I know that sounds harsh.  Especially so considering the large usage share that Google’s Android mobile OS enjoys.  Everyone knows someone with an Android phone.  In fact, chances are, at least a plurality of your friends are using the platform on their phones.  There are somewhere around, I don’t know, a gazillion or so different handsets on the market sporting Android.  There is no question it’s popular right now.  Even though I am partial to another platform (in fact, I proudly work for the company that produces my mobile OS of choice), I don’t begrudge the search giant their success in numbers right now.  And for my friends and colleagues who use such phones, I respect your choice.

Just take my personal information out of your contact list.  Please.

You see, the Android ecosystem is a mess, and it’s not hurting just the Android users.  As many have found out, when you buy and start using a smartphone, you’ve bought not just a device, but you’ve bought into an ecosystem of sorts.  A modern smartphone OS is a platform, just like Windows or MacOS, on which applications, utilities, even companion desktop software is built.  So while you purchased a Motorola, or a Samsung, or an HTC (or other) device, you also bought a platform.  And part of that platform is a huge collection of “apps”, or applications.  That’s one of the beautiful things about a smartphone (or any healthy technology platform); it will be able to do more tomorrow than you realized today it can do.  That’s the magic of software.

These applications are usually found today in marketplaces designed for the platform.  Each mobile OS has it’s own marketplace.  In the case of Apple’s iPhone, it’s called the Apple App Store.  For Microsoft’s Windows Phone, it’s called the Windows Phone Marketplace.  And for Android, it’s, well, a bit more confusing.  I’ll revisit this in a moment.

History (not for the easily bored, skip to ‘The Goodies’ below if you’re in a hurry)

A little background may be in order here.  There are several different approaches being taken today for smartphones by their creators, but history plays a role in getting to where we are, so I’ll cover that quickly.

The original battle as smartphones started to exist was between Microsoft’s original mobile platform and, first, Palm, and then Blackberry.  This played out through the early to middle part of the last decade.  Microsoft’s approach was to license the OS, which was highly flexible and complicated, to the OEM phone manufacturers, and let them do with it what they wanted to.  They could include certain modules, leave others out, create the hardware any way they wanted, use different sizes and shapes of screens, etc.  Also, back then, there was no official place to get apps; each OEM and each user were on their own.  RIM (the creator of the Blackberry) took a different approach.  They owned the hardware AND the software, as well as enterprise server products to manage these for companies.  They had the beginnings of a “walled garden” in which they owned everything from the device to the OS.  They released a line of phones that became quite popular with business users.  But, they had a problem.  They were competing with a platform (eventually to be known as Windows Mobile) that had devices proliferating like crazy.  Their walled garden was attractive to businesses (IT departments were in control), but inevitably, the single-vendor approach, while successful, didn’t garner the market-share that the many devices, one (sort of) platform approach could.  I remember seeing a statistic back in maybe 2004 or so (don’t quote me, I can’t find it right now) that more Windows Mobile based handsets were sold that year than the whole current, at that time, user base of RIM’s handsets.

Great plan, right?  Well, if you know anything about the history of smartphones, that open, free-for-all approach ended up backfiring on Microsoft, and they’ve lost almost all of that market share.  How?  Simple.  The ecosystem, while ultra-flexible, was a mess.  Meanwhile, RIMs end to end approach may have slowed “innovation” a bit, but it kept the platform from becoming a mess, and this paid of big with businesses.  RIM ended up surpassing Microsoft in the latter part of the decade based on this idea of control and order.

Then the iPhone was released, and everything changed.

Here was a brand new platform being released that was innovative, desirable, beautiful, and completely closed.  In fact, it was as closed as the so-called “dumb phones” are still today.  There were no third-party applications available at all; everything that was able to go on the phone was put there by Apple explicitly.  The inventors of the platform wanted to keep it pristine, so no one else could play in the sandbox.  So, it was the “walled garden” taken to the extreme.  And, as it turned out, a lot of people wanted one.  It was an amazing leap in both handheld technology and market acceptance of certain practices (especially when it came to carrier control).

Eventually, even Steve Jobs and Apple loosened their stance on third party apps when it was demanded by the market, but they took the unprecedented step of creating a marketplace (known as the app store) that was itself a walled garden, cultivated and pruned by Apple themselves so as to have the last word on keeping their new platform as pristine as they could.  So not only did Apple approach this market as they had (with varying market success) the PC market by controlling the platform from the hardware and software standpoint, they took the next step of controlling even the third party software by creating an approval process and payment processing all wrapped into one.  And there was no other official way to get apps onto on iPhone.  All roads to the iPhone went through Apple.  Oh…and they took a 30% cut (but also dealt with all the payments, bandwidth, etc., for developers).  And then, over 400,000 apps were released.

Everyone quickly began to realize that there was a lot of potential value in running an app store, or marketplace, for a growing or popular platform, so everyone had to have one.  In fact, all the major players in smartphone platforms clamored to duplicate what Apple had done with their app store.

Microsoft, with the Windows Phone Marketplace, also closed it up and only allows approved apps to be installed.  But Microsoft, like Google with Android, doesn’t make hardware, so the OS has to be licensed by OEMs or hardware companies (like Nokia, Samsung, HTC, etc.).  Microsoft, though, had learned from their mistakes the first time they were in this market (and dominated, actually).  This time they gave the hardware makers criteria around the hardware (called the Windows Phone Chassis Spec), kept control of much of the platform, what could be installed, and required all of the OS to be on the device.  This would help keep the platform uniform and from becoming a mess, as before.  More importantly for the sake of this article, it left Microsoft in charge of the software, the marketplace, the apps, etc.

Google, on the other hand, has an open source platform.  In other words, Android is free to the OEMs, they have the source code, and they can implement it any way they want.  Google is ONLY in control of their marketplace (the Android Market).  The difference is that there are many other marketplaces, and because nobody is in control of the software on the device…applications can be installed from anywhere.  Add to this the fact that Google doesn’t really police their market very well, and we have pretty much pandemonium going on.  Applications on Android have far, far more control over the OS than third party applications can possibly have on an iPhone or a Windows Phone.  It’s more like being an administrator on your Windows PC and installing an app; you tell it once that it has full control, and the app can pretty much do whatever it wants.  This is what led to the epidemic of viruses and malware on Windows at the turn of the century before Microsoft caught the religion.

