I've been using this puppy for the last few months to create Media Center Add In applications. It's great!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualcsharp/

You can also get all of the Express Editions (Web Developer, Basic, C#, C++ and J#) as handy-dandy CD IMG files at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/install/.

Enjoy!

Courtesy of Jake Ludington...

How to automatically convert DVR-MS files for PSP Playback

Thanks, Jake -- the PSP continues to look more attractive to me.

Every year I struggle with what to get my brother for his birthday. No matter what I do, he manages to one-up my gift. For example, this year he sent me 78 episodes of the original Star Trek series on VHS tape. I mean, seriously, how can I even begin to top that...??!?!!

I would just send him cash, but my wife says that would be too impersonal and doesn't indicate I put any thought into the gift. Hmmm, OK. Tomorrow, I'm gonna go down to the Home Depot and get him a gift card. There, I thought about it, personally drove someplace and am NOT sending him cash. Sibling social faux pas averted.

Well, almost. Tomorrow is actually his birthday, and he lives on the east coast, and it's too late to Fedex anything now, and my wife has been telling me everyday this week to get him something, and I've said 'got it covered' everyday this week.

Anyway...

My brother got married this past June. His bride Christy is a wonderful young lady I might add. He definitely married up...but I digress.

At the rehearsal dinner, he got all emotional / girlie on me, blubbering slightly, and saying nice things about me in front of the entire wedding party. 'Yadda yadda yadda I look up to you yadda yadda yadda you're my hero yadda yadda yadda you're my idol yadda yadda yadda Clay Aiken is cute but he ain't got nothin' on you brother yadda yadda yadda' and so on.

[That quote is a paraphrase since I don't remember *exactly* what he said. It was something close to that, as I recall.]

The thing is, I don't deserve any sort of accolades. Well...maybe the one about Clay Aiken...but I digress (again).

I'm just a brother -- one who has great respect for his younger brother.  Here is just a sampling of what I have learned from Evan over the years...

1) Younger brothers get the girl. While I was Mr. Geek all during elementary, junior and senior high school, he was Mr. Casanova. That cat always had the prettiest girl. I was jealous, but couldn't admit it. I was the older brother and it would be way uncool to be jealous of my younger brother. It's the law of the jungle.

2) Younger brothers get the jock genes. I was Dennis Rodman playing basketball -- I could do a pretty good job of keeping you from scoring, but couldn't dribble or shoot worth a darn. I actually scored points for the other team once. Talk about embarrassing. Evan was Michael Jordan -- graceful, quick, sly smile on his face when he faked you out and left you to pull up your drawers from around your ankles. He looked good in the uniform, too -- Bruce Lee-ish.

3) Younger brothers refuse to accept they will NEVER win a wrestling match with their older brother. Inevitably, whenever we are together for the holidays, Evan comes up behind me and starts something he can't finish. It's sad, really. It's like Barney Fife (him) vs. Andre the Giant (me). He may be 'wiry' but I outweigh him by, like, 875 pounds or something. Seriously, next time, bring a 2x4 and a couple of your buddies -- anything less is simply an insult.

4) Younger brothers succeed in the face of adversity. Evan is the son of divorced parents (like his older brother and younger sister) and has followed in their footsteps in that regard. He has lived on the corner of Dysfunction Junction for most of his childhood and some of his early adulthood. Even so, he is one of the most positive people I know on the face of the planet. Quick to laugh. Always a smile. Full of the infectious joy of life.

5) Younger brothers won't stop loving you. Many years ago, Evan came over to the house to discuss a matter of great importance. I disagreed very strongly with his proposed course of action. I was verbally brutal, unrelenting. My words may have been filled with truth, but they sure weren't given in love. Looking back on that exchange, I believe he had every right to write me off as both his brother and his friend. Luckily for me he didn't. By his grace and unspoken forgiveness I continue to have the pleasure of sharing his life (although it's not nearly often enough due to the distance between the states of Washington and Virginia).

So...Happy Birthday, Evan...and may that day be filled with family and friends who love you very much.

