Jerry Nixon

Star Trek into Darkness plot holes

2013-05-17T13:39:00.001-06:00

I would like to take a second and compliment the latest Star Trek movie: Star Trek into Darkness. The reprise of the new-timeline series brings back their solid cast to fight a classic enemy. The Enterprise refit is beautiful, the uniforms are stellar, and the effects intoxicating. The movie unforgivably kills my favorite character, but the pace of the movie quells my lament as I struggled to take in the fire hose of plot details, lens flair, and classic canon nods. I’ll need to see it a few more times.

My wife and I hit the town for the late night, premier sneak-peek showing. Surrounded by other Star Trek enthusiasts in uniforms and fan apparel, we fit right in. There’s nothing like the opening night of any movie, especially one with engaged fans like Star Trek. There’s so much energy, so much laughing, and a terrific chance to just play along, have a good time, and escape for a few hours.

Some of the plot holes I would like answers to:

Wasn’t Spock already breaking the Prime Directive screwing around with the volcano? Why did he report Kirk’s violation of the Prime Directive and not get in trouble himself?
Aren’t starships created to withstand outward pressure, not inward pressure? Space is a vacuum, putting the Enterprise underwater reverses the pressure, doesn’t it?
Assuming you don’t vaporize from the heat inside a volcano, what are the odds that it can erupt (and spew lava onto a nearby village), but not a drop touches Spock’s suit?
Isn’t the Enterprise big? After Kirk and Bones survive an impossibly high jump into the ocean, how deep do they swim to reach the side hatch? Don’t they need to decompress?
Is Kirk just stupid? Why does he always anticipate a commendation when he is about to be court marshaled? Was Spock’s report secret? Surely he could have read it in advance.
If the most important people in Starfleet are getting together for the purpose of fighting terrorism, why would they do it in an unsafe location, subject to sneak attack?
Aren’t there sensors on Earth? We can detect life on a planet from orbit but we can’t find a specific escape ship flying around? Not even as it is approaching Starfleet HQ?
Forget how Kahn got his hands on the interstellar transport formula, why did he go to Qo’noS? It was clear that he didn’t have friends there. Maybe he was baiting Admiral Marcus.
That escape craft had some serious fire power. But Kirk wrecked it by very-accurately throwing something into the turbine intake. What? Combustion fuels in the future?
Nobody’s bitter? So if we cross into the Klingon neutral zone and kill several scores of warriors and leave – they don’t get a little mad about the treaty violation? What gives?
On a ship the size of Enterprise there’s no backup for the Chief of Engineering? We have to turn to the seventeen year old head of tactical? But there’s a backup for tactical? What?
Admiral Marcus gives Kirk special missiles. Cool. But 72 of them? Seriously, Kirk needed 72 missiles to kill a single man? Would he have really used all 72? And, why not 47 instead?
Okay, so Kahn is a good shot and really strong. But with that many Klingons around nobody shoots back at him while he is shooting at them? Why don’t they think to do that?
It was cool to see Urhura speak Klingon, but what was her plan? To appeal to their honor so they would forgive their violation of the neutral zone? How could that ever work?
If Starfleet were to construct a super weapon, wouldn’t they have some security around it? How can Scotty sneak up, let alone sneak in to a facility like that? Is nobody awake?
If the USS Vengeance is so high tech, they why can’t they detect a communicator talking to the Enterprise from inside her won belly? Again, is nobody awake at the controls?
That shipyard scene was cool, but it made one thing clear: there are lots of ships around Earth. How is it possible that Enterprise is all alone over Earth, fighting for Starfleet?
When Kahn hits debris and vanishes, how could he possible reaccelerate enough to catch up with Kirk and “guide him” into that little bity airlock? They jets appeared only lateral.
I happen to know that the Enterprise’s artificial gravity pulls down, not up. When she is in a free fall, why is Kirk running along the walls with Scotty? Shouldn’t he float?
If Kahn was hiding people in torpedoes, would he really pack them with explosives, too? How did Spock manage to “arm” one as to not be detected during transport?
After the crash on earth, considering how large the Enterprise is versus the “twice as large” Vengeance, Kahn’s slide down her shattered hull would be like sliding down two Empire State buildings. Shouldn’t the friction alone have melted his boots and his feet?
The “energizers”, “star drive” or “warp core” of a starship is pretty freaking powerful, if you think about it. If you were stand next to it, unshielded, and it suddenly ignited sufficient to power the Enterprise, wouldn’t you probably be vaporized? Kirk?
Now that we have Kahn’s blood (rather Bone’s recreation of it), wouldn’t Starfleet bring everybody back to life? Like Captain Pike; arguably, the best character in the movie. Doesn’t this make it so nobody in Star Trek ever has to die again?

