Daniel's Blog

I finally got around to plugging my Zune in again only to find that the Zune software doesn’t pick the device up on Windows 7.

After a little bit of playing around, I got it to go. Here’s how:

1. Plug your Zune in and let it do it’s thing. When its finished, open up Device Manager and uninstall your Zune
   
    
2. Press Ok to any popup boxes
3. Wait 10 seconds or so for it to fully uninstall, then run the Zune software as Administrator (Right click Zune Icon – Right click Zune - Run As Administrator
   
   
   
4. When the Zune software has loaded, plug you’re Zune back it. It should hopefully work. If not, unplug the Zune, close the software, and do step 10 again.

I can’t remember being so excited for a Windows release. I was actually up early on a Saturday morning to get the download. Sadly though, Microsoft was overloading. I waited and waited, and still no sign of the download.

Then came a link from Daniel, which pointed me to NeoWin. And guess what they had? Direct links to the ISO’s on the Microsoft site.

The Install

I was amazed how quickly Windows 7 installed, took around 15-20 minutes using a USB attached CD-ROM. Apart from that it’s not too different from Vista, though there are a few less screens.

I was also able to do a clean install of the 32bit version. Not sure why people were saying you needed Vista SP1 to go anywhere…

Running it

I knew that Microsoft had been promising us it will run on a netbook, but I still had doubts given how badly Vista runs on them. How wrong I was, it runs amazingly – even with Aero turned on. My whole machine feels as fast, if not faster than it did in XP, and the battery life seems to have improved which is nice.

Driver support, for me at least, wasn’t a problem. Only my card reader didn’t work on the first boot, but a quick Windows Update later and everything seems to be going! Even bluetooth which had caused me quite a few problems in XP.

Screenshots

More coming soon!

An idea sprung on me last night – Why not let people update their websites uses Live Writer (or one of the other blogging tools)? They produce rather good HTML and are easy to pickup.

I have based it on the Metablog API that most blogging tools use, and have used the XML-RPC library to take care of the nasty parsing for me.

So I decided to build the functionality into MicroCMS, here’s how to make it work.

Step 1:

Checkout the latest source code from

https://svn.kustompage.com:8080/svn/microcms/trunk (username: guest)

If you don’t already have a website running MicroCMS, it will be easy to get started – just use the sample project provided. If you do have a website and you haven’t made any changes to the core, just copy the core project to your website. If you have made changes, sorry, but you’re gonna have to do a manual merge.

All references are in the lib folder (you might need to manually update the reference to the XML-RPC library).

If you are using the sample project, Metablog is already setup, so skip to the end to see how to setup Live Writer.

Step 2:

Ok, so you should be done copying or merging the core project, and it should fully build.

On your websites front end, create a Settings.xml file in your App_Data folder, and add the following xml:

[code=xml]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<settings>   <setting name="API.Enabled" value="true" />
  <setting name="API.ImagePath" value="C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\Desktop\MicroCMS\MicroCMS\img\" />
  <setting name="API.ImageURL" value="/img/" />   <setting name="API.FilePath" value="C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\Desktop\MicroCMS\MicroCMS\files\" />
  <setting name="API.FileURL" value="/files/" />
  <setting name="API.Username" value="user" />
  <setting name="API.Password" value="password" />
</settings>[/code]

Step 3:

In your websites root directory (you can place it anywhere, I’m just trying to keep things simple) create a new Generic Handler called APIInterface.ashx.

Right click on your new file (in Visual Studio) and press View Markup. Replace the first line with this:

[code=aspnet]<%@ WebHandler Language="C#"  Class="MicroCMS.Core.MetaWebBlogAPI.Interface" %>[/code]

Check that you can browse to that page. It should produce a web service like page that shows you the methods that your client can use.

