OffBeatMammal

Auto PC Platform

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:02:38 -0700

Although I have integrated my Zune into my Mustang it’s not a very sophisticated solution – it’s still based around the original factory stereo and the only GPS is when I borrow it from the other car and try and balance it on the dashboard!

I had looked around to try and find a good entertainment, navigation and general auto optimized solution but while there are some solutions based around either entertainment or navigation or PC-centric car PCs with interfaces from companies like Centrafuse that require a fair amount of customization and don’t have good navigation solutions.

What I want though is something that combines the best of those worlds on a flexible enough platform. To do that I imagine it would need to be based on a Windows Embedded platform – companies such as PortalMedia supply fairly nice Windows machines that fit into a cars Dual DIN socket which gives the full flexibility of running XP (or presumably Win7) which would make development easier, but I wonder if a lighter-weight OS such as the specific Embedded version (Standard or Professional) or some other lightweight real-time OS might not be a more appropriate platform. At the end of the day as long as it’s reliable and performs well I should never have to see it.

So what do I think is the minimum that a system like this needs to provide to be worthwhile (and while I’d like to see it available as an affordable aftermarket install option there’s no reason it couldn’t be a standard offering as well)

Entertainment

At the very least it should have hard drive storage and the ability to play back locally stored music with the ability to load content from a USB device (Flashdrive, iPod, Zune etc) or an inserted CD (though if supporting a CD makes the hardware more complex I can live without that)
FM/AM radio and ideally HD radio and XM/Sirius support. Unlike some of the existing CarPC solutions this needs to be fully integrated into the front-end and treated no differently that other audio sources
Over the air streaming of services such as Pandora or Last.FM (perhaps via something like the SqueezeNetwork) though the ability to pre-cache locally would be good (though possibly more difficult). Streaming music from a home server would also be a great feature as well as the ability to sync new music, playlists and listening data via something like Live Mesh would be a great capability
Support for video playback should be restricted to rear screens only while in motion, if video or digital TV signals are displayed on the front screen it should only be when the vehicle is parked.
Use of multiple screens, wireless headsets etc would offer the ability to entertain the kids with a movie in the back while the driver listens to music of their choice. Options like this would create scope for premium units or upgrade options.

Automotive Data

Most modern vehicles support either ODB-II or CAN-Bus for logging anything the engine management controls and can be used to record fuel levels and consumption, braking or acceleration, what gear was selected, temperature of oil and water etc. The system should be able to integrate this data and display additional information and alert the driver to sub-optimal conditions.
In addition to ODB-II and CAN-Bus many vehicles support Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS). Sometimes the display can be a simple warning light on the dashboard if one of the tires is below pressure but more sophisticated systems can display pressure and temperature of each tire (as well as the spare) and alert the driver to low/high pressure or temperature warnings to help keep them safe.
The system could be used to monitor service intervals as well as track when the vehicle is re-fueled (prompting the driver to enter cost etc to keep a log book). Similar to the way music is synchronized this data could be shared with your mechanic or a fuel price monitoring site to alert other motorists to good deals (coupled with the navigation system it could even track price trends for specific garages)

Navigation

Similar to any other GPS device the built in navigation capabilities would be pre-loaded with basic maps and offer route selection at least on par with some of the best systems available (optimize for distance or time, show junctions in plenty of time to make sure you are in the right lane etc) but by being integrated into the vehicle the scope can be expanded.
Places of Interest (POI) data and map updates, as well as current traffic conditions could be downloaded in real time – so traffic jams, road-works or even speed cops are made available instantly. Similar to how Dash works route and speed information could be shared with a centralized service to help optimize that real-time traffic data.
Integration with the automotive data and live fuel costs would allow the navigation system to determine the optimum fuel stops for a journey and direct the driver accordingly.
The integrated nature of the system would allow the navigation system to automatically mute/pause the entertainment when it needed to make an announcement.
The navigation system can be used to alert the owner if the car is driven outside a pre-determined area (similar to LoJack or for ring-fencing someone who is borrowing the car) or simply to broadcast location for social networking purposes.
Using wireless connectivity routes can be planned on a PC and sent to the car, or a trip can be recorded and sent back to an online account for later review or sharing.

