Tag: #software

Life with an iMac

So I had the DOA Superdrive replaced. It was as easy as dropping it off Monday afternoon at User Friendly, the local Apple service center and then picking it up on my way home on Tuesday. Don’t let their website fool you, these guys are a full blown Apple retailer that really knows their stuff. I spent about an hour in there on Tuesday talking shop. I know that we are getting an official Apple Store in the Jackson, MS area, but I think I will continue to give the guys at User Friendly my business. There’s a lot to be said about a friendly atmosphere of knowledgeable people that don’t pressure you into purchases you may not want or need.

Anyway, I have since been completely re-ripping my CD collection. I wanted to have a clean and organized digital music collection without all of the fluff and chaos that has existed in my old folder. After all, I have not done a thing to straighten up the old library that I have been migrating from computer to computer over the last five or six years. It is an unholy mess and it needs to be buried. I am happy to report that the new Superdrive is working wonderfully.

As for the user interface, that is taking a little getting used to. Having no “maximize” button is definitely causing a shift in my thinking…much more so than having the windows controls (close and minimize) on the upper left corner. I am also having to remember that there really is not an equivalent to the Windows Start menu. The Dock, however has made that fairly easy since I have more than enough room for my commonly used programs.

I do like how the programs are installed as “packages” in a folder on the drive. If you want to uninstall a program, just delete the package. Simple. See, a package is like a cross between a zip file and an executable (EXE) file. Everything for that program is stored inside the package and you can browse it like one might do a zip file. But to run the program, you just double-click the package and it runs like an EXE in Windows would. This modular approach prevents the problem in Windows of remnant files and setting being left after a program is removed from the system thus avoiding the inevitable slow down of the computer over time.

I believe I mentioned that my employer is an almost purely Microsoft shop (with the exception of that one Linux system running for spam filtering). That is not a problem either. OS X can easily be configured to use a VPN connection provided by a Windows Server system without any additional software. Then with a quick download of the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client for Mac, controlling the work PC is as easy as three mouse clicks.

Did I mention that I am using this system over my wireless connection even though I am only 8-10 inches from my router? I really hated the knot of cables that used to weigh down my desk. I am also able to connect the iMac to my AT&T Tilt over bluetooth for sharing photos and music between the two systems. It is not quite as easy as using WMDC on my Vista laptop, but that is to be expected. I really would not expect an iPhone to connect and share services with a Vista computer as easily as it would with a Mac.

I have discovered that most of the software I actually use like FullTiltPoker, The GIMP, OpenOffice and Firefox all have OS X versions that function just like their Windows counterparts. That was the only real worry I had when I decided to take the plunge into the world of Mac…learning new applications. It was an unfounded worry because so much software is written for both platforms and use very similar interfaces between platforms. Open Computing is very nearly upon us. By that I mean that regardless of the OS you finally choose, you will have the same application suites available to perform the tasks at hand. All we need now is some sort of ActiveX VM for Mac and Linux so all those sites work the same cross-platform and Open Computing may very well become a reality. And isn’t choice the ultimate goal?

AT&T Tilt Software – Revisited

In my previous post, I did a very high level overview of what software changes I made to my phone for better usability and performance. This time, we’re going to talk ROMs. The Tilt/Kaiser/Vario III/TyTN II/etc is a versatile piece of equipment. However, I have yet to find an owner that didn’t have a few pet peeves for things that were on there or things that were left out. Now many of these gripes can be addressed with just installing the programs we want. Removing provider bloatware is another matter. It is usually cooked into the ROM itself and does not show in the Remove Programs app. Enter XDA-Developers and the Kaiser ROM kitchen.

This little bundle of joy allows one to take a dumped ROM and customize it. You can then flash the rebuilt (cooked) ROM to the phone and enjoy all the new toys. Don’t have the knowledge/time/patience/desire to build your own? No problem. The guys at XDA are fanatical about tweaking and performance and have already built lots of ROMs to suit most everyone’s needs and desires. Personally, I like the ROMs cooked by Dutty. He produces them quickly and they almost always push a new boundary making the experience just that much better. I’ve gone through about four different Dutty ROMs and all have left me impressed.

