Riding the curve

I’ve been using my new Blackberry Curve for about three weeks now.  I have been pleasantly surprised with the experience.  Actually there’s nothing I regard as negative vs my HTC Excalibur except that it feels slightly more flimsy, and the trackball feels breakable.  I wanted a titanium coloured one but got silver

The good news is that it starts up and is ready to use as a phone in about 6 seconds, as opposed to the 10x delay with the Excalibur.  In fact any WindowsMobile device could only dream of starting that quick, most are just about finishing displaying the inital splash image.

The GPS is good and works well,  even with the limited Maps application, but at least it accurately shows you where you are right now, anywhere in the world.  I tested this in london and San Francisco and both have been very accurate.  Also, the battery life is better than any WindowsMobile device I’ve had so far.

The really good news actually shames WindowsMobile, and that is I can connect to more than one Exchange server simultaneousl.  Why Microsoft can’t do this is for WindowsMobile beyond me, they don’t even do it for the desktop Outlook client.  The Curve seamlessly manages multiple email sources whether they are Exchange, Hotmail, GMail etc.  The only downside is that whilst it provides separate source folders for each new mail service you add,  it doesn’t separate your original mailbox out, which is left in the consolidated view.  This is an omission I am sure they will fix as its done in some third party themes already.

Anyway, it my summary is it does what I need and it just works andshows how far Microsoft need to go to catch up with the BlackBerry experience,  and thats something I didn’t think I would say.

FILESTREAM in SQL Server 2008

Some interesting updates on SQL Server 2008. FILESTREAM allows you to store large unstructured data items (BLOBS) outside the database in the native filesystem.  This is really handy as the BLOB no longer impacts the database itself for either performance or reliability.

However there are a couple of things to be aware of as Database mirroring and Snapshots aren’t supported.  Otherwise, FILESTREAM is implemented as a varbinary(max) and can be used as if it were a normal but importantly it is not limited to 2GB in size, rather to volume size (although thats no a good measure).  A cool capability is thta you can access the FILESYSTEM onject directly from the Win32 API,  you can’t delete or rename and object but you can read and write to it.  However NTFS security is applied and by default only the SQL Server Service has access permissions.

If you like F1, and you like data, you’ll love this …

Just finished watching the British GP using the live timing service from the formula 1 website.  This is the same data that the commentators see and is more or less live.   It really gives you a sense of whats happening, well worth having.  I was trying to find if there was an SDK or raw data feed so I could do some interesting enhancements such as an overlay on-top of the picture in media center,  or show a constantly updating championship position as the race progresses…

Anyway its here … http://www.formula1.com/services/live_timing/ unfortunately it requires Java runtime.

Show me the HD

So, I’ve got my FreeSat HD receiver, now where’s the content ?  I thought the bare minimum after the ITV HD launch would be F1 HD feeds, but no, not even for the British GP.  A lost opportunity.

In general the HD deployment in the UK is a complete mess.  On FreeSat, you get BBC HD and ITV HD (if available) but not Channel 4 HD.  If you have Sky HD, you get BBC and Channel 4 HD but not ITV HD.  Unfortunately its seems FreeSat has failed to deliver on its promise even though its already 2 years late.

i780 disappointment

I tried hard to get on with spiritual successor (in my mind) of my HTC Excalibur,  but I have failed.  The problem is its just too quirky.

Firstly, the biggest problem.  For reasons which are impossible to fathom, Samsung decided to install WM6 Professional (PocketPC Edition) on to this device, despite it clearly being a WM6 Standard device.  This turns a perfectly good single handed device into a clumsy two handed version with none of the benefits of the PocketPC.  Unbelievably it ships with a stylus, and uses the wholly inappropriate Pro UI with drop down START menu and touch screen.  This is just craziness.  I recommend they make a WM6 Standard firmware update asap.

The GPS … what can I say?  Mostly it didn’t work,  when it did the accuracy offered was in the kilometre range, at one point offering me an accuracy of 5563 metres!

Now to put a tall hat on it they made it slightly too wide and made it with an ultra slippy shiny case that squeezes out of your hand like a wet bar of soap.

Completing my day, they use a non standard interface for power and connectivity instead of USB.

Funnily enough,  I got used to the trackpad, but not the cursor it drives which is all but invisible in sunlight.  There is a simple reason why WM6 Standard on a front facing keyboard candybar is the right OS, simplicity!

So, its gone back in the box, probably never to be used again.  What a disappointment!

