Greg Kniffin's Blog

Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 Review

2011-01-31T09:34:00.000-08:00

I recently picked up the Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 on Amazon, so I thought I would give a quick review.

I primarily picked up the keyboard to use with my MacBook Pro. I originally picked up the MacBook to learn about developing an iPhone app, but I also dual boot to Windows 7 for my normal day-to-day operations and development. I began to really dislike the lack of keys on the MacBook from a Microsoft developers perspective. The multi-key pressing for things like Home, End, Pg Up/Down really started to annoy me, so I decided to get a Bluetooth keyboard. I wanted to go with a Bluetooth keyboard so I could use the keyboard at a distance easily while connecting the laptop to my television.

Pros
The keyboard is small and light-weight and easily transportable. It fits very nicely into my backpack for traveling to and from home and work, to the library, user groups, or the occasional trip to the coffee house. The nice curvature of the keyboard makes long typing sessions tolerable, and the keyboard has more keys making development easier. The weight and spring of the keys is very nice, but honestly the same could be said for the MacBook's keys as well. The range of the keyboard is extremely nice and allows me to control the laptop while lounging on the couch or across the room.

Cons
The keyboard still lacks dedicated keys for Home and End, but I am adjusting to the multi-key pressing required to achieve the desired navigation in source code. To extend the battery life of the keyboard, it will go to "sleep" after a few minutes of non-use, and there is a noticeable delay when the keyboard "awakes".

Overall, the functionality of the keyboard has been satisfactory, and it has been a great addition to my setup.

Review: Microsoft Laser Mouse 8000

2007-03-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

I typically don't get overly excited about peripherals, but I do set high standards when it comes to keyboards and mice. The reason for this is simple: if I am to spend the majority of my day in front of a computer, you better believe I will be doing this with a keyboard and mouse of my choice. Many people live with the standard 2 or 3 button mouse that comes with their system, but for more advanced users this is simply not an option.

While I never found it difficult to find a keyboard I felt comfortable with, the perfect mouse proved to be very difficult to find. Perhaps it was because the mouse of my choice would feature: wireless connectivity (preferably Bluetooth®), 5 buttons, good precision, and decent battery life. One would think that these features would not be difficult to find, but to my surprise it was! These combined features were often present in the notebook-variety mice, but not in a desktop/full-sized version.

After trying many other products from Logitech, I finally found what I was looking for in a new product from Microsoft: Wireless Laser Mouse 8000. I have been using this mouse for the past few months and I must say that it has exceeded my expectations.

This mouse features High Definition Laser Technology, 4-way scrolling, battery life indicator, and best of all it's rechargeable. The battery life is excellent and I generally only have to recharge about once a week. The only downside is Microsoft made this mouse to be utilized by either hand (great for lefties), but I have found that the right side button to be less useful in that location. Previous products that I have owned from Microsoft featured the 2 extra buttons on the left side where they could easily be triggered with the thumb. The cost is between $80-90 which is about what you can expect to pay for similar products from any of the major manufacturers.

If you are in the market for a new mouse or looking to up your productivity by introducing a 5 button mouse to your list of peripherals, then be sure to check out Microsoft's Wireless Laser Mouse 8000.

Microsoft launches On10.net

2006-09-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

Microsoft recently launched a new website On10.net. On 10 is website for people with a passion for technology. The website is very Web 2.0-ish and sports a cool, clean, and fresh design. It appears the site is utilizing a bit of Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit formerly known as "ATLAS" so head on over to On10.net and check it out.

tags: On10.net, Web+2.0, ATLAS, ASP.NET+2.0

Segoe UI and IE7 feeds

2006-09-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

About mid-way through the day I began noticing that the feeds I read in IE7 suddenly looked different - the items were all listed in a new font. So I pull up the DOM explorer using the DevToolbar for IE and use the Find > Select Element By Click feature and lo and behold all items were using Segoe UI font.

A quick Wikipedia search reveals that Segoe UI is one of the new fonts in Windows Vista. Not that I mind the fresh look, but I sure would like to know how it got changed.

tags: IE7, fonts, Segoe+UI

RSS Feed Readin' - IE7 is king

2006-09-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Between all the browsers that I've tried (Firefox, Opera, and IE7) and all the feed readers I've tried out (including Outlook 2007 RSS) nothing beats the simplicity and ease of reading feeds of IE7.

Most, if not all others that I have seen, utilize some type of split screen much like you would see in Outlook, Thunderbird, etc. Perhaps it's the familiarity of reading messages like this that makes everyone build their feed reader like that, but give it up to IE7 for thinking out of the box first for a change.

