Martin Woodward

It turns out that the little video I posted yesterday has taken on a bit of a life of it's own.  Last time I checked, it was in the top 10 Science and Technology posts for YouTube in Ireland.  It's funny how it is always the posts that you do more for your own entertainment that take off. 

Anyway, there is no doubting that Brian is a bit of a character, he's already recorded his first TV appearance as a guest on this weeks, "This Week in Channel 9" (to be broadcast soon).  I wish that Nabaztag had an affiliate program as it sounds like I may have sold a few rabbits for them. 

Anyway, if you can't afford your own bunny, then you can have the next best thing for free.  Your very own Brian the Build Bunny Background on the desktop of a computer near you (standard and widescreen versions available).  Click here to chose a image size that suits you.

I'm always keen try new and novel ways to keep in touch with the status of my software projects.  Fortunately, Team Foundation Server provides many ways to do this.  While the Build Wallboard is fun if you have a spare monitor and machine lying around, I wanted to experiment with some inexpensive dedicated devices, and so Brian the Build Bunny was born.

Brian is a Nabaztag smart rabbit.  He reads out details of check-ins and builds.  If a build has failed then his ears go down to show how sad he feels, but if you fix the build his ears will soon pick up again.

I've had Brian for about a year now waiting to do this project, but when I tried it in the past I always found the response times from the rabbit to be too slow.  However earlier this year, the Nabaztag developers updated the code running the rabbits so that they are now using the XMPP (Jabber) protocol to receive updates and the service now seems pretty good.

Brian is now sitting on my desk chattering away and letting me know what is happening in TFS.  If you want to find out more about how he works and see him in action then take a look at the video. If your company blocks YouTube but you have Silverlight installed then you can view a higher quality version of the video courtesy of the Windows Live Streaming service.  I'll go through the code behind Brian in a later post if there is any interest, but it is pretty much a standard TFS event listener that then sends text to the rabbit using the Nabaztag API.

Ok, I’ll admit it.  My name is Martin Woodward and I am a gadgetaholic.  I have a few USB memory keys and a couple of external USB hard-drives.  However, I’ve been thinking about getting a new memory key for a while because my other ones are either too small or are a bit battered looking.  I was looking to spend £3 yesterday on a UK to US phone adapter and ended up getting myself a new 512Mb memory stick manufactured by Didigo so I would qualify for free shipping on my order.  I’ve been wanting to have a play with TrueCrypt for a while and I think I might create a hidden partition on the device and give it a try.

What’s the big deal you may ask?  Well this model has an integrated ePaper display (or Bistable Reflective Cholesteric Display to give it the proper name).  It shows you the free capacity and also the volume name on a little display that stays visible even when the power source is removed.  If you rename the FAT32 volume (in Windows, Mac or Linux) the display updates to show the new name.

I’ve been a keen follower of electronic paper technology for a while and this is the first time a device with it has come into a price range that I can justify and I have a need for.  We’ll soon probably have these displays built in to all sorts of devices but for now I was willing to pay a little over the odds (£42) for a memory stick so I could see it working for myself.  I’m sure it will give me endless hours of fun demonstrating it to anyone unluckily enough to comment on the display.  If you are coming to TechEd this year be sure not to comment on it or I’ll bore you for hours.  Watching the display work reminds me of the feeling I got when I saw my first pocket calculator, the Sinclair Cambridge, with it’s mesmorizing LED display.

As I may have mentioned to anyone that will listen to me - I am currently getting up at a daft time of the morning to beat the traffic into work. On my journeys I have noticed a completely new invention that I have never noticed before but one that is such a good idea.

On certain high speed bends on the un-lit road, there are now LED Cats Eyes lighting the way. I first noticed them when I was coming out of a junction and looked to my left to see the cats eyes were lit even though my headlights were not on them. They had a slight stobe to them bit were perfectly clear lighting the road ahead. What a great idea, just an incremental improvement on Percy Shaw's original idea, but what a good one.

Found a bit more about them at a company called Relfecto, along with some interesting toys...

I've just treated myself to a new toy. A brand new HP4150 PDA. After much looking, the cheapest place seemed to be Amazon.

Been very happy with it so far. Has both Bluetooth and WiFi. WiFiFoFum is an excellent WiFi sniffer, the radar screen impresses everyone I have shown it to. Got Terminal Services, GnuPG, VNC, SSH and a console installed so I can do most debugging I need to. All I need now is a serial cable so I can TIP into sun boxes and I have a cool bit of portable kit for getting machines working.

