Between the Lines

I am now in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.

I should be flying to Miami and then San Francisco later tonight. Brazil is a large and beautiful country and I want to come back soon. The people were so friendly and diverse. I have hundreds of photos to upload and will do so very soon. I have done all work and communication on my HP TC1100 Tablet PC with a wireless cellular data card which has worked superbly. I have to say the sunrise in Rio is absolutely amazing as I write this from the beach on the sand just about .5km north of the famous Copacabana. I have an AutoCAD customer visit in a few hours here and look forward to it.

Ciao from Rio,
-Shaan

Another Brazil work day for me, but loving every minute of it

I have been in Sao Paulo Brazil for three days now and I love this city the food, the people, the caparinhas, and the warm tropical weather. I have been working while here in the Sao Paulo Autodesk office and on Friday I head to the Amazon for 5 days of fun in the jungle for some well needed rest and exploration. I have posted more photos from my trip in the Brazil Trip 2004 photo gallery. Tonight many people are going to the best churrascaria. There are quite a few AutoCAD users down here and many are extremely excited about AutoCAD 2005.

I am also doing all work and live postings from my HP Tablet PC. It is lightweight and powerful as well as it catches many peoples attention.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Top of Mt. Tamalpais with a HP Tablet PC and the Internet with a T-Mobile GSM/GPRS PCMCIA Data Card

Yesterday I wanted to test my HP Tablet PC TC1100 and the T-Mobile cellular phone data card so I went to the top of Mt. Tamalpais here in the Bay Area. It worked and I was able to Instant Message and connect to the Internet. I took some other pictures from up there as well.

Image of me on top of Mt. Tam with San Francisco in the distance
http://autodesk.blogs.com/photos/shaans_daily_grind/img_4112.html

Shaan's Daily Grind Photo Blog

Cheers,
-Shaan

My Brazil Trip in 6 days... Sao Paulo, Manaus, and Rio!

Well my journey to Brazil begins in only 6 days on March 14th, 2004. I am getting really excited at this point. I have had all of my shots and other travel requirements completed, except packing. I also have a few CAD users lined up to chat about AutoCAD while in Brazil.

Highlight Summary of my Trip:

March 14th Depart from San Francisco International to Sao Paulo Brazil via Miami. 16.5 hours travel
March 15th Arrive in Sao Paulo I have evening CAD chat setup with Mauricio Ritzmann.
March 16th Customer visits, presentation preparation, and some sight seeing if time permits. I have to try the pizza as I have heard so much about the special pizza from Sao Paulo.
March 17th & 18th Work...Presentations
March 19th - 24th Manuas in the heart of the Amazon Jungle for some time off. I will be going up the Rio Negro River for some piranha fishing and hiking with my base camp being the Amazon Ecopark.
March 24th & 25th In Rio for a customer visit and some site seeing.

If you are located in Sao Paulo, Manaus, or Rio and want to get together for some CAD chat, email me at [email protected]

I should have connections to the Internet the entire time with my HP TC1100 Tablet PC and a PCMCIA GSM/GPRS datacard. I will also have AutoCAD 2005 on this Tablet PC.

I am planning on updating the blog with photos every chance I get.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Another New Tablet PC/Notebook Convertable this one from Acer

Acer TravelMate C300 Convertible Tablet PC

http://global.acer.com/products/tablet_pc/tmc300.htm

C300 Specifications: http://global.acer.com/products/tablet_pc/spec_tablet.htm

Cheers,
-Shaan

New Tablet PC from Gateway the M275 XL

Gateway has released a combo unit. It is a combination of a notebook and Tablet PC. Expect to see more manufacturers release notebook/Tablet PC units in the near future. In the near future Tablet PC will just be an option for your notebook.

Intel Pentium M 1.6 GHz

14.1 in. XGA TFT Active Matrix

Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

512 MB

CD-RW/DVD-ROM

Read a Review

Cheers,
-Shaan

My New HP Tablet PC TC1100 & AutoCAD 2005

I now have a new Tablet PC the HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 . This is a real nice unit. I took it home last night and had to beg to get it back from my 2 year old daughter. I am using AutoCAD 2005 on this unit and intend to use this as my primary road machine when out of the office for customer visits and presentations. I am even taking it deep into the Amazon with a special HP case and a GSM cellular data card so I can be online anytime even in the Amazon Jungle. With many of the new features in AutoCAD 2005 and even AutoCAD 2004 with the Tool Palette extension it makes AutoCAD far more easy to use on the Tablet PC. AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2005 is already Tablet PC Logo compliant. My daughter was even running AutoCAD 2005 (see image below) on this unit and she loved playing with the grips and stretching objects as well as the revision cloud.

