Blankenthoughts

Every morning, I sit down to my computer and think, what are people going to care about reading today? I've accumulated a decent audience for this blog, and I feel like I should be earning, not holding, a spot in your RSS reader.

Some days, it's an interesting story that hits me. Others, it's a tutorial on some technology I'm jazzed about playing with. If I've really got something itching me, I'll put a video together.

But my question to you, dear reader, is:

What, if anything, would make you tell your friends about what I've written?

Most of you are accomplished software developers. Some of you are friends in other industries. One of you is my Mom.

I'm looking for comments, emails, phone calls, twitters, facebook messages...however you'd like to throw me some feedback. I would honestly and truly appreciate anything you can offer me. Positive or negative.

Labels: advice, blogging, jeff blankenburg

Two days ago, I received an email that really surprised me.

With this job, I am amazed at the people I get to meet. I'm making great friends on a daily basis with some of the smartest people in the Midwest (and the country, if you ask me.)

I do a good amount of speaking, and certainly in Ohio I've done my share lately. With each speaking engagement, I get the chance to leave an impression on a room full of people. Positive or negative, I'm leaving impressions. On Tuesday, I realized how far those impressions travel.

My live.com email address (if you know me, you could guess it) is one I use for places I need a LiveID. I don't really use it for email, or calendar, etc. Just for logging in to sites that require it.

Occasionally (maybe once a month), I'll jump over to the email, just to see if someone might have written me there by mistake. There were 6 messages, 5 of which challenged my masculinity in one way or another. The 6th message though, was from a woman named Paula Caso.

She was contacting me because she teaches at a Cleveland-area high school, and runs the computer club there. They were having a fundraiser, and were building a new computer that they would auction off later this spring. With their allotted budget, they built an amazing machine. High-end gaming system. However, they were short-sighted in their spending. They blew their whole budget on the machine, and forgot to leave something for an operating system. (Before you start talking about free ones, remember that this machine will be auctioned to the public, and Windows is almost certainly a requirement.) Her husband had seen me talk at the Cleveland .NET SIG, and thought she should contact me to see if I could help.

It was her signature line in her email that most intrigued me, however.

(PS: North Olmsted High School is a public 9-12 school on the west side of the Cleveland metropolitan area in Ohio.)

(PSS: Our computer club web site is http://www.nohsteachers.info/PCaso/NOHSCompClub/ -- we maintain our own server, but our site is in need of updating.)

As it turns out, I grew up in North Olmsted, and spent my 4 years of high school at NOHS (as a three-sport athelete, no less). Smallest of worlds. So I'm looking into a way to help them out. And I let her know that. I also gave her a little background on what my role is with Microsoft. I told her that I've been writing/architecting software for the past 10 years, and that now I get to tell everyone about the new, cool things that we're doing at Microsoft.

She immediately asked me if I would be interested in coming to talk to her computer club. Since I will be at the Cleveland .NET SIG on February 12, I told her she could have that entire day, if necessary. She contacted the principal, and got me a small assembly on that day.

They are going to pull math, physics, and computer science students from their classes to come hear what *I* have to say? Whoa. That's flattering. I was expecting 8 kids in a classroom.

Looks like I need to wrap up this post and start writing a presentation.

Labels: jeff blankenburg, microsoft, NOHS

So with my newlyfound Christmas riches, I decided to make a couple of purchases recently for my home office.

1) Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000

2) HP MediaSmart Server EX470

Once my server arrives, I'm sure I'll have a blog post about it. But today's post is about the WED 8000.

First, let me say that the mouse and keyboard work EXCELLENTLY. In fact, I love them. The keyboard is wireless, bluetooth, and BACKLIT. The backlighting comes on as I approach the desk. For a guy that likes to work in the dark, that's a huge plus. It's even got a trackpad (like a laptop) on the keyboard, for when you're leaning back in your chair. Just awesome.

