I’m a PC Inside a Mac

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I have been a PC user for more than 20 years now. My first PC was an IBM Compatible XT and had an 8 MHZ CPU. I remember it had a “Turbo” button that would spike the CPU to a whooping 16 MHZ. This is what kids call today “overclocking”. I went pretty much through every model possible and used the PC for games, development and work. A couple of weeks ago when the new MacBooks were released I decided to go and buy myself one. I did not get a MacBook because of Apple’s TV ads and not even because of all the negative reviews about Windows Vista. Actually the first thing that I did when I got the laptop was to use BootCamp and install Windows Vista 64bit and use it as my main OS. I’ve been using Vista 64 bit on my home desktop since the day it was released and had no problems at all with it. I found all the drivers I needed and it is a great powerful desktop that I keep on 24x7 without any glitches.

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I was never a fan of MacBook and OS X. I tried using it in the past but had some basic problems which are mostly due to the fact that I’ve been using Windows for so long. The first thing that drove me crazy when I first touched a Mac was the lack of a right-click menu. I think right-click menu is the best invention in user interaction and if you think “object oriented” it makes a lot of sense. In the new MacBook, Apple went even further and killed the left-click button as well. Now to click on something you click on the whole trackpad (or you can configure to tap also). This is pretty cool and you can also enable a right-click button these days. The other thing that always seemed weird to me, is the application menu. When you open an application, the menus are not part of the application window. They are docked across the screen detached from the application itself. The menus in the dock change according to the application that is in focus which can be a little confusing to someone that is used to see menus inside the window of the application. So why did I decide to join the MacCult?

Apple (or Steve Jobs) made two smart decisions that helped them boost the number of laptops sold in the last few years and reach outside their main user base, which was graphic designers and students:

    1. Switch to Intel CPUs – This was the smartest thing that Apple did since they “invented” the iPod. By using the Intel platform they transformed their cool laptops and desktops to usable hardware that more people can use by simply installing Windows instead or in addition to Apple’s OS and enjoy the best of both worlds on one computer.
    2. Limit Xcode to Apple OS only – I don’t know if this was done on purpose or simply because they don’t see the need to do this on Windows, but the fact that you can develop iPhone and iPod Touch applications on Apple’s OS only means that you must buy a Mac, or try installing Leopard on a PC or VM image and violate their license agreement, if you wish to develop applications for this platform.

I decided to play with the iPhone platform because I think it is a great mobile device to develop applications for, so since I can do it only on a Mac I decided to get one and enjoy running Vista on it also for the rest of the things I need to do. I must say that so far I’m happy with the laptop. The setup of Vista was easy with all the drivers that Apple provided and it’s really nice to carry this laptop on flights. It’s much lighter than my Latitude D620 and the AC adapter that comes with the MacBook is also much smaller and lighter. The 13” screen is beautiful and its a great size to work on the airplane (even in coach when I don’t get upgraded).

Get Your PDC 2008 Content!

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PDC 2008 covered a lot of exciting new platforms and innovations from Microsoft. If you didn’t have a chance to get to Los Angeles and attend the conference you can still download the content from here. Microsoft keeps on updating the content on the site so not everything is available yet. You can get both the PowerPoint presentations (under Abstract) and the recording of the session (under Video). If you are just interested in the videos you can also register to this RSS feed and download the WMV files attached to each post.

PDC 2008: Day 3

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Today’s keynote focused entirely on Microsoft Research. The keynote was led by Rick Rashid who led this group for the last 17 years since it was created. There were very interesting demos of different projects they work on and prototypes that are currently in development. For example: The World Wide Telescope new version, the work they are doing to help researchers fight the HIV virus and detect virus mutations, an intuitive application, called Boku, that allows kids develop games without knowing anything about code writing. The best part was SecondLight. This is the next generation of the Surface. It uses an incredible technique to project through the surface onto other surfaces above.

PDC 2008: Day 2

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The second day keynote switched focus from Windows Azure and the cloud to the desktop releases. There were two separate keynotes:

  • Keynote 1: Ray Ozzie, Steve Sinofsky, Scott Guthrie, David Treadwell – on Windows 7, WPF, .NET 4.0, VS2010, Live Framework, Mesh, Office 14
  • Keynote 2: Chris Anderson and Don Box – A lap around Azure Services platform

Windows 7

  • Both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 will have the ability to boot from a VHD and also mount a VHD like a normal hard drive. All this will be available from the disk manager.
  • Multi touch support in Windows 7 changes everything in the user experience. The new capabilities and APIs shown will change the way developers design their application interface.
  • Multi monitor support was enhanced and special support to toggle between displays and projectors was added.
  • Remote Desktop allows you now to remote to a machine that has multiple monitors and see all monitors on your multi monitors.
  • Windows 7 provides many new APIs but one that caught my eyes was the sensors API. This is a sensor and location platform that provides similar capabilities to what you got on iPhones now on your PC. We even got the SDK along with a cool accelerometer that looks like a board and plugs through USB to start developing and playing with this technology.
  • Combined start bar, taskbar and quick launch.
  • Live thumbnails on the taskbar.
  • “Jump lists” which provide great functionality to launch your application in a specific mode or with a specific file you worked on.

.NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010

  • The IDE was rewritten in WPF. This allows very nice UI capabilities and also provides out of the box support for multi monitor.
  • Integrated support for jQuery which can also be added today for VS 2008
  • VS 2010 and .NET 4 CTP is available for download today.

Office

Office added light-weight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are accessible through the Web. They provide less functionality but the same UI as the thick client applications so you get the same user experience across platforms.

