The Stand-up Philosopher

My Comment On A Blog Post About Windows Phone 7

A colleague at work pointed out a blog post about Windows Phone 7. The writer of the post bought a new phone with Windows Phone 7 installed on it. He took it back within 4 hours and had to pay a restocking fee.

I would have simply left a comment on the blog post itself, but it’s hosted on InfoWorld, and I would have to register for an account. In a day and age when a 10 year old could easily code a site to allow me to log in with an existing account (like FaceBook, Twitter, or Wordpress), InfoWorld, a site that apparently markets itself to IT professionals, requires me to create yet another account on their site. I’m tired of having to keep track of logins and passwords. I can’t tell you have many sites and blogs and forums I’ve had to create an account on just to leave a comment or view information and NEVER GO BACK AGAIN. I’m tired of it.

So I’ll just use my existing blog to share my thoughts. You can find the original post here. My colleague and I both saw the post as totally unprofessional. Ooh, a supposed professional IT journalist sees an advertisement about how cool Windows Phone 7 is, runs out, buys one, and finds it totally unworkable in real life. How the heck is that news?

I’ve paid my dues with Windows Mobile, which is now called Windows Phone. Yeah, renaming it is sure to change things. I know, they supposed rebuilt the code from scratch. That, of course, means none of the programs I’ve bought for Windows Mobile over the years will work on the new platform. I have to buy them all over again IF THE DEVELOPER EVEN DECIDES TO PURSUE THE PLATFORM. Of course, the programs I’m used to on the iPhone aren’t likely to port over quickly or easily. Most developers of programs I use are waiting to see if the darn thing actually sells before spending time developing for it. Talk about a catch-22.

I’ve had 8 devices with Windows Mobile on them, from Pocket PC’s to touchscreen phones to Smart Phones. I’ve used every version of Windows Mobile from 2002 to 6.1. Each had the same problems. In some cases, new problems were introduced. Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 had a deliberate smtp bug BUILT INTO THE CODE which caused you to have to delete and recreate your email account after sending 2 or 3 email messages.

I finally jumped ship to the iPhone after the Samsung Epix. It was my last straw. For the most part, I like the iPhone. It’s not perfect, but it does what I want it to do well enough. I still have the iPhone 3G, which is slow and functionally obsolete even though it’s still under warranty. Yeah, I know. You have to accept that with Apple products. I’m looking forward to getting an iPhone 4 soon. I’ll probably get one just in time for the iPhone 5 to come out.

I thought the blog post was childish and whiny, even though it was correct. The commercials made Windows Phone 7 sound really cool. But in real life, it doesn’t work. The commercials say something about “take the office with you”, but you can’t. It won’t work with an encrypted Exchange server (a Microsoft product, come on, Microsoft, really?) and Pocket Office doesn’t work any better than it did on Windows Mobile 2005 when it was first rolled out. Pocket Word and Pocket Excel existed previously, but required files to be in a special mobile format. It stripped formatting out of any documents synced to the device, like resumes.

Windows Phone 7 won’t support static IP addresses for those paranoid freaks (like the blogger on InfoWorld) who can’t use DHCP because hackers are targeting THEIR HOME NETWORK for special hacking. The iPhone will!

I already have long since decided that I won’t be getting a Windows Phone 7 phone. This InfoWorld blog post was mostly a waste of my time to read (and comment on), but it validated my decision.

Did Microsoft Actually Do Something Right?

After years of reading Lifehacker posts about tweaks to make Windows more like Mac OS X, here’s a post about a way to add some Windows functionality to Mac’s OS. Apparently, Windows 7’s Aero Peek is a coveted feature.

I like Aero Peek. If I ever get a Mac, I’ll install this program on it.

The Last Barrier To Me Using Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer has come a long was over the years. Version 6 was one of the most insecure and painful web browsers I've ever used. I still can't believe some organizations (like the United States Navy) still use it exclusively. As in, they actually design websites that will not work in any other browser but Internet Explorer 6. This is despite the fact that Microsoft has released 2 newer versions of the browser, both of which work a lot better. 

I've been using IE8 a little more lately. I actually like it. It starts VERY slow. It's one of the slower browsers to start. But once it's running, it runs pretty well. It finally has a session manager, so if I have a lot of tabs open and have to restart my computer, I can pick up where I left off. I don't have to set a lot of bookmarks.

But there is one thing that is stopping me from using Internet Explorer more than Google's Chrome or Mozilla's Firefox: this stupid dialog. I wrote that blog post more than 3 years ago, and that prompt is still a part of Internet Explorer.

If Microsoft could either get rid of that prompt, or at least let me click "Don't ever bother me with this again", I would probably make the jump to using IE8 a lot more often.

Are you using IE8 more than another browser? 

Steve Ballmer (Apparently) Fires Microsoft Employee For Not Being Excited Enough About Bing

I'm testing Typepad's new microblogging feature. OK, it's not that new, but I've never tried it.

Steve Ballmer at Microsoft apparently fired an employee for not being excited enough about Bing, Microsoft's latest attempt at a search engine that can't find anything.

http://mashable.com/2009/12/19/bing-youre-fired/

I have no enthusiasm for Bing. I think I tried it once, and it didn't return any useful results, so I went back to Google.

Another Great Quip From Fake Steve Jobs

Apparently, somebody at Microsoft who had nothing to actually do with Windows 7 made some comment that they tried to copy the Mac OS. He apparently got some retaliation. OK, whatever. That barely made me look up. But, Fake Steve Jobs (Dan Lyons) took this one on, and cracked me up:

And then the Borg rolls out this old chestnut: “Over nine out of ten computer users choose Windows.”

Now, come on. Windows is like herpes. Or genital warts. Nobody chooses Windows. People get Windows. It comes preloaded on their crap machine, and they’re stuck with it.

No Need To Pay For Security on Your PC. Lifehaker Says MS Security Essentials Are Enough

Most of my non-geek friends like to ask me about security. I tell them that unless they look at a lot of porn or spend time downloading pirated software, then they don’t need to worry as much. It’s not that big a deal.

Microsoft once had Windows Live OneCare. I hated the beta version, and installed it after less than 15 minutes. As it matured, I found it to be very useful, and I would recommend it to friends who asked what I though. I’ve long since had it with Norton and McAfee, although I’ve heard since they days that they gave me a bad taste that they’ve optimized their products so they don’t require as much time and attention, as well as system resources. I’m still not ready to pay for either again.

While Windows Live OneCare was a paid product, Microsoft now has Microsoft Security Essentials, which is free. Lifehaker says it works well enough that Windows users shouldn’t have to shell out money for other security products.

The Most Useless Windows Notification

I know the title of this blog entry is not unique. I've seen several variations. I'd like to submit my vote for the Windows dialogue that needs to be yanked from Windows IMMEDIATELY. When did I start using Windows Vista as a beta? 2006? Let's say it was 2006. For three years, programs on Windows computers that I've used have been crashing, and I get this dialogue that is absolutely useless. Note: programs on Windows computers I've used have been crashing all along, but this "feature" wasn't introduced until Vista. I can't remember (OK, one exception, which I'll get to later) this dialogue window ever doing anything. Here it is:

Figure 1. Pointless Windows Dialogue

I have no idea what VSCore announcer is. This is from one of my work laptops. For all I know it's some domain policy BS. Though I have administrative rights on this laptop, there are some funky policies running on the domain. Maybe I'll Google VSCore Announcer when I post this. It doesn't matter what VSCore is. I was working on my laptop this afternoon, and this window popped up, which is what Windows Vista and Windows 7 give you when a program crashes. Now, I do applaud that Windows Vista is more stable than previous Windows versions. Remember Windows ME (Malfunction Edition)? That's two years of my life I'd like to get back.

So I'm working, and this window pops up as it always does when a program crashes. The only difference is this time, I'm in the mood to rant about it on my blog. When I started using Windows Vista, I'd go for the "Check online for a solution (recommended)", and I'd get a Microsoft page that basically says

"We don't know what the heck the problem is. Did you find this information useful?"

I've gotten into the habit of just clicking "Close" and wondering why Microsoft built this useless functionality into Windows in the first place, unless it's part of some mind-conditioning program to prepare us for future versions of Windows, or to make us all convert to Apple so we can buy Office for Mac. I honestly don't think Microsoft cares if we use PCs or Macs. They're a SOFTWARE company. Many people who use Macs still run Windows and Office and other Microsoft software. SIDE RANT: I get annoyed when I see a headline stating something like "Another business switches to Mac!" Then I read the article, and find that yes, they did buy a bunch of Macs, but they use custom software that requires Windows. They're still running Windows either through Boot Camp or Parallels. That's not "switching to Mac". You're still a Windows user. You just switched your hardware OEM. Instead of buying your physical computer from Dell or HP, you're buying it from Apple, but you're still a Windows user. Yes, when I finally get my MacBook Pro, I'll probably still run Windows on it for certain purposes. Why buy another Office license, for instance? Why get a new license for Mind Manager?

I promised I'd tell you what happened the one time "Check online for a solution (recommended)" actually returned some potentially useful information. I got a page saying "This problem was caused by Windows Vista. Did you find this information useful?" Being one of the few people who actually LIKES Windows Vista, I sort of wish the results had been as useless as usual.

