When it's time to leave

On Monday night I went to the Microsoft IE 9 Launch Party.  They rented out the Austin City Limits Moody Theater in Austin, TX.  There were three bands, an open bar, and hundreds of people.  I caught the whole set for Head and Heart, and they are definitely worth checking out.  But that's not what this post is about.

After a few drinks over several hours, I looked around, feeling rather pleasant, and decided it was time to leave. It was a pleasant evening.

But I've come to realize there is a point at an event, especially one with lots of inebriated people, from which the evening can only stay the same, or go down hill.  That doesn't mean I expected trouble -- just that I looked around and realized I wasn't going to get any more out of the event.

Many years ago, I would have waited to see the actual decline every party ultimately goes through, but now...I have no need to witness that. 

I'm sure everyone else there continued to enjoy the event. But I knew that for me, nothing good would come of staying.  Perhaps nothing bad, but nothing good.

Unfortunate Popular Searches

The Bing.Com home page lists popular searches/topics.  They are at the bottom of the picture, on the right side. These are apparently auto generated which resulted in this unfortunate series of headlines today.

5 things I like about Windows 7

I experimented with Windows 7 for a few months on older, secondary hardware. For the past couple weeks I've been running it on my primary personal machine. I'm liking it more everyday.

When I last wrote about Windows 7, I was having trouble with mapping network drives. A few days later, the problem went away. And it has stayed away to the point where I now call it fixed. Of course it seems to have fixed itself all by itself. I have no idea why it started working right so I'm worried the problem will resurface, but for now, things are working.

Aside from that misadventure, though, I'm getting used to all sorts of neat Windows 7 stuff. Here are 5 things I like about Windows 7.

1. Aero-snap: Move a window to the right side of the screen, it maximizes to half your screen width. Move another to the left side, and it does that same. It makes it really easy to arrange multiple windows on the desktop.



2. Multi-monitor support: I'm using a laptop with both an HDMI port and a VGA port. I have two monitors plugged and in and Window 7 handled the extended desktop setup better than any other Windows config I've used.



3. Taskbar: The enhanced previews are really helpful, especially when I'm using multiple displays. Plus, the "Show Desktop" feature in the lower right is pretty cool.



4. Desktop Gadgets: The gadget sidebar is gone and now I can have gadgets strewn about my desktop. I like the execution; now I'll just have to see if I use any of the them.



5. Performance: It definitely feels faster than Vista. It's tough to compare to XP. XP always felt clunkier. Windows 7 feels smoother. It could just be in my head, but whether its real or placebo, it makes me happy just the same.

I'm fairly impressed with Windows 7. And now that my networking problem healed, I can do everything I could under Vista, only better.

Windows 7 and network drive mounting

I've been testing Window 7 (now on RC1, Build 7100) for a few months now. So far I really like it, but there is one problem that is bugging me.

I just put it on one of my main machines. Actually, the one I'm typing on right now. And it is faster than Vista was. The upgrade process (without doing a clean install) went surprisingly smoothly. So I definitely like it. But...

I'm have all sorts of trouble with mapping network drives.

I store my music, pictures, older files, and other miscellaneous things on two 640 GB HDD that are attached to a Linksys NSLU2 NAS device.

Windows 7 usually won't connect to them, however. All I get is this:

When I double click on the drive to reconnect it, "My Computer" or "Windows Explorer" just hangs. And it won't connect.

I've been messing around with all sorts of network settings. I had some brief success earlier. I switched my network type from Home to Work. Then I turned off the Domain setting in the work profile. After a quick reboot, I had my network drives back.

I went away for a couple hours after syncing my iPod and they were gone again. Back to those sad looking drives with the big X.

And trying the same steps don't fix it.

Turning off the Windows firewall doesn't fix it.

What's weird is that I can reach the drives through the web utility for the NSLU2. I can see the data in there from this machine. I just can't map them.

I know it's an issue with this configuration. Another machine on the network (running XP) has no trouble seeing the drives, mapping them, and copying data.

And all the while I've been writing this, Windows is still trying to map that drive.

So I guess I've got a few more hours of trouble shooting ahead tomorrow.

Any suggestions?

Update: Well, the problem seems to have solved itself. Several days after that post, suddenly my mapped drives were back and working as well as ever. It's weird because it's not like another update to Windows came d0wn. The problem just seems to have healed, which worries me because it could some back. But it's fixed for now and I have no idea what I did.

