Melanie and I saw First Descent last night which was also opening night for the movie. We both thought the movie was excellent. If you ride, wish you could ride, or just want to learn more about snowboarding and the history of snowboarding then First Descent is a must see movie for you.
The movie has two story lines. One story is about 5 of the world’s top snowboarder getting together in Alaska for some big mountain riding. The other story is the history of snowboarding covering primarily the 70’s through the 2002 Olympics. The movie switches back and forth through the two story lines and it definitely holds your attention throughout its entirety.
I might try seeing it again this week. And of course I can’t want to buy it on DVD.
Into snowboarding? Then go see this movie! It’s a must see.
There has been a lot of buzz this week about the Desktop Linux Client Survey 2005, release earlier this week by Open Source Development Labs. In this report OSDL says the lack of a quality email program prevents Linux from being widely adopted on the desktop. Some argue that Linux is suitable for the common user while others argue that more application support and training is needed.
My opinion in this debate is simple. I believe users will go where the applications are and most applications developers (including in-house, corporate developers) and ISV are NOT targeting Linux. And the reason many developers do not write desktop applications for Linux is because there are no good RAD development environments like Delphi and Visual Studio to help increase developer productivity for Linux development. Also, there is a lack of 3rd party control support for Linux developers. At the end of the day it is easier to write and go to market with a Windows desktop application than it is with a Linux desktop application (or Mac application for that matter).
Vendors like Borland have tried in the past to sell a RAD environment to developers for Linux, and I for one wish they would continue work on Kylix. Unfortunately Borland has made Kylix a classic product which means there is still some demand but the product is no longer enhanced, supported or marketed. A real shame in my opinion.
Speaking as an ISV I would very much like to see White Peak Software target Linux for its desktop products which includes a new email client for the Windows platform due out next year. However the time to market for Linux desktop applications is much longer. Development tools like Delphi and 3rd party controls like the ones from DevExpress and /nsoftware make it easier and faster to write and publish Windows desktop applications.
Give general development community the tools needed to write Linux desktop applications faster and I believe you will see more Linux desktop applications. And once there are more useful, quality applications available on the Linux desktop the user community will follow. It worked for Palm in the 90’s. Palm made it easier for developers to write Palm Pilot applications as compared to WinCE, and Palm Pilot became the preferred hand held for the majority of users.
It has also worked for gaming consoles. The number of titles and the quality of those titles helps decide which console has the majority of the market. Microsoft wants to see the new Xbox 360 beat Sony’s PlayStation worldwide. A key point in Microsoft’s plan is to attract the biggest names in game development to produce Xbox 360 game titles. Microsoft knows that the best games must be available on its new console for the platform to be a marketing success. The gaming community will go where the best games are. The desktop user community will do the same.
Linux will become more feasible for the desktop once the number of useful software titles has reached a critical mass that attracts the general user. And to make it happen, more software developers need to target the Linux desktop. But first there needs to be better development tools that make it easier and faster to go to market with a Linux desktop application. This will attract more software developers, which in turn will produce more software titles, which will attract more users to the Linux desktop.
I have had a week to play with my new Xbox 360 and overall I’m happy with the purchase. However, unless you are a hard core gamer who wants the latest hardware or there is a must have, must play now game title out there, I recommend waiting until after the holidays, maybe longer, to buy an Xbox 360. Here’s why.
Although the hardware is impressive the launch titles I have played don’t really push the hardware. In other words, I’m still waiting for a next-gen game that really shows off what the Xbox 360 can do.
PGR3 and Call of Duty 2 look great on HDTV. New York City streets in PGR3 look real and Call of Duty 2 makes you feel like you are in a movie at times. Both games look good on a standard TV but really shine on HDTV. HDTV support is one area that makes the Xbox 360 a better console than the others on the market today. But if you don’t have HDTV, games look about the same as you would expect on Xbox 1 or PS2.
One thing I do like is the new Xbox Live. The new Xbox Live combines a market place with gaming. I also like the gamer card and score. I find myself consistently comparing my score to other gamers and I’m consistently working on gaining more Xbox Live achievements.
Another impressive new feature of Xbox 360 is the media capabilities. You can play music, watch videos, view digital photos and more. The console does a good job of being a complete entertainment console. The Xbox 360 can connect to a Windows PC running Media Connection software or Media Center. Once connected you can listen to music streaming from the PC or watch a movie or even browse digital photos.
I’m excited about streaming music since I have a server of 40+ GB of MP3 that I prefer listening to. Since my Xbox 360 is connected to my sound system and it can connect to a Windows PC over my home network, I am now able to listen to my music from the server through my sound system. This of course is nothing new but the Xbox 360 makes it easy to setup.
<h2>The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly</h2>
So you have just read the good. Now time for the bad and the ugly. The bad was my first experience with the Xbox 360. As I previously mentioned in a different post I had hardware failures when I first setup the Xbox 360. The hardware failures were caused by the video card not receiving enough power to operate properly. I was on hold for what seemed like forever with Microsoft Support but eventually gave up. I searched the forums and found I was not the only one experiencing problems. In fact a lot of people were having problems.
