Microsoft Maniacs – Zero To Web – Slides and Code

Last night, I had the opportunity to present to the Microsoft Maniacs meetup in Sterling, VA. I want to thank everyone who attended, and share my slides and code. The slides are embedded above, and also included in the Github repo for my presentation, which is linked below.

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Slides and Code for NoVA Code Camp – Building Services with Web API

My thanks to everyone who attended my session at NoVA Code Camp 2015, “Building Services with ASP.NET Web API”. Below you’ll find my slides, as well as a link to the Github repository containing my demo code. Please note that the demo code contains many non-standard naming practices, so I would advise against using it as an example of how to name folders/classes in your Web API.

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FREE Download – Windows Phone 8 Book

Paul Thurrott, of Supersite for Windows fame, has finished the first edition of his Windows Phone 8 book, which he’s making available for FREE download via his WindowsPhoneBook.com website.

Better still, you can influence future editions of the book by sharing your feedback. Just download the PDF, and drop Paul an email via his About Page (the email is in the about text…out of respect for his inbox, I won’t reprint it directly here) and let him know about any issues you find.

Grantophone LIVE!

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of presenting an HTML5 Game Camp with my colleague Lindsay Lindstrom. Since I was going to be in New York City for the day, I got in touch with Grant Kot, the creator of the terrific Grantophone app for Windows Phone 7, to see if we could connect in person. Grant was kind enough to stop by during the hackathon portion of the game camp, and while he was there, he gave an impromptu performance which my fellow DE Peter Laudati, got on video:

 

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HTML5 Game Camp Resources

I wanted to take a moment to thank all the folks who came out to Columbia University for last Friday’s HTML5 Game Camp event that I presented with my colleague Lindsay Lindstrom. It was great to see so many folks interested in HTML5 and gaming, and in particular how many folks stuck around on a Friday evening to hack some code.

I promised to get my decks uploaded, so here they are:

Continue reading HTML5 Game Camp Resources

Kinect Resources and News

Last week, it was my pleasure to present at the Roanoke .NET User Group on the Kinect SDK for Windows beta. In the presentation, I demonstrated the application I created for last summer’s Mid Atlantic Developer Expo, which used the Kinect to provide both skeletal tracking to move the mouse and select items, and also used speech recognition for easier access to items on the page. The application also demonstrated interoperation between the WPF host application, which handled speech recognition via Kinect, and a client web page, which used a nifty JavaScript library called isotope.js to provide snazzy animations and sorting/filtering. You can read more about that project, and view a video demo here.

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jWorldmaps: Anatomy of a jQuery Plugin

I just found out that my first article for the Script Junkie website is now live!

The article, which can be found here, walks through the fundamentals of authoring a jQuery plugin, and then walks through the example code from the jWorldmaps plugin itself, which I wrote to provide an easy way to implement animated transitions from a thumbnail to a larger map for my colleague Brian Hitney‘s WorldMaps IP geolocation service. Continue reading jWorldmaps: Anatomy of a jQuery Plugin

Source Code Available for the Kinect Mouse Cursor Project

Getting the Code

Last week, I noted the release of the Kinect SDK for Windows beta, and at the end of the post pointed to some cool projects put together by the folks over at Coding4Fun on Channel9. One of the projects I’ve been playing with a bit is the Kinect Mouse Cursor project, which at the time of my post last week was only available in binary form. Continue reading Source Code Available for the Kinect Mouse Cursor Project

Kinect SDK for Windows beta Now Available

In case you missed the big announcement yesterday, the wait is over and those of you itching to try your hand at some NUI goodness on Windows with an official SDK can go grab the bits for the Kinect SDK for Windows beta.

tracking_2

I downloaded the beta SDK yesterday during the all-day Channel 9 Live event showcasing what you can do with the SDK (the recording of the stream is available here…eventually, the recordings will likely live elsewhere on Channel 9). So far, I’ve just run some of the samples that come with the SDK, including a skeletal tracking sample, and a sample game that uses both skeletal tracking and voice recognition. Very cool. Continue reading Kinect SDK for Windows beta Now Available

New Features in Windows Phone “Mango” – with Video!

I just finished watching the press conference announcing many of the new features that will be coming with the next release of Windows Phone, codenamed Mango, this fall. I have to say that even as a somewhat jaded insider, I am very excited about some of these features, and several of them were a complete surprise (which is a testament to the ability of the Windows Phone team to keep things under wraps). Among the new stuff announced today Continue reading New Features in Windows Phone “Mango” – with Video!