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Monthly Archives: November 2011

  • Dear Lego: How not to write a customer service email

    Today, due to a bug in their website which put my order through without my credit card info (d'oh!) I got this unfriendly and suspicious email from lego: My first thought was this was a Phishing scam email. Why? Well, the subject was somewhat strange, the message was plain text, but in HTML format, it didn't contain any actual information about my order, and it told me to take som...

    Published Wednesday, November 30, 2011 | Tagged: , , | 5 comments

  • WPF 4.5: Binding and change notification for static properties

    One of the new features in WPF 4.5 is support for binding to static properties. In addition to the binding syntax itself, there's new support for static property change notification. In many cases, it is still advisable to use a Singleton pattern or another approach for binding. However, there are cases when your application design requires binding to static properties. In those cases...

    Published Tuesday, November 29, 2011 | Tagged: , , , | 8 comments

  • Maker Geek Roundup 004 for 11/29/2011

    The Maker Geek Roundup aggregates information of interest to makers everywhere. Topics include .NET Micro Framework, CNC, 3d Printing, Robotics, Microsoft Robotics Studio, Electronics, General Maker stuff, and more. If you have something interesting you've done or have run across, or you blog regularly on the topics included here, please send me the URL and brief description via thecont...

    Published Tuesday, November 29, 2011 | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave comment

  • Alien Autopsy: Dissecting a Fijit Friends Sage

    I have a Fijit friend. There, I said it. I have a toy targeted to 9 year old girls. I have a toy my kids want. I have a toy I'm about to butcher in the name of …er … science. There. Doesn't she look so innocent and happy? You know, I bought this before they were a "hot toy" for Christmas 2011. If that makes me a hipster, pass the glasses. (And no, I didn't pay the outrageous p...

    Published Tuesday, November 29, 2011 | Tagged: , , , | 7 comments

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 085 for 11/28/2011

    The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WinRT XAML, WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Phone, Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services and more. Sometimes I even include a little jQuery and HTML5. If you have something interesting you've done or have run across, or you blog regu...

    Published Monday, November 28, 2011 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave comment

  • Our .NET Micro Framework and .NET Gadgeteer Talk at CMAP Code Camp 2011

    G. Andrew Duthie and I recently gave a fun and informal .NET Gadgeteer-focused talk at the CMAP Code Camp here in Maryland. Unlike most sessions we give, this one was actually recorded (by a couple people even) so there are some videos of the talk on YouTube. I've put them all together in a single playlist, or you can watch the inidividual parts: Part 1 .NET Micro Framework ...

    Published Friday, November 18, 2011 | Tagged: , , , , , | 6 comments

  • It’s a wrap! I’ve completed writing Silverlight 5 in Action

    Well, I've completed the initial writing anyway. Anyone who has written a book understands the, umm, pleasure of the multiple editing cycles which shall follow. I have my normal development editor review Thursday afternoon, and then it's turned over for tech review the following week. Tom is really going to have his hands full with the 1191 pages this book came in at before editing and ...

    Published Thursday, November 17, 2011 | Tagged: , , , , | 19 comments

  • Rant: Tricking people into “Liking” your stuff on Facebook

    The whole Facebook "Like" button is getting out of control. I don't really mind sharing the "like" information with websites, but I do mind websites that try to trick you into liking something. It's the same lowball approach the sites that have invisible ad click areas in the whitespace to the left and right of the page. They aren't accurately capturing intent. You might think it's just ...

    Published Friday, November 11, 2011 | Tagged: , | Leave comment

  • Update to .NET Gadgeteer Larson Scanner

    So, I got to thinking (with the help of some friends) about the current sourcing capabilities of the pins on the Gadgeteer main board. Modern microprocessors generally aren't set up to be able to provide much current to things like LEDs. I  saw a fair bit of that with the results I was getting with the scanner. So, what about wiring in reverse? LEDs can be wired in two differen...

    Published Friday, November 11, 2011 | Tagged: , , , , | 2 comments

  • .NET Gadgeteer Module Contest at GHI

    I love electronic sounds. My bin of SID chips and my waiting-to-be-built MFOS sound lab ultimate boards all attest to that. But what can you do in a relatively small amount of space with a Gadgeteer and a Piezo speaker? Maybe it's not even sound generation, maybe you can use the piezo for something else? You can use them as speakers as well as microphones and sensors. In fact, I beli...

    Published Friday, November 11, 2011 | Tagged: , , , | Leave comment

  • Getting Started with .NET Gadgeteer Part 2: A Larson Scanner with Button, Potentiometer and Progress Display

    Happy 11/11/11! For those of us who grew up in the 80s, the back-and-forth red lights on the front of KITT and the Cylons was considered a really awesome effect. It's still popular today, and is even named after Gary Larson, the person responsible for those shows. Now, a good Larson scanner uses some PWM to modify the intensity of the LEDs trailing the leading light. With th...

    Published Friday, November 11, 2011 | Tagged: , , , | 1 comment

  • Take 2 on milling the .NET Gadgeteer base board

    The nice thing about CNC, is you can let it run while you do other stuff. So today, I updated the original program and ran another batch of .NET Gadgeteer base boards. the quality was much better this time. I had a little hiccup (maybe some EMF) for two holes in the board but it recovered by itself after that and completed the rest. Oh, and the feed rate didn't take until after the first...

    Published Thursday, November 10, 2011 | Tagged: , , , | 2 comments

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 084 for 11/8/2011

    The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WinRT XAML, WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Phone, Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services and more. Sometimes I even include a little jQuery and HTML5. If you have something interesting you've done or have run across, or you blog regu...

    Published Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave comment

  • Maker Geek Roundup 003 for 11/7/2011

    The Maker Geek Roundup aggregates information of interest to makers everywhere. Topics include .NET Micro Framework, CNC, 3d Printing, Robotics, Microsoft Robotics Studio, Electronics, General Maker stuff, and more. If you have something interesting you've done or have run across, or you blog regularly on the topics included here, please send me the URL and brief description via the con...

    Published Monday, November 7, 2011 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave comment

  • Finally restarted the Sherline and hand-wrote some NC code

    I used to play with CNC a bit. Shortly before my son was born in 2006, I got involved in different things and left my Sherline CNC mill to gather dust on the shelf in the shop room. In fact, due to using that room for storage during mot of the home renovation and my son's first several years, I couldn't even get to the machine itself if I wanted to. About six months ago, I appropriate...

    Published Monday, November 7, 2011 | Tagged: , , , | Leave comment

  • Getting Started with AVR Studio 5

    As much as I like the .NET Micro Framework, and especially the .NET Gadgeteer line, I've been itching to try a little C/C++ for specific functions on boards. Consider things like chip controllers and stuff to offload work from the main micro controller, much like all those chips on your PC motherboard are doing to help the CPU. Generally, this is not a job for the .NET Micro Framew...

    Published Saturday, November 5, 2011 | Tagged: , , , | 7 comments