Andy Pennell's Blog
See me blather about software development, Gadgets, Technology, Fatherhood, plus anything else that gets me going.
Now Available: HD DVD Emulator for Xbox 360
As of this morning the product I have been focused on for much the last year or so has at last been...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 12/13/2007
Vote for HD DVD
Its November and its time to place your vote. No, not for US Presidential candidates, but for the...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 11/15/2007
Tide is turning: Paramount declare HD DVD only
An important day in the next-gen DVD format war: Paramount have announced that they are going HD DVD...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 08/20/2007
Vista Compatibility: My Personal List
Following the travails of my Vista install at home (and subsequent success), I will be listing my...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 08/03/2007
My First Program (circa 1980)
I recently discovered my first real program(*): from 1980, it was my attempt at Space Invaders for...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 07/30/2007
Installing Vista: From Hell to Heaven
I am pleased to announce that I am typing this on a freshly installed Vista64 installation, on the...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 06/29/2007
Living With Vista: My First Few Weeks
Well I finally switched to Vista on my main dev machine at work. Its a Dell Optiplex 745 (detailed...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 06/19/2007
HD DVD: Audio Mixing, and why you don't need HDMI
There has been much confusion over multi-channel audio and HD DVD, so I thought I would try and...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 06/14/2007
Fixing Letterboxed Widescreen content on HD DVDs
HD DVD obviously rocks on HD content, but the SD content on the discs often grates me as it is...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 05/16/2007
Xbox 360 HD DVD Update Now Available
[Player version list now moved to separate post] As of 2am this morning, the latest software for the...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 05/12/2007
Matrix coming to HD DVD (only)
At last: on May 22 we get the Matrix on HD DVD, according to...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 03/21/2007
Sonos: The Perfect Network Music Player?
I have posted a review of the Sonos network music player on my personal site. If you have any...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 02/21/2007
Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black
We just got some goodies on our team: Xbox 360 HD DVD drives in black! These limited-edition drives...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 02/16/2007
See my early work: X-Debug from 1992
I recently discovered a floppy containing the source to a program I wrote in 1992: X-Debug, a...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 08/31/2006
Detecting over-Releasing on COM objects
I am in Refcount Hell right now, trying to fix a new chunk of our codebase for COM refcounting...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 07/21/2006
An Inconvenient Truth: You Must See This Movie
I have literally just returned from watching this, and am compelled to ask everyone I can to go and...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 06/15/2006
Wanted: Power Strip with Switches
It shouldn't be this hard, but all I want is a power strip with switches on each outlet. In my...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 06/13/2006
Firmware Upgrade Available for Toshiba HD DVD Player
Last night, on a whim, I asked my Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player to see if there was a firmware update...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 06/08/2006
Gas IS Cheap: It's Official
As a Brit living in the USA I've always been amused by Americans complaining about gas (aka petrol)...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 05/09/2006
Authoring iHD apps for HD DVD
My team has just created a new forum for programmers and content creators who wish to make great HD...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 04/26/2006
Being an Audio/Visual Early Adoptor is getting cheaper
Since the late 90s I have been something of an early adoptor for AV gear. With the imminent [I hope]...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 04/19/2006
HD DVD is available in the USA!
Yesterday the first HD DVD players from Toshiba became available (from Best Buy mostly by the looks...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 04/18/2006
Autoexp.dat not working in Visual Studio 2005?
As this was reported twice in the space of a week internally, I figured that external users may be...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 03/28/2006
Property Grids Suck
I couldn't put it better myself than Avery does in his VirtualBlog - Property Grids Suck. Not only...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 03/20/2006
Find new music with Pandora
I am very bad about finding new music: I'll buy new albums from artists I know I love, but that's...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 03/18/2006
Making DVDs Kid-Proof
Our newer childrens' DVDs are not lasting long these days, so I was very pleased to discover D-Skins...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 01/06/2006
HD-DVD News from CES
I watched the Bill Gates keynote at CES tonight (via the web, I'm not in Vegas or anything) and it...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 01/05/2006
A Better Way to Search MSDN
I have previously ranted about the Search capabilities of MSDN, so I decided to try and do something...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 12/18/2005
What does "pdb is obsolete" really mean?
If your Visual Studio debugger says this to you, it either means Your PDB really is obsolete Your...
Author: Andy-Pennell Date: 12/09/2005