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• What music streaming app fits my needs on Ubuntu?

  - by Jim

  I'm looking for an application to stream Internet radio on Ubuntu. I like listening to Radio Paradise while I work. Right now, I'm using Amarok. "Movie Player" sometimes refuses to open the stream, and VLC doesn't keep its window title updated with the currently playing track. Amarok has nice translucent notifications when tracks change, but track changes in streams don't trigger the notifications. Mostly, I want something that reliably opens streams and makes it easy to see the name of the track that's playing. If it has a built-in directory of streaming radio stations, that would be a big benefit.

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• What kind of time lapse image stitching software is out there?

  - by AaronLS

  I took a bunch of digital images(jpg format) of a sunrise that I want to make into a time lapse movie. The only recommendation I've seen was some iStopMotion for Mac, but I am running Windows. I would prefer the software to take into account the metadata in the image that indicates what time the image was taken when determining how long to display each frame, as they won't be accurately consistent in their temporal spacing. Onion skinning would be a cool feature to. Please, one software suggestion per answer to allow the voting system to do it's job. Thanks in advance.

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• ripping interlaced video to 60fps (frames per second)

  - by cloneman

  It would appear that Broadcast Television is often 1080i30 (60 fields/s), and non-movie DVDs (example, instructional or TV shows) are 60fields/s as well, at some lower resolution (480i?) However, almost all video that ends up on the internet, whether in x264-encoded content, Youtube, etc. is 30 frames per second, that is to say , it is progressive scan. However, when you watch content on your TV, I'm guessing the TV converts it to progressive for you, but the end result is a very fluid picture that "feels" quite a bit like 60frames/s. What is the best way to obtain this result when ripping interlaced content sourced from TV or DVDs? Can I rip a DVD that is 60 fields per second to 60 frames per second? I would imagine classic deinterlace filters do not do this, they merge fields and create a 30fps output. I'm using handbrake.

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• How to host my own cloud so that videos are viewable via desktop web browser?

  - by jake9115

  I want to host my own cloud storage solution, something like Dropbox but entirely dependent on my own central machine. This way things are more secure if setup correctly, and there are artificial storage limitations or pay-walls. Some thing similar to ownCloud: http://owncloud.org/ There is one important feature I want to have: the ability the stream movies in a web browser from my personal cloud to anywhere in the world. In the past I tried this with a NAS, and I mapped XBMC to the NAS via SFTP, and certain media types could stream in this manner. I've also used things like PLEX. In this case, I am looking for a single solution for personal cloud storage and movie streaming from that cloud into a web browser. Does anyone know if this can be accomplished? Thanks for the suggestions!

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• Removing section in .sub file and renumber rest of lines?

  - by OverTheRainbow

  Here's the problem: An AVI file had a few seconds removed when it was ripped from a DVD, while its corresponding .sub subtitle file still contains the whole thing. So at around 2/3 into the movie, I need to remove the extra subtitles, and renumber the rest of the lines in the .sub files so that the remaining subtitles are displayed at the right time. I was hoping that SubTitle Workshop would be able to renumber the rest of the lines after I deleted the now-useless section, but it doesn't. What would be the easiest way to edit the sub file? Thank you.

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• I need to convert a bunch of *pngs to *.mpg in linux/CENTOS. How can I do this?

  - by Manchine

  Title says it all, and I am not too familiar with LINUX, but I can get by if I get some help. I am looking for a way(s) where I can do the above, or in lieu of that, download a program that will do this for me. Very simply, I have a bunch of *.png 's that I would like to convert into a movie, (mpg, mpeg, mpeg2, whatever). I have tried googling for any such softwares but I am getting some dubious websites and even more dubious programs. Thanks in advance!

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• Is there any automatic Windows software to check status of website..

  - by user59280

  Is there any automatic Windows software application to check status of website and alert me through mail or message or trigger am alarm.. Example: Consider I am waiting to buy a new latest movie ticket online (through) and the ticket booking has not been informed properly (online booking is opening at a random time). In this situation I will be forced to slave for my PC to get the tickets. To avoid such situation, can you suggest me a software? So I need a software which will alert me when the online booking is open.. Can anyone please help me?

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• Can't use a network CD-ROM

  - by user53814

  Hi, there! I have a computer with Windows XP and I'm trying to use my local network to use the CD-ROM of my notebook with Windows 7. In windows XP computer with VLC I can open the menu of the DVD but after choose the option for the first chapter the movie window shuts down (but the VLC stays open). With BS-Player when trying to start the first chapter it freezes... Is this possible to fix? Thanks in advance!

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• Does Google Chrome take over all other browsers no matter what?

  - by Jodi

  I can not use either IE or Firefox since I have downloaded Google Chrome. I don't even have Chrome set as my default anymore but it opens up anyway. I need to use IE in order to download updates for Windows Movie Maker and I can only download it using IE, thanks to good old Microsoft. And no where can I find a way to access IE on my computer. It is not shown in programs and no shortcut was created on my desktop in the download. Any suggestions? I got to get this video down and I am on a tight deadline. Thanks.

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• Does Asus F8SV supports 1920*1080 resolution through DVI output? [closed]

  - by Col

  Devices: Asus F8Sv Laptop (Windows 7 ultimate, GeForce 8600m GT, display driver is 301.42, detected and downloaded from nvidia.com, VGA and DVI output interface) Gateway 23 inches LCD monitor (VGA, DVI-D with HDCP, and HDMI input) 18 pins DVI cable, VGA cable, both new. Problems: When connect laptop to monitor by VGA, resolution is automatically adapted to 1920*1080; but when using DVI connection, resolution on monitor is fixed to 1024*768, which is lower than my laptop default 1280*800. The maximum resolution in windows control panel is only 1024*768, while the Nvidia control panel provides options 1920*1080p and 1920*1080i, but clicking apply button does not work, the resolution just can not change. Possibly reason I guess: GeForce 8600m GT does not support 1920*1080 resolution through DVI outputs. Can anyone confirm it or give the real reason? edit: Problem solved by buying a HDMI to DVI-D adapter. Using this adapter and a HDMI cable, I can now enjoy 1080p movie.

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• custom type face class by dinesh?

