Microsoft's Resilient File System - Part 2

In a previous post I laid out the background for Microsoft's ReFS.

A recent article in How-To-Geek provides more details and compares ReFS to NTFS.

The points covered are:

• What Is ReFS?
• ReFS Protects Against Data Corruption
• ReFS Drops Some Old NTFS Limitations
• ReFS Can Be Faster, Sometimes
• ReFS Can’t Replace NTFS (Yet)
• How to Use ReFS

There's also a good video explaining ReFS.

And a series of really technical blog posts covering ReFS.

In a related event, Microsoft has "corrected" an error that allowed OneDrive to use ReFS. The same "error" impacted older file systems, such as FAT32 and exFAT, as well.

Winaero has reported that in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Microsoft has "removed the ability to create ReFS partitions from regular retail editions of Windows 10. The updated list makes the ability to create new ReFS partitions exclusive to Windows 10 Pro for Workstations and Enterprise edition."

Hmmm.

AT&T Messages

I didn't know you could do this!

Just go to https://messages.att.net.

It's a little bit clunky and AT&T seems to be deprecating some of it.

For example, you can click on the phone number in a message and a dialog box pops up offering to "Create New Contact" but that doesn't work.

And messages sent from this application don't get pushed back to the phone.

Still, pretty nice.

LAN Diagram

I thought that I had posted about my LAN configuration before but I can't find it.

I'd been following Steve Gibson's Three Dumb Router solution to IOT insecurity. But I've also come across several discussions of using Ubiquiti's EdgeRouter X.

My equipment closet had become a rat's nest with long Ethernet cables wadded up behind all the equipment. Of course they were either not labeled or had the wrong labels on them.

So I redesigned my LAN segmenting it into a home (safe) network and Internet of Things (IoT) (unsafe) devices.

I bought color coded patch cables from Monoprice - red for Internet, green for home and blue for IoT.

To manage the connections to each segment I added a 8-port Gigabit switch to each segment.

I haven't implemented the EdgeRouter X yet so I'm actually not yet isolating the 2 segments. The dashed lines represent the current configuration.

Update: Did you find the problem in this configuration? Look again. Look closer. Then scroll down.















The NETGEAR ProSafe FS108NA is 10/100 mbps, not gigabit. I discovered this when I copied a large amount of data to the Drobo 5N. It was SLOW.

I have since replaced the NETGEAR with a D-Link GO-SW-8GE.

AT&T Microcell

I upgraded my wife from an iPhone 5s to an iPhone SE over Christmas. Ever since she's been complaining about signal strength.

I called AT&T and they admitted that one of the towers near my house was down and had been down for a couple of weeks.

I whined at them for a while and finally convinced them to give me a free microcell.

The AT&T MicroCell acts like a mini cell tower in your home and connects to your existing broadband Internet service. You receive improved cell signal performance for voice calls, texts, and cellular data applications like picture messaging and Web surfing.

After a couple of odd interactions with AT&T a Cisco DPH154 arrived.

Activation was easy.

And it worked. Really well.

Before

After

An improvement of 45dB! Also, notice the difference of the indicator in the status bar, i.e. "Wi-Fi" vs. "M-Cell".

Smartphone Battery

I've got a lot of experience with various smartphones. And I'm obsessive meticulous with tracking their battery usage.

I looked at 15 "typical" days for 3 different phones. I excluded days that I had tethered or been on calls an excessive amount. I can't say I used a rigorous scientific method but I believe that the sample is representative.

For this discussion I tracked 4 variables for each phone:

• End of Day % - Percent of battery remaining at 10:00PM
• OS Level - Operating system in use
• Battery Capacity - in mAh (milliamp Hour)
• mAh/hour - mAh consumed per hour

Phone	End of Day %	OS Level	Battery Capacity	mAh/hour
iPhone 6s	55.53	10.3.1	1715	54.27
PRIV	55.47	6.0.1	3410	113.54
Nexus 5	42.53	6.0.1	2300	104.48

At the end of the day, all 3 phones were generally in the same range of percent of battery left. The Nexus 5 was lower and that aligns with its reputation of poor battery life.

