Alex Barnett's blog

The blog of Alex Barnett

I've not met Frank, but I know about his shirt. - August 30, 2006

I've not met Frank Arrigo in person, but I know about his shirt. In the latest episode of the 'Frank and His Shirt' reality show series, the hunt is on for an apparent posuer. The background to this rather potracted saga is a story unto itself, even getting press coverage in the local IT rags (local = Australia in Frank's case).
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/30/731878.aspx

Windows Live QnA service - public beta - August 29, 2006

Congrats to Betsy and the team: the Windows Live QnA service is now in public beta. I've been on the private beta for a little while and turned to it for help for a couple of things when I got stuck. One example was asking for good seafood restaurants in Seattle. I tried out one of the recommendations and was not let down...it works! Update: TechCrunch picks this up.
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/29/730239.aspx

I still love the smell of comment spam in the morning. - August 27, 2006

I love the smell of comment spam in the morning. I did then, I do now.
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/27/727036.aspx

YouTube video - How to - using Windows Movie Maker - August 26, 2006

A video on how to make a YouTube video using Windows Movie Maker, on YouTube, made using Windows Movie Maker...
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/26/725769.aspx

Top 10 Ways to Light Up Your Windows Vista Apps - August 26, 2006

Somasega introduces the 'Top 10 Ways to Light Up Your Windows Vista Apps' 1. Follow the Windows Vista style guidelines2. Enrich the user experience3. Enable users to visualize, organize, and search4. Run securely5. Design for reliability and manageability6. Establish a customer feedback loop7. Build for connected systems8. Bring data to the user with RSS9. Make document data accessible10. Build for mobility
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/26/725677.aspx

RSS feeds, OPMLs and Grazr - August 26, 2006

Kevin Briody of the Windows Live team has published the RSS feeds he subscribes to as OPML files for your feedreader. Some good feeds worth checking out there, including a bunch of Windows Live individual employee and team blogs. Kevin, one way of displaying these as a blogroll is to use Grazr. Below is your OPML file for the Windows Live team blogs rendered inside the Grazr ui:. Just wack in the url of any OPML file here and then copy and paste the code... I have to...
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/26/725653.aspx

Private equity buyouts and crack - August 26, 2006

Mitch Ratcliffe spotted a column published ealier this month on the FT. The article, written columinst John Plender, proposes that a leveraged buyout of Microsoft by private equity bankers would be a good thing. As Mitch points out, this scenario would be a good thing for the private equity bankers and er, that's pretty much it. I can't see the whole article (behind a paywall) but from the citation Mitch provides I think I can help Mitch out on his question around what..
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/26/725633.aspx

Windows Live WiFi - beta testers wanted! - August 25, 2006

Laura John (who I used to work with while we were both at MSDN TechNet), has blogged about something I've not heard of before...Windows Live WiFi: "We provide dial-up access to a ton of users across the United States but we've also been working on a stealth project that we're now ready to Beta -- Windows Live WiFi. This version is pretty basic, but you'll want to be in on the Beta, I'm sure, because there are some very cool and incredibly useful features coming." The Windows Live...
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/25/724275.aspx

oh yeah, I'm back... - August 25, 2006

From Yellowstone that is. Land of volcanos, bears, tents, and scary sounds at night. I nearly killed a coyote. Don't mess with me.
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/25/721112.aspx

IE7 - RCs, Changes and CSS - August 25, 2006

As you probably know by now, Dean Hachamovitch announced this morning that Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is ready for download. So what is the difference between a 'Release Candidate' (RC) and a 'Beta' Here's the short answer from Dean's post: "A release candidate is fundamentally different from a beta. With the exception of a very short list of issues were aware of and working on, we think the product is done. Were looking to enthusiasts, developers, and IT...
http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2006/08/24/719586.aspx