Tag Archives: development

Microsoft Ignite Starts Today

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Microsoft’s Ignite three day conference event starts today with a keynote presentation by CEO Satya Nadella on emerging trends and innovations for business transformation. Along with Envision, Build and Inspire, it’s one of several major conferences hosted by Microsoft each year.

Running from 2nd to 4th November, Ignite is aimed at IT professionals and developers. The event showcases development tools and provides bite-sized training and guidance on getting to grips with new technologies. In pre-pandemic times, it would have been an in-person event costing $$$$, but in the Covid-19 era it’s all on-line and best of all, it’s free to attend.

The overall theme this year is “Take the Lead” and within the conference, there are four streams this year, drawing on both the current environment and new approaches.

  1. Empower everyone for a new world of hybrid work
  2. Innovate anywhere from multicloud to edge
  3. Build a hyperconnected business
  4. Protect everything with end-to-end security

As expected, the programme is chock full of Microsoft goodness: Windows 11, Microsoft 365, Teams, Dynamics 365, Power BI, Azure and so on. There are sessions from beginner level to advanced. Everything from starting to code through to managing Linux endpoints.

I don’t get to program as much as did but I still enjoy keeping up to date with the art of the possible. Being online, it’s easy to drop in on the sessions of interest, and it’s a valuable resource if you’re thinking of a career change. There’s even digital swag, including backgrounds for phones, desktops and Teams, such as the one on the right.

The event starts at 0800 / PDT / 1100 EDT / 1500 GMT with the first keynote 15 minutes later. Last minute registration is still available at the Ignite site.

From Idea to Product with Thrive at Wearable Technology Show

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Specialists in wearable technology, Thrive Wearables helps companies and entrepreneurs take ideas and concepts through to finished products. At the Wearable Technology Show, I chat with Jacob, Thrive’s founder, about their design service and the challenges facing the wearable market in 2018.

To understand what Thrive do, think of a big company that sells goods that aren’t electronic in any way. Say, clothes or shoes. The clothier can see complementary wearables as an opportunity but has no knowledge or experience in the space. In this instance, it can turn to Thrive Wearables to help deliver the imagined product without the need to develop in-house skills.

Alternatively, the Thrive team can mentor startups to get their ideas to a prototype. The startup can then seek the funding needed to take the prototype to finished product.

For example, Thrive worked with BioSelf on their Sensate stress management wareable which is currently in a beta phase and taking pre-orders.

Looking to the future, Jacob sees wearable tech disappearing into clothing and becoming more modularised and seamless. Key to delivering this change are higher quality sensors, better power sources and improved communication networks. Here’s to the next few years.

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Ford Launches the OpenXC Program at CES 2013

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OpenXC Today, January 10 Ford announced the launch of the OpenXC Program at CES 2013. OpenXC is an API to your car. It works off a small hardware module which reads and translate information from a car’s internal network. The module is isolated to ensure it can’t be used to brick your car. The module is based on the Arduino platform. The information can then be access by most Android applications using the OpenXC library. This allows the developer to make applications for the vehicle that have a better interface based on context. They can also integrate with other connected services offering you more insight into your cars operation.

OpenXC is a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Bug Labs. What makes this program different from other existing programs is it is open-source and is built with the hobbyist and independent developer in mind.   It runs on a combination of Arduino and Android platforms. The code to get started will be released on Github and the Ford team will be monitoring Google Groups to answer any questions. OpenXC is not just a software program it can also be used to develop hardware that will extend your vehicle, like for example a Bluetooth Heads-up display.

“Ford is committed to innovating with the help of software and now hardware developers,” said Paul Mascarenas, Ford vice president and chief technical officer. “By connecting cars and trucks to wireless networks, and giving unheard-of access to vehicle data, entirely new application categories and hardware modules can be explored — safety, energy efficiency, sharing, health; the list goes on. OpenXC gives developers and researchers the tools they need to get involved.”

If you are an Android software or hardware developer who is interested in working on a project involving cars then you may want to look into Ford’s OpenXC Program.

This article written @ GeekNewsCentral.com and if seen anyplace else has been illegally re-posted.