Hull, Great Britain
Windows Phone expert, trainer, author
Areas of Expertise:
- C#
- Visual Studio
- .NET Micro Framework
- Windows Phone
- speaking
- training
- writing
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Rob blogs at:
http://www.robmiles.com/
Chris Wooding and the Ketty Jay
February 05 2012
If you are looking for a bit of escapist Science Fiction/Fantasy stuff then take a look at Chris Wooding. I’ve just read the first of his Ketty Jay series and it is a rollicking good fun. If you enjoy Harry Harrison, Blake's Seven, Firefly kind of stuff then you’ll… read moreFebruary 04 2012
Here’s a tip. If you are buying a digital camera which is not completely new, point it at a white piece of paper and take a photo. Then look at the result. The photograph will show you if there is any dirt on the sensor or the lens. I… read moreTutorials, Objects and References
February 03 2012
We are doing objects and references in the First Year tutorial today. Great fun. Well, at least I thought so. I asked the class whether big objects in memory have larger references than small ones. They don’t – the size of the tag is always the same – no… read moreWhen is a number not a number?
February 02 2012
Pop quiz. What would the following C# code do? float x = 1; float y = 0; float result = x / y; Console.WriteLine(result); Fail to compile. Throw an overflow exception. Print “Infinity” Cause the universe to explode. Here’s the thing, the code prints the word “Infinity”. Dividing any floating point variable… read moreFebruary 01 2012
Lovers of fine literature (and those who read my books) will be thrilled to know that my XNA 4.0 book is half price today on the O’Reilly site. This is the latest version, that also covers Windows Phone game development and features words of wisdom from “The Great Programmer”.… read moreJanuary 31 2012
I actually own this single on 12” vinyl. I bet it is worth a fortune now…. One of the nice things about having a Zune Pass is that I can track down old bands that I used to listen to in the old days. Like Living in a Box. I’m sure… read moreJanuary 31 2012
I’m off on my travels again next month. I’m doing sessions about Windows Phone and Kinect at TechDays in Belgium and the Netherlands and then hopping over to SIGCSE in the USA to give some sessions there too. The plan is to develop and maybe even publish a complete… read moreJanuary 30 2012
The students came back to lectures today. A chance to use all those great jokes that I’ve been practicing over the break. Or something. read moreJanuary 29 2012
Drawing with your fingers on an iPad is fine, but not natural. The Crayola colouring pen gives you something to hold on to as you draw, which is nice. I first thought it was just a pen that works on a touch screen, but there is more to it… read moreJanuary 28 2012
Lego Star Wars Battle of Hoth is a neat little game which they say is for up to four players but works best with just two, light against dark. You take it in turns to move and attack your little Lego snow speeders and AT-ATs in an attempt to… read moreJanuary 27 2012
Did my Graduands Marshal thing this morning. As usual I took a picture of the audience and it mostly came out OK, sorry if you are in the blurry part of the audience… There are some more of the other ceremonies on Flickr. Click on the right to find… read moreJanuary 26 2012
I have a few hero/heroines in my life. One of them is Verity Stob. She has been writing about computers for about as long as I’ve been playing with them. I’ve mentioned her before, and now I’ve discovered to my great joy that she is still writing for The… read moreJanuary 25 2012
Had a chat with Jon Moss today. He’s one of the movers and shakers behind Hull Digital. I’ve been to a few of their events, which are usually (and very sensibly) held at one of my favourite eating places in Hull, Fudge in Princes Ave. If you want to… read moreJanuary 24 2012
If you’ve wondered where I’ve been for a week. Or why I’ve suddenly just had time to suddenly produce seven blog updates (ahem) it’s because I’ve been writing. Book stuff. Twelve chapters on having fun with your Kinect using the Kinect SDK and your PC. I’ve been squashing pretend… read moreThree Thing Game Three is Coming
January 23 2012
Keep your diaries free for the weekend of 17th 18th March folks. You know why…. read moreJanuary 22 2012
Last week I sold a MacBook and bought a camera. And got a free copy of Adobe Lightroom. And it is wonderful. Up until now I’ve been muddling through managing my many photographs, keeping them in folders and using Windows explorer to find and look after them. This mostly… read moreJanuary 21 2012
These are really neat usb-hubs from Red5. I got the red one. Now I feel a need to own one of each…. read moreJanuary 20 2012
I think my Lumia 800 is turning me into a fashion victim. I got the Nokia blue case today. Looks pretty good too, as you can see. Special prize for naming the person in the back of the picture. I love the way that the case doesn’t look like… read moreEscape Characters in XNA fonts