The Goodies (Bringing it Home)

This is exactly the state of Android today.  Anyone can create a marketplace.  A user can “side-load” any app they download from anywhere.  And apparently anyone can upload really scary stuff even into the official Android Marketplace.  Also, these applications have access to virtually everything on the phone or tablet, including contacts, email, etc.  Add to that the proliferation of Android into so many hands, most of whom are not technical and don’t fully understand the frightening underbelly of technology with it’s privacy and security issues, easy theft of identities, and even worse.  This malware is not just from some 13 year old in his parents’ basement anymore either; most of it is produced by very sophisticated information gathering illegal organizations and is sometimes even state sponsored (by countries such as China and Iran).

And on Android…it’s everywhere.  McAfee, a well-known anti-malware software company who runs a virus lab, says that Android (and only Android) is being widely affected by malware…and it’s on the rise.  In this report by McAfee researchers for Q3 2011, they noted that in the mobile space only Android has had any threats.  It reads, in part:

“Last quarter the Android mobile operating system (OS) became the most “popular” platform for new malware. This quarter Android became the exclusive platform for all new mobile malware.”

And they noted that the amount of Android malware this quarter almost doubled from the previous quarter, and more than quadrupled since Q3 of last year, which was 2010’s most attacked quarter.  Again, note that according to McAfee, there were zero (that’s 0, zilch, nada) malware attacks on Apple’s iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone platforms during that same timeframe, and almost 100 NEW virus and malware programs for Android.

McAfee is not alone.  Other virus labs, including Kaspersky Labs, Juniper Networks, and Symantec all agree that Android malware is on the rise.  They each of released reports basically echoing the same sentiments.  Those reports are here, here, and here, respectively.

What’s more, as you can read In this MSNBC.com article, it is reported that Android customers just don’t care yet (There are some other good data points in that article as well, so if you’re interested, I encourage you to read it).  This has been my experience as well.  In fact, a friend of mine who has a small android device showed me a fish background app that she had installed many months ago.  When I told her that I had read that there was Android malware going around that did that, she thought for a minute, shrugged, and noted that it was cool anyway.  I instantly thought, “Well, can you take me out of your contacts, then?”  I can’t remember if I said it out loud or not, but while this was quite some time ago, it was the origin of this article.  Recently, though, it’s gotten so bad on Android, that I had to finally write this.  Oh, and all the anti-virus software that these companies are selling, it’s not going to fix this problem. In fact, unless you buy from a reputable company (including those linked to in this article), you’re likely installing more malware on your phone. Also, even the reputable companies offerings are very limited. Gizmodo did a report on this here.

So, you may be wondering what this malware does.  According to the sources I’ve linked to in article, it can and does do a lot of things.  Anything from simply sending texts to for fee numbers (so they can collect on those fees) to actually recording your phone calls.  It’s scary, scary, stuff, actually.  If you use an Android phone, I highly encourage you to click on these links and do a little reading.  You may not think you’re being affected now, but with Android malware increasing an alarming 472% since July (MSNBC.com article), you probably will.

Personally, I wouldn’t touch Android with a 10 foot, sterilized, pole in these current conditions, but what worries me, beyond having bad things happen to my friends who do use it, is that this can ruin my day, too.  Significant personal information of mine is being carried around in a lot of phones.  I‘m not the most popular guy in the world (or probably even on my block), but I would guess my address, phone numbers, email addresses, and maybe even my kids names, etc., are on at least dozens of Android handsets.  If any one of these gets infected, which is becoming more and more likely every day, that information could easily be shipped off to who-knows-where, to who-knows-whom, for them to do who-knows-what with it.  I can guarantee you, whoever it is, they’re not going to send me a gift basket with that data.  Well, I don’t want them to have it.

So that leads me to my premise.  I love you guys, but if you’re using Android, take my personal information off your phone.  Please.  Better yet…when it’s time for you to get a new phone, don’t chose one based on Android unless this mess is corrected by then (but I wouldn’t hold my breath).  Then we can text and stuff again.  I’ll be waiting.

I was thinking that I might give it a fully functioning trial so that if someone wanted to purchase it to throw me a couple bones, they could, but if not anyone can use it fully functional, forever, as a trial.  I decided to just make it free because many people would probably assume it was limited in some way, and I don’t want that.  It’s more important to me to get it out there for people to use than to make a little lunch money. 

Interestingly, the guys over at WP7 Lab highlighted E6B Gizmo on their site today.  They must have caught wind of the new pricing.  Here is there post:  http://wp7lab.com/news/e6b-gizmo/

Tailwinds, everyone.

It turns out my app, E6B Gizmo, is the 9,993rd application in the marketplace.  I was aiming for 10,000th which may get hit yet today, but missed it by 7 apps.  Ah, well; I was close.

In any case, if you have a Windows Phone 7, check out the app here.  If you just want to read more about it, check out the listing on WindowsPhoneAppList.com (a pretty cool website, actually).  In case anyone is wondering, it took only two days to get accepted and go through the certification process.  I submitted on Wednesday, and by Friday evening it was approved and in the marketplace.  Granted, it’s a pretty simple app to certify, but it was fairly painless and easy.

Now that it’s published, I’ve already got some things to do for the first update.  I’ve already found a small bug that needs to get squashed, so that’s first.  Then I want to add a trial mode so people can try it out before committing to buy it.  The next thing after that will likely be a feature that will automatically save the last entries on each screen.  It shouldn’t take too long to get these done…so hopefully there will be an update out shortly.

If you’re using the app…please give me feedback (either through the app itself or here directly) on what you would like to see next.

Windows Phone 7

As of today, in just a few months, there are already over 9,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace.  With my dev background, I’ve always known that I would write at least a few apps for the platform; even if to only give me some features I want.  As it turns out, I’ve started my first product for the phone.  In fact, I started on it about a month ago and a few minutes at a time, I’ve worked on it.  I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to it with all of my other activities and responsibilities, but luckily the dev tools and dev platform for WP7 (Visual Studio and Silverlight, respectively) are incredibly efficient and easy to work with, yet incredibly flexible.  I spent some time while I was travelling for business last week working on it in the evenings, and I’m happy to say that I’m almost ready to submit the app to the marketplace.

