Should I tell Microsoft about this problem?
Posted by Nick Harris on April 22, 2008
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I'm sure they would love to know...
Inbox 3.0 Now Available!
Posted by Nick Harris on April 21, 2008
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I'm a little late to my own party, but incase you missed it, Inbox 3.0 was officially released!
Newsgator Inbox 3.0 for Microsoft Outlook®
I'm still catching up from being a little under the weather, but hopefully I'll be able to get up some screen casts with how to use some of the new features of Inbox 3.0 very soon.
In the mean time, give it a spin!
Tweet Scan: Twitter Search in NewsGator Inbox 3.0
Posted by Nick Harris on April 11, 2008
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Nick Bradbury posted yesterday about how to add TweetScan into the list of search engines FeedDemon can create search feeds for. Inbox uses a very similar technique, so here's how you do this in Inbox:
1. Download this file (it has a different extension than the FeedDemon one) and save it in %programfiles%\NewsGator\Inbox\Data\Search
2. Go to NewsGator Inbox > Add Subscription, enter your keyword and click Next
3. On the next screen, at the bottom, you'll see where you can create a search feed using your term in any or all of the search engines in the drop down. TweetScan will now be listed.
4. Finish adding your new subscriptions as you would before.
You can actually do this with any fdsrch2 file that FeedDemon uses, but you'll have to change the extension to ngsrch. I'll make it compatible for either extension in the final release.
Spicy Stuffed Peppers
Posted by Nick Harris on April 8, 2008
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A group of us at work like to try making different recipes and bring the "experiments" in for lunch the next day. One of the recipes I've made has been a pretty consistent hit, and I often get asked for the recipe. So instead of writing it up again, I'll just post it here :-) This is the first recipe I've ever written up so I apologize for not knowing the amounts of some stuff.
Spicy Stuffed Peppers
- 1 big can of pre-made spaghetti sauce (I've used Kroger's, but I bet I could find something better at Whole Foods)
- 1 lb Spicy Italian Sausage
- 2 Jalapeno Peppers
- 2 Serrano Peppers
- 2 Cups Instant White Rice
- 8 Bell Peppers (I usually get a variety of colors)
- Grated Parmesan (about a cups worth I guess)
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese (enough to top eight peppers)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large sauce pan, brown the sausage until it is cooked through. While sausage is cooking, dice up the jalapeno and serrano peppers. Also cook the instant white rice in either the microwave or stove top. Once the sausage is cooked, add the spaghetti sauce, diced jalapeno / serrano peppers, and the white rice. Stir until mixed and simmer on low heat.
While sauce is simmering, cut open the tops of each of the 8 bell peppers removing the stems and empty out the seeds. Arrange them in a baking pan with the cut end up.
With the sauce, add the parmesan cheese. I usually just keep sprinkling cheese until the entire pan is white - I have no idea how much cheese that takes. Mix.
With a spoon, scope the sauce mixture into each of the bell peppers. I use a knife to really press it in. Once each pepper is filled, add a pinch of the shredded cheddar to the top of each pepper.
Cook in oven for 30-45 minutes or until cheddar is cheese is bubbling. Serve!
NewsGator Inbox 3.0 Release Candidate Now Available
Posted by Nick Harris on April 2, 2008
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NewsGator Inbox 3.0 Release Candidate is now available.
http://www.newsgator.com/download/NGInbox/NGInboxSetup.msi
Please report any issues in the forums.
Programmer Karma
Posted by Nick Harris on March 24, 2008
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Programmers have always had a great community of sharing ideas and solutions to problems. From BBS, to UseNet, to forums and blogs - there's long been a place to look for the solution to a problem you're trying to solve... or to post your solution to a problem you think others may face.
All good programmers inevitably face some situation that no one else has ever had to deal with. If you haven't, well, you're working on problems that already have a solution. Applications are built on the knowledge learned from others to create a new application that serves some new purpose.
My apps are no different. When I think something I've figured out could help someone else, I try to blog about it. It was one of my main reason for starting a blog, though I'll admit I've not done a great job at it.
Recently I tried another Outlook add-in (I won't say which since I didn't ask them if I could blog about it). The add-in was great! Outlook add-ins are not easy, so I used their feedback channel to give them some kudos.
