AddDirectoryContent (as Linked Files) VS2005 Add-in

Pascal Belaud [MSFT] - Adding the content of a whole directory in your Visual Studio 2005 project as linked source files? It's now possible with the "AddDirectoryContent" AddIn

"I often need to add the source code content of a whole directory to my Visual Studio 2005 projects

...

If you simply drag and drop a folder in Visual Studio 2005, an actual copy of the files is made, not a link to them. 

This is precisely why I have written a Visual Studio 2005 AddIn named Add Directory Content

To download the latest version of this FREE AddIn : http://www.msfrancedev.net/ AddDirectoryContent/ AddDirectoryContentSetup

..."

Very nice and something I'll be able to use soon...

Update #1 10/24/2006 @ 10:58AM PDT:
Fixed broken link (Thanks Nicolai)

"SharePoint Explorer Client 2.0 - Community Edition"

The Dot Net Factory - SharePoint Explorer Client 2.0 - Community Edition

"The Dot Net Factory’s SharePoint Explorer is an IE add-in providing end-users and administrators the richest possible SharePoint usage and navigation experience for all SharePoint 2003 and 2007 versions. SharePoint Explorer provides a friendly tree-based interface allowing novice and expert users alike to see all SharePoint sites and content at a glance while providing right-click menus for all common functions

...

Installed on your PC to work with any number of SharePoint servers and sites

Visualizes all SharePoint Areas, sites, Document Libraries, and Lists to any depth

Navigate to any location in a single click

Quick search of any site

Context sensitive right-click menus provide instant access to almost every function

Items counts display for Document Libraries and Lists

My Outlook functionality providing quick access to Outlook while working with SharePoint

Add alternate credentials for accessing different sites with different user accounts

..."

This is a cool IE/SharePoint add-in. I've downloaded and installed it and I think it's a keeper.

It's already helped me make sense and use a number of SharePoint sites.  I also like how easy it makes searching a given site.

Yep, it's a keeper.

(via Fear and Loathing - Free Community Edition of SharePoint Explorer)

Paste As Plugin Now Available on Windows Live Gallery

I just got word my Windows Live Writer Paste As plugin has been accepted and is now available on Windows Liver Gallery.

This also is an updated version based on feedback I received when submitting my Text Template plugin... So now I have two CodePlex projects I'll be releasing to Production this week.

Related Past Post XRef:
Paste As WLW v1.0 Plugin Released and Available via CodePlex (and some thoughts on my next plugin)
Text Template Plugin Now Available on Windows Live Gallery

IE7 Radio Spot in Los Angeles

Driving to work today, on a AM news station, I heard a 30 60 second radio spot for IE7...

I thought it interesting that that level of investment was made for a free product. And the date, so close to the Firefox 2 release. Coincidence? (Could be, since IE7 shipped late last week.)

When was the last time we heard a paid radio spot for an Internet browser? Brings back memories of the .boom era...

Update 10/24/2006 @ 7:09am (PDT):

IEBlog - IE7 Hits the Street

"...We have the first IE radio spot that I can remember us doing..."

This is a WMA of the spot I heard this morning...

Text Template Plugin Now Available on Windows Live Gallery

I just got word my Windows Live Writer Text Template Plugin has been accepted and is now available on Windows Liver Gallery.

Yeah!

Based on feedback from the WLW team, it's an updated version with a few tweaks and minor (but cool) usability updates. The submitted version is currently available on the CodePlex site as 1.2.4 beta and I'll be rolling it into production this week (I was holding off incase there was more feedback).

(So let's see... I now have it available from three different locations, all of which I need to keep in sync [GotDotNet, CodePlex, Windows Liver Gallery]. Dogh! I'm keeping all future plugin's on CodePlex and Gallery. Two places is enough ;)

As for my other plugin's, my Paste As plugin is already pending approval and I'm not yet ready to submit my Related Post plugin (just need to add a few more features...  ;)

Related Past Post XRef:
WLW Text Template v1.2 Released
WLW Related Post Plugin v1.0 Now Available on CodePlex
Paste As WLW v1.0 Plugin Released and Available via CodePlex (and some thoughts on my next plugin)

.Net Tracing Article from CoDe Magazine

CoDe Magazine - Instrumenting Applications with .NET Tracing

"Application instrumentation gives you the ability to perform runtime diagnosis of enterprise application state, which is critical to mission success. To help with instrumentation and logging, .NET ships with tracing types in the System.Diagnostics namespace. Using these types, you have the ability to log information to multiple output streams for diagnosis of application runtime behavior. Information produced by instrumentation and tracing types enable you to examine the runtime state of an application and fix problems that would be otherwise expensive and painful to solve.

For many small and medium sized programs, it isn't too difficult to find and fix bugs based on reproducible information from users. As applications increase in size and complexity, the ability to figure out what is causing a bug becomes more difficult. On larger enterprise systems you need a way to track what is happening to find out what is causing problems. You must instrument your application so you can turn on tracing that will reveal pertinent information about your program's behavior. ..."

I've known about .Net tracing for forever, but never really used it. But then again, I hadn't built any major .Net apps. (Ton's of utilities and such but few LOB critical apps...)

Well that's changing and I'm starting to build and roll out a number of major apps, so it's time I revisit tracing and trace listeners...

(via http://del.icio.us/siderevs/.net/)

Future Force Company Commander (F2C2) - Free PC Game Brought to you by the US Army...

SAIC Produces Future Force Company Commander (F2C2)

"(MCLEAN, VA) - Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has created a videogame, Future Force Company Commander (F2C2), designed for the personal computer by the company's Tactical Systems and Solutions Business Unit. The F2C2 videogame was produced to help demonstrate the networked battle command that the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is developing for the U.S. Army.

F2C2 is a real-time tactical strategy game that allows the player to learn about the Army's FCS program by assuming command of a Mounted Company Team in the year 2015. Through game play, F2C2 showcases how FCS can provide the 21st century soldier unprecedented situational awareness, and the ability to see first, understand first, act first and finish decisively.

"SAIC's F2C2 videogame demonstrates the FCS network-centric architecture that is being designed to seamlessly link advanced communications and networking systems with soldiers, platforms, weapons, and sensors," said John Gully, SAIC senior vice president and general manager of the Tactical Systems and Solutions Business Unit.

..."

Game homepage, http://www.saic.com/products/simulation/f2c2/ & http://www.army.mil/fcs/f2c2/

I'm not sure how I feel about these US Army games... On one hand I like free, but on the other they are NOT free as my taxes are paying for them.

I think I'd rather the money go toward actually buying the FCS (or training and equipping our troops, etc). Maybe if the game had in-game ads that went toward paying for the FCS... (LMAO. Now that would be weird... an ad supported Army? Companies endorsing Army Units? [82nd Airborne, brought to you by Tide... ] Ad decals on tanks? I think that might be pushing the free market society a little too far [Ya think? LOL]. But that does sound like a possible game/book idea...)

As a geek and developer, I think this is pretty darn cool. As a taxpayer, I'm not so sure.

sigh...

Still I'm downloading it (674 MB) anyway...  ;)

(via Richard Taylor's Blog - The Future Combat Systems Videogame for the PC)

VS2005 (C#) PowerShell Cmdlet New Item Template

Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - PowerShell CMDLET Visual Studio 2005 Item Template

"Jason Scheuerman from my company has created a PowerShell Cmdlet Visual Studio 2005 Template so you can create PowerShell Cmdlets using File|Add New Item.