Common Framework

All user interface should have optional speech control for hands and eyes-free use.
Bluetooth connection to users phone for data and hands-free operation.
Ambient sound level detection allows system volume to be automatically adjusted.
WiFi support for when in the range of a hotspot. Use something like DeviceScape to automate connection and log-in.
Simple integration of back-up cameras, parking proximity sensors or blind-spot warning devices help make the driver and those around them safer.
In-build amplifier and “plug and play” installation into existing car wiring loom

Enthusiast Platform

Some owners demand more from their car and take them to race days or join road rallies. By extending the navigation and engine management logging and supporting synchronized recording of other data a complete experience using additional inputs (accelerometers, cameras, microphones, compass, high sensitivity GPS array etc) could be recorded and played back or shared.
As the system is connected to the engine management it could be used (under carefully controlled situations) to re-flash the engine management system to cater for specific conditions (eg during the week I want a regular octane, economy tune but for a track day I want a high octane, high performance tune) or hardware changes (for instance if I change the gear ratios or add a different air induction system then the tune will probably need to be adjusted accordingly)

I guess it’s quite a lot to expect in a single unit, especially with a really simple user interface that it no more distracting than a more traditional GPS or car audio system when you’re travelling at highway speeds, but there’s no technical reason that a platform like this can’t exist today … if there’s anyone out there building one I have an 07 Mustang that I’m more than happy to try integrating it into :)

Windows 7 themes and “Cube Grenades”

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:17:57 -0700

One of the many neat new features of Windows 7 are themes. If you’ve installed Win7 to try it out you should right click on the desktop and select “Personalize” and check out some of the options (if you’ve not got the Release Candidate to try out you should grab it from here).

I’ve been using the excellent theme pack from my old boss Mike Swanson and it gets quite a few comments from people who stop by my office or see me running it in coffee shops.

Today I was reading Hugh’s post on Cube Grenades and it got me thinking. I already have his art on my business cards and an original print that will be hung in my office as soon as I can get it there and it got me thinking…

I already have the gapingvoid widget on my blog and it provides an endless stream of conversation pieces so I wondered if I would be able to combine the idea of themes and social objects (and share it in the cube grenade spirit).

A quick search found Long Zheng’s post on RSS powered desktop slideshows and from there it was just a matter of finding the RSS feed for Hugh’s widget and so for you to enjoy I present my Gapingvoid Cube Grenade theme for Windows 7 – just download it, unzip and double-click on the theme file (the “clean one features less adult language) to install it. You should see your desktop background go black and after a few moments it’ll start downloading images for the slideshow (set to rotate randomly every 30 minutes). If you click on Personalize on the desktop you can adjust the timing and change it from “fill” to “tile” or other layout options.

Enjoy, and please share and create your own themes with your favorite content :)

(Update: the download now contains two theme options, the default and a “clean” one that only features cartoons with less adult language)

Weebly – it’s a far cry from Geocities

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:22:14 -0700

Back when the internet was a new wild untamed frontier small businesses flocked to sites like the now defunct Geocities to mark out their territory on the web.

They were often instantly recognizable amateur hodge-podges of clipart, blinking text and inexplicable music clips and while some evolved over time to their own domains and added pointless Flash intro page animations many watched the new Web 2.0 wave coming and decided it was too hard and have become detritus, abandoned to entropy.

That hasn’t changed the fact that small businesses looking to get started on the web need a platform. Often they can’t afford to go to bespoke developers, and they don’t need a complex CMS or integrated back office (when they do need those things, then they can probably justify the cost)

A couple of years ago there were a few second generation platforms appearing that allowed people to host sites that were more than just a Blogspot or Live Spaces blog – they provided layout tools and themes and pre-defined blocks of functionality and you could even make them appear on your domain not on someone else’s sub-domain (a friend of mine once described that as “Trailer Park Hosting” and I’ve never quite shaken that image).

Office Live from Microsoft is one such platform offering a one-stop shop will integration into back end facilities such as email and document management. It has free and premium offerings with varying levels of functionality and support.

