Occasional Observations

Although I don't tend to live at the bleeding edge of top new tech, there's an upside to not being the world's earliest adopter. By the time I'm finally ready to get on board with something new-fangled, it's probably time to buy stock in the companies providing it ... because it's going mainstream.


After that caveat, here's my top 10 tech tips for '10.

1. Making friends with Mac. We've been living with a 13" MacBook Pro for the last couple of weeks. Getting it set-up was a snap, even installing Parallels to provide access to an already-licensed copy of Microsoft Office. Having used an iPhone and iPod Touch, the Mac OS is already familiar - a master move by AAPL. Little niggles remain, for example the hard edge of the aluminum casing can dig into my palms, and the lack of a right click button on the mouse (holding down the Control key is the answer), but overall, it's very useable and nicely packaged. Installing software is really simple, although I've yet to master Garage Band. Of course there is a high retail price to pay for the packaging.

2. The mobile internet. Over the last 12 months I've moved increasing towards surfing the web on a mobile device - to start with, my BlackBerry Bold - although the screen really is not surfing-friendly, and since the fall, my iPod Touch. Given a choice I'll always reach for the Touch for any web browsing. And let's face it, BlackBerry Apps really don't cut it ... yet.

3. The iPhone. On the subject of the mobile web, the iPhone delivers the most complete package today - although I expect fierce competition through '10 from Android. At first, I hated the response-free touch-screen (but the BlackBerry Storm's very responsive screen is very horrible indeed) and decided in favor of the Bold, mainly for the keyboard. However, in '10 I'm hoping to spend less time pumping out info and more time absorbing it - which means I need a better mobile device for browsing, and I'm not carrying two devices on the road.

4. A return to Internet Explorer. I'd been a Firefox fan since it was in a zero point something beta as Firebird, and it's still a really great browser, but I've made a concerted effort to use IE8 and it's not at all bad. I'd never managed to fully escape the MS browser lock-in, as some web apps demand IE - and even with the excellent IETab in Firefox, it has still been faster to have only one browser running. As for Chrome and Opera - well, I've tried them but didn't feel the "wow" factor.

5. Widespread Windows 7. It's here to stay, and although I was sceptical a year ago, it's so great to be in a Vista-free zone. I can't really see any performancer improvements over XP although there's greater functionality.

6. The emergence of the eBook. I didn't like the Kindle 2 at first, which is a good sign actually. It's quite convenient for carrying a big pile of reading material, and a bigger screen than the iPod Touch helps, but I'm not lugging it everywhere ... yet. I've got a niggle with the battery life, which seems to show almost full charge for ages, then suddenly plummets into the red - maybe the next software update will fix that.

7. The death of CDs. I've got hundreds in the basement and haven't touched a single one all year. Most of my listening is done via Spotify or Last.fm anyway. Not sure what my feelings here are; my sensible side suggests selling them before CDs go the way of LPs and you can pick up a box-full for pennies.

8. The analog satellite switch-off. I say so with certainty since the service is due to go end-of-life at the end of 2010 ... it's just a race to see if the rust-worms can conquer our old dish before then. DVB-T TV here we come - in 2011.

9. Office online. Why use an installed word processor when an online version is lighter, and takes care of saving and backups, too? I'm trying MS Office 2010 and it seems to offer new functionality, but what's the price premium I'll pay versus Google docs? And don't give me the old argument that "all your data belongs to GOOG" because I've also got Google Desktop installed.

10. No more local storage. A 1TB external hard drive for ?90 is tempting - except that I've already got that much storage. It's been years since I've been in danger of running out of capacity, thanks to drives with hundreds of GB, and why should I bother backing up manually to an external USB drive, when I can do it all online? So far I've only got around 65GB of data online, the great bulk of that is JPG images from our cameras. I've stopped worrying about backup because my online service is working optimally, period.

So what's planned for 2010? Further adoption of these 1o points, and keeping an open mind to new stuff, such as the new Firefox mobile browser (maybe it will make Bold browsing a less-frustrating experience?), and perhaps getting around to even thinking about how I might sell some CDs.

Labels: predictions, tech

Here we are on Day 7 with Windows 7 - time for a GBU* update.

The good: Stability and functionality. The "keep the lights on" cost has fallen to well below 1GB of RAM. The gains are boosted by disabling most of the unnecessary services (take a bow, Windows Time sync), deleted others (farewell, Apple Mobile Device Sync, I don't have an iPhone so I don't need you) and switched a bunch more to manual. I've also switched back to the Windows Basic look - who needs Aero? No visible performance gain but a slightly blockier appearance, in fact I'm reminded of the Windows 2000 Pro look. As a result of lower system resource usage, the fan isn't blowing so hard any more ... going back to a near-silent notebook is a bonus. Another real boon has been that BlackBerry software finally works with Bluetooth sync ...

The bad: My anti-virus solution of choice didn't install across the network despite it claiming to be Windows 7-ready. I'm investigating. Meanwhile using A.N.Other anti-virus solution and the trusty ol' Windows Firewall. And Outlook 2007 SP2 is playing games - I'm getting occasional system freezes for up to a couple of minutes, but this could also be something to do with a plug-in that I'm watching with Eagle eyes.

