I’m special, Google told me so…

Below is my notification e-mail from Google regarding the shutdown of FTP support next month.  I always knew I was special, but now Google quantified it for me (0.5%).  I’m not one in a million, but five in one thousand isn’t bad.

I’m moving to WordPress (wordpress.org), but the import (Blogger, and RSS) both failed.  I took a break and will revisit the issue this evening.

Dear FTP user:

You are receiving this e-mail because one or more of your blogs at Blogger.com are set up to publish via FTP. We recently announced a planned shut-down of FTP support on Blogger Buzz (the official Blogger blog),  and wanted to make sure you saw the announcement. We will be following up with more information via e-mail in the weeks ahead, and regularly updating a blog dedicated to this service shut-down here: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/. 

The full text of the announcement at Blogger Buzz follows.

Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing[1] Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs. FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that. On top of this, critical infrastructure that our FTP support relies on at Google will soon become unavailable, which would require that we completely rewrite the code that handles our FTP processing.
Three years ago we launched Custom Domains[2] to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP[3] and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing. (If you're interested in reading more about Custom Domains, our Help Center has a good overview[4] of how to use them on your blog.) In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users.
For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:

• We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
• We will be providing a dedicated blog[5] and help documentation
• Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.

We have a number of big releases planned in 2010. While we recognize that this decision will frustrate some users, we look forward to showing you the many great things on the way. Thanks for using Blogger.

Regards,

Rick Klau
Blogger Product Manager
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

[1] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[2] http://buzz.blogger.com/2007/01/blogger-custom-domains.html
[3] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[4] http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55373
[5] http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/

----
This e-mail is being sent to notify you of important changes to your Blogger account.

 

Technorati Tags: Blogger,WordPress,PaulIsSad

Windows 7 RC (build 7100) expires March 1, 2010

“Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to rebuild your test machine using a valid version of Windows before the software expires. You'll need to rebuild your test PC to replace the OS and reinstall all your programs and data."

I didn’t realize I still had the RC Build running on my primary workstation.  I have also been very busy and am *not* keen on spending a day doing an entire system rebuild.

Although Microsoft (and most IT Pros) recommend a clean install with the production code (Build 7600), there is a way around the problem.

If you attempt a standard upgrade by running setup.exe using the latest build, the upgrade fails, and you receive the message below:

The way around this issue is to copy the contents of the DVD (3.01 GB for Ultimate x64) to a folder on your drive. 

Next, edit the source\cversion.ini file using a text editor like Notepad.

Edit so the MinServer and MinClient values match the example below and save the file.

[HostBuild]
MinClient=7000.0
MinServer=7100.0

Run setup.exe, and proceed.  You will need a valid license key for Windows 7 and your system will be upgraded.  You can confirm the new version by typing the command “ver” from the command prompt.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,software,Win7

Phishing e-mail today

Below is the body of the message I received.  It’s obviously malicious because I control all the services for paulbegley.com, but I was intrigued. 

Dear user of the paulbegley.com mailing service!
We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (rants@paulbegley.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:
http://paulbegley.com/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=rants@paulbegley.com&from=paulbegley.com&fromname=rants
Best regards, paulbegley.com Technical Support.
Message ID#T1SYDT2B4BVZJ72

First, I looked at the header information and the entries below flagged this as fake.  It originated in Japan (.jp TLD), there is no reverse lookup for the IP address 119.152.104.119, and it’s part of APIC (Asia-Pacific Information Center).

Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: best guess record for domain of transitioning unquotingpoy4@strl.nhk.or.jp does not designate 119.152.104.119 as permitted sender) client-ip=119.152.104.119;
Return-Path: <unquotingpoy4@strl.nhk.or.jp>
Received: from CAWADZSGG (unknown [119.152.104.119])
Received: from 119.152.104.119 by iron.nhk.or.jp; Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:45:04 –0800

Also embedded in the message is the real link to some server in Korea (.kr TLD):

http://paulbegley.com.yhuttte.ne.kr/owa/service_directory/setting

Last, if you have a modern browser installed and configured correctly, your browser (at least Chrome and Firefox) flagged the link as a malicious site and blocked any connections.  IE let you through, but blocked the automatic download.  Screen shots below.

Chrome

Firefox

IE 8

Technorati Tags: Security,Internet,phishing,e-mail

Encryption busted on NIST-certified Kingston, SanDisk and Verbatim USB flash drives

 At first I thought this was hyperbole from ZD-Net regarding encryption of some popular USB flash drives.

After reading the article, I’m very surprised at how simple the crack is to implement:

When the correct password is supplied by the user, the authentication program always send the same character string to the drive to decrypt the data no matter what the password used. What’s also staggering is that this character string is the same for Kingston, SanDisk and Verbatim USB flash drives.