..."

This could be a cool little time saver if your building your own cmdlet's...  

All I need to do is to convert it to a VB compatible item and I'll be good (looks easily do'able).  ;)

USPS Web Tools .Net (C#) Wrapper

The Code Project - United States Postal Service Web Tools Wrapper

"I was in need of a library that would integrate the USPS Web Tools into my windows form application. (This library will work in ASP.NET web applications also.) The USPS Web tools are fairly easy to integrate but I wanted to create a reuasable component I could use in future projects. Please keep in mind this is my first Codeproject article so go easy! :)

USPS Web Tools

Before you can use this library you will need to get a USPS Web Tools ID. You can do this by filling out this form. Note: If you are using the USPS Test servers then the data in the examples below are the only data that will work. If you change the address or anything else you will get an error. Once you have tested your application you can request your profile to be updated by USPS to access the production environment, where you can use any appropriate data.

..."

This is a cool looking wrapper for the USPS web tools. Looking up a zip codes, zip to city/state, validating addresses, package tracking, etc.

Windows Workflow Samples

So I was talking about WF samples yesterday?

Well in the new Windows SDK (he successor to the Platform SDK), WindowsSDK - Windows WF Samples, there are a bunch of WF samples, both applications and technology.  (But no Starter Kits...  ;)

Then of course there is the WF stuff on www.netFX3.com. Samples, activities and more. Though while a little dated, they are still pretty cool.
(Also no Starter Kits... so I guess I wasn't totally off base asking for a WF enhanced one?)

So there are samples out there, some from MS and some from the public. I'm sure when WF RTM's we'll see a big up swing in the number available...

Related Past Post XRef:
Windows Workflow - Toy or Not? (Not)

Windows Workflow - Toy or Not? (Not)

InfoQ - Things to know about Windows Workflow Foundation

"Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is the programming model, engine and tools for quickly building workflow enabled applications.  Harry Peirson, in several blog entries delves into Windows Workflow Foundation, (WF), with “Things I didn’t realize about WF” and “More Stuff I Didn’t Know about WF”.  Paul Andrews also posted ten reasons why WF is not a toy.

..."

As WF get's closer to its release I'm sure will be seeing a number of flame wars on why it sucks/rocks/etc...

Spending 40 hours+ this week at training getting WF.* Inserted into Greg.Brain, I feel it's a very impressive and mature 1.0. I have to wait and implement it in the wild, but right now it feels more like a v2 to v2.5... (This is probably due to the fact that much of the lessons learned in BizTalk orchestration have been applied to WF).

What will help are real world starter kits, examples, code snips, etc. And not just for the gee-wiz stuff like activities, but the workflow to host communication (and host to workflow), service's, etc.

We need to see it in action... Simple and complicated both, but start simple maybe with some thing like a book/music/dvd inventory & collection starter kit with WF built in. WF to manage lending (state machine wf), the adding of new items (sequential wf), etc.

There's a great deal to wrap your head around. For many of us it's going to require some mental gear shifting to "get it." The easy stuff is very easy to get, but the hard stuff is hard...  ;)

SQL Server Hosting Toolkit - Database Publishing Wizard

STEFANO DEMILIANI - Hosting SQL Server

"I've talked some days ago about the concept of SOA and how this will be a new type of business in the next future (maybe not for all but for many) and today a new sign on this direction comes directly from the SQL Server Architecture Team: they have announced the SQL Server Hosting Toolkit project, a set of tools and services that hosting customers can use with SQL hosters to deploy their databases from their desktop up into the hosted environment. ..."

That sounds interesting... Something to watch at least.

ExControls Version 1.0 - "Round" UI Controls

The Code Project - ExControls Version 1.0

"...

The ExControls library uses round rectangle effects to render the controls as show in the screenshots in the beginning of the article. The following controls have been implemented:

LabelEntry
TextEntry
ComboBoxEntry
ListBoxEntry
DateTimePickerEntry
LinkLabelEntry
MaskedEditEntry
MonthCalendarEntry
PictureBoxEntry
RoundCornerPanel
RoundRectForm
ExLabel
ExTextBox

..."

I'm currently in a "I hate my UI's. They are all FUBLY [FUnctional But ugLY]..." phase. So I'm keyed on UI libraries/controls/etc that I can include in my OSS projects.

Now I don't like inundate my users with TOO much glitz, but a little never hurts. I want a "that looks cool" initial reaction and "it doesn't make me want to poke my own eyes out" long term usage feedback (i.e. "less is more," etc).

Anyway, these controls look interesting and with judicious use might help...

Top10Traders.Com - Play Money, Real Stocks, Stock Trading Game

Top10Traders.com

Barry Robbins emailed me, suggesting I take a quick look at his Top10Traders.com stock market game... What brought me to post on it, where I've not on other emails?

First, the email was from Barry directly. And it looked to be written directly by him and not some marketing email blast firm. So I checked out the site...

It looks to be a labor of love by Barry. There very little advertising (just one adsence tower) and a very clean and simple design.

What I liked is that it's real stocks you buy and sell. So if you've also wondered what owning MSFT would do for you, well here's your chance. Or if you think Jim Cramer is a stock god or .dot bomb, now you can get $100k to prove or disprove him... Or if you always wanted to get into stocks but were afraid, this game might help you get over that.

Here's the blurb from the About page.

"Create an account at Top10Traders.com and you have $100,000 in 'play' money to invest in the stock market.

On the first day of each month, at 12:01 am, a monthly return is calculated for each account. The accounts with a monthly return in the top 10% are listed in the box on the top left of this page. The owners of these accounts will have their posts displayed on the main page as well. Anyone can enter posts to discuss their stock picks and where they think the market is going (or anything else you might feel like discussing). You can buy and sell stocks, long and short, at any time. Outside of market hours, the trades will be listed as pending until the market opens.

Start trading!"

We'll see how my MSFT, NDE and GOOG stocks do for me...  ;)

Virtual PC 2007 Beta Download

Virtual PC Guy's WebLog - Virtual PC 2007 Beta now available!

"Good news - the Virtual PC 2007 Beta is now available.  You can sign up for it here: https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=874.

...

There are also a plethora of bug fixes.  Some notable ones include:

• ...
• Virtual PC now supports greater than 2.2GB ISO images

..."

2.2GB+ ISO support! 

LOL... Like I say, sometimes it's the little things that end up being big things... ;)

(via Geeking Microsoft - Virtual PC 2007 Beta Now Available)

"The Developer Highway Code - The drive for safer coding"

" 

To build software that meets your security objectives, you must integrate security activities into your software development lifecycle. This handbook captures and summarises the key security engineering activities that should be an integral part of your software development processes.

These security engineering activities have been developed by Microsoft patterns & practices to build on, refine and extend core lifecycle activities with a set of security-specific activities. These include identifying security objectives, applying design guidelines for security, threat modelling, security architecture and design reviews, security code reviews and security deployment reviews.

Download the PDF (4.8mb)"

From the PDF:

"...

Part I: Securing Engineering
This part presents an overview of key security engineering activities that should be an integral part of your application development lifecycle.

