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I just discovered a new shortcut to add to my list of favorites: Alt+Esc. This moves the current window to the bottom of the "stack." Admittedly, I got a little over-excited about it at first because I thought it minimized the window. It's virtually the same effect, tho. What I'm really looking for are three things:
- Minimize current window
- Maximize/restore current window
- Bring window to front or top of the "stack"
If I had my way, I'd make these available with Win+Down and Win+Up for minimize and maximize/restore and Win+Shift+1 thru Win+Shift+9 to bring the first thru ninth window to the top of the stack. The latter shortcut might be problematic, when considering grouped taskbar buttons as well as the enhancements to the taskbar in Windows 7. Of course, the shortcut could simply bring up a menu, for either of these scenarios, which would still be a good enhancement.
The following consists of the English DVD updates released under the MSDN Premium (Team Suite) subscription level for November 2008.
SDKs/DDKs
- Disc 2426.30 / Part X15-18258
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
- Hyper-V™ Updates
- Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP1 (All Languages)
- Windows Driver Kit (6001.18001)
- Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional SDK
- Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard SDK
- Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5
- Visual Basic® for Applications 6.0 SDK v6.5
- Visual Studio® 2005 SDK v4.0
- Windows Vista™ Media Center SDK Refresh
- Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 SDK (English)
Developer Tools
- Disc 4406.01 / Part X15-18254
- Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition (English)
- Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1 (All Languages)
- Disc 4603 / Part X15-18246
- Visual Studio® 2008 Service Pack 1 (All Languages)
Servers
- Disc 2436.37 / Part X15-18270
- Antigen
- Commerce Server 2007
- Forefront™ Security
- Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007 w/ Feature Pack 1
- Office Communications Server 2007
- Search Server 2008
- SQL Server® 2008
- System Center Configuration Manager 2007 w/SP1
- System Center Essentials 2007 SP1
- System Center Operations Manager 2007 w/SP1
- System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 (English)
- Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 SP1 (All Languages)
Library
- Disc 0001 / Part X15-18560
- MSDN® Subscriptions Library, November 2008 Edition (English)
For more information, see the MSDN Subscriptions Index.
Netflix recently announced a new version of its "Watch Instantly" player that supports both Windows and Mac. I don't quite have much use for the latter, but I have been eagerly awaiting an update to the player. The player is very basic and, while it does what it needs to, it leaves me wanting more. After the announcement, I diligently started watching the a movie. Low and behold, nothing changed. Netflix made a comment about slowly rolling the player out, so I figured I'd just have to wait a little longer. Then, Netflix announced that we could opt-in for the new player ourselves. Score!
Unfortunately, the player doesn't the feature I've wanted the most: the ability to go to the previous and next episodes in a series. I've also wanted subtitles, but that's slightly less important. Beyond that, the player has some nice upgrades, like the still shots shown when you fast forward or rewind. I tend to watch more online than I rent these days, so I'm glad to see the player upgraded and hope they keep at it! I really want to see upgrades to the player a lot more frequently.
I saw something about keyboard shortcuts, but I didn't find anything very useful. I did, however, find a way to get some debug/diagnostic information. If you're interested, simply use Ctrl+Shift+Left Click to see a diagnostic menu with a few options you may or may not be interested in. Nothing too terribly special, tho. I doubt many would even care.
It took me a while to find this download link, so I figured I'd share it. If you want to give Visual Studio 2010 (and .NET 4.0) a shot, you're only 11 files and ~7.2 GBs away!
Visual Studio 2010 y .NET 4.0
En Español
Me tomó un rato para encontrar esta descarga, así que quiero compartirlo. Si queires a probar Visual Studio 2010 (y .NET 4.0), usted es sólo 11 archivos y ~7,2 GBs fuera de él.
I can't say we needed a new logo for .NET, but there have been a few nice logos coming out of Redmond lately. Actually, I never really considered the .NET logo to be an official logo. It was simply some text with very basic coloring. Either way, we now have a new logo to enjoy. I have to say I like it more, but I don't know if I can say I "love" it. I do like the fact that they're looking to refresh the "look." This makes me wonder if we'll see a new logo for Visual Studio 2010. The Visual Studio logo is something like 10-12 years old. I don't know exactly, but it's perhaps the oldest logo that hasn't changed. Well, other than Windows. The Windows logo changes with every release, but that change is relatively minor. I don't see that logo drastically changing for a long, long time. Actually, Microsoft is probably more likely to release a new OS than change that logo. Who knows... that'd probably still be called "Windows," even tho the change would be reminiscent of the MacOS 9 to 10 change.
What's wrong with Microsoft advertising? We all know they have an issue, but not all of us know what they're capable of. Microsoft has some truly hilarious videos they share internally and at conferences, but they don't always make it out to see the light of day. It's too bad, because that would go a long way. These videos aren't about selling products, they're simply about having fun. That's kind of what the Apple switch ads are, but what's annoying about those ads is that they're far from truthful, in most cases, and aren't about what's good in Mac. I can only remember one of two dozen or so ads that even talks about features of the Mac. Those ads are more about spreading FUD than truth... albeit in a humorous manner. You won't see this kind of ad campaign from Microsoft. Microsoft has a policy not to talk about how other products aren't as good as theirs. Instead, we talk about the strengths of Microsoft's product line.