Don’t get me wrong. I love it. Really do.

Horizontal Screen Breakpoints for Web Designers to Support

2013-05-15T10:20:00.001-06:00

It’s difficult to create a site that looks great across browsers. The weaker web developers simply give up – supporting only a piece of the market, squandering opportunity for themselves or their customers.

But, now the ante is raised with responsive web design. Leveraging CSS media queries, developers rearrange content to accommodate the width (et al) of different screen sizes. And it’s not simply a normal site with a mobile site, too. Users are coming at you with a myriad screen sizes.

“…users may not be getting [a] webpage's best experience on devices like Apple iPad, Microsoft Surface, Amazon Kindle, XBOX 360, and other modern browsers on smaller or larger screens. These mobile experiences account for about 12% of the global internet traffic and are expected to grow quickly in the next 5 years (Business Insider, Nov 2012).” - http://www.modern.ie

Though I pick XAML as my Windows 8 UI, it’s undeniable that the web is an HTML/JavaScript playground. You can’t get by without ‘em, and the approach you take can change the experience of your user or your customer. Should you want to research more about responsive web design: Why the Web Is Ready for Responsive Web Design, by Rahul Lalmalani (MSDN Magazine March 2013)

Best of luck!

Ready to learn XAML?

2013-05-10T09:23:00.001-06:00

Daren May and I teach the basics of Windows 8 XAML in a Jump Start course for Microsoft Virtual Academy (Recorded May 2013). If you are learning XAML, come learn with us in this free, all-day course (now available on demand). We have a lot of fun in these courses; but you get all the candy.

Best Windows Phone Commercial Ever

2013-05-07T11:46:00.001-06:00

“Siri, search one-trick pony”
“Aren’t you a little young to have an IPhone”
“Isheep”
“Copy-bots”
“Auto-correct… this!”
Boom! “Is there an app for that?”
“Siri, search karate! No, Ka-ra-te!”

“Do you think if they knew about the Nokia Lumia they would stop fighting?”
“I don’t know. I think they kind of like fighting.”

Stop fighting. Switch.

Hehe! WP is the “peaceful” phone.

And smartphone of the freakin’ year! Boo-yah, baby!

Pretty great commercial.

DevRadio: How to Include Advertising in Your Windows 8 apps

2013-03-25T10:27:00.000-06:00

Jerry Nixon, Ian Ferreira and Lucas Stankiewicz from the Ad Experiences team discuss ways in which developers can use advertising in their apps to help monetize their applications. Tune in as they show you how to get started with the Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows 8.

Next Steps:
Step #1 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
Step #2 – Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

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DevRadio: (Part 2) UX Guidance for Handling Large Data in Windows 8 Apps

2013-03-20T11:00:00.000-06:00

Jerry Nixon and Tyler Gibson are back for part 2 of their UX design guidance series and in today’s episode, Tyler showcases the Netflix and Newegg apps for Windows 8 as good examples of apps that make it easier for users to find and process information.

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DevRadio: (Part 1) UX Guidance for Handling Large Data in Windows 8 Apps

2013-03-18T11:00:00.000-06:00

Jerry Nixon welcomes Tyler Gibson for this 2 part series on UX design considerations you may want to consider for your Windows 8 apps that handle large amounts of data. In part 1, they discuss best practices and how users evaluate, interpret and act on information.

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DevRadio: Using the GeoLocation API for Your Windows 8 Apps

2013-03-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

Jerry Nixon welcomes Janet Schneider, Mark Inderhees and Frank Chen to the show as they discuss the Geolocation API for Windows 8 app developers. Tune in as they discuss its benefits, features and how to implement it in your app.

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Binding to an ENUM in Windows 8

2013-03-04T11:19:00.001-07:00

You create a Settings flyout for your app so users can configure their experience. Sometimes, your settings are based on a ENUM that you use throughout your app. But how do you bind to an ENUM in XAML?

Our sample ENUM

The first thing you should know is that you cannot really bind to a ENUM, but with some code we can expose an ENUM as a type you can bind to. Let’s take a look at the code:

In the code above, we have our ENUM. We have two custom attributes in our ENUM. The first attribute is System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.DisplayAttribute which we use to change the presentation of our ENUM in the UI – this is mostly because spaces and special characters aren’t allowed in an ENUM. The second attribute is System.ComponentModel.DefaultValueAttribute which we use to indicate which ENUM member should be selected by default – before the user makes a manual selection.