What is it?  Well, as expected by those who know me, I’m sure, it’s an aviation tool.  An E6B Computer to be exact.  I’m tentatively calling it E6B Gizmo.  For those who are not aware of what an E6B is, it is a manual (think slide rule, but round) computer for Pilots that’s been in wide use since the early days of manned flight and is still going strong today.  In fact, virtually every student pilot purchases one of these at the start of her training.  It allows a pilot to quickly figure out conversions, time until arrival, fuel burn, fuel needed, even crab angle needed to overcome the wind to maintain a desired course, and much, much more.  It easily converts knots to miles per hour, helps a pilot figure out what the density altitude is, and dozens of other useful things.  It is often used in flight planning, but sometimes is very useful in the cockpit, too, at altitude.  There are a bunch of electronic versions of the E6B, but these are single use devices that historically were fairly expensive.  Today, E6B usage is probably at an all time low because of the wealth of good flight planning software on the market to allow computers to do all the heavy lifting.  Sometimes, though, it is vary handy to have either a manual E6B or an electronic one to quickly compute something important.  Sometimes this happens in the cockpit, but just as often, I think, it happens during planning or even during fantasy planning.  What is fantasy flight planning, you ask?  Pilots, myself included, are always thinking about a great trip they would like to take sometime.  When these things pop into our heads, we love to quickly figure out how long it might take in our airplane to get there.  We ask questions like, “How much fuel will I burn?”  And, “How much will a 15 knot tailwind help me?”  An manual E6B is generally a rather ungainly, metal circular slide rule, so it’s not something you want to carry around everywhere you go.  That’s where this WP7 app comes in.  You always have your smartphone, right?  So with E6B Gizmo, you’ll always have a handy, nice looking, and easy to use E6B with you as well.  This isn’t a new concept; virtually every smartphone platform out there has at least a few E6B apps.  Since WP7 is so new, at least as of a couple of weeks ago, there are no such apps available.  There will be.  Not just mine, but I’m sure there will be several to choose from.  It’s no bother, though, the more the merrier.  I’m not trying to make a bunch of money (that doesn’t really happen in aviation ), I’m just trying to dip my toe in the water with WP7…and this is a simple application to develop as my first commercial WP7 app.

Simple from the development aspect, yes, but some of the math involved is extremely complex (which is why these manual E6Bs are so useful…regular calculators will no do, unless you’re a math savant).  I’m sure I’m going to have a few math bugs to start off with, but I’ll keep updating it and taking user feedback until it’s the best in the marketplace when others do show up.  I’ve got several other ideas, as well, not only for the Windows Phone platform, but web, other smartphones, etc., that have nothing to do with a simple E6B, so I’ll have more apps eventually. 

As of today, the Application  Programming Interface (API) for Windows Phone is rather limited because the platform is new.  There are easy ways to do amazing things…don’t get me wrong.  It’s just that some things were left out, presumably because of ship timing.  For example, third party apps like mine can’t multitask.  With WP7 you can always go right back to an app you were running, but while you’re not in the app, it wasn’t actually running (more like suspended).  Also, there is no programmatic access to the built in digital compass yet for third parties.  Word on the street is that later this month we should get a glimpse into the next revision of the API which will be part of a major update to WP7 late this year, both from a user feature perspective as well as a developer perspective.  Hopefully as developers we’ll find out soon what additional API features we’ll have access to when that major update (coined “Mango”) hits the existing phones and presumably a new batch of phones as well.

Luckily, for my E6B Gizmo (and many, many other applications), none of these things are necessary.  So I’m all good.

Here are a couple of screenshots as it stands today.  The colors are the overall phone theme colors (chosen by the user for the whole phone) and not hard coded; I decided it would be cool to respect the color chosen.  Also, you’ll also notice that my working title was E6B Companion which I haven’t changed yet in the code.  The last shot is to show the light theme (again, if chosen by the user) and the Fuel Type “List Picker” dropped down.

I’ve got all the release functions working…at least they appear to be working; I have to do some more testing, especially the math.  I’ve just got that testing, some additional polish and error handling to take care of, and I’ll be ready to submit.  I’m hoping within a couple weeks it will be in the Marketplace.  I’ll keep everyone posted here because I’m assuming you care.  Wish me luck.

It wasn’t without it’s challenges, though.  I’ll cover the migration in a near future post, but I wanted to welcome you to the new platform as well as the new look and feel.  I’m using a theme named "Mystique" that I think is pleasing and functional.  To the right side there is a series of tabs where you can look through past posts, browse by keywords or categories, and see recent and popular comments and posts. 

I’ve still got a few issues in migrating all of the media, posts, and links, so bear with me as I get that all worked out (this only affects some past articles).  I also still need to implement a redirections scheme to map my old permalinks to the new ones (the scheme is slightly different now, and I no longer have extensions on the permalinks for forward compatibility).

In any case…let me know what you think…and welcome to my new virtual hangout.

If you haven’t heard, Project Natal is a development project in Microsoft’s gaming division (with research support, I’m sure, from Microsoft Research) that looks like it should be something coming out of academia and 10 years or more from the marketplace.  It’s the interface that machines have always needed, or rather, that we have always needed to interact with them, but have dismissed as impossible, or too far out there, or too sci-fi, or just too scary.  I’m talking about the next big leap in user experience (the term used to describe the experience that humans have interacting with machines).  Not just with gaming, either.

Think about Tom Cruise’s interaction with the machines in the movie Minority Report…then take it further.  It’s here, and it’s real.  We just can’t quite get it yet.

Project Natal was introduced to the world at E3 which is just finishing up.  It is not ready for market yet, and there is no release date announced, but it is unlikely to be in 2009.  2010 is a possibility, though…and I’m telling you, the waiting is going to be hard.  After the reports from the press who got to actually use the system, it seems to be working quite well already.

What is it?: Project Natal a gaming and social interface that doesn’t have a physical controller.  You become the controller.  Using a system of a couple of cameras+microphone array and some software/hardware magic, it can recognize individuals and even small movements from fists, arms, legs, faces, etc.  It recognizes depth, and voice input, and gestures that allow you to interact with the system with no wires, no controllers, no buttons…just you.  You can control media, social interactions with other gamers and friends, gaming input itself, and the possibilities go on and on.  I know…I’m a skeptic by nature, and this sounds too good to be true…but I’m hoping, and first reports are very, very promising.

