I've had a 'fun' weekend clearing out my overloaded inbox and mucking around with the NZ .Net Web Site.
MSDN Flash
If you don't receive MSDN Flash, then may I suggest that now is good time. Looking back over the flashes I've received over the last few months, I've just realised what a great resource it is. I tend to do a lot of surfing and blog reading of international material and often miss out on local news. Flash is an excellent way of keeping up with local happenings. If you don't get the flash, then give it a try for a while. I'm sure you will find it as useful as I do.
DotNetNuke 4
I had a go at installing DNN 4 and actually got it working on the second attempt. On the first attempt it seemed to work fine, but it wouldn't stop installing. Normally the installer creates a dnn.config file in the install folder that contains the currently installed version. This file is used instead of querying the database on each request. However, this file wasn't created for me because the default installation doesn't include the correct settings in the web.config (UseDNNConfig=true). I turned this on, after I installed, but by then I think it was too late. So, I deleted the database and ran up the site again. This time, it created the dnn.config file and everything works sweetly.
The old DNN 2.1.2 NZ .Net skin uploaded to the new DNN 4 site without complaint and it actually looks just the same as the old site. This will save me considerable hassle when I do the upgrade.
I also created the ASP.Net membership/roles/profile database separately in the hope that I'll be able to share this DB with community server. That's my next task.
There's still a number of 3rd party components that I need to replace or upgrade. There's really only one that I need upgraded ASAP so I better start nagging the vendor or figuring out how to replace it.
Ruby on Rails
I met a chap on Friday (whilst attending an all-day stag party - lots of games - no strippers or pranks) who is using Ruby on Rails for a couple of projects. "You lucky bastard" I said. I love bleeding edge and Ruby on Rails is about as bloody as you will get at the moment. If you don't know anything about Ruby or Rails or Ruby on Rails, then check out the web site.
Anyways, I'd been looking for a suitable candidate for a head-to-head challenge for a user group session and ASP.Net v Ruby on Rails sounds like the perfect solution. From everything I've heard about Ruby and Rails, this could be a very interesting contest. Stay tuned in the new year.
Windows MCE
I've had a loan Media Centre PC for a few months now and I've been doing some testing with it. MCE does offer some nice features over standard Windows XP that make it work well on a TV screen, but overall.. how can I put this gently? - I think it sucks. I know some people love it and it does certainly try to be a TV/DVD/Video/PVR replacement but, for me, it just doesn't fly. Why?
- There are no out-of-the-box channel guides for New Zealand. I tried to get XMLTV to work with it - thanks Nic - but I failed. With more effort I'm sure I could have got it to work.
- All the functions of MCE are poor cousins to the full PC equivalents.
- The quality of TV cards pictures is not as good as real TV.
- You can't rip music or video to the hard drive.
- It's hard to manage folders for large picture, movie and music libraries.
To make MCE truly useful requires quite a few hacks and a lot of switching back to native Windows. I could live with all these short comings if I wanted to come home from a hard day in front of a PC and have a hard night in front of the TV, but I'm not and this is my point - Television is an alternative to a brain. If I have to think about how to watch TV, then it's NOT TV anymore. To me, MCE seems like a great way of making a simple device that works into a complex one that doesn't.