Weebly is a simpler alternative that doesn’t try to offer as much but does provide a lot of flexibility and is really easy to get started with.

Both platforms provide themes to set up basic layout for your site, though at Weebly you have a lot of control over the underlying HTML and CSS – with premium accounts you can make quite significant changes to the layout and look of your site. Weebly offers an affiliate scheme so satisfied users can get a small reward for recommending them – that helps offset the (reasonable) premium costs.

While Office Live tried to provide everything you need in one place (though some functionality – for instance adding a blog – requires using a couple of different Microsoft services) Weebly instead allows you to include either pre-defined components from other services (a Flickr slideshow, or a Google Maps for directions, Nabble forums, or pre-defined Miniclip games as well as Google Calendar and Paypal integration) as well as some of their own services (they have an integrated blog for instance – which doesn’t support Windows Live Writer yet so the downside is you have to edit it online)

Both provide a “one stop shop” if you want to use your own domain name to host your site and both are adding new features and functionality – though it pains me to say Weebly is probably the more agile of the two.

I was surprised how functional and easy to use Weebly was. It’s had great reviews in Time, TechCrunch and others – and my wife can use it which can’t be a bad thing!

Could Photosynth change the face of classified advertising?

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:50:13 -0700

Every listing on eBay or Craigslist has one thing in common – if the seller is serious they’ll include pictures. Sometimes the pictures will be pretty low res cameraphone, other times they will be hi-res dSLR photos taken with proper lighting.

No matter how good the photo though, or the slideshow viewer they’re presented in they’re just like the images everyone is used to seeing.

Now Photosynth has a Silverlight powered viewer there’s no reason not to take advantage of the capabilities to link to a synth or embed it in your listing.

As you can see from the synth above it’s not just a case of throwing a few photos into the tool and hoping for the best – that gets you a pretty choppy result – but even so it’s possible to navigate around the image and even have a look inside. The site has a video that explains the simple steps to create a good synth.

Do you know any examples of people using Photosynth to spice up their listings – and did it help?

Wolf vs Sheep

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:54:11 -0700

I’ve been a fan of Hugh Macleod’s (GapingVoid) work for a while (the Blue Monster helped me make the decision to join Microsoft and I even use one of his designs on my business card) so it was particularly nice to have an opportunity to purchase one of his limited edition prints – Wolf vs Sheep. Just got to be patient now while they are produced ;)

Meantime – thanks to the magic of Deep Zoom this is what I’ve just ordered (if you miss out on this one keep an eye on GapingVoid to see what other treasures come up for sale)…

MIX09 in 6 and a half minutes

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:57:03 -0700

If you’re wondering how much work goes into setting up the keynote room for an event like MIX well – here is the whole 6 days in 6 and a half minutes :)

Sit back and enjoy all the hard work (and don’t forget to check out the keynotes at a slower pace on the official site)

My top 3 posts

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:57:25 -0700

After a few years of blogging (it doesn’t seem that long but it’s been a while now!) I don’t really look at the stats to obsessively – it’s an outlet and if it sometimes helps folks find an answer to something I’m flattered.

I recently moved hosting providers and wondered if the changeover had made any different to the traffic so started digging into the analytics I’ve had running but never really paid much attention to…

Three posts show up as driving almost a 25% of my traffic … which is a little sad considering the number of posts I have. I wonder if they’re not discoverable enough, or if I’m not doing a good enough job of promoting my brand.

So, what are the posts that drive folks in…

Maxlength on Textarea. This was something I put together to deal with a specific problem I was having on a form validation and wanted to try and make an elegant solution. Browsers may have moved on since then, but it seems like it’s still a valid problem. Wonder if HTML5 will finally fix this ;)
Upload and Resize. This was some code I needed to use on Big Brother and MyTalk projects. It allowed a simple integration of an image upload and thumbnail generator with some validation into either a Classic ASP or mixed Classic/.Net site. Far from perfect, but still popular.
Performance tuning SQL applications for the Web. Like many developers my SQL skills were learnt at 4am trying to debug queries that were taking minutes rather than milliseconds. After spending a lot of time fixing some mistakes I made I posted the things I have learned and it seems that folks have been referring to them a fair bit over the years since. As long as it stops someone else making the same mistakes!

