Developer Days at Microsoft Store

Developer Workshops Joe Healy (@devfish) and I have been hosting workshops at the Microsoft Store in Orlando at the Florida Mall over the past few Thursdays. The current series has been focusing on Windows Store Apps, including game application development.  Joe presented this past week on MonoGame for Windows 8 and another Florida Developer, Bill Reiss (@billreiss) is doing a blog series on that same topic here, and the turn out was great! Here are the next few topics on deck. XAML and C# for Windows 8 Store App https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032532761 Presented...

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Paparazzi at the Microsoft Store! I'm Famous!

 What's really "completely embarrassing" as he so states in his post is the lack of observation. Original post here... First, yes I was and do in fact use a MacBook Pro and run Windows 8 on it. However the the sneaky photo fails to capture the full picture. First, I'm a very cool dude.  So next time at least do it from the XBOX section so you get my good side, and the "I'm a PC" shirt that I was wearing. Secondly, do note in the photo that that is my desktop there on the screen, um I believe that's Windows 8 and NOT OSX. I also...

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Tampa Code Camp

I will be giving two talks this Saturday at Tampa Code Camp, being held at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fl.  For directions and more information visit http://www.tampacodecamp.com. Schedule for other sessions here.   My Sessions Introduction to ASP.NET Web API - Why you should be using it. 9:50 AM in Room 1102 This is an introduction to ASP.NET WebAPI and how easy it is to get started and use it in your application development when building RESTful services. Building Windows 8 Apps w/ MVVM Light 2:20 PM...

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TypeScript for Windows 8 Store Apps

What is TypeScript?  See http://www.typescriptlang.org TypeScript was recently released and has become the new hot topic.  One of the questions I have asked and heard is can we use this for developing Windows Store Applications with Javascript and have the cool features that have been shown in the videos and examples. One of the great features was the split window feature where you can code in TypeScript on the left and upon hitting save, it compiles to Javascript on the left. So I fired up a new Javascript Windows Store project in Visual Studio...

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Richmond Code Camp

I will be giving two talks this Saturday at Richmond Code Camp, being held at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Va.  For directions and more information visit http://richmondcodecamp.org/ and/or follow @CodeCamp on Twitter. Schedule for other sessions here.   My Sessions Building Windows 8 Apps w/ MVVM Light 8:45 AM - 10:00 AM in Room 2 MVVM Light is a great toolkit for building Window Phone applications and has been updated for building Windows 8 Modern UI apps. In this session, you will learn how to get the package installed,...

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RadCustomHubTile from Telerik for Windows 8 UI

Introduction Telerik recently released their Windows 8 UI Controls to RC on September 18th (see post here), and this is probably on the first in a series of posts I will put out showing them off. The first control here is the RadCustomHubTile.  I chose this because I am in the process of porting my Find Amber app from Windows Phone to Windows 8 and I wanted to transition the app without drifting too far from the spirit of the original app.  RadControls from Telerik used here for Current List and Search & Stats section You can...

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User Groups - What do you want from them?

There are many user groups, meetups, developer groups, etc depending on where you live that are available to get involved in.  This is one of many ways to meet other developers, see what they are doing, what projects and so fourth are going on in your neck of the woods that you wouldn't necessarily know about.  But, one thing that I'll say is that the format is about the same from the 3-5 groups that I participate in the Central Florida Area.  I even run a Windows Phone/8 group here too, and the same could be said. Now, one thing that I...

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Amber Alerts for Windows Phone - Find Amber: I built it!

Find Amber Available for Windows Phone Find Amber has finally been approved and is now available in the Windows Phone Store! This project is close to me, and not in a "I have lost a child" way thank God. But I do have children and if something were to happen to any of them I can't imagine what it would be like. There are ways to get this information but generally it is slow to deliver. Television, Radio, etc. but these delivery mechanisms are allow but allow for detail. In contrast, there is a text message service and/or the road signs that...

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SimpleIoc and the Messenger Service in MVVM Light

CodeProject The SimpleIoc addition in the most recent version of MVVMLight is a great add and really simplified the ViewModelLocator across all of the platforms supported in this framework. If you are not familiar with MVVM Light or what you types of project platforms it supports please go to http://mvvmlight.codeplex.com or www.galasoft.ch/mvvm to learn more. However if you are using the Messenger Service in MVVM Light to perform a set of actions to do the following: User takes an action Application changes views Application send message to display or load data then it is important...

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What are you looking for as a Mobile Developer in a Blog Post?

The mobile development industry has probably the greatest up swing in comparison to the other development paths over the last 5 years.  What I mean is that many more developers are focusing on either getting into mobile development (as in native apps), making sure their web apps are responsive and scale or adjust for a mobile viewport (html5) etc. So, for those developers who blog like myself I am curious what you are looking for when reading our stuff... Check out this survey and let me know what you want to get out of article related to mobile development. Thanks...

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Southwest Florida Code Camp

I will be giving two talks this Saturday at Southwest Florida Code Camp. If you are interested in hearing about ASP.NET WebAPI and/or MVVM Light, stop by either of my talks.  8:30 - 9:40 AM (Room 128) - Introduction to ASP.NET WebAPI - Why you should be using it!  9:40 - 10:40 AM  (Room 128)  - Building Windows Phone Apps w/ MVVM Light  Hope to see you there, should be an exciting even...

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Looking at Windows Azure Mobile Services with Fiddler

CodeProject As usual throughout the day I have MetroTwit open and toast are constantly popping up here and there and I glance over to see what’s what.  Then I see. from @WindowsAzure this: And all work stopped for me to check this out.  Other than Windows Phone and Windows 8; I really love the new ASP.NET WebAPI and REST Services capabilities it has made so easy (watch for my next post on that), and seeing this I was thinking – awesome but only for Windows 8???  So…I immediately responded and got a response: Spending the last day or so...

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Getting Started w/ Windows 8, MVVM Light and EventToCommand

Now that Windows 8 and Visual Studio are in RTM I wanted to put together a quick entry for those Windows Phone developers making the transition to Windows 8 development with their MVVM Light skills. Laurent Bugnion, is the creator of the MVVM Light toolkit and I, as well as many others, have been using this for Windows Phone development for a while now.  I am porting on of my applications to Windows 8 and wanted to take the knowledge of this toolkit to the new platform hoping that there were either some new enhancements and/or not many changes so that...

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