Straight
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In the midst of central London, a successful Indian restaurant called
‘Gaylord’ is run by a Londoner of Indian origin called Pinu.
A simple soul at he...
16 years ago
4:58 AM
MIX09 may be in March, but we have the details on the conference for you a bit early. Sign up by February 13 and save $400!
Always hosted in Las Vegas, MIX is an annual conference for developers, designers, and enthusiasts who are interested in discussing Microsoft's latest web-oriented products and services. MIX09 will be the fourth chapter of MIX, held from March 18-20 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. Scott Guthrie, corporate VP of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, will be making the two hour keynote speech on Wednesday at 9AM. This will be the only keynote at the conference, which is a bit surprising if you take into account that last year's edition had two keynotes and five separate speakers.
Technologies that will be covered include, but are of course not limited to, the following:
- Windows Live
- Windows Azure
- Expression and Visual Studio 2010
- ASP.NET, C#, and so on
- IIS 7.0
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
- Silverlight 3
- Internet Explorer 8
Even if you're not interested in any of the above, MIX09 will attract many Microsoft employees from other divisions, not to mention from other companies; it's always a great opportunity to network with employees and employers of some of the world's largest tech businesses. There will also be many pre-event workshops, sessions (not all of them have been posted yet), and mini-sessions (new this year) that should keep you busy. Mini-sessions are 20 minutes long and grouped into blocks of three by topic. Attendees can attend the full block or pick and choose to attend individual ones.
The registration is not yet full at the time of publishing. The conference is still two months away, but the reason I'm posting this now is because of the discount for early registration. Normally registration is $1395 ($295 for the workshops) but if you register by February 13 you can save $400 (use RSVP code MIX09offer). You can also get an Academic Discounted Registration for $595.If you're not attending, don't worry; we'll keep you updated all the way through MIX09.
4:53 AM
In response to negative feedback, Microsoft has tweaked the Windows Mobile 6.5 honeycomb user interface.
When Windows Mobile 6.5 was officially revealed last month at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2009 in Barcelona, it sported the honeycomb Start screen that users couldn't quite agree on, even when early screenshots began to leak. Apparently, soon after Microsoft started dogfooding Windows Mobile 6.5 and related services internally last week, feedback coming from its employees started coming in, and it wasn't very positive. This was apparently the final blow, because at MIX09 this week, it has come to light that Microsoft has acted on the negative comments and tweaked the honeycomb interface.
While the layout remains the same and the icons are in the exact same place, they have been enlarged and the actual honeycomb outline (hexagons around each icon) is gone. Furthermore, scrolling up or down no longer means going all the way to the top or all the way to the bottom: the second the finger leaves the screen, scrolling will stop.
The rather blurry screenshot above is actually two screencaps of a video which is filming Loke Uei Tan, Senior Technical Product Manager of the Mobile and Embedded Devices Group in Microsoft, as he uses the new interface during one of the 129 sessions at MIX09. This one was entitled "Windows Mobile 6.5 Overview," and before showing off the changes, Tan says in the video: "The middle screen is what we call the honeycomb interface. Well, this screenshot is a little bit old. We've got some feedback from the users that says 'Hey, wait a minute, this honeycomb UI doesn't work very well. Let's change it a little bit.' So I'll show you what the new one looks like." I've embedded the full video of the session below (Silverlight required, honeycomb changes start at 6:50).
It's not the first time Microsoft has altered a key UI element during the beta development phase, but it's still very interesting because there must have been quite an uproar if the company made the changes even after having publicly unveiled the new operating system. That said, while the tweaks are notable, the fact that the honeycomb layout remains demonstrates that the changes are an evolution, not a revolution.
2:21 AM
The latest features in the new iPhone OS 3.0 make it a better phone, GPS, gaming and computing platforms. But they also have the potential to turn it into the most perfect sex toy yet.
Dr. Debby Herbenick—author and sex expert—liked our iPhone 3.0 guide so much that she wrote a great phone sex guide inspired by it. Which got me thinking: Can the new OS make the iPhone the best sexual toy ever?
Actually, I think it can. Or at least, it has all the elements to turn it into the most sophisticated sexual machine I can imagine.
Let's start with the basics: First, the new iPhone OS 3.0 adds a rumble application programming interface. Basically, this will allow developers to fine tune the vibration of the iPhone itself. A perfect sexual toy application would be able to store vibration patterns to suit the needs and mood of the user.
But more importantly, it will also receive them wirelessly, in real time: One iPhone running my hypothetical Shiny Shiny Sexual Toy™ would be able to control the other using a simple graphical user interface, over the network.
In this perfect sexual toy application, there will be a list of sexual partners you can play with across the internet. It will also allow to record sessions and also talk using the new Voice Over IP communication at the same time you are playing. Like the games demonstrated yesterday, but for adults.
And that's just the start. Imagine the possibilities of push notifications and Bluetooth peer-to-peer networking: Woman walks into airport lounge with the sexual toy app in "receive mode." Another iPhone sexual toy user is scanning the application and detects her in proximity, so he or she sends a notification, inviting her to play.
They don't have to get directly into the action, of course. Like Dr. Debby says, there are preliminaries, like in every sexual activity. This is where text chat, profiles, and avatars get into scene. A conversation will ensue and, if things get exciting, they can start playing using the vibration mode.
Of course, you are probably thinking, it's ok to play with the vibration mode in the iPhone itself if you are in the privacy of your home... but in public?
That's where the new Device Control interface and the Bluetooth connectivity comes in: The sexual toy would be able to turn the iPhone into the toy itself but it would also be capable of controlling compatible devices—small or big vibrators or chinese balls or whatever device you can think about.
Of course, there's the matter of doing this kind of things in public, but hey, I'm European, and you know we are all pervs there who love sex in public (and hey, you can always run into the bathroom, as long as you keep yourself within wireless range).
Sure, some will say that toy-aided cybersex is nothing compared to the real thing, but seriously, even while sometimes they are fun, one-night stands are just way too messy for me. Knowing that I'm having casual sex with someone in such close proximity will be a definitive turn on. And who knows, perhaps the start of something else.
