Minimizing all background windows using Windows 7's "Aero Shake"
Windows 7 is introducing a new feature called "Aero Shake." The concept is you simply drag and "shake" a window's title bar and all background windows will either be minimized or restored (based on their current status.) Here's a YouTube video of the feature in action:
While this feature looks cool, I'm wonder how useful it really will be and how intuitive it will be to the user. Since I tend to run most windows maximized, I'm not sure if this will provide much value to me.
Do you see this as be a good or bad UI design pattern?
Robotic Tennis Ball Cannon is Truly Dog's Best Friend...
I can't even tell you how much my yellow Lab would love this toy. If we set this up in our house, I'd never see her again.
Boston Dynamic's BigDog Quadruped robot is pretty amazing...
It's pretty cool to see this kind of robotics in motion. This is definitely something you want to watch all the way through. The highlights for me were watching it regain it's balance after being shoved and after slipping on ice. It's also pretty cool to watch it run and jump. It's pretty spooky just how close it looks like a quadpedal creature.
Removing attached PST from corrupted MS Outlook profile
Probably the biggest problem I've had with Microsoft Outlook over the last decade is with my Outlook Profile getting slightly corrupted, preventing me from closing open "archive" PST files. When you attempt to close the PST, you'll see the following message:
Error: The operation failed. An object could not be found.
This is actually caused by a Registry corruption to the Outlook profile that is in use. Microsoft recommends creating a new profile, but that makes you re-create all your E-mail Accounts and you lose your rules, autocomplete addresses, etc. You can back up your rules, but re-creating a profile is a bit of a pain if you have a complex Outlook configuration.
Today I ran into this problem again. I was migrating all my archived "Deleted Items" for 2007 to a new PST so I could permanently archive the file. After moving all the files, I wanted to compress my archived "Deleted Items" folder but couldn't because I was getting this error message.
Since I really didn't want to re-create my profile, I went out searching for a tool that might be able to clean up my profile for me. Fortunately after a few minutes of Googling, I came across CodeTwo PST Ghostbuster.
This program worked like a charm to clean up my profile. You'll want to use the "Backup" feature before you attempt deleting a PST—just to make sure you can restore things if something goes awry.
If I could make an improvement to the program, it would be for the list of PST files to delete to be a select box of attached PST files instead of having to type the name of the PST folder into the text box. However, the program worked as advertised and saved me lots of time since I didn't have to migrate to a new profile.
Dynamic Template Plug-in for Windows Live Writer
I've been using Windows Live Writer for posting all my blogs. Overall it's a terrific program. It's got a very simple, easy to use interface and it drastically eases the process of blogging.
However, the one complaint I've had with the program is there's no easy way to "add" common HTML tags that you commonly use to the interface. I use the <samp> tag quite frequently when showing inline sample code and for variable names (although I suppose I should use the <var> tag instead.) To use these tags I've had to drop to the HTML Code view and manually add the tags. This is a pain to do—especially on longer posts where I need to add the tag frequently.
To solve my dilemma, I've been periodically searching for a Live Writer Plug-in that might allow me to add some custom HTML snippets. Well today I just happened to stumble on a great little plug-in called Dynamic Template Plugin for Windows Live Writer.
You can use this plug-in for doing something as inserting static text or for modifying the selected text. The real power comes from the fact that the plug-in allows you to use C# code snippets. You can even have the template prompt you for input.
To get you started, here are a couple of templates I just wrote to help me out with a few tasks:
SendEmail is a great little SMTP Windows command line tool
I've been working on a Subversion post-commit hook that will send me an e-mail when a user checks in some code to a repository. In order to send an e-mail from the post-commit script I needed a command line tool that would let me send an SMTP message from my batch file.
Fortunately for me, I stumbled upon SendEmail by Brandon Zehm.
This program is chock-full of features and is the perfect companion for Subversion for Windows installations. I can also see this being an extremely useful general debugging tool as it as you can create some really complex e-mail scripts.
SendEmail is actually a Perl program but has been compiled into a native Windows executable. You can download the Windows executable in two flavors—with or without TLS support.
Microsoft proposes to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion...
There are always tons of rumors about Microsoft buying Company X, but it looks like Microsoft is officially wanting to acquire Yahoo! They've been really trying to build some market share with their Live initiative and it looks like they're really serious about becoming a major portal player.
Quite frankly, it doesn't surprise me that Yahoo! was looking at selling. Most companies to some "spring cleaning" by trim staff before being acquired. I saw it happen when I worked for Midwest Micro and I've seen it happen at just about every other large company I've witness sell their business.
Virtual Reality using the Nintendo's Wii controls
I saw Marco Casario's post yesterday about Johnny Chung Lee experiment using the Wii controls to create VR effects. I about gave up on the video, but then he got to the actual VR portion of the video and I must saw the effect is extremely good.
In the past the best 3D/VR effects I've seen were based on polarized 3D glasses—where there's a shutter in each lens that alternates between off and on (when one lens is on, the other is off.) This creates a pretty decent visual effect, but it can definitely lead to headaches.
This is by far the best example I've seen of 3D/VR on a purely 2-dimensional screen. The effect that Johnny is able to achieve is quite remarkable. I recommend watching the entire video, but it gets really interesting about 3/4 quarters of the way through.
