Thanks for listening (and of course the comments and feedback)!

-John Mullinax

Actually, too many t-shirts… as we accidentally gave away some of the ones we were planning to wear over the next 4 days!  Fortunately, we should get more in Colorado tomorrow night. 

After Northwestern, we began heading out of the city but decided to make a stop for some electronics supplies at Office Max.  I picked up a portable GPS (as the Ford Flex I’m driving is an engineering test car that is not equipped with navigation).  I think it will get a lot of use in my 2002 Mercury Mountaineer when I get back home, too. 

After setting up the GPS, and adding a couple of uninterruptable power supplies to the Fiestas to smooth out the power flow coming out of the inverter to the Windows 7 pieces, we got back on the road. 

That is when things turned south.  The yellow Ford Fiesta on our trip was sideswiped in heavy traffic, leaving black marks all over the side of the vehicle, chipping the paint, and putting a very small dent low in the driver’s door.  Ugh.  The yellow Fiesta, which we’ve affectionately named “Mac & Cheese”, is a 2011 pre-production American model running the new SYNC AppLink that we intend to show off at Maker Faire… major bummer.  Fortunately, everyone is safe – no one got hurt.  Hopefully we will be able to get it cleaned up in time for Maker Faire on May 22-23rd. 

By the time the police came, took the the accident report, etc., and we finally got packed up and out of Chicago it was well after 3:30pm. 

Finally got into Omaha, Nebraska after 1:00am… wheh!

Tomorrow, we’re having breakfast with Ford Dealers in Omaha, and then it’s on to Boulder Colorado, and a what will be much needed day of rest on Sunday in Boulder. 

If you’re in Boulder this weekend, come on out and join us at the Bookend Cafe on the CU campus, Sunday, May 16th!  The fun starts at 6pm, and officially goes until 8pm – though we may go longer.  We’d love to say “Hi”, introduce you to AJtheFiesta, and show you the platform for custom in-car apps on Windows 7 and Microsoft Robotics Studio! 

Videos from today are processing to Vimeo now… i’ll get them up as soon as I can, but for now please enjoy this video of Professor Jason Flinn talking about what he learned running this class at the University of Michigan with Ford and Microsoft! 

Jason Flinn - American Journey 2.0 interview from John Mullinax on Vimeo.

We left the campus today a little after 2:30pm and stopped immediately for lunch in Ann Arbor. 

After some good mexican food, we hit the road in earnest close to 4pm.   Weather was good on the drive this afternoon, and we got into Chicago shortly before dark. 

After showing off AjtheFiesta at Harry Caray’s Tavern, we had a bite to eat and headed to our hotel in Evanston to get ready for our event tomorrow at Northwestern University. 

A long day of driving ahead tomorrow! 

I’ll leave you with this video of Joe Ross demoing the “Road Rally”, “Post”, “Mood”, and “Local Search” applications yesterday that Ford built using the Fiestaware platform that is built on top of Windows 7 and Microsoft Robotics Studio. 

Joe Ross Demo of a American Journey 2.0 Fiesta app from John Mullinax on Vimeo.

Photo caption: TJ Giuli of Ford Resrearch (center) and Ranjith Ramakrishnan of Cumulux (right) getting set up before their SxSWi session

You might have also seen TJ and Ranjith demoing Fiestaware in the Windows 7 area of Microsoft’s Interactive Lounge space. 

Photo caption: Ranjith explaining the Fiestaware platform to SxSWi attendees

In terms of where car apps are headed, well, they are headed right for us!  Ford is pursuing multiple paths in parallel when it comes to car apps.  One of those paths is the next generation of Ford SYNC. For more on this line of innovation, definitely check out Ford's CES keynote where they gave an in-depth look at how SYNC is evolving to support 3rd party apps. The basic model here is that apps will run on devices that you bring into the car, but apps written to use the new Ford SYNC AppLink can be controlled by the UX paradigms that are natural for the car environment -- voice, touch, and hard buttons. This capability is first available on the 2011 Ford Fiesta (which just launched, btw)… and you can see Ford Product Manager Julius Marchwicki demo it here in this video clip.

The second path TJ talked about  -- and the main focus of his talk at SxSW -- was a project we’ve been working on together with Ford Research for a quite a while now to build out the Ford “Fiestaware” application platform for custom apps.  This pic of slide from TJ’s talk gives a little info about the platform (below).

Photo caption: One of TJ’s slides from his SxSWi panel session

Basically, the Fiestaware platform is built on top of Windows 7, and supports a multi-modal user interface with .NET/Windows Presentation Foundation for the screens, Windows 7 Speech  API for voice and Windows 7 Touch APIs for touch.  The screen is single touch, but with multi-touch capable hardware the platform becomes multi-touch capable. 

