Hull, England
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/
Three Thing Game and Summer Bash
May 21 2013
We are trying something new this year. A Three Thing Game during the week and synchronised with the Summer Bash. Worst case we get the summer to recover. Best case it should be fun. All the action takes place over the 30th and 31st of May. We have a… read moreMay 20 2013
We had our Finalists BBQ today. This is pretty much the last free food that students get out of us (except perhaps for the sandwiches at the Degree Ceremony reception in July). Plenty of folks turned up to avail themselves of the various forms of cooked meat (which were… read moreMay 19 2013
We’ve been to Thwaite Gardens Open Day a few years in a row. We had the best weather a couple of years ago, last year was a bit iffy and we weren’t too hopeful about this year. But in the end it was nice and bright, and the sun… read moreMay 18 2013
Went to see "Star Trek into Darkness" today. It is truly splendid. Great story, great ending, nods to the original series and film. I'm looking forward to seeing it again, so that I can get more of the references. The only part of the film that didn't work for me was… read moreMay 18 2013
Went to see "Star Trek into Darkness" today. It is truly splendid. Great story, great ending, nods to the original series and film. I'm looking forward to seeing it again, so that I can get more of the references. The only part of the film that didn't work for me was… read moreHow to Fail your Assessed Course Work
May 17 2013
First a note. We don’t have many people that actually do fail their coursework (although, years ago I did manage it by using a variant of this technique involving punched cards). But over the years I’ve seen enough of these to be able to produce a comprehensive guide. This… read moreMay 16 2013
I found out last week that I've been appointed as a Nokia Developer Champion. I'm not sure if it is for those WAP pages I used to write for my Nokia 7110 (I actually had a script that would read my email and convert it into WAP so that I could read… read moreMay 15 2013
Playing classical music on car horns. And why not? I saw Bill Bailey a few years back when he came to Hull. And today we saw him again. It is amazing to think that one person can entertain a building full of people by just standing there and being… read moreDeal Extreme for Extreme Deals
May 14 2013
If you are looking for anything electronic, and lots of things strange, then I can reccommend these folks. They have a huge range of stock which changes by the hour and includes lots of exotic and interesting components. They price things in dollars and their delivery is free (but very… read moreMay 13 2013
It is exam season here in Hull. Later in the week we have our programming exam. And I’m getting quite a few questions through about C# and stuff. Today I got asked the question “What use is a struct?”. I’ve been spending a lot of time talking about classes… read morePage Navigation in Windows Phone Applications
May 12 2013
I got asked a question about Page Navigation in Windows Phone applications. Having a spare 10 minutes I thought I’d record a tiny screencast about it, which you can find here. It tells you how to make a multi-page Windows Phone application and then navigate between the pages. You… read moreChristian Aid Humber Bridge Cross
May 11 2013
We did the annual Humber Brides cross for Christian Aid today. We’ve been doing this since we had to push the kids around in little chairs, which was quite time ago. The weather was mostly kind to us, apart from the horizontal rain and the cold winds, but we… read moreMay 10 2013
Went to see Iron Man 3 last week. Very good film. Shows the value of having the lead character played by a proper actor. Lots of action and explosions, but also some good plot twists and a very human heart at the centre. Recommended. read moreMay 09 2013
I’ve been playing around with the Pulp-O-Mizer to make some posters for the social events coming down the tracks at the end of this month. You use the web based interface to design great “future-retro” magazine covers. If I lived in the ‘states I’d be able to get posters… read moreMatt Smith at the Imagine Cup Finals
May 08 2013
Good grief. I mean golly gosh. I mean wow. I’ve been involved with the Imagine Cup for a while. I sit at my computer writing emails and looking at entries and usually see it as “a student competition that I play a small part in helping to make work”.… read moreMay 07 2013
I did a revision lecture today for the First Year. The exam is next week. Afterwards I got an email that I found both amusing and a bit irritating. The sender wanted to know what would be coming up in the exam this year “so that I won’t have to… read moreBank Holiday in Good Weather Shock
May 06 2013
A British Bank Holiday and great weather. Shurely shome mishtake? But no. We went out to Dalby Forest, which was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. Mind you, the place being the size it is, there was plenty of room to spread out and have our picnic. I even… read moreMay 05 2013
Thanks, but I’ve been around long enough to know those….. Number one daughter recommended “Injustice: Gods Among Us” as a good game. She reckons it is a good way to find out who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman. Since you can actually do that. Yesterday… read moreMay 04 2013
Last autumn they had a Movie Buffs fair in Hull and I went along and bought a few bits and bobs.Today there was another one and so we went along and took some pictures. Predator Jazz Hands Now, that’s a toy collection “Good time we had, yes”. What I bought,… read moreMay 03 2013
We seem to be having some slightly nicer weather at the moment. So much so that the blossom has arrived. Which is nice. read moreMay 02 2013
So I was looking something up on the http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/ site. And I noticed that they had some Pebble watches for sale. They must have backed the Kickstarter at an early stage. Anyhoo, I’ve always liked different watches, and so I placed an order. And today it arrived. And very… read moreMay 01 2013
Best Phone Advert Evah. I’ve been chuckling over this phone advert ever since Ginny pointed me at it. Absolutely awesome. read moreRead the Specification. Please.
