I’ve added UserVoice to my Web site. This is to allow all my readers an opportunity to engage with each other, and to help determine “Where we will go tomorrow”.

What is UserVoice?

Here are some suggestions to get things started:

• Add 30 Days of .NET Mobile Applications to CodeProject
• Do some Windows Mobile Development Screencasts
• Do more advanced Windows Mobile developer articles
• Do more beginner Windows Mobile developer articles
• Use QR Codes for Mobile Devices

But what about you? What do you really want? Where to you want to go tomorrow?

Note: You don’t have to join or sign up for anything to add suggestions or vote on suggestions.

UserVoice also has great RSS feeds:

I also added the feedback tab widget, see below, to allow easy access to the feedback feature:

So you have the perfect phone, and now you need the perfect ringtone?

Maximum PC has an recent article, 20 Must-Have Geek Ringtones and Text Message Alerts (And 10 to Avoid!) that is prefect for find the ringtone of your dreams.

Top 10 ringtones for geeks

Top 10 text message alerts for geeks!

Ringtones You Absolutely Must Avoid!

Here are some more ideas:

IGN: Top 10 Tuesday: Videogame Cellphone Ring Tones

Geek to Live: Make a ringtone from any MP3

The top 7 geeky ringtones - Den of Geek

Some things just go together:

• Bat & Ball
• Peanut Butter & Jelly
• Bacon & Eggs
• Bread & Butter
• Table & Chair
• Bees & Honey
• Comb & Hair
• Lock & Keys

What about personal computers and printers? Well, as long as you are talking desktop computers sure, everybody has a printer. And I believe that everyone who has a Windows Mobile device probably also has a printer. But do they “go together”? Probably not.

How can we bring these two together?

http://cloudprint.hpl.hp.com/

• What is CloudPrint?

CloudPrint is a new service that allows you to share, store and print documents easily using your mobile telephone.

• Does it cost anything?

It is absolutely free to use the CloudPrint service. How you get charged for SMS messages is between you and your mobile phone carrier.

• How do I print Web pages from my phone with SMS?

To print a Web page from your mobile phone, you can SMS the URL to +44 77814 88791. The URL should be in the body of the message. Recipients will receive a document code, just like if the Web page was printed from the PC virtual print driver.

• CloudPrint by Email!

Now you can email items to CloudPrint in addition to using the virtual printer driver. Just send emails with attachments to telephone_number@cloudprint.net. CloudPrint currently supports JPEG and PDF's, with more file formats supported soon. [ details ]

• Remote Print Monitor

Print to your own printer with the Remote Print Monitor. [ details ]

Today many people have good data plans for their Windows Mobile 6 devices. And many of those people are in situations where they would like to either share this connection with either other devices or other people.

So our phones are almost always with us, and we have lots of unlimited data plans available to us. But we want more. We want to be able to share this opportunity.

The question is how?

Here’s a great write up from LifeHacker.com:

Turn your Windows Mobile phone into a Wi-Fi router, providing any Wi-Fi-capable device access to your cell plan's data network, with freeware application WMWifiRouter. Install WMWifiRouter to your phone, run the application, and it automatically sets up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network named WMWifiRouter that you can connect your laptop—or any other wireless device—to without going through the regular pain involved in tethering an Internet connection to your mobile device. This application is for Windows Mobile 6 only.

Please note that WMWiFiRouter is now a commercial application available for 19.99. This is an updated and fully supported version.

But you can still download the earlier freeware version from the following location:

FreewarePocketPC.net: WMWifiRouter v0.89

You can’t have a pimped out ride with the factory sound system, and you can’t have a pimped out phone with the default themes.

Here are some of the best skins I know of. If you know of any others please share.

Name: Microsoft Voice Command Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

OrangeGlass VGA is a cool, new skin designed for VGA Pocket PCs. If you are tired of skins that mimic everything else under the sun, have a go of this. It is completely original, created from scratch with a close attention to detail and perfection.

Commercial $39.99

Note: You get this skin with Microsoft Voice Command. You can’t buy it separate.

