Microsoft needs to pull finger

Well if we bury our heads in the sand then the tools we all enjoy now may become like the Dodo.
As Hugh said, we need to self promote to help keep Gadgeteer going.

I should post my youtube posted projects on there, spread them out over a week or two.

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That’s great idea, but when Mono finally will fully work on the PI, it could go very close to MF …

As Mike said above - that would be nice.

But why port netmf when Mono is a full framework and may be enough to port only Gadgeteer extensions ?
To note that Broadcom do not publish public datasheets. There are no docs about graphic chip inside except some reversed engineering info, but this cannot be a problem using default api.
I’m working on a gadgeteer board for PI, but the problem is software and drivers to do …

Maybe I don’t want to work with linux, or like the convenience of loading a program from Visual Studio.

Ehehh +1. Yes … VS2010 is really far better than other IDE for PI ! Actually only QT is nice but you must cross compile for PI on a PC, QT-Develop is not for PI power.

I think it can be possible to port entire NETMF on PI, and may be that Broadcom can give complete info with a NDA …

Cause I won’t wish Mono upon my worst enemy. Now granted that was my experience from a couple of years ago, but Mono sucked hugely then and frankly I would have a hard time trusting it again.

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And this is just the beginning :

Sounds to me like its up to us to make the difference. And in addition to posting on the .Netmf site we should also be Google+ing everything.

@ Gus - What about posting up the Know your community and showcase content to Google+ etc? we can all start +1ing to our wider circles and get the ball rolling.

@ the whole tinyclr community - In the next 12 months we should aim to have regular items carried by Hackaday, instructables, Make magazine our own blogs, friends blogs etc etc. Anywhere we can get the message on line and in front of people.

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Makes perfect sense. Lots and lots of tutorials.

Sharing is caring.

Unfortunately it’s also less time for tinkering. Still worth the while, though.

It’s nothing but a good thing, though: 15.000 students trying out something they would’ve maybe otherwise not have. Getting into electronics, blinking a LED, guiding them in the right direction… Don’t care what platform, it’s a good thing.

But agreed MS needs to get the finger out of their a**, if they’re serious about the Gadgeteer platform. For some reason I’m not quite able to explain (official web site design, lack of news, perhaps) I have lingering feeling it’s not getting any kind of priority on account of other stuff from MS research.

I don’t think MS Research really has much of a marketing budget. That’s not really their purpose. Besides, Google didn’t create the RasPi… Yea, it would be great if Microsoft advertised but more importantly we need other (independent) companies to get behind and support the platform other than those who sell the hardware. This is where I think Microsoft’s involvement in the project perhaps hurts more than it helps. However great the platform is do you think Google would be paying to have Gadgeteer devices put in schools given that it’s mostly a Microsoft driven project? Perhaps the best people to get involved would be the Gates Foundation?

On a similar note… I’ve asked before but I’ll do it again. It would really be great if GHI had a “training kit” that could be loaned out to those willing to setup a station at a conference or Makerfaire to educate others on the wonders of Gadgeteer & GHI hardware. I think it would be a win-win for everyone.

I would be willing to put in some goodies.

I hadn’t even considered heading down the route of community built kits but that’s a great idea! I have a few modules planned this year. I’d certainly be willing to throw one of each into every kit. Perhaps if GHI would be willing to get it started with some Cerberus kits and then community built on top of it. If GHI didn’t want to deal with the logistics of shipping everything out and getting it back, I would be willing to volunteer NashMicro to take on this duty.

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@ andre.m - from the dozen or so modules i have made

@ ianlee74 - the more the merrier :wink:

I’m slowly building up a library of hardware for VT Makers, as well. I think I got almost all of the last eBlocks and Panda IIs available in the US :slight_smile: Your idea would be a great stopgap until we can get enough $$ to buy our own Gadgeteer stuff for workshops and loaning. There is grant money to be found for this kind of initiative. We’ve got a great grant writer working on gettin’ some.

Would you mind sharing the info about the grants with me if it’s not specific to VT? You can email me ian at house of lees dot net. Thanks!

This has been my feeling from the get go. I love free, but at the same time no company like MS is going to put any priority to something that does not generate revenue.
My envision is this. You guys will be the ones to bring this to the forefront. It will then explode and MS will see the light. Then they will put great efforts into it and come out with a major release and it will then cost $$.