Archive for June, 2008

This Day in Tech History

Published June 30, 2008 Tech Leave a Comment
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My wife & I got married 10 years ago in May, 1998. As women tend to be (in my life anyway), she wanted to do a bunch of stuff I would never have even considered – like putting together a time capsule (ever notice these things are never marketed to men?).

Wow, does time fly.

We opened it up on the Saturday morning after our ‘official’ anniversary dinner the night before (we love Hy’s – steak & Caesar salad can’t be beat), and spent the rest of the day reminiscing.

My grandmother managed to write us (and the rest of her extended family by proxy) a 23-page letter, and since died at the ripe old age of 95. Lots of laughter and tears – that letter alone was reason enough to do the capsule.

I did also manage to put in the September 1998 edition of PC Magazine (OK so we didn’t seal it right away), along with the August ’98 issue of Wired. I’ll poke through these and blog on some of the tidbits I find.

For this post, let me see. . .

The Future of Microprocessors (Q3, 1998):

Intel: Mendocino – A Celeron with 128K of on-chip L2 cache.

AMD: K6-2 – Features a faster MMX unit and 3DNow!

Cyrix: MII – Essentially a renamed 6x86MX that runs at higher core and bus speeds.

IDT: WinChip 2 – Features faster FP and MMX units as well as 3DNow!

Last nugget today: How much for a PII-400 w/ 512K cache? $589 in 1k lots.

Who says computers are expensive?

 

L8r,

Dave

XP SP3 Upgrades & Slipstream Install Issues with SBS RWW

Published June 28, 2008 SBS , XP 1 Comment
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Some days I’m a tech-head, and some days. . .well you get the rest.

So I just said in my iPhone post that I don’t like being an early adopter – right, Dave – shake your head. XP SP3 probably has cost me ~4 hours of grief over the last couple of months. Maybe I’m just a poser, but I think not – people keep telling me I know what I’m doing, which feels great, but I’d rather be golfing than troubleshooting an RWW problem.

So I created an XP slipstream install disc for a client PC that needed a wipe & load, thinking it would ‘save me time’ (I can hear you laughing). I’ve done a few SP3 upgrade installs, and also had the RWW issues that are widely known (you have to manually enable the TS ActiveX control in IE to get RDP working from within RWW). BUT with the Slipstreamed installation, the ActiveX control ISN’T even there. Here’s a Technet thread talking about this, and there are even comments on Susan’s blog asking about it.

So figuring I’d get a credit because it appeared to be a genuine Microsoft issue, I whipped out my credit card and spent 2 hours on the phone with Microsoft support on Thursday, after getting a poor response from the SBSC managed news groups (it doesn’t seem to matter sometimes how much effort you put into detailing the initial questions there – 50% of the time, they come back with suggestions that aren’t related). The final result was to RESET IE7, and voila, the ActiveX control installs.

Funny, I just noticed the MS support guy who helped diagnose the problem posted the fix at the end of the Technet thread. They did give me a credit too. Isn’t this how it’s supposed to work? :)

So why does resetting fix the issue? I’ll never know, but I know I’ll do this next time before calling support. I had the Google toolbar installed, and the MS tech suggested this might have caused the issue, so I tested the theory out on an slipstreamed XP SP3 installed PC I built the other day to do Wireshark captures on my VoIP system. I hadn’t tried to use RWW with it, so I knew it would be a good test. I HAD already installed the Google toolbar on it as well, so before doing a RESET on IE7, I manually uninstalled the toolbar, and reboot. The problem still was there, so Google wasn’t to blame, and nothing else except Wireshark and OfficeScan were on the PC.

RESET IE7, and boom – all fixed.

While I’m at it, I can also say the upgrade-SP3 method (not slipstreamed) is far from an automated process to make sure it works correctly. Basically, the only time it’s been successful (and they have ALL had the TS ActiveX issue) is when there’s no anti-virus installed. In Calgary the beginning of June, and upgraded my parents XP MCE 2005 Dell, and all sorts of issues (freezing menus & just general weirdness). MS telephone support was there to make suggestions (forgot about this one, so add another 2 hours onto my SP3 labour this past while), and in the end, the solution, which has worked reliably for me since, is to use MSCONFIG to do a selective startup, go to the Services tab, check the checkbox to hide all Microsoft Services, and disable the rest. Reboot, install SP3, reboot, reset MSCONFIG to start normally, and then the only issue (I know of) that’s left is to enable the TS ActiveX control (not an issue for my parents).

Some days.

Rogers Wireless Announces iPhone Plans

Published June 28, 2008 Telecom , Wireless Leave a Comment
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Do I want an iPhone. . .maybe, but not right now. As evidenced by my infrequent postings here, I’m a little tight on spare time, and the iPhone isn’t going to make me any more productive – at least not in the short term.

Will I have one someday – oh probably. I am after all an IT pro, and need to eat the dog food so I can advise clients based on my own experience.

I’m not much of an ‘early adopter’ however. I’ve learned over the years to let other people with more time on their hands to be the beta testers (though still get bitten with issues – such is the case with XP SP3 – that take time to resolve – I’ll post on that separately).

So Rogers Wireless in Canada just announced their wireless plans for the iPhone yesterday – and given what we’ve endured (let’s not mince words and call it ‘data rape’) in Canada, the new plans are a giant leap in the right direction.

Today with Telus, I’m paying $25 for my basic voice plan (200 minutes, per-second billing, grandfathered Clearnet plan with voicemail & caller-id) + $10 unlimited incoming calls + $40 for an 8MB data plan. Add in the $8 ‘access’ fee at taxes, and I’m near $90/month – not counting overages on minutes or MB’s (and I’m nearly always close to 8MB just with my Exchange push email).

What can I get for $90 on the new plan? All that and way more – 100 minutes more voice, and (get this) 710MB MORE data per month, for a total of 750MB per month.

Seems like a step in the right direction (you mean I’d actually be able to do MORE than just email and not have to increase my service cost?). It’s still a bit out of line though – $15/20 ‘value packs’ for caller-id & voicemail (I don’t text) is ridiculous – especially when you consider I get those included with my existing $25 Telus/Clearnet voice plan.

OK Telus, your turn. This is an opportunity. Get the really cool HTC handsets, and put out a data plan that means something. I’ve been paying $90+ per month, but not for much longer if the the value equation doesn’t get a whole lot better. I want a better Windows Mobile handset than my Treo 700wx, and don’t want to have to monitor my usage.

Here’s 2 suggestions that will get people to sit up and take notice:

1. Per-second billing. You can do it – I’ve ALWAYS had this with Telus with my grandfathered Clearnet plan. There is NOT A SINGLE TECHNOLOGICAL REASON NOT TO DO IT.

2. Tethering.

Lastly, don’t bother to try and get me to sign any contracts. I’ll NEVER do that again. You are not the government. You get to EARN my business each and every month.

I love a parade.

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