Sometimes technical, sometimes not, never a kitty

My coworker Bob has a Treo 650, which has a 320 x 320 screen.  The Treo 700w has a 240 x 240 screen.  When we compared them side-by-side, images were markedly better on the 650 thanon the 700.  In some cases, the images were pretty close.  However, in images that contained wording (like on the front page of MSN), the words were crisp and readable on the 650, and unreadable blobs of white on my 700w.  Not even a comparison--his 650 won hands down.

However, the 700w supports Verizon's EV-DO network, and the 650 doesn't.  My 700w smoked his 650 when downloading web content.  Not even close.  My connection speed was clocked at 445 kbps in a bandwidth test.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the Treo 700w (left) and the Treo 650 (right) viewing the same image on the MSN homepage.  You’ll see the words are clearly readable on the 650, but almost unintelligable on the 700w.  Click the image for a larger view.

Now playing: Sugarland - Something More

I see this a lot, and it's easier than you might think:

1. Open the e-mail, and click File >> Save.
2. In the "File Name", enter the URL to the document library, and click Save.
3. A view of the document library will open in the folder list window.  Confirm the file name (which will be the e-mail subject), change it if you need to, and click Save again.
4. Your e-mail message is now saved in the document library!

Tip #1: You can get the URL of the document library by navigating to it, and copying everything up to the end of the library name.  For example, you'd use http://MyPortal/sites/TestSite/Document%20Library/.

Tip #2: If you need to save a lot of e-mails in the same document library, create a Network Place for the document library.  Open My Network Places and use the wizard to create a new network place for this library, using the URL as shown in Tip #1.  Then, you can choose this library by browsing My Network Places.

Wifey has just become a gadget widow (again).  I couldn't wait to get mine set up, but once she saw how much these things were going for on eBay, she thinks she may make a few bucks and buy another one later.

Other things I like so far:

• The OK button, which ‘clicks’ the icon in the upper right corner (either Close or OK, usually)
• The start menu button
• Broadband speed Internet.  Sweet!

• The keyboard is surprisingly easy to use—the buttons are slightly domed, and very easy to hit squarely.  Hy hands are kind of large, and the Treo is kind of not, and my hand started to cramp when typing a long e-mail. 

One of the toughest challenges going to be finding replacements for the software I liked on my Axim.  Handango has a lot of software available already for Windows Mobile 5, but some of my favorites haven’t been released yet.  Fortunately, my password keeper (FlexWallet) is available for Windows Mobile 5.0, and that was a major concern.  Unfortunately, Pocket Breeze (a Today screen plug-in) hasn’t been ported yet.

Something I totally hate:

• There’s no colon on the keyboard.  WTF?  That’s kind of useful when typing in URLs into some programs.  It’s the first choice in the Alt keys, so it’s not a total loss.  But still…

A few things I’ll miss:

• Monet backgrounds on the Today screen
• Pocket Breeze
• Program Switcher, because I could close programs without navigating a menu
• ADB Weather
• Pocket RSS
• Jawbreaker (addictive game)

I’m trying to get DopplerMobile to work as my RSS reader, but it keeps crashing.

Here is the Treo 700w compared to my old Axim X5.  The screen isn’t scratched—thats one of those scrren protectors that I didn’t do a great job of applying.

The Treo 700w is small in my hands.  My hand started cramping when using the little keyboard in a long e-mail.  My Axim’s thumboard was about 1/3 again as wide, and a little more comfortable to use.

 <update 2006–01–13>

The Treo ships with a game called Bubble Breaker, which is the same as Jawbreaker.  And I can get my weather information on demand with MSN Mobile or Mobile Yahoo, so I don’tneed a desktop module for that. Still looking for a good RSS reader and blogging app.

Now playing: Weezer - Beverly Hills

This is a fancy bookmark for myself—nothing exciting here.

Get Ready to Become a Small Business Specialist

Gain new skills working with small businesses and become a Small Business Specialist. You can take free courses that help you meet the needs of small businesses. Begin qualifying as a Small Business Specialist by completing a sales and marketing assessment.

