2007-03-13 · 17:30

Underwhelming EvDO performance with USB720

I just stopped at the Verizon store adjacent to my hotel in Seattle and grabbed a USB720 EVDO modem modem to use with my MacBook Pro for our presentation events. So far, I’m underwhelmed. I used the DSL Reports speed tester and got 331 down/169 up on the MacBook Pro, followed by a second test of 235 down/33 up. By way of comparison, my Vista machine got 1019 down/249 up on the hotel Internet connection. I’ll test the speed of the built-in EvDO modem on the Thinkpad later.

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Filed under General Tech Stuff

2007-03-13 · 10:04

Computerworld article on MVP Summit

I’m at the MVP Summit this week, and Computerworld’s Eric Lai has written a background piece on the MVP program that’s pretty interesting (and no, I’m not saying that just because he quoted me!) For example, I didn’t know that the original set of MVPs were mostly FoxPro developers. Check it out here.

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Filed under General Stuff

2007-03-06 · 05:35

Cobalt Flux DDR pad for the Xbox 360

As I learn more about Dance Dance Revolution Universe, I keep reading how important it is to have a really good dance pad. Apparently the Cobalt Flux is the way to go, but it doesn’t work with the Xbox 360. For $300, it had darn well better be (and no, I’m not going to buy one!) However, in the spirit of Google love, here’s a link to instructions on how to make a mashup of the Cobalt and the soft pad that comes with the DDR Universe bundle that will work on the 360. Some soldering is involved (and let’s not forget that $300, either.)

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2007-03-05 · 10:02

A busy Saturday

What a busy day! Here’s a partial list of the things we did:

  • Cleaned most of the house. This is a big deal since we stopped using a housekeeper, but the boys did a good job of their assigned task with (miracle of miracles!) zero complaining.
  • Went to karate class. This is a big production, because it requires getting all 3 of them into their uniforms, but it’s fun to go with them. Last time David was my partner; this time, it was Thomas.
  • Went to Radio Shack (iPod cables for the gym TV) and the bank.
  • Installed Arlene’s Valentine’s Day present. Yes, that’s right. I bought my wife a toilet for Valentine’s Day. Not every husband can pull that off, let me tell you right now.
  • Helped Dad remotely troubleshoot his balky printer. We didn’t figure out exactly what was wrong with it, but at some point it decided to start working on its own (probably from sheer terror at the thought of more troubleshooting!)
  • Unpacked and tested the copy of Dance Dance Revolution Universe for the Xbox 360 that I bought Thursday. This game might as well be titled “Hey, Paul, Your Dancing Sucks,” but we had a good time playing it with the kids.
  • Watched Facing the Giants. Wow. Amazing movie; I’ll write a more detailed review soon. We had a great family discussion afterwords; the movie touched on a lot of important spiritual principles.

I was pretty tired after all that fun; let’s just say I welcomed a quiet Sunday as an antidote!

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Filed under Friends & Family

2007-02-27 · 16:31

Breakpoint (Clarke)

by Richard A. Clarke

Say you wanted to read an exciting techno-thriller, filled with interesting characters, cool gadgets, realistic scenarios, and a writer who knows how to join them all together. Sound good? Excellent. In that case, don’t read this book.
I’m not sure how Richard A. Clarke got a rep as being a deep technical thinker. Maybe he is, but if so, this book certainly doesn’t show it. Breakpoint centers on a shadowy conspiracy to screw the civilized world by destroying much of its information infrastructure. The book starts well enough, with an attack on the terminating points for transoceanic cables that link US internet traffic to the rest of the world. However, the continual pseudo-technical blathering (“server-motor-driven”? err, maybe you meant “servo”?) about “Sytho Routers” and “Living Software” (a spanking-new self-replicating software package that will simultaneously give us a cross between Kurzweil’s Singularity and Skynet) quickly becomes intolerable.
The characters have little verve or dimensionality, the dialogue is bogus (particularly when 1337 h4xx0rs are speaking), and the whole thing left me shaking my head.
I haven’t finished it yet. I keep hoping that it will get better, while simultaneously knowing that it won’t. Don’t bother.

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Filed under Reviews

2007-02-23 · 16:43

Call for Papers: Exchange Connections Fall 2007

Yes, it’s that time of year again: time to submit session proposals for Exchange Connections! Our fall show is from 5-8 November in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. This year the submission process is slightly different. If you’re interested in speaking, visit http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts/ to submit your abstracts. Please do not mail them to me.

A few ground rules:

  • You need to submit at least 3 abstracts, but I encourage you to submit more than 3 to give us more flexibility in choosing sessions.
  • Speakers will be chosen within a few weeks of the closing date, which is currently 3/10.
  • All selected speakers will have their travel expenses (air + hotel) reimbursed and in addition will be paid a stipend of $400 per talk.

What kind of talks should you propose? Anything having to do with Exchange (including DR, security, migration, and best practices), Live Communications Server/Office Communications Server, or related topics. The more technical, the better! (If you plan to repeat sessions from a previous event, please make sure you update the title and abstract to reflect the latest in the Exchange world.)

Please, no vendor “pimp sessions”. If you work for a software or hardware vendor, feel free to propose technical sessions that aren’t focused on your product. If you work for a PR firm, please feel free to have your principals submit technical sessions.

If you have any problems with the submission process, or any questions, please feel free to ping me. Otherwise, fire up those browsers and get busy!

