UPDATE: To make it easier to find this entry, I've added a link to it in the right sidebar, right under the links for my books and my classes.

Presentation to the North Dallas .NET Users Group. Topic: Applying Architecture and Design Patterns in .NET. December 7. Postponed due to inclement weather. (Texans think ice belongs in drinks, not on roads.)

Presentation to the Little Rock .Net Users Group. Topic: Aesop's Fables of Software Development. December 8.

.NET 1.0 BootCamp, Orlando, FL. Class runs December 13-16; but travel plans just happened to work out that I'm traveling on the 11th and returning on the 18th. I can't imagine what I'll find to do with the spare time...

Presentation to the Montreal Microsoft .NET Architecture User Group. Topic: Tablet PC Development. March 14.

Well, I finally found something negative to say about my Gateway CX200X. I wrote:

Where is that pen? OK, there it is, but how does it come out? The release switch for the pen is a bit tricky to find. (And no, I didn't bother to read the directions.) But it seems pretty secure.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. The release switch is on the underside of the machine, exactly where I grab the machine to lift it off my lap or off a table. That pen keeps popping out without me noticing.

And today, finally, it popped out completely without me noticing. I just went to use the pen, and it's gone. It might be on the plane; it might be at DFW; but it's nowhere in this hotel room.

And as I also wrote:

...the Tablet team gave me a nice Cross-brand Tablet pen with eraser end; but the CX200X doesn't appear to recognize that pen.

In other words, the only pen that I know will work with it is a Gateway pen. Just last night at the Chippewa Valley .NET User Group (CVNUG), I told one of the organizers that I needed to order a spare pen before I lost the original. And sure enough, today it's lost.

So I called Gateway; and even with express shipping, the soonest they can be sure it will reach me is three to four days. Since I fly out to Orlando Sunday, that means I'm going to be gone by then. Fortunately, they will ship to my hotel in Orlando. Still, I'm without a Tablet PC pen for half a week. That puts a crimp in a lot of my work.

Hey, Gateway, here are three design suggestions for you:

1. Use a more common pen mechanism, so that third party pens (i.e., Cross) will work with your Tablets.


2. Add eraser ends to your pens.


3. Move that pen eject button, or else add a lock button like you did for the battery. (That battery lock does a great job of preventing exactly this sort of problem.)

I still love my Gateway. I'm just frustrated without the pen. I have work to do on Tablet UML, and I'm stalled.

Update: On the silver lining side, Gateway's phone sales support was top notch. The guy on the other end of the line was knowledgeable, articulate, personable, and helpful. He made the best of a bad situation. I'm very impressed with Gateway as a company, from my initial purchase process, to the quality of the product, and now to the quality of the sales support. They get my strongest recommendation.