Tag: 'microsoft'
I had planned on finishing these a long time ago, but working on my Pluralsight course about ASP.NET 5 distracted me. Sorry about that.
I admit it, I don’t know if that last word in the title is real, but anyway. I’ve used a Windows Phone since betas of Windows Phone 7. Like some of you I have the question of whether to believe the new Microsoft’s lukewarm support for the platform. Will Win10 be the savior of the platform or final coffin nail? I don’t have an answer to that.
My pre-order of the Xbox One arrived on Monday and I’ve had a little time to play with it. I mostly got the device for Forza which I love. So after a couple of days with it, here are my first impressions.
I wanted to get a Type Cover for my new Surface today so I headed to the Microsoft Store. I never go to malls so it wasn't a lot of fun just getting into the mall. But soon me and my girlfriend found the store. I was very surprised by the sheer number of customers. I didn't expect it to be empty on a Saturday afternoon but it was packed. As we walked in we were immediately approached and helped with where to find the Type Covers. Even with all those customers, the store was really well staffed. Was simple to find someone to help us get a Type Cover from the back and answer some pricing questions.
Like many of you, I've been itching to see what Anders had up his sleeve and I wasn't disappointed yesterday when they announced TypeScript. After teaching all day, I took a quick look at TypeScript (and I do mean quick).
A lot of people are writing about the possibility of a new era at Microsoft. As a cynical fanboy I am hoping that this turns out to be true. I think there are a lot of great things coming out of Redmond these days and they deserve credit for making real change.
Recently, while working on my Windows Phone 7.5 book, I found the need to display a short URL to some specific documentation. I found that you could use msdn.com to do this but the results were not very satisfying. In fact, if you take a typical documentation ID (e.g. “ff402535”), you can simply do this:
Url: http://mobile.microsoft.com/live/en-us/mobile/d...
I am copying a video file across my wireless network (though this particular machine is kinda flaky, so it might not be Vista's fault) but I thought this was funny:
Over the past week there have been a flurry of new projects coming out of Microsoft, mostly in the form of CTP's. I've been downloading like crazy and will likely be discussing my experience with them in the coming week. In case you missed any of them:
This blog post may seem to be a clever way of increasing my web traffic but the fact is that I am growing frustrated with the adoption of Vista and Microsoft's general under-delivering on Vista.
Url: http://news.com.com/Vista%20draining%20laptop%2...
Url: http://hotspot.t-mobile.com/vista
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/begin...
I was setting up my new laptop with Vista today and it looks like everything is finally installed, except my fonts. So I opened the Font folder and picked, "Add New Font". This is what I saw:
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/archive/2007/0...
I thought I'd mention a problem I had with my new Vista installation.
I really like the realtime (or near real-time) preview of the windows on the Taskbar in Vista. Check it out:
Url: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/wga.asp
Url: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+to+charge+for+Off...
Url: http://www.winternals.com/Faq.aspx
I have been attempting to try out some new software from Microsoft (including Glidepath and Visual Studio Database Edition). Both of these require SQL Server Express installed. Problem is that I install a Developer Edition of SQL Server 2005 (as well as 2000) because it is more feature friendly than SQL Server Express. Why does Microsoft insist I have a third Database server? Why can't it prompt me to tell it what database to use, or at least attempt to find SQL Server 2005 as the default instance on the current machine? Just stoopid in my opinion. It's keeping me from trying out and possibly exhaulting these new interesting projects.
Url: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?page_id=3170
I spent the majority of yesterday moving my primary laptop to Vista. I got a new 100G/7200RPM drive, so I decided to chew up some of the space with a dual boot. I got to late last night (about 6am) when I decided it was a dead proposition and I needed to revert to my XP SP2 desktop. Good news is that a majority of the software I loaded on Vista worked without a hitch. At the end of the day it came to that a few critical pieces of software weren't Vista-ready.
Url: http://news.com.com/Vista+beta+sucks+up+battery...
Url: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12921149/
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...
Url: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2006/03/windows-vist...
Url: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3609953...
Url: http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/v...
Url: http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/keybo...
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/l...
As many of you might not know, I am not at the PDC, but am interestingly watching to see what comes out from it. Usually at the event times, everyone blogs too much about what they like and don't like. Everyone wants to be the first out the door with some news from a keynote. So I am layng low and letting all that happen without me. On the plus side, I can now talk about some things that I've had the opportunity to play with for some time (now that they are public knowledge and I am not hurting any NDA's):
Url: https://msdn.one.microsoft.com/Subscriber/1033/...
I have gotten through the hoops to be able to use the new MVP Logo. I have to say its a nice change from the old logo which was a bit antiquated. I really like it:
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/mdavey/archive/0001/01/0...
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/
Url: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7613523/site/newsweek/
Url: http://www.microsoftmonitor.com/archives/007717...
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/download...
Url: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+reaches+beyond+pr...
How I wish I were there. Evidently the Yukon Public Beta and the VS.NET 2005 Beta will be available. Get them while they're hot!
Url: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=...
I've had the WinHEC build of Longhorn for a while now and I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised. It seems that Longhorn is really coming along. I am very focused on WinFS programming, so I have not had too much time to dig into other interesting topics like Avalon (though Chris Sells loves the data binding) and Indigo.
Url: http://bink.nu/DesktopModules/ArticleDetail.asp...
Url: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/sto...
Url: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34737.html
After attending most of the Keynote this morning at the PDC I am convinced that Microsoft is headed in the right direction, but it is still a long way off. 2005 or 2006 is too long to plan towards. On other note, Yukon and Whidbey will be here soon. Its about time to start planning for these technologies now.
Other than LAX being 'smoked' in, there is not much to report today. A number of MS employees seem to be stuck at SeaTac waiting for the smoke from the bush fires to clear out. On my way in last night, we flew over the fires. It was pretty impressive. We were in a holding pattern over the fires and could smell the wood smoke in the plane. After a few nervous passengers asked the staff, we were reassured that it was only from the fires below
Well, I am off to LA Saturday morning. In all the years I've been doing this stuff, I've *never* been to a PDC. Now I am feeling overwhelmed with what to dig into while I am there. I am lucky that I've had the opportunity to see Longhorn, Whidbey and Yukon before the PDC, but just haven't had the time to dig into Indigo and Avalon.
Url: http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5085251.html?ta...
Url: http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?...