Apple or Microsoft; iPhone or Windows Phone Part 1: The Passion and the Tech

The question has been debated furiously on the internet now for a couple years with passionate people on both sides trying to prove and justify their point. I will admit I was one of those people for quite some time with my feet buried firmly in the ground as to what someone else should pick. I have realized though that therein lies the problem. I was trying to decide for someone else what they should choose as the device or tech they needed. Really, and you must agree, that this was extremely arrogant of me. I had the audacity to tell someone else what they should be buying and using and many times without knowing any or all the facts I needed to do so. True I do private tech consulting for some wealthy people and they depend on my advice for their tech but at the end of the day it is nothing more than opinion smattered with random facts.
 

So with that said I intend to address several points in this and following articles. They are the Why, What and How of choosing tech or tech devices. As for the other 2 of When and Where those are controlled a lot by your environment and not really a fit for this series. The three (3) points are as follows:

• Why do people insist on a particular tech to everyone they talk to.
• What are the key factors someone should honestly consider when choosing tech.
• How can you choose which tech is right for you.

In these articles I am not going to promote Apple over Window or vice-versa. Instead I am going to try to educate you, the reader, in how you should go about honestly deciding which one is truly right for you without the hype and emotional drama that seems to surround these decisions today. In the end my desire is this, when you finish reading these articles you can take an objective rather than emotional view of technology and your needs when choosing such. Just FYI on the note of not being emotional I am a firm believer that every purchase you make in your life is based, in some form or fashion, on emotion, but that is for a future article. Also I will for the sake of briefness in this and following articles use the term tech. this is a catch all for any Technology Platform, Brand or Device (i.e.; Apple vs. Microsoft Brand or iPhone vs. Windows Phone 8 or even iPad vs. Surface RT).

Passion and Tech

First why do people insist on a particular tech when either recommending one or debating over which is better. They do so for the following reasons:

·         Because of passion for what they believe to be true.

·         They are trying to justify the purchase they made by getting other to make the same decision.

·         They are sometimes misinformed about facts of the tech either they own or feel strongly against.

·         Most people are followers rather than self-deciding leaders.

·         Fanaticism or unreasoning loyalty to a particular Brand.

They believe it so it is true

What do I mean you ask? Well, let me explain. People in general are passionate about many things they own. In most cases though they do not show that passion because it really does not matter to anyone else so it stays hidden. When the opportunity presents itself, however, this passion can come out in all its glory for the whole world to see. Passion that people have for the things they own is not new with the advent of “tech toys”. Rather it is an old and long rival. Let’s take a familiar yet age old passion that has run it gambit, especially in the Midwest states of the United States. What I am referring to is the Chevy vs. Ford argument. For years car owners have passionately defended the brand of their choice. This passionate battle has taken place in backyard family picnics bantering to knockdown drag out bar brawls that many times ended in one or all the parties ending up in a drunk tank in the local jail.  I think that this well illustrates the issue that we see today quite well. Car for many was a statement about the individual and the same is true for people and their choice of tech today. People feel strong about what the tech that they have. They fell it says something about them. It has a way of making them feel proud when displaying or talking about it with others. And there it is, the emotional part of it all and the drive for the passion.

Justification and Rationalization

Another reason that people are passionate is that they are trying to simply justify or rationalize what they purchased. I like to use the saying “Misery loves company” when describing this point. When we purchase an item we feel that we made the best choice possible at that time. Now with many purchases it is easy to change your mind and return it or exchange it for something different, like choosing a restaurant or a set of exercise DVDs. If however you find out you were wrong about that choice you made with the tech you purchased you cannot, for the most part, go out and get something else and try that. The sheer cost of the tech prohibits such action for 95% of the buyers out there. So once you make a choice you are stuck with it for an extended period of time. So in an effort to justify and to make yourself feel better about what you purchased, you hype the positive points, down play the negative points and try to persuade the other individual to do what you did. To illustrate this in action walk into any cell provider store, like Verizon or AT&T, and ask the sales person to show you the phones they have for sale and ask about all the different features and qualities they have. Then when he/she is done ask them which one they feel you should get, if they have not already done so. Then once they have walked through the entire sales shpeal, ask them to show you their phone. I am willing to guess that 9 out of 10 times it will be the same exact phone that they have. Why, because they are trying to justify their purchase also.

