Blue Probe

I always think the market leader (aka Vonage) in any geek related product is just milking its gorilla game position, and so look for that hungry edge play.  In this case Ooma.  I did my standard Google due-diligence and searched on “magic jack sucks”.  26,000 and counting…  But the Ooma, not so much.  I use it as a 2nd line in my house strictly as my home office phone.  $250 for the initial box.  Quality has been fantastic.

“ooma sucks”, by the way, only gave 200 hits.

Our company does not have a full SIP phone integration with with Microsoft Communicator.  It is used for presence and IM.  In Outlook, I like to use the Dialer (as I have my laptop modem plugged into my Phone {which is plugged into OOMA – yea baby!}) to save all those seconds.  However, if MOC is running, then when I launch the Outlook Dialer, it pops up MOC and tells me that feature is not operational.  Here is how to use the plain old TAPI dialer.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Call Integration – then add TAPIOVERRIDE as a DWORD=1.  You may have to add the key Call Integration.

Question:  If you know how to allow MOC to use the dialer, let me know.  i.e. if I right click on the presence indicator and choose call, I want it to launch the Outlook Dialer.

I started down the path of saving window size settings in the application settings. The fact that I was repeating the same basic info for each form led me to investigate using a custom type to encapsulate this info. The custom type you want to save will have a couple of properties on it, but when you add it to the application settings, you just configure 1 setting. I couldn’t just use the utility to add my type, I had to edit the file. Here’s the steps:

1) Update the settings.settings file

2) Make your custom type [Serializable] – don’t forget to make the class and properties public

I created a custom type to save window settings. With the following signature for the save settings method:

public void SaveSettings(Form aForm)

I was then able to use the following to save my custom type and its properties. Notice that I use the Default[string] method instead of designer created method like Default.MainForm

Properties.Settings.Default[aForm.Name] = this; //Save my custom type

Properties.Settings.Default.Save();

I ditched my T-Mobile Dash.  If you’ve read sluggish, that’s an understatement.  Imagine pressing and holding the #1 key for a shortcut to VME, but the device doesn’t pick it up, pauses, and types eight 1’s across the display – rrrrr!  Plus, one would think the apostrophe is worthy of the keyboard.  It’s a f’n ‘.  Put it on the keyboard!

The Samsung Jack is the same WM 6.1 phone, but speedy and few more keys (hello apostrophe!).  Plus 3 bars in my basement office on AT&T vs. the <=1 on T-Mobile is rock solid.

I have 3 ATT Cordless phones (700021) and a base.  They stopped working and all just display Place in Charger.  ATT FAQ says to unplug everything for 1/2 hour including the handset battery.

LOL - It worked.

I use the free tool MS SyncToy to do simple backups.  It's even scheduled on the Wife/kids PC to run nightly.  I upgraded to SyncToy 2.0 an noticed on the install that it now includes the MS Sync Framework.  I suppose if you've got "sync" in your name, it's hard to get away from dog-fooding that one.  You can checkout the video webcast of one of the providers, the file sync provider, by Ashish Shah.

Man I love InfoPath.  I've only used it a bit, but the whole XML in the background, generate your own schema or use one to start with, then save or submit to W/S - it just is cool!  I bet the productivity of those who use it regularly is off the charts.  On the "oh crap" side is the fact that everyone needs to purchase a copy to use it (there is a web version but that's different).

So when a new project required disconnected forms based input, I looked to Adobe LiveCycle Forms ES.  Just the mention of this I knew I was in for a trip down the Amazon (think snakes and quick sand).  So I downloaded the 1 month trial, and within 5 minutes was emailing the XML output from a completed form.  WOW!  it's almost perfect.  All I need is to change that to SAVE the XML and we've got out Disconnected scenario.  Enter snakes and quicksand.  It doesn't exist.  You need a copy of Adobe LiveCycle Forms ES on each laptop to save a form's data to XML.  There is even talk of licensing terms which limit a forms use to X number of activities. 

The form is like an app - treat it that way.  Why can a dev tool like VB create an app to be freely distributed, but a dev tool that creates forms cannot?

I use ProxyPal to turn on/off the proxy setting in IE7.  When I'm VPN-ed into work, I want it on, and when not, I want it off.  The problem is that <Alt+T> opens my Tools menu, but there is no hot key for ProxyPal.  So add one - in regedit look under the following for the ProxyPal entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Extensions\

and change MenuText from ProxyPal to P&roxyPal.

Now <Alt+T> <Alt+R> will run ProxyPal as a hotkey combo.

I'm playing with the Windows 7 beta.  It includes a DVD Maker program.  There is no Movie Maker in the beta, but Windows Live has a Movie Maker beta for download (more Internet/cloud features, but not the same as Movie Maker for XP).  The DVD Maker too is limited.  You can add movies to a project, adjust a few options (4:3 vs. 16:9, etc.), select a menu style and go.  A major problem I have is that many of my movies from my Sony HDD Handycam are short segments.  I may have 10 short segments of soccer game, which DVD Maker turns into 10 chapters on the DVD.  Thus, when watching the final output on my TV, there is this big wacky pause between scenes.  With Movie Maker for XP you can stitch together these segments, provide your own transitions, and select your chapter breaks - but you couldn't write to a DVD. 

Adding the ability to write to a DVD in Windows 7 is great, especially for the home user (think PC vs. Mac).  Other features are very home/family based.  But DVD Maker as it currently stands is but a toy. 

I attended a Microsoft ArcReady presentation by Clint Edmonson entitled Professional Patterns on the Job.  I remember hearing a great quote while listening to DNR - "an architect's job is to help keep software projects from failing."  It's easy and fun to go heads down on a project and code.  It's harder to look around at what is missing and what is needed and where the gaps are.  As architects we need to take the time to improve our soft skills.  There will always be developers on your team that are better at coding.  So instead of working on learning each and every nuance of WF, generalize, learn the gotcha's, and then spend some time learning other "stuff".  Here's a couple of Clint's points to think on.

• Be early - 5 min in this building; 15 min across town; 5 hours in another city
• Follow through - build a contract of tasks and let others know of your results
• Be prepared to have the hard conversations
• Have you consensus reached before the meeting even takes place