In my playing around with Windows 8 I found a small issue that can come up if you attempt to sync your IE favorites using both Windows 8 browser sync and iCloud.
My current setup is a Windows 7 PC at work, a Windows 8 laptop, a Windows 8 Surface, an iPhone and an iPad. Before Windows 8 came along I used iCloud to sync IE favorites between my work PC, laptop, iPhone and iPad. When I added my Surface Pro I turned on the browser sync through my Microsoft account and I setup iCloud so my pictures would still appear on my Surface and my favorites would come forward.
Turns out if you do this you are setting yourself up for a bit of trouble. I understand I could just use Chrome everywhere but for various reasons I still use IE for some things.
Apparently the iCloud browser sync causes the Windows 8 sync to keep creating duplicates favorites. I would end up with Shortcut (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) and so on. Same would happen to folders. It didn’t stop until I turned off the Windows 8 browser sync. Once I did that things went back to normal and I now have me IE favorites on my Surface, laptop, Windows 7 desktop, iPhone and iPad – all through iCloud.
Granted turning off the browser sync means my history and passwords don’t sync with IE but that’s why I use Chrome and that’s better than having 18,000 favorites.
I’ve searched the net and tried to find documentation on this and maybe even a work around but so far I haven’t found anything. The fix is simple enough but I was hoping for a way where I could have my cake and eat it too. Since I still use IDevices I still need iCloud but I guess it’s too much to ask that they play nice together.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
A Morning with my Wife, a Random old Lady, and my Haircut
Today was one of those days in my life that I’m certain my
biographers will struggle with in the future.
It all started yesterday when my wife and I were discussing my pending
haircut. As you know if you pay too
close of attention to my life, I get my haircut every 2 weeks. Heather wanted me to get something different
done as she thought my hair was thinning too much on the top and was starting
to look like a comb over.
I asked her what she wanted me to have done so I could tell
the lady who cuts my hair. To me a
haircut is more function over fashion but I wanted to do my best to please my
wife. As Heather explained what she wanted,
I started to get that deer-in-the-headlights look in my eyes and Heather opted
to come with me instead of relying on me to get it right. She knows me too well.
Before my haircut this morning, I had to record a few radio
commercials. Back in the mid-1990’s I worked
for a group of radio stations in Lafayette, IN.
While we were dating sometimes, Heather would come in to the studios and
bring me dinner and such. Every once in
a while I still voice some commercials so this morning we stopped by. It was fun to take a stroll down memory lane
with my wife. She was able to see how
the station has changed over the past decade and we were able to remember all
the spots where we used to smooch during long songs and commercial breaks. Maybe someday I'll posts some of my old demo reels.
After the recording session (I did it in 1 take thank you
very much) we headed off to get my haircut.
I knew things were going to be different when we walked in to balloons
and birthday cake. One of the ladies who
cuts hair was celebrating her birthday.
I sat down in the chair and Heather started to explain how she wanted my
hair cut in order to try to cover my thinning top.
As she started to cut my hair the older lady in the chair
next to me, let’s call her Louise, was checking out how much hair I did or did
not have. Everyone, Louise, Heather, and
the lady that cuts my hair agreed that my hair was thinning and it was getting
harder and harder to hide. At first I thought
Louise was out to support my wife’s goal of getting my haircut to hide the
balding but then she came over and started running her fingers through my thinning
hair. I called out, “Heather, there is a
strange lady running her hands through my hair!” By the time it was over everyone there had
touched my head as if I was some sort of good luck charm. Everyone was laughing, I can only assume at
me and not with me.
Then the other lady who cuts hair their came over to indeed
confirm that my hair was thinning. Again,
being a function over fashion kinda guy I told Heather we should just buzz it
all nice and short – something my wife has not been in favor of. This is when Louise changed teams and started
helping me out. She walked over to
Heather and said, “Honey, grow up. There’s
nothing up there and getting it cut shorter will be better. Just deal with it.” This was the final push Heather needed. She finally agreed that my hair should be cut
shorter so Heather, Louise, and the lady that actually cuts my hair agreed on
the current length in a goal to not create a comb over but also to not totally
buzz my head, as accordingly to Heather, my scalp is ugly.
So the next time you see me, please note that while my hair
is shorter and more to my liking it was not totally my choice, but rather my
new best friend, Louise.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
My Fame has Reached a New Level - as an Astronaut
Recently I had an experience with Twitter that could be either amusing, terrifying, confusing or all the above. I haven’t decided where I land but I have decided to share this experience, for good or for bad. At the very least, I hope the perpetrators get a good laugh out of it.
A few weeks ago I checked into a hotel in Bothell, WA, a suburb just north of Seattle. I’ve stayed at this hotel many times before and checked in not thinking anything special about this time.
I got to my room around 10:45pm and shortly after at 10:55pm the phone in my room started to ring. I figured it was someone in my traveling party calling so I picked it up.
A young voice on the other end asks if I was “Jonathan Smith.” I said yes. He then asked, “Are you an astronaut?” I found that an interesting question as I recently spoke to an elementary school of K-6 grade students about space and some of my NASA experiences and I often found myself reminding them that I am not an astronaut.
I responded that I was not an astronaut. The young man then asked why I had a NASA logo on my Twitter picture. I explained that it was called a Twibbon and that anyone could get one. He again asked if I was an astronaut and I said no. Then there was 10 seconds of nothing although I could hear a little scuffling. Then the voice told me I could hang up now. I said nothing and 10 seconds later, he hung up.
I called down to the front desk and asked if they had caller ID available for incoming calls. I was told they didn’t and when I explained what happened the desk agent told me that they had asked for me as if they knew me. That made sense if they were looking at my Twitter profile, which is public after all.
I told the desk agent that it was either a prank call or some kids who were trying to talk to an actual astronaut and were sorely disappointed when I answered the phone. The hotel manager then got involved and they placed a block on outside calls to my room by placing my on their VIP list.
Unfortunately, for my young friends I was not able to make their night, however they made mine as I had finally arrived and my fame required the hotel to treat me like an A-lister. I'm posting this from yet another hotel so who knows what this stay will hold. Should I warn the front desk now?
A few weeks ago I checked into a hotel in Bothell, WA, a suburb just north of Seattle. I’ve stayed at this hotel many times before and checked in not thinking anything special about this time.
I got to my room around 10:45pm and shortly after at 10:55pm the phone in my room started to ring. I figured it was someone in my traveling party calling so I picked it up.
A young voice on the other end asks if I was “Jonathan Smith.” I said yes. He then asked, “Are you an astronaut?” I found that an interesting question as I recently spoke to an elementary school of K-6 grade students about space and some of my NASA experiences and I often found myself reminding them that I am not an astronaut.
I responded that I was not an astronaut. The young man then asked why I had a NASA logo on my Twitter picture. I explained that it was called a Twibbon and that anyone could get one. He again asked if I was an astronaut and I said no. Then there was 10 seconds of nothing although I could hear a little scuffling. Then the voice told me I could hang up now. I said nothing and 10 seconds later, he hung up.
I called down to the front desk and asked if they had caller ID available for incoming calls. I was told they didn’t and when I explained what happened the desk agent told me that they had asked for me as if they knew me. That made sense if they were looking at my Twitter profile, which is public after all.
I told the desk agent that it was either a prank call or some kids who were trying to talk to an actual astronaut and were sorely disappointed when I answered the phone. The hotel manager then got involved and they placed a block on outside calls to my room by placing my on their VIP list.
Unfortunately, for my young friends I was not able to make their night, however they made mine as I had finally arrived and my fame required the hotel to treat me like an A-lister. I'm posting this from yet another hotel so who knows what this stay will hold. Should I warn the front desk now?
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
TweetDeck’s #EpicFail
Yesterday TweetDeck announced that they are forgetting their
humble beginnings and screwing over most of their users by dropping support for
all mobile apps and dropping support for Facebook.
Instead of reading the rest of this rant if you use the
Adobe Air app for TweetDeck or still use TweetDeck on your iPhone or iPad you
may want to start looking for a new option.
You only have until May to find something else as the apps will disappear
and stop working around that time.
TweetDeck came on the scene and actually made Twitter useful
back in 2008 and 2009. Its integration
of Facebook originally allowed users to post the same thing to post social
networking sites without having to enter things twice. Then later editions allowed you to see your
responses and feedback on both social networks from a single place. Today’s announcement sends TweetDeck back to
2009 as it drops Facebook support and limits Twitter interaction strictly to a
desktop.
