Windows Phone 7

Take a day off to attend Microsoft Windows Phone 7 (WP7) Unleashed workshop. This is a hand on work shop, no marketing stuffs. Although I'm working on Android and gradually moving toward the Open Source and Linux, I love to keep up my current skills in Microsoft Windows technology.

Prior to the workshop, I needed to download and installed Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta. Honest to say, WP7 is much better than previous version Windows Mobile. The tool used to develop for Windows Phone is much easier than the tool used to develop Android. For Android, I must downloaded and installed Java SDK, Android SDK, Eclipse JSEE separately. Manually configured Android Virtual Device (AVD). However, for Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools, it just one click. Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone is much better than Eclipse.

There were four sessions for this work shop. When I worked on the first lab, Windows Phone Emulator could not load on virtual machine running Windows Vista. Thus, I must switched back to my Windows 7 partition. Moved on to lab number two, the Click event handler for the Search button did not work. Hmmm, I followed step by step as in lab document. I also had a chance to take a look on Windows Phone 7 handset. The LG Windows Phone 7 was bigger and thicker than my LG Android. The speakers provided useful information regarding to WP7.

I don't know WP7 is success in the future or not. At least right now, it has my attention. It's competitive with Android and iPhone.

New Laptop

As I mentioned last month, my four years old laptop overworked. Its screen could not display more than one minutes. I must use an external monitor to see. It was my first laptop to fail. My other eight years old Toshiba laptop worked great with email, DOS applications, Windows-based applications, documents, spreadsheets, but not with media web-based applications or games. In the past, I upgraded my computer only when it was too slow and I need a fast CPU and big hard drive to work more efficiency.

At first, I thought I'm going to get a laptop with no operating system or with Ubuntu. I will install Ubuntu 10.04 by myself. Since last year, when I went back to GNU/Linux, I love to use Ubuntu. I used Ubuntu Desktop on daily basic. I also working with many Microsoft applications every day, everywhere. So, it's practical to get a laptop with Genuine Windows® 7, partition its hard drive into two. One for Microsoft Windows® 7. One for Ubuntu 10.04.

My first task: applied all Windows updates on my new laptop. Next, replaced the trial-ware anti-virus software with Microsoft Security Essentials. After installed Microsoft Security Essentials, I installed or updated to the latest version of essential applications:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader. 
• Adobe Flash Player. 
• Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla Firefox is my primary default browser. To me, it must more secure and faster than Microsoft Internet Explorer. It's better to have two browsers on your computer.
• OpenOffice.org, a free open productivity suite. My new laptop has preloaded Microsoft Office Starter 2010. I don't use them since it could not open my password protected documents. With OpenOffice.org, I can open any Microsoft or OpenOffice.org documents, spreadsheets, presentations.

In addition to these essential applications above, as a developer, I needed these stuffs to work:

• Notepad++, a free source editor.
• Visual Web Developer® 2010 Express. 
• Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. 
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.
• Android SDK.
• Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers. 

That all for my Windows 7 partition. I will write about my Ubuntu next time.

Overwork

My four years old laptop overworks as its owner. It works more than 12 hours a day. As you see in the picture below, I'm using Oracle VM VirtualBox to run Windows Vista and Windows 7 inside Ubuntu 10.04. Since late 2009, I used GNU/Linux on daily basic. Using virtual PC help me to evaluate a new system, here is Windows 7, test and support my Windows and Web applications running in Windows Vista, while I'm working with new Android project in Ubuntu without reboot to Window partition or remote access to other computers.

Happy July Fourth

To me, July Fourth is a not only the Independence Day but it's a symbol of freedom. I'm happy with my freedom of speech, freedom of travel, rights to practice my religious belief, rights to elect the government officials, ...

I'm proud to be an American. Thank God grant me the freedom, a place to live in this great country.

Tình Cha

Nhạc sĩ: Ngọc Sơn

Tình Cha ấm áp như vầng Thái Dương
Ngọt ngào như giòng nước tuôn đầu nguồn
Suốt đời vì con gian nan,
Ân tình đậm sâu bao nhiêu, Cha hỡi Cha già dấu yêu

Và con nhớ mãi những ngày tháng qua
Kỷ niệm năm nào khó phai trong lòng
Nhớ hoài tuổi thơ bên Cha, gian khổ ngày đêm chăm lo
Mong muốn con được lớn khôn
Còn nhớ những ngày ấy, những đêm trường giá lạnh
Và Cha nằm ôm con sưởi ấm những canh dài
Nhè nhẹ hôn con và Cha khẽ nói: Này con yêu ơi...
Con hãy nhớ.. hãy nhớ... lời Cha sống cho nên người
và con hãy chớ bao giờ dối gian
Nghèo thì cho sạch rách sao cho thơm!
Những lời của Cha năm xưa
Con nguyện ghi sâu trong tim
Cha hỡi Cha già dấu yêu...



Happy Father's Day

Google I/O 2010

Since Google I/O 2010 soldout early, I could not attend this great developer event. I watched the I/O keynotes live on the GoogleDevelopers YouTube channel from my office. With two computers, I multitasks: listened to speaker while worked on my desktop.

What I learn from Google I/O 2010:

• HTML5, VP8, webM
• Google TV
• Chrome Web Store
• Google Web Toolkit integrate with Spring Roo
• Using Google Wave to collaborate
• Google Apps Engine for Busines
• Google Google Storage for Developers

and of course, my favorite, Android development.

There are a lot of technical sessions I need to view this weekend. I'm so excited about Google development. I tell myself I will not miss the next Google I/O.

Thơ: Người đàn bà thứ hai

On Mother's day, I repost this touching Vietnamese poem as a token of appreciation to two wonderful women in my life: my mother and my wife.

Viet

Người đàn bà thứ hai
Tác giả: Phan Thị Vĩnh Hà

Mẹ đừng buồn khi anh ấy yêu con
Bởi trước con anh ấy là của mẹ
Anh ấy có thể yêu con một thời trai trẻ
Nhưng suốt đời anh yêu mẹ, mẹ ơi !
Mẹ đã sinh ra anh ấy trên đời
Hình bóng mẹ lồng vào tim anh ấy
Dẫu bây giờ con đuợc yêu thế đấy
Con cũng chỉ là người đàn bà thứ hai…
Mẹ đừng buồn những chiều hôm, những ban mai
Anh ấy có thể nhớ con hơn nhớ mẹ
Nhưng con chỉ là cơn gió nhẹ
Mẹ luôn là bến bờ thương nhớ của đời anh.
Con chỉ là cơn gió mong manh
Những người đàn bà khác có thể thay thế con trong tim anh ấy
Nhưng có một tình yêu âm ỉ cháy
Anh ấy chỉ dành cho mẹ, mẹ ơi !
Anh ấy có thể sống với con suốt cuộc đời
Cũng có thể chia tay trong ngày mai, có thể
Nhưng anh ấy suốt đời yêu mẹ
Dù thế nào, con chỉ là người thứ hai…

(Bài thơ này đã được nhạc sĩ Xuân Phương phổ nhạc thành nhạc phẩm cùng tên.)