All posts by Julie

Free Developer TabletPC training U.S. tour

Tablet

This is a joint venture of the Leszynksi Group and Microsoft

see more and register at www.tabletpctraining.com/microsoft

Tablet PC Tour for Developers – 2004

The Tablet PC is a personal computer powered by Microsoft® Windows® XP that is geared for ink-, pen-, and speech-enabled applications. The combination of software and hardware in a Tablet PC enables these methods of user interaction and allows for a rich, interactive, and productive computing experience for users.

The Tablet PC platform encompasses Windows XP and its extensions that enable input and output of handwriting and speech data on a Tablet PC as well as interchange of this data with other computers.

This presentation introduces the developer to:

  • Tablet PC Platform
  • The Object Model
  • Platform Controls and Components
  • New features in the 1.7 platform
  • Development
  • Deployment
  • and provides demos & Q & A for a more indepth experience

The Schedule:

Upcoming Events

4/29/04 – Seattle, WA
5/5/04 – Denver, CO
5/5/04 – Portland, OR
5/6/04 – Irvine, CA
5/6/04 – San Francisco, CA
5/12/04 – Dallas, TX
5/12/04 – Los Angeles, CA
5/13/04 – Houston, TX
5/13/04 – San Diego, CA
5/18/04 – New York, NY
5/18/04 – Philadelphia, PA
5/19/04 – New York, NY
5/19/04 – San Jose, CA
5/25/04 – Washington, DC
5/25/04 – Atlanta, GA
5/26/04 – Baltimore, MD
5/26/04 – Miami, FL
6/2/04 – Chicago, IL
6/2/04 – Minneapolis, MI
6/3/04 – Detroit/Dearborn, MI
6/3/04 – Austin, TX
6/8/04 – St Louis, MO
6/9/04 – Boston, MA
6/8/04 – Cleveland, OH
6/9/04 – Kansas City, MO
 


Josh Ledgard on improving Microsoft’s online communities

Just Rambling

Josh (yes that Josh, Gretchen’s husband*) Ledgard spent time with MVPs at the summit discussing Microsoft’s online communities, pluses, minuses, what can be done to make them better. He has posted his notes from these meetings online.

*I’m just kidding. Josh made a joke that (wife) Gretchen, Zoe and Heather’s  “Technical Careers at Microsoft” blog is so popular that people now say to him, “oh, you’re Gretchen’s husband”

Totzke’s blogging

Community Cheerleading

Oh no, the internet infrastructure is in big trouble now. If this guy blogs as much as he talks, they are going to have to double the bandwidth. He is sure to shame even the chattiest of us bloggers!! I am the first to admit that I talk a lot, and even I was amazed with Dave’s gregarious qualities when we first met 1 1/2 years ago. Dave Totzke is a Toronto area based geek, and a user group leader who is also a very active INETA volunteer.

Markus Egger on TabletPC and floating TIP vs. expando text boxes

Tablet

Markus has an editorial in Code Magazine with a lot of great points.

He addresses the “why do I want one“ question, starting off with “Tablet PCs have many uses, but it seems that only a few of them are obvious to developers. I think this may have to do with the fact that most developers have the luxury of sitting down at a desk when they work on their computer. At the very least we can set our notebooks on our lap. But this is not true for a wide range of professions!”

He then talks about some issues he sees as a developer. One caught my attention because I actually discussed it on Thursday with Arin Goldberg (Tablet PC SDK Architect) and some others on the team – an expandable input control. A big issue with a tablet data entry application is screen real estate. You want the input controls large enough for handwriting, yet that would make most forms never be able to fit on the screen. The new version of Lonestar (Tablet PC 2004) has a wonderful TIP that pops up where your data entry field is. Field by field. This is close to what Markus is asking for. But another idea – which is where I believe Markus and I were on the same track  – is to have the actual textbox itself expand when you get to it. Without even all of the bells and whistles of the TIP. Just the box which does the reco (oh, that’s how the cool kids say “recognition”).

The answer I got from Arin was that this has been accomplished in OneNote, which means it can be done. However it won’t be a control provided to us — it is up to us developers to create such a control.

Earthlink’s attempt to fight “phishing” email scams

Tools

A few months ago, I received a very cleverly disguised email “from Citibank” with a link to update my records. The link url looked very “safe” https:, even. And I have a Citibank account, but of course I know better. I looked at the source of the html to see what url is truly there and of course it was something totally different. It was the same day that CNN had an article on “phishing” scams, which this was. I sent the email (with the url etc) stripped out to family and friends along with the url of the CNN article warning them that this stuff looks SO valid, but not to be fooled. I also told them that a good practice was to copy and paste the urls’ into their browser rather than clicking on the links.

Now Earthlink is attempting (this has the same photo as the previous article and looks like you haven’t gotten a new page, but you have…) to help their customers by building a list of fraudulent websites. When the earthlink customer clicks on the link, if it is on “the list” – they will be redirected. I can’t see how this is working – maybe through Earthlink’s web based email or through their own email client application. Earthlink was getting 40,000 calls and emails a month about these emails. It will be interesting to see what they come up with and if it is successful.

Lora on Mass Marketing Tablet PC’s

Tablet

Reading Lora’s post on the TabletPC in the MASS marketplace, I realized that the answer to everyone’s “WHY TabletPC?” question is really “WHY NOT?!”.

Think about it. Lora points out that the TabletPC o/s is a superset of Windows XP. A tablet is a laptop with a LOT of other bells and whistles. Why can’t a tablet be the norm for “mobile pc” and eventually, the price gap between the two, already shrinking, may just close.

So like a true Vermonter before me once said in answer to the question “Why Fred Tuttle?” – I say – “Why Not?”