microsoft
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microsoft
Microsoft has announced they are raising the limit of free applications a developer can submit from 5 to 100. But what does that really mean? First, lets look at the reason for the limitation. The iTunes Store and the Android Market both have a lot more applications available than the Windows Phone Marketplace. But that says nothing about the quality of those applications. I attended a couple of pre-launch events and Microsoft representatives were clearly told to send a message. We don’t want a bunch...
So yesterday I got the bad news that yet another XBOX 360 had failed us. This time is was the video port that went bad. This makes like 5 or 6 failed XBOXs, I’ve lost count. Those things are turds. There is no way I was having another one fixed because they’ll just send me a different turd edition that has been fixed that will probably break down again in 6 months. So I took everything I still had worth salvaging (controllers, hard drive, games, wireless) and traded them in. We use to be a 2 XBOX...
My wife and I have been working on a new site for the past couple of weeks. This is our second project since we re-launched our home business. ReleaseWeek.com The site lists major new releases of movies and television on DVD and Blu-Ray, video games, music and books. All of this is put into a simple current week format. This is our first project released as part of the Microsoft WebsiteSpark program. We built everything in ASP.NET Web Forms 3.5. I’m working on a new article on how to create public...
This weekend I purchased a replacement laptop for my Gateway Tablet PC. I reviewed a lot of different options but focused mostly on HP, Dell, Gateway, Sony, Samsung and even Apple. First lets start with each of the lines of laptop I didn’t choose and why. HP scored well on CNET reviews with the Pavilion dv3510nr, so I took a trip to Best Buy to check it out. I wasn’t really impressed. It was just another laptop. Dell as always seems to have a build your own laptop for everyone. The cost of adding...
The following is a simple checklist you can use when building web applications. Much of this still applies to other technologies and can easily be extended. I try not to get too specific on technology or methodology, but it is definitely leaning toward ASP.NET. If you can think of something I am missing or disagree, please leave a comment. Detailed information follows the checklist. How much of the checklist you follow will depend on the project. If its just a hobby site, you may skip items like...
Good grief. Yet another XBOX has failed, this time it’s the new one from last year. The DVD drive stopped spinning up right after the NXE update. Microsoft is footing the bill again and thankfully we have 2 so nobody will have to stop using their Lancers. I made it in just under the 1 year maintenance agreement. But this is by far the least reliable product I have ever owned. It was this same time last year we had failure #3. Technorati Tags: microsoft,xbox...
This is in response to a post by John Viega entitled “Why Microsoft’s free AV won’t matter”. Yes, Microsoft failed with OneCare. But I don’t agree with John on why. (Keep in mind John works for a company that produces AV software, so he is biased, even if he is knowledgeable.) Let’s look at the three major different kinds of anti-virus users. Type A – Anti-What-Now? A large number of consumers don’t care about anti-virus. They might know what it is “sort of”, and they may want to know that their...
We are currently using WCAT because we have the Pro version of Visual Studio, not Team System. It's not exactly the easiest or best tool, but it is free. I'm looking at Web Performance Suite and NeoLoad as a possible replacements but I'm not very familiar with either. This is what we need: Ability to load test many users (of course). Fairly easy to use. Trace listener would be nice. Test the output for values using simple matching and regular expressions. Functional testing in the same package would...
He seems to take it better than Bill did the pie. Steve Ballmer Egged in Hungary - Watch more free videos Technorati Tags: microsoft,humor,video,steve ballmer...
Just got back from the Microsoft Heroes Happen Here event in St. Louis. It was awful. This is the first event from Microsoft I have walked out on. The first track was titled Next Gen Web Apps and the presenter spent 15 minutes talking about CSS as if it was new and no one in the audience had ever seen it before. Next he moved on to LINQ and then lost me as he typed out the samples. Then we left. Maybe it was going to get better, but I couldn't make it any longer. It was definitely catered to the...
This seems to be a hot topic right now. Are you getting GTA IV and if so are you getting it on the XBOX 360 or PS3? The answer to this question for most people is probably on the console they own. D' uh. But we have both. We bought a PS3 for Bluray movies and have a far larger collection of games on the 360. But I am buying it on the PS3! Screw the extra content on the 360. Why I am doing this? 360 hardware failures. I am sick of them. If you have read my blog for any length of time, you may already...
Well, I can finally start releasing the name of our product / company / web site since 1 - we are officially expanding the team and hiring more people and 2 - the placeholder page is up at juggle.com. But I can't tell you what we are building yet. Hey, here is a good way to find out. Join the company! Hiring in St. Louis We are a small web development group looking to expand our team. Plain and simple, we are looking for great developers. We are focused on finding people who have a passion for development...
Okay, so "everyone" hates Visual SourceSafe. But the simple truth is many .NET developers have access to it for free because it comes with their MSDN Subscription. So a lot of .NET developers use it and they are familiar with it. Not because it's the best, but just because it's there. When we launched the new company we too went with Visual SourceSafe because it was included in our subscriptions, we were familiar with it, and it was better than nothing. But since then it has failed us in the biggest...
This is beyond ridiculous! I have had 3 Xbox 360's fail on me, and that doesn't include the current system which came with a broken face plate. Now the HD-DVD drive is dead. Microsoft's quality control on this system is the worst I have ever experienced. I just spent 30 minutes with support where he kept asking me "Why are you using an external drive? Just put the HD-DVDs in the internal drive." I had to try very hard to convince him that not only would that not work but that Microsoft even makes...
Video: Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip Technorati Tags: humor,microsoft,bill gates,video...
Microsoft's repair center sent out the 360 via FedEx just in time. It arrived about 30 minutes ago. I don't expect to see my son immerge from the basement for at least a few hours. I'd like to think that Microsoft rushed as many of these out as possible. That would explain them using FedEx instead of UPS. Whew! Technorati Tags: xbox,christmas...
