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I noticed that RSS Bandit 1.7 Beta was released recently. Unfortunately for me, when I tried to upgrade on my work computer, it failed horribly. After clicking OK to the dialog, the Bandit loaded, but none of my feeds were loaded.

I started looking in to this and noticed the DirectAccess.29741.subscription was looking pretty empty, but that the contents looked similar to the old subscriptions.xml file. To test my hypothesis, I added a feed to RSS Bandit and checked the results in the DirectAccess.29741.subscription file. Sure enough the feed was there.

I shut down RSS Bandit, then deleted the DirectAccess.29741.subscription and copy/renamed subscriptions.xml to DirectAccess.29741.subscription. Starting the app again, my feeds loaded properly. I did a diff on the DirectAccess.29741.subscription file and noticed a few xml attributes were added or rearranged, but otherwise the file was intact. So far so good.

I also found that the installed replaced my custom RSSBandit.exe.config in the Program Files directory with a new version that no longer contained my settings. I fixed that up and everything was hunky dory. I am posting this in case anyone else runs into the same issue.

RSS Bandit has a way to synch feeds between computers, but it doesn't work for me. Instead I copy the entire app data directory between work and home. This works the way I like it to. Their synch fails in that on my home computer, my unread items at home can get out of synch with work. Unfortunately this is not a bug, and instead a feature.

I've been using a USB thumbdrive for a few months now. I transfer music to and from work and home, back up personal docs and Firefox profiles, store scripts that I have developed, and run Portable Apps from it.

The 4 GB version I have is awesome, and very handy. Today I learned an excellent way to ensure that the thumbdrive is available at the same location across computers you use. This is especially handy when using back up scripts. Windows only, but that is where I live.

The short how-to: Run "diskmgmt.msc" from Windows' Run/Start Search box, right-click on your plugged-in drive and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths." Then:

Click on the Add button, select Mount into the following empty NTFS folder and click on browse. Now navigate to the subfolder that you want to assign the USB drive to and confirm the assignment. The USB drive will from now on be accessible from that folder as well if it is connected to the computer

via LifeHacker

I've been using Windows Powershell for a few weeks now. I was wanting to learn something new recently, and this seemed like a good fit since this is something I can apply to work life, as well as home.

Powershell is Microsoft's new command shell and scripting language, that is very .Net like. Pretty much anything you do results in an object, not a string like previous command shells.

To help with learning Powershell, I bought the Window Powershell Cookbook by Lee Holmes. I love this book since it really is a bunch of recipes. You want to do this, then follow these steps. The code snippets are small, and well commented, and help reinforce the topic. They are also all downloadable from O'Reilly, which helps me tinker with them.

So far I am really enjoying working with Powershell. In a short amount of time I have been able to create some scripts that help me with my day to day job. Some things that needed to be automated, but the only way I knew how to accomplish would have been to write a small craplet. Powershell allows me to write a nicer craplet :) Some other scripts I have written at home help me to blog more efficiently, and to transfer RSS Bandit data between computers.

I haven't tackled anything difficult or groundbreaking with Powershell yet, but I am still learning what can be done on this platform.

This site is running the latest release of Drupal. This version is just a release candidate still, but so far I haven't seen much that is too different. The default theme looks the same, and most of the management screens I have seen look the same.

I did notice that the configuration of the categories had a really nice change. The individual categories can be reorganized by a drag and drop method. Very slick. A lot nicer than choosing the weight using a drop down list.

OpenID is integrated into this version which doesn't help too many people right now, but in the future this will be a nice way to stop having to create a new account at every site you visit.

So far so good. I have encountered a couple bugs which is typical of a release candidate, but on the whole it seems pretty stable.

A while ago while I was in Langley recently I visited Future Shop and found they had the Logitech MX Revolution mouse on sale for $80. I picked one up because I am looking for a good mouse for work, and this one seemed like it would be a good fit for my hand, and for my penchant for customizing my computing experience.

The scroll wheel is a great idea in that it had two modes, quick scroll, and normal click scroll. There is also a thumb rocker switch that can be customized for use.

From all descriptions I had read it sounded pretty customizable. Perfect.

Out of the box the mouse is pretty comfortable, and glides nicely across the desktop. I installed the software from the included disc, and immediately noticed some peculiarities with it.

The thumb rocker switch had only one setting for use, and not one for flipping up versus flipping down. That switch could only ever do one thing regardless of which direction you move it.

I also found the software didn't always remember its settings. I would change the configuration click save, exit the configuration software and discover the changes hadn't been applied. Opening the software again I would inevitably find the changes I made hadn't been saved.

