Previously I blogged about the lack of a 64-bit Cisco VPN client. 

In the comments of that post yaz points out that NCP has a Beta Client that works on 64-bit clients – and that includes Windows 7.  It also supports 3rd party VPNs and that includes Cisco.

The NCP beta client is available via this page.  Install was simple and there is even a UI to import your existing Cisco VPN profile. 

It appears to be a 30 day trial – which is a bit odd for a beta product.  It does appear to work though.  I’ll give it a good work out over the next couple of days and report back.

There is a new user group coming to town and starting the right way – with touch related demos and fresh Windows 7 goodness.

Nicholas Rayner and Craig Bailey have joined forces to create the Sydney Windows User Group.  From the site:

The aim of the SWUG is to support and provide advice to consumers, power users and small business in regards to the Microsoft Windows Operating System and related products. The user group will showcase the Windows Operating System and provide demonstrations of key components of Windows can be used both at home and in your business.

The User Group will also focus on related Microsoft Products including Windows Mobile, Windows Home Server, Microsoft Office, Windows Live and XBOX 360 and how they can be used to enhance the Windows user experience.

The first meeting will be at Microsoft in Sydney on the 13th of May, 2009.  Here’s the details.

Meeting details

Date: Wednesday 13^th May 2009

Time: 6pm – 9pm

Venue: Microsoft Australia - 1 Epping Road, North Ryde

Agenda:

6:00pm – Introduction

6:10pm – News with Q&A session

6:30pm – Windows 7 RC Demonstration

7:20pm – Break

7:40pm – Windows Touch including a demonstration on the HP Touchsmart PC

8:20pm – Close

If you can make it to the first meeting, please RSVP to nicholas@windowsusergroup.com

I’ve already put it in my calendar so if you can make it I’ll be seeing you there.  You may also want to add the RSS Feed from the SWUG blog to your feed reader, so you can keep tabs on future meetings.

Previously I blogged about an issue I was having on one of my PCs with Live Mesh.  The problem was that Moe.exe (the process behind Live Mesh) was consuming excessive CPU when ever it was running.  This has obvious ill effects on the battery life and overall system performance.

I was hoping that the recent update to Live Mesh would of fixed it.  Unfortunately this was not the case.  However since I was only experiencing this issue on one of my machines I decided to see if I could find a fix.  I did.

What I did was remove my problematic machine from my Mesh.  I then copied the contents of the synchronised folder to another location on my hard drive (as a precaution) and deleted everything in the target folder.  I then re-added my machine to my Mesh and set up synchronisation for that folder again. 

In the Before shot below the yellow line shows the percentage of the CPU that Moe.exe was using.

After the fix it consistently looks more like this:

A vast improvement and suddenly Live Mesh is useful to me again.

For over a year and a half a small but dedicated group of IT professionals have been meeting for coffee once a week.  This has always been an open invite, but I thought that it would be worthwhile reiterating the invite.

When:

Every Wednesday @ 1PM

Where:

Jet Cafe Bar
Druit St
Queen Victoria Bldg, Level Ground, Shop 55, Sydney, NSW 2000
Here's a map
We are usually at or near table 11 or 12, which is outside on the Druit St side of the cafe.  Just look for a table with three or four geeky looking people on it and say hi :)

Who:

Generally it is a mix of Developers and IT Pros from all walks.  Specifically some of the long standing members include:

• Craig Bailey
• Nick Randolph
• Justin King
• Neil Carey
• Craig Pringle (Me)

There are several others who have floated in an out over time.

If you’re in the area stop in and join us.  If you are on Twitter keep an eye on the #sydgeekcoffee tag – I’ll be posting when I am heading to geek coffee.

The Live Mesh process, moe.exe,  is hammering my CPU.  The screenshot below shows this – an average of 51%!  Moe.exe’s usage is the yellow line on the CPU graph.  You can also see that even though it is hammering the CPU there is no moe.exe network traffic.

Something tells me moe.exe is about to get killed off…

That’s better, but I’d rather figure out why this is happening so I can keep Mesh running.

While I was pleased to see that there was, after a fashion, native ISO support in Windows 7 as I’ve previously noted it does not go far enough.  I have been seeing in my blog’s logs lots of referrers coming from searches for the likes of “Mount ISO in Windows 7”.

Here’s the bad news – Natively, you can’t. 

Here’s the good news – the key word there was natively.  You can mount ISOs in Windows 7 and previous versions of the OS, you just need to use a third party tool to do so.

My ISO Mounting tool of choice is Virtual Clone Drive by SlySoft.  I like it because it is light weight and easy to use. It is also free – but that is not a reflection on quality.  It is an excellent advert for SlySoft’s paid offerings like CloneDVD.

After downloading and installing Virtual Clone Drive (and I find rebooting is a good idea) you will find that you can mount an ISO file just by double clicking it (if nothing else is associated with ISO files) or by right clicking it and selecting Open With > Mount file with Virtual Clone Drive.

Once mounted the ISO will show up as another DVD drive in Explorer.  If autorun is enabled this does, of course work as well.

There is also a management application where you can add additional virtual drives or change the UI language.

Don’t ask me what the Virtual Sheep do – but it is a checkbox I’m sure some of my Aussie mates would tick ;)

According to the website Virtual Clone Drive supports the following Operating Systems:

Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP/XP64/VISTA/VISTA64

I have found it runs fine on Windows 7 build 7000.

I'm not Australian - but I live in Australia and as such I am an Australian Internet User.  I have to agree with my friend Chris on this one...

I am a little surprised that there has not been more noise made about this.. thought I would do my bit as I am a totally against internet censorship..

The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force ISPs to censor the Internet for all Australians.

Like Chris I am totally against censorship.  Apart from squashing my civil liberteies, this is a hairbrained scheme at best and won't work...