Binding to an enum

To expose our ENUM as a type we can bind to, we do this:

In the code above, we create the property ThemeItemsSource. ThemeItemsSource can be bound to a List’s ItemsSource property. Creating a static cache of the list helps with performance of our application as the user may return to our flyout more than once, and we might reuse our view model in several locations. GetEnumAsList() is the reusable method that parses an ENUM.

Letting the user choose

Showing the list of options to the user is only the first step in a settings dialog. The second step is to let them choose a member and store that member in our app’s settings. We need a property that can be bound to a List’s SelectedItem property. Like this:

In the code above, we create the ThemeSelectedItem property which we can bind to the SelectedItem of our List. As long as we define the binding Mode as TwoWay, when the user selects an option in the list, ThemeSelectedItem will be set. If you look closely, ThemeSelectedItem persists its value in the static Theme property. A static property allows you to reference this setting value from any other part of the application without having to instantiate the view model or some other class.
The static Theme property uses my StorageHelper to store the value of the property across user sessions. In other words, when the user closes your app and re-opens it, the value they selected will be retained. This adds to a good user experience.

Determining the default

You might notice a reference to the GetEnumDefault() method. This method is responsible for parsing the ENUM and finding the member decorated with DefaultValueAttribute, if there is one. This is handy because, at first, the user may not have chosen anything and you need a value to use. This method looks like this:

In the code above we look for custom attributes and return the DefaultValue if there is one. If there isn’t one then we get the ENUM returned by default() – which is either the first in the ENUM or the one with an integer value of 0 (zero). The best part of this generic method is that you can use it again and again. If you don’t want to use the Default attribute, it won’t break anything.

Displaying the grid

We aren’t done though. In order to display this in our XAML all we need to do is to make reference to our view model and bind to the two properties: ThemeItemsSource and ThemeSelectedItem. It’s really as simple as that, and it looks like this:

In the code above, we generate a UI for the user. We present all the ENUM values in a GridView with ThemeItemsSource and bind the currently selected (or default) item to ThemeSelectedItem. I mentioned it before, but I want to reiterate that SelectedItem is bound using the Mode of TwoWay so that when the user makes a selection that action is written back to the view model.

Displaying custom text

Another interesting part of that XAML is the use of the EnumConverter. This converter looks at the value of the ENUM member to display and shows it. But if the developer has leveraged the DisplayAttribute, then the converter will use whatever is provided there. Using a DisplayAttribute might be where you add logic to enable localization of your app.
The converter looks like this:

In the code above, we create a simple IValueConverter which accepts an ENUM member and interrogates it to see if there is a custom DisplayAttribute with which to switch the default string. Reflection is far less costly than in early .Net, but it’s still not free. Since this is a settings flyout, it’s a worthwhile cost. But be aware when using this technique in large grids – you could see a performance impact. Odds are, if your ENUM is less than 100 members, you won’t notice anything.

That’s it, by the way!

The actual UI will be up to you. To the right you can see what mine looks like. It’s cool how it dynamically updates the Settings UI when I update the ENUM. There’s a lot of power and reusability here; I hope this helps you make better apps.

Want the code? Get it here.

Oh, did I mention this works in design-time?
Best of luck!

DevRadio: Reactive Extensions for Windows 8

2013-03-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Bart De Smet from the Reactive Extensions team joins Jerry Nixon for today’s episode as they discuss the importance of using Rx and LINQ in their Windows 8 apps. Tune in as they share some background info as well as best practices for .NET developers who want to streamline their code and push their data in real time to users.

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DevRadio: Making the most out of OData for Your Windows 8 Apps

2013-02-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Mark Stafford from the OData team joins Jerry Nixon on today’s episode as they discuss anything and everything to do with OData for your Windows 8 apps. Tune as they take a deep dive into OData sources, its new release strategy and upcoming features.

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DevRadio: Roaming Your Windows 8 App Data

2013-02-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jerry Nixon welcomes Dan Somrack and Dave Bennett to the show as they discuss how and why you would want to roam your Windows 8 app data. Tune in as they chat about what it is, why its important as well as how to implement it in your app.

