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Book Selection

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:04:00 -0500

As I look through free Kindle books it has me thinking about how I select a fiction book. Non-fiction is completely different. This is a much a message to me as anything else. I think my fiction selection generally follows this pattern:

Author - If it's by someone I like, nothing else matters. Preston and Child could write a vegetarian cookbook and cover it in a paper bag. I'm in.
Cover - Yeah, we know, don't judge a book by it's cover but I'm a visual person. Cover's tell me a lot. Is this supposed to be a thriller? Is it chick lit? Horror? Romance? A good cover at lease gives me the category. Joel Friedlander knows more about books covers than I ever will. The more of his stuff I read the more I notice covers.
Description - I need to know the storyline. If the storyline and the cover match, then I'm really interested. If you give me a chick lit cover on a book about finding Incan gold while being chased by alien frogs I'm put off by the disconnect. It makes me think that you're sloppy. I don't care about blurbs. Blurbs are crap. I've watched celebrity endorsers scribble out a blurb in 5 seconds flat without knowing jack about the book.
Ratings/Reviews - Yep, I read reviews. I tend to read them on Amazon and Goodreads. I to put more stock in the Goodreads reviews but I'll check Amazon because of the volume. Anything really generic is ignored. I tend to read the good and the bad to get an idea of what to expect.
Price - If the cover is good and the description works I'll take a chance if the price is right. An indie author that no one has ever heard of trying to price their work at $9.99 probably doesn't have a chance. Remember, the first criteria is author. If I like someone's stuff I'll buy it, even in different genres.
Buzz - Rarely but occasionally I buy a book based on buzz. About half the time it works out. If someone is already getting that kind of buzz they don't need me.

Author, cover, description. That's the key, in that order. A good cover shows professionalism. A good description proves that an author can write. A review or two and a reasonable price gives me a reason to try. If I try a book and I like it, I'm willing to buy more.

Dear Microsoft and Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:50:00 -0500

Dear Microsoft,

Every time that Outlook locks up with the little spinning wheel or mysteriously slows down my system I wish for a big "crash stop" button like the button on the iPhone. It's about control.

Dear Apple,

After about a month of working with Windows 8, I find myself trying to used the "Pull down to close" gesture on my iPhone. It's about simplicity.

Windows 8 Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:11:00 -0400

I've had the Windows 8 preview since it was first available, and then the release version as soon at it was available on MSDN, running on a secondary laptop. A week ago I installed it on my primary machine, a Lenovo X201 Tablet PC with 2 touch points. Everyone I've talked (including me) agrees that it takes a week to two weeks to make the mental shift from Windows 7 to Windows 8. It's about a week to get comfortable and another week to discover all the little things you missed initially. I feel like I've used it enough to toss out some comments.

The touch interface rocks, even on a machine with only 2 touch points.
Draggling down to close take a while to get right. After that, no big deal.
If you are upgrading, drivers are an issue. Shame on Microsoft and manufacturers for not being ready. Neither my Acer Aspire One or my Lenovo X201 have completely updated drivers. Every error, every blue screen so far has been a driver issue.

On the Lenovo, I just found an updated driver to make the camera work and the fingerprint scanner is still on the fritz.
On the Acer I'm getting weird issues. I tried to install Office 2013 from the ISO download and it repeatedly failed. Finally I dragged out a portable DVD player, burned a disc and installed it successfully that way. I had similar issues with Win8 on this machine.

I can scroll Metro style screens using the mouse wheel which is nice. I still wish that I could hold the mouse to the right and have the window scroll like the Start screen does. That behavior is really inconsistent.
I'm in love with the People app. I just wish they had taken it even farther.
I miss browser add ins in the Metro style IE 10. I want to push stuff to Blogger and save items to Pocket and I can't. I end up having to just email things to myself and it feels like a step backward.
The fact that charms like search and settings are contextual is a shift for MS. Whatever app I'm in, when I hit the Search charm, it searches that app. When I hit Settings, the options are different depending on the app I'm in.

All in all, I'm pretty happy. I want a Pocket Metro style app, Flipboard would be nice too. So will Apple make a Metro friendly iTunes app before Microsoft makes an iPad friendly version of Office?

10 Kooky Tips On How To Write A Book

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:38:00 -0400

Wordserve Water Cooler has 10 Kooky Tips On How To Write A Book. Among them:

2) If you have kids, get a lock for your bedroom door
My reasoning is two-fold: 1) my bedroom is where I write, and 2) my bedroom is where I cry when I am convinced that I cannot write, and it seems to upset the children when I cry uncontrollably.