Done! Now to setup Live Writer

Step 4:

Install Live Writer if you don’t already have it (You could also use any client that supports the MetaBlog API, but I have only tested in Live Writer) – get it from http://get.live.com/writer/overview

Once you have Live Writer open, start the Add Web Blog wizard (Webblog – Add Web Blog)

Step 5:

Choose Another webblog service and press next.

Enter your website details. They will look something like this:

Website Homepage URL: http://yourdomain.com/
Username: your username
Password: your password

Hit next.

Choose MetaWebBlog API from the dropdown box and enter

http://yourdomain.com/APIInterface.ashx

into the Remote Posting URL textbox.

Click next a few times till you get to the end, and wow, it’s done!

What it does:

You can create pages just as easily as creating blog posts – enter a title and content, add images and file links – and it will all be saved back to your website.

If you want to open existing pages, simply open them up like you would an existing blog post.

You can’t yet delete pages using Live Writer. But that will be coming soon.

The End

So I think that’s about everything, have got it running on a few sites and it appears to work. If anyone’s brave enough to give it a shot, let me know, I’m interested to see how it goes (and if I've missed any steps)

I never thought that I’d be interested in what other people are up to. And even less did I think people would be interested in me. But it turns out I am, and they are. And there starts my addiction.

Now, while I love following “older” people (I mean it in a nice way btw), it would also be cool to follow my real-life friends. There’s just one problem: few of them seem to get the concept of Twitter. Or why you would want to use it. And none of my pestering has paid off. Yet.

So I am posting this video I just found in the hope that it people get the concept behind Twitter:

 

 

Right, now you’re convinced, head along to the Twitter Signup form and get your account setup, find some people to follow, and post away!

Useful things

I fully realise how annoying checking yet another website can be, I hate it as well. A Twitter client will make it nice and easy to view and post tweets.

I have two to recommend, depending on how advanced you wanna’ be:

First off there’s Twhirl. It’s real simple. Real fast. And real small. I’d recommend it if you have never used Twitter before. Or if you just want to follow people with the occasional update.

Then there’s Tweetdeck, my current choice for tweeting. Why? Because it breaks things down a little better. And, quite possibly the best part, it downloads all Tweets since it’s last update unlike Twhirl which only gets the latest 20.

Ok, so you’re now ready to use Twitter! Do it. Post random things that come to mind. What you’re up to. Actually, anything that you want to go public.

PS - Have Facebook and/or Bebo? You can also send your updates magically there. There’s a Twitter app in Facebook. And Bebo have just launched their integration service. Click the link at the top of the (new) home page.

It’s been a week today since I got my new LG KU990, so I thought I would update my good and bad list as things have changed a little.

The good

• The battery has been fine since the first day. It doesn’t last for days on end, but I plug it in to the computer enough to keep it charged.
• Worked out how to change the text size in the browser. Also found out that it has tabs. Sweet!
• Most software designed for the Nokia N95 runs fine on the LG. Now have a Twitter client, MSN client, Gmail, Google Maps and a couple of other little apps.
• The camera is just as good as my “real” digital camera if I set the quality to 5mp. I’m honestly amazed.

The Bad

• The LG Sync software is rubbish! Haven’t bothered using it again since my initial sync.
• LG’s email client is… simple… to say the least. It doesn’t do a very good job at rendering emails. It’s better than nothing though.

Overall the phone has proved to be real good. It does everything that I need plus more in a cool little package. There are so many features built into it that I’m still finding new things to do a whole week on.

8.5/10

Over the last few days I have been writing a small Xero API Wrapper for the new API. It pretty much takes care of requesting the XML from the API, parsing it, and returning populated objects – Saving you from doing it all manually. You can even save objects back to Xero!

The API hasn’t been fully released yet, but if you are busting to try it out, you can email network@xero.com to request an API Key.

Download Here

Setup

Before you can make any request, you will need to setup a new XeroAuth object. You will need to provide it with your API Key, Customer Key, and URL you wish to you. You only have to set this up once as you can reuse the object.