Cloned Again

The first time I saw there was going to be a cinema release of the animated Star Wars series I was a bit non-plussed.  It didn’t look like it would be special in any way, and what I love about Star Wars is the graphics and the sounds, not the storyline or acting.  So I surprised myself when I was browsing upcoming movie trailers on my Apple iTV.  I watched the trailer in HD and was immediately impressed with the detail and the way the images are drawn (or rendered).  So I am now looking forward to the release.

It also put me in mind of the SuperThruster video EP from Sly and Robbie.  Well worth getting on DVD for its manga and thumping baseline.  Here’s a horribly compromised and dark copy I found on YouTube.

Whooosh … is it a plane? is it a bird? …

… no its the UK banking industry warping into the 21st Century with the new Fast Payment system.  Almost unbelievably, we in the UK can now do same day electronic payments, well almost;  some banks are lagging and some are only doing transfers of less than £5(!),  but despite me still pinching myself, it has actually worked today.  At least there’s no going back now,  with direct debits to follow soon, and who knows where it will stop, cheques next?   In reality, this of course comes not a minute to soon in case PayPal and others start to steal their money transfer business.

Of course as we all know, balance and karma must be maintained in any industry, and banking is no different,  and on the very same day, Barclays restored the balance by informing me they are not going to improve their online banking system which currently limits your transaction history to 60 items or 60 days.  So if you are running your business on Barclays you can’t even see enough data to do one VAT quarter let alone a whole year.  Barclays problem is that they are basically running a system designed 10 years ago and never touched since.  Back in 2001 I was advising they stored statements online as PDF’s which could be downloaded, and provide secure communication to your branch or specific Barclays staff, but alas it seems that they have been unable to do any of this, and sadly, not for the foreseeable future either.  

I have finally given up after 7 years of trying to jostle Barclays into providing a service that is more than just a payment system as there is a disconnect between customers, branches and the owners of the Internet banking group who really seem not to want to know what customers think.  Here’s the process I just went through which took a month;

• I register complaint with PC Banking about 60 transaction limit with India
• Call is escalated to PC Banking help in Coventry
• Operator very understanding but can do nothing to help and offers to escalate to Central Complaints
• Receive letter next day saying they will respond in 21 days
• 25 days later I call to follow up with Central Complaints
• They inform me there is nothing they can do and offer to escalate to PC Banking help in Coventry
• Hmmm … surely that’s a closed loop system
• … and of course thats where it ended, back at square 1, just a month later.

Whats crazy is that me and other concerned customers are just trying to help and be part of the solution for them but theres no way to interact with anyone who has any influence…. and … whats more one of the many times quoted reasons about lack of storage is easily overcome, and rapidly if the desire is there.

If it was me in Barclays PC Banking, I’d accept the limitations of the current system and exploit the existing security platform for authentication but extend the system with an online analytics data processing farm that could create on demand reports as PDF’s (or better still, an altaVENTE protected document) which could be downloaded.  Voila! a cheap, fast to implement solution that would keep the service acceptable whilst a new system is delivered.

The real solution ?  Well sadly, and despite every other effort their only option is to move to a bank with an online banking system that actually gives you full reporting and analytics, or reporting at least.  But if anyone from Barclays does read this and want my feedback then just let me know.

Extending My Wii

I want to be able to use my Wii from different rooms.  Getting the video signal piped to different rooms is no problem, but what about the controller?  Can it work in a different room?  could we even play from different rooms with multiple bars?

There’s a few articles on how to extend the length of the bar cable, but I haven’t found anyone who has successfully split bar inputs?  I’ll update when I’ve succeeded.

TrainTracker – its getting there

This is a good idea that could be great.  TrainTracker gets realtime train running times from the live departure boards data feed so you can get accurate info on the train you are running for.

Why isn’t it great? Well, a simple update to being able to use the station short codes via the keypad would be great.  Right now it uses voice recognition, you know the sort of thing ‘Did you say Machester’ right after you actually said London.  Couple this with standing in a loud busy place where you can hardly hear then you see the problem,  its worst just where you need it most.

However, the idea and sentiment is great. Anyway, all stations have three letter codes like airports, so for instance CHX is London Charing Cross so I should be able to call Train Tracker and type in 249 (CHX).  Hopefully they will add this real soon as its a no-brainer.

0871 200 49 50

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/info_on_the_move/traintracker.html

VS2008 SP1

MS released a beta of Service pack 1 for VS2008 which has lots of fixes and updates.  I’d like to pick out a few that I really think are worthwhile;

• Much Improved performance for web design
• Firefox support for clickonce (maybe we can go back to using it now)
• Lightweight .NET Framework (Client Profile Setup Package)

There are loads of other enhancements, but its obviously far from finished so not really ready for deployment, but looks very promising, good work VS2008 Team!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc533447.aspx

Script#

Here’s a really brilliant idea, well executed. Script# allows dev’s to write C# code and then translates the code to cross browser compatible javascript.  Its compatible with MSBuild and has intellisense support (cool!).

