Sondre Bjellas

Microsoft's Bold New Design Initiative

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:53:01 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "...(Microsoft products) are so feature and functionality rich that I can do just about anything I want, and most of them are extensible by third party ISVs. Apple products has success with giving the minimal set of functionality that 90% of users require, but there’s always the 10% that is not comfortable with less...There is a lot of great innovations at Microsoft that is driving this new design initiative"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
TechEdBloggers.net : TechEd2008 : Tracks : Developer Tools and Languages

Microsoft's Bold New Design Initiative

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:18:21 GMT

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Addins and Customization of Visual Studio IDE

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:15:10 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "I rarely customize anything. I rely on few (if any) third party tools within the IDE and just a handful of tools that runs outside of the Visual Studio IDE. My main focus is Team System and extensions or that..I decided to start customizing and the first thing was to download and import the DistantShores Visual theme..."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Visual Studio

7 Gadgets to Take to the PDC

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:16:43 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "There is one thing a man can never get enough of, and that’s gadgets...My first 4 gadgets (+ my computer) all supports going online on wireless networks. Here is the list of stuff I’m packing in my bags:"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Getting Started with Microsoft RDS and Lego NXT

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:40:03 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "First you have to download and install Visual Studio if you don’t already have it. RDS supports every version of Visual Studio, from Express to Team Suite. Secondly you have to download and install Microsoft RDS...now the robot will have a voice of it’s own... there are plenty of resources out there..."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Zune Keeps Getting Better

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:27:12 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "This is a premiere demonstration of the Windows Presentation Foundation framework for rich applications that Microsoft introduced with .NET Framework 3.0. The UI is very slick and smooth, although the application (and the background encoder for music and videos) does takes up a good bunch of memory...Big new features in 3.0 is the mixview..."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Windows Presentation Foundation

Problem with Live Search is Wondering What's Missing

Wed, 14 May 2008 18:50:15 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "... it's been very hard getting used to the Live Search and all to often I tend to type Google.com in the address bar and search using their index instead. There is no denying that the Google search index is better than any other, they win flat down on their results quality..."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Office System

18 Features Windows Should Have

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:01:56 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "PC World ran an article on 18 Features they think Windows should have, but doesn't, and that they think Microsoft should borrow and steal to add them as features in Windows...Here is my own list of alternatives to the 18 features listed by PC World"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Robotics - Future that is Inevitable

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:13:30 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "...Microsoft is holding a competition called RoboChamps that will launch 24th April...how to compete...great opportunity to demonstrate your programming skills and creativity - and a good opportunity to learn more about robotics development...."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : NET Framework

Review on Sahara i440D Slate Tablet PC

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:34:54 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "...First I decided I wanted to try out x64 edition of Windows Vista Ultimate....I thought all the Duo CPUs happen to be x64 based, but I guess I was wrong....You will be better off with 32-bit OS until things improve, especially if you're running a Tablet PC...The performance is good and I'm happy that I choose the 7200 RPM disk option, but 100GB is very little these days so I'm hoping for a future replacement of +250GB SSD"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Hyper-V RC0 - Upgrade Issues

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:42:18 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes ".... I stumbled upon various issues. The first mistake I did was to download and run the patch without reading all the knowledge base and read me files... not a good idea!...I would expect Microsoft to keep up with compatibility, or at least include an utility to upgrade virtual machines, but no...Overall I'm happy with Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V, the performance is very good and stability has been great. I would recommend it to anyone, but beware of the issues..."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Windows Server
InDepthTalk.net : Editors Picks

Geek of the Year!

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:42:27 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "....It's a great honor to receive such an incredible award, Geek of the Year, and I want to thank everyone who nominated me for this award. Cheers and thanks to everyone! I was of course not the only winner of awards, many of the other winners are great individuals....Surely hope that all of these winners can be inspirations for everyone else to contribute even more to the Microsoft community in Norway."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Issues Installing WS 2008, Hyper-V, Live Services

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:24:15 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "....a summary of the problems I'm experiencing with these products and services.....What will administrators that configure a whole server, with Active Directory, Application Server, DNS, DHCP, and all the other features say when they come to the step to install Hyper-V... and nothing works? I'm sure there is a simpler solution than reinstalling the whole server, but I did try to change the culture in regional settings with no luck....Remember that vitalization is disabled by default in the BIOS!"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Windows Server
InDepthTalk.net : Editors Picks

