One of the things that Windows has never done particularly well is manage the process of getting rid of software. Sometime an application shows up in the “install/uninstall software” dialog, sometimes the software has its own uninstaller, and sometimes neither is true. Sometimes the supplied process gets rid of every trace of the unwanted software, and sometimes stray bits and pieces are left scattered across your system. Now, there’s a bit of freeware that helps get rid of software you don’t want: Revo Uninstaller. It’s a great little piece of software that gives you several options for zapping unwanted applications. There are also features for managing the software that automatically starts when you boot your system.

I tried Revo Uninstaller on a USB camera application that, it turned out, was incompatible with Vista. The app didn’t show up in the Windows dialog, and didn’t include its own uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller found it, got rid of it, and even asked about some stray registry keys when it was finished. I end up loading and unloading a lot of software on my systems, and I can see this being the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Thanks to the always-useful LifeHacker for the pointer.

Technorati Tags: consumer, enterprise, software, utility

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, Software
No Comments »

So MSNBC has an article telling us that some folks are still complaining about Vista. They’re right about the major problems–driver incompatibilities and the utterly ridiculous way in which User Account Control was implemented–but they haven’t really touched on the basis of the bad feelings some of us have toward this product.
I sat down over a year ago with Jim Allchin and other members of the Vista team, and they told me two things: First, Vista was going to be on time; and second, Vista was going to be fabulous. At that point, they had already been tossing features overboard to make the ship date, but by now it’s obvious that either the final feature set or the ship date should have been revised in a big way before the end of last year. Microsoft had become so heavily invested in their self-imposed deadline, and so wrapped up in the hype machine surrounding Vista, that it was beyond their corporate ability to give full value to both. I say this because most of the “Vista will be fabulous” talk we got that day on the Microsoft campus revolved around Vista’s 64-bit capabilities. Guess what? Installations of 64-bit Vista are still rare as hen’s teeth because Microsoft is working very hard not to sell the licenses. They work so hard because the still-growing number of 32-bit drivers dwarfs the number of 64-bit drivers available.
I’m still using Vista on one machine, and the experience has spanned the distance from acceptable to intensely frustrating. Will I go back to XP on the one machine? No. I need to keep Vista for part of my work, and I’ve gotten it to a state in which it doesn’t interfere with most of my projects. Will I recommend anyone else move to Vista? Not right now…at least not if the anyone else is someone I like. If XP no longer meets your needs, look at Linux, try Mac OS, but don’t plan on shifting to Vista unless you feel you just have way too much productive time on your hands. I’m sure that Microsoft will eventually get it right, but I have absolutely no way to predict when that will happen.
It’s a shame, because Vista does show promise. The slow-motion, dribbling release of Vista might go unnoticed at a lot of firms, but Microsoft isn’t a lot of firms. Microsoft will use bluff and bravado to try to convince the world that the Vista roll-out has gone precisely as planned, but if this is how things are supposed to work, God help us if Microsoft ever has a broken release.

Thanks to Instapundit for pointing out the MSNBC article. It’s worth reading.

Technorati Tags: Vista, software, operating, system, Microsoft

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, General computing, Software
No Comments »

Following up a link to blogging resources, here’s list of more than 70 podcasting tools and resources. Looking through the list, there are a variety of different ways of podcasting represented, so if you’re not ready to take the plunge with a home studio you’ll still find tools to help.

Get out there, and get podcasting! The world is always looking for great stories…

Categories: Consumer, Media
No Comments »

I also had a chance to do a couple of interviews for the Enterprise 2.0 conference in June. All the conference podcasts are here. I interviewed Bob McCandless and Irwin Lazar on the characteristics of Enterprise 2.0–and why an organization would want to embrace the new model. Thanks, on all these podcasts, to Carol. She’s the producer who makes the recordings sound far better than they would without her touch.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Categories: General computing, Housekeeping, Media
No Comments »

I haven’t recorded podcasts for this site–sorry about that. I have been podcasting, though, just for the Interop conference. If you’d like to hear interviews with a bunch of interesting folks, head over the the Interop Podcast Archives to catch up.