Name: Vista Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

Glassy looking Vista windows media player skin with accessible interface and big buttons for finger control.

FREE

Name: Windows Medial Player 11 Window Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

The Windows Media player skin free for Windows Mobile Standard.

FREE

Name: Tweak Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

Introducing Tweak, the new skin from Twisted Pixels Multimedia that includes buttons with real life-like motion.

Commercial $1.99

Name: OrangeGlass Windows Mobile Media Player Skin

Description:

OrangeGlass VGA is a cool, new skin designed for VGA Pocket PCs. If you are tired of skins that mimic everything else under the sun, have a go of this. It is completely original, created from scratch with a close attention to detail and perfection.

Commercial $1.99

I had a problem where I needed to get an Enum, but all I had to work from was a string value of that Enum.

I’m not sure this is the best way to convert a string to an Enum. And that is one reason why I wanted to post this on my blog, so others could provide feedback and ideas. The other reason is so others can learn from what we know (and I’ll have it somewhere for the next time I need it ).

There is two pieces of useful information below. One is the Enum.Parse() method exists. And the other is a neat trick to get around having to deal with Enum.Parse()’s Type parameter.

Note: the method and the extension method will work in later versions of .NET and .NET Compact Framework.

Show me the method:

   1: public static T StringToEnum<T>(this string name)

   2: {

   3:     return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), name, true);

   4: }

Chublogga, one of our readers, asked could the StringToEnum method be made into an extension method. It can, see below.

Show me the extension method:

   1: using System;

   2: using System.Linq;

   3: using System.Collections.Generic;

   4: using System.Text;

   5: using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

   6:  

   7: namespace CraftExtensions

   8: {

   9:     public static class CraftExtensions

  10:     {

  11:         public static T StringToEnum<T>(this string name)

  12:         {

  13:             return (T)Enum.Parse(typeof(T), name, true);

  14:         }

  15:     } 

  16: }

Seamless video loops (that is, clips that play without a sharp cut when you loop them) are very useful in today’s media oriented world. And it seems like lately, I’ve been having to fight against this obstacle more and more.  It wasn’t too long ago that Page Brooks and I ran into this issue with a project at ACS Technologies. Recently, I had a friend of mine mention, he has some video he’d like to be able to play in a loop, but whenever the video repeats there is a flicker, which he doesn’t like. And I have an idea for doing some Windows Mobile development video, but I want to have a seamless looping video background.

I was taking some garbage to the dump the other day, and I had an epiphany:

How to Create Seamless Animation Loops from any Video:

Let’s say you have a video that is represented by the following three frames:

If you were to loop this video it wouldn’t look right because there would be a very noticeable flicker when the video moved from the last frame back to the first frame. I’ve made an animated gif to simulate this. It’s a little rough anyway since we are just using three frames, but I think you can get a feel for this issue I am discussing.

Non-seamless Animated Gif Example

Ok, now that you understand the issue fully, we can discuss the solution. It’s almost too simple. I’ll admit, you’ll always be able to create seamless animation video loops using this technique, but that doesn’t mean it’ll always be what you need, but for most video “FX” loops this is a great solution.

Seamless Animated Gif Example

Anytime you have video that is time agnostic, not sure what else to call it, then you can use this technique to make a seamless video loop:

Take your video loop, say “video loop 1”, and make a copy of it “video loop 2”. Now take “video loop 2” and reverse it. Combine “video loop 2” to the end of “video loop 1” and you’ll have made “seamless video 1”.

What would you be able to do with a browser that doesn’t suck? Just imagine all the possibilities.

Ok so what are our options for a Windows Mobile Browser that doesn’t suck?

Opera Mobile 9.5 is probably my favorite.

Deepfish may be a viable alternative to Opera, but Microsoft hasn't accepted new testers into their pool for many months, and hasn't updated their team blog since March 2007.

