RSS feeds are fast becoming ubiquitous and there are a wide variety of applications where they are used to great effect.
The Careers Advisory Service at the University of Reading (where I work part-time) has just moved into a brand-new building kitted out with the latest in plasma screen technology (!). They have also just grasped the extent of RSS and have keenly moved to make their latest jobs and events features RSS-enabled to allow people to subscribe to new job and event alerts from their browsers, email applications, websites or desktops.
Seeing all of this, one of those imaginary light bulbs switched on above my head as I had a great brainwave - why not combine the two to create an application that gets the jobs or events feeds from the web and displays it full-screen on those under-utilised plasma screens?
I announced this idea to my boss who took an interest in it but basically told me to get on with it myself and see what I could come up with. The amount of work made him sceptical of the implementation, but I had confidence. I opened up Visual Studio and found a very handy RSS screensaver starter kit. I took that as my base and ripped it apart, taking out all the screensaver code and changing the rest to reflect what I wanted. Two days later and I have a completed application ready to be tested out. I even checked it out with a profiler to make sure there were no memory leaks since it will probably run continuously for many days or weeks at a time.
There’s a nice large screenshot waiting for everybody to have a look at. I’m not releasing the code just yet - there’s still probably some work to be done on it and a lot of stuff needs to be cleaned up. There’s also a lot of CAS-specific code in there that needs to be taken out if the application is released. Until then, take a look at the screenshot and show your love!
I’ve been using Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 ever since the beta emerged and I recently purchased a copy from The Ultimate Steal. So far, I have been very impressed.
Microsoft Office Word is obviously the one application I use the most day-to-day. I’ve used it for everything from reports to drafting blog posts and have to say that some of the new features or ways of doing things have made my life much easier than before. Using Word’s new styles panel and range of professional designs, I was able to complete a report in must less time than I thought it would take. Applying styles was as easy as clicking one button. The word count feature, which has its home in the status bar, helped me keep an eye on how much I was writing.
Microsoft Office PowerPoint is another staple in the student’s armoury of tools, and I have been using it quite a lot as my second year of university demands increasing numbers of presentations. New SmartArt allows me to quickly insert professional-looking diagrams and charts, while the templates give the whole presentation the polish it needs. I have particularly found that the new ribbon has made many tasks much quicker and has unveiled many existing features.
Finally, I have used Microsoft Office Outlook as my personal email manager and planner. Outlook has allowed me to manage my email deluge and prioritise my tasks. To to-do lists keeps tabs on what I have outstanding, while the calendar reminds me to wake up for lectures!
All in all, the Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 suite has allowed me to organise my student life and get my work done much faster than I expected.
This blog is part of the Microsoft “The Ultimate Steal” Blogging Contest. Go to www.theultimatesteal.co.uk for details.
One thing that has always struck me when testing out new Windows operating systems is the lack of available anti-virus software for the platform. It’s true that since the software is only beta, companies can’t be expected to make their software compatible. To an extent, I expect this since in the past, I have sometimes found it difficult to get some of my regular software and (mostly ancient) hardware to run on the bleeding edge of operating systems.
However, when it comes to virus protection, it’s another matter. I know that my system is going to be connected to the internet, and I expect some problems to appear since connecting any beta systems to other live systems is courting disaster. This is why my system is always behind a firewall and router which mostly protects it from intrusion by blocking ports and packets. However, they don’t block downloads, and this is how most viruses spread.
The operating systems that I test are mostly server ones such as Windows Server 2003, Windows Home Server and Windows Server 2008. The problem with this is that installers for consumer anti-virus packages detect this as an “enterprise” setting and do not allow the software to be installed, although I’m sure the software would work if it could be installed. With Windows Home Server, I found that Avira Antivirus worked well (apart from the regular massive adverts) and as a plus point, it was free. When I moved to Windows Server 2008, even that wouldn’t work and I had to look for another solution.
I ended up purchasing a licence for the network version of AVG. I’ve heard much praise about this anti-virus package (mostly on consumer OSs) and I decided to give it a try since it was the only one with reasonable prices for server OSs. I have installed it and it’s now scanning my system initially. Updating it was a dream and I hope it’ll work well. Since it works with most OSs and also has a Linux counterpart, it’s a good investment for anybody testing beta operating systems. Each time you update your OS, just install AVG and you’ll be off!
1.07.2007 4:10 PM |
Tags:
windows |
I’m a glutton for punishment when it comes to software. I usually have at least two or three different beta applications running on my PC, and for the past few months, one of these has been the operating system!
Now, you might say that I’m daring. You might say that I’m taking my chances. Yes, I’ve had data losses in the past (the last one not so long ago) but I still enjoy testing software and always being on the bleeding edge so to speak.
For the past few months, I’d been testing Windows Home Server, which is based on Windows Server 2003. I’ve even written an article about it on this blog. Now, while that beta is still running inside Microsoft, I’m already updating. This time, it’s the turn of Windows Server 2008 (code name “Longhorn”). This one’s based on Windows Vista, and it’s looking good.
Windows Home Server, with its “helpful” hiding of drive letters and all that jazz actually nearly locked me in, since it spreads data all over all the hard drives in the system like a software RAID array. I had to jump through hoops to remove one of the hard drives from the set, copy all the data I wanted to keep to it, and then install the new OS.
