Visual Studio Gallery – VSGesture
I like the idea of my my “gesturing” at Visual Studio serve a purpose beyond simply venting… LOL
The text and video are in Hangul (I think) but it looks simple enough to figure out.
Note: If you’re developing on Windows XP it looks like there are additional Tablet related downloads required…
Electronic Frontier Foundation - Bloggers' Rights
“If you're a blogger, this page is for you.
One of EFF's goals is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.
To that end, we have created the Legal Guide for Bloggers, a collection of blogger-specific FAQs addressing everything from fair use to defamation law to workplace whistle-blowing.
In addition, EFF continues to battle for bloggers' rights in the courtroom:
…”
Electronic Frontier Foundation - Legal Guide for Bloggers
“Whether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.
The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers.
But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn't use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That's why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.
To be clear, this guide isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you're being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.
Please note that this guide applies to people living in the US…” [GD: Post Leach Level: 90%]
Legal Guide for Bloggers - Index Of All Questions
Ignorance of the law is not a defense in the US. The more you know, the more you’ll be able to protect yourself and your blog…
(via Tweet from complexd - Legal Guide for Bloggers)
Synergist - The New York Times Silverlight Kit
“Today we are excited to announce a new alliance with the New York Times around a new Silverlight Kit for the New York Times APIs. The New York Times has made a number of services freely available to software developers as REST services at their Developer Network:
- Article Search
- Best Sellers
- Campaign Finance
- Community
- Congress
- Movie Reviews
- NY State Legislature
- Real Estate
- Times Newswire
- Times People
- Times Tags
Since Silverlight works very well with REST services, we wanted to make it easy for designers and developers to use these services in their applications. To do this we are releasing with the New York Times a New York Times Silverlight Kit which includes CLR objects and Value Converter to enable designers and developers to take advantage of these services in their applications. I first started using the New York Times APIs in my winning entry to the Circus Mashimus Contest at South by Southwest. In building the kit we had a few goals:
- Make it easy for designers and developers to use the APIs with little to no coding: all XAML
- Include Design-Time sample data to facilitate crafting experiences in Expression Blend and Visual Studio
- Use the MVVM Design Pattern to separate components for test-ability and data binding.
To get an idea of what can be built with the kit, you can take a look at the Artist Explorer and Demo Site, but I’d like to walk through one of the kit components, the NYTimes.TimesTag CLR object and how it could be used.
…”
MSDN Code Gallery - New York Times Silverlight Kit
“…
This is a Silverlight 2 Kit for the New York Times Open APIs. Add this kit to a Silverlight 2 project in Visual Studio or Expression Blend to easily access New York Times APIs for Articles, Best Sellers (books), the US Congress, Movie Reviews, Community Comments, Times Tags, and Newswire information.
…
Kit Demo, http://xmldocs.net/nyt/ (Searching on my home town)
Okay, just how cool is that!?
The NY Times seems to like living on the tech edge (remember their WPF Viewer?) and this is a continuing step in that direction. Newspapers have to re-invent themselves to survive and this is an interesting attempt at that. Free the presentation of the data and the world will be a path to your feed… ;)
“Want to learn about databases without the tedium? With its unique combination of Japanese-style comics and serious educational content, The Manga Guide to Databases is just the book for you.
Princess Ruruna is stressed out. With the king and queen away, she has to manage the Kingdom of Kod's humongous fruit-selling empire. Overseas departments, scads of inventory, conflicting prices, and so many customers! It's all such a confusing mess. But a mysterious book and a helpful fairy promise to solve her organizational problems-with the practical magic of databases.
In The Manga Guide to Databases, Tico the fairy teaches the Princess how to simplify her data management. We follow along as they design a relational database, understand the entity-relationship model, perform basic database operations, and delve into more advanced topics. Once the Princess is familiar with transactions and basic SQL statements, she can keep her data timely and accurate for the entire kingdom. Finally, Tico explains ways to make the database more efficient and secure, and they discuss methods for concurrency and replication.
Examples and exercises (with answer keys) help you learn, and an appendix of frequently used SQL statements gives the tools you need to create and maintain full-featured databases.
(Of course, it wouldn't be a royal kingdom without some drama, so read on to find out who gets the girl-the arrogant prince or the humble servant.)
…”
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When I saw this in the May 2009 SQL Server Magazine I just had to share it. Even hours later I’m still chuckling over it… I so want to get this just to have it on my desk… I mean, zomg! LOL
Windows Connected - Windows 7 RC Download now up for non-subscribers
“As promised Microsoft has released the Windows 7 RC download for everyone else today. They are not limiting the number of people who can download this build, but make sure you get it before the end of July. You can get the build here.
Things you should know:
- This build will expire on June 1, 2010 and you will start seeing bi-hourly shutdowns on March 1, 2010.