UPDATE:  To clarify, my concern is that the NIST security specification doesn’t include a protocol for how the authentication token is managed.  I expected it to be unique between vendors at a minimum.

Encryption busted on NIST-certified Kingston, SanDisk and Verbatim USB flash drives

Technorati Tags: encryption,storage,security

Droid Apps

I have a few minutes and wanted to tabulate the Android applications I have installed on my Droid.

The more I use the Droid, the more I appreciate the integration and utility it offers on a daily basis.  As an example, today a co-worker sent me an IM through Google Talk asking me to call him along with a phone number.  I touched the phone number, which cross referenced the phone number and it was the office phone for another co-worker.  So I knew where he was before he picked up the phone.

Applications I’m using on a regular basis

• Google Apps
  • Google Maps – are just awesome, and is the basis for navigation, Latitude, and other features
  • Latitude – very neat, people can track your location in real time.  The tracking is granular enough to show me walking through a town.
  • Google Talk – Google IM client
  • Google Mail – seamless integration on the Android; Contacts sync automatically
  • Google Calendar – automatic sync
  • Google Contacts – configurable sync, supports tags, can merge with ActiveSync contacts
• Find Starbucks - self explanatory
• twidroid for twitter - Twitter Android client
• Google Voice - VoIP phone calls and manage Google Voice account
• Periodic Table - yes, it's a periodic table for your Droid
• PdaNet free edition - tether your laptop for Internet access
• gTasks - beta - Google Task sync
• My Tracks - use Droid and GPS as a training tool – bike
• Tone Picker - MP3 ringtones - I have Star Trek and Star Wars alerts
• GDocs - Google Docs sync
• Barcode Scanner - scan bar codes (UPC) and look up product info and compare prices on web

Applications I’m testing or are just interesting

PaderSyncFTP - FTP sync tool - still testing

Key Ring Reward Card - scan reward cards

Applications I tested and uninstalled

SugarSync - sync files from desktop to phone.  Documents are read-only, and I have some minor issues with file formats (line wrapping, and tabs).

Technorati Tags: Droid,Android,apps,software

Where’s my Windows 7 telnet client?

And how to enable Remote Administration on Windows 7 (and Vista).  Telnet and other features are not installed by default with Windows 7 (or Vista). 

To install, go to Control Panel – Programs – Programs and Features – Turn Windows features on or off.  This opens a Windows Features dialog box where you can enable or disable features. 

For remote server administration, you want to install the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7, which adds a laundry list of tools which you manage with the same interface (screen shot below).

Technorati Tags: Win7,telnet,utilities

Mozilla Labs Weave

 Mozilla Labs - Weave

Weave is a FireFox (Mozilla) add-on.  I installed and will test the sync capabilities.  The only issue for me is that I had to create Yet Another Account (including a pass phrase to encrypt my data/credentials).  At this point, I prefer to use an existing account and/or cloud services (think Microsoft, Google) for my sync services. 

I am hoping that cloud services will be the source of centralized authentication and services, but at least we are headed in the right direction.

Some of the key functionality enabled by the Weave add-on includes:

• Synchronization engine - securely transports your browsing experience across all your devices
• Cryptographic engine - provides default client side encryption for all your data
• Weave server - a secure storage location for all your encrypted data
• APIs - extension interfaces for 3rd party developers

The initial release provides synchronization of browser meta-data (bookmarks, stored passwords, history, tabs, preferences, add-ons, personas).  Future releases will support other types of data and functionality.

Technorati Tags: Mozilla,sync,Firefox,cloud

Droid Day 2

List of the Apps I added below.  I continue to be impressed with the integration of the Google Apps (GMail, Google Voice, and Maps.  I’m not so certain Navigation will put Garmin out of business, but it does a reasonable job.

The sluggish response issue I had on Day 1 may have been an anomaly.  I disabled automatic sync on the applications and disabled the GPS as well, but the battery life is probably going to be something I manage closely.  I would buy an extended life battery in a minute, and don’t care that the Droid would look like a humpback whale.

Droid Apps - update

• Action Complete – nice GTD app, but can’t sync with laptop or cloud.
• gDocs – Google Docs application – synch with Google Docs, supports folders, not sure how I will use, possibly to link to Tasks or shopping lists.
• gTasks – Google Tasks synch.  Works OK, but can’t synch with Outlook, so this is of limited utility to me.
• Maps – Google Maps, enabled Latitude.  Very interesting, but requires GPS to be enabled, so it drains battery.  Also some privacy issues, but very neat for the kids to keep up with us if we are out of town.
• MeeboIM – Meebo Droid client – it caused MSN to log out my laptop client because it’s not a ‘native’ Microsoft Messenger client.  Not a big deal.  I setup my MSN, Google accounts.  Supports AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, jabber, Mebo, MSN, MySpace (gak!), and Yahoo clients.
• Visual Voicemail – Verizon loads a default client, but will automatically upgrade, and for $2.99 a month, you can have your Verizon Wireless voicemail transcribed and available on your Droid.  I find it odd that I get this service for free from Vonage and Google Voice.  Hello, Verizon, anyone home?