The ugly: TrueType on my notebook panel. Just fuzzy. On my desktop monitor it looks OK ... and there's no way I'm tuning it every time I make the switch. I'll probably turn it off. Also - my favorite button on the entire desktop has moved house: I'm talking about the Minimize Desktop button that used to sit bottom left in my tray. Bottom right isn't intuitive just yet.

Despite lower internal fan use, battery life still seems to be down, although I'm using the vanilla settings right now instead of the more tuned drivers for my notebook ... this has just been a case of getting A Round Tuit. I've got a second battery in the notebook DVD drive in any case. It could also be that the excellent Battery Bar is still fine-tuning its power lifetime calculations.

So what's on my machine now I've had the luxury of a clean install? Here's my list:

* Anti-virus (like, doh)
* CCleaner
* Roboform
* GoodSync
* Office 2007 SP2
* Google Desktop
* Adobe Acrobat Reader
* Adobe AIR
* Revo Uninstaller
* Skype
* ICQ
* Firefox and various plug-ins, numero uno being Delicious.com as ever
* Freemind
* Mozy
* BlackBerry Desktop Manager
* Picasa
* Spotify
* iTunes - but NOT Bonjour. I said "au revior" to that as soon as iTunes had installed
* Various admin tools

And that's it except to say that I'm also testing O&O's Clever Cache, as a replacement for an SD card that I used to use with Vista for ReadyBoost. Although it worked with Vista, Windows 7 said "nein danke" and after I actually resourted to RTFM (definition here if you don't know what this means) I dumped the hardware and am testing a software solution.

It claims to be saving around 130MB of memory that would otherwise be used by File Cache. However, I'd tried Clever Cache with Vista and couldn't tell the difference. I think it's one of those subtle pieces of software that you never really know you need until it's gone ... but I won't know that for another 21 days.

* The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly - abbreviation as used by CAR magazine since time immemorial

Labels: tech, w7, Windows7

2009 is truly shaping up as the Year of the Cloud. For me it's been the year when I've reached the inflection point where putting and accessing my data on someone else's infrastructure has become my primary, rather than a secondary usage scenario.

Although I'd dabbled, like millions of others, with Cloud-based services even before they were called cloud (hello, del.icio.us bookmarks, before the Yahoo! acquisition and more boring renaming as delicious.com; hi Skype, hey Flickr), it's only in 2009 that I've really started depending on these.

Two examples. Firstly, Mozy. After a couple of months of on-off 24x7 operation I've almost finished transferring around 55GB of JPEGs to Mozy Home. Why so long? The slow uplink from our domestic DSL. I've looked for upgrades but there's nothing affordable ... At this upload speed, it's not practical to try uploading the hundreds of GBs of lovingly-ripped and tagged music files, but it's a start in protecting my valuable documents and photos. I'm not planning to access my uploaded data on a regular basis, but knowing it's still there is reassuring.

Secondly, replacing Exchange with hosted email - by Google. This has given me first-hand exposure to how Google is moving into the enterprise as a serious software company. Although the migration has not been totally trouble-free, it's pretty impressive and most of all, the service is fast. My work mail is now powered by Gmail ... although the interface to Google Apps Premier Edition lacks many of the cool experimental Gmail features, I've got all the tools I need.

What next? Well, Roboform offers to sync all my website logins ... not sure this is a good thing. My mobile phone address book was synced via ZYB until Vodafone bought it and took the service offline (boo hiss). I've just checked and it seems to be back ... hey, wouldn't it have been a great idea to actually NOTIFY existing users? However, looking around, they don't support BlackBerry. Oh, forget it. ZYB was a bad example. There are probably a few wannabe copycat services by now, and I'm off to investigate.

Labels: cloud, tech

The arrival of my Kindle 2 (an unexpected but welcome gift) coincided with Amazon's action to act as Big Bother and remotely delete copies of George Orwell?s books on users' devices. Oh dear me. It really couldn't have been a worse choice of books to zap remotely via its Whispernet mobile network.

Although technically-speaking, Amazon did the right thing, their execution was terrible. At least, that's how the story started gathering momentum: with outraged Kindle users complaining that the Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm had simply been zapped from their devices.

This is a great example of how to alienate your customers, and a less than auspicious start for my Kindle ownership. Wireless was enabled, out of the box, so by the time I'd worked out how to turn it off, no doubt it had found and been rejected by one of the local GSM networks and Amazon was therefore already aware that I'm not currently located in the US. Thanks to our wet summer, the device hasn't been switched on while outside yet ? so maybe the built-in GPS device hasn't managed to get a lock on any satellites, although I don't expect it will be too long before it manages to get a sniff of a signal.

Being outside the US means that I'm effectively handcuffed when it comes to adding up-to-date content to the Kindle, whom I shall call Winston. There are tens of thousands of out-of-copyright classics available as a DRM-free, Winston-format download, but until I get myself within the borders of the lower 48 states, there ain't no way that Amazon is going to let Winston have any current content, even if I want to pay for it.

