Oh yes there's an app for that...

Chuck Norris vs. SharePoint

http://www.sharingthepoint.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=159

As work has been ultra hectic this second half of 2009 I thought I'd post a non work non technical related blog to take my mind off things. Looks like one of the top films this Xmas will be Avatar by James Cameron, hopefully it will be a fitting come back and as humongous as Titanic. I always have a good laugh when I see the following clip on Titanic II The Sequel, it would be hilarious if someone did actually make a full movie similar to the likes of Hot Shots! Part Deux, I'd sure go watch it.

Sometimes it's hard to tell which mobile network offers the best internet browsing experience whilst you are on the move as mobile network operators try their best to keep secret information about their infrastructure, base stations locations etc.

Here are some resources giving some evidence of service levels and coverage of major network operators such as AT&T,Sprint and Verizon Wireless in the US and Orange, O2, T-mobile/3, Vodafone in the UK.

UK

Ofcom coughs 3G coverage maps
article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/08/3g_coverage_maps/ 

direct PDF links: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/licensing/classes/broadband/cellular/3g/maps/3gmaps/coverage_maps.pdf
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/msa/msa.pdf )

The 3G map Ofcom didn't want you to see
article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/08/ofcom_3gmap_suppressed/

US

Not all 3G wireless networks are created equal
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31667947/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Checked the BBC Weather forecast today and this is what I saw:

Ok so the British weather is known to be unpredictable at times but snow in summer?

 (from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/8)

What do you get when you combine Microsoft Surface with augmented reality technology? Sixth Sense of course!

Sixth Sense is the creator's(Pranav Mistry) name for a wearable device with a projector that displays real time information from the web, pretty handy I must say, especially the example they showed of Amazon book rating when browsing a book in a real shop, how handy that would be.

Here's a video of the prototype presented by Pattie Maes (small world, I remember her previous work on Tete-a-Tete):

XPMode(XPM) for Windows7 came as quite a surprise as this feature wasn't available in the Beta stages of the Windows 7 releases. This secret feature wasn't officially announced until earlier this week when Windows 7 RC became available for MSDN subscribers (read in more details here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Apr09/04-28Win7QA.mspx)

So what is XP Mode in Windows 7? The following Microsoft Video summarise quite nicely this new feature in Win7:

XP Mode will encourage a lot of current Windows XP users to upgrade their OS to Windows 7 since you actually get a free fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3(SP3) via the XP Mode feature.

The only thing I am wary about is the strict requirement on having a PC with Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled in the CPU (hardware virtualization) since a lot of older PCs do not have this feature. A good check for AMD PCs to see if your CPU supports Hyper-V, I have posted previously on how to check this, see: http://geekswithblogs.net/kit/archive/2008/09/12/125123.aspx (SharePoint and Hyper-V)

For Intel PCs, you can download the Processor Identification Utility here: http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/

XP Mode reminds me a bit of the Unity feature in VMware, this feature allows the user to run applications from a different OS via Virtualization, in the following YouTube video, Windows XP Applications are running seamlessly on a Mac OS X

 Download the free XP Mode add-on for Windows 7 here (although at the time of writing, XPM is still in Beta stage): http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc

Unit Test is often used as a generic term to describe testing code-behind pages when it comes to Web Applications. Performing tests at the presentation tier can be cumbersome and usually involves manual case by case test scenarios in some large excel spreadsheets or a form of some sort.

The ASP.NET QA team have introduced Lightweight Test Automation Framework as a way to automate these regression test tasks. Your web browser is used as a test harness and your test cases are shown on the left pane of the webpage with realtime tests running on your web application shown on the right hand side.

Download LTF here: http://aspnet.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=25887 (April09 release)

More Info:

http://weblogs.asp.net/asptest/
http://blog.hmobius.com/ Dan Maharry

Bacon sarnies are apparently good for curing hangovers....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/07/bacon_sarnie_hangover_cure/

I like the background classical music, I feel less stressed working with TFS now....

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/projectcalm

Quite hilarious I must say...