The Misinformed Masses

At times people become misinformed about the facts surrounding either the tech they actually own or the competitor product. I have seen, so many times in internet banter, blatant misinformation about the tech they are talking about. Rather than spewing facts they are relying on gossip and conjecture or even outright lies about the tech they are discussing. Why do people do this? Well, a couple reasons come to my mind.
 

First, ignorance of the facts. I am not calling everyone ignorant but rather lack of true and accurate knowledge of the facts. People assume something and then that is their perception of it. We know all too well that perception is reality for all and reality is fact. I can illustrate this point with the perception people had of the world in what is commonly called the “Dark Ages” of the progression of human society.
 

Popular wisdom was that the world was flat. And if you sailed too far you would fall off. Today we laugh at those individual for being ignorant of the facts and allowing their perception and superstition to distort the facts that they felt were reality. Well, why did they think that? Mainly because so many of the philosophers or teachers of the time said so which made it good enough for them since these were of the more educated individuals. Also is the fact that many seafarers of the time did not return and were never found. It was assumed they fell off the edge, why else would they not want to return or complete their assigned voyages. Fact of the matter was they were misinformed and this lead to poor decisions including the retarding of much exploration of the world until about 400 years ago.
 

Much of the information on the internet also comes from what I will classify as gossip. That being he/she said that this or that tech cannot do this or that. Well since it is on the internet it must be true, right? Or maybe this person may be a reliable source of information on other things so we assume that they are also completely correct on this matter as well. It seems that if we read it on the internet or in an advertisement we tend to believe without checking for ourselves the facts about the matter. This creates a dangerous platform on which to base purchasing decisions on. Even if the person is a geek guru and knows all kinds of technical babble, this alone does not make him, or her, an expert on the entire realm of tech out there and its capabilities.

Lead Astray

Sorry to say this but, a majority of you reading this article, are “sheep without a sheppard” as it were when it comes to many things in life including tech. Why am I accusing you of this? Well because it is true. You may not like to admit it but it is a fact of life. This is especially true in well developed countries. The masses tend to follow the few. This is why so many advertisements utilize famous and well liked or respected individuals to promote products. People want to feel, even if it is in some small way they can be like the individual being portrayed using the product. It gives them a sense of comradery, at least in their minds, with the individual.
 

Same is true for our tech choices. People in general don’t really want to standout as the person that is different from everyone else. This is probably, for most part, an emotional scar left over from years of grade school and high school. Back in then if you were different is some way that made you stand out, you become an outcast. You became the target of jokes and bulling and being made fun of. How ironic it is that, as adults we still suffer from this in some, not so small, way.
 

Many times our choices are driven by this emotional need not to standout rather than fit into the crowd. Though so many advertisements are geared to say this product will make you an individual, it seems in reality, subconsciously we don’t want that. Rather we want to be part of a greater crowd of individuals, no matter if that crowd is marching to the proverbial cliff or not, we tend to follow. This is obviously the most irrational part of the decision process but probably the hardest to overcome. This is because it is so deeply ingrained in our psyche.

Fanboy

Finally there is fanaticism or loyalty to a particular tech. This is a compilation, really, of all the above items into one and then taken to the extreme. This is the end result of the items above being pulled together over a potentially long period of time.
 

People who become fanatics for a particular tech, in my opinion, have an unhealthy attachment to it. They tend to rant and many time become verbally violent and at times and vulgar while trying to get their point across. They are unwilling in any capacity to listen to reason or have an open mind on a different point of view. Their opinion becomes fact and that is the end of the matter as far as they are concerned.
 

