June 2008 - Posts

Are you a SysInternals Fan?
24 June 08 05:30 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
If you are (I know I am) then you'll be happy to know that there's now a single location to go for all of the SysInternals tools.  It doesn't look like there's new versions of them all, but there's at least now just one location to go looking for Read More...
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OK, now THIS is cool
24 June 08 05:29 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
If you're old like me and remember Memeograph machines, this should be something interesting.  And if you're a spring chicken and don't - look at what your elders had to put up with in school (at least on a smaller scale.) http://cephaloprint.olympe-network.com/index.php?/steamroller/ Read More...
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Austin Innovation Camp this weekend!
24 June 08 05:29 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I'll definitely be there - and I'm probably bringing the robot kit.  You can find information about where and when at http://innovationcamp.pbwiki.com/ - don't forget to vote for or create a session!  There are four tracks, and right now it Read More...
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Are you intelligent?
24 June 08 05:28 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Just checking - yesterday was Alan Turing's birthday!  I missed it with all the other stuff going on, but it's a cool thing to think about. I spent a lot of years considering Turing tests and such, so it's interesting to see the day come by.  Read More...
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Zombie time
24 June 08 05:27 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Looks like " Left 4 Dead " now has a release date.  I think I'm going to have a busy fall.  With Spore coming in during September, and a number of other games finally releasing in the fall, I'm going to have to be pretty aggressive Read More...
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Found it!
24 June 08 05:27 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
When I was back in undegrad in Aeronautical Engineering, one of the professors at my campus had a great little car.  I finally found it (I think) at the Tiny-Cars post on haha.nu! This was the coolest thing ever, as it was as long as a regular car Read More...
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If you're into design
24 June 08 05:26 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
This may be your washbasin.  One of the reasons I'm into TechShop is that I would be able to make stuff like this for my wife without paying the huge "cool" premium that these guys tend to command! Read More...
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Playing the software game
24 June 08 05:24 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I found an interesting audiocast on IT Conversations   (as a quick note, this is also where the famous Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror and Joel Spolsky now host their Webcast - Stack Overflow .)  The audiocast was about the fact that cellular telephones Read More...
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Architecting for Internet Scale and Usability
24 June 08 05:23 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
With all the fun we've been having lately - I just wanted to post a pointer to the last ArcReady event we hosted.  Architecting for Scalable and Usable Web applications.  Twitter , are you working on it?  I've been a fan since last year's Read More...
Ran out of time today
24 June 08 05:22 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I had meant to put up a show today on the Semantic Web meeting last week.  Michelle , and GeekAustin have both had some great coverage (I even saw Silona there, but didn't get to chat with her), but I wanted to make a few comments myself.  Hopefully Read More...
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The best tool for teaching programming
24 June 08 05:21 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I get asked the question "What is the best tool for teaching programming to young kids?" a lot.  My answer (and not just for young kids, but for adults who haven't programmed before) is just about always - a set of RoboRalley !  Why?  Read More...
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SharePoint Extensions For Visual Studio 2008
23 June 08 05:35 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I'm lagging here a bit, but I did want to point over to the release a couple of weeks ago of the VS2K8 version of the SharePoint 2007 Extensions.  I'd already noted the documentation which was released with the VS2K5 version, but you can find the Read More...
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Upcoming IEEE Wireless Hive Networking conference here in Austin
23 June 08 05:34 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Just got word on this - looks to be very interesting and a great topic for a couple of months before Maker Faire - hopefully everyone can will get excited and we can see the "Connected environment" start coming together around the area!  Read More...
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Robotics Mediacast
23 June 08 05:34 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
If you've been following the Robotics Studio stuff, I've just caught up on a series of Robotics Mediacasts that I'd found.  There are some nice things going on there around Robotics as an industry - but it seems they finished their run for now in Read More...
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More Mediacasts
23 June 08 05:33 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I also found the TED talks I keep hearing about.  I have a bit of a mixed opinion on them - about half are great, and half are... well not what I'd expect.  I love the guys talking about changing the word, but not so interested in the guys juggling Read More...
