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My MVP Award just arrived!

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I was happy to take a break from some stone-laying that I was involved with today in order to sign for a package from DHL.  Ah, this must be the “gift” that Microsoft was sending me!  

I was totally unsure what the gift would actually be, so it would be fair to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that Microsoft had sent me some very high quality items.

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When I first opened the package, I was greeted with a nicely pre-mounted paper Award Certificate sitting on top of the interior box. 

The Award Certificate is mounted on a backerboard that has the pre-punched swing-out stand for display on desk or fireplace mantle, and another swing-out clasp for hanging on a wall.  Very Nice!

Once I removed this award, the box below (a box within a box) became evident, and it obvious that there was a very weighty item within.

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Extracting the large gift-box within my award package, I found that it wasn’t really a box, but rather one of those 4-sided bands around top, bottom, front and back of a high-quality gift-box. 

The box was one of those impressive felt-interior boxes that the really prestigious awards come in.  It had a felt fabric latch with a pop-button at the end. Very impressive indeed.  And when you opened it, you are greeted with a very impressive etched lead crystal award.

DSCF0788The lead crystal award itself is composed of two panes of vertical crystal embedded in a thicker slab of crystal serving as the base of the award. 

The larger back pane of crystal contains an image of the world globe in the upper left corner. 

The smaller pane of crystal sits in the front, and contains the text: “We recognize and value your exceptional contributions and commitment to the technical communities worldwide.”

This award is very hefty, weighing the better part of four pounds!  However, I have to say that it is incredibly cool looking to say the least!

 

Also included in the package were a couple of other items befitting an awardee:

  • an MVP award card, which, when paired with the secret handshake and secret password, should get me into future MVP-related events.
  • an MVP lapel pin, so that I look even more cool at any swank business events. 

Very cool!   Thank you Microsoft!

 

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Newly released: GPS Tuner Version 5.4j

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Megalith Systems has just released version 5.4j of  GPS Tuner, their award winning “Off-road” GPS Navigation application.

This new version includes these new features:
– When installed on Magellan’s MobileMapper 6, it can take advantage of the special sensors (E-Compass, Temperature, Pressure) that this device contains.  Details can be found at: http://www.gpstuner.com/download/GPSTuner_v5_MM6.pdf
– When installed on an HTC Diamond/Touch Pro, it can take advantage of the sensors (Light Sensor for Day/Night mode, Nav Sensor for Zooming In/Out in Map Window or in Graphs).

For all other devices:
– Fullscreen display
– Long press of EXIT button can send GPS Tuner to background (minimize)
– Optimized display of tracks and routes on VGA devices

Check out the 2 week free trial at http://www.gpstuner.com/index.html

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Microsoft presents me with the 2009 Microsoft MVP Award!

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I was so totally surprised when I opened my e-mail this morning before heading off to work, and saw that Microsoft had written me to announce that they were presenting me with the 2009 Microsoft MVP Award in the “Windows Mobile Devices” category for all of my hard work helping-out at MobilitySite, the Microsoft Windows Mobile “Total Access” forums, and for my assistance helping out Megalith Systems (authors of GPS Tuner).

This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others.

 

Wow!   I’m honestly still in a state of shock (more than 12 hours later)…

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Received a 3-Red Rings on the XBox360

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Well, the Xbox360 failed to boot twice last night, but allowed us to watch one last DVD Xbox360_3Rings movie Saturday night.  But after that, dead.  And this time, instead of locking-up on a game, it is now displaying the 3-Red Rings problem that is more often the problem  experienced by the rest of the general public.  I’ll have to box it up and send it off to Microsoft to fix (glad I bought an extended warranty).  Microsoft says 2 to 3 weeks to fix.  That’s not bad, but since it was also our DVD player, we’ll have to go without our Games and Movies for almost a month. 

Hopefully it won’t really take that long.  Still…    Sigh…

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Busy, busy, busy!

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I’ve been reviewing a lot of different products lately, and I’m trying to put them together for formal publication.   