I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been on Twitter, but it is a decent bit. I know I am the 7943052 member to join, because that is my user id, and Twitter uses a simple auto-incrementing integer to assign member ids. You can find your user id, by checking the RSS link at the bottom of your Twitter home page. Here’s mine:

http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/7943052.rss

Feel free to follow me on Twitter if you like:

http://twitter.com/CJCraft

Not too long after joining, I decided I wanted to use a client application to access Twitter instead of the Web page. I decided to use Twhirl.

It’s a great little app, and it really does a great job of solving the “Accessing Twitter on the Desktop” problem. The only problem I have with it is for some reason after a certain amount of time passes the application disappears, and its tray icon disappears as well.

This has been really bothering me for a couple months now, and I haven’t been able to find a great solution for it. Up until now my solution has been to open the Windows Task Manager, and kill the process and restart it manually myself. This always works but is a bit of a pain, and means I could miss messages since client Twitter applications can only pull messages so far back.

I decided it was finally time to do something about this problem, or either find a new Twitter client.

After a little research, here is what I learned:

I learned on GetSatisfaction.com that this was a fairly common problem, and there wasn’t a great known solution for how to fix it, except on a Mac.

Apparently this an issue with Adobe Air and not Twhirl directly.

It amused me the solution was to right click the tray icon and select “Reset Windows”. Too bad I can’t see the tray icon on my system, lucky Mac users with your visible invisible icons.

People must REALLY like Twhirl because one user rebooted their computer 20 times, and then reformatted their disk to get Twhirl again, and they were upset with Adobe for this.

Here’s how to fix it

I decided to try Process Explorer. I had a feeling it would have an option to help me make the invisible visible again.

Process Explorer Official Overview

“Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.”

Process Explorer is to Windows Task Manager what Superman is to Clark Kent. In other words, it's the bomb. It’s actually useful.

All I had to do once I had Process Explorer installed and running was find and right click twhirl.exe, then click Window, and Bring to Front.

If you click on the Process Explorer image it will open a larger full sized version.

I hope this helps others in their fight to be able to use Twhirl once again. I only wished I had picked up my boxing gloves sooner. Hope to see you on Twitter soon!

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. And you probably know that I present at a lot of user groups and code camp, sometimes I even present on keyboard shortcuts. Recently I learned about some PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts that I didn’t already know and I decided to share them with my readers, since many of you also use PowerPoint to do your presentations.

Here are what I consider the “Top 10 PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts”:

Built-in PowerPoint Slide Show Cheat Sheet (Press F1 during Slide Show)

If you have a Windows Mobile device that can be upgraded to the newest version of Windows Mobile 6.1, then do so immediately.

Here are some phones that already support Windows Mobile 6.1, or will do so soon.

It’s the best version of Windows Mobile yet, and it has a lot of great new features to offer.

• Instant messaging-like texting
• Improved Internet browsing
• Simpler e-mail and Bluetooth setup
• New Home screen interface
• New Getting Started Center
• Security enhancements
• Easier Wi-Fi connection
• More personal choice

Plus it looks great too!

Newest version of Windows Mobile aka “The New Hotness”

Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional	Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard

We’ve come a LONG way since the first versions of Windows Mobile. Take a look below and see for yourself.

Previous versions of Windows Mobile aka “Old and Busted”:

By now you probably have seen the show Pimp My Ride from MTV. Each show consisted of taking one car in poor condition and restoring it, as well as customizing it. The same way this made a great car show for TV, I think it will make a great Windows Mobile series for my blog.

I’ll be sharing some of my best tips and tricks, and hopefully you will be too!

Check back every day for information on how to take your Windows Mobile phone from “Old and Busted” to becoming “The New Hotness”.

I thought it would be useful if I did a recap of all of the 31 tips and tricks from the 31 Days of Visual Studio Tips & Tricks. I hope it helps. I’ll post a follow up with all the user submitted tips soon!

