XNA X-Plorer (GHII Controller) Windows/XBox360 Game (with source)

MSDN Ireland Blog - Ireland's Call on Guitar Hero X-Plorer for the PC and XBox 360

"Hiya!  Rob here, just popping in on the team's new blog for a quick sec before I head off to Canada.

If you have the Guitar Hero X-Plorer controller for the XBox360, here's the XNA application that will let you play Ireland's Call (a.k.a. "The Rugby Song") on your PC or XBox360. ...

...

I wrote this in XNA by starting with the Particle3D sample found at the XNA Creators Club. It was fun tweaking the High-Level Shader Language used for the fireworks....

...

I've included playing instructions on my blog for your jamming pleasure. 

And I've commented and posted the code as well. 

..."

Sounds like cool starting point/example for creating your own GHII X-Plorer based game, doesn't it?

IE7Pro v0.9.18 Released - Inline, Firefox like Spell Checking Added

I just noticed that one of my favorite, must have, IE7 addin/addon/plugin/thing, IE7Pro, has rev'ed to v0.9.18.

Here's a snip from the homepage;

"Changelogs: IE7Pro v0.9.18 (01-06-2007):

1. Firefox style Spelling Check function added (thanks http://hunspell.sf.net).
2. Adblock default settings switch to off.
3. Fix some bugs.
4. Standalone spelling check dictionary installation package.

..."

What attracted me to this release was the inline spell check. While I doubt I'll be uninstalling the king of IE spell checkers, ieSpell, IE7Pro's makes a cool addition.

The upgrade from my previous version was very smooth, no uninstalling required...

One thing to remember, you need to turn IE7Pro's Spell Checking on form field by form field (which is a good thing), meaning you need to opt-in for spell checking a given field.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
IE7Pro - Must have IE7 Add-on?
ieSpell - Spell Checker add-on for Internet Explorer - v2.1.1 (build 325) released! 01/22/2005
ieSpell - Spell Checker add-on for Internet Explorer

Blogger/GData API Comment Update

Blogger Data API - ANN: Blogger / GData API adds bits of threading RFC 4685

"We've been following James Snell's Atom Threading Extensions RFC 4685:

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc4685.html

as a way to link Blogger's posts feeds and comments feeds together.
With last night's push we added a bit of this, rel="replies".

Now entries for posts with comments enabled link to the per-post comments feed and the HTML comments form via <link> tags.

..."

This could help streamline comment processing in my Blogger Backup utility. I'll have to give this a look...

Remotely Enabling Remote Desktop

WindowsDevCenter.com - Windows Server Hacks: Remotely Enable Remote Desktop

"Remote Desktop is a cool feature of Windows Server 2003 that lets you remotely log on to and work at a machine as if you were seated at the local console (in Windows 2000 Advanced Server, this feature was called Terminal Services in Remote Administration Mode). Remote Desktop can be a lifesaver for fixing problems on servers at remote sites, but what if you forgot to enable the feature before you shipped the server out to Kalamazoo?...

...

Fortunately, there's a workaround. Sit down at your desk and log on to your Windows XP workstation using your administrator credentials and start Registry Editor by Start --> Run --> regedit --> OK. Then select the Connect Network Registry option under the File menu (Figure 2). ...

..."

This is a nice tip on hacking a remote registry to remotely turn on Remote Desktop (reboot still needed).

Also make sure you check out the comments, as there is a ton of great extra information there (like free utilities to do this, instead of hacking the registry, WMI methods of doing this, remotely turning on Remote Desktop for WndowsXP, etc)

(via Nikhil's Blog - Enabling remote desktop remotely)

Show Hidden Programs in Add/Remove Programs on WinXP

IntelliAdmin - Show hidden software in Add/Remove programs

"While digging around for an answer to another issue, I came across this KB article

Essentially it boils down to this: Windows XP comes with a bunch of pre-loaded software. Lots of it you can't even find in Add/Remove programs. Why? Because Microsoft designed it this way.

By simply opening up the file Sysoc.inf (This is in the %SystemRoot%\Inf folder), and removing the word 'hide' you can force these programs to show up.

...

...This can really help when you want to trim down a system, but at the same time have the opportunity to bring something back if you need it."

Nice.

Want to Add/Remove WordPad? Pinball? The above post will walk you through making these appear in the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet.

Microsoft eScrum 1.0 for Team Foundation Server Released

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft eScrum Version 1.0

"...

eScrum is a Web-based, end-to-end project management tool for Scrum built on the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server platform. It provides multiple ways to interact with your Scrum project: eScrum Web-based UI, Team Explorer, and Excel or Project, via Team Foundation Office Integration. In addition, it provides a single place for all Scrum artifacts such as product backlog, sprint backlog, task management, retrospective, and reports with built-in context sensitive help.

..."

Interesting. I wonder how this compares to other Scrum for TFS offerings (like Scrum for Team System from Conchango). Since MS is a partner/collaboration for that project, maybe eScrum is based on it? Guess I'll have to install it and see...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Scrum 1.1 for Team System/TFS Released
Free Scrum Process Template for TFS

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta Released

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

"....

With Outlook Connector Beta, you can use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Windows Live Hotmail or Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free! Calendar, tasks and notes can also be accessed and managed in Outlook for accounts with a paid subscription. [GD: Emphasis added]

Outlook Connector Beta enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook:

• Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
• Manage your Live Mail Contacts.
• Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
• Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.

With a paid subscription, Outlook Connector Beta enables these additional features:

• Manage, share, and synchronize your Windows Live Calendar in Outlook.
• Access your Tasks and Notes.

..."

What I'm interested to see is if I can now add Calendar reminders (in the past version I couldn't, it said it wasn't supported...). I live by my calendar/appointment reminders and not having them easily created killed me (well, got me in trouble a couple times  ;)

I'll be downloading and playing with this tonight or tomorrow.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (Think Outlook to Hotmail Connector)