I am currently using his DualTouch v2 Fixed Full ROM. This one incorporates elements included in HTC’s DualTouch phone such as TouchFlow and the Cube. Performance on this ROM is worlds beyond what I had with the stock AT&T build. Just make sure that if you flash the ROM, that you also flash the Radio ROM. These are separate steps and both must be done on an AT&T Tilt if you use a non-AT&T ROM. Why? The Radio ROM handles the peripheral hardware like the cellular radio, camera, and speaker. If you use a non-AT&T Rom with the AT&T Radio, you will lose the speaker and a have weird issues out of the phone. Don’t worry, the flashing of the radio is just as easy as flashing the ROM and faster. It won’t wipe out any settings, either.

So, how do you do it?

  1. Download and install HardSPL. This will allow you to flash non-factory ROMs to your device. Note: some AT&T users report a solid white screen when installing, there is a thread about it here. BE SURE TO FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS IN THE FIRST POST OF THESE THREADS.
  2. Pick the ROM of your choice and download it to your PC. Unzip it and run the .EXE file. Follow the directions on the screen. (There is no master list of ROMs, you just have to peruse the threads.)
  3. Most of the ROM chefs advise doing a hard reset on your device after the flash. This prevents odd issues. So do this after the ROM is flashed and the device reboots and finishes basic setup.
  4. If you have the AT&T Tilt and used a non-AT&T ROM, you need to install the Tilt Keyboard Fix. Just copy this to the phone and run it. Otherwise, some symbols on the keyboard will be incorrect.
  5. Also, If you run a Tilt, now is the time to flash the Radio. Just download the version of your choice (most suggest either .17 or .32 for best overall performance) and run the .EXE. Failure to do so will result in loss of audio and possible dropped calls and system instability.
  6. Load any CAB files and change any necessary system settings (like configuring email and marrying BlueTooth devices) and enjoy.

Beware, however, that flashing becomes addictive. You quite probably will end up changing the ROM often to see what new gadgets there are and what kind of performance the latest combination of tweaks provides. Don’t believe me? In the time it took me to write this article, I changed to Dutty’s DualTouch v3 test version to see what the hype was about. And yes, it looks like the performance increase is huge.

Windows Vista SP1 RC part 2

After a couple of days with SP1, I have to say I am really disappointed. I haven’t noticed any difference in the speed of unzipping files nor in copying large files across a network. These were my two biggest gripes with Microsoft’s flagship OS. I have not noticed any real difference in boot speeds nor in general responsiveness of the OS. On top of that, it appears that memory usage is a bit higher. Way to go Redmond!

Under Windows XP, I routinely advised people that they should just use the Compressed Folder feature for zip/unzip operations because it was pretty snappy and didn’t involve installing/updating 3rd party software. After all, how many everyday home users have a need to do more than unzip a random file or zip up a couple of files to email to a friend? My guess would be very few. Unless you have a couple of extra hours on hand each day, however, I wouldn’t suggest using Vista’s built in Compressed Folder functions. Go get 7-Zip or something equivalent if you want to get your work done before the end of the century.

Large file copies over the network seem to be just as slow. Perhaps Microsoft’s goal was to allow everyone more time to make phone calls and do manual paperwork while using Vista. I can’t think of anything else they could mean when they talk about how efficient Vista is when compared to XP. That said, I do have to admit that many of the changes made in Vista from XP are great. I love the redesigned Start Menu. I like the breadcrumb style address bar in Explorer windows. I really like the changes made to the wizards for network connections. And yes, annoying though it may be, I like UAC. But then I’m also a long-time Linux user…so I’ve got a little experience with having to use elevated privileges on a per process basis. It’s about time that the MS boys stuck it in there. (It could be better implemented, but I’m happy it is implemented at all.)

