Duncan Mackenzie .NET

When I joined my current team, it was called the Channel 9 dev team, because Channel 9 was the big site that they had built and was the center of all of their efforts. You certainly wouldn’t have known that from how we spent the last two years though :) We built a whole new code base for a video bl […]

I don't know if this is good or bad, but I thought it was neat that I could right-click the main project (excluding all our client script and HTML) that runs behind on10.net, pick code metrics and see cool #s like "23,442 lines of code" :) […]

I'm part of a dev team that builds blog/forum software and I've been thinking about mobile interfaces lately... so I'm trying to find a good example of site like ours that provides a good (enjoyable, useful and usable) mobile interface... one that will work across a variety of browses. It seems 37 […]

One of their users emailed us to comment on our video quality... essentially pointing out that it sucked when viewed through their TV using TV Tonic. Well I was puzzled because, while we don't ship out DVD quality video, our high quality download is quite good for a podcast. Turns out though, after […]

Hey folks, I work as the dev lead for Channel 9, Channel 10, Mix Online and other sites. We build community sites for Microsoft using video, audio and text blogging and we build them using the latest .NET technologies. If you are into web development, if you have a passion for design and user experi […]

I sat down to chat with Tina from Channel 10 to chat about my Xbox Dad articles, gaming with your kids, etc... […]

Halo 2 on Vista: We've got the new maps, features and achievements […]

I recently noticed a bug in the trackback code on Channel 10, some sites were failing to send us trackbacks, even though we were receiving trackbacks from other sources and those sites were happily trackbacking (I'm just annoying the spell checker today) other blogs. […]

Search based RSS... […]

I'm not sure if there is a tool to make these or why someone did them... but I'm still glad they did :) […]

While working on a certificate issue for the 'next' iteration of on10.net, I decided to code up a new feature that has been sitting on our feature list for quite some time. ASX files are very simple files that let you list out a series of media files and Windows Media Player will happily play them […]

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Normally I do video for 10, but in this case I had a bunch of questions and I decided to see if the team behind Superman Returns would be up for answering them via email. They were, and the whole conversation is up as a post on http://on10.net […]

One of my jobs over the past couple of weeks has been to build a javascript based 'toolbar' that could run across the top of on10.net and show folks headlines aggregated from a variety of Microsoft Community sites. So, along with a bunch of help from Adam and Erik, I managed to get it finished and d […]

Wow, back in Winnipeg this amount of snow wouldn't likely cause much of a slow down... but here... I'm at home and so are lots of my team mates. Pretty snow though :) […]

Probably not the best plan in the world, but we sent Laura out with Pizza and a Premium Xbox 360 to try and win the hearts and minds of a line up of PS3 buyers at Target... watch the video on 10 (download only right now)... and maybe we'll do the same for the Wii? […]

I flew to Boston a couple of weeks ago and interviewed some folks at Mad Doc Software, and the first part of that interview is now up on 10. […]

So you may have already seen the videos, but now we've been going a bit crazy and you find an on10.net background for your Zune along with a link to 12 great 360-themed backgrounds... and I went and made my own which you can grab from here   […]

 Last night I jumped on a flight at around 11pm in Seattle and flew to Boston, getting in around 7am, then I drove up to the offices of Mad Doc software... makers of quite a few cool games, including Empire Earth II, Star Trek Armada II and now Star Trek: Legacy for the Xbox 360 (and for the PC […]

As I mentioned before, I had a chance to chat with the PM for the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset and now that interview is up on on10.net. Remember, the headset is releasing just in time for Gears of War (November 7th). Coincidence? I think not! […]

For all you wanna-be ENG folks, video interviewers, YouTube/Soapbox producers, etc... you need this video. I need this video... we all need this video. […]

If you don't already know Rory, well... keep watching Channel 9... I'm sure you'll be hearing more from him through that venue soon. […]

As you may have noticed, I've been playing with Soapbox lately and it is rocking. Yep, there are other sites out there, but I've been finding the quality (it is all flash video folks, but there is still a range of quality) of the videos I've uploaded to Soapbox to be a few steps above the other site […]

