David Fries' WebLog

Moving to Japan

davfries — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 11:57:00 GMT

So, it's been a long time since I've blogged, and I figured it's time for an update.

First of all, I no longer work on the CLR team. It was a great year and a half, but an opportunity came up that I just couldn't resist. I have transitioned to the Windows TV team (part of Media Center). Once again I find myself in a position where I have a lot to learn, but I think when I'm learning is when I'm happiest, so no complaints here.

This particular position is in Japan, and I'll be moving to Tokyo in a couple of months. Working in Japan has been something I've wanted to do for a while, and I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully my Japanese will be good enough for the work environment.

I'll probably add a new RSS category for TV to reflect this change. You might see some more activity on the Japan feed as well, but that may be more appropriate on a personal blog.

Anyway, wish me luck!

XBox 360 Japan Plan

davfries — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 11:18:00 GMT

Here's an interview with Yoshihiro Maruyama and Mike Fischer, some of the big wigs for the XBox in Japan, about what efforts they are doing to make the XBox 360 more competetive in Japan. Having been in many a game store in Japan, and seeing the lack of shelf space devoted to XBox games, I'm hoping they can turn things around in the next generation. I believe their ideas are sound, but only time will tell.

Oh, and here's proof that Japanese XBox fans do exist.

Microsoft signs 3 Japanese developers for XBox 2 exclusive content

davfries — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 05:23:00 GMT

This is probably the most exciting bit of news I've heard about XBox 2 yet. While I love Halo as much as the next guy, I sometimes prefer to play a nice epic RPG like Final Fantasy. In fact, the sole reason that I own a PS2 is because of Final Fantasy. Well, it looks like the man behind the Final Fantasy series himself, Mr. Hironobu Sakaguchi is going to be making not one, but two RPG's for the next generation XBox.

As if that weren't enough to make you start drooling, Microsoft announced today that 2 more Japanese industry giants, Yoshiki Okamoto and Tetsuya Mizuguchi, are also signed up to develop exclusive content for the next XBox. Okamoto is responsible for the Street Fighter and Resident Evil series, as well as a slew of other Capcom titles, and Mizuguchi has developed such games as Sega Rally Championship, Rez and Space Channel 5.

Hopefully this marks the beginning of a turnaround in the Japanese market for the XBox platform. At the very least, they've made this gamer a happy one.

Sources: Gamasutra, XBox.com

NGEN in Whidbey - Overview

davfries — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 23:48:00 GMT

Here's Reid Wilkes' post about his article in MSDN magazine on NGEN in Whidbey:

http://blogs.msdn.com/reidlw/archive/2005/02/19/376800.aspx

...and here's the article itself:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/04/NGen/default.aspx

This is an EXCELLENT overview of what is new in NGEN in Whidbey.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, you can expect some more ngen related content from me in the near future. (In between bouts of Halo 2, I find time to do a bit of testing of NGEN)

XBox Live: 1.4 million strong

davfries — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:00:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/jan05/01-20XboxLive04BenchmarkPR.asp

Some other interesting stats from the press release:

There are now more than 200 Xbox Live -enabled titles, making it the richest library of online console games available today
Halo 2 has sold more than 6.4 million copies worldwide.
The Xbox Live community has logged a record-breaking 91 million hours playing "Halo 2" since the title's launch.
There have been close to 61 million logged sessions for Halo 2, with an average session lasting nearly 92 minutes.

More stats (not from the article)

XBox Live Subscribers were broke 1 million on July 15th. That means that there has been over 400,000 new subscribers in 6 months.
Doing a little arithmetic, we can see that 6.4 million copies of Halo 2 minus 1.4 million XBox subscribers means that there are 5 million people out there who own Halo 2, but aren't playing it on Live. C'mon folks, what are you waiting for?!

XBox Live: On the Road

davfries — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:30:00 GMT

Over the holidays, I went back home to visit my family. My little sister has an XBox, Halo 2, and DSL, as well as a free trial to XBox Live that came with Halo 2. However, the XBox is located in a part of the house that doesn't have any phone jacks nearby, so she'd never taken the time to hook it up to XBox Live. I decided to rectify this situation by bringing the wireless bridge I use at home (Linksys WET11) with me when I visited.