Module 1: Integrating Security into the Lifecycle
Module 2: Security Objectives
Module 3: Web Application Security Design Guidelines
Module 4: Threat Modelling
Module 5: Security Architecture and Design Review
Module 6: Security Code Review
Module 7: Security Deployment Review

Part II: Checklists and Question Lists
This part includes question lists and checklists to help you design, build and deploy software that meets your security objectives.
.NET Framework 1.1 Checklists
• Checklist: Web Application Architecture and Design
• Security Checklist: .NET Framework 1.1
• Security Checklist: ADO.NET 1.1
• Security Checklist: ASP.NET 1.1
• Security Checklist: Enterprise Services (.NET Framework 1.1)
• Security Checklist: Remoting (.NET Framework 1.1)
• Security Checklist: Web Services (.NET Framework 1.1)
• Security Checklist: Network Security
• Security Checklist: Web Server (IIS 5.1)
• Security Checklist: Database Server (SQL Server 2000)
.NET Framework 2.0 Checklists
• Security Checklist: ASP.NET version 2.0
• Security Checklist: .NET Framework version 2.0
• Security Checklist: ADO.NET 2.0

Question Lists for Conducting Security Code Reviews
• .NET Framework 2.0 Question List
• ASP.NET 2.0 Question List

What's New for Security in the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

..."

This is high level (with lots of color and pictures) 147 page PDF from MSDN UK.

While not technical or detailed (which it doesn't pretend to be, stating very clearly in the intro that "This handbook is a quick reference for developers that summarises the key security engineering activities ..."), it's an interesting quick read.

(via Gang Of Rocking Objects (GRO) - Developer Highway Code - The drive for safer coding)

Windows Longhorn Server - Remote Programs

MSTerminalServices.org - An Introduction to Terminal Services Remote Programs (Part 1)

"When you think of a Terminal Services session, you probably think of a thin client environment in which all of a user’s applications run on a terminal server, and the user’s PC simply acts as a dumb terminal. Although this has traditionally been the case with the Windows Terminal Services, Windows Longhorn Server will offer a new type of Terminal Service session called Terminal Services Remote Programs. Longhorn Server will continue to offer the type of Terminal Server environment that you are already used to, but you will now have the option of using Terminal Services Remote Programs to create a sort of hybrid user environment in which some applications are installed locally and other applications transparently run on a terminal server. Applications running on a Terminal Server provide the illusion of running locally. In this article, I will introduce you to this new Terminal Service environment.

..."

This looks like an interesting addition to Terminal Services...

Yeah, we've had something like it with Citrix for a while, but it's cool to see it being baked into Windows.

"An Introduction to Programming Robots with Microsoft Robotics Studio"

DevX.Com - An Introduction to Programming Robots with Microsoft Robotics Studio

"Earlier this year, Microsoft released a Community Technical Preview (CTP) of its robot-programming SDK, called "Microsoft Robotics Studio," the result of work done by one of the groups emerging from Microsoft Research. Robotics Studio provides a high-level generic interface for programming a wide range of robots using a distributed model. The utility of this approach is apparent by the fact that both hobbyists controlling robotic kits or toy robots and serious roboticists controlling large and complicated robots can use the same SDK. This article presents an overview of Robotics Studio, and then shows you how to use the SDK to program the iRobot Roomba vacuum robot.

..."

Yes, you read that right, this article will talks about using the Robotics Studio to program your Roomba...

I might have to buy a Roomba just because of that... :)

2,000th Post...

According to my Blogger Dashboard, this will be my 2,000th post...

And yep, you guessed it, it's time for another "what have I learned" post.  ;)

 

What I've Learned in my the last 2,000 Blog Posts:

#1 You have to do it because you want to do it.

Yes, I know I say that every time, but it's as true now as it has ever been.

#2 Always check your post in a browser.

While blog clients (Live Writer, Post2Blog, IMHO, BlogJet, etc) are all great tools, you still need to verify how your post really looks.

#2a Always subscribe to your web feeds.

If you offer a web feed (if you're not... well... um... that's bad), subscribe to it. If you offer two, subscribe to them both. If you offer a feedburner feed, subscribe to that too. All to often I've found what looks good in a post doesn't look all that great in a Feed Reader. This will also help you verify your blog host doesn't hose your feeds (which I've also seen way too much...).

#3 It's your blog, don't be afraid to be in control.

Personally I see my blog as a window into my house, where I've left the curtain open so you can watch my TV. But remember, it's MY TV and MY house and I hold the remote...

#4 Once you've published, it is forever outside your control.
#4a Information lives forever

I work in the Electronic Data Discovery field, and I'm here to tell you, data is never dead.

#5 Don't be afraid to take blog breaks

Blog burnout is real and every blogger faces it. Even if you're blogging because you like to, you'll still reach a point where its pain outweighs its pleasure.

Don't be afraid to take a blog break. Take a week, two, month off. If you really like blogging you'll be drawn back and you'll find the fun again... If not, then maybe it wasn't meant to be.

It is nice to post that you're taking a break. That way people won't think you fell of the end of the earth or something...

#6 Don't apologize for taking an informal blog break

"I'm sorry I haven't posted..." Don't apologize, just post... ;)
(But thank you for being polite  :)

#7 Don't expect comments or feedback

People lurk. I do it, you do it, we all do it. It's natural.

If you're drive to post is fueled by comments, you're going to run out of gas quickly... Google for the recent studies on blog participation (one has been talked about in recent days), and you'll see comments and feedback are VERY rare. Don't let it discourage you.

If you want to see if there's interest in your posts, do "ego searches" on Technorati, Del.icio.us, Digg, Google, etc. You may be surprised at who is referring to you and your posts. And you'll may also find other bloggers with interests like yours...

#8 In Flame Wars no one wins and everyone looses...
#8a Never post or comment what you wouldn't want your mom/dad, wife/husband/partner or kids to read.
#8b If you wouldn't say it in person, don't post it
#8c Apologize/acknowledge if you're wrong and accept apologizes/acknowledgments with kindness and grace
#8d If you break it, fix it
#8f Be polite. Please and Thank You never hurts

Basic kindergarten rules for better living and blogging.

 

Well that's enough for now... 

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has read, commented, referred/linked and emailed. I'm glad you've found what I've posted interesting enough to spend a few seconds of your life on and I hope you continue too. If not, well that's cool too.  ;)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Three Year Blog-aversary...
Two Years and Counting...
500th Post!
1 Year Anniversary
Welcome to Greg's Cool [Stuff] of the day. (Hello world)

WLW Related Post Plugin v1.0 Now Available on CodePlex

My WLW Related Post CodePlex project is now live, the code checked in and v1.0 released...

Related Past Post XRef:
WLW Related Post Plugin - Preview Part 3
WLW Related Post Plugin - Preview Part 2
Windows Live Writer - Related Post Plugin Preview

Vista Features That Didn't Make It In...

Shell Blog - Features that didn't make the cut

"...Mimesweeper

As you may know from my previous blog entry, we have taken flack in the past for Minesweeper and the use of mines.  Although we don't have land mines in the USA, in many countries they are experienced in daily life, and not something to make light of in a video game.

So, for Vista we wanted to replace mines with something that people also wanted to avoid finding.  Thus we came up with the concept of Mimesweeper:

In Mimesweeper, you uncover street intersections on a black and white striped grid in which several mimes are hidden.  Just like wandering around Paris, the goal is to figure out where all of the mimes are without actually encountering one.

Unfortunately, beta feedback revealed a tremendous amount of controversy over the use of mimes.  Although we do not have many mimes in the USA, apparently there are many countries where running into a mime is common occurrence and not something to make light of in a video game. 

In the end, we pulled the concept and replaced it with a garden of flowers.

..."

LMAO...