Now playing: Bowling for Soup - 5 O'Clock World

If you're impatient, Shel and Scoble's book Naked Conversations is now available as an e-book.  I'm not sure why Amazon says that Acrobat Reader isn't available for Pocket PC devices, because I've had a reader on my Axim for a while now--the e-book may require a new version, or features that aren't supported by the mobile versions.  You can find the mobile Acrobat Reader download page at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_mobile.html#pocketPC.

If you'd rather wait for the printed version, you can find the hardcover version here.

Now playing: George Strait - Living and Living Well

This is a question I see very often, and you can set the paper orientation in code-behind as such:

ReportDocument.PrintOptions.PaperOrientation = CrystalDecisions.[Shared].PaperOrientation.Landscape

Crystal Reports .NET Programming
If you're new to Crystal Reports, or just to CR .NET, this is the book you need. Part how-to, part programming reference, lots of simple examples in both C# and VB.NET.

Now playing: Rent - Out Tonight

Teun Dynstee released his Gantt Chart Web Part today:

The part allows you to specify a list and view to render. You select the fields from the view that will indicate the start and end date of an item. The third required field is the title field. Because the part works with view fields, you can also use calculated fields to specify the start date, end date or title of the item.

Now playing: Dierks Bentley - Lot of Leavin' Left to Do

Bob Mixon has released a beta of his Quick Launch Web Part:

This Web Part can be used to replace the hard coded HTML in a Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) Site. The first advantage to this Web Part is simply being aware of the current users security permissions. Meaning, if a user does not have the permissions to view the items in a document library or list, even if it is marked to be displayed on the Quick Launch bar, it will not be displayed.

There are many additional features currently present in this Web Part, which include:

1. The ability to turn any set of lists on or off. So if you chose to not display Surveys, simply turn it off!
2. The ability to display separation lines below the grouping headers.
3. And, the best of all features, the ability to dynamically add any items to the quick launch bar through a standard SharePoint list.

Now playing: M - Popmuzik

From the CR .NET Newsgroup:

Due to the popularity of my CR.NET Programming book being posted online for
free prior to its publication, I'm doing the same with my new book. You can
read chapters from "Crystal Reports XI Encyclopedia" online for free. I'm
posting chapters as I finish them and I currently have four chapters posted.
I'll post the next four after I review them for errors. If you find the
chapters helpful, please link to them so that others may read them.

You can find the chapters listed on the home page of my website:
www.CrystalReportsBook.com


Enjoy!

Brian Bischof

Now playing: Chic - Le Freak

Want one, too?  Become a benefactor: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Home/tabid/894/Default.aspx.

The logo is actually grey (matches my eyes), it just looks blue-ish with the flash.

Now playing: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center - 3. Allegro Assai (Brandenburg Concerto #2 In F, BWV 1047)

I would claim that the image says it all, but I'm not quite sure what it's saying...

Now playing: Southern Culture On The Skids - Galley Slave

Business blogging is exploding this year, but content ideas are always in short supply.  Small businesses can benefit from blogging, but ideas may be even more difficult to come by, especially in small towns.  There was a good article this week from Marketing Profs with "Five Surefire Content Ideas (When Your Blog Is Drawing Blanks)" (http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/kranz9.asp).  Here's the intro:

This is free content, so definately check it out when you get a minute, and keep working on the content for your blog!  For more insight into business blogging, I do recommend reading Naked Conversations.  I was fortunate enough to be a galley reviewer, and you can read my review at http://www.rjdudley.com/blog/Review+Of+Naked+Conversations.aspx.

If you're interested in adding a blog to your website, drop me a line through the contacts page and I'll be glad to help you get started.