Yahoo announces support for OpenID
Yahoo announced that they're supporting the OpenID standard for a universal log-in. This could go a long way for more web site adopting OpenID. The idea of a single log-in that you can use on any website is a noble goal.
I'm not sure I'd ever use a global login account on important websites (such as those dealing with financial information,) but for general information based sites this would be a welcome improvement to managing tons of log-ins and passwords.
Azentek's Atlas CPC-1000 - In-Vehicle PC
One of things I'd love to upgrade in my Toyota 4Runner when I finish paying it off at the end of the year, is the radio. It's currently got a JBL Radio/Navigation system in it, but I've not been able to find an interface that for the radio which will allow me to connect an mp3 player to it. I could buy an FM modulator, but I really don't want to lose sound quality if possible.
However, I'd really love to get a stereo with native hard drive for mp3s, Sirius support (so I can get rid of my Sportster—which I like, but would prefer not to have to have it on the dash) and I'd like to have handsfree Bluetooth support.
MTube - The world's smallest ColdFusion Server?
There's always tons of stuff shown off at CES each year. This year VIA showed off a prototype of 3.5" x86 PC that was running Linux. 
They're promoting it as an advanced PMP, but I could definitely using it as some kind of portable server.
The specs I could find on Gizmodo list the following:
Processor: VIA C7-M @ 1.0 GHz
Storage: 8 GB Flash
Display: 2.8" LCD
Resolution: 640 x 480
Dimensions: 8.5 cm x 8.5 cm x 2 cm
Weight: 150 g
Battery Life: 4 hours
Connectivity: WiMAX & WiFi
Video Codecs: H.264, WMV, RMVB, MOV, FLV, DIVX
Adobe Acrobat Connect ("Brio") now free for 3 participants...
Adobe has just posted Brio—the next generation of Adobe Acrobat Connect—to Adobe Labs for downloading. The new beta version allows you to:
- Host unlimited online meetings with up to 3 meeting participants.
- Interact with easy-to-use screen sharing, chat and whiteboards.
- Access your meeting instantly with a personalized, easy-to-remember URL.
- Distribute documents and files to meeting participants.
- Use integrated VoIP, teleconferencing and multi-point video.
I've had interest in Adobe Acrobat Connect (which is a horrible name,) but it was way out of my price range. Now that they've opened it up for free for up to 3 participants, it looks like it's time to check it out!
Verizon Wireless XV6700 AKU3 ROM Update
If you're not aware, Verizon has released the UTStar AKU3 ROM Update for download. While the link is available on the Verizon Support site, it's somewhat buried. The direct link is:
http://www.utstar.com/pcd/Downloads/XV6700%20AKU3.zip
This is supposed to resolve the Error: Data Call Failure. Error 37: Miscellaneous Erroneously Mobile IP Setup Occurred message that often appears when connecting to the network as well as provide other miscellaneous fixes.
I have heard that updating to AKU3 could prevent you from using some of the custom WM6 ROMs—which I've been very tempted to try. I really want this phone to be stable. I've heard WM6 is much more stable than WM5, but I'm not sure I want to upgrade to an unsupported ROM. Either way, I've got to do something to get this phone to a more stable and usable state.
Verizon Wireless Windows Mobile "Network Log On" Settings
Ever since doing a hard reset on my Verizon Wireless XV6700 I've had a reoccurring problem where my phone would randomly prompt me for my login credentials. If I clicked the "Save password" option and left the username & password fields blank it would go ahead and connect, but I'd eventually the prompt would randomly reappear.
Since this prompt typically happens in the background (while my phone is doing a sync with my mail server) I don't always know that I'm not getting mail. This is pretty frustrating when you rely on your phone to notify you of job related tasks.
After searching the 'net for what credentials to use and not coming up with anything, I finally called Verizon Support. The information they gave me to enter was:
Username: [Your 10-digit cell number]@vzw3g.com
Password: vzw
Domain: [leave blank]NOTE: The information between the brackets are instructions and are not to be typed verbatim.
Hopefully this information will help someone else out and prevent a call to Verizon Support.
Wow! 4GBs of DDR2 RAM for $92.99 (US)...
I can't believe how cheap RAM is right now. I was online shopping for a gift for my Dad and came across 4GBs of PQI DDR2 PC2 5400 RAM for $92.99. That's a pretty good way to cheaply upgrade a Development Workstation or Server.
Just 5 months ago I paid $120 for 1GB of DDR 500 (PC 4000) RAM to upgrade my Desktop box to 2GBs. I know I paid more for that RAM because I had to match the older, high performance RAM I already had in my system, but I just can't believe you can get 4GBs of RAM for under a $100.
I remember paying almost $400 dollar to get 16MBs of RAM in my old 486 PC (it was four, 4MB SIMM sticks.) That was at a time when 16MBs of RAM was a huge amount of RAM and DOS and Windows for Workgroups still ruled the PC world. I eventually jammed all that RAM into a Promise EIDE Caching Controller card as RAM got cheaper and I needed more RAM for Windows 95.
If you're looking for a cheap way to upgrade the performance on your computer, you might think about buying some RAM now. If you use VMs or have a Development Server where you have lots of services running (like SQL Server and multiple versions of ColdFusion,) adding RAM can really help your performance.