For those of you who may be running the M3 build of Windows 7 and using either hosted Exchange or accessing a corporate Exchange environment via Outlook Anywhere (nee RPC over HTTPS) there is an issue you may run into. 

When you try to open Outlook you are prompted for credentials.  With most hosted Exchange providers you use your email address as the username.  If you do this on Windows 7 (M3) I have found that you are repeatedly prompted for your credentials but no matter how carefully and correctly you type your password it just keeps prompting you. 

If you run into this issue try entering you username in the DOMAIN\Username format instead of your email address.  I don't know why this works, but I know it does for at least two Hosted Exchange providers.  Contact your hosted provider if you are not sure what the domain name is.

I'm holidaying with family in NZ and I just got the news that I have been renewed as a MVP.

This is great news and - as always I am thrilled to be honoured and I am humbled by the exceptional caliber of my fellow MVPs. 

Thanks very much to Microsoft - I look forward to another year as a MVP.

I stumbled across quite a cool feature in Windows 7 today.  I was copying a large amount - about 11 GB - off my video camera to my tablet.  The video camera I have connects via USB and just shows up as an external drive. 

While the data copied I switched across to another window to carry on working.  Then I noticed that the button in the taskbar for Explorer was partially shaded.  I flicked through the open explorer windows and realised that one of them was the progress bar for the file copy.  The shading in the taskbar button was the same percentage as the copy progress window as the screen shot below shows.

This is a handy way to keep an eye on progress of a file copy.  Unfortunately it does not seem to shade the IE taskbar icon for Internet downloads.

Sony has a cool concept laptop that features a screen that is transparent when the device is off. 

I think that is very cool technology.  This came from a list of conceptual technologies on PickMore.

It's that time of year again - Movember.  While I have decided not to "grow a mo" this year, because I looked way too dodgy as you can see from this photo when my son was born,  I still think it is great cause. What is it?

From the website:

Movember (the month formerly known as November) is an annual charity event held during November.
At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants, known as Mo Bros, have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo, raising money along the way to benefit men's health - specifically prostate cancer and male depression. 
Movember culminates at the end of the month at official Gala Partés, Mo-Office and Mo-Town parties where Tom Selleck and Borat look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to be the Man of Movember.
While growing a Mo is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (ladies who support their guys or just love Mo's!) form an important part of Movember by recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds and attending the highly anticipated Gala Partés.
But it' s not all fun and games, so why the extreme behavior?
Which ever way we look at it, men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy for men is five years less than for women.

The obvious question is why?

Men lack awareness about the very real health issues they face. There is an attitude that they have to be tough - "a real man" - and are reluctant to see a doctor about an illness or go for regular medical checks.
Movember aims to change these attitudes and make men's health fun by putting the Mo back on the face of fashion and in the process raise some serious funds for key men's health issues, including:
Prostate Cancer: because every year 2,900 Australian men die from prostate cancer and over 18,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. [ FIND OUT MORE ].
Depression in Men: because one in six men experience depression at any given time but most don't seek help.[ FIND OUT MORE ].

It is a great cause - even if you don't know anyone taking part you can still donate via the website.  Get over there and show your support for this great cause.

This is either a creative way to carry your geek gear or an excellent way to get shot.  I don't think I will ever try travelling through a US airport with one of these.  That said the e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster might be just what you are looking for.

James over at JKontheRun lists the key features.

• Comfortable to Wear – The e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster is designed to be highly ergonomic and is extremely comfortably around the body. The left side of the holster rests comfortably on the top of the left shoulder allowing the holster itself to hang below the left arm. This is a very natural and comfortable way to carry your gadgets. The right-side adjustable strap positions over the right shoulder and under the right arm to comfortably control how the left side of the holster sits and stays on the body.
• Highly Durable – The e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster is constructed with this highest quality of heavy-duty ballistic nylon materials to withstand the bumps and grinds of everyday life.
• Keep Gadgets Safe & Secure – Each of the e-Volve Gadget Shoulder Holster's quick-access pouches are strategically positioned vertically on the holster to keep your gadgets safe from others and secure as you move around doing your day-to-day chores.
• Large Gadget Quick-Access Pouch – The e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster is designed with a large quick-access pouch that securely fits most smartphone devices (such as a Apple iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Treo or other smartphone device), compact digital cameras (such as Canon Powershot, Panasonic Lumix, Sony Cybershot, Fuji Finepix, Olympus Stylus and others), larger digital music players (such as Apple iTouch or iPod Classic and Microsoft Zune 80 or Zune 120), Sony Playstation Portable, Nintendo DS portable, and most standard sized men's wallets.
• Small Gadget Quick-Access Pouch – The small quick-access pouch will fit most small cell phones (such as Samsung cell phones, Motorola cell phones, Nokia cell phones, LG cell phones, and others), small digital music players (such as Apple iPod Nano, Microsoft Zune 4, Zune 8 & Zune 16), digital voice recorders and other small personal electronic gadgets.
• Zippered Pouch – To help control loose items that are normally kept in your pant’s pockets, the e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster provides a unique zippered pouch to quickly store and control change, currency, memory cards, zip drives, sunglasses, reading glasses, and much more.
• Quick-Clip Key Ring – The e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster also offers a convenient key ring clip to quickly clip and unclip your keys to and from the holster.
• Elastic Pen Holder – The e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster includes an elastic pen holder at the bottom of the holster to easily and comfortably carry a pen.
• Fully Adjustable – The e-Volve Nylon Gadget Shoulder Holster is designed to fit all body types and sizes. Worn on your left shoulder, the top of the holster can be adjusted with Velcro straps to accomodate all shoulder sizes - from petite shoulders to large shoulders. To adjust how the holster lies on your left shoulder, the holster back strap can be easily increased or decreased to fit your body comfortably.
• Side-Release Buckle –The quick-release back strap buckle allows you to quickly unbuckle the holster back strap to remove the holster from your body. It can be reattached just as easily.
• Color - Black.

