BufferOverrun: Brian Johnson: Computers and Internet

JD, Nic, and Brian Podcast - Episode 7

Tue, 13 May 2008 17:05:10 GMT

New podcast up on Channel 10. It's a toight show... very toight. And there was much rejoicing.

JD, Nic, and Brian Podcast - Episode 7 | Brian Johnson | Channel 10
This week, G. Andrew Duthie joins us to talk about Maker Faire, the Zune 2.5 update, and much, much more...

Technorati Tags: podcast,microsoft,zune,makerfaire,robotics

Microsoft picked for Democratic convention

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:04:47 GMT

I thought this was sort of cool...

Microsoft picked for Democratic convention
Software giant Microsoft Corp. will be the official software and HD web content provider for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) made the announcement Monday. The convention will be held Aug. 25-28 in Denver.
"Microsoft's standing as an industry leader in software development makes them an ideal partner for the DNCC," said Leah Daughtry, CEO of the DNCC.

Technorati Tags: microsoft,software,dnc,election,convention

Trenton Computer Festival

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:36:50 GMT

If you're in the New Jersey area this weekend, check out the Trenton Computer Festival. I'm going to be giving two talks there on Saturday, one on Microsoft Robotics and one on Windows Media Center. Should be a lot of fun.

Trenton Computer Festival
EWING, NJ ... The world's oldest and largest personal computer show will once again take place this spring at The College of New Jersey.
The oldest and largest personal computer show and sale in the world is again scheduled at The College of New Jersey on Saturday, April 26th and Sunday, April 27th with an IT (Information Technology) Professional Conference on Friday, April 25th and continuing on April 26th.
This year's festival will focus on "Hands-on Experiences". Many of the speakers and special presentations on the main exhibition floor will involve visitors in hands-on activities. Visitors will experience the latest in computers and consumer electronics technology - digital cameras, video, HD TV, VoIP, MP3 and much more... National exhibitors will demonstrate their most recent products. Attend at no extra cost numerous talks, workshops, tutorials, hands-on robot contests, computer merit badge sessions, applications sessions and poster sessions. Personal computing/electronics fans can find plenty of bargains on new and used hardware and software.

Technorati Tags: windows,microsoft,vista,robotics,trenton,computers,festival,new jersey

SearchTogether

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:58:24 GMT

One of the interesting things I saw at the MS Research TechFest last month was SearchTogether. SearchTogether is an Internet Explorer plug-in that lets groups of people collaborate on web searches.

There's a forum here:

http://community.research.microsoft.com/forums/88.aspx

Check it out via the link below:

SearchTogether

Technorati Tags: microsoft,search,collaboration

Bufferoverrun.net Domain

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:42:18 GMT

A couple of weeks ago my domain expired, so you may have stopped getting updates from this blog. Hopefully it's all fixed now. (Paid the bill, the lights are back on.)

Funny thing is, I noticed this becasue my traffic dropped dramatically and I couldn't figure out why. I guess that's what's cool about RSS readers; they just keep asking for the data and they let you know when something new comes back online.

Vista SP1 is in the house...

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:48:05 GMT

Check it out. From your Start menu, click All Programs, then Windows Update. From the Windows Update screen click Check for Updates. One machine down four more to go. :)

Technorati Tags: Vista,SP1,Windows,Update,Download,Microsoft

Mark Russinovich talks real-world Windows Vista deployment

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:27:24 GMT

The video below is a teaser, but you can go here for the full discussion. This is a pretty high-end discussion for IT Pros, but I think power users will get some good information out of it. I believe that many of the problems that users are having with Vista have to do with changes in the way that the product works. This discussion, led by Mark Russinovich, discusses some of these concerns.

The Springboard site on Technet is here.

Springboard Live #1
Still undecided about Windows Vista? Join Mark Russinovich and a panel of experts for a discussion on adopting Windows Vista into a desktop infrastructure. The panel features subject-matter experts and IT pros from around the world who have tackled Windows Vista deployment—hear about the challenges, workarounds, and tips & tricks they have learned along the way.

Technorati Tags: Windows,Vista,Microsoft,Technology,IT

Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:42:58 GMT

Everything you need for installing and testing the IE 8 beta.

Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit

Also check out the First Look on Channel 10.

