Bret Stateham's Blog

Windows 8 by the Beach…

2012-05-22T15:38:21Z

You have to have heard about Windows 8 by now, but have you started developing for it yet? If not, you should get started now. If you haven’t, do you need help? On May 31st, 2012, from 9am to 6pm at the Carlsbad Inn, here in Carlsbad, CA. you will have a great opportunity to do both.

Register Here

Michael Palermo and a team of local Microsoft evangelists including Daniel Egan, Alice Pang, and myself (Bret Stateham) will be on hand to either get your started, or help work through specific problems.

The event is “open house” style so come in when you can, and stay for as long as you can. We will have quick presentations throughout the day covering topics like:

Application Manifest
Visual Studio vs. Expression Blend
HTML|JavaScript vs. XAML|C#
Application Views and Snapping
Settings Charm
Search Charm
Share Charm
Data Binding

There will be wifi, food, and hourly give aways. Really, why wouldn’t you come?!?

Windows Phone Solar Eclipse Viewer

2012-05-20T21:45:14Z

On May 20th, 2012 (today, as I write this), there will be a Solar Eclipse. I live in San Diego, CA and there is supposed to be some prime viewing for it in Southern California. As you know though, looking directly at the sun (even when eclipsed) is a bad idea. Yesterday, I started looking for ways to view the solar eclipse and other than getting some special glasses or lenses, the most common solution is a pinhole “projector”.

I made a quick version using an old tissue box, but being a nerd, I couldn’t just leave it at that. My next revision actually uses a LifeCam webcam in a box. I won’t describe it in detail here, but if you understand the instructions for the phone version, you should be able to easily modify it to use a webcam instead.

My final version uses a Windows Phone as the viewer. This gives me the benefit of being able to use all the great features of the windows phone for photo / video sharing, and I can share my images live! Here is the basic idea:

Here are the supplies I used. I happened to have some 3M picture hanging strips that don’t leave a residue behind when they are removed. I used these to attach the phone to the box so I didn’t have to worry about gumming up my phone. I also attached them to my phone case so that I wasn’t attaching sticky stuff directly to the phone.

Supplies:

Cardboard box
Sheet of white paper
Poster strips (or blue tack, or just tape to attach the phone to the box)
Pin (or needle) for making the pinhole
Craft blade or something to make the holes in the box with
A roll of duct tape. No project is complete without the duct tape
Scotch tape (I actually used spray mount) for attaching the paper to back of the box (inside)
Tin Foil, this will have the pinhole in it. Use paper if you prefer.
A Windows Phone and a case with a hole for the camera in it

First cut the paper to fit the end of the box and tape it inside the box on one end:

Make sure to remember which end has the paper on it. You want the pinhole and phone to be on the opposite end. The paper will act as the “screen” that the image will be projected on.

Next completely tape up the box. I used duct tape to seal all the edges and ensure no light got in:

On the end OPPOSITE from the paper, layout the holes that you will cut for the foil to cover and for the phone’s camera to “see” through. I tried to center the hole for the foil to cover at the center, and the I used the phone case to line up the hole for the camera:

Cut the holes:

The cover the square hole with a piece of foil and tape around the edges of the foil to keep out extra light. Then use the pin or needle to make a small round hole in the center of the foil.

Use whatever adhesive you chose to mount the phone case to the box. The 3M Poster Strips I used work well because I could surround the camera lens with them to help block out any extra light:

With the phone in the case, mount the phone to the box. Take special care to make sure the camera lens is directly over the hole you made for it in the box.

You are ready to go! Take your phone outside, and point the pinhole at the sun. The image of the sun should be projected on the back wall of the box with the paper on it. Use the phone’s camera to view the image.

The image of the sun is pretty small. You might experiment with a longer box, or a larger pin hole or ? to adjust it. Here is a closer up picture of the image on the phone. The image is the white dot in the middle of the phone screen.

You can take pictures of the sun now, or even video. I recommend TURNING OFF YOUR FLASH. Share your images online as you watch the eclipse using Windows Phone’s integrated Messaging, Twitter and Facebook features! Here is an actual photo from my phone:

Of course, making a version with a LifeCam web cam instead is just the same, just make a hole for the LifeCam to fit through. Then connect the LifeCam to your computer and watch the eclipse from The LifeCam software. Take stills or even capture video, and post it!.

