April 2003 - Posts
This thing is pretty cool. It's got plugin support too, so you can create little extensions to it. It says that it only supports XP, but I haven't got around to testing it on Windows Server 2003. This looks like it would be pretty cool to put on a server.
That was all about the IT side of things. Windows Server 2003 got the most
fanfare. VS.NET 2003 got like 10 minutes, 5 of video, 5 of "presentation".
Don't get me wrong, I like Windows Server 2003. When I repave my machine,
that's the OS that's gonna get installed. However, VS.NET affects my life more
than the OS, so naturally I wanted to see more about it.
I IMedRobert and he said that all the developer stuff
was coming at the PDC...which is a long way off. I thought this was going to be
a joint Windows Server 2003/VS.NET 2003 launch.
MSDN just re-designed. Quirks-mode DOCTYPE tag. TABLEs for layout. Embedded FONT tags. Pointless rendering problems and missing features in non-IE browsers. Undoubtedly terrible in non-traditional browsers (phones, PDAs, browsers for the blind, etc.).
This is what the best and brightest are doing with their time? Living in 1996?
[The .NET Guy]
Ouch. This may be a bit harsh, especially on the MSDN guys. This is really
not their fault. Look at the file extensions. They're using ASP.NET.
Unfortunately, the WebControls in their current state don't output XHTML or even
good HTML.
If there's one thing I'd like to see in the Whidbey release of .NET, it's the
ASP.NET controls outputting valid XHTML 2.0 and using CSS rather than Font tags,
etc.
This is really late notice, but at 10:00 AM PST (Right now!), the Windows Server 2003 launch webcast is starting.
Go watch!
I once mentioned about a web service that CodeProject has and how easy it would be to convert it into an RSS feed. So yesterday I got the urge to do it. Anyway I've created an RSS feed for the latest articles on CodeProject at http://www.puzzleware.net/CodeProject/rss20.aspx. I thought maybe some other people might want this as well. So Enjoy and let me know if you find any problems with it.
[Wes' Puzzling Blog]
More good news:
In this post, from this guy, on this forum, on this site . Notice
everybody's favorite three letter acronym?
That would be ME! w00t!
Convinced Dad to drive me up there. He's gonna give Mom peace and quiet the entire night by removing my 4 brothers from the house as well.
So, is there anything I need to do for tomorrow night? RSVP? Register? I looked on two of those user group sites, and they just listed the time and place...so do I just show up?
Update: Forgot to include a link to what I was talking about! (Duh.) Anyway, for those of you scratching your heads, it's about Sam Gentile's appearance at the LA .NET User Group meeting. :)
PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released to manufacturing. They add fun and functionality to your amazing Windows experiences.[Microsoft Download Center]
Okay, the WMP plugins are nowhere near as cool as this. It includes a
Wallpaper changer that can randomly select wallpapers! Sweet!
The Windows Media® Player 9 Series Creativity Fun Pack includes a "blogging" plug-in that can add information about your currently playing music to your Web journal.[Microsoft Download Center]
:D They're heeere. The Creativity Fun Pack is out.
b17bmbr writes "According to eWeek, 'The
release of Windows Server 2003 is a small step forward for the platform -- an
effort that really should be considered ... [Slashdot]
I love this. Up at the top there's all this anti-MS stuff about how it really
is a small upgrade and MS is only releasing little new features in this OS. Then 'bout
2/5 of the way down the page, you get the guys stepping in and defending WS2003
with the following features:
MSMQ, COM+, AD, Clustering, More RAM support, 64 bit version, VSS, better SAN
support (which is huge for our IT guys right now...we're about to push for a
SAN), Windows Media Server 9 (I love it), NIC Load balancing, and let's not
forget everybody's favorite features: IIS6 and .NET 1.1
Reading further, this guy sums up my feelings:
I've been running windows 2003 as a desktop for a couple weeks, and am
really liking it. It comes with virtually everything disabled by default, and
all the security stuff maxed. The main reason I moved over is cause I read an
article here a while ago stating that microsoft had actually tried to release an
OS with as few bugs as possible, and if I remember correctly the bug count is
somewhere low like 100 or less (obviously this is known bugs only, I'd bet it's
way higher). After the install I found it had everything XP had, themes,
directx, everything. Believe it or not, games performed better on win2k3 server
than on winXP. I had both installed for a couple days, and did some other
comparisons like memory usage, etc, and it turned out it uses WAY less. My 7
month old XP install used 400mb of virtual memory and 250 physical memory with
no programs running, while 2k3 used 100 of each. That is a HUGE difference. It
also boots alot faster as well. I haven't found any incompatibilities yet, so
I'll be keeping this as my desktop. I do run a server on linux, and will
definately keep it that way simply due to resources difference. (Note: I
don't run Linux servers)
But really, it is like XP...and then some.
All this stuff comes disabled and you have to enable it.
But once you do, I've noticed that my WS2003 machine has been working better
than my XP install.
As soon as I get that VS.NET 2003 DVD shipment in from MSDN, I'm repaving my
laptop, and installing WS2003. I've only been waiting because I'm too busy (and
lazy) to download everything again. :)
"Personally, I wouldn't do well in the Central Valley. Too freaking hot. Great for growing things, but geeks need cold weather. Ever wonder why Microsoft writes more code than other places? It's all in the weather. I'm looking out at the pool right now, and boy is that hot tub inviting. Nice sunset. Nice weather. Dang, only 19 days of this left!" [scoble]
For some reason programming while it's raining gives me
that nice and warm fuzzy feeling.
[Stronglytyped.com]
Ditto here...of course, in San Diego, we don't get much rain either.
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