Look at the lineup of new content tonight: Duel Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Don't Forget the Lyrics Clash of the Choirs We got a lot of game shows and reality television to look forward to this winter and spring if this writer's strike continues much longer. If only Microsoft had an subscription model for their video content in the XBOX Marketplace. Technorati Tags: tv...
I called Microsoft's repair center to check up on the status of my repair. The rep told me it was still being processed because they did not receive the XBOX until the 16th. I told her that seemed odd because I sent it 3-day UPS the previous Saturday, the 8th. She told me it was a shipping issue and UPS was probably backed up because of the holidays. So at that point I realized we are not getting back our XBOX before Christmas. I was double checking the timeline to find out how long this process...
Awesome huh? 4 XBOX 360s. Man what could be better than that! 4 XBOX 360x in 1 house. Hoo, am I bragging. Well, the problem is, we only have one. But this is the third one to die from the Ring of Death in 2 years. I know it's not an overheating problem because we have always stored them on open air racks with plenty of heat escape space. The only way it could be better is if we left it outside. And to make matters worse, we probably won't have it back by Christmas. So now we are faced with buying...
I'm not going to rehash all the details, but the Zune 2 is on the way and all features are being backported to the first generation models. THANK YOU MICROSOFT! Personally my favorite features announced so far are podcast support and native support for h.264 and mpeg4 which is basically every podcast on the planet. (With the exception of you few losers using solely Quicktime MOV format.) I haven't seen any details on the user interface changes or the software changes. Hopefully video will be on equal...
Something I noticed in the InfoWeek article from the previous post that I hadn't seen before was pricing for high volume sites: $0.25 / year / unique user for sites that have more than 1 million unique users per month. Or $250,000 per year minimum. It doesn't say anything about traffic less than that. But I have seen limits posted of 25,000 calls per day. After that you need an agreement with Microsoft. Does anyone have any pricing information below the million unique users mark but above the 25,000...
Microsoft is releasing a Windows Live toolkit for Visual Studio into beta in the next couple of months. Think it will help adoption? Microsoft to integrate Windows Live tools into Visual Studio
The Zune rumors and speculation is starting up again. Ars Technica has discovered a patent filed by Microsoft that will push content directly to your Zune based on your personal preferences and playlists. This sort of reminds me of the Tivo Suggestions feature. The patent also discusses the ability to subscribe to other peoples playlists. That would make it much easier for my wife and I to decide which Zune to use. Right now she has a playlist setup on my Zune so she doesn't have to listen to "all...
From Customers Ask: Is Apple Going Rotten? Five big complaints are stirring up against the "Golden God's" great product line. Of course the $200 iPhone price drop. Video accessories no longer work on the new models. You have to re-purchase all your games. Touch screen is flawed, and they knew it. Pay a second time for ring-tones. But over the past two weeks, Apple's fans have been grumbling that the company they knew and loved is transforming into another Microsoft, making short-sighted, anti-consumer...
This time it's only $129. But only in white again. I guess they didn't sell out last time. This isn't looking good for Zune. I hope Microsoft comes up with something good for the next version
Welcome to round 4,620 of Microsoft vs. Apple. This time we will be comparing bad commercials to see who had the absolute worst. First up - Geek vs Business executive. The geeks will be representing Microsoft, the business executives will be representing Apple. Warning: Apple is cheating in this one by hiring Kevin Costner. (Watch how he uses a mouse!) Now let's see who has consumed more drugs! Apple has chosen pot, Microsoft has chosen speed. Who's the winner of worst commercial. Comment lines are...
Michael Robertson will not give up his fight against Microsoft. Remember back when he took on Windows by creating a more "Windows friendly" version of Linux called Lindows, got sued, and changed the name to Linspire? Well, now he is taking them on with an entirely web based OS. And I guess there must be a really attractive lawyer on the Microsoft team he is just dying to see again, because he is calling it ajaxWindows. Microsoft must be his ultimate target. This is from Michael's Minute announcement:...
I just rebuilt one of my machines to run the 64 bit version of Windows Vista. When I tried to install Live Writer I needed to use the new single installer package released last week. Well, it doesn't work on x64. I sent an e-mail to Microsoft, and they said a lot of people have reported the problem and they are working on it. They gave me a work around but it just launched the same installer with different options, so it crapped out too. The odd thing is, all the individual packages should work on...
So imagine Microsoft releases a new patch for Windows Media Player. You install it and now you have the Zune software. How many people do you think would be pissed about that? When I setup my desktop last week I didn't install iTunes because I don't really have a need for it. But I did install QuickTime and Apple Software Update. This morning Apple software update kicked in and wants to install iTunes + QuickTime to patch iTunes which doesn't exist on my computer. So I thought I would let it update...
The new design looks better. Oh, wait. Looks like it's loaded with the Verizon music and video junk (more ways to take your money) and they have REMOVED Windows Live and Live Messenger. Okay, which one of you Microsoft employees showed up drunk at the Verizon party and hit on the CEOs wife? No word yet on whether the Q will be upgraded like Microsoft was pushing for. Image Source and CNET Review...
I'll assume many of you reading this at least know what The .NET Show is. Well, after 7 years its over. Their announcement post doesn't really explain why. Ratings? I never understood why this show didn't transition into a podcast. You always had to go download each episode manually. Or did I just miss something
Before the Zune launched there was one of many rumors floating around about pricing. One of those was a $99 price point. Well, I think it's time to make that a reality. Microsoft says Zune sales are on target. But that target was not that impressive and it's time to start pushing hard. We need a Zune 2. We need podcast and better video support. But mostly we need users. The price drop on the HD-DVD drive on the XBOX has fueled those sales and that was on $20. Drop the retail price on the Zune by...
I'm in a mobile mood this week. Must be because of all the iPhone hype. Microsoft has released version 2.0 of Live Search. If you have a Windows Mobile phone and you don't have this app, you are really missing out. It's the best way to lookup driving directions and contact information. The new version makes it easy to find movie times and locations along with ratings. For a full description, here is the Virtual Earth / Live Maps blog post. You can download the application to your phone from wls.live.com...
