That's right, Video Email.  Looks like Microsoft is complimenting their brand of Webcam's with Windows Live Video Messages.  Since it's hooked into Live all of your hotmail and Live Messenger contacts are available.   You can also enter an address that's not already in your contacts.  Even though this is designed for the Microsoft LifeCam, it works great with my built-in webcam on my new Dell Studio laptop.  The site is still in Beta, but the development team has been very quick to address my questions.  It would be nice if the other live development groups were as responsive.

As with most of the newer Microsoft offerings, this too requires the installation of Silverlight.  When you send a video message to someone that does not have Silverlight, it will direct them to install it. Here's a list of requirements needed;

• Web camera
• Broadband connection
• Internet Explorer version 6 or a later version
• Microsoft Silverlight 2
• Windows Live ID
• Windows XP operating system with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or a later version
• Windows Media Player 10 or a later version for Windows XP Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista

So if you have a webcam, check it out and send me a video message to ericmagsamen@hotmail.com.

Is anyone using this?  Since ALL instant messaging applications have been blocked by the corporate firewall, I have no more contacts that are using it.  Are you using Live Messenger? If so, leave me a comment.

My laptop died.  So along with that and fishing I've been unconnected.  So I have been looking around at the different offerings and decided to buy a Dell this time.  We've been buying Gateways which we've had pretty good success with.  BestBuy had the Dell Studio 15 on sale that was almost $200 cheaper than the Dell website!  Here's the basic specs.

320GB SATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
Provides plenty of storage space and fast read/write times.

So as you can see it's a great deal for $699 from BestBuy.  There were four things that made me choose this laptop.  The first was the 4GB of RAM, this is a must if you're going to be running any version of Windows Vista. The next option was the large amount of disk storage, with 320GB I won't have to worry about running out of space.  Every other laptop I have owned had the flimsy CDROM caddy that popped out.  On the most recent one, the eject button was positioned so every time I would move the laptop the CDROM would pop open.  That led me to the third option, the slot-loading CD/DVD drive.  And the fourth was the price.

Another great feature is the Built-In webcam.  It's located at the top of the monitor and the microphone pin holes are located on either side.  Microsoft has just opened a beta site for Video Messaging, Windows Live Video Messages.  It's to compliment their webcam offerings, the LifeCams but it works with the built-in cam on this laptop.

If you have any questions, leave a comment.

Is no longer mine.  I pulled it out of the water this past Wednesday to ready it for the sale that took place on Thursday evening.  I didn’t sell my Garmin Color GPSMAP with the boat but instead put the old black and white unit back on.  This was the original GPS that came with the boat when I purchased it four years ago.  I also had to unload all of my stuff.  That took awhile, I didn’t realize how much I had on there.  It reallywas a great boat, never left me stranded.  We’ve had loads of fun on it and I think my daughter is a little upset that it’s gone.  But I think she’ll really like the Mako (the new one) once we get it in the water. 

This is my current boat, 1995 19’ Wahoo Center Console.  But, I sold it last Thursday!

Hopefully if everything goes well It will be gone this weekend.  So now I’m going to be without a boat.  But hopefully not for long.  Sunday I looked at a 2000 Mako 293 walk around.  It’s loaded!  It’s 30’ long, 9.5’ beam, twin 225HP Optimax outboards, AC/Heat, Kohler 4KW Generator, hot water heater, stove, refrigerator, forward berth and a midship berth.  And my wife's favorite part the full head and shower.  Here’s a few pics.

Offshore that is, not here in the Chesapeake.  Check out the new Photo Album Offshore July.

Not really, but Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP on June 30, 2008.  Microsoft plans to support Windows XP until 2014!  6 more years?  That should tell you how many people are willing to adopt Windows Vista.  I've been using Vista for my production laptop since it hit release candidate.  If you have 2GB of ram or more, it's not a problem.

I have a few more posts to make, but I've been busy at work and at home.  The virtualization project that I'm on is heating up and at home I've been fixing things (as usual) and getting ready for Offshore Fishing!  That's where I'd rather be, 50 miles off the beach in the Atlantic.

