greg hughes - dot net

Like Scott, I am always curious where my readers are from. Here's my guest map - please add your location! Just click on the guestmap image below to open a new window to view and "sign" it (I had to change this, the heavy iFrame version was killing my site - and I fixed the issue that was preventing some people from being able to sign the map):

    

Looks like Microsoft on Tuesday released Microsoft Messenger v5.0 for Mac OS X. And since I recently became a Mac owner and added the Apple brand to my computer family, stuff like this make me a happier guy.

"Messenger for Mac 5.0 makes it easy to take advantage of the full power of instant messaging. Messenger for Mac offers two types of communication services - a personal account and a corporate account. A personal account works with the MSN® Messenger service on the Microsoft Passport Network. Contacts that you add to your personal account will include friends and family members. A corporate account uses the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server service and can include contacts who use other instant messaging services, such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo Messenger, and iChat users who are signed in with AOL accounts."

More info here, and download here.

At http://wigle.rustyredwagon.com/ you can search for an address and see a whole list of WiFi connections mapped by war drivers from all over.

I noticed no one is war driving out in my ultra-remote neck of the woods, though.

And they say there's LOTS of WiFi in Portland - this pic proves it (click for full size - and check out the error, heh):

"...wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a native Windows version that resided totally on CD and could be used to recover your distressed PC..."

Yes, it would. And as JK points out, there is one available. It's called BartPE (Bart Preinstalled Environment), and it lets you construct an awesomely useful boot CD. There's lots of plugins available, too.

• Screenshots here
• Download and get started here

Okay for personal use, and for business use in your company, but not free to redistribute.

Astronaut Steve Robinson has done the first Podcast from space... Say what you want about Podcasting. You have to admit that when someone does it from the space shuttle, that's pretty big deal.

And to think a year ago nobody had ever heard of podcasting...

Listen here (MP3)

"At any rate I will close this very brief first podcast from space with a greeting to all Earthings and a thank you for your interest and support. Whether you support the space program or not, you're learning from it. You're learning from it the very moment you hear this and think about what we're doing. And I think that learning is what looking over the horizon is all about, and don't forget that learning can be exciting and fun, too, because that's certainly what this mission has been all about."

Fact is, unless you're developing from scratch, there hasn't been a whole lot of help out there in terms of building apps on top of Windows SharePoint Services in order to enhance business.

Until now, that is.

Last week, Microsoft released 30 new application templates that enhance WSS and let you use the platform to solve more problems and meet more needs common to business. And these are out-of-the-box applications, not just starting points, although knowledgeable people could certainly use them as a beginning for something bigger if they like.

This is exactly what we need more of - help extending the platform without having to do it all ourselves. This is the kind of thing that makes SharePoint viable for smaller businesses that can't or don't want to take the time to customize from the ground up.

You can see them all in action, live and for real, at Bil Simser's public SharePoint site (found via Mark Harrison).

Also - for help installing them all, check out Raphael Londner's weblog post.

Here are the new apps, and they are no slouching solutions - these looks to be some solid business templates:

Scenarios Available for Download

Absence and Vacation Schedule Board of Directors Case Work Management Change Management Classroom Management Competitive Intelligence Employee Activities Site Employee Timesheet and Scheduling Employee Training Event Coordination

Expense Reimbursement Help Desk HR Programs and Services IT Developer Team Site Legal Document Review Workflow Loan Initiation Management Marketing Campaigns Meeting Management New Product Development Performance Review

Professional Svcs Contracts Professional Svcs Site Project Team Site Public Official Activity Public Relations Work Site Publication Editorial Review Recruiting Resource Center Request for Proposal Management Room and Equipment Reservation Travel Request

Here's a shameless plug of my very own... I guest-co-hosted the Tablet PC Show with James Kendrick today, filling in for the one and only (and much-better-at-this-than-me) Marc Orchant. It's been published, so check it out if you like:

The TABLET PC Show #19 (MP3 - 21MB - 60min)

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

Marc Orchant was away but guest co-host Greg Hughes graciously stepped in and we have an action packed show. Greg fills us in on the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet PC that he’s been lucky enough to use for the past month so anyone interested in this fine convertible (or those anxiously awaiting delivery) will get some good information to take away. After the break we shift focus to the hot topic of the week, WindowsVista Beta 1, and round up the information that is starting to emerge from those brave enough to install it on a Tablet PC. Enjoy the show and as always we appreciate your feedback! (We missed you Marc!)

