Category: Trends

Why are wireless data rates in Canada so absurd?

I recently bought a SIM card for the Acer laptop I got at Microsoft PDC. Although it took a hour or more to get the new SIM card set up and provisioned (because the guys at Sounds Fantastic had never provisioned a laptop that had a built-in 3G card), it is sedt up and works great.

My only complaint is with the price of data-only plans here in Canada. I mean, $30 for 500 mb? $85 for up to 5 gb? Why do we not have reasonably priced “all you can eat” plans like they do south of the border?

The answer came to me while I was waiting for my card to be provisioned – the phone and cable companies here in Canada cannot afford to reduces wireless data prices. If people could buy high speed wireless broadband for a price comparable to their home internet service, why would they buy DSL or Cable internet? This would effectively kill one whole profit stream for the Phone and Cable companies.

While I understand this form a business perspective, it concenrs me that this is holding our nation back in terms of development of mobile applications and services which take advantage of wireless broadband. Should the existing carrriers be allowed to artificially inflate wireless broadband rates in order to protect their wired internet businesses, to the detriment of the country as a whole?

Isn’t this what the CRTC shuld be protecting us against? God knows the CRTC needs SOMETHING useful to do!

What Should a Slate Tablet Look Like Today?

I was sitting in a meeting today, and I got thinking about my computer. I have 4 right now. The one I had with me was my Acer convertible tablet from PDC. I also have a Dell XPS laptop, a Motion Computing LE1600, and from work I have a pretty standard HP laptop.

I use all of these for different things.

Right now I am using the Acer a lot, just because it is new and I am experimenting with multi-touch.

Mostly I use my XPS for gaming (which I don’t do much anymore) and for programming. It has 4 gb of RAM, so I have enough room to run a VM for development environments.

My favourite is still the LE1600, however. For day-to-day none programming work I love the slate form factor. Many people crap on the tablet because of handwriting recognition. Personally, I have always found handwriting recognition Windows XP to be more than satisfactory. In Windows Vista it is even better, and even better in Windows 7. That said, I really do not do a lot of handwriting recognition. Mostly, I use OneNote to take notes and leave them as handwriting. I also use applications to mark-up Word and PDF documents (in ink).

My LE1600 is 4+ years old now, though, and it is starting to show its age. It only has 1 gb of RAM, and a 60 gb HDD. I could upgrade the HDD, but it does not seem worth it.

I would like to replace my slate, but there is nothing out there in a reasonable price range that really strikes my fancy. It does not seem that the slate tablet has progressed much at all in the last few years – and there does not seem to be much interest in slates in the marketplace.

There is a lot of interest right now in eBook readers, and while I think they are cool, I cannot see carry yet another device for nothing but reading.

So I got thinking today “what would the perfect slate tablet look like for me.”

Here is a list of what I came up with:

  • A form factor similar to the Kindle DX (maybe a larger screen, but similar thickness);
  • A real back-lit screen – maybe with the ability to turn off back light to conserve power. Without backlight, should look as good as Kindle;
  • Ink input – and maybe touch;
  • Running a full OS – a light version of Windows or a Linux distribution (I do not want just an eBook reader);
  • Software support: Reader for PDF and Office, etc., eMail, Browser, OneNote-like app, Media support;
  • No extras: no modem, no optical drive, minimal ports, no video out, no web cam;
  • No HDD – maybe an SDD, maybe the OS in ROM or something;
  • No keyboard except maybe by USB or Bluetooth;
  • Maybe assume that most applications I need will be in Browser (cannot believe I said that lol);
  • Price point around $500

So that is my quick and dirty wish list – can anyone add anything more?

SharePoint Conference 09 Wrapup

It had been my intention to write daily blog posts from SPC09, but honestly there was just too much going, and I was tweeting all day anyway. I thought I would, however, post a summary of the things I saw and learned at the conference (well, the SharePoint things, not the “people acting silly” things 🙂 ). It was a great conference, well organized, and with lots of information – too much information actually, so much that I could not see all the sessions I wanted to and will have to wait for the videos to be posted.