The PRIV has a big honker of a battery, almost twice the capacity of the iPhone 6s. And it needs it.

But the real finding for me was that the mAh/hour rate of the iPhone 6s was roughly half that of the Andoid phones. That's why the iPhone 6s' battery is so much smaller than the Android phones and why the iPhone 6s is so much thinner.

How does the iPhone keep the battery usage rate so low? Simple, it doesn't let apps run in the background.

On the Way to VoIP - Follow-Up

I've been living with my Google Voice/OBi100 system (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) for a couple of years and thought it was time for a follow-up.

Obihia and Google did a little dance a while back but finally kissed and made up. My service was never disrupted.

My OBi100 has gone end of life. The support was never outstanding nor really a problem. I bought a OBi200 to replace the OBi100 but haven't even bothered to install it. The transition was seamless.

The E911 support from Anveo has been fine I guess. Thankfully I've never used it. Their billing system is kinda wonky. The E911 service is $15 per year and you have to pay for it with a prepaid account. Then when the year lapsed and there wasn't sufficient balance to renew they Anveo just canceled the service and sent me an e-mail.

Customer,
We would like to inform you there was not enough funds in your account balance to extend your E911 coverage.
As of this moment the following E911 address is no longer covered and you can not make 911 calls:
<snip>
Your current account balance: $0
You may not be able to place outgoing calls without having at least one E911 address configured.
Please add funds and re-configure E911 coverage for the above mentioned address.

I deposited $15 and put a reminder on my calendar.

After a couple of months using Google Voice I went back and reviewed all the incoming calls. I added all the known callers to the Contacts on that Google account. Then I flipped the switch to screen callers that weren't in the address book. That only works so so since the OBi100 doesn't really support Google Voice's call screening in spite of them stating that it does.

What the OBi100 does is if Google Voice causes a prompt for screening, the caller hears the prompt and then gets transferred immediately on to the handset. The good news is that this pretty much causes the telemarketers to hang up. Good enough.

Either Google or Obihia fixed this and call screening now works perfectly.

Cloud - Office 365

Sometimes it's just too easy to make fun of a company.

In May 2017 Microsoft had gathered their favorite developers in Redmond for the annual Build conference. The focus of that conference was Microsoft's offerings of Office and Azure.

Yeah, you guessed it. Office 365 went down in the middle of the conference as documented by the Register.

Outages happen to everybody.

What I thought interesting were the comments on the Register post:

Cloud just means somebody else's computer that you have NO control over, and can go down at any time leaving you helpless.
Herby

Cloud: A computing service that signifies you do not know where any outage is, who is responsible for it, who else but you or your organization accesses the data on it, but nobody wants to do without.
Jeroen Braamhaar

Having worked with Cloud products for near 10 years now, I can say that in general they are much more reliable and lower cost than an on prem equivalent. ... [Y]ou do get a much better infrastructure from a company that invests millions/billions and has SLA's around it all than the bit of tin you got from the reseller round the corner.
Babbit55

This situation is kinda like when I was on a conference call with my CIO and his boss the CFO. It wasn't a pleasant discussion. When the call was over my CIO turned to me and said "I don't ever want to have that discussion again."

Don't find yourself or your company in the situation that Microsoft was in. Consider and act on the points in those comments.

Windows 10 Tweaks

I've been happy with Windows 10 AFTER I've thoroughly tweaked it. Here are some links to Windows 10 tweaks that I like. I will continue to update this post so check back from time to time.