Technorati Tags: IE,Internet Explorer,Microsoft,Browser,Beta,Tools

MacBook Air Tests: Good Looks, Poor Battery Life

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:48:35 GMT

This might be of interest to somebody considering a MacBook Air as a Vista machine. I think that if you are planning on running Vista, there are probably better alternatives.

Ultraportable laptops have a history of requiring compromises when it comes to performance. Lately, the PC World Test Center has seen some improvements in this regard—especially with respect to battery life. Unfortunately, you'll still be making major compromises with the Apple MacBook Air. In our tests, the Air produced respectable system performance, but mediocre battery life.

MacBook Air Tests: Good Looks, Poor Battery Life - Page1 - MSN Tech & Gadgets - Products

Technorati Tags: Vista,MacBook,Air

windowsmoviemakers.net - Rob Morris | The JD and Brian Podcast

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:40:59 GMT

Update: Changed the link to my Channel 10 blog. Duncan got me set up for Podcast hosting. :)

New podcast uploaded. You can listen to it here:

windowsmoviemakers.net - Rob Morris | The JD and Brian Podcast

JD is traveling, but I talk to Rob Morris, founder of windowsmoviemakers.net about his hugely popular community site. We discuss communities, Windows Movie Maker, getting started in video editing, and hosting your videos on the Web.
Links from today's show:

windowsmoviemakers.net
Tutorials
PapaJohn's Home Page
Windows Movie Maker on Microsoft.com

Technorati Tags: Movie Maker,Vista,Windows,Community,Editing,Video,Sharing

Must have... reaching for... wallet...

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:29:20 GMT

Sony Ericsson - XPERIA™ X1

Technorati Tags: Sony,Microsoft,Windows Mobile,Smartphone,gadgets

Windows Logo Keyboard shortcuts

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:15:36 GMT

I needed to look something up and this chart had many uses that I didn't know about for the Windows Logo key.

Windows Vista Help: Keyboard shortcuts
Windows logo key
Open or close the Start menu
Windows logo key +PAUSE
Display the System Properties dialog box
Windows logo key +D
Display the desktop
Windows logo key +M
Minimize all windows
Windows logo key +SHIFT+M
Restore minimized windows to the desktop
Windows logo key +E
Open Computer
Windows logo key +F
Search for a file or folder
CTRL+Windows logo key +F
Search for computers (if you are on a network)
Windows logo key +L
Lock your computer or switch users
Windows logo key +R
Open the Run dialog box
Windows logo key +T
Cycle through programs on the taskbar
Windows logo key +TAB
Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Windows Flip 3-D
CTRL+Windows logo key +TAB
Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Windows Flip 3-D
Windows logo key +SPACEBAR
Bring all gadgets to the front and select Windows Sidebar
Windows logo key +G
Cycle through Sidebar gadgets
Windows logo key +U
Open Ease of Access Center
Windows logo key +X
Open Windows Mobility Center
Windows logo key with any number key
Open the Quick Launch shortcut that is in the position that corresponds to the number. For example, Windows logo key +1 to launch the first shortcut in the Quick Launch menu.

Technorati Tags: shortcuts,windows,keyboard,tips,computer,Microsoft

JD and Brian Podcast - Episode 1

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:31:05 GMT

JD and I have decided to start a little podcast to talk about technology and stuff that we're interested in. Our first episode is up and we'll have another ready on Friday.

JD and Brian Podcast - Episode 1 | Brian Johnson | Channel 10

For now, the media is hosted at http://jdandbrian.podshow.com. So you can get to it from either my Channel 10 blog at http://on10.net/blogs/brianjo, or you can get it direct from podshow. If you want to subscribe in Zune or iTunes, this is the RSS feed for the podcast.

Technorati Tags: computers,technology,microsoft,podcast,audio

Windows Live Writer Feed Insert Plugin

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:04:15 GMT

Windows Live Writer is arguably one of the coolest apps that Microsoft has ever put out (if you're a blogger at least) and it's absolutely free. It's an extremely powerful blogging tool and it works great for posting to nearly any type of blog. One of the things that makes Live Writer so versatile is its support for plug-ins. Through a post by my friend Alex Barnett, I was made aware of a great plug-in for Live Writer written by Josh Ledgard that allows you to insert the content of an RSS feed into a post.

