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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
...luckily, somebody other than me was on the scene to sort it out :-)
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
We got a day of good weather and good snow...so we went skiing
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
That sadly sometimes rattles a few peoples cages - you know the ones, those filled with a sense that their opinions should not be questioned, regardless of the level of misinformation, speculation, and downright desperate searching for anything to get rattled about which helped them reach those opinions.... A long and energetic discussion ensued which not only enabled a lot of people to see the full picture of the opposing viewpoints, but also enabled at least one participant to decide I had some conspiratorial motives driven by another project I am currently working on. Yes, it's all very vague, but I want to talk about situations which frustrate me here, not individuals.The usual pattern then emerges of me voicing honest and open opinions on the subject (and questioning it to the Nth degree for a clear picture to strip out all the vague, unsupported arguments), but receiving innuendo-laden responses which increasingly suggest there is more under the surface about the original proposal than it seemed.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
We had our dogs down at the beach this afternoon, they had a great time :) Pictures in this flickr set.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
Tim and I are meeting with another Tim, from www.itwriting.com at one of the cafes at the Venetian at 8pm this evening. If anybody else would like to come along please do. Also if you can recommend anywhere that we can meet please post in the comments. Ideally it should be somewhere that 3 people could meet, and then more if anyone else joins us (is there a Starbucks?).
+44 7866 567042 if you want to get hold of me.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
I mentioned Brian Beckman in my 'What am I doing at Microsoft' post.
The following is a sample of what I meant by saying that talking to Brian was like watching one of those Channel 9 videos, from Brian's latest post - The Pre-Fighting Philosopher's Problem:
"Take three PhD specialists in programming languages, three PhD specialists in relational database, and three PhD specialists in network security, and seat them around a table. Now take three coconut-cream pies, three chocolate-cream pies, and three banana-cream pies and randomly place one pie in front of each philosopher. Finally, give them three hours to come up with a position paper on the concept of "Identity." Calculate how many philosophers at the end of three hours have three kinds of cream-pie on their faces, how many have two kinds, and how many have just one kind."
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
Arrived safely at Las Vegas yesterday around 7pm local time after around 12 hours of flying. We had to stop at Newark to get a connecting flight here which was a bit of a bummer. At least now I can say I've been to New York though, albeit for just over an hour. We thought the flight from Newark to Las Vegas would be 2 hours, may be 3 tops. Most disappointed to hear the stewardess say 5hrs 20! The decent into Newark was a little bumpy. Everytime the plane dropped and our stomachs went funny Tim gave me a little concerned look! The connecting flight should have been shorter, but storms around Texas meant we had to do a little detour. On reflection I'm very glad that's what we did!
We picked up our hire car from Vegas airport and I'm ashamed we had to ask the attendant how to put the automatic in gear! How were we supposed to know you had to have your foot on the brake to change it from neutral to drive! Last night we just chilled out in the hotel and got an early night.
Neither of us have had a bet yet. To be honest the casino that's part of the hotel is just full of miserable people losing their money. I've not yet seen one happy person because they've won! Also it's very smokey around here. I thought America was becoming a non-smoking environment?
Just to wrap up here's a list of points/notes so far:
1, The food here is amazing, and so cheap!
2, Starbucks coffee tastes much nicer over here!
3, Driving on the wrong side of the road isn't too bad. Just make sure you have other cars to follow!
4, Being in America makes me put exclamation marks at the end of every sentance!
Off to explore shortly. Hopefully meeting up with people later who are attending Mix06.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
Microsoft Team Foundation Server has RTM'd. Team Foundation Server is a workflow collaboration engine that enables the use of a team's customized process, as well as a centralized data warehouse that collects real-time intelligence on project history.
Team Foundation Server, along with the rest of Visual Studio Team System, brings together the core roles that are part of the software development process.
Bits are now available on MSDN Customers who transitioned their subscriptions to a Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition role-based subscription or the Team Suite. A trial version is available otherwise.
The MSDN version is the Workgroup Edition (448MB) which supports up to 5 users.
System Requirements:
- SQL Server 2005 Standard/Enterprise Edition (RTM)
- Windows Sharepoint Services 2.0 with Service Pack 2
Some useful documentation links:
Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Installation Guide - the most current version of the installation guide for Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server and Team Explorer.
Team Foundation Planning Guide - this guide provides information that is required for administrators and business decision makers to plan for Team Foundation Server.
Team Foundation Administator's Guide - A comprehensive guide that covers procedures for administering Team Foundation Server.
An essential link is the MSDN Visual Studio Team System Developer center.
An upgrade package contains information on how to upgrading RC1 installations to the RTM edition.
and finally for the RC version of TFS - Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider - Beta 2 - Enables users of Visual Studio 6.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2003 to use TFS Version Control.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
This is really funny behaviour I’m seeing with Firefox on Vista… it doesn’t show me the correct background colors in web pages. The pictures on the right show how my blog page is supposed to look (I hope most of you see it that way, with the orange background) and how it looks in Firefox. [...]