Make sure to check out the rest.

Visual Cues in Writing or My Gunsmith is Writing a Zombie Novel

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:59:00 -0400

I saw Larry Correia's post "My gunsmith is writing a zombie novel". That's all it took and I was off to UprisingCrusader.com to follow the progression of the story.

Joseph Chetwood is writing much of Uprising Crusader online. The story is serialized on the blog but it feels like you're reading a working draft. I'm assuming that there will be an edit round when he's done but the story itself is intriguing. The gunsmith angle brings a nice dose of realism.

More intriguing is that in every installment he has a single image that is representative of that section. I have no idea if this will make it into the final draft. As a reader, I almost hope it doesn't. The images distract from my imagination. BUT AS A WRITER, IT WORKS. I tend to a be visual person and I love the idea of using an image of what I'm trying to convey in a particular section to help move my writing forward. I'm tempted to try that with the fiction piece I'm working on.

Photo Credit: Some rights reserved by sbpoet

New GP Book Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:37:00 -0400

Packt Publishing has given the green light to my next Dynamics GP book. It will be due out early next year. I'll have more, including the topic as we get closer to release.

I Finally Understand Windows 8

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 6 Jun 2012 17:40:00 -0400

Warning: This is going to be a long post.

The Worry

I've been concerned about Windows 8 on non-touchscreens since my first frustrating encounter with the Consumer Preview back in February. I think Windows 8 is going to rock on touchscreens, even Tablet PC ones like my Lenovo X201 but laptops and desktops looked like a different story. In fairness, I didn't go all in with the Consumer Preview. I played with a boot from USB scenario until other things consumed my time.

As Windows 8 development progressed, I kept seeing this gorgeous interface that didn't seem mouse friendly. I stumbled across Michael Mace's Fear and Loathing and Windows 8 and he expressed some of the concerns that I had. However, I'm reluctant to rely on other opinions when I can try stuff myself. So I took the plunge and frankly, I think that I have Windows 8 figured out.

[Disclaimer: While I'm a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft Dynamics GP, my specialty is accounting software not operating systems. My degree is in Accounting, not anything computer related so I'm fumbling my way through this like everyone else.]

The Pain

I installed the new Windows 8 Release Preview on a 2009 era Acer Aspire 11.6" netbook with a single core Atom processor and 2 gigs of RAM. This machine was running Windows 7 previously so I have a baseline to compare it to. Frankly anything you buy today is faster than this little guy. However, this netbook is small enough for me to carry with me so I'll play with Windows 8 more and I wasn't carving up my work Lenovo, even though it's a Tablet PC, to put prelease software on. I like my paycheck.

The install didn't go well via USB or DVD. I kept getting a driver related error. Finally, stuck with a reformatted hard drive and a lot of frustration, I reinstalled a clean Windows 7 version, upgraded to the Windows 8 Release Preview and ran a disk cleanup to remove all of the upgrade crud. Suddenly I had a Windows 8 laptop. Sadly, I only had basic Microsoft video drivers. I reloaded the Intel drivers that worked fine with Windows 7. The desktop was fine but the Metro Style start screen was useless. The pictures devolved into fuzzy pixel blocks. I finally hunted down some newer Intel video drivers on the web and everything worked.

The Revelation

It took me about a week of working with Windows 8 to really figure it out. I'm going to go out on a limb and say an awful lot of people currenlty reviewing Windows 8 are full of crap. The interface isn't as different from Windows 7 as everyone thinks. With that I'll spare you the narrative of my journey and in true accountant fashion cut to the important pieces.

There is no Start Button. I'm ready to say get over it. I think this design choice was made to avoid people claiming that the Windows 8 Metro style interface was simply a overlay on top of Windows 7, kind of like Windows 3.0 was an overlay on top of DOS. But really, no Start Button is not a big deal.

Here is why no Start Button is no big deal. There is a Start button, sort of. This is the way to think of Windows 8:

The Start screen (Metro Style Interface, pretty blocks) is the new Start Button. All the programs you use regularly go here. If you want to access all programs, in Windows 7 you hit Start | All Programs.

In Window 8 from the Start Menu right-click with the mouse and pick All Apps at the bottom. Same principle, different excecution, it's just full screen now.

