There is not a day goes by where I don't use a virtual machine for development or testing.  Same goes for Remote Desktop.  I couldn't work without either.  However, remoting into a machine - be it real or virtual - means I lose the benefit of having dual monitors.  VMWare supports dual monitors I'm told but we use Virtual PC and Virtual Server.

But, never fear, /span is here!  Yes, if you launch Remote Desktop aka MSTSC.exe (Terminal Services Client) using the command line switch /span then it will extend the desktop across both monitors.  This is not the same as dual monitors - it's really just making 1 really wide desktop - but it's good enough for me.  Now I can develop on virtual machines almost as well as real machines.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, you can also use /console to connect to an existing session on a remote machine.  This is as close to a real login as you can get.  You may also find this necessary when installing software.  Some application installs will tell you it cant run when your logged in remotely - /console will bypass this.

I've been doing a bit more walking these days, trimming up for summer and saving on gas. I decided I would walk faster with some sounds. I already have my iMate SP5 with a 2 gig flash card and media player on it.  However the standard ear plugs that come with the sp5 look and feel like giant silver bolts. 

Then I saw these blue tooth stereo headsets.  

SP5's sourced from VodaPhone in New Zealand don't include the stereo blue tooth features that the SP5 is capable of.  For these to work, your phone must support A2DP - whatever that is.

What you'll need

1. Get the instructions and discussions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=263735&highlight=a2dp.  The download (tornado_a2dp.zip) is linked from the first message in this lengthy discussion. 
2. Open the zip and read the readme.txt. 
3. You can get most of the tools listed in here from http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=ApplicationUnlocking.
4. You may need to unlock your phone.  You can get those tools and instructions from here: http://www.spv-developers.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=620. 
5. The tornado readme says you can import the .reg file using MobileRegistryEditor, but I couldn't see how to do this - there is only an export option.  So, I had to manually edit the registry.  BE CAREFUL - BE VERY CAREFUL! Do an export of the registry before changing anything. I neglected to do this or even write down the original values before changing them but I got lucky. 

Now, I'm completely confused by most of this but I can follow instructions and thankfully, once you find the correct information and tools this works pretty well. I did have one scare.  After restarting my phone at the end of these instructions it froze while loading the SIM card pin number input.  A battery removal restart fixed this though.  Phew!

The headset has good quality sound, is very easy to use and the battery has lasted for 2 days so far.  You charge them with a USB cable and they include a nifty charger with a USB connecter and cable - useful for many USB devices I think.  The right hand ear has controls to play, pause, answer call, go back and forward a track and change the volume. 

They do cut out occasionally while I'm walking around town, but I find that if I have my phone on my right hip or in a top pocket then this doesn't happen nearly as much.  Sitting in the car or at my desk listening to music is just fine. 

I've also found that if you answer a call using the button on the headset then music will not resume after the call ends.  In fact, starting the music from the phone does not work either.  It seems to loose connection to the headset for music only.  When this happened the first time I turn off blue tooth on the SP5 and the music started playing through the phone speaker, so it was in fact running all the time.  However, if you use the phone to answer and end the call then the music restarts as you'd expect.

The quality of phone calls is also pretty good.  I do feel like a complete dweeb talking without holding a phone to my ear, but you quickly get used to this.  People I have talked to on the phone say they can hear me ok, but there is a bit of transfer or wind and traffic noise.

You can get the i.Tech BlueBand R headset for $160 from flashcards.co.nz, who, by the way, have a fantastic service.

And thanks to the guys at GeekZone.co.nz - it's the best resource for this sort of phone hacking.

It appears as though EPiServer has gone straight from 5.0 RC 4 to 5.1 RTM !  Wow!  That's progress for you.  Anyway, if you have access or want a demo, go get it now. 

If you don't know what EPiServer is then let me tell you.  It's a fantastic ASP.Net CMS.  The latest version is a huge improvement over the previous 4.6 release. Primarily it provides a catch-up with many ASP.Net 2.0 and .Net 3.0 features.  It does away will lots of specialised server controls and instead uses DataSources for menus and pages and many other things.  Workflow has been replaced with Microsoft's Workflow foundation which makes complex customised workflows possible. URL rewriting & friendly URLs are vastly improved.  Performance is improved via a readonly cache mode.  It uses the standard membership and role providers. And many more features.

But best of all, creating a new EPiServer site is now a real snap.  It used to take me about 1 - 2 hours to setup a new site ready for development.  With the integration into Visual Studio 2005 (haven't tried 2008 yet) this takes about 5 minutes.  Simply select New, EPiServer project and away you go:

This will create a Web Application project with a local SQL Express database.  You configure security providers and initial users via the ASP.Net Web Site configuration tool - accessible from the Visual Studio toolbar, add a default page and your done.  Well, at least you are ready to create templates and master pages.

Creating templates, custom plugins, properties and user controls is similarly easy:

I'm in the process of creating my 1st EPiServer 5 site and it's quite a pleasure after using another couple of CMS products recently ... but let's not talk about that right now :)

More on this as I discover things...

My interest in Windows Live has been stirred again recently.  Not because I need it or use it much, but because a couple of people have mentioned things about it.

I love Live Writer.  I'm using it now.  It's really simple to use and gives a nice editing experience.  I can't get Word to work on dasBlog - it probably does but I don't have the time to futz around with it, especially when I already have Live Writer. 

