I would expect that MCE users who have read my blog in the past have been frustrated by a couple of things:

• the increasingly low ratio of family talk versus technical talk
• all of the broken images and links that happened from the last server move

So here we are, I’m going to pull all of the technical stuff from my personal blog, clean up all of the broken items, and resume technical blogging over at TGB.  Thanks to TGB for providing this space, I hope it will prove to be a much more permanent and more focused home for my technical ramblings.

Blog Addresses:
TheNears Personal Blog:  http://www.thenears.com
TheNears MCE Blog:  http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/pnear/default.aspx

RSS Feeds:
TheNears Personal Blog:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheNears
TheNears MCE Blog:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheNearsMCE

I like Firefox, but I really want to like IE.  The ingredients are almost all there, but the killer missing feature for me has always been Adblock.  The ability to browse the internet free from annoying advertising is the primary reason that I stick with Firefox.

Well I think I’ll be uninstalling Firefox today, because I just found the free plugin that gives IE all of the things I love about Firefox including:

• The ability to block inline ads
• Search while you type
• A few other things that I don’t personally use like mouse gestures, super drag & drop, proxy switcher.

I just installed the plugin, and it looks promising so far.  If there are any major issues with it I’ll post them back here as well.  Let me know what you think!

I’m a pretty huge weather geek and the gadgets that are becoming available for Vista are making it possible for me to very effectively keep an eye on the weather on my desktop.  I’ve been trying to do this for years, starting with a custom active desktop in Win98, working up to Konfabulator and Google Gadgets but have never gotten it quite right.  With Vista Sidebar Gadgets, I’ve finally got it.

Here’s what I need/want to see all the time on my desktop:

Current Conditions for home, work, and offices I work with:

• This is enabled by the accuweather mini-forecast, which has a fantastic set of graphics and useful information in a small form factor.  Click on the gadget and out pops a beautiful 5-day forecast.
  

Local Warnings for the area

• I use The Weather Network’s new gadget to keep an eye on local conditions including weather warnings.  Right now it’s the only way to get canadian severe weather alerts on the sidebar, although I’m putting the screws to accuweather to get canadian alerts onto their gadgets as well.  TWN’s is a bit big to use for more than one location, but it has a nice design to it so it’s good as my primary location.  Again, click on it and out pops a more detailed forecast.
  

Radar Imagery from intellicast

• I’ve always preferred intellicast’s radar over all others and luckily the Michigan radars cover southern ontario nicely as well.  Using the Weather Radar gadget I have the local radar loop running in the sidebar, and clicking on the image brings up a flyout of the full-sized radar as well as two other images (I also have the environment canada weather radar and warnings map available).
  

A new pizza place opened in Milton lately, and it reminded me of one of the most memorable phone numbers ever.  Pizzaville has been operating in Toronto for years, and their radio ads are, well, unique (you can listen to them here).  They are loaded with dry wit, but the tagline is what sticks:  Remember the number is NOT seven, free sex, free sex, free sex… it’s 736-3636.

We haven’t lived near a Pizzaville for almost 8 years now, but when they opened up a store in Milton I didn’t have to look up their number at all.

I wonder if women remember that number as well as men?

That’s okay, I probably googled you too.  So you’ve found my blog, and contained herein is my life for the last several years.  Dig away; here’s the brief bio.

First of all, I am not The Bobs.  Secondly, I’ve just been through an acquisition myself so I know how awkward and stressful all of these changes can be and hope I can be a kindred spirit for everyone else who is going through these sort of changes as well.

Now that I’ve told you what I am not, now let me tell you a bit more about who I am…

I am a dad, Jaimee just turned two on the weekend and Katlyn will be turning four in May.  First and foremost, my life revolves around them.

I am a husband, and my wife Jodie is a real estate agent in Milton, Ontario.  Milton was officially named the fastest growing city in Canada, and Jodie happens to be really good at her job.  It’s an incredibly good time to be starting a real estate career in the Greater Toronto Area.

I am a camper, we take the family out camping as often as we can in the summer and enjoy getting outdoors.  We have a little Jayco popup trailer that follows us around and is developing a nice, healthy ”campfire” smell.

I am a geek, and my passion revolves primarily around the digital home.  I am a Microsoft MVP with a speciality in Windows Media Center, and am just starting to delve into the new Microsoft Home Server product with that product team.  Last week I attended the MVP summit in Redmond, which is the annual opportunity to geek out with the MCE product team and the other MVPs.