Update: I changed the stipend info; it’s $500 if you’ve presented at more than 5 events, and $400 otherwise.

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2007-02-23 · 15:14

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 details

Very cool news: MS has announced the feature list for Exchange 2007 service pack 1. Those of you who have blasted Exchange 2007 for not having public folder access in OWA (yeah, I’m talking to you) will be glad to know that it’s back, along with public folder management in the Exchange Management Console, S/MIME in OWA, POP and IMAP configuration GUI, and a few other nifty features.

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Filed under UC&C

2007-02-16 · 16:33

Pervasive Allstate ads

We try really hard to limit the amount of advertising that our kids see. We do this via several measures: limiting how much TV they watch, encouraging them to watch non-commercial programs, and using a TiVo to skip ads. However, in the last week, Matt and Tom have both surprised me.
First, on the way to school, Tom asked who our car insurance was with. “State Farm,” I said. “Do they give you a new car if your old one is totaled like Allstate does?” he asked.
I explained that, no, State Farm wouldn’t give us a brand-new car; they’d pay the market value (a concept he already grasps from allocating his allowance.) “You should use Allstate,” he opined, “because they’ll just give you a new car. That’s what their commercial says, anyway.”
That afternoon, Matt was eating a Nerds rope, which he likes to break into sections. He stacked up two sections of unequal length to make a bar graph, pointed at the shorter one, and firmly said “Dad, you could save money on car insurance like this if you used Allstate.”
I don’t know what Allstate is paying Dennis Haysbert, but apparently it’s money well spent.

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Filed under Musings

2007-02-16 · 16:15

2007 Despair catalog, brought to you by…

Today’s mail brought a welcome surprise: the 2007 Despair.com catalog. (Despair offers a collection of very funny faux motivational posters like this and this, and my current favorite). I’ve never ordered anything from them, so I checked the address on the catalog. It was addressed to me at my home address, “Suite I”.

Now, let me explain. I don’t actually have any suites (well, unless you count the kids’ rooms) but I often assign one-letter suite codes when doing business with a new company. Guess who the letter “I” belongs to? Yep: IBM. So, someone at IBM apparently decided to sell customer data to these folks (or, more likely, to a broker who resold them). Perhaps I should start ordering Despair products for the Notes customers I occasionally work with? Now there’s an idea…

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2007-02-16 · 09:28

John shocks me twice

I’m not sure which surprised me more: a new blog post from John, or that he didn’t know about the Outlook date control’s mad interpretative skillz.

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Filed under Friends & Family

2007-02-15 · 15:33

Palm OS Treo “find” feature ignores system password

Wow, this is kind of a big hole: Palm OS Treo Find Feature Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Basically, if you set a password on your Treo, the Find function still works even when the device is locked. (See the details here.) In defense of Palm, the exploit requires physical access, so if your phone is always with you the risk is fairly low. However, according to Symantec, Palm was notified of the exploit and has decided not to fix it. -1 for them.

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2007-02-14 · 14:10

Happy Valentine’s Birthday

Big day today.

First, we got about 6″ of snow last night. No big deal, except that the steady wind drifted it to 12-15″ in spots… like all along our front sidewalk and 2/3 of our driveway. David, Thomas, and I went over to Mom’s to clear her driveway, which went fine until the ancientvenerable snowblower conked out. I then used our small blower to clear our driveway and sidewalks; that only took about an hour.

Second, today is my dear sister’s birthday! Happy birthday, Julie! Enjoy your Wii!

Third, Arlene and I have a saying: “every day is Valentine’s Day”. While it helps to think of it that way, given that today really is Valentine’s Day, I just want her to know how much I love and treasure her. Thanks, darling, for 15 great years… and counting!

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2007-02-14 · 08:38

Toledo Blade columnists start blogging

Good news and bad news from my favorite local newspaper.

Good news: five Blade columnists have started blogs at the paper’s web site. (Thankfully, none of them are opinion columnists.)

Bad news: you can’t get RSS feeds for them. Oh sure, each page sports a little orange RSS logo, but when you click it you get this summary page. It offers some feeds, but none for the columnists. (Bonus bad news: the only comment mechanism is to e-mail the blog author.)

So, I give them a B- for their effort so far. All of the columnists had content posted before the official launch this morning, and it’s all decent intro material. The grade would be higher if I could actually subscribe to their feeds. I called Kevin Cesarz, who’s listed on the masthead as the online editor, to ask him about it, but he wasn’t in.

Update: the feed page now lists the individual columnist feeds. Yay, Blade!

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Filed under Musings

2007-02-13 · 12:01

Windows Mobile and Daylight Savings Time

In last week’s UPDATE, I mentioned the need to patch all your Exchange clients, not excluding Windows Mobile. The process for doing this by hand is pretty tedious. Thankfully, Microsoft today released an all-in-one DST update that contains a single CAB file (plus instructions) that will update your device to have correct time zone information. You need to install the CAB file after you update your Exchange mailbox’s calendar; once it’s installed, you’ll need to change the time zone on your device manually to make Windows Mobile notice the change. Then you’ll need to change it back.

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Filed under General Tech Stuff

2007-02-13 · 10:23

Improving the Cocoa text editor

Via this post on Kirk’s blog, I found this terrific collection of customizations you can apply to the standard Cocoa text editing engine. The article is quite detailed, and it’s tough sledding if you’re not already an experienced Mac user. However, it features some nifty customizations, including the ability to use incremental search for Cocoa text fields. Good stuff.

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