Mac Conversion: A progress report and some backsliding

The Spousal Unit always wonders why I upgrade my computer and operating system as frequently as I do. The fact is I think the world has enjoyed a pretty long run with Windows XP, wasn't it out in 2001? She doesn't sympathize with my explanation that sometimes I just get to the point that I'm tired of solving old problems, and I would just as soon solve new ones.

I bought a Macbook back in November. I was just coming off a bad experience with Microsoft Windows Vista. Partly I needed a new laptop...my Dell Inspiron keyboard was terrible, even after two replacements. So even thought the Inspiron is as great laptop, it was essentially useless for actual work, like word-processing. It was also heavy, but considering it could be a replacement for a desktop machine, I was willing to live with the weight.

So, an update on the Macbook, and my (non)-conversion to all things Mac.
The hardware is terrific. Even thought Apple upgraded the processor speed and hard drive capacity shortly after I bought mine, both have been more than adequate. What is really nice is that the weight is about half of the Inspiron. I can keep this machine in a LL Bean Sportsman Briefcase, along with the essential accessories and a leather-bound pad for note-taking. It has an excellent and usable keyboard. It has a track pad which mimics a single-button mouse. This is still a pain for us two-button mouse users, but it something you can live with if you want to go naked, or you can buy a Microsoft two-button notebook mouse to carry in the briefcase.

The Macbook plays nicely with external non-Apple peripherals. When you aren't traveling, you can plug it into one of those Dell 19" monitors from Staplesand work at 1440x900 resolution. If put the notebook to sleep, and then attach the external mouse, keyboard and monitor, you can restart it with the lid closed. Not as convenient as a docking station, which might be something to try next.

I've got the Macbook printing to an HP OfficeJet Pro K5400 ink-jet printer. Two of these printers have been working reliably and well for the past eighteen months under what I would call light duty. The printer has a USB interface. If you need to plug this in with a USB keyboard and USB mouse, then you need an external USB hub. I note that the docking station advertises five USB connections, which is another reason to consider it. Right now I'm using $14.95 keyboard from Logitech as the external keyboard. It is a little scary to realize that this dirt-cheap keyboard is superior to that of the Dell laptop keyboard.

Having all this paraphernalia connected to the Macbook detracts considerably from its sleek and smooth look. The Macbook is considerably more attractive running alone on a battery, connected wireless to the unseen network cloud. I've gotten well over three hours on the battery when running wirelessly which is fine. With the wireless connection enabled, the machine will sniff out the strongest local network connection and walk you through the connection process. If you have done this once already, the connection will be automatic the next time. It works fine on the university's VPN with the addition of the Cisco VPN client which requires manually logging on.

Mac heads rave about the Mac software and operating system. I think the OS is fine. I don't care really for the "Finder", but that is partly because I haven't really transitioned comfortably from the Windows "Explorer". But I really like that fact that the OS on the Macbook is the same as the OS on all other Macs, and that it is available in one version only. It is an operating system instead of a demanding lifestyle. Apple doesn't try to bludgeon its competition or its customers with its operating system. Really, can you imagine the Apple OS getting the same kind of treatment and publicity that Vista has gotten in the past two years? Upgrades and patches are a fraction of what comes out for Windows every week.

As for the backsliding, well, I installed Vista using the Parallels software. I did this strictly so that I could run OneNote, the one essential Microsoft program that doesn't seem to have a Mac equivalent. Except for the onerous secondary startup process of booting Vista within Parallels and then starting OneNote, this seems to work fine. In fact, the Macbook would really make an ideal Windows laptop.

