Entries for jmacdonagh

Apple thinking ahead for Vista? [Apple thinking ahead for Vista?]

jmacdonagh — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:28:51 GMT

This came up when I opened up iTunes today after disabled my CD-ROM's Autorun.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c169/jmacdonagh/UAC.jpg

Notice the LUA icon next to the Yes button.

in reply to Apple thinking ahead for Vista?

iTunes updated to look more like... WMP? [iTunes updated to look more like... WMP?]

jmacdonagh — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:29:46 GMT

Just downloaded iTunes 7.

I love the ability to have this new view:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c169/jmacdonagh/iWMP11.jpg

in reply to iTunes updated to look more like... WMP?

Contacts, calendar, and e-mail - why can't they be connected? [Contacts, calendar, and e-mail - why can't they be connected?]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 19:47:11 GMT

So I've just installed RC1 of Vista and I'm at a crossroads. Where do I keep my personal information? I have the option of keeping it in Outlook (2007), Windows, or Windows Live Mail. They're all Microsoft products, but none of them work together.

1. Contacts. Outlook has it's address book, Vista has it's Contacts folder which holds VCards, and Windows Live Mail has it's own area for contacts. Messenger integrates with Windows Live Mail's contact set.

2. Calendar. Outlook has it's own one, Windows Calendar allows me to create them, and Windows Live Mail has it's own calendar (which you can't sync anymore... yay).

3. E-mail. Luckily I can use IMAP for most of my e-mail accounts. Except Windows Live Mail. I can either hit the website or I can do it in outlook. Windows Mail does not support HTTP e-mail accounts.

Anyway, here's my rant. I'm using 3 Microsoft products / technologies. Why aren't they helping me keep everything in sync?

in reply to Contacts, calendar, and e-mail - why can't they be connected?

www.icalx.com and Vista's Windows Calendar [www.icalx.com and Vista's Windows Calendar]

jmacdonagh — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:00:44 GMT

Has anyone been able to publish Windows Calendar iCal files to www.icalx.com? I can publish them using Sunbird and I can subscribe to them in Windows Calendar. When I try to publish I get "Network path not found". Does Windows Calendar support HTTP authentication for publishing calendars?

in reply to www.icalx.com and Vista's Windows Calendar

Media Center + Dish Network + Extender [Media Center + Dish Network + Extender]

jmacdonagh — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 19:43:29 GMT

I'm wondering about the ability to change channels while using a Media Center Extender (my XBox 360 in this case), when the actual Media Center / Dish Network STB is in a different room. I know that the STB is connected via Coaxial to my wall, and then my TV is connected to the STB. The TV always has to be on Channel 3, and the STB is the one which changes channel.

The question is, I'm thinking about hooking the STB up to a Media Center PC in a different room and using my 360 as an extender. I'd watch TV basically through my extender. The question is, can the actual Media Center PC actually change the channel? If not, is there a solution to this (fairly common I would assume) problem?

in reply to Media Center + Dish Network + Extender

Buying a student car on a new interest free credit card? [Buying a student car on a new interest free credit card?]

jmacdonagh — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:41:31 GMT

I'm starting my Junior year at college here and after moving off campus into an apartment, I'm realizing that a car would sure speed up the 25 minute walk to campus.

There are a couple used car lots around campus. There's not much in my original price range ($2000-$3000). I was thinking today while I was walking to campus, why don't I increase my price range and put it on a new interest free credit card?

I work for the University doing ITS Help Desk duties, and I can pull in up to $700 or so a month. I've already saved up enough to pay for rent, food, and utilities for the entire school year. Virtually all of my net pay could go to paying off a car.

But bank loans are a pain. Most of the time you have to know the make, model, and year before you apply. By the time you hear back, the car is already gone.

But credit cards are different. You can have a huge available credit, put the entire car on it, and start paying off the minimum montly payments (is it 2% of your balance or 4% now?) Additionally, you are not tied down to certain payment terms. When I go back home for the summer my job which pays QUITE a bit more could pay off the rest of my loan within a few weeks.

So my question is, would it be really stupid to apply for an interest free credit card (hoping for 12 months), putting a cheapo car on it, and paying it off before interest kicks in?

in reply to Buying a student car on a new interest free credit card?

Media Center album view [Media Center album view]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 02:15:17 GMT

I'm having trouble with my dad's Media Center. Usually when he goes into My Music and into the Albums section it shows all his albums in a grid with album art. Recently, however, it has been showing up in a text only list. I've looked through all the settings but I can't seem to find it. It seemed to happen after I installed Windows Media Player 11, but uninstalling that didn't help.

Any suggestions?

in reply to Media Center album view

Vista & Treo 700w [Vista & Treo 700w]

jmacdonagh — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 23:33:41 GMT

I just recieved my 700 and I'm having trouble syncing my Outlook information with Windows Vista.

