Recent Code Releases
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.
CableCard released from OEM chains. Comcast still sucks.
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on September 10th, 2009
I’ve had my Windows Media Center for over 2 years now. It’s running modest hardware and currently sports Windows 7 Ultimate, 64 bit. Around the time I built it, there were many rumors about a project called OCUR from ATI and Microsoft. OCUR would finally bring premium cable content (including HD) to Windows Media Center. At the time this seemed like a likely direction for my media center, but it soon became clear this would not be possible.
The powers that be had decided only OEMs were qualified to build OCUR compatible machines. They locked down the tuner to specific hardware that DIY hobbiest don’t have access to.
Not being willing to throw away at least 1500 dollars worth of effort in my current media center, I contented myself with good old fashioned ATSC OTA HD. I did not completely leave the fight however. I sent multiple e-mails to executives in the CableLabs consortium asking they reconsider their stance. I pointed out that piracy was not something to be avoided as it already had an unrestrained existence *cough* bittorrent *cough*.
I got a few replies ranging from clear misunderstanding to a genuine desire to help, but no ability to influence the outcome.
As of yesterday, this is all changing. Microsoft announced at CEDIA that CableCard tuners will no longer be bound to OEM machines, opening up the market for all of us hobbyists. This comes at least 6 months after dedicated experts found a very easy work around, but official endorsement is never a bad thing. It is difficult justifying large expenditures that depend on a hack.
So now I have an option: buy a couple of CableCard tuners and further indebt myself to Comcast or continue using my OTA goodness. I am leaning towards the latter for a few reasons.
- Comcast is the worst. They charge too much. They have few interesting HD channels in my area (other than movie channels). Their HD quality is tortured with compression. I am disinclined to do anything that would make me even more dependent on them.
- I don’t watch that much TV. Most of the shows I enjoy are on the “alphabet” networks. For the other shows (Psych, Dexter, Flight of the Conchords, MythBusters) there are legal and illegal ways to get them very easily that don’t require selling my soul to Satan (Comcast)
- CableCard tuners aren’t extremely cheap. I estimate it would cost me 300 dollars for 2 tuners (maybe less but I expect the price will jump as demand is surely skyrocketing right now)
I am mulling my options. We’ll see.
But, this is further proof that the consumer always wins eventually. We wanted to watch TV online, they started posting shows online. We wanted per song downloads of music, iTunes gave it to us followed by many others. We wanted our music with DRM, that is becoming more and more available as well.
The consumer gets what the consumer wants, within reason. If there are delays it is only because the market is often behind the curve. Business models take time to adjust.
That’s my two cents.
Windows 7, x64, and FrontView…oh my!
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on September 7th, 2009
I spent sometime resurrecting my beloved media center from the neglect it suffered this summer. True to my eclectic way of going through hobbies like a womanizer goes through women, I had nearly talked myself out of doing anything further with the machine. I even contemplated completely abandoning it.
Fortunately, shorter days and cooler (albeit slight) weather has returned me to my senses. All of those televisions shows I bid adieu to in May are drawing nigh. I can see the silhouette of season premieres appearing on the horizon, galloping like wild horses.
With this new sense of urgency I decided the best approach would be to simply backup everything and start fresh. I used the Windows Easy File and Settings Transfer utility for the first time. It smoothly backed up everything to one gigantic, 175 GB file on my external hard drive. As my media center has been mostly non-functional for months I decided it would also be a good idea to skip backing up all of those shows I recorded last Winter/Spring and will never watch again.
Faced with the decision of whether or not to install the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows 7 I made the decision to give 64 bit a chance. I have never done this before due to my fear that plugin and driver support for x64 will be weaker. The thirst for a new experience helped me over this hurdle however.
All of this being said, the installation and setup were completely without hitch. I did not find any plugins or drivers lacking x64 support. Except, that is, FrontView.
FrontView is notoriously out of date, the last update being released 11/20/2006. In fact, before I even installed Windows I did some preliminary research as to whether or not it would work. I found no report concerning Windows 7, but I did find one report that it did not work with Vista 64 bit. As alternatives exist I decided to proceed.
To my surprise, FrontView did install and connecting to my LCD required no effort on my part. It simply does not track media center’s session data. It simply displays the default text/time. A few hours of troubleshooting proved fruitless. As it stands I have posted on TheGreenButton in hopes that someone else has already tried this and succeeded.
Sadly, not only have FrontView’s developers refused to release updates they also ignore support requests. Something I figured out a few e-mails ago. It would not be an issue if I hadn’t already paid for the pro version of their software.
I do not understand why some invest hundreds of hours into developing a product only to abandon it once a user base forms.
I can appreciate the time and effort required by even small projects, but developers have some responsibility to their projects, especially if they continue to sell them and advertise their support of them.
Summer Photo Shoot Collection 1
Posted by clifgriffin in Photography on September 1st, 2009
Last week I took some “summer” themed photos with Christen, Miranda, Heather, Ashley, and Beth. It was a lot of fun. We used the summer idea loosely but tried to emphasize bright colors, flora and fauna, and sun dresses/hats. These are some of my favorites. Due to the sheer number I am only posting about half of them in this post. More will follow in the days ahead.
I used the vignetting effect for many of these photos. A first for me as I tend towards very light editing. I do like how it draws the eye to a particular part of the photo.
You may notice Miranda and Christen are left out of the following set. This is because we took their photos on the sunny side of the shed. The photos didn’t turn out quite as well. It’s one of curses of working during the hottest part of the day…your instinct is to keep moving forward and not redo photos lest you die of heat exhaustion and drown in sweat.
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