This is it! This is the week that RossCode Weekly moves to a podcast format, rather than written out as in the past. The shownotes are below and you can follow along.

Intro - 0:00

Download this episode - 23:54 / 10.9 MB
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Thanks to Jason Salas?for his support

Previously on RCW - 1:15

Palm planning Symbian Treo
iTunes for the PSP
Google not only one looking to do WiFi in San Francisco

News and Views - 2:44

Earthlink wins bid to provide WiFi for Philly
Cogent vs. Level 3
Comcast to stream two NHL games per night to customers
AIM Triton hits public preview
Build your own social software?- Ning
Yahoo in Consortium to scan books?- Public Domain only
My Yahoo supports Podcasting
Yahoo Publisher Network adding RSS ads
Feedster to release new product for ads in RSS feeds
MSN set to offer AdSense competitor
Office 12 to support PDF natively
Email: 30Gigs?- 30 GB
Email: MailNation - 1 TB
Dell to offer open source computer
Newsgator acquires NetNewsWire
Yahoo acquires Upcoming.org
Weblogs.com sold to VeriSign
Weblogs, Inc. sold to AOL
Web 2.0 Conference - New Releases

The Cold Wars - 12:40

Paramount to support both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray
China to offer incompatible HD-DVD format
HP to ship Netscape on new computers
Firefox 1.5 beta 2 is out
Google Launches RSS Reader
Google combines local and maps
Google and Sun team up to offer Google's toolbar with the Java runtime

The Grapevine - 16:06

Google to offer online office suite
Gawker to be sold to News Corp?
Apple to announce something on October 12th
Apple to launch new power macs and Power Books
Apple has started production of the iPod Video
New iPods and High End Macs this month
Yahoo Blog search coming
Google to clone / buy Digg
Microsoft not to offer subscription music service
Motorola to release a non-iTunes phone
Netflix building download and?burn service

Bonehead of the Week - 21:01

Microsoft to offer one use DVDs
It's a Hoax!
Paul Thurrott for posting it

Next Week - 22:59

Another announcement from Apple?set for?October 12th?

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Having watched my first NHL game this year (Wings vs. Blues), I'm pretty excited. Having hockey back is awesome. I know they have?long way to go to win back just the fan base they had before the lockout, let alone winning a bigger audience. But for me, I'm watching, and will be all year.

Anyway, one of the most important things the NHL did was implement a cap - a hard cap. But questions are being raised about how strict it will be enforced. The gist is this: If a team wants to pay a player $6,000,000 per year, they may opt to sign him to a $3,000,000 contract and then offer a sponsor a $3,000,000 discount to advertise with the team, and have a gentleman's agreement to sign the player to a $3,000,000 endorsement contract.

Now,?as the comments to the post?make it clear that this type of agreement wouldn't be allowed under the new collective bargaining agreement, but ultimately, it's up to the NHL to enforce it. One commenter makes a statement that, since it's Gary Bettman, that he'll obviously enforce it. But is that the case? Bettman hasn't exactly done much up until he was able to hold his ground against the NHLPA, but he was only able to do that because he had the backing of the owners. Another commenter says teams won't even attempt this because this is the deal they wanted. That's not true. A team like Detroit has always been willing to pay $60,000,000+ a year on salaries and still make money. It wasn't Detroit calling for a hard cap. Nor was it Colorado, New York or any of the big market, successful?teams.

Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if any owners try to "game the system" and extend the cap.

Technorati Tags: nhl | hockey

Week five is on us, and things are starting to settle down. There are a few lines that?I'm confused by, and hopefully I'll be able to take advantage of those!

