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Peter Torr's Blog

Posts about Windows [Phone] application development. And other stuff.

Emulating HVGA screens with Mix CTP

One of the (many) differences between Windows Phone 7 Series and the older Windows Mobile platform...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/29/2010

Strategies for dealing with Orientation Changes

[Update March 29th to add info on SupportedOrientations] Several people have asked me what the best...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/27/2010

Engagdet's post on multi-tasking

Yesterday Engadget had an opinion piece on mobile multitasking, once again borrowing my awesome...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/27/2010

Mock Location APIs from my Mix10 Talk

I posted the code from my Mix talk here, which includes the mock location code, but I never used the...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/25/2010

Tilt effect for Windows Phone controls

[UPDATE August 16, 2010: Please use the updated version of the tilt code at...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/23/2010

Other Windows Phone Silverlight Developer Talks

In case you missed it, the other "core" Windows Phone / Silverlight talks are also up now: Shawn...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/18/2010

Slides, video, and code

The slides and the video of my Mix 10 talk are now available at...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/18/2010

Mix talk is done!

Thanks to everyone who made it to the Building Windows Phone Applications with Silverlight, Part 2...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/16/2010

Warming up the Engine

Well it's been a while! Since HD DVD went the way of Betamax (sorry, couldn't resist) I've been...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 02/18/2010

What Now?

I have had some readers ask what is to become of this blog. Well, it started out discussing Office...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 02/20/2008

Fun Friends for Functions, Part 2: Handling Exceptions

Previously we looked at how you can bind a function to a set of arguments and then call the...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 02/01/2008

Why the ‘arguments’ object is bad, Exhibit #3,745

Having just written a post with an example of how to use the arguments object, you might question my...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 01/30/2008

Fun Friends For Functions

And now for a more techy post. In ECMAScript, functions are considered first-class objects. "What,"...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 01/29/2008

A Concert with PowerPoint Slides?

As you may know, Howard Jones played an acoustic show in Seattle last night with Robin Boult on...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 01/29/2008

Good News

Not one but two bits of good news this morning! Firstly, TWICE reported on Toshiba's plans for HD...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 01/14/2008

HD DVD Emulator for Xbox 360!

It's finally here! The Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator went live today, enabling content authors to test...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 12/13/2007

“Open Season” Hits #2; World Scratches Head

If you follow the High-Definition format war at all, you're probably familiar with the weekly sales...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 12/04/2007

Sliced bread ain’t got nuthin’ on this!

Forget being the best thing since sliced bread – this is the best thing ever. Well maybe not...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 10/02/2007

Wikipedia editing

Short post: In the interests of full disclosure, I've started editing Wikipedia on various topics...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 09/30/2007

Why Old Films Still Benefit from High-Def

Every now and then, I hear people make comments like "Movies more than 5 years old won't look any...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 09/26/2007

Using Timers Effectively in HDi

The use of timers in HDi applications is very common, and there are a few things you should keep in...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 08/29/2007

Simple ACA dumper

Quick one today – if you have an ACA with some files in it, you can use the createaca tool...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 07/05/2007

Helpful Tracing Routines

Last time we looked at conditional compilation, and how using it with HDiSim could aid with...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 06/27/2007

Using Conditional Compilation in HDi

One of the cardinal rules for developing HD DVD applications is, "let no exception go unhandled."...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 06/01/2007

No, not the application.link API. A web link. Or two. Some of you may have noticed a new name on the...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 06/01/2007

A Game of Chance that Pirates like to Play

Ahoy there me laddies! Yarrrr you better be readin' this blog then matey, or you'll be feelin' the...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 05/16/2007

HD DVD creation on the Mac and PC

Although I tend to blog about HDi and advanced interactivity in HD DVD, many customers simply want...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 05/12/2007

Coloured Blocks Advancing on a Moving Block

This blog would be titled Space Invaders, but I don't own that trademark so I had to choose...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 04/02/2007

Tech Acronym of the Day

TPM (Trusted Platform Module): noun. A dedicated chip that performs cryptographic operations and...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 03/08/2007

The Difference Between “Selected” and “Current” tracks

In HD DVD, there are two ways to figure out which subtitle or audio track the user has chosen. The...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 02/20/2007

A tip for writing script for HD DVD

A very quick tip today, although this one trips me up a lot. When you write script files for your...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 02/16/2007

Red Box Debugging

Today I have a simple debugging tip. Sometimes when you have an obscure bug, you need to answer the...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 02/01/2007

Paperless

I fly pretty regularly, but in the past seven years I've never had a paper ticket. I always just zip...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 01/20/2007

Simple Pre-Processor for HDi

Hope you all had a good break. I haven't blogged for a while due to travel (both business and...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 01/10/2007

Casino Royale… no PS 3?

I went to see the new James Bond film yesterday (aka Casino Royale) and it was probably the best...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 11/19/2006

Script Execution Order in HD DVD

An HDi application can use multiple script files so that you can better manage your code (more...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 11/08/2006

“Live” vs “Loaded” DOM

One of the potentially confusing aspects of HDi is the notion of the "live" and "loaded" DOMs. The...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 11/07/2006

Toggling Menus with the Menu button in 100% Markup

Here's a quick one: How do you have an HD DVD menu that opens and closes when you click the Menu...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 10/12/2006

iRiver Clix First Impressions

My trusty old Rio Carbon died the other day when it fell out of its little carrying case and was...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 10/11/2006

Bare Bones HD DVD Interactivity

We spend a fair amount of time focusing on "cool" menus in HD DVD -- with animations, transparency,...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 09/20/2006

Adding Picture-In-Picture to an HD DVD Title

Picture-in-Picture (PIP) is one of those "cool" features in HD DVD that looks really difficult but...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 09/11/2006

Using unsetProperty With Script Animations

A common theme lately has been confusion about the unsetProperty API used by scripts in HD DVD, but...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 09/08/2006

Scrolling Menus in 100% Pure Markup

After looking at drop-down menus in 100% pure markup, we turn our attention to scrolling lists....

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 09/01/2006

First European HD DVD Title is Open Source

Well, this should get the Slashdot folks on our side :-) Andrew pinged me this morning about the...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 08/14/2006

Looks like I'll be down $300 on November 14th

But what better way to spend it than 236 episodes of Friends? Thank you, Warner Bros. I hope they...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 08/05/2006

Updates coming

I know it's been a while since I last blogged anything -- I was on holiday last week and I've been...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 07/27/2006

How do I get started with iHD?

Many DVD authoring professionals may be wondering how they can get started with HD DVD. Probably the...

Author: Peter Torr - MSFT Date: 07/17/2006

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