MSFT laptop hunter ads annoy Apple

Apparently, Apple is not happy with the current Microsoft ad campaign.

From the Seattle Times:

Microsoft said it received a call from Apple saying Microsoft needs to stop running the laptop-hunter TV ads that harp on Apple for expensive computers. Why? Because Apple has lowered is prices.

That's according to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, who said he took a call from an Apple attorney. two weeks ago. He initially thought it was a practical joke, then said he found out Apple had cut prices on its computers.

...More

No more Money

A couple weeks ago, Microsoft made they sad announcement that they are discontinuing my favorite video game -- Microsoft Money. The current version will be the last one, and in less than two years, they will turn off the online updates service.

You can see the official announcement here, and the FAQ here. The software will keep working beyond that day; users just won't be able to make electronic payments through Money or automatically download updates. To get updates, they will need to manually download them from their banking provider.

Or switch to Quicken or another financial application.

It's too bad, really. I've been using Money to run my financial life for years. The first entry in my Money file is from 1995-02-17. I paid $17.72 to my Exxon credit card. I probably began using the application a couple months later (since I didn't have the computer until about March) but I went back and entered older data.

It was Money that showed me just how far in debt I was at my worst, and kept me on track for paying things off and minimizing my spending. The EPAY feature allowed me to make payments directly from the software instead of mailing in checks. That helped keep me from missing payments, incurring more late fees, and spending a ton on stamps.

The rising net worth chart gave me some positive reinforcement and encouraged me to continue. The drops in the net worth chart reminded me to refocus my efforts to pay down debt and save more.

A few years later I started traveling for work, and Money was an invaluable tool for managing my expense reports. The charts and reports made it easy for me to track my business expenses and separate them from personal expenses. It made it easier to manage the whole process of making interest free loans to large multi-national corporations.

And more recently, I learned to use Money to maximize my profit from Credit Card Arbitrage.

It's disappointing to see it go, but I suppose it makes sense for MSFT to do it. They seem to be streamlining their products lines and cutting products that are less critical to their success, less profitable, and with smaller fan bases.

And as a product it may have been reaching then end of its development life. Money is already a full featured home-finance application so there's not much more they could do to it to enourage people to buy the next version.

I guess I'll be doing some research over the next year.

Best kept Windows secret

One of the most under appreciated tools in Windows is the System Restore tool. Microsoft introduced this tool in the much hated Windows ME release.


It's helpful for removing viruses, resetting a machine after a coworker changes things, or fixing things that I screw up while experimenting with applications, drivers, and settings.

Periodically, the tool takes a "snapshot" of critical Windows system files, like the registry. It stores a certain number of these snapshots (depending on how much disk space you allow) and lets you reset Windows to an earlier point in time when you need to. It takes these snapshots on a time schedule, or when Windows updates, and some sometimes when new applications are added.

The user can also tell the system to create a snapshot whenever they like. This is a good thing to do before making system changes.



When someone tells me their system suddenly started acting weird, one of the first things I'll do (after other basic troubleshooting steps) is run a System Restore to get the machine back into the condition it was a week or a month earlier. This usually fixes the problem.

Unlike reinstalling Windows, System Restore affects only Windows files. It will not make changes to or damage your data.

After you run System Restore, you may need to reinstall applications you had installed after the machine took the snapshot you just restored to. But it's possible those applications were causing problems anyway.

In Windows XP, you can get to the tool by going to Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore.

In Vista or Windows 7, just hit the Start button, and then type "System Restore" in the search box.

Familiarize yourself with the tool if it's new to you. You may find it quite useful one day.

Windows 7 looks like a winner

I've been playing with Windows 7 Beta for a few months and have been fairly pleased with it. Over the weekend, I installed the latest version, Release Candidate 1. It's working even more smoothly.

I'm using it on a 6 year old laptop, running on a Pentium M processor (pre-Centrino days) and I'm getting fine performance from it. It's quicker than the XP image I had on this notebook and handles multiple applications well.

I'm not sure I'd trust this hardware to Vista.

Now don't get me wrong. I liked Vista. On the right hardware it was great. But older hardware is always more of a challenge -- and it's a challenge Windows 7 appears to meet.