There are still a great many things I need to dig into on the SP1 RC. It looks like the Remote Desktop application is replaced and I’m not sure I care for what they’ve done. It reverted to the old style of not asking for credentials before attempting the connection and it appears that the /console switch no longer works. I’m not happy about that at all. I manage all my servers using RDP and I always connect to Console0…

So anyway, this seems to be a very lackluster Vista update on the surface. Perhaps when I dig a bit deeper into the changes I will find something worthwhile…but I’m not holding my breath. C’mon Microsoft…give us the fixes we want already…it isn’t like you can’t afford the investment.

Windows Vista SP1 RC

Well it looks like the boys at Redmond have finally gotten the Vista Service Pack into a publicly available Release Candidate (Thanks to Slashdot for the heads up). As with most of their OS releases from the past decade, version 1.0 has issues. Most notably from my perspective is the agonizing plodding of the system when trying to unzip files. I have noticed that the unzip problem seems to be directly related to whether there are folders inside the zip. “Are there folders inside the file?” and “Will this take about 5 minutes shy of FOREVER to extract?” have the same answer. With any luck, SP1 will do what they claim…fix the speed issue.

Of course there are lots of other additions and fixes included in the SP ranging from support for EFI to correcting some power consumption issues from hard disks not spinning down when they are supposed to. A detailed list of fixes is available from Microsoft right here. Simply scroll down and find the files “Notable_Changes_in_Windows_Vista_Service_Pack_1_Release_Candidate.doc” and “Overview_of_Windows_Vista_Service_Pack_1.doc”. These go into far greater detail than I want to in this post.

As I type this, I am downloading the RC to install on my system so I can test how well MS has addressed some glaring deficiencies in their flagship OS. Don’t get me wrong, I love a great many of the design changes in Vista. I just notice that there are things that XP handles a little better or at least with more polish. I don’t agree with the nay-sayers who claim that XP is superior, but I also disagree with MS that Vista is the ultimate OS achievement.

Besides, if you go back and look at reviews and online discussions back in 2001 when XP was released you would see a great many horrible things said about it when compared to Windows 2000. As a matter of fact, it sounds just like the reviews and discussions being heard about Vista vs. XP right now. Funny how history repeats itself. I figure that in a couple of years we will hear how Vista is the greatest Microsoft OS and they shouldn’t worry about releasing the next version because it’s pointless. And the world will go on a-spinning…

-more to come after I install and use Vista SP1 RC for a bit

AT&T Tilt Software

Well I’ve had my Tilt for a while now and I think I have pretty much gotten everything right where I want it. With that in mind, I figured I would write up a little post reviewing some of my software picks and settings tweaks to make it more user friendly. After all, the greatest technological device in the world is nothing more than a paperweight without the right user tools.

Let’s start with the “value added” (read “crapware”) software that AT&T loads these devices down with. Unless you actually plan on buying a slew of overpriced games or the TeleNav service, I would skip it. When you first turn on your Tilt, it will bring up a box saying that it is installing the AT&T customizations. Just do a soft reset on the device and none of that junk will be there when it boots back up. To do this, just poke the stylus into the reset hole on the bottom of the phone. That’s all there is to it. All of the goodness of Windows Mobile 6 and none of the crap.

Next, I made a little jaunt over to the XDA Developers website and hit the Kaiser forums. The first forum has a sticky post with a slew of cab files (programs) for the Tilt. I suggest that getting the HTC Home cab with the N2A patch is a must. First off, it gives you a large clock that is easily visible on your home screen. It also has a weather tab, customizable quick launch and contacts tabs, and a notification area for new emails, text messages, and missed calls. I advise the N2A patched version because it has a modified DLL for the weather tab allowing you to add custom cities since there are very few US options available by default.

If you compliment the HTC Home cab with the HTC Home Customizer (version 0.8b in the Hermes forums) then you will have an easy way to add cities to your weather database, change the look of the clock, and of course change most of the appearance related settings for the Home plugin without needing to hit the registry. It is a simple tool with a lot of power under the hood.

Some settings, however are just going to need a registry editor. The PHM Registry Editor is linked in the forums. There are a couple of others, but I find that PHM’s is very easy to use. The XDA forums will have information on any and all of the registry hacks you could need or want to tweak your Tilt.

