After creating a similar app on Windows Phone, I had fun making a similar app on Windows 8: Patiner.

The app allows you to view the status of the ice rinks on the island of Montreal by navigating the map. It’s very simple and that’s intentional, but improvements are already planned for future versions.

The data comes from Patiner Montreal, which offers an excellent web portal and links to apps for other operating systems.

Wow, a great evening: an attentive and interested audience. Here are some links that were discussed during the evening:

• tinyclr.com
• robotshop.ca
• cosm.com
• netmf.com and netmf.com/gadgeteer

You can download the files and the presentation in zip format here and on the .Net Montreal group website.

I forgot Gadgeteer stickers at home, so if you want some, let me know and we’ll arrange to send them to you!

Thank you, if you have any questions feel free to contact me and I look forward to seeing your projects!

On February 25th, I will be giving a presentation titled .NET Micro Framework and .NET Gadgeteer: Embedded Computing for Everyone at the Alt.Net Montreal meeting. I will go over the Framework and Gadgeteer with examples: things that blink, move, and provide useful information ;)

If you have projects you would like to show to the group, feel free to bring them along, we will be happy to discuss them.

Looking forward to meeting you there!

It is very easy to create your first Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 or iOS application with Azure Mobile Services tools. In this post, I will demonstrate how to create a sample “ToDo” application. In fact, it will take you longer to read this post than to execute the steps in it!

Log in to your Windows Azure portal and go to the Mobile Services section. Click on the Create a mobile service link.

The productivity tools for Visual Studio 2012 are now available. In addition to the same features as the 2010 version, the new features of this version are:

• Quick tasks
• Power Commands
• Color printing

All features can be individually disabled in the options. If you have never tried them, don’t hesitate, it could increase your productivity.

Happy coding!

I hope you are having fun with the RC version of Visual Studio 2012!!! The final version will be launched on September 12th, and Microsoft is preparing a virtual event to mark the occasion. Visit VisualStudioLaunch.com.

Happy coding

One of the new features of Visual Studio 11 and the .NET Framework 4.5 are the Caller attributes:

• CallerMemberName: allows you to obtain the method or property name of the caller to the method.
• CallerFilePath: allows you to obtain the full path of the source file that contains the caller. This is the file path at compile time.
• CallerLineNumber: allows you to obtain the line number in the source file at which the method is called.

These attributes help to simplify the code in certain scenarios, such as logging or when using the INotifyPropertyChanged interface (as in MVVM) and you need to pass the name of the calling property.

Here is a second application of my own creation: InterUrbain.

This utility application allows you to determine if calls between two phone numbers are local or long-distance. Simply enter the area code and the first three digits of the number to determine their distances. Simple, effective, and most importantly free!

If you have any suggestions, comments, or need support, do not hesitate to contact me (see the link at the top of this page).

When developing applications, we always want to make our investment profitable and maybe even make a little profit. With Windows Phone 7 (WP7) there are 2 methods to generate revenue: app purchase and ad display. This article focuses on the second method.

Creating a pubCenter account

First, you need to create an account on the Microsoft Advertising pubCenter. pubCenter is the hub for WP7 ads and Windows 8 apps. Very simple and easy to use, so I will omit the account creation details in this article.

After a few months of experimenting with programming for Windows Phone 7, but without really publishing the application, I decided to try to launch an application that would be published: Sports MTL. An application that allows you to know the status of various recreational/sports venues such as ice rinks, slides, and cross-country ski trails.

This application is available in French and English, in trial or paid version. If you have any suggestions or comments about this application, please visit the UserVoice site for Sports MTL.