I’m probably not going to change what I write about – as it tends to be what interests me at that moment – but if there’s something you like, or hate, about what you find here don’t hesitate to let me know…

Quick links to the MIX09 partner videos

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:46:04 -0700

The Day 1 keynote from MIX09 is well worth spending time watching, but as it’s all about me I wanted to highlight the partners I’d worked with this year.

So complete with short-cuts to their moment in the the spotlight here is the MIX09 Day 1 Keynote video (don’t forget to go full screen to really enjoy the experience)

You can also see more in-depth interviews with the partners on the VisitMIX site

Netflix is making more money with Silverlight
Bondi's Digital Archive of past Rolling Stone and Playboy (NSFW) magazine issues.
Radio Station KEXP created a hot new seamless online/offline experience for video and music.

Caught on camera at MIX

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:01:45 -0700

While I hate being on the pointy end of a camera it was great to catch up with the Delicate Genius from down-under at MIX09, and he even managed to get a good shot of my wrist on film.

Luckily I much prefer being behind the scenes rather than hogging the limelight so you won’t have to put up with too much of me talking ;)

Oh, and I’m no better posing for photographs – though it was late and the launch for PlayboyArchive (depending on where you work, probably NSFW) came at the end of a very long day and thanks to Bondi and Vertigo I’d been reading a lot of articles over the previous few days!

What is 30 seconds of your time worth?

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:22:21 -0700

There’s a lot of hype at the moment about Splashtop, Hyperspace, Presto and other “instant on” Linux desktops that are supposed to give you access to everything you possibly need without having to wait for Windows to start.

As I was planning to reformat my laptop soon I thought I’d try them out and see if the dream was actually real for either me or my family. Sure, I work for Microsoft but before joining here I used OSX and various Linux client configurations so I’m open minded. I have also been using Win7 for quite a while so I set that as the bar.

Splashtop

First up was Splashtop. Sadly there’s no end user configuration for that. You have to have hardware with it installed on. If anyone wants to lend me a netbook with this on to have a play with I’d love to see how it stacks up, but I suspect it’ll face the same problems I encountered with the other two.

Hyperspace

Hyperspace was the first one I could actually install and play with. Installation is pretty simple for the end user considering that it re-partitions your hard drive and makes itself the default OS. I’d really have liked it to give me the choice what I wanted as default and you should be aware that re-partitioning on the fly can be pretty dangerous (and the uninstaller did not remove the redundant partition automatically which was a real pain)

The desktop in Hyperspace is heavily locked down. There is a fixed toolbar that includes some apps I would never use and links to sites I’d never visit. If the product was free and made money based off the click-thoughts I could accept it but as this actually expects me to part with money I don’t think that’s okay.

Installing other apps seemed to be pretty limited so if you want a different Instant Messenger client or browser you’re probably out of luck. There doesn’t seem to be a native mail client so if you’re not online and able to do everything in the cloud you’ve got a fast booting paperweight.

Oh, and USB mice are not supported so you’d better like your trackpad!

Ease of installation was great, but on the whole the downsides were too much given that startup wasn’t that much less than the fully functional Win7 build on the same machine.

The limitations are such that I didn’t even want to put this in front of the family as an option. While I’m sure Rhiannon would have been able to play games there’s no integrated iPod experience.

Presto

Xandros Presto was a lot more pleasant an experience overall. The installation was, like Hyperspace, pretty straight-forward though it has the advantage of not creating its own partition, it installs into the existing Windows NTFS file system. It doesn’t make itself the default OS so you have a few seconds after a reboot to choose it otherwise your normal Windows desktop starts up.

Uninstall was equally clean (though I have since re-installed it!)

Similar to Hyperspace again this isn’t free, though there is a trial period so you can kick the tires. Xandros have been in business for quite some time with a user friendly Linux distribution with an integrated applications catalog that makes it easy to find, try and buy applications. They’ve followed the same model here but it’s more flexible than the other options.

