Pete Brown's Blog (POKE 53280,0)
Pete Brown writes on a variety of topics from XAML with the Windows Runtime (WinRT), .NET programming using C#, WPF, Silverlight, XNA, and Windows Phone, Microcontroller programming with .NET Microframework, .NET Gadgeteer and even plain old C, to raising two children in the suburbs of Maryland, woodworking, CNC and generally "making physical stuff". Oh, and Pete loves retro technology, especially Commodore (C64 and C128). If the content interests you, please subscribe using the subscription link to the right of every page.
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My WPF talk from Build 2012 is live at
Channel9. Slides are available via that link as well.
I cover a few of the more interesting features in WPF 4.5, as
well as techniques for using Portable Class Libraries (PCL) to
share code with Windows 8 app.
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My son is 6 1/2 and my daughter is 4. Today, my wife had some of
my children's homeschool friends over. One of them is a 10 year old
boy.
He saw Windows 8 on my 6yo son's laptop upstairs and said "You
have Windows 8?!?". He was very excited because he didn't have it
yet himself. He started telling my son all about Windows 8 and
what's coming. This is a 10 year old boy, mind you.
UP...
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Privacy is a huge concern to most customers. Part of the Windows
Store app certification process includes checking for the presence
of a privacy policy if your app declares any capabilities which
could affect privacy.
MSDN has a section (4.1.1) explaining what is expected
from the privacy policy. I won't quote it here, but some important
points jump out (emphasis mine):
Declaring...
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At several recent events (VSLive Redmond, thatConference, the
Heartland Developer Conference and more), I've had a neat little
.NET Micro Framework robot with me. The remote control for the
robot is a Windows 8 tablet running a simple Modern UI/Windows
Store app I wrote in C#/XAML. The example shows both how you can
use C# skills to build robots, and also how flexible the new
Windows St...
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I've posted a few videos lately on YouTube. Here they are,
newest to oldest. Take a look, and if you like them, drop a comment
on the video and/or "like" it. Thanks!
All videos are available on my channel on
YouTube.
My
tutorial on how I hand-solder tiny surface mount components. Watch
in 1080p.
A drone I
created with my JP8080 and Spectrasonics Omni...
Published
Sunday, August 26, 2012 |
Tagged:
.NET, Synthesizer, WindowsClient, Videos, Netduino, Micro+Framework, Electronics, Gadgeteer, Windows8 |
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The platform is new. The design aesthetic is new. Many
of us could use some architecture or design consultation when
building Windows 8 apps. My friend Andrew Duthie pointed me to a
Microsoft service called "Generation App". This is something we
offer to help you get started building apps, and to help you get
quality apps into the store early (
which may help you to earn more money wit...
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In this post, I show how to create a simple talk countdown timer
using a Netduino GO and the komodex Seven Segment Display
Module.
Yesterday, I received the
Seven Segment Display Module I pre-ordered from komodex
systems. Matt Isenhower did a great job with designing this board
and making it an attractive piece of kit. It has a lovely shiny
black silkscreen, professionally installed...
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The Maker Geek Roundup aggregates information of interest to
makers everywhere. Topics include .NET Micro Framework, Arduino,
AVR and other MCUs, 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
...
Published
Monday, July 23, 2012 |
Tagged:
Commodore, Synthesizer, c64, Netduino, Micro+Framework, Robotics, Electronics, Gadgeteer, MakerRoundup, Arduino |
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This is the story of how I moved my infrastructure out of my
house and into the hands of people who do this for a living.
In addition to six laptops (two for me, one for my wife, one for
each kid, one for my CNC machine) several PCs, and countless other
connected screens (tablets, phone, game consoles, smart tv, STB,
blu ray player, and more), I actively run three rack servers. One
is...
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So, I got this in my mailbox, entered in to the "contact me"
form on my site:
Dear Dell Web Team: Please learn to internet. The fact that you
emailed people (manually, as it's unlikely you scripted my contact
form) who linked to pages you've moved, makes me wonder how you've
made it this far. Did you also email someone at
Google/Bing/Yahoo/Ask/Excite/Lycos (blast from the past) to...