Even the way they announced it was a bit insulting:
“In many ways, doubling down on the
TweetDeck web experience and discontinuing our app support is a reflection of
where our TweetDeck power-users are going.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a steady trend towards people using
TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices. This trend coincides with an increased
investment in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android –– adding photo
filters and other editing capabilities, revamping user profiles and enhancing
search. That said, we know this applies
to most of our users –– not all of them.
And for those of you who are inconvenienced by this shift, our sincere
apologies.”
So they are saying that since they think we use Twitter on
our mobile devices and TweetDeck on our computers that we don’t need TweetDeck
for our mobile devices. Well, duh. The fact that they haven’t updated TweetDeck
for any mobile platform in over a year kinda already said that. Plus this comparing TweetDeck to the Twitter
apps isn’t exactly an apples to apples comparison. Twitter only works with Twitter while
TweetDeck works, at least for now, with both Twitter and Facebook.
They also say:
“We’ll also discontinue support for
our Facebook integration.”
What? That’s it? You are abandoning one of the key features
that make you what you are and all you give it is eight words? The primary reason I use TweetDeck on my
desktop is because it can post to both Twitter and Facebook and because
TweetDeck posts to Facebook directly as opposed to going through the Facebook
API there aren’t any rate limits imposed, like what HootSuite struggled
with. You can read more about that here.
Because of the limits Facebook imposes on HootSuite, I’ve
used TweetDeck on my desktops and laptops and HootSuite on my iDevices. That has worked well but now it appears I’ve
got to go back to HootSuite and then when I get limited go back to posting
directly to each social network. It
appears TweetDeck wants to be like Google + and not play nice with anyone.
I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. In 2011 when Twitter bought TweetDeck, I
figured the days of Facebook integration were numbered. I also can’t say I’m totally surprised they
are dropping the mobile apps instead of updating them for Twitter API v1.1. Twitter has made no secret of the fact that
they want to limit API access and close the ecosystem so you have to get access
to Twitter only through them. The fact
that they bought TweetDeck at least keeps that platform alive but everyone else
is going to be subject to huge rate limits.
In addition, since being acquired by Twitter, TweetDeck has
slowly dropped of connections to other social networks like Foursquare,
MySpace, and LinkedIn, to name a few.
I predict that in the near feature all the social networks
will be islands not connected to each other at all. Perhaps Google + has it right after all and
instead of technology making our lives easier and saving us time we will all be
investing more time in updated our social networks separately. That or one of the big three will die a slow
death as folks eventually get bored trying to update them individually.
I recently bought a Microsoft Surface tablet and was excited
that I had a tablet that could run TweetDeck.
That excitement has been short lived as I’ m back to looking for an app
that works across platforms and isn’t subject to rate limiting from Twitter or
Facebook.
Way to go technology!
Thanks for helping us take one-step forward and two steps back. Seems before too long we won’t be able to
post anything to Twitter unless we are standing on our heads, rubbing our
bellies and jumping up and down when we do it.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Window 8 - Fourteenth Pass: The Surface Plunge
After a lot of research I finally took the plunge and purchased a Surface Pro. As you know I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best hardware application that maximizes the touch screen abilities of Windows 8, among other things.
I'm currently in Phoenix and had the opportunity to visit a physical Microsoft store. The closet real store to me is in Chicago and the store in Indy is just a pop-up store so it only has Microsoft hardware. The benefit to being able to spend time in a physical store is that Microsoft wisely sells their hardware and hardware from other manufacturers. That's smart as it gave me the chance to play not only with the Surface but with the Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, and Lenovo options I've been exploring.
My biggest concern was RAM as the Surface is limited to only 4gb of RAM while the competition could go up to 8gb of RAM with varying form factors. My other concern, due to the amount of travel I do, was weight. My goal is to lighten my load and not make my backpack heavier.
A friend at the conference I'm attending pointed out that the majority of the time 4gb of RAM, for what I'm doing will be plenty and if not and paging is required for memory the SSD HD makes it fast enough for most needs. That helps relieve my fears about wanting more than 4gb of RAM.
The sales guy at the store did a great job with the company line on why the Surface is better. He used the Apple model, Microsoft owns the hardware from the bottom up so the Surface is the best option as it was built for Windows 8. Again, that sounds just like Apple and why iOS only runs on Apple hardware. That does make a bit of sense.
The other factor was weight and the Surface was lighter than most of the other options on the table. It also had the ability to go completely without the keyboard while other hardware either had the keyboard permanently attached or had a much heavier detachable keyboard.
I opted to go with the Touch keyboard vs. the type cover. I'm pretty good typing on the glass on my iPad but there is no doubt in my mind that a physical keyboard is faster for me. I also purchased a case so I can protect the Surface and keyboard while having a single way to carry the device, keyboard, pen, and power adapter.
So now the Beta test begins. Can I use a dock and replace my desktop and laptop with the Surface Pro? Can I find a dock that works great with 2 screens? Can I figure out how to type on the glass because the Surface doesn't lay flat at a short angle like the iPad does for typing on the glass? With 16 hours of flying ahead of me is the Surface Pro as easy to use as my iPad on a plane? How does the battery life hold out?
All these questions and more to be answered soon. Stay tuned and be sure to share your experiences. If you've already figured something out I don't want to reinvent that wheel.
I'm currently in Phoenix and had the opportunity to visit a physical Microsoft store. The closet real store to me is in Chicago and the store in Indy is just a pop-up store so it only has Microsoft hardware. The benefit to being able to spend time in a physical store is that Microsoft wisely sells their hardware and hardware from other manufacturers. That's smart as it gave me the chance to play not only with the Surface but with the Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, and Lenovo options I've been exploring.
My biggest concern was RAM as the Surface is limited to only 4gb of RAM while the competition could go up to 8gb of RAM with varying form factors. My other concern, due to the amount of travel I do, was weight. My goal is to lighten my load and not make my backpack heavier.
A friend at the conference I'm attending pointed out that the majority of the time 4gb of RAM, for what I'm doing will be plenty and if not and paging is required for memory the SSD HD makes it fast enough for most needs. That helps relieve my fears about wanting more than 4gb of RAM.
The sales guy at the store did a great job with the company line on why the Surface is better. He used the Apple model, Microsoft owns the hardware from the bottom up so the Surface is the best option as it was built for Windows 8. Again, that sounds just like Apple and why iOS only runs on Apple hardware. That does make a bit of sense.
The other factor was weight and the Surface was lighter than most of the other options on the table. It also had the ability to go completely without the keyboard while other hardware either had the keyboard permanently attached or had a much heavier detachable keyboard.
I opted to go with the Touch keyboard vs. the type cover. I'm pretty good typing on the glass on my iPad but there is no doubt in my mind that a physical keyboard is faster for me. I also purchased a case so I can protect the Surface and keyboard while having a single way to carry the device, keyboard, pen, and power adapter.
So now the Beta test begins. Can I use a dock and replace my desktop and laptop with the Surface Pro? Can I find a dock that works great with 2 screens? Can I figure out how to type on the glass because the Surface doesn't lay flat at a short angle like the iPad does for typing on the glass? With 16 hours of flying ahead of me is the Surface Pro as easy to use as my iPad on a plane? How does the battery life hold out?
All these questions and more to be answered soon. Stay tuned and be sure to share your experiences. If you've already figured something out I don't want to reinvent that wheel.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Relocating a Database (Shelby)
If you've ever had to relocate your Shelby Systems database to another server then you might want to continue reading. Shelby Systems is a Church Management database used by a lot of churches and non-profits. I've had to move our Shelby database to a different server twice. The first time I had to move it was in crisis mode because the hard drives in the server had failed. Once we rebuilt the data we relocated it to a new server and the following article was very helpful.
http://community.shelbyinc.com/forums/post/1074.aspx
The second time we moved the database to our new virtual sequel server cluster. This move was a bit more challenging as the above article was written for Windows XP clients and not Windows 7 clients, which is what we run.
Ideally the above article on their Community is all you would need to know but for Windows 7 the location of some key files changed and that made the process a lot more challenging. The biggest thing to note that is not in their article are the changes to various INI files in the DAT folder.