TiE PittsburghEvent:

Sales & Marketing Network: The Blog
Blogging and podcasting are revolutionizing the way companies interact and communicate with customers, suppliers, partners and employees. Learn how these new tools are impacting marketing and branding efforts as you hear from a panel of regional and national experts, including Microsoft's Robert Scoble, Pepper Hamilton's Jim Singer, Schwartz Communications' John Moran, Pittsburgh Bloggers co-founder Mike Woycheck and moderator John Soat, Producer of InformationWeek's The News Show. Note: Pre-registration is required. Please bring valid photo identification for security purposes.
Date: Thursday, January 19
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Venue: One Mellon Center, Third Floor Conference Room
Cost: $25 for Council and TiE Pittsburgh members, $35 for non-members
RSVP: Online, Council Events or 412.918.4229

Scoble first announced this a while ago, but the Tech Council’s newsletter just came out today.  Blogfest 5 will happen the night before, and Scoble’s an scheduled guest.  Nothing’s guaranteed with weather at this time of year, but I look forward to the event!

Now playing: Electric Light Orchestra - Do Ya

One great advantage electronic media have over printed media is quick and easy corrections.  Someone may capture screenshots or save printouts, but you don’t have to send your delivery guys all over a city to retract a headline.  The PG was able to correct on their website in short order, but the printed copies had already flooded the streets.

This is a serious mea culpa:

via Digg

The Software for Starving Students CD enhances the Windows and Mac desktop computing experiences by providing an easy way to install free, high-quality software titles via a user-friendly interface. It includes popular open source programs like Firefox and OpenOffice, intended to help students learn about and benefit from open source and free software programs. The SSS team put all the most commonly used free programs onto one CD to make it easier for students to install useful software (including fully-featured office suites, 3D graphic editors and much more) for free. To preview the new SSS interface, check out some screenshots of the latest release.

Full info at http://mirror.softwarefor.org/index.html.

via Digg

O'Reilly Media's latest book, Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, written by Jim Van Meggelen, Jared Smith, and Leif Madsen is the most complete book on the Asterisk PBX system to date. The new book, announced at Astricon 2005 covers many of the new features of Asterisk 1.2. In the spirit of open source, O'Reilly has licensed the book under the creative commons license making it free to download and distribute. If you are looking for the ultimate Asterisk book, you can now download the entire book as a PDF file!

Find it at http://voipspeak.net/index.php?/content/view/33/2/.

Good advertising isn’t dead, there’s just so much bad advertising that it seems to be.  Below is a photo of a recent full-page Coke ad that caught my attention.

Things I liked:

• Tasting Coke vs. Coke is a little dig at the Pepsi Challenge of yore.
• “Blindfolding mechanism”.  That’s a hilarious overdescription of a cut-out paper blindfold.  The “blindfolding mechanism” reminds me of the Joo Janta 2000s that came as part of Infocom’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game in the 80’s, so it has the cool retro feel to it also.
• The bottom of the coupon is right on the fold in the newspaper, for easy removal.

Coke is preaching to the choir here, since I prefer Coke in general. I’ve had Coke Zero (and I can tell the difference), but I’m redeeming the coupon anyway.

Now playing: Pearl Jam - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

I was recently paid by a client, so I took the opportunity to add a little hardware to my home network:

 
Netgear SC101 Storage Central

My home network consists of two laptops (mine and Wifey’s, via w-fi), and my desktop (wired to the base station).  I needed to be able to access the same files from my laptop and my desktop.  These include my iTunes library, and source code stored in my VSS repository.  Wifey needed to back up iTunes, and I needed to make sure she can access the thousands of images from the flower shop’s weddings and funeral work.  Netgear’s “toaster” seemed like it would fit the bill, so I ordered it and a pair of Maxtor 200 GB IDE hard drives.  Total cost was under $400, significantly less than for a full file server.  One of the reasons this is so much cheaper than a full file server is that this is more of a networkable hard drive, and this particular model is meant for the home network.  Technically, this device is a SAN, not NAS (http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101547.asp).  Similar products on the market are Iomega’s StorCenter hard drives or the lower-end Snap Servers.  One advantage this device has over the other competitors is that you can determine how much storage you have.  You have to buy the drives separately, but you can start with one and add another one later.  You can also upgrade the drives for more storage down the road.

