Microsoft has put the Consolas font family out for download.  These will be some of the fonts used in the next version of Windows (Vista).  They look really nice!  Note that they are ClearType fonts (you must have ClearType enabled for them to look good).

Lutz Roeder's tool, Reflector, now supports reading local variable names from PDB files.  Awesome stuff!  Get it here.

I know, I know…it’s a two year old dinosaur, but my Pocket PC Phone Edition still meets my needs and T-Mobile has yet to come out with their next Windows Mobile device.

I am still overall very pleased with the functionality of my handheld.  Things I like:

• Great synchronization with the Windows platform
• Expandable memory with SD/MMC cards
• Great for listening to podcasts (using Windows Media Player)
• The phone works well
• I always know what traffic is like
• I always have access to my RSS feeds

The only complaint is that since its Internet access is built on GPRS technology, it can be a bit slow.  Hence, the purpose of this post.

I’ve gotten into RSS and have been reading a collection of RSS feeds for about a year now.  I did some research and tried out a number of RSS reader apps built for the Pocket PC platform.  Many of them required heavy use of a network connection, some required a subscription fee and others just plain stunk.  And then I found Bloglines.  Aside from their main site, Bloglines has a fantastic site tailored for a handheld sized web browser.  Not only is the web interface easy to use, it is lightening fast!  Their PDA site is, by far, the quickest loading site I’ve used over my GPRS connection which makes navigating my feeds quite nice.

I’ve been using RSS Popper to ready my RSS feeds in Outlook, which advertises synchronization with a Bloglines account.  I tried it out and the synchronization is weak.  In fact I didn’t really find it useful at all.  RSS Popper is not to blame though since the Bloglines web services API is not very rich.  So I use RSS Popper as my primary feed reader and then when I’m done reading all my feeds I use a .NET command-line process that I wrote that tells Bloglines (via HTTP GET) to mark all feeds as read (can’t seem to find the code around, so I’ll try to post that later).  At any rate, the system is definitely not perfect but it works fairly well and allows me to read my feeds wherever I am (or at least wherever T-Mobile has coverage).

Derek Webb has long been one of my favorite grassroots musical artists with his folk sound and real, transparent lyrics.  I enjoyed listening to him on this podcast posted on grassroots music.  I found his comments regarding the apparent misquote in Relevant Magazine’s article titled, “How to Dismantle an Idolized Bono” to be of particular interest.

Interesting analysis of popular music patterns and what makes "good" music.

Thanks to Aaron Stebner's post, I was able to easily get Visual Studio .NET 2005 to provide IntelliSense (based on XSD) for custom XML files. The best approach seems to be dropping a new schema catalog file along with the referenced XSD file(s) into the %VsInstallDir%/xml/schemas/ directory. It appears that VS monitors this directory for changes. This approach is nice because it doesn't involve updating any of the default VS installation.

Anders has a good article on how to exclude generated .NET code from code coverage analysis using a tool called IL Merge.  This solution apparently is not supported in VB.NET.

Wow!  This year's BCS championship Rose Bowl game was one of the best I've seen in a while!  Flashbacks to FSU's Charlie Ward in the early nineties came to mind as I watched Texas' Vince Young tear it up and almost single-handedly beat the Trojans.  If you like football, that was a great one!

Check out the new "Bird's Eye" photography in the new beta of Windows Live Local.  The resolution is amazing and the ability to change the viewing angle is very cool.  It seems like the drag/drop functionality should automatically move to the next frame, but it is still in beta afterall.  Ah...home sweet home!

Finally, someone got it right...

Since I typically spend most of my time during the day on a computer and I spent time in college studying the field of ergonomics, I'm naturally a big fan of ergonomic keyboards.  I bought an ergonomic keyboard from CompUSA about 6 years ago that I really liked...of course 6 years later when the time to replace the keyboard is long past overdue, I surprisingly had a lot of trouble finding an ergonomic keyboard that I liked with all of the keys in the correct places.  Instead of retraining my hands to adjust to new key placements, I held out for one that was comfortable and used all the standards, and I'm glad I did.  I've been using Microsoft's new Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for a couple of weeks now and I must say that I'm impressed.  It's got a soft wristpad and a bunch of keys at the top that I probably won't use but overall I really like it.