We got the security settings changed on the WET11, signed up for our free trial of XBox Live, and were soon happily online taking on the world. So far, so good.

However, after a while, my sister went off to do something else, and I decided I wanted to try to add my Gamertag to her XBox to see if anyone on my friends list was online. I exited to the dashboard to try to add my gamertag, but unfortunately, it kept asking me to create a new account, and didn't seem to give me the option of registering an existing one. I ended up turning off the XBox and spending time with my family. I know, what a totally lame way to spend the holidays. *grin*

This post was originally going to be a feature request for roaming profiles for XBox Live. However, I did some research, and it turns out that you can already do this, by saving your XBox Live account to a memory unit.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/live/acc-memory.htm

I really wished I would have known this before I left for vaction. It would be nice if you could download an existing profile to an XBox via the XBox Live service, without having to mess with memory units.

Actually, there is. I did some more research and found this page:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/live/acc-recovery.htm

Apparently, you can use the account recovery feature of XBox Live to move accounts between XBoxes. Sure, you invalidate your account on your original XBox when you do this, but you can just run the account recovery tool again when you get back home to restore the account.

Anyway, this caused me some grief, so I figured I'd post this in the hopes that it helps someone else.

EDIT: Wow, someone on the XBox team must read this blog. 1 day after my post, I see this up on the XBox site:

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live/about/features-roaming.htm

XBox Live traffic quintuples after Halo 2 launch

davfries — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:59:00 GMT

Here's an graphical look at XBox Live traffic after Halo 2 launched.

Source: http://www.sandvine.co.uk/solutions/pdfs/Gaming_trend_analysis_haloII_traffic.pdf

Not like this is something we didn't know was going to happen, but interesting nonetheless...

Halo 2 stats in Excel

davfries — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 16:15:00 GMT

I just saw this in the Seattle PI today.

"Microsoft Notebook: Tool connects 'Halo 2' with ... Excel?"

Using the RSS feed that http://www.bungie.net provides, Microsoft Excel Program Manager Sam Radakovitz was able to create a better way to check out your Halo 2 stats. (Well, the Game Viewer is pretty darn cool as well).

Per game, you see displayed in Pie Graph form how much you contributed to your team in Score, Kills, and my best category, Deaths.

You can also check out Kills per Map, Kills per Game Type, etc.

Try it yourself!

Jason Zander and the CLR Tour on Channel 9

davfries — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 22:18:00 GMT

My favorite quote:

"Your testers must be amazing developers."

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=30187

Halo 2 Sales in Japan

davfries — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 03:22:00 GMT

For the week of 11/8 - 11/14, Master Chief worked his way into 37,507 Japanese homes, placing Halo 2 in 3rd place on the all console charts. Not bad, considering that the XBox console market share is....shall we say, a bit small.

English: http://www.m-create.com/eng/e_ranking.html

Japanese, complete with sales figures: http://www.m-create.com/jpn/s_ranking.html

Just be thankful you didn't have to pay $95 for your copy of Halo 2.

Lazy Mail

davfries — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:19:00 GMT

Have you ever sent out an email saying:
"Hey, check out the new Britney Spears video <hypothetical link/>! It's HOT HOT HOT!"

Only instead of sending the mail to your buddy Alan, you sent it to the "All Employees" alias?

Then you frantically send out a "Recall" mail, which simply attracts more attention to your original blunder than you would have gotten had you simply done nothing.

My solution (since I'm always sending out Britney Spears videos) is to use an (apparently) little know feature of Outlook.

In Outlook: Tools->Options->Mail Setup Tab
Uncheck the "Send immediately when connected" checkbox.
Click the "Send/Receive" button
Check the checkbox for "Schedule an automatic send/receive every [5] minutes"

Now I have up to 5 minutes to open my outbox and save my career. Sure, I'm not always the first person to chime in on the latest email thread, but 5 minutes won't make that much of a difference.

Besides, if you really need to respond ASAP, you can always click on the Send/Receive button on the Outlook toolbar to send immediately.