Mobile PCs have come along in leaps and bounds in the last few years.  We've seen a lot of innovation in a lot of components, but batteries have not change much at all.  Battery life has improved, but that has been largely due to improvements in the amount of power the screen, hard drive and processor is using rather than how much the battery holds.  However Warner over at GottaBeMobile points to an advance in battery technology that may change all that.

The Energizer Bunny might keep going and going and going, but mobile pc users have been waiting and waiting and waiting for an advance in battery technology that will yield a jump in battery life. If researchers at South Korea’s Hanyang University have their say, we might just see that. They different approach involves silicon instead of graphite in making lithium batteries. That core change is supposed to yield 800% more storage capacity.

This can't come soon enough for me.  There are plenty of ultra portables that can give you 2 hours of battery life, so this advance could make all day computing in a small device a reality.

One of the things I was very pleased to see in the Windows 7 pre-beta is that .ISO files have a file association.  Right clicking an ISO file shows you that the default action is to burn the ISO to a disc.

I burned off an Office 2007 CD using this - just to see if it works - and it did work a treat.

It is certainly good that support for ISO files has finally made it into the OS and I have to say it is about time.  Especially when you consider that Microsoft distributes a massive amount of software as .ISO files through the MSDN and TechNet subscriptions.

Unfortunately the support simply does not go far enough.  It is simply not safe to assume that everyone has a blank CD or DVD lying around.  It is not even safe to assume that they have a burner.  Many mobile devices don't have an optical drive.  What really needs to be added in to Windows is the ability to mount and ISO image.  Until Microsoft sorts this out you will need to continue to use 3rd party software like Slysoft's Virtual CloneDrive (which is great freeware) to mount ISOs. 

I am going to be co-presenting a session on OCS Edge Services with my good friend and fellow MVP Derrick Buckley.  The session is on Friday the 5th of September at 11:45.  Here's the details.

UNC316

Office Communications Server 2007 Security: Architecture and Edge Services

One of the core value propositions for Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007, is the fact that unified communications can be used anywhere - at work, at home, or on the road. In this session, we discuss the edge aspects of OCS 2007 for voice, media conferencing, remote access, public internet connectivity and federation, along with the edge server roles. We discuss various edge server deployment topologies. We also discuss NAT and firewall traversal with discussion on how OCS 2007 uses ICE, STUN and TURN for audio and video.

If you are coming to TechEd in Sydney this year then make sure you get it in your session builder now!

Nick Randolph has posted that the Australians have won the Imagine Cup for 2008.

Australia took out the2008 Imagine Cup Software Design competition.  Team SOAK took on a fierce competition and came out successful - well done guys!

Well done team SOAK. A huge effort.

Check out Nick's post for a raft of phone from the final day.

I've just had a reminder of the next meeting of SWIG from my friend Derrick, who runs it.

See you all at SWIG on Tuesday for great talks, prizes and free food and drink.....

We have a great talk on preparing for your Windows 2008 MCITP exam with Ken Schaefer

Ken’s Bio - Ken Schaefer is a systems engineer consultant for global systems integrator Avanade. Avanade is a joint partnership between Microsoft and Accenture and focuses on enterprise projects across the Microsoft product stack.

Ken has worked with IIS for around 10 years, and been a Microsoft MVP for IIS since 2003. He has presented at numerous Microsoft Tech.Ed events across the US, Australia and Asia, written articles for Microsoft TechNet and spent countless hours talking about IIS at other events, user group meetings and roadshows. He was lead author for Professional IIS 7 (Wrox/Wiley) and co-author of Securing IIS 6.0 (Syngress Press)

He is currently an MCITP (Win2k8 EA), MCSE+Security, MCDBA, MCTS and holds a Masters in Business and Technology from UNSW. Ken blogs about IIS at http://adopenstatic.com/blog

I have yet to finalise the second talk but am hoping for a confirmation on a Hyper V talk!

We also have a Demo from Chris Mohan on File Server Resource Manager for Windows 2008. Have a look at Chris’s blog - http://www.chris-mohan.com/

I will send an update soon

See you on Tuesday
Derrick Buckley

Should be good. Details are:

When: Tue 15/07/2008

Where: Healey Room, AMP, 50 Bridge Street, Sydney

See you there!

As I previously mentioned I am putting together a Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) environment to enable me to rebuild my Vista machines at will. 

I now have  a Windows 2008 Server machine running inside of Virtual PC that is a self contained MDT environment.

To do this I had to configure the Server with the following services.

• Active Directory - I promoted it to a domain controller in its own domain.
• DNS - required by AD
• DHCP - to give out addresses, required by WDS.
• Windows Deployment Services (WDS) - this is an optional Windows Component you can add on Windows Server.  WDS responds to network boot PXE requests from clients and sends them a Windows Pre-installation Environment (PE) boot image.
• MDT.

There are a number of other components that MDT needs to be able to deploy anything, but it is ridiculously easy to add these in.  The main management console of MDT is the Deployment Workbench, which contains a node in the navigation pane called components.  Clicking on that shows the current install status of the various things you need and you can download and install them inside the Deployment Workbench.  Click the image below to see what this looks like.

Once all the required software is in place it is a matter of creating a distribution share, adding the OS images (which you can do by right clicking Operating Systems and selecting New..  You then just pop in the CD and follow the prompts in the wizard.) and creating a build.

Another cool thing with MDT is you can import drivers in much the same way as operating systems.  These can be added to the build so that they are inject into the image before the hardware detection takes place, so if you have more recent drivers than those included with Vista you can insert them and it will never load the older driver.  Much cleaner.

To do this you right click on the Out-of-Box drivers node in the Deployment Workbench and select New...  This will launch a driver import wizard.