There is a lot of new stuff coming in SharePoint 2010, and a lot of improvements to existing features. Before I get into my thoughts on the conference and SharePoint 2010 in general, I would like to recommend looking at this post. Tony Byrne makes some good points. For me, it can all be condensed down into one statement: No matter what the hype, no matter what fancy new features are there, always, ALWAYS, keep business needs front of mind – upgrade when there is a clear business reason, and not before. All of the features in the world will not help you if you do not know what you are building and why.

So, on to the good stuff! There are many things I saw at the conference which really make me excited about SharePoint 2010. The things that caught my interest can be broken down into the following groups:

  • General SharePoint features
  • Service Architecture
  • Office services
  • Development support and tools

General Features

I am not going to dwell too much on the general SharePoint features, as I am sure there will be lots of articles covering them. Obviously there are considerable user interface enhancements (though the design experts out there will no doubt crap on the overall UI). The ribbon interface is pretty impressive for things like editing pages, working with lists, and similar activities. I am not sure how well it applies in a more generic “web” world, and how it can be made to be non-intrusive in a highly customized deployment.

It is also nice to see a considerable amount of AJAX-like behaviour in the UI, thus greatly reducing the number of post backs and screen refreshes. This includes the new dialog framework – many of the actions which previously sent the user to a second page to collect information, and back again when the action was completed, are now done through layered dialogs (which are also customizable for consistency with your desired look and feel).

There have also been significant improvements to the capacity and scalability of SharePoint lists and document libraries.

Finally, it is nice to see SharePoint moving towards compliance with standards such as WCAG, XHTML, and CMIS.

Services Application Architecture

A major change in SharePoint 2010 is architectural – the introduction of the  Service Application Architecture. This is a replacement for the Shared Service Providers (SSPs) in SharePoint 2007. SSPs hosted such things as the User Profile Service, Search Services, and BDC Services. There were a number of deployment, scaling and manageability issues with SSPS, however.

Service Applications are a far more flexible approach. A Service Application can consist of a package of assemblies, databases, and other components which are deployed to a SharePoint App Server. The service is exposed via a proxy deployed to the WFE. This proxy knows how to talk to a custom WCF service on the App Server. The client (for example a Web Part) talk calls the proxy in order to consume the Service Application, without having to know where the Application Service is deployed – on the same farm or even another farm. The architecture also has built in round-robin load balancing.

Office Services

Among the services deployed in SharePoint 2010 are various office services:

  • Improved Excel Services
  • Improved InfoPath Forms Services
  • Visio Services
  • Access Services

I know there are some great improvements in Excel and Excel Services from the keynote. Excel rendering is improved, as in the interaction experience. Additionally, Excel Services now exposes REST interfaces, making it easier to consume server-based calculations and charts from other pages or web applications.

Something that specifically caught my interest is PowerPivot – which allows Excel to work with huge datasets in an effective way (the keynote showed it working with 100+ million rows – but that of course was a demo). I did not get a chance to go to the PowerPoint sessions, but will definitely have a look at the recordings when they are available. In the meantime, have a look here.

Something new which has been added in SharePoint 2010 are Visio Services allowing for the rendering of Visio diagrams in the browser, with interactivity and data binding. The Visio diagrams are rendered in a SharePoint web part using Silverlight technology. I already have a few ideas for how this could be applied to projects on which I am working.

Also added are SharePoint Access Services. This allows the publication of Access Solutions to a SharePoint where they can be centrally managed, and provides multiuser access and distribution difficult to achieve with an Access desktop solution.

There are a lot of improvements for developers in SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010.  So much so that I am going to do a completely separate post to cover them. To summarize:

  • Many new and improved templates in VS 2010
  • Visual designers in VS2010
  • Support for Features and Packaging in VS2010
  • Improved APIs (way too much to get into here)
  • Developer Dashboard view
  • Development support on 64-bit Vista/Windows 7
  • Improved tools in SharePoint Designer

I will be posting another write up later today specifically focused on the development improvements.

The Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog has a post summarizing these and many other features I have not gotten into here.

Using Twitter at a conference

I am finding an interesting use for Twitter at a conference. Normally I would be taking notes during the sessions. Instead, I am just tweeting the interesting points. Then, back in my room, I can pull up all my tweets for the day, and POOF – there are my notes for the day.

I think I may write a OneNote add-in to import my tweets to save them as my notes 🙂

Kindle 2 not coming to Canada? Who Cares?