Enjoy!

Lenovo W520 and an External Projector with NVIDIA Quadro 2000M and NVIDIA Optimus

2012-05-18T07:43:15Z

If you have come to this blog post from a search, then you are probably having the same problem I have had in the past with my Lenovo W520, specifically, duplicating the laptop display to an external projector connected to the VGA port on the side of the laptop or connected to a display port on the back of a “Mini Dock Plus Series 3”.

Well, if you have had that problem, read on. I’ll give you two possible solutions to the problem. One of them is likely going to work for you!

The discussion and steps in this post assume the external display (monitor or projector) is being connected to the W520 via the VGA port on the left hand side of the laptop:

However, the discussion and instructions below also apply if your external display is connected to a display port on the back of a “Mini Dock Plus Series 3” instead:

If you don’t want to understand the problem, but would rather just fix it, you can jump to the solutions using the links below. If you have the time though, I suggest reading through my explanation of the issues. It will help you get better use out of the graphics processors (YES, plural, that’s part of the confusion) on your laptop!

Quick jump to the solutions:

Or Read on….

W520 Graphics Processors & NVIDIA Optimus

A Tale of Two Processors – Graphics Performance vs. Battery Life

The Lenovo W520 ships with two separate graphics processors. There is the Integrated Intel HD graphics processor, as well as a separate (a.k.a. “Discrete”) NVIDIA Quadro 2000M graphics processor. Why two graphics processors? Well the Integrated Intel HD graphics processor is acceptable for most business applications and has the benefit of low power consumption and thus allows for longer battery lifetimes. However for a number of graphics intensive applications (CAD, Photoshop, games, etc.), the integrated Intel HD graphics process just doesn’t have enough oomph. Because the W520 is a high-end laptop, it includes a separate NVIDIA Quadro 2000M graphics processor that offers much better performance for those graphics hungry apps, but its use requires a lot of power, and therefore has a negative impact on battery life.

Switchable Graphics vs NVIDIA Optimus

There have been laptops before with more than one graphics processor, but it is usually left up to the user of the system to “switch” between the different graphics cards when choosing between better battery life, and better graphics performance. Making the switch could have been as painful, as changing the BIOS each time a changed was needed, or perhaps through a software utility that allowed the change to be made without requiring a reboot. Still, it was a manual process either way.

The W520 however includes NVIDIA Optimus which provides automatic switching between the Integrated Intel HD graphics processor, and the NVIDIA Quadro 2000M graphics processor on an application by application basis. Basically it removes the need for you to manually switch between the integrated and discrete graphics subsystems when you run an app. Optimus monitors the applications you run, and automatically chooses which graphics processer to use for each application based on various criteria. For specific details on how Optimus works, you can read this NVIDIA Optimus Whitepaper.

Wrench in the Works

So this Optimus stuff sounds pretty cool, the problem is that the game it plays with the graphics processors confuses Windows 7’s built in multiple screen management capabilities. If we plug an external monitor or projector into the VGA port on the side of the W520 when Optimus is enabled (which it is by default), We are unable to “duplicate” the main laptop display on the external monitor or projector. Windows 7 will allow you to “Extend” the displays, but not “Duplicate” them.

Seriously?!?! Yep, Seriously. The problem appears to be (at least to me) that the Laptop’s built-in screen is being managed by the Integrated Intel HD graphics processor, and the external monitor or projector is being managed by the discrete Quadro 2000M. You can see this if you open the NVIDIA Control Panel by right clicking on the Windows Desktop and selecting “NVIDIA Control Panel” from the pop-up menu:

Then in the “Select a Task…” panel on the left, expand “Display” and select “Set up multiple displays”. In the screen shot below, you can see that I have a “Samsung SyncMaster” monitor connected to the laptop (it is connected to the VGA port on the side of the W520) and that it is being driven by the discrete “Quadro 2000M” graphics processor, whereas the built-in “Laptop Display” is being driven by the integrated “Intel(R) HD Graphics Family” graphics processor.

