Now that my Media Center is up and running (yes, yes I know, I will be posting the specs and pictures soon, as I am travelling on work in Brussels will do it when I get back), I have been thinking of how to extend that to make it a fuller experience (if there is such a word). Here are some things that I was thinking of integrating/extending/playing with (and hopefully have more stuff up on the sandbox). What else can you think of? Also, if you have something already working on this then let me know. My intention is eventually to release the bits (including code) for everyone - and to set expectations - that will happen once I have had a chance to check out the MCE SDK. ...

PCMag has a very interesting look into a Wireless Home - could this be our home of the future? You can check out things from Buglar’s beware , some place you can always be connected , the paranoids who should not read this, meter readers going the way of the milkman, a bluetooth hub , among others . I guess I should start saving to buy… :) ...

If you ever mange to screw up your IP Stack on Windows how to fix it? Well one way is to remove the protocol from all the network cards and then possibly also your network cards and adding them again (after rebooting of course). Alternatively, depending on your OS version you could apply a service pack. Also, in Windows XP, the TCP/IP stack is considered a core component of the operating system, and you cannot remove TCP/IP. Therefore, when you view the list of components for a network interface, you may notice that the Uninstall button is disabled when Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is selected. In extreme cases, the best solution for this issue may be to reinstall the Internet Protocol stack. But with the NetShell utility, you can reset the TCP/IP stack to restore it to its state that existed when the operating system was installed. Here is the command you run in a command prompt: ...

Here’s the untold secret of married life as told my Meenakshi my lovely wife *grin* A couple was celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. Their domestic tranquillity had long been the talk of the town. What a peaceful & loving couple. A local newspaper reporter was inquiring as to the secret of their long and happy marriage. “Well, it dates back to our honeymoon,” explained the man." We visited the Grand Canyon and took a trip down to the bottom on the canyon by horse. We hadn’t gone too far when my wife’s horse stumbled. My wife quietly said,“That’s once”. ...

Well, you can either start a blog like me (pun intended) *grin*, or you can stack pennies - which are quite cool, but then how much time is needed for creating each art thinggy ??? ;)

I got this via my lovely wife Meenakshi (who still has not bothered to start blogging ;)). Google is further increasing the storage space on Gmail (on the occasion of its 1st birthday) and running something interesting on their website which shows how the space is increasing. They are beginning to roll out their “top secret"Infinity + 1 plan, with the key being the gift that keeps on giving… storage space that is.. :). From last night this has gone up from 1611.47 mb to 1924.88 mb and still counting! They also list out some features such as Fonts, bulleting, colors, highlighting , etc. This makes this even more compelling to use than other options like Yahoo or Spammail… err.. I mean Hotmail. ...

Yes, its true! MS is going to port SQL Server for Linux! I don’t think they would be releasing the code for it though. ;)

I don’t agree with Microsoft’s approach here . Essentially if you are running XP and don’t have SP2 installed, then that will be forced down your throat. Now, I had SP2 running the day it went Beta and have not had any problems, but I am not sure if this really is to get the security patches out or forcing people running pirated copy of Windows to buy legal versions (remember SP2 cannot be installed on a pirated version)? I prefer to give the people the option to do it themselves rather than forcing them - I know of many legacy apps at various clients I have worked at that would not work with SP2…. ...

OSNews has an article Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative seems like an odd mix for the company when it works openly and a clever shot across the bow of open source when it works selfishly. How can the rest of us reconcile both positions? Microsoft ex-employee Stephen Walli shares his perspectives on the Shared Source Initiative from within and without the company - quite an interesting read. ...

I personally don’t like New York at all - especially New York city, it is a great place for a weekend, but that is it, I won’t live there for a million bucks! And this just makes it another reason on my “don’t like it” list. A telecommuter who lives out of state while working by computer for a New York employer must pay New York tax on his full income, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday in a case that could have wide implications in the growing practice. The Court of Appeals said that computer programmer Thomas Huckaby who lives in Nashville, Tenn., owed New York income tax for his full salary, not just the time he spent working at his employer’s New York offices. Huckaby paid tax on about 25 percent of his income over two years for the time he spent working in New York state. But the court upheld a state tax department ruling that all his income should be taxed. That amounts to $4,387 plus interest. However, the ruling could lead to much greater income for the state as it is applied to the growing field of telecommuting. ...