  - by dineshpeiris

  package typeface{ import flash.display.*; import flash.events.Event; import flash.filters.BitmapFilter; import flash.filters.BitmapFilterQuality; import flash.filters.BlurFilter; public class Main extends Sprite { private var typeSet:String="SEE > THINK > CREATE"; private var collectionSet:MovieClip; private var w:int = 1; public function Main():void { trace("start typeface application"); collectionSet = new MovieClip(); for (var n:int = 0; n < typeSet.length; n++) { var _x:int = 0 + (40 * n); var _y:int = 0; var Type:TypeCollector = new TypeCollector(_x, _y, stringToCharacter(typeSet, n), collectionSet); Type.addEventListener("action", actionHandler); } collectionSet.x = 100; collectionSet.y = (stage.stageHeight / 2) - 80; addChild(collectionSet); } private function actionHandler(event:Event):void { if (w == 16) { collectionSet.filters = [new BlurFilter(30, 30, BitmapFilterQuality.HIGH)]; removeChild(collectionSet); } w++; } public function stringToCharacter(str:String, n:int):String { if (str.length == 1) { return str; } return str.slice(n, n+1); } } } package typeface { import flash.display.*; import flash.events.Event; import flash.utils.Timer; import flash.events.TimerEvent; import flash.filters.BitmapFilter; import flash.filters.BitmapFilterQuality; import flash.filters.BlurFilter; import flash.events.EventDispatcher; public class TypeCollector extends EventDispatcher { private var TYPE_MC:typeMC; private var typeArray:Array = new Array("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L", "M", "N", "O", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "0", "<", ">"); private var character:String; private var num:int = 0; private var TypeTimer:Timer; private var _xNum:int; private var _yNum:int; private var movieClip:MovieClip; public function TypeCollector(_x:int, _y:int, char:String, movie:MovieClip) { var totalNum:int = typeArray.length; _xNum = _x; _yNum = _y; movieClip = movie; character = char; TypeTimer = new Timer(100, totalNum); TypeTimer.addEventListener("timer", TypeRoutTimer); TypeTimer.start(); } public function TypeRoutTimer(event:TimerEvent):void { CreateTypeFace(num, _xNum, _yNum, character); num++; } public function CreateTypeFace(num:int, _x:int, _y:int, character:String) { if (character == " ") { } else { if (TYPE_MC != null) { TYPE_MC.filters = [new BlurFilter(30, 30, BitmapFilterQuality.HIGH)]; movieClip.removeChild(TYPE_MC); } if (typeArray[num] == character) { TYPE_MC = new typeMC(); TYPE_MC.x = _x; TYPE_MC.y = _y; TYPE_MC.typeTF.text = typeArray[num]; TYPE_MC.filters = [new BlurFilter(5, 5, BitmapFilterQuality.HIGH)]; movieClip.addChild(TYPE_MC); dispatchEvent(new Event("action")); TypeTimer.stop(); } else { TYPE_MC = new typeMC(); TYPE_MC.x = _x; TYPE_MC.y = _y; TYPE_MC.typeTF.text = typeArray[num]; TYPE_MC.filters = [new BlurFilter(10, 10, BitmapFilterQuality.HIGH)]; movieClip.addChild(TYPE_MC); } } } } }

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• c#: exporting swf object as image to Word

  - by Lynn

  Hello in my Asp.net web page (C# on backend) I use a Repeater, whose items consist of a title and a Flex chart (embedded .swf file). I am trying to export the contents of the Repeater to a Word document. My problem is to convert the SWF files into images and pass it on to the Word document. The swf object has a public function which returns a byteArray representation of itself (public function grabScreen():ByteArray), but I do not know how to call it directly from c#. I have access to the mxml files, so I can make modifications to the swf files, if needed. The code is shown below, and your help is appreciated :) .aspx <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" text="export to Word" onclick="print2"/> <asp:Repeater ID="rptrQuestions" runat="server" OnItemDataBound="rptrQuestions_ItemDataBound" > ... <ItemTemplate> <tr> <td> <div align="center"> <asp:Label class="text" Text='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Question_title")%>' runat="server" ID="lbl_title" NAME="lbl_title"/> <br> </div> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="result_survey" width="100%" height="100%" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab"> <param name="movie" value="result_survey.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="flashvars" value='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "rank_order")%>' /> <embed src="result_survey.swf?rankOrder='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "rank_order")%>' quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="100%" height="100%" name="result_survey" align="middle" play="true" loop="false" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"> </embed> </object> </td></tr> </ItemTemplate> </asp:Repeater> c# protected void print2(object sender, EventArgs e) { HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear(); HttpContext.Current.Response.Charset = ""; HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF7; HttpContext.Current.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache); HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/msword"; HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=" + "Report.doc"); EnableViewState = false; System.IO.StringWriter sw = new System.IO.StringWriter(); HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw); // Here I render the Repeater foreach (RepeaterItem row in rptrQuestions.Items) { row.RenderControl(htw); } StringBuilder sb1 = new StringBuilder(); sb1 = sb1.Append("<table>" + sw.ToString() + "</table>"); HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(sb1.ToString()); HttpContext.Current.Response.Flush(); HttpContext.Current.Response.End(); } .mxml //################################################## // grabScreen (return image representation of the SWF movie (snapshot) //###################################################### public function grabScreen() : ByteArray { return ImageSnapshot.captureImage( boxMain, 0, new PNGEncoder() ).data(); }

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• How to get the value of a field in PHP?

