October Component updates - FINALLY

Finally, the October update rollup is ready to go, in the format we've all come to know and love. I'll be pushing them out on the Download Center for Eval customers tomorrow, and making sure we don't have this drama in December...

Mobile Robots running XPE

This is kinda cool - a company called CoroWare used XPE to quickly prototype a robot for a trade show. They cut development time by up to 60% - more details at the link at the bottom.

Move over Mars Rover - here comes the Interplanetary Embedded Expeditionary Force!
Evidence Details - Global Evidence Management System

Update on October Updates

I'm trying to be neither alliterative nor redundant - the title just came out that way...

Anyway, back on November 2, I noted that we were working on getting the October updates re-released as EXE and RTF files, rather than CD ISO format. Well, the web development team has the correct bits now and is working to rebuild the pages - I expect the job to be completed by early next week. Look for an update here once the job is done.

There was also a single update released earlier this week that applies to XPE - MS05-053 is a critical security update for XP Pro. We're releasing it as a desktop update and I expect it to be available early next week as well for Embedded customers. The componentized version will be in our next scheduled release in December.

That's about it for now.

Ford squeezes an office into a truck | CNET News.com

While I'm normally excited to see technology spread into new areas, this one has me shuddering. You see, I ride a motorcycle ('96 Harley Davidson Wide Glide, in case you were interested), every day to and from work, rain or shine, day or night, hot or cold. I already have a tough enough time dealing with yuppies in BMW's talking on their cell phones on the highways and byways - now I'll have to deal with bubbas in F-350 duallies trying to make stock trades in the HOV lanes.

Add to that the fact they're using XP Pro rather than XP Embedded... Come on, guys! XPE was made for this application!

Ford squeezes an office into a truck | CNET News.com

October Component updates - almost

If you've gone to the OEM Secure Site to scan for the October componentized updates, you've been both happy and confused. Happy because the releases are out there - confused because they're in a strange format.

When the bits were released, they were released on CD - this means a few things. First, you can order an October XPE Update CD (that's probably not the name, but that's the spirit of the name) from your AR (whoever you got your toolkit from). Second, we can use existing release processes and teams to do the release, rather than me doing 90% of the release work. Third, because this is a new process, there are teething pains we're working out. The IMG file is one of them.

The IMG format is just an ISO copy of the CD we released. If you have a CD burner and software that can recognize the IMG format, you can burn your own CD - pop that CD into your development machine and you can run the update packages from it, scan the documentation, and archive it for posterity. If you don't have a CD burner and software to support it...

We've recognized this as a mistake, and are working to correct it now. However, rather than pull the release down and put it back up once we get the downloads fixed, we're leaving the IMG file available for download until we get the standard EXE/RTF downloads available.

Like I said, these are teething pains - big ugly teething pains. There are changes to our entire release process, from how I hand the bits off to how the web team handles them to exactly who the people doing the work are. We are making sure this won't happen again next time, but I can empathize with those of you affected by the problems we're having this time.