Name: Laura Kritzinger
Nickname: Leia
Likes: Gadgets…kitchen gadgets..
Dislikes: Steve’s MK noises
Speciality (what we go to Laura for): All the little things that make Cobi run smoothly
MK signature move: Feeds us real life power ups to create more energetic MK games
And for our next Mii..
Name: Stephen Asherson
Nickname: Jobs
Likes: Coffee and bananas
Dislikes: Nokia and Symbian
Speciality (what we go to Steve for): Network security and technical info.
MK signature move: First item is always a giant mushroom and goes on a rampage.
Steve’s Yoshi mini infrared RC car, with turbo boost.
The banana, the most common item when you in 1st or 2nd.
The green shell. I hate it when I get hit by these.
Wired Mario RC standard kart all the way from Japan!!
Our wall of Mii’s designed by me. I will post details with a closer look of each character in future posts.
Cobi went to the Microsoft Dev Day in Cape Town on 24 May at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The keynote speech that started it off was quite interesting – MS giving us a nice overview of new features to help developers, nice IDE plugin management, showing off their new Azure web servers, and how they are going to help us move onto the cloud in the future. My main interest was to see their new WP7 development, so Steve Asherson and I decided to attend their morning lectures introducing the WP7 development cycle.
Rudi Grobler from BB&D took us through creating a beer-brewing recipe app – something very simple showing us how to piece together a menu system with a details page, linking up to a local database. WP7 development looks good, the platform looks good, and from this initial introduction, the tools look easy to use.
Of particular interest to me was the device emulator used during development. Those who know me would know that I really dislike most of the emulators that the manufacturers have given us. The iPhone one is so far the best out there – stable and loads really quickly. This new WP7 emulator also seemed to load up fast (of course depending on the laptop running it), but it also has some nice location-spoofing tools. Finally a way to test GPS code on an emulator easily – Android & BlackBerry, take note.
On the platform side, WP7 has some stringent requirements, the chip must be running at 800Mhz. Coupling that with the fact that only one app runs at any one time, means that the UI experience looks great, smooth and slick. Unfortunately, coming from an Android fan, I am a bit disappointed that there is such limited multi-threading, but that can of worms can be opened on another day.
Otherwise, the conference was very well run, the food was great, drinks readily available, conversation on tap at every corner – I could do this everyday. Oh, and there was a raffle for an X-Box 360… I can’t help thinking that if I’d put my entry in after Steve did that I would have won it. Well done, Steve, for winning – get those dancing shoes on!
I love having random toys on my desk. I currently have a Hanayama puzzle, a transformable Robotech Veritech Fighter and a lego truck. I’m come across this Tankbot by Desk Pets which seemed pretty cool. It can find it’s way through a maze, be controlled with you iPhone, and randomly do stuff. It’s coming out in June, hopefully I can find one here in SA.
So we’ve sorted out our work area, and we have limited space to act as an area for meetings, chilling and eating. These are the 3 options we’re thinking about. Do we need a table with chairs? How formal area do we need for meetings? Some of us want to eat at a table. I don’t mind eating on a couch. What would you do? Been trying out my hand at google sketchup, it’s pretty cool, this is my attempt on trying to visualise our options.
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
From all the asians at Cobi…Happy Chinese New Year! I think it’s the year of the rabbit. All red envelopes welcome!