Other benefits:

Emails come in only once every 5 minutes, so distractions are not constant.
While waiting for your answer to a thread to send, someone else might have responded with the same answers. You can delete my thread and save everyone time.

Now if I could only figure out how to get Outlook to fetch my morning toast for me...

Bungie.net website revamped for Halo 2

davfries — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 16:51:00 GMT

With all the excitement surrounding Halo 2's release, it seems that the new features added to Bungie.net's website have been overlooked. A co-worker told me about it, and I am now in awe.

Once you finish a game over XBox live, all your stats are uploaded to the servers. Sure, you get all the standard stuff like number of kills, deaths, etc, but there is much, much more to be explored here.

Halo 2 introduces an experience system so that you get to play against players of a similar skill level. You can view your current experience level in each of the different game types on the Bungie website, as well as your ranking compared to your friends.

There are also "medals" which are awarded for doing specific actions in the game, like carrying a flag, planting a bomb, killing the flag carrier, etc. It's nice finally getting credit for something other than kills!

In addition, you really should check out the new "Game Viewer". The Game Viewer shows you graphically who you killed, from where, to where, and vice versa. If you can't figure out where you keep getting sniped from, this is the tool to expose the assasin.

Here's an article that has screenshots, or you could just go ahead and create an account on the site to experience it for yourself!

Super Tuesday

davfries — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 16:02:00 GMT

Sure, electing the leader of the free world may seem important, but I think this is the day that the "Youth Vote" has been waiting for. (Good idea having the election BEFORE Halo 2's launch date, rather than ON launch day!)

Yes, my friends, it's time for representatives from the Red and Blue states to come together and let off some of that steam. It's easy! Just choose your team color based on your political leanings and start slinging the mud (among other projectiles). Hey, it's a lot easier to plasma grenade your rivals than actually engage in honest debate with them.

Luckily, in Halo 2, everyone can agree on one thing: the Death Penalty.

I'll see you guys on Live.

Gamertag: Chinpokomon

I think I'm blogging Japanese...

davfries — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 05:16:00 GMT

I'm trying out the new MSN blogging service at http://spaces.msn.com. It's only in Japanese, though you can look at the spatterings of English in there and wonder what exactly I'm talking about. (Those of you that do speak Japanese, feel free to correct mine!)

BTW, most of the comments are:

1) People correcting my Japanese

2) Me thanking the people who corrected my Japanese

Oh yeah, here's the URL: http://spaces.msn.com/members/jdpapas/

Security Report on Vulnerability Scanners

davfries — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 20:43:00 GMT

Hey, my buddy Joe wrote Security Innovations' Security Report this month. It has all sorts of information about vulnerability scanners, how hackers use them, and how you can help keep your network secured.

Could be useful for those of you with a home wireless network!

Status Reports in InfoPath (Part II)

davfries — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 06:13:00 GMT

Due to the overwhelming number of requests (3+) for screenshots and code for the Status Report described in a previous post , I've decided to make them publicly available. My only request is that you let me know how I can improve the form.

Here is the "Individual View":

It uses a Master-Detail control for viewing multiple Status Reports at once.

Here's the "Team View"

It groups things by section, rather than by person. I had to use a secondary data source and some scripting to get this to work. Perhaps someone can come up with a more elegant solution.

Here is the original form template. Also included are the two data sources (Access databases) that the form depends on.

A couple of notes on running this form:

I created an access database for the form to run in, but the form is currently hardcoded to look for the Access DB at C:\StatusReport\. Unzip the files to that location for the form to run properly. When you deploy the form to users, you should put the Access DB in a shared location, or use SQL Server.
The original form uses a Web Service to get the current user name. I had to remove this in order for this form to be functional, and I replaced it with a call to the WScript.Network ActiveX control. Unfortunately, this ActiveX control is unsafe, and requires the form to be Fully Trusted. Until you get your own web service written, you can test the functionality of the form by opening it in the Designer and Previewing.

If you have any questions or problems, let me know.