This time, since I planned to write a blog post ranting about this feature, I clicked "Check online for a solution (recommended)". Guess what happened? Nothing. Seriously, nothing happened. I was expecting Internet Exploder, the slowest, most annoying web browser ever, to launch and slowly connect to a site that then tells me "we have no idea what the problem is. Did you find this information useful?"

Microsoft, seriously, ditch this useless prompt.

Windows 7 Upgrade: How Much Harder Can Microsoft Make This?

I was excited about Windows Vista. I can't say I'm that happy about Windows 7. I installed it on my netbook, but I barely even use it anymore. I'm annoyed about a few things in Windows XP, but Windows 7, at least the release candidate, is less stable. It looks nice; very visually appealing, and the wallpaper is wonderful. I have a problem with Firefox crashing incessantly on Windows 7 though, which on my netbook makes it intolerable.

Fake Steve Jobs took on the Windows 7 upgrade path, which looks painful. (He also provided Apple's upgrade path). I can't imagine why Microsoft has to release so many versions of the same thing, especially considering that every single Windows DVD contains the exact same information. You can install any version of Windows Vista or Windows 7 from the same DVD. The only thing different is the license key. For instance, my Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade CD can install Windows Vista Ultimate Full, provided I have a license key. The license key on the box only works with Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade though.

Before Windows Vista came out, I worked really hard on "switching" to Linux. I was sick of Microsoft, and I couldn't afford a Mac, so I tried to get Linux to work. I couldn't. I got tired of spending hours hacking away on my wireless chipset, only to have to repeat the process the next time I rebooted. I also had trouble with Flash and Java. I'm not a big fan of the command line. I don't like having to remember to type sudo before every command, or su to root before I try to do anything. I have heard that Linux has improved over the years. I haven't had the time or desire to mess with it lately, but I did come across something interesting: Ubuntu has a Netbook Remix. That might be worth checking out.

Microsoft Can't Even Code a Web Page, Anybody Trust Office 2010?

I found out about an interesting new program by Microsoft. Apparently, they'll send you a loaner laptop with Office 2010 installed. You use the laptop, report on it, and they use you in their media and advertising. I thought it would be an interesting idea, and maybe just once they could get some real feedback about their office suite.

I spent the time filling out the form, including answering the questions as to why I want to participate and why I should be included. I submitted the survey, and guess what I got?

 

What does this mean? "Your response cannot be recorded because the survey has been changed by another user?" To me, it means that Microsoft can't code a web page.

I'm seriously ready to get a Mac. The only thing standing between me and a MacBook is the money. I'm getting tired of going with the lowest common denominator just because the price is lower.  I think the iPhone is like a gateway drug. I sit there getting frustrated at my Windows PCs, then I look at my iPhone and wonder "What if the whole computer was like this?"

The biggest reason I still use Microsoft office is because I was a heavy Outlook user, but since I stopped using Windows Mobile, I've mostly been using Gmail's web client. I hardly use Outlook at all anymore. Maybe it's time to look at OpenOffice again.

Microsoft Has No Clue About Digital Media

Apparently, Microsoft is now running commercials claiming that it would cost $30,000 to fill an iPod, but that a Zune Pass only costs $14.99 a month. If you’re not familiar with the Zune Pass, it’s a subscription model for music. Essentially, you pay for a subscription and can listen to any music that you want. That model is in ways better than the “buy a song, keep a song” model, which is better than the “buy a CD with 12 songs, 11 of which totally suck, in order to get one good song” model we followed previously. Of course, that model is bad in the way that once you stop your subscription, it all goes away. Supposedly you can keep 10 songs per month.

Microsoft created it's own competitor to the iPod, known as the Microsoft Zune. I think it came out in 2007. At one point, I briefly considered it but then I got an iPod Touch. From what I hear, the Zune does have better battery life than a video iPod. After the frustrations that led me to dump Windows Mobile for the iPhone, I'm not going to consider a mobile device with Microsoft's name on it any time soon. The Zune is made mostly in-house though. I'm sure the hardware is made with communist child slave labor like the iPod, but the software integration is done at Microsoft.

Windows XP: The Operating System That Can’t Die

If you went back in time to 2001-2003, you would read computer magazines that sound almost exactly like they do today. The only difference would be one word. “I don’t recommend Windows Vista. Stick with Windows XP” would read “I don’t recommend Windows XP. Stick with Windows 98”.

Now, in 2009, it would appear that Windows XP is the ultimate, most bestest version of Windows EVAR, and there is no way it should be allowed to die.

Lifehacker today wrote about a rumor that once computers begin shipping with Windows 7, you’ll still be able to downgrade to Windows XP.

http://lifehacker.com/5201786/pc-makers-can-offers-downgrades-from-windows-7-to-xp

Seriously, Windows XP has been around since 2001. I think it’s run it’s course. Windows XP is good, but it’s time to move on. I’ve always seen IT as a field that should be moving forward, not clinging to the past. Maybe that’s the big difference between Mac and Windows users. Mac users, at least those I’ve come into contact with, are always excited when Apple does something new. Windows users generally seem to have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the next version.

Happy Day After April Fool’s Day

It’s April 2nd. April Fools is over. I never really cared for April Fools jokes that involved things being done to me, although I do remember in grade school, we’d bring pieces of cloth to school, and whenever a teacher bent over, we’d take one out and rip it. The looks on teachers’ faces were priceless.

In a weird fluke of scheduling, my sister in law and I have birthdays that sandwich April Fool’s Day. Mine is March 31 and hers is Apr 2. Happy birthday, Faith. If either of us had been a day off…

I think my favorite April Fool’s joke was Gmail Autopilot. It has to be a joke. The link is still at the top of my gmail page, but since there’s no way to sign up, or no indication that it’s in labs, it has to be a joke. Also, Ramit Sethi rolled out “I Will Teach You To Be Frugal”. That was a good one.

Every single April Fool’s joke I fell for involved Windows Mobile, amazingly enough. I first fell for this one. I guess it’s because the joke sounds like something Microsoft would actually do.

What was your favorite April Fool’s joke?

I'm Going to Become a Windows Mobile "Hater"

I’ve decided that I”m going to become a Windows Mobile “Hater”. That will probably seem unreasonable and illogical to many, but so be it.

That does not mean I am going to become a Microsoft “Hater”. I won’t become a mobile device “hater". I won’t become a Windows “Hater”. My “hating” is going to be specifically directed at Windows Mobile. That includes Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team, their “partners”, and the telcos, at least in regards to Windows Mobile.

I am going to become overly critical of the platform to the point where I do NOT recommend it. If you’re considering a Windows Mobile device, please, to preserve your sanity, don’t get one. Get a BlackBerry or an iPhone instead, or just get a plain old dumbphone.

I’ve had several Windows Mobile devices over the years. I’m tired of the same annoyances and performance issues that are common to every device I’ve had. Here is my device history:

Microsoft Shutting Down Encarta? Did Anybody Actually Use It?

Apparently, Microsoft is shutting down Encarta, it’s long-running encyclopedia. I don’t want to be unkind, but I’ve never actually used Encarta. I think I had a computer once that came with Encarta, or it came with another MS Product I had, but I never used it. I think I tried to use it once, but the setup was painful or it asked for money or something and I decided it wasn’t worth my time.

Will you miss Encarta? Will it matter to anybody? Now if Wikipedia went down… I can remember when I used to be able to get away with using Wikipedia as a reference at the University of Phoenix. About halfway through, it wasn’t allowed anymore.

Microsoft’s New Advertising Campaign

As I was going through my RSS feeds in Google Reader this morning, I found this. It’s interesting. I watched the video as well. Microsoft has a new advertising campaign in which they find people shopping for new laptops, let them set a budget, follow them around with a camera crew and then apparently paying for the laptop. The “Laptop Hunter” sets his or her own budget. The video featured in the first blog entry shows a woman who set her budget at under $1000.

I wonder if I could be part of this campaign. I need a new laptop. My laptop died on me. It’ll still boot up, but there’s no telling how long until it goes down. I think it has a short in one of the USB ports. In any case, I need to figure out what I need to do to be part of this campaign. I’ll go on camera and talk about how I like Windows Vista, which is true, in exchange for a laptop and my 15 seconds of fame.

I left a comment asking what it takes to be part of the project. I wonder where they draw their participants from?

Do I Have Hope for Windows Mobile?

I ask this question for myself. I'm sure that there's plenty of hope for Windows Mobile as a platform. It will likely be around for a long time. I'm not a tech blogger who foresees some kind of technocratic future where one platform will win and everybody will use it. I don't think one size will ever fit all. Perhaps the pie charts will shift from time to time indicating that one platform will have more market share than others. Maybe new platforms will rise and fall, but I see Windows Mobile, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Symbian being around for a long time.

Jason Dunn recently went to Mobius. He includes some discussion about Windows Mobile in his write up. Good news seems to be that the Windows Mobile team is finally starting to see power users as a significant percentage of their market share. According to Jason's account, whenever a "power user" gave the Windows Mobile team advice or put in a feature request, their reaction was "Oh, he's a power user. That can't be what 'normal users' want." The feature was then discarded. I don't know many "normal users" who would put up with the frustration of Windows Mobile. Just about everybody I know (there are a couple of exceptions) who uses Windows Mobile knows what a pain in the ass it is, but sticks with the platform anyway because it is hackable and there are plenty of 3rd party applications available. For the most part, without the customizability and extensive developer network, Windows Moblie really isn't worth the frustration.

