tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7814752229020548402024-03-13T22:05:44.486-07:00Work is a thing you do, not a place you go.My musings about IT and life in general. This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer yaddayaddayadda...Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-77105991786888196592015-11-26T13:49:00.000-08:002015-11-26T13:49:45.880-08:00Another personal projectYet again, I'm using this blog as a diary of my attempts to do something rather than writing something interesting. Hey, who knows? Maybe it'll work and THEN it'll become interesting.<br />
<br />
So, what's the project? Quite simply put, it's in-car entertainment for the kids.<br />
<br />
You see, there's the obvious easy option of buying a dual screen DVD setup. But they're a bit rubbish; in many cases still expensive; and the kids have to watch the same thing. Now, any of you out there with multiple kids will know that they NEVER want to watch the same thing. So how am I going to beat this?<br />
<br />
Well, the plan is to use a Raspberry Pi and a couple of cheap tablets. At the moment this is all Pi (ha!) in the sky, but the idea runs thus...<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I find a MiFi/Battery Pack combo that is capable of powering the device plugged into it whilst it's charging. This provides continous (hopefully) playback at times when I switch off the ignition (like petrol stations).</li>
<li>Off this I run a Pi and a USB hard drive (not sure how the Hard drive is getting power yet... possibly from the MiFi/Battery Pack?)</li>
<li>The Pi runs some kind of DLNA software serving out copies of the kids' various ripped DVDs</li>
<li>Also, the MiFi has a 4G SIM in it providing internet access...</li>
<li>The kids each have a cheap Android Tablet attached to the back of the front seat headrests.</li>
<li>These tablets are able to stream media from the Pi or over 4G to entertain the kids.</li>
</ul>
<div>
The major obstacles here are, I think, finding an appropriate MiFi/Battery Pack and, potentially, the bandwidth available as I'm doubting that the Pi will be powerful enough to transcode.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, research begins, will post updates on my findings.</div>
Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-22575495075948616902015-07-23T05:34:00.000-07:002015-07-23T07:22:06.784-07:00Experimenting with Deploying Windows 10 via MDT 2013 Update 1 PreviewRiveting title I know. As with many of my previous posts, this is more of a dumping ground for my thoughts and findings than a full blown blog post designed to guide someone through the process. Might help someone somewhere though...<br />
<br />
So, building this on a test server running 2012 R2.<br />
<br />
Joined to the domain and then installed the WDS role.<br />
<br />
Following the guide at http://goo.gl/kVjglF<br />
<br />
First major hitch is when coming to download the Windows 10 ADK. The installer gives the error:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Install did not compete successfully.<br />An error occurred while installing "Documentation"<br />Unable to verify the integrity of downloaded content. It might be corrupter. Please check your network connection and try again.<br />Review the Setup log files or contact your system administrator.</blockquote>
<br />
A bit of rooting in the logs and a small amount of Google-Fu seems to indicate the the source files have been updated but the installer hasn't. Tracked down an updated installer at http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/1/9/8197FEB9-FABE-48FD-A537-7D8709586715/adk/adksetup.exe which seems to work.<br />
<br />
Following that, pretty much a standard run if things so far. Installed the ADK, checked for updates, launched MDT.<br />
<br />
Within MDT I've created a Deployment Share as usual, imported the Operating System from the ISO for build 162, and created a standard task sequence.<br />
<br />
As of just now, I'm updating the Deployment Share and waiting for the boot wims to be generated so that I can feed them into WDS.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-84725724578861620082012-08-16T12:18:00.000-07:002012-08-16T12:18:30.900-07:00Rooting an HTC Desire (or RTFM)As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm enjoying my Nexus 7 tablet so much that I've given my HTC Sensation Xe to my wife and am now using her HTC Desire. Which is fine, apart from the fact that when she got it I upgraded it to the official HTC release of Android 2.3.3 (or Gingerbread) which left the phone with very little internal storage. She's mentioned it before but, to be honest, I hadn't realised just how bad it is. It's awful. The phone constantly reports being low on space with little or no apps installed.<br />
<br />
Well, now that it's MY phone, it's time to do something about it.<br />
<br />
There's a whole bunch of resources out on the internet about rooting. So many in fact that it's pretty overwhelming when all you want to do is get a single phone rooted with the minimum of fuss. I've spent a fair bit of time getting it sorted and at least part of the time I wasted doing it was because I didn't read the instructions properly. So, as I've done before, I'll attempt to put together a simple set of instructions to summarise what I did (on Windows 7 for clarity and for my very specific set of circumstances) in the hope that it might help someone else.<br />
<br />
Okay, firstly, no matter what you do you're going to need to install some drivers. You'll need two sets - one for when the phone is in 'normal' mode and one for when it's in HBOOT mode.<br />
<br />
for the normal drivers I'd recommend <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/software/htc-sync/" target="_blank">downloading and installing HTC Sync</a> - or at least starting to. It'll first install all of the drivers for normal operation. Once that's done it'll start a standard-ish installation wizard for HTC Sync which you can and SHOULD cancel. You don't want HTC Sync installed at this stage as it messes things up so, if you've already got it, <b>uninstall HTC Sync now.</b><br />
<br />
Next you need the drivers for HBOOT so <a href="http://unrevoked.com/rootwiki/doku.php/public/unrevoked3" target="_blank">pop over to unrevoked.com and download the HBOOT drivers</a> there then unzip them somewhere. Then put your Desire into HBOOT by turning it off and then turning it back on using the volume down and power buttons. If you find that it doesn't work, see if you've got Fast Boot enabled in the settings menu. If you can't find it, whip the battery out and put it back in and then turn on using power and volume down.<br />
<br />
If you've got an HBOOT USB option in the HBOOT menu then select that using the volume up/down to move and the power button to select then plug your phone into your PC with a USB cable. If the option's not there, just go ahead and plug it in anyway (I did, and it worked fine).<br />
<br />
Windows won't recognised the device and so you'll end up with an unknown Android 1.0 device in Device Manager. Right click, update driver and point it to your unzipped HBOOT driver folder. You'll get prompted that the driver isn't signed so you'll have to approve it to proceed.<br />
<br />
Once that's installed, unplug the phone and reboot it (battery in and out again if it's easiest).<br />
<br />
Now, here's where it depends on what version of Android you've got as to how you proceed. From what I can gather, the best option is <a href="http://www.unrevoked.com/recovery/" target="_blank">unrevoked3</a> but it doesn't work for me on Android 2.3.3. I believe it works on Android 2.2 and earlier, but I can't guarantee that as I can't test it. The instructions seem pretty simple. Enable USB Debugging from the Settings>Applications>Development menu, plug the phone into the computer, change the USB mode to Charge only (from the pull down menu) and then run Unrevoked. It pretty much does the rest for you.<br />
<br />
If, like me, you're stuck then you need to turn to revolutionary. Following the <a href="http://androidforums.com/desire-all-things-root/579600-guide-s-off-root-htc-desire-revolutionary-updated.html" target="_blank">instructions over at androidforums.com</a> you should first download ClockWorkMod 2.5.0.7 and put it in the root of your C drive for simplicity. Make sure you also follow the link it posts to the "Useful Downloads" section to get the latest username and password for downloading it. Next follow the set up instructions for ADB and FastBoot in the <a href="http://androidforums.com/desire-all-things-root/337356-faq-adb-fastboot-windows-updated-1st-june-2011-a.html" target="_blank">[FAQ] ADB and FASTBOOT for Windows</a> post. You'll need this to install the recovery image.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://androidforums.com/desire-all-things-root/579600-guide-s-off-root-htc-desire-revolutionary-updated.html" target="_blank">Continue following the instructions</a> - at this point you should be just starting step 4 (downloading revolutionary and the root file). Read the instructions, download the files (save revolutionary on your PC and the root file on the SD card), generate your beta key and then unzip and start running revolutionary. DON'T INSTALL THEIR RECOVERY IMAGE. You're going to install your own in just a minute.<br />
<br />
Now boot into fastboot mode (power button plus volume down - see above) then select the fastboot option. connect the phone to the PC once again and you should see FASTBOOT USB on your screen. Open a command prompt on your computer and type:<br />
<br />
fastboot flash recovery c:\recovery_CWM_2.5.0.7.img<br />
<br />
(if you get some message like "command fastboot not recognized" then go back, <a href="http://androidforums.com/desire-all-things-root/337356-faq-adb-fastboot-windows-updated-1st-june-2011-a.html" target="_blank">read the ADB and FASTBOOT instructions again</a>, and make sure you've modified your PATH variable.)<br />
<br />
Finally, you need to apply the root file you downloaded earlier. Reboot into HBOOT (surely you remember how to do it by now?) and this time choose Recovery from the menu. Choose to "install zip from sdcard" then "choose zip from sdcard" and finally pick the zip you <span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">downloaded earlier (</span>Superuser-3.0.7-efgh-signed.zip).<br />
<br />
Reboot and you're now rooted! Woohoo!<br />
<br />
So, now I'd recommend installing ROM Manager from the market which makes it incredibly easy to download and try out different ROMs. I'm using the Desire ISC ROM by Sandvold which is pretty good. The important part though is that after following the instructions at <a href="http://www.sandvold.as/FAQ.htm">http://www.sandvold.as/FAQ.htm</a> I am now installing all Apps straight to the SD card and not running out of space. Wonderful :)Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-10461643959633716892012-08-06T11:01:00.001-07:002012-08-06T11:02:48.385-07:00Update on the Nexus - how's it going a few weeks in?<div>
<div dir="ltr">
I recently had a friend contact me asking if I was still enjoying the Nexus 7. I thought my reply would actually make a decent blog post with some minor modifications so here we go. <br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I'm still very happy with it. In fact, I'm so happy with it that I've given my Sensation Xe to the wife and taken her Desire as I'm barely using my phone any more and she's benefitting far more from the improved phone.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