You fill in a path and optionally assign one or more groups that the drivers will belong to and then click Finish.  MDT will search the directory and any sub directories and import any drivers it finds.  Also by default, when you build your boot image it will include all Network and Storage drivers so that you should have the bare requirements to perform a network install once the Windows PE image boots.

I've got my build going on the Acer laptop I've been testing against to the base OS level with no input required from me beyond pressing F12 to initiate the network boot.  Now it is time to start working on the applications.

The MDT Team has a blog - so if you want to find out more that might be a good place to start.

It is time for another round of MVP awards and some great people have been recognised by Microsoft for their tireless contributions to the technical communities. 

Sierra Modro and Matt Faulkner- both from GottaBeMobile.com have both been awarded a Tablet PC MVPs.  Welcome to the team guys - it is well deserved for both of you!

Also awarded was my good friend and colleague here in Sydney - Derrick Buckley.  Derrick runs the Sydney Windows Infrastructure User Group and was awarded as a Communications Server MVP. If you are in Sydney, head along to SWIUG some time as there is always great content there.

Great stuff from all of you - keep up the good work!

For my money UAC is a good thing Or rather it is a painful and annoying intrusion, but there is a good reason it is there. It helps to address a very real threat. But, I've often thought that it should have a way to mark an app as trusted, so it always runs as admin without prompting. Thankfully the how-to geek has a way.

Create Administrator Mode Shortcuts Without UAC Prompts in Windows Vista
One of the most talked about annoyances in Windows Vista are the UAC prompts that constantly pop up when you are trying to make system changes. It's especially irritating when you often need to run a particular tool that requires administrator mode in order to run. Thankfully there's a simple hack that you can do to create an administrator mode shortcut that doesn't prompt for UAC.

Read More...

Great tip!

One of the things that has annoyed me about the podcast functionality on the Zune is that I could not find an easy way to unsubscribe from a podcast from the device.

The post from Kevin @ jkOnTheRun about sharing and subscribing to podcasts (which I just posted about) from the device gave me an idea.

Sure enough if you press and hold the centre button on the Zune while listening to a podcast one of the options presented is unsubscribe.  Excellent.  The Gong Show for podcasts.  That is exactly what I needed.

As I just posted Motion have reached out through me to one of their customers who posted a comment here about a poor experience he had with their support.

I think it is great that Motion are paying attention.  And not just to the bloggers, but to the comments as well.  This is a very good thing. 

Often we as customers feel like we are nothing more than nameless, faceless numbers to the companies we buy products from.  When they show that they are listening and want to help it is truly gratifying.  I don't know why more companies don't keep their finger on the pulse.  Good work guys.

When I posted the other day that I was meeting with Motion's CEO, Scott Eckert, I called for questions.  One comment came from another Scott who has been less than satisfied, shall we say, with the battery life of his LE1700.  Worse, when he tried to raise the issue with Motion support he found them "terse--and unhelpful".

Good news Scott - I've been contacted by someone at Motion that wants to help you get a resolution to your issue.  They asked me to forward their details on to you so that you can contact a person who will own the issue and get it resolved.  Here's the rub - I don't have your email address as your real address was not provided with the comment.

I don't mind that at all.  I respect people's privacy.  But it does mean I can't reply to you directly.  If you email me using the link at the bottom of the left hand column of my blog pages, or leave a comment and specify your email address in the appropriate field I'll forward you the details of someone who wants to help.

Just to clarify for everyone out there - anyone who comments on my blog is asked to provide an email address.  There is no checking that it is a real address and if you choose not to provide your actual address that is fine.  However, just so you all know, if you do provide an address it will never be used by me for any purpose other than replying directly to you comment if I think that is appropriate.  I will never provide your address to any third party without your express consent.  I will never sell any email addresses (I hate spam).

The last couple of weeks have been pretty full on.  I never made it bat to CeBit after my previous post as a project I am working on ran into some issues and that demanded my full attention.

However, while I was there I talked with the guys from Motion Computing (who had a great stand at CeBit, BTW) and on Friday I got a call from the country manager here in Australia.  He tells me that Scott Eckert, the CEO of Motion Computing, is going to be in Sydney next week and asked if I would be keen to meet and talk to him.  Heck yeah!

Now it is no secret that I have long been a slate fan and that I've had a couple of Motion slates in my time.  My Motion LS800 is still one of my favourite devices and I've always wondered why there was never another in the LS line...  I've got plenty to things to talk to Scott about.  But then I'm sure some of you do as well.  So if you do have any questions, leave a comment here and I'll see what I can do.  I'm meeting Scott on Wednesday - Sydney time.

At CeBit I'll be experimenting with Windows Mobile blogging using Kevin Daly's new version of his Windows Mobile blogging app Dairist 2.

The application supports inserting images, which are uploaded to your blog on the fly straight from the device.  to make the process a little more seamless I have configured the camera on my HTC Tytn II to capture at 240x320.  I then just need to rotate the image and insert it into a post and click publish.  Very cool.  Thanks to Kevin for this great app.

SPAM is a pet peeve of mine.  If you manage a mail server or can influence someone who does - make sure they have configured SenderID.  For more information I refer you to a lengthy post I just put on my other blog.

To put it simply an email server that supports the SenderID framework queries a special DNS record to validate that the computer submitting an email is allowed to send for that domain.

Spread the word.

While I was at the MVP Summit in Seattle Rob Bushway invited me to do some posts on GBM. What tablet blogger could say no?

I'll be contributing over at GBM semi-regularly now, though. I'll still be maintaining this blog as well.

Rob announced this on GBM and my first post is now live. Check it out.

I just spotted this in the sidebar area on my blog:

Somehow I don't think my readers are the audience this company is aiming for!

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to see a Motion Computing F5 on stage at the keynote for Interact 2008.  It was used as part of a great demo.

There followed a great demo of the real value of UC. what was great about it was that it was not run from Office Communicator or from Outlook. It was a demo of a Point of Sale application that had been "Communications enabled" and it was run from a Tablet PC.