The solution that worked for me was to wipe down the mental connectors on the power brick. Apparently there was residue on the mental pieces that prevented the console from receiving full power. There are some individuals in the forums who say this is ridiculous and that wiping down the mental connectors will not fix anything. All I can say is I have not had a hardware failure since so the solution appears to have worked for my case.
Speaking of the power brick, it’s the one part of the hardware that is a real let down. Sure the console is slimmer than its predecessor but the power brick for the Xbox 360 is huge making it a pain to carry the console to a friend’s house. The power brick even has its own built-in fan, which adds to its size. Speaking of which, the combination of the console and the power brick make for a noisy experience. Yep, the fans are loud.
The Xbox 360 is louder than all my laptops and Dell servers, firewall device, network hubs and switches, wireless access points, printer, and external USB hard drivers combined. You will not notice the fan noise during game play since the game will have its own sound and music but when the Xbox 360 is powered on and there is no music or game play in progress you can definitely here the roar of the fans. Over Thanksgiving weekend I was asked a couple of times “What was that noise?” Of course I had to say it was the Xbox 360.
And lastly the travel bag. Those who know me know I am a bag junkie. I believe having the right bag is key to travel and transporting goods. I’m not talking about a purse. I’m talking about big bags and small bags with a specific purpose. And I have a lot of them so it was only natural for me to buy the Planet 21 Xbox 360 Sling Bag.
This bag looks nice but it does have some design flaws. First of all, there should be a handle at the top of the bag. This would make it easier to carry the bag when you need to walk through say the turnstile at the subway station or throwing (not literally) the console into the car. Also the shoulder strap sucks. There is no padded shoulder rest and believe me if you are carrying the console with the heavy power brick to a friend’s house and you have a 30 minute walk you want a padded shoulder strap.
But the number one disappointment I have with the Sling Bag really isn’t the bag itself but the power brick. Yes, again with the power brick. While the Sling Bag supposedly was designed for the Xbox 360 there is not good place to store the power brick. The bag has lots of pockets and compartments which I really like. Unfortunately many of them become useless once you put the power brick in the bag. I really hope a 3rd party or Microsoft comes out with a replacement power brick in the near future.
Anyway, back to the bag. It’s a nice bag and it’s okay for carrying your Xbox 360, a couple of controllers, the power brick, and a game or two especially given the price, $50 USD. But a more expensive laptop bag might make packing away the hardware and accessories easier.
<h2>And Finally</h2>
I’m really enjoying my new Xbox 360. Games like Amped 3 and Call of Duty 2 are great launch titles, but I haven’t found a launch title that really shows off the hardware. I expect this will change in 6 to 12 months after game developers have had more time to explore the potentials of the console. The new Xbox Live is great and is the one saving grace (for the moment) for the Xbox 360 in my opinion. While I don’t think the new Xbox Live is a reason to buy a new Xbox 360 it is nice to have if you already have the console. And lastly, given the initial problems reported by many Xbox 360 owners and the lack of a kill launch title that shows off the potential of the new hardware, I believe Sony has a chance to trump the Xbox 360 with its upcoming PlayStation3.
Borland has posted a video from the 2005 Borland Developer Conference that includes a demonstration of the new Borland Developer Studio 2006. I don’t know about you, but I am anxiously awaiting the release of Delphi 2006 and the new Dev Studio. I’m really excited about the new features included in the upcoming release.
I just read from the Xbox forums that the problem I am experiencing might be caused by the power supply connectors. Apparently some believe there is residue on the metal and pins preventing the power supply from send full power to the console. I wiped down all exposed metal pieces. Hopefully this will fix the problem.
Santa came early at the Turner house. My Xbox 360 arrived this afternoon! I was impressed by the size of the console but not so impressed by the size of the power supply. It’s huge but I can live with that.
Setup was easy. It only took me a couple of minutes. I powered on the console with the plan to convert my Xbox Live account to Gold before playing any games, but low and behold the video card crapped out. Yep, that’s right.
The box was on for less than 5 minutes when the video card crapped out. The screen got fuzzy with red dots all over then thin black and white lines were displayed. My first thought was the video card was fried. I powered off the console and called support.
I was put on hold so while I waited I decided to unplug the console, plug it back in, and try it again. The console booted up fine and the video was okay. Whew, maybe it was just a freak one-time video problem.
I was still on hold with Microsoft Xbox support. I decided to stay on hold while I worked my way through the network setup and Xbox Live account conversion. Luckly I wasn’t experiencing any more hardware problems. I did have some problems converting my Xbox Live account and had to do the process twice. Microsoft could improve the conversion process user interface a bit, in my opinion.
Still no hardware problems and still on hold with customer support. 20 minutes had past so I decided to drop in my first game, Amped3. I decided to hang up the phone too. 2 minutes later, red dots everywhere! The dang video card went crazy again!