Disabling NVIDIA Optimus

When Lenovo ships the W520 with Windows 7 installed, it defaults to having the NVIDIA Optimus feature enabled. If you don’t need the flexibility of the automatic switching provided by Optimus you can use the system BIOS to enable the “Integrated Graphics” (Intel HD) or “Discrete Graphics” (NVIDIA Quadro 2000M) specifically.

The table below outlines pros & cons of each choice:

Option	Battery Life	Graphics Performance	Notes
Integrated Graphics	Best	Worst	Pros: • Best Battery Life Cons: • Worst Graphics Performance • Doesn’t support multiple monitors *Recommended if running only business apps (Office, etc.) or if battery life is important, and you don’t need to use external displays or projectors.*
Discrete Graphics	Worst	Best	Pros: • Best graphics performance • Can support up to two monitors (internal & one external or two external) • Screen duplication can be done using regular Windows 7 "Windows-P” key combination or control panel. Cons: • Worst Battery Life • Can’t support three monitors *Recommended if you use graphics rich applications, battery life isn’t critical, and need to drive at most only two displays at a time. This option works great for a presenters laptop.*
NVIDIA Optimus (default)	Middle	Middle	Pros: • Automatically balances battery life & graphics performance as much as possible • Supports up to three displays (Laptop and two external) Cons: • Requires use of the NVIDIA Control Panel to manage screen duplication • May require custom configuration to support specific applications • Requires Windows 7 or later *Recommended if you use both business apps (Office) and graphics rich apps regularly and want to optimize battery life, or if you need to drive three displays simultaneously.*

Solutions for duplicating the display to an external projector:

Ok, up to this point we’ve learned a lot about the W520, Optimus and the Integrated (Intel HD) and Discrete (Quadro 2000M) graphics processors. The point of this blog post however was to deal with the pesky problem of duplicating the W520’s display to an external monitor or projector. By default, it doesn’t work as expected. So what to do? Well, there are two ways to solve the problem. The first method involves using the “NVIDIA Control Panel” to manage your displays rather than the Windows 7 “Windows – P” key combination, or the regular Windows 7 “Screen Resolution” control panel. The second option involves turning off “NVIDIA Optimus” in the system BIOS and forcing it to always use the “Discrete Graphics” (NVIDIA Quadro 2000M) processor.

Solution 1 – Duplicating Displays with “NVIDIA Optimus” Enabled (default)

When your Lenovo W520 shipped from the manufacturer, it was likely configured in the system BIOS to use NVIDIA Optimus. Leaving it this way allows you to take advantage of both the integrated Intel HD graphics processor for apps that don’t need heavy graphics, while still having access to the Discrete Quadro 2000M graphics processor for graphics intensive apps. This gives you the benefit of longer battery life when you are running regular apps, but better graphics performance (but shorter battery life) when running graphics heavy apps.

To duplicate your display to an external monitor or projector when NVIDIA Optimus is enabled follow these steps:

Open the “NVIDIA Control Panel” by right clicking on your windows desktop, and from the pop-up menu, selecting “NVIDIA Control Panel”.
Once the “NVIDIA Control Panel” opens, under the “Select a Task…” panel on the left hand side, expand “Display”, and select “Set up multiple displays”.
In the “Set Up Multiple Displays” panel on the right, look at the list displays shown below “1. Select the displays you want to use.”. Take note of the number shown to the right for the “Laptop Display”. In my screenshot above, you can see that my “Laptop Display” is currently number “1”. Your Laptop Display’s number may be different (When I first started playing with this on my system, my “Laptop Display” was number 2, and at some point, something changed and caused the monitor numbers to switch, I am not sure what the cause was. Regardless, it really doesn’t matter what the number is, you just need to know it).
You can see in my screen shots that I have a “Samsung SyncMaster” connected to my external VGA port on the side of my W520. Your monitor (or projector) make and model should be shown here instead. In my case, my Samsung monitor is number “2” (again, your numbers may be different)
Under “2. Drag the icons to match your display configuration.”, Notice that there are two boxes numbered with the same numbers as your laptop display and external display we discovered above. Drag the boxes to represent the physical relationship between the actual displays. This will make sure that the mouse moves correctly from display to display and that images that span multiple displays are shown correctly. In my case, my Samsung SyncMaster (2) is to the left of my laptop screen (1) so I have arranged them to match that physical relationship:
Right click on one of the boxes (I usually right click on the box that represents the external display, currently number 2 in my case). From the pop-up menu select the “Duplicate with x (use y as source)” where “y” is the number of your “Laptop Display” that we took special note of in step 3 above. In my case, my laptop display is number 1, so I’ll choose the “Duplicate with 1 (use 1 as a source)” option. Note that if I had right clicked on the box for the laptop display rather than the box for my external display, the menu option would read slightly different as, “Duplicate with 2 (use 1 as a source)”. The key is the wording in the parenthesis. The first number doesn’t matter, just make sure to choose the menu option that has the “… (use y as a source)” where “y” is the number of your laptop display.
Click the “Apply” button in the lower right corner:
Your displays should now be duplicated! Next, you should be prompted to accept the changes. Click “Yes” to accept the changes if things worked. Click “No” if there was a problem. If you can’t see anything, don’t worry, it should revert back to the previous setting after 20 seconds:
Hopefully, that worked for you! I have been through these steps multiple times (including with an actual projector), and they have worked each time. If you are still having problems, make sure you have updated the BIOS and video drivers for your system, and try it again.
Note that you can go back to the extended display configuration using the regular “Windows – P” key combination and selecting “Extend”:

or by repeating the steps above, but selecting “Extend desktop on this display” in step number five when you click on the single box representing the duplicated displays.

Solution 2 – Duplicating Displays with “Discrete Graphics” Enabled

If you prefer to use the discrete Quadro 2000M graphics processor exclusively, you can disable the NVIDIA Optimus feature by going into the W520 BIOS settings and setting the display to use “Discrete graphics”. This will disable NVIDIA Optimus as well as the Integrated Intel HD graphics processor. Once you have done that the regular Windows 7 screen management (Windows-P and Screen Resolution Control Panel) will work as normal. To change your system over to using Discrete Graphics, use the following steps:

If you don’t have BitLocker enabled, you can ignore this step and go on to Step 2. However, if you do have BitLocker enabled on your system, you need to make sure that you have your BitLocker recovery key printed out or written down before you proceed (not the pin, but the super long recovery key). Changing your BIOS settings will require the use of the BitLocker recovery key when you reboot, and you will want to have that handy. To get a copy of your BitLocker recovery key, go to “Control Panel” | “BitLocker Drive Encryption” | “Manage BitLocker” | “Save or print recovery key again”.
Reboot your W520. When the ThinkPad logo screen appears, press the “F1” key on the keyboard to enter the system BIOS.
From the BIOS screen use the arrow keys to move to the “Config” page, and then down to “Display” and press “Enter” (Sorry for the lame picture)
In the “Display” settings, use the up and down arrow keys to move down to “Graphics Device” and Press “Enter” to access the Graphics Device options. Again, use the arrow keys to select “Discrete Graphics” and press “Enter”
Press the “F10” key to “Save and Exit”. The system should reboot.
If you aren’t using BitLocker, you can skip steps 6 and 7 and proceed to Step 8. Otherwise, If you had BitLocker enabled on the system drive, you will be prompted during the boot process to enter the BitLocker recovery key mentioned in Step 1. If you didn’t get the BitLocker key as instructed, change the BIOS setting back to the previous value, and start over, making sure to retrieve the BitLocker key as instructed in Step 1.
Once Windows has booted and you have logged in successfully, reset BitLocker by once again going into the Windows control panel, and selecting “BitLocker Drive Encryption”, then next to the system drive select “Suspend Protection” and answer “Yes” to the prompt, then immediately next to the system drive click “Resume Protection”. This will reset BitLocker with the current BIOS settings and prevent you from being prompted for the recovery on every reboot.
At this point only the Discrete Quadro 2000M graphics processor should be enabled. Make sure that you have the external display (monitor or projector) connected to the VGA port on the side of the W520, boot the system if necessary, and log back into Windows.
You should now be able to use the standard Windows 7 “Windows-P” keystroke to simply duplicate, or extend your displays. Press the “Windows-P” key combination, then select “Duplicate”
You can also make changes using the Windows 7 Control Panel’s “Screen Resolutions”
And if you prefer, you can still use the “NVIDIA Control Panel” to manage your displays. The menu options are even friendlier.

