Random Tool Musings

Submitted by Robert MacLean on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 19:56
This is a little different from my regular scheduled blog posting in that it's kind of a +1 post (I promise I am not becoming one of those blogs) because there is a bunch of things I wanted to speak about but they each don't need their own post.
First off is pptFlex which is an add-on for PowerPoint which provides a DeepZoom (those at the TechEd closing know what I mean) like experience with your slide deck. It's an Office Lab add-in so a prototype that will never see the main stream. After a touch of configuration (select  backdrop, transition between slides, configuring sections) it appears to generate an XPS render of the slides with cool transitions but as XPS doesn't support animation that is the first (and biggest) loss in functionality when compared to normal PowerPoiunt. At the end of the day I doubt it will be shipped, but I think we may see these sort of transitions appearing in Office "13".
In my upcoming post on shrinking a VHD, I briefly mention that I reclaimed the disk space by emptying the SQL log file. That is a bad idea for most systems for many a reason beyond my non SQL guru mind, but if you are interested in how to do it anyway see the following article which is what I used my guidance: http://madhuottapalam.blogspot.com/2008/05/faq-how-to-truncate-and-shrink.html
Lastly there have been updates to some of my favorite tools, first from Microsoft namely StyleCop and FxCop which both are everyone. That’s very positive news especially since FxCop has been a bit stagnent but the news about another favorite tool, Reflector being taken over by RedGate (see here) does worry me. I do not think they will kill it or kill a free version but I am worried about two versions coming out (pay and free) with pay being all the features and new stuff and free being crippled or not getting enhancements. Only time will tell...