Here’s a partial list: Linksys WRVS4400N Business Router (Gigabit, Wireless “N”, built-in VPN Server), Linksys Wireless “N” Notebook Adapter card, Shavlik Technologies “NetChk Protect” update service, NOD32 AntiVirus 2.7, and Soti’s “Pocket Controller Professional”, and the MobileEdge “Men’s Backpack”.

Additionally, Jana will be producing a Product Review of the Tritton AX “Visor” Bluetooth Car Kit.   Hopefully we can get these all finished-up and posted soon!

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The new Linksys WRVS4400N is in place!

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I just hooked-up my new Linksys WRVS4400N Wireless N Router with VPN server built-in.   It is currently acting like an Access Point at this juncture, since  I want to make sure some issues I discovered during my research phase do not become apparent before I place it in Gateway mode, where it will control of my entire network and the Internet connection.

But already, I am quite impressed by this unit.  And boy, is this puppy fast.  My Wireless G signal strength appears to be about 40% better than with my previous 2Wire 1800HG Wireless G Router.  And the number of security options is truly dizzying.  I’ll be beating on it for the next day or so, then hook it up so that it will be the Gateway.  This hurried aspect is due to my having received the Router today, and the seller only offers a 3-day window for returns.

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Just bought a new Linksys WRVS4400N Router!

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WRVS4400N Purchased on eBay just today (not a venue I normally purchase hardware from, but they had an unbeatable price of $100.00, which is more than half off it’s regular price). 

This  router is so high-end, it boggles the imagination.   It has Wireless-N, dual-band reception, a VPN server, and even Intrusion Protection (IP).  Not to mention GIGABIT network speeds for the local network, and full backward compatibility for Wireless G (and way old “B”) connections.

My life will be so much easier after I get this router installed: I can retire the VPN function that my tired old Windows 2000 Server currently controls, and my VPN will be back-up and running again!  

It will offer me future growth capability in two areas, I currently do not have Wireless-N clients yet, nor are any of my desktop’s equipped with Gigabit Ethernet adapters, so whenever I wish to take advantage of those technologies, they are there waiting for me.

The big benefit for me will be Intrusion Protection (IP) feature, which is a step further than an SPI Firewall (Stateful Packet Inspection), which the unit also comes with as an Industry standard.

But it’s the VPN that I will get the most use out of.  I use VPN on almost a daily basis to link my laptop with my home network so I can access File Shares and FTP.

I’ll be reviewing this unit in the near future. Hopefully it’ll get high-marks…  

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New LiveWriter Technical Preview Available

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Of interest to me and any other bloggers out there: Microsoft has a Technical Preview of the latest version of LiveWriter available here.

This release is largely about updates to the Writer SDK, which now includes hooks for pre- and post-publish events. These updates are still experimental and these APIs are not stable–we may make changes based on your feedback that break plug-ins that use these new methods. However, we’re really excited about the new set of scenarios have been unlocked and look forward to hearing feedback from all of you Writer plug-in developers out there.

For more details about the SDK, please see the blog post on Windows Live Dev.

New Features

You’ll also get an early look at some improvements and new features we’ve been working on:

Video and Image Publishing Enhancements

  • Upload videos to Soapbox
  • Image cropping and tilting
  • Additional border styles
  • Support for LightBox and other image previewing effects (like Slimbox, Smoothbox, and others)
  • Support for centering images

Editing Enhancements

  • Auto Linking
  • Smart quotes/typographic characters
  • Word count

UI Improvements

  • Revised main toolbar
  • Tabs for view switching
  • Improved category control with search/filtering
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Gathering data on Shavlik NetChk Protect

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shavlik_logo I just installed Shavlik’s NetChk Protect 6.1.0 (build 57), a product that that I used more than a year ago, back when it was version 5.31.   This previous product ran for a whole year and kept my six systems (one server, two laptops, and three desktops) fully up-to-date. 

Sure, Windows Update can do this for you for free, but the process is controlled by Microsoft, who does not always have the consumer’s best interest in mind when they install products like Windows Genuine Advantage, which can take a totally legitimate installation of Windows XP and disable it for no apparent reason.

Also, NetChk Protect updates a lot of common non-MS applications like Adobe Reader,  WinZip, etc…

I will be performing a product review of the NetChk Protect application in the future, so we’ll see how this product does in the next month or so…