- You will not be able to do an upgrade from RC to RTM [GD: emphasis added]
- This is an RC and as with any install it is important you make a backup of your data first
- You should be using a dedicated test machine.
- Minimum Requirements are 1GHz or faster processor, 1GB RAM (32-bit) / 2GB RAM (64-bit), 16GB (32-bit)/20GB (64-boot) Disk space, DirectX 9 graphics processor
License Key will be given to as part of the downloading process.
…”
I upgraded a machine from Vista to Win7RC and feel in love with it… It just seemed to work, and worked better, both the OS and the apps, than Vista.
But because this was a home '”production”machine I rolled it back to Vista due to “You will not be able to do an upgrade from RC to RTM”. I have to say I think this policy is a misstep. Having the RC timeout is fine/perfect. But not having a supported means to move from the RC to RTM? That doesn’t smell good and will be barrier to entry. Sure many have extra PC’s where we can play with Win7. And there’s Virtual PC’s, etc. Yet if you want real world feedback, then I need to use it in my real world. And I can’t lose that world in a year and be forced to re-install everything. I don’t know about you, but my time is limited and I have to take care where I invest it. I’ll help test the RC sure, but I can’t have my time wasted (and I’m sick of playing the re-install all my apps game… data is easy to backup/restore/transfer, it’s the fricken app install, patch, etc that kills days… days where I just want to use the darn thing).
Wow… I got riled up there didn’t I? Sorry about that? LOL
All that said, I am REALLY looking forward to Win7 and even after using it for just a couple days I miss it.
Related Past Post XRef:
A story of Windows 7 and an empty All Programs (and how I fixed it)
Drewby - Channel9 PlugIn for PlayOn
“I’m a big fan of PlayOn form MediaMall Technologies which is an application that allows you to view videos from popular sites like Hulu, CBS and Netflix on your Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or DLNA-compliant television or set-top-box. I’m also a big fan of Channel9, the “official” unofficial source for developer information from Microsoft.
In a recent release, MediaMall implemented a PlugIn API for PlayOn that allows a developer to add new media sources to the PlayOn menu. Developers have already added several sites including such as Food Network, Adultswim, NBA, NFL, and more (you can get a list here). There is also a generalized player that uses OPML lists of content – there’s a collection of OPML lists here.
I decided to write a PlugIn for PlayOn that would allow me to browse and watch my favorite Channel9 videos and shows. I was delighted to find out that PlayOn is a .NET Framework application and the PlugIn samples were Visual Studio projects. So I already had the skillset to build my own PlugIn.
…
Building a PlayOn PlugIn
The basic functionality of the PlayOn PlugIn is to retrieve a list of videos from some source and translate that list into objects understood by PlayOn. This includes representing some sort of folder structure to PlayOn and then providing the details of a video feed, including the video type (Flash or Windows Media).
There are a couple classes and interfaces provided by PlayOn that you’ll work with when building a PlugIn:
…
I think the easiest way to learn how to use the API is to look at existing PlugIns. There is a good basic sample PlugIn in C# provided by MediaMall that implements these objects. I’ve also provide the source code in both C# and VB for my Channel9 Plugin. You’ll notice that I did quite a bit of refactoring and I also included the Managed Extensibility Framework to make my development of the PlugIn a little more flexible and testable.
…”
MSDN Code Gallery - PlayOn PlugIn for Channel9
“…
PlayOn is software you install on your PC that allows you to browse and watch video from popular websites on your Xbox360, Playstation3 or any DLNA-compliant television or set-top-box. Combined with the Channel9 PlugIn sample, you can now browse and watch your favorite shows from Channel9 on your television.
…
”
I’m not, yet, a PlayOn user, but since this was about my favorite weekly cast, included .Net/C# source code, was plug-in based development, and had new stuff like MEF, I just had to mention it. :)
U.S. Dev Partners Blog - ISV Innovation Is Now msdev.com
“Access to free online training is critically important to our Solution Provider community, regardless if the economy is on the upswing or downturn. We continue to listen to your feedback and are happy to announce that ISV Innovation has moved to msdev.com, a new and improved training community that makes it easier to access training on the latest Microsoft technologies…”
As far as I can tell all the training, sessions (live and on demand), labs, etc are all free, just a registration away. With just about everyone’s training budgets under pressure (assuming you even have a “training budget”) free training is perfectly priced training.
Because I have no life, I’m currently watching, IronPython for the Visual Basic Developer (which I could also download to watch it on my Zune if I wanted too… :)
As I mentioned a bit ago, It’s official… I’m booth bound for TechEd US 2009, Microsoft has given me a cool opportunity to help out in the Learning Center/Development Practices/VSTS Developer Edition booth. I’ll be there much of the time with none other than the man, the myth, the legend, Brian Keller (of This Week on Channel 9 fame).