Droid Manuals:
Droid User Guide – which I didn’t get in the unit I purchased on Friday!

Technorati Tags: Droid,apps,Google,manuals

Apps Status Dashboard

After the Great Google Mail Outage of 9/1/2009, I looked into a Google Status page.  The link below is for the Google Apps Status Dashboard and it displays a current status (No Issues, Service disruption, Service outage, and information available) for each of the Google Apps (Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Talk , Google Docs List, Google Documents, Google Presentations, Google Sites, Google Video for business, Admin control panel).

Apps Status Dashboard

Technorati Tags: Google,Apps,status

Free Exchange 2010 eBook - "Exchange 2010 - A Practical Approach"

 

Red Gate Software - Exchange Server Archiver and "Exchange 2010 - A Practical Approach"

Considering Exchange 2010 is a fresh-out-of-beta product, this is a welcome overview of the product.  The book covers the following topics:

Chapter 1 – Overview of Exchange 2010 new features
Chapter 2 – Installation
Chapter 2 – Co-existance with previous Exchange versions
Chapter 4 – Exchange Management
Chapter 5 – High Availability – new features of 2010

 

Technorati Tags: Exch2010,archive,eBooks

I love broadband

There is not a week that goes by where I am not amazed with the rapid advances in technology.  In the past few months, I have downloaded gigabytes of data from various sites, mostly new operating system distribution ISO’s.  This morning, I’m sitting in my den on a laptop with a wireless connection to the Internet.  I am downloading a 339 Meg file in less than ten minutes with an average transfer rage of 1.53 Mb/sec. 

My laptop weighs 6 lbs, has a dual core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and two SATA drives (150 and 500 GB).

In the mid-80’s, I ran a public access UNIX system and several different multiuser BBS’s (Bulletin Board Systems).  At that time, the limitation of file transfers were 2400 bps (bits per second) modems.  The size of the downloads were typically about 20 minutes.  The size of our hard drives were 10 Meg to 40 Meg.  I was running a full UNIX system, with development tools, man pages, application software, and downloads on a system with two 40Mb disks and a ‘high performance’ RLL controller.

Technorati Tags: storage,broadband

SourceForge Community Choice Awards

http://sourceforge.net/community/cca09/vote/

SourceForge is a great source for high quality, high function applications for multiple platforms.  The Community Choice Awards is a good overview of the best applications available from SourceForge.

Applications I use on a regular basis include:

Notepad++ – Notepad replacement
FreeMind – Mind mapping tool
FreeNAS – turn your spare workstation into a NAS device
KeePass – Password management tool
OpenOffice – Microsoft office replacement (sort of…)
Audacity – Audio editing tool
ClamAntiVirus – free antivirus, low CPU utilization
Nagios – comprehensive, opensource network monitor tool

Technorati Tags: SourceForge,opensource,software

Firefox ‘problematic extensions’

Found this KB article (link below) that helped me debug a script timeout problem with Firefox 3.5.  My specific issue was Adblock Plus, and the work-around was disabling the "Show Tabs on Flash and Java" in Adblock Plus options.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions

 

Technorati Tags: Firefox,bug,AdBlock,add-on

AntiVirus Issues

Our ‘utility’ laptop is an Everex StepNote that has a Via CPU and 2GB of RAM.  It’s just not a powerful laptop.  After monitoring with System Internals Process Explorer, AVG appears to have more overhead than I would like.

Next, I had a problem installing AVG on my clean Windows 7 Build 7100 install.  I previously used AVG, but it was not happy installing this time.

What to do, what to do? 

I tried Clam AntiVirus for Windows.  It appears to have lower overhead, and it runs fine on Windows 7.  The ClamTray process doesn’t even register on the CPU meter.

I know AVG has been effective, blocking some compromised web sites as well as trojan/malware on several of my systems.  I will watch ClaimWin and note how effective it is as I test through the month of July.

Technorati Tags: antivirus,Clam,AVG

Asus WL-330gE – travel wireless adapter

I purchased the Asus WL-330gE after spending several weeks in hotels on large projects. One of the architects had a Linksys travel adapter, but it’s no longer available and had reported power supply issues.

