I noticed several days ago when I had downloaded a file that it didn't show up on my desktop where I had saved it.  I thought I maybe inadvertently saved it somewhere else, so I proceeded to download again, selected the Desktop as the save to location, and clicked Save.

"Do you want to overwrite the file?"  I thought that was weird.  It's there, but I can't see it.  I went back to my desktop, hit F5 and ... BAM!  It appeared.

So, I did a little searching and found that there is a Vista update for this.  Knowledge Base Article 932406 "The Windows desktop may stop updating correctly after a Windows Vista-based computer has been running for an extended period of time" appeared.

Sure, I run my computer for extended periods of time, and my icons are AWOL.  It seems to fit my scenario.  So I downloaded it and installed.  We'll see how things go after the reboot.

Here's the link to the knowledge base article.

While writing this, I was listening to "Don't Dream It's Over" by Sixpence None the Richer

I've changed my mind and decided that a Date Tracker will be the Vista Sidebar Gadget that will be the subject of my series on gadget development.

Yes, again the concept is simple.  The goal is show people how simple gadget development can be and encourage others to make their own creations and submit them to the Windows Live Gallery.

I have mocked up what the gadget will look like in Photoshop.  We will be using a combination of images and HTML for placement based on different parameters.  More to come soon!

While writing this, I was listening to "Under Pressure" by David Bowie

They are doing some cool stuff over at local.live.com.  These changes seem to have went live in the last day or so.  They have simplified the interface and added some new functionality.

How about the ability to have a traffic-based route?  Like take me the way the traffic isn't?  It gives you the route with any notes on congestion or accidents as well as the time to get to the destination figuring any of the obstacles.  Pretty cool. 

One feature I heard about in the beta, but doesn't seem to be in production is intelligent directing options.  These allow you to skip the first few directions that would get you to a certain point.  In other words, I know how to get to the major interstate from my house, so don't give me directions for that part of the route.  Neat!

One of the cool new features of Windows Vista, is the Windows Sidebar.  The Sidebar is an application that runs as part of the Windows shell on the right portion of the screen.  This Sidebar contains different mini web applications known as gadgets.  These web applications contain HTML and scripting language either in the form of Javascript or VBScript.

A Sidebar gadget may consist of a very simple design and function like displaying the date or time, or may be relatively complex like a stock ticker that has to access the Internet at regular intervals to retrieve stock quote updates.  That's the beauty of a Sidebar gadget, something so simple can wind up being a great gadget idea.

Case and point ... Christmas happens to be my favorite holiday.  Around this time of the year I start to get a little excited as temperatures cool, Fall prepares for Winter and the snow to fly.  What is more exciting than planning for the holiday season and knowing how many days exactly till Christmas?  That seemed my the perfect idea for a gadget.  How about if I can display the days, hours, minutes, and seconds till December 25, 2007.  Such a simple concept.  My "Christmas Countdown" gadget was posted on October 10 and has seen over 1,400 downloads in four days.  That's pretty funny considering what it does, but proves the fact that something so simple can be interesting to lots of people.

The whole purpose of this series is to educate those interested in the development of Sidebar Gadgets.  I had a background in .NET development both for the desktop platform as well as the web.  I did have to educate myself on Javascript, but if you have a C# background, you'll find the syntax to be very similar.

As part of this series, we'll dissect the development process that was involved in creating the "Christmas Countdown" gadget from the ground up.  Stay tuned for Part 2 where we will cover what makes up a gadget package and its contents.