Microsoft Releases SMTP Patch for Windows Mobile 6.1

I've been waiting for this. Microsoft got around to patching a well known bug that caused me to write this post. Now it appears that the patch has been developed and realeased, so if you have a Windows Mobile 6.1 device, you should download and install it. Since getting my Epix, I've been using FlexMail 2007 which seems to get around the issue well enough. I still use Pocket Outlook on occasion, but I definitely prefer FlexMail because it displays images automatically and is able to format html email for the small screen. Flexmail 2007 is not available. The current product is Flexmail 4.

Is This the End of the Road (for me) on Windows Mobile?

I think I’ve laid out my qualifications and experience with Windows Mobile extensively on my blog. I could use some better reader statistics, so if you don’t believe me, go back through my archives.

I’ve been meaning to post for a while about my new phone. My wife has had trouble with AT&T since we jumped from the old AT&T Wireless to Cingular in 2005 to be bought back to AT&T a few months later. She’s been through 5 phones and still kept having problems. Since we reached a point of both being eligible for an upgrade, and I was near the breaking point with my iPaq 6945 and the total instability of Windows Mobile 5 and HP’s and HTC’s implementation of WM5, I gave my wife an idea. I told her that her problems *could* have been caused by always going with the cheapest phone possible. My Pocket PC phone had enough problems, but those weren’t AT&T network; they had to do with being a Windows Mobile product that was implemented by HTC for HP branding. I find the faults to lie with all three companies. In any case, I told her we could spend the money to get halfway decent phones, and if her problems persist, we can return the phones, sit out our contract, and jump to Verizon or T-mobile. I never really saw the point to Sprint.

While I did drool over the iPhone 3G, my wife picked out the Samsung BlackJack II, which impressed me also so we went with it. I found out a Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade was available for both phones, so I upgraded them the first day. All along, I was impressed with the BlackJack II. After all of the Windows Mobile devices I’ve had over the years, this was the most stable, powerful, and easy to use I’ve ever had. Sure, it had an issue or two, like for some reason I can’t sync it with my work laptop, but I was able to overlook that.

Then yesterday hit. Suddenly, I couldn’t send email through my gmail account. I couldn’t tell at the time if the problem resided with Windows Mobile, AT&T, Google, or some combination of the three and their associated applications and services. Since the cat woke me up early this morning, I decided to search on Google before I left for work, and found out that Windows Mobile 6 (including 6.1) has a KNOWN but dealing with SMTP. For those not educated, smtp stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Exactly, it’s very simple and should be the staple service of any device calling itself a “smart-phone.” Not being able to send email through an smtp service is not very smart.

I tried a few hacks that I found around, but none worked. I deleted and recreated my account several times. I was able to send two or three emails at the most before my email sends started to error out. I installed Windows Live Mobile in and effort to use my MSN email account for sending, but that developed a problem.

At this point, I’m giving serious consideration to taking the BlackJack II back to AT&T and getting an iPhone. Sure, the iPhone doesn't natively handle Outlook tasks, which is going to suck because I use them heavily. I'll have to buy yet another licence for Pocket Informant (had to buy a cross-grade license when I switched from WM Pro to Standard). On the other hand, even though an iPhone won't do as much, at least I won't have to spend endless hours hacking on it to get it to perform a basic function like sending email.

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile 6.1,Windows Mobile,iPhone,iPhone 3G,AT&T,Samsung BlackJack II,Windows Mobile smtp bug

Microsoft Can’t Do Search to Save It’s Life

When it comes to search engines, my choice has always been Google. Well, not always. I can remember the days before Google really took off when I was forced to stumble in the dark with inept search engines and portals like Alta-Vista, Yahoo, Excite, Snap.com, and some others. Google is far from perfect, but for the most part, when I need to find anything other than a solution to a technical problem. Google will find it fast and right away.

Because the Delaware River Port Authority raised it’s bridge toll rates, I decided that maybe it’s time to get EZ Pass. I know from previous attempts to sign up that I have to go to the EZ Pass NJ site. I’m used to using the built-in search box on my browser, but I keep forgetting that IE on my work laptop is still set to Microsoft’s Live Search, which for all purposes is worthless. I went to the search box in the upper right-hand corner and typed in “EZ Pass NJ”. This is what I got:

OK, the main EZ Pass site was the first response, and I could have navigated my way to where I needed to go, but EZ Pass is some kind of “public private partnership”, which means that it has no competition and has no burning need to make things easy for a consumer to use it’s services.

Since I realized at this point that this was NOT Google, I opened another browser tab to Google just to see what the difference is. Here it is:

Wow, look at that! www.ezpassnj.com was the FIRST response. It was so easy I could have guessed it, yet Microsoft’s Live Search algorithm didn’t return it.

I do think that Microsoft does some things right, but search is not one. It’s probably too late considering public perception of Microsoft to adopt some kind of mirror of Google’s “Don’t be evil” creed, but I have a suggestion if they’re interested: “Just be useful.” Stop getting into areas that you’re no good at just because other companies are raking in the money. Just because Google is making billions on search and advertising doesn’t mean that Microsoft will mirror their success. As I recall, there is an area that Microsoft has made billions at. Oh, that’s right, it’s SOFTWARE. It’s making software.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,search,google,search engines,EZ Pass

When Open Source Sucks

I was real quick to jump on the "Hate Microsoft" bandwagon back in the Windows 95 days. Everybody hated Windows. I used to read PC Magazine and PC World magazines, and I read article after article and editorial after editorial about how horrible Windows is and how much better Linux is than Windows. I actually bought it for a while, although my experiences with Linux usually ran into some show-stopping limitation that drives me back to Windows.

I "hated" Microsoft until about 2006 when I was trying to get through my IT degree and some attempts to "switch" to Linux stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't get Linux to work with my wireless chipset, for instance.

I read and recited all of the reasons why Open Source is better than closed source software, but I finally reached the point of wondering if I really care anymore. There's very little that I need to do with a computer that I can't do on Windows. I have easy access to Microsoft Office 2007, leaving the need for OpenOffice and Google Documents out of my concern.

Ugh, Another Microsoft Email for new Office Users

I just finished taking a survey from Microsoft Office. I registered for these things a while ago. Some of them are very useful, but this one really sucked the life out of me and destroyed my hope for the future. Apparently, Microsoft is going to develop (or is considering) using emails to teach newly registered Microsoft Office users about how to use Office. On the surface, this may be useful, IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED AN OFFICE SUITE IN YOUR LIFE AND JUST BOUGHT YOUR FIRST COPY OF OFFICE 2007.

Considering my experience with Microsoft emails, I really don't have any hope and I never want to get on this one. I've mentioned before that I've been using Windows Mobile devices since 2003. I know a lot of tips and tricks, useful software (especially freeware), and I have a good suite of applications I've been using for years. I know how to get what I need out of my Pocket PC. When I upgraded to Windows Vista, and had to switch from Microsoft ActiveSuck to the Windows Mobile Device Center, I was offered the chance to register for an email newsletter to "help you get the most out of Windows Mobile, full of insider tips and tricks" (I'm paraphrasing.) I jumped at the chance, hoping for something useful. Do you know what the first article link in each and every one of those "Insider Windows Mobile" newsletters is? "Reasons to choose Windows Mobile." Seriously, this for people who already bought a Windows Mobile device. I have other subscriptions to Microsoft newsletters, and they are written on the same level. The Windows Insider newsletter covers such expert-level topics as "How to change your screensaver."

Imagine this: you buy a copy of Office 2007 (or 2008 for Mac.) During your installation, you're asked to provide your email address to get "exclusive access to insider tips for getting the most out of Microsoft Office." You subscribe, hoping to unlock some expert level features. What do you get? "Thank you for choosing Microsoft Office. In this edition of 'Office Exclusive Advanced Expert Insider Power Tips, we cover 'The Top Reasons to Choose Microsoft Office.' ' "

Now do you see why that survey makes me weep for the future?

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office,Insider Newsletters,survey

April Fools? Microsoft Abandons Windows Mobile, Endorses iPhone

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/88388/microsoft-ditches-windows-mobile-goes-iphone.html

If this isn't an April Fool's joke, I don't know what is. I know what I would like to see though: a Pocket PC that actually gets better over time. Seriously, I've been using Windows Mobile since I got an iPaq 3765 in 2003, and the devices have not really improved since then. I've had 4 Pocket PC's, including one as a phone, and have not seen much real improvement. OK, from my first iPaq, adding wi-fi and BlueTooth were major improvements, but I've had 3 units with those.

Technorati Tags: April Fools,Windows Mobile,iPhone

The Biggest Problem With The Microsoft Zune...

...is that nobody seems to carry it, at least here in south Jersey. Nobody. Those who actually do carry it only carry the 4 or 8 Gig model but know nothing about it. The models aren't even turned on, so an interested buyer has no idea how the interface might work.