Conclusion

I have had a couple of W520’s over the past two years, and have generally run them both with the BIOS set to “Discrete Graphics”. I haven’t had any problems, and have been very happy with the laptops and graphics over all. I had the initial scare about not being able to duplicate my display to an external projector, but once I figured out the Discrete Graphics option, all has been well.

Just today however, I finally decided to take advantage of my “Lenovo ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 – 170W” and a pair of Samsung SyncMaster PX2370 displays. I wanted to use both the external displays as well as the built in laptop display giving me three displays in all. I’ll save the steps for actually using three displays for another blog post, but my point is that the “Discrete Graphics” option has worked great for me for a couple of years. For me at least, the “three displays” problem was the only use case I personally have encountered that required the “NVIDIA Optimus” setting.

My office is a hole in the wall under the stairs. High tech huh!

As I experimented with the various options, I did try the “Integrated Graphics” option but was never able to get an external display to work with it. For me, being a presenter with the need to regularly connect to external projectors, that excluded the “Integrated Graphics” option as a viable choice.

So my final recommendation? Use the “Discrete Graphics” BIOS setting unless you need to drive three displays, or need longer battery life, in which case you should use the “NVIDIA Optimus” BIOS setting. Use “Integrated Graphics” ONLY if you don’t need an external monitor (EVER), you don’t use graphics apps or games, and battery life is critical.

Let me know if this helps you out! I’d love to get your feedback!

Free Windows Hackathon at Nokia, San Diego on 06/02/2012

2012-05-15T18:40:21Z

Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge

Headphones on. Tilt the seat back. Just steady codin’ as the keys get tapped. Get ready, because Nokia Developer is about to turn your town into Dev City with its Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge.

Nokia is hitting the road to 13-cities looking for developers who want to build an experience not just another app. To kick off the Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge, Nokia Developer will hold hackathons across the US and Canada beginning in May. You can sign up individually or form your own team to build the coolest, baddest apps for the Windows Phone platform and Nokia Lumia devices.

Prizes will be awarded on site at each event for the top 3 created apps, top student created app, and most Nokia-branded developer (use your imagination). App winners will be judged on creativity, usability, technical difficulty and app presentation.

1^st place: $500 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
2^nd place: $250 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
3^rd place: $100 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
Student Winner: $150 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900
Most Nokia-Branded Dev: $100 gift card & Nokia Lumia 900

At Nokia, we don’t have ordinary developers, so these won’t be ordinary hacks. We have some amazing experiences in store – like our Re-Charge Room – for developers to chill out between pounding out code. So come showoff your skills and earn rewards. Space will be limited so register early.

The Challenge is on. . . .Ready.Set () {Code}

Ready.Set () {Code} Challenge Schedule:

08:30 a.m. Light breakfast and registration\
09:00 a.m. Welcome and competition overview
09:30 a.m. Let the hacking begin!
12:30 p.m. Lunch
07:00 p.m. Show us your app/Dinner
08:00 p.m. Winners announced

On the hunt for great Windows 8 Apps

2012-05-10T17:13:57Z

In case you haven’t already heard, Windows 8 is coming soon. You can download it, use it, and even develop apps for it today. At this point in time the Windows Store is not open for everyone to deploy, but we are looking for the first wave of great applications which highlight the power of Metro and Windows 8, especially those developers that want to get to market first and build the awareness and brand for their applications.

In order to submit your application today you need a token which is something I can help you get.

What do you need to do to get a token? Here are the key steps:

1. Create a great application or game and get it ready.

2. Let me know about it by contacting me Bret.Stateham@microsoft.com. Use the subject of “Windows 8 Store Token Request”.

3. I’ll help you register so you can get your application through our Application Accelerator Labs where the app will get reviewed to confirm it is done and conforms to the Metro guidelines and certification requirements.

This is a great opportunity to not only be first to market with your app, but also to get feedback from a Microsoft Services Engineer to make your app great. If you are serious about creating an application this is a chance that you probably don’t want to pass up.