Start screen access is in the same place on the desktop. Clicking the Desktop app brings you to a Windows 7 style desktop minus the Start Button. However, if you slide your mouse into the left corner where the Start Button used to be you get access to the Start Menu. So it's very similar to Windows 7 but the Start Button isn't a ribbon on the left, it's a whole screen.

Switching between Start and Desktop is actually easier. Even better, from the Start screen, clicking in the lower left corner brings you back to the desktop. In Win 7, we had the Start Button on the lower left and the Desktop link in the lower right corner. Now they are together like a toggle switch. Bottom left corner is your friend.

That's really the big revelation. All Microsoft did was make the Start Button into a full screen, Metro Style application. Once you get that, Windows 8 is a no brainer on a regular laptop or desktop. I don't mean get that intellectually. I mean, once you internalize that after a week or two with Windows 8, you'll wonder what the big deal is.

The Good

Things I like:

Scrolling left and right with a mouse or touchpad on the Start menu actually works just fine. This should feel natural on touch screens too.

The built in apps are clearly designed for touch, not mouse interaction...yet...they are gorgeous. I'm drawn to them.

The Lock Screen is gorgeous. Don't be fooled by people claiming it's hard to log in. Just click on the Lock Screen with the mouse or touchpad and the login screen comes up.

Pretty much everything worked. Office 2010 installed fine as did iTunes and most everything else. I installed a Kindle App from the Windows store and had to hunt down a Windows 8
compatible Spotify version but that was about it. SkyDrive synced my data so I'm all up todate.

The learning curve is about over after a week to 10 days. There are still surpises but not bad ones.

The News

Things you just need to know:

Once I figured out that I could access Start and the Desktop from the lower left corner, the "Charms" on the right became superflous. If you slide the mouse to the bottom or top right a vertical bar with Charms - Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings pops up. Sliding to the lower right and picking the middle selection was annoying with a mouse.

There is still an awful lot of Windows 7 hiding in here. The desktop, keyboard shortcuts, etc. are all essentially the same.

If you can't figure out where a setting is, like "Change what closing the lid does", drop to the desktop, open the Charms and pick Settings. Access to the Win 7 style Control Panel is here. It is NOT there if you do this from the Start menu, only from the desktop.

Sliding the mouse to the top left opens a vertical bar with Metro style apps that are running in the background. You can switch to or close them from here. Desktop apps still show on the Desktop Taskbar.

The Bad...there is no Ugly
Things I don't like:

If you are on the Start screen, you can scroll left and right by just moving the mouse in the middle of the screen. On the Metro style apps (News, Weather, etc.) you have to click on the scroll bar at the bottom if using a mouse. It's frustrating but more importantly, it's inconsistent. It makes me wonder how these are going to work with my finger.

In Start | Charms | Setting there is a Tiles selection. It way too easy to accidently hit the Clear button and wipe out all of your personal settings from the live tiles. Many tiles on the Start menu are live providing up to date news, weather, Twitter, etc. Logging back into each one to put in your username and password or location after you accidently hit Clear is frustrating. How about a "Do you really want to do this?" warning?

Power (On, Off, Sleep, Hibernate, etc.) is still in a weird place. It's under the Settings charm. Every version of Windows has been criticize for the Power Off button/process. I'm starting to think that Microsoft does this to mess with critics.

When you launch a non-Metro app, think Microsoft Excel, from the Start menu, the desktop actually shows in the background and then app launches. It's a little jarring and feels bolted on. This is one place where Windows 8 really shows it's internal battle between tablet and traditional PC.

I miss Start | Run. I'm sure I'll get used to Charms | Search and I haven't spent any time figuring out how to get Run back other than reminding myself that the keystroke is Win+R.

The Takeaway

Don't read anything into the lengths of the various lists above. The Bad items are annoyances. The Good stuff is really good.

I think there are 2 key takeaways for me:

1) Driver support at launch is going to be critical. I was worried about Windows 8 drivers and rightly so. Just because a machine runs Windows 7 doesn't mean that THOSE drivers will work with Windows 8 as evidenced by my install and video card fun. In my mind, this was one of the things that doomed Vista. Vista with a good set of drivers generally worked just fine. Vista with the wrong or buggy drivers was a nightmare. The driver mess had largely been sorted out by the time Win 7 came along but I think the message that hardware that runs Win 7 will run Win 8 could be dangerous.