I have been considering a Zune lately, ever since the news that podcast support is now included. I settled last on the 80 Gig video iPod because podcast support was very important to me. At the time I was downloading several video podcasts and converting them to a format to watch on my Pocket PC was cumbersome.

Now my needs have changed. I record TV shows through my WinTV from Hauppage. These record into MPEG format, and converting MPEG into an iPod compatible format is very cumbersome. Now that the Zune supports Apple formats, my video podcasts are no longer an issue but my recorded TV is. Also, the screen on the video iPod is very tiny while the screen on the Zune is much larger.

We'll see what happens. I wish I could get a review unit. Anybody know how to do that? If anyone from Microsoft's Zune team reads this and wants to send me an 80 Gig model, I'll be happy to post a review for you.

Technorati tags: Microsoft Zune, Video iPod, digital Media

 

Labels: Media, Podcast, Shopping

Do Mac Apps Really Suck on Windows?

Some of you may have heard that Apple Inc. (Formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) released the Apple Safari web browser for Windows last week. Many of you may not care. I'm not sure exactly where I fit in. CNET's Rafe Needleman wrote a blog entry titled "Mac Apps On Windows Suck. Here's Why". I'm not sure that I agree with all of his conclusions.

With the Apple iPhone due for release soon, the announcement of Safari for Windows shocked a lot of people. Many developers and gadget geeks salivating over the iPhone had been hoping for an SDK (Software Development Kit) in order to produce applications for the iPhone. If you've ever used a Pocket PC, you know that third party applications are practically salvation. Pocket Outlook is minimally useful, but Pocket Informant is a wonderful excursion into the world of mobile productivity. WebIS Flexmail 2007 is also a wonderful replacement for Pocket Outlook's email functionality. I don't know many Apple people, but I do know that like Windows, sooner or later you'll need a third party application to get things done. As the iPhone runs Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, I'm sure it will need more applications. However, Steve Jobs (and I'm sure others, but Steve is the public figure) have decided to make the iPhone a closed platform. As I understand things, there will be ways to write applets through Safari, but that is the extent of development capability on this platform.

And so, millions of geeks are upset. I was sort of apathetic to this announcement. I don't intend to buy an iPhone right now. The announcement of Safari for Windows excited me about as much as, say, Outlook Express for the Mac. Oh, wait, my Macs do have Outlook Express. At least, my iMac does. I downloaded Safari on my work computer just to test it out, but for the most part I'm sticking with Firefox for the time being because the available extensions allow a great deal of customizability. Opera is nice, but Firefox meets my needs so I see little reason to use Opera, and IE7 needs a session manager for me to take it more seriously. I am spoiled with Firefox because when my system crashes, I can pick up exactly where I left off. If I have 50 tabs open and half of them are partway through a long article, I won't miss a beat. If IE7 crashes with two tabs open, I'm hosed.

However, I don't see the platforms through eyes of zeal. I have settled on Windows XP as my main OS for the time being because of all the tools available, Windows XP does what I need it to do the best. The programs that I use run best on Windows XP, I don't have to buy any new hardware, and of course it is well supported and established.

As far as tools go, I differ in my opinion of iTunes from Rafe Needleman. I actually think that iTunes is a fairly decent media manager. Actually, my favorite feature is the podcatcher. I really don't care for Microsoft's digital media implementation. I believe that their target market is the gyrating silhouettes from the iPod commercials a few years ago. Windows Media Player 11 is decent, but has no podcasting capability. I download several podcasts, and iTunes does a wonderful job of managing them. Ever since I got my video iPod, I've come to appreciate iTunes even more and I've digitized the better songs from my CD collection to sync with the iPod to listen to when my wife is in the car with me. Now, if a better iPod sync/media utility comes along, I'll happily try it out. For now, I'm content with iTunes.

Linux is a fine platform, but I have written it off for the time being. The software that I use and have come to depend on runs on Windows, and finding replacements or figuring out a new workflow just takes too much time on the two other platforms. Actually, I would love to play with Mac OS X more, but the hard drive on my iBook apparently crashed, and I don't have the time to take the thing apart again, swap the hard drive into a PC laptop, and use a Windows XP disk to check the hard drive. Mac OS X Tiger doesn't ship with much in the way of hard drive utilities.

In any case, if you're into Safari, check it out for Windows. If you're not, don't sweat it. Firefox will probably remain the undisputed champ of Windows browsers (and Mac and Linux) for a while.

 

Technorati tags: Firefox, Safari, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, Apple, iTunes, iPod, Browser

Labels: Apple, Linux, Mac OSX, Media, Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile

CNET's Top 5 Crapware

I haven't written about computers or technology for a while, but CNET gave me the perfect opportunity for a quick entry. Recently, CNET TV had a 2 + minute show about the Top 5 Crapware products. Over the years, many terms have sprung up to differentiate between the categories of software. Freeware is self-explanatory, being software that is free. Wares or warez are pirated or cracked full versions of programs such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop. A lot of software DRM (Digital Rights Management) has been produced to stop warez. Shareware is a type of software that typically allows a trial period before requiring purchase, but encourages you to share or pass along to your friends. Many aspiring programmers get started out with shareware, in fact, Steve Pavlina says that he got his start as a shareware games developer.

Malware is software designed for malicious purposes such as computer viruses, worms, and trojans, named after the Trojan Horse of ancient Greek history or legend. Spyware is designed to spy on you and send back information about your habits or even worse, keystrokes such as login and password information.

Crapware is a category all to itself. I'm sure that somebody has cooked up a wonderful and eloquent definition for crapware, but put simply, crapware is software that is utter crap and chances are you never asked for it in the first place. This includes unwanted browser toolbars and media players that just seem to show up. Some programs try to install trials of partner's products. Have you ever installed Intuit's Quicken and found shortcuts all over your desktop for things like Quicken Brokerage, Mastercard, and America Offline? Crapware is not limited to unwanted partner software. Some full version applications by supposedly reputable vendors can fall into this category. I actually consider Symantec's Norton Internet Security to be complete and total crapware. It bogs down my system, loses my email, blocks programs that I want to access the internet from accessing the internet, can't do the simplest process like update itself without constantly flashing a window on my taskbar to tell me what file it's updating, and it starts reminding you that you have to pay for a renewal way too early. I can't stand it. I also place McAfee's Internet Security in the crapware category after my last experience with their product. To be fair, it was the version that Comcast provides for free to subscribers, but it was an utter nightmare. It shut down my ability to share files across my home network, my Macs wouldn't even show up on it's network map because they didn't have McAfee installed (and no version was available to install), and I finally uninstalled the darn thing and decided I'd rather run unprotected than completely hindered in my normal activities. I spent 2 days searching for help. McAfee's website was actually more useless than Microsoft's (if that's possible) for finding answers, and even though I had every setting set properly I still could not connect from one computer to the other across my home network or Hamachi.

CNET's brief video deals with the crapware that computer vendors install on brand new computers. Except for laptops, I've always built my own systems, which cuts down on this dramatically. My sister in law lived with some stupid jukebox program that Dell installed on her laptop asking her to buy a music subscription every time she tried to play one of her own songs, until she finally shared that detail with me and I set iTunes to her default player and uninstalled the crappy jukebox software.

If you've ever bought a new computer that made you feel like you were living in a commercial after you booted it up, then kick back with a cold drink and watch this video. If you're thinking about building your own computer, let this inspire you while you wait for me to produce a series of blog posts on building your own computer. It'll be a while though; I'm still putting most of my time into famiy, church, and and finishing my IT degree.

CNET TV's Top 5 Crapware

 

Technorati tags: Crapware, software, computer vendors, Dell, HP, Compaq

Labels: Apple, DRM, Media, Microsoft Windows, Security, Software

Using Thunderbird for University of Phoenix Newsgroups

Thanks to the folks at My Blog Log, I now have access to some very basic statistics about my blog. I can see the last ten searches or links that led visitors to my blog. I noticed that yesterday, somebody was searching for some keywords involving Thunderbird and the University of Phoenix's newsgroups. I have some experience with this, so I thought I would write a brief post with advice.

I am no fan of Microsoft's Outlook Express. I do use Outlook as my mail client, not so much because it's the best out there, but because it is the best integrated PIM (Personal Information Manager) that will interface with my Pocket PC. Outlook Express was originally (as I recall) delivered under Windows 98 as a built-in mail client. At the time, I preferred Netscape's mail client, which I used heavily for many years.

The University of Phoenix requires students to use Outlook Express, which is about the only product they officially support. Their tech support will also support Mozilla's Thunderbird. Because I don't like a lot of the UI and operation of Outlook Express, I have tried many other options, but I always end up back at Outlook Express. OE doesn't do a good job, but it does what I want slightly better. I don't like the fact that every time Outlook Express runs, it has to call up Windows Messenger no matter how hard I try to uninstall or disable that useless program. Microsoft may run a monopoly on operating systems and office suites, but they have a long way to go to write a decent IM client.

I have configured Thunderbird 1.5 for the University of Phoenix's newsgroups on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. That is the biggest advantage to Thunderbird; cross-platform capability. That's one of the things I love about Firefox as well. With Del.icio.us bookmarks and Google Notebook, I can work as effectively on any computer I happen to use. When I found that Thunderbird 2.0 is out, I decided to try it as well.

