DragonStyle

Windows Live Maps

I was recently playing around with embedding Google Maps, though in all honesty I was really looking at a bug that had been reported in Windows Live Writer. Now that I'm through that, I can express my unabashed love for Windows Live Maps. I work at MS, yes, but Windows Live Maps is simply a product that is good, no matter where you work. Here's a few of the things I really love about them:

1) The Single Box Address UI
Ok, I am expressing love for doing something incredibly obvious, but sometimes MS can be a little stubborn about the obvious :).

2) The new UI for controlling the map
The new controls consume _way_ fewer pixels, leaving more for the map itself. Nice.

3) Choose route based upon traffic
The fact that the traffic info which I already use a lot, now includes the ability to alter the recommended route based upon traffic is righteous.

Thanks Windows Live Maps!!!

 

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Maps. Google Maps

VMWare Continuing to Rock

In my life before Microsoft, I was a regular VMWare user. When supporting our product, it was always a pain to try to find a machine with a specific configuration (Windows 2000, IE 5.5, .Net 1.1), so we ended up just making a library of virtual machines (we even had some configuration preloaded with Visual Studio and Perforce so you could simply fire up the VM, sync, and start debugging a problem that only occurred in a specific environment). VMWare was simply a fantastic product. 

As I was surfing around to catch up on the writings about Windows Live Writer, I stumbled across a post describing a switch to Mac, and a VMWare application that will let you keep using your favorite Windows only products. Wow, does this look awesome.

The cool thing about Fusion though is something called Unity. Unity makes the virtualized applications appear as though they were part of the OSX desktop. Instead of a window showing the Windows desktop and its applications, you get the Windows apps running as part of the regular desktop.

VMware Fusion :: robteix.com

Technorati Tags: VMWare, Unity

Intel has gone stark raving mad

At the top of my list of things to do when I have a bunch of extra money laying around? Upgrade my home desktop PC. And here, my friends, is the CPU that will be installed (among other things). 

Quad-core for $299! If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your computer, now is the time!

Intel has gone stark raving mad
Joe Cheng
7/20/2007 8:33 PM

FTW

This might be Bonnie's first time being referred to as a Rogue Ninja, but this is my third. I can't talk about the other two, though. 

This weekend? Ninja BBQ

Technorati Tags: Ninja, Writer

Intel 3945 Wireless Problem on Vista: Solved!

The other computer in our household... I mean, one of the other computers in our household is a Lenovo z51t (a very sweet little laptop). It has built in wireless via Intel 3945 a/b/g. For the last couple of weeks, it has frequently dropped off the wireless network, causing much annoyance and headache.

After my last experience with Vista and networking, I went straight to the driver. When using Vista to check for an updated driver, no joy. When searching on the Internets to find one, joy.

 

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2259&lang=eng

 

After a download and install of the drivers, the z51t is back on the network and the signal strength appears better (it was listed as 'good' even though the laptop was about 5 feet from the wireless router). It's too early to declare success, but this is looking good.

 

Technorati Tags: Vista, Wireless, Network, Troubleshooting

.Net LinkLabel LinkArea Problem in Thai

I've been troubleshooting this problem we have with a link label- on some computers the link area of the link label appear in the incorrect location. Turns out that the difference between machines reproducing the problem and machines that weren't reproducing the problem was simply what version of .Net our app was being run under. .Net 1.1 looked fine, .Net 2.0 was incorrect. To simply the scenario, I wrote a little test app that displays the string in question in a LinkLabel control, then used a config file to run the application in .Net 1.1, or .Net 2.0. Here is the result of my test:

That sucks, and I have absolutely no idea what would account for the difference (remember I literally ran exactly the same code:

linkLabel.Text = "ในการเปิดใช้งานปลั๊กอินนี้ โปรด ดาวน์โหลด และติดตั้ง 
		.NET Framework 2.0 จากนั้นเริ่มการทำงานของ Windows Live Writer ใหม่";
linkLabel.LinkArea = new LinkArea(32,9);

If anyone out there can explain the difference, I would love to understand what is really going on here. In the meantime, I'll be looking for some other creative solution.

Technorati Tags: Culture, Dotnet, Internationalization

Focus and Keyboard Mnemonic Behavior

A tester has pointed out some inconsistency in Writer's behavior when the user presses the alt key to activate a control. It seems that some of the time, the activated control, though selected and accepting input, doesn't actually look focused- it doesn't display the focus rectangle that we're used to seeing.

I mentioned this to Spike, and he said that the rules governing the display of focus vs. mnemonics were complicated, but in essence, the two aren't always shown together.

With that clue in hand, I set out to see if I could figure out what the expected behavior should be. I started with some searching using popular search engines, but after 20 or so minutes decided to simply build a small test app and see if I could just figure it out. 15 minutes later, I think I'm done.

Article on some of the new goodness in the WLW API

Scott Lovegrove (I'm pretty sure a 0 belongs in there somewhere) wrote a nice article that includes a change that even I'd forgotten was in Windows Live Writer Beta 2 - plug-ins now have access to the content that is selected in the browser. This is a tiny change that should unlock a world of possibility- plug-ins can now interact and modify the user's selection!

Thanks for reminding me about that, Scott! Thanks for the 'I'm feeling Lucky' plug-in too!

LiveSide - Developer Blog : Windows Live Writer's New APIs, Deployment Methods And A Hidden Extra

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer, SDK, Plug-ins

Vista Wired Network Performance Problem Solved

So I recently cleaned up my home machine, repartitioned the drives, and reinstalled Vista. Exciting since it will mean the machine is in a wonderful clean state (I had previously upgraded over XP, which worked fine but always makes me a little bit suspicious). But, since that time, my network performance has been just terrible. How terrible? Well have a look-

You're reading that right- my Comcast cable modem was performing just a little better than dialup. It felt like 1995 all over again.

Careful with ISmartContent.AddFile

We found a problem in the Windows Live Writer SDK that could affect anyone developing smart content objects that use ISmartContent.AddFile. Please read this before you use this call!

More...

Technorati tags: Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Writer SDK, Bug