The Eric Wroolie Blog

Overpass Experiences

Windows Mobile Device Center on Vista

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Okay. I know everyone warns you about adopting a platform too early, but the official release of Vista is out now, so I thought I’d get a head start on using it. I love the new interface and, although it takes some getting used to, it is much nicer than XP.

Still, I guess I am an early adopter even though it is a release. Some apps don’t work very well (like CNN pipeline). In the past five days, I’ve bluescreened twice.

The biggest problem I’ve had is with syncing my pocket pc with office. Vista doesn’t support ActiveSync but instead uses a new program called Window Mobile Device Center.

WMDC is not part of Vista yet. You have to download WMDC and install it. It is in Beta 3 now. I installed it last week and couldn’t get it working until this morning. In the end, I uninstalled, rebooted, and reinstalled again. I actually reinstalled several times–I don’t know what was different the last time.

I’ve come to rely on my pocket pc. I’m writing this blog post with it. So I was really upset with not being able to use it for anything but music for an entire week.

If you are a PPC user, you may want to check on the final release date for WMDC before upgrading–either that or be prepared to watch that installation progress bar over and over.

You’ve been warned.

DasBlog with Word 2007

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I’ve been using the Beta of Windows Live Writer for blogging recently, and it works great. However, now that I’m a Vista/Office 2007 convert, I see no reason to use this tool when Word 2007 has blogging tools built in.

The big problem for the last few weeks has been Word 2007 doesn’t support the DasBlog engine. All Google searches led me to this conclusion. But, I finally got it working with images! It’s not as straight forward as using WLW, but here is how it’s done:

  1. Open Word 2007 and select Blog Post.
  2. Open the Manage Accounts button in the Blog section of the toolbar. And click “New”.
  3. Under Blog Account, select “Other” and then click “Next”.
  4. For the API, select MetaWebLog. For the URL, use your domain plus blogger.aspx. The Account information is your normal blogger login and password.

For Picture Options, use an FTP account as “My Own Server”. You will have to set this up as you did with WLW. You could put your username and password in the FTP url, otherwise you will be prompted for it the first time you post.

Now you should be able to post from Word 2007.

Jubilee Line in the Morning

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Okay. The morning commute is starting to get to me. The First Great Western train is okay. The Bakerloo line is okay. But there is something strange about the Jubilee Line. . .

Yesterday morning, as a stand on a severely overcrowded train with my face in a man’s armpit, I watched a guy in a camouflage coat and mesh camouflage cap being annoyed with a fully-suited banker and they bump into each other each time the train rocks. I had never seen anyone where camouflage in London (aside from the military)?which he definitely wasn’t (blue jeans and curly blond hair). I wonder if he was going hunting at some far outskirt of the tube line.

In the corner of my eye, I can see a man standing next to me reading and . . . trying to get something out of his nose. This turns my stomach like nothing else. He uses his knuckle and tries to be sly about it, but I’m trying with all my might to focus my attention away from him. Suddenly I start thinking about the yellow bar above my head that I’m clinging to and wonder how much this guy’s hands have been on it. Then I wonder what other germs are on this train.

Soon, I can’t stop thinking about germs and the nose guy. I put my gloves on. I start thinking about the people you always see in Asia with the doctor’s masks out in public and how excessive it seems. I wish I had one of those. I also wonder how long I can keep up with the gloves on the tube without it starting to look weird.

I suppose I have a choice, leave the commuting lifestyle or join the ranks of the grey-haired, scowling, old men reading the FT and resigned to the fact that delays, crowds, and nose pickers are a fact of life.