There is a default toolbar docked with some apps already loaded but their forums show you how to get to the underlying OS to change, reconfigure and generally do what you need to do – always assuming there isn’t a GUI app that you can download from the catalog to solve the problem.

The biggest issue I have with Presto is that the app catalog offers older versions of some of the apps I wanted to use. Evolution Mail and the Exchange Connector for instance were not current enough to connect to our Exchange server (though the IMAP/Gmail connector worked fine) and there’s no link to Chrome as an alternative browser. I was however able to install the Moonlight Linux port of Silverlight without any problems and the pre-installed Flash version was okay for casual games.

Because Presto runs from the same disk partition as Windows I was able to access files from the main operating system which was a bonus.

… but is it worth 30 seconds?

Both Presto and Hyperspace start up about 30 seconds quicker but seem to have significant functionality issues that mean unless what you want to do is web based, and you have a connection, there’s not much advantage.

The Linux desktops are getting better but still lag behind OSX and Windows in usability (especially the later Win7 builds) and while Presto does let the user under the covers to tweak you’re really heading down the rabbit hole into another world if you’re just looking for a simple solution.

Because they’re stripped back they are fast – performance was great, but as most real operations are going to be web bound that’s not really a huge selling point.

I didn’t notice significantly better battery life with either of the solutions. Maybe if they were installed on a Flash drive and the hard drive spun down totally we’d see some benefit. Hardware issues like the lack of a USB mouse, wired ethernet not working properly and lack of support for the full screen resolution on my laptop makes me think that they’re not quite there yet…

With Win7 having much better support for low end hardware I think the choice for an operating system for low end machines (or quick startup) is going to become much more hotly contested in the future than it is today where the competition is Vista.

MIX09 – Wrangling Partners

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:36:14 -0700

This was my third MIX (I joined Microsoft a few months after the first) and once again I spent most of the time behind the scenes.

At MIX07 I worked with one Keynote partner, at MIX08 I had partners with demos and presentations in both keynotes and for MIX09 I was the designated “Partner Wrangler” working with the non-Microsoft partners who had demos on-stage. I have to thank Mike (our Keynote owner) for the opportunity this year.

MIX this year was about the “Return on Experience” and was where we announced the final release of ASP.NET MVC as well as the developer beta of Silverlight3 so most of my focus was in those areas.

Once again I was lucky enough to be working with some really great partners who had great stories for us to bring to the event to show off the technologies – so all I really have to do is make sure they get the support they need to finish their applications in time for rehearsals that night before the keynote!

So, who was I wrangling?

The first partner demo in the MIX Keynote was StackOverflow – a great community site for developers to help each other, built on ASP.NET MVC (with standards compliant HTML) and optimized for Search Engine Optimization. Jeff and Joel have a great story and deliver it – like StackOverflow – simply.

The second partner I worked with was Netflix. Kevin McEntee talked about how Netflix has been using Silverlight both to improve the user experience on both PC and Mac, but also driving the quality of their roll-out to hardware such as the Roku or XBox360 platforms. Kevin and Steve Swasey from Netflix sat down with Tim Harris to give a bit more background on the story.

Much to my amusement I was called on to join Kevin on stage for a few moments at the end of his talk to drive a demo of the Adaptive Streaming technology in the Netflix Instant Watch player. What was really cool about working with Netflix this year was that they were the first partner I worked with back at MIX07 ;)

My third partner were Bondi Digital Publishing and Vertigo Software. They have worked together to create an amazing on-line magazine archive viewing platform that takes microfiche content, scans and uses OCR to grab the text, massage the meta data to add some intelligence (linking the contents to the articles, flagging adverts vs content etc) and then display them on the web. At MIX David Anthony from Bondi and Scott Stanfield from Vertigo demonstrated their “next generation” Silverlight3 based platform with Rolling Stone content but after the keynote they launched PlayboyArchive (NSFW!) using Silverlight2.

Tim also sat down with David and Murat Aktar from Bondi and Scott from Vertigo to discuss how they are changing the magazine industry.

