You might have noticed I very rarely (if at all, come to think about it) post about applications written by others for Media Center here. This is mostly to keep a sense of impartiality -- I don't ever want to play favorites when it comes to folks who use the platform I help create. I'm just tickled pink anytime I discover a new experience -- they are all great as far as I am concerned!

I'm going to make an exception here and lift my self imposed ban to point you to HeatWave Weather. I installed it earlier today, ran it through its features and found it works well. There are a few small issues but nothing major -- I'm sure James would like to get some additional testers and feedback -- if being able to check the weather forecast is high on your list for things to do in Media Center this experience is highly satisfactory.

Here's why I'm lifting the ban...

As far as I know James was the very first developer outside of Microsoft and the Media Center team to dig in and learn about what was to become known as Media Center Markup Language. Here's the kicker: He did so using the internal interfaces present in Windows XP Media Center Edition back in early 2005. I was amazed this guy was able to figure it all out without any documentation, samples or tools. The learning curve is pretty steep on MCML even with all of the resources we give you in the SDK, so what James was able to accomplish at the time was pretty amazing. He was a little ahead of the curve -- we were just a few months away from making the MCML + managed code platform available in the Windows Vista beta where we could officially support the development paradigms he discovered. James graciously agreed to pull that incarnation of HeatWave (then called 'My Weather') and the developer documentation he created telling others how to do the same. At the time I think this was somewhat disconcerting for James -- he gained a lot of positive attention by peeling back the curtain to reveal the inner workings. Since that time I've made it a point to watch his user name at http://www.thegreenbutton.com/ (MCExtended) for any signs he would return to the what we now know as Media Center Markup Language.

Congratulations, James -- and welcome back.