Clark Sell

Bamboozled in the Office

It's the first show of the new year and decade. Mark and Clark talk about, well, nothing that they planned on. The show gets bamboozled right from the start and the discussion turns toward where most development is done and that's in your office at home. We talk about what went into the design and what makes the office work from two similar but still different points of view.

Listen here –> Play Now

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Show Notes

Design thoughts for your home office

• Isolation - Use every opportunity to separate your office from the world (insulation, doors, walls, etc.)  It will help you create a space where you can think.
• Design the desk - sketch out the space on paper and figure out how much desk you can fit into the space
  • How will you use the desk space - keyboard, mouse, monitors, laptops, writing area.  Space == Goodness
  • Get those monitors off the desk with monitor support arms.  You gain not only desk space but also flexibility in positioning.
• Make sure you have plenty of power.  Don't just plug in a surge protector in a surge protector to get more outlets.  More outlets doesn't equate to more power.  Get an electrician to help if you can.
• Same thing goes for networking.  You'll never have enough.  Wireless is great for general internet/network access but if you are going to run servers or push a lot of media (audio/video) around the house then go gigabit!  With that you need Cat5E or Cat6 cabling EVERYWHERE.  The first cable that isn't rated high enough will slow the network down.  Also, plan your network to get the most speed and flexibility - use switches not hubs!
• Make sure there's plenty of light
• Audio and video - from just listening to your Zune for music and Smackdown podcasts to watching UTube, DVD's or training videos.  Make the space enjoyable.
• If you're a book whore like the two of us (Clark is way more than me by the way), plan on lots of shelf and cabinet space.  Cables and boards and DVD drives and mice and keyboards have to go somewhere.

Resources:

• IKEA - Great place for inexpensive but highly effective office furniture
• Workspaces.com - More expensive but more customized office solutions
• Software KVM's Clark is using and has tested
  • Multiplicity
  • MaxiVista
  • KaVoom
• IOGear - Hardware KVM that Mark is using

Tips and Tricks

Clark's Tip #1 - Workspaces.com - he recommends them HIGHLY and for good reason.  His "command center" desk is something to envy.

Mark's Tip #1 - NewEgg.com - Great prices for all things technical very quick response.  Awesome place to shop.

Mark's Tip #2 - In Visual Studio, use "Control -" (Ctrl and the minus key) to walk or navigate yourself back from things like "Go To Definition".  Each time you hit it, it will step you back one jump.

Clark's Tip #2 - In Visual Studio, use "Control ." (Ctrl and period) to resolve references and insert the using statement or the full type qualifiers in your code.

I got to make my debut on This Week On Channel 9.  It was a great deal of fun!! A big thank you to both Brian and Dan for having me on the show.

Check it out here!

Show Notes:

This week on Channel 9, Brian, Clark Sell, and a surprise guest discuss the week's top developer news, including:

• Clark Sell guests hosts.
  • Interesting because: Clark is an awesome developer ninja, and host of Developer Smackdown and Thirsty Developer.
• Windows Phone 7 Series was announced (Gizmodo Review | Channel 9 Hands-on Look | MIX2010 Developer Story) 
  • Interesting because: Microsoft is back in the mobile game. Developer story coming next month at MIX.
• Scott Hanselman's project to build Hanselcart: An Embedded Social Proxy.
  • Interesting because: As teams become more and more globally distributed, we need better ways of applying that "personal touch."
• 10-4 Episode 41: Downloading and Installing the Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate.
  • Interesting because: It's never been easier to install Visual Studio 2010 (including Team Foundation Server).
• Fix for IntelliSense crashes in Visual Studio 2010 RC.
  • Interesting because: Your feedback matters! This issue was reported by the community and fixed in a matter of days.
• Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 RC VHD available for download.
  • Interesting because: You can now evaluate/learn Lab Management without needing to spend a lot of time setting up your test rig.
• Free eBook on virtualization R2
  • Interesting because: Virtualization is becoming an increasingly popular tool in a developer's arsenal.
• Clark's Pick of the Week: MS Deploy for deploying web applications.
  • Interesting because: With so many deployment options to choose from how do you know which one to use? This one gets Clark's endorsement, and he explains why.
• Brian's Pick of the Week: Augmented Reality with Bing Maps, a TED talk
  • Interesting because: Wow. Just, wow. You have to watch the video to believe it.

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!