  - by user272899

  I need to get the value of a field; I think I am along the right lines but not quite sure this is the proper code. The "Delete Movie" button is where I am trying to get the value of that row like so: value="'.$row['id'].'" Can you help? <?php //connect to database mysql_connect($mysql_hostname,$mysql_user,$mysql_password); @mysql_select_db($mysql_database) or die("<b>Unable to connect to specified database</b>"); //query databae $query = "select * from movielist"; $result=mysql_query($query) or die('Error, insert query failed'); $row=0; $numrows=mysql_num_rows($result); echo "<table border=1>"; echo "<tr> <td>ID</td> <td>Type</td> <td>Title</td> <td>Description</td> <td>Imdb URL</td> <td>Year</td> <td>Genre</td> <td>Actions</td> </tr>"; while($row<$numrows) { $id=mysql_result($result,$row,"id"); $type=mysql_result($result,$row,"type"); $title=mysql_result($result,$row,"title"); $description=mysql_result($result,$row,"description"); $imdburl=mysql_result($result,$row,"imdburl"); $year=mysql_result($result,$row,"year"); $genre=mysql_result($result,$row,"genre"); ?> <tr> <td><?php echo $id; ?></td> <td><?php echo $type; ?></td> <td><?php echo $title; ?></td> <td><?php echo $description; ?></td> <td><?php echo $imdburl; ?></td> <td><?php echo $year; ?></td> <td><?php echo $genre; ?></td> <td> <!-- Delete Movie Button --> <form style="display: inline;" action="delete/" method="post" onsubmit="return movie_delete()"> <input type="hidden" name="moviedeleteid" value="'.$row['id'].'"> <button type="submit" class="tooltip table-button ui-state-default ui-corner-all" title="Delete trunk"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-trash"></span></button> </form> </td> </tr> <?php $row++; } echo "</table>"; ?>

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• A very strange problem related to Flash and Java

  - by Nitesh Panchal

  Hello, I have created one simple program for showing webcam of the user. It works absolutely fine when i am running without integrating it in my java web application. But as soon as i copy paste the same files in Netbeans 6.8 and try to run it. My swf file is visible but the buttons in it are totally unclickable. I get the message of allow or deny showing webcam but the buttons are not clickable. It makes my application totally useless. I thought it's a minor issue but now it's getting on my nerves. I am trying it since 3 hours but didn't find any solution. I don't think anybody faced this issue till now that's why can't seem to find any thread in any forum on it in google. I am using Netbeans 6.8, Ubuntu, Glassfish V3 and JSF. Thanks in advance :). UPDATE:- It works fine on Windows XP. Then what can be the problem with Ubuntu? Any kind of permission rights that i need to give? 2nd UPDATE:- I think this is bug with Flash. I found that this code doesn't work :- <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" id="VideoConferenceAdmin" align="middle"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="wmode" value="opaque"/> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" /> <param NAME="FlashVars" VALUE="rootIp=localhost&amp;userName=admin&amp;roomName=test" /> <param name="movie" value="Conference/VideoConference.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="Conference/VideoConference.swf" wmode="window" FlashVars="rootIp=localhost&amp;userName=test&amp;roomName=test" quality="high" width="600" height="500" name="VideoConference" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /> </object> And this one works :- <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" id="VideoConferenceAdmin" align="middle"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="wmode" value="opaque"/> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" /> <param NAME="FlashVars" VALUE="rootIp=localhost&amp;userName=admin&amp;roomName=test" /> <param name="movie" value="Conference/VideoConference.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="Conference/VideoConference.swf" wmode="window" FlashVars="rootIp=localhost&amp;userName=test&amp;roomName=test" quality="high" name="VideoConference" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /> </object> As you can see, just by removing the height and width attribute the panels of Flash settings work fine. I know you will find me funny but i am not. You can check out on your own if you don't trust me. Now, my question would be, can anybody tell me how do i set height and width of swf? I want it to be 600px width and 500px height. Even the style attribute doesn't work. Can i set height and width from within Flash? because without explicitly setting height and width, it looks very small. I think this should be very easy for all now. Thanks in advance :)

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• Tools and Utilities for the .NET Developer