Computer Technologies in your Car

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:29:14 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "....Sync is a technology that allows you to easily integrate your mobile phone and music player with your car and operate those devices from easy controls on your steering wheel. In combination with speech recognition and text-to-speech for playback of text messages: this is a compelling experience for many consumers....I can't help to feel a bit unimpressed by"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Unstoppable - The Robotic Revolution

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:08:39 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "....My prediction for the near future is that robots will change your life forever and in so many ways you can’t even imagine. With the birth of a general purpose humanoid robot that can do every day normal task for you and me, then the race is on. As humans we will be required to find new and challenging jobs that our robots can’t do yet. But this will be a race that we will lose in the end. Robots will do everything for us"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Vista Mashup Gadget: Lyrics Player

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:29:16 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "What it does is integrate with your Windows Media Player library and allows you to listen to your favorite music from the Vista Sidebar and quickly and easily see and read the lyrics for your music."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
TechEdBloggers.net : Editors Picks
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Windows Vista
TechEdBloggers.net : TechEd2007 : Tracks : Windows Client
TechEdBloggers.net : TechEd2008 : Tracks : Windows Client

It's time to take a hard look at internationalization and localization

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:08:20 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes ".... I would like to note that this is not only about texts in different languages, dates and numbers in different formats. It's also about opening up your products and services towards the global markets. Internationalization can be both positive and negative, depending on it's implementation and usage.... "

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
TechNetEventsBloggers.net : Topics : Server : Windows
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

The Region: Hello from the Nordic Region

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:21:46 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "This is a site where you can come closer to the 140 Regional Directors that represents some of the top, independent, Microsoft experts in the software industry. It is an honour to be in the same group as brilliant minds like...."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

My CodePlex project on MRSS - Robotics

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:01:07 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "Microsoft....released MRS 1.5 which includes lots of new updates, the most important improvement is support for Windows CE and Windows Mobile based devices....I have recently created a new CodePlex project called MRSS (Microsoft Robotics Studio Services) which aims to deliver MRS Services that are not available directly from software or hardware manufacturers."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : TechTalk

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 - what to watch for!

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:39:15 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "Microsoft have released Service Pack 1 for their Visual Studio family of products....If you have installed the Web Application Project update for Visual Studio 2005, you have to uninstall this before you can apply the Visual Studio SP1. This is because the SP1 includes this Web Application Project update. Windows Vista: While Visual Studio 2005 runs on Windows Vista, it's not working flawlessly"

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Visual Studio

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 06:09:40 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "Microsoft have released Service Pack 1 for their Visual Studio family of products. The biggest update is the Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite SP1 which is the update you would want to download and install if you are using any edition of Visual Studio 2005 except the Express editions."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Visual Studio

Easier TDD with Visual Studio 2005- Here's a Macro!

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:41:30 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "Hopefully some of you will enjoy this little macro and please leave some feedback on improvements! While doing TDD (Test Driven Development) with Visual Studio 2005 is not always an easy task when you get down and dirty. Microsoft is already working on improvements for the next version (codename "Orcas") of Visual Studio, but right now I needed a better way to compile the current project and run my unit test project. One issue that Microsoft is looking into is running the tests does not necessarily invoke the build process of the code you have recently edited."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : Visual Studio

See you atTech-Ed

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:23:16 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "The biggest developer event of the year is approaching quickly, and as the event is getting close to selling out it's about time to register in case you haven't already done so....This year I will be working in Ask The Experts area in the exhibition hall. Please come and say hello if you're around, I'll post the hours I'm available here on my blog when time is getting closer. Don't know exact section I'll be working, but hopefully I'll be there answering questions regarding Microsoft Visual Studio Team System."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Events

Service Orientation

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:59:58 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "One of the things that intrigues me with robotics and home automation in regards to software development, is the way things are more clearly defined and boundaries are very clear, compared to business or consumer software....I'm currently implementing a Web Service that allows me to remote control my Windows Media library from my mobile phone or my laptops. The service allows me the list my music albums with album arts and everything, and I can either playback the media on my local device, or tell it to play it directly on my Media Center PC which is hooked up to the stereo system."

Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
InDepthTalk.net : Topics : NET Framework

Revised, Redone, Renamed = Windows Marketplace

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 20:25:46 GMT

Sondre Bjellas writes "The old Windows Catalog has been revised, redone and renamed to Windows Marketplace and has been designed and built by Vertigo....This is great technology, as it saves the world from production of DVDs and it helps you avoid scratches that can destroy your game mediums. Now you can buy online, and download online, from anywhere. You'll never again loose your license key! "

Look at this website for more information on Regional Directors.
Bloggers : Sondre Bjellas
TechEdBloggers.net : TechEd2006 : Community : RD