The Fiestaware platform uses Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio to expose virtually every sensor on the vehicle as Distributed System Services (DSS) to programmers without requiring developers to be experts in embedded vehicle systems.  Additionally, the platform includes SQL CE to support caching/syncing to SQL Azure to gracefully handle cases where network connection is not available. 

We worked with Ford and the University of Michigan to run a course this spring to teach CS undergrads and grad school designers to build with this platform and then see what kinds of apps they would find interesting enough to build for themselves.  TJ was an official course instructor working with Professors Brian Noble and Jason Flinn, and Microsoft delivered 8 of the course lectures, as well as a half day session on WPF and Expression Blend.  We also gave the students and Ford team direct access to Microsoft architects and developers via email in case they had questions. 

At the end of the term, we ran a contest… there were six teams building apps, and the best team would be sponsored to join a road trip from Ann Arbor out to Maker Faire to show off their apps in a booth with Ford, Intel, and Microsoft – called American Journey 2.0. 

What the students came up with in about 100 days is really impressive!  Sure, we gave them some help – but they picked up the technology really fast.  A prime goal was to make the platform accessible to developers, and to see the quality of the innovation they all delivered is really fantastic.  A sincere congratulations to all the students!!  To see their work for yourself, check out ReadWriteWeb’s American Journey 2.0 coverage, and also Ford’s video on American Journey 2.0 here.  

We just had a media event with Ford this afternoon, and there’s lots more to share soon.  :)

photo caption: Two of the Ford Fiestas making the road trip with Ford, UofM, and Microsoft folks out to Maker Faire. 

For one, I’ll be driving with the Ford and university of Michigan team out to Maker Faire, and will have regular posts from the road.  In the mean time, why not follow the AJtheFiesta?  Ford has given the *car* a twitter account and it will be posting and checking in via 4SQ from the road. 

And if you’re in Chicago tomorrow night (13-May), come out to Harry Caray’s at 8pm to meet the Ford, Michigan, and Microsoft folks on the road trip and say “Hi”! (Facebook invite: http://bit.ly/8XPaqv ). 

In that case, check out the free webcast training: “An Hour in the Cloud with Windows Azure” – Now with an extra free half hour! (that is, it’s 90 minutes :) ).   

You can get the schedule and register at the link above or here.  Also: I’ve pasted the full event description below: 

Event Overview

Why is Azure important?

Have you wondered how cloud computing can bring your ideas to the web faster? Reduce your IT costs? Or be able to respond quickly to changes in your business and customers needs? If so, then you need to find out what Azure is all about!

What is this Windows Azure training?

In this Windows Azure training session you will learn about Azure; how to develop and launch your own application as well as how it impacts YOUR daily life.

What does it cost me?

There is NO cost to participate in this training.

The Agenda:

 Overview of Cloud Computing

 Introduction to Windows Azure

 Tour of the Azure Portal

 Uploading your first Azure package

 Real world Scenario

 Experiencing your first cloud app & behind the scenes

 Q & A

How do I attend:

Find the day and time that works best for you, then click to register. Everything you need will be emailed prior to the start of the training

Trainers:

These sessions are conducted by Cumulux who is strategic services partner for Fortune 100 customers like Ford and Microsoft.

Final note: I’ve had the good fortune to work with the folks at Cumulux, who are delivering this training series, and they are a smart, talented, hard working bunch! 

It’s an extremely cool idea to make collaboration easier, and avoid version control issues that come up when emailing files around or having to wait to update a version-controlled document because it is “locked” for editing. 

But how exactly do you do co-authoring?   Check out the short video below to find out.

See here to learn more about Office 2010.  You can also pre-order Office 2010 here.

Who is Brian Prince?  Brian is a colleague of mine at Microsoft, and an outstanding Architect Evangelist who is personally and professional dedicated to helping the people who make up the software developer ecosystem grow and get better at what they do. 

If you’ve ever emailed Brian while he has been out of the office, you will recognize these as museum quality reproductions of his actual out of office messages.  For posterity, they are presented here in complete fidelity to the original messages with the only exception being that I’ve removed the individual email addresses of co-workers so that spammers will not target them. 

BTW, Thanks to the wonderful searching, filtering, and sorting features of Outlook 2010, compiling this list did not waste nearly as much valuable time as you are probably thinking.   

Without further ado:

Ninth

I am OOF yet again. What is OOF you say? Well it is an old part of Microsoft culture (and a cornerstone of our own internal secret language) that dates back many many years. It means 'out of facility', or out of office.

