Becoming a Windows Search Ninja - “Mastering Windows Search using Advanced Query Syntax”

ars technica - Mastering Windows Search using Advanced Query Syntax

“Search has become an integral part of Windows, particularly in later versions. While the major search improvements began with Windows Vista and were backported to Windows XP, it's really only with Windows 7 that the larger majority of users are discovering the search bar all over in the operating system. Search is built into every aspect of Windows 7 to help users cope with the increasingly rapidly growing number of files, be they work documents and e-mails, personal photos and videos, or music collections.

Many users perform searches without thinking nowadays: it's an ingrained habit of using the operating system. Like many habits, this one is worth breaking in order to to develop an even better one. Here we take a quick look at a few basic search techniques and a few more advanced ones. Force yourself to use them and you'll soon become a master of Windows Search. A bit of extra time now will save you loads of effort in the long run.

…

…”

Windows Search is one of those things I use a little allot, but rarely in depth, which I find ironic. I can’t live without the full text indexing of my email, which has also changed how I store and use email, let alone the power Windows Search provides in Win7, yet my searching is still very basic and primitive.

The next time I search, I need to try some of these things out…

Must… Become… Search… Ninja!

Large Text File Viewer v5.2 Released - A portable utility to open very large, 1GB+, text files quickly…

SwiftGear - Large Text File Viewer 5.2 – Features

“Have you ever felt frustrated when you just want to look at the content of a large text file but it takes forever for Notepad or Word to open it?

This program was designed for viewing large (>1GB) text files.

It uses little memory and is able to open a gigabyte file instantly.

Background file indexing makes browsing even faster.

It opens files that are currently being written by other programs, and automatically checks and reads the files if new contents have been appended.

It supports view split. The user may split the view either horizontally or vertically, and have each side show different portion of the same file.

It allows the user to perform high-speed complex text search by means of plain text or regular expression. The regular expression syntax is slightly different from the standard ones. Please click here for details.

The regular expressions for finding the following items have been provided as preset for the convenience of the users:

…

 

…”

I’ve been using v4 of this utility for years (since it’s release in 2005)… Good to see it’s still alive and well.

(via The Portable Freeware Collection - Large Text File Viewer V5.2)

Looking for a little help moving from WinForms to WPF? How about a “toolbox-centric” Quick Reference Guide?

simple-talk - From WinForm to WPF: A Quick Reference Guide

“Like many of you, I have been an avid .NET developer / designer for some time, and have been eagerly awaiting both the new design tools of Visual Studio 2010 and the new capabilities of the .NET framework version 4.0 release. At the same time I decided to take the leap from WinForm to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to take advantage of the expressiveness of the technology, and the richness of XAML. WPF is huge, so getting a clear understanding of either of these moves would be daunting; doing both together might seem well nigh overwhelming!

This article is not a starting point for the complete WPF neophyte. If that describes you, you will find this useful only in conjunction with other introductory WPF material. Rather, this article provides explanatory notes to my quick reference chart that could be quite a timesaver as you migrate from Visual Studio 2008 to 2010 and from WinForm to WPF. 

…

…”

Here’s a snap of it;

And a close-up…

I need all the help I can get… ;)

(via Notes from a dark corner - WinForms to WPF Quick reference guide)

“Getting Started with Silverlight and Expression Blend” (SilverLight v4, Blend v3) DZone Refcardz

DZone – Refcardz - Getting Started with Silverlight and Expression Blend

“…

This DZone Refcard will provide an introduction to Silverlight 4 and Expression Blend, an application that is used to develop Silverlight applications. Also included is an introduction to some of the cool new features offered by the newest version of Silverlight 4, and a step by step guide through the development of your first Silverlight application.

…

…”

Here’s a thumbnail snap;

Windows Phone 7 was the straw that broke my SilverLight learning back (or whatever… you get the idea). When I saw this in my inbox I just had to grab it to help me on my current learning curve climb…

Application Bar Icons for your Windows Phone 7 development

Microsoft Downloads - Application Bar Icons for Windows Phone 7 Series

“A set of application bar icons for use when developing Windows Phone 7 Series applications using the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP.

File Name:	WP7AppBarIcons.zip
Version:	7.0
Date Published:	3/26/2010
Language:	English
Download Size:	235 KB

This download contains a set of 64 application bar icons that you can use when developing applications for Windows Phone. In addition to the 64 icons in PNG format (32 dark and 32 light), this package also contains vector versions that can be easily imported into Microsoft Expression Blend 4 Beta when using the Microsoft Expression Blend Add-in Preview for Windows Phone.

General Icons

• Add
• Back
• Base Circle
• Cancel
• Check
• Close
• Delete
• Download
• Upload
• Edit
• Favorites
• Add to Favorites
• Minus
• New
• Next
• Overflow Dots
• Question Mark
• Refresh
• Save
• Share

Media Icons

• Stop
• Sync
• Fast Forward
• Play
• Pause
• Rewind

Phone Feature Icons

• Camera
• Email
• Search
• Settings
• Video
• Folder

…”

Never hurts to have a few “official” icons/images/things around…

Windows Phone 7 in 7 – Learning how to develop for Windows Phone 7, in 7 minute blocks… [Coming soon, starting April 5th]

msdev.com - Windows Phone 7 in 7!

“Get to know Windows Phone 7, 7 minutes at a time! In this series of short, code-focused videos you’ll learn how to build applications for Microsoft’s revolutionary new mobile platform, Windows Phone 7 Series. Each video is under seven minutes long, so you can learn something new over your next coffee break!

…

Windows Phone "7 in 7": Silverlight and Windows Phone 7
The easiest way to develop for Windows Phone 7 series is with the familiar Microsoft Silverlight platform. In this video, see how Windows Phone supports Silverlight and how you can use XAML and .NET to build a simple Silverlight-based Windows Phone application.

Windows Phone "7 in 7": XNA and Windows Phone 7
Microsoft XNA Framework is a set of software, services and resources for developing games on Microsoft platforms. In this video, see how XNA can be used to build games that target Windows Phone 7 Series.

Windows Phone "7 in 7": The Windows Phone 7 Series Application Architecture
Windows 7 Phone 7 Series represents a complete departure from previous versions of Windows Mobile. In this video, get to know the architecture that will support the apps that you’ll be building for Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone "7 in 7": Introducing Windows Phone 7 Series
In February 2010, Microsoft announced its revolutionary mobile platform, Windows Phone 7 Series. In this video you’ll get to know the features that make Windows Phone 7 unique and get a glimpse at what it will be like to build applications for the next generation of Windows phones.

Windows Phone "7 in 7":Getting Started with Windows Phone 7 Series
In this brief video, you’ll learn everything you need to know to get started building applications for Windows Phone 7 series… You’ll learn where to download the tools, how to get them installed, and how to create a simple Windows Phone 7 application.

…

…” [GD: Page pretty much leached in full…]

<whine> I don’t want to wait until April…</whine>  :p

Miss the “Printers” Control Panel Applet in Win7? Here’s how you can get it back…

IntelliAdmin - Bring back Missing Printers in Windows 7

“In Windows 7, Microsoft has redesigned the printers section of the control panel. I have slowly started to get used to it…but I ran across something that confused me for a while

I had two printers, exactly the same, but on different sides of the building. When I added them to Windows 7, I could only see one printer in the control panel:

…

Still, I wondered if there was a way to get the old printer view back…like Vista, XP, 2003 had it.

It turns out there is a way to do this. You can make a registry change that adds a control panel icon called Printers (In addition to the default Devices and Printers)

…

…”

That’s a cool tip. Now I like the new “Devices and Printers” in Windows 7, but I also didn’t see a problem with the old Printers either. Maybe I’m old school, an Old Dog, or whatever, but I like the focused, one area/purpose of the old “Printers” Control Panel Applet.

The above tweak is done via the Registry, so [Insert standard, Don’t Mess with the Registry if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll libel for your actions, etc, etc, etc statement here]

Here’s some before and after snaps from my system (Win7 Ultimate, x64)

Before;

After;

 

 

While I don’t want to steal the OP’s JuJu, I do want to capture it here, for future searching, reference and archival purposes…

Magic JuJu:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel\NameSpace and a new key, including the brackets, {2227a280-3aea-1069-a2de-08002b30309d} (again credit for find goes to IntelliAdmin - Bring back Missing Printers in Windows 7)

Development/Test Environments, Windows Activation and You

Genuine Windows Blog - Windows Activation in Development Environments

“Our product management team members have some new guidance to share with those of you with questions about activation in your development or test environments:

First, we have a newly revised whitepaper, Windows Activation in Development and Test Environments. You can download the whitepaper or read it on TechNet. This paper is intended as a guide for infrastructure architects and decision makers. In it, we provide insights and recommendations to help minimize the impact that Windows activation has on development or test environments. The whitepaper begins by providing a high level view of Windows Activation Technologies policies and tools, including the relationship between Windows activation and Windows licensing. We introduce five key principles that should guide your Windows activation planning. Finally we conclude with recommendations for activating Windows operating systems under several common development environment scenarios.

Secondly, we wanted to address some of the questions we get on product activation when transitioning from test to production. Many customer deployment scenarios begin with testing on an operating system acquired through an MSDN subscription. …

…

…”

TechNet - Windows Activation in Development and Test Environments

“…

On This Page

• Introduction
• Windows Activation Technologies
• Licensing Basics
• Activation Principles for Development Environments
• Recommendations
• Activation Flowchart
• Additional References

Introduction

Development and test environments are typically complex and dynamic. Systems are built and torn down in short order, software is installed and uninstalled routinely, and isolation from other organizational systems restricts the use of useful information technology (IT) services and resources. The goal of this document is to provide insights and recommendations to infrastructure architects and decision makers that will minimize the impact that Windows operating system activation has on your already complex development or test environment. The document begins by providing a high level view into relevant Windows Activation Technologies policies and tools, including the relationship between Windows activation and Windows licensing; then introduces five key principles that should guide your Windows activation planning; and finally concludes with recommendations for activating Windows operating systems under several common development environment scenarios. For brevity, the remainder of the document uses the term development to encompass a variety of non-production environments, including test labs, application compatibility testing, software pilot programs, etc.

…

…”

As we move toward making virtualization (Lab Management, etc) part of our dev/test cycle this topic will be more and more pertinent.

I like how they provide prescriptive guidance/recommendations, that this isn’t just an “About,” but also a “What to do about it” whitepaper

Process Explorer (yes, that Process Explorer) v12 Released

Sysinternals Site Discussion - Updates: Process Explorer v12, VMMap v2.62, DiskView v2.4

“Process Explorer v12: This Process Explorer release includes several significant new features, including the showing the web hosted in IE8 processes in the process tooltip, display of a svchost’s service host category in its tooltip, mapping of service names to threads on the threads tab and TCP/IP tabs of the process properties dialog on Windows Vista and higher (thanks to Windows Internals 5th Ed. coauthor Alex Ionescu), a new.NET assembly information tab in the process properties dialog (thanks to Pete Sheill), as well as other improvements and bug fixes.

…”

Ahhh… An updated Process Explorer is always officially a “Cool Thing”  :)

[Draft/Preview/Excerpt] “Moving to Visual Studio 2010” free ebook – Help, guidance in moving from older versions, as far back as VS2003, to VS2010

Microsoft Downloads - Moving to Visual Studio 2010 e-book

“It's a book that will help professional developers move from previous versions of Visual Studio (starting with 2003 and on up).

File Name:	DRAFT Preview - Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.xps
Version:	Draft
Date Published:	3/24/2010
Language:	English
Download Size:	63.9 MB

The book is not a language primer, a language reference, or a single technology book. It's a book that will help professional developers move from previous versions of Visual Studio (starting with 2003 and on up). It will cover the features of Visual Studio 2010 through an application. It will go through a lot of the exciting new language features and new versions of the most popular technologies without putting the emphasis on the technologies themselves. It will instead put the emphasis on how you would get to those new tools and features from Visual Studio 2010

…”

From the XPS;

 

It’s only a draft, preview, except of the final content, but at 103 pages, still provides some nice information… (and you know there’s still VS2003 users out there… well anyway I know there are… sigh…)

“Demystifying The Cloud – An Introduction to Cloud Computing” free ebook which includes the three popular services, Amazon, Google and Azure

Janakiram MSV - Download The eBook - Demystifying The Cloud

“I wanted to write a technical book for a long time. Though some of the well known publishers approached me, I never mustered enough courage to sign up and commit to them. With a full time job and a busy schedule, I am not sure if I would be able to meet the deadlines and deliver it on time. For the last couple of months, I have been working on authoring my first eBook. This gave me the flexibility of working at my own pace to put together the chapters.

‘Demystifying The Cloud’ has 6 chapters. The first three chapters focus on the core concepts and terminologies while the rest of the chapters introduce the popular Cloud Computing stacks including Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine and Microsoft Windows Azure. This book is meant for developers who want to understand the fundamentals of Cloud Computing.

…”

From the PDF;

 

This guide explains the concepts of Cloud Computing in simple terms. The first three chapters introduce the key concepts and the terminologies of the Cloud. The remaining chapters cover the major implementations of the Cloud Computing including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Windows Azure Platform and Google App Engine. This is targeted towards to the beginners and intermediate developers with a basic understanding of web technologies.

…

…”

Given the introductory nature and scope (i.e. Amazon, Google and Azure) I thought this a nice reference for those who might not yet be “Cloud Conversant” (cough… management… cough… ;)

Remember, you might think “cloud” is almost old news now, but if you’re reading this then it’s possible that you are well ahead of the curve, an early adopter, a bleeding edge kind of geek. Not everyone has this trait. You might very well be years ahead of your peers, co-workers, leadership, etc. So it’s important that we capture resources to help them once they begin to catch up (and since you’ll have already forgotten where you saw this, all you need to remember is to search my blog for “cloud”… and you’ll find it… That’s what I do! lol)

(via msigeek.com - Download Video and Ebook – Overview of Cloud Computing)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Amazon Clouding it - “Architecting for the Cloud: Best Practices” Whitepaper

MIX10? There’s an OData Feed for that…

visitmix.com – API for Session data (api.visitmix.com)

“Not happy browsing our list of sessions on the web, feel like doing some data mining of your own, building an app to show how schedule planning should be done? Well, if any of those statements apply to you, then we have the data you need.

There are two main ways to access the session and speaker data for MIX 2010; via OData, a rich data source exposed using standards compliant formats and with query support, or via the full session RSS feed.

…

…”

ZOMG, that’s awesome. How did I miss this until now? I’ve been asking (well whining) for this for a few years now…

Now PLEASE Microsoft, make this broader, into a compressive “Microsoft Conference” API/OData end point. I’d like one feed for ALL free, past, current and future MS Conference resources. Think of the cool things we, your community, will be able to build with something like that (like Tim Heuer has already done for Mix10)!

In any case, this, and the single page of video links, is a big step forward. Thank you for listening.

(via Method ~ of ~ failed - MIX10: Yet another way to view video content sessions using their OData feed)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
PDC09 Session Video List (Okay, so I lied)
Mix 09 Quick Video Link List
PDC2008 Quick Video Link List (Updated: Now with Keynotes)

Organize your cables the cheap, simple and easy way with something you already have… Binder Clips

Make: - Binder clips as cable organizers

“

Nederlander David Rudolf Bakker adds this particularly ingenious improvisation to the already-impressive repertoire of off-label uses for binder clips …”

That’s clever. So much better than my current pile-o-cables… lol

Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS) v2.4 Released

Born to Learn - FREE: Build Your Own e-learning Tool

“I LOVE this tool; in fact, I would say 'LCDS is free BUT it is also a very cool and professional tool'. That may not be true for every free download that the internet throws at you, have a look and see if you agree.

LCDS - The Microsoft Learning Content Development System - is a must have for any trainer, educator, training company in the Microsoft Learning community that wishes to create high-quality and interactive, online courses. …

…”

Microsoft Learning – LCDS

“The Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia.

In addition to English, the LCDS is available in seven languages.

Create
Set up your course structure, select a template for each topic, and author your content. Upload your images, demos, videos, and audio. Add links, attach files, and more.

Preview
Experience your course from the learner’s perspective at any time. Use the Preview feature to view, verify, and interact with the full course as it is at that moment.

Refine
Make your desired changes and save your work.

Delight
Publish your course and distribute it to your audience via the Web or a learning management system.

…

What's new in LCDS version 2.4?

• E-learning created is Firefox 3.5–compatible
• LCDS authoring is Windows 7–compatible
• LCDS authoring and e-learning created are Microsoft Silverlight 3.0–compatible
• Indexing, spell check, and print are compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2010
• Refreshed thumbnail user interface is available, including for the single SCO package option on the Create menu
• Community authors get packaging options (SCORM 1.2 and single SCO options) for the first time
• Minimum topic limit is now 1 instead of 4
• Additional language added for the viewer: Kazakh

…

…”

I like capturing training, making it repeatable and async. I also like it when the tools are free… :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Microsoft Semblio – A set of tools for educators to create rich interactive content/training, with extensibility via SDK, .Net and WPF (SDK free available today, rest coming soon)

[Funny Fail] – The Male Brain is ?

Ayende @ Rahien - What Amazon considers Fantasy

This made me laugh…

82 Top Free/Open Source Windows Applications, two clicks away via ZeuApp, a portable downloader and installer

addictivetips - 82 Essential Opensource Windows Utilities Under One Hood

“There may be several applications that you as a regular user may be very used to. Most of the commonly used free tools require tedious installation, visiting websites and finding the right versions, and certain back and forth thoughts that render this task a cumbersome one for any individual.

One-click solutions for anything have always been the mainstream demand. Such a similar service is offered by ZeuApp, a portable tool that makes downloading and installing commonly used opensource freewares.

…

…”

Zeusoft – ZeuAPP

“

Pick software that you want, start download and install it.

One click download the application you want to install, ZeuAPP in its list contains 82 applications.All applications are free and open source, and you are free to download them.

ZeuAPP has 10 categories:
1.Archivers
2.Audio
3.Video
4.Chat-IM
5.Internet
6.CD Burners
7.P2P-File sharing
8.Games
9.Graphic
10.Secutity
11.Utility

…”

This is a pretty cool utility. It makes a number of application drop dead easy to find, download, and install. And I like portable the app itself is.

Added to my utility belt…

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Another portable application suite and launcher, NirLauncher (Beta) - 100+ NirSoft utilities + easy Sysinternals integration too
40 Desert Island (aka Portable) Web Dev Tools
LiberKey – 264, and counting, portable applications for your thumb drive are just a download away
PortableApps.com Platform v1.5 Released (with v2 coming in a few weeks) – Your App world is just a thumbdrive away…
Your Application Suite To Go - Portable App Suite v1.1 Released
PortableApps Suite
The Portable Freeware Collection

Free online training events from AppDev (reg-ware) - ASP.Net MVC2, VS2010 ALM, SharePoint, EF4 Intro & SilverLight binding

ISV Developer Community - FREE AppDev eLearning Events - Coming Soon

“There’s some great FREE training events coming up from AppDev. They are worth checking out if the topics are of interest.

"What's New in ASP.NET MVC 2: MVC Matures" with Don Kiely
Wednesday, March 24th from 1pm - 2:30 pm CST (Free) …

"Exploring Visual Studio 2010 ALM Tools" with Chris Menegay
Wednesday, April 7th from 11am - 12:30 pm CST (Free) …

"Content Management in SharePoint Server 2010" with Doug Ware
Wednesday, April 21st from 11am - 12:30 pm CST (Free) …

"Introduction to the Entity Framework 4.0" with Robert Green
Wednesday, May 5th from 11am - 12:30 pm CST (Free)  …

"Introduction to Binding in Silverlight" with Ken Getz
Wednesday, May 19th from 11am - 12:30 pm CST (Free)  …

…

…”

Free training can be good, to the pocket book at the very least, training…

A near perfect Man-Cave Couch?

unclutterer - Organize with the backpack couch

Awesome.

But I think the SAF (aka WAK, aka Spouse/Wife Acceptance Factor) is going to be pretty low… So perfect for a Man-Cave! MUAHAHA… :)

Humor – Now there’s a License plate (Take that, License plate cameras!)

Canadian Developer Connection - SQL Injection and the “Flintstones/Jetsons” Way to Deal with Licence Plate Cameras

“

“Flintstones/Jetsons” is a term that Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo uses to describe technology solutions that are a combination of low- and high-tech. It’s probably an apt term for what the driver of the Renault in the photo above is doing to foil licence plate cameras. If the “Jetsons” part – the SQL injection attack comprising the text on the banner on the bumper – doesn’t work, the “Flintstones” approach of physically covering up the licence plate will.

…”

That picture made me “snort laugh”… I hate when that happens. :p

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Humor: Little Bobby Tables...

A Feed You Should Read #26 – GeeksWithBlogs.net

Today’s Feed is another for the mostly hard core. It’s a blog host site, aggregating hundreds of bloggers into a single feed.

The title of the site says it all…

GeeksWithBlogs.net

Background:

By my rough count, there’s 453 bloggers here, some more active than others. As you can see in the tag cloud above, the topics covered by these geeks with blogs are mostly in the Microsoft space, yet the breadth of that coverage is broad, to as the least.

You know me, I pretty much live in the Microsoft space. Which while that space is not galaxy sized, it fills a spiral arm or two. (Sorry, been reading allot of hard science fiction/space opera recently ;)

Trying to keep up is ever a challenge. This site, without any direct affiliation, association, etc, with Microsoft, written by geeks for geeks provides a great pulse check, meme monitor and trend view. The broad number of bloggers and topics mean you see allot in this one feed.

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

A Geek?

Interested in Microsoft space/tech?

Want to keep an eye on hardware & software, from .Net to the Zune and everything between?

Like reading posts from “normal” people (i.e. not under the thumb of “The Man”)?

Okay with scanning 50’ish posts a day?

Then this might be a feed for you…

Snap of the latest posts:

Blog Information:

Name:	Geeks With Blogs.Net
URL:	http://geekswithblogs.net/Default.aspx
Feed:	http://feeds.feedburner.com/geekswithblogs
Post Types:	Blog hosting for “geeks”, mostly covering development with Microsoft technologies

Related Past Post XRef:
A Feed You Should Read TOC

The Genesis Project. No, not that one (but kind of close)... The GenesisEngine Project, virtual landscape/world builder (alpha, with source)

Eric Lee - The GenesisEngine Project

“I’ve been working on a personal project off and on for awhile now.  It’s called GenesisEngine and it’s a program that generates and renders a procedurally-generated planet.  I can take in the view down at ground level with the terrain generated at ~1-meter precision, or I can zoom all the way out into high orbit and see the entire planet at once.  This requires relatively little memory and no storage because the whole landscape is generated on demand via fractal algorithms.

Now that I’ve got it to a decent alpha state where it renders mildly interesting terrain I decided to throw it up on GitHub for public amusement.  I don’t have any grand plans for this project; it’s just a little laboratory where I can experiment with new code design ideas or new tools, and in the process maybe build something that looks cool and teaches me more about graphics and other stuff that I’m interested in.  It’s already been a useful experience for me because I’ve taken several concepts that I read about, tried them out in GenesisEngine, and incorporated them into my code bases at work.

…

…”

github – GenesisEngine

“…

License

Licensed under the Ms-PL.

What is it?

GenesisEngine allows you to create and explore procedurally-generated planetary systems, from ground level all the way out into space. At the moment there's no larger purpose other than to wander around in a virtual world. It's written in C# with the XNA framework.

Mostly, this is a personal project that I'm using to experiment with new software development techniques and maybe learn something about procedural terrain generation and rendering along the way. This project is NOT intended to be some kind of best-practices reference for, well, anything. Some stuff is well-written and some stuff is terrible. Over time I hope to improve the terrible stuff and add more good stuff. I'd be happy to receive constructive feedback.

If you're looking to learn something about procedurally-generated terrain or rendering techniques, don't start here. Really. I don't have any original ideas - I'm just borrowing everything I know from people much smarter than me and re-implementing it badly.

This project is also not a good reference for high-performance game engines. I'm explicitly choosing to favor clarity of code design over high performance when those two principles are in conflict. My computer is reasonably fast and hardware is cheap - so there!

I'm going to blog occasionally about the journey so feel free to follow along.

Can I build and run it?

Please do! The GenesisEngine project is a Visual Studio 2008 solution with dependencies on StructureMap, Machine.Specifications, and Rhino Mocks (all included) and Microsoft's XNA Framework (not included). Right now the project is Windows-only and won't run on the Xbox or Zune. If you run into any problems, let me know.

…

…”

Nothing like a little fun world building to brighten up a weekend… ;)

VS2010 RC, TFS2010 RC Virtual Machines are here…

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 and Team Foundation Server® 2010 Release Candidate for Microsoft® Virtual PC 2007 SP1 Image

“Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate simplifies solution development, lowering risk and increasing return. The virtual machine image in this download contains both Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate and Team Foundation Server 2010 Release Candidate and the requisite trial software. Designed to be run from Microsoft® Virtual PC 2007 SP1. [GD: Emphasis added]

…

his virtual machine is pre-configured with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. It is designed to provide an easy way to evaluate and learn the Visual Studio 2010 family of technologies. A set of hands-on-labs / demo scripts are also available and provided a guided experience through many of the new application lifecycle management capabilities of Visual Studio 2010. For more information on this release, along with instructions on how to use a download manager for more efficiently downloading the files required to use this virtual machine, please click here. This post also contains links to download this virtual machine for the virtualization platform of your choice (Hyper-V, Virtual PC 2007, or Windows Virtual PC). For more information on Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 visit http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/products/2010/default.mspx. This virtual machine does not have anti-virus software installed. It should not be connected to any network until it has anti-virus software installed. In addition, the operating system and programs installed were patched with all updates as of March 18, 2010. This virtual machine will stop working on June 30, 2010, when the Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate expires. [GD: Emphasis added]

…”

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 and Team Foundation Server® 2010 Release Candidate for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

“…Designed to be run from Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V …”

Microsoft Downloads - Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 and Team Foundation Server® 2010 Release Candidate virtual image for Windows Virtual PC

“… is designed to be run under Windows Virtual PC…”

These are great if you want to play with VS/TFS2010 with no pain, fuss or muss…

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Visual Studio 2010 B2 VM’s - The virtual machines have arrived with Hyper-V, Virtual PC 2007 and Windows Virtual PC flavors

Windows XP Mode to no longer require hardware virtualization [Updated: Now with links to the 32/64 update/patch]

Create cool as ICE panoramas with the updated Image Composite Editor – v1.3.3 includes x32/64 versions, multiple CPU support, Photosynth, gigapixel panoramas and more…

Microsoft Research - Image Composite Editor

“What is Image Composite Editor?

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location, the application creates a high-resolution panorama that seamlessly combines the original images. The stitched panorama can be shared with friends and viewed in 3D by uploading it to the Photosynth web site. Or the panorama can be saved in a wide variety of image formats, from common formats like JPEG and TIFF to the multiresolution tiled format used by Silverlight's Deep Zoom and by the HD View and HD View SL panorama viewers.

…

New features in version 1.3.3

• Accelerated stitching on multiple CPU cores
• Ability to publish, view, and share panoramas on the Photosynth web site
• Support for "structured panoramas" — panoramas consisting of hundreds of photos taken in a rectangular grid of rows and columns (usually by a robotic device like the GigaPan tripod heads)
• No image size limitation — stitch gigapixel panoramas
• Support for input images with 8 or 16 bits per component

Additional features

• State-of-the-art stitching engine
• Automatic exposure blending
• Choice of planar, cylindrical, or spherical projection
• Orientation tool for adjusting panorama rotation
• Automatic cropping to maximum image area
• Native support for 64-bit operating systems
• Wide range of output formats, including JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, HD Photo, and Silverlight Deep Zoom

Support

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is provided free of charge and without official support. …

…

…”

Now where did I put those pictures that I wanted to stitch together…

(via The Road to Know Where - Microsoft Releases Updated Free Panoramic "Image Composite Editor" for Windows 7)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Microsoft Image Composite Editor v1.2 Released – Stitch your way to panorama photo happiness

Windows XP Mode to no longer require hardware virtualization [Updated: Now with links to the 32/64 update/patch]

Windows 7 Team Blog - Windows XP Mode now accessible to more PCs

“We’re announcing an update to Windows XP Mode today that will make it a more accessible to PCs in small and midsize businesses who want to migrate to Windows 7 Professional but have applications that still require Windows XP. Windows XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization technology to run. This change makes it extremely easy for businesses to use Windows XP Mode to address any application incompatibility roadblocks they might have in migrating to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode will of course continue to use hardware virtualization technology such as Intel VT (Intel Virtualization Technology) or AMD-V if available. You can find more information and download the update which will go live later today here.

…”

Good. Forcing hardware virtualization for XP Mode was kind of icky. I mean I understand it, to ensure good performance, etc. The icky really came from how hardware manufactures/chip providers were so inconsistent in implementing hardware virtualization. You’d get “high end/professional” machines that didn’t have it… It felt very hit or miss.

So while I don’t recommend you run virtualization/Windows XP Mode on a a machine without hardware virtualization, it’s good to know you CAN at least…

 

Update #1 3/18/2010 @ 11:10AM PDT:

Here’s the links to the above mentioned update, Update for Windows 7 (KB977206) / Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB977206) “Install this update to remove the prerequisites required to run Windows Virtual PC and XP mode.”

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Windows XP Mode & Windows Virtual PC RTM are now both available on MSDN Subscribers Downloads…

Interested in Silverlight 4? Here’s a free Silverlight 4 Training Course and downloadable materials

Channel 9 - Silverlight Training Course (Silverlight 4)

“The Silverlight 4 Training Course includes a whitepaper explaining all of the new Silverlight 4 RC features, several hands-on-labs that explain the features, and a 8 unit course for building business applications with Silverlight 4. The business applications course includes 8 modules with extensive hands on labs as well as 25 accompanying videos that walk you through key aspects of building a business application with Silverlight. Key aspects in this course are working with numerous sandboxed and elevated out of browser features, the new RichTextBox control, implicit styling, webcam, drag and drop, multi touch, validation, authentication, MEF, WCF RIA Services, right mouse click, and much more!

…

…”

Microsoft Downloads - Silverlight 4 Training

“…

File Name:	Silverlight4.Setup.exe
Version:	1.1
Date Published:	3/15/2010
Language:	English
Download Size:	83.4 MB

…”

SilverLight 4 is looking pretty cool, especially with it’s being a core development platform for WinPhone7.

(via Microsoft Certifications - Free Developer Training on Silverlight!)

Free eBook on pricing software from the co-CEO/founder of Red Gate - “Don’t Just Roll the Dice”

Neil Davidson - Don't just roll the dice

“How do you price your software? Is it art, science or magic? This usefully short book will help you get the theory, practical advice and case studies you need to stop you reaching for the dice

…

…”

How do you price software? Determine it’s value and put a price tag on it? Many/most software developers would be hard pressed to answer that (I know I can’t… that’s one reason all my personal projects are “free”… lol)

Well here’s a free resource that might help all of us with this challenge…

(via Ayende @ Rahien - Software pricing - Don’t Just Roll the Dice)

100 Cars remote bricked by disgruntled former dealership employee

Wired – Threat Level - Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

“More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.
…

…”

Sounds like a movie plot element. Can you just see it in a movie, where all the electronic/remote disable’able cars in the US are hit all at once? Only a matter of time (until we see it in a movie, TV show, etc).

Azure Worker Role and Web Role Class Templates (C# & VB) courtesy of Jason Haley

Jason Haley - VS 2008 CloudServiceItems.vsi

“Tonight I threw together a vsi to add WorkerRole and WebRole class templates for C# and VB.  These are classes that are handy to have when you are moving a web project or dll to a cloud service.

Just download the vsi: CloudServiceItems.vsi [GD: Click through for the download link], then install it.  The items are not signed so you will get a warning message.  Feel free to just extract the vsi (its just a zip file renamed) and check out the contents if you want, but there isn’t much there to look at.

…

…

…”

It’s the little things in a developer’s life that add up to big things. Kudo’s to Jason for doing and sharing this…

Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office Released – Automate Office documents without Office

Erika Ehrli - Open XML SDK 2.0 RTM is live! Find Articles, Videos, Code Samples, and Resources on MSDN

“…

What is the Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office?

The Open XML Format SDK 2.0  is a superset of the Open XML SDK 1.0. In addition to the functionality provided by the Open XML SDK 1.0, it leverages.NET Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) and provides classes to construct and query the contents of parts within a package. You can use functional construction for composing documents, and LINQ queries for extracting information from documents.

The SDK is a collection of classes that let developers create and manipulate Open XML documents – documents that adhere to the Office Open XML File Formats Standard. Because the SDK provides an application program interface that lets developers manipulate Open XML documents directly, they can do so without the need for the Office client products themselves in both client and server operating environments.

Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office offers a number of tools and resources to improve programmatic document processing thus making a task of the developer more efficient. The SDK also carries an interoperability improvements for open XML implementers as well as it is  designed to let Open XML developers build high performance client-side or server-side solutions that handle complex operations using only a small amount of program code.

…

…”

OpenXML.org - Introducing the Open XML SDK 2.0

“To celebrate the RTM release of the Open XML SDK 2.0 we’re launching a bunch of new content here at Open XML Developer. This article provides our brief history of the Open XML SDK 2.0 and provides useful links to content here at Open XML Developer.

…

In this article we will look briefly at the various approaches for working with Office documents and their pros and cons. We will then dive deep into the Open XML SDK 2.0 and see key features designed to help developers be more productive in working with these open, interoperable standards.

…

…”

OpenXML.org - Open XML Developer Workshop updated with Open XML SDK 2.0 content and new Hands-on-Lab

“During the first half of 2007, trainers from Microsoft, Sonata, InfoSupport, Allette, Predeek Consulting and others delivered Open XML developer workshops in over 30 countries.  These workshops were all structured around a set of inter-related presentations and hands-on labs that cover typical Open XML development scenarios.

Those presentations and hands-on labs (as well as all supporting content, such as demo files) are now available for free download from OpenXMLDeveloper.org at the links below.

These files have been updated for the Open XML SDK 2.0.

…

…”

Microsoft Downloads - Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office

“This download provides strongly typed part and content classes for use with Open XML documents.

Version:	Mar10
Date Published:	3/12/2010
Language:	English
Download Size:	3.8 MB - 110.2 MB*

Open XML is an open ECMA 376 standard and is also approved as the ISO/IEC 29500 standard that defines a set of XML schemas for representing spreadsheets, charts, presentations, and word processing documents. Microsoft Office Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 all use Open XML as the default file format.

The Open XML file formats are useful for developers because they use an open standard and are based on well-known technologies: ZIP and XML.

The Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office is built on top of the System.IO.Packaging API and provides strongly typed part classes to manipulate Open XML documents. The SDK also uses the .NET Framework Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) technology to provide strongly typed object access to the XML content inside the parts of Open XML documents.

The Open XML SDK 2.0 simplifies the task of manipulating Open XML packages and the underlying Open XML schema elements within a package. The Open XML Application Programming Interface (API) encapsulates many common tasks that developers perform on Open XML packages, so you can perform complex operations with just a few lines of code.

The tools package contains the Open XML SDK v2.0 Productivity Tool for Office and the documentation for the Open XML SDK v2. The Open XML SDK 2.0 Productivity Tool for Microsoft Office provides a number of features designed to improve your productivity and accelerate your learning while working with the SDK and Open XML files. Features include the ability to generate Open XML SDK 2.0 source code based on document content, compare source and target Open XML documents to reveal differences and to generate source code to create the target from the source, validate documents, and display documentation for the Open XML SDK v2.0, the ECMA376v1 standard, and the Microsoft Office implementation notes.

…”

Who (in business/enterprise) doesn’t want to create, product, automate or consume Office documents without having Office installed?

I’ve used the OpenXML SDK v1 on a project and found it a little harder than I expected. It just took me a bit to mesh my old knowledge of the Office Object Model and API with OpenXML.

This version of the SDK seems nice step forward it making OpenXML easier to learn, use and consume.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Open XML Format SDK 2.0 Code Snippets for Visual Studio 2008 – 52 C#/VB Code Snippets to help ease your Open XML coding
Open XML File Format Code Snippets for Visual Studio 2005 (Office 2007 NOT required)

Where to go to scratch your OpenXML dev info itch…
"Open XML Explained" Free eBook (PDF)

Open XML SDK v1 Released

OpenXML Viewer 1.0 Released – Open source DocX to HTML conversion, with IE, Firefox and Opera (and/or command line) support
Powering into OpenXML with PowerShell

Why, oh why do we have to upgrade out Solutions/Projects for VS2010? It’s the references…

The Visual Studio Blog - Why does Visual Studio 2010 convert my projects?

“… One such feature is the conversion process. We have recently received many requests for making the conversion process optional; i.e. supporting the ability to open old Visual Studio version projects in a newer Visual Studio version without the need to convert. We call this round-tripping. This blog post is an attempt to capture the questions that have been asked and our answers to them.

What is round-tripping?

Round-tripping is the ability to use a current or previous version of Visual Studio to target a platform that is supported by both versions of VS. For example, with round-tripping, you can open projects from a previous version of VS in a newer IDE without the need for conversion, thus allowing you to work side-by-side on old and upgraded projects.

Why is round-tripping not supported in VS2010?

…

I don’t see a lot of difference between my project files. I can hand-edit it back to work with VS2008. Why can’t VS do this for me?

The solution and project files may not have changed significantly but the files that they reference have changed. For instance, if you have designer files in your project, even if you hand-edit the project and solution files to work with an older VS, the designer files will not work. …

…”

Given all the news this week, I wanted to make sure I didn’t loose this. This will come to the fore in next month with the RTM of VS2010. I know I’ll get asked about this, so…

We’ve played this game with VS2008’s release and in the end I found it a minor and short term pain. To mitigate it, pick a VS2010 upgrade day and have everyone install it, including on all the build machines and then upgrade your Projects/Solutions. You DON’T have to migrate your Projects to .Net 4. VS Multi-targeting works great. Leave your projects on .Net 2/3/3.5. JUST upgrade your Solutions/Projects to VS2010. In a few hours (or less) you should be in VS2010 bliss…

“The F# Survival Guide” – “… the first book you read in your F# journey…”

cto corner - The F# Survival Guide

“Welcome to the F# Survival Guide by John Puopolo with Sandy Squires. We wrote this book to introduce mainstream developers to the world of functional programming through the lens of F#, Microsoft's first fully-supported multi-paradigm language.

In the spirit of a survival guide, this book covers all of the essential elements of functional programming and the F# language. In this regard, the book is concept and keyword complete, covering the entirety of the core F# language and its pragmatic use.

…

Chapter Links

Ch 0. Introduction
Ch 1. What is Functional Programming?
Ch 2. Hello, F#!
Ch 3. Numeric Types & Operations
Ch 4. Chars & Strings
Ch 5. Booleans & Conditionals
Ch 6. Imperative Loops
Ch 7. Tuples & Arrays
Ch 8. Functions & Functional Concepts
Ch 9. Generic Functions
Ch 10. Lists & Sequences
Ch 11. Aggregate Types
Ch 12. Pattern Matching
Ch 13. Object-Oriented Programming I
Ch 14. Object-Oriented Programming II
Ch 15. Exceptions & Debugging
Ch 16. Workflows & Async Programming
Ch 17. Packaging & Interfacing with .NET

…

…”

The F# Survival Guide - Chapter 0 Introduction

“Introduction

Welcome to The F# Survival Guide. The purpose of this Web book is to provide a solid foundation and pragmatic introduction to F# programming and its functional underpinnings.

I wrote this book with the intent that it is the first book you read in your F# journey. Along these lines, this book covers the entirety of the core F# language, as available November 2009. It covers all of the documented (and some of the less documented) concepts, keywords, constructs, types, and language symbols. In addition, I have tried to provide short examples that capture the essence of the topic at hand, while at the same time discussing real-world impacts. My hope is that after reading this book, you will be able to develop non-trivial applications using F#, and will be able to readily extend your learning via additional resources.

…

…”

This looks like some great F# material. The book “got me” by the second paragraph… :)

(via Mark Pearl - Great F# getting started online book)

PS for your VS – PowerConsole a PowerShell console for VS 2010

Development in a Blink - PowerConsole – PowerShell Integrated with Visual Studio 2010

“…

• PowerConsole brings the Visual Studio automation object DTE to your finger tips
  • Use PowerShell and the Visual Studio automation system to explore DTE interactively
  • Write simple scripts to automate everyday tasks in Visual Studio
• Directly access Visual Studio services with Get-VSService and Get-Interface
• Interact with Visual Studio MEF with Get-VSComponentModel
• PowerConsole Requires VS 2010 RC.

PowerConsole extensions also exist for IronPython and IronRuby.

…”

Visual Studio Gallery – PowerConsole

“…

 

This extension provides an extensible VS command window with default PowerShell integration. You can now script Visual Studio interactively in PowerShell, and enjoy familiar VS style syntax coloring and tab-completion.

Prerequisite: Visual Studio 2010 RC (or above) + Windows PowerShell v2 (or above). After installation, open the new tool window from View->Other Windows->Power Console.

PowerShell Integration

PowerConsole brings rich PowerShell functionalities into VS. You can access the file system, the registry, and many other PowerShell providers without ever leaving VS. You can also run PowerShell commandlets or launch external programs.

…

…”

Nice! As I push to learn and use PowerShell, I want to use it everywhere. Since I live in VS (and will live in VS2010 even more, if that’s possible ;) having PowerShell there just seems so right… :)