Tech Blender

Windows Communication Foundation Resource Roundup

Search VB has a great roundup of WCF resources.

You can (Finally) download hotfixes for Visual Studio 2005

You can finally download various hotfixes for Visual Studio 2005.  Good news since the VS2005 SP1 Beta has closed, but SP1 hasn't released.

The Nameless Developer Podcast

I really like the podcasts that Derek Hatchard and Mike Mullen are putting together.  This week's is "Show me the smack."  These guys are up on everything new, and it's chock full of good stuff.

Microsoft Ships Windows Vista

In a banner week for the software maker, Vista has released, along with the .NET Framework 3.0, and 2007 Microsoft Office System.  You have at least one week to enjoy the shinnyness before Microsoft starts referring to those products as "legacy" and starts pimping things like the .NET Framework 3.5, Orcas, et al.

Download the Sysinternals Suite

What process is accessing this folder, preventing me from deleting it?  What process has this DLL in use, preventing me from overwriting it?  The Sysinternals tools are the solution to these sorts of troubleshooting issues.  Now you can download the whole suite from Microsoft in one shot.  And, it's only 8MB.

(via CodeProject)

Search Smarter, not Harder

Ed Kaim offers tips on how developers can search more effectively.

.NET Framework 3.0 Ships

Get yours here.  For some reason, it appears under the Vista developer center, even though it runs on XP and Windows Server.

Oh, and the full redist is 50MB.

Office 2007 Ships

Microsoft has announced that Office 2007 has shipped.  I wonder if this also means that the .NET Framework 3.0 has shipped?  Vista, anyone?

Known Folder Browser for Vista

From Kenny Karr, "Are you finding all the "special folders" in Windows Vista a bit overwhelming? Which are real folders and which are virtualized? Which are profile-specific and which are common to all users? Which are rooted and which are relative?" Known Folder Browser shows you what's what.

Free Online File Converters

Media Convert will let you convert files from one format to another, for example, from Word to PDF, online (no converter to install).  There doesn't seem to be a file size limit, but they make you stare at a lot of ads.

Another option is Neevia, which does away with the ads, but limits you to a 1MB source file.

(via CodeProject)

Have our Cake and Your Browser 2.

Apparently, when the Mozilla team shipped FireFox 2, the Microsoft IE team sent them a cake.

http://fredericiana.com/2006/10/24/from-redmond-wi...

Ohloh reports that open-source check-ins have plumetted as a full 1/3 of open source developers attempt to break the code of the black and white frosting border. :)

Microsoft Live Search - Still a Long Way to Go?

I've been scanning through a long thread about the internals of Microsoft Live Search.  If you're into search engine optimization (which I'm not), then the consensus from the forum is:

• Use of H1 and H2 tags will penalize you.
• Low keyword density is good.  High makes the algorithm think you're spam.
• Authority sites don't rank well.
• If the search term is in the domain name, life is good.

Oh, and overall, people claim the Microsoft search results return a lot of spammy link pages.

Details.

Iraq + PowerPoint + Edward Tufte

I'm very into the convergence of technology, but sometimes even I marvel at how things come together.  On one thread, you have some dudes in Redmond Washington taking the concept of the slide projector/overhead projector, implementing it in software, and calling it PowerPoint.

Then, you have the most capable military the world has ever seen, with the ability to precisely direct the most devastating force, locked into highly factious civil conflict for which the military industrial complex has provided almost no tools.  It's one thing to talk about putting in screws with a hammer, but I don't think that really captures the challenge of building a national power grid using precision guided munitions.  Don't get me wrong, I mean who wouldn't want a minigun?  Still, it has it's reconstruction limits.

Then, there's Edward Tufte, off critiquing how well visuals convey information and meaning.

Put it all together, and you get Edward saying "Thbbbt!" about this:

For Mr. Tufte's actual comments, go here and scroll to the bottom.

Details about the Google/YouTube Deal

Dare links to a fascinating post that sheds light on how big business can operate. 

It breaks down the gist of the Google/YouTube deal as an industry menaje a trois. YouTube gets bought and the founders make oodles.  Google sucks up this Internet icon.  The media companies that were about to go after YouTube get a pile of cash (none of which they have to pay out as royalties to the talent).  To provide air-cover for Google, the media companies sue YouTube competitors, and don't sue YouTube, to give it a big competitive boost in the marketplace (it's a nice advantage to be able to infringe on copyrights, risk free, for 6 months).  After that, it's assumed that Google will clamp down on the copyrighted material, which won't hurt them much because the competitors will either be quashed, or will have had to remove copyrighted material some time ago.

Brilliant. 

Do no evil.

<strike>SQL Server Everywhere Edition</strike> SQL Server Compact Edition

As Steve Lasker says, "So, why Compact?  Because that’s exactly what it is."

I wonder if Sybase having already claimed "SQL Everywhere" as a trademark might have something to do with the name change as well.

Honestly, I don't really care what they call it.  It's a cool product for local data storage, and hopefully the Access killer for .NET developers.