Categories
Product Reviews

Itunes Doesnt Work On Vista

Well, last week I read all over the web, that the Zune didn’t work on Vista. Well, the Zune just came out last week, but Ipods have been around for years, and guess what. Itunes doesn’t work on Vista!!! Well, it runs. It tries. But it croaks – hardcore. First, it doesn’t support Aero (Glass) – second, I try to do a search for anything, and wham, it dies. I can’t sync my Ipod!! I guess I can always install MediaMonkey again. Thing that irks me the most is, I like WMP. I griped recently about WMP11, but I like it better than Itunes. Why can’t Microsoft/Apple/3rd Party make my Ipod sync with WMP. WTF? Why make it harder for consumers to use your products. I hate Itunes, always will, unless they make it better than WMP. Anyways, thats my gripe for the night, and I guess my Ipod will have to be happy with old music on it 🙂

Categories
Product Reviews

Microsoft Vista

I just installed Microsoft Vista Ultimate. This is my first post from Vista! Its pretty sweet so far, the glass theme is nice, I’m just getting everything installed, adding music to my library, etc. Housekeeping 🙂

I installed IIS, so I’ll have to check that out as well. Hopefully everything I use works. What a great way to spend a Saturday 🙂

Categories
Product Reviews

Windows Media Player 11 – Design Flaws

So, on my main desktop at home I finally installed Windows Media Player 11. Ive used it since the betas, but no on my main machine. So what I usually do is download music from the net, onto my desktop, but then copy it to my server, and let WMP find the album art and fix everything. Well, you could just specify one sub folder and have it scan in WMP 10. Seems that feature is gone ghandi in WMP11. So WTF, I have to copy the files, and either play them manually so they show up and go through each one and edit it, then update album info, or let it sit there for who knows how long WMP to scan the folder (I have like 12,000 songs right now, so its not speedy). Why did they take that feature/option out, I guess we’ll never know, but it really doesnt make sense, since now its harder to manage my library. argh :S

Categories
Geeky/Programming

Ajax Impressions

Today I played around with doing some ASP.NET web forms in AJAX. Using Anthem.Net. First I’d have to say, Anthem is pretty easy to get started with, but their could be some better examples. One thing I found is that If you have to call some server side code from javascript and vice versa, it cant get a little tricky. I think for now for what I’m working on I will just stick to a non-AJAX route. It seems that with the way I have it in AJAX, you cant hit a button or cause an event to fire until the whole site is fully loaded, which maybe I have something wacked, but it isn’t going to work. I’ll probably dig more into it though.

Categories
Geeky/Programming

Microsoft Office 2007 Keys are on MSDN

Just noticed that the keys for Office 2007 are on MSDN, which is cool because that means the ISO’s for the final version will be on there soon. Can’t wait for that, and Vista. Its like geek xmas time 🙂

Update: Office 2007 is now on MSDN, I am downloading it now!!!

Categories
Geeky/Programming

IE7 – Adding Default Search Provider Through the Windows Registry

So, IE7 – cool right, new search bar and everything. And you can go here and add new search providers. You can also use what Microsoft gives you and do it this way. But alas, what if you want to add it without user intervention? Remotely over a network maybe? Or you just want to do it programatically the way any good geek would. You hit up the registry of course!

1. Create a GUID – use vs2003 or vs2005, or something
example = {AC854C16-CA1E-43f1-8513-0D2F36C726ED}

2. create a reg file

3. edit contents of reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearchScopes]
“DefaultScope”=”{AC854C16-CA1E-43f1-8513-0D2F36C726ED}”

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearchScopes{AC854C16-CA1E-43f1-8513-0D2F36C726ED}]
“DisplayName”=”What you Want as a Display Name”
“URL”=”http://yoursearchurl?params={searchTerms}”

4. run it 🙂

Categories
Life

Vote

I just voted, now Im eating some lunch. Id have to say, it is a good feeling actually voting. Hopefully the right people will get elected this time 🙂

The one thing I hate about elections is the ads – and negative ads especially. My question to all the candidates is, where are the ads the day after the election? Why don’t we ever hear from them again until they want something from us. Spend some $$ on keeping us updated on your promises and progress. More people watch CSI and The O.C then the 10 o clock news, much less CNN/MSNBC, etc. Keep me in the loop!

Categories
Life

Coborns Delivers!

What a great service – grocery delivery!! So last night I logged into http://www.cobornsdelivers.com and signed up. I browsed around and chose what I wanted, filled in my info and said, deliver my groceries Monday night between 8 and 10 pm. So tonight at like 8, ding dong. Here they are. Everything good to go, easiest shopping I think I have ever done. And no dealing with people at the store! No more oblivious people wandering the aisles thinking whatever they are doing is more important than everything else around them. No more loading your car, driving home and smashing up your bread. And the best part – they even deliver beer! – money!

Categories
Life

Props to Deer River

Here is the post I promised to Deer River – well, not Deer River, MN, but Allen Cook – IT Guy, WoW Factor.

He created a dualboot– octaboot machine. Win3.1, Win95, Win98, WinME, Win2K, WinXP Home, WinXP Pro – all on the same machine – plus another drive that is shared between all the OS’s – money.

Now he just needs to get me Vista 🙂

Categories
Geeky/Programming

Do You Know How To Drive?

Yeah, I know how to drive. But do you know what the lights mean? What the signs say? Big difference. You really should ask the question, Do you know how to drive and all the laws that go along with driving.

Do you know how to program? Yes I know how to program. Do you know all the laws 🙂 – well not laws, but the differences of each language Do you know if, then, end if? While, Do While, Dim x as Int, string s; pInfo->Blah Blah etc?

If you know the basics of programming, you shouldn’t have to worry about the what language you are writing. Just like if you know how to drive, you shouldnt worry about the signs, because you can read them as you go, figure them out on the fly.

I see to many students get hung up on the fact that they just learned C++, Java, or vb.net. First, if you know vb.net like a rockstar, you know C# (or is id D flat?)

If you know C++. or C – then you should be able to learn or know Java and C# easily. With that syntax, you should be able to pick up javascript easily too.

VbScript? – you know VB6, VB.net. And like I said – VB.net – you know C#, so it comes full circle. You’re money 🙂
And if you know .NET – create a website and you start learning ASP.NET – which isnt a language as so many people think, but a paradigm – you can use C# or VB.NET to code – so don’t worry.

I started of with C++, then JAVA, then VbScript, VB6, throw in some wacky stuff, Batch files, KixStart scripting, Javascript, then VB.NET – and then C#. There is alot of other stuff that I really don’t know, COBOL, Python, whatever. But you can learn if you need to. If you want to get started with programming – start with Batch Files and VBScript. Look up WMI. Just do anything you can with scripting – it will just broaden your knowledge into the OS and Windows in general.
You also can’t forget SQL. Any programmer should know at least basic SQL – SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, etc. Without SQL, coding data aware applications is pretty tough.

I can’t say I’m an expert, or even close to one, in any of these languages, but I know enough to get me by, and if you know how to ask the right questions, then you can figure out what you need to know to complete your toolbelt of programming.
To really complete your toolbelt – Take a blank computer – setup Windows, IIS, ASP.NET, Visual Studio 2003, 2005, SQL 2005, etc. Its almost like a mechanic. Do you think mechanics don’t know how to get their tools in order? The machine, and the software you use are your tools. You should know them in and out. (Ex: My rachet is squeaky when I use a 1/2 socket). Things won’t always be set up for you. You need to know how to set up your tools! If you are a guitar player – you need to know how to tune your guitar. How else can you play anything good?
So, do you know how to drive?