How To Add New Windows 8 User

New Microsoft Announcement Today

Microsoft is expected to make a "major" announcement today. The interwebs has indicated it probably is about a new Windows-based tablet, or possibly a new video service. Of course, Windows-based tablets have been around in some fashion or another, and Windows 8 is expected to released this year. I wonder if Microsoft plans on announcing a new video service, looking to get into the TV streaming business....

The Lean Startup on NPR today!

"Think big, start small, scale fast." Love it.

I purchased 3 copies of this book after having seen it all over the internet and hearing this broadcast this morning: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140857121/lean-startup-advice-think-big-start-small

I love the movement pushing towards quick, organic business growth by starting new businesses on a budget.

Enterprise Library Data Access Error

"Namespace or type specified in the Imports 'Microsoft.Practices.Enterprise.Library.Data' doesn't contain any public member or cannot be found."

Tonight, while working on a new project, I encountered the following error when trying to use Enterprise Library (EL) Data Access Application Block from Microsoft's Patterns & Practices.  This error caught me off guard because I've used EL a lot before.

Somehow, when I created the new project in Visual Studio 2010, I must've selected this project to compile based on the target framework ".NET Framework 4 Client Profile" instead of the typical ".NET Framework 4".

For those of you that run accross this error. Check the "advanced compile options" under your project properties.

Cheers

IE9 Released - Download Now

The final release of IE9 "hit the stores" (just download it free from here - http://http://www.beautyoftheweb.com//).

Enjoy new features like pinning, jump lists, and aero-snap. Of course, IE9 is also focused on standards, so you can now get the best of HTML version 5 in IE9.

By the way, if you're using IE6 - you might want to check out http://www.theie6countdown.com/ and http://www.ie6death.com/.

Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents - Oh My!

Good references when looking to see if someone really legally owns a name, copyright, etc.

Copyrights = http://cocatalog.loc.gov/
Trademarks = http://tess2.uspto.gov
Patents = http://patft.uspto.gov/
Website Address = http://www.internic.net/whois.html

Copyright
Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.

Trademark
A trademark protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs identifying the source of the goods or services of one party and distinguishing them from those of others.

Patents Set of exclusive rights to an inventor for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention.

Website Address (aka "Domain name") The core portion of a website name (such as "apple.com" or "msn.com") of a web site, which is uniquely registered to an individual or company (also found to the right of the @ sign in an email address such as "yourname@yahoo.com".)

Side note #1. LLC Company Names appear to be registered and maintained by state only. If you want to reserve a LLC name nation wide, you may have to register with each state.

Side note #2. The copyright office's FAQ has a question called "How do I protect my sighting of Elvis?". No kidding. Check it out. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

MAC OS X on my Windows 7

I just started running OS X within a virtual environment on my Windows 7 system. I realize that people have been doing this for years, in some fashion or another. But this is the first time that I have done it myself. Still very cool.

Keeping Up With Technology

If you're like me, you have a hard time keeping up with all the technologies out there. The reality is there's too many new technologies (languages, methodologies,  tools, etc). One of the ways I try to keep up with everything is by using good ol' RSS feeds in conjunction with Google Reader. Google Reader is both an online aggregator of RSS feeds, and it also has a good companion app on Google Android. The nicest part of Google Reader for me is the "All Listings" view which gives me a reverse chronological view of ALL articles (mixed together) regardless of the actual RSS feed.  This way, I get to see the newest articles first. I can then choose to hide the articles I've viewed, etc.

Here is a list of my RSS feeds. Admittedly, some of these are all over the spectrum. But you might find one or two interesting.

.NET Rocks! RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/netRocksFullMp3Downloads Main Web Site = http://www.dotnetrocks.com

Channel 9 RSS = http://channel9.msdn.com/Feeds/RSS Main Web Site = http://channel9.msdn.com/

CodePlex RSS = http://www.codeplex.com/site/feeds/rss Main Web Site = http://www.codeplex.com/site/feeds/rss

Connected Show Developer Podcast! RSS = http://feeds.connectedshow.com/ConnectedShow Main Web Site = http://www.ConnectedShow.com/

dnrTV RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/DnrtvWmv?format=xml Main Web Site = http://dnrtv.com

ebookshare RSS = http://www.ebookshare.net/feed/ Main Web Site = http://www.ebookshare.net

Geekswithblogs.net RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/geekswithblogs Main Web Site = http://geekswithblogs.net/mainfeed.aspx

Gmail Blog RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/OfficialGmailBlog?format=xml Main Web Site = http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/