I loved this email from Xbox Live today: […]

TotemBall, the gesture-based game that works with the Xbox Live Vision camera, just shipped to the Xbox Live Marketplace. It is a free download, but you need to have the camera to play. While you are waiting for it to download, check out my video demo of TotemBall up on 10. […]

Visited the Zune buildings today to film an interview for on10.net... I'd show you a few screen captures from the tape, but I had nothing to do with the camera work so I don't have anything to grab from yet. Since I'm a bit of an Zune enthusiast, Laura and Jesse ran camera and I handled asking the q […]

Brian and I just posted a demo of the wireless sharing features in the Zune, so if you are into that sort of thing you should check it out.

He's performing in Seattle, so we're going to head down with our cameras and see what we can get on tape (or disk in the case of our newest camera). […]

This time we are shipping the latest update to Microsoft 10, fun stuff... and an example of exactly how far from normal our team can be.

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In a recent post on Microsoft 10, Alfred talks about the idea and controversy around having students equipped with laptops. Check out his post for the full details, but to summarize... it can work well, but it has to be done right, with the right software and teachers... I agree with Alfred on this, […]

I've created a quick and simple list of the 10 team's various blog feeds... so if you'd like to follow along with their personal musings (including mine) then you can grab the OPML file here.

As someone who works on a video based Microsoft site, you'd think I would have already found this... but I had no idea it was out... description from the site itself: […]

And the general geek-focused music world in general I suspect... but I only see Frontalot's name on there now. […]

Check out the first day of PAX 2006, including some footage of the first Penny Arcade Q&A session (learn about the new Wii60 console, coming to a store near you this year), some talk about women, and Tina's dirty dirty camera lens. […]

PAX was a blast, I went back for day 2 and spent almost all the day at the exhibition hall... tons of cool demos and people! I was able to stop at the Xbox booth and chat with Trixie (as Brian mentions here), which was great because she is one of those people that I've emailed quite a bit but ne […]

So I've been wanting to go to PAX since it started a couple of years ago, and every time it has come around I've been out of town... until now... and, by some interesting twist of fate, I know have a job that actually required me to attend :) So Tina, Sampy, Adam and I headed over there today, snuck […]

Sampy and I stopped by the main doors of PAX last night around 1am and there was already two groups of folks waiting. Some guys from Detroit were first in line, having come in by train earlier that day, and they covered the full range of video gaming interests (although no one in their group was int […]

I'll be hanging around outside a bit tonight, to check on any folks who are that excited to be there already, and I'll be around after 2pm tomorrow... a lot of Saturday... some of Sunday... in general, I'll be there :) […]

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If you are a dev, then this code formatting plug-in is probably the coolest thing out there... I'm still ranking Tim's Flickr plug-in as #1 at the moment, at least my slightly customized version that is, but if you'd like a list of several available plug-ins then this spaces entry is a good place to […]

I interviewed Christoph, the guy behind mceWeather, mcePhone and now mceAuction... while I was down in Las Vegas for the eBay Developer Conference (ages ago) and I have finally managed to post the video up to on10.net. Enjoy :) […]

I even got to be the 'preview' image! Check this out to hear a bit more about our design and implementation of on10.net, and for some more info on our plans around on10.net going forward and for moving Channel 9 on to […]

on10.net has a good interview up about the new blogging tool from the Windows Live team. What's cool about this app? For a developer, there is tons to be excited about, including a very easy to use SDK (wrote some plug-in code last night, super easy) and it ships with a bunch of .NET assemblies […]

Met with Dave Mitchell from the Xbox team today to talk about Microsoft Gamefest. If you are going, drop me a line... I'll be there with a camera along with one or two other folks from on10.net. […]

A bit of an odd video on 10, sorry... but I couldn't help myself, I was (and continue to be) so excited about the arrival of the iCup :) 

This is so very cool... I wonder if they need any programmers? Of course, my wife wouldn't like it if it meant lots of travel! […]