My last (but certainly not least) partner was KEXP. As one of the most successful internet radio stations (and the most successful not-for-profit internet station) they have a never-ending challenge to improve their connection with their audience by delivering high quality content wherever their users are. Taking advantage of the forthcoming Silverlight3 features such as Out of Browser and Offline support combined with cloud services KEXP are looking to the future to make sure they stay at the leading edge. Tom Mara and Aaron Starkey talked about the business benefits as well as demonstrated a prototype of their work. They also provided more background in a video interview shot at their studios.

If you want to see how my partners fit into the overall keynote you can view the on-demand video, or check out Tim Sneath’s live blog of the keynote and of course don’t forget to mark your calendar because MIX10 is coming at Mandalay Bay 15-17 March 2010.

Can I have a notepad computer?

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:57:53 -0700

Not a notebook or a netbook or a UMPC (or any of the other variants). I’ve come to realize over the years that the current classifications and niche computing devices are missing out on one form factor and the current attempts to fill it are pretty horrible.

Current devices like the iPhone or the Touch Pro are limited – they are too small to be “computer” replacements yet they don’t work really well as phones either. They are a compromise and perhaps the solution is to pair a more basic featurephone with a very portable device that’s actually useful.

What I want is something the size of an A5 notepad with a touch screen covering the whole of the front of the device – no need for a keyboard or extraneous buttons (they would be flush in the bevel or on the edges along with any ports) that I can interface with using a pen (similar to my UMPC) but with enough battery power to easily last a full day and enough processing power to deal with handwriting recognition and speech recognition.

This device would need WiFi and Bluetooth to enable it to pair seamlessly with my Cellphone and a headset. The headset would ideally be able to connect to both the notepad and the phone – so I can dictate to the device, break off and answer a call and the continue to control the notepad while listening to music from it, all seamlessly.

The connection to the phone would be ideally be more synergistic than just being available as a modem. Ideally transition from WiFi to the phones 3G data would be seamless (let me set preferences but it should be smart enough to take the optimal data path) so I can always stay connected. Beyond that the phone and the notepad should be aware of each others status so when the phone rings my music pauses, caller ID information is displayed on the device and I can hit and answer button on the screen or the phone and route the call to my headset, the phone or speakerphone on the notepad, and text/MMS messages could be composed and read on either. The notepad should be able to access the phones camera to record images or video (as well as having a built in one) and via a standard USB connection they should be able to share power as needed.

There’s no reason the phone shouldn’t have limited internet capabilities (web browsing, email, a social networking client, GPS mapping) and, of course, some games so it’s a useful device in it’s own right but it’s primarily a phone. At the weekend for instance people might not want to take both devices but a smart-enough phone to keep them in contact would be the right balance.

Using software that has learnt lessons from the iPhone UI and Microsoft’s Origami Project and InkSeine the device would need to work with pen (both for tapping as well as handwriting recognition), finger (gesture control) and spoken input. Applications like Outlook and OneNote would need optimizing for maximum usability on a screen this size and layout with these input methods but simpler cut down versions would help performance and battery life.

Accelerometer, light sensor and on-board GPS would open up other possibilities for control, and of course being able to use a dedicated Bluetooth keyboard (or the phone keypad or an on-screen keypad) to extend the ways you can interact with the device.

Not only would this device offer a more practical replacement to the iPhone and N80x type devices it would also be a platform for Amazon to extend the eBook capabilities to – much like they have extended the Kindle Reader to the iPhone.

Coupling a device like this with a service like Mesh and Exchange Active Sync to ensure your data is always available (and offload processing of things like search indexing to the cloud) and live updates (weather, stocks, traffic for mapping etc) and you have an ideal personal companion device.

In fact, with a standardized mount / connector architecture you could check your schedule on it over breakfast, slot it into you car and use the GPS to route you to your appointment (with live traffic updates) and via the connector have it monitor ODB-II information to remind you you’re running low on fuel and suggest the cheapest gas station or remind you that you’re due a service soon (maybe add a task to your to-do- list!)

