Fun Stuff

Students - get your Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for 64 dollars Canadian

Jason Row — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:23:21 GMT

Canadian students can now take advantage of a new promotion from MS for the Ultimate edition of Office 2007. For just 64 dollars Canadian (that's 64 dollars American btw as of earlier today) you can order Office 2007 Ultimate. All you need is a valid email address from one of the participating schools (both Universities and colleges are listed from across Canada) and you will need a valid student ID card if MS comes knocking at your door.

And if you prefer to spend some of that money on books or other school supplies you can get a one year subscription for just 22 dollars.

Head on over to www.theultimatesteal.ca for more details !

Portable Windows Live Writer 2.0 released.

Jason Row — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:08:19 GMT

I miss having admin rights to my laptop. All my development work is done with Virtual Machines now and I'm locked down on my laptop so I can't install anything that is beta or not directly work related. That included Windows Live Writer which I enjoyed using to post to my blog.

But no longer ! Scott Kingery has released Windows Liver Writer Portable version 2.0 (apparently I missed version 1.0) so now I can get back to blogging semi-regularly.

[via Download Squad]

Tech support stories - lefties vs righties

Jason Row — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:50:21 GMT

Now this did happen a few years ago but for some reason today it popped back into my mind.

I was having connection problems with my broadband connection. Nothing was working so I called the ISP to see if there was an issue on their end. They walk me through their usual routine, "is the router plugged in, .... are the lights flashing, .... is the router connected to the computer, .... etc" And I know they are just making sure everything is hooked up correctly and this is what I do when I'm on the phone with my family diagnosing their problems. So we get to the credentials portion, "Are you entering the right username, .... now type in your password and it must be in uppercase but turn off caps lock and hold the LEFT shift key"

Excuse, you want me to hold the left shift key? Umm, why the left shift?

They actually said it has to be the left shift key and didn't give me any other reason why. So I say "Very best then" and use the right shift key to enter my password, nope still not working and we eventually figure out there was something on their end. The problem eventually gets fixed but I have always been left puzzling as to why they would tell people to hold the left shift key?

If they would have told me that the right shift key is more prone to failure so we ask people to use the left, or that MACs only have a left shift key I could have accepted this and moved along but there's this nagging suspicion that I have that there could be some sort of weird, archaic explanation for it and I want to know.

And yes my right shift key worked, I typed the bloody password in the address toolbar to make sure it was coming out properly, nope I wasn't using any proprietary software that could have been catching only the left shift key.

So if anyone might have a explanation for this feel free to leave a comment.

Watching what games our kids play ....

Jason Row — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Scott Johnson over at the ExtraLife web site linked to this article in Wired, You Grew Up Playing Shoot'em-Up Games. Why Can't Your Kids?

I'm a dad of two young boys now, ages 4.5 years and 19 months. I know I've been pretty cautious about letting them watch me play any games on my XBox 360 or on my PC. I normally play once they go to bed because I really don't want them to see me playing Gears of War, Lost Planet, or GRAW. And the one time that my oldest woke up he snuck downstairs and found me playing Halo 2 online. It made for interesting questions like "Pappa why is that guy laying down on the ground?" which I replied with "Well son, we're playing freeze tag and instead of standing up he has to pretend he's asleep". Ok so not the most honest answer but I really didn't want to get into how I shot the guy on the screen but that he'll respawn to play again.

I'll let him play with Lego first to get the basic idea of good vs evil. The article touches on how Lego thinks that this is an important part of a child's development but the company stays away from today's weapons and instead favor futuristic or historical ones. Which is why they have castles/dragons and lasers/space monsters but no World War 2 sets.

While I do monitor the games my kids see, my oldest has played Cars for the 360 which we rented for him as well as a Tonka Rescue game for the PC. And from these I know it's going to be a tough to limit his gaming and get him outside to play. Just one of the continuing battles for parents today.

But I wish he could play NHL 07 with me ... guess I'll wait a couple more years before we become a formidable team. Oh and don't get me started on XBox Live ... he's not touching that until he's shipped off to university!

Combining Technology and Paintball

Jason Row — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:01:00 GMT

[reposted]

Some guys I know here in New Brunswick are planning a massive paintball event called TechWars for the summer of 2007. Part of their info is that it will be 100 acres of forested land, 2 paintball armies with 50 soldiers, 2 days and 1 night of war, and technology to make you drool.

This isn't going to be the standard woodsball game where guys run out and either kill or be killed. They plan to incorporate some cool technology into the game. X10 cameras, radios, night vision, handheld GPS, etc will all be used.