RegMon to RegFile Utility from Jon Galloway...

Jon Galloway - [Tool] RegmonToRegfile - Record and playback registry changes

"I just released a new tool on tools.veloc-it.com: RegmonToRegfile.

It's easier to explain what you can do with RegmonToRegfile than to explain what it is. RegmonToRegfile works with Regmon (a free tool from SysInternals) to record and playback the registry changes that another program or installation makes. For example, I used it to create the registry files for the IE7 Standalone launcher I've been distributing. I recorded the registry entries when I installed, ran, and uninstalled IE7 and saved the logs, then ran RegmonToRegfile to convert then to regfiles.

Regmon is an excellent tool that monitors what other programs do with the Windows registry. It saves everything that happens to a log file, but doesn't include the option to export to a registry (.reg) file. RegmonToRegfile reads Regmon logs and translates them into .reg files.

..."

I can see where this could come in real handy... Nice work Jon.

Update #1 10/9/2006 @ 12:20pm PDT:

The coolest part? He's released the C# 2 source under the BSD license... And he's also using the very cool FileHelpers assembly. Nice...

Related Past Post XRef:
FileHelpers 1.6.0 Released

USB to IDE/SATA Bridge

Granite - USB 2.0 to SATA / IDE Bridge Adapters

"The Granite™ USB 2.0 HIGH-SPEED Bridge Adapter allows any 2.5", 3.5" or 5.25" SATA or IDE Drive to quickly be attached to any computer. This is the perfect tool to duplicate, copy, backup, or transfer large amount of data from one drive to another. Easy to take to any location and universal enough to work with any system.

The complete kit includes a Dual Output Drive Power Supply and all the Auxiliary Cables needed to connect any type of SATA or IDE device.

USB 2.0 Hi-Speed  & USB 1.0
480 Mbit/s Data Transfer
Switched Dual Output Power
ATA 6 Large Drive Support
One Year Warranty"

Oh man I could use this, and it's only $40... I have about a billion old drives laying around the house that I'd like to see what' was on them, but haven't wanted to deal with setup/install/etc...

In a perfect world, it would have a read-only switch on it, but since I only need it for home use, I can live without it.

(via x(perts)64 - Cool new tool/toy)

"Compressible Bitmap Using In-Memory Image Compressing Technique"

The Code Project - Compressible Bitmap Using In-Memory Image Compressing Technique

"The System.Drawing.Bitmap really provides a convenient way for us to create, save, process pictures of many types. However there is one problem with this class that may not be noticed by many programmers, that is it takes a lot of memory resources. For a non-indexed RGB picture of size 1280 by 1024, it will take up 1280 * 1024 * 3 = 3,932,160 = about 4 MB memory. Not so scary, since you have 1G memory on your work station? What if you somehow have to load a thousand picture of that size into memory at the same time? It will eat up all your physical memory plus virtual memory and then still complains you don't have enough memory. I'm sure it's not an imaginary scenario because I encountered the exact problem while writing my application. And I'm sure someone would ask: "why would you want to load so many pictures into memory? you can always load them when they are needed." Unfortunately this doesn't work because loading from disk is too expensive for my application to afford. So I came up with this compromising solution, which takes less loading time than loading form disk and takes less memory than storing the plain BITMAP (with the capital BITMAP, I mean the one that stores RGB values in memory).

..."

This is interesting and an idea/concept I might be able to use.

Cool Windows Mobile Homescreens

Jason Langridge's WebLog - MR Mobile! - Cool Homescreens for your Windows Mobile Device!

"Tired of the homescreen on your device.. check out the Homescreens HERE by kleinweder.ch...

"

That's pretty cool... Now all I need is a Windows Mobile device...
(Santa IM'ed me and said he saw the Treo 700w on my list and would do what he could to get me one for Christmas...  ;)

Provider Explorer in PowerShell Analyzer

Karl Prosser - Klumsy Geek - Provider Explorer in PowerShell Analyzer

"well you've seen the tab in powershell analyzer for along time, but it has always been empty, well now that has changed. I've implemented about half of what i want to do with it, but here is a screenshot so far...

"

Damn him! (JK!) I was thinking of building the same thing... It just seems so natural to build a GUI on top of/for the very cool PS Providers. I'll be watching this...

I've also been thinking of building some providers, just cause they're pretty darn cool... An INI provider? An XML provider? An SOAP/XML Provider? Web Page Provider (for web/screen scrapping)? A provider that hooks to a database?Think about mounting one of these and then being able to use the normal PS nav commands to move around and/or change them... I think that would be pretty nifty.

Source: Karl Prosser - Klumsy Geek » Provider Explorer in PowerShell Analyzer

WLW Related Post Plugin - Preview Part 3

List Management Day went well... There's now a simple Feed/Post Source (i.e. OPML) management in the plugin. I've been testing it with my OPML file and it performs well.

It supports adding and deleting of groups and feeds, drag-n-drop organization, has pretty bitmaps, etc.

One issue I ran into was the the My.Blog OPML implement seems to require that all feeds be in a group. Since I didn't feel like dealing with that, I built in a requirement that all feeds be in a group. For example, if you add a new feed, but don't have one selected, a "Subscriptions" group gets auto-magically created and the feed put there.

The normal setup will include a default OPML file (with my blog in it  ;), but you can easily select another.

In any case, it's pretty darn close to beta release'able, so once I get the word from work & CodePlex I'll post it...

Related Past Post XRef:
WLW Related Post Plugin - Preview Part 2
Windows Live Writer - Related Post Plugin Preview

WLW Related Post Plugin - Preview Part 2

I now have sorting and real time filtering working, multiple feed delimiter option, plus bunches of tweaks and such done. I think I'm done for the night.

Tomorrow is List Management Day (i.e. simple OPML editing) and then I think I'll be done (for v1.0 at least  ;)

 

Here's filtering in action. It's done real time and you can filter by the post title and/or post body. Filter values are not currently saved between sessions... I just don't think that would be that useful? The last used Post Source IS saved and is auto-loaded though.

Sorting works as you would expect it too, for both the full and filtered results. The sort is not currently saved between sessions... Again I don't think that would be that useful?

 

The Options can now be accessed either WLW Tools/Preferences menu or via the
"Options..." link label. And lets you decide how to join/concatenate/delimit/etc the feeds when you select more than one for inserting. I like line breaks/new lines, but thought other people might want different options.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Windows Live Writer - Related Post Plugin Preview

Windows Live Writer - Related Post Plugin Preview

Another weekend, another WLW plugin... ;) Here's a preview of the "Related Post" Plugin I'm working on. V1.0 will be RSS/Atom/RDF based, with advanced blog host implementations (i.e. Blogger, Meta, etc) coming later.

This being my third plugin, I've realized we (WLW Plugin authors) need a WLW Plugin Starter Kit or Project Template... I spent about the first hour or so just tweaking my plugin framework (and making sure it works) before writing any implementation specific code. It just seems silly to be spending time on generic plugin stuff (names, GUID's, images, setup, classes, post build steps, yada, yada, yada). I'm hoping one comes in the RTM WLW SDK. If not, I'll knock one out...

Kudo's to the "My.Blogs" team (Getting Started with My.Blogs). This project did all the handling hard work for my OPML, RSS, ATOM, RDF usage. I'll be extending it a little to allow sorting and filtering, but out the door I don't think I could of asked for a better feed handling starting point.

