A few months back Brian Harry (MS Technical Fellow and Program Unit Manager of TFS) asked me if he could include my Search Work Items VS addin in the TFS Power Tools. It’s awesome seeing it here now!
A little back story… I originally created the addin while we were working on VS 2008. I had heard the passion our head of Team System at the time Andrew Kass talk about the need for providing some level of work item search. It wasn’t something our VSTS team was able implement in a more fully supported way at the time. So that evening in about two hours I coded up this little vs addin and put it up on MSDN. It was the #1 download for about a month and has continued to be popular. Thanks to the community on CodePlex others have kept it up to date.
Differences… now I will say that my addin does have a few differences
Ability to edit what field are being searched on. Typing “—template” will open the work item query used
Jumps directly to a work item if a number is specified, like 993. Team Explorer already has a feature for that in Go To Work Item (Ctrl+G) so that’s not really important, but I put it in so there was was a visual way to click and type a work item number to jump to
The Search Work Items box also shows up in the “Team” main menu so if you don’t like toolbars (I turn mine all off), then you can still find it
An finally, the addin has a registered VS Command, Team.SearchWorkItems, so you can assign a keyboard shortcut to jump to the box (I use Ctrl+Alt+S)
Original blog post from when Search Work Items was released
In conclusion, a big thanks goes out to the TFS team for asking me and putting the feature into the MS sponsored Power Tools package. I hope more TFS users are able to be more productive because of it. :)
Found this poster in a local restaurant, wow, this is my life creed! I immediately purchased one for my home office. Here’s the poster on allposters.com. #OCDftw
This is a new blog I’ve started as an outlet for political, religious, NSW, and other random bits and bytes. If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the other half of my mind not suited for the mainstream, this is where it’ll be. » Zulu Hour
My laptop hard drive died yesterday, just before heading out of town on a business trip. When drives have died in the past it takes me about 20 hrs to recover up to 80% normal efficiency. This involves installing Windows on a new drive, downloading/installing drivers and >100 applications/tools, and recovering files (from the last file-copy backup). Then there’s the time to re-configuring the OS, apps, tools, dev env, etc. Not to mention the frustration of loosing files since the last backup.
But not so this time! I’ve been using Windows Home Server (WHS) which automatically backups my PC every night and recovery was a breeze! For the first time ever I was able to get back up and running in about just 1 hr. WHS does nightly ‘bare metal’ backups which it can restore the entire system to a new drive. This is the first time I can say in my 20+ yrs w computers that I’ve had a backup system fully restore my system perfectly. The time savings and frustration alone was well worth the cost.
What had turned me onto WHS in the first place was the file storage capabilities. The ability to add any number of drives to a single storage pool with redundancy and not requiring RAID (not in WHS 2011 I’m told). I didn’t expect the backup to work as advertised, but it sure did.
p.s. This post was written just after the HDD crash but was posted later. I now use Windows Home Server exclusively in a Hyper-V VM which is working out fantastically well.
I find it particularly useful to be able to copy a file, folder, URL, or search term to the clipboard and then with one hotkey, open it up. Here is the script I use with AutoHotkey to assign Win+O to open whatever’s in the clipboard.
First it checks to see if the clipboard contains a file, folder, or program that exists on disk. If not, is it appear to be a URL? And if not, just Google the clipboard contents.
; Execute the contents of the clipboard, Win+O
#o::
contents = %clipboard%
StringSplit, SplitArray, contents, `n
Loop, %SplitArray0%
{
_line := SplitArray%a_index%
; First attempt a shell execute
Run, %_line%,, UseErrorLevel
; If that didn't work, try something else
if (ErrorLevel = "ERROR")
{
; Does the clipboard contain a URL?
FoundPos := RegExMatch(_line, "A)\w[^\s]*\.(?:com|co|uk|gov|edu|tv|net|org|tel|me|us|mobi|es)(?:\z|/.*)\z")
if FoundPos
Run "%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" %_line%
else
Run http://google.com/search?q=%_line%
}
}
return
It is also designed to open multiple items if separated by a carriage return, for example:
Creating quick little instruction screen cast videos is so easy now these days, particularly with free awesome tools like Jing (click, record, publish to URL… easy). And they’re incredibly powerful in helping people out and recording bug repros. But it’s also so far too easy to make crappy bad videos that are confusing or boring. It just takes some conscious awareness of the process to make a great video.