My posts (some overlap with those below)

How to get past Windows Defender SmartScreen in Windows 10

Remove "Windows Defender Security Center" Icon from Taskbar Notification Area

How to disable touchscreen edge swipes in Windows 10

How to Remove the User Password in Windows 10

How to prevent Windows 10 from requiring a password when resuming from sleep

Bypass the Lock Screen in Windows 10

Sign-in Automatically to a User Account in Windows 10

Increase System Restore Point Frequency in Windows 10

Create Shortcut to Open Any Settings Page in Windows 10

Enable or Disable Network Discovery in Windows 10

Get Classic Windows Defender in Windows 10 Creators Update
I rename the shortcut to "Windows Defender" and pin it to the Start menu

How To Disable Ads in Windows 10 (All Of Them)

Move Apps to Another Drive in Windows 10

Convert MBR To GPT With MBR2GPT In Windows 10 Version 1703

Windows 10 Tip: Turn Off Lock Screen, Start and Action Center Advertising

Windows 10 Tip: Turn Off File Explorer Advertising

Windows 10 tip: Turn on File History for automatic backups

Windows Update Blocker disables OS updates on demand

20 ways to hate Windows 10 less

Windows Containers on Windows 10

Backup drivers before reinstalling Windows 10 using DISM

Windows 10 Tip: Remove the Built-in Apps

Disable This Animation to Make Windows 10's Start Menu Open Faster

How to add Recent items to left pane of File Explorer in Windows 10

Windows 10 Tip: Disable Automatic Default Printer Management

How to create a system image in Windows 10

How to Disable the “Get Office” Notifications on Windows 10

How to Get Rid of the OneDrive Icon in Windows 10's File Explorer

Open Control Panel Applets Directly in Windows 10

System Image Backup

In a couple of my previous posts (SSD Migration and Backup, Restore, Test) I mentioned Windows System Image Backup tool. These posts were written when the Windows system was running Windows 7.

Now all my systems are running Windows 10. And a couple of my systems have updated to Windows Version 1703 Creators Update.

Microsoft is step by step migrating from the legacy Control Panel to the new Settings app. Even when the function isn't available in Settings.

For example in Windows 1607 Anniversary Update you could type "Backup and Restore..." and the legacy Control Panel dialog would be presented.

Now in Windows Version 1703 Creators Update the legacy Control Panel dialog is not presented.

Notice that "Reset this PC" is presented. There's a message in that result. That's where Microsoft is steering you, to reset rather than restore.

Here's how to get to Windows' System Image Backup tool.

Press the Windows key and type "control panel".

Click on "Control Panel".

Click on "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)".

Click on "Create a system image".

Select your backup target and click on "Next".

Confirm your backup settings and click on "Start backup". This make take a while, up to a couple of hours for a big drive.

I fully expect that Microsoft will completely remove this System Image Backup capability in future versions.

You HAVE to read my previous posts (SSD Migration and Backup, Restore, Test) before you strike out using this technique.

iPhone Task Switching

Maybe this is because of my long time use of Windows but my device usage often requires me to switch back and forth between 2 apps or windows.

Neither Android or iOS have readily supported this. Recent Android releases require you to tap the task list key and then tap the app you want to switch to. Nougat improves this letting you double tap the task list key to simply switch to the previous app. iOS has required you to double tap the home key and then swipe back to the previous app and tap on it.

Finally 3D Touch addresses this in iOS for the devices that support 3D Touch.

To do this just press firmly on the left side of the screen. Then swipe all the way to the right to go back to the previous app.

Source: iMore

Windows 10 System Restore

From Windows 10 Forums:

System Restore is a way to undo system changes by using restore points to return your system files and settings to an earlier point in time without affecting personal files of users. System Restore uses a feature called system protection that regularly creates and saves information about your PC's drivers, programs, registry, system files, and settings as restore points.

If you are having recent problems with Windows 10, then you could do a System Restore to restore Windows back to an earlier point in time, called a restore point. 

But it's hard to use System Restore if it's turned off.

And Windows 10 tends to turn off System Restore every time you do an upgrade, e.g. Creators Update.

So....

After you upgrade Windows 10 press the Windows key and type "Create a restore point".

Click on it and you'll see this dialog.

Yep. System Restore is turned off. Click on "Configure".

Click on "Turn on system protection" and drag the "Max Usage" over to something 5% or greater.