I am a technology worker, I started at Open Text in April of 2001 and have held multiple positions primarily in services management and working with large customers.  Last year, I gained some “industry experience” as a Strategic Account Manager at Stellent where I met some fantastic people, but eventually returned home to Open Text after Stellent was purchased by Oracle.  So much has changed over the last year, I look forward to meeting all of the new people that are now part of the Open Text family and digging in to the business at hand.

Several years ago I scored a bunch of computer systems that were being liquidated at a company auction.  As part of that deal, I wound up with four pretty nice 20″ Nanao workstation monitors.  I kept one, and the other three went to friends and family.  These monitors are really big, and really heavy.  I think that each and every one of them is now taking up floor space in storage of everyone’s basement.  Not really wanting to put it in the landfill, I paid the $0.20 listing fee on eBay to see if anyone could take it off my hands (and there’s three more to a good home too!).
So if anyone wants a monitor or three, just let me know (or bid on eBay by clicking here).  They work well as computer monitors still, or could be a very effective boat anchor, or perhaps even with some modifications a totally cool fish tank.  They’re probably headed for the landfill on the weekend if nobody wants them.

The main site is offline temporarily, you were probably looking for something and got redirected here instead.  Sorry about that.  Here are links to some of the most popular posts, hope this helps!

ATSC in Canada with Vista RTM

Troubleshooting ATSC Issues in MCE

Command line shortcuts for MCE

Need coffee pods in Canada?

Microsoft is building an ice house in Yonge-Dundas square starting tomorrow and running into the weekend as part of the Windows Vista launch. I’ll be there tomorrow (Tuesday) manning the “ask the expert” booth, so come on by and say hello. I believe that they have carved out (literally) a section for me inside the digital home where I’ll be dispensing MCE and general Vista advice through my chattering teeth.

I read today on Garth Turner’s website that the panic is starting to set in, and many people are calling their MP’s office upset that they can’t get the passport that they now need in order to travel into the United States.  From Garth’s press release:

Passport applications normally take 20 business days to be processed,
but untold numbers of them are currently sitting unopened at the
government’s passport facility in Gatineau, Que. Turner’s office has
been told by officials that application envelopes which arrived at the
end of November are just this week (January 18-19) being opened.

Having recently been through this process, I’m not surprised that applications which were mailed in wound up in a black hole.  When I knew I needed a passport, I wanted “look ‘em in the eyes” accountability and that’s exactly what I got.  Here is my recommendation to everyone who needs a passport ASAP.

1. Fill out your application online.  If you fill out the form online, you are given priority status and are able jump all of the lines that no doubt are spilling onto the streets at the passport office.  In my case I could only fill out my own application online, and my kids had to fill out traditional forms - I was still given priority for all of my applications.
2. Submit your application in person at a passport office.  Click here for locations.  When you arrive at the passport office, be sure to let them know that you filled out the form online.  When you do so, they will give you the next available agent.
3. Be sure to select the appropriate level of service.  Urgent costs you an extra $70 and will get you a passport in 24 hours.  Express costs an extra $30 and will get you a passport in 2 to 9 working days.
4. Be sure to note the mail-out date and tracking number printed on your receipt.  In my case the mailout date was incredibly accurate and the passports came the next day via expresspost.
5. Use the tracking number to get updates on your application if anything seems to be going wrong.

This process was very quick for me.  Although I had set aside two hours to spend in the Brampton passport office, it took me only ten minutes to complete.  Sure I received lots of icy stares when I bypassed the waiting room but that’s what I get for filling things out online.  And the most important part of this whole procedure is the accountability - when you hand it in personally they are incredibly efficient at keep everything tracked.  Good luck!

I received word via email this morning that I have received the 2007 Microsoft MVP award.  This marks year #4 as a Media Center MVP, and I’m honoured to receive the recognition.  This next year should be an interesting one for MCE, as I truly believe that it will move from “HTPC niche” to “mass market photos and music on the HDTV”.  It’s a big shift for the product, and a big shift for the community.  I look forward to introducing a whole new group of people to MCE as they discover it included on their new Vista PCs in February.

That was one big piece of news I was waiting on, the second is related more to work.  My company was purchased by Oracle recently, and I’m expecting to hear sometime in the next week or so whether I will be transfered to Oracle with steady employment, or if my position will simply cease to exist.  I’m significantly more nervous about this one, and I have my fingers crossed.