Setup was very easy—I literally opened the side of the SC101, dropped in the two drives and connected the power and ribbon cables to each.  The side needed a little more force to get back on than I wanted to use, and the lock is spring loaded, so I had to use both hands, one to keep the lock unlocked until the side was back in place, and the other to press the side into place.  It’s like they needed to leave a few mm more space than they did, and the side still doesn’t fit back perfectly.  I then attached the network cable and plugged the unit in, and it started its self configuration.  You do need to have your network running with DHCP, which is the default for most home networking gear.  If you haven’t fiddled with the DHCP settings, you’re probably good to go.

Next step was to install the software, which you must use in order to make this work.  Installation was quick, and it even prompts you to check for an update first.  Good thing, as there was a minor version upgrade since my unit shipped.  Once the software is installed, your first task is to configure the drives, and I was pleasantly surprised as to how the drives can be configured.  During configuration, you’re prompted to check for a firmware upgrade, and this too had a minor version upgrade.  The firmware upgrade was the only glitch in installation—the installer program crashed after the update finished, and I couldn’t reconnect to the device with the client software until I power cycled it.  After the power cycle, I could configure the drives, and everything progressed normally.

I was most interested in having my drives mirrored for data protection reasons (http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101543.asp), but you do have some options in how you divide the physical drives into logical drives.  You can define the physical storage media into a number of logical drives, and each drive can be mirrored or not.  I could have two drives, each of 190 GB (representing the two physical volumes), or one 150 GB mirrored and two 40 GB non-mirrored (one on each physical volume).  I ended up with a 150 GB and a 40 GB drive, each mirrored.  Total time was maybe 20 minutes from when I started unpacking to finishing configuration.

In the Amazon reviews, you’ll see people complain about the speed of the device.  Part of this may have to do with the network speed, part may have to do with the speed of the physical drives (try to buy faster ones if you can), and part may have to do with the size of the logical drives.  I use a Microsoft MN-500 base station running at 100 Mbps (the speed of most corporate networks), and it took 2–3 minutes to copy 1300+ files (894 MB) from my desktop to the SC101.  You will probably get better performance by partitioning into smaller logical volumes, and by using a wired connection (the laptops connect at 10 Mbps via wi-fi, but newer wi-fi networks can connect at 54 Mbps).  On the larger volume, it does seem to take a few moments longer to load folder and file listings than on the smaller volume, so I would suggest several smaller logical drives, rather than one monster drive.

There are a couple considerations/downsides.  One thing you definitely need to make sure of is that if you’re using a wi-fi home network, you should definitely secure it with WEP or WPA, especially if you’ll be storing sensitive files on the SC101.  If you don’t, there’s a chance someone could access your files.  I suspect this device uses some form of embedded Linux, and it doesn’t support NTFS or Windows security—it just uses a simple password to access the volume (if you set one).  There does not seem to be any client for Macs or Linux machines, only Windows.  Since I bought two new drives off the shelf at Staples, I can’t say if older drives work or not (you can find a list of tested drives at http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101554.asp).  Also, Netgear’s website says that the device is compatible with Windows XP SP1, but the box and product insert both say that XP SP2 is the minimum system.  I had to upgrade Wifey’s laptop to SP2 in order to make the client software connect, and the software worked fine after the upgrade to SP2.  Also, SFS bypasses the Windows cache, so folder and file information must be reloaded each time you access your drives.  This absoluetly slows the interface down, and can get annoying if you have to keep accessing different folders in a short amount of time.

All in all, I’m very pleased after several days of use.  One cool feature is that the drives do not need to be defragged.  The controller software uses SAN File System (SFS), which is self-optimizing (to oversimplify).    Even though it’s not a Windows-based device, I haven’t noticed any incompatibilities at all, and the speed seems fine for normal file operations.  And, you can choose to share the logical drives, or keep them private.  This allows you to have a central family place for photos or whatever, and private drives for each family member.

<update 2006–01–01>

I noticed today that for some reason the Windows Installer is painfully slow when I have drives attached.  When using the Add/Remove programs, or when installing a new application, the installation takes forever.  To remedy this, I ran the drive wizard and detached the drive.  Then, installation was pretty normal.