There were a few issues. The OS didn't automatically install my SD card reader or my USB webcam. I had to seek out drivers for those. It took a Windows Update visit to get my WiFi to work. And, while my touchpad works as a mouse, it doesn't have any of the advanced features that were available under XP.

It handles 50 Firefox tabs at once, and gives decent performance under IE 8.

My favorite Vista feature (like the searh bar in the Start menu and check boxes for selecting files) are still here. The desktop and task bar are cleaner.

The only weird interface thing I haven't figured out yet is getting new items to appear in my Start menu. They're on the system. I can launch them from the search box on the star menu. But I can't figure out how to scroll to them. I probably just screwed something up.

If you'd like to try it, MSFT is offering it as a free download. It will run as normal until March of next year, at which time you will need to purchase and install the final version of Window 7.

This is still a Beta product, which means it is still considered to be in testing, so there is some risk there. Make sure you backup your data.

When you install it, it's best to do it on a blank hard drive. Back up all the data you want to keep before you install it.

But if you have any older machine laying around and want to play with the next version of Windows, give it shot.

Canvas for OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is one of my favorite applications. At work, Outlook and OneNote are the two programs you will most often find running on my machine. I take all of my handwritten, typewritten and copy/pasted notes in OneNote.

It means I don't have paper notebooks laying around. I don't have multiple files to keep track of my conversations. I don't have a lot of scratch paper. It's all in OneNote. OneNote might even be my most often used printer.

At home I write my book reviews in OneNote, manage quotes, draft long blog posts, collect miscellaneous stuff from the web, and just generally dump stuff in there that I don't have another place for.

Tonight I saw an article about Canvas in the Seattle PI. I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces.

From the Seattle PI:

Discard the notion that working with documents, at least in Microsoft's OneNote software, requires looking at them, for the most part, page by page.

A prototype unveiled Friday lets users see thumbnails of all the pages they have created within the organizing and note-taking program on one screen.

...More

If you are not familiar with OneNote, think of it as a virtual three ring binder.

I can put as many pages in it as I want, and I can divide those into as many sections as I want. I can use handwriting in it if I'm on my Tablet PC, or I can just type in it. Unlike Word, I can type anywhere on the page at any time.

It has an audio recorder so I can record meeting notes while I take them. When I play back that audio it highlights where I was in my notes at that point in the discussion. Or I can just click on a confusing part of my notes and it plays just that portion.

Etc. Etc.

Plus, I never have to save my file. OneNote is always automatically saving in the background.

I could go on about OneNote, but I'll spare you that. I don't work for MSFT, but I often do end up doing OneNote training presentations in my job. If you want to play with it (a don't already have a copy that came with some flavors of office) you can download a free trial from MSFT.

Canvas is an add on for OneNote that takes the metaphor a step further. Sure, it's great to have a three ring binder, but sometimes you want to crack open those rings and spread those sheets of loose leaf out over the floor so you can see and navigate everything at once.

Canvas lets you do that.

According to Microsoft:

Canvas for OneNote allows you to navigate and edit notebooks in a new way by providing a high-level canvas-view of all your content. The prototype lets you zoom and pan around; view and organize content in new ways; add new pages right where you want them; and even locate pages in a timeline view.

It's a new innovation from Microsoft Office Labs. Office Labs is basically experimenting with new approaches to Office applications. From their website:

As you view and try our ideas and prototypes on the site, treat them like "Concept Cars." They aren't actual products or features of Microsoft Office and may not work perfectly under all conditions. However, they are steps toward improving everyday productivity and we’d like you to be part of the innovation moving forward by taking a test drive or two, telling us what you think, and helping us shape the technology of the future.

I'll be playing more with Canvas over the next couple of weeks on my personal machine. You can see some sample videos on the MSFT Canvas page.

Investment choices for 2009

Last year, I made my annual deposit into my Roth IRA and then did the best thing I possibly could have with that cash -- nothing. 2008 was obviously a bad year for the stock market (worst since the thirties). I still managed to beat the S&P 500 by about 2%.

And outside of stock market, I did pretty okay with some credit card arbitrage. Hopefully in this era of shockingly low interest rates, I'll have more opportunities for that.

The stock market always has down years. You can't have the big up years without those occasionally plummets. And long term, the stock market is still the best investment choice out there. So I will continue to put funds I don't plan to need for 10 years into the market.

After the plunge, there are bound to be some good bargains out there. I'm in the early stages of my stock shopping now. I'm doing more research in the coming weeks, but here are the companies I am considering as investment opportunities.