Alex is using this to add his del.icio.us links into his posts. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but I can imagine using it for Twitter posts, lists, and all sorts of other useful things.

Alpha Release: Windows Live Writer Feed Insert Plugin - Josh Ledgard's Blog

Technorati Tags: Live Writer,Windows,Windows Live,Blogging,Tools,RSS

Office Offline : By design

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:51:29 GMT

Can't believe I've never seen this before. Cool!

Office Offline : By design

Technorati Tags: Comic,Microsoft,Office,Computers

Vista Anytime Upgrades

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:42:50 GMT

So I finally decided to upgrade the Windows Vista Home Premium install on my Alienware laptop to Vista Ultimate. Since the machine runs great, I figured I would just upgrade using a full-version copy of Vista Ultimate. I ran into a few problems before succeeding, and so I thought I would share some of my observations for those who might be making the same upgrade.

To start things off, I tried just drop the Vista DVD into the drive and upgrade the machine with no prep at all. That worked right up until the very end of the upgrade process, when I received a message that said, "Windows vista cannot continue the upgrade because it cannot configure a system component. Resolve this issue and reinstall windows vista." At this point, the reboot rolls back the machine to the state before the install started, so no problem there. But how to fix it?

I tried enabling the Administrator account on the machine, as somebody mentioned that might make a difference. Vista Home Premium doesn't include all of the MMC plug-ins that you find in Ultimate and Enterprise, so you need to use a command line to do this. I found the command here at tweakvista.eu.

To enable the Administrator account, from a command prompt type: net user administrator /active:yes and you'll magically enable this account.

Note: If you decide to do this, I strongly recommend that you immediately go to the User Accounts page in control panel and set up a strong password for the account.

In any case, trying the install from the administrator account failed with the same error message, so I needed to try something else. I wish I had only tried one thing at a time (so I would know now what solved the problem), but I tried two things and one of them must have enabled the install to finish. So here they are:

1. I unplugged all the peripherals from the machine. That was a keyboard, mouse, and a USB hub with about 10 weird things plugged into it, including an Xbox 360 controller, a smartcard reader, and a USB headset. After considering this, I'm almost positive that removing all these items is what allowed the install to finish, but I'll mention the second thing I did for completeness.

2. At the point in the install when it asked if I wanted to go online to get updated install files, I selected No. I did this because I had read on a forum that it allowed a couple of users to complete the upgrade, but I'm not convinced that this made a difference. In any case, run Windows Update when you're through and get the latest patches.

So after doing this, my upgrade went smoothly. I'm extremely happy with this upgrade to Vista Ultimate. It's not a domain joined machine, but the upgrade gives me access to some of those useful admin utilities that I was missing in Home Premium.

One interesting side effect to note: I run at pretty high resolution on this machine, and so I had the font DPI jacked up to 120. The upgrade doesn't seem to be aware of this and installed the 98 DPI fonts, making the text in some of the applications look fuzzy. To fix this, I think you would need to reset the DPI to 98, reboot and then reset the DPI to 120 in order to force Vista to install the higher res font. (I just changed back to 98 DPI and I'm pretty happy with that now.)

Technorati Tags: Vista,Upgrade,Microsoft,PC,Fix

Smart Marketing - World of Warcraft ...wha huh?

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:52:46 GMT

Seem familiar? Good stuff.

YouTube - World of Warcraft ...wha huh?

via Doug Meacham

Twitter Blog

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:15:00 GMT

I didn't even know there was a Twitter Blog.

Twitter Blog

Thanks Dave!

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Dave, Blogs

Pitching a Tent for Silverlight | Dave Bost

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:32:41 GMT

Hey, if you're in Chicago this weekend, don't miss the SilverlightDevCamp. Dave Bost has the details here:

Pitching a Tent for Silverlight | Dave Bost
Don’t forget the SilverlightDevCamp is coming to Chicago this weekend. Everything kicks off tomorrow night at 7PM at 1 North Franklin, Suite 3000, Chicago, IL with an opening night mixer and Silverlight application brainstorming session. Things kick into high gear on Saturday with a number of great sessions already lined up and a bunch of Silverlight goodness.

