We're still waiting to be blown away, aren't we? Is it beta 2? Seems I haven't heard much about this lately..
Trying to find hockey on TV is like, well, even worse than it used to be. Much worse. The
national coverage is pretty awful, even among five networks. I'd resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to go to one of the neighborhood Red Wings bars if I want to catch the Wings. I don't have a cable box, and I'm not about to get one just to watch one game per week on the Outdoor Life Channel. (Yes, non-hockey fans, that is the channel that carries the NHL these days. Hey, at least they're playing this year.)
Still, just having hockey on in the background is comforting. I'd almost given up when I remembered that
Comcast.net shows games
live over the internet for Comcast subscribers. This is awesome. Even better is that they have at least one game on every day! (2/3 of the days have two games.)
A Windows Media Center computer drives my TV, so making this happen is incredibly easy. Launch IE, click the link on the Comcast.net front page, right-click the video feed, select "Full Screen" and I'm enjoying NHL hockey in all of its compressed glory.
The video quality is surprisingly good. If HD is a 10 and normal TV is a 5, I'd say this is a 4. I'm just happy I can stream live TV over wireless without a single blip.
Nice job, Comcast. Now how about a Media Center plug-in and HD-quality? That I'd pay for.
You'll probably have a few extra minutes on your hands while
waiting for VS Express to download. Do yourself another favor and check out the
breaking changes in .NET Framework 2.0 [
BradA]. The list is pretty small, considering the breadth of the framework, but you'll probably find a favorite in there.
It's old news that the
Visual Studio Express Editions are out, and free for a year. You, with your fancy MSDN subscription, probably looked right over this good bit of news. I don't know how many times I've needed VS while away from my computer, but didn't have the time to download the 3+ gig image and install it.
Do yourself a favor and grab the
CD images right now, burn them to disc and throw them in your bag. Each image includes:
- C# or VB or J# or C++ or "Web"
- SQL Server Express
- .NET Framework 2.0
- MSDN Express
Good stuff.
While doing my first ASP.NET 2.0 "publish" tonight I was presented with the following dialog box:
Assuming that apps delete as few items as possible, I assumed that "existing files" meant files that matched those that were being copied. I was wrong. It does indeed delete everything.
I've salvaged most of the site from local copies, but most of the images that I've posted to the blog (that aren't app-related) were lost. Nothing drastic, but it is kind of funny that the one thing I've never backed up was lost.
Moral of the story: Don't be a dope.
Place: Rock Bottom @ State & Grand
Time: 6PM
All kinds of new stuff to chat about. One lucky party person will get a
free .NET Power Pack: JetBrains' ReSharper and dotTrace. Two of my favorite tools, hands-down.
Please
let me know if you think you'll be stopping by.
Become an NHL star -- graduate from the
NHL Academy! (I did, and am looking for a frame for my certificate.)
This thing rocks. Thanks,
John.
A faculty member at one of my (many)
alma maters has created a
30-foot Sears Tower...out of Jenga blocks! Go
Wildcats!
My home computer is accessible via Remote Desktop, which makes life on the road much easier. Quick access to email, Outlook address/contact info, etc.
I use DynDNS to keep my dynamic IP mapped to a host name. This means that my cable modem's IP address can change whenever Comcast sees fit and I won't have any problems. This is a life saver.
You can imagine my concern on Monday, in LA for the PDC, when I found myself unable to connect to the workstation at Key headquarters. I get a heck of a lot of legit email, so losing access for even a day is bad news. I effortlessly jumped to the worst conclusions: Building burnt down, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confiscated the computer, building toppled over. And so on.
Luckily, it was just Comcast. Again. This wasn't the first time I've had to call Comcast support, and I have a pretty good idea that it won't be the last.
HOWEVER, this time was like the others: Speed increase! I'm now downloading at a fairly consistent 750 KB/s, and a Speakeasy test showed me @ 888 KB/s. Not bad, considering my pre-PDC trip throughput of ~550 KB/s. (Yup, that's kiloBYTES -- almost a meg a second!)
If you're in Chicago and have Comcast cable internet, try resetting your modem. Time to find something big to download...
..or "How to do a Slipstream Install of Windows"
Today I bought a
tiny Shuttle server to get myself up to speed on VSTS. The mainboard supported SATA, so I picked up a 200 GB SATA Maxtor to go with it ($99 after rebate!). But no floppy. I refuse. If Vista-era Windows doesn't support non-floppy F6 installs I will switch to whatever the anti-M$FT Windoze dopes are using.
The only reliable way I could find to get the SATA drivers installed without a floppy was to do a slipstream install. I've installed Windows millions of times (seriously), but I've never done a slipstream. Finding the right information took far too long, so bookmark this page. Here's the information you need:
Slipstreaming VIA Serial ATA drivers Creating a bootable Windows CD with Nero (The first and second screenshots were most valuable. I didn't bother with the rest.)
Good luck!
Update: I should proof-read before posting. I didn't say how or why slipstreaming helped. Tthe drivers from the F6 floppy are slipstreamed into the Windows install CD and the drives are automagically recognized during setup.
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