The mouse has what seems like 74 buttons, all configurable. 4 direction scroll wheel...basically everything you've ever heard of in a mouse is there. And it's bluetooth as well.

They both charge on a dock. The dock has 4 USB ports, in case you need to plug other stuff in, and it also is the Bluetooth receiver. This was the cool part of my installation experience. I got everything set up, and it immediately told me that "your device is locked. Unlock your device to connect via Bluetooth." I disregarded the error, since the keyboard and mouse don't have locks. Then I realized what had happened. It was trying to connect to my Palm Treo 700wx in my pocket. Once I unlocked the phone, it immediately connected and allowed me to sync with the computer. Goodbye phone dock.


Now to the appearance of the set. Brushed aluminum. Beautiful. Could be the centerpiece of my desktop. I've been using the mouse for about two weeks now, and every time I walk to my desk, I can't help but notice how pretty this stuff looks.

That's when the trouble begins. This morning, while catching up on email, something stabs me on my wrist. I look down to see a small, roundish fleck of metal. I look around to see where it could have come from, but my desk is messy, so it could have just been laying there. About twenty minutes later, though, I get another stab in the wrist. Another very similar little fleck. As I pull my hand up, I now figure out where these are coming from. On the bottom end of the mouse, the Microsoft logo is there in shiny silver metal foil. Running my finger over it, there are almost no edges. But it now reads: Microso.



They put foil letters right in the place where your hand not only contacts the mouse, but probably where it shifts the most as well. I'm enamoured with this mouse and keyboard, but it just feels a little "ruined" now. I'll certainly get over it, but I just want to know...did anyone use this thing before is was packaged and shipped to stores?

Labels: bluetooth, microsoft, wireless entertainment desktop 8000

JUXtapose - Episode 3: Popfly - Creating Your First Mashup

Labels: jeff blankenburg, JUXtapose, microsoft, popfly, Silverlight

Thank you to everyone that participated in my blogging contest. In all, we had 43 entries (some of them were emailed, for some reason). That's a solid 1/3 of my readership (as of today).

Now for the big news....the winner. I took each entry and added it to an Excel spreadsheet. Once I had them all input, I used the random number generator function in Excel (=RANDBETWEEN(1, 43)).

The winner of my 2008 Codemash Blogging Contest, and the SwagBag to rule them all is...

Jay Wren.

I will be giving this bag away at CodeMash this afternoon.

Keep an eye out for my next contest...coming in February.

Labels: codemash, jay wren, jeff blankenburg, swagbag

The bag is packed. Let me just say that much has been added since I discussed the contents of this SwagBag. Special thanks to Tim Heuer for reading about the contest and contributing some stuff of his own.

You've got until Thursday morning to get your entry in. We've only got 36 entries right now. I'd like to see fifty before Thursday morning. And my offer still stands...if we can get to 100, I'll thrown in an 8GB Zune.

Here's the post:

http://www.jeffblankenburg.com/2007/12/codemash-contest_19.html

Labels: codemash, jeff blankenburg, swagbag

In an unfortunate turn of events, Jesse Liberty (Senior Program Manager, Silverlight Development Team) fractured his shoulder a few weeks ago. He and his doctor were optimistic that he would still be able to make the trip to CodeMash (like I'm sure all of you are). His surgeon is now extremely reluctant to have him in full-on travel mode just yet, so he has been forced to cancel his trip.

Due to these circumstances, there is a gaping hole in the Silverlight content at CodeMash. I have been fortunate enough to be asked by Jesse to replace him in his absence. I'm a bit honored, and a bit panicked (I wasn't on the slate to speak until now). So there you have it....I'll be the speaker in Jesse Liberty's stead. The topics will still be the same, there will be an Intro to Silverlight and an Advanced Silverlight session at the normally scheduled time.

So, if I haven't met you, and certainly if I have, here's when I will be speaking at CodeMash.

01/09/07 9:30 AM - Coding In Silverlight
01/10/07 2:10 PM - Advanced Silverlight

Head over to the CodeMash Session Scheduler (built in Silverlight) and get me on your agenda!

