I have been looking at Vista SP1 and it has cleaned up many of the performance issues I was having but does not address my biggest problem, the fact that the Intel 945GM drivers for Vista are unstable and slow.

I have a Dell 620 and I love it, but Dell has not kept up with Intel driver releases and the installer from Intel detects that you are using an OEM machine and will not install. The good news is that once the Intel driver has extracted and pops up the error message asking you to get an updated driver from your OEM, you can leave the error dialog up, go to %temp% and copy the extracted files to another location. Then dismiss the error dialog and let it clean up after itself.  Now you can go to Device Manager, right click on the display driver and tell it to update from the location you saved the files too and it will happily do so.

Even the latest Vista driver for the 945GM directly from Intel is much slower than running under XP, it is much better than the old driver still being distributed by Dell.

Tags: vista, intel, drivers, 845gm, sp1, xp, workaround

The latest version of Windows Live Writer Beta is now available!

I have no idea what is ‘new’ in the latest release, but it seems more stable and was able to detect my WordPress settings without any errors.

There seems to be a lot more media support (images and video).

Tags: microsoft, live writer, wordpress

Tim Sneath, (a Microsoftie and blogger) announced today that Windows Presentation Foundation, Everywhere (WPF/E) will be released as Microsoft Silverlight.

Silverlight is a browser plug-in that allows developers to create web applications using XAML as the markup for the UI control it with client side code in JavaScript. It implements a subset of WPF and plays WMV files on all supported platforms. The current plug-in is about a 1 MB for XP and Vista and less than 3 MB on OS X.

As expected Digg commenters responded by dismissing Silverlight as a knock-off Flash, XUL, or even SVG.

As a Windows Forms and web developer, I see it as yet another reason to move from Winforms to WPF.

Tags: windows, vista, ie7, ie6, web, wpf, silverlight, microsoft, flash, xul, svg, wmv, streaming video

In my last post I tried to explain the basics of Daylight Saving Time (DST) and the effect it has on conversions from GMT to local time. Now I want to go into more detail about local time and some issues that DST causes.

Because of DST, local time is not continuous in the spring and repeats in the fall. For example, what if you have a task you want to schedule your computer to run at 02:15 in the morning. What happens if you try to pick the morning that DST goes into effect? The computers clock will go from 01:59 to 03:00 without ever hitting 02:15. This means that the computer should not allow you to pick any time between 02:00 and 02:59 on that day.

The situation in the Fall when DST ends is even more confusing. This time the computers clock will go from 01:59 to 02:00 just fine, but when it changes from 02:59 the first time it will switch to 02:00 again. That’s right, when expressed in local time, the hour from 02:00 to 02:59 exists twice on the day that DST ends. As a computer programmer, what would you do? I guess you could ask the user: “Which 02:15 do you want, the first one or the second one?”

Tags: dst, daylight saving time, gmt, greenwich mean time, utc, coordinated universal time, time zone

Over the last week I have had to explain to many people why this years Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes are such a big deal. While the result is simply moving the clock ahead one hour in the spring and moving it back an hour in the fall, the behind the scenes details are more complex.

Lets start by talking about what DST means to a computer. While all modern operating systems think in UTC/GMT those of us using them think in local time. To get from GMT to local time you simply take GMT and add the local time bias. Here in Missouri, the local time bias is -6 (Central Standard Time or GMT-6) during the winter months and -5 the rest of the year when DST is in effect (Central Daylight Time or GMT-6+1).

The first real complication comes in knowing when DST in in effect. Prior to this year’s change, DST went into effect at 02:00 local time on the first Saturday in April and ended at 02:00 on the last Sunday of October. This year the start and end of DST has been changed to 02:00 on the second Sunday in March and 02:00 on the first Sunday in November. Since every computer has to know when to change the local time bias, every computer had to be updated with the new information.

Next time I will cover the complications caused by this process when you try to use local time to calculating an arbitrary point of time in the future.

Tags: dst, daylight saving time, gmt, greenwich mean time, utc, coordinated universal time, time zone

One of the things I was hoping for in Vista was a killer file synchronization program. Those of you who have used Vista’s Sync Center know that I am still waiting. Sync Center is just too limited for my needs.

Microsoft bought Folder Share which is still my favorite syncing software. Folder Share meets many of my needs, but currently does not do direct peer-to-peer transfers on my NATed home network. And my satellite link is way to slow for me to run everything through a proxy. 