Your Brother,

Andre the Giant

I don't add folks to my blogroll very often, and the traffic my links might provide wouldn't really add up to a hill of beans for anyone who is represented. Even so, I believe the people I keep here on a permanent basis should be those who are reputable sources of information you can trust.

Therefore, I'm happy to welcome the following folks to my blogroll...

Aaron Stebner -- Aaron is doing a wonderful job helping the community with Emerald install and media playback issues. His mastery of all things setup is fantastic and he has personally helped me on more than one occasion with Visual Studio and partner machine setups. The great thing about Aaron: He is 10 times more helpful in person than he is on his blog, and is one of the most positive people I have ever met. Aaron and I are going to have the pleasure of working closer together over the coming year as we march closer to the launch of Media Center for Windows Vista. Stay tuned.

David Fleischman -- David is one of those great guys who helps us get software actually out the door and into your hands. Software impacting millions of customers doesn't happen overnight, and his latest post Adding a Feature to Media Center gives you some great insight into that process.  The comments in that post are worth their weight in gold if you play a part in shipping great software.

Ed Bott -- I've had the pleasure of having lunch with Ed once, and it was refreshing -- for someone so smart, he's about as humble and unassuming as they come. His blog is one of the most informative and authoritative ones out there -- you come away satisfied with almost every post he makes. I consider his taking the time to create a Media Center specific feed quite a compliment to our product. I aspire to have my own writing be as concise and clear as his -- I've got a long way to go. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to add him to my list -- he should have been there on day one.

Peter Rosser -- I'll confess I don't know Peter well at all, which kind of means I'm breaking the rule I outline in my opening paragraph. His office is between mine and the front door / cafeteria / rest rooms, so I pass by it a good bit. His monitor is always filled with code, and he is almost always sitting there intently focused on same. He is a Software Design Engineer on our Media Center TV team -- that means he is wicked smart (all of them are - you have to be if you are going to get TV working in Windows). Seriously, anyone who writes code like this has to be a wiz. I only hope the code I write is 1/100th as sharp. As it is, I'm still trying to figure out what his blog title means -- I think it has something to do with the Da Vinci Code.

Ed responded kindly to my Lot's of People Seem Up In Arms About Sony Copy Protection post with It’s not about copy protection.

He's totally right -- it's not about copy protection.

It's about theft.

Ed is an author by trade. He makes a living selling words printed on a page. If he can't earn money writing great books because people steal them he will find another way to make a living. I'm pretty sure he is married. His wife will not allow him to not make a living.

So, in response to his wife's need for him to make a living...

• His most recent book is only available for the general public via purchase at a store (virtual like Amazon or brick and mortar like Borders). The store has a lock on the front door. Even though I personally wouldn't dream of stealing Ed's book the store still has a lock on the front door. Even though I'm not a criminal, the store is treating me like one.
• When I purchase Ed's book I agree to at least two 'End User License Agreements'. The first is the store policy governing any purchase I make. The second is the terms and conditions of the legal tender I use to pay for the book (cash, credit card, debit card, bartered chickens). If I don't agree, I can't walk out of the store with Ed's book. Did I read all of the fine print in those EULAs?
• When I open up Ed's book I find something like the following in the very early pages: 'Copyright © 2005 by Someone. All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.' Even after purchasing this book, I don't appear to have any rights except to read it silently in its original form unless I want to take extra steps to get permission. I wasn't explicitly made aware of that by the store or any store employee prior to purchase.
• 'The printed book is difficult and expensive to copy, and it’s nearly impossible to make a copy that looks and works like the original.' He has made it extremely difficult (but not impossible) for me to make a backup copy of the book.
• Ed's book installs knowledge into my head without 'providing an easy and straightforward way for me to completely undo the changes if I so choose.'

Yep, Ed Bott has Analog Rights Management (ARM™) protecting his copyrighted material.

How nefarious!

I'm still gonna buy his books, though. That is my choice.

Ed has chosen to include a PDF version of the book on the CD included with your purchase. It doesn't have any form of DRM. That was his choice.

People are all abuzz about Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far by Mark Russinovich. Ed Bott has posted no less than 4 entries on the subject alone in about 8 hours, the latest being Is Sony Violating The Law?

