Found these 2 good links:
openWYSIWYG - rich editor for the web (similar to FreeTextbox)
.NET Cheat Sheets - handy cheat sheets for working with .NET
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
Experiences with Vista and my Sager 9860
I promised a while ago to write up my vista/Sager 9860 experience so here it is:
I first installed Vista Beta 2 on the Sager, I was warned by the compatibility check that the sound card would not work. Vista installed fine, and after a small fight with the video card drivers I had a nicely functioning machine (though with no sound). Trying to watch video would fail as it said there was no sound device.
I lived with Beta 2 for a while - I quite like VISTA! Lots of really nicely thought out features (and a few usability rough edges).
I then wiped the machine and installed the RTM. No compatibility warnings this time, but in the end still no sound.
I then begun digging into the net for drivers. I did finally find the Realtek drivers and after multiple installs of them and finding old versions and trying that I finally found a release note from Realtek stating that it would only work with version "c" of my motherboard and later. I have version "a". They were clear that no work would be done to get versions older than revision "c" to work with Vista.
Disheartened and wanting sound I decided to try Windows Media Center Edition. Not as slick as Vista but I don't have a media center machine and the sager has a built in tv tuner and remote. Install went flawless, and soon I had sound!
However, getting into Media Center it couldn't see my tv tuner. So I dug into the net again and soon found out that my tv tuner was not compatible with Media Center (until a later version of the 9860....) . I'm staying here OS wise for now - I can use the tv tuner software to record video, and Media center to play it back, I just can't use Media Center to watch TV or record TV.
Moral of the story: the Sager 9860 I bought I never intended to use as a media center, and Vista wasn't out. Its a few years old now so I can't be that upset that I'm not able to repurpose it the way I intended. And buying the first revision of a motherboard (which I knew I was doing at the time) is a risky proposition.
Oh well. Time to install Vista on my desktop :)
I first installed Vista Beta 2 on the Sager, I was warned by the compatibility check that the sound card would not work. Vista installed fine, and after a small fight with the video card drivers I had a nicely functioning machine (though with no sound). Trying to watch video would fail as it said there was no sound device.
I lived with Beta 2 for a while - I quite like VISTA! Lots of really nicely thought out features (and a few usability rough edges).
I then wiped the machine and installed the RTM. No compatibility warnings this time, but in the end still no sound.
I then begun digging into the net for drivers. I did finally find the Realtek drivers and after multiple installs of them and finding old versions and trying that I finally found a release note from Realtek stating that it would only work with version "c" of my motherboard and later. I have version "a". They were clear that no work would be done to get versions older than revision "c" to work with Vista.
Disheartened and wanting sound I decided to try Windows Media Center Edition. Not as slick as Vista but I don't have a media center machine and the sager has a built in tv tuner and remote. Install went flawless, and soon I had sound!
However, getting into Media Center it couldn't see my tv tuner. So I dug into the net again and soon found out that my tv tuner was not compatible with Media Center (until a later version of the 9860....) . I'm staying here OS wise for now - I can use the tv tuner software to record video, and Media center to play it back, I just can't use Media Center to watch TV or record TV.
Moral of the story: the Sager 9860 I bought I never intended to use as a media center, and Vista wasn't out. Its a few years old now so I can't be that upset that I'm not able to repurpose it the way I intended. And buying the first revision of a motherboard (which I knew I was doing at the time) is a risky proposition.
Oh well. Time to install Vista on my desktop :)
"Sounds" like a cup of coffee
We all know sound can effect you. Just think about jumping out of your seat in a horror movie, an effect that is usually acheived by a tense musical selection ending in a sudden drastic rise in tone, and usually some sort of flash on screen.
This is basically the way this works. Stefanos Karagos has unleashed this MP3 on the world that he claims has about the same effect of energizing you as a cup of coffee.
I listened to the MP3 and it definitely is a interesting collection of sounds. I can certainly see how someone would feel more alert listening to the sound, but I found it made me slightly tense.
Very interesting concept to try out.
This is basically the way this works. Stefanos Karagos has unleashed this MP3 on the world that he claims has about the same effect of energizing you as a cup of coffee.
I listened to the MP3 and it definitely is a interesting collection of sounds. I can certainly see how someone would feel more alert listening to the sound, but I found it made me slightly tense.
Very interesting concept to try out.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Industry and being labeled
I find it interesting, and sometimes even slightly annoying when sales people come in from vendors and immediately labeling my projects or constraints by the industry that we're in.
As in: "Well of course you will need feature X you are in the life sciences industry".
This type of statement makes sence of course if feature X is somehow related to the something industry specific. My annoyance comes in when feature X is version control, separation of duties, or support for a standard or specification such as WSRP or BPEL.
Of course I'm not talking about the odd comment but rather the vendor that relates everything I say to the industry. Regardless of the fact that I'm not talking about anything industry specific.
I do find it commical how some vendors sales people identify themselves first and foremost with the industry vertical they are responsible for, despite not knowing anything about the industry.
Sales guy: "Hi I'm Bob, I'm responsible for the health care and lifesciences customers in NY and NJ."