However, it seems like Writer has been in beta longer than Linux's WINE project has been in Alpha.  I tried installing the full Live package and also just the latest Writer beta but:

I use 2003 server as my main machine at work, because:

a) it's what most of my software is developed for
b) it's very stable and familiar
c) there is no later server OS available in RTM

I think this is really poor!  Writer works fine on 2003 server - at least the beta version I have does.  Why was this changed?  Maybe because it's using some stuff from Vista that is not in 2003?  I think it's more likely to be a marketing decision.

As for the rest of Live, well, I'd like to try Live Mail but - as per above - I can't.  So I'll just stick with Google Mail on my own domain which works everywhere and works as well as (or better than) most Windows Client apps.

Update:  Chris pointed me to a different installer that has successfully updated Live Writer.  The web site in in German and the installer runs without any prompting, but it does actually work - I'm using Write beta 3 now!

On a more positive note, I've been pointed to a great new site for Windows Live,  http://www.viawindowslive.com.  It's a fantastic aggregation of articles, forums & links to all things related to Windows Live development and tools.  The site is a little rough around the edges, some content missing, but is still a great place to start and worth a book mark.

Update:  I Love SharePoint

A lot of people seem to think that Sharepoint and MOSS are wonderful things - a joy to behold!  As of today, I am not one of them.

I've been handed two jobs that require the use of InfoPath forms.  The first is to create a Leave Application form for our intranet.  The other is a bigger project of about 30 forms for a local government site.

As these seemed relatively straightforward things to do I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn and dispel my bad impressions.

So, this is a dynamic post of the issues I have with InfoPath, WSS, MOSS & Forms Services.  As I find solutions or overcome my frustrations I will update (and apologise where necessary).  I'll also include a summary at the end and my current mood.

InfoPath Issues

Contact Selector. 

This is an ActiveX control that is used on InfoPath forms to allow users to select a user from ActiveDirectory.  It requires inclusion of a custom data source (xml file) and creation of fields with very specific names. 

1. To use more than 1 contact selector on the page requires you to create reference fields - which currently confuse the hell out of me.
2. Because you can only have a single Context data source in the form, all contact selectors will work against the same domain.
3. There is no way to filter what the user can select.  I want a contact selector to only allow groups to be selected.  This is not possible.
4. Contact selector does work on browser enabled forms.  It is the only ActiveX control that does this and it appears as though it's hard wired to work.  According to the InfoPath blog there is absolutely no way to create your own ActiveX control that will work in browser forms.
5. Setting a rule on drop down lists will get you 6 level deep in modal dialogs.  This is a very bad UX.

Lookups

I can attach a drop down list to Sharepoint list very easily but I can only set the display and value fields.  The list I'm displaying has 3 values - ID, Team Name and Manager Email.  I store the ID in the form, display the Team Name in the drop down and I need to find the Managers Email from the Workflow when the form is submitted.

Designer

1. Moving tables is impossible.  You can't drag and drop a table and cutting and pasting will trash the contents.

Sharepoint Designer Issues

Getting pretty picky now.

1. When editing a workflow, you can't right-click the Workflow item and select New workflow.  You have to go to the file/new menu option for that.
2. Cannot change the format of emails sent from the workflow.  The emails are pretty ugly really.
3. Workflow Lookups are very confusing. 

WSS Issues

1. All to often you fall off the edge of the Sharepoint world and are required to use command line tools - the horrendous STSAdm.exe mostly.  This has more options than a Linux command shell!  I understand the need for a command line tool but why-oh-why isn't here a GUI version?
2. Publishing an InfoPath form to Sharepoint is pretty easy until you want them browser enabled.  This requires an admin install of the template.  An admin install requires 1) access to the central admin site, 2) an upload of the file from a hard drive (not from a Sharepoint list), 3) activation of the template in a site and 4) configuration of a list to use the new content type created for the form, 5) local machine administrator group membership. This is bloody ridiculous when you consider that publishing a non-browser enabled form works from InfoPath with 3 or 4 clicks of the mouse.
3. The help is complete rubbish.  It's either far to simple or vague or blank.

Workflow Performance

You cannot have more than 10 workflow's active on a single list and submitting 3 forms with workflow concurrently to the same list kills the server. This was proven for another site we did recently.  If I was paying the (huge) bill for MOSS, this would be a show stopper.  Thankfully there is K2.

Update: I've been informed by someone much more informed than I (thanks Paul) that there is no 10 workflow limit.  In fact there is a WSS property that can be set to specify the event delivery throttle.  I wish we had know about this a lot sooner - it's too late for 1 customer :(.  Full details here:  http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/93a3282e-00d2-4d03-9721-df42b5aa7cfb1033.mspx?mfr=true

Deployment

I have yet to do this but from what I have seen - don't go there.  Create your forms and content directly into your production environment. 

1. You can't package forms in a STP file.  You have to deploy these separately.  This will probably require hacking the raw XML files of the form.  You also need to generate a .JS script file or MSI using yet another command line tool.

Summary

There are sooo many holes in WSS & MOSS  & related tools that it's a wonder anyone is using it.  When you consider that this is the 3rd version of Sharepoint - albeit a massive re-write - it's woefully inadequate.  It's much more like a v1.0 product.

If you need to create InfoPath forms that require any custom code - DONT!  Just create a windows or web app that talks to Sharepoint lists.

If you have complex workflow requirements or require high performance - use K2 or host workflow's in your own service - DONT use Sharepoint for it.

Current Mood: Tony says I'm Indifferent but I feel reluctant. Not nearly as grumpy about SharePoint as when I wrote this but reticent to withdraw the post completelty.