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DevRadio: SkyDrive and your Windows 8 Apps

2013-02-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jerry Nixon and Harrison Hoffman from the SkyDrive team discuss how developers can utilize SkyDrive for their Windows 8 apps. Tune in as they discuss the best use scenarios for SkyDrive as well as comparisons to Windows Azure.

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DevRadio: Building Apps for Office and SharePoint 2013

2013-02-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jerry Nixon welcomes Mike Morton, Mark Wilson-Thomas and Saurabh Bhatia as they discuss how and why you should start building apps for Office and SharePoint 2013. Tune in as we discuss the new cloud app model for Office and SharePoint and how it provides you with the maximum amount of choice and flexibility to build your apps using familiar languages, tools and hosting services.

Learn more about the New Office and SharePoint app model!
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App Challenge: Windows 8 Apps For Social Good Contest

2013-02-07T13:47:00.001-07:00

Entries must serve a "social good". WE define this as a good or service that provides some sort of benefit to the general public and doesn’t solely exist to provide the maximum possible return to shareholders.

Some classic examples of social good topics are: clean water, literacy, food security, healthy & safe environment. For the purposes of this contest, we’re considering any topic within TechSoup Global's HackerHelper Wiki.

Status: Open for submissions
Submissions Open: Mon, 11/05/2012 - 12:01am
Submissions Close: Thu, 02/28/2013 - 11:59pm
Voting Opens: Fri, 03/01/2013 - 12:01am
Voting Closes: Fri, 03/15/2013 - 11:59pm
Winners Announced: Mon, 03/25/2013 - 12:00pm

Winner Receives:

Best Overall Windows 8 App: $15,000
Best Overall Windows 8 Phone App: $15,000;
People’s Choice App: $10,000;
PLUS Windows 8 Phone for each winner!

Learn more here

DevRadio: Integrating Microsoft Translator into your Windows 8 apps

2013-02-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jerry Nixon welcomes Vikram Dendi and Sandor Maurice from the Microsoft Translator team as they discuss ways in which you can integrate Microsoft Translator into your Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps. Tune in as they discuss the AJAX and SOAP interface as well as the Multilingual App Toolkit for Visual Studio 2012.

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Telerik will give you $30k for your Windows 8 app. Are you in?

2013-02-05T13:23:00.001-07:00

We are looking for the next smashing Windows 8 app. If you are a startup and you have a brilliant, financially viable idea for a Windows 8 app, pitch it to us.

$30,000 OF FUNDING
in exchange for a minority stake in your company
MENTOR-LED BOOT CAMP
Two of the people on your team fly to Hong Kong for a week of mentor-led boot camp with Accelerator HK
ACCELERATION PROGRAM
3 months virtual acceleration program via Paul Orlando, director of AcceleratorHK and TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon winner

Who can apply? Early stage startups who believe in the future of Windows 8. Your team needs at least one technical founder and one non-technical co-founder. If you are selected for the accelerator you will have to incorporate a company before the program starts unless you already have done so. There are no geographic limitations.

What do you need to apply for the program? Anything from a simple mock up to a wire frame will work just fine. Chances are your idea will undergo serious changes.

What are the selection criteria? We want our program to add value to your whole team. We are biased toward startups with a minimum of two and up to four people participating in the accelerator; strong technical, design and business skills; those who have made some progress on their concept, prototype or existing service; and those who show us they’re coachable and open-minded.

Can I apply with more than one project? No, your team should be focused only on one product at a time in the accelerator.

We’ve already worked on our startup for a while and have applied to another accelerator. Can we still apply? Yes.

We’ve already worked on our startup for a while and have taken investment. Can we still apply? Yes.

Do I have to use Telerik products in my project? No

Walkthrough: Locking Asynchronous File Operations

2013-02-04T12:14:00.001-07:00

When I started writing Windows 8 apps, one of my first productions was wrapping file operations in a helper class called StorageHelper. This class has successfully been leveraged by thousands of Windows 8 developers. I certainly use it every time I interact with a File or a Setting.

But the StorageHelper isn’t perfect in every scenario. For most mainstream applications it is perfect. But for some edge cases where file operations occur in parallel, an asynchronous read or write may not complete before another operation is attempted on the same file. This causes parallel locking. Hans Windhoff, a community developer in Colorado, took my StorageHelper and updated it with the solution – solving locks with some smarts and voodoo.

Here’s Hans’ experience:

When I was writing my first Windows 8 app store application, I was also first using the C# async/await in .Net 4.5.

