OpenXML The new Default format for Office 2007

> Despite my classification as a Developer at work, I often find myself
> doing research projects. In this case I was told to research how to
> generate Office Documents from the server. Then I'll have to write a
> whitepaper and do presentation. So far my research has lead me direclty
> to OpenXML the new default format for Office 2007. Now mind you there is
> no way on god's green earth that we will migrate to office 2007 but I'm of
> the opinion that we should use the format anyway. So I'll be spending the
> next couple of weeks writing a paper and trying to convience everyone
> (including myself) that OpenXML is the greatest thing since the invension
> of the wordproccesor.
>
> In case I acutlly have readers I'm gonna post some links and maybe the
> whitepaper when it done.
>
> T.
>
>
> MSDN Magazine: Server-Side Generation of Word 2007 Docs
>
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/11/BasicInstincts/>
> MSDN: Walkthrough: Word 2007 XML Format
> <http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms771890.aspx>
> MSDN: Introducing the Office (2007) Open XML File Format
> <http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338205.aspx>
> ECMA: Office Open XML Overview
> <http://shrinkster.com/ku8>
>

Linerider

This is sweet! I’m so not getting any work done this afternoon

 

http://www.linerider.com/

 

 

T

Wrestling Season take 2

So, we had what I think is called a Nor’easter yesterday and they cancelled school activities so today will be my first day of practice

 

T

Wrestling Season

I take up the post of Head Wrestling Coach at Hugo Owens Middle School today.

It’s going to be me and 50+ 7^th and 8^th graders.  May god have mercy on my soul.

 

 

T

.Net 3.0 Released!

.Net 3.0, however poorly named, was released to market with full support today.  To bad the US Navy seams content to use Windows 2000 till the end of all time, maybe someday I’ll get to be cutting edge. Anyway, check it out.

 

http://www.netfx3.com

 

 

T

My Virtual PC Woes

I love Virtual PC. It's a great place to install betas and screw with all kinds of OS features without fear of destroying your computer. But whenever I run a windows operating system on a virtual pc it runs slow. So slow that I can't really perform anything; well I've just read the single most important virtual machine performance tip and as it happens I just bought a new hard drive on sale. So, when I get home I'll installing that baby and moving my VHDs to it. I'll post again with any performance boosts

 

T

My Virtual PC Woes

I love Virtual PC <http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx>.
It's a great place to install betas and screw with all kinds of OS features
without fear of destroying your computer. But whenever I run a windows
operating system on a virtual pc it runs slow. So slow that I can't really
perform anything; well I've just read the single most important virtual
machine performance tip
<http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000714.html> and as it happens I
just bought a new hard drive on sale. So, when I get home I'll installing
that baby and moving my VHDs to it. I'll post again with any performance
boosts.

T

Ubuntu Linux

I'm a windows guy.  Always have been always will be.  However, I like to see what the other side is like now and again.  Usually when I want to scratch my Unix itch I turn to my old friend FreeBSD  this is the Unix I used in collage and the one I'm most familiar with.  This time though I heard about  Ubuntu and their live CD, and I've got to tell you I'm really impressed.  While I never really considered the actuall install process for Unix/Linux to be more difficult then Windows the configuration of Xwindows and the either the KDE or GNOME desktops can be quite a pain, VI and I don't get along.  Ubuntu on the other hand has made the entire install and configuration so simple I'd go so far as to say it's easier then a windows install.  They call it "Linux for human beings" and it lives up to its name.

If you'd like to play with the penguin for awhile here's the scoop:

First goto www.ubuntu.com and download the desktop ISO image,
and burn it to CD

At this point you have several options

Super Cool No Risk Ubuntu preview from Live CD
    -Boot your machine from the CD
    -Ubuntu will load into memory and allow you full access to the entire OS.  This includes by default the GNOME desktop so even the most die hard of windows zealots should feel comfortable.
    The OS will not mount your Hard Drive so there is no risk of corrupting your current system.