The demo scenario was a customer asking a staff member if they had a particular product. From their tablet pc the employee can check stock in other nearby stores.  He could then see who in the other store was online and available to take a call.

The call was then initiated from within the PoS app using the tablet's speakers & microphone. On the receiving end the incoming call had a subject indicated that the call was a stock enquiry for a particular product and the app automatically displayed info that was contextually relevant - their stock level for that product. This means that at the time the call is answered the person already knows what it is about and has the information required to help at hand. A very compelling demo.

This sort of scenario is perfect for a slate style device - which is more usable when you are standing or moving than convertible style devices. My full post on the keynote is here.

I'm sitting in a departure gate in Sydney International Airport.  I'm on my way to the US for two weeks.  First up I'll be going to San Diego (where it is warm) to attend Interact 2008. 

Then I'll be heading to Seattle (where it is not so warm) to catch up with a couple of thousand more geeks at the MVP Summit. 

Should be a great time, but as with all trips from this part of the world to - well pretty much anywhere - it starts with a long flight...  In about 24 hours I should be touching down in San Diego - albeit a bit jaded.

 Kevin Tofel points to TabletPCReview, who have the low down on a great travel accessory from Belkin.

On the run in your car with mobile devices all the live-long day? Belkin's Travel Power Adapter might be the best friend your glovebox every had based on this overview at TabletPCReview. For around $100, you get the adapter that fits in your vehicle's cigarette lighter and 11 interchangeable tips. Simply plug in your notebook or other device while you're driving and you'll be charging up your laptop on the go.

What a great accessory for the mobile geek.  I could of used this for a few long road trips in the past!

I've been out of the look for a few weeks.  I had a couple of exams to sit before the end of the month to renew one of my technical certifications. 

I even had my hands on some cool tablet gear last week and was too busy to do a review - how unfair is that.  I'll have to arrange a second sitting.

I passed both of them and now I can return to having some semblance of a life again.

I previously reviewed the Jabra JX10 headset - which I loved before.  However I have to say I am now blown away.

I left my JX10 in my jeans pocket and it went through the wash.  Easy enough to do because the device is so small and light that it could easily be missed when checking your pockets.

Incredibly the headset still works after it's submarine adventure.  This completely floored me.  This is a truly robust little device and I am more impressed than ever.

I have come across a command line tool in Vista that has some potential in the fight against the dreaded Vista Insomnia issue.

The tool is called powercfg.exe and there is a TechNet article about it here.

Running powercfg /? provides the following usage information.

POWERCFG <command line options>
Description:
  This command line tool enables users to control the power settings
  on a system.

Parameter List:
  -LIST, -L   Lists all power schemes in the current user's environment.

              Usage: POWERCFG -LIST

  -QUERY, -Q  Displays the contents of the specified power scheme.

              Usage: POWERCFG -QUERY <SCHEME_GUID> <SUB_GUID>

              <SCHEME_GUID>  (optional) Specifies the GUID of the power scheme
                             to display, can be obtained by using powercfg -l.
              <SUB_GUID>     (optional) Specifies the GUID of the subgroup
                             to display.  Requires a SCHEME_GUID to be provided.

              If neither SCHEME_GUID or SUB_GUID are provided, the settings
              of the current user's active power scheme are displayed.
              If SUB_GUID is not specified, all settings in the specified
              power scheme are displayed.

  -CHANGE, -X Modifies a setting value in the current power scheme.

              Usage: POWERCFG -X <SETTING> <VALUE>

              <SETTING>   Specifies one of the following options:
                          -monitor-timeout-ac <minutes>
                          -monitor-timeout-dc <minutes>
                          -disk-timeout-ac <minutes>
                          -disk-timeout-dc <minutes>
                          -standby-timeout-ac <minutes>
                          -standby-timeout-dc <minutes>
                          -hibernate-timeout-ac <minutes>
                          -hibernate-timeout-dc <minutes>

              Example:
                  POWERCFG -Change -monitor-timeout-ac 5

              This would set the monitor idle timeout value to 5 minutes
              when on AC power.

  -CHANGENAME Modifies the name of a power scheme and optionally it's
              description.

              Usage: POWERCFG -CHANGENAME <GUID> <name> <scheme description>

              If the description is omitted only the name will be changed.

  -DUPLICATESCHEME
              Duplicates the specified power scheme.  The resulting
              GUID which represents the new scheme will be displayed.

              Usage: POWERCFG -DUPLICATESCHEME <GUID> <destination GUID>

              <GUID>  Specifies a scheme GUID obtained by using the powercfg -l.

              If <destination GUID> is omitted, a new GUID will be
              created for the duplicated scheme.

  -DELETE, -D Deletes the power scheme with the specified GUID.

              Usage: POWERCFG -DELETE <GUID>

              <GUID>  obtained by using the LIST parameter.

  -DELETESETTING
              Deletes a power setting.

              Usage: POWERCFG -DELETESETTING <SUB_GUID> <SETTING_GUID>

              <SUB_GUID>      Specifies the subgroup GUID.
              <SETTING_GUID>  Specifies the power setting guid.

  -SETACTIVE, -S
              Makes the specified power scheme active on the system.

              Usage: POWERCFG -SETACTIVE <SCHEME_GUID>

              <SCHEME_GUID>  Specifies the scheme guid.

  -GETACTIVESCHEME
              Retrieve the currently active power scheme.

              Usage: POWERCFG -GETACTIVESCHEME

  -SETACVALUEINDEX
              Sets a value associated with a specified power setting
              while the system is powered by AC power.