Xero.API.Communication.XeroAuth Auth = new Xero.API.Communication.XeroAuth();

Auth.CustomerKey = "Customer Key";
Auth.ProviderKey = "Your Provider Key";
Auth.URL = "https://networktest.xero.com/";

Each new object you use will need to have the its Auth property setup like the following

Xero.API.Object.Auth = Auth;

Using

Hopefully everything is fairly self explanatory. Use the Get() method to get objects from Xero, use the Save() method to save them back. All properties in each class match up to the Xero API XML.

Sample Code

public static Xero.API.Communication.XeroAuth Auth = new Xero.API.Communication.XeroAuth();
public void PrintContactName() {
     Auth.CustomerKey = "Customer Key";
     Auth.ProviderKey = "Provider Key";
     Auth.URL = "https://networktest.xero.com/";

     Xero.API.ContactCollection.Auth = Auth;
     Xero.API.ContactCollection Collection = Xero.API.ContactCollection.GetContacts();
     
     foreach (var contact in Collection.Records) {
           Console.WriteLine("Contact Name: " + contact.Name);
     }
     Console.ReadKey();
}

Yesterday I purchased a brand new LG KU990 ($549, on sale) after weighing up between a couple of phones (Mainly the Nokia N95 which is $999) and after a night of playing around with it, it is quite nice, despite some little annoyances.

The good

• Its really light! The whole package is lighter than my crappy old Sanyo phone.
• The 5mp camera. While I haven’t taken any “proper” photos on it yet, the test ones have turned out rather nice. Also has a flash which is quite amazing for a cell phone.
• 3G+ – I know most other people have had 3G access for ages, this is my first mobile with it. And man its FAST.
• Touch Screen – The screen is bright and easy to use and responds 99% of the time.
• USB Sync – useful for syncing contacts from Outlook.
• The interface – It is easy to use and navigate. The default black theme is a little dark, but there are two others preinstalled.
• Doesn’t require the stylus! Works perfectly with my fingers.
• The styling – It does look very nice. Not Apple “nice”, but I’m not complaining about that.
• Comes with nearly every app you’ll need.

The Bad

• So far the battery life doesn’t appear to be great. It’s down to one bar already. Could just be the fact I’ve been playing with it though.
• Touch Screen – I’m hoping that it actually stays nice to use and doesn’t become a pain.
• Lack of keypad – Yes I know that I brought a phone without one. It would be perfect if it had one though
• While the browser is good, the text is a little small making it hard to read.
• Sluggish interface – Occasionally it seems to go REALLY slow and can be quite frustrating.
• The build quality isn’t quite what I was hoping, feels like it would only handle a few small knocks.
• Lack of software support – While it has nearly everything I want, an MSN client would be nice. I think Vodafone isn’t helping there though as eBuddy wont install.

One worry is that the touch screen is just a gimmick. I love it now, but what about in 6 months? It’s definitely not as easy as a keypad. I’m also slightly worried how it’s going to last. My Sanyo is built like a brick, and even that's struggling to make it to it’s second birthday.

But I think my biggest worry is that what if it just doesn’t work out. I’ve spent all that money on it, and I really want it to work, it’s a really good phone, but there is a chance it will just become another cell phone that ends up sitting in my draw due to the limitations. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t.

I always find it interesting to see what technology people use in their day to day life, so I though I would post my own “What I Use” post. Just a note: Lots of my stuff has been handed down to me so it is quite old.

Main Machine

I have recently switched to my Netbook for use while at home and out and about. I’m amazed how well it performs most of the time, and considering I normally only use Live Messenger, Firefox and Media player, I don't really need a full desktop machine. It even runs Visual Studio 2008!

It’s currently running XP Home, but I’m going to upgrade it to Professional when I get the chance. Also tempted to give Window 7 a shot on it once I have purchased another gig of ram.

When at home I have it plugged into a Dell 19” LCD monitor as the 10.2” screen becomes a little hard to work on after a while. I also connect it up to a Microsoft keyboard and Mouse.

