frankarr - an aussie microsoft blogger

Happy Star Wars Day for 2008 !

May the 4th be with you!

The Baudboys sing Tripod

I got to sit and listen to the Baudboys yesterday, an all-male a cappella group composed entirely of Microsoft employees, which includes a guy who is in the team I work in, Dave McEwen.  And yes, they are on Myspace!

The show got some great coverage in the local newspaper, the Seattle Times

• Microsoft's Baudboys singers scoring big with their gigs
• Music from Baudboys, Microsoft's a capella group

Now, the highlight for me was hearing them sing the X-box Song by Tripod, that famous Aussie musical comedy act.

You know that song, where the guy is playing one more level before he can make his girlfriend happy. Here's Tripod's performance to remind you : True Geek Love! (Tripod)

Anyways, enough of my ramblings.

Congrats Baudboys on becoming the Northwest Champions in the 2008 Harmony Sweepstakes and good luck for the 2008 NATIONAL FINALS!

Expression Encoder 2 : Encoding For Everyone, including you, you and you!

I bumped into my good friend Charles Finkelstein today.

He was very happy and it wasn't because of his recently purchased muscle car.

His product, Expression Encoder 2, has been pushed out and is ready for download.

To be honest, I don't think the brief description does it justice

Microsoft® Expression® Encoder 2 Trial

Brief Description

With Expression Encoder 2, you can import and encode video files, produce live webcasts, enhance media with watermarks and advertising, and publish with Microsoft Silverlight.

The Expression Encoder team has a blog and it is full of tips and tricks, such as:

• Tutorial on encoding screen recordings for Silverlight using Expression Encoder 2
• Getting started with the Expression Encoder Object Model

Looking forward to seeing more posts, now that you guys have shipped (hint, hint)

Klaatu barada nikto : Robochamps Rulez!

Marc Mercuri, my neighbour from across the hallway, has been working away on a very cool project, which involves Silverlight 2.0, ASP.NET 3.5, WCF 3.5, REST, S+S, LiveID, Linq, SQL, IIS, .NET Framework 3.5, and..... robots. How cool is that!

Mark, aka RoboChamps League Commissioner, explains it all in his post Robots for everyone!

Plus, there are interviews, demos and inside info at RoboChamps: My robot is bigger than your robot & Marc Mercuri and Kyle Johns: Inside RoboChamps

Now, I've been known to be partial to robots. I do have a Pleo after all, so of course, I signed up.

Here's my robocard.

Klaatu Barada Nicto

Office Labs. Try. Experience. Discuss. Look. Listen. Laugh. Learn.

I've been watching our internal office labs for a while now and wondering when it would see the light of day.

Well, that day was this week when the covers were taken off the site : http://www.officelabs.com/

There are a few interesting projects up there

• Community Clips
• Search Commands
• SharePointPedia
• InkSeine
• Task Market

I've been using InkSeine on my tablet for a while now. It's a prototype ink application from MSR.

There are a few other projects which I hope will surface onto office labs soon. Keep an eye on the blog, which is where you can also find Chris Pratley

Lest We Forget ... again

Today is ANZAC Day.

ANZAC Day, 25 April, is the day Australians (and New Zealanders) remember the original landing on Gallipoli in 1915.

• ANZAC Day at the Australian War Memorial
• The ANZAC Day tradition
• Dawn of the Legend
• Mapping Gallipoli
• Rare film: ANZAC troops at Gallipoli, 1915

It's weird thinking about a national holiday when you aren't in the nation to celebrate it with everyone else.

We decided to bake some ANZAC bikkies (or as they are called here - cookies) and the kids took them to school. They were going to tell the ANZAC story to their fellow classmates. The biscuits are made out of rolled oats, sugar, plain flour, coconut, butter, golden syrup , bi-carbonate of soda and boiling water.

We also found a really handy site that had lots of information

So, let's close this post with a minute's silent and the Ode

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning
We will remember them. Lest we Forget

Will Alister Stay Grumpy with Ray Ozzie?

I got the following email a while back from Alister Cameron and it's been sitting in my inbox waiting for a response.

-----Original Message-----

From: alister @ alistercameron.com
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 4:12 AM
To: Frank Arrigo
Subject: (frankarr - an aussie microsoft blogger) : A swipe at your boss

Importance: High

Hi from Melbourne, Frank :)

http://www.alistercameron.com/2008/02/29/ray-ozzie-blogging-groove-disappointed/

I'm grumpy with Ray Ozzie, for whom I have the utmost respect... I think he's a total genius, but I wanted to rant a bit.

Appreciate any linkages for this post if you think it has merit.

I wanna see Groove back in the spotlight :)

Cheers,

-Alister

Alister Cameron

www.alistercameron.com

----------------------------------

This message was generated from a contact form at: http://blogs.msdn.com/frankarr/default.aspx

It was submitted by Alister Cameron

Your contact information was not shared with the user.

I had wanted to respond as soon as I got the email, but I knew about some upcoming announcements and thought I would hold on.

Until now.

The news broke last night, and it's all over TechMeme, and it's all about Live Mesh

From the Live Mesh team blog

• Welcome To Live Mesh
• Live Mesh as a Platform
• What's a platform experience (and why do I care?)

Now Alister, I know this doesn't directly address your issues regarding Ray's blogging frequency, or your question on Groove, but now you know what's been keep Ray busy.

And he is most definitely back in the spotlight! Here is Ray Ozzie Introducing Live Mesh, in his first Channel9 interview where he sits down with Jon Udell to talk about Live Mesh.