Status Reports in InfoPath

davfries — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 17:21:00 GMT

When I transitioned from the InfoPath team to the CLR team, I wanted to take some of my knowledge of InfoPath and put it to good use here. After browsing the intranet sites, I noticed that there had been several different attempts at designing a status reports system. While InfoPath isn't the right tool for every situation, status reports are a perfect fit.

The status reports system I designed for my team has the following features:

SQL Server 2000 backend
Auto-detection of employee name, manager name (from a web service)
Unfinished and new items from previous week are automatically populated for the current week
Validation so that submission can only happen on Fridays (makes it easy to query later)
Query by employee, manager, team, or date.
Master-detail view for viewing multiple status reports.
Roll-up view (displayed by section, not person) for viewing
Color schemes for the different views to make them easily distinguishable

If anyone's interested, I can post some sceenshots and/or code up.

Wasabi: It's not just for sushi anymore

davfries — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 01:00:00 GMT

Sushi Condiment Wasabi Doesn't Clear Noses: http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/94/102703.htm

However, it apparently prevents tooth decay: http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/36/1728_66834.htm

I'm ready for my wasabi-flavored Listerene, are you?

.NET vs. J2EE WebSphere Study

davfries — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 02:18:00 GMT

I just found this on the web today: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1645550,00.asp

Apparently .NET did pretty well against WebSphere.

Disclaimer: Now, I'm as skeptical as the next guy when it comes to studies, but and I have virtually no knowlege of WebSphere, so I can't validate nor discount the study.

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting. You can draw your own conclusions.

As for me, I'll be working hard on the Whidbey NGEN tool to enhance the performance of your future .NET applications.

Passing First Grade shouldn't be this hard!

davfries — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 16:03:00 GMT

I'm currently studying for the Japanese Langauge Proficiency Test, Level 1.. There are 4 levels, 1 being the most difficult. The test is only offered once a year (in December), and this year I'll be able to take the test in Seattle.

Here's a brief overview of the test:

First grade (1kyuu):
Total score: 400 points--passing score 280 (70%)
Vocabulary 10,000 words
Kanji: 2000
Generally requires about 900 hours of classroom study
http://www.geocities.com/easykanji/jlptguide.htm

To give you a sample, here's a list of some of the vocab I should know by December: (EUC encoding)

http://www.thbz.org/kanjimots/jlpt-voc-1-extra.euc

A friend of mine took the test last year and was able to pass it. I asked him how much he studied a day, and he told me he studied 3 hours a day (and he's starting from a much higher level than I'm at) I am trying to keep up with that pace, but there's only so much I can study before falling asleep. I don't have particularly high hopes about passing the test, but I'm hoping that if I continue to study daily, I'll at least have a shot.

This could mean that I won't be joining the rest of you on Nov. 9th. Have fun fragging each other without me!

You want a shake with those fries?

davfries — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 19:23:00 GMT

Another interesting thing I've discovered about Japan is the rigidity of their set menus.

One day while I was in Japan, I go into McDonald's with my parents, and ask what everyone wants so that I can order for them.

My mom tells me that she wants a Teriyaki McBurger combo, with hot coffee to drink. I tell her that that it's not possible to have the coffee with the set, so she agrees to have Coke instead.

My dad tells me that he wants a Teriyaki McBurger combo, with a chocolate shake to drink. I tell him that it's not possible to have the shake with the set. He insists that he wants a chocolate shake. I ask him if he would mind just sharing the fries that my mom was getting, then we could order the shake separately. He insists that he wants his own fries.

I'm pretty flexible, and am willing to drink water, and I don't really want fries. Just my Bacon Lettuce Burger.

So, here's what we want:

1 Bacon Lettuce Burger, with water or coke
1 Teriyaki Burger, fries, and a chocolate shake <--- Impossible to order in a set
1 Teriyaki Burder, fries, and a coke

So I step up to the counter knowing full well that I can't make any of these substitutions, and my "thrifty" side (some would say "cheap") will not allow me to order every item a la carte.

Here's what I try to order:

1 Bacon Lettuce Burger set, with a Coca-cola to drink.
1 Teriyaki Burger set, with a Coca-cola to drink
1 Teriyaki burger a la carte, and 1 chocolate shake.

