Sunday, November 27, 2005

iPAQ

Remember that I went to the HP Technology Forum in October? They had PCs around where, between sessions, you could stop and rework your schedule, check for e-mail from other attendees, and complete surveys on the sessions you had attended. I would stop at one a couple of times a day and do the surveys.

I didn't pay much attention but there was a drawing for those who completed the session surveys. The prizes were iPAQs. Believe it or not, I won one!

In a couple of weeks it arrived. It was an HP (natch) hx2115 iPAQ. Here's HP's overview. The hx2115 seems to be the retail version of the commercial model hx2110. I can't tell any difference. Here's what it looks like:
Since the price was right, I upgraded it to Windows Mobile 5 for $39.95.

While I still occasionally fall back to my Sony Clie, there are so many pluses to the iPAQ. It interacts so much nicer with my Windows XP laptop. Just point the infrared ports toward each other and you can transparently move files back and forth. The iPAQ just shows up as a file system to the laptop.

The iPAQ comes with Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint mobile. The ability to read and create Office documents is wonderful. I haven't explored the extremes of these applications but what I need them to do day in and day out is all there.

It has both SD and CF slots. I have a 256MB CF card that I've been using in the Clie for audio files. My Casio Exilim Z40 uses SD so I have some of them around also. I picked up a 512MB SD card at CircuitCity on Black Friday. I had a CF Wi-Fi card (Sony WL100) for the Clie but I can't find a driver for Windows Mobile 5. It's pretty clunky anyway. I found a Spectec SDW-820 on eBay. It's the shortest SDIO CF Wi-Fi card available.
I believe that with the support available on the iPAQ that I can get it on the network at work.

There's a lot more I want to play with on the iPAQ. I'll update you as I go along.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

LogMeIn

Remember how I whined about MyWebExPC beginning to charge? I have completed the switch from MyWebExPC to LogMeIn. The process is straight-forward and I believe LogMeIn is faster. It's so fast that sometimes I use it to control my SageTV box instead of RealVNC. It also seems to reconnect automatically after the broadband connection fails, something that I had to create a work-around for with MyWebExPC.

Watch as you login and take control the first time. There are a couple of boxes that I check:


and


The only nuance I've found with LogMeIn is that the default action for timeout or disconnection of the controlling system is to lock the controlled system. That's easy to change by going to the Preferences screen as you initiate the login. Click on Remote Control Settings and uncheck all the boxes.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Microsoft Briefing

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Last week we went to Redmond for a briefing with Microsoft. Here's our agenda:

Thursday, November 03, 2005

8:00AM - 8:30AM - Breakfast
8:15AM - 8:30AM - Welcome and Introductions
8:30AM - 9:30AM - Topic: Windows Client Operating System Roadmap and Strategy
9:30AM - 10:45AM - Topic: Creating Business Value Through Collaboration
10:45AM - 11:00AM - Break
11:00AM - 12:00PM - Topic: SharePoint Portal Server & Windows SharePoint Services: Enabling Information Worker Productivity
12:00PM - 1:00PM - Topic: Executive Discussion: Chris Liddell
12:00PM - 1:00PM - Lunch
1:00PM - 2:00PM - Topic: BizTalk Server
2:00PM - 2:30PM - Break
2:30PM - 4:15PM - Topic: Exchange Server 12 and Future Directions
4:15PM - 5:15PM - Topic: Licensing Strategy
5:15PM - 5:30PM - Shuttle to Company Store
5:30PM - 6:15PM - Company Store
6:15PM - 6:30PM - Shuttle to EBC
7:00PM - 9:00PM - Dinner

Friday, November 04, 2005

8:00AM - 8:45AM - Topic: Microsoft Office in the Enterprise: InfoPath
8:15AM - 8:45AM - Breakfast
8:45AM - 10:00AM - Topic: SAP Solutions
10:00AM - 10:15AM - Break
10:15AM - 10:45AM - Summary & Conclusion
A lot of the facts were under non-disclosure but I can talk about my thoughts after the briefing.

Here's the comments from one of my co-workers to the material:
I was very interested in the SAP on SQL-Server 2005, Exchange 12 and Collaboration and Portal Presentations. If MS delivers all that stuff things will be tough for competitors in each space.
Amen. Stay tuned.