Moving on, I also endorse the use of Windows Live Mobile. This tool allows you to add your Hotmail/Live account as an email account via IMAP and has the Live Search tool which will allow you to get directions. Yes, it will use your GPS for positioning and give you turn by turn while in map view. The best part, it’s free. That’s a far better deal than TeleNav if you want a system for your GPS that doesn’t require GBs of space. The downside is it only works when you have a data connection…but then so does TeleNav. The only alternative I can recommend if you need GPS directions when you have no signal is to go out and buy a product like TomTom.

Lastly on the programs side of things is another Microsoft offering. Microsoft Voice Command v1.6 has become my most used tool. At $40 it isn’t very expensive. This system lets you issue spoken commands to the phone without all of that tedious “training”. You can easily access any contact via name or have it dial a phone number that you dictate. Also among its features are media control, announcements of incoming messages and calls (and who they are from), and the ability to report device status. I find that I get irritated now if I actually have to touch my phone to do anything. I much prefer the ability to just hit my Bluetooth earbud button and issue a command while on the go.

That pretty much sums up the rundown of my software additions. I would suggest looking into the XDA forums for registry hacks for things like disabling the SMS Sent Notification which can become annoying rather quickly. And since your SIM contacts will get dropped into Outlook if you sync your phone with your PC (assuming you connect the phone to Exchange), you can get the hack to have Contacts not display SIM entries. That way you won’t see double. There are many more options out there and even some options for the more adventurous.

So this isn’t good enough? You want to use the standard HTC version of Windows Mobile? You don’t want any of the AT&T custom software anywhere on your system? XDA can help there, too. The Kaiser Upgrading forum is where the wizards have gone in and cooked custom ROMs for the Tilt/Kaiser. As time goes on, there will be more but they already have an impressive set of custom ROMs for just about anything a person could want. Just remember to read the threads carefully. You void your warranty when you use a non-AT&T ROM on a Tilt, though there are ways around that. Hence…read slowly, read thoroughly, and take notes before taking the plunge. I haven’t gone that far yet, but I’ve followed the threads of Tilt owners that have. Perhaps that will be a project for next year…

New Vista Patches

According to this article at arstechnica.com, Microsoft has finally released a couple of patches to address performance and compatibility issues. The biggest issues addressed by the performance patch in my opinion would be:

•When you copy or move a large file, the “estimated time remaining” takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
•After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.

As for the compatibility patch? Only one item jumps out at me (probably because I experience this all the time):

•The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.

These are listed as KB938979 and KB938194 on Microsoft’s website. With any luck, they will be included in Patch Tuesday’s release. I like Vista. I like it a lot. But it still has a way to go before it becomes the true successor to XP. There is simply no excuse for some things, like the amount of time it takes to unzip a file. I’ve tried several experiments to attempt to solve my performance problems with zips. They all had the same result. My Packard-Bell 486SX/25 unzipped files faster. So kudos to Microsoft for working on the issues and here’s hoping they get the rest of these performance lags fixed soon.

Into Ubuntu

Over the years I’ve run a number of Linux distros and I’ve watched them evolve. For the last couple of years, I’ve been purely Microsoft on my home computers. When that errant nvraid driver update killed Vista (and I still can’t find my install CD and license key), I decided it was time to see what has changed in the OSS landscape.

So after managing to get my data away from the RAIDed disks, I fired up the system with a freshly burned copy of Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). It proceeded to load a LiveCD version using Gnome as the GUI. The boot was pretty quick and the hardware detection worked wonderfully (with one exception, covered later in this article). I was presented with a plain desktop that had everything you would want to see for a basic home user: web browser, email reader, OpenOffice, and a way to browse files. Sure there is more than that, but these are the things that most people are going to be looking for right off the bat. Music players and games and video editors usually come in second to these staples.

The only icon on the desktop is one labeled Install. So I open it. Thus begins a simple 7-step wizard, most of which can be ignored unless you want to use a language other than English. There is nothing complex about the information asked for and the partition tool has a fully automatic option which I imagine most Joe Suburban users would pick. If you can click a radio button and type a user name and password, you can install this system.