The Tablet PC Show #19 (MP3 - 20.9MB - 61min)
LISTEN HERE

00:00 Intro- Greg Hughes & James Kendrick

05:45 Greg has a Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC

25:00 The Podcast Network

26:00 WindowsVista Beta 1 information roundup

eWeek- will your Tablet run Vista?
Random Elements- Colin Walker installs the beta
Greg punches a cat in the face
IE7 panning with a pen
Tablet PC team has a blog
Speech recognition- command and dictation fused
Ink Analysis in Vista

60:00 Wrap up

I am writing this post by speaking into my microphone on the Tablet PC.  James told me that maybe I should try this again and get a more serious shot. I have to admit I'm actually a bit surprised that it's working as well as it is.

Let's see how it handles some common text.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. When in the course of human events it becomes blah blah blah.

OK, I have to admit this is pretty cool. After adjusting the volume of the microphone it seems to be more accurate. The gain on the microphone was just too loud.

Very very cool.

    

JK says he uses this capability all the time for writing columns and articles. I've tried it before but never really considered it to be a "real" source of input. But after hearing him talk about it, and giving it a shot, I'm convinced there are some possibilities here. The Windows Vista enhancements should make it even more usable.

What would be interesting is trying technical writing with this speech recognition engine. Somehow I think the recognition of technical (computer/scientific/etc) terms might be a challenge.

But it's pretty darned cool.

"I admitted I was powerless over my hair loss, that my scalp had become unmanageable..."

Yep. I'm in the cult, too. I accept it. Not much I can do about it, really. So, for those of us in that situation, here's a unique product that can help simplify our lives:

"The Coverup That's Got Nothing To Hide"
A perfect gift for directors, producers, band managers, aging performers, or anyone in the entertainment industry. Oh, and how about Father's Day?

Ok, so that's funny. And yes, they're actually for sale.

And for those of you lucky enough to keep your hair:

Good for you. Big deal.
But just so people don't assume you're covering up a deformity, I'm Not Bald™ hats are also available.

(These hats were found via an AdSense ad that showed up on my web site... Coincidence, or has Google figured out something we don't know about? Hmmmm....)

Just couple quick links to some cool new stuff.

Microsoft's Tablet PC team has started blogging - very nice. Check it out:

http://blogs.technet.com/tabletpc/

The Tablet PC Avalon (a.k.a. "Windows Presentation Framework") team has also started blogging:

http://blogs.technet.com/tavalon/

Two blogs that look to be worth watching, and I've subscribed to both.

I just finished spending an hour or so conversing about one of my favorite topics with James Kendrick (jkOnTheRun) as a "guest host" on The Tablet PC Show. As is often the case in the podcast world, we used Skype to communicate and JK recorded and produced the thing on this side of the connection. We talked about the X41 Tablet PC (of course) and then spent a bunch of time bouncing around different Windows Vista on the Tablet PC topics.

You can listen to the show by visiting this link.

I had a lot of fun doing this. Thanks to JK and Marc Orchant (the real co-host of the show, who was out of town this weekend) for the opportunity. James made it easy for me, and hopefully it turned out ok.

If you're visiting here from the show and wondering who the heck I am, check this link. Tablet PC stuff I have written about in the past is available here.

If you're a regular reader here and want to see what podcasting and The Tablet PC show are all about, check out the show's web site right here.

There are a couple things I *have* to do now that I've spoken about them out loud:

• Get this Windows Vista ISO image to freakin' work - I must have a bad DVD burner or something, as I am consistently making coasters (and then, of course, install it and the additional Tablet bits on a Tablet PC).
• Revisit the speech recognition capabilities of the Tablet PC - James says he uses it all the time, and I am thinking I may not be taking it seriously enough in terms of daily use, so I want to check it out again.

This whole podcasting/audio show/Internet conversation/etc thing is fun and cool. And, depending on how it's used, I think it can be a great medium for certain styles and forms of content delivery - especially interactive conversations.

Anyhow, the 19th edition of the Tablet PC Show has been posted, so check it out. I'll post a link to the show when it's up. Hopefully I won't sound like a complete dork (but I probably will, heh).

There's been all sorts of rumor and story-making flying around the Intarweb the past few days about a supposed first virus to attack some new part of Windows Vista (which is the next generation of the Windows Operating System - Vista was released recently in a Beta 1 test version to a closed group of testers and MSDN subscribers).

Well, it turns out that's not quite true.