  - by mbcrump

  Tweet this list! Add a link to my site to your bookmarks to quickly find this page again! Add me to twitter! This is a list of the tools/utilities that I use to do my job/hobby. I wanted this page to load fast and contain information that only you care about. If I have missed a tool that you like, feel free to contact me and I will add it to the list. Also, this list took a lot of time to complete. Please do not steal my work, if you like the page then please link back to my site. I will keep the links/information updated as new tools/utilities are created.  Windows/.NET Development – This is a list of tools that any Windows/.NET developer should have in his bag. I have used at some point in my career everything listed on this page and below is the tools worth keeping. Name Description License AnkhSVN Subversion support for Visual Studio. It also works with VS2010. Free Aurora XAML Designer One of the best XAML creation tools available. Has a ton of built in templates that you can copy/paste into VS2010. COST/Trial BeyondCompare Beyond Compare 3 is the ideal tool for comparing files and folders on your Windows or Linux system. Visualize changes in your code and carefully reconcile them. COST/Trial BuildIT Automated Task Tool Its main purpose is to automate tasks, whether it is the final packaging of a product, an automated daily build, maybe sending out a mailing list, even backing-up files. Free C Sharper for VB Convert VB to C#. COST CLRProfiler Analyze and improve the behavior of your .NET app. Free CodeRush Direct competitor to ReSharper, contains similar feature. This is one of those decide for yourself. COST/Trial Disk2VHD Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). Free Eazfuscator.NET Is a free obfuscator for .NET. The main purpose is to protect intellectual property of software. Free EQATEC Profiler Make your .NET app run faster. No source code changes are needed. Just point the profiler to your app, run the modified code, and get a visual report. COST Expression Studio 3/4 Comes with Web, Blend, Sketch Flow and more. You can create websites, produce beautiful XAML and more. COST/Trial Expresso The award-winning Expresso editor is equally suitable as a teaching tool for the beginning user of regular expressions or as a full-featured development environment for the experienced programmer or web designer with an extensive knowledge of regular expressions. Free Fiddler Fiddler is a web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP(s) traffic between your computer and the internet. Free Firebug Powerful Web development tool. If you build websites, you will need this. Free FxCop FxCop is an application that analyzes managed code assemblies (code that targets the .NET Framework common language runtime) and reports information about the assemblies, such as possible design, localization, performance, and security improvements. Free GAC Browser and Remover Easy way to remove multiple assemblies from the GAC. Assemblies registered by programs like Install Shield can also be removed. Free GAC Util The Global Assembly Cache tool allows you to view and manipulate the contents of the global assembly cache and download cache. Free HelpScribble Help Scribble is a full-featured, easy-to-use help authoring tool for creating help files from start to finish. You can create Win Help (.hlp) files, HTML Help (.chm) files, a printed manual and online documentation (on a web site) all from the same Help Scribble project. COST/Trial IETester IETester is a free Web Browser that allows you to have the rendering and JavaScript engines of IE9 preview, IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process. Free iTextSharp iText# (iTextSharp) is a port of the iText open source java library for PDF generation written entirely in C# for the .NET platform. Use the iText mailing list to get support. Free Kaxaml Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML editor that gives you a "split view" so you can see both your XAML and your rendered content. Free LINQPad LinqPad lets you interactively query databases in a LINQ. Free Linquer Many programmers are familiar with SQL and will need a help in the transition to LINQ. Sometimes there are complicated queries to be written and Linqer can help by converting SQL scripts to LINQ. COST/Trial LiquidXML Liquid XML Studio 2010 is an advanced XML developers toolkit and IDE, containing all the tools needed for designing and developing XML schema and applications. COST/Trial Log4Net log4net is a tool to help the programmer output log statements to a variety of output targets. log4net is a port of the excellent log4j framework to the .NET runtime. We have kept the framework similar in spirit to the original log4j while taking advantage of new features in the .NET runtime. For more information on log4net see the features document. Free Microsoft Web Platform Installer The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 (Web PI) is a free tool that makes getting the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server Express, .NET Framework and Visual Web Developer easy. Free Mono Development Don't have Visual Studio - no problem! This is an open Source C# and .NET development environment for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X Free Net Mass Downloader While it’s great that Microsoft has released the .NET Reference Source Code, you can only get it one file at a time while you’re debugging. If you’d like to batch download it for reading or to populate the cache, you’d have to write a program that instantiated and called each method in the Framework Class Library. Fortunately, .NET Mass Downloader comes to the rescue! Free nMap Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network exploration or security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Free NoScript (Firefox add-in) The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and other Mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java and Flash and other plug-ins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank), and provides the most powerful Anti-XSS protection available in a browser. Free NotePad 2 Notepad2, a fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system's registry. Free PageSpy PageSpy is a small add-on for Internet Explorer that allows you to select any element within a webpage, select an option in the context menu, and view detailed information about both the coding behind the page and the element you selected. Free Phrase Express PhraseExpress manages your frequently used text snippets in customizable categories for quick access. Free PowerGui PowerGui is a free community for PowerGUI, a graphical user interface and script editor for Microsoft Windows PowerShell! Free Powershell Comes with Win7, but you can automate tasks by using the .NET Framework. Great for network admins. Free Process Explorer Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Also, included in the SysInterals Suite. Free Process Monitor Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. Free Reflector Explore and analyze compiled .NET assemblies, viewing them in C#, Visual Basic, and IL. This is an Essential for any .NET developer. Free Regular Expression Library Stuck on a Regular Expression but you think someone has already figured it out? Chances are they have. Free Regulator Regulator makes Regular Expressions easy. This is a must have for a .NET Developer. Free RenameMaestro RenameMaestro is probably the easiest batch file renamer you'll find to instantly rename multiple files COST ReSharper The one program that I cannot live without. Supports VS2010 and offers simple refactoring, code analysis/assistance/cleanup/templates. One of the few applications that is worth the $$$. COST/Trial ScrewTurn Wiki ScrewTurn Wiki allows you to create, manage and share wikis. A wiki is a collaboratively-edited, information-centered website: the most famous is Wikipedia. Free SharpDevelop What is #develop? SharpDevelop is a free IDE for C# and VB.NET projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. Free Show Me The Template Show Me The Template is a tool for exploring the templates, be their data, control or items panel, that comes with the controls built into WPF for all 6 themes. Free SnippetCompiler Compiles code snippets without opening Visual Studio. It does not support .NET 4. Free SQL Prompt SQL Prompt is a plug-in that increases how fast you can work with SQL. It provides code-completion for SQL server, reformatting, db schema information and snippets. Awesome! COST/Trial SQLinForm SQLinForm is an automatic SQL code formatter for all major databases  including ORACLE, SQL Server, DB2, UDB, Sybase, Informix, PostgreSQL, Teradata, MySQL, MS Access etc. with over 70 formatting options. COST/OnlineFree SSMS Tools SSMS Tools Pack is an add-in for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) including SSMS Express. Free Storm STORM is a free and open source tool for testing web services. Free Telerik Code Convertor Convert code from VB to C Sharp and Vice Versa. Free TurtoiseSVN TortoiseSVN is a really easy to use Revision control / version control / source control software for Windows.Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like. Free UltraEdit UltraEdit is the ideal text, HTML and hex editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. UltraEdit is also an XML editor including a tree-style XML parser. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later). COST/Trial Virtual Windows XP Comes with some W7 version and allows you to run WinXP along side W7. Free VirtualBox Virtualization by Sun Microsystems. You can virtualize Windows, Linux and more. Free Visual Log Parser SQL queries against a variety of log files and other system data sources. Free WinMerge WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle. Free Wireshark Wireshark is one of the best network protocol analyzer's for Unix and windows. This has been used several times to get me out of a bind. Free XML Notepad 07 Old, but still one of my favorite XML viewers. Free Productivity Tools – This is the list of tools that I use to save time or quickly navigate around Windows. Name Description License AutoHotKey Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder. Free CLCL CLCL is clipboard caching utility. Free Ditto Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats, ..... Free Evernote Remember everything from notes to photos. It will synch between computers/devices. Free InfoRapid Inforapid is a search tool that will display all you search results in a html like browser. If you click on a word in that browser, it will start another search to the word you clicked on. Handy if you want to trackback something to it's true origin. The word you looked for will be highlighted in red. Clicking on the red word will open the containing file in a text based viewer. Clicking on any word in the opened document will start another search on that word. Free KatMouse The prime purpose of the KatMouse utility is to enhance the functionality of mice with a scroll wheel, offering 'universal' scrolling: moving the mouse wheel will scroll the window directly beneath the mouse cursor (not the one with the keyboard focus, which is default on Windows OSes). This is a major increase in the usefulness of the mouse wheel. Free ScreenR Instant Screencast with nothing to download. Works with Mac or PC and free. Free Start++ Start++ is an enhancement for the Start Menu in Windows Vista. It also extends the Run box and the command-line with customizable commands.  For example, typing "w Windows Vista" will take you to the Windows Vista page on Wikipedia! Free Synergy Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s). Free Texter Texter lets you define text substitution hot strings that, when triggered, will replace hotstring with a larger piece of text. By entering your most commonly-typed snippets of text into Texter, you can save countless keystrokes in the course of the day. Free Total Commander File handling, FTP, Archive handling and much more. Even works with Win3.11. COST/Trial Available Wizmouse WizMouse is a mouse enhancement utility that makes your mouse wheel work on the window currently under the mouse pointer, instead of the currently focused window. This means you no longer have to click on a window before being able to scroll it with the mouse wheel. This is a far more comfortable and practical way to make use of the mouse wheel. Free Xmarks Bookmark sync and search between computers. Free General Utilities – This is a list for power user users or anyone that wants more out of Windows. I usually install a majority of these whenever I get a new system. Name Description License µTorrent µTorrent is a lightweight and efficient BitTorrent client for Windows or Mac with many features. I use this for downloading LEGAL media. Free Audacity Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Learn more about Audacity... Also check our Wiki and Forum for more information. Free AVast Free FREE Antivirus. Free CD Burner XP Pro CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Free CDEX You can extract digital audio CDs into mp3/wav. Free Combofix Combofix is a freeware (a legitimate spyware remover created by sUBs), Combofix was designed to scan a computer for known malware, spyware (SurfSideKick, QooLogic, and Look2Me as well as any other combination of the mentioned spyware applications) and remove them. Free Cpu-Z Provides information about some of the main devices of your system. Free Cropper Cropper is a screen capture utility written in C#. It makes it fast and easy to grab parts of your screen. Use it to easily crop out sections of vector graphic files such as Fireworks without having to flatten the files or open in a new editor. Use it to easily capture parts of a web site, including text and images. It's also great for writing documentation that needs images of your application or web site. Free DropBox Drag and Drop files to sync between computers. Free DVD-Fab Converts/Copies DVDs/Blu-Ray to different formats. (like mp4, mkv, avi) COST/Trial Available FastStone Capture FastStone Capture is a powerful, lightweight, yet full-featured screen capture tool that allows you to easily capture and annotate anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular/freehand regions and even scrolling windows/web pages. Free ffdshow FFDShow is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, H.264, FLV1, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 movies. Free Filezilla FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface. You can also download a server version. Free FireFox Web Browser, do you really need an explanation? Free FireGestures A customizable mouse gestures extension which enables you to execute various commands and user scripts with five types of gestures. Free FoxIt Reader Light weight PDF viewer. You should install this with the advanced setting or it will install a toolbar and setup some shortcuts. Free gSynchIt Synch Gmail and Outlook. Even supports Outlook 2010 32/64 bit COST/Trial Available Hulu Desktop At home or in a hotel, this has replaced my cable/satellite subscription. Free ImgBurn ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit! Free Infrarecorder InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration. Free KeePass KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. Free LastPass Another password management, synchronize between browsers, automatic form filling and more. Free Live Essentials One download and lots of programs including Mail, Live Writer, Movie Maker and more! Free Monitores MonitorES is a small windows utility that helps you to turnoff monitor display when you lock down your machine.Also when you lock your machine, it will pause all your running media programs & set your IM status message to "Away" / Custom message(via options) and restore it back to normal when you back. Free mRemote mRemote is a full-featured, multi-tab remote connections manager. Free Open Office OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. Free Paint.NET Simple, intuitive, and innovative user interface for editing photos. Free Picasa Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. Free Pidgin Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once. Free PING PING is a live Linux ISO, based on the excellent Linux From Scratch (LFS) documentation. It can be burnt on a CD and booted, or integrated into a PXE / RIS environment. Free Putty PuTTY is an SSH and telnet client, developed originally by Simon Tatham for the Windows platform. Free Revo Uninstaller Revo Uninstaller Pro helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer easily! Even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.Revo Uninstaller is a much faster and more powerful alternative to "Windows Add or Remove Programs" applet! It has very powerful features to uninstall and remove programs. Free Security Essentials Microsoft Security Essentials is a new, free consumer anti-malware solution for your computer. Free SetupVirtualCloneDrive Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Point to the .ISO file and it appears in Windows Explorer as a Drive. Free Shark 007 Codec Pack Play just about any file format with this download. Also includes my W7 Media Playlist Generator. Free Snagit 9 Screen Capture on steroids. Add arrows, captions, etc to any screenshot. COST/Trial Available SysinternalsSuite Go ahead and download the entire sys internals suite. I have mentioned multiple programs in this suite already. Free TeraCopy TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user with a lot of features. Free for Home TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux Free TweetDeck Fully featured Twitter client. Free UltraVNC UltraVNC is a powerful, easy to use and free software that can display the screen of another computer (via internet or network) on your own screen. The program allows you to use your mouse and keyboard to control the other PC remotely. It means that you can work on a remote computer, as if you were sitting in front of it, right from your current location. Free Unlocker Unlocks locked files. Pretty simple right? Free VLC Media Player VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats Free Windows 7 Media Playlist This program is special to my heart because I wrote it. It has been mentioned on podcast and various websites. It allows you to quickly create wvx video playlist for Windows Media Center. Free WinRAR WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. COST/Trial Available Blogging – I use the following for my blog. Name Description License Insert Code for Windows Live Writer Insert Code for Windows Live Writer will format a snippet of text in a number of programming languages such as C#, HTML, MSH, JavaScript, Visual Basic and TSQL. Free LiveWriter Included in Live Essentials, but the ultimate in Windows Blogging Free PasteAsVSCode Plug-in for Windows Live Writer that pastes clipboard content as Visual Studio code. Preserves syntax highlighting, indentation and background color. Converts RTF, outputted by Visual Studio, into HTML. Free Desktop Management – The list below represent the best in Windows Desktop Management. Name Description License 7 Stacks Allows users to have "stacks" of icons in their taskbar. Free Executor Executor is a multi purpose launcher and a more advanced and customizable version of windows run. Free Fences Fences is a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use. Free RocketDock Rocket Dock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. Free WindowsTab Tabbing is an essential feature of modern web browsers. Window Tabs brings the productivity of tabbed window management to all of your desktop applications. Free