Here are some of the reports: 

“Believe the Hype”—Stuff.tv

 “Microsoft’s Project Natal for the Xbox 360 has changed gaming for ever.”—T3

“The hands-on demos worked great”—Wired Magazine

Here is the official video to demonstrate the vision of the product that apparently really works today.

Xbox 360 – Project Natal

Here is another video from a Microsoft Game Studios subsidiary, Lionhead Studios, who have created a concept that will really get your mind racing.

This is not just for gaming, folks, but it’s probably appropriate that that is where it’s starting.  Think.  Within 18 months, I believe we’ll be tasting the future of machine interaction.  Scary?  A little. Amazing? Unquestionably.  “Open the pod bay doors, HAL”, Natal is coming.

Enter Windows XP mode for Windows 7, announced recently by the Supersite for Windows and validated by the folks on the Windows 7 team blog.  For details on the technology see these entries; I’ll be talking about the ramifications here, not the minutia of the feature which is being covered by others.  Okay, a little more background is necessary.  Microsoft, for some time, has had a set of products available for larger organizations to manage their desktops in an efficient way.  These tools are generally geared for organizations with large numbers of desktop PCs running Windows XP or Windows Vista to help reduce the cost of said management.  The tools are part of a package known as Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) and includes 6 distinct products.  One of these products is called Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MEDV) which was added to the group within the past 6 months.  This product addresses the OS/Application compatibility issue outlined above by allowing an organization to deploy a virtual machine running a different (usually a previous) version of the OS, and allow some applications to run in this virtual environment, while optionally hiding most of the virtual environment from the end user.  Essentially, this let’s a user run an application that is not compatible with Vista on Vista.  This is very important functionality for organizations to allow them to deploy a new OS even when not ALL of their applications run on it yet.

But, what about a typical small business user or an advanced home user?  The Windows 7 team has just announced that functionality very similar to MEDV is being released as a free download for future users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.  This feature, called Windows XP Mode, essentially allows a user to be able to install and use virtually any software that works in XP in Windows 7.  The ramifications of this technology, and future versions of technology like this, are huge.  Let me explain.

Windows, over time, has had to continue to grow as features were added, libraries and APIs were changed and added, etc.  Because of the vast user base for Windows and the importance of backward compatibility, some technical tricks have been done over the years to try to keep new versions of the OS compatible as much as possible with old versions of software.  Microsoft has been fairly successful doing this for quite some time, but this has come at a cost.  Some of these costs are listed here.

1. Change has been slowed.  Even good changes have sometimes been cancelled or slowed because of the ramifications of compatibility.
2. Continually growing compatibility layers (software in the OS that can trick applications into running in an OS that they are not compatible with have been added to each new version of Windows).
3. Advancements in Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have to bring along historical baggage of the old APIs (deprecated) to ensure compatibility with older software.
4. Increasingly complex code base has to be maintained because of all of the above.

There are others…but you get the idea.  Using virtualization is a big win for the OS because a cleaner break can be made between each release, if necessary, while still allowing the much needed compatibility.  Because this can be achieved through virtualization, these other tricks can be at least partially abandoned which will result in new versions of Windows being cleaner, smaller, lighter, and more secure.  This isn’t a panacea, though, as there are downsides to this type of compatibility as well.

1. Additional resources, especially memory, are needed to make this type of virtualization feasible; you won’t generally be able to do this well on, for example, a low-end netbook.
2. Even though much of the additional virtual OS is hidden from the user, it doesn’t mean it is not there.  This leads to some questions of how that additional OS will be patched, if necessary, and weather or not it increases the attack surface of the computer.
3. There is a question as to whether this type of technology will confuse end users.

Almost all of the downsides of this type of compatibility can be addressed by good implementation.  The only one that can’t is the issue of additional resources needed to run the virtual OS.  I believe that in most cases, this will be a non-issue going forward.  We have already reached a point where increasing the power of the processor in a computer and increasing the amount of RAM available will have diminishing returns for MOST users.  As the prices of hardware continue to decrease, we may have found a very good use for that extra power that almost all new PC’s have; virtualization.  In addition, this extra horsepower is only needed when one of the “incompatible” applications is running.  With most applications it won’t even be an issue.

So that leaves all of the possible drawbacks that actually can be minimized by a good implementation.  A direct hit by Microsoft for this technology will be something that is easy (and automatic) for an end user to keep patched, and when installing Windows XP mode, or any applications that need it, a seamless and expected experience.  We already know what the experience is like when running an application virtually like this, and it is quite good (i.e. the experience is essentially the same as running any other application).  I am very interested in getting a chance to test this functionality from the perspective of an end user, and you can bet I will update this blog with my results.  I’m very encouraged by what I see at this point, though.

So to bring this back around, I asked, and I received.  This functionality has come earlier than I had expected, which doesn’t happen very often.  Since I have only heard of the feature recently, I thought we would not see it until perhaps Windows 8, so I’m sure you’ll understand how pleasantly surprised I was to find out we would be beta testing this very soon.  Here is a screenshot from the Windows Blog of an application running in this mode, and its icon in the start menu.

Make no mistake, this is big news for Windows 7, and the Windows platform in general.  If the team working on this implements this well, it can, and will, change a lot of things going forward.  Time will tell, but so far this looks like a big win for Windows users.

In any case, it is worth a watch.  Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, and, well, you remember Doogie Howser don’t you?) and Patricia Day (of another popular webisode series, The Guild) are incredible.  Nathan Fillion (as Captain Hammer) makes a great villainous-hero (roles are reversed in this one).  The writing is great, the humor is subtle at times, and performances and timing are fantastic.  I’ve seen it five times now, and every single time I discover something new.  Not sure that trend will continue beyond 5 views, but nevertheless, there is a lot of comedy hidden in this gem.  A sequel is in the works…but the medium and timing are unknown at this time.  For more information, check out the official fan site.  Enjoy, and leave comments on what you think.  Don’t miss the full screen button in the upper right corner of the video…sit back and relax while you watch.