Here is my list of must-have synchronization software features:

1. Automatic Real-time Sync
2. Scheduled Sync
3. On Demand Sync
4. Versioning
5. Multiple-change Conflict Resolution
6. Direct Peer-to-Peer Transfers
7. Hosted Proxy (To get around firewalls)
8. Duplicate file detection

Since Vista did not do the trick, my hopes now lie with Windows Home Server.

Tags: microsoft, vista, synchronization, file managment, folder share

While I have had zero problems with Vista or BitLocker in the three weeks I have been using BitLocker, a coworker was not so lucky. After I initially setup a Dell D620 for him, he added a 3rd party anti-virus program that immediately blue-screened his system. He then became our BitLocker-system-recovery-Guinea-pig.

It order to use safe mode and disable the offending application, BitLocker required him to provide his recovery keys. I chose to store the keys in a TrueCrypt volume on his USB drive. Decrypting the keys to make them available to BitLocker required access to another machine. Once he moved the necessary files from the TrueCrypt volume to the root of the USB disk, he was able to go into safe mode and disable the software without any other problems.

I do not recommend keeping your recovery keys on an unencrypted USB drive unless the drive itself is kept under lock and key. The disadvantage of using TrueCrypt (or any other encryption) to protect the recovery keys is that you must decrypt the files and place them in the root of your USB disk before BitLocker can use them. My next task is to setup a bootable WinPE environment on my USB key so I at least have a chance of decrypting my recovery keys without access to another system.

Tags: microsoft, bitlocker, vista, encryption, winpe

Approximately 3 weeks ago I wiped my drive and rebuilt my laptop with a single partition encrypted with BitLocker. After 3 weeks and zero problems, you can color me impressed.

Our local AD Domain does not have the extensions necessary to store the recovery information, but BitLocker gives you 3 other options. USB mass storage device, file-share, or even a printer. I chose to store the recovery information on both a USB drive and a file-share. (Moving the files to TrueCrypt volumes once they were tested.)

I am using a Dell LATITUDE D620 and it has TPM 1.2. While TPM takes care of storing the keys, all the encryption is done in software. On my 1.6GHz dual-core machine I don’t even notice the encryption even during large file copies.

It would be nice if BitLocker supported multiple volumes as I really prefer to keep my data on a separate volume. I could use BitLocker on my system volume and EFS on my data volume, but that is much more cumbersome than using BitLocker alone.

Tags: microsoft, vista, bitlocker, tpm, encryption, security, mobility, laptop

I think Joel is being a bit naive when he claims that Microsoft’s gifting of free laptops to some popular bloggers is ethically equivalent to bribery. A person’s opinion is fully owned by them and only has value if it is respected. Any individual’s opinion of a software product is going to be colored by their opinion of the company that produced it. I think that MS may be helping the targeted bloggers’ opinions of Microsoft as a company, but if the bloggers in question are worth listening to, it will only have a small impact on their opinion of Vista in particular.

Joel goes as far as saying ”These gifts reduce the public trust in blogs.” What utopia does he think he lives in? Anyone with Internet access can start a blog, and the net-savvy do not trust what they read on blogs in general. Unless you are still wet behind the ears, you know not to trust any one source for information and any blogger (working for ANY company) must continually earn your trust.

The individual rules that make up the nebulous set of ideas and ideals we call Ethics are not set it stone, they evolve over time. However, the ethics of reviewing hardware and software for publication are pretty well established and in my opinion Scoble hits the mark when he says that full disclosure is all that is required.

Tags: microsoft, vista, reviews, ethics, bribery

I just saw on Digg that there was a VMWare of Vista floating around configured to act as a KMS server and activate Vista workstations. While this may be a blow to MS, it still does not reduce the value of KMS to corporate customers.

To me, the primary value of KMS is that the license information that my university paid for is never placed on an individual workstation and therefore cannot be used by hackers to activate their machines. Unlike the old VLA CD keys, there is no way for our KMS license information to get published on the Internet. That means that I we are not in danger of our keys being blocked.

Tags: microsoft, vista, kms, va, vla, volume license, license, corporate, university

I have been using meebo for a while now and it just keeps getting better!

What is meebo? It is an IM client hosted in a web page on the meebo server. But it is not just any IM client. Thanks to the power of GAIM, meebo supports Yahoo!, GTalk/Jabber, AIM, ICQ, and MSN.

Tags: im, aim, icq, gtalk, yahoo, gaim, meebo, msn

I have seen multiple posts over the past couple weeks bemoaning the death of network neutrality. Every time I see them and the inevitable long list of Chicken Little style comments that follow, all I can do is sigh and shake my head.

