Gadgets

REVIEW: Zune 2.0 - the best player on the market!

Bill Evjen — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:50:30 GMT

I got one of the first Zune players when it came out. There were things that I liked/disliked about it. The worse thing about it was the software that it came with. It was clunky and not to practical so I really didn't end up using it that often. Though, with that said, Microsoft recently released the new 2.0 version of the Zune software which was basically a complete new software package. With the new software and the changes to the firmware that was made to the Zune player along with the client software upgrade - the Zune player is the best player on the market! It is better than IPOD and any of the other players out there. Here are some of the cool Zune features:

BIG Screen! Look at the size of this screen. You might be looking at this and think that the screen size is oddly shaped to watch a movie or something, but the video that is played in this plays sideways so that you turn the Zune player to the side and it is like a widescreen view of what you are looking at. You will find that this is one of the biggest screens for a media device on the market. Especially compare the size of this video screen to what you see for the IPOD and there is no comparison!

One thing that I didn't like about the IPOD was that you are working with non-MP3 files - you couldn't just take your .mp3 files that you already have all over your system and just move those files to you player. The Zune player does make use of the .mp3 file extension - so moving over your already pre-existing files is a quick and easy thing to do.

So, what kind of media can go on your Zune? - MP3s, movies (.mp4), podcasts, pictures, and there is even a radio. I have become completely addicted to the podcasts:

There is a directory of video and audio podcasts for you to subscribe to. You can also find your own podcasts and add them to your subscriptions. The Zune software will keep the latest number of versions available for you synced up to your player. So, for me, I have the latest three episodes of all my podcasts synced up to the player and can watch them on my computer (with the client software) or on my Zune player. It has become a kind of Tivo for me as I watch the NBC Nightly News and other news programs (the complete video program) on my computer in the morning with the software. I have never been so caught up with the news (from around the world as I love the BBC newscasts as well).

Another nice thing about the Zune player is that with version 2.0 - it now has an exposed MAC address which is nice as the Zune player has wireless. This means that you can sync your Zune over your wireless network and also share items with other Zune players nearby.

ReSharper on Visual Studio 2008

Bill Evjen — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:40:03 GMT

If I were to pick one tool to add to Visual Studio for my day-to-day coding, it would be ReSharper by JetBrains. I have been using the tool since version 2.0 and it is currently in version 3.0. It provides a ton of tips/corrections/advice as you type code. It provides better tooltips, better Intellisense, and extremely better refactoring than what you get out of the box with the default Visual Studio.

For those of us out there that grab hold of the latest betas as soon as possible, you might be wondering about how to install ReSharper onto Visual Studio 2008. I, myself, am running Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 on the same box (with no issues I might add). Installing ReSharper 3.0 on the box will default to install it to work with Visual Studio 2005. Though, if you are also going to want to install it on Visual Studio 2008, then you are going to have to take some extra steps.

The first step is to go to your command prompt and use the following command:

msiexec /i ReSharperSetup.3.0.1.msi VSVERSION=9.0

From there, it is a little confusing, but you will be asked to Remove/Reinstall/Change the current install. This is due to the fact that I already have ReSharper installed on the VS2005 version of the IDE. You can easily get around this by selecting Reinstall and it will then install the tool for VS2008 as is specified by the parameter in the command line VSVERSION=9.0 …. which is 2008.

So far, no problems.

UPDATE:

JetBrains just released the latest version of ReSharper 3.0.2 Build 517 and they now include a specific install for VS 2008.

So, if you are running both VS2005 and VS2008 on your box - you would need to download both versions of ReSharper and you will be good to go.

Microsoft Surface and the Future of Home Computing?

Bill Evjen — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:41:17 GMT

The big news of the day is that Microsoft's Steve Ballmer introduced Microsoft Surface.

A table computer that allows the end user to interact with the computer through their fingertips! No keyboard - no mouse. First thing you should do is take a look at the movies Microsoft made about this:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

The ability to drag and drop items around with your fingers. The ability to place a digital camera on the table surface and automatically pull the images / send them / edit them / etc. A bit off in the future but a wonderful look at where technology might be taking us. Is this a glimpse of the future of home computing? I think so. Will it be a table? - maybe not - or will it be a stand up screen like in the movie Minority Report? Its funny, but the table reminds me of my first days of seeing a "computer gaming machine" which was a pong game at my local Pizza Hut when I was a kid. We would lean on the tabletop computer game and play a ton of those pong/asteroids games. Though - that table got really greasy after awhile.

It is interesting to see where Microsoft is spending their dollars for the future of home computing. There will be a emergence of technologies in the future for the home - but when will that come is anyone's guess. Though, right now, Microsoft is making investments in gaming consoles (and doing a good job at it I might add), Tivo-like machines such as Media Center, this Microsoft Surface and more.

Whatever it will be - there will be a heavy emphasis on networking with devices, dummy terminals in the house, communicating with house members at their jobs, as they travel and more. There will be a heavy emphasis on a massive data store in the home for the huge amount of video, pictures, history that a family will want to digitally collect. I, today, could use a 5TB data store for everything I want to store - but alas - not yet.

Too bad we die and don't live on and on as I love seeing technology evolve and the experience just gets better over time. My kids are the lucky ones that will get to play with all those cool gadgets. Enjoy the moment, eh?

Office 2007 to the Rescue!

