Vox’s posts tagged microsoft

How About Them Web Based Applications

nobody@vox.com(Rick Sumchin) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:30:53 +0000

Let’s see if I can kinda organize my thoughts after several days of playing, experimenting and cursing.

Keeping in mind I totally love to do this stuff. Also bearing in mind I’ve been working with computers and software since 1989. I’ve always tried to get and use whatever was considered to be the best stuff out there whenever I could.

Okay, so establishing I’m coming at this from the point of view of a computer-snob, here’s what I’m thinking at the moment. Subject to change without notice.

Let’s start with e-mail clients. Between Outlook, Outlook Express, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. I don’t much care. They all pretty much work okay for me. I don’t get tons of e-mail, but even back when I did, I’ve been okay with all of these clients for a while now.

I do like using Word as my editor with Outlook, but it’s not something I get all worked up about.

Address books. For complete functionality, you can’t beat Outlook. That said, both Gmail and Yahoo!’s address book equivalents are adequate.

Because I can, and because my Virgo brain loves this kind of stuff, I like going to a contact’s record in Outlook and being able to make a Journal entry, an appointment, a Task and have the entry automatically tagged for that contact and have that tag show up in that contact’s Activities log.

I’ve been spoiled. I’m an only child. I not only enjoy being spoiled, I practically demand it.

Otherwise, as a place to keep names, addresses, etc., either web based app will do.

Same thing with their respective Calendar apps. The same tagging (and categorizing) feature notwithstanding, I’m okay with either Calendar.

I like Yahoo!’s Calendar a little better for some reason. I like the way both web based calendars send you e-mail reminders. Outlook will pop-up reminders, but the e-mail thing is cool.

Yahoo!’s notes thing does what it’s supposed to do. It’s handy enough.

Google docs is okay. It’s a rudimentary word processor. At the risk of sounding really snobbish, for someone who has made a living word processing, it just ain’t enough. It’d be like trading in your Harley for a moped. Sure, you can still get there from here, but it ain’t nearly the same ride.

When it comes to organization and searching, however, Google Docs kics ass. Even though I grew up on DOS and consider myself pretty good at file management, I can’t make Word do what Google Docs do without a lot of effort. And even then, Google Docs is still better and infinitely easier.

Since I cut my teeth in another era, I’ve always looked for my documents manually. I’ve always been very anal about the way I name them to insure I could find easily them later.

I’m realizing I need to more embrace the search engine capabilities of Google Docs and other web based applications. I just haven’t been used to thinking like this. I need to re-program.

Sure I use Google all the time, but in this recent round of experimenting and playing, I’m really just starting to understand how well both Google Doc’s and Yahoo!’s search engines work in their respective applications.

So, here’s kinda where I am at the moment.

For typing stuff like this, stories and most daily diary type entries, I’m probably gonna type them in Word, then upload them to Google Docs.

To me, this is the best of both worlds. I can use all of Word’s features that Google docs doesn’t have like macros, AutoCorrect, tables of contents generation, etc. while using Google’s excellent organizing abilities.

One thing I didn’t mention earlier, I should mention now, is another major plus for Google Docs is my stuff is safe with them. I’ve had a couple of computers crash on me, and I’ve lost stuff because I’m not as judicious about backing up as I know I should be.

With all my docs on Google’s servers, I’m safe, even if my computer decides to take a dump on me again.

So, Google Docs advantages that Word can’t touch are organization and storage safety.

For everything else, I’m not sure yet. I’m leaning towards Outlook. Primarily because I still use my Palm OS device and it works really well with Outlook. Doing anything else would cause me to “keep two sets of books”, and if I don’t have to do that, I don’t want to do that.

Despite how I feel at the moment, I must say, if I didn’t have a Palm OS device, and I didn’t own a copy of Microsoft Office, I’d be really happy using all web based applications.