Yesterday morning I posted about Verizon's lack of Windows Mobile 6, and yesterday afternoon, Engadget releases some dirt on Verizon's release of the Samsung SCH-i760, likely this month or next. Just a rumor, but that's a cool phone. Consider this my official complaint about no mention of the 2nd generation Zune. Okay, Microsoft, let's see an announcement this afternoon...
The Blame Game So I have been waiting to find out if my Motorola Q is going to be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6, or if I will be stuck buying a new phone. When Microsoft released version 6 back in February, they made an announcement that phone carriers would get the software free of charge if they agreed to upgrade version 5 phones for existing customers. That was the first time there was a glimmer of hope for us. I can't remember any time in the past that you could upgrade your phone. Wireless phone...
Reminds me of the Microsoft Surface parody commercial. (Some bad language.)
Is Linspire getting desperate? They just struck a deal with Microsoft to license code for Windows Live Messenger, Windows Media, and TrueType fonts. Okay, that seems like a good thing. But they agreed to make Live Search the default on their Linux based OS! Linspire has always billed itself as the super easy Linux distro for everyone. I guess they are going to find out if they can make in the mainstream market, because I just think they alienated a lot of Linux geeks, assuming they had some left....
I was checking Google Reader this morning when I came across a post by Download Squad entitled Firefox's popularity is repeating Microsoft's dominating mistakes all over again. But when I click through the link all I get is a single comment: "I don't even know where to begin on a rebuttal for this one..." Did Download Squad get a bunch of backlash and take it down? Or is this just a temporary bug? If anyone else has the full article in their feed reader or browser cache, please post the content in...
I bought my first PSP back at the launch. The lack of good titles for several months drove me to want to trade it in. My oldest son liked it, so I gave it to him for his birthday along with a couple of new games. A few months later he also got frustrated with the lack of titles so I bought it back off him so he could get a video iPod. Flash forward two years, my youngest son saved his money for months and used his end of year report card money along with some game trade-ins to buy a used one. The...
Engadget has some rumoring going on that Microsoft has a big Zune announcement today that is probably an "entirely new Zune". At this point I would be happy just to hear that we are finally getting Podcast support. New Zune at Microsoft event on Monday? Update 5/8/2007: I can't find any information on the web today about any announcement other than some new TV commercials that started airing yesterday. So I guess this rumor is a flop. Update 5/9/2007: Okay, so now it looks like some people did get...
I've noticed that the Apple fans are mostly forgiving Apple for the Leopard delay. Even the ones "reporting" are taking a very nice tone compared to how they treat Microsoft. And they are right, here is why. Apple has a lot on it's plate right now with the launch of Apple TV and the upcoming iPhone. They have a lot of products to support unlike Microsoft who only has, what, two? three? Their brightest engineers are busy working on alternative designs for the mouse so everyone will quit complaining...
Zune 2.0 and a smaller flash based Zune will be sold this year. The hard drive version looks like the generation 1 Zune, but is thinner. It has a larger hard drive and still uses the doubleshot. The flash based player is video capable and he said the screen covers about 75% of the front, similar to the hard drive Zune. The flash player has Wi-Fi and also uses a double shot. Both devices have completed the design phase, although some last minute minor tweaks to the hardware will occur. Memory capacity...
Windows Live Messenger is coming to the Xbox 360 on the week of May 7th. I don't know how useful I will find this, but it's good to see Microsoft continuing to expand the 360 beyond gaming
Visual Studio has this annoying habit of expanding the solution folder tree, especially when synchronizing with Visual SourceSafe. Even without that problem I sometimes find myself with many expanded tree nodes in the Solution Explorer and I want a quick way to collapse them all. So I searched for a macro based solution to the problem and came up with the VS.Net Macro: Collapse All from Captain LoadTest. This macro was not designed to collapse a non-expanded folder's sub items. So I made a few quick...
Microsoft's Enterprise Library version 3 is now available. The two big new features are: Validation Application Block - Developers can use this application block to create validation rules for business objects that can be used across different layers of their applications. Policy Injection Application Block - Developers can use this application block to implement interception policies that can be used to streamline the implementation of common features, such as logging, caching, exception handling,...
The research channel has a 3.5 hour video on designing .NET class libraries by Krzysztof Cwalina the program manager for the .NET Framework team. This class presents best practices for designing frameworks that are reusable object-oriented libraries. The guidelines are applicable to frameworks ranging in size and in their scale of reuse from large system frameworks to small components shared among several applications. They started as a small set of naming and design conventions, but have been enhanced,...
I think a person's start menu says a lot about them. So show us your start menu! It's a simple Ctrl+Alt+Print Screen. Work Running Windows XP, the company is not overall aggressive about adopting the new OS even though we are a software company. Not running a standard skin (that's the Zune skin). Using IE, not Firefox. Must be a company thing? Windows Live Writer is the top program. I post once or twice a day from work during downtime, but I don't leave the application open. Visual Studio, Notepad...
On 10's big announcement for today is Microsoft Deepfish, a new mobile web browser that displays full pages with a zooming ability for better web surfing on your phone. I downloaded the beta and got it working without much problem. Definitely better then IE for viewing pages not designed for a mobile phone. Watch the video Get Deepfish...
Microsoft's Channel 10 has video and answers to the rumors. Video: XBOX 360 elite First look at the Xbox 360 Elite Official Press Release...
Symantec found that Microsoft Windows is the most secure operating system. This is based on the number of patches found and the time to patch them. Microsoft Windows Red Hat Linux Apple Mac OS X Hewlett Packard HP-UX Sun Solaris Despite the latest TV ads ridiculing the security in Vista with a Matrix-like Agent playing the UAC in Vista, Apple (QuoteChart-->) has nothing to brag about. Symantec found 43 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X and a 66 day turnaround on fixes. Surprise, Microsoft Listed as Most...
