Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

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Tag Archives: Windows

Apple and Android–what is a Post PC device

appleIILast March, when the iPad 2 was released, Steve Jobs described it as a Post PC device. Rather scathingly I could not agree to that as under iOS4 you still needed to activate it using iTunes and a PC of Windows or OSX flavours. The promise was that once iOS5 was available, this would be solved and the iPad would be standalone and be truly a Post PC device.

Well iOS5 came along and it is true that you can activate the device without a PC and make use of iCloud to backup your content and do most things without a PC, but if you do not have a PC then you have lost much functionality for managing your content. Primarily the iPad (or iPhone for that matter) needs to connect to a PC over WiFi to sync content, particularly Podcast audio or video content, where you have to go and get it rather than have it delivered. Since last March, I have moved on Android devices to get that standalone device, and I can say I have pretty much achieved it as I have phone and tablet devices which auto subscribe to audio and video feeds, and give me direct access to home content via DLNA and access to files via online file stores such as Dropbox or Box. So Android of any sort above 2.3 gives you that PC-less experience that was so pushed last March by Apple and they have not yet succeeded in delivering.

I also have to say, I don’t think this sort of device is Post PC in the truest sense of the term – PC stands for Personal Computer. It has become a way of describing a device with a keyboard, a screen and a central processing box. I think the term has to be taken back to its original meaning -  a personal computer. In that context, my Smartphone is a PC device… my Tablet is a PC device… my Laptop is a PC device. Post PC devices are actually PC devices where PC stands for a personal computer device and they are all PCs.

samsung_galaxy_sII

ipadAsusUL30

Software Compatibility History

There has been quite a bit of talk about this video and how amazing it is to see Windows upgrade from 1.0 through to the present Windows 7. However the narrator and originator of the video pushes the view that it is so commendable that Microsoft has maintained ‘compatibility’ for over 23 years.

If you use Mac, then you have absolutely no hope of doing this and that is not just because of the changes of processor from 68000 to PowerPC and then to Intel, but also because fundamentally MacOS is not OSX. Apple has taken great pains to move its users through several major step changes in platform architecture to improve the user experience and LEAVE the old behind. Through this, in my view, they have always ensured that they give their customers a great experience that builds on the latest features and not the oldest. They do not expend effort now making sure that software produced 10 or more years ago still works for corporate users.

You can see where I am going now with this… think about how much better Windows 7 would be if Microsoft put all its effort on the new features and ensuring programme compatibility with just the last decade and not 23 years+.

There is actually little business case support for Microsoft in keeping ancient software that does not attract revenue still working and actually holds them back in my view. I think Microsoft have begun to understand this, which is why they are finally (albeit slowly) making it clear that they really only support now and yesterday, and not the day before yesterday… so now Windows XP is finally dying and is almost dead (2014 if not already) and the newest software from Microsoft like Windows Live and IE9 will run on Vista or later only. This should improve things all round.

How old are your oldest software apps?

Moving on… upgrading the workhorse hard drive

This is a post specifically targeted for the small company freelancer, even an individual. You have your workhorse notebook, and you are running out of space on the old 160GB HDD but cannot afford downtime. One alternative is to purchase a second notebook (not a bad idea to be honest!) with the much larger HDD that you need, but that does not get around the upheaval of the move to new kit so is there an alternative? We also have to note that although you may be technically proficient, you may not be the total geek that is au fait with the inside of a laptop or a wiz with the software.

The alternative is to just replace the Hard drive. Modern laptops (most of them that is) generally allow very easy access to the hard drive through either 1, 2 or 3 screws. This sounds horrific but is today an extremely easy thing to do, particularly as most 2.5″ Hard drives fit most most laptops and you can also check the dimensions of your old laptop and compare them to the new one on most websites. But what of the OS and data? That is easy as well as most hard disk manufacturers have special versions of disk cloning software specifically to allow you to do this task. So what are the steps (for Windows users only :-) ).

0. Always the first step – make sure all your DATA is BACKED UP! Of course, this is already done as you ensure you have backups all the time

1. Identify your existing HDD manufacturer and type by using Device Manager and looking for the Disk Drive properties. There is normaly a long sequence of letters and numbers that are normally very descriptive. For example mine is now ST95005620AS which can be looked up using Google to find out that it is a Seagate Momentus XT 500MB 7200 rpm Hybrid drive

2. Use the best specifications you can find to compare the dimensions of this drive with the new one you wish to buy. It is a good idea to actually keep to the same manufacturer sometimes, particularly if your machine is very compact and tiny. Look for the new one with the right size and spin speed that you want. Make sure that the disk interfaces matches the one your laptop supports, for example SATA300

3. Order the Hard disk along with an external USB disk caddy that matches the disk interface of the HDD you have ordered. You will need this for the cloning of the old drive contents to the new and is also useful to turn your old drive into a backup drive.

4. If you are using Truecrypt or other Hard drive encryption, now decrypt your old drive. If you were not using Truecrypt, please shoot yourself now… you need it, and for reasons why look at my old posts about it. The decryption is only to ensure that there are no problems during the cloning and partition resizing.

5. When you have everything, go to the website of your new Hard drive and download the cloning software. Seagate have a nice rebadged HDD tool for example. Other cloning software can be used, but ensure that you get one that allows resizing of partitions as you are going to move your 160GB set of data to a 500GB or even 1TB drive and you don’t want to be left with two partitions now do you. Install the software on your notebook.

