My new HTCP

I've been working a lot the past few days to get my new HTCP up and running. Everything seemed to work perfect, except that I couldn't get any live TV. I tried everything from reinstalling Windows Media Center (which took a while and wasn't as easy as other Windows installations) to opening up the computer making sure there were no faulty connections anywhere. I also installed a couple of alternative applications for watching TV hoping that my channels would magically appear.

The solution was to borrow another TV-card and insert it into the computer. This is a small and tight PC, so inserting the slightly bigger PVR 500 card (originally a PVR 150) was a tight fit. But when booting up the machine the new card was immediately recognized, and all my channels were instantly found!

Since my HTPC was bought used from the internet (norwegian site finn.no), I was a bit skeptic to what I could achieve in return for the faulty card. I contacted the seller, who was a real gentleman and was promised a direct return on the card. Thanks!

Now I'm of to watch some recorded TV shows!

Finally I got my self a HTPC!

After having tried to use cheap components for running a media center setup for a couple of years, I finally decided to give myself a little pre-birthday present. I bought a used HTPC originally manufactured from komplett.no (in Norwegian) today! The HTPC is running Media Center XP (switching to Vista soon.. maybe..?), and has an external power supply which I hope will help keep the noise down. I'm picking it up later today, so my old DSM-320 will be up for sales now. Anyone interested? No? Hello..?

This will be nice (Javascript intellisense and debugging)

Happy to read that Javascript intellisense and debugging will be available in the next version of Microsoft Visual Studio!

Read more over at Scott G's blog.

Thanks :-) And I'm looking forward to start using it!

"Joost" one little thing...

I read that eirikso has some invites to Joost. I want one too! Please...?

Microsoft is really delivering on different platforms

While I was upgrading my Anti-virus from AVG to NOD, I needed to uninstall Microsoft Defender (I've been suspecting the two of them to cause a few problems on my computer lately). I didn't find the uninstaller for Defender, so I went over to Microsoft to download Defender's installer.

Being greeted by the validation screen, I suddenly remembered that I was running Firefox and got a little scared that I had to switch browser to be able to validate my Windows XP (no Vista yet) installation.

But I decied to give it a try, and pressed the validate button. After downloading and installing a small program, the validation process went as smooth as it does in IE, and after a few minutes Microsoft Defender was uninstalled.

Thanks for letting me use the browser I want to use, MS :-)

Why I wont switch to Windows Vista

I'm not moving to Vista for two reasons:

1) Visual Studio 2003 wont work, and therefore I can't do my .Net 1.1 development on Vista
2) Vista needs a faster, more beefed up computer than the one I have

So, why can't I just switch to Visual Studio 2005? I have it installed, and I really like using it. It's a bit slower than VS2003 in some ways, but that's something the added effectivity of VS2005 weights up for.

No, the main reason is that I can't switch the framework version we're using in our product from .Net 1.1 to 2.0 just so that I can install a new OS!

And why can't I just buy a new computer? Because a new computer is expensive, and changing computers every year because a new and better hardware configuration or OS exists isn't an option. I remember that when I first got my M4, I really felt that it was a fantastic computer with all the memory and CPU I'd ever need. I to be honest; I haven't changed neither the OS nor any of the programs I'm using in my daily work, so in theory my computer should still be up to snuff!

A nice little utility

Just read about this fantastic tool (I can't find where I read about it, but thanks anyway..!). Since I use Mozilla Thunderbird for email and Microsoft Outlook as my calendar (reason: Thunderbird is faster, and hasn't been exposed to viruses and attacks in the same way as Outlook, and I need to keep my appointments in Outlook since ActiveSync only works with Outlook..).

This fantastic utility from Michael Scrivo really gives me the best of both worlds, I can keep on saving my appointments in Outlook without having to launch and have Outlook running with full UI in the background!

Thanks Michael!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to post my best wishes for you all out there in tabletspace in the new year!

The Winter is Here!