Here are some of the more generally interesting ones:

Desktop Experience in Windows 7

Setting up a Home Network in Windows 7

Implementing User Account Control

Introduction to Windows 7

And for business/enterprise users, here’s some good stuff:

Bitlocker and AppLocker in Windows 7

Using DISM tool for Servicing Windows 7 Images

And, for a general directory of all of the Learning Snacks on various products, go to the Learning Snacks index page.

I’m now waiting (somewhat impatiently) for the Release Candidate of Windows 7.

I’ve gotta say, I’ve been running Windows 7 (first the tech preview, and now the Beta…build 1400 for the last few days) on one of my laptops, and I am loving it.  In fact, I’m typing this post from Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 right now.  I’m not a Vista hater (I’ve had really good luck with Vista…and love a lot of the features…and actually find it very difficult to use XP now), but I really like a lot about Windows 7 so far.  Here’s a few highlights (not nearly a comprehensive overview though).

The New Taskbar

Besides the quicker boot-up, the first thing most people will notice is the new taskbar.  Mine as it sits right now is shown above.  Here is a close up of the running and “pinned” apps that I have right now.

Obviously, this taskbar looks different…but it acts quite a bit different, too.  First of all, it combines some of the functionality of the old quick launch toolbar and the taskbar.  In other words, you can pin apps to the taskbar so they show up whether they are running or not…and you can launch them (or switch to them if not already running) with a single click.  There is a subtle, but easily recognizable difference between running apps and non-running apps.  Notice above the Zune icon…it appears “flush” with the background.  This indicates that it is not currently running.  The Skype icon, on the other hand, shows that it is running (it has a subtle raised effect in the glass).  In fact, if you look to the left where the Internet Explorer icon is, you will notice that I multiple instances and tabs (conveniently combined in the UI) open, so there are multiple glass layers there.  Finally, since I’m typing in Live Writer now, you’ll notice that it’s icon “glass” is somewhat smoked, or opaque, indicating that it holds the current focus.  Simple and subtle, but useful and easily noticed without thinking much about it.  This behavior can be customized as well.  I’ve heard some in the media complain that the new taskbar is too different, and too subtle, and at first I agreed (and even changed the defaults), but the more I use it, the more I like it.  Besides….it’s pretty.

I won’t get into the jump lists (finding them useful when I remember to use them…getting better at it), changing desktop backgrounds, etc…but it’s safe to say there are some really useful gems, most of which I probably haven’t discovered yet.  And again…it’s pretty.

System Tray

The system tray in the lower right corner (typically) is a little different as well.  Now Windows gives the user full control over what shows up there and what doesn’t from a single and easy to use configurator.  This is a welcome change.  For each tray icon, you can choose to display the icon and notifications, notifications only (the toaster and the icon temporarily show up when a notification happens from that tray icon), or hide completely (out of sight, out of mind).

Libraries

Windows 7 has a new concept of libraries; essentially libraries of different types of documents.  These libraries can point to multiple physical locations on various disks (even removable disks and network shares), but ccollect and show a collation of these documents and files together as a single library.  This is great for most users, and I’m already finding myself liking it for it’s simplicity and ease when it comes time to find a picture or save a video.  Windows 7 ships with four libraries by default (Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos), but users can add as many as they want, and even modify the built-in ones.

HomeGroups and Device Management

Both home networking and managing devices is easier on Windows 7.  The Homegroup concept, while I haven’t tested extensively, looks really promising.  It allows even domain joined computers (like a work laptop for example) to automatically and easily participate in a group of home computers, and use devices (like printers and media centers) while it’s there.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure I’ll get to use this much because in my limited experience, it appears that you cannot create HomeGroups from domain-joined computers (although, as I said, they can participate in one).  Since I run a domain at home, and of course use one at work, this may not be something I personally can take advantage of…although I’m in an extreme minority of home users who run a domain.

As for the device management, you may have heard of Device Stage.  I’m not sure if that’s the official name, but managing devices in Windows 7, whatever the tool is called, is looking much easier and very promising.  It is a very graphical view of all of your devices and resources along with the ability to change their settings, update drivers, etc., all from one place.

Compatibility, Speed, and Drivers

I saved the best for last.  Windows 7 is fast.  It boots faster than XP and Vista.  It resumes faster the XP and Vista.  It runs better with 1 or 2 GB of memory.  64-bit (which I’m running on two machines) is solid with no driver issues.  I’m throwing all sorts of weird devices and drivers at it, as well as software, and so far, no glitches.  I had to install the beta version of Skype, which seems to run great, but other than that everything just works.  Every software package I’ve installed from the standard Office 2007 tools to very specialized stuff like Voyager 4 flight planning software and Flip Video’s FlipShare is working great.  I’ve installed Visual Studio 2008 (which is monster big with lots of dependencies) with no problems as well.

I’ve thrown some non-standard hardware at it, too.  Again, the Flip Video (with or without it’s drivers from the manufacturer) just worked…and shows up quickly and easily on the device stage.  More surprisingly, perhaps, is the results from just slapping on my M-Audio Mobile PRE USB interface (which allows my to connect high end microphones and power them using phantom power, adjust built in pre-amps using physical knobs, and monitor using headphones, etc.).  I plugged it in, and it just worked…both outputting audio as well as the inputs from the analog mics.  Remember…this is 64-bit, too.  M-Audio is working on 64-bit Vista drivers for this unit (which will work in Windows 7, I’m sure), but even without those drivers, everything works great just by plugging it in.  I’m not sure how, but I’m happy.  I’m really trying to break it, but I can’t

I did have a driver issue with the wireless on one of my laptops.  I was getting crashes while using wireless.  After thinking, “Well, after all, it is beta.” and dismissing it, I noticed that Windows Update was notifying me of an optional update to the wireless chip driver in my laptop.  I accepted it, and it fixed the issue.  I’m amazed.  This really doesn’t seem like a beta product to me…at least not yet.  Maybe I will start to discover more issues…but as it stands, I’m very close to upgrading almost all of my production machines to Windows 7 beta (at least as a dual boot for testing).

How to Get it

Brandon LeBlanc on the Windows 7 Team Blog has a nice write-up about downloading the beta.  More information on how to get it can be found there and on the Windows 7 website, especially as the public release day (this Friday) approaches.