Other Mac Software

Safari is much maligned in the blogosphere, and it has crashed several times. I installed Firefox as an antidote, but it crashed even more, so I'm sticking with Safari on the Mac side of the house at the moment. IMail doesn't really compete with Outlook, and I've had trouble trying to duplicate the series of folders that I have in Outlook with rules that automatically move new messages into specific folders. The calendar and address book have separate interfaces, and I guess I prefer how Outlook integrates all these into a single (albeit bloated) application.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that I'm really attached to this notebook. It is a fine combination of price and functionality with a sleek and comfortable design. I'm not sure if I would recommend it for an office, but for an individual's private machine it is ideal. With the addition of some inexpensive peripherals, it doubles nicely as a desktop machine as well.

My Dimming Vista

With all the controversy on Microsoft Vista, here is my contribution to the pile.

Four weeks ago I was going to write a post entitled something like Despite Almost Universal Opprobrium, Windows Vista Works Just Fine for Me or something similar. Sure, I had spent a lot of time futzing with the betas almost two years ago. By the time I installed the first RTM version in November of 2006 with bad results I decided to give up for awhile. But recent first experience of a production copy seemed to belie all of bad press and complaints that I heard from the pundocracy. Examples:

1. Friend buys inexpensive Acer laptop. Comes with Vista Home. Works flawlessly with everything we could throw at it.
2. I installed a copy of Vista Business on my MacBook in a virtual machine provided by Parallels. Works fine, so far. Even with only 512K allotted for the virtual machine.
3. Additional Windows Vista Business licenses installed on our Mini-ITX boxes seemed to work pretty well. There were occasional crashes, but no detectable or replicable pattern.

Then we installed Enterprise on our boxes through a site license and all hell broke loose. What I can't figure out is how much of a difference there is between Enterprise and Business and Home, other than things that are left out. Perhaps it is the footprint? (We're running only in 1 meg of RAM).

So after spending, no kidding, over a hundred hours on this, we've decided to go back to XP. And there everything is solid as a rock again.

We have said it before, and we'll say it again. In a production situation, i.e. your network, use the available time to upgrade everyone to Windows XP service pack 2. Microsoft may not make XP available forever, although it keeps pushing out the end-of-life phase for XP as Vista fails to gain traction.

More specifically, our main problem is a driver crash or incompatibility between our application, and a hardware driver on both Vista Business and Vista Enterprise.

However, I may get shot for saying this, but I prefer the Vista look and feel (even without Aero Glass over the Macintosh OSX's "east-European-behind-the-iron-curtain" look. And Vista is a vast improvement over the XP cartoon look.

Stuff That Works November 2007

Looking at the Enthusiasm Score from a year ago, I'm amazed how unchanged most ideas are. So in this year's edition, I'll take a different approach rather than trying to score things incrementally

• Stuff That Really Works
  
• Stuff That Works with Minor Problems
  
• Stuff That Works with Major Reservations
  
• Stuff That Doesn't Work
  

Stuff that Really Works

The following technology items that I take for granted on a daily basis, that never seem to require troubleshooting. It is a short list.

• My landline. Verizon, with MCI long distance
  
• Verizon pre-paid cell phone plan.
  
• My ISP and web host:intermedia.net
  
• The FireFox web browser
  
• Microsoft Office 2003 - the file formats and interface changes of Office 2007 haven't been internalized by either me or colleagues with which I exchange Word or Excel documents.
  
• Microsoft OneNote 2007 - Solid as a rock.
  
• SightSpeed desktop videoconferencing
  

Stuff That Works With Minor Problems

• HP Procurve 2xxx Network Switch. Ended up replacing a couple of these because of a fan failure. The process was relatively painless, with excellent support from HP, and free warranty replacement.
  
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Small Business Server. I installed on a repurposed Dell Optiplex workstation, and the combination has worked almost flawlessly for over two years. And yet, the SBS is more than most small shops need...eventually I can see a replacement with a straight Windows Server with added SharePoint, leaving aside things like Fax, and Exchange.
  
• On workstations, Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2. This is starting to get more difficult to find. Upgrade any workstations now, or you'll have to cope with Windows Vista.
  
• WiFi. As long as you keep expectations reasonable, and remain aware of the security implications, WiFi is great.
• BaseCamp web-based project manager.