So my first impressions are not good based on the first 30 minutes or so. I felt like I did yesterday when I saw Microsoft demo pre-release version of Visual Studio Team Services on Launch Day and it did NOT work. I have been browsing the Xbox support forums and it seems others are having problems with their new Xbox too. I’m glad I’m not alone but I’m very disappointed with Microsoft.
After powering down the console, unplugging it, plugging it back, and powering it up again, I was finally able to play Amped3. The next 40 minutes were problem free. I’m heading out in a few minutes so I had to turn it off. I think I will turn it back on while I’m gone to do a burn in test.
I noticed the manufacturing date on my console is Nov 14 2005. Barely a week ago and it makes me wonder if Microsoft ever performed a burn-in test on it. Well, one thing I do know is if the video goes out one more time I’m returning the console and games.
I’m almost hesitant to say this but my Xbox 360 has been running problem free for the last 4.5 hours. Maybe the residue problem was the cause. Time will tell. I plan to play the heck out of the Xbox 360 this holiday weekend. I’ll make another status posting at the end of the weekend along with my reviews of Amped3, PGR, and Call of Duty 2.
Updated: I’ve gotten a lot of gaming time in (over 20+ hours) on my Xbox 360 and I have not experienced any new hardware problems. I guess the problems I experienced on Day 1 were related to residue on the metal connectors of the power brick. Also, I’m having a blast with Amped 3 and Call of Duty 2. I’ll post my reviews of these games later.
| In an earlier post I mentioned my disappointment with Microsoft for not including wincv.exe in the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK. Like many developers I have found this tool to be very handy and I use it a lot. But all is not lost. WinCV.exe can be used with .NET 2.0. WinCV.exe has a config file called WinCV.exe.config identifying the assemblies loaded and exposed by the tool. I modified the config file to include the .NET 2.0 assemblies. Low and behold this worked. I can now use WinCV.exe to examine class definitions for 2.0 classes. I recommend copying the WinCV.exe and WinCV.exe.config to a clean directory if you have .NET 1.1 and 2.0 installed on the same machine. This way you can use one instance of WinCV.exe for .NET 1.1 and the other for 2.0. You can declare the 2.0 assemblies in the same config file as the 1.1 assembly but this can lead to confusion when looking at the class definitions in WinCV.exe. I like to eliminate confusion so I copied WinCV.exe and its config file to a different directory, which I use to browse 2.0 classes. I use the instance at the default location to browse 1.1 classes. I have posted the WinCV.exe.config file containing the 2.0 assembly declarations here. Note I had to rename the file stored on the web server to WinCV.exe.config.xml so ASP.NET would not block you from downloading it. You will need to remove the .xml from the file extension or copy |
paste the XML if you are viewing it in the browser window. Lastly, for those of you wondering where you can find WinCV.exe, look in your Visual Studio 2003 install directory. The default location is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Bin Kudos to the Microsoft developer who had the smarts to use a config file for WinCV.exe. Update: The WinCV.exe.config file posted above has the section needed to force WinCV.exe to run under .NET 2.0 when multiple versions of the .NET Framework are present on the same machine. Thanks to Don Jayamanne for recommending the the section setting. |
This is more of a rant then anything else but I gotta say it. I’m really disappointed with Microsoft today. It started at the NYC Product Launch event for Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk 2006.
Today’s event was a let down for me. I have been to many similar Microsoft events over the years and have always left thinking “This was well worth my time.” Today’s event was only worth my time because of the free giveaways. The actual event itself was a let down and left me wondering if Visual Studio Team Services is really ready.
For starters the demo of VSTS used a pre-RTM version. This was a launch day event and pre-released software was demoed…WTF! On top of that many of the features demoed did not work, presumably because the pre-RTM release was used. Unit tests did not run, web tests did not run, load tests did not run, reports could not be displayed, and in certain cases bad practices were demoed such as saving the list of work items in SharePoint as an Excel spreadsheet. I would not want my team working from a static list of work items when Foundation Server is installed and live information can be used.
Disappointed with the event I decided to return to the office early to get some work done. My plan for the rest of the day is to evaluate the SqlBulkCopy class for a customer. I wanted to quickly see the class definition for SqlBulkCopy so I went to load wincv.exe.
For those of you who don’t know what wincv.exe is, it is a class viewer for the .NET Framework classes. I often use it to identify property and methods names, which is faster using wincv.exe then the MSDN documentation. But to my surprise wincv.exe is NOT included with the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK. What gives? I found it to be a very useful tool that I used on a regular basis. Now it is gone. Even the wincv.exe page says it ships only with version 1.0 and 1.1 of the .NET Framework.
I have been using this tool for 4 years and I’m disappointed that I cannot continue using it with the new release of the framework. Needless to say this adds to my disappointment in Microsoft today. If only my Xbox 360 had arrived today. Things might seem different.
For those of you who have been asking me “When are you going to post new pictures?” Well, the answer is “Today”. Check out the gallery for almost 6 months of pictures. From the NYC Pride Day March to summer camping trips to family vacations to our trip to Italy…You finally have some new pictures to keep you occupied for the next few minutes. Enjoy.