If you are a dev working with the web (especially AJAX), drop what you are doing and read about it here … http://projects.nikhilk.net/ScriptSharp/Default.aspx

OpenOffice 3.0, caught in a timewarp, or retro chic ?

As any of those who know me will attest, I’m a UI design freak.  I may not be able to draw properly but I know what looks good and works well.  So,  the following tagline about the OpenOffice 3.0 beta immediately caught my eye.

‘New, Fresh-Looking Icons’ – OpenOffice.org 3.0 got a new set of fresh-looking icons which makes OpenOffice.org a lot more fun to work with.

So, flush with anticipation to see what their 2008 take would be on an Office UI compared to the Ribbon from Microsoft I eagerly went straight to that link preparing to be wowed.

WOW, was the right word.  Surely these are the icons that shipped with Windows 3.11 somewhere back in the early 90′s? 

Not sure if they are really clever and this is retro chic to combat the Ribbon, or maybe that’s how they really think a modern UI should look…. as to being fun to work with, I can imagine it wil be a game.

HTC Diamond sparkles …

So here is the much expected HTC Diamond.  Very nice, but lacking a keyboard.  Its a real shame too because there’s space to have a front facing keyboard which running smartphone OS would have made a stunning device.

I’m very interested in the fact that it has accelerated graphics with a GPU which is normally a no-no for battery performance (only  900mAh!) but they are quoting 100 hours usage with push email working which is very good.

Other stand out features I noticed are 4GB storage and a 3.2MP camera which support video calling (HSDPA 7.3mbps and HSUPA). It also has an accelerometer like the iPhone so it can detect changes in position to change display to landscape and back (or maybe as an ad-hoc Wii controller).  The big change is the UI which HTC seem to want to make their own, in the form of TouchFlow 3D.  Its a nice phone, but evolutionary rather than revolutionary. 

… and please make devices with front facing keyboards!

Wii Fit!

The Wii Fit is actually brilliant.  Not just the device itself but the activities that come with it, many of which do not use the step.  My favourite is free jogging where you put the controller in your pocket then just run on the spot and start running around the island. But I already know the island so I’m hoping they will come up with new scenery packs.

Put simply, Wii Fit Rocks!

The .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 installation failure

This is one of those, ‘Why couldn’t they get it right’ issues where the Service Pack for .NET Framework fails to install and us ISVs are left picking up the pieces.  Microsoft have released a KB article 951950 ( http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-gb;951950   ) and a tool, the snappily named ’Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Registration Correction Tool’ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0BA6038C-061E-4B4A-9BE9-96A323701260

This has been a bug bear of mine for ages now, why there is no version control in .NET Framework.  Lets not forget this was a technology designed to alleviate DLL version hell.  But you try and find out what versions, sp’s and hotfixes are installed and you will be left wondering.

Somehow MS need to get a grip of this situation and have some sort of common and comprehensive way of querying whats installed on a target machine, its ISV hell.  This is further compounded by the fact that the framework doesn’t gracefully handle version deficiencies.  If a call you make from your app is missing in the version of the Framework the user has installed it doesn’t ask nicely if you would like the latest version downloaded and installed it just throws an exception that your app has to handle.  Very unfriendly and inconvenient for the ISV and user.

The whole .NET Framework deployment scenario needs looking at again from a deployment perspective and prevent us ISV’s having to code around the deficiencies it was supposed to cure.

Citylink – ‘you’ve been carded’ (carding by stealth)

Your reputation in a box? We guarantee it.  Every Time!

So goes the motto of CityLink, well I’ve had more of this than I can take recently.  Poor delivery service used to be the domain of parcelfarce, but CityLink (no funny name change) have recently snatched that prize.  The problem seems to be that CityLink have got quite popular and don’t have enough drivers or vans to meet demand.  This means that the drivers are forced to meet their quotas by ‘carding’ (v).  This is the practice of pretending to have made an attempt to deliver and finding no-one home leaving a courtesy card saying they had called.

Now this practice is abused where the delivery is not even attempted but rather just ‘carded’.  This allows the driver to get home on time and not have to do all of his deliveries. This has happened 3 times to me in the last month.  Each time it appears that it has been a temporary driver who has carded me.  The regular driver even asked me last week if the stuff he was redelivering had been ghost ‘carded’.