Here are my tips after a few years of recording videos. My thanks goes out to the speaker training I received at Microsoft, to the many colleagues that have produced excellent videos, and for their providing feedback on my attempts.
These tips are for meant for short recordings of generally less than 5 min. Captures designed for single takes of relatively simple topics. I use Jing which is just super easy and free (upgrade to Pro for improved audio quality), but Camtasia works just as well (but is costly and far more complex). You can of course spend much time polishing in post-production using tools Camtasia’s zooming, annotations, editing, etc, but that’s not the point of these tips. They’re focused on making the recording itself.
Some examples:
The Basics
Use a loss-less codec. It is annoying to see video of a screen that is too small or fuzzy to see clearly. It is poor form when a loss-less codec would look perfect. Jing and Camtasia support loss-less recording (careful w Camtasia’s output, choose ‘original resolution’ when producing).
Recorded simple, clear, verbal instructions along with the video.
Drop your screen resolution as low as possible, 800x600 if you can (1024x768 if not) or resize an app to the minimum size needed and record just that app’s area. It keeps the watcher focussed, reduces wasted visual space, and makes it easy for them to watch the video.
Make sure the mic level is set appropriately so that on playback the volume isn’t too low or too strong (how to vid).
Prep everything ahead of time for a smooth video focused on exactly and only the topic at hand. Reset states, settings, and apps before each new take. Do not record boring or obvious steps like repeatedly logging into a website or launching an app that takes awhile to load.
Watch the video yourself and imagine you’re someone that’s never seen this before, is it simple, clear, interesting, and easy to understand without being boring?
Advanced Tips Once getting a grasp on the basics above, continue on with these…
Use a good quality external microphone. Even a $20 unit from Best Buy will produce significantly better audio than what’s in the laptop. Like this $20 Logitech USB mic on amazon. Or get a great mic, like the Samson CO1U USB condenser mic (I use the Samson CO3U).
Remove your hand from the mouse when not purposely clicking on something so that the mouse doesn’t move (which is distracting).
Keep videos as short as absolutely possible, people’s attention span is very short. The shorter the video the more they’ll remember and happier they’ll be.
Verbally tell the listener what to click on as you click. Even though it should be obvious because you’re doing it in the video, telling the user brings their attention to it. Like “We click on ‘File’, ‘Save As’, then type the name MyApp.config and hit enter.”
Pause momentarily before and after clicking, to let the person focus and understand what you’re moving onto next.
Use the mouse to draw the watcher’s attention to a part of the screen as you tell them about it. People’s eyes will naturally follow the mouse and they won’t really be listening while it’s moving. Don’t move the mouse unintentionally as it is quite distracting.
Give a <10 sec intro at the start to state the what and why about the video. Like “This is John Smith and I’m going to show you how to disable Windows Explorer file expansion.”
Use a title screen. Like a single PowerPoint slide in full-screen with the title of the video or even just notepad or Word with the font enlarged.
It may take 3, 6, or more attempts to get the video ‘right’, but it’s worth it. Keep going until it’s right, smooth, and tight.
Grab a co-worker to view a draft of the video to get their feedback and refine your style before sending more broadly. A second pair of eyes can turn up a lot, particularly if they regularly record videos too.
Don’t use superfluous words, sentences, or phrases (like “um”). Keep the verbiage very focused on what’s actually needed. These may be normal and mostly overlooked in casual conversation but are amplified and stick out like a sore thumb when recorded. The clarity of speech is also a direct indication of the presenter’s competence.
Have fun! Make it sound like you’re interested in the topic. If you’re not interested, the listener won’t be.
So what tips would to add? Any additional advice to share? Please put it in the comments. thanks
Fry’s Electronic stores are matching Internet prices. Now if they could just cut out the sales taxes they’d be on par with amazon.com.