Stuff That Works with Major Reservations

These are things that we're using, but we are still looking, or items that are not yet ready for prime time.

• VoIP - I had hoped to be a lot farther along with VoIP, both on a casual occasional basis using applications like Skype and Gizmo, and with a PBX solution such as Trixbox or Asterisk. To date there has been unreliable connection quality when using Internet VoIP connections. Like some other aspects of life, when it is good is very good, but when it is bad it is unworkable. Are expectations unreasonable here?
  
• Windows Vista
  
• The Mac OS X and Linux. The reason these are on the list is that indeed they work, but they don't necessarily play easily with Windows, particularly when it comes to printing and sharing files. The problems here aren't insurmountable, but they require more than a casual engagement and technical expertise. I think this is a reasonable major reservation...and it remains the reason to insist on a single operating platfom for your IT infrastructure. It should be easier than this.

Stuff That Doesn't Work

In general, I can just point to John Dvorak and the Cranky Geeks for endless tales of chaos and disfunction.

Microsoft Action Pack Update for July

One reason why I like the Microsoft Action Pack is that it gently feeds you a trickle of the tsunami of new Microsoft products, betas, Community Technology Previews (CTPs), samples, trials, and templates. This months quarterly update is no different and includes a couple of interesting products:

• The 64 bit version of Vista Business
  
• Beta 3 of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise in both 32 bit and 64 bit versions.
  
• System Center Essentials 2007
  
• Office Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
  
• Windows Server 2003 R2 32 and 64 bit
  

I've been running Windows BackOffice 2003 on my server for what I think is at least two or three years, so I'm contemplating installing one of the straight Windows Servers as a replacement. BackOffice is fine if you want to run Microsoft Exchange, and you want to have some beefed up management tools, but I've never been convinced of its utility over the regular Windows Server product. Exchange is a whole trip in itself, (can you say backup and spam control?) and in small offices that would otherwise be the typical customer for BackOffice, I would normally recommend just going with mailboxes from your internet service provider.

Live Communications Server is the Microsoft VoIP back-end product...something I'm interested in looking at; but was unable to install on my Win 2003 BackOffice server.

The Action Pack is a quarterly shipment to Microsoft Partner subscribers, and is suited for small consultancies or businesses with ten or fewer desktops. You get the full office suite with all the goodies like Visio and MapPoint, as well as all the server operating systems. No development tools--that is for the Microsoft Developers Network Subscription, but so many of those are available as trials and free versions that you can get pretty far without spending a lot in that area.

New Dell Lines

Comrades!

Dell's new "services and systems for small business" adds a new line called "Vostro". Maybe it is because I just enjoyed "The Hunt for Red October" on DVD with Sean Connery and Sam Neill, but the the name sounds like shades of the 1950's and the cold war. Dell was never one for particularly attractive designs, the units even look a little bit like something designed in the former Soviet block, relentlessly unadorned and practical..and actually more attractive than the standard designs for desktops a few years back. Still, I wish they'd hire the Apple designers.

Apparently the features of units for small business include:
1. Tech support delivered from the U.S.
2. Elimination of all the shovel-ware that they used to put on the hard drive.
3. Software to allow Dell technicians to log into the machine remotely.

And yet, Latitude and Optiplex live on. So does this mean the death of the Dimension? and the end of the Dell Precision?

Embedded Hardware and Software Resources

Beginner's (that's me!) Information:

ASIC
Application Specific Integrated Circuit

FPGA
Introductory information for Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)
http://www.fpga4fun.com/FPGAinfo1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array
http://www.fpgacentral.com/
http://www.openfpga.org/

Programmable digigal logic chips.
Are "volatile", program has to be reloaded when the unit is turned on.