A couple of thoughts...

1) Why aren't people attacking folks who steal digital content (music, TV shows, movies, etc.) with the same zeal and passion.

2) Why has Ed picked a delivery system for his latest professional writing with such unfriendly DRM and obvious disrespect for my fair use rights?

Enjoy...

http://www.download.com/Hotmail-Plus-Reader-for-Media-Center/3000-11444_4-10455037.html?tag=lst-0-1

I'm getting a good many hits from http://www.macgeneration.com today referencing the Apple Front Row stuff I posted. Many folks have been been pointing me to translation sites -- I've not found those to be much help since they do a literal word-for-word tranlation. For example...

'Depuis sa présentation, FrontRow suscite beaucoup d’interrogations. À sa façon, Apple se place sur le marché des media-center. Là où la société ne fait pas comme les autres, c’est qu’au lieu d’intégrer ce logiciel qui irait si bien au Mac mini, elle le propose avec l’iMac. Steve Jobs a beau avoir fait un pas en arrière, il reste persuadé que le centre du hub numérique doit être l’ordinateur.'

...becomes this after automatic translation...

'Since its presentation, FrontRow causes many interrogations. At its way, APPLE is placed on the market of the media-center. Where the company does not make like the others, it is that instead of integrating this software which would go so well to mini Mac, it proposes it with the iMac. Steve Jobs took a step in vain behind, it remains persuaded that the center of the numerical hub must be the computer.'

Somehow, I don't think the original message is coming through here. Although I admit some of the comments are really, really funny when run through auto translation...

'If it is true that the media center introduces with the iMac G5 is a logical evolution of the numerical hub to the APPLE sauce, its ease of use is a heritage of the iPod.'

The BBC launched their experience in the UK Online Spotlight today, marking a total of 100 experiences worldwide availabile in Online Spotlight. My boss, Andrew, was pretty happy about this -- he's from the UK and quite happy we now have an offering where the people speak proper English.

I feel extremely lucky to work on a team which has produced a platform with the power and flexibility to enable content owners, designers and developers to create experiences for their customers. To the Media Center Team: Thanks! You guys are amazing!

I was thinking about it on the way home from work today...

We provide a platform where broadcasters can create entirely new channels delivered over the web to your television. Check out MTV Overdrive for Media Center. It's totally interactive and on demand. They have created a channel where the user gets to define the channel content. They are going to follow up with virtual channels for VH1, Comedy Central and mtvU early next year.

Have you ever been at work when you hear about a cool TV show airing later that evening, and won't be home in time to watch or record? We provide a platform which allows you to schedule recordings of TV shows from any place on the planet with an internet connection and web browser. The platform will leverage the cable, satellite, or antenna connection you probably already have in your home.

When you get home, you can watch those TV shows in your choice of rooms via Media Center Extenders. My wife and I do this all the time. We start watching a recorded TV show in the family room, pause it, go downstairs to the bedroom, fire up the MCX and pick up the show EXACTLY where we left off.

Oh, and the platform also allows you to enjoy MTV Overdrive for Media Center (or just about any other Online Spotlight experience) in any room courtesy of those same Media Center Extenders.

Want to check out a podcast or video blog on your stereo or TV? Newsgator Media Center Edition allows you to enjoy that long tail content using a remote control. Oh, it works on Media Center Extenders as well in any room of your house.

You can sync pictures, videos, music AND those recorded TV shows your choice of Portable Media Centers.

Developer enthusiast communities have formed around our platform, and they are a passionate group of folks. Media Center doesn't have the feature you want? Connect. Create. Share.

Cool.

I spent about an hour chatting about the next generation of our platform with one of our Software Design Engineers.

We've just been warming up...

I left comments over on his blog this time rather than summarizing here -- his latest is a good read...

FrontRow, One More Time

Everyone seems quite taken with the new video service in iTunes (and viewable in Front Row).  Hmmmmm -- how do we let people know about the great content available via Online Spotlight...?

I'm usually reticent to say things like this, but here goes...

I *think* I will be able to share some special news on Thursday / Friday which will contrast the approaches taken by Apple and Microsoft nicely. No promises, but stay tuned.