2004-11-15 · 09:45

SMT5600 thoughts

Amazon is offering the Audiovox SMT5600 smartphone for a net payment of $25, e.g. you get a new phone plus $25. I played with one of these for a few minutes at the AT&T store in Ann Arbor last week, and it’s a very impressive device. The screen is brilliant and crisp, and the phone is much smaller and lighter than my trusty 7135. It also features Bluetooth, which would be extremely useful for wireless headsets and for tying to my laptop. (It also has some other cool features, like Windows Media Player 10, that I probably wouldn’t use). I have a few concerns, though.

First, I’m very used to entering text with a stylus; I’ve had a Palm for about seven years now. I don’t do a lot of text entry– mostly just appointments and such, so I think (but am not sure) that I’d be OK with using T9 on the phone keypad, but I won’t really know that until I have a chance to try it.

Second, I’ve been very satisfied with Verizon’s wireless coverage, both here and when I travel. I don’t know how good AT&T’s local coverage is, because I don’t know anyone here who has it, but (at least to me) it doesn’t matter how good the phone is if I can’t make or receive calls when I want to.

Next, it would mean going back to Outlook for syncing, instead of Entourage. That’s a problem because I often use Entourage to create notes and tasks while working, and Entourage can’t sync them with my Exchange server. That might be a deal-breaker. There are at least two Mac sync utilities for Windows Mobile devices: Missing Sync (which explicitly says it doesn’t support the SMT5600) and PocketMac (which, I’ve been told, has stability and support difficulties).

Finally, I’d have to replace some of the applications I now use. This probably isn’t a big deal, since most of them are games, but there are a few (like TikTok and Directory Assistant) don’t seem to have Windows Mobile counterparts. I’m also comfortable with the way DateBk5 integrates calendar and to-do data, and I don’t know if the mobile version of Outlook has similar features. In fact, it’s not even clear to me if you can install third-party apps on these devices; it seems to vary by carrier.

So, if you’re reading this and a) you use AT&T, b) you have an SMT5600, or c) you work for the MacBU, feel free to leave comments answering the above points 🙂

Update 1: turns out that Windows Mobile doesn’t natively support Outlook notes anyway. There’s at least one third-party app (SmartphoneNotes) that does, but I don’t know if it works on the AT&T phones.
Update 2: Two of my 3sharp coworkers wrote to say that AT&T coverage in our Redmond office is poor, so that’s a minus. On the other hand, the Windows IT Pro people want an article on Exchange ActiveSync, for which I need a device, so it looks like I’ll get one and take advantage of AT&T’s 30-day trial period. I found solutions for managing tasks and notes on the Smartphone, so if I can resolve the sync difficulties I should be golden.

5 Comments

Filed under General Tech Stuff

2004-11-12 · 10:03

Two Windows Mobile webcasts

Next week is Windows Mobile webcast week. There are two webcasts of particular interest for Exchange 2003 administrators: one on best practices for Windows Mobile deployments, and one for Windows Mobile/Exchange troubleshooting.

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Filed under General Stuff, Musings

2004-11-11 · 14:29

DCT-6412 first impressions

I’ve spent a short while playing with the DCT-6412 since I got it. Here are a few random observations; I can’t really say this is a review, because it isn’t (and isn’t meant to be) comprehensive.

  • It does what it claims: provide DVR/PVR functionality for HDTV cable signals. On that grounds alone, I’m happy to pay the extra $5/month (which means that, after 200 months, I’d come out ahead buying an HDTiVo).
  • The iGuide interface is reasonably functional for watching live TV. It’s much faster, and better-looking, than the interface on the older DCT-6100 series boxes. As a bonus, you can choose a color scheme from a list of eight or so predefined sets.
  • In general, the TiVo interface makes it much easier to perform common tasks with fewer button presses.
  • There’s a popup “quick menu” that lets you quickly select from the most common functions; this appears as a thin strip at the bottom of the display superimposed over whatever you’re watching. Combine this with the “favorite channel” list and you have an easy way to jump between HDTV programs.
  • The program status bar (or what Moto calls the flip bar; it shows recording status, time remaining, whether the program is paused, etc) is remarkably ugly.
  • You can toggle the front-panel display between a channel display and a clock. This is a great feature, since the clock is bright and easy to read. However, when the unit is recording, or when you pause live or recorded TV, the display changes to “rEC” or “PAU” respectively.
  • Speaking of pause: if you pause a program, the 6412 will happily sit there paused forever. It still seems to record OK while paused, but it doesn’t jump back to live TV after a preset interval like the TiVo does.
  • The interface for choosing programs to record is fairly terrible. It’s easy to record a show you’re watching (just press the remote Record button) or one you see in the guide (press Select when it’s highlighted, then Select twice more to schedule and confirm the recording). However, the “search by name” function is buried, and it has a bizarre multiple-choice selection metaphor that I’ve had trouble getting used to.
  • There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to schedule a recording for a particular time and channel (e.g. Sunday, 8-9pm, channel 650). This is such an obvious feature that I just must not have found it yet.
  • No Season Pass feature, nor anything like unto it. However, there is a nice listing of HDTV programs.
  • The 6412 has a 14-day guide, but at least in some cases it’s missing programs. Example: yesterday (10 November) I wanted to record a program that airs on 22 November. It wasn’t in the guide yet. I haven’t reproduced this so I don’t know what’s causing it yet.