Two of the biggest problems that I have with Thunderbird involve my own workflow habits. Outlook Express allows the user to not have any message marked as read until the user is done with the message. I haven't found a way to do this with Thunderbird, but I have found a decent workaround: I set the "Mark message as read after..." timeout to 10,000 seconds. This is an idiosyncrasy that I picked up from the influence of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, although it is not exactly orthodox GTD because I don't always act on the message the first time I read it. I don't mark a message as read in email or my UOP newsgroups until any action associated with that message is completed, whether that action is read, respond, or follow up on a comment or link contained in that message. If a message is marked as not read, that is my visual cue to do something with the message. This way, if the instructor asks a question deep in a thread or a student makes a post I want to follow up on, I can find it again because that is the message I haven't marked as read. This morning I discovered another work around that was holding me back from Thunderbird: marking a message as read. In Outlook Express, you can right-click and select, "Mark as read" or press the k key. You can also hit the context menu key (right of the space bar between Alt and CTRL) and k. In Thunderbird, the context menu requires the user to go to one level deeper in the menu, as in Mark -> As Read. I just discovered this morning that pressing the m key with a message highlighted will mark the message as read.

Another nag I have with Thunderbird is that I constantly get a pop-up alert saying "An NNTP (News) error occurred: No Permission". It gets to be a pain, and I don't get this with Outlook Express. I have no idea how to overcome this error. I've tried changing my time-out, but that doesn't seem to help.

I also tried Windows Live Messenger Desktop Beta, which seems to be the replacement for Outlook Express on Windows XP. I found it to be too unstable for use. I liked the UI, however, and when the finished product is released I may use it. Windows Mail, which is included in Windows Vista, did a great job with my UOP newsgroups as well. I would recommend it for you Vista users. I have no idea if UOP supports Windows Mail yet. I don't think they support Internet Explorer 7 either. As I wrote in a previous entry, the UOP seriously needs to  be brought into the 21st Century.

Thunderbird configures easily enough. I found it much easier to configure T-bird than to manually configure Outlook Express. UOP does offer an automatic newsgroup configuration script in their online classroom, but that script will only work in Internet Exploder 6. Once I upgraded to IE7 beta 2, I had to learn how to manually set up my newsgroups. If you already have Outlook Express set up, Thunderbird will automatically detect and import your IMAP email account from UOP.

Assuming that you have to configure Thunderbird for UOP access yourself, here is a brief procedure:

1. 1. Open Tools =>; Account Settings
2. 2. Name your account anything you wish. Put in your name and UOP email addresses in the appropriate fields.
3. 3. Click Server Settings. Enter the server name as emailxx.phoenix.edu, xx being whatever server you happen to be on. Enter your username in this format: ols\username.
4. 4. Select Add Account. This will be a newsgroup account. Fill in the requested information.
5. 5. Under Server Settings, make sure that SSL is enabled and the server is set to port 563.
6. 6. Outgoing server should be emailout.phoenix.edu, port 465.

When connecting, enter your ols\username and password, tell Thunderbird to remember, and go to town. Thunderbird 1.5 never seemed to remember my username and password, but it looks like Thunderbird 2.0 will, so I may be using this from now on.

Now to get newsgroups, click on File => Subscribe. Select whatever you named your UOP Newsgroup account from the drop down menu (mine is named Flexnet). Under "Show items that contain:", enter a search term for your class or program. I typically search under XBIT, which gives me the newsgroups for my program.

I wrote the subscribe procedure after several nights of my youngest not sleeping, so if it needs to be overhauled or clarified feel free to leave me constructive comments and I will revise it accordingly to make it easier for others to follow.

This procedure should work the same on Linux and Mac OS X.

Labels: Email, Linux, Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows, U of Phoenix

PC vs. Mac- My Thoughts

There is an interesting article on MacWorld about the new Mac advertisements that compare a fairly young, active actor playing a Mac with a middle-age looking nerd playing a PC. The ads really make you want to buy a Mac. They make the point that Macs don't get viruses and can build web pages and edit home movies. I won't comment much on the article itself as I believe that the author did a great job of sorting out fact and fiction on both platforms.

If you're like me, you may have used a PC for a long time. I've been using PCs for better than 10 years. Even before that, I've used several but it's been the last decade that I've owned and heavily used a PC both at home and at work. I was discipled in the mentality that Macs are made for idiots and smart people use PCs. I was told that "Macs are great when they work, but when they break it's all over". I honestly don't have enough background to refute or debate these claims, although the last year has put events before me that have made me want to pay serious attention to the Macintosh platform.

However, I have quite a few PC systems, including the laptop that I just got for Christmas last year. I use it very heavily and have spent quite a bit of time configuring it to be just right. With my recent interest in registry hacks, I'm tweaking it even more. My only real experience with Mac is the iMac that my friend gave me. It's a Blueberry (Rev D., 333Mhz G3 PPC). I use it as a toy mostly, but I'm slowly learning. Someday I hope to upgrade the RAM and put Panther on it. Until then, it's running Mac OS 9.2.2.

As for the debate over Macs and PCs: the claim is made that PCs get viruses. Well, to add a little reason to this debate, simply owning a PC that runs Windows does not give you viruses, anymore than stepping off a ship in Thailand gives you AIDS. For the 10 years that I've used PCs, I've often run without a virus scanner or firewall. It's only been the last few years that I've decided to use either and I admit mostly it has to do with the paranoia that everybody else is under. I've been tempted to uninstall my virus scanner on several occasions as it adds a lot of time to startup and really bogs my system down at times. Norton was the worst; I won't use Norton again. McAfee does a decent job but still can slow me down, especially when I reboot because my computer got unstable while I was trying to get a lot done and when I came back up McAfee wanted to download 48 Gigs of definitions... OK, a little exaggeration, but still annoying.

What typically gives you a virus is executing a program. Virus writers are getting better, but for the most part your system won't get infected if you don't take the final step to execute the virus or worm. If you receive a strange email from someone with an attachment, don't open it. Even if the email is from a person that you know well, if it's out of character, don't touch it until you contact them and verify that the email is valid. Don't visit web pages that are likely to infect you. I've heard that porn sites are known to do this at some times. You can sometimes be redirected to some very strange places. A friend of mine lost the key to a game of his, so to help him out I went to some key code sites to see if I could find it. He legally purchased the game, so I had no problem with this. Man, was I ever redirected to some non-family friendly sites! For the most part though, if you stay away from the "red light district" of the internet, you shouldn't have to worry.

It can't be said that Macs and Linux machines are immune to viruses. Better designed would be appropriate, more secure yes, but not immune. There are some Mac viruses out there. What helps both systems is the fact that the user does not have full admin access. In Windows, admin is assumed, in Mac and Linux, admin is granted. No user should ever have full administrative access to a system for casual use, yet in Windows you really can't function without it. Microsoft has not developed a good user scheme after all of these years. In XP Home, you either get full access or User access, and User can't really do ANYTHING. The problem is that the viruses, malware, spyware, rootkits, etc run at the access level of the user, so if you're logged in with root privileges, the programs you execute have that root privilege. I wish MS would come up with a decent user scheme. On my machine at work, I was set up as a Power User, which is still very limited. Our IT guy got tired of me tracking him down every time I wanted to update iTunes (you think MS releases too many updates? Apple is much worse), so he gave me the local admin access to the machine. That worked for a while, until I tried to install a program that would only work for the user who installed it. If I logged off myself, logged in as admin and installed it, I couldn't use it under my access. I set myself up with admin privileges, installed it, and haven't really downgraded myself yet.

Rest assured as Macs become more popular, virus writers and script kiddies will begin writing more viruses and assorted malware for them.

One of the commercials that really amused me was the one where the Mac and PC were in the box. The Mac said he was going to create some web pages, edit some home movies, etc. The PC said that he has to download more drivers, read some tech manuals, uninstall some trial software... This was funny. Which tech manuals? I've been told that Macs have about as little documentation as PCs. I thought it was funny when I bought Microsoft Flight Simulator 95 and got a box full of books. One book was about the mechanics of flight, one was about using the program, and a few more were about scenery. When I bought MS Flight Sim 98, it came with no books and some promotional literature. Flight Sim 2002 Professional came with even less. My laptop came with 2 Zip-lock bags with promotional material and 2 CDs with XP SP2 and a Driver disk. So what documentation did this PC have to read?

OK, now to tackle out of the box functionality. As for building web pages, let me ask you how many web pages have you built in the last week? The last year? I can't say I've really done that much web page building myself, and while I was still in the Navy my friend and I worked on an internet advertising venture with a friend of ours. I will admit that to the best of my knowledge, Windows XP doesn't come out of the box with many site building tools. If you like to write your own html, Notepad will get the job done just fine. I remember Microsoft used to include a "Frontpage Express", but I can't say I ever used it and I never really gave it any thought until somewhere in the last 6 months when it would have come in handy and I realized that it was gone. As for home movies, Windows XP does come with Windows Movie Maker. I have mixed opinions about this. What it does, it does well enough. What it can't do, you might as well get something that can do it. I guess Macs come bundled with a program that will allow you to do all of the work. I don't believe that WMM will let you burn a DVD. You probably have to do your editing work and then open in another program. I've been using Ulead DVD Movie Factory 3 for all of my video editing needs. I only open up WMM long enough to realize that it can't do what I want to do, so I close it.