I've replaced the default keyboard with the Swift Key keyboard which is excellent (possibly even better than the HTC one!) I've also installed Ultimate Rotation Control as the fixed portrait homescreen is, frankly, stupid and particularly annoying when switching between two apps that you want to use in landscape.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I've opted to not use a screen lock code/face recognition as I prefer being able to get in to things quickly (kind of defeats the purpose of Google Now I feel if it's many clicks to access it). Instead I'm using App Lock on my mail app to comply with my own IT security policies :)<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Google Now's pretty clever. My only complaint is that it doesn't do train times in Edinburgh, only bus times. I still think it's got potential to grow a huge amount though.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
The lack of Flash is a bit pants. Not because I want to look at flash website particularly, but because the iPlayer app doesn't work. I presume that the BBC are working on a non-flash version for Android (presumably the iPad version is non-flash) but it's not here yet. In the meantime I've installed FireFox Beta and the Flash apk and that's working for the most part, but it's a bit clunky and not how I ideally want to be using this device.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
What else? Err... Okay, bought a nice cover and stylus combo from Amazon for a tenner. It's this one:<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Google-Nexus-Tablet-Case-integrated/dp/B008KPVSQC/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1344270770&sr=1-6">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Google-Nexus-Tablet-Case-integrated/dp/B008KPVSQC/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1344270770&sr=1-6</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Although would probably have bought this one if it had been half price at the time I was looking (which it is now):<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Google-Nexus-Tablet-Case-integrated/dp/B008GEBFQK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344270707&sr=8-2">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Google-Nexus-Tablet-Case-integrated/dp/B008GEBFQK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344270707&sr=8-2</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
The cover's quite nice as it has two angles - a shallow one for typing and a steeper one for 'consuming content'. If you're wanting to use it for taking notes, an external bluetooth keyboard might be better but I'm finding Evernote/Skitch adequate at the moment.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
It needs more apps developing for it that take advantage of the screen size. There's a few apps that I'd normally have that aren't available for it yet. Amazon's a good example of that although the website is easily accessible at this screen size through the Chrome Browser. Nice feature of Chrome actually - if there's two links close together and, when you click, you don't quite hit either/hit both, it shows a close up of the area to let you click again.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
As a bit of a laugh while we were away recently, I tried to use it for Sat Nav by downloading some maps for use offline. It doesn't work though - it needs an active internet connection to plot the route. I don't know how well it would work if you started the navigation before you left home and then carried on from there. Presumably okay but, honestly, it was just for a laugh - nowhere to mount a 7" tablet in my car just now.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
For internet out and about I'm using the phone as a hotspot and that seems to work great. Finding it preferable to use the tablet bounced off the phone than just use the phone.<br />
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
So, that's essentially where I am now. To wrap up, I'd like to answer a question I posed a while back -namely, are apps as relevant to tablets? Well, having had my tablet for a while it's an overwhelming YES from me. Whilst many website are wonderfully functional, they're not all designed to be interacted with via a touchscreen. A great example is GMail. I thought it would be a strong contender for abandoning the app, but it's just not as convenient. Using the web interface really underlines how much thought has gone into making the App clean and easy to use with minimal presses; using the web front-end quickly becomes frustrating.</div>
</div>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-50217210116630599152012-07-18T15:20:00.002-07:002012-07-18T15:20:12.195-07:00Nexus 7 ReviewIt's here.<br />
<br />
I got so frustrated with waiting for my Google Play order to arrive that I went out this evening and bought one from Currys. I'll just have to refuse delivery of the other when it finally arrives.<br />
<br />
But enough of that, here's my review. And it's the first I've ever written so we'll just have to see how it goes.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Unboxing</h3>
I have no idea what all of the fuss is about. Took about 10 seconds. Maybe if any of them had a knife to hand to cut the stickers...<br />
<br />
<h3>
First impressions</h3>
It's really nice. Looks pretty sleek, the genuine pleatherette back gives it a good surface to grip. Not in love with how close the volume and power buttons are, but that's mainly bugging me right now for producing screenshots (which I'm not going to be doing a lot of after this!). As reported elsewhere, very minimal other than that - there's a micro USB port and audio jack on the bottom and four little brassy dots on the bottom of the left hand side which I believe are something to do with a magnetic cover reported elsewhere.<br />
<br />
<h3>
First switch on</h3>
Following a welcome screen, you're prompted to select a Wi-Fi network. After this you're asked if you have an existing Google account and then if you want to join Google+. I'm assuming that if you're already joined this step is skipped. After a couple more setup screens (Google location, services etc) Setup is complete and you're taken to the homescreen.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Having a play (no pun intended)</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uoTTdjOhSFk/UAcvKdN2VoI/AAAAAAAACj0/IHcQ9oX2FbU/s1600/Screenshot_2012-07-18-19-05-29.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uoTTdjOhSFk/UAcvKdN2VoI/AAAAAAAACj0/IHcQ9oX2FbU/s320/Screenshot_2012-07-18-19-05-29.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Everyone who's seen anything about the Nexus 7 will be familiar with this screenshot by now. The default homescreen has the My Library widget front and centre showing you the free content you've got access to. As you'll have read elsewhere, the widgets can be resized and the content in them resizes to match. It's a pretty nice feature that makes you ask "Why haven't they always done that?".<br />
<br />
I couldn't resist testing the screen and dove straight in to Transformers: Dark of the moon. The picture quality is astounding. And, to my far from well trained ear, the sound was fine too - I wasn't expecting 5.1 surround but it was certainly loud enough for me to be able to hear exactly what was going on despite my 2 year old watching TV in the same room. The movie is streamed by default but you can download it in the background for offline viewing. I'm a bit disappointed that there's no way to stream the movie via DLNA to my TV. I'd love to see this in the future (assuming that the software isn't that hard to implement).<br />
<br />
While I've been typing this the screen has timed out so I may as well talk about the lockscreen now. Once you press the power button to wake up the tablet, you get a pretty simple screen with the time, date and charge level in the top half and a padlock icon in the bottom half that pulses once to draw your attention. Dragging the lock to the left, right or bottom takes you back to whatever was open when the screen locked. Dragging it up brings up the much touted "Google Now". Right now, it's pretty useless showing only the local weather "card" and the card for the distance and travel time to my work (15 minutes! ha!) but it'll supposedly learn over time what I do and when I do it and automatically bring it up here. We'll see how that pans out.<br />
<br />
At this point in the review I've just noticed something - I'm not <i>really</i> missing the hardware buttons and I thought I would. If there's one thing I am missing it's the menu button - I'm finding it a bit hard to locate the new triple dot button on some occasions (at least once because it wasn't there).<br />
<br />
One last point in this section for now - I found very quickly that the screen wasn't rotating when I thought it should. It would appear that Google want you to use it in portrait by default (and that's certainly backed up by the design of the hardware). To that end they've disabled screen rotation. You can quickly and easily re-enable it though using an icon in the redesigned taskbar pulldown menu (which also offers access to the settings menu and the ability to dismiss one or all alerts).<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<h3>
General Performance</h3>
Damn it's slick! I'm yet to see it stutter or pause. I've downloaded a couple of pretty graphics intensive games like Dead Trigger and Glowball to give it a go and they're as smooth as silk. I refuse to say butter. Damnit!<br />
<br />
<h3>
Apps</h3>
Already in the app tray are Calculator, Calendar, Chrome, Clock, Currents, Downloads, Earth, Email, Gallery, GMail, Google, Google+, Latitude, Local, Maps, Messenger, Navigation, People, Play Books, Play Movies, Play Music, Play Store, Settings, Talk, Voice Search and YouTube. Here's my thoughts on most of them...<br />
<br />
<b>Calculator </b>- Better than the one I'm used to. My current phone is an HTC Sensation XE and the HTC calculator is not good - I didn't think you could mess up a calculator design but HTC managed it. The Nexus is much cleaner<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<tr><td><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lvo-c8gaRtQ/UAc0ODyQ4ZI/AAAAAAAACkU/19Fgj-A6nlM/s1600/Screenshot_2012-07-18-20-53-24.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lvo-c8gaRtQ/UAc0ODyQ4ZI/AAAAAAAACkU/19Fgj-A6nlM/s200/Screenshot_2012-07-18-20-53-24.png" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nexus Calculator</td></tr>
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</center>
<br />
<br />
<b>Calendar </b>- This is stunning. The last time I saw a stock Android calendar it was awful and I was so grateful for having HTC's take on it. But this beats the pants off my phone's calendar. It's cleaner and crisper with a well thought out design for the day, week and month views. But it's the agenda view where I can see me spending most of my time. It's so simple to navigate and offers the ability to set reminders and send emails to meeting attendees right there - a nice touch.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<b>Chrome </b>- Chrome rocks as a browser on the desktop and the new version included with JellyBean doesn't disappoint. It's fast and responsive, renders pages well and does a good job of resizing when rotating the screen. My only complaint - no Flash. Damn you Adobe!!<br />
<br />
<b>Clock </b>- First app that's not as good as the one on my HTC. It's clean but very basic with just the time and the ability to set alarms. No World Clock, Stopwatch or Timer. Shame.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w2D-l2elcTQ/UAcu_q9EXuI/AAAAAAAACjA/Rc_Vi6vI1BM/s1600/Screenshot_2012-07-18-21-08-42.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w2D-l2elcTQ/UAcu_q9EXuI/AAAAAAAACjA/Rc_Vi6vI1BM/s200/Screenshot_2012-07-18-21-08-42.png" width="125" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RxlCCgk0Bu0/UAcu9-jnYbI/AAAAAAAACi4/2L2GEzww2As/s1600/Screenshot_2012-07-18-21-09-01.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RxlCCgk0Bu0/UAcu9-jnYbI/AAAAAAAACi4/2L2GEzww2As/s200/Screenshot_2012-07-18-21-09-01.png" width="125" /></a><b>Currents </b>- Well, I've never heard of this before so can't tell you if it's new to JellyBean or just omitted from HTC builds. But boy is it good! It's a news reader app but formatted far better than what I'm used to in a very magaziney and compelling way. Just found myself spending 15 minutes browsing the stories rather than writing this. Oops! Having just checked, it's available in the market on my Sensation so it's just that I've never heard of it before.<br />