I am planning to start podcasting here–I’m just trying to figure out how it’s going to work with a bunch of other things that are happening in my life right now. Lots of work, school starting…it’s a good set of decisions to have to make.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Categories: General computing, Housekeeping, Publications
No Comments »

Last week I was up in Washington, D.C. speaking at the Publishing for Impact conference sponsored by the World Bank. On the one hand, it was fairly heady stuff for a guy who’s spent most of his career talking to fellow geeks. On the other hand, it was exciting to hear people talking about using new technologies to reach audiences in developing nations. I was talking about podcasting, and was interested to hear folks discussing the possibility of podcasts for distributing public health information in Africa. In nations where neither electricity nor telephone service can be counted on as a 24 x 7 commodity, podcasts are a great tool, since they can be downloaded to a battery-powered device during connection times and listened to sometime later.

More important for me was hearing people talking about technology that’s critical to someone’s life. We get used to thinking about technology as convenient or important to the way we do business–for most of us, a podcast isn’t going to be a life or death issue. There are places and people for whom it is that important, though–and it’s good for me to remember that as I work on these systems.

I haven’t mentioned the book in a while, so I’ll put a link down here in this post. If you haven’t read it, yet, I can certainly recommend it. the book is The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting.

Categories: Enterprise, General computing, Media
No Comments »

One of the things I’ve already started thinking about is the computer I’ll haul around campus. I’ve got a neat Gateway desktop-replacement laptop, but it has two qualities that make it just slightly less than ideal as a classroom machine. First, it’s just a hair heavy–I’m guessing it comes in somewhere in the 6.5 lb range. That only bothers me so much, though. The thing that really has me worried is that I keep my life on this thing. Really. The up-to-the-minute version of my work, my e-mail, my schedule, all my cool reference files–they’re on the hard disk here. Oh, I know about backup, and I do keep things backed up reasonably well, but those back-ups are analgesic, not truly prophylactic. Having them reduces the pain when something goes wrong, but they can’t keep the pain from happening.

To avoid the pain, I’m thinking about using a little Dell XPS machine I’ve had sitting around for a couple of years. It’s not the hottest new processor, it has a tiny hard disk (less than 20 gigs), and not much memory (384k), but it’s really small, really light, and has built-in networking. I’m thinking that a stripped-down OS with just enough applications might make this the perfect note-taking platform, since it would also let me check e-mail, do a bit of research, and check my schedule between classes. My real question is whether to keep it on Windows XP or try a Linux variant–Ubuntu, perhaps? I’d be interested in your thoughts on this one…and I’ll keep you posted on the decisions.

What made me really think seriously about this? The introduction of the Foleo from Palm. I’ve heard a number of folks talking about what a useless concept it is, but I disagree. Sometimes, you just need something to do basic work on until you can get back to the Mother Ship. The Foleo isn’t trying to be your only computer–it’s trying to be the device you carry with you when your real computer is just a little too much. I don’t know whether the Foleo will be a wildly successful device, but I think the category will be, though it may take a little while to fully develop. Jeff Hawkins has a good track record on this sort of thing–I wouldn’t bet against him here.

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, General computing, Mobile
No Comments »

I’ll admit it: I hate being stranded with nothing to do. It’s one of the things that has bothered me about taking the van back to the dealer for service–I’ve spent more than enough time trapped in a small room with old magazines, three strangers, and Jerry Springer on the television. This morning I took it in for an oil change and sat down with my laptop to write out a couple of outlines for articles. Lo and behold, there’s a wireless network. Oh, not at my dealer. The fancy Acura dealer next door, though, has an open wireless net and I was next to the window. Three bars symbolized happiness and productivity for about an hour this morning.

During all this short-lived joy, I couldn’t help but notice that Vista does a pretty good job of managing wireless connections. I particularly like the division of networks into public, home, and business, with different levels of protection for each. It’s a good thing.

I’m somewhat less impressed with the power management settings. Normally I like to keep my laptop on high-performance, fire-breathing, full afterburner mode. When batteries are carrying the load, though, I’m willing to ease of on the horsepower to get a battery life that goes beyond double-digit minutes. Vista offers three pre-set power schemes, with a setting that tells the machine to switch schemes depending on whether or not it’s plugged in. Trouble is, that last piece doesn’t work. “Balanced” is a weeny way to go, but it works for now, and I’ll keep with it until I figure out how to make the switch automatic.