If I didn’t already have Office, I wouldn’t go out and buy it. I’m probably not going to upgrade my version until it no longer works with the rest of the world at all. I have Office 2000 Professional.

So, for the rest of the day, I’ll probably be using Word to type, Google Docs to organize and store and Outlook for most everything else.

But don’t forget, tomorrow’s a new day and I’m only one burp, or fart (from the software) away from reviving this whole process again.

Too bad nobody will pay me to evaluate and write about software. Except for getting paid to write stories, I can’t think of a better way to make a living.

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Vox Hunt: Feel the Frustration [Silverlight!]

nobody@vox.com(jon|k) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:12:44 +0000

Show us something frustrating.

so for work, my big project of the moment is something in silverlight (something sort of like flash, but not really--basically it helps build web-based applications that are rich and dynamic, vs. just plain ol' web sites). i have a background in the basics behind it after seeing topics covered at several microsoft conventions, but learning everything else in such a short amount of time--with all this stress--is no fun!

i know there are better ways of doing things, but with the paucity of centralized information out there (because it's so new and still in beta), it's hard to know best practices. ugh. especially with a tight deadline. don't get me wrong. i really love silverlight, but it's clearly still an immature product even at version 2. despite its shortfalls, it's perfect for this project which is why i chose to use it. so, we'll see how it turns out!

Silverlight vs

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A Story and an Interview I Did for Takes on Tech

nobody@vox.com(VespaRider) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:58:58 +0000

I did and interview with Aaron Vronk of Rapid Repair, about their 1st gen iPhone program. You can list to it here

I also did a story for takesontech.com called "Silverlight Goes for the Gold in Beijing" about how import the games are for Microsoft, NBC and Adobe.

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Welcome To My Dilemma

nobody@vox.com(Rick Sumchin) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:45:03 +0000

2008-08-04 Getting Off The Teat

As I discussed earlier, I'm trying to get off the Microsoft teat. Let me start by saying I'm pretty much stuck with the two PC based machines I own. Unfortunately, for me, Macs are prohibitively expensive. This means I'll still be somewhat Microsoft dependent for a while...maybe always.

I'm glad I don't drive anymore. There's no way I'd want that Microsoft based voice recognition system in my car that'll play your favorite song for you if you ask. I get nightmarish visions of asking my music player to play D.OA. by Bloodrock and all of a sudden the car lurches to the left and runs headlong into an oncoming tractor-trailer.

At the bottom of the story in the local paper, it states, "an unidentified Microsoft source says, Microsoft will issue a patch next month on patch Tuesday".

With more pleasant thoughts in mind, I've been test driving web-based applications lately. I've been a Gmail user for several years. It works. That's really all I ask of any piece of computer hardware, or software.

Over these past several years, I've been using Outlook to send and receive my Gmail. I have two Gmail accounts and Outlook happily checks both of them every time it checks mail. Handy, and in all fairness, works well. Outside factors notwithstanding.

Outlook has decided to be "funky" on me over other things, but it's been a good e-mail client over the years.

My version of Microsoft Office is getting a little long in the tooth these days, and upgrading is not an option for me. Plus, web-based applications are the way of the future and have reached a point where a lot of them are good enough to actually use.

I grew up on WordPerfect for DOS. Like lots of first loves, I'll always love it. I still fire it up from time to time and if it weren't for my low vision, I might would still be using it for the bulk of my word processing needs.

Being a Gmail user, and wanting to switch to web based applications, it was logical and easy for me to check out Google Docs and Google Calendar.

The calendar is okay. Google Docs took some getting used to, but after a short breaking in period, I'm pretty okay with it. I serves most of my needs.

Most of my word processing needs revolve around diary entries, blog entries and writing stories, so basically I just need a good electronic typewriter. I used to do typesetting and page layout for a living, but I don't play with that anymore, and I don't do web page design. There's already way too many people doing that. Besides, I have a very good friend who is a web page guru, so I'd just get her to do it for me. (:

One of the big reasons I've stayed with Outlook for so long is I have a Palm OS PDA. I totally love it and it's very handy when I need to visit doctors, or be away from home. I keep lots of vital information in there.