Asynchronous programming keeps the application user interface (UI) responsive. Async/await makes asynchronous programming simple to write, and easy to read. But in some scenarios a re-entrance situation arises; you are not normally confronted with these in synchronous programming.

File operations are a excellent examples of re-entrance; particularly when executed from within event handlers. When handling UI events, like a button click, it is common to disable the button during the operation. This pattern works fine as long as there is no other button that will call the same code or uses the same resources, like a file.

One problem calling things asynchronously is that while awaiting a completion, other stuff may happen; you may not know what that other stuff will be.

A situation I came across is this:

A Windows app store application has two frames.
There is no given sequence in which these frames are called.
Both frames need some data that comes from a file.
The data needs to be written back into that file when the frames close (are navigated from).
Both frames use the same data and therefore the same file.

Typically, I would put the loading and saving of the data into OnNavigatedTo/From event handlers for each frame. In the pre-async/await times, if you don’t worry about a “little” delay, putting these calls directly into the event handlers is no problem.

But if the file access takes time, that delay becomes an issue. Since Windows 8 app store apps do not support synchronous file access functions, the developer is forced (by design) into async patterns, keeping the UI responsive; the event handlers become asynchronous.

The signature of the event handlers is void. If the event handlers are to be awaited, they become - what Jerry Nixon calls - “FireAndForget”. They return control when the first await is hit. However, when navigating from one frame to the other, saving and loading may overlap and throw an ACCESSDENIED exception.

In the pre-async/await days you could use a thread or task. Windows 8 file operations are natively asynchronous. Where a lock might have been the solution to handle multithreading conflicts, locks are not supported in an awaited operation. Also a lock would not work in a re-entrance scenario, because the lock is still on the same thread (the UI thread in the case of event handlers).

To get around this problem I used the AsyncLock from Stephen Toub (Building Async Coordination Primitives, Part 6: AsyncLock) to lock a block around any file access StorageHelper perform. Please note that my contribution here is rather small.

First I bring in the two classes from Stephen Toub’s articles:

AsyncSemaphore
AsyncLock

Then in Jerry Nixon’s StorageHelper class I add a member:

This is my only lock that I then use to synchronize all file access.

Writing a file:

Reading a file:

The using also takes care about the possibility of an exception being thrown, so the AsyncLock m_lock will be released if this should happen. Please note that disabling parts of the UI in both frames may still be needed because – as already outlined above – the OnNavigatedTo event handler becomes “FireAndForget” when async and await are added to the definition. So as long as the fired and forgotten event handler has not done its work, the data it is supposed to read, may not be consistent.

Hans Windhoff is a Microsoft developer in Colorado. Find him here.

DevRadio: XAML and Windows 8 App Development

2013-01-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Abstract:
Jerry Nixon welcomes Principal Program Lead, Tim Heuer to the show as they discuss all things XAML for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Tune in as they chat about it history plus new features in XAML and Visual Studio 2012 as well as “Project Callisto”

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DevRadio: Building Your Windows 8 Apps with XAML and Blend

2013-01-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Abstract:
Jerry Nixon welcomes Navit Saxena and Hari Menon from the Microsoft Blend team to the show as they discuss the latest features and improvements made in Blend as it pertains to XAML developers and its integration with Visual Studio 2012. Tune in as they chat about how Blend can make life so much easier for Windows 8 app developers as well as where to learn more about this great product.

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DevRadio: Using Xamarin to Create the Draw a Stickman app for Windows 8

2013-01-21T12:14:00.001-07:00

Abstract:
Jerry Nixon welcomes CEO of Xamarin, Nat Friedman and President of Hitcents, Chris Mills to the show as they discuss how Hitcents used Xamarin’s MonoTouch to launch their app, “Draw a Stickman EPIC” on Windows 8. Tune in as they chat about the ins-and-outs on how easy it was to use Xamarin’s platform to launch their app in the Windows Store and across multiple platforms.

Get Started with Xamarin here! | Download “Draw a Stickman EPIC” for Windows 8

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DevRadio: Integrating Bing Maps into Your Windows 8 apps

2013-01-21T12:12:00.001-07:00

Abstract:
Jerry Nixon welcomes Ian Bennett and Jim Blizzard to the show as they discuss how they integrated a Bing Map into their Windows 8 app. Tune in as they chat about the Bing Maps SDK, along with the why, how-to and lessons learned from developing with Bing Maps.

