One-Handed Computing

October 30, 2009
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Yes, you probably went here as soon as you saw the phrase “One-Handed Computing”:

But in this case, I’m talking about what Jason Kottke is talking about — those times when you use mobile technology while your other hand isn’t free because you’re:

Eating
Drinking
Carrying or feeding a baby
Walking the dog
Carrying groceries
“Straphanging” [...]

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TechDays Halifax / Halifax Coffee and Code Next Week!

October 30, 2009
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TechDays, Microsoft’s cross-Canada conference for developers and IT pros took a break in October, but returns in November to complete its tour of the five remaining cities, starting in Halifax!
I, along with the rest of the TechDays team will be in Halifax and places nearby starting this weekend and for most of next week:

We’ll be [...]

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WinMoDevCamp Toronto: Wednesday November 11th at Microsoft’s Mississauga Office

October 29, 2009
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WinMoDevCamp, the worldwide series of development workshops for Windows-based mobile phones, is coming to Toronto on Wednesday, November 11th! If you want to learn how to develop applications for Windows Phone (the mobile operating system formerly known as Windows Mobile), this full-day workshop will give you the opportunity to get some hands-on training and [...]

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Azure/Silverlight Hallowe’en App

October 29, 2009
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Archetype have put together a cute little Hallowe’en pumpkin-carving application built with Silverlight and hosted on Azure. It lets you “carve” a pumpkin, complete with backlit glow from the candle, and send the resulting image to a friend. Give it a try!

To get started with Silverlight, visit the Silverlight site’ “Get Started” page.
To [...]

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Spider-Man on Chat Rooms

October 29, 2009
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This article also appears in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.

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Computer Problem of the Day

October 28, 2009
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Is Your Code a Candidate for “There, I Fixed It”?

October 27, 2009
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There, I Fixed It is a hilarious photoblog that catalogs kludges, jury rigs and hastily-improvised duct-tape repairs and modifications to everyday objects. The photos below are a sample of some of the quick fixes shown on the site, each one somewhere on the spectrum spanning “clever and thrifty” to “cheap, shoddy and frightening”:

(Regarding the [...]

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Stack Overflow DevDays Toronto

October 26, 2009
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On Friday, the Stack Overflow DevDays travelling conference, which covers ten cities in North America and Europe in a month, took place in Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. The sold-out conference was packed enthusiastic developers from both the Toronto area as well as cities within driving distance as well as a large number [...]

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27 Takes on Windows 7

October 26, 2009
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If you’ve got customers wondering if they should upgrade from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7 and are looking for testimonials, go to Gizmodo’s article, 27 Takes on Windows 7. It features quotes from 27 reviews of Windows 7, which include the following seven:

CNET "Windows 7 presents [...]

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Mississauga SharePoint User Group Inaugural Meeting – Monday, October 26th

October 25, 2009
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You can learn about learn about SharePoint 2010 – the upcoming version of Microsoft’s enterprise information portal platform — at the inaugural meeting of the Mississauga SharePoint User Group taking place this Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Microsoft’s Mississauga office. Rob Windsor from ObjectSharp will lead a session covering SharePoint 2010 with a particular [...]

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Windows 7: Even Linus Approves!

October 22, 2009
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Here’s Linux creator Linus Torvalds, taking a break from the Japan Linux Symposium to pose at a store where Windows 7 was on sale:

[Thanks to Stefan Arentz for pointing me to the picture!]
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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Burger King’s Windows 7 Whopper

October 22, 2009
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To celebrate the release of Windows 7, Japanese Burger King franchises are offering a Windows 7 Whopper with 7 patties, selling for 777 Yen (CAD$8.92 as of this writing), available only for the next 7 days. I have no idea why they’re not doing this on this side of the Pacific; I’m sure it would [...]

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Me and Steve B.

October 22, 2009
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I bought a fuzzy “Cat in the Hat”-style raver hat with a Canadian flag pattern on a whim earlier this year, thinking that I’d probably find a pretty good use for it some day. That day, it turns out, was yesterday, where I turned it into what I believe was yesterday’s only Steve Ballmer photo-op [...]

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Tonight on “The Hour”: Steve Ballmer and Snoop Dogg

October 21, 2009
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Fo’shizzle my Ballizle: on tonight’s episode of CBC’s news show The Hour, “Strombo”’s interviewing an unlikely pair: the CEO of the company for whom I work, Steve Ballmer, and Snoop Dogg. Alas, they’re taping the segments separately, so there’s no chance of Ballmer and Snoop doing a rap duet called Win and Juice.
The Hour airs [...]

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Scenes from the Canadian Windows 7 Event

October 21, 2009
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I’ll be updating this post regularly through the morning, so keep an eye on this article!
Here’s Steve Ballmer doing his keynote:
Photo by Tom Purves. Click to see the original.
Here’s my view from the event’s Twitter Lounge, where I’ll be doing demos and answering questions:
Photo by Yours Truly.
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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