 

Kindle 2 not coming to Canada | Quill & Quire

So, Kindle 2 is coming to 100 countries worldwide, and Canada is not one of them. Certainly not surprising. From the quote in the above post, it would seem that most of the issues preventing Kindle form coming to Canada involve digital publishing rights and negotiations with wireless carriers (isn’t that what held up the iPhone from coming to Canada for a long time?).

For me, it is really a non-issue. I cannot imagine spending that much money (it will probably be $500 in Canada, even with the favourable exchange rate) on yet another single-purpose tool.

I read eBooks on my slate Tablet PC. Google Reader and other tools in full screen mode provide a great reading experience. I can also use tools like PDF Annotator to mark up, red line and highlight  to my heart’s content. I can take pieces of text and print them to OneNote to consolidate research on a subject. Then on top of that, I have an actual PC so I can do all of the PC things I want to do.

Why on earth would I want to downgrade to a Kindle?

UPDATE:

Also reading this article on CNN. I notice the statement:

Apple is working on a tablet computer that is expected to launch in the coming months and which includes all the functionality of an e-reader.

Either the author did not do any homework, or is purposely biased (as most of the tech media is) towards the uber-coolness that is Apple (note extreme sarcasm here). Microsoft has had Tablet PCs for 7 years which also includes all of the functionality of an e-reader (I know, since I have been using it for that purpose for most of those 7 years).

It must be nice to be like Apple and Google, and have the so-called press do much of your marketing for you.

Does anyone else hate video on news sites?

This is something that really bugs me – when I am looking around on news sites (CNN, Canoe, whatever) and I click on a headline to see what is behind it. Then I get a video – generally with little to no textual summary. While video is a wonderful medium, a lot of the time I have no interest in watching a video. I can find out what I want to know in an article by scanning the text in 10-20 seconds. On the other hand, if there is video I generally have to sit through 20-30 seconds of advertising, and then 2-3 minutes of content to find out the little bit of information I want.

So please, news sites, stop wasting my time!

Bad Airline Customer Service: No One to Complain To – TIME

 Bad Airline Customer Service: No One to Complain To – TIME

So this article strikes a nerve with me – and probably with almost anyone who has the misfortune to travel on an airline these days. Let me recount for you the story of my latest adventure flying on Air Canada…

A couple of weeks ago I found out I needed to go to Toronto (from my home in Moncton, NB) for a day of meetings. Several days before the trip, I went to the Air Canada web site to see what my options were (normally I avoid Air Canada  because of the consistently bad service, but in this case I had no choice). I booked a flight leaving Monday, August 24 in the evening and taking me to Toronto via Halifax. My return was the next evening, and was a direct flight.

As usual, I received an email 24 hours before my flight telling me I could check-in online at the AC web site. When I went to the web site, I noticed that the flight from Moncton to Halifax was already showing as delayed by 40 minutes. I was concerned, because this left me only 27 minutes to make my connection.

This worried me, and the next morning (early, about 3 AM) I called AC to see if I needed to change flights in order to make my connection. The agent put on hold, claiming she was contacting AC operations in Halifax, and then told me that there should not be a problem as they would hold the connection in Halifax. SO, I did my web check-in and went about my day.

I get to the airport Monday evening, and my flight still shows 40 minutes delay (you would think that if they knew it was delayed 24 hours in advance, they might find a way to recover). Then it was delayed another 5 minutes, then 10, then….well, when the departure time of my flight out of Moncton was the same as the departure time of my connection out of Halifax, I figured I was not making my connection. I decided to talk to the agent at the gate. Turns out the plane we were supposed to take had not even left Halifax yet – it was broken. I told him of my conversation with the customer service rep that morning, and he basically called me a liar – that no agent would make that statement, that they never hold flights for connections, and that besides, the flight had only been delayed for the first time at 5 PM (this despite the fact that I had an electronic boarding pass on my phone from 3 AM showing it already delayed at that point).

At this point I cancelled my flight, and got a prompt refund (though for the wrong amount – I will get to that later). I asked if there were any other options for getting me to this important meeting at 0900 the next morning, and was told that there was no way AC could get me to Toronto before late Tuesday.

