Software runs my life

Tag: Windows

Learning business by charts


I am someone who learns visually. I absorb charts, screenshots, videos etc. a lot faster than any other medium. Business knowledge is something that often doesn’t come in this format however (perhaps why the first business discipline I learned was marketing). However I have found a Twitter feed (yes, there is useful content on Twitter) that I have really grown to love. http://twitter.com/chartoftheday

This graph was used to illustrate how poorly Microsoft Office 2010 was performing sales-wise, but wow what a difference between Windows Vista (Jan 2007 launch) and Windows 7 ( Oct 2009 launch). It completely masks the decline in Office sales, even though Office sales are obviously an equally big cash cow for Microsoft. It also makes the Server and Tools slice of the pie look tiny, even though it actually represents $1b a year in operating profit.

I also liked this chart of how Apple cannibalised the entire mobile phone industries’ sales with the iPhone. I am reading the Innovators Dilemma at the moment, and the release of a well executed touch screen phone certainly represents a disruptive technology in my eyes. It still amazes me that such a massive market filled with well established players can just be turned on its head in a few short years. More specifically Nokia’s share price copped a beating ever since the release of the iPhone, the subject of yet another chart. What is interesting to me is that Apple’s rapid rise ironically precipitated a huge boom in the adoption of open source mobile software in Android. I guess that the previous market leaders had their hands full competing with Apple’s hardware and didn’t have the time or resources to produce new software from scratch.

There are plenty more charts out there that will make you stop and think, and each one can be read into (rightly or wrongly) 100 different ways.

Windows Mobile 6.5 fails to ActiveSync with Google Apps

Setting up your Windows Mobile 6.5 phone for Google Apps should be simple, there are some clear instructions located here. However I have found that on some HTC Windows based phones the account creation process does not go so smoothly. After a bit of hunting around I found someone who had a fix for me. Here is the more detailed version of how to get it working:

  1. Connect your phone to your PC via the USB cable
  2. Disable all syncing with your PC by clicking Tools -> Options
  3. Click the Settings button and add your Exchange (Apps) account (do not check “Detect Settings”) and check Email syncing only
  4. Sync
  5. Edit the Exchange settings and check “Detect Settings”
  6. Sync
  7. Edit the Exchange settings again and check Calendar and Contacts (no tasks in Apps remember!)
  8. Sync again

And there you go! Not sure if this is a bug in Activesync, the phone or Apps, but it sure is annoying. At least it only occurs on setup, after that everything seems to keep up to date with no problems.

Live Mesh now Windows 7 Compatible

Live Mesh Beta LogoLive Mesh is getting a getting the Service Update that was promised before the holiday release blackout period today. The key bug fix that everyone is hanging out for is that it will now not kick Windows 7 into it’s non-Aero interface. This will soon include me, because I have a freshly burned copy of Windows 7 sitting on my desk ready to be installed tonight. I guess I will be completing the Windows Connect install survey tomorrow, fingers crossed they give out valid licence keys at the end of the beta program like they did for Vista.

One interesting point I noted was that the Live Mesh Blog no longer appears to be labelled “Beta” or “Tech Preview”. The version update appears to only be a minor one (0.9.3424.5 to 0.9.3424.14), however it looks as though some subtle steps towards a debut are occurring. Perhaps one of these will be matching Skydrive‘s 25 GB storage limit? I live in hope.

nforce3 + ATI Graphics + Vista = Device Failed!

 

The relentless pace of technology is exciting, but sometimes this fast paced environment leaves its past behind a little prematurely. I was on the receiving end of one such problem this week.

I purchased a new ATI graphics card, the x1950Pro AGP version to work with my existing nforce3 motherboard. It is running an Athlon X2 processor and has 2GB of RAM, so it isn’t an outdated machine by any stretch. I plugged in the new card expecting everything to go smoothly, however it kept failing with a code 43 “Device failed to start” error. Vista recognised the card correctly, however it just would not leave the graphical ‘safe mode’. I initially suspected the card was faulty, however after a bit of googling I managed to find others with the exact same problem.

In fact not only did I find others, I found an acknowledgement from Nvidia themselves of the problem. It was snuck in at the end of one of their website FAQ’s and reads:

There is a known issue with ATI AGP cards with NVIDIA nForce3 and Vista. This is currently being looked into and will likely be resolved with an MCP driver update.

In fact this problem has been known about and acknowledged since the start of this year, and reported on the 7th of February. Still nothing has been done, there is no MCP update and I am still left sitting out in the cold. Nvidia has been infamously slack with their Vista drivers in general, now they are blocking ATI cards too (Nvidia cards work fine)? I think that is a little too convenient and completely unethical to be honest.

Vista goes RC1

Well this was a bit of a surprise to myself and I think most other people! RC1 has come just a couple of weeks (barely) after the August CTP and is a later build number than expected (5600 instead of the 5536 most people expected). I am downloading the x86 version right now and will post a review once I have upgraded, hopefully they will have included the nforce RAID drivers this time.

It will be released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers soon too, but Connect users are getting it first which is nice! You can see some screenshots of the RC1 on Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite. Here is a bit of a preview of the new default wallpaper, it seems Microsoft is continuing to rotate through the wallpapers trying to keep everyone guessing!

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