In William Gibson’s Virtual Light Yamazaki takes his notebook for granted. I just want one now ;) Maybe it’ll need a kinetic charger to keep going as long as I want, but the rest shouldn’t be too hard…

Pen and paper in the 21st century

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:16:38 -0700

Computers are great for storing and sharing information but sometimes the easiest way to get the point across is the old physical medium of pen and paper.

The problem with taking notes that way makes it hard to share with a group, and if you write on a whiteboard it can be a challenge to get an accurate copy of those notes saved. Also with the whiteboard if you need to mark up an existing document it can be tough to see.

Papershow has an answer to the problem. It combines the flexibility and ease of use of pen and paper with your computer to let you utilize a natural input medium, mark up documents but share them with other users and even project the changes live in a meeting.

The technology in the pen is however not quite the same as a disposable sharpie!

Similar to how the Pulse pen works the supplied paper contains a nearly invisible pattern of dots which allows the infra-red camera in the pen body to identify where you are on the page and transmit that information back to the the PC.

The connection back to the PC is wire-free. The kit comes complete with a USB Key that doubles as both as a Bluetooth dongle and storage for the application (it runs right off the key, no need for an installation so you can use it on any Windows XP or Vista computer).

The dot pattern on the paper is unique so it knows when you switch to a new page, and because the pen positioning is very precise they are able to print a small menu on each page that allows you to select what color the pen "writes" in on-screen, how thick the line should be and even assist you draw perfect circles or rectangles or arrows to annotate your drawings.

You can even print on the paper so you can see the actual document you're marking up while you project it on-screen.

The pen is amazingly responsive and works in very varied lighting conditions. Though it's sold as a business tool to liven up meetings I've had a couple of artists say great things about it.

Once you've finished a session you can export it as a PDF or Powerpoint. There doesn't seem to be an option to export as GIF/PNG/JPG or automatically upload to a sharing site though these seem like things that would come with a simple software release.

One feature I'd love to see if the ability to pair multiple pens with a single machine so you can record who writes what in a session, and also have a shared whiteboard version of the app so people in different locations can see the notes and annotations as they are drawn (and know who wrote them) and also contribute remotely.

With any first release you expect some rough edges but this is pretty solid. Although it works fine with WinXP and Vista I did have some issues getting it to work on Win7 Beta - the trick is to set it to run as Administrator and in Vista SP2 Compatibility mode (in the applications settings).

There is no OSX version yet, though Mac users shouldn't despair as they say that there's a version coming.

The other hiccup I found was that you have to use the Bluetooth dongle. If you already have a laptop with built-in Bluetooth you need to be able to disable it (if all else fails Device Manager in Control Panel will let you disable the driver for your Bluetooth) - I hope they work out a solution to coexist automatically to save fiddling around.

I've been using the Lightscribe Pulse pen for a while now and while it's great for disconnected use when I'm away from the PC the lack of live capabilities has bugged me so I can see a real use for the Papershow system. The Papershow pen also seems to work better in uneven lighting conditions.

In an ideal world I'd love a system that combines both - offline note taking and storage with a cradle to re-charge and sync and an online mode where the pen connects via Bluetooth and can be used to drive a meeting (and use the same paper in both modes of course).

For now - the Pulse pen will live in my bag, and my Papershow pen will come with me to meetings where I know there will be a PC to project from.

Oh, and you can buy from www.shoppapershow.com or online from Staples A complete kit (pen, printer and flipchart paper, USB key, software, ring binder and pencil case) costs $199

Taking a step in a healthy direction

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:35:02 -0700

One of the simplest forms of exercise is walking, and the experts tell us that we should aim for 10,000 steps a day as part of a healthy lifestyle. People who use a pedometer tend to walk more than those who don't (on average around 2000 steps or about a mile) so getting a pedometer would be a smart idea.

I've been using an Omron HJ-720ITC (one of the few pedometers that has a USB connection to sync with your computer) for some months and a combination of their desktop app to keep a record for me and gtFtr to manually publish my steps (when I can remember) to help my friends encourage me to keep stepping in the right direction.

Now I've found a better way to track and share my progress though, and it uses a platform that's designed to securely hold medical data and share it under my control - Microsoft's HealthVault.