January 19 2012
I’m making a sister application for the PlayMusic application. The PlayMusic program doesn’t do much, it just starts playing a random playlist when you run it. Not a lot of functionality, but it does mean you can start music playing by issuing a spoken command. I’ve had nearly a… read moreJanuary 18 2012
I had one of those happy/sad moments today. Someone showed me a stunning little game they’d written for Windows Phone. Snappy graphics and fun to play. “Is it in the Marketplace?” I asked. “No” was the reply. Some people hold back until their game is “finished”. This is a… read moreJanuary 17 2012
I said that anyone revising the Software Development exam could tweet their question with the tag #08220revison and I’d answer as best I could. Here are some of the answers. Good luck in the exam folks. Multiplicity: A library can have lots of books. The multiplicity is one library… read moreJanuary 16 2012
This DVD arrived in the post today. It contains a whole bunch of Windows Phone curriculum content, some of which was written by me. It includes stuff about Windows Phone development and Windows Azure on the phone. If you want a DVD of your own, or to download the… read moreJanuary 15 2012
I’m always impressed by how clever modern things are. But I’m also perplexed how some people take all this cleverness and make things that aren’t very useful. Take my telly. I’ve got a Sony PS3 plugged into a Sony amplifier which is connected to a Sony TV. When I… read moreJanuary 14 2012
Bought four of these today. Very expensive, but they did each come with a free chair. read moreJanuary 13 2012
Got a spiffy red case for my Lumia 800 today. I like the way that it really looks part of the phone, even to the way that the buttons show through holds in the case itself. I’ve got a blue one on order so that I can change the… read moreMaking Kids Creative with Computers
January 12 2012
This seems to be the year that the education system woke up to the fact that getting kids to make things with computers is a good idea. Excellent. I’m sure it was my blog post yesterday that tipped the balance…. Anyhoo, if you’ve got kids and you want to… read moreVirtual Bug Splatting with Kinect
January 11 2012
This is me “holding” my virtual mallet. I’m writing a chapter of the Kinect Book about Augmented Reality. All I need to add now is some bugs to splat… read moreComputer Science is Creative. Fact.
January 10 2012
The Guardian has just produced an article with the rather depressing title “Britain's computer science courses failing to give workers digital skills”. You can read it here. The gist of the text is that ‘poor quality training’ and ‘sausage factory’ courses are not providing the skilled and useful people… read moreJanuary 09 2012
This is the output from my XNA “Kinect Pop Art” program. I’ve had it running up to 100 frames each way and it just keeps going…. read moreJanuary 08 2012
I was up in the loft again today and I happened across something of great historical interest. I found a Computer Science Departmental Prospectus from 1978, the year that I graduated. I’d kept it because, ahem, I’m in it. This is the cover. Any idea which language this is? ..and… read moreThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
January 07 2012
Went to see the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo today. I read the book some time back and enjoyed it. Then I read the sequel and enjoyed it somewhat less. Then I read the third book in the series and finished it because I’d paid for it and I… read moreJanuary 06 2012
Some time last year I had a silly idea for a program where you could control the colour of your phone screen by just tipping it around. I spent around an hour making the code and adding some averaging so that the colour didn’t flicker too much when you… read moreA Computer that talks to itself…
January 05 2012
I’m still working on the Kinect voice controlled human painting program. First thing I need is a shorter name… Today I added a feature I thought would be really cool. Voice response is one thing, but I also wanted the computer to talk back when I issued a command.… read moreJanuary 04 2012
I drew these pictures myself. With myself. This is the first ever picture from my Kinect Drawing program. This lets you use your arm to draw on the screen by waving it around.. You can use voice commands to select the colour you want to draw with or you… read moreJanuary 03 2012
I also got this awesome “All Terrain Robot” kit for Christmas. Once you have spent a happy couple of hours building the individual components you can fit them together to make either a six tracked all terrain robot, a forklift truck or my favourite, the beer stealing ‘Gripper bot’ that… read moreAlso find Rob on:
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