After about a year of waiting I finally got my invite to Windows Live Mail. (Okay, so I didn't really care that much.) What I got is some awful hybrid between Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Nothing revolutionary here. Just a forced update to the ever aging Hotmail. Granted I didn't spend much time with it, so if you think you can change my mind, please do so. Unfortunately, this is also the same interface you get with Office Live. Consider using a hosted Microsoft Exchange server. Prices start around $7...
This post is in response to the article "Why Linux will not displace Windows". (I have posted the entire comment just in case it gets taken down from ZDNet.) You are kidding arent you ? Are you saying that this linux can run on a computer without windows underneath it, at all ? As in, without a boot disk, without any drivers, and without any services ? That sounds preposterous to me. If it were true (and I doubt it), then companies would be selling computers without a windows. This clearly is not...
No Zune? How about some desktop wallpapers. Microsoft has released 2 new desktop wallpapers based on Windows Vista Ultimate. You don't need to actually be running Ultimate, or Vista for that matter, to use these. Wallpapers are in 4:3 and wide screen format
There are lots of applications out there that will convert the Microsoft DVR-MS format (Media Center recording format) into standard WMV so it can be put on your Zune. But how about an application that does it automatically in the background, puts them in their own TV Shows section instead of lumping them in with other videos, and removes them when they are removed from Media Center? Download ZuneWatcher...
The AJAX Chat Sample shows how to build a browser based chat using ASP .NET and AJAX. ASP.NET AJAX is the easiest and most enjoyable way to start writing asynchronous Web applications using ASP.NET. The official ASP.NET AJAX site is here, and you will want to make sure you have downloaded the last version of the framework and the control toolkit before continuing with this example. Code is available for download at Coding4Fun...
Microsoft has launched a new site, Beginner Developer Learning Center. This adds to, but does not replace, the Express sites and Coding4Fun. Much of the content seems to be copied from other Microsoft sources. However it has been put together in a very clear, step-by-step, learning path to get started. Overall, it looks like Microsoft has done a good job organizing the information. Their target audience, if you judge by the photos, would seem to be kids. And this will probably turn some people away...
Finally a new episode of The .NET Show (it's been 4 months). The Office Group has launched a new internet service called “Office Live”, which allows small businesses to easily create both a web presence, as well as a SharePoint Services enabled portal to assist them with managing their business and operations. The .NET Show hosts Rajesh Jha, Corporate Vice President for Office Live, and Tara Brown, lead program manager for Office Live, to talk about how this new service empowers small business. I...
Now if this was Microsoft shipping an Xbox late without cables everybody would be screaming bloody murder. But since it's "do no wrong" Apple, all I am seeing are a lot of "we understand" style excuses. "We need to give them time to make a great product" or "It's better than shipping crappy cables" type stuff. Don't get me wrong, some people are complaining, they're just not doing it as loudly or are harshly as they would with Microsoft. Any else notice this? That the industry is bent toward being...
Here is a blog post from someone who has worked at all three places. The summary: Share this post : email it! | bookmark it...
It seems Microsoft just can't let go of Clippy. Yesterday I attended the Vista / Office launch in St. Louis, and while Clippy himself did not make an appearance, his dog did. I guess Microsoft just can't stand to have a presentation without some annoying cartoon character jumping around the screen, so we were treated to a dancing Scooby-Doo while we waited. Maybe this is what happens when you bury Clippy in Stephen King's Pet Sematary. If you're into this sort of thing (shame on you), you can get...
I have been looking into OpenID and CardSpace for a new project. There is a shortage of .NET 3.0 books right now (see my previos post) but I was able to find some good introductory information on CardSpace. The Windows CardSpace - Simplified! Microsoft’s CardSpace: Part 1 – Getting started Microsoft's CardSpace: Part 2 - Creating and using your first identity card Microsoft’s CardSpace: Part 3 – Using a Card...
CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, the seminal figures in the development of the personal computer, will make a rare joint appearance at The Wall Street Journal's ``D: All Things Digital'' conference this year. The two men will jointly discuss the history and future of the digital revolution in an unrehearsed, unscripted, onstage conversation on May 30 with D co-producers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Woh! This could get interesting. I'm hoping it degenerates into a physical...
Here is an interesting way to get tabbed browsing on the wii. Navigate to wiiminder.com. The site itself creates tabs to help you navigate. If you point your normal browser there all you will get is a video demonstrating the site. Can't wait to get home and try this. It even includes a better favorites system. But where is the Xbox 360 browser? Could you make one with XNA Game Studio? Would Microsoft block it's release...
Step 1 - Get the Tools Cost - $0Time - About 3 hours to download an install Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition Visual C# 2005 Express Edition SQL Server 2005 Express Edition - You will have the option of downloading this when you download Visual Web Developer and Visual C#, but I recommend downloading SQL Server separately with Advanced Services for reporting. Step 2 - Getting Comfortable Cost - $0 to $30 if you purchase the eBookTime - 30 hours for either the video or book route Start with...
This seems like one of those questions like: Is my girlfriend too hot? or Do I have too much money? Those are problems we love to live with. Mads Kristensen has a blog post where he discusses how easy it is to build a website with Visual Studio and questions if that is a good thing. He discussed the designer and drag-and-drop methods of development where, in the end, you don't learn anything and that can be bad. I agree the designer hides a lot. But I also heard these same arguments way back between...
A new application, Cozi, has been launched by some ex-Microsoft employees that is sort of a virtual family bulletin board. It contains a calendar, message center, shopping lists and some family picture support. (What no allowance manager?) There is both a windows application and web interface and some PDA and phone integration. The only thing that bothers me about these super productive applications with a niche market is that I live by Outlook. We spring for hosted Exchange services and both my...