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<b>Downloads </b>- Yeah, this isn't really an app. It's a way to view stuff you've downloaded (but not through Google Play). 'Nuff said.<br />
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<b>Earth </b>- I've never used Google Earth on Android before so have no comparison but it's pretty smooth and usable. I'm honestly not sure how much (if at all) I will use it as I've always found Google Earth to be more of a novelty than a useful tool. Sorry Google!<br />
<br />
<b>Email/GMail</b> - Both have had a tablet makeover and look good. Folders are listed down the left-hand side with emails listed to the right. Mail and GMail seem to be very similar these days in both design and functionality which is a good thing in my opinion.<br />
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<b>Gallery </b>- I'm not sure there's much to say about this. It's a gallery, it works, its smooth, you can see pictures with it. Err... that's it.<br />
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<b>Google </b>- Is, it turns out, the Google Now app. Ahh, I see. Well, as I said before, we'll see how well this works out.<br />
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<b>Google+/Messenger</b> - I'm so dedicated to writing this review that I've re-joined Google+ to test it out. The app's pretty good and I think I'm going to stay but I'm still not sure it's for me - Practically nobody I know actively uses it right now and I've never managed to get into the "What's Hot" and "Hangouts" side of it. Still, it's a tablet optimised app so that gets it plus points<br />
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<b>Latitude/Local/Maps/Navigation</b> - I tend to class these as different facets of the same app. And there's not much, if any, difference between them on my ICS phone and here on a JellyBean tablet. Not a bad thing per se but there's nothing new to report. Hopefully they're going to get some tablet optimisation in the future. I'd say that the best feature to note is that, since a recent upgrade to Google Maps, you can make maps available offline which is going to be pretty much essential as the tablet has no mobile connectivity and relies entirely on Wi-Fi for data.<br />
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<b>People </b>- Hmmm. This is an odd one for me as I don't use People app on my mobile. If I want to call someone I go straight to the phone; text I go straight to messaging; email straight to GMail etc. So, I see even less of a need for an app of this nature on a tablet with no mobile network connectivity (and therefore no voice calls or texts). That said, it's been tablet optimised and does a decent job of letting you see a bunch<br />
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<b>Play Books/Movies/Music/Store</b> - All of these (with the exception of Music) look the same to me as they did in ICS on the Sensation. The music app's a new addition for me but functionality has been severely limited as the Google Play Music store isn't available in the UK. Essentially, it's the mp3 player. I haven't had the chance to transfer and mp3s yet but will see how well it bears up.<br />
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<b>Settings </b>- Has also not changed much from ICS. Not sure whether it's an HTC affectation but the icons in the settings menu of my phone are colour whereas the ones on the Nexus are just black and white. Also different (for me) is that accounts are listed seperately in the root menu instead of a sub-menu.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-amdo-_-NUU0/UAcu7QVClXI/AAAAAAAACiw/PSROQp7xpNQ/s1600/Screenshot_2012-07-18-22-27-18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-amdo-_-NUU0/UAcu7QVClXI/AAAAAAAACiw/PSROQp7xpNQ/s200/Screenshot_2012-07-18-22-27-18.png" width="125" /></a></div>
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<b style="background-color: white;">Talk</b><span style="background-color: white;"> - Is still just the chat functionality of your Google account. And looks pretty much the same as it always has.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AlppCpxC_Ws/UAcu6Nj_qaI/AAAAAAAACio/sOYAyOnRS64/s1600/Screenshot_2012-07-18-22-33-14.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AlppCpxC_Ws/UAcu6Nj_qaI/AAAAAAAACio/sOYAyOnRS64/s200/Screenshot_2012-07-18-22-33-14.png" width="125" /></a></div>
<b>Voice Search</b> - Is pretty good. It's quick, accurate and gets me the results I'm after. I tried a few searches for places, people and movies and always got the info I wanted in the first set of results. The results page looks very clean and links take you off to Chrome, maps etc. I think the key here is its integration with Google Now which could be very good, I just need more time to test it.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_i0d6_AIZGo/UAcu49-_-AI/AAAAAAAACig/StxzfLpDVi4/s1600/Screenshot_2012-07-18-22-40-27.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_i0d6_AIZGo/UAcu49-_-AI/AAAAAAAACig/StxzfLpDVi4/s200/Screenshot_2012-07-18-22-40-27.png" width="125" /></a><b>YouTube </b>- Has had a make over recently which I wasn't aware of so initially thought "Oh! New for tablet/JellyBean!" However, it's the same on my phone. There's a new sidebar for navigation which is definitely an improvement and actually works better on the tablet than on a smaller smartphone. Again, it depends on how much you'd use this as to how good or bad you'd find it. I don't use YouTube much so can't really comment on that front.<br />
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I've downloaded a couple of other apps so far but not many. Google Drive has had a tablet-y makeover and looks good for it. Facebook has no apparent differences and neither does Twitter although both work fine on the bigger screen.<br />
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That, I think, is just about enough info on apps for now!<br />
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<h3>
So, Any Complaints?</h3>
A few. But they're minor. The keyboard isn't as good as the HTC one so I'll be looking for a good alternative. As I said earlier on, I occasionally have difficulty finding the menu button and would have preferred it if it was included along with the back and home buttons at the bottom of the screen. And, also mentioned earlier, I'd like DLNA functionality at some point.<br />
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Other than that though, I'm a very happy bunny. It's a brilliant piece of kit at a great price. I'm looking forward to seeing how I get on with it on a day-to-day basis and will more than likely report back on that at a later date.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-25802907072174632212012-07-18T06:09:00.000-07:002012-07-18T06:09:12.071-07:00Refusing delivery of Nexus 7If, like me, you want to go to a shop and buy the Nexus 7 rather than wait for delivery from Google Play, here's the instructions they've just sent me for doing so:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Thank you for contacting Google. It was my pleasure assisting you today.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">At this point it's no longer possible to cancel this preorder. Preorder</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">shipment processing on your order has begun, which means that our shipping</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">provider is moving forward with delivery preparation.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Our expedited order fulfillment process ensures that packages are</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">delivered quickly, which also means that there is a very short window of</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">time to cancel an order prior to our shipping provider moving forward with</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">delivery.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I recommend leaving a prominent note on the door to let our shipping</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">provider know that you're refusing delivery of the package. In some cases</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">our shipping provider has returned packages if their drivers see a note</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">for refusal of delivery. The note should include the following:</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">- Refuse delivery-Return to Sender</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">- Include signature</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">- Include tracking #</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">If your package is returned due to refusal of delivery, your order will be</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">cancelled and refunded within 2 weeks.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">If the package is successfully delivered in spite of the delivery refusal</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">note on your door, you can still refuse delivery of unopened packages</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">within 5 days of delivery. To do so, contact our shipper directly to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">schedule a pick up of your package. Make sure to let them know that the</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">pickup is specifically because you're refusing delivery.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">IMPORTANT: Don't open the package. Our shipper won't allow refusal of</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">delivery for opened packages.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">If there is anything further we can assist you with, please feel free to</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">reply directly to this email or visit our help center at:</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><a href="http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?contact_type=contact_policy&policy=hardware" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">http://support.google.com/<wbr></wbr>googleplay/bin/request.py?<wbr></wbr>contact_type=contact_policy&<wbr></wbr>policy=hardware</a>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-26985946673930188402012-07-17T23:37:00.001-07:002012-07-17T23:37:10.549-07:00Actually, NOW I'm annoyed.This just gets worse.<br />
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So, here's the story so far of the great Nexus 7 shipping debacle as far as I can tell. I have to say "as far as I can tell" as this is what I'm piecing together from Twitter posts and various articles on the web. The only communication I've had from Google arrived at 2:50am today and I'll come on to that in a bit.<br />
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So firstly, as I previously mentioned, <a href="http://www.androidauthority.com/nexus-7-update-gamestop-launch-effect-ebuyer-starts-shipping-101080/" target="_blank">eBuyer shipped some customer's orders in the UK last week</a> (presumably jumping the gun) which was quickly followed by US customers who had ordered via GameStop getting notification that their orders were available for collection.<br />