              Usage: POWERCFG -SETACVALUEINDEX <SCHEME_GUID> <SUB_GUID>
                                               <SETTING_GUID> <SettingIndex>

              <SCHEME_GUID>   Specifies a power scheme GUID and may be
                              obtained by using PowerCfg /L.
              <SUB_GUID>      Specifies a subgroup of power setting GUID and may
                              be obtained by using "PowerCfg /Q."
              <SETTING_GUID>  Specifies an individual power setting GUID and may
                              be obtained by using "PowerCfg /Q".
              <SettingIndex>  Specifies which of the list of of possible values
                              this power setting will be set to.

              Example:
                  POWERCFG -SetAcValueIndex <GUID> <GUID> <GUID> 5
                  This would set the power setting's AC value to the 5th entry
                  in the list of possible values for this power setting.
  -SETDCVALUEINDEX
              Sets a value associated with a specified power setting
              while the system is powered by DC power.

              Usage: POWERCFG -SETDCVALUEINDEX <SCHEME_GUID> <SUB_GUID>
                                               <SETTING_GUID> <SettingIndex>
              <SCHEME_GUID>   Specifies a power scheme GUID and may be
                              obtained by using PowerCfg /L.
              <SUB_GUID>      Specifies a subgroup of power setting GUID and may
                              be obtained by using "PowerCfg /Q."
              <SETTING_GUID>  Specifies an individual power setting GUID and may
                              be obtained by using "PowerCfg /Q".
              <SettingIndex>  Specifies which of the list of possible values
                              this setting will be set to.

              Example:
                  POWERCFG -SetDcValueIndex <GUID> <GUID> <GUID> 5
                  This would set the power setting's DC value to the 5th entry
                  in the list of possible values for this power setting.

  -HIBERNATE, -H  <ON|OFF>
              Enables-Disables the hibernate feature.  Hibernate timeout is not
              supported on all systems.

              Usage: POWERCFG -H <ON|OFF>

  -AVAILABLESLEEPSTATES, -A 
              Reports the sleep states available on the system
              Attempts to report reasons why sleep states are unavailable.

  -DEVICEQUERY
              Return a list of devices that meet the specified criteria.

              Usage: POWERCFG -DEVICEQUERY <queryflags>

              <queryflags>  Secifies one of the following criteria:

              wake_from_S1_supported  Return all devices that support waking the
                                      system from a light sleep state.
              wake_from_S2_supported  Return all devices that support waking the
                                      system from a deeper sleep state.
              wake_from_S3_supported  Return all devices that support waking the
                                      system from the deepest sleep state.
              wake_from_any           Return all devices that support waking the
                                      system from any sleep state.
              S1_supported            List devices supporting light sleep.
              S2_supported            List devices supporting deeper sleep.
              S3_supported            List devices supporting deepest sleep.
              S4_supported            List devices supporting hibernation.
              wake_programmable       List devices that are user-configurable
                                      to wake the system from a sleep state.
              wake_armed              List devices that are currently configured
                                      to wake the system from any sleep state.
              all_devices             Return all devices present in the system.
              all_devices_verbose     Return verbose list of devices.
              Example:
                  POWERCFG -DEVICEQUERY wake_armed

  -DEVICEENABLEWAKE
              Enable the device to wake the system from a sleep state.

              Usage: POWERCFG -DEVICEENABLEWAKE <devicename>

              <devicename>  Specifies a device retrieved using
                            "PowerCfg -DEVICEQUERY wake_programmable".

              Example:
                  POWERCFG -DEVICEENABLEWAKE "Microsoft USB IntelliMouse Explorer"

  -DEVICEDISABLEWAKE <devicename> disable the device from waking the system
              Disable the device from waking the system from a sleep state

              Usage: POWERCFG -DEVICEDISABLEWAKE

              <devicename>  Specifies a device retrieved using
                            "PowerCfg -DEVICEQUERY wake_armed".

  -IMPORT     Imports all power settings from the specified file.

              Usage: POWERCFG -IMPORT <filename> <GUID>

              <filename>  Specifiy a fully-qualified path to a file generated by
                          using "PowerCfg -EXPORT parameter".
              <GUID>      (optional) The settings are loaded into a power scheme
                          represented by this GUID. If not supplied, powercfg
                          will generate and use a new GUID

              Example:
                  POWERCFG -IMPORT c:\scheme.pow
  -EXPORT     Exports power scheme, represented by the specified GUID, to the
              specified file.

              Usage: POWERCFG -EXPORT <filename> <GUID>

              <filename>  Specify a fully-qualified path to a destination file.
              <GUID>      specifies a power scheme GUID and may be obtained by
                          using "PowerCfg /L"

              Example:
                  POWERCFG -EXPORT c:\scheme.pow 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
  -LASTWAKE   Reports information about what woke the system from the last
              sleep transition

  -HELP, -?   Displays information on command-line parameters.

  -ALIASES    Displays all aliases and their corresponding GUIDs.
              The user may use these aliases in place of any GUID on
              the commandline.

  -SETSECURITYDESCRIPTOR
              Sets a security descriptor associated with a specified
              power setting, power scheme, or action.

              Usage: POWERCFG -SETSECURITYDESCRIPTOR <GUID|ACTION> <SDDL>

              <GUID>       Specifies a power scheme or a power setting GUID.
              <ACTION>     Can be one of the following strings:
                           ActionSetActive, ActionCreate, ActionDefault
              <SDDL>       Specifies a valid security descriptor string in SDDL
                           format. Call POWERCFG -GETSECURITYDESCRIPTOR to see
                           an example SDDL STRING.

  -GETSECURITYDESCRIPTOR
              Gets a security descriptor associated with a specified
              power setting, power scheme, or action.

