Exactly one year ago I got my first Windows Phone. Since then a lot has change and Windows Phone has really improved.

After the first update, called NoDo, I could leave my iPhone 4 behind and change to the HTC 7 Trophy. Of course the hardware was nowhere near the iPhone 4 but the Windows Phone OS was just great. Now one year later there is a lot of good Windows Phone hardware out there and the Windows Phone OS has improved with Mango.

I am sure there will be a lot more great Windows Phone stuff in the future.

After some years with my Apple MacBook Pro its time for a new notebook. Now since my work now is really in the Microsoft field, it does not really make sence to buy a MacBook Pro again. So first I check out the new Dell Latitude E-Series, and now HP released the new Elitebook Workstations.

Now I don’t really like the new HP Elitebook p-series, but I really like the black desgin of the ProBook or the new gunmetal black of the Elitebook w-series.

What is important for me:

• Screen resolution – 1600 x 900 or even 1920 x 1200
• battery – life 6 hours or more
• Size 14 inch or 15 inch
• cool desgin
• docking station
• multiple monitor support

If you need more information you can get them here.

I am thinking about buying a new notebook with Intels new processor generation Sandy Bridge. As I work more and more with Windows systems and also do presentations about our Microsoft Solutions, a MacBook Pro isn’t really a option. I also had a look at  the new HP EliteBooks but I don’t really like the new desgin.

So I checked what Dell has to offer and voila. I really like the desgin of the new Dell Latitude E-Series.

Hotmail or Windows Live do support ActiveSync for Mobile Devices like Windows Phone 7, iOS, Blackberry and so on. But it does not support Desktop Clients like Mac OS X Mail, iCal and Apple Address Book. For Windows Computers with Outlook I recommend using Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector.

So if you wanna setup your Hotmail account as an Exchange account instead of a POP3 account on your iPhone, thats how you do it.

1. Open Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars and tab on “Add Account…”
2. Now you get a menu for adding accounts, here tab on Microsoft Exchange
   
3. Now add your Email address and account name (your account name is the same as your email address
   
4. Tab on next, you will get again the menu with the account data. Now add the Server m.hotmail.com
   
5. Now you can Sync Mail, Contacts and Calendars from your Hotmail Account with your iPhone
   

Some days ago, I made a post about “How to use Microsoft Sharepoint Workspace 2010 with Genotec Hosted Sharepoint“. If you work on a Mac you can also use Microsoft Document Connection for Mac, which is included in Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac.

This shows you how you can use Document Connection for Mac with Hosted Sharepoint from Genotec.

1. Start Microsoft Document Connection and connect to a SharePoint Site
   
2. Add the  Addresse of your hosted Sharepoint Site
   
3. Add your Credentials
   
4. And now you are connected to your Site Collection
   

In the last days I worked with Powershell and ComObjects. It turned out that iTunes is a really good exmaple for using ComObjects with Powershell, thats why I wrote this little Script.
Powershell iTunes is a Powershell script which lets you control iTunes over Powershell.

Howto:

1. Download Powershellitunes.zip
2. Extract the Files where ever you wanna save the powershell script
3. Run the script
   
4. Now you can run the Powershell Cmdlets

Powershell iTunes Commands:

• Start-iTunes
• Close-iTunes
• Play-Track
• Pause-Track
• Resume-Track
• Back-Track
• Next-Track
• Mute-Track
• Unmute-Track
• Show-iTunesVersion
• Set-VolumeDown
• Set-VolumeUp
• Set-Volume

The Script:

#
#*****************************************************************
#
# Powershell iTunes v1 $Rev: 754 $
# (c) 2004-2010 Thomas Maurer. All rights reserved.
# created by Thomas Maurer
#
# http://www.thomasmaurer.ch
# http://www.thomasmaurer.ch/projects
#
# last Update by $Author: tmaurer $ on $Date: 2010-11-24 07:50:06 +0100 (Mi, 24 Nov 2010) $
#
# Version 1.0.1
#
#*****************************************************************
#