Google Mobile Blog RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/OfficialGoogleMobileBlog Main Web Site = http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/

Herding Code RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/herdingcode Main Web Site = http://herdingcode.com

LearnVisualStudio.NET Videos RSS = http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/videos.rss Main Web Site = http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/

Microsoft Learning Upcoming = Microsoft Learning Upcoming Titles RSS = http://learning.microsoft.com/rss/en-US/upcomingtitles?brand=Learning Main Web Site = http://learning.microsoft.com:80/rss/en-US/upcomingtitles?brand=Learning

MS On-demand Webcasts RSS = http://www.microsoft.com/communities/rss.aspx?&Title=On-Demand+Webcasts&RssTitle=Microsoft+Webcasts%3A+On-Demand+Webcasts&CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&WebNewsURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fevents%2FEventDetails.aspx&CMTYRawShape=list&Params=+%0D%0A%09~CMTYDataSvcParams%5E%0D%0A%09~arg+Name%3D'EventType'+Value%3D'OnDemandWebcast'%2F%5E%0D%0A%09~arg+Name%3D'ProviderID'+Value%3D'A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C'%2F%5E%0D%0A%09~arg+Name%3D'StartDate'+Value%3D'06%2F30%2F2006'%2F%5E%0D%0A%09~arg+Name%3D'EndDate'+Value%3D'Now%2B0'%2F%5E%0D%0A%09~%2FCMTYDataSvcParams%5E+&NumberOfItems=100 Main Web Site = http://www.microsoft.com/events/default.mspx

MS Podcasts for Devs RSS = http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/default.aspx?podcast=rss&audience=Audience-e5381407-359f-4922-97d0-0237af790eee&pageId=x40 Main Web Site = http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/default.aspx?audience=Audience-e5381407-359f-4922-97d0-0237af790eee&pageId=x40&WT.rss_ev=f

MSDN Blogs RSS = http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mainfeed.aspx?Type=BlogsOnly Main Web Site = http://blogs.msdn.com/b/

MSDN Radio RSS = http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/default.aspx?topic=&audience=&view=&pageId=x73&seriesID=Series-b9139976-8d48-4249-9b89-ccd17891de1e.xml&podcast=rss&type=wma Main Web Site = http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/default.aspx?seriesID=Series-b9139976-8d48-4249-9b89-ccd17891de1e.xml&pageId=x73&WT.rss_ev=f

O'Reilly Deal of the Day RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/oreilly/ebookdealoftheday Main Web Site = http://oreilly.com

O'Reilly New RSS = http://feeds.feedburner.com/oreilly/newbooks Main Web Site = http://oreilly.com/

Safari Books Online RSS = http://my.safaribooksonline.com/rss Main Web Site = http://my.safaribooksonline.com/

ScottGu's Blog RSS = http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/rss.aspx Main Web Site = http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/default.aspx

SourceForge Community Blog RSS = http://sourceforge.net/blog/feed/ Main Web Site = http://sourceforge.net/blog

Stack Overflow RSS = http://blog.stackoverflow.com/feed/ Main Web Site = http://blog.stackoverflow.com

Stepcase Lifehack RSS = http://www.lifehack.org/feed/ Main Web Site = http://www.lifehack.org

TechNet Radio RSS = http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/default.aspx?topic=&audience=&view=&pageId=x73&seriesID=Series-cc4e3db2-9212-43c5-a57b-d43fa31e6452.xml&podcast=rss&type=wma Main Web Site = http://www.microsoft.com/events/podcasts/default.aspx?seriesID=Series-cc4e3db2-9212-43c5-a57b-d43fa31e6452.xml&pageId=x73&WT.rss_ev=f

Wrox All New Titles RSS = http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/feed/RSS_WROX_ALLNEW.xml Main Web Site = http://www.wrox.com

Project Alerts in Team Foundation Server

Thought I'd revive my blog today. Don't ask me why.

I've used Project Alerts for some time now. They allow me to be notified via email when other developers check-in code into projects stored in Team Foundation Server. It tells me who checked-in what code, and any comments they may have specified during check in.

You can also use it for build notifications.

Internet Explorer 8 (ie8) beta

Internet Explorer version 8 (beta) was release on 3/6. I downloaded it at work and have been playing with a little. One cool thing that I've found is something called "WebSlices", which enables users to subscribe to content directly within a webpage. Developers can mark parts of webpages as "WebSlices" and enable users to monitor that information. The beta release is really only meant for designers and developers, but is available to the entire public. More info here. You can download it here.