I first heard about FolderShare from Scott, but was busy (planning a wedding, you know) and didn't have time to look at it.  Yesterday, Brenton reminded me about it and so I installed it.  I must say I was impressed...the install was quite smooth and it worked very well!  I was a bit apprehensive at first about the security implications, but I'm starting to get more comfortable with it since it appears to be a true peer-to-peer solution.  It will be interesting to see what Microsoft ends up doing with it.

It's also a nice solution to the age-old "synching internet bookmarks problem" that I'm sure all web users have had in the past (I had been using ActiveSync with two computers as a solution).  I really like the idea of using it as a common place for family members (mine happen to be in various geographic locations across the country) to upload their digital photos.  Now, if I can only get my wife to use it :)

OK, I've finally got a chance to blog about my really exciting news.  So hear it is...I am now a married man!!!  I married Lindsey Nicole VanderWoude on October 15, 2005 in her home town of Birmingham Alabama.  She is an incredible woman!  The wedding was awesome...meaningful ceremony, fun reception and adventuresome honeymoon.  Hopefully photos will come soon (trying to determine the best way to present them).  I am excited about the journey ahead.

Today at work I came across some new APIs in Whidbey that I found to be quite useful when dealing with generic types.  System.Type.IsGenericType and System.Type.GetGenericTypeDefinition().  Have you ever wondered how to reflect if an object's type is a specific generic type definition (wait...is that any oxymoron :))?

Suppose we have some generic code:

class Foo {}

static void Main(string[] args) {
  System.Collections.Generic.List<Foo> fooList = new System.Collections.Generic.List<Foo>(); 
}

and now we want a method of determining at runtime if the object, fooList is a generic list:

static void Main(string[] args) {
  System.Collections.Generic.List<Foo> fooList = new System.Collections.Generic.List<Foo>();
  Console.WriteLine(IsObjectGenericList(fooList));
}

static bool IsObjectGenericList(object o) {
  Type t = o.GetType();
  return (t.IsGenericType && t.GetGenericTypeDefinition().Equals(typeof(System.Collections.Generic.List<>)));
}

I found these APIs useful when working with various generic types in my system.  For more information on this subject, look here.

So I went to the Coldplay concert last night in Atlanta at the Philips Arena. I was impressed with the way they sounded live compared to their recordings. Since the lead singer was on mostly on the piano, it wasn't as entertaining as other concerts I've been to, but it was still cool nonetheless. I used my phone to record the last couple minutes of the finale song and I thought I'd post it for fun, so...here it is.  Enjoy!

I'm pleased to announce that I'm officially a homeowner!  I bought a townhouse in the Vinings (Sminings) area of Atlanta.   I closed the deal last Monday and moved in this past weekend.  The move was rough (isn't it always), but I'm really excited about living there.  Here are some photos of Lindsey and I looking at it before we decided to buy.

Scott Gu has posted about the upcoming fixes to the web projects in Whidbey.  It looks like it may be a good change afterall :)

Wow, it's finally here!  Stereoscopy brought to an LCD display with NO GLASSES!!!  It looks like Sharp is now selling autostereoscopic displays (for the 3D layman, this is like watching a 3D IMAX at home without the use of glasses).

I would love to have the opportunity to check out one of these and see how good it really is.  It's just a matter of time before someone will be selling a 3D digital video camera that integrates directly with the software and the display.  It now looks like my custom-built 3D camera and viewer has already become obsolete.  Wow, this technology could really revolutionize the world of multimedia.

Insightful article on Java Generics from Ken Arnold.  I like the idea of a "complexity budget".  I have certainly been involved with projects where I wish the design complexity could have been quantified and budgeted.  As far as generics go, my own view is that there are a limited number of use cases for writing generic code.  Generics may possibly help simplify some complex design pattern implementations.  I can only see, at least for now, a limited number of common patterns expressed generically.  Trying too hard to leverage a "one size fits all" approach to programming will lead to the production of more complex and sloppier code.  To developers who are considering using generics - please use sparingly!

