.. ance<T>() where T : Foo, new() {

American political journalism, not only by association, is not held in the highest regard these days.  NBC's Tim Russert, in contrast, and his enthusiasm for the "truth" is a throw-back and considered among the best of modern American journalists. 

Tim provided tough and thoughtful coverage of the most important issues and political figures of our time and strove to provide us with enough information to form an opinion.  Russert's infectious passion for the news left those of us with any interest wanting a second hour of Meet the Press or more of his time when on the air. 

Tim Russert - NBC News' Washington Bureau Chief and moderator of Meet the Press, preparing for this Sunday's installment of Meet the Press, collapsed and died of a heart attack today: he was 58.  His passing is a huge loss to American journalism: he was a beacon of thoughtful political coverage in a day when news outlets are more and more politically charged and inflammatory pundits are flooding network, cable, and radio programming. 

Though NBC News and Meet the Press will never be the same without him, I'm hopeful that thoughtful, informative reporting will prevail there and that those he inspired, mentored, and taught by example will continue to elevate the coverage of such an important beat. 

Image source: MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25145431/)

I broke my arm a couple weeks ago.  No, that's not the reason I've not blogged in a while: I've just been ridiculous busy - no excuse, I need to get on it.  So I came down off the boat in the garage and my feet got caught up in the trailer.  I came down on both hands, but harder on the right, breaking both the ulna and the radius at the wrist. 

At first, the orthopedic surgeon thought an internal fixator would work.  In layman's terms that's some space-age metal plate with screws.  The break was more of a crush, though: the ends the two bones (in the forearm) were in small pieces.  Screws don't work well in that situation so an external fixator was put on in surgery.  I won't go any further as some people won't "appreciate" it, but Google will shed some light if you're curious (and a bit warped). 

I can actually type with the right hand but, truth be told, it hurts like hell if for more than an hour or so.  And in this gig, that means pain.

I decided to check out the speech recognition in Windows Vista and did some research on the web.  Turns out there's not a lot of information out there on the subject.  So there are two (no three) things to consider 1) the microphone, 2) the software, and 3) the platform.  The microphone was the item I wasted more time on.  The built in microphone on my HP Pavilion dv9500 notebook (a powerhouse) was nowhere near good enough - it wouldn't pick up anything. 

After some additional research on microphones I decided on a gaming style headset (the Logitech ClearChat Style).  It has a noise canceling adjustable boom-style headset microphone and fits over the ears and wraps behind the head.  Its intended use is internet chat, music and gaming.  It actually worked OK but the microphones kept me from hearing things around me and speech recognition wasn't stellar. So I reached back out to Google but from the angle of "speech recognition microphone".  What kept coming up was the Sennheiser ME3 - it's said to be the best microphone out there for speech recognition.  So, I bit. 

I'm opting, right now, not to use Dragon's NaturallySpeaking which speaks to the second consideration, software.  I'm not sure this is the best solution as I've not tried NaturallySpeaking.  There's not a lot of information on the web on how Windows (Vista's, in particular) speech recognition works so I figured I'd give it a go before jumping.  And besides, there is no 64 bit version of the software yet which actually speaks to the platform or the third consideration.

I can tell you that dictating this post in Live Writer has been a bit painful.  Not physically, but that speech recognition is not all that wonderful.  The Sennheiser ME3 hasn't impressed me or at least it's not leaps and bounds better than the $30 gaming headset.  This paragraph in fact took me about 40 seconds to get written - with corrections.  I guess that's not horrible and my arm doesn't hurt. 

I'm going to keep trying and I'm going to continue to train this thing in hopes that it will get better.  By the way, speech recognition has come with Windows for quite some time - yeah, in the box.  You can look into it your yourself and find out some of the commands and see if you would appreciate it more than I have so far.  I'll also be sure to post some updates and let you know how this works out.

So I always import my standard fonts and colors options for Visual Studio each time I build out a new environment.  I find the defaults a bit straining for all day work.  Today, though, I was installing some developer tools and noticed while wiring PowerShell to VSCmdShell that it used the default VS Command Window colors: stark - black on white.  Of course that wasn't going to do - so I went ahead and made it the same as the PowerShell colors and fonts.  Better... 

Then, as I hadn't yet set my Text Editor settings I thought: I like the PowerShell "style", why don't I take a shot at that for my VS Text Editor as well.  Of course, some of the Display Items' defaults wouldn't work as they were either to shocking in contrast or almost not visible but not too many changes were necessary. 

I came up with this

Here's a a downloadable link to the VS Settings file with only the Options --> Environment --> Fonts and Settings exported.  I'm calling it "PowerShell Distilled": feel free to use them if you'd like.  I haven't yet checked out how all of the text editors look.  In addition to C# did take a poke at XML files and, like I say, I took a poke at it.  If you do use it and you make any changes - let me know.  I might like to incorporate the changes back into my settings. 

As a note: I also like to change my Command, Immediate, Find Results and Output Windows settings but I've not yet done that - so you won't get those settings.  I'll post an update pointing at a separate consolidated VS settings file once I do for those interested. 

Happy Holidays!

Next week (Thursday, December 20th) we'll be presenting the ArcReady: Software Plus Services (S+S) Distilled session at the MSDN Power Series Event in Phoenix. 

Bennie and I will cover, in some detail, a multi-tenant software + services reference architecture.  The two other sessions that are being presented around ours by Joe Shirley (MS DPE) are:

• ArcReady: Windows Live Platform Overview
• ArcReady: Office as a Platform.