Two year old Katelyn with AutoCAD 2005 on the HP Tablet PC TC1100

I will write more on the subject of the Tablet PC and AutoCAD together as well as the upcoming Brazil trip.

Cheers,
-Shaan

See Shaan Eaten by Piranhas in the Amazon Jungle Live on this Blog Next Month!

So many people have said I am crazy for wanting to do this trip to the Amazon Jungle, but I laugh as it has always been a dream of mine. Nothing like the humid, hot jungle with a fishing line and of course my new rugged’ized by way of a special case HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 with a GSM cell phone connection via a PCMCIA card to live update this blog with photos, sounds and video as well as random jungle ramblings and observations. Yes, the Amazon jungle is covered almost completely by GSM cell phone coverage now. I will be testing live GSM/GPRS connection to the web this while there and becoming the Ultimate Road Warrior with a TabletPC! Yes I am a geek.

Those expecting to see a live video feed of me attacked by piranhas will be sadly dissapointed as I will be eating them instead.

I am learning the important Brazilian Portuguese sayings before my trip in a few weeks to Brazil and my vacation in the Amazon Jungle.

"ei, você poderia tirar uma foto minha com as piranhas devorando minhas pernas, por favor?"
In English
"Hey, could you take my picture while the piranhas eat my legs, please?"

More info on the next TabletPC Operating System "Lonestar"

The following link has some really nice screen shots of the new OS for the TabletPC. I have used this myself and love the recognition improvements and the TIP.

http://kstati.com/tabula/posts/794.aspx

Great TabletPC blog and posting all of the latest from COMDEX 2003. http://www.kstati.com/default.aspx

See me at Autodesk University 2003 with my Tablets all running AutoCAD 2004. I will also be doing a small presentation with Microsoft at Autodesk University on the TabletPC. One of the devices I will have at AU is the Panasonic Toughbook 18. This Toughbook is exactly what its name implies and is a magnesium housed TabletPC. You can drop or throw this device with no ill effects. It is completly waterproof and even read the screen in full sun.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Tablet PC One Year Anniversary

The TabletPC is now 1 year old and some consider them a glimpse at the future of computing as they get more powerful and cheaper. The new machines called the second generation devices are just now hitting the market now are in some cases equally as powerful as current laptop and desktop systems. Microsoft also has some real surprises coming up for these devices and after COMDEX I will be able to discuss this a little further in detail.

I will be presenting with Microsoft at this years Autodesk University showing some of these new devices as well as carrying one around for live updating of this blog. I love these devices and where they are headed.

Inked handwriting "Inking" is cool and natural and you are starting to see this in mainstream ads and even now supported in the latest Microsoft Instant Messenger 6.1.

Here is a great article on the one year anniversary and 65 ways people are using the TabletPC. Click Here

Oh I forgot to mention AutoCAD 2004 is Windows XP TabletPC Edition tested and I run AutoCAD on my Toshiba TabletPC just fine.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Tablet PCs

I am really impressed with the TabletPC and have been using a Toshiba Portege 3500 for almost a year. They are now recently rivaling the power and performance of a Notebook laptop all in a smaller package with a pen to write with. I use AutoCAD 2004 which is Windows XP TabletPC version logo compliant as well as other applications like the free Autodesk Express Viewer and Volo View 3. I also have enjoyed using the latest OneNote 2003 from Microsoft to be able to congregate data and notes as well as even audio and web page content easily. It is amazing to be able to later search all of your meeting notes instead of looking for which paper tablet you may have written your notes in the past on. The voice recognition is rather amazing and can even keep up with me in an Instant Messaging chat session. The text recognition with the pen stylus is even recognizing my handwriting that others on my team tell me they cannot read.

I may be presenting with Microsoft at Autodesk University this year in December. There are exciting futures for these devices and I am aware of a few that already use them in the field for design and reading their drawing sets as well as mark up of as-builts. There is even a sample ARX with AutoCAD 2004 that allows you to see the possibilities of text recognition, inking and AutoCAD 2004 by default supports the handedness abilities so your hand does not rest on the tablet screen over the menu pull downs and changes based on your hand settings.

If you have anything you would like to see discussed or answered in this blog, please feel free to email me at [email protected] Please be sure to include “blog feedback” in the email subject line.

Cheers,
-Shaan