Before last month, I’d never even heard of Good for Enterprise, or even the Good Technology company.  I work for a large financial services company that is very security conscious and micro manages the where and how its employees access email, calendars, and other content.  There is no such thing as accessing my work email through a webmail interface, or through an email program on my home computer, or smartphone.  Fortunately, they provide me a Blackberry for my job.  Yea, I said Blackberry.  You know, it’s that company once on top of the enterprise mobility world, that is now dropping like rock.

Last month, a co-worker informed me of plans to offer Good for Enterprise, which allows us employees a way of accessing our email, calendars, contacts (and in the future other content) from our personal smartphones.  Needless to say, I was thrilled.  This was finally a chance to stop carrying two phones, and to keep the phone I preferred. As soon as it became available, I downloaded and installed the free client application from the Android Market (also available in Apple’s App Store).

After a couple mintues following the instructions for configuration, which basically involves typing in your email address and an assigned PIN number, it began to sync.

The first sync took a while, but that is to be expected when pulling a lot of content over AT&T’s awesomely slow network.  I must admit, my initial thoughts were less than stellar.  While I technically understood need for this app as a way for companies to give access while maintaining security, it bothered me that I essentially have duplicate email applications on the same phone.  Some email in one, and some email in another.  Some addresses in one, and some in another.  It’s not a highly efficient way to provide access. However, what did impress me was the performance.  To date, after the first sync completed, the application performance and the near instant synchronization has been great.  The security it provides is pretty solid, encrypting everything end-to-end, preventing prying eyes from gaining access.  The application itself locks the user out after a pre-determined time, keeping its content secure, even if the rest of the phone is not.

Overall, I think these guys are poised to really put the hurt on for Research in Motion. Companies who like security and are currently addicted to Crackberry have a new option, and one that doesn’t prescribe an out-of-step-with-reality phone.

I would love to have stopped this post right there.  In a happy place.  However, time has exposed one thing, which to me is currently a fatal flaw.  This application absolutely crushes the battery life on my Android phone.  I mean, wow, it’s really bad.  I find myself having to check my phone in the afternoon, and wonder how soon I need to plug in, or else no communication for me.  As of 20 minutes ago, I uninstalled it.  If that can be fixed, or if our particular company allows me to install on a tablet, then i’ll happily try again.  Until then, having a working smartphone that lasts from early morning until late evening is more important.

I better go charge up that Blackberry…which at least stays functional for more than a day on one charge.

Anyone who has an iPhone, likely remembers the activation process in iTunes, which asks for an iTunes account, etc.  This is generally not an issue for most people, as the phone they are activating will be associated with that account, to sync content.  In some situations, this activation method doesn’t work well.  I ran into it the other day.  A small company I do some work for decided to supply several employees with iPhones, and needed them all activated, as most of these employees work remotely.

I started out doing the usual thing with iTunes, and then remembered the iTunes account part.  The problem is, I didn’t have all their iTunes accounts, and I wasn’t going to use mine.   I then wondered how this is done in bigger companies, who may have to activate many iPhones in a short period, or what Apple stores do when they swap out a broken phone.

Enter the iPhone Enterprise Deployment Guide.

This guide contains all sorts of information related to using iPhones in large organizations.  For me, the piece of interest starts on Page 59.  Assuming you have iTunes installed, you can change iTunes into an Activation Only mode, which quickly and easily activates any iPhone you connect, without needing any account information.

On Windows:

1    Make sure iTunes isn’t running, and then open a Command Prompt window.

2    Enter a command:

• To turn activation-only mode on: “C:Program FilesiTunesiTunes.exe” /setPrefInt StoreActivationMode 1
• To turn activation-only mode off: “C:Program FilesiTunesiTunes.exe” /setPrefInt StoreActivationMode 0

On Mac:

1    Make sure iTunes isn’t running, and then open Terminal.

2    In Terminal, enter a command:

• To turn activation-only mode on: defaults write com.apple.iTunes StoreActivationMode -integer 1
• To turn activation-only mode off: defaults delete com.apple.iTunes StoreActivationMode

The process (once you enable activation-only mode):

If you’re activating an iPhone, insert an activated SIM card. Use the SIM eject tool, or a straightened paper clip, to eject the SIM tray. See the iPhone User Guide for details.
Connect iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to the computer. The computer must be connected to the Internet to activate the device.
iTunes opens, if necessary, and activates the device. A message appears when the device is successfully activated.

