As I become more and more comfortable with Vista the number of unsigned software that I am using is starting to grate on my nerves. I am not sure if I am more annoyed with the developers or the OS that keeps reminding me (even when I tell it not to remind me).

There is quite comprehensive article on signing of .NET applications, however, what the article does not go into is that getting a valid certificate from a 3rd party is not free. I can create a test certificate, but the application will have a test certificate that is not verifiable. What, pray tell, is the point of that!

The perfect scenario for me is to use a Uri that I own as the point of verification, that way I can have and own a certificate that is publicly accessible! So as long as you believe that my site is mine, by extension you can trust that I own and control the certificate at that Uri!

Please submit all ideas for this scenario here!

After my previous post I was kind of curious about sites that I have seen that have made the transformation into the world of Silverlight?

So this is the quick list I came up with!

• Microsoft - Of course there flagship site should contain Silverlight ... I will need to talk to Raja (Jim) about where they have buried most of it.
• dnrTV - I guess I am not surprised at this one, especially after Carl Franklin published a music video using Silverlight.
• Channel 10 - Channel 10 is a place for enthusiasts with a passion for technology.
• 2008 Presidential Campaign (352 Media Group) - These folks created a cool site that allows you to determine the best candidates based on some pretty shallow questions.
• James Bond - Dedicated to those whole love 007, not much to this site but still worth a mention.
• BMW - Really slick site, probably the best example of what can be accomplished, my German is a little rusty so I did not enjoy quite as much.
• MSN Movies - Another flagship site, I think I prefer it to the Apple Movie preview site.
• MLB - This was probably the first large scale site to go all in to the Silverlight experience, and if I were more interested in Baseball I am sure this site would be my favorite!

One of the big stories in CES 2008 was the fact that Microsoft will be partnering with NBC to provide the online video access for the entire Olympics experience.

What I am wondering about is why the current MSNBC beta video program is being completed in Flash. Should this not server as another golden (or silver)opportunity to push the Silverlight experience.

I did notice, however, that NBA.com has released some pictures using Silverlight!

My plan with CommonRSS was to have it run as a regular application (not a service, just did not want to be bothered yet). So one of the first problems that occurred to me was how you go about starting an application when the OS started. I also wanted to enable\disable that functionality through the registry so this is the class I came up with to support that. 

using Microsoft.Win32;
using System.Reflection;

static class UtilityFuncs
{
    private const string APP_NAME = "CommonRSS"; //replace this with the name of your application
    private const string REG_ENTRY = "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run";

    /// <summary>
    /// Enables auto start
    /// </summary>
    public static void EnableAutoStart()
    {
        RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey(REG_ENTRY);
        key.SetValue(APP_NAME, Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
    }

 

    /// <summary>
    /// Disables autostart.
    /// </summary>
    public static void DisableAutoStart()
    {
        RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(REG_ENTRY);
        if (key != null)
        {
            string val = (string)key.GetValue(APP_NAME);
            if (val != null)
                key.DeleteValue(APP_NAME);
        }
    }

 

    /// <summary>
    /// Checks if auto start is enabled.
    /// </summary>
    public static bool IsAutoStartEnabled
    {
        get
        {
            RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(REG_ENTRY);
            if (key == null)
            {
                return false;
            }

            string val = (string)key.GetValue(APP_NAME);
            if (val == null)
                return false;

 

            return (val == Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
        }
    }

}

When using previous incarnations of Windows, the windows key + 'R' combination was indispensable as a short cut to all things that were found in C:\windows\systeme32. Within Vista, however,  there has been a marked attempt to bring in all programs into this shortcut loving world by presenting and alphabetized list of all your installed programs by simply pressing the windows key.

I noticed today when I type 'n' in the run command prompt Microsoft Visual C# Express was at the top of the list despite that fact that it clearly does not begin with the letter 'n'. Clearly this violates the alphabetic order that the list is supposed to be presented in, but I think I am to blame as interprets my previous fat fingered errors as a preference to select Microsoft Visual C# when I click 'n'.

Not sure why this is, but now I just want to figure out why notepad2 will not go to the top of my list!

I am currently working on a small tool designed to access the Common RSS list found within the Windows OS. It helps me because I have grown accustomed to using Internet Explorer for my RSS fix, however, there is currently no system wide desktop alert that will let me know if there any new feeds (that I know of).

This simple application is designed to check if any new feeds are available, give the user an indication within the system tray and then allow the user to launch IE, the user can the review the new feeds from the Favorites Center!

While there are a plethora of great RSS tools out there (better than this one), it has been a couple of years since I have done any continuous Forms based Windows programming so I wanted to throw my hat into the ring and shake the rust off. This will also give me the chance to have a closer look at Microsoft Visual C# Express 2008.

p.s. This tool is only useful in XP and below. There are sidebar gadgets that do the same thing for Vista!