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1 April 2008
- Exactly on the anniversary of my MVP award, I've just heard from MS that
I have been re-awarded as an
MVP for Visual C++.
22 February 2008
- MS has just informed me that the Windows SDK area which I am an MVP in,
has been retired. Instead now, I'm an
MVP for Visual C++. This seems a much more natural fit for me as the
moniker "Windows SDK" seemed to imply to me the exclusion of other areas which I am
familiar with such as MFC, ATL etc. On other MVP matters, I will be attending the
2008 MVP
Global Summit in Seattle in April and hope to put faces to some of the
many developer names I'm sure you all know.
1 April 2007
19 January 2007
- I'm now a blogger!. You can check out my new blog at
http://naughter.spaces.live.com/blog/
or you can subscribe directly to the RSS feed by clicking on the link beside
the orange RSS image on the Table of contents on the right hand side of my home
page.
20 October 2006
- The book is out! I should be getting my review copies in the next few day.
For those who have pre-ordered the book, you should see your orders being fulfilled
shortly.
- In my spare time over the last few weeks, I'm been working on a freeware
Tuner plug-in for Snapstream
Beyond TV which allows you to control a set-top box using a
RedRat3 IR device. For people
who have visited my web site before, you may well known that I have been using
Windows Media Center Edition (and
Showshifter before that),
but one area which I was disappointed with was it use of MS's proprietary dvr-ms
file format. Also it cannot handle multiple channels where the sources are mixed.
Another weakness MCE has IMHO is that you cannot stream live TV from the MCE
device to another PC (My MCE machine is upstairs next to my
Sky+ box but I do most of my TV viewing in my computer room which is downstairs.
I do have the TV signal via coax down in the computer room, but the picture
is pretty poor, plus the audio is only mono). Before anyone emails me saying
"oh yes you can stream from an MCE", AFAIK you can only do this to an Xbox 360
using the
Media Center Extender Software, but I'm not really into games and want it
streamed to one of my computers and not to a TV. Over the last few weeks I have
been playing around with Beyond TV and it addresses all of the shortcomings
as I see it with MCE. Recording is done to a standard MPEG2 file and meta data
for a recording / show is stored in separate xml file, files can be compressed
to DivX and WMV natively, streaming is supported to PC's via their Beyond TV
Link software and their multiple tuner architecture is much more flexible compared
to MCE. Beyond TV also has a
comprehensive SDK for
the developer community. Unfortunately the one area where Beyond TV is weak
(at least for us Europeans) is EPG support. Fortunately I already use and much
prefer DigiGuide which
provides a comprehensive PC based EPG. In addition I have installed a customized
version of the
SnapStream Schedule Plug-in for DigiGuide which allows me to schedule recordings
at my main computer downstairs and send the recording request up to the Beyond
TV PC upstairs (Changes were made to the digiadd.aspx file included in the Schedule
plug-in so that it works correctly with the latest v4.4 of Beyond TV, Let me
know if you want a copy of the changes I made). Finally on the Beyond TV machine,
I installed my new Tuner plug-in (which will be distributed as a MSI file created
using Wix v3).
My plug-in will include a sample RedRat database for the Sky+ box but you are
free of course to use your own database from the
RedRat support
pages. Most of the configuration details will be taken care of by the Wix/MSI
install but full details on further configuration of the plug-in will be included
in the download. The source code for the tuner will also be included in the
download, as well as the Wix v3 files to generate the install. The documentation
for Wix v3 is sorely lacking at the moment, so you might want to use it as a
tutorial for using Wix. Keep an eye on the What's New
part of my web site to see when I make it available for download.
11 September 2006
- Rampant have kindly allowed me to host the "Code Depot" for the code which
accompanies the book. See this page for the
download link. Please note that you are obliged to purchase a copy of the book
to use this code.
9 September 2006
- Finally, Good news, I have just received word from the publishers, that
my book is at the printers and should be generally available by the end of this
month.
13 July 2006
- Unfortunately I have to report that there are ongoing delays with the release
of the book. It looks like being available around the end of August now.
30 June 2006
- The publishers are working feverishly on getting the book "Super SQL Server
Systems" on the bookshelves. It should be available very very shortly.
17 May 2006
- Unfortunately there are some ongoing delays with the book "Super SQL Server
Systems". I have been informed by the publishers that it should be generally
available by the end of June. I hope that any one who has pre-ordered the book
can hang in there.
23 January 2006
- After some initial delays, the book which I am co-authoring with Joseph
Gama is finally making its way through the printing process at the moment. It
should be available for distribution to stores by the end of February. If you
use some of the code which I provide on my web site, I'd really appreciate you
purchasing a copy. You might even pick up some programming tips!!
22 September 2005
25 June 2005
- Naughter Software is now up and running. We specialize in developing custom
applications developed in native mode C/C++ / ATL and MFC. If you have any Windows
development projects you would consider me for, please don't hesitate in contacting
me to discuss your details.
21 December 2004
- Just to let everyone know that I am co-authoring a book at the moment. The
book is called "Super SQL Server Systems" and covers developing Extended Stored
Procedures for SQL Server. It includes lots of ready to run C++ code to use
with SQL Server. Details are available from
www.rampant-books.com/book_2005_2_sql_server_external_procedures.htm. Reserve
your copy now!!!.