The Mobile Platform

So here’s where I think the current state of mobile technology is. The mass market has finally realized that the computer can be small enough to be a phone, and more importantly the phone can do things that a computer can do – and beyond!

I think that the mainstream thought is that a computer is a large thing. This large thing has evolved from being a few rooms of blips and lights, to a 2 foot box (of blips and lights), to an airplane carry-on, and now to the “fits in your pocket”. Sure, BlackBerry gave business users the idea that they could leave the office whenever they wanted, but never actualy leave work, and yea- Windows Mobile actually gave the Windows PDA user the ability to send/receive a call – but the IPhone has finally given the consumer market,- well, an actual market.

You have to admire the Apple brand. No really, you have to – TV  tells me so (TV now refers to a brand’s identity that is built by the user base of loyalty to the product). Not only have they redfined how you should be interacting(“touch”ng) your periphereals, but how your periphereals should be touching you. This will lead to the “next big thing”. Microsoft is saying cloud computing is where it’s at, and its true, but where is their support for it. Sure the enterprise has the toolset at their finger tips, but what about the consumer. Apple is giving the consumer the baby steps needed by giving them location aware call-home services, and I would guess cloud computing is what is going to fit right in.

The moral of this disconnected post, is that although inovation can come from anyone, not anyone can be innvotive (yes, this a  Ratatouille refernce). However, the best thing that could happen to the mobile platform is that we see more IPhone clones that allow for a little more user meddling than before. Here’s hoping that the cell providers become nothing more than data pipes, and mobile applications/services from third parties become the standard.

Installing Vista: Toshiba m200

So I decided that it would be a  good idea to update my Toshiba m200 Tablet laptop to Vista. Little did I know what was in store. Apparently, the m200 is not actually supported with Vista, which kinda blows. As a dotNet developer I really enjoy Vista/Visual Studio 2008, and have even gotten used to the dreaded UAC prompts (Honestly it hasn’t bothered me, and reminds me a lot of Ubuntu). Anyway, after reading some key posts on the subject, I decided I would give it a try.

My current enviornment is Windows XP Tablet Edition, and have Visual Studio 2005/2008 and SQL Server installed. I really enjoy using my tablet as a lightwight/use-it-mostly environment for development as portability is a huge asset for me. You just can’t beat using your HTC Windows Mobile smartphone as a modem and fixing a few bugs while riding into/from work on the train.

My goal was this: Install Vista, have Aero, Accelomerter support, Bluetooth support, and rock out.

Step one was booting the Vista install from a DVD-ROM. Since the m200 does not have an internal drive, I used my external and was horrified at the how the drive was crawlin along – which is also chronolized here. So, after switching to using TFTP32 (and realizing that I actual had to reflect the DHCP/DNS/Gateway info that was on my work domain) and kicking of the Vista install, I was in business – Vista Business to be exact. Ba dum, tsh.

After installing, I updated to Vista SP1 and then continued to install a whole bunch of Toshiba specific drivers that have been uncovered through some unofficial channels. I installed the following using these helpful blogs.

• TOSHIBA SD Utilities 1.6
• TOSHIBA Tablet Access Code Logon Utility V2.00.03
• TOSHIBA Tablet PC Extension V1.0.0.1
• TOSHIBA Value Added Package V1.0.11
• ADI AC97 Audio Driver 5.12.01.5410
• TOSHIBA ConfigFree 7.00.23
• NVIDIA GeForceFX Go 5200 Display Driver 7.15.10.9752

After running those, I didn’t have Aero, so after following the advice here, I run the 9759 drivers and managed to get Aero while also disabling transparency.

All was good, except for my Wireless. I installed the driver for Intel 2100 on Vista, but for some reason it frequently disconnects (not a Vista problem, as this happened in WinXP as well). My co-worker happened to have a Toshiba laptop that was available for parts, so we ripped out its Intel 2200 chip and swapped it out with mine. After that, my wireless was working like a charm.

Last but least, was Bluetooth. I have the Bluetooth SD card. Using the drivers I was able to get the Bluetooth manager to run, but not actually able to connect to any Bluetooh devices. Still investigating this issue, let me know if you come across something similar.

All in all, the upgrade to Vista was a succes. The Tablet support is quite exellent, and Vista Business performs surprising great. As others who have dared to upgrade their unsupported m200 Tablets, I have found the experience and result worth it.

 

Online ClickOnce and Forms Authentication

A co-worker of mine and I had to bash our brains together to come up with a solution in order to save a multi million dollar deal from collapsing. The culprit of this fixit-fixit-fixit power session was ClickOnce being unable to handle Windows Authentication to an internet site from the browser. Usually this occurs with a XBAP hosted in IIS, in our case it was a XBAP hosted in ISA.

See the following codeproject article for details, if you dare…

Who? What? Where? How?

Decided to expand my presence on the web. My plan is to discuss what interests me, so this will most likely contain technical articles on WPF, WCF, and development on a MS platform.