• Apple
• Alaska Airlines
• Allscripts
• AMD
• Best Buy
• Costco
• Exxon Mobil
• Ford
• FedEx
• Google
• Intel
• Microsoft
• Starbucks
• TiVo
• Toyota
• US Bank

I already own some of these, but I will take a look at every thing I already own and decide whether or not to keep it. The key factor in deciding whether or not to keep it will be, "Would I buy it at this price?" If not, it's gone.

Any thoughts on those companies as investment opportunities? What stocks are you looking at as we head into the new year?

Wired's profile on Ray Ozzie

This month (issue 16.12), Wired's cover story is a profile on Ray Ozzie. Ozzie is the creator of Lotus Notes and Groove. Currently, he is Microsoft's Chief Software Architect. The last person to have that title? Bill Gates. While Steve Balmer may run the business of Microsoft, it's Ozzie who is developing the vision. Recently, Ozzie introduced Microsoft's new cloud computing initiatives and related products.

It's an interesting profile, and it offers some insight as to where Microsoft plans to go from here.

A short list of what the Internet is about today would inlcude video sharing, eCommerce, file trading, social networking, telecommuting, news dissemination, and blog based commentary. A longer list could go on for pages and encompass a range of activities legal and illegal or wholesome and seemy.

But at its core, it's about bringing people together -- about letting people be who they can and want to be without the limitations of geography, appearnce, age, or physical ability. Sometimes that gets lost in the noise coming from the latest buzz word.

This story from the article was particularly telling. The core of what network communication was about in the 70s is what it's still about today. Here is my favorite passage from the article.

One incident in particular introduced Ozzie to the magic that comes when people connect via computer. He had taken a part-time assignment helping a professor finish writing some courseware. The prof lived on the other side of town, so Ozzie collaborated with him remotely. Ozzie came to know and like his boss, save for one annoyance. "He was the worst typist ever," Ozzie says. "He was very eloquent on email, but on Term Talk [early form of instant messaging]it was just dit-dit-dit, sometimes an error, but agonizingly slow." At the end of the project, the man threw a party at his house, and Ozzie discovered the reason for the typing problem: The professor was a quadriplegic and had been entering text by holding a stick in his teeth and poking it at the keyboard. Ozzie was floored.
Plato terminals at the University of Illinois gave users interactivity.

"I remember really questioning my own attitudes," Ozzie says. "I had been communicating with him mind to mind. Technology lets you do that, unprejudiced by what anyone looks like. From that era forward, I just knew I wanted to work on something related to communications and interactive systems."

...More

MS Money Plus error: "This operation cannot be performed"

Two years passed since I last bought MSFT Money. That meant I could no longer use it for online banking.

It makes little sense to me why they cap the banking service at two years, other than to make people purchase the updated version. I didn't need any of the new features. I've been pretty happy with the feature set for the past six or seven years. Regardless, I had to upgrade if I wanted to continue to use on line banking in the same way.

The latest version of Money -- Microsoft Money Plus is no longer available in retail stores. You now have to purchase it and download it from Microsoft or a different vendor. I'm still a fan of shrink wrap software, so this was mildly frustrating, too.

Since I don't like Quicken, though, I bought and downloaded Money.

I made a back up of my data file and the downloaded application. Next, I installed the new software. It seemed to work well, and it seemed to import my file properly, but then the error started.

Every time I went to the main landing page, it said "This operation cannot be performed." It gave the option of clicking "Okay" or "More information." I clicked okay and got this error message:

"This operation cannot be performed."

It gave me the same option again. And I got the same result.

"This operation cannot be performed."

This went on for 10 or 15 clicks and then I would get to the landing page. Every time I tried to get to that page, it told me 10 or 15 time that the operation couldn't be performed.

If I chose the more information option, I got this:


You can see how helpful that is.

Everything seemed to work fine, but those extra 10 or 15 clicks were starting to wear out my mouse.

Google to the Rescue!

A quick Google search took me to this Live Journal page by Edmund Wong. He apparently went through the same thing.

When Money imports the date file from a previous version, it can corrupt the budget data. To fix the problem, delete the old budget. Once you delete the old budget, the error message goes away and you can create a new budget.

So now instead of an old budget that I never used, I now have a new budget that I'll never use.

And that's what we call progress.