2) This is not nearly as big a switch as people think. The transition to Win 8 should be no big deal for most Win 7 or even Vista users running desktops or laptops. Once you understand that the Start Button is now simply a Start screen, most everything else falls into place.

The Parting Thoughts

This isn't that big of a switch, but for some people, like my parents, it just might be too much. They don't really understand the Start Button in Windows 7 today. They hit an icon on their desktop and go to the internet. That's about it. Then again, maybe I could give them a big Internet Explorer button on the Start screen and them to go for it.

There is also a big pile of XP users ready for something new. I see frustrated XP users pretty regularly and those who move to Win 7 are thrilled.

Microsoft needs to manage the Windows 8 message. Rather than just saying "Nope, we're not adding a Start Button", drag the mouse to the bottom left and show the link to the Start screen. Both fear and excitement are contagious but fear is easier. Microsoft needs to start the Windows 8 hype machine now to fight the fear. They can't just assume that Windows 8 will be adopted.

Reading, Writing, Truth

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:22:00 -0400

Mmmm - Nicholas Bate

New Writing Project(s)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 6 May 2012 19:53:00 -0400

I’ve got a new writing project to announce. After playing around with short form fiction for Dynamics GP I’ve decided to write some longer fiction. I had an idea for a novel that my daughter loved. She’s reads almost as much as I do and has become a good sounding board for ideas. Since this is my first foray into longer fiction it may end up as a novella (~40k words) or I may go all the way to novel length (~80k words).

We’ll see where the story takes me. I’m about 10k words in and it’s a lot more work than short stories but I’m still having fun. I haven’t decided on the indie versus traditional publisher route yet. We’ll see what the finished product looks like and how a big a hurry I’m in to get it out. First novels are usually pretty rough. I’ll have more as it progresses.
On another note, I’m working with Packt to try to pin down a new Dynamics GP book. We generally agree on the ideas but we’re struggling with timing versus release dates. If I hurry, I can get a GP 2013 based book out by Convergence 2013 in March but if I want to include Excel 2012 examples instead of Excel 2010, Excel’s release date will preclude having the book at Convergence.

So the debate is big sales splash on release but possibly shorter shelf life versus a launch at a smaller event (like the GPUG Summit) but a longer potential shelf life. We’re still debating.

The Shiver

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 2 May 2012 21:14:00 -0400

The Shiver:
It goes by many names. The Tingle. The Aha. The Wow.
I call it The Shiver.
It’s that moment when you know you’ve written something good; something worthy of sharing. The words themselves aren’t anything special. They’re common words, words you’ve used before.
But this time it’s different. The words…they…you have no words to describe it. They. Just. Work.

Read the rest of the The Shiver

The Magical Last 100 Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:00:00 -0400

There is something magical in the last 100 pages of a book. This is particularly the case with fiction. In my experience this magic holds true for everything from lap breakers, like World Without End at 1024 pages, to slim young adult novels like Amanda Hocking’s Hollowmen, a very fast 194 pages.

The last 100 should go faster than the rest of the book and not because the first part was interminable. For me, delivering in the last 100 pages forgives a multitude of sins.

100 pages seems to be right length to build up an ending without rushing it too much. When there are 15 pages left in the book and I’m worried that the author can’t wrap things up in time it usually means the ending is rushed and I’m not going to be happy. I want some build up. I want to see the ending coming even if don’t know what the end will be.

Spend a lot of time on those last 100 pages. They are the last thing we read and the last thing we remember.

You are a Writer–So Start Acting Like One

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:14:00 -0400

I write..a lot more than even I realize. I have regular monthly columns at MSDynamicsWorld.com and the Dynamics Community site. I have book that was a best seller for the publisher and a spin off. I’ve written six well received short stories with another one due soon. I’ve written more original blog posts than I can count…but I don’t think of myself as a writer.
I’m a CPA. I’m a consultant. Now Jeff Goins has made me realize that I’m a writer. I’m not a writer because I’ve done all of those things. I’m a writer, because I write.
Jeff was kind enough to give me an advance copy of his new book You Are A Writer (So Start Acting Like One). I’ve mentioned before that Jeff’s previous book, The Writer’s Manifesto, is one book that I never archive from my Kindle. I think that You Are A Writer is the same type of book.
You Are A Writer is a short, easy read. It mixes kick in the pants inspiration with practical tips for getting writing done and getting your writing read. I ripped through it an evening and got up from the couch with a desire to go write something.
Even for people who don’t think of themselves as writers, much of this book applies to other creative endeavors. But, many people write more than they think. For example, a colleague was writing documentation for a project. When she got done, the documentation was 250 pages long. That’s the length of a book, but she doesn’t think of herself as a writer.
Whether you think of yourself as a writer or not, pick up a copy of You Are A Writer, you may be surprised.

eReader eBook Costs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:29:00 -0500

I read a lot. In 2010 I read 110 books and for 2011 I’ve read 113 through Christmas. I read a lot of these books as eBooks and I keep seeing stories about what eReader is better, as if it were a hardware only choice. What about availability of books? What about the cost of books? Surely not all platforms are equal right?

