My First Five Years Supporting Windows CE
(Bending the Ear of the Giant)
By Chris De Herrera , Copyright 2001
Revised 11/19/2001

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The fifth of a six part article: Getting Started, Writing for the Web, Writing for Microsoft, AOL Changes and so did I, Even More Travel, Ideas and Sharing

Even More Travel

During 2000, Terence Goggin of DoctorCE.com and I were invited to speak at the first Wrox Wireless Developer's Conference in July in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Our talks focused on how the Pocket PCs and Windows CE communicate and how to design applications to work with them. Also, we covered a sample application on how to use wireless to solve business requirements. Prior to the show, I contacted Derek about giving away the new embedded Visual Tools CDs at the show. On short notice he sent us 200 sets of the eMbedded Visual Tools CDs to give the attendees before Microsoft was shipping them to developers in Europe. We were also requested to speak about using the Pocket PC and Windows CE with wireless at InEx in November in Montreal, Canada. Later that year, I was also asked to speak at SAP's E-Business Summit, The ScreenSavers on TechTV and Fall Comdex as well. So during 2000, I logged almost 25,000 miles of travel to cover and discuss the Pocket PC and Windows CE.

Getting More Out of the Pocket PC

During my experience working with the Pocket PC made me realize that there are a lot of things I wanted it to do that Microsoft does not include by default. I have been a friend of Terence Goggin from my discussions about the Windows CE architecture and developing for it. So we talked about creating a few apps that would improve the usability of the Pocket PC prior to its release. These apps include CF2Desktop, 7DayAppointment View and the now infamous RegKing as well as CEWebInstallx, the web based install program for 3-click installation of RegKing. RegKing is my personal favorite since I can quickly add or enhance the features of the Pocket PC for users. The idea behind RegKing is to do things that Microsoft does not support that enhance the usability of the Pocket PC. It is so flexible that I was able to create RegKing 2002 prior to the Pocket PC Launch with 29 new hacks!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Also, late in 2000, I added the first Pocket PC Bug List to create a list of issues and possible options for users. In October of 2001, when the Pocket PC 2002 was launched, I had screen shots, pictures and comparison of Pocket PC 2002 devices. I also immediately start the Pocket PC 2002 Bug List as well. I create and maintain the bug lists independent of Microsoft and the OEMs. They are not in control of what is posted and what is not posted to the list.

The Pocket PC Summit

During the spring 2000, John Tidwell and Mark Winstanley of Multimeteor contacted me to help them create an event for the Pocket PC. Initially, I was concerned about their ability to pull this off, however, I believed that a Pocket PC specific event would be very important to users. So I offered to help them. Well little did I know what that involvement would be! I worked with them to identify topics for discussions as well as people to present these discussions. At the same time, I asked them to nail down the venue and they selected the Fairmont in Santa Monica, a first class hotel. So after a working list of presentations was done, we then worked on whom would be the ideal candidates to speak about these subjects. At the same time, Multimeteor was issuing press releases and getting the event coordinated. So I focused on writing my presentation and recommended that they have a wireless LAN with Internet access for the attendees. They worked with Symbol to sponsor the wireless LAN equipment. Then it came time to work out the details on what these users could do with the LAN. I suggested that we setup an extranet website with information formatted for the Pocket PC and Internet access. So while they created the website, I worked with the hotel to figure out how the network would work. I eventually settled on using Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with NAT and IIS to provide Internet access for all the attendees and staff.

Concept Behind CEWindows.NET

CEWindows.NET is a reflection of my thoughts and ideas on explaining what Windows CE/Pocket PC is and does. I created it so that I did not have to answer the same question hundreds of times on AOL, the newsgroups or in e-mail. So make sure you search CEWindows.NET before e-mailing me! CEWindows.NET truly is one done by one person. Occasionally, I do get articles submitted by others to post on CEWindows.NET, however by far, the majority of the articles are written by myself. So since there's no editor per se, please be patient with my spelling and grammar. I hope you like the style of the articles. I really focus on going straight to the point without a lot of fluff. Also, I hope you find the articles informative without getting too technical. My goal is to give people enough information to appreciate what's required to do something without overwhelming them with the details. There are now over 600 pages on the site with information on a ton of topics. I would appreciate any feedback you have about CEWindows.NET, including the website design. Also, any ideas on future articles are appreciated as well. Sometimes, it's hard to think of a new topic to write about. So feel free to e-mail me your ideas!

On to the final part: Ideas and Sharing

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