If you got more time to waste while searching than doing anything then check out Ms. Dewey . While it seems cool at first, it very quickly gets very irritating. And the fact, she does not shut up does not quite help. (via fellow Avanut, Christopher T Clark)

It is quite unusual for me to blog about non-technical things (other than the usual crappy joke), but there are certain thing which have a profound affect on me and global warming is one of those. Maybe it is the fact that I have seen the shortages first hand while growing up in India (and back then things were better that now, and they are just going to get worse), or maybe I have seen such a huge cultural difference between the Europeans and the Americans (having lived both in California for many years and for a couple of years now in London), or maybe I am just getting old - I don’t know. ...

Yes, there are probably more BSOD screens on the net that anything else, but these Top 10 Linux crashes are a keeper. Karan, see number 5 - were you on it?

I found this very irritating behavior with WCF (at least with the Vista RC2 runtime of WinFX, I have not tried it with the other builds yet). When I am on an active VPN connection (in this case, connected to the Avanade corporate network) and I try and start a new WCF Service it fails spectacularly with a NetworkUnreachable exception. When I disconnect from the VPN everything is fine and executes as expected. ...

I have a USB printer (an HP DeskJet) that shared on my home network via one of the desktops (which is running XP). I had the same problem in Vista RC1 and it still exists in RC2. Whenever I try and connect to this printer it takes a long time and eventually I get the error below. Any ideas what the resolution for this is? Note, I can connect to network printers at work - these are directly on the network and not shared via a Desktop. ...

If you have any mp4 video that you would like to play on Vista then you need to install the Xvid codec’s for those to work. There are many codec’s out there (especially Xvid being open source), for me this particular pack has been quite successful and I would recommend it.

Finally if you have been waiting for WMDC to sync up your Mobile, you don’t need to use the hack I had posted - instead can use Beta 3 of WMDC that is now publicly available . This works on RC1 onwards - I have tried it on Builds 54xx and also now on RC2 (build 5744) and it works fine. If you have the internal dogfood build installed, this will detect that and update it. And you get support for Windows Mobile 2003 as well! ...

I don’t know if I am doing something wrong, or if this is a bug (it has been a long day for me and I am at wit’s end so I cannot be certain one way or the other). If you have a WCF class (for example as shown in the code snipped below), where I have a Windows Form that happens to implement both the Service and Client side of a WCF application. ...

There is a brand spanking new version of Windows Live Writer which came out a little over a week ago. In addition to a number of bugs being fixed, there is tagging support, blogger beta support, improvements to categories, etc. ( read more details here ). There is also an updated Plug-In gallery . ...

Vista RC2 (essentially an updated build of RC1), is now available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in addition to the TAP and Beta Testers. I just checked and I don’t see it on MSDN, possibly it is being slowly rolled out. Update: If you are not part of the beta program, you and download RC2 from here (link via fellow Avanut Chris Smith). ...

(Update: Changed the Code plug-in to get the formatting correct) For the last few days I have not been able to run Windows Update on Vista RC1 (I am running Build 5728) even though I am online. I always get the Code 8024400A error (see screen shot below). Nothing stands out in the event log. Speaking of the Event Log, if you think you can find these failures in “Windows Logs => Systems”, well then think again. ...

BBC has this very inspiring story about how a few people give Indians from the poorest rung of society a chance to get into IIT (Indian Institute of Technology). Those of you are familiar with IIT, know how huge an achievement this is. Those who are not familiar with IIT - they are looked at IIT = MIT + Harvard + Princeton to give you an idea. There are many rankings and depends on what you believe as comparing apples and oranges is always difficult. ...

Hot, on the heels of overcoming the Writer’s block 😄 Sharing The Love

(Thanks to Karan for the link)

(Meenakshi forwarded this to me via one of chain emails that she got)

Where is the Secret of Life?

When I read the post by Somasegar about the availability (I should say lack of it) VS.NET 2005 SP1 and their support for Vista, I was quite pissed (you can read my comments here ). Come on guys, why are you acting like a 5-person development shop who just started does not know how to make software? ...

This is the screen shot from Windows Media Player in Vista Build 5728 - I guess there is still work to be done by Microsoft.

CNNMoney has an interesting read on Google and how they operate in Chaos by design . It also lays out the challenges for Google on with a 2nd act - right now it is a one-trick pony (albeit a very good trick one). The author for Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos , works for Google as a Sr. VP of Business Operations. I have not heard of her or this book, but it seems interesting. Has anyone else read it? What are your thoughts on it? ...

How to Overcome Writer's Block

IE7 is still new and while there are many sites it will just work without any issues there are many that it will just not work and you will get a “I don’t know what the heck that browser is” error. (There are a few who handle this quite gracefully - e.g. I am on the Yahoo Mail Beta and they say they don’t support it, but if you want to give it a shot - go ahead). ...

Vista Build 5728 (which is of course after RC1) can be downloaded from here for a limited time. As per Microsoft, this build has improvements from RC1 but has not gone through the same regression testing as a RC or Beta, and it might not work in some situations. Furthermore, Microsoft also highlights: This build may not have the same level of support or servicing via Windows Update, and you may not be able to upgrade to the final version of Windows Vista. ...

After my initial feedback and having using Windows Live Writer more I have found a critical bug. I have not kept an eye on the groups to see if someone else has reported this (or if there is a work around), but I wanted to capture it here. ...

I am Mario. I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren't for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can't stay out of trouble. What Video Game Character Are You? (via Lap’s distraction ) ...

Update: Microsoft has now publicly released the Beta 3 version of WMDC which you can get from here and you do not need to use the hack detailed below in this post. This beta 3 also supports Windows Mobile 2003! WMDC (Windows Mobile Device Centre), is the new software in Vista that replaces ActiveSync and you cannot even install ActiveSync on Vista. ...