Believe me, I tried. I followed blogger Nerdgirl's excellent advice and registered a new Amazon.com account, using a .com email address, entering a bona-fide US billing address and then adding a $50 gift voucher to my account. My mistake was using a valid but non-US issue credit card ? even though I did not authorize Amazon to debit anything. By the time I came to the final step in the transaction process, hoping to be able to download the DRM-laden file straight to Winston, who'd shown up as a 1.4gb capacity network drive, Amazon's Thought Police had detected that I'm not in the US ? and kyboshed the deal.

I tried again via a Terminal Server machine that thinks it's in Oregon. No deal. So I shot a quick email to a friend in Chicago. He logged in with my user:pass and was doing great until the final screen, where he learned that we were busted ? and that an irregularity had occurred. Yes, I'd logged out of my Amazon.com account so it wasn't the multiple logins but the trusty credit card. Aargh. I've got $50 on my new Amazon.com ? which was happy to take my money for the voucher ? and I can't use it.

This has given me valuable think time on the question of whether I want to invest US $9.99 in Kindle downloads of current paperbacks. Once I've read 'em, then what? The DRM means I cannot resell them. In my home office there's currently a pile of read and for sale paperbacks ? most from Amazon ? that I'm now reselling ? via Amazon.

Maybe I'll spend the $50 on gifts for friends ? within the US of course. I'll keep looking for sources of free ebooks and perhaps catch up on some classics while waiting for Amazon to launch in Europe. The company has gained a foothold by opening for business in the UK, so who knows what Winston will do when I take him on a business trip to London later this week. Watch this space.*

And keep away from the Thought Police!

*Footnote: I've since learned that Amazon has NOT launched Kindle in the UK yet, but that an announcement with an MVNO is imminent.

Labels: rant, tech

The arrival of something like a new smartphone, laptop or even car often means a splurge on extras, too - making sure the new baby is properly pampered in the thrill of the first weeks of ownership.

That's what I'm going through with Windows 7 - because to make the Release Candidate really useable I've installed my favorite software (a good subject for another blog post, perhaps). Under the skin it doesn't appear to be much different from its bastard sibling Vista, except that it runs faster, lighter, smoother...

Now it's up and running, and it's got enough software installed to be useful, I'm wondering: now what? How long before I hit problems? In fact, the first ones have already come up: something minor, which is that an old webcam doesn't work (big deal, rarely used that one), and something more major, which is that the Toaster (Netgear storage central) won't install properly.

Remembering all the aggro I read about in getting Netgear to update the software at all, I'm not exactly optimistic that they'll be rushing to update the toaster for 7. There must be plenty of other work-arounds, such as installing new NAS software on the drive itself. Further investigation needed.

To come back to the question, though: will W7 fall victim to the classic Windows slowdown problem after a few months? Will my drives get filled up with useless log files that record the time and date I opened, closed or resized windows? This is the sort of stuff that needs to be disabled by default - nice to have it, but you don't need it running.

One more thing: My XP virtual machine - which ran like molasses on Vista - is fairly hopping along with W7. No other changes, just the host OS.

Labels: tech, w7, Windows7

On the day that experts predict a slump in PC sales, I just missed a motherboard burn-out ... a rogue USB port was to blame. It had stopped working and rather than throw it away take it to an electronics waste recycling point, I fiddled...trying a replacement power supply with the same(ish) power output.

The result: A catastrophic FAIL. The PC reacted badly - it blew all its cooling fans at max speed for four short bursts and then switched off. No shutdown, just off.

And of course it had everything attached to other USB sockets - the expensive fast CF flash card for the D-SLR, an iPod, a printer ... you name it. Fearing the worst I opened up the case and had a good sniff around (like a parent short-cut checking on a baby to see if the nappy needs changing!) but couldn't smell that fearsome smell of burning electronics ... so gingerly reconnected - and ... it all works.

Except that rogue USB device. That's in the (sin) bin.

Labels: tech

I'm abandoning the Windows 7 Beta. It's an inevitable decision and has probably been obvious all along as there is simply no point in using a host machine running Vista for *any* feature-rich VM if it has only 2GB of memory.

It's certainly possible to use Vista and VMware Player for a lite Linux distro, or an XP installation that is content to work with 512MB. But expecting a new MS operating system to run fast and mean on a Vista host ... well, that's a leap of faith.

And since Vista is my host OS, it pretty much kyboshes the idea of running W7 at all in Beta. I'm most certainly not going to install a time-bomb OS on either of my production machines, and my sandbox machine is currently awaiting a new hard drive. Actually, scratch that, it has only 1GB of RAM.

It's not a difficult or heart-wrenching decision to abandon the W7 Beta. I liked the wallpapers, if that's any consolation. Had it been an OS that looked like it would make up for all the many, many things that are evidently wrong with Vista, like being able to run with 1GB of memory as I originally assigned to the VM, then I'd have been ready to invest time and effort in installing software, playing with the OS and getting a feel for how it could change my life.

Instead I'm just frustrated. And I still don't think a Mac is the answer either.