Desktop Machine

This was my main machine till recently. Its a mix and match machine built up over a couple of years.

It has

• AMD Athlon 2800+ (32 bit, single core)
• 1gb Ram
• 80gb Hard drive
• 64mb nVidia something-a-rather
• 5.1 channel sound card
• XP Pro SP3
• 19” Dell LCD (Shared with laptop) and a 17” No-Name LCD

Servers

Because both of my servers are (rather) old, I run two (though I am upgrading to a brand new one in the next few months). They are close in hardware configuration but run different tasks as one can’t handle the lot. Both run Windows 2003 with all the latest updates.

Server 1 (HP Netserver E200):

• 1ghz Pentium 3 CPU
• 640mb ram
• 18gb SCSI drive
• Tape Drive

Server 2 (Random bits from over the years):

• 1ghz Pentium 3 CPU
• 768mb ram
• 80gb and 40gb hard drives

I also have an old Compaq machine running as a Smoothwall box. Can’t remember what it is, I think its around 700mhz with 256mb ram with a 20gb hard drive. Its been running months on end without me touching it.

Music Players

I currently have 2 MP3 players – an 80gb iPod Classic which is around a year old and a 30gb original Zune that I won a few months back. Use both about the same amount, don’t really prefer either, they both do what they’re supposed too with minimal effort.

Other bits and bobs

• 500gb Seagate external hard drive – Mainly used for storing big things that don’t fit on my laptop and backups
• Nikon CoolPix S210 – For a cheap camera its surprisingly good minus the screen quality.
• Logitech 5.1 speakers
• Random other old machines and servers
• Sanyo SCP-31000 cell phone on Telecom (for texting) and an iMate SP3 Smartphone on Vodafone

I’m sure there’s something important I've left off the list, but that's (at least) the basics of my digital day-to-day life.

After ages of waiting, I have finally had the chance to build a real website using MicroCMS! And it was suprisingly quick (mainly because I know MicroCMS off by heart). The (temporary) Xuru site is powered by the trunk version of MicroCMS and seems to work as it was designed.

There have been a few teething problems with the URLRewiter and IIS6 though. It wouldn’t let me place a blog virtual directory without having major problems meaning I had to create a sub domain – slightly annoying. I’m not sure that I will continue on with the MicroCMS project past what I have already done.

For the next version of the site I'm thinking of using ASP.NET MVC. I am using it for another little project I’m working on (http://mega.webfaves.net) and it seems to work really well and takes out the pain of web forms while still letting you use ASP.Net whereas with MicroCMS you’re stuck with xml. Will see though as it has to be something mum can update easily. Maybe there’s a way I can integrate the two.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this on the Microsoft MVC beta download. Seriously must they need to list EVERY version of Windows they have released since 2001?!

“Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 Itanium-based editions; Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition ; Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 editions; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for 64-Bit Itanium-Based Systems; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Web Edition; Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 Datacenter; Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V; Windows Server 2008 Enterprise; Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V; Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2008 Standard; Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V; Windows Small Business Server 2003 ; Windows Small Business Server 2008 Premium; Windows Small Business Server 2008 Standard ; Windows Vista; Windows Vista 64-bit Editions Service Pack 1; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Business N; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic; Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic N; Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows Vista Starter; Windows Vista Starter N; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition; Windows Web Server 2008; Windows XP 64-bit; Windows XP Embedded; Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 1; Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 2 ; Windows XP for Itanium-based Systems Version 2003; Windows XP Home Edition ; Windows XP Home Edition N; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2; Windows XP Professional 64-Bit Edition (Itanium) ; Windows XP Professional 64-Bit Edition (Itanium) 2003; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Professional N; Windows XP Professional x64 Edition ; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2; Windows XP Service Pack 3; Windows XP Starter Edition”

Found at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A24D1E00-CD35-4F66-BAA0-2362BDDE0766&displaylang=en