Hempology

I'm on a break here at TechEd in Orlando. Next session starting soon, so this will be a short post.

I just wanted to let everyone (all zero of you who read this) know that I decided to record my thoughts throughout this conference - and I'm using Twitter to do it.

So, if you like, feel free to follow me.

If you think my blog posts are random then my tweets (that's really what they're called) promise to be even more so... No idea if I'll continue my tweeting after the conference ends, but for the time being it's a fun way for me to communicate without actually having anyone I know around to talk to!

Actually there is at least one person I know here, a former colleague named Carlos, but amongst the moving mass of 6,000 geeks - it's a little tricky to pick one out. I assure you, though, if I do manage to hook up with he or anyone else, Twitter will let you know.

A little patience and persistence usually pays off. I had a feeling if I waited a few more days, someone would identify and publicize a work-around for the Live Writer 64-bit issue. Sure enough, here it is.

In fact I am writing this post from my Vista x64 workstation using Windows Live Writer Beta 3. Honestly, not much has changed (of the things I care about) since Beta 2, so I may not bother upgrading my other machines. At any rate, I'm a little happier with Live Writer, but still thoroughly disappointed with the Windows Live Team's decision to alienate their 64-bit users.

[Update: On 9/14/07 I posted a follow up]

Since I started this blog I've been using a free tool from Microsoft called Windows Live Writer to do all my authoring and publishing. Live Writer retreives all the style information from your blog so as your composing an entry it looks visually just like it will once it's published. As a result, I can work on my entries over several days, weeks, or in a few cases even months. Until I'm satisfied with the content, I just keep the draft saved on my PC. I use another free tool from Microsoft called FolderShare to keep copies of those drafts synchronized on my work computer, home computer, and laptop. That arrangement has worked really well. But back to the point.

My new work machine totally rocks. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB ram, two SATA-II, perpendicular recording (seriously, you must watch that video) Seagate hard-drives, dual 20" widescreen LCD monitors, etc, etc. It also, which was a bit of a surprise to me, is running Windows Vista x64 Ultimate Editition. The key point there is "x64" which means it's a 64-bit operating system. That's great from both a performance and security standpoint, but it often creates issues with some software that isn't compatible with 64-bit systems.

One company that has been very good about providing 64-bit compatible software is Microsoft. Not terribly surprising given that they're one of the major players pushing 64-bit environments on the computing world. Other companies, especially hardware manufacturers and anti-virus makers have had a harder time rolling out 64-bit ready software.

That is why I was so very, very surprised to find that the latest release of Windows Live Writer (Beta 3) does not include support for Vista x64. It says so right here (at the very bottom). I really hope that it's just a beta issue and they are planning to support 64-bit in future releases.

In the meantime, what frustrates me the most is that when they updated the download links for Beta 3, they also took down the links for Beta 2. Which means I can't even install the old version which does support 64-bit Vista. Oye!

If you can't tell ... I'm really irked by this. And yes, I did leave the Live Writer team some "feedback".

I'll go digging through the download folders on my other machines and see if I can locate a Beta 2 installer. But if not, well, my ability and desire to edit blog entries at work will definitely suffer.

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