two tabs, News and Folders
• The folders page does exactly what it says, listing out all the directories from your existing Mesh along with the individual news feed and the members of that folder. Functionality such as adding a folder and file is built-in, along with the ability to get at files already in your Mesh – great for getting that important piece of work you didn’t want to email to yourself.

All this and more in a great interview..

Check out live mesh in action.

Loke’s Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/lokeuei/

Microsoft Mesh – http://www.mesh.com

TechZulu's Geoffrey Emery interviews Microsoft Architecture Evangelist David Chow at the PDC Underground. What is a Architect Evangelist? ITs a person who specializes in a  Microsoft Technology and helps other Architects in the business world find the right answers and the right people for the job at hand. David’s current Technology Platform is Microsoft Cloud Computing project known as Azure.  David describes to us how the cloud will help us extend out our current architecture from the internal data center out onto the cloud giving the enterprise environment more flexibility and a robust disaster recover model. He also explains that by taking our datacenters to the cloud we are given the ability to scale horizontally instantaneously with only minor costs increases. David firmly believes that this form of computing will democratize the way the internet works allowing everyone to host and scale as if they were a Amazon or EBay size webiste. It is truly a exciting time for the internet community as cloud computing is bringing in a age of cheaper hosting and easing designing for a architecture of scale. Look for this and more in this very exciting interview.

Topic Links

Microsoft Azure – http://azure.com

Microsoft Silver light – http://silverlight.com

Microsoft Public Devoloper Confrence – http://microsoftpdc.com

Davids blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/dachou/

PDC Undergound - http://underground.socalcodecamp.com/

Jeffrey Palermo is responsible for the popular "Party with Palermo" events that often precede major Microsoft-focused conferences. Started in June of 2005, Party with Palermo has grown in popularity and size. Typical events host 400 people for free drinks, fingerfood, and door prizes. It is the perfect way to hook up with friends and colleagues before the conference week begins. You can see past and upcoming parties at http://partywithpalermo.com.

Subscribe to Jeffrey's blog feed here: http://feeds.jeffreypalermo.com/jeffreypalermo.

Stuff Jeffrey recommends you check out this summer:

• ASP.NET MVC
• Domain-Driven Design
• Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers
• Art of Agile Development by James Shore
• Agile Manifesto
• Extreme Programming
• Scott Guthrie
• Javaposse.com
• Google News
• Tim Heuer's Twitter Handle: timheuer
• Michael Feathers' Twitter Handle: mfeathers
• Robert Martin's Twitter Handle: unclebobmartin

Hear Jeffrey's must-have resources for the summer and why he follows Java, LAMP, and Google news.

Don't forget to take Jeffrey with you:

1980. A yellow dot with a wide mouth moves across a black screen, weaving through a colored maze of ghosts while chomping even smaller white dots. PAC-Man grew to become a cultural icon, a game that would change the face of gaming, spawning new versions for nearly every platform released during last 30 years.

Now, forget the joystick. At E3 2010, it’s all about how you move your body, or at least that’s what the big three keep telling us. Like 2009 (and 2008), Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are pushing their motion-controlled products on an all-too-eager public. From The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, to Eye Pets and Dance Central, we tested out each company’s motion product and will give you our thoughts.

We also played around with 3D gaming. A little preview: the Nintendo 3DS is overhyped. Like other 3D gaming products we saw at CES and now E3, even though the technology has half a decade of testing and perfecting, it still isn’t ready.

Finally, we saw live-demos of fun fighting games like Mortal Kombat, fumbled around Fable III, and flew jetpacks in Halo Reach. We stood in the long lines, toughed out the terrible traffic, and have the sore muscles to prove it. And you know what? It was worth it. You’re in for a fantastic 2010-2011 gaming year.

Look for our posts throughout the next couple of days, video and pictures included.

Lionhead Studios is best known for its Fable IP, a fantasy ation-RPG that probably needs no introduction here, so I'll get right down to my experience with Fable III.

Players start out the game as a revolutionary in Albion. Eventually, players will lead a coup and become king. Whether you are a good or a bad king is up to you. In other words, it's the classic Fable good vs. evil choices that will alter your appearance and reputation but probably not affect the main storyline.

After watching players in front of me play an action level meant to show off your character's fighting skills. In what looked to be a cave, a daughter and her father fought their way out against shadow creatures that resembled the bad guys from Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.

What about game mechanics? In Fable II, you could use multiple magical powers by placing them in one of five power-level slots. Not so in Fable III. According to the rep, and the screen in front of me, Lionhead has done away with that system. Instead, players use one magical power at a time. For me, this is a good choice on the studios part because all one had to do to kick-ass was place a couple time-slow powers in the first slots and a magical attack like shock or inferno in the level five slot.

Another change players will notice is that in stead of a menu system for selecting weapons, clothes, etc., pressing start will take the players to their sanctuary (for lack of a better term), a 3D space that allows players to see their equipment on pedastals and walls ala Assassin's Creed II.

Finally, after watching the players in front of me play, it was my turn to fight Albion's foes, that is, until the rep decided it to take me to a town in Albion and have me chase chickens. The town's wooden roofs and fences all looked like any other Albion town. The graphics and design, still in development and far from final, looked similar to Fable II. I found chasing chickens boring, so decided to hack, slash, and magic my way through the town's people. People ran, screaming out in fear. It's going to be good to be the king.

Checkout some of the gameplay captured during E3 2010: