Entries for CplCarrot

Windows in a browser [Windows in a browser]

CplCarrot — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:03:54 GMT

With all the talk of new OSes etc I came across this rendering of Windows in Silverlight. http://windows4all.com/

Just goes to show what can be done and I wonder if this is the way we all end up heading?

Where have all the old videos gone? [Where have all the old videos gone?]

CplCarrot — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:48:19 GMT

In an attempt to start feeding some good practices into my employer I was looking for some of the old Channel 9 Videos, in particular the corridor walks.

When I have found interesting items I just get a file not found type of message half hidden off the screen.

Eg. http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/TheChannel9Team/Neil-Enns-Can-you-give-us-a-demo-of-the-SmartPhone/

Is there a secret store somewhere that I need a cheat code to access or have these been lost to the great upgrade god in the sky?

in reply to Where have all the old videos gone?

New wireless router - any ideas? [New wireless router - any ideas?]

CplCarrot — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:50:25 GMT

My Netgear DG834g R1 wireless ADSL router has started to throw machines off its wireless network. This seems to be mostly Windows 7 machines (which I have most of) but also hits Vista machines.

In the absence of any diagnostics I am building a business case for my bosses (Wife and work) to buy a new one.

My eye has been drawn to the Belkin N+ Does anyone have any views on this or any other solution?

My requirements are:

Must have:

ADSL Router built in. (I have more than enough wires as it is)
Wireless - Range over speed. 97% of the traffic on my network is to the internet where I get 2Mbs max but I need to have access some 20m (60 ft) away

Nice to have

NAS connection - Seems you can plug a USB hard drive to the Belkin and it acts as a NAS device but a slow one.
Guest Access - Allowing temp users to access the internet but not the network
Firewall

What sort of solution do you all run in support of all those sexy desktops that are posted?

Many thanks

in reply to New wireless router - any ideas?

Bill Hill is he staying or going? [Bill Hill is he staying or going?]

CplCarrot — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:54:13 GMT

In my feed reader today was a post from Bill Hill's blog saying he was leaving Microsoft but on his site the post has gone. It would be a shame if MIcrosoft have lost him.

From the post I have
<Snip>
For some time, I have been preparing by setting up my network and communications. You’ll find me on FaceBook and LinkedIn, as well as on my website and this blog.

As you all know, I’m a Man With A Mission. I have no intention of becoming a beach bum. I always said that I would probably go back to writing, which I did professionally for almost as long as I worked in the software industry...

in reply to Bill Hill is he staying or going?

Channel 9 Guy's brother found on Brighton beach [Channel 9 Guy's brother found on Brighton beach]

CplCarrot — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:43:54 GMT

Rumour has it he was so dispondant at not being able to go to PDC he partook of too much Dutch courage and fell into the sea.

After a strong black coffee he was revived.

Source

Edit for correct second pic and source

in reply to Channel 9 Guy's brother found on Brighton beach

Microsoft Surface as described in 1984 [Microsoft Surface as described in 1984]

CplCarrot — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:18:08 GMT

I have just picked up this TED talk where Nicholas Negroponte describes the foundation of a system that has remarkable similarities to Microsoft Surface.

It makes me contemplate how far some aspects of computing have come, BUT, how resistant to change we are in our interaction with computers we have become. This was also highlighted by watching Jenson Harris' talk at Mix on the story of the Ribbon

I wonder if in the era of the "big" players in applications we are in danger of losing the Darwinian approach to get to a better solution?

in reply to Microsoft Surface as described in 1984

A truly great day [A truly great day]

CplCarrot — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:25:45 GMT

Ok I know that very few people will either get, or agree with this post, but today was a monster day:

Ireland 12-16 Wales – Wales win the Triple Crown

Scotland 15-9 England – Scotland win the Calcutta Cup – BEATING England

Days don’t get better than this!

For those who have no Idea about what I am talking about – It’s the Rugby 6 Nations championships

O Flower of Scotland,
When will we see,
Your like again,
That fought and died for,
Your wee bit Hill and Glen,
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

Ok It wasn’t pretty, actually more trench warfare but when it comes down to slogging in the mud its the heart that wins it!

Lets hope Rory Lamont, who was knocked out by a flying knee, is Ok.

It is a seriously hard game!

Now time to drive behind the Welsh next week for the grand slam. Oh I wish I could say "I was there" if it happens.

in reply to A truly great day

what happened to the Erik Meijer video [what happened to the Erik Meijer video]

CplCarrot — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:39:10 GMT

It was on the front page and I started watching. I then miss clicked and moved on but when I came back it was gone. It is still there but at this url:
Telegraph on how all these social networking sites can be addicted. Seems Mr Scoble has been hooked. I particularly like these 2 quotes:

Facebook's administrators have access to a database about who knows who, how they know them, their sexual behaviour, favourite movies and what time they are chill: a database of which the Stasi or the Mukhabarat could only have dreamed.

Sooner or later, privacy be damned, the damage Facebook causes to the British economy in lost productivity may have to be offset by the sale of its data to marketing companies.

I did get pulled into LinkedIn but I have too many other addictions and this one did not get a look in against the competition

in reply to Facebook - a thoroughly modern addiction

What killed Outlook 2007? [What killed Outlook 2007?]

CplCarrot — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:31:01 GMT

I have been running Office 07 since Beta 2 with no problems except with Outlook which had a habbit of locking up on load.

I have now done the Refresh and Outlook is taking over 2 mins to load. Way too long in my opinion.

Does anyone have any insight into this?

I am running a dual proc Dell with 2Gb Ram. XP Pro and the current Windows Desktop search. When in the office I connect to exchange but at home just my POP account!.

Charlie

in reply to What killed Outlook 2007?

Biz Sharp [Biz Sharp]

CplCarrot — Thu, 25 May 2006 20:20:20 GMT

I have heard talk of this and even seen some early Powerpoint training ideas but my Google Foo has let me down and I cant seem to find any concrete evidence of this Microsoft Project.
The only thing I have found is:

Understand Microsoft's Business Score Manager offering today and what tomorrow's Biz# (Biz Sharp)promises in providing customer's common design interfaces and management tools for building out and deploying comprehensive, proactive, and interactive score card solutions. As well come hear about Biz# and our direction in finanacial planning and budgeting.

(From an invitation to a closed MS Briefing in Salt Lake City)

Has anyone else heard of the project or where I can find out more?

Charlie

in reply to Biz Sharp

MS Research PHLAT [MS Research PHLAT]

CplCarrot — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 22:56:02 GMT

Straight from the Scobleizer (as edited by bubba murarka)
Microsoft Research PHLAT.
This is from the same people who gave us MSN Desktop search and is a new front end to the same engine.
This interface allows you to, amongst other things, Tag resulting files. this in conjuction with one click filtering by date, path, people and type means that being presented with a short list of files and a "more.." link should be heading for history.
My classic example is the tube map. I have downloaded the PDF tube map for reference. If I do a clasic MSN search then I get every email and file that contains the words Tube Map, which tends to include every email setting up a meeting in London. I can now tag the actual PDF as "Useful Info" and get to it with one click.
The UI still has a prototype feel to it as expected but it is a good indication of where desktop search can go.
Also it minimizes to the task tray so you can reclaim your task bar.

in reply to MS Research PHLAT

New MVP [New MVP]

CplCarrot — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 20:35:54 GMT

Now it may not be hip to praise the awarding of MVP status but I want to announce that a good friend of mine Buddhike de Silva has been awarded MVP status.

A well deserved award for someone who has more Windows knowledge in his little finger than I could ever aspire to.

Well done and congratulations.

Charlie

in reply to New MVP

Disable Ctrl Keys [Disable Ctrl Keys]

CplCarrot — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 21:56:25 GMT

My mother (God Bless her) is determined to use her computer. The problem is that she is equally convinced that she is a typist. The problem is that her left little finger is not as strong as it used to be and does not have the reach it once had. The result is that she keeps pressing the left Ctrl key instead of the shift key. This leads to her activating loads of short cut keystrokes especially Ctrl + A and then leads to loads of support calls to me along the lines of “This ****** computer has just lost everything I typed.” Or “why do I get all these red lines everywhere” (turning on track changes).

Does anyone know a hack or tool that I can use to disable her Ctrl keys and save me trying to convince her that there is not a bug, virus or fault in her system?
Thanks
Charlie

in reply to Disable Ctrl Keys

A funny thing happened tome on the way back to the office [A funny thing happened tome on the way back to the office]

CplCarrot — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:41:25 GMT

Some one blew up a train.
My Company offices are here

I was visiting a client this morning in East London and I was marvelling at the diversity and openness of Islamic cultures on display. I got on the Docklands Railway and then the tube heading back to the office. I had just got off the Northern Line train at Warren Street and was waiting for a slot on the escalator – I am a lazy sod and did not want to walk up. Suddenly people started running up the tunnels and the tannoy started announcing the pre-recorded evacuation messages. What seemed like 5 mins of mass crowd pushing but was probably a couple of mins tops I was deposited on the pavement. It was not until I got to the office that I realised it was a “real” one and not just some prat leaving their briefcase on the platform.

Oh well – Back to the office in the morning. I wonder which lines will be left running – its getting harder and harder to keep track and I could do without a long walk to work as well as back from it.

Still at least our cricket team can be relied on to maintain normality by totally collapsing.

in reply to A funny thing happened tome on the way back to the office

Adventure Works 2005 [Adventure Works 2005]

CplCarrot — Tue, 31 May 2005 14:45:20 GMT

HELP

I am trying to get some samples running on SQL 2005 but try as I might I cant get the Adventure Works and Adventure Works DW sample databases to populate. They install fine but no data is populated from the CSV files to the tables.
Am I missing a vital step or can anyone point me to a script to populate these?

Thanks

Charlie

in reply to Adventure Works 2005

MSDN Content Centre [MSDN Content Centre]

CplCarrot — Fri, 20 May 2005 20:33:53 GMT

I dont know if this is a UK only trial or generally open as I have not seen any reference to it anywhere else but today I got an E Mail from MSDN which pointed me to the MSDN Content Centre.

This is a really usefull aggrigator for MSDN content based on your specified interests. It also has a more granular RSS feeds based on those interests which should please Mr Scoble ;)

I have already found content that I would not have otherwise found.

Charlie
PS I hope the link works. Having signed in I am being redirected so I hope it works for you.

in reply to MSDN Content Centre

RSS feeds and attachments [RSS feeds and attachments]

CplCarrot — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 19:56:13 GMT

I am hoping someone can enlighten me about the random behavior my RSS reader (Newsgator) is showing.

Sometimes the videos get downloaded as attachments to the video posting and sometimes not. For instance the SOA video was downloaded not once but twice but the Indego was not. Can anyone understand the RSS XML and enlighten me on any differences that could cause this.

Cheers

Charlie

in reply to RSS feeds and attachments

Reporting Services SP 2 Release [Reporting Services SP 2 Release]

CplCarrot — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 15:22:29 GMT

I am trying to find out when this will ship.
It was in Beta but the beta is now closed. In a webcast Geoff Snowman "MSDN Developer Community Champion " stated that it was due out in a few weeks. That was back on 10th Jan 2005.
3 months later and all has gone quiet. Has anyone heard if or when it is going to ship or does anyone have the ear of someone who does know?

Charlie

in reply to Reporting Services SP 2 Release

Thanks for getting me the job [Thanks for getting me the job]

CplCarrot — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 21:11:15 GMT

The celebrations are on.

I just got a job offer for a brilliant position doing Business Intelligence (insert oxymoron quote here) systems for a major MS Great Plains supplier and other systems. It is the sort of job that if I had to write my ideal job description this would be it.

I want to thank the Channel 9 Team for their part in me getting it. If it was not for their work and the work of the other members here I may not have had the breadth of exposure to the MS technologies that I have had and maybe I would not have got the job.

Dropping the Channel 9 name and the name of some of the bloggers here certainly did my cause no harm.

Charlie

PS Shameless plug for my new employer www.touchstone.co.uk

in reply to Thanks for getting me the job

Find the bad language [Find the bad language]

CplCarrot — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:25:00 GMT

The MSN Spaces seems to have been updated and has kicked in the strongest bad language checker known to man.
I just tried the following post...

At last! They have chicken pox.

Not too bad yet for the first day but they are very disappointed to be missing all the fun things the school was planning for Red Nose day.

They are also going to miss swimming on Saturday but we have not mentioned that yet.
and it was rejected for prohibited language.

Can anyone help find the offensive words?

Charlie

in reply to Find the bad language

IE Online Bank Issue [IE Online Bank Issue]

CplCarrot — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:21:23 GMT

Ok I know the IE issue has been done to death and the other posts have fallen into the "my browser is better than yours mire" but our old "friends" at Slashdot have picked up on this. http://isc.incidents.org/diary.php?date=2004-06-29

Some smart **** has picked up on a couple of vunerabilities and produced an exploit that listens for connections to named online banks (mine included) and then captures data before it is sent by HTTPS.

Just in case your Granny's computer needs a bit of patching this may be the incentive that gets them to do it.

Charlie

in reply to IE Online Bank Issue

OT - A Forum member needs your help - Email [OT - A Forum member needs your help - Email]

CplCarrot — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:35:15 GMT

Sorry if this is too off topic but I reconed you would feel my pain.

We are having major problems with our email at the moment and I would like to ask the help of the members here to track it down.
It appears that some of our mail arrives and some just disappears into a black hole. It seems to be related to the ISP of the sender but I cant gather enough data to prove it yet.

Can you send me an email at