I will will be OOF until 4/12. I am travelling around visiting customers in Nashville. Then I drive six hours home to get clothes and see the family for an hour, and then I drive six more hours in the opposite direction to KalamazooX conference in Kalamazoo, MI. It is a great conference, and I can't wait to go. I will be speaking on how the community is a giant pile of horse crap. Intriqued? Come on up! http://kalamazoox.org/

Please leave an email at the end of the beep and I will return it as soon as possible.

Eighth

On the road again, travelling around Nashville, Cincinnati, and Louisville. I will be home on 5/25/2008. I will be periodically checking email, so hang tight.

Who do you think is the fifth member of the final five on Battlestar Galactica?

-bhp

Seventh

I am out wandering around Tennessee right now. I will be visiting customers, and holding ArcReady events this week. I should be able to check my email (in between rounds of Call of Duty 4, you see I finished Civ and Orange Box, and the hotel I am staying at has a 42" plasma screen with an HDMI port.)

If it is an emergency, please call 911. Otherwise, try one of my fabulous team members: Bill Steele, Jennifer Marsman, and Jeff Blankenburg. If you are just plain bored, and looking for something to do, pleaes read my blog at www.brianHprince.com. And if you are a Nigerian Scammer, please be aware that I am not allowed to funnel money out of foreign countries based on company policy.

For those keeping score, I did finally get a Halo3 ringtone for my phone, but what I really want is a classic Mario ringtone.

Sixth

I am not able to effectively or immediately respond to your email because I will be traversing both Tennessee and Indiana this week. Of course Ohio will be involved, since I don't have any other way to get to Indiana from Tennessee, but not stops of a business nature will take place in Ohio. I will be speaking on the wonders of Entity Framework, the magic of frameworks in general, and how to move into the 21st century with Windows Azure.

I will momentarily return this Friday, the 11th, and will attempt to respond to your messages at that point.

Feel free to pawn your request of on one of my fabulous team members: Matt Hester, Jennifer Marsman, and Jeff Blankenburg.

If you are just plain bored, and looking for something to do, please read my blog at www.brianHprince.com.

Fifth

Howdy! Thanks for your free email.

I will be away from my office for an extended period of time. I will be spending the first week in Redmond on campus for the MVP summit, and I will be spending the second week touring Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville.

Please know that I will respond to your email as soon as I can, but that there will be a delay in doing so. It is with great regret that I let this happen, but it is hard to stay up on the inbox while on the road.

I love going to the summit and spending a lot of time catching up with all of the MVPs I have known over the years. Its like summer camp, but in the winter, in Seattle, without tents, campfires, or adult supervision. So maybe not so much like summer camp. But it is a lot of fun.

In the meantime, check out my new book coming out "Azure in Action" at http://www.manning.com/hay. You can also check out why I will be in Nashville at www.azurebootcamp.com, a great training series for Azure.

Have you considered the cloud, and what it might help your company do?

Feel free to pawn your request of on one of my fabulous team members: Matt Hester, Jennifer Marsman, and Jeff Blankenburg.

If you are just plain bored, and looking for something to do, please read my blog at www.brianHprince.com, or check out the Driving Your Career series on microsoft.com/thrivedev.

Fourth

Howdy, thanks for sending me an email (unless you are a spammer, then in that case you should bugger off). I will return your mail once I get back, or sooner if it is something that is urgent.

I will first be at Penguicon, in Romulus, MI. I had know idea there was a Romulus, MI, that is so cool. The conference is part scifi and part open source. I know, it writes it's own jokes.

Then I will be on the TechEd Bus travelling across the midwest. I hear that David Copperfield just used the bus, and that we are likely to find left over pigeons and sawed-in-half ladys. Of course I am not attending TechEd, just driving half way there. We will be making stops along the way, and it sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

Then I will be speaking at a great event our team is putting on, StirTrek. Basically a day of MIX material, with a private showing of the new Star Trek movie. AWESOME! Get your ticket at www.stirtrek.com.

If you are bored, check out the online coverage of MIX at http://www.visitmix.com.

If it is important, please text me.

Feel free to pawn your request of on one of my fabulous team members: Bill Steele, Jennifer Marsman, and Jeff Blankenburg.

If you are just plain bored, and looking for something to do, please read my blog at www.brianHprince.com.

Third

Howdy, thanks for sending me an email (unless you are a spammer, then in that case you should bugger off).

I am at the awesome CodeMash conference, and will be unable to immediately respond to your email. I am so tired, that I can't even come up with a witty OOF message for you. Pleae look around the Internet for something to entertain you, if you need that.

Feel free to pawn your request of on one of my fabulous team members: Bill Steele, Jennifer Marsman, and Jeff Blankenburg.

If you are just plain bored, and looking for something to do, please read my blog at www.brianHprince.com.

Second

I am on vacation right now, at the fabulous Disney World. The Contemporary Resort is wonderful, and even has a computer in the room (running Windows!). I have already been banned from even going near it. Until I get back, please occupy yourself by figuring out a way to change the world, and I am sure I will notice what you have done when I return.