Here’s my final schedule, please feel free to stop on by and say “Hi” if you get a chance. This is my first time doing anything like this (well I’ve manned vendor booths at conferences before, but this is different) so I can use all the friendly faces I can get. :)
| Item | Day | Start | Finish | |
| Staffing Commitments | ||||
|
| TLC/BLUE/DPR-ALM: VSTS 2008 Development Edition | May 11 | 2:30 PM | 6:00 PM |
|
| TLC/BLUE/DPR-ALM: VSTS 2008 Development Edition | May 12 | 3:00 PM | 6:00 PM |
|
| TLC/BLUE/DPR-ALM: VSTS 2008 Development Edition | May 13 | 9:30 AM | 12:30PM |
|
| TLC/BLUE/DPR-ALM: VSTS 2008 Development Edition | May 13 | 3:00 PM | 6:00 PM |
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| TLC/BLUE/DPR-ALM: VSTS 2008 Development Edition | May 14 | 1:30 PM | 4:45 PM |
Remember I’m just a “guy”. Self boot-strapped into the software development industry years ago, with a driving passion for programming, but no wizard, guru or anything close. I’m a captive, in-house, line of business business developer just like many of you… So please no stumpers or trick questions! LOL. But I will do what I can to help; a sympatric ear and different perspective can work wonders.
Also the current plan is that on Thursday morning I’ll also be a guest host on This Week on Channel 9. How cool is that! It’s just a little under two weeks away and I’m already getting butterflies. LOL
So where is this booth, you ask?
Enough for now. Safe travels and I hope to see you there.
As all good stories begin, this one began on a dark and stormy night. The kind of night where all you want to do is install Windows 7 RC’s, upgrading your Vista installs in the warmth before the fire. Even while the ground shakes beneath you, you diligently stay focused on the task at hand. Finally, success! You’ve done it, the upgrade is complete! With joy in your heart you look into Windows orb, clicking on All Programs, only to have your hopes shattered, like a lighting strike to the heart, as all you see is nothing and emptiness…
LOL.. Okay, okay, I tried. Give me a few points for effort at least? ;)
I ran into this issue yesterday and after a good bit of research, and trial and error, found a viable, and actually pretty simple, fix. Wanting to pay it forward, here’s a quick write up. Hope this helps…
An upgraded from Vista SP1 to Win7 RC (7100), my All Programs was blank (see below).
This link lead me to a true fix for the issue, Windows 7 Forums - Program Icons Missing in All Programs Menu
It seems that Windows 7 doesn’t currently like having too many shortcuts/folders in the Start Menu/Programs folder. With something close to 70+’ish shortcuts/folders in the combined All Users & User Start Menu/Program folders (common in an upgrade scenario) the All Programs list will end up being blank/empty
Move a number of shortcuts/folders from Start Menu/Programs into a new subfolder, like Start Menu/Programs/Stuff, and then restart Windows Explorer. Wash, rinse, repeat until your All Programs works.
Disclaimer: This is what worked for me, on two systems. Your mileage may vary. You do this at your own risk and while this should not break your system (nor is it really even dangerous), take care and do it slow. You assume all the risk and liabilities in this process and I assume none (i.e. don’t blame me if you jack up your system). This resolution is provided as a good faith effort to help, yada, yada, yada..
a) Left click on the Windows orb to open the Start Menu
b) Right click on the All Programs. You should see a menu like the one pictured below
c) Left click on the Open menu item (aka the current user’s, yours, Start Menu). You should see something like what is pictured below, though the actual contents may be a little different
d) Double left click on the Programs folder. You should see something what is pictured below, though the actual contents will be different, you should see a “bunch” of folders
e) Create a new subfolder called “Stuff” (no quotes, and you can name it what ever you really want too)
f) Select a bunch of the folders/shortcuts and drag (i.e. move) them into “Stuff”
g) Start Task Manager, go to the Processes tab, select “explorer” and then click on the “End Process” button. This will kill the explorer process, taskbar, start menu, etc.
This step is very important. Unless you restart Windows Explorer your results (i.e. what you see in All Programs) will not be reliable. Believe me, I’ve found this out after many false starts. Make a change, kill and restart Explorer. Wash, rinse, repeat…
h) Now in Task Manager, select the File menu, Run submenu.
i) Enter “explorer” (no quotes) and click OK. This will restart Explorer, and the taskbar, Windows orb, etc should all re-appear
j) Try your All Programs now… If enough things have been moved, you should be good! :)
k) If you’re All Programs is still empty, then repeat the above steps in the All Users Start Menu folder (i.e. the “Open All Users” menu choice when you right click on “All Programs”)
Now you can also begin to move stuff back up from Stuff into the Programs folder as need be. Remember to end/run Windows Explorer during this process. If/when your All Programs go blank again, you now know how to fix it..
The Manga Guide to Databases: Mana Takahashi, Shoko Azuma, Trend-pro Ltd.: Books
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