I’m usually too distracted by other work to remember to kick-off some music in the background. Usually because it’d mean launching iTunes, waiting for it to load, finding a playlist to start, and kicking it off. So I’ve created a single global hotkey to instantly load iTunes and start playing music. Here’s how:
Get the Tools Have a master AutoHotKey hotkey file and set PowerShell to autoload my little iTunes.ps1 library on PowerShell startup. With these two it makes it real easy to assign hotkeys to various iTunes commands.
Create a “PlayHotkey” Playlist in iTunes Just a playlist to be kicked off when the hotkey is pressed. I’ve got mine set to shuffle unplayed tracks.
Add AutoHotkey Line What enables this line to be so simple is that there is a itPlaylist function in the above iTunes.ps1 file that gets auto loaded as part of step 1.
; Play Music NOW with Win+Alt+P
#!p:: Run powershell -command (itPlaylist('PlayHotkey')).PlayFirstTrack(),,Hide
If your keyboard doesn’t have media keys (like my MacBook or fav Dell keyboard), then its nice to have simple global hotkeys to play/pause a track, move to the next track, and maybe even increase/decrease volume.
Below is the script that will assign these keys:
Play/Pause: Win+Alt+Space or Win+Alt+Left
Next Track: Win+Alt+Right
Volume Up: Win+Alt+Up
Volume Down: Win+Alt+Down
AutoHotkey makes this real easy! Just add this to your .ahk AutoHotkey file:
; Media Keys AutoHotkey Script by Noah Coad, started in 2008, http://coad.net
; #=Win ^=Ctrl +=Shift !=Alt
; Volume Up & Down, Win+Alt+Up & Win+Alt+Down
#!Up:: send {Volume_Up}
#!Down:: send {Volume_Down}
; Media Pause/Play, Win+Alt+Space or Win+Alt+Left
#!Space::
#!Left:: Media_Play_Pause::
IfWinExist, iTunes ahk_class ITWindow
{
ControlSend ahk_parent, {shift}
sleep 100
ControlSend ahk_parent, ^{space}
}
else
{
Suspend On
SendPlay {Media_Play_Pause}
Suspend Off
}
return
; Media Next, Win+Alt+Right
#!Right::
Media_Next::
IfWinExist, iTunes ahk_class ITWindow
{
ControlSend ahk_parent, {shift}
sleep 100
ControlSend ahk_parent, ^{right}
}
else
{
Suspend On
SendInput {Media_Next}
Suspend Off
}
return
This evening I was playing around with creating some custom ringtones for my iPhone. Here are the dozen I made: ringtones.7z
Just download, unpack, and drag & drop the .m4r (AAC MP4 audio) files into iTunes and they’ll show up in the Library > Ringtones section and sync to your phone.
I used GoldWave to edit the sound to the right length and this PC World article for the tip on using iTunes to convert MP3 into AAC.
Chief Technology Officer at LifeNexus, ice hockey player, life hacker, programmer, blogger, electronics tinker, amateur radio operator (N5XI), husband & dad (1st!!), hopeful banjo player
This is a new blog I’ve started as an outlet for political, religious, NSW, and other random bits and bytes. If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the other half of my mind not suited for the mainstream, this is where it’ll be. » 
My laptop hard drive died yesterday, just before heading out of town on a business trip. When drives have died in the past it takes me about 20 hrs to recover up to 80% normal efficiency. This involves installing Windows on a new drive, downloading/installing drivers and >100 applications/tools, and recovering files (from the last file-copy backup). Then there’s the time to re-configuring the OS, apps, tools, dev env, etc. Not to mention the frustration of loosing files since the last backup.
Creating quick little instruction screen cast videos is so easy now these days, particularly with free awesome tools like 
Verbally tell the listener what to click on as you click. Even though it should be obvious because you’re doing it in the video, telling the user brings their attention to it. Like “We click on ‘File’, ‘Save As’, then type the name MyApp.config and hit enter.”
If your keyboard doesn’t have media keys (like my MacBook or fav Dell keyboard), then its nice to have simple global hotkeys to play/pause a track, move to the next track, and maybe even increase/decrease volume.