Labels: tech, virtualization, Vista, w7, Windows7

My week-long trip to the Pacific North-West of the US concludes with a trip out to Sequim (pron. "Squim") on Washington State's north coast - facing out over the Juan de Fuca over towards Victoria in Canada's British Columbia, and the San Juan islands. The windswept beach provided a great opportunity to test Microsoft's Photosynth - with a 360-degree panorama compiled from 200 individual images.

Although Photosynth did not manage a 100 percent "synthy" this time around, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Labels: tech, travel

After Friday's fiasco, with supply unable to meet demand, Microsoft managed to get the public beta of Windows 7 under way, making the software available for download quietly on Sunday. After an overnight download (the ISO is 2.43GB, which takes a couple of hours on a 2meg DSL connection) and burning the DVD, I was able to successfully install the 32-bit version into a virtual machine without problems.

However ... where's the beef? At first glance, 7 is little more than SP2 for Vista. It's got some extra wizards, which may or may not be a good thing, moving forwards. At least the dreaded User Account Control seems to be less intrusive. I haven't come across it yet.

One nice touch that's already impressed is the opportunity to change desktop / display / screensaver / theme settings all in one.

Regarding the greatest bugbears, bloat and performance, it's quite hard to tell straight away in a VM if 7 is going to be any better. On the positive side, the fact that it ran and was usable at all with 1GB of RAM is an achievement, this was never possible with Vista. Of course the downside was that by sharing half my RAM, the host Vista machine became unusable ... but then during my test sessions it will be only that: a host.

More soon.

Labels: tech, virtualization, Windows7

According to a report today, RIM BlackBerry devices have a higher failure rate than Apple iPhones. The other way around for me. In fact it's been a double failure since T-Mo still have not quite grasped the point - and are trying to bill me for the few days in which my faulty iPhone airtime contract was live.

I need to go back and explain. The. Phone. Did. Not. Work. I. Could. Not. Use. The. SIM. I. Am. Not. Paying.

Labels: BlackBerry, mobile, tech

Our sun room project is taking shape and it's time to lay down the electrical cables before the final layer of concrete goes down for the floor - topped by tiles. It's now or never for running Cat 6 Ethernet to far-flung corners of the room to terminate in flush-mounted floor sockets. I'm wiring up two of the four corners - and will have a third connection inside the living room. The cable for that will go in once we've knocked out the window ... which means three Ethernet cables into a junction box ... or a switch. Time to hit the local hardware store to investigate.

Labels: tech

Before the Large Hadron Collider was switched on, many people voiced fears that it would create a black hole that would suck in the entire world - and possible Universe.

Well, not quite. Or at least, not yet. So far it's only swallowed up a few billion dollars from the equity of some large investment banks.

Labels: tech

I think Skype's blown it with the new version, 4.0, which is currently in beta. I managed about a week with the beta version 4 before heading back to skype.com to download the old, familiar version, which is currently 3.8.

As I did so, up pops a questionnaire window asking why I was downgrading ... listing pretty much all my reasons ... which suggests that I'm not the only one who has been perplexed and irritated by the all-new "shiny" interface.

First of all, I have never wanted a full-screen Skype application. I use it more than anything else for IM - which doesn't need all my monitor's real estate. Even Skype isn't ready for full-screen: user images are tiny and pixelated. And moving between contacts in 4.0 was not intuitive.

Back to the drawing board, folks. The Skype Garage page for 4.0 says "it?s easier to start conversations and keep track of them" - which I dispute. And by the looks of it, 4.0 is not ready for prime time yet.

Labels: skype, tech, VoIP

What's really in my mailbox, and who's sending it? How many mails do I get per day and how good am I at managing email? Since I have had the feeling for a year or more that email has taken over my life, I downloaded Xobni, a nifty plug-in for Outlook, to find out more.

It's now more than a month since I installed Xobni, which offers "email organization, search and navigation", and that's been long enough for the Xobni Analytics to produce some interesting statistics.

To share some of the more interesting ones:

• I'm getting more than 120 mails a day, weekdays
• Overnight I've usually received 40 to 60 mails
• From 9am through to around 10pm I get a steady flow of between 8-10 mails an hour
• The peak day for receiving mails is Wednesday
• I'm most likely to respond fastest to an email received between midday and 1pm
• Send me a mail at 4am and it could take me up to five days to respond
• I'm sending about a third the number of mails I receive
  

You might ask: How has Xobni helped manage email so far? In short, it is starting to help: I've identified the people who email me the most (you know who you are!) and although this might sound like stating the bleeding obvious, this is a useful first step. One person in my top 10 has already taken action - he took a week off work, and of course his position in the table has dropped.

Although the analytics are useful to a point, they're far from perfect - Xobni doesn't seem to index mails that I delete immediately after receiving. I'd like to see greater accuracy in the analytics, but for now, for a free tool that's still Beta, it's a good start.

Labels: search, tech

Last weekend's aborted attempt to set up a dual-boot system made me think again about which flavor of Linux I'd like. After seeing a demo at a trade show of an OS booting off a secure USB drive and then starting a VMware player version of XP, I realized the answer was pretty obvious - Ubuntu. Version 8.04 is just out and this is a long-term release, too.