Unfortunately for them they are investing a large amount of emotional energy and effort in this area. Why is that a problem you might wonder, other than the obvious simple mindedness of it?

Well easiest way to illustrate this is with the following question. Which is better for playing movies on your TV? Is it a VHS or Betamax tape? Some of you reading this or probably wondering what in the world I am referring to while others of you are laughing right now to yourself saying, “Yeah I remember that”. See in the 80s there were two (2) “camps”, as it were, around the medium for playing movies at home. Both had very similar form factors and did what they did very well. Eventually VHS won out due to a particular niche of the movie industry pressing forward with VHS. That however is not the point. Rather the point is where they are now? They are both irrelevant. Within 10 years of the mass market owning a VHS or Betamax tape players they were made obsolete by DVD players. Today we are starting to see that DVD players my become obsolete in the not so distant future thanks to high speed internet, DVR devices, services like Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime.
 

Simply put, tech comes and goes but we stay. We are the only constant in the ever changing world of tech. Tech is meant to fill our needs and wants, whether realized by us or not. Seems to me that the fanboy of a particular tech are so very short sighted in the stances they take.

Learn from other mistakes

So how can you use this information to your benefit? First be resolved to not emulate the follies identified above.
 

First and foremost I think is don’t plant your feat in the ground before knowing the facts. So many set out with a preconception in their mind and this becomes a handicapping in the process.
 

Second check and double-check the facts.
 

Third don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the emotional hype of a particular tech.
 

Forth don’t be swayed by the thought process, “Well all my friends have it so I have to have it.” You are really selling yourself short if you do. Because you are letting someone else decide for you what is right for you.
 

Finally don’t be distracted by the fanboys either. Let them waste their time and energy but don’t waste yours on them. Also like the sign say in the parks “Don’t Feed the bears”. Don’t you feed the fanboys fire by getting in the middle of their rants. It is a waste of time.

Next article I will be discussing: What are the key factors someone should honestly consider when choosing tech. 

Butterfly Kisses

We often learn the most from our children. Some time
ago, a friend of mine punished his 3-year-old
daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper.
Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the
child tried to decorate a box.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her
father the next morning and said, "This is for you,
Daddy."  He was embarrassed by his earlier
overreaction, but his anger flared again when he
found that the box was empty.

He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give
someone a present, there's supposed to be something
inside of it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her
eyes and said, "Oh Daddy, it's not empty. I blew
kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy." The father
was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl
and he begged her forgiveness. My friend told me that
he kept that gold box by his bed for years. Whenever
he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary
kiss and remember the love of the child who had put
it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as parents has been
given a gold container filled with unconditional love
and kisses from our children. There is no more
precious possession anyone could hold.


credited to Julia Bargeron

Is There Really a Santa Claus?

As a result of an overwhelming lack of requests, and with research help from a very prosperous scientific journal, here is the annual scientific inquiry into Santa Claus.

1. No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there ARE 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer, which only Santa has ever seen.

2. There are roughly 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear to) handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total, 378 million, according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

3. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which only seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding, etc.
This means, to deliver his presents, Santa's sleigh must be moving at 650 miles per second.3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on the Earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second. (A conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.)

4. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, Santa cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. He would need 214,200 reindeer. This, of course, increases the payload, not even counting the weight of the sleigh, to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison, this is roughly four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth Ocean Liner.

5. Now, 353,000 tons, travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance which will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-lb Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion, if Santa Claus ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.

Create A SQL Function for Month

Yes I know that there is a function already that return the “Month” as an Integer. But what about the month as text. Take for example the month is 6 and you want June.

Well the following Function will allow this to happen.

Pretty simple to use. Just pass in a datatime and it returns a varchar(12) of the month.