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Following this, Google Play in the US started shipping its pre-orders out so over the last 5 or so days there's been a steady stream of Nexus 7s arriving at people's doors via UPS.<br />
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All went quiet over the weekend (unsurprisingly). Then on the morning of Monday 16th, UK pre-order customers started seeing their accounts being debited. Great news as far as we were all concerned as our order confirmation emails stated "You will not be charged until your order has been shipped."<br />
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At the same time there's also various reports of other UK suppliers changing their shippping dates on an almost hourly basis.<br />
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On the 17th there's further confusion as <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/17/nexus-7-pre-orders-start-shipping-in-uk-and-canada/" target="_blank">Google announce that they've shipped all (and then most, and then some) US pre-orders</a>. <a href="http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2667319&topic=2411735&ctx=topic" target="_blank">Later amends to this statement</a> say that all 8GB orders will ship by the 20th (that's this Friday) with 16GB orders placed before the 30th June shipping at the same time, and those after by next week.<br />
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This morning I've woken up to an email from Google. Behold...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_wqNEjJRABM/UAZXlcowqtI/AAAAAAAACh0/76iDk7qm5nM/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="102" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_wqNEjJRABM/UAZXlcowqtI/AAAAAAAACh0/76iDk7qm5nM/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you can't read that, it's telling me that only 8GB models will ship before the 20th and 16GB models will ship next week. However, I'm already seeing on Twitter that some UK based customers have had shipping notification.</div>
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Just to be clear, I pre-ordered mine less than 2 hours after they were announced. Now, I'm not saying that makes me the front of the queue. But I'm damn sure I was in the queue before a lot of the people who've got theirs already. </div>
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And what's more Google, YOU'VE DEBITED MY ACCOUNT! SO GIVE ME MY SHIPPING DETAILS ALREADY!!!</div>
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Of course, I can already tell you how this will end. My tablet will be shipped some time next week with my laughably "upgraded" next day delivery. TNT will attempt to deliver it in the middle of the day while I'm at work. I'll then have to wait until Saturday 28th to drive out to the middle of nowhere (wherever the TNT depot is) and collect it. That's the day I'm going on holiday by the way Google. And will be over 4 weeks after I placed the order.</div>
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Ridiculous. *sigh*</div>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-56770195091885513002012-07-13T05:19:00.001-07:002012-07-13T23:29:35.953-07:00So annoyed!<div><div>
My Nexus 7 has not even shipped yet.<br />
<br />
Now, on the face of it that's no reason to be annoyed. But the thing is, I (like many others) pre-ordered mine through Google Play within hours of the announcement. To the best of my knowledge at present, nobody who did that has even had a dispatch notification. However, people who placed their orders through eBuyer (and therefore got free delivery whereas we've payed an extra £10 for it), <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1737556&page=600" target="_blank">are already taking delivery</a>!<br />
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Not particularly fair.<br />
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And I bet they're getting the 'free' Google Play credit and copy of Transformers too.<br />
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Seriously Google, sort it out. This is not on!<br />
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The only justification I can see for this at all is if eBuyer have broken the rules and shipped early. If that's the case we need a message to that effect from Google and fast.<br />
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And as recompense, I think we should get our <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/google-inc-refund-shipping-charge-for-nexus-7-purchases-made-through-google-play-store">delivery charge refunded</a>. And more credit too.<br />
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That is all... For now.</div></div>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-67317059883894579522012-07-02T03:14:00.003-07:002012-07-02T03:14:48.372-07:00Symantec System Recover Server 2011 and USB drivesA while back I switched from Backup Exec to System Recovery Server as my prefered backup option. The main reasons for doing this were that a) Bare metal/catastrophic recovery from Backup Exec is pretty tough and b) I rarely (if ever) have to restore files from backup these days.<br />
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I looked at various other options but, given my limited budget, I wanted to be able to carry out incremental daily backups to 1TB USB drives which could then be stored offsite in rotation. At the time, the only tool that allowed me to do this was SSRS (then Backup Exec System Recovery Server).<br />
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There were however a few problems that I had trouble getting over so, again, I'm noting them here for my future reference and to help anyone who may need them.<br />
<br />
Firstly, the drive letter of the USB drive wasn't consistent. That one was easy to fix thanks to the <a href="http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html" target="_blank">USB Drive Letter Manager for Windows</a>. A quick install and configuration got that one consistently assigning the same letter to my attached USB drives.<br />
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Secondly there's the destination issue for the server with the drive attached. IF you backup to the drive letter it doesn't seem to find the new drive when you carry out the swap. The solution I came up with there was to back up to the network share of the drive, even from the server with it attached.<br />
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Thirdly there's the issue around archiving/deleting old backups. As I understand it, if I was using some kind of hefty NAS device to store my backups the software would do this itself with the settings for "Limit the number of recovery point sets saved for this backup" and "Automatically optimize storage". But this doesn't seem to work when you're using multiple USB drives.<br />
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The solution I've come up with for this is to run a scheduled vb script just before the first backup each week which looks at the USB drive and deletes any files older than 42 days (6 weeks and, of course, THE answer...)<br />
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Here's my script for anyone who wants it...<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Dim Fso<br />Dim Directory<br />Dim Modified<br />Dim Files<br />Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")<br />Set Directory = Fso.GetFolder("M:\")<br />Set Files = Directory.Files<br />For Each Modified in Files<br />If DateDiff("D", Modified.DateLastModified, Now) > 42 Then Modified.Delete <br />Next</span>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-11609183864178968792012-06-28T13:19:00.002-07:002012-06-28T13:19:59.057-07:00Keep taking the tabletsIn a fit of unashamed geekishness, I ordered my first tablet last night.<br />
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It isn't, as I had been planning*, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 but in fact the newly announced Google Nexus 7.<br />
<br />
And can you blame me? For the price of an 8GB Tab 2, I can get a 16GB Nexus 7 which is far higher spec'd and comes with Google Play credit and (the less exciting) Transformers: Dark of the Moon.<br />
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I'm really excited and, when it arrives in 2 or 3 weeks time, plan to publish my own review of the device right here on my blog. Exciting huh??<br />
<br />
So that's it for now. If you want to know more about the exact spec I'd recommend Googling Nexus 7 and seeing what those who were at Google I/O (and got one early) have to say. Also take a look at some of the more measured reviews. If you want my opinoin, a good starting point for gauging the review's quality would be how long they can wait before comparing it to an iPad.<br />
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"Not long" is generally the answer to that one...<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(*I must point out that this is actually my birthday present from various people to which my darling wife has been getting them to contribute. Thank you all and especially her for (i) organising it and (ii) allowing me to order the Nexus 7 in childish excitement).</span>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-37223340537267960382012-06-26T07:59:00.001-07:002012-06-26T07:59:28.787-07:00Are Apps as relevant to tablets?I'm hoping that the birthday fairy is going to be kind to me next month and bring me my first tablet. I'm very excited at the prospect but it's got me thinking about the role that apps have to play on such devices. (and as I come to write now I don't know whether apps should be capitalised, put in inverted commas or what. I'll stick with lowercase I think).<br />
<br />
Anyway, there are obviously stock apps without which the device would be useless. A web browser, a media player and a camera spring immediately to mind. Then there are places where a specifically designed app will probably prove useful. Games are an obvious one. Also any app which leverages specific elements of the hardware such as GPS tracking. <br />
<br />
But beyond that, I wonder whether I'll use apps over the browser? Looking at my smartphone the likes of Facebook, IMDB, Train Times, GMail, Twitter, eBay, Amazon etc etc etc all have perfectly functional websites which are often far better than their apps - I tend to think that the apps just exist because a screen size of 4 inches isn't conducive to using most websites. But when you get that up to the 7" or more mark with a minimum resolution of 1024 x 600, I think a lot of websites will become useable.<br />
<br />
I suppose I'll just have to wait, see and report back. And if I don't get a tablet, I'll fit a magnifying glass to my phone and pretend.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-49398890959207454632012-06-07T16:19:00.000-07:002012-06-07T16:19:01.374-07:00IT departments are not policeSorry folks, it's another Kelv-Rant(TM)!<br />
<br />
This post's rant is brought to you courtesy of my less than co-operative IT colleagues around the world. You guys know who you are, and you should be ashamed of yourselves!<br />
<br />
So, here it is in a nutshell. I'm sick to the back teeth of hearing from people (in a work context) "We can't engage properly with social media because we can't get on Facebook."<br />
<br />
At a slightly expanded level, I've spent the last 5 years listening to variations on a theme of "Organisation X can't get a Facbook page set up for their museum because their IT department blocks access to Facebook". Today, I sat listening to a person who works for a council run museum who told us that it took her <b>3 months</b> to get access to Facebook, despite it being explicitly mentioned in her job description.<br />