Now for the "PCs do charts and graphs, Macs do fun stuff". I can't say I've done many charts and graphs in my life. I'm honestly not sure how to do them in Office because the need honestly hasn't arisen for me to learn how to do them. And so to characterize my platform as only a business platform is a little bit untrue. Actually, if you've seen HP's latest commercial with the snowboarder, I honestly thought it was a Mac commercial at first. PCs can do a lot of "fun stuff". I would say that the most common argument I've heard as to why people won't leave Windows for Mac or Linux is "Well, I'm a gamer, see, and I need to play my games". The PC is, for now, the best gaming platform short of a console. I can't say I game much myself.

When it comes to advertising, stick to the facts. Ads want to sway you to one side or the other. Do Macs have a place? Yes, and I wouldn't mind getting one but it will have to be a buying decision quite a bit into the future. Do PCs have a place? You bet. Take some time to think about your needs and choose the platform that will suit them best.

Labels: Apple, Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows

Unified Communications

The latest installment of Microsoft's Executive Email contains Bill Gates' thoughts on unified communications as well as some hints on what Microsoft is going to do. I agree mostly with what he wrote, although I might not be as excited about Microsoft's implementation. It will probably be costly and require a lot of power. I do think communications should be more unified. It is a pain to have to manage several different phone numbers and email accounts. For instance, my church seems to send all announcements to my work email account, which I can only access at work. I'm not "impotent" enough to have remote access to my email. Whenever an important announcement comes out, if my wife doesn't let me know, I won't find out until I get back to work. I've had quite a few weekends when something I might have wanted to participate in or help out with was going on, and I didn't know because the email was sent out after I left work on Friday. I've asked to have my home address put on distribution a few times, but so far they haven't gotten to it.

I'm back in business using Outlook now, and yet after weeks of logging into gmail, I decided to run Outlook in offline mode and use it only as a calendar and task management program at home. Gmail is just too useable and too accessable through a web interface. Of course at work I have to use Outlook because we're on an exchange server.

My wife and I ditched our land line last year and went strictly with cell phones. I've been happy with this. My phone is always with me and so far telemarketers aren't using them. When we had Verizon, even though I was paying for the Call Intercept and all of the other "electronic warfare" features, my phone was still ringing about every 20 minutes all day. My blood pressure was through the roof. Maybe it's just me, but cold contact marketing really ticks me off. It wasn't enough to just ignore the phone. The fact that it rings was really annoying to me. I also worked in a support job at the time and my phone at work rang non-stop, so I didn't want to go home and listen to another phone ringing. Before our second son was born last year, my wife wanted to reduce our monthly expenses and our cell contract was up, so we renewed and got new phones and canceled the land line. This is nice. The only problem is that most people aren't used to this, so when people want to call my wife they usually call my cell and I have to give them her number.

I think that mobile computing has a long way to go. I have several devices, including 2 laptops and a Pocket PC as well as my cell phone. My wife wouldn't let me get a PocketPC phone at the time. We have Sony Ericson z500a models, which is great for battery life. We don't even have car adapters because these phones last quite a while. I do stick mine on the charger every night whether I used it during the day or not, but my wife will run hers until the battery starts whining. My Pocket PC is an HP 4700, which is a nice VGA screen. It has an amazing battery life as well. However, it's still too limited for serious use. My new laptop is nice and powerful, but the battery only lasts about 2 hours or so. It will go to sleep, so I could carry it with me during the day but of course in this day and age without an internet connection it's little more than a word processor and photo editor. I admire Apple laptops for their long battery life and built in cameras.

Here is what I would consider ideal for the time being, and this of course is subject to change on a moment's notice. I would love to have a Pocket PC phone but rather than the limited Windows Mobile operating system, I'd like a more full featured OS. The Origami pads show that you can put a full version of Windows on a small device, although the implementation is screwy. There should be a Familiar Linux version for my device soon. I don't have much use right now for a desktop computer. Laptops are nice. I would like to see a wireless broadband service that could be used by both laptop and Pocket PC phone but without having to pay $40 a month for each. A service should spring up that will work as one unified wireless internet and communication service for the entire family. Of course we should have competition here. Each service could put up towers and require encryption to access their network. I understand that security might be tough to implement but I believe this could happen.

I have not yet worked out a sucessful fantasy to combine work and home, especially my work. If we got rid of phone numbers and switched to email addresses you could tie your numbers into one identity and set your availablility on whichever device is best (cell, desk phone, IM, email, etc). When you get to work, say, you dock your cell on your work phone and so all calls to there, but if you leave you take your cell phone. This might work for me because my call volume is low. I've even left my cell number on my message while traveling or going on vacation and I still don't get calls from work. It's wonderful. My supervisor called me once while meeting with one of the groups who support us because he thought there was a problem with my timecard, but it was straightened out before I left the building and turned my phone back on. This leads to another problem with this kind of implementation: I visit buildings where cell phones are not allowed. Technically, I'm not supposed to have it in my building (I shouldn't have my Pocket PC either) but I keep it in my pocket. Everybody else has cell phones so I guess we disregard that policy by consensus. I can't figure out how best to integrate my work email into a single communications medium either because it's possible that I might have to deal with sensitive material. I have considered forwarding work email to my gmail account, but I probably don't want corporate messages indexed on Google's servers. We've already been encouraged to not install Google's desktop search for that very reason.

And of course, some of you might already be mad at me if your work life intrudes too much into your personal life. While I went back to Texas for my mom's final days, I remember one man in Baltimore-Washington International taking out his crackberry, looking at it, and asking in an irritated voice "What does my boss want this time?" Granted it was still during normal work hours, but I would flip if I kept getting calls while away. Once in a while is fine. I don't mind being called occasionally, but I'd go nuts being called by work constantly.

I think that unified communications is an interesting and needed concept, but there are many issues that must be resolved before we'll truly have this concept.

Labels: Telecommunications

How To Set Your Windows XP Start Menu To Sort Alphabetically

One of the many annoying aspects of Windows XP is the fact that for whatever reason, the Start Menu will not organize your applications alphabetically. It will sort them in the order that they were installed. This can get annoying, however, because when you've been on a system for a while and installed a lot of programs, you might have a hard time finding one of them. I've tried to manually order my start menu through My Computer, but this is only temporary as you'll most likely install more programs after that.

I was reading through a book on Windows XP tweaks, and found the solution to this problem. It's not even that difficult, which only feeds my conspiracy theory that Microsoft gets a cut of all of the books that are written showing users how to fix UI problems that shouldn't even be there. Who the heck EVER thought it was a good idea to organize your start menu in the order that programs are installed? That only feeds my conspiracy theory that Microsoft programmers don't actually use the Microsoft products that they release upon the rest of us (no, I'm not that paranoid; I'm just having some fun with this but it is plausible).

Here is what you do, which will take less time to explain than my 2 paragraph introduction above. You must edit your registry, which means that you *might* want to create a restore point or back up before you do this. I didn't.

Click Start and then Run. Type "regedit". When the registry editor opens, click the plus sign to expand "HKEY_CURRENT_USER". Then navigate down the tree in this order: Software->Microsoft->Windows->Current Version->Explorer->Menu Order. You'll see a folder labled "Start Menu" (on both of the systems that I tried, it was "Start Menu2". Right click and select delete. Answer yes. Click Start, programs, and look at the beautiful new User Interface (UI) where all of your programs are now sorted alphabetically just like they were in Windows 98.

I've done this on 2 systems, one XP Home and the other XP Professional. It worked on both.

My Experiences With SuSE Linux

I can't say I've been highly successful with Linux up to this point, but I have built a loyalty to the SuSE distribution. My first experience with Linux came in 1999 when I bought a copy of Red Hat 5.1. I did some reading through the internet and in the Red Hat manual before my install, so I understood how to partition and what to expect during the installation. I was able to get Red Hat to install without a glitch, except for the fact that my video card wasn't supported. I wasn't able to get Red Hat to boot into x-windows. I tried a few things, but of course back in those days I only had one computer. It's not like today where I can install Linux on one laptop and use the other laptop or my iMac to search Google for the answer to my problems. Looking back I am trying to remember why I didn't just buy another video card. Maybe I was broke or drinking too much or something. I tried Red Hat again with version 6.0. A guy at work copied it for me. I had the same problem; no compatibility with my video card. The next year, 2000, I was at Best Buy and saw some Linux Distributions. One of them was SuSE Linux 6.4, and it had my particular video card listed on the box as compatible. I took it home and installed it as a dual boot with Windows 98SE. About that time I upgraded my computer, and as soon as I bought a new monitor and some small parts I built a dedicated Linux box to play with. At the time I only had dial up, and I managed to configure Linux to use my Earthlink account. It was about that point that I met my wife and stopped playing with the Linux computer.

Later on I bought a copy of SuSE 8.0, but didn't get very far with it. When I try to use Linux, I always hit that one deal killing impediment right away. At this point, my wife and I were back on a cable modem, but we were sharing the internet connection through a hub with my computer working as the server. When I booted up into Linux, I couldn't figure out how to share the internet connection and my wife couldn't use the internet. I later tried to put SuSE 8.0 on an old laptop, but hit a network configuration problem and took the easy way out by going back to Windows.