Looks like CodePlex is finally starting to kill off GotDotNet. I just got this e-mail: Subject: Important Announcement: GotDotNet Private Workspaces will be shutting down You are receiving this mail because you are listed as the owner of a private project hosted on GotDotNet Workspaces. Microsoft will be shutting down private Workspaces on 3/20/2007. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us at: gdnfeed@microsoft.com Thanks, The GotDotNet Team...
Hopefully I will be able to upgrade my Motorola Q, but I'm not counting on it. Download Squad has links to several reviews
If you're like me and you have a Zune Pass (I know there are at least a few of you out there) you probably have spent more than a few hours building your library. I finally have all the artists that I own CDs for downloaded so I can get all the songs I like without buying more CDs. I also re-downloaded all my MP3s in Zune format just to keep things simple and have complete tags and album art. Now I spend time checking the home page to see what's new and also pick an artist I already have to check...
First Apple posts now Linux. Good thing you can't bet banned from GeeksWithBlogs for this. :) Linspire has announced that it is changing it's core distro from Debian to Ubuntu, another testimony to how well (and quickly) Ubuntu is being received. I've tried both Linspire and Ubuntu in the past just for fun and to see if my kids would take to it. Linspire had some driver problems (audio and 3D video) but was the most user friendly, Ubuntu just worked. So we went with Ubuntu. Linspire: Ubuntu: My oldest...
I know, I know, too many Apple posts the last couple of days. If you haven't seen this yet, it's a letter posted on Apple's site from Steve Jobs talking about music. He doesn't do this very often so it's getting a lot of attention. It's primarily in response to the building anti-trust issues with Apple's dominance in the digital music market, which is misguided since the real problem are the music companies. To break it down: Apple won't license it's DRM because it will be cracked and the crack can't...
I made a tongue-in-cheek comment about why I don't switch to Mac OS X on a recent post to which Jeff Julian made a comment that got me thinking. What would it take to get you to switch to Apple? For me it would take a two-punch combo: Visual Studio for the Mac or an equally good development environment for Ruby on Rails. (I mostly do web development.) A music and video subscription model to iTunes. If I could get that, I would seriously consider trading in my laptop, Zune and Xbox for a MacBook,...
Dear Microsoft, I understand that you are trying to go for a unified interface for the Zune just like iTunes. But would it kill you to add support for TV shows recorded by Windows Media Center so we don't have to do things like this? In the short term: Please add .dvr-ms support in the next minor Zune software update. It's not that hard and I'm not asking for anything special. Just have them show up under videos. In the long term: Please add a TV section to compliment Music, Videos, Podcasts (you...
REALbasic is a version of BASIC very similar to Visual Basic before the jump to .NET. It has more OO features than classic VB and almost looks like what you would expect Visual Basic to have become if Microsoft didn't port it to .NET. REALbasic's big claim to fame is the ability to run on Windows, Mac and Linux. Over a year ago I checked it out, and it looked very promising. Easy development, cross platform, and has access to web services. But it was missing a critical piece: No ability to create...
Bidding ends in less than 2 days on this beauty (currently at $36). Microsoft needs to mass produce more geeky items like this.
We are adding a senior C# developer to our team for an ASP.NET 2.0 product scheduled to be released in about 1 year. This is product development, not IT support, with a software development firm. This is all we do. If you are interested, or know someone who is, please let me know. Here is the official description: Mitchell Humphrey is a software vendor located in St. Louis, MO, with a nationwide client base. We are currently seeking a Senior Software Developer in our Software Development Department....
Microsoft has an Ultimate Extra listed on their site called DreamScene that allows you to use video as your desktop. It was demoed at CES, promised at the consumer launch, and it is listed as a current extra on Microsoft's site: http://www.microsoft.com/wi... But it doesn't show up on my available Extras list. Anyone know what the status of this feature is? UPDATE 02/05/2007: Windows Ultimate Blog Microsoft is finalizing testing of Windows DreamScene...
Like the OS, hate the OS, love the OS and you're upgrading today? Well, it only really matters a little. The vast majority of consumers only upgrade to a new operating system when they buy a new computer. So what Microsoft needs to do is win them over at the purchase point. It's not going to come down to does Vista have this specific feature or not. It's going to come down to one of two things. First, maybe knowing Microsoft has a new OS will peek their interest into getting a new PC. If this happens,...
Bill will be on The Daily Show this upcoming Monday. Which means he will be all over Soapbox YouTube on Tuesday. Bill Gates slated for 'Daily Show' appearance
Mr. Owl, how many geeks does it take to announce the launch of ASP.NET AJAX? Let's find out. 1 - Chris Williams - In case you missed it... 2 - G-man - Microsoft Ajax 1.0 has been released! 3 - Vivek Thakur - MS AJAX 1.0 is out...
If you're not using the IE Developer Toolbar, you should be. The newest version adds the ability to select a style and it will tell you which style sheet it was set in. Here is more info Here is the download
Do you hear that sound? That's all the anti-Microsoft people laughing at us again. The Enchanted Office: Once Upon a User Interface
I'm ranting a lot today, must be the holidays! Last night I had the pleasure of talking to the worst trained technical CSR ever. And he worked for Microsoft. If you want to skip the whole story just read the two sentences in bold. The problem was with my Zune. Over the weekend it stopped syncing. I went to the Zune site and tried every solution on the site until I got to the last (re-install the Zune software) which worked. The only problem I had was that I lost my play counts which I use to filter...
Someone at Microsoft is getting sick of the I'm a Mac commercials. Video: Apple Mac vs. PC - Zune vs. Ipod...
Okay, I realize the Zune is not for everyone. In fact, 9 out of 10 times, I would recommend an iPod first even though I own both an iPod and Zune and prefer the Zune. I was sold on the larger screen and subscription music and was willing to give up a bunch of other features to get it, at least temporary. The clock is ticking and I hope Microsoft keeps improving it. Otherwise, a year from now, I'll start looking again. But I honestly think this is just the beginning. But I am sick of false information...
