How to Live Without Microsoft

We’ve become so reliant on MS products we sometimes forget there are very good alternatives available, and no, not just Apple ones.

In the final part of my series on how to live without Microsoft I thought I’d provide a direct comparison chart to summarise my suggestions for software for the alternative to the Microsoft/Windows PC platform. Please note these are only my suggestions at the time of writing (Feb 2011) and in no way am I endorsing these or any other products.

I’ve included a Windows alternative to the software that I use the most for those that want to stay with Windows but just reduce their reliance on MS products as well as a Linux alternative for those that want to go the whole hog.

If you want to know how to install Windows as a dual boot or just install Ubuntu then please see my previous post on the subject.

Desktop/Laptop

Software	Microsoft	Alternative
Operating system	Windows 7	Ubuntu OpenSuse Others
Virus Protection	MS Security Essentials	MS Security Essentials ClamTK *
Email	Outlook	Thunderbird
Word processing Spreadsheets etc.	MS Office	Open Office
Browser	Internet Explorer	Firefox Chrome Chromium

* Linux systems aren’t as susceptible to viruses as Windows but it’s as well to have some for of virus protection so you don’t pass on viruses to Windows users.

Mobile/Handheld

Software	Microsoft	Alternative
Operating System	Win Phone 7	Android iOs
Browser	Internet Explorer	Opera Mini
Document Sync	Live Mesh	Insync (also does Google Docs)
RSS Reader	?	gReader
File manager	?	Astro

Development

I’m a developer so I use a lot of software for that purpose which I include here as a separate table:

Software	Microsoft	Alternative
IDE	Visual Studio	Visual Studio Express
.Net Framework	MS .Net	Mono
Database	MSSQL	SQLServer Express MySQL

If you have any suggestions or amendments you’d like to make please get in touch.

Windows 7 Blue Screen of Death

I’ve written before about how Windows 7 is a good operating system but then horror of horrors this morning I rebooted after some updates and received the fatal blue screen of death. For those lucky people who have never seen this it appears all of a sudden, usually whilst it’s running or starting up and the screen just goes entirely blue. Then it usually says something about a memory dump. This is the point at which users should be thankful that like all good citizens they have all their installation media and created backups of all their personal data.
I’ve been using the Windows operating system since it was first released and so I was lucky enough to have done all of this when it happened to me. I’m not really as smug as that sounds, because I’ve been caught out before, more than once. Creating backups and disaster recover plans always seems to be hard work, boring and at the bottom of the to-do list. However, I’m a computer techie so compared to most home users I am probably the exception rather than the rule.

• Why do I need to back up?
  Computers are machines and they break. Your computer is more than likely running from a single hard drive. Hard drives have a life span after which they fail, so it’s not a question of whether your computer will fail, just when it will. It’s going to happen.
• What do I need to back up?
  Any files that you create are obviously top of the list but don’t forget things like your contacts, emails, photos, music and files that you have stored (intentionally or otherwise) outside of the Documents folder (e.g. Outlook files).
  To re-install your computer you will also need all your ‘installation media’ by this I mean all the programs that you wish to install in what ever format you have them, e.g. CD, DVD or in the case of downloaded software, a file on disk. A list I use is:

• User folder plus Pictures, Music and Videos
• Outlook file(s) (should be in User folder)
• Source Code Folders
• Software Keys
• MSSQL Data/Backup Files
• Software: original install files
• What can I do when it happens?
  All is not lost. There are a number of things you can do to try and recover your data. See below for more information.

What can you do to protect your system from catastrophic failure?

I’d suggest a two-pronged approach:

• Protect yourself from potential failure
  Think about your system and look for single points of failure: i.e. where the system is reliant on one thing. The hard drive is an obvious situation where most people’s computers are reliant on one thing. A way round this is to run a RAID system. The definition of this is outside the scope of this post but suffice to say it basically means you run two drives in tandem. To you and the system it appears as one drive but anything you have on one is actually mirrored onto the other drive. They will both eventually fail but it’s less likely that they will both fail at the same time. When one does fail you can remove it and slot a new one in.
• Plan and provision for Failure
  • Keep your installation media and software keys in a secure place: All too often I’ve tried to help someone fix their computer and they don’t have the disks, or can’t find the software keys. Software is expensive and operating systems don’t come cheap so look after it.
  • Backup your data: Its very difficult and sometimes impossible to recover data from a broken drive so either you’re prepared to loose it or you must back it up to another location regularly. Most operating systems come with some kind of in-build back-up software these days to achieve this, or failing that there are numerous off-the-shelf solutions for it. They do require an additional place to store your data however, so an inexpensive USB hard drive or alternative (e.g. network storage) is required.

What do you do when it fails?