Over the last couple of days I've been looking into how, or if I can synchronize my handheld to web based stuff.

Doing it with Google is doable, but the best way seems to be a $30 program. I'm loathe to spend $30 to get better use from something that's free to begin with.

While finding out about this product, I noticed someone had posted a suggestion to just use Yahoo's calendar and address book. I've had a Yahoo account for a very long time, but I never use it because the username has the name of my former employer in it, and there's no way I want to be associated with them any longer.

Never mind they're a Fortune 500 company and probably don't want me associated with them anymore either.

I don't really need a third e-mail address, but I decided to get a new Yahoo address so I could test out this synchronization thing.

Yahoo's mail client is as good as anyone else's. The calendar is a little more robust than Google's, plus Yahoo offers a Task list and a Note pad applet. No word processor.

For the cost of the time to download and install a free program, one can synchronize one's Yahoo stuff with Outlook, Outlook Express, or the Palm Desktop software. I downloaded and installed said program and grabbed my calendar, address book and notes from Outlook. It worked flawlessly.

Everything from my Outlook Contacts folder is now in my Yahoo address book. All of the names display in the correct order. Correct order meaning it didn't assume which name should be first or last, it just brought everything in from Outlook just the way I have it in Outlook.

I like Yahoo's address book a bit better than Google's, although Google's is adequate.

While this sounds like a simple feat, it is fairly impossible for some import/export utilities, including Palm Desktop.

Now comes the inevitable problems. I added a name to my address book in Yahoo, then attempted to sync again with Outlook.

When Yahoo imported everything, it even imported all my Outlook categories. Pretty cool...except...any Outlook category of more than one word, (personal bills) became one word with an underscore between the words (personal_bills). Okay, whatever.

The rub lies in the subsequent sync-ing. When I tried to sync after adding a contact to Yahoo, the sync-ing program sees all of these "converted" category names as conflicts between Yahoo and Outlook and want to change my Outlook category names. I ain't having none of this. I was able to cancel the sync-ing without screwing up my Outlook contacts folder. Yes, I had definitely backed up my outlook.pst file before attempting this...just in case.

I was expecting the sync-ing program to add the new contact to my Outlook Contacts folder and let the rest of the world keep turning. Silly me.

A cursory look at the setup options for the sync-ing software didn't offer an immediate fix for this. I may dig deeper into the mapping and filtering options later. I may not.

The easiest thing to do would be to retire my PDA, but I really don't want to do that. I also don't want to manually update my PDA after I put stuff into Yahoo, or anything else I might choose to use.

I could get a smart phone that would possible work better with both Google and/or Yahoo, but a smart phone is way overkill for my pitiful excuse for a life.

I could just keep using Microsoft stuff and shut the f#$k up about it all.

Maybe a s#!t, shower and shave and a couple of beers will clear my head and let me think about this some more...and some more...and some more.

The root of the problem here is I absolutely love to mess around with this kind of stuff. PIM stuff, database stuff, conversion stuff. I can sit and self entertain for days on end with this stuff, so I may never really find a solution. If I did, then what would I for fun???

And yes, I'm the poster child for the Styx song, "Too Much Time On My Hands".

Now accepting applications for reasonable girlfriend candidates.

I'm a pretty good lap dog as long as you scratch me behind the ear every now and then.

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Sleeping Disorder - Restless Legs Syndrome

nobody@vox.com(David Power) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:32:51 +0000

- Restless Legs Syndrome

Do you experience painful leg muscles and an abnormally uncontrollable desire to move around just to partially relieve the pain? Beware of those symptoms for it could be a sign of a more serious illness.

The following section you are about to read diligently tackles the common misconceptions facts about the restless legs syndrome and properly identify the symptoms characterizing such disease and how you can empower yourself and people suffering from them.