Now, there are several improvements that I would suggest IE7 implement, but for the most part, I am completely satisfied with the speed and ease that I can comb through the feeds that I have subscribed to. And the real benefit is in efficiency as I can with a single click read all the new items from a single feed - none of this split screen click for each item nonsense.

If I had a single suggestion to make, it would be to include an index at the top of the feed with the headlines from each post, and clicking the title would take you to the desired item. This would easily allow me to comb over the headlines of a feed without having to scroll. This is the only advantage I see over the current split screen readers out there today. Including that type of feature in IE7's reader would make it that much more attractive.

tags: IE7, RSS

New Look

2006-08-30T06:29:00.000-07:00

I decided to give this blog a new look and applied a different template. I also wanted to try out the new "Insert Tags" feature of Windows Live Writer. Actually, it is a plugin for Windows Live Writer I found on CodePlex called Tag4Writer

I haven't given up on creating my own blog and hosting it, but I really haven't had the time to get back to that yet either. So in the mean time, enjoy the new look.

tags: blogger, life, windows+live+writer, codeplex, tag4writer

Caps Lock? NumLock? F-Keys? WTP?

2006-08-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a few blogs (here and here) about useless keys on the keyboard. Heck, they even have a campaign dedicated to removing the CAPS LOCK key from the keyboard:

http://capsoff.org/ (Main Site)

http://capsoff.blogspot.com/ (Blog)

http://anticapslock.com/ (Early campaign against CAPS LOCK)

To all of this I say: "What's the Point?" Well, the point is that the modern keyboard is an outdated, and is desperate need of a total overhaul.

To bring the keyboard up to speed, it needs a fresh new design that takes modern and future uses into consideration. Did you know that the QWERTY keyboard is based off of earlier typewriters? Surely you do. But did you know that the QWERTY layout was introduced in the 1860s? But do you also know the reason why the keys are arranged in this fashion that can still be found in keyboards today was arrange keys in a way to alternate keystrokes to avoid jams?

And we still use this design today! Can we not do better?

A few years ago, I started playing around with the Dvorak Keyboard Layout and what I found was that I experienced less fatigue and straining.

In this generation of innovation and technology, don't we owe it to ourselves to explore better designs for one of our main input devices?

I think we should stop complaining about useless keys and step back and look at the broader picture. Why waste time and effort in moving a key or two when the entire keyboard needs an overhaul?

How to Use Notepad to Create a Log File

2006-08-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

If you have ever wanted to create and maintain a simple log file, then you need to know about this nifty trick to creating a simple log file in Windows.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260563

This nugget has been out there a long while and recently has been making it's way around the blogs and social networks, but I really didn't use it until lately and that is why I am sharing it with you now.

Tags in Outlook?

2006-08-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

Taglocity is a tool for Outlook 2003 that allows you to tag messages in Outlook. Unless you've lived under a rock for the last year or so, or perhaps you don't visit too many social networking sites, whatever the case, tags or tagging are ways to organize information. While I have not tested the product, I like the concept, and it is a bit familiar...oh yeah, sounds oddly close to the concepts of labels in GMail!

Okay, Okay, it's not the same - personally I think GMail should change the term "label" to "tag" to better align itself with the mainstream social networks.

Back to the topic...Tags in Outlook is a fantastic way to better organize information. Too many times, I see upper level management (and really anyone with too much email) struggle to stay on top of important messages. In many cases, I try to let these people in on a little secret (it's not so secret!) called Search Folders. Search folders isn't so much about organizing messages as it is finding messages. Combine search folders with tagging and I can see mailbox organization come back to the norm for most people.

Okay, now I have convinced myself to try out the add-in...I'll let you know how it goes.

Windows Live Writer (Beta)

2006-08-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

The bloglines are buzzing with the recent release of Windows Live Writer (Beta) so I decided to try it out myself. You can download the writer directly from here.

At first glance it looks and feels very cool. This post is coming to you from the writer. It has a lot of tools that you may or may not have depending on your blog service, and it is really easy to use. It has a really cool mash-up with Microsoft's Virtural Earth, allowing you to insert a map with a few quick clicks.

I'll be trying it out over the next few weeks and let you know what I think.

Windows Live Writer (beta) Download - writer.msi

Click-density website heat map

2006-08-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

I ran across this nugget on Lifehacker.com. After spending several sessions at Search Engine Strategies 2006 San Jose on site architecture, usability, and site design, I thought this was a great addition to any webmaster toolkit - especially while doing any type of usability testing of a website.