So I did some research and pulled together this infographic based on the 113 books I’ve read so far this year. I wanted to find out how many of those books would have been available as eBooks and what they would have cost on various platforms specifically for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Google Books and Apple iBooks.

Click the infographic for details.

I priced each book as of 12/25/11 figuring folks would grab their shiny new eReaders and buy a book. The results were very clear.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble stood out for book availability with Amazon having 91% of my books available as a eBooks. If you like anything outside of the mainstream Amazon is your best bet with only one of my titles available as an eBook on other platforms but not on Amazon. Both Google and Apple were hit or miss for a lot of titles with only 59 of 113 titles available on all four platforms.

Amazon was the king of pricing hands down. They were never undersold and if you had bought the 59 books available on all 4 platforms on Kindle instead of Nook, you would have saved just about enough money to buy a low end Kindle.

iPhone Reminders and Outlook/Exchange Tasks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 8 Dec 2011 13:37:00 -0500

So I bought an iPhone 4 not a 4S. (Does the “S” stand for “Siri”?) because my Droid died about 3 weeks before the big announcement. By died I mean refused to charge. It was the connector not the battery.

Frankly I’m thoroughly enjoying the iPhone 4. Enough people think I’m strange without adding talking to my phone to the list. The update to iOS 5 was slightly painful but not worse than what I’ve been through with Android or Windows Mobile and it didn’t break anything permanently (cough…Android, Froyo, Droid Launcher…cough)

But folks seem to have missed something in the Siri buzz. The Reminders app is actually pretty cool. All the reviews seem stuck on the idea that it will remind you about a task when your near that location but I have yet to see anyone write about the fact that it integrates Tasks from Exchange. I’ve finally got Exchange Mail/Calendar/Contacts/Tasks on a single device using built in apps.

The last time this happened was Windows Mobile 6.5. Apparently folks who review iPhones don’t have corporate jobs that include Exchange or they don’t have tasks to complete. I guess it’s possible that they just gave up on having synced/integrated tasks on their phone.

I’m thrilled that reminders are now on iOS 5 and I’m thrilled that they sync to that magical app known as Outlook 2010.

Airplane Travel Tip-How to get more legroom

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:42:00 -0500

The rules are that you have to have your carry bag under the seat in front of you for takeoff and landing. The rules don’t say anything about mid flight.So if you need a little more leg room to stretch out during that flight, after takeoff, move your bag under your knees.

I travel with a pretty small computer bag but it still gets in the way when trying to sleep so after takeoff, I move the bag under my knees or under the slight overhang between the end of my seat and the bar below designed to contain the carryon of the person behind me. Even a large backpack can fit under your knees allowing you to stretch out for some shut eye on a long flight in a middle seat.

My wife does this on car trips in the passenger seat but I never really thought to do it on airplane flights until recently and it works like a charm.

You’ll have to stow everything again for landing but hopefully you’ll be more rested by then.

TSA Expedited Traveler Exprience

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 6 Oct 2011 17:22:00 -0400

On my way home from #atl today I got picked for the new #tsa #expedited traveller program. I had signed up a while back but never heard anything.

In short, the experience was fantastic.

The T gate checkpoint in atl now has 3 lanes. One for non-medallion members, a regular medallion lane and an expedited lane. Pre-screeners segregate folks as they walk up. The medallion side has a second screener who scan boarding passes with a handheld device to separate expedited travelers. Mine passed. Prior to security, a TSA agent checks ID and re-scans the boarding pass one more time.

After that security is straightforward. X-ray and bag x-ray. No removing shoes plus laptop and liquids stayed in their bags. No naked body scan.

I was picked for a hand swab but others went straight through. Even with that it was crazy fast. I could seriously get used to this.

Plus no one scribbled their initials uselessly on my boarding pass.