Actually CityLink are pretty good in normal circumstances,  they just can’t handle the load.  Today I was waiting for my urgent delivery and was ‘carded’ at 09:10 strange because thats exactly when DHL were here.  Clearly none of us saw the invisible CityLink van turn up.  Obviously he must have passed through a trans dimensional shift in the time continuum which is at the end of my drive and entered a parallel universe.

Ironically Ebuyer had upgraded me to a pre-12 delivery (without my knowledge) which further compounded the problem.  The more tight the deadline, the more likely you will be ‘carded’.  I spoke to the customer support staff who were very helpfull and they have offered to redeliver tomorrow pre-10am … warning Will Robinson, warning! Unfortunately I’m even more likely to get carded. When I enquired why he couldn’t do it today on the pickup phase I was shamefully told that he was ‘too busy, and wouldn’t even finish the remaining deliveries he had to do”… whoops, so no wonder I was carded.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow …

Why is IT technology so troublesome?

Today is another really good example of why 25% of my time is (and has always been) wasted fixing IT problems that I shouldn’t have to.  I just got an HP C7280 All In One Printer (£199 from PCWorld) which is a wireless printer/scanner/copier/Fax.

So first I unpacked it, and uncharacteristically, read the Start Here guide.  Except when I got to point 3 it diverged from reality.  Supposedly I could choose my language from the menu on the built-in display.  What the display actually said was 12345.  So what do i do now, I pressed 1,2,3,4,5 but to no avail.  I turned the printer on and off a few times.  Stubbornly the message never changed.  I checked the documents for any mention of this problem but no luck.

Finally, after some searching through the HP support site I found this solution;

1. Pull the power cable out whilst the printer is on
2. Next, with the cable disconnected, hold the power button down for 10 seconds
3. Next, hold down # and 6 keys together and keep them held down whilst powering on and don’t release until it eventually gets to the menu talked about in the guide to select your language.

Basically that little proceedure resets the printer back to defualt setting. But, I shouldn’t have to do that!  Its brand new, it should work out of the box.  A non-IT literate person would have returned the printer as faulty.

At least its working now….

Windows 2008 Server Resource Kit

I received my Windows 2008 Server Resource kit today, but it was somewhat more ‘compact’ that I was led to believe.  The mockups showed a box about 2 foot long and purporting to have 6600+ pages in 6 books, but in reality it was a slimmer 8 inches (20cm) and had about 4000 pages in 6 books.  Apparently the rest of the pages are there on the CDROM, but they never made it to print.  This is quite disappointing for a publication costing $249.  A quick skim through the volumes reveals a wide range of gaps in the content I would have expected, certainly not up to the standard of the Windows 2000 Resource kit.  So be warned!

It contains

• IIS 7 ResKit (779 pages)
• Windows Admin ResKit (710 pages)
• PowerShell Scripting Guide (693 pages)
• Active Directory ResKit (827 pages)
• NAP Guide (816 pages)
• Security ResKit (476 pages)
• CDROM

How come road cars aren’t this strong?

Look at whats left of LH’s McLaren after a 200mph collision in Bahrain.  But he walked away.  Surely roadcars should have at least optional full safety harnesses ?

Windows 7 before April 2009?

I don’t think so! 

BillG made reference to a newer version this week at the IADB’s annual meeting. When asked about a new version of Windows he said “That’ll be sometime in the next year or so that we’ll have a new version.” He added: “I’m super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways.”

I don’t think this is really a new version of Windows, more likely a Vista SP2 release that has a marketing programme associated with it or maybe he meant a beta would start in a year.  I can’t see anyway it will not be Vista based.  The pain of upgrading all our development from XP to Vista took a good 3 years from the first beta to release.  There isnt enough time to develop, test and release a completely refreshed OS in that time, especially one with new features to be super excited about.  There has been much talk of MinWin or components for Windows 7, again this is unlikely in any significant way as so much of the current OS is interlinked and cross dependent.

The W7M1 builds floating about now are just Vista with minor changes so far.  Things would need to be a lot more advanced to have a release in a year.

But, could there be a secret project?  I have long suggested to people in MS that a new parallel OS project should be started based on VM technology.  This would be a highly secure mini-loader which could then load guest Windows OS partitions.  These guest partitions could run specific applications or a new desktop.  This would allow backward compatibility whilst allowing new desktop UI experience to be available.  This would ease the migration to new types of application which are deployed separately to the UI experience.  This is all possible because of Multicore and Hyper-V technology which permits this kind of segmentation.  This will allow Microsoft to break free of the past architecture whilst retaining compatibility.