Off to Las Vegas for Interop next week…more from Sin City.

Categories: General computing
No Comments »

Vista is, in many ways, like a new puppy: I enjoy taking it out, but I’m always on the lookout for stray puddles on the carpet. I’m working on a set of tests down at the university, and today was the first trip to the lab with the new Vista machine. On the whole, I was pleased. My laptop recognized the university wireless network, properly complained about a certificate, and asked just how vulnerable I wanted to be while I was there. Good stuff. On the other hand, I needed to download a file and Vista worked hard to keep me from storing it where I wanted.

That really sums up my experience with Vista, so far: Lots of good stuff with a lot of little annoyances thrown in to keep me from being enthusiastic. I’ll agree that it is, on balance, an improvement over Windows XP. I wish the 64-bit version was readily available (and usable) right now, but I’ll limp along with the junior version. With everything I’ve been through on the switch to Vista, though, there is one thing I’m confident of: If Apple released a version of the Macintosh OS that would run on my laptop I’d switch in a heartbeat. I’m confident I’m not alone in this. Apple should be listening.

Categories: Consumer Technology, General computing, Software
No Comments »

After a week of working with Vista I can say that I’m…still here. I can’t say that I’m thrilled with Vista, because I’m not, really. There’s the sort of “did I just survive that!?!” one often gets after a particularly reckless motorcycle stunt, but it’s not the kind of thrill you generally want in a business setting. There are some interesting things going on, but I should set this up just a bit…

I got my copy of Vista through the Express Upgrade program. My Gateway laptop, ordered in late November, shipped with XP, but I jumped through the hoops necessary to get my disc sent on its way. It arrived in due time, I backed up all my data files, and the Great Upgrade began.

I decided, against Microsoft’s advice, to try the update (rather than the clean install) for my first installation attempt. Big mistake. There’s nothing like a looping Blue Screen of Death in an OS install to get your attention. After an hour or so of trying to get the installation process to fix itself I gave up and did the clean install. Much better.

Vista comes alive, and it’s first impression time: Hmm, they seem to have given me a new toolbar. I’m a fan of the Google sidebar, so I look at the Microsoft version and spend about ten minutes with it before downloading Google.

Getting things set up was relatively straight forward, though it took a while before I got the MTU issue settled. I run a screwy custom MTU on my home network (thanks, BellSouth), and getting the new value established took a while. It was finally done, though, and I could start using the system.

First note: I’d been told that Office 2007 ran faster under Vista than under XP. My impression is that this is true, tbough the difference in performance isn’t nearly as great as I’d like. Perhaps if I work up the courage to upgrade to Vista 64…

More later, but it’s late. I’ll be back soon.

Categories: Consumer Technology, General computing, Software
No Comments »

I had been meaning to write a post on some very inconvenient corporate behavior on the part of CheckPoint. Instead, I’ve been spending time switching my main computer over to Vista. Yeah, I know, I can hear you laughing from here. So far, it’s been an adventure, and not one that’s made me very happy, but I hope to have a usable system by the end of the weekend. Some things are working well (Office 2007 seems slightly snappier), some not so well (it’s going to be a while before I have the security settings figured out), but I think it’s going to be an educational process (if not a productive one) when it’s over.

More soon…

Categories: General computing, Software
No Comments »

I’ve received word via e-mail that my express upgrade to Vista Office Premium has shipped. I’m a touch confused, because the note says that it’s shipped, and warns that it could be three weeks before it appears. I’ve tried to think of a modern shipping method that could take three weeks to travers any distance within the continental United States. The only thing I can come up with is that they’re shipping it on its own barge. When it arrives at a Florida port, it will transfer to a rail car, and then to a truck for final shipping to my office. I’m looking forward to the shipping label.

You’d think they could spring for UPS…

Anyway, three weeks gives me plenty of time to get my files backed up before it arrives. I’ll be blogging on the process, which I hope will be smoother than I dare expect. This should be an adventure–sort of like operating system BASE jumping. Let the climbing begin.

Categories: General computing, Software
No Comments »

OK, a frank admission: I haven’t migrated to Vista. I’ve got my free premium upgrade on order (and a recent e-mail says that it’s going to ship sometime during or after next week) but I’m still working with Windows XP. I’ve made the shift to Office 2007, and I’m hoping that the Vista migration will cause my head to hurt less, but I’m beginning to think that’s wishful thinking.