I’ll post more details and impressions once I’ve had a chance to use the unit more. So far, I haven’t spent a lot of time watching recorded programs because of Halo 2 work.

2 Comments

Filed under HDTV and Home Theater, Reviews

2004-11-11 · 11:28

Happy birthday and Semper Fi

From the fine folks at GoDaddy, a Marine Corps birthday card. I’ll be registering all my domains there in the future.

1 Comment

Filed under Musings

2004-11-11 · 11:07

New Live Communications Server blog

Tom Laciano has a new blog focused on Live Communications Server. Based on what he’s posted so far, this will be one to watch. For example, this post on using certificates for mutual TLS authentication in LCS 2003 is pure technical gold. I plan to follow it regularly.

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Filed under General Stuff, Musings

2004-11-10 · 10:15

My last word (for now) on GOExchange

I’ve had a long series of email discussions with Troy Werelius, CEO of GOExchange’s parent company. I’m now convinced that the sales rep didn’t intend to be dishonest, but that he was trying to bolster his case that eseutil is complex (true), dangerous (true), and not for use by the unwary (true). He pointed out that it was unfair of me to criticize GOExchange as “little more than a scheduling engine that wraps around eseutil” without having used it. That’s a fair criticism, although in my defense he has been reluctant to talk about what the product actually does do. To avoid confusion, I’ve removed my earlier post.

However, let me make something perfectly clear: I do not think that it is a good idea to run eseutil except in certain specific, well-defined circumstances. It is not a tool for routine or casual use. Reasons to use eseutil include fixing a damaged database or running an offline defrag, neither of which are routine maintenance operations. I think that’s where the central point of disagreement between my viewpoint and Troy’s lies.

Troy is working on arranging a technology demo for the Exchange MVPs that will help all of us understand better what the product actually does– I’ll post my impressions of its functionality after the demo.

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Filed under Smackdown!

2004-11-10 · 06:26

Huntsville and Nazi rocket scientists

Interesting article on the front page of the WSJ today: “In Huntsville, Ala., Rocketeer’s Legacy Has Complex Echoes“. The article talks about the fact that von Braun, Stuhlinger, and other key players in NASA’s early booster development were participants (with varying degrees of culpability) in Nazi Germany’s industrial program. The primary source for the article’s claims of heavy Nazi involvement on the part of the scientists is Linda Hunt, a “media critic” who wrote a book on the topic. I haven’t read it, but it certainly didn’t get good reviews. It’s not clear to me that it would have been better to prosecute the lot of them immediately after WW II; doing so would certainly have made the not-yet-prosecuted much more reluctant to work here instead of for the fUSSR. However, it’s unpleasant to be reminded of the kinds of compromises that governments routinely engage in, One cool note, though: the article quotes my former coworker at NTI, Dave Cornutt,

1 Comment

Filed under aviation, Musings

2004-11-10 · 06:15

And good riddance

So, John Ashcroft got fired:

John Ashcroft, one of the most powerful, controversial attorneys general in American history, abruptly and reluctantly quit yesterday… Sources said Ashcroft submitted his handwritten, five-page resignation letter before Election Day but was “energized” after Bush’s victory and told the White House through his aides he was willing to stay on indefinitely as the nation’s top cop.
The White House said no. Ashcroft will remain in office only until his successor is chosen.

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Filed under FAIL

2004-11-09 · 11:39

DCT-6412 arrives

If you need me, I’ll be in front of the TV. The Buckeye installer just dropped off a shiny new DCT-6412 HD DVR. It doesn’t have a full set of program guide data yet, so I can’t set up all the scheduled recordings I want. However, I did set up a few test recordings, so we’ll see how well it works. The iGuide interface is a huge improvement over the crappy TV Guide guide for the DCT-6100, although it’s not quite as sharp as TiVo’s interface. More on the unit after I’ve had a few days to wring it out and read the manual.

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Filed under HDTV and Home Theater

2004-11-02 · 09:21

MT-Blacklist 2.0 installation instructions

They stink (not least because they tell you to use the directory structure of the zip archive to figure out where to put things). However, if you read these instructions instead, you will be on the short track to enlightenment.

