Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

Been out of the loop for a few days.  It's the holiday season, and it's just hard to blog when it's so darn crappy outside. :)

Anyway, there's lots of stuff going on and I assure you I will blog the crap out of it soon.

Here's what I've been doing in the meantime, and what I think about it.

• Longhorn.  What an install.  We all know the "10 minute hardware detection period" is really overnight, so that's OK.  I've got it on a P4 3Ghz with a Gig of RAM.  WinFS takes 170 megs of memory, and Explorer takes at least 200 megs.  I've heard people complain about this.  Geez people, it's NOT EVEN ALPHA.  It's so not Alpha, it's Zeta.  NEVER before has Microsoft given the masses such early code, so let's be happy about it. 
  • That said, when you get it installed and dig into the SDK, you see the work they've (and are) putting into it.  Very evolutionary.  Using the "stacking" features are AWESOME.  They are Outlook 2003 Search Folders on Context-Sensitive Steroids.
  • If you're interested in Longhorn: Stop by the Portland Area .NET Users Group Thursday night.  I'll be joined by Jim Blizzard and we'll be riffing on Longhorn.  I'll drag my box down there and you'll get to play with it hands on.  We'll look at the Three Pillars: Avalon, WinFS, and Indigo.  Also, Jim will be kicking off the MCSD Study Group with the arrival of the books!
• Pentium 4.  My P4 3.2Ghz machine has been chewing inside of NeroVision Express for 8.5 hours and no end in sight.  I taught a class recently and it was taped on Hi-8.  I used my Digital-8 Camera with Firewire to 'rip' the video to my 250Gig Firewire External Drive.  Each hour is roughly 11Gigs.  Then I setup an interactive DVD Menu and I'm now transcoding the video into something I can burn to a DVD-R.  WOW. That's quite a process. 
  • The Pentium Active Monitor has been complaining as the temperature reaches in excess of 142 degrees F on the processor, and over 100 inside the case. 
  • WHY do I have to open my case (which has 4 separate fans) to recode a DVD?
• DVD Writing.  I got the new External Firewire Sony DVD+-*.* drive that writes to every <5" disc in the world, other than 45RPM Vinyl, and it may do that soon.  The software that came with the drive sucked.  So, NERO.  Again, I say: Nero is the single greatest value in off the shelf software today.  Truly, $1000 of value for only $69.  And some places there's a $50 rebate. Oy.
• Tablet PC. My new Toshiba M200 is NOT here yet.  Lame.  Why 'release' something when you know you only have 10 to sell?  I don't even know if it's been built.  Sigh.  Maybe before Christmas.  Anyone get yours?
• Teaching C#.  The Final Approaches!  The class is stoked and so am I.  Now, do I teach next term?  Possibly a Distributed Objects or Web Services class?  Possibly Beginners Yoga.  Hm.