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• Why is mesh baking causing huge performance spikes?

  - by jellyfication

  A couple of seconds into the gameplay on my Android device, I see huge performance spikes caused by "Mesh.Bake Scaled Mesh PhysX CollisionData" In my game, a whole level is a parent object containing multiple ridigbodies with mesh colliders. Every FixedUpdate(), my parent object rotates around the player. Rotating the world causes mesh scaling. Here is the code that handles world rotation. private void Update() { input.update(); Vector3 currentInput = input.GetDirection(); worldParent.rotation = initialRotation; worldParent.DetachChildren(); worldParent.position = transform.position; world.parent = worldParent; worldParent.Rotate(Vector3.right, currentInput.x * 50f); worldParent.Rotate(Vector3.forward, currentInput.z * 50f); } How can I get rid of mesh scaling ? Mesh.Bake physx seems to take effect after some time, is it possible to disable this function ? The profiler looks like this: Bottom-left panel shows data before spikes, the right after

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• Send regular keyboard samples OR keyboard state changes over network

  - by Ciaran

  Building a multi player asteroids game where ships compete with each other. Using UDP. Wanted to minimize traffic sent to server. Which would you do: Send periodic keyboard state samples every from client every to match server physics update rate e.g. 50 times per second. Highly resilient to packet loss and other reliabilty problems. Out of date packets disacarded by server. Generates a lot of unnuecessary traffic. Only send keyboard state when it changes (key up, key down). Radically less traffic sent from client to server. However, UDP can lose packets without you being informed. So the latter method could result in the vital packet never being resent unless I detect and resend this in a timely manner.

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• Web Matrix released

  - by TATWORTH

  Microsoft have now released Web Matrix (and ASP.NET MVC3 if you so inclined!) One signifcant utility is IIS Express which will replace Cassini It is worth noting that SP1 for VS2010 should be out in Q1. Links: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ASPNETMVC3WebMatrixNuGetIISExpressAndOrchardReleasedTheMicrosoftJanuaryWebReleaseInContext.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/LinkRollupNewDocumentationAndTutorialsFromWebPlatformAndTools.aspx http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/01/microsoft-releases-free-webmatrix-web-development-tool.ars I am impressed by the copious tutorials on MVC, which I include below: Intro to ASP.NET MVC 3 onboarding series. Scott Hanselman and Rick Anderson collaboration and Mike Pope (Editor) Both C# and VB versions: Intro to ASP.NET MVC 3 Adding a Controller Adding a View Entity Framework Code-First Development Accessing your Model's Data from a Controller Adding a Create Method and Create View Adding Validation to the Model Adding a New Field to the Movie Model and Table Implementing Edit, Details and Delete Source code for this series MVC 3 Updated and new tutorials/ API Reference on MSDN Rick Anderson (Lead Programming Writer), Keith Newman and Mike Pope (Editor) ASP.NET MVC 3 Content Map ASP.NET MVC Overview MVC Framework and Application Structure Understanding MVC Application Execution Compatibility of ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Walkthrough: Creating a Basic ASP.NET MVC Project Walkthrough: Using Forms Authentication in ASP.NET MVC Controllers and Action Methods in ASP.NET MVC Applications Using an Asynchronous Controller in ASP.NET MVC Views and UI Rendering in ASP.NET MVC Applications Rendering a Form Using HTML Helpers Passing Data in an ASP.NET MVC Application Walkthrough: Using Templated Helpers to Display Data in ASP.NET MVC Creating an ASP.NET MVC View by Calling Multiple Actions Models and Validation in ASP.NET MVC How to: Validate Model Data Using DataAnnotations Attributes Walkthrough: Using MVC View Templates How to: Implement Remote Validation in ASP.NET MVC Walkthrough: Adding AJAX Scripting Walkthrough: Organizing an Application using Areas Filtering in ASP.NET MVC Creating Custom Action Filters How to: Create a Custom Action Filter Unit Testing in ASP.NET MVC Applications Walkthrough: Using TDD with ASP.NET MVC How to: Add a Custom ASP.NET MVC Test Framework in Visual Studio ASP.NET MVC 3 Reference System.Web.Mvc System.Web.Mvc.Ajax System.Web.Mvc.Async System.Web.Mvc.Html System.Web.Mvc.Razor

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• Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware

  - by The Geek

  You might be wondering why we have a screenshot of what appears to be AVG Anti-Virus, but is in fact a fake anti-virus malware that holds your computer hostage until you pay them. Here’s a really simple tip to defeating these types of malware, and a quick review of other options. Not sure what we’re talking about? Be sure to check out our previous articles on cleaning up fake antivirus infections. How To Remove Internet Security 2010 and other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware How To Remove Antivirus Live and Other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware How To Remove Advanced Virus Remover and Other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware How To Remove Security Tool and other Rogue/Fake Antivirus Malware So what’s the problem? Can’t you just run a anti-virus scan? Well… it’s not quite that simple. What actually happens is that these pieces of malware block you from running almost anything on your PC, and often prevent you from running apps from a Flash drive, with an error like this: Once you encounter this error, there’s a couple things you can do. The first one is almost stupidly simple, and works some of the time Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines RGB? CMYK? Alpha? What Are Image Channels and What Do They Mean? Project M Brings Classic Super Smash Bro Style Gameplay to the Wii Now Together and Complete – McBain: The Movie [Simpsons Video] Be Creative by Using Hex and RGB Codes for Crayola Crayon Colors on Your Next Web or Art Project [Geek Fun] Flash Updates; Finally Supports Full Screen Video on Multiple Monitors 22 Ways to Recycle an Altoids Mint Tin Make Your Desktop Go Native with the Tribal Arts Theme for Windows 7

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• Need some advice on Networking research paper topic...

