Archive for category Technology
What if someone else invented Google Wave?
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on October 28th, 2009
I’ve had Google Wave for a few weeks now. Thanks to invites, the majority of people I contact regularly now have Wave as well.
And, it’s pretty cool without a doubt. There are a lot of good ideas and useful scenarios, bugs aside.
This being said, I can’t help but ask the question: What if someone else invented Google Wave?
I can’t help but think that Google Wave’s reputation as “revolutionary” is largely due to the word Google. Nothing Google Wave does is particularly revolutionary by itself. All of the technologies they have implemented are in wide usage around the Internet. It isn’t an idea that, if put before a group of web developers, they would respond “It can’t be done.” (but, of course, it is worth noting that until this point it hadn’t been done)
I suspect that if another, smaller entity put together a product like this it would not be taken seriously on its own merits. The fact is, if anyone at all has a chance at “reinventing e-mail”, it’s Google. I also suspect that the gradual roll out is in part an effort to drum up excitement that is only possible when there is an air of exclusivity. Where users not only have access, but they are granted the lofty notions of privilege.
The potential effectiveness of Google Wave as a sequel to e-mail are far from being realized at the moment. There are so few ways to interact with wave outside of a browser (if you don’t have an iPhone or Android phone) and while the protocol and API are at least partially available, the time when large providers put their weight behind it is a long way off, if it ever happens.
My intent is not to take away from what Google has accomplished. Certainly these features, in this configuration are novel, but perhaps their true novelty and usefulness are being overstated because we are predisposed to love what Google does?
Anyway, that’s my two cents.
Uninstalling the Office 2010 Technical Preview
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on October 6th, 2009
Today boredom and curiousity compelled me to try out Office 2010. It’s really slick. I like it a lot.
However, for my own reasons I found it desirable to uninstall. I did this and was troubled to receive the following error message:
This product installation has been corrupted. Please reinstall from original CD or source.
That’s paraphrased from memory. A quick Google search revealed a very simply solution from technet user Vikas Narula:
The Problem is a missing file in the installation folder of office 2010. Office 2010 has an Setup Controller directory and uses the directory to check the installed components. please check the directory “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE14\Office Setup Controller\Groove.en-us\”. if you have no “Setup.xml” file there please copy the file from the “Groove.en-us” directory of the source files to this directory and test the uninstallation again.
I followed this advice and the uninstaller worked as expected. If you don’t have the file, you can download it here: setup.xml
Facebook Adopts @Mentions
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on September 14th, 2009
Just learned via twitter (thanks @danportnoy) that Facebook has adopted @Mentions. That’s pretty cool.
The way this works is very simple. While updating your status pressing the @ key reveals a list of users that narrows down as you type, similar to other name lists. This effectively links to the user profile from your status and includes your status on their wall.
However, my most desired use of this system is apparently still impossible. I use a Facebook application called Selective Twitter Status to update my Facebook with my tweets when they include the hashtag #fb. It works well and prevents me from bombarding Facebook with my random thoughts.
For the sake of consistency, and out of habit, I also use the same username on both Facebook and Twitter. I have many friends that do the same. The connection should seem obivous. It would be fantastic if I could update twitter, include hashtag #fb, and the resulting Facebook post automatically link to mentioned usernames it finds.
Unfortunately I tested this just now and it does not work.
So Facebook, the ball is in your court. Let’s make this happen.
Windows XP Mode Limitations
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on September 13th, 2009
Microsoft has released a release candidate of Windows XP Mode, their Virtual PC based solution to provide nearly 100% compatibility with XP. Sounds pretty good, right?
Well yes, it does.
This technology is especially promising to me at work. We have several tools that proved nigh impossible to run in Vista such that we have continued to use XP on many of our machines. Last week, I installed Windows 7 with the hopes the XP mode could iron some of these issues out.
The good news is that I haven’t found any mission critical applications that require it. The bad news is XP mode has some glaring limitations, at least the small-business single install license seems to.
First of all, installing Windows XP Mode on a multi-user machine does not work like one might expect. It seems only to be available for the user who installed it. For my application, this is not very useful. We have 4 shifts that use this machine 24/7/365. If XP mode offers us anything at all, it will only be able to do so if all users have the same access. I believe it may be possible to do this if seperate VMs are employed but this is also very inefficient as that would require 4 VMs, 4 installations of miscellanious XP tools, etc. Not very useful. For this reason, I have not attempted this method yet.
Secondly, the installed VM is a completely separate PC on the network. It does not piggy back the host operating system’s domain credentials. It is possible to join the underlying VM to the domain but there again, this is no help in a multi-user environment. This also creates additional computer objects in active directory.
Both of these limitations are very disappointing. Fortunately, for what it does, it does it well. Applications are very responsive and behave as expected.
Startup times are sluggish but can you really expect anything different?
Microsoft is releasing an enterprise version of XP mode that may address some of these issues. We’ll have to see.
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