Technology Ramblings

At the end of 2013, Windows Phone was a distant 3rd in US Smartphone market share at around 5% depending on the market source with Apple and Google taking 43% and 51% respectively. While that 5% number shows over 150% growth from 2012's 2.2% share, two very concerning trends came out. First, was the primary driver for that growth was the availability of the cheap Windows phone from Nokia - the 520/521 series.   Second was that Nokia accounted for well over 90% of all Windows Phones sales. So why are these two trends dangerous and what does that mean for Windows Phone going forward ? Dependence on Cheap Phone for Market Share growth While there is certainly a market for an entry level smartphone and Nokia certainly proved they can produce a good quality entry level device with the 520/521, the reality is MS makes very little money selling these devices.  They also have been discounted quickly.  The "retail" price for the 521 for example was $149. ...

Anyone who has been involved with computing and digital storage recognizes the value of backup.  Even with much improved MTBF of traditional HDD and the advent of SSD - the reality is that drives, controllers, etc can fail and the potential loss of data can be devastating.  No one wants to loose all of their kids photos or their music and video collection. The challenge has always been - which is the best way to backup and what should I backup ? While there are all kinds of methods and software that can provide data protection and backup services.  I've taken the following route. I use a two drive approach to my primary storage.  First is an SSD acting as the OS drive.  In my case, I multi-boot that drive to Windows 7, 8.1 and Ubuntu Linux.   Second is my data drive where I keep all my relevant content. This includes all Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, etc.  It is very easy in Windows to point your profile to a different drive for the defa...

This year I made a conscious  choice to reduce my family's mobile costs.  So I decided to try two things. Transition to a non-contract plan for the entire family Transition to a inexpensive smartphone So first I transitioned from a traditional 2 year contract plan from TMO with unlimited everything to their Simple Choice Plan - with unlimited voice, text and 500 Mb of Data / line.  The effect was dramatic - from over $200 monthly average to around $90 for 3 lines.  And that included features like Visual Voicemail.    Second was to get a new phone.   Previously I was running an HTC Radar with WP 7.8. My use case for a Smartphone is pretty similar to most.. Corporate (Exchange) and Personal Email accounts Messaging and UC - so Text, IM and Lync Social Accounts - Twitter, LinkedIn, etc News, Sports, Weather and Finance Feeds Office capabilities - read, review Word, Excel and PowerPoint + some OneNote Media - Mostly Music, Som...

Microsoft Exchange Server can arguably rank as the most successful server product within Microsoft's portfolio.  It has helped drive adoption of Windows Server and Active Directory along with untold amounts of server and storage infrastructure.  It has also driven a whole group of 3rd party software from compliance and archiving to backup/recovery over its tenure.   Exchange has also evolved to be a key part of MS's Cloud initiative as a portion of the Office365 offerings as well as being supported by an increasing number of hosters and outsourcers. With the release of Exchange 2013 - Exchange is now in it's 8th major release cycle and the brand is 17 years old, starting from Exchange 4.0 being released back in April of 1996.  From that humble release competing against the likes of cc:Mail and Groupwise - through it's long running competition with Lotus Notes, Exchange has evolved from a small workgroup messaging solution to the highly consolidated, highly availabl...

Since 2001 - the holy grail for many of us build-your-own computer types was the Home Theatre PC (HTPC).  Our goal was to have 1 device that could allow us to manage and play all of our media content from Pictures and Music to Videos, Movies and Live/Recorded TV as well as have internet access.  We'd use extenders to distribute that content throughout our homes provide a rich experience to enjoy....   Whether you used Windows Media Center, XBMC or Plex, integrated with TV Cards from ATI, Hauppauge or Ceton and tried all sorts of form factors, fanless designs and special cases what have you - we have all been there in one way or another.   Throughout the previous decade, I really felt that the HTPC was going to be the cornerstone home entertainment systems and a key part of any whole home strategy.   Today after a very hard look at the state of the art - I'm saying the HTPC is dead. It's a shame in a way because I loved th...

Being a geek I am regularly updating my gear around the home - from servers to drives, networking, etc.   I'm also a bit of a pack rack - so I end up holding on to at least 1 generation back of a particular device - kind of as a backup. One of those backup devices was a Linksys WRT610N Wireless Router.  I had replaced it with a Cisco/Linksys E4200 a couple of years back when the 610 started acting a bit flaky and I really wasn't that satisfied with it's stability even though I had kept it current with the most recent firmware. The E4200 supports a number of wireless devices around the home from SmartPhones to iPads, to Laptops and Desktops in both the 2.4 and 5Ghz ranges.  Our home is relatively large at nearly 6,000 sq feet - so I've tried various techniques for expanding the wireless coverage via router location   range extenders - better antennas and/or wireless cards - the works.   The results were mixed at best. One of the d...

Just like so many folks, over the years I ended with quite a large collection of DVD and Blu-Ray based video.  The challenge was two fold - how to store and access all of this and how to avoid the media itself from getting destroyed from use - especially my grand-daughters movies that she would watch over and over again. I have tried several approaches to managing that content and trying to make it easily available for my family to browse and enjoy - but often those approaches were expensive or not very user friendly.   I know this - if it doesn't pass the wife test - so basically point and click - then the effort was unsuccessful. The following discussion is on what I use for the content I have purchased on physical media and how I created a library and ability to stream that to any TV in the house. I used the same approach to whole home video as I did with my whole home audio projects - I looked at three key criteria... Content - what did I want to be able t...