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
Well the end of day one of Spark, the first half day anyway. Its great to meet up with a bunch of smart people who are really energized about Web 2.0, SOA and what is happening in the architecture space. The first half day was about understanding the environment out there and what the drivers are in the world of architecture.
The main thing that came across to me was the feeling that everyone had of the balance between freedom and control, Web 2.0 and SOA. The understanding and management of these levels of control were seen to be a key issue.
We came up with a few core principles that seemed to be driving the architecture of tomorrow:
First was that the user was the center of the universe and the facilitation of individuals and communities of users so they can have what they want when they want it was key.
Second was this whole area of the balance of control.
Third was how can we enable change and growth
And fourth was how do we do this in an environment of connectedness and scale.
An interesting and useful start. Today we will be looking at what are the models we can use to understand this space. More coming!
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
A judge tells Google to turn over search data, including 50,000 web addresses, to the US government.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
So hands up who's had this error in Visual Studio?
"Post-deploy error 0x80070005 returned after calling '\Windows\wceload.exe /noui \Windows\System_SR_enu_wm.cab'. Device Connectivity Component
"
*Hand up in the air
Well it turns out the application that you are trying to debug is actually deployed and will work, the System_SR_enu_wm.cab is also brought to the party and put into the Windows System folder...
If you run the CAB file, which helps you debug on the device, no more error :)
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
UK scientists from Norwich use a plant virus to create nanotechnology building blocks.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
For those who don't know and have eagerly been awaiting the RTM of TFS you can go get it now via your MSDN Subscription :D
John
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
This is just out.
I'm quite happy that msft are offering more services with the express edition (Reporting and Full Text Catalogs) and I'm sure it will help win over more people.
Can't wait until it goes RTM:
SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services (SQLEXPR_ADV.EXE)
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services is a new, free version of SQL Server Express that includes additional features for reporting and advanced text based searches. In addition to the features offered in SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, SQL Server Express with Advanced Services offers additional components that include SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE), support for full-text catalogs, and support for viewing reports via report server. SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services also includes SP1.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=57856cdd-da9b-4ad0-9a8a-f193ae8410ad&displaylang=en
P.S Is it me or is 600GB Hard drive a bit high for system requirements :D
Enjoy.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
10 Random Thoughts.
#3 Worry.
Do not worry about anything that you can not do anything about.
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Published on 19 Mar 2006 from
So I finally got hold of a Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC phone edition the other day... Man it rocks...
I honestly didn't think that 2003 SE could be improved as well as they have done with this version...
One of the first things I did do with it was to go and play with the GPS Control Panel / API...
For those of you who are regulars here or just know me, you’ll know that I love all things location aware…
How happy was when I heard about Windows Mobile 5.0 taking control of the GPS intake? (It takes it on an operating system level and essentially it pumps it out to whoever asks for it on the application level) I was jumping up and down with excitement!!!
Imagine me surprise though when I went to the settings and couldn’t find it on me ROM!!!
NO FAIR (insert random Telco name here), that’s not on… Though why do I have a feeling its not really there fault?
Anyway, I sat in my flat sulking for a while... But then I thought, “’ang on… Them guys over at XDA dev’s will have an answer…” And true to there word, they did!
A quick change to the registry…
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\GPS Settings\Hide = 0
Ta guys, now I can see the GPS control panel, ergo I can now use it to use more than one GPS related application…
So here we go… Testing, testing 1,2,3…
First thing first... Get (insert xyz company here) Bluetooth GPS talking to device...
Which was easy enough, turn it on, turn ya PPC BT, done...
Then set the Outgoing COM port to a port of your choosing, COM8 is the one I'll choose in this case.
Next up was to select the COM port I just selected in the Bluetooth connection settings. It's the input COM port in the GPS control panel we just talked about...
Ensure the Baud rate is the same as your GPS unit, mine is 57600...
Take your pick in the list of COM ports in the "Programs" tab as you can see I used COM4...
I'll just goto the Access tab and tick the check box "Manage GPS" just on the safe side...
Now to prove it works...
Using a personally modified version of Jim Wilson's GPSReader to read GPS data I read data via two applications from one Bluetooth GPS device...
Now I can safely say this is such a breakthrough for us dev guys its makes me smile from ear to ear!!! I know of one developer who wishes this was available from the offset of Pocket PC!!!
Acknowledgements:
Microsoft Windows Mobile team - Great job guys...
Jim Wilson - GPSReader goes from strength to strength...
Marija Barwick - For allowing daddy to do this whist she wanted to go watch the rugby!
MHPb - For the soundtrack (Newish album)