The Asus WL-330gE is a great little device, and it can act as a repeater, access point, or USB adapter for your laptop.

Installation was a snap, with the only problem being the initial interface is in Chinese. The other problem is that the Asus support site times out more than often than not, so I’m posting the support files here for download as well as screen shots of the install.

WL-330gE Firmware

WL-330gE Setup Software

Default setup screen – Chinese Language
Select the upper left corner pull-down menu and select the first option to reset the screen to English Language.

Technorati Tags: firmware,setup,Asus,WL-330gE,wifi

Windows 7 – telnet not enabled by default

How to enable telnet Windows 7.  The process is similar for Vista:

• Open Control Panel
• Go to “Programs”
• Now, in “Programs” window, on the left side, find “turn windows features on or off” and click once
• Find “Telnet Client” and mark it
• Click on “Ok” and reboot your computer
• Enjoy using Telnet Client in Windows Vista or Windows 7

 

 

Technorati Tags: software,Windows 7

Paul bought an iPod

This is absolutely shocking.  I don’t know what to say, other than it’s a refurbished 40GB 4th Generation iPod and it cost under $80 from ecost.com.

I still feel a bit dirty.

But I did it for my daughter.  Sarah’s Zune was in her car when it was stolen in Atlanta.  I’m shipping my original 30GB Zune (white, refurbished, $99!) tomorrow.

In my defense, I’m not running iTunes.  iTunes is a piece of poo.  Lots of strange services, ACC format files, DRM, ugh!  I’m running Rockbox, a firmware upgrade available from www.roxbox.org.  I used the Rockbox Utility to detect the iPod, download the appropriate software, and install.  It was a very painless process.  The really neat part was just did a drag and drop of MP3 library to the iPod, and I was in business.  It even recognized my WinAmp playlists.  I have some songs in FLAC and Vogg Orbis formats and will experiment later. 

I tried using the ml_ipod add-on for WinAmp, but I was having some problems and just opted to move to the Rockbox firmware.

I’m quite pleased with the combination of the iPod and Rockbox software.  I am experimenting with the Themes so I can read the screen without glasses when I am on my stationary bike (single speed bike with Nashbar fluid trainer).

 

Technorati Tags: ipod,rockbox,mp3,firmware

Sprint HTC Mogul – Hard Reset

While traveling, I had my HTC Mogul die.  The symptoms were ‘artifacts’ on the home screen (overlay), and the device was generally unresponsive.  I turned was able to turn the phone off and on, but it was stuck at the green Windows Mobile 6.1 initialization screen.  I had to remove the battery to shut down.  A soft reset made no difference, so I performed a hard reset.

This is disturbing when you are on the road, but at least the problem was resolved in less than 30 minutes.  No additional hardware or software was required, ActiveSync and Mobile applications data are retained on the laptop.  I have considered disaster recovery applications for Windows Mobile, but I do not think this is necessary.

Data lost after the reset was limited to Text messages.  I didn’t have any other data in local storage because I configured all other applications to store on the SD card.

Hard Reset – hold down both the soft keys (right and left with the dot at the bottom of the device) and press the reset button on the base of the device.

1. After the reset, you are prompted to be sure you want to reinitialize the device.  You must respond using the keyboard. 
2. System performs an auto-restore with Sprint customizations, some of which can not be uninstalled.
3. Next, the phone auto-restarts to initialize the auto-restore.
4. The phone can be used at this point, but I need to restore my contacts and applications, so I connect to my laptop running ActiveSync 4.5.
5. ActiveSync device with local laptop.  I configure my synch to maintain
   1. Contacts - ~900 contacts – everyone I know, business, personal, and family
   2. Calendar – three month history of appointments
   3. Tasks – typically 45-75 total
   4. Notes – 55 notes
   5. Favorites – 5
   6. Microsoft Office OneNote – light use, about 20K-30K
6. Reset Theme and interface.  I use Windows Default and simplify the interface so I don’t have to scroll the screen.  I also added my basic Owner Information.
7. Add/Remove Programs
   1. Developer One Agenda – install on device
   2. Evernote Mobile (3.0.0.981) – storage card
   3. OneNote Mobile – storage card
   4. Microsoft Voice Command PPC 1.60 – device
8. Device restarts after the Voice Command install to re-initialize the device.
9. Last, reset the Ring Tones to my personal choices

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile,HTC,Sprint,Mogul,ActiveSync,disaster recover

Uber Note – online notebook

UberNote is an online note system.  I have experimented with just about every system around (Jott, Twine, del.icio.us, Google Tools, etc), but this system seems to be working for me.