# Welcome
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "    ____                               __         ____            " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "   / __ \____ _      _____  __________/ /_  ___  / / /            " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "  / /_/ / __ \ | /| / / _ \/ ___/ ___/ __ \/ _ \/ / /             " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host " / ____/ /_/ / |/ |/ /  __/ /  (__  ) / / /  __/ / /              " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "/_/    \____/|__/|__/\___/_/  /____/_/ /_/\___/_/_/               " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "    _ ______                                                      " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "   (_)_  __/_  ______  ___  _____                                 " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "  / / / / / / / / __ \/ _ \/ ___/                                 " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host " / / / / / /_/ / / / /  __(__  )                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "/_/ /_/  \__,_/_/ /_/\___/____/                                   " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "******************************************************************" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host " Welcome to the Powershell iTunes                                 " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host " (c) 2010 Thomas Maurer www.thomasmaurer.ch/projects              " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "******************************************************************" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host " for Help use the Get-PSiTunesHelp                                " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
Write-Host "                                                                  " -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White

# Add ComObjects to $iTunes
$iTunes = New-Object -ComObject iTunes.Application

# Function to start itunes
function Start-iTunes {
    process {

		$iTunesRunning = Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.ProcessName -eq "iTunes"}
		if(!$iTunesRunning) {
			$script:iTunes = New-Object -ComObject iTunes.Application
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes started" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes allready running" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to close itunes
function Close-iTunes {
    process {

		$iTunesRunning = Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.ProcessName -eq "iTunes"}
		if(!$iTunesRunning) {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes not running" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
		else {
			Stop-Process $iTunesRunning.Id
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes closed" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to play a song
function Play-Track {
    process {
		if ($iTunes.Playerstate -eq "0"){
			$iTunes.Play()
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Now playing:" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Name "from" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Artist -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Already playing Track:" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Name "from" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Artist -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to stop a song
function Pause-Track {
    process {
        if ($iTunes.Playerstate -eq "1"){
			$iTunes.Pause()
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes paused" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor Red
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Not playing any track" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to resume a song
function Resume-Track {
    process {
    	if ($iTunes.Playerstate -eq "0"){
			$iTunes.Play()
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Now playing:" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Name "from" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Artist -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Already playing Track:" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Name "from" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Artist -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to go a song back
function Back-Track {
    process {
	$iTunes.BackTrack()
	Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Now playing:" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Name "from" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Artist -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
	}
}

# Function to go to the next
function Next-Track {
    process {
	$iTunes.NextTrack()
	Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Now playing:" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Name "from" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Artist -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
	}
}

# Function to get infos about the current track
function Get-CurrentTrack {
    process {
	Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Currently playing:" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Name "from" $iTunes.CurrentTrack.Artist -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
	}
}

# Function to mute itunes
function Mute-iTunes {
    process {
        if($itunes.Mute -eq $false) {
			$itunes.Mute = $true
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes muted" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor Red
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes already muted" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to unmute itunes
function Unmute-iTunes {
    process {
    	if($itunes.Mute -eq $true) {
			$itunes.Mute = $false
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes unmuted" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes already unmuted" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to set iTunes volume up
function Set-VolumeUP {
    process {
		if($iTunes.SoundVolume -lt 100) {
			$iTunes.SoundVolume = $iTunes.SoundVolume + 2
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes Volume" $iTunes.SoundVolume -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes Volume is already 100%" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to set iTunes volume down
function Set-VolumeDown {
    process {
		if($iTunes.SoundVolume -gt 0) {
			$iTunes.SoundVolume = $iTunes.SoundVolume - 2
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes Volume" $iTunes.SoundVolume -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes Volume is already 0%" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to set iTunes
function Set-Volume {
	param (
		[int]$Volume
	)
    process {
		if($Volume -ge 0 -and $Volume -le 100) {
			$iTunes.SoundVolume = $Volume
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes Volume" $iTunes.SoundVolume -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor green
		}
		else {
			Write-Host "(PS iTunes): Volume has to be 0-100" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor red
		}
	}
}