  - by user498541

  Hello I need a research topic for my networking paper. This is my first networking course I am taking so I have not gone into the actual protocols such as TCP/ip, HTTP, etc.(I have just begun chapter 4 for of network+). What would you suggest for a relatively easy to understand topic to research for my paper(that is also easy write about)?... I am kinda interested in research video game multi-player networking but I don't know if that's out of my league. -Topic can be on anything related to networking(p2p, internet, server architecture etc) -Paper has to be entirely researched on the internet -2-3 pages in length

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• How To Watch Live Streaming of Oscars 2010 (Academy Awards)

  - by Gopinath

  The Academy Awards or more popularly known as Oscars for this year will go live on 7th March 2010 (8PM ET) at the Kodak Theater (Hollywood), Los Angeles, California. It’s a star studded event every movie lover wish to follow and watch live. We at Tech Dreams always love to write about live streaming of popular events happening across the globe. Here is our guide to follow Oscars 2010 Oscars 2010 Live Streams Last year we did not have many choices to view the Oscars online. But this year there are plenty of them available from the best of the media power houses APLive Oscars coverage on livestream.com (embedded below) Oscars.com – The Official Web Site of Academy Awards Oscars.org Live Streaming Academy Awards – Official Live Steaming Channel on livestream.com(embedded below) APLive Oscars coverage on Facebook AP Live Oscars Red Carpet Coverage Academy Awards – Live Coverage Websites To View Highlights & Exclusive Clips Of Oscars 2010 If you miss to catch the live streaming of Oscars 2010, here are few sites you can check to view video highlights of the entire event.  Few websites like Hulu have access to exclusive moments. Oscar’s Official YouTube Channel Hulu Award Season 2010 coverage Oscars 2010  Date and Time Oscars 2010 will begin at on 7th March  Sunday 8PM EST in California. The local time in India will be around 9:30 AM on Monday. Here is list of major cities and the local time at which Oscars 2010 are going to start Date & Time California March 7th, Sunday 20:00 Adelaide March 8th, Monday 14:30 Bangkok March 8th, Monday 11:00 Beijing March 8th, Monday 12:00 Brisbane March 8th, Monday 14:00 Cape Town March 8th, Monday 06:00 Dubai March 8th, Monday 08:00 Frankfurt March 8th, Monday 05:00 Hong Kong March 8th, Monday 12:00 Delhi/Chennai/Mumbai/Kolkata March 8th, Monday 09:30 New York March 7th, Sunday 23:00 Paris March 8th, Monday 05:00 Washington March 7th, Sunday 23:00 London March 8th, Monday 04:00 For more cities visit this link If you know any other source that provide live streaming of Oscar’s, let us hear through the comments. Join us on Facebook to read all our stories right inside your Facebook news feed.

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• Silverlight TV 22: Tim Heuer on Extending the SMF

  In this episode of Silverlight TV, Tim Heuer demonstrates how to use the Silverlight Media Framework (SMF) to create a nice media experience akin to what has been demonstrated through the 2010 Winter Olympics and Sunday Night Football players. He also demonstrates how to encode smooth streaming video using Expression Encoder and play the video using SMF. Tim also shows how he extended the SMF implementation and created a player to suit his specific needs (including not using DVR, among other features)....Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Unity 3D game idea for a fun and teaching game

  - by rasheeda

  I have been brainstorming for months now on writing a unity 3D game for my final year computer science project. I have been learning unity for sometime now but comming up with a concept is quite difficult than i thought. The game has to be really fun and also educational, one that the school and community can benefit from. I am thinking about a third person game. where the player runs round in an enviroment, picks up coins and earn points. This alone wouldn't earn me points and I have been trying to find new ideas of my own and all over the net but to no avail. Hopefully you guys can help me out with an idea, and how to make the lecturers appreciate the game and also make kids wanna play play it for a reason. Thanks.

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• PASS Precon Countdown… See some of you Monday, and others on Tuesday Night

  - by drsql

  As I finish up the plans for Monday’s database design precon, I am getting pretty excited for the day. This is the third time I have done this precon, and where the base slides are very similar, I have a few new twists in mind. One of my big ideas for my Database Design Workshop precon has always been to give people to do some design. So I am even now trying to go through and whittle down the slides and make sure that we have the time for design. If you are attending, be prepared to be a team player....(read more)