All Shelby installs have an ssv5.dat folder and an ssv5.prg folder. Inside these folders are a few INI files that it would be good to check and confirm that you've changed the server paths and IP address to point to your new server. Then all you would need to do to update the clients is change the shortcut on the client to point to the new database server. This works well except on Windows 7 machines. Depending on how you have Windows 7 configured for your users (local admins, not, redirected profiles, etc.) there is another set of INI files that need to be updated.
I did everything listed in the article but I couldn't get any reports to run. This is the error I kept getting.
The client Event Viewer then showed an application event stating that PowerMerge could not find the report path. It then listed the wrong report path. It wasn't until I found this second copy of the INI file that I knew why the wrong path was being used.
In C:\Windows there is a formsetini file that I had manually updated. There is a second copy of the file located in the user's profile at C:\Users\%usersname%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows. This file is the one that was not being updated by the application and it wasn't until I manually updated this file that the clients were able to run reports again.
The C:\windows\formset.ini file can only be changed if you are running Shelby as the admin. Otherwise the local profile version of the file is what the software looks for. The C:\Windows version is used when you login to Shelby as a new user and is copied to that users profile on the local machine.
We have many clients running this program so to make it easier I used Group Policy Preferences to automatically update the files on all our clients. This policy will then allow me to easily make this change again should we for whatever reason have to relocate to another SQL server.
It took me hours to figure this out and get our reports working again, if I was smarter it might not have taken so long.
http://community.shelbyinc.com/forums/post/1074.aspx
The second time we moved the database to our new virtual sequel server cluster. This move was a bit more challenging as the above article was written for Windows XP clients and not Windows 7 clients, which is what we run.
Ideally the above article on their Community is all you would need to know but for Windows 7 the location of some key files changed and that made the process a lot more challenging. The biggest thing to note that is not in their article are the changes to various INI files in the DAT folder.
All Shelby installs have an ssv5.dat folder and an ssv5.prg folder. Inside these folders are a few INI files that it would be good to check and confirm that you've changed the server paths and IP address to point to your new server. Then all you would need to do to update the clients is change the shortcut on the client to point to the new database server. This works well except on Windows 7 machines. Depending on how you have Windows 7 configured for your users (local admins, not, redirected profiles, etc.) there is another set of INI files that need to be updated.
I did everything listed in the article but I couldn't get any reports to run. This is the error I kept getting.
The client Event Viewer then showed an application event stating that PowerMerge could not find the report path. It then listed the wrong report path. It wasn't until I found this second copy of the INI file that I knew why the wrong path was being used.
In C:\Windows there is a formsetini file that I had manually updated. There is a second copy of the file located in the user's profile at C:\Users\%usersname%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows. This file is the one that was not being updated by the application and it wasn't until I manually updated this file that the clients were able to run reports again.
The C:\windows\formset.ini file can only be changed if you are running Shelby as the admin. Otherwise the local profile version of the file is what the software looks for. The C:\Windows version is used when you login to Shelby as a new user and is copied to that users profile on the local machine.
We have many clients running this program so to make it easier I used Group Policy Preferences to automatically update the files on all our clients. This policy will then allow me to easily make this change again should we for whatever reason have to relocate to another SQL server.
It took me hours to figure this out and get our reports working again, if I was smarter it might not have taken so long.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Window 8 - Thirteenth Pass: Windows To Go
Another creative way to handle the hardware issues I mentioned in my last post is Windows To Go. This basically allows you to place your entire Windows 8 environment on a USB drive and take it with you wherever you go. Regardless of the hardware you are using so long as it has a USB drive you can run Windows 8 with all of your settings and apps booting off the USB port.
It's a pretty cool concept that could help you work around hardware issues as well as take your environment easily between home and work regardless of hardware changes. At the launch event however the demo for Windows To Go failed. Plus I'm sure many network admins will prevent corporate users from taking their entire environment, including apps, home with them for numerous valid and invalid privacy and security reasons.
Regardless the potential is there for this to be very cool. I could keep using my Lenovo T400 with a 250gb SSD HD, 8gb of RAM and run Windows 8 in my work environment while still keeping the local version running that I have now. Granted this doesn't solve any immediate hardware issues or allow me to take advantage of the touch screen options but it does make trying new hardware much easier. I can get a device; take my environment with me from device to device until I find something I like without having to set everything up over and over again.
The future of this is exciting.
It's a pretty cool concept that could help you work around hardware issues as well as take your environment easily between home and work regardless of hardware changes. At the launch event however the demo for Windows To Go failed. Plus I'm sure many network admins will prevent corporate users from taking their entire environment, including apps, home with them for numerous valid and invalid privacy and security reasons.
Regardless the potential is there for this to be very cool. I could keep using my Lenovo T400 with a 250gb SSD HD, 8gb of RAM and run Windows 8 in my work environment while still keeping the local version running that I have now. Granted this doesn't solve any immediate hardware issues or allow me to take advantage of the touch screen options but it does make trying new hardware much easier. I can get a device; take my environment with me from device to device until I find something I like without having to set everything up over and over again.
The future of this is exciting.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Window 8 - Twelfth Pass: New Hardware Options
If you're a regular reading of this blog, and why would you be, please let me know if you are, you know that I have a 6 year old Lenovo ThinkPad T400 laptop. As you also know Windows 8 has been released and presents a whole bunch of new features that are hardware related, like touch screens.
That puts folks like me in a real dilemma when it comes to upgrading hardware. Do I upgrade now with what's presently available or do I wait and see what new hardware options come out over the next few months? The Microsoft Surface is of definite interest to me but it is very limited in growth potential. It is a one-size-fits-all piece of hardware that has no future growth potential. It can't be upgraded, you can't get it with a bigger processor or more RAM, the screen size is set, etc. That may work well for most but I'm trying to find a piece of hardware that is both the best tablet experience out there but also the best laptop experience out there.
Windows 8 is best experienced with a touch screen. The upside of having both a desktop OS and a tablet OS together in a single operating system is that with the right hardware you can use it in any environment. On a plane I exclusively use my iPad. It is small, light, and easy to use no matter what seat I'm in or if the person in front of me is reclined or not. I'm also pretty quick typing on glass so not having a keyboard allows me to enjoy my beverage and keep working with room to spare on my tray table.
This changes when I get to my hotel room or am working at home. There I prefer a regular keyword and mouse. I have much more space on my desk and can get a lot done in a more traditional setting. Doing more complex tasks is simpler having access to traditional desktop style hardware.
Taking advantage of the beauty of everything combined into one in Windows 8 means that if there was a piece of hardware that could do all the above would mean I'd have one less device weighing down my backpack. I'd have a device that had 6-8gb of RAM, a screaming processor, at least 4 USB ports, a keyboard, a tablet screen for portability that detaches from the keyboard, a decent graphics processor, a long life battery, at least a 150gb SSD HD, and very light weight.
It doesn't appear that I'm dreaming. There are some new pieces of hardware that are starting to come out but it seems we are on the beginning of these releases. Again, the Surface is too limiting for what I'm looking for in terms of a full powered laptop replacement that functions as a tablet. While the Windows 8 touch screen options really mess with a typical desktop user in a combo configuration they start to come to life.
Toshiba, Sony, and Lenovo currently have hybrid devices on the market with many more to come. The challenge becomes do I wait or do I buy something now? If I buy now which one is best? I've played with a few of the options and I like what I've seen but I also like what I'm hearing is coming next.
Granted new technology is a moving target. The software part of this has landed, at least for the time being, now to see what the hardware will do.
If you have hardware that you like please comment and let me know what you've got and why you got it. I start to hit the road pretty hard again later next month. Do I buy something out there now or would it be worth it for me to wait until later this spring to get a device that will better meet my needs over the long haul? I can handle a few more months of my heavy T400 and my iPad.
That puts folks like me in a real dilemma when it comes to upgrading hardware. Do I upgrade now with what's presently available or do I wait and see what new hardware options come out over the next few months? The Microsoft Surface is of definite interest to me but it is very limited in growth potential. It is a one-size-fits-all piece of hardware that has no future growth potential. It can't be upgraded, you can't get it with a bigger processor or more RAM, the screen size is set, etc. That may work well for most but I'm trying to find a piece of hardware that is both the best tablet experience out there but also the best laptop experience out there.