I will say the Gates+Seinfeld ads (1, 2) threw me off -- like they did most people, it seems -- but I've also heard a lot of people enjoying them. Sure, it didn't make anyone run out to buy a new computer, but I don't think that was the purpose. I can only assume the purpose was to entertain and create some buzz. That's exactly what happened. I have no idea why they stopped after 2 ads, tho. Switching it up to the "I'm a PC" campaign was very awkward. Don't get me wrong, I like the ads; I just wanted to see where the other ads were going. This is all too familiar to me, considering the number of TV series I've watched that were mysteriously cancelled in mid-season. I was curious where they were going and hope they aren't done, yet. All I can do is assume they're trying to build up anticipation for a miraculous return. I just hope the break isn't too long, because people will forget. We have lives; we move on.
On an old episode of This Week in Tech, there was a discussion about Microsoft's ad campaign. I remember it because one person essentially likened the Apple switch and "I'm a PC" campaigns to a high school bully (Apple) stuffing a geeky kid (Microsoft, or, the "PC") into a locker. Actually, he phrased it as, "stop hitting me, stop hitting me," speaking to the "I'm a PC" ads in response to the switch ads. I totally agree. I don't think that's what the ads were supposed to mean, but that is exactly what they look like. I say all this, but I do like the ads. They show the diversity of Windows users.
With all that, I wish Microsoft would bring it down to a human level, which is what Google does. I recently saw a video about Google 411 and thought it was great. I just don't know why Microsoft can't do things like this. We have some great talent within the company -- very creative and innovative people that want there to be a better view of the company, but there's not much we can do, it seems. It's a sad state for ad agencies, if they can't come up with better concepts.
I'm not sure I can buy into this, but supposedly, Microsoft is in talks with RIM (owner of Blackberry) for a potential buy-out. I have to assume this would be riddled with regulatory issues, considering both companies are in the phone business. The key difference is that Microsoft doesn't deal with operations and RIM does. I wouldn't be suprised if there was a 3-way deal, where Microsoft got the device and software and some third party got the operations side of it. I don't know much (read: anything) about their ops, but I'd have to imagine any provider would love this deal.
Nothing new here. After reading another tidbit on the latest 120 GB Zunes, I remembered an old post I had. Not that big of a deal, but I thought it was interesting to see my prediction come to light.
Retrospectiva en Previsión
En Español
No hay nada nuevo aquí. Después de leer otro comentario acerca de la 120 GB Zunes, me acordé un puesto que escribí. El puesto no es muy importante, pero pensé que era interesante que mi predicción se hizo realidad.
If you're interested in what software updates are coming out for Zune 3, check out the collection of videos on Engadget from this morning. There are a few things not mentioned, like the games, but it does cover all the heavy-hitting features the Zune team is pushing.
¿Se Está Interesado en Zune 3?
En Español
Si está interesado en lo que cambiará en el software de Zune, mira la videos en Engadget de esta mañana. Hay algunas cosas que falta, como los juegos, pero describe todas las características principales del equipo de Zune.
A while ago, when working on my first Silverlight app -- well, "app" might be pushing it -- I wanted to use very specific fonts to achieve a specific look and feel. I didn't put much thought into what was rendered at first, but soon I realized my fonts weren't being used. I ultimately found out that Silverlight is very limited in the built-in fonts you have to choose from. You can only choose from the following:
- Arial
- Comic Sans MS
- Courier New
- Georgia
- Lucida Sans Unicode
- Times New Roman
- Trebuchet
- Verdana
- Wingdings
I was very disappointed when I found out about this because I'm in love with the fonts released with Office 2007, namely Calibri, Cambria, and Consolas. I did say "built-in fonts," however, which is perhaps misleading. The reason for the limited fonts, which I'm sure you can guess, is because Silverlight is aiming to ensure the font you'll need is on the client's machine. What sucks about this is that, even if the client has the font, you still can't use it with a simple name reference, like you can with CSS. There is one work-around, tho.
To use a custom or non-standard font, you simply need to specify a path to the font. The problem with this approach is that it requires the client to download the font file, even if they already have the font locally. I still don't like this, but it's better than no option at all. To specify the font path, you have two options: FontUri property or the <uri>#<font name> syntax within the FontFamily peroperty. This may change in Silverlight 2, but I believe it's consistent with WPF, so I doubt it.
My only hope is that a future version of Silverlight might include a quick check to see if the font is available on the client before downloading it. This should give you the flexibility of using common fonts that aren't considered "standard" to Silverlight without increasing download size significantly across the board.
The last thing I should mention is the use of fall-back fonts. As I understand it, Silverlight support fall-back fonts, but I'm not sure how, unless you're using a custom font. Fall-back fonts in CSS are used when the first font is not available. Since Silverlight limits you to what fonts are theoretically ubiquitous, there doesn't seem to be a need for fall-backs. I can only guess that a fall-back would be used in a case where a font fails to download or the URI is bad.
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