After you’ve completed the wizard, you just sit back for about 15-20 minutes and click Finish. The software unloads itself, ejects the CD, then requests that you press Enter to reboot. That’s it. No compiling. No editing .config files. No choosing kernel options. You reboot into the fully functional Ubuntu system. From here you can either start using it as your everyday OS or you can jump into the Add/Remove option under Applications and install some new software. I would suggest at least adding the Restricted Use package, otherwise you’ll find some irritating deficiencies such as no MP3 playback. I understand the necessity for the separation and the reason it isn’t part of the base install…lawyers…but I would like to see future releases mention this a little better up front. I managed to find the fix pretty easily with the power of Google.

Of course, with any system there are bound to be some problems. Mine was the Creative X-fi Platinum sound card. This card is completely different from previous cards. In other words, the Linux sound systems (ALSA and OSS) cannot use the device. Creative has yet to offer any technical information to open-source developers so they can write drivers. They claim there will be a closed source driver out this year in beta for Linux, but the release has already been pushed back once so I won’t hold my breath. Fortunately, I have AC’97 audio built into the motherboard, so I just turned it on and voila…I have music.

Now, why would anyone want to get out of Windows and jump over to Ubuntu or another Linux distribution? That answer will vary from person to person. Me? I like a number of applications that would cost me hundreds, probably thousands, of dollars under Windows but cost nothing but the time to download and install under Linux. One of my personal favorites is Bluetooth OBEX support through the file manager. It’s nice to open the equivalent of My Computer and browse over to my RAZR to copy photos, ringtones, wallpapers back and forth with a simple drag-and-drop. Or how about using GTKPod to update my iPod since I can move files both ways? Granted, you lose the iTunes store ability…but I only bought one song and that was the result of a free song on a bottle cap from one of my Dews.

Software updates work much like Windows Automatic Updates. You get a notification in the panel equivalent of the System Tray (next to the clock). You click on it. You tell it to install the updates. Done. Yes, there is the occasional update that will ask for a reboot, such as kernel updates. But by and large, most updates will take place on the fly with no restart necessary. This is one of the joys of a modular system. If the module is updated, just reload the module into memory.

I have to admit that a large part of my decision to jump over to Linux for a while is Beryl/Compiz Fusion. I like eye candy, especially if some of it actually makes work easier. So I’ve been playing with Beryl and the Emerald theme manager and I have to say that the cube is fun even though I usually flip between desktops with the scroll wheel or keyboard shortcut. Regardless, I give kudos to the developers for putting some truly useful and time-saving modules into this package. I’d forgotten what a wonderful thing it is to have multiple desktops when you’re used to running 8-15 apps at a time.

So far, I have nothing but praise for what the people over at Ubuntu have done for the OSS community. With just a little more polish in spots like driver support (from anal-retentive hardware manufacturers), I would say that Linux has finally gotten ready to enter the true desktop market for the masses. Yes, I know…a lot of geeks have been running Linux as a desktop for years…but I’m referring to Joe Suburban and his grandmother. Until there is acceptance from the not-tech-savvy, Linux will never be a player in the home desktop area.

Windows Home Server RTM

According to Qblogger over at the official Windows Home Server Blog, the code has been finalized and released to manufacturing. I tested the software on and off throughout the beta and it’s an overall well designed product. I’ve seen a few people complaining about it lacking certain features, but they seem to forget what the purpose of this device is. This is a media sharing and desktop system backup solution. It’s a server for suburbian families that have lots of music and photos they want the kids to be able to get to easily. It’s a desktop backup system that is simple to use so any important information on any system in the home is protected from hardware/software failure.

This product is not a corporate or professional level server. It isn’t meant to run Exchange or SQL or host your blog. If you want these things, go buy Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server or build a Linux box. However, if what you’re looking for is a system to backup the important files on your home computers and share your media from a central, always-on location … then this is a good choice. It integrates almost seamlessly with XP and Vista (at least from my experience) and does a good job at the tasks it was designed for. As a matter of fact, the only problem I had was that I didn’t setup my main Vista system to backup before I toasted it with an errant RAID driver upgrade. (My main system has about 200GB more storage than the box I used for the Home Server.) Oh well, live and learn.