My previous reservations with Ubuntu have been that it's too simple, if that's possible - I was feeling restricted by the limited number of packages available for install. This week, RTFM time, and I discovered a straightforward way of unlocking further functionality, simply through enabling the installation of proprietary drivers etc ... which should solve the biggest problem I seem to have - 3D acceleration for my ATI graphics card.

This week I also came across a very, very smooth quasi virtual machine: MojoPac. It's XP only at the moment in terms of both platform and host OS, but apart from that, it uses underlying Windows services but provides a secure environment, running on a portable hard drive or USB stick. Interesting - except that I tend to carry my laptop on trips, for use during the journey. As a just in case - since the installation I saw took a mere 70MB, I'm going to set one up anyway as a just-in-case.

Labels: Linux, tech

I'm in the UK for a few days at InfoSec, the UK's main security show for the IT industry. And I'm overwhelmed by the number of so-called solutions out there to the same problems - spam, phishing, pharming, malware, spyware and even good old viruses.

What's more interesting still is the social engineering that many exhibitors are using to generate leads. IT guys who spend most of their time protecting their email address and other details are happy to let a blonde bimbo scan their badge (great! an unqualified lead) in exchange for a peek at their cleavage.

There's a couple of girls walking around - one is a devilish hell, the other a saintly heaven. So far the consensus among people I've talked to is clear: Hell!

Labels: tech

After problems with four separate pieces of software over the last week I've concluded that updated / patched is not always best.

As well as the already-documented Vista woes - solved by a downgrade to the 32-bit version, I've also experienced unprecedented problems with the latest version of Nokia's usually-excellent PC Suite - which didn't want to sync any more, a bit of a deal-breaker, and with the newest version of GoodSync from Siber Systems - telling me it's in Null Mode. In both cases, a rollback to the earlier version solved the problem.

The fourth problem has been with Linux. Maybe I should just stick to Windows, since I know its flaws. At 10pm last night I had to bite the bullet and delete all the work I'd done in updating my home PC to a dual-boot system - because Open SuSE crashed during the kernel update and there was No Way Back. Rather than having a half-cocked, non-functional Linux OS on my system I went into Vista Computer Management and simply deleted the Volumes under Disk Management.

Not quite ready for a return to Windows 2000 though.

Labels: rant, tech

Preparation for the big move to Linux on the main home PC has begun - but not without protest from other family members .... "oh no, NOT linux!" and "but I LIKE Windows!". As a compromise, we're going to move first to a dual-boot system. Anyone who wants to keep Vista can do so - and they can click through the "new device found" messages every time until Ballmer manages to persuade his programmers to find and fix the problem. If I need 'doze then I'll fire up my already-working and installed VMware image of XP Pro - it's a pretty minimal installation and so it should hop along quite nicely.

Step one - I'm going for Debian. Currently downloading the 3x DVD images of the AMD64-tuned version.

Labels: Linux, tech, Vista

I've been thinking about buying a living room PC for more than four years - every time I get close, something gets in the way. Originally I wanted a model with a small display panel built into the front, and I saw a few interesting prototypes at CeBIT 2006, but never followed up.

Since then, living room PCs have all but died out - in favor of home storage servers. My first attempt at this was a bit of a disaster, and my Netgear SC101 "toaster" is a nice NAS backup device but doesn't work with x64 architecture, which is disappointing. So far I'm still missing the media center extender that will bridge the gap from IT to TV ... and because we're remodelling at home I'm holding back, as we also soon need to upgrade our analog satellite TV system in favor of something a bit more up-to-date.

This weekend I did take a small step, though - moving my 500-or-so CDs out of the living room and into the basement. This means that if I want to listen to a CD in the living room, I need to go downstairs and dig one out - but since I'm more likely to reach for my iPod, this is a minor inconvenience.

Labels: tech

After all the recent probs with Vista, maybe SP1 is the answer? The installation was super-smooth and trouble-free. Let's hope it's the start of a great relationship.

Labels: nerd, tech, Vista

Sometimes, the bundled solution isn't the best. This definitely applies to some of the tools within Windows Vista. This time I'm talking about syncing offline files, but first, some context.

Yes, another Vista rant. But I'm entitled to this one, having been through the pain of having to completely reinstall Vista on my notebook. I had actually weighed everything up and had decided to revert to XP, except that Vista seems to have done something proprietary to the MBR on my hard drive and the XP installer couldn't see it. There was NO WAY that I was going to make fresh backup copies of the 30 or 40GB-worth of data on my D and E drives and then format the whole drive. Just forget it.

Anyway, having reinstalled Vista I made the mistake of reactivating it on the first day - and of course the install was corrupted, because after a shaky six days I needed to reinstall again. This time I couldn't afford any offline time at all so went out and bought a spare notebook, which has now been deployed as an upgrade for a colleague. She's delighted...

Fingers crossed this time around and no I could not wait for SP1 to come out. For the first ever time, I chose the "upgrade" option - upgrading a non-functional version of Vista to a functional version is an upgrade, right? And yes, I'm back in the honeymoon period where the system is actually really quite fast despite having only 1.5GB of memory. I picked up a 4GB USB stick at CeBIT which works nicely with readyboost and my apps open a bit faster, too.