Click on "OK" and you're done. And safer.

Android Auto / Car Play

My 2017 Honda Pilot supports Android Auto and Apple's Car Play on its "infotainment" system with a 9" touch screen.

Overall the infotainment system is confusing and the smartphone support doesn't mitigate that.

The Pilot has a specially designated USB port for smartphones. When you plug the smartphone into this port the car app automatically launches. I bought a USB cord that supports both microUSB and Lightning connectors.

I've played with both Android Auto and Car Play. While generally similar in function, as expected, they differ greatly in execution.

For example, when Car Play launches the iPhone screen is still usable. You can still interact with the screen. On an Android when Android Auto launches the screen goes blank and the only way to interact is with the Pilot's touch screen.

On the iPhone apps have to be specifically designated as enabled for Car Play. This results in that you can only use Apple Maps for navigation and not Google Maps.

On an Android phone there is much more flexibility. There is a list of apps available in each category. In the audio section on my phone you can choose from Google Music, Pocket Cast or Tune In.

But most of the time I want to just listen to the radio. It took a little exploring but you can do that and the setting persists over turning the car off and on. What I did is after the car app launched, press "Home" on the Infotainment system then choose "Audio". Press "FM" and the radio will begin playing. The car app will still override with navigation prompts.

I played with both Apple Maps and Google Maps for navigation. Apple Maps is, well, Apple Maps. To my surprise the first time I used Apple Maps it cautioned me about traffic congestion ahead of me without my giving it a destination. Google Maps does that all the time but I wasn't expecting Apple Maps to do that.

That is about the only surprise I got from Apple Maps.

Comparing to Google Maps, Apple Maps doesn't give lane directions on upcoming turns, doesn't do pinch to zoom, and doesn't use the Pilot's dashboard display (more later). I probably don't need to tell you that Apple's directions still aren't as good as Google's. My daughter lives in a neighborhood with a street that has been closed for a decade or more. Apple Maps insists on routing visitors to that closed street.

Android Auto

As you approach a turn Apple Maps presents a redundant representation of the upcoming turn. I couldn't figure out why until I used Google Maps. When that same event occurs Google Maps sends that mini representation to the Pilot's dashboard where the mileage or tire pressure is displayed! How awesome.

Android Auto

When using navigation on Android Auto you can mute the navigation prompts. But even better you can mute the navigation prompts EXCEPT if there's a traffic alert.

Android Auto

Android Auto

And just as a bonus Google Maps will show you gas stations and prices.

Android Auto

I've liked using Android Auto so much that I've added a line to my cell phone plan and left my old Moto X in the Pilot all the time.

iPhone Field Test Mode

I was investigating AT&T's signal strength in a specific location recently. On an Android phone getting a numerical reading for cellular signal strength was easy - Settings / About phone / Network.

But nothing is that easy on an iPhone.

But on an iPhone there's a really neat trick that is actually better.

Here is how the signal strength is normally displayed.

Dots.

Now go into the Phone app and switch to the Keypad like you were going to dial a phone number. Dial *3001#12345#* and press the Call button.

This will launch the Field Test Mode app and where the bars/dots were in the top left corner of the screen, you'll now see a negative number. The negative number is the decibel signal strength reading and should be followed by the carrier name and then the network type.

Bigger absolute numbers are bad. Remember these are negative numbers. -100dBm and lower down to -115 is sometimes iffy but mostly usable.  -90s OK,  -80s good, -70s excellent, and -60s off the chart fantastic

To exit and return your iPhone to normal status, all you need to do is hit the Home button.

But here comes the trick.

If you want your iPhone to always display numerical signal strength instead of signal bars, you can perform the following process.

Once in Field-test mode (accessed by entering and dialing the code above), hold down the power button until you see “Slide to Power Off”, then release it.

Then hold the Home button until you’re returned to your main app screen. Now you’ll see your numerical signal strength while you use your phone, and you’ll be able to tap the signal numbers to switch to signal bars, and vice versa.