<br />
This kind of thing really pisses me off. Having worked in I.T. for the last 11 years with various organisations, I feel that I'm in a fairly good position to give an opinion on the practices of IT departments and here's what I think on this matter:<br />
<br />
<b>There is absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever to block access to social networking sites at an organisation wide level. </b><br />
<br />
And here are some of the many reasons why...<br />
<br />
<h4>
Organisational policies do not require pre-enforcement</h4>
<br />
<br />
Okay, so let's start by assuming that your organisation has decided that people should not access social networking sites from within the corporate network. If that's the case, then there should be a policy to this effect with clearly stated boundaries and disciplinary procedures should these boundaries be breached. Once these policies are in place, there is no call for a block on the sites in the same way that an organisational policy on no alcohol in the workplace does not require everyone's bags to be searched when they arrive at work.<br />
<br />
<h4>
If it's not organisational policy, then you have no right to block it</h4>
<br />
This should be obvious really but I'm going to cover it anyway. Just because you CAN block something, doesn't mean you should. Even - and this is important folks - even if your firewall comes pre-configured to block these sites.<br />
<br />
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you should turn off every default rule on your firewall. I happen to believe, for instance, that blocking certain sites is a good idea, but not with the primary objective of restricting access. For instance, a rule blocking porn should not be there to STOP people looking at porn (regardless of whether you have a policy stating that they shouldn't) but to help protect people from seeing things that might inadvertently offend them.<br />
<br />
<h4>
It shouldn't be organisational policy because YOU say so</h4>
<br />
<br />
I have seen far too many organisation wide policies come into effect because the IT department says that it must be so. Now, there's nothing wrong with introducing policies that support the objectives of the IT department. But the objectives of the IT department should be to support the organisation, not to make the IT department's job easier or give it licence to do whatever it wants.<br />
<br />
I operate on a very simple principle for any and all IT projects - that they should be doing better things, or doing things better. If your project (or reasoning for doing something) doesn't fit either of these then you should abandon it (if you need an example, see almost any project involving AR right now.)<br />
<br />
<h4>
You should be able to trust your staff</h4>
<br />
And this is the most important one. If you (and here I'm talking to the organisation as a whole) can't trust your staff to follow policy then you should either fire them or be prepared to go through your own disciplinary procedure when they breach that policy. Do not ask your IT department to act as a crime prevention unit of a corporate police force; they've got enough on their plates keeping all of your system up and running.<br />
<br />
Which, by the way, you are NEVER grateful for.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-81087080385355564332012-06-04T03:51:00.001-07:002012-06-04T03:51:15.397-07:00"My SharePoint Sites" missing from Office Save As dialog boxSo, another dry and technical work related post today. Again, it's as much for my benefit as anyone else's and I may well have more to say about it later as I come across further problems.<br />
<br />
I've been wrestling for some time with SharePoint integration in Office. In my particular set up I'm talking about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS2007) and Office Pro Plus 2007. The issue was that for some people the "My SharePoint Sites" option wasn't showing up in their Save or Save As dialog box from within Word, Excel etc.<br />
<br />
As it turns out, there's all kinds of problems that can affect this and pinpointing it can take ages so here's some things you can try.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Make sure the user has a My Site. </h4>
<br />
If they don't have a My Site, it just doesn't work.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Make sure the user has explicit permissions for every site</h4>
<br />
This caught me out because I'd added an existing Active Directory group to the Members group for the site and couldn't work out why it wasn't appearing under My SharePoint Sites. They have to explicitly be in the Members Group. Annoying, but that's it.<br />
<br />
It doesn't work if they're just an Owner either - they have to be Members.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Try re-populating the My SharePoint Sites folder</h4>
<br />
This can be a tricky one. To the best of my understanding, the folder checks for membership once a day. If you want to force this you need to delete the registry key:<br />
<br />
<em>HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Portal\LinkPublishingTimestamp</em><br />
<br />
And then relaunch an Office App to repopulate it. However, I found that the registry key can be in different places. If it's not there try looking in..<br />
<br />
<em>HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Portal\LinkPublishingTimestamp</em><br />
<em>HKCU\Software\AppDataLow\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Portal\LinkPublishingTimestamp</em><br />
<em>HKCU\Software\AppDataLow\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Portal\LinkPublishingTimestamp</em><br />
<br />
The <em>AppDataLow</em> variant is for Windows 7 and the <em>14.0</em> is if you've got anything from the Office 2010 suite installed. Which leads me on to...<br />
<br />
<h4>
Have you got anything other than Office 2007 installed?</h4>
<br />
Which is the one that's just caught me out and prompted me to write this post! On some of my machines I've got Project 2010 along with Office 2007. It's not a happy situation with SharePoint at all, but one I'm having to deal with just now. In fact I've had problems in the past with <a href="http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointgeneral/thread/7b3a4601-bf9d-4b94-831e-fa1668da550e" target="_blank">InfoPath 2007 and Project 2010 conflicting,</a> the conclusion to which was pretty much just living with it.<br />
<br />
Anyway, in this particular scenario, the <em>LinkPublishingTimestamp</em> and the <em>PersonalSiteURL</em> values were being created under the <em>14.0</em> keys rather than <em>12.0</em> meaning that office just wasn't seeing anything. To fix it I exported the <em>Portal</em> registry key to my desktop, edited it in Notepad to change the values from <em>14.0</em> to <em>12.0</em> and then reimported to create the new <em>12.0</em> keys. After this, the functionality started working immediately.<br />
<br />
A large portion of the credit for eventually fixing this has to go to <a href="http://paulliebrand.com/tag/my-sharepoint-sites/" target="_blank">Paul Liebrand's Weblog</a> for its various posts on My SharePoint Sites which have aided me considerably.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-89442302994820651162012-04-30T03:37:00.000-07:002012-06-12T03:09:11.744-07:00Upgrading Dell Streak 5 to Android 2.3.3<em>UPDATE 12/6/12 - Having played with the Streak with this ROM for a while I've decided to revert to the O2 stock ROM - various problems including the Korean stock apps and the voicemail not working have put me off it. To revert, simply download the last official O2 ROM and recovery image from the XDA Developers site and follow the same procedure.</em><br />
<br />
There's no new information in this post that doesn't exist elsewhere - I'm just putting it here as a reference for myself so that I've got everything in one easy to find place.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Install the driver from Dell for the Streak. Package R291096.exe found at <a href="http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/uk/en/ukdhs1">http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/uk/en/ukdhs1</a></li>
<li>Create a folder on the root of C: called Flash 350</li>
<li>Go to <a href="http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=9694">http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=9694</a> and download the files from the here link in Step 6. Extract these to the Flash350 folder</li>
<li>Go to<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%C2%A0http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dell_Streak#Official" target="_blank"> http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dell_Streak#Official</a> and download the 350 package (click on 350 on the left of the table) and the Recovery package.</li>
<li>Save both of these to the Flash350 folder and rename the pkg file to update.pkg</li>
<li>Plug in the Streak via USB and copy <b>only</b> the update.pkg file to the root of the SD card</li>
<li>Unplug the streak and power it off. Take the battery out for good measure and then put it back in.</li>
<li>Boot into fastboot mode - hold down the camera button and then press power. You should get a white screen with Fastboot in the top right corner. click on Fastboot.</li>
<li>There'll be a message of "Wait for USB Fastboot detect" in the bottom left corner. Plug the streak back in via USB. The screen should change to Fastboot_Mode.</li>
<li>back in your Flash350 folder double-click ApplyRecovery.bat. when it gets to the pause stage the Streak should display a completed message. Be ready to hold down the volume buttons...</li>
<li>Once you're sure it's completed, press enter on the PC keyboard to reboot the Streak. as soon as the Streak goes black, hold down the volume up and down buttons until recovery mode starts.</li>
<li>select option 2 "Software upgrade via Update.pkg on SD card" with the camera button. Press camera again to install which takes about 10 minutes.</li>
<li>When it boots it'll be in Korean - press the button in the bottom right (which is Change language) to choose English.</li>
<li>Go via Software Update to download the 2.3.3 update which is the last official Dell update.</li>
</ol>
<br />
Credit to the following websites for where I got this info:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=9694">http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=9694</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9sOq80fK7I&feature=autoplay&list=PLCF82C37065A6FF1D&playnext=1">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9sOq80fK7I&feature=autoplay&list=PLCF82C37065A6FF1D&playnext=1</a><br />
<a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dell_Streak#Official">http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dell_Streak#Official</a><br />
<a href="http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/uk/en/ukdhs1">http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/uk/en/ukdhs1</a><br />
<br />Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-87728152475538373732012-04-29T14:20:00.000-07:002012-04-29T14:20:06.123-07:00Studying with the OUDon't think I've mentioned this previously on this blog but just now I'm studying with the Open University. In fact, I'm fast approaching the end of my first ever course - which is called <a href="http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/tu100.htm" target="_blank">My Digital Life (TU100)</a> - and the first step on the road to what I hope will end up being a BSc in Computing and IT.<br />
<br />
"So what?" I hear you cry. Well, it's been an interesting ride for me and I wanted to get some of my thoughts down now before they all disappear.<br />
<br />