After lunch we received “The Goods”. This is the 160 GB USB drive that has all the new bits that developers can play with. It has Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, VS2010 and more. A lot of installs and VPC images to play with for the next month Big Grin

Last night we also had the attendee party in Universal Studios. As usual, Microsoft closed the park exclusively for the conference attendees and across the park you could get free food and drinks. The special thing this time was that Universal transformed the park to a huge Halloween party. Universal’s “Scream Team” designed haunted houses, scare zones and across the park there were hundreds of street performers disguised as monsters, zombies etc to scare everyone Party. It was a lot of fun!

Delta Sucks!

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It seems like in the last year the airline executives have been competing who can invent the most creative fees to try and reduce the extra cost of fuel:

  • U.S. Airways started charging for non-alcoholic drinks. $2 for sodas and water, $1 for coffee and tea.
  • 2nd checked bag fee followed by 1st Surprise checked bag fee followed by increasing the fee on 2nd bag…
  • JetBlue started charging $7 for pillows and blankets while others, such as American Airlines completely removed them form the planes.

The list of all fees is too long for me to write them all here, but there’s a great post here that shows you the different airline fees side by side. Since these fees were invented, the fuel went back to his normal rates but the airlines don’t seem to care Time out.

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Although all of these fees are annoying, the one that drives me crazy the most is the “Confirmed Standby Seat Fee”. Last  week I had to go to Boston and New York. The best deal I got was with Delta: RDU-BOS-LGA-RDU.

When I finished my meetings in Boston I headed to Logan airport. Although I was about 4 hours before my flight, I decided to go since I had a ticket for the BOS-LGA shuttle which leaves pretty much every hour. If you never took this flight, it’s pretty much like a bus service. You have a separate security line, no seats assigned and the idea is that you come to the airport and get on the first one available. When I checked in the kiosk outside and tried to change to the earlier flight I was surprised that they were trying to charge me $150 Surprise for that. I took my original boarding pass and went inside to try my luck with the gate agent. After a few minutes of clicking on the keyboard the agent informed me that I will need to pay (only) $75 for a confirmed seat. I tried arguing with her and asked since when those fees applied to the shuttle and she said something about having a low fare ticket. I decided that the 4 hours I had more valuable then the $75 and decided to change my ticket and head to New York.

A couple of days later, when I finished my meetings in New York I headed to LGA to catch my flight back to RDU. I saw I was in time for the earlier flight (got to the gate 20-30 minutes before departure) and I tried my luck with standby. The nice gate agent told me there is no standby and I can only get the confirmed standby for $50. I tried my luck and asked “what if I’m platinum?”. She said that they don’ t care if you are platinum on a SkyTeam partner (I’m platinum with Continental), they’ll waive the fee only if you are platinum with Delta. After looking at my BlackBerry for the time, I decided the hell with it! I had many emails to answer since I was on meetings all day and less than a couple of hours before my original flight. So I decided that instead of paying them $50 I will take $50 from them and use my time effectively. I used my Continental President Club to get into the Delta lounge to work on my emails. I had a couple of drinks (or maybe more Big Grin) and food. At the end I used my time effectively and instead of paying them more money I cost them more money…

So what is the moral of the story? I don’t know much about managing an airline but I know a little about managing a restaurant. I think both are similar in some ways. In a restaurant a couple of ways to maximize your revenue is to make sure that you seat people efficiently (not leave empty seats) and the other one is to try and have the quickest turn around possible. The longer people eat, the longer they take a table that you can use to seat new customers. Airlines are the same – Why would you fly a plane with empty seats when there are ticketed passengers in the gate that can fill those spots and free other seats on the next flight that you can sell? Especially when the later flights are overbooked and the airline ends up paying for passengers to take a flight the next day Thinking.

PDC 2008: Day 1

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The first day of PDC 2008 focused on Microsoft’s next big thing. It was not Windows 7 or even VSTS 2010. The most important thing that was described during the first keynote (there will be another one tomorrow) is Microsoft’s cloud initiative called Windows Azure.

image I attended some VSTS 2010 and .NET 4.0 sessions today and I guess that this will be the focus of the keynote tomorrow along with Windows 7. Microsoft .NET has a new logo and the CTP of VSTS 2010 and .NET 4.0 is already available for download and play with. I’ll wait until tomorrow when we are supposed to receive the USB HDD with all the VPCs Big Grin

PDC Here I Come!

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I am on my way to Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference 2008.image Besides the fact that my flight out of RDU is delayed two hours (late arriving crew Crying) I am very excited about this week! Microsoft uses PDC as the main stage to show developers that upcoming platforms and operating systems that will be release in the future. This PDC will have a lot of content but the two main things that will be shown there (or that interest me the most) are Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4.

I’ll be blogging from PDC throughout the week and posting my first impressions of the new versions that will be released and other surprises throughout the event.

Dropped my BlackBerry One Too Many Times

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I got my BlackBerry 8800 almost two years ago pretty much when it was first released (you can see I even have of the first shipped out with the Cingular branding which was later replaced with AT&T). I have to say that the BlackBerry is a very durable device. I dropped it many times, but the worst that typically happen was that the battery cover would pop up, releasing the battery and causing the device to reboot, but after a few minutes it will come back to life and was as good as knew. My BlackBerry has many scratches to show for all the different falls but last week I think I dropped it from too high…

I was going up the stairs when the BlackBerry slipped and dropped all the way down. This time not only the battery cover opened, but the trackball popped out as well (as you can see in the picture). I was able to put it back together somehow, but you can still see it’s not completely even. Of course the trackball feels weird when I use it and is not as responsive as it was before. Since AT&T finally announced that the Bold will be available Nov 4th maybe this is a sign for me to go and upgrade Big Grin

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