Now, there might be a proof-of-concept script-based "virus" that takes advantage of a new beta shell technology called Monad. But Monad is not part of the Windows Vista beta, it won't be part of the release when Vista is done, and as such the rumors are inaccurate and based in false assumptions, according to the Microsoft Security Response Center weblog (which, by the way, security and IT professionals should subscribe to).

"There’s been some commentary the past couple of days regarding a potential Windows Vista virus and we wanted to weigh in with some details.  First of all, in examining the details of the reports, there is no Windows Vista virus described in them. Instead, the reports are regarding potential proof of concept viruses in the form of malicious scripts that are developed to affect a new interactive shell codenamed Monad, which is currently in early phase of beta testing.

"Now to be clear, these reports pose no risk for Microsoft customers. The viruses do not attempt to exploit a software vulnerability and do not encompass a new method of attack.  Furthermore, Monad is not widely available for general use. It’s a beta, and we do not recommend or support the use of beta software in a production environment. Microsoft continues to analyze the feedback from testers as Monad continues to be developed.

"But most important, Monad is not included in the beta release of Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2003 R2.

"Monad will not be included in the final version of Windows Vista and there is no relation between Monad and Windows Vista Beta 1. Monad is being considered for the Windows Operating System platform for the next three to five years.  So these potential viruses do not affect Windows Vista or any other version of Windows if Monad has not been installed on the system."

Note that Microsoft did not decide to pull Monad from Windows vista in response to this Monad virus scare/story, and they point out that Monad is an early beta technology, not intended to be used in a production environment. Well, yeah... Duh...

It's worth repeating that last point: Beta versions of commercial software are - by their very nature - not fully tested or officially QA'ed, and as such one has to consider beta code to be less secure in general. That should always be considered in deployment.

This is a great example of rumor run rampant, assumption trumping investigation, and the power of hate amongst those who drink of that darker cool-aid, and who wish for nothing less than harm to befall a great-big software company. If you want to believe something bad enough, if you're waiting in the trenches for something to jump on, if you do that often enough and get crazed enough in the process, you're going to lose your perspective. In my previous career, where I sometimes had to deal with those sorts, they call that a cult mentality.

Anyhow - Point is, it wasn't true. And that's something that should be said.

Skylook marries Skype - the uber-popular voice and text communication app - with Outlook, the ubiquitous mail and personal organizer app from Microsoft.

UPDATE:  After using this program for a day or so and speaking with a couple others who have also used it, I have a few additional thoughts:

• I'd like to be able to increase/decrease the MP3 sampling bit-rate - right now it's fixed at a fixed setting of mediocre audio quality
• I'd like to be able to specify which chats and voice calls are recorded - right now it records them all, which is cumbersome
• Generally, I'd prefer being able to tweak all the little details across the board - give me control while keeping it simple
• There's a real need for a complete, solid, Skype/VoIP recorder that builds in and doesn't have to be rigged together with bubble gum and duct tape.

Another UPDATE: Jeremy Hague of the Skylook team sent along this information (Aug 8):

"I thought that you would be interested to know that we are planning on introducing some new features in response to the customer feedback (mostly from podcasters, which is really cool) we have received in the first week.  We are planning on introducing some advanced configuration options to enhance the MP3 recording that Skylook produces.   In a future version, the user will be able to control the bitrate of the MP3 file, information that Skylook can populate into the ID3 tags… along with support for other audio file formats."

Skylook builds right into Outlook - in the form of a toolbar - and enables you to record your Skype conversations as high so-so quality MP3 files for playback later. This makes it a potentially useful tool for Podcasters, who often use Skype in combination with a spaghetti mess of piping and recording apps to conduct collaborative conversations and interviews over the Internet (NOTE: The audio quality may not be high enough for many podcasters, so allowing users to tweak these settings would be important). Obviously, the major benefit of recording this way is that it enables an easy way to speak with people that would otherwise often not happen. It removes the need to sit in the same room with the other participants while still providing reasonable-quality audio.

It allows you to make Skype calls and start Skype text chats directly from your Outlook contacts and emails. It shows you which of your contacts in on-line in the Outlook toolbar and provides options to review contact details and review previous communications with the contact. Skylook not only records all your voice calls, it also records your text chats to a special Outlook folder.

I did a quick voice chat this evening with Eric Rice to try it out. We were not using headsets, so we had the inevitable echo, but the Skylook app did a great job. It just did its thing in the background without any problem, and when we hung up, I "magically" saw a dialog on the screen:

    

I clicked the "Show me" button, and it took me straight to my filed recording:

    

And it files the text chats right there with the audio, filed all neat and clean just like an email would be. It's really very slick in that regard.

