I just found a major plus about Outlook 2003 that I just love! I'm constantly setting flags and then digging into my "for follow up" search folder so I can easily access emails I need frequently. One email that I've been using a ton lately, is an email with several different login's and passwords for an application I'm working on. It turns out that jumping between folders within Outlook is extremely smart. Whenever you return to a folder, it re-selects which email/post you had selected last. Very handy when I don't have to dig through 30 emails to find the one I'm looking for.

Well as I BlogJet kept telling me that it was time to upgrade, I kept checking. Alas, today there is a new version. However, its not Beta anymore, and comes with a 30-day trial and a $19.95 registration fee. I guess I actually have to determine how much I like BlogJet over other free utilities now.

Ohh - there is also a new website design too. Very sweet.

BlogJet 1.0.0.18 Final Release

FEATURES
* Autodetection of proxy settings.

BUG FIXES
* Fixed extra ="" in hyperlinks.
* "Insert hyperlink" menu did nothing.
* mailto: hyperlinks now work correctly.
* A lot of other bug fixes.

Not sure if anyone noticed, but the latest build of Longhorn, 4074, has a completely different icon for Notepad now.

It also looks as if a bunch of other icons got a rework, I'm starting to think it looks more and more like Gnome/Mac OS X now.

I'm sitting here watching over my download from MSDN for the Longhorn 7.2 SDK, and I constantly find myself suspending and resuming the download. But, why? Well, because I think downloading the 700MB file at 40 KB/sec is just too darn slow, so if I suspend and resume, it'll jump to above 100KB to 200KB for about 1 more minute.

This just kind of got me started thinking, why are we so greedy for speed? I remember the days of the old 14.4K modems and (of course) the old baud modems that were slower than crap. I remember rejoicing whenever I was downloading at about 1.5KB, and thought it was so extremely cool.

Now adays, that 1.5KB seems to just be insane, and unable to do anything on the internet. When did this shift change? Was it the when the wide popularity grew for broadband access? No, I believe it to be whenever ISDN was starting to become available to residential areas. However, ISDN still is slow and sluggish in most of our eyes.

So, why am I thinking that 40KB a second is so darn slow? I don't know, I guess I'm just speed greedy like everyone else in the world with broadband access. Are you greedy?

GMAIL REQUESTERS: This is NOT a place for requesting GMail accounts. I IGNORE each one of these pleas for an account, and have ALREADY given away my 3 invites.

I love when I write a post that starts with or has a title that makes me think of a movie, commercial, ad, or something just completely wacky. I guess this one relates to the "Got Milk?" ad...ohh good times.

Anyway, to the point of this post, I wanted to just mention that I got an invite for GMail the other day. Which is really kind of sweet because I stuck my email address on the wiki at Channel9 like 2 or 3 days prior thanks to John Sands

What little I've used it, I'm impressed. It's a very simple interface, and the threading of conversations / searching through email is just frigging sweet. So yeah, rock on GMail!

Update: Found his blog, thanks John!

So last night I took the plunge and bought a TiVo, and much to my dismay - $600 later, I have a working TiVo. I guess I should have done my research to find out that you need to purchase their subscription ($12.95 per month, or $299 for the lifetime of the box) along with the actual hardware. Either way, the investment will pay off in the long run. I've already setup several "season passes" to record the shows I watch most of the time.

I am dissapointed, however, in how you need to set it up initially. The box said "broadband ready," however you need a land line to actually set the hardware up for the first time. Talk about a pain when you don't have one! I ended up hanging out with my girlfriend's uncle all night while the thing took its sweet time (1+ hour) to set everything up. However, after I bought a USB ethernet adapter (which sucks, because the TiVo should have this built in), and hooked up to my network when I got home...and voila! broadband connectivity.

Now, to actually record the quoted 92.5 hours of tv in basic quality...

Update: I was told to use "Medium Quality" to get the best picture for space (thanks Chris!), however that doesn't get me 80 hours...err, why do they lie! BTW - if you leave it in best quality, you're only going to get about 25 hours, not even close to the 80 quoted on the box.

Update 2: Another kind poster (thanks Oskar) noted that if your recording an action movie or something that has a lot of fast movement, use "high" or "best" quality.

As I write this I think of Moby Dick, "Call me Ishmael"...

Yup, its a new beginning for my newphew. My sister just delivered a healthy 4lb 6oz baby boy at 10:43 AM.

The frightening thoughts - I'm an uncle, and my dad's a grandpa - EEK!

Err, well another phone call the Thursday before my week of training confirms that it too, was cancelled. Maybe its a sign saying you should be a developer and only a developer - I really don't know why I want the MCSD other than the fact that it would be good to have. I mean, its not like I'm going to get a pay raise, or have my role changed at work. Maybe I'll just stick it on the back burner for now and ride on my MCAD at work (which btw has gotten me no where, gotta love companies who do that).

Okay, enough ranting for now, on to more important things...like reading blogs, and listening to the latest videos on Channel9, and seeing if there's any new stories on the Onion...did I say important?

I think Microsoft is trying to get me to go to TechEd. This is the second time I've seen this (BTW - the image is not doctored):

 

This was taken from MSDN on the right hand side of the page. Maybe some logic should be put in so the same image won't show up?

Just ran across NewsLook which is a NNTP reader for Outlook. Seems pretty promising, but I don't see why you would need it if you have NewsGator and my free NNTP Posting Plugin. NewsLook is currently in beta, and will cost roughly $40 USD when released.