The clicking scrolling wheel was too pronounced and I could feel the clicks reverberate through my finger. It didn't bother me for the first few days, but it soon got annoying and distracting. I even found that this clicking bothered my finger so I had to turn it off.

The scroll wheel had a feature where it will switch from clicking to free wheel. The configuration software allows you to determine how much force was needed to indicate when to switch over. What happens internally is when the wheel spins fast enough the clicking mechanism is moved away from the wheel and it spins freely. Unfortunately this switching to smooth scrolling is very finicky. I tried all sorts of setting to find the sweet spot, but I never got it dialed in so I had to disable it, and just let it live in free spin mode.

When the free spin comes to an end, the mouse automatically switches back to click mode. I could physically feel the wheel click into spot. This quite often causes the active application to scroll a couple lines one way or another. Imagine this scenario happening 20-30 times a day. You flick the scroll wheel, it changes to free spin mode, and when you get to the right place in the file you stop the spinning. Then the screen you are looking at jumps up or down a few lines after a slight pause. Dam annoying.

Another option was to click the scroll wheel to get it to change from click mode to free spin mode. It seems like a good idea but in my experience it was an odd feeling that I couldn't shake no matter how many times I tried it.

In the end I configured the mouse to always be in free spin mode for the three reason mentioned above (clicking bothering my finger, finicky switch to free spin, and the jumpy screen when coming out of free spin mode).

The worst thing that I experience with this mouse was that quite often I couldn't scroll down when Visual Studio 2005 was the active application. I could scroll up just fine, but scrolling down would often fail. This only happened in Visual Studio, and only happened when trying to scroll down. A product killer if most of your day is spent in this application.

Battery life seemed very good. I could work a whole week and by Friday afternoon the batter warning was starting to blink. The batteries aren't user replaceable though. How long they will last is a question that is on my mind.

This mouse features quite an ergonomic design, and at first it seemed comfortable. Too soon though I found I was getting a claw hand. You know, my hand would cramp up after using the mouse for a few hours, and when I let go of the mouse, my hand is stuck in the claw shape? Not good. I also found that using this mouse inflamed my tendinitis, so I would have to abandon it for a few days to rest my hand. Whats the point of using this mouse if I can't use it all the time?

One thing about this mouse that I loved was the thumb rest, but I wished there was something similar for my pinky and ring fingers..

I've since stopped using the mouse and switched back to a basic Dell supplied cheap mouse. It fits my hand much better. The Revolution was just a tad too small and that is what caused my claw hand and discomfort. Soon I am going to sell it to try and recoup some of the cost. Good sounding mouse, but just not right for me.

Don't clutter my desktop with shortcuts!

On my computer, I control my desktop, and I absolutely hate shortcuts to programs on it. I put special files that I access often, and I use it as a temporary space. Sometimes I will put a shortcut to certain folders, but other than that, I like a clean desktop.

I get very frustrated by software that doesn't give me the option of disabling the shortcut on the desktop. Even worse is an upgrade to something that restores a shortcut that I previously deleted.

What puts a smile on my face is when an installer asks me if I want a shortcut on the desktop, and the default choice is no.

I got spoiled while working at VoiceMobility. I had my own office for a very long time. It was great, and I loved having my own office, a space I could call my own. I could close the door when I needed to think or to concentrate on my work. I could play music without using headphones. I had my personal space so I could call my doctor if I needed to, and not have someone else listen in to my conversation. It really was bliss. This setup allowed me to feel extremely comfortable at work, which is something that I feel is crucial to being productive. Allowing me to firewall myself from others was something that I really needed to do once in a while at VMI.

Moving to NewHeights I was placed into a pretty crappy cubicle. The lighting was horrible, the was no A/C in the summer, no heating in the winter, and it was cramped. The working conditions were pretty bad, and I think that my productivity showed this. Still, it was a place I could call my own. Then I got moved to a worse location. I was in a large cube with 3 others, but my desk was right beside the entrance to the cube and this made my back to the entrance. The directors office was right next door, so this lead to an endless stream of people, and an endless stream of interruptions. Again, my productivity took another nosedive.

My final workspace at NewHeights was in the same cubicle, but I had a new spot so I wasn't facing the door. It was a lot better, but the downside to a cubicle is the ambient noise. I had a great view, but I could still hear the conversations of others. It was adequate.

My move to Kodak brought me to another office. I am sharing this one with a long time friend, and so far it has been great. It is a corner office with lots of large windows that let in a lot of light. It is warm and inviting. I love working there. Since I share the office, I still wear headphones, but I have found that it is quite nice to have someone to talk to once in a while, and someone handy to ask questions of.

The point of this is that as an employee I like having a place I can call my own. It is essential that I am comfortable and that helps me to be productive. Minimal distractions and interruptions also boost productivity. Personal space is important to me, so having that back is great.