It’s snowing here in Oslo, which means that the winter is finally here. I have to be carefull with my TabletPC when biking to work tomorrow :-)

DualCor PC vaporware of the year... (from JkOnTheRun)

Read JkOnTheRun’s article here. All about why it’s awarded the vaporware of the year award.

Alternative way of activating pen text entry

Got a great suggestion for activating the alternative TIP I've blogged about about earlier on. An annonymous comment suggested that the Ink Everywhere panel only should appear if the pen button was pressed when clicking in the field.

This will make it very easy to perform other tasks like copying, pasting and selecting existing text in the field. First I thought that one should have support for gesturing to perform those operations, but that could be a bit too complicated for ordinary users. Any thoughts?

Debug statement in Javascript! Thanks, Julia

Read Julia’s post about her newest discovery in Javascript: The debugger statement! By writing the word debugger in your code, IE will enter the debugger on that line. That was the last time I’ve ever written MyStupidObject.MethodCallThatWillFail() in my code.

Yesterday's concert

Thanks to each and everyone of you that took the time to show up and make the night a good night for us! We gave everything, and the concert went very well. We got fantastic feedback from the audience, and the place was packed.

Speaking of guitar heros...

Found this video over at Espen’s blogg. Rodrigo Y Gabriela are real guitar heros. Take a look, and pay attention to the techniques they are using.

I'm a guitar hero

Wow. We played a few rounds of Guitar Hero last night after work, and I must say that I was totally blown away with the playability of the game. RedOctane and Harmonix has done an excellent job delivering a great game and an outstanding user experience. Playing on the game’s “plastic-o-so-fantastic”guitar really made me feel like a guitar hero. And I might need it, since I’m trying to become one tonight.

Cochise is playing live at Cafe Mir on saturday

And I know that it’ll probably be a bit long for you all to travel to Oslo (Norway) to see us. But I just wanted you all to know. You can read more about our band here, and visit our MySpace.com page here. We’re also releasing our new video and ep at the show.

Remember, this is the band I blogged about using my TabletPC when rehearsing :-)

Josh is searching for something else to do

Hope that he isn’t quitting because the Tablet PC market is becomming too small. I belive in the platform and think that a vibrant and good marketplace for third party software is important to ensure growth. So Josh, hope you find something usefull to do, and good luck with finding a new home for TEO.

What kind of alternative input do we want on the Tablet PC?

(Note to self: Remember not to spend this long untill next time you post.)

If you’ve read my blog the last 6 months, you’ve seen that I have created a small tool for writing ink directly in text fields on the screen. One of the obstacles I’ve met when developing the tool has been to get a consistent way of tracking input fields for all programs in every scenario.

The other major issue I’m having is something I feel I need some help answering. How should an alternative Tablet PC Input Panel work? Jan-Kristian correctly pointed out (when commenting my posting) that there are a lot of considerations to take care of, like how to edit ink etc.

I’ve found out that covering all text fields with a semi-transparent inkable field might work if there are enough functionality for editing text already in the field, and for editing the text you’re currently writing. What I’d like you all to do now, is to comment on this post with your concerns and wishes.

Thanks for your feedback.

I got a new phone

After a year as a Nokia user, I finally got the opportunity to switch back to a Windows Smartphone. I choose the i-mate SP-5 since it has everything I need and WIFI.

It feels great to surf the net at high speed from my local kaffebrenneriet (coffeeshop in Norway). If anyone has software that they use and find invaluable, please let me know!

It's been a while...

…since you last heard from me. This is mainly because we’ve been rebuilding our new appartement and moving. We’re now well sorted out (still a few boxes to unpack), but the appartement is ready and everybody is quite happy with the way it works out.

I have been busy testing out different ways of building my Ink Everywhere application. The biggest task has been to build it as a text service using the Text Service Framework. From my knowledge, the framework was used to build the current Input Panel, allthough I’m having HUGE problems getting it to notify my program in a consistent way. I’ll post some updates on my findings later.