Teched is over, and I'm back at the office.  There are more pictures of Teched in my photo albums and I'm going to get more to post from others that were in our group.  I attended many sessions dedicated to virtualization, but you can only take so much of that at one time.  On Thursday I attended a session not on that topic which was "The Case of the Unexplained..." presented by Mark Russinovich.  If you don't know who Mark is, you might recognize WinInternals or SysInternals.  This was one of the best sessions I attended.  If you work primarily with Microsoft Products at the IT Pro level I highly recommend this conference.  This was my first time attending and I hope to get the opportunity to go back next year!

But what a long week.  After TechEd we drove down to Naples to stay with friends for the weekend.  After hanging out at the beach on Saturday I'm ready to pack everything up and move down there!  I can't think of one reason that I need to ever see another snow flake again.  Sunday morning we left Naples at 8am and drove back to Orlando.  After a short stop we arrived at the airport around noon just in time to return the rental.  Our flight boarded at 2:45 and we landed in Baltimore at 5:30.  BWI has the slowest baggage claim in the country! I didn't pull into the driveway until 7:00pm.  Monday was tough coming back to work, but it turned out to be worth it.  One of the funniest things was said in my cube, Nate said to Jeff "By The Way, the Vaseline worked perfectly!"  Of course it was totally out of context and Nate should have said... "Before I went running I put the vaseline on my toes to prevent blisters, and it worked perfectly".

I’ve been at Microsoft’s Teched conference since Monday in Orlando Florida.  It’s basically one of the largest geek gathering you’ll ever see.  As demonstrated in this picture, taken at the Kenote on Monday morning.  We couldn’t believe this guy actually packed these clothes to come to a conference.  The only thing that would have made it better was white socks with the sandals which is another popular “style” at teched.  

Last night we had an invite to a private party at the Glo Lounge.  It was a great time!  Free top shelf drinks, gourmet food and a fun magician. 

TeamMediaOnline can supply all of your hosting needs at a great price.  AND, they will donate 1$ to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for each month you are a subscriber.  As you may know my daughter Jordan has Cystic Fibrosis, and her cousin which also happens to be the CEO of TeamMediaOnline.  He has partnered with the CF Foundation to raise the needed funds to find a cure to this terrible disease.  So if you need a domain registered or a website, please visit TeamMediaOnline.com!

Next week I'll be attending Microsoft's Tech Ed for IT Professionals in Orlando.  This will be my first time at this conference and I'm actually looking forward to it.  I've wanted to attend this conference for many years now, but have never had the opportunity.  My session track will be geared toward virtualization which Microsoft is about to release their 1.0 version of Hyper-V.  I'm going to do my best not to come home like this guy!

Back in April we hosted Take Your Child to Work Day 2008! at our agency.  I was under the assumption that this was a career day that has activities to introduce young people to possible careers and public service.  I stand corrected.  We never received an Urgent Bulletin to let us know if the tapes were recovered or not.

Urgent Bulletin Notification‏

On Thursday, three (3) Disney Sing-a-long VHS tapes were placed on the TV stand in the Admin office. If you have taken them mistakenly, please bring to < admin person> immediately in the Admin office.  They are the < government building > Choir study material for Take Our Children to Work Day performance.

I've been so busy this spring I haven't had any time to devote to this blog I started last November!  So what have I been doing?  Fishing of course.  The highlight of this years Spring Rockfish Trophy Season was my daughter Jordan catching her first trophy striper!  It measured 38" and 21lbs.  Here are more pictures from Trophy season with a great bunch of friends.

This is probably my favorite time of year.  It's getting warmer, the gray drab views of winter are being replaced by green which happens to be my favorite color.  So what have I been doing? Anything that revolves around Fishing of course.  Before I took the cover off of the boat this year I decided to do a little cosmetic work to the console.  The bezel that houses the gauges and glove box was faded which gave it the old and worn appearance.  I taped everything and painted it with plastic spray paint from Home Depot.  It's outdoor paint marketed towards refinishing plastic outdoor furniture, we'll see how well it holds up this season.  The pictures look like the boats underwater since the boat was covered with a blue tarp.