Full Installation
    If you have a spare machine, some unformatted space on your hard drive, or like me want to run from a Virtual PC simply boot as before and click the install icon from the desktop.
    A wizard will walk you through all steps needed to configure user accounts and netwoking


Ubuntu comes with a host of Free software pre-loaded the CD it really is a complete package, here's a small list of the included software:

FireFox (Web Browser)
Evolution (Mail and Calendar)
OpenOffice (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, etc..)
GIMP (Photo Editor)
Games
Multi-media Players


I Say Check it out.  Catch Ya Later

T

 

Refill your own Swifer WetJet Cartridges

I'm not really a clean nut. However I was mopping the floor in my kitchen just now and had to swap out the solution container for our swifer wet jet and I had a thought. "I bet this could be refilled", I said to myself, and in fact it is very simple and easy. The cap screws off; it has some plastic bits in place to keep you from doing it, but with a pair of pliers it came right off, and will screw back on and off after that by hand. Fill with any floor cleaning solution

If this seems silly or off topic see my post about operant conditioning


T

Portable Apps

I've always thought I'd be more organized with a PDA or smartphone but a couple of things have always keep me from getting one. First I'm to cheep to buy something I "think" I might use, and second I would loose or forget it so often as to be impractical. On an average week, my current cellphone spends about 2 weekdays and all weekend just sitting on my nightstand where it is of use to nobody. Now on the other hand my USB key comes with me everywhere I go, not because I think I need 256MB of storage where ever I go but because it is attached to my key chain and I can't get back into my house without it. This is where portable apps come in. A portable app is an computer application that does not need to be installed and configured to run, allowing it to run directly from a USB or other portable storage device. Most single .exe files will fall under this category, so things like Notepad2 would be included. However what impresses me the most is at Portableapps.com there is an entire library of application that normally would require installation but have been wraped in a launcher that allows them to be run directly from USB this include Firefox, Openoffice, Sunbird (mozilla calendar client), and Thunderbird (mozilla email client). equipped with this software my $20 USB drive becomes an 80% solution for a $300 PDA. Another way to look at it is; instead of just carrying your documents with you, know you can garentee that you have the ability to open them.

Installing Windows Vista Beta on Virtual PC

I got the bright idea a few weeks ago, to install the windows vista beta. Now I don't have random power machines laying around my house so I thought that that virtual pc would be a great option. I had done this before, download the iso file for the os mount it inside virtual pc's virtual cd drive and away you go. So I get my vista iso an proceed to drop it into the cd drive when I get this message to the effect of, this file exceeds the 2.2 gig limit, well shit what am I suposed to do now? The solution turns out to be quite simple but I thought I'd share it with you anyway.

Basicly what you need to do is mount the iso on the host operating system with a drive letter. Then tell virtual pc to use that drive and away you go. As it turns out this is not a native feature of windows xp. Undaunted my search for a utility lands me at a free but unsupported tool form microsoft for doing just that. I said it was unsupported but its more like unusable, the ui made little sense and when I did figure out how to use it, it did not deliver as promised. Several tools later I found daemon tools at http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php this free tool installed easily, and work without any fuss on the first try.

With a drive letter in place the rest of the install went smoothly. I am alittle mifed about how slow it runs though, thats the downside to virtual pc you really need a behemoth to run well. Anyway my next task will be to install the office 12 beta, and mybe the orcas beta for the full package. Catch ya later.

T

Richmond Code Camp

I attended the Richmond code camp and I have come away with two main ideas. First, I really think they should change the name of these because when I tell anyone where I'm going they laugh, and it's not fair Code Camps are wonderful community events and everyone who does .Net development should attend one if they can, they just need a more professional sounding name. The other thing that happened is I am officially changing my view of paired programming. I attended Jonathan Cogley's session on it and I am now convinced that it can work in the right environment.

get slides and other info from the conference go here (www.richmondcodecamp.com)

Podcasts and operant conditioning

A subset of operant conditioning says that the more you repeat a behavior the easier it becomes to perform that behavior in the future. So I'm going to just start writing anything that comes to my head and to hell with continuity until I'm used to this blog thing.

As part of my attempt to keep up with the 3rd millennium I have recently discovered the podcast. Who knew there where so many people willing to record a radio show and post it on the internet for free. Anyway in particular I've been listing to ARCast with Ron Jacobs available at http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/ARCast_with_Ron_Jacobs
just wanted to share. Later!

T

My First Post

Ok, so this is my first blog post ever. I've definitely been dragging my feet on the blog thing, but I'm hoping that in the coming months I will actually have something to say so I'm going to give it a shot. Look to see a lot about Test Driven Development, my current preoccupation and possibly some other random garbage. Catch you on the flip side. T