Delta: Honesty, Integrity, Mutual Respect = Bait & Switch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:40:00 -0400

I’m a Platinum level Delta flyer and I’m on a Delta jet every week. I’m not Diamond level because of the number of times I go into Atlanta and stay there. As a Platinum member Delta gives me a set number of “System wide Upgrades” allowing me to get a “free” first class upgrade without worrying about my place in the upgrade line.

Until I try to use them of course.

For example, this weekend I went to buy a ticket. I have a flexible travel schedule in this case and the travel is 2 months out. I found that I could buy a coach ticket for $477. Delta’s website helpfully offered that for $306 I could pay to upgrade to first class. Total $783.

I called and tried to use a system wide upgrade certificate. Since the coach fare has to be booked in certain fair codes, my coach ticket with the free upgrade would cost me $678 or roughly $100 less than just buying a first class ticket.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that I’m supplementing the cost of my “free” upgrade by paying 2/3 of the cost.

As someone who flies every week on Delta this feels like bait and switch. I tried to explain this to the Delta agent who struggled with the fact that they couldn’t see the internet offer of $306. She suggested I take the $306 offer. That of course, misses the point entirely.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. It seems to happen every time I try to use an upgrade certificate which is why all of mine went unused last year.

Delta’s new safety video is preceded by a message from Delta CEO Richard Anderson who extols their commitment to honesty, integrity and mutual respect. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do that demonstrates honesty, integrity and mutual respect and I don’t see that when trying to their “free” upgrades.

Why my next Phone will (probably) be an iPhone 5

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:05:00 -0400

I’ve never been an Apple lover. I loathe the bloated pig that is iTunes for Windows, but right now, it looks like my next phone will be an iPhone 5 (on Verizon).

I was a long time Windows Mobile user but when Microsoft decided to take a year off to start over I wasn’t willing to wait. So I bought the hot Android device at the time, the Motorola Droid. I use my phone for email, as my primary music player, secondary movie player, primary ebook reader and for blog reading, Twitter, Facebook, travel you name it. So I’m picky about my phone.

My wife and I had both had build quality issues with HTC WinMo phones and I wasn’t interested in spending the next two years cycling through replacement phones. I’ve had good luck in the past with Motorola so I went that route.

Overall I was thrilled with the Droid until they pushed out the 2.2 (Froyo) update. While Froyo added the ability to run apps from the SD card and live wallpaper it completely broke the launcher. The phone now regularly times out before returning to the home screen. After much pain and Googling I’ve found that this is essentially a lack of memory problem with no real fix. The only consistent resolution seems to be using ADW Launcher with the Keep in Memory setting. Without that, the phone approaches unusable as apps grab memory throughout the day. I’ve seen it take 5 full minutes to return the launch screen.The hardware is still generally good though the headphone jack seems to be getting loose.

So why am I not looking at another Android phone again?

The uncontrolled growth in apps bothers me. The Droid is short on memory but it really highlights problems with apps like Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook. These apps store their data in “data” not in cache. Cache clears, data never does. My wife and kids have this same issue on their LG Ally phones. Facebook eats up all available memory and parts of the of phone (like texting) are unusable until you manually clear data.Though it’s fun to see my daughter twitch because she can’t text, this is this a poor design. And it’s a poor design in many Google native apps and official apps. Fail.
I don’t like being misled. The size of an app on Google marketplace should reflect the size of the app on the phone, not the download size. I’m looking at you Google +. A 2+ mb download should not balloon into an app 4x that size on the phone. Also, move to SD card should not mean that 90% of the app stays on the phone and 10% moves to the SD card. Again, yes this is more of an issue on phones with smaller amounts of memory but the Android ecosystem is in that stage where software is out pacing hardware. More phones will run into this as apps bloat.
Google Bloat.Speaking of bloat, there are two kinds of Google bloat. Apps that I can’t remove, essentially Google crapware and apps that Google bloats with updates. Both bother me but the updates bother me more. For example, the Google music app doubled in size with the latest update and got less user friendly. Google essentially stole space from me with their update. Sure I could choose to not install it but then the Market just nags me about it regularly. Amazon’s music app does the same thing, cloud and all, it is considerably smaller. The Android Market also ballooned with the last update. 3 of the 4 largest apps on my phone are Google apps, Maps, Music and Market. The fourth item is SlingPlayer which I expect to be large. It brings TV to my phone for heaven’s sake.
Performance. Why can’t the dialer be given priority over all other functions? I should have an option to kill everything else and answer the phone regardless of what is going on the background. Few things are as frustrating as sliding the little bar over and over again and still missing the call because the phone won’t give me back control. Plus, I still have to pull the battery about as much as I did on my old WinMo 6.5 phone.
Accessories. Yes it’s trivial but if you want a case for your Android phone you’d better buy it with the phone because next week it won’t be available. Heaven forbid your case breaks while protecting your phone and you need a new one. Even for a hot phone like the Droid it was almost impossible to find a case a few months after release. I can still find 25 different cases for old iPhone 3GP at Wal-Mart today without any effort.

