http://blog.pumacode.org Toby's Geeky Half Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:56:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We use SharePoint 2007 at work, and I have a blog on it for work-related posts. I had heard good things about Windows Live Writer, Microsoft's desktop blog post composer for Windows Live and Sharepoint blogs, so I decided to give it a try. The first thing it did was ask ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/08/29/a-reboot-less-microsoft-installer/ As I mentioned in my open source pledge, I've switched from Windows to Ubuntu Linux as my main development environment. I'm very happy with the switch overall, but the one piece of software I really miss is TortoiseSVN! It also means I haven't had a chance to test my TortoiseSVN Menu ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/07/03/new-version-of-tsvn-menu-extension-for-firefox-3/ I just got a nice dose of schadenfreude as I read this email from Bill Gates after he tried and failed miserably to find and install a couple pieces of software for Windows. Anyone who uses Windows has been there before: hour after frustrating hour spent trying to coerce your ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/06/25/why-doesnt-windows-suck-less/ I've mentioned earlier that I think Apple is a rather anti-open company. They have enthusiastically used DRM to lock users into iTunes, and their recent overtures to move away from DRM seem half-hearted and hollow. They even opt for a proprietary connector on their iPhones and iPods so they can ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/06/16/apple-going-open/ I've had my Eee for a few weeks now and my experience with it has been pretty much as I expected: overall I'm very pleased with the little device, but there's definitely room for improvement. The keyboard is usable (I'm typing this post on it now) but a few layout ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/06/14/looks-like-dell-may-give-us-the-eee-killer/ Here's a great site and accompanying blog post that detail many of the annoyances that have plagued Windows for far too long and still aren't fixed in Vista. They concentrate mostly on visual and design aspects (as opposed to functionality) and may seem pedantic at first, but Microsoft still hasn't ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/06/05/death-by-1000-paper-cuts/ You know how after you've been in an unhealthy relationship for a while, and you've decided to break it off, but haven't actually done so yet, it still feels like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders? You're not exactly looking forward to the breakup, and you're a little ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/29/its-not-me-windows-its-you/ So, like I said, I ordered my Linux-based Eee PC from Amazon last week. Well, not really from Amazon, but from one of their partners through Amazon's main site. That was five days ago (granted, that included a 3-day weekend), and I hadn't received so much as an order confirmation ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/28/wowthanks-for-the-status/ I just read this fascinating yet painful attempt by CNet journalist Ina Fried to extract any information whatsoever about the next consumer version of Windows from Microsoft's new Senior Vice President of Windows Engineering, Steven Sinofsky (who just took over from Jim Allchin). If you don't feel like reading six ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/27/windows-7-will-be-awesome/ So after I decided to preview Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 for my switch to desktop Linux, I spent the rest of the week and weekend playing with both. I really wanted to like Fedora better, since I've always been a Red Hat user (I run CentOS on all my ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/27/ubuntu-gnome-it-is/ Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has just announced that they are preparing a "Netbook Remix" of Ubuntu especially made for subnoteboks such as the Eee PC I just bought! They are working with Intel, which are the ones who came up with the term "Netbook" to describe that segment. This is great ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/24/ubuntu-netbook-remix/ I've been looking to buy a subnotebook lately. Since this is such a new market segment, the technology in this area is changing rapidly, which means it's tempting to keep "waiting for the next big thing". This segment was dominated in the last year (and arguably brought to the mainstream ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/23/just-bought-an-eee-pc/ I recently had an epiphany regarding my use of technology. I've known for quite a while that something about Apple makes me uncomfortable, so I've stayed far away from iGizmos. Yes, they are gorgeous devices that "just work" out of the box. Everything about them, from their incredibly intuitive user ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/23/my-open-source-pledge/ Just spent a bit reading up some more on Google's upcoming Android platform and reading up on the SDK. Looks really impressive; I can't wait for some hardware to be available. When I first heard that it would be Java based, I was very skeptical, due to the nightmare that is ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/05/13/android-and-the-open-handset-alliance/ A big kudos to Microsoft for "doing the right thing" and backpedaling on their ill-conceived and short-sighted plan to introduce yet another markup switch to IE8 to enable the most standard-compliant behavior. With this decision, they are placing standards and interoperability above clueless "developers" who have abused those standards in ... http://blog.pumacode.org/2008/03/03/holy-cow-microsoft-does-the-right-thing/