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Since I'm on Mediacasts
23 June 08 05:33 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
One of the mediacasts that's making me try to work in WorldCon in Denver again (Can I do 3 whole months on the road?  But it would be interesting to be in Denver NOT for a contract) is Escape Pod .  Escape Pod is audio editions of various short Read More...
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Speeding up Vista boots
23 June 08 05:30 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Catching up on posts, and saw that Bryant Likes (over at my former company, Avanade) had picked up on an easy way to tell Vista to use multiple cores even through the boot cycle (for edge cases, it only uses one until it gets things up an rolling.)  Read More...
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A quick tweak here and there
23 June 08 04:50 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
As you may notice, I fixed my archives column being... Less than left justified. :-)  If you're running the EBE, note that all you have to do is go into the Monthcount.xsl for the theme of your choice, and then add a wrapper around the row template Read More...
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Now THERE's someone doing some productive work with Robotics Studio!
23 June 08 04:49 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Angel Lopez was pointed out to me as someone who's really gotten into Robotics Studio. I went to check his blog at http://ajlopez.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/distributed-agents-and-fractals-using-dssvpl/ and was incredibly impressed. He's not only put together Read More...
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Red Food Coloring and Karo Syrup
21 June 08 05:36 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
When I read "If Chins could Kill" by Bruce Campbell, one of the things I found out was his lust for Red Food Coloring and Karo Syrup.  It's in several of the chapters and is a great metaphor for simulating those things that are too distasteful Read More...
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Virtual Worlds
17 June 08 05:37 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
With Dave Bost's Virtual CodeFest sessions and the work that Zain Nabulsi's been doing on Second Life, I thought I'd make a couple of comments on Virtual Worlds and some of the things I've seen through their evolution.  So Show #11 is about where Read More...
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The data source control failed to execute the update command
17 June 08 05:36 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Just had a question about getting this error when working with a Data View in SharePoint 2007.  The person was doing everything right to do CRUD on a SQL table, but was getting the above error on update.  The mechanism itself is very appealing Read More...
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AppDev is doing some cool things.
16 June 08 05:40 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I'm probably one of the last to note it, but AppDev.com is offering one free training CD-ROM.  I've seen people do it, and always love to get some additional items, but if you check out what they've got, it gets even better.  They offer both Read More...
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OK, maybe they're not as evil as I said last week.
16 June 08 05:40 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I still have to wait until Wednesday but, the SporePedia is now up.  Just seeing the different creatures is enough to get my attention, but I found a nice tip on the side - "How do you see one of these Creatures in your Spore Creature Creator? Read More...
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Silverlight Image Search
16 June 08 05:39 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
One of my team, Jared Bienz, has just finished up a great video on using Silverlight (and LINQ, which comes with Silverlight 2) to create a nice Image Search application.  We've talked a bit about how much can be done in 24 hours at HackDays, but Read More...
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QuickXAP released by Exhale Game Studio
16 June 08 05:39 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
One of our game development partners, Exhale Game Studio has just relased their QuickXAP for XNA.  If you've been working with audio in XNA, you'll probably have realized that it can be a different mind set to get all your audio in the right place Read More...
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Procedurally Generated Content
16 June 08 05:38 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
OK, I had to do it.  After my previous post on Spore and what the architecture it's based on provides as far as compact Data Storage, I had to do Show #10 on Procedurally Generated Content.  Leave me comments if you're interested in the subject. Read More...
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Local User Groups
16 June 08 05:38 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Chris has put together a list of the local user groups in the area.  You can find the list at http://www.scddgc.com/Lists/User Groups/ - if yours isn't on there, let either of us know and we'd love to get the information up there. Technorati Tags: Read More...
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Anyone involved with TechShop?
11 June 08 05:41 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Just a quick check - leave me a comment or send email through the contacts information on the blog.  I'd love to hear information about how the Austin TechShop is going - especially before the Maker Faire Auditions happen! Read More...