Of course there is an upside to a clean install - you lose some of the drekk that's built up on the system. Programs that I'd installed, messed around with and then dumped. From here I have resolved to restrict such installations first to my XP VM that's running in VMware Player (Google around to find out how, it's pretty simple with QEMU) as it's pretty simple to roll back a VM, also I have a couple of backup copies on various drives.

Getting to the point, I sometimes for convenience carry around a local copy of important ongoing work files - because I can't be online when travelling. I decided to once again try the sync option built into Windows, but it still sucks really badly and leaves multiple temp files at both ends when trying to sync - I haven't had the time, energy or inclination to solve this. Instead I spent a whole $30 (about the price of a Chinese take-away for two now in Euros) on a super little program called GoodSync from a company called Siber Systems.

It's my second $30 purchase from Siber - the first being the wonderful RoboForm, which stores all my login passwords and other credentials, including my credit card details, and helps me fill-in online forms. I keep the RoboForm data on a fully-encrypted USB drive so the data is safe and sound.

GoodSync is exactly that - and it's lightning fast, too. This is perhaps the most visible difference between it and the built-in offline file sync capability of Vista, apart from those temp files which can quickly fill a few GB if you're not careful. Once again, proof for me that something that's free has no value.

Labels: nerd, rant, tech, virtualization

The early signs of spring always mean an annual trip up to Han(n)over, where the "Laatzner Volksfest" otherwise known as CeBIT takes place.

How times change ... this year's show is more SMB-focused but the biggest difference is that the place is half empty in comparison to recent years. The organizers, Deutsche Messe AG, have taken the brave step of closing Hall One, which is the size of several football fields and was home to all the big names in IT.

Why? The official word is that H1 is going to be refurbished or redeveloped into a congress center. The rumors are that it was to fill some big holes on the show floor. IBM's stand alone now takes up half of Hall 2, while SAP, Software AG and Microsoft are all in Hall 4, one of the biggest halls. You could spend a day exploring that hall alone...

What's utterly frustrating is that not only is H1 closed, but also its wonderful car parks. I don't see the logic in that one.

I don't miss H1, which was always claustrophobic thanks to its low ceilings and high booths, and it used to get damned hot, too. But I do miss the buzz. Where's it gone? Partly to Barcelona, for Mobile World Congress, and partly to Berlin, for IFA, the consumer electronics show.

What's most scary is that CeBIT today is starting to feel like the last few Comdex shows in Las Vegas. After years of decline, Comdex finally took a "holiday" and hasn't been seen since.

On a road sign near my accommodation in Hanover there's another reminder that things change - a faded and almost illegible sticker that proclaims that Commodore is the market leader in consumer PCs. It must be from the early 1980s - the inks used in the sticker have lasted way longer than the company's market share in consumer desktops. Food for thought.

Labels: tech

A few months back, I mentioned the 3GB that Google Desktop was swallowing. I thought the index was residing on my D drive but it turns out that this was just an old version of the index taking up a mere 818MB. As the 3GB was still growing, and was impacting the performance of my 20GB C drive partition, it was time to act.

So out with the whole thing - and start over. A drastic move I know. Although I love the index especially for its ability to magically make deleted and purged emails reappear, I'm probably able to live without emails I deleted a year or more ago.

Google Desktop was therefore purged, including all traces (eg the registry) and then I started again. This time around I'm also being more selective in ripping through the network drives. I don't really need 2004 PPT decks. In fact, they should not really even be on the server any more but that's another story.

There's probably a GDS plug-in for indexing shared Exchange folders ... THAT I would find useful. Off to search now.

Labels: nerd, tech

Labels: tech

The iPhone has arrived in Europe. As from today, T-Mobile Germany and O2 in the UK are selling iPhone models.

Here in Germany it's possible to pick up an 8GB iPhone on a 24-month contract for EUR 399 - a mere EUR 100 more than the 8GB iPod Touch.

T-Mo monthly contracts start at EUR 49 a month but they do include "unlimited" mobile data. "Unlimited" for the EUR 49/month model means 200MB before you're bumped down to dial-up modem speeds. At the top end 5GB a month is a lot for the mobile internet but so is EUR89 a month.

There are also a nice array of accessories, so you could easily blow through the EUR500 mark on picking up an iPhone today... the Bluetooth headphones look interesting, but they're EUR 119.

Labels: iphone, tech

For weeks I've been aggravated by the same error message: "A data file did not close properly the last time it was used ..." from Outlook 2007 - but since the quick fix was just to let the system do the integrity check and then Shut Up and Go Away, I didn't tackle it.

Until now. The tipping point was when I closed down Outlook and then 10 minutes later, discovered that it's still hogging 100-plus MB of system memory. When it's not even supposed to be running any more. There's also low-level CPU activity, but I've closed Outlook, I'm not defragging, my VPN's dropped, in fact I even disconnected from the grid to see if this would change things. It didn't.