Disconnect the device.
You can immediately connect and activate additional devices. iTunes won’t sync with any device while activation-only mode is on, so don’t forget to turn activation-only mode off if you plan on using iTunes to sync devices.

It’s that easy.  I am really glad Apple has this built-in solution.

If you’ve ever listened to the debates of whether Linux of Windows is faster on equivalent hardware, you’ve probably heard Linux fans claim Linux is lighter weight, and faster, than its Windows counterpart.  While this might be true in servers (and may have been true on the desktop previously), this time around, I am not seeing the difference.  Frankly, Windows seems to run better. Here is what I used to compare, and the approach I took:

I put together a small machine, with the following hardware:

• Intel D510MO Motherboard
• Intel Atom Dual Core 1.6GHz Processor
• 2GB DDR2 Memory
• 500GB Western Digital hard drive
• DVD/CD Drive

I decided that this would be a good comparison of speed between modern operating systems.  It has plently of memory for basic tasks, the processor is very entry level, and the onboard video is comparable to many inexpensive laptops and desktops.

I chose to run the following tests:

• Open and use Firefox
• Open and use email (Outlook 2007 on PC, and Evolution on Ubuntu)
• Stream a 1Mbit flash encoded video

The two operating systems being compared were:

• Windows 7 Enterprise x64
• Ubuntu 10.10 x64

*I updated both systems, to be current on all patches.

My comparison was based on user perception of how each operated, and looking at resource monitors.  I chose Ubuntu, as I see it as the most real competitor moving into the Desktop space (other than OS X). Also, I ran Microsoft Security Essentials on the Windows 7 installation.  I did this to make it a more “real world” comparison.

Firefox

I found that Firefox was simply better on Windows 7.  The time between clicking the browser icon, and having a loaded page was noticeably faster in Windows 7.  This was true when first launching Firefox after a boot, and after having launched in previously (cold/warm).  Clicking through pages, and scrolling down through them all seemed much better in Windows 7, on this machine.

Email

This comparison was the most apple’s and oranges, as the two applications are very different.  However, as a user looking for a full featured email/contact/calendar application, these are the two most well known.  It’s important to note, Evolution doesn’t support a modern Exchange server, which I use.  It’s not necessarily a fault on their part, but it added to the frustration of trying to use Linux.

The win here went to Windows and Outlook 2007.  Irrelevant of the Exchange support, the application itself performed much better.  Short load times, less lag working in the application.  Frankly, I am really unimpressed with the Evolution client.  I don’t know the root cause of the slowness (if it’s an Ubuntu issue or Evolution), but in the user’s eyes, it’s irrelevant.

Flash Video

For this test, I used Firefox to watch http://live.twit.tv.  I looked for two things:

• How smooth the video played
• How much processor was being consumed during playback

Video playback was about the same on both.  Ubuntu and Windows seemed to use a similar amount of processor, as well.  I suppose this confirms that Flash works similarly on both OS’s.

Additional Findings

I noticed a few other things of interest.

• The UI animation was smoother and less quirky in Windows.  When using menus in Ubuntu, it occasionally had lag, and stuttered through. (Note: I did not set Ubuntu for the fancier UI options)  This may be a driver issue?
• Most built-in applications also ran faster in Windows.  This includes the built-in updaters, menus for adjusting preferences, and other utilities.
• The Atom processor is a decent little workhorse.  I wouldn’t want to use it as a video editing system, but for day-to-day work, it’s really ok.
• The onboard graphics are OK, but nothing like an NVidia or ATI card.
• Windows used more ram overall.  This never caused any issues, even with multiple applications going at once.

Conclusion

I’ll stick with Windows 7 x64 on this little machine.  It was a noticeably better experience than Linux right now.  I will try again when Ubuntu 11.04 is released.