I'm keeping my Christmas list on my Live space this year. This is the list as it appears today. The items on my Live Space are not in any particular order because there is no order functionality, they are simply in the order they were added. The list below is in order of most wanted, sort of. Maybe this will give you some ideas for your list. Deluxe Mini Fridge-Warmer with Digital Thermostat ($99.99 - ThinkGeek) Creative Gigaworks ProGamer G550W ($328.60 - Amazon) 42" Vizio LCD HDTV - ($1,197.78...
Setup is easy, just download SubSonic from CodePlex and reference SubSonic.dll found in the bin directory. Alternatively, you can open the solution and compile a release build yourself. (You will need Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition to open the solution because it also includes a sample web site or you can use Visual C# 2005 Express Edition to open just the project.) Find the entire series of posts here...
SubSonic will work fine with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, so you can get started without dropping a dime. You can also use MySQL or any database that can be accessed through Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0, but SQL Server is probably the most likely setup. Note: The sample web site included with the SubSonic source code includes an SQL script to create the Northwind database. This article will use that database when examples are needed....
Okay, Jeff here is the deal. You write a post on how to setup your Zune to sync podcasts and I promise to run out and buy a Zune. Then I'll send an e-mail to anyone at Microsoft you want telling them that you personally made this happen, change the tag line of my blog to "Jeff Julian is the Zune God" until the end of the year, and plaster a Geeks With Blogs sticker on the window of my car. Here are the rules: The podcast software can be third party, but no more than $50 to purchase. The podcast software...
What is BitLocker? Vista has the capability to encrypt your entire disk drive, so if your laptop is stolen, someone can't just pop the hard drive into another computer to get the data.
Microsoft is launching a new team, blogger, ??? site called Aggreg8. I signed on, looked around, and for the life of me, I don't understand the focus of this site. It seems to be a way to group blog posts more my topic than blogger, but it doesn't look executed very well. They probably should have just tried to integrate these feature into The Hive.
Many of you may have seen this screensaver before. It simulates the Blue Screen of Death. The original began at SysInternals which was recently purchased by Microsoft. You can now get an official, updated version direct from Microsoft itself. There is even an option to fake a memory dump. Classic.
Microsoft is going to give Universal $1 for every Zune they sell. Why?
Microsoft has a Wiki version of the MSDN. It looks a lot like the standard MSDN, but with fewer articles. Each page has a community section so not everything appears to be editable in standard Wiki fashion. It's in beta right now, with the release do before the end of the year.
Beginning on its first anniversary, November 22, Xbox 360 will become the first gaming console in history to provide HD TV shows and movies directly to gamers in their own living rooms. Xbox 360 gamers will be able to download full-length TV shows to own, and will be able to rent movies via download from the Xbox Live® network, the world leader in online distribution of high-definition gaming and entertainment content.
And now you know, the rest of the story.
Happy Halloween geeks. Time to turn your desktop to the dark side. Windows Media Player 11 has finally released with it's shiny black interface. But don't let the rest of your desktop feel left out. Also creeping out of Redmond today is a black version of the Windows Media Center Royale theme - Royale Noir.
I have created a search macro for Microsoft's Live.com search engine that will search all the blogs on GWB.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer chats with BusinessWeek editors about Web 2.0's sky-high valuations and the new competition the company faces
Yup, we interviewed that guy. But John Hodgman isn't just a metaphorical stand-in for the PC (even though that's what we mainly asked him about), he's also an editor at the New York Times Magazine and a contributor to the Daily Show. Read on to find out whether he's really a PC user, Microsoft's attempts to recruit him, and how he got the gig in the first place.
Microsoft is leaving Java in the dust, but the company still has room to grow in the developer arena, a key executive said.
Faux training videos for Microsoft UK employees featuring Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in their roles from the BBC version of The Office
Microsoft commissioned VeriTest, the testing division of Lionbridge Technologies, to measure the potential improvements in developer productivity realized between the development platforms of ASP and ASP.NET 2.0.
The 2.0 controls include Calendar Popup, Collapsable Panel, Faq Repeater, List Transfer, Masked TextBox, Multi-Text List Controls, Numeric Box, and Time Picker
Here is a handful of tutorials to get you started with Microsoft's new tool. Does anyone know of any good books, articles or sites where I can learn web graphic design with Gimp or Paint Shop Pro Studio (it's the last version Jasc made)
Common Table Expressions, or CTE, are a new construct introduced in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 that offer a more readable form of the derived table that can be declared once and referenced multiple times in a query. Moreover, CTEs can be recursively defined, allowing a recursive entity to be enumerated without the need for recursive stored procedures. In this article we'll examine the benefits, uses, and syntax of both recursive and non-recursive CTEs. Read on to learn more!
The most common inefficiency in a typical portal site occurs when multiple Web Parts simultaneously make network requests for data. Each request, whether to a Web service or a remote database, ends up adding to the overall time it takes to process the page even though the requests are typically independent of each other and could conceivably be issued in parallel.
Here are 10 of the pitfalls that litter the path to releasing your production ASP.NET applications, and what you can do to avoid them.
Bill Gates is leaving Microsoft (mostly) to spend his days working at his charitable foundation. Good or bad, whatever you think of Bill and Microsoft, he certainly helped shape the face of the technology across the planet.
This article illustrates how to accomplish a number of common tasks with the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 GridView control. Each task is accompanied by a description of the new concepts covered, and the complete working examples are available for download with this article. (122 printed pages)
There are situations for which untyped DataSets may not be the best solution for data manipulation. The goal of this guide is to explore an alternative to DataSets: custom entities and collections.
Windows services pose unique debugging and deployment challenges that can infuriate you. Fortunately, David Talbot can help by shining the light on a few simple under-documented tricks.
Want to know if your computer will run Vista?
I read recently that the latest version of DAEMON tools contains spyware. So here is a "simple" tool from Microsoft to mount your ISOs from the MSDN Library.