April 30 2013
I think that more software projects fail because of misunderstandings about the specification than for any other reason. The developer makes loads of assumptions about what the program needs to do and the customer can’t be bothered to keep an eye on what is being produced. I was reminded… read moreApril 29 2013
The LensBaby composer is a lens mounted on a ball and socket arrangement which you can twist to change the way that it focuses the light onto the camera sensor. I bought one a while back and every now and then I get it out and have a play. It… read moreApril 28 2013
When I was a kid, whenever someone gave me some toy or other one of the first things I would to was take it to pieces to find out how it worked. To my credit, I was usually able to put the thing back together again, although I must… read moreApril 27 2013
I’ve been playing with Python for a while now and I quite like the language. If you’re looking for a good book to get you started writing Python for the Raspberry Pi and having fun doing it, I can recommend this one. It covers the language in a very… read moreRob at TechEd North America 2013
April 26 2013
I’m very pleased to be able to report that I’ve been invited to deliver a couple of sessions at TechEd North America 2013 in New Orleans. I’m doing WPH-B302 “Secrets of using background agents for Windows Phone 8” and WPH-B301 “Speechifying your Windows Phone 8 Applications”. New Orleans is… read moreGrand Finale Three Thing Game and Bash
April 25 2013
A couple of dates for your diaries. May 30th and May 31st. These are when we are doing our Grand Finale events for the year. On May 30th we will be starting a Three Thing Game and having a Summer Bash. Hull students can take part in either, or… read moreStart your Own Business. Why not?
April 24 2013
Liz Johnson from the university Knowledge Exchange gave a Rather Useful Seminar on starting your own business today. We had a very good audience which was nice to see. The great thing about a Computer Science student is that they already have a bunch of skills that can actually drive… read moreApril 23 2013
I’ve been doing some more printing for Peter’s 3D printer. It seems like one of the principle uses for a 3D printer is to print parts for another 3D printer. I think this is probably how they are going to take over the world…… read moreHeartotron Wins Microsoft UK Global Game Jam Competition
April 23 2013
I always tell students to enter all the competitions they can because, you never know what might happen. You probably won’t win. But then again, if you don’t enter you definitely won’t win. Simon, David, David, Lewis and myself formed a team to take part in the Global Game… read moreRather Useful Seminar: Start your own business
April 22 2013
If you want to find out more about starting your own business and how to develop ideas, then you should come along to the Rather Useful Seminar on Wednesday this week. Liz Johnson of the university Knowledge Exchange will be giving tips on product development and business formation. If you’ve got… read moreMake a Font from your Handwriting
April 21 2013
I came across this a while back, via a tweet from Ed and the website The Cheese Thief. Today I actually got around to playing with it. It works rather well, as you can see above. All you have to do is download the form, fill in the boxes,… read moreApril 20 2013
At the moment quite a few of the first year are working on a “Space Killers” game. Above you can see my sample screenshot from the specification. You can see that my graphical design abilities are around the same as usual. The idea is that the player (the green… read moreApril 19 2013
Chris (the author the above) was kind enough to send me a copy to take a look at. You can download your own from Amazon for the princely sum of 2 pounds 22 pence. If you want to know what 3D printing is all about, how it works, and… read moreApril 18 2013
Just a week after the event, some notes from the Hull Digital April Meetup on the 11th. I was a bit late arriving, but I did get to see some interesting stuff about Model View Controller (MVC) in JavaScript from Duncan McMillan. He’s a web designer and developer at… read moreAlso find Rob on:
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