I was listening to Windows Weekly on my Zune this morning, and Paul’s Pick of the Week was the Bing Dynamic Theme, which dynamically displays new photos from Bing as your desktop background.   Awesome… this is just like Webshots back in the day! (Errr… I guess they are still around at http://www.webshots.com/.  We’ll use that information in a second.)

When downloading the theme, I noticed that it is only 1.86KB.  That’s a small file… it must be doing some magic behind the scenes to download the actual pictures.  That large RSS symbol in the thumbnail is a pretty big hint as to where they come from.  I downloaded the theme to my desktop, opened it in Notepad, and the structure is rather clear (and fully documented on MSDN here: Creating and Installing Theme Files.  The theme file basically says to keep the icons and sound effects as their defaults, and to download pictures from an RSS feed. 

So…  if you want to make your own theme with pictures off the Internet, just copy the following text, paste it into Notepad, and change the 3 highlighted areas (the Display Name is what shows up in the Theme control panel as the name for the theme.  The RSS feed at the bottom must have  the pictures as enclosure.

; Copyright © Microsoft Corp.

[Theme]
; Windows 7 - IDS_THEME_DISPLAYNAME_AERO
DisplayName=Bing Dynamic

; Computer - SHIDI_SERVER
[CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon]
DefaultValue=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-109

; UsersFiles - SHIDI_USERFILES
[CLSID\{59031A47-3F72-44A7-89C5-5595FE6B30EE}\DefaultIcon]
DefaultValue=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-123

; Network - SHIDI_MYNETWORK
[CLSID\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}\DefaultIcon]
DefaultValue=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-25

; Recycle Bin - SHIDI_RECYCLERFULL SHIDI_RECYCLER
[CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon]
Full=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-54
Empty=%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-55

[Control Panel\Cursors]
AppStarting=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_working.ani
Arrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_arrow.cur
Hand=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_link.cur
Help=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_helpsel.cur
No=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_unavail.cur
NWPen=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_pen.cur
SizeAll=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_move.cur
SizeNESW=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nesw.cur
SizeNS=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ns.cur
SizeNWSE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nwse.cur
SizeWE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ew.cur
UpArrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_up.cur
Wait=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_busy.ani
DefaultValue=Windows Aero

[Sounds]
; IDS_SCHEME_DEFAULT
SchemeName=Windows Default

[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=10
Pattern=

[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
ColorizationColor=0X45409EFE
Transparency=1
VisualStyleVersion=10
Composition=1

[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

[Slideshow]
Interval=20000
Shuffle=1
RSSFeed=http://themeserver.microsoft.com/default.aspx?p=Bing&c=Desktop&m=en-US
[boot]
SCRNSAVE.EXE=

Save the file with an extension of  .theme  Double-click it, confirm that you want to download attachments, and it will install itself and start downloading pictures as your desktop background.

Once the pictures are downloaded, you can go in and choose how often they cycle, change how they are displayed (cropped, filled, stretched, etc)

So where to get RSS feeds with pictures?  A couple of ideas:

Webshots has a feed of their featured photos here: http://www.webshots.com/rss?type=featuredPhotos
NASA’s image of the day feed is here: http://www.nasa.gov/rss/lg_image_of_the_day.rss

Flickr will let you create an RSS feed of any photo stream (their documentation is here), but the easy way to do it is from any photostream on Flickr, click the RSS icon on the toolbar in Internet Explorer, and choose the option for the Photostream RSS feed.

You’ll get a URL that looks like: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157602630362180&nsid=36114439@N00&lang=en-us&format=rss_200

Add _enc  to the end (which adds the pictures as enclosures to the feed, so you end up with something like: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157602630362180&nsid=36114439@N00&lang=en-us&format=rss_200_enc

Paste that in to your theme definition, save it, install it, and you’ll have a desktop background that pulls from that Flickr Phototream.

If you have any other good Photo RSS feeds, post them in the comments!

By default, Internet Explorer 8 has the Refresh and Stop buttons on the right side of the address bar.  I’m used to having them there.

However, if you use alternative browsers, you may prefer to have those buttons on the OTHER side of your address bar

It turns out that you can move them in IE.  Just right-click in an empty spot next to your tabs, and choose Customize –> Show Stop and Refresh Buttons before Address Bar.

Voila!

I’m not sure why this isn’t documented, but thought I’d share the solution in case someone is looking to create an image map with SharePoint Designer 2010.  To set the stage, I’ll borrow shamelessly from the article showing how to do this with FrontPage 2003- Create an image map:

A picture with one or more clickable areas or hot spots (hot spot: An area on an object containing a hyperlink. An entire object can be a single hot spot, or an object can contain multiple hot spots. A picture with hot spots is called an image map.) is called an image map.

The automobile image map in the illustration includes three hot spots, each of which links to a separate page that provides more information about that specific feature — windshields, headlights, or wheels and tires.

In SharePoint Designer 2010, all you need to do is open page and select the picture (that you want to add an image map to).  At the top of the Ribbon, click on Picture Tools –> Format –> Hotspot, and then add in whatever hotspots you want (after adding the hotspot, you will be prompted for the URL you are linking to).

Note: This will not work on Publishing Pages, as SharePoint Designer will only let you edit the layout of publishing pages, and not the content.