I found out not too long ago that Novell released SuSE Linux 10.0. I downloaded the 64 bit evaluation version (not the OSS version) and tried to install it on my laptop (AMD Turion processor). I had some package errors during install and after start up I couldn't acheive a run level high enough for KDE to run. Recently I downloaded 10.1 and tried to install it on my older P-III laptop. It installed fine, but here's my current deal killer: Linux doesn't yet support wireless networking very easily.

Last night, I decided to go for broke and set up SuSE Linux 10.1 as a dual boot on my new laptop with XP. From my experiences, if I can just get the wireless support working, I can start to transfer files from my Windows partition and gradually resize my partitions until I can either wipe Windows entirely or keep a small partition for occasional uses. I may load Windows as a virtual machine for those few programs that I must have that won't work in wine.

It takes overnight for SuSE Linux 10.1 to install on my 800 Mhz laptop, but it installed on my 1.6 Ghz in about an hour. It booted up and looks beautiful! My video chipset is fully supported (and I've heard very bad things about Linux and ATI). The blue background is actually soothing, and when I started this blog this morning I chose this template because it looks like that nice swirling blue that Novell has chosen for SuSE Linux. Once again, though, I can't get Linux to support my wireless. It did auto-install support for my built in LAN, so I took an unused cable off my router and plugged it into my laptop. The auto update worked great. By this point, I had to help get the kids ready for bed, so I had to give up. (During the install, I brought my 22 month old up to play in my computer room. I really need to child proof that room.)

I read on slashdot this morning that the new Linux kernel does include support for Broadcom 43xx wireless chipsets. I'm not sure of the actual chipset that this laptop runs, but I do know it to be a Broadcom. I know ndiswrapper does not like Broadcom drivers. The driver that came with my laptop is the same driver that came with the Belkin PCMCIA card that I've been trying to get to work in my other laptop. I cannot get bcwl15.inf (may not be the exact order of letters) to work for anything on either laptop. I have a D-Link PCMCIA card for which ndiswrapper will load the drivers, but then the system can't see wlan0. Ugh.

This time, I am determined to make it work. I'm tired of messing with Windows and I am not going to install Windows Vista on any computer that is under my care.

I'll blog more about my successes and frustrations with Linux as I encounter them.

Labels: Linux, Microsoft Windows

Using OpenOffice.org 2.02

When the Microsoft Office 2007 public beta was released, I couldn't wait to install and run it. As I reported in an earlier blog entry, Office 2007 sucked up a lot of my system's resources and rendered it very near useless. I promptly uninstalled Office 2007. The uninstall created quite a few problems for me, however. For one thing, Office 2007 still shows up in my Add/Remove programs list, but will not uninstall because "no files can be found". Office 2003 will not reinstall in a usable state because 2007 apparently has a lot of uninstalled components that were not in the Office12 folder that I deleted. I spend a couple of hours yesterday deleting office keys from my registry, yet barely made a dent in the total number of keys that Office 12 inserted.

After I originally uninstalled MS Office, I did install OpenOffice.org 2.02. I've installed and played with it in the past and found it to have a lot of potential, but I always gave up when hit with a limitation over what MS Office can do. This time, however, I was forced to use OpenOffice for a reason. I'm a student at the University of Phoenix, and I had a learning team project due for the final class session. I just finished up my second class on Java Programming. I had to create the requirements document as well as the class diagrams and incorporate them into our presentation. I used the draw feature in Writer to create the class diagram, then I used Impress for the slideshow. I found a few shortcomings, however.

• OpenOffice does not yet share very well between programs. I wasn't able to copy and paste the drawing from Writer into Impress. Only the text copied over. I ended up having to recreate the drawing in Impress.
• Tables do not copy over either. I had to copy the text into Impress and then tab it so that it looked like a table.
• Power Point allows for inserting slides from another slideshow, but I could not get Impress to do this.

However, my worries about format were for naught. My files saved into MS compatible format and were easily incorporated into the overall presentation in Power Point. Nobody could tell that I used a non-Microsoft suite to create them.

Seeing how apparently nothing short of a reformat will correct my MS Office problems, and I don't feel like reformatting my laptop now anyway, I will probably be using OpenOffice.org a lot more. I have also installed it on my work computer and have used it for a few light tasks, however, for official work I still use Microsoft Office.

Labels: Software

My Thoughts on MS Office 2007 Beta

Last Thursday, May 25, 2006, Microsoft launched a public beta of their Office 2007 suite. I've never seen them do anything on this large of a scale. All of their office programs, including the suites (Student and Teacher, Professional, Enterprise, etc) can be downloaded as well as Project, Visio, One Note, etc. I had been waiting for Outlook 2007 for a long time, so I eagerly downloaded the beta. I downloaded the Professional Plus version of Office as well as the three programs I mentioned in the previous sentence, Project, Visio, and One Note.

The information site with links to the beta download can be found here.

It was Friday before I was able to complete the installation, and would you guess what I found? My 1.6 Ghz notebook with 512 Megs of RAM was brought to a virtual standstill by the vast array of services that Microsoft has overbuilt into their office suite. I was incredibly happy to see some of the improvements in Outlook 2007, but in the end I uninstalled the whole thing. There's no point in using it if my laptop won't run. I'm sure everybody at Microsoft has a 3.2Ghz desktop with triple processors and a terabyte of RAM, but I can't keep up with that.

One of the features that Microsoft brags about is the instant search, which uses the Windows Desktop search. The last time I installed that, it slowed my computer down to the point of not being useable. I had to take it off.

During the uninstall of Office 2007, somehow my installations of 2003 and XP became crippled. Neither will run without the install disk, which is funny because I made the point of leaving the installation files on my disk just for this case. In the end, I made a very radical decision.

My productivity system to this point has revolved around Outlook on my work and home computers, and Pocket Informant and or Ulti-Planner on my Pocket PC. I have lately added My Life Organized, which adds a high level of functionality to task tracking. My radical decision was to run completely free of Microsoft Office on my laptop. I haven't gotten around to uninstalling 2003 and XP yet, but I did install Open Office.org 2.02, which is free and doesn't have to run enough services upon boot up to bring the servers at Google to a stop if they used MS Office.

I installed My Life Organized at work. I do have a need to sync my tasks through Outlook. My Life Organized is phenomenal for tracking a deep level of projects, but Pocket Informant is nice for seeing what has to be done TODAY.

Since I stopped using Office on my laptop, it has gotten so much faster! I can't believe it. Maybe Microsoft needs to learn to embrace the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. They have piled so many features into their products that only the elite can now run them efficiently. As a home user, I don't see a real need for all of the features MS includes anymore.

My transformation is almost complete. As I divorce myself from a need for MS products, I may find myself switching to a Linux distribution.

Labels: Software

Office 2007 Video- This is Exciting!

Microsoft has released a video detailing and demonstrating some of the features and the UI of Office 2007, due for release next January. http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/asx/OfficeUIIntro.asx This should be fun. I can't wait to get my hands on it. Of course, it looks like it would be painful to use at work with the formatting I have to do there which has to be standardized and very non-graphical, but a problem that has plagued me for years was shown on the video. When you insert a picture into a document, for me it has always been a crap shoot as to whether I could get the text to wrap around it or not. Often I've been left with the picture centered and the text under it. I'm sure there's an easy way around this, but I never really bothered to take the time. This feature is easily found in Office '07. Of course, there was no word about Outlook, which I do use heavily and I would love to see some real useability put into it. I could care less about publishing my calendar on the web, just let me see the tasks that I have to do each day in a weekly view. And of course, One Note was left out. I'm ambivalent about One Note. The program has a lot of potential, but most hasn't been implemented yet. What exists now certainly isn't worth $99 retail. I downloaded a trial of GoBinder not too long ago, which is slightly more functional than One Note and half the price. Enjoy the video.

Labels: Microsoft Windows, Software

How To Restore the Windows Master Boot Record

I thought that Linux had advanced to the point where I could install it and switch over to it, so I went ahead and tried to install SuSE Linux 10 on my laptop in a dual-boot configuration. I had done dual-boots with Linux in the past, although Linux was more of a novelty and I didn't use it very much. One of the changes that Linux makes to your system is to install it's own bootloader. In the past, I found this to be very difficult to work with, as the bootloader often defaulted to Linux and you had only a few seconds to type "Windows" at the prompt or else you would find yourself booted into Linux. In days past, I found it best to tell Linux to put the bootloader on a floppy so if I specifically wanted to boot into Linux, I could, otherwise Windows would boot by default. Those days are now over. My laptop doesn't even have a floppy, so that option is no longer available. However, the Linux bootloader has come a long way. It is now graphical and you have several seconds to select Windows. But what happens when Linux doesn't install properly and you decide you just don't have time to work with it? You can easily delete the Linux partitions, but the bootloader remains with no Linux operating system to boot into. This applies to Windows XP only. This is actually a lot easier to fix than I originally thought. It is a very simple fix. All you have to do is boot from your Windows XP CD, select "R" for Recovery Console, enter your administrator password if any, and type FIXMBR. That's it. You will get a warning that nothing could work after this fix, and you will have to give your consent to proceed. That is how simple it is to fix a Windows Master Boot Record.