Published
Monday, July 09, 2012 |
Tagged:
Rants, Web |
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The Maker Geek Roundup aggregates information of interest to
makers everywhere. Topics include .NET Micro Framework, Arduino,
AVR and other MCUs, 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
...
Published
Tuesday, June 26, 2012 |
Tagged:
.NET, Commodore, c64, Netduino, Micro+Framework, Electronics, Gadgeteer, GHI-FEZ, MakerRoundup, Maker |
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In this post, I show how to have bidirectional UDP
communication: The Win8 Metro style app will send messages to the
Gadgeteer device which responds with ACKs.
This is part 3 in a series of posts about using sockets to
communicate between Windows 8 Metro apps and a microcontroller. The
rest of the series may be found here:
Part 1: Simple UDP networking test from a Metro style XA...
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In this post, I show how to set up the UDP code on the Micro
Framework side so it can listen to messages coming from the Windows
8 app.
This is part 2 in a series of posts about using sockets to
communicate between Windows 8 Metro apps and a microcontroller. The
rest of the series may be found here:
Part 1: Simple UDP networking test from a Metro style XAML
app
Part 2: This ...
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One of my pet projects requires using UDP sockets from a Windows
8 Metro style app to talk to a microcontroller. UDP sockets are a
pretty efficient way of communicating across wired and wireless
connections.
In this first part, we'll focus on prototyping the Metro style
XAML/C# app. The NETMF piece will be in the next post.
Test Setup
The first step is to figure out how we'll tes...
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The Maker Geek Roundup aggregates information of interest to
makers everywhere. Topics include .NET Micro Framework, Arduino,
AVR and other MCUs, 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
...
Published
Monday, June 18, 2012 |
Tagged:
Synthesizer, Netduino, Gadgeteer, 3d-Printing, MakerRoundup, Lego, Maker, AVR, Arduino |
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Last week, at Tech Ed US, I gave a WPF 4.5 overview to a
completely packed room. The materials and video links are
below.
Downloads and Links
Video and Downloadable Slides
Information on AutoHotKey, the tool I used for
snippets.
Demo Code (for WPF 4.5 RC) attached below.
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My main machine uses what one manager used to call "the monkey
keyboard". It's one of those split ergonomic jobs. So, when I go
type on a laptop, especially a smaller laptop like my x220, my
typing speed and accuracy aren't exactly production-quality.
In addition, fast-paced "lap around" demos often require either
a bunch of pre-build projects, or a lot of code snippets. There are
ton...
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The next book is well underway! We released several chapters
from Windows 8 XAML in Action as part of this week's
MEAP (Manning Early Access Program) kickoff.
Through the MEAP, you get access to chapters right after my
development editor takes a look at them. You don't have to wait for
the full book to be finished and in print (which takes forever) to
be able to use it. Bonus: MEAP ch...
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The Maker Geek Roundup aggregates information of interest to
makers everywhere. Topics include .NET Micro Framework, Arduino,
AVR and other MCUs, 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
...
Published
Wednesday, June 06, 2012 |
Tagged:
Commodore, c64, Netduino, Micro+Framework, Robotics, Gadgeteer, MakerRoundup, Maker, MCU, Arduino |
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It's customary for a Manning book to be the Deal of the Day
shortly after it is released. My book, Silverlight 5 in
Action, is the Manning Deal of the Day for June 6, 2012.
Using the information and code below, you can get half off
(50% off) the retail purchase price. This deal is good
only for 24 hours, so be sure to pick it up now!
Buy it Here
http://www.manning.com/pbrown2...
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Today we released the Windows 8 Release Preview (RP)! I haven't
been this excited about an operating system since Windows 95 first
came out, when there was no such thing as downloading an OS, and we
had to actually wait in line in a store to get our blue cloud box
full of floppies (or was it a CD? I forget).
Windows 95 was a big deal for users and developers alike. It had
a brand new ...
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It took forever to edit and print such a huge tome, but I'm
happy to say that Silverlight 5 in Action is now in. You should see
them available from Manning this week, and from Amazon next week.
Here are my four boxes, just delivered today. The UPS man
probably hates it when he has to deliver books to my place. At 968
pages each, they're pretty heavy. That top box: 1 book. Plu...