If you are like me and shy away from RealPlayer because of all the “junk” it installs with and the persistent nagging, well you don’t need to anymore. Check out RealAlternative (as of now at v1.33) which lets you play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer (or RealOne player). You do need a player that is capable of playing RealMedia. The included Media Player Classic supports it and works very well. Supported: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix (.rp), RealMedia embedded in web pages. .smi and .smil files sometimes only play the first part of a clip. This is a limitation of the current Media Player Classic. The RealMedia Browser plug in supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape and Mozilla. ...

Though there have been lots of talk in Longhorn (especially recently), and I have dabbed in it previously, now some interesting bits are being released on what are the new features in IIS 7. The coolest one of these is the componentization of IIS where all of IIS’s functions will be specific components which can be turned on or off. This means that when you install the Web server, you’ll be able to add only the functionality you need, one piece at a time. ...

Got this one from Karan, if you have problems waking up in the morning, especially with an Alarm clock, you might want to check out Clocky . If you wondered what is so exceptional about this well read on… When the alarm clock goes off and the snooze button is pressed, Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away, bumping mindlessly into objects on the floor until it eventually finds a spot to rest. Minutes later, when the alarm sounds again, the sleeper must get up out of bed and search for Clocky. This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off. Small wheels that are concealed by Clocky’s shag enable it to move and reposition itself, and an internal processor helps it find a new hiding spot every day. ...

If you’re a Silicon Valley geek, and you want to keep your “geek ID” what’s the best way to do it? That’s right, build your own Segway . Hmm … with the Summer approaching… just need to convince my lovely wife of this… can anyone help with a business case here?

Want to get more out of Firefox, then check out the Firefox tweak guide .

Ever wondered what is happening inside regsvc.exe? Well so did Tomas Restrepo, and here is what he found out.

At work, recently I needed to simulate a GPS connection while sitting inside the building and while finding a solution for that I came across GPSGate , which is a cool piece of code. You can use this to share one GPS connected to a Pocket PC or laptop to other computers connected to the same LAN. On each computer running GpsGate you can in turn connect any number of GPS applications to GpsGate, everything running at the same time. Not only that you can also Simulate a GPS feed (what I was originally looking for) and also log a real feed from a device for later playback. ...

If you ever wanted a quick sample of some system programming - something you know is fairly simple to do but did not have the time to do it from scratch - just something quick and dirty, then you should check out this link - which has all the basic stuff Thread Pools, Waitable Handles, Monitors, Secure Remoting channel, etc. ...

I think this has to be the coolest Media Center PC (not to mention pricey too). Since I just build mine, maybe in a few years I can save up to get this one… :)

Jonathan Hardwick explores a few ideas on how to share your windows desktop on more than one machine… Now the question is that which ones are supported in Windows Media Center 2005, so I can control that using one of the laptops at home (there is always either mine or Meenakshi’s around). Has anyone tried this with MCE? ...

Werner Vogel, CTO of Amazon.com has an article which was published a few months ago where we talks about the misconception of how most people think that web services are distributed objects. Here is an excerpt from the article. The hype surrounding Web services has generated many common misconceptions about the fundamentals of this emerging technology. Web services are frequently described as the latest incarnation of distributed object technology. This misconception, perpetuated by people from both industry and academia, seriously limits broader acceptance of the true Web services architecture. Although the architects of many distributed and Internet systems have been vocal about the differences between Web services and distributed objects, dispelling the myth that they are closely related appears difficult. ...

Fortune is running a story about the golden age of microchip graffiti is fading. But these images were never meant to be seen in the first place. “I saw something that looked different from most other things on the chip,” Davidson recalls. He cranked up the magnification and looked again. “I saw this Waldo thing,” recalls Davidson, referring to the character in the Where’s Waldo? cartoon books. At first Davidson thought the microscopic Waldo served as a kind of anti-copying feature, but a few months later, on the same chip, he found a teeny tiny Daffy Duck. Now the hunt was on. ...

I am looking (Karan has been on the lookout also) for a good ergonomic chair for my study at home and want to get your feedback on which ones you like and what do you think the price is right for that? I also need to take into account shipping to UK if something is only available in the US (or buying in the US and shipping to UK given the £ to $ ratio). ...

As promised earlier, the Sanbox is up - go give it a whirl and let me know your thoughts. Also the code and release build of the World Clock are up there. Check it out and let me know what you think of it and also any bugs and feature enhancements you would like to see. ...