# Function to show the Version of iTunes
function Show-iTunesVersion {
    process {
	Write-Host "(PS iTunes): iTunes Version" $iTunes.version -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor White
	}
}

# Function to show the Version of iTunes
function get-PSiTunesHelp {
    process {
	Write-Host " "
	Write-Host " Powershell iTunes Help"
	Write-Host " "
	Write-Host "********************************************************"
	Write-Host " "
	Write-Host " Commands"
	Write-Host " "
	Write-Host " Start-iTunes			Starts iTunes"
	Write-Host " Close-iTunes			Closes iTunes"
	Write-Host " Play-Track			Plays a iTunes Track"
	Write-Host " Pause-Track			Pauses a iTunes Track"
	Write-Host " Resume-Track			Resumes a iTunes Track"
	Write-Host " Back-Track			Go to the last iTunes Track"
	Write-Host " Next-Track			Plays next iTunes Track"
	Write-Host " Mute-Track			Mutes iTunes"
	Write-Host " Unmute-Track			Unmutes iTunes"
	Write-Host " Show-iTunesVersion		Shows iTunes Version"
	Write-Host " Set-VolumeDown			Set Volume Down"
	Write-Host " Set-VolumeUp			Set Volume Up"
	Write-Host " Set-Volume			Set iTunes Volume (0-100)"
	}
}

I released this here: http://www.thomasmaurer.ch/projects/powershell-itunes/

A colleague made a pretty cool blog post about svn basic on his blog. Subverion is a software versioning and a revision control system. At work all our program code and scripts, every little piece of code is going in your Subversion repository. This allows you to get back to earlier revisions of the code or simply share and work on code with other employees. Even your documentation is going into the Subversion repository.

On his blog post (German) he shows the basics of subversion, doing a checkout of e repository, adding files, changing files, removing files and more.

Here is a basic list of svn commands, if you need more information you should check the Subversion Homepage or try the Blog post from tspycher.com

svn checkout  http://svn.colab.company.com # SVN checkout
svn commit -m "My Message and Changes" # SVN committing changes and new files
svn add /files/*.* # Adding Files to the SVN Repository after this you have to commit that
svn update # Update your local copy

A lot of IDE’s (Integrated Development Environment) like Visual Studio or Xcode have SVN integrated.

I tried to install Windows 7 Enterprise Edition x64 on older iMac at work with Bootcamp. After booting from the Windows 7 DVD I got the following error:

“Select CD-Rom Boot Type:_”

Now with this steps you can solve this issue by creating an new Windows 7 ISO image (I found this solution on Fluxbox.co.uk) :

1. Create this 3 folders: C:\Windows7exe, C:\Windows7iso and C:\Windows7dvd
2. Download oscdimg.exe and save it into C:\Windows7exe
3. Copy the Content of a Windows 7 DVD or ISO to C:\Windows7iso
4. Open the DOS prompt and navigate to the C:\Windows7exe directory (the place where oscdimg.exe was saved)
5. Run the oscdimg.exe with the following parameters:
   oscdimg -n -m -bc:\windows7iso\boot\etfsboot.com c:\windows7iso c:\windows7dvd\windows7dvd.iso
6. Burn the new windows7dvd.iso to a DVD and boot this with the Bootcamp installer.

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO; killall DockIf you like the old or classic Dock Style from Mac OS X 10.4 you can enable this in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and in Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) Dock:

Mac OS X 10.6 (Leopard) Dock:

1. Open Mac OS X Terminal in the Utilities folder
2. Run the following command in the Terminal
   defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock
3. Now you have the classic Dock activated

If you want to activate the new glass Dock again, you can use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO; killall Dock