About a week ago, Microsoft released Zune 2.5, the latest update for the Zune media management software.  Apparently this software update adds in some functionality that was previously removed (smart playlists) and adds quite a bit of new functions.

Other than the addition of smart playlists, Zune 2.5 didn’t really add any functionality that I envision myself using very often.  I found a very good, accurate review of the new software and firmware on Paul Thurrott’s Web site.

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Apparently, Microsoft released the public version of the first service pack for Windows Vista about two weeks ago (it seems a beta was initially released in August or September of last year). Although I have my computer set to automatically check for and install updates every night, my box, for some reason, did not pick this one up on its own.

Instead, when I came home from work the other day, I found that my computer had “recovered from an unexpected shutdown”. When I clicked on the link to check for solutions, I was informed that the problem should be fixed with Vista Service Pack 1.

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The other day, I discovered a minor inconvenience in the way MS Access handles the “Yes/No” (or boolean) data type.

You should be aware, when working with MS Access, that any “Yes/No” field in your table can only accept boolean true and boolean false (or “true” and “false”, “yes” and “no”, 1 and 0, etc.). It will not accept NULL.

Standard programming practice is, when there is not a “default” value for a field, to insert NULL if the user does not explicitly declare a value. Unfortunately, the fact that Access throws an error if you try to insert NULL into a “Yes/No” field really puts a damper on that logic.

As the title says, this is just a quick warning for people that may be using MS Access for their databases. I’m not sure if the same is true for MS SQL or not, but it’s obviously a non-factor with MySQL, since MySQL doesn’t offer a boolean data type.

I’ve seen a lot of articles on the Internet explaining how to export a page to Excel using VBScript. Unfortunately, they all seem to have problems in their methodology.

Many of the articles are helpful, but they don’t seem to include all of the information you need in order to export HTML content successfully from a VBScript page into an Excel document.

I’ve finally found a method to successfully export my data to Excel, and I hope it will help some of you, too.

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Well, I’ve now had a Zune 2.0 80 gig digital media player for a little while, and I’m ready to offer up my review.

First of all, let me preface this review by getting the following facts out in the open:

1. I, personally, have only owned one other digital media player, which was a Toshiba Gigabeat F-40 (which was actually an early predecessor of the Zune). I have a bit of experience with a Creative Zen and using a PSP as a digital media player, too.
2. I have extremely limited experience with iPods, so I can’t comment too much on how the Zune’s features compare to the iPod’s
3. Although I am in many cases anti-Microsoft and to a certain extent pro-Mac; I am, oddly enough, pro-Zune and very much anti-iPod.

Now that I’ve explained my limitations and biases, it’s time to move on with the review.

What’s in the box?

The 80 gig Zune comes with the Zune itself, a user’s manual, a pair of “premium” headphones and a Zune sync cable. It’s quite a step down from the box my Gigabeat F-40 came in (which included a cradle, a software CD and a remote control, too), but it seems fairly standard for today’s media players.

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Microsoft has posted a new announcement regarding several updates to how they handle APIs, documentation and interoperability today. The announcement is regarding the following products: Windows Vista (including the .NET Framework), Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007. The four principles that have been declared are:

1. ensuring open connections
2. promoting data portability
3. enhancing support for industry standards
4. fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

Please check out all of the live call notes on our sister site CenterNetworks.