It can store phone numbers, check my email and play a wicked game of solitaire as well...

Just got my hands on a new Fujitsu ST5010 Tablet PC for a demo and I really enjoyed working with it. I have been wanting to use a tablet PC in anger for a while now as the idea of the form-factor is one that I liked. The ST5010 can be yours for £1500 inc VAT. In combination with Microsoft OneNote and Windows XP tablet edition I feel that I have a replacement for my trust A4 notebook. The machine had no problems recognising my handwriting (or speach) and the feel of writing on the surface is so close to writing with paper on pen that it takes no getting used to. However the screen can be difficult to read (especially when writing with it flat on a desk or when showing to somebody else).

If I was going to spend my own money on a tablet PC, I think I would need one of the notebooks with a keyboard and foldable screen, otherwise I would feel the need to carry tablet PC and laptop. While that has a certain amount of geek cred, it certainly isn't good for my back.

My final gripe is with Windows XP tablet edition. There are options to configure the pen for left handed use, but that just seems to alter the handwriting recognition algorithm. For cruel fun, try watching a left handed person using scroll bars with a pen - it just doesn't work. There needs to be the option to switch scroll bars onto the left and side of windows.

Apart from that, good fun, great battery life. Impresses the customers when you bring it out to write notes. Superb for capturing feedback on UI design etc. Not quite impressed enough with it to spend my own money, but impressed enough to give it serious thought.

The first commercial E-Ink product is about to hit the market in Japan. According to the BBC the Sony LIBRIé 1000-EP will cost around £200 and be available in April.

While this is the first version of the technology, it looks like it may well take off. If the screen is as good as it sounds, the propect of weighing your holiday bags down with paper-backs may well be coming to an end...

The Register have the specs of the new device. They say that the display is 800x600 @ 170dpi - as apposed to the usual computer display resolutions of 72dpi. The unit weighs 190g and measures 12.6 x 19 x 1.3cm. with a USB 2.0 port, Qwerty keypad, speaker and earphone socket.

Electronic Ink only requires power to change the display. The early prototypes had a slow refresh rate but the advantage that once the display has been changed the power is switched off, meaning you can spend as long as you want actually reading the text. Indeed, the press release says that 4 AA batteries lasts for 10,000 page changes.

No news yet on the systems OS. My guess is a palm based system as it is in Sony's ----é range. It would also support the speaker and headphone allowing you to play MP3's on the device...

Ever wanted to connect your toaster to the internet, turn a skyscraper into a giant display, add a web server to your filter coffee machine or make a furby say things that will severely disturb the kids - then have a read of Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks by Scott Fullam.

The book is full of cool projects to try out and waste some of your spare money / time on. It has clear photos, circuit diagrams and schematics allowing you to do something useful with all that technology you may have lying around. If, like me, you don't have a lot of spare time or money at the moment then you should still read the book and dream of the things you could do... Hmm, satanic furby...

The spec of my free laptop has been announced. It is a HP nx7010 Centrino. Best bit if the 15.4" 16:10 WXGA display. Might need to upgrade the memory but apart from that it is a pretty good machine - very good for the price! They are being ordered on Friday so I may have it next week.

I've won a laptop!! Amazing, never really won anything before (unless you count 1st prize in a fancy dress competition dressed as Worzel Gummage). All thanks to those every generous people at Intel Developer Services. Will post more details as soon as it arrives. So far all I know is that it is "an HP Compaq notebook computer featuring Intel Centrino Mobile Technology". Cool.

Just seen this mouse - the Labtec Mini Optical Mouse - in action and it really looks like a fantastic mouse for the road warrior.

It's optical (i.e. no mouse mat or de-fluffing required) and cordless with a unique design with its USB stored inside the mouse when not in use. When you're ready to start working, just pop out the receiver, plug it in, and start mousing. Later, when receiver is stored this turns off the mouse, extending battery life.

It is also nice and compact, but still big enough for the average hand. Currently about £30 from PC World - might see some of my Christmas money.

Got my GPRS connection to my mobile phone (a Nokia 6310i) to my Palm m125 using IR. Works a treat. However I realise how handy a bluetooth connection would be. Thinking about getting a Palm Bluetooth SD Card.