Before, taped up, and After shots under the tarp
 

And here's a couple without the tarp
 

Once that was completed I headed back into the garage the next weekend to build a set of box shelves for my friend Leon's boat.  His boat is a center console too but much larger then mine.  Inside his console he has room for storage and a head.  The storage system he was using wasn't holding up too well.  Here's the finished product, he's since had them painted and they are installed.  I'll get a few pics next weekend when we're fishing!

The boat has been in the water for a couple weeks now and I've been fishing every chance I get.  This time of year the Susquehanna Flats are loaded with migratory Striped Bass, Catfish, White Perch, Shad and Herring.  I've been targeting stripers but have only been able to catch catfish.  Here's a big female channel catfish full of eggs that I caught & released Saturday evening.

 

And again, I'll try to post more frequently.  Seem that there are more and more people checking this blog out. 

 
I'm done with this weather, especially the WIND!  Not only has it caused me to miss 8 fishing trips this winter, it has destroyed 2 trampolines!  It seems that this one might be salvageable.  I'm thinking the only way I can get the wind to stop is buy a sailboat or install wind turbines to generate electricity!

Well it's in and full of clothes.  I learned a valuable lesson in geometry while trying to install the organizer.  I built it to  exact measurements, mainly because I'm a nut.  Since  the closet is narrower at the doorway than the back there wasn't any room to get it in.  SO I had to cut both pieces, put them in and put them back together.  Once painted and full of clothes you can't tell where it was cut.  Just need the Door and baseboard trim and I can cross this one off of my list.  Simple closet... Yeah!

I've been using Windows Vista since the day it was released, but I'm still learning new features about it all the time.  I came across these key shortcuts today and thought they were worth sharing. 

To access these shortcuts press the
Windows key + the appropriate letter.

1. Win + G  - Cycles the Gadgets selections.
2. Win + Spacebar  - Brings Gadgets to the front.
3. Win + X  - Cycles though the Mobility Center.
4. Win + Tab  - Activates Flip 3-D. 
5. Win + U  - Activates the Ease of Use Center.
6. Win + T  - Cycles through Taskbar Programs.
7. Win + D - Show Desktop
8. Win + M - Minimize windows
9. Win + L - Lock your computer
10. Win + F - Search for files

You might have noticed a beautiful young lady pictured on this site before, well she's my 13 year old daughter Jordan.  Unfortunately she was born with a horrible disease, Cystic Fibrosis.  Often referred to as CF it's an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide).  A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that at a minimum clogs the lungs that leads to life-threatening lung infections; and obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.  I can go on and on about the technical aspects of CF, but you can find more information at the CF Foundations web site. Jordan has the symptoms above along with other complications such as CF related Diabetes and CF related Liver Disease.

Every year our family runs a Great Strides walk to raise money for the CF Foundation.  This year is no different, and I'm asking everyone that I come in contact with to please donate to this very efficient foundation.  Nearly 90 cents on each dollar goes directly to research!  How many non-profit organizations can tout that?  Please click the "Click Here to Donate" on the home page.  Or, click HERE!  Every dollar counts! 

Thank You!

More insanity for your day. 

From:                     <Government Executive> 

To:                          <ALL>

Subject:                Cubicle Issue

Importance:        High

To all:

It has come to my attention that in the last month or so, on at least 2 occasions, someone has come into a few of the cubicles in the <division> area on the 2nd floor and sprayed some sort of cleaning agent.  It appears to be happening in the wee hours of the morning and when the employees in the area show up for work the smell is very strong and noxious.  The smell is that of a cleaning agent (not Bleach, Ammonia or Pine) and takes many hours to dissipate.  It also leaves shiny spots on the cubicle surfaces (like the desk, keyboard, etc).

If you have any information regarding these incidents, or have had your cubicle sprayed, please let me know asap.  Thanks.

<Government Executive>