Labels: Linux, Microsoft Windows

Outlook Rant

I think I have established that I use Outlook a lot, and I have been using it steadily for several years. I began using Outlook probably with Office 2000, though I may have been using it for email with the 97 version. I had always preferred the built-in email client that came with Netscape's classic web browser up through version 4.0. I think Netscape finished with 4.9 before selling out to AOL which did nothing to really improve the browser. I was using 6.0 for a while, and I think I might have downloaded 7.0, but by then I had given up. I had a computer at work with Outlook on it, so I started using Outlook at home to keep standardized. Later on when I quit buying refills for my Franklin Planner, I went looking for ways to adapt the Franklin method to Outlook.

In all this time of using Outlook, I really can't believe how little the functionality of the program has actually been improved. Outlook 2003 added some pretty colors and the ability to flag a message, but I still maintain that none of the developers use Outlook and they don't realize how frustrating it is to have already bought it and then you need to spend even more money on add-ins to make it useful for anything more than an email client and a very basic task and calendar display.

I want to rant on some email features or lack thereof. First off is the lack of a real security mindset. Outlook either ignores security or takes it to extreme levels. This morning I was reminded of how stupid this is. I got an email newsletter with links in it. When I went to click on a link, Outlook told me that links had been disabled and I have to click the Information Bar to turn them on. When I click the information bar, I get three options, one of which says "Turn links on (not recommended)". Excuse me, BUT THIS SENDER IS ALREADY IN MY SAFE SENDERS LIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't understand how it can make sense to Microsoft to add a sender to a safe sender's list and still disable links until you manually enable them. What is the point to having a safe sender's list? I may explain my method for dealing with spam in another post, I won't take the time here.

Also, for some reason, some of my emails have the message that says "to protect your privacy, some images have been turned off" and you have to click the info bar to show the images. Perhaps I should google this one, because I don't know what the point is when again, the sender has already been placed in my safe sender's list.

This isn't part of Office per se, but annoying nonetheless. When a program wants attention, the window will flash. We all know that. But why can't programmers set up a routine so that if you acknowledge the program once, it will leave you alone for a few minutes? Norton is the worst. Anything Norton does constantly notifies me that Norton is doing something, so that anything else I try to do becomes painful. Any window I'm in keeps flashing to inactive and the Norton window flashes my taskbar. Since I keep my taskbar hidden, this always seems to happen when I need to do something at the bottom of the page and the taskbar keeps hiding it.

I guess we'll have to live with it until either I learn to program or somebody else comes up with something better. Speaking of which, I remember back in 1998 or 1999 when I was on the Bash Microsoft bandwagon. Sun seemed to be leading the chorus, along with Oracle and everybody else. We all spoke of how shoddy Windows 95 and 98 were and how Microsoft is keeping down everybody else.

Suddenly, I woke up and realized that nobody has come close to doing what Microsoft has done. Nobody was producing a comparable product. I stopped complaining at that point.

Labels: Email, Security

How To Make Outlook Today Useful

I recently found the blog of Melissa MacBeth, a developer on Outlook 12, the Outlook component of Microsoft's upcoming office suite. This time around, the developers actually read some of the premier time management books such as Getting Things Done and others listed in the blog. I am happy with this development, because I have become convinced that no Outlook developer has actually USED Outlook for a calendar, task list, or contact management suite. You can read Melissa's blog for the details. I am happy with the developments, and I will eagerly bug my wife for a copy when it comes out if I can't somehow score a beta copy.

Until Outlook 12 comes out, we're pretty much stuck with the older versions, be they '97 (don't tell me people still run Office '95!), 2000, XP and 2003. I believe there was an Outlook '98, but I didn't use it. Outlook works fine for email, but when it comes to the calendar and task list, Outlook is a little deficient. Over the years I have worked hard to adapt Outlook to systems such as Franklin Covey and now Getting Things Done. One component of Outlook has always been more on the useless side than any other, especially Notes: Outlook Today. I never completely understood the point to Outlook Today, although I have tried in the past to use it as an overall view of what I needed to do. You can set it to show you a list of calendar entries for up to a week, and you have some very basic task display options. It isn't very usable for GTD, which teaches that tasks should not be dated. Any activity that is date or time dependent belongs on the calendar, or the "Hard Landscape". Tasks should be, in GTD, sorted into lists of contexts, such as "@home", "@work", or whatever your particular contexts may be. Merlin Mann of 43 Folders raised the issue that GTD is designed for professionals who work in offices, have lots of appointments, and travel. It is much harder though not impossible to be adapted by computer geeks who often have only one context "@computer". I'll let you read Merlin's perspective on that, and I'm always looking for ways to do GTD more efficiently in my situation as well.

In any case, the task display on Outlook Today is useless. It is useless, that is, until now. Thanks to Flipping Heck, I now know that Outloook Today can be customized to be somewhat useful. The Outlook today page sources an html file. You can develop your own, or adapt someone else's. Check out the file available for download on Flipping Heck's website. I took that one and did some tweaking for my own use. Flipping Heck has the inbox and task list side by side in a 50/50 split. I tweaked it to my inbox and calendar in a 30/70 split. It sources the views that you normally use. I normally set my calendar to display my task list sorted by categories or "contexts", so now this is on my today screen. If I get a chance, I might run this file through Frontpage and see what else I can do with it. I am not sure if blogger allows for the uploading of files, but if you're interested in my file email me at emuelle 1 at gmail dot com. (simply format email address correctly.

To implement, right click on Outlook Today, which is the uppermost folder in the Outlook folder list. Select "Properties for...(whatever your Outlook Today folder is named on your system)" and click the "Home Page" tab. Under the address bar is a Browse button. Click that and navigate to the location of your new file. Before you do that, I need to advise you that I do not know how to change it back, but I'm sure somebody on a discussion forum or a group at Yahoo or Google will know.

I'm not sure if I'll use it, or if I'll just use separate windows for my inbox and my calendar. At work I sometimes need two windows, at home one is good enough. Happy tweaking!

Labels: Email

Microsoft One Care Live Beta and Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2- 2 products I WON'T be using

I have been hearing a lot in Microsoft newsletters about Windows OneCare Live beta. I decided to break down and install it. The 90 day trial of Norton Internet security that shipped with my laptop is running out and feels the need to remind me every singe day of the impending expiration of my trial "subscription". I don't intend to renew it. I will probably run the WinXp firewall and a freeware antivirus such as Avast Home Edition.

I decided, however, to give Windows OneCare a try to be fair. It's free, so why not? I went through the installation, which was easy enough. As soon as got around to rebooting my system, I realized that I would not be using Windows OneCare in it's current state. I wish I could report that I tried out the maintenance functions available and spyware scans, but I could tell right away that continued use of this program will aggravate me too far.When I booted up, I noticed that the "1" in my system tray was red. I clicked on it, after fighting with Norton Internet Security lock ups for a while dealing with granting OneCare access to the internet, and the very first thing that I saw is "You don't have automatic updates turned on. Click here to turn on automatic updates." The very next thing I saw said "click here to purchase". I immediately went into Start-> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and uninstalled Windows OneCare Live beta.

Why? For one thing, I can't stand automatic updates. Because Microsoft has finally produced an operating system than can run overnight without crashing, I have gotten into the habit of being able to walk away from my computer in the middle of what I was doing and coming back later to pick up. It irritates me to get up in the morning, sit down at my computer to check email, and find my desktop and a stupid balloon sticking out of the system tray that says "Windows downloaded an important update". I have been working with Windows since 1996 and I think I know when to update my system. It's not like the stupid balloon doesn't pop up every 15 minutes when an update is available to remind you to download the update. I hardly think my computer is any less secure if the update is released at 3 AM and I don't find out about it until 5:30AM. And so, realizing that Windows OneCare will not ever give me a green light without enabling this frustrating idiot function, I decided that I in turn will not give Windows OneCare a green light. You are the weakest link, You're fired, good bye!

For the same reason, I realized that I will not be using  Internet Exporer 7 Beta 2, which I learned was available today. I have come to really appreciate Maxthon, which is the undisputed king of browsers. Maxthon is tabbed, built on the IE engine so that pages won't have problems with certain sites like they will Firefox, and my favorite feature, tabs can be saved for later. I can reboot my computer and literally pick up on each page I left off on. I can find a site that sounds interesting, open it in a tab, and come back to it when I feel like it.

I downloaded IE7 Beta 2 this afternoon. As soon as I opened it, I got a notice that my security settings place my computer at risk. However, it would not tell me what setting exactly places my computer at risk. I could select from either "fix my settings for me", "open security settings", and "help with security settings". Opening my security settings did not show me any indication of what IE7 could possibly have a problem with, so I closed security settings and closed the little notification bar at the top of the tab. I opened another tab and the notification came back. I realized that once again, unless I was willing to turn the settings of my computer over to the wizard of Redmond, I could not use the product.

I suddenly find myself wanting to carve out time in my schedule to learn how to configure Linux for my needs. My enthusiasm for Windows Vista just died.

Labels: Microsoft Windows, Security