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Fun Times At CUTC 2005

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On Thursday Jan 20th I was invited to speak at the CUTC (Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference) "Techshow 2005" at their annual conference in Toronto.  Techshow was done in a "talk-show" style and was just so much fun to be a part of!  500 students and all future developers in the audience!  Just an awesome event.

 

My talk was themed around my part-time persona of "Gadget Man".  Basically, I have taken my extreme "geek" habits and turned them into a talk I do for students around trends in "digital lifestyle" technologies and how they can get involved as developers to fix the "gaps" in the current capabilities of technologies.  My hope is that these students will take a different view on some of the hot new technologies and get inspired on how to develop new applications for them in the future.

 

As I promised to everyone in the audience, my slides will be posted soon. (I will add the link once they are ready)

 

As a little background - this whole "Gadget Man" presentation started when I was asked to speak at the University of Waterloo in Ontario about what I thought were the coolest new trends in technology.

 

What's Cool: 

For CUTC I highlighted a few areas (and included some others in the slides I decided to skip due to time restrictions):

 

  • Voice-Over-IP as an industry-shaking trend, as well as technologies like SIP and Real Time Communications / Live Meeting

 

  • The continuing evolution of Digital Media and the home - including Windows Media Centre 2005, Media Centre Extenders and Portable Media Players. I want to highlight the fact that Media Centre 2005 has an all new SDK that allows anyone to extend the capabilities and to add new features. As an example, check out: https://www.mcesoft.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=143. Also check out Adam Gallant's blog for other MCE focused development articles.

 

  • The acceptance of Web Services by consumers - the example being the new for-fee Napster service which I think is an excellent model of content delivery over broadband

 

  • PodCasting - it kills me that this is named after Apple's iPod, because there are so many great portable players on the market (like the Creative Zen, which I use). I cannot change this now, so I will have to live with it! The ipodder.org definition (https://www.ipodder.org/whatIsPodcasting): "Think how a desktop aggregator works. You subscribe to a set of RSS feeds, and then can easily view the new stuff from all of the feeds together, or each feed separately. Podcasting works the same way, with one exception. Instead of reading the new content on a computer screen, you listen to the new content on a Portable Media device. Think of your Portable Media Player as having a set of subscriptions that are checked regularly for updates. "

 

For more information check out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

 

There are even .NET Podcasts out there - check out the guys from DotNetRocks!!

https://www.dotnetrocks.com

 

 

What's Not-So-Cool:

I feel that it is very important in a presentation such as this to include my thoughts on what doesn't work to balance off the "what's cool" factor.  Technology continuously evolves and while we are making huge strides, there is always room for improvement! For the CUTC talk I focused in on these "gaps":

 

  • Security, Privacy and Anti-Spyware
  • Home Networking Is Still Too Hard
  • File Storage, Organization, Retrieval
  • Backup
  • Islands of Devices
  • Lots of Bad User Interfaces
  • Government Regulation Is Inconsistent
  • Industry Attitudes (Music, Film)

 

My challenge to every student developer out there is to really dig into these issues and put your great talents and innovation to work to close the gaps in the future.  To that end, I have included a few links to get you started:

 

Developer Links:

 

For Gaming:

 

For Windows Media Centre Development:

 

For SPOT:  .NETCPU SDK Kit

 

For Live Communications Server:  https://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/livecomm/default.aspx

 

Of course, one of the best ways to build your development prowess is to compete in the Imagine Cup (www.imaginecup.com).  Canadian students will be really well represented this year and the prize is a trip to Japan for the finals!

 

Lastly - I was asked by a few people where I got my "gadget gossip" from.  The 2 best sites in my opinion are:  www.gizmodo.com and www.engadget.com

 

Thanks to Steve, Katelyn and the CUTC crew for inviting me and I hope I can be back in 2006.

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