Bill Evjen — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 16:12:00 GMT

I installed Office 2007 on my laptop. This was for me an upgrade from Office 2003 and the upgrade went beautifully. It launches by asking you for the Office key right at the beginning and you can copy and paste the entire key in at once as it is a single textbox (which is a nice feature). You can also provide the key later and just install Office directly without this key. From there, you are provided two buttons - Upgrade and Custom. For kicks, I pressed the Custom tab to see what it was installing and you could also see how the install was going to occur. It was interesting to note that it seems it is not doing an actual upgrade of Office 2003 - but instead, does an uninstall of Office 2003 (saving your files and settings of course in the process) and then doing a new install of Office 2007.

The results? Outstanding and completely worth the upgrade! I love the Ribbon approach and I am of the opinion that all application styles will change over the next few years to incorporate this feature to be the norm. The reason I think this is that end users using Office will learn to use the Ribbon feature and will then come to expect this functionality in the other products that they use each and every day. In fact, Infragistics realizes this as well and is already providing a Ribbon control for your Windows Forms applications and the other control vendors are also jumping on the bandwagon. Really, wait till the product managers, end users, and others start using this and when those guys start designing applications and feeding requirements into development, they will be asking for a Ribbon control functionality.

The other and by far the best product of the Office 2007 suite is Outlook 2007. Really, that is the application that most people spend their entire day in and by far the first feature I have gravitated to is the To-Do Bar:

This bar, on the right, shows the calendar, your next three appointments and all the emails that you have marked for Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, and more. You can also type tasks in as you get them and have them appear in the Today section. Talk about keeping me organized! I love it. I didn't use the past Task section of Office 2003 because it wasn't in my face as the To-Do Bar is. I now can't live without it.

Bravo Microsoft for putting out a great release!

Want to go to outer-space for free?

Bill Evjen — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 14:41:00 GMT

Well, not exactly you, but NASA is allowing for us common folk to send our name into outer space aboard the spacecraft Dawn which is heading to the asteroid belt. Your name will be placed on a microchip and sent on the spacecraft! I'm signed up ... are you?

The link:
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/DawnCommunity/
Sendname2asteroid/index_asteroid_blt.aspx

HEY .. BTW ... the site is built on ASP.NET!

Google Goes Analytics

Bill Evjen — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:27:00 GMT

Google has recently purchased Urchin Web Analytics and now is offering free web analytics for your website. Visit http://www.google.com/analytics/ for more information. Seems quite powerful for non-enterprise cases.

"Would you like to play a game?"

Bill Evjen — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:44:00 GMT

Though I have no need for any telephony capabilities, I liked listening to all the computer created voices on this site as it reminded me of one of my favorite movies from the 80's!

http://www.tmaa.com/tts/comparison_USEng_telephony.htm

When are they going to remake this great movie?!?!?

Random Notes 19Jan05

Bill Evjen — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 16:00:00 GMT

Mr. Kent Sharkey informs everyone who may be interested in working with the latest ASP.NET 2.0 bits that the November 2004 CTP is better than the December 2004 CTP package. Where do you get these Community Technology Previews btw? From logging onto your MSDN subscription, that's how!
Bill Gates is trying to arrange a meeting with the President of Brazil in order to convince him about the evils of open source and why they should stick it out with Microsoft. Interesting read here on this topic. I would *love* to be a fly-on-the-wall for that meeting (if it takes place).

The Airbus A380 was released yesterday to much fanfare by the various EU nations that run (and shadily funded ... at least some say) this organization. In a specific configuration, this plane can hold more than 800 people! Incredible, but is it needed is my first question. How can anyone ensure the safety of all those people getting on a single aircraft - it only takes one messed up person to cause havoc. I have spent many years working in the Russian aviation industry doing ***** and ******, so it is interesting to see how big technology is taking these planes. The Russians have used the biggest cargo plane, the AN-225, for awhile now. Man, do I have some interesting stories about this aircraft! But, back to the A380 ... it's like a flying city! Can you imagine 850 people descending on customs or baggage claim all at the same time!?!

The Girl Scouts of America started their annual cookie drive last Saturday. My daughter is on the hunt for buyers! ;) Watch out! They use this money to go do things like day-camps and the likes. The interesting stats on the cookies was that 45% of the cookie box goes to the parent organization while only 15% goes to the local group. The rest covers cost. Oh well.

Still the greatest gadget story EVER, the mars mission is still on and sending back some spectacular data and imagery. It's too bad that the Mars Rover Missions are being ignored by the press these days. Also interesting is the European Space Agency's landing on the moon Titon - a moon with an actual atmosphere! Here is the first color photo from Titon. They think they have found large balls of ice on the planet as well as places water had to be flowing. Pretty incredible stuff.

BETA: Microsoft's Anti-Spyware Software Released as Beta 1

Bill Evjen — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 16:11:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=321cd7a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&DisplayLang=en

Here it is! And I have to say that it is running very well on my WinXP machine here. Interesting though, when you go to download the .exe, it will only allow for you to download it if you allow Microsoft to 'validate' if your OS is genuine or not. Also interesting that the updater .exe for the program is still called GIANTAntiSpywareUpdater.exe. I guess since it is a beta product, that they haven't got around to changing the names yet.

Embedded System Development in .NET

Bill Evjen — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 16:44:00 GMT

This is cool!:

http://www.dotnetcpu.com/