On my way out of the terminal, I noticed that the refund amount was wrong. Going to the check-in counter, I find out that they cannot refund the “advanced seat selection fee”, and I would have to contact the refund processing centre to sort that out. I am given a card with contact information for AC. I also discover that it will take 1-2 billing periods for any refund to show on my credit card. Funny how they can take my money instantly, but it takes 4-8 weeks to give it back.

I get home. I call the refund centre. I eventually get routed to a voice mail box, which is unfortunately full, and I am summarily disconnected. Next, I try the eMail address provided. I receive an auto-response telling me they will get back to me – within 6 weeks.

I then start looking at options to get me to my meeting. Looking at he the AC web site, I discover that there are several options that will get me to Toronto in time for my meeting – none of them are great, but they can get me there. Funny that the agents at the airport could not be bothered helping me find a way to get there. I also end up spending twice as much as my original ticket, all because Air Canada cannot keep its planes in working order (this happens a lot flying out of Moncton).  I also spend up having to drive 100 miles each way to an airport in another city. I also forfeited a hotel room I had pre-booked in Toronto for Monday night. Too bad AC won’t reimburse me for all of those costs.

(not that on the way back, my flight out of Toronto was delayed 30 minutes as well – again because of a mechanical problem with the plane)

I would like to file a complaint with Air Canada, but they make this extremely difficult to impossible. It is completely impossible to speak to an actual person about it.

Air Canada (and most other airlines) makes it abundantly clear that they have no interest in their customers. This is why the airline industry is in the state it is – it is not high fuel costs, or other expenses. It is mismanagement, and a complete and utter contempt for their customers. An organization run this badly deserves to go out of business!

Young people and the Tablet PC

As I said in a previous post, I have been looking at the HP TouchSmart TX2 series convertible tablets for my daughter, who starts university next month. Well, this weekend I pulled the trigger and bought one, so that we can evaluate it (we have 14 days to return it) and so I can help her learn to use it. I plan on doing a review of some sort of it over then next little while, but in this post, I want to talk about an observation I made this weekend as my daughter (and one of my sons, as well) learns to use the Tablet – and the differences in how I work versus how they work.

I grew up writing things. I took notes on paper. I wrote reports and essays on paper. If I wanted to write to someone, I wrote a letter. Very rarely, I would write a document on a typewriter, but I was such a poor typist that it was always very painful. Even now (or before I had a tablet) I did most of my brainstorming, architecting, and thinking on paper, or on a whiteboard. So, I always wanted a computer that would let me work the way I like to work. Freeform. Scribbling. Making notes. Drawing diagrams. And the Tablet PC does just that – but better, because it is permanent, searchable, share-able, etc.

On to my kids. My kids have done very little handwriting – and have does less the older they get. They actually do not write well in cursive at all (there never seemed to be much focus on it in the schools they attended in Alberta or here in New Brunswick). They have done everything on computers and other electronic devices. Most of their communication has been via IM, and more recently by text messaging. Most of their school work has been done on computers. Yes, they take notes on paper, but even that they do not do well. Luckily, they often get electronic access to course notes.

This leads to an interesting question. I have always thought about the barriers to adoption of Tablet PC technologies in terms of my generation – people who grew up using pen and paper for a significant part of their lives. I still believe that these people present a significant barrier – because they are old enough to be resistive to new ways of doing things, and many of them are so thoroughly brainwashed with the idea that keyboard and mouse are the ultimate computer interface that it is hard to convince them that there could be a better way – much the way it was (and still is) hard to convince command-line folks that there is any other way.

At the other end of the spectrum is the younger generation – anyone under 25 or 30. They are largely receptive to new technologies, and to new ways of interacting. Unfortunately, many of them have spent little of their lives using pen and paper, and so a pen-based Tablet PC does not feel natural to them.

So the Tablet PC faces a conundrum. On the one hand, the group of people who are comfortable with pen and paper are too resistive to change to adopt an “electronic pen and paper” solution. On the other hand, the group which is receptive to new technologies has no interest in pen and paper at all – real or electronic.

Makes me wonder if the naysayers are right – maybe there really is no market for a pen-based, handwriting-centric platform.   

Linus: "Microsoft Hatred Is a Disease"

Linus: "Microsoft Hatred Is a Disease"

This is a great quote from Linus.

I have been arguing this for a long time – and also that the vitriolic rhetoric from obsessive MS haters hurts the the open source movement far more than Microsoft ever could.