              Usage: POWERCFG -GETSECURITYDESCRIPTOR <GUID|ACTION>
              <GUID>       Specifies a power scheme or a power setting GUID.
              <ACTION>     Can be one of the following strings:
                           ActionSetActive, ActionCreate, ActionDefault

Some useful things in there for looking into the Vista Insomnia issue are the following commands:

powercfg -lastwake

returns the name of the last device that woke the system.  Here's a screenshot of the output from one of my machines:

As you can see in this case the machine was woken up by the USB hub (in this case this is an expected resume - not a random one)

You can also enumerate the devices that can wake the machine with the following command:

powercfg -DEVICEQUERY wake_from_any

If you think that you have found the culprate then you can disable the device with the following command:

powercfg -DEVICEDISABLEWAKE <devicename>

you can then reverse that with

powercfg -DEVICEENABLEWAKE <devicename>

As you can see there is lots more you can do with powercfg, including tuning, exporting and importing power schemes; enabling and disabling hibernate and finding out what sleep states your device supports.  All told a very useful and very well kept secret.

The folks at Jabra have been good to me.  They sent me a JX10 headset to evaluate.  This is a great little headset, but it is soooo much more as well.

The headset itself is small and light, but very easy to use.  The answer/hang-up button is located in the indent on the bottom of the headset.  There is no button in the top indent - it is just there to make it easy to find and press the button.  There are volume controls on the back of the ear piece, as is the USB connector for charging.

I've paired this with my Dopod C710 Smartphone and it works a treat - but as I said before there is so much more to this baby.  Lets take a look at what is in the box.

In addition the the usual assortments of cables and chargers that you find with every Bluetooth headset is something called "the hub".  That is this oblong box on the left.  This enables you to use the JX10 headset with your desk phone as well as your mobile phone!  How cool is that?

Looking closer at the hub...

The top cover comes off and reveals controls that let you tune the headset to the desk phone and adjust the headset volume.

Depending on your phone you may not use all the ports on the front.  If your phone has a headset port you just use one cable to connect the hub to the phone.  If it does not then you plug the handset into the hub and the hub into the phone - you can use it either way.  To make or answer a call on the desk phone you hit the button on the headset and then either hit the headset button on the phone (if you have one) or lift the receiver if you don't.  To answer a call on your mobile phone you just press the answer button.  You can also redial and voice dial from the headset if your mobile if you device supports those functions.  One little gotcha is that when you finish a call on your desk phone you need to remember to hit the headset button on the phone and the hang up button on the headset.  You get use to this soon enough.

The cable you need to connect the hub to your desk phone is, of course, included.

Also included is a charger that can either plug in directly to the headset or into the included desktop stand.

Another little gotcha here is that you need to make sure the headset is off when you charge it (as stated in the manual).  I have found that if you charge it while the headset is switched on then the next time you try to answer the desk phone it does not bring the audio to the headset.  It does not really matter as the battery life is spectacular so there is no need to have the headset sitting on the charger all day.

There is also a USB cable so that you can charge your headset when are on the go.  I love the way that the cable actually has a little "Jabra" label on the cable so that you can find the right cable in your kit bag with ease.  That is such a simple and practical little touch, and they are often the best. 

All told I am very impressed with this little unit - it is small, functional, stylish and very innovative.  Best of all - it just works!

It's that time of year, CES is in full swing, new tech is surfacing left and right and damn I wish I was there! Lucky for me the GBM team have things covered. I'll be hanging on every post!

I got some very welcome good news this morning - I was renewed as a MVP for another year.  I'm very pleased to be re-awarded and humbled by the company that I share.

I celebrated by going fishing (actually I was going fishing anyway and happened to check my mail before I left at 5am...) and even had my first catch in Australia - a lovely little Souther Calamari squid.  What  a fine day.

I've taken a week or two off slogging and have even been neglecting my feeds & email. Initially this was due to the end of year rush at work, but then it was a conscious choice to get some family time over the Christmas period.

It has been fantastic and I feel rested and energised - well as much is one can with a newborn in the house.

Seasons greetings one and all - I'm bracing myself for a big year!

This very sad news.  Tablet evangelist, blogger, podcaster and all round great guy Marc Orchant has passed away a week after his heart attack. Marc was funny, intelligent and had such passionate, contagious enthusiasm for the things that took his interest.  He was a bright light in the world. 

This terrible event is made all the more tragic because it is so sudden, and because Marc leaves behind a wife and two children.  I have never had the pleasure of meeting Sue, Jason or Rebecca, but my thoughts and best wishes are with them, none the less.

Rest in Peace my friend...

Warner Crocker points out some of the highlights in Vista SP1 for mobile users.

  As Microsoft prepares to roll out the Release Candidate of this to users soon, it might be worth taking a look. Some highlights that might be of interest to mobile users:

• Improves the effectiveness of a Windows ReadyBoost™ device in reducing the time to resume from standby and hibernate by increasing the amount of data stored in the ReadyBoost device that can be used during a resume cycle.

• Includes improvements to Windows Superfetch™ that help to further improve resume times, in many environments.

• Improves the time to resume from standby for a certain class of USB Hubs by approximately 18%.

• SP1 reduces the number of UAC (User Account Control) prompts from 4 to 1 when creating or renaming a folder at a protected location.

• SP1 addresses issues many of the most common causes of crashes and hangs in Windows Vista, as reported by Windows Error Reporting. These include issues relating to Windows Calendar, Windows Media Player, and a number of drivers included with Windows Vista.

• Improves power consumption when the display is not changing by allowing the processor to remain in its sleep state which consumes less energy.

Long Zheng of istartedsomething has posted an extensive list of fixes and it is on view here.  Worth checking out, methinks.

Warner has pointed out an update on Marc's condition posted in the comments of the original post by Michael Sampson.

Thanks Michael for posting an update.  Thanks also to Warner for pointing it out.

Thursday December 6, 3.45pm Pacific
I called the hospital for an update, and spoke with Ed, Marc’s brother from the East Coast. He said that it is still very touch and go. There has been some physiological improvement, some organs have stabilized, but Marc has still not yet regained consciousness. As such, they still have no update on brain functioning, or how long he was without oxygen. He has opened his eyes a few times today and tracked light. Ed and all the family who are there are hopeful that every hour brings improvement. Someone is with him all the time, and they are looking forward to him opening his eyes and saying, “so what’s happening?”.

