Month: September 2007

Avanade Netherlands having too much fun?

Avanade in Netherlands went on a campus recruitment drive and seem like they are having too much fun! In case you are like me and do not understand Dutch, then what it says is "Food for IT guys" and essentially was a marketing drive on various campuses where prospective interns for Avanade were offered some food (looks like chips) in exchange for their emails. I think the whole idea is just brilliant! We should do something similar in other regions.

I do like the attention to detail – check out the resume – I love it. In case you have not notices that is a small movie with a play button on the bottom left.

I wonder if I update my resume to look like that – would it work in the real world? Cool

Vista SDK Dialog

<rant>

I was trying to install the Vista SDK and due to my network card having some issues I wanted to reboot. However, before doing that, I had to cancel the SDK setup (as it downloads the bits during the setup process).

Now I understand the need to warn the user not to do "close" the setup as the installations is rolling back to previous state – but the need to have a topmost window is very irritating and not required. It is not like that the SDK would be installed by a "average user" with the need to have this constant reminder "in the face".

</rant>

image

Time to boycott Apple?

If I bought an expensive gadget, I own it and can do anything with it (as long as it is legal of course). So if an update deliberately bricks the gadget how is not bullying? Also is it legal (obviously I am no lawyer). Phht … and people say Microsoft acts life a bully! I think it might be time to boycott Apple and take my business elsewhere.

Interesting Find #7

  1. Anywhere.FM can be thought as iTunes for the Web. It allows you to upload your music (yes including those songs bought from iTunes), so you can get to your music from anywhere. You can also "share" the music with friends like a "radio station" and of course browse other user's radio station. Sweet! Smile
  2. If you travel a lot and need a decent solution to manage the various expense receipts (or are just plain lazy then check out Neat Receipts Scanner.
  3. Fauxto – think Photoshop for the web.
  4. If you really want job security, then check out how to write unmaintainable code. Big Smile
  5. Search Lab – free Science search tools – just want you needed for any science-related-research.
  6. PsExec is a light-weight telnet-replacement that lets you execute processes on other systems, complete with full interactivity for console applications, without having to manually install client software.
  7. Splog and sploggers – what?
  8. Central Desktop – another collaboration tool.
  9. Top 100 Alternative Search engines – alternate to google – worth a spin.
  10. Free disk imaging software (as long as you own a Seagate or Maxtor drive).
  11. Laptop lid cooling – where the industry might be heading.
  12. The daily green – a consumer's guide to being green. I personally like the weather watch gallery such as sitting on the edge of the world.

.NET "Micro" Framework

No, there is no typo in the title of this post – there is a .NET "Micro" Framework (which is a Microsoft stack in case you were wondering). I had not heard of such a thing until today (but then I have not done any embedded stuff for a while).

It is designed to use only a few hundred kilobytes of RAM (512K) and an inexpensive processor (ARM7 and ARM9 based). In addition to the usual managed code advantages (GC, exception handling, etc.) it also supports standard interface such as SPI, I2C,  (Serial) GPIO and USART. You can download the SDK and use it with VS 2005 (or higher) and of course get all the productivity gains of the IDE.

There is also support for Flash-based devices with tools allowing you to "re-flash" and there are a number of developer kits such as Digi Connect for Ethernet networking solutions, EmbeddedFusion Tahoe which works with a Meridan CPU and Freescale i.MXS which allows you to build SideShow apps – they are not cheap mind you.

Basically this gives you another choice when working on an embedded platform. The various pros and cons of the three options available i.e. .NET Micro Framework, Windows CE, Windows XPe (that is XP Embedded) are outlined here – interestingly Microsoft Robotics Studio is not featured in that comparison.

Now the challenge will be to get some time to sink my teeth in this.