I'll have to give it a shot maybe this weekend, when apparently I will be guest-hosting on a podcast I really like a lot. More on that after it happens.

You can download Skylook here and try it for a couple weeks. After that some functions are disabled, do you can buy it here for $29.95.

Recently I've had a number of interesting (albeit often protracted) conversations with people about processes in business, and how formal, written procedures and established processes can be good (I agree, to a point) and can also be very, very bad.

I'll explain in a minute, and while I'm at it I'll do some tangential opining and show why I think Sarbanes Oxley and other process-intensive initiatives and guidelines don't always accomplish what they set out to do. In fact, in the case of SARBOX, I'd argue it doesn't even come close to accomplishing what it was originally intended for. But that's another story...

First a reminder and a bit of clarity: This is a personal blog, so anything I write is my opinion and mine alone.

Saturday morning telephone support call: Failed process illustrated...

Saturday morning I woke up at a criminally early hour (for a weekend anyhow). Since sleep apparently wasn't in the game plan I decided to call Vonage to see if I could actually get someone on the phone, and if I could convince them to listen to me long enough to troubleshoot a hardware/firmware problem I've been having with my VOIP terminal adapter.

For the record, I like Vonage. A lot. I recommend them. I'll refer you if you email me and ask. But I'll be honest - I'm never too excited about calling them.

But on Saturday morning, that's what I did. After umpteen layers of voice menus and hitting random keys to get pretty much nowhere, calling back after being disconnected (don't hit 'zero' in Vonage's voice prompt system...), and then finally getting someone on the line (whom I could not understand and who it seems could not understand me during the entire painful process of validating my account, name, billing address, etc.), we finally got around to troubleshooting the problem:

Vonage Lady: "Yes, hello mister huge-hess...

Me: (silently) <grrrrrrr!!!>

Vonage Lady: "...how can I help you with today?"

Me: "Okay, so I am having a problem with my Motorola VT1005 terminal adapter, about once a day it loses its connection with Vonage and I have to pull the power plug and plug it back in to get it to work, and several times a day the network data port stops communicating completely so my computers here at home cannot get to the Internet. I have to unplug the Motorola device and plug it back in in order to resolve that problem, too, and then it happens again later, a few times a day."

Vonage Lady: "Okay, so what I understand from you is..." (reads back a different version of what I just said, but leaves out all the key points, like the whole data connection problem, etc)

Me: "That's partly correct, but the worst part of the problem is that several times a day..." (I explain the loss of LAN port connectivity issue again)

Vonage Lady: (seemingly ignoring what I just told her) "Okay, I would like you to go to your router and unplug the wire from the PC port and so you will have the modem and the wire, and the Vonage router and then your computer, and I want you to plug a wire into your computer okay can you do that and tell me?"

Me: (wondering if I - a high-tech IT guy with lots of experience fixing crap much more complicated than this - really understand what she means) "Umm, okay, so... You want me to plug the ethernet cable that goes from the Motorola device on the LAN side into my computer directly then?"

Vonage Lady: (pause, pause, pause) "Uhhh, yes, I need you to put the wire from the PC port in your computer."

Me: (deciding the only logical thing to do is to go with my gut) "Okay, so I have done that, okay I am ready for the next step."

Vonage Lady: (seems to be shocked that the next step is already starting) "Ohh umm, okay, one moment please... Okay, I need you to open your Internet Explorer, and in the address bar at the top of the screen..."

Me: (I'm starting to quietly get a little frustrated now) Okay my web browser is open, you want me to type in an address?

"... I would like for you to type this address in the address bar."

Me: (I'm already on the adapter's admin web page, I think to myself, she's gonna send me there - slowwly) "Okay, ready."

Vonage Lady: "Okay, One-Nine-Two..." (pause, pause, pause)... "No, wait... H-T-T-P --"

Me: "192.168.102.1?"

Vonage Lady: "No, no no. AICH-TEE-TEE-PEEEE, COLON, SLASH-SLASH, ONE-NINE-TWO..."

Me: (waiting for more numbers) "... ... ... okay, i got that part, you can keep reading it to me."

Vonage Lady: "DOT-ONE-SIX-EIGHT-DOT-ONE-ZERO-TWOOO-DOT-ONE"

Me: (Thinking to self: Is there an echo in here?) Okay, I'm there