What kind of a geek would I be if I didn’t at least mention that Microsoft launched Windows Vista and Office 2007 this past Monday. There, I said it. If you want to learn more, listen to Bill.
Monthly Archives: January 2007
Here it comes to save the day!
My latest pickup for the MacBook is the Bluetooth Mighty Mouse. I know there are other bluetooth mice (mouses?) out there to choose from which are easier on the pocketbook, but I really wanted to try this particular one out for a couple different reasons.
The 360 degree scroll ball is interesting. It provides almost fluid motion in any direction and makes scrolling around large images or large (poorly designed 
) webpages easy and intuitive.
The pseudo-multi-button feel is also interesting. The entire top shell can “click” down over the bottom plate and that acts as a button click. if you press down on one side or the other it will behave as a two button mouse, and pressing down on the scroll ball behaves like the typical centre click.
Finally, the bluetooth version of the mouse uses a laser sensor instead of the optical sensor. This allows for more reactive tracking on those pesky polished wood (or glass, or metal or….) surfaces which have plagued optical mice for years.
Once I opened it up, I was impressed by a couple of additional features. the bottom of the mouse has a slide-shut cover which protects the optical sensor when it’s not in use. What some folks don’t realize is that it also disconnects the connection to the batteries so the mouse doesn’t drain power when it’s not in use. This means that the two included lithium batteries (yes INCLUDED!) will last even longer.
All in all, I love it so far. The toughest part for me is going to be getting used to using a mouse again, as I’ve been using the trackpad on my Dell and now the MacBook for the better part of the last three years… Ah well, as Shrek [wav] is so fond of saying: Change is good Donkey!
Microsoft launches ASP.NET AJAX 1.0
This past week marked the official launch of Microsoft’s ASP.NET AJAX libraries for the .NET platform (formerly “Atlas”). The uptake on this new implementation of a not-so-new technology has been moderate, with the folks who really want to use .NET to target a Web 2.0 solution being the most enthusiastic.
AJAX in and of itself isn’t overly groundbreaking, at least not these days. The ability to do these types of things has been around for some time now (after all it is just Javascript and XML). What is new about packages like the Atlas framework from Microsoft is that it puts these technologies into a much more user-friendly context and makes them more accessible to the less-technical developers. Those who may not have hand-coded their own AJAX scripts will user built-in controls that come with the Atlas package for Visual Studio (and the Express editions).
So kudos to Scott Guthrie and his team for getting this out there. It will make Web 2.0 development on .NET a much more user-friendly experience for developers. But I can’t wait to see what the next new thing will be… As we get closer and closer to eliminating the line between web-based and client-based technologies like AJAX are forming the basis for a new Internet and computing experience.
Free Download: Microsoft XML Notepad 2007
Microsoft has recently released an updated version of its XML Notepad. This is a fairly basic tool which provides a tree interface to edit XML documents which is easier to understand and work with than hacking through the file using Notepad or even Visual Studio.The interface takes a bit of getting used to at first, but the colour-coding of the attributes makes it fairly easy to quickly distinguish between types of nodes in the file, and the tree structure provides a more intuitive view of the data in the file.
Though it doesn’t have all the features of a more complete product like Altova’s XML-Spy, the price is right. If all you want (need) is a basic XML editor, XML Notepad may be just what the doctor ordered.
This is just another in a series of free releases that Microsoft has targeted at the software development community. Beginning with the Visual Studio Express Betas in 2005, carried forward with the full releases in 2006 and the use of the open-source Cassini web server in both Visual Studio 2005 and the Visual Web Developer Express 2005.
It has been interesting to see some progression in Microsoft from a company who would aggressively defend and copyright every piece of software they ever wrote, to a company who is willing to share strategically valuable tools with the community. Obviously it makes good business sense to get your development tools into the hands of developers before they start that next job; but the optimist in me hopes that this is a continuing trend we see from the giant over the coming years.
Hidden Treasure! – IIS 6 Admin Scripts
Not long ago I discovered some hidden treasure on one of my Web Servers – the IIS 6.0 Admin Scripts. These area bunch of pre-prepared scripts to make administration of IIS much quicker (and much easier to do remotely!) not to mention much more “automatable”.
I’m not going to get into huge detail here, but I whipped up a couple of batch files to do some work in my office a couple of weeks back. Here’s an example of one:
# iisweb /create “Spiffy Site” d:inetpubwwwrootspiffysite.mydomain.com “ASP.NET 2.0 App Pool” /dontstart
# iisvdir /create “Spiffy Site” “images” d:inetpubwwwrootcommonimages
# iisvdir /create “Spiffy Site” “scripts” d:intpubwwwrootcommonscripts
# iisweb /start “Spiffy Site”
Notes:
- The scripts are all located in the System32 folder (usually C:WindowsSystem32).
- These must be run with CScript, you will be prompted if the mapping is not set up
DIY: Furby Mods
Here’s a fun one for the new year: Furby Mods and Hacks!
There are several sites I found dedicated to undertanding more about these annoying, furry little creatures. One of the funniest I thought, was the Furby Autopsy which describes the autopsy procedures of the Furby Toh-Loo-Kah.
Some of the information I found is somewhat dated, but the creations on the Furby Stimulation site are interesting, particularly considering the basic and rudimentary electronics involved.
If you’re disinclined to rip apart your Furby, this site lists a few less violent things to do with your Furby like Easter Eggs and stories… or if you truly are sadistic how to torture your creature.
Open Source – Nintendo Style
Well it certainly didn’t take long to start some new and interesting open-source projects geared around Nintendo’s new darling system. The Wii has inspired the folks over at WiiLi.org to create a version of Linux to run on this next-generation console.
Some of their first projects are to understand the Wiimote and the other hardware associated with it. To that end, they have created hardware drivers for a number of different platforms including Linux (i386), Windows and Mac OS X (and Darwin of course 
).