There are still reasons for some to consider a linux desktop.  The biggest one is cost.  Ubuntu is free to use.  Windows is most certainly not.  There are many ways to get discounts on Windows, but none equal free.  You also don’t have to buy or use antivirus software on Linux right now.  Those differences might be enough for some.

This is where the Free StartSSL certificates come into play. StartSSL offers free, basic, SSL Certificates for certain uses. It is important to note here, that this solution really only works if all your users are connecting to a consistent Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), like mail.yourcompany.com. IF you support many domains, and different user groups connect using different FQDNs, this doesn’t help much. You’ll want a Unified Communication Cert (UCC).

To make this happen, you first should get your account setup with StartSSL.   Follow their instructions for creating an account, and downloading your client certificate (this is NOT the certificate for your exchange setup).  Once you are logged into their site, you need to first run through the validation wizard, and choose domain validation.

Enter the domain you are looking to validate, and follow their email validation process, which involved them sending you a validation key to the postmaster/webmaster of the domain, and you pasting that information into their verification tool.

Once complete, you now have a validate domain that you can submit a certificate request for.

The next step happens on your Exchange 2010 server.  Open the Exchange Management Console, click on Server Configuration.  On the right-hand side, click New Exchange Certificate.

This walks you through the process for creating a certificate request.  Make sure to use you FQDN in the common name.  Don’t select wildcard certificate. When you reach “Exchange Configuration” step, make sure to select all the features you plan for this certificate to work with.

Then select the common name you want it to default to (should default to autodiscover.yourcompany.com).  Type in your organization info, then save the request into a txt doc.

Open that txt file, select ALL the text in the doc.  Copy it to the clipboard.

Go back to the StartSSL site, go to the certificates wizard, and select Webserver SSL/TLS Certificate.

Make sure you skip the generate private key step.  You already have your own cert request file from your Exchange server.

Paste your request text into the window, then continue, and choose the domain you validated earlier.  Follow the steps to save the output to a file.  Make sure to name it something like exchange.cer.  You’ll need the .cer file extension when importing this into your Exchange server.  On the last screen they’ll tell you to download the intermediate and root CA files.  Get both, you need to install them.

Take the three files you now have (your new exchange cert, and the two startssl certs), and copy them to your exchange server.  Install the StartSSL intermediate and root CA Certs.  Just double click them, choose install, keeps all the defaults.

Then go back into The Exchange Management Console, where you were before, and select Complete Pending Request.

Follow the instructions to import your new certificate.  Make sure to select the new exchange.cer file you created from the StartSSL site.

Now you have a real SSL cert on exchange, for free.

Christmas Tree 2010 from Shannon McMahon on Vimeo.

Recently, I started looking for a solution again.  I needed a place to backup about 100GB of files.  As listed above the Mozy or Carbonite options would cost $54-$75/mo.  No thanks.  Instead, I looked to Amazon’s “S3″ cloud storage.  S3 stands for simple storage service.  They store 100GB of data for $15/mo, or $10/mo if you choose RRS(Reduced Redundancy Storage).  They charge $.10/GB of transfer, the bulk of which will occur in the first month, with very little after that.  Transferring 100GB is $10!

I set out searching for a way to copy/backup/synchronize files from the server to my newly created S3 account.  After several application trials and errors, I have found myself using two applications:

The first is called WebDrive.  It basically makes a WebDav connection between your server and the S3 server, and mounts it as a drive in Windows.  At $60, it’s the most expensive application, but it pays for itself after the first month.

The second application is free!  It’s called FreeFileSync.  It’s available on SourceForge.  This app does the desired synchronization between two locations.  In this case, the data store, and Amazon s3.  It allows you to create a batch job to automate the synchronization.

After using WebDrive to mount the drive, and FreeFileSync to move the files (which took several days), I logged into Amazon’s AWS Console, and chose to store the files on RRS.  In the end, it’s about $20 the first month, and $10 a month after that to keep a copy of all that stuff securely in the cloud.

The moment I heard the news of Apple’s plans to include printing, native to IOS 4.2, I was thrilled.  It’s about time I can print easily from my iPad and iPhone.  Unfortunately, they didn’t release it that day.

