Ryan Cromwell

Well the Dayton-Cincinnati Code Camp and my presentation have both come and gone. In all, the day was a success, but I was a little disappoint in my session. Nothing in-particular went wrong, but I just never felt we got into a good flow. I feel exhaustion took a toll on my presence, but other than that, I can't explain it. Maybe Andy Roddick and I have just misplaced our mojo temporarily. We'll have to see. Our gracious host Jim Holmes did a fantastic job. He says there were glitches, but I never saw them. I was impressed by the number of sponsors who actually showed up with gifts. Here are the session I went to before ducking out a bit early to help a friend move... again. Oh the life of a truck owner :/

1. Python and IronPython by Catherine Devlin
2. Little nap to make up for no sleep the night before.
3. Lunch by Microsoft - who would miss that!
4. Windows Workflow Foundation by Mike Wood

I was pretty impressed with Python and IronPython, though it mostly has to do with the cool embedded interpreter in the presentation tool. I can't imagine using it for anything other than a toy. WWF was very impressive. A little confounding as it seemed to jump around a lot, but I'm sure that will tighten up a bit. I'll definitly be using that in the near future. I'll have the code from my presentation up on the site soon, so hopefully no-one came running right after the presentation.

As I mentioned yesterday, I received my Windows Live Mail beta invitation and I've begun using it full time. It's definitely a functional beta and I must say it's much quicker than it's predecessor, but I'm very glad this is not a completely open beta. It's pretty unpolished at this point and there are some glaring issues in my opinion. We'll see how things far in the next update. Here is what I've found so far:

Bugs

• Allow sender does not show content.
• New Mail doesn't appear until you click on or update the folder list
  1. On page 2
  2. Sent email from another account
  3. Windows Live Messenger said I had an email
  4. Paged to page 1 (no new email and count still at 2540)
  5. Page 2 forward to 2 again (no change in count)
  6. Clicked Junk e-mail folder
  7. Inbox went bold and said I had one email
  8. Clicked Inbox (there it was!)
• The Insert Search Link icon is cut off.

Feature Issues

• No full screen view of messages!!!
• Stop trying to be so fancy... Attach a File link rather than stupid drop down. Less is more.
• Tool bar is very tacky and unorganized. Actions on the email should be together (i.e Send, Save Draft, and Cancel should be next to each other, followed by Attach)
• Consider using the telerik r.a.d editor... it's amazing!
• The folder and mail windows do not scale at all when going above 1024x768. UPDATE: This must have been a temporary thing, because it scales just fine now. Let you know if it happens again. I've sent these via the ginormous Send Feedback image/link on every page. I'm sure I'll come up with more.

I received my invitation to Windows LIve Mail (Hotmail Kahuna) today! This on top of the Windows Live Messenger invite I received last week make me believe this first quarter is going to be an exciting one to watch. I have yet to really dig into this new Hotmail release, but rest assured I will let you know what I think soon.

I have 3 invites left for Windows Live Messenger and so I'll follow the lead from which I receive my invite. First 3 emails in the comments will receive an invite. I'll remove your emails shortly there after so you don't get harvested.

I recently got in on the Windows Live Messenger Beta courtesy of Jan Tielen's and I've got to say, I'm a little sceptical. The real difference is in the interface, not the functionality (how much can you really do with text based chat?). They have tried to create a more impressive interface, but I believe its a little too clunky. It is a beta, but it doesn't bode well for "ma and pa." Here are my initial reactions:

• Like the adjustable color scheme.
• Dislike the horrid orange default color scheme.
• Love the folder sharing.
• Dislike not being able to share the same folder with multiple contacts.
• Love the new contact form and contact card.
• Hate the clunkyness of the roll-over, expand contact feature, though the idea may have a future.
• Like the "name-wheel" for searching for contacts, but my parents won't even notice it.
• Dislike the stupid tabs - there has to be a better way.

In general, I would have expected more polish even for an invite only preview. Scott (like I know him :P) mentioned the pixelated icons, but the same issue runs through the entire app. The pop-out tabs are rough around the edges and the now-green MSN-men which replace the impossible-to-recognize personalize icons of MSN 7.5 are a little fuzzy. I like that they are trying to make things look cool, but please, go vector, go home. Screen Shots

It looks like Mono will finally be a valid option for deploying applications. Red Hat has announced that it will include Mono in its Fedora Core 5. Does that mean it will be in Red Hat as well? I couldn't tell you since I don't follow the Linux distributions to closely, but that would definitly be impressive. I personally run Ubuntu and, being a Linux novice, find it to be the closest thing to a "Mom-usable" Linux OS out there. Then again, I don't follow the Linux distributions to closely.

This is really just for my future reference, but since I had a hard time finding out here are the settings I used for w.Bloggar and Community Server 2.0

API Section

• Blog Tool/API: (Custom)
• Account Alias: Ryan @ CromwellHaus.com
• Ping: Weblogs.com
• API Server: www.cromwellhaus.com
• Path: /cs/blogs/ryanc/MetaBlog.ashx

Custom Section

• Posts:: metaWeblog API
• Categories: metaWeblog API - Single
• Templates: Blogger API
• Defaults for everything else

I found the starter for these on the CS MetaBlog API Thread

Many moons ago I realized I was not a naturally directed individual. That is, I do not organize well without putting forth a deliberate effort. If and when I fail at something I can most often trace it to a lack of task management on my part. I have found that having a simple list has done more for my career and life than just about anything else I can imagine (please stop boiling over with arguments, I'm merely making a point). In a "kill two birds with one post" moment, I wanted to publish my goals refresh which have made their way into my list of things to do:

• Publish my experiences on learning the IronPython and Scheme languages.
• Run 9 miles per week.
• Lift 3x a week.
• Blog 3 articles a week (bird #2).
• Play basketball 2x a week.
• Read 2 books on the Crusades (this currently exists as "find 2 books about the Crusades").

Now I know what your thinking, "Those certainly appear to be New Year Resolutions, Ryan." Well they are not - they are goals. They are goals, because aside from the last three items they are unchanged from last week, last month, and all of last year. I prefer to maintain rolling resolutions rather than one time resolutions that are tied to dates. Some of the best advice: "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today" - J. A. Spender

The final schedule for the Dayton-Cincinnati Code Camp to be held January 21st has been released.  I'm really looking forward to Jim Weirich's session on Ruby on Rails and the especially interesting Developing for Windows Media Center (with Xbox 360!) session by Jason Follas and Greg Huber. 

I'll be following Mike Wood with a session on WSE 3.0.  I plan to recreate the Generic WSE Host service tool we use at Speedway to deploy new services which don't have an otherwise reliable or acceptable host process.