To exit this persistent field-test mode, simply re-load Field Test Mode and exit it via the Home button.

Source: UberSignal

Update: This doesn't work in iOS 11.

Asus Transformer Mini

I've always been looking for a tablet solution that I could use to take handwritten notes that would convert to text.

On my Nexus 7 I tried MyScript Smart Note and on my iPad Air I tried MyScript Memo. That both platforms ended up with MyScript apps was just coincidence. But the coincidence doesn't stop there.

The Microsoft store carries the Asus Transformer Mini in a Signature Edition.

Tech specs
Display	10.1 in LED-backlit touchscreen (1280 x 800), 10-finger multi-touch support
Processor	Intel Atom x5-Z8350 1.44 GHz with Burst Technology up to 1.92 GHz
Memory	4GB DDR3L 1600 MHz
Hard drive size	64GB eMMC
Operating system	Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
PC type	2 in 1
Optical drive	None
Media drive	Micro SD card reader
Audio	ICEPower Audio Wizard, Realtek Audio Manager
Video	Intel HD Graphics with shared graphics memory
Ports	1 USB 3.0 1 Micro USB 1 Micro HDMI Headphone output/Microphone input combo
Battery	2-cell polymer (up to 11 hours movie playback)
Camera	2MP webcam
Wireless	802.11ac (Miracast enabled)
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.1
Dimensions	Tablet: 10.43 x 6.89 x 0.32 in (264.92 x 175.00 x 8.20 mm) Tablet + keyboard: 10.43 x 6.89 x 0.54 in (264.92 x 175.00 x 13.90 mm)
Weight	1.80 lbs (0.81 kg)
Color	Gray
Other	Model number: T102HA-C4-GR Instant ID sign-in TPM 2.0 Includes keyboard and pen Precision touchpad Touchpad dimensions: 93 x 51 mm

The keyboard snaps on magnetically like the Microsoft Surface. And when you flip it around behind the tablet it is not sensitive to touch. It also has a kickstand like the Surface when you're using it on a desk. The keyboard has a small loop to hold the pen.

While the Asus Mini comes with its own charger you can simply use any microUSB charger. And you can easily make it all day on a single charge.

The light weight is impressive. Even with the keyboard the Asus Mini weighs 1/2 as much as the ThinkPad X220 that I was using and that's without the ThinkPad's charger.

For protecting the Asus Mini I got a sleeve from eBay. The one for a 10" tablet fits fine and I even store the Asus' pen in it.

The sleeve protects the Asus Mini when you are traveling with it but I wanted to protect it from scratching when I set it down on a rough surface. I found a faux carbon fiber skin for a Macbook. A few minutes with a razor blade and it looks like it was made for the Asus Mini.

It came with Windows 10 Home but I upgraded it to Windows 10 Pro with a key from SCDKey. I didn't have to have an new DVD. I just entered the key and sat back a couple of hours. Don't forget to cleanup the old files when you're satisfied with the upgrade.

Then I did a Windows 10 "reset" just to make sure it was clean. That took another couple of hours.

It also comes with a free copy of Office Mobile. While this is somewhat limited the functionality is fine for casual usage. It's a little bit picky about which versions of Word documents that it will open for update but it will convert most versions to the current format.

But the magic is the handwriting app. The program I use for handwriting is Nebo from MyScript (remember them?). I got it for free right after it was released. And I'm not the only one impressed by Nebo.

Nebo supports exporting to Microsoft Word. Handwritten notes can be exported to Word or saved as text. Headings, paragraphs, lists, color, bold, highlight, are all preserved. I use the "View in browser" feature to save as PDF.

In that the Asus Mini has an active pen, the Nebo app is insensitive to your palm touching as you write. The MyScript apps that I have used on other tablets have tried to address this with a palm "screen" but are generally unsatisfactory.

Besides its handwriting function don't forget it's a full Windows 10 PC, e.g. Chrome, Dropbox, etc. Yeah, it's not the fastest but everything works. If you need more disk space than the 32GB drive provides you can add a microSD card. I still have more than 20GB free on the internal drive.