Don’t Panic! There are a number of reasons why systems fail and many options when they do. Don’t rush to re-install everything, although sometimes this can be the only option it’s good to eradicate the others first. I’m going to write about a Windows machine here but some of these steps relate just as well to any computer:

• Try turning it off! Most people know that re-booting can help but I’ve seen many systems fail due to over heating. Turn it off and leave it for an hour or so, then return to it.
• Take notes: At the first sign of failure, take a note of what happens and any error messages. Continue to take notes until it is fixed. This will help to establish the route cause of the problem but also will help explain it if you need to call in help from someone else. It will also help you the next time it occurs!
• Use the operating system’s own recovery software if it has some. Windows comes with System Recovery tools on the Windows installation disk. Boot your computer from this disk and explore these before anything else.
• Try ‘Safe Mode’: A lot of system errors are to do with hardware incompatibility or failure and Windows Safe Mode loads the bare bones of the operating system. This might help you establish why it won’t start normally.
• Boot from another drive: I’ve written before about creating a bootable USB device. This is a great tool for getting back control of your computer and establishing what’s wrong with it. Crucially it may also allow you to access the internet so you can search for help on error messages.

If this all fails then I’m afraid you will need to re-install. I have written some notes on that here.

How to Reset a T-Mobile G1

A kind friend gave me his old G1 so I can play around with building Android apps, but I needed to reset it and get it working on my network to gain the full end-user experience.

1. Hard reset the device:
   1. Turn it off
   2. Press and hold the “Home” and “End Call” buttons until it turns on
   3. An exclamation icon will come up. You can reset from this:
      • Soft Reset: Press and hold the Home and Back keys simultaneously.
      • Hard Reset: Slide open the keyboard and type Alt plus W
2. Then you’ll need to unlock the phone to work with your carrier. You can get the unlock code from the original carrier or use a service like www.fastgsm.com. You’ll need the IMEI number which is printed on a label under the battery.

How To: Setup Android Development on Windows

See the SDK page and requirements for more information but essentially you’ll need:

• Java SDK (NB 5 or 6 as of writing)
• Eclipse for JAVA

• Android SDK

Then you’ll need:

1. Install ADT Plugin in Eclipse.
2. Use the ADT Plugin to add platforms and other components: Eclipse, Window, Android SDK:
   
3. Setup a new emulator (AVD: Android Virtual Device).
4. Use your Android device for debug.

Follow the instructions about installing to set up the environment and I recommend doing the Hello World example to check everything works.

Problems and Fixes

Lots of help on the Android pages here, but my own notes:

• Eclipse: No Java virtual machine was found
  On loading eclipse you might experience the error:
  ”A… Java Development Kit (JDK)… must be available in order to run Eclipse. No Java virtual machine was found…”
  Either:
  • You might have the wrong versions of Eclipse and the SDK e.g. a 64bit eclipse and a 32bit Java or visa versa. If you’re not sure you can
  • You might try specifying the –vm switch: Create a shortcut to eclipse then append the path to your JDK so you would end up with a target like:
    "E:\Program Files\Eclipse\eclipse.exe" -vm "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_29"
• ADT Installation Error: "requires plug-in org.eclipse.wst.sse.ui"
• Android Emulator fails to run under Eclipse
  When you try to run the emulator if it fails with:
  error: unknown virtual device name: '[emulator name]'
  Then it’s probably looking for the AVD files in the wrong place. in Windows the default is “C:\Users\[username]\.android” so you need to set an environment variable to wherever it is e.g. as of writing:
1. Click start and type environment or Go to: Control Panel/System/Advanced System Settings/Advanced tab/Environment Variables button (at bottom)
2. Click New and enter:
   ANDROID_SDK_HOME
   [path to folder] e.g. F:\Users\[username]\
3. Restart Eclipse
• Debugging won’t run: To enable debug of your app, in AndroidManifest.xml file add: android:debuggable="true"
  to the application element.
• Samsung device USB driver missing: You need to install Samsung Kies and connect the phone without debugging that should install the necessary driver. Once installed I found you need to stop Kies, disconnect the device, re-enable Debugging and reconnect the device. [phew]. Then check it’s connected by running:
  C:\android-sdks\platform-tools>adb devices
  Which should give output like:
  List of devices attached
  214D11244FF7ACB6F        device

Using an XBox 360 Controller with Media Centre on a PC

So you thought it’d be easy? Think again….

My XBox suffered the ring of death and although my ix lasted a while it has since died again. I was using it as a Media Centre Extender for my media server so its a bit of a bind. No matter I thought, I’ll use an old computer as an extender instead. I got an old laptop, put Win7 on it and that worked just fine, except I don’t have a spare wireless mouse for it so have to walk over to is and fiddle with the touchpad, yuk!

I thought I’d be able to just connect up my XBox’s controller and play TV etc but no, obviously MS want me to buy the Media Centre remote. I’m stubborn so instead I bought a wireless USB dongle to connect the controller to the PC. At first the dongle wouldn’t work, then when I got it connected it doesn’t actually ‘do’ anything, unless I load a game (e.g. minesweeper). Then I found this post. As far as I can work out you need a profiler to map the XBox controller’s keys to ‘Play’ etc.