• Baltimore vs. Detroit (-1) (33 O/U): I don't see Detroit as a favorite, even at home. Harrington has struggled this year despite having a good WR core. Baltimore's defense hasn't been great yet, but they are still good, and at any point could turn it around.
• Chicago vs. Cleveland (-3) (36 O/U): Cleveland is favored? Really?
• Miami vs. Buffalo (-2.5) (33.5 O/U): This should be a game that primarily features running backs, and depending on Ronnie Brown's performance, will also determine how many touches Ricky Williams gets next week.
• New England vs. Atlanta (-2.5) (44 O/U): I can't see New England dropping below .500. Combine that with a hurting Vick, and, while it'll be tough, I think New England will get the W.
• New Orleans vs. Green Bay (-3) (41.5 O/U): This'll be a high scoring game. Neither team has a great defense, and both have capable offenses. This'll be a chance to see if Monday's game gives Green Bay a boost or if they'll fizzle.
• Seattle vs. St. Louis (-3) (49.5 O/U): Mike Martz may not be at the game?because of health reasons, and that'll affect the team some. Seattle, if Holmgren can figure out that he needs to run the ball, should be able to control the game and put up enough points to get the W.
• Tampa Bay (-3.5) vs. New York Jets (31.5 O/U): Vinny Testeverde is starting? And the spread is only 3.5? Maybe it's because Tampa Bay doesn't score much - they rely on a stifling defense. I haven't heard - is Cadillac playing? I'm too lazy to go look it up, but it won't matter.
• Tennessee vs. Houston (-3) (40.5 O/U): This one could get ugly. Neither team is very good, and some will have to suffer through watching this one!
• Indianapolis (-15) vs. San Francisco* (46.5 O/U): I just can't take a team favored by more than 15. Here's something interesting. If you put $10 on San Fran to win, and they do, you'd win $95. Nice return, but very unlikely. On the other hand, if you put that same $10 on Indy, and they win, you'll?win $0.87. Yeah, it's sure money (right?), but why bother? It looks like Alex Smith will get his first start - that's a tough way to start off - against an improved Indy defense, knowing he'll be called to pass a lot, since they'll likely be down big early. The only other first overall pick quarterback since 2000 to start earlier than Smith is David Carr, and we've seen how he's turned out.
• Carolina (-2.5) vs. Arizona (43 O/U): 2.5? This is an odd team, as they beat New England, but then lost to Miami and barely held on to beat Green Bay. Not a very consistent record there, huh? Anyway, this is Arizona, so it shouldn't be a problem.
• Philadelphia (-3) vs. Dallas (44.5 O/U): I don't get this spread at all. Philly is a great team, and Dallas has underperformed so far. And McNabb seems to play better with his hernia, which he still has!
• Washington* vs. Denver (-6.5) (34 O/U): Washington is playnig above where I think they should be, and it's in Denver. This should be close, but I'll give Denver the nod.
• Cincinnati vs. Jacksonville (-2.5) (37 O/U): Cincy finally faces a real test, and I think they'll studder?a little bit here. Jacksonville is a pretty good team.
• Pittsburgh vs. San Diego (-3) (45 O/U): Now that L.T. is finally getting the touches he needs to get, the Chargers should be able to ride him to another victory. This should be a great MNF game, which if history is any indication, means it'll be a disappointment.

Once again, we'll review these next week!

As a server control developer, I was very interested in listening to the latest DotNetRocks show. Overall, it was a great show, and while a lot of it was review, there were a few good nuggets in there, as well as some validation that I'm doing things The Right Way. If you're never developed a server control, it's a great introduction to them - why you'd do it and how you'd do it.

Anyway, one thing that I've never really thought about was the different types of server controls. Miguel says there's three: Inherited, rendered, and composite. The composite is the most common I've seen, with the inherited being second. Rarely do I see rendered controls, mainly because they're too complicated to get working correctly, despite them being (slightly) faster than composite controls. It's also interesting to note that composite controls are, at their core, a collection of rendered controls.

The Tourney Bracket Control, by the way, is a composite control. It's actually a server control with other server controls in it that are made up of basic rendered controls.

There were a few things that were said that I didn't agree with. Well, not that I didn't agree with, but that I do differently. First, I don't typically statically declare my child controls in the server control. Most of the server controls I've worked on are dynamic - I don't know how many child controls I'll need until I look at the way it's configured. In the case of the Tourney Bracket Control, I can't statically declare how many match ups there will be because I don't know how many there will be until I look at the configuration at run-time (or design-time). So I create them dynamically as I need them.