Click for slideshow

archive.is

I've been burned before when I link to a web page in this blog and then it disappears. (I'm talking about YOU Microsoft.) Sometimes I will even screen capture the pertinent parts of the web page and present it as a jpeg.

Recently I came across this article in Lifehacker that mentioned archive.is.

The idea is that archive.is will go capture the web page at the point in time and give you a shortcut to it. Further you can download a zip file with a stand-alone presentation of it.

Here is the archive.is copy of the Lifehacker article.

You still have the risk that archive.is goes away. I don't see any ads so I'm not sure of the business model.

Shrug.

Back and Forth

I probably switch phones as much as anyone you know. I have loved my BlackBerry PRIV.

But...

It's big.

It's heavy.

And I don't use the physical keyboard.

So I crossed over again.

I found a refurbished carrier unlocked 64GB iPhone 6s on eBay for a great price. I Google-ized it and avoided the iMessage trap (so far).

The phone I got is model A1688. A1688 is known as the "everywhere" phone and supports all the LTE bands that the AT&T variant (A1633) does except that there is no LTE band 30. AT&T uses it as a supplemental band to increase capacity in urban areas.

It has worked fine for me on AT&T even supporting HD Voice. The A1688 also has CDMA so it supports Sprint and Verizon.

I really like:

• Form factor
• OS updates
• Stability
• Apple Pay
• Mute switch
• Not getting nagged about having a Android phone

	BlackBerry PRIV	Apple iPhone 6s
DESIGN
Device type	Smart phone	Smart phone
OS	Android (6.0, 5.1)	iOS (10.x, 9.x)
Dimensions	5.79 x 3.04 x 0.37 inches (147 x 77.2 x 9.4 mm)	5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 inches (138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm)
Weight	6.77 oz (192 g)	5.04 oz (143 g)
Features	Full keyboard	Fingerprint (touch)
DISPLAY
Physical size	5.4 inches	4.7 inches
Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels	750 x 1334 pixels
Pixel density	541 ppi	326 ppi
Technology	AMOLED	IPS LCD
Screen-to-body ratio	71.58 %	65.71 %
Colors	16 777 216	16 777 216
Touchscreen	Multi-touch	Multi-touch
Features	Scratch-resistant glass (Corning Gorilla Glass 4), Light sensor, Proximity sensor	Pressure-sensitive, Oleophobic coating, Scratch-resistant glass, Light sensor, Proximity sensor
CAMERA
Camera	18 megapixels	12 megapixels
Aperture size	F2.2	F2.2
Focal length (35mm equivalent)		29 mm
Camera sensor size		1/3"
Hardware    Features	Optical image stabilization, Autofocus (Phase detection)	Sapphire crystal lens cover, Autofocus, Back-illuminated sensor (BSI)
Software    Features	Touch to focus, Face detection, Digital zoom, Geo tagging	Touch to focus, Face detection, Self-timer, Geo tagging
Camcorder	3840x2160 (4K) (30 fps), 1920x1080 (1080p HD) (60 fps)	3840x2160 (4K) (30 fps), 1920x1080 (1080p HD) (120 fps), 1280x720 (720p HD) (240 fps)
Features	Optical image stabilization, Continuous autofocus, Video calling, Video sharing	Time-lapse video, Continuous autofocus, Digital image stabilization, Video calling, Video sharing
Front-facing camera	2 megapixels	5 megapixels
HARDWARE
System chip	Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 MSM8992	Apple A9 APL0898
Processor	Hexa-core, 1800 MHz, ARM Cortex-A57 and ARM Cortex-A53, 64-bit	Dual-core, 1840 MHz, Twister, 64-bit
Graphics processor	Adreno 418	PowerVR GT7600
System memory	3072 MB RAM	2048 MB RAM
Built-in storage	32 GB	64 GB
Maximum User Storage
Storage expansion	microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC up to 2000 GB
BATTERY
Talk time		14.00 hours
Stand-by time		10.0 days (240 hours)
Capacity	3410 mAh	1715 mAh
Not user replaceable	Yes	Yes
Wireless charging	Built-in (Qi, Powermat)
MULTIMEDIA
Music player
Filter by	Album, Artist, Genre, Playlists	Album, Artist, Genre, Playlists
Features	Album art cover, Background playback	Album art cover, Background playback
Speakers	Earpiece, Loudspeaker	Earpiece, Loudspeaker
YouTube player	Yes	Yes
INTERNET BROWSING
Built-in online services support	YouTube (upload), Picasa/Google+	YouTube (upload), Picasa/Google+
TECHNOLOGY
CDMA
GSM	850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz	850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
UMTS	800, 850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz	850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz
FDD LTE	700 (band 12), 700 (band 17), 700 (band 29), 800 (band 20), 850 (band 5), 1700/2100 (band 4), 1800 (band 3), 1900 (band 2), 2100 (band 1), 2300 WCS (band 30), 2600 (band 7) MHz	Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29
Data	LTE-A, HSPA (unspecified), HSUPA	LTE-A Cat 6 (300/50 Mbit/s), HSPA, HSUPA
micro-SIM
nano-SIM	Yes	Yes
Positioning	GPS, A-GP	GPS, A-GPS
Navigation	Turn-by-turn navigation, Voice navigation	Turn-by-turn navigation, Voice navigation
CONNECTIVITY
Bluetooth	4.1	4.2
Wi-Fi	802.11 a, b, g, n, n 5GHz, ac	802.11 a, b, g, n, n 5GHz, ac
Mobile hotspot	Yes	Yes
USB	USB 2.0	Yes
Connector	microUSB	Proprietary
Features	USB charging	USB charging
HDMI
Other	NFC, Tethering, Computer sync, OTA sync	NFC, Tethering, Computer sync, OTA sync
OTHER FEATURES
Notifications	Service lights, Haptic feedback, Music ringtones (MP3), Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration, Flight mode, Silent mode, Speakerphone	Service lights, Haptic feedback, Music ringtones (MP3), Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration, Flight mode, Silent mode, Speakerphone
Sensors	Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass	Accelerometer, Compass, Gesture
Hearing aid compatibility	M3, T4	M3, T4
Other	Voice dialing, Voice commands, Voice recording	Voice dialing, Voice commands, Voice recording
AVAILABILITY
Officially announced	25 Sep 2015	09 Sep 2015
FCC Approval	22 Oct 2015	09 Sep 2015