Click-density web site heat map

SES 2006 San Jose - Day 3

2006-08-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't get to post anything yesterday, but I crashed after the Google Dance (more on this later). Day 3 of the conference was good, and we started off with a conversation with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. You can find links to that conversation anywhere on the net, so just search for it.

Session 1 was on Linking strategies from which I was able to take away quite a bit of information, especially from Eric Ward. Session 2 was a bit less informational for me, primarily because personally I'm not too interested in buying or selling links, but again good content. For the third session I decided not to stick to the fundamentals track, and went to the "Usability & SEO: Two Wins for the Price of One" which was great. Some of the main concepts that I try to pass on to developers and continue to improve upon in my own coding is the usability of a website. I'm always looking for ways to improve, and this session gave me some great ideas. In the fundamentals track there was no late afternoon session, so I headed over to the "Pimp My Site!" session. The information here was presented in a case study-like fashion, and while the information was good the main attraction was the wack outfits that the presenters wore. I'll post these pictures and the rest of my photos from SES (including Google Dance photos) in the next few days.

Search Engine Strategies 2006 - San Jose

2006-08-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

Day 1

The day started off overcast as chilly (relative to Texas) as I started out heading to the Convention Center here in downtown San Jose. It's about a 4 minute walk from my hotel (pictured left) and as I approach the convention center, I noticed a few people snapping some photos of the main sign just outside the convention center. As I approach the sign, I just start to laugh as the sign is running some version of Windows and has some sort of error or dialog box prominently displayed over the rotating banner. You can't really make out what the dialog box says, but it reminds me of the recent Microsoft blunder encountered during the speech recognition presentation. Of course it was no longer visible when I checked at lunch, but I still enjoyed the laugh early in the morning.

Being new to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), I've found that Search Engine Marketing is enormous. While this is true, I was reassured that when it comes to good web site design, the basics still matter. That is, when it comes to organic listings and search engine friendly design, good site design is important and really hasn’t changed that much when it comes to things like links, title tags, layout, and general design concepts that I have been accustomed to for some time now.

The conference offers several tracks to choose from. Being green in SEO, I decided to stay with the basics and choose to attend the Fundamentals track for the entire day. Looking at the rest the schedule for the week, this is the track for me as it covers the basics and touches on the topics that I was primarily interested in to begin with. Today, we covered basic Search Engine Marketing, Search Term Research & Targeting, Search Engine Friendly Desgin, and Search Advertising 101. It was all good information for me, and I am looking forward to the topics covered tomorrow in the fundamentals track. You can read more about the conference at: http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/summer06/

As for the nightly events, I already plan to attend the Google Dance tomorrow (Tuesday) night, and I’m looking for more information regarding the Yahoo party that is rumored to take place tonight. I’ll try to take several photos and get them posted ASAP - as soon as I finish this last sudoku puzzle!

Media Swamp giving away iPod nano

2006-07-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

As a frequent visitor and registered member of Media Swamp, I enjoy listening to several of shows so I thought I would share this site with you all. Plus, if you register with the site, you will be entered in the Aug 15th drawing for an iPod nano.

The shows vary widely in scope and cover a variety of hot topics in several industries. Straight from the horse's mouth:

Media Swamp features original and syndicated podcasts and vodcasts focusing on Web 2.0, search marketing, web design, social networking, web development, politics, religion or clean houses. Whether you're looking for info on search engines, Microsoft or Apple development, podcasting, rss feeds, ajax, .NET, Cocoa, blogging, social networking, how to keep your house healthy and happy or even the separation of church and state, you'll find it here at Media Swamp. We are currently developing shows on Linux (LASP), Multiplatform development with Realbasic, along with shows dealing with Legal and Technical issues. Our show list is growing – and soon we’ll be covering many more listener-targeted subjects.

Good Software Developers

2006-07-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

Found this nugget on MSDN Blogs yesterday where Eldar Musayev blogs about his thoughts on being a good software developer:

Random Thoughts and Hints on Software Development

The article does a nice of summarizing what I am trying to infuse onto the developers in my training sessions. One particular section touched on learning, here's an excerpt:

"This is a profession where you have to learn, learn, learn without any breaks forever."

I can't say enough about the above statement. If I want to be a good software developer, I need to stay on top or ahead of trends and technology. I do this by reading blogs, books, websites, examples, etc. There's no slowing down, as it is a constant battle of trying to stay on top of the wave (think of surfing) because if you don't you will wash out and could drown if you are not careful.