Release Date? Maybe this coming week. I have to get the "ok" from work to release it as OSS and get the CodePlex site... Plus there is a ton left that I want in v1.0. I want feed list management, sorting and filtering, etc.

In any case, here's some preview screenshots.

 

Yep, I'm driving the feed list off of OPML...  :)

 

 

  

Related Past Post XRef:
Paste As WLW v1.0 Plugin Released and Available via CodePlex (and some thoughts on my next plugin)
Getting Started with My.Blogs

Yahoo .Net Development Center

"Welcome to the .NET Developer Center

This site is your source for information about using the .NET Framework with Yahoo! Web Services and APIs. Here you'll find:

• HOWTO Articles to help you understand our technologies and how you can use them better with .NET.
• Download the sample browser, utility libraries and source code.
• Other Resources on the web where you can find source code and helpful tools.
• Community Resources where you can join our mailing list and discuss the Yahoo! APIs with us and with other .NET developers.

HOWTO Articles

Get comfortable using .NET with Yahoo! Web Services

• HOWTO: Make Yahoo! Web Service REST calls with C# and VB.NET
• HOWTO: Using Returned XML with C# and VB.NET
• HOWTO: Cache API Calls Using C# and VB.NET
• HOWTO: Access Yahoo! Web Services Using XAML
• HOWTO: Browser-Based Authentication Using C# and VB.NET

..."

Wow, even VB.Net samples...  ;)

(via SQL Server Code,Tips and Tricks, Performance Tuning  - Yahoo Launches .NET Developer Center, Windows Vista RC2 Available For Download)

"No More DLL Hell" Heavy Metal Song

New Song Released - No More DLL Hell 

"For those unfamiliar with the term "DLL Hell" (that's pretty much anyone who isn't a software developer), it's a term used by programmers to refer to versioning problems with Microsoft's older software.  My good buddy Spike Xavier and I came up with the idea of witting a song about the concept while stuck in Phoenix traffic one day.  Basically we wanted to write about how much better Microsoft's .NET platform is compared to their older technologies....mainly because we were bored I guess and because we're happy we don't have to use COM technologies much anymore.  Some will like the song's style (or lack thereof), some won't depending upon what type of music you listen to.

..."

 No More DLL Hell - The Song 

"Song Lyrics:

Verse 1:

Early days of COM components
solved our coding need

Dynamic Link Libraries - code as many as you need
we had version this and version that
confusing reg svr tre duece apps

..."

This song rocks. JUST what I needed to get me moving this fine Friday...  ;)

Download Wikipedia?

Brad Smith ::: MSFT - How to download Wikipedia

"So you're looking for some dummy data?  Well how about downloading the wikipedia???!! 

There are over 2 million pages on the wikipedia.  Don't try to crawl the site, it won't let you.  No robots allowed!

Go to http://download.wikipedia.org and you'll see a list of all the databases.  If you're looking for the English one it's "enwiki".  Then you can choose to download a whole bunch of stuff ... but the file you generally want to download is "pages-articles.xml.bz2"..."

I don't know why, but downloading Wikipedia just seems too cool not to do... (so of course I am ;)

For "safe" sample/dummy data, I've used/downloaded Project Gutenberg files in the past too...

Windows Live Mail Beta Update...

My Windows Live Mail just updated to the new beta/milestone/etc ... It reminds me a little of Hotmail classic, but better. And I like the new flare UI.

I didn't know about (but everyone will learn with Vista), was the Windows Logo/Live menu thing. Hovering the mouse over, or clicking on, the Windows logo at the top gets you a menu of other Live services...

With those that have been updated to the new flare UI, the feel is very coordinated. Switching between Favorites and Mail is like switching between two like app's (i.e. two apps in the same suite, etc) They look and feel the same. Jumping between other apps, without the newer UI is more disjointed (which I'm sure will get less so as they update...).

The thing I don't like about the Logo/Live menu is that Mail isn't listed... I jump to Favorites, play around, but to get back to Mail I need to Back or click the IE Live toolbar Mail icon, etc. I'd like to have Mail as one of the menu options (yes, feedback submitted)...

In any case, it's nice to see it move forward... I really like using Live Mail. Going back to the old Hotmail UI is just plain painful... ;)

Google Blog Search Ping Support & Windows Live Writer

Got blog? Will ping. 

"Today we're launching the Google Blog Search Pinging Service, which is a way for individual bloggers and blog platform providers to inform us of content changes. Blogging providers who syndicate RSS/Atom/XML and want to be included in our Blog Search index can now ping us directly. We'll continue to monitor other pinging services and will contribute change notifications to the community. Read more at our FAQ." [Post Leached in Full]

There's a REST API, so it's easy to add it to your Windows Live Writer ping list.

Here's what I added to my WLW Ping list. The things in bold are the only items I had to change...

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping?name=Greg's+Cool+[Insert+Clever+Name]+of+the+Day&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoolthingoftheday.blogspot.com%2F&changesURL=http%3A%2F%2Fcoolthingoftheday.blogspot.com%2Fatom.xml

"Administering ClickOnce Deployments"

Administering ClickOnce Deployments

"Summary: ClickOnce provides an easy-to-use and flexible deployment mechanism for smart client applications built for the .NET Framework 2.0. ClickOnce offers end-user deployment, ready-made installation dialogs, a built-in security model, and automatic or on-demand updates. But while it's great to have so many built-in features, one area that users often request more control is in tracking who uses which applications, controlling access to those applications, and knowing when something goes wrong. You may just need to keep track of who is using which versions of each application at the user level. You may want to restrict access to certain applications and updates based on a user's identity or their association with a role or group. You may want to know when launch errors have occurred for particular users so that you can troubleshoot deployment problems if they exist.

This whitepaper discusses all of these scenarios...

Contents

Introduction
Publishing and Deploying a ClickOnce Application
Installing and Launching a ClickOnce Application

Tracking ClickOnce Application Usage
Using Windows Authentication
Using Custom Application Authentication
Using Query String Parameters
Using a Custom Client Proxy to Establish an Application Session
User Authentication Summary

Limiting Access to ClickOnce Applications
Using Windows Authorization Custom Authorization
Using Query String Parameters
Using a Custom Client Proxy User Authorization Summary

Dealing with Launch Errors

Summary

Additional Resources

Appendix
Publish Directory Structure
Setting and Changing the Deployment Provider"

What interested me in this article was the "Tracking ClickOnce Application Usage" topic...

I've been thinking of tracking who installs my internal ClickOnce apps so I know who I'll be supporting, who to ask for feedback, etc. I was thinking of baking it into each app, but doing it externally would be much cooler and easier to reuse...

Free Windows Live Messenger Stuff from KiWee

Inside Windows Live Messenger - I Love Free Stuff!! Spread the love.

"So there is this neat site called KiWee that is having a free Messenger stuff extravaganza.  Free Dynamic Display Pictures, free Emoticons, free Winks, free Backgrounds, even free Packs.  It is technically for Canadian Messenger users, but there is nothing stopping anyone from downloading this stuff.  I am always skeptical of these types of offers, but I couldn't find anything shady or annoying about this site, no credit card info or crazy amount of profile information.  It just seems to be a sweet deal. ..."

Yep, it looks like the entire KiWee Windows Live Messenger catalog is currently free... We're talking hundreds(thousands?) of items free for the download.

Don't know how long this will last, but if you've ever wanted to get some of their stuff, now's the time.

Free Training From Microsoft Learning

Walter Stiers - Microsoft Elearning - Visual Studio 2005 - SPECIAL OFFERS: Free for a limited time

"https://www.microsoftelearning.com/visualstudio2005/ - Look at special Offers (bottom of the page)

Course 2913: Creating Your First Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0 Web Application
Price: $44.99 NOW FREE, 1-year subscription

Course 4336: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework
Price: $44.99 NOW FREE, 1-year subscription

Workshop 4249: Performing Asynchronous Tasks by Using Multithreading with Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005
Price:$39.99 NOW FREE, 1-year subscription

Workshop 4260: Building and Consuming a Simple XML Web Service with Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005"
Price: $39.99 NOW FREE, 1-year subscription"

Free is my favorite price for training...  ;)

Now I need to see if I can get CPE credit for these at work...

"State Machine Workflows in Windows Workflow Foundation"

MSDN Belgium - State Machine Workflows in Windows Workflow Foundation

"Windows Workflow Foundation allows us to implement workflows as state machines. This article uses a simple case and demonstrates how to develop a state machine workflow and solve the requirements of a case.

...

What is a State Machine Workflow?

A workflow is a defined process consisting out of several steps which implement the needed behavior. There are basically two kinds of workflows: sequential workflows and state machine workflows. In sequential workflows all decisions to progress in the workflow are taken by the workflow itself. There’s a well defined start and well defined end. Between there’s a flow consisting of branches and loops to direct the flow. This means the workflow is in control.

With state machine workflows there’s no real predefined path of all steps to undertake for a certain solution. State machines take another approach. They wait for events to happen and based on these events they change their state. State machines are used when the decisions are coming in from an external application and are unpredictable. So especially when there’s user interaction needed a state machine is a more convenient solution.
When new requirements come up, state machines are more flexible to add features. Mostly it’s a matter of adding another state. The state machine is not in control of the flow, but only controls the set of choices which can be issued by another application.

As state machines are a rather unknown concept, we’re going to build a simple but recognizable situation in this article.

..."

Now that .Net 3 is getting close to RTM, I'm going to be taking another look at WF. Also I'm taking a Developmentor course on WF ("Essential Windows Workflow Foundation for C# Developers" sigh, no VB version is available... good thing I my brain's runtime C# translation bit is flipped  ;) later this month, so I'm keyed to to WF related articles...

The above article's example also attracted me. It is a little more relatable than many, focusing on a TV state machine (TV is on, off, nothing interesting is on, cable is down, etc).

Paste As WLW v1.0 Plugin Released and Available via CodePlex (and some thoughts on my next plugin)

v1.0 of my WLW Paste As Plugin is now available via CodePlex (http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=wlwPasteAs). Please see the preview post or the project home page for more details on this plugin.

 

My next plugin? I'm thinking a "Related Past Post XRef" Plugin. I like having links to past posts that are directly related to the current post. This is provides me a direct and specific conversation thread" in the post. Even in the future, when production Blogger supports categories, I'm still going to use "related past post xref's." Categories are great for general threads, but for tightly focused threads, well that's where my past post xref comes into play.

And right now it's a pretty manual process. I go to my blog, copy the title, paste. Copy the URL, paste. Get the other past xref's and past them too. Wash, rinse, repeat.

So I'm thinking that this would be a good plugin... Using the Blogger GData API, provide a list of past posts and let me select which ones I want to insert. Also I'm thinking I can add other blogs (like my Live Spaces personal blog) to the post list as well...

I'm planning on working on it this coming weekend, so we'll see how it goes...

Related Past Post XRef:
WLW Paste As 1.0 Plugin Preview
WLW Paste As Plugin

WLW Paste As 1.0 Plugin Preview

Here's a preview of my new Paste As Plugin for Windows Live Writer. It's all ready to be released, all I need is an "okay" from work (due to IP contracts, etc).

This is really a simple plugin that makes it easier to copy formatted HTML and paste it into a WLW post as plain text. Another cool benefit is that it makes it easier to paste raw HTML snips into a WLW post.

Say you have copied an raw HTML snip. Now you paste it into WLW (while in Normal mode). What do you get? A bunch of text that looks like HTML. Like this; <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/ blogger/ 5930/ 214/ 1600/ WLWPasteAs.1.0.a.png"><img style="cursor: hand" alt="" Src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/ 5930/ 214/ 320/ WLWPasteAs.1.0.a.png" border="0">

When what you really wanted was this;  

The Paste As Plugin makes pasting raw HTML easier and simpler. Copy the HTML to the clipboard, click on "Insert Paste As", click Ok. That's it, two clicks and the HTML is inserted into your post as formatted HTML (i.e. you get the image/bitmap/picture and not the HTML tags...)

 

Here are some preview screenshots;

 

If there's text data in the clipboard the plugin will be prepopulated...

There are currently three Paste As options. Normal, Block Quote and Preformatted. Why? I thought having those options might be cool and useful.. :)
  

You can easily see a preview of the Paste As...

 

And here's an example post with all three Paste As options used
 

Here's a pasting raw HTML example. Let's say you're a Blogger user and want to upload/post screenshots. You use the Blogger Create post and upload your pictures. Now you copy the URL's to the clipboard

Then you click on "Insert Paste As". As you can see, it's already populated with the HTML.

And lastly you click on the Ok button. Now the images you just posted on Blogger are in your new WLW post.

   

Idea's for the Future:

• Add a "one click paste as" option.
  • This is an option that skips the dialog and just pastes in the contents of the clipboard as plain text. This plugin is already simple, basically just two clicks, but with this option it cuts that in half...

In any case, I'll post an update when I get the clearance to release this as OSS. Now I just need to decide where to post it... A new CodePlex project? The WLWPlugins CodePlex Project? GotDotNet? So many choices...

Related Past Post XRef:
WLW Paste As Plugin

WLW Paste As Plugin

I'm such a dork sometimes (lol sometimes?). Earlier this week Microsoft released an updated beta of Windows Live Writer... In my post about it I said it would be nice if there was a "Paste As" (paste as plain text, etc) feature.

Well I just had a "light over my head" moment. Why don't I just shut up break out Visual Studio and quickly bang out my own "Paste As" plugin?

Clear as day (in hindsight). Working on it now...

I'm not spending a ton of time on it as a future version of WLW will/may have "Paste As" functionality built in. But until then a simple plugin will be just the ticket...

I should have something releasable tomorrow'ish.

WLW Text Template v1.2 Released

I've just released v1.2 of my Text Template Plugin in the CodePlex project.

For more details, please see the CodePlex project home page, but so as to not leave you hanging, here are some screenshots...

The major change from 1.2 beta to production was the addition of the About dialog and the change to real time filtering.

I just didn't like how the filtering was working as I used the plugin. It didn't feel right and not as user friendly as I'd expect a feature like this to be. So instead of forcing the user to click the "Apply" button, I changed it to real time. As you type in a title or select a category, the grid is automatically filtered.

Real time filtering changes the usage landscape a great deal, making the filter feature into a primary selection feature mechanism.  I now find myself entering a letter to very quickly narrow my list almost every time I use the plugin. Where as before it was easier just to scroll down...

Since everything is in memory the performance is pretty good. With 10-100'ish items real time rocks. With 1000 it's "okay" and workable, if not perfect... I'm betting on most people having less than 100 items, so real time it is and I'll tweak if more if people ask.

Anyway here are the screenshots...

