I was reading the WhatsNewNow Newsletter, when I saw a link to this PCMAG’s article talking about Microsoft’s newly released Robotics Development kit.

Now, I’m not a big developer, but this sounds really cool! Evidently you can develop for real robots or for robots that only exist on your machine.

The article talks about how Tandy Trower built a virtual robot, plugged in a Xbox 360 controller, did a little dragging and dropping, and bam!, he was able to control the virtual robot.

You can read the article yourself , or visit the Microsoft Robotics Studio.

On a side note, the article also talks about the Robocup, which plans on building a team of humanoid robots that will take on, and win against, a championship soccer team.

Finally, we are one step closer to being excellent slaves for our robotic creations.

Maybe I’ll go out and buy myself some Lego MindStorms, and a robotic vacuum.

Not to mention a sledgehammer, just in case.

I mean, you never know.

Posted in Development, Microsoft, Robots, SDK No Comments »

  Ok, maybe this is a cheesy way to get a post out, but I have a awful lot of links that I wanted to mention, and I spent much of the weekend hip deep in my Jeep, replacing a valve cover gasket. Doesn’t sound too hard, except that a small portion of the engine in under the firewall (not a computer security device). But enough of my woes… 

- Phil over at Thought Sparks, started posting a CSS tutorial. This week he posted Part 1 – The Body Tag and Part 2 – Horizontal Tabs. Really good stuff.

- I also joined Pownce this week, and I really like it. Combination mini-blog meets chat meets email. Really a cool idea. If you are on Pownce, let me know.

- Yesterday, I found Secure Cyber. What a great site! The author commented on my post about chasing Microsoft Certifications, it turns out he has been in the IT field just a wee bit longer than me, and he has really written some great stuff. Great resource for IT pros.

- I found out about Free Remote Access with Log Me In. They give away the free remote access so that you’ll want to buy their other products. Always a winning deal for me. I saw it in Redmond Mag.

- I spent a little bit of time looking for an online To Do list service, I settled on “Remember the Milk“, but don’t take my word for it, check out these “25 to do lists to stay productive“. Going through the list should prove an excellent way of dodging work.

- If you worked your way through that list of to do lists, here is another one over at Tech Crunch. Use it as an excuse to procrastinate some more.

- All right, this is the last “to do” list for this post. If you have your own server or hosting account, you can always install “Task Freak“. It’s open source. It’s GTD.

- Redmond Magazine released their 12th Annual IT Salary Survey (registration required for the full report), and it looks like the IT sector is still doing well. It got me a little curious about some Microsoft certifications though.

I run across a whole bunch of good stuff that I just don’t have to time to do full fledged posts about, but I still want to share it, so I think I’ll start making these roundups a regular feature.

Posted in Certifications, free stuff, How To, Microsoft, Tech-News, Web Tools 2 Comments »

I really liked this picture, it’s from the Microsoft Certification site.

I have been guilty in the past of chasing Microsoft Certifications, heck, any certifications. Today I was looking at Redmond Magazine’s 12th Annual IT Salary Survey (Registration required to view the whole survey), and I didn’t recognize many of the Microsoft Certifications that were listed. Sure, I knew the products that they were talking about, but not the titles.

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t looked at the certification tracks since Microsoft introduced Windows 2000.

So I figure maybe it’s time for me to look at them again. I have already been giving it some thought, because it seems like this would be a really good time to start a certification.

This is because Microsoft just released a new operating system (Vista), and will soon release a new Server Operating System (Windows Server 2008). Not to mention the fact that their product releases have been happening so fast now that they will make your head spin.

So, Why get certified?

Many people like certifications because they can:

- list the titles after their names in their signatures

- find new jobs

- have better job prospects

- show that they have proven themselves on a particular technology

The reason I like them is that you actually have to learn something in order to get certified. Sure, you can memorize test question answers, but that’s only going to get you so far. If you really want to make sure that you are going to pass an exam, you should learn the material.

I am also a huge believer that anything that you learn in a technical discipline, will one day help you understand something in another technical discipline. Really.

In studying and learning for the Windows NT certification, I learned so much, but much of it I had already learned when I was working with Banyan Vines. I bet most of you haven’t heard of Banyan Vines.

Do I need to be Certified?

