Matevž Gačnik's Weblog

Today we launched our first public Windows Vista Sidebar gadget.

In v1, we support Slovenian radio stations. The radio station list is centralized (dynamically retrieved), but there is a way to persuade the gadget to use any of your radio feeds, if you know how to develop Windows Sidebar gadgets.

Gadget supports English and Slovenian locale, so fellow citizens should get a nice Slovenian UI when Windows Vista Slovenian MUI ships.

There are more gadgets coming out of our dev labs. Stay tuned.

Download here:

• Slovenian readers: http://vista.gama-system.com
• English readers: http://vista.gama-system.com/?cat=1&lang=eng

Our gadgets are and will be free, so spread the news.

Update: New radio stations available [2006-12-05]

We made a bunch of new radio stations available. Currently we support Radio Antena, Radio Študent, Radio Belvi, Radio Dur, Radio Ekspress, Radio Hit, Radio Ognjišče, Radio Sora, Radio Center (Ljubljana), Radio Center (Maribor), Radio Geoss, Radio Rogla, Radio Capris, Radio Energy, Radio Odmev, Studio D, Radio Robin, Radio Kranj, Moj Radio, Radio Bakla, Radio SiOL and Radio SiOL Klub.

Update: Version 1.0.0.3 available [2006-12-08]

Minor bugfixes and design changes.

Update: Version 1.0.0.4 available [2007-04-24]

Minor bugfixes, default radio list was integrated. Radio list is still dynamically retrieved when there is a new list version available.

Update: New radio stations available [2007-08-06]

We made a bunch of new radio stations available. Currently we support Radio Antena, Radio Študent, Radio Belvi, Radio Dur, Radio Ekspress, Radio Hit, Radio Ognjišče, Radio Sora, Radio Center (Ljubljana), Radio Center (Maribor), Radio Geoss, Radio Rogla, Radio Capris, Radio Energy, Radio Odmev, Studio D, Radio Robin, Radio Kranj, Moj Radio, Radio Bakla, Radio A1, Val 202, Radio Si, Radio Maribor, Radio Koper, Radio Capodistria, Radio ARS, Muravidek Magyar Radio, Radio SiOL and Radio SiOL Klub. 30+ radio stations and counting!

Disclaimer: We are tracking usage. Anonymously of course.

This must be one of the best Channel 9 interviews of all time.

Rory did make quite an effort to handle the guys, but at building 42, what can you expect.

It all seems as the Brady Bunch of Microsoft on tape, but they sure did ship the most important Microsoft technology stack of the decade.

Well done on both parts.

If you haven't installed it yet, do it now.

New York Times Times Reader. Available here. It's a great Vista/WPF application, showing the possibilities of next-gen user experience.

Here's a quick glance of the front page.

Watch out for this, my fellow citizens:

Via ZDNet News.com

The once-daily shiproom meetings have become twice-a-day events as the
product has neared completion. Projected onto a screen is a list of
unresolved issues that need to be addressed before Vista can leave. There
were about five dozen such issues at a meeting last Wednesday morning.

Sven Hallauer, who heads up the process, moved quickly through the list as
about 40 programmers, nearly all with a laptop in tow, worked to keep up. At
each sticking-point, the person responsible for tracking the issue gave a
one-sentence report on where things were.

In one case, there was a bug in the Slovenian release of Vista. It was
quickly tabled as not pressing, given that Slovenian is not in the first or
even second wave of localized versions of Vista. Other reports came in--this
software program has a hitch, this particular laptop has trouble waking up
from sleep.

Huh? It seems we're getting an added value version.

It took a loooong time.

Now, Vista is done.

The OS, including .NET Framework 3.0, RTMed.

Microsoft is currently kicking Apple's ass.

Well, this was a bold statement. Let me rephrase.

Microsoft is winning the battle for the living room. It is well known, that whoever wins this battle is going to win the war for 'Complete Media Experience'. Microsoft's strategy is based on Xbox 360, Zune, Windows Media Center and Windows Vista.

On November 22^nd one will be able to watch a TV show, sync with Zune, play music/games and stream videos on an Xbox.

Apple should be doing this, but they are late in the game. A full screen iPod is lagging. So is iTV. There is still no product in the public pipeline that could compete with Media Center. It's video offering is, at this time, shameful.

It's going to be a fun 2007.

-- This post was written on my iMac. Just to balance out the subjectivity.

There were a couple of sunsets lying around on Rožnik yesterday.

Thought I would make them available, because they make quite a desktop wallpaper.

Download: Here [Nikon D200, Nikkor VR 18-200 DX]