6. Get the new drive into the new disk caddy, and connect it to your laptop.

7. Use the software from the disk manufacturer to clone the drive to the new USB connected HDD (taking great care with the instructions about what drive is the source and which drive is the destination). Once finished (and it will almost certainly require reboots doing exactly what the software says on screen), you can then shutdown the notebook and disconnect the new drive. Note that unless you do something wrong with regard to the source/destination, you will alway be able to go back to the old drive :-) . THIS WILL TAKE HOURS, sometimes as long as five hours depending upon the size of the old drive.

8. Using the screwdriver, remove the old drive and replace it with the new drive. Once everything is back together, power on the notebook and the golden test will be that everything boots up fine and you should then be able to login as if nothing has happened. Note that in all the ones I have done previously, at no time has Windows required to be re-authorised.

9. Bed in the new system for a few days (taking great pleasure in your newly available space) and then re-encrypt with Truecrypt. You can now use the old drive in the USB disk caddy as a back-up drive, remembering to delete and recreate/format new partitions on the USB connected drive.

10. Simples as the Meerkat is always saying.

Of course, you can always use the upgrade as an excuse to re-install the OS and apps from scratch, which is a noble way of doing things. This is actually quite good if you have the time, as you can always drop back to your old drive if things are not as good as you want them to be.

Extending the Internet on the move

When I travel I generally make use of whatever hotel WiFi I can get, preferably of the free variety but I have been known to use paid services. I also try and find any other sources of WiFi as I go, taking precautions when that WiFi is open (use HTTPS with my Google hosted email and VPN for privacy if needed).

hotel

Hotel WiFi can get expensive, particularly if you have more than one device (Laptop+iPhone)and for that I have started making use of Windows 7’s key hidden feature, the WiFi Hosted Network. This allows the extension of a WiFi or wired network to second devices, without the extra device cost that paid WiFi can have or for those places where WiFi has not been provided. Connectify is the one that comes up most often if you search around, providing a simple UI that allows you to easily setup but I have found it to be clumsy, unstable and buggy – particularly in that it causes my laptop to crash on suspend/hibernate. I have found an alternative that is a lot more stable and still free (although they appreciate donations)– Virtual Router. This simple open tool, provides a slightly more bare set of features but it works very effectively, without the problems with suspending and hibernating. I can recommend it. The only thing you have to remember is that the UI requires you to select the connection you wish to share and then activate it, when then switches and shows which network you are sharing over – a slightly confusing switch that is not explained. The alternative is that you can configure the command line for the feature as described by Paul Thurrott – I find the Virtual Router UI better Smile.

vrscreen

However sharing WiFi or Wired networks does not always fit what I need, and for that I need to make use of 3G. This is primarily when I am between locations. 3G roaming is an expensive business and I heartily discourage it but sometimes it is necessary. What you can do to make it much more workable is to figure out the various pre-paid mobile data services in each country that you travel to and buy a local SIM card. For this to work you do need an unlocked data device, and mine is an Huawei E5830 MiFi. Rates and systems do vary per country, but there is normally ways around problems like everything being in a local language you do not know, through to countries not allowing you to buy service online with credit cards. Best thing to do is talk to the people you are visiting for info before arrival for advice.

You will find that you will need to make use of all of these approaches as you travel to ensure that you are never knowingly under-connected.

Better Defrag

Recently I had a major problem with an EeePC. After configuration and installation of all the software on it and the optimisation of where all the files go, the machine ran slowly. Checking out the C: partition showed that it had a 30%+ fragmentation figure for the files on the disk, notably because of all the tweaking to get files in the right place. Now this performance issue was slightly counter-intuitive as it had an SSD with no seek times to think of, but file access was horribly slow. This screamed defragmentation (and after I did it, it certainly was down to fragmentation as performance is much nippier now). So the basic defrag tool in the Windows XP Home installation was used but it would not defrag the machine at all even though there was 1.4GB free out of the 4GB SSD. It was simply TOO fragmented.

smartdefrag

So I brought in the big guns on this one, which came in the form of IOBIT Smart Defrag. I ran this over the disk and with a small bit of manipulation (moving about 500MB of files to the D: partition), I managed to complete defrag the disk and give the performance improvement I needed. Now you may not have the same level of problem with fragmentation, but I can certainly recommend this software tool over the basic XP and Vista defrag tools, particularly as it gives a lot more visual response for what is going on and how fragmented the disk is, and also it offers a dynamic continuous auto-defrag function (not recommended for SSDs by the way – they have wear issues with file writes that make defrag an emergency tool only) that keeps you optimised.

Great tool, and here is the kicker – it is free.

Microsoft Mesh – Having it all

Now I could do the big write up of Microsoft Mesh and how it can help you, but a whole lot better idea is to run VT after giving you a couple of notes.

  • It allows you to store your most important files on every PC you have login access to – they should always be available, and after running this through the bad times of August and September, I can safely say it now works beautifully.
  • It allows you to store 5GB (maybe more in the future) of those files on a web desktop.
  • You can access those files via web, PC, Mac (it has now become available) and Windows Mobile (in controlled Beta at the moment) – it means never having to say that you cannot give someone a document.
  • It scales much better than Foldershare, which is what I used before.

So, let us run VT (you need Silverlight).

Live Mesh: End to End User Demo

This is a very capable piece of software, which I have combined with others to create that great mobile worker workflow, as well as a great way of ensuring that when a machine goes bad – your files don’t. We will go into that backup solution later.