The direct link to the BarCamp page for the event is here.

Technorati Tags: BarCamp , Silverlight , Microsoft , Developer

Screencast: Color Schemes in Office 2007

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:02:36 GMT

I'm at the airport and I recorded a quick tip for changing your color scheme in Office 2007.

Color Schemes in Office 2007

Video: Color Schemes in Office 2007

Screencast: Customizing Vista Windows

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:50:36 GMT

This tip comes via my son Hunter, who asks me why I never customize my Windows. :)

Customizing Vista Windows

Video: Customizing Vista Windows

Technorati Tags: Screencast, Vista, Microsoft, Tips, Windows

Screencast: ReadyBoost

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:01:34 GMT

I was talking to a friend about the perf on my system yesterday and he reminded me of the ReadyBoost feature in Windows Vista. So today, I went down to Office Depot and picked up a 4 gig memory key and gave it a try. It seems to have solved a lot of the jittery type issues that I was having when the machine was doing high disk IO or I was using a lot of memory. The video here just shows how to find the feature in Vista after you insert the key. You're generally pompted to find out if you want to enable the feature, but it's easy to set by hand.

ReadyBoost

Video: ReadyBoost

I found a lot of great reasources for ReadyBoost on the web. One of the best sources was a blog entry by my friend Tom Archer. You can find that here.

Other resources:

I actually tried the trick above described in Windows Vista Magazine. I used a fast 2 GB SD card on an older Toshiba laptop. It works, but check out the FAQ in Tom's blog entry for some of the pros and cons of using hardware that's not spec'd for this purpose.

Technorati Tags: ReadyBoost, Vista, Windows, Performance, Screencast

Screencast: SmartArt in PowerPoint 2007

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:48:28 GMT

One of the things I would like to do with my new role as an enthusiast evangelist at Microsoft, is to help users find some of the cool freatures in Microsoft products. So with that in mind, I'm going to be doing a lot of short screencasts.

This first one is sort of an experiment. It's a tip that shows how to turn bulleted text into graphics using SmartArt in PowerPoint 2007. I may add some production graphics to these, but for now, I just wanted to play with the tools a bit and see how things work out.

SmartArt in PowerPoint 2007

Video: SmartArt in PowerPoint 2007

So leave a note and let me know if you think these will be useful, or if you want to have some techniqe or concept explained through a screencast and I'll add them to my list.

Technorati Tags: PowerPoint, Microsoft, Screencast, SmartArt, Office, Video, Training

Video: RSS in Plain English

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:37:52 GMT

Brilliant presentation on understanding RSS. Check it out!

Source: YouTube - Video: RSS in Plain English

Produced by The Common Craft Show.

Technorati tags: RSS, Video, Presentation, News, Web

Silverlight Released!

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:02:04 GMT

This is very cool. Silverlight 1.0 has now released to the web. Check out the Silverlight site for the download and a ton of information including a Showcase with some killer applications.

Silverlight
Today Microsoft announced the release of Silverlight 1.0, the fully supported version of its cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media and rich experiences on the Web.

Microsoft also announced a partnership with Novell to bring Silverlight to Linux. Scott Guthrie has the details here.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Silverlight, Media, Video

ReMIX07 Boston - Here I come

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:48:27 GMT

I'm starting to put together my travel schedule for the new job and one of the big items on my list is ReMIX07 Boston. The event is October 8-9 at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge. This should be a great event. Use the code RM07INTB to register and you'll get a hundred bucks off. (Tell your friends too.)

Details below:

ReMIX07 Boston

What to expect at ReMIX07 Boston …
If you’re in the web business, learn about:

Building a better user experience to unlock new revenue opportunities
Forging tighter, stickier customer connections
Building innovative media experiences into your site

If you’re a web developer, build:

Silverlight applications quickly and easily
Sites and applications that consume Windows Live services
Rich, interactive sites made for the next web

If you’re a web designer, learn about:

Using Silverlight to design gorgeous and highly functional user interfaces
How a real-world application is built and the best practices associated with it
The suite of Expression tools that revolutionize the way designers work with developers

If you attend, regardless of your job role, check out:

Xbox Gaming Area where you can test your skills at Halo 3 and Guitar Hero among others
Express Yourself Design Contest where key design agencies compete to solve a real-world design problem

Stay tuned: We may feature some cool products and demos around XNA, Popfly, Robotics Studio and Surface

Technorati Tags: ReMIX, MIX, Microsoft, Popfly, Silverlight, Web2.0, Web, Xbox

Art of Office

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:37:40 GMT

Update: Joe Wilcox picked up on the site here. I love this quote:

MacBU hits one right out of the marketing ballpark. The Expression, Office for Windows and Silverlight teams should take notes and imitate.

