wrightin.gs

Aww...My First Video

So I decided to post my first video blog. I will hopefully be doing more of these in the future.

The "Wow" starts after you get over the lame displays

Frank LaVigne posted a picture of the Best Buy displays for Windows Vista.  One word sums it up for me.....lame.  Come on Microsoft, lets see....five years in the making, the biggest upgrade to your operating system to date, and the largest risk Microsoft has taken and this is the display you have come up with?  I realize that Best Buy has had some constraints in the display size, etc., but listen paper flyers, small posters, and a couple of shelves does not really scream inviting.  How about using some technology?  How about using some of that marketing budget?  This display just screams Windows 3.1.

Released :: Innovativ Studios Blog

I have built (using Typepad) and released the "istu", the Innovativ Studios company web blog.  You can find it at http://blog.innovativstudios.com.

This blog will talk about Innovativ Studios news, the company, the applications we are building, experiences in the consulting world, entrepeneurship, design, development, and our opinions on the happenings in the software world.

This blog will remain more personal, although some of the posts will be duplicated as they apply to both worlds of my life.  Please feel free to visit the blog or subscribe with this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/istu.  I look forward to hearing your comments and feedback.

Tablet PC Meetup at CES

Lora Heiny has just finalized the details for the Tablet PC & UMPC meeting during CES. Here are the details:

Cheeseburger Las Vegas, in the Aladdin Casino Desert Passage.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
3:30PM - 6PM
Cheeseburger Las Vegas

RSVP to ljheiny at hotmail dot com.

I wish I could be there.

What's in my Nerd Bag

There has been a lot of talk within the blogosphere about gadget bags and who uses what throughout their mobile day.  First, Marc Orchant asked what is in people's gadget bags and then Sumocat answered with a video blog post of what is in his bag.  I thought that I would add to the fray.

Here is a picture of what is contained within my nerd bag. [Further details after the jump.]

First off, lets start with the nerd bag itself.

My nerd bag is a Booq Boa XL.  I ordered the System and I sometimes use the sleeve when I take my tablet out in the nude.  I love this bag.  It is plenty big enough for all my nerd gadgets with plenty of room to grow :).  It's very comfortable and looks good too.

I will now go through where each item of nerd goodness is contained within my nerd bag.  The bag has four main compartments.

The first compartment contains all my nerd supplies and fun gadgets.

This compartment contains:

• Nintendo DS Lite [Black] - I use this to pass the time when I can't get connected and I don't have a good book or magazine with me.
• Nintendo DS games [The New Super Mario Bros. and Metroid Prime Hunters] - I really like The New Super Mario Bros. and it is very addicting.  I am on the last castle which is very hard.  Metroid Prime is not that good and I don't play it much.
• DVD burner for my tablet - I usually keep the extra battery in the expansion slot but when I need to do some burning, I have it with me.
• expansion slot cover for my tablet - This is used in case I want a lighter tablet to take to a meeting or something.  It really lightens up the tablet.
• screen cloth - This came with my tablet as well but I also use it on my phone and DS.
• Sprint PC-5740 EVDO Card - This thing rocks.  I love EVDO.  It allows me to get connected pretty much anywhere.  I use Sprint instead of Verizon which is my cell phone carrier because they have better coverage in my area and they are cheaper.
• headphones for my phone - These came with my phone and I use them in case I want to watch a movie or listen to music through ORB on my phone.
• business cards - I had these made for my business.  You never know when or where you need them, especially for those free lunches :).
• Microsoft USB pen - It's a pen, it's a USB drive.  I mostky just use it for the pen features.  It is very nice.
• Dell 128 meg Thumb drive - Use it to quickly transfer data from someone else.
• YoMego Brain yo-yo - I love to yo-yo and I use this to pass some time.  It's also a great thinking tool.  When I'm stuck on something, this helps me sort it all out.

The second compartment contains all my items that I need quick access to.

This compartment contains:

• Verizon XV6700 - This is my favorite phone ever.  I have used a lot of phones, switched a lot of providers to get the phones I want and I have to say that this is my favorite ever.  I sometimes use it to connect to my tablet and use it as a modem via PDANet.
• iPod [4th Generation] - The best music player of all time.  I need to update it but I am waiting for the new video iPod.  Maybe at MacWorld this January?
• iPod headphones and remote - I use these headphones on the road.  I have a better pair of headphones that I keep at my client site so I don't have to lug them back and forth.  I am in the market for new ones though.
• Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset - I mostly just use these when driving or on my PC.  I really never wear this out in public because I don't want to look like a geek.  This is a really good bluetooth headset though.

The third compartment contains my chargers and one of my laptops:

This compartment contains:

• Dell D610 - I am not even going to link to the product page for this laptop.  It sucks.  I really do not like Dell laptops one bit.  It is the laptop that my client gave me to use when I sign on their network.
• iPod charger
• Nintendo DS charger
• XV6700/headset charger This charger can be used for both my headset and phone.
• tablet charger
• XV6700 USB cable

The forth and final compartment holds the best gadget of them all.