Labels: codemash, jeff blankenburg, jesse liberty, Silverlight

This is just a reminder to the 140 subscribers I have that HAVEN'T entered my contest...you've got 7 days left.

Read this post...enter to win a pile of stuff. It's 10 minutes of your time for what is becoming THOUSANDS of dollars of gear.

What's holding you back?

http://www.jeffblankenburg.com/2007/12/codemash-contest_19.html

Labels: codemash, jeff blankenburg

For those of you that follow my Twitter feed, you've already gotten some of this...

Today's video games suck. Not all of them. There's always exceptions. And I'll be talking about those as well. But let's talk about the suck first.

As we look around the video game landscape, we are bombarded by new games, sometimes as often as every week. They all tout amazing gameplay and photo-realistic graphics. But when I get into the game...it sucks. It's the same game I played last year.

You know the one. The one where I get to run around, first person, and shoot stuff with a variety of creative weapons. To kill something, I just need to have enough ammo. As long as keep shooting, I'll keep advancing.

Or maybe that racing game. The one where I get to customize my car to no end, and then get to drive it around famous cities. All the while not taking nearly the damage that a guard rail at 250 MPH should provide.

Or the sports game. Be it baseball, football, soccer, golf, hockey, you name it. I get to pick my team to represent, and manage it just like the guy that does it in real life. I can make trades, set the cost of merchandise, etc. Oh yeah, and I get to simulate the games as well. I get to control the batter, or the quarterback, or the left wing. And I get to run and run and run. This game has been made every year, with a new name (and "NEW" features). BTW, making my character look more like me is not enough to get me to spend $50 again.

Finally, there's the fighting game. You know the one. You choose one of 20 characters, and then spend the rest of the game fighting the other 19. Or your buddy, who doesn't know the UP-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT combo moves to destroy you.

Yes, these games get more visually appealing. I'll agree with that. And they do add more features. But at the end of the day, it's still the same game. Where are the new ideas?

The first new idea I've seen comes from one of the most storied game franchises in existence. Super Mario Galaxy. They took a great story and made it better. It's got innovative storylines. It's got innovative gameplay. (The inherent innovation of the Wii notwithstanding.) It is, by far, the best game I've played in a few years. Mario64 gave us one of the first 3D worlds. Running around spherical planets the size of a large house is a completely different experience. Now try jumping from one to the other...because they've each got their own gravities. Absolutely a step in the right direction for an already great line of games.

The second new idea out there is the Guitar Hero/Rockband concept. Who thought pretending to play a guitar could be so much fun? Never before has there been a game that was the POINT of everyone coming over to your house. (No, I'm not talking about your Halo LAN parties.) I'm talking about mixed company (yes, that means girls) coming over to your house to hang out. To have a few drinks. To socialize. And to wait in line to play a video game. Oh yeah, and the game provides the party's soundtrack. Now, perhaps this happened in high school. But having your buddy and your respective girlfriends over to watch you and him play Tecmo Bowl does not count. I had 10 people over 30 in my house recently to play this game. That, my friends, is a first.

My third thought on an amazing new idea in console video games is the "training" game. Whether this be training for your body, mind, or even your eyes, these games are really taking on something new. Games like Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, and Wii Sports have really ignored the need for stunning graphics and instead focused on a game/trainer that actually claims to help you get in shape, make quick decisions, or even improve your peripheral vision. I'm in no way saying that their claims are accurate, but at the very least, I'm getting better at playing their games.

So let's talk ideas. What do you want to see the next great game become? Personally, I'd like to see a new game that incorporates some truly FUN gameplay. Take a look around at the "casual" gaming market. Sites like popcap.com or kongregate.com. Let's take some of the great ideas from these games, smack your "amazing graphics" package on them, and take them to prime time. There are some amazing games on these sites, and it seems only soccer moms are the ones appreciating them.

Labels: jeff blankenburg, suck, video games