Mark Arteaga

Well looks like my is not as ruggudized as I thought. I can make calls, hear people on the other end but...can't speak into the phone.  Looks like the mic is dead. :(  At least this means I can go get a SmartPhone or a PPC Phone Edition.  The only problem with that is the cell companies here (Bell Mobility, Roger's, Fido and Telus) carry either nothing or devices that are 2 years old!!!  If I order from the US I will have to pay import duties.  The only good thing right now is the Canadian Dollar is pretty strong so the exchange rate won't be that bad if i buy in the US.  Why is Canada so far behind on this?!?!  There are all these cool phones and PPCs coming out all over the world except here.  I think it's the Canadian Corporate phenomenon...they don't want to be the first to try something new, they want proven items and don't want to take risks.  This is one of the major reasons I went to Dallas for a contract.  I'm hoping to get more work with US or other companies in different parts of the world through my company Neoteric Software Development Company.

I anyone has any thoughts on a good device for both R&D and everyday use let me know :)

Well i'm actually working today and working tomorrow.  My wife is pissed but I promissed I would stop at 5pm (10mins left). I'm porting an application and it's going pretty smoothly except the hard coded custom painting that was done. No one took into account that this might be run on a different resolution.  The current app is 320x240 but the new resolution is 240x320. It's just a quick and dirty port to get it ready for CES so yes I am hardcoding :-0

I wish I was going to CES but the hotels are all booked and I thought my current employer was going to pay for my trip.  Wish they told me earlier they weren't going to do it anymore so i could at least get a decent hotel!!  Anyway if anyone stops by the Verizon both or thier parties check out the VerizonOne Phone.  It's one access point for their iobi © platform (https://www22.verizon.com/iobihome/). 

Here is the news release from last year's CES http://investor.verizon.com/news/20040114/.  There is a video link there showing the whole concept.  I thinks it's pretty cool and hopefully it comes to Canada (hopefully some of the telcos here ie Bell Canada are listening!!!)

If you get a chance to see it tell me what you think I would like to here some opinions on the whole Verizon iobi / Verizon One concept.

Scott Holden is working on a great tool that would be an awesome addition to the utils library when completed.  He is working on improving the mscoree.stat data that is provided for perf monitoring.  Looks like it will provide extra stats, remote monitoring and the ability to load the data to PerfMon and view it graphically.  Hopefully this could be completed sooner than later because I could sure use this now!!  If you need a beta tester let me know.

Thanks to Mike Zintel for the heads up on the up coming util.

Almost had a chance to buy myself a new phone.  My T28 ericsson phone went through the wash and dryer and still survived!!!  Great little phone (guess it "ruggudized" too!!) but too bad it wasn't my chance to get a SmartPhone or PPC Phone edition.  Maybe next time i'll drop it in the snow while i'm shoveling :)

Well i got around to taking the What OS am I (from Mike Halls post) questions and turned out to be Win95.  Scary thing is it's somewhat true!!

Which OS are You?

Nic Wise posts a link that shows a pretty intresting look at the past from 2014  (so really a look at the future) of how blogs,amazon, tivo and a war between MS and Google revolutionise the news world.  I think it's pretty scary what they suggest could happen about everyone being a news source and computers putting together news stories.  Companies like New York Times have been virtually eliminated.

Well I just moved into my new house (it's actually 45yrs old) and of course my Wifi isn't working in all places so now i'm hardwired and nothing else works unless i'm in my office which is in the basement.  I have a few options:

1. Buy a signal amplifier (signal might also reach outside which will be good for the summer)
2. Buy an 802.11g router (i think either way i will get this so it's not really an option)
3. Buy more access points and put them in optimal locations (i will have to run some cable for this which i don't really want to)

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. It's getting damn cold here in Toronto and I would rather work in my bedroom at 1am instead of in a cold basement office :(  I guess this is not #1 on my list, there's still a lot of other stuff for this new/old house.

Looks like reality TV has hit the developer world.  Checkout www.thecoderoom.com. 

Courtesy: James Pratt (Windows Mobile Team Blog)

Great article (still in progress) by Mike Zintel on Memory Mgt and NetCF.  He's also a fellow Canadian from Nova Scotia!!

Courtesy: Mike Hall

Who would have thought ringtones would be such a great seller!! Billboard now has a Top 20 Ringtones for the week just like albums.  It is also estimated that ringtones sales will be worth around $300million (i think this is in the US alone...who knows what it's like across the ocean but i'm sure it's more).  In case anyone wanted to know Snoop Dogg Drop it Like it's Hot is #1

Ever need to find a corresponding curly brace in a block of code.  Just use Ctrl-] and it will find it for you!!  I think this one will come in handy!  Another one that comes in handy is Ctrl-K-F which auto formats your code.

Here is a sample if statement:

            if(true)
            {
                if(true)
                {
                    if(true)
                    {
                        if(true)
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        if(true)
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    if(true)
                    {
                        if(true)
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        if(true)
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            if(true)
                            {
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

Looks like Ken Jennings who won $2.5 million on Jeopardy and won 73 games straight now works at Microsoft as a spokes person for Encarta.  That's one way to land a job at Microsoft!

Looks like ESPN is entering the mobile market in the US to run of Sprint's network.  They will introduce branded service and cell phones.  I think they already have some mobile websites but I guess they want to expand.

Two reason I wouldn't get this: 1) not a big sports fan, other than Hockey (but they are not playing!!) 2) I don't live in the US.

There is a good article on the MSDN Mobility site on Deployment & CF by Dan Fox & Jon Box.  There are many resources around but this article buts everything in one location which is helpful.

Looks like some companies don't like people blogging and are actually getting fired.  I have heard of some stories about people getting fired because of blogging but her is an article about three people (flight attendant, Kinko’s employee and a web designer) getting fired because of blogging. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65912,00.html 

Whatever happened to freedom of speech and expressing yourself?!  It's their own personal opinion and I'm sure act professionally in a work environment.  Why should they get fired for something they did off work hours? Like I said...whatever happened to freedom of speech?

I finally made it to the world of blogging.  Now I got to figure out what to write.  Hmmm...I guess I will be focusing on Compact Framework but also hopefully a wide range of topics on .NET and general topics.  Who knows what my crazy mind will come up with!!