This compartment contains:

• Fujitsu Lifebook T4020 - This is my pride and joy.  I love this tablet and it is my main computer.  I do all my development work on this as well as my email, documents, and other tablet work.

Well, that is what I have in my nerd bag today.  I am looking at replacing and/or adding some of the items in the bag over the next year.  My number one replacement is going to be my tablet PC.  I love the tablet but I need something that will run Vista fluidly and an updated model.  I am going to go with the Lenovo Thinkpad X60 once they add the integrated WWAN feature.  I am also going to update my iPod.  I am holding out for the next video iPod which will hopefully have a full video screen like rumored.  I need to add some good headphones to my gear.  I have tried the Sure E4c earphones since everyone sweared by them but I did not find that they were worth the $300 price tag so I sent them back.  I am looking at the Sony MDR-VJ700 DJ headphones and will probably purchase those after Christmas.  I hopefully will replace all my chargers with a Battery Geek Power station.  My nerd bag should look quite a bit different next year.

Newsgator : If it ain't broke

I have said before that I am a big fan of Newsgator.  I think that their online reader rocks.  I have used several and think that Newsgator allows me to get through the noise quicker.  That may have changed today.  I opened Newsgator online and noticed they have made several changes.  Here is a screenshot from tonight [click to enlarge]:

If you notice, (1) Newsgator now requires the user to click on the "+" sign to read more of the story.  This sucks.  This adds so much time because now I have more clicks to get to what I want.  I sometimes need a little more content to determine whether I need to read the rest of the post.  This inhibits my reading although I can see how Newsgator thought it would improve my speed since there is less room on the page.  It doesn't work for me.  I feel like I am missing some of the information and not getting all of what is available.  This may work for some people but it is a complete departure from what the online reader did before.  Plus there is no way for the user to expand all or configure the reader differently.  I am very disappointed in this change.

Second (2), Newsgator is now trying to bank on their large user base.  They have added a column of Google ads to their reader.  I really can't blame them for it but it is at the expense of me using their software.  It cuts down on the room I have to view my news.  I personally never click on Google ads and the less room is really annoying.  Maybe they will add a paid option for users who wish not to see the ads.

I really hope they are just testing these changes out or I hope that enough users complain about these changes so they are changed back.  If not, I will try out a different online reader.  If it ain't broke Newsgator, don't fix it.  There was nothing to fix.

UPDATE: In classic Newsgator style, they allow an option out of the blog post display.  Brian from Newsgator left a comment on this post explaining that you can change this under the "Display Options" on the main feed page.  You can select "Full Posts" instead of the "Summaries".  They must of changed the default option.  I honestly did not even notice these options.  I would suggest to Newsgator that they fix this UI issue.  Why not place these with the other links like My Settings, My Account, etc?  My eyes didn't even gravitate to that area on the page and I totally glossed over it.  More good news?  The Google Ads disappeared the next day.  It may of been a small experiement.  Either way, good job Newsgator.

Fun Job Applications

I subscribe to the job listings rss feed from Joel on Software.  I subscribe to a lot of job feeds to see if there are any potential clients in them.  Tonight there was a job listing that intrigued me.  The listing did not list the name of the company.  Instead the applicant had to write some code to decipher what the company was.  I think that this was a brilliant way to attract talent.  I got curious and it sounded like fun so I went ahead and wrote the code even though I wasn't going to apply at all.

The listing said that you basically had to create a decryptor based on the ROT13 algorithm in order to get the company name.  I looked up the ROT13 algorithm in Wikipedia and it is basically a replacement algorithm where the first through thirteenth letters in the alphabet are replaced with their corresponding positions within the fourteenth through twenty-sixth positions and vice versa.  The listing said that you needed to figure this out:

string company = Rot13Encoder.Decrypt("perqvgfvtugf");

This is the class that I wrote to figure this out (click to enlarge):

I won't give away the name of the company but by the looks of their listing, it seems like a fun place to work.

Links in ink not working

Ink Blog Plugin Updated

Application for importing blog entries from .Text to Typepad

I promised to post the code that I wrote to import/export blog entries.  The attached .NET code has several interfaces that define a generic blog importer/exporter.  It also has two concrete classes that define a .Text exporter and a Typepad importer.  It has a console application that calls the importer/exporter framework to execute the process. 

There is a lot of ways to improve this such as some good output and transfering of images (you still have to do that manually) but it is a start.  Since I didnt have that many entries, I didn't put that much time into it (probably took me about 5 hours total).

The .Text exporter retrieves the entries from the SQL Server database and the Typepad importer creates a file that can be used to import the entries from the control panel.  The format that is required for importing to Typepad can be found at http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/docs/mtimport.

Let me know if anyone downloads it and tries it.  If you have any issues or questions, you can email me at jwright [at] innovativstudios [dotcom].  Oh yeah, I'm not responsible for any loss of data, etc., etc.

Download BlogImporter.zip