Source: phoneArena.com

While my BlackBerry PRIV supported Android Pay my bank didn't support my debit card on Android Pay. Apple Pay is supported and works great.

As I mentioned before I struggled to get my photos off the iPhone. What I'm doing this time is letting Google Photos back up the photos. Google Photos actually seems to upload sooner on iOS than on Android. I can't explain that.

I use Air Transfer to download the photos to my PC from the Camera Roll then delete them from the Camera Roll. More on Air Transfer in a future post.

Given that Google is fumbling their messaging solutions I had already separated my carrier's SMS messages from my Google Voice text messages. I still can't set a custom notification tone for Google Hangouts.

GasBuddy updated their Android app and made it less friendly than on iOS. No loss there.

Google has ported their keyboard to iOS so that's familiar. Apple still is insistent on not using an alternative keyboard for password or lock screen widgets but it's better than the Swype problems I had before.

I found Call Friends to create direct dial icons  This works fine. If you hit the limit of 2 free icons just uninstall and reinstall.

The iPhone 6s' Touch ID works much better than the iPhone 6's.

In the above chart, notice in Camcorder Features the iPhone has Digital Image Stabilization. Here's an example of that.

As I related my iOS experiences with a friend who is making the same journey I shared with him my boss' statement:

iPhone users just don't understand what they're missing.

My friend laughed and said "Yes I do!"

Microsoft's Resilient File System

As I mentioned in this post when I built "The Trump" I used Windows Storage Spaces to create a mirrored data drive.