Here’s the download link for the for the complete PowerPoint:

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx

PowerPoint Slide	Keyboard Shortcut
	Day 1   Show Shortcut Keys
	Day 2 Open Smart Tag Ctrl + . Open Smart Tag Ctrl + Shift + F10
	Day 3 Navigate Forwards Ctrl + – Navigate Backwards Ctrl + Shift + -
	Day 4   Tools, Options…, Display Line Numbers
	Day 5   Cycle Clipboard Ring Ctrl + Shift + V
	Day 6   Go to Definition F12
	Day 7   Go to Line Ctrl + G
	Day 8 Vertical Block Selection Alt + Mouse Shift + Alt + Right Arrow
	Day 9 View Properties Window F4 View Properties Window Alt + Enter
	Day 10 Comment Selection Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C Uncomment Selection Ctrl + K, Ctrl + U
	Day 11   Toggle Code / Design Views F7
	Day 12 Make Lowercase Ctrl + U Make Uppercase Ctrl + Shift + U
	Day 13   Incremental Search Ctrl + I
	Day 14   Ctrl + Tab Navigator Window Ctrl + Tab
	Day 15   View Object Browser Ctrl + Alt + J
	Day 16   Delete Line Ctrl + L Shift + Delete
	Day 17   Add New Item to Project Ctrl + Shift + A
	Day 18   Close Current Document Ctrl + F4
	Day 19   Toggle Breakpoint F9
	Day 20   Find All References Shift + F12
	Day 21 Move Cursor One Word Right Ctrl + Right Arrow Move Cursor One Word Left Ctrl + Left Arrow
	Day 22   The Rename Refactor Ctrl + R, R
	Day 23   Find All References Shift + F12
	Day 24   Format Document Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D
	Day 25   View Task List Ctrl + \, Ctrl + T
	Day 26   Find in Files Ctrl + Shift + F
	Day 27   Toggle Outlining Expansion Ctrl + M, Ctrl + M
	Day 28   Close All Documents Alt + W, L
	Day 29   Save Any Output Window Ctrl + S
	Day 30   Build Solution Ctrl + Shift + B
	Day 31   Reset Window Layout Alt, W, R

 A place for everything, everything in its place.
Benjamin Franklin

Many times I find that throughout my word day I have move and resized many of the various elements in the Visual Studio IDE. I might have expanded my properties windows, in order to see more of the property name. And I might have end up needing to shrink my toolbox window so I could see more of my code on the screen at one time. But sometimes you just want to hit reset and have everything go back to where it belongs.

Reset Window Layout

Alt, W, R

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

I came, I coded, I compiled. If only Julius Caesar had been a developer, maybe Duke Nukem Forever would be released by now. So you made a quick change and need to build the solution as fast as possible and get it to the QA department now. What is the fastest way to do this?

Build Solution

Ctrl + Shift + B

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Pretty cool tip I learned about today on Digital Inspiration.

Vista SP1 is a BIG update, and it does not remove any of the files it replaces. This is because Vista SP1 allows you to uninstall Vista SP1, and rollback to your previous version of Vista. Unless you are Chuck Norris, I have a feeling you aren’t going to even consider this. So why not reclaim this 800+ megabytes worth of hard drive space?

Windows Vista SP1 Clean Up Tool

Go to the command prompt, and simply enter the following: vsp1cln.exe. It is fast, and I’ve tried it on several machines so far.

Here’s the official Microsoft TechNet documentation

Windows Vista SP1 File Removal tool (Vsp1cln.exe). Vsp1cln.exe is an optional tool that you can run after you install SP1. This tool removes older versions of components that have been updated in SP1, which are stored during the installation in case you need to uninstall SP1 later. Saving these older components increases the amount of disk space that is used. Typically, you should run Vsp1cln.exe if you want to reclaim this disk space after applying SP1 and if you will not need to uninstall SP1. Note, however, that you cannot uninstall SP1 after you run this tool. You can use this tool both online and offline, but you must have SP1 installed and you must use the correct version of the tool. If you are running this file on an offline image, you should use the Vsp1cln.exe included in the Windows OPK or AIK. However, if you are running this file online (on a computer that you are booted into), you should use the Vsp1cln.exe file located at %windir%\system32\vsp1cln.exe.

Hope it helps!