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2004-11-01 · 15:07

Technical difficulties

I think all of the major problems are fixed, except that there are still some CSS uglinesses around. Too bad. Comments are on, except that I have to manually moderate them– MT-Blacklist still isn’t working, but I’m too aggravated to work on it right now.

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Filed under FAIL

2004-11-01 · 14:34

Technical difficulties

Thanks to the brain surgeons at SIxApart and Pair Networks, my MovableType upgrade has quickly gone off into the weeds.

  • Pair’s resource limits are killing the mt-upgrade30 script before it can finish, so there are no comments.
  • All my comments disappeared because the upgrade script can’t put them in the new format
  • MT-Blacklist doesn’t work, in no small part because of its terrible documentation, but also because Pair doesn’t give enough detail in their error logs for me to figure out what’s broken
  • Some part of the upgrade ate all my CSS, so my layouts have reverted to standard.

I’ll get it fixed eventually. In the meantime, please be patient.

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Filed under General Tech Stuff

2004-11-01 · 14:34

Technical difficulties

Thanks to the brain surgeons at SIxApart and Pair Networks, my MovableType upgrade has quickly gone off into the weeds.

  • Pair’s resource limits are killing the mt-upgrade30 script before it can finish, so there are no comments.
  • All my comments disappeared because the upgrade script can’t put them in the new format
  • MT-Blacklist doesn’t work, in no small part because of its terrible documentation, but also because Pair doesn’t give enough detail in their error logs for me to figure out what’s broken
  • Some part of the upgrade ate all my CSS, so my layouts have reverted to standard.

I’ll get it fixed eventually. In the meantime, please be patient.

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Filed under Smackdown!

2004-11-01 · 11:03

Dies the Fire (Stirling)

Ever read a book where you are simultaneously unable to put it down and aggravated by it? That’s exactly the situation I found with S.M. Stirling’s Dies the Fire, which I can best described as an extended wank. The central plot device is a machina ex deus: all high-energy-density technologies just quit. No gunpowder; no explosives; no internal combustion; no batteries, or anything else electrical. We see “the Change” through two primary characters: a strapping outdoorsman/ex-Marine and (get ready) a guitar-playing Wiccan bar musician. By novel’s end, these two folks have assembled large fighting forces, battled all manner of evil, and joined forces for what I assume will be a long series of novels exploring this world; at the end of the book, there’s a major bad guy still running Portland, and he has dreams of expanding eastward…

It’s well enough written for the most part, but there are several things that really bugged me. First, describing the characters as cardboard is doing a disservice to all the folks who toil at the corrugating machines. In particular, it’s very, very hard to swallow the sudden transformation of a peace-loving, tofu-eating witch with apparently no useful skills into the self-actualized leader of a community of 200. Second, the plot is obvious. There are no twists; the fate of every character Stirling introduces is pretty much clear from the outset. Third, there are so many fortunate coincidences that suspending your disbelief gets pretty hard– the good guys just accidentally happen to end up with bowmakers, doctors, and horse trainers; given how scarce those occupations are in real life it’s hard to imagine that the odds against finding all of them are that high. Fourth, it’s a religion thing. The few Christians in the book are all portrayed as hateful, intolerant, and bigoted, while the Wiccans are just precious. Their rituals (which may or not be authentic; beats me) are portrayed in some detail, and that becomes boring and repetitive fairly quickly.

The biggest problem I had, though, is the smarmy tone as we’re told, again and again, that the only survivors are people who spent time before the Change learning how to fight with swords and make their own chain mail, e.g. SCA members and other such. Imagine being locked in an elevator with the avid SCA members you knew in college, and you’ll get the idea.

The shame of it is, I’ll probably read the next book in the series to see how it turns out, but I’ll probably fume all the way through it. Not especially recommended.

9 Comments

Filed under Reviews

2004-10-29 · 13:23

The hypoallergenic cat

Now I know what Thomas is going to want for Christmas: a hyopallergenic cat. Allerca is busy “working to produce the world’s first hypoallergenic cats”. They’re trying to suppress the gene that expresses a protein called Fel d 1, which is actually what most cat-allergic people react to. It turns out that different breeds of cat produce different amounts of Fel d 1, but I don’t know which breeds make the least (or most; this page lists a few breeds, none of which I’ve ever heard of). I did find one cite that said that female cats make much less than males do– good to know.

Anyway, Allerca will sell you a hypoallergenic cat– assuming they figure out how to suppress the gene– for a mere $3,500, with a $250 deposit due now. Perhaps Thomas would rather have something else.

2 Comments

Filed under General Tech Stuff