Windows 8 is best experienced with a touch screen. The upside of having both a desktop OS and a tablet OS together in a single operating system is that with the right hardware you can use it in any environment. On a plane I exclusively use my iPad. It is small, light, and easy to use no matter what seat I'm in or if the person in front of me is reclined or not. I'm also pretty quick typing on glass so not having a keyboard allows me to enjoy my beverage and keep working with room to spare on my tray table.
This changes when I get to my hotel room or am working at home. There I prefer a regular keyword and mouse. I have much more space on my desk and can get a lot done in a more traditional setting. Doing more complex tasks is simpler having access to traditional desktop style hardware.
Taking advantage of the beauty of everything combined into one in Windows 8 means that if there was a piece of hardware that could do all the above would mean I'd have one less device weighing down my backpack. I'd have a device that had 6-8gb of RAM, a screaming processor, at least 4 USB ports, a keyboard, a tablet screen for portability that detaches from the keyboard, a decent graphics processor, a long life battery, at least a 150gb SSD HD, and very light weight.
It doesn't appear that I'm dreaming. There are some new pieces of hardware that are starting to come out but it seems we are on the beginning of these releases. Again, the Surface is too limiting for what I'm looking for in terms of a full powered laptop replacement that functions as a tablet. While the Windows 8 touch screen options really mess with a typical desktop user in a combo configuration they start to come to life.
Toshiba, Sony, and Lenovo currently have hybrid devices on the market with many more to come. The challenge becomes do I wait or do I buy something now? If I buy now which one is best? I've played with a few of the options and I like what I've seen but I also like what I'm hearing is coming next.
Granted new technology is a moving target. The software part of this has landed, at least for the time being, now to see what the hardware will do.
If you have hardware that you like please comment and let me know what you've got and why you got it. I start to hit the road pretty hard again later next month. Do I buy something out there now or would it be worth it for me to wait until later this spring to get a device that will better meet my needs over the long haul? I can handle a few more months of my heavy T400 and my iPad.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Windows 8 - Eleventh Pass: Start Screen Email vs Desktop Email
One of the challenges with Windows 8 is that many of the same apps we use every day come in two flavors for Windows 8. One is the Start Screen, or old Metro style, that runs on the Surface RT, and the other is a full desktop version of the app.
A few examples include Skype, SkyDrive, and Email. So what’s the difference between apps for the Start Screen and apps for the desktop? Do you need both? What about disk space of running the same app twice on your traditional laptop or desktop?
For starters, there is a big difference. Start Screen apps work on a small cache and prefer to be online. Start Screen apps are also the only apps that can provide notification icons on the Windows 8 lock screen. Those are the little icons below the time and date when the computer is locked. However, these apps are also limited in functionality, as they need to be online and designed for touch screen functionality.
In terms of email, you have the default Start Screen email app and you have Outlook. Outlook is my preferred email client however, Outlook (any version) doesn’t have Live Tile that can update to show you recent messages, Outlook can’t update a lock screen icon with the number of new messages you have, and Outlook can’t provide a fade in/fade out notification on the Start Screen in Windows 8. Outlook can only provide a fade in/fade out notification down above the taskbar if you are in the Windows 8 desktop.
Conversely the Windows 8 Start Screen email app can do all of the above but how much disk space does it take up? My Outlook profile is 3-4 GB and I definitely didn’t want to have two PST files containing the same Outlook profile on my laptop.
The default Start Screen Email app doesn’t take up any disk space. I set it up to access the same Exchange account that Outlook accesses and my disk space didn’t change at all. The reason being the email app works online and doesn’t cache very much. The downside to that being if you aren’t online you won’t see much of your email but the Start Screen email app assumes you are always online via a Wi-Fi or cellular connection on a touch screen type device like the Surface.
So my recommendation is if you have a cloud based email account that you run both the Start Screen Email app and Outlook so you can have the best of all the above worlds. That way you can access your email whether you are online or offline, can take advantage of all the Windows 8 notification mechanisms, have easy access on a traditional piece of hardware, and maximize your access to email if you are using a touch screen only or hybrid device.
Oddly enough, the Start Screen app notices pop up several seconds before any Outlook notices.
Similarly, you may want to run both the desktop version and Start Screen version of Skype and SkyDrive. For example, with SkyDrive, the Start Screen app doesn’t download and store anything. It simply provides you with online access to your SkyDrive files. If you want your files downloaded and updated to the SkyDrive folder on your laptop/desktop then you will also need to run the desktop version of the app.
There are also benefits to running both version of Skype especially as Windows Live Messenger will be retired the first quarter of 2013 according to Microsoft.
In other words, with the variety of hardware types available to run Windows 8 and the various methods of interacting with it you will want to research based on the type of hardware you plan to use what the benefits are to running each type of Windows 8 app. This is all part of the fun when you try to combine too many uses into a single platform.
A few examples include Skype, SkyDrive, and Email. So what’s the difference between apps for the Start Screen and apps for the desktop? Do you need both? What about disk space of running the same app twice on your traditional laptop or desktop?
For starters, there is a big difference. Start Screen apps work on a small cache and prefer to be online. Start Screen apps are also the only apps that can provide notification icons on the Windows 8 lock screen. Those are the little icons below the time and date when the computer is locked. However, these apps are also limited in functionality, as they need to be online and designed for touch screen functionality.
In terms of email, you have the default Start Screen email app and you have Outlook. Outlook is my preferred email client however, Outlook (any version) doesn’t have Live Tile that can update to show you recent messages, Outlook can’t update a lock screen icon with the number of new messages you have, and Outlook can’t provide a fade in/fade out notification on the Start Screen in Windows 8. Outlook can only provide a fade in/fade out notification down above the taskbar if you are in the Windows 8 desktop.
Conversely the Windows 8 Start Screen email app can do all of the above but how much disk space does it take up? My Outlook profile is 3-4 GB and I definitely didn’t want to have two PST files containing the same Outlook profile on my laptop.
The default Start Screen Email app doesn’t take up any disk space. I set it up to access the same Exchange account that Outlook accesses and my disk space didn’t change at all. The reason being the email app works online and doesn’t cache very much. The downside to that being if you aren’t online you won’t see much of your email but the Start Screen email app assumes you are always online via a Wi-Fi or cellular connection on a touch screen type device like the Surface.
So my recommendation is if you have a cloud based email account that you run both the Start Screen Email app and Outlook so you can have the best of all the above worlds. That way you can access your email whether you are online or offline, can take advantage of all the Windows 8 notification mechanisms, have easy access on a traditional piece of hardware, and maximize your access to email if you are using a touch screen only or hybrid device.
Oddly enough, the Start Screen app notices pop up several seconds before any Outlook notices.
Similarly, you may want to run both the desktop version and Start Screen version of Skype and SkyDrive. For example, with SkyDrive, the Start Screen app doesn’t download and store anything. It simply provides you with online access to your SkyDrive files. If you want your files downloaded and updated to the SkyDrive folder on your laptop/desktop then you will also need to run the desktop version of the app.
There are also benefits to running both version of Skype especially as Windows Live Messenger will be retired the first quarter of 2013 according to Microsoft.
In other words, with the variety of hardware types available to run Windows 8 and the various methods of interacting with it you will want to research based on the type of hardware you plan to use what the benefits are to running each type of Windows 8 app. This is all part of the fun when you try to combine too many uses into a single platform.
Monday, December 31, 2012
The End of 2012 and the Start of 2013
It seems appropriate that this New Year's greeting is coming to you from a plane at 32,00 feet over the Tennessee/Kentucky line, as a good bit of my time in 2012 was spent in the air and a good bit of my time in 2013 will be spent here as well.
I have much to be thankful for as I look back at 2012. I'm blessed with a great job, friends I can tolerate, and an awesome family. My wife and kids make the many cool things I get to do possible and I appreciate that. They could easily be selfish with my time but they choose not to be.
We are returning home to frozen Indiana having spent the holidays in sunny, warm southwest Florida. We are returning tan, rested and refreshed, ready for another exciting year. 2013 promises to be a great year in ministry as well as for our family and me professionally. It also looks to be an exciting year of technological advancements.
"To whom much is given, much is also required." Take a moment and make some plans for next year. Don't make foolish resolutions but rather make some obtainable goals that you can measure your progress towards. Then when 2013 ends you can look back and see how far you've come. Be specific, loose weight isn't specific enough.
