25 Years After DOS: Lessons Learned

Very interesting article speculating on the reasons for the popularity and success of DOS when it was first released. Also comes to the same conclusion as I normally come to when thinking about the question of Linux on the desktop and what it needs to do to be successful and oust Windows – simplicity. Linux at the moment for the average user is just too damn hard to get up and running. There have been some great strides made over the last couple of years and there is alot of work going on in this area but the bottom line is it needs to be a damn sight easier to install and use for the average user before it has a show of making a dent in the desktop market.

[ Via Really Linux ]

South Korea getting the CDMA version of the RAZR V3 next month

Cool! A CDMA version of the RAZR. These are way cool looking phones from Motorola. If there’s a CDMA version in Korea, then maybe there’s a chance of one getting here (hint, hint, Telecom).

[ Via Engadget ]

Wellington Windows Mobile User Group – 9th June

Next User Group meeting details:

The next Wellington Windows Mobile User Group meeting will be held on Thursday June 9th, 2005. This is a bit sooner than our usual bi-monthly schedule but it is being timed to coincide with recent announcements from Microsoft regarding Windows Mobile 5.0 and upcoming Exchange Server SP2.

Nathan Mercer will be presenting to us on the new features in Windows Mobile 5.0 and a discussion on Exchange Server mobility futures including push-email.

Darryl Burling will be giving us an overview of the new features for developers in Windows Mobile 5.0

Location: Microsoft, Mobil on the Park, Lambton Quay
Date: Thursday June 9, 2005
Time: 6pm – 8pm

Agenda:
6:00 pm New features of Windows Mobile 5.0 and future of mobility with Exchange Server ( Nathan Mercer, Microsoft NZ)
6:30 pm New features for developers in Windows Mobile 5.0 (Darryl Burling, Microsoft NZ)
7:00 pm Q & A
7:15 pm Drinks and nibbles
8:00 pm Wrap up

About the Speakers:
Nathan Mercer (http://blogs.technet.com/nmercer) is a Technology Evangelist from Microsoft Wellington

Darryl Burling (http://www.burling.co.nz) is a Developer Envangelist for Microsoft NZ.

After these sessions, there will be a general Q&A session where we encourage you to ask questions and talk further about more specific scenarios.

Sponsors:
Thanks as always to our sponsors without whom we wouldn’t be able to run the group. A big thanks to Microsoft for hosting the meeting.

Sign Up!
Event entry is FREE, however you must register for this event by entering your details in at http://old.dot.net.nz/page.wmugrego.aspx

Did I miss you out?
If you received this email from a friend or collegue, you can register to receive them directly by entering your email address at http://www.dot.net.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=27

We look forward to seeing you on the 9th of June!

HP to Offer Handheld Customers Upgrade Program to Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0

Following the release of Windows Mobile 5.0, HP have announced there will be upgrades made available for the HP iPAQ hx2100, hx2400, hx2700 and hx4700 series of handhelds.

Link: HP Press Release

(Thanks to Kevin Daly for putting us on to this one via the WMUG mailing list)

Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : Improving the performance of Virtual PC over Remote Desktop

Found this blog about Virtual PC and Server. It had a really cool post about improving performance of Terminal Services on Virtual machines.

Basically the guts of tuning the performance are:

1. Don’t use a desktop background. This just adds to the amount of data that Remote Desktop needs to send over the network.
2. Turn off mouse pointer shadows (‘Control Panel’ => ‘Mouse’ => ‘Pointers’ => uncheck ‘Enable pointer shadow’). This enables use to use hardware cursor acceleration which will greatly improve the performance of the mouse inside of the guest operating system.
3. Ensure that video hardware acceleration is at its highest setting (‘Control Panel’ => ‘Display’ => ‘Settings’ => ‘Advanced’ => ‘Trouble Shooting’). Windows Server 2003 turns this setting down by default and it really affects performance in this scenario.
4. Don’t display window contents while dragging (‘Control Panel’ => ‘Display’ => ‘Appearance’ => ‘Effects’ => uncheck this option). Remote desktop usually disables this behavior on the physical computer and it helps to disable it in the virtual machine too.

Very handy to know. The full article goes into more detail about why these settings make a difference.

[ Via Virtual PC Guy's WebLog ]

Gmail limit has gone up another 3MB

Just keeps climbing….. I wonder what’s going on?

Develop open-source software and earn the dole!

Apparently in Australia, you can now contribute to open-source projects and this counts as your “mutual obligation” requirement and qualifies your for the dole. An organisation called CommunityCode has been established to allow this. An interesting concept….

[ Via Slashdot ]

Wellington TabletPC User Group (to be)

My friend Craig Pringle has finally caved and publicly announced he is setting up a TabletPC user group here in Wellington. The first of it’s kind in NZ so far (that I know of anyway). Good luck, Craig.

Link: Blog:: Craig Pringle – Yes I am setting up a user group

Sharepoint site definitions explained

Very interesting article that does a good job of explaining how Sharepoint site definitions works and how “ghosting” works and it’s effect on performance.

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/27673

Wellington Windows Mobile User Group meeting

Just got back from the latest WMUG meeting. This was my first meeting I’ve run as group co-ordinator since Darryl stepped down (after going to work for Microsoft). I felt it went well. Turnout was around 20 people and we had two really interesting presentations interspersed with pizza and beer.

Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday June 9th at Microsoft. A bit sooner than usual this time but it’s being timed to coincide with the releases of Windows Mobile 5.0 (Magneto) and Echange Server 2003 SP2. Nathan Mercer will be telling us (and showing this time) the new features of Windows Mobile and the enhancements to Exchange ActiveSync with SP2 for Exchange Server. Darryl is also going to talk to us about Compact Framework development.

Hope to see you there!