The other thing I do differently is how I build my controls collection. I don't know why I do it this way, but looking back, I use the CreateChildControls() method to create all controls that need to be involved in the postback/viewstate process. That way, I can get data in and out of the control as I need it. But, I do the non-essential controls in an override of OnPreRender(). So if a table is needed to contain some controls, I add it there, rather than in the CreateChildControls() method, as described by Miguel.

The other DotNetRocks related item has to do with Carl's expansion of the DotNetRocks show into a family of shows. From his latest newsletter:

dnrTV
This is a weekly camtasia-based interview show. Think of a combination webcast and DNR interview. The guest will drive real-world demos and explanations using screen-cam technology from TechSmith (www.camtasia.com). 60 minutes

Hanselminutes
This will either be a video or audio short featuring yours truly talking with ASP.NET guru Scott Hanselman as he takes us on a journey of problem-solving and the intelligent application of technology. 20 minutes

The 64-Bit Question
This is an audio-only call-in quiz show in which the teeming millions compete for prizes by answering questions about .NET and computing in general. 30 minutes

It looks like it's time to make room for some new shows! The Hanselminutes should be a good one.

Technorati Tags: dotnetrocks | podcast

It looks like the Microsoft Virtual Labs for Visual Studio 2005 are live. This is a great way to try out the new bits without downloading gigs of beta code and destabilizing your development box. Go check it out.

While looking at the comments for Richard MacManus' request for online aggregator features, I noticed he has a link to have his post read to you. He's using Talkr, a free service that will apparently create audio for your posts.

It's an interesting concept, and one I might have used in the past, but now that I listen to podcasts, there's just no need. I have enough podcasts to last for a while. I don't need any more than I already have!

That, and I can't imagine how long it would take to read the 1,000 new posts I get per day!

Technorati Tags: podcast

That's the question Jim Lanzone asked?Richard MacManus?of Read/Write Web, and now he's got a thread going where you can list out the features you want to see.

If you're using an online aggregator, or have thought about using one, then this is a good place to get your feedback heard. The higher ups?at?Bloglines and Rojo are listening, and I'm sure others are too. I can't imagine that Newsgator, who is very active in the blogging community and watches what's going on, isn't also going to be watching this too. I mean, come on, they even come over to my little blog whenever I mention them!

Anyway, I don't typically use an online aggregator, but I've been reconsidering that stance recently - the other day, I was away from my laptop, and wanted to read some feeds. I could have used Newsgator Online, but it doesn't give me a few things that I get when I read feeds locally. When I'm reading feeds, I always keep one eye open for stories to use in the next RossCode Weekly, and I flag them for later using Outlook's flags. I've also used FeedDemon, and it has the same flagging type capabilities. From what I can see, Newsgator Online (or the others) don't offer that same ability - I'm not talking tags - I'm talking about being able to use private follow ups that I can go back and look at later. And I don't want a limit either. For example, right now, I use four different states: Unread, to read later, RCW, and To Blog. Each has it's own meaning to me, but to others, they wouldn't care. I would have more, but Outlook's flags aren't unlimited either.

I guess I should probably go put something about this in the comments, huh? And if you have features you want, add them! Let's make our online experience just as good (or better) than the offline experience.

There's?a lot of red here, and not nearly enough green. I'd feel that way even more if I was using real money! Comments will probably be brief this week. I didn't get to watch one single game?- I was gone all day Sunday, and last night was spent in some Tourney Logic code or playing XBox.