You setup an online account to store everything, UberNote then generates an UberMail ID (<username>.hex@ubernote.com).  Once your account is setup, you can use Firefox extensions, or Javascript shortcuts to store a web site URL, selected content, or an entire page to UberNote.

Once it’s stored, you can share stored content, tag it, publish it (RSS, public, or private). 

There is also a mobile client, and I have tested the Windows Mobile client and it works very well.  The UberNote web site supports mobile devices as well.

Technorati Tags: GTD,productivity,mobile,online

Can you spare some disk space?

I just have to post this.  I received this error while attempting a file transfer to a new SATA array on my server.

Technorati Tags: disk,Windows

Alternate virus removal method - Windows XP

A friend’s home PC appeared to be infected with the Sasser virus.  He receives the message “LSASS.EXE application failure; click OK to terminate or click cancel to debug” when starting the computer.

Typically, I remove the drive and put it into one of my old systems and disinfect the system drive.  The infected system has a SATA drive and my test system is IDE only, so I thought it was time to use a LIVE CD to fix the problem.

I tested the Dr. Web Live CD and Kaspersky Rescue Disk.  Both worked, but it appears that Kaspersky was the more through of the two at discovering the many viruses on my friend’s PC.  I found the Kaspersky virus signature updates a bit confusing – the status button didn’t appear to change after the update, however the update was successful and the application ran flawlessly.

Scanning took about two hours for a 250 GB drive that with under 100 GB of data.

 Raymond’s Live CD Review

Dr. Web Live CD

Kaspersky Rescue Disk

Technorati Tags: anti-virus,XP,LiveCD,malware

Upgrading Katie’s Desktop

 GParted – Welcome

Katie’s PC is a 2.0 GHz IBM workstation, but the original 40GB disk is full, and it needs more RAM.  I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on this upgrade, so I backed the system up using Acronis True Image Home 11.0 and restored to a spare 160 GB Hitachi disk. 

The problem I had is that Acronis restored the original ~38GB image onto the 160GB drive.  I probably missed something, but this was an opportunity to test re-sizing a disk drive.

I downloaded the latest GParted Live CD ISO file from SourceForge and burned it to a CD using Alex Feinman’s ISO Recorder v2. 

I booted the CD, took the defaults, and it boots into X-Windows and auto-starts GParted.  Through the application GUI, you select the disk you want to resize, click on the edge and slide to resize.  Optionally, you can enter in the disk/partition parameters to resize.  Click OK, accept parameters, and it is complete. 

After re-start, Windows XP SP2 automatically performed a checkdisk, which completed successfully, after the first start of Windows, I received a message that Windows installed a new device and required a restart.  After the restart, I was back in business.

Technorati Tags: GParted,partition,editor,hardware,Win32

Hardware and Software I use

Starting this as a sanity check, and to answer some questions people have asked in the past few months.  I’m burning time while we wait to take Sarah to the airport.

Software

Backup – Acronis True Image – great software for full backup and rapid restore to your desktop or laptop.  1GB/min backup speeds to external USB 2.0 drives.

Office 2007 – I live in Outlook 2007, and use Word 2007 daily for my work.  There is a learning curve from previous releases, but it’s worthwhile learning the Office Ribbon.

RSS Reader – FeedDemon.  Period.  It’s great, and I maintain a subscription Newsgator so I synch my RSS feeds across multiple systems (work laptop, home desktop, personal laptops) and I it is available via web as well.

Browser – IE7 and the current release of Firefox.  I live in browsers and use both, selecting the best for the task at hand.  Typically, Firefox for general use and IE7 for business/financial transactions.

Text Editors - Notepad++, TextPad, and VIM.  VIM is a personal choice because I have used vi under Unix for longer than I can remember, Notepad++ is a great open source, multi-platform editor, and TextPad is quite good and I use the workplace feature often.

PDF Creation - PDFCreator – another open source project, I use it to generate PDF files and it installs as a print driver on your system.  It supports all the basic Adobe Acrobat Pro features, but not encryption, watermarks, and other advanced features.

Process Lasso - Process Lasso runs at a higher priority, monitors and throttles processes to optimize the system responsiveness.  I have tested for a few days and it has been stable and measurably improved my system response.  I am using the free version, but may upgrade if I’m still using it in January.  Process Lasso helps system response on my laptop, particularly with the SMC.EXE process and when I’m doing labs with Virtual PC locally.

 

Hardware

Windows Mobile Phone – forget the iPhone, I have used a Windows Mobile phone for almost five years.  It synchs with Outlook, it works well as a phone, and supports

Zune – I don’t like iTunes software, I got a 30GB Zune for $99 a while ago (white versus poo brown), and it does a great job with podcasts, which is my primary use as well as music when I use a bicycle trainer indoors.