I was having trouble to even get Vista to recognize it to begin with. I would plug it in, the device installation wizard would open, and then I would get some strange error message. I was going to take a screenshot and post it, but I got past that.

What I ended up doing was disconnecting the device and restarting the computer. Before I reconnected the device I ran Windows Mobile Device Center (which I couldn't find on the start menu unless I searched). I hit Ok on the dialog that came up and connected my device. The device installation wizard pops open and I didn't recieve an error message!

LONG story short, the device is connected. I can browse it through Explorer and sync music to it via Windows Media Player. What I'm not able to do is sync Outlook appointments, contacts, etc...

Now when I connect the device the Windows Mobile Device Center pops up:

When I click on Set up your device I get this message:

I've searched and searched, but I can't seem to find this software. Does anyone know how to get this set up?

in reply to Vista & Treo 700w

Vista + 2GB of RAM = useful [Vista + 2GB of RAM = useful]

jmacdonagh — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 23:01:09 GMT

I've been running the latest build of Vista on my 1.6Ghz Pentium M with 512MB of RAM (actually, I believe my video card was "sharing" 128MB of that). It actually ran pretty good. Start-up was a little slow, and opening Windows Live Mail Desktop took a while, but all in all it was OK for a beta.

Anyway, I just installed 2GB of RAM and now it's flying! Whee!

in reply to Vista + 2GB of RAM = useful

Singularity and assembly references [Singularity and assembly references]

jmacdonagh — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 18:27:13 GMT

I've been reading some of the white papers the Singularity team has published and I'm a little confused as to how reference assemblies are used. From what it seems, any external assembly references are compiled into the original's source and, through a process called "tree shaking", any unused external assembly code is removed. So, if you compiled an application that used a third-party library, you would get a single executable binary with no .dlls in the /bin folder.

If that is the case, then how do you deal with situations where the external libarary is updated? Do we have to recompile the entire application just to use this new external library? Perhaps you cache the MSIL that the application originally came in and do a automatic recompile when updated libraries are found?

EDIT: As a side note, raise your hand if you want more videos on Singularity.

*Raises hand*

in reply to Singularity and assembly references

Vista Freecell's statistics [Vista Freecell's statistics]

jmacdonagh — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:06:21 GMT

Has anyone else noticed that it's incredibly easy to have a perfect 100% win rate in Vista's Freecell (I'm sure it's just as easy in the other included games). If you lose a game it will give you the option to undo as many moves as you want and try again. The funny thing is, all you have to do is undo all your moves and close the game. The next time you open Freecell you can start a completely new game without it counting as a loss.

Even when you are in a position where you can't win or lose (e.g. the only move you can make is one card back and forth), you can close Freecell, say Yes on save, open it back up, and say No on Load Saved Game. Hitting F2 starts a new game without it counting as a loss.

I love my 35 game winning streak.

in reply to Vista Freecell's statistics

Zune - video features removed? [Zune - video features removed?]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 05:21:35 GMT

Came across this article on Digg.

http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/zune_already_problematic_the_ipod_killer_wont_offer_video_at_launch/

Now to be fair, video playback was never a confirmed feaeture (just speculated). But why else include a huge wide-screen display?

It's still too early to say anything, but I'm kinda dissapointed.

in reply to Zune - video features removed?

Uh oh Cybermagellan - AOL to cut 1/4 of it's global workforce [Uh oh Cybermagellan - AOL to cut 1/4 of it's global workforce]

jmacdonagh — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 19:05:38 GMT

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/08/03/ap2925840.html

Let's hope they don't drop their lead guy.

in reply to Uh oh Cybermagellan - AOL to cut 1/4 of it's global workforce

Apple Newton vs Samsung Q1 [Apple Newton vs Samsung Q1]

jmacdonagh — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:33:19 GMT

You'll never guess who won.

http://digitalliving.cnet.co.uk/specials/0,39030785,49282099-1,00.htm

Ouch.

in reply to Apple Newton vs Samsung Q1

UPS really goes the extra mile [UPS really goes the extra mile]

jmacdonagh — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 14:31:20 GMT

I'm waiting for some tech goodies from Newegg so I decided to check my shipment tracking from UPS. The package arrived in Salt Lake City last night, and is supposed to be delivered to my house in Eagle, Idaho.

Anyway, the last piece of shipment history struck me as quite odd.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, US

07/25/2006

7:00 A.M.

OUT FOR DELIVERY

They're not even bringing it to the local sorting station here? That's nice of them.