Why you ask? Because most of the posters and their follow-on comments claim that the days of all packets on the Internet being treated equally are coming to an end. I am not the first to say it, but lets make it clear: There never has been and never will be anything that fits that description of Network Neutrality.

We have always had a tiered network. If you look at bandwidth, you have always had to pay more cash for a larger pipe and when it comes to latency, Quality of Service (QOS) has been around for years. Doing it any other way would would be a waste of money.

Are people really suggesting that we build out all parts of the network so that every connection can support worst case usage patterns? Should people who just want to browse the web and read email really have to pay for the low latency connections required for VOIP and other real-time protocols? Streaming media is nice, but I when it comes to cost, I should have the option to pay for a cheaper more latent connection if it meets my needs.

Tags: politics, legislation, tech myths

Because I have a satellite internet connection, posting via most WYSIWYG online editors is a real pain. So today I am trying to switch to Windows Live Writer which you can find at Windows Live Ideas.

With any luck this will not only improve my posting frequency, it will also help my spelling. :)

Tags: microsoft, blog, windows live

Just over a week ago, I got my hands on a copy of Vista Enterprise. Since I was on the technical beta and had been focused on Vista Ultimate, I had not heard anything about the new activation methods for the corporate versions of Vista. It looks like there are two options Multiple Activation Key (MAK) and Key Management Service (KMS).

MAK acts much like the Volume License Keys (VLKs) that were used for XP, except that each MAK can only activate a certain number of systems and unless they are using the new proxy system, each of those systems will actually contact Microsoft’s activation servers once. The primary advantage of using MAK is that once you activate, the system never needs to check in again. This will likely be the choice for highly mobile systems that go for extended periods without network access.

KMS, on the other hand does not require you to put any keys on your Vista systems. You simply setup a KMS server (Vista or Longhorn only today, WS2003 in a couple months) and Vista clients will use a special DNS SRV record to find it and activate. After you install Vista, you have 30 days for the system to find the KMS and activate. Activated systems will then contact the KMS every 7 days. If a system is unable to find the KMS for 90 days, it will start giving the user warning messages and after 120 days Vista will go into ‘Reduced Functionality Mode’. The advantage of using KMS is that the individual systems never have a key stored locally, so there is no way your corporate key can be passed around by unauthorized users.

Tags: microsoft, vista, volume license, higher ed, corporate, activation, kms, mak

We are on our second PVRed episode of NCIS. I used to hate television on the holidays. Now we get to catch up on all the shows we have been too busy to watch.

I have also watched a lot of old episodes of Good Eats on my Zune. I thought the screen was too small, but it has worked out great. I still have problems with some of the ‘designed in’ limitations. The 3-days, 3-plays, this is a joke, but I may have found a way around the Zune not showing up as USB storage device. I found a registry hack that may make it accessible. I will be trying it out soon.

Sound quality is great and the video looks awesome for 320×240. The battery life could be longer, but I they again I have been watching a lot of video. The software is passable but it has a long way to go. I still have not purchased any music from the Zune Market place, but that is due more to the fact that it is not supported under Vista than anything else.

Tags: zune, ipod, pvr, tivo, personal electronics

For the most part I am one not one of those people who preorders things. My father has always said “interest is what other people pay you, not the other way around.” That extends to paying for something before it ships. I have never really been a ’fan-boy’ for anything but Star Wars. I don’t do the ‘waiting in line all night’ thing or buy the special editions with their ‘limited edition’ tchotchkes. I can usually just wait for until demand dies down and buy it like a normal person.

Well, long story short, a couple of weeks back, I made an exception and preordered Microsoft’s new portable media player, the Zune. My daughter broke her mp3 player, so I gave her my mobiBLU to use until I could find her a new one. But as soon as I started looking at mp3 players, I ran across a blurb about the Zune. All it took was one look at the screen and I was interested. When I found out it has a D-pad style control and not that touch sensitive thing the iPod has, I was more interested. The WiFi and FM receiver sealed the deal.

I think we are both going to be happy. She has a new (at least to her) mobiBLU and I should have a spanking new Zune on November 14th. Will I regret the preorder? If Microsoft doesn’t listen to new Zune owners and ease up the ‘3-days or 3-pays’ limit on wireless sharing, I might. But we can talk about the details later.

Tags: mp3, wma, zune, ipod, mobiblu, cube, media, video, portable