Scott Golightly's Blog

Zune 3.0

2008-09-20T00:27:35Z

When I fired up the Zune client this morning to listen to my podcasts I was told that there is a newer version. I updated the client software first on my machine and then upgraded my Zune. There were several things that I liked: I think the new interface is cleaner and easier to navigate. New podcasts in the marketplace. They may have been there before but I found it easier to navigate around and find what I want. Mixview in the Zune Social. Here is the view for my Zune. I did notice that it only...(read more)

I'm a PC

2008-09-19T20:43:25Z

So if you haven't been living in a cave you have been hearing about the Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld. I have even blogged about it. Well with the news that Jerry wouldn't be appearing any more there was a lot of talk about the campaign failing and Microsoft changing direction. Now there are a few new commercials on http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/windows/videoGallery.aspx along with an executive video by Bill Veghte explaining more about the "Life Without Walls" strategy...(read more)

UCNUG Meeting Next Week

2008-09-14T09:22:35Z

This is a reminder that next Wednesday we will be holding out monthly meeting of the Utah County .NET User Group (UCNUG). It will be held at the NuSkin building at 1175 S 350 E in Provo. Aaron Zupancic will be speaking to us on the design time experience of WinForms controls....(read more)

New Windows Video

2008-09-12T22:11:10Z

There was a lot of comment about the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld commercial. There are now two more "yet to be aired" commercials posted at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/windows/ . You can also see them as one big commercial (4:33) at http://www.windows.com . I am not a marketing genius although I have been accused of being a marketing professional (and have the e-mail to prove it). I am not sure I know exactly where they are going but I think I start to see a glimmer and my guess...(read more)

Followup on the Google Browser "Chrome"

2008-09-04T05:48:11Z

I posted yesterday on Google's new browser named "Chrome". Today I have see a lot of news articles and blog posts about the browser. In general the feeling seems to be that the browser is fast, has a lot of good features, and is squarely aimed at taking market share from Microsoft. Not only will it hurt IE if Chrome gets a lot of play but it will also affect Windows as the browser will become the application platform. There was a lot of talk about the EULA (you know the thing you never...(read more)

Google Browser

2008-09-02T21:33:05Z

It seems that yesterday Google leaked information about a new browser named "Chrome" they are building. The blog announcement and comic book with details are interesting. Some of the things I see are also in IE 8 and some seem to be a little different. As both IE 8 and Chrome are in beta it is too soon to start a comparison but here are some of the things I like and dislike about the announcement. Like: Each tab is a separate process so a tab crashing will not bring down the entire browser...(read more)

Good Sites with Bad Content

2008-08-27T02:02:39Z

I have been getting more phishing e-mail lately that points me to "bad" files on what would normally be "good" sites. Last week I got a message that pointed to index1.htm on a site. Index.htm was the valid home page and appeared to be the personal site for a young lady in Brazil. I couldn't read the page but it didn't look malicious. When I went to the index1.htm page it had a flash application that would tell me that I needed to download a new viewer to view a news article...(read more)

Reset Password Link as a Security Threat

2008-08-26T21:16:01Z

I read the article at http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/08/almost-everyone.html about the "Forgot your password" link to reset your password as being a possible attack vector. I think they discussed the security issue quite well and also pointed out that there are no reports that this method has been used widely to attack accounts. I know that in all the time that I have had a Hotmail account I have twice gotten e-mails about a password reset that I didn't initiate. The first time I ignored...(read more)

PDC Early Bird Discount Extended

2008-08-22T22:11:57Z

I got an e-mail stating that the PDC 2008 early bird registration deadline had been extended to Monday, September 8. That means that you still have time to save on registration. Here is a snippet of the body of the e-mail with more details on the Professional Developers Conference. Get Your Head above the Clouds at PDC2008 Have you ever attended a Microsoft Professional Developers Conference? It’s an event so packed with great information and new technology, attendees claim their brains start...(read more)

Get a Word Cloud at Wordle.net

2008-08-21T03:45:16Z

I ran across an application at http://wordle.net that will allow you to paste in a bunch of text, the URL to a RSS or ATOM feed, or a del.icio.us user name and it will read the text, remove common words, and then create a word cloud. I created one for my blog. The most surprising part of this word cloud to me is that the largest words don't necessarily match with the tags that I have defined. I think I will have to rethink my tagging system to make sure that content is easy to find....(read more)

August UCNUG Meeting

2008-08-19T10:11:05Z

Join us on Wednesday, August 20 for our monthly meeting. The meeting will start at 6:00 at the NuSkin NOC located at 1175 S 350 E, Provo. Our topic will be continuous integration and the speaker will be Craig Berntson. Here are some more details on the meeting: Continuous Integration with .Net Continuous Integration is a development practice where code changes are continuously checked in to source control and then automatically checked out, built, and tested. Whether you are a one person shop or...(read more)

PDC Plans Coming Together - Register Soon

2008-08-17T05:05:33Z

Microsoft has been busy planning for PDC. Some important things that you may need to know. 1. The early bird discount ended yesterday so if you were counting on that to persuade your boss you need to come up with some other justification. The registration link is http://www.microsoftpdc.com/Registration/ 2. Microsoft has been posting additional sessions. You can check out the agenda at http://www.microsoftpdc.com/Agenda/ 3. If you can't get your boss to pay for your trip and conference fee don't...(read more)

I'm Back Blogging Again

2008-08-12T04:12:28Z

It has been almost a month since I posted last. Part of it has been that I have been busy but the biggest part was that the computer that I was hosting my blog on decided to die. I am still not 100% sure what the problem is but the machine would only boot about 1 in 4 times and then would tell me that it couldn't find a core Windows Server file. After spending a couple of days trying to fix the problem I decided that now is the time to upgrade the hardware (I had been contemplating it for a while...(read more)

BizTalk Services "R12" CTP Released

2008-07-17T02:24:54Z

Here is the body of an e-mail that I got announcing that the latest CTP of BizTalk Services has been released and is ready for us to start working with and providing feedback on. Announcing the BizTalk Services "R12" Release We're thrilled to announce that the BizTalk Services "R12" Community Technology Preview (CTP) is now available for general use. "BizTalk Services" is the code-name for a platform-in-the-cloud offering from Microsoft. Currently in active development...(read more)

Detecting Phishing E-mail

2008-07-11T16:20:59Z

Yesterday I got an e-mail saying it was and open letter from United Airlines to its "best customers" about the high cost of fuel and how it is causing problems in the industry. The gist of the e-mail was that speculation on the cost of oil is what is driving up the cost of oil and that the government needs to regulate the market to save us all from high fuel prices. I was immediately suspicious because I have flown United Airlines but do not have enough miles to be awarded any status in...(read more)