So why not Windows Phone 7?

I’m not interested in waiting for Mango to make WinPho7 right. Been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt with too many promises in the past, and not just from MS. Android was the same way promising that 2.2 would make things all better, not. I’ll look at WinPho7 again in a year or two if it’s more mature.
Apps. It’s not about having more apps, it’s about having the right apps. There are still apps I can’t get on WinPhone like Square, Audible, Pandora and travel sites from Hilton, Marriott and Gate Guru. I travel, a lot.
Accessories. Android problem x 20
Strategy. Microsoft should have thrown in the towel and built a Microsoft branded Phone with WinPho7. They are trying to blend the control of Apple with the variety of Android. From a strategy standpoint, you can have apples or you can have fruit salad, Microsoft is trying push irradiated strawberries.

One more reason I’m looking at the iPhone 5 is still the apps. The iPhone gets them first, Android is optional for developers and Windows Phone is afterthought. Examples include WSJ, Suntrust, Marriott, etc. The last reason is that there is little risk in this decision. If I hate the iPhone, my wife is due for a new phone in Feb. and she definitely wants an iPhone 5. We could just swap then and I could get something new.

There is one reason right now that I may not go to an iPhone 5 and that is LTE. If, as the rumors go, the iPhone 5 won’t have LTE I’ll have to think about whether or not I want to spend two more years in slow town.

Live Writer Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 9 Aug 2011 13:06:00 -0400

Ever since the last update of Windows Live Writer I’ve had some strange issues Live Writer locks up and crashes and periodically and some posts to Blogger take an extremely long time to post.

I use the Blog This add in for Live Writer to blog from IE9 for most of my posts and I think I’ve found a workaround that seems to mitigate the issues.

If I open Live Writer and leave a blank post open before I start creating posts with the add in, things seem to run much smoother. I haven’t had any shut downs with this method and though some posts still take a while to complete, they always complete.

It’s not ideal but it’s not a tough workaround either. Sadly, prior to this, Live Writer had been incredibly stable for some time.

On Netflix and Inflection Points Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:52:00 -0400

In part 1 I looked at changes to Netflix pricing but there’s a broader point here. Netflix thrives on inertia. They spend a fortune to get you to sign up knowing that inertia will keep you from leaving. You’ve checked the box and mentally you’re off on to other things.That’s why they (and a ton of other companies) spend a lot of money incentives for new customer acquisition, even though it makes existing customers feel ignored.

But then something happens that makes customers reevaluate that decision and that’s really bad for inertia.

In my world, when companies put in a new ERP system people quit, leave or retire. Sometimes folks get canned. In most cases it has nothing to do with the new system. It’s simply a big enough change to overcome inertia. The change gives people an excuse to do things that they’ve been thinking about doing either consciously or subconsciously. Typically folks have been ready for a change for a while, they just need something to get them off the couch.

In the case of Netflix, we’ve wound our queue down to zero a couple of times over the last year. When really want to see a new release outside of a theater, we would drop the $3.99 to see it on demand via our cable company. In short, we were kind of bored but we didn’t have an incentive to quit paying our $10 a month. Now we do.

The new Netflix pricing takes effect September 1 leaving Netflix a pretty short window to get us to change our mind. Then they’ll spend a fortune trying to get us back. Breaking inertia is expensive.

On Netflix and Inflection Points

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:04:00 -0400

So Netflix is upping the cost of unlimited streaming and getting a DVD shipped, by a lot. My first thought was that we’d dump the Netflix DVD option and move to Redbox for DVD’s. After all, at one movie a weekend, which all we do realistically, Redbox is half the price. Pus, with Micah now driving, he’d happily run to Redbox for us just to get to drive his car. Half price movies and a happy teenager, what could be better?

