Today I got a iGo Ultra-slim Bluetooth Keyboard. I intend to use this device with my HTC Vox and my OQO Model e2 when it arrives. Yes I have cancelled my order for the HTC Shift and have plumbed for the OQO.

The OQO has an already better specification than the HTC Shift. The only bad point is the OQO's keyboard, but the HTC's would have been to small to type with anyway. So for £40 I was able to get the iGo keyboard which folders into a smaller than A5 size and will be easily carried.

For those times when I want to go really light I can leave the iGo at home and just use the OQO's thumbpad. Or I can leave the OQO at home and just use the iGO with my Vox.

As you can see I have plenty of options which I always find encouraging.

Well, something has gone wrong. My simple but functional Live space is now a visual mess and the customise button just errors. There is nothing I can do to correct the issue. I have missing images which relate only to Microsoft web gadget content. So I assume a Microsoft web asset has had an address mod and thus all the gadget links are broken. Well I'll be buggered if I'm going to try and sort this mess out. I'm off to a better experience...bye

Finally I sus which Live Account I used to create my Live space and can publish to my blog again. Ok so it hasn't been a priority for me but I'm happy that I've worked it out.

Note to self: Minimise accounts - try using look for Windows Cardspace support in sites going forward.

OMG! It is only three weeks into my new role as an Enthusiast Evangelist at Microsoft and, true to form for a new role at MS, its been totally mad but very exciting.

As previously mentioned I'm the host for this years Tech Ed: Developer - The Virtual Side, and this has required me to do a whole load of interviews in front of a camera. Very early on, I took a chance and arranged a TV Presenting course at the London Academy of Media, Film and TV (before I got the new role). This can be a two day or a five day masterclass, I did the two day. My goal was to get plenty of experience and professional feedback before I got deep into my new role producing video content on enthusiast stuff!

The two days were well worth it. Sally Gray and Jonas Hurst were the course tutors ( I had hoped to meet Blue Peter icon Peter Purves ) and they had plenty to say about the business and our performances. TV presenting is a hard job, particularly as it is often time pressured. So there is little time for pleasantries. If you aren't delivering your piece to camera as the director would like, well, you get told - concisely!

This of course assumes you have already landed a job. I was very pleased to be a corporate head on the course. All my fellow course students, except Anna, have the challenging task of landing a role to start with.

So having done some interviews for The Virtual Side before the course and then several since, is there a difference? Well yes, clearly I know now what I should be doing, and what I shouldn't be doing. However, knowing and doing are to separate things;so I shall continue to try and use the many lessons learnt on the course and can only hope that my TV presenting skills improve - rapidly!

So what do you do when you are stuck on a dual carriage way for several hours? Well, thanks to a cellular data card I can still work - well at least write this entry.

The A14 is usually such a nice route, but today it is closed. Unfortunately for me and the hundreds of other motorists stuck with me there are no traffic information signs on it; which means as we merrily drive singing along to our favourite tunes or listening intently to the debate on Radio 4, we are unaware of our fate.

Tough - should have got the SatNav option with Traffic Master real-time information feeds. Or at least had your traffic programme search enabled on the car radio.

I have an old TomTom V3 satnav setup cobbled together from various old gadets long since past there best before date. Maybe it is time to upgrade.

One of my friends, working for BMW, enjoys a new car from the latest BMW range every six months, and has had such marvelous experiences with the in-built modern satnav that he now uses it completely by default, even on well known journeys.

Taking a live traffic information feed the latest satnav direct you around the traffice often before you even know there is a problem. the accuracy of these units is now at an awesome level. My friend travels from Berkshire to BMW offices in Germany, France or Belgium and the satnav accurately predicts the door to door travel time - including the channel tunnel rail link.

Time to take the plunge. Satnav evalutation entry coming soon.

I've never done a whole lot of blogging - I've been writing 'proper' articles for printed magazines. After all, my colleagues have been 'blogging like their life depends on it', so I figured I could do something different.

Well following yesterdays blog entry 'moan of the month' I think I'm converted to the power of blogging. I've had very little feedback from my magazine articles but today this blog beat two years of printed magazines hands down.

My thanks goes to the Netcetera team who - on a Saturday morning - tidied everything up on my paulfoster.eu domain. So it is now running perfectly. To my embarrassment the site content is rather empty at the moment; but thank you Netcetera, it feels great to have your hosting expertise and support behind my little web efforts.

As for EU bureaucracy - I still think it sucks.

Things online aren't going so well for me this week. I purchased a new domain name (paulfoster.eu) via my hosters (netcetera) and usually this all goes well. But this time - a whole wheel or something has come off.

I do all my virtual server setup stuff via the Netcetera control panel and this process normally completes without issue. This time I seemed to get the automated process and a person from Netcetera creating vdirs for me. Needless to say things have got in a mess; but two emails later (one more than should have been required) the vdirs are sorted.

Now I'm still waiting for the DNS servers to get wind of my paulfoster.eu domain. After nearly 72 hours (the most DNS should take) I still can't get to my site via its address. I know it is there because I can get to it via the soon2be.net redirect Netcetera implement so you can work on the new site asap (but it costs you an extra £10).