Motivating Your Geeks

2006-07-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

I ran across this article while browsing on Lifehacker.com posted on The Retrospector.com entitled: Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks. Wow, this list certainly describes the things that motivate me!

While I won't detail each of the top 10, I will say that I am fortunate to work for a company that provides me with the proper level of motivation - of course, it is human nature to always want more, however. Having the right level of motivation certainly helps me come to work early every day, sometimes leave late, and do work when I get home. If I am not learning and growing in the areas that I want to grow in, then I certainly would not be motivated to spend the time I do working.

Windows Vista Build 5472

2006-07-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

The latest build of Vista, 5472, is reportedly faster than previous builds. I've been in the Vista beta program for some time now and I have a spare machine that I rebuild to test out the latest features and functionality of Vista. One of my biggest complaints had been the speed of nearly everything. Now that this latest build is said to be faster, I think it's time for a rebuild.

I'm also going to rebuild my wife's laptop with this build. She's been complaining about the speed/responsiveness of the laptop (running Windows XP Professional) for some time now. I think it's just a matter of rebuilding that machine and since Vista is a good option, I'm inclined to have her test it out.

Personally, I really want to know what she thinks of all those dialog boxes asking her to confirm her actions. I could have swore the other day one asked me if I was sure I wanted to get up and use the bathroom. Okay, so it's not that bad, but it's not good either. And it's not going to be good for people who don't speak geek.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

DIY: Wiring your house for VOIP

2006-07-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I moved to VOIP and canned my regular phone service. As a result, my home alarm system and DirectTivo unit stopped functioning. Although I knew about the possible impact of switching, I knew that switching to VOIP would cut my phone bill by over 50% (once you add in the taxes & fees) - and to me this was certainly worth the inconvenience. However, before switching, I called my alarm company and verified that the system would work over VOIP and they assured me that it would.

With that in mind, I knew I had a task ahead of me which was to re-wire my house to utilize VOIP instead of the traditional land line that ran to my house. After putting it off for several months, my wife finally convinced me that it was in my best interest to get the alarm working again.

Before switching to VOIP, I did a lot of research to determine what systems would or would not function with VOIP, and I came across an article written just for me (so it seemed at the time). Now this article is the top return when searching Google for "VOIP wiring" or anything close to that. The article covers a lot of different scenarios and details the necessary steps and precautions for wiring your home for VOIP: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html. The article's design isn't much to speak about, but the content certainly is!

Before beginning:
I certainly recommend reading the article mentioned above, and based on that article, I stopped by my local Radioshack and picked up a couple 4-packs of these Telephone wire splice connectors. I also drew a detailed diagram of my existing configuration in my Network Interface Unit (NIU) outside of my house. Then I studied the Distribution Diagram and planned out my potential wiring configuration.

Fortunately, my house is new and the wiring was Cat-5 and not overly complex - this helped cement my decision to do the work myself rather than calling in a specialist. Besides the connectors, I also had a variety of electrical tools at my disposal, however, I really only needed a pair of needle-nosed pliers and a screwdriver to open the NIU. With everything in place I was ready to begin.

The re-wire
My first task was to identify which of the five pairs belonged to the cat-5 that ran to the office jack where I was planning to connect the VOIP adapter. One of the pairs I easily identified as the alarm system as it was using a different pair from the rest of the bunch. Now I had to choose between the four remaining pairs. Since the existing wiring job wouldn't fit my new solution, I carefully clipped the existing splice connectors and prepared the first pair to test. I plugged in the VOIP adapter directly into the jack knowing that if I connected the right pair in the NIU I would get a dial tone. I was lucky enough to find the right pair on the first try.

Once I located the correct pair, I was able to re-wire the pairs according to my plan based on the diagram in the article mentioned above. Once the splice connectors were in place, I returned to the house to test one of the jacks inside the house. Voila! Working perfectly.

The wrap-up
Once I tested all the jacks in the house and verified they worked as intended, I returned to the NIU to carefully pack the wires and pairs back into the box and buttoned it up.

Finally, I reconnected the alarm system and performed a test successfully. Now both my wife and I are happy: she's happy because she got what she wanted, and I'm happy because she's not making me unhappy. Having accomplished this task spurred me to complete several items on the "honey-do" list which further increased my wife's happiness.

IE7 Beta 3

2006-06-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Just got the latest release of IE7: Beta 3, and while there have been some improvements, there are still many to be made.