Article/Blog about working with FPGA development kits
http://svenand.blogdrive.com/archive/11.html


CPLD
Complex Programmable Logic Device (technology of the 1980's
More complex than a PAL, less than an FPGA
Non-volatile mmemory
Useful for providing "boot loader" funcitionality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPLD

Microsoft Windows Embedded Developer Center
Articles and resources from the MSDN library regarding Windows embedded.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/embedded/default.aspx

Embedded Technology Journal
http://www.embeddedtechjournal.com/

Nuts and Volts Magazine
http://www.nutsvolts.com/

Circuit Cellar
http://www.circuitcellar.com/

Unreview: HP OfficeJet K5400

After working with a crippled HP c2000 OfficeJet printer for almost a year, I finally gave up, and purchased an HP OfficeJet K5400. I still have a LaserJet 2420 for black and white, but I found I was missing having color. So far the color inkjets surpass the laser versions, at least in my price range.

The K5400 was selling at Staples for about $175.00. I was so tickled that they would recycle the old printers for $10.00 each, that I went right ahead and followed the salesperson's recommendation for the replacement. At the same time they attempted to sell me a separate warranty, a USB cable, and extra ink cartridges. Had I bought all those, I'm sure I would have spent over $300.00.

This is a "conventional" (i.e. not photo) printer, with 4 ink cartridges. Still, the photo printing is acceptable. The version I bought, which may acount for the difference in price between Amazon and Staples, includes a duplexer and a network interface. I plugged the printer into my hub, and it went out and got a network address from DHCP.

One thing I wasn't used to: the printer actually takes almost 20 minutes to set itself up to align the print heads. I guess hardware is getting dumber, and software is getting smarter.

It is amazing all the disposible junk that comes with the printer, by the time you've unwrapped the ink cartridges and the printer heads.

The sticker on the printer advertises that it is "cheaper than a laser". We'll see.

More on Dell

More "inside information" on purchasing from Dell. All I can say is...who has time for this nonsense?

Trackrecords: Client Outcomes Software Database

A few days ago I wrote about potential holes in non-profit record-keeping systems, specifically the problem of tracking program outcomes or client outcomes. Today I started looking around and with a quick Google search I quickly found a discussion of just this problem at TechSoup. Several people commented on the article, and gave examples of the systems they use. A quick click and I found myself at Track Records Software. This package, Track Records CM (client manager?) was designed for a service provider who provides counseling and training and assistive technology for clients recovering from brain injuries.

This is an unreview, I didn't actually run the software. Instead I walked through the online screencasts which give a pretty good idea of what the package can do. Some impressions:

• This is a web-based system. The screens and reports are pretty much plain-vanilla html-type forms. Reports are basic html tables.
  
• The system is client-centered.
  
• Staff members have a password and can be restricted to seeing "their" clients.
  
• You can "attach" another staff member's name to the client record. This allows the staff person to access that particular client record.
  
• You can make unrestricted log entries with a date and staff person who worked with that client.
  
• Monthly reports are available which is pulled for all transations per months.
  
• You can track goals and instructional data, and keep case notes.
  
• You can schedule a client, and record whether they kept the appointment or not
  
• You can schedule recurring appointments ("every week, Thursday at 10:00AM").
  
• There is a "document repository" which allows you to upload documents created or scanned from outside the system. These are held in a secure database which is subject to the same restrictions as the client records.
  
• They mentioned donations and pledge tracking, however, this wasn't demonstrated in the online screencast.
  
• There is a "lending library" function which allows you track materials on loan to clients.
  
• In keeping with the "outcomes" theme, there are fields and reports which track the placing of clients in job programs.
  
• On-screen reports have embedded links to allow drilling down for more detail.
  
• There is a very nice client record report which shows a summary of all activity related to the client on a single screen.
  

Things I'd like to know...

1. What is the back-end database, and what are the hardware requirements?
   
2. What is the cost of the system?
   
3. Is the source code available, or is it possible to make modifications, add fields, etc? There is a simple and more complicated query/report writer available within the system already which may be sufficient for end-users.
4. Is the system currently being enhanced?
   

The same vendor also has a payroll/staffing package.