Brief thoughts on PowerPoint

In many organizations, people use PowerPoint for two different purposes:

1. As a presentation tool for a speaker
2. As a word processor where the author intends the recipeient to read the slides at their desk

Whether people should be using PowerPoint as an alternative to Word is another matter.

Much of the bad PowerPoint presentations in the world exist because many users fail to make that distinction. A PowerPoint file intended for reading must be written differently than one intended for use by a speaker. The same slide deck is unlikely to be appropriate for both purposes.

If more authors pay attention to these distinction, PowerPoint may cease to be such a painful experience.

The Mojave Experiment

Microsoft developed a new ad campaign for Vista. The Mojave Experiment brings in people for a focus group where they get to try the next version of Windows.

They begin by asking the people what they think of Vista -- and they all hate it. They apparently hate Vista without ever having used it.

Then they try Mojave and rave about how much better it is than Vista.

They are, of course, shocked, when the Microsoft rep let's them in on a little secret. The new Mojave operating system? Actually it's just their hated Vista.

It's interesting because it demonstrates that much of the virulence directed towards Vista is actually not related to Vista. Much of the anti-Vista bias is not based in reality, but in bad press (both in traditional and new media) and underscores the need for a company to actually respond to critics and promote accurate information about its products.

I know there are people who have had legitimate issues with Vista (like with XP, 2000, NT, 98, 95, etc). But those numbers are smaller than mass-perception might indicate.

The Mojave Experiment is an interesting approach to marketing and an interesting examination of the power of branding.

Iconic Branding

A few simple changes to packaging can highlight the differences between two companies.

What if Microsoft designed the iPod box?

MSFT Expanding in Seattle

One reason I like to get first class upgrades when I fly is that I work up there. I usually can't type on my notebook when I'm in coach. There's simply no room. Then I am left to reading a book or watching a movie.

That seems like a good deal because I get some extra leisure time on the plane in coach. But the problem is, I still need to do the work, and may have to stay up late to get everything done once I reach my destination.

In other words, if I can work on the plane for 3 hours, I can go to bed 3 hours earlier that night.

It seems Microsoft understands this concept. They made two major announcements in Seattle today. They are expanding in the city of Seattle (as opposed to Redmond), and they are introducing their own bus service for employees.

I find this interesting. Microsoft is expanding in the downtown Seattle area. They will have 1400 jobs to the area over the next few months.

In addition to the new jobs, they are adding space to accommodate Redmond workers who find themselves on this side of the lake.

One goal is to better accommodate Microsoft employees who live in Seattle, Liddell said. In addition to the traditional office space, the company is creating 150 "touch down" spaces in the Westlake/Terry building -- small spots where employees who work in Redmond can sit down, plug in a laptop and work in Seattle for a couple of hours when they have a meeting in the city or want to avoid rush hour.

"The spaces are temporary -- they won't be second offices," Liddell explained. "But they will help relieve some of the pressures and unnecessary back-and-forths currently taking place."

Since much work these days requires simply a notebook computer and an internet connection, workers can have more flexibility.

The main campus is several miles east of Seattle, but it can take anywhere from 25 to 105 minutes to get there depending on traffic. And with Seattle's inability to make any decisions on infrastructure, I don't see that changing.

And MSFT doesn't want employees squandering hours sitting in a stopped car on the SR520 floating bridge. So they are also starting their own bus service.

The 14-bus Microsoft "Connector" system, to debut later this month, was announced as the company unveiled plans to open new offices in Seattle's South Lake Union and Pioneer Square neighborhoods.

At launch, the bus system will handle no more than 1,000 employees a day. That's only a slice of Microsoft's more than 35,000 employees in the region.

But the fact that Microsoft would find it necessary to take such a step added new fuel to the debate over comprehensive regional transportation reform.
...

The pilot program will include 14 buses, including seven large coaches with bike storage, and electrical outlets at each seat, in addition to Wi-Fi. Seven midsize coaches will be used for neighborhood pickups. There will be multiple runs in the morning and afternoon, Smith said.

...
Besides reducing traffic congestion and minimizing air pollution, keeping employees out of bumper-to-bumper traffic also keeps them happy.

And with those amenities on the bus, it looks like transit time can more effectively be used as work time. And maybe someone can get to bed an hour or two earlier

For more information about the downtown expansion, click here.

For more information about the new bus service, click here.