Scott Hanselman

Well, that was a nice little spike of traffic.  A few random thoughts:

• Thanks to everyone for comments and author corrections for the tools on my List o' Tools. 
• Too bad Radio doesn't appear to support Trackback/Pingback from 'Stories' or I'd know who's linking to me. 
• I'll continue to update the tools list as I add more.  I'll also try to categorize it one day. 
• Note that I only keep favorite tools - no cruft, no crap.  This isn't a list of "all tools" or "favorite tools" but rather "things that make my life better"
• Some folks commented that it was mostly Windows and .NET stuff.  True, true.  That's where I live now, but some tools/utils I didn't include were Grep for Windows and Cygwin and Visual Studio Power Toys, etc, as I didn't think they qualified as simple little utils, although maybe they do.
• I didn't include a utilities that are internal (either Corillian-internal or Microsoft-internal) although I wish I could.  There's some amazing stuff out there.
• Now only if my list could get Scobleized by Robert's 18 readers...
• As I sit here and look at my Start Menu, that fills my 1600x1200 screen and runs off the right edge, I see at least 40 other great utils that AREN'T in C:/UTILS that I missed.  I'll add them one day.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Roy Osherove suggested that I post a list of the contents of my C:/UTILS folder.  Everyone collects utilities, and most folks have a list of a few that they feel are indispensable.  Here's mine.  Each has a distinct purpose, and I probably touch each at least a few times a week.  For me, util means utilitarian and it means don't clutter my tray.  If it saves me time, and seamlessly integrates with my life, it's the bomb.

Here are most of the contents of my C:/UTILS folder. These are all well loved and used.  I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't use them constantly. Perhaps Roy didn't realize what he was asking for.

One day I'll categorize them (if someone cares) but until the, here's "Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tools List" for your approval.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Oh yes, the iPod is the shiznit.  I had a Rio 500 for a number of years with 128 megs of ram and got my iPod about 6 months ago. 

I do recommend, however, immediately jettisoning the crap MusicMatch software and using these tools:

• EphPod for the quick and dirty work: Add a song, edit IP3 tags, adding Outlook Calendar appointments, vCard Contacts, text files, etc.
• MoodLogic and DeviceLink are the best thing to happen to MP3s since Napster.  Of course, I don't share music anymore, but I do rip the hell out of my 500+ CD collection.  MoodLogic is worth the money just for it's song identification capabilities.  It fixed the file names on at LEAST 1000 of my songs, including what # it is on the CD, who the artist is, etc.  Plus, it creates "Mood Mixes" in the iPod automatically.  Coincidentally, the core of it's iPod compatibility is...EphPod.
• Then, just for kicks, use Muse.NET to listen to your 20 gigs of music, legally, from work with .NET and Web Services.  There are lots of sample applications (many in .NET) to exploit their API, and exploit the programmaticalshipfulness of your music.

Now, if I had only waited, I could have had a 20 gig iPod for the same price...

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Just when I'm asked to start thinking about Technology Roadmaps, I find this great dissection of the Microsoft Technology Roadmap.  Some highlights:

Disappearing Code Names (Gone, But Not Forgotten)

Product Name/ "Code Name"	Additional Info.	Projected Ship Date
"Shorthorn" (33)	Stopgap release of Windows client	2003
.Net My Services/ "Hailstorm"	MS thought to be building many of these into future Windows editions	2004
"BizOffice"	combo BizTalk-Office application for B2B	2003 (?)

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Finally got around to installing my new shiny version of SoapScope, the little sniffer that could.  I showed an early beta at TechEd 2003 in Dallas, but now it's released!  It's wicked cheap, and when you're doing Web Services development in a workgroup situation, especially when the interface is in flux and the folks on the other side are in another time zone, it's slick. 

It stores all the traffic in a built-in database and others can view and debug the service as it moves through time using a web interface served by it's internal (Apache) web server.  It sniffs traffic via a packet capture OR as a proxy.

Two new features that I'm really digging are the WSDL Analyzer that checks for validity and compilance, and the Diff-er, that gives a sweet view of what's been changing from call to call, version to version.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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