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• Productivity Tips

  - by Brian T. Jackett

  A few months ago during my first end of year review at Microsoft I was doing an assessment of my year.  One of my personal goals to come out of this reflection was to improve my personal productivity.  While I hear many people say “I wish I had more hours in the day so that I could get more done” I feel like that is the wrong approach.  There is an inherent assumption that you are being productive with your time that you already have and thus more time would allow you to be as productive given more time.    Instead of wishing I could add more hours to the day I’ve begun adopting a number of processes or behavior changes in my personal life to make better use of my time with the goal of improving productivity.  The areas of focus are as follows: Focus Processes Tools Personal health Email Note: A number of these topics have spawned from reading Scott Hanselman’s blog posts on productivity, reading of David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, and discussions with friends and coworkers who had great insights into this topic.   Focus Pre-reading / viewing: Overcome your work addiction Millennials paralyzed by choice Its Not What You Read Its What You Ignore (Scott Hanselman video)    I highly recommend Scott Hanselman’s video above and this post before continuing with this article.  It is well worth the 40+ mins price of admission for the video and couple minutes for article.  One key takeaway for me was listing out my activities in an average week and realizing which ones held little or no value to me.  We all have a finite amount of time to work each day.  Do you know how much time and effort you spend on various aspects of your life (family, friends, religion, work, personal happiness, etc.)?  Do your actions and commitments reflect your priorities?    The biggest time consumers with little value for me were time spent on social media services (Twitter and Facebook), playing an MMO video game, and watching TV.  I still check up on Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft internal chat forums, and other services to keep contact with others but I’ve reduced that time significantly.  As for TV I’ve cut the cord and no longer subscribe to cable TV.  Instead I use Netflix, RedBox, and over the air channels but again with reduced time consumption.  With the time I’ve freed up I’m back to working out 2-3 times a week and reading 4 nights a week (both of which I had been neglecting previously).  I’ll mention a few tools for helping measure your time in the Tools section.   Processes    Do not multi-task.  I’ll say it again.  Do not multi-task.  There is no such thing as multi tasking.  The human brain is optimized to work on one thing at a time.  When you are “multi-tasking” you are really doing 2 or more things at less than 100%, usually by a wide margin.  I take pride in my work and when I’m doing something less than 100% the results typically degrade rapidly.    Now there are some ways of bending the rules of physics for this one.  There is the notion of getting a double amount of work done in the same timeframe.  Some examples would be listening to podcasts / watching a movie while working out, using a treadmill as your work desk, or reading while in the bathroom.    Personally I’ve found good results in combining one task that does not require focus (making dinner, playing certain video games, working out) and one task that does (watching a movie, listening to podcasts).  I believe this is related to me being a visual and kinesthetic (using my hands or actually doing it) learner.  I’m terrible with auditory learning.  My fiance and I joke that sometimes we talk and talk to each other but never really hear each other.   Goals / Tasks    Goals can give us direction in life and a sense of accomplishment when we complete them.  Goals can also overwhelm us and give us a sense of failure when we don’t complete them.  I propose that you shift your perspective and not dwell on all of the things that you haven’t gotten done, but focus instead on regularly setting measureable goals that are within reason of accomplishing.    At the end of each time frame have a retrospective to review your progress.  Do not feel guilty about what you did not accomplish.  Feel proud of what you did accomplish and readjust your goals for the next time frame to more attainable goals.  Here is a sample schedule I’ve seen proposed by some.  I have not consistently set goals for each timeframe, but I do typically set 3 small goals a day (this blog post is #2 for today). Each day set 3 small goals Each week set 3 medium goals Each month set 1 large goal Each year set 2 very large goals   Tools    Tools are an extension of our human body.  They help us extend beyond what we can physically and mentally do.  Below are some tools I use almost daily or have found useful as of late. Disclaimer: I am not getting endorsed to promote any of these products.  I just happen to like them and find them useful. Instapaper – Save internet links for reading later.  There are many tools like this but I’ve found this to be a great one.  There is even a “read it later” JavaScript button you can add to your browser so when you navigate to a site it will then add this to your list. Stacks for Instapaper – A Windows Phone 7 app for reading my Instapaper articles on the go.  It does require a subscription to Instapaper (nominal $3 every three months) but is easily worth the cost.  Alternatively you can set up your Kindle to sync with Instapaper easily but I haven’t done so. SlapDash Podcast – Apps for Windows Phone and  Windows 8 (possibly other platforms) to sync podcast viewing / listening across multiple devices.  Now that I have my Surface RT device (which I love) this is making my consumption easier to manage. Feed Reader – Simple Windows 8 app for quickly catching up on my RSS feeds.  I used to have hundreds of unread items all the time.  Now I’m down to 20-50 regularly and it is much easier and faster to consume on my Surface RT.  There is also a free version (which I use) and I can’t see much different between the free and paid versions currently. Rescue Time – Have you ever wondered how much time you’ve spent on websites vs. email vs. “doing work”?  This service tracks your computer actions and then lets you report on them.  This can help you quantitatively identify areas where your actions are not in line with your priorities. PowerShell – Windows automation tool.  It is now built into every client and server OS.  This tool has saved me days (and I mean the full 24 hrs worth) of time and effort in the past year alone.  If you haven’t started learning PowerShell and you administrating any Windows OS or server product you need to start today. Various blogging tools – I wrote a post a couple years ago called How I Blog about my blogging process and tools used.  Almost all of it still applies today.   Personal Health    Some of these may be common sense or debatable, but I’ve found them to help prioritize my daily activities. Get plenty of sleep on a regular basis.  Sacrificing sleep too many nights a week negatively impacts your cognition, attitude, and overall health. Exercise at least three days.  Exercise could be lifting weights, taking the stairs up multiple flights of stairs, walking for 20 mins, or a number of other "non-traditional” activities.  I find that regular exercise helps with sleep and improves my overall attitude. Eat a well balanced diet.  Too much sugar, caffeine, junk food, etc. are not good for your body.  This is not a matter of losing weight but taking care of your body and helping you perform at your peak potential.   Email    Email can be one of the biggest time consumers (i.e. waster) if you aren’t careful. Time box your email usage.  Set a meeting invite for yourself if necessary to limit how much time you spend checking email. Use rules to prioritize your email.  Email from external customers, my manager, or include me directly on the To line go into my inbox.  Everything else goes a level down and I have 30+ rules to further sort it, mostly distribution lists. Use keyboard shortcuts (when available).  I use Outlook for my primary email and am constantly hitting Alt + S to send, Ctrl + 1 for my inbox, Ctrl + 2 for my calendar, Space / Tab / Shift + Tab to mark items as read, and a number of other useful commands.  Learn them and you’ll see your speed getting through emails increase. Keep emails short.  No one Few people like reading through long emails.  The first line should state exactly why you are sending the email followed by a 3-4 lines to support it.  Anything longer might be better suited as a phone call or in person discussion.   Conclusion    In this post I walked through various tips and tricks I’ve found for improving personal productivity.  It is a mix of re-focusing on the things that matter, using tools to assist in your efforts, and cutting out actions that are not aligned with your priorities.  I originally had a whole section on keyboard shortcuts, but with my recent purchase of the Surface RT I’m finding that touch gestures have replaced numerous keyboard commands that I used to need.  I see a big future in touch enabled devices.  Hopefully some of these tips help you out.  If you have any tools, tips, or ideas you would like to share feel free to add in the comments section.         -Frog Out   Links Scott Hanselman Productivity posts http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CategoryView.aspx?category=Productivity Overcome your work addiction http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2012/05/overcome-your-work-addiction.html?awid=5512355740280659420-3271   Millennials paralyzed by choice http://priyaparker.com/blog/millennials-paralyzed-by-choice   Its Not What You Read Its What You Ignore (video) http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ItsNotWhatYouReadItsWhatYouIgnoreVideoOfScottHanselmansPersonalProductivityTips.aspx   Cutting the cord – Jeff Blankenburg http://www.jeffblankenburg.com/2011/04/06/cutting-the-cord/   Building a sitting standing desk – Eric Harlan http://www.ericharlan.com/Everything_Else/building-a-sitting-standing-desk-a229.html   Instapaper http://www.instapaper.com/u   Stacks for Instapaper http://www.stacksforinstapaper.com/   Slapdash Podcast Windows Phone -  http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/slapdash-podcasts/90e8b121-080b-e011-9264-00237de2db9e Windows 8 - http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/slapdash-podcasts/0c62e66a-f2e4-4403-af88-3430a821741e/m/ROW   Feed Reader http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/feed-reader/d03199c9-8e08-469a-bda1-7963099840cc/m/ROW   Rescue Time http://www.rescuetime.com/   PowerShell Script Center http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/bb410849.aspx

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