Paul Mooney

Tablet PC Marketing

Marketing is not Sales, Advertising or PR, it's about creating new products that will sell.

Three major computer manufactures have produced jumbo sized Tablet PC weighing over six pounds and positioned as desktop replacements. There is not a Tablet PC in this world that will challenge my 64bit desktop, its SATA Hard Drive spines faster and the video cards chip and RAM is as powerful as a Tablet PC.

Today most of us have home networks with several computers, even a server, a Media Center connected to the TV,  XBOX, audio system and Wi-Fi extending into the backyard.

I need a Tablet PC that will spin on my finger, light enough so I can take it anywhere. I'm not going to write a report or novel on my Tablet PC, I just want to be connected to my network, check-out my feeds, access email, listen to some tunes, read news, watch sports and make a few VoIP calls,

I don't need a desktop replacement, I'll never trust my data to a single Hard Drive, Hard drives fail so it's a best practice to back-up your files and thats what I do on my home network. Twelve year olds swap files everyday, so why can't Tablet PC owners sync and swap daily?

I want a adjunct to my system, I log-on to networks everywhere I go and I'm tired of lugging around a laptop, so your NOT going to sell me a convertible.

Yesterday I wrote about my experience with Streets and Trips and my desire for a sleek Slate Tablet PC as my Auto computer, soon we'll wonder how we ever lived without one..

Trips on a Tablet PC

I have been using the new Microsoft Streets and Trips for about a month and I love it. In the past before I would go off to a meeting or event I would consult Map Quest on my computer at home, type in my address and the address of the event, press ENTER and in a few seconds there is the route. I would then grab a piece of scratch paper and transcribe the directions into my own travel shorthand with very large R's and L's and big circles around the Highway Exit numbers.

 Now before I leave to go to a meeting I grab my laptop, open-up Streets and Trips, click on the little Rout icon and type in the address of my meeting and instantaneously there are the directions. I plug-in the GPS device, make sure that my laptop battery is fully charged, then climb into my car placing the laptop on the seat next to me. When I enable the GPS a woman's voice begins to guide me, I don't know if she's a blond, brunette or a red head, but she and the guy up on that satellite work well together as they always know where I am and where I should go.

Now I do know the back roads of North West Jersey much better then this babe, she calls out OFF ROUTE, OFF ROUTE till I catch-up with a cross road, then she stops nagging me.

It occurred to me after our first trip together that a Tablet PC, a Slate Tablet PC mounted on my dashboard would be an ideal way for me to interface with my lady friend and her satellite tracking buddy. With a mounted Tablet I wouldn't have to turn my neck as far and we could get power from the cigarette lighter. She could also play my music and read my email to me. This relationship is beginning to feel like a killer app for the Tablet PC.  Streets and Trips already calculates the distance and the fuel cost of my trip, why not incorporate my calendar so she knows where I have to be and when I have to be there. This all sounds like the beginning of a wonderful friendship...…Streets and Trips, my baby and my Tablet PC.

Power to the Pen

The Pen is Mightier with GDI+ and the Tablet PC Real-Time Stylus

Many programming interfaces are the result of a compromise between the polar ideals of simplicity and versatility. Some, however, break the interface in two and pursue both goals independently. They keep the simple programming interface for many common programming tasks, but also provide a versatile interface for more unusual needs.

Such a separation between the simple and versatile characterizes the application programming interface for the Tablet PC. Much of the Tablet PC API is remarkably easy. With just a few lines of code you can attach an InkOverlay object to any Windows Forms control and start doing some of the stuff Paul Yao demonstrated in his article "Add Support for Digital Ink to Your Windows Application" in the December 2004 issue of MSDN Magazine.

Yet, as a result of this simplicity, InkOverlay has some severe and inescapable limitations. If InkOverlay doesn't quite meet your needs, you may want to make the leap to the other Tablet PC programming interface—the far more versatile Real-Time Stylus. That's what this article is all about.

I enjoyed meeting Charles Petzold in New York and at DevConnections in Las Vegas because he has so much fun writing and talking about software. He told me this artical in MSDN Magazine was coming out so I was watching for it, reading it you can tell he's having fun with his Tablet PC.

Team System Developer Center

Visual Studio Team System Developer Center

A great new resource for learning about and getting the most out of Visual Studio Team System.

Evaluate Visual Studio 2005 Team System

There are a number of ways to evaluate Visual Studio 2005 Team System, from the Visual Studio Team Suite 180-day trial Edition to the online Hosted Experience. Order the trial or try out a Virtual Lab today.

 Latest on Team System from Rob Caron

Coping with Ask Mode and Bugs

VPC with Team Foundation Server

Team Foundation Dogfood Stats for November

Preparing to Upgrade to Team Foundation Server RTM

Channel 9: Eric Lee and the Team Foundation Team

Events and Webcasts

GotDotNet Upgrade

Last week GotDotNet celebrated their fifth birthday and yes we all know they have gone through some growing pains, but they are and have been a remarkable resource for the developer community.

They had a Gotdotnet 5th Birthday Celebration party last week in Redmond, we should have done something at the Visual Studio, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Launch in New York to mark the occasion. A lovely young woman from CodeZone flew to New York for the launch, Keith Pijanowski and Don XML were there and they have been active members of GotDotNet for all five years. Microsoft did have a nice little party after the Launch to thank the MVP's for giving up a full days worth of billable hours helping out in the Experts Area, but a more inclusive GotDotNet bash with the developer community would have been fun.

For GotDotNet's fifth birthday they have upgraded to several new 64bit Servers, SQL Server 2005 and moved from Whidbey to Visual Studio 2005. So it hasen't been an easy transition, but they had to migrate message boards, workspaces, user samples, tools, feeds, a resource center and a codegallery.......while a world wide community loged-on.

If you haven't been over to GotDotNet in a while now is a good time to log-on, have a look around and maybe start something amazing!

Gotdotnet, we suck less

Pardon the GDN Dust

ASP.NET Popup Calendar Control on gotdotnet

Composite UI Application Block for VB Release Candidate Now Available

Windows Supercomputer

Burton Smith has joined Microsoft a week after Bill Gates shared Microsoft’s Vision for Technical Computing delivering the keynote at Supercomputing 2005.

Bill shared a vision for the contribution the software industry can make to accelerating scientific research and engineering innovation, calling for broad collaboration among the computing industry, academia, and government to make technical computing easier and more productive.

On-Demand Webcast

Q&A: Microsoft Announces Strategy for High-Performance Computing

Beta 2 of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003

Establish 10 Institutions for High Performance Computing worldwide

Microsoft is working with the computing industry to help facilitate the next wave of discovery and deliver software that addresses some of the barriers scientists, engineers and researchers face.

With clusters of Multi-Core 64bit processors running multi-threads the Windows Supercomputer is inevitable and with the release of SQL Server 2005.

Xbox360 ZeroHour Photos

  30 Hours of Xbox 360 Gameplay As thousands of gamers made their way into the hangar, they were greeted with 400,000 square feet of Xbox 360 systems and high-def Samsung displays.  Everything was bathed in green light, giving the building an unearthly feel.  Throughout the night, folks taking a break were treated to demos, contests, and other events on the main stage.  Lots of different games were loaded onto the systems, and everyone got a chance to try them all.

Looks like it was a great time, where was the Media? They said there was Press there, but we didn't see or hear anything about the ultimate gaming event till now. Check-out John's photos on Flickr.

I saw a photo of Pete Grondal of The Podcast Crew, so keep on eye-out for some cool videos from the Event in the Desert...