My feedback resulted in a faltering "thank you" response. That prompted me to look a little further into this add-in. I read their release notes and noticed a bug they had that I had recently worked on myself... but I was selfish. I didn't want to get involved in the problems of someone else. After all, I have my own bugs to fix.
This weekend I got a very kind email from this add-in's developers asking me if I could answer a quick technical question. For some reason I set my selfishness aside and said yes.
It turns out that the bug they were working on uncovered some other bugs in Inbox 3 that I didn't know about... let alone would have even tried to test for!
The result was a page and a half email about how I plan to fix the issue. I don't know if it will help them (I hope it does!) but Inbox 3.0 will be a better product in the end.
The lesson I learned was not to be so selfish. I've learned so much, and have built my own success, off of the solutions others have found. For me to not give back whenever I can is just plain wrong.
NewsGator Daily - Why aren't you reading it?
Posted by Nick Harris on March 19, 2008
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If you're not subscribed to the NewsGator Daily blog, you should be! Leland has been on a roll with some fantastic posts!
Check out some of his recent ones:
Can Reporters and Journalists Be Bloggers, Too?
Free RSS Readers, the Future of the Twittersphere and the River of News
Beatles Come Together on iTunes -- Or Do They?
Headache Music
Is Intuitive Technology a Crock?
He's also the great interviewer who does the NewsGator Podcasts blog.
Leland was one of the first people I met when I joined NewsGator. He's a walking encyclopedia. There's never a dull conversation.
I hope he'll post more on NewsGator Daily about some of his past lives - his story is pretty amazing. But if he doesn't, you can catch his thoughts on his own blog Jukebox In My Head.
Leland is one of those rare treasures that a company gets out of pure luck - read his posts and listen to his podcasts... I think you'll agree!
NewsGator Inbox 3.0 Beta 3 Available
Posted by Nick Harris on March 19, 2008
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NewsGator Inbox 3.0 Beta 3 is now available.
http://www.newsgator.com/download/NGInbox/NGInboxSetup.msi
Lots and lots of bug fixes, so please upgrade!
Please report any issues in the forums.
NewsGator Toolbar Update (1.5.3.233)
Posted by Nick Harris on February 26, 2008
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If you use the NewsGator Toolbar, there's an update available:
http://www.newsgator.com/download/toolbar/ngtoolbarsetup.exe
No new features, just a slew of bug fixes.
We've had one report that the FireFox toolbar is not compatible with FireFox 3.0 Beta 3. Since FireFox 3 is still in beta, it's not officially supported so it may not work. When FF 3.0 moves to a release candidate, we'll start fully testing with it to make sure everything is working correctly.
If you happen to be one of our enterprise customers reading this, please ask your NewsGator contact about using this new version.
Almost Three Weeks of Twittering - otherwise known as... well... lets call it "venting"
Posted by Nick Harris on February 25, 2008
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I've now been twittering for almost three weeks (you can follow me @nick_harris) and I gotta say I've been enjoying it.
Unlike NickB's first experience with twitter, I decided (as NickB puts it) "to follow friends, co-workers, developers, and a random assortment of people I've met (online or otherwise)" right from the start. Making fun of how long NickB takes to do his hair is just plain fun :-)
But I think the thing I like the most is "venting" about my coding frustrations. A part of my personality likes to "vent".
Apparently everyone I follow seems to enjoy "venting" as well. From the people I follow I've learned that United Airlines, passwords only known by one person, paypal emails, Flash updates, gas prices, Oscar winners, NetFlix, PayPal emails, kid birthday parties, digital camera battery chargers, rainy days, politics, NVidia drivers and wet socks (among many, many other things - only went back 5 days) give others the need to "vent" as well.
Twitter's tag is "What are you doing?". Maybe they should change that to "What are you bitching about?" :-) Oh well, it is fun. A nice outlet and comforting to know I'm not the only one annoyed by the little things in life!
Not to say that it's all bitching though - there's a lot of cool thing as well. Like people launching sarcastic web sites!
PS:
Going back through my online twitter account made me realize how many tweets I miss through Twitterific. I'm sure that's by design, but still some good stuff in there. Wonder how I could get those... oh yeah... the RSS Feed :-) (fitting that my post about bitching ends with me bitching)