Sample how to use:

SELECT dbo.MonthString(GetDate()) AS [Month]

Function Create Script:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
Create Function [dbo].[MonthString]
(
@Date DATETIME
)
Returns VARCHAR(12)
Begin

DECLARE @Month VARCHAR(12)

SELECT @Month = ( SELECT
CASE MONTH(@Date)
WHEN 1 THEN 'Januraury'
WHEN 2 THEN 'Feburaury'
WHEN 3 THEN 'March'
WHEN 4 THEN 'April'
WHEN 5 THEN 'May'
WHEN 6 THEN 'June'
WHEN 7 THEN 'July'
WHEN 8 THEN 'August'
WHEN 9 THEN 'September'
WHEN 10 THEN 'October'
WHEN 11 THEN 'November'
ELSE 'December'
END

)
RETURN @Month
End

How to Upgrade Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM

Since you are reading this post I assume you discovered you cannot upgrade Windows 7 RTM from Windows 7 RC1. This is because Microsoft put some checks and balances in the install code to prevent you from doing so. As with everything else this is treatable with a little surgery.

Warning:
What I am about to show comes with no warranty or guarantees. Just like modifying your registry, do this at your own risk.

The following instructions should get you through the upgrade process.

• First you need to download a copy of Windows 7 ISO file from Microsoft. You can do this either through your TechNet or MSDN account.
  
• Now that you have that you will need to decompress the files to a folder on your hard drive or network drive. I use PowerISO, but you can use what ever utility you are comfortable with.
  
• Once the files have been extracted locate the INI file entitled "cversion.ini". This should be located in the "sources" folder. Open it up in a text editing utility or Visual Studio 2008.
  
• Now you have to know a little about what you are doing to make this work. There is a line "MinClient". This is used by the installer when checking to see if you have a valid upgrade version. Let's change this to the value less than the build number of RC1 which is 7100. So we will change it to 7000.
  
• Now save you changes and close the text editor.
  
• Now recompress this back to an ISO file and burn to DVD.
  

Now when the disk runs you should get the option to do an upgrade.

A Journal for IT Architects

While traveling the world, via my keyboard i came across a source for Architects. It is an electronic journal on MSDN.

The following is pulled directly from their site:

"The Architecture Journal is an independent platform for free thinkers and practitioners of IT architecture. New editions are issued quarterly with articles designed to offer perspective, share knowledge, and help you learn the discipline and pursue the art of IT architecture. The Architecture Journal reaches over 53,000 subscribers worldwide. Click here to receive a free print version."

I have reviewed several of the articles and found them worthy of noting.

Please feel free to review the site and tell me what you think.

Cool MS Office Programming Tool For .Net

Have you ever tried to code with Office VSTO? Found it difficult to develop or deploy it? I have spent a great deal of time and energy developing Office Outlook add-ins over the last year. I have successfully done so with the out of the box tools in VS 2008 and VSTO 3.0. Microsoft has done a great job getting VSTO 3.0 to be very powerful and feature rich but I did find some issues that really caused me weeks of headaches and frustration.

But recently I was asked to take what we developed in house and create a deployment package for not just MS Office 2007 but also 2003 and imbed a SQL Express installation and seed data into the MSI.

This presented various problems seeing how I was first using only Office 2007 and deploying internally with the “Click Once” technology.

When I tried to develop an MSI I found it was not very straight forward as one might think. When researching I found 2 really good walkthroughs for deploying MS Solutions using an MSI. Please see Deploying Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Solutions Using Windows Installer (Part 1 of 2) and Deploying Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Solutions Using Windows Installer: Walkthroughs (Part 2 of 2) if you are interested in trying this yourself from scratch.

Otherwise you may want to take a look at this 3rd party vendor who created a nice VS add-in and Project Templates to help not only deploy but also make it version independent. The company is called Add-In Express. Their tools are by far some of the best I have found and as far as the cost.

Ease of use is phenomenal also. They have wizards that will walk you right through project creation and deployment. Also they have real good samples on their entire feature set so that you can get a good idea how to proceed right from scratch.

If you are doing any production worthy coding in MS Office 2003 or 2007 and want ease of development and deployment this is by far the best route to go.

Check them out and let me know what you think.