Recently, I was able to install the GM or “Gold Master” of iOS4.2 on my iPad and iPhone.  Interested in using AirPrint, I looked into which printers were known to support it. HP claimed all of their new all in one ePrint models supported this wireless printing.  Fortunately, we recently replaced our old printer that died, and bought one of thees new HP ePrint models, the D110.  For under $100, this little machine fits the bill for us.

Eagerly, I opened an email on my iPad and chose the new “Print” option.  Unfortunately, it couldn’t find my new printer on the network, even though I went through the ePrint setup with HP.

I searched online, and found an HP forum discussing this issue, and others noted this model wasn’t working.  I contacted an HP rep to find out what the problem was, and she told me that the printer would support it by the end of the month, but the needed printer update was still being tested.

Today, out of the blue, my printer showed a message about needing a firmware update.  I clicked OK, and let it do its magic.  It downloaded, installed, and rebooted.  Upon completion, it auto-printed a new ePrint document, about the new features enabled.

I grabbed my iPad, opened an email, and chose print:

This time, when I clicked select printer, it found my D110!

I then clicked “Print” and out came a perfectly formatted copy of the message.  I then went into my photos, and did the same there.  Everything worked perfectly, and very quickly.

It also informed me that my printer was low on ink:

Now that it’s all enabled, this feature works flawlessly.

I was reloading Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) on my Mac Pro, and started thinking about things that could enhance the performance of Photoshop CS4.  I had previously setup a RAID 0 (Striping) on non-boot drives, where I temporarily put photos to work on them, which definitely had helped performance.  I wondered if striping my boot drives would noticeably help during editing, and it did. It also significantly improved the load time of all applications, and generally made the system a bit more snappy.  The result was better than I thought it might be.

Below is the process I used for getting OS X Running on a RAID 0 stripe.

1: I grabbed a second 320GB WD Caviar Blue drive (matching my first boot drive), and loaded it in the 2nd drive bay.

2: Booted off the Snow Leopard Install DVD. Once booted, instead of doing an install, I launched the Disk Utility.  In that utility, select either of the two drives, and click RAID.  From there, choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from format, then choose “Striped RAID Set” from the RAID Type.

3: Next, drag and drop each of the 2 drives (or more if you have them), into the main window below the RAID settings.

NOTE:  Be careful, any drive put here will soon be wiped completely. Backup your data.

4: Click “Create”.  It will takes a short while.

5: Once complete, restart your computer, and boot from the install disc again.  (This is necessary because the OS X Install will not initially see the RAID array to install on.)

6: This time, run through the OS X install, and it should see your new RAID 0 drive to install on. Select this drive, and run through the install like normal.

Depending on your install disc, and how well your DVD drive is running, you may find the install even goes faster than normal.

Enjoy.

No, I am not talking about a race car or anything, just computers.  I often wonder how much portable computing power I need while sitting on my couch, after a long day at work.  I am notorious for having the latest and greatest gadgets, and in some cases I still do.

I often have others ask me advice on what laptop they should buy, and my first question is usually, “what are you planning to do with it?”.  I decided to ask myself that question.

Most of my “heavy” computer work at home consists of photo editing and management with tools like Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS4, some home movie editing in iMovie, and sometimes mixing with Logic Studio.  All of those things I can do in my office, and don’t need much on the go.

With those tasks off the list, what’s left?

Here is a bullet-ed list that I quickly jotted down:

1: Email (Applications: Apple Mail, Safari)

2: Web browsing (Application: Safari)

3: Tweets (Application: Tweetdeck)

4: Remote Admin (Applications: SSH, CoRD, Apple Remote Desktop, Chicken of the VNC)

5: Instant Messaging (Application: Adium)

6: Word processing (Application: Microsoft Office 2008)

When I look at that list, most things are pretty light when it relates to computing performance.  However, I had to look one step lower into this, to really know if that’s the case.  When browsing the web, I sometimes see a video I want to watch, or a site that uses a lot of Flash content.  Those two things need decent graphic and/or CPU power.  Additionally, I tend to run many of these applications concurrently, which takes a toll on memory consumption.  In the end, I don’t think I need much of a modern laptop.

