SyntaxHighlighter for Blogspot

I found a rather interesting article today that shows how to enable Blogger accounts to use the SyntaxHighlighter library to be able to post source code online. This is just a simple test to see if I’ve configured everything correctly.
So the code below is just a simple hello world snippet written in C#.

using System;

namespace Example
{
 public class Program
 {
  public static void Main()
  {
   Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
  }
 }
}

Hopefully this works out OK.

Update

After several revisions of this post, the syntax highlighter is now working correctly. Turns out most of the issues were actually with the WLW plug-in that I was using to generate the source code block. When I wrote the block by hand, it worked perfectly.

Update – Take 2

I got another WLW plug-in that works a lot better. I also updated the blog template to point to the hosted version of the latest version of the SyntaxHighlighter. So far everything appears to be working well.

Merry Christmas!

Just a very short post to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We are going to be doing our usual running around this year, so if you have a hard time getting in contact with us, please be understanding. We will get to everybody eventually.

Windows 7 Cool New Features – Part 3

So far, we’ve covered Snap!, Shake, Jump Lists, and Live Taskbar as well as Pinning, Windows Search and Aero Flip 3D. Today we’ll cover two very useful features that give you information at your finger tips, and one that will make sorting files on your hard drive a horror of the past.

Windows 7 Cool New Features: Cont’d

After my last post, I decided I really needed to talk about a few other features. There may even be one more after this one. :-)

Pinning

Have an application that you use a lot? Well now you can access it even faster. Windows 7 has done away with the concept of a quick launch bar in favor of Pinning. With this feature, you can take applications and pin them to either the Taskbar or the Start Menu. Just take an application in the start menu, right click on it and select either Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu.
But pinning can be even easier.  You can simply drag and drop an icon from your desktop to your Taskbar and it will automatically pin it to the task bar. And even easier than that: if you are currently running a program, you can simply right click on its icon on the Taskbar, select Pin this program to taskbar and presto! Your application is now pinned and will show up on the Taskbar even when it isn’t running, giving you quick access to launch it whenever you want.

Windows Search

Gone are the days of having to sift through the morass that is the Programs folder in the Start Menu. Gone are the days of having to manually hunt down files in your My Documents or Recent Documents folders. Enter Windows Search. Now just open up the Start Menu and start typing. “Typing what?" you might ask. Just about anything. Windows Search can find files and programs based on partial names, descriptions, even the date you last modified them. For example: Say I don’t remember the name of a digital picture I took because I never renamed it from the random set of numbers the camera assigns to it. And say I don’t remember where in my 7GB of pictures I put the thing. But I do remember what day I took the photo. Just type in the date into Windows Search and BOOM. There’s the photo in the list. And all of this, happens in an instant without having to click a single button.

Aero Flip 3D

So you know that you can focus on a single window by simply shaking it now. But how do you find that window. Simple: Aero Flip 3D¹. Just hold down the Windows Logo key and press the TAB key. You will be able to select the window you want by either continuously pressing TAB or by clicking on it when you see it. Note that the standard ALT+TAB method of switching between windows is also still available.

Conclusion

Wow, that is a lot so far and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Come back next time when we will take a look at Desktop Gadgets, Aero Peek, and Libraries.
¹ Aero needs to be enabled in order to use this feature. As such, your PC will have to support Aero and you will have to be using a Windows 7 theme.

Windows 7 Cool New Features

I recently acquired a new desktop with Windows 7 installed on it. There are a number of new features in Windows 7, but here I'm going to list a few that I find absolutely awesome. Some of these features might not be exclusively new to 7, but as a took a pass on Vista, I'll list them here anyway.

Snap!

An awesome feature of Windows 7 is the ability to drag a window to the screen edge and it will “snap” into place. So if you drag the window to the left or right side of the screen, it will resize to fill one half of the screen. This is great if you want to view to windows side-by-side to compare them or work in both simultaneously.
In addition, you can also drag the window to the top of the screen to maximize it.  Drag it again and it is restored to its original size. You can also grab the top or bottom border of a Window and drag it to the corresponding screen edge. When you do, the opposite edge will automatically move to fill the entire height of the screen.
Finally, you can also use the WIN+ARROW KEY to have the same effect. In fact, using the keyboard, you can actually move snapped windows across multiple monitors. You can also maximize the window by using WIN+UP ARROW or minimize with WIN+DOWN ARROW. Manually resizing windows is a thing of the past!

Shake

If your anything like me, you generally keep a lot of windows open at a time. It can become very stressful trying to focus on just one when your desktop is cluttered with dozens of unrelated, half-complete tasks. In that case, Shake is to the rescue! Just grab the window you want to focus on, and shake it back and forth a couple of times. All of the other windows will minimize, leaving you with just the window you want. Want all of your clutter back? Easy as pie: just shake the window again and all of the windows are restored to their original positions. Wasn’t that easy?

Jump Lists

Have a file you open a lot. A website you visit frequently.  Well now those frequently used items are only two clicks away. Just right click on an icon either in the Start Menu or on the Taskbar and you’ll get a list of your most recently used files. In addition, you can pin files to the list so that they will always be available.

Live Taskbar

If you’ve ever experienced the joy of trying to find exactly which browser window you were looking for when you’ve got 5 or more open, you will love the Live Taskbar.  Just hover the mouse over the program icon and you will get a selection of thumbnails showing you the contents of each window. And if you are using Internet Explorer, you will even get thumbnails for each individual browser tab to choose from. Then, if you hover over the thumbnail Windows will hide all of the other windows on the screen and just display the one you are hovering over.  All you have to do now is click on the thumbnail, and presto, you are working in your chosen window.

Conclusions

These are just a few of the cool features available in Windows 7, and they don’t even scratch the surface. My recommendation would be to definitely check it out. A word to the wise, though. Make sure you look at the comparison between the different SKUs as they each have different limitations. There are 4 major editions: Start, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. If your going to shell out the extra money for a higher SKU, make sure you’ll actually be using the features you get for that money.

Update

I didn’t think that the features I specified here really did justice to the complete package. So I’m going to be adding several more posts about more features that I enjoy in Windows 7. You can see the next one on Pinning, Windows Search, and Aero Flip 3D here.

Viral Comedy

This was posted yesterday by Uncle Bob Martin on twitter. Some very funny geek jokes. If your not seriously into biology/physics, go in with Google at the ready.
'A Virus Walks Into a Bar...' and Other Science Jokes - Brian Malow

Google Wave hits I/O

Just a quick note. Google announced Wave at their I/O conference this week. Check it out.