As for me, my goals are set and I'm looking forward to what's next.
See you in 2013!
I have much to be thankful for as I look back at 2012. I'm blessed with a great job, friends I can tolerate, and an awesome family. My wife and kids make the many cool things I get to do possible and I appreciate that. They could easily be selfish with my time but they choose not to be.
We are returning home to frozen Indiana having spent the holidays in sunny, warm southwest Florida. We are returning tan, rested and refreshed, ready for another exciting year. 2013 promises to be a great year in ministry as well as for our family and me professionally. It also looks to be an exciting year of technological advancements.
"To whom much is given, much is also required." Take a moment and make some plans for next year. Don't make foolish resolutions but rather make some obtainable goals that you can measure your progress towards. Then when 2013 ends you can look back and see how far you've come. Be specific, loose weight isn't specific enough.
As for me, my goals are set and I'm looking forward to what's next.
See you in 2013!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Windows 8 - Tenth Pass: Driving the Touchscreen
It is obvious that Microsoft plans to drive the touchscreen as being the primary way we interact with a PC in the future, much in the same way we interact with smartphones and tablets now. I agree that it is the future but it isn’t now. Window 8 however is relying on that being the future and those unhappy with not being able to touch the screen of their desktop in their cubicle at work will eventually get over it.
Several times during the launch event, they referred to the start screen as “beautiful” and that it work great with both a touchscreen or with a keyboard and mouse. I found it interesting that during the rest of the demo they didn’t use the keyboard or mouse once, confirming to me that it really isn’t designed for a keyboard and mouse but that if you care to figure it out it will work with a keyboard and mouse. In other words, the intuitive part of it is only for touchscreen-based devices.
Fortunately, for them the second demo did use a keyboard and mouse the entire time. I actually learned a few new keyboard and mouse shortcuts for interacting with the start screen on a non-touch device. While that helps me use Windows 8 on my existing non-touch laptop it does mean I have to remember how to interact with the operating system based on the type of hardware I’m using. Microsoft must think I’m smarter than I really am.
The best part of the start screen demo was when the elephant in the room was finally brought up. The presenter asked if the Start Button worked for people as opposed to the Start Screen. I along with half the room raised my hand. This is what I had been waiting for; tell us why the Start Button was gone forever?
According to Microsoft, the Start Button took too long to use. Think about that for a while and then do some trials comparing how long it takes you to do the same functionality between the Start Button and the Start Screen on a non-touch enabled device. Oh, wait. There it is. A non-touch enabled device. The Start Button is very difficult to use with your fingers and since Windows 8 is all about the touchscreen, you now have your answer, at least according to Microsoft.
As the demo concluded they emphasized that Windows 8 brings work and home together. I look forward to seeing how that pans out. How many work computers will get touchscreens? How many corporate IT shops will allow users to login using personal MSN accounts to access corporate resources and then take those some accounts home? How many supervisors will want users bringing in games from home?
Microsoft admits that the change to start screen is a big change and that there is no legacy mode. They don't admit why.
Several times during the launch event, they referred to the start screen as “beautiful” and that it work great with both a touchscreen or with a keyboard and mouse. I found it interesting that during the rest of the demo they didn’t use the keyboard or mouse once, confirming to me that it really isn’t designed for a keyboard and mouse but that if you care to figure it out it will work with a keyboard and mouse. In other words, the intuitive part of it is only for touchscreen-based devices.
Fortunately, for them the second demo did use a keyboard and mouse the entire time. I actually learned a few new keyboard and mouse shortcuts for interacting with the start screen on a non-touch device. While that helps me use Windows 8 on my existing non-touch laptop it does mean I have to remember how to interact with the operating system based on the type of hardware I’m using. Microsoft must think I’m smarter than I really am.
The best part of the start screen demo was when the elephant in the room was finally brought up. The presenter asked if the Start Button worked for people as opposed to the Start Screen. I along with half the room raised my hand. This is what I had been waiting for; tell us why the Start Button was gone forever?
According to Microsoft, the Start Button took too long to use. Think about that for a while and then do some trials comparing how long it takes you to do the same functionality between the Start Button and the Start Screen on a non-touch enabled device. Oh, wait. There it is. A non-touch enabled device. The Start Button is very difficult to use with your fingers and since Windows 8 is all about the touchscreen, you now have your answer, at least according to Microsoft.
As the demo concluded they emphasized that Windows 8 brings work and home together. I look forward to seeing how that pans out. How many work computers will get touchscreens? How many corporate IT shops will allow users to login using personal MSN accounts to access corporate resources and then take those some accounts home? How many supervisors will want users bringing in games from home?
Microsoft admits that the change to start screen is a big change and that there is no legacy mode. They don't admit why.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
12-12-12
Today is December 12, 2012, or 12-12-12. This date fascinates me a bit, as the mathematics that makeup our calendar limits the number of times you can have such a date. In my lifetime I’ve been fortunate enough to live through 01-01-01, 02-02-02, 03-03-03, 04-04-04, 05-05-05, 06-06-06, 07-07-07, 08-08-08, 09-09-09, 10-10-10, 11-11-11, and now, and finally, 12-12-12.
Even if the Mayans are wrong there still won’t be a 13-13-13 so as this day fades in my time zone I can’t help but wonder what the world will be like when this pattern starts all over again and we reach the next 12-12-12. In 89 years we will hit 01-01-01, that’s January 1, 2101. Odds are I won’t be around then but when you look back at where we’ve come, it is intriguing to think about where we will be.
Think about the last round of dates, starting back in 01-01-1901. Back then, we didn’t even know how to fly. Now we’re landing small cars on Mars via sky cranes.
In 01-01-2001, we didn’t have Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Foursquare, or iPhones and iPads. Laptops were just starting to become more readily available and email was still something you had to be on a computer with a modem to access. Music was only available on round silver disks or cartridges of magnetic tape wound around sprockets.
By 07-07-2007, Twitter and Facebook were emerging on the scene and we had our first iPhone.
Now on 12-12-2012, the date is trending on Twitter and we are connected to email all the time by small pieces of glass we won’t leave home without.
So, lift a glass to the Mayan’s being wrong and the next 12-12-12!
Even if the Mayans are wrong there still won’t be a 13-13-13 so as this day fades in my time zone I can’t help but wonder what the world will be like when this pattern starts all over again and we reach the next 12-12-12. In 89 years we will hit 01-01-01, that’s January 1, 2101. Odds are I won’t be around then but when you look back at where we’ve come, it is intriguing to think about where we will be.
Think about the last round of dates, starting back in 01-01-1901. Back then, we didn’t even know how to fly. Now we’re landing small cars on Mars via sky cranes.
In 01-01-2001, we didn’t have Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Foursquare, or iPhones and iPads. Laptops were just starting to become more readily available and email was still something you had to be on a computer with a modem to access. Music was only available on round silver disks or cartridges of magnetic tape wound around sprockets.
By 07-07-2007, Twitter and Facebook were emerging on the scene and we had our first iPhone.
Now on 12-12-2012, the date is trending on Twitter and we are connected to email all the time by small pieces of glass we won’t leave home without.
So, lift a glass to the Mayan’s being wrong and the next 12-12-12!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Windows 8 - Ninth Pass: The Sales Pitch
Last week I attended one of the many official Microsoft launch events for Windows 8. Naturally I arrived with a bunch of questions I wanted to get answered but I was also very interested in how they were going to pitch the various changes I've already discussed here to a room full of several hundred IT Professionals.
If you've wasted any time reading my blog as of late you know I not a big Windows 8 fan, but despite my bias I went in with an open mind to allow them to sway my views. Unfortunately that didn't happen. While I understand the 'why' a bit better I'm still not sold on the 'how'.
It was obvious from the keynote that Microsoft believes that Windows 8 is as much of a game changer as email, the iPhone (they even gave Mr. Jobs a shout out), and even the printing press. They believe they are changing the game in terms of tablets and smartphones now being integrated together for the first time on a single platform - Windows 8. Microsoft is leading with the software of the future as opposed to the software we need today.