The install went well for a change. I did uninstall the previous version first as recommended, and I also exported my favorites and settings just in case. When loading the browser for the first time, I did have to specify my phishing filter settings and such, but at least it remembered my favorites, feeds, and Add-ons.

I am very thankful that you can finally rearrange tabs - something that was getting on my nerves in Beta 2. But there is still a lack of start-up tabs group. Also, it would be a nice feature for the search bar to list the search words that would perform a find much like the Google Toolbar does now.

Still, I think the IE7 team has much ground to gain in terms of allowing customization of the browser (skins, themes, etc.), but in the meantime, I'll continue to make suggestions and offer feedback as the team works on adding more to the browser.

DIY Projects and Nifty ways to use Altoids tins

2006-06-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Although I don't watch as much TV today as I used to, I still enjoy watching DIY programs (or any program where they make something great really) from time to time. With Microsoft's release of the Robotics Studio CTP, I think now is a good time for me to step into the world of robotics.

This post isn't about the Robotics Studio CTP, or robotics specifically. Instead this post is about sharing a particular website that I discovered a few months ago. The website is MAKE Magazine and I've been reading the site feed daily and I'm always amazed about the things people create out of nothing.

Lately, I've been noticing a great many projects that make use out of those old ALTOIDS tins of varying sizes: things from portable iPod chargers to wifi locators. But there are so many great projects and ideas coming from this site making it a great addition to my Daily Feeds line-up.

Microsoft Robotics Studio CTP

2006-06-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Robotics Group has announce their first product offering Microsoft Robotics Studio CTP. Personally, I've always wanted to get into robotics and learn the ins-and-outs of programming and building these mechanical creatures. Perhaps this is a sign for me letting me know now is a good time to do so. This information courteous of Bink.nu

Been Busy...

2006-06-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping busy lately and haven't had much of a chance to blog a whole bunch. Between reading all the news coming out of TechEd 2006 and working on my site redesign, I'm having a hard time squeezing in some blog posts. However, I'm nearly done with the new site design, and I'm working on securing a good hosting provider (that supports SQLExpress), so I'll be able to get back to blogging in short order.

Microsoft's Windows Vista Top Download

2006-06-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

According to Bink.nu Vista Beta 2 is the largest software download in history. I find that bit of information to be simply amazing but then again I'm not surprised. Makes you wonder if all those Microsoft haters out there are really haters or merely hypocrites.

I've been running beta versions of Vista on a spare machine for a few months now, and I'm fairly impressed with the OS. Sure, there are things to work out, performance issues, and the like, but overall, I've found the OS to be stable on a low-mid grade PC: 2.6GHz P4, 512MB RAM. Since I've been in beta for a few months, I've had the opportunity to install the different builds, and the installation process is fairly smooth.

Vista is a beautiful OS - very aesthetically pleasing. This factor alone makes you forget about the performance issues and the secure feature that I like to call: that-annoying-little-dialog-box-that-prompts-me-every-damn-time-to-continue.

I still think that sometimes the OS presents too much information for the average user. For the heavy PC user this isn't a problem, but for the average home user it will be: picture members of your family calling you every time they get a dialog box and don't know what to do.

Vista requires some serious hardware to run with all the bells and whistles, and Microsoft has a tool you can use to evaluate your machine to see if it can handle Vista found here. If you're looking to dual-boot XP and Vista, Lifehacker had an article on just that here.

See Windows Vista

2006-06-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Very cool look inside what Vista is capable of:

http://www.seewindowsvista.com/

Microsoft shows off JPEG rival - WMP

2006-05-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

If it is up to Microsoft, the omnipresent JPEG image format will be replaced by Windows Media Photo.

read more | digg story

Direct link here.

Sounds promising. I take anywhere from 100 to 200 photos each month as a proud father of our sound who just turned one this month. The photos are taken with a Cybershot DSC-P150 7.1 MegaPixel camera producing a 2-4 MB file. Preserving high-quality digital photos is very important to me, but it has been chaos trying to organize and store these photos. This new format will fix the second problem, but I'm still searching for a tool to help me with the first one.

Currently, I use Picasa 2 from Google, and upload these photos to HP's Snapfish for printing and sharing.

I'm interested in putting these all on my website (soon to be relaunched) as I would have greater control over access and tracking, but I would still be interested in a way to order these photos from Snapfish or another provider. Snapfish and other similar providers produce high-quality photos (assuming you started with a good resolution to begin with) at anywhere from 10-12¢ per photo - which realistically beats buying the paper, ink, and spending the time to print the photos out at home. Once I conquer that mountain, I'll be set.