The new About dialog. I used the stack of pennies because I thought it was a good representation of the intent of the plugin. Adding a little of of value/time savings each time you use it, adding to a lot of value over time...  ;)

 

The Select Template with the About This Plugin link and titlebar Help added.

    

The real time filtering in action.

Writing Windows Live Messenger Add-ins in .Net by the ADOGuy

The ADOGuy - Writing Windows Live Messenger Add-ins with .NET

"...in this article, I show you how to write your own add-in for Windows Live Messenger using .NET.

Beginning with version 8 of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft has allowed users to write code, using the .NET Framework, to interact with Messenger client. By using the Messenger SDK, you can write an assembly that is loaded into Messenger and which will react to events in the messenger user interface.

..."

Shawn Wildermuth (aka the ADO Guy) has written a cool article on writing add-ins for Windows Live Messenger 8 in C# and VB.Net.

From turning on the add-in capability to writing the code to deployment and seeing it in use, he covers all the "hello world" bases (with C#/VB.net source downloadable too).

This looks like something fun to play with...  ;)

Missing Base VHD (Base01.VHD) from Orcas September CTP VPC... (Make sure you ALSO download the VSCTPBase.exe)

I'm RTFI now, but it looks like there's an issue with the Visual Studio Orcas CTP Virtual PC image download.

It downloads fine and extracts with no problems (creating a 9.27GB VSSep2006CTP.vhd and 11K VSSep2006CTP.vmc).

But when launching the VMC, I get the below dialog;

Um... err... Base01.VHD? Um... nope, doesn't exist and wasn't in the download.

It seems like the VSSep2006CTP.vhd was a Differencing VHD and that the base/parent VHD wasn't provided. Or maybe I'm having a brain cramp...?

Time to look up the support/feedback options...

Update #1 9/26/2006 @ 10:03AM (PDT):

I WAS having a brain cramp! As Dustin pointed out in the comments, there's a link to download the base image in the Installation Instructions

"Download the Base image (one-time only): Save the self-extracting base image VSCTPBase.exe and extract to a folder on your computer. This base contains the Operating system and is common to all "Orcas" CTPs. "

Stupid Greg... I KNEW I should have RTFI better (but then again, I did scan them a couple times and still kept missing that reference... I wonder how many other people will too?).

BTW, I really dig the Base Image/Differencing usage. That should save us users/downloaders a good bit of time with future CTP's.

Related Past Post XRef:
Visual Studio "Orcas" September CTP Virtual PC Download

System.Security (SecureString, SymmetricAlgorithms) C# WinForm Example - Simple Password Manager

The Code Project - Simple Password Manager Using System.Security

"The main goal of this application is to show how easy is to work with System.Security (SecureString, SymmetricAlgorithms) in a Windows Forms project. The application uses the SecurePasswordTextBox control made by Paul Glavich. SecurePasswordTextBox is a Windows Forms TextBox control that uses the .NET V2 SecureString class to store its contents. More details about this control can be found at Paul Glavich's blog.

Why do we need SecureStrings? Well, the MSDN documentation is very explicit on this, I will just quote it: "An instance of the System.String class is both immutable and, when no longer needed, cannot be programmatically scheduled for garbage collection; that is, the instance is read-only after it is created, and it is not possible to predict when the instance will be deleted from computer memory. Consequently, if a String object contains sensitive information such as a password, credit card number, or personal data, there is a risk the information could be revealed after it is used, because your application cannot delete the data from computer memory." So, as a programmer, you must make sure that the sensitive data that you are dealing with in your applications like passwords are as much as possible protected. In my manager, I am receiving the password string as a SecureString with help from the Paul Glavich's control, and then I encrypt it with a symmetric algorithm (Rijndael) for storage and internal use. There is a moment when you can't protect the string, and that moment comes when the user wants to see his password in clear, or wants to paste it into a web page. ..."

This is another SecureString related project that I'd like to look at...

Related Past Post XRef:
SecurePasswordTextBox - A SecureString TextBox

Does a Negative Downloaded Percentage Mean I'm SENDING Data? ;)

It makes me laugh when I download big files in my install of IE. -318% Completed (now I'm at -402% and counting...)

Does a negative download mean I'm actually uploading data? (Just kidding... I know it's just a math bug...).

Still it makes me smile when I see that. Yeah, I know I have a strange sense of humor sometimes.. ;) 

Visual Studio "Orcas" September CTP Virtual PC Download

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" - September Community Technology Preview (CTP)

"Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable & reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.
This download is the September 2006 Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Code-Named “Orcas”.

Note: This CTP is available only as a Virtual PC image. You will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress.

...

The highlights of this CTP include:

• Improvements on the widely acclaimed Visual Studio 2005 product set
• Significant investments in improving product quality
• LINQ to Objects API
• LINQ to Objects API supports queries over any .NET collection, such as arrays and Generic Lists. This API is defined in the System.Query namespaces inside System.Core.dll. Click here for more details about LINQ.
• ...
• NET Framework improvements such as:
• New managed add-in model enables developers to add a version-resilient extensibility model to their products.
• Support for time zone conversion, enumeration and serialization, including cases where Daylight Saving Time rules change over time.
• ...
• ...

..."

It's only a 3.6GB compressed download, so of course I'm getting it now...  ;)

I'm a little torn about this. On one side I'm happy to see VS improve and am excited about the new features, but on the other I'm upset that VS 2005 still isn't "done" and we've had to wait so long (with months yet to go) for SP1. Yeah, yeah, I know it's a huge product, and everyone has limited resources, yada, yada, yada. Still... Any Battlefield 2 fans out there? How do you feel about 2142 coming out soon? While BF2 is still, well, um... yeah. Kind of the same thing, IMHO.

And OMG, let's not talk about VS2003 on Vista...  :|

LOL, but then again, we bitch that MS doesn't move fast enough and there's too long a period between major versions of their products. Those poor guys and gals just can't win... lol

In any case, with VS Orcas probably 9-12 months from release (that's just my WAG.. Wild Ass Guess) I think it's worth checking out and playing with a little, especially since it's been provided as a VPC image. This was a smart move MS...

Windows Live Writer 1.0 Beta Update

Writer Zone - New Release! Windows Live Writer 1.0 (Beta) Update with Windows Live Gallery

"...

The following is a summary of the changes in the Writer 1.0 (Beta) Update:

• Tagging support
• Support for Blogger Beta
• Categories are sorted by name and support scrolling, plus improved support for reading categories from your blog
• Improved startup performance
• Paste is enabled for Title region and TAB/SHIFT+TAB navigation between title and body supported
• Insert hyperlink added to context menu when text is selected
• Title attribute in Insert Link dialog
• Custom date support for Community Server
• Improved keyboard shortcuts for switching views
• Change spell-check shortcut key to F7
• Add ‘png’ to insert image dialog file type filter
• More robust image posting to Live Spaces
• Improved style detection for blogs 
• Fixed issues with pasting URLs and links
• Remember last window size and position when opening a new post
• Open post dialog retrieves more than 25 old posts

..."

An update to the WLW 1.0 Beta has been released. Posting with it now...

Install was smooth, upgrading my existing install in-place, and best of all my plugin still works (yeah!).

BTW, This weekend I plan on finishing up v1.2 of my plugin (addressing remaining Code Analysis items, adding an About box, etc) and submitting it to the WLW Gallery.  ;)

Biggest thing I like so far in this WLW update? The ability to cut-n-paste in the Title region... It's always the little things isn't it?