I suppose I should start with why I'm studying. It may seem a little strange to some that at this stage in my life, career etc I'm choosing to do a degree in a subject relating to an industry that I've been working in for the last 11 years or so. And those people are probably right. I dropped out of Uni back in 1998, went off, did some very random stuff with my life, and then worked my way back into IT from the bottom up. Throughout that time I've (very smugly at times) told people that "I don't need a degree to do my job", that "I've already got far more valuable experience" and also that practically nobody I know who has a degree does anything relevant with it (back in the NHS some of my colleagues had degrees in Modern Languages, Fine Art and Pharmacology. Very relevant.)<br />
<br />
But then in 2010 I was doing a Leadership and Management course through work. I'll be honest and say that it wasn't my cup of tea - I thought that those things that were of any use were either obvious or things I had been doing for years. However, towards the end we did an exercise that was essentially (i) where we were, (ii) where we wanted to be (given an ideal world) and (iii) whether there was anything we could do to reconcile the two. Now don't get me wrong, I do not have a bad job, but like most people it's not my dream job. In an ideal world I'd be a software developer of some kind. Any chance I've had over the years to roll up my sleeves and do some coding I've jumped at and loved - there's a real deep sense of fulfillment for me in creating something new to solve a problem; the nearest I get to that in my normal day to day life is working out why a particular system keeps falling over and applying the recommended fix. In fact, the best and most enjoyable example of that is the reason this blog was started (the Windows 7 SP1 problem).<br />
<br />
But I digress. I decided that in an ideal world I'd retrain, get a degree and get into software development. And I realised that I COULD do that - there was nothing stopping me from studying part time, getting my degree and then either finding a new job or (hopefully) re-sculpting my current job more in the direction of software development.<br />
<br />
So I applied to Edinburgh Napier to study with them part-time for a degree. Shockingly I got accepted very quickly. Even more shockingly they offered me direct entry into 3rd year! Starting that week!! Amazing and ego boosting though that was, it was unrealistic for a couple of reasons. Most importantly, when I applied to study I had incorrectly assumed that I'd be able to do it evenings and weekends which I couldn't - I'd need to be in there for a minimum of a day and a half a week during term time. There was no realistic way that work were going to let me do that (well, not AND pay me for the privilege!) Also, it was just too scary an option to go right into 3rd year study after such an absence from studying for me. So, I thanked them very much but turned down the offer and instead looked at the OU.<br />
<br />
Which pretty much brings me to where I am now. I'm one of the first batch of students to take on TU100 and it's been an interesting experience. The Sense programming language they use (based on MIT's <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Scratch </a>language) is great for anyone who hasn't done any programming before as it allows you to learn about the fundamental concepts of programming without having to learn a language - it uses a drag and drop GUI interface. The <a href="http://www.ouw.co.uk/store/catalog/categoryinfo.aspx?cid=1226&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1" target="_blank">Senseboard </a>they supply you with has some interesting possibilities and makes things a bit more fun. I'll admit that there have been some elements of the course that I didn't enjoy - things like researching information and looking at the Data Protection Act - but you can't expect to love everything can you? It's been hard at times to find the time to study - 16 hours a week turns out to be quite a lot when you're out of the house for 12 hours every weekday and have a 2 year old to contend with - but I've managed it. And I'm pleased (and a little big headed) to say that I've had pretty good marks for my assignments - at present I'm averaging just over 90% :-D.<br />
<br />
As the course draws to a close I'm considering my next move and I've decided that I could do with something slightly less intensive so I've picked a 30 point module in <a href="http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/tm128.htm" target="_blank">Microsoft Server Technologies (TM128)</a>. At half the points of TU100 it should be a bit less work and, to be fair, I work with Windows Server 2008 on a daily basis. I'm hoping a lot of it will therefore be stuff I do every day or just a bit of revision. After that I get to move on to some more meaty stuff - there's a new course starting in <a href="http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/m250.htm" target="_blank">Java</a> that I quite like the sound of so I'll probably pick that up early next year.<br />
<br />
To sum up, although I'm drawing to the end of one set of studying, it's far from being the end of study all together. I reckon I've got about another 5 or 6 years to go before the degree is finished. So, by the time I'm 40... I'll have a degree! No problem then eh? *ehem*<br />
<br />
However, I know it's going to be worth it.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-65225614869032251812012-04-20T05:06:00.000-07:002012-04-20T05:06:27.468-07:00Eat the whole frikin cake!To quote Peter Griffin, "you know what really grinds my gears?"<br />
<br />
I'll tell you - people who can't eat a whole cake. Behold exhibit A:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DblaBG_bPp8/T5FPHtIxKfI/AAAAAAAACTk/GcIAJdGpOfQ/s1600/IMAG0295.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DblaBG_bPp8/T5FPHtIxKfI/AAAAAAAACTk/GcIAJdGpOfQ/s320/IMAG0295.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I came into the office today to find the above on the kitchen table. It's not the first time it's happened either; last week I threw out half a muffin that had been sat there so long it left a dent in the bin as I dropped it in. <br />
<br />
And it really winds me up! <br />
<br />
There's an inability in my office to either finish off food or eat an entire <<em>fill in name of delicious goody here</em>>, which results in people cutting things into smaller and smaller pieces so that they don't take the last piece. In fact, it's almost biblical - one can only wonder at what might happen if I bought in some loaves and fishes.<br />
<br />
Come on people - eat the whole frikin cake. It's not going to kill you, make you the size of the Goodyear blimp or offend every other member of the office. We will not talk about you in hushed tones around the water cooler or start refering to you only as "fatty cake eater".<br />
<br />
Honest.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-91415776525337145352012-02-14T15:11:00.001-08:002012-02-14T15:42:05.448-08:00Am I sexist?<div><p>Okay, first an explanation. </p>
<p>I've had several blogs over the years and they've mostly been about me venting my spleen for a very select audience. Each one has been deleted after months or years of neglect and then replaced by another idea of what I think the world (at large or otherwise) wants to hear from me.</p>
<p>This one was an attempt to de-personalise my blog, make it work related and, hopefully, useful to someone at some point (which you'll see if you can be bothered to work your way through any of my previous, very dry, posts).</p>
<p>But this post's different! I've had a glass or two of vino and have a bee in my bonnet about Valentine's day. It's too big a rant for a Facebook update so it's going to be a blog post instead. </p>
<p>My apologies in advance to anyone unfortunate enough to read my drunken ramblings...</p>
<p>So... am I being sexist, or am I right in thinking that Valentine's day is geared up specifically to extort money from blokes? It's a serious question, and not one from a man who feels hard done by. I've honestly never thought about it before but today made me realise that I've been brainwashed, by person or persons unknown, into thinking that being romantic on Valentine's day is the duty of men.</p>
<p>Having agreed with my wife that we'd do nothing for St V's day this year, I still found myself compelled to go out and, at the very least, get DVDs, wine and pizza for an evening of entertainment.</p>
<p>Whilst walking down the road I noticed that a local pizza shop had a queue out of the door. My initial thought was that this was of course due to the particular date. However, as soon as I noticed that there were a lot of women in the queue, I immediately assumed that I was wrong and that it must be because it's a two-for-one deal day.</p>
<p>But that's surely sexist, isn't it? Why shouldn't a woman be out getting takeaway as a treat for her other half? But it just seems wrong to me! And so my only conclusion has to be that I'm either brainwashed or a sexist.</p>
<p>Not sure I'm happy with either option really...</p>
</div>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com5Musselburgh, Musselburgh55.94194 -3.053918tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-75181342584449447722011-05-16T02:28:00.000-07:002011-05-16T02:28:55.536-07:00New "Supported workaround" for torn Windows 7 SP1 machinesI'm a little late in posting this but <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/">The Windows Servicing Guy</a> has posted a <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/05/10/supported-workaround-for-torn-state-installations-on-windows-7-sp1.aspx">supported workaround for torn state installations on Windows 7 SP1</a>. I've tested it myself and can confirm that it works, with a caveat that you'll have to be sure to modify the package name used in the DISM command to suit your situation (see the comments below the post for hints on how to do this).<br />
<br />
From what I can tell, this workaround gives you a less intrusive way of getting the ati driver folder rolled back to the appropriate version. It seems to take quite a bit longer but is definitely much better for those who are less confident and don't want to/feel comfortable with extracting the driver folder manually and going through the System Recovery console to put it in place.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-71585002059373035842011-04-13T05:33:00.000-07:002011-05-16T02:31:03.227-07:00Possible fix for torn SP1 machines<strong>Update 16/05/2011 - There's now a <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/05/10/supported-workaround-for-torn-state-installations-on-windows-7-sp1.aspx">supported fix</a> for machines in this state.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Edit 05/05/2011 - Having run this on all of my machines, I can't see anything to show that they're not now fully working. Also, setting the permissions (the long winded stage 4) doesn't seem to be necessary.</strong><br />
<br />
Yesterday I came up with a possible fix for getting SP1 correctly installed on a torn machine. I posted a very brief overview of what I'd done over on <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/03/11/why-you-don-t-want-to-edit-your-pending-xml-to-resolve-0xc0000034-issues.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&CommentPosted=true#commentmessage">The Windows Servicing Guy's blog</a>. Here are a more in-depth set of steps and instructions for those who are interested.<br />
<br />
Part 1 - Ascertaining if you've got the same problem I did<br />
<br />
<ol><li>On a torn PC try to install SP1 from the the full file available at <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3202ce6-4056-4059-8a1b-3a9b77cdfdda">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3202ce6-4056-4059-8a1b-3a9b77cdfdda</a></li>