If that doesn't hold your attention, feel free to contact one of my fabulous team members: Bill Steele, Jennifer Marsman, and Jeff Blankenburg.  If you are just plain bored, and looking for something to do, pleaes read my blog at www.brianHprince.com.

I can't wait to get home and start watching the new Star Wars Clone Wars show, and I await the day that Battlestar Galactica returns for it's final episodes.

First Place!

Howdy! Thanks for your free email.

Brian is sad that he missed your email. He is at the super fabulous CodeMash event in a water park in the Winter. Brian will respond to your email as soon as he can, which is likely next week. If you really need to see Brian you can come out to CodeMash if you want. Brian will cry tonight knowing he is not replying to your emails, but Brian will be tired and will need his sleep so he isn't cranky. Brian Loves You.

Feel free to pawn your request of on one of my fabulous team members: Matt Hester, Jennifer Marsman, and Jeff Blankenburg.

If you are just plain bored, and looking for something to do, please read my blog at www.brianHprince.com, or check out the Driving Your Career series on microsoft.com/thrivedev.

Finis

Ford says the first consumer vehicle that will work with Microsoft Hohm to help manage electricity consumption and vehicle charging is the Ford Focus Electric – some time in 2011. 

Full article on Neowin is here – some interesting comments, too. 

The video shows the impact on a netbook, but it’s a dramatic improvement on beefy machines, too.  I’ve got an “engineering workstation” class HP laptop myself and here are my results for the spinning image test:

IE9 Platform Preview:

Beyond the grand vision statement, you might be wondering what’s really going on here?  What does it all mean, and how is it a partnership?  After all, in a true partnership everyone contributes something of value to the others.  Here’s my take on it.   

If you’re among the many who will purchase a plug-in electric vehicle in the next couple years, you may already know that it’s likely to use more electricity than anything else in your house.  While they are cleaner and cheaper than gasoline combustion engines, mass adoption of electric vehicles does present its own set of challenges.  One of the biggies is how our aging electrical distribution systems will accommodate all the new electricity demand. 

If everyone tried to charge their cars at the same time, the load on the energy grid would be very significant… potentially leading to brown outs and definitely leading to higher electricity costs for everyone as individual utilities bid up the market price of electricity from their power generating peers.  Staggering the charging cycles for electric vehicles can help utility companies provide more reliable service at lower system-wide costs.  Seems logical, but you might ask, “how will any individual know when to charge their vehicles?  And why would any individual choose to charge their vehicle at a time that made the electric utility company’s job easier?”  I’m glad you asked! :) 

This is where Microsoft Hohm comes in.  Hohm is an online application that gives consumers visibility to their energy consumption patterns and electricity costs.  This information helps consumers make smarter choices about how they consume energy in order to maximize electrical efficiency and to minimize electricity’s environmental impacts and costs.  So that’s Hohm – and Hohm is great – but for a really seamless experience in an electric vehicle world, it would be helpful if the cars themselves can participate in the Hohm ecosystem, too. 

For example, cars that can communicate information such as how much energy they draw (using SYNC, built on Microsoft Auto), how much charging they need, and how much energy is already available in the vehicle battery can help utilities forecast aggregate energy demand more precisely and set different prices for different charging periods.  Microsoft Hohm then gives consumers a way to access this information to help them decide when and where to charge their vehicles. 

It’s even possible that consumers who don’t need the energy in their vehicle batteries at a certain point in time could sell that energy stored in their cars back to the utility during periods of high demand!  The consumer could then charge up overnight during periods of low demand.  The model is sort of like what happens today with over-booked airplanes.  “If you’re travel plans are flexible, we’ll give you $15 to suck energy out of your car battery, and you can charge it back up later tonight for only $10.”

In addition to Microsoft Hohm, you can also imagine cool mobile apps to help people track and manage the energy levels in their cars.  For example, here’s how it might look on the new Windows Phone 7 Series.

So when will all of this future goodness come to pass?  I’m very happy to see these capabilities will be live and available in production with the Ford Focus Electric in 2011!  Ford Focus Electric prototype pics below. 

Finally, check out the following links for more information on:

• Microsoft Hohm
• Ford Focus Electric (good overview at Cars.com)
• Ford Electric Vehicle Site
• Ford press release on Microsoft Hohm – Ford electric vehicle partnership
• Microsoft Press Release on Microsoft Hohm – Ford electric vehicle partnership
• Feature article on Microsoft Hohm – Ford electric vehicle partnership (written by Microsoft’s friendly PR team)
• Good article on Ford-Hohm announcement from CNET
• Coverage on the Microsoft Sustainability Blog