Did I fit enough acronyms (or as my editor friend corrects me… initialisms) in the title there? ;)

• WPF = Windows Presentation Foundation
• RTW = Released to Web
• FTW = For the Win

I see over on the WPF Blog that the Ribbon (first introduced in Office 2007) has been released for you (the developer) to include in your applications.  Many great screenshots at the WPF Blog Post.  From the description:

This release is a managed implementation of the Ribbon for WPF. The Ribbon is a command bar that organizes the features of an application into a series of tabs at the top of the application window, is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. The Ribbon user interface (UI) increases discoverability of features and functions, enables quicker learning of the application, and helps users feel more in control of their experience with the application. The Ribbon replaces the traditional menu bar and toolbars.

The download includes design-time support for Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4, the Ribbon source code for reference, and the following samples:

• RibbonWindow Wordpad Sample
  This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a RibbonWindow that emulates the Wordpad appearance. To run this scenario:
• RibbonWindow MVVM Sample This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a RibbonWindow that is completely populated from a view-model collection. To run this scenario:
• RibbonBrowser Wordpad sample This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a browser window that emulates the Wordpad appearance. To run this scenario:
• RibbonBrowser MVVM sample This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a browser window that is completely populated from a view model collection. To run this scenario:

Resources

• Download Microsoft Ribbon for WPF
• Ribbon Documentation on MSDN

If you haven’t had a chance to play around with Windows Azure yet, I just stumbled across a ton of learning resources, a Virtual Lab, and a free one month trial (that does not require a credit card:

• Virtual Lab: Windows Azure
• Windows Azure One Month Pass USA
• Windows Azure Developer Portal

• Download Microsoft Web Platform Installer

• Download Windows Azure Platform Training Kit

• Download Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

• Web Seminars: Everything You Need to Know About Azure as a Developer

• Web Seminars: PHP and the Windows Azure Platform

About this Lab

In this virtual lab, you will create a fully functional Windows Azure application from scratch. In the process, you will become familiar with several important components of the Windows Azure architecture including Web Roles, Worker Roles, and Windows Azure storage. You will also learn how to integrate a Windows Azure application with Windows Live ID authentication, and you’ll learn how to store relational data in the cloud using SQL Azure.

The first few minutes of the virtual lab are designed to get you up to speed quickly – you’ll install the appropriate development tools and create a new Windows Azure application using Visual Studio 2008. Within 15 minutes, you’ll have a .NET Web application deployed to the cloud using the Windows Azure developer portal.

The remainder of the virtual lab is to explore various facets of Windows Azure and related technologies by building a Web application for a fictional company, Graphic Design Institute. Students of the Institute will be able to log in using Windows Live ID, upload artwork they have completed and publish the artwork so that it is visible to others. From a technical perspective, SQL Azure will be used to store information about the students while Windows Azure storage will contain the actual artwork itself. You will also use Windows Azure queues to enable communication between a Windows Azure Web Role and a Windows Azure Worker Role, in order to enable some background processing in the application.

The recorded video which accompanies this document is designed to walk you through the completion of the entire lab; you should be able to complete the lab using only this document, only the video or the document and video together. The video is approximately two hours long, but you will likely want to pause playback often to absorb the content and explore the code; you should expect to be able to complete the lab within 3-4 hours.

By default, others within your organization can only see whether you are free or busy for a particular timeslot.  In theory, people should check whether you are available before scheduling an appointment with you, although nobody seems to do that for me.  Hooray for double and triple-booking!

That said, it is possible to let others see more information about your calendar appointments.  This can be useful in allowing a co-worker to see details about your calendar so that they do not schedule over an important meeting with a VIP.  This can also be dangerous in a world where personal appointments often make their way onto the work calendar.  Do you really want your co-workers to see the following appointment?

I just took a look at who had permissions to my calendar, and it was a wide array of folks that I have worked with over the last 3-4 years, and very few of them have a business need to see the actual contents of my calendar anymore.  So… here are a few places you can check your permissions in Outlook 2010 (the process should be relatively similar in Outlook 2007, but I only run the latest and greatest ;)

When sharing your calendar, you have the option of choosing how much information is shared with the recipient.

• Availability Only: Time will be shown as “Free,” “Busy,” “Tentative,” or “Out of Office”
• Limited Details: Includes the availability and subjects of calendar items
• Full Details: Includes the availability and full details of calendar items

Keep in mind that whatever permissions you give will be given until they are revoked (and if you don’t check regularly, people could have permissions for years after you grant them). 

The Full Details option will allow others to open the appointments on your calendar and see the contents.  This can be dangerous if you attach e-mails about performance reviews, personal medical information, or other sensitive information  to a calendar invite.  It is a best practice to give the minimal permissions needed for your co-workers to do their job.

The “Publish Online” option allows you to publish your calendar to Office.com, and has similar privacy settings.  I would be very leery of publishing anything other than “Availability only” to the broader internet.  I would also recommend using the “Only invited users can subscribe to this calendar”.

The final (and important) button on the calendar ribbon is “Calendar Permissions”.  This is where you can check and set permissions that have been granted.  I see that I have changed my default permissions to allow for people to be able to see my meeting subjects and locations, which is probably more information that I really want to share with 90,000 of my closest friends at Microsoft.  I also see that I have 30-40 people with explicit permissions to see my calendar, many of whom are now on other teams or that do not a good reason to be able to see my calendar.  This is where you will want to remove their explicit permissions or give lower permission levels.

Finally, there may be appointments (such as the aforementioned embarrassing doctor appointment) that you do not want to share with anyone, regardless of their permissions.  You can open any appointment in Outlook, and on the right hand side of the ribbon, there is a small “Private” option.  Click this, and only you will be able to see the appointment.  Everyone else will just see “Private Appointment” on your calendar.