As a family we're starting to explore ways that HealthVault can let us consolidate the various medical records that at the moment are just hidden in filing cabinets around the house but we love the way we can also use it for day to day type activities...

One of the basic functions of HealthVault is that it allows 3rd party applications to be permitted access to certain data types - for instance the WalkMe application can read my pedometer data that is uploaded to HealthVault via the Connection Center (a simple application that runs in my system tray - once configured with my credentials you just need to plug in the pedometer, wait until it tells you it's grabbed the data and then unplug it and the data gets uploaded automatically).

In addition to letting me analyze my data when I’m using the application, WalkMe keeps my shared widgets and data up to date by automagically syncing with HealthVault (via a secure mechanism called "OfflineWebApplication access").

WalkMe lets me review the data in different ways to track my progress, set goals, compare to friends and ... if I want ... share my progress publicly using a variety of widgets or even an RSS feed.

If you're looking for some suggestion for routes to walk or help getting started you should check out the MSN RouteTracker which can also use HealthVault to help you keep track of your progress, and use Live Search Health to get some general fitness ideas.

Give WalkMe a try, and check out the rest of HealthVault while you're there. The service is in pretty early beta stages so your input can make a lot of difference right now so make sure you leave some feedback as to what features you'd like to see added or improved (or vote on some of my requests!)

I'm planning to wear my pedometer this year to MIX in Vegas. Wonder how far I'll walk around behind the scenes at that event - check back here to see the numbers change ;)

Save money (and the planet) at the flick of a switch

jeremy.cath.nospam@nospam.microsoft.com (offbeatmammal) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:20:50 -0700

Even when you put your TV in standby it's still sucking energy. The wall wart that charges your cellphone - yup, that's still using juice when your phone isn't plugged in.

The simple answer is to turn devices off or unplug them from the wall but sometimes that's not as easy as it sounds. For instance, the plugs for my home entertainment system are all down behind the cabinet so getting access to unplug or turn things off can be a little challenging.

Belkin think they've come up with the answer to that problem with their new Conserve power strip.

Their solution is actually quite elegant. You get a larger than normal power strip with 8 or 10 sockets and a large toggle switch that is the remote control.

The remote has a wall mount so you can stick it somewhere obvious and it's simple enough my dogs could use it!

The power strip contains a surge protector and for the larger capacity unit the protection also extends to a coax pass-through for your cable connection.

Both versions have two always-on sockets, the others are switched by the remote. This means that you can keep your DVR and Set-top box or VoIP phone always powered up but only send power to the TV, amplifier etc when you need it.

One cool feature is that using the DIP switches to select the channel the remote/power strip are using you can pair a remote to more than one power strip so you can control equipment on different sides of the room or even in different rooms.

For a home theatre set-up this is really easy to install and use. The spacing on the sockets is a little tight but I was able to consolidate two power squids to a single 10 socket Conserve.

Will this actually save me money? I think it probably will. They claim up to $60 in savings a year so should pay for itself by about September. I searched Live Cashback for my Belkin Conserve and got a great deal - you could get an even quicker return on your investment.

I can think of a couple of features I'd like to see added (that of course would make things a little more complex).

For home theatre setups it would be nice if the power strip was switched in two banks.In my setup I have both audio and video setups in the same cabinet and it would be nice to control the audio and video equipment separately (but I don't need a second power strip for that - especially as they recommend not daisy chaining them). Of course the added complexity is that when we're using the Media Center PC we need to power up the amplifier as well as the TV so I'd need to be able to turn both banks on at once.

The Media Center PC solution is the other scenario where the Conserve could be a bit more functional. With a running PC it's bad form to just pull to plug. They can get a little unreliable if you keep doing that to them. It would be great if the Conserve had a USB connection to report UPS type status information to the PC so when the "off" switch is pressed on the remote then the switch can warn connected PCs that it's about to shut down and then actually complete the shut-down a few minutes later. That would allow the PC to either save its state elegantly and in a controlled fashion or, if you're leaving the PC running but powering down some peripherals, let it disconnect from devices in a timely manner.