I agree with the premise but the implementation is where it fall apart for me. This is a good example of software driving hardware. Windows 8 is designed for the end of the desktop - a future whose ending hasn't been written yet. Microsoft believes the rate of change is going to be fast enough to justify their changes now. I agree the pace is fast but the implementation could have been done in a way that made the changes easier to adopt. From their perspective it is easier to just make the changes and deal with the fall out of user adoption. Speaking of adoption, according to Microsoft it has been low however Windows 8 has only been public for just over a month now.
It was obvious that Microsoft believes they are on the right track with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Time will tell.
If you've wasted any time reading my blog as of late you know I not a big Windows 8 fan, but despite my bias I went in with an open mind to allow them to sway my views. Unfortunately that didn't happen. While I understand the 'why' a bit better I'm still not sold on the 'how'.
It was obvious from the keynote that Microsoft believes that Windows 8 is as much of a game changer as email, the iPhone (they even gave Mr. Jobs a shout out), and even the printing press. They believe they are changing the game in terms of tablets and smartphones now being integrated together for the first time on a single platform - Windows 8. Microsoft is leading with the software of the future as opposed to the software we need today.
I agree with the premise but the implementation is where it fall apart for me. This is a good example of software driving hardware. Windows 8 is designed for the end of the desktop - a future whose ending hasn't been written yet. Microsoft believes the rate of change is going to be fast enough to justify their changes now. I agree the pace is fast but the implementation could have been done in a way that made the changes easier to adopt. From their perspective it is easier to just make the changes and deal with the fall out of user adoption. Speaking of adoption, according to Microsoft it has been low however Windows 8 has only been public for just over a month now.
It was obvious that Microsoft believes they are on the right track with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Time will tell.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Fun with Symantec
At a recent Microsoft event I was at I had the chance to speak with the folks from Symantec at their booth. They were giving away little footballs as swag and naturally I needed one of those. Of course in exchange for said football I had to talk with them and let them scan my name tag.
As I was talking to the rep I told them that I was already a customer. He asked me what version we were using and I told him the latest. Then, as if he didn't hear that I was already a customer and already sold on their products, he started to explain to me how great the latest version was and that it was "killing it" out there. He also explained how their technology was superior because they were moving away from definitions and using signatures to detect infected files which was not only more secure but faster.
What the rep didn't know was that I was looking for just such a segue. You see, the week before the event our latest version of Symantec, the one "killing it", let a bug through from a web link in an email. This gave me the perfect opportunity to point out that while their product may be "killing it" they missed a bug that wiped an entire workstation.
The rep then tried to sell me on the idea that I should have submitted the infected files and they would research it and update their signatures because they had the best team in the world for doing that. Again, I'm already sold on them but I had to explain to the rep the role his company plays in our environment. In the ideal world I'd have plenty of time to send samples to them but most times I'm depending on them to "kill it" and be one step ahead. Otherwise my time is spent fixing the bug that got through as opposed to post infection analysis.
I'm still sold on Symantec and I understand that even with our multiple layers of protection things still get through, especially this time of year, I was just enjoying, perhaps too much, pressing the front line guy Symantec happened to send to the same event I was at. I'm sure he'll go on his break if he sees me coming at a future show.
As I was talking to the rep I told them that I was already a customer. He asked me what version we were using and I told him the latest. Then, as if he didn't hear that I was already a customer and already sold on their products, he started to explain to me how great the latest version was and that it was "killing it" out there. He also explained how their technology was superior because they were moving away from definitions and using signatures to detect infected files which was not only more secure but faster.
What the rep didn't know was that I was looking for just such a segue. You see, the week before the event our latest version of Symantec, the one "killing it", let a bug through from a web link in an email. This gave me the perfect opportunity to point out that while their product may be "killing it" they missed a bug that wiped an entire workstation.
The rep then tried to sell me on the idea that I should have submitted the infected files and they would research it and update their signatures because they had the best team in the world for doing that. Again, I'm already sold on them but I had to explain to the rep the role his company plays in our environment. In the ideal world I'd have plenty of time to send samples to them but most times I'm depending on them to "kill it" and be one step ahead. Otherwise my time is spent fixing the bug that got through as opposed to post infection analysis.
I'm still sold on Symantec and I understand that even with our multiple layers of protection things still get through, especially this time of year, I was just enjoying, perhaps too much, pressing the front line guy Symantec happened to send to the same event I was at. I'm sure he'll go on his break if he sees me coming at a future show.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Windows 8 – Eighth Pass: Official Launch
Even though I’ve been quiet over the past month that doesn’t mean I’ve grown to love Windows 8 any more.
Tomorrow I’m attending the Windows 8 Launch event in Indianapolis. As you know I’ve not been very kind to Microsoft’s latest flagship operating system. I am not anticipating that tomorrow will do much to change my mind however; I’m hoping it at least allows Microsoft to better explain why they think Windows 8 is the best way to go for the future of the desktop, laptop, and tablet. And no, I don’t buy the argument that the desktop and laptop as we know them today are going away anytime soon.
At the Server 2012 Launch, a lot of time was spent talking about the cloud and very little time spent talking about the improvements to the operating system. Part of me wonders if that isn’t also going to be the focus tomorrow. I predict a bit of dancing around the issues and very little addressing of those issues.
I’ll be posting what I learn and maybe even posting that I’ve had a change of heart, feel free to contact your bookies now to place your bets.
Tomorrow I’m attending the Windows 8 Launch event in Indianapolis. As you know I’ve not been very kind to Microsoft’s latest flagship operating system. I am not anticipating that tomorrow will do much to change my mind however; I’m hoping it at least allows Microsoft to better explain why they think Windows 8 is the best way to go for the future of the desktop, laptop, and tablet. And no, I don’t buy the argument that the desktop and laptop as we know them today are going away anytime soon.
At the Server 2012 Launch, a lot of time was spent talking about the cloud and very little time spent talking about the improvements to the operating system. Part of me wonders if that isn’t also going to be the focus tomorrow. I predict a bit of dancing around the issues and very little addressing of those issues.
I’ll be posting what I learn and maybe even posting that I’ve had a change of heart, feel free to contact your bookies now to place your bets.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Windows 8 – Seventh Pass: The Surface Tablet
For many reasons I’m very interested in the new Surface tablet from Microsoft – that runs Windows 8. This device could perhaps be my dream device. A tablet that can do everything my laptop can do and allows me to dock it at work and at home to use my peripherals but also travel with all my stuff without the need to carry a bulky laptop.
Early reviews are good but the sequence Microsoft is using to deploy the Surface seems to be derailing a bit of the momentum.
The Surface you can by now is the RT version, or Run Time version. This runs on a processor that requires applications to be specifically designed for it. Microsoft says their App Store now has 50,000 apps that will run on the Surface RT. While that may appear to be good news, it really isn’t. For me the issue is can it do everything my laptop can do?
The RT version may have some apps but it is missing several key things. It can’t run Office right now, there is no RT version. You can get to your Exchange mail using the Mail app for the Start Screen but it isn’t Outlook. While there is a version of One Note that works well on the Start Screen it won’t run the current desktop version. It also can’t run Photoshop.
For some this isn’t a deal breaker but in order to replace my laptop it needs to do what my laptop can do. The bad news is right now it can’t, the good news is in January they will release a version that can. The January version, called the Surface Pro, runs on an Intel chip and can do everything Windows 8 on a desktop or laptop can do. The challenge will be whether or not it is powerful enough to pull that off in ways that doesn't make me miss my laptop.
I’ve talked with several developers and others using the Surface RT and they like it. I’m sure for some it will work fine, but for me, in order to replace my laptop and iPad it has to do everything they can do and then some. Will the lack of a Retina display be noticeable? Will it be fast enough? Will the touch keyboard cover be an adequate replacement for my laptop keyboard? Will there be wireless accessories for it?
If the stars align, it may just be the ticket and may just be the only way Windows 8 can show some relevance. If so then Microsoft just has to convince everyone that doesn’t own a Surface that designing Windows 8 around the Surface doesn’t hinder it being used effectively on your current laptop or desktop.
Early reviews are good but the sequence Microsoft is using to deploy the Surface seems to be derailing a bit of the momentum.
The Surface you can by now is the RT version, or Run Time version. This runs on a processor that requires applications to be specifically designed for it. Microsoft says their App Store now has 50,000 apps that will run on the Surface RT. While that may appear to be good news, it really isn’t. For me the issue is can it do everything my laptop can do?