 

Technorati Tags: software,list,hardware

Windows Mobile 6.1 Firmware – Sprint Mogul

I updated my phone with a developer version of the firmware.  The production release was issued 8.6.2008 and the link below matches the exact rev I have installed on my phone.

I found the following benefits of the firmware:

• NO SYSTEM RESETS.  None, since the firmware update.
• Device certs for ActiveSync support (future requirement for my company for security)
• Longer battery life (this is more qualitative, but it is noticeably better)
• Text messages conversations are threaded
• Eliminated occasional problems I had answering calls when phone locked
• Java updated – Google Mail application works
• GPS application support enabled – works with Google Maps real time
• Did I mention NO SYSTEM RESETS?

There are probably some other issues, but these are ones I know off the top of my head.

Also, I had a local problem with ActiveSync that I resolved with help from Sandy Dahri.  Details on link below .  The root cause appears to be a beta release of Microsoft Desktop Search 4.0.

Windows Mobile 6.1 for Mogul - Sprint

http://www.htc.com/us/SupportDownloadList.aspx?p_id=75&cat=all

ActiveSync problem fix

http://www.paulbegley.com/2008/07/office-2007-and-activesync-45-problems.htm

Technorati Tags: HTC,Sprint,Microsoft,mobile,firmware,ActiveSync

END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD

Sarah is taking the HP TX1110US laptop back to school in August.  Last week she mentioned that the system was mysteriously shutting down after about an hour or so.  I tried to ignore the problem, but I wanted to image the system before I installed XP.

I reset the System configuration so it would not automatically restart.  An hour later, the BOSD shows the event END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD. 

This can’t be a Good Thing.  I Google (yes, it’s a verb).  Don’t find much, but I dug around TechNet and found that this can be generated if you installed a beta of Windows Vista SP1.  Crap.  Yeah, I did that, and never updated (well, I thought I updated…).

I uninstalled SP1, restarted (three step count down to complete the uninstall).  After restart, I used Vista Windows Update and painfully re-installed the pre-SP1 fixes, SP1, post-SP1, and just for good measure the latest security fixes as well as some HP specific hardware driver updates.

NOW the system is up and running.  I will image (Acronis is my friend), and install XP (yes, a legit license I have from my IBM Z-Pro workstations which are now running Windows Server 2003 R2 and Windows 2008 Server.

Technorati Tags: Vista,backup,BSOD

Office 2007 and ActiveSync 4.5 Problems

ActiveSync stopped doing a bi-directional synchronization with my Sprint HTC Mogul a few weeks ago (naturally before I went on vacation). 

I never discovered the root cause of the problem, but it may have been a combination of Microsoft Desktop Search 4.0 beta, my Outlook profile, and my being very busy and not sorting out the problem when I noticed the synch stopped working.

Around the same time, Outlook generated an error on opening that stated it was not the default Mail Client, even though the option was properly set.

Problem: ActiveSync would not synchronize Outlook with my HTC Mogul.  Period.  End of story.  Not even thinking considering it.  ActiveSync would connect properly, display the proper count for Contact items (934!), the count would jump to 100/934, then complete and go to Calendar without any Contacts being copied.

I reset the phone, still no joy.

Finally, Sandy suggested I delete the contents of \Windows\Messaging on the device. 

This worked!

Resolving the default client error was resolved by a re-install of Office 2007.  All my settings were saved, including my Outlook Profiles, it was just inconvenient.

I also upgraded the HTC Mogul to Windows Mobile 6.1 (Developers build downloaded from third party site, not HTC or Sprint).  It’s a very nice upgrade and I’ll post after I have it running for a few weeks.

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Office,ActiveSync

Olympus W-10 Voice Album Software

I just went on a search of the Internet to find software for my Olympus W-10 digital recorder and camera. I found some rip-off usb-drivers.com download site that requires you to register for dozens of what appear to be SPAM sources. BTW - I registered Karl Rove at whitehouse.gov and that appeared to work, but even then I got into a circular loop and never got to the driver download.

Anyhow, to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else, I found my original driver CD and Zipped all the files so everyone can have them.

BTW - these are not available on any Olympus support site, and I realize this device is at least 8 years old, so I'm posting them for general consumption and will contact Olympus.

Olympus Voice Album W-10 Software

Technorati Tags: software,hardware,drivers,download

Vista SP1 Install

I am in the process of installing Vista SP1 on my HP AMD laptop.  The process is rather tedious, but you run a CMD script which updates your registry.  The update preps your system so you receive up to four hotfixes which are prerequisites for Vista SP1.  I applied two out of three required a restart.  I restarted after the third and my system was able to see the SP1 update when I forced a Windows Update check.