Now I’m thinking that we might dump Netflix altogether. The streaming movie offerings are nice as a fill in but the selection isn’t strong enough to drop the $8 a month on. Frankly, every time we’ve really wanted to stream something right now (like when the kid’s karate instructor scheduled a party at our house to watch the original Karate Kid and then forgot to rent it.) we’ve been bailed out by Amazon Unbox, not by Netflix. I double checked and everything in my Netflix queue is available on Amazon for rent at pretty reasonable prices ($2.99 for the older stuff).

One of my uses for Netflix is streaming movies while I’m working on the road. Except that it rarely works. Too many hotels still have really poor wireless. (I’m look at you Hilton brands, Marriott kicks your butt in this area.) When it takes 3 hours to stream an hour and half movie you can bet the experience is terrible. With Amazon, the rentals are portable so I can rent and download before I leave home taking portable movies with me.

Ok, I think I’ve convinced myself, now to go convince my wife.

Droid Rebuild

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:40:00 -0400

Droids have long histories of rebuilding. There was the six million dollar man who became something of droid after the rebuild. C3P0 was rebuilt multiple times in the Star Wars saga as were the Terminators.

On Monday I decided that it was time to rebuild my Droid. My original droid had been through the upgrade to Froyo and I was regularly getting out of space issues despite my best efforts. The last straw came when any apps on the SD card refused to update. After deleting them, they refused to reinstall.

So Monday night I backed things up and did a hard reset on the devices and a format on the SD card. I was pleasantly surprised that my previously installed apps automatically installed, except of course that I didn’t want a few of them back. It would be nice if Android asked first.

By noon Tuesday the phone was 100% with all of my settings, logins, etc. complete and the phone rocks. It’s fast again and I have tons of room on the device and on the SD card.

I’ve noticed that many, many, many Android apps don’t clean up after themselves leaving crud on the device.Didn’t Google used to complain about that with Windows?

Finally, the day after I rebuilt my phone, Verizon sent me an email telling me that I was eligible for a new phone. Bad timing. Two days earlier and I might have jumped. Today, I’m happy again with my Droid.

Android and Office 365

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 09:22:00 -0400

I signed up for the Office 365 beta and with just a little work got my email account working on my Droid with the default Office 365 domain setup.

Here’s how:

In the core email app, click Menu | Add Account
enter your email address and password from Office 365

Android wasn’t able to automatically setup the account like it could with my corporate mail. I suspect this is a beta issue.

In Domain\User name enter your full email account like myname@myname.onmicrosoft.com
Enter your password
In the Server enter SN2PRD0602.outlook.com

This is slightly different than the settings you see if you add the account to Outlook. It uses SN2PRD0602.mailbox.outlook.com but that doesn’t seem to work on my droid.

Check Use Secure connection (SSL)
Hit Next
You will need to accept the security prompt.

That’s is. Now I’ve got my corporate Exchange based mail and my Office 365 mail going to Android. I can view a combined inbox or see them separately and the notification icon shows number emails in the number of inboxes.

Borders Book-O-Nomics

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:01:00 -0500

So we hit the local Borders bookstore closing sale today. I went through my pile of books and then did the math. Most of the books I wanted were in the $25 range. With Border’s 20% discount, the price drops to $20. Even if I held off a few weeks and waited for 40% price breaks, it falls to $15. Except that most of these books are available today in Kindle format for $10-$12.

I have no idea how Borders’s bankruptcy affects their relationship with publishers but in the normal course of business most books are returnable by stores to the publisher for a full refund. Consequently, it may only be in Border’s best interest to sell the books at a discount that isn’t more than the cost of boxing up and returning the books. Don’t expect fantastic deals at a Border’s out of business sale. Do expect a long checkout line.

Freedom is never a release and always a responsibility

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:17:00 -0500

As Egypt begins to ponder what freedom might mean for them, and the course to freedom is by no means set yet for Egypt, yesterday’s Daily Drucker reminded me of what freedom really means. It made me wonder if Egyptians are really ready for freedom, not just license.

"Freedom is not fun. It is not the same as individual happiness, nor is it security or peace or progress. It is a responsible choice. Freedom is not so much a right as a duty. Real freedom is not freedom from something; that would be license. It is freedom to choose between doing or not doing something, to act one way or another, to hold one belief or the opposite. It is not "fun" but the heaviest burden laid on man: to decide his own individual conduct as well as the conduct of society and to be responsible for both decisions.", [Peter F. Drucker with Joseph A. Maciariello, The Daily Drucker]