Software

Recording My Lap Times with a Calendar

| Richard

Calendars.

A necessary evil these days.  I can’t be bothered with paper ones in the same way that diaries never worked for me.

No, I prefer my good old Outlook Calendar. In the latest version, it can also be set up to synchonise with a webdav-enabled web server which is nice, except that you can’t then simply go to the URL and view your calendar online, for instance in an Internet café or on your mobile. No, the .ics file can be downloaded and imported by applications like Entourage or Outlook, but you can’t really read or amend it when you’re out and about.

When I can be bothered, I can synchronise my Nokia phone with Outlook when I’m back in the office, just as I can my iPAQ, so that’s useful, but it means I have to be around the base PC and have to manage the connection.

I can also export my Outlook calendar and import it into Google Calendar. That’s all very well and good but it’s a slow, manual process.

No, what I want is a calendar that I can amend at my desk. It’s automatically published at regular intervals to the web where I can choose to keep all or part of it private or restrict who can view it online. I want to be able to add to it or change it on my mobile with any changes being made to all the versions automatically the moment I’m in range, either of a decent high speed GPRS link or a 3G one. And I want to be able to update it through any web browser and have those changes propagated immediately to the PC and phone versions.

Surely that’s do-able? 

Search and Ye Shall Find

| Richard

…depending upon what you use to search.

Or so it would appear.

When I “upgraded” to Office 2007, Outlook “suggested’ I download and install Windows Desktop Search which they suggest is “Best in Class”.

Now I am already running Google Desktop and have been impressed with it.

Yesterday I tried out some Nero software (before removing it again as it didn’t do what I wanted) and that installed another search program that looked exactly like a re-badged version of Windows Desktop Search.

Anyway, I’d had ‘mixed’ results with Windows Desktop Search noting how the number of items searched would sometimes count down, or that the number of items to index would also count down without a corresponding increase in the number of items searched and indeed noting that it would continue to index my PC even when supposedly snoozing.

Couple all that with the way that it only seemed to want to know about the current Outlook post file and it began to take on the usefulness of a chocolate teapot; especially when you take into account the need to keep Outlook post files to an absolute minimum size in the latest version unless you want your system slowed down to less than crawling pace. Outlook 2007: bst avoided!

So the other day, I needed to find some access details I’d e-mailed a client a while back. I knew I wouldn’t find them in my current Outlook post file, so I opened the job-specific post file archive and asked it to search only to find that it hadn’t been indexed and none of the other search facilities in Outlook could help either. So I fired up Google Desktop and instantly found the details I needed…

I looked at the Windows Desktop Search preferences and manually added .pst files – curiously omitted by default – and made sure that the Archives folder was ticked to be searchable and after allowing Windows Desktop Search to catalogue everything unhindered – at the expense of it slowing down my system – I decided to run a little test.

I sent myself an e-mail from my Gmail account (excluded from my Google Desktop search items) with the name “Persephone Winterbottom” in the e-mail body. This came via a POP3 account into MailWasher Pro and thence into Outlook. I then opened an archive .pst file and dragged the new e-mail into it before closing it once more.

After both programs indicated they were up to date, I ran a search for “Persephone Winterbottom”. Now, you need to bear in mind that Google Desktop needs Outlook post files to be open to be searched whilst Windows Desktop Search shouldn’t if it follows the preferences.

And the results? Google Desktop returned a positive on the e-mail within the main Outlook post file. Not so good if you want to actually locate the e-mail in its archive but the program does return its contents within the browser window (which is good enough for me).

Windows Desktop Search still doesn’t seem to acknoweldge the e-mail’s existence whatsover, even days afterwards, so it’s been uninstalled here now.

Gah! (Rare anti-Microsoft Rant)

| Richard

I’m starting to become A Little Bit Fed-Up with Microsoft.

One of the best pieces of kit I own is my Toshiba Portégé 3500 Tablet PC. Quite why Tablet PCs never really set the world on fire is frankly beyond me: the never-ending notebook* for you to scribble on when you’re making notes or suggesting a layout to a client is just fabulous. (*OneNote – the ‘killer app.’ for the Tablet PC which isn’t too bad on a regular lappy either).

Until…

Until it decides to get a bit tired and emotional and Windows XP SP2 Tablet PC Edition (phew!) throws up yet another BSOD every time you try to start it up, blaming the (unchanged) video drivers.

My main work machine is a three year old, dual-screen PC that was many thousands of pounds to buy and is still super fast and super-spec’d. Except that it takes 15 minutes to start up from being turned on or restarted to have the desktop and start-up apps. loaded and the PC usable. 15 minutes. Try timing that yourself – it’s longer than it takes to go and make a cup of coffee and come back to my desk.

I have Windows Vista ready to roll out. Except that it tells me that my sound card drivers won’t work and because the sound card is three years old, the manufacturer has not written Vista drivers for it. The card and surround sound system is working perfectly here on XP Pro as are a number of apps. which won’t apparently work either. So no, I shan’t be running Vista here for the foreseeable future.

Office 2007, on the other hand, has been installed here. Some nice features for Outlook, but boy is that slow! Oh and it prompted me to download and install Windows Desktop Search which is a truly bizarre little app. which seemingly doesn’t understand what snoozing actually means (i.e. it carries on indexing even when supposedly snoozing) and can’t seem to keep track of how many items it has indexed (often counting backwards) and has still to index.

I also have an old iMac (the CRT TV type) which is ready to go in about a minute. Apparently, Office 2004 for the Mac (I presently have Office X) includes Word 2004 which includes similar functionality to OneNote. Hmm.

So, back to the Tablet PC. How to replace it?

Well Toshiba does seem to be soldiering on with Tablet PCs but we’re looking at £1,000 – £1,600 (plus VAT) for one of them. Pros would include being able to run Office 2007 including OneNote and using my Outlook post file on the PC and the Tablet. Cons would mean the same instability and slow booting time.

Or I could always get a new Apple MacBook. Prices are more or less comparable and if I chose to use Parallels or Boot Camp I could even run Windows XP on it. The downside is simply the lack of the Tablet PC functionality.

Or I could simply buy a cheapo laptop from PC World for £500 and junk it from time to time. No Tablet PC functionality and probably a tad heavier.

Decisions, decisions..

Windows Vista Vulnerability

| Richard

Well now, after years in the making, Microsoft has released its latest operating system software, Vista, to consumers after releasing it to businesses earlier.

Except by giving it all the bells and whistles, they’ve given it a huge potential security problem. How so? Well they’ve gone to town with speech recognition (the hyperlinks on the Windows Vista sections of the Microsoft website are changing very frequently, so bear with me).

So all you need is a microphone and you’re away, being able to dictate commands as well as by clicking or typing them. And don’t forget that many PCs have speakers too.

Ah.

So in theory, your speakers could say something and your PC could act on the commands? No, of course not. Er … well, yes, actually.

You might visit a web page, leave it on screen whilst you go and make a coffee or nip to the toilet and whilst you’re away, the page might refresh to another one which has an embedded sound file set to autoload and autorun. And that embedded sound file might tell your PC to open the file explorer, select your documents folder and delete the contents. Then it might tell the PC to delete all the files in the recycle bin too for good measure.

Microsoft wouldn’t let that happen, would they?

Well … yes they did. And here’s more on that.

Oh dear…