Connecting the controller

As I mentioned, the XBox’s wireless controllers don’t natively connect to Windows, not even it seems with the USB cable. However, you can get a USB dongle (for about 10GBP). Then:

• Manually download and install the drivers from here.
• It still won’t work. You have to also:
  • Go to Control Panel/Device Manager (NB: NOT Devices and Printers)
  • Right click on ‘Unidentified device’ and ‘Update Driver’
  • Select ‘Browse specific location’
  • Select ‘Let me pick'…
  • Select ‘Microsoft Common Controller…’
  • Select XBox 360 Wireless receiver for Windows

Mapping the Keys

Once connected it seems you need to map the controller’s keys to computer inputs (mouse click etc.). I tried ControlMK but couldn’t get it to work. I’ll update if I find something that does work.

Moving Blogger to Google Apps for your domain

Like many people I’ve used GMail, Blogger and other Google products but until now they weren’t on the same account.

Google have for a long time now allowed users to setup email for their domain using the Google servers, called Google Apps for your Domain. Until recently, however, you could not use all their applications using that account, instead you had to have a separate Google account for some apps, like Blogger.

Now that a “Google Apps for your domain” user (referred to as ‘Domain account’ from now on) can access these features using their own domain account they could be left in a scenario where some of their data is scattered amongst other accounts. I had this exact issue with my Blogger account. The answer is to add the Domain account to the existing Blogger account as an administrator:

1. Log into your Blogger account as the ‘old’ user.
2. Select Dashboard, Settings, Permissions, click ‘Add Authors’, enter your domain email address and invite.
3. You will receive an invitation email containing a link to accept. If like me your main browser is set to login automatically to Blogger then copy this link manually to another browser that doesn’t have the login credentials stored: When the link loads you need to be able to log in as your Domain account, not your old Blogger account.
4. Having accepted the invitation as the Domain user, return to the Blogger Dashboard/Settings/Permissions page and enable admin privileges for the domain user.

NB: don’t delete the old Blogger account as it holds your images associated with old posts. Oh and don’t forget to change the credentials in any blog editors you use (like Live Writer).

XBox Fix for Red Ring of Death and E74

…without putting the main board in the oven or any other craziness.
I bought my XBox as a media extender, sot that I didn’t have to have the noisy fans of my server in the same room as the TV. I appreciate the XBoxes are still pretty noisy but they are quieter.
Anyhow I’ve become somewhat addicted to its ability to stream my TV and yes I’ll admit, play the odd game. Imagine my terror then when I turned it on, the lights around the power were all red and nothing came on the screen. I had the “Red Ring of Death”, which seems to mostly be caused by overheating of the CPU and or GPU.
Thanks to the Llamma’s Adventures site I found this post covering a solution which didn’t involve a costly return to MS, just some time, a few washers and heat sink paste. About two hours later and it was working again. Awesome.
Well its continued to work seamlessly for about 8 months now but the other day when I turned it on I got a single red light on the ring of death and the message: E74 on the screen.
When you get these light warnings you can get a secondary code by pressing and holding the sync button whilst you press the DVD drive button four times in succession. On each press the light will blink signifying a digit of a four digit error code where:
All four lights flashing = 0
One light flashing = 1
Two Lights flashing = 2
Three lights flashing = 3
Returning to the Llamma post I decided to tighten the screws as much as I dare and re-run the overheating of the GPU to re-flow the solder using his method of the fan over the CPU. After this I let it cool for about 20 minutes and then started up with my fingers crossed and it worked! Not sure how long it will last for of course!

Edit: It died again a few days later and as I'm in the process of moving it's been put in a box for a later date in a state of shame!

Orange Online Accounts

I’ve been an Orange customer for some years now and for the last few at least they have been sending me an SMS periodically saying something along the lines of:

”Sorry you haven't used your online account recently - you will need to sign up again to get access. See [Orange URL] for more details”

There are two problems I have with this:

1. Why would you deny your customer access to their (still active) account simply because they haven’t signed in ‘recently’.

2. The online account never needs to be re-registered or anything else that to me could be termed “sign up”. The only thing I need to do is what I would term “log in”.

I know I’m not the only customer to receive these messages. Given how many customers they have and how often I receive these messages, that is a lot of junk data being sent out. No wonder our mobile networks are beginning to feel the strain.

I’d love to hear about of any utterly pointless messages anyone else receives from their suppliers.

Working from Home: To hour or not to hour

A musing on working lunch inspired by my good friend’s post on the same: http://tinykitchentales.blogspot.com/2011/02/working-lunch.html

Apologies to you office workers but being someone who works from home I try to have a good hour for lunch.

Its part of a pretty strict daily regime I find I need in order to get anything done, otherwise with no-one looking over my shoulder I ‘just’ do this or that and all of a sudden the day is over and I haven’t done any work! So I divide the day up into 2 hour snippets: starting at 9, coffee is at 11, lunch at 1 till 2 then tea at 4 tides me over until 6. I often have leftovers so yesterday was Spanishesque omelette made with  Sunday’s roast potatoes and some of the left over roast pork.

I do find that afterwards I’m mentally refreshed and do a better afternoon’s work than when I skip the full hour, so go on break those desk shackles!