John Lamansky

Yesterday morning I plugged in my computer. I reached for the power button on my Dell Dimension 8400, but then noticed that the tower’s power light was flashing orange. Hmm, deja vu.

Thankfully, after the last incident with orange lights I had decided to keep my Dell manual right next to my tower. I found the section about power light signals and read:

If the power light is blinking amber - The computer is receiving electrical power, but an internal power problem might exist.

Ensure that the voltage selection switch is set to match the AC power at your location (if applicable).

Ensure that the processor power cable is securely connected to the system board (see page 73).

Well, I was sure that the voltage selection switch was in the right place. And I found it highly unlikely that the processor power cable would suddenly unseat itself. Ugh.

Then I had an idea. I flipped off the surge protector and then flipped it back on.

Tada! No more orange lights. Weird.

The moral of the story: try the simple stuff first.

(Whew, for a moment there I thought there would be The Mystery of the Orange Light Part 4!)

The Yahoo Buzz Game has been relaunched in a third round with new markets, just in time for (surprise!) the 2006 hurricane season. (Long-time players of the game will know that the only way to make or lose a large amount of (fake) money is during the hurricane seasons.)

Yes, this relaunch does make the game much more exciting for the time being, but how many people actually play this anymore?

I don’t know about you, but I had never even heard of the concept of “Internet Explorer 7+” until I read a post from the MSBLOG that explains what IE 7+ is and what the difference is between it and regular IE 7:

Vista has a core of security - I mean the whole thing is based on security and making everything incredibly secure. Having the 7+ identifies that the Vista copy of IE7 has extended features that integrate with the operating system itself, such as Parental Controls which restricts what specific users access, and Protected Mode which helps virtualise areas of the disk so that if anything harmful access the machine, then it won’t attack the computer.

So basically, the 7+ version is the Vista one and will harbour some of the core security features of the operating system, whilst 7 is just for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 which won’t be less secure in anyway [sic] and will still have all the same features as 7+ except not have the core operating system parts.

I never cease to get a laugh out of the whole Dihydrogen Monoxide thing.

According to a post on “Somasegar’s WebLog”, WinFX has been renamed to .NET Framework 3.0.

When speaking to developers about WinFX one question that repeatedly comes up is, “WinFX sounds great, but what happens to .NET?” .NET Framework has becomes the most successful developer platform in the world. Developers know and love .NET.

The .NET Framework has always been at the core of WinFX, but the WinFX brand didn’t convey this. The WinFX brand helped us introduce the incredible innovations in terms of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and the newly christened Windows CardSpace (WCS) formerly known under the codename “InfoCard.” The brand also created an unnatural discontinuity between previous versions of our framework and the current version.

With this in mind we have decided to rename WinFX to the .NET Framework 3.0. .NET Framework 3.0 aptly identifies the technology for exactly what it is – the next version of our developer framework.

The change is in name only and will not affect the technologies being delivered as part of the product. The .NET Framework 3.0 is still comprised of the existing .NET Framework 2.0 components, including ASP.NET, WinForms, ADO.NET, additional base class libraries and the CLR, as well as new developer-focused innovative technologies in WPF, WCF, WF and WCS:

The .NET Framework 3.0 will still ship with Windows Vista, and will be available down-level for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as planned. This change doesn’t affect in any way the ship schedules of either Windows Vista or the .NET Framework 3.0 itself.

What I find weird is that .NET Framework 3.0 doesn’t seem to be a new version of the framework per se, but it seems to be an extention to the existing .NET Framework 2.0.

I think Microsoft is trying to encourage developers to utilize WinFX by marketing it as the next version of the .NET Framework. To me, “.NET Framework 3.0″ certainly does sound a lot more “friendly” and approachable than “WinFX.”

But is WinFX really a new version of .NET?

It depends on how you look at it. On the one hand, WinFX seems more like an “add-on” package to the .NET Framework than an upgrade. But on the other hand, some program upgrades do indeed just add new features while for the most part leaving pre-existing components of the program alone.

For me, and I’m guessing for many other developers, this news was strange and unexpected. I think it’s probably because we had a different mindset of what we thought WinFX was going to be.

But this name change has let me know that I’ll be able to use my existing .NET Framework knowledge and experience to harness the power of WinFX. And that is very exciting news.

It’s easy: just type =rand() into a Microsoft Word document and press Enter. It’ll be replaced with a five-sentance paragraph:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

You can also type in =rand(3) to get three five-sentance paragraphs.

I figured out that the highest you can go is =rand(200), which produces 14 pages of random goodness. (Assuming you have 12-point Times New Roman font.) Typing =rand(201) and then pressing Enter doesn’t do anything.

