scottgu recently posted about his june travels.  if he's anything like me, he's sick of bischoff cookies.  at any rate, one of those stops is in my 'hood, in phoenix, arizona.  we call it "the valley" but not like "the valley" of mountain view/san jose in california...ours is the "valley of the sun" and when i came home yesterday my thermometer was reading 111 degrees farenheit.  blech.

where was i, oh yeah, ScottGu is coming.  it's a free event.  stefan schackow is coming too.  it's the same event.  it should be fun.  when? june 27th.  want more details?  go to the AZGroups site to find them and to register (so we can make sure we don't hit capacity).

seriously, go register now.

i saw this post on techcrunch and read these comments:

I’m on Apple’s side on this one. CrunchGear is simply spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about this revolutionary new product.

huh? when i look on the footer of CrunchGear i see:

© 2007 TechCrunch

wtf?

a while back i wrote a post about sharepoint and firefox...i saw a trackback to this in a forum indicating a lot of rant for microsoft not including this support.  in my original post i made reference to a partner that was enabling this for firefox users.  the link is in the post but i'll make it here again.

telerik and cross-browser editor for sharepoint 2007

done.  get it (free btw) and install it.  they have a doc to help you configure/install.

there, so no more complaining :-)

thanks to mike ormond for prodding me about updating the msdn search sidebar gadget.  i had found this issue as well myself when i realized it wasn't working anymore.  well, it was because msdn went through a redesign and their urls changed...so much for scraping :-)

well, i updated mine and i'm sure nikhil is swamped and may not have a chance to update his (and i didn't want to redist his code, but here's what i did).

on mine you can just download the new one here: MSDN Search Sidebar Gadget

when i say "mine" it is just a basic typical gadget.  nikhil's was written using his Script# which is fantastically awesome.  he also has some UI updates.  which one is better?  they both yield the same result...i actually use nikhils because his UI is better...i'm merely updating mine here for the masses (same download link).

on to nikhil's changes required.  if you want to just update the currently installed one, go to C:\Users\<youruserid>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets and look for the installation point.  on my machine it is called "MSDNSearch.gadget" and open that folder.  in there you will find an MSDNGadget.js file.  go to line 26 and change:

http://search.msdn.microsoft.com/search/data.ashx?&query={0}

to

http://search.msdn.microsoft.com/search/Feed.aspx?query={0}&feed=rss

boom, then you are done.  if you want to modify the script# project, then open the MSDNSearch.cs file and make the same change to the SearchUrlFormat private string on line 13.  then you can recompile and all is well.

hope this helps...and thanks for the nudge mike!

a friend of mine send me a note today asking my thoughts on the whole testdriven.net situation.  i was surprised in anyone asking me about it (not because i'm a snob or anything, just that it had been all over the place).  i then realized that the register and /. picked it up finally and that's were it is getting some rebuzz.

if you don't know what i'm talking about, basically the author (jamie) of TestDriven.NET (a great tool btw) had been enabled for visual studio express.

The Express Editions are an expansion of the Visual Studio and SQL Server product line to include lightweight, easy-to-use, and easy-to-learn tools for hobbyists, students, and novice developers who want to build dynamic Windows applications, Web sites, and Web services.  Express Edition products are designed for hobbyists, students, and novice developers. As such, they lack the full breadth of features found in higher-end Visual Studio and SQL Server Editions. They are designed specifically for scenarios common to the hobbyist, student, and novice developer. Each Express Edition includes targeted documentation that will help the beginning programmer quickly learn the concepts required to build more advanced applications. The user interfaces are significantly streamlined to ensure that extraneous features do not interfere with the learning process. If you later decide that you do need additional features available in the higher-end editions of Visual Studio and SQL Server, you can seamlessly upgrade your code and skills.  You can learn more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express.

jamie actually had done this a while back and it appears (by the documentation he provided as well as microsoft) that he was contacted and had conversations with microsoft's developer group about what he was doing and why he shouldn't be doing it.  as a result of that, he stopped distributing and making mention of the method he used to enable his product in express.  well, it's back.  microsoft reached out.  jamie responded with questions.  microsoft answered with some answers and asked him to stop.  jamie responded with more questions and noted he was going to seek legal advice.

back. forth.

well, i'm not a lawyer nor did i stay at a holiday inn last night, so i'm not going to comment on the legalities of the exchange between lawyers.  from where i stand though, i think the issue is clear.  whether microsoft is right/wrong about "going after" an mvp (i don't think they are as i've seen that microsoft has reached out to jamie numerous times trying to resolve amicably) i think is an unfortunate byproduct of bringing out public issues.  and the /. communities are eating it up (without really understanding any issues...spreading near FUD in my opinion).

anyhow, if you want to read microsoft's position on the matter, dan fernandez (super cool guy, you should meet him one time) has posted a few messages:

• Visual Studio Express and TestDriven.NET
• TestDriven.NET and Express - Technical Information

you can also read jamie's initial coming out posts of the issue here.