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Yet Another Cool Windows 7 Thing - Number 2:

I keep my eeePC 1000he netbook readily available during most of the day. If you’re like me, you occassionally like to jot down ideas and solutions as they come to you. Typically its an inconvenient time when this happens as inspiration knows no schedule. I’ve been known to keep various moleskin notebooks strewn about that I purpose for just such an event. And that’s great for ease of access but horrible for recall and actionable manipulation of the text. I’ve always wished that I could simply jot things down on my Sony laptop, but by the time the pc started, got logged in, waited for all the junk services to start; I would have grown frustrated with the wait or simply forgot what it was I felt inspired to write in the first place.

ENTER Windows 7 on a Netbook!

I was able to enter this small note in less than 15 seconds:

Now maybe that doesn’t really impress you much, as you probably just see a postit on my desktop.
(Postits come with Win7, btw).
But check this out - The netbook was laying next to the bed in sleep mode.
It took less than 15 seconds for me to open the lid, log in to the operating system, type my note and close the lid.
For brainstorming on the fly…thats amazing! The netbook becomes more than a pc…its more like..ummm…a notebook. The paper kind even.

So there you have it. Simple post about a simple thing. But for me..its monumental for where I hoped personal technology would be. 

And in other news:
I spotted some Microsoft MCTS training books on the bookshelf of Sheldon and Leonards apartment (Big Bang Theory television show):

You have to be both a programming nerd and a fan of this show to really appreciate the find.�

Guess the English translator was on vacation during error message development day:

off to bed now. time for my brain to be ‘abooted.’

Yeah..I’m just sitting here minding my own business, when all of a sudden the windows 7 sidebar heads to Vegas for vacation. Which is unacceptable. I use my sidebar (build 7000). Some of you, and you know who you are, humiliate your sidebar with image rotators and other fu-fu butterfly fluffy things. But me…power user. I need my app launcher, as I’m deeply disturbed by having to dig through the convoluted Start menu just to start up Word. You been in there lately? Its a mess. And I dont keep icons on my desktop. I like a nice clean desktop. Some of you have desktops that look like an Icon monster drank a gallon of ‘Red Bull App Launcher’ and then violently barfed all over the screen.

So yeah.. sidebar app launcher at the ready, until TODAY! Not sure if an Auto Update or UAC killed it or if it just got peeved and left. Hell, for all I know, it could be part of an elaborate April fools joke that I was unable to recover from with proper dignity and well being. Regardless….it was gone like Wozniaks cool factor after his dancing career successfully drained every nerd-worthy point from his otherwise illustrious career. But I digest.

So how do you fix a disappearing sidebar?  You in the back? “Buy a MAC?”…oh you’re so damn funny. You know that joke got old back about, oh I don’t know, forever ago when Abel told his brother Cain to buy a Mac. And we all know how that turned out.

So heres how I fixed it..maybe it works for you, maybe it doesn’t. Either way, back up your registry before you start as I won’t be held responsible for your inability to follow instructions and the pending disaster that you’ll be weaving by f’ing with regedit.

I found this on another website, not sure where and don’t really care cause it worked:

If you have Windows 7 Beta installed with UAC disabled you might run into problems while trying to load gadgets onto your desktop.You can enable the UAC in order to use Sidebar.But if you don’t wanna turn on that nagging UAC and still love those tiny useful gadgets you can bring them aboard by following these steps:

* Click on Start button, type regedit in the search box and hit enter.
* In regedit, go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Sidebar\Settings

* In the right pane,right-click and select DWORD Value from the New menu.
* Rename the DWORD Value to AllowElevatedProcess. Double-click on it and type 1 in the Value data field.

* Close Registry Editor and try to load the gadgets.They should work.

You may or may not need to restart your computer.

I realizing that rebooting your computer may drain you of the precious 3+ minutes that you would otherwise spend chasing some goblin wizard thingy in Warcrack, but it might just fix the sidebar problem.

Getting a “AG_E_PARSER_BAD_PROPERTY_VALUE” error when running your silverlight app?

Verify that your xaml events have the corresponding event handler on the code side.
Resharper will help you eliminate these kind of errors as well. You can find that at:
http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

Word of warning though…the product is $200. But it will save you a boatload of time and ultimately your time is money.

I’ll be at the West Michigan DotNet-U event on April 4th. Bruce (http://blog.bruceabernethy.com/) and I will tag team a presentation on Silverlight development. This will be a 3 hour edu-tainment event and space will be limited. Hit the site to register now! ..and its free!

Also..check back after the event for video and documentation.