I decided to test out a couple different machines to see how they faired.  I wanted to know how old of a laptop I could use and still have a good experience. Here are the two machines:

Apple Powerbook G4 Titanium

• 1Ghz G4 Processor
• 768MB RAM
• Radeon 9000 64MB
• 60GB HD
• 802.11B Wifi

Apple Macbook

• 2.1Ghz Core 2 Duo
• 2GB RAM
• GMA x3100 Video 144MB
• 80GB HD
• 802.11 b/g/n wifi

Obviously, there is not much comparison in performance of these two.  The question is, can I get the job done on either?  The answer is, almost.  When I did my usual tasks on each of these machines, I was surprised how well the old PowerBook held its own.  It really only fell down in two areas, video and flash playback.  Those two things are just far too resource intensive for the processor to have a chance.  If I didn’t really care about video playback, and I wasn’t doing a lot of web surfing, the PowerBook would still be a viable solution today.

Not bad for a laptop more than 8 years old, but I think I’ll stick with the Macbook.

Let me first set the stage with details, somewhat unique to my scenario, before expressing frustration in what I believe to be a flawed Adobe activation system.

I am a geek, who likes Macs.  I also liking trying out different machines, and machines don’t last as long in my house as they do for most people.  I buy and sell computer hardware somewhat regularly.  While this habit is reducing these days, it still happens.

I also happen to be an avid photography hobbyist (although mostly of my kids these days).  Thanks to my friend Chris, I have a good solution using the Adobe Creative Suite CS4.  I primarily use Bridge and Photoshop, and overall, I like the software.

Since purchasing this version more than a year ago, I have gone through a few new machines.  My usual ritual is to save my data, wipe a machine, and reinstall the Operating System before selling.  Like most people, I don’t want anyone else having software I bought, or personal data of mine.  I then setup my new machine, including a clean install of all the software I had in place before.

This method has worked without incident, until I purchased this Adobe software. Their software requires you to manually deactivate an install before removing it from a machine.  This supposedly opens the “seat” back up for installation on another system.  The confusing part here is that the installation process automatically handles activation, so the user never sees or thinks about it, yet we are supposed to think about manually finding the one obscure menu item, and going through this deactivation process when we buy a new machine.  Yea, that’s the first thing I think of!

This quickly became an issue for me, as I have swapped several machines.  I called Adobe a couple times in the last year to have them fix the situation for me.  They were at least helpful when I called those times.

Last week, the fun came to an end, when I went to install this software on a new mac mini I am now using. The wonderful activation error came up, I banged my head on my desk, and I got online to chat with Adobe.  After 20 minutes of typing to explain the situation, the representative refused to resolve the issue.  They apparently decided I had called in one too many times.

I’m sure there is some tiny EULA text somewhere that explains in great clarity their right to intentionally screw the end user when they decide to.

After bantering back and forth, the representative agreed to escalate it.  She told me I could log into my Adobe account at any time to check the status of the case, and that I should hear back within 2 days.

I did not hear back on it after 7 days, either way, which is unfortunately not surprising at all.  I logged into my Adobe account, only to find my case had been closed with a status of “withdrawn”.  This of course was complete and utter BS.  I then called adobe.  I then sat on hold, as everyone who tries to contact them does.  When they finally took my call, I was blessed with someone who understood what problem I was having, and agreed with me on how crazy this activation model is.  He resolved the issue for me in minutes.  However, at the end, he informed me that he chose to give me the necessary override, and that if I had the problem yet again, another support rep will likely not choose to fix it!  Wow.  That’s the benefit of buying Adobe.

I buy their software, which is very expensive, and use it correctly.  I never do any “activation” with the software because it’s all automatic, yet I am expected to remember that their particular system requires this manual deactivation process, because uninstalling it doesn’t handle that for you.  When I forget to follow their inconsistent circa 1985 software activation procedure, I am told I am wrong, I have violated my agreement, and that they don’t have to even make it right.  Brilliant.

Here is an idea.  If you want people to manually deactivate software, then make them manually activate it.  You might have slightly better odds of them remembering.  Better yet, you could handle it all automatically at install and uninstall.  I know, it’s rocket science.

I am just thankful I found an understanding support person on the other end of the phone.