I understand that the event location will hold around 200+ so join us and others for a "day of free, live learning."  

Matt's Tools

Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 (side-by-side) +

So I went home Tuesday night with the downloaded RTM bits in hand prepped for a late night install.  The download experience was excellent: it took all of about 10-15 minutes to pull it all down while in the office - couldn't wait.  And I had it prior to the onslaught of VS bits on the wire that must have happened that night.  Isn't everyone waiting with bated breath for this release? 

Visual Studio Orcas (2008) Betas and CTPs have been of awesome quality and I've had excellent experiences with the uninstall/installs all along side-by-siding - until now. 

Hell, it had been a while since I'd wiped the machine anyway - right.  And what better time than for a VS release: one of my, if not the, primary tools. 

Yeah - that's what it took.  I should say: I'm not willing to jump through too many hoops to troubleshoot an install.  Especially, on a machine that's undertaken such Beta torture since being re-upped on.  As the Betas and CTPs were so surprisingly easy to put in, and stable once up, I had no expectation this time that it would come to this.  Truth be told - it was a hateful experience. 

The Rundown

So first, while uninstalling Beta 2 the setup hung for about an hour.  It was late, the mother-in-law was in town, but I did some reading and found some nuggets, again, on Rick Strahl's blog.  He'd recommended to uninstall some components manually first.  I killed it as it was futile and after a reboot I took the suggestion.  This seemingly freed up the problem for the uninstall but it still took a really long time and, though few, confirmations were still needed.  You know, can't just cut it off mid-stream...

Took two days away from the machine as Thanksgiving came and family beacons.  Happy late turkey day - BTW! 

When I got back at it I attempted an install of the RTM bits.  What the *#@&!  It's hung after a couple of hours - no errors, couldn't find anything on the web.  The curse of early adoption - right.  So I killed it and retried after doing some research (multiple times) - it never panned out.  I figured I'd sleep on it and see what I could do Saturday morning before other duties turned up.  Saturday's attempt faired the same - no real progress. 

The backups start...

I like having a newly installed machine but not since Vista RTM'd have I re-upped so I was not looking forward to this.  Multiple backups - just in case (OneCare and manual file drops).  As backups are the most boring thing ever it took till Sunday morning for me to really get it done. 

Sunday, after going to the airport, the Vista Ultimate install commenced.  Vista installs really nice - YES, finally!  IIS is configured and SQL Server's installed (multi-step SPs ya-da-ya-da).  Office 2007 - well it took a bit but just grunt work - got it all up.  As a heads-up: if you have an MSDN subscription, don't opt for the Pro install and then individuals like OneNote, Grove, Project Pro, Visio, etc. just pull Enterprise, your list of stragglers will be smaller. 

Visual Studio 2005 - this was quite painless but, again, it took a while: remember SP1 and SP1 update for Vista...

Visual Studio 2008 - I was in the Statêra office Monday so I kicked it off there in the morning.  I walked away as I had a conference call with a Microsoft Services colleague and came back.  SKREECHING OF TIRES AND THEN A HUGE BLUNT CRASH sound rang in my ears.  On the screen was a prompt for, and let me remind you this is an MSDN DVD ISO, disk #3 (attempting to install the .NET 3.5 framework).  My shoulders scrunched and I moped away to get a Perrier with lemon flavored stuff. 

So I came back found the file it was looking for in the ISO (mounted using Daemon Tools) and pointed it at that directory.  It wouldn't take it...  I'm turning red. 

Redemption

I did a search for VS 2008 install issues and found this cryptic MSDN newsgroup post titled Visual Studio 2008 Fails to compile on Vista Ultimate.  The title and subjects were vaguely (stretching) relevant and the post was a bit over my head as many of these types of troubleshooting posts are. 

Remember I mentioned I don't like to troubleshoot installs: I was in a pickle though, and hell, how else could I post on my experiences with the tool (or the install for that matter) - so I tried it.  The one from BFaassen about installing the files in the \WCU\dotNetFramework\dotNetMSP\x86 folder:

• NetFX2.0-KB110806-v6000-x86.msu
• NetFX3.0-KB929300-v6000-x86.msu

As a heads-up, I attempted the install of the others there, the RTM ones: they both ran successfully but reported that the KBs were not installed.  And, oh yeah, they all require a reboot if successfully installed.  WING'N IT - HUH...

I re-attempted the install after reboots and after a nail biter of a while (not too long) - the VS 2008 RTM install was successful!

WHEW!  Now to test the issue Bennie's been having: he reported that the XAML editor was not working.  I tested it by simply creating some buttons and sure enough it worked for me.  I'll take it!  NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH...

So there are a number of posts in the MSDN managed newsgroups and elsewhere showing issues with the install.  I don't have a feel, at all, for volume of problems and it could certainly be light for all I know.  I can report, though, that Bennie's up in arms over his experience too.  I opted out of beers with him last night as I could feel the flames over IM. 

Kidding of course - I wouldn't turn down a Stella. 

We're happy to announce the newest member of the Foo Theory team, Chad Mattox.  He's a friend and former Statera employee who now works for Microsoft Services (MCS) as a SQL Server Premier Fiend Engineer.  Here's a link to his weblog. 

Chad and I first met at an MCS financial services client, in Scottsdale, back in 2005.  He's an excellent consultant and has mad skills not only in the area of SQL Server but also distributed application development, ASP.NET, CRM and has an entrepreneurial spirit. 

Look forward to some great content and an insider's perspective...