This post is a duplicate from the istu blog.  The original can be found here.

I will be speaking at the Northwest Ohio .NET Users group on March 20th, 2007.  I will be speaking about CSLA.NET 2.0 and how it can help you develop applications.  We are using this framework to help build our Morale application.  You can read my abstract and bio for this talk here.  Come listen to me blabber about this cool technology.

Yesterday, my beloved VX6700 died.  It froze after a call, I did a soft reset but for some reason it did a hard reset.  After I went through the setup, it froze on the today screen.  Nothing worked.  I tried to do another reset, I took out the battery and same result. 

So went over to "the wait in line store" Verizon to get it replaced.  I told the guy what happened as he looked up my account.  He said that my warranty on the phone was up last month.  I said no problem and that I the insurance.  He said that insurance only covers theft, lost, and water damage.  He then proceeded to tell me that it wasn't lost or stolen because the phone was in front of him.  I said that I could go home and throw my phone in the sink if he wants and bring it back with some water damage.  He was like "uh, uh, I would advise against that sir".  So I told him to piss off and that I was switching providers.

I went over the "nice and curtious with wait" Sprint store to sign up with them.  I was thinking about getting another PPC 6700 but I didn't quite know since my last one died on me.  I went to go look at their phones and I noticed that they did not have any PPC 6700.  I asked why and the guy told me that Sprint asked them to send them all back because they are getting the new versions soon.  I asked if it was the 6800 and he said yes.  So I picked up a Treo 700wx.  My plan is to return the phone when the 6800 come out if they do so within the next 30 days.  So come on Sprint, you only have 29 more days until I can get one.

I am very happy with my new service.  I can now actually talk at my home office which is in my basement!  Since I am always down there it is a good thing.  Also, the data plan for the phone is only an extra $15 instead of the $40 I was paying with Verizon.  I now need to upgrade my EVDO modem so that it works with Vista.  I will have to pay full retail price for it though but my contract will not be renewed.

Sean Alexander blogged about some freeware called Callwave for your cell phone.  It takes over your voicemail from your service provider and sends you an email and a text message when you recieve a voicemail and/or a missed call.  They also have some software you can install on your PC or Mac.  If you are running Vista, they have a sidebar gadget or a Mac widget that shows how many voicemails you have and from who (just like the visual voicemail from the iPhone).

I love TEO but it has not been working for like 2 months.  I paid for a full license for TEO 2.0 but it has not been working since Outlook 2007.  I have contacted Josh a couple times and I have even volunteered my time to help him debug the problem since it it written in .NET.  He returned a couple of my emails but I have not heard anything since.  Is this product dead?  The support sure seems to be.  It kind of sucks because I really, really like the product.

I have boiled the problem down to the ClearContext Add-In causes TEO to crash when you start a new ink item.  I am running this on Outlook 2007 and Vista, although I have seen the same problem with XP.  Has anyone else seen this problem?  I have looked in the EinsteinTech forums but no responses from Josh.

UPDATE:  I have heard back from both Brad from ClearContext and Josh from EinsteinTech.  They are both working on the problem.  They are both examples of great customer service.  They both really caree about their respective products.  Josh has even said that he plans on giving his users a long awaited update.  I can't live without these two Outlook Add-Ins.  Give them a try if you haven't already.

I have been running iTunes on Vista for the past 3 months and everything has been fine except that iTunes will crash from time to time.  It would never screw up my library.  I even bought a new 80 gig iPod a couple of weeks ago so that I can watch some movies and video podcasts while I work.

Anyway, I woke up this morning to get my iPod ready for my trip to a client.  I start my desktop machine, it automatically starts iTunes because my iPod is docked and poof...my library is all screwed up.  My songs are all there except for all my purchases.  My podcast subscriptions are gone.  Movies, gone. Games, gone.  It sucks because now I have to deal with support to get my purchases back and then I have to set up all my movies, podcasts, and games.  I don't get it.  iTunes has been running good for the past 3 months.  Who said Apple can't write horrible software?

This post is a duplicate from the istu blog.  The original can be found here.

It was on February 1st, 2006 that Innovativ Studios, LLC was born and became a separate entity.

I am still the only true employee of the company although we have used subcontractors for small jobs in the past.  I have had one major client in which I have kept over the past year and it has been steady income.  I just have signed another major client for some part time work which will lead to some other work as well.

Currently, with my other two major clients, I am in the process of talking with two other clients in my pipeline which will lead to some major work.  If those clients come through, I will probably seek a subcontractor or a full time employee.  Consultant work is really picking up with the beginning of the year.

Along with the consulting work, we have announced a new product, Morale, which will be released this year.  Although work as of lately has been slowed on the project, it will pick up once we get settled with my new client work.  It is very hard to balance both the consulting work and the work that needs to be done of the product but we are working hard and staying busy.  It is crucial for the long term goal of the company.  Over the last few weeks, we have also launched this new blog which we will use to promote our work.

This year coming up looks very promising.  I am working on becoming at least a two man shop and will concentrate on launching Morale with a lot more features that we have planned.  It will be a very interesting year and I will work hard to pull it off.