• Buffalo 7, New Orleans 19 (0) (39.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: It definitely sounds like Losman is starting to suffer from the rookie quarterback syndrome. The saying "can't see the forest through the trees" seems fitting. When you're in the trenches, it's hard to get the bigger picture. If Losman had a little time on the sidelines watching the game and the decisions someone else is making, he'd have a better appreciation for what's going on. Back to my theme: New Orleans stuck to the running game (McAllister ran 27 times), while Buffalo only rushed McGahee 16 times. But that's not the most telling stat of the game: New Orleans held the ball for 13 minutes longer than Buffalo did. So that 16 rushes? Well, Buffalo only threw the ball 21 times. They also had 7 other rushes, so all in all, they ran more than passed. Their offense just wasn't on the field enough.
• Denver 20, Jacksonville 7 (-3.5) (37 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]: Rememer at the beginning of the season there was all the talk about how Tatem Bell would obviously be taking away the starting job from Mike Anderson? Well, after Anderson's 115 yards this week and a big game last week, that may not happen.?On the other hand, maybe they've been watching Kansas City: Bell also had 15 rushes for 60 yards - that's 38 rushes between the two of them. On the other side, when you have Fred Taylor healthy, why is he only getting eight carries?
• Detroit 13, Tampa Bay 17 (-6.5) (34 O/U) [P: $3.55, S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($16.45)]: The calls for Harrington's head are loud and clear. Unfortunately, there's no one?to back him up. But watching Harrington, at times I wonder if you'd be better off with a headless quarterback. Yes, the Lions should have won, but they couldn't get it done when they needed to. Tampa Bay continues their tear through the NFC North, and maybe found something out they'll find useful: They can win using their everyday car (Pittman) and can live without the Cadillac when it's in the shop.
• Houston 10, Cincinnati 16 (-9.5) (42.5 O/U) [P: $2.25, S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($17.75)]: The shocker here is that it was this close. Could it be that Cincy isn't as good as everyone thinks, or was it just an off day? We'll find out next week against Jacksonville. The calls for Dom Capers job are getting louder and louder, but here's the key problem with Houston: Carr is on pace to be sacked over 100 times. With as many times as he's been hit, it's amazing he's still playing. Maybe he should have taken a page out of Eli Manning's book and refused to play for a team like Houston, and forced a trade to someone better.
• Indianapolis 31 (-7), Tennessee 10 (45 O/U) [P: $3.33, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $22.42]: Indy's offense finally came alive - Manning had four touchdowns - and they even kept Edge in the game, giving him 21 carries and a pair of catches - including one touchdown. Why can the offense perform so well? Well, for starters, Manning hasn't been sacked all year. That's pretty telling of how their line is playing. The defense is having a stellar year so far - they've only given up 26 points all year. With what we saw from the Patriots this week, I'd say the Colts are the team to beat right now - if you can!
• Philadelphia 37, Kansas City 31 (-2) (45.5 O/U) [P: $10.90, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $29.99]: Philly had to come back a long way to win this one, and they did it. Someone needs to tell Andy Reid that Westbrook is a capable back, and that even though McNabb can throw through pain (and well, I might add - 369 yards and three TDs), he shouldn't have to. Granted, they had to make a comeback. Kansas City's defense looked like everyone expected it to. As for the offense, here's a question: You lead most of the game, and have a superb 1-2 combo at running back, and they only combine for 25 rushes, yet Trent Green lobbed up the ball 30 times, including two picks. How is that possible?
• San Diego 41, New England 17 (-5) (47 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: Who predicted that the Chargers would go into Boston and beat up on the Patriots, who haven't lost at home since 2002? Yes, New England is hurting on defense, but they were last year too. Everyone says they don't have any big names on the team - that they win because they play as a team - but they do: Rodney Harrison and Teddy Bruschi. Both gone. That leaves two big holes to fill, and they haven't found people to fill those gaps yet. Can Troy Brown play linebacker? For the Chargers, it looks like they've remembered what got them into the playoffs last year: Tomlinson. He can run (134 yds, 2 TDs) and he can catch. And remember late in the first game during week one when the tight end dropped a pass in the end zone that would have given them the victory? Well, that's why you have Antonio Gates, who led the team in recieving, pulling in six catches for 108 yards. Those two players are why Drew Brees can look like a stud at quarterback, despite throwing for less than 250 yards.