So, what’s the practical use of this?

Well, say you want to test some text formatting or text wrapping. Instead of pounding on the keyboard for three minutes producing gobbeldy-gook text to test on, just use Word’s random text insertion.

I recently added a new comments feed in addition to the regular blog posts feed. Now you can easily track all comments on this blog from within your feedreader. Check it out!

Here are some of my favorite screenshot tips that I have discovered for Microsoft Windows. Enjoy!

1. Take a screenshot

It couldn’t be easier: just press the Print Screen key on your keyboard (sometimes abbreviated to Prnt Scrn) and the contents of the screen are copied to the clipboard. You can then paste the screenshot into Paint, Microsoft Word, or another program.

If you just want to copy the contents of the currently selected window, hold down the Alt key while you press the Print Screen key.

2. Grayscale anything (Windows XP only)

Here’s a sneaky trick: You can easily turn any part of the screen into a grayscale version. First, make sure the part you want to capture is not in the center of the screen. The click the Start button and click Log Off.

As you probably know, after the Log Off dialog appears the screen will slowly fade from color to grayscale. But if you use the screenshot tip mentioned above, you are able to use that XP “eye candy” to take a screenshot of the now-grayscale screen.

3. Overcome screen-capture prevention

If you use tip #1, you may come across programs that prevent you from taking screenshots. If you’re sure that it’s legal to take the screenshot you want to take, you might be able to overcome this by first holding down the Ctrl key and tapping Esc twice. Then press Print Screen. Note that it will not work to tap the Windows key twice.

I see a clever pun developing in this shot from the upcoming VeggieTales video Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple:

In the middle of the Browser Wars 2.0 between Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox, a new application war appears. But it’s not about browsers. It’s about podcatchers. And it seems that history is repeating itself.

We start off in 1994 in the browser world and 2004 in the podcasting world. At these times there existed Mosaic and iPodder, respectively. Mosaic later changed its name to Netscape because of legal disputes. In the same way, iPodder later changed its name to Juice because of legal disputes concerning the iPod trademarks.

Anyway, in the beginning both iPodder and Netscape were dominant. Everyone used them. Even though the user interfaces weren’t the greatest. I mean, you can’t even listen to podcasts from within iPodder, and to me Netscape’s interface looks really ugly. But who didn’t use iPodder for podcatching, and who didn’t use Netscape for Internet browsing?

Yes, there were some other programs. iPodderX (now Transistr) was the Opera of the podcatcher world. Both were commercial programs and both had a much smaller user base.

Then one day in June 2005, Apple became Microsoft. Just as Internet Explorer usage shot up after Microsoft bundled it into Windows in 1997, so did iTunes usage as a podcatcher shoot up after Apple incorporated podcatching into that program.

Why did this happen? The simple answer for both cases: hardware. Microsoft Windows could be used on the prevalent PC. iTunes was used with the iPod. Bundle IE with the popular Windows, and IE’s share skyrockets. Bundle podcatching with the popular iTunes, and up shoots iTunes usage for podcatching.

Now we’re in 1998 in the browser world, and late 2005 in the podcatching world. Who uses iPodder and Netscape anymore? iTunes and Internet Explorer have taken over.

iPodder development has branched off into other projects, such as the PodNova client. Netscape development had branched off into other projects, such as Nvu, the Mozilla Suite, and SeaMonkey.

We arrive at the year 2004 in the browser world and 2006 in the podcatching world. Firefox, a descendant of Netscape, has come on the scene, quickly eating away at Internet Explorer usage share. Now almost everyone’s talking about Firefox, and Microsoft has responded by kicking IE up a notch with the upcoming release of version 7.

But where’s the podcatcher that will become the next Firefox?

As I was thinking about this browser/podcatcher war coincidence, I was surprised at how my plans to build a podcatcher coincided with this repeating history. I was planning to make a podcatcher, which is currently codenamed “Salamander.” Hmm, an animal name, kinda like Firefox and Firebird. I wanted Salamander to be easy to use while having really cool features. Hmm, kinda like Firefox. I wanted Salamander to be the program that would eat away at the usage share of the dominating program (iTunes). Hmm, kinda like Firefox.

Will Salamander become the next Firefox? Time will tell. One little difference, though. Salamander does not have its roots in iPodder, in the way that Firefox has its roots in Netscape.

Oh, and iPodder did not start out as a paid program in the way Netscape did.

But besides those things and few other small differences, the history of 10 years ago has indeed repeated itself. And it just might continue to do so.