I also notice that the automated domain 'seller' Netcetera have on their control panel home screen still tells me my EU domain is available, although it lists the domain in my purchased list.

Something has gone bad in this purchase I can feel it - could it be those bastards in EU government have detected I'm a Microsoft employee? Or does the new EU domain name incur the same crazy bureaucracy as the EU central government??

One thing is for sure; making comments in the style of Kenny Everret's crazed american general about them is likely to put one in a whole heap of trouble, but frankly I'd like to 'round them all up in a field, and ........!'

So avoiding the very painful possibility of stuffing my sites up again I've decided to post the Tech Ed: Developer here in an entry rather than more appropriately in the right hand menu. Chicken!! brraa-uck, cluck, cluck, cluck.
Sign up for the best technical conference in Europe: Tech Ed: Developer

Tutorials here

Microsoft Robotics Studio is KOOOL! See above for the tutorials available from the web. However, this doesn't yet include a simutlation tutorial. This is the one bit I can't get working. I need to take down the latest Sept CTP and test that.

If you are interested in more PC-Bot detail look here 

Link to White Box Robotics 914PC BOT

the full PC bot specification with a dressed and nude model :p

So I thought you might like to see more of the PC-Bot so I have posted some pictures on this site - see right panel.

What are you going to do with it?

So a common question from colleagues when they see my super cool PC-Bot desktop wallpaper is - what are you going to do with it? They just don't have any imagination!

First of all, my job requires me to travel often. This means I'm not at home as much as I could be in a normal desk job (yuck) so my PC-Bot will be my virtual presence in teh home when I'm away.

Not only will I be able to raise a conversation with my family via Skype or MSN IM, but I will also be able to wonder around the house to see what my family are doing.

Besides spying on them (JOKE) I intend to write a question and answer application that will enable a query to be processed against the web or Media Centre using voice recognition. The answer will be delivered using text to speech.

So in the future with my PC-Bot we will be able to ask: When is Dr Who on?  And the PC-Bot will be able to query the electronic programme guide of the Windows Media Centre (you see I already have the PC inners of my PC-Bot at home and have a CTP of Windows Vista Ultimate running on it. Ultimate edition includes the Windows Media Centre functionality). Although, the TV reception itself in my part of the world isn't good enough for the PC-Bot to have a TV freeview card in it. what I have done is install a WinTV card into the motherboard (only has one slot) got my Vista Media Centre setup via the wizard, and then removed the board. So no TV viewing, but all the other Media Centre functionality.

Other questions I will direct against the Encarta IM conversation agent, the Office research pane research web services and Windows Live Search.

the ultimate test will be to see if I can beat the 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' texting timeout :-) from voice question asked to answer delivered.

Once this basic interface has been built I'll be looking to add some ability for the PC-Bot to navigate the ground floor of my home. We live in a large barn conversation so much of the ground floor is open plan. The trick is to provide the PC-Bot some a means of determining which room it is in. No chance with GPS here.

The PC-Bot is fitted with a single camera as standard but also has plenty of scope to be extended with more hardware. So I can add almost anything I want as long as it fits into one or more 5.25 inch drive bays. I'll probably fit simple pre-determined Infra red beacons flashing at different frequencies like buoy lights and an IR detector in each ground floor room. The beacons will have to be low enough power so as not to flood into adjacent rooms.

Lots more to come on this project.

So the White Box Robotics' site finally gets a refresh. It is great to see the shots of the production PC-Bot 914. It'd be even better for me to see my pre-ordered first production run PC-Bot in the flesh!

In theory it should be here by the end of Sept - a yer late. But boy am I glad to have placed the pre-order!! The retail price of the full production model is enormous - OUCH.

At the beginning I thought that the PC-Bot would be the next thing kids and adults alike would want for their home.  A PC on wheels that they could be used as a interface for access to the web without having to use a keyboard.

the latest .Net Framework provides easy to use managed code libraries to programme the Windows text to speech and speech recognition functionality. Couple this with the recent availability of the Microsoft Robotics Studio CTP (community tech preview) and the programming environment for robotics just got a damn sight easier.

Oh please deliver my PC-Bot sooon!!!

Link to White Box Robotics - About PC-BOTs

So being a busy Microsoft employee and father of two, husband of one, gardener, car mechanic, game keeper adn general labourer I think I'm forgiven for not spending hours on my Xbox.

I've completed Halo, most of the way through Halo 2 but got side tracked by Star Wars Battle Front 2 which not graphically superior to Halo 2, it is my dream battle world. I saw Star Wars the first time round when I was under ten, and although the story lines sagged in a few places (I still can't watch return of the Jedi because of the teddy bears!! Teddy bears for * sake!) I've marvelled through my life at the creative abilities of those people behind the films, the models and now the graphics. Awesome stuff.

So being able to play in this space myself on my Xbox is just awesome.

However, I'm really disappointed that my Xbox Live GamerCard doesn't show any of this stuff.

Guess I'll have to work harder on it!!