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Office File Batch Converter
10 June 08 05:42 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
I've gotten a couple of questions about batch conversion to the XML version of Office Document formats - it's included in the Office Migration Planning Manager tool - you can find it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=13580cd7-a8bc-40ef-8281-dd2c325a5a81&DisplayLang=en Read More...
RepRap and the move to localsourcing manufacturing.
09 June 08 05:46 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
The RepRap (Reproducing Rapid Prototyper) people announced last week that they had succeeded in creating their vision of a self replicating machine.  Now my personal opinion is that they've jumped the gun a bit since they have just managed to create Read More...
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Arrrggg! EA is so EVIL!
09 June 08 05:46 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
www.spore.com shows the option to buy or download the free preview of the Creature Designer, but it's still not coming out until next week!  Why do you continue to torture me?  Isn't it enough that you've held my (pre-purchased) copy all this Read More...
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For those of you who have seen my Robotics Studio presentations -
09 June 08 05:45 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2008/06/04/the-ballmerbot-developers-developers-developers.aspx You'll probably recognize the hardware, but the software is new. :-) Read More...
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Aspiring Architect Webcast Series
09 June 08 05:45 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
There's a whole series of webcasts coming up around Architecture put together by a number of different practicing architects.  See the list below (and note these are Eastern times!)  Register early because slots do fill up. June 16 th , 2008 Read More...
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A new twist to "Where's Phil"
09 June 08 05:44 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
OK, I find myself in possession of some extra MIX t-shirts - and little room to store them.  So I'm going to do a quick contest - Find me at one of the events I attend, show me you're subscribed to my blog (laptop or screen shot if you're not mobile) Read More...
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SQL 2008 RC0 now available on MSDN and TechNet
09 June 08 05:44 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Yep, just announced - if you got your betas at the launch events, here's your chance to update to the latest build. Download SQL Server 2008 RC0 (MSDN subscribers) Download SQL Server 2008 RC0 (TechNet Plus subscribers) Read More...
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Innovation Camp coming up in Austin
09 June 08 05:43 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Jennifer just reminded me that InnovationCamp Austin 08 is coming up at the end of the month (Jun 28th.)  I'll definitely be there - there should be lots of great ideas and discussions going on!  What's it about?  Think BarCamp but not Read More...
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Newsgator Social Sites for SharePoint
09 June 08 05:43 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Newsgator has just released their S ocial sites for SharePoint - Great job guys! Read More...
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Speed up your Vista Indexing and Searches
09 June 08 05:42 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Well, it's a lot more than that, but I thought I'd try to catch your eye with it.  The guys over at the Windows Vista Experience Blog just pointed out that Windows Search 4.0 has been released to web.  This increases performance of search in Read More...
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Thanks, Jake!
02 June 08 05:48 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Jake McKee posted last week about this session.  I'll let you watch and see what the excitement is about (and read Jake's post as well.)  Several statements stuck out, but I did LOVE the comment "looking for the Mouse" (you won't miss Read More...
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Dallas Architecture Study Group
02 June 08 05:47 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
Rob Vettor just sent me the new meeting information for his Study Group, I thought I'd repost it here for those who can make it.  Dallas NET New Technology Study Group Come join the Dallas NET New Technology Study Group -- a new initiative with the Read More...
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Robotics Studio CCR and DSS Capabilities
02 June 08 05:47 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
In Show #8 , I look at the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR) and the Decentralized Software Services (DSS) capabilities of the runtime environment.  This is really the heart of Robotics Studio and the primary engines for ensuring the responsiveness, Read More...
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BarCamp Houston Topics Survey is up
01 June 08 05:49 PM | PhilWh | 0 Comments   
If you can be in Houston on August 9th and are interested in Barcamp, there's a survey that just went up to express your interest in various topics or add your own.  http://www.polldaddy.com/survey.aspx?id=d29d91e5b9dff6b7 Read More...
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