Also check out Joe LeBlanc's post at Mac Mojo.

One of the things I've always liked about working at MacBU has been the cool marketing programs. Chris Kim, one of Microsoft's premier marketers, has put together the Art of Office site. What is the Art of Office?

Art of Office is for Mac users pushing the boundaries of what can be done in Mac Office. Explore. Contribute. Reuse. Remix. Add your best work. Take what you like (giving credit where it's due) and make it yours.

You have to see it to believe it. :)

Link to Art of Office

Channel 8

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:57:44 GMT

I was talking to Duncan about some of the work the he's been doing, and he mentioned Channel 8. What's Channel 8? It's a dev community site for students. Joe Wilson has the details, along with an explanation of the differences between Microsoft's Channel 8, Channel 9, and Channel 10. Check it out here:

Welcome to Channel 8
Joe Wilson, Director of Academic Evangelism, talks about Channel 8 and what you’ll find here. We’re looking forward to this being a great place for students to connect with Microsoft and each other.

Second Life...

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:07:52 GMT

This is too funny. Not sure if you need to give Second Life a try first to get the most out of it though. :)

via Valleywag

Corporate blogging works...

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:51:23 GMT

Posts like this one from Dell make me think that communicating frankly with customers is the best way to handle any situation.

Dell's 23 Confessions
Now's not the time to mince words, so let me just say it... we blew it.
I'm referring to a recent blog post from an ex-Dell kiosk employee that received more attention after the Consumerist blogged about it, and even more still after we asked them to remove it.

Without even thinking about it, I read that post and it made me glad that I've spent so much money with Dell over the years. :)

via Techmeme

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Blogging

Usability

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:53:04 GMT

Usability
Originally uploaded by brianjo

The problem here, I think, is that the instruction says something like, "Choose grade". The solution? Maybe a smaller grade sticker over the start button and then get rid of the big sticker?

But, I defer to XKCD.

Twitter

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:11:43 GMT

Yes, I've been twittering, but not very well. If you read my blog and want to add me as a friend, here's a link to my page:

http://twitter.com/Brize

Tweet tweet.

Live Spaces, new features

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 06:28:17 GMT

Great stuff. RSS feeds by catagory and a lot of other features I've been dreaming about.

When you speak, we listen. New features launched today!

Thanks to everyone who has sent us feedback over the last few months. We’ve heard what you’ve been asking for with Spaces, and we’ve been working hard to create new features, which we hope you enjoy.
There are a lot of features here, so sit back, take a read, and then go try them out. Next week we’ll be posting more about each feature – one per day – so stay tuned for more. Sign up to get alerts when there’s a new Space Craft post.
Also, please keep the feedback coming— both in the comments on the Space Craft as well as through the Spaces Feedback form. We care about what you want, and we’re listening!
— Chris
Product Manager, Windows Live Spaces

Source: The Space Craft

Lotus to Exchange 2007 migration tool

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:20:47 GMT

Good stuff. I work with a lot of customers who ask me about this kind of functionality.

Microsoft releases free Lotus to Exchange 2007 migration tool

April 06, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. yesterday officially released software to help companies move from IBM's Lotus Domino collaboration server to Microsoft's Exchange 2007.
The software, Microsoft Transporter Suite, is available as a free download.
Microsoft released several tools last year to encourage companies to migrate from Lotus Notes/Domino, widely considered the second most popular corporate e-mail and collaboration system, to Outlook/Exchange, the market leader.
Microsoft Transporter Suite differs from those tools by focusing on easing the move of users, mail and applications from Lotus Domino 6 and 7 to Windows Server 2003-based Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Source: Microsoft releases free Lotus to Exchange 2007 migration tool

On10 - New version of Live Maps launched

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 03:00:31 GMT

With Firefox support! I haven't been able to try this on my Mac today, but I just tried it on Firefox on my laptop. It works great. Check out the story On10.