Plenty of Googling around eventually leads me via those wiseguy Mac users advising me not to use Outlook (like I suggest not using Leopard right now, dude) to "yet another MS blogger" - but that's false modesty as this YAMSB has an answer that helps get to the nub of the problem. It's not Outlook, it's the plug-ins, stupid. From here it's a downhill race and simple process of elimination until I discover that Skype is to blame - at least for the memory-hogging. Skype has the "useful" function of importing my Outlook contacts so I can call them via Skype instead of a POTS system (I don't, usually).

A bit of task killing and a restart later and Outlook is "only" using 44MB of system memory. That by itself is a start. You need to be online with Skype and have Outlook running to stop Skype sharing.

However, Outlook is still refusing to shut down properly. Running in safe mode is much faster, well, at least by Outlook standards - except that it tries to "synch" those lame standard installed RSS feeds with my hand-picked ones at start-up (the answer is NO!! Get out of here and never come back again. Ever).

Now Outlook is running at a super-lean 13MB, and it's quite fast. Amazing. Skype isn't running, by the way. So I re-run OFFDIAG, the Office diagnostics program, which usefully tells me it fixed one problem, although it won't pony up the details even in advanced mode. (Sigh) As ever it's "package 36 of 36" that takes the longest to run.

Next is another reboot, with Skype consigned to the sandbox. Let's see what happens next. At least I got some of my memory back :-)

UPDATE: What happens next is that Outlook runs faster - and closes down as it should. Problem solved. Next: well, I suppose other Vista performance issues. Just like XP, after six months or so the whole system slows down, due to crowded logfiles ad infinitum. Also I have my eye on the 3-plus GB that Google Desktop is taking up, as I'm trialling software called SmartDesktop which could, theoretically, give me that 3GB back. Watch this space.

Labels: nerd, tech

The number of my unread RSS feeds just passed 1000. And RSS was supposed to be the way of streamlining all those blogs and news streams I wanted to read but never found the time to do.

Game over. I'm tempted to delete all my RSS feeds and start over.

Labels: rant, RSS, tech, web 2.0

Right now we have seven brand spanking new notebooks in the office - all needing initial configuration before they go into service at a demo day next week.

Getting this done is a test of patience. All come with Vista - and it seems that every machine behaves slightly differently out-of-the-box - for example with regard to network detection and runonce apps.

One thing that's common to all is that I've been reminded of that John Lennon song from Double Fantasy, Watching The Wheels. An OOB Vista installation already requires between 35 and 130-something MB of updates to bring it up to speed. That's larger than the entire Windows 98 install file...

Labels: tech

Once upon a time, one of the coolest things about email was setting up an out-of-office reply. A good reply would be pithy, to the point, and ideally make recipients jealous that they were sending email to someone who was, say, busy climbing a mountain or lounging on a beach.

The concept kinda faltered when people started moving to always-on email. First you'd get an OoO reply, then, a few seconds later, an often cryptic and typo-laden note from a handheld: "Got yr measg, wil reply ltr". Finally, the third email carried the response.

As people get more adept at always-on they tend to stop sending these "I'm on it" messages and simply provide the answer. Ironically, with always-on, an OoO would actually be more effective these days. Way back when, no reply meant the message had not yet been read. Today, no reply within nanoseconds means an inferiority complex: am I not important anymore?

However, the spammers have killed the OoO for good. I'd rather not send back a confirmation that my email address is live and receiving mail - it just means my email address is added to yet another spamlist.

In future ahead of spells when I'll be away from my email, I'm back to contacting people to proactively let them know. And this personal touch can only be a good thing.

Labels: tech

It's taken me a while to appreciate the benefits of the over-hyped "Web 2.0" - social networking sites where everything's linked. Way back in 2004-5 or so I tried sites like Flickr, del.icio.us, Last.fm - they were all cool in their own way but I was missing the interaction thing.

Take a bow Facebook. If you haven't created a profile yet, do it. This is the one: the site that best integrates info from other 2.0 sites although it's still early days. I'm very impressed. The site is just addictive, which is always a good sign. Thinking about ousting my 10-year homepage (My Yahoo) in favor of Facebook.

Labels: tech, web 2.0

Don't try this at home - unless you have a ton of patience (and a few GB of RAM): I booted Vista within Vista, as a virtual machine. My dual-core machine with 1.5GB of RAM normally has enough to run Vista - allocating half of that to the VM was a mistake.

Meanwhile, XP Pro runs flawlessly as a VM in just 256MB RAM. I think that's a clue as to Vista's processor and memory-intensive demands. MS offers the Vista VM as a free 30-day download but I don't think it'll even stay 30 hours on my machine unless I happen to stumble across a couple of GB of RAM this afternoon.

On a totally different note, the Firefox plugin forecastfox has been keeping me up-to-date on the weather outside, and offers a one-click look at the weather in my favorite locations around the world.

Labels: nerd, tech, virtualization

So far, so good in my first experiments with desktop virtualization. I'm trying the free VMware Player and Microsoft's also free, and more functional, Virtual PC 2007.

With VMware, functionality is more limited with the free player, although there is a good selection of pre-installed open source desktop and server and it didn't take long to discover EasyVMX, a donation-supported free site offering basic VM creator templates. Using this I was able to install Windows XP in VMware Player - as well as by simply creating a new VM in the more functional MS VPC2007.