<li>When it fails, check the log at %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. If you've got the same error I have on all of my torn machines you should see something similar to this towards the end of the log:</li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bT5AzraYojE/TaWX7bEdNDI/AAAAAAAABGM/ypZBIWX1iAE/s1600/cbslogextract.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="44" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bT5AzraYojE/TaWX7bEdNDI/AAAAAAAABGM/ypZBIWX1iAE/s320/cbslogextract.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Part 2 - Get the missing folder</div><ol><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Get hold of your original Windows 7 Installation media.</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Download <a href="http://7-zip.org/">7zip</a> and install.</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In 7zip file manager navigate to the sources folder on your installation media and double click install.wim. 7zip will expand the wim file.</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You'll now see a few folders and an xml file. The xml file will tell you which folder you need for your version of windows. In my case folder 3 is Windows 7 Pro</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K91GxxQoIPw/TaWZ6PUXllI/AAAAAAAABGQ/9GpRIfYd8iY/s1600/xml.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K91GxxQoIPw/TaWZ6PUXllI/AAAAAAAABGQ/9GpRIfYd8iY/s320/xml.png" width="320" /></a></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Browse to the FileRepository folder in the appropriate image and copy out the missing folder to a usb drive. In my case this would be the atiilhag.inf_amd64_neutral_951c1812f542740a folder in D:\sources\install.wim\3\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\. I made sure that the ati folder was in its own sub folder on the usb drive as I'm lazy and it made it easier copying it in the next part.</div></li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Part 3 - Get the missing folder back in place</div><ol><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Boot from your Windows 7 media into <a href="http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html">recovery console.</a></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Plug in your USB drive.</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ascertain the drive letters you're gong to be working with. (If you're a GUI person you can always launch notepad.exe from the command prompt to look at drive letters).</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">From the command prompt use xcopy to put the atiilhag.inf_amd64_neutral_951c1812f542740a folder back into the FileRepository folder. As an example, I executed the following commands:</div><br />
d:<br />
cd \windows\system32\driverstore\filerepository<br />
f:<br />
cd \atidriver<br />
xcopy *.* /e d:<br />
</li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">exit and restart into windows.</div></li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Part 4 - Set the permissions</strike></div><strike><br />
</strike><br />
<strike>(Long winded. If anyone would like to send me a shorter way to achieve this, please do!)</strike><br />
<ol><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Browse to %windir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Open the properties for the atiilhag.inf_amd64_neutral_951c1812f542740a folder.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>On the security tab click Advanced, then Owner then the Edit button.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Change the owner to Administrators, check "Replace Owner on subcontainers & objects".</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Click OK 3 times.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>(Back in the Security tab now) Click Edit then Add.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Change the location to your local PC.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Type the following into the "Enter object names to select" box: Administrators; Users; NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Click OK then give TrustedInstaller Full Control.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Click OK and then Yes.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Click Advanced and then Change permissions.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Uncheck "Include inheritable permissions..." then click the Add button.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Remove permissions for the Everyone group. Click OK and then Yes.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Back on the Owner Tab click Edit then click Other users and groups.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Change the location to the local PC, Enter NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller into the "Enter object names to select" box and click OK.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Check "Replace Owner on subcontainers..." and click OK</strike></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Phew! That's the Files in the folder all now set with the right permissions. Nearly there...</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Click Edit again.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Change the owner to Administrators and click OK and OK again (NOTE: do NOT appy to subcontainers!)</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>On the Permissions tab click Change Permissions.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Check "Include Inheritable..." and then click Apply and Yes followed by Continue 19 times (as it can't and shouldn't apply to any of the files)</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Remove all of the "<not inherited>" permissions, Click OK, Yes and then Continue 19 times again.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Back on the Owner tab click Edit and then Other users or Groups.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Click Location, change it to the Local PC and click OK.</strike></div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strike>Enter SYSTEM in the "Enter object names to select" box and then click OK 5 times until all properties windows are closed.</strike></div></li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Part 5 - Remove the partially installed Service Pack</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><ol><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Launch an administrative command prompt (Right-click on Command Prompt in the Start Menu and click "Run as Administrator")</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the prompt type dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_KB976932~31bf3856ad264e35~amd64~~6.1.1.17514</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hit enter.</div></li>
<li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After a while you'll be prompted to reboot. Type Y to do so.</div></li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Part 6 - Install Service Pack 1</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><ol><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Launch the SP install from the file you downloaded back in Part 1. With a bit of luck, all should be well.</div></li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That's it it's worked on every machine I've tried it on so far. Fingers crossed it helps you too!</div>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-15920385617387800112011-04-07T03:35:00.000-07:002011-04-07T03:35:43.832-07:00Procrastination is the mother of inventionSo, I've basically avoided rebuilding any more PCs as yet. My official excuse is that I'm waiting for MS to come up with a fix. The more honest one is that it's a boring and long process and I'd rather work on other things. So I've been spec'ing and ordering the start of this year's hardware refresh which in turn has led me to completely rebuild my MDT/WDS server to include SP1.<br />
<br />
It's been an interesting couple of days. Getting the MDT server up and running was as simple as ever and it's always good to see what changes have been made by the latest service packs (in my case I'm now running MDT 2010 on Server 2008 R2 SP1). There were a couple of frustrations though that I thought I'd document.<br />
<br />
Our new laptops are Toshiba Portege R700-183 boxes. They have, of course, got a few drivers that Windows doesn't pick up and so I've been working on getting the software installed silently. The first problem I hit was with installing the Bluetooth stack. If you <a href="http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/windows7_drivers.jsp?service=UK">download the Bluetooth driver from Toshiba</a> and extract the executable using something like <a href="http://www.7-zip.org/">7zip</a>, you get two batch files for silent install. Unfortunately silent_install_for_Vista_Win7.bat is badly written imo. Some lines don't account for spaces in the file path whilst others do and there's a user reboot prompt at the end of the file. So how is that silent exactly? I've pasted my amended file below. Anyway, once I'd amended the bat file and added it as an application that took care of the BlueTooth. The same process applied to the FingerPrint utility but the silent install for that one actually works out of the box.<br />
<br />
Anyway the second problem was probably more down to me rather than anything else. I always like to have the latest drivers if I'm doing a fresh build so, wherever possible, I'll use the drivers from Windows Update rather than embedding them into MDT. I'd noticed that the video, wireless and 'intel management engine interface' drivers were all available from Windows Update along with the Toshiba HDD Protection Shock Sensor Driver, which doesn't show up as unknown hardware in Device Manager but I'll take it anyway thanks! So... I wanted to use these, but of course they're not all available via my WSUS server. The sensible solution seemed to me to create a prestage OU with Group Policy inheritance blocked, find out how to put a computer into the prestage OU when deploying via MDT and move it to the live OU at the end.<br />
<br />
Luckily for me it's a pretty simple process thanks to the incredible development work that's gone on over at the <a href="http://mdtcustomizations.codeplex.com/">MDT Customization Project on Codeplex</a>. I won't replicate their work here but if you're interested in achieving the same thing I have, take a look at Maik Koster's blog post on <a href="http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/maikkoster/archive/2010/04/08/moving-computers-in-active-directory-during-mdt-deployments-step-by-step.aspx">Moving Computers in Active Directory During MDT Deployments - Step by Step</a>. It's incredibly simple and the web service works like a dream.<br />
<br />
So I've now got a lovely clean new image for deploying Windows 7 SP1 to any new computers. At some point next week I'll test it out on the older machines I have in case I need it for a rebulid. It'll probably need a few extra drivers but now that I've got the Windows Update step of the MDT Task Sequence pointing at Microsoft instead of my WSUS server, I'm hoping that it won't be that many.<br />
<br />
silent_install_for_Vista_Win7.bat :<br />
<br />
<blockquote>@echo off<br />
echo Execute this script as Administrator (right mouse click on the bat-file and select "Run as administrator")<br />
echo Silent Bluetooth stack installation in progress.<br />
echo Please wait until it is finished.<br />
echo ****************************************************************************<br />
<br />
REM Removing old BT-Stack ... if installed<br />