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Mid Quality MP4 (WP7, HTML5)
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DevRadio: Windows Phone 8 Features Overview

2013-01-17T10:57:00.001-07:00

Technical Evangelists Jerry Nixon, Daniel Egan and Ryan Lowdermilk discuss their Top 20 (give or take) Windows Phone 8 features. Tune in as they discuss NFC support, Data Sense, Geolocation, Writable OS Tasks, Bluetooth and Skype APIs and much, much more!

Next Steps:
Step #1 – Begin Your Windows Phone 8 App Adventure here
Step #2 – Download the Windows Phone SDK
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If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Websites:

Windows Phone 8 Dev Center

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

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MP3 (Audio only)
MP4 (iPod, Zune HD)
High Quality MP4 (iPad, PC)
Mid Quality MP4 (WP7, HTML5)
High Quality WMV (PC, Xbox, MCE)

Walkthrough: Dynamically Skinning your Windows 8 App

2013-01-11T11:48:00.001-07:00

One powerful feature of XAML is the ability to make any control look however the developer or designer wants without having to change the control itself. Similar to, but far more powerful than CSS, skinning a control in XAML lets you change how it looks, change the type of control, and even inject behavior.

You can change its behavior, customize it’s API, and even add properties as needed. Taken to the extreme, it can actually be a little confusing. But used appropriately, it’s a powerful, time-saving feature.

Note: since the beginning of XAML, Blend has been the superior tool to re-template and style controls. Having said that, most XAML developers know how to do the same thing by hand. Having said that, some people like to code in Notepad. To each their own, even the borgas frats.

Here’s what I want to do

I want to crate more than one style for my app. And I want to enable the user to change between my available styles to suit their preference. To accomplish this in XAML we move our styles not to a Resources property but up and out into a Resources Dictionary file. Then we can change references to different files. Wonder what I mean? Watch this:

Best of luck!

Here’s Microsoft Surface as a Windows Phone (concept)

2013-01-11T11:15:00.001-07:00

If only. Awesome.

Jerry Nixon

Star Trek into Darkness plot holes

Some of the plot holes I would like answers to:

Horizontal Screen Breakpoints for Web Designers to Support

Ready to learn XAML?

Best Windows Phone Commercial Ever

DevRadio: How to Include Advertising in Your Windows 8 apps

DevRadio: (Part 2) UX Guidance for Handling Large Data in Windows 8 Apps

DevRadio: (Part 1) UX Guidance for Handling Large Data in Windows 8 Apps

DevRadio: Using the GeoLocation API for Your Windows 8 Apps

Binding to an ENUM in Windows 8

Our sample ENUM

Binding to an enum

Letting the user choose

Determining the default

Displaying the grid

Displaying custom text

That’s it, by the way!

Want the code? Get it here.

DevRadio: Reactive Extensions for Windows 8

DevRadio: Making the most out of OData for Your Windows 8 Apps

DevRadio: Roaming Your Windows 8 App Data

DevRadio: SkyDrive and your Windows 8 Apps

DevRadio: Building Apps for Office and SharePoint 2013

App Challenge: Windows 8 Apps For Social Good Contest

Learn more here

DevRadio: Integrating Microsoft Translator into your Windows 8 apps

Telerik will give you $30k for your Windows 8 app. Are you in?

$30,000 OF FUNDINGin exchange for a minority stake in your company

MENTOR-LED BOOT CAMPTwo of the people on your team fly to Hong Kong for a week of mentor-led boot camp with Accelerator HK

ACCELERATION PROGRAM3 months virtual acceleration program via Paul Orlando, director of AcceleratorHK and TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon winner

Read more here

Walkthrough: Locking Asynchronous File Operations

Here’s Hans’ experience:

Writing a file:

Reading a file:

DevRadio: XAML and Windows 8 App Development

DevRadio: Building Your Windows 8 Apps with XAML and Blend

DevRadio: Using Xamarin to Create the Draw a Stickman app for Windows 8

DevRadio: Integrating Bing Maps into Your Windows 8 apps

DevRadio: Windows Phone 8 Features Overview

Walkthrough: Dynamically Skinning your Windows 8 App

Here’s what I want to do

Here’s Microsoft Surface as a Windows Phone (concept)

$30,000 OF FUNDING
in exchange for a minority stake in your company

MENTOR-LED BOOT CAMP
Two of the people on your team fly to Hong Kong for a week of mentor-led boot camp with Accelerator HK

ACCELERATION PROGRAM
3 months virtual acceleration program via Paul Orlando, director of AcceleratorHK and TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon winner