The download was ~300 Meg, and it was 'stuck' at 95% for the better part of an hour. 

After the download, you walk through an SP1 install wizard.  After the update is applied, you restart the system.  It restarts in character mode and applies 66,829 file updates which display on the top of the screen.  The last update is a registry update and the system automatically restarts into graphics mode.

After the restart, it updates the system in three stages, the progress is displayed as the Stage number and the percent complete for the stage.  The last phase took about 30-35 minutes and at this point, the update has taken several hours...

I was one of the many people who experienced the joy of the Vista "unauthorized change" feature and I'm not happy.

I'm not sure what happened, I install *lots* of beta, Microsoft, and third party software on all my systems.  I know what I am doing - aside from an engineering degree, I have been an MCSE since 1996 and MCT since 1998, teaching server and client operating systems.

Currently, my system is still unusable.  I will work on it later today and re-install an operating system if I am unsuccessful in fixing the Vista SP1 upgrade.  I may just choose to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, using an unused license I already own.  I am NOT happy.

Technorati Tags: Vista,SP1,XP,operating systems,Windows,Microsoft

RSS Web 2.0 Suite for Individuals - NewsGator

RSS Web 2.0 Suite for Individuals - NewsGator

I paid for FeedDemon and I use the mobile client as well. It's a great product and I am lost without it, but the thing that is not pointed out in the press releases is that Newsgator has a great subscription model. You also have to consider the Newsgator applications (FeedDemon, etc) as part of a larger system.

You subscribe to Newsgator, this central subscription on the Newsgator server. Client software can then be installed on laptop, desktop, mobile clients and your view of the central subscription can be managed depending on your client needs. With your subscription, your client (mobile, web, and Feeddemon) will synch with the central server, so if you read a bunch of feeds at work, flagged some for follow-up or saved them to a Clippings folder, when you log in at home, they are already marked as read, or flagged into your Clippings folder.

For me, this is well worth the subscription, not only from a time savings, which is huge in my case, but because review of the Clippings let's me rapidly review lots of feeds and distill and manage the good stuff.

Feedstation is another application that is linked to Feeddemon. It can be configured to automatically download multimedia content of RSS feeds (typically, but not limited to audio podcasts) onto my primary workstation where I sync it with my Zune (I know your a Mac guy, but I *really* like the Zune with 2.3 rev firmware - I can synch podcasts wirelessly and have FM radio for working out on my bicycle trainer (Christmas gift to Dad) at home).

Technorati Tags: RSS,synchronization,tools

High Achiever, Gifted Learner, CreativeThinker

High Achiever, Gifted Learner, CreativeThinker

Interesting article. I have seen many parents get upset when their child is not placed in a gifted class. I think everyone learns differently, and although grades are important, we believe the better approach is to work with the kids until they really understand the material and the grades will come.

It was only after I completed college (ten years total) and after I taught my first Microsoft class (Windows 95, and it was a disaster...) that I revisited the entire process of learning material so I understood at a systemic level. Only after I had this level of understanding, was I able to teach others effectively.

We have three daughters, each of whom learn in a very different fashion. I think learning is also evolutionary and as individuals mature, the way they learn can, and should, change.

Joel Oleson's Blog SharePoint Land : 7 Years of SharePoint - a History Lesson

Joel Oleson's Blog SharePoint Land : 7 Years of SharePoint - a History Lesson

Sharepoint is a great tool. I am doing a deep dive on SharePoint after joining Unisys, but I have used it in limited capacities for the past four years and it's an awesome tool, particularly when you use Web Parts and MOSS Search. For me, Search is the key - a product can have all the features in the world, but if I can't find what I need, when I need it, it's worthless.

This is an interesting article by one of the SharePoint team members that gives you some background into the origins of the product and product components.

Audiograbber - MP3 conversion utility

Audiograbber  is my preferred MP3 conversion utility.  It does an awesome job, it will auto generate a directory hierarchy based on the artist name and album name and you can customize the MP3 name based on track, title, etc.  It supports Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and other output formats.

I like to use the LAME (LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder) add-in for MP3 support.  After searching Google, it appears that the ad-driven freeware sites are getting too high up in the Google Search order.  For reference I recommend searching sourceforge.net for open source solutions before you go to an ad site.

Technorati Tags: mp3,LAME,CD,music,sourceforge

Zune for Christmas

Originally, I saw the re-furb and brown 30 Gb original Zunes on sale, but I waited a bit too long.  Then while I was on my road trip to pickup Sarah from Tech, I found a white, refurb Zune at buy.com for $109, so I jumped.

I could not be happier.  Initializing the Zune, it automatically installed the latest client on my desktop and upgraded the firmware to the 2.3 release.