No, you don’t have to be certified. Currently I’m not. I actually have never had a certification at the time of my hiring for any of my jobs. I do see certifications listed as being required, or at least desirable, in many job postings. Same goes for technology degrees.

The Paper Tiger and a change in the industry

Back when I was getting certifications, the industry was flooded with people who memorized answers, and became certified. When they were hired, their employers, employees, and co-workers soon found out that they did not have any idea of what they were doing. This made certifications less desirable to employers.

This is not to say that everyone who has a certification is a sham.

Over time, the vendors started making their certifications harder to achieve. Questions were really difficult, and tests became adaptive. On some tests, if you answered a question wrong, then you were asked more questions about that topic. I believe that certifications have gained back their credibility.

Danger Will Robinson!

Now there is one tactic that I would not suggest. In this particular salary survey, the top dog expertise is “Identity Integration Server”. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who are thinking that they would like to earn $104,333 dollars a year.

Guess what, there are a lot of people out there who are thinking that.

Don’t run out and base your career on that technology. I really don’t suggest doing that.

Posted in Career, Certifications, Microsoft 9 Comments »

I heard about Microsoft releasing ShadowRun, and I was interested. I loved the series of books based in the ShadowRun world, and thought the game might be interesting.

I was blown away by the minimum requirements. To the left, you can see them. Maybe I haven’t looked at a set of minimum requirements for a game recently, but I remember they used to be pathetic.

One note though, the minimum requirements are exactly the same as the recommended requirements.

Although I am shocked, I am happy that they have realistic requirements. I always thought it was bad customer service, and bad marketing to list low minimum requirements. If I purchase a game I expect the game play to be decent, and responsive, if my system is at or above the minimum requirements. I think that is a reasonable expectation.

If I start playing, and the quality is bad, or if the game is jerky or unresponsive, then I start to get angry. That is the customer service aspect of it.

I also will tell my friends, which ties in the marketing aspect, since we all know that the best advertisement in word of mouth. This is also the reason I will not buy the “Age of Empires” titles until they are in the bargain bin.

 Back to ShadowRun, one thing that that is pretty neat is that Microsoft released the game for both the Xbox 360 and Windows, I know that isn’t a big deal, but wait, there’s more.

They also introduced new features in Windows Live Messenger, and released Live Messenger for the Xbox 360. This means that PC players and Xbox players can play together. This is the first time I have heard of a game which allows console systems to play with home computers, and I thought it was pretty neat.

Are you going to get it Mike?

To be honest, no. I’m a big cheapskate, and there isn’t a demo to play. Right now retail is about $50, and I would hate to shell that out, and find out I don’t like the game.

I don’t own a Xbox, but my machine at home meets the minimum requirements, so if I hear a lot of good things about the game, and it comes down in price some, then I may buy it. Still, there is the question of time, mainly that I don’t have any to play with.

Questions for you

What is the last game you bought, and how did you like it? Was it worth the money?

My last game was Half Life 2, and I bought it about 4 months ago (yes, it has been out for years). I really like the game, but I don’t have a lot of time to play it. I it was only $20 or $30, so yes, it was worth the money.

Posted in Games, Microsoft 3 Comments »

I ran into an issue where Windows Defender couldn’t download updates, when I would try, I would receive the error:

"The Program can’t download definition updates. Error Found 0×80240022"

This was occurring on a spyware ridden machine, and I was worried that it may be a piece of malware that was preventing the download. Maybe if I downloaded and installed the definitions manually, I would be able to run the scan.

After installing the definitions manually, Windows Defender was able to update itself. I’m not sure why, but that was the fix for this particular issue.

If you ever have a need to download Windows Defender definitions manually, the following link always points to the current definitions for the 32 bit versions of Windows:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=70631

If you are running an x64 version of Windows, this is the link:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=70632

Finally, if you are running an Itanium version of Windows, this is the link:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=70633

I found out about these links in Windows KB article 923159.

Reference:

How to manually download the latest definition updates for Windows Defender – Microsoft

If you like this type of Tech post, you should check out Two Guys Tech. A friend and I are working on it, and we even have a terrific podcast.

We’re always glad to answer questions, help people out, and help relate what we’ve learned. Get a new perspective on the tech topics and news that you’re interested in, come visit Two Guys Tech.com.

Posted in Bugs, Microsoft, Windows Defender 12 Comments »