The RT version may have some apps but it is missing several key things. It can’t run Office right now, there is no RT version. You can get to your Exchange mail using the Mail app for the Start Screen but it isn’t Outlook. While there is a version of One Note that works well on the Start Screen it won’t run the current desktop version. It also can’t run Photoshop.
For some this isn’t a deal breaker but in order to replace my laptop it needs to do what my laptop can do. The bad news is right now it can’t, the good news is in January they will release a version that can. The January version, called the Surface Pro, runs on an Intel chip and can do everything Windows 8 on a desktop or laptop can do. The challenge will be whether or not it is powerful enough to pull that off in ways that doesn't make me miss my laptop.
I’ve talked with several developers and others using the Surface RT and they like it. I’m sure for some it will work fine, but for me, in order to replace my laptop and iPad it has to do everything they can do and then some. Will the lack of a Retina display be noticeable? Will it be fast enough? Will the touch keyboard cover be an adequate replacement for my laptop keyboard? Will there be wireless accessories for it?
If the stars align, it may just be the ticket and may just be the only way Windows 8 can show some relevance. If so then Microsoft just has to convince everyone that doesn’t own a Surface that designing Windows 8 around the Surface doesn’t hinder it being used effectively on your current laptop or desktop.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Windows 8 – Sixth Pass: Lenovo T400 Fixes
At long last, I have finally been able to resolve some odd Windows 8 hardware compatibility issues with my Lenovo T400 laptop and Windows 8. I’m not sure if these are related to Windows 8 finally being available to the public or not.
A good bit of internet research revealed that for legacy hardware, like a T400, your best bet is not to use the general Windows 8 drivers come with the OS but rather to revert back to the latest version of the driver for Windows 7.
As I’ve posted here, I’ve been having problems with my display. Areas of the screen will at time fuzz out and become unreadable and I have to refresh the display to solve the issue. I’ve also had issues with my ATI Radeon Mobile 3400 chip overheating. My T400 has switchable graphics and in order to avoid the overheating problem I only used the Intel Mobile Series 4 chipset graphics driver. This created the fuzz out problems. Both of these graphics chips were using the built in Windows 8 WDDM 1.1 drivers.
Lenovo’s website has not been very helpful in terms of Windows 8 so I manually downloaded the latest Windows 7 switchable graphics driver. I installed it and then manually updated each graphics card driver using the Device Manager to the Windows 7 driver.
Presto – success! Not only did it solve my overheating problem but also my switchable graphics is working again and there are no more areas of fuzz out making my computer very difficult to use.
Through a bit more research, I discovered the Lenovo System Update utility has finally been updated and released for Windows 8. I installed it but it didn’t find any updates for my computer. Again, as this is legacy hardware there probably won’t be many drivers released specifically for Windows 8. As such, the Windows 7 drivers are the way to go. I did find it interesting that it didn’t find an update for my touchpad through the tool but I found an update for it manually on the Lenovo drivers list for the T400.
Another problem I had was with the wireless network indicator light. After the Windows 8 upgrade the light was on when the wireless was on and off when it was off. With Windows 7, it would flash to indicate activity. Reinstalling the latest Windows 7 driver, downloaded manually, also fixed that problem.
I’ve been running Windows 8 since mid-August and I’m just now starting to feel as though my laptop can be productive once again.
A good bit of internet research revealed that for legacy hardware, like a T400, your best bet is not to use the general Windows 8 drivers come with the OS but rather to revert back to the latest version of the driver for Windows 7.
As I’ve posted here, I’ve been having problems with my display. Areas of the screen will at time fuzz out and become unreadable and I have to refresh the display to solve the issue. I’ve also had issues with my ATI Radeon Mobile 3400 chip overheating. My T400 has switchable graphics and in order to avoid the overheating problem I only used the Intel Mobile Series 4 chipset graphics driver. This created the fuzz out problems. Both of these graphics chips were using the built in Windows 8 WDDM 1.1 drivers.
Lenovo’s website has not been very helpful in terms of Windows 8 so I manually downloaded the latest Windows 7 switchable graphics driver. I installed it and then manually updated each graphics card driver using the Device Manager to the Windows 7 driver.
Presto – success! Not only did it solve my overheating problem but also my switchable graphics is working again and there are no more areas of fuzz out making my computer very difficult to use.
Through a bit more research, I discovered the Lenovo System Update utility has finally been updated and released for Windows 8. I installed it but it didn’t find any updates for my computer. Again, as this is legacy hardware there probably won’t be many drivers released specifically for Windows 8. As such, the Windows 7 drivers are the way to go. I did find it interesting that it didn’t find an update for my touchpad through the tool but I found an update for it manually on the Lenovo drivers list for the T400.
Another problem I had was with the wireless network indicator light. After the Windows 8 upgrade the light was on when the wireless was on and off when it was off. With Windows 7, it would flash to indicate activity. Reinstalling the latest Windows 7 driver, downloaded manually, also fixed that problem.
I’ve been running Windows 8 since mid-August and I’m just now starting to feel as though my laptop can be productive once again.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
MediaShout #epicfail
Every once in a while a software program, and those who write it, have the opportunity to really mess with your life. Yesterday was one of those days where my schedule, along with that of our worship pastor, was majorly disrupted by someone failing to do their job with a piece of software we use that is critical for our Sunday operation.
I started the day at the soccer field with our son, 2 sets of grandparents and 1 set of great-grandparents. Eric was playing well and the family was enjoying the game and the sunshine despite the cool, breezy weather. As I’m cheering Eric on our worship pastor texts me a picture of an error message he is getting with MediaShout on his office computer. MediaShout is presentation software that we use in all of our worship spaces for projection graphics, background, lyrics, etc. on the projection screens. As a church we do this quite regularly.
I wasn’t able to figure out his problem via text message so I headed towards his office thinking it would be a relatively quick fix. As any IT person does, I Googled the problem and the first hit I got was this link.
http://www.mediashout.com/pages/support/
The lead story is about the Activation Error that we were getting. The details of this issue, affecting all instances of MediaShout are available here.
http://support.mediashout.com/entries/21312899-alert-error-code-2146762495
Since they don’t go into any great detail to explain the actual issue that gives me license to explain it the way I see it. It would appear that some software engineer somewhere along the way didn’t do this job and then the quality assurance person who is supposed to help the software engineer get it right also failed to do their job. As a result the software was released with a time/date bug that on a Thursday night, software that is used at churches all over the country on Sunday would stop working because it couldn’t tell if the software was legally activated or not.
I understand, to some degree, the need for software companies to have activation routines in order to prevent software piracy and theft. However, when your activation routine prevents EVERYONE, legal and illegal, from using your program then you have completely missed the boat.
To their credit MediaShout did release a patch however the patch was less than simple for many to install. A quick check of Twitter indicates that many ministries opted to forgo MediaShout completely and go old school back to PowerPoint or some other creatively engineered solution as time didn’t allow them to fix the problem in just 48 hours with 24 of those hours being a Saturday. (Some churches even have services where they use this software on Saturday nights.)
In my case I started working on the problem during the rest of the game and realized that this wasn’t going to be a quick fix. The installer would fail at different points each time I tried it on our various presentation and back office machines. Our kids wanted to take the grandparents to a train museum/restaurant for lunch so I stopped working and had a great time with the family before coming back around 4pm to give it another go.
By 10pm we were back in business and things today are working as they should. When you write software for churches it has to work every Sunday. When it doesn’t work those of us who support churches really get jammed up. Unfortunately MediaShout has yet to release a cause or detailed technical description of what happened, why it happened, and what they’ve done to prevent this from ever happening again. Until they do we are all left to wonder what’s going to happen next weekend.
My personal sob story aside, I trust you haven’t run out of tissues whilst reading this, here are some tips for the fix that I hope help anyone else struggling with this upgrade.
Despite all this I am a fan of MediaShout as a presentation platform. It works well and is easy for our volunteers to use. I do believe they need to invest more time in their installer and making it more universal and not so fragile. It should be able to work through some of the install issues better than it does. Whether I continue to be a fan will be determined by their honest answers to what they did this weekend and how it impacted their customers. At the least they should send all those affected a Starbucks gift card.