I always want to reply:
"Hi Bob, I'm Rob. I am an Associatte Director of a application development team. We don't care much for NY, and health care is taken care of my HMO. Life sciences? I'm not following. We do computer sciences around here if anything...."
Not supporting manufacturing or R&D means my team is abstracted from the true business. While we do handle the external facing sites and there is some specific rules around that we tend to be doing fairly straight forward development - not industry specific.
As in: "Well of course you will need feature X you are in the life sciences industry".
This type of statement makes sence of course if feature X is somehow related to the something industry specific. My annoyance comes in when feature X is version control, separation of duties, or support for a standard or specification such as WSRP or BPEL.
Of course I'm not talking about the odd comment but rather the vendor that relates everything I say to the industry. Regardless of the fact that I'm not talking about anything industry specific.
I do find it commical how some vendors sales people identify themselves first and foremost with the industry vertical they are responsible for, despite not knowing anything about the industry.
Sales guy: "Hi I'm Bob, I'm responsible for the health care and lifesciences customers in NY and NJ."
I always want to reply:
"Hi Bob, I'm Rob. I am an Associatte Director of a application development team. We don't care much for NY, and health care is taken care of my HMO. Life sciences? I'm not following. We do computer sciences around here if anything...."
Not supporting manufacturing or R&D means my team is abstracted from the true business. While we do handle the external facing sites and there is some specific rules around that we tend to be doing fairly straight forward development - not industry specific.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Happy New Year and all that
Welcome to 2007 :)
As the new year lays ahead we have just had a re-organization at work - it will be intresting to see what changes to how we operate.
Over December I spent alot of time playing World of Warcraft - I now have 3 level 60 characters. Next week the expansion comes out and the level cap is raised to level 70. I'm excited enough I may try to take a day or two off to play (try to get all three characters to 70).
I'm considering some new hardware purchases. I'm trying to determine if I can make a box beefy enough to run 2 copies of WoW simultaneously (dual-monitors). I'm thinking with the dual-core processors and higher end video cards this may well be doable (maybe gimp the graphics on one of the instances of WoW).
I'm waiting on the release of Vista - I'll post about what I've tried so far soon.
Service Orient architecture and the Enterprise Service Bus pattern is evolving. We are making some traction at work, and the industry is changing. As predicted the ESB as a product is forcing change in terminology as some of the things is the true ESB pattern are weak in the current products. I have reviewed the offerings from Microsoft, IBM, BEA, SAP, Tibco, WebMethods, Sonic, SoftwareAG, Amberpoint, and a few others in the past 4 months.
This year should be a maturation year at work. Last year between some small organizational changes, the implementation of a limit on contractor duration, meant the vast majority of my organization was new. This year should provide the opportunity to really hit stride and make some improvements in process and roles.
I'm definitely going to spend a bit more time this year integrating things like calendar (work calendar, my calendar, and Jess's calendar). As well as some email consolidation.
Other personal projects this year (aside from my normal technical continued improvement) will be further improvements on the house (pool table, stucco repair, fence, surround sound, landscaping, window coverings) - Jess will be very involved in these projects ;)
Additionally consideration for furthering formal education is underway.
As the new year lays ahead we have just had a re-organization at work - it will be intresting to see what changes to how we operate.
Over December I spent alot of time playing World of Warcraft - I now have 3 level 60 characters. Next week the expansion comes out and the level cap is raised to level 70. I'm excited enough I may try to take a day or two off to play (try to get all three characters to 70).
I'm considering some new hardware purchases. I'm trying to determine if I can make a box beefy enough to run 2 copies of WoW simultaneously (dual-monitors). I'm thinking with the dual-core processors and higher end video cards this may well be doable (maybe gimp the graphics on one of the instances of WoW).
I'm waiting on the release of Vista - I'll post about what I've tried so far soon.
Service Orient architecture and the Enterprise Service Bus pattern is evolving. We are making some traction at work, and the industry is changing. As predicted the ESB as a product is forcing change in terminology as some of the things is the true ESB pattern are weak in the current products. I have reviewed the offerings from Microsoft, IBM, BEA, SAP, Tibco, WebMethods, Sonic, SoftwareAG, Amberpoint, and a few others in the past 4 months.
This year should be a maturation year at work. Last year between some small organizational changes, the implementation of a limit on contractor duration, meant the vast majority of my organization was new. This year should provide the opportunity to really hit stride and make some improvements in process and roles.
I'm definitely going to spend a bit more time this year integrating things like calendar (work calendar, my calendar, and Jess's calendar). As well as some email consolidation.
Other personal projects this year (aside from my normal technical continued improvement) will be further improvements on the house (pool table, stucco repair, fence, surround sound, landscaping, window coverings) - Jess will be very involved in these projects ;)
Additionally consideration for furthering formal education is underway.
Monday, October 30, 2006
watch google video's on your mobile device
I found this article and tried it. It works great! Some of the video's I tried are little dark on my i730 but thats ok.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
ISO mounting tool that works in Vista
I know a couple people were looking for a tool to mount ISO images in windows Vista so I thought this would be worth posting as its rumored to work in Vista (I haven't tried it yet):
http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html
http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html
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