This article mainly explains how to use a custom Paint event handler to draw your own Windows control (in this case, a Form control). The GoogleTalkForm class inherits and extends the System.Windows.Forms.Form control (provided by the Microsoft .NET Framework) to provide the look and feel of the Google Talk Windows Form.
The public (not limited) beta of Expression Web Designer is available for download
A frecuently requested feature in the CAB community is a navigation control like Microsoft Outlook’s bar. Chris Holmes posted a few days ago a nice approach on how to achieve this using CAB:
The problem, it turns out, is that the .NET builders did not give much thought to providing many of the essential basic building blocks that operating systems construction crews need for their work. Interpreted code has some minor performance issues as well (note that there are many ways to overcome this often overly shrill critique). But the main problem was that the Microsoft OS guys are big C++ users. Getting them to switch over to C# was for these reasons not in the cards.
Some of the country’s leading web-hosting providers now claim that it is cheaper to offer services based on Windows than on Open Source software and have passed on cost savings to customers as a result.
Some good common sense to keep yourself productive and happy at work.
Looks like service pack 1 of SQL Server 2005 (already?) will include the Management Studio with SQL Server Express.
Microsoft is planning on releasing a new live service to store your personal data online, similar to Google's GDrive.
For a while I have been adding books to the library feed of this site one at a time. Here is a list of books that I currently keep on my “must have” bookshelf. I will update this periodically as new volumes are added and dropped. The Library link list will also stay syncronized.
This article is by an employee that has been at Microsoft since 1999. It's very interesting. The article confirmed rumors and speculation I've heard, but there were still a few surprises. If anything it's a good article to hang on to if you work at a stuffy company.
Rocky Lhotka shows how you can use delegates to build a simple rules engine to centralize the validation logic in your application.
Here are some links and info to keep handy next time your employer starts "cheaping out".
The Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides a variety of tools for quickly creating, understanding, and troubleshooting Web pages.
Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday unveiled new software that allows Intel-based Macs to run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP software.
We're beyond screenshots at this point. You can view a video of the new Office interface here.
Michael Robertson is taking another shot at Microsoft with ajaxWrite, an online word processor. I'm not going to tear apart ajaxWrite or praise it. Specifically I have a problem when Michael puts on his sales weasel hat and fails to compare apples to apples.
Here it comes??? All I can say is, it better have a big hard-drive (30GB+). Stupid PSP.
Looks like Microsoft is pushing the release back to 2007. Nooooooooo! Now what we will do for Chrismas?
In Microsoft's ongoing battle with Google (and Yahoo!) to become your first stop on the internet, they have finally started to utilize their greatest asset. Not Office or Windows, but the developers, developers, developers.
Maybe I should have titled this post, Click Here For Free Money.
Read Switched On: The contractor and the architect
Looking for a good CSS template to start with?
Microsoft needs to learn something from Apple. When the world expects a March 2nd announcement because you posted the date on the viral site, you deliver.
This way they have the option of tossing anti-virus in if the paid anti-virus service they have does not pay off.
An analyst suggests that Windows Vista could come to be as reliable as Unix, given Microsoft's push for hardware compatibility.
http://officelive.microsoft.com/
The “legendary” best practices application for .NET development has been updated to .NET 2.0.
mail2web.com Offers Free Microsoft Exchange Email Service
CSSBasics.com has a fairly good introduction to CSS. It's 18 chapters long, but they use the word chapter losely. (About 1 - 3 printed pages each)
Microsoft will charge users $49 for Windows OneCare Live
Does anyone know what level, if any, of the MSDN Subscription packages will contain the new Microsoft Expression tools?
When the worm activates, it destroys all Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, ZIP and PSD files on all available drives.
.Forget about the killer feature. Welcome to the age of the killer user experience.
So Visual Studio is getting a "live" component. Here is my feature request: Work and don't suck.
DotNetKicks.com is a new "rip-off" site of Digg designed specifically for .NET Developers. If Digg had sub-categories under programming, we wouldn't need this site. But it doesn't, so DotNetKicks fills the void. Check it out.
What were the most surprising Microsoft moments in 2005? Here's our list. What juicy items did we miss?
This article is a excellent opinion post on Microsoft's current and future status as a monopoly.
Netflix better get off it's butt and over a download service soon.
I have read two things about the Google / AOL partnership that bothers me.
Recently my wife got a new Creative Zen Vision. No matter what she tried, it would not sync video. The computer we were using has had a lot of video software and codecs installed over time, plus we were already using it to sync a Creative Portable Media Center and a SmartPhone. She called Creative and they were no help. They actually told her to try someone else's software besides Creative.
It was time for a rebuild.
This page provides an overview of the Composite UI Application Block. This application block is a reusable, source code–based component based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. It provides proven practices to build complex smart client user interfaces based on well known design patterns such as the Composite pattern, in which simple user interface parts can be combined to create complex solutions, but at the same time allowing these parts to be independently developed, tested, and deployed.
Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .NET by James W. Newkirk and Alexei A. Vorontsov (ISBN 0735619484)
Now that Visual Studio 2005 has been released for a month, more books are starting to hit the shelves, training classes are popping up, and a lot of articles are (still) being written. Below is a roadmap I have laid out to bring experienced Visual Basic .NET programmers up to date. Visual Basic 6er's will probably be okay too.
Collapsible Draggable Panel Server Control
Tonight at midnight marks the launch of the XBOX 360. Good luck everyone.
If Windows Had Never Happened ..., Price as Signal, Google-Mart, Office 12 Goes Beta 1, Microsoft AntiSpyware Now Removes Sony Rootkit, 30 Second AJAX Tutorial
That's an accurate summary, but it doesn't tell anywhere near the whole story. It doesn't tell you that Microsoft is a business empire without equal, that its products are used in nearly every computer on the planet, or that it has yet to reach the height of its power and influence. Microsoft has become a symbol of all that is great about the information age, as well as all that is less-than-great about it.
If you are an MSDN subscriber you can get the final release of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 now. Good luck downloading it. I haven't even been able to login.
