Win a Private Jet with Windows Phone

Last year Andy Wigley and myself had enormous fun doing some Jump Start Live training sessions. They were very intense, and horribly hard work, and we are doing the same thing all over again. Just to prove we still can.

If you want 14 hours of intense Windows Phone Mango training over 2 days, plus a whole bunch of old jokes and the chance to win your own private jet (Fact: We did give away two private jets last year) then clear your diary for the 23rd and 24th of August and sign up here. It will be fun. Trust me.

Amazing Micro Framework Offer

I was talking to Gus at GHI Electronics today about Gadgeteer (which looks totally wonderful) and he made a very interesting offer. The Gadget hardware is a little way off, and he is prepared to offer an amazing deal on the current Fez Ultimate Kit you can see above. This gives you a colour touch screen, a bunch of lights and switches, SD card storage, network connectivity and even a remote control keyfob. They are priced on the site at $150 but Gus is happy to offer a special “Robs Price” which is a lot less than this. A lot less. Snag is, I have to get a bunch of orders together so we can all benefit from this.

Actually, at $150 this would be good value, bearing in mind that you get a complete microcontroller development kit you can program in C# using Visual Studio. You can even spin up a web site on the platform if you want.

I’m looking forward to Gadgeteer, which will give us some slightly more powerful boxes, but I reckon at this price it is really hard to turn down this kit.

If you are interested in paying an amazing prize for this kit, and you will be at Hull some time in the future, send me a message at ultimatefun@robmiles.com and I’ll let you know just how much you could save. Then, when you get to Hull, we can get together and have fun making them do stuff.

Update on Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 02:17PM by Rob

Tiny clarification. The offer is for the Ultimate kit, which is not part of the Gadgeteer range. That launches later and I'll be getting some of those too.

Even More Hull Success

Marc has just written another game. If you have a Windows Phone you can download it here:

He is quite pleased with himself at the moment. Turns out that Vampire Labyrinth, the game he and his team made in the “Three Thing Game” we did earlier this year has won a bunch of Microsoft prizes, including a shiny new phone.

Gadgets at Microsoft Research

My first gadget. Zero to digital camera in around 10 minutes…

Anything with the with the word “Gadget” in the name is going to be a win with me. Especially if it also includes the .NET Micro Framework. Enter the .NET Gadgeteer. The aim of this project from Microsoft Research is to make it really easy to create embedded devices. It is based on work performed by them to make it easier to go from ideas to functioning hardware. The cunning stuff is not just in the underlying software, but also in the way that the different hardware elements can be quickly and easily connected to the central “spider” processor board, which you can see in the front of my picture. You can just about make out the switch that is used to take a picture, the LCD panel that displays the results and a camera (presently taking a picture of the desk…).

Your gadget programs are written in C# and deployed like any other .NET Micro Framework application, using Visual Studio and a usb connection to the target device. However, the Gadgeteer system makes it very easy to interact with complex devices like cameras and displays, providing a well designed object interface that sits on top. The bottom line is that if you can program with objects, you can now use their software representations of objects to create working embedded devices. Furthermore, since all the software is shared source (based on the Apache 2.0 licence model) it is possible for to make products based on this technology which you can sell or distribute how you like.

A number of hardware vendors are on board and will be producing the processor boards and the peripheral devices. The shape and form of the components has been standardised so that it is easy to make cases to hold them so creating very professional looking, but low volume, product using the new 3D printing technology is now easy. And fun.

I’m keen to be first in the queue to get some kits for teaching and playing with when the first devices hit the stores soon. If you have an idea for a thing you’d like to make, but are put off by the difficultly of plumbing the hardware together and creating a good looking finished product, you should take a look at Gadgeteer.

Optimus Quest 2 Winner

Joseph with his prize

Joseph Appleyard came into the office today to pick up his prize for the greatest number of Windows Phone Marketplace downloads up to July.

If you want to add to his number, and get hold of his DND companion application, you can find it here:

http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=effe0566-c375-e011-81d2-78e7d1fa76f8

I’ve got another phone to give away at the end of August. If you didn’t win this time, and are still a Hull student, you can enter then. Don’t forget.