Most recent blog entries

Altogether about 3000 years old. Great Britain's newest band, The Zimmers

Microsoft's new WindowsPowershell is not only a great administrative tool, but IMHO a must have for developers, too. I recently used it to try something with the SwyxIt-API. It's very easy with Powershell to investigate how the API work. Here's a short example to get you started:

Get a ClientLineMgr object and see what properties and methods are available:

PS>$clmgr = new-object -com clmgr.clientlinemgr PS>$clmgr | get-member ...

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I'm currently reading a book about Windows Workflow Foundation, a part of Microsoft's .Net Framework 3.0. It's a technology to build applications which execute workflows. It's mainly targeted at modeling business processes. WF only provides the engine and tools to be used in own applications. It is highly extensible and could probably be combined with SwyxWare to model workflows reacting on phonecalls or to create phonecalls as part of a workflow.

Maybe I try building a prototype based on the SwyxIt Client API, because that's probably the easiest approach and could be used and extended by anyone.

Nachdem ich im Augenblick ohne Fahrrad bin, war Zeit mich mal etwas um mein Motorrad zu kümmern, was schon unbewegt längere Zeit in der Garage stand. Da TÜV fällig war bin ich also vor ein paar Tagen zur Dekra. War auch alles ok, bis zur Abgasmessung, die inzwischen auch für Motorräder Pflicht ist. Das lange Rumstehen und  der vermutlich nicht optimal eingestellte Motor trieben den CO-Werte deutlich über das erlaubte Limit.

Jetzt steht die Karre in der Werkstatt. Soll Mitte nächster Woche fertig sein, was angesichts der Tatsache, das die Werkstatt eigentlich bis Juli ausgebucht ist, gar nicht so schlecht ist.

Hoffentlich gibt nicht noch mein Auto den Geist auf. :-)

My favourite screenshot utility just got better  Kenny Kerr released v2.0 of WindowClippings. It now has:

Ability to select maximized windows, individual controls as well as multi-select windows and controls Include the mouse pointer and other new image effects Capture pop-ups such as tool tips and menus Crop selections Window-less selections Action sequences New storage features and improvements Extensibility Improved performance and reliability Command line flags to control startup The basic features are free, the more advanced ones are available after registration which is $10 only. If you want proper looking screenshots on Windows Vista including the alpha channel (transparency information), this is a must-have. Here's...

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Paul Thurrott writes about the command-line interfaces included in the upcoming Windows Server 2008 and thinks:

"The only problem is, they're offering admins, IT professionals, developers, and other power users two competing command line environments, one old, one new, one based in the murky past, one wrapped in the richest and goodness of Microsoft's modern developer frameworks."

I don't see any real competition. Windows Powershell is by far better and it runs all the old command-line tools cmd.exe is able to run. Paul suggests that Microsoft makes cmd.exe more relevant:

"Windows Server 2008 includes some amazing new Command Prompt-based utilities. Chief among these are servermanagercmd.exe, which Microsoft tells me provides 100 percent of the functionality of the new Server Manager GUI, but in a scriptable, automatable command line version."

Yes, it's amazing to have such a tool, but that has nothing to do...

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