New version of Live Maps launched
Posted by Larry Larsen today at 3:34 PM

A new version of Live Maps was launched that include support for Firefox, subscription to collections via RSS feeds, and (my favorite) ratings and reviews for businesses.You can drag and drop ordering on your scratchpad.

Source: New version of Live Maps launched | Larry Larsen | Channel 10

Hi Kent!

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:18:15 GMT

So what's Kent been up to? Check out his revived blog and find out...

What has been occupying my time

It's been about a nice round 17 months (give or take) since I left Microsoft. Since then, Microsoft shipped some software, people have argued, and the world continues its revolution, rotation and other movements.
I know all of you were wondering, "What's Kent up to?", so here is some of what I've been up to since I left.

Read it and check out the pictures on the books. It's Kent!

I haven't been blogging much in the past couple of months either. I think I'm ready to get back into it though. :)

Source: Kent

Happy April 1

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:24:06 GMT

I can't imagine that many true geek types really enjoy April 1st. Steve has a post about it here. I dislike it, mostly because it tends to screw up the way I get and analyze the news that I sift through every day. Since I get a lot of my news in the blogs, I tend to get a lot of noise on April 1.

This year though, it doesn't seem quite so bad, manybe becasue it's Sunday and I don't expect much in the way of news. Maybe next year we should change things up and have a geek's April fools on the first Sunday of April rather than the first day. (Wait, nevermind, that would just cause all these stupid stories to be referenced as real by people not paying attention.)

The best thing about today is that my unpatched Pocket PC seems to have finally determined that it's daylight savings and so now my calendar is fixed on the device.

So have a happy April 1, I'm so looking forward to tomorrow. :)

Hang on, Baby Jesus, this is gon' get bumpy!

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:25:32 GMT

Wow, some of my favorite people have left MS in the last couple of weeks. First it was Steve and now Alex. Kind of mind blowing, but I definately wish them well. :)

Steve's blog is here.

Alex's blog is here.

Keep an eye on these guys. Where they go, something cool is bound to happen.

Installing Vista for the boys

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:44:21 GMT

On Friday, I picked up a couple of copies of Windows Vista Home Premium for the boys' computers. They're both big PC gamers with pretty beefy rigs, so I figured this would be a good upgrade from XP Pro for them. It was. Will installed Vista as an upgrade on his machine. He had plenty of free space and he didn't want to lose the saved games he was playing. Hunter's machine and XP installation was a couple of years old and he wanted to flatten the machine and try to improve his performance.

Will's installation took about 4 hours and everything just worked when it finished. Will was extremely happy with his install and immediately set to play some of his favorite games. He ran into one big problem right away; there was all sorts of sheering in his DirectX games. No problem. We went to nvidia.com and got the latest driver for his video card. Problem fixed, all was well.

Hunter's install took about 30 minutes. I deleted the data on his main partition and the install seemed to go like lightning. After the final reboot, he was set to go except for one thing: we needed drivers for his linksys wireless USB adapter. I used his memory key to get the Vista driver from linksys.com and installed it. Hunter was soon in business.

Since the installation on Saturday, the boys decided to play Age of Mythology non-stop Saturday night and then again on Sunday morning. I saw that Hunter already customized his sidebar. He loves the new backgrounds and the fact that we wiped his machine clean before we started. Will just thinks it looks cool, and he also customized his sidebar.

It feels good to get these machines straightened out. I've been letting the boys maintain them and I wasn't exactly sure of the state of these things, but the boys are good about not doing anything stupid with them. After reading some of the stuff on the net about how Vista was working on some machines, I'm really happy with the way this upgrade turned out. Now Hunter says he want Office 2007. :)

I should mention that Tommy had a similar good experience with his installation. I actually read his post last night before I posted this one.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Windows

Keep a Journal for Life

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 08:24:50 GMT

I read this post at Moleskinerie that made me think about purposeful journaling again. I fill my notebooks up, but I'm not really very consistent about it. Check the post out here:

Why (and How!) to Keep a Journal for Life
Get a journal that’s aesthetically pleasing to you. When I first started trying to keep a journal I used just any old spiral notebook that was laying around. That didn’t work long. I ended up buying a nice Moleskine journal eventually, and it was just such a pleasing experience to use that I wanted to write in my journal all the time. So spend the extra money on a decent journal. The inclination to write more is worth more than the price of some fancy paper.