I realized this on Friday: After 8+ years of programming I still get a thrill when something complicated I am working on, or something new I am trying actually works. I get a kick out of seeing software that I wrote working. That is how I know I am in the right industry.

When things don't go right, I get frustrated, and really want to solve the issue. Again, another indication that I am in the right job.

On the bad days I may not like my job, but on the whole I still like programming a lot.

I am a hacker and a tweaker. I like to make a computer (and software) work the way I do. Sometimes I install helper apps, sometimes I tweak settings. Visual Studio is an application I use every day at work, and as such I need it to be most efficient for me. I remap key combos, tweak colors, modify macros, install add-ons all in an effort to help me do my job quicker.

I read the article Pimp My IDE over at Coding Horror a while ago and made some changes to VS that I absolutely love.

Settings Changes:

• I changed the font to Proggy Clean
• I change the background color to an offwhite (232, 233, 235)
• I modified some of the syntax highlighting colors as well
• I turned off some of the ReSharper code highlighting. I found that the bolding of some items caused on-screen formatting errors.

Add-ons installed:

• ReSharper - excellent refactoring and code writing tool
• Kings Tools - some helpful tidbits for working with c++ (header flip especially)

Macro's:

I have also made a new macro named CollapseAll and have it tied to the HotKey combo ctrl+alt+0. CollapseAll collapses all projects in the solution explorer.

Sub CollapseAll()

' Get the the Solution Explorer tree
Dim UIHSolutionExplorer As UIHierarchy
UIHSolutionExplorer = DTE.Windows.Item( _
Constants.vsext_wk_SProjectWindow).Object()

' Check if there is any open solution
If (UIHSolutionExplorer.UIHierarchyItems.Count = 0) Then
' MsgBox("Nothing to collapse. You must have an open solution.")
Return
End If

' Get the top node (the name of the solution)
Dim UIHSolutionRootNode As UIHierarchyItem
UIHSolutionRootNode = UIHSolutionExplorer.UIHierarchyItems.Item(1)

' Collapse each project node
Dim UIHItem As UIHierarchyItem
For Each UIHItem In UIHSolutionRootNode.UIHierarchyItems
UIHItem.UIHierarchyItems.Expanded = False
Next

' Select the solution node, or else when you click
' on the solution window
' scrollbar, it will synchronize the open document
' with the tree and pop
' out the corresponding node which is probably not what you want.

UIHSolutionRootNode.Select(vsUISelectionType.vsUISelectionTypeSelect)

End Sub

I also use this Visual Studio macro that hides the turns off the navigation bar in c# files. Apparently this will speed up the editor.

Outside of the editor I also use CompareIt! by GrigSoft. This is my diff tool of choice. Nice colors, easy to use.

I also usually have a custom toolbar where I place all my often used commands. This got lost recently. Not sure how VS lost it. VS.net also has an annoying issue where you cannot export your custom settings. Microsoft has fixed this for VS 2005 (finally).

Addition:
It appears that Erik Lane has similar preferences to me.

Firefox, how I love thee. I also love the extensibility of it. I test a lot of extensions, and some are more useful than others. Here is my list of extensions.

Extensions (enabled: 20, disabled: 3):

• BugMeNot 1.3
• Canadian English Dictionary 1.0.1
• ChromaTabs 1.0
• del.icio.us 1.2
• DictionarySearch 2.0
• Download Manager Tweak 0.7.1 [disabled]
• dragdropupload 1.5.22
• Enhanced History Manager 0.5.8.05.1 [disabled]
• Gmail Notifier 0.5.6.5
• Google Toolbar for Firefox 2.1.20060807W
• Html Validator 0.7.9.5
• IE Tab 1.2.0.20061106
• IE View 1.3.1
• InfoLister 0.9f
• Opanda IExif 2.25 [disabled]
• Performancing 1.3
• Resizeable Form Fields 0.2.1
• Restart Firefox 0.3
• Sourceforge Direct Download 0.5
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.5
• TabScroller 0.6.3
• Talkback 2.0
• URL Fixer 1.2.7

Upon examining this list I think there are a few I can get rid of after the upgrade to Firefox 2. Restart Firefox and the Google Toolbar come to mind. And I don't use the dictionary search any more.

The most useful extensions add-ons that I actually use pretty much every day:

• IE Tab - view a webpage automatically or on demand rendered in IE in a tab in Friefox
• dragdropupload - when uploading files, you can drag it onto the form. Multiple files and multiple entry boxes are no problem.
• del.icio.us - a different kind of book mark manager
• Tab Mix Plus - my preferred session management tool