Well, I ran my first road race with Lindsey on Saturday.  It was the GA-400 Road Race which is a four mile loop through the heart of Buckhead (quite hilly I might add).  I haven't been running long, in fact this was only the second time I've ever run four miles (I did run five miles once...I usually just do 5Ks).  We actually did quite well.  We finished the race together in 35:17 (which averages just under 9 minute miles).  This was a personal record for me :)  I had such a good time I may actually consider doing it again sometime.  I was also very proud of Lindsey.  She finished 50th of all the women registered (about 500 I think).  She's a fantastic running partner!

I'm posting this from my favorite local coffee shop. I love resting on Sunday afternoons!

This is big news!

Recently I posted about password management and proposed PasswordMinder for managing your passwords.  The current gap I mentioned in my post is that my passwords are not available on my PDA (without a decoding app which I probably won't develop). 

I discovered another solution which I think may trump PasswordMinder (at least for web apps).  Nic Wolff has a neat solution that generates a password based on an MD5 hash of a master password (similar to the concept in PasswordMinder) and a site name (note that this is a one-way hash so the master password cannot be derived from the site name and the generated password). 

The neat thing about this solution is that it is javascript based so any device that supports javascript can generate passwords using this technique.  I've copied the script to my server and as an off-line .html file on my PC/PDA so that I can effectively get at my passwords from any device (whether connected to the web or not).  The other beautiful thing about this solution (if you're a Firefox user) is that it is available as a Greasemonkey script and a Firefox extension, which provide great browser integration.  Since the majority of the applications I need passwords for are web-based, this is likely the solution that I'll adopt.  Now all I need is seemless integration for Windows apps...hmm...can you say PasswordComposer.NET?

I've finally upgraded my blogging engine to dasBlog 1.7.5016.1.  I must say the upgrade process was very straightforward and I am quite pleased with the new features in this version.  At some point I am planning on upgrading the look and feel of this site.  The themes and templates in dasBlog are pretty slick and I've found it very easy to create new themes (CSS mostly).  I have yet to find any good dasBlog theme libraries on the net, so I will publish some of the ones I've created (for other blogs).

These new human-powered hydrofoils look pretty fun.  It's interesting how more and more renditions of the hydrofoil keep showing up in this next generation of water sports.  If you don't read the article, at least check out the video.

For those of you [non-geeks] (I am not one since I saw it on opening day) who are planning on seeing Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith but are in need of a refresher (because it has either been too long since you've seen the others or you just plain forgot what is was about), you can find a humorous one here.

I really like the design behind Keith Brown's PasswordMinder tool for managing the plethora of passwords one needs to survive in today's dangerous digital on-line world.  Has anyone ported this to the Windows Mobile platform?  I'd really like to have secure access to my passwords on my PDA/phone.  This may end up being the app that finally brings my development experience into the .NET compact framework world.

From the Pluralsight tools page:

[PasswordMinder is a] Utility for securely managing, generating, and retrieving passwords on your machine. Protected by a central password, this utility simplifies using good passwords in all websites and applications that require them.

I needed a tool to manipulate file names and ID3 tag data on mp3 files.  I found ID3-TagIT which did exaclty what I needed.  It's free and written in .NET.  Very nice.

A few folks have asked me about my home recording setup so I've finally got around to posting about it.  I should note that this is a very old setup but has worked quite well for me over the years (hope to upgrade my home setup soon).  Most people think you need high-end hardware to get a good quality recording on your PC...not true.  Arguably, the most important component in PC home recording is a good sound card with a good analog to digital converter (ADC).

Here's a link to a schematic I put together.

Specs:

• AMD Athlon 900Mhz
• 256M RAM
• 60Gig Hard Drive
• Win2k Pro OS
• Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card (18 bit ADC / 20 bit DAC)
• Mackie Micro Series 1202 12-Channel Mixer
• Fostex 3-piece speakers (w/sub)

Four members of the Microsoft CLR team (Brad Abrams, Jason Zander, Kit George, and Claudio Caldato) have come to Atlanta this week to visit customers, gather feedback, promote the .NET community and share vision and direction.

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet these guys and I must say that they are all a class act. These guys are not only very cerebral, they are very cool as well. I want to thank them for caring about the users of their work and being willing to be open and giving of themselves. Thanks for coming guys...keep up the great work!