I've got about 20 big wirebound legal pads out in the garage that I haven't looked at in at least 10 years. They're probably from 1992 until around 1997. (I think I stopped writing like that back when I was busy taking care of little kids.) I should probably take a look through them sometime and see what I was thinking about back then.

My blog probably has more interesting day to day stuff in it than my regular journal would anyway, especially if you add the photo feed to the mix. I guess a fun project might be to track down the last 4 years worth of blog entries I've done and try to bind them into a book of some kind.

Adding Windows Live Search to Firefox

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:26:29 GMT

I haven't seen anybody mention this, so I thought I would throw together a quick post. If you hit Windows Live Search from Firefox on your Mac, you can easily change the default search box in the upper right corner of Firefox. The screens below show the steps:

First, hit the Windows Live Search page from Firefox on your Mac. (Maybe on Windows also, but I haven't tried it.) You'll see the message, "Would you like to set Live Search as your default search provider?" as shown in the screen above. Click Yes.

Next, you'll see Firefox confirmation prompt. Click Add.

Your search box will now default to Windows Live Search. Pretty slick.

You can change it back to the default, or set another engine, to the default by clicking the little arrow next to the Windows logo in the search box. This will bring up a dialog that lets you reset or customize the search box.

Technorati Tags: Mac, Microsoft, search

New Zune!

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:35:37 GMT

Kat picked up a Zune for me yesterday at Toys R Us. They seemed to have been sold out elsewhere around Redmond and Bellevue. She said that they had all three colors there when she stopped by around noon. I went with black. I'm a little predictable I guess. Black is a sure thing for me. I was afraid that I would get tired of brown, but I really thought hard about getting that one. The whites look nice also, but I never really gave that one serious consideration.

Duncan picked his Zune up on Tuesday. He was syncing it and we where having a video conversation on the 360, waiting for the Bungie announcement to come through at 2:00 AM.

It's a fun time to be at Microsoft. We're shipping tons of new stuff and it's feeling really good to get out of beta on my machines.

My New Favorite Song

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:56:32 GMT

Duncan introduced me to the music of Jonathan Coulton and I can't get this song out of my head. It's so awesome, so true...

Thing a Week 29 - Code Monkey
Yay, monkeys. This is not autobiographical, but I did indeed used to have a job writing software. VB! MS SQL! I affectionately referred to myself and my co-developers as code monkeys, especially when a client asked me a question that I didn’t want to answer (”What do I know? I’m just a code monkey.”).

This has been around for a while. Why has it taken so long to get to me? :)

Technorati Tags: Development, MP3, Geek

Vista RTM!

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 22:32:55 GMT

I was waiting until I saw somebody else blog about first. Alex was the first one that I saw :)

Windows Vista releases to manufacturing!
According to the Windows Vista team blog, Windows Vista has released to manufacturing (RTM)

Congrats to the Windows team. This has been a long hard road, but you did it!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Windows

NFL Cheat Sheets

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:23:22 GMT

Some day, this sheet will be digital paper and a coach will be able to interact with it.

Coaches Use Laminated Game Outlines for Any Situation
Coaches have long carried notes about plays they like, but in recent years the National Football League has embraced the outsized play card, making the computer-generated, weather-resistant accessory as common on the sideline as Gatorade and ankle tape. From the pages of plays that coaches once stuffed in their pockets to the card that a secretary for the Cowboys’ Tom Landry wrote by hand, the stigma of a coach referring to a play card to call the offense is gone, taking with it much of the freewheeling creativity that fans like to imagine enlivening a huddle.

I love this quote: “They drive me nuts,” said Ernie Accorsi, the general manager of the Giants. “They remind me of the menu at Denny’s.”

via 37Signals

Technorati Tags: Football, Productivity, NFL

Zune.net Live

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:26:59 GMT

Zune.net went live today. Check it out. I'll post more later, when I get a chance to look at it.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Zune