Oh ya…one last thing.  I got a big chuckle out of the default desktop background (the focal point of which I’ve featured here).  See if you get the joke.  Enjoy Windows 7.

Microsoft patterns & practices is excited to announce the latest addition to
the p&p library of software architecture guidance:

Enterprise Library 4.1

October 2008 Release

– MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/entlib

– Community Forum: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=119312

– Community Extensions: http://codeplex.com/entlibcontrib

Enterprise Library is a collection of reusable software components (application blocks) designed to assist software developers with common enterprise development challenges (such as logging, validation, caching, exception handling, and many others). Application blocks are a type of guidance encapsulating Microsoft recommended development practices; they are provided as source code, tests plus documentation that can be used “as is,” extended, or modified by developers to use on complex, enterprise-level line-of-business development projects.

I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but wanted to pass it along.

On the other hand, if you’ve just paid $5.00 to United/US Air/Delta/[Insert your dysfunctional airline here] for a $0.20 replica of a pair of headphones on your flight (along with $3.00 for a water and $7.00 for some crackers and cheese), you may be inclined to buy a pair of Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones from the vending machine (which they prefer to call a robotic storefront, but let’s be real) for $200.  This is worth it because you get a return of $100 over your next 20 flights by not having to buy the crappy earphones that they are selling every time, and the other $100 of value comes from not having to listen to any of the announcements from the cockpit or the flight attendants asking you if you want to buy a $3.00 water.  After all, these cancel noise, and that’s what you want.  Another thing…what do you think the chances are that they pre-charge the electronic devices that need batteries.  How disappointing to buy your new PSP for the 3 hour plane ride but you have no juice.  This just helps prove my theory above…it’s for the disembarking airline spit-outs, not those all fresh for their travel.  They expect your defenses are down AFTER the flight.

So, the next time you step off that plane all hot and bothered about just getting mugged by the airline, pull out the credit card (if you have any money left), and keep your eyes out for one of these Sony vending machines, and purchase your headphones/PSP/MP3 player/etc.  Trust me, you’ll feel better.  Or not.

As E3 continues, we got some updates yesterday from Microsoft on the future of the Xbox 360.  It turns out the with the Fall release, a lot of changes are coming.  First, for the first time in history (according to the release), a major consumer device will get a complete makeover for free through the power of software.  Essentially, every Xbox 360 that’s out in the wild right now will get a free upgrade this fall that will essentially change the experience without having to buy a new console.  This is the beauty of software. 

Over the last several years, Microsoft has released new versions of the console, integrating new hardware such as larger disk drives and HDMI connectivity, all the while, the underlying platform has stayed the same.  This fall, Microsoft will release a free software update that is in some ways akin to releasing a new console…but nobody will have to purchase anything new.  The update is not just glitz and frosting, either, as far as I can tell right now.  One of the things that will change is the culmination of an exclusive partnership just announced at E3 between Xbox and Netflix, wherein if you are an Xbox Live subscriber (who isn’t…I’ll get to that in a second) and a Netflix subscriber, you will have an online queue in Netflix that you can add movies and TV shows to.  Then, from a TV connected to an Xbox 360, you can choose to watch these movies, and they will begin to stream…starting in as little as 30 seconds.  This isn’t a new idea…I know.  Heck, even Microsoft has been enabling this scenario through Media Center for years, but this partnership and integrated experience, along with a lot of new content available through the Live Marketplace, is a giant step toward true Living Room Integration (LRI) and Home Theater Integration (HTI).  Alright…I just made those terms up…but it works, right?

So…first a quick note about Xbox Live.  Also announced at E3 was that Xbox Live Membership has doubled both of the last two years.  Last year from 3 Million to 6 Million, and this year again to 12 Million.  It’s becoming sort of the de facto TV/gaming-based community…and even now encompasses PC gamers (released last year).  I think with the momentum behind Live, great things are to come.  Now, back to this upgrade.

Also, as part of the upgrade, the whole 360 interface will change from the innovative, but aging crisscross interface to something more carousel-like.  This type of interface is something that Microsoft has been working on for years an years…I remember seeing prototypes of carousel interfaces aimed at Windows (way before Vista) over 5 or 6 years ago.  It looks like an incarnation of that has made it to the Xbox in what looks to be a pretty effective and cool looking UI.

Microsoft is calling this the “New Xbox Experience”, and you can read about what has been announced so far here.  But the highlights are:

• Tons of new games, including some sequels to established or up-and coming franchises, including
  • Rock Band 2
  • Guitar Hero World Tour
  • Gears of War 2
  • Fable II
  • Resident Evil 5
  • A new Scene It
  • etc.
• A new “interactive game show” system through Xbox Live produced by the makers of “Deal or No Deal”
• Live Parties
• Create customized avatars (a la the Nintendo Wii, but better looking)
• Tons of new media content (TV shows and Movies) through both Netflix and the Live Marketplace
• Of course, the new User Interface

Here is a video showing a trailer for the update…

Video: Xbox 360 New Experience Trailer XboxFront

I’m always very skeptical of “gasoline replacement” fads because, for the most part, they never seem to work.  Now, before you start screaming and carrying-on, take the tin-foil off of your head and join us in reality…it’s very unlikely that the government (and every government in the world) is covering up for the big bad oil companies as they murder, plunder alternative ideas, and kill off potential competition.  C’mon…you just can’t keep stuff like that a secret; too many prying eyes.  It just doesn’t make sense…so let’s not go there.

Now, being a skeptic (and I must add, a layman…as I am very far from an expert on fuel…just a concerned, but moderately eductated consumer), corn-based bio fuels has not excited me much for several reasons; trading dwindling agricultural land and water for gas production not being the least of them.  I have been waiting for something that just makes more sense…and is hopefully something a little more radical from a science perspective, but feasible from a market perspective.  If it turned out to be cleaner, cheaper to produce, and more renewable…all the better.  I also knew, from my economics training, that when gas prices got high enough (i.e. as global and local demand continued up and supply stayed the same or decreased a la rationing from OPEC, no more refinement capacity, and even possibly actual dwindling world supplies of crude) that it would become financially feasible to come up with alternatives.  Maybe we’ve finally reached that point.

