I always store my documents and media files on a separate disk/partition from my system files and by default Vista only indexes the User folders for its fast search service.

Originally I expected that I would be able to right-click on any folder and indicate that it should be indexed in the properties dialog or something.  That's not the case though.

To add a folder to the index you have to go into the Control Panel, search for "index", and then open up the Indexing Options dialog.  Once in there click "Modify", then "Show all locations", then accept the UAC prompt and you're finally there.  Now you're able to select any folders to be indexed from the folder tree.

Maybe there is an easier way?  I haven't found it yet...

I figured this one out via this post on Mitch Denny's blog.  To be able to install the Web Application Projects add-in for Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista Beta 2 or 5536 you need to run the installer as an administrator. 

The easiest way to do this is to hit the windows key, type command, right-click on Command Prompt at the top of the list, and select Run as administrator.  This will launch the command prompt, then all you have to do is run the installer from this command window and the administrator privileges will be granted to the WAP installer.

As a side note, I am loving Vista's instant search that occurs when you hit the windows key.  I have been using it as an application launcher for the last couple of days.

 

It is just a coincidence that I was able to buy these two lenses in the same week . . . I definitely will be waiting a while to buy more.  The lens that arrived today is a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L.  I have been waiting a long time to get a telephoto zoom lens and this one should not disappoint.

Being able to shoot in low light situations is important to me, which is why I chose to go with the f/2.8 instead of the f/4 which is half the price.  Tonight I went out and took many shots around dusk on a cloudy day and most of them were taken at f/2.8 or f/3.5 with a 1/320 sec. shutter speed.  With a 200mm lens and a 1.6x crop factor, 1/320 is cutting it close.  If I didn't have the f/2.8 I would have had to bump the ISO way up.

 

Today my Canon 50mm f/1.8 II arrived!  This lens is commonly known as the "thrifty fifty" and comes highly recommended.  Because of the low price tag and the superb optics this lens is a must have for Canon photographers.  The lens only costs $70-80, yet the sharpness rivals some of the L series glass. 

I am really looking forward to having an f/1.8 lens so I can use natural lighting (no flash) as much as possible.  Even indoors in a poorly lit room I have been able to get some really sharp shots with this lens.  If you haven't heard of the "thrifty fifty" before I would recommend you check into it. 

One thing I will have to adjust to is the fixed focal length.  The fixed focal length is what gives the lens such great sharpness and large aperture.  The downside of fixed focal length lenses is that you actually have to physically move your camera/body in order to change the shot instead of just being able to zoom in and out.

 

 

Today I came across an excellent list of VSTS add-ons/add-ins/widgets/clients/etc. The list can be found at http://teamsystemexperts.com/widgets.aspx.

One of the more interesting sections in the list is the list of additional clients that are available for the Team Foundation Server source control repository. The list includes integrated clients for Visual Studio .Net 2003, Eclipse, SQL Server Management Studio, and there is even a Tortoise client. Tortoise source control clients are shell extensions that fit seamlessly into Windows Explorer and is my favorite way to work with cvs and subversion repositories.

Also in the list of utilities is the Team Foundation PowerToys. The PowerToys add some additional capabilities to VSTS that did not ship with the initial release. Added functionality includes things like Unshelve + Merge, Rollbacks, Undo Unchanged, and Get Changeset. The PowerToys were written by a Microsoft dev but are not officially supported by Microsoft.

If you are using Visual Studio Team System I highly recommend checking out this list of add-ons. There are many more tools on the site that I didn't highlight here including tools for Continuous Integration and MSBuild.

It was this post by Paul Stamatiou that inspired me to redesign my site. I had actually been working on it for a while, but I liked his new design so much that inspired me to create one of my own. If you compare our two sites you'll notice how mine was influenced by his. Like Paul I was also inspired by the following . . . Cameron Olthuis, 43folders, Vague Dream, and 37signals.

For the first time I have completely customized just about everything in the site design, and you probably can not even tell by the layout that I'm using dasblog as my underlying blogging engine. ericappel.net now has a much clearer focus and purpose. It highlights the things in my tech and development life that are important to me, as well as my photography.

In the top right corner of the site you will see the latest five photos from my "Highlights" set on flickr. I decided to move the search box to the archives page, so if you are looking for a certain post, that will be your best bet. In the future I would like to create a custom projects page to highlight my projects in a more structured way. Future enhancements may also include a cleaner looking archives page, a site dashboard, and a redesigned side nav bar with additional content.

Flickr Sprinklr is an asp.net app I wrote to allow Flickr users to quickly add their photos to multiple groups. Flickr users often submit photos to 20 or more different groups, and the interface in Flickr currently requires you to submit a photo to each group one at a time. Sprinklr loads all of a user's groups into a table and then allows them to check off checkboxes for each group they would like to submit the photo to. If you save the Sprinklr Boomarklet to your browser's Links bar (Internet Explorer) or Bookmark Toolbar (Firefox) and then browse to any of your photos on Flickr, when you click the bookmarklet it will take you to the photo on Sprinklr so you can add it to groups.  If you hover over any of the group descriptions, Sprinklr will display a tooltip showing the group’s description so you can quickly see the rules for posting in each group.  To use Groupr you must of course have a Flickr account, and belonging to some groups helps as well.

Sprinklr has been linked to by the Great Flickr Tools Collection

It has always bothered me that the makers of my Toshiba Satellite laptop thought it was a good idea to put the `~ key where the Windows key belongs on my keyboard. The Windows Key Shortcuts are some of my favorite shortcuts in Windows. Toshiba's placement of the Windows key in the upper right corner of the keyboard severely limited my access to the key. Enter RandyRants' SharpKeys. SharpKeys allows me to easily remap the Windows key to be where it should be. I simply remapped the `~ key to be the Windows key and the Windows key to be the `~ key. Now I have easy access to all of my Windows key shortcuts again. If you care to know, SharpKeys works by adding specific registry entries in Windows to indicate what keys need to be remapped.

UPDATE: I also want to add that SharpKeys is not specific to Toshiba laptops. It is able to remap keys for any Windows keyboard.