Netflix and Vista Media Center
by liquidpooled on May.22, 2009, under Media Center, Microsoft, Netflix, News, Silverlight, Vista
Microsoft recently recently released/pushed out a new add-on for interacting with Netflix, allowing for the viewing of “instant” movies from within the Media Center 10ft. UI.
One quirk that you may run into is that videos are not playing after installation. You might need to break out the keyboard, as Silverlight will have opened a dialog behind the Media Center window asking you to enable protected content. Once that hurdle is crossed, it should be smooth sailing.
Netflix in Windows Media Center
[Microsoft Windows: Netflix in Windows Media Center]
[via Hacking Netflix]
SharePoint Audience Targeting Quirk
by liquidpooled on Apr.22, 2009, under Microsoft, Office, Sharepoint Server
I recently ran into a strange quirk/bug when setting a target audience on a web part. In the particular site collection where the web part resides, a number of cross-site groups exist.
For the sake of example, imagine that the site collection has several cross-site groups with simlar names. Ex:
- IT
- IT Designers
- IT Administrators
When targeting the web part to either the IT Designers or IT Administrators cross-site group, the web part is able to correctly apply the audience. However, when the IT group is used, the web part configuration for audiences is unable to determine the correct group when the web part is rendered on the page.
It would appear that when selecting a target audience (if it is a SharePoint group), the group name must be unique and not contain a portion of another group name. In my case, while the IT group name is unique, the IT Designers and IT Administrators groups also contain the string “IT”.
iTunes Rocks!
by liquidpooled on Apr.21, 2009, under Apple, iPhone, iTunes
Just kidding. iTunes is still on my list of most hated pieces of software due to the results such as the following:
If only I could find a way to buy apps when my iPhone is dead and I don’t want to wait to download them. It would be better yet if my iPhone could make it through a full day of use without needing a recharge.
SharePoint Designer - The Cat Is Out of the Bag
by liquidpooled on Apr.02, 2009, under Microsoft, News, Office, SharePoint Designer, Sharepoint Server, Windows SharePoint Services
Today marks the official release of SharePoint Designer as a free product offering from Microsoft. While overall, this announcement can certainly be considered a good thing by the SharePoint community (who doesn’t like free stuff?), as a SharePoint “administrator” it makes me cringe. It is a good thing all of us have “locked down” SharePoint Designer in our respective environments.
You did remember to lock down, didn’t you?
[Download]