During the initial setup, I pointed it to existing folders for my audio, video, and podcast folders.  The synch was pretty quick and after it sucked up everything, I still had 19Gb free.  The only

The only problem I had was synching NPR podcasts. By comparing file MP3 ID tags on files that synched correctly and the NPR files, I determined the Zune filters based on the Genre tag.  Genre = Podcast to synch to Zune. I updated using a Sourceforge MP3 tag editor massid3lib.  It worked like a charm.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/massid3lib

Technorati Tags: MP3,Zune,Microsoft,Sourceforge,podcast

Windows XP Memory Leak - NOT SP3

UPDATE:  I had a comment asking about problem resolution.  The memory leak was resolved by updating the Dell Wireless 1370 WLAN driver (reference below).  The updated version of the driver is an 89 Meg download: http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R174291.exe

=========================================

After removing SP3, my memory leak issue re-surfaced.  I used Process Explorer, configured it to display Page Faults, Private Bytes, and Virtual Size, and I found the culprit.  The Dell Wireless driver had something like 8MM page faults. 

This process (BCMWLTRY.EXE) was visible from Task Manager, but I overlooked it.  Killing the process from Process Explorer, it re-spawned, and immediately started spewing page faults.  The new drivers was issued 18 Dec 2007, details are below and it's available for download from Dell Support.

 

Title      : Network:Dell Wireless 1370 WLAN MiniPCI Card, Wireless 1390 WLAN MiniCard, Wireless 1395 WLAN MiniCard, Wireless 1470 Dual-Band WLAN miniPCI Card, Wireless 1490 Dual-Band WLAN MiniCard, Wireless 1505 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card, Wireless 1505 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card Desktops Driver
Version    : A17
OEM Name   : Dell
OEM Ver    : 4.170.25.12
Computers  : Dimension - DXP061, DXC061;
Inspiron - 1520, 1720, 1420, 1521, 1721;
Inspiron Desktop - 530, 530S, 531, 531S;
Latitude - D430, ATG D630, D530, D531, XT, D631, D620, D630, D830, D420, D620, D520;
OptiPlex - 745, 320, 740, 755, 330;
Precision - M2300, T7400, T5400, M6300, M4300, 390, 690, 490, M65, M90, M60, M70, M20;
Vostro Desktop - 200, 400;
Vostro Notebook - 1000, 1500, 1700;
XPS - MXP061, MXG061, XPS 720, M1730, 420, M1330
Oses       : Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Tablet PC EditionWindows XP x64 Professional Client

Technorati Tags: Dell,wireless,drivers,download

Microsoft Update - 714 Meg

Wow - this may be a record update for my systems.  The largest offender is Office 2007 SP1, which is 619 Meg in size.  The other updates include:

• Windows XP - four security updates
• Windows XP - DST update for multiple countries
• IE7 - Cumulative Security update
• Windows Live Writer update
• .Net Framework 3.0 SP1
• .Net Framework 2.0 SP1

32 bit Windows memory support

This subject has come up on several occasions, so I'm posting a note with several references on the topic.

Basically, 32-bit Windows desktop operating systems (XP, Vista) will not address more than 3 GB of installed memory.  You can add the /3GB switch to your BOOT.INI file, but hardware constraints, including your video card and BIOS will limit how much RAM above 3GB is available for the operating system. 

NOTE:  This is particularly an issue for high end video cards because the amount of video RAM is deducted from the 4GB theoretical limit for 32 bit operating systems, so even if you have 4GB installed, a 512 Meg video card could reduce your available ram to under 3GB.

Microsoft MSDN article: Memory Limits for Windows Releases

Microsoft MSDN article: 4-Gigabyte Tuning

Dude, Where's My 4 Gigabytes of RAM? - this article includes a nice Intel map of the 32 bit address space memory allocation details.

Gadwin Systems, Inc. - Print Screen

Gadwin PrintScreen is an easy to use utility that allows you to capture any portion of the screen, save it to a file, copy it to Windows clipboard, print it or e-mail it to a recipient of your choice.

Another All Microsoft All The Time post.  I left the full link for Gadwin Systems because they deserve the kudos for a great screen capture program.  This isn't a Microsoft specific application, but it fills a niche for my day-to-day work.

I have Gadwin PrintScreen configured to use the Print Screen key and by default I pick a rectangular portion of my screen and it is captured to the clipboard.  Optionally, you can define a default directory and file name template (like ProjectName$1.jpg) and default format (BMP, JPG, etc).

The automatic file capture is awesome when documenting a project and it beats using Alt-Shift-PrintScreen and dumping it to Word.

Highly Recommended.

 

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