Things I need to submit as feedback;

• When inserting a Link, if the Clipboard contains a URL, prepopulate the Link URL: field.
• Add a Paste Special or Paste as Plain Text option
• Provide real time spell and grammar checking (i.e. like Word)(I'd bet big this is already on their list...)

VSTS/TFS Resource List (MS Dogfooding Stat's, Tools, Books, URL's, News, etc)

adamga's WebLog - Team system resources list, updated September 27, 2006

Adam Gallant just posted a cool list of VSTS/TFS resources.  From info on MS's dogfooding on TFS, to Blogs/Websites, Third party utilities, tools, whitepapers and more.

If you're getting into TFS, this is a good place to start...

Real VML Patch is Out

F-Secure - Real VML patch is out

"Microsoft has released a patch against the VML vulnerability outside of their normal update cycle. Which is great.

The patch is available right now via update.microsoft.com.

Get It" [Post Leached In Full]

From Update.Microsoft.com;

"A security issue has been identified in the way Vector Markup Language (VML) is handled that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Microsoft Windows and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.  Details... "

I sure you'll be seeing this everywhere, so consider this a "Note to Self" post...  ;)

In my case, on two machines, it installed easily but did need to reboot one (on the machine I hadn't yet unregistered the DLL).

Related Past Post XRef:
IE/Windows VML Exploit - Short Term Fix

Lazy Load Property Example/Snippet

Vault of Thoughts - Lazy Load Property Snippet

"I have written an article on Visual Studio Code Snippets - how to use them, and how to create your own. I have provided there a couple of snippets that I use on daily basis. You can also check Mads Kristensen's blog where he provides a snippet for "safe events". Today I have thought of yet another useful snippet...

...

If using 2.0 version of the .NET Framework, you can do better and use the Nullable type for the field. And that is exactly the code snippet I provide. With it you can create such a lazy initialized property very quickly.

..."

I'm about to begin work on an API where I want to implement lazy property loading...

The nullable approach discussed above seems smart, simple and easy to maintain. Something to look at/think about anyway...

Online IE7 Search Provider Creator

EnhanceIE - IE7 Search Provider Builder Tool

"You can use this page to easily add a new search provider to your list of available IE7 search providers.  Search providers appear in the dropdown next to the search box inside of the new IE7.

"

This is a very cool service/utility...

There's a place to enter the search URL and what you want to name it. Then click on the Install button and now you have a new IE Search Provider.

Make sure you read the instructions on the form though (I clicked on it a couple times, getting a warning/error before I read the big bold instructions to use the search term "TEST"... dugh).

(via Digital Thoughts - EnhanceIE.com - IE7 Search provider builder)

CodePlex Project for the Text Template WLW Plugin

The CodePlex project is up for my Text Template Windows Live Writer Plugin...

The latest 1.2 beta (1.2.2.2, the same as was put on GotDotNet) has been uploaded as a Beta Release. v1.1 Production release is also available.

I'm still moving in, updating the wiki, adding the source, etc...

This CodePlex project will be the official home now for the Plugin, but of course as I make changes/releases/etc I'll still be talking about it here. ;)

Again, any suggestions, comments, feature requests, etc would be appreciated... (If you don't I'll just keep adding stuff I think is cool...  :)

Related Past Post XRef:
WLW Text Template v1.2 Beta Released to GotDotNet
Text Template Plugin v1.1 for Windows Live Writer Released (and a Preview of v1.2)
WLW Text Template v1.1 Beta Test
WLW - Text Templates Plugin on WLWPlugins.com
My Windows Live Writer Plugin - Text Template

WLW Text Template v1.2 Beta Released to GotDotNet

I've released v1.2 beta to GotDotNet for your downloading and such...

Download (as download link, just updated file)

In this version/zip is the VB.Net source, manual setup instructions and new to this release, a "normal" setup (i.e. setup.exe and an MSI).

Nothing much has changed since 1.2 Preview Post, but to keep you from having to click over, I've included the feature list and screenshots below.

Due to the release delay when posting to GotDotNet (and because I want to play there), I'm in the process of getting this into a CodePlex project. I'll update the GotDotNet Sample with stable releases in the future, but the CodePlex project will be the one stop shop for this Plugin (applied this weekend, so it should be up "real soon" ...)

v1.2 Feature List:

• Replacement of the listbox on the Select Template dialog with a grid, which allows sorting, filtering, etc of Templates.
• Added Categories to Text Templates, which allow for cooler sorting and filtering
• Added Icons to Text Templates, which let you associate an icon with a given template making it easier to identify and select a given template
• Added a Preview feature to the Add and Select dialogs, which let you see your inserted HTML in its full HTML glory.
• Added Filtering to Select Template dialog
• Added a Setup.

Screenshots:

Here's a preview of the new Select dialog. Much prettier isn't it?

The updated Add dialog, showing off the Category feature.

Selecting an Icon for your new Template...

A preview of your new Template

The Categories are "smart" in that if you type in a new, non-existing category you'll be asked if you want to add it to your list (so you can use it again in the future)

The newly added Template

Showing off the sorting... Like most features of this plugin, the sort column and direction is remembered between sessions, so if you like to sort by Category, the next time you Select a Template the grid will already be sorted.

The Filter works much the sample way. The last entered Title and Category used to Filter will auto-magically filled in for you, but will not be applied...

The Filter feature is one that might change based on your feedback. For example, after you have "Apply" a filter, as soon as you type in the Title field or select a new Category, the filter is cleared. I thought this a less confusing operation, but you may tell me otherwise...

Also I'm thinking about real time filtering, i.e. doing away with the Apply button and as you type, auto-magically apply the filter. I didn't do that this round as I was worried about performance for those with a large number of templates.

This current version works quite well with over 1,000 templates...  ;)

 

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions!

Sync Outlook with Google Calendar and more...

Chris Pirillo - Syncing Outlook, OS X, Google with Ease

"Not sure how it happened, but I ran into The Holy Grail of Synchronization - how to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol, ScheduleWorld....

...

Standards to the rescue! Engtech, as described, pointed me to ScheduleWorld: “An experiment in a new kind of rich Internet application, built on the foundations of open standards that enables you to access your data from virtually anywhere using a growing number of interoperable devices and software.” Yes, it’s absolutely free - and absolutely 100x more useful than you may realize..."

Interesting... Just yesterday I was looking for a cheap and easy way to sync some calendars...

RTFI (Read The Fine Instructions!) or How NOT To Use Bug Bombs (Gee... if 1 is good, then 15 MUST be great!)

LAFD News & Information - North Hollywood Explosion: Failure To Follow Instructions

"On Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 10:06 AM, three Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, two LAFD Rescue Ambulances, one Rehab/Air Tender Unit, one EMS Battalion Captain and one Battalion Chief Officer Command Team under the direction of Battalion Chief Peter Benesch responded to an explosion at 5505 Bonner Avenue in North Hollywood.

Firefighters arrived quickly to discover residents streaming from a two story garden style apartment building on the southwest corner of Cumpston Street and Bonner Avenue.

...

There was no fire, but structural damage was evident.

Firefighters soon determined that fifteen full-release aerosol insecticide 'bug bombs' had been used contrary to instructions within one upstairs apartment in an effort to exterminate pests.

An adult male occupant of the apartment below was the sole injury. He sustained a minor head laceration and following on-site treatment, declined transportation to the hospital.

..."

And you only thought it an urban legend or Myth Busters episode (episode 23)...