Category: Software

WHS Update: Dell Customer Service

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

Well, yesterday I ordered  1Gb in new memory for my Windows Home Server from Dell. I intend to install a Tv Card and SageTv and get more bang for my buck out of said server, thus the new memory.

Since I was lazy, I originally got a Dell PowerEdge SC440 for Whs to run on.

However, the memory I ordered yesterday was/is incompatible with the SC440 (this being despite the fact that I went to Memory Upgrades for the SC440 on Dell’s Website). So Dell Helpfully called to inform me of the fact.

Within minutes, the old order was canceled and the new order submitted and the earth once again revolved on its axis. Easy as pie.

Well, not quite. The new memory is not quite twice the original amount I paid- once again blowing the budget out of the water.

Nevertheless – congratulations to Dell.

So I’ll need to wait slightly longer than anticipated for the TV card.

I’ve not decided between:

Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T 500 – Dual Digital Freeview TV tuner

and 

Hauppauge WinTV HVR4000 – True HD TV tuner – Quad mode (Analogue, Digital, Satellite both DVB-S and HD DVB-S2)

(For those outwith the British Isles, Freeview is our version of free-to-air digital TV)

In typical fashion, the first is half the price of the second.

Not exactly Media Centre Edition, but the whole idea here is to the extend functionality of the Server – which spends most of its day idiling (truth be told, its only really busy between noon and 3pm when it backs the pcs up and SyncToy moves files to to the server). Though, Ill have to fiddle around with the backup times once the Sage is Installed.

And second, the Current PVR is hopelessly deluged with recordings that are usually watched weeks later (its only got 100GB of space).

And third, finally, I’d rather keep the recordings for than delete the everytime the space runs out.

I’ll keep you posted.

And kudos to Dell, again. for their customer service (and I don’t really mind the extra costs as a result 🙂 )

Open Source at Microsoft

~ rbonini

A contradiction in Terms? Well, no. But I can’t blame you for thinking it.

Port25, Microsoft’s open source blog, is worth subscribing to because of posts like this:

Today, Microsoft has published 175 projects on CodePlex, we have written a pair of open licenses that are under a page in length and over the 500-project mark in adoption as others in the community have decided to use them

As Microsoft’s engagement with open source grows, we have to move from being trailblazers to being road-builders. When you’re blazing a trail, organization, bureaucracy, and majority rule are a burden. In the beginning, a passionate group of people with strongly held beliefs and the will to persevere in the face of doubts and doubters is what it’s all about.

Never thought I’d see the day when this was corporate strategy at Microsoft.

In my view this about-face has come about because of a change in the environment that Microsoft operates in.

Think of it. Sun completely open sourced Solaris. The rise of the blog,  the wiki and the Twitter (perhaps not in that order, but humor me) has lead to an increasingly networked community where people’s calls for change can gain plenty of traction. And if Microsoft wasn’t going to do something about them, others would – and did. Think of Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and Open Office – or even Linux.

Secondly, Microsoft had a huge pool of untapped resources in the form of techies who had a great deal of experience in Microsoft products and blogged about it. I mean what better to find out what gripes (or ideas, for that matter) people had than by reading their blogs. And Microsoft could always hire the best ones.

And finally, the perception that Microsoft was opening up and actively engaging with the community has done wonders to its once-flagging reputation.

So while Microsoft may not be on the road to open sourcing its flagship products (Windows, office, Visual and Expression Studio), it is opening up.

iPhone Hacks: What Will Apple Do?

~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

Despite the clear lack of a SDK, intrepid iPhone hackers err developers haven’t stopped churning out thier stuff. Here’s a small list from todays TUAW RSS feed:

This posses an interesting dilemma for Apple. Since all this stuff clearly isn’t intended to be done, Apple can either crack down on it by having hacked iPhones simply stop working( a la Microsoft) or they can go Google’s way and turn a blind eye.

Perversely, Apple will get more consumer attention and popularity at the cost of a potential showdown with AT&T ( who are obviously the very bad guys behind the draconian lockdown of said mobile device 😉 ).

So the question is: What will Apple Do??

Update: TUAW Asks the same Question:

the iPhone apps are arriving en masse. So far the list includes tools like a working Apache we server, python, shell — and a pile of associated binaries like ls, rm, echo, csh, and tsh — and while these might not be terribly thrilling for Joe everyday user, they are a pretty kicking start. We could start to see all manner of fun stuff arriving in the coming weeks, unless, of course, Apple pulls the plug via an update. Again, we won’t link to the goods, but a wee bit of searching should get you on your way

Lets Face It

~ rbonini

Om Malik takes a look at Facebook histeria:

Take Bay Partners as an example. A sedate venture fund that typically invests in semiconductor companies and infrastructure start-ups has started a new effort that invests exclusively in Facebook applications. The right applicants can get anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000 as an investment for their applications.

The collateral of this project, imaginatively dubbed App Factory, is interesting, cringe-worthy reading filled with clichĂ©s like “application entrepreneurs” and “affect adoption, virality, and usage.” Here is just a nugget of wisdom from the press release announcing this new funding strategy. 

 A fully baked business model is also not a requirement, as long as there are reasonable theories and approaches that can be explored together.

Putting my newly acquired Hebrew Yiddish skills to use, I say, Oy-vey!

Are we looking at another dot com bubble?

Shel Isreal asks the same question, in connection to Ning:

But Michael Arrington says that it’s first external financing round was $44 million and that the company’s post-money value is $214  million. This scares me.  It scares me because I cannot conceive of any possible argument that this company is worth nearly a quarter billion dollars. Even considering the value of Marc’s personal brand, the upside expectation seems to me to defy reality.

