App dev: After running into installation issues with Silverlight, Martin Heller heard back from Microsoft informing him that his template directories were not set to the default and, had they been, the Silverlight JavaScript application template would have installed properly. “My non-default directories were a result of being a Visual Studio 2005 alpha and beta tester. It’s not like I changed them,” he explains in Installing Silverlight 1.0: follow-up. “I don’t have any need to play guinea pig for Microsoft, or any other software tools vendor, more than absolutely necessary.” Notes from the field: Vista moves in mysterious ways. That’s according to Cringester J.J., who last week decided to upgrade from Home Premium to Ultimate. “I was browsing while eating my sandwich and noticed all but the default system icons disappear from my desktop, when I went to the Start menu (classic) I noticed several icons here were also missing as well as icons from the QuickLaunch toolbar,” he writes. Cringe shifts gears, albeit slightly, to another curiosity. “Netflickers seeking instant gratification via Netflix’ Watch Now movie downloads have been thwarted by Vista’s DRM scheme, which pulls the velvet rope taut across Windows Media Player 11 and says ‘I’m sorry, but you’re not on the guest list.'” Related: Microsoft patents watermark technology that may lock down DRM-free music. Careers: It’s a question everyone should pose to themselves. Can you make the boss’s eyes pop? “I have a stock question I ask all managers after I’ve spent a little time with them. What would you do if someone called you on the phone and said, ‘I’ve long been interested in your company, and I’ve studied where you’ve been and where you’re going,'” and here’s how I can help. One manager, tired of hearing unimpressive answers during interviews, said he’d love to have just one candidate say that. Best of the blogs: Bob Lewis offers mathematical proof that teams are more productive. Well, not exactly. “All I’ve heard is assertion and anecdote,” he confesses. Then again, mathematicians might call it a Q.E.D. situation. “When work processes require cooperation among employees, those who know and trust each other will be able to spend more time and energy doing the work and less questioning and challenging each other.” Software Development