Month / September 2008

by Aaron

A "low bandwidth" mode for MSDN?

Via Jon’s blog, “MSDN Low Bandwidth Bookmarklet.” There’s an experimental mode of MSDN that significantly reduces the page size for a typical MSDN entry.

You can try it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.array(loband).aspx.

Notice the “(loband)” in the URL? That’s the secret. Jon created a bookmarklet which turns on and off the feature via a cookie.

I noticed that if I navigate to system.array in the low bandwidth mode, it takes about 1.5 seconds to load the page completely. When the normal page loads, it takes about 6 seconds on my 1.5Mb DSL connection.

I’d like to see a few different modes/options to speed up MSDN:

  • Tree-less: I don’t use the tree feature much on the web, I could live without it usually. Opt-in please.
  • “Chrome-less”. Just give me MSDN, without the tabs, logos, etc. I don’t use them. You can leave search though — that can be useful. (Although, Google often does a better job!)
  • Load only my language selection (not all languages). I never use VB.NET for example.
  • Delay load: inheritance, platforms, version, and see also sections.
by Aaron

Oh my Ducks! Ducks!

image

I’m not sure which of the following was funnier when my wife and I saw the car shown above in a Target parking lot early this evening:

a) a car with a bunch of plastic beads emulating water and rubber ducks

or

b) when I announced, “this is why I carry a camera everywhere” to which my wife replied, “you do?!”

by Aaron

Vacation Photos from New York State

imageMy wife and I went to New York State for a brief vacation and family visit recently. I’ve posted a few shots from around the trip on SmugMug here.  If the GPS tags were successfully exported from Lightroom 2 to the JPEGs, most shots are geotagged if you’re curious as to where they were specifically taken. New York has some nice state parks at the southern tip of the Finger Lakes if you’re in to waterfalls and scenic hikes. 

image Given the Frank Lloyd Wright-esque nature of our home and the arts and crafts nature of much of our furniture, we visited the Roycroft Campus and also Graycliff (a FLW designed home).