Help Oscar Become A Doctor

My dear friend Oscar Trimboli is kicking off the process of a doctorate at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management on "Impact of Software as a Service on Australian Independent Software Vendors"

He wanted me to put a plug in my blog for his efforts.

Normally, I say no to these request.

Actually, that's not true. I rarely say no. I tend to say "YES" to these requests.

And since he is starting the journey, I'm happy to help.

So, if you are a software developer in Australia, and you would like to get involved in the research and benefit from it's findings, leave me a comment and I will hook you up with Oscar.

Oh, just one thing Oscar - you may need to adjust Software as a Service to Software+Services

Carbon Grove.

Carbon Grove highlights what each of us can do to help improve our Earth’s ecosystem.

My tree at Carbon grove

I planted a Coconut tree. Now all I need is a bit of lime.... (and if that doesn't make any sense, watch this)

All Aboard For Digestion, Excretion, and Points South

In honor of my 3 year anniversary, I am wearing a special tshirt, the GI Metro

I love the quote from the site

This shirt tells the world: "My internal organs may not be pretty, but at least they make the trains run on time."

Let’s look closely at the design

3 year anniversary

3 years ago this week, I had major surgery.

You know, It's really hard to believe it was 3 years ago, the scar on my belly is a constant reminder of the 64 staples.

Here's a recap - @ home again, facing the inevitable, Incredible Shrinking Frank, It's official - I have a date with my surgeon, Post From DIARIST on my XDA II, surgery over, Unexpected benefit of MSN Spaces, big news day

I want to give thanks to the medical staff and my special surgeon.

A few years back I found a song dedicated to this group of unsung heroes.

Working Where The Sun Don't Shine (The Colorectal Surgeon's Song)

We praise the colorectal surgeon
Misunderstood and much maligned
Slaving away in the heart of darkness
Working where the sun don't shine

Respect the colorectal surgeon
It's a calling few would crave
Lift up your hands and join us
Let's all do the finger wave

When it comes to spreading joy
There are many techniques
Some spread joy to the world
And others just spread cheeks
Some may think the cardiologist
Is their best friend
But the colorectal surgeon knows...
He'll get you in the end!

Why be a colorectal surgeon?
It's one of those mysterious things.
Is it because in that profession
There are always openings?

When I first met a colorectal surgeon
He did not quite understand;
I said, "Hey nice to meet you
But do you mind? We don't shake hands."

He sailed right through medical school
Because he was a whiz
Oh but he never thought of psychology
Though he read passages.
A doctor he wanted to be
For golf he loved to play,
But this is not quite what he meant...
By eighteen holes a day!

Praise the colorectal surgeon
Misunderstood and much maligned
Slaving away in the heart of darkness
Working where the sun don't shine!

www.bowserandblue.com /   MP3 audio of quote/song (3.4 Mb)

So, how am I doing these days? 

I’m feeling pretty good.

I try to get regular exercise, I go to the gym. I watch my diet.

My weight fluctuates between 100 kgs (220 lbs) and 110 kgs (242 lbs) but it needs to be lower by another 15% or so.

Honestly, 3 years back, while I was lying in hospital, I had no idea what lay ahead.

Looking back, a lot has happened and I am thankful to be able to look ahead still not knowing what lies ahead, but I know that whatever happens, I’ll be there.

empowerforisv.com

I've been a big fan of Microsoft Empower for ISVs since it launched.

I've written a few posts about it in my time.

• Empower (Thursday, December 04, 2003)
• Empower for ISVS - new lower price (Thursday, February 05, 2004)

I've also been amazed by how many people DON'T know about this amazing offer!

What is it, you ask?

Microsoft Empower for ISVs is an initiative for independent software vendors creating new software solutions using Microsoft® technology. Membership gives you access to essential development tools, resources, and support that will help you accelerate your product development and get your application to market faster.

There is now a new site with a memorable URL which should help in discoverability http://empowerforisv.com

Catchy right?

Tweetstats : In ur Tweets, Graphin' Your Stats!

I like what tweetstats does, which is a set of graphs from of your twitter stats.

I also like the little message at the bottom of the page

Made with love and lots of help by
Damon aka (dacort)

Here’s my Tweetstats

Zooming in a bit…..

This shows I tweet a lot, but not as much as I used to

This shows that I am pretty consistent but tweet more during the week than during the weekend

This shows I tweet more in the afternoon. For some reason I tweet a lot between 4 and 5 pm.

What does your tweetstat tell you about you?

Fresca Free For 62 days!

Back in January, I admitted my addiction to Fresca.

That was the last day I had a sip of that "distinctively crisp, moderately smooth, intriguingly citrus, totally refreshing soda".

Today, 62 days later, I can say I haven’t been tempted to have revert back to my old ways.

I am feeling a bit better but I must admit I do crave it every now and then.

I think I can continue my Fresca free lifestyle.

The Tanjay, aka Polycom’s CX700 IP Phone

11 months ago, I became a Unified Communictions user and I really, really liked it.

I even had a cool little USB phone which let me do calls and had a glowly light which showed my Communicator status.

It was really cool.

Then I packed my bags and moved to Redmond. This put me into a queue of 1,000s of others who were all waiting to join the fun.

I waited. The team back in Australia got cool phones and I still waited.

Well this week I finally was welcomed back to the Unified Communications fold.

My account was enabled for Unified Communications (UC) Telephony.

This included a technician setting up my UC desk telephone (also known as the Tanjay telephone) on my desk. The phone has the formal name of Polycom’s CX700 IP Phone For Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 but I still call it Tanjay. Reminds me of a boy I went to school with.

And the quick start guide promises a phone which connects like no other.

And so far it has lived up to the promise.