Despite making some noises, neither company has yet offered any patch to make its VMs compatible with the other.

I also tried Ubuntu desktop Linux with both VMs. The out-of-the-box Ubuntu .iso install with VPC hung on some corrupted graphics, while WinXP installed perfectly; with VMware, the Windows installation doesn't (yet) have any network connectivity but the Ubuntu image I downloaded works perfectly. Perhaps I can also get a ready-installed Ubuntu image for VPC.

Labels: tech, virtualization

Xing - "Sing" or "Crossing" depending on who you believe, is a social networking site big in Germany ... think LinkedIn auf deutsch or in Cantonese, increasingly.

I've used it for around three years and it's quite useful in tracking my contacts - think Plaxo without all those irritating emails.

Although it's not new, the XING plug-in for Outlook is improved, and I used it for the first time to import my contacts. To my delight, they come complete with picture - so now when I open up an email from anyone in my address book whose pic is on their Xing profile, I get their smiling (usually) face. Cute.

Labels: networking, tech

Second time around, the iPod experience (TM) is better. The 8GB Nano is super-light and has adequate storage space for a few days' worth of music non-stop. And here's a thing, the supplied headphones are louder than the set supplied with the 4G 20GB 'pod. I haven't checked the tech specs yet to see if the impedance is different. I suppose "louder" headphones = longer battery life.

Labels: mp3, tech

Am I the only one who makes MP3s in such a convoluted way?

1. Rip to wav file with Winamp
2. Convert top MP3 using winLAME
3. Sort out peaks using MP3Gain
4. Tag using mp3tag

Is there an easier way, without compromising quality or filename integrity?

Labels: mp3, nerd, tech

Love the iPod, hate the fragility of a hard-drive based version and the rubbish battery life of my 4G model (on days that it deigns to work), so an 8GB Nano is my second iPod.

Since I'm mid-way through the task of encoding all my CDs at 320kbps it's going to be quality, not quantity. 320k on a Nano is undoubtedly overkill but short of creating a second set of lower bitrate CD rips, I'll still be able to fit in around 900 songs.

What to put on it? I'm thinking about new stuff only. Apart from the singles I haven't listened to the full albums from bands like Snow Patrol and Arctic Monkeys. Also I want to try much-hyped artists such as Amy Winehouse to see what all the fuss is about.

"This would be a perfect introduction to iTunes!" you exclaim. Indeed - except that I still buy my music on CD and rip it at the bitrate(s) I want...

Labels: iPod, mp3, nerd, tech

Is it just me or is Quicktime one of the cheekiest PC applications of all?
It's like a weed: once it gets on to a system it spreads and unless you get
the roots out (in this case digging around in the registry), it just keeps
coming back. Worse still, it tries to bring its friends. I don't want or
need iTunes on my machine any more than I need Real Player.

Labels: rant, tech

This blog has reached the dizzy heights of place 3,392,917 on Technorati. Since Technorati is "currently tracking 86.1 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media", that means top 5 percent :-)

Talking of top 5, if you're after a laugh, check Dory's new blog.

Labels: blog, tech

Just back from a few days at Lake Garda in Italy. The drive there takes us across the Brenner Pass, and fearful of long weekend queues at the toll booths, I registered and paid online in advance for the "Video Maut" - which uses number-plate recognition.

On the outbound trip, the only hitch was that the longest line was for ... the Video Maut booth.

On the return trip, the longest line was for ... the Video Maut booth.

But then - a hitch. Our car registration wasn't recognised - the barrier dropped and we were diverted to a toll booth to explain ourselves and pay up.

Shurely shome mishtake, I suggested.

Oh no, came the answer: it's quite common that the system doesn't recognize umlauts in vehicle registrations. In Österreich of all places. Perhaps only in Austria!

Labels: nerd, rant, tech

My colleague Gerry van Zandt has set up a live-ish webcam so you can keep track of his every move ... except that he'll be in Europe during June, hopefully a "gone motoring" sign will take his place. The picture shown here is always the latest and greatest shot.

Labels: blog, tech

Labels: tech

...because, goodness knows, it's made me scream a few times in the last months. Anyway, to celebrate finding the cause of my bluescreens (take a bow, Google Desktop) I have treated my system to a 1GB ReadyBoost-capable flash drive. This is in addition to the 1.5GB of memory already installed.

Finally, it flies. In fact, it screams. Scary just how much memory is needed for it to do so, though.

Labels: nerd, tech

Here's some observations from CeBIT:

* Visitor numbers seem to be up on last year but many of the halls are deathly quiet off the main track through.

* Cheap / free entrance tickets have flooded the local market ... lots of consumers on the show floors. Fine, but is CeBIT a business show or a consumer showcase?

* Some people will "collect" just about anything - the legendary freebie hunters. Put dog turds in plastic bags and people'll pick 'em up.

* Only one bidder on my daft auction so far (thanks Gerry).

* Classic CeBIT weather is back - snowy wind, rain showers. Yeuch.

Labels: nerd, tech