A question came up regarding the AVS Media Video Convertor application.  Someone asked if the video convert app will down convert HD videos.  The answer is yes and it does that quite easily.    First start up the app as shown in the first pic.  Choose which video format you wish to convert to, then click on Edit Profile button.

The edit profile dialog will pop up and you can choose to change the width and height of the output video.  You can also change the audio rate as well.  The app is very useful in converting video into whatever format and size you need.

I'm at the Madison .NET User Group tonight.  We are fortunate to have Jason Bock from Magenic presenting tonight.  He came over here from Minnesota.  Fortunately the weather held out.  He is speaking on .NET Reflection.  All his slides and source code can be found here.

Normally I don't like to brag about how small something of mine is but in this case:  My projector is smaller than your projector :)

I bought a Pico Projector Development Kit.  It is DLP technology made by Texas Instruments using LED lighting.  As you can see from the picture, it is barely the size of a business card.  It is about a centimeter thick and has a DVI-D input.  Unfortunately my laptop HDMI output does not properly detect the projector when I connect it.  I am working on that.  However there are smaller development boards that do work out of the box with the projector.  The dev kit is meant as a reference design for hardware engineers.  Anyone who wants to incorporate this into their product will need to go through all the trouble of designing proper housing that reduces the EMI generated by this device.  It is brand new and is bound to start showing up in lots of products.

Here's a link to someone who took it apart already....

I've been busy organizing a Team Foundation Server study group and studying for a Microsoft certification.  I decided to organize a study group for TFS 2008 in Madison.  We're using it more and more at work.  I was getting tired of just using it for source control and not digging into all the features that are built in.  Learning more about TFS will help me be a better consultant and better software engineer.  So the group is meeting after the regular Madison .NET User Group meetings at Herzing College.  I'll be putting a section on my site as we learn more.

I pulled down the virtual hard drive from Microsoft (for free, non-commercial use) that has a complete install of Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team Suite.  It's over 15 Gb after install and it is fully loaded with everything you need to dig into TFS.  Microsoft extended the expiration date of the VHD until Dec. 31st, 2009.  So you've got the whole year to use it.  Of course, there are hacks to extend the expiration date.  I recommend downloading it if you've been wanting to learn more about TFS.  The main thing that is nice about the VHD is that you don't have to waste your time trying to install TFS onto a machine.  They've done it for you with the VHD.

Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite Virtual Hard Drive Image

I'm also studying for Microsoft certification exams.  I've been putting it off for a long time.  Made myself a New Year's resolution to study and take the exams.  I've been running the Madison .NET User Group for over two years and still don't have any certs.  Feel like a slacker.  Granted, I totally agree that a certification doesn't mean that I know jack about the technology.  People can be good test takers and bad at applied.  However I've found that studying for the certs forces me to look at classes in the framework that I've never had a need to look at before.  So for me personally it is a good exercise to study for the exams.  Besides I don't want to back out on my resolutions...