Yesterday, Laura and I headed over to the offices of Penny Arcade to interview them about... well, about a variety of things, it was a very interesting interview. […]

This one appears to be a bit special, as we are labeling it 1.0, which I guess means the site up until now was in Beta... I had no idea :)

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Sometimes I don't like being just the guy behind the scenes :) […]

I'm in Winnipeg for a couple of weeks, and while I'm there I thought I'd track down a few interesting folks to film for on10.net. First up on my list, Ed from www.geektragedy.com. I can't figure out a way to permalink it, but if you can find the entry for June 28 (scroll down, or go to his archives […]

I was down in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and I had a chance to film a bunch of cool eBay based applications... videos should end up online soon. Some for Channel 9, some for 10 ... it all depends on the topic. […]

We ran a father's day themed bit on 10 on Friday, but if you are into gadgets you'll probably like it regardless of the day. I like the Superman laptop from Alienware, the rather simplistic graphic appeals to me. For the desktops, I believe I liked the Star Wars ones better, but they no longer seem […]

Chris Pirillo is on 10 today, chatting about Gnomedex, his tendency to write things on his chest, and more. I don't know Chris myself, but I joined his "FatBlasters" mailing list awhile ago as part of my ongoing quest to lose weight... and also as a way to get emails from Chris in my Inbox every few […]

I just got to my hotel (the Aladdin) here in Vegas; ready to roam around the conferences looking for folks to film for Channel 9 (or 10, if the topic fits). Hmm... Vegas and a video camera... could be trouble. :) If you are in town, email me or call me at the hotel, especially if you have an idea ab […]

My wife had read about this cool guy when working on a new article for Parent Map ("Help kids handle use of handhelds") and I was intrigued, so Jesse and I took a trip over to Seattle and interviewed him for on10.net. It is a slightly different style of video than what you are used to from […]

Yep, it may be surprising to some, but on10 has a bunch of great info on Sony up today....

Check out yesterday's video on10, a tour of the Microsoft booth area at E3 2006!

This is one of the cooler bits we've run on 10 so far; CalCars... Taking a Prius Hybrid to 100+ MPG! […]

This group, http://www.bridgesweb.org, is an amazing example of what I think http://on10.net is all about. Phil Borges and the other folks involved with this non-profit devote an enormous […]

So I'm back from the San Francisco area, and I'm while I'm too tired to give you all the details right now, here's a sneak peak of some of the things you'll be seeing on 10 in the near future: […]

I'll be there tomorrow with Laura Foy (host) and Scott Finley (expert camera dude).... and I'll be doing... well, it is hard to describe what I'll be doing, but hopefully most of it will be fun! Check out the program at http://makezine.com/faire/ and let me know what you would want to go see... […]

The source behind several of our questions for the recent Major Nelson bit on 10 is revealed, thanks Xbox Elle! A fun little game show, How well do you know your box(or is it Xbox? I can't tell), was posted to on10.net on Friday. Laura and Tina try to stump Major Nelson with a bunch of trivia ques […]

Yesterday my segment on Heart Rate Monitors went up onto on10.net, featuring a new monitor from Polar and the cool EnterTrainer product... check out the video to learn more! Oh, and unlike some of the comments suggested, lifting up my shirt on camera is embarassing... and yet, I did it twice on came […]

Erik extended our tag pages on on10.net a bit, check out the full details here as part of our on10.net news blog.

Interview with the dev team (including me) is up on Channel 9

the site is live that is... well, so are we... anyway... the real code for http://on10.net is up and running! We know about a few issues, but in general it is ready to rock, so feel free to shoot on over and grab your userid before all the good ones are gone :) […]

It didn't take too long, people found Adam's little puzzle (Channel 9)

Adam Kinney, another member of our three-person dev team, posts our favorite comments about the preview site so far. Scoble, who really is on the same team as me... despite the fact […]

We've put up some fun short videos, but the real site is coming next week... which will be nice, I'll get to start talking about work on my blog again :) […]