Windows Application Accelerator Labs
Location	Date	Register
Los Angeles, CA	May 8-10	Registration Closed
Redmond, WA	May 15-17	Register
Mountain View, CA	May 22-24	Register

In addition, our team is holding a series of events and office hours to help you – we want to make sure you have what you need to be successful. You can come learn more about how to build apps for Windows 8 or show up and build your app with one of our evangelists or others in your community available to help you if you need it. You can find more information about our Windows 8 DevCamp events at…

Windows Developer Camps
Location	Date	Register
Redmond, WA	May 11	Register
Denver, CO	June 1	Register
Chandler, AZ	June 8	Register

CloudCamp LA & CQRS Lightning Talk

2012-04-11T22:19:17Z

Recently, I attended a presentation by my colleagues Bruno Terkaly and Ricardo Villalobos on an emerging concept around cloud application architectures known as “Command Query Responsibility Segregation”, or CQRS. As an evangelist on the Azure platform, this was of great interest to me, and I though that for my lightning talk tonight at CloudCamp LA, I would spend a few minutes discussing it. You can grab the slides from my lightning talk here:

If you would like to know more about CQRS in general, check out these resources:

If you are going to be at CloudCamp LA tonight, look me up. I’d love to meet you!

Getting Started with Windows Azure at the Inland Empire .NET User Group

2012-04-11T00:18:01Z

I’m really looking forward to my session tonight at the Inland Empire .NET User Group. I’ll be talking about Windows Azure, and showing how to get started developing applications for the platform. Whether you’re new to Azure, or even if you have been developing against it for a while, you are likely to learn something new here, or at least gain some perspective.

In another shocking advancement, I once again am posting my slides and demos BEFORE the event. You can grab them here (10.6MB Download).

FIRST Robotics Competition and Kinect

2012-03-16T21:30:28Z

Yesterday (03/15/2012) I attended the first day of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) LA Regional event at the Long Beach Arena. This was my first FRC event and I was blown away by what these kids were able to accomplish in just six weeks. I call them kids not be belittle them, but rather to humble myself. It was truly amazing. I brought my ten year old son along with me and were both enthralled with what we saw.

This years competition is entitled “Rebound Rumble” (see a video about it here) and it challenges the student teams to build a robot that can pickup compact foam basketballs, shoot them at one of four basketball baskets, as well as navigate a set of “teeter-totter” style “bridges”.

I was there as a Microsoft Developer Evangelist because in the competition this year, the teams were allowed to use the Microsoft Kinect both on the robots themselves as well as from special Kinect driver stations. I found teams at the LA regional using one or the other. One team in particular though, Team 987 from Las Vegas’ Cimarron-Memorial High School was using the Kinect both onboard for depth perception, as wells as from the Kinect Driver Station during autonomous / hybrid mode.

In autonomous / hybrid mode, the robots must run by themselves without being controlled by the drivers using code developed by the students and deployed to the robot’s PowerPC based cRIO. However, teams that use the Kinect can signal their robot when to shoot basketballs giving them an advantage over the purely autonomous robots.

In the end, some technical difficulties kept Team 987 from being able to use the Kinect station during autonomous mode in Thursday’s practice rounds. Hopefully they can get the problems resolved for the qualifying rounds today (03/16/2012) or for the actual competition tomorrow.

Best of luck to all of the FIRST teams participating in the FRC competition this week! You are all an inspiration!

Here is one last parting “shot” of Team 987’s robot:

Windows Azure Session for LA .NET Developers Group

2012-03-06T02:21:56Z

I’m speaking tonight at the LA .NET Developers Group. If you want a copy of my slides or demos, you can grab there here!

Microsoft Developer Day at the Game Developers Conference

2012-02-15T00:11:52Z

Going to the Game Developer’s Conference? Check out Microsoft Developer Day. At this event Microsoft will introduce developers to the future of games and entertainment. With technology deep dives focusing on Xbox LIVE and Windows 8, lean about how you can build great experiences by capitalizing on Microsoft’s vision for connected entertainment!

When it is? Tuesday March 6th from 10:00am to 5:30pm.

Where Is It? At the “Game Developers Conference” at Moscone Center in San Francisco.