Welcome to Pete Brown's 10rem.net

First time here? If you are a developer or are interested in Microsoft tools and technology, please consider subscribing to the latest posts.

You may also be interested in my blog archives, the articles section, or some of my lab projects such as the C64 emulator written in Silverlight.

(hide this)

Monthly Archives: October 2009

  • Showing Progress in the Windows 7 Taskbar with WPF 4 (and a short romp through Windows 7 cleartype settings)

    Have you ever copied a large number of files, or downloaded something big using IE? If so, you've probably seen the taskbar download progress indicator. This is a green progress bar that fills the area behind the application icon in the taskbar. You can achieve the same effect in Windows 7 using .NET 4, with very little code. Let's run through how. Project Setup I created a simpl...

  • The Win7 Sensor and Location API Part 1: Introduction and Freescale Board Setup and Testing

    I’ve always been interested in ways that your PC can reach outside itself and interact with things in the world. That’s what fueled my interest in CNC, as well as things like Lego robotics, and the new sensor and location API.When I was in Redmond for my first week, I sought out Gavin Gear and Dino Natucci, and chatted about the Sensors and Location platform. I saw some really cool ...

  • Easing Functions in WPF 4 (and Silverlight)

    One of my favorite design features added to WPF 4 is the ability to use easing functions with animation. Easing functions provide a way to liven up what would otherwise be pretty flat and boring animation. They provide acceleration/deceleration, and even bounce or spring to the approach into or departure from a key frame in an animation. Let's take a look at how to use easing functi...

  • Introducing the WPF 4 Calendar control

    WPF 4 now includes, in the core runtime libraries, the calendar control. This control previously existed only in the WPF Toolkit, but has been promoted in the latest WPF release. Inclusion in the core runtime library makes it easier to develop with  as there is no additional namespace declaration or reference required.The Calendar control is located in the System.Windows.Controls namespace...

  • Samson C01U microphone and Windows 7 (and Vista)

    Today I picked up a Samson C01U mic so that I can have better audio in my WindowsClient.net videos than I had in some previous screencasts. The mic is the same one that Scott Hanselman has used when recording podcasts from his setup. I spent the better part of the afternoon messing around with the mic, trying to get something with usable audio. The gain just seemed way too low, barely...

  • Welcome Windows 7 – See you at PDC09

    I couldn’t have picked a more exciting time to join Microsoft. .NET 4 Beta 2 and the first version of Visual Studio to use WPF were both just released, MSDN has been relaunched with a better theme and content, and today, Windows 7 officially hit the stores. Windows 7 is, to me, the most exciting release of Windows since Windows 95. While I’m one of those folks who never ran into any real issu...

  • My new netbook er.. notebook er.. computer

    My old laptop had to be returned to my employee when I left my job at the end of September. That left me with no computer to carry around, and with my Microsoft NEO coming up the week of the 12th, that just wasn’t going to do. I needed something decent, but cheap; Something I could lug around the airport without any trouble, and open on the cramped plane. I’m a big guy, so big laptops on tray ...