* For all of you who are not familiar with the locations in question, Eagle is about 350 miles away from Salt Lake City.

in reply to UPS really goes the extra mile

Learn something new every day: C#'s ?? operator [Learn something new every day: C#'s ?? operator]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 21:37:59 GMT

How is it that I never heard of this new operator in C# 2.0?

http://blogs.sagestone.net/jross/archive/2005/12/09/7728.aspx

How many of you knew about it?

in reply to Learn something new every day: C#'s ?? operator

360 as a media center extender [360 as a media center extender]

jmacdonagh — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:10:47 GMT

I'm thinking about getting a Media Center PC and using my Xbox 360 as an extender on it. I just had a couple questions for people who have done this before:

1. What's the startup time for getting into the extender portion? Does one of the buttons on the remote start the Xbox in extender mode? Chances are I'll have basic cable, so I'd like to use Media Center for browsing through TV listings. If it takes 15 seconds to boot up the Xbox and select Media Center Extender in the dash every time I want to watch TV, it's not going to be that useful.
2. Is it possible to be able to choose which Media Center PC you want to use? This will be in an apartment that I'll share with a couple roommates, so chances are there will be 3 separate Media Center PCs.
3. While in extender mode, does the Xbox 360 attempt to be as silent as possible, or is it still loud?

Thanks!

in reply to 360 as a media center extender

TFS source control driving me crazy! [TFS source control driving me crazy!]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 20:18:49 GMT

Has anyone else had any problems with the TFS when working with a team? A team member and I just spent 30 minutes merging a Form designer file because TFS's merge tool wanted to completely mangle the code.

Plus right now I KNOW that a member has checked in an updated copy of the project and a new file (I saw him do it), I'm hitting Get Latest Version, but nothing is happening.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Diff utility (and therefore the merge utility), was aware of C# / VB.net / other language syntax and didn't suggest completely off the wall merge resolutions (e.g. half an if statement in a class declaration)?

in reply to TFS source control driving me crazy!

Ruby.NET [Ruby.NET]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:23:45 GMT

With all the focus lately on Ruby on Rails, I found this to be rather interesting.

Ruby.NET

Not just some Ruby interpreter written in .NET, this is a standalone compiler for Ruby into MSIL.

EDIT: :o

We wish to thank:

Microsoft for their technical and financial support of this project.

in reply to Ruby.NET

Integration of PC and future Xbox [Integration of PC and future Xbox]

jmacdonagh — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 16:47:56 GMT

The one feature I'd like to see from Microsoft's next console would be integration of PC games and Xbox games. By that I mean any game you purchase for your Xbox, you can play on your PC (although they couldn't guarentee the opposite). Hear me out.

We've got the technology. Managed DirectX has been shown to be virtually just as fast as native code. Managed C++ allows somewhat painfree porting from older code. Keeping the actual game code compiled in MSIL libraries means that the same game can be played on the PC (given, of course, that the PC has the required referenced libraries).

Does anyone else see this as a good idea? It instantly turns a whole generation of users onto .NET and begins creating a vast library of managed software (perfect for a movement such as Singularity). Backwards compatibility can be achieved easily by including older versions of the framework.

The console then becomes, literally, a cheap computer with a limited operating system. The benefit to this is that all of the console's resources can be devoted to playing the game instead of running background processes like today's operating systems do while in game.

Of course there are some possible bottlenecks. Just how well would managed code run on a console? How much managed code would have to be JIT compiled when the game loads on the console (this could be solved by requiring a hard drive and caching the JIT compiled assembly). Just how easily could developers transition to managed code?

Any thoughts?

in reply to Integration of PC and future Xbox

Why Ballmer should leave Microsoft [Why Ballmer should leave Microsoft]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 01:59:01 GMT

CNN Money had an interesting article today.

What do you guys think? I'm still new to the software business, so I didn't pay attention to Microsoft before Ballmer took Bill's spot. Do you think Ballmer will step down?

in reply to Why Ballmer should leave Microsoft

Just say NO to the .NET Framework 3.0 rebranding [Just say NO to the .NET Framework 3.0 rebranding]

jmacdonagh — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 03:20:43 GMT

If you are a .NET developer, you've no doubt heard about the recent decision to brand WinFX as "The .NET Framework 3.0", essentially combining the WinFX libraries with the .NET 2.0 RTM release. A quick look at the comments posted on the above linked article show that the majority of the posters are not thrilled with the idea, and for good reason.

One meerly has to look at Microsoft's past versioning choices to realize that the inclusion of the WinFX libraries into the 2.0 framework will cause confusion. Let's take a look at the previous versions. Microsoft has released three versions: 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0.

Version 1.0 was the initial release and included the BCL, Windows Forms, and ASP.net among other small libraries.