msiexec.exe /x"{CEBB6BFB-D708-4F99-A633-BC2600E01EF6}" /qn<br />
<br />
REM enable AS.ini for silent installation<br />
<br />
IF EXIST "%~dp0x64\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\AS.orig.ini" GOTO FCOPY<br />
move "%~dp0x64\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\AS.ini" "%~dp0x64\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\AS.orig.ini"<br />
:FCOPY<br />
echo Copy as.silent.ini to as.ini<br />
copy "%~dp0as.silent.ini" "%~dp0x64\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\AS.ini"<br />
<br />
<br />
REM Removing BTmon ... if installed<br />
REM echo Try to remove BTmon if installed<br />
REM "C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield Installation Information\{61539202-097E-487E-9237-B291AB56D54C}\setup.exe" -runfromtemp -l0x0009 -removeonly<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
REM Installing new BT-Stack ... in silent mode<br />
"%~dp0x64\setup.exe" /s /v"/qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress ALLUSERS=1"<br />
<br />
REM Restore original AS.ini <br />
del "%~dp0x64\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\AS.ini" /F /Q /S<br />
move "%~dp0x64\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\AS.orig.ini" "%~dp0x64\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\AS.ini"<br />
<br />
<br />
echo ****************************************************************************<br />
echo Suppress Wireless Warning window <br />
echo.<br />
REG.exe ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Toshiba\WirelessAPL\BTWLANDP" /v DisplayFlag /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f<br />
echo ****************************************************************************<br />
echo Disable SystemWakeup <br />
echo.<br />
REG.exe ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tosrfusb\Parameters" /v EnableSystemWakeup /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f<br />
echo ****************************************************************************<br />
<br />
<br />
echo ###### INSTALLATION FINISHED SUCCESSFULLY #########<br />
<br />
:start<br />
REM Following line added to make it properly silent<br />
goto no<br />
REM echo "Reboot now? [Yes/No]"<br />
REM choice /C:YN <br />
REM if ERRORLEVEL 2 goto no<br />
REM if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto yes<br />
REM goto start<br />
<br />
REM :yes<br />
REM echo Your system will reboot in a few seconds !!!<br />
REM shutdown -r -f -t 18<br />
<br />
:no<br />
exit</blockquote>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-52259873282396782922011-03-25T04:25:00.000-07:002011-04-13T08:53:11.268-07:00More SP1 ObservationsSince carrying out the in-place upgrade using Windows 7 x64 SP1 media I've discovered a couple of issues.<br />
<br />
Firstly, certain windows features are turned off for some reason. The main three are Internet Explorer 8, .Net 3.5 and Windows Search. It's a simple matter to turn them back on but it's worth noting as the absence of these things can cause other problems. In my case, the absence of .Net 3.5 caused the Intel graphics tray application to stop working.<br />
<br />
Secondly, the RSAT tools are missing and the current release of the RSAT tools is for pre-SP1 only. Microsoft have documented this at <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2517239/en-us">http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2517239/en-us</a> and are planning to release an updated version of the tool at some point in the future. There's a workaround at <a href="http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=150221">http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=150221</a> but given the limited success of the recent pending.xml workaround, I'll wait for the official release!<br />
<br />
UPDATE ON 13-Apr-2011: The RSAT tools for SP1 have been released and are available at <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d&displaylang=en">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d&displaylang=en</a>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-76053394857211535532011-03-17T07:07:00.000-07:002011-03-17T07:07:39.916-07:00No success with a fix so have performed an upgrade installFurther to my posts earlier this week., I couldn't find anything anywhere in the registry about a pending reboot (having looked in all of the usual places such as HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager etc).<br />
<br />
Safe Mode install also rendered the pending reboot message.<br />
<br />
Having tried no end of combinations of restart, sfc /scannow and the System Update Readiness Tool I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to find a fix. I'll wait to see if Microsoft come up with one but I'm not holding my breath.<br />
<br />
As a last resort I've tested performing an Upgrade install of Windows from Media with SP1 already integrated and that works. SP1 reports as correctly installed and everything seems right with the world. It takes absolute AGES though so be prepared for a long wait. Also reported that .Net 4 needed to be repaired following the install but it took care of this automatically and, another reboot later, everything seems to be back to normal. The one major problem with this method is that it wants a new Product Key to be entered so this could cause you further problems and I'm not sure what the licensing implications are there.<br />
<br />
If anyone is reading this as they have th c34 error, MS have a fix now that doesn't break things. You can find the step by step instructions <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975484">here</a>.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-68758292093317943042011-03-15T09:03:00.000-07:002011-03-15T09:03:54.731-07:00Further SP1 troubleshooting stepsManfredS's fix didn't work for me. Well, it got me another step along the road, although it may turn out to have been a sidestep more than anything else.<br />
<br />
I now get the message that "The Windows 7 Service Pack Installation cannot proceed until your computer is restarted. Please restart your computer and try again."<br />
<br />
It doesn't matter how many time I reboot, it doesn't help. *sigh*<br />
<br />
Have also tried JStar333's similar fix detailed <a href="http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/8086ba9e-d3c0-497a-a5ef-7f3bf33d6c09/">here</a> but there was no difference.<br />
<br />
Going to see if there's something in the registry about the pending reboot and, if not, I'll try a Safe mode install.Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-781475222902054840.post-38455301255542597462011-03-15T05:04:00.000-07:002011-03-17T07:36:02.091-07:00Windows 7 SP1 x64 fails with fatal error c0000034 when installed via WSUS<em>UPDATE: If you have the above error message right now, </em><a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975484"><em>MS have posted a fix</em></a><em> which should get you back up and running. This will not help if you've already carried out the pending.xml edit ot the SetupExecute registry edit to get around the problem and are stuck in a 'torn' state where your system will not complete the update to SP1.</em><br />
<br />
Blogging about this one to keep track of what I've done/am doing to troubleshoot it. I'll try to write it up if I ever get a solution in case it's useful to others.<br />
The Problem:<br />
<br />
Having tested the install of SP1 manually on 3 machines, decided that it seemed stable and so decided to roll it out across the organisation (approx 30 desktops and 6 laptops) via WSUS. Upon restarting following the install, nearly all of the machines froze on a black screen with a fatal error C0000034 error message.<br />
<br />
Troublehsooting:<br />
<br />
Inital (sllightly) panicked Googling turned up a couple of suggestions, mainly on <a href="http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/1c9a7151-b48c-4a98-aae7-a4b82682ea8e">this thread</a> over at TechNet forums.<br />
<br />
Andre.Ziegler suggested running DISM /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions from the Windows Recovery Environment but that failed with Error 2.<br />
<br />
Suggestions to restore using a recovery point were useless as it would appear that installing SP1 deletes all recovery points. This occurs even when installing SP1 manually without any (obvious) error messages.<br />
<br />
Renaming/deleting the pending.xml file from winsxs doesn't help as the system get's stuck on the starting Windows screen.<br />
<br />
Thiswoot suggests editing the pending.xml file to remove all references to _0000000000000000.cdf-ms. This works, however <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/03/11/why-you-don-t-want-to-edit-your-pending-xml-to-resolve-0xc0000034-issues.aspx">many are warning against this</a> as a resolution method as it could leave one's machine "in an even worse state". How this state could be worse though I'm still not sure, especially as it would appear that some people are being advised to completely rebuild their machines or setup a dual boot to 'resolve' the issue.<br />
<br />
Despite getting the machine back up and running, it would still appear that SP1 didn't install correctly. Although SP1 is listed in the System Properties, there is no way of uninstalling it via the Control Panel. In fact, it would appear that all of the updates contained within SP1 are listed seperately with an install date that matches the SP1 failed install.<br />
<br />
<strike>A prefered method as reproduced </strike><strike>here</strike><strike> gives two options. Option 1 is a no go as it requires System Restore Points. Option 2 works just as well as the pending.xml edit and produces the same result i.e. SP1 has a part install.</strike><br />
The SetupExecute method originally posted <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/03/09/error-0xc0000034-during-service-pack-1-installations-for-windows-7-and-windows-2008-r2.aspx">here</a> has been superceded. However, that's another method that I used in my original troubleshooting process.<br />
<br />
With either of these fixes we end up with a computer which has a part install of SP1 which cannot be uninstalled via Control Panel (I am yet to try the Command Prompt method) and cannot have a full install applied over the top as it fails with <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2011/02/24/windows-7-service-pack-1-fails-to-install-with-0x800f0a13-or-0x800f0826.aspx">the 0x800f0a13 error</a>. Note: Driver Sweeper has never been run on any of the affected machines. The article also mentions DriverCleanerDotNet and, unless this is some part of WDS or MDT, that hasn't touched the machines either.<br />
<br />
Next Planned Troubleshooting Steps:<br />
<br />
Attempt to resolve the 0x800f0a13.<br />
- Have already taken some steps towards this. Extracting the relevant folders from the install.wim to windows\winsxs doesn't work and requires taking ownership/changing permissions on the winsxs folder. Next plan is to try the suggested fix in the comment by <span class="user-name">ManfredS</span> dated <span class="value">Fri, Mar 11 2011 7:15 AM.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="value">Try a Command Prompt uninstall of SP1. </span><br />
<span class="value"> - Don't hold out much hope for this one.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="value">Wait for someone else/MS to come up with a solution.</span><br />
<span class="value"> - Seems to be a lot of activity on the problem so fingers crossed here.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="value">That's it for now. More updates to follow</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=781475222902054840#3393616" name="3393616" style="padding-left: 5px;"></a>Kelvin Astonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10009011868455937629noreply@blogger.com0