Marc’s iPhone is in his pocket, playing the music that he loves constantly.

The family is grateful for the worldwide support network.

My best wishes and hope continues to be with you Marc.  Come back to us soon, buddy.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the tablet and UMPC form factors lately.  I have always been a fan of the slate tablet form factor.  For my main machine I prefer slates.  I currently use a Motion Computing LS800 - which is a real gem of a machine.  Of my other previous and current tablets (and there have been a few) the only other one I think as highly of is the venerable HP TC1100.

There have been a number of events of late that have got me thinking about what my next tablet will be. 

Firstly, Motion have announced that they are discontinuing the LS800 - however they have not yet announced a successor.  Will they step up and plug the gap?  As Warner has already pointed out there are very few options for those of us looking for a small form factor device with a great ink experience. 

The other events that have had me thinking lately are the recent reviews I've done.  The Motion LE1700 has re-ignited my love of the larger slate.  That is a great unit.  A full sized slate with an active digitizer gives you the best inking experience you will find on a tablet PC.  Generally speaking slates are easier to hold and more natural to write on when they are being held.  You can comfortably use the device as you actually move.  That is mobility. 

In addition two UMPCs - namely the Fujitsu U1010 and the HTC Shift - have convinced me of the need for and utility of a keyboard on the small touch screen devices.  The ink experience is not good enough for me.  I would not use a UMPC for extended note taking or data entry.  So if the handwriting experience is not there - why wouldn't you want some kind of a keyboard for text entry?  Until that issue is fixed - either by hardware or by software - the original Origami dream of the super small, super light slate tablet will not be realised.

So where I am leading with this is I think that the ideal device combination for me on the market today is contrary to the market trends.  For my main machine I would favour a full sized slate with a good docking solution over a convertible.  Embedded 3g would be highly desirable.  For a secondary device I would go for a very small, touch screen convertible. 

Of course mobile devices are by their very nature a very personal choice.  YMMV.

This is very sad news from Blognation:

At some time between 7:30 and 8:10 AM on Sunday Morning December 2nd, 2007, Marc Orchant, my fellow author on this blog, as well as one of my closest friends sustained a massive heart attack while working in his home office. At this time Marc is in critical condition at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Critical Cardiac Care Unit, Bed 3. He is not expected to regain consciousness for the next 24 to 48 hours.

For those who have not met him Marc is a great, intelligent guy with a huge rest for life. That makes this sad news all the more shocking. My thoughts are with Marc and his family.

Hang in there buddy - I'm looking forward to seeing you again!

Because I have a HTC Shift in my hot little hands for the weekend.

I'm really excited to have this opportunity. I think the Shift is an incredible and innovative device. Packed into it's tony frame are two operating systems - Windows Vista and Windows Mobile. It has embedded 3G wireless. There is a lot to play with.

Unfortunatly there is also a lot of confusion in the market about it as well. I aim to try and help clear someof that up. If there is something about the Shift you want me to check out while I have it leave a comment.

The new software update for my first generation Zune has finally addressed one of the gripes I've always had with the Zune.  Namely the complete lack of integration with my Windows Vista Media Centre.  Because there was no support for recorded TV I never installed the Zune software on the Media Centre.  Since the new update supports this I installed it and set about syncing my Music, Pictures and Recorded TV to the Zune.  It took an age and I held my breath and navigated to the Videos folder on my Zune.  I played an episode of Futurama...  I marvelled at the spectacular picture - crystal!  Only then did I start to wonder why I could not hear anything...

As it turns out none of my recorded TV had audio.  I did some investigating and found that this was because all of my recorded TV was recorded from HD channels.  It is not that the Zune does not support HD, per se, but it does not support Dolby Digital audio that inherent in the HD stream.

As an experiment I recorded a movie off a channel that is not HD and lo and behold it plays fine.  This at least gives me a work around.   All of the channels that are available in HD are also available in standard format.  Now I can semi easily get my recorded TV on the train.

Well I don't know about that - but whatever takes his interest I'm sure he will be outspoken... It runs in the family.

My wife Patrice and I were very lucky on Wednesday afternoon to welcome a healthy child into the world.  This is number two for us and Sylvie is proving to be a very doting big sister.

Our new addition has been named Oliver.  Both Patrice and Oliver are healthy and well - and I'm currently on paternity leave and enjoying some time with my growing family.  As you can see in the above photo my Movember moustache is coming along well - I almost shaved it off for the new baby photos, but it is too good a cause!  It's not too late to donate to my Movember fundraising effort - and many thanks to those who already have.

GottaBeMobile have posted an entertaining recap of the Tablet Pc's short 5 year wishy:

Five years ago, on November 7 2002, Microsoft launched Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Bill Gates himself was on-hand to launch the new platform at a large press event.

"The launch of the Tablet PC marks an exciting new era of mobile computing that is limited only by the imagination of its users," Gates said. "The Tablet PC is a great example of how computers are adapting to how people really work, whether they're taking notes in a meeting, collaborating wirelessly with colleagues or reading on screen. We're just scratching the surface of what is possible."

As it comes time to celebrate the 5 Year Anniversary of Tablet PCs, it's only natural to look at how far we've come since that first operating system release. So let's take a brief walk down the dusty paths of Tablet PC history and look at how far the OS has evolved in five short years.

Sierra recaps the major milestones of the tablet PC. whether you have been there from the start or have just joined us, it is well worth a read.

My, how far we have come!

Source: GBM 5 Years of Tablet PC: Operating Systems

You may remember my colleague Lee, who cut a deal with his wife - give up smoking and buy a tablet.  Sadly Lee is off the wagon. 

His wife it threatening to sell off his LS800 - I reckon that she should find out if it will blend and then sell the dust on eBay.