I started the day at the soccer field with our son, 2 sets of grandparents and 1 set of great-grandparents. Eric was playing well and the family was enjoying the game and the sunshine despite the cool, breezy weather. As I’m cheering Eric on our worship pastor texts me a picture of an error message he is getting with MediaShout on his office computer. MediaShout is presentation software that we use in all of our worship spaces for projection graphics, background, lyrics, etc. on the projection screens. As a church we do this quite regularly.
I wasn’t able to figure out his problem via text message so I headed towards his office thinking it would be a relatively quick fix. As any IT person does, I Googled the problem and the first hit I got was this link.
http://www.mediashout.com/pages/support/
The lead story is about the Activation Error that we were getting. The details of this issue, affecting all instances of MediaShout are available here.
http://support.mediashout.com/entries/21312899-alert-error-code-2146762495
Since they don’t go into any great detail to explain the actual issue that gives me license to explain it the way I see it. It would appear that some software engineer somewhere along the way didn’t do this job and then the quality assurance person who is supposed to help the software engineer get it right also failed to do their job. As a result the software was released with a time/date bug that on a Thursday night, software that is used at churches all over the country on Sunday would stop working because it couldn’t tell if the software was legally activated or not.
I understand, to some degree, the need for software companies to have activation routines in order to prevent software piracy and theft. However, when your activation routine prevents EVERYONE, legal and illegal, from using your program then you have completely missed the boat.
To their credit MediaShout did release a patch however the patch was less than simple for many to install. A quick check of Twitter indicates that many ministries opted to forgo MediaShout completely and go old school back to PowerPoint or some other creatively engineered solution as time didn’t allow them to fix the problem in just 48 hours with 24 of those hours being a Saturday. (Some churches even have services where they use this software on Saturday nights.)
In my case I started working on the problem during the rest of the game and realized that this wasn’t going to be a quick fix. The installer would fail at different points each time I tried it on our various presentation and back office machines. Our kids wanted to take the grandparents to a train museum/restaurant for lunch so I stopped working and had a great time with the family before coming back around 4pm to give it another go.
By 10pm we were back in business and things today are working as they should. When you write software for churches it has to work every Sunday. When it doesn’t work those of us who support churches really get jammed up. Unfortunately MediaShout has yet to release a cause or detailed technical description of what happened, why it happened, and what they’ve done to prevent this from ever happening again. Until they do we are all left to wonder what’s going to happen next weekend.
My personal sob story aside, I trust you haven’t run out of tissues whilst reading this, here are some tips for the fix that I hope help anyone else struggling with this upgrade.
- One of the things that got me into trouble was some old Group Policy Restrictions related to security permissions for the Windows Installer. These permissions have been set for at least 5 years dating back to our Server 2008 upgrade. Until yesterday we haven’t had any problems with them. It would appear, based on a chat with a MediaShout employee on their forum that MediaShout made some changes to the Windows Installer which required more rights. The challenge was figuring out what policies were hindering the install. Being a Saturday while I was working on this no developers were available to help.
As a result I went through our GPO’s and removed everything one at a time until it finally allowed the installer to work. The error message I was getting was that the “Installation was Forbidden by System Policy.”
While I can’t tell you which specific policies fixed that problem I can tell you that your Windows Installer policies from 2008 might need a pass. I was able to allow MediaShout to install without compromising security by updating those older policies. The policies are located here:
applicable policy name/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Installer - The next issue was related to drive mapping. MediaShout apparently is very fragile when it comes to its installer. MediaShout will say it is Microsoft’s problem as they just use the Windows Installer but again, the only program I’ve ever had an issue with is MediaShout. I would get past the System Policy issue and then get an error that the Drive Mapping was invalid. I could see that the drive map wasn’t invalid however as it was there on all our machines. We use MediaShout on a network so all the users share the same library of backgrounds, effects, songs, etc. I found 2 workarounds for this. First, I disconnected the existing map and manually recreated it. That worked on some machines. On other machines that didn’t work at all so then I would copy the MediaShout 4.ini file from its location and place it on the desktop. Then I deleted the original copy of the file. MediaShout would then install and when it was done I would copy the ini file back thus restoring all my settings and customizations.
Despite all this I am a fan of MediaShout as a presentation platform. It works well and is easy for our volunteers to use. I do believe they need to invest more time in their installer and making it more universal and not so fragile. It should be able to work through some of the install issues better than it does. Whether I continue to be a fan will be determined by their honest answers to what they did this weekend and how it impacted their customers. At the least they should send all those affected a Starbucks gift card.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Windows 8 - Fifth Pass: Wireless Network Management
The other night in a hotel room, I stumbled across another “I can’t believe they removed that!” issue with Windows 8. This one has to do with managing your wireless network connections. I wanted to remove an old wireless network connection and in Windows 7 you could easily see a list of all the wireless networks you had previously connected to, their priority, what kind of security they had, and of course their name. This was often helpful if you ended up with duplicates of the same one or wanted to remove all but the most recent connection. It was also useful if you wanted to set the priority for one network over another. This was done from a shortcut in the Network and Sharing Center called Manage Wireless Networks.
No such thing exists in Windows 8. Microsoft believes that Windows 8 can manage this list and prioritize multiple connections automatically much better than you can manually. They also don’t care that you might not want your home connection to be named Network 3 and might want to delete Network 1 and Network 2 and then rename Network 3 to just plain Network. They don’t care about any of that as they removed a valid and very useful feature.
There is of course a rather cumbersome work around if for whatever reason you want to edit your wireless network connection list.
The easiest way is to use the ‘netsh’ command from the command line. Run the command line as the administrator and enter ‘netsh wlan show profiles’. This will show you all of your wireless connection profiles. The simplest thing to do is just to delete the one you don’t want by typing ‘netsh wlan delete profile “SSID-name”’. You can also enter ‘ALL’ instead of the name if you want to flush them all. More details can be found by entering ‘netsh /?’.
You may find that one or more of your profiles can’t be deleted and will always appear in the show list. To remove any stubborn profiles turn your wireless radios off, then reboot, and remove the profiles while the wireless radios are still off and not connected to anything.
Of course, if that’s too difficult Microsoft has provided a harder way.
No such thing exists in Windows 8. Microsoft believes that Windows 8 can manage this list and prioritize multiple connections automatically much better than you can manually. They also don’t care that you might not want your home connection to be named Network 3 and might want to delete Network 1 and Network 2 and then rename Network 3 to just plain Network. They don’t care about any of that as they removed a valid and very useful feature.
There is of course a rather cumbersome work around if for whatever reason you want to edit your wireless network connection list.
The easiest way is to use the ‘netsh’ command from the command line. Run the command line as the administrator and enter ‘netsh wlan show profiles’. This will show you all of your wireless connection profiles. The simplest thing to do is just to delete the one you don’t want by typing ‘netsh wlan delete profile “SSID-name”’. You can also enter ‘ALL’ instead of the name if you want to flush them all. More details can be found by entering ‘netsh /?’.
You may find that one or more of your profiles can’t be deleted and will always appear in the show list. To remove any stubborn profiles turn your wireless radios off, then reboot, and remove the profiles while the wireless radios are still off and not connected to anything.
Of course, if that’s too difficult Microsoft has provided a harder way.
- Turn on View Hidden Files and Folders.
- Browse to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Wlansvc\Profiles\Interfaces\
- You will find a list of XLM files with GUID names; open each XML file using Notepad to see which connection profile it is.
- To delete one just delete that XML file. To change the name edit the XML file however if you want to rename a newer profile the same name as an older profile you must first find the older profile XML file and delete it before you rename the newer one.
- Now locate the same ‘Network GUID’ in the following regkey HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WLansvc\Interfaces\[Interface GUID]\Profiles
- Delete this as well
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Sharing with Those with All the Power
Today I had the unique opportunity to learn and share with IT folks from electrical cooperatives around our state at their fall IT Section meeting in Indianapolis. They invited me to share with them some of the challenges with deploying and using Windows 8 and were kind enough to allow me to stick around and listen to several of the other presenters.
Two things came out of today:
Two things came out of today:
- It was great to present to those who make IT possible at the most fundamental level. Without electric service providers none of our IT toys and gear would work. Our datacenters would fall silent after the backup power sources ran out, the cloud would dry up, and the sun would come out again.
- If you would like me to present the Windows 8 Experience and some of the challenges associated with it to your organization please let me know. However, hurry, dates and cities are filling up fast.
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