• Seattle 17, Washington 20 (-2) (36.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.71, T: ($10.29)]: I'll look at this from the perspective I've been looking at most games: who ran more? Washington. They ran 16 more times than Seattle, for a total of 39 attempts. Seattle, despite having one of the best backs in the game, let Matt Hasselbeck throw the ball 38 times. Maybe they need to take a look at San Diego's game plan. At least Washington recognizes that they're better off running than passing.
• St. Louis 24, New York Giants 44 (-3) (47 O/U) [P: $6.06, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $6.06]:?I heard this on the radio Monday night. Who would you rather have: Eli Manning or Peyton Manning? I heard arguments for both, but the point is that you can make an argument for taking Eli over his older brother. Sunday helped that argument, with Eli throwing for four touchdowns. I remember reading at the beginning of the season that Burress wouldn't get the bulk of the load for the Giants - that Toomer would because that's who Manning would be comfortable with. Well, Burress had 10 receptions (more than everyone else combined) and 200+ yards, plus two TDs. But that's not all: they still ran the ball, something St. Louis didn't do. Bulger threw 62 passes - I bet he needed ice after the game - despite only being down by 10 at the half.
• New York Jets 3, Baltimore 13 (-7) (31 O/U) [P: $3.33, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $3.33]: Baltimore beat up on the poor Jets, who struggled on offense, only managing to hold the ball 21 minutes. Without a passing game, they couldn't establish Curtis Martin's game, and he never was effective. Baltimore finally got Jamal Lewis some touches, but he was unable to do much - he averaged less than three yards per carry, and despite 29 carries, he didn't break 100 yards. But, having not watched the game, here's a guess. It didn't matter how many yards Lewis gained per carry. He was getting touches to grind the clock out, which is what happened.
• Dallas 13, Oakland 19 (-3) (47 O/U) [P: $5.59, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.80, T: $25.39]: No one really thought Oakland was that bad, right? No way they'd go 0-4 with Randy Moss on the field. Well, they were right, but that's not why they won. They established the run, with LaMont Jordan averaging almost five yards per carry. That number's an inflated "Moss effect" number by the way, but that's what was needed to win this game. Bledsoe went from comeback of the year to washed up veteran overnight, completing only 11 of 26 passes.
• Minnesota 10, Atlanta 30 (-5.5) (44.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: Well, as it turns out, there's a very good reason that Culpepper has been struggling this year. He's been playing on a bum knee. That explains why he hasn't been taking off like he has in the past, and why he's been so inaccurate. I wonder why the news comes now of the injury though. I know why it was hidden - to keep teams from aiming for it, but do they think that the upcoming bye week will allow it to heal completely? If not, why the announcement? Maybe it was to make Mike Vick feel better, who left with an injury, but is expected to play next week. For Atlanta though, I don't see any reason why a healthy dose of D & D won't work until Vick is completely healed.
• San Francisco 14, Arizona 31 (-3) (43 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.90, T: ($10.10)]: It's hard to compare these two teams. Arizona passed the ball 46 times, yet still won. Of course, they still ran the ball 20 times more than San Francisco. Overall, they ran 35 more plays than the 49ers. That's because they dominated the game, holding onto it for 15 more minutes than San Francisco. Leaving your defense on the field that long is why the Cardinals were able to outscore the 49ers 31-0 after the first quarter and 20-0 in the second half. The way these teams are going, the next time they meet could be the game that decides?who gets the number one pick next year!
• Green Bay* 29, Carolina 32 (-7.5) (43 O/U) [P: $2.92, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $2.92]: Brett Favre did just about everything he could to get the win and came up just short. It's hard to compare the stats on this one, because it's a little off-kilter because the Pack was down 32-13 in the 4th. That's quite a comeback, and I'm sure a little disappointing to come up short. There's two ways this can go from here: either Green Bay gets fired up because they realized they can turn it on when they need to, or they can get down on themselves because they did their best and still came up short. The good news for Green Bay is that, even at 0-4, they're still only a game back in the NFC North, who's now a combined 3-11 (with two of those wins being intradivision games).