For the last few days I’ve been watching my father-in-law make the leap to Vista. Before I go any farther, understand this: He’s no computer novice. He’s been working with computers since around the time I was born, got me interested (and trained) in computers, and has the sort of knowledge depth that most four- or five-letter certifications can only hint at. He’s done Vista the right way, buying a new super-honking, fire-breathing computer that came with the new OS already installed. All he has to do is move his applications and data files from the old softly-honking, steam-snorting computer to the new one. Piece of cake, right? Yeah.

Let me say now that if the process I’ve seen is the best that Microsoft could come up after laboring for several years, then Vista may be the last new operating system many of us will ever live to see. I’ve witnessed a level of frustration normally reserved for morally-upright 15-year olds, and still haven’t heard that most wonderful of statements, “Everything is moved over and working.” It’s enough to make me consider a Mac.

To be honest, if I had a bit more scratch right now I probably would consider a Mac. The truth is that the combined changes in Vista and Office 2007 are not dramatically more involved that the change to the Macintosh would be for most people. File incompatibilities have been minimized and there are some very nifty things I’ve seen run as widgets on Macs. Until then, though, I’ll wait for Vista. After what I’ve seen so far I’m not looking forward to it, but I am waiting.

Categories: General computing, Software
No Comments »

Earlier this week I wrote about my adventures in Daylight Saving Time. In that post I mentioned that the Cingular support site said that my Samsung Blackjack didn’t need an update–that everything should be fine. That turned out not to be the case; I found the necessary patches and fixed my system. All worked out just fine.

Today, March 15, I received a text message from Cingular letting me know that we are going to change to Daylight Saving Time on March 11. Oh yes, my Blackjack will need a software update last Sunday. When I went to check this out on the Cingular Support Page, I found that the page had been updated to say that, yes indeed, I will need to update my Blackjack on or before the 11th.

I draw several lessons from this. First, it’s to Cingular’s credit that they did eventually figure it out and deliver correct information to their customers–I’m going to assume that other Blackjack owners got a similar message in their in-box today. Next, in a company the size of Cingular/AT&T you’d think they could find someone who has mastered verb tenses. They need some work on the whole past/present/future thing. Finally, while I give them credit for eventually sending out correct information, why wasn’t it available, oh, last Saturday (March 10th)? It’s not like this whole Daylight Saving Time were some last-minute surprise tossed at the phone company. There were announcements about this. It was in all the larger papers.

Of course, I shouldn’t complain too loudly, since Cingular is far from the only small business to have trouble with the shift to Daylight Saving Time. Yesterday when I flew back from San Francisco our Delta Air Lines 767 gave us the local time at our destination. Yep, their clock hadn’t gotten its new marching orders. It’s hard to explain just how much confidence that gave me as we soared into the sky. It was enough to make me forget all about my cell phone…

Categories: Consumer Technology, Embedded, General computing, Media
No Comments »

…is up at Dark Reading. It’s a rant on the “20 worst…” lists that have become so popular. It’s not that the lists aren’t good, it’s that so many of the items on the list can be boiled down into a few basic problems. In the column I, you guessed it, bile them collards down, as the old song has it. I’ll take the pot likker and stop this string of analogies before I’m compelled to bring anything like chitlins to the table.

You know, though, a lot of the very complicated things we worry about can be broken down into very simple rules. I’ve had to mandate–and take–sexual harassment classes in various jobs. All the words, examples, and legal precedents can be summed up very neatly: Be a gentleman; be a lady; don’t be an ass. There–I’ve just saved you thousands of dollars on harassment training. In the same way, I run across so many IT problems that could have been solved if someone–anyone, actually–had applied Thomas Watson’s famous word: Think.

We’ve built such a cult around speed that thinking about the problem we’re trying to solve and the consequences of our solution gets short shrift. I’m sure you can supply your own example here; anyone who’s been in business for more than 38 minutes can. It’s time to bring thinking back into fashion. Security is a good place to start, but it’s starting that’s the key.

Think.

Categories: Enterprise, Security
No Comments »