I am a survivor of the Great Dotcom Bubble. I remember hearing company valuations that seemed silly or worse to me, and I recall being shouted at because “I just didn’t get it.” What I did get was bubble splatter all over my nice PR guy suit, and then a nice long rest from work.

The Ning valuation scares me. I just don’t get it. I hope someone else does

Well? Are We?

Update:  AppFactory Q&A here

My Take on DRM

~ rbonini

OK, DRM is the ugly duckling of technology. No one likes it. And the reason is that it comes between us and our media.

Now I don’t mean coming between you and sharing your library over the Internet. That’s clearly a violation of copyright, among rather a lot else.  For the uninitiated in this argument, Scott Adams explains:

But obviously there has to be a limit. After I published my first best-selling book, The Dilbert Principle, within days it had been illegally scanned and was widely available on the Internet for free. Technically speaking, it wasn’t theft. But I still lost something. I (and my publisher) lost the ability to decide if, when, and how to publish as an e-book. You can’t compete with “free and immediate.”

From a legal standpoint, taking a creator’s right to control distribution of his art is not “theft.” It’s just “taking something that used to legally belong to someone else and making it your own.”

 

Fair enough? Ok.

However when media is bought (DVD’s, CD’s) its ours to watch in any way we see fit. usually this means popping a DVD into the drive to watch, either on your PC or HDTV.

For music I generally rip all my CD’s the moment I get them and keep them on my server. that way I can listen to my tracks from any TV within my house. I don’t do sharing (Scott Adams and his theory of cognitive dissonance to the contrary).

My point is that we should be able to do the same with DVD’s. Let me rip my collection to my server and watch them on any network PC.

Ahh, I hear you say, there is no guarantee that said DVD’s and music won’t find their way on to the Internet. True. This gets to the meat of my argument ,err, post.

DRM is too restrictive in the sense that it prevents even legitimate use of DVD’s. Lets change DRM from a content-oriented perspective to a network- oriented perspective. DRM should be focused on ensuring that content that has been ripped for legitimate use does not find its way out the home network.

Content owners fail to distinguish between ripping for legitimate use and ripping with malicious intent.

To implement such a network-oriented DRM, an arbitrary standard is required. The standard cannot be biased to  individual Studio’s or Record Labels.

The standard should define

  • a technical means of ensuring that copyrighted data is identified as it travels through the network
  • a technical means of determining the ultimate destination of packets of copyrighted data as they are requested over a network
  • a technical means of ensuring that copyrighted data is stopped either at the gateway or at its source (see above)
  • a technical means of identifying data across the various formats in general use

As far as an actual implementation of such a system, the technology is already there. Microsoft’s WMA format already supports allowing media to play only when there is a license installed. The licensing system simply has to be extended to cover the whole network.

How about a licensing server, then? The receiving media player simply checks the the packets of data and queries the server to ensure that its allowed to play the file/packet.

I’m sure Linksys and the rest of the router manufacturers will get in on the game and build checking routines into their gateways and routers.

As far as determining the destination at the beginning of a file copy operation, its up to Microsoft and Apple to implement this at the OS level.

Once the means to ensure that the spirit of the law is enforced is in place, then we can think about a law change (even here in the UK DVD ripping is a bit of a gray area).

WHS Add In

~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

Last week, on the advice of  the We Got Served blog  I downloaded and installed the OnTheFlyUnzipper (download link).

It works like a dream. it allows you to upload multiple files as a zip archive, saving time and bandwidth.

Other options or functions:

– unzip only archives with a special prefix in the filename (if you don’t want to unzip every archive)

– delete the archive after uncompressing

– create a folder for the contents of the archive

– select the shares that should be monitored for archives

– runs as a service

– languages: English and German

Now I haven’t actually needed to remotely upload files, but I’ve seen this add on at work. All  the zip archives in the folders that are being watched have been unzipped, even though they weren’t  uploaded.

Summary: its pretty neat. I’d love to peek at the source.

I think I’ll pick another Add-in to try from the We Got Served Add-In Page.

Windows Home Server Anti Virus 2

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

I’m following up this post ( which, in turn, follows up this post that dealt with Norton’s offering) on an Anti Virus Solution for WHS that doesn’t break the bank.

The MS Windows Home Server blog has a run down of a few options that work ( although none are specifically for WHS):

Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10. Only available in 5+ user packs @ ÂŁ186.83. Expensive and not much good when we only need 1 copy.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Server (also known as Kaspersky Anti-Virus for File Server) @ ÂŁ225. Another expensive option.

NOD32 for NAS Server Licence and NOD32 LAN Update Server @ under ÂŁ120 or ÂŁ154 for 5 Licences. The BEST paid for option at present.

Comodo AntiVirus. FREE but very hard to setup.

ClamWin, the open source anti-virus software. FREE but it does not have a TSR, but you can schedule scans to run and it works OK. Probably the best FREE option available.

 

The first few are obviously out as they are rather pricey. 

Isn’t Open Source Anti Virus a bit of a contradiction in terms?

Now, by way of We Got Served, comes news that Avast is releasing a made-for-WHS edition of its software that will cost between $39.96 and $50.

In terms of actual formal announcements of a made-for-WHS solution, only F-Secure have done so. 

All I can say is that I’ll sleep better at night knowing that I’ve got anti virus software installed on WHS.