This way, I can simply give my dad my fries, and everyone's happy.

"I'm sorry, sir, our shake machine is broken today. Please accept our humble apologies."

Ok, so now, I have to re-adjust my whole order in my head on the fly.

"Ok, make it a hot coffee, please"

1 Bacon Lettuce Burger set, with a Coca-cola to drink.
1 Teriyaki Burger set, with a Coca-cola to drink
1 Teriyaki burger a la carte, and 1 hot coffee

Now I can give my mom my fries, and she gets the hot coffee that she wanted. My dad will have to accept that there are no chocolate shakes today, but he still made out with fries and a coke.

Sure, we all ended up getting what we wanted, but I should have to think this hard when I'm on vacation! It is way too complicated to try to order things that are not the norm in Japan, which is why I typically try to play by the rules and follow the instructions on the menu.

Here's another account of the "no substitution" rule

The Shinkansen Countdown

davfries — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 21:45:00 GMT

So, I'm waiting on the platform in Nagoya for my shinkansen (bullet train) to arrive. The reserved cars were all sold out, so I had to take my chances with the non-reserved cars, since I'm a bit short on time. The thing about riding in the non-reserved cars is that you never know whether you'll be able to actually sit down or not. During the holiday season, it's especially hard to find a seat. Needless to say, I did not want to stand for my entire 2 and a half hour trip to Tokyo.

Finally the shinkansen approaches. I'm waiting for car #2. The first cars rush by me...

16..15..14..13..

My heart starts beating faster, as my fate for the next 2 hours will be decided momentarily...

12...11...10...9...

The train is slowing down. I'm peering in the windows to see if the reserved section is full...

8.....7......6.......5.......

The pace of the cars has now slowed considerably. I peek in car number 5, (the first non-reserved car) and to my relief there are some empty seats...

4............3...................

Just a few more moments....

The train has stopped, and I see some open seats. I begin to relax a little, as I'm first in line, and I'm sure I'll be able to sit in one of those seats.

The doors open, and people begin getting off. An older man and his grannddaughter get off the train... but then...

He stops in the doorway, and begins saying goodbye to her.Then he says good bye to her parents, who have come up to the platform to meet her.

I look at the door at the rear of car 2, and people are already boarding.I begin to tense up again. At this rate, the people boarding from the back of the train could take all the available seats!

Finally, the man attempts to go back inside the train, but the people waiting to get off are having none of that. He reluctantly steps off the train and stands on the side, waiting for everyone to get off.

At long last, I'm able to board, and thankfully, there are still plenty of seats available. Looks like I was getting anxious for no reason. I sit back, and relax all the way to Tokyo.

At Tokyo station, I'm making my reservations for the 1 hour Narita Express train to the airport, when the clerk says to me, "We only have standing room available, is that alright with you?"

*sigh*

Japanese parking lots

davfries — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:05:00 GMT

So, just got back from my 4 week vacation to Japan, so I'll probably have a few more Japan themed posts coming up.

Here's something I noticed when I first went over there, and it struck me as odd again this time around. Everyone does back-in parking! It's eerie almost. I've seen a few cars here and there that park "normally," but the vast majority, are backed-in. I of course asked people why they do this, and the typical response is "Well, it's easier to just drive away when you leave."

In America, we seem to focus more on the present, and go for the quick gratification of straight-in parking. Maybe this reflects some sort of general cultural difference. Maybe the American fast-food, spendy, instant gratification lifestyle is also reflected in our parking methods. Maybe the Japanese, with their #1 life expectancy, are always thinking of the future, and about how a little restraint now can pay off in the long run.

Nahh, on second thought it probably just has to do with driving on the left side of the road :)

InfoPath SP1 SDK released

davfries — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 00:46:00 GMT

Get it here...before it gets you!!!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=351F0616-93AA-4FE8-9238-D702F1BFBAB4&displaylang=en

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

davfries — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 04:23:00 GMT

I'm off to Japan next monday for 4 weeks, so I most likely won't be blogging much, if at all. I'm sorry to both of my readers for the inconvenience. :)