As a budding airplane pilot (and avid auto driver…I’m American, after all ), I would love more this and other efforts to produce real (hopefully cheaper in the end) alternatives to dino fuel.  But its not just so I pay less for Aviation Gas at the airport or 91 Octane at the Chevron down the street…everything gets cheaper to produce and sell if fuel prices decrease.  That said, I don’t think fuel prices are too far out of whack from inflation (I’d have to check the latest numbers), but still, cheaper is better.

Sapphire’s efforts seem promising to me.  First, algae grows like mad…and in water, even waste water.  It also grows pretty much anywhere there is water and sunlight and CO2 (i.e. pretty much anywhere).  Their process appears to produce something that very much approximates gasoline so it should run in existing cars, trucks, boats, planes, etc.  It can be moved and sold using today’s infrastructure for gasoline.  The big questions are, for me:  will it work?  will it be cheap, when it’s all said and done?  Only time will tell on these.

With Sapphire’s press release and some other sources, including this article from the LA Times (which indicates goals of having this completed and on the market in three years), though, I’m feeling some of my skepticism get ever so slightly weaker.  Hopefully for more than just a moment.  For now, I’m rooting for my gas to turn green in a few years.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here yet, but I wanted to make anyone following this blog aware of one of my other endeavors.  I’m currently learning to fly (getting a private pilot license), and before starting, I decided to produce an podcast about that endeavor called the Student Pilot Cast.  It has been pretty fun producing this, although it can be a bit time consuming.  It’s also interesting to put all of my training out there for the world to see, the good and the bad.

I have several reasons for wanting to podcast my training

• I’ve been inspired and entertained by all of the aviation podcasts that I’ve been listening to, and wanted to add to this content by “giving back” some of what I have gained from all of these peoples hard work.  I felt like I could do that by podcasting myself (see reason ‘b’ below).  Some of these other podcasts that inspired me to do this include:
  • The Finer Points
  • Uncontrolled Airspace
  • The PilotCast
  • The Pilot Flight Pod Log and the related Student Pilot Flight Pod Log, both by Will Hawkins
  • Airspeed
  • And several others.
• As a budding pilot (and a long time wannabe ) I felt very strongly that it would be interesting to be involved in the chronicle of someone getting their private pilot license.  I know this because I would have loved this content (and did with Will Hawkins first podcast, and others), so that helped me understand that for those of us who have the flying bug badly, this content would be interesting.
• Making this content available might just help to inspire a few people to get involved in aviation, finally take the plunge themselves, or just improve the perception of general aviation for someone.  I know this sounds a bit self-absorbed, but trust me, it is more about the realization that the content out there helped me, so I realize that every little bit might help someone else…and if that’s true, assisting in the popularity or perception of General Aviation is good for those of us who realize how important it is.  I’m actually still amazed that anybody listens…but if I think about how voracious I am with aviation content, I shouldn’t be surprised.
• Keeping a good, rich, record of accomplishing this important thing to me will be something I personally will love having.  As I mentioned in episode 0, it is like keeping a media rich scrapbook and the body of content that I have when I’m finished will be priceless to me personally.  By having listeners wanting more episodes insures the external motivation necessary to help me to not slack off.  J
• It’s fun!  And since I’m a technologist professionally, and an amateur audio/video/photography enthusiast…why not combine some of these passions (including aviation) into something that benefits others…and we all win.  Believe it or not, I’m a social, but very private person…but I’m in awe of my colleagues and friends (like Tim Heuer , and many others…its very common in my industry) who continually put themselves out there in the public eye for the benefit of everyone.  I think the generation after me (I’m 36 years old) has grown up with technology based social networking, and are comfortable wearing their lives on their sleeves (see things like myspace, facebook, twitter, etc.), and so to keep with the times, I need to teach myself to be more open, and what better way than to learn to fly in front of the world?  I think there is a societal benefit to sharing experience (there are downsides, too, but that’s another topic), and I am having fun learning to participate in this on a more grandiose scale by leveraging technology.  I know this is a bit philosophical, but I hope I’m getting my thoughts across.

Anyway…if you are so inclined, please check out my podcast at www.studentpilotcast.com.  I’ve released now something like nine episodes, and its speeding up.  Let me know what you think.

What Created The Subprime Mess – Watch more free videos

If anyone wants to embed their Zune Card or Xbox Live Gamer Card in their own forum posts, signatures, blog entries, or websites…it’s very easy to do.  See the details below.

GAMER CARD

For the Xbox Live Gamer Card, just take a look at this site.  Just copy and paste the “iframe” markup and put your own gamertag in there, and viola!

ZUNE CARD

For the Zune Card, it is very similar.  First, you must be part of the “social”.  For more information on that, see Zune.net.  If you have your Zune Social persona set up (usually the same as your gamer tag if you also have an Xbox), you just need to make sure that your profile is public (or no-one can see it).  Once you’ve got it all hanging out there, all you have to do is follow a similar procedure as the Gamer Card above.  Just copy and paste the following markup to where you want the card to show up.  This markup is for the “small” version of the Zune Card.

<div id=”zunecard_small”><embed flashvars=”baseURL=http%3a%2f%2fsocial.zune.net%2fzcard%2fusercardservice.ashx%3fzunetag%3dbillwil%26src%3dmedium&MMplayerType=PlugIn” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” height=”135″ src=”http://social.zune.net/xweb/lx/swf/zunecardmedium.swf?ver=1190″ bgcolor=”#FFF” id=”flashUserCard” style=”" salign=”tl” width=”250″ wmode=”opaque” name=”flashUserCard”></div>

Remember to change the part that says ‘billwil’ to whatever your Zune Tag is (using %20 for spaces, if you have them), or you will display my Zune Card.

Well…its official.  The Sun Devils, even in a tie for the PAC 10 title with USC and a fabulous 10-2 season, were snubbed from the BCS.  Oh well…you can’t control it, so you’ve got to roll with the punches.  We take on a very respectable Texas team on December 27th in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.  I’m trying to get a party bus together to drive down (and when I say party bus, I mean several 30-something dads who have to get permission from their wives to rent an RV an drive to San Diego right after Christmas).