SitePoint's latest newsletter is promoting XForms again. Now that there are working plugins for both IE and Firefox is it a good idea?
I remember whan all we had were MCSEs and MCSDs and by golly, we liked it! Now were gonna need an MCCA (Microsoft Certified Certification Analyst) just to figure out who is who!
In an attempt to cut out the middle man, Microsoft will soon host SharePoint, Exchange, CRM and ERP apps for you. They will still allow hosting, so you have options for now.
Check out Microsoft's site dedicated to the history and future of the company.
Four common myths of .NET performance.
Microsoft Corp. quickly backed off on a demand to portable music player manufacturers that if they chose to include Windows Media Player in software packages, only that program could be included, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported Thursday in its update on the company’s compliance with its antitrust settlement.
PC Magazine has released a new edition of its Top 101 Web Sites. Not a lot of surprises. I have seen most of these sites. But I did find a few gems.
Get a focused, first look at the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and .NET Framework 2.0.
This step by step approach shows how you can run Cassini, a secure, light-weight web server along with Visual Studio .NET 2003 to debug your ASP.NET applications locally.
Get ready to dive deep and learn how Visual Studio 2005 will boost your power and creativity. We’ll explore the Visual Studio Team System, which significantly cuts the complexity of delivering high-performance, collaborative applications. We’ll also discuss how Visual Studio 2005 makes it simple to develop and deploy smart client applications, access key features of ASP.NET 2.0, and create rich, mission-critical solutions.
Web fads of yesterday and tomorrow.
Learn how to build your own starter kit using Microsoft ASP.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition.
Microsoft has proposed some new RSS icons.
The purpose of this article is to provide a random password generator for ASP.NET.
Microsoft is promoting a new programming language aimed at kid's called KPL (Kid's Programming Language).
All of the news stories floating around about Microsoft created a disposable DVD and planning to go head-to-head against Blockbuster are fake. Just one giant internet hoax.
Harriet Meirs, George Bush's newest nominee to the Supreme Court, was once an attorney for Microsoft.
Linspire is finally entering the office place with Linspire Professional.
Two free chapters (5 - Template Lists and 9 - SharePoint Project Collaboration Solutions) from SharePoint 2003 User's Guide are available for download from TheServerSide.NET.
Microsoft has released Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2003.
The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.
I love Treo's hardware design, and I love Windows Mobile. The fact they are joining forces is a good thing to me. But it's not quite perfect. My perfect phone?
My.Blogs is a collection of sample code that will show you how you can easily provide programmatic access to weblogs in the applications you build.
"[Longhorn] is so complex its writers will never be able to make it run properly."
I'll summarize the conceptually daunting amount of Windows Vista information Microsoft presented at PDC 2005.
The firm said that during the first six months of 2005, 25 vulnerabilities were discovered in Mozilla browsers like Firefox, 18 of which were rated as severe. Microsoft Internet Explorer, on the other hand, had just 13, of which 8 were considered severe.
The engineer in charge, Gordon Bell, hopes to create a digital record of everything he sees and hears.
Looking for an “I hate Bill Gates” site.
Let's start thinking about all the things we want in VB 9, so we can be disappointed when VB 8 releases.
Most popular employers among US computer science students: Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Apple
Microsoft was already a powerful company, but at the time it looked like it might be heading for some real trouble.
This white paper shows how one can create an application installation page that uses the userAgent string to detect which .NET Framework components are installed on a computer.
Hosting.com is pleased to provide FREE hosting plans for ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.
In a move that shows just how far Microsoft Corp. has come, and how pervasive open-source software is in certain areas, the software powerhouse is, for the first time, including open-source technology in one of its shipping products.
Jeff Prosise introduces 9 tips to power programming that have the potential to make a significant impact on the security, performance, and robustness of your code.
This step by step approach shows how you can run Cassini, a secure, light-weight web server along with Visual Studio .NET 2003 to debug your ASP.NET applications locally.
This new service replaces Windows Update and adds patching for Office, Exchange and SQL Server all in one place.
McAfee published a whitepaper that helps developers understand how to better protect against replay attacks in applications based on ASP.NET. Microsoft also issued an article about the problem, which pertains to forms authentication.
Kai-Fu Lee has nothing good to say about Bill Gates or Microsoft.
If you are relying on the Windows firewall, then yes it is. Microsoft has released a new patch, download it now.
The site contains a list of scheduled interviews for the remainder of the year.
Microsoft Corp. is bringing the power of its .Net technology to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, delivering a system to help locate people displaced or missing since the hurricane.
Microsoft has published the technology overview document for Internet Explorer 7.
A new version of the GPL is due out for review in December but The Free Software Foundation is letting us know what to expect today.
As good object-oriented (OO) developers, we develop our applications with rich architecture and with a reasonably good object model following the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern.
Here is a quick blast of items that I have stored in Yahoo! MyWeb related to .NET 2.0
Yup, Microsoft took first place with it's AntiSpyware product by a fairly well respected magazine, Consumer Reports.
Microsoft has posted the 5th edition of The Architecture Journal
The new feature is called Freeze Dry and it is design to maintain state when patches are applyied and the computer is rebooted.
Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 has many features to help you design and build Web sites that are compliant with XHTML and accessibility standards.
Then one day a lonely developer decided that Linux should be completely free, so sayeth the Great Gnu. This lonely developer took all the bad trademarks out of Linspire and created Freespire to make the world right once again.
Microsoft has purchased telephone service provider Teleo.
These application templates are tailored to address the needs and requirements for specific business processes or sets of tasks for organizations of any size.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates were changing the way the world works, lives and communicates.
You must be wondering what happened to the Free Custom Controls developed and distributed by Excentrics World.
101 Samples, in both Visual Basic and C#, featuring many of the new features available with Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0. For more samples using Visual Studio 2003 .NET.
Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Core Reference) by Francesco Balena (ISBN 0735613753)