Facts and Symptoms

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a type of neurological sickness which is characterized by painful leg muscles which continues unless they are drawn into physical action.

These distinctive symptoms are in some ways suggestive of motor and sensory malfunction in which uncontrollable urge to move is more prominent.

That means, as leg musculature are relaxed, the more frequent the occurrence of symptoms are. People with this disease feel an abnormally unpleasant feeling of muscle dragging which reduces in severity as the legs are physically maneuvered as in the case of walking or jogging.

It afflicts people of all ages and both genders. Given the current statistics, females and older individuals are apt to develop the symptoms.

Causes

Restless Legs Syndrome is of idiopathic type; meaning its exact cause and origin is not yet known. Currently, scientists are working on locating the part of the brain, which triggers the condition, and genetically identifying the gene which transmits such trait to other cells and other physiological and nutritional factors which activates the episodes of pain in the leg and foot region.

The conditions peculiar to this disease usually occur when the legs are in the resting state. Idleness triggers the symptoms by which this disease is known and manifests patients suffering from this ailment. Burning and creeping sensations are just some of the most common feeling. Collating all the symptoms, we can identify them as follows:

1. The desire to move the legs due to uncomfortable pain

2. Pain becoming more pronounced and advancing at night

3. Involuntary movement of the legs during sleep

4. Onset of symptoms occurs during periods of inactivity and relieved once the legs are moved

The disease affects a considerable number of people worldwide. In fact, according to the latest Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation studies, more than 8% of the US population may be harboring this neurological condition. This can be translated to more than 12 million people currently diagnosed and exhibiting such remarkable conditions.

Due to the commonality of symptoms and their apparent similarity to other diseases, RLS patients are more often than not misdiagnosed which in turn result to unsuccessful medical treatment.

Much to the patient’s dismay is that, little attention and funding is dispensed on this type of disease suggesting the slow progress to unveiling the mystery of restless legs syndrome and helping patients suffering on it.

Treatment

Perhaps, one reason for unsuccessful treatment is due to patient’s attitude over the symptoms. Typical indications of the disease are ignored due to the symptoms unpredictable pattern of attack sometimes occurring during wakefulness or at night or in the middle of the sleep.

Symptoms usually last for days or weeks or usually progress to weeks and disappear for weeks or months. Pain eventually reappears with less intensity after a day or weeks and even for months.

These apparent incalculable occurrences of symptoms make treatment difficult to reconcile. More so, the disease may progress due to the inappropriate treatment applied as the symptoms are ignored.

Since causes remain unidentified, medical treatments are yet to be discovered. A couple of treatment is to relieve the symptoms and not specifically cure them.

Additional Findings

Restless sleep syndrome is usually confused with Periodic Limb Movement in Sleep Disorder (PLMD). Individuals affected by this disorder are identified with the same type of symptoms as in the case of RLS patients but the main difference is that, as the name suggest, it occurs only while asleep and is usually the main cause of insomnia in patients with sleep disorder.

Kicking, flailing primarily of the legs and arms are just some of the most common stereotypical movements. While most RLS patients have PLMD, not all PLMD symptoms develop to RLS.

Genetics

There has been mounting evidence that RLS may be inherited. In a study conducted on 2001, 14 RLS patients among those 25 French-Canadian individuals apparently suggest the autosomal recessive mode of transmission of RLS.

In autosomal recessive type of inheritance, 2 copies of gene that codes for the disease should be present in order for the effects to materialize in a living species.

Now what does this mean to us? This implies that the chances of developing the disease are enhanced when either your parents have a family history of the disorder or both of them somehow exhibited the condition or are carriers of the condition.

Conclusions

If you experience any of the conditions above, it is best to seek the medical help of your physician so that proper treatment and guidance will be patterned should the disease was identified as RLS. Early detection and treatment is necessary early treatment and to lessen at the very least, the symptoms associated with the disease.

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