For the Storage Spaces I used Microsoft's Resilient File System (ReFS).

ReFS was relatively new to the consumer space as I had problems even finding a backup solution.

Recently though Winaero had an article on ReFS.

I don't understand some of the statements in this article, e.g. "ReFS is intended for file servers only. In Windows 10, it is in fact locked for server OS only." I'm using ReFS just fine on Windows 10 Pro 1607.

Regardless of the details, the Winaero article lays out the advantages of ReFS better than I'd seen before. These details came from Microsoft.

• Integrity. ReFS stores data in a way that protects it from many of the common errors that can normally cause data loss. When ReFS is used in conjunction with a mirror space or a parity space, detected corruption—both metadata and user data, when integrity streams are enabled—can be automatically repaired using the alternate copy provided by Storage Spaces. In addition, there are Windows PowerShell cmdlets (Get-FileIntegrity and Set-FileIntegrity) that you can use to manage the integrity and disk scrubbing policies.
• Availability. ReFS prioritizes the availability of data. Historically, file systems were often susceptible to data corruption that would require the system to be taken offline for repair. With ReFS, if corruption occurs, the repair process is both localized to the area of corruption and performed online, requiring no volume downtime. Although rare, if a volume does become corrupted or you choose not to use it with a mirror space or a parity space, ReFS implements salvage, a feature that removes the corrupt data from the namespace on a live volume and ensures that good data is not adversely affected by nonrepairable corrupt data. Because ReFS performs all repair operations online, it does not have an offline chkdsk command.
• Scalability. As the amount and size of data that is stored on computers continues to rapidly increase, ReFS is designed to work well with extremely large data sets—petabytes and larger—without performance impact. ReFS is not only designed to support volume sizes of 2^64 bytes (allowed by Windows stack addresses), but ReFS is also designed to support even larger volume sizes of up to 2^78 bytes using 16 KB cluster sizes. This format also supports 2^64-1 byte file sizes, 2^64 files in a directory, and the same number of directories in a volume.
• Proactive Error Correction. The integrity capabilities of ReFS are leveraged by a data integrity scanner, which is also known as a scrubber. The integrity scanner periodically scans the volume, identifying latent corruptions and proactively triggering a repair of that corrupt data.

Try it. You'll like it.

Laser Parking

Recently we traded cars. I got to playing around with the parking position in the garage and found that if I parked the Pilot just right I could open the liftgate with the garage door closed. That seemed like a good plan. The challenge was how to park in the right place every time.

I found Park Right Garage Laser Park with dual lasers on Amazon.

I mounted it high on the wall ...

... and pointed each laser to a car. It have the target on the crown of the instrument panel in front of the driver.

Works like a charm.

Traffic Signal Preemption

Every now and then my propeller beanie comes out.

Here I go again.

Now I knew that emergency vehicles have a way to make traffic lights change to allow them to traverse managed intersections but I really never had seen it happen.

Then I did.

That is called line of sight traffic signal preemption.

Watch that video in HD. Slow it down to 1/4 speed. The preemption light is the bright white light above and to the right of the middle signal light. It comes on just before 4 seconds in. At that time, the signal begins cycling the cross traffic to orange and then red. At about 10 seconds the signal turns green for the ambulance.

Isn't that cool?

Windows 10 MBR2GPT

Windows 10 keeps giving me pleasant surprises, e.g. this post.

The Windows 10 Version 1703 (Creators Update) has another feature that would have saved me DAYS.

Back in early 2015 I needed to migrate my Drobo from a MBR (Master Boot Record) volume to a GPT (GUID Partition Table) volume to allow me to expand the Drobo beyond 2TB,

I got this done by configuring a second Drobo to GPT and copying all the data from the MBR volume to the GPT volume. That took a couple of DAYS.

The Creators Update includes a includes a new tool, mbr2gpt, which converts an MBR volume to a GPT volume WITHOUT modifying or deleting data on the disk.

Winaero has an article with the complete instructions. It's not trivial but it's easier that what I did.