As a consultant you find yourself all over the place.  Today I am headed to downtown Chicago via the good ole train.  It's roughly a 1:30 minute ride one way.  I normally travel with at least the following:

• Large cup of Dunkin Donuts ( you know America runs on it )
• 1 Verizon phone with EVDO
• 1 Vista machine, 2 batteries
• 1 set of headphones

Here is where things get very geeky:

I am currently using the phone as a modem.  Blogging, email, IM, banging code all while listening to URGE ( BTW URGE just rocks ).  All at 50 mph!  If that wasn't enough, the code I am working on is hosted on a remote TFS server I am currently checking things in and out of.  CRAZY, I just love it!!

So what does my current bandwidth look like?

Download Speed: 1118 kbps (139.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 119 kbps (14.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

It's pretty crazy how connected we really are today.

Total geek stuff!!! controlthink home control has released an a .NET SDK to control all of your house automation needs.  Yes, my house is now going to get .NETized.

I absolutely loved LEGO when I was a kid.  You have to check out the new Coding4Fun article on Introduction to Programming LEGO MINDSTORMS.  Too Cool!

Last night I'm sitting on the couch coding away when suddenly mouse and keyboard were taken over and controlled by someone else.  In a total panic I try and close down everything of which has a connection to the Internet.  Things stop!  At this point I am in total awe at what just happened.  I start looking at security logs, firewalls etc, and just come up blank.

So I fire things back up and just sit there watching.....  Nothing; OK weird.  Start coding again and BAM, the keyboard and mouse have been hijacked again.  Out of the corner of my eye I happened to catch my wife walking into the office.  Thinking that she was playing some kind of weird really elaborate prank on me, I head into the office.  I walk in and she says "something is wrong with this computer, my mouse and keyboard just disappear".  I replied, "would you move that mouse again"?  Sure enough that mouse is moving the pointer on my laptop.  I just stood there in awe, how could this be?

Multiplicity!!  DOOOOHHHHHHH!!!

My laptop happens to be the "next" computer to the one she happened to be working on.  As she would reach the screen edge it would take control of mine.  It just never dawned on me to shut down the Multiplicity service when I didn't have my laptop docked in the office.

Moral of story, shut down that ole KM software you are running when you are not at your station!  You never really know who's in control.

That was just stupid easy and fast!!!!  Now we will see what all works on it.

So far I am loving it!!!!

Alright I lied, a few cups of Joe.  I got really bold and decided to bring a few laptops up to the local coffee shop and install Vista B2 on one of them.  So far so good I just started Step 2.  I guess I will soon find out what I forgot to backup ;)

More to come....

Like any good geek I have a ton of different machines and always seem to work work off a few monitors at once.  Since I have a few monitors I really didn't need a KVM but I needed a way to get rid of the stacks of keyboards and mice, Multiplicity!!!!   I just installed the trial version and it just rocks.

Warning, Baby SPAM!

Last night we introduced a new potential Microsoft interview candidate :)

<ECS>

  <Name>Ethan Clark Sell</Name>

  <Date>March 9th 2006</Date>

  <TimeOfDelivery>9.35 PM</TimeOfDelivery>

  <Sex>Male</Sex>

  <Weight>6 LB 8 OZ</Weight>

  <Length>17.5"</Length>

  <DeliveryOffset>17 days early</DeliveryOffset>

  <APGAR Score="9.5" />

  <VisualStudioSettings Preference="Visual C# Development Settings" />

  <InputDevice>

    <Keyboard>Split</Keyboard>

    <Mouse>Notebook Laser</Mouse>

  </InputDevice>

</ECS>

You may have heard some buzz around something called Origami which is a new PC form factor.  You can find out the official details here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/mar06/03-09Mobile.mspx

Funny part, I have just enough room in my backpack for yet another device.

Serious?  I can't joke at a time like this. Click here, then click on valuable information. I don't think it gets any easier than that.

Thanks to Blake Handler for the awesome find.

Want a better looking desktop theme?  Microsoft a while back released a theme called Energy Blue or Royal.  I was first introduced to it via the Experience Pack for Tablet PC.  Well it turns out that theme doesn't just work on a tablet pc but XP as well, here's how:

1. Download : http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/2/9/5295FA0C-575A-4EE6-B186-0A8CF7DDFDE6/WindowsXP-TabletPC-EnergyBlueTheme-x86-ENU.exe
2. Do not run the exe as it will fail but rather unzip it
3. Copy the content to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes
4. Select the Energy Blue theme from the theme drop down @ "Right Click on Desktop / Select Properties / Themes Tab"

Enjoy!

Way off the beaten path...

A number of months ago my wife and I finally decided to build a new house.  If you have ever gone through the process of building or buying a new home, you know there is an unlimited amount of factors which ultimately affect the purchase and more so your monthly payment.  When we started this process I hit the ole Internet in search of a mortgage calculator.  I landed on the Office template section where I found a basic mortgage calculator workbook.  That workbook has since been revamped to closer depict a holistic purchase process.

The numbers represented in this spreadsheet are just for demonstrative purposes. MortgageCalc-2003.zip (36.04 KB)

I hope you find it as useful as I have. Enjoy!

I received my Toshiba Tecra M4 around 7 months ago.  Like any, there are pro's and con's; overall not a bad machine.  One thing that just drives me crazy it's the random mouse lag.

Does anyone know a fix for this?  If so, please comment!