Tickets are available now.  ASU and Texas have, believe it or not, never played each other…ever.  That’s something like 105 years of football…and they’ve never met.  Should be a great game…and a win in this bowl game will be a perfect cap to an unbelievable season for the Devils.  Could have gone better…but we’ve gotten used to much worse over the past 5 years.  String a couple seasons like this together…and Dennis Erickson will have earned his money and his accolades.

Great job this year, Sun Devils.  One more to go.  Go Devils!

Here we are about a year from the inaugural release of the Zune media player platform and brand, and they are releases the next batch.  Here’s the kicker…and completely new to the media player world…almost all of the features for the new generation release are just a software upgrade away from original Zune owners.  Try that with an iPod. 

The new hardware, though, is definitely worth a look.  There are two new flash based players (4GB and 8GB).  With no hard drive, these flash players are great for running or other workouts, or other activities where the device will be jostled and bumped constantly.  With no moving parts, there is nothing to break or skip from all the movement.  These devices still support full video, etc., and are pretty small.  The new hard drive based player is a whopping 80GB, is smaller than the original Zune, but has a bigger screen.  The new “squircle” is click or touch sensitive, so take your pick on how to control it.  Here’s a picture of the new lineup and a link to the Zune site.

This picture shows, from left to right, the new flash based Zune, The new Zune80, and the Zune30 (original Zune).

So, everyone knows this, right?  Well check this out.  Engadget has a story about Zune Originals…you’ve got to check this out.  They’re beautiful.

Tomorrow is the day.  If your an original Zune owner, synching tomorrow will bring you a nice surprise!  Enjoy.



Well, I finally got around to updating my blog software to something a little more modern that .text .9.  I’ve been playing around a bit with BlogEngine.NET, and version 1.2 was just released, so I finally moved my production blog to this blog engine.  I also changed hosting providers because while GoDaddy is the hometown incumbent…they are just too restrictive, so I dumped them.

I also did some customizations to the Indigo theme that ships with BlogEngine.  It was a good start, but there were some things that I didn’t like, so I changed them.  I wanted to get my hands dirty a bit with theme-ing and get under the covers of the software a bit, so it made sense.  I moved quite a bit around, added a top level nav system, and changed the way the admin links work (when your logged in as an admin) to make it all a bit cleaner.  I will likely eventually adapt a theme that I like better, but this should do for now.  If anyone wants my updated theme, I’d be glad to share it…just let me know via the contact page.

So far I’m very impressed with the software.  It is fairly flexible, easily customized, and pretty feature rich.  The tag cloud is something that I didn’t have with my last engine, and I like it quite a bit.  It even supports BlogML updates now, and in fact I used this feature to migrate my data (with a little tweaking).



From ForzaMotorSport.NET, where the release info was posted.



And, for good measure, here is a fan-produced video for “Wind it Up”.



I’ve got a couple of friends who are new 360 owners after the holidays, and I’ve realized that there may be some confusion on the best way to set this up, compatibility, etc.  For that reason, I’m gathering some info here.  There are probably quite a few new owners that I know now that we are past the holiday season.

First and foremost, while the 360 is generally compatible with original Xbox games, there are some that won’t work on the 360.  Xbox.com has a comprehensive list here.  Moreover, to get any of them to work, you must download some updates from Xbox Live.  Also, because many 360 games get updates, and because there is a lot of downloadable content (free and for fee) from Xbox Live, it is very important to hook the box up to the Internet. Note: the compatibility layer for older Xbox games is updated on an ongoing basis as new old games (get that) are made compatible.  As you can see, it is best to make sure the Xbox is always connected to the Internet, even if you only have a Silver Xbox 360 Live Account.

To alleviate confusion or concerns, there are two types of Xbox Live subscriptions; silver and gold.  The silver subscription is free, and entitles the subscriber to download free and for fee content, game updates, Xbox game compatibility updates, etc.  If nothing else, get this one.  The Gold Subscription, generally $50 per year, allows online gaming in addition to all of the other features.  Either way, be prepared to have a Microsoft Live ID for your email address (www.passport.net) or to sign up for one during Xbox Live registration right from the Xbox 360.  Also, you will be choosing a unique gamertag when you register for either level of subscription; this is how you will be known in the Xbox Live world.

But, before I get to far ahead of myself, let’s talk about networking the Xbox 360.  I’ll start by saying this; if you can, hard wire your Xbox 360 using and Ethernet connection.  If not, wireless it is.  Alleviate possible headaches by using an approved wireless home router that is listed on this page.  You’ll then want to get the Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter.  This should work fine.

The 360 is turning into quite a media hub for gaming, movies, TV, Media Center, DVD’s, HD-DVDs, etc.  IPTV on the 360 was also just announced by Bill Gates at CES this week.  You might as well kick off Xbox ownership with a bang, and make sure it is well connected, updated, and groovin’ in High Definition.

That leads me to my one last tip; make sure, if you are using an HDTV to monitor your 360 that you do two very important things.  First, use the correct connection to get HD (either component or VGA HD connections, both analog).  Second, make sure, if using the more common component HD connection, that you have set the physical switch on the connector to the HD setting (it comes from the factory set to SD, I believe).

This should be a good start.  Happy gaming/viewing/communicating.

www.zune.net (official Zune website)

www.zuneinsider.com (insider blog from a Zune team member)

www.zune-arts.net (artist oriented site for Zune)

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’ve actually become partial to the brown model (with the doubleshot green).

Video: Who Wants to be a Millionaire

If you don’t know what this is you are probably not a web developer.  If you are, and you still don’t know what this is…you’ve got to check it out.  It is a design package for designing Web UI (CSS, HTML, etc.).  This is one of the products in the Expression family of products that Microsoft is working on.

While I’m at it, here is a funny video of two of my kids and their cousin getting tossed off of a horse under the care of their grandfather (my dad).  Don’t worry, they’re all fine, and it’s not the horse’s fault…what are you supposed to do if you are a horse and someone’s feet are hitting your flanks? 

Video: The Fall

And here’s proof that they’re ok…this picture was taken several months after the fall…all three boys in tact.

You’ve probably guessed by now that the whole post was an excuse to try out the latest version.  I’m not ashamed…

Anyway, I digress.  If you use a blog, you owe it to yourself to check out Live Writer.



Here is the first webisode, but you gotta hit the site to hear the stand-up on the front page.