Results Summary

• Picks (this week): 8 - 6 (57.14%) - Winnings: ($22.08): Another disappointing week, losing money despite being above .500.
• Picks (season): 32 - 28 (53.33%) - Winnings: ($117.85): Just digging myself farther into a hole that I probably won't get out of this season.
• Spread (this week): 6 - 8 (42.86%) - Winnings: ($20.00): Down again. I'm not good at this, am I?
• Spread (season): 23 - 36 (38.98%) - Winnings: ($130.00): Last year, I was 29-28 at this point. Two years ago, I was 35-23. I see a trend that I don't like here!
• Over/Under (this week): 6 - 8 (42.86%) - Winnings: ($23.31): This is what I expected to be the norm for picking over/unders. I have no idea how to tell if a game's going to be a high scorer or not. For example, Green Bay versus Carolina should have been low scoring - Carolina has a good defense, so the Pack shouldn't be able to score, and Carolina's offense isn't great - they get the job done, and that's it. But they combined for 61 points!
• Over/Under (season): 27 - 32 (45.76%) - Winnings: ($66.04): Still my best category, but still down.
• Total Weekly Winnings: ($65.39): Another losing week. This is getting old!
• Total Overall Winnings: ($313.88): I'm way down overall. over 18% loss. Ouch

I'm going to get better! I have to. Didn't I say that last week too?

Either did I. But I'm not sweating it too much - especially not now! Mike Swanson gives us details that he's putting together four DVDs full of PDC goodness, but that's not the best part. No, not only do they have 250 hours of content, but they're going to host ALL of it for free!

I'm going to be using a lot of bandwidth here in the near future!

Technorati Tags: pdc05

A while ago, I talked about a chapter in an online book I saw about Fast Build vs. Full Build. Well today, Jon Tirsen?talked about that same topic.

I think this is a very cool idea, but I want to take it a step farther. I think it would be awesome to automate this process.

Here's what I'm thinking. The build system maintains a list of tests that are part of the project and some extra data about each test: When it was created, when it was last ran by the fast build, when it last failed (if ever), and how long it last took. Then, for the fast build, you define an acceptable number of tests and/or an acceptable time for the tests to run. The build system would then be responsible for picking tests that should be run for the fast build.

Here's the tricky part. How do you decide which tests to run? Well, you'll get updated information about each test during the full build, which would be run every night or a couple of times per day, so you'll have updated information about any failed tests and the time they takes. Then, as the fast build runs, you get updated information for the selected tests. Then, as each build takes place, the build system picks all tests that have failed in the last x days. The number of days would have to be figured out, but the idea is that if a test has failed recently, you continue to include it in the build process for a while, regardless of other parameters. Then, if you're under your specs (test time or number of tests), then other tests will be picked based on three pieces of data, in the following order: Test age, so that newer tests are added. Test timing, favoring shorter tests,?and lastly, how long it's been since the test was last part of the fast build.

With the above in place, the build process could dynamically change as project focus shifts, because as soon as someone breaks something, that test will be automatically added to the fast build, and it'll stay there until it's fixed.

There is one potential issue with this approach that I can see. If a test fails that's directly related to what you're working on, you may not know about it until the full build runs. After that, it would get added to the fast build, but if you only do full builds once per day, then it could be 24 hours before you know about the problem, where as if you were picking tests by hand, then you may know to add that test to the fast build.

A way to take this a step further is to have a really smart build process that looks at two more factors: The code that is being modified and the code each test exercises. If the two coincide, then that test would be incorporated into the fast build process. But then you start to get into issues with how complicated the build process is, and it could possibly take longer to choose the tests than it would be to actually run the tests, which defeats the point of a fast build.

Maybe I'll mess around with something like this. It'd be a good chance to dig into the NUnit code to figure out how tests are identified and what I can do with that information.