What caught my eye was that each team will have a command post that will be supplied with the much of the gear you need as well software and server technologies such as Microsoft Live Communications Server to anchor each network. I'm willing to give the event a try just to see how they use Live Communications Server in the field.

You can sign up to for the rank of Captain who will be a Technology, Security, and Operations officer. Just like a real battle, if you have the skills to hack the enemy's comm network it's fair game. And if you can, you're able to bring your own unique gear to the event to give your team an extra edge. I'll probably be a grunt out getting my butt shot off and complaining about poor intel. Still it will be good to get out from behind the desk.

One of their FAQ's made me relax just a bit. I don't have to worry about seasoned paintballers kicking my butt. I should be playing against other techies.

Question: I have been playing paintball on a semi-pro team for nearly 10 years. I am really good and have all my own equipment. Don't you think I will dominate?
Answer: No. We don't want you to come. This event is for the amateur paintball player and for those that love IT and technology. We hope that everyone who comes has played at least once so they know what to expect, but Techwars is designed for the common techie who wants to play. We do not want expert players to come to Techwars. We are striving for an event focused on team building, technology, and camaraderie and relationship building. We don't care if you suck at playing paintball. We welcome it.

Looking for an IFilter for the MSN Search Toolbar?

Jason Row — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:58:00 GMT

[reposted]

I'm one of the few people who doesn't use MSN Search nor the Google Search toolbar but I happened across the IFilter.org web site today. It's maintained by Scott Stonehouse, who I went to University with, and he created it when he couldn't find ifilter information in a single spot.

Apparently the IFilters will work with IIS Index Server, Sharepoint, SQL Server, and Windows Indexing Service and are used to index file formats in addition to the default types.

So if you're looking to index more file types head on over.

Is Justice the next Rory of the .NET blogsphere?

Jason Row — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:57:00 GMT

[reposted]

I've only been reading Justice's blog for a few months now and I find both Grey's Matter and Rory's Neopoleon very entertaining. The topics are not always .NET related but the majority are funny.

Just check out some of these for hilarity and learning:

So how do we tell if the up and comer is worthy of toppling the champ. Let's do a rough comparison of the two blogs shall we based on some broad categories.

Category	Justice	Rory	Winner
Hilarity	X	X	This one is a tie, humor abounds in both blogs so it's hard to give one the edge over the other.
Use of Graphics	X		Justice - although Rory is famous for his stick figure drawings I'll have to hand this one to Justice with his ability to use Paint.NET to muck with many 80s/90s references that I fondly remember.
Writing Style		X	Rory - Rory makes posting into an art and his postings read like a novel/short story/novella. I have to dedicate time to read his postings which is why I'll be joining the ranks of "The Whiners" in listening to his new fangled podcast.
Content	X	X	Another tie. I think that Justice might edge out Rory in this one. Justice has an ability to explain things so his grandmother can understand. Rory's blog is has some very personal postings but you can't deny that Rory does know what he's talking about in regards to software development. I'm leaving this category as a tie.

Now since the entire comparison is all tied up we'll have to go for a tie-breaker.

Category	Justice	Rory	Winner
Links to my blog	X		Justice wins this one. Apparently Rory doesn't consider me link worthy but then again I've never asked. For taking the inititive and adding me to his blog Justice proves that he's the poised to reign supreme in the .NET blogging world

For those Canucks who travel and need to find a Tim Horton's

Jason Row — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:47:00 GMT

[reposted]

I'm not a coffee drinker but I know how some Canadians are in the morning until they have their Tim's fix. So for those of you who travel and don't know where the closest Tim Horton's is to your hotel then this site should help.

http://www.findbyclick.com/coffee.html

Just pick your city and you'll see the where the local Tim's are found. The listing for Fredericton, NB is complete but I can't vouch for any other city. Moncton, NB used to be known as the Tim Horton's capital of the world as they had more Tim's per capita then anywhere else but I don't know if that title is still there's to hold.

Free icons for use in your apps

Jason Row — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:33:00 GMT

[reposted]

D'Arcy posted about free old school gaming icons from the Icon factory for your desktop. I'm a gaming geek from the 80's so this brought back some extra special memories.

I'm no artist so finding sources of icons is worth noting. Besides the Icon Factory the other site I've found with both free and commercial icons is GlyFx and both sites have great quality images.

[UPDATE: Via The Daily Grind #965 Mike mentioned another site, http://www.neatui.com/, where they have a free set of core toolbar icons along with commerical wizard and installer images]