I booted up using the Windows Server 2008 installation DVD, which immediately presented me with a partitioning screen. I deleted everything on the first hard drive, leaving my data secure on the second one. I then installed the new OS, which took only 15 minutes, compared to the near 45 minutes I normally wait for Windows to install. This is probably due to the new imaging system that Vista uses during installation. I was then presented with the new login screen and desktop. Everything was in the Windows classic style, which I’ve now grown out of, so the first thing I did before configuring some basic settings was to install the Desktop Experience Pack and change to the Vista theme, which made everything much prettier.
I proceeded to install all my favourite applications, and except for a couple of small utilities which refused to work, and a few required updates, everything ran smoothly. I can now even use my ancient scanner, which didn’t work with Home Server, and I’m now looking for a way of getting my even more ancient parallel printer and webcam working.
First impressions are good, and I’ll post up some piccys as usual on Flickr.
30.03.2007 10:42 AM |
Tags:
windows |
I bit the bullet and installed Windows Home Server Beta 2 on my main machine after upgrading its RAM from 512MB to 2GB. The memory made a real difference, but it was the Windows installation that really made the day. However, it wasn’t in a good way.
When I first started the installation, I knew that I was formatting my drive to install the new operating system, so I moved all of my documents onto my second hard drive so that they would stay safe. I started the installation off and the first thing I saw was a warning that data on all of ky hard drives would be erased as part of the installation. Thinking it was a mistake (as happens with betas), I carried on, only to be presented by a screen displaying all the drives to be formatted. Both my drives were there with no way of excluding any of them.
I was wondering whether there was any way out of this, and at last I decided to stop the installation, disconnect my documents hard drive and carry on. Having done this, the installer proceeded to format my main drive and install Windows Home Server on it. So far, so good.
After numerous reboots and false starts (every time I though it had finished because it displayed the Windows desktop, it would reboot again), the installation finally finished. Good, I thought. I can connect my documents drive back up and use it with the new operating system. Oh how wrong I was.
I shut down my computer and connected the drive back up, then started it again. After the operating system booted up, I went to My Computer to check the drive out. To my amazement, it wasn’t there. Not to worry, I thought. It probably hasn’t been assigned a drive letter. So I went to Disk Management to rectify this, and only then did I realise that Windows had actually formatted the documents drive as soon as I’d connected it, telling me nothing about it and using it as a backup drive for new documents (a little like software RAID).
Luckily, most of the important stuff was either backed up to DVD, on my laptop or stored at university, but everything was wiped out without confirmation. I realise this is only a beta version, but even then, shouldn’t an operating system ask before it formats one of your drives?
The moral of the story? Always keep backups, and never install Windows Home Server Beta 2 without making sure that everything is ready since it will format all of your hard drives without confirmation!
Well well: Windows Vista was finally released to the public today with a huge fanfare in the US. While things this side of the pond were much more subdued, there will still be many people who cannot wait to get their hands on the new OS and give it a spin.
There has been a large gap between the release of Windows XP (2001) and Windows Vista (2007), and I think we can expect that many people will be eager to use the new OS, but there will also be people who will be critical of what Microsoft has been spending its time on for the last few years.
I for one want to get a copy of Vista, but it seems like my budget says otherwise… Maybe I’ll just have to wait until I get enough to get a new PC or laptop, and get Vista at the same time. Maybe a new Mac with Boot Camp or Parallels? ;)
I’ve been using Windows Live Writer for a few days now and posting all of my blog articles using it. I’ve found it an altogether pleasing experience, especially as the software makes it so easy to do many things. However, there are a few small things that I think could be improved.
- You can’t give an article a separate excerpt, which makes Movable Type using a first part of your post body instead. It’s not too bad though, as I prefer the latter behaviour.
- When you paste a multi-paragraph block of text into a blockquote, paragraphs aren’t made properly. Every paragraph starts with a <p> but doesn’t end with a matching </p>, making it invalid XHTML. I don’t know if this is also the case with normal blocks of pasted text as opposed to a blockquote.
- The Windows Live Writer window does not seem to remember its last size settings and always default to a small windows at the bottom of the screen.
Other than these small annoyances, the software is great for a beta.
So Microsoft have decided to conquer the blogging-from-a-PC-application market by releasing the beta of Windows Live Writer.
Basically, the software is a glorified version of the venerable WordPad that’s been with us since Windows 3.1, updated with the 2007 style and with the main functionality of posting to a blog. In a first for Microsoft, they’ve made the tool work with blogging tools other than their own, and even this beta version works with an amazing number of apps, although more support is planned for future releases. The application mainly works using XML-RPC and other such interfacing standards, which means that its support can be extended.
Set-up is very easy, and all you really need to do is to enter the URL of your blog, plus a username and password. The software works out most of the rest itself, and only asks you if it needs further information (in my case, it asked for Movable Type’s XML-RPC URL, which is easy to work out as it offers the placeholders). You can also provide some FTP details if you want it to use those to upload your pictures, otherwise it just uploads it to your weblog app, which then stores it somewhere or another.
The main window contains a writing pane with all the usual rich-text editing tools, plus a spelling checker, which is a must for all us blogging types! There’s even a function to insert pictures and maps from Windows Live Maps. The editor saves drafts just in case that all-important post goes missing :)
After posting your entry, you can have a look at it on your weblog, and if the software supports it, the writing pane itself adapts to show your post in your blog’s style, even as you’re typing it, which is a nice touch.
The interface itself needs a little tweaking here and there and maybe some touch-ups, but overall, it’s a very nice version 1.0 app from the Windows Live people. Well done Microsoft!
PS. Oh, and if you were wondering, this post itself was written and posted using Windows Live Writer. See how easy it is? If you want more information, or to download it and try it out for yourself, visit the Windows Live Writer Zone.