Version 1.1 was released shortly afterwards (relative to the time between 1.1 and 2.0), and included many bug fixes and small improvements. As far as the developer was concerned, however, there were no real language improvements. Nothing was added to C#, VB.net, or other built in languages besides the inclusion of J#. I'd have to do some more research into this, but I believe that the compilers were relatively unchanged (besides bug-fixes), and the CLR remained the same (again, besides bug-fixes).

Version 2.0 came out of the door with a new slew of improvements. Not only were the individual frameworks (such as ASP.net, Windows Forms, etc...) updated with a huge new array of features, but the language specification was updated as well. C# and the other included languages were updated with support for generics, anonymous methods, visibility accessors on property getter and setters, and much more. It was well worth the wait. Compilers and the CLR were upgraded to support these new features.

And now we're presented with the .NET Framework 3.0. Instead of including any language improvements or bug-fixes for the 2.0 framework, it's being coupled with the WinFX libraries and being branded as an entire major version milestone. Is it just me, or does it simply seem like a marketing ploy to hype Vista up even more? "Microsoft Windows Vista! Now with the .NET Framework 3.0!" Why? Are you trying to draw consumers in? They couldn't care less about the .NET Framework. Are you trying to convince developers to program against Vista's new APIs? Any developer with any ounce of sense can see through the ploy and into the future versioning frustrations.

Most developers have accepted that it was only a matter of time before Microsoft's gigantic and clinically retarded Marketing department got hold of the .NET Framework. We were able to steer clear of Marketing hell for several years because .NET is purely a developer tool, and becuase they could have their way with Visual Studio (e.g. Team Suite). Did developers complain when Avalon and Indigo were renamed to three word mouthfulls? Not really.

So here's the problem, and the future source of headaches for all but the most up-to-date developers out there.

.NET Framework 1.0
- 1.0 compilers
- 1.0 language specifications
- 1.0 CLR
- 1.0 libraries

.NET Framework 1.1
- 1.0 compilers
- 1.0 language specifications
- 1.0 CLR
- 1.1 libraries (1.0 with added features)

.NET Framework 2.0
- 2.0 compilers
- 2.0 language specifications
- 2.0 CLR
- 2.0 libararies (1.1 with many added features)

.NET Framwork 3.0
- 2.0 compilers
- 2.0 language specifications
- 2.0 CLR
- 2.7 libararies (hey, WinFX is pretty big. I'd consider it worth about 0.7)

.NET Framework 4.0 (what else do you think it'll be named?)
- 3.0 compilers
- 3.0 language specifications
- 3.0 CLR
- 3.0 libaries (inclusion of LINQ and its derivatives).

And the confusion will contine on as subsequent versions of the .NET Framework are released. To the casual developer who many have read all about the upcoming changes in C# 3.0 (LINQ), ADO.NET 3.0, and other improvements that are targetted at Oracas, the .NET Framework 3.0 is a slap in the face. "Didn't I just read that I could do language integrated queries?" I could go on from here, but I think my point is made.

Why is Microsoft cheapening the .NET Framework package by branding it with a version number that it does not portray? Launching it with Vista is NOT going to help you sell more copies, and is NOT going to draw in more developers (in fact, I would say that it could drive developers away). Please, Microsoft, rebrand it with a 2.x version number (2.7 anyone?). All you're adding are a few libraries. It's nowhere near the leap from 1.1 to 2.0. WinFX is a fantastic set of libraries, but it's not worth an entire major version number increment.

Does anyone agree with me? Should I post a suggestion on the MSDN Product Feedback page? If I feel that I have some support from the .NET developer community, I will.

in reply to Just say NO to the .NET Framework 3.0 rebranding

MSDN Wiki goes live [MSDN Wiki goes live]

jmacdonagh — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:29:44 GMT

Looks like we can write our own comments on MSDN's documentation

http://msdnwiki.microsoft.com

Sweet!

in reply to MSDN Wiki goes live

Quick question about Vista install [Quick question about Vista install]

jmacdonagh — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:59:57 GMT

I'm getting ready to reformat my computer and re-install XP. I'm in the Vista beta program via Connect, and I wanted to try that out too. The problem is, I don't have a DVD burner, so it's tough to boot from a disk. Can I partition my drive into two partitions during the Windows XP install process, load XP onto the primary partition, mount the Vista DVD image, and install it to the second partition while in Windows? And if I do so, do I get a traditional dual-boot screen? I was hoping to find out before I actually do all the partitioning.

Thanks.

in reply to Quick question about Vista install

AOL shaves of 1,300 [AOL shaves of 1,300]

jmacdonagh — Wed, 10 May 2006